CHRISTMAS RECAP

I am finally able to share about our Christmas, thanks to reconciling all of the nasty messages that iPhoto has been giving me over the last few weeks.  The bottom line?  Apparently I take too many pictures.  Well.  This has spurred a goal of increasing my organization in regard to my computer, but at least for the time being, I have enough to do what I need.

This Christmas was great.  We had good visits with each of our family, and some really great family time among just the three of us.  We went to church on Christmas Eve, and then visited with my family for the evening, but really just had a quiet night.  I woke up the next day promptly at 5, and Mason slept until almost 8, so the mood at our house was probably backwards from most of America - it was me who was jittery with excitement.  We exchanged gifts, but kept it small this year.  Mason's big gift was a scooter, Byron got a bunch of new clothes, and I got something super exciting - a new camera lens!  (Note:  I am still learning to use not only the lens, but also my camera.  Don't expect anything amazing to follow.)

After this, we went over to my parents' house where we opened more gifts and had brunch.  My mom has started a tradition getting us a "family gift".  Last year, we all got fleece pullovers.  This year, it was moccasins.  Although most of the boys didn't like it quite as well, whoops.  She shouldn't feel bad, though, since it was my idea in the first place.  We also spent quite a while taking photos of each other. For example, I spent about 20 minutes directing my sister on how to achieve the perfect mermaid hair flip, so we have quite a few out takes from that evening.  The pictures make me laugh, and as much as I want to post one for the sole purpose of embarrassing her, I am afraid nobody else will understand our odd sense of humor.  We did manage to get one nice family picture at the end of the evening, so score one for us.

Santa also happened to bring us matching Christmas socks.  Christmas socks are fun, but sure aren't Christmas Jammies...

The next day, we celebrated with Byron's family.  The best way I can describe that time (as always) is fast and furious.  There are so many family members, that so much just seems to happen all at once.  We had a brunch and opened presents, but the best part for me was watching Mason interact with all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We don't see them as often as we see my sister, and Mason's circle of "people" is really rather small, so I am never sure how quickly he will warm up to his extended family. Apparently the theme is anyone who will play iPad with him is good in his book.  I also caught him in a series of pictures where he is putting his fingers in the cookie frosting and licking his fingers.  Sorry to anyone who ate the cookies.

So that was our Christmas.  We had such a great time with our families, and can't wait until the next time!  Also thanks to Erin for grabbing the camera and shooting some of these!

BLESSED CHRISTMAS

This is the year we really learned that blessings come in all shapes and sizes, the most important of those are a growing, healthy, two-year-old boy, and the love and salvation that is found in Jesus Christ.  Wishing all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas!
Love, the Stovers

FRIENDS AND FROSTING

A few years ago, Byron brought home a gingerbread house kit.  I think it was a gingerbread train, actually.  And as we attempted to assemble and decorate it, and it fell over countless times and nearly led us to divorce (okay, I'm strongly exaggerating...but still), I vowed never again.  There had to be an easier way.

And, I am here to tell you, there is.

What if, my friends, you simply take an ice cream cone turned upside down, and smear it with frosting and candy?  Voila.  A Christmas tree.  It tastes yummy.  It is festive.  And nobody gets divorced!

We invited over some friends who had toddler and pre-school aged kids to give it a go with us.  It was definitely a hit!

Though notice we did keep baby wipes on hand.  I wouldn't describe this as a clean project.

The best part was watching the kids chow down afterwards.  They were pretty stoked.  And the little dude definitely enjoyed that part!  Watching him was classic.

So go buy some cones, grab everything sugary in your house, and you've got what you need for a new holiday tradition.  This was even a tradition that Daddy supports.  Any activity where he gets a free pass to indulge in endless amounts of sugar is good in his book.

And as I usually do, I've got to end my post with one more picture, just for mama.  This face!  Although I am finally breaking down and getting my handsome boy the haircut he so desperately needs.

SPARKLY ORNAMENTS WITH NO MESS

I love Christmas ornaments.  My ornaments are probably the most organized part of my life (sad or awesome, you choose), and I have quite a few.  I especially love what I call Christmas balls.  I am sure that is not what I should be saying, but you know what I mean (the round ones).  My goal is to add a couple of new ones each year, so that I can vary my color scheme each year without spending a lot of money.  And I can get pretty particular as to exactly which color I have my eye on.  (Like yellow...but not gold...)
So two years ago, which translates to THREE Christmas seasons ago, I pinned this image of some ornaments I wanted to try to make.  I liked this for several reasons:
a) they are Christmas balls
b) they are glittery
c) they promise to be no mess
d) they can be customized to ANY color I want
Finally, this year would be the year.  I made the fantastic discovery that I had extra vacation days that I had to use before the end of the year, so I did what I have done very little of before.  I dropped Mason off at the babysitter and got a ton of stuff done, including making myself some new ornaments.
I had picked up fillable ornaments at Michael's a few weeks back, and I had extra fine glitter on hand (left over from my wedding almost 6 years ago - ha!), so this project was very inexpensive for me.  I wanted to use what I had to see how I liked it before buying new glitter.  I basically followed the tutorial from Pinterest (here), and it was so easy!  I'm definitely going to make more.

I have a few comments that I will share though.  First, the packaging has changed in the past few years and the Pledge stuff does not say Future Shine.  The bottle looks the same though, and the lid is still blue, if that helps.  Second, I actually did these two different ways.  The first way I did a whole ornament at a time - wax, glitter, done, repeat.  The second way I did all the wax, all the glitter, done.  And although an untrained eye probably couldn't tell the difference, I preferred the result of the first way better.  The second was faster though, so if you are not a perfectionist or don't plan to spend a lot of time examining your finished project, then the second way is fine.
As you can see, I did green (which I have wanted for a long time - yay!) and copper.  Now though, I CAN NOT WAIT to do more.  And the color possibilities are endless.  Pink!  Yellow!  Black!  (But not all on the same tree...I'm not that crazy.)
What have you been doing to prepare your house for Christmas?

JUST LIKE DAD

Because Byron has been spending a lot of time working in the basement, Mason has gotten familiar with some of the things he uses down there - rulers, tape measures, squares, drills, etc. He is always very closely supervised, and we try to keep the dangerous things out of his reach. It is amazing how quickly his little mind picks up on the uses for each tool and how quickly he imitates his dad.

And here's one more, just because I couldn't resist!

HALLOWEEN RECAP

It's November.  This morning in church we heard that after today, there are only 6 Sundays left in the year.  Can you believe it?  And yet, I haven't even shared most of our fall activities.  I'll start with Halloween.  It's that holiday that happened a couple of weeks ago that we've already banished to the way back of our minds because we have much bigger holidays to focus on in the next few weeks.
Here is our little Buzz Lightyear.

Such a cutie. I am obsessed with him. We took him trick or treating around the neighborhood as well as to a party at a local church.  He got to play games, go on inflatable slides and bounce houses, and possibly his favorite thing lately, get candy.

PINNING

Pin dreams...like pipe dreams. With our basement work crawling along, I can't help but imagine us at the end of the process and to the place where I finally get to decorate the space.  In the meantime, I pin. I pin images that I want to emulate. Sometimes it is the color scheme, or sometimes it is the feel of the room in general, and sometimes it is a particular item. But with my pins lately, I am beginning to notice a pattern - light walls, rustic wood and furnishings, lots of greenery, a touch of black, and pops of color or pattern.  Do you see it?

***I very much did my best to link back to the original sources of these pins.  These images are not mine and I am in no way intending to take credit.  I just really admire them all!