"Get Well" Cards Needed

Two examples of cards

If you are looking for an easy little service project to get your kids involved with, consider making some "Get Well" cards to go in our Huntsman Totes!  We had originally planned to have the grand kids make all the cards, but when the Tote project took off and got as big as it has, we realized that having 10 little kids (3 of which are babies...so really 7 little kids) make 100+ cards was just too much.  So I am opening this up to everybody now!

Ben has every card/picture/note drawn by the kids hanging on his mantle and railing where he can see them every day.  He won't let anybody take them down or change them out.  They are important to him, so we think cards from children are important to add to the totes.

You can see many of the cards behind him hanging on the railing...his mantle is just as full.  He LOVES his nieces and nephews.

We have just given our kids construction paper, markers and stickers and let them do whatever they want.  We wrote things like "Get Well Soon" or "Have a Happy Day" as well as "From {Child's First Name}, Age {child's age}". 

Unlike with other donations, I do need to know ahead of time if you are wanting to do this so I can have a running total of cards.

I am not limiting how many we need, just wanting to know if I will have enough to put more than one in each tote.  The patients won't mind having a stack of "Get Well" cards if we get enough.  So that is not a concern.

We are delivering our first 50 totes on Sunday.  The other 50 will go out after the New Year (sometime early January...no set date yet).

If you are interested, you can email me at camille.davis1@gmail.com and I can either get you an address to mail them to us (if you live far away) or drop them off, or you can give me an address to pick them up.

Thank You!

Assembling Huntsman Totes

This past weekend, my family got together to assemble our first 50 Huntsman Totes!   We were gearing up for it to take a while - which we were happy to do - but because of having so many wonderful and helpful grandchildren, I think we got them done in about 30 minutes.  It was super slick!

We set the kids up at a table with an item or two that they were in charge of.  Then the adults put a few items in the totes, and walked around the table while the kids dropped their things in.  

Here they are...all packed up and ready to go.  

(Except the blankets.  They don't fit inside the tote, so they are in a box on the floor and will go separately.)

I also realized that some people may not have understood exactly what we were doing.  I was having a conversation with somebody about our project, and they were asking me some specifics.  So I started listing off the items we were putting in each tote, and she stopped me and said, "Wait, you're putting ALL of that in to each and every tote?"  

And that - my friends - is why we have been so incredibly blown away with the generosity we have been shown.  Our totes are full of items to help cancer patients be comfortable.  And we have had enough to make at least 100 of them!

So to help illustrate better just how much we have received, I decided I better disassemble a tote and take a picture of the contents for all to see.  Every tote includes:  A Blanket, Funny Stories Booklet, "Get Well" card drawn by the grandkids, Magazine, Puzzle Book, Notebook, Socks, Warm Beanie Hat, 2 Pens, Playing Cards, Lotion, White Cotton Gloves (to put on after lotion), Biotene Mouthwash, Gum, Breath Mints, SPRY Mints, Tissues, Fingernail File, Lip Balm, Hand Sanitizer, Scarf, Winter Gloves and a Treat Bag.  We will also be adding a special card honoring Ben.

Socks, Beanie, Gloves, Scarf, Sanitizer, Treat bag, Lip Balm, Tissue, Nail file, Cotton gloves, Breath mints, SPRY mints, Lotion, Biotene Mouthwash

Funny Stories (made up of family blog posts and other fun stuff), Get Well card, playing cards, gum, magazines, notebook, puzzle book, pens.

Blanket, Tote bag

So, there you have it.  We plan to deliver these when my sister Emily is in town right before Christmas, because she wanted to be involved.  We will then assemble the other 50 + and deliver them at another time.

I know I have said it a million times, and I will say it a million more.  But THANK YOU to all that made this amazing project possible.  I cannot express how grateful I am that we are able to do this to honor Ben.

Thank You!

Molly Turns 1!

It is true, our little tiny Molly Molly is now officially a 1 year old.

I know, you can all repeat it with me.  

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?!

With Molly though, the time seems to be going even faster.  I can't help but think back to 1 year ago as we were just bringing this little beauty into our family and preparing for Christmas at the same time.  I can't believe how it feels like I just blinked and a year flew by.

Molly is such a HAPPY and SILLY baby.  We just adore her!

We had a quick, small "party" to celebrate her birthday.

She wasn't sure what to think of the singing.

 Her cake (this is a strange picture for some reason).  I have stopped trying to make cakes...I'm over it...and I now just order them from the bakery.

Enjoying her cake.  She dug right in and devoured it.

We LOVE you little Miss Molly!

In the meantime...

I have some major catching up to do on things that we have been doing "in the meantime".  Including Molly's 1st birthday (which will have to be a separate post) and assembling our Huntsman Totes (another blog post as well)

So, let's get started shall we?

First up, we made "snow globes".  They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped (note to self, next time use WIDE MOUTH jars) but we still had a ton of fun.  

Basically - you take a picture of your kids pretending to be in the snow.  (The lack of shoes wasn't an issue since their feet were going to be covered anyway).  You then print out the pictures, cut them out and laminate them.  You then take the lid of a jar (again..next time we will use wide mouth jars) and hot glue little Christmas things on it with the picture.  Fill the jar with water and glitter, put the lid on, turn upside down and ta-da...just like that you have a snow globe. 

We had a problem when we tried getting the lid on and the opening wasn't big enough.  It popped the things off the lid, so then they were floating around aimlessly.  Claire's turned out really good though.

Next up, I needed to get my craft on, so I decided to make a wreath for my parent's door.  It was so empty and bare before and was just SCREAMING for a wreath.

We also took the girls to Home Depot to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  They were wondering if he was the real Santa until I said, "Those that don't believe, don't receive."  They quickly said, "Oh yeah, he was DEFINITELY the real Santa, I believe!"  I'm not going to lie...we were slightly disappointed that Molly didn't cry.  She just stared at him.  But I guess wanting our child to be tortured for the sake of a funny picture is pretty terrible...so I take it back.  We are glad she didn't cry.

Well...that should do for now.  I will have to work on the other posts at another time.

Also, if you missed out on "Jingle Chins", please scroll down to the next post and enjoy!