Show Us Your Life- Christmas Tour of Homes

Kelly at Kelly's Corner and The Nester are both hosting a Christmas Tour of Homes so I thought I would participate and show you our little bit of Christmas decor we have. I should probably start off by saying that I love, love, LOVE Christmas time! I love the decorations, the food, the traditions and the celebrations! Mostly I love celebrating the birth of Jesus. So, with all that in mind I usually start getting ready for Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to rush Thanksgiving. I love it too. It's just that I want to make sure that I get my fill of Christmas before it's over. 

Most of my Christmas decorations are gifts and hand-me-downs and truthfully, I love that! I love that there is a story or a memory behind every single thing.  

Here is our tree which was a gift from my grandmother and aunt on mine and Will's first Christmas after we were married. I love this tree. It's nice an big and full! You can also see the tree skirt which I made this year. I seriously love the fabric in this tree skirt. I was walking through Joann Fabric's and the fabric caught my eye. I saw it and decided I had to come up with something to make just so I could use that fabric. So, now I have a beautiful tree skirt. I also made one for my sister while I was at it. 

 Here is our mantle. About half of what is on this mantle was given to us by my aunt and grandmother, yet again. Those two are probably the only two people I know who love to decorate for Christmas as much as I do. I still need to get a stocking for Maggie but I haven't found just the right one. I thought of making one for her but I haven't found any more fabric that I love and wouldn't you know that the fabric I made the tree skirt out of was all sold out before Thanksgiving!

Here is Maggie's Little People Nativity. I have this sitting on our window seat so that Maggie can play with it. She usually just throws the pieces all over our living room and we have since composed the song "Oh Little Terror of Bethlehem". It's a lovely little ditty about a giant baby who comes to the little town of Bethlehem and destroys it with one swift sweep of her giant baby arm. Luckily, the town miraculously recovers...several times a day.

See...they recover nicely.

This nativity is one that my dad made years ago and gave to my grandmother. Last year she passed it down to me. I played with this nativity set every year when I was a little girl. Some of the pieces have been repaired or replaced but it's still a very special addition to our Christmas decor.

Lastly, every single year since the year I was born my grandparents have given me a brass ornament. I have several all over our tree. I love them all. They are so unique and special to me. Here is one of my favorites. Of course all of these ornaments are out of Maggie's reach. In fact, if you look very closely at our tree you can see where all the kid friendly ornaments stop and the more fragile ornaments end.

So, that's our Christmas decor. I hope you all enjoy it. Hopefully next year we will have more to add.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Show Us Your Life- Bathrooms

I have been reading Kelly's Corner for a few months now and decided to participate in her 'Show Us Your Life' series. So, here goes...

First, let me say that bathrooms, especially in our house are hard to photograph. And they are not fun at all. But the have their purpose... and that's all I'll say about that.

This is the master bath. It's long and narrow which is why this is all you can see of it. I felt weird posting a picture of just the toilet so you can use your imagination. We do have a nice, big tub that I love!!! But I left that picture out, too, because it was hard to get a picture of it.

This is our guest bathroom/Maggie's bathroom.

I really want to take out this vanity, mirror and light fixture and put in a pedestal sink, new mirror and lighting to dress it up a little.

Here are the little pictures in the wall in the bathroom. Just thought I'd include them because they are cute and bathroom themed.

So, there you have it. Hopefully the next 'Show Us Your Life' will allow me to show you something a little more interesting in our house. Especially since the holidays are coming!

Smile and say "Cheese"!

Lately, whenever I take out the camera and ask Maggie to smile and say "cheese" I usually get one of these silly faces. What a goof! It looks quite similar to a face that her Aunt Bird use to make when she was asked to smile. We called it her Popeye face.

1 Year Old!

WARNING: Lots of pictures.
I know I'm about a month late in posting pictures of Maggie's first birthday but since that day our lives have been busy, busy, busy! So, with out further delay here we go...

We had a lunch party for Maggie's first birthday and invited family and friends to join us at my mother-in-law's house. We decided to have a cupcake theme for her party and even though I didn't get to make everything I had wanted to for the party there were still several fun little cupcake items...

Such as the cupcakes them selves...

Maggie's cupcake shirt I made for her to wear... ( I probably should have put the little cupcake up higher...oh well...we live and learn.)

And her birthday cake.

Speaking of cake...this kid LOVES her cake! She had no problem getting in there and tearing that sucker up!

We had a great time at Maggie's party and really appreciated having all our friends and family that could make it there.

We especially enjoyed trying to take this picture. I was about to split a gut this was so funny. All these little kids were such troopers!

Harvest Festival 2010

Before it gets too late I wanted to publish a few photos of my little Lyon in her lion costume at this years Harvest Festival.

Maggie was really a good sport about wearing this little outfit. I had not planned on us really doing anything for Halloween. Our church usually holds a Harvest Festival as a Halloween alternative and initially I hadn't even planned on us going to that because I really don't want Maggie or any of our kids thinking that we have to do anything on that night. We never really did anything when I was growing up so I didn't feel the need with Maggie. And then I came across this pattern. It was so cute and it was a LION!!! How perfect! I had to make it. I started it in the beginning of October not knowing how difficult it was going to be and was done with the majority of it pretty quickly. The hardest part was gluing all the little ribbons on the hood. But I am so pleased with the results! I think I have the cutest little lion ever!

A shot of the tail. I had a few requests to see the back.

At the Harvest Festival.

Keepin' it Clean

I remember, growing up, Saturday was always the cleaning day at our house. I dreaded it. I'm sure my parents dreaded it because it was like pulling teeth getting us to actually do our chores and do them well. Now that I'm in my own house I do see the importance of keeping your house clean and taking care of things but I still hate the thought of dedicating Saturday morning to doing that. Especially since that is one time when Will is home and we can spend time together. Keeping all that in mind I went searching for a solution and that's when I discovered The Clean Mama!

For the past couple of months I've been following her blog and after a while I started using her weekly docket to keep our house in order and keep me on a schedule. It's been great! Every day has a task assigned to it as well as specific task that I do every day. For example, today is the day I wash our floors so I will mop all the hard floors in our house and tomorrow is vacuuming day so that will take care of the rest of the floors in the house. That means that after tomorrow I will have cleaned our entire house for the week and I'll have the weekend to enjoy my family.

The best part of it all is that our house stays fairly clean and I don't feel like I'm working hard and stressing out over staying on top of it. Some tasks I complete while Maggie is napping and others I complete while she is just playing around the house and I can keep an eye on her. And I have it all done on Saturday morning!

So, that's what has worked for me. Let me know what works for you and your family.

"No Puke" Beef Stew

Sadly there is no photo to go with this post but that's mainly because when making this wonderful meal there is not much to photograph.

This is a simple crock-pot recipe that I grew up on and it's delicious! Even though we call it "No Puke". And how did it get such a name? Well, because I'm an airhead and don't always read things carefully. At least not when I was as kid.

I think it was about the time we got a crock-pot that we discovered a recipe for "No Peek" beef stew and my mom decided to make it. I glanced at the recipe and could have sworn that the title said "No Puke" and so that's what we constantly referred to it as. I thought that maybe beef stew had a reputation for not being so tasty and that this was a recipe that was actually for a good and tasty beef stew. (Hey, I was about 8 years old, cut me some slack.) So, we made the beef stew and I loved it and continued to call it "No Puke" and no one corrected me. In fact, we just called it that and still do. I don't think that I actually discovered that the name of it was "No Peek" until I was married and looking for the recipe to make for Will and myself.

So, what is in this wonderful beef stew? It's so simple:

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 envelope of onion soup mix
• 1 cup of red wine
• 2 lbs. beef for stew

Pour the first three ingredients into a crock-pot and mix together. Add the beef and mix in to cover with sauce mix. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice or egg noodles. It's fabulous! And it won't make you...um...puke.