Christmas with the Lathams

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too! We have been relaxing and enjoying this time off with family and friends! Here is a picture recap from our Christmas!

 

Every year we take a hayride through our town to look at Christmas lights. Ty's dad blares Christmas music and we sing and enjoy the lights! This year we even stopped by our church's live nativity and let the kids get out and see the fun animals! It is always so fun and we look forward to this tradition all year. Here we are with our niece, Kate. She enjoyed the hayride from her Uncle Ty's lap this year!

My sister Christen and I made a whopping 14 pans of Ree Drummond's Cinnamon Rolls and if you have never made them before - do it. It is work. And it is messy. But they are so good! And I enjoyed giving several pans away to family and friends. Ty and I still have 2 pans in the freezer to enjoy for breakfast or dessert!

 

On the Tuesday before Christmas the cousins on my dad's side of the family got together for our annual Christmas cookie making party. I love this tradition and I know our Nana and Poppy are smiling down from heaven as we continue this tradition in their honor. Love my sweet cousins! Here are the girls!

 

 

 

 Christmas Eve started at my parents house with the whole crew. Here they are in order from oldest to youngest (minus Grant, who is the youngest being held by big brother Luke). Aren't they just precious?

 

 

 We thoroughly enjoyed lots of yummy brunch food before waiting impatiently until it was time to dig into the presents. I wish I would have videoed or taken pictures while the madness was going on. We had no order, there were children opening presents left and right, tissue paper and wrapping paper and bags ALL OVER THE FLOOR and lots of happy kids.

 

 

 

After we opened presents, we rested for awhile and the men helped put together some of the gifts so the kids could play with them. Then we did another favorite tradition of mine that my Meme started when we were little - the kids acted out the Christmas Story. My brother in law read it from the bible and each kid came out when their part was read. I vividly remember doing this year after year at my Meme and Granddaddy's house and I love that we are carrying on this tradition with the next generation!

Poor baby looks less than thrilled to have his picture made but a baby and Christmas attire? #cutenessoverload

We ended the night with dinner at Ty's aunt and uncle's house, then dessert with my dad's side of the family!

 

Christmas Morning Ty and I woke up, at sausage and egg pie, and exchanged gifts and opened our stockings together. After we got ready, we headed down the street to his parents house where we enjoy his mom's yummy sausage wheels and opened presents with them. I enjoyed relaxing in the recliner in my new pjs and new slippers - heaven!

 

We ended the day with Ty's mom's side of the family at his aunt and uncle's house. We decided we would wear our pjs, make soup, and enjoy and laid back day. Besides the fact that it stormed ALL day, it was 75 degrees outside, we lost power for half the day, and we spent about an hour squeezed into a bathroom hiding from a tornado, it was an awesome Christmas...but weird, for sure. We had fun playing dirty santa and the oven mitt game (have yall heard of this??? it was HILARIOUS!!! I will have to write a post about that later), and enjoying each other's company. We played games in the dark and good thing his aunt had an obnoixuous light up necklace on, because it came in handy....

HA! Isn't she cute? She even had light up earrings to match!

 

 

 The rest of the break we have been doing this.....

 

 

On Sunday, I drove to my best friend, Melissa's house in Georgia to surprise her. It was the best!!! I think she was totally shocked. :) We enjoyed some low key time together and I LOVE her house all the time but during Christmas...it's just dreamy.

 

 

I came back yesterday and today was spent taking down Christmas decorations (depressing) and going to SAMs and Walmart because we had exactly NO food in our house. While we were gone, Emma decided she was going to have a snack...

We brag and brag on her to other people about never having to worry about her chewing anything and how she never went through a chewing phase. Well, she dedided to repay us by chewing our yearly ornament from last year! Little turd. I am super bummed because it was from our first married Christmas but Ty's mom said to save it, it will make for a good story every year when I dig out our ornaments.

 

That wraps up our Christmas. I am looking forward to another few days on the couch before I tackle the 2nd half of the school year. I am planning on doing a "2015 wrap up" post tomorrow. We had some big milestones this year but I am super excited to see what 2016 holds for us!



Cookie Recipe Exchange!!!

Two Saturdays ago I hosted my first recipe exchange!!! I got the idea from Shay over at Mix and Match Family! If you don't read her blog, you should! I started reading everyday when her and her husband were in the middle of adopting their adorable daughter from China! She's a great cook, a Godly woman, and has great fashion tips!

Anyways, back to my recipe exchange! I decided to start off easy and do a cookie exchange! Everyone who came emailed me their cookie recipe and I printed everyone a little cookie recipe book to take home with them. I also bought little baggies for everyone to take some cookies home with them! 

I served cocktail meatballs, grapes & cheese cubes, and apples with toffee dip! I also had a hot chocolate bar but just my luck it was 75 degrees that Saturday so only my nieces dug into the hot chocolate. Oh well :)

We snacked on the appetizers before digging into the cookies! I had a little card with everyone's cookie written on it in front of their platter so everyone knew what cookie it was and who made it. We tasted each one, then I had a voting station where everyone voted on their favorite one! The winner got a little surprise after I counted the votes!!

It was such a fun way to get together with the girls in my life and walk away with lots of new cookie recipes!!! I am looking forward to hosting another one next year - Shay has done an appetizer version, casserole version, & breakfast version! I think it's such a great idea!

Here are some pictures I snapped of that day. I wish I would have taken more!!

Our cookie loot! Yummy! 

Hot chocolate bar! 

Heyyyy selfie stick.

Sweet sweet best friends!!!

It was such a fun day, I can't wait to do it again next year! 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!! 

1st Christmas in our house!

Today I thought I'd share some Christmas decorations around our house!! I have loved decorating our home for our first Christmas here! 

I made this Christmas door hanger with my bible study group! One of Ty's mom's friends came and walked us through how to make our own and it was so fun! Here is everyone with their hangers...

Everyone's turned out so cute!!!

My sweet friend Rachel got me this cookie plate for Christmas, but gave it to me several weeks ago so I have enjoyed displaying it on my counter!

Found this sparkly gem at Kirklands before thanksgiving and I'm in love with it! It sits on the window right above my sink! 

I decided to display my Christmas cards on the window above my sink and I love them there! When I wash dishes I just love having something to look at!!! This Merry Christmas block came from either Michaels or Kirklands, I can't remember!!

Can you tell I took these pictures awhile ago?? Considering there's 4 days til Christmas, I'd say I meant to write this post a few weeks ago! Oops! :) This cute Christmas countdown came from Kirklands! (I have a slight obsession with that place, can you tell?)

One of my old coworkers gave me this cute tea towel several years ago and I dig it out every year. Love it!!!!

And here's our sparkly tree. We underestimated how tall it could be so its a little shrimp this year but I still love it!!! 

And here's what makes me happy...

Puppy, twinkly lights. All is right in the world.

Merry Christmas from my little family to yours!!!

Favorite Fall Crafts with Kids

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am on Thanksgiving break and loving my time off! It is always so needed around this time. Whoever decided we get the whole week off - THANK YOU!!!

Today I thought I would share some fun Thanksgiving Crafts that I did this year (and years past) with my 1st graders and with my nieces and nephews!

This year I made these thankful turkeys with my students at school and they were so fun!

First I printed the "I am thankful for" papers and cut them into little rectangles. Each students filled in the blank for 5 things they were thankful for. I didn't really put any limits on what they could write but we talked extensively about what being thankful means and how we are thankful for lots of things like our family, friends, school, food, house, etc. Most of them did well filling in things they were thankful for without any direction.

After they filled in the blanks, I passed out the feathers (one at a time) for them to glue their thankful sentences on. I am a little OCD when it comes to crafts in my classroom so we all stay together and do it one piece at a time. I have found that is a better way, than to just release them. Its less stressful for me and less stressful for them. :) win-win!

After all our thankful sentences were glued on I passed out the body of the turkey, and the neck and face (I chose a lighter tan for the neck and face. The neck is a rectangle and the face is a little circle). I already had these cut out for them. Sometimes for crafts I cut out the pieces and sometimes they do. It just depends. On this day we were short on time so I had already cut out all the pieces for them. They drew on the eyes, beak, and gobbler with crayons. I put an example on the board for them and they glued the neck and face on. Then we glued the feathers to the back of the turkey. The only hard part here was most of them glued the feathers too far down so their writing was covered. I just went around and helped whoever needed it.

Then it was time for the fun scrunchy legs! (yes scrunchy is totally a word!) This is always their favorite - we do scrunchy legs (or arms) on a lot of our crafts. I cut out orange rectangles and they knew out to scrunch them back and forth to make the legs because we had done it multiple times. The first time I show them several times and most of them get it after a few times of trying it. They glued the legs on and bam - hello cute little thankful turkey!!!!!!! I hung them on a long string that hangs from the ceiling across our room. They turned out so cute!!!!

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On Sunday, we had our family Thanksgiving and I decided it would be fun to do this turkey craft with my nieces and nephews....

 

 

I did this craft several years ago when I taught Kindergarten and pulled it back out this year to do with the kids.

 

First we drew a circle for the turkey's body and the kids colored it in. Yes, they are young so they totally get outside the lines but I have always thought these crafts turn out cuter when they are "messier". :)

 

After they drew the eyes, beak, and gobbler (is that what that red thing is called???); we drew on the legs and then were ready for the feathers! I brought some of my acrylic paint over to mom and dads and I put the paint on a paper plate. Aubrey & Levi were able to dip their fingers in the paint and do the feathers themselves after I showed them how to but Jeri and I helped Kate and Hagen do theirs.

 

 

 

They just dip their fingers in the paint and their fingerprints make the feathers. They loved it and I thought they turned out super cute!!!!

 

The main thing about crafts with kids is you have to be able to handle mess for a short period of time and you have to let go and let them do their thing. If it doesn't turn out exactly like you pictured it, who cares? Everything they make is cute in my eyes & I think their little quirks and changes they make to crafts are what makes them unique and cute!

 

 

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This next craft is more of a fall craft, rather than thanksgiving but I still wanted to share it. You saw this picture on my last post.....

 





 

Meet out candy corn people!!!! I always always do this craft at the beginning of October with my kids and every class has just loved them!!!!

 

Years ago I found this candy corn template (I'm sure you can google one) and print one for each kid. They color the candy corn, cut it out, and glue it on orange construction paper (just to make it more sturdy). Then they cut out the candy corn on the construction paper and draw on a face at the top. I cut out orange rectangles for the arms and legs and they scrunch them (just like on the turkeys!) and then glue the arms on the side and legs on the bottom to the back of the candy corn.

 

How easy and cute, right????

 

I am such a crafter so I love doing these little projects with my students and now my nieces and nephews!!! If you do these at home with kids, you can always hang them on the fridge, or decorate with them around the house - hang them on windows, in their room, etc! Then put them away after the holiday is over and bring them back out next year!

 

 

Happy Crafting, friends. :)

 

Day in the Life - 11/12/15

Happy Monday! And Happy 500th post to me!!!! On one hand I can't believe I have written 500 posts, but on the other it took me how many years to do that?? 7? Ha! :)

I first want to say that I too have been glued to the tv watching the news about Paris. My heart goes out to everyone in Paris. It makes me sick that there is such cruelty in this world. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected.
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I am excited to do a Day in the Life post today! Do any of you follow Andrea at Momfessionals? She has 3 adorable kids & she is a teacher so I love reading her blog! She did a Day in the Life post last week (the link brings you right to the post) and I completely forgot to record one of my days last week to link up with her so I thought I would just do my own post today! I'm a little late to the party I guess. :) I absolutely LOVE these posts...does that make me nosey? I love seeing what everyday life is for everyone else. I also think it will be neat to look back and see how simple and calm life was while it was just Ty and I.

I picked last Thursday (and was hoping to post this on Friday - oops), which was a normal Thursday around here.

5:21am - Up and out of bed! Last week I had morning duty at school which means I have to set my alarm for about 10 minutes earlier so I can make sure I get to school on time! I usually hit my snooze about a dozen times but Ty was restless and I felt bad for keeping him up with the alarm so I went ahead and got up.

 

This girl has an expensive dog bed in our room but chooses to sleep on the couch every night because she's no longer allowed on our bed.

#highmaintenance

She usually does not even get up and greet me in the morning when I head to the bathroom but on this morning, she did. :) She hung out with me the whole time I was getting ready. Sweet baby!

 

 

 6:20am - Hair done, Make up done, Dressed and ready - Now I need my coffee. :)

This pumpkin spice creamer is my FAV!!!!

6:22am - In my car and pulling out of my driveway....ready for my 50ish minutes trek to work! I am not a morning person at all but I don't mind my morning commute (the afternoon is a different story). I love to drink my coffee and sing along to the radio and just think. Lately I've been extra happy in the mornings because I've been listening to Christmas music!!!!!!! YAY!!!

 

7:10am - 48 minutes later, I arrive at work ready for a room full of 1st graders! 

Hello home away from home! The calm before the day. :) On the weeks I have morning duty, I keep all the 1st graders from 7:15 - 7:30 and then they go to their own classrooms & our day gets started.

Thought I'd snap a picture of these adorable candy corn people we made in October. This week they will be replaced with little turkeys!

8:10am - My kids go to PE and specials at 8:00 & 8:30 most days so I usually eat my breakfast while running around the school making copies, laminating, unjamming our brand new copier (UGH!!), writing lesson plans, etc. Lately my breakfast has looked like this - 2 rice cakes with PB&J on top. :) One of my sweet babies gave me some homemade muscadine jelly and it is heavenly!

9:00am - 10:15am - I teach math. We were reviewing on Thursday so we played some math games, & I did some assessments!

10:15am - 11:10am - I teach writing. On Thursday we wrote about what we think our principal does all day. They were super funny! I always love this writing activity but it is so funny what most of them think she does al day! We ended up making a book out of our writing today and I hung the book in the hallway. I wish I would have taken a picture of one of the completed ones. "She watches us on the cameras" was a common response (think I use that line a lot???).

 

 

11:15am - 11:45am - Lunch. This week my lunch consisted of 1 boiled egg, cottage cheese, some pretzels, and a banana or granola bar! I usually eat bites in between opening milks, ketchup, salad dressing, telling 6 year olds to sit down 10 times, etc. ;)

 

11:50am - 1:50pm - I teach reading. I took no pictures because well, for 2 hours I teach my little heart out trying to get those babies to learn to read. :)

 

2:00pm - 2:30pm - Kona Ice/Recess. This is normally our science time but every Thursday the shaved ice truck comes and our kids can buy one. We take it and our snack outside and have an extended recess.

 

3:20pm - I'm out the door and headed home! I normally have a meeting every Thursday after school til about 4:00 or so but it was canceled last Thursday! Score!

4:35pm - I am pulling into my driveway. I stopped at CVS to get some pictures - which they told me they didn't have - but don't worry, they did. I went back Saturday & reprinted them...only to find out that the original ones were listed under my maiden name & were there the whole time! So frustrating. Apparently when you type in your name for the order, it doesn't matter because whatever your phone number is linked to is what name they print it under.

 

 

Time to let Emma out! Ty was out working all day (some days he works from home) so she was cooped up all day & needed to release some energy!

Immediately when I got back in from letting Emma out, my comfy clothes went on. Most days I try to go to the gym or walk after school then I cook dinner and shower and put my PJs on but Thursdays are a little different! Ty and I eat leftovers and I put on my comfy clothes and go to bible study.

 

 

Emma joined me on the couch before bible study. This girl loves to SNUGGLE!

I watched Chopped until it was time to go to bible study. I wrote about my recent obsession with Chopped in a post a few weeks ago and my obsession continues. Now there is a Chopped JR and these kids are like 12 years old and better cooks than me. #epicfailure

 

I went to bible study and had a great tie fellowshipping with my small group girls! We have enjoyed studying Esther this Fall with Beth Moore. :) 

 

8:30pm - It was back on the couch for me!!!

One of my sweet friends from home started texting me around 9 and we chatted for awhile and caught up with each other since it had been awhile since we had talked. She got married this Spring so we are both newlyweds (I can still be a newlywed, right??). She told me she was reading this book and said it was great so it is on my list!!!! Can't wait!

 

 

 

10pm - I took a shower and got ready for bed. I snapped this screenshot before I went to bed! It was kind of a late night for me, which happens alot on Thursdays! I have been trying really hard to go to bed at a decent hour lately. I usually go to bed at a really unreasonably hour so I am really trying to work on it!

 

 

And that was my Thursday!!! I hope I didn't bore yall to death!!! ;)