Santa Baby

Yesterday while we were out Christmas shopping, I found the cutest little outfit for Hayden.  It's Christmasy and I just couldn't resist!  I was excited because I got it on consignment and it's a boutique outfit that was brand new!  And just to be sure I got the most out of this cutle little outfit, I did a little photo shoot  ;) 
Hayden was a good boy as long as mommy was giving him snacks (or 'nigh' as he calls them...I guess 'snack' is just to difficult for him to say.) ha!
Anyhoo, here are a bunch of shots of my little man in his new outfit...

I could just gobble him up...

Playing around with some tinting  ;)

The same pic in b&w

Happy Friday!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Keepin' it simple this year with the tree.  Nothin' fancy, I didn't even get to put ribbon around it like I planned, but it'll do.  :)  The colors are red and gold.  I have the plain old ball ornaments, but I also have these little guys...
cute little bows 

I got the ornaments, bows, skirt and angel topper for really cheap the day after Christmas a couple years ago.  That is definitely the way to shop for Christmas decor! 
And here she is...

Yes, that's my couch crammed up against it  :(  I have a huge sectional that takes up a lot of space and I think this tree may be a little big for our living room, but I like big trees  :)

OH, and we can't forget Hayden's tree...

Awe, look at my little angel sleeping under it!  I got the inspiration for this photo on a photography forum and just had to try it!  I waited very impatiently for Hayden to go to sleep tonight and got him out of his crib.  When I laid him down he woke up but he just laid very still under the tree and before I knew it he was back asleep and I was snapping away.  It was a slow, tedious process since I was working with very slow shutter speeds and a tripod but it was SO worth it!  I'm sure I will cherish these photos for years to come. 

LOVE that little booty in the air! 
(You may have noticed that these pj's are a bit small.  Well, that's because they are from last year, but I thought they would be perfect for these photos so I put him in them anyway  ;)
Merry Christmas! 
p.s. I am linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas tree party and Hooked on Houses' linky party!

Happiness and Cheer

This past weekend was fun and full of Christmasy (is that even a word?) activities.  Saturday night, my friends and I had a little get-together at our friend Taryn's new house!  She just moved in to a beautiful new home and she graciously hosted a cookie decorating party for us!  We surprised her with some housewarming gifts as well.  It was a wonderful time & we had a blast (as we always do when we get together.)  I took lots of pictures but neglected to get the group shot I was so looking forward to getting  :(  It totally slipped my mind.  I guess we were just having way too much fun talking and laughing to stop and take a picture together  :)  I did, however, get plenty of random shots!

She had festive decorative touches all over the house...

She was such a wonderful hostess!

We had a nice dinner and then Taryn opened her gifts!

Cookie time!  :)

Mixing Christmas colors...

Kyla had a bit of a mis-hap with one of her cookies...

She made it all by herself!  ;)

A cooke that Taryn made and was particularly fond of!

Candace gave me the idea for this cookie...

Some of our creations...

I'm so thankful for wonderful friends.  I love having girl time with them!

Christmas Pajamas

I decided that Hayden just has to have Christmas pj's to wear every year for Christmas Eve night/Christmas morning. ha!  Last year he wore this adorable little number, complete with his name embroidered on his 'bottom.'  ;) 

It kills me that he only wore these twice (once so I could take these pics and once on Christmas Eve night!) 
This year, he has something a little more "big boy."  So, today I decided it would be a good day to have him model them for me while I took about a million photos!  ;)

As you can see, he was excited!  (the rug in his room got lint/fibers all over them & for some reason, I didn't bother to get it off before the pictures...)

peek-a-boo

On a totally unrelated note, I LOVE this cookie candle that one of Jeff's co-workers gave him last year.  I keep burning it all day long and my house is filled with the lovely aroma of sugar cookies  :)



Budget Friendly Christmas Decor :)

So, this year I am trying to keep my spending on Christmas decor to a minimum so I will have more to spend on my favorite little boy.  :)  I used mostly what I already had but wanted to do a couple different things this year.  Like with my set of candle holders that I got a few years ago.  They came with these hideous white ball candles.
Lovely, aren't they?  I don't know why it never occured to me to get something different...

But this year, I decided I wanted some faux cranberries (or any red berries) instead of the ugly candles.  Well, the faux cranberries were not easy to find and I was getting impatient (as usual.)  So, I decided to go with real cranberries.  I'm not sure if they will last until Christmas but they seem to be holding up ok so far.  And at $2 a bag, I can afford to change them out if I need to.  I'm glad I decided to go with the real ones since faux cranberries probably would not have been cheap.  I love how much better these look now  :)

Best $2 I ever spent  :)  Well...maybe.  haha!

Ok, so that brings me to budget-friendly item #2!

I loved the wreath on my chandelier for fall so much that I wanted to do one for Christmas, too.  I had planned on buying a small, artificial wreath for it, but...today I had an idea when I was looking outside at the rain.  :)  We have Cypress trees at the back of our property that the builders planted when they built the house.  They have grown quite big and I saw them towering above my fence and thought, I could totally cut some branches off those and make my own little wreath.  So, I put my rainboots & hoodie on, grabbed some scissors (couldn't find the pruning shears) and went out back to cut me some greenery! 

I fashioned a little wreath out of some branches & wire and added it to my chandelier.  I piled on more greenery till I thought it looked ok, but it needed some color so I got out the ol' glue gun & added some of my leftover cranberries :) 

Me likey  :) 

The best part about this wreath is that it was FREE!  yay  :p

And...just for kicks...here are a couple pics I took of my little cutie yesterday.  He was being an angel and actually cooperated while I took his photos!  I was overjoyed! 

(He was showing me his 'ear.')

p.s. I'm linking up to...

Christmas Time is Here!

Today I started putting up our Christmas decor!  Well, technically I started a couple days ago with my Christmas card holder but today was the day we put up the tree (which has yet to be decorated with ornaments) and got out all of our things from the garage.  I am using mostly things we already have this year since I got a bunch of new decorations a couple years ago but I have added a couple newcomers including my DIY wreath  ;) 
I had planned to finish pretty much all of the decorating today since Jeff had the day off, but I ended up sleeping in (I was up till about 4am last night) and being a little lazy early on in the day so we got a late start.  I guess we'll be finishing up tomorrow!  Anyway, here is a little bit of what I have done so far. 

I love changing the decor of this table in my entry each season.  I decided to hang my wreath from last year above the table and I really like the added touch! 

These canisters in the kitchen are normally filled with faux pears but I thought it would be fun to do ornaments ;)  They are a little bright and shiny but I just used what I had. 

More to come when I get the rest of the house finished as well as the tree!  I love Christmas time!!!

My new Christmas card holder!

So, Pottery Barn has this gorgeous gilt frame card holder that is perfect for displaying Christmas cards!

  It's perfect in every way...well, almost.  The price is $199!!!  :-/
THEN, I saw where one of my favortie bloggers, Lemonade Makin' Mama made one of these!  (Tutorial found here.)

(*img used with permission*)
Isn't hers gorgeous???  I mean, it turned out amazing!  So amazing that it inspired me to make one of my own!  Mine was somewhat of a simple project since I decided to use a frame that I already had.  It was only a 16x20, so I knew that it would be a much smaller version than the original PB and LMM's but I was ok with that if it meant I didn't have to build a frame  ;)  So, I painted the frame red, distressed it a little, added some wire & mini clothespins and voila!  I LOVE it!!!  Here are a couple terrible photos of how it turned out!  :p

My 'joy' letters are a little large, but that is the size they came in.  I was so happy to get them 50% off at Hobbly Lobby.  They had discontinued the 'Y' and it was in a completely different aisle.  I had to ask for help to find them but I am so glad I did because I almost gave up on getting it!   

Well, that's all for now I have lots more decorating to do and a little boy that needs a nap  ;) 

If you want to make one of these card holders, be sure to check out LMM's post, she did a great job explaining how to make them! 

Happy decorating!  :)