Category: Randomness

First of all….MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Friday night, we had our first Christmas celebration. We had my mom, step-dad, my brothers and my brother’s fiancé. This year we decided that we wouldn’t get gifts for the adults. My mom didn’t really follow the rule, but we were all very happy! Here’s what our tree looked like with all the presents under it!

Wow, right?!

Before everyone got there, I decided to make some sugar cookies. I am not sure how I fit this in that day, but I did. And I am glad I made them because they were tasty! They weren’t the prettiest cookies I have ever made, but I don’t think anyone noticed!

We decided to just order pizza and have a low-key Christmas. It was perfect. Before Chuck went to pick up the pizza, we had Maddie open some presents! My mom took a lot more pictures than I did and I am sure I will get them from her at some point. But here are some of the ones from my camera.

Here is Maddie in my brother’s hat.

Maddie with her first present. (Which was a “Sing-A-Ma-Jig” from Uncle Adam.) She did great after all the practice she had last weekend.

“Uncle Charlie” gave Maddie a drum set with other musical instruments shaped like bugs! So adorable! It has been a huge hit with her, both last night and all day today! And on the floor, is the purple “Sing-A-Ma-Jig” from Uncle Adam. She was so fascinated by it! It was adorable.

My mom got her a baby stroller and baby from a church garage sale (I am all for buying used toys!) and Maddie loved it. She was pushing it all over the place even though the stroller was a little too tall for her.

And then I told Maddie to “kiss her baby”…. and she did it!!! Right on cue and looked at the camera! Too funny!

My mom got Maddie a chair from Pottery Barn Kids. She wasn’t real interested in it when she opened it, but she played with it all through the next day. She climbed on it, lounged on it, stood on it….she loved it!

My mom gave her lots of great gifts, as did my siblings (and future sister)! Here is a picture of all the gifts she got (and a few Chuck and I got, too).

See the book shelf with all the books on it? Well, my mom made that. On the sides she engraved and painted Maddie’s name on it. So there will be no changing the spelling of Maddie’s name since my mom worked so hard on the shelf. Some one had to make the decision for me!  

Last night we went to my step-dad’s family’s house to celebrate Christmas #2 with all of them and had a great time seeing everyone. We don’t get to see them very often since we are usually out of town for the holidays. They were all really happy to see Maddie….and us!

There’s more celebrations to come! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday so far!

Since I am finally starting to catch up on some blog posts, I thought I should write about my birthday…and Anniversary.

We didn’t do anything for our anniversary. We did get ourselves a new tv, though. We got one to mount over the fireplace. I love it and I am so glad that we decided to do it. At first we thought it was going to be too high, but now that it is there, I love it! Here’s a picture. And yes, we are watching Sons of Anarchy! Best show ever!

And Chuck got me the most awesome present! I got a North Face jacket, hat, gloves and scarf! I love them and wear them all the time! And I think it can be a new liner in my North Face jacket for this winter…assuming we get a winter at some point! Clearly I am excited about my gift!

My mom got me a laminator for my birthday and a really pretty pink and black scarf. Maddie was quite helpful opening my presents.

HERE are the rest of the pictures of me opening my gifts. Really it’s a collection of me making weird faces. It was a great birthday!

I have been spending lots of time on Pinterest. (If you haven’t been there yet…be prepared to be addicted.) I saw wine bottles that were spray painted and then used as vases on there. So I knew I had to give it a try. I got a couple bottles from my neighbors and sprayed the heck out of them. Then I got some cheap fillers for the bottles/vases and now I have myself some nice decorations upstairs on our built in cabinet.

I love how they turned out and I can’t wait to make more of them for other parts of the house. Next up, I am going to paint some with chalkboard paint. I have some fun ideas for them! I’ll be sure to let you know how they turn out when I get around to it!

What crafty projects have you been up to these days? Have you seen something on Pinterest that has inspired you?

I have been wanting a new table in the entryway for a while. So I did some looking around and was surprised tables were so expensive. After some more looking, I realized I could get a bookshelf that would serve the same purpose and was cheaper than a table for some reason. I think it fits well in the space. I am quite happy with it! What do you think?

I have one other little decorating thing I have done around the house recently. I’ll post that tomorrow. Have you done any decorating around your house recently?

I got my hair cut today! I am pretty excited about it!

There are a ton of fun things you can do for November/Thanksgiving to show what you are thankful for. I decided to do this:

I just wrote on a piece of paper and stuck it to a vase. Then I cut up some colored card stock, placed a pen next to it and voila! I write things I am thankful for each day. I try to do one or two a day. I am hoping that anyone that comes over during the month will write something for the vase, too. Then at the end of the month, I will write them all down and have a nice way to reference them in the future.  

Some of the other things I have seen (if you are looking for something to do to show what you are thankful for) are the following:

And a mom at my MOMS Club said her mother-in-law keeps a receipt tape roll in her laundry room and continually writes things she is thankful for on it. Then she saves them and can look back at all of the things she was thankful for. I thought this was such a sweet idea. It reminded me of Grace In Small Things that I did and wrote 5 positive things every day.

So, today, I am thankful for all of you that read my little blog in its tiny nook of the interwebs! Have a great day and think about all the things you are thankful for!

One of our best friends moved to Seattle at the end of September. I put together a photo album for her and kept crying looking through pictures from the last 10 years. Kelly moved to Minnesota from Georgia and worked with Chuck at the U for many years. Then she started working at Microsoft with Chuck. It just isn’t the same for me that she isn’t here, but I am sure it’s very different for Chuck after working with her for so many years to not have her around.

We went out for a great meal (at Khan’s) before she left. Here are the few pictures we took.

We will miss you Kelly, but I know you’ll be back to visit and we will have to come visit you, too.

Oh my goodness. I love the Allstate Mayhem commercials. I just saw this one and couldn’t stop laughing, so I thought I would share.  

Last weekend we went to my brother’s house to celebrate my mom’s birthday. We snapped this picture of my mom, step-dad, brothers, future sister-in-law and Chuck, Maddie and me. It turned out so nice, I wanted to share it!

And, this picture turned out great, but wait until you see the ones my brother gave me that he took of Maddie when she was 6 months old! They turned out great!

My motivation level to blog has been quite low lately. I have been spending my day chasing Maddie around the house and seeing what thing she is going to climb into, onto or over. It’s so cute to see her growing and changing everyday. Then when she naps, I need to get other house things done. So here I am with excuses! I am hoping to get a few posts done to get things caught up a bit.

Have you been up to anything fun these days?