Winter Wonderland

Thank's for stopping by today!  If today is your first time visiting my blog, I'm honored to have you stop by, and if you are a regular, I am so excited to finally reveal my Holiday House Tour!

If you haven't checked out the homes on Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday House walk, be sure to stop by there first and appreciate the creativity and beauty of the season!  It's truly an inspiring tour!

Like most of the kids out there, mine have been caught up in the Frozen whirlwind.  From shirts, pj's and singing dolls to naming our kittens Anna and Elsa, my kids are pretty much obsessed.  So this year, I went with a Frozen themed Christmas, and decked my halls with tons of snow flakes!

  Since it is winter and the perfect time of year for snow and snowmen and all things icy and cold...

As you can see my style is pretty casual and comfortable.  I like to curl up on the sofa and binge watch Revenge and Blacklist after the kiddos are asleep.

Each year my girls pick out a new ornament for the tree.  We stick with the traditional white lights, but the ornament colors are a free for all.  We added some paper chains this year to tie in with the wintery white snowflakes.

I love how no two flakes are alike.  It was a lot of fun cutting each one out with my good friend Shalimar.

I strung cotton balls on white thread and tied them to a branch I found in the back yard.  I'd like to say this was an easy project but the truth is it took a while.

You really don't want to know about the incident with the ceiling fan and my three year old daughter... Let's just say I had to re-string about half of those cotton balls and there may have been tears involved. And wine...

My Ella Bella's third birthday party is this weekend. I didn't want to have to live with a ton of "kid party stuff"  all over my house, and since snow was our theme and it happened to tie in with her desire to have an Olaf party, I got pretty lucky this year.  I also found the snow decor to be pretty friendly on the wallet.  All of the snowflakes, paper chains and the snow branch mobile cost less then $10.  I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures of our Frozen Tundra {also known as our house}.  Don't forget to stop by later in the week for the "Snow Branch" Tutorial!  And remember to check out the amazing homes over on Jennifer Rizzo's blog!

Easy Holiday Swag

I have been working like crazy to transform my house into a winter wonderland.  Think that scene in Elf where he decorates the department store... Anyway, that's why I'm a little late getting this DIY project posted.  I have many more DIY's this month, but here's my first.

This holiday swag was really easy to make.  All you need  for the greenery is some clippings from a magnolia tree and a little cedar if you like.  I picked up a 6' swag from Trader Joe's 

so I just snipped a few pieces off.

You'll also need a thin board or leftover trim.  Cut to about 24 inches long.  Mine happened to be about three inches wide.  I know that Michael's sells trim for just a few bucks if you don't have something laying around.  You'll also need some pruning shears, a staple gun, 

some floral wire or twine, and some ribbon.

Don't mind the mimosa in the corner.  Holiday cheer, right?

Start at one end and staple the cedar and magnolia leaves around the end working your way towards the middle.  I like to flip a few leaves over so there is a lot of texture and color.

 When you reach the middle, start on the opposite side and work towards the finished side.

Once you reach the center staple a few leaves in a round shape, staple the ribbon to the center and tie a bow.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of how I stapled the bow.  Holiday cheer, remember?

I just stapled a little floral wire to each side of the back of the board, then hung it on the wall.

I didn't spray mine with any preservatives because it's not going to be hanging on my wall for very long anyway.  It's one of the fastest projects I've worked on this season.

Here's a sneak peak at one of the other DIY projects I've been working on.  Tutorial coming soon!

Puppy Proofing Christmas

I know the title of this post implies that I may have some insight into how to do this, but the truth is I do not.  Having a puppy and two kittens {lovingly referred to as The Ladies} makes decorating a bit of a struggle.  We've lost a few pine cones and one floral arrangement so far.  However, when you see the collection of adorable photos I compiled to share with you, I think you'll understand why its all worth it..

Back in February my brother and his wife announced that they were expecting their first baby!  Then, in July my kiddos finally talked us into adopting a kitten.  When we went to the local animal shelter we had a fluffy orange male kitten in mind.  Now, here's a little piece of advice, when you take two little girls to pick out a kitten, you may not get what you had in mind.  We left the shelter that day with two tiny white fluffy female kittens, who were promptly named Anna and Elsa.  Now, because I'm a little nutso {or so people may think} we decided to add to our house hold once again in October, and welcomed a 9 week old golden retriever/black lab mix to our family on the same exact day our sweet little niece Avery Violet was born.

River quickly made herself at home. 

That's her curled up into a ball on our sofa.  She is literally going to be taking up an entire side in no time.

She doesn't mind sleeping with Ella baby at all.  Only problem is, she already weighs more than her and is about to squish her.

The ladies insist on having a mug of water out on the coffee table.

Paris is our first baby and is almost 8 years old!  She's doing her best to accommodate this youngster, but I think it's time for River to get her own bed.

Walking Lily Claire to school and back every day is River's favorite activity.  

I had to throw this one in there.  These sweet babies just melt my heart.  It's no wonder why I couldn't tell my daughters no.  They are just impossible to resist.

The Ladies have grown, but they still sleep right next to eachother.

So, this year our house hold has grown by three.  And our hearts have grown by four {I can't wait to share photos of our sweet little niece!}.  I hope all of you are as lucky as we are this holiday season.

The One Thing That Stays Consistant {A Parenting Piece}

I have found, when parenting, there is one thing that always stays consistent.  Poop.  That's right folks, I said poop.  Let's face it, once you become a parent, it's All about that poop.  Here's what I mean...

You have a newborn baby.  She is perfect, beautiful, the new love of your life.  You can't imagine loving anything more.  As soon as the nurses take her away and clean her, they put a cute little newborn diaper on her.  Within minutes-hours the poop begins.  During the first few months you attempt to staunch the flow of poop as you change diaper after diaper.  You experience "bow outs" and realize that sometimes it's easier cut the onesie off with scissors rather than attempt to take it off over her head. When she doesn't poop for a day or two, you call the advice nurse, try bicycle legs, warm baths, pear juice... When she finally goes, you don't even mind that a little, or a lot, got on your shirt.

After about six months, you begin to introduce solids.  Sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, bananas... Wow, does the poop change then.  Did you even know poop could be that color?  Then there is the inevitable eating of something that changes the poop to a scary color and you rush off to the pediatrician thinking your young child has contacted Ebola or some other ungodly third world disease, and you are a wreck until the doctor calmly smiles and says, it looks like she ate a crayon to me.  You're so relived to hear that your child will live and anxiously await the next perfect poop to grace her little diaper.

Eventually your little one is old enough to begin pooping on a toilet.  She has her own perfect little potty that singes "You did it, you did it, you did it!  Yay!" Your day becomes all about getting her to poop on the potty.  Bribing her with M&M's and clapping like a lunatic in the bathroom stall at Target. She finally gets the concept of where she's supposed to poop, but wiping, that's another story... There you are, sitting at the dining room table with a few other mom's, catching up on the latest bit of gossip, when your darling screams down the hallway "Mom, I pooped.  I pooped!  I POOPED!  Wipe me!" Dammit, she was just getting to the good part, you think, as you march down the hall, wipe a tushie and have an argument about washing hands. You miss the gossip entirely.  This phase goes on until about preschool.

Then comes the poop humor.  Does it make sense? No.  Is it really funny? No.  But for some reason, your kid will crack up laughing anytime someone says poop.  "Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Poop" Baahahhahahhah.  Really?  Poopy booty, poop poop poop.

My kids are 6 and 3.  It's still all about the POOP.

I hope you can take this with a little bit of humor.  After all, it's easier to laugh about this crap than to cry.

A Few Holiday Touches

I absolutely love the Holidays, especially since I have young children.  Seeing their little eyes light up when we decorated the Christmas tree, was so much fun!  My sweet {and slightly naughty} little Ella is turning three in a few days!  Since she wanted an Olaf birthday party, I plan to go all out with the snow flakes and snowmen this year, since it really fits with the whole Christmas/winter theme.  Later in the week I'll post some more pictures of some fun projects I'm working on for her party, but in the mean time, here's a little peek at my home for the holidays.

Can't wait to share more holiday decor and really easy tutorial for a swag with you all later in the week!

Turkey Leftovers

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  And I hope you have plenty of leftover turkey.  Here are a few of my favorite recipes for using it up!  Gobble Gobble!

Turkey & Cranberry Panini Sandwiches

Sweet Potato Hash

Turkey Stock

Cream of Mushroom, Turkey & Wild Rice Soup

Turkey Enchiladas

Turkey & Wild Rice Casserole