Our trees played musical rooms this year. The big tree had to move out to the sunroom since we put in shelves earlier this year and received an extra couch from friends. I get to enjoy it while I am doing all my Christmas crafting! I moved (the children say stole) the smaller tree into the living room because I couldn’t imagine not having one there. I used all my ornaments that coordinated with the room colors and our family’s “first Christmas ornaments” because I really like to see those. The children’s and the rest of our ornaments were put on the other tree and it was mostly decorted by the children. I think they did a great job and I really didn’t have to do much rearranging after they finished. They are getting so much better at not bunching the ornaments up and hanging them from lights and such. :) I changed up the mantel this year too. The nativity is still there to be our big reminder that Chirstmas is about Christ. I always have my lamp on top of some books, but I changed them out for big Christmas colored books. Then on the other side I put my favorite tree that my friend Penny made and my favorite candles. I cut all the triangles for the bunting last year, but then abandoned the project. I decided that I wanted to use them this year, so I sewed them together with some bias tape and added them to the room. I love the way it turned out! My living room colors are robin’s egg blue, red and white with a few other colors thrown in. We also have a tiny tree in the office to look at when we’re doing schoolwork.

In the kitchen I have basically the same decor as last year. I just changed the centerpiece. I had a big white platter, so I put some small pretty things and the things we always use on it. I like this and to his credit, Kody suggested it! Our Christmas cards are getting pinned to the memo boards on the wall. Maybe someday I’ll make a cute thing to hang them on! Hopefully I will get some cookies made in the next few days or we won’t be eating any! I haven’t wanted to make as many as I usually do this time of year. It might me because I am trying to stay healthier this year. But, we have to have some cookies for Christmas, and we will.

We hope all of you have a very merry Christmas! I’ll be back soon with gifties that I’ve made! So excited about all that I’ve gotten done in the past month. I still do have a few left to finish, but I’m having a lot of fun making people things right now.

Animal: horses
Advice: Don’t get stressed out and upset over small things, big things aren’t really worth it either!
Album: I really like Casting Crown’s Christmas album, “Peace on Earth”. I can listen to it year round and it makes me smile.

Best feeling in the world: Love
Best weather: Temperatures around 70 with sunshine – I need the sunshine!
Band: I was the “band cheerleader” in highschool- a lot of my friends were in band and both sisters were, but I was a cheerleader, so (I think) I dubbed myself that. I enjoy watching drum corps and marching bands still.

Candy: Give me some Godiva and I’m a happy girl!
Color: Blue!
Continent to visit: I can’t say I really want to go anywhere – I’m not a traveler.
Cheese: I like a good expensive cheese – favorites from the store are smoky sharp cheddar and Vemont sharp white.

Drawing or painting: Neither. I prefer other crafts. My kids like to paint though…a lot.
Dog breed: I’ve always liked the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, even with their heart problems. But I’m going to have to say that we most likely won’t ever have a dog. Just not a dog person.

Eyes: My eyes are brown and all of my children’s eyes are brown. I love beautiful eyes on any person – they draw me in.
Everyone’s got: something going on in their life – remember that you aren’t the only one when you interact with people.
Ever failed a class: Yes, Chemistry at UK…I never went to class and guessed on the tests. That makes you fail.

First thoughts waking up: Praise God, it’s Monday!
Feeling: Sad right now, but hoping for a better week.
Favorite Movie: Lord of the Rings trilogy. I could watch them over and over and I can quote most of each one. What a great story.

Greatest Fear: dying a scary, painful death
Goals: Love God more everyday and serve him in a manner that would be pleasing to Him.
Good luck charm: You can’t have good luck, you can be divinely blessed. :)

Holiday: Christmas, including all of the activities around Christmas.
How do you want to die: Naturally, peacefully, in my sleep.
Hot or cold: Depends on what it is. I prefer to be warm myself.

Ice cream: fresh peach ice cream from one of the Peach orchards in Georgia.
Instrument: I can’t play, but I am hoping Kristopher will get back into piano soon – love hearing it.
Irrational fear: water, drowning…we try to stay away from water as much as I can keep us away.

Jewelry: I like necklaces. Don’t have much jewelry because it’s expensive and I don’t care enough about it to spend money on it!
Job: Mommy, Housewife, Homeschool Teacher, Crafter.
Jokes: I’m just not a joker. I don’t get most of them and I don’t tell them.

Kids: I love children, especially my three and one on the way. I sometimes have trouble interacting with other people’s children though – I wish I was better at that!
Keep a journal: I don’t journal anymore, but did a lot when I was younger. Don’t have time now! I guess you can count my blog as a bit of a journal, even though I don’t write as often as I would like.

Love: God is Love.
Laughed so hard you cried: yes
Learned: I have forgotten more than I’ve learned. At least I feel like I have. I am continually learning, though, and I believe you should always try to learn more. If you don’t know everything you should keep learning!
Lost: way too many souls.

McDonald’s or Burger King: neither! Chick-fil-A or Wendy’s or Culver’s. I fact I will always choose anywhere but McDonald’s or Burger King.
Marriage: Is a wonderful thing that to many people give up on way too easily. It’s not an institution, it’s an agreement with God.
Musical: I love musicals! When Kody and I were dating we went to see Fosse in Nashville. It was great!

Number of siblings: 2
Number: 17
Nuts: Cashews and almonds are my favorites, but I’ll eat any of them.
Name that comes to mind first: Kyler. We’re still trying to come up with a baby name and this is my favorite so far.

One wish: That I could keep my children safe always.
One time I…: thought life was way too hard and that I couldn’t do it anymore. Now I know that I can’t do it without God to help me everyday.
One word: supercalifragiliciousexpealidocious ;)

Perfect pizza: I’m a fan of BBQ chicken pizza, from California Pizza Kitchen.
Pepsi or Coke: Caffiene free Coke
Pet: We have 2 hand-me-down fish. The kids really want a kitten, which I would be fine with, except Kameron is scared of all animals.

Questions: “Why?” is one I’ve heard many times a day lately…getting kind of tired of it!
Quit: Quitters never win, unless you quit smoking, which I highly reccommend. I wish we didn’t have so much wanting to quit around here.
Quiet: I’ll take it!

Reason to cry: I cry when my feelings get hurt, and lately they get hurt pretty easily.
Rude: I don’t like it when other people are rude. Sometimes I speak without thinking first and I’m sure that I’ve been rude too. I try really hard, now, not to be.

Song: Right now the songs from Mamma Mia are in my head, even though I haven’t watched it in months.
Sleep: I like a lot of sleep, like 10-11 hours if I can manage it.
Salad dressing: I try to eat a variety of dressings. I really like salads with their own dressings, like the Strawberry Walnut salad from my friend Penny or the Wilted Leaf Salad (with hot bacon dressing) from my Nana.
Slept outside: I enjoy camping…without small children. :)

Time for bed: I prefer 9 or 9:30
Thunderstorms: I’m not really a fan, but rain is good now that I’m a gardener (or trying to be, don’t laugh).

Unpredictable: I like a good plan. I think I am pretty predictable, but life is not.
Uncool: Most of the time I feel pretty uncool, but I always have. I really want to be one of the cool kids though!

Vacation spot: Well, I’m not a traveler or vacationer. I prefer to be at home. If I have to go somewhere though, I will pick a place that has lots of fun places to go, like aquariums and museums. I will pick a place that isn’t near water and I will pick a place that has pretty scenery. I like hiking and nature. Is that picky enough for you?
Voice: I think my voice sounds like a child’s when I hear it recorded. Otherwise I like it and I think I sing pretty well, but I may be wrong – which is why I don’t sing in front of people much.

Weakness: Perfectionism.
Worst feeling: Letting someone down.
Water or land: On land – see the irrational fear above.

X-rays: I would rather not have to get any – radiation is bad.
Ex’s: Almost everybody has them. I wish I could erase one from my memory.

Year it is now: 2011
Yellow: I want a house with yellow siding. I like yellow in other people’s houses. I like a bright yellow shirt in the summer.

Zoo animals: I love to go to the zoo! I really loved it when the Lousiville Zoo had the visting Koalas when I was little. They are my favorite wild animal.

Like last year, the kids decorated their own tree upstairs. The colored lights were burnt out when we got our stuff out and so they got white this year. It seems like we buy new lights for the trees every year – so wasteful. Why can’t they work longer? Here are some pictures of them decorating their tree:

My kitchen is pretty much the same as last year. I bought one new plate on sale at the end of the year last year, so the silver and white one is new. I also made myself a full Christmas apron back in July or something crazy like that, so I added a picture of it. Maybe sometime there will be a shot of me wearing it! Here are my kitchen decorations:

My living room has changed a lot this year. My father in law is building some nice built in bookshelves to go along my back wall. I was pretty sure I wanted a contrasting color on the wall behind them and thought a robin’s egg blue would be lovely. Then at the Christmas Bazaar that I participated in, in November, I bought a pleated fabric tree. The color was just the color I wanted, so I went to WM and what do you know? They had the perfect ornaments there to match. So I took the ornaments to the paint section and matched a paint chip and now my living room is all matchy matchy! I painted a wood chair, three frames and the back wall the nice blue color and then put out all my matching Christmas decor. I also ordered more of the fabric that was on the tree to go around my big tree as a skirt. I like this idea since I can change it up and reuse the fabric for something else if I want to use a different color scheme at christmas! The cabinet bottoms of the built ins are up, but the shelf tops aren’t in yet, so you’ll just see a blue wall behind some of my decorations. We are doing the Usborne Advent book again that the people pop out of. the gold ornaments and candles don’t really fit in in this room anymore, but for right now I didn’t have anywhere else to put them. I think eventually they’ll go in our bedroom on a dresser top/table. The green tree was also a must have on sale item last year. Not so sure it fits in in the living room now either? Pictures of the living room:

I got my peppermint soap and cute snowman towels out for the bathroom. Love these, from my secret pal last year, but didn’t take pictures of the bathroom. Trust me, you don’t really want to see it anyway! I’m not a very good bathroom cleaner…

Hope you all have had lots of fun decorating your homes for the season. I always love to see my stuff for December. I like to change it up (I get bored pretty easily) when January rolls around though. I’m just glad that this year my home is starting to feel more homey and welcoming. I hope that others will agree with me on this!

Some close-ups:

My pumpkins & gourds that I bought at the farmer’s market in town, love them! I spent the same amount of money on all of those as I would have (and have in the past) on one pumpkin at WM. Never again!

The whole shebang on my front porch:

Hope you like it! I know I do!

Welcome to our home. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay!

As you come up our front steps you’ll be greeted by these cute snowmen that my husband’s Aunt Regina painted for us. I just love them and although they saw a rough winter last year they are still standing.

Well, don’t stand there all day! Come inside:) As you walk inside you’ll be greeted by our fireplace. I framed the entryway to the kitchen in tinsel to hang our Christmas cards. I have to have some sparkle!

The living room also houses our Christmas tree. I decided to keep it simple this year and just do lights and my favorite ornaments. No tinsel, no ribbon and no topper… The top of the tree is my favorite; that is where I always put our “First Christmas” ornament and each of our children’s “First Christmas” ornaments. Having our family ornaments up there all together makes me happy.

You’ll also see my “new” decoration of pine cones, twigs & candles that I put together. Simple things make the best decorations sometimes, don’t you think? I put my nativity up on a shelf so that it wouldn’t get broken. I’d been wanting this willow tree one for a while and my mom bought it for my last year. As I was taking it out of the box it said to be very careful with Joseph so his arm would stay intact; I didn’t think my kids needed to be able to reach him!

Come into the kitchen – I’m not going to show you the whole thing, because it’s messy! I’ve got more baking to do today on the bottom half, but look up at my favorite plates:) I’m so excited that in this house I can put things up on my cabinets and hang garland there. I’ve not been able to do that in our other homes.

The only place I had for my old but cute wreath is on the door to our sunroom. Go on out there…

This is my current workspace (one of them – I’m sure Kody thinks the whole house is my workspace). I had to decorate it a little bit too:)

If you go upstairs, you’ll be in the kids domain. They have decorations all over their rooms, but here is the tree that they set up and decorated themselves. Kody did help a little with the tree set up, but we didn’t give other instruction. They had a lot of fun decorating:) The books under the tree are all of our Christmas books – really most of them are just winter books, I guess we need a few good ones. And of course no home with children would be complete without a few Christmas-y stuffed animals!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit. :) Our decorations are simple, but make us happy. There are many small things you didn’t see, but I thought it best not to take pictures of everything. If you stop back by later, I’ll have some cookies for you!

From our home to yours – Have a Very Merry Christmas!

*This post if linked to on The Nester’s Christmas Tour of Homes. Go there to see many more blogs with inspiration for your decorations! Also, please excuse all our unfinished bits that you see in the photos – our home is a work in progress and we have much more to do before it is “finished.”

For those of you who don’t read here and are just visiting from BooMama’s, we just bought a house 2 weeks ago and it is in need of a lot of inside work. We have been cleaning and ripping out carpet and getting it ready for the actual work. We are planning to actually start living in the house on July 5 (or maybe sooner if we have a mattress to sleep on over there), so it would be nice if some of the rooms were done by then. I’m sure we’ll be working on many of the things long after we have moved though.

My list of immediate goals:
Replace the Kitchen Floor
Paint as many rooms as I can find people to paint! (I would love to just dive in myself, but I am pregnant right now, so am not supposed to)
Replace some of the light fixtures with ones that work
Plant more things outside
Order curtains and hang for the living room
Actually get moved in and settled before the baby is born!

There are millions of other things to do, but that is my personal list. Kody is working on the other things that I cannot do and hopefully he will have a little help from people who know what they are doing!

So, here is the button if you want to see what some others goals are or participate yourself. I can’t wait to see some finished things!

BTW – I am planning to post rooms as I get them done, so the pictures may not all be in the post on July 25:) Have a blessed day everyone!

The first picture is of our large tree, which isn’t very large, but is about all we can fit here without a fire hazard. We just have lots of family ornaments…not a theme like many people do now. Some of the ornaments are mine from when I was little and most of them are either the kids now or ones that we have bought or received as presents since we’ve been a family. And yes…I’m done Christmas shopping and they are pretty much all wrapped and under the tree:)

The next picture is of a new addition for this year. Kristopher was wanting a small tree and we passed some in the store and I told him we’d think about it and then the next thing on the wall was a bunch of trees for $1! I didn’t have to think anymore:) It has some of our smaller ornaments on it and it sits on the kids book/toy shelf. I think there must have been a fire on top of it since the firetruck basket has been elevated to that height!

Third, are my favorite red and white candles in a chimney box. The chimney was one of my Aunt’s decorations that she gave to me several years ago and I love it. I bought the candles at JC Penney last year and the year before. I wish I’d gotten more, they are my favorite Christmas candles.

The next thing isn’t really a Christmas decoration, since we leave them out all year, but it is about Christmas! We bought 4 coasters from Wendell August Forge in Grove City Pennsylvania this summer with a little display rack. We don’t use them as coasters since they are so nice, but I love to look at them. The coaster that is displayed now is Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus for obvious reasons…we also have “Praying Hands“, “Noah’s Ark” and “Blessing“. If you want some beautiful pieces that have been handcrafted go check out their stuff!

Next up is another new display for this year in our home. I already had the little church, but I saw the [sparkly ivory] snowflakes and [ivory and gold] candles when I was shopping and thought that would be beautiful for our kitchen bar area. I really like how they look and they are right next to the tree so that is probably my favorite corner (all my books are there too).

Last I love this little snowman candy dish and mug tray. I’ve had these for a few years and I don’t use them too much during the holidays, but I love to look at them. The snowman makes me smile every time I see him:) Behind him you can see the back of another little snowman and candle that sit by our telephone. I have lots of snowmen placed around the house just because they make me happy.

That about covers it. I’d like to have some garland somewhere, but I just don’t. Merry Christmas to anyone still reading! Here’s some punch since you came to visit and I made you look all around:)

Christmas Punch from my Nana

2 Quarts Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Juice of 4 Lemons (3/4 cup)
1 Quart of Orange Juice
2 Quarts of Ginger Ale
1/2 Cup Sugar
Thin Orange Slices
Thin Lemon Slices
Halved Maraschino Cherries

Mix Juices and sugar. Heat well. Cool. Pour into punch bowl over ice. Add chilled ginger ale, pouring slowly down the side of the bowl. Makes about 6 quarts. Trim with floaters (1 orange slice, 1 lemon slice, 1 halved cherry) put in an ice mold made with ginger ale and fruit. Enjoy!

I also wanted to put in this picture of Taylor because she was following me around and holding her bear:) She kept asking me what I was doing and wanted to be in a picture too. So here she is!