My Little Bit of Sunshine

Day 13: Make co-workers gifts My sisters and I got together today to make cute little gifts for coworkers. It is a fun challenge for me to come up with ideas for 15 coworkers. I have to be somewhat economical, but I want them to be crafty and useful as well. Anyway, I thought my current idea was pretty good. I can't share for people that I will provide these gifts will read my blog and I like suprises for people. So maybe later!

Day 12: Hang a Christmas Sash for Cards Step 1 Start by cutting your wide ribbon about two feet long. To make the ends look pretty fold one end of the ribbon lengthwise and cut it diagonally, repeat same step on the other end. Step 2 Now using our wall adhesive tape, cut a small strip of it and place it one one end of your ribbon and affix it vertically on a flat surface of your wall where you want to display your cards. Place another strip of your wall adhesive tape to the other end of your ribbon to keep it in place. Step 3 Now comes the fun part, apply your cards with either the wall adhesive tape or some small clothespins onto the ribbon. The clothespins work great because you can freely move them easily to add more cards if needed. You can find the mini clothespins at stationary stores, Walmart and Target. Step 4 If you have more cards then make another strip of ribbon the same way as you did the other one. I can't wait to get more cards...the ones we have are so cute.

Day 11:Shovel a Neighbor's walk Thanks for the great snowfall. DONE!

Day 10: Pick tags off an Angel Tree At the church christmas party, our family chose four children to buy gifts for. We have two girls and two boys. We are to buy 1 boy and 1 girl each a stocking filled with fun things, and the others, thier major presents. How fun! It is so much fun to shop for children. I hope the children like what we pick for them. Mads and I will have so much fun shopping.

Day 9: Have a family breakfast with christmas music Our family does not typically sit down and eat breakfast together due to different schedules so it was nice to sit down, listen to music, relax and eat breakfast together.

December 8, 2009: Donate cans to a food drive. We collected cans to take to work and as I already explained, Mt View will double the amount which is great! So...cans donated to the soup kitchen: check!

Day 7: Buy the dogs a christmas TREAT! So Madison and I headed off to the store in search of a good present for the dogs. Of course, we chose some rawhide bones and stuck them under the tree for Christmas morning. This helps with them staying out of all the toys and tree ornaments!

Day 6: Prepare and Address Christmas/Holiday Cards So, the family Christmas cards are all addresses and ready to go. I just need to go buy stamps which is one of my least favorite things to do. I am not really sure why, but never-the-less, it is. So as soon as I get to the Post Office, my cards will be in the mail! And they are SUPER cute if I do say so myself.

Day 5: Visit Santa Clause Today was the annual Muir Family Christmas Party which worked out perfectly. I didn't have to stand in line for Mads to see Santa. Santa came to the party. I was somewhat concerned that Mads would be nervous around the white bearded man, but she just looked at him, and was quite concerned with the candy cane on her present. She recieved two new christams story books!

Day 4: Write Santa a Letter Macy's is the perfect place to drop off a letter to Santa. If you drop off a stamped letter in the Macy's mailbox, Macy's will donate one dollar to the make a wish foundation up to 1,000,000.00 dollars. So I wrote one and Mads helped with one. So not only will Santa know what we want for Christmas, we will help the Make A Wish Foundation. :) Perfect!

Day 3: Watch a Holiday/Seasonal Movie So of course "I" found a movie about dogs and Christmas. Did anyone else watch this movie? As a dog lover, this was perfect. Mads and I cuddled on the bed and watched "A Dog Named Christmas." It was a super cute Hallmark movie...and now I am talking Jake into taking a dog over the holiday season. We will see how that conversation goes. I have already started searching for dogs at the shelter in Idaho Falls. If anybody is interested...here is the site. http://www.petfinder.com. You just agree to take a dog and care for it for a hot time so they are not alone over the holidays. I love it.

Day 2: Get out all Christmas Music/Cd's and listen all day to get into the spirit! Here are a few of my favorite...of course, Josh is at the top of my list. What great music. I love Christmas music and it is certainly getting me in the spirit of Christmas. I also got the ball rolling for another activity to be completed in December, not sure what day it will be. We have started to collect cans and boxes of food at work, then at a certain date, Mt. View Hospital will match whatever is donated from it's employees. How perfect is that? We can make twice the impact with the help of a bigger corporation. Perfect! We have started collecting money as well for bountiful baskets (fresh produce) to donate to the shelters and soup kitchens around Idaho Falls. We keep hearing what a difficult time it is financially for so many. We are fortunate to have jobs and have food on our table. It is our turn to do our part to help those down on thier luck. What a great way to begin the sea

Day ONE: Buy a NEW ornament and place it near the top of the tree! This year, we picked out "Baby's First Christmas" in Pink. I love the new addition to our tree. Mads is my whole world. She makes me want to be a better person every single day and in every single action. She makes my world a brighter place and I thank heavens for her everyday!. Merry First Christmas BABY!

Family Traditions As it is our first Christmas with Madison, I have started a new tradition. I have been thinking about it for a few months, but then December all the sudden snuck up on me. I have been researching ideass for each of the 25 days in December, and I think I have the list together. This is not my favorite advent calender, I need to find a nice one...so if anyone has seen one, let me know. I am searching for one. A wood one. Anyway, I PLAN (does not mean it will actually happen) to document each day in December and then put together book for Madison of her first Christmas. So here goes it!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN...I Love pictures...I can't get enough of this cute little monster~ Gramps with Madison and Justin (8 months apart) Madison bugging Justin..she will not leave him alone and he is not impressed with her anymore. On the prowl...looking for Justin Justin begging gramps to get him away from mean Mads! Attack! Attack! Mads was more concerned with eating the leaves...than cooperating with Granny for a cute picture Kylie as a butterfly fairy and Cooper as Handy Manny Justin...the super cute lion My most perfect Angel!

This last weekend, Madison and I took a road trip to Sun Valley to meet some my girlfriends who helped me survive Grad School! All these girls live in Boise, so I don't get to see them often enough! We stayed the weekend at the lodge and enjoyed good food, fireplace, and gorgeous weather! Leslie and Madison Leslie, Jenny, and Me A night on the town...without Madison (ok, just dinner) Jenny and Teresa Leslie and Me Jenny's mom and sister came over from Carey to watch Madison so we could go to a nice dinner. Jenny's sister, Julie, brought her little daugher (3 months younger than Mads) with her. Andy was adorable and Madison was funny with her...just wanted to kiss(lick) her so bad. Andy just stared at Mads like she was crazy...and she is a little! Bed Time!!! Teresa cracking us up just before bed!

The pumpkin patch was so much fun, we had to go again. Sorry for all the pcitures. More pictures with Mad's awesome cousins.