It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Tomorrow is December 1st...can you believe it!?  I love seeing how people decorate for the Holidays.  I'll share my decor.

We got started putting up our Christmas decor the day after Thanksgiving.  I used all that we had the last few years but added just a couple new things.

Here is how I decorated my "mantle" shelves.  I love my shelves :)

I went with a more muted white/cream theme with a few pops of the traditional Christmas greens and reds

I had everything from previous years but felt I needed something along the "Believe" blocks so I bought this garland at Hobby Lobby.  All their Christmas is 50% off this week!  Here's a close up.  I love the crystal-y winter look and love how it completes that shelf.  I then traded out my usual small wreath on the holder to the right of the "Believe" blocks with just a cute red berry one from Micheals (also 50% off).

I felt we needed a wreath on our front door.  I have been sort of looking around as I am in stores but I am not particularly fond of the traditional Christmas tree wreath look for my house.  As I was at Micheals shopping for other things, I ran across this one and had to take it home! It was exactly what I was looking for!  It may not look all that cute against an orange door but it is what it is :)

And a close up...I love close up shots :)  I love the blue beads and clear crystals in this and love how it's all glittered and frosted.

Here is our sad little Christmas tree.  We have had it since our first year married so about 4 years now and it's starting to fall apart.  It actually has been a good little tree.  I think we bought it for like 35 bucks at Target and it has served us well.  Next year we are thinking we will retire this little guy.

I love this Advent calendar I made with my MIL and SIL's last year...or was it two years ago??  It's in an old vintage Coca Cola crate.  Love.

We are almost done Christmas shopping!  I didn't hit my goal, to be completely finished by December 1st but what can you do?  I just hope I'm not one of those out Christmas eve scrambling to finish up...

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

A Little Update About the Adults

I feel like we have had a busy couple of months lately, with moving into our new home, fairly new jobs, parenting busy-boy James, and just getting settled into our new community and church callings.

I knew owning a home would be hard work but wow, there really is a lot more to it than I expected, for example, sealing our front porch and backyard "deck" for the winter...what!? (I put quotations because I'm not sure if I'd go as far as calling it a deck per say, but we fit our grill on it comfortably and with it you can fit like two or three adults) And of course we still need to get blinds and a water softener...Okay, don't panic, we do have blinds (I guess you can call them that). They are those make-shift paper blinds that you get from Home Depot for like 5 bucks.  

At least we have privacy :)  

There are so many projects I have been wanting to do to make our home represent our style.  I also would just love to go out and buy a whole bunch of furniture to totally redo complete our family room and the same for our living room buuuut....budget.  

And then there's the daunting task of putting in a yard.

"It'll all come together in time, Rachelle...Simmer down." 

 I tell myself that on a daily basis :)

Carson has been super busy with his job and has been working long, crazy hours.  This has been a struggle for us both. I think we saw each other more when we were both going to school full time and working.  At times I feel like a single parent and often times I. Am. Exhausted.  I seriously don't know how single mama's do it everyday.  And I know there are a lot of my friends and family out there who have similar or harder situations than mine so I really can't complain.  

But really Carson likes his job aside from the crazy hours which won't last long anyway.  I am still working for a nearby clinic and am loving it!  And I am loving my most important job, being a mama to this sweet boy...crazy hair and all!

We are liking our neighborhood and ward.  I was called to teach Primary like two weeks after we moved in and currently teach the 11 year olds and really like it.  Carson is in nursery and definitely has his hands full.  We have 3 nurseries in our ward!  Ahhh

Despite being busy or overwhelmed, we are loving life and 

still have time for some fun.  

Halloween 2012

This year Halloween was so much fun!  Having kids makes it ten times more fun!

James is still pretty young to understand it all, especially the actual trick-or-treating part but he had a blast with all the Halloween decor, lighting the pumpkins, going to costume parades, parties, and dressing up in his puppy costume.

Since we are new in our area, we decided we would stick around our neighborhood this year so we could get to know some more people and also let James trick-or-treat around the cul-de-sac.  It took FOREVER! ha, I'm glad we only did our circle :)  He was way cute though.

I absolutely LOVE Halloween and plan to get way more into it with decorating now that we have a house of our own.  I did do a little decorating with my new shelves which I already previewed here.  And I also made this really fun Witch's Spell book.  It was super easy AND cheap! I got the idea from a very talented friend, thanks for letting me copy you Leslie!

Here's with all the decor around it

I also love to dress up.  This year since James adores puppies, I thought it'd be cute to see him go as one.  And of course I have to coordinate mine and Carson's costumes to go with James' so we went as veterinarians.  Plus it was easy since we have access to plenty of gear.

puppies heart sounds great

ward Halloween party

the lighting of the pumpkins

at cousin Addie's school parade

As I mentioned, James didn't get the whole trick-or-treating thing on Halloween day but we went to grandma and papa Cullimore's house for dinner the following Sunday and he saw their candy and all of the sudden had it all down.  He pointed to the candy and said, "trick or treat".  So we practiced for next year.  We went outside, he rang the doorbell, grandma answered, he said "trick or treat" and she handed him some candy from a basket.  He's ready for next year!

Now whenever he wants some candy he says, "I want trick or treat".  haha