Christmas Card

So I know I'm a LOT little premature on this whole Christmas card thing but I was SO excited and loved out it turned out so I already had it printed up and I already have them all addressed and ready to go. I of course will not be sending them out until next weekend.


So, what do you think of it? I LOVE designing cards/invites/announcements. Its quickly becoming a passion of mine!

I designed another card for one of my besties but I need to ask her first before I post it on my blog, its SUPER cute as well, not your typical Christmas card!

Hope everyone is having a great week, its half over already! I'm looking SOOO forward to next week only being a 2 day work week and a 5 day weekend. Full of time with family and friends, can't hardly wait!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Are you feeling guilty about silly things you've done recently? Or things you haven't done because you're slacking around the house or just being plain lazy? You're NOT? Good, me neither!

This past weekend I did NOT spend both weekend nights away from home, nope NOT me! I would NOT leave my kiddos two nights in a row to get some much needed girl time Friday night and then another much needed date night with my husband Saturday night.

I am NOT overwhelmed with anxiety as I get ready for the holiday open house that I've been constantly thinking about it, nope NOT me! I am NOT having a hard time trying to decide how much inventory I should make/bring to the open house, yikes!

My children have NOT been coughing like crazy and are probably NOT getting the typical first of the winter, cold and cough.

I have NOT already been plotting my Black Friday shopping adventure even though the ads aren't even out. I'm NOT super excited about going already either!

The laundry in our house is NOT piled a mile high and needs to be washed, dried and put away. Nope NOT my house! I am home each and every day and would NOT get behind on laundry because I despise it like no other!

So what have you NOT been up to recently? Don't be shy, give it a try!

Baby Shower

Today I hosted a wonderful baby shower for a good friend of mine, Katie. My friend Stacey helped me and I think we did a great job and Katie had a fabulous time! The cake turned out awesome and I couldn't have been more thrilled. One of my best friends, father in law makes cakes for fun and he is SO good at it, he totally needs to do it as a side job! Here are a few pictures from the day. Katie got lots of stuff that I'm sure she'll put to good use! Hope you had a great day Katie, love ya!

The invite that I made, turned out pretty cute!

Some of the table decor (pardon the red checkered table in the back, we didn't want to move it)

More of the table decor

The WONDERFUL cake that my friends FIL made, so good! Katie's nursery theme is an animal print in black, white and some tan. She is accenting the room with a soft baby pink and its SO cute!

The 2 Grandma's to be and the mommy to be, Katie

'Bye Bye Tummy, Hello Mommy'

Opening gifts

The girls! Me, Katie and Stacey. Thanks again for all the help Stacey!

Family Room Mini-Makeover and a Sneak Peek

So a few months ago I gave our family room in the basement a small makeover. With out purchasing anything new and just using random decor I already had and changing out pictures, making them into black and whites, etc... This is how it looked for the past 2 years and I was over the 'sports theme'. Hubby gave me the go ahead to change it up a bit so I did, but I wasn't 100% happy with it but haven't wanted to spend a lot of money to re-do the room again so I've just made it work.

Last week I saw an AWESOME piece of art work I just HAD to have from Bed, Bath and Beyond so I'd been stewing over it for a week. I knew I wanted to purchase it for the basement, but wasn't sure it was a necessity. Well Gerrad gave me the OK so last night we went and bought it, and I even had a coupon for 15% off, WHOO HOO!! Here is the piece on Bed, Bath and Beyonds website if you want to check it out!

So here is the room before with just pictures as wall decoration.


The trash can in the upper right corner still needs to go, its a Tampa Bay Buccaneers trash can, left over from the sports motif



And here are the after pictures. Not a HUGE difference or anything obviously, but I wanted to change around the existing pictures so I put our wedding pics and my bouquet on this wall instead.

I moved most of the pictures to this wall instead, I'm not sure if I like them there but maybe they'll grow on me.

Here is the new piece of art work that we bought, I LOVE it!

I took the pillows off our bed and brought them downstairs to put on the couch to spruce it up a bit. There's only so much you can do without painting the room to make it look completely different. I did NOT feel like painting!

So not a HUGE difference like I said, but I needed a small change on the wall above the couch, whew!

Here is a sneak peek of the Christmas tree that I put in the kitchen today. I forgot to buy a topper for it so I'm borrowing one of Addaline's hair bows for the time being (tacky I know), I also still need to get a tree skirt for it as well.

During nap time today I'm going to be working on our main tree, wish me luck!! I'll post pictures when I'm all finished with it!

'Tis the Season

You may or may not already know this about me, but Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year! I love decorating the house and getting out all my Snowmen themed items, of course you HAVE to know that I would have a theme right?! I got a small tree this year from my mom that I am going to put in the kitchen and decorate with red ornaments and green ribbon to match my kitchen. I'm thinking of putting everything up within the next few days/week. I know its not even Thanksgiving yet but the longer my decorations are out, the more we get to enjoy them =)

I have been using the same ornaments on our tree for the past 7 years so I think its time for some new ones, I just can't decide what color I want for our main tree? I did however get some funky ribbon to put on the tree that I'm super excited about! I also want to get the girls a small pink tree to share and decorate themselves so that's on the agenda for the next few days as well. I have the spot all cleared in our family room for the Christmas tree, we just need to put it up. Our goal is to hang the outside lights this weekend if my husband would stop picking up leaves for one stinkin' day it doesn't rain.

How early do you decorate for Christmas? I've had lots of people tell me I'm decorating too early and its 'customary' to wait until the day after Thanksgiving, but its MY house and MY decorations so there ;) Our family loves Christmas so this just gives us a few extra weeks to enjoy them. Plus Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away!

I also have to brag on my hubby real quick because I just adore that he is so darn handy! He whipped me up a ribbon holder this weekend after hearing me complain about my ribbon living in a Hobby Lobby bag, and that I was tired of digging through the bag to find one roll of ribbon. Here is the finished product. He asked if I wanted him to stain it and make it look nice, but I think it looks great just how it is! Thanks again babe!

Carousel and Boo at the Zoo

The weekend before last we had our nieces 2nd birthday at the carousel at our local park. It was a great time and the kids had a BLAST. I think Addaline rode the carousel probably 10 times, all I heard out of that girls mouth the whole party was 'Again, AGAIN'. Too cute! That same morning was an event called Boo at the Zoo, the kids get to trick'or'treat around the zoo while wearing their costumes, SO fun!

The girls riding the carousel

Macie striking a pose

Gerrad and Addaline on the carousel

'Mommy this is SO much fun :)'

Addaline striking a post like her big sister

The Besties! Addaline and Emma at Boo at the Zoo, Super Girl and the Ballerina

Super Girl taking a break from trick-or-treating to take a picture

The future pre-arranged marriages Super Girl and Yoda will one day wed and Bat Girl and Anakin Skywalker will also one day get hitched!

Chester Cheetah and Bat Girl aka Macie

Lately

What have the Hall's been up to lately? Does it seem like I've been M.I.A forever? I feel like I have, totally out of the blogging world loop for numerous reasons. The past few weeks seem like such a whirlwind I can't even believe it. Here's what we've been up to in our household in short version. I'm charging my camera as I type so I can get the 100+ pictures loaded up that I've been snapping the past few weekends as well, whew!

*I've helped throw or single handedly thrown two baby showers in 2 weekends, have I told you all how much I LOVE party planning before? I'm pretty sure I have!

*We've been Trick'or'Treating 2 or 3 times in the past 2 weekends at various locations and boy do we have a RIDICULOUS amount of candy. So much so that I'm plotting a way to throw half of it, or more away just to get it out of my sight. Most of you who know me in real life, know I'm super particular about what my kiddos eat and there is NO way in the world I will ever let them eat all this candy. Here's a picture I snapped with my cell phone so you could see just how ridiculous it is! Addaline's bag of candy is inside Macie's bag of candy for space saving purposes... seriously this candy is going to be in my life for the next 10 years, ha ha!

*I signed Macie up to play on a volleyball team and she begins practice tomorrow evening. We're super pumped to see our little star shine and can't wait until her first game, trust me I'll take TONS of pictures. She's also been super busy with the Nutcracker practices that have been occupying ALL of our weekends. Practice makes perfect right?

*I've been trying really hard to make up a small stock pile of hair bows to sell at the Open House event I blogged about previously. I've also been busy designing and receiving some SUPER cute business cards in the mail for the event, and to also pass out to people when they pick up their orders or to friends and family trying to get the word out.


*I've also been dealing with a loss... the loss of my Aunt Sandy who had been suffering with colon cancer. Her and my mom had been coming to my family's church recently and it was always so good to see her face on Sunday mornings. She was such a fiesty woman who had many passions in life and loved to joke around and laugh. Her memorial service yesterday was so emotional but at the same time such a joy to celebrate and reminisce about her life and actually laugh a little. My mom, Sandy, their other sister Pat and brother Mike lost a brother Sam to colon cancer back in 2001 as well. For me, this one hit closer to home as I am 8 years older and truly realize the loss and the complete and utter heart break it has brought to my mom's life. She and Sandy had formed an amazing bond lately and I truly think my mom is lost and really struggling inside, although she is putting up a decent front on the outside. My mom was the one who took Sandy to every single chemotherapy appointment and sat by her side the entire time, took her to most every Dr's appointment and held her hand when the news wasn't always what they wanted to hear, cried with her when hospice was called in and she was told they were going to discontinue chemo, and so many more instances. I sat there yesterday looking at my mom and her sister Pat embrace most of the service and just sob together.... it made my mind go places I didn't want it to. I started thinking how I never wanted my daughters to feel a loss like that, how I never wanted them to lose Gerrad and I, but more so each other. I can't protect from every hurt in life and its emotional to think about. All I can do is be there for my mom in the coming days, weeks, months, years; but I can't bring back the sister that she lost and that's tough.

*We've gone from one holiday to another in the same weekend. Halloween Saturday evening and then pictures with Santa Sunday after church.

So that's what we've been up to lately. Parties and laughs, Holidays, and Grief... you name it we've done it!

Gerrad and I are slowly trying to plan a small vacation somewhere in the next few months for just a few days, possibly a Wednesday or Thursday to Sunday kind of trip. We're thinking Chicago or New York but are definitely open to any suggestions you readers may have??? We want it to be a kid friendly destination so we can take the girls to do fun things each day.

When my camera is done charging and I get all the pictures of what we've been up to lately uploaded, I'll post again!