christmas home tour

Christmas is my favorite time of year!!!

Here's a tour of our home as it's decorated for Christmas.

The other wreath I made. Should have gone with a bigger size, but now I'll know for next time. and I looove the Welcome vinyl I got off of LeenTheGraphicsQueen's etsy store.

close up of Welcome vinyl

little table in our front entry. (thanks to grandma for the cute table!) including a picture frame with no picture. maybe i'll get a picture in there next Christmas. ;)

our Christmas tree. can't we leave it up AAALL year???

I tried to get creative with my gift wrapping this year. I love tulle!

the twine and the brown wrapping paper surprisingly matches really well!

a couple new ornaments on our tree this year

This one came from the Belgium House's Christmas Village they put on this year

This one came from my mom, but she got it from Hallmark. It's called Hide-N-Seek Pickles and it talks! Have you heard of the Christmas pickle ornament tradition? If not, you should read about it. Maybe you can start a new tradition with your family!

bookshelf in kitchen with singing snowman

countdown that I blogged about before

Another Hallmark specialty that my mom got me. Me telling you about it isn't good enough for this one. Go ahead and watch the video I posted below.

I'm hoping to add to our Christmas decorations after Christmas with a few clearance items. But I'm glad we had a whole house to put these in this year.

now we're cooking with gas

We got a new toy!

We got a grill!!

I'm excited to cook up something on it. Probably won't get to try it out until this weekend, but I bet it will be tasty!

We bought it at Home Depot and were thinking it WOULD fit in the car. (Chris' rent car is a Ford Fusion, so that's what we were in.) Well, we got it out into the parking lot and quickly realized it was NOT going to fit in his car.

So...Chris called up his buddy that drives an SUV and he went and switched cars long enough to haul the grill box home...while I waited on the curb with a huge box. :D

We're looking at buying an SUV after the insurance settlement on the Altima, so we won't have to worry about that next time.

Christmas countdown

I was inspired to make this countdown from Sarah at life {sweet} life.

This is my take on it.

I loved how Sarah did hers, but I didn't want to print it out with that much colored ink. So I just made my own and printed it out on a piece of Christmas scrapbook paper.

Several people have asked if I actually change out the number every day. Really???...who would do that??

I just keep a red dry erase marker behind the frame and ERASE and REWRITE every day.

Here is the pdf of the one I made if you want to print it out and make your own!

sign with trees

sign without trees

another one bites the dust

We had an eventful day.

Chris (and Scout) spent the last 4 days in Longview at my parent's house helping them paint the house. (I had to stay and hold the fort down in CS.) On the WAY to Longview on Tuesday he had two flat tires and a trashed rim. Soo...on Wednesday he got 4 new rims and 3 new tires put on the car...

Then...he was making his way home, after a very tiring and successful few days painting. When I knew he was pretty close to being home today, he called and said he had just broadsided a car and to come get Scout.

Soo...praise the Lord that it happened only about 10 minutes from our house. I don't know what most people would think of when they hear "broadsided"....but I was not thinking of what actually happened!

This is what I showed up to....

So I got Scout safely in my car in his crate and we moved most the stuff from Chris' car to mine. Then we waited for the police to show up.

You may be wondering, "What the heck happened?!"

Well, I'll try to SHOW you. (bare with me. picture NOT drawn to scale... since chris asked why HIS "little car" was bigger than other man's truck. he didn't lose his sense of humor! )

Chris was driving on the main road and was approaching a blinking yellow light.

There was a van stopped in FRONT of "other man's" car (not drawn) and went through the stop sign, cutting it close and forcing Chris to slow down some. Then "other man" decided to come through the stop sign also. Except it wasn't cutting it close, since Chris t-boned him. Chris said he was going about 40mph when he hit him.

Thank the Lord he hit a few inches past the "other man's" passenger side door since there was a passenger in that truck.

I'll leave you with my professional drawing and the rest of the pictures of our car and "other man's" truck.....

before

after

Dark picture taken with my phone. Yes, That is Chris directing traffic.

Nice shiny new wheels and tires huh?!

That is NOT blood. Just a Sonic slushy.

"other man's" truck.

Goodbye our little Altima. You were a great friend to us. (such nice, sparkly wheels...they'll be the talk of the tow lot!)

Chris showing off his battle scar. We think it's a scratch/burn from the airbag. His other arm has lots of red marks from airbag burns. But, so thankful for those airbags. (and for wearing his seatbelt!)

Happy to have my husband home! Thankful he's in one piece. As far as we know he has that abrasion and muscle soreness. Scout's ok too, in case you were wondering.

Now we will most likely be looking for a new car! (we expect it to be totaled)

so this is christmas....

I LOVE that we have....

(I will post separately on how to do this EEEASY countdown. I have lots of catching up to do!)

And it feels like this outside....

So I haven't spent much time outside today. I've actually been cleaning, organizing, wrapping presents. But I got to do this...

and....

(leave the door and windows open....just in case you're not sure what i'm implying)

I. Love. Gorgeous. Weather.

Shutterfly blog promo!

If you have a blog, then keep reading! (that would probably be most of you)

Since Chris and I had only been married for a few months when Christmas came last year, we decided to wait until this year to send out Christmas photo cards. We were planning on designing some of our own, but just haven't gotten around to it. I stumbled upon Shutterfly's promotion and now think they may actually get done! They have adorable templates that makes it easy to create cute holiday cards.

Here are some of my favorites from their site...

"Top Ten Moments"

"Playful Hues"

I got a thank you card like this from a patient I took care of in the hospital. It is ADORABLE and at the time, I had no idea you could get personalized cards like that from Shutterfly.

"Oh What Fun"

"With Glee"

It was very hard picking my favorites because they have so many cute designs!

Hurry! Registration closes THIS Friday, December 10 to take advantage of this great offer.

SNEAK PEEK!

Our wedding photographer and good friend drove ALL the way in from Dallas yesterday just to take our pictures. We appreciate her very much and loove the sneak peeks we've seen so far.

You can check out Lauren Ashley Photography on facebook or her site.

christmas wreath

I got crafty this weekend.

I'm very happy with the finished product!

I got this idea from Tatertots and Jello spring burlap wreath tutorial. Go there for a detailed how-to. This one cost me a little bit just because I didn't have the supplies in my craft room, but now I'm stocked and will have most everything for the next one.

Here are my supplies...

my little helper....he wasn't too much help though ;) he kept laying all over my stuff!

finished product!

I used buttons instead of brads in the middle of the circles.

For the "blessed" letters, I just tore textured cardstock and used rub on letters.

What do you think??

Right now it's on a closet in our entry way, but I can't wait to put it on the front door! Do I really have to wait until after Thanksgiving? The stores didn't...just sayin.

(Sorry the pictures aren't great. I used Chris' phone because I'm not sure where my camera is.)