Finally, A Shed To Put Everything In

Matthew and I build this foundation for the shed and we put the shed up together.

It was a long process and we're so glad it's done.

Click here to see the full blog post on this project.

*pics taken 9/17/2013

For unto us...

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. " (King James Bible, Isaiah 9:6)

I hope we can all remember the real reason for this wonderful season!

I love my Savior & am grateful for all he's done for ALL of us!

Family Photo Collage

I've got my wall project mostly done & if you want to see more go to our (Chelsea & I joined forces on a blog) creativity blog here.

If you're a family member and don't see your picture on the wall it's because I can't find one or don't have a digital copy. Please send me your most recent digital family picture because we really want all our family on the wall :)

This way, we get to see everyone every day!

Steps to Set Up a Christmas Tree

Step 1: Decide you want to go through the trouble of setting up the Christmas tree.

Step 2: Haul the 3 sections of Christmas tree through the crawl space and up 2 flights of stairs. (We bought a floor model about 8 years ago, so we've never had the box to pack it in.)

Step 3: Unwrap tree sections & make sure no branches are broken.




Step 4: Fluff out all the branches. Here is a good time to enlist help of your eager children to separate all the branches.


Step 5: Attach tree 1 section at a time to make sure ALL tree branches get separated, so tree looks nice and full.


Step 6: Attach all light strands correctly so you don't blow any fuses.


Notice that lights are out on this section of the tree.


And out in this section of the tree.



Step 7: Try for a LONG time to get the lights to work. Get some to work and give up on other and string a new strand in the tree. You can even post your frustrations on Facebook & you'll realize everyone has the same problems with lights :)

Step 8: Decide you're tired of the tree and you'll finish it another day.

Step 9: Try to figure out which colors you want to put on the tree. Change you mind about a million times. Add ribbon to tree & change your mind about the colors again before you get the second color ribbon on.

Step 10: Make a huge mess in the living room and leave it there for at least a day.

Step 11: Add as many bulbs to the tree as you possibly can.

Step 12: Add as many picks to the tree as you possibly can.

Step 13: Finally add the tree topper & you're done.

Step 14: You're allowed to rearrange things on the tree every time you look at it if you want. Either that or your kids will do that for you :)

Step 15: Stand back and take in all the beauty. (Don't forget to take lots of pictures so you can look back at your work :)

The title I first had on this post was "Why Life is Like Setting Up a Christmas Tree" because just like setting up the tree, it's hard work, but sooooo worth it in the end & you get to see so much beauty along the way!

I hope your Christmas season is filled with joy and love and that you all remember the real reason for the season!

Trimming the Tree

On Sunday we decided to put up the family tree.

It's always an occasion filled with Christmas music, nostalgia & a little fighting over who gets to put what ornament on the tree or who gets to put on the star.

Let's be real now. We absolutely love it, but kids will be kids :)

Tree assembly.

We're so lucky to have so many helpers!

Pre ornaments.

Just a funky picture, I thought was cool.

Matthew loves bubble lights and flicker lights.

A cute guy I just had to take a picture of. This picture is linked up at:

Decking the tree.

I can't believe how tall our kids have gotten. Now they can read most parts of the tree themselves, with the exception of Lexi.

We had to look at old pictures on the computer to decide who's turn it was to put on the tree topper.

Our finished tree.

The kids mostly decorated it themselves.

I got to put the lights on cause Matthew still wasn't feeling his best.

And we had to help the kids get the beads around the tree too:)

I always love how there are quite a few ornaments at the bottom of the tree. I'm pretty sure Lexi put these on the tree :)

The kids did a great job!

We love how this is in our family room and we get to look at it all Monthly long!

*pics taken 11/28/2010

It's a white out here!

In case you live in a place where you don't get any snow, here's some I'm sharing with you :)

It's one of those days where schools, business, and roads are closed. Good thing we don't need to go anywhere today!!

*video taken 11/23/2010

Here's What Halloween Looks Like at Our House

To see the rest of the tour, visit my Creative Momma Blog here.

Lots of Pumpkins!

We actually got pumpkins this year!

Lots of pumpkins!

Hopefully we'll get to carve them soon too.

*pics taken 10/20/2010

Last Mowing of the Year

I'm happy to say that I mowed the lawn for the last time this season!

Now it's time to put the lawn mower away! Woohoo!

Now we're getting ready for the snow :(

I heard it might snow this weekend! Yikes

*pic taken 10/20/2010

Flowers In Bloom

I had a previous post about when we planted all these flowers, so I thought I'd show how much they've grown.

In case you don't think they look all that big, check out what they used to look like...

Here are some more flowers.

And their before picture...

This cute flower is one that Lexi planted from seed in a little cup at nursery one Sunday. It's so beautiful and it just keeps growing and growing. We can't wait until it's fully bloomed.

Who would have thought that a seed planted in nursery would turn out to be so beautiful!

These are some seeds that we just recently planted to see if we could grow some more flowers before the end of summer. We're watering them daily and crossing our fingers that the frost won't be too early this year!

*pics taken 08/06/2010

Reap What You Sow

We wish there was more variety to reap, but this is the garden this year.

We planted 10 different plants and only got 7 to grow & not all 7 grew so strongly :)

The first year we planted (5 years ago) we filled this entire garden. Each year the garden got smaller because we couldn't even eat what was in it.

This year, the garden takes up half of the original area. Manageable enough for me this year :)

Last year we didn't have any pumpkins when Halloween rolled around and we did not want to repeat that mistake again. I think we have 6 regular pumpkin plants growing and 2 white pumpkin plants.

This year we'll hopefully have LOTS of pumpkins!!! We love pumpkins at Halloween time!

In case you're wondering, spinach grows like CRAZY! I think I have 3 spinach plants and we can hardly keep up with eating them. I think I'm going to cook it and freeze it so it doesn't go to waste.

Here are our peas. One vegi that the kids love to eat fresh. Since we planted so late this year (thanks to the weather) we're still waiting for them to be ready to pick.

These are the raspberries that grow along our fence. I got some starters from a friend about 3 years ago and they also grow like CRAZY. It's nice to go pick fresh raspberries every day.

We've moved our strawberries a few times, but here is where they are currently, up against the house. My plan was to build raised garden beds this spring, but since it never happened the strawberries will have to stay here. As you can see, they've decided to grow around the corner too.

*pics taken 08/06/2010

Planting Flowers

Memorial Day started off really beautiful so we decided to take advantage of it & plant our flowers. Our children love plants and they wanted to spend their own money on plants.

We all went to Walmart and picked out flowers. These are the ones Kalin and Ethan picked out.

We found a place in the back yard where they could plant them all and they chose just where to put each one.

I think they did a pretty good job choosing some great plants and helping me plant them.

These pots of course are my project every spring and I sure love picking out flowers to go in them.
These two are the ones that go on each side of our garage.

These are the two that go on our porch. The lilies were picked out by the kids and Grandpa when he was visiting, so we decided to add them here.

I love that the kids want to help me with these projects and I love planting flowers. If I lived in a place where flowers could grow year round, I'd have a massive flower garden!!

We love family gardening time!

*pics taken 05/31/2010