Christmas Teacher Gift Idea

 Now that we have 5 teachers that we want to show appreciation for at Christmas time (3 elementary, 1 preschool and 1 piano teacher) I'm in the market for creative/practical/cute/FRUGAL ideas.  I came up with this idea after I saw the personalized handgel HERE. 

I included tissue packs, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, and hot cocoa w/ marshmallows and a candy cane.  (I didn't take a close-up, but I wrote "Add 2 cups water or milk" on the ribbons so she knew it was 2 packets of cocoa.  I'm all about details....atleast half the time.)

I was really happy with how it turned out.  I love it---a cute twist on something super practical for teachers!

**Also, every year we draw names for gift-giving in Steve's family.  But, in addition all of us usually do a "token gift" for all the family members as well.  So, I made extra personalized handgels for each family.  Again, I like frugal and practical, but cute is never lost on me!

Christmas Photo Shoot with Mommy

 I wanted to take some pictures of the kids.  December is so busy for Steve (end-of-year deadlines at work and tithing settlement at church), and I knew I couldn't do it alone and needed a reinforcement.  So, I asked one of our cute young women from church to help me out.  Wendy was awesome ( I should have gotten a picture with her in it!) and did a great job wrangling and making the kids smile.  I just wanted some nice photos of the kids all together, and we ended up with some precious captured moments of our babies. 

(I got a little happy with the Merry Christmas sign, but I couldn't help it.)

 {Eyelashes!}

We cherish these photos.  I love that I took them, as simple as they are.  And I will always remember that everyone was happy and cooperative.  We had beautiful lighting and weather and had fun as I praised my children and told them how beautiful and handsome they were as I snapped away.  I wasn't pulling teeth, and only had to offer a few Jelly Bellys to get smiles near the end :)  It was a lovely evening.

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{And, just for fun, I wanted to show this before and after using good ol' Photoshop.  It is suuuper rough, but pretty good, I think.}

  

                                   BEFORE                                                             AFTER

Posers





Man, these kids are fun.

Thanksgiving week

Preston had his Kindergarten program, Hooray for Thanksgiving!.  We were so pleased that Mr. Cheeks was given a hefty part to memorize.  He was so cute practicing and practicing until he had it just right.  Then the night of the program they handed him the paper!  Ahhh!  He had worked so hard, and when they handed him the reading part, he was probably like, "Okay, I guess I'll read it."  Anyway, he was awesome, and on the way to the school that night he said, "Mom, I think I'm a little shy."  "Do you mean you're nervous?"  "Oh, yeah.  Nervous." 

 He did not look nervous to me!

And, I had to include this terribly cute (and terribly out-of-focus) picture of Lucy with Steve while we were watching the program. 

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 And, I only got one photo of this one, but Trevor ran in the Turkey Trot at school and got 8th place out of all 2nd grade boys!  The exclamation point is because he just wanted a real ribbon (not just the token ribbon that everyone gets), and only those who place 10th and above get a real ribbon!  So happy for the Trev-dog.

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Another solo photo, but had to include Gavin's preschool Thanksgiving Feast.  Only some of the children are looking, I don't know the neighborhood girl on the left and it is way over-exposed, but here it is!  Gavin is sure loving preschool this year and seems to be growing up so much.  He loves to write that name of his ("G-A-V-I-N!") and writes it all day long. 

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Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Owens home.  Always delicious and always a good time. 

Lucy and Grandpa.

An Owens Family Favorite: A friendly/smack-talking game of Greedy.  There were a few heated rounds of this one.

Paige and Trevor love to get in on the competition. ( I love the pictures in the background. These are photos all of us emailed Steve's parents when they were on there mission a few years ago.  They printed all of them out and hung them in their apartment on their mission, and they have had a permanent place on their kitchen wall since they've been home!)

Grandpa reading a "Cars" book to the little boys. (In the background is part of Grandpa's train set.  All of the grandsons have enjoyed playing with this trainset through the year with Grandpa during the holidays.)

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So our lovely little tree went up the day after Thanksgiving, per usual, and it was Preston's turn to put the rusty old star on top.

 

And, sadly this is the only group shot I got all weekend, but we were so happy that my brother, Jared, and his kids, Elijah, Rachel and Lauren came to visit us for Turkey Day.  We had a great time together and the cousins just love each other.

Piano recital

This year's recital was held at a retirement home which I thought was an awesome idea.  It was so fun to see the residents come dressed in their best and wearing the bright lipstick.

 

The Duet

Gavin wasn't into it.

Trevor and Paige both did a great job!  And, no I did not pose them this way.   But, it's totally cute.