~One post that should have been two~

We got a real tree this year!

{I'm really not quite sure why my hubby thought it was so funny for me to cover up the first letter... but he got a good giggle out of it.}

We've had a fake one for the last 7 years, but it's starting to look sad and I'm not sure if I want to buy another one, so off to the tree farm we went, for this year at least.

It really was a lot of fun to look for the perfect tree together...

Christmas kisses... :)

Running, running, running...

And we found it!

Getting the lights onto this type of tree was not fun... I had to wrap each branch or it looked tacky, if we get another real tree I'm thinking it will have to be the bushy type. Once I got all the lights on a whole section of the lights went out, and would not come back on... and you know what? For the first time ever I said... I don't care, and left it that way. I'm trying to learn to let the little things go and not get myself all wound up. It really does feel good, when I manage it... Plus now that all the ornaments are on you can't {hardly} tell. :)

Hanging ornaments... this was the first year she could actually help, and boy was she cute!

Decorating the tree together, and looking at all the awesome ornaments... :)

Spike has been living in that Spider Man costume, haha!

All the lower branches are decorated with non-breakables, less stressful that way... even if it does look a little silly.

That sign says, Kisses Under The Mistle Toad... I love it!

We made pine cone owls around the end of October, and decided they looked mighty fine on the tree... Atty doesn't know it yet but I found him an owl ornament for his stocking this year and he is going to Love it! He's still all about the birds.

I'm so proud of myself this year, I finally got all the kids first Christmas baby pictures up on the tree... I've had Bubu's {this one} for years now, but never managed to get the rest of the kids up there. Well enough was enough and I forced myself to finish what I started...

I went out and found one for Lala, I didn't paint it, but it's up!
It's also not a first Christmas picture, I might change that in the future but I didn't have one on hand and I just wanted to get her on the tree. :)

Again not painted but Spike is on the tree... I've had this ornament and Atty's {with out pictures in them} sitting in the Christmas tub for a few years now, good grief... talk about procrastination, I must be the queen!!!

...and also not painted, but hey I'm making progress... I was lucky enough to find a first Christmas picture for both boys though!
We also made pine cone decorations for the tree, the kids had a blast with that... I think if we can squeeze it in we might add some popcorn chains as well. :)

This year since the tree was a different size our angel didn't fit on top... but I like that I had to go look for something new, I found a cute little star and the kids love it. We have been watching the Little House On The Prairie series and in one episode the little sister gets a star for Christmas and when she puts it on the tree she says "Happy Birthday baby Jesus". So my kids have been saying that almost every time they look at the star, so sweet.

A decorated tree... I used all white lights for the first time, and I think I like it. I'd like it more if all of them were working... gerrrrr, and let it go... :)

Also got all the Christmas decorations out. A favorite tradition of mine {I think you can call it a tradition, haha!} happened sort of on accident. On Bubu's first Christmas my Husband got me a snow globe as a gift. And every Christmas since he goes with the kids and they find one for me... I really look forward now to seeing what they pick out for me. Every year we unpack them and set them out, we look at the date on the bottom and talk about what was happening on that Christmas, how old the kids were. We wind up the music box ones and listen to the song, I shake them up for the kids to look at and we marvel at the details. I like keeping them super special by packing them away every year and being excited about getting them out again. Keeps it fresh and new. :)
I'm going to have quite the collection by the time the last kiddo leaves the house, haha!

A cute Christmas picture. Our Maxie Moo as named by Lala... She also calls him Bunny and Catkins... which by the way if we every get another cat I will just have to name him Catkins, I love it!

Okay I know, enough already... don't you just want to snuggle him though!?! Snuggle up and read a good book by the fire, drink some chai tea, ahhhh...

Now that I don't drink coffee, I'm horribly addicted to chai tea, crave it all day long!

Okay focus, back to my rambling post...

I got a new rug for the living room that I love... because I needed the old one for the playroom... because we got new carpet!!! Finally. So I'm using the old living room rug under the table in the playroom, that way the kids can still craft and eat out there and I don't have a heart attack.

This is were the post goes off track, feel free to stop reading...

Because we had to clear the whole room out... and wow was that crazy... I reorganized when we put everything back in. I probably should make a whole new post for this, but since I might never get around to it, here goes. So the home school area is tucked back behind the couch now, I wanted it a bit more separated from the playroom and the whole shelf is now used for school instead of half school, half toys. Which means my husband had to make me a new shelf for toys... good thing he's good at that sort of thing. :)

Here's a better picture of what I'm talking about. The home school area is now tucked away in the corner... I love it. See the new carpet? I love that too, never had new carpet before... it makes the whole room so much more inviting, I actually want to spend time on the floor in there now, haha! The old carpet really needed to be replaced when we moved in three years ago, but it just didn't happen.

I really love how the couch is up next to that wall now, opens up the room. We always had shelves on that wall before. That's the nice thing about moving everything out, you really get to rethink the set up when you are moving everything back in again...

On a side note, my kids really love playing with balloons, and don't worry we are super safe with them and they all get put away when it's not "balloon time" any more. :)

So here is a picture of the wall unit that my hubby just built for me... It was built to have a certain size plastic tub in each section, I just don't have the tubs yet. The closet that has all the stuff stacked in it is getting shelves built for it right now and will also have more plastic tubs to keep everything organized. I wanted more stuff packed up and away to have more space in the playroom. Plus rotating toys keeps the kids interested.

A closer look, I can't wait to get the tubs so that it looks less cluttered, but I really love it already. I'm so thankful that I can dream up something and my husband will make it for me!

So there you have it, that was a lot for one post... I have so many other things I'd like to post about but some how it never happens. I think I've been spending too much of my computer time on face book and then I don't have time left to blog... need to switch that around!