Christmastime is here...

As promised, here is a little tour of our house all ready for Christmas!!

That's a wrap!

Yesterday I finally got around to wrapping some of my Christmas presents while Hunter and Sadie were napping...which was a huge relief since Christmas is less than 10 days away!! Where did December go?!  (or October and November for that matter;)

So I thought I would share a few pics of the different wrappings that I chose this year:


In order to get my creative wrapping juices flowing, I have to set out all my paper, ribbon, boxes, and embellishments so that they are easily accessible...

I love using little birds, leaves, and glittery berries on my gifts...and a pretty deck of cards from the dollar bin at Michaels is serving a new purpose as gift tags for my packages:)

I picked up a GIANT bolt of lace at a flea market a few months ago for 50 CENTS!!!! So I thought I would mix it up a bit and use some lace this year...

In order to soften the look of the pine cones and cinnamon, I lightly brushed some white paint onto the edges...it almost looks like freshly fallen snow...

I used a white paint pen to write names directly onto my packages...which I wrapped in brown postal paper...

I did the same thing for a few of Mike's gifts...which had quite a few more berries on them prior to Sadie munching them all off...

And of course, Hunter's big gift this year...

Come back tomorrow for a massive Christmas decor post=))


Hope everyone is having a WONDERFUL Thursday!!

Deck the Halls...redneck style!

(Nicole...this post is for you=)


This past weekend we went on a little family scavenger hunt for the perfect Christmas tree...
and although we are generally very decisive people...picking out a tree is a whole other story, we hem and haw like it is the last tree we will ever buy...ones too short, ones too tall, all of them are too fat and round (when did Christmas trees make the shift to Christmas bushes with pointy tops?)


but alas, we did pick one out...a nice 5 footer, which now stands proud at about 4 feet since Mike kept trimming the bottom like a bad haircut :) 


ANNNYWAY...here are some shots from the hunt:

Little man got the best seat in the house...snuggled up with mom...

Sadie and Dad led the procession:

We made our selection...finally...

Sadie trying to give kisses to her bro...

Dad did the hard work...with a smile;)

After we loaded up the tree and had some coke and popcorn...we headed home to decorate...

As many of you know, we have a den in our house, where all things woodsy and rustic reign supreme...so we put our real tree in the den, and deck it out redneck style=)

Here is Hunter's first ornament...(we just bought the plain "bear crossing" and I added the words with a paint pen;)

Every year we take a sliver from the base of the tree to have as a keepsake:

Who needs a star on top...when you can have a pheasant?!

Of course...no redneck tree is complete without shotgun shell lights!!

Sadie's ornament:

There you have it! Our halls are decked=) 


Come back soon to see pictures of the rest of our Christmas decor...the not-so-rednecky stuff=)

The month that changed everything...

Four weeks ago today a little miracle arrived in our lives... one that we prayed for, hoped for, and eagerly anticipated for nine months...

and I had such big plans to sit down each day and write about all of the beautiful moments that we shared those first few weeks...

but then this thing called sleep deprivation set in, along with this other thing called "busy-ness" and collecting my thoughts and formulating sentences out of them became just another item on my to-do list... 

and then before I knew it, a month had past and details started to get fuzzy in my brain and I realized that if I don't hurry up and get things out, they may be lost forever...

so here it goes...

I love being a mom...

I love the look on my son's face just before he drifts off to sleep when his eyes are fluttering open and closed and his lips are toying with the idea of a smile...

I love when God wispers in his ear and he breaks out a grin...
and you wonder what the two of them are talking about and what was so funny...

I love sitting with a good book and reading the day away while he sleeps contentedly on my chest...

I love watching Sadie as she sets toys down next to her baby brother and waits for him to play with her... and how on one occasion he smiled at her attempts...

I love singing to him in the early morning hours when the whole house is silent and the words to songs I haven't sang in years flood back in and spill out of my mouth...

I love how they remind me of other times and other places and other people in my life...and how now they will remind me of him...

I love the way he folds his arms under his chin, arches his back, and rests against my chest...looking up at me wide-eyed as if he is memorizing every curve of my face...

I love that my son looks like my husband, and how every time I see him am reminded of my love for his father...

I love how dependant I have become on prayer...and how the still small voice of the Lord speaks wisdom into my heart when I need it most...

lifting me out of the massive pile of well-intentioned parenting advice I have received from friends, family, and well-wishers in recent months...
and giving me clarity...

I love this life and the many blessings that fill my days... making the aches and pains, lack of sleep, and fuzzy mom brain so incredibly worth it...

linking to Tuesday's Unwrapped at chattingatthesky.com

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is here, time is flying by!!

I had wanted to post one of the projects I have been working on earlier this week, but I ended up not getting a chance to finish it until yesterday...just in time for Thanksgiving!

I had read somewhere about starting the tradition of having everyone in the family write something that they are thankful for on the tablecloth after Thanksgiving dinner, as well as their name and date, and then each year you pull out the same tablecloth and add to it...

Isn't that a beautiful way to remember the blessings in our lives year after year ? and how cool will it be to see your children's handwriting change as they get older=)

I decided to make a Thanksgiving table runner instead:

I started by cutting a long narrow piece of canvas from a dropcloth, and adhered lace to the ends using fusible webbing... then I found a great little stencil set from Martha Stewart at the craft store so that I could stencil the following verse down the middle of my runner, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good"...

I am so happy with how it turned out! I have it on my coffee table for now...since Thanksgiving dinner is at my mom's house...but I can't wait to take it along and start filling it up with all the things we are thankful for!!

In other news...

I was also responsible for making the pumpkin pies for today... and I was going to leave them plain, but Hunter suggested that I dress them up a little bit=)

I just used my little woodland animal cookie cutters on some extra dough and popped them in the oven on a cookie sheet...and violà!

What do you think?

Anyone else have a fun Thanksgiving tradition that they look forward to year after year? or maybe something new that your trying for the first time?

Hope everyone has a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!