And the winner is… Kate! Congrats, Kate! I’ll email you to get your mailing address!

Seriously.

Ask Lynn. I sent her some last year, and she’s the kettle corn expert.

If Steve gave me a bag of Angie’s Kettle Corn for Valentine’s Day, I’d be the happiest girl in Tucson.

Really.

Especially since cutting gluten out, I’m Angie’s biggest fan.

And guess what they just came out with?

Valentine’s packs.

You know, so you don’t have to be another one sending your kid to school with candy on Valentine’s day.

You can send your child to school with a gluten free, clean (only 4 ingredients!) snack.

Last week, Jack had a bag of Angie’s kettle corn on our way to soccer practice. I told him how this year we were going to give them out at school instead of valentines, because they came with cute name tag stickers. He said, “or we could keep them and eat them all..”

Great minds think alike, huh?

Michael even loves it:

…though I was instructed to not “fill out the stickers. Or even put the stickers on” his bags.

He won’t even let me put notes in his lunchbox anymore. :(

Anyway, I have a fun giveaway!! Angie’s is giving a Valentine’s pack away to one of you!

To enter…. (this is the fun part…)

I, for once, am making it all about the facebook – since most of you are on it.

1. “Like” Angie’s Kettle Corn. You’ll get fun updates from Angie, and you’ll be able to see the random fun photos I post on their wall :)

2. “Like” Our Crazy Boys. Where else can you get snippets about the boys, links to posts, updates about my Momtourage and DinnerTool articles, and random questions now and then?

Don’t have a facebook account? Well, ok. I won’t judge you. Leave me up to two comments and tell me something that you like to do for Valentine’s Day. I promise I won’t email you and try to get you to open a facebook account.

Leave a separate comment for each “like” because trust me, giveaways are much easier when everyone leaves separate comments.

Ready? Set? Goooooo!

Small-ish print: I was provided with a Valentine pack of Angie’s kettle corn. Then we ate it and I had to go buy more for Jack’s class. Even if I wasn’t provided with kettle corn, I would have posted a giveaway because I want you to all love Angie’s as much as I do. I will choose a winner via random.org on 1/30 and will notify via email. Good luck!  

Nothing Says “I Love You” Like Kettle Corn is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Happy Holidays to each and every one of you!

From Our Family To Yours…. is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Growing up, it was a family tradition to gather together on Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house. The family gathering consisted of…

5 Uncles

3 Aunts

Their spouses

15 cousins

1 brother

2 parents

Grandma and Grandpa

Several Great-Aunts and Uncles, depending on the year.

That’s a minimum of 36 people in a house that couldn’t have been bigger than 800 square feet.

Oh, and it had 6 foot ceilings.

Around Thanksgiving time, we exchanged names for gift-giving. Come Christmas Eve, the 4 foot Christmas tree was barely visible under the gifts.

I remember walking into Gram’s helping to carry an armful of gifts, trying to not slip on the ice and snow outside. It was freezing every year. My cousins and I went back and forth between hanging with our Dads who were watching football and our Moms in the dining room. We usually grabbed a plate of food – Christmas cookies, meatballs in marinara sauce, cold cuts on little bakery rolls, and shrimp cocktail were staples – and sat on the stairs that were in the middle of the house to wait.

Around 4p.m. every year, my Aunt Manky, Uncle Greg, and Uncle Art would disappear. After Uncle Art passed away, my cousin Timmy took his place.

My cousins and I never realized that people left – it was too busy to notice a few people being gone. But we always knew that if we sat on the stairs long enough after we ate, Santa would come. One of us would hear his bells and alert the others. We would wait until we could see him through the front windows, and someone would open the door for him. Grandma always greeted him at the door with a big hug.

Santa would sit and as gifts were handed to him he would call people up to sit on his lap and get their photo taken. Everyone had to sit on Santa’s lap – no exceptions. That means if you were too scared, your Mom would go with you. If you were too cool as a teen, your Aunts and Uncles would tease you until you sat on his lap. If you were getting too old, well… you never really got too old. Everyone sat on Santa’s lap.

Steve’s first year at our Christmas Eve gathering

There were mountains of used wrapping paper everywhere, as everyone got at least one gift. After Santa left, everyone would linger a little bit longer, but people would begin to leave and drive home to get ready for Santa to come to their houses.

I have amazing memories of Christmas Eve, and it’s hard living far away from family this time of year. I try to have traditions for my kids, but I can’t come close to Gram and Pop’s house.

What Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions happen in your family? Are you able to keep up traditions that you had as a child?

—

Need an idea for a Christmas tradition? We started a scavenger hunt tradition last year, and are super excited about doing it again this year. It slows down the present opening and gets everyone moving a bit on Christmas morning!

Christmas Eves To Remember is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Who else has a Christmas elf?

We just got one. Yes, my kids are 7 and 11 and we just heard about the elf this year. I’m a little slow.

Louie is a welcome addition to the family… sometimes.

Sometimes he is naughtier than the leprechaun that visits us in March.

And sometimes he leaves messes for us to clean up. Because I need one more little one to clean up after.

But when he makes messes, he usually does something nice to make up for it. After the flour debacle, we woke up to find him stamping my Christmas cards.

Most of the time he’s good, though. And he keeps us on our toes and on our best behavior. He reports back to Santa, you know.

In the past few weeks, we have found Louie bowling with our fruit,

taking a long soak in a hot tub full of marshmallows,

keeping a watchful eye on Billy the hibernating lizard,

helping himself to some of our Christmas candy,

playing with the gift wrapping,

and swinging from our window blinds.

He is quite the character.

If you’re in the market for an elf, we  bought Louie from Amazon. He’s actually called Christopher Pop-in-kins, and I just saw that he’s on sale for $11. There are many variations of Louie. We chose ours because he looked the friendliest to me :)

I post our photos on facebook and tag Christopher, and he always responds with a fun and witty comment:

This may be the last year that Jack believes that Louie reports back to Santa, but I have a feeling that we’ll have fun playing with him for many holiday seasons.

Do you have an elf of the shelf? What kind of trouble does he or she get into?

Meet Louie, Our Elf! is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Michael is eleven. Apparently, when you turn eleven and are tuned in to the secrets of Santa, you can ask for crazy gifts.

Maybe because it’s not going in Santa’s sleigh?

Or maybe because the elves don’t have to make them?

Michael’s list this year was written on a post it note.

A post it note, people.

We didn’t have many buying options.

1. A quad. We laughed at this. A lot.

2. An iPod touch. To replace his 18 month old iPod touch that refuses to accept the newest update because it’s not compatible with this version of the iPod touch, rendering most of his games unplayable. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

3. Two video games, one that he also asked his Grandma for. We had a discussion about asking more than one person for the same gift. In addition, I had to stop him from buying this game for himself yesterday.

4. Tickets to a U of A game.

Should I prepare myself for a car on his list next year?

Dear Santa, I Need Some Help… is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Really?

Can you explain…

the live worm on the ceiling fan?

the yarn necklace on the dog?

the stash in your closet that rivals “Hoarders?”

the broken ornament? (broken when juggling the glass ornaments)

the loose worms in the living room?

the loose crickets in the den throughout the entire house?

the nail and hammer forgotten under my back tire?

the exploding toilet and blatant misuse of toilet paper?

If you can’t explain these to Santa, we will. You’re an energetic and curious 7 year-old who doesn’t let life pass by quietly.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

—

Linked with my dear friends Amanda, Kristi and Lolli for Wordless/Wordful Wednesday.

We Can Explain. is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Update: Congrats to Jenn, Francine, and Molly!! I’ll be in touch to send you your code for 25 free Shutterfly photo cards!

The Christmas portrait time of year!

I will admit that I’m a little stumped this year.

We have done the cactus:

and the big smiles:

We have done the Christmas carol reference (with the boys faking sleep):

and the elves (there’s no way I’ll be able to do that again with a middle-schooler):

Last year, we almost used this card:

but after winning Amanda’s photo contest, we decided to use some of the winning pictures instead:

This year, I’m stuck.

Moody 6th grader meets hyperactive 1st grader?

Should I look to Diary of a Wimpy Kid for some ideas? The Heffley family is quite similar to ours lately.

One thing that has stayed consistent is that every year, we have ordered our Christmas cards through Shutterfly.

There are several designs that I have fallen in love with this year, but I’ll wait to share :)

Not only do we use Shutterfly for our holiday cards, but we also use them for photo gifts, such as our famous (in the family) cookbook. I *might* be getting a second volume together for this year. Funny, because our eating habits have changed a whole lot since the first edition!

After the pool fiasco of 2008 (oh, that’s another post all together) we heavily relied on friends to help us finish our pool. When it was complete, we wanted to thank everyone. Shutterfly’s photo cards were the best way for us to share the news (and photos!) with everyone who helped us.

Fun fact: These photos were taken in December over three days. One day the pool wasn’t heated!

Dying to order your holiday cards yet? I am giving away three sets of 25 personalized photo cards from Shutterfly.

To enter, leave me a comment and tell me your favorite holiday card story. Mine would have to be when we took photos near the cacti (I hate saying that – cactus as a plural sounds so much better, I think). Michael almost strangled Jack while trying to keep him sitting, and Jack was only concentrating on the fruit snacks that Michael was holding in his hand – which was closed tightly to avoid being in the picture. And what mother takes her 5 and 1 year old to a national park filled with sharp cacti?! Not my best Mom moment.

Go up and look at the photo now. I’ll wait a sec.

Moving on…

Three sets of 25 cards! I’ll choose three random winners next Friday evening, November 18th. You know the deal… whenever I pull the kids apart, get them safely tucked in their beds, and pull the ear plugs out of my ears. 8ish?

Good luck, friends!

I was provided with holiday photo cards in exchange for my post. If you’re a blogger and want in on this great deal, go visit Shutterfly and register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

As always, all opinions are my own. I’ve been shopping at Shutterfly since the boys were little for a reason ;)

It’s that time of year again… {a @Shutterfly giveaway!} is property of: Our Crazy Boys

*Update: Comment #7, Molly, was the winner!! This was fun ;) And make sure to come back tomorrow, because I have a fun giveaway to post!*

As if the Easter Bunny, Santa, and The Tooth Fairy aren’t enough, the Leprechaun comes to visit us on St. Patrick’s Day.

It didn’t start out that way. He just started visiting two years ago.

And then he skipped a year.

I’ll explain :)

My parents were visiting two years ago for St. Patrick’s Day. Mom and I thought it would be fun for the leprechaun to come visit.

And it was fun.

He put the ketchup in the shower, and the shampoo in the fridge. (We knew it was him because he left shamrocks behind)

He turned the milk green,

and closed up all the toilet paper rolls with his shamrock stickers.

But the worst thing that the mischievous leprechaun did?

He put tattoos on the kids when they were sleeping!

And not only did he tattoo the kids, he got Grandma and Grandpa, too!

The leprechaun wasn’t all tricks. He left a small bucket of treats, too :)

I can’t tell you how much fun the kids had. They laughed and giggled and raced around the house to see what else the leprechaun might have done.

Some things they found:

-The bags of Cheerios and Life cereal (the ones we let them eat regularly) were switched with the Lucky Charms and Apple Jacks! We let the boys have cereal and the bag they pulled out of the box was the wrong cereal!

-The boy’s pajamas were in their underwear drawer, and their underwear were in the hiding spot under their beds.

-Their toothbrushes were under the candy in the pantry.

-Their toothpaste was in the fridge.

-Their shoes were lined up nice and neat… except they were mismatched.

For every mischievous act, the leprechaun left a sticker to tell the boys it was his fault.

Last year, we were in Hawaii during St. Patrick’s Day. We had no idea that when we got home, one of the first things the boys would do was look around the house to see if the leprechaun stopped by while we were gone.

And for the last year? The leprechaun has received more mentions than the Easter Bunny and Santa combined. So naturally… I have started to plan early this year.

I wish I had thought to grab some extra tattoos when we started, because those “pinch me” ones were priceless! But look what I found last week:

Body stickers (Michael is getting the “Kiss Me” one).

Body stickers (vs. tattoos) mean that you don’t have to sneak into your kid’s room in the middle of the night, get them wet with a washcloth, and try to apply a temporary tattoo to a sleeping child. Score!

To get you in the spirit of acting like a leprechaun, I bought an extra set of body stickers. Leave me a comment telling me what the leprechaun might do in your house this year, and on Monday I’ll pick a winner and send you my extra set (see Christine, one entry giveaway – just for you!).

In the interest of full disclosure, I was compensated for my time by Larry the Leprechaun.

The winner will be chosen by random.org.

The Leprechaun is property of: Our Crazy Boys

Ok, ok.

I know I posted about the cutest valentines ever.

But, when I started to make them?

An even more adorable  cooler idea popped into my head.

Want to see?

Here’s cute:

And here’s cool:

And here’s cooler:

I used this awesome *free* program called Comic Life. It used to come pre-installed on Macs, but now you can download it yourself!

{Even More} Adorable Homemade Valentines is property of: Our Crazy Boys

I’m not usually the crafty one around this house, but today? I am.

I’m making valentines.

I might be doing the same thing as last year, but the valentines are so cute that you’ll do them for as long as you can, too.

I promise.

You see, Christie (do you not know her? because you should. get over there and get reading.) and Alyssa (I’m linking to them both because Alyssa took pictures at the front dor, which is adorable. And Christie took them with a black background, which is what I’ll be doing this year) made these adorable valentines, and I’m going to copy them.

I only got to make a few last year for Jack’s preschool. This year I get to make them for an entire kindergarten class!

Do you want to see how cute they are?

Of course you do. These are from last year:

I’ll take pictures of the new ones soon, but I wanted to get this idea into everyone’s heads in time for you to make your own!

My neighbor made super cute ones, as well. Same idea, but she adhered to the school’s wellness policy and used pencils :)

So, go follow the fancy instructions, let me know what you think, and send pictures if you try them! I’ll post them here!

Adorable Homemade Valentines is property of: Our Crazy Boys