Good morning friends! Today is a special day where I’m joining several of my blog friends for the Decked & Styled Holiday Tour and I’m extending a warm hello and big hug to those of you that are new to my blog, or stopped by from my friend Abby, Just A Girl and Her Blog!
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting everyone in this tour, except for the special one who actually organized it- Bree from ZDesign at Home! I can’t wait to finally meet her in person too, hopefully this summer! I’m honored to be included with this group and can’t wait to show you a peek inside our holiday home!
I was feeling pretty good about the amount of time we have left before Christmas until I realized that this weekend and next are the only ones left until Christmas on a Sunday this year! We’ll only get Jordan a couple of things (this and this) that I think she’ll love and I still have lots of people on my list to shop for and don’t even remind me that I haven’t ordered Christmas cards yet! ?
Oh well, I vow to get on it this.weekend! I don’t want to be all stressed out,
I swear the weekends go faster and faster and just like that, we’re back to Monday! But, in just two short weeks, it will be Christmas break and we’ll have our son home for a couple weeks, so we’re looking forward to that! We also celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary over the weekend and I can’t believe next year will be 10 years. I love this little family of ours and of course Jordan brings so much joy!
Her nursery is still one of my favorite rooms in our house and we recently added a touch of Christmas decor in honor of her very first Christmas.
Did you get your holiday shopping started yesterday? Maybe even done for those overachievers out there! 😉 Those sales were bananas and my fingers are tired from clicking around on my computer, but nothing a strong cup of coffee this morning can’t fix!
Are you ready to turn the page to some Christmas holiday decor?! Over the Thanksgiving break, we’ve been making our way around our home spreading holiday cheer throughout. Thank God I have a helper in James or I’d be dead! I’ve been sharing bits on InstaStories and love watching them too. It’s been easier for me to post to one social media channel instead of two,
Every year, my friend Sarah hosts a virtual “Favorite Things” party with some of her blogging besties and this year I’m joining in! I kept my list to my very favorite Top 10 things that I love and use on a regular basis. It didn’t take me long to come up with my faves and I’m curious if any of these top your list of faves too!
Good morning friends! Did you enjoy that extra hour of sleep as much as I did?! Man, was that nice! Now, I just have to teach Jordan not to wake up an hour earlier! 😉
Today, I’m so excited to kick off the holiday season with a mini Winter Wonderland I created in the sitting room just off of our bedroom. I’ve been working on it for several weeks and thought it might be too early to share this Christmas decor, but as it came together, I found myself loving it more and more! Now, I’m thrilled to have this room in our home decorated for the holidays and we love seeing how gorgeous it looks all lit up at night!
Good morning friends! I’m taking advantage of a few minutes with the boys playing video games to reflect on the past couple of days and go through all the photos I took. As I look through these pics, I’m thankful for real life, unstaged photos that may not have the best lighting or composition, but that truly reflect our family life and how things looked from behind the lens the last few days. I bet lots of your homes and lives looked similar!
Since we were hosting Christmas dinner this year, I got James to help me set a simple dining room table and he was really into it,
Good Monday morning to you! We had a great weekend that kicked off on Friday with my son’s school Christmas concert (the cutest!), followed by my best girlfriend coming to town to stay a few days. How fun to finally get some much-needed girl time! We joined our other besties at North Italia Sunday night- definitely go there if you’re in Houston- it was so good! She left this morning, and now we’re preparing for the in-laws to come on Wednesday. It’s time to relax and unwind, but I admit, I still have those last-minute gifts to purchase and then I’ll be focusing on the food and groceries.
Good morning from our bright and shiny and holiday-ready nursery! Even though this little baby girl still has about 13 weeks until she arrives, spending time in her nursery is a new favorite pastime! The holidays are the perfect time to have fun and play with decor, and I definitely had fun adding these girlie and festive touches. Come on in!
Y’all are so sweet to make me feel like I didn’t look like a big, green Christmas tree in yesterday’s post. I’m sure from some angles, I do, but that’s okay, I’m just beyond thrilled to be having a baby. This one is super feisty in there- kicking and moving nonstop! But I like it because it lets me know she’s doing well.
And it’s perfect timing to talk Christmas trees since I’m showing you our sparkly tree from this year today! When we built our home, I didn’t initially realize what a perfect spot this under-the-staircase would be for a tree,
Is it starting to feel festive at you house too? Thanks for you sweet comments on our dining room holiday decor (such a bummer that the foyer table is currently sold out, but it goes in and out of stock often if you’re considering it). I can’t wait to share our pretty tree with you soon! I shared a nighttime shot on my Instagram recently, but I want to take some bright photos to share. That area of our house is hard to photograph and the weather has been pretty dark lately, so I’m waiting for a time when the good light and a break in my day coincide to photograph it!
Wow! And just like that we’re already at December 1st! Can you believe it?! Somehow I’m always amazed at the end of the year just how fast it seems to have gone by. Don’t you feel the same?! The years are going faster or I’m getting older! Definitely the latter, I’m sure! But, I’m ready to savor all the goodness that December has in store! We’ll have family visiting soon and a long Christmas break with my son home from school and I can’t wait for that!
As for me, I’ve started decorating our home for the holidays, including the dining room and I’ve also started shopping.
If you caught that shot of me yesterday, you saw I was busy putting the finishing touches on our holiday decor in the dining room! After the trees and stairs are decorated, the dining room is usually next on my list because that is the first room you see when you enter our home and we also host Christmas dinner, so I like the get the decor underway early.
Of course, I used my handy and beautiful Everett foyer table to set the scene and this year, and I was inspired first when I saw these
Happy almost Thanksgiving! We’re starting our Thanksgiving celebration early by hosting out-of-town family making an impromptu visit into town. We’re quickly putting together a menu of yumminess, and that’s okay, we’re just happy to all be together, relaxing at home as opposed to trying to get everyone to meet at a restaurant. We’ll be better able to visit (especially with 5 kids running around)!
I hope your Thanksgiving preparations are going well! I’m sending you good vibes from Houston and if you need a little break from the stress of it all, come with me and check out today’s Gift Guide I prepared for you.
Hallelujah I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping- just a couple more things to pick up and it’s all done! Nothing like only having two days to spare! And, I have what I think is a perfect gift for my parents! That feels good. Over the weekend, I added some finishing Christmas decor touches to the sitting room just off our master bedroom. It only takes a few decorative touches to make the little space feel festive.
I started with our pair of tall Nutcrackers from Hobby Lobby and a red bell wreath on the starburst mirror.
This year, our holiday decor is taking place rather s-l-o-w-l-y. I pulled out all of our Christmas bins, but so far, less than half have been unpacked. The bits that did get unpacked or a few purchased new this year are making our home feel special for the holidays.
My son is obsessed with the countdown to Christmas this year, so he loves our homemade Advent calendar and things like this nutcracker that lets him actively count down the days until Christmas. He pulls the nutcracker down everyday as soon as he gets home from school and changes the wooden blocks to reflect how many more days.
Decorating our home for the holidays is something I really enjoy, but it also often unfolds rather slowly. This year, we’ve gotten the Christmas tree up and lighted garland on the stairs, along with some decorative touches in the kitchen. James has a little tree in his room too. Last week, we got our dining room holiday ready with reindeers, glittery snowflakes, and faux snow. Did you get a sneak peek on my Instagram? I always want to show things as soon as they are created (or while in progress), but then it took me until Sunday night to finish the post.
The childhood thrill of putting up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving has not faded. It’s been our family tradition as long as I can remember and we’ve continued it in our house. I still get giddy even anticipating the tree, but seeing it actually come together with all the decor and listening to Christmas songs while we add the ornaments is a favorite time of the whole year.
It’s a beautiful thing to observe my young son getting the same thrill of decorating the tree that I have. He kept asking when we could decorate and this year,
