Home Made Christmas Gifts

We love meaningful, well thought out, and/or useful gifts, and honestly we have a hard time with the obligatory gift giving that has become Christmas. That being said, we try to be thoughtful, practical, and loving in all of our gifts each year. We made some different things for specific members of our family, and friends. The process of making the gifts was SO MUCH more fun than picking up an obligatory gift while thinking, "I think Grandma will like this" or "Well.  . . I really cant think of something for my dad, so I will just grab ____" During the process of making the gifts, we had family time in the house and the garage. Kiki taught me about modge podge, and I showed her and Jeremy a belt sander. Such a fun process.

Here is are the finished products. . . .

Blessing Blocks: We made 4 different version of this set up for each of our parents. There are pictures on the sides of the blocks, as well.

You will need:

     4x4 Piece of wood (length varies by number of blocks)

     Stain color of your choice (we used Golden Oak by Win Wax)

     Pictures (2.5x2.5, printed in Microsoft Word)

     Vinyl sticker for the sayings (printed to exact size by Totally Couture) 

     Foam Brush

     Modge Podge (Matte or Shiny will work)

     Cute ribbon

Step 1: Cut blocks. Blessings block is 7.5" long, picture blocks are 3.5"x3.5". I have heard Home
             Depot will cut into the size you need. 

Step 2: Sand with 220 grit sand paper and Stain Blocks.

Step 3: Use Modge Podge to glue the pictures onto the wood blocks. Let them dry for about 15 

            minutes.

Step 4: Stick the words on, brush modge podge over.

Step 5: Brush Modge Podge over the pictures. 

Step 6: Let dry overnight, Stack blocks, tie a pretty ribbon on.
I found the original instructions here. <--- My first time inserting a link! So Cool!

Homemade Laundry Soap: This was super simple, smells wonderful and adored by all the people we gave it to! It's also cheaper then buying laundry soap!  

You will need:

     9 cups Borax

     6 cups washing soda 

     6 cups baking soda

     6 cups Fels-Naptha bar soap (almost 2 bars)

     Cute Ribbon

     Paper to print label

     Clothes Pins

     Mason Jars I made most of them in the smaller jars. A few for big families in the large ones. 

Step 1: Mix all ingredients in a large bowl or bucket. I recommend mixing outside because the powder gets every where. 

Step 2: Fill jars. These measurements filled 16 smaller jars, 1 medium jar and 2 large jars. 

Step 3: Print Labels here. Tie cute ribbon and attach clothes pin. 

I found the original instructions here.

     

Homemade Brown Sugar Almond Scrub: A great way to say, "I Love You" to your girlfriends, Mom, Aunt, etc!  

You will need:

     4 Cups White Sugar
     4 Cups Brown Sugar
     1/2 Cup Olive Oil
     Whole Almonds
     Labels, Mason Jars, Ribbon

Step 1: I don't know the exact measurements! YIKES! I mixed 50/50 white and brown sugar in a
             bowl. 

Step 2: Pour in Olive Oil and let it soak up. Stir it up. Again I'm not sure exactly on the measurements.
             It should look like a fluffy paste. If that makes any sense! 

Step 3: Stir in almonds. The site I got it from said to put in Almond extract but the store was out and whole almonds were the cheaper way to go.

Step 4: Divide into jars (I made 10 jars). Make it pretty with labels and ribbon! 

I found the original instructions here.

Mini Muffin for the new neighbors: I just love the presentation! 

No steps needed for this one. Just bake your favorite muffins... these are banana. Take the label off the egg carton, add some cute scrapbook paper (I didn't have any patterns on hand. Boo!) Tie a bow and label! The little round label says, "From the Kitchen of KiKi Martens." Bobby got them for me a few years ago!  

Hope you enjoyed!! 

Merry Christmas

Christmas has never been one of our favorite holidays. 4th of July is the favorite! However, we throughly enjoyed the holiday this year. There's a number of reasons and picture to show them all!

1. Jeremy is old enough to enjoy it 

We woke up Christmas morning to find a family dressed as Santa and elves,
driving a tractor down the street! It was so cool! Jeremy loved it!

2. We are treasuring the time we have left as a family of 3 

We got a hiking backpack from my mom! Yay!

3. We hand made most of our gifts this year. There will be a blog to follow with how we did it! 

4. Jackie got engaged at our annual Christmas Eve Family Party! 

Garrett was really sweet with his proposal!
He had clues all over the house.
It ended with him on the couch with a gift.
The gift was a GreenBay jersey with "Mansfield" on the back
and a ring attached to it! 

We hope you all had a great Christmas filled with family time and great food! Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!! We are so grateful for HIM!

Baby Duece!

Our Christmas card this year! (2011)
This is how we told the family!
We had it as the centerpiece for Thanksgiving.
Then sent the Christmas cards out the next day for the family that lives out of state.

We are excited to have baby #2 cooking in the oven. Due Date is June 2! SAME due date as Jeremy and our anniversary! I am 14.5 weeks. I already feel like I am bigger then I was with J. We are not finding out the gender, until the baby is born. This is especially difficult for me! Bobby is super excited. When we ask Jeremy, "Where is the baby?" He points to my belly and kisses it! So sweet.

12 Weeks