Christmas Traditions

So, there are a TON of photos from Christmas, even after I pared it down to just my favey-fave-favorites, so I'm splitting it up into 2 posts :) This post is about all the traditions that I LOVE about Christmas! They ended up in backwards order...not gonna fix it though

Christmas Jammies Tradition, most families I know of have this tradition, I love it. I love snuggling into the covers on Christmas Eve in brand new Jammies, it feels super special. Growing up, my mom usually made our Pajamas, and to this day, my favorite jammies are the ones she has made me. Sometimes we would get nightgowns, Steph and I always matched, and I even remember getting doll jammies that matched ours, SO cool. I remember one Christmas we even got new pillows and pillowcases, with our NAMES embroidered on them (SO COOL!). I love this tradition. When I was in College, my mom asked if we (Steph and I) thought we still wanted Christmas pj's....um, hello! Are you kidding me? It isn't a question of want, it's a NEED! So now that I'm married, John shops for my Christmas Jammies, cute :) And you saw the Jammies I made for Everett,

(I sold three of them in my etsy shop, and on Christmas Eve when I was putting them on Everett, I thought, hey, there are three other sweet little babies out there who are wearing these extra special super adorable jammies for their Christmas Eve traditions tonight! How cool!

So, all the kids always got Christmas Jammies, but my parents never did, this year though Steph found these SPECIAL leopard print ones that we just HAD to get for my mom (She's always telling us stories about how when she was growing up, she always had leopard print everything, lol! Pajamas, coat, gloves, dresses, you name it :) It was a fun surprise! We also gave Dad some Jammies :)

The Nativity Play

I adore this tradition. Even though we are grown ups now, we still act out the nativity. One year it was only me, scooter, and Steph, we each had to play like 3 parts, but it was awesome and we still did it! We read from Luke 2, and sing Christmas Hymns throughout the program.
We've been using the same costumes for a long time, mom's old robe, some graduation gowns, the same "gold, frankiseynse, and myrrh", the same Angel tinsel, and the same Manger basket. When mom was in charge of teh Creche, she made totally legit wiseman and shepherd robes, and we got these arabian head scarves from the middle east!


Good tidings of Great Joy! (I think I flubbed up my lines...doh!)
Joe's Beard was perfect...looks pretty good no? He shaved it on Christmas Day
Christmas Eve Dinner

We always have a fancy, semi-formal ham dinner with potato casserole, greenbean casserole, and sparkly grape juice punch, and We all dress up nice :)



What are your favorite traditions?

Mini Christmas Video!

So, I couldn't figure out how to post this video right onto my blog, so THIS is a link to it on Facebook. We had a mini Christmas with Ben and Steph in Utah since we were coming to Oregon for Christmas. We had a ball, we played games, had a white elephant gift exchange, ate yummy yummy food, went to see the lights on Salem Pond, and recorded our own very SPECIAL version of baby its cold outside! LOL, ENJOY!!!


And Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!!!!!!

5 months old and Christmas Jammies

It's taken me a few days to get these pictures of Everett at 5 months old up, I can't believe how big he is! He is eating rice cereal now, he grabs things on purpose, re rolls over, and over...he chews on everything! He's so fun! He's struggling to sleep longer than 5 hours right now...ugh, what happened to my perfect sleeper? He got big, and now needs to eat a few times in the night (He used to sleep for 9 hours no prob at night....I know I was really blessed then...)

He's a flirt, makes this silly grin at anyone who coo's his name or says hello. We love him. It's been fun incorporating him into our Christmas traditions!!! We went to see the lights at Temple square, and tonight we're going caroling with the youth ;)

Playing with a box...

These are his Christmas Jammies, I bought a bunch of these red long underwears because I wanted to see if they would sell on etsy, so if you know anybody looking for some sweet long underwear complete with bummy flap jammies for Christmas, send them my way...

I call them "Bear Bum Jammies" get it? Bear bum...hahaha, I think i'm so funny :)

This is my etsy shop, don't judge me for only having two items in my shop, I'm waiting till I go home for Christmas, my dear ole Dad is going to help me photograph my goods :)

PLaY Etsy Shop

VIdeo update, and craft show!

Funny little man doing a funny little thing with his fingers, he's done this all the time lately, it's so funny!

Visiting with Aaron, Paige and their little Annie, she's SO teensy compared to Everett! She's such a happy little doll! It's so endearing to watch Aaron be a Dad, he is so sweet, he is always begging to hold Annie, taking such good care of her, it's so sweet!

This is the craft show!!! It was total success! people LOVEd my stuff, and one girl even bough one of my onesies for her future child, her freind was making fun of her because she's not dating anyone, not married, no babies in the any near future, but she HAD to have one of my onesies...I was flattered! It was really fun, I shared a booth so it wouldn't cost as much, but the girl I shared with was....annoying and weirdish. Oh well!

It was a blast for me, and great to visit Aaron and Paige and Annie!

In case you're wondering, I made enough to pay for the booth, the hotel for 2 nights, gas, taxes, tithing, and cover the cost of ALL my inventory, plus about 50 bucks to spare....so now I have tons of this inventory that's already paid for, so whatever else I sell will be profit. AND there were three people who wanted to carry my stuff in their shops in JAckson hole! YEAH!!! One of them, I dropped off a bunch of stuff to sell consignment, so I hope it's selling well! It was just so fun!

Thanksgiving

Everett's first Thanksgiving! We drove to California to visit John's Grandparents and family in Gilroy! We had to delay our starting time a little because of the BLIZZARD in Utah, not storm, BLIZZARD. Yikes. We made it though, and Thanksgiving day was BEAUTIFUL!!!! We held it at the church because our group was so big, somewhere around 40 people! We made green bean casserole, and the spread of food was impressive to say the least! It was super fun having it at the church, plenty of room to run around, we play Poison (A basketball game) and BUNCO! I even won a prize! ;) Thanks Jess! It was SO fun!

It was a Sunny Thanksgiving day, cold, but sunny and beautiful! I have so much to be thankful for, especially for the health and love of my little family

Aunt Jan had these pilgrim hats, and we couldn't resist dressing up the babies, and I couldn't choose which picture was the cutest, all such funny and cute expressions!

He was screaming/laughing/waving his hands with excitement throughout this little shoot...funny kid

I adore the look on Charlottes face, her perfect little lips, such a pretty baby!!! It was fun to hang with these gals more!

This one (Below) is my favorite...Everett looks like he's getting ready to hip his hat to the little lady ;) CA-YUTE!

His Turkey Bib and Thanksgiving onesie I found thrifting! The onesie was brand spankin new with the tags on it and everything!

We didn't get any pics of the whole group feasting, LAME! If it wasn't for Jess and Rory swiping my camera and taking pics with it, I wouldn't even have this one of Jess and Sadie!

Okay, Everett kept eating his hands, slobbering all over himself and getting cold, see his red face? So at Walmart I had to trap him in my jacket to keep his hands and face warm...silly kid!

SISTEY'S

Another fun part of the trip was to visit with Grandpa Lynn and Grandma Jean, Everett met them for the first time, it was so nice to catch up!

We had to leave early on Saturday instead of Sunday to try and beat another storm. It was scary driving through the night with terrible weather, none of us were able to get much rest. We made it home at about 10:30 am Sunday, safe and sound...then we all crashed!

This is Everett at grandma's house, we just told him he was going to have to spend another 16 hours in his carseat...he hates that thing!!! okay, that wasn't his reaction, but this is a pretty funny face right?

Off the charts...

Woah. Time needs to SLOW DOWN. Everett is four months old! He is getting to be so much fun (Not that he ever wasn't, but now he's so interactive ;0)

When I took him to the doctor for his 4 month well child check up, he was OFF THE CHART for his height. He is 27 inches long, weighs 15.7 lbs (70th percentile) and his head (don't recall the measurement) also in the 70th percentile. He is LOOOOOONG! His pediatrician is so impressed with his huge feet and hands, and his length.

Everett has acquired some new skills...DROOLING, a whole lot, ROLLING OVER, just from front to back, and GABBING back and forth, almost like having a conversation ;) It's so cute. And GRABBING, he loves grabbing the dangling toys from his toy bar, and he grabs his hands and feet. He also sings along and coo's at church and home when we sing...he gets really excited a lot and flaps his arms and legs so fast, it looks like he's trying to make a snow angel. He is so smiley all the time, especially in the morning! He loves putting anything he can grab into his mouth and marking it with his slobber.

This face is his latest trick, the bottom lip sucked in, it's so hilarious. I love it!
Pushing up from his tummy, he is on his way down to roll over, I could NOT get him to stay propped up like this, he just wanted to roll over every time! And when he did, he was so pleased with himself, the very first picture at the top is the second he rolls over, he is so pleased with himself, even though I was fussing at him for rolling over before I could get the shot I wanted!

He looks like he's pounding his fist, trying to convince you of something...

Cutest Gnome

Ahhh, so cute. I dressed Everett up as a garden gnome. It his costume turned out cuter than I had anticipated, it's hilarious. I made the hat and beard and elf shoes. The fleece pants already had the cute knee pads, I attached the suspenders and buttons to his pants and shirt, and he is so hilarious wearing this. I laugh so hard looking at these! I couldn't pick a few photos, I picked a lot...can't even help it. The eyebrows crack me up.

he was SOOO tired during this photo shoot, but he was a good sport, his eyes are all red because he's so sleepy. We went to James and Meikka's right after these pics, and he was asleep before we left the driveway...



He drooled all over his beard, and wanted to eat it too, but overall he tolerated it really well :o)

Okay, this is what I've been working on this week. Binky Clips. I know, everyone makes these and sells them, but I am gearing up for a craft show in Jackson Hole in December, and I am going to try my hand at selling baby items...

the reason is that when I was in Jackson visiting Aaron and Paige and their new baby Annie, I asked Paige if she had a nursing cover, she said there is nowhere in town to buy that kind of thing...WHAT? Utah is really saturated with wares such as the hooter hider and binky clips etc...so one thing led to another, and I am going to be in the craft bazaar in December. I'm going to sell binky clips, bibs(bandana style), nursing covers, slings, and bedazzled onesies. I know a million people do this, but I think that Jackson is a touristy place with untapped market potential for these items, so I'm going to give it a try.

Any tips for selling things at a craft fair or on Etsy (I'll be doing that too)?
I made my own tags!!! My dad made my logo from a photo of my canvas art print of the owls, and my "design" name is "PLaY"

I bought ink jet transfer paper, printed the images out in Mirror Image, and then ironed them onto twill tape...it was really inexpensive and fun! THANKS DAD for the amazing logo!

This is about half of them, waiting to get snaps...
Oh, also, I was totally featured on "all things thrifty" for my damask canvases (that I totally had to rearrange on my wall so they looked right! THANKS meikka! How embarrassing!)