The Handy Man (and Woman)

During the hail storm we had back in the spring, our home received some damage. We have these lovely awnings over the windows on the west side of our house that looked like swiss cheese (Seth's words) after the storm. It has taken this long to get the awnings fixed and put up again and I think they look great! We also lost a pane of glass out of one of the light fixtures on the front porch. They were hideous anyway so...we bought new ones this week. My handy dandy husband installed them yesterday and they look great! Thanks, honey!



Those of you who know me well, know that my favorite store in the metropolitan area that is Fort Smith, is Hobby Lobby. My grandmother knows this well and got my a gift card for Christmas. It was obviously burning a hole in my pocket so...off to Hob. Lob. My mom-in-law and I went the day after Christmas with the crazy people who apparently needed another Christmas tree. One lady went hysterical when the poor boy came to unlock the door 5 minutes early! Ok, back to my story! I bought 4 rolls of wrapping paper, cause you can never have to much cute paper. Then Seth took my back last night cause it was really bothering me that I still had money on this gift card and I'd yet to spend it all. All Christmas merchandise had been marked down to 66% off. What you see below is what I purchased. I got a deal!




In the canister is one of those rub on saying that peels off when you want to take it down. My mom put one up this year and I really liked it! Her's said: Christmas It's the most wonderful time of the year. We (the fam) joked that it wasn't going to come down and someone laughed that in March it'd be the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. I realize in typing this that it was so much funnier in person! Well, one of you might think that's funny! amuse me The one I bought says Merry Christmas. The other items I purchased are to help me "winterize" this wreath below. We'll see how that goes! I don't have a wintery something for my front door and don't really want to have to buy something. I thought I'd remove the tacky red bow and go from there. I'll let you know how it turns out!




Isn't this the cutest picture of my parents. Not so much a good picture of Drew, though. I took this on Christmas Eve after our Candlelight Service and he must have been to wrapped up in the thought of presents. ????

I hope everyone had a great 2008 and an early "Happy New Year" to you!

Christmas Tour Part 2

So...here is the highly anticipated second part of my Christmas Home Tour. I know you've been anxiously waiting! (humor me!)

Remember that missing red charger from the table? Well, it makes its appearance here! The base of the lamp is so small that it needed something to balance out the width of the lamp shade.I put a few ornaments around the bottom as well as some "stupid ball things" (Seth's sentiments) that are covered with dried beans and possibly dried raffia looking stuff.


This is a glimpse of the entryway from the front door. I love these glittery red and silver ornaments when the garland is lit.



Again in the entry. Small decorations line the table with everyday stuff I leave out all the time. The lamp, candlesticks, and picture frame stay out year round. You can see in the reflection of the mirror what hangs on the opposite wall. There are two coat hooks on the wall with a wreath and wooden painted plaque hanging from them. Yes the price tag is still on the mirror!



Two of my new favorite ornaments this year. The first is from Disney World. It is a picture of Cinderella's Castle decked out in lights for the holidays. The second I made at a friend's daughter's Christmas party. Cute, huh?


I've already shown a picture of this nativity in the dining room, but I couldn't refuse this picture of Drew playing with "baby Jesus, mommy, daddy, hee-haw". The "daddy" has already lost a hand, but thanks to super glue, he was miraculously healed!

Christmas Tour 08

If your like me, you love peeking into other's homes. I love to decorate for anything, anytime. I know it's the day AFTER Christmas but, here are pictures of my home, all decked out for my favorite time of year!

This is Seth's cedar chest that sits in my dining room. Atop the chest is simply a nativity, wooden tree, and gold star.

My dining room table (that was a steal!) with a new centerpiece. Gold placemats with red chargers match the room. I'll show you the missing charger later. The centerpiece has dried beans at the bottom then red and gold balls stacked on top. I found the red and gold glittery picks at Pier 1. I really like how this turned out!

This is my old dining room table with the leaf taken out. I have a red toile tablecloth drapped over top. The bubble light garland is just resting halfway across the table with gold iron packages, candles, and a tray with "stuff" around it.

Bubble light

I have two Christmas trees, but opted to only put up the smaller one this year. I love the sugared gumdrop garland around my tree. I also tried putting my wooden letters that spell JOY on the tree. They usually sit on my mantle around the bubble garland but this year dressed up my tree.

I'll show you more of my favorite Christmas decorations later. Hope you enjoyed part one of the tour!

Must be Santa, Santa Claus

I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas Eve, filled with fun and family! I know we will as we gather with the Shaver family tonight after our Candlelight Christmas Eve service.

Merry Christmas, from my boys!

Shaver Soup Night

Tonight was our annual Shaver Soup Night at my Granny's house. We all gather together to have, what else...Soup! We get together on Christmas Eve but it is so chaotic that we don't really get to socialize with one another. Spending Christmas Eve Eve together lets us just sit back and enjoy everyone's company. This year, because of illness, my Granny hosted Soup Night. I found this picture from last year, and thought it was cute!

Shaver Soup Night 2007

Today also brought a visit to the doctor. Drew ran a temp. all day yesterday, his nose ran like a faucet, and he had a horrid cough. Trying to be proactive, we made a doctor's appointment for this morning. However, this morning Drew had no fever. And the one time his nose didn't run all day long??? The doctor's office! Why is that? I feel like the drs. are like, "Sure, your child is sick! (you lying, crazy mother!)" Poor thing, just has a bad cold.

After leaving the pediatrician's office, we headed to the airport to meet Owen, Nathan, and Emily. Only, we didn't get the message that their flight had been delayed. I called Nathan's mom to get the scoop and realized I wasn't going to get to be there when they brought Owen home. (Nathan and Emily adopted Owen from Korea and brought him home today. Merry Christmas!) I had already made lunch plans with "The Girls".

Micah, Kara, Kristen, Laurel

So, here are the girls (minus me) eating lunch at Cheddar's. I am so lucky to have friends like these girls! Micah, Kara, Laurel, and I are all the same age. Kristen is our elder! haha Micah and Laurel were the only two people I knew on my first day in seventh grade! Can you believe I still know these ladies and for the most part keep up with each other? All 5 of us grew up at GABC and our families still attend there. Auh-mazing!

Disney World

The Sunday after Thanksgiving the three of us and Seth's parents hopped in the car and headed for "The World". We drove 17 hours the first day to reach Pooler, GA where my sister in law lives. We were so very thankful to J for feeding us and letting us stay with her! Drew did fabulously in the car. As those of you with small children know, having your child restrained in a car seat for that amount of time, usually leads to the consumption of numerous pain relievers on your part! I took a coloring book and crayons and that occupied a lot of time! The next day brought a short 4 hour jaunt to Orlando. We were in a mad rush to check in at 3:00pm and make our dinner reservations at 4:00pm. Yes, I said dinner at 4! You take what you can get at Disney.

The trip was great and we all had a great time! We even saw a few celebs! Neil Patrick Harris was reading the Christmas Story from Luke at the Candlelight Processional. But best of all was David Cook! He was taping his portion of the Disney Christmas Special on that Friday so we were able to hear him sing live!

I've posted my favorite pictures from the trip, including Drew's first encounter with Mickey. Folks, the boy walked up to Mickey and turned to smile for the camera. And he did this all by himself! It brought a tear to my eye!

Now what?

Now that I started this blog, I'm not real sure what to do. My friend, Micah, came over to show me around the blogging world and I'm all set. Right? Hardly! I do however want to share this "oh so cute" picture of Drew on the local choo-choo train around the park. Every year my dad takes all of us out to eat and then to the park to see the Christmas lights. This year, however, was different. Drew is totally into choo-choo trains so we knew this was a MUST! We went to the park first to ride the train before going to eat. After much debate about how many rear ends could fit in a seat, we boarded the train! What a great family! Josh, Sarah, Mom, Dad, Seth, Drew and I all rode the train in the frigid weather. Thanks all! And thanks Josh for the good photo!

What am I doing?

So...I've gotten sucked into the blogging world by reading countless blogs of people I don't even know! Weird, I know! As I browse their sites, I keep thinking of my family members who would love to see silly pictures of my Drew-be-doo doing who knows what. One of my friends started a blog for that same reason, so her fam could see her precious darling. Well guess what...here's mine! Welcome!