Merry Christmas!

I know it has been awhile since I posted, but I just feel so boring these days! Part of it is that I used to take my camera EVERYWHERE and now I just feel kind of self-conscious about it. I don't really want to be that "creepy new girl that is always taking pictures of people". Hopefully by next year I'll just be "that crazy Amanda keeps blinding me with her flash."

We have been pretty busy with Christmas preparations and just getting settled into our new lives. I'll be back soon with lots of stories of Christmas hi-jinks. Or just stories of me sitting around drinking coffee. In the meantime, check out this great giveaway from my friend Jessica...it's a good one!

Tour of Homes 2009

I cannot believe it is already time for the Tour of Homes again! Life goes by fast these days, doesn't it? Life has taken us to some crazy, interesting, and wonderful places this year, and for the second year in a row I am decorating a different house for the first time! So, coming to you from Mississippi this year, here is our home!

Welcome.

Come on in.

Here's the entryway.

The living room mantle. We just moved in about a month and a half ago, so I haven't found a mirror large enough for the space up there yet. But as Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!


A close up of the garland. I have to give the Nester credit here. I was determined to make my own after all the tutorials. This is just two lighted garlands from Target twisted together. Then I just added in whatever I could find. Snowflakes on sale for 10 cents after Christmas, pine cones that came with my Christmas tree, a stick of fake berries from Hobby Lobby cut up. I love it, and it cost me right around 10 dollars...not bad!

Our stockings...yes there are three this year! I went ahead and got one for Will. I'm going to have them monogrammed for next year. They were a great deal at Hobby Lobby...probably my favorite store. Besides Target.

I have to stick to my librarian roots.


The tree. I took Nester's advice. The tree was too big for a tree skirt, so instead of trying to force it, I just left it off. The tree has a color theme for the most part: lime, green, and red.


I mixed it up this year with the tree topper. I collected stuff all year, and this is what I ended up with. I really like it.

Shiny garland. It's a PAIN to get untangled, but it looks so pretty and sparkly on the tree!

I am not ready to start doing separate "pretty" and"sentimental" trees yet, so I just mixed in our yearly ornaments with the rest of the ornaments.

I love these snowflakes from Target. Super cheap, sparkly, and they fill in the blanks on the tree.

This is one of my favorite ornaments this year. I got two huge packs of red and lime ornaments at Sam's Club after Christmas last year for $5 each. Score...this is one of the ornaments that came with the set.



A little bit of the dining room.

Nativity. Notice that the picture behind it is still on the ground. More hanging and decorating to do!

Santa guarding the back door.

Looks good enough to eat...

Kitchen.

More kitchen. More like the bar area, really.

Even more kitchen.

You get the idea.




A part of me feels like it's not normal for me to have an entire basket of Christmas hats and headbands. The other part of me likes to wear them around the house.




Can't forget the mistletoe.

Thanks for visiting!

Bedding and Such

I am SO excited to start working on Will's nursery, and I feel like we really can now that the bedding is here. Of course, we have to get the stacks of towels, picture frames, and books out of the room first, but we'll work on that later. Here's the bedding...it's from CoCaLo. I found it after many hours of searching online!



What do you think?

The Mail's Here

I am loving getting the mail this week! Online shopping may just be my new favorite way to shop. There is just something so fun about coming home to a package on your front porch. Unless it's ticking...then you should run.

I have been wanting to get a fun new return address stamper forever, but I had to wait until we got moved into a house we would be in for awhile. And after it took so long to unpack here, we aren't going anywhere soon!

I have been admiring Three Designing Women stamps forever, so I just bit the bullet and bought one. I got it in the mail today, and I love it. I don't love that I was impatient and sent out my Christmas cards yesterday with my ugly handwriting on them. Oh well. I needed the practice writing our new address.

I got something else very exciting in the mail yesterday...Will's baby bedding! I love it! I'll put some pictures of it up this weekend. I have to pull it out of the bag, but I am so scared that I'll get it dirty. Like it's not going to get just filthy as soon as he gets here. That's what stain remover is for!

Mr. Will

Although there isn't a lot to report in our adoption journey right now, I just wanted to write a little bit to let you know that everything is going great.

We are talking to Miss C on a weekly basis still, and she and Baby McD are doing well. We are so thankful that we are learning more about her and why she is making her decision, as well as having the opportunity to pray for her and encourage her.

On a different note, I keep thinking that it sounds so silly to keep referring to our baby boy as Baby McD when we have know pretty much since we got married what our first son's name would be. So, from now on, Baby McD will be known as Will.

Will is about 21 weeks right now, and according to Miss C everything is going well at her appointments. When we were chosen I felt like April would never get here, but 5 weeks have already flown by. It will be here before we know it.

Stay tuned for more posts about Will soon. We have picked out his furniture, ordered his bedding, and he's started getting the cutest little clothes. So fun!

Show Us Your Life- Christmas Trees!

Today Kelly is having everyone show their Christmas trees, so I thought I would join in the fun! I changed my tree up a little bit this year, and I gave it more of a "theme." I wanted to use lots of limes and reds, so I worked on finding some ornaments after Christmas last year. I probably need more, but I will wait until after Christmas to get some good deals!


I just can't seem to get the silver to really glow in the pictures like it does in real life, but I love the beaded garland! I wish I had even more...



I decided to attempt a new look on the top of the tree this year. I have been collecting things all year, and I think I really like how it turned out.


One of my friends in Mississippi gave us this ornament as a little house-warming present. Our first Mississippi ornament...and it matches the tree!


One more picture of the full tree. Sorry the ladder is in the background. We have been here for about a month, but between family visiting and us visiting family we are still getting settled in. We may be for awhile!

Headed Back

I'm headed home today. See you soon, Mississippi.

Celebrating Luke

One of the reasons I stayed behind while Mike went back to Mississippi is so that I could be a part of a baby shower for one of the best friends in the entire world, Kristin. This will always be my favorite picture of her ever. When she went to change clothes at her reception, she realized she didn't have any pants. I am pretty sure we had a pants thief in our midst, but she didn't let that stop her. I knew those crazy slips had to come in handy somehow.


I am so sad that I forgot my camera this weekend, because she is so super cute pregnant. We had a great time at her shower, and she got lots of fun stuff for baby Luke. I can't wait to meet him...even if he is a year-old before we manage to get together!

We don't to see each other near enough anymore, seeing as how she lives in South Texas and I live in North Mississippi. Not exactly a day trip. The great thing about your true friends, though, is that it doesn't matter how often you talk or how much you see each other. Whenever you are together, it's like nothing has changed. Except that this time she was wearing jeans.