Christmas at Granddaddy and Honey's!

I have a few posts that I want to do over the next few days that will show all of the excitement we have had over the past few days. First, I wanted to show the Christmas decor at Granddaddy and Honey's house! Their home was so pretty this year, that it just needs its own post!! Please enjoy!!

This is the kitchen chandelier and table. The chandelier was filled with garland, red and white skinny mesh, sparkly sticks and such, fun ornaments, and it just looks like something out of a magazine! The table, OMGosh, the table, was filled up with all sorts of yummy deserts. Honestly, you could not even see the table, the only way you know it was a table was because of the chairs that surrounded it! I just love the idea that Honey got for the centerpieces. She bought Styrofoam balls and bunches of red roses from Hobby Lobby and we cut off the stems and stuck them into the balls. They are propped up on glass jars of candy- such a creative girl she is!
Okay yal! This tree is the Mardi Gras tree! It has everything from umbrellas, beads, and feathers. This tree will get to stay up until February! This is in the sun room of my parents house.
These pictures really do not do the tree or wreath for this room justice!

Yes, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care! All 8 of them. We were discussing how are we going to fit a 9th one up there for Brayden next year, or if one of the brothas get married next year! The picture of Santa above the mantle has everyone in the family's name written somewhere. Mixed in with the garland are special Santas that have been given to my momma and daddy over the years. Some were from my MamMaw and PapPaw, one from my Moss, even one from my great grandmother Mimi.
This is the main Christmas tree in the living room of their home. It is filled with old things my siblings and I made in school or at church over the years and ornaments with sentimental meanings. It seems every ornament on the tree has a story. All of the things around the bottom of the tree are a working train set that goes round and round and old toys that we have grown up with . Notice the Minnie and Mickey, Eore, Old Muppet Babies, a rocking horse, and every Christmas book we have ever owned. Sophia has definitely loved playing with all of these fun things when we go to visit.

Now, this idea is too fun! A Christmas card tree. Every card that is received goes into this tree. The tree is wrapped with a red metal card holder and it has slots for cards/ notes. I love this idea and I hope to be able to do this next year at our home!

This is the dining room. Normally, my momma does and angel tree, but this year, she decided to do a memory tree on her buffet. It has photos of family. The table is decorated with old photographs, crystal bowls filled with ornaments, and her Fitz and Floyd Santa's.

The only tree that did not get photographed was the tree my sister put upstairs. I could not make it up there without having contractions so I had to stay based downstairs. The tree, I am sure was equally as wonderful as the downstairs is. It would be filled with red and green color mesh, every Disney character ornament known to man, and any special place Katie had ever visited (like the Rockettes, we saw them in Branson at Christmas one year)!

Seriously, every time we go over there, this is what our face looks like....

Amazing!!

Stay tuned! We did a lot of celebrating over the past few days. Fun times with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles! Hope that you have all had a Merry Christmas.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Caryn

Our Home For the Holidays

Welcome to our home!

Come on in!

This is our entry.

I have small touches of Christmas on our bookshelf.

Here is our mantle! Notice the huge hole on top, we are planning on mounting our t.v, which sits to the left above the mantle. For now, it sits on a end table with a baby gate in front of it! (Sophia loves to touch it and Chip loves to try to attack it when he sees an animal.)

This is our tree. The top half is all breakable ornaments, and the bottom half of the tree is Sophia proof! She just walks up and jerks things off, the girl loves the ornaments!
Notice all of the presents, we have an unwrapper in our midst.
This is the hutch. It is filled with my Dickens Village. These little light up houses are so precious to me. They were my MamMaw's. I can remember unpacking this village with her and placing them on her furniture and piano. Then after Christmas, PapPaw and I would pack them all up (he did not love this job at all, but it was a bonding experience!). After she passed away, my BugEye, PapPaw, said I could have them.

This is our nativity. It was given to me by my Aunt Vivian.

This is the kitchen table area. I tried very hard to be creative with the chandelier, and I just LOVE IT!

Okay yal, now nothing says Christmas like a tree full a chickens!

I am a collector, just love them!This is the tree in Lovey's room!

Hope that yal enjoy!

How do you decorate at your home? Do you go Christmas crazy or are you laid back with your decorations??

Hope you have all had a great weekend, only 6 more days!

Caryn

My Visit With Santa Claus!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas to You!!

This morning my daddy and mommy took me to visit with Santa Claus!

What an exciting morning I have had.

I have been looking forward to this moment for about a month! I have been listening to songs about him. Reading some of his books. I have been watching some of his movies too! I have learned how to say his name and ho, ho, ho! I say it all of the time!! At my Honey and Granddaddy's house, they even have some Santas that dance and sing with me. This guy just seems so super fantastic! He is happy (and I am happy), he has a sack full of toys (I totally love toys, and he likes cookies (and I love cookies)! He also looks nice in his red suit (one of my favorite colors)! Needless to say, this guy is tops in my book! So, here are some pictures that my mom (A.K.A. the paparazzi) took of my meet and greet (she is so embarrassing!!)

So here it was. This is me at the entrance to Santa heaven!

I stared at him and waved, he even waved back to me! Check out my dress, I wore my candy cane stripe dress with my sparkle red shoes. I even let my mommy do my hair and brush my teeth really good! (A girl always needs good hair and fresh breath!)

You can almost see my heart just jump out of my chest! This Santa guy is the coolest!

He gave me another glance, and I was off! I walked right up to the man! Then I stopped just to check him out one last time. Seems alright!

My daddy stayed close by! I think that he wanted to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas too!

My daddy picked me up and just handed me over to Santa! He had a nice beard and a beautiful red suit! I thought he was really nice. Then it happened, my mommy started with the flashing lights and saying show me your teeth! Embarrassing! I totally froze up! I turned into a mouth breather!

Why did I not smile? Oh-well! My mommy and daddy still say this is the most precious picture ever! They already have it on the refrigerator! I just keep walking by it and saying Santa!

What a great way to start the day!

Love yal!

Sophia

(and Mommy, she had to type this out for me)

Pine Cones, Red Feathers, Twigs and Berries, O-MY!

Just thought I would show the latest, and probably last decorating project of the year. These wreaths, swags, doors, and trees sure keep a prego momma busy! Enjoy!

This may look pretty out of the box, but it turned out so beautifully. This sweet lady wanted two swags (one for each 10 foot iron front door, YIKES)! She wanted to incorporate silver and red, pine cones, red feathers, twigs, bells, and three different ribbons. Sounds different, but it came together! I know you cannot tell much by the photo above (the swags are laying next to each other on my kitchen table).....so here is the big reveal............!

Voila!

Before I left, I put the red mesh bows on the topiarys out front!

So do yal Christmas up your front doors with wreaths, trees, blow up stuff, ect.? I think tomorrow I will do a post on all of the Christmas decor at the Foresee home. I would Love Love Love to see yals, I am looking for ways to jazz up our decorating for next year!

Are you ready for Christmas, can you believe it is next week? Don't forget the reason for the season, Happy Birthday to my sweet Jesus!!

Have a great day friends!

Love yal!

Caryn

16 Months Friends!

My sweet girl is 16 months old!

This might be her new favorite t-shirt, she was so proud to pose this morning in front of the tree with her Elmo tee! She loves this guy!

In the past few weeks, Sophia has been keeping me and her daddy very busy.

Her stats have not changed too much from the last update

25ish pounds

size 4 diaper

wearing size 5 shoe (still loving her cowgirl boots, but her new Christmas shoes may beat those out. She likes to wear these and say oooo!)

she is wearing 18/24 month clothing

Food is definitely her friend. I feel like she eats too much chicken, but when you like a food I guess ya just have to go with it. She is really liking this yogurt that has Dora the Explorer on the package. This is totally my child, she loves a cookie (who doesn't). Still not a fan of milk, but o-well, maybe one day she will like it!

Sophia loves to try and eat with her spoon and fork, and is getting very good at it. She does not throw too much to Chip anymore (which I am so glad about that)!

New words: Santa, hot, she is calling the Hogs!!!, uh-o

Enjoys the television now: she is only allowed the 9 am Sesame Street (thus the Elmo love), and she will watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She will watch Dora for a split second. With all of these Christmas movies coming on she likes to watch for a moment, see Santa and then she is off to play!

We still love books, although she ripped the paper out of one yesterday and I was completely horrified. I let her know we do not eat books, burn books, or tear books in this house, we Read books! She looked at me like I am crazy!

She still likes to brush her teeth and now wants to brush her hair. She has recently realized that brushing my mop is lots of fun and turns very big! This makes her laugh!

She is really fun to watch play with her babies. Sophia has started carrying them around and patting them. I even have seen her try to give bottles and spoon feed. It is just precious. Sometimes, she will lay their head on the couch pillows and put her face right next to them. This warms my heart, I am teaching her to be a mommy. Another toy she likes to play with is the school bus, she will run it all over the house.

Her sleeping is still crazy. Sometimes there is a nap sometimes there is not! Sometimes she will sleep until 8 something sometimes 630. Then there are times where 9pm is bedtime and then there are the nights when she will stay awake until 11ish!

New tricks: opening all of the doors in the house! we have to constantly keep them locked (refer to previous post if you are new to this family blog). She is also into taking everything off of shelves.

We are so in love with this girl!

I am one lucky momma!

Caryn

Unbelievable!

Yes! The title of this post is UNBELIEVABLE!

Have you ever just had one of those days where you really thought about just going back and crawling into your bed? Well, this past Friday was one of those mornings. Now, that it is Monday, I can totally look back on that day and laugh about it, but trust me, Friday, I was in no laughing mode!

Let me set you up for the story.

The time is 7:45 a.m..

Aron is already at work.

I am not really getting any sleep (for weeks)! Seriously, I wake up from a deep sleep to pee, it is only 11:30p.m., I come back to bed only to find that Aron is in an even deeper coma than I can ever be in (snoring loudly, almost like an animal), then he is a tosser/ toucher. At this point in the pregnancy, I do not want anyone to breath on me (it will only make me hot!, yuck!)

Sweetie Pie has learned to open all of the doors in our house (we have door handles, not knobs). This new trick of hers has us constantly leaving all doors locked, at all times! She is such a little genius, she makes me proud.

Did I mention, there is only 1, yes 1, key to our house. Did I also mention that my husband is the person that has this 1 key on his key ring?

At 7:45 a.m., I must let you know that I am looking a little (okay, very) rough. I know some of you mommas out there wake up with minty fresh breath, hair looking perfect, beautiful amazing sun kissed skin, your matching Victoria's Secret pajamas. I know! I wake up still have sleep in my eyes, probably some reminance of drool on my cheek, fudge on my teeth (because sometimes you just need a bite of fudge in the middle of the night), my pajamas do not fit (and have not for some time (the ones I wore that night were given to me when I got married (don't let your mind wander, it was just a comfy set of pjs that looked like a spaghetti strapped dress (but with my mismatched shaped bubbies and belly, it is not so attractive), pair this with my super old royal blue sweat pants and comfy house slipper wool boots!

I have to pee, again.

The temperature is 23 (this is not a typo, 23)

Okay, so, have yal got a picture yet of what is about to happen, let me fill you in.

So, Lovey just woke up. I have changed the smelliest diaper EVER! (how does something so precious and sweet smell so yuckers sometimes?) I throw the diaper away, wash hands, and go to retrieve a cup from the cabinet. My Lovey needs a drink. I pour her some juice then start to pull out the Eggos for breakfast.

For some odd reason, I am holding my cell phone and I walk into the garage. I have to go out there because I need to get the highchair. Yes, we keep the highchair in the garage when it is not in use (Sophia likes to climb on it as if it is some sort of jungle gym, so the garage it goes). I walk out, shut the door (I do not want her to come out there and freeze). I turn back dragging the chair, reach for the handle, and wah-wah! UNBELIEVABLE! The door is so locked!

I begin to panic! Sophia is already at the door knocking because I would not let her come out. I begin to yell, unlock the door honey! Open the door for mommy! Honey, it is okay! Just open the door! (What do I think she is a junior high student? She is 16 months old!) I start crying and then caressing the door saying mommy is right here! She is crying, and it is killing me! Will I ever see my precious again!

Then I realize, I have my phone! I call Aron in a panic! COME HOME NOW! I AM LOCKED OUT OF THE HOUSE! Pretty much blaming him for the problem and that he in 4 years has never made copies of the keys. Aron, oh, sweet Aron. Always calm. I will be there in just a second, it is okay. I am still freaking out! Saying, "she is all alone, with the dog (who is not a fan of hers). The bathroom door is open, what if she goes and gets in the toilet (I know I have not cleaned it in weeks). OMG, the thoughts that were running through my head! I hang up the phone, Aron will save the day shortly.

Well, I am still leaning up against the door (and I am frozen, I realize I am wearing next to, well not enough!) I am still reassuring Sophia all will be okay, don't cry! She is silent.

I call Aron again, it has only been 2 minutes! Where are you??? I am driving right down the street. Amazing! He is like Superman, there in a flash!

I hit the garage door opener and realize that my husband is not alone. He is with a group of men, in a huge bucket truck. I look down at myself (still caressing the door), and literally felt myself dying. Have you ever felt like time stopped, like in those 80s movies, well that is what was happening at that very moment. I was dying a slow death. Aron jumps out of this truck jogs to the house, looks at me, smiles, unlocks the door and then gives me the key. He says, "just in case you need this, here."

I jumped into the kitchen grabbed onto Lover girl, who had pulled my purse off of the counter and had thrown my credit cards all about the floor. The dog that hates her, sitting nicely beside her. They were fine, without me. I am such a nut!

Aron, my hero.

Needless to say:

1. Always make sure you have a key hidden somewhere outside of your home, just in case.

2. Make sure that once you rise from bed, even if it is 100 degrees out, put on some clothes, or pants and a long sleeve, and maybe a scarf and a bra!!!

3. Get hooked up with a cell phone! What did people do without them before?

After this, I took my girl for a Chick-fila biscuit, then we went to Honey's house for the rest of the day.

It was just one of those days. I wanted to crawl back into bed, but I did not have a way to get into the house. I hope if you are having a rough day today that this story makes you chuckle just a little bit. Know that tomorrow will be better!

Love you all!

Caryn

And, Another One Bites the Dust!

I wanted you to all say "hello" to my newest addition! Yes! I do not know how I forgot to mention that we will be taking in a new member to our home!

No, it is not Brayden, he will not be here until the end of January.

This is Stan-the BIG MAN of the Forest.

Or he was until his most unfortunate demise.

Here he is, my rough and tough hunter!

My evil kinevil of the woods!

My terminator hiding in the trees!

The early morning terror to all things furry!

Can yal feel the happiness?

Friends, I am running outta wall space. He may just have to only hang onto the antlers. If I put another deer on our walls, we may not have any room for pictures of our precious Brayden Samuel!!

To all of my friends who are big supporters of PETA, I am so sorry about this post.

Love yal!

Caryn