Happy Birthday Honey!

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday. He is THE BEST HUSBAND in the world and spent his day with me ( aka didnt go to work! yeah! ) doing billing and helping me catch up with my business. I struggled with what to get him for a gift this year... he says all he needs is ME. ( yeah, he is that sweet! )

Then I got an idea --- he has NEVER been to a rock concert, he has always loved Nickleback and they sing our wedding song ( Far Away) AND they are going to be in Omaha in March! SOOOO I got TICKETS today to the concert --- I am giving him his gift in 1 hour --- he is going to FLIP OUT!!!!!!
Now I just have to figure out how we are going to pull off going to omaha on a SCHOOL night and what to do with my 5 kids --- details, schmetails...lol


I almost didnt do this... details overwealming... taking a risk that is unfamiliar. I am such a chicken. And then I thought, we only live once.. this will be one of the BEST experiences of his life and something he has dreamed of doing and he is worth it!

Starting over....

A few months ago we lost our dog... she had started "going to town" about 2 miles from home. We got calls to come pick her up numerous times. We tried putting her in a kennel. She dug out. We put the kennel on cement. She climbed out. We put a roof on the kennel. She unwired the fasenings on the gate and got out. Yes, she was a very smart dog. So we gave up. And most days she stayed home, and about once a week she would "go to town". I didn't want to have a farm dog that was locked up or on a chain it's whole life. But I worried. And one day she didn't come back home and no one called. We put up signs, we called the radio stations, and no one had seen our beloved dog. It is now 2 months later and we have all been mourning her since. For the last few weeks I have been checking out puppyfind.com to just "look" at the aussie puppies. Today I found my puppy. And we called and put down a deposit and soon he will be coming home to live with us ( the kids can not wait)

Last weekend we went to the movie Maddy and Me - wow what a heart wrenching movie - especially for a family like us who lost their dog a few months earlier. If you do go see it, bring tissues ( as in the whole box )

Meet our new start ( who better never learn there is a town 2 miles from here ) Bizkit ( we think this will be his permanent name... it is still under debate... with 7 opinions it is hard to come to a conclusion without a bit of bartering!)

Handmade from the heart....

I know Christmas is over but I wanted to show you some of my favorite gifts we gave this year.

The kids helped me make these cute little personlized boxes for their cousins, then we made cookies and filled the boxes with them.

We used stuff we already had.... scrapbooking papers, stickers etc, paint and old buttons and bottlecaps ( I collect those and this is the first craft I have used them on! )

the kids had so much fun creating these and were really proud of how they turned out!



We also made two altered picture frames for big sis.... she LOVED them! The hoodies the boys have on were her gifts to them this year which made the picture extra special too. These are big frames ( 14x18 ) so the finished effect when on the wall is dramatic! I love how they turned out and it cost me literally a few dollars worth of scrapbooking papers and stickers and I used old frames I already had.

I am going to try to do more gifts like these from now on.... it felt special to give something the kids created!