Christmas Eve with Cait's Family

Now onto Christmas Eve with my family!

Alex with my Mom, he had his first piece of fudge from her that night, needless to say I was not ok with it, but Alex had a new best friend, and he only had a VERY VERY small piece.

Alex with his Godmother, my cousin, and one of my other cousins.  He loved these two!  He always loves his Godmommy but he loves my cousin now too that she is not afraid to hold him!

My sister with one of the wreaths I made for her and my mom.

And Alex was so worn out from opening all of his gifts and partying that he passed out!  He napped here for a good hour and a half.

Christmas Eve (Our Christmas Morning)

Isn't amazing that Santa knows when Mommies and Daddies have to work on Christmas and he brings the gifts to be opened on Christmas Eve Morning.  I was so cool to spend our first Christmas Morning together as a family.  Alex pulled the paper again just wanting to eat it but he did play with most of his toys that day.  

I liked that Santa did not track any soot onto my carpet but instead left Alex a cool message to let him know he was there.  

Pardon my hair, I really just rolled out of bed and we started opening gifts.

Starting our Christmas book collection.

Now Alex can play with our iPhones without ruining them with slobber.

And our iPad that we got for eachother!

Now onto his stockings.

New pacy clips and and pacies!

Some cars to start his collection!  This one is a police car!

And some movies and new carseat toys!

Christmas with Chris's Parents

Because Chris and I both have to work on Christmas Day, and Chris' family celebrates on Christmas, we went over the Sunday before.  So here are a few pictures we got before my camera card ran out of room.  I need to be better at clearing off my memory card.

We were all so blessed by Chris's parents and family!  Alex actually was tearing some of the paper off of the gifts, solely so he could eat it, but nonetheless.  He got so many cool new toys that I was glad Santa nor I bought him any.

The Festival of Lights

Now that Christmas has come and gone and the tree is put away for another year, I figure it is time to recap on the festivities.  In this post I will recap our trip to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo with my brother and sister. 

We started Alex in his carseat attached to his stroller, but I just felt like he couldn't really see everything so then we switched him to his stroller and stowed the carseat in the back.  He also had two layers of clothes, and two snow suits and then his hat.  The outer snow suit was way to big so I put socks over the ends>  I really think the only cold thing on the boy as his nose.  But I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

I took his carseat cover and put it on the stroller and

He loved the lights.

On the twinkling trail.

The baby elephant.   I think he was born last year.

This truly is one of my favorite things to do each year.  I find the lights and decorations to be so pretty.  I just wish there had been more animals out, we really only got to see the manatees and the elephants.  Chris and I always try to go together but with our new schedules it has made things a little difficult.  So hopefully next year we will be able to all go as a family.

Super Charged Sunday Pinsperation Edition

I finally got a real shadow box to put all of Alex's newborn stuff in.  Previously I had just put into an 11x14 frame and called it a day, but as I walked by it everyday I just thought that did not do it justice.  So after I got a gift card to Michael's for Christmas I went and picked a 16x20 frame (I think).

I made this a while ago, and I probably shared it on the blog already but here it is again.  This is something else I saw on Pinterest and I plan on redoing it every year.  Alex was not to keen on his hand in paint, so it kind of looks like he has half of a thumb. 

This is something else I have seen on Pinterest that I do for each holiday.  I did a ghost and candy corn for Halloween and a turkey hand and foot for Thanksgiving.  We also did some butterflies made with both feet and a fish and a jellyfish with his hands.  

I saw this one night when I had an extra 16x20 canvas laying around and I went to work.  I freehanded the whole thing.  I would have been easier if I was not such a perfectionist.  But it took me about 20 minutes to get the B up to my "standards" and it is still not perfect but I love this way it turned out.

This was something else found on Pinterest recently.  We each dipped our feet into white paint and then I decorated them as snowmen.  I tried to decorate the scarves on the snowmen to match our stockings and tree skirt.  I think I did a pretty good job, but in the picture it is hard to see the black print I painted onto it.  

And my final one for the day is this.  I traced Alex's hand and made it into a Christmas tree glued onto a 16x20 canvas.  It was super easy, just a little time consuming.  

Organized Living

Recently I have been on a "kick" (if you should call it that) of getting my house extremely organized and clean!  

I think it may have been my brain knowing ahead of time just how much Alex would be getting for Christmas and all of the extra room I knew we were going to need, but another part of me says it was just me looking for a way to take less time to clean up! 

SO here are some things we have done around the house lately to make it more organized and clean:

We got this for our dining room around my birthday this year.   We use it to display our wedding stuff and then store wine glasses and such.  The under part stores serving trays and some of my craft supplies.

This was one of Alex's Christmas gifts, and it is perfect because it stores all of his other Christmas presents.  Yes I took my tree down already and put this in it's place.  I was sad to take it down but with my tree having had been up since the end of October (when it was delivered and I could just not justify taking it down.) but I was in desperate need to feel like we had space in our home again.

This is something we added to both bedrooms recently.  We put one up in Alex's room right next to his dresser/changing table.  It is super conveinient and does not fall over all of the time like his old hamper did.  We have two up in our room to separate lights and darks.  We had an old hamper in our room too but each side barely held a load.  And so far these have been magnificent!  It is especially fantastic for husbands like mine who do not always pick up their dirty clothes, it kind of makes it like a basketball game for him to throw his stuff into.  

This is my old vanity desk that was passed down to my sister after I moved out, and now that she has a new bedroom set I got it back, along with my other dresser.   This helps me to clear out the bathroom cabinets and medicine cabinet of all of my hair and makeup stuff.  It provides more space for towels which I think we have a trillion of.  

We bought one of these for each closet.  I like to use mine to store scarves, belts, hats and extra pillowcases in the top then tank tops, pj's, and heavy sweats the rest of the way down.  And the jumbled mess on the floor is some of my shoes, which I am looking for a nice way to store those next.  But Chris also has one in his closet.  

This is the matching dresser to my vanity desk.  The dresser we transformed into Alex's changing table used to match this also.  Whenever we get to makeover our room this will be sanded down and painted another color.  But we got another dresser for Chris, that we are borrowing for the time being, awhile back I decided I wanted to get rid of our dressers, because I was nuts.  And now that I have them back I will never get that wild hair again!

And this is an extra storage piece for Alex's room.  We used to use the bottom part for toys, but now we use it for shoes since we got the big toy box for Christmas.  So we store burp cloths, bibs, socks, belts, hats and now shoes in it.  

These are just some of the improvements we have made recently and I will be making many more to come!  

Let me know if you are interested in an update soon!

Fun Tag Friday 13 Personal Questions Tag

1.  What do you order at Starbucks?

Well it has been ages since I have been to Starbucks!  I am thinking it has been since my first semester in college.  But when I used to go I would get a Venti White Chocolate Mocha.

2.  What's one thing in your closet that you could not live without?

Well I would say my sweats but that would make me boring.  But the other thing I HAVE TO HAVE in my closet is organization!  I must be able to find what I am looking for.

3.  What's one thing people probably wouldn't know about you?

The amount I weigh.  Whenever someone finds out how much I weigh they always say, "You don't look like you weigh that!"  And no I will not be telling you how much I weigh.

4.  Name one thing you want to do before you die?  

Travel through Europe.

5.  What's one food that you cannot live without?

French Fries and Diet Dr Pepper.

6.  What quote/phrase do you live by?

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

7.  What do you like and dislike about the blogger community?

I have yet to find something I dislike on blogger.  But as far as likes go, I have found a place that allows me to express myself, is more convenient than a journal and also allows me to connect with other women similar to me.

8.  What's you r number one listened to song on iTunes?

My guess would be 1994 from Jason Aldean's album Night Train or Jason Aldean and Bryan Adam's duo of Heaven.

9.  What kind of style would you define yourself as having?

Definitely casual.  I don't like to spend a ton of time getting ready.  I want to be able to put something on, get ready and go.

10.  Favorite Number?

I have 2!  7 and 30, 7 for the day Alex was born and 30 for the day Chris and I got married.

11.  Two Hobbies?

Photography and Crafting

12.  Two pet peeves?

Chewing with your mouth open and the crinkling of chip bags.

13.  Guilty Pleasure?

Umm eating all of my chocolate before Chris gets home so I don't have to share!

Christmas Decor 2012

Now compared to years past my Christmas decorations are slim to none.  I typically go all out, but decided this year I wanted to stick to a theme.  I think I have done pretty well other than a few things.  Oh by the way pardon my mess in the background, I am doing laundry while I do this post. 

I bought this snowman lantern a few years ago and I love it.  Whenever we buy a house I plan to put it into our room or some other room in the house.  It doesn't necessarily match but it "goes" well enough.  And look how cute my baby was when he met Santa on Tuesday!

Both of these things were gifts.  I have chosen to stick to a theme of snowmen, red, silver and white.  And it matches the theme perfectly.

For the last two years I have been gifted a snow globe at our annual ornament exchange!  I love it!  I hope it is the start of a tradition.  If not I will just buy one for myself. :)

And the snowman in this picture is a gift Alex got at the ornament party this year.  Once again he does not really match but he "goes" pretty well.  And in the frame is one of the pictures I took for his Christmas session.

Our stockings.

Our tree.  I love that I chose to do silver and red.  It look amazing with the white lights!  One of my favorite things about it is the tree topper.  It is a Santa hat.  It's not a snowman, but I figured as Alex got older it would be cool to have him put it on and say that this tree is out "Santa" tree where Santa puts all of his gifts.  And see that the tree skirt matches our stockings!  I got all four of them from Kohls for a total of $20 after Thanksgiving.

This is my favorite way to look at the tree. With all of the house lights off. 

This was a Pinspiration I got last night.  I love it!  I tried to paint the scarves to match the stockings a tree skirt.  They look much better in person.

Another Pinspiration is the ribbon on the kitchen cabinets and mini clothes pins to hang up the cards.  

And the other side of the kitchen.  I am trying to learn how to use deco mesh.

This is in our dining room, since the paint on the bottom half of the chair rail is green, we chose to do blue and green decorations for the most part, but it is kind of a hodge podge.

I must say recently I have begun to love nutcrackers.  My older cousin who is like my sister is in LOVE with them and she has rubbed off on me.

This is a piece my grandparents made.  I love it!  I call him my drunk reindeer.

And this is my drunk Santa that they made.

My Willow Tree figures (Chris gives me one for each "milestone"), some other collectibles and my Christmas figurines and last 2 years snow globes.

Kohls puts out a plate by St.Nicholas Square in this shape each year.  I think my goal is to get one each year to add to the collection.  My mother in law gave me the blue one last year, along with some other table things that match like cheese spreaders and a loaf pan, while my great aunt gave me matching placemats, napkins and napkin rings, all without coordinating.

One of my steals from my mom's collection that I LOVE!  

Of course I had to get this stocking too!

And Alex's pitiful tree in his room.  My goal is to get him a green tree after Christmas to put in his room next year.  And we will move the football tree to a box until Chris has a man cave.