The Young Family Farm

We’ve pulled out the Christmas decoration fun…and just for FUN–I thought to help some of y’all brain storm in your Christmas ideas for the month ahead–I’m going to share just a few of my favorites from past Christmas Babe of my Heart posts!

Decking the Halls…

Here’s a inexpensive way to decorate your banister. You’ll need magnolia leaves, wire, cardboard and spray paint. It only cost me $3 to make this…

The only thing I had to pay for was silver spraypaint. Martha used glue and mica–which sounded too messy to me. I opted for a can of silver spray paint. Parker gathered the magnolia leaves from the yard, Rico Suave spraypainted, and I hotglued them to little cardboard arches. You can see how Martha did hers here. Kuddos to Martha for thinking to break down the cardboard stock. And don’t waste your money on cardboard stock–just take apart some boxes as things arrive in the mail. This is really super easy–and super cheap. The way I like my crafts:).

Keeping Christ in Christmas in your home…

I made this banner last year–and it hangs on our mantel above the nativity scene. I heart:) You can go to the tutorial by clicking HERE.

ANOTHER thing we do every year is our Jesse Tree.

You can read about this in THIS POST--and download free ones online. For older kids, I love the one you can download FOR FREE on the One Holy Experience blog RIGHT HERE. (Hands down…the sweetest thing we do all season as a family each day!)

If you are dreaming of White Christmas…

Then you’ll love this wreath that costs $4 to make (out of coffee filters!) You can go to the tutorial HERE…

Getting ready for the beautiful cards…

Need a place to display all those Christmas cards??? I made these magnet boards several years ago–and they are a fun way to display LOTS of cards in a pretty way:-)

I bought huge packets of magnets and hot-glued some of Martha Stewarts flowers that are for card decorating and scrapbooks on them. The packets were just $1.50 for 20–so it is pretty inexpensive to cover 40 or even 80 magnets…and they are so pretty…and sparkly:). If you’d like to see the tutorial on making magnet boards like these–simply CLICK HERE.

A quick, sweet treat–that makes a fun little gift for little friends

We made chocolate covered marshmallows every year:). Because they are easy–kids can do them…and they’re much lighter than normal lollipops:) Aren’t they pretty??

Here’s how we like to make them in this post HERE. (Fun looking at these old posts and seeing how my kids have grown…and that one was while we were still waiting on our referral from Ethiopia!)

Getting crafty with the children’s gifts…

For those of you who want to keep things sweet and simple–and you even want to get crafty as you consider gifts–think about making a TENT for your sweet ones this holiday! You can use ANY material to make it for a boy or a girl. Last year I made Parker and Laney their very own tents to match the decor in their rooms. Easy peasy and very inexpensive!

A tent like this can seriously be whipped out in 1 hour if you have all the supplies ready!

And here’s just a little Christmas fun from our home to yours…

Now…to work on Christmas cards:)

Blessings to you!!!

Andrea:)

Our family is at HOME this Thanksgiving…and it has been so nice just to be right here–takin’ it easy. While a sweet sitter stayed with the children today–Rico Suave had a lunch dates…and then for fun when spent the afternoon looking at farms for sale. JUST saying’–we would love to live on a farm one day:). Can’t you see chickens, a horse and maybe some goats in our future;-)?

Frank and Isaac have also been getting ready for Thanksgiving by singing all their Thanksgiving/Fall songs:) Here are two you must here that I recorded this morning as we were playing…(alright–you gotta turn off the music at the bottom of the blog so you can hear their sweet voices!)

For dinner time entertainment, the kids put on a turkey puppet show. (As you can see–Frank got really into it:)

Silly turkeys!

THEN…after dinner–the boys scooted their chairs to the phone to have a conference call with Nana and Papa! They wanted to know EXACTLY what time they would be arriving–and Isaac has been trying to change Papa’s names to POPPY for months–so the conversation was full of lots of “HEY POPPY! WUV YOU POPPY!”

Poppy likes to TRY to convert my children to rooting for Alabama football (thus far–he has been successful by luring them with Bama elephant pillow pets, football jerseys, Bama tees, etc.) SOOO…when Poppy and Nana (aka NINA by Isaac!) asked if they wanted them to bring them anything, Frank shouted–“BAMA! I need Bama hat and Bama shirt.” I’m sure daddy-O loved hearing how they are diggin’ Bama gear. Can’t wait to see y’all in the morning Poppy and Nina!

And where was LANEY during the “conference call”??? She was cozied up looking at a doll magazine on the couch…

THEN…we made brownies followed by the traditional movie!!! Can you guess what it is??? Alright–so the Young’s are NOT media people…so you’ll have to laugh at the tv in what most would make into a media room (it’s our playroom).

A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING of course!!!

Tomorrow we’ll be cookin’ up a gluten-free Thanksgiving! Sounds yummy–huh?? I’ve been gluten free for almost a month now. I can tell a difference–and on December 4th I will have been on Lyme treatment for 4 weeks. Hard to believe our adoption has been on hold for almost a month too. I’m excited to go to my naturopath checkup on December 7th to see how things are–and then I have an appointment at the infectious disease doc on the 8th for more blood work. I have a feeling they are going to take everything back to what my naturopath has been saying all along…Lymes but it’s just manifested into arthritis and appearing to be something like Sjogrens’s. Regardless, we’ll have more answers and know if I’m on the right treatment:) TOTALLY learning that you have to be your biggest advocate and medical doctors are just making educated guesses–and you have to question everything and do lots of research. The great thing is I feel so much better in just 4 weeks of treatment with my naturopath that we are totally confident in his care. (Thank you to all my precious readers and friends who have been praying for us. How I treasure and how thankful I am for your prayers as we navigate through the unknowns.) Despite all the crazy changes in our worlds lately–we feel our cups are overflowing with things to be thankful for. The Lord timing is always perfect–and this Thanksgiving…I am so thankful that He continues to hold us close to His plan and will…and give us peace as we trust Him.

Blessings to you this Thanksgiving!

Andrea