This year I went with a really relaxed "homemade" gift from Mom. I was just not feeling up to spending hours and hours on the projects. I think the children loved them despite the little amount of time I spent on them.
For Ethan, I finally had a drawing he did back in first grade for the rodeo art contest framed. It has been placed either behind his dresser or tucked away in his closet for the last few years. He was excited that he can now hang it in his own room.

I had grand plans to make a quilt for Lauren out of her baby clothes but I just couldn't get it finished and I really didn't want to rush it and then it not be as nice as it could have been. So I am taking my time with it and I hope to give it to her for her 8th birthday later this year. Lauren did complain a couple of weeks before Christmas about not having any "girl" blankets to snuggle up with on the couch so I just made her a new fleece blanket. She loved it and surprisingly it lays on her bed and she doesn't use it when on sitting on the couch.

Simon's gift was actually the most time intensive and it really wasn't that bad because most of it was done at a craft night. It is 16 square blocks with a photo cut to fit the blocks and make a puzzle. So there are six different puzzles and they are all members of the family. He opened it and moved right to the next gift and then later told me he didn't want it. However, he has played with it since and likes to put the one of him together the most.

And Jillian loves to look at pictures of herself and sadly was always taking a little photo book of Lauren's because she did not have any pictures of herself to look through except on the computer. So I went through 2 years of pictures and had over a hundred pictures printed and then put them in a photo album for her. I think she has loved her gift the most; she looks through it every night before bed.

They were simple gifts but perfect for what I could reasonably accomplish this year and perfect for each of the children.