I love boys

" I don't know what it is, but I need one."

Holding on to four

Do you have a four year old daughter? Or maybe you have had one so you know what I mean. They are scrumptious. They are not too big and also not too small, the perfect age. My four year old is starting to outgrow four...and it hurts. She has her first loose tooth and I am considering taping it inside her mouth. A mature look comes with loosing teeth and I am not quite ready for it. She is about a month away from five and I really wish she wasn't. Assuming we will not be witnesses to God miraculously intervening into our circumstance, there will be no more babies in our household, which means there are no more little girls growing up that will one day be four. It should be a crime.

A quiet Christmas

Despite Thomas' best attempts, we really did have a quiet Christmas. No traveling, no house hopping, just enjoying the moments of the day. Like the girls with their toys...

Like me and my girls...

Like singing Christmas carols...

Like the simple joy of a boy and some balls to throw...

And remote controls...

Great grandparents with their great grand babies...
A daddy with his boy...

And a girl who wants to trade in her brother for a new one...

The Wrapping is the Best Part

When you are a baby, all you care about is the wrapping paper. When you are a Mom, the same thing is true.

Thanking God this morning for the abundance of blessings that He has poured out, the greatest of all being His Son!

Merry Christmas!

Good Timing is Everything

I have never before had a white Christmas, but though the snow fell almost a week ago, it is still lingering. It's spotty, but I still see white on the ground on Christmas Eve. We will take what we can get.

So in the words of my snow cherub pictured above,

"I wish you a mewy Christmas,
I wish you a mewy Christmas,
I wish you a mewy Christmas and a happy new year.

Good timing is everything for you and your friends,
Good timing is everything for a happy new year!"


May you give yourself time to reflect on the awesomeness of what God did for us on Christmas!

7 is a great age to be

Yesterday she was coming home from the hospital weighing a mere 5 1/2 lbs. This sweet thing arrived 2 weeks early because she would not fatten up in the womb. Using impressive acrobatics, she had tied her umbilical cord into a perfect knot, preventing nutrition from passing into her belly. And yesterday we celebrated her 7th birthday. How did that happen so fast?

We have a lot girls around here and we like all things girly. Our birthday parties reflect such things. Like this appliqued t-shirt with a little bit of bling added to it.

We added hot pink birds and angel's wings to our Christmas decor. You can see it without the birthday additions here.

We had hot pink and red cupcakes.

All were given pink and red corsages when they arrived. These were very, very easy to make, and cheap.

Martha's pom poms were hanging inside and out.

Of course there were flowers.

We took the crew of little friends to our churches Christmas concert. It was a dream, delightful, a perfect way to celebrate a birthday and prepare our hearts for Christmas.

Yep, that's her little face up on the big screen, she was giddy.

Can you tell?

Another detail worth mentioning...check out this updo on one of the little girls who was with us that night at the party. I so appreciate creative awesomeness involving hair. That's impressive and oh so fabulous.

Keeping it real

It's 9 AM and yes, that is sugar cookie. You can also call it breakfast. That's where I am right now...just keeping it real.

Pursuit of the Perfect Picture...or not

There are very few phrases that scare my children, but "it's time for the family picture" is one of them. You wouldn't think it would be a big deal, all they have to do is put on the outfit I lay out for them, walk down the basement steps to my in-home photo studio and smile. Not too terrible, right? Wrong. It is a torturous event which always ends in whaling and gnashing of teeth; so bad in fact that I don't even attempt a picture with my husband and I included anymore because he is the worst of them all.

So this year I decided to take a different route. I would do it their way. I told my kids we were taking the yearly Christmas Card picture and to go put on whatever they wanted, do their hair as wild and crazy as they pleased and make the silliest face they could come up with. That would be fun, right? Wrong. Apparently I have so squashed their creativity from the years of "freeze and say cheese" that they couldn't come up with anything even remotely interesting. It was sad really.

What choice did I have but to force them all into matching clothes and threaten to take away their allowance for a year if they didn't sit there and cuddle with their siblings and look like they liked it? And as usual, they hated it and the only reason they are all smiling is because they have taught their baby sister to pass gas on command and she obeyed and I clicked the shutter at the exact same time. Mission accomplished.

So, I guess that as our friends and family receive our Christmas wishes this year they will do what we all do when we open photo cards. They'll smile back at the grinning faces and remark on how sweet and adorable they are and what a blessing they must be to their parents. But you and I will know the truth....that they are indeed exactly right.

Mary (Amy's paparazzi sister)

Can I really decorate for Christmas with leopard print ribbon?

I am so glad you are here, come on in!

Paint the Good News on a small canvas and stick in in your wreath. If I wasn't lazy, I would have bought lots of these little canvas' from Hobby Lobby and put several on each wreath...all proclaiming a different piece of the Good News. And if I was a little crazier I would have written out all of the Luke 2 on poster board and hung that on my front door....actually I like that idea and I might do it next year.

I keep my rejoice sign up year round on a book shelf, but it was moved to center stage this year for Christmas. These feather Christmas trees were actually a Thanksgiving decoration that I spray painted red. I like red at Christmas, not maroon or burgundy, but red. And this year, I apparently also like leopard print.

I also like angels. This one is sitting on the mantle under a glitter pine cone Christmas tree created by Caroline.

Here is our family room, real Christmas tree. Lots of festive, colored lights.

And lots of my favorite ornaments that I will keep forever.

Jesus' crown of thorns tops our tree.

This is a new addition to the decorations this year. The hubby is kind of afraid of it. He says he feels like the ice witch from Narnia did our Christmas decorating. I think it's lovely though. Lots of silver branches and lots of white and red birds.

This is another year round Christmas decoration...a basket of white lights, shells and angels.

And then there is Belle. You can read her story here. My Jesus candle has seen better days, Thomas knocked it off the table splitting the top. I just can't bring myself to throw it away...oh the hours of painting!

Here is my inspiration for my music tree in the front of our house. This photograph comes from Southern Living.

So my trumpets are not nearly as big, but they serve the purpose. Everything on this tree has something to do with music or angels, and is silver, gold or white. She sparkles so pretty at night!

Then there is the tree in the girl's room adorned with Jesse Tree ornaments. They love it.

Lastly, we have our Dickens snow village. For several years my in-laws bought us one each Christmas. The little people take a lot of abuse, but they still deliver Christmas cheer every year as we unpack them.

Thanks for stopping in! If you are here from The Nester's tour, leave me a message so I know who you are and I can come snoop around in your house!

Merry Christmas!