Christmas Decor Around the House

This year I didnt pull out all the decorations.

I simplly didnt have enough time...but I like the few simple things we have this year.

 

I love this little teeny snowman.. theres a candle inside him, he's sitting on my ledge in the kitchen

 



The mantle this year just has frames and pics of our family ... with a simple wreath on top, and lighted strands. It looks really pretty at night.

 

Our little tabletop tree..

I tell ya, I really DO NOT miss having a gigantic real tree this year.

I cant even imagine with little Musky running around and pulling ornaments and needles in his hands, etc.. I love our little tree.. 

I have on the two sides of the mantle burlap wrapped candles, and matching wire candle holders that I've had for years.. I got them at Target I think 

The theme here is "simple Christmas"...

All the ornaments are light weight, plush or wooden, just in case the tree came down ....

Its got a rustic farmhouse tree feel

Complete with rustic star/candle holder at the top

Wooden cranberry garland, plaid farmhouse ribbon,

 

This guy still tries to reach for the occasional ornament....

And I lift him up so he can touch the tree, and I gave him a pile of ornaments to play with .. he loves it! Next year we'll do it up big.. But Im happy that we're keeping it low key this year.. 

These wooden ornaments I got last year at Michaels after Christmas for 10 cents each

Im so glad I grabbed a ton - stars, trees, and a few moose ones

As always, I love decorating Samantha's little dresser with her girly tree..

Next year Andrew will get one too.. 

I have this ornament sitting on our picture shelves next to the tree.

It was from my Mama... when I lived in Ohio I think ... 



Merry Christmas!!!

Blog Slacking!

Geesh, I've been blog-slacking lately

we were actually not really around our house too much this weekend

Here are some of the reasons why:

We decided to paint our foyer which leads all the way up the stairway into the hallway on the 2nd floor. I wanted something cool and modern, like I see in all the magazines these days..

{terrible pic.. i know}

We went with a "mocha" type shade.. Its actual name is Carmelized Onion..

I think it looks pretty awesome!

And our baby gates are gone, so little miss has been loving going up and down...

Hubby and his friend did the painting.. so SJ and I were best friends all weekend and did lots of shopping, eating out, and playtime at Grandma's house... She even took a NAP at Grammy's!!

Grammy has been wanting to get a crib for a while, and I put it together for her last week, and SJ took a great 2.5 hour snooze in it on Sunday!

This was good practice for our upcoming vacation, where I rented a crib for her.

So I was kicked out of the house all weekend (jk).. and I have SO much laundry and organizing, baking for Easter, cooking, getting ready for vacay to do..

I cant function without my lists:

On Saturday we took Samantha to her FIRST easter egg hunt at our church!

It was POURING cold rain out.. so good thing it was inside..

{First Egg Hunt 4.16.11}

She didnt really get it.. she was more interested in the Flag on stage in our Ministry Center, and enjoyed walking up and down the stairs to the stage..

Grammy and Uncle came with us, and Aunt Kathy met us there too.. It was just a nice event to take her too .. they had coffee/cookies/donuts/goldfish crackers.. and coloring books and crayons for the kids

And yet another reason I couldnt get a post up yesterday:

{teething stinks 4.18.11}

SJ was teething REALLY bad. She's had 12 teeth for SO long

I kept thinking uh-oh, the 4 last ones will all come at the same time..

And they are...

So there was NO nap, and NO making her happy no matter what I did.

Finally I gave her a bath and she calmed down.. Went to bed pretty good, after some help from Good Ole' Ibuprofen..

So I hope she takes a nap today!

Christmas Appetizer Party - December 19, 2010

Holly Jolly Holiday Party

We hosted our first party for my family on December 19th.
Every year we have a progressive dinner, so we hosted Appetizers!

I made a few dips, and a few sweets too.. I know it was appetizers, but I couldnt resist a little sweetness, and new holiday recipes I've been dying to try.

Like these cute little brownie lollipop bites! they were delish!




My fancy table display

I also made this Pesto Layer Dip...which was amazing, but next time Im going to half the recipe.. I had too much leftover!


Samantha and Clare had fun snacking.. pic is a little .. ok a lot terrible!

And since my house was clean, I used it as a good time to take some pics of the house.. namely for my friend Megan who keeps asking me! Sorry it took so long Megan!

This is looking from the kitchen into the foyer/front door entrance.

This is the foyer and looking up the stairs




The living room, looking into the foyer through the french doors.


many little nooks and crannies I loved about this house when we first saw it. I love the old original cabinets in the kitchen, and I try to mix them up and reorganize the shelves. I think if they were hidden, I wouldnt be as motivated.


View from the dining room into kitchen



We still have decorating to do.. I think that is an ongoing task for me these days..

Comin' Along....

Things with the house are comin' along.. slowly. I have to remind myself that a new house is an ongoing project..

We finally got to utilize these fabulous copper pots and rack that have been in boxes since our wedding shower in 2008! Its great to finally cook with them, and the pot rack is very Williams Sonoma/French Julia Child kitchen, to which I am tres obsessed with, ha!

And Daddy has been doing the bedtime routine with Samantha Jane. Which has been such a breath of fresh air for me. What a change! Ever since she decided to boycott bottles, Somewhere in the 6-7 month age.. Its been all Momma.. yikes. I needed a break.

Im finally starting to capture the freedom of not breastfeeding anymore! I can go out with the girls if I want, I can go shopping at night, and I can enjoy a few adult beverages!!.. Oh and the greatest thing I had to give up having.. Coffee and Chocolate.. oh how I have missed you both!

Since I have been catching up on no coffee or choc.. I made an amazing snack this morning while Samantha slept in.. S'Mores Cookie Bars... UNBELEIVEABLE... Recipe and picture are COMING!

Playing Catch Up

It seems like an eternity since I've posted!
We've been so busy with moving into the new house and shopping for the new house...and Momma and Dadda have been working and taking care of SJM... sooo here's a few things we've been up to..

A few visits to Target

And Home Depot

And we even managed a little Family outing for Old Home Days in our village. The parade marks the start of the OHD festival. And the parade just happened to start at our street!




Samantha loved all the firetrucks, bands, and dancing and baton twirlers


With all this moving.. I hardly noticed that Samantha was welcoming tooth numbers 5 and 6 on top!...


She was super cranky this past week..
One day in particular she would NOT go down for a nap.



She always naps!... So I sat her on the couch after many tries... and bouts with crying... and she finally was out....


within literally 2 minutes.


All in all I think she likes her new house! I even think she loves her new room! She's had small pockets of sleeping through the night, which is so great!

Auntie Shauna is home! We are so excited she is back for a visit! And so is Samantha! It took her about 10 minutes to warm up and remember her.. but soon enough she was handing out kisses and laughing and having fun with her.

I just realized I didnt post for Month 12 yet.. Its coming! - Sam has her year Dr's Appt on Monday (7/19) - So I'll post the Month 12 story when I have her accurate Doc stats!.. Should be interesting... Another round of shots I beleive... hmm

Movin' Day - 7.10.10

Moving Day was this weekend.
We once again packed all our belongings and are headed to our new home! We are so excited! It has been fun living with Grammy, Uncle, and at one time Auntie was with us too! Yikes. It was fun, crowded, frustrating at times, hot, cold, wonderful, and we made it work!

Just 8 short months ago, we packed up a truck this very size in North Carolina and said goodbye to the South with bittersweet feelings, and we did the very same thing this past weekend. But instead of traveling 1,400 miles north, we traveled 1.6 miles East of Grammy's house! ha!


Uncle and Mathew loaded up the truck, and were headed over to the new house by 11am.. not bad. Grammy is in Seattle, and we cant wait till she gets back to help us! W

Samantha was a trooper!


Here she is on our way to Bed Bath and Beyond ...probably for the 5th time in the past 3 days.. but she kept herself occupied with some new ice cube trays.



She even slept through the night at her new house in her new bedroom! Fantastic. And she took a 4 hour nap for us the next day so we could unpack and get organized! ... I knew she wouldnt miss sleeping in a hallway versus her own room! who would? haha!

I think better sleeping patterns are a comin' and its about time!

Until next time, we're unpacking, organizing, painting, hanging blinds, cleaning, and enjoying our new house!

Busy Bees

So we've been so busy, cleaning, packing and cleaning some more. Mostly Mathew has been over at the new house cleaning up and down. We ripped out rugs, stripped wallpaper, washed walls, tore down trees, got a new roof, and theres still a little more to do before move in day.

Sam and I had to go meet the Locksmith today, and I didnt want to put her on the dirty floor, since we didnt mop/clean the main floor yet, so this seemed like the perfect spot, and yes she looks HUGE in it!



But I did snap a few pics of our living room and dining room while I was there...Im getting so excited!





And since Sam decided to wake us up at 5:30am for the DAY... she was in la la land super early tonight. She fell asleep in her stroller like this...



So i thought, h great, I'll just transfer her, and maybe she wont wake up to nurse, she'll just go to bed.. WRONG... she woke up screaming 20 minutes later, and I nursed her back to sleep.. ugh. Dont get me wrong, I am so proud of myself for sticking with it.,but I am trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I know we're close..

The Roof is on Fire.. ha!

Well, Yesterday the house got a little facelift! The old roof was torn off, and new roof put on!



Samantha and I had to go check it out! They worked so fast. It was done all in one day. Yeah! Cross that off our to do list! Today Daddy is over the house doing some plumbing and cleaning the basement so we can bring more stuff over!

Sidenote: Samantha had an AWESOME first birthday in Buffalo! More pics, updates and party decor to show, but I must get the pics off the camera and onto our other computer.. Why is it so hard it seems to do this one single task... I dont know.. But I procrastinate with it every single time we have more pics!

She did get a new radio flyer, and push car, but for sleeping.. stroller works best these days...

This morning Sam and I had errands to run... Carter's, Target, Wegmans, and Babies R Us., She was so very well behaved. I think she's diggin' shoppin' with Momma after all.

After many wet nights.. I decided to try these..





I hope they work!

Time for a Quick Post!

While the baby is asleep, I figured I'd take advantage of a few pics I took the other day and get a posting underway.. (yea im a rhymer)

These pics were taken the other day when we closed on our house. We visited Grammy's work in the AM on our way to Hobby Lobby where we had a little tantrum in the cart. But Momma stayed firm and did NOT take her out. I think she's getting the idea.. I took her to Sears, JoAnn Fabrics, and the hardware store today and she was in the cart for all 3 stores.. no tantrums.. thaddda girl!

Anywhoo here are a few pics of my almost 1 year old.. (tear*)





At the hardware store, we went in for a utility knife so Daddy can get to rippin out some rugs in Momma's Craft area on the third floor of our house, when I came across these cute little 2oz. Bottles. -


Ben Moore color samples.. THE COOLEST!

I ripped out the wallpaper in the new kitchen yesterday. And our cupboards are all white with black handles, and we will be getting stainless appliances.. Sooo.. I thought a Deep Gray would look awesome. plus I saw it in a magazine too...ha! Cant take total creative credit for that one. So Im gonna head over and paint a section, just to see how it looks..

I also need to take some serious before and after pics of the rooms in the house....So much to do .. so much to do!

Tomorrow is the day before the Samanthapalooza Part 1 in Buffalo. Cousin Jillian is coming over to lend a hand with Sam, and Grammy's takin a half day.. Praise the Lord I have helpers tomorrow!!

I want to try not to neglect posting during this period of madness before and after we move!