Christmas Home Tour "2013"

Good Morning!!!!
With our family and friend's far away at the Christmas season I love to do a little "Home tour" so they can see the fun of our home.

 

Welcome to our porch!

 

 Come on in!

 

 This year we have 3 Big Trees and 3 little, it was so fun to decorate with the kids this year. My Sweet Hubby laughed and said " I went to work with fall décor up and came home to Christmas!" we love the Christmas season so we decorate just a bit early. like the end of Nov. :)

 

 I just had to add one with this little cutie! :)

 

 

 

 

 I just love my new hutch! it was super fun to decorate!

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today!
With Christmas just a few days away, we are thankful for the Gift of God's Son Jesus!

and that He came to die on the cross for our sins.

Don't get too caught up in the THINGS of Christmas that you miss out in the joy of celebrating The Christ Child!  

 

 Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

My Top 5 Christmas Shopping Ideas For Kiddos!!

So with Thanksgiving and Christmas so very close together I've stared my shopping early and thankfully I'm just about done.:)
I wanted to share with you just our Top 5 places we like to shop for our kiddos.
If' you have been with me long you know how much that I love Good Will and Salvation Army ( Sally's as my family calls it!)  so you know that there will be other cool places like that on my list!
So on with my list. :)

1.  Your Local "Facebook" Garage Sale, Buy Sell Trade Page.
   Just look for it you'll find it. we have 6 for our area!

 I have bought 3 or 4 gifts for the kids this year on there for about 1/4 of the price of the store.   and you know that they don't care if its not brand new. it's already out of the package and ready to play with! :)

    2. Good Will and Sally's .
Again you have gently used clothing and great toys, just double check if your buying games that all the pieces are there!


    3. Garage Sales.

 It's kinda late this year for this one, but I love shopping all summer long for great gifts, and again for about 1/2 to 1/4 of the price of the store for " Like new" things.

   
    4.Christian Book Distributers
I love that I can find great God Centered books and Toys Here as well!

 

    5. Vision Forum
We have bought a few Birthday gifts as well as Christmas gifts here. we love that they have REAL boy toys. like sling shots and play guns. They also have a great staff that was very helpful as well!


Ok I can't just stop with 5. I need to do just one more! :)


   6. Itsy!!!!

 I love, love, love all the cool stuff that you can find on there, I love the kids pages you can go here to see it! But you can also find neat stuff for YOU from the Kiddos ;) .  You can go here to find that too!



So there you have it! and now you know my secrets to where most of our kiddos gifts come from. :)
I may post about Adult gifts this week and the fun of finding a great deal to give as gifts too!

Have a wonderful day !!! I'm off to get life going in our Little home. that includes starting a fire, cause my fingers are about to fall off from being so cold! :)

Blessings,
Carra

     

Chirstms cards!!!!

It's just 9 days away from Christmas day!!! it's so hard to believe that it's just about here.

Our little home is all prepared and the stocking that I finally got done (after saying for 3 years that I would do some) are hung!
Last year a dear friend gave us a Christmas advent calendar for this year, we have just loved doing it each night with the kids, so much so Hubby is going to build one that's just a bit bigger for the years to come.

This week week we also had our Cookie exchange, ( and I for got to take pix. :( sorry! ). it was a great time with lots of  families, some singing and lots of yummy food!! We loved it so much that we will start doing it each year!

We are getting really excited about our next big trip, we're heading to GA. to be with Hubby's side of the family for the Christmas week.

So enough of an update for now. remember in my last post how excited I was about Christmas cards?

Well in the past few days the kids just about can't wait till the mail man brings the mail. they race to the box to see if we have received any cards. yesterday we got 5!!! they were so excited I just had to share it with you!!! 

Here's some pictures I took of them! 

 

Thanks for the blessings!!!!



Just love Aiden's face in this one!

In our kitchen we hang all of our cards for the weeks to come so that we can enjoy each one, and pray for the families as we look through them!

 We want to thank each of you that have sent us a Christmas card and up date!

Have a blessed day, I'm off to spend time with my kiddo's.
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

With December here I can't wait to go to the mail box and find those wonderful little Christmas cards and letters from our friends and loved ones. I was so excited to receive our 1st one today, and hung it up to wait for the rest of our cards!!!
I feel like Christmas cards are kind of a thing of the past, but I love them!! and that it means that someone took the time to think of our family and wants to bless us. it just delights me so much!!!  I look forward to scrapbooking all the pictures to look back on in the years to come too!
So with our awaiting excitement to have a card or two in our mail box each day I couldn't wait to get our Christmas card and letter out.  So today was the day, They are all out!!  we'll hand deliver a few to our church family and friends here in the next few days and weeks.
  I want to share our Letter with you my blog friends too, and if your on Christmas Card list, you'll just have to resist the the "want" to read it and wait till yours arrives. ; )
So here is our "2011" Christmas letter!


Merry Christmas!!!
It’s hard to believe that the Christmas season is here already. Our year has just flown by.
We’ve had a very blessed year with lots of Joys and Sorrows too. The Lord is always faithful through it all to grow our love for Him in a neat way!


Liam ~ Now 4. Loves to ride his bike and climb trees, higher then Mama really likes! He is growing tall and into a little man. He is a joy and a blessing to have around!


Elhanna ~ Our happy healthy little 3 year old is rarely seen without a pencil and paper in hand. She is becoming quite the “Little Mama” always with a helping hand, or telling the boys what to do.


Aiden ~ Now 19 months, with his little sparkling blue eyes and smiles galore; there is never a dull moment with him around. He helps this Mama remember that, “A clean house isn’t always best.” He is a precious little treasure.

Jon ~ Is very busy at the church, studying and teaching. He loves to spend what little free time he has in the garage, or “shop” as he calls it, building as many projects that this little wife can come up with. He is such a great Daddy, Always giving of himself even after a long hard day at the office! I’m so thankful the Lord gave him to me to be his helpmate!


Me~ This fall an interesting one for me. In Aug.I became really sick, and tired all the time. We were very quick to find out that we were blessed with another “Little treasure” to arrive in April. So, my time has been spent in getting as much done in the mornings and a nap time in the afternoon. This pregnancy had been the hardest yet. But so thankful that we are in the second trimester and feeling MUCH better! Between rough times I have managed to get a few projects done!


May 2012 grow you ever closer to our Savior.


Blessings!
Jon, Carra, Liam, Elhanna,
Aiden & Baby
  
                                                    And here is the Pix from our card!

We just got back from visiting my side of the family in IN. and I thought I share just a few pix with you!




Our Nativity with a  real 2 week old baby Jesus!



Our kiddo's with my Parents!

It has become the tradition each year to do a family pix with all 35 of us!!
 ( counting our baby boy on the way!)
My parents are so Blessed!! This is just my siblings and their families, and my parents, :)

Have a Blessed day!
I'm off to wrap some gifts before the kids wake up! :)

Christmas in IN.

We pray that you had a wonderful Christmas with your family!!
We sure did!
My post this morning is going to be short, but filled with lots of pix!
We are to pull out this morning in a few hours, and so I want to spend the last few min. with my family!

Our Nativity !

Liam was out fainting sheep again this year!

Mom and Dad's Tree was beautiful!

Aiden loves his Papaw

We were so excited to finally meet our new neice's!!!

They are just Precious!!!!!

Elin & Ava

Grandma and the Girls reading some books

Each year we all look forward to spending time with All the cousins,

so with everyone here we make 32 of us, and we are missing Little Adia (my neice from Ethiopia who should arrive in March!!!)

Caroling

Lanna and Liam's 1st Sledding

Mama was a wimp I stayed inside and held a baby, but we saw a video of Liam snowboarding down the hill. He loved it. I think were in for it now that he's done it, he's gonna want to

snowboard when we get home!

Lanna & Uncle Carry

L&L with Aunt Carla

the Girls!!!

Well thats it for now!

I have a few more pix to put on but their still on the cam. so I'll get to those when we get home.

Have a blessed week, and a Happy New Years!!!!

Season Fun!

Oh the weather outside is..... Like Indian Summer and our house is all ready for Christmas!!!!
You see here in Garrett Co. MD. we get snow towards the end of Oct. and with that comes the Fun of putting up the tree!!!
So here's just a few pictures of our tree, there's more to come but just to give you a sampling of the fun!!!
And part of why we have it up so early is that I'm having and Christmas Pampered Chef party tomorrow, and I wanted to get everyone in the Mood to Christmas shop! :)
So with that said... If you need anything from them let me know, I'd love to place an order for you!

Blessings!!!!

Christmas Eve Day Fun

We had a very blessed Day.
We spent the whole day just enjoying each other and playing around.
The weather was perfect for sledding so we headed out to enjoy it!
Here's how it went!

More to come later!

Christmas Day 2009

Christmas day was a blast at our house this year. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep Christmas Eve. It's one of those things that you wait for when your kids are babies and then when they can really enjoy the whole thing it's so special.

and Liam is now grasping who Jesus is and it makes Knowing Him more awesome!

It all started with Liam coming into our room at 8 saying "I awake!"

I'm not sure he knew what was going on but he was told not not go into the family room without Mama and Daddy in the morning!

We all got coffee and Steamers and Daddy read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

And then the fun began~

Lanna wasn't to sure what to think, but soon caught on to the fun.

We went form gift to gift. playing in the middle. we tried to keep it simple with just a few gifts and some home made ones too.

I'll share as I go through the pix of the favorite ones!

Mama's Fav. My LL Bean lime green slippers!

Ellie Joy's Fav. here baby!

She was so cute about it, she Had to have it open right away so that she could hold it.

She is just nuts about babies. it must be a girl thing cause I was too!

Hats! I made them matching hats and pants.

Here's the pants. Lanna's are so cute they have ruffles on the tush!

Can I open it yet?

Daddy spent hours and hours in the garage on this little one. He did such a awesome job on it.

Can you believe that he just started building things about a year ago?

Liam's Fav. was his work bench!

He was so excited when he got to uncover it!

Aunt Rae & Uncle Dwayne sent some gifts to the kids, this one is a blast Liam calls it

"King Frog!" He's a huge frog block, too cute. thanks Rae.

Our Day went on with lunch, with the Christmas China. and lots and lots more playing.

we stayed in our PJ's till 4pm when we headed out to the Massey's for Dinner.

The weather was snowy and cold perfect for a White Christmas!

We are so blessed.

We pray that your Christmas was filled with Lots of Joy and the true meaning of Christmas.

Christ Birth!