Benny the Elf

Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? I'm sure by now you have. 

If you haven't it is the cutest thing ever!

The idea is that one of Santa's elves is sent to your house to watch 

if your family is being naughty or nice.

You get an elf and a cute book that explains who he is and why he's at your house

The book says to hurry and name you elf when he comes

...

Brad named our elf 

Benny!

...

I bought Benny for my kids at work.

I knew the month of December was going to be a nightmare to get through.

Thanks to Benny, it was delightful...and funny!

I had him come to my classroom and the first day he sat on my desk.

I didn't want him to be too distracting.

The kids picked up on the concept pretty fast

The second they were out of their seats or not listening 

All I had to do was say, "Benny's watching!" 

and BAM! They were little angles!

The 2nd day we had a bit more fun.

Isn't he just so cute!

The kids couldn't understand where he got his book from..ha!

So funny story

Benny was just sittin' around reading his book, minding his own business

I brought my group of 3 boys in and had them find Benny

We had a little laugh and got to work

This one little boy kept looking at the corner where Benny was

and kept saying something under his breath.

I finally stopped to find out what the heck he was doing

He would look at Benny and say, "Stop looking at me!"

Then turn away, then a few minutes later, he would look to see if Benny was still "looking at him".

He did this over and over and each time would tell Benny to "stop it!" 

I tried not to laugh, but told him to just ignore Benny.

Well finally it was bugging him enough that he grabbed my mirror and put it up to his face to block his view of Benny. Then he would peak around the mirror only to find, you guessed it, Benny looking at him! I was cracking up inside!

....

Anywho. The next week we celebrated the Grinch and had Grinch week!

The first day of Grinch day we came in the classroom to find this....

Benny and his buddy the Grinch!

That day we watched the first half of the Grinch and did some Grinchy activities.

So it was only fitting that the next day Benny and the Grinch should do something mischievous. 

This is what we found.....

 Benny and the Grinch broke in to the kids prize box and stole their prizes!

 The Grinch even bagged up a bunch of the prizes!

Benny had his own fun trying on all the stuff

and helping himself to some chocolate!

I thought I was hilarious!

but

when one works with language delayed/autistic/learning disabled kids like I do

they tend to not notice/be able to make inferences about funny little things like in this situation.

I had to ask questions and prompt up the wazoo for them to even understand what was funny 

about this situation

So all in all it turned out to be a good teaching experience.

Benny will most definitely be coming back next year!

. . . . . .

I broke out Benny again to celebrate by brother getting his mission call!

Benny was rather excited himself

He even received his own call!

My brother has been called to serve in the

drum roll please

. . . . . . . . . .

Culican, Mexico mission!

Congrats Brad!

.....and Benny!

How to Talk to Girls

Dear Boys,

I would like to introduce you to Alec Greven. He has got it goin' on and knows how to win the ladies. Please watch, take notes and learn from this little man.

Sincerely,

McCall

Mechanical Bam-Bams

I am here to say how much I love my mechanical bam-bams. What are they you ask? I'll let Romeo and Chelsea Hightower explain that to you. Sit back, relax, take a load off and enjoy!

Skip ahead to 43 seconds if you don't want to watch the whole thing....but it's all hilarious so just watch all of it. You won't be sorry you did.

When I first saw this on DWTS I couldn't stop laughing for hours!

I love this video, but I'll tell you why I love mechanical bam-bams more. I had heart surgery in June and couldn't wear a bra after. I remembered this priceless moment and..... lightbulb! I knew the bam-bams were a solution to my problem. Hailey went and picked one out for me.

Source

I have had this bra for 3 months and it still works! So if you know of anyone that is having heart surgery, they will love you forever for giving them some mechanical bam-bams as a gift!

Mine have not fallen off (thank goodness), but I also haven't been bouncing up and down a lot, so who knows! 

 And to answer your question Romeo.....Yes! That is what girls are wearing these days.

A Collection of Projects

I've been posting all my recent projects and now that they are up, here is a little display of all of them together.

I like how it all come together!

My Prince Charming

This has got to be one of my most favorite presents I've ever been given. I wrote my cute friend Lori (Sister London right now) and told her that I didn't trust myself with dating decisions anymore. I told her that she was to be in charge of my dating life from now on. She always finds the funniest/cutest/most thoughtful little presents and this one was no different. Behold... The Magic Frog to Prince.......

 

Source

This is seriously awesome! I love the "just add water" part...ha! I wish it were really that easy. So here's the magical story:

    "Once upon a time in a land far, far away a beautiful princess named McCall was sick and tired of all the retards in tin foil coming to her castle and desperately wanted a knight in shining armor to come and rescue her and sweep her off her feet to a happily ever after....yeah I know, you are all saying, "yeah right like that ever happens"... but just go with it. One day her fairy godmother presents her with a magical gift. She tells Princess McCall to take this magical frog and just add water and if she waits patiently her Prince will appear.  Princess McCall is so excited to finally get the chance to meet her prince charming. See....

She thanks her fairy godmother and goes off on her merry way. (insert a song about meeting a Prince)

She goes to a magical fountain and pours water onto the frog and the magic begins....

 

Right before her eyes, the frog disappeared in bubbly green water. The transformation had begun! She could hardly contain her excitement. When the bubbling finally died down, she took a deep breath...she was about to finally meet the person her heart had been dreaming of..... She cleared out the water and there he was in all his handsome glory....

Isn't he the most handsome miniature prince you have ever seen! Almost has hot as Flynn Rider! Which is what is name is p.s. Well, Prince Flynn needed some time to grow, so he spent the next 72 hours growing 2-3 times his size. Princess McCall and Prince Flynn took one look at each other and knew it was love at first sight. They will be getting married after Prince William and Kate's big day is out of the way of course. They plan on living happily ever after!

    The End!

This is where Prince Flynn hangs out. I thought this was so fitting. I'm still waitin' on my prince and he's waitin' on me. Hopefully one of these days we'll meet before the clocks strikes midnight and my magical powers disappear! I hope you enjoyed my fairytale!

The Bro's Grotto

 My bro and his buddies have got some mad construction skills. This last summer they build their very own tree house! I always wanted a tree house, and this one is sweet! Now where did they build this you ask? Well on private property, meaning the backyard area of some stranger that live off of the golf course. They just up and decided that this was the place and moved on in. Keep in mind these are 3 or 4 17 year old boys, so naturally they do everything as rebelliously/illegally as they can aka they bought very little of what they used to make this...shhh, don't tell.

I never went to see it this summer, because, well, teenage boys are gross and I didn't want to go hang out in it... or intrude on anything! So I finally went a few weeks ago. I had to hike in the snow and mud, but it was worth it. I was so impressed with their skills. Seriously! I didn't know they were smart enough to build something like this!

Welcome to the Grotto (as they named it)....

I love the door! Impressive, right?! They have big plans for this summer.  Add an upstairs and get this.... a chimney! Ha ha I'd love to see that! Let's hear it for the boys!