Time...

Time happens. Life happens.

New house.

School.

Jobs.

Volunteering.

Who is with me?

Mom Life is real life y'all.

The one thing that I have lost sight of the past year while not blogging is ME. The reason why I write.  Getting my thoughts down on the screen. No this doesn't make me a bad Moma. Because obviously I have been in the moments with my children, but the me outlet of writing it down and expressing my thoughts and feelings on the events is what I have been missing out on.

Braden is now into his almost 4th month as a Senior in high school. Pictures have been taken. Cap & Gown have been purchased. The senior yearbook photo has been picked and even the yearbook has been purchased- have I mentioned before the size of that book? It's literally a coffee table book.
With almost 4000 students in his high school it takes a big book to capture every student, event, organization and activity.

Miss K is now a sixth grader. Currently dreaming of her first middle school dance. Still adjusting to six different teachers and learning when to talk and when not to in school. It's all about makeup, clothes, her phone and friends right now. The way it should be for an 11 year old girl.

Me? I'm still adjusting to the new house. Who knew after living in a house for 14 years that a new house would take some adjusting.  This home is slowly taking shape. Pictures and items are now on the walls, there is still decorating to do. My style has changed a bit with the walls. The pictures that hung before don't fit or go.

Jason is Jason. He works. Comes home. Eats if I cook. Eats if I don't. I'm a little envious of Jason.

Oh and did I forget a family member? Tusk. Yes, our puppy is now ONE! He is MY best friend. Does not leave my side for nothing.

Obviously if you follow me on FB you know a lot of happenings, but FB is not the BLOG.

I promise. I'll be back. Soon. Very soon.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog- Week 2

The second week of elf activities proved that we are beginning to get into Christmas busy at our nest..

The elves made slime.

They brought kisses. 

Who knew the elves had their own popcorn line.

Malia decided she needed to hang with in the pre-teen zone!

READ MORE BOOKS...

Elves rule and Tusk drools...the elves do not know what to think about our new puppy. 

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the image above, link up, and play along once a week until December 29th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the image and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf17 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog- The Arrival and Week 1

This year the elves were sneaky. The doorbell rang on Thanksgiving night and they were no where to be found. They left a garden flag and ding dong ditched. The search was on. Miss K finally found them upstairs in the entertainment room- YES, we have a new house with an upstairs hence the lack of blogging this year. They hung a "WE'RE BACK" banner, lit the fireplace on the TV and surprised her!

 Day 1 brought them wanting to Black Friday shopping...of course.

Day 2 the elves wanted to make sure the laundry was done. Supervising from that angle might have not been a good idea.

Day 3 Let's Take an Elfie. Too fun. Not sure where Miss K's Elfie went. She takes a LOT!

Day 4 Melting Snowmen. Oklahoma weather is still not Snowman ready.

Day 5. This is new. Woo Hoo. Stairs. Tusk tried to help also. 

Day 6. Jokes. 

Day 7. What is up with all these weird tree landings. 

Day 8. The tree rescue. Evan the little boy we take to school said that fire truck was loud!!

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the elf image above, link up, and play along once a week until December 29th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the image and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf17 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog 2017- The Introduction

Only one more week and Malia Peppermint Pattie, Charley our scout elves and their pets Frost & Rory Whisker the St. Bernard return from the North Pole. Five Thanksgivings ago The 4-Crows were summoned by the doorbell and found a visitor from the North Pole. The visitor was nameless at the time, but soon became know as Malia Peppermint Pattie. 2011 was actually our first year to participate in The Elf on the Shelf Tradition. We didn't exactly have a "real" Elf on the Shelf, so I called our daily link up Elf on a Shelf. We had Charley, a 40+ year old Whitman's Chocolate Candy Elf given to us by Miss K's dance instructor Miss Pam. In 2014, a reindeer pet named Frost joined our nest in all the Elf fun. In 2016 Rory Whiskers joined us- got to love Gilmore Girls.

In 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 and 2016 we hosted a weekly link up, showcasing a full 7 days of elf fun. Our Charley has had to semi retire. He is still a part of our household, but because he is "vintage", I decided he no longer needed to be serving in any reindeer games. He is actually pictured in the above button, see his rips? You can read more about Charley here, also feel free to visit the last five years of linkups and see what kinds of fun our scouts have around our nest.

We absolutely LOVE this tradition, so much that we have even been known to blog for Elf on the Shelf. See our posts here and here.

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the image above, link up, and play along once a week until December 29th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the image and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf17 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

I once again made myself an Elf on a Shelf Calendar. I have once again made time to get organized. I'll be honest, I did a pretty good job last year of sticking to it. Feel free to use my ideas or print out the blank form for your own use.

download here

Amazon Prints is REALLY worth the try! $1000 of Amazon Gift Cards to be Won! #AmazonPrints #Ad

Happy June my blog readers....yes, I know its been a while. Life has been happening and just because I am not always sharing here, you KNOW where I am sharing. In December, I told you about a great new option when it comes to online photo storage in this post with the Amazon Prime Photos. And NOW Amazon Prints offers a variety of services for storing and printing your photos! If you are an Amazon Prime member, one of your Prime benefits is free unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos. If you’re not a Prime customer, you can still get 5GB of free storage. When it comes to printing pictures, photo prints start at just $.09 each.Prime members can upload images to their Prime Photos account, print the product of their choice, and receive free delivery. If you’re not a Prime member, you’ll receive 5 GB of storage free on Prime Photos and be able to print your favorite photos. Prints start as low as $0.09. Just visit Amazon Prints to get started. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am pretty stoked about this new option. Especially the photo books. But since I needed to get some graduation thank you's made for niece now...

Thanks to Amazon for sponsoring this post and providing prizes for the giveaway!
Fire and the Amazon Fire TV logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog 2016- The Goodbye

Our elves went back to the North Pole this year on the day they were supposed to. I think they were a little tired of our crazy Oklahoma weather...

We decided that since the elves were not U.S. citizens, that this was a hint that it was time to plan a trip. Think the other adult in the house took the bait? 

Christmas Eve. Of course we must make Reindeer Food. 

We came home from Christmas Eve Service and found this....

Here is Miss K reading the letter. 

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the button below, link up, and play along once a week until December 30th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the button and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you had this year! And once again, we will play next year...

<div align="center">
<a href="http://the4crows.com" rel="nofollow" title="The 4-Crow's Blog"><img src="http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu106/The4Crows/ElfonaShelf_zpspbm6eeva.jpg" alt="The 4-Crow's Blog" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf16 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's 2016 will be posted the following Friday's, hope you join in!

The Introduction 2016
November 25-The Arrival
December 2
December 9
December 16
December 23
December 30-Today's Post

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog 2016- Week 4

The last full week of Christmas 2016. How does that even happen? And of course the elves are not going to go back to the NP without lots of fun...

Charley and Malia decided that it would be fun to TP Miss K's Christmas tree on Day 22!

Bowling at the Candy Cane Lanes on Day 23. 

(Santa found the pins at Michaels and the bowling lane printable from Learning as I Sew)

Thanks to Social Media, the elves changed their calendar up a bit this week and added this one in...Miss K even added a video to her YouTube Channel. Be sure to follow her. 

She has big plans in 2017, 

Ha! It took forever for Miss K to find the elves in this hiding place. 

The last day of school 2016!! 

Magic North Pole Seeds. Here is a closer look at the directions and a printable for next year. 

(link to print jpg or pdf)

24 hours later, the seeds grew a peppermint swirl lollipop!!

Only two more days until Christmas. What will day 29 and 30 bring? 

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the button below, link up, and play along once a week until December 30th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the button and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://the4crows.com" rel="nofollow" title="The 4-Crow's Blog"><img src="http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu106/The4Crows/ElfonaShelf_zpspbm6eeva.jpg" alt="The 4-Crow's Blog" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf16 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's 2016 will be posted the following Friday's, hope you join in!

Introduction
November 25- The Arrival
December 2
December 9
December 16
December 23
December 30

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's Blog 2016- Week 3

Our Elf season is moving very quickly. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only 9 days away. The Elf report to the North Pole has been very favorable this week.

It is okay to play with your food when you make Fun friend designs out of it! 

BeanBoozle anyone? Dead Fish or Strawberry Banana Smoothie?

Luke 1:26-28 (NIV)

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 

And of course in North Pole Fashion, this morning began with a birthday tradition visit from our elves! Yikes!!! We have a 16 year old in the house.

How about an elf joke? Can you say CORNY?

Break out the blood pressure cuff, the stethoscope, the kleenexes and the Elf on the Shelf bandaids. 

Rudolph is SICK. So is Daddy Crow. Poor babies. 

Only 10 more days until Christmas!! The elves love this fireplace that Miss K made, the Yuletide video on the iPod is very toasty! 

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the button below, link up, and play along once a week until December 30th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the button and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://the4crows.com" rel="nofollow" title="The 4-Crow's Blog"><img src="http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu106/The4Crows/ElfonaShelf_zpspbm6eeva.jpg" alt="The 4-Crow's Blog" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf16 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.

Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's 2016 will be posted the following Friday's, hope you join in!

Introduction
November 25
December 2
December 9
December 16
December 23
December 30