My new favorite Christmas song!!! Sung by Audrey Assad on Chris Tomlin’s new Christmas album, Glory in the Highest.

Finding fun family activities this time of year that don’t depend on a certain type of weather can be a challenge.  So, when we found out about and were invited to attend Great Wolf Lodge’s Snowland event this weekend we were thrilled to participate.

There’s all the usual fun with the waterpark and activities, but add to that snowflakes, Santa, Snow and a massive Christmas tree and you have a winter wonderland that reminds you of magical childhood Christmas memories.

My kids were so excited to go back and when they saw all the Christmas decorations they were amazed.  We arrived before our room was ready so we got bracelets to enter the park and play for a while.

Once we got into our room (we ended up with the same one), I fixed us a quick dinner then we headed down to the lobby where I’d heard Santa would be waiting.  Sure enough, there he was so we got in line to go visit Santa.

Since the twins had never seen Santa before I wasn’t sure how they’d react.  At their age, most of the other boys would have been terrified..not them though, they were so excited and marched right up there to meet him and get pictures taken.

They even spent time telling him what they wanted and got a yummy candy cane from Mrs. Claus.  As you can see by the pic, our 14 year old, CJ was less than thrilled with the idea of standing by the “big man” for a picture of any sort. Santa knew this and took him aside afterward.  It was really cute.

The next morning the children woke up to actual snow outside.  It was almost like it had been planned that way LOL since it was our first snow of the year and the kids were so excited.  A trip down to Starbucks for mom and dad and a yummy breakfast later, we headed back into the waterpark for a few hours.

As we were getting ready to leave, it was afternoon story time in the lobby so we stopped to listen and they even sang a few Christmas carols…at the end it snowed in the lobby.  Much to the thrill and delight of the boys!

Loading up to leave is always a disappointment for the boys but the trip definitely proved that Great Wolf Lodge is a great family adventure year round.  So visit their website to find one near you and about any specials they are running.

My second day in New York was filled with events and adventures…and definitely not as life threatening since I walked everywhere I went.   Because I was in the Times Square area, I made a point to walk down toward the middle of it to take a bunch of pictures first thing in the morning.

My hubby had texted me the night before saying that the boys were totally in awe of the pics I had already sent and wanted to see more, so, being the totally compliant mom that I am (ahem), that’s exactly what I did!   Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos I took of the city while I was there…(click on a photo to see it pop up in full size!)

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Yup, you certainly did see Hershey’s Chocolate and M&M’s World!  One of the most fascinating things to me was the size and number of billboards.  They are EVERYWHERE, they are bigger than the buildings and there are so many I totally lost count somewhere along the way!  And Yes, I even have a couple pics of the amazingly cozy bed in my room!  Did you see the pink garbage truck?

The honking and crush of vehicles was constant and I was honestly in awe of it all.  It’s nothing like Seattle, I can definitely tell you that.  I do wish that I’d had one more evening there to really check out a few other sights I would have liked to have seen.  I also wish that I had connected with more of the other bloggers before the event to get to know them better.

All in all though, I had a lot of fun exploring the city with the little time I did have!

The Euro Pro event was from 10am to 1pm at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which is in Columbus Circle.  Over the next several weeks I’ll be introducing you to all of the products that they unveiled at the event.  None of them are available in stores yet!  The Ninja Pro will be premiering in an infomercial tomorrow and the other Shark products will be appearing on store shelves nationwide over the next several weeks.  (Again, just click on a photo you want to see and it will pop up bigger for you)

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It was such a fun event and the products that we were able to see and try out were amazing!  I absolutely cannot wait to tell you about each of them, they can totally revolutionize so many aspects of your homelife.   Oh, and I’ll have far better photos for you when I talk about each one…let’s just say that iPhone photos absolutely are doing them no justice at all!

Ok, so it’s getting so late, I had considered NOT putting up a WW post this week…but there are just soooo very many scrapbook pages to be shared that I just had to!

Here’s a very fun layout I did of Tater during Memorial Day Weekend using 4 Shades of Blue’s Fun In the Sun kit!  For more great digi-scrapbooking projects, be sure to check out my Scrap Gallery (also can be accessed in the tabs at the top of every page).

We have been celebrating the 3 day weekend mainly in our backyard complete with bonfire, roasted hotdogs, s’mores and swimming pool. Somewhere in the middle of it all a few of the boys took a moment to do a Hallelulah dance. Apparently they simply felt inspired.

The youngest three can’t say Hallelujah yet, so it’s Hallelulah instead…which I think is just so cute. According to my 5 year old there is even a dance that goes with it.

We have had so much planned for this weekend, but we are truly just trying to fill it with super fun things to do around the house or close by…all of which are free or cost very little. We are just having a blast and I hope you are too!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day!   All I usually ask of my hubby and boys is that I not have to cook or clean on my birthday or Mother’s Day…honestly, that is a huge gift for me if it happens.

At church, one of my best friends did a very fun Mother’s day game at the beginning of service that had everyone totally cracking up as all the women in the room started digging through their purses for the craziest things to get a plant…but she’s that way all the time, totally the life of the party (er, church service – did someone say they thought church was boring? LOL).

We were actually experiencing something we rarely see this time of year in our neck of the woods…it was beautifully SUNNY!   So, as I promised in a tweet a while ago, we headed out to play tennis.   The boys were so cute and soooo very excited about their new and very own tennis racquets (yes, you definitely smell another post & giveaway coming soon!).

I wasn’t able to get a very good picture of all of them playing at the same time since all I had with me was my iPhone, and I don’t have a Flip (ahhh, yet another thing for me to save up for), but here’s a couple fun pics of them.

Dinner was nice too!  Hubby BBQ’d and we had banana splits for dessert.  It was so yummy!  All in all a very nice day!

Today I’m going to focus on the “fun-tivity” part of Easter. Dying eggs, Easter baskets, Easter egg hunt, etc.

Although I do consider myself an “easygoing” frugal mom, I have found ways to make things nice for all 6 of my kids on less than we used to spend when the oldest two were little. Not by taking extreme measures…it’s in all the little choices made along the way (could be said for much of life actually).

When we only had one, money didn’t feel so tight and it was easy to give him a nice Easter basket, but as our family grew there were many times where spending $15 or more was simply not in the budget.  So, I had to find creative ways to give each of them a fun basket of their very own that cost less than $10 each.

That amount is down to $5 each now though.  Here’s some basics:

• Find fun spring plastic buckets to reuse year after year…if you don’t have enough storage to keep an Easter box, then donate your items to Goodwill when you’re done with them each year, or see if a grandparent would be willing to store them for you.
• Be sure to use these buckets for all Easter activities and Hunts that are planned.
• Shop at the dollar store…sure, be picky in what you actually purchase or it’s a waste, but there are many things to be found there.
• As your children get older you can consider giving them alternative Easter gifts like kites or yard games.
• Choose products to fill the baskets with carefully.  Simply filling it with toys that are unsafe or will have to be thrown away later that day doesn’t usually work well.

Our children usually get a plastic easter bucket with a small amount of tissue paper (or shredded paper) at the bottom.  Then there is the traditional chocolate Bunny, a couple plastic eggs with candy, and sometimes even Peeps, though I detest the taste of them LOL.  Overall though, there are usually several other things like pencils, fun erasers, maybe a dollar calculator (they love these) and a toy car or two.

Kids don’t care if their basket is absolutely stuffed to the gills, just be creative in how you pack it so it doesn’t look empty.  Of course these are all great ideas for boys, but it can be just as simple to fill for a girl…hair things, nail polish, etc.

Every year as part of our Easter celebration we do plan a big Easter egg hunt for the kiddos in my family.  This requires a ton of plastic eggs and candy, but we try to be creative with that too.  Plastic eggs are fine as long as you plan to reuse them over and over for many years.

We usually make up about 18 eggs or so per child.  We have even purchased sets of eggs filled with Easter toys like stickers, spring animal toys and wacky balls (you can find these at Oriental Trading).  It all really just depends on what you are able to do… how much you want to spend, what you have on hand already and what stores you’re willing/able to shop at.

Not purchasing a premade basket is a great place to start for many families.  If you already make them yourself but need to save a bit in the process, think outside the box a bit and look for creative, less expensive fillers for the baskets and egg hunt.

I hope to have time to post a bit more about Easter traditions, and maybe some craft ideas and recipes over the next week or so.  In the meantime, what Easter “Fun-tivities” does your family do each year?

It’s been several years, but we still remember taking our sons to a Disney on Ice performance!  It was very fun and the one we went to appealed to both boys and girls.  They offer such a great variety!

Disney On Ice shows get the audience totally involved. They feature exciting action, romance, comedy, athletic world-class skating, beloved Disney characters, and favorite Disney songs to which kids can sing and dance along. The whole atmosphere creates childhood and family memories that will last for years to come.

Well, many of you will be very excited to know that Disney on Ice is coming to a town near you and I have a code that will save you some SERIOUS money on tickets!!! Mom Central has teamed up with Disney on Ice to offer you some great values!

The code to remember in order to take advantage of any of these great discounts is: MOM.   Read the rest of this post for all the details on discounts for certain cities and events.  Also, please feel free to let others know about this great deal!

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

I always find the new year an interesting time.  I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions, but I do take stock of the year that just ended.  I like to take some time out to look back and even write down many of the things I remember.  I may even look through the personal entries here in this blog for reference.

I will find many things that I will consider a failure, but there will still also be many successes.  I cannot deny any of it and I can truly learn from all of it!

That list of positives and negatives will help me to know how to pray for the new year. You see, that is probably the closest I come to a new year’s resolution.  By taking my list before Christ and laying it at His feet.

Only then can I move forward with a fresh start as a new creation … in the new year.  That’s how I see the new year actually, as a fresh beginning.

The trick is making sure that I do NOT take back the items from the list that I placed at His feet.  That is so difficult though isn’t it.  I often find myself trying to do just that.  Just when I’ve let go of something that I need to do better (but only can with the help of God), I try to take it back on my shoulders like a nasty ragged old backpack filled with boulders.

So, what have you learned from 2008 … the good, the great the bad and the ugly?

Through it all though, I wish you a blessed and joyful 2009!

I simply want to wish all of you a VERY Merry Christmas!  I pray for great blessings of safety, laughter, joy and love for you and your family.  That you will be warm and comfy in your homes and travels.  

I also hope and pray that you will know and understand the love of Christ so much more this Holiday season.  That His truths will rain down on you and your life and that you would experience peace beyond all understanding!  

These are my prayers for you … my wonderful and faithful readers … and your families this Christmas.  I’m sure you will all be very busy this week as you prepare and travel, but I wanted to make sure to squeeze in my Christmas wishes too .  Oh, and stop by tomorrow … even though it’s Christmas eve … I’ll have a fun holiday wish for all of you to enjoy!