all in good cheer!

December is finally upon us! Christmas is a week away and I wanted to show you some snaps I've taken throughout our days. 

We busted our decorations the first days of the month to bring some cheer into our home. Many of the decorations are thrifted ones except the ones I bought as crafts for a little Christmas town at Michael's. 

Several years ago when the boys were smaller, we made a little Christmas town out of cardboxes. It was fun making them but when I opened our Christmas storage bin this year, they were crushed! I must not have packed them correctly. So I decided it would be great for the boys & little girl to make some new ones! These were challenging at times for the boys and we had to use hot glue for them (longer lasting architecture) but the end result was worth it. 

Of course, Elena had a lot of help hehe! 

This little gingerbread house was one we had done a couple of years ago. The boys love playing and losing the gingerbread man. 

I added some lights behind the town to brighten it up and hung the kids stockings up above. 

Last year my mother made a felt Christmas tree. We pulled it out to decorate it! We now have 3 trees -- all fake! One in the living room, a little one in the boys room, and this felt one. We are so festive!

Watch a fast motion video of us decorating our tree! 

I made sure to plan some Christmas crafts for Elena. I don't normally craft any more because headache and clean up but I enjoyed spending this concentrated time with her. She's so independent in any activity I usually just clean up after her. She's a great artist. She loved the cotton ball snowman & Santa Claus. 

Our advent calendar changed a bit from previous years. I got major kudos from Gary for doing it this way and the kids enjoy busting through the paper each day. 

Our little nativity scene is centered at our table. A shepherd is missing but it's ok. I want to invest in a really good wooden nativity scene soon. Meanwhile, these cute little ones will work. That's Jonah's handy barn in the foreground. 

And of course, it was time to put my beautiful plants all indoors and let them be festive right alongside us. 

I always love my Christmas Cactus blooming. It is taking a little longer this year but it seems that it'll get there...

Our mega church is ridiculous at Christmas time. They had a gigantic Christmas tree in the lobby and have 4 or 5 tracks of trains in the children's building that the kids absolutely love to watch. They also put a puppet play that we watch yearly.

Christmas Ranch in north Cleveland was a sweet quick treat. We met Santa and were dazzled at the lights these couple completely go overboard with Christmas lights. It's free and fun. 

We hope you have a merry Christmas! May your days be blessed and joyous as you spend time with the ones you love!

Fall Traditions 2016

Before it gets too late, I thought I would throw a post together with a few (a lot of) pictures that I enjoyed taking. 

Back in November, we traveled back to central Texas for a few days to visit our families. We stayed at both of our parents homes, went hunting, took pictures at the world's largest bottled soda, & had Thanksgivings with each of our families. It was a wonderful time....

I printed coloring pages beforehand, so that we could have a coloring table. I brought my colored pencils and a few of us colored them. Most were not interested in (like the guys & my own mother) but the pages did come out pretty good!

I have a whole load of these pictures but I wanted to show you this little sneak peek in front of Dublin's new Original soda from Dublin Bottling Works

We also jumped in front of the Dublin mural by the newspaper building

We watched Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them and played games of kickball & tennis baseball. It's a thing. 

Gary had a totally not disappointing week hunting at his parents land. There will be some pictures at the bottom of this post of his kill, so if you're not into that, I suggest you stop scrolling early. 

The guys decided to compare racks & I thought it was a good moment to snap some pictures of this...

The boys went 'hunting' too. They hunted villains in their dreams and also their Nintendo DS. 

Elena & I were hanging out back at home while the boys went out to play. We were always happy when Daddy got back :) 

It was nice enough to play outside one day, so out we went! Sticks are always fun...

The boys live for collecting sticks & nuts & rocks & berries. Real foragers. Andrew though, once made me boil some wild beans from some plant to see if they were edible. 

They weren't. Not because you couldn't eat them, but because they tasted awful. Jonah packed 2 sticks in his suitcase because obviously he could never have enough. 

My boys were excited to see their cousins during our visit. They moved away during the summer and it's been nonstop begging about when we could go see them.

Ok folks, if you're queasy about hunting or if you are a liberal with animal cruelty beliefs, just stop right here...
Because we're from the country and the country folks do what they gotta do to. Shoot guns & kill your target.

Hey, you gotta put food on the table somehow.

Last warning!

Enjoy.

Well, that's it. Hopefully you've enjoyed most of the pictures! I know I loved taking them.