Decked Halls

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love everything about it. I have been listening to Christmas music since early November and my house has been decorated for a while and my shopping is nearly done. Just when I think I get my house decorated to my liking, I see someone else's beautifully decorated home and I change my mind! :)I usually take pictures of the decorations so that I can remember what I have done from year to year to replicate certain things. Here is a sneak peek at some of the Christmas fun going on at the Snyder house.

Our mantel.



C's 1st ornament. He made it at MOPS on Thursday.
"Look momma- It's baby Jesus"



The nativity in Clark's room.

The nativity in Clark's room after Clark re-arranged.
(Notice the train reference? )

Our living room nativity.

A little end table decor.

Our card display.
(LOVE this- Not much makes me happier than getting mail.)

Current door decor.

Just bought all this with a new wreath in mind...

I can't think of anything else that I would like more under my tree!

My beautiful boys.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I am hoping this might turn out to be a long weekend. You might find me doing my snow dance on Sunday night in hopes that the forecast is true and we might get a snow day on Monday.  Fingers Crossed!


What Clark's Loving Wednesday

It has been a while since I have blogged so tonight I thought playing along with Jamie would be a fun way to get back into the blogging spirit. To make it even more fun I will let you in on what Clark is lovin' these days.

 1. Clark is loving all things Christmas. He gets so excited about Christmas lights and mentions daily how much he LOVES Christmas. He points out all lights we pass and gets very excited to turn on the tree each day.  We have an entire basket of Christmas books in the living room and he loves reading them each night, he also has Christmas music cd that we play at night for him per his request. It is super cute and makes us very excited for Christmas Day knowing he will be so into it.

2. Clark is loving the trees and trains we saw Thanksgiving weekend while at my parents house. This kid of mine is a train enthusiast and loved seeing the huge model train display. He did not however enjoy the fact that he could not touch the train displays- and that my friends is hard to explain to a two year old.

3. Clark is loving the band he and his Grandpa Snyder started in the living room this weekend. Please watch for their summer tour to hit a major venue near you in 2011.

 4. Clark is loving the new Follow Me Thomas. It is a light that you shine and Thomas will follow it. He has seen the commercial on T.V. like twice and he dances around. I would love to see how it really works. He hopes Santa reads my blog!

 5. Clark is loving his new "Fighter Man" face. It took us a LONG time to learn that "Fighter Man" is SpiderMan, but we get it now. It took him seeing an actual spider and calling it a "Fighter" for me to understand, but we have cleared that up. Now we just have this hilarious, scary face that he pulls out every now and then. Have I mentioned that this kid cracks me up?

Well, there you have it folks. Five fun and fabulous things that my nearly 30 month old(GASP) is loving this week. He really does crack us up everyday. He is saying the most hilarious things and impresses me with how much he really knows. I know I say this at every stage, but this one is the best by far.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Abby

Turkey Treats

After a full day of decorating this house for Christmas, followed by lots of clean up I decided to make a trip to Kroger. OH MY WORD. It is only Sunday at that place was packed. I vowed to myself that I would not go back until after Thanksgiving. Yikes.

I just needed a few things for the dessert that I am making for our faculty potluck on Tuesday, the required items to take to my mom's for Thanksgiving and the supplies for turkey treats for my class. I left the store in a reasonable time, spent less than $30.00 and remembered to bring and use my reusable bags. I was feeling good about the whole trip. It was not until I got home that I realized I forgot the chocolate chips! ugh. But I did make that vow and I was not about to break it. So I had to improvise and come up with a new plan for eyeballs. Eyeballs for what you ask? Well for TURKEY TREATS of course.
I made these with my 3rd graders last year and it was a hit, so of course we are going to do it again. But C and I had to make a batch to take to Mrs. Bonnie's house to share with his friends and we wanted to share with you in case you need a cute, EASY treat over the next few days.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Oreos (or Kiddos- if you buy the store brand!)

Candy Corn

Frosting

Chocolate Chips (darn it!)

Step 1: Unwrap oatmeal cream pies.

Step 2: Place candy corn white side down in between the layers of cream pie for feathers!

See below:

 Step 3: Place a small dot of frosting on the back of the Oreo and attach it to the cream pie for head.

Yes, C had to taste test one cookie. He had to make sure they were fresh for his friends!

C put this one frosting side up. Can you see that he was a little disappointed?
(We did use a little orange frosting we had left from a previous project to attach Oreos)

 Step 4: Place a three small dots of frosting on the cookie. One for beak, two for eyes.

Step 5: Place chocolate chips as eyes. (Or candy corn tips in our case!)

Step 6: Place candy corn yellow side down in chocolate dot for beak.

 Step 7: Enjoy!

I know- it is not much, but kids LOVE em'- trust me!

Have a GREAT week. I am pretty excited that it is a TWO DAY work week. yay!

 

BIG NEWS.

It is Saturday afternoon and I should be putting up my Christmas tree. C and I did a little Christmas shopping this morning, and we do have Christmas music playing in the car! When C told his "daddo" that he heard Christmas music in mommy's car- Stuart was a little less than thrilled. He thinks it is wayyy too early for all that. However I think it is NEVER too early and I am totally in the mood to decorate. I had better get started before Stuart gets home from work so there will be no chance for turning back!

But before I do, I have to share some news!! No, I am no pregnant (darn it!), but I did find out the results from my National Boards yesterday. I PASSED!! This has been in the works for over a year. I began the process in July 2009. I have mentioned it a few times like in THIS POST. I turned in my portfolio in March 2010, took my exam in June 2010 and FINALLY found out the results yesterday. I was a nervous wreck all morning long. I knew that scores would be posted at 9:00 am and I could think of NOTHING else. At 9:00 I hopped on my computer in my classroom to see the numbers I have been dying to see and of course the server was too busy and I had to wait. I checked back every 30 seconds (hands shaking the entire time) until I finally got a screen that read:
CONGRATULATIONS!
You are a National Board Certified Teacher!

Of course I squealed and went to click where it said VIEW SCORES and the server went down AGAIN.
I panicked. I thought for sure it was a mistake. I had prepared myself that I had not passed. I had told myself it was a 3 year long process and I would be okay if I did not pass my first try. So, I had convinced myself that the 1st screen had been an error. Hands still shaking, I tried again. All I knew was to look for a number higher than 275 (passing score) and once I saw that my numbers were higher I jumped up out of my seat, began crying and ran out of the room! I was so excited. I know my 3rd graders thought I had lost it! It was a good thing my student teacher was there to explain to them what was going on and why their teacher was jumping up and down acting crazy!! :) It was a great feeling. I have wanted this for some time and I proved to myself that I could do it. I am the first person in my school to attempt it and I was nervous about that. I really wanted to prove that it could be done. I am so thrilled because this counts as my Rank 1- meaning I get a pay raise!, I do not have to do anymore school (unless I change my mind), and hopefully I have inspired many at my school (and hopefully some of you) to try it.
I was an awesome process. I worked very hard and I am so overjoyed that all that hard work paid off!!
So in celebration, I am going to transform my living room to Santa's Workshop! ha!
Thanks for all of your lovely comments and encouragement throughout this process. I must admit, I am one happy girl.

Teacher Friends-
For more information on becoming National Board Certified click HERE!

 , NBCT

Totally Random Tuesday

This post could be called TIRED TUESDAY. I am not sure why but I am so tired! It is my student teacher's solo week, so it is not like I have worked extremely hard at work this week! It might be the rain, it might be the fact that it gets dark at 5:30, it might even be still trying to catch up from lack of sleep from the all weekend scrapbooking event I went to. I have not yet put my finger on it, but I am worn out. I might have even fallen asleep during The Backyardigans with C in my lap only to be awoken to him singing along with Pablo. ha!

My mind is mush, but here are a few things I thought I would share.

• I did go to an all weekend scrapbooking event with some wonderful friends from work this weekend and finished Clark's 1st year book!! I even made a 8x8 book with all of our pictures from our Fall 09 trip to Boston. It was a very relaxing- yet productive weekend.
• I might put up the Christmas Tree this weekend. I had thought about it a few times, but this cup of peppermint ice cream I am eating as I type just sealed the deal!
• Clark has mastered the skill of opening doors and bottles. This has already proven to be disastrous twice in the last few days. I was putting away all my scrapbook junk in the guest room closet on Sunday. I closed the door to keep him out because Santa is using that closet for a large surplus of Thomas the Train paraphernalia. I turn around and there he stands! That little stinker opened the door! I might have scared him when I screamed and herded him out the door.  Tonight while he is in the bathtub, I go to the hall to get a clean towel I come back to him pouring the ENTIRE bottle of bubble bath into the water! ARG- When did he learn these skills?
• I ORDERED MY CHRISTMAS CARDS! I earned the 50 FREE from Shutterfly that I blogged about in my last post. I chose the one with the 12 pictures- one from each month. They were $2.39 each and I got 50 free! They shipped today and I cannot wait to get them in the mail.
• I check my email everyday waiting for the email telling me that my National Board scores have posted. The site says anytime between now and December 31st! ugh. I turned in my portfolio in March and took the exam in June. I am very anxious to see how I did. Pass or not I need to see those scores.
• I will try again tonight to watch Criminal Minds from last week. I tried last night while curled up on the couch with the gas logs blazing. I lasted all of 15 minutes before I was out like a light at 9:15.
• Tonight was spaghetti night at the Snyder house and this guy was lovin' every minute of it. (These pictures should explain his need for a bath!)

Happy Tuesday!!



 

Christmas Cards

It is that time of year. The time when I stress over just which card to mail out in celebration of the Christmas season. I LOVE picture cards and that is all I have ever sent. (They are my favorite to get too) The first year it was a picture of our little family of 3 ( Me, The Mr. and the Goldendoodle). Then the last 2 years we have had some super cute pictures of our family of 4 that include our little guy on the card. I would have loved to had another Snyder child to add to the Christmas card this year, but since there has not been much luck in that department just yet- we will be having another card as our family of 4. I have always used Shutterfly.com and have been very pleased with the outcome. I have already been perusing the website looking for just the right one for 2010. I have over 1,000 pictures from the last few months to choose from and then I heard the news that Shutterfly was offering 50 FREE cards to bloggers!! This made me sooooo happy and I just had to share!

Here are my TOP 3  as of today. Which one do you like?

I have a SUPER cute black and white picture of C that would be GREAT on this one.

I LOVE the idea of a TOP 10 list.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE!!
Dear Friends and Family-
You may be seeing this in your mailbox in a few weeks with
pictures of an even cuter kid.

I scoured the web last year for a 12 picture card!!
I AM IN LOVE!!

I always use Shutterfly and I highly recommend them. I gave PHOTO CALENDARS to all grandparents last year for Christmas and it was a hit. I am working on some super cute GIFT TAGS for my gifts this year and I think that these PHOTO CANVASES will be a perfect grandparent gift this year!
If you have not used Shutterfly before head on over and get started now! You will thank me later!



Bloggers: to find out more about sharing your love of Shutterfly and earning FREE Christmas Cards go HERE.

I will keep you posted on my card choice (when I make one that is)!

Here is one photo option. My friend Lori took this one last week.
He looks very "elfish" and I like it!

 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It is WEDNESDAY and I LOVE playing along with Jamie- so here is a short list of things I am loving this week. It is a mid- week list of some of things that are making me smile on this cold, fall day.

1. I AM LOVING that I have a great student teacher which is allowing me time to read and attempt to implement what I am learning from this book into my daily classroom routine. I am hoping to have it fully implemented by Christmas Break.

2. I AM LOVING these coats. I think a coat with a cute ruffle is just what I need for my fall wardrobe. I have been eyeing the J.CREW ruffle coat for a few years now...come on Santa.

J.Crew

Victoria's Secret

Would love to know where this one is from to give credit...
Still looking.

This one is still a mystery too.
I sure hope Santa reads my blog.

3.I AM LOVING C's new plaid pants and his new signature pose. Both pictured below!

4. I AM LOVING that THIS is opening very soon VERY near my house. Be Still My Heart!!

Chick-Fil-A in case you cannot tell by the picture taken by my phone while at a red light! ha!

5. I AM LOVING the imagination of this 2 year old I have. This is what he comes to me with the other night as we were cleaning up the living room getting ready for bed.

"Momma, I Mickey!"

I AM ALSO LOVING that a new Criminal Minds comes on tonight and that is the biggest thing on my agenda this evening. Well- that and catching up with all the lovely blogs I have been missing the last few days.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!