Christmas Mantel

Here are some pics of our Christmas Mantel. I think my favorite thing this year is my new stockings. Since Carter was born we needed new stockings right so we all had matching ones? :)

**Do you love the can of pledge sitting in the window sill? :)**

I really wanted burlap stockings and thought I would have time to make some, but decided that I probably didn't and then I found these ones on Etsy and I absolutely loved them! Here is a close-up of each one - they are all a little different and I love it. You can also see the little tags I made for each one...I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. :)

I ordered the stockings from Turnbow Designs - I love them!

Linking up to Home Stories A to Z, Southern Hospitality and Ten June.

December...

I can't believe we are already full swing in December. Yesterday we took the boys on the Polar Express train ride. It was a lot of fun. The train went up to the North Pole and then Santa came on board and each kid was able to sit on Santa's lap. Blake asked Santa for a big tractor and a little tractor. Santa told him that he liked giving tractors to good little boys so Blake needed to be sure and be good. :) Too cute!

Last night I was able to work on my December Daily album a little bit. I have a pretty good start on my base pages, but I still hadn't done the album cover - it was kind of intimidating me and I'm not sure why...
So I finally just started tackling it. I painted it white and then embossed some silver snowflakes which didn't turn out the best, but they work. I made some fringe flowers from red paper and used some Christmas brads for the centers. I had a lot of fun working on it once I got going. :)

I'm not sure how Carter is getting so big, but it's happening. He's almost 7 months old and is in 12 month size clothes now and on the verge of crawling - he scoots all over.

Pretty handsome little guy if I do say so myself. :)
On a side note, I did make a batch of the laundry soap awhile ago and am loving it. I've given over 1/2 the batch away to people that wanted to try it so I'll probably be making more sometime in the next couple of months, but it's working great and soooo much cheaper!

Have a great Monday!

Weekend update

Well I didn't get to work on much of anything this weekend. :( My Grandma had a heart attack Friday evening as well as she has pneumonia. They've fixed the heart problem - they found a blockage when they did an angiogram and so they put a stint in, so now we just need to get her over the pneumonia.

I'm back to the hospital later this morning; prayers and happy thoughts sent Grandma's way would be appreciated. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

December Daily

I'm so excited - my December Daily add-on kit from Studio Calico arrived yesterday in the mail! I'm working on gathering inspiration so hopefully this weekend I can work on it!!

Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend. Saturday we had friends over for dinner - they have a girl that is a month older than Blake and a girl a month younger than Carter so it's always fun to get together. Especially to see the older two playing together. :)

On Sunday, Carter was baptized at Church and then we had family over afterwards for pizza. I didn't get hardly any pictures and the ones I did get didn't turn out too good, but oh well - Mom got some so I'll need to print some of hers too. :)

Here is a picture of Carter with his god-parents - Auntie Kristen & Uncle Matt! :) Here's one of Carter sacked out on Daddy - it was a busy day for him! :)I love this picture too - I just had to share it! Blake is working on puzzles with Great-Grandma Nabel (her name in Mabel, but Blake calls her Grandma Nabel)!

Here are a couple of layouts I did awhile ago - bad pictures of them, but I love how they turned out.

The journaling reads: 10 Things I love about you 1. your infectious laugh 2. that you love snuggling at night at bedtime 3. your ability to make a mess within minutes 4. your love for your brother 5. your smile 6. that you correct me on my tractors 7. listening to you go through books & tell the stories 8. your persistence when you want candy 9. that you love coming to my scrap room with me 10. that you call M&M's chingaderas thanks to Grandpa.

Journaling reads: you love giving big smiles, especially to your big brother; you love having your diaper changed; you sleep through the night and have been for several months; you just started rolling over from you tummy to your back; you like your swing, but only if its on the highest speed; you are very loved by everyone

Well - I better go see if I can get any housework done - this evening I'm off to my first spinning class in years. :) Hopefully I survive! I've got lots on my to do list this week - I'm going to try making my own laundry detergent. I've started it, but its not done yet - we'll see how it goes! :)
Here's one last picture - my boys on halloween - we had one 'GIANT' pumpkin and a monkey. (Blake was not just a pumpkin he was a 'GIANT' pumpkin).

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

How bad is it that this year I didn't really get out a lot of the Halloween decorations - I have the fall decorations out, but now the Halloween ones...that's not like me. I'm already getting ready for Christmas though - how scary is that...

I made two of these frames - one for my Mom & Dad and another for Eric's parents. They were a lot of fun actually and Blake helped me some.

It's a really bad picture - but I snapped it really fast as I was running out the door with it to deliver. :) I got the idea off of Pinterest (I am officially addicted by the way) Here's the original that I pinned.

I bought two $0.97 frames from Walmart and painted them green. I hot-glued wiggly eyes all over it. Added some ribbon and cut out 'eek' with my Cricut and we were good to go.
It was a great in-expensive gift that I think I'll maybe make one for myself for next year. It would've been better to give them the frame with the boys in the Halloween costumes, but the costumes weren't ready in time.

I should have pics up soon of a cute pumpkin and his cute little monkey. :)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

12 Things Before 2012

I don't remember where I read this, but someone had posted 12 things they wanted to do before 2012...a pre-resolution. :) I decided that I'd better take up on this - we'll see how I do...

12 Things To Do Before 2012

1. Get Christmas shopping done before Dec. 15th

2. Make/Keep up a December Daily Album (I'm on my way - I ordered the kit from Studio Calico this morning)!!!

3. Clip and actual remember to use coupons

4. At least make an attempt to start remodeling the basement

5. Take boys to the Hood River Train for the Polar Express ride

6. Plan a couple of mini-vacation's for next year

7. Back-up all my pictures - I've been really bad!

8. Start posting on the blog regularly so later I can go back! :)

9. Exercise more regularly/frequently - start training for 1/2 marathon (?)

10. Plan menus weekly

11. Visit Grandparent's more often - all sets of them! :)

12. Finish organizing Grandpa & Grandma's old pictures & make CD's for everybody

Ok - now that I've put them out there I'll have to be accountable for them right?

This is one of my favorite pictures lately...how cute are my boys?

This was taken at the Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Fest - Eric's cousin knitted Carter a pumpkin hat and it is stinkin' adorable!

Oh & I have actually been getting some projects done that I've pinned on Pinterest! I'll post it here shortly, but I made my parents & Eric's parents a frame for Halloween with the above picture in it. It's stinkin' cute!