Busy Bees and Christmas Trees

The last few weeks we have been so busy.  It was late in the afternoon a couple Saturdays ago when the phone rang.  It was a man up in Longview who had brought in someone else to help with his business and she had messed his computer up and he couldn't do anything he needed to. Now, we don't normally do same day unless we are in a contract or they are a business.  Alex told him we would be there shortly and it was probably the best jump and run decision we have ever made.  This guy was extremely happy with Alex's efficiency in getting him up and running again.  He also knows a lot of people and has started referring us out to everyone he meets. We have been back to his home/office multiple times since then and now have him on a quarterly maintenance contract starting in January.  We have also had another company who has kept us on our toes as they have messed up countless computers and Alex has had to spend hours upon hours over there working.  I can't say that it's a bad thing, but it definitely makes it had to get things done some days. 

Other than the business, keeping up with the house, and keeping up with this growing adventurous little boy, I've been busy making gifts.  Every year I go through the same thing of "what do I get for ____?" Well this year I decided to do something different or at least tried.  Some people are harder than others and with such a short time frame it didn't all happen.  Below are a few of the gifts that I made for Christmas.  The others can not be posted as we are not to Christmas and the gifts are still wrapped under the tree.

Here is my mom with her gift.  I made rustic picture frames using twigs/branches off a few of our trees.  They are tied together with jute.  The top has a piece of fabric with Luke's hands and the bottom has our family Christmas picture ironed on.  I love how both turned out. 

This is my grandmother (great grandma, or g.g.ma to Luke).  Since she is in the process of having her new house built, we made her this clock with Luke's hand prints to hang on the wall.  I love how it turned out.

  For the two boys I made "Hawaii Bags"  They needed something to take on the plane as a carry on so each boy got a homemade bag big enough to fit some of their drawing books and stuff along with game boys and what ever else is needed. Here is Jordan's...

And here is Joseph's...

Now that Luke is getting a little bigger and better at balancing, we let him walk around and play with Charlie. He giggled and giggled as Charlie gave him kisses.  This boy has no fear, even with a dog that weighs 5x his weight.  

Since our early Christmas I've been beating feet to get other things done.  My mother gave me a gift card to "organize".  My first project is the laundry room.  This room is the cause of much mess in our house.  The first thing I'm doing is adding some shelving.  Here is a 'blue print' of the original plans...

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a cabinet that was the perfect size cabinet but I found one that I liked. It will be 12 inches deep and 12 inches tall rather than 18x18'' but this will help get all the bottles off the washer and dryer.   

Over the washer we are adding a hanging rod so that I can hang things up (and fold them) as I pull them out of the dryer rather than them ending up piled somewhere.  There is also going to be a white shelf that runs over the top of the hanging rack so that I can store my small totes up there.

 

I've been on the look out for small bins to help organize.  I found two super cute wooden bins at Goodwill yesterday. They are currently a powder purple which goes with nothing in my house.  I'm going to repaint them to a medium green.  They also have little black chalkboards on the front that I can use to label them!  

I've covered the chalkboard and I think the first layer of paint will be going on today!

We will still be busy as can be through the next couple weeks as we go through Christmas.  We have a lot going on, both with us and the business.  I will try to post more soon!