It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas season is upon us, and in the spirit of Christmas I thought I'd share some pictures of our Christmas decor.

During the rest of the year I have rocks in here and place bells for Christmas!

This is new this year and one of my favorites! All of the supplies came from the Dollar Store!

Another of my favorites, the garland, ribbon and lights also came from the Dollar Store!

The story of when we got this tree is one to remember.

Shenanigans

Whew what a crazy few weeks it has been! In my last post I mentioned Theo's birthday party that was just around the corner. We just had some family there but I think it went well! Theo spent more of his time enjoying his cake instead of smashing it haha. He was so delicate, grabbing some icing and then licking it off his little fingers. That boy sure does love his food. :P Here are a few pictures from his party.

A week after his birthday we took a long drive up north to Virginia for my sister's wedding! She's a married woman now! It was quite cold but it was great being able to see family I haven't seen in awhile and for all of us to be together. The wedding was simply beautiful! Of course not as beautiful as the bride! She was gorgeous. I really wish that I had taken some pictures, I got caught up in all the excitement and forgot. It was really great being apart of my sister's day, who now has a last name almost as complicated as mine haha.

Cracker Barrel on the way back

Before I knew it was once again Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time spending it with my brother and sister-in-law and some new people. This was Theo's first Thanksgiving to be able to enjoy all the food and boy did he enjoy it, I caught him trying to lick the plate haha. Again I neglected to take pictures (I need to get better at it). Now its the Christmas season! Ah! One of my favorite times of the year! My house is completely decked out in Christmas decor, shopping has begun along with Christmas goody baking. I'm counting down the days till Christmas. I feel like a child! Love this time of the year!

Theo's First Birthday

I can't believe it's already been a year since our precious little Theodore Michael came into our lives.

Look at how little he was!

We're not having a little party for him until next week. It worked out better that way for family visiting. Though we didn't have a party yesterday we did little things to celebrate the special day. We started out with cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Theo enjoyed his special treat.

The rest of the day was spent running errands and such. One of things we were able to do was have Theo make a painting. I first saw the idea on Pinterest and thought it was such a cute idea. Theo had a blast and now we have a forever reminder of his first birthday.

Final Product

Of course he was a mess so into the bath he went. We added some bubbles to make it more fun.

We ended the day with one of Theo's favorite meals, baked ravioli. I still can't believe he's a year old already! He's developed such a great little personality. He's really shy around other people, he usually hides behind Michael when strangers come up to him. But when we're at home he is such a goof ball! He loves cuddles, food, and any sort of electronic (haha). He loves to go "bye bye" and is pretty upset when Michael goes to work because he can't go with him. He's a silly sweetheart and we just love him! Happy Birthday Theo!

Never Ending Cycle

Ever have one of those days where you have no motivation whatsoever? You know the days I'm talking about. Those days where the mere thought of having to get up and clean the kitchen makes you moan and maybe even close to tears (the latter was my day). I've had more of these days than I would have liked, sometimes they even last for a week at a time. Anyone relate? It can be tough. It's a never ending cycle. In the morning you wake up, make breakfast, clean up the dishes, get ready for the day, complete your daily chore, make lunch, clean up afterwards, have a little bit of free time which you use to complete a work out or pluck your horribly disastrous eyebrows, make dinner, clean up dinner, get little ones in bed, clean up the toys, and finally have some peace before you are off to sleep just to wake up the next morning and complete the whole process all over again. (sorry for the incredibly long sentence) Sometimes we moms just need a break. So though I feel somewhat awful for lazy day, I'll take it as a much needed break that I needed. Get some rest and attempt to tackle it all again tomorrow. Now its time to go and tackle (possibly) the big pile of dishes that currently consumes my sink.

Quiet Evenings

Ah, the bliss of quiet evening. Theo's in bed, Michael is at work, its just me, the computer, an ice cream, and Dancing with the Stars (my new found indulgence). Even though I stay at home all the day, the work and list of things to do never seem to end. But every once in awhile I get to enjoy a quiet evening, like tonight, and it such a refreshing change. I'm hoping to get back into more blogging (I'm always thinking of things I could write about) but we shall see. But for now, its back to my blissful evening. Tootles. :)

Back Again

After a three month hiatus I'm officially hopefully back again. Lately I've been focusing more on attempting to get things done around the house and taking care of Theo so the blog, unfortunately, was put on the back burner for the time being.

I'm sitting in our living room, Theo asleep, Friends (best show ever) playing on the tv, and computer in my lap as I contemplate all that has happened in the past three-ish months. Theo has gone from a sitting up six month old to a practically walking nine month old. He's gotten so big. It's amazing how much he has grown and developed. I'll be trying my best to continue to write and keep everyone updated but for now I must bid you adieu. My little ray of sunshine has woken up from his nap, time for some fun. :)

Trip to Omaha

This past week we made a trip up to Nebraska to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their family. It was really great to see all of them even though it was a short trip. We hadn’t seen them for almost two years; it was a trip well overdue. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Six Months

This post is overdue. My sweet little man is six months! Can’t believe it’s already been that long! So here’s a little update on him from the past month:

-Loves food, will eat anything and everything

-Pretty sure he’s getting close to crawling, he puts himself on his belly but then gets frustrated the moment you sit him back up he’s back on his belly (silly boy)

-Even though he is only six months old he has a favorite show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, he smiles when the theme music starts J

-His hair stands up on the top of his head (still), it’s pretty awesome

-Loves the kittens we just got (oh yeah we got kittens, that’s another post)

Such a cutie!

Love this face!

On the move, backwards, but on the move ;)

He loves the kitties

Chasing the cats

To Be Honest...

Browsing through my facebook I see people posting statuses, writing on people’s walls with the acronym “TBH.” I was first unsure as to what they mean but come to find out they stand for “To Be Honest.” This sparked an idea. I’ve decided to write some “To Be Honest” posts to share some things that about me. Since today is National Honesty Day I thought of no better day than today to start this. So here it goes….

To be honest, my daily walk with the Lord is neither what I want it to be nor what it should be. When I first got started in a daily quiet time, in my teen years, it took some work to get the routine going. Once it started it changed my life in so many ways. Seeing the changes it made in my life and the closeness I felt to my Lord and Savior I strived to continue to do to it every day. Things were going pretty smoothly until I moved back to the states and went to Bible College. Now you would think that going to Bible College would strengthen my relationship and improve my walk with God but for me it seemed to have a reverse affect.

I grew up in a Christian family, went to church every Sunday and lived overseas as a missionary with my family, but the year I went to Bible College it seemed my view on the Christian world was shattered. No, I’m not saying that I started to doubt God but I did start to question people. While at school I was surrounded by people who called themselves Christians and I’m sure many of them were. They would read their Bibles, discuss scripture passages amongst themselves, pray for each other for every event that came by and yet in my eyes I saw it all as a show. They did all these things yet I saw what went on behind closed doors, things they said and how they treated me. This started my doubt in people. Leaving college many challenges followed me that again hindered me in my walk. Ever since then I’ve had this great struggle. Slowly but surely, improvements have been made. Relationships with people and with God have been mended. Though my walk is still not where I want it to be and I still struggle with it, I’m happy to see and know there has been major improvement from what it used to be.

Patio Makeover

Oh goodness gracious me, where has the time gone? Life just keeps getting busier and busier, with doctor appointments, errands and just life piling up those few free moments I can grab for myself I spend trying to rejuvenate myself for the next series of life’s adventures. So I have not had the time to be able to sit down and write a post. It’s funny how life can slip by so fast like that. I won’t bore with day to day activities that have been going on. Recently, we were (finally!) able to make our back patio a nice relaxing place to enjoy during the warmer weather. Last summer we had Mozzie (and I was pregnant) and he was using the area for his “bathroom breaks” so we were not able to spruce the area up. But since we no longer have Mozzie I have been itching to get out there and place my little magical touch on it. Unfortunately I don’t have a before picture, but believe when I say it is now a major improvement from before and that’s just with a few simple changes!

The neighborhood stray cats decided to visit ;)

My little garden 

Theo LOVES his new pool

We have a chair out there that is not in the pictures. I just love that I can now go and sit outside, relax and enjoy the outdoors especially in the mornings. We're hoping to get a new little grill out there sometime so then we can have cookouts during the summer. So excited!