Baby Martin Update

We had our big ultrasound this morning, and Baby Martin is definitely a BOY!! A few fun things to mention:
-He was playing with "it". Yes, that's right. My sweet, innocent, curious son. Patrick couldn't stop laughing and was just like, "Babe! Look at him!" I was horrified of course, since the little monkey can now hear his daddy cheering him on as he plays with his "business." What am I going to do with both of them?! They are going to be a mess, for sure. :)
-He was sucking his thumb when he wasn't playing with "it." Nice, huh? We need some germ-x up in there or something. Can't be sanitary.
-In one picture it looks like he's doing hamstring curls. His leg is all stretched out and the angle is just too cute. Think he's telling mama to hit the gym!
-His bladder was really full. Just goes to show he's a genius AND an excellent listener already. He probably overhead me telling Patrick I had to show up with my bladder full, so he was just going along with mama. That's my boy!

And now for some "belly shots." Or truthfully, "puffy shots".

My belly hasn't really popped out yet; I'm just growing everywhere else. Particularly, ahem, in the upper region. But I'm definitely filling out all over. A guy I work with (who didn't know I was pregnant) overheard me talking to someone the other day about my pregnancy. He's like, "Excuse me, but are you pregnant?" I said yes, and he said, "Oh good. I just thought you were filling out for the winter or something. Plus every time I see you you're always eating." What a way with words this guy has, huh? I thought about starting to sob, throwing down my donut(s), and running out of the room just for dramatic effect but I didn't. It's all worth it. :)

And quite honestly, it's all still a little surreal. I am overwhelmed with joy at this sweet miracle the Lord has blessed us with. He has truly done great things for us, and we are most certainly filled with joy!! (Psalm 126:3)

Christmas Card Carousel

Today I am linking up to Faith's Christmas Card Carousel! I absolutely love to get Christmas cards in the mail. :) Here is ours for this year. Unfortunately I haven't sent them out yet because I've had some technical difficulties with my address list, but I'm working on gathering them again, so hopefully I'll get them out this week! So if you normally receive a card from me, sorry to ruin the surprise. (I know; you look forward to it all year, right?) I went a totally different direction design wise this year, but I think it's still fun & festive! Plus I think it's the last time I'll be able to get away with doing anything pink for awhile. :)

If you would like to exchange cards with me, just drop me an email with your address at sjg_ou@yahoo.com. Merry Christmas...can't wait to see everyone else's! :)

DIY Glitter Ornaments & Hurricanes

Two quick and easy projects to share with you today! First, we have some easy glitter ornaments. I love these because they look so pretty and since the glitter is inside the ornament, there is no real mess! (after the initial clean-up, of course.)

All you need is a box of clear glass ornaments, pump hairspray, and glitter. I recommend really fine glitter - it coats so much better. I used the Martha Stewart glitter on these, and it's my favorite by far.

Here are a few of the boxes of ornaments I purchased - Hobby Lobby or Michael's have them in a few shapes and sizes.

Take the ornament out of the box and remove the top. Then it's time to spray the hairspray in. I've found aerosol does not work near as well as the pump kind.

Give it about 15 pumps of hairspray, sometimes a few more or less depending on the shape & size of the ornament you're using. Then roll the hairspray around and coat every part of the inside of the ornament. Make sure to get the part by the opening! Pour any excess out.

Now dump your glitter in. I use about this much. I go light at first because you can always pour more in if you need to. You don't want to waste the precious Martha Stewart glitter...that stuff is like gold!

And then just start rolling it around. You'll see it start coating. If a spot is not sticking, give it a few more pumps of hairspray and you should be good to go.

Replace the top, and ta-da! Just like that.

I think these are really pretty on their own. Sometimes I tie lots of cute ribbons on the top, too. Just depends where you're putting them.

You can also embellish them with stickers or vinyl. I've made several of these for gifts and they're always a big hit!

The next thing I want to share is a project I saw on 320 Sycamore. I loved this idea, AND the cost is amazing! Basically buy a candlestick holder (I got mine at Dollar General for $1) and a hurricane. I bought some tall and some short ones at Dollar Tree, of course for $1 each.

Simply use hot glue or E6000 glue to stick the two pieces together. (I forgot to take a picture of this step. I used hot glue on all of mine and put glue directly on the rim of the candlestick and they turned out great.)

Here are 2 of them as finished products. I filled them with ornaments and they look so pretty!

And here are 2 of them with candles in them. I bought the candles at Dollar Tree for $1 each also, so the total cost was only $3. I love them because you can change the filler out with the seasons, too.

That's all for today...thanks for stopping by! :)

Christmas Tour of Homes

So today I'm linking up with The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes, Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Party , Hooked on House's Holiday Tours, Southern Hospitality's Christmas Tour of Homes, The Inspired Room's Holiday Linky, and Funky Junk Interiors Christmas Trees Unite. Unfortunately I had such a hard time getting decent pictures...it always looks so much prettier in person! Anyway, here we go...and just to warn you, there are like a bajillion pictures. And I actually deleted several I originally thought I'd include. Hope you enjoy. :)

Our Christmas tree this year was quite the experience. I bought it in a heat-of-the-moment bidding war (I'll post that story later this week) and had some serious buyer's remorse. Think Griswold Family Christmas Tree, but artificial...so no trimming is possible. But with a no return policy, what's a girl to do? Make her husband haul it in and try to make room for it, of course. Needless to say, it is 10 feet tall (and perhaps wide, too?) and the FULLEST tree I've ever seen. I kid you not. So here it is, minus the topper. We need to borrow a ladder from somebody to make that happen...we don't have one that will reach without me thinking Patrick is about to go crashing to the ground.

This was my first year working with the mesh, and I struggled with it. I'd have it twisted just how I wanted, and suddenly it'd pop back out again. And after the 6th time of climbing the ladder to fix the same spot, I decided maybe I just needed to let it go. So it's not exactly what I envisioned, but I do like it.

Patrick's Aunt bought us a dozen beautiful gold ornaments the year we got married, and has given us one each year since. They are really nice...here are a few of them, as well as a few other close-ups of the tree.

Some boxes under the tree (from Hobby Lobby).

Here is the staircase railing during the day.

And a few pictures at night...

I put a few decorations in the powder room, which is really a big deal for me. I want to get better about decorating more rooms rather than just the main living areas.

Here is the butler's pantry. I made some ornaments to hang in the wine racks. I love the way they turned out!

The mantle was really hard to photograph...but here are my best attempts.

I love these hurricanes I made (the ones with the ornaments in them) only $2 each! I'll give details in a separate post.

A lighted glass block to the right of the mantle.

This is to the left of the tree, over towards the breakfast nook.

And the table in the breakfast nook, with more hurricanes I made (these were $3 each with the candles). Love them. :)

And the dining room. Here a few shots of the hutch...the ones with the candles lit really didn't turn out that great. And I didn't even use the flash...ugh!

This is a small tree that is to the right of the hutch. We hang ornaments on it that students gave to me when I taught and Patrick's patients give to him.

Dining room table centerpiece

Here is the chandelier in the dining room. Again, hard to photograph, but you get the idea, right?

This piece of furniture is normally in the living room but due to the overtaking of the living room by our ginormous perfectly sized Christmas tree, we moved it to the dining room for now. This little tree (I forgot to turn the lights on!) was our first as a couple...it has little ornaments with our names on them, too. And a card holder for all of our lovely Christmas cards...I LOVE getting them every year! :)

An advent calendar...this is actually in the butler's pantry.

And that is ALL my friends! WHEW...thanks for looking. :) Most of my decorations I bought at after Christmas sales, and pretty much everything is from Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Target, Michael's, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General. I'll post later this week with info on the ornaments and the hurricanes. Please let me know if you have specific questions about where I got anything - I love pretty decorations AND finding a great deal, so I'm glad to share! Can't wait to see everyone else's decorations - Merry Christmas!!! And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season. :)

Gender Reveal Party

So my doctor took a look at Baby Martin last Sunday, and it was so fun to see the little babe! He had me look away when he was in an area that I could possibly see the gender so I didn't accidentally catch a glimpse. The ultrasound was SO sweet though - the baby was sucking it's thumb and scratching it's chin...love it!! Anyway, my doctor had to look for awhile because its legs were crossed, but he said he's 90-95% sure of the gender, and would be shocked if it's not what he thinks it is. SO, he wrote it down in an envelope and stuck it between like 3 brochures for the scooter store (which is funny b/c Patrick hates those things!) and taped, stapled it, etc., so there was no way I could peek. All week long everyone kept saying - "I bet you've looked!!" Give me some credit here, people! I knew there was no way I'd be able to tamper with that envelope without anyone telling it would be worth the wait and more exciting to find out with everyone together. Yes, it was very hard, but I didn't peek...and I was very proud of myself!

So I went to the candy store and painstakingly enjoyed counting 24 blue gumballs and 24 pink gumballs out of the variety bin. I thought they'd have them for sale by color, but no such luck. My hands had the tremors for like the next 3 hours after putting that scoop in and out so many times. You wanna talk about fine motor skills.

Anyway, I then contacted my sweet Grandma Joy to see if she'd do the honors of making the cupcakes for the party. She is a dear family friend and reminds us so much of my dad's mother, and we claimed her as our surrogate grandmother a few years ago...she is so special to us! Here is a picture of her and I when I went to pick up the cupcakes. You are beautiful and amazing Grandma Joy; thanks for your help!! :)

So then we wait. We didn't do our family Thanksgiving until Friday night (which is also when we did the Gender Reveal Party, or GRP as my dad and brother call it) so it was a long week for me! Here is the banner I made along with an article of boy's clothing and girl's clothing that my sweet little sister Rachael picked up for Baby Martin.

Team Pink:
And here is Team Blue! We had a strong showing. :)

My nephew Hayden went ALL out in support of Team Blue - isn't he the cutest?! You can't see it very good in this picture but he even sprayed his hair blue!

And the cupcakes that held the news!! (They were delicious, by the way!!)

This picture is kind of random but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. Obviously I'm passing out cupcakes here...but this is the only picture where my belly isn't covered. (I'm 16 weeks here.) I haven't been very good at all about taking belly pictures....I need to start asap!! But a few people had asked for belly pictures...this will have to do for now. :) I'll try to have something for you within a few weeks though. I know, you can't wait, right?

So it's finally the moment of truth...I bit into the cupcake and saw BLUE!!!

We are SO excited to have a sweet little boy!! Our son. It's just so crazy to say. Not sure when it will seem real! Here we are right after finding out. Patrick is holding our nephew Jax that is just a few months old. I know you can't see him much in this picture, but he's such a doll!!

And here we are with our son's first shirt. :) Thanks, Aunt Rach!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...we sure loved the time with our families and of course all the yummy food!! I'm so excited for Christmas...this is my favorite time of the year! :)