Unforgettable Childhood

One of my girlfriends recently had her first baby. I was involved in planning her shower. She really didn’t want cake at her shower, so I decided I needed to figure out how to make a diaper cake.

I found great instructions on how to make the cake, here. These instructions use a bottle of wine (I used Champagne) as the center element.. You also cover all of the diapers with tissue paper and ribbon instead of leaving them plain. I really like this look, it really finishes off the cake.

Diapers are not cheap so this makes a great decoration and gift, too.

I am glad that I had really read the instructions closely because the day I needed to make the cake I couldn’t get the site to open on my computer. I wish I would have taken pictures as I made it, but I forgot. I will make sure that I do the next time I make one. It took me quite awhile to make the first one, but I think the next one will go a little faster.

I used the extra diapers to make a couple of one tier cakes.

To finish off the decorations I made a blue and brown banner. I try to make the banners really cute because I have found that the moms like to hang them in the nursery after the shower.

I am joining in the fun over at The Girl Creative today for Just Something I Whipped Up. I can’t wait to see what everyone has for Show and Tell today!

For Christmas this year we gave our kids a trip to Disney World. They do have to wait for it though. We are not taking them until school is out for the summer in May.

It was so much fun to see their faces when they opened up their Mickey Ears. They knew right away that we were taking them. I am so excited to start letting them in on the planning.

I have found so many resources online to help with our trip. One of my favorite is Zannaland. She is actually on the Walt Disney World Moms Panel. I know I will get all kinds of super tips from her. It seems like it is a long time off, but according to the ticker we are only 4 months, 3 weeks and 3 days away! I can’t wait!

Free Disney Tickers

The girls with their hats and autograph books.

I love that the hats have their names on the back.

The great part is that my husband and I are just as excited as the girls to go. We have never been to Disney World, either. To make the trip even better we are going to bring along Grandma and Grandpa. (we even tried to get their uncle to come. . .he is not so sure about a trip with three little girls to see Mickey.)

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas! ~Amy

I have not been around for a couple of weeks. It has been crazy around here. Last week we spent a few days at the hospital. Our oldest had pneumonia. It was a little scary seeing her all hooked to the IV. They took good care of her and she is doing much better.

I hope to be able to get back to posting out here after the holiday hustle and bustle. We are busily trying to get our stuff together to leave town. To both Grandmothers’ House’s we go. We have clothes to pack, cookies to bake and gifts to pile in. And of course, the South Dakota weather is going to give us a headache. The forecast is snow and wind right when we are going to be on the road.

We celebrate Christmas with our kids tonight. A pasta supper with Candy Cane shaped breadsticks, followed by the lighting of our final Advent Candle and then presents. Christmas is definitely here.

If I don’t get back out here tomorrow, God’s Blessings to you during this holiday season!

This weekend I made up Graham Cracker Houses for my Daisy Girl Scouts to decorate with Candy for our Christmas Party.

Yesterday I let my other two girls use the two leftover houses. I had never attempted any sort of houses, gingerbread or graham cracker. It was not quite as easy as all the pictures look, but they had a lot of fun with it.

I promised my girls we would do a big house out of real gingerbread before Christmas. (Not sure when we are going to fit that in??)

Even though it was a little tricky to get the houses to stay together. I would recommend this project for Christmas fun.

I am guest blogging over at The Girl Creative today for her Creating Christmas Blogfest.

Sharing a few Christmas traditions that we celebrate as a family.

Check it out here.

A few years ago we decided that we were going to do an artificial Christmas tree instead of a real one. I got tired of picking up pine needles in July.

I decided that if we could do a tree farm and pick out our tree it would be a different experience, but just buying it in a little store lot, wasn’t worth it.

My husband worked on Saturday so the girls and I decided to do it without him. First we had to separate all of the colors.

Madelyn helped me spruce up the branches.

Taylor helped add the branches to the base.

It took a long time to get the tree all put together and the lights strung, but everyone helped. They could not wait to start adding the ornaments. I would love to have a theme tree, but we have too many memories on this tree to make it any different.

We could not find the Santa hats so the girls improvised with the Stockings for a picture in front of the tree.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house.

Starting on Sunday night we lit our first Advent Candle as a family. This is a tradition that both my husband and I grew up with at our home churches. We decided a few years ago to bring this tradition into our home. Every holiday season I love to dig out the wreath and the candles.

We start with our little one. She lights the first candle.

The first candle represents Hope. We talked with the girls about the Hope we have in Jesus. The girls are already talking about lighting the next candle on Sunday night.