Happy New Year!

My last craft post of the year. I made this at the end of summer but didn't have time to post it until now. I taped off a square on an all white plate. Then spray painted black chalkboard paint in the center. We now have a little message plate that I have on my Southern Living Cookbook holder. I use it to write the lunch menu for the kids and we price each item. Lunch is served cafeteria style and they "pay" for their lunches and practice counting out their money. Fun and functional, my favorite kind of craft!

Happy New Year!

Can't Catch Us!

Lindy

The girls wanted to make Gingerbread decorations for Christmas. I cut the little men out of cardstock on my Cricut die cut machine but you could easily make a pattern and cut it out.The girls decorated with decorative scissors and cut things from paper scraps. Buttons were used for eyes and buttons. Then I cut out a Gingerbread House and the girls helped me decorate the door and windows. We hung them across the kitchen so that it looks like the Gingerbread men are running out of the oven across the cabinets to their house. Brightened up the kitchen and the girls had so much fun decorating. The best part was we had everything we needed to make them!


Erin


Paige

Our House

Crafting, Crafting, Crafting..

Lindy is a major crafter, she has always loved glue and everything you can do with it! As she has gotten older she loves everything that allows her to create. She likes kits with all the supplies and ideas provided but also likes to be turned loose to the craft room and create whatever she dreams up.
For Christmas, Grommy got her a real loom. She had that out of the box over the weekend and is almost half way through all the yarn that came with it and that is a couple of yards. She is practicing and making rugs for her American Girl dolls. Then she is planning to make scarves.
Erin and Paige also made their sun catchers from Gretchen and Grandpa. I used to love those! The metal frames and crystals that you bake in the oven. Lindy made her's as well.
It was a really fun day! We all hung out in the basement, Ethan and Kyle playing Wii, Bill working on the storage unit, I was scrapbooking, and all the girls were crafting. I loved it! We are all looking forward to many hours this winter hanging out together creating.

The Great Sleepover

Lindy. Erin, Paige, & Emma the party girls!

All of the kids have been looking forward to their cousins, Emma and Alec, coming into town from Chicago for Christmas. Whenever they are in town they have a sleepover at Mimi's house. Mimi loves having all seven of her grandchildren in her house and the kids all have a blast. This time though Emma requested to have the sleepover at our house. That was great for me as I did not want to leave the house all weekend and we could still hang out with the kids. Don't get me wrong, I treasure those nights that Bill and I go out for a date and sleep in the next day. The day after Christmas though, I was more than happy to have them all here!

Snacks, hot chocolate, movies, sleeping bags, and everyone was having a great time. Bill and I went to bed knowing they would be up awhile. I dosed off and Lindy was standing by my bed telling me that Alec was crying, he wanted to go back to Mimi's house with his parents. No problem, we'll just give them a call so they can chat and all will be well. Until I looked at the clock and saw it was 1am. I offered to sleep with everyone if that would make Alec feel better. It would - yea! I intended to lay down until he fell asleep, well that was after 2am and the next thing I knew if was 6am! I found Ethan and Emma asleep on the living room couches with the Christmas lights all on. Apparently they were up until 4:30 talking and reading!

Once I got myself up off the floor and assessed the room and where everyone was sleeping it looked like we had a frat party. And let me tell you I felt like I was at a frat party. Floors and I don't agree! My doctor was laughing when I told her I "accidentally" fell asleep on the floor. I just wanted everyone to have fun! Nothing a round of steroids won't help to get things chilled out again! I needed them anyway after the holiday season and the cold weather!

Alec and Ethan were too tired to pose for pictures the morning after but they both had a great time! My kids are all plotting the next sleepover and anxiously awaiting the return of their cousins.


Lindy and Emma dressed alike before Emma returned home.

Christmas Dinner

Big family dinners are a favorite for Bill and I. We love to cook and bake together. We love having people at our house. We love decorating and hosting. Thanksgiving we spend the day cooking but Christmas has "rules". Everything has to be easy but good and has to be something we can prep for the day before. We want a good dinner but also want to spend most of the day with the kids. Tenderloin has been our dinner tradition since Lindy and Paige were born. All the sides are quick and easy and I make all the desserts the day before. The result is a wonderful meal with all of our family.

With some measuring and planning we were able to pull off our big long table for 18 in front of the Christmas tree. Everyone helped pitch in to clean up gift opening and we slid the tables in place (preset tables! I'm not kidding when I say as much as possible has to be done ahead of time!).

Everyone had a great time! It was so pretty to eat with all the Christmas lights up. I don't have a picture of the dessert table but we had more dessert choices than dinner. Pumpkin, apple, blueberry, and peppermint ice cream pies, chocolate mousse, eggnog ice cream, and a variety of Christmas cookies. It was pure sugar!

Merry Christmas Bill, it was a wonderful holiday with our family. I loved every minute of it with you!

Emma and Paige chatting on the horse while opening presents.

Nancy and Gloria

Princess Whitney

Grommy and Lindy

Cyndi and Jana

Gretchen and Mom - Thanks Gretch for all the help this season. All the dishes you've done has been awesome. No wonder I've been in such a great mood, you've saved me hours of kitchen clean up!

Whitney and BJ

Our Crazy Daddy!

This sweatshirt that Lindy is wearing is a gift to all the kids and myself from Bill. But there is a bit of a story attached to it!

Last April we went to our good friends graduation. Julie is one of five girls in her family who are all homeschooled. Her parents had a lovely ceremony for her at their church and we were invited to attend. The kids all enjoyed seeing another homeschooler graduate, it definitely set some goals for Kyle. Anyway, when presenting her with her diploma, Julie's dad gave it to her from The __ School for Girls (don't want to put their last name here).

When leaving the ceremony I told Bill that we needed a school name for our family. He suggested The Miller Academy which I told him was too boring. It needed something more! Lindy pipes up in the backseat, "Hey, I know, how about the Miller Academy for Troubled Youth!". I thought Bill was going to die. He was laughing so hard, as we all were. Where she got that I have no idea I am assuming from a show or movie.

Well, the name stuck and so our school was officially dubbed the Miller Academy For Troubled Youth. Lindy is so proud! None of us can say it without a smile on our face! It is so hilarious when we have kids that are so "by the rules" that we have to tell them sometimes you have to break the rules!

Leave it to Bill to take it a step further. Always one to surprise us somehow, with the help of the embroidery store, he designed a school crest, and created tshirts and sweatshirts for all of us. The sweats have all the kids names embroidered on the front and Miller Academy on the back. Bill has the title Superintendent and I am Head Mistress. Cracks me up thinking of my title it sounds so wrong!?

Well, the kids loved it and we are all having a BIG Christmas laugh here. Thanks Daddy for our crazy surprise! (Hey, Superintendent- The Head Mistress needs to see you in her office!)

Santa Was Here!

Hardly any pictures from opening presents! It is so busy and I am trying to pay attention to everyone opening to take pictures until everything is done. This was a music Christmas! The kids have started a "band" that centered around the keyboard. They wanted other instruments so they were pleased to get a guitar and small drums and Ethan requested a harmonica. He was pretty impressed with Billy Joel at the concert this summer!
Ethan also received a Scott Joplin piano book and CD and he is busy working on his ragtime. More pictures to follow..







Erin with Rebecca riding on her horse. Erin was in American Girl heaven! She spent the day with her dolls. My favorite part of this picture is Erin, her hair is beyond crazy and she spilled on her pajama bottoms before gift opening so she had to change her pants. Her mismatched craziness is so very cute!

Christmas Advent Calendar

In case anyone is wondering how I am getting all these pictures blogged today (UB!), I am not doing anything around the house. I dedicated my entire weekend to scrapbooking and family so I am in picture heaven. Upload pics, scrap pics, upload, scrap...

So this is the December advent calendar I made for Christmas. It is the same as the one I made for Erin's birthday. I used an old cookie sheet, painted it, covered it in various papers and embellishments and then made magnetic numbers. I mainly used one of my favorite scrapbook lines or chipboard pieces, put magnets on the back and added numbers. The kids love looking on the back of the cookie sheet for the number of the day, then they put it on the front. Bill drilled holes in the top so a ribbon could be added for hanging.

I loved making it as much as the kids love counting down with it!

Thank You Debbie

Lindy and Felicity

Perfect timing! Cousin Debbie sent a box of adorable American Girl clothes to the girls and they arrived on Christmas Eve. Footed jammies and Christmas dresses for all three girls. That kept them busy brushing hair and getting their dolls ready for bed and Santa. They made presents and wrapped them and put them under the loft tree which was declared the tree for the dolls! Then on Christmas morning they got all their "girls" dressed in their Christmas dresses for the days festivities.

Thank you so much Debbie! Lindy was greatly relieved when they opened their gifts and saw that Santa brought a couple of more friends that they would have enough jammies for them all. And they LOVE the dresses!

Paige with Kit and Samantha.

Family Baking

Every year I try to be organized and have most things ready by Christmas Eve so that we can just "hang out". Difficult to do when you are having Christmas dinner at your house and don't want to spend Christmas cooking. But it always ends up being a fun day and we keep the kids busy which helps them since they are so excited.

We always make a Christmas castle out of my castle bundt pan. It is definitely easier than trying to make a Gingerbread house and the kids love to decorate it. So we set up cookies to ice and candy to decorate and let them go to it. Bill and I did as much of the dinner prep as we could and we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen. Perfect day!

Erin starts the castle.

All the kids really got into the decorating. We cut out big cookies this year. This was the small gingerbread man, the large one serves about 3 people!

Lindy loves dough! She always helps Bill make bread and he has taught her to knead dough and the rising process. Seeing them with their rolling pins is too cute. Cut outs are the one cookie that we are not allowed to make without Bill, they are his favorite.

I Did it, I Did it!!

I successfully made Chocolate Mousse! I have tried in the past and not had it turn out. I was determined to serve it as one of the many desserts we have for Christmas dinner. After the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve, I set to work chopping bittersweet chocolate and laying out all my ingredients. I think part of the problem in the past was how I cooled the chocolate after cooking it and I probably over beat the whipping cream and made it way to stiff. With no distractions I not only doubled the recipe (another way I set myself up for failure!) but it turned out perfectly.

This might be strange to take pictures off all my baked goods but I am making a Miller Family Christmas cookie cookbook. I am back in full swing scrapbooking and am making a special book of all our favorites. I envision adding our fondue recipes, Bill's Thanksgiving turkey prep, punch recipes, my Valentine's Day Molten Chocolate cakes, and other holiday favorites. Hopefully with the pictures taken I will actually get it all done! A little preview...

Kitchen Cupboard Cookies ~ Kyle's favorite

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies ~ Ethan's favorite

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

and all through the house the children were wild and could never fall asleep! Our reading of The Night Before Christmas took place before our tree snuggling up to Daddy. Bill also read his favorite book, The Littlest Angel. After stories we let the kids watch a little bit of TV to help get them ready for bed. Well, that worked for Erin who fell asleep at 10:30 all nestled in her warm bed. Paige and Lindy laid in bed and it was midnight before Lindy dosed off and Paige it was 1:30! Ethan finally crashed at 2:00. I don't know how Santa knew when to stop by especially considering that Lindy said she came downstairs to check and see if Santa had been here at 4am. He must have arrived around 3, when everyone was asleep! He must have been very tired the next day!

Scenes from the tree ~



I have been holding off on the kids exchanging gifts until Erin was old enough and everyone could really put thought into their purchases. The limit was set at $20 and names were drawn. Ethan and Kyle insisted on using their own money to buy their gifts which I thought was very sweet since we offered to give them exchange money. But this is why I wanted to wait, so that it would be meaningful to everyone and the givers really took it seriously. Erin got Lindy a baby doll with bath supplies. She took great care in wrapping and making her tag. Christmas morning the kids all wanted to open their gifts from each other before their Santa gifts.


The tree from Erin's view.