Christmas recap

I'm already falling off the my resolution wagon by not blogging as much as I wanted to. Oops! Can we pretend that New Year's is this weekend? After all, I didn't even enjoy the bottle of champagne we got. Do over please!

This Christmas was so very fun and tiring for me. I decorated the house for in laws to come over for dinner on Christmas Eve. I may have went a little overboard planning the menu for someone who has a 10-month old: a roast (we didn't have a a roasting pan; had to buy that); honey pumpkin crescent rolls with honey butter (yikes, those took all morning; who makes bread for the first time when they have so many other things to do? apparently I do. They turned out fabulous though); green bean casserole (OK, this was Jonathan's item, but I still had to watch the baby while he made it). We had wine and sangria. There was fondu and carrot cake. I hung ornaments from the chandelier and tied ribbon to the napkin holders. Red chargers were in place. The list goes on and on. I'm not kidding. It was the fanciest and most lavish dinner I've ever tried to put together. Can't wait to do it again next year! I better start planning now.

Christmas Day was a whirlwind. I wish I would have savored it more. Drank in Vincent's reaction to all the hoopla. Taken more pictures. Savor: That's my word for this year. Savor. Like a glass of really good wine or a piece of chocolate. That feeling of the last five minutes before you have to get out of bed. I'm always trying to be one step ahead and it sucks all the fun out of it.

Oh, and I managed to find the time to sew monogrammed stockings for Jonathan, Vincent, and I. First project out of the sewing gate. It wouldn't be me if it weren't challenging.

We have our party clothes on!

Perhaps we need a bigger tree for family portraits. One we don't completely block. 

A little better.

Vincent and Grandpa Al. Notice the stockings in the background. That was the only picture I seem to have taken with my good camera. Love that the Boppy is hanging out in the background. Sigh.

Christmas morning! A new puzzle and play phone. All right! OK, maybe he's not that excited, but it is 6 a.m. in the morning. We didn't manage to take many pictures. We were both so tired since Vincent woke up at 5 a.m. Jonathan got me Nook Tablet, which I can't put down. It makes it so easy to read and stay caught up on my blogs.

Dapper dude at Grandma and Grandpa G's. Sweaters on little boys=CUTE!

All these presents are mine! MINE!

I'll open this one. Who cares if it doesn't have my name on it. 

Bet I can win you over with my smile.

Never mind on opening it then, banging on it is just as fun!

Wilson attacks!

Now can I open it?

The G Family

Raylene couldn't be there, but she wasn't far from our minds. Ms. Disney/Hollywood.

Everyone loves a baby.

My new riding toy

That K-State pillow pet is silly.

With my second (?) cousin

Putting together a foosball table

Mama is so funny.

Worn out!

Insta Friday

Welcome to my first ever Insta Friday post. Chance, you can stop pestering me about it now, thank you very much. Because I'm going to rock this. This week has been, well, take a look for yourself and insert your own adjective.

Road tripping it back home from Denver. I think Vincent's happy to have gotten a haircut during the trip. Check out the before we took during the trip out: 

Still cute, but maybe a little too furry. 

You talkin' to me?! You talkin' to me? Our table centerpiece gives us lip during dinner.

Vincent's school pictures. Yeah, this could be submitted to Awkward Family Pictures. Oh my. Even though they're expensive, we're going to buy one for prosperity. 

A little better but still very sad. The background is his room teacher's arm. Nice. In his defence, Vincent was sick.  Obviously he's a cute baby. See earlier picture. 

Mama got an iPhone 4GS. FaceTime here I come!

I started decorating for Christmas this week. I still haven't finished. Hopefully I'll be done before the 25th. No promises. Vincent still refuses to help.

Pretty, right? It cheers me up!

Until it doesn't. Then I write snarky, bad things on my chalkboard mug. 

And drink wine over lunch. Oh the perks of working from home. 

You'd think I'd stay in a great mood between the Christmas decorations, getting a new iPhone, AND receiving a pile of cute jeans, slacks, and tops from my sister Melissa. Clothes that fit!

She also put in this sexy bra. Bow chicka wow wow! And since I just quit nursing, I was more than happy to welcome back underwire. And sexy.

I mean, just look at how happy these girls are. At work even. (Who's thinking maybe she shouldn't drink wine? )

My husband has been bringing home flowers when he grocery shops. I'm pretty sure they're not on the list, but I love them.

When I don't work, I sometimes shop. Make that window shop. Who thinks I should buy these boots? Victoria Secret's. $89. 

The table piece is going to eat all the stars. Oh no!

What a monkey

We tossed around several ideas for Vincent's first Halloween, among them: cowboy, the little baby from Adam's family, an ewok, and a squirrel. We finally landed on him being a monkey because, well, he does kind of have monkey feature with that crazy hair and big ears. I love my child. I really do. :)

Little pumpkin

Last weekend we ventured to a pumpkin patch at a local cider mill. Although the day was pretty warm, we didn't let that spoil our fun and first ever pumpkin patchy goodness! We found our way through a corn maze (which pales in comparison to the one I went to in Colorado a few years ago; not only was the maze super easy but the corn was all dead and see throughy), and then we picked our way through the pumpkin patch. And you can't have baby's first pumpkin patch visit without the requisite sit-next-to-a-pumpkin picture!

Twins

A little Photobooth fun. Oh, how I love Macs!

Foyer for ya

I can't help myself, but how clever is my post title? Look at me trying to be witty. Now for a test: try saying "foyer for ya" five times real fast. Ohhhh! Hard, ain't it? Now onto our regularly scheduled programming... My new house (I've lived here a year and it's still new to me) has a grand foyer. I love it! Jonathan thinks it's a big ole waste of space, but I like that upon walking into the house you don't immediately walk into the living room. Walking into a foyer always makes an impression on me. That said, my foyer wasn't making much of an impression on anyone. All it had were stacks of unread baby, yoga, travel, and decorating magazines (see where my interests lie?) and place to catch the keys. It needed something! So I shopped around the house. So this makeover is free as the bird that Vincent likes to unintentionally give his parents. Six months and he already has attitude! The table is actually an old Target desk (it has a hutch that now lives in the basement).

Progress pictures:

Here's what we have: That big stack of magazine (needs to go!), a purple latern (I have these in all colors, and thought it would provide a pop of color; it got the axe in the end); a delightful candle that a friend gave me from a local bath shop (it's lit to give some ambiance. ommmm); dahlias cut from my yard and placed in a Shatto milk jug (glad I saved that!); a basket from Pier 1 to hold the Flip camera, keys, and other things; and a fleur de lis place card holder turned picture holder from Nell Hills.

Here I added a stack of books to give some dimension and height, a tray, and a photo box. (Pardon the shake. Still getting used to my camera settings and how to take pictures...)

Getting closer...I swiped the quilted runner my sister made from our dining room table for some added texture. Hmm. Still looks a little too blocky. 

Soak in all that fun quilted goodness. But it still isn't right...

Enter and smaller tray to hold mail, keys, sunglasses, and whatnot (just for you sis!); I also swiped the G from my mantel that my sister gave me years ago, and I removed the basket. Not too bad, huh? What made it difficult is that the table sits along a half wall that overlooks the stair well to our basement. I didn't want anything that stood higher than the ledge.

Who doesn't love a big initial?

and a pretty collection of flowers, books, and a candle?

It's an end result that I'm actually pretty darn happy with. But you should have read the text to my sister as it was in progress.