Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from our family to yours :)

Our 2011 Christmas Card

This is our Christmas Card for the year! We ordered it from tinyprints.com and I think it turned out so nice! In the past, I have ordered from Etsy and printed cards myself, and I just think this turned out so much better. We used a photo from a shoot we did at the end of October. It was freezing so we didn't get even one little smirk from Landon (I tried everything except standing on my head - hah!).

Do you have a good way to display your cards? I used to stand them all up along my china hutch but my friend Jill texted me a picture of them all hanging on her pass-through from her Living Room to the Kitchen and I thought that was cute. Maybe I could hang them on the mantle? What are you doing with yours??

Merry Christmas!

Things

1. I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday (boy is that place a zoo!!) and saw these adorable initial knobs for a little over $1. I wish I had somewhere to put them!

2. If you are still looking for a gift for your parents or in-laws, might I suggest the Kodak Pulse digital picture frame? Anyone can email pictures right to the frame! My in-laws have one and we can instantly send them pictures of Landon.

3. Babies 'R Us is having their additional 40% off clearance clothes. I *love* their FAO and Koala Baby stuff. They have held up just as well as our "fancier" brands like Tea Collection and their designs are simple and sweet (aka: no "my mom is hotter than your mom", etc. I hate that stuff.)

 coming home from the hospital outfit was Koala Baby

 Koala Baby Organic

first shots in Koala Baby romper

4. I bought a Paciplay for Landon for his stocking but we broke into it early and we love it! It's a pacifier holder that's also a teether. It's BPA free and all healthy so safe for chewing. Isn't that a neat idea??

5. Tomorrow night is our monthly craft club and I think I'm going to make this. Oh Lord, help me to only eat a few...

Happy Tuesday!!

Oh (Landon's) Christmas Tree...

I am of the belief that all kids should have a Christmas tree in their room (as long as it's safe, high enough not to be reached, etc!) :)

This year I got Landon a little 3' tree from Hobby Lobby and put it on his side table by the glider. I didn't do too much with decorating, his room has a lot of turquoise accents so I used some blue and turquoise decorations I already had. Eventually he will have a whole tree of ornaments we've given him.

I got some little initial ornaments from Wal-Mart for $0.99 to put his "monogram" on front.

I wish I could leave his Christmas tree up all year long ;-)

Christmas Traditions

It is so important me to provide yearly traditions to our kids at Christmas time. I want them to understand the reason we celebrate Christmas and really associate the holiday with family time. Joe and I had already started some traditions before we had Landon but now we are adding even more for our little family of three.

1. Yearly Ornaments
Since the first year we had been dating, Joe and I have exchanged ornaments. At first we didn't have too much of a "collection" but the idea is that eventually we can decorate an entire tree with our special ornaments. This year we will pick out one ornament for Landon so we can start him a collection of his own. I love the idea of looking over our tree when we're 60, 70, 80 years old and we have hundreds of ornaments (and memories) from over the years :)

2. Christmas Movies
We always watch Home Alone because it's my favorite but I also want to make time for It's a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, etc!

3. Angel Tree Child
I'll be honest, this is the first year we have actually made a point to go adopt a child for Christmas. Shame on us. We are definitely making it a yearly tradition though! This year we shopped for a little boy, 11 months, named Liam! Eventually, when Joe gets out of residency, we want to adopt an entire family for Christmas!

4. Pajamas
Every year we pick out a set of new pajamas for each other that we unwrap and wear the night before Christmas.

5. See's Candy
This is a new one too, we get a box of assorted See's Candies (seems so old fashioned to me :) and eat a piece or two every night leading up to Christmas.

6. Picture with Santa
We just had Landon meet Santa and got pictures for the first time. I loved it!!

7. Photo Christmas Cards
I love, love, love getting Christmas cards. I have noticed that people don't really send out cards like they used to, but I love getting them in the mail. We just sent ours today!

8. Christmas Party
For the last several years we have hosted a Christmas party at our house for Joe's co-workers. I love getting everyone together and we do a Dirty Santa/White Elephant type thing. Such good memories!

What kinds of traditions do you do for the holidays?

Sick Day

I woke up this morning with a terrible cold. I told Joe when he left for work at 5am that unfortunately with this job (being a stay at home mom) there are no sick days. And we don't have any family that live here to come help so I can stay in bed and drink hot tea and watch old movies in my pajamas. Actually, I will probably stay in my pajamas today. Hah!

I put this little man in a footed Christmas jumper since we will be staying in. I thought he looked cute :)

Let's hope for lots of naps today! Hah!

Happy Thursday!


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DIY Bow Christmas Tree Garland

If you know me at all, you know I'm a sucker for a bow. My all time favorite necklace that I wear every single day is this one.

source: unknown

And I even wore a bow in my hair on our wedding day.

So when I was brainstorming ideas for our Christmas tree this year, I knew I wanted to go bows-to-the-wall, if you will. A bow-splosion. A bow-tiful tree.

I picked up some of these velour bows and some mesh ribbon at Wal-Mart and I knew I had some things to work with.

At first I tried stringing the bows together with the wires on the backs. It was cute except it took forever and did I mention I have a 4.5 month old baby? So then I decided it might be cute to just gather sections of the gold garland and put a bow every foot or so along. It took me about five minutes to finish enough garland for our whole tree (9 feet) and I think it turned out cute.

A custom Christmas tree garland with bows to boot? Sounds like the the start of a great holiday season!

Have you put your Christmas stuff out, or do you wait until "after Turkey"? :)

My Birthday

I love birthdays, even if they are on Monday like mine was. It was a fairly normal day but I did have a spa appointment in the afternoon. I had a sitter come stay with Landon so I could get a massage and a few other things. I am not a spa regular - it has probably been five years since I had a massage!

This is not me. I had a pink flower in my hair. 

 

Okay, don't laugh and I'll tell you what Joe got me as my gift... a treadmill for our basement. I asked for one but he still says he feels like a jerk getting me a piece of exercise equipment for my birthday. Hah! I really want to start slowly working on losing the last bit of my pregnancy weight (slowly so I don't mess up my milk supply) and I'm going to try to start walking a few times a week. I am so sedentary right now so I really need to get back into it!!

I have been craving Red Robin so I picked it up for dinner. Did I mention I got a treadmill. I can't imagine why I can't lose my baby weight ;-)

Happy Thursday!!

Mama Websites

I have found several really unique and good sites (for random things) lately that I wanted to share with you. I love stumbling across a good site and I usually bookmark it on my phone so I can remember it later.

1. Crappy Pictures Blog
This is, in my humble opinion, the funniest blog on the website for parents. I literally can't read it while I'm holding sleeping Landon because I will laugh so hard I wake him up. It has happened. Hah!

2. Play at Home Mom
This mama has created sooo many fun learning activities to stimulate and engage her kiddos. Her playroom is awesome (I'm so jealous)!!

3. BookSaleFinder
I posted about buying kid books a while ago but I wanted to let you know that I have tried really  hard to never buy books retail. They are so expensive. This site lists big sales that your local library will be having. I went to the one in our city a couple weeks ago and for $20 came home with three boxes of books! Some of them are brand new!

4. Little Miss Co-Op
I'm kind of new to the whole co-op idea but as far as I understand it, you join a co-op with another group of moms and one delegate approaches businesses about selling your group a mass amount of their product wholesale. You pay lower prices for stuff like diapers, cream, nursing necklaces, leggings, you name it! This has been the group I've been following so far..

5. Wholesome Baby Food
We have just started feeding rice cereal to Landon (to help with his horrible reflux, per the pediatrician's advice) and the whole idea of starting a baby on "real" food is completely intimidating to me. This site breaks down what your baby should be eating, how much of it and all other relevant info for feeding your kiddo.

Hope something here helps you! Happy Tuesday!! :)

Baby Pictures

I have been meaning to go through our old pictures and compare them with Landon's for months. Well, he's more than 4 months old and I'm finally doing it! You'll have to tell me what you think because had I not delivered him myself, no one would think he even belongs to me. Hah!

From a few days ago...

Wednesday Nuggets

1.The royals announced Kate and Will are moving to Kensington Palace soon. I think a baby announcement is coming, don't you??

2. I have been loving my new Erin Condren planner! It's animal printed and personalized and just perfect!

 3. My friend Rachael got me this book for my birthday (next Monday) and I'm loving it!

4. I have been researching the Magic Bullet/Baby Bullet for making my own baby food. Do you have any experience with it?

5. This is Landon's new face: sucking his bottom lip. I love it!

6. I'm ready to start Christmas shopping. I want to be done early this year so I can just enjoy the season without all the stress :)

7. I sent my camera off to have the sensor cleaned and I've been without it for two long weeks!

8. All our Halloween candy is gone. I think I ate 99% of it. I am not proud.

9. The other day at Walmart, Landon feel asleep in his carseat towards the end of my shopping trip. In an effort to let him get his nap in, I went to the back of the store, loaded my cold groceries in the pop fridge at a closed checkout counter and waited it out. When he woke up 20 minutes later, I took my buttermilk and turkey back out of the fridge and we were on our way. That's mama ingenuity, right?

Happy Wednesday! :)

Children's Books

One of my most *favorite* all time things is children's books. I vividly remember when the Scholastic book fair would come to our elementary school and my mom would give me money to buy a book. One year I bought Charlotte's Web and I was so excited it was mine I insisted on leaving it out on the top of my desk the rest of the school day so I could stare lovingly at it all afternoon. I'm a little obsessed. I love the story lines, the illustrations, everything about them. Well, do you remember when I posted that I bought a bookshelf from our local Border's store when it was going out of business? (still sad about that. TEAR.) Well, we finally got it painted to match Landon's nightstand (Behr Aquatic Green) and put into his room.

Joe installed some better lights along the top and I love how it turned out. Hopefully someday soon all three shelves will be full of books but for now the other two make a nice catch-all for stuffed animals, toys and my little Wal-Mart baskets with more toys.

 

In the corner I finally hung a frame my friend Jill got me for Landon's monthly pictures. I love it there in the little corner.

My favorite thing lately is buying holiday specific books and putting them in the display area on the top. I need to get more Thanksgiving books!

My other favorite books for kids are:
1. Anything Barenstein Bears. I like that they have a good moral message. I kind of want to be in the Bear family.

2. The Night Before... books by Natasha Wing. She has one for just about every holiday and season and I love the rhyming!

3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was one of my all time favorites as a kid.

4. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. My sister and I both had it memorized as a kid. It was such a favorite of mine, my sister made Dr. Seuss the theme of my baby shower.

5. Dick and Jane books. Classic.

6. PJ Funnybunny books. I don't think there are too many of them but I got several for Landon recently and I really enjoyed reading them again.

And I'm sure there's more I am not thinking of right now.

What were YOUR favorite books as a kid?