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!

OUR LITTLE SECRET

It is time to admit something on this little old blog of mine. It is something that I haven't really mentioned for over a year now, but it is a significant reason why I haven't had much of a chance to do many projects myself. Are you ready to hear what my secret is? I won't hold you off - we are finishing our basement!

And we are pretty much doing it all ourselves. Well, Byron is doing it mostly himself. It has meant that many of our Saturdays and Sundays involve me taking the boy and Byron making progress on our future expanded living area. I think I got the fun job. 
Because we already have a year's (plus) worth of work put into this project, I'm not going to go into a play by play of any part of what we've accomplished so far. Instead, I think I'll give you a bulleted list of what's done and another of what is left to come, as well as let the pictures do the talking. 

• Frame the exterior walls and the remaining interior walls 
• Design a half wall to split the two main rooms 
• Install a service panel dedicated to the basement 
• Hookup electrical connections (light and power) 
• Prep rooms for cable hookups 
• Move the drain in the bathroom to accommodate a tub instead of a shower 
• Insulate 

I may have missed a few steps, but judging by the amount of time as well as thought that Byron (and maybe a little bit me) have put into this, I know everything has been done with an extremely high level of quality. That man doesn't miss anything. Insulating is what Byron is just wrapping up now. And in my opinion, this step is what has really shown me what it will be like when the space is finished. Our list of things left to tackle is not short, however. 

• Install drywall
• Mud, tape, and sand drywall 
• Tile the bathroom floor 
• Tile the bathroom shower area 
• Install bathroom toilet and vanity and run water lines 
• Install carpet (this will most likely NOT be a DIY) 
• Install a bank of cabinetry for storage 
• Paint 
• Furnish 
• Decorate (!!!)

And again, there may be a few things that I didn't list that we'll tackle, but you get the picture. Those last few items on the list are what I have been waiting patiently for. Like seriously, I can't wait to decorate! I am eager to share a few of my visions for the space. Warning, a few of my ideas are a little out there. I am really hoping that we can finish things, at least to the point that it is usable, within one more year. I don't care if every last thing is in its place, but it will be nice to let Mason play down there without worrying about the tools that are sitting out (right now the basement is permanently blocked off with a gate). 
So there it is - the secret I haven't talked about. Even in the short time since I started writing this post, we are already almost finished with hanging the drywall, and I think I am going to convince Byron that we might want to hire someone to do the finishing for us.  So who knows...in another couple of weeks we could have a few more items checked off our list!