Our Christmas mantle

Here are some pictures of our Christmas mantle. I guess my theme for this year is color.  I have been loving colored lights this year.  I have always used white and I still have them on our big tree but I used colored lights outside and on our smaller tree in our office and on our mantle.  I also used a lot of red, green and lime in our house this year. 

Here is our mantle.  On the large platter I added a white cutout Christmas tree from the Dollar Tree.  I really love the color of that platter so I wanted to use it for Christmas.  I hot glued it on the platter so after Christmas it will comeo off and I can use it plain again. 

 Here is a close up of my garland with the colored lights!

 I got this new Nativity scene this year when I was in Illinois. I love it!

Happy Tuesday!

Ribbon Tree

Last week I made this little ribbon tree for Christmas.  I got the instructions at Tater Tots and Jello (love that blog!)  She actually made a wreath and a little tree.  I just made the little tree.  I got the tree form at the Dollar Tree.  This took a lot of ribbon.  I started with about 5 spools but I ended up needing more so I had to get 3 more spools so if you look close the ribbon at the bottom and the top don't match.  I think it turned out really cute and it was really easy to make.  It only took me about an hour.  She sewed her the ends of her ribbon together.  I just hot glued mine and it worked really well. 

Since this project was so easy I am going to make a  ribbon wreath for Valentine's Day.  I think that will be really cute!

Happy Monday!

Sunday, Sunday!

We had a nice relaxing Sunday.  This morning Brock, Ava and I went to church then we came home and had lunch and then I picked up one of Brock's friends and one of Ava's friends and I took them swimming at the YMCA.  They had such a great time!  Brock and Ava are like fish, they LOVE the water!

When we got finished we all came home and I made tacos for all of us.  Graig spent the day watching football and hanging out at home.  That is his favorite kind of Sunday!!   One of his friends was at the Broncos game and he kept calling because they were playing the Rams which is Graig's favorite team.  Thankfully the Rams won!

Tonight after dinner we took Ava's friend home and then Ava and I drove around and listed to Christmas music and looked at Christmas lights.  We had fun! That is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas and I'm glad that Ava likes it too!

Last week I sent little Ainsley some cute outfits for Christmas.  My sister put some pictures up of Ainsley in the dress that I sent on her blog. Isn't she adorable!

Here is a picture of Brock and his friend Brandon right after dinner.  Brock doesn't like taking pictures but I told them I wanted lots of pictures to show at their high school graduation so then they wanted me to take their picture-ha ha!  We are SO proud of Brock he made the honor roll and his name was in the paper over the weekend! 



Over the summer my Dad sent me some winter placemats and napkins.  I can finally put them out!  I love them they have two of my favorite things on them snowmen and American flags!

I hope you had a good weekend!  We have a busy week of work and school ahead!  Next weekend I have a girls night out, a baby shower, Ava's cookie party and I am coordinating a craft show at work.  It's going to be busy so I hope to get some rest this week!

Thanksgiving Decorations

I never showed my Thanksgiving decorations so I thought I would take some pictures of them before I put up our Christmas decorations.  I don't have a lot of Thanksgiving decorations but I do have a some.   Usually before Thanksgiving I am sick of the fall decorations and I am ready to get out my Christmas stuff!
The only new thing I got this year for fall was this French Tiered Wire Stand from Willow House.  'Everyone seems to rave about it but I'm not sure I like it yet.  I am just not sure what to put in it. I have had it in almost every room of my house trying to figure out where it would work best.  For Thanksgiving I just added some fall decorations and a picture. 

My favorite Thanksgiving decorations are the turkey and Pilgrim that Brock made in Kindergarten. I get them out every year. They are so old they are falling apart but I love them and I'll never get rid of them. 

I got this Thanksgiving sign a few years ago at TJ Max

I love this printable.  I downloaded it from Craftily Ever After  and got the frame at the Dollar Tree.  I printed it at Walgreen's. 

I made this subway tile from  a template downloaded from Just Another Hang Up.  She makes one of these for each month and she will email you the template if you email her.  She also has the complete step by step instructions to make this cute and easy project.  I love projects like this!

I downloaded this from Craftily Ever After.  I got this one printed at Walgreen's too. 

This is my little display on top of our fridge.  I got this fiesta bowl at a yard sale over the summer.  I LOVE the color for fall!

This pumpkin is one of my favorite new decorations!  My friend Sabrina made it for me at a Craft Club that I couldn't go to.  I LOVE the fabric she used for this pumpkin! 

So those were all of our Thanksgiving decorations this year.  I am sad that I had to take them all down but I am SO happy that all of our Christmas decorations are finally up! Our house looks so festive!  I love this time of year.  Have a good weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Today I took down all of my fall and Thanksgiving decorations and started putting up our Christmas decorations!  I put our trees up last weekend and today I got out all of our other decorations and started decorating our mantle.  I also did a little decorating outside.  Thankfully we put our outside lights up a few weeks ago when we had a warm weekend.  I will try to post some pictures when I am all finished. 

You know I HATE Black Friday shopping but I did go to Home Depot to buy some of their .97 cent poinsettia's.  Each person was allowed 10 of them so I bought 10 of them.  I was surprised by how big and full they are.  I put some around our house and Ava took a few to our neighbor. 

Tonight Ava and I went with Grandma Jan to the Santa parade in Cooperstown.  It was a lot of fun!  Ava brought her BFF Anika.  When Brock was little we took him  to the parade and he would sit on Graig's shoulders to see Santa.  I miss those days!  Tonight he went to watch a basketball game with Graig. 
I took a few pictures of Santa's house before the parade started.  Isn't this the best Santa house?  I think it's adorable.

We had a pretty good spot to watch the parade from.  We were close to Santa!  Here he is when he was still on his sleigh.

  After the parade the line was SO long so we didn't wait in line to talk to him but we did see Frosty and Rudolph!  We also went to a few stores and then we got some pizza for dinner.  It was a fun night!

For the rest of the weekend we are going to be at home.  I am going to finish decorating and maybe do a little shopping for Christmas!  I also want to finish a couple of craft projects that I have been working on.  Have a good weekend!

Thankful

We had a relaxing Thanksgiving at home today!  This morning we watched the parade and Ava and I got the side dishes ready for the oven.  Graig fixed the turkey and the ham.  Grandma Jan brought the desserts.  We all ate WAY too much!  After lunch Grandma Jan, Ava and I went and did a little shopping at WalGreens and Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart was SO empty!  They had a ton of stuff wrapped up on pallets for Black Friday.  I am NOT going Black Friday shopping!  I hate all the crowds and people.  It's just not worth it to me to go shopping on Black Friday. 

I did not take one picture today at Thanksgiving!  I think this is the first time that I didn't take any pictures-ha ha!  We just sat down and started eating so fast I didn't even have a chance. 
Anyway,here is a picture of us and Grandma Jan earlier this year.  I am so thankful for my family!

I am also VERY thankful for my brand new neice Ainsley! 



I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Updates!

Last night I updated my blog background and header.  I needed a change.  I have had my old header (which I still love!) since January of 2009!

In other exciting news a few weeks ago I painted the backs of the shelves in our living room the same blue color that is in our dining room.  I saw this look on another blog and I wanted to try it out to see if it would work in our house.  I really like the contrast and it only took me about an hour to do! 

I also painted the back wall of our dining room with this color too.  This color was going to be used for an accent wall in our dining room but I like it so much I just kept painting the walls until the whole thing was painted! 

This weekend I am going to paint our entry way with this same color.  I just LOVE it!  I think I am sick of beige, and khaki.  Almost our whole house is painted in those colors.  The blue is a nice change of pace for us!

Family Time!

My sister Shelby was released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.  She is SO glad to be at home with baby Ainsley!  Wednesday night when she was released we went to the pharmacy to get her medicine and then we ordered pizza and had a quiet night at home with them before we headed home on Thursday morning. 

Ava LOVES her baby cousin and wanted to hold her all the time.  Here are some pictures with Ava and baby Ainsley.  Shelby's MIL Linda got Ava that adorable peace sign jacket while we were there.She LOVES it!!  Ava also had fun picking out Ainsley's outfits while we were there.    She is a live little doll that Ava can dress up. 

Here is Shelby feeding Ainsley.  We all took turns getting up with her in the middle of the night so it wouldn't be too much for Shelby. 

I love this picture of Ainsley sleeping.  She is such a good baby she only cries when she is hungry and she loves to be held.  The whole time we were there one of us was holding her unless she was sleeping in her crib.  We really spoiled her!

Here is my Dad, Ava, Ainsley, me and Shelby right before Ava and I left for the airport.  Shelby had JUST gotten up and I know she is going to kill me for putting this on my blog-ha ha! 

A really quick update!

I can't believe that I haven't updated in 2 weeks!  We have been super busy and honestly blogging has been the last thing on my mind.  My work has been SO busy!  Last week I had meetings, events, etc almost every hour and I went in two nights just to get caught up on email and paperwork.  It has been CRAZY!  This weekend I am coordinating a big leadership conference for freshman and sophomores on campus so I also spent last week making sure that everything was ready for the conference.

Friday afternoon I got a call from my sister Shelby she was SO because her doctor was going to send her back to the hospital for complications following the birth of her sweet baby girl Ainsley.  My poor sister has had SO many things go wrong after the birth of her daughter.  She was perfectly healthy up until the time she delivered (her labor took 40 hours!) and as of today she has been in the hospital more days than she has been home with Ainsley :(  She has blood clots in her uterus, and she also has a hematoma near her uterus.  She also has HELLP syndrome.   On top of ALL of that Ainsley isn't gaining weight like she should so late Friday afternoon they put her in the hospital too! 

We are in NY and Shelby is in Iowa so I looked online for plane tickets and I decided that Ava and I would fly out very early Saturday morning to go help them. We arrived in Iowa at 9:30 am and my Dad met us at the airport. We drove straight to the hospital to see Shelby and Ainsley. We spent the day at the hospital and Saturday night my Dad and I  stayed in the hospital to take care of Ainsley.  Here are some pictures that I took of Ainsley her her hospital bed.  Isn't she a cutie?

Here is a picture of her hospital room.  Thankfully Ainsley was released on Sunday morning and she was able to go home.  In the hospital they put her on high calorie formula and she has been eating that really well and gaining weight.  Thankfully!!

 Here is Ava with her PaPa and her very first first cousin!  She LOVES holding Ainsley and her favorite thing to do is to sit on the couch and hold her baby cousin. 

 Her is Shelby in her hospital room feeding Ainsley.  Hopefully she will be coming home tomorrow morning.  Because of her blood clots she will have to give herself shots every day but she is excited to be coming HOME!   

 Finally here is a picture of Ainsley in her crib.  Ava and I have been her room mates this week :)  Her sweet pink and brown baby bedding is from Target. 

Please keep Shelby and Ainsley in your thoughts and prayers.  They have been through so much the last few weeks.   Tomorrow after Shelby gets released we are just going to stay at her house and hang out.  Shelby is worn out and she just wants to be home with her baby.