High Five...Saturday?

I missed High Five Friday yesterday, but I figure I can make up for it this afternoon (it's a lazy, dreary type of afternoon, perfect for blogging).

So my top five for this past week:

#1. SLEEPING IN! Our kiddos didn't stir until 9 a.m. today and no one came to get us until 9:30. Nice.

#2. Warranties on vehicles! That's right, counting my blessings right now. Our Jeep Grand Cherokee came with a warranty and we are SO THANKFUL because on Wednesday night it died on us and it turns out that it has a cracked head. So...new one for 100 bucks. Warranty covers the other, er, couple thousand or so.

#3. The fact that God knows better than we do. I'm celebrating this especially right now, because we have been trying to sell our extra SUV (an Explorer) since Jake got a company vehicle and we already have the Jeep, and just want to simplify. Well, because of the holidays and all, the Explorer hasn't exactly been selling and now we are so thankful it didn't because we have an extra vehicle to drive and don't have to worry about getting a rental! Thanks for that foresight, God!

#4. Lazy Saturday afternoons. Jake and I were supposed to be cabin leaders at our church Winter Camp this weekend, but due to severe avalanche dangers at camp, they cancelled. I had stormed through the whole house doing all my cleaning on Thursday, since we were supposed to be gone all weekend, so that left today blissfully open for playing with the kids and being lazy while they nap.

#5. Hot tubs. Going hot tubbing tonight and that is one of those small blessings that makes me so happy!

I hope your week was as blessed as ours.

Another Day on the Slopes--January 14, 2012

Well, we escaped any bad luck on Friday the 13th (well, I did receive a warning from the Buhl Police Department for expired tags on my Jeep, but no ticket, thankfully!). Saturday we made up our birthday ski date promise for Jackson, and we had a truly amazing day. I think no matter what you are doing outdoors on a day like Saturday, makes for a pretty awesome day! The weather was warm, the skies were bright blue and sunny, and it felt GREAT to be out enjoying God's beautiful playground!

Jackson decided to become a ski racer on Saturday, and he was honestly flying down the slopes--thank goodness for helmets, it gave me some peace of mind!

But, there were a few spills...

...after which the only response from Jackson was "Good thing I got this helmet on, Mom!". Good thing, indeed!

And if you are wondering where our other little angel was--well, she's not quite a skier, so she got to play with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rex all day (and I'm thinking she was quite spoiled! She did NOT want to leave when we got there to pick her up!)

We are so grateful for the opportunities we get to enjoy God's amazing creation, create good memories with our little family, and share our love of all things outdoors with our kiddos.

P.S. All these recent shots have been taken with my amazing new camera, which I am loving! Such an improvement from my last one. I actually took most of these shots while I was skiing, and was amazed at how non-blurry they were! With me and my subjects moving, I didn't think I would be lucky enough to get any good shots. Plus, I dropped it in the snow, and it didn't even matter because....it's waterproof! Love it.

It's Another High Five Friday! Yay!

My top five for this week are:

#1: Jackson's 4th Birthday! Lots of fun celebrating!

#2: Building Lego projects with Jackson (with all his new Legos and some of the old!).

#3: Watching the Denver Broncos game Sunday (awesome game!), even though "watching" for me consists of doing about a million other things while it's on...still, I caught some exciting moments!

#4: Reading Little Women while working out this week (and completely enjoying it--I seriously haven't read it since at least high school, if not before, and it's been very enjoyable! Plus, a little side note here, I was able to download 25--that's right 25 of the best classics to my Nook for a grand total of $.99--unbelievable, right? They include the aforementioned Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, the Anne of Green Gables set, and tons more!)

#5: Sitting here on a relaxing Friday night (we need more of these!) watching the Miami Heat with my hubby. Let's go Heat!

HAPPY FRIDAY! BLESSINGS FOR THE WEEKEND!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

January 7th, 2012

We started our day off with a gymnastics meet--very early in the morning, so, Emma, that just shows you how much we LOVE you!--

This talented girl won 4 medals and a trophy!

Next, my lucky cousin, Megan, and I tackled Jackson's birthday cupcakes (he wanted skiers, so we had to be very creative...just don't look too closely!)--

Jackson helped as well...

Snowman Skiers! With Hershey Kiss hats!

And then Jackson got a little overly ambitious and began making more of his "creations" (read: completely ridiculous messes, but fun!)

Next, it was off to Maxi's for the requested pizza party--

Check out the looks on these Jones boys faces :-)

Cuteness...the very definition!

Jake is such a goof...I think he gets tired of my "self takes"...what do you think?

Thankfully no snowmen "melted" during the candles!

Then, later that night, Jackson got to stay up extra late enjoying his new stuff--

January 8th, 2012

Sunday we were planning to go skiing (as requested by the birthday boy), but due to a combination of events and excuses, we all decided to postpone the ski day til next Saturday. Instead, we enjoyed a lovely visit from Emma while her Mom and Grandma went to church (and we ditched in the name of pure laziness). Here are the happy cousins trying out a new birthday present--Cootie (don't you love that game!)--

January 9th, 2012--Jackson's Real Birthday!

Happy birthday to our amazing son! Jackson turned four today, and I think Jake and I are the ones who continue to receive gifts more than Jackson on his birthdays--he is so sweet, thoughtful, energetic, fun, clever, intelligent, inquisitive...and we love him SO MUCH! It is amazing to watch him grow, learn, and play. We took him to Applebees for a small family dinner and were reminded in just those couple of hours how sensitive to others he is, how much fun he is, and how grateful we are for him.

Sporting the birthday crown I made him

His birthday dinner, Mac N Cheese (fancy, I know...his choice though!)

Blowing out a candle!

As soon as he blew out his candle he goes, "Everybody can have some, too..." SO dang sweet and thoughtful! The little dessert was like the size of a shot glass and he was so eager to share with all! Love this boy!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Son!

High Five Friday

Lots of bloggers do a "High Five Friday"--a time to just share five of their favorite things from the week. I kind of like that idea, so I will try to post my "high fives" as often as I can...so here we go, for the first week of January 2012:

#1--My kiddos playing together (they play together so nicely--well most of the time--and mostly this means Jackson plays nicely and patiently with Lilly and she mostly tortures him, but he mostly puts up with it!)

#2---The fact that just tonight Jake brought home one of our favorite movies on Blu Ray and we actually will have time to watch it! (It's the small blessings in life...)

#3--We get to go skiing again Sunday (for Jackson's birthday), and in spite of there being hardly any snow this year, we still are blessed enough to have one place around here to ski!

#4--Finding the cutest little jacket to wear (it can be casual with jeans or dressed up with a skirt or dress pants) for only 6 bucks (with tax)--that's right, I said 6 bucks. Crazy.

#5--I survived (barely) the first week back to teaching, after a nice luxurious, fun-filled Christmas break (survived, but am having serious withdrawals from my hubby and kiddos!).

So there you have it--hopefully I can have time to be faithful with this little blog project, because it will so nicely journal the little blessings in life that make life what it is!

Small Things Blog

Have to say--I love the small things blog. Kate, the woman who writes it, is inspirational to me in so many ways (I got started on her blog because of the hairstyle tutorials, but then I found out she is a Christian, and so I started following her blog more regularly--now as I follow it, I find that I also love her style!). Just wanted to share in case anyone else is interested. Good stuff!

www.thesmallthingsblog.com

Highlights of Christmas 2011

Here are some highlights from the Webb family Christmas 2011:

Christmas Eve:

Spent driving back from McCall, then onto the Webbs' for Christmas Eve where yummy appetizers were devoured, fun company was enjoyed and gifts were distributed by Santa (AKA, Hannah, my sister-in-law). A Nerf gun fight ensued, lots of pics were taken with new cameras, and Lilly scooted through miles of wrapping ribbon and piles of wrapping paper on her new scooter (all the while munching on a whole apple without ever getting distracted from her snacking!).

Christmas morning was spent at home (thankfully) opening gifts as a family and enjoying what Santa brought (of course, Jake got the most enjoyment out of all the gifts, as he is the builder/tester/electronic guru, etc. and spends hours putting together, trying out, and making sure everything works! Poor guy!).

My mom always had pictures of us on Christmas morning in front of the tree and I try, but one was of Jackson looking and smiling, the other was of Lilly looking and smiling, and one was of neither of them looking or smiling!

A bunkbed! Oh boy...

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner was hosted by my Aunt Kathy...very peaceful and fun!

And Christmas Day Gathering #2 (at the Millers')

More appetizers, more family fun, and more Nerf gun wars (along with some other fun!)

We hope your year was as blessed as our's. Looking back on our busy Christmas, I can't help but thank God for how FULL our lives are: full of HIS love, full of amazing family, full of such healthy kids (and adults!), full of fun and laughter...definitely more blessings than we can count. Looking forward to 2012! (And we even have some goals set--as individuals and as a family...but you'll have to wait to hear what those are because I don't want to jinx us!).

Some funnies--Courtesy of Mr. Jackson

These are those kinds of things I have to post just for my journaling purposes (however, I did find a great idea on Pinterest that suggested writing the cute things your kids say/do on scraps of paper and adding to a Mason Jar to be read on New Years the next year--I will probably have to do that, then I will also have a record of them for scrapbooking purposes!) So feel free to share in our little joys or just skip this entry!

When told to clean his room a couple of weeks ago, Jackson replied (in great earnest, might I add!), "No...that probably be a waste of time."

Hmmm...he was probably right.

For Christmas Nana and Papa got Jackson a collectible red 1953 Chevy pickup (it looks a lot like the real 1955 Chevy my dad restored that Jackson just idolizes). Jackson, of course, is in love with that pickup and played with it non-stop for several days. One day Jackson comes up to me and says, "Mommy, close your eyes, I have a 'prize' for you", so I follow him into his room with eyes closed. Once in there, he goes, "Now open them," and, gesturing towards the top of his dresser where the said red pickup is parked complete with the box sitting next to it, "That called a collection!" He was so proud! I didn't have the heart to correct him (and who knows, someday it may just grow into a collection!).

DIY Christmas Gifts

Well, I have had several people request to see some of the projects I made people this year for Christmas, and, of course, I couldn't post them until after the big day! For several years now I have created photo calendars on my digital scrapbooking program and I love the way they turn out...I still did those (but have no pics of them) and added a few things to my list of DIY gifts this year as well.

Dry Erase Calendars/Message Boards--The original idea for this project was on Pinterest, but the ones I saw on there were created either with a burlap sack as a background or paint chips as the calendar squares (both looked kind of cool, but I wanted to make mine a little classier and more decorative). I used scrapbook paper, ribbon, and buttons to embellish and made them to match peoples' styles/decor. I started out trying to find frames at Michaels, but holy cow! Too expensive for as many as I was making--so I repurposed some old frames found at thrift shops by sanding them and painting them black with a clear coat. They turned out gorgeous, and now I know where all my framing needs will be met! Forget the $80 Michaels frames! I will also be making myself one of these nifty things as soon as I get a chance! (Sorry they are sideways, Blogger is having issues).

This button monogram (a "W" for Webb) was for my mother-in-law. It was much more time-consuming that I figured it would be, but I enjoyed it! It was fun and relaxing for me!

All of my calendars and the button monogram

Some of the jams (made in August, but put to good use for the holidays), salsas, and body scrubs I made for gift baskets. I added lots of my signature homemade goodies to the baskets as well.

I had tons of fun making Christmas gifts and would love to do more next year!