Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Not only do we have our living room almost complete and put back together, we also decorated for Christmas today!  I love this time of year...snowman, Santa, stockings by the fire place, and of course, our Christmas tree!

So first,  the long awaited living room renovation pictures!

Before:

After:

Getting rid of the panel wall makes such a huge difference and I love it!  The room just feels so much more cozy now! 

Now for the rest of the living room...

Love the cube storage for the kids toys

We finally added drapery to our window!

Our picture wall

You can tell that I love family pictures!

Back wall..and the picture that you can see on the right in the doorway will go above the kids cube storage.

We just have a few more touches to add and then we will be all finished!  So exciting! 

Since I am showing you our home improvements, I will add that we put up these drapes in our kitchen  several weeks ago and I also love them!

I look back now and think how bare our windows once were! 

The kids were such big helpers tonight and did a great job decorating!  This wouldn't be a Christmas post if I didn't add a picture of the kids next to their beautifully decorated Christmas Tree! 

And I can't forget the mistletoe...

I already received many kisses tonight already :)

The new Mr. and Mrs. Wallin

What an amazing weekend we had being able to share in my best friend's wedding!  Jenna was definitely the most beautiful bride!  I informed everyone that I have never cried at a wedding but this was one that brought tears to my eyes as she was walking down the isle!

 Jenna and I have been friend's for ever.  We grew up together and would hang out occasionally in grade school and high school but it was right after we graduated when Jenna and I became close friends.  It was at her house that Bryan and I had our first kiss and I'm pretty sure that she invited us both over knowing the end result would be that Bryan and I would become a couple!  And I thank her for that.  Jenna was there for our special wedding day and I'm so happy that I was able to be apart of her special day!  Jenna has been there for Bryan and I through our up's and down's and I always remember her telling me, " I was there when you said I do, for better or worse, so you are in this forever."  And when Jenna calls me to vent through the up's and down's of marriage (which is guaranteed to eventually happen), I, too, will be prepared to remind Jenna that I was there for her special day and its for better or worse."

Bryleigh was the flower girl and although we feared for the worst since the ceremony was right in the middle of nap time, she did great!  Although the teddy graham bribery tactic didn't work as well as planed because in order to avoid a major meltdown, she carried her little ziplock bag full of crackers down the isle instead of holding Landon and Carson's hands!  It was cute and everyone laughed so no big deal!

My mom was such a saint this weekend for watching the kids for us!  She took Christian and Bryleigh back to our house for a nap while Bryan and I went limo cruising until the reception.  The dinner, cake, flowers, venue, were all beautiful!  I caught myself thinking several times, "I wish I could go back and re plan our wedding!" I even danced at the wedding, and if you know me, you know that I do not dance!  I was even able to stay awake til almost 2am both Friday and Saturday nights, which was nothing compared to the rest of the wedding party who finally hit the pillow at 4am. Boy, am I getting old!  I'm sure hurting for that today though! 

Tasha, Maid of Honor

Tasha and her hubby, Nate

Lesley and I

I only have a few photos because as I pulled out my camera (as I usually do for everything)  Jenna informed me, "That is why we have a photographer, Kallie!"  So I had to listen to the bride and only snuck a couple photos here and there.  I can't wait to see how the professional pictures turned out because they sure took some cute ones!  Christian looked like a little stud muffin also but I don't have any pictures on my camera which I am bummed about! I will definitely be hunting down the people that I know took pictures! 

Although Jenna and Andy came across lots of stress in the planning, everything turned out amazing!  I'm so happy for them and I wish them a lifetime of happiness!

Thanks for letting us share your special day! Can't wait to our Mexico trip with the newlyweds!

Blogiversary Thanksgiving

I have officially been blogging for one year today!  Now that is something to add to my list of things I am thankful for!  I love that I can look back and know exactly what our family has been doing for the past year.  I started this blog not completely confident that I would be able or willing to continue with it, but I'm so happy that I have.

Now some things that I continue to be thankful for each and every day:

My family:  I don't know what I would do without the support of my wonderful husband and stay at home daddy to our 2 beautiful children.   I love him dearly and I'm so thankful for our almost 5 years of marriage together!  We have come so far in our relationship and matured to become the strong couple that we are today!  Love you babe.

My Job:  I love that I get to work part time with great people even though stress may get the best of me at times,  I love the challenge of my job. Most importantly, I love that I am able to be home with my kids part time also!

My Home:  I love our house!  We continue to make our house feel like home year after year!  We are almost complete with our living room wall improvements and I'm so excited to see the finished product.

My relationship with God:  I love that I continue to grow in my faith day after day.  I am also thankful that Christian is able to attend our church 4K program and learn about Jesus also!

"My heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever." ---Psalm 30:12

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers to the weekend!

It has been one heck of a long week and its only Wednesday!  Phewww!   I don't think I could even begin to explain how stressful work has been lately.  I'm so excited that it is finally Thanksgiving/Wedding Weekend fun time :)  I'm pretty sure its going to take me till tomorrow afternoon to stop thinking about work but I'm going to try my hardest to forget it all for now. 

I'm so excited to spend time with the family tomorrow!  And of course, we can't forget how much I love the food also!  Another thing that I am so excited about...

Hallmark has their singing snowman back again this year!  My wonderful mother in law got me hooked on these and now I have to get them every year!  And they are a hit with the kids also.  I had went into Hallmark several weeks ago and all they had was a singing snoopy and I didn't want that.  So I will definitely be going to purchase this soon! 

I had a great evening at church and I'm very thankful that the kids behaved fairly well!  We only had 1 melt down between both kids :)  And Bryleigh looked beautiful for the occasion!

We tried on Bryleigh's flower girl dress this evening and she was gorgeous!  I can't wait until Saturday!  She is going to make one super cute flower girl :) Now off to get some cuddle time in with the hubby. 

Mission Accomplished

My goals this past weekend were to get my bathrooms cleaned, laundry caught up, grocery shopping done, and tutu orders completed. And I'm feeling pretty accomplished today because I was able to that and even get some extras done. It was nice to stay home basically all weekend because it seems these days we are so busy and never do. 

On Friday and Sunday, we spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa!  Our usual weekend visits!



On Saturday, I finished up my Kansas Jayhawks tutu and matching Korker Bows order!  It turned out too cute! 





On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at my sister's working on Bryleigh's Christmas present!  I'm so excited with how it is turning out, much cuter than I had anticipated!  Its a group project between myself, my sister, and my dad!  Here is a sneak peak...

Now you will have to wait until Christmas for the rest :)

And as I was saying,  I made my first apple pie on Saturday and although, it doesn't look very pretty, it was delicious!  I was very excited that it tasted good, because I was pretty bummed when I took it out of the oven.  I definitely learned some do's and don'ts for my next apple pie bake! 

Now for our crazy busy Thanksgiving and Wedding week ahead!

Bribery Pictures

Yes, I did it!  I couldn't help but take some pictures for future bribery reasons! I mean, who could pass up this opportunity....

Bryleigh is quite the queen of being naked these days!  I just can't seem to get her to keep her clothes on!  She says takes all her clothes off, says "potty," and then just sits on the potty for about a minute (without actually going potty), washes her hands, and then refuses to put her diaper and clothes back on.  I'm taking suggestions from those who have ideas on what to do in this situation! 

On another note, while daddy was away, Grandma invited us over for some finger painting fun!  And boy was it messy...

But the finished product turned out cute!

I'm making my first attempt at baking an apple pie right now and it smells delicious!  Now hopefully it will taste as good as it smells!

Pictures and Pizza

I had the past several days off because Thursday was picture day at Christian's school and the company that they go through allows for siblings to be photographed too!  I have been looking forward to this as everyone knows that I love getting the kids pictures taken!  So in order to get the right outfits on the kids and Bryleigh's hair in pigtails,  I needed to be home.  So I got the kids all ready and decided that I would take a picture of the kids before we left...

And its a good thing I did because we did not get ANY good pictures of the kids together!  Little miss independent decided she was having nothing of it.  So at least we were able to get Christian's pictures taken!  Bummer :(

Today, I went with Christian's class for their field trip to Pizza Hut!

This had to have been one of their best field trips this year!  Lots to see and touch! 

They each were able to make their own personal pizza's.  Christian even put pepperoni and sausage on his, which he never eats. 

 And he actually ate it too!

They read stories and sang songs while their pizza cooked! 

Us chaperones were able to eat pizza too!  Yumm!  It was a  lot of fun! 

Now time to spend the weekend with the kiddos while the hubby is out to play for a Bachelor Party!  Got lots to do...order our Christmas cards, finish some tutu and hairbow orders, and clean!