Happy New year

May we all have a very blessed 2013. It is a chance for a new beginning, a fresh start...and who doesn't sometimes need a fresh start. Jesus can give us that fresh start no matter what time of year it is. His love is very real and powerful. Get to know Him this year. Make 2013 a year of following Jesus and make him Lord of your life.

White Christmas

We got something for Christmas we don't usually get.......a white Christmas and as warm as it has been up until now, I didn't really think it would stick. But stick it did. I love snow, so beautiful and peaceful.

Merry Christmas

Can you believe it is almost Christmas Day? Where did the time go this year!!!! So far we have had a wonderful season with The Polar Express train ride, the Christmas parties, decorating gingerbread houses and so much more. Of course most of it involved the grandsons. Such fun but I don't want to forget the real reason for the season and that is the birth of my Lord, Jesus Christ. None of this would be possible without Him. Oh my goodness at the blessings He has given me and my family. I couldn't even begin to count them all. He is such a loving, faithful, mighty God who is with us through everything. My mother had a favorite poem that one part of it says that when you only see one set of footprints in the sand, that is when He was carrying you. What a comfort to know that when we can no longer walk, he carries us. Thank you Jesus, for coming to earth only to have to die on that cross to save us from our sins and take us to heaven with You. Merry Christmas and may God richly bless you.

Gingerbread house time

Last night was gingerbread house decorating time. We love doing this every year and started decorating gingerbread houses even before the boys were born. This is the first year that both boys actually could do the decorating and Noah even did his mainly by himself. I also saw a tip on decorating the houses the other day about the actual building of the house. We always have trouble with that part.......keeping them together with just the royal icing. Well, this mother "glued" her houses together BEFORE the kids started decorating them and not with just the icing but with hot glue. So the night before, I did just that. What a difference that made. The decorating was so much easier. The houses actually stayed together while we decorated them. Fun times and lots of memories were made again last night.
These are gingerbread houses pre-Noah and Jonah made by adults.

The gingerbread houses the boys made.

 

No words

I have no words.....just prayers and tears for those families in Connecticut.

Christmas decor

I have noticed in the blogging world that everyone is showing off their Christmas mantels and I thought I might as well show off mine too. So here it is. If you look closely, you can see a little bit of the beach in my decorating. With all of the shells we collected this summer, I have shells in most every part of my decor; Christmas or not.

This is right next to my mantel and is where I hang the grandkids stockings. There are three up there now but one without a name because we don't know just yet if it is a boy or girl. Noah asked me if that stocking was for his friend Alyssa. I said no, then he asked if it was for the baby. I said yes. He is so smart. (it's really not hanging crooked, it's the way I took the picture.)

Christmas Parade

Christmas has officially begun. We went to the Christmas parade last night, haven't been in years. We used to go all the time because one of the kids was usually in it, especially Josh marching with the high school band. This year we went because Noah and Jessica were riding in a float. It was a long parade and of course they were in the back. Oh well. I think Jonah really enjoyed watching it.

The Polar Express

Last Saturday night we took the family to ride the Christmas Pajama Train. We called it "The Polar Express" because we had just watched the movie and Noah really identified with that. It was really a lot of fun...kind of longgggggg....but still fun. The train was decorated for Christmas and the interior was really awesome; all original. We stopped on the Arkansas River bridge and had hot chocolate and cookies and then at the train station in Van Buren, Santa was there and the boys got to tell him what they wanted and sit in his lap. Overall it was a great memory.

 

Santa's helpers

Santa sent these little helpers to help me with our Christmas decorating.

Randomness

Just some random pictures.
Sweet boys

"This is what I want for Christmas, Santa."

 Christmas decor in our booth

Book Review

When I first received this book to review, I hadn’t read any of the Triple Treat series but the book was good as a stand alone. Cassidy, Allison, and Nicole have helped solve several cases but now somebody is after them. After one of them is murdered, they are determined to find who did this even if it means putting themselves in harms way.  When it appears the police have the killer in custody, he strikes again. Not knowing who to trust, Nicole and Allison go undercover for an intricate and deadly cat-and-mouse game where nothing can be taken at face value . . . and nothing will ever be the same. This is definitely a must-read, full of twists and turns that are very unexpected.

***A copy of this e-book was provided to me free of charge by Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Before, after and inbetween

I finally have a "before" picture of my last project, plus pictures of a few of the projects I was working on last week for the vintage market show.

This is my take on several Pinterest ideas. I love Pinterest, probably too much. 

We made several colors of ornament wreaths

 This was our booth at the Vintage market show this past weekend.

 

Work, work, work......

I have been working like a crazy woman this week getting ready for the flea market this weekend. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get stuff ready. Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures but maybe you just need to come out to the Phoenix Village Expo Center on Saturday and see everything we have. Lots of vintage, Christmas, etc. See you there I hope.

Boo!

Where we live no one comes to our house to trick or treat but this year we had two come.......the yellow Power Ranger and a blue monster.

Before I could get pictures of both boys in their costumes, Noah had his stripped off because he was hot. I did get a cute picture of my little Blue Monster.

Last weekend the boys "painted" a picture for their rooms. At least I think they had fun doing it and it wasn't too messy.

 



My favorite time of year

Fall is my favorite time of year! I love all the smells, colors, activities, the cooler weather but not freezing yet, soups. Just love it. And apparently my sweet Kacee  loves some of the activities too because she brought all the "fixin's" over last night for us to make caramel apples. They are so yummy. While we were making caramel apples, Jamie was carving pumpkins. But not the old fashioned way with a knife. Oh no, not Jamie. Nothing traditional about him. He went out and bought a dremel and actually carved some pretty cool pumpkins. We also carved some of these pumpkins on Saturday and then Kacee took the pumpkin seeds and toasted them. I have never done that before but they were really good. After all of this activity this week, I think it is now officially Fall in the Brown house.