What Have I Been Up To???

What have I NOT been up to – is the more appropriate question. The Deiterings have been SO busy, we have barely had time to say ‘Hey, do I know you? You’re living in my house…”  hehehehee. I am still in the middle of a TON of things but, I wanted to give an update in pics! They are cute pics so it will be worth the scroll down…..   :)

 

The week before Thanksgiving week we started decorating at CPC:Benton. This is Tree #1 – I didn’t get a pic of tree #2 or tree #3… weird. All of them are tall and big and they scratched up my arms… ugh.

 

 

Today we went to CPC:Conway and decorated the 9ft tree #4…..

 

 

After we got back from Conway, BFF Jess and I BEASTED the Christmas Tree #5 in the Kingdom Kids area. Literally we decorated it in 45 minutes….wow.

I made this tree skirt a couple of weeks ago for the tree – hoping and praying that it would look good with everything….

It is AMAZINGLY cute under the tree!!! I still have to put up my tree at home (#6) and I have to finish the one in KOT:Conway (#7)….. yeah… Hopefully I will finish before Christmas time…  :)

 

 

This little guy was helping with the Christmas Décor at Benton, I had to catch him and let him go outside…. 

 

 

A couple of weeks ago Krystle and Josh were ready to take their engagement pics….. we had a plan, a day, a house to get ready in, a make-up/hair team, and a beautiful day. I can’t share them because they make me laugh SOOOOOO much. They were not your typical engagement pics, and I loved it.

 

 

I have been crafting A LOT in the past couple of weeks and I think my fat cat decided she had had enough and wanted some attention….

 

 

GOODWILL finds: My girls and I have had AMAZING luck at Goodwill recently. Look at this bedspread I found for under $20. (I can’t give you an exact amount, because I don’t remember, but I would not have paid more than $20)

All this fabric was $1 each … what??? yes!!!

 

 

We had a LOT of rain right before Thanksgiving…this is our backyard…it was a swamp. I always say I am going to go around and take pics of the flooding, because it is SO crazy, but I never do….one day, one day…..

 

 

November 20th was my little brothers birthday (and crazy uncle Eddie)!!!!! This was us in the Dominican.

I happened to look down at my phone at 11:20 on 11-20… hehehhehheee

 

 

I made a tree skirt for my tree at home…….It will look amazing once I get the tree up…… heheheheee

 

 

OOOOOOO – Hello Ladies made this AWESOME button picture frame, we are SO in love with it….AND it’s also for sale…..if interested……

 

Well there has been a whole lot more, but my eyes are crossing….. I promise more great PiC posts soon!  :)

~mandy~

I have not forgotten……

I promise I will be back ASAP!! We’ve hit the Christmas Decorating season at CPC and so I am trying to get that taken care of before I post all my goodies I have made for the Kingdom Kids tree! Great stuff!!!!! Stay with me and keep checking back!  :)

~mandy~

Christmas Presents….

A couple of years ago I decided to make Christmas Presents for my nieces and nephews on Brand’s side of the family. It was a crazy thought because at that point I owned a sewing machine, needle and thread, but I had not sewn anything more than a button on a shirt…… So I started out and my nephew wasn’t born yet so I set out to make 5 cats. I tried to find the pattern on Flickr, but alas I could not find it. ANYWHO…. I suffered through, the pattern didn’t tell me how to attach the head of the cat to the body, the pieces didn’t match up super well, but dad gum it, I made them and the kids LOVED them. The next year I designed cute little square guys with arms and legs and cute button eyes …. they were cute.

I don’t know why I stopped doing it, but I was recently told my one of my sisters’ in law that her daughter really liked when I made them and has both of her presents and keeps them safe in a box. SO that inspired me to start the tradition back up. The kiddos are a bit older, the new ones are in the 3 year range and the older ones are 16…. and I have to make a BUNCH! SO I looked on Etsy and Flickr to find a pattern to make. Here are the finalists…..Since this post I have made my choice, but see i f you can pick out which one I picked.  :)

 

Singing Squirrel Pattern

Platypus Pattern

Bunnies Pattern

Monster Pattern

Owl & Baby Softie

Girl Doll Patterns

Scotty Dog Pattern

Prince Charming Softie

 

Wish me Luck!

~mandy~

Exciting Christmas News!

Today I stopped by Pastor Kathi’s office and asked her if I could decorate the Kingdom Kids (birth – 5years old) area this year for Christmas. She said “YES” and we spent the better part of an hour talking about neat ideas we had seen and cool craft projects we could make happen to keep the cost down. We were both on the same page about the theme!!! How awesome this that??? I don’t have the “full vision” yet, but here are some pics that are going up on my inspiration board at work this week……

How cute is this gonna be. I’ve also got to get some ideas for the children’s church in Conway!!! I will be decorating in like 5 places this year… YAY!!!

~mandy~

Getting a Special CPC post together…

A couple of months ago I posted a link to a new website called “Impress Your Kids”. This is the same website where I have been getting my CPC: CONWAY - ABC sermon ideas from. 25 days ago Amanda (the author) started this series called “31 Days to Impress Your Kids.” She shares some practical things to help you imprint the Word of God on your children’s heart forever. I have not had a chance to go through the days yet, but that is my plan this after noon and I am excited to share the post with you!!! As a step parent I am constantly trying to find ways to teach the girls about life and God on a level they can understand and they can remember, I believe I have found the website series to help me with that. SOOOOO, get ready, I am excited, you should get excited!

~mandy~

Secret Confession

Why? Because I do.

Usually people need something RIGHT THEN and I am in the middle of 400 other things.

OR they want to ask a question that I am not a liberty to tell them the answer to.

OR it’s a problem that I have to fix when I don’t know how to fix it.

OR a teacher didn’t show up in the nursery.

OR it’s something that they ‘really’ don’t need to talk to me about.

OR I forgot to do something and it’s at panic stage now.

OR ……. well you get the point.

SO, if you ever come up and say “I need to talk to you” and I have a panicked look…. this is way.

Be kind to me. Please.

~mandy~

:)

Vacation Pics….YUP

You knew it was coming…. I did find out that I didn’t take nearly as many pics as I thought I did…. Oh well.

Literally 20 minutes after we got to our condo we were headed to the beach. This was my attempt to walk and take a pic of Jess and I . The bottom one -  Brand took the camera to get our pic, but a bug decided to attack Jess at that time…. I was very concerned for her safety…as you can see.

Day 5 we went to Fort Morgan – further down the beach – to check out the area and see if we wanted to stay there on another vacation….

We decided that CenterPoint should buy this house and all the staff be able to use it….It was for sale…… just sayin.  :)

Rain storm from the 16th floor – pretty neat.

Morning sky

Our CONDO!!!

Last Night

We had a great time!

~mandy~

CPC:Benton BIG DAY & CPC:Conway Update

This past Sunday our church, CenterPoint Church, finished our 7 week series, the Magnificent Seven, with a BIG DAY!! We had a cookout and blowup games for the kids… a super great time. We also had a water baptism after service, but those pics are on my camera and I don’t have the cord at the moment.

Our BIG DAY in Conway is this Sunday!!!! We have been busy getting ready. Krystle and I have spent the last couple of Monday’s getting the nursery and children’s church areas spiffed up for the day….

We painted “popcorn box” party favors for the “baskets” of our hot air balloons.

Turned out super cute!

 

We then started a felt Autumn Garland……it turned out amazing!!!!

 

We have some soundproofing issues in the nursery, so Krystle and I are always looking for ways to work on that. This week Krystle had the amazing idea to “draw” a couple of trees with glue, let it dry, and then paint over it, for a fun texture. Behind the canvas we put some fabric behind it to absorb some sound.

I brought paintbrushes…..but they were all tiny brushes. I had the idea to “paint with napkins” ….. that should work, right???? Well……not really, but I came up with a really cool effect and SOOOOO we went with it.

Kinda cool…..They look better in person. So you should come and see them in person one day… just sayin’.

Got home from CPC:Conway around 8:00 and sat down to eat some yummy Slim Chicken’s, which I had brought back from Conway with me.  :) There are several more things we have to complete, so I know we will have more pics to share……

~mandy~