O Christmas Tree!

Last night was the night that I've been waiting for...Christmas tree night!! The actual buying of our tree isn't all that exciting because I'm sort of a snob. We tried to go to a tree farm last year, but they only had pine trees. I NEED my frasier fir. Todd hates this because it's a lot more expensive than all the other trees, but I always tell him it's not my fault. It's how I was raised. Blame my parents. That's the kind of tree we always got, so that's the kind of tree we should keep getting. Makes perfect sense to me. So after our obligatory argument about the tree, he gives in and we go to Bomgaars, our local hardware store where they sell trees. Not quite as much fun as cutting it down ourselves, but a lot less work! Jackson was quite helpful, although it was hard to tell if there was actually a child underneath all that coat. I think I see a face somewhere in there. So this is OUR TREE! Picked it out in record time-only took about 10 minutes. Not too shabby, but you have to make these things quick when it's freaking cold outside!
And here's the after...all decorated! Again, I insist on the big, colored bulbs because that's what we had growing up. None of that matchy matchy thing for me on a Christmas tree. I like pure tacky! But it always looks so pretty and festive, at least I think so. We usually have another argument about how to put the lights up. My dad was super-anal about the lights, so every year when we would get them out, we would have to put the bulbs in the strands and then he would clip EVERY light onto the branches. Those lights weren't going anywhere. Again, that's how I learned it, so that's how I do it. Todd tends to think that is slightly insane and he just wants to throw them on the tree, which I think is really insane. Strangely enough, my sister said she and her husband have this same argument every year about the lights too. Apparently the bulbs don't fall to far from the tree....He He... Get it???
We tried to take a few pictures of ourselves, and this was the best we could do. But I think it's kinda cute. I sure love my Todd.
So, when Jackson woke up this morning, we took him out to look at the tree. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first. He sort of just stood there and looked at it for about 10 minutes. He, of course, warmed up to it as the day wore on and I've already lost one ornament. Here's to hoping the tree stays up and the rest of the ornaments make it through another year!

A little bit crafty...

Well, 50% of my goal has been accomplished. I may not be skinny, but I was crafty yesterday! Out of necessity, I made one of those plastic bag dispenser thingies. Our pantry closet was being taken over by plastic bags so it gave me an excuse to play with some of the fun fabric I got recently. It was super easy and it really only took me about 2 hours total. I'm sure I could have done it faster too, but I still have sewing issues sometimes. I need to do it more so that I remember all of the ins and outs of my machine. Seriously, I practically have to read the manual every time I want to change the bobbin thread. But I muddled my way through and was quite pleased with the way it turned out. If you want to make one, check out the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog and their projects for the month of December. This is just a close up of the pretty fabrics. Our kitchen is painted a green that's pretty close to the lighter green so I thought this would look nice, even though it's mostly going to be hidden in the closet. Sad.

I sort of feel like I've been out of the blogosphere lately so I figured I would do a little catch up. So follow me back, if you will, to two weeks ago. I celebrated my 30th birthday on the 13th. It was a week of ups and downs, but I'm thankful for another year of life. I decided to celebrate my birthday by getting some much-needed alone time. I haven't been away from Jackson for more than probably 10 hours since he's been born, so Todd let me escape to St. Louis for three whole days to shop and spend time with my friends and sis. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I didn't. Sorry. But you'll get some later. Anyway, after my three days by myself Todd and Jackson flew up to meet me and then Todd and I got some much needed alone time too. Lindsay and John watched Jacko for us and we went out to dinner and then Todd suprised me by booking our suite at The Seven Gables Inn. I call it "our" suite because it was where we stayed on our wedding night. It's a super-cute little boutique hotel in Clayton and the Master Suite is big and quaint and has a HUGE bathtub that even Todd can fit in. So that was a nice surprise. I finally managed to get the camera out and was getting a few pics of the room and then the battery died, so this was all I got, but you get the idea. This is the big four poster bed in the bedroom.And out the door of the bedroom is the living room/dining room. Seriously, a dining room! I couldn't get a picture of the fun bathroom due to the battery issues, but trust me, it really is nice.When we got back home to the OC, we had to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. We were hosting Todd's mom and brother and family at our house this year. It was my first go at making a Turkey. I called my mom the day before and asked her all of the important questions. The first thing she asked me is, "Have you bought the turkey yet?" Of course I hadn't so her suggestion: "Buy a ham, because unless it's a fresh turkey you won't get it defrosted in time." Crap. But I did a little research and we did the "quick thaw" method of defrosting it for about 12 hours in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes and it was ready to go by the time I needed it. One crisis averted. So the turkey and stuffing went off without a hitch after that, but I did make one mistake. I put the giblets on to boil to make broth and totally forgot about it and went downstairs for a while. When I came back up, all the water had boiled down and the pot was smoking like crazy and it STUNK! So we had to do some major airing out of the house before company arrived. Here is the finished project and Todd carving his first Turkey.I get really excited about having opportunities to use all of my entertaining things so I tried to make the table look all pretty. We don't usually get to entertain too much because we don't really have a dining room, so for this occasion we actually moved the table to the living room so we'd all have room to eat. Gotta love those small houses!
So that's about all the news from here really. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tagged

So I've been tagged by my friend Kelly. I'm supposed to tell you 8 random things about myself. Not sure if I can come up with that many things that are interesting, but I'll see what I can come up with. So, here goes...
1. Sometimes if I'm having trouble sleeping, I'll lay in bed on my back and put my feet in the air and balance a pillow on them and it helps me relax and then I can fall asleep.

2. I am a list person. I love making lists and I love to cross things off as I go. Sometimes I actually write something on the list that I already did just so I can cross it off. Is that cheating? I don't think so. It makes me feel productive.

3. I'm somewhat of a hoarder when it comes to stationery. I love to buy it because it's just so darn pretty, but then I have a hard time actually using it because then I won't get to look at it anymore. Sick, sick, sick...

4. I dream about having my own store someday- a stationery/paper products store- shocker!- and then I can bring my babies to work and be surrounded by all of the things that I love.

5. I'm extremely anal about balancing the checkbook. I keep all of my receipts and write them in religiously and check online to see when things go through.

6. I'm really grasping at straws here...ummm, lets see- I've never had braces.

7. I'm from Florida, the land of the freshest seafood, but I hate it. Yuck!

8. I totally get road rage. I didn't really realize it until I moved away from St. Louis to a small town. But now every time I go back to STL, I get major road rage because of all the stinking people!

Phew, that was quite tasking to think of those things. Now I'm supposed to tag eight more people. So I'm tagging:
Sarah, Vanessa, Debbie, Alina, Amy, and Allison. I know that's only six people, but I don't know that many people who blog.

The rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they are tagged, and to read your blog.

Crafty Ideas

So this is really fun! I totally am addicted to reading crafty blogs and I love finding tutorials for fun projects to try so when I saw this I was very excited. Sew, Mama, Sew! is a really neat fabric store and on their blog, they are putting up tutorials all month long of fun things to make for gift giving this Christmas. I have no idea if I'll actually get around to making any of them, but it's fun to think about at least! Check it out!

Rock N Roll

So this is what J does while I'm cooking dinner these days to keep himself occupied, while I try not to stick my head in the oven from the noise. Please, enjoy, and feel my pain.

Snapshots of life in the last few days

These are just a few of the pictures we've taken over the last couple of days. I'm always amazed at all of the photo opportunities provided by a toddler. Grandma YaYa made Jackson a church bag that has tractors on it. He really likes to put his toys in it and carry it around. Todd always gets a little wierded out when Jacko carries it around the house because he puts it over his forearm and carries it just like a girl would carry her purse. He was really thrilled that I took this picture for just that reason.
The other evening after dinner (Jackson got really messy, hence the sans clothing look), Todd and I were in the kitchen doing dishes and Jackson was playing in the other room. I guess J decided he wanted to be where all the action was, so he brought a pillow in from the living room couch and proceeded to watch us doing the dishes...
From his lovely lounging spot on the floor. Must be nice to be too little to help with dishes yet.