Christmas Movies

Other than taking a break because I had to watch The Sound of Music live this week, I have been doing a great job with keeping up with Christmas movies this year. I have watched three from my list mentioned here but am working my way through my own collection below. I sometimes have to stop for the Lifetime and Hallmark channel movies. :) Still working on building my collection. I have added Rudolph, Polar Express, and A Christmas Carol to my collection but they are not pictured. Now pop in a holiday film and grab a mug of cocoa.

Holiday Favorites

Did I mention before that I love Christmas?! It really is so magical. My Christmas tree is up and part of the living room decorated. Wish I had more energy to do more but haven't recharged yet ;) My tree is absolutely beautiful to me. Our first 5 years of marriage our Christmas decor was red and gold and I grew tired of it quickly. I switched over to natural, woodland decor last year and it suits me so much! Because I'm just obsessed, I listed below some of my holiday favorites I'm looking forward to!

Favorite Holiday To Do's:
Decorating the tree, watching holiday movies, listening to holiday music, putting the reindeer ears on the car, wrapping presents, baking (uh hem, starting this year), drinking hot cocoa and apple cider!

Favorite Holiday Movies:
Elf, The Holiday, The Family Stone, The Santa Claus, Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer, Polar Express, It's a Wonderful Life, the original Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, A Christmas Carol, All I Want For Christmas, Noel, The Ultimate Gift, and Heidi (I know it's not a holiday movie, but the holidays are in it. Bless my heart.)

Christmas Reading List:
Holly, An Old Fashioned Christmas, Christmas on Jane Street

Favorite Holiday Songs:
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland), Carol of the Bells, O Holly Night. I love ALL Christmas music but these three make my heart so warm.

Christmas Expectations

I love Christmas Time. It's my absolute favorite time of the year!!! I truly look forward to future Christmas' with Liam when he can really experience the magic of it all. I tried to show him all of the whimsical ornaments as I decorated the tree (Yes, it's up!) but he was more interested in his bouncer.

Very excited about the holidays this year. Probably clear since my tree is already up. Planning on doing my bedroom too this year. Kinda stumped about part of my living room decor but I'm sure I'll find something for that darn end table. I'm going to attempt icicle lights on the house this year. Probably gonna be pissed excited once it's done.

I'm really trying not to set expectations this year when it comes to the holidays. I am the worst about having these ideas of what I want to do and accomplish each year and am always disappointed when it doesn't happen. We have family Christmas pictures and I was really anxious about it. What if he cries the whole time? What if he doesn't smile? Again expectations. Releasing expectations is helping with the anxiety and I'm starting to look forward to it. I'm hoping to continue to let go and just enjoy (all things).

Hoping for peace and enjoyment this season. Happy Holidays!!! 

Almost forgot...my tree :) Close up pictures to come!

Happy 6 Months!

Liam is growing so fast. So hard to believe he was born 6 months ago today. He has the best personality! He is starting to sit up and he likes to roll over and over. Soon he will crawling. Looking forward to the holidays. It will be his first Thanksgiving and Christmas! So many cute Christmas outfits to put him in, lol.

Then..

NOW!

The first time we held him :)

Hard to Believe I Was Waiting for You

Six months ago tomorrow, God blessed Rhett and I with the best gift we could possibly receive. It's so hard to believe I was in the delivery room at this time waiting patiently and enjoying that Arbys sandwich, lol. I know I had the easiest labor and delivery on the planet. I have thanked God for the LITERALLY pain free experience. Thank you everyone for the prayers for Liam and I. The pictures below are of the night that changed my life.

Dear Liam,
Tomorrow is your 6 month old birthday. Your journey is just beginning. You can not even begin to imagine the love everyone has for you. Your Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know. Your smiles are the light of our day. We think your little huffs in the backseat are precious and you are the best little jumper ever. You love your puppy brother blankie and your thumb. We have already been through so much together but more is yet to come. Know we will always be here for you no matter what. Keep growing big and strong. Looking forward to the memories.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

So glad I had Rhett and Mom by my side. I know Dad would have been in the room if he could have. Thanks Meme and B for coming so early. 

Cuteness Oh My

Am I allowed to do two posts in one night? I have so much cuteness I want to share. We love bath and pajama time. His precious Koala towel and train pajamas both were gifts from one of my favorite 6th grade teachers I work with. Thanks Nannie!

Happy Halloween!!

First off, I love to dress up! One of the fun things about having a baby is dressing Liam up too. And what better night to dress him up than Halloween! This year Liam was a baby dinosaur :) Rawr!

How excited and cute is he?!

Mommy and Daddy ate his cuteness up...

Not only did I have Halloween but we celebrated homecoming and red ribbon week so we had dress up days all week for various themes. Did I mention I love to dress up?! Some of the various days included Nerd Day and Future Career Day (Yes, I want to be a wizard when I grow up!!!!)

Oh yes, and camo day. Again, had to dress Liam up too!

Tree Skirt: Take 2!!!

Last year I found a tutorial on pinterest to create a burlap/muslin ruffle tree skirt. It really was easy and perfectly matched my Christmas decor. It was exactly what I was wanting. I received the best compliment from my sister in law. She like it so much she asked me to make her one. Only downside....I forget how much skin I sacrifice burn on this project.

I started off with many two inch strips of burlap and muslin. Then I just folded and glued. Here is my skirt from last year.

This years...

Growing so fast.

Liam was able to sit and play with his toys tonight while momma and daddy put away groceries. It blows my mind how fast he is growing. We truly are blessed!!

Chalkboard Update.

I added in Liam's little turkey hand. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. So cute!! 

BOOK CASE!!

So I have really been needing to clean out my girls room (girl cave) closet. It didn't get tackled during the nesting frenzy. Instead it became more unorganized and cluttered. Our Christmas tree took up half the good sized closet.

I started by throwing out half of what I didn't need and donating things. Then I ordered a tree bag and put the tree outside in the shed. SO MUCH MORE ROOM! I knew I needed a bookshelf seeing as I own my own movie story basically. This doesn't even come close to my book collection by the way.

I found a huge bookshelf at a yard sale for $3 bucks! I knew it would need some TLC but so do all my projects. I had the tools to fix it up and one of the two colors I needed to $3. I highly recommend valspar samples!

Bookshelf Before:

Bookshelf After: 

NOW...

Closet Before: (Don't Judge)

Closet After:

Movie Bookshelf a Success!!! (Btw: the other piece of furniture was another project. Has tons of storage!!)

Kitchen Chalkboard

So, I pretty much suck at keeping my chalkboard up to date. My first chalkboard preggo pic stayed up the whole dang pregnancy! Well, I found some chalkboard markers and I LOVE them!!

After many attempts at neat handwriting, I'm mostly fed up satisfied. The word "thankful" looked soooo pretty, then my husband told me I left out the K. Couldn't get it as pretty after that. He then had the best idea to do hand turkeys. I'm going to attempt my 6th month old's tomorrow. Bless my heart.

Finished Nursery!!

My mother in law had some left over fabric from the bedding so she made a valance for the window which Rhett hung for me.

and now...

 

I love these little guys. All gifts for Liam. The blue bunny is made from old blankets. The Peter Rabbit blanket is precious (severe obsession with Peter Rabbit and Beatrix Potter growing up) and I love Sammie the Lamb...note the cross on his right hoof :) "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Stuffed animals from my childhood and other keepsake gifts.

On the opposite wall of the bookcase is the changing table/dresser. Momma and I hung little shelves over it for decoration.

As you continue to turn you have the last wall which displays a Peter Rabbit painting [ done by my mother-in-law :-) ] and the finished organized closet!

~ Nursery Closet ~

So we have a dresser for storage, check. We have a bookcase for some storage, check. Looking around room, still not enough storage. Okay, maybe it was just my nesting. Time to tackle the closet. It wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. Maybe it was, but mom was coping well and helping so much! Thanks Mom!

So here is the before. It's a tiny closet with little room and space so we needed to make the most of it.

 

Holy crap right? Again time to trash and re-home everything. We eventually got it emptied out and everything reorganized else where. 

Now it appeared to empty and the marks (I know you can't see them, but they bothered me). So, I decided to paint the closet! :) My husband totally didn't see the point but I totally understood why. It's just a closet. However, terrified I'd have a hormonal melt down being the sweet man he is, he decided to help tape off everything. :)

Getting ready to paint! I love these valspar samples!! So cute.

Finished look..... deep breath.....

So much better don't you think? (Yes, I later went in and painted the white trim around the bottom a mint color).

~ Nursery Continued... ~

So we moved the crib and dresser into the nursery. Please ignore the paint swatches all over the walls. I was unsure of whether or not to paint the nursery light blue or not. We decided not to because we figured the blue bookcase and blue accents would be enough.

When it came to a theme for the nursery, originally I wanted a nautical theme. However, after husband told me that he hated or wasn't a fan of the idea I decided to go no theme and stick with just a color scheme (blue, white, cream, tan). 

I started looking into bedding first because the it seems like such a focal point in the nursery. Of course, my great taste in decorating ;) falls in love with a SUPER expensive crib set. I knew there was no way in Haiti I was going to spend LITERALLY $1,000.00 on something that would last a year and be something he would probably poop on.

I asked my mother in law if she thought she could make the bedding set and she said yes! Needless to say I was super excited!

So.... inspiration:

The actual fabric used in this bedding set is toile central park which my mother in law was able to find! The exact same fabric...happy dance anyone?  :)

..... Liam's beautiful bedding set! Thanks Meme!!