December Pinterest Board

Well, my blog posts have been a lot fewer and farther between than I expected, but this new little guy of ours is consuming my every free minute, and I'm loving it!  He will be two months on Christmas Day, and he's already growing up too quickly!  I've appreciated the slower-paced life he's helped me remember.

Follow Brooke @ blissfulroots.com's board December on Pinterest.

I know we're on the downhill side of the Christmas countdown, but if you're like me, you're still in need of some great holiday ideas.  And, having a newborn has put a few of my usual Christmas traditions on the back burner. Well, thank goodness for Pinterest!  I feel like I'm in full Christmas mode as I'm scrolling through all the wonderful images on my December board, even if my usual decor, treats, and projects haven't come to life this year.

You can check out all 115 (and growing!)of my Pinterest boards here.

Hope your December is going well!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Thanksgiving Eve Traditions

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  It may seem funny that I haven't posted in weeks, and yet here I am on Thanksgiving morning.  I was up feeding my little one at 6:00, and couldn't go back to sleep.  So, I decided to take advantage of the quiet, sleeping house and pop in for a quick hello.

I was going to just repost some fun ideas for Thanksgiving Eve today, but when I went to copy the HTML to paste in this post, I lost it!  So, today's ideas are a repost, but the post itself is new as of today.

What do you do on Thanksgiving Eve?  Are you out Black Friday shopping?  We aren't ever, so it's fun to have some traditions to ring in the Christmas season.  Here are a few of the things we do/ I want to start doing.

THANKSGIVING EVE TRADITIONS
Unwrap Christmas pajamas
Decorate gingerbread houses
Decorate your Christmas tree
Make your Christmas list
Get out the Christmas music (if you haven't already)
Read a Christmas book
Watch a Christmas movie
Make a Christmas countdown  

These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.  I'd love to hear what you do to usher in the holidays!  I'm always looking for new traditions!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  Enjoy this wonderful day of thanks, and great food!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Nature's Turkey {Simple Art Project For Kids}

Just popping in today with a little project my four-year-old and I did yesterday afternoon.

 

I realized the other day that I haven't made a single turkey with my boys this year, and  Thanksgiving is less than a week away!  The horror, I know.

Anyway, we decided to make a turkey from nature this time around.  I always love how these turn out, and the best part is you don't have to make or buy a single supply!  Mother Nature provides them all.

It's amazing what you can find outside this time of year.  At first glance, everything seems so dead and dreary, but take another look and you'll be surprised with what can be found.  This entire turkey (minus the hot glue and paper) was made from things we found in my in-law's yard.  Making the turkey itself was fun, but the hunt for materials was actually our favorite part.  We gathered leaves, berries, and a pinecone, then hot glued everything on to a white piece of card stock.  So simple, so natural, and of course, adorable!

What kind of turkeys do you like to make at your house this time of year?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Ideas For Your Kids' Thanksgiving Table {@ Or So She Says}

I've been grateful for guest posting lately because it's been keeping me in the blogging game.  Today I'm over at Or So She Says sharing some of my favorite ideas for your kids' Thanksgiving table.  It must be the teacher in me, but I love excuses to decorate for the little ones!

Caravan Shoppe

Come and visit me here for all the fun ideas I have to share.  A few of my own, but a lot of great ideas from others, like this darling printable Draw Together Thanksgiving Set from Caravan Shoppe.  I'm in LOVE!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Printable Thanksgiving Chalkboard Quote

A quick repost for you today.  I actually like reposting every now and again because I'm reminded of what I've done in the past, and have completely forgotten about!  I can usually recall most of my posts, but this one had totally left me.  I'm glad I stumbled upon it again because I need reminded of this every now and again.

Click to Print

  I'm not sure where I came across this quote, but I absolutely love it!  Aren't the words beautiful?  I have to say I completely agree with Mr. Chesterton.  Some days it seems nearly impossible to be thankful, doesn't it?  I believe that's why he says thanks are the highest form of thought.  Anyone can complain, be envious of what other have, but it takes a certain training to cultivate thankful thoughts.  I can speak from experience, that the effort involved in having higher thoughts is completely worth it!   My life is such a much happier place to be when I live in thanksgiving every day.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

November Pinterest Board

Mother Nature is right on schedule here in Utah.  We had a perfectly mild fall evening for trick-or-treating, and the instant November settled in, we got cold, blustery, and even saw some snow on the ground passing through Park City yesterday.  I'm sure not everyone can say this, but I'm ready for it!

Follow Brooke @ blissfulroots.com's board November on Pinterest.

Life with our newborn has been as close to perfection as possible, but it's definitely busy!  As I said in my post last week, you maybe seeing a lot of reposts, and longer time between posts for awhile.  But this little guy is deserving all of my time and energy right now.

So for, today my November Pinterest board.  I can't wait to get going on a few new pumpkin recipes that I have pinned, and Thanksgiving projects.  I love this time of year!!

Click here to check out all my other Pinterest boards, and follow along!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Baby Boy Number Four & A Dollar Store Haunted Village

Well, he's here, he's still nameless, and every other boy (including my husband) in our house has the stomach flu.  It's been quite the past few days!  But this little guy has been nothing but sweetness!  Sure I've lost some restful sleeping hours, but I'm just relishing every waking minute I have with him for now, because I know this tiny stage of life will be gone in the blink of an eye.

I'll be learning how to blend blogging life with a newborn over these next few weeks, so posts may be few and far between, or you may see a few reposts.  But I really do love blogging.  It gives me a creative out/distraction when I get bombarded with everyday life, so I won't disappear completely.

In addition to this precious little boy, I have a picture of what I was working on when my water broke Friday evening. Now every year when I pull this out,  I'll be reminded of baby boy number four.

Desiree from The 36th Avenue shared this idea awhile back, and I've been wanting to try it ever since!  This year I finally got around to stocking up on dollar store houses for my haunted village.

I found some actual haunted houses at Dollar Tree several weeks ago, but now is the time to snag all the Christmas village items that are popping up on the shelves.  They look quite wintry, but when you add a coat of black paint, some glitter, and embellishments, you've got your self a perfectly spooky town!

I'll be seeing you around when I can.  You can follow me on Instagram from more frequent updates/photos of this new little guy.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Roll-A-Pumpkin {A Fun Halloween Dice Game}

In the past, I've shared a few different versions (a snowman one and leprechaun) of this fun, simple dice game I ran across several years ago on Happy Home Fairy.

This is always an activity in our Halloween countdown, and as we were playing it this year, I realized I've never shared the original pumpkin version of this game.

You can get the how-to in the link below, but basically all you'll need is some paper, two dice, colored pencils, crayons, or markers, and the Roll-A-Pumpkin printable instruction sheet.  Each player takes turns rolling the dice, and then following the instruction for each designated number.  The first person to complete his/her pumpkin, wins!

We've played this for years, and my boys never get sick of it!  And I love seeing how different each pumpkin turns out at the end of the game.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Nacho Chedder Halloween Popcorn

Well, we're still anxiously awaiting baby boy number four as of today.  This little guy has an agenda all his own.  I've been early, and my water has broke with my other boys.  No water breaking, and I've all but reached my due date.  I do have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I'll have a better idea about when he'll be here after that.  We cannot wait!!

So, today's recipe is a bit of a cheat.  Over the weekend we had a big birthday bash for all three of our boys.  It's the one time of year I get to go all out and put on a bit of a spread.  I wish I could have done more, but being a week away from delivery slows you down a bit!  

I did manage to pull a few shortcuts that made the food pretty simple.  Like this nacho cheddar popcorn.  I knew I wanted to do some type of popcorn, and considered making a fantastic homemade concoction, but that didn't quite happen.  

Source

What I ended up doing was popping my own popcorn, and then topping it with melted butter, and this Kernel Season's Nacho Chedder popcorn seasoning (I found mine at Walmart).

It was a total hit!  The kids loved the nacho cheddar flavor, and even the adults were hooked!  The orange color was fantastic, and with a black creepy crawler or two on top, it became even more Halloween-ish. 

So, even if you're not expecting a baby in the next day or two, you could probably use a quick and simple Halloween treat.  This nacho cheddar popcorn is a great go-to!  My boys have even requested it three or four times since the party (which was just four days ago).  And I have to say, I have a hard time stopping once I've started.  Popcorn has that effect on me.  Anyone else?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Printable Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe

Happy Tuesday!  It was a busy, busy weekend for us.  We made it through three birthdays, and a few eventful moments thinking this baby would be here anytime.  But, as of today he's still content waiting.  Now that I have the birthdays and party over, I'm the one getting anxious for him to arrive!  It should be any day here.  I'll keep you posted.

Today's printable is something quick and easy you can print out to use this year for any classroom parties you might have coming up this year, or any Halloween party.

Click to Print

Simply print out the blank board above.

Click to Print

Then print out a set of pumpkins, and...

Click to Print

a set of skulls.

Then cut out (and laminated if you'd like) the pumpkins and skulls, and you're ready to play.  One person can be pumpkins, the other skulls.  The first to get three in a row wins!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.