BLESSED CHRISTMAS

This is the year we really learned that blessings come in all shapes and sizes, the most important of those are a growing, healthy, two-year-old boy, and the love and salvation that is found in Jesus Christ.  Wishing all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas!
Love, the Stovers

FRIENDS AND FROSTING

A few years ago, Byron brought home a gingerbread house kit.  I think it was a gingerbread train, actually.  And as we attempted to assemble and decorate it, and it fell over countless times and nearly led us to divorce (okay, I'm strongly exaggerating...but still), I vowed never again.  There had to be an easier way.

And, I am here to tell you, there is.

What if, my friends, you simply take an ice cream cone turned upside down, and smear it with frosting and candy?  Voila.  A Christmas tree.  It tastes yummy.  It is festive.  And nobody gets divorced!

We invited over some friends who had toddler and pre-school aged kids to give it a go with us.  It was definitely a hit!

Though notice we did keep baby wipes on hand.  I wouldn't describe this as a clean project.

The best part was watching the kids chow down afterwards.  They were pretty stoked.  And the little dude definitely enjoyed that part!  Watching him was classic.

So go buy some cones, grab everything sugary in your house, and you've got what you need for a new holiday tradition.  This was even a tradition that Daddy supports.  Any activity where he gets a free pass to indulge in endless amounts of sugar is good in his book.

And as I usually do, I've got to end my post with one more picture, just for mama.  This face!  Although I am finally breaking down and getting my handsome boy the haircut he so desperately needs.

SPARKLY ORNAMENTS WITH NO MESS

I love Christmas ornaments.  My ornaments are probably the most organized part of my life (sad or awesome, you choose), and I have quite a few.  I especially love what I call Christmas balls.  I am sure that is not what I should be saying, but you know what I mean (the round ones).  My goal is to add a couple of new ones each year, so that I can vary my color scheme each year without spending a lot of money.  And I can get pretty particular as to exactly which color I have my eye on.  (Like yellow...but not gold...)
So two years ago, which translates to THREE Christmas seasons ago, I pinned this image of some ornaments I wanted to try to make.  I liked this for several reasons:
a) they are Christmas balls
b) they are glittery
c) they promise to be no mess
d) they can be customized to ANY color I want
Finally, this year would be the year.  I made the fantastic discovery that I had extra vacation days that I had to use before the end of the year, so I did what I have done very little of before.  I dropped Mason off at the babysitter and got a ton of stuff done, including making myself some new ornaments.
I had picked up fillable ornaments at Michael's a few weeks back, and I had extra fine glitter on hand (left over from my wedding almost 6 years ago - ha!), so this project was very inexpensive for me.  I wanted to use what I had to see how I liked it before buying new glitter.  I basically followed the tutorial from Pinterest (here), and it was so easy!  I'm definitely going to make more.

I have a few comments that I will share though.  First, the packaging has changed in the past few years and the Pledge stuff does not say Future Shine.  The bottle looks the same though, and the lid is still blue, if that helps.  Second, I actually did these two different ways.  The first way I did a whole ornament at a time - wax, glitter, done, repeat.  The second way I did all the wax, all the glitter, done.  And although an untrained eye probably couldn't tell the difference, I preferred the result of the first way better.  The second was faster though, so if you are not a perfectionist or don't plan to spend a lot of time examining your finished project, then the second way is fine.
As you can see, I did green (which I have wanted for a long time - yay!) and copper.  Now though, I CAN NOT WAIT to do more.  And the color possibilities are endless.  Pink!  Yellow!  Black!  (But not all on the same tree...I'm not that crazy.)
What have you been doing to prepare your house for Christmas?