December by the numbers

This is my last blog post. This is my last by the numbers post...for 2010. There was so much to be thankful for this December. Our numbers for themonth seem to focus on lots of fun, family, traditions and December "to do's".

ONE happy boy (Tanner) had his cast removed.

TWO a. holiday parties attended.
TWO b. batches of caramels were made(for the first time) and delivered.

THREE batches of fudge were made.

FIVE dozen sugar cookies were made and decorated.

SIX happy family members enjoy a fabulous December.

TEN scrapbook layouts were completed. Not bad for December.

ELEVEN friends pull together to help throw a wedding reception at the last minute.

TWELVE days of Christmas were completed, door bell ditch style.

FOURTEEN blog posts recorded for the month.

FIFTEEN dozen Pretzel Hug treats were made and delivered.

TWENTY FOUR 1st graders had a blast building Gingerbread houses.

TWENTY FOUR Christmas books were read as a family.

TWENTY FIVE days of Christmas countdowns and FUN.

TWENTY SEVEN monogram cards were created as gifts.

FORTY Handmade Christmas cards created.

SIXTY the # of candles on my Dad's birthday cake on the 14th. Happy Birthday, Dad.

SEVENTY ONE Christmas photo cards were received.

ONE HUNDRED FIFTY Christmas cards sent.

ONE HUNDRED SIXTY SEVEN blog posts for 2010...same excact amount as 2009.

THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FIVE days (as of tonight) w/out a Diet Coke(or caffeine) I did it!!!

THREE THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY photos were unloaded off of my camera. Can you say shutterbug?

ENDLESS holiday traditions lived on this month. It is what the holidays are really about...family,our Savior's birth and traditions.



Have a Happy and safe New Year's Eve.

biggest loser...

Green Tangerines style!








First of all, how stinkin' cute is that picture/header? My super talented friend, Mer created it for the Green Tangerines Weight Loss Challenge Blog. She is amazing!

Okay friends, I am so excited about this challenge. Green Tangerines is hosting a 12 week weight loss challenge...perfect for all of our New Year Resolutions, right? It does not matter where you live, anyone and ALL can join in and compete. You just need a scale, a digital camera and some motivation. As a side note, every ones weight will be kept totally confidential with the store owner. There will be weekly prizes, blog posts, recipes and cash prizes for the top 3 winners. You can read all about the challenge and official rules over on the official Green Tangerines Biggest Loser Challenge Blog.

If you are so in on this challenge like I am, head over to the GT Biggest Loser Blog and check it out and leave us a comment!

p.s. you have to actually call the store to register...not hard at all.

p.s.s. yours truly is one of the blog hosts for this challenge. I have participated in something very similar to this and it was F-U-N. So much so, that I lost 25 lbs.. What are you waiting for, check it out!

fun prizes

My friend, Mamarazzi from Dandelion Wishes is having a fabulous give away over on her blog. She was in the running for blogger of the year. She almost made it to the next round. In my honest opinion, she totally should have. All you have to do is head over to her blog and leave her a comment, telling her what top 3 prizes you would like to win...if you are picked as one of her winners. Easy Peasy...please let her know that I sent you her way! Good luck. I hope some of us win :-).

Christmas morning JOY

It is hard to summarize our fabulous Christmas day in one blog post. From start to finish, we really did have an amazing Christmas.

We left cookies and milk out for the big guy. We sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn...I am secretly hoping it will fertilize our dead looking, winter grass :-). The boys also left a plate of carrots on the porch for those hungry reindeer. Garrett carefully counted each carrot to make sure all of the Reindeer had their own...very thoughtful.









{Brody is not pictured. He fell asleep in the car on the way home from our Christmas Eve with the Krupp family}


The boys didn't come into our room until 7:00 am. It was nice to sleep in a teensy bit. We have a Christmas morning tradition. Daddy goes to turn on the Christmas tree lights and checks to see if Santa did indeed visit our house during the wee hours of the morning. While he is doing that, the boys try to wait patiently, lined up from youngest to oldest in our room...waiting for that green light, to run out to the living room.




















I love this shot of everyone checking out their Santa stashes. They were all thrilled and excited to dig on in and play with it all!


Santa did not disappoint this little boy. Brody was all about anything and everything Toy Story this year. Santa brought his the Buzz Lightyear bike.





Garrett loved his long board. He also received the K'Nex roller coaster. He is anxious to start building that one with Dad. Out of all the boys, Garrett was the one who was the most into Christmas this year. He constantly wanted to talk about Santa. He wanted to know what he was doing and how the reindeer were doing. Before going to bed last night, he asked John to open his blinds...hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa and his sleigh. He is at such a fun age. He did not miss a beat this season and we are glad that santa was so good to him.


Watch out Steven Spielberg, Carter is on your tail in the movie making business. After finding the bottle of Ketchup in the backyard (a few times over) and viewing some videos on one of my digital cameras, Santa figured it was time to get this boy a video camera of his own. He received the Flip camera. He and his fried love to make their own videos. He also loved the XBox headset and a year subscription for Xbox Live that Great Grandpa Pung got for the boys. Thanks, GG.



















All Tanner wanted was a 4th Generation iTouch. This boy has been researching this Ipod for months...it is all we heard about :-). He is growing up way too fast. It is a good thing Santa was listening. He was over the moon excited about receiving his ITouch. He also received a $50.00 Itunes card from us. I wrapped that card about 20 times and Tanner got a kick out of opening that gift.




















John and I had so much fun watching the boys open their gifts. We were exhausted. I think the month of December had finally caught up with us. We were impressed and thankful to hear all of the "thank you's" that came out of each one of their mouths as they opened each gift.




I love that Brody insisted that we snuggle up in his new Toy Story blanket. He paused long enough to smile for the camera and then was off and playing with his new toys. This Mama is ready for a long winters nap. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

merry christmas

we hope your christmas was "picture" perfect.

xoxo
the krupp family

christmas treats

One of our favorite December traditions is to bake treats for our neighbors. We made several different types of treats(I will share those too) this year. One of our favorite treats(super simple and yummy)were the Pretzel Hugs. I am not even sure if that is their official name...but that's what I'm calling them.

Pretzel Hugs
2 bag of Hershey Hugs
1 bag of Pretzels (Butter Snaps)
1 bag of red and green M&M's
(This will make two cookie sheets full)

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Unwrap all of your Hershey Hugs. Place Parchment Paper down on your cookie sheet(this will catch the melted chocolate and save you from a messy pan). Line your cookie sheet with Pretzels topped with Hershey Hugs! Place in the oven for 9 minutes. Once the cookie sheet is out of the oven, Start placing M&M's into the melted hugs. Let cool until until chocolate is set. This takes a while. Do not place in fridge to speed the process up. Your M&M's will get that cracked, old looking vibe to them....yes, I am speaking from experience.

Place them in a clear cello bag and tie off with a fun ribbon. Share them with the people you love!

finding joy in the small things.

I can't believe it is really Christmas Eve, Eve! The boys are over the top excited and had trouble falling asleep tonight! I wonder how long it will take them tomorrow night :-).
I have tried REALLY hard to enjoy this Christmas season! I have tried to find the blessings, the opportunities to serve and most of all, to experience December with my family. We enjoyed lots of fun activities this season and are filing many of them away to repeat next year.

Our favorite activity this month was actually something we did as a family when I was a little girl. I will NEVER forget the year we doorbell ditched my Grandma Davis for 12 days. It was her first Christmas without my Grandpa and we wanted to make her December a little brighter. It was an awesome experience. This year, we picked a family to door bell ditch every night...aka Secret Santa. You do it for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. We typed up silly little notes based on the Twelve Days of Christmas song and attached them to little gifts.


We drive over as a family, usually listening to the GLEE Christmas album...a MUST HAVE!!! The boys would bantered back and forth over things like whose turn it was to carry the gift. Whose turn it was to ring the door bell. Brody had the same job each night. He would watch for the boys as they'd run back to the car and then he'd shout "hit it Dad/Mom". That was our cue to get get out of there fast. We will deliver our last gift tomorrow night. The boys are just as excited about the last delivery as they were the first. This little family activity has brought so much love and laughter into our lives. It really is what Christmas has been about this season...finding the joy in the small things.

What are you enjoying this season?

It's B-A-C-K

The Green Tangerines Kit Club is back! New kits will be launching in January 2011...very soon AND very exciting! All of the PBD girls have turned in their layouts and you can get sneak peeks over on the GTKC blog. There is even a contest to win a prize. Check it out here, leave a comment and I'll keep my fingers crossed that you'll win.

My THEY MAKE ME HAPPY layout is up as the 1st sneak peek for the January kit.


















Again, I love how versatile the GTKC product is. I was able to create 3 very different layouts with one kit AND I still have a ton of product left over.

I'll be back tomorrow(hopefully) with some Christmas fun! I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season and all that it beholds,

thought for the day

"There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions." - Bill McKibben

traditions...old and new

After an entire month of blog posts in November, I seemed to have hit a dry spell. It's more like, happy to be enjoying all that this season beholds. We have been enjoying favorite traditions and have even started a few new ones.

Earlier this week, the boys received their yearly ornaments. I wrap them and we take turns opening them. This year, it was all about the sparkly ones. I tried to get everyone their favorite color (Tanner = blue, Carter = red, Garrett = green and Brody got the gold one because his favorite color changes all of the time). It's fun to watch them pick the perfect spot on the Christmas tree and carefully place them on there.












I was able to go Christmas caroling with the youth from church. We visited the folks at a local nursing home. We hand delivered hand made cards to each resident and then gathered in their rec room to sing Christmas carols. It was a very rewarding evening.













Up next, gingerbread houses. It just wouldn't be December without these candy laden homes. I got to help Garrett's class build their gingerbread houses this week. They all took their time and were very creative when it came to loading their houses with all of the sweets.



















We started a new twist to an old tradition in our home. We have always read a different Christmas book each night in December. After blog hopping a bit, I decided that I wanted to wrap 12 different Christmas books to count down the 12 days until Christmas. We will read the story of Christ's birth on Christmas day. I headed to our local library to pick up a few new stories. Garrett got to pick our first book this evening. We all sat around the Christmas tree and read The Night Before Christmas together as a family. The boys already have the books they want to unwrap/read all picked out.














I am finishing up our Christmas cards. We are spreading Christmas joy. We are enjoying our Christmas decorations throughout the house. We will be baking on Wednesday for our neighbors and friends. Christmas music has been on 24/7. I really do love everything about month of December.














What traditions are you enjoying this month?

Association Cup Champs

{Carter is on the bottom, 2nd from the left}
They did it! Carter and his team BATTLE won the entire Association cup games. This is Carter's 2nd year playing with team BATTLE. These boys play so well together...total team work on so many levels. Carter has loved every minute of it. The coaches are dedicated and are so good with the boys. Carter was nominated as one of the team captains this season. The coaches said that carter was a great team leader and always has a positive attitude. His friend Justin was the other co-captain. Here are a few photos from their big win! We are so proud of them.


























We are so proud of all of the BATTLE boys.

merry and bright

Here is this weeks, Kit of the Week...merry and bright. It can be purchased at Green Tangerines. For my friends who attended the breakfast with Santa last week, this layout will match nicely with any photos you may have taken. I have to give photo credit to my friend, Mer. She and her cute little family joined us for a morning of fun...breakfast, jammies, bed head, Christmas songs and performances and a visit from the old jolly man himself. She took these fabulous photos of our sweet kiddos. It was a super fun way to kick off my December...just what I needed.
As usual, you can call the store to order your kit (916-771-8010) or swing by and pick one(or two or three...perfect to give as a gift to your scrapbook friends) up.

{Kit of the Week}

I know we are all wrapped up in all things December...but I thought I would post my Happy Turkey Day layout. Don't you love those cute turkey's? They came right off of a sheet of pattern paper. This layout was created as last weeks Kit of the Week for Green Tangerines (916-771-8010). It was hard to pick just 4 photos from our Turkey day but I think these 4 photos represented what our day was all about...family, food and fun. I am a big fan and promoter of journaling on my layouts. I am sad to report that the journaling doesn't always find the space on my layouts. This Turkey Day layout was one of them. To solve that problem, I journaled on a separate piece of paper, cut it into strips and glued it on the the back of my layout. All of the important information about our day can be found on the back.

I will have this weeks(current)kit to share with you at the end of the week.
Think Christmas, breakfast with Santa, friends, jammies and bed head!

Happy December

Just typing that simple phrase makes me happy! I love everything about December. I love the decorations. I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail. I love the music. I love the hustle and bustle. I love the opportunity to catch up with family and friends. I love the holiday baking and crafting. It makes me so happy.

Today was a great day. I spent time making lots of peppermint bark and Christmas cards for our adopted Grandparents at church(a way fun service project). I received a Happy Wednesday package in the mail today. My sweet friend, Meridee is trying to "Meridee-ify" my Christmas tree. She sent me two new Christmas Ornaments, a very sweet note and a Target gift card. Such a kind, thoughtful surprise (love you, friend).

We could not let the first day of December pass by without the boys receiving their new Christmas jammies. After they snuggled into their new jammies, they each received their Trader Joe's advent calendar.

Our December is off a to a wonderful start. There are so many fun things to look forward to this month. What are you looking forward to?