Merry Christmas!

Best Santa ever! Look at that death grip he's got on Ty! He wasn't
afraid to hold on to him for a picture. This is our best picture with
Santa yet.

Santa at the fire station!

For two years now Ty has been just terrified of Santa.  When he was 2 months old we took him to see Santa at the local fire station.  Well with his current obsession with fire fighters we thought that would be a perfect place to visit Santa this year.  It worked…kinda…… this is as close as we got to Santa.

not so sure….

…trying to get away and ready to leave.

Afterwards, they had the fire trucks on display you could walk around and climb on.  He thought that was pretty cool.

Jeremy got some cute shots around the fire truck.  Notice the candy cane we got from Santa – he liked that and it was half gone before we got back to the truck.

Do you remember visiting Santa as a kid? What did you ask for?

First guitar lesson!

Happy thanksgiving

Found my little people Main Street soy I remember playing with all the
time when I was a kid and how lucky is Ty that there is a fire station
and post office!

Done!

Christmas decorations are done.  Still love my tree skirt and my new mantle/fireplace is just icing on the cake!

Who remembers the advent calendar I made last year?  Well it survived the move and I can’t wait until December 1st.  I have some exciting activities for Ty this year.

Yearning for presents…

This is her favorite hiding spot.  She also likes to eat the tree and had already thrown up the fake pine needles before we got all the branches on.  hum….maybe we need to get her a plant she can eat.

Tis the season

Taking advantage of the nice weather Sunday, Jeremy put up the Christmas lights on the house and had a great helper.

Daddy, do you need more lights?

The master of Christmas lights did a great job.  I’ll have to take a picture at night and show you.  Since we will be out of town starting tomorrow for Thanksgiving, we also put up the Christmas tree and decorated inside.

Just getting started…

On the couch in the front of the picture you can see the burlap and lace tree skirt I made last year.  I’m so excited to see it around the base of our huge tree.  I’m waiting for the mod podge to dry on the edges of the burlap.  It helps with the fraying.

Ty thought all the ornaments were so pretty and of course, put them all right next to each on the tree – so we had to do some spreading out after he went to bed.

Great shot of our beautiful mantle and little man decorating the tree. 

I know you all are dying to see the finished tree, all decorated with the ruffle tree skirt – but you’ll have to wait till everything is done – hopefully tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving! and early Merry Christmas!

Lamp shade

Ty knows his trucks.  I found this cute lamp at Goodwill the other day.  When Tyler found it he was so excited he had to tell me what each truck was.

Our weekend

This past weekend we…

went and saw Christmas lights with mama…

how cool is that train!? 

found a sit and spin at the consignment sale!

helped daddy get lumber for the basement…

before walls framed in…

after!  Jeremy got all this done on Saturday.  It went much faster than we both expected.  Thanks to Matt for all your help!

Wondering where all our stuff that was stored in the unfinished area went?!  Ha – out into the finished area of course.  It’s a little bit of a disaster area right now.  Can’t wait until it’s all done and I can organize all this stuff into the shelves that will be along the hallway to the music studio in the back.

Mantle

My beautiful mantle is complete and beautiful.  We love our fireplaces makeover.  To see what it looked like before and the treatment we did to the brick, click here.  A friend liked our fireplace so much I went and helped her stain hers the same color! 

 

Old mantle removed

New mantle in place!

 

Very thankful for Jeremy's handiwork!  Anyone have mantle envy now?  I'm keeping him busy - more to come on the basement project soon.

A Treat for you!

Your holiday checklist just got shorter. Create and send a totally personalized greeting card from Treat.com for FREE. Whether saying thanks for Thanksgiving, wishing a best friend a holiday birthday, or simply sharing the holiday cheer with a just because card, Treat lets you create a one-of-a-kind card that is sure to impress.

Today and tomorrow only (Monday 11/19 & Tuesday 11/20) use code: TREATBLOGR to get your free card.  Have it shipped to you and it’s completely free  --OR—pay for postage and they will mail it for you.

I just got my free card (personalized, printed and shipped for only $0.48!) and while personalizing it gave me the option to add a gift card to my order.  How awesome is that?!  Card and gift all from one website – quick and easy.

On top of it

I can not believe I got my Christmas cards ordered this early, but I did and it’s done!  It was pretty easy to find a design I liked on Shutterfly.  I ordered all three of the designs I previously posted about – I hope you all like the one you get!  Click below to see all the cards they have this year and order yours today.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Family

Last weekend we had a family reunion on with my mom’s dad’s side of the family.  Most of them I had never met – I didn’t even realize my grandpa had 6 siblings.  I had only ever met 2 of them. Anyways, I was happy to have this impromptu reunion and was glad my cousins got to make it since I think we are all too busy during Thanksgiving and Christmas this year to see each other.  We had a great time chatting and I hope to see them again over Christmas!

Beth, Kelsie and I

Beth, RC, Kelsie and I

The reunion was in Seymour, only 45 minutes away from Springfield so afterwards we drove there to spend the rest of the weekend with Jeremy’s parents.  Here is Ty with his cousins playing angry birds at the customary after church lunch place – Captain D’s.  Look at his face - he really loves his cousins!

Magic House

After purchasing a Groupon months ago, we finally made it to the Magic House down in Kirkwood.  We spent 5 hours exploring the house when my mom came to visit last week. 

Tyler had so much fun and it really getting into playing pretend and wanting to know how things work.  Everything is hand on – except the traveling Lego exhibit – more on that later – so it really keeps busy boys happy.

Of course we had to spend some time in the art studio.  There were two easels set up and when we first got there no one was there – Ty painted all four sheets of paper that were set up.  What can I say – the boy loves to paint!  Unfortunately we forgot to go back and pick up his master pieces before we left.

Walking around they house they have all kinds of fun areas.  There’s a water table, sand table, pretend library, store, doctor’s office, restaurant, vet’s office and many more I can’t remember.  One of his favorites was a construction site.  We walked in and I told him to pick a helmet to wear, the one missing is what he chose.  Should’ve known – operating ENGINEER. 

Found a tool belt just like daddy’s!  I had to snug it up as tight as I could so it would stay on his little hips.

In this election season – I just couldn’t resist a photo of Ty in the oval office deciding between fruit snacks or banana for a snack.  He overruled the banana decision with a presidential veto and tacked on a candy amendment to the snack bill.

This was part of the traveling Lego exhibit I mentioned earlier.  It was really cool – no touching though so we didn’t stay in this room long.  I wonder if they are actually glued together somehow??

Can you believe that is made out of Legos?  Before we left the room I asked Ty to pick out his favorite, he thought this was really cool.  Good choice buddy!

See him pointing, reaching…almost touching…before the lady said this was a no touch exhibit.  Here Gram is making sure the Lego lover didn’t make the crayons come tumbling down.

We had a great visit with my mom last week!  I wish someone could come visit every time Jeremy has to be gone for a week.  It makes the time go by much faster.  Thanks for coming mom!  Maybe you can get dad to come next time.

Preschool intro

Tyler started a preschool program through the high school last week.  The first day he got to wear his fireman costume and they trick or treated through the high school.  He came home with a paper grocery bag half full with candy!  What a first day.  He wouldn’t pose or look at the camera for any pictures so my mom, who was visiting for a couple days got this shot of us walking up to the school. Cutest fireman ever! 

He goes 3 days a week for just 2 hours.  So far he says he doesn’t like it, but we’ll see as he gets used to all the students and teachers.  We are planning on starting him in full day preschool in the fall, possibly summer probably at First Baptist Christian Academy in O’Fallon.  We went and toured the school and I liked that they have a very progressive program in which most kids are reading before they get to kindergarten.

So far, I haven’t relaxed when he’s been at school – too busy running errands or grabbing a workout class at the gym. 

I still can’t believe its time for my baby to go to school – didn’t he just turn one yesterday?! Where did the time go?