My Little Santa Baby

We had Rhett's Santa pictures taken at an area photography studio that does a charity event every year. I missed out on these the first year of Rhett's life, but made sure that we were there for last years and again this year. Even if it means driving 45 minutes away. I love the way their pics turn out!

*** ALL IMAGES PROPERTY OF MAJOR IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY***

Copying Pottery Barn (Again)!

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I loved Pottery Barn's new tree garland this year, and for $12 each, I didn't think it was too bad, until I realized that I would need more than one for my tree. So, I made my own this year. It is not identical... I didn't scallop the edges or add the snow flakes, but it turned out pretty good, and considering I had the paper, this project was FREE!

Thanksgiving Week 2010

We had a busy busy Thanksgiving break!

On Wednesday, we kicked things off with a trip to The Gaylord Texan Hotel to check out their ICE exhibit! We had a fun time, but I think Rhett was a little young to enjoy the talent of the ice sculptors. But, he was not too young to enjoy the Christmas train displays throughout the hotel. However, those were free, so we could have achieved the same outcome by just visiting the hotel and looking at the trains!
Rhett and Dida in line:

Beautiful displays everywhere

Dida and her boy!

I love toy soldiers and this Texas-themed one was HUGE!

This year's ICE exhibit was Charlie Brown themed.

These sculptors sure are amazingly talented!

Close to the end, there is a big ice slide for everyone to go down. As you can see, Rhett didn't make it very far!

And he just laid there, as if he were frozen to the ice!

An employee with special shoes had to climb up the front of the slide to save him!

On sturdy ground once again! I could not stop laughing!

Rhett was dressed in so many layers, he lost his eyes!

This was a cool ice tunnel that we walked through:

Just beautiful!

On Thursday, we went to my SIL's house for Thanksgiving with both of our families. Rhett had an accident, so he went pants-less the rest of the day. He didn't seem to care, though:

He enjoyed looking at trucks on the Internet and drinking his apple cider. I thought he looked like a little business man here:

And, we ended our Thanksgiving weekend by picking up our first real Christmas tree! I am so excited to try out a real tree, but find myself at a loss for how to decorate it.

Rhett was very excited about it though!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now, bring on Christmas!

Pottery Barn Knock Off

I got the Pottery Barn catalog a few months ago featuring their holiday line for this year. My attic is pretty full of Christmas decor, so I knew there wouldn't be much that would catch my eye (despite their pretty displays). But, I was wrong, and saw this:

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But, like a lot of things in the Pottery Barn catalog, this was pricey. So, I mentioned to my Father-In-Law that I would like him to cut something like this out of wood for me. He gave me a piece of wood, and told me to draw it, and he would cut it. Well, I got lazy, and never did it. So, a few weeks later, he called to say that he had cut it out. The board he gave me to draw on was a lot smaller than the PB version, so I assumed I was getting something around 12 x 12 or something. He said all I had to do was paint it however I wanted. When I went to pick it up I was SO surprised! It was HUGE:I painted it brown to look like the original (though it is actually iron), and distressed it with some bronze paint and sand paper. I absolutely love it! The above picture is nowhere near finished, but I just had to showcase his spot-on skills and how much I love this piece!

SUYL- Bathrooms

Today at Kelly's Korner, it's Show Us Your Life- Bathrooms. Here are some pictures of our master bathroom. Nothing too fancy. I would like to add molding in here and maybe some type of paneling. We'll see if our house sells first, though. I don't have any pics of Rhett's bathroom and it is VERY hard to photograph. You can see some pics from when I re-did it, here, but I am already planning another re-do soon!

Bathtime is fun again!

Bathtime used to be one of Rhett's favorite things. But, lately it has become a HUGE battle. So, tonight, we initiated a new bathtime ritual, and it was a hit:
Hopefully it sticks!

Halloween Festivities 2010

I love Fall! And with a little one, I have learned to LOVE Halloween! I make all these big plans to do little family traditions every year, and every year something seems to get tripped up! Last year, the rain kept us from visiting any of the 3 pumpkin patches that are just miles from our house. This year, my little guy got some crazy virus that kept us from hosting a Halloween get-together, participating in our neighborhood celebration, and joining another get together and trick or treating. But, we made the best of October anyway, visiting the pumpkin patches MANY times, painting, carving and making paper pumpkins and spider webs, reading scary stories, etc. I tried to have some kind of Halloween inspired craft to do weekly with Rhett. Here are some pics from our fun-filled October:


1. We carved our first ever family pumpkin at Jack's 4th Birthday party!
2. We painted a pumpkin one day (Thanks for the idea, Jessica!)



3. We painted a paper plate to look like a pumpkin. (We also painted a paper plate to look like a spider web, but I forgot to take a pic of it).


4. We decorated our first spooky house. A lot easier than it looks!
5. We visited 2 area pumpkin patches SEVERAL times!

Rhett with his friend, Ella on Pumpkin Patch opening day

On our 2nd trip, we went to a local patch with a TRAIN!

Rhett in his Halloween shirt waiting on his cousins to arrive
Rhett would climb to the top of this huge haystack and say, "Ladies and Gentleman" as loud as he could!

The train

Some of the spooky decor. Such a cute place!

6. I had so much fun planning and making Rhett's Halloween Costume. This was the first year I had no say in his costume. I started asking him about July what he wanted to be. He never had any hesitation and said, "Lightning McQueen". I scoured the Internet and some local stores to find a costume that I liked, but they were either too expensive, or just not what I had in mind. I finally found a plain red race car driver suit on ebay for $18! That was quite a bit less than I found Lightning McQueen costumes for, so I decided I'd make it work. I searched ebay and Etsy for patches that I could use to create a race car driver suit. I lucked out and found some Disney ones early on that I wasn't able to find again the closer it got to Halloween. I found "Rusteze" patches, a Disney Cars patch, a few different Lightning McQueen ones, then got creative and found a Route 66 Patch, a Mack Truck Patch, a red patch that said "RACING" on it in yellow, a pair of lightning bolts that I attached to his sleeves, and a pair of checkered flag patches. I also found two patches on ETSY. One said "Radiator Springs" and one said "Casa Della Tires". You would have to be as familiar with the movie as we are to know what all of those patches are, but to us, they all tied in to the movie and completed the costume.
I decided that I wanted Rhett's treat bucket to tie into his costume this year, so I purchased a cheap, plastic gas can at Wal Mart. My plan was to just remove the spigot and use that as the hole to access the candy. But, upon further inspection and consideration, I asked my dad if it were possible to cut a larger hole into the can. I planned to remove the spigot and glue it on the other side, and gave it to my dad for cutting. When he returned it to me, it was better than I even imagined! He cut the spigot off, made a large hole, then attached the spigot to the other side with screws. It looked so great and we got more compliments on that bucket! I found the Rusteze stickers on ebay also.

I found these cute lightning bolts to attach to shoes on ETSY. I hesitated, then decided last minute that they would complete Rhett's costume. The shop owner was so kind and overnighted them to me. They looked so cute on Rhett's shoes, but you couldn't even see them.
I found a cute Lightning McQueen headset at Party City, but couldn't get Rhett to wear it. :( But, I could convince him (without much convincing) to wear this Lightning McQueen hat that I found on ebay. It really completed the outfit and I don't think anyone couldn't figure out who he was!

We ran a few errands and when we returned home on Halloween eve, there were already kids lining the block. Rhett had been sick, but was so in awe of everyone in their costumes, he decided he could muster the strength to hit a few houses close by! Here is my cutie in his costume:


We hope you all had a fun Halloween! We did, even though Rhett started it sick, and Jeremy ended it with a case of pink eye! ;)