Getting ready for Blitzen’s arrival has also meant getting ready for Christmas! I LOVE that we’ve done everything so early this year!!! In an effort to finish up all my errands for awhile (with a Babywise baby you are pretty much AT THE HOUSE for a looooong time. Thank the Lord for internet shopping and a husband who doesn’t mind running errands) Kye and I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some Christmas decorations we were needing. Including a tree for Blitzen’s room and a chance for Kye to pick out his ornament for his room this year.
We aren’t fancy fancy when it comes to Christmas decorations. I’m a big believer in it being FUN and all about the family! Our tree is covered in ornaments with meaning, not ones that are necessarily pretty. We buy an ornament on every vacation we take so they are mostly from vacations (I think we added EIGHT new ones this year from all our travels). I think it’s fun to let our kids have their own little tree in their rooms to decorate how they wish. Each year Kye gets to pick a new ornament for “his tree.” This year he was more interested in playing with his choices than he was actually picking one out!
narrowing down the choices
as soon as I showed him this firetruck, I KNEW we’d found “the one”
super pumped!
On Sat Nov 19th we cut down our Christmas tree and that next morning I was feeling SO SICK. I ended up staying home from church and letting the boys just go. While they were gone I started to unpack all our house decorations and ornaments so when they got home we could jump right into decorating the tree. Zach had built it up pretty big I guess in the car b/c Kye ran in the house BURSTING with excitement about our tree.
I laid out all our ornaments
He picked the first one to go on the tree which was a SUPER sweet gift Ashley got for him 🙂
I was surprised how well Kye did at hanging the ornaments. He would say “it needs hook!” and we’d put a hook on it then he’d hang it right up. He did tend to put mulitple ornaments in the same spot but he was SO proud of all they all looked. I started to help him look for the “perfect” spot for each ornament because he was going so fast that Zach and I couldn’t keep up and we didn’t want everything lumped in one spot leaving a TON of empty spots behind!
He’s holding up a pirate ornament from our St Augustine trip last 4th!
look at that belly…
had to hang our Mickey from the BIG Disney trip!
At first all the ornaments Kye hung were very low so I pulled out the stool to let him get up a little higher…and then it was over. He was ALL about the stool and wanted to use it for every single ornament he hung up. We really should have video taped the whole thing as he was beyond precious about it. He took the whole experience very seriously and would hang each ornament with thought and care.
having a giant for a husband comes in handy
admiring his work
“ta da!”
getting ready to hang the star with Daddy
I thought it’d be so cute to let Kye hang the star…didn’t really consider the logistics behind it and it makes me laugh out loud remembering the scene. Zach couldn’t even reach the top of the tree easily so he had to hold Kye up to reach it and manage to not drop Kye or the star during the whole thing. Kye literally about fell into the tree hahaha
We ended up letting Daddy take over 😉
finished product, right in time for Kye’s nap
(excuse the ugly frog…it rib-bits a Christmas song…I’ve had it since I was a “frog collector” back in the day haha)
After Kye got up from his nap I had all of his ornaments ready so we could decorate the tree for his room! He was sad to be done with the big tree and happy to have one more thing to decorate. This kid has a natural Christmas spirit and I LOVE IT!
putting on the new one for this year!
Christmas is, by FAR, my FAVORITE time of year. I love it. Right now in our house and in our cars you’ll hear Christmas music playing non-stop. I’m all about having the tree turned on every single second that we are home. I want to soak it ALL up! Our last house was this bright green color inside with red accents so we had a lot of red and green decorations. It looked awesome. With our new house colors I need to slowly transition away from red and green and instead get silver and white. Obviously I can’t afford the expense this year (hello…new baby on the way!) but I’m hoping that after Christmas I may be able to find some deals on some stuff! We’ll see! I’m still happy with how everything looks and am enjoying every second of it. Here’s a taste of the Parker Home at Christmas!
Now that we have a way bigger house and yard we are FOR SURE investing in more outdoor decorations after Christmas when they are on sale!
our little polar bear looks sad and lonely in our huge yard!
right when you walk in the front door, a little tree with silver ornaments
When we decided to do the house plans we chose I told Zach we HAD to put lit garland up the staircase…I LOVE IT. I cannot WAIT to be holding a sweet newborn baby and nursing him or her under these pretty lights. Kye and I both just sit in the living room in awe of how pretty it looks. I wish we could leave it up all year!!! I’ll totally be that lady with it up at Valentine’s Day haha
One thing I DID go ahead and buy were new stockings. I hunted and hunted and ended up getting 6 stockings from Crate and Barrel. Three of each pattern (one is a simple silver with a stripe pattern and the other is a white color with silver snowflakes). I think they turned out great and look really good on the mantel! Once we are 100% done having kids we’ll probably invest in some that can be embroidered but for now, these will work. And I have enough for baby #3 and #4 when they make an appearance someday…once we get past 4 kids though we’ll have to buy new ones again!
Zeke loves the tree too!
This is our tree BEFORE Thanksgiving. Yes, I was 100% DONE wrapping presents then too! Who’s impressed with me?!?! Now I can’t remember what’s in half the boxes but they are wrapped and ready! The only thing I have to do is fill in the “from” portion of all the gift tags since we don’t know which baby name we will be using yet 😉 I LOVE our tree and LOVE the spot where we decided to put it. You see it right when you walk in the front door. You can see it from the kitchen. People driving by can see it through the back windows. And it’s right next to the fireplace so we can have a fire going and enjoy the tree at the same time. I’m so beyond happy with it and know we’ll be putting the tree here every year!
Here’s Kye’s tree
And Blitzen’s! Complete with all the ornaments everyone made for him/her at one of my baby showers!
I am so, so happy with how all of our stuff turned out and LOVE that Kye is at an age where he appreciates it all too. I was a little nervous about putting out all the presents but Zach said if they were wrapped it was stupid to wait, and I agreed. Why keep them hidden from Kye? We put them out and he hasn’t even attempted to touch ONE of them. He even helped me to put them all around the tree and I simply told him one time that after he helped me put them out that we couldn’t touch them again and he said okay. It hasn’t been an issue at all. Of course Santa will be bringing the BIG gifts on Christmas Eve for him, but he knows that Mommy and Daddy have presents for him under the tree and he still hasn’t been tempted. Maybe he’s like his Mommy and Daddy and loves to be surprised too (hello, how many people can hold out not knowing the sex of their unborn baby?!?! Not many! We LOVE some surprises and anticipation!).
Is your house Christmas-ready????
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Your house is so cute! Mine is partially Christmas ready, decorations are up, all but the tree.
Everything is beautiful!!I was just wondering if you had done a blog yet with a tour of the new house? I don't remember seeing it! I love your living room colors! So so pretty 🙂
It's SO pretty! I'm glad Kye liked his ornament:) Christmas is my favorite time of year too! If I could, I would leave everything decorated ALL year long! I love the garland up the banister!
thank you!!!!
@4804e23eee65af3d70393d5733ce2cb1 thank you 🙂 NO i totally haven't done a post yet on the house…i was ~planning~ to have an open house party after we moved in but zach took so long on that dang storage shed it never happened haha now that he's done with that he's been working on other things around the house that i wanted completed before showing everyone 😉 someday soon though i hope!
Ashley Troutman he did! he loves it!!! you're so thoughtful 🙂 i totally would leave it all up too…i LOVE christmas!