In...

5 short, err, long (select the one that is appropriate for you) months it will be Christmas Day!!!

(Polar Express Day in kindergarten.)

I have really been thinking that next July 25th I am going to have a Christmas in July party with my friends and their kids. Doesn't that sound like fun!
I envision...
white water balloon fights
Santa hats with bathing suits
candy canes (saved from Dec.)
frozen hot chocolate
hmmm...gotta keep thinking about what else there may be...
maybe we would make cookies???

Today

Today is Christmas clean-up day.



Happy New Year!

You Capture-Holiday favorites

Our annual reindeer pics with the boys.

These were not the easiest this year as we had tears from both boys at one point or another.

This was the excitement of getting Criss, Cross Crash and then realizing there was a car in the box too.

We were pet sitting for my nephew and had his 10 month old puppy with us Christmas morning.  I knew that he couldn't be inside while opening gifts and would be chewing on everything.  As I was sitting on the floor taking pictures of our boys opening gifts I saw Bubba and just had to snap a picture.  Turns out it is one of my favorites from Christmas morning.  I love how the lights from the tree are relecting in the window and the "no peeking!" bag and a little glimpse of our tree.

Linking up with You Capture

Baking cont.

I have made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Here we have some cooling, some waiting to go in the oven, and then there were some baking. :o)

I attempted to make Cake Pops. These seem to be all the rave over the blogs and they were fun to make. I was looking through one of my summer Better Homes and Gardens magazines and saw how simple they were to make.
I made the cake the night before so it was cool enough to handle.
*Dump the cake into a big bowl and crumple it all up.
*Mix in half a can of frosting more or less depending on how you like it.
*Make the cake and frosting mix into balls.
*Put cake balls onto a waxed cookie sheet and insert a stick.
*Spoon the white chocolate onto the cake balls.
Lessons I learned...
I spooned the white chocolate on because when I tried to roll it around they became to heavy and would fall off the stick.
Sprinkle with sprinkles as soon as you put the white chocolate on because once it dries the sprinkles don't stick.

(For the chocolate I used Wilton candy melts.)

Off for more fun in the kitchen today. :o)

This...

picture melts my heart.

When putting up our Christmas decorations Reed was amazed with the stuffed animals that play music but this one really captured his attention. The is a daddy bear reading The Night Before Christmas to his son. The picture is a bit blurry but I love the innocent look on his face as he just stood there eating and listening to the story. I tried to take another picture with the flash but wasn't able to because he didn't want anything to do with his picture being taken. Thankfully I captured this and have this memory to hold onto.

He has since carried the bear to the couch multiple times and listened to the story over and over again.

The bear was given to my boys about 4 years ago when Reed was just a baby from my parents.

Linking up to Life Made Lovely Mondays

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!

The boy's bathroom cup.

Santa in the kitchen.

Santa plate waiting to be used.

The first musical snow globe that went up.

Elf on the Shelf...so much fun! 

I love snowmen and usually leave them up throughout January. 

Bigger snowman 

Blocks that my boys love to play with, they get moved around where ever they decide. 

3 out of 4 of the stockings.  Need to buy one more stocking holder.  I haven't been hanging them I guess for the past 5 years since we have had our youngest and I finally thought about hanging them on the quilt rack.  I think it works out quite well. 

By the front door, countdown santa, basket with tins, and the musical stuffed animals (which I need to buy more AA battaries for). 

Randomness on top of the sewing machine. 

Above the sofa, another snowman collection.  Usually we put the angel snowman on top of the tree, not sure if we will this year or not depends on how I feel once we get the tree up...hopefully tomorrow. 

Cleaned and dusted (some pretty thick dust) off of these two shelfs.  Bottom is our Rudolph collection and the one above our what Christmas dishes I have. 

Cleaned off the top of the victrola and put the true meaning of Christmas.  Reed was so excited and couldn't wait to see what I took out of the box when I told him that it was the most special of all the Christmas decorations.  Tyler came up with some guesses and then finally guessed correctly. :o) 

The little Christmas tree that my sister bought for Tyler when he was a baby because she thought he should have a tree in his room.  It does have a gold star on the top guess.  I also have some tiny ornaments to put on it that I bought one year at an after Christmas sale just need to find tiny hangers to put them on.  Maybe this will be the year they will go on.  You know it is hard to find tiny ornaments for such a small tree. 

The kitchen table with the believe banner made last year through a swap. 

Hanging on the kitchen slider. 

Was so excited when I found this in the Christmas boxes and it had never been burned.  The house smells wonderful right now and will be especially wonderful since we have an artificial tree. 

Just complete randomness of stuff I didn't know where to put so I cleaned off a shelf.  The santa key is inside the santa.  The little snow globe is so fun for the boys because it is made out of plastic and goes with a push button on the front.  Little pinecoe trees made by the boys.

I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of the decorations in my home.  Hopefully tree pictures will come soon.

I got it!!! Merry Christmas to me!!!

Eric finally came to a decision that I was going to get a Nikon D40 for Christmas, it was a lot of money to drop but I am worth it...right? Of course! This was a very tough decision for us, the economy isn't that great and Eric is not getting a bonus at work this year. Around Thanksgiving he told me I would not be getting the camera and I moped around for a whole day and was grumpy. I was fine the next morning, just needed to get it out. Then he started looking at prices online and my hopes got back up again. Just this past week we talked again and again I thought I wasn't getting it. So when I was asked to go to the store tonight I jumped at the chance and didn't look back.

We put the battery in and I was able to get some shots before I almost killed the battery. The battery is charging and I will have some awesome Christmas shots! I am so excited!!!

Here are some random first shots that I took. I can already tell that my pictures are clearer and crisper then with my old camera. I think I am in love!

Now for comparision reasons take a look at these two shots.

This one was taken with my NEW Nikon D40.

This one is taken with my Kodak Easy Share at about the same distance.