Welcome Spring

I finally opened up my boxes of Easter/Spring decorations this year.  I know it isn't technically Spring yet, but with Easter coming so early this year I thought I had better go ahead and get started!! (I prefer Easter being in mid to late April, personally!)  Anyway...I didn't quite decorate as much as I did last year.  It has just been so cool and rainy and it is too early to plant any flowers...so I do not have a full blown case of Spring Fever just yet.  But I did know that I was tired of looking at my snowflakes and pine cones! :)  

I do love Spring.  I am very excited for the warmer weather and the Spring blooms....not to mention Spring thunderstorms!  The Bradford Pears should be blooming in about a week or so.  The Bradford Pear blooms remind me of my momma. Forsythia blooms remind me of my Grandma.  (She had the prettiest forsythia bush in her backyard when I was growing up.  I remember she and my parents always making such a big deal about it every Spring and I didn't quite understand why.  Now I do.  It is beautiful!)  My sweet husband bought me 2 forsythia bushes last year and planted them in the front yard.  Then we had the hottest summer EVER with temps up to 113 for many days!!!  They didn't make it :(  So...I had to go to Hobby Lobby for my forsythia this year!  

Here are some of my decorations this year...

I love this!  It is Currier and Ives and it says "Spring" on the bottom.  I just love the little house!!  

My Spring Mantel

My sweet Susanna decorated this chalkboard for me!  (Her sister wrote Happy Spring).

This shelf displays the Spring Glitter houses we made!!  They are so cheerful! 

My jelly bean chick feeder!  My kids LOVE this :)

My Easter egg wreath on the front door.  

I added burlap to everything this year...including my favorite rocking chair!  

The front porch.  Its' cheerful and had my favorite little momma chicken with her baby chicks.  And a bucket of eggs! 

It's hard to see but the bucket is full of eggs.  

Welcome Spring!!  Bring on the sunny days and the warmer temperatures!

"This is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
-PSALMS 118:24

Linking to:

Free Pretty Things for You

Sunny Simple Sunday

Update to the Girls Bedroom (Thank You, Pinterest!)

Well...I have been thinking about cleaning the girls room and making a few changes for months now.  Every time I look on Pinterest I see SOMETHING I like.  We had a piece of furniture in their room (a chifferobe) that we had purchased at K-Mart when Madeline was a baby.  It was not functional.  It took up a TON of space and it served little purpose.  I wanted it out. But...we do not have the money to invest in new furniture right now (a dresser) so My Sweet and I went shopping and decided on a shelf with fabric bins.  It was inexpensive and it would serve its purpose for now.  And take up WAY less space.  

We had a little window of time this weekend to work on their room while the kiddos were at Grandma's so we got to work!!  The girls LOVED the changes we made and I'm pretty happy with them too - especially considering I just used what we had on hand (except for the cabinet and fabric boxes) and made it work.  Oh...and I pretty much found all of these ideas on Pinterest!  :)  

I found this description of a "tidy room" and printed it and framed it for them to have a visual.  Lets hope it works! :)  

This is the corner where the chifferobe was.  I wish I had taken a picture of it before, but I didn't.  It pretty much took up that whole wall adjacent to the house decal.  

Here is a view of the side of the room where I did the most work.  Those AG dolls had pretty much been sitting out in the middle of their room...damage has been done to the green bed b/c it has been stepped on.  Twice.  

Used this bucket to keep Susanna's books.  Madeline's chapter books are in the closet now.  

This is one of two shelves I re-purposed to hang in their room. They came from the changing table that was in Phil and Vi's room.  The wood was solid (not cheap particle board) and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out (The changing table was not so functional anymore...the kids had stood on it and broke one of the drawers).  Anyway...I painted them and tried to stain them a little.  It works for me.  I'm not a professional :)  

Here is the larger shelf/drawer that we hung on the wall.  My Sweet took care of getting these hung up properly (I would have made a MESS of the wall had I done it myself....so thankful he was so willing to help!)  

This is the wall on the other side of the room.  My girls are in a big Barbie phase right now.  Well...one of them likes Barbie more than the other.  I had to leave them out because they get played with everyday.  

This is one of my favorite additions to the room.  I purchased this from Ikea before Christmas and was going to use it to put their flip flops in. Well...after I removed the chifferobe (where they put ALL of their random small gadgets/trinkets and doo-dads I needed a place for them to store that stuff.  Preferably, out of sight!  So...this is perfect! It hangs on the inside of the closet door.  They each get two rows of storage - lip gloss, dolls, DS Games, cards, etc...perfect storage place.  

  Lets just hope they can keep it this clean.  For a few days at least :)  

Christmas Home Tour 2012

What can I say...I love Christmas.  I have since I was a little girl.  All of my kiddos love Christmas.  So, we really decorate every nook and cranny around here.  (I just didn't photograph every one :)  Here is a little peak....

Our tree.  He's a little skimpy in places but the kids really loved picking him out and cutting him down. They loved decorating it too.

I especially LOVE vintage decorations.  So, when I came across a bag of these Santa's at a garage sale over the summer, I was very excited. 

I found this Santa blow mold from the 60s over the summer as well.  He cost me $1.  Love it! 

Our mantel.  I saw the idea for the photo garland in a magazine so on a lazy Saturday this past fall I made one for myself.  I also made several of the mason jar snow globes too.  Those are a lot of fun! 

The jar in the center is full of ornaments from my childhood.  Those are treasures :)

This is another new addition this year.  I found this truck at Hobby Lobby this  past summer with the Garden clearance!!  I think I will put pumpkins in the back during the fall.  So cute. 

A little Christmas village with our ceramic light up tree.  

The Little People that my kiddos love to play with...

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! 

Linking to:

The Nester's 2012 Christmas Tour of Homes

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

We made our very first attempt of making "homemade" gingerbread houses tonight.  I have never baked gingerbread.  And as Sweet Brown says, "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!" Sooo...I opted for the graham cracker version.  As I was browsing the internet for an idea, I came across a post somewhere that said you could use a creamer box for the base of the house.  I thought...what a great idea!!! I just happened to have TWO little boxes of cream in the fridge.  (I accidentally let them expire over Thanksgiving and never used them.)  So, I poured out the creamer.  Rinsed the carton.  And began the building process.  (I had already put the two Littles to bed so it was okay that I only had two.  I just wasn't sure what this process was going to be like, so I was afraid to let all 4 of them do it at once.)  So...I used a tub of frosting for the "glue".  I had also bought one of those cans of icing that I used in the crevices.  So...it went something like this:

The Players:  Candy.  More Candy. Graham Crackers. Frosting. Icing. 

I used a serrated knife and just kind've measured and cut as I went along - gluing as I went. 

This is the final product.  I put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes first - to let the
icing harden.  

While it was freezing - we enjoyed some "Grinch Punch" -
Lime Sherbet and Sprite!

I also cut a piece of cardboard to use as the base.
I used frosting to "glue" the house to the cardboard.

The creativity is flowing....

Gingerbread House #1

Gingerbread House #2

This really ended up being a very easy craft for the older kids.  They both really enjoyed it and kept talking about how much fun it was.  For us, it honestly didn't end up being any cheaper to do it this way.  Because, by the time I bought the icing, frosting, graham crackers and all the candy I spent a little bit more than I would have if I would have bought a $10 kit.  But - we had enough for my husband to make one. (He was a pro and didn't need a creamer box! :)  Plus, we had some candy left over.  AND - each kiddo had THEIR VERY OWN to decorate.  So, that was worth it to me! 

O' Tannenbaum

We recently set out on an expedition to find the perfect Christmas tree.  This year we decided to try cutting our own down rather than buying a pre-cut tree from Lowe's or Home Depot.  We all had so much fun.  They had free hot chocolate, coffee and candy canes.  There were SO MANY trees there.  It was difficult to make a decision.  Once you cut a tree down, you couldn't change your mind later!  We searched and searched and finally after about 45 minutes we found one.  Daddy cut it down and we brought it home.  We decided to wait until the next morning to decorate it (Momma was too tired from staying up all night Black Friday shopping. :) This year the kids really wanted to decorate the tree. I pretty much let them do all of the work with the ornaments.  Daddy did the lights and i put up the higher ornaments.  They had so much fun.  

"O Christmas Tree...

O Christmas Tree...

How lovely are thy branches."

Remember - only YOU can prevent forest fires!

This was just one tiny section of the tree farm...

Momma and her sweet babies!

Look!

Peek-a-Boo!

Taking the tractor back to our van

Just getting started...

They were so excited about EVERY ornament !

She would NOT take off her new coat!!

Ta Da!!  The finished product.  So pretty!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!