3 little Miracles

3 little Miracles

Monday, November 30, 2009

Decorating Ideas and Inspiration for Christmas

Well . . . . . Thanksgiving is over and what a blessed day it was celebrating with family, but now we turn the wonderful corner into celebrating the birth of our precious Lord Jesus. I NORMALLY have the Christmas tree and decorations up around the house the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year we hosted 18 in our home and it has taken me more time to recover, so tonight we begin so I am looking for a few Christmas decor ideas and wanted to share some of the images that inspired me.








I want to do the wreaths on my dinning room windows like this

This idea from Pottery Barn is cute for Christmas Morning

I would love these pillows in red and green from Pottery Barn for my sofa


I love this look for my bedroom

So, what inspires your Christmas Decorations? Post something on your blog and come back and leave a link in the comments, I would love to see your design inspirations for Christmas.  I will be posting pictures of our Christmas decorations later this week.

Thanksgiving on the Neuse

Before we move onto Christmas traditions, decorations, inspirations, and pictures I had to share about our wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had eighteen for Thanksgiving, YES 18!  My brother's, their wives, and their children all arrived Wednesday night (racing across NC to get here first so they could get the big brass bed, my brother Jimmy and S-I-L Kelly won).  Shortly after they arrived, Kelly (who has lost 84 pounds, GO GIRL) and I headed off to the gym for a 2 hour workout.  (Yep trying to burn some calories so we can put on some more on Thanksgiving day, LOL).


Thanksgiving day dawned with the traditional watching of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade while we cooked pie's and preped the turkey's.  After I got the pumpkin pie's done I headed out for a powerwalk with Jon in the stoller.  When I returned my Sister and her family and arrived along with my nieces boyfriend (I think this one may be the one).  The family gathered for a brunch upstairs in my Mom's dining room, to hold us over until dinner at 4:30 (my husband and I didn't eat, we were too busy working on the turkey's and pie's)  Most of the family moved outside afterwards for a game of CornHole (I hate the name) and my SIL Paula and niece Hilary helped Davey make a fruit turkey.  Our day also included a large family photo session down by the river since we hadn't taken family pictures since before the boys were born.

My MoG and I kept pretty busy in our kitchen preparing food and setting up the tables for dinner late in the afternoon.  My kitchen was converted into a buffett line, and my living room was rearranged to accomodate the two long tables we borrowed from the church.  Dinner was wonderful with two kinds of turkey one traditional and one smoked, greenbeans with almonds, cornbread pudding, mashed potates, fruit salad and dip, stuffing, rolls, and cranberry's.  Yum Yum!

Mom and BIL Calvin playing Corn Hole


My SIL, niece Calli, and Davey made a fruit turkey arrangment



My parents with all the grandkids


My niece Cassandra and her boyfriend Luther


 . . . . .then Friday we gathered for a family friendly game of Liverpool Rummy (I won hehe!).

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours, God Bless!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

It's called Christmas with a Capital 'C'

I am so sick of going out to buy decorations and cards for Christmas and STRUGGLING to find beautiful decorations and cards that say MERRY CHRISTMAS!  I mean come on why why why has our world taken Christ out of Christmas.  I don't know about you, but me and my family will be keeping Christ in all of our Christmas celebrations this year and every year until HE brings us home.

I LOVE this video, I think it expresses my feelings so well, I hope you will go and watch it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Show Us Your Life - Show us Your Pets


Today over at Kelly's Korner the Show Us Your Life activity is Show Us your Pets.  We have a few pets around here, so now you get to meet the REST of our family.

This is LuLu our outdoor kitty.  LuLu has been with us for 7 years now, she was supposed to be my husbands BIG ORANGE cat that he could wear around his neck like a scarf, he has always dreamed of having a big fat orange cat.  BUT LuLu is a skinny orange kitty with a lot of fears, so she lives outside where she is most comfortable and where pretty much I am the only one who can get near her.  She is VERY soft and I love her very much even though she is a little skittish.


Davey with Crocket our indoor kitty Halloween '05, Davey was 4 months old and we think that Crocket may have been around 3 months old in this picture.

This is Crocket today, we found Crocket at the local dump 4 years ago just before Halloween.  Crocket is a fantastic cat, he is so laid back and the boys can almost do anything to him and he just takes it.  At night Crocket likes to sleep on a stack of pillows between my husband and I (he is very attached to me and I think he likes to claim his ownership by laying there).  Crocket is my constant companion around the house, in fact right now he is wrapped around my neck as I type this post.  During my pregnancy with Jonathan, Crocket became a little big of a danger, he was so attached to me that he followed me everywhere, often getting between my feet as I walked and tripping me up.  He would even massage my baby belly, as if he was letting Jon know "she is mine, you only get her for these 9 months".

This is Maggie, we adopted her 2 years ago (she is 3 years old now).  She has been a fantastic addition to our family and a great playmate for Holly Berry and the boys.

And finally this is Holly Berry, my Mom's dog, we gave Holly to my Mother for Christmas 8 years ago.

Hope you enjoyed meeting all our furry family members, the only two absent from pictures are Rainbow our Fish and my Dad's cat Tater, both of whom were a little camera shy.  Hop on over to Kelly's Korner and link up a post bragging about your pets.

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Continuing to Make Progress

I am continuing to make some progress on my projects around here that I want to get done before Thanksgiving.  Here are a few more pictures:


Of course I still have to hang pictures back up, but its all nice and fresh again


And here is the newly painted bathroom, with new towel bar, new towels, and new shower curtain.  I still have to replace the baseboard and a few other things.  However, I couldn't resist taking a picture and sharing the progress of our bathroom makeover.  You can go HERE to see what it looked like before.

Guinea Pig comes to Visit

I never thought I would willingly invite a rodent that looks very much like a rat (only without a tail) into my home, but  . . . . . . . I have two boys and so I am sure there are quit a few more critters that will be invited into my home (with or without my permission) in the years to come.  Davey was so excited when his teacher asked him if he wanted to take Guinea home for a weekend (and yes that is the little fur balls name, the whole school voted for it).  So when Davey asked me, I didn't have the heart to say no, we went to make the arrangments with the preschool director and checked Guinea's itinerary only to find he was busy traveling to other homes for the rest of 2009 and every weekend was booked.  Davey was so upset and his bottom lip came out and his big hazel eyes began to fill with tears and Mrs. L said maybe we could come up with another plan, after a few minutes of thought she decided Davey and Jon could take Guinea home in the middle of the week.

So here we are with a Guinea pig, a Cat, a Fish, a Dog, and two boys in our house . . . . . Can you say Crazy Farm? First time out of the cage Guinea dove deeeeeeep into my blouse and gave me a nice long scratch in the middle of my chest with his back claws in his efforts to get to his destination.  He is kinda cute but the boys fight over who's turn it is with him like they do most of their other toys and poor Guinea gets a little nervous with all the fuss.  I think we will wait a while before thinking of getting the boys their own guinea pig or rabbit ;-)
Guinea comes with his own little travel bag, food, and photo album to journal his adventure.
Crocket the cat also got close enough to check out Guinea,
but poor Guinea got so nervous that he poo'd in Davey's lap LOL

Sunday, November 15, 2009

MckLinky Blog Hop - Favorite Book

My fovorite book of all time is Louisa May Alcott's best known novel Little Women, this is the first book I remember my mother giving to me.  I remember her telling me this was her favorite book when she was my age and that I would love the characters as much as she did . . . . . . . and she was right.


It has been many years since I have picked up Little Women to read it, but I know I have read it at least a dozen times and viewed several film versions of the book.  What I remember loving the most about this precious book, is the relationship between the four March girls Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and their neighbor Laurie (who becomes like a brother to them) as they are raised in Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts.   The story brilliantly weaves together these four totally different sisters, practicle Meg, unsettled rambunctious Jo, fragile homebody Beth, and worldly social climbing Amy (who is the pet of the family). Very quickly in the book they meet their neighbor Laurie, a young man having to play the heir's role of family when he would much rather explore the things in life that he loves.

The book opens with Marmee (Mrs. March) and the girls trying to celebrate a very frugal Christmas while Mr. March is away serving the the Cival War.  Right away you could tell how special the story would unravel just by how quickly you fall into the emotions of the characters.  Marmee as she tries to care for those even less fortunate then her family, struggles with how to make Christmas special for the girls while the weight of worry for Mr. March  is always on her mind, The four girls as they struggle with and realize that taking care of others is more important then their 'wants', and still in the end they all have an unexpectedly wonderful Christmas.

The book is filled with wonderful happy and heart wrenching moments that keep you turning the pages exploring the lives of the March's as the girls growup and begin their lives as married young women.  This is a book that you need to pick up for yourself or for some young girl this Christmas.  I know that I will have to return to Little Women soon, because now that I have posted about my favorite book of all time, I want to return to the March house and play in the attic with Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy.

I hope you will enjoy Louisa May Alcott's BEST BOOK EVER Little Women!  Hop on over to MckLinky to find some other great books recommended by other bloggers.

MckLinky Blog Hop

Friday, November 13, 2009

FINALLY got a big project on the list DONE

We have several projects in the works around here, but one of them I was determined to get done before Thanksgiving was my kitchen. The kitchen was originally a pale yellow and now is a taupe.  We have a very open floor plan in our part of the house, and so the pale yellow was in the kitchen, dinning, and living area.  Not to long back I decided to redo the bathroom based on the colors in the Cabana shower curtain from Southern Living at HOME, and because the bathroom is off the kitchen, I decided on the mint green color for the bathroom and the taupe for the kitchen as a transition to the rest of the house.

So here are a few pictures of the finished look, along with the final picture of the boys measurements on the kitchen wall ;-(  (I am moving their measurements to a mural chart in their bedroom, pictures at a later date)



Moved the message board to a more accessible place here by the sink



I hate having the toaster oven on the counter top, but for now this is the best home for it.

Still plan to put some 6" decorative tiles behind the stove.

We moved the coat hook from the stair landing to here in the kitchen, this way no kids digging in the backpacks.

Next on the list the  . . . . . . finish the bathroom and retouch the paint in the living and dining area . . . . . . then the bedrooms.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Honoring our Nation's Veteran's and MY Veteran

Sgt. David E. Cole
US Marine Corp. 1983-1991

Thank you to all of our military personnel who have served to protect and defend our freedom both state side and in foreign lands.  AND Happy Birthday to the Marines, celebrating 234 years, established November 10, 1775!!! OOH-RAH!!!!!!



My MoG is in middle row third from right


My MoG second row thrid from left

Thank you my love for your service to our nation through your military duty in the Marine Corp.  I praise God for His protection over you in Desert Storm and bringing you safely into my life in 1993.  I will always be proud of you and especially proud of your military service to our nation and continued service to our Marines through the work you do now.

I love you!! 

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Rough couple of days with 2 little Boys


It has been a rough couple of days with my 2 little Boys.  I am not sure if it is the time change, the terrible 2's, or just typical boys, but my 2 little Boys have really been over the top in their behavior. Yesterday my dear husband and I went up to the church with the boys, to help move furniture back into the offices (we are getting new carpet in the offices and sanctuary).  So, while we were working I put the boys into one of the play rooms and made sure the half door was locked so they couldn't get out into the middle of things, and instructed Davey not to open the door to the adjacent toddlers bathroom.

WELL . . . . about 30 minutes into working I noticed how quiet it was in the room they were in (NEVER a good sign).  I went to investigate only to find that the room was covered with water and the boys were in the toddlers bathroom.  (Pause for snickers, because looking back this will be one of the things we laugh at, but at the time it was not funny).  When I turned the corner into the bathroom, Davey was washing a baby doll in the sink and Jonathan was washing a truck in the toilet.  The floor in the bathroom had at least a 1/2 inch of water and both of the boys were soaked.  UGH!

THEN, last night at around 12:30AM Jon woke up screaming and so I brought him into our bed to sleep with us (this is a treat, not something that happens often) and he fell back to sleep and we slept fine UNTIL.  4:30AM my husband's alarm clock goes off and he plays "slap and tickle" with it for the next half hour until he is finally ready to get out of bed and get ready for work but . . . . . . Jon is now FULLY AWAKE.

LATER in the morning Jonathan climbed up on a chair and got down our brand new Tupperware salt and pepper shakers and was licking them, I went to go get them from him and he started running away and chucked the shakers across the gate into the kitchen.  The shakers exploded everywhere, the floor was covered with salt and pepper, and to make it worse a hole was busted into the bottom of one of them.  UGH!  THEN the little guy was not done with his rampage, took Davey's cup drank a full mouth full of milk out of it and then went into the dinning room and spit it all over the floor.  TO say the least I put him down for a nap, otherwise he and I were going to have a BIG problem. 

Davey is not innocent in all of this, he has been having melt down whining fits over everything lately.  "It's time to eat dinner"  MELT DOWN "It's time to pick up toys"  MELT DOWN "You can't go upstairs right now Grandma is sleeping"  MELT DOWN "It's time to go potty"  MELT DOWN  "It's past time for milk, its bed time"  MELT DOWN.  We can't seem to find a way to turn off the whining, I mean the lip comes out and the whining voice comes out for the smallest little things, even his preschool teacher is DONE with it. 

SO I am having a rough couple of days, I love them dearly, but days like these really wear on my nerves and make it difficult to think of adding #3 to this craziness.  I pray that God provides my husband and I the tools to make it through these terrible 2's for Jon and find a better way for Davey to communicate he needs and worries.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I to you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. – John 14:27

Decorating ideas for a family Thanksgiving

My dear husband, mother, and I are beginning the plans for a large family Thanksgiving.  At this time our Thanksgiving celebrations will be busy with all the family coming in.  Eleven family members plan to come in for the weekend add us and that is a total of seventeen around the table (we may have to have a kids table this year).  So I am looking for inspiration to make the table more memorable and maybe even kick off some new family traditions.

This place card has the Thanksgiving menu on it, but I think I like the idea better of putting individual scriptures or poems to be read out loud before saying grace.

I thought this was a beautiful idea for a centerpiece,
the photographs would really be a celebration of the family ancestry.

I loved this idea from Countryliving.com.  On strips of paper, write quotes or phrases. Fasten strip at end with double-sided tape, so it is slightly smaller than the glass's circumference; place on each glass. Invite guests, when seated, to read quote aloud

This fantastic Ribbon Napkin Holder idea is also from Countryliving.com.  Stamp a message and design on cardstock, punch holes on either side, and thread with a coordinating ribbon to create custom napkin holders

I love this table setting it is simple, warm, and says welcome.

Finally, this great idea for a kid friendly project/appetizer from Disney's Family Fun magazine:


Ingredients

Bosc pear (head)
Melon (body)
Cheese (beak and tail feathers)
Red pepper (snood, feet and side feathers)
Raisins (eyes)
Grapes (tail feathers)
Bamboo skewers
Toothpicks

Instructions
1.  Stabilize the melon body by cutting a shallow slice off the rind to form a flat base. Using a section of bamboo skewer, attach a Bosc pear head to the melon, as shown.
2.  Cut a cheese triangle beak and red pepper snood. Attach both, along with raisin eyes, to the head with sections of toothpick.
3.  Cut red pepper feet and set them in place. For tail feathers, skewer cheese cubes and red grapes, then insert the skewers as shown. Pin pepper side feathers in place with toothpicks.

I pray your Thanksgiving preperations and celebrations are everything you hope them to be!

Can't help but DREAM . . . . . .

I can't help but dream of a house all of our own, were we can raise our children and it would be our forever home.  You know, the house where your children grown up knowing all the neighbors, the perfect trees to climb, build a fort in the woods near by, ride bike's in the quiet street's, and grow up with fantastic memories of fun on the block.  I am always searching for the forever dream house, picking up for sale flyers, and searching Homes For Sale books and this is my most recent forever dream house in my area.  Mind you it is TOTALLY out of our reach but that is what DREAMS are all about and.






Great Room
Master Suite with tray ceiling and sitting area
Screened in porch off back of house and Master Suite

CAPE CARTERET, NC; $425,000; 4 BR; 3 full BA; 2700 sf;

BEAUTIFUL HOME-3 MINUTES TO EMERALD ISLE BRIDGE

4 Bedrooms-3Baths, Entertainers dream on a cul-du-sac lot in quiet upscale neighborhood! Granite Kitchen w/Cherry Cabinetry, tile floors and backsplash, UpGrade Stainless Appliances. Formal Dining w/hardwood and heavy mouldings thru-out. Split Bedroom floorplan offers plenty of privacy for the Luxurious Master Suite. The Huge His/Hers walk-in closet, trey ceiling, sitting area, and private access to rear screened porch work together with the double bowl,granite counter, 6'Whirlpool, Separate Shower, private toilet room, custom tile on floor and around tub to make this Suite a dream come True. 3 Balconies overlook the 2 story greatroom. Upstairs you will find an additional Bedroom, Full Bath, Finished Bonus Room, Home Office area and 2 walk-in attic areas. The Laundry room, Walk-in pantry, fully screened in porch w/porcelin floor tiles, rear patio, double garage, Front porch w/composite board decking and vinyl railings, siding is concrete board w/25 year color warranty and sodded, centepede yard round out this home. Arden Oaks community is located directly across the street from Star Hill Golf Course and it is very conveniently situated with regard to shopping, dining, boating and fishing. Public beaches are within a 5 min. drive. Just off of Hwy 24 in Cape Carteret, Jacksonville and Morehead City are a short drive away. This home is ready for you to move in and it was built by a master craftsman w/over 40 years building experience. Quality Thru-out