Holiday Crafting Fun: Advent Calendar

Now, I'm not gonna lie...I actually did this one craft before Thanksgiving was over, but it needed to be done in time for the beginning of December. 

When I was growing up, my Dad made an Advent calendar for my brother and I that was cat food cans shaped into a Christmas tree.  Every year, he would stuff the cans with candy (and a toy for the last day) and seal the cans with red and green tissue paper and a hot glue gun.  This Advent calendar lasted until I was around 13 and it just could not be saved.  It was replaced by other Advent calendars through the years, but none have ever been as special as the Advent calendar my Dad fixed up every year.  I wish I had a picture, but all my old holiday pictures are packed away.

Last year, Logan was just eighteen  months old for Christmas, so we did a simple fun foam Advent calendar where he put a piece of foam nativity item on the manger every night. 

The finished product at the end of Advent.  I found this at Hobby Lobby last year.

We also did tiny Advent books that my Aunt Vicki had found for Logan.  We will be doing those again this year too.

These are the cutest little books.  You can find them on Amazon here

This year, I decided to make a real Advent calendar like my Dad had made for us when we were little.  With a little extra inspiration from Pinterest to use favor tins (instead of cat food tins...wasn't sure how I would collect that many cat food tins on such short notice!), our first holiday project was underway!

I did the beginning of the project on my own since I was a little worried about Logan being near a hot glue gun...

The supplies.  Diaper box, favor tins (they were boxed in sets of 24, so I hunted down one I was keeping my rings in to use as the 25th one), and hot glue gun.

Arranging the tins on the cardboard

After they were hot glued on

 I had originally planned to have Logan paint paper with red and green paint to cut the number circles out of.  This did not work as Logan smeared the paint together and the paper was a lovely shade of brown...

So I found some old scrapbook paper and cut the circles from red and green papers

A little bit of Elmer's glue to hold the circles in the tin lids

 While I was trying to take a picture of the Advent calendar, Logan thought it was time to model...

"Come on Mom! I'm cuter than that tree!"

"Cheese"

Baby blue eyes

Finally a shot of the Advent calendar

Since a brown background wasn't doing it.  Logan, Jeff, and I painted the top of the cardboard red.  Well, Logan and I painted and Jeff went around the favor tins with a wet Q-tip to clean the red paint off the tins.

Next, we used a little glue and cotton balls to create a snowy ground.  Logan wasn't sure what to think of the cotton balls!

The finished product!

It's all filled with candy now, just waiting for December 1st!  Logan loves to go up to it and point to the tins and "count".  (twoo, tree, twoo, tree, tree, twoo...)
Next year, along with candy, I plan to put little daily activities to do such as drink hot chocolate, go visit Santa, write a letter to Santa, donate a gift to a child in need, sing a Christmas song, etc.
Keep checking back for more holiday crafts!!  I've got a little crafty artist on my hands this year!

Give Thanks!

I know.  I know.  Thanksgiving was last week.  I figure that I give thanks every day I wake up, so who cares if my Thanksgiving post is a little late for the holiday.  Once again, I tried to be crafty with Logan and we did a baking craft.  Turkey cookies to share with everyone at our Thanksgiving meal!  I found these cute cookies on Pinterest (my new favorite website-check it out if you haven't yet!) and they looked toddler friendly, so we gave it a go! 

It called for the refrigerated sugar cookie dough, so I sliced it off and baked the cookies.  I apparently put too many on the cookie sheet because my cookies all smooshed together and ended up being anything but round...Oh well, turkeys aren't perfectly round either!

After they cooled off, the fun part started!  Logan loved this cookie decorating a lot.  He did enjoy eating the supplies too...kind of like his Mommy!  Jeff helped out too, but he didn't make any of the photos since he was the official photographer for our cookie decorating fun!

Logan and I prepare for the fun! (And yes Mom, I do still have that shirt nearly 20 years later!)

Putting the chocolate icing on the cookie.

"Here, Mom.  You need some feathers too!"

"This is so fun!!"

Our first finished turkey.  Notice the turkey has an extra eye...I couldn't figure out why...but Logan insisted.

I finally figured out that he was putting shoes on the turkeys!! Haha!

Logan taste tests the cookie and give it a thumbs up!

The finished cookie (minus shoes...)

I have a million things to be thankful for, but one of the best is getting to spend 2 days with our families!  I only wish we could have had everyone here.  I come from a very small family, so we are very close and often spend holidays together as an entire family.  My mom's side of the family does not live nearby but I'm betting they had a great Thanksgiving as they took a trip to NYC for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!!  I'm very jealous.

This year, we spent Wednesday with my Dad's side of the family (minus one of my cousins and her family).  We did make a quick stop to visit with our friends Jessica, John, and Chase.  Logan and Chase had a really fun time playing together (well, except for fighting over the push toy...) 

We went to my Aunt and Uncle's house then to hang with my family.  Logan got to hang out with some of his cousins and they all played really well together!  The best part was getting to meet our new baby cousin Scarlett!  She's the cutest little thing.  (I'm pretty sure cuteness runs in the family.)  This was our first holiday without Mama, but I know she was there with us!

Logan, Lillie, Aidan, and Collin

This might be my favorite picture of the day!  Dad was trying to get a picture of he and Mom with Logan and Lillie...guess who he's looking at?!?

Here's the family! (Minus Angie, Tom, Andrew, and Alyse)

 On Thursday, we spent Thanksgiving with Jeff's family.  We are thankful to spend another holiday with his Grandma, Jenny.  She is 92 years old!  She loves Logan to death and will do anything he tells her to do!

Logan gave her this tree to hold and she wouldn't let it go!

Jeff's family (it was just his immediate family this year.)

Jeff, Logan, and I are so fortunate to have wonderful families that actually enjoy spending time together at the holidays (or otherwise!).  We ate good food, had good conversation, and are exhausted now.

I strictly adhere to Christmas festivities (decorating, music, wrapping presents, etc.) not starting until after Thanksgiving.  I enjoy Thanksgiving and think Christmas tends to overshadow this wonderful holiday.  With Thanksgiving over, I am moving into the Christmas spirit and thinking about decorating...if my house ever gets clean...where are those elves? Hmmmmmm...

Toddler Antics

These are the pictures I look at to remind me that Logan is a sweet little boy 99% of the time...It's been a trying week at our house this week!  Logan has made the move to a toddler bed, which had been going extremely smooth, but this week, he was refusing most naps and bedtime.  This is not normal for him.  He has always been such a good sleeper.  Both Jeff and I are used to getting sleep, so we are very tired and cranky! 
On that note, Logan was cranky too.  This is usually easily remedied by a trip to the park, but our weather has finally turned cold and the park is out for a while I'm afraid.  Indoor play only keeps him entertained for so long although he did entertain himself with some things that were interesting! 

Amidst all the bad crankiness, he is really growing into a loving little boy.  I find that he is often sharing with others including toys with other children and this just warms my heart.  He has also learned that trading for things he wants works too.  He was funny at the toy store the other day.  They have a train table and another little boy was playing with the train he wanted.  He took another train and handed it to the boy and held out his hand for the train he wanted.  Thank goodness, the boy traded! 

He is also very imaginative.  Some of the things he comes up with cracks me up!  He is just beginning to really grasp the concept that he can pretend an object is something it really is not. 
We definitely have an artist on our hands.  He paints almost every day and is doing a pretty darn good job if I might say so myself.  His favorite things to draw right now are dinosaurs and dogs.  He usually wants Mommy to draw the trains for him. 

His speech is improving slowly but steadily.  He labels items really well and is beginning to use his words to make requests.  It's a very slow process, but he's learning!  I'm very thankful for his wonderful speech therapist!

Well this turned into a little update blog (not on purpose...).  Bottom line.  Jeff and I are so lucky to have the best little boy in the entire world and love him even when he's a stinker!  He is a toddler after all!

The best things in life are cheap!

It's weeks like this that I wonder why we buy Logan expensive toys...He has entertained himself with the funniest things this week! 

Logan found a pair of mittens in his sock drawer and initially tried to put them on his feet.  I showed him how they fit on his hands and he entertained himself for a good 30 minutes with them...

His favorite activity was running his hands across the tile while crawling!

I gave Logan a bag of fun sized M&M's to snack on and this is what I find...Logan had shared the entire bag with all of his dinosaurs and stuffed animals...I don't know if he even ate an M&M himself. 

Oh, wait...I think he has one in his mouth and so does Dog!  (Who apparently had to sit at the kitchen table to enjoy his M&M's.)

Lately Logan has really liked having his pictures taken.  He'll walk around the house saying "Cheese" and smiling.  I usually pull out the camera and catch a few of those silly smiles!

I worked on a fun craft this week (blog to come!) and had some of a cardboard box left over.  I took a sharpie and drew some roads on the cardboard.  Logan played for 30 minutes.  He didn't want to take a bath, so I had to hide it from him...

But he found it the next morning, drug it out, and played for a long time!

Nothing is better than a laundry basket full of clothes!  Dog got to join in on the fun too!

Too bad they were clean clothes... (but how can you be mad at this cutie?!?)

Mr. Potato Head put on his policeman uniform and directed some traffic.  (Yes that is his tongue replacing his ear...his other ear is missing and Logan insisted his tongue go there!)

 Hahaha!!  We had a lot of fun this week (along with a lot of toddler antics...)

100

Wowzers!  I made it to 100 posts!!  Thanks to everyone who is still reading the blog after 100 posts.  Here's a few photos for your 100th viewing pleasure!

Logan painting. 

And glittering...He thinks he needs to glitter everything after our Pumpkins we glittered.

The finished product which Logan insists is a "Pwane" (plane)

Logan grabbed my purse one day, put it over his arm, got on his car and waved and said "Bye, Bye, Bye" and drove off!  Too cute!

Papa Jim and Jeremiah caught a big fish and Logan didn't know what to think!

Where's Logan?!?!?

"There he is!"  He had been watching Bonnie on Toy Story 3 hiding in her toy box and decided to give it a try after his bath...

Logan and Mommy being silly

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  (a few weeks late...I'm playing blog catchup here!)  You may remember our Halloween Party a few weeks back.  Logan refused to wear his Lion costume, so I was not especially hopeful Halloween night would be any better!  We travelled to Missouri (minus Jeff who stayed back and handed out candy at our house since he had to work the next day) to see my family and trick or treat with them.  We decided to start our evening at a local town's downtown trick or treat time.  I put Logan in his costume(with all his clothes underneath so he wouldn't get arrested for streaking if he took it off again...)

Logan modeling on the front of my Mom's new Jeep!

Getting candy at the local Rehab department!

My niece Lillie, the pig!  Isn't she so cute!!! That's my sister in law Laura with her.

Logan chased Lillie around roaring at her all night.  Notice he is still in his costume and even has the hood on!!  He loved his costume this time around!

Posing with Mommy in front of the fire truck

 Logan had a blast.  He was even saying "Trick Treat" and holding his basket out for candy!  After having a blast at the town trick or treat event, we headed to Imo's Pizza for dinner.  I LOVE Imo's and there is not one anywhere near where we live.  It is truly the best pizza ever, but it's so thin and cheesy, you can hardly compare it to any other pizza.  If you have one near you and haven't had it, GO TODAY!

Our real Trick or Treat destination was our friend Joyce's house.  Joyce has the coolest Halloween tradition!  She makes donuts for everyone.  I am not a donut fan (unless it's Krispy Kreme) but she makes the BEST donuts ever!  I remember getting donuts at her house as a kid, so this was a must for Logan's first Halloween two years ago.  He's was only 5 months old, so he didn't get to eat the donut that time, but he did get a taste of the glaze!  This time he devoured a whole donut!

While we were there, these dinosaurs showed up!  Logan loved them.  The mother (in the blue scarf) had made the costumes.  How crafty!  You may notice Logan's odd Halloween basket too...I forgot his Halloween bag at home and this was the best we could find at Grandma and Pappy's house.

My brother John (he as tall as I am short...), Lillie, Joyce, me, and Logan

"Trick Treat"

"Cheese"

Eating donuts

 We also made a stop at another friend's house for candy and too see Uncle Bill and Edna!  Logan wore his costume the whole night and did not want to take it off until he got home!  Logan and Lillie were so much fun to trick or treat with this year since they kind of got the point of it and such. 

The cutest Lion I've ever seen!