Christmas Vignettes

Today I  am linking up with Rhoda's  Holiday Vignette Party.  The great thing about all these parties is I am motivated to get the Christmas stuff up!  I am making great progress!

I love Vignettes.  I have lots of little accent tables in my house and I love to do displays on them!

First Because Jesus is the reason for the SEASON in my home..a Nativity Scene

I love this Nativity set I purchased from Kirkland's last year.  It is very soft and understated and just beautiful!

The snow scene was created with items from  the Dollar Store.  They have some great Christmas stuff this year I think!

My next Vignette is on an entry Hall table

Next The Buffet in the Dining Room

 And Finally another Entry HAll table and my kids favorite!

GO LINK UP friends!  Dying to see everyones Christmas displays!

A Christmas Mantel for 6!

Good thing we are done having kids!  No more room for stockings on the Mantel!  I am joining a Christmas Mantel linky party today!

Here is our mantel!  It is really the only thing completely finished as far as Christmas decorating goes around here.  I feel so behind.  I guess a toddler will do that to a gal.  Trying to take it all in stride!

I love looking at all the clean white mantels everyone does by my heart belongs to the warm Tuscan colors.  I just can't break away from it!  Maybe someday!

A China Hutch Makeover

WOW!  What a busy weekend we have had.  SOO WONDERFUL, but a bit tiring.  So thankful for all my blessings and the precious time with family and friends.  Today, I am busy getting the house ready for Christmas but I wanted to share with you the makeover I did on my Dining Room china hutch.  It is something I wanted to do for A LONG LONG TIME ( really since we moved in).  I decided Thanksgiving was my deadline since we host here so my husband and I worked diligently for a week to get it done.  I am excited how it turned out!

First here is the before:

We bought our furniture about 10 years ago and I loved it in my old house but the walls in this room just did not look right with that China Hutch.  I am an avid follower and lover of  THRIFTY DECOR CHICK

A few months ago I paid for an email consultation with her and I asked her for help with my dining room.  She said I should paint the hutch. I knew she was going too. SIGH!  Well months went by and I did not do it. I WAS TERRIFIED!  I just knew we would ruin that hutch!  Well I then found DECORCHICK! and this post .  She had just finished re-doing a hutch.  I made a mental note to refer back to her site when ready and I began following her.  About a month ago she posted about a tutorial e-book on refinishing furniture.  It was only 10 dollars so I bought it.  It gave me the confidence I needed to to do it! It took us about 5 days total working a few hours each night. We followed the steps in the book and the results are JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!

 I am seriously in LOVE WITH IT!  My dishes look so much better!  You might notice we did away with the mirrors.  I lined those mirrors with paintable wallpaper that looks like beadboard and painted it too! Another idea from DECORCHICK!  It We did some sanding to antique it after painting and then glazed it.  You will need to click on pictures to enlarge and see detail.  The color is ESPRESSO by BEHR.  I followed all the steps and used all the products from the tutorial.  We spent about 100 dollars at home Depot to do it but we bought WAY TOO MUCH PAINT!  We bought a gallon of paint and glaze and could have easily gotten by with a quart. so..it was very affordable!   We got so manyy compliments on Thanksgiving!  I am ecstatic.  I want to do the chairs now! AND best of all I have the confidence to do it!  AWESOME!

Silhouette Craft Cutter Giveaways

I want one of these SOO BAD!  There are several blogs giving them away this week.  Go check it our for your chance to win HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE  and HERE.

SWEET SUNDAY!

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord … (Psalm 37:23)

 My sweet brother-in-law is a budding photographer and took some family portraits of us yesterday.  This was one of my favorites.  I am so blessed!  Wishing you a blessed week!

15 months and a House Party

Ainslie Kate you are 15 months old today. I can hardly believe it.

Here you are last year around this time

And here you are today

You are about 22 \12 pounds and are a very tall 32 1\2 inches tall. 

 You are wearing a size 4 diaper.

You still have wild curly hair and your dad calls you FRO GRO cause it looks so crazy when you wake up.

You sleep all night usually ( although since being sick you are waking and wanting to come to our bed) and take one 2 1\2 hour nap per day.

You are VERY VERY busy.  You love to pull everything out of cabinets and drawers and climb everything. You keep me on my toes and I am so tired everyday from chasing you!

You still love to torture our poor cat

You love to read books and you will really sit still and listen so when I am tired of chasing you we read...ALOT!

You are getting better and better at eating everyday!  It is still slow but I am so proud of the progress you have made.

You are acting more and more like a two year old and we see alot of this now days...sigh..It's okay though.  You are still precious!

You are talking sooo much.  You have so many words.  Your current favorite happens to be "MINE"!

You are so silly and fun and you love for people to laugh at you particularly your brothers.  We all just adore you!  HAPPY 15 MONTHS!

Today Ainslie and I were invited to a HOUSE PARTY .  Have you been to one? The hostess applies and if accepted is sent all kinds of goodies for her guests to try out. It is a marketing thing, but it was really fun!  Our Hostess had a GERBER party so the babies got to come and play and sample foods.  Then we took home a big bag of Gerber goodies.  We had a fun time playing this morning!

Have a great weekend everyone!  We are going to watch some Cowboy Football ( GO POKES)  and Have family pictures made (pray for us! HA!)

Show US Your Life Laundry Rooms and Playrooms

One of my favorite linky parties I used to participate in before my blogging hiatus was Kelly's Korner Show us Your Life Home tours.  I love decorating my home and I love looking at others homes even more. So today I am participating.  Since I have been out of the blogging loop until this week, I am going to add some back posts with pictures of rooms I missed in the past weeks. So scroll down my blog if you are interested in others rooms in my home. Off to browse more game rooms and laundry rooms!

Our Play room Is really big which is good but it is filled to the brim with four kids. We really enjoy our time in there. I just ordered some curtains for the windows this week.  Cannot wait to get those up!

And here is the laundry room...nothing too exciting!  But it is a laundry room!

Show Us Your Life Bathrooms

MAster Bath

Guest and Ainslie's Bath

 Boys Bathroom