Christmas Tour of Homes!



Hey y'all! 2 posts in one day! Don't y'all feel lucky ha! Well... I am really excited about the Christmas tour of homes. I cant wait to see everyones decor. Since I have already done several posts on my house and Christmas trees, I decided that I would like to highlight my "original home"..... My parents house! I will always consider their house my home too and I just love how my mom decorates for Christmas. So without further ado.... here is their home.

Here is the tree! I think that this is the prettiest tree they have ever had. This year my mom added the "Mesh touch"!

This is the fire place with everyones stocking.This year we had to add a stocking to the mantle... Miss Hannah's "H" stocking!

The dining room!

Their house has TONS of windows overlooking the Hill country and this is the living room window decor!

Table in the living room...

Staircase Garland! I love how she mixed red and green with the black and white check.





This is the Breakfast room!



This is the kitchen

Here is the white tree in their gameroom. Its wrapped in lime green tulle and has all kinds of vibrant colored ornaments. This is the "Fun Tree"!

The tree has several dolls that my parents bought at Bloomingdale's in NYC. They are so fun!



Well that's it! Hope you enjoyed pictures of "My original home"! In the words of Dorothy... There really is no place like Home!

My Weekend!!!!

This weekend was so fun! Saturday we went over to my moms house and grilled out hamburgers (ya know its Texas when you can grill out in December) and we also made lots of cookies! I just love making cookies at Christmas time more than any other time in the year!
Doesn't this little girl look excited about making cookies! And I'm just a little obsessed with this "Bailey Boys" Stocking outfit!

Here are some of the cookies that were on the "Menu"

"Thumbprints" They are like a shortbread buttery cookie with preserves in the center.



White chocolate pumpkin cookies!



And of course we had to make some "White Trash Candy"!

Then... Today I hosted a baby shower for my friend Robbin. The shower was at my moms house and I was super excited to help host this shower for her. She already has one daughter and is having another little girl. I One of Robbins favorite cakes is my Raspberry Pistachio cream cake so I knew exactly that I had to make that one for her.

Here I am with Robbin and my friend Annie (who also helped with the shower)



 I really wanted it to be a special time that we could come and celebrate Robbin and little Elizabeth. I thought up the idea to do a "Blessing tree". I bought a pink tree and I made her several bows that I clipped to the tree, then each person at the shower wrote a blessing or a Bible Verse on an ornament and put it on the tree. It was really neat to see all of the things people wrote. Here is the tree (before everyone wrote their blessings on the ornaments)

It ended up being a great shower and I hope that it can be a memorable time for Robbin as well.



Hannah is 10 Months!!!

My crazy girl has been even crazier in this 10th month of her life! She has been teething (first TOP tooth)and she has had days where she is NOT happy. She is starting to really "Show" her opinion on everything, even throwing a few tantrums. Sometimes I think we might have reached "Terrible Twos" ha! Her communication has improved a lot this month (that is a good and a bad thing ha!) Her favorite thing to say is "Dada" and "Uh-Oh". She is really getting good at mimicking as well. At night Bri and I will just start saying words to her (basic words) and she will try and repeat them. I just LOVE her little angel voice.

She loves to do "Arms up" and this works out great when we are changing her clothes. Its a little less of a hassle if she can at least do this little task. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She will pucker those little lips and give the sweetest kisses. And there is nothing better than her coming up to me and giving me a big ol' hug. Pure Heaven!

I have to admit I'm a little sad because this month I officially stopped breast-feeding. I had been pumping for most of her life and I really felt like I was being chained to the pump. So I decided to stop so that by the time she was 10 months I would be done. I have to say I was really sad about it. I wasn't "Nursing" her.... just pumping and I thought it wouldn't be a big deal but it kinda was.It's just sad to me that its over and I cant go back :( I love my baby girl more than words can say and I'm excited for what the next month holds.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

This week I am LOVING my sweet little town. Saturday we went downtown and they have the whole area decked out for Christmas! There are lights everywhere and its so beautiful. I LOVE it because its not very crowded so you can go and just enjoy the lights and take lots of pictures. Here is what it looks like...

This is the Big Christmas tree that's in the Circle

This is the Courthouse

This is the quaint little gazebo all lit up!

I am also LOVING Hannah's first ever Santa pictures. We have already had 2 different pictures taken. With the first one she was perfect. She didn't cry at all and even smiled. Aunt Katie (KK) took this one with her!

The second Santa picture was a completely different story! We had a Santa come to our MOPS group and I was so excited to get Hannah's picture taken in her Santa outfit. Well.... She wanted nothing to do with this Santa. Maybe she knew he wasn't real ;)

Oh well.... Maybe next year she can be more consistent. Happy Wednesday y'all!

Our Family Christmas Pictures!

Last Sunday my friend Emily Marcom took our Christmas pictures. I really wanted to get a good picture for Christmas cards and I had asked Emily to do it since she has dabbled in photography before. She kept telling me what an amateur she was and not to have high expectations. I really wasn't expecting to get more than 5 good pictures but Emily did such an AMAZING job that she far exceeded the task at hand. We met her at the JW Marriott in San Antonio. We love it there! We did Hannah's 6 months pictures there and wanted to go back because they decorate the hotel so beautifully for Christmas. Here are some of my favorites that Emily took.

I'm so glad we did these pictures! Hannah did pretty good until the end and then she was so over it and wouldn't really smile for us but we had a great time taking them. Thank you Emily! And thank you Kara for making Hannah's flower that she is wearing!

I Love Big Balls!



So today is all about decorating and I gotta tell ya.... This year I am loving me some big balls (mind out of the gutter ladies ha!) But really... Since I decided to get all new stuff for my tree this year I have gotten a lot of the gold and red balls to fill the tree with and it really makes a difference. Thursday night I went to an ornament exchange with the ladies from my church and I thought instead of bringing a "cutesy" ornament, I would bring just a big red glittery ball. I know that I love that for my tree so why wouldn't everyone else right? Well I was wrong :( NO ONE wanted my ball. We do a Chinese gift exchange for the ornaments and I wrapped mine up extra pretty so that it would be one of the first ones picked. Unfortunately my ball never got stolen once. So when it was my turn I just decided to take it for myself ha! I can always use and extra big ball on my tree ;)

Here is the "before" pic of the gift.

And here is the "after" when the Ball went back to its rightful owner.... ME!

Now on to the decorating. I already had done a post on my tree but I thought I would share how I got some of my decorating tips and what materials I used. Here is a picture of my tree again.

Some of y'all had asked me what I used to wrap around my tree. Its called "mesh" and I have seen it being used A LOT this season from other Christmas trees and wreaths Ive seen. I got mine at Hobby Lobby.Its super easy to work with. All you have to do is wrap it around your tree and secure it with your branches. After you wrap your tree then you put all of your big balls on. Then you can put your smaller balls on and then you can put on all of your pics. I am also LOVING the glittery pics! They really add a lot to the tree. I found all of these tips and tricks because my moms friend Jennifer's family owns a HUGE Christmas store in Midland and they also have a website and Christmas decorating videos you can order.Their site is called Show Me Decorating. You can get tons of tricks from them.

So we have 2 trees this year and the other tree is in Hannah's room. I found the cutest (and cheapest) pink tree at Hobby Lobby and I decided to clip some of her bows to it and put it up in her room for Christmas.

I just LOVE her tree although it is such a pain trying to keep her away from it ha! Well... those are my trees. Y'all have a great Saturday!

2 "Linky's" for the price of one!

Today I'm going to do 2 "Linky's" in one. What I'm LOVING Wednedsday and 12 Days of Christmas! So first things first....



Today I am LOVING Kara Wright's (just simply dainty) flowers! I found her blog through Jennifer Francis' blog and I'm so glad I did. She is absolutely AMAZING!!! I wish I had all of her flowers. The thing I LOVE about them is that they are so unique and no one else sells anything like them. I have LOVED getting to know Kara (and her flowers) and I was so excited last week when I got my first order in the mail. These are the ones I got....

Aren't these flowers beautiful! They are so sturdy too.

I LOVE these too! Hannah wore the top red flower in her Christmas pictures we took last week. She wore the pink flower with the monogrammed "H" yesterday!

Here is my "Just Simply Dainty" girlie!

I cant wait to order more! Thanks Kara!

So now for the 12 Days of Christmas.... Today's topic is favorite Christmas recipes.I started making this amazing "Cracker Candy" last Christmas and it is AMAZING! My dad started calling it "White Trash Candy" because it uses Saltine crackers ha! It is the best thing you will ever put in your mouth! I want all of y'all reading this to go out today and make it because y'all will DIE when you try this stuff! O.K. so here's what you need to make it:

Ingredients:

- 2 Rolls of Saltine Crackers

- 2 sticks of butter

- 1 cup Sugar

-1 bag of MILK Chocolate chips

- Powdered sugar for dusting

The first thing you do is line a baking pan with foil and arrange your crackers to cover the pan in an even layer

Then you melt the butter and sugar together until a rolling boil and then you pour it over the crackers. Then you bake the crackers in a 350 degree oven until the crackers are brown and bubbly.

Then right out of the oven.... sprinkle the bag of milk Chocolate chips all over the crackers. The heat of the crackers will melt the chocolate and then you can spread the chocolate evenly all over the crackers.

Then you put it in the freezer until the chocolate is set and hard. Then break up the candy in chunks and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

It is SO GOOD! Its also a great thing to give as little gifts. You can put it in clear plastic bags and tie it up with some pretty ribbon and there you go. Happy Wednesday Y'all ;)