Our Most Loved Christmas Stories

Every year as we prepare for Christmas some our favorite traditions like so many people is to decorate the tree, put up the nativity scene, and open all the decorations. It really never gets old getting everything out and putting it up, although I have learned how to make that whole process easier for me. In years past the more children I have had the harder it has been to get excited about putting up all the decorations. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and I love getting ready and celebrating with my family. I just get weighed down by the burden of “stuff” everywhere. I can only handle it for so long and then I want my house back to normal. So last year I decided I wasn’t going to make it a burden, I was going to love it and the way I did that was not haul up bin after bin of Christmas decorations, I was just going to bring up what made us all happy. My home was very festive and is again this year but there isn’t stuff everywhere! I know some people LOVE that but not me for some reason. Maybe later in the week or next I can share how I have decorated, now that I have you all curious. But one thing has stayed the same despite the changes I have made and that is our Christmas story collection which seems to grow and grow each year. Even though it adds some unwanted clutter, all the books come up no matter what and though I cannot share them all with you I want to share some of our very favorites! Out of our 40 some and growing collection I have chosen our 13 favorites!

In no particular order here they are! This first one is a new one purchased this year and was one my mom read to me and my siblings growing up. I was looking for it last year on a few different websites and found it but because the book is out of print it runs $30-$50! Crazy I know! But lucky for me I found it just the other day when I was rummaging through the Christmas books at Goodwill. I found it in almost perfect condition for $1.99! So keep your eyes out for it, you won’t regret it.

Santa and the Christ Child by Nicholas Bakewell

Each of my three younger children have received a book for their very first Christmas’. This next one was given to my daughter Adelaide.

Mouse’s First Christmas by Lauren Thompson

This one was given to my son Colton for his first Christmas.

Bear’s First Christmas by Robert Kinerk

And this one was for our youngest son Leon’s first Christmas.

The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman

This next book we have had since Adelaide was very young and we have read it from cover to cover every single year and the kids never get sick of it. It is really a cute book, it is all about Santa and how everything works in the North Pole and it gives you a lot of Santa’s secrets as to how he makes Christmas work. It explains a lot of the questions kids have about “How does Santa do this and do that”.

Santa Clause by Rod Green

Here is a book that was mine as a little kid and always loved, it is short but sweet.

Claude the Dog, A Christmas Story by Dick Gackenbach

Here is one that is more of a winter story but cute.

Skating with the Bears by Andrew Breakspeare

Here is a silly one that is about what our snowmen may be doing while we are sleeping.

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

This story is so beautiful I think we read it a dozen times each year. It is about a Christmas tree at a tree farm who is too large to be chosen anymore and how all the woodland animals decorate him to show him how special he is to them all year long.

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Coleen Monroe

This is a really sweet nativity story.

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

Here is a sweet little story about a mouse and his first Christmas and first snow.

The Very Snowy Christmas by  Diane Hendry

This is another book I was always read growing up. It is a really sweet story and has beautiful pictures.

The Donkey’s Dream by Barbara Helen Berger

 

And last but not least!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

I hope you have enjoyed going through our family’s list of favorite Christmas stories, I hope there are even a few you haven’t read yet and will add to your family’s collection!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

~Bonnie

Other fun posts from Bonnie

Christmas Cookies

Finding Christmas Spirit

The Gift of Snow

20 Best Children’s Books

Also find me on Facebook!

The Joy the Simple Gift of Snow Can Bring

It was such a joy to watch my children playing in the first big snow of the year.  There are some years between childhood and parenthood where we forget these little joys of life but nothing brings them back stronger than living them again through our children’s eyes. Sometimes as mothers we forget to stop and watch, nothing else. Sometimes I sit back and just enjoy moments like these knowing they will never be again and I probably won’t even remember them but I just try to cherish it. Other times like this morning I take as many pictures as I can so I never forget the moment. Make sure as mothers, and even father’s, you try to do both, we need to have lasting memories to look back at but we don’t want to see all memories through a camera lens.And never forget to thank God for bringing these little angels into our lives!

Yesterday morning the kids got ready for school as fast as they could so they could play for a little while before school. Even the baby was excited but not really sure what about. I can’t imagine he remembered anything from last year and knowing me I didn’t let him play out there much anyway. I am a little over protective and didn’t want my baby getting cold. Well this year I can tell already nothing is going to keep this little man contained, not even his crazy mom! He was out there three time yesterday!

This little guy also learned how yummy snow is!

And tried getting mommy with it too!

The dog also loves the snow…….he could jump at snow till he dropped from exhaustion!

I am betting he slept pretty well last night………after playing with the kids and helping me shovel the driveway twice!

Colton attempting to make a snowman…….he may have succeeded if the bus hadn’t come.

She wouldn’t dare!

Two of my little snow monsters coming inside to warm up!

I hope all of your children get a chance to play in the snow this winter! Blessing and love to all!

~Bonnie

A few recipes to warm you up this winter!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Banana Bread

White Chicken Chili

Crockpot Loaded Potato Soup

Cheese Stuffed Manicotti

Homemade Chicken Dumpling Soup

Visit me of Facebook too!

Fun, Family, & Friends!

The cold has set in and we have even had a few snow flurries here in Wisconsin but the nasty weather held off for our fun day at Honeydew Farm on Saturday! Honeydew Farm is owned and operated by our dear friends who kindly opened their home to all their family and friends on Saturday to share in food, fun, and how they are living a healthy lifestyle. I always love visiting our friends farm, I always feel at peace when I am there and forget any troubles in my life. Maybe it is being outdoors, maybe it is the animals, or maybe the wonderfully kind people but I always feel happier when I leave there. Late this summer I even got to have my first experience at chicken butchering. Despite the kind of grossness of it, it was a very interesting time, I may even do it again next year!

At Honeydew Farm they raise chickens for meat and eggs, pigs, and even a few cows. They also have a dog, cats, and rabbits and are going to even try raising rabbits for meat. On top of all the animals they have an enormous garden that they grow all their own veggies to freeze and enjoy all winter long.

My children had a wonderful time, their favorites were horseback riding and riding on a homemade train behind a 4-wheeler. In between fun we enjoyed delicious homemade soups, muffins, and deserts. Here are some of the pictures of our great day!

Here is my little girl Adelaide looking like a pro!

Leon riding for the first time!

Mommy was just a little nervous…… (Daddy and I walked along on each side)

And our oldest Haley looking like a natural.

And here is our oldest son Colton on the train, he isn’t as willing to try new things so he chose not to horseback ride, but loved riding on the train!

And Leon and Daddy having fun on the train too.

Since it was a day of homemade food and all natural living I was invited to share my Shaklee products with everyone. I made protein smoothies using Shaklee 180 protein powder for everyone to try and met lots of new people, including a new friend there sharing her business too!

We left Honeydew Farm with full bellies and completely exhausted, the sign of a fun filled day!

Have a happy day!

~Bonnie

 

Other great posts by Bonnie:

5 Steps to Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

Green Cleaning

Homemade Applesauce

Bonnie’s Home Tour

Chicken & Biscuit Casserole

Oven Makeover

All Natural Fruit & Veggie Wash

Do It Yourself Family Photos

Welcome back to 31 days of Being a Stay At Home Mom! I am so glad you stopped by! Today I am going to share with you a way I save HUNDREDS of dollars a year! Since my children were born it has been extremely important to me to capture every moment. I had pictures done of my children for 3mon, 6mon, 9mon, 1yr, 18mon, 2y and every year after. Not to mention random holiday photos (I didn’t do them for every holiday) and if I wanted a picture of the kids together. So if you are anything like me you can see how this really adds up over time. I don’t regret having had their pictures done, I cherish every single one and I will still occasionally have professional pictures done in the future, just not every time I want them done and for every birthday. Instead I am taking my own pictures. Now I am by no means a photographer but I am finding ways to make them look really nice and saving a lot of money in the process. So I will give you a few of the tips I have learned in the last year or so I have been doing this.

1. First of all the best place to take pictures is outside. A really sunny day isn’t so great because the kids just want to squint the whole time so choose a day that is nice out but not really sunny. I just did my kids pictures a few days ago because we finally had a warm sunny day and they did pretty good but it was a little too sunny, you will notice in the pictures I show you that they are a little squinty.

2. Talk to them before hand about what you want to do, “Hey kids mommy wants to take a few pictures of you and I need you to be really good for me. I want you to listen and give me really big smiles”! I have found this works wonders and my kids will almost always cooperate.

3. Have realistic expectations. If you have 2 or more children and you want to take individual pictures of each of them and group pictures don’t attempt to do them all in one sitting. They just can’t do that for that long and will not cooperate. When I did pictures this week of my kids I did the 2 yr old before the other two got home and I did them for about 3 minutes. I only got about 10 pictures but for a 2 yr old that is a realistic amount of time. Then as soon as the other two got home I told them what I wanted to do and said I would be real quick but I needed them to be really good for me. So I took pictures of them for about 3 minute each and then got a quick group shot. So I actually did them all and a group in one sitting but I only spent about 10-12 minutes total doing it and it was spread out.

4. Also if it isn’t working out one day try the next or wait a few days. Maybe they are just having a bad day.

So now you say “I can do all that but how do I make them look good, I don’t know what I am doing”?? Well here is what has been working for me.

1. Make your child/children the focal point of the picture. Use nature and fun places as a background but really focus on your child.

2. Take lots of close ups. You do want full body shots but focus on the face.

3. For something different offset your child in the photo. Like the ones below.

4. Have your camera handy and capture moments you didn’t plan. Like this one below, we went to the park for a picnic dinner one evening and we went for a walk and there was this really cool bridge (I love bridges!) and I told them all to hold hands and walk across the bridge and this is what I got! I didn’t even have my camera with me just my phone! 

The last tip I will share with you is have fun with photo editing.

This is my favorite part! You don’t need some fancy, expensive software, there are lots of free ones online. My favorite is picmonkey, I use this for all my photo editing. There is a free version with lots of good stuff on it and also a small yearly fee if you want some extras.

Here are some fun things I did with the picture from above.

Turned a color photo into a black and white photo.

The same one into a sepia color.

And then did some softening of the picture, a hazy border, and a sweet quote about family.

The possibilities are endless! Just play around, have some fun, and make some amazing memories to last a lifetime!

Thanks for stopping by, come visit me on Facebook too!

~Bonnie

Other great money saving tips from Bonnie:

Gardening on a Budget

Shower Cleaning Tip

DIY Hair Accessories Organizer

Homemade Baby Wipes

Hairclip Organization/Display

One of the things I love about being a stay at home mom is finding time for little craft projects, especially ones that make my life easier and more organized. My daughter has an ever growing supply of hair clips and after a while it was just getting overwhelming so I decided to make a hair clip organizer/display for all her cute clips. I even started making some of them! You only need a few things for this project and you probably have them lying around so you won’t have to purchase anything.

Here is why we needed to do something!

Supplies:

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

ribbon, any color but not too narrow, 1/2” or more

A nice plastic hanger, child size or adults depending on how many clips you have

Several large buttons, no need to match

I would assume most people have these things lying around, I just got a wild hair one day and decided to do it with things I had around the house. You can make it as fun as you want just by picking cute ribbon and buttons!

First step is to cut the ribbon to the desired length, I cut mine two different sizes.  I cut 5 pieces of ribbon, two of them about 12 inches and three about 18 inches. There is no set size, whatever works for you. You can see a picture below, (3rd one down) of how I arranged them.

Next warm up your hot glue gun and glue your pieces of ribbon to your hanger, see picture below. I glued the ribbon to itself and to the hanger so the ribbon wouldn’t slide on the hanger but you can always glue it to itself if you want them to slide along the hanger.

After you have the ribbon glued to the hanger glue your buttons to the bottom of the ribbon to prevent the hair clips from sliding off the hanger. See picture below.

This is what mine looked like when I was done……

How CUTE is that?!?!?!?!

Here are some of the clips I made her…….they are really easy!

If you decide to make one I would love to see it! Share it with us all on my Facebook page, I can’t wait to see your craftiness!

~Bonnie

Other crafts by Bonnie

Butterfly Footprints

Toddler Craft

Craft Cabinet Organization

Trick or Treat Plate

Thanksgiving Tree

Making Breakfast Simple Yet Nutritious

As a mom, whether working or stay at home we all want our children to have a good healthy start to their day, especially if they are in school. So one way to be sure I get my children off to a good start is by making them something that will “stick to their ribs” as my mom always said. You may hear me talk about my mom a lot in this 31 day series, the reason for that is not only is she a phenomenal mom she has always been an amazing role model for me. She is why I am a stay at home mom, without her amazing example I wouldn’t be where I am as a mother!

So one thing I always do for my children is get their day off to a great start by making them a healthy, protein filled breakfast.

For those of you moms, especially working moms, who say you just don’t have time I will give you all a few tips to help make this happen more often than not. We all need those quick go to meals for those really tough days but if you set yourself up for success you won’t fail!

Tip #1: Make their lunches the night before. This has been a lifesaver for me! It is amazing how much doing this one thing will completely change your mornings.

Tip #2: Get up at least 10 minutes before waking the children. This will give you the few minutes you need to wake up and get your mind focused on the task ahead. If you are really ambitious get up even earlier and take your shower.

Tip #3: Set the children’s clothes out the night before. This assures no arguing in the morning about what they will wear and one less thing to stress you out.

Tip #4: Always have the same routine in the morning. Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush hair and teeth. Or whatever works for you but have the same order everyday, that way the kids always know what to expect, no surprises.

So now that we have a few tips for you to set yourself up for success we will get back to healthy breakfasts. Our main go to meal for school days is smoothies! I would say 4 out of 5 school days we do smoothies. There are so many varieties they never get bored with them. Here are some of our favorites!

Some of our favorite ingredients are:

Frozen Blueberries

Frozen Strawberries

Frozen Peach Puree

Frozen Avocado Puree

Fresh Bananas

Greek Yogurt – I always add either this or the Kefir, that’s how it is high in protein and keeps them full.

Kefir – this is a high protein yogurt type drink

Milk

All I do is put 2-4 of the fruits and always one cube of avocado into my Magic Bullet, or a blender would work great too, and blend until smooth enough to drink it from a straw, no chunks. These are just the main fruits I have around at all times, you can really put in any kinds. My kids tend to dislike things like raspberries and blackberries because of the seeds but would also taste great if your kids don’t mind, mine just tend to be a little picky.

Why do we use so many frozen fruits? We use mostly frozen fruits because we like them nice and cold. Sometimes if we only have fresh fruit I will even add ice to make it colder. Its is also easier to keep frozen fruits, they last much longer. If I ever have fruit lying around that I just don’t get to using in time, before it goes bad, I will puree it and the freeze it in ice cube trays, then add it to the smoothies.

What I love best about making the kids smoothies is how easy they are to make, it literally from start to finish takes me 5 minutes. Now what healthy, homemade breakfast can you make in less than 10 minutes? Some of our other favorites are whole wheat pancakes with greek yogurt on the side and scrambled eggs. I also like to make breads and muffins the day before and serve them for breakfast. By using the tips above to make your morning easier it makes it possible to put a little more time into making something healthy.

Good luck!

~Bonnie

More health tips from Bonnie

5 Simple Steps to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy

Tips to a Healthy School Year

5 Simple Steps to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy!

Getting your kids to eat healthy foods………

Across Facebook and Mommy blogs this is a constant topic of struggle for so many families. How do you do it so many people ask? Well I will give you the simple yet effective steps I have taken in my home to get my children to eat healthily! It should really be as simple as saying to your child, “Eat this! I am your mom and you do as I say”. As most of us moms have learned if we say something like that to our children will do the exact opposite, if you have hard headed children like I do! So I have taken a different approach, and I haven’t come to this conclusion overnight. I started out as a young mom, 23, and knew what I was doing for the most part but like all of us we learn and grow as we get older. I now feel like I really know what I want for my children and family and strive daily to give them the best!

The first way to get them to eat healthy food is…….

1. Have ONLY healthy foods available!

It is really that simple. If there is only good food to choose from then they can only eat good foods. Now for each of us it may be different as to what we consider healthy and allowable. I will leave that up to you. If you don’t want them eating fruit snacks for a snack then don’t even have them in the house. It may be difficult at first for them to get used to the change but be persistent and they will adjust easier than you think.

 

2. Make healthy foods easily accessible.

Keep snacks for the kids at their height so they can easily reach what you want them to have. Now that doesn’t mean stick the junk food on the top shelf where they can’t reach it, that would be breaking rule #1! It just makes it easier for you to say go and grab something without you having to do everything. Its all about making mom’s (or dad’s) life easier!

Another tip to keep healthy foods accessible is to have all fruits and veggies clean and ready to eat. After I grocery shop I take about a half hour to wash all my fruit and veggies and get it put away. (In the picture below you can see all my fruit drying). I never put it away before I wash it! The extra bit of time it takes to wash it all at once in invaluable! See here how I wash my produce naturally.

3. Only buy fresh fruits and veggies.

I have ceased to by any canned fruits or vegetables. Yes they are so easy but the taste and quality just isn’t the same. A great way to get your kids to love their vegetables is to buy it fresh and steam them. After you do this you will not want to go back! Also have a, you must at least try everything rule. I have never been a clear your plate mom but I at least ask that they try it. Eventually they will learn to like most things.

4. Have your kids help prepare food.

I have tried to get my kids to eat things and they would refuse or say they didn’t like it and then make the same thing and have them help and they love it. There is something about kids needing to see what goes into making it, especially new things, for them to want to try them. Not to mention they love to help!

5. Allow them to help you shop.

If your kids are young and not in school yet or you shop when they are home a great way to teach them to make healthy choices is by putting that choice in their hands. Either give them a list of what you want them to shop for or tell them they can pick out something as long as it is a healthy choice. Kids love to make their own decisions, it makes them feel like they have some control of their life.

I hope these tips help lead your family and children to live a healthier lifestyle! I would love to hear your thoughts, share in the comments below!

Be positive, happy, and excited about new changes and you kids will follow!

~Bonnie

 

Other great posts about health!

3 Tips to a Healthy School Year

All Natural Weight Loss

Green Cleaning

More Green Cleaning

Homemade Strawberry Applesauce