Twice in Two Months & The School Bus

Zach got a call from Chase this morning asking about some questionable charges on his debit card. There were 5 charges from I-Tunes all in a row totaling just over $200! Those were definitely NOT our charges! This wouldn't be quite as concerning if there hadn't been a charge to his credit card (for $50 to some online gaming site) in November. Yes, NOVEMBER! Two times within two months someone else has made charges to TWO of his cards. Needless to say we are a little upset and concerned. Hopefully nothing else happens!

On a much lighter note...my mom and I took Madie to see a school bus before Christmas. At first she would only look at them; she didn't want to go inside. In case you were wondering, from her bedroom window she can see the school buses in the morning and afternoon. We see probably 5 on average, and she LOVES it! So we took her down to see one in person. It didn't take real long before she decided that she would go in the bus. But first, she had to touch it.

In case you were wondering about her kind of weird face in this picture, she is saying "cheese" for the camera.

coming soon: pictures of our trip to Snowflake to visit Zach's family & the mess-maker

To answer a few questions...

I heard back from Amy over at Mod Podge Rocks about when she is going to post my cardboard box oven (in case you don't know what I'm talking about, see this post). She plans on posting about it on February 1st as the project of the week. :) It's so fun having things to look forward to.

As far as posting about the gifts that I'm making for others this year, I plan on just posting about them on my craft blog as long as it is something that isn't obvious who it is intended for.

Christmas part 2

Now that I have some energy, I'll finish posting about Christmas. Yes, that was the real reason I quickly finished blogging about our Christmas...it was after 9 pm and I was tired. So, here goes.
My dad makes the coolest rocking toys (like rocking horses, but not horses) for the grandkids. He has made a heffalump, motorcycle, airplane, train, ladybug and this year he made Madie a butterfly.

Do you think she likes it??? :)

For those who don't feel inclined to check out my other blog, here are the things I crafted for Madie this year.

Cardboard box oven

Art Table (Ok, so I didn't craft this, but I did paint it)

Here is a pic of the tablet thingy that Zach got (not his, but one like it). He seems to really be enjoying it. Hopefully it will be as beneficial in doing homework and he hopes.

And I don't know why this pic is sideways, but here is what I did to myself on Christmas Eve. This was the next day, so the bruising was still minimal. You should see it now (it's pretty gross, so I'll spare you).

I dropped a huge wooden cutting board on my toe. It isn't broken, but it still hurts if anything touches it, which makes wearing shoes fun. And the bruising has spread to the whole toe, not just the bottom. It reminds me of when I broke my finger in jr high and it looked dead.

You all might think I'm crazy for this but I have decided to do something different this year with making my Christmas gifts. Yes, I'm already thinking about next Christmas. I've read on several blogs recently people saying they wish that it could feel like Christmas all year long (the fun lovey part of it, not the so stressed I can't sleep and want to cry part). I think I've figured out how to do that for myself. I'm going to try and make one Christmas gift each month throughout the year. So for me it will be Christmas all year! I'll try to keep you updated and let you know how it's going. And yes, I do already have several ideas of what I want to make.

Really, me? But I'm Nobody!

So everybody who is anybody in the crafty-blogging world (plus most of us nobodys) knows of Amy from Mod Podge Rocks. Well she just made my day! I got this comment on my craft blog on the post about the cardboard box oven I made for Madie for Christmas:

Mod Podge Amy said...

Are you serious?? This is SO CUTE - Can I please repost it??

All I have to say is...Amy, are YOU serious!?!?!? 

Ok, well that isn't really all I have to say. She has a flickr group where you can upload pics of projects you've done using Mod Podge that she checks to find things to post about and I didn't even upload the oven to it! She found me! It is so funny too because I even thought about her and her love affair with Mod Podge several times while making the oven and blogging about it. I wondered what she would think of it...well now I know! 

And since I doubt that many of you care much at all about this anyway, I will stop rambling.    

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We are blessed to have such wonderful families and to be able to spend some time with them recently. We got a box of #10 cans from Tim & Summer. I'm excited to try the wheat, since I've never used it before in anything. We also got a hysterical card from Adam (Zach's brother). Inside was a gift card and $20. My first thought was "Dang! Adam must be loaded!" because it was way more than I was expecting (especially since I wasn't really expecting anything). Here is the message: "Alright, so if you two don't like Olive Garden, blame Mom. Cuz she's the one that was so sure of it. Ok? Haha. And the $20 is me paying you back, Zach, for all that money I stole out of your A&W glass for school lunches when I was a freshman. I'm not sure how much I took, so I just decided to be safe and go with 20."
I busted up laughing!!! Then I read it to Zach and he busted up laughing! Adam, you're always good for a laugh. :) We'll miss you someday when you leave.
Madison got a little ride on toy that plays the Muffin Man song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She LOVES it! She gets on and plays the music (only Twinkle Twinkle, for some reason she doesn't like the Muffin Man song) and dances away. It is so cute. I'll have to get a video of it sometime for her Grammy & Grandpa to see.
Since I'm sure you all don't really care what all we got for Christmas from every single person we are related to, I'll do a quick sum up of the rest. Baby stroller for Madie from my parents along with some books and clothes. I also got clothes (super awesome story on that to follow) and Zach got some thing to draw on for his computer. It is called a VisTablet, in you are curious and want to google it. Sarah made us a cute nativity wall hanging that I'll have to get a pic of later.
For the awesome clothes story. I found a pair of jeans at Kohls in the 90% off section. It wasn't the size I normally wear but I had never heard of the brand before so I figured I would give them a try. Well lucky for me they fit! So how much were my jeans? Regular price $40. Awesome! I just scored $40 jeans for $4...but wait...there's more. We go to checkout and they don't ring up at $4...they ring up for $3! Plus we got an extra 15% off! Yep, $40 jeans for $2.55!!! I also got another pair of jeans, but they weren't as good of a deal (regularly $40, we paid just over $5).
Pictures of our Christmas adventures in a post below this one and if you are looking for pictures of things I crafted for others this year, check out my other blog: ashleyscrafts.blogspot.com. There are several posts of things I made so be sure to scroll down.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

I didn't do it

The other day we were driving in the car and Madie was eating goldfish. There weren't very many left so when she ate them all she said "all done". So I asked her if she ate all the goldfish. Her response - No
Me: Then who ate all the goldfish?
Madie: Grandpa

A few days later we had this conversation (also while in the car) -
Madie: All done
Me: Did you eat all of the M&Ms?
Madie: No
Me: Who ate them? (expecting her to say Grandpa again)
Madie: Grandma

She makes me laugh.

Christmas 2009 slideshows

Way too many to upload so here is a slideshow. Enjoy!