It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!

With Thanksgiving over, it's time to get ready for Christmas!  Johnny and I usually do most of the work on our own, but the girls were both involved this year and it was so much fun!  We slapped on some Christmas music and away we went! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :]  Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season this year!!!  I know we sure did!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!

So this is a little late, but our tree is up and our stockings are hung! Here's some pics from the day!!

Johnny and I put the tree up after the girls went to bed!

And Johnny worked those lights!!

And the tree skirt...obviously the only thing I did was take pictures :]

The finished project!  {I did help fluff up the branches :]}

The next morning we woke up Joey and the first thing she said was "is my Christmas Tree up yet?"  We went down and let her start decorating!!

Daddy helped her pic out ornaments while Sammy just layed down :]

 Cheese!!!

 I love these bells!!  They were my grandmothers before she moved in with my mom and big man! They make my day when the door opens!!!

 and I collect nut crackers!!  They live above our kitchen during the season!!

I just love Christmas and I love all our decorations!  I love that Joey talks about Jesus' birthday and sings Jingle Bells and Baby It's Cold Outside in the car with me!  I love that she's old enough to know about Santa!  I love that she plays with her little Veggie tales nativity, even though she tries to eat baby Jesus :] I love that she wants to give her Sunday school teacher a Christmas Card!!  Loves it!!!

Wishful Wednesday....Dream Bedroom!

Kelsey over at the Seattle Smiths has a fun Wishful Wednesday topic!  Here's the question.....

 'I wish' .... I could come home to this 

________ bedroom every night!

So I went searching, and here is my answer......

 'I wish' .... I could come home to this

bedroom every night!

I'm all about turquoise these days, and this room is just calling my name!  I could totally sink into these amazing linens each night and wake up in them each morning!!!  Although it may be hard to get out of them in the morning, because they just look so comfy and inviting!!

What's your dream bedroom???  Pop over to Kelsey's blog and let everyone know what your dream bedroom would be!

{Photo Found Here}

Weekend Wrap-up :)

What a fun weekend!  Our Friday night consisted of Pizza Picnic Friday with Joey..we watched these guys......

, ate pizza, and had a good time as a family!  I'm totally soaking in these nights, I know it won't be too long before Joey will think it's a stupid thing to hang with her parents :)  After dinner and putting Joey to bed, Johnny went to play hockey with his brother!  Since I was home alone, I popped in season 5 of Sex and the City

{trying to get ready for Sex and the City 2 to come out} 

and watched something like 5 episodes before I fell asleep!  It was a fun night for sure :)

Saturday rocked too :)  We went to gymnastics in the morning with Joey, came home, ate some lunch then took some naps!!  That night, our friends threw us a super fun baby shower for Samantha Lynn!  We got tons of diapers and wipes, along with some clothes!  The real surprise came at the end...check out the pictures to see what went down!

Yay :)  Here I am with some of the hostesses!  From L to R...Amanda, Shawnda, me, Jae, and Kristi!  Kelli, Jestine and Isabel weren't able to make it, but everyone pulled together and the party was super fun!!!

Super cute decorations were all over the house!  We also got to keep these tiny socks and the onesies that were hung all around!!  So much fun :)  Thanks hosts!!

There was so much yummy food that I didn't even taste everything!  The theme of the shower was diapers, drinks and desserts, so that's why all these sweets were there!  I was in sugar heaven!!

Then we got to open fun presents!!  Yippee :)  We got tons of diapers and wipes for Sam!  We also got some clothes, lotion, baby wash, toys and more!

Just when we thought we were done, they told us there was 1 more gift....

Oh my goodness!  Our hosts got us a double stroller!!!!  This was honestly the only thing we needed for Sam!  We were going to have to go buy it, and are so thankful we don't have to!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!  

We love our friends, and we had such a blast at the shower!  Now we just have to wait 2 1/2 more weeks for Sam to get here :)  I can't wait!!!

Hope your weekend was amazing too!!!

It is finished :) Yippee!!!!

What started out as this.......

Ended up as this.....

That's right folks, Joey's growth chart is officially done!  This was definitely a labor of love, and I'm glad I'm done with it!  Here are some pics of the process...

After the board dried, I cut out the branches...this took forever!  I had to break out the exacto knife and go to town :)  Then I modge podged them to the board :)

Next was the birdies and branch ends...

Me and Sam were working very hard and the tongue sticking out was neccesary!!

Measuring out the inch marks........

I couldn't wait for good light to take the next pic, so that's why it looks so dark :)  In between this pic and the last, I cut out feet, beaks, Joey's name, and numbers.  I glued them all down and cut the edges off the branch ends.  Thanks Amanda for letting me use your Cricut to cut out Jo's name and the numbers :)

It's done and here's Johnny with the nail gun putting it into place :)  Since the last picture I cut out and glued down leaves and did a final coat of glue over the entire project :)

Not sure why, but Joey was a little afraid of it at first, so Johnny and I tested it out :)

Wow, it says I'm 4'11"!!  I grew...errrr maybe we hung it about 1/2 and inch too low????  Oh well :)

And finally, here's Joey testing out the growth chart!  Yay, it works :) {Not that it really had anything to do but sit there, but oh well}

Joey seems to like it, and I'm glad, because like I said earlier, it was a labor of love!  Johnny says I have to start making Sam's so that she will have one by the time she's 2 :)  It didn't take me that long, but I've seriously been working on this thing off and on for over a month!  Glad it's done :)  Check out the belly pics from this week and you will know why Joey felt the need to lift her shirt in this pic!  

Also, I'll be posting pics soon of Joey's room.  We moved her in in December, and it's finally done.  Let me wait for some good lighting, and I'll get those pics up!!!

Christmas Decorations Are Up :)

The time has come and the decorations are up :)  Here's a sneak peak of what our home looks like during the Christmas season!

Here is our tree in all it's glory :)  This sweet little tree was bought for me by my mommy 7 years ago...It has served me and now the Stout family very well!  Every year we pull out the tree and say we need to get another one because it's loosing it's umph.  Instead of buying another tree this year we just threw up another strand of lights and voila....it will live to see another day :)  Underneath we have a Veggietales Nativity that my friend Laurie gave me a million years ago!  Joey has already loved playing with it, and we are really talking up the story of Jesus' birth this year!  Jo is a smart girl and she will repeat Jesus when you say it..so cute!!!

These are our stockings :)  We don't have a mantle, so we just hang them in between the windows...Santa can still find them hanging on the wall right?!?

This is our stair rail wrapped in garland!  The stockings are silver ware holders that my mom got for me from Crate and Barrel one year...we don't have too many fancy Christmas dinners at our house, so I just strapped them onto the garland :)

I got these bells from my Grandmother I believe!  It is fun to hear them jingle as the door opens...makes me happy!!!

Here is our Christmas Card holder...just waiting for some cards :)

I collect Nutcrackers :)  Here are some that live in our kitchen during Christmas!!

These are the Irish, German, and American Nutcrackers :)  They represent us :)

This nutcracker is about 2 feet tall and is sitting at the top of our stairs.  Joey says Hi and Bye to it every morning, afternoon, night....basically anytime we walk by him!  She even gave him a kiss the other night :)

I just love Christmas!  Not only for the festivities and the way our house looks, but because it is the celebration of the birth of our Savior!!    He came to die for all who have sinned, meaning every one of us!  AMAZING!!!!!!!!  Tis the season....I hope everyone has a great holiday season!