...and to all a good night!

We had an amazing day filled with fun, laughter, food, family, and joy! I could not have asked for better Christmas weekend and will share a ton more pictures later.  Now back to Nintendo DS and Netflix with the family! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

christmas cookie playdate!

 

 

 

A great time was had by all!!! Cookies, frosting, sprinkles, Just Dance Wii party, food, talking, and fun made for a great "jackson is out of the hospital and healthy" playdate!

Merry Christmas!

lights down low...

 

 

Christmas time really does warm my heart.  I love the evening when the lights are low and the trees glow.  The boys love falling asleep with their tree on.  I sneak in after they are asleep and smile at their angelic glow in the still and quiet of the night.  

saturday morning

It's a gray and gloomy day here in the south.  Chilly but not as cold as it has been.  Still in jammies listening to the kids play the Wii.  I got put on call for work last night and am enjoying a lazy morning.  I find myself looking forward to my "blog world" time more and more.  I really wish there were just more hours in the day!  I have stumbled on some of the best blogs with inspiring wisdom, creative crafts, decorating and remodeling advice and a million other things I LOVE to read about!  Anyone else out there just adore blog hopping??  Let me know what some of your favorite finds are!  I try to post links I find to my facebook and share the great thing I find!  I can't believe it's almost Christmas and I am so not even close to being done with Christmas shopping!  I dread it every year.   I always so I am going to shop a little throughout the year so I don't stress and every year here I am stressing right before Christmas. 

Jackson had his school play this week and it was adorable! I am so glad he is back to school and feeling good so he could be a part of the production! SO CUTE!

 

 He was in the choir and had so much fun singing!

Such a cute performance about not taking Jesus out of Christmas! I LOVE their school!

And of course my parent's wouldn't have missed it for the world! So great to have gramma and grandpa close by!

Happy Weekend!

Our Christmas Tree!

This is our main family Christmas tree in our foyer! This year we got a new one that is both taller and skinnier to fit in the great space.  I LOVE that you can see it when driving by our house at night and it is literally the first thing you run into when you come in the door! 12 feet of wonderfullness! (yes, I made up a word!)

I did, however, underestimate the time, energy, and number of ornaments it would take to fill a 12 foot tree!  I will have to hit up the clearance after christmas sales to get some more ornaments! For now, the wide ribbon I found worked as a great filler! Good ole' Sam's had the wide, mesh ribbon by the roll.

These would be so easy to make with some glue and glitter! Maybe next year I'll make some to fill in.

 I need about 30 more poinsettas, sigh...

Every year I want to add a pic in an ornament frame...so behind! This is when my 5 year old was a baby.  Again, SIGH!

 

And here are my 2 favorite people standing in front of our tree! This was right before Jackson's Christmas play at school! Have a great rest of the week and don't forget to check out all the other links!

GO CHECK IT OUT!!!

Christmas Mantel!

I LOVE Christmas!! It is truly my favorite time of the year! My mantel is the first thing that usually gets done because it is easy and adds so much to our house!  Check out last year's blog post for a bare before picture! I forgot to take one this year!

I found some new stuff at Hob Lob 50% off to add this year! I need some height in my vases and LOVE the red flower sticks I found!

The sign was a gift a few years ago and we always get a giggle from guests who see it.

Love that you can see the reflection of my tree!  I'm sorry for the bad pictures...not good at lighting and decor pics.  The stockings are PB from a few years ago during a really good sale!

Merry Christmas season and happy decorating!

a little late

I am finally getting around to posting these pictures from before Christmas.  My two sister's and I hired an amazing photographer to try and capture these 7 wonderful grandkids.  The photoshoot and pictures were a surprise christmas gift for my parents and grandparents.  It was quite the ordeal to not only keep the photo shoot a secret but also the pictures, proofs, and photobook that we gave for the gift! Whew, we did it, everyone loved it, and here are a few of my favorites!  Thank you so much to Erin for putting up with all of these kiddos and pulling off an amazing shoot! (minus the drama of Jackson falling into the swamp)

We have had a crazy full week of wonderful activities! It all started last weekend with a trip to granny's house.  After a 5 hour drive, the boys were so excited to play with cousins and have fun on the farm.  They were pleasantly surprized that "santa" found them a weekend early and at granny's house.  We had a great time of playing, relaxing, making cookies, and eating way too much food.  Granny always spoils us! (and grandaddy too)

Next stop, christmas eve bruch only an hour away from home with more "cousins" and fun play time with trucker, a boxer puppy that the boys love after warming up to him.  We also got to meet new baby raimey and I got some baby love to fill my tanks!

Christmas Eve night I hosted my family get together with boys sisters, husbands and all the kids on my side of the family! 7 under the age of 7!!! A little crazy and so much fun. We ate and played and read the story of Jesus' birth.  The kids had fun acting out the shepards and angels with grandpa with he narrated! (pics to come)!

We then threw in an evening of gingerbread houses and boys was that fun  interesting! The boys had a blast and I am still vaccuming up sprinkles and candy.  Gramma and Grandpa came over for the fun and 3 hours of candy and frosting had my boys spinning forever on a sugar high!

And finally, Christmas morning! The boys were so cute. They slept in til 8am which was nice. They were content to open their stockings and play with a 3 dollar car and new toothbrushes. Go figure.  Santa brought a Wii this year and we have had a blast playing that as a family!!!

Christmas day was topped off with more presents at gramma's and lunch! yum.

Hoping you all have a very merry christmas and looking forward to a fabulous new year!!!!