Weekly Song - I Heard the Bells

I've been waiting for this week, for this song!  I love Christmas music . . wait.  I love GOOD Christmas Music.  There are some songs out there that seriously need to get thrown out of this universe.  I heard this song a few years ago and fell in love with it.  It is an old classic Christmas Hymn but there is just something about the arrangement that Casting Crowns does that just makes it a whole new song.  It is "I heard the Bells".  It has taken the first place on my play list this week!

Too Cute Not to Toot!!

YEAH!  Christmas crafts galore :-)  This first one that I am posting is one I actually want to make.  It is cheap and easy to do and I have a few dark corners in my home that need something pretty. 

Check out this great idea for Christmas decor at Arts and Crap. 

She gives a great (and humorous) tutorial for the silver ornaments.  They are so unique!

Here is a simple craft to do using terra cotta pots!!!  I can see this going in my bathroom.  (It just matches so well!)  I'm also thinking that this would make a GREAT addition to my porch - The pots are made to go outside so they should hold up well.  I might have to price these at Walmart and see what I can get. . ..

See it all here!!

Over at Lemon Tree Creations is a cute idea for making Twine Trees without using up those expensive Styrofoam comes (you just keep reusing the same one for your molds and than go from there!).

See the full tutorial here!

Oopsey-daisy offers up a recipe and patterns to make gingerbread houses.  I love the idea that they save all their stale candy throughout the year to use on the houses instead of buying new since you really don't end up eating it once it is "glued" to the house!  (But . . . . who actually has stale candy? LOL)

Click Here!

Over at House of Hepworths, I saw these really cute Nutcrackers.  Now really, Nutcrackers are not anything I decorate with but they are so creative.  Even if you aren't into decorating with them - click on the link above to see the "before" photos - this is the after.  I'm just amazed at what she did with something from the Dollar Store!

There are a ton of Advent Calendar Ideas in blog land and I've posted quite a few of them in various "too Cute Not to Toot!" posts.  This one is a little different - it is the 12 days of Christmas with 12 different things to do.  This strikes me as something to do for couples without kids to eat all the candy in the advent calendars OR to a family with Teenagers - what a great way to get them involved in some things as a family!

Click Here!

My Favorite Things - Week 3

High Heeled Housewife

It's time for week 3 of the My Favorite Things Challenge!  Here's this week's challenge: This week, instead of dreading doing your household chores, focus on your favorite household chore. 

I have thought about this one for a little while and it is sooo much easier to think of the chore that is my least favorite but that isn't the point is it?  LOL  When I first read the list of items for this challenge, one thing had popped into my mind instantly and it is what I keep coming back to so that must be my favorite household chore.  What is it?  Without out a doubt, it is organizing.  I wasn't sure if this was really a "chore" but for me, it really is.  I spend hours organizing things to make sure that everything has a home!  This year, this was my huge home goal - to organize my entire house but cleaning out every single room, only keeping what I love, and giving everything that I didn't love away.  It gives me a true sense of satisfaction to see a finished room.  My bins are all labeled and numbered and the list of all the items in each bin is in my Control Journal so I can always look before I go buy something new!! 

Birthday Name Banner

What is better than to see your name strung across a room?  I think we all like see our names posted in honor whether we admit it or not!

I had fun creating this banner for Josh's 2nd birthday!

I used a foam star to trace star patterns onto scrapbook paper

Than I used a class to trace a circle to stick on top of the star.

Using my Sizzix, I cut out all the letters for Joshua's name from more scrapbook paper

I used Mod-podge to attach the letters to another circle made from more scrapbook paper.

Than I used glitter glue on the letters to make them sparkle

And here is the final product

As you can see, I punched holes in the star and used twine to string it up.  I placed a dot of hot glue on the twine to hold the star in place.

I also hot glued buttons and ribbon on each star to add to it.

I might not have a mantel but I have a great entertainment center :-)

I found this great idea at Oopsey Daisy, one of my favorite crafters.  For her full tutorial click here

More Holiday Plans and Cleaning Ideas

I had planned to post some pictures of the rest of my holiday decorating but haven't uploaded anything yet :-)  Darryl and I are enjoying our va(stay)cation without the kidlets so I'm not really pushing to do a whole lot.  My living room is almost completely decorated with the exception of wrapping the large pictures.  Right now my table is covered with scarpbooking stuff (since the kids are gone) so I have no room to wrap :-)  I'll do that Tuesday or Wednesday.  

Instead, I found this neat blog that has some more very interesting ideas for deep cleaning your house AND preparing for Christmas throughout the year.  I thought I would share this with you before the new year comes - I'm thinking of integrating these ideas into my Deep Cleaning plans I already have.

Rocking Granola has some interesting ideas!

She gives a couple of ideas that caught my attention.  1) A weekly room deep cleaning - this is similar to what I already have in place but I like that "to do" lists she has listed for each room 2) Holiday Plan for each week - what to buy, lists to make, freezer meals to make etc.  3) Plan a Rudolph Day each month (such as the 25th of each month) to work specifically on things for Christmas.  I had never thought of this - it could be things like making gifts, planning baking, making master grocery lists - anything.  It might also be fun to have a holiday search and find for the kids.  Maybe have 12 little holiday decorations of some sort and on the 25th of each month, hide one of them.  Who ever finds it first over the course of the next months, gets a special treat.  Maybe a piece to a puzzle or something even that we can "build" throughout the year . .. just thinking out loud right now!

The site that "Rockin' Granola" recommends using is Organized Christmas.  I had not seen this site before but I already like it.  Who doesn't want an organized Christmas?  I'm hopeful that they will have a 2011 plan so I can incorporate this into my Holiday Journal as well. 

My holiday plan has gone very well this year - I never felt overwhelmed with decorating; I was able to clean things out, and actually enjoy the process.  There are a few things I need to work on for next year.  One big one is how to store things from the time I decorated for fall until Christmas.  All of my regular decor and fall decor is currently all mixed up so it will make for a little more work when I take down the Christmas stuff.  I already know that I need a few extra bins to put regular decor in so the fall decor bins will be empty when it is time to pack that stuff away!  Also, I need to plan baking and holiday means much earlier and make lists of supplies I can buy earlier so I don't end up with a family eating spaghetti several times a week so I can get the stuff I need for all the "fun stuff" LOL  I also need to put "write the Christmas letter" and "get the Christmas picture" earlier - that is on this next weeks list and I usually like to have it done by Thanksgiving so they can go in the mail!  Lessons learned, right?

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!!!

Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving day marked the start of our vacation too so it is doubly nice.  On Thanksgiving morning, we got up and hit the road by 7:30 to drive to Indianapolis to have Thanksgiving with my family.  We had never been to my brother's house (he's lived there for over a year) so we were SUPER excited!!!  Of course, traveling with two kids always adds a little excitement.  About an hour into the trip we got to experience our first bout of carsickness . .. . poor Joshua is all I'll say.  Luckily we had extra clothes and lots of wet wipes.  That was, thankfully, the only excitement in our entire trip!!!  Well, except for the fact that I made two wrong turns in the last 1 mile of the trip WITH the GPS yelling at me telling me which way to go! LOL 

My brother, Jeff and his family are fabulous hosts.  They have unofficially won the honor of hosting Thanksgiving from now on :-)  It was so nice to be able to just sit and chat with them while the Grandparents entertained the children!!  They have a beautiful home (my sister-in-law has a knack for decorating on a budget and having it look like a magazine showroom). 

Jeff was in charge of dinner (his choice) and I must say - he made the best turkey I've ever tasted in my entire life.  It was so flavorful and moist.  If he'll share his recipe for me to use on the turkey in my freezer, I promise to share :-)  They also made some incredible corn on the cob - wow, I need that recipe too!!! 

We headed back home that evening - have you ever noticed that the drive home seems to take twice as long even though the actual time is the same?  Wow, that was one long drive - but it really wasn't bad!  Both kids zonked and went right to bed when we got home. 

Here's a few pictures :

The table before we ate - Brittany and Brandon made the Pilgrim hats :-)

The adults minus Brandon who was taking the photo

The kid table - I just loved seeing Josh sitting at that table with his cousins.  He LOVED Kate and "talked" to her the whole time.  And I promise, Nate is here - but he was sitting in a booster on the floor next to me so he missed the pictures!!

Brittany and Brandon - they are awesome!

Two of my three brothers and their wives - Ken and Lynnette and Jeff and Nora.  Somehow we never got a picture with all of us.

A couple of things I "wish" - I wish I would have taken more pictures - I actually stole these from my sister-in-law because I haven't downloaded mine yet but I didn't take a dinner table photo or get photos of all the adults together or even a huge group shot.  When you have little kids - your focus tends to turn to them to make sure they are doing ok instead of remembering to take photos!!  And I wish I could have eaten more food LOL 

We also played this awesome skit!  You should print it and save it for next year - it really was a lot of fun.

Click here to get the skit

A few other things from our weekend.  On Friday we did a few things around the house before heading to the Grandparents house.  We had planned to go to Crossroads Village but the weather turned frigid and taking two munchkins out didn't sound appealing so instead we met for dinner, had a great visit and than left the kids :-)  Darryl and I are enjoying some time, just the two of us, for a few days before doing some things with the kids.  Today, we lounged at home before heading into Grand Rapids.  We ate at the Beltline Bar and seriously got the best Mexican food ever!  Than we each went to stores we enjoy - Darryl dropped me off at Hobby Lobby while he went to the Guitar store :-)  I Love Hobby Lobby LOL  We also did some "fake" Christmas shopping. What is "Fake" shopping - we went to Toys R Us and walked through all the toy aisles taking pictures of things we like for the kids.  Now, we can take those items, push them against our budget, and pick out our favorites.  There isn't a chance for he and I to go shopping without the kids again before Christmas so this way, we could both pick things out and one of us can stop and pick up the toys as the budget allows!!!  We went to see a movie - it was FANTASTIC! (Inception - wow, that's all I can say)   And now are enjoying pie at Grand Traverse Pie Company.  YEAH!  What a great day - so much to be thankful for :-)

I don't post these types of posts often but it is fun to actually write about what's going on the life of the Koll's :-)

Beef Tips and Noodles

This is one of my all time favorite recipes.  My mom made it when I was growing up and my husband and I enjoy it over and over :-)  It is so yummy!

Place 1 ½ cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a plastic bag. Add 2 pounds sirloin steak cut into small pieces, shake in bag. (Often, I just buy the stew meat because it is cheaper and, it simmers for a long time so it does get tender.  You could use almost any cut of beef for this though.)

 Brown the floured steak cubes in ¼ cup margarine for about 15 minutes

  Add: 1 small chopped onion, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 14-oz can beef broth, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 teaspoon basil, salt and pepper to taste.

 Mix well, cover and simmer over low heat for 1 ½ hours, stirring once in awhile

 Instead of letting it simmer in the pan - I've learned to pour it carefully into a cockpot and let it cook on low for 2-4 hours.  The meat gets sooooo tender by doing this!  Plus, you don't have to remember to stir it :-)

We liked it served over egg noodles but you could also serve it over rice.