Uncle Ben and Bella taking a little nap on the way home from a long day of skiing
The kids laid out carrots for Santa's reindeer and even made an arrow pointing towards the front door, just in case, so Santa wouldn't miss it!
The token Christmas Eve Christmas jammie pictures
Mama showing off her new rockin' jammie pants.
The kiddies after a long day of festivities at Great Grandma's celebrating with all of Dad's aunts, uncles and cousins, followed by a wonderful Christmas eve service at our church. We came home and got ready to open our one present on Christmas eve; the pajama pants that mom made everyone. So exciting!
Angie just a few weeks from her delivery date. We are so excited to meet baby Lilly!
Daddy and Bella sneaking in some snuggles
Coco wondering if that last cookie made her belly look rounder!
Aidan and little Olivia sneaking into the shot. They are birthday buddies seperated by 11 years.
More pictures from the Living Nativity. Owen was a champ all three nights! He was so cute in the village selling items as people walked through. 
My latest sewing project! I am in love with ruffles right now, so when I saw this scarf I knew I had to make one. Isabella loved it too, so with the leftover fabric, I was able to make a smaller version for her too!
Owen had fun with the camera. I love his funny faces and apparently someone had fun capturing them on film because we had a few dozen on my memory card when I downloaded it!
What a goober!
Fabric seems to breed at my house. I have tons of it, but never what I think I need. Lately, I have been trying to use what I have at home and this I Spy bag was the next project. I have seen them before at craft fairs and always thought I could make them cheaper. I finally picked up some of the goodies inside at Michael's and set to work. I thought it would make a good stocking stuffer for the younger two kiddies.
Mike and Aidan are the middle two pages by the fire. They act in the first scene at Harrod's court. Both boys have lines and do a great job delivering them.
The whole family are taking part in the living nativity at our church this year. It's been a Lifeway church tradition for the past 19 years, and one that I have been a part of for the past five years. I always position myself in the village, usually to help with the kids who want to be a part of the show. Bella and Aidan have slowly started to break away from my vision taking parts in other locations, and Owen felt like he was ready to join me this year in the village. There are five shows a night and this year instead of running for five evenings, it's only running for three nights. Still exhausting, but a wonderful experience for the kids and our family to be a part of this year.
The sweater that keeps on giving! Remember that sweater I cut up earlier in the week? The one that I made the scarf out of? Anyway, I still had the top half of the sweater left so I thought I would make Bella some leggings. Super easy, just cut off the sleves, and then cut and sewed a cuff on the bottoms to help them stay up. Baby legs for the elementary school girl!
I love free stuff. The only thing I love more than free stuff is a free event with free stuff. So, I love Lowe's make it and take it Saturday projects. I took the younger two kids to Lowe's myself (Aidan is SO past this!), and was pretty darn impressed with the pet snack keeper the kids made. Now if only we could get that dog we all want.
I have always loved the idea of the whole family getting new pajamas on Christmas eve. I am just too cheap to add one more thing to the Christmas shopping list, especially jammies, because I can typically pick up a really cute set for less than $1 at a garage sale. I decided I would try it this year, and make each kid matching pajama pants and then after our festivities on Christmas eve (an afternoon at Great Grandma's and our candlelight church service) let that be the one present they could open before bedtime. I bought 5 yards of flannel material and ended up having enough left over to make not only all three kids a pair of pants, but one for myself as well. Here they are all wrapped up. Here's hoping it's the start of a new tradition we all embrace.
Bella's school Christmas concert
Bella in cream in the middle of the two trees.
Where's Bella?! 
I walked into J Crew a few weeks ago and was inspired. I love their new ruffly line of women's shirts but not their price tag! Is it just me or has J Crew gotten more expensive over the years? Anyway, I had some leftover ruffles from making Isabella's skirt a few weeks ago and was thinking I could make a shirt to go with it. I finally made it to Goodwill (another place I think is getting too pricy...man I miss garage sales!) yesterday and found this shirt for .99 cents. I took the ruffles, sewed them on, and added a little flower detail on the shoulder.
I think it turned out pretty cute. Hopefully she will wear it...she's so darn picky!
This is the plain t-shirt before getting snazzed up a bit.
I freeze all winter long! I literally can't get warm from about late October until late May. It doesn't help that Mike has the thermostat set at 66 degrees! So, one lazy Monday morning (Owen doesn't have school on Monday's), I was inspired to take an old sweater of mine that was in the Goodwill pile (it made me look pregnant when I wore it!). I bought the sweater for 50 cents at a garage sale and thought it had more life in it. So I cut the bottom half off (the picture below is what was left of it), and sewed this cute little ruffle scarf with help from this tutorial:http://thecraftivistshakedown.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/the-two-dollar-ruffle-scarf/ Not bad for 50cents and about 20 minutes! 
We declared Saturday the 12th the official Teodoro Jammie Day! We spent the day in our comfiest clothes and had some great family time. Aidan and Bella played Monopoly, our family finished off the season finale of the Amazing Race, we did crafts and sewing and made some yummy homemade cookies. We capped the night off with some homemade calzones (by Mike) and made our annual trip to see Christmas lights in Redondo. 
Bella joined Girl Scouts this year and loves it! Her troop celebrated Christmas with a teddy bear tea party complete with fancy dresses. Since mom was helping, I had to bust out my fancy dress too!
Here Bella and I are, before the party.
