I've been busy over the past couple of weeks.  

1. We're done with our Christmas shopping - Thanks Amazon. 
2. We're done shopping for Birthday gifts - Happy Birthday Ollie, Dallas, Hadley, Mom, and Jewels! 
3. Teacher Gifts - check!
4. Classmate gifts - done and cute as a button
5. Holiday Baking for the neighbors - mission complete

I found an idea on Pinterest for Hudson's teacher gifts.  I know Mrs. T loves fun school supplies, so I think this is the perfect gift.  I think it turned out wonderfully.

Next I took on the classmate gifts.  Again, saw the idea on Pinterest and had to do it.  Hudson and Hadley love them too.  I made enough for Hadley to take to Library day on Wednesday because it's December Birthday celebration and she can pass them out to her little friends.  For the eight "regular" reindeers we used Mighty Maltballs from CVS. They are larger than Whoppers and closer in size to the red 1" gumballs I bought on Amazon.com.  My friend Molly from Netsy&Co created the adorable labels.  So cute!

Today we baked some goodies.  I made four different recipes; overall I had a successful day.  I didn't burn anything, break anything, or kill anyone!  Tis the Season.  I will say that I'm a little disappointed in two of the recipes. I had plenty of recipes to choose from, and I narrowed it down to the following: 

• Holiday Pretzel Treats  (5 out of 5 stars) - EASY EASY EASY!  These little salty sweet treats are so easy and yummy.  If you're looking for something the kids can help with - this is it.
• Reindeer Feed  (4 out of 5 stars) - Another easy one.  I overheated the white chocolate so I had to thin it out with crisco.  I hate doing that, but it worked and these are easy and good (if you like peppermint).  Andy is not a fan of these, but he doesn't care for peppermint either.
• Caramel Thumbprints (1 out of 5 stars) - I'm not a big fan of these.  These cookies are too dry and not quite sweet enough.  I thought the Rolos would off set the bitterness of the cocoa, but they're not quite enough.
• Mexican Wedding Cookies (2 out of 5 stars) - Again, a little too dry.  As in when I was rolling a couple of them in powder sugar they crumbled.  Good flavor, but get a glass of milk.  

I have provided the recipes for all of them except for the Caramel Thumbprints. 

Check it out.  I listed turkey shirts on Etsy.  Yes, they're for sale.  My mom and I have mastered these adorable little gobblers.  

They are so cute and we know that you'll love them.  Click on the image below and check out my etsy shop

I saw this idea on pinterest.com and I just had to try it.  It is the cutest thing ever and I'm about to whip up a few more this weekend - so email me if you want one or two (wink!).  I will fill you in on the details if you're interested.

I am on a mission to re-gain control of my house one task at a time.  That's really the only way to do it, in my mind anyways.  No. 1 on my list is tackling all of the school papers that my child brings home on a daily basis. 

I hate to throw papers away (I hope my mama doesn't read this, because I just threw a fit when she unloaded all of my school papers on me).  She saved everything, and now here I am having a difficult time throwing away the "perfect papers" that Hudson is creating.  

Anyways, I found a great solution - it's an organizer and an eliminator, and it's perfect for us.  I found a paper box and created folders out of cardstock.  I then glued the grade form that you see below onto the front of it.  Each grade has a folder and a little chart to fill out.  I will probably upgrade at some point from a paper box to a plastic file box but for now I think this will work. 

I created a downloadable pdf file for your own use.  Just click on the image below.  Oh, one last thing...the green box on the left is place holder for a wallet-size school picture!

For Mother's Day I asked for a potted herb garden.  My wish was granted, we headed to Home Depot-no questions asked, and I got cold feet.  I don't know what happened, I usually don't have commitment issues.  I guess the thought of maintaining the planters, and actually cooking with the herbs gives me a little anxiety.  My list of herbs includes: lemon thyme, parsley, basil, and cilantro.  I was also thinking of planting a cucumber plant and pepper plant.  I don't know...I'm still on the fence about this,  Hudson is still really excited about planting an "irv" garden, and I'm sure we can handle it.

I bought these towels months ago - with the intentions of embroidering on them.  I did their names a while ago and am now just getting to the rest of it.  Originally I was going to embroider animals on them (similar to what you see at Pottery Barn) but changed my mind today.  I think they turned out really cute.  My mom got a new machine this week and this was our first project on it. Not too bad for the first trial run.