Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Staycation

 Kev and I are having a little staycation as they call it, where you don't leave your city but still pretend to be on vacation. We took a few days off work to hang out together and its been so nice! Since we have Nelvi we are enjoying the day time to ourselves.  We ran a few errands together in the morning, and I even got Kev to get a pedicure with me, that took some begging and there are no pictures, sorry Olson. ha!

So after the morning we headed over to the movies.
You know when Kevin is on vacation because he gets all scruffy from not shaving and tries to convince me that he is going to keep it and grow it out. Of course that never happens :)  
Kevin picked the IMAX and we just went with what the ticket cashier said was best, so the showing of Born to be wild was our movie. It was narrated by Morgan Freeman and we both really enjoyed it, well the only ones to enjoy it this afternoon!




We got home and then decided since we had such a fun day, we wanted Jack to have a little fun too. Yup, Chuck got a visit for dinner. Jack knows him by name and can get you there from our house, by saying "turn this way" and he can positively route you there with just two turns! Our CC is super clean and we were maybe one of 5 fams there, so it was perfect.

Perfect little day and looking forward to tomorrow!

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

At Christmas, all roads lead home.

I wanted to wait until December 1st to post this, but I was just too excited about our house and seeing that all my friends are just on schedule with us, it's time to share our home for the holidays!

But before I get to the pretty, lets talk about the ugly. The ugly called our garage. I'm certain had we waited until after Christmas the producers from the show Hoarders could have filmed our pile-o-tastic garage! It was getting so bad, and while its not the best way to spend a vacation day, Kevin and I took the day off to tackle this beast! We live in an 1800 square foot house, and while eventually I would love to get to the burbs and live in a huge home, but in the city we are at capacity of this darling ranch home, so all our stuff that we don't use just "goes to the garage". When that happens, you get this....

 But we did have fun sorting through it all...sad to say my Halloween costume that I made out of boxes that won me the coveted 1st prize a few years back...is laying on our curb. It was just time to say goodbye..

While we were working really hard, Jack was inside putting together and sorting the ornaments for our main tree in the living area. He also went on a play date with our Nanny and her friend and she wore him out. He came home at 1: 30 pm and napped until 5: 30 pm! So having Nelvi help us in the garage was a life saver, yes we needed three people! wowzers!




So on to the pretty...I did Christmas a little different this year, but first I will start with the basics that we have always done...

The living room tree :)
 I did add these new bird houses to go with our birds that we had.
The houses came from target, and I think they are just presh!
 Jack helped sort through all the ornaments



 and a few minutes later (our tree is so easy to put together)....
 I took one of my burlap coffee bags and just tossed it at the base and it was complete!
 ..and just so happy that my birds have homes now. Though if you are thinking what I'm thinking they are going to have to lay off the Christmas caramel corn to get in that hole...ha!
The stockings are hung and ready for stuffers


The entrance to the play room has the same garland with a new ribbon, I always hate to take it down, it feels so bare come February!

 Our Thankful tree has turned Merry!
 This beauty is from Kev's sister and I love it by the front door, as it still smells so good!
 We have a few Jolly fellas around the house that make me smile. This one is in my office.
 The guest bath has a charlie brown tree, and Jack loves to check it out during his baths!
What's different this year? Well we have the most adorable "sweet treat" tree that is done in the kitchen, with all sorts of drool worthy delights but they are also very breakable and this Christmas Jackson is showing a ton of interest in the trees. So I decided that putting a tree up that has what looks like candy and cake all over it wasn't the best idea. Along with my Christopher Radko display I put them away for a year in hopes that next year we are in a larger house that has a spot to put these treasures out of harms way.

So instead of those I actually did a different tree that I have not done before and this one is so special! You see the first Christmas after Kevin and I got married, his Mom brought down a huge container full of boxed ornaments and I had no clue that they would be for us.... She let Stacy (Kevs sister) and I go through them all and pick the ones we wanted. Stacy and I put a system together to ensure we were both happy with our selection, we sorted and then did "ok you pick one, I pick one"... and I think we both left thinking we scored! The ornaments are Hallmark, and were purchased all throughout the years of Kev/Stacy childhood. They are also all in the original boxes, which is just too neat ! We each received enough for a full tree and I saved mine knowing that I would want this for my little boy or girl! So when I pulled them out for the first year I was so excited to remember that I picked out a lot of the ones that were boy/sports related Santa's, how appropriate for our little Jack! I actually have a full tree worth of sassy pink ornaments (that I always did in college on my tree) so if we ever have a girl we have a tree for her too!

I debated on where to put Jacks tree and finally ended up picking his toy room, because we purchased a train to go around the tree. (train is from Walgreen's best $30 spent, and they still have them! It has real train sounds and even blows smoke!) He has woken up every morning and made a bee line for the tree, while the ornaments are fragile, I have been letting him touch and explore. He has been very gentle, and after all its his tree, so surely he has to be able to touch.
Here are my favorites from this tree...








And this one seems to be Jacks favorite right now, each morning he has looked for the white ski bear.
I love this Days of Christmas house and looking forward to Dec 1st to start opening the doors! Though our little boy has figured out something must go in them, so we will be filling one at a time the night before!

No house is complete without a few simple decorations out front...


 ...I told Jack the big light on top of Willimas Tower is our light for Santa,
it will help him lead the way to our house!

So there you have it, Christmas cheer has arrived at our home!
 Now its time to rest on the couch with the hubs and call it a day!



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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a fun packed Turkey day with our family, and it was so delightful!

I woke up early and headed out to run the Turkey Trot with my friend Jenn. I ran the entire thing and finished in about 30 minutes, that's pretty good for me! It was a great way to kick start the holiday. 
This picture is actually after we ran, I'm hoping the race photographers caught one of us that I can replace as we crossed the finish.
We said bye to our friend and then it was time to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's one of my most favorite things about the holidays. Jack watched it for a little while but lost interest when the commercials came on...boo!

 We got all cleaned up and we were over the moon about being off from work for several days! We even have off this coming week! Yay for a nice break!

 Before we left to Great Aunt Dorthy's house we stopped by to play with Wes. Notice the game flag was out at their house...

but don't worry we had ours out too! And we won :) Even more reason for excitement at our house!


We love having Jack's cousin that is just a little younger at Dorthy's house.
I'm certain they will always be dressed so darling for the holidays together!

 Jack kept saying "open the door, animals please" ha ha! We read so many books where there are always animals in barns, so duh Mommy, when there is a red barn in Dorthy's yard, there MUST be animals inside!


 This room has been the "kid" room since Kevin was little, and it still served its purpose on Thanksgiving!
 Great Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Joe
 Grandpa Strehlow & Aunt Stacy
 The beautiful Grandmas!


 Jack was schooling Laura on how to use the iPad
 It was getting late so we left and headed back home, where we put our little boy to bed and Mommy suited up for a full night of shopping! I got my trusty clip board that I made and checked my list twice... and off I went to pack the sleigh!

 I was out from 8 pm to 6 am... I had so much fun, I got everything I wanted and I shall do it again next year! However I was EXHAUSTED when Jack woke up. So I took a long nap on the couch while Jack watched The Lion King.

I made sure that one of the six of these $99 power wheel cars were mine. It was actually pretty organized in the toy area of Walmart, so I was in and out pretty fast.


One pretty cool Thanksgiving if I do say so myself!

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