Need some Valentine's Ideas?

I found this blog through one of my hair blogs the other day and it is chock full of fun, romantic, and might I add, budget-friendly ideas for you to do for your sweetie pie. For all those who love Valentine's Day, or those who can't ever think of what to do it's great. Sorry, I still haven't figured out why I can't add a link, so just copy and paste the address and it'll take you there.

Happy Valentine's Day!


http://loveactually-blog.blogspot.com/

I Wish...

Tonight Jacob threw himself on the living room sofa while I was cleaning up and said in a despairing voice, "I wish I had wings Mom." I asked him why. He said so that he could fly. "Where would fly if you had wings Jacob?" He screwed up his face and thought for a moment, and announced, "Target." A child after my own heart. If I had wings I would probably fly to Target too. I was expecting him say something dinosaur related but that kid always surprises me. Where would fly to if you had wings?

Bag Balm - The Cure-All

So a couple of summers ago Jacob had to have surgery and the doctor recommended putting bag balm on his surgery site. So we bought a can of it. We put it on a couple of times and he healed nicely. Well, right before Thanksgiving Madalyn got a horrendous diaper rash. We had been putting Desitin on it, baby powder, straight cornstarch, Aquaphor, just about anything we could think of and then we tried our bag balm. Her diaper rash was significantly better in 6 hours. We were thinking of putting off not going to Greg's parents for Thanksgiving all because of a diaper rash. So I have been converted. I found this article today about the myriad of uses bag balm. It's great stuff and worth the $10 a can to have it on hand for whatever.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35170402/ns/business-small_business

Ta-Da!

So I have been scrapbooking for more than 10 years and just this year I departed from the traditonal scrapbooking to explore the world of digital scrapbooking. I am so far behind, with 3 kids and 4 scrapbooks to try and keep up I just kept falling more and more behind. So after being told that this was the way to go (Thanks Leslie and James), I delved in. I started with this year and plan to work my way back. I finished an entire year in less than 2 months and I only have to make each page once instead of up to 4 times. HOORAY! So here is my scrapbook of 2009. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as we had living it. I am sorry it's so small, I don't know how to make it bigger. If you want to see a bigger video you can email me and I'll send you the pdf file. You'll get the idea anyway,

Heart Hair

I realize that Valentine's Day is a little while off, but I wanted to post a hair do and I found this one from last year. It is Lorelei's absolute favorite do. If I did it as often as she requested it she would have it at least once a week. Unfortunately for her I like a little more variety than that. I only have one picture, we must have been running late for church (as always). So this is actually quite easy. You make a nice neat half ponytail (a talent all in itself, I still haven't mastered that)and then split it in two sections. Either corkscrew braid (divide into two sections and twist both in the same direction and then twist together in the opposite direction) or regular braid each section and put in some clear ponytail holders (you can use color and take them out later, but I like a little added security). Stick your finger in the middle of the half ponytail above the ponytail holder and pull your sections up through. So it flips it and the sections should automatically curve a little. Bring the braided sections down and combine with the hair that has been left down. Make another ponytail and then kind of shape the heart and if you have a very wiggly child add a couple of bobby pins to help keep it's shape. Add a pretty bow on the bottom ponytail and you can take out the ponytail holders from the braids if you feel confident that they'll stay in, my bow would hide the holders you can see in the picture. Curl the ponytail and there you have it. This stays better if done on pretty wet hair, so either spray it down or do it right from the tub. If you do it on dry hair use a lot of pomade (wax) to keep the flyaways from driving you crazy later.

Sharing Christmas!

We hope all of you had as Merry a Christmas as we did here in Parma. Santa was good to the kids (better than maybe they deserved :)). The kids are carrying on the holiday by singing Christmas songs and wishing everyone they meet a Merry Christmas, so aside from all the presents being removed from under our tree it's still Christmas here. Here is a pictorial review of our Christmas celebration

Traditions

So our little family will be spending Christmas by ourselves in Parma again this year, and while we are getting more used to the idea, it still makes me a little sad to not be around family. We could drive to Greg's parents house 5 hours away, but the years we've planned to do that the weather hasn't cooperated and it's hard for "Santa" to find us there and then we have to transport all of the presents back home. So we decided it's best if we stay at home and start having our own family traditions. So while I have a plethora of traditions from both our families to choose from I was wondering what some of your favorite traditions are. What do you do on Christmas Eve that makes you giddy with excitement for the next day? What do you do after all the presents are opened on Christmas day? What do you do to make it last longer. My mother was notorious for making sure Christmas lasted all day. I love that!