Everyone's gotta have shoes!! - - - it's a giveaway!!

So, I found this great tutorial online for baby shoes... They are adorable. Here is the link.

These are the easiest little project and they make great baby shower gifts!!

This first pair is a beautiful green and brown toile with matching brown ribbons and a green button to finish it off. Too cute!

These next two pairs are for a set of twins. One has yellow accents and the other has green. I'm telling you, these are so cute!

You know what... I think that these are so cute that I am going to make a pair for a giveaway! Wouldn't it be fun to have a giveaway on my blog? Yes, I think it would. Here's the deal... ever since Christmas when I had the tour of homes blog, I have gotten lots of hits and lots of people visiting, but your all like little ghosts. You drop in, but I never see you :) So, I'm going to do a giveaway. If you leave a message and tell me how you found my blog, you will be entered in the giveaway! Now some of you may be thinking that you don't have any babies, and are not intending on having any soon, but these would make great baby shower gifts also, so go ahead, come out of the woodwork and let me know who you are and see if you can't win a pair of these adorable shoes!!

What do I do with all that Christmas Stuff?

Remember all that Christmas stuff I had out? Well, what to do with it the other 11 months out of the year? The one question I get from everyone is "where and how do you store all of that?" Well, here is the answer... in my garage! Handsome hubby and I spent one entire weekend (earlier this summer - - thankfully we did it then not knowing that he would break his back and not be able to help put any of it away!) putting up shelves in our garage. We were trying to come up with a "cheap" meaning not break the checkbook option, but it also had to be ligtweight and able to be taken down and put back up when we move. Ahhh, the chalenges of military life! I think we came up with a fantastic solution and even though out next place may not have a huge garage (or no garage - sorry Autumn) I think this will be versatile and be able to be used again. We bought the heavy duty garage shelf supports - - the cheap ones though - - don't look in the garage storage area or the storage area for that matter... go to the nuts and bolts area of your store and hidden in there you will find the "cheap" storage brackets. They were only $1.25 each. Then we went and got the full sheets of MDF (lightweight) and had it cut right there in the store into three equal long strips and whala! You have a great shelf for very little money!! We actually had 4 sets of these (for a total of 12 - 8 ft shelves) Here is all is in our garage. This one wall is just my Christmas stuff/stuff for dinners. I try to label everything very clearly in case I need something during the year. I am notorious for wanting all my silver Christmas bulbs for a dinner in July... so I try to keep it all organized!

You can't tell from the picture very well, but the top shelf is all of my "table top" Christmas trees, that way I don't have to take all the decorations off of them and I don't have to pack them up in a box or crate.

The Problem With a Pretty Christmas

You know, there is just one problem with having a "pretty" Christmas. You have to take it all down! We are in the middle of trying to pack up Christmas right now. And not just pack it away in the garage, but as any of you military families know - even though we are not supposed to move this next year, the moment you think you can just put all the glass ornaments in a box without wrapping each one individually, that's the moment the Army will decide you need to move! So, with that in mind, I am trying to be patient (not an easy thing for me) and wrapping everything carefully. I also have the problem of wanting it all organized (another thing that doesn't come easy for me). It's just that you never know when you might need something that has been packed away with the Christmas stuff! I am notorious for using Christmas decorations throughout the year - - just re purposing them! So, with that in mind, my goal for the day is to get this stuff packed up in an organized manner while staying patient! Hmmmmm.... maybe I'll just change my goal to "getting Christmas packed up!"

The other problem with a pretty Christmas is that once everything is down and put away, your house looks naked! There's no more glitter or sparkle glowing back at you everywhere you look, no more magical hanging forest to light your dinner table with, and no more "natural" nightlights made from Christmas trees that are left on all night because you forgot to make sure the powerstrip was pulled out far enough from the corner before you started decorating the tree! Not that that happened to me, I'm just saying it is possible!

Well, with that being said, if I am going to accomplish any of my goals for the day - - organized, patient, packed up.... I had better get myself moving! Wish me luck!

New Years Trip

Jason's parents are here celebrating Christmas and the New Year with us. We picked them up yesterday afternoon at the airport in San Diego. We are staying on Coronado Island for the week (more pictures to come of that!) Today we spent the entire day at Lego Land. What a fun place for the family to go. I don't think there is anything better than watching your children have sheer joy at everything they are seeing and doing. When you are only in the parking lot and they are jumping up and down with excitement, you know you have picked a winner!!

One of the great things about Legoland is that while parents wait in line, the kids get to sit and build things with legos. It makes the lines go a lot faster! Here is one of Charise's creations while we waited.

OK, completly out of order, but Jason happened to snap this picture and since I haven't posted it yet, here it is. This is my 10th Anniversary gift. What a huge surprise!! A what a long wait for it! You have to know the whole story... We actually just celebrated our 11th Anniversary this last July. But two years ago for our anniversary, Jason had a great date set up for us. We went out on a themed date and Jason had everything planned out. Down to all the details, including a gift for every course of our dinner. Dessert's gift was me opening up a card with a magazine picture of a ring in it. Jason promised me that when our house sold, I would get a new ring and he had picked it out. Well, the house selling was long it coming and once it finally did happen, I didn't even think about the ring because we had lost so much money on our sale. But without me knowing it, Jason snuck my old ring out of the house and traded it in on my new one. It is absolutely beautiful!! (By the way, he had the stone from my old ring made into a purity ring for Charise when she gets older -- is he thoughtful or what?)



Cameron concentrating on his lego creations! - - It's all he has been doing since Christmas - we are trying to pace him and only let him do one set a day!

Cameoron and I goofing around!

Cameron and Papaw

Santa was there too...made out of legos of course!

The lego man

Details

Don't you think love is in the details? I love all the little details around our house. I love for people to look around and find little things that they did not see at first. Since you can't actually walk around our house and look yourself, I thought I would point them out for you.

Details of the tree

Garland Details

Tree topper

tree #2 details

Glittery bird

Dining Table Centerpiece

Tree # 2 details

Little vignette in the living room

Metal apothecary jar with Christmas bulbs

Stairway details

I pray you all have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow. Enjoy every moment with your friends and family. Stop and take time to enjoy the "details."

Just a little side note, Jason is doing much better. For the first time today he was able to get out of bed with minimal help. Woo hoo!!! He still can only stand and lay down - - no sitting allowed, but thankfully, he is on the mend.

Snow + Desert = Ice (not good!)

Remember that post two days ago where we were marveling at the snow and enjoying the change of pace here and enjoying out little bit of a White Christmas? Well when you live in the desert, the snow is bound to melt quickly - - and it did. But the temperatures went down during the night and of course it then turned into ice. Usually not a big deal, but when you have lived almost 3 years without experiencing ice or snow, you forget that you need to be cautious when walking outside. Jason, being the kind sweet husband that he is went out yesterday morning to pull the van around to the front to take the little one to school. Not knowing that there was any ice on our front step, he went walking out and just like in the movies, he slipped, his feet went into the air and he came down with his back landing directly on the cement steps. We had a quick change of plans as he laid on the sidewalk unable to move. Somehow we got him into the house, I ran the girls to school quick and came back home. We were all still in our pjs except for Jason who had just come home from the gym, so Cameron and I changed out clothes quickly - - Cameron went over to the neighbors house and I got Jason loaded into the back of the van and took him to the ER. Six hours later we found out that Jason has two fractured vertebrae. So, my Christmas decorating has had a new addition.... Jason is now sleeping on the ottoman / fold out bed in the living room. All he is allowed to do is lay flat on his back and get up to use the bathroom. Although it is going to make for an interesting Christmas, I am so thankful that he is going to be ok. It could have been so much worse and with time and patience (and if you know my husband, you will know how hard that patience thing is going to be) and a lot of physical therapy he will be back to himself in a couple of months. As you think of our family, please pray for Jason and a speedy recovery.

Kimba, over at A Soft Place to Land is having a holiday party. I thought I would join in the fun since I just got finished with our real life tour of homes! To check it out, you have to look both here and here! Enjoy!!