Love It – Village Naturals Foaming Bath
Jake and the girls gave me Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash, Aches & Pains Relief with Eucalyptus, Rosehips, and Chamomile earlier this year for Mother’s Day. I love it! 🙂 I never thought I would get so excited over bath items, ha! It wasn’t long before the girls were begging to try it out.
Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash gives you a lot of great long lasting bubbles. The girls are always asking to use this whenever they have a “long” bath because they love all the bubbles. One time they stayed in the bathtub for over an hour splashing around.
Our family has had a round or two of sickness since I received it. The Village Naturals Therapy Foaming Bath Oil & Body Wash works really well for when you have a cold and are congested. You can find it in a lot of stores, including Walmart, or online. The best part it is only a few dollars and it lasts a long time. You only need a couple drops to get a bath full of bubbles.
Even though the girls and I have used this many times we are still on our original bottle. If your looking for a great bubble bath or body wash that will be a big hit with the lady (or kids) in your life you should check this out. It is a great way to relax after a busy day!
“Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love! There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun. I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list. It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!
Gift Giving: Christmas Cookies in Decorative Tins
Christmas Cookies in a tin with Candy Canes on top
Our family loves baking Christmas goodies! In the past we have made large batches of goodies and delivered the items to our neighbors, family, and friends. Other years we do one or two tins whenever we are baking to give away to friends, family, or to who ever we think it may be a blessing to that week.
It is a simple gift that has been a big hit (and fun for the kids to help with too). All we have to do is bake our favorite cookie(s), put them into a decorative tin, add two candy canes on top, and deliver them. The girls love putting two candy canes on top of the tin in the shape of a heart. Making these treats bins are really easy and they always great reaction from those we have delivered the goodies to in our area.
Christmas Tins
- 1 Tin Container
- A batch of your favorite cookie(s) or candies to fill the tin (or you can do a variety of recipes)
- 2 Candy Canes
- 2 pieces of Tape
You can get any tin or plastic container in any size, shape, and color at your local dollar store this time of year. I used double-sided tape but regular tape would work too. If you are wanting to make up several tins this is a great gift to do because you can make a large batch of cookies to fill them and do an assembly line with your kids.
When we deliver items and Christmas cards to our neighbors we bundle up in our coats, put all the goodies in a big basket and walk from door to door (great exercise and fresh air for the whole family). By the time we walk door to door and spend a few minutes catching up with each neighbor an hour or two or more has gone by but we have had a blast and hopefully were a blessing to those living on our street too.
Here are some cookie recipes we have used in the past:
Peanut Butter & Candy Cane Cookie Cups
Introducing……the Newest Members of Our Family – “Coconut,” “Oreo,” & “Snowball”
The 3 newest family members of our family “Coconut,” Oreo,” and “Snowball”
If you had asked me even a year ago if I would ever have goats as pets I would have laughed. Goats, seriously! I don’t know how to raise goats, what would I do with them….. Guess what!? Life has a funny way of changing my perspective. We have GOATS! Three adorable, fluffy, social, fun loving, goats that have become such a sweet part of the family!
This one cracks me up……silly Oreo!
The girls immediately loved these little balls of fluff…..and as hard as it is to admit it didn’t take long before they had stolen a piece of my heart too. They are always thrilled to see you. I love driving into the driveway and seeing them come racing across the yard to greet us.
Our little “Oreo Sunday”! He is the smallest of the 3 but makes up for it with his colorful character!
The girls are overjoyed to have goats. They do a pretty good job of taking care of them too. The goats love it when the girls are outside playing. All three are very social and are great with kids. The only thing we are still training them not to do, they’ve gotten better, is to not jump up on people. We have already trained them with several things already. One of the best things we did for training was to teach them to head into the goat pen for their grain or a treat whenever we rang a bell rings so when we need to put them into the pen it is really easy.
Sweet baby “Snowball” coming to say hello! He is the most timid of the 3 goats and especially in the beginning he would bolt to the pen whenever he saw Skipper or if he was startled.
It has been over a year in preparation for these little guys. They are a neat addition to our family or as the girls call it “our small farm”! It all started with me reading an article on goats. Followed by months of researching, building a goat house and pen, and finding the perfect critters to adopt into our family.
Our “Toasted Coconut” chewing happily on some leaves. Coconut’s our adventurous eater, he’ll try anything before the other two goats (even your hair if you get it too close).
These little guys have been a fun addition to the family. Skipper was excited to have more friends in the yard as well. It didn’t take long to train her not to chase the goats and for the goats to not be scared of the big black lab charging through the yard. After researching how to train them to stay in certain parts of the yard we decided to get them collars similar to what we use with Skipper (they wear the collars and the wire for their boundary is underground). After a little trial and error it has worked like a charm. The goats have their boundaries and Skipper has hers. The goats are not allowed in the driveway because they would most likely climb on the vehicles or in the front yard (they would eat any of my flowers on the front porch or garden).
Our twin goats munching on something delicious!
The whole process has been an experience to say the least. There was moments of excitement and even some moments of tears…..I will share a little more of that part of the story a little later.
Curious Oreo, he just had to see what that silver shiny object was in my hands (my camera)!
The goats are always munching on something. They like anything from leaves, bushes, flowers, fruits, vegetables, peanuts, hay, grain, and more. We feed them grain once a day and in the cooler months make sure they have some hay to eat. Most days they will spend out in the yard eating or lounging in the sun. It has been a lot of fun learning what foods they goats love, for example, banana peels are a favorite as are peanuts (whole or just shells). One of their special grain treats smells like black licorice. Almost everyday after the girls get home from school they go immediately to see Skipper and the goats (usually bringing them treats).
Oreo looking over his shoulder to see what was taking Karlie and Brina so long!
All three goats Nigerian Dwarf Wethers and were born in February 2012 so they are not quite a year old. Oreo was born in the mountains of North Carolina. Our twin boys, Snowball and Coconut, were born in the foothills. When the goats only grow to be about the size of a black lab.
Buddies…..the girls love playing out in the yard and the goats love having the girls nearby.
The girls were excited to see meet family members and they have spent hours playing with them. It took us a few weeks before we came up with their names but everyone agreed on “Oreo Sunday”, “Snowball”, and “Toasted Coconut”. It has been quite entertaining to have these little guys around. They have a lot of personality and are always thrilled to see you.
The goats like to climb up onto things….such as fallen tree limbs! Karlie and Brina hanging out with the “billy-billies” as they call them
Snack time!
Crepe Paper “Surprise” Barricade
A surprise barricade in the kids doorway on Christmas morningIt is a lot of fun doing something little to get the girls attention on special days. Last year on Christmas Eve after the kids were in their room and sound asleep we added this crepe paper surprise barricade across their doorway. On Christmas morning we woke up to GIGGLES and “MOM! DAD! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” They thought it was hilarious! 🙂
The first time they got out of the room by popping off the bottom row and crawling underneath (they wanted to see what it looked like from outside the room too I guess). Then they busted through it…..laughing as they ran.
The whole set up took about 5 minutes and the girls still talk about it! All you need is some crepe paper (we used three rolls we already had at the house) and tape or sticky tack. We crisscrossed the crepe paper in front of their closed door using tape to stick it to the door frame and went to bed!
Jake putting up the crepe paper “surprise” barrier on Christmas Eve
Adding the final color of crepe paper to the doorway
What Are They Building Now!?
Our family lives on a small quiet street. All our neighbors are retired so when we start a project, specifically one in the yard, everyone is all “curious” about what we are up to. One of our neighbors will sit on the other side of the fence in his lawn chair sipping sweet tea and watch us as we work in the yard. After 10 years of being the entertainment for the neighborhood seeing him pull up his chair just makes me laugh.
We live on what the kids call a “small farm”. The property is over 4 acres with a big yard, creek, and woods. The girls and pets love running and playing in our yard. We’ve even done camp-outs, paintball games, bonfires, target practicing, and a lot of other activities in our yard.
Okay…..so back to the neighbors question “what are they building now”? A little over a year ago I was reading an article about goats, don’t ask me why, just happened to catch my eye during that time. Now I am not a big fan of goat milk or cheese or meat so that wasn’t what caught my attention it was the part about what the goats ate.
While the goat’s digestive system is similar to that of cattle, horses, and sheep they tend to prefer brush and trees over grass (they are more like deer). The reason why that caught my attention was because with our 4 acres we have a lot of trees, leaves, and brush. My husband and I had been talking a week before about spending some more time cleaning the undergrowth in the wooded area of our property so the article intrigued me.
With all that being said our kids LOVE animals (dogs, turtles, horses, cats, you name it), it is one area they have in common. They have been asking for years for a horse (I don’t think that’s going to happen, at least any time soon). A couple months earlier I teased my husband that I was going to get chickens for the girls to raise and so we could have fresh eggs to eat. He vetoed the chicken idea mainly because we have too many wild animals that go through our property (turkeys, deer, racoons, possums, foxes, coyotes, etc….). So when I brought up the idea of getting goats (more as a joke) I figured he would just laugh at my suggestion…..well, he didn’t. He started researching it more and decided that if I was up for it we could consider the possibility in a few months.
Well, a few months went by and we started preparing for the newest members of our family. What began with a simple glance at an article turned into building a goat house. Jake designed and built the whole thing by himself (well, with the help of the girls). The girls were soooooooo excited! Here are some pictures of the process:
Brina hammering away
Brina and Karlie having fun “working” on the goat house
Daddy working with his two helpers!
Brina & Karlie helping Daddy on the roof of the goat house
Brina, Karlie, Mommy, and Skipper painting the goat house. The girls picked out the color “candy apple red”!
Game: “Wits and Wagers Party” Game by North Star Games
Do you have an upcoming celebration or game night? Are you looking for the perfect party game? You should check out Wits & Wagers Party by North Star Games! You can have from 4 to 20 players and it only takes about 20 minutes to play a round. The rules are simple. Your guests will have a blast and will insist on playing another round.
Wits & Wagers Party has over 200 questions that will test your knowledge of various facts. Every answer is a number such as a year, percent, measurement, and so forth. You get points for having the closest answer without going over as well as for guessing the best answer (which could be any player’s answer). While this game is based on facts you don’t need to know all the answers in order to enjoy, participate, or even win the game!
Here’s 3 more games we recommend (we’ve played them many times):
Our review of this Wits & Wagers Family Game (easy enough for the kids to play too)
Our review of this Say Anything GameDo You See Apple Slices or A Candy Cane?
It is the super simple things that can add an extra festive touch to a family snack or get together. The girls wanted a snack so I sliced up some apples, but instead of putting them in a bowl or on a plate I left them on the cutting board in the shape of a candy cane. I love it when I am thinking clearly enough to actually do the “little stuff” because it is so worth seeing them get excited over apple slices in the shape of a candy cane or something similar.
Think of 3 simple ways you can add a festive touch to things you are already doing. Not to mention it may coax your kids to eat more apples or other healthy foods around the Holidays! 🙂 You don’t have to make elaborate dishes to spark a smile in your family members!
Lounging in the Haystack
Karlie and Brina having fun outside
Karlie and Brina taking a break and relaxing in a pile of hay. They were having a grand time playing in it while we were working in the yard. Next thing I knew they both had their lounge chairs in the pile too.
It was cute listening to their conversations as they relaxed in the hay stack. Who knew that a haystack could be a such an awesome place to hang out together?! It was amazing how long they cheerfully played, talked, and giggled while lounging in that little stack of hay!
Sometimes it is the simple things already in the yard that can be the most entertaining for the kids. 🙂
Chickies hanging out on a pile of hay in their lawn chairs…….silly girls!
Travel & Vacation: Orange County Kabini, India
Matt & Jake in an intense game of ping pong
The kids taking an evening swim in the kids pool before heading back to the hut to crash.
In the evening there is a tribal dance put on by people from the local village. It was fascinating to watch them. I was having a hard time getting a picture that wasn’t blurry. Between the darkness, fire, and constant movement this was the best one I could get of the men who came to demonstrate their traditional tribal dance.
Massive tree at the resort! If you look closely you can see Jake and Matt standing in front of it.
Decorating the Christmas Tree
A picture of our spinning Christmas tree all decorated at night!
The girls LOVE helping us decorate the tree for Christmas and can barely wait for us to get all the stuff out of the attic. Over the years they really have become a huge help when it comes to decorating, not to mention that their excitement is contagious!
When we decorate the Christmas tree we like to turn on the Christmas music and have fun. While our tree will not win any award for the “most professionally decorated” or “color coordinated”, it is packed full of memories. Christmas ornaments I had as a baby, items the girls have made for us, and many other fun family treasures. In all fairness it is the perfect tree for our family because we did it together.
Karlie all smiles as she wears the “tree skirt”!
My little Brina helper! All smiles as she listens to music and helps put up the Christmas decorations.
Taking a break from tree decorating to drink some Eggnog!
Our Christmas tree, decorated by the whole family!
Throughout the Christmas Season you can often find our family reading a book together near the tree, sitting on the couch next to it talking about our days, or even enjoying a cup of hot chocolate while looking into the tinkling lights. I am thankful for my family and the opportunity to celebrate yet another wonderful season together.
