Santa Baby

Couldn't wait till the 25th to show the cutest little Santa ever.

Unisex

If you have never seen my girls bathroom, this is what it looked like before and as much as I L O V E D it, after having Levi, I knew I couldn't do that to him...I didn't want him to hate me forever.

And here's the after!!! Love love love how it turned out!

Lost Socks

We have A.LOT. of lost socks in this house...pretty sure I need to take apart the washer and dryer because they are somewhere in the mechanical part of those machines...or need to pick apart the girls room piece by piece....it's crazy. Anyway, found a DIY project for a lost sock board on Pinterest the other day so I tweaked it and came up with this. Love it and now I have a whole drawer back! Supplies and all came to a grand total of $5.

The 4th and Final Tree

***Late addition: My mother in law asked me what Levi thought about the tree and I realized that I didn't write anything about that in this post and I wanted to share. Every single night, when it's time for him to go to bed, we turn off all the lights, turn on the tree and get his blankie and rock in the rocking chair while singing Jesus Loves Me, together. After that we just rock for a few minutes and every 20 seconds or so, he pops his head up, turns toward the tree and says "Tee!" He absolutely loves that tree. Then I go lay him in his crib and tell him to tell the tree night night. He says it and then I give him kisses and turn off his tree and usually he says bye bye or night night again to the tree. It is so precious and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to take that tree down after Christmas!
Levi received his very own tree this year too. One of the ladies from church was getting rid of a small prelit tree a few years ago so we stowed it away and finally I got my act together this year to give Levi his own tree. I'm not totally sure why I chose lions for his tree other than the fact that we went to Kohls right after Christmas last year and they had some circus themed ornaments on major discount and I loved the lions and the face that his name and lion both start with an "L." Yes, I know that's a reach for having a reason to do something. Had I thought it out better, I might have done alligators since his first birthday was all about alligators, but I do L O V E how this tree has come together. It has made me have to pull out some mad crafting skills since lions are VERY hard to come by in ornament form. Without further adieu, I present Levi's tree.....

Very proud of the tree skirt. Got online and found an extremely simple (and free!) pattern for making this tree skirt and already had all the different colors of felt on hand. Took about 25 minutes from start to finish including cutting out 18 triangle type shapes. I was very happy with how it came together and I think it is just right on the tree. The tree topper is a tiny strip of "minky" fabric I had left over after making a baby blanket for my sister in law who's having a baby in February.

Made this and loved doing it. A pretty easy craft and VERY cheap to make!
Made this one also and was so excited with how it turned out...see it was worth hoarding all those tiny scraps left over from when I do scrapbook pages!

This is one of the ones I found on sale last year at Kohl's that started the whole thing.

Also from Kohl's

Target this year! Was VERY surprised to see it since lions are kind of a random ornament!

Also Target this year and it's SO cute!

Took a silver ornament frame from Hob Lob and spray painted it gold and took a picture of Levi earlier this year wearing his lion PJ's and put them together!

My mom knew I was doing a lion tree for Levi so while we were down for Thanksgiving, she gave me a pair of these cute little guys that she had croched. I was thrilled and they look so cute on the tree!

Found this guy online a few months ago and loved him. He's not an ornament, but he stands guard at the base of the tree and he's as cute as can be!

50 cent blank ceramic ornament at Hob Lob that I painted from a piece of artwork I found on the internet that I loved.

Tree 3 of 4

The frog tree...it was only a matter of time! We got the girls a tree last year and it really had no theme to it. It was just cute ornaments they had received in the last few years. Then I remembered that I had quite a few frog ornaments from over the years that I wasn't really using on my big tree and bam! a theme for their tree was born. It was kind of a duh moment for me. So we set it up this year and I went and bought a small green tree skirt from Target that is just right for their tree...and for the topper...a hand puppet wash rag that was given to Elle when she was a baby. Just right!

Probably my favorite ornament on that tree :)

Tree 2 of 4

So this is probably my favorite tree ever! About two years ago, a blog I follow, posted pictures from a party she'd gone to where the hostess had decorated her house pretty much like candy land during Christmas. You can see the posts here and here. I pretty much instantly fell in love and began plotting. I knew it was going to be years before I could pull off anything close to what she had, but I now had a goal in site. So, last year, my mom tied a few new ornaments on my presents that were things like ice cream cones and stuff like that. I'm not sure whether she did it on a whim or whether I had told her of my plans. Either was I was thrilled. So the day after Christmas I dragged Shawn to Walmart to get a white pre-lit tree to stow away until the day I had enough stuff to put on it. Then I started hunting everywhere for majorly discounted "candyish" ornaments and decor for the tree. Throughout the year, I'd pick up a small thing here and a little thing there that somehow was still out on the shelves with all the other left over Christmas decor that hadn't ever sold. So, I decided to pull out the tree this year and decorate with whatever I had, even if it looked measly. I was THRILLED to have PLENTY of stuff to decorate with! One of the best parts of the tree is the tree skirt...a literal skirt...well really a tutu. I had made a hot pink and red tutu when Elle had her Fancy Nancy 5th birthday party, wore it during her party and then put it in a closet where it has hung since then....until now. I saw it one night while brainstorming how to make a tree skirt on a budget for my candy tree and the light went on! I would just use the tutu as the tree skirt and it worked perfectly!!! I love how the entire thing has turned out and have found myself on many occasions, sitting in my beautiful $20 Goodwill seat admiring that tree.

Tree 1 of 4

As promised, I took pictures of my trees to post and brag about....that's right...brag! I L O V E my trees this year! So, first I'll show my traditional tree. This is the one that goes in the living room every year. Special things about it: the star is the star that was on my parents tree when I was little...I can't ever remember a different star than this. It's as old as me and still working! The tree skirt was my first sewing project ever and though it's not easy to see in this picture, it has A LOT of intricate details hand sewn on it. I am still VERY proud of that tree skirt and all the work that went into it! The ornaments--well almost every single one is a story or a memory. Most of them were given to me by my mom either from her tree or tied on top of a gift. She knows my taste quite well and picks really cute ornaments! One of my most special, though not the prettiest, is the star I made when I was taking pottery at UT Tyler and it was Shawn and my first married Christmas. It's a very simple ornament but it means a lot to me. Now, every year, the kids get an unpainted star and are allowed to paint anything they want on it. I write their name on the back and the date and then spray it with acrylic clear coat and put it on the tree...pretty sure we'll be doing this year's stars this weekend because they've been begging for about a week now!

Winter Formal

My crafty friend who helped me make the tie shirt that I posted on facebook a while back, also sent me a link to make a Tuxedo T-shirt and I immediately set about preparing to make it! We both made one and I love how it turned out. I love quirky things! We debuted them last night at church and they seemed to be a hit. I wore mine again today and had a 60ish year old man at the grocery store tell me "nice shirt!" as he breezed past me in the frozen food section. :)

Thankful

I think it's fitting that since the last time I posted was on the first day of November, that the only other post for the month is on it's last day....just hasn't been much to post about lately but I think that's about to change. My favorite time of the year is upon us! We headed to Tyler for Thanksgiving as usual and were truly blessed to spend time with all of our brothers and sisters. Rarely is everyone in the same place at the same time so it was wonderful to see all 8 brothers and sisters and their husbands and wives, 2 great grandmother, all the grandparents, 8 cousins, not including my kids, and 2 babies to be born in the next few months as well as aunts and uncles and a cousin of mine! It was wonderful to reconnect with people and eat yummy food! Truthfully, the highlight of my time in Tyler was getting to go on at least 3 dates with Shawn. We saw a movie, went on a coffee date with Shawn's sister and her hubbie, and went out to eat with Shawn's brother and his wife. We also ate at Smashburger which was on my agenda and it did NOT disappoint at all. The only thing I didn't get to do was go to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt....but I'm headed back there at Christmas so I'm sure that will get marked off the list then :) I'll leave you with a few pictures that Lesley or I took while there!

took this shot on my parents front steps as we were leaving their house and headed home

Ava and Josey putting on fake earrings...and later makeup. I think these two will be sweet friends :)
Thanksgiving at Gramme's
This picture perfectly captures every personality
My side of the family at my grandmothers house on Thanksgiving Day
Riley and Elle -two more sweet girls that I think will have a forever bond that goes beyond being cousins :)
All the grandkids on Shawn's side of the family...#10 will be here in January!
Sweet Cousins

Halloween Night

So, last night was our 4th time to go trick or treating...which means I was officially burned out before we even left the house! But, when the goal is candy, I can muster as much strength as needed to carry on! Anyway, we meet with anyone who wanted to up at the church building and then headed down what I think is the coolest street ever! We all had a wonderful time together as usual. After finishing there, we took our little family to trick or treat in our own neighborhood. The girls were so excited to get back home and hand out candy to tot'ers but we only had a handful that came by. Bummer. But the good news is, a dental officer here in town is willing to buy back candy at $1/lb so I'm headed there tomorrow with candy that none of us like, or that we got 7 million pieces of! They are then going to send the candy to the troops! Double win!! Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween...make sure your kiddos brush extra good for the next few weeks!

The pirate

The cowgirl
The frenchman
Could they be any more adorable?
The youth group...in about 6 years! :)
I just love that Elle held her pumpkin with her hook!
All the parents watching and making sure the kids are picking the candy they coached them to pick.
Still holding the pumpkin with the hook.
This is our friend Allen....and this was his first time ever to trick or treat! What a privilege that we got to be a part of it. Also, this picture cracks me up. He took Levi for a while and helped him trick or treat and finally got a Twix...Levi doesn't look too excited. lol
A busy bee
The ladies