christmas at the johnsens...goes something like this...

(Moses was good enough to help his brother out.)

(Doug and I were making bets about what year I will have to make TWO of these!)

Moses was awesome...really. At one point he went over to Doug and said "Merry Christmas, Daddy...thank you for buying me a scooter."!!!
Then later on in the day and the next day he kept telling us "I had a great Christmas".
All worth it.

We also celebrated baby Aaron's ten month birthday!
Good grief...these photos are getting hard to take...he is SO busy!

Would you think I was crazy if I told you that I have already put all my Christmas stuff away?

:)

the days before Christmas...

So aside from being stranded in our house for days leading up to Christmas...it DID make for a relaxing time...plus being housebound made me clean my house, catch up on laundry, get all the Christmas stuff done, etc...here are some snapshots leading up to the BIG day...

Moses took all his little family on a trip to visit the baby Jesus...in this photo he was saying "Daddy goes to see baby Jesus...he says 'Hi baby Jesus. I love you.'" It may have been one of the sweeter play moments of Moses' that I have witnessed.

Moses and Aaron pose for photos with baby Jesus.
On Christmas Eve...while Doug was finishing up with work, we made some cute paper crafts that Moses seemed to really enjoy...bonus was that they were free. :)

Somewhere in Norwegian history there is a Christmas gnome...this is Moses' version.

We enjoyed some cookies...and milk of course.

Every year I make gifts for Doug to take to his coworkers. This year I went the nerdy route...I made him bull's eye cookies(fyi-he is an exec at Target)...in addition to others. I LOVE how they turned out. :)

And Aaron was Aaron. We call him Baby Ho Ho or tiny ho ho.
Poor kid...that is actually his nick name.
He got a new tooth for Christmas...with another on the way.

Last photo before Christmas...two wiggly boys in matching jammies. :)

More Christmas goodness to come...and just WAIT until you see the new things I am working on for shop...hope your day is super happy! :)

happy. birthday. Jesus.

last minute easy crafts...

Here are some fun crafty freebies for you...

Nesting Santas...

Cute paper toys...

Maybe for next year?

Funny handmade gift tags...

Sweet paper angels...

Cute bird houses...


Have fun!

how to ruffle...with or without a foot.

Here is a quick and simple way to cute up anything...jacket, shirt, skirt, bag...anything.

I did this cute cozy jacket I picked up from Baby Gap for $10.
You can almost use scrap fabric...if your scraps are big enough.

Step 1: Measure the length of where you want to put a ruffle.
You will multiply that length by 2.

Since this is a jacket and I wanted ruffles on each side of the zipper...
I had to cut two of each length.
So...my fabric strips were 14in by 2in and 12in by 2in and I had two of each.
(disregard that top piece of fabric in the photo)

Step 2: Make your ruffle.
If you have a ruffling foot...I don't think I need to tell you how.
If you don't have one...I highly recommend getting one.
The photo above shows my ruffle foot fabric strips ready to go.

If you don't have a ruffle foot...set your machine to the longest stitch length...and using a straight stitch...sew all the way down the length of the fabric strip...stay as close to the middle as possible.

When you get to the end of the strip...be sure to leave a couple of inches of thread at the end when you trim it off. Ever. SO. Gently pull on either the top or bottom thread and push the fabric down...work that ruffle down the strip and go back to the top...repeat until you get your ruffle down to the size you want it. Your thread may break...this is why a ruffle foot is awesome...you can pull out the stitches and start again when the thread breaks.

Step 3: Once you have your ruffles made...pin them in place where you want them to be.

Step 4: Sew on your ruffles...I stitched down the middle then off to either side about a half inch or so. If you just sew down the middle the ruffles will curl up too much when you wash them.

All done!
You can either give it as is...OR if you are worried that the person you are giving it to will freak out over frayed fabric goodness...you can wash it first. :)

Be sure to trim the frayed goodness with scissors and never pull it!

Now go ruffle.

I will try to answer questions in comment form on THIS post. :)
:)

helpful holiday hints...

So...I thought it would be fun to start a post where everyone could share a holiday hint or two that they live by...

Here is one from me:
Once my boys are old enough to be sneaky...I will assign them each a roll of wrapping paper and wrap all of their gifts in that ONE paper...then NOT put labels on .
I will be the only one who knows whose gifts are whose...making it harder to be sneaky peeks. :)

How about you? Leave a hint in the comments.

~*~

I am REALLY loving this Christmas. Really. SO simple. SO good. I was blog hopping earlier today and came across this quote from a blog friend B

"Jesus is so much more important than Santa.
Jesus loves us and blesses us with gifts regardless of our behavior."

LOVE it.

Is there anything more true? I am desperate for my kids to get Joy from Christmas for all the right reasons...and NOT for a pile of stuff under the tree.
This Christmas we may have cut back...but we are not missing a thing.

xo

30in.

Thirty inches is what we ended up with.

30 crazy, in sane, claustrophobic inches of snow.

Know what else is about 30in?
Baby Aaron.
We took this photo to show him one day...
This is his "Are you serious Clark?" face...
(anyone name that movie?)

Crazy!

At one point I just picked Moses up and chucked him as hard as I could.

Beautiful!

But SO much of it!

Another photo just to show how crazy!

Doug's car...

I shoveled snow for almost three hours...my only form of escape. :)

Ugh...I am already DONE with all this snow!

We ended the day with Moses first taste of hot chocolate.

xo

crazy snow.

We are currently up to 23 inches of snow!!!!

I haven't seen this much snow in Virginia since....90 something.

23 inches...and it is STILL snowing!

Currently it has been snowing for over 24 hours...

Doug had to go out in it to get to work at 2am...luckily he had no trouble getting there...

Getting back was a bit trickier...behind this red car here is our Honda...you can see just a tiny bit of it...this is as close as Doug could get to our house. I am thankful for that though...several people in this area had to abandon cars and WALK miles to get home...or stay at hotels. They CLOSED Target!!

Our bird feeder and looking out the front door...

This is as open as we can get the front door.

Out the back door...it is even too deep to really play in...so...

I brought the snow in to Moses.

He built a snowman and everything. :)

:)