Hehehe…
Jacob has his own method of sorting laundry.
This post could also be called “Why I don’t get anything done”
This is pretty neat.
WordPress puts together an annual report of the activity on my blog. I found it so interesting. Thank you for stopping by, readers!! 🙂 ❤
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 14,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals
This year, Jacob gave his grand- and great-grandparents a lovely Christmas gift: a hand print ornament. Craft stores sell handprint kits, but they can be pricey. I made salt dough ornaments from things I already had around the house, and it was an easy and beautiful craft!
Salt dough recipe:
1 cup flour
3/4 to 1 cup salt
Warm water
Mod Podge or other shellac
Mix the flour and salt with enough warm water to form a malleable dough. Start with 1/4 cup and slowly add more as needed. Knead with your hands to form dough. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters to form your ornament’s shape. Use a straw to punch a hole for ribbon. Bake in a 200 degree oven for around 2 hours, or until hard. I carved Jacob’s name and the year into the first couple but then decided to try Sharpie on others, so you’ll see both in the photos. My first batch was too brown (like a cookie) which I remedied by adding more salt to the dough. 3/4 cup gave the results of the round ornaments in the photos below. Paint them all over with at least one coat of mod podge. I used glitter mod podge first, then one final coat of clear over that.
I could not fit Jacob’s footprint into a manageable ornament size, so I only used his handprint. Last Christmas when I used a kit for this task I couldn’t get his newborn baby hand to unfurl and had to use a footprint. It’s not a problem to try and, if you squish it accidentally you can just roll it out again and start over.
I packaged them with computer paper (printed with a cute picture of Jacob and some Christmasy stuff) and sandwich bags, stapled at the top like a bag of candy.
Jacob and I met up with my friend Lindsay and her girls Tessa and Ellie (yes, I know those are the cutest names ever). It’s so great to have really good mom friends. I mean, not only are we food friends, I mean that she is a really good mom and it is wonderful to talk to her about the challenges and things…
I don’t have a picture of baby Ellie because she was sleeping in mommy’s Ergo carrier.
Also it was ridiculously gorgeous–we were wearing tank tops (the winter sweaters had to go) and enjoying the sparkling water and surfers. 🙂
Happy new year my friends.
Wishing you all the love and happiness possible, and a fresh start if you need it.
2012 had so many memorable moments for us that it will be remembered as an amazing year. Of course there were hard times as well. We lost some loved ones–Matt Thompson, gone way before his time, and Jan Holland, the closest thing to an angel you get on earth. My brother nearly died, and for the second time in recent years I had to face the very real possibility of life without someone I love. On the other side of that experience, 2012 was the year my brother got a second chance and got (and stayed!) sober, something I’ve wanted to see for so long.
I quit my job and accepted a much higher calling, and I’ve been challenged every day since. I have also found a job during the commission of which, each day, there is a moment that takes my breath away.
We were able to travel quite a bit this year, we did only minimal work* on the house, and we enjoyed life a whole lot.
What does 2013 hold? Well I will become an auntie! That is the most important and exciting news. Josh turns 30 in February. Josh will try for his best record yet at Vision Quest in April, and if he keeps his momentum for last year, he will be great. We will travel to Arizona in the spring for the Whiskey 50 mtb race. We will celebrate ten years together (!!!!). My “little sister and brother” Brittany and dillon will graduate from college. Carlee and Chloe will graduate from high school. We are taking a trip to Cabo in the fall to celebrate all if Josh’s friends turning 30. We have two weddings to attend (so far!). Whew I’m already exhausted.
It’s shaping up to be a great year b
*disclaimer: josh says “I don’t know what you did that was ‘minimal’, but I did a bathroom remodel!” I guess I thought that was minimal for us?
Around June of this year (2012), I was talking to my friend Niki and someone the topic of garden gnomes came up, and she said, “that’s what you should do for Jacob’s party!” I loved the idea. It is not commercial, not common, and not gendered. I thought it fit perfectly with my little December birthday without making a “Christmas” or “winter” theme (although Winter ONE-derland is a very cute idea, too!). I also thought it would be adorable with the park setting. Of course I had dressed Jacob as a gnome for Halloween and one of his pictures was framed welcoming guests to his party!
I searched Pinterest for gnoma party ideas, and I did find a few. On those I found, the blog links were very helpful. I am trying to “pay it forward” with the crafting information on Jacob’s Gnome Party. Please feel free to contact me for more info!
The invitation:
I ordered the invitation design from Etsy. The artist customizes her design with your text and picture. I then had it printed and purchased envelopes.
The gifts were gathered around a gnome tree. The tree consists of manzanita branches that my friend Lisa purchased for her daughter’s Adoption Celebration. Hanging from them are mushroom ornaments from World Market, hand-painted birdhouses and gnome heads (probably meant to be elves – Christmas ornaments from Michaels that I painted and added felt beards to), and pictures from Jacob’s first year, month-by-month. I backed the photos from gnome wrapping paper and polka-dot ribbon to hang them. 
I had ordered red polka dot balloons online and had them filled, but sadly they flew away before the party started. 😦 I was pretty sad. My brother and his girlfriend ran out and got the balloons you see above. Thanks, Ri and Taylor!
The fabric pennants were one of the most time-consuming details. The invitation envelopes had pennants printed on them, and I wanted pennants to be a sort of “sub theme.” I made them in primary colors planning on using them again. I cut the triangles and quickly glued them in pairs with fabric glue, then used a zig-zag stitch around the edge to prevent too much fraying. I then pinned them (so that the edges were touching) inside red quilt binding bias tape and then sewed them with a zig-zag stitch down the middle.
Here is a close-up of the ornaments…
…and the photos. You can see that I typed the age in months that he was on each one.
The centerpieces were adorable felt gnomes, felt gnome homes, and hand-painted birdhouses inside of glass vases. Lisa found these for the centerpieces for her daughter’s first birthday party, and I am so happy to have them “in the family” for future parties. You can do a lot with them! Moss lines the bottom. You can also see felt gnome hats sitting on the table for guests. I found them on Oriental Trading Company.
This is the back of the dessert table at the end of the party. The cupcake stand was made by Tracy and has been used so many times now! Here I edged it with red polka-dot ribbon and strands of tiny pennants that I cut from fabric and felt and strung together with baker’s twine. Various apothecary jars hold colorful candies. The cupcakes are funfetti (my favorite, and so festive) topped with homemade vanilla buttercream. The cupcake “bites” are so easy to make! This was scratch-made vanilla cake spooned into tiny cupcake papers which just sit on a cookie sheet to bake (no special pan necessary). They are the perfect one bite dessert. 
Lisa made the adorable favor tags with a picture of Jacob from Halloween.
Tiny chalkboards on clothespins from Very Jane let guests know what they were snacking on. 
Tracy (of the cupcake stand above) made these AMAZING gnome (and toadstool – see above photo) cake pops! They are insanely cute!
Here is Jacob’s smash cake post-smash. It was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. It was delicious (although he didn’t really like it).
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons whipping cream
Apparently the sugar in the frosting acts as a preservative for the whipping cream so this does not need to be refrigerated. Know that if you do refrigerate it, the frosting will harden. A lot. If you want to spread it, it needs to be at room temperature (think butter). If it is hot out or you heat it up, it will run all over your cake and make a huge mess, so be careful! I put all of this in my Pampered Chef cake decorating tool and piped the frosting on.
The toadstool pops have chocolate marshmallows for the base and white chocolate chips for the dots. The gnomes’ hats are small ice cream cones coated in colored white chocolate.
Jacob’s high chair decorations consisted of pennants, a white paper “boa” and slipcover for the chair. I made the slipcover by roughly measuring the chair sewing an approximation of the shape, then placing it over the chair and pinning it more precisely and sewing it again. I thought it would make a much cuter backdrop than the regular chair back, and is machine-washable!!
His hat was made from a cereal box covered in fabric and rick-rack with a felt number and sparkly pom-pom at the top.
The tutorial is pinned to my “Jacob’s Party”board on interest: http://pinterest.com/koreyoskins/jacob-s-party/
His red tie was also made from a tutorial found on pinterest. I also made diaper covers in red and brown polka-dot, but it was just too cold, so I left his jeans on. The idea was that he would get all messy and then go back into his clothes. Oh well!
The invitation I sent out for the party included the template for the circles seen on the cupcakes above. I printed them, cut with a paper punch, and glued them to rainbow toothpicks. The cake topper consists of more tiny pennants of fabric and felt strung on baker’s twine between two wooden skewers, as well as a polka-dot “1” candle.
The paper gnomes on the cupcake stand were gift tags from the Spritz line at Target!
I had this banner made (and purchased the matching gnome party supplies like plates and tablecloths) from Birthday Express.
Well, I guess that’s about it! What a wonderful day!
We had such a wonderful Christmas! This was the first year that Santa came for Jacob (last year he was too little) and it was so fun! He is really great at opening presents.
I got two massage gift certificates from Josh 🙂
Sadly, this was the best picture we got of Jacob in his Christmas pajamas.
The gifts we have been given are but symbols of the gift of life we have all received. 
Josh and Korey 