The Season Spirit...

has struck the Richards household this past weekend. I will admit that as I type this I'm listening to Christmas music, the outside lights are twinkling, and my house is sparkling on the inside with all of the holiday decor.  I used to always wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I have found over the past few years that that weekend gets jammed packed getting together with friends and family.  This year is no exception.  So, last year was the first year I started it the week of Thanksgiving.  This year I started Sunday with everything but the trees, which got done on Monday.  Me and Emma had great fun decorating our big family tree, loved her asking where each one came from, or me telling her how old she was when she made such and such ornament.  We also decorated her light up tree and Avalynn's little tinsel tree that are in each of their rooms. Avalynn will be getting a light up tree after Christmas for next year.  They both will have the joy of sleeping with their trees lit up/or not for Avalynn - Christmas Eve and finding a little present underneath from old St. Nick.

I have tons of things to share in the coming days, finished picture wall, zipper rosette's, holiday decor, other projects.

As I'm gearing up for Black Friday and figuring out our much more frugal to buy for (pretty much, just the girls')  list and who I can make some great homemade gifts for, I wanted to share some previous posts I've done in case anyone needs some ideas.

- This is great for any married couple you know, the Family Established Wall Art.
- Some Tile Coasters or JOY Plaques, combined into one post.
- Rolled Paper Ornaments.
- Rag Garland's for archways, doorways, & windows.
- Set of Christmas pillows.  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see them.  Just went to Dollar Tree and picked up pairs of stockings and santa's hats, stuffed them with filling and sewed the openings closed.  I have them lining our stairway and a pair on the couch, gave these to a bunch of friends and family one year.

Edie over at lifeingrace has just had her 2nd annual 12 Days of Handmade Christmas.
- 2009 List
- 2010 List

I plan on making some previous things I've done before and some new things from the great tutorials provided during Edie's Handmade Christmas party.  Can't wait to see the looks on our loved ones faces.

Do you enjoy making gifts for the holidays?  Do you like to receive them?  What's your favorite handmade gift you've received?

Happy New Year

Is anyone else feeling like they are in denial that it's New Year's Eve?!  Eeks - where has the time gone?  We finished with our last family Christmas this past Sunday and only 4 days later we're saying goodbye to 2009 and HELLO 2010!

We had a wonderful 4 days of Christmas with our families.  Needless to say by the end there I was dragging.  It was wonderful spending time with family and enjoying the pure Joy on little one's face!

 

Everything is put away in it's new home.  The tree is packed away.  All of the Christmas Decor has been purged and packed away for next year.  We are now in full on getting ready/inpatiently baby waiting mode.  Hubby and me keep saying everyday how many days are left and trying to wrap our brains around it, but it still doesn't seem like we are really at the end.


Dear 2009 - You've definitely been a challenge to my family.  I now know more than ever what family really is and means.  You've tested us with my Dad's fall from a tree accident, the hubs being laid off approx. half of the year total, dealing with Gramma's cancer coming back and her treatments, deaths in the family, the whole house debacle.  I'm so glad that you are leaving and we are welcoming 2010 with open arms because if this past year hasn't broken us then nothing will.  We as an extended family are stronger and I know without a doubt that this has made my marriage stronger and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been more in love with my Hubby.  I already know 2010 is going to better as we will be welcoming Avalynn Grace into our family and new beginnings. 

I'm in the process of making a personal goal list for 2010 that I'll post in a few days.  I want to put some more thought into it.

I hope you all have a safe New Year's and that this coming year will be better for you and your families.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all a Merry Christmas with your families and loved ones! 

We will be having family Christmas's until Sunday, things should hopefully be back to normal around here next week. 

EEKs...a week!

So, I have no clue where the past week has gone but we've been busy!!!  And I'm feeling the busy-ness continue through this week too. Here's what we've been up to.

We got baby girl's room painted and her bed ready.  Still have to get curtains, shelving, and some other odds and ends, but the spare room is no longer and it's now Avalynn's.

Making a village of gingerbread houses. This was our first year not going out to buy a kit.  We melted some sugar over the stove top (**TIP: use an old pan you don't really care about, and use cold water and a hard scraper to get it out of your pan**) to attach the graham pieces to one another.  And for the icing just did a mixture of milk and 10x sugar (**TIP: little bit of milk goes a long way**)  This was little one's first year decorating one all by herself.  I think my favorite thing was whenever she'd get icing on her fingers, this would follow "OOPS, need to clean it off" and lickety lick she'd go to town.

 

We got our first significant snowfall, appox. 6 inches.  Little one had a blast sledding and making snow angels.  Love her face in these, her joy is contagious.

 

During the snowstorm we had our first family Christmas to go to.  It was a blast.  Here is one of the games we played.  Your partner had to wrap you in a bag full of random goodies.  Here are some of the following entries.

 

 

Christmas Bug - is biting a little early this year.

This is my absolute favorite holiday of all time.  I normally am patient enough to wait until after Thanksgiving/Black Friday before decorating/baking/listening to Christmas music.  That Saturday I always have the Hubs drag up all of the decor and spend the weekend decorating.  And we never start the shopping until Black Friday (where we get 90%) of it all bought for everyone on our list.  But this year, I just can't seem to help myself, perhaps it's because I've been out running around more than normal that I'm seeing all of the decorations and stores ready for the holidays. 

Yesterday little one and me packed away all of the fall decor/everyday decor and really cleaned.  This morning I started bringing up a few items from the basement and setting them out.  I feel a little bad, like I'm cheating on Thanksgiving because really, to be honest -  Thanksgiving is my favorite eating holiday of the year.  I just can't seem to help myself this year.  I'm thinking perhaps it's also having something to do with the little one, she's old enough to really start getting Christmas & Santa.  Speaking of Santa, in case you haven't heard all Macy's locations are have a Santa Letter drop-off box & the bonus, every letter they receive they will donate $1 to the Make-a-Wish foundation up to $1 Million.  How awesome is this?  Little one and me will be writing her letter next week and dropping it off the following week, hopefully to run into less traffic and shoppers. 

This past weekend the Hubs and me started our shopping too, only a little earlier than normal.  Waiting for the majority of it this Friday but since it was just the two of us, decided to get a jump start on a few things.  Plus decided to order our online items this week, to ensure they will arrive on time, items that I can't find in our local stores.  I want to share this amazing on-line company called CSN Stores that approached me to review one of their products.  I'm so excited to share it with you in the next couple weeks, the cost is great and an excellent idea for anyone on your list!  Do you need some Christmas Decorations for the inside or outside?  Really, go take the time and check this company out.  They have a big selection, great prices and many of their items have guaranteed delivery by Dec. 24th. 


Thankful Tidbits

#19 - the Hubs made it through the 1st round of layoffs on his job.

#20 - For the wonderful cuddly day I had with little one.

#21 - Date night with the hubs, long long overdue, dinner and some shopping.  Little one stayed the night with the in-laws.

#22 - Seeing the joy in little one's face when I met her for lunch today and to take her home with me. 

The Hiatus must come to an End...

I can't believe it's been practically 3 weeks since my last post, I haven't even been reading up on anyone, I have much much catching up to do.

Our Christmas was wonderful. We are so lucky and very blessed by our loved ones. We had our final Christmas last weekend. Still have some presents to put away and outside decorations to take down, but all in time right?

New Year's was a great time spent with friends. And New Year's day we got to witness my aunt's annual polar bear dip in front of her house. Too cold for us though. And spent the afternoon at Sesame Street Live.

Today, is my birthday, turned the big 2-4! Woo-HOO! I took the plunge and finally got my tattoo that I've been wanting. It's beautiful and I love it. Unfortunately bad weather canceled our original plans but the day turned out wonderful anyways.

For some reason on birthdays and perhaps it's just because it's the new year, it's a time for reflections and things I want to change.

- I finally feel like I'm in a good place, and that feels good!
- I'm putting my health up to the top of my list. Am getting serious about making myself and my family healthy!
- This year I'm going to finish decluttering my house. November and December I really started and in this process of getting out all of that junk, I've finally fallen in love with our home and it is a home, no longer just a house. I love being here.
- Venturing on new and exciting things such as opening an Etsy store with my dear friend Deann, will keep posted on the grand opening and everything.
- Being more serious with our money and getting us back on budget, I did so well the end of last year and the past month or so have fallen off of the wagon some. Time to hop back on.
- Taking more time for my friends and family members.

It feels good to get all of these things down and out. I myself and heading up to bed, tons of pictures I'll be sharing throughout the week of our holidays, room flips, some projects, awesome homemade gifts we got and bday celebrations.

Merry Christmas to All...

Well, the time is finally here. We are drawing upon the 13th hour of Christmas Eve and can I just say I can't believe it's here! All of this preparation and finally only hours away from being able to enjoy Emma and all of the Christmas Magic over the next few days.

I got this email today that I thought I'd fwd on to everyone. scrapnfonts has this gorgeous free font (http://www.scrapnfonts.com/searchdetail.php?psku=12133). I personally def. plan on using it for next years cards/gift tags.

Most of all I just want to wish everyone a wonderful and safe Christmas with your families and loved ones. Enjoy every moment! And let's celebrate Jesus birth!

I am going to be gone probably until the new year, but will be back full force then! I wish you all a Happy New Year too!

ME = Been M.I.A

I feel like it's been forever since a post. I totally went MIA this week b/c my laptop had some major issues going on with it. I still don't have that fixed, but did hook back up the desktop and got that working, so I'm a happy mama again!

I promise the next few days to return the comment love that I've gotten this week.

So, a couple week's ago I called our portrait studio - and to my amazement they were already booked solid until after Christmas. I mean really how did I let the time get away from me that I'm missing out on our yearly family picture and getting Emma's pictures. I swear it's like an addiction I love taking her and looking through all of the great shots they get. But looks like we're doing without our family picture at Christmas this year, perhaps at Easter we'll do one, and the hubs and I decided we could try and take them ourselves. We took about 20 of them and the last shot was the keeper! My little girl is growing up, I mean yes I knew that, but man she just looks so grown up to me in this picture.

Today the hubs and me spent the day cleaning up the house some and baking. Yes, I was actually able to convince him to help me with pretty much all of the baking. We made 4 different cookies, peppermint bark, baklava, and there's still a dough in the fridge being chilled which will just have to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow left to do - make fudge, last cookie batch and gingerbread house. Needless to say, I'm sick and tired of washing dishes, I felt like I was always washing a sink full of dishes. Put away clean one's twice and there's another set out drying now. Bleah! Why can't this old house have a bigger kitchen for me to get a dishwasher?

Sugar Cookies, Snowflakes, & Tree's - OH MY!

So, here are a bunch of pictures that I've been uploading throughout the week, and have been wanting to share...

Emma and daddy prepping the dough to be rolled.



Watching.

She loved playing in the flour.

Her new "cheese" face with a wink thrown in.

Getting ready to help daddy push down the cookie cutter.




The end results, yummy! Emma decorated them all.



Taste Testing - I think they got two thumbs up!



Enjoying some homemade chex mix and smiling at daddy!



Snowflakes that the hubs and me did. He did the Emma one, which I think turned out awesome!



Playing around with my camera trying to get a night shot of the tree.



Look what I figured out to do. It was lots of fun! :o)


Tuesday night I swung by my mom's to pick up some craft stuff and she surprised me with having this christmas ball tree for me that she finished earlier in the evenings. Isn't it gorgeous?




And had to try out the fun light shot on this too.

Any other Wednesday

Well, SITSmas is over. It was tons of fun. I was able to participate much more than I expect, I visited 50-60 blogs and spread the holiday and comment love. I'm hoping to squeeze in some more the next few days. Congrats to all of the winners from yesterday's prizes!!! Enjoy them! And I just want to say thank you to everyone who visited yesterday/today!

One of fellow SITS-tah's, Sandy @ God Speaks Today, that I visited yesterday is having a giveaway. The prize is a $25 gift card for CooperSong. They have beautiful stuff. Go visit Sandy and leave a comment for your chance to enter. Also, please say you heard it from me so I can have some extra entries. If you want some extra entries, send your friends!

Anyone need some great ideas for making ornaments. Go check out Jamie @ StampinMom, how adorable are these glitter ones! I love me some glitter! Good thing I'm going to WalMart tomorrow and perhaps a quick stop into Michael's also. Looks like I have my weekend project.

And in other news, our microwave is officially broken. Which saddens me to no end. I don't think I realized how much I used it until this morning when making us some toast for breakfast. I always zap my butter a couple seconds to soften it, so instead I had to think of some way to soften it without melting it. Trickier than you think. But alas, I came up with something, holding the stick over the toaster, bu watch your fingers if you get get too close to directly over the toaster, those things get hot! And must rotate the butter or else just one side will melt.

Now I must do the normal cleaning stuff around the house and play with the little one before lunch & nap time comes.

Merry SITSmas!

The day is finally here! It's SITSmas over at The Secret is in the Sauce. The comment love and holiday cheer is a flowing and they are giving away a prize every hour! The grand prize is out of this world!!! Featured as Friday's Favorite FB (featured blogger) and a $200 gift card to Target! Really do I need to say more?

Here's a little holiday love from the little one.