Christmas Decor

I sure love Christmas decorations - they make it seem so homey and cozy!  And the light put off by the tree is just amazing (it is also welcome in our living room - we don't have enough light in there)!  Here are some of my favorite spots of décor from this year.  I have to say - I do look forward to when I have coordinating stockings and tree skirt and all that jazz.  And I really want to pick a "decorating theme" - I feel like I have such a hodge podge of things!  I love red and green.  And burlap.  But sometimes I like other colors!  Or sometimes silver! And I know better than to get nice things when the kids are this young! 

 

Here are our outdoor lights!  Love them!

And here is the nativity scene on the table in the foyer!  I am glad I actually set it up this year.  I really want to start a Willow Tree nativity and collect the pieces over the next few years, but this one definitely works!

And here is our tree once it had gifts under it on Christmas Eve!

And one where you can actually see the lights looking all pretty! :)

And I took these pictures of the stockings this morning - there is still so much out from the craziness of Christmas morning that I couldn't get a "mantle picture" of the whole thing.  So a picture of each side will do!

And the other side!  See what I mean about a mix of styles?  Just look at all of the figurines on the mantle!  And a mix of styles of stockings!

Here are the towels hanging on the oven!

And this may be my favorite spot - under the TV in the kitchen!  Handmade goodies, annual Santa picture in the frame, wooden handpainted nativity blocks, and that decorative plate that I love!

Katie and Jack made these at school this year - love them!

And since all 3 of the kids have had the same teacher at the youngest age of mother's day out, I have a set!  LOVE them!

It also means I have a set of nativity baby snow globes!  Except Ryan knocked Katie's over this morning, so I ordered a new one and I may ask his teacher if she can do Katie's so they all have the same handwriting and look - ha! 

This is the wet bar area - love that Santa plate!

And this is another nook of the kitchen - the kids did such a great job on the gingerbread house!  And I do love that Merry Christmas platter too!

And another favorite - the Christmas cards!  It is so fun to have so many of our friends and family hanging in our kitchen!  I actually ran out of space this year - will definitely add some ribbon to other cabinets next year!

And this is Katie's tree in her room.  I love that it looks like it glows pink!  We also were going to set Jack's tree up, but he wouldn't stay in his bed consistently in the mornings, so we didn't do it this year.  Hopefully we can next year!

 

I have to admit that I did begin the undecorating this morning - I am ready for things to get back to normal and to attempt to find a resting spot for half of Toys R Us that now resides here.  Ha!  Next year I hope to get some garland with lights to put on the staircase and potentially the mantle (and find a new spot for the figurines)!  I'm going to try to make 2016 the year of "less is more" - so maybe while finding a home for these toys, I will also do a big purge!

 

Valentine's Day '15: Decor Edition

Hello, there! Welcome back to my itty bitty spot on the web.  I am back at it again with the playing catch up!  Just when I was ready to go, my laptop stopped working!  A week and half later (and a new motherboard, which thankfully was still under warranty), her we are again!

 

I had planned to do one giant Valentine's post - but the big ones are sometimes overwhelming to me.  And if they are overwhelming for me to tackle, I figured they were probably overwhelming to read!  so I am going to do two posts - décor and the celebrations!

 

So here begins post number one - our décor!  I have this chicken wire board hanging with the kids' artwork (mostly Jack's) and bought that cute heart at Target to hang on it!  I love how it looked on there!

And this was the console table in the kitchen - I did those to "Love" canvases with the boys a couple days before Valentine's Day - and I was thrilled with how they turned out!  It was so fun and it was the perfect decorations!  And those heart lights were so cute on that table too!

In the living room, I had this cute banner hanging on the mantle, a "Love" canvas that Katie did at MDO last year and some fake flowers :)  Those banners certainly are a nice touch!  I can't wait to put my Easter one up!

Here is a close up of the canvas that Katie did :)

And another shot of the mantle - was just the right amount of decoration!

And in the downstairs bathroom, I had this hand towel out - nothing fancy (and could actually work for 4th of July and Christmas, too) but it was a nice touch!

I always have intentions of doing more decorating, but with three kiddos, it gets nuts around here!  I have been meaning to decorate for Easter for the last few days and have yet to do so.  Maybe today is the day!  And I will try to do a better job posting them in a timely manner!  For now, I am going to go chase Ryan around - he is power crawling and attempting to pull up on the little rocking chair! AH!

Deck the Halls: Our Christmas Decor

I finally took some pictures of our décor on Christmas Day (and the day after Christmas)! :)  This season seems to have been a whirlwind - I guess that's what having that third child will do!  We did manage to get stockings and a tree up - and some outdoor lights...but I had visions of so much more!  Oh well...there is always next year!

Brad did a great job on the lights this year.  Everytime the kids would see them on, they would both say - almost in unison - "Daddy did a good job on the lights!" 

And as you walked into the foyer, this is what we had out on the console table!  This little area and the area in the kitchen were definitely some of my favorites.  Oh, and the Christmas card display area - ha!  Can you tell I love Christmas décor?

I had a few subtle touches in the dining room...

And our tree with some gifts under it on Christmas Eve!  The tree turned out fine - and we didn't even get half of our ornaments on there!  I think there will come a time (sooner rather than later) that we have to put a second tree up either in the sunroom or bonus room for more ornaments.  This year we added 8 ornaments to our collection on Christmas Day alone!  That doesn't even include ornaments the kids made at school and all of that!

And some Christmas goodies on the mantle -- and the stockings all hung -- and Elf on the TV :)  I had good intentions to get us all matching stockings this year.  And that didn't happen.  Maybe next year I will get an earlier start on that!

And the display of Christmas cards!  I hang ribbons on the cabinets and I clip the cards to them - my favorite!  I love looking at all of them!

And the little area under the TV in the kitchen!

And of course some cute Christmas hand towels on the oven :)

I love this cute reindeer pillow!  I think I got it on clearance last year after Christmas :) It is the perfect touch to the chair in the corner of the sunroom where the kiddos' toys are!

And a little Christmas tree in the downstairs bathroom :)

At the top of the stairs, I put all the cute Christmas creatures and the stack of books that Alvin brought!

Now, for the good intentions - mainly so I can come back and read this next year :)  I wanted to....
-get the kids' trees up and decorated (oops!)
-get a cute bow and some greenery for the mailbox
-same cute bows and greenery for the lanterns on either side of the front door
-lights on the railing of the deck
-lights on the wooden star and hang it up (likely on the deck)
-artificial greenery with lights along the lower part of the staircase
-hang our Christmas cards from years past ...I even got them out to do it!

We will leave some of the decorations up for another week or so - and then the house will look so boring once it is put up!  I need to get some good winter decorations so that I have fun things to put out!  Well, winter items and some neat Valentines Day items as well!  Or maybe I will get crafty and make something (ha - likely not going to happen this year)!

 

Ryan's Nursery Reveal

 We have had Ryan's room finished for quite some time - but I didn't get around to taking pictures of it before he was born (especially since he came a little early)!  So a couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to get a few pictures.  And I am finally posting them!

 

Katie moved into what used to be the guest room so that she has her own space (including her own bathroom).  And then her old room turned into Ryan's room - that way the boys can share a bathroom (stinky, messy boys).  We made sure we found bedding that coordinated with the color that it already was - that way painting didn't have to happen in there (aside from some touchups)!

 

This is what the view is as you walk into the room! 

I love this that we have hanging as you walk in.  It was the first thing I bought for the nursery once we found out we were expecting a baby boy!

And you turn to walk in and see this...

And the view as you continue in!

Love this!  The dresser, hutch, and crib.  And we have that shelf at the end of the crib for the sound machine and camera.

All three kiddos have had their names over their cribs.  I think it has really helped teach spelling their name (at least for Katie and Jack), and I am sure it will for Ryan as well.

And the inside of the crib - bedding and all!  And a few cute buddies!

And the corner with the shelves!

Here is the dresser and hutch with books and stuffed animals and some cute quotes and bookends and ultrasound picture.  And the name banner is from the baby shower Brad's work had for us!

 Next to the dresser is an area for the big kids to hang out if I have to sit in there to feed Ryan.  They can sit there to look at books or play with toys - perfection!  And that is the quilt that came with the bedding!

And then the corner where the glider and bookcase to house books and toys!  I love that little corner! 

The pillows in the glider...love that lion pillow I found at TJ Maxx!  And the prayer pillow was in Jack's nursery in the glider! 

Here's a closer look at the bookcase - I just love it!  I got that picture hanging on the wall for $10 from a local Buy, Sell, Trade page!  And I love the lamp - great for reading books and snuggling to sleep! 

 Here is a view from the reading corner!

And a canvas that goes along with the safari theme - and being perfect for a boy's room....no more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Here is a picture of the sink part of Ryan's room!  I love that elephant rug - I got that and the elephant basket next to the glider from a friend and they work perfectly!  The boys share the same tub and toilet but each have their own sink area.

And here are some of the cute details!  His name, loveys, banner, and door hanger on his closet door!

I love how his room turned out!  He is sleeping in our room still so we aren't in there much at all these days.  But once we are, it has everything we will need!