Countdown to Christmas

It has officially begun. The madness that leads up to Christmas. This year will be different in many ways. First, we are cutting way back on gifts. The girls are not thrilled about this, but they will get over it.
Second, we will be celebrating with the DeRuiter side of our family early because Leah should be having a baby the end of the month.
Our tree is up and we are starting to get into the Christmas spirit. I put up a new advent calendar this year. (I will post on this later because I haven't taken pics yet)
One of my new buffet decorations is these glitter trees. I found the tutorial at eighteen25. I love her site. I also love the way they look in my house.
So simple and cheap! I got my candle holders at the $1 store!

I also worked on one of the girls' gifts last night. Lilly loves to play library. I saw a kit online that had all kinds of library stuff in it, but it was a little pricey. So, here is my version.Each girl has her own case. I got the little suitcases at Hobby Lobby (reg. $8.99 but 50% off right now) and filled it with goodies. There are reading awards and overdue book slips (both created in Publisher and printed on card stock), library cards (old gift cards with stickers on the front), a date stamp and ink pad, pen and paper. Oh, and a library id for the librarian. I added bar codes to the library card and ID to make them a little more realistic. Still to be added are the book cards and pockets. I think I will add a removable adhesive roll (used for scrap booking) for them to add the pockets to books without doing any damage.

Meet the newest Settergren

I know. I said we'd never do it. Have another one. But, I caved.

Welcome Leroy to our family.

Every once in awhile Calvin lists animals for adoption. I saw his face and loved him. He is 14 weeks old. Most of their cats are already fixed and have their shots. When I went to check him out, he came right up to me and snuggled in. He had me at hello.

I picked up the cat and Jim got the girls. We sat them on the couch and told them to close their eyes. They were shocked to say the least. They love him a lot and want to hold him all of the time. He is extremely playful and chases yarn and balls all over the place. Melvin is still getting used to sharing his house, but they chase each other and I am sure will be good friends.

We spent many hours trying to come up with the perfect name. The people at Calvin had called him Gar, but the girls weren't into that. Coco came up with Leroy and it stuck.

The girls wanted to take him to Grandma Deb's today because they didn't want to leave him alone. I think they love him already.

If you are looking for a kitten (3 -4 months old) I highly recommend the WMRL on the campus of Calvin College. Their program is run like a well oiled machine. They take a lot of precautions to protect all of their animals from getting sick (you have to wash your hands and change shoe booties between each room). Their staff was very helpful and it was evident how much they care for the animals. More than once it was mentioned that "Gar" was a favorite. Check out the kittens they have for adoption.

Halloween 2010

This is probably the last year that Coco will be around to Trick or Treat with the girls. She requested that we do a family theme like we did a couple of years ago with Wizard of Oz. We went with Alice in Wonderland for this year. Sorry for the blurry pic. Claire's friend Cameron also joined us as the White Queen

I purchased dresses for the girls off of ebay and embellished them to look like their character. Because we live in Michigan and you never know what the weather will be like on Halloween, I made each of them a short jacket to keep warm. I added a ruffle collar and cuffs to Lilly's Queen of Hearts.
Coco was the Cheshire Cat. She had a little to much fun with this one.We followed up trick or treating with handing out candy and Mummy Dogs for supper. Another great Halloween in the books.