instafriday ~ christmas edition

look at me doing instafriday!
i guess all this being cooped up inside with eleventy billion snow/ice days is good for something. :)

actually i have been amazed at how much i am getting done around the house lately with it being so crummy outside.

i have soooo many instagram pics, i just decided to go with the ones from Christmas.....in collage form.
because there are a lot. you're welcome. :)

okay, i guess these were right before christmas.

left to right, top to bottom:

1. a little mama carmen's coffee date with my big boys. making the most of our 3rd snow day in december..... which was a lot considering they only attend school twice a week.
2.  hot date with my main squeeze for our 13th anniversary.
3. having a big time with my saw buddy at potter's house christmas party.
4. christmas gifts for the wonderful teachers in our life. i had so much fun making these!
5. gorgeous anniversary flowers from pigmint...the best flowers. good job, baby. A+++
6. christmas parties for dayyyzzzzz.
7. my mom treated me to go see The Nutcracker by the russian ballet. amazzing. and male dancers have suuuper tight pants. just have to say it. i know i should be more mature about that, but seriously.
i did love it though, so festive and fun and we got to dress up. :)
8. family movie/picnic night watching the grinch. i love our cozy family nights.
9. same night...cozied up with my man in our super hawt sweatshirts.

1.  sweet smile...on our way to our first christmas get together. this 45 minute car drive felt like such a sigh of relief.  after an insane month, it felt so good to finally have the celebrations of christmas starting.  i felt like i had made it. 
2.  my little sister got ruby a crown. it was a hit. :) good job, hannah!
3. i have always loved this sweet vintage light up tree of my step mom's. such a sweet christmas memory.
4. my dad and step mom had the house looking so festive and fun for our get together. it was such a sweet night. i love spending time with family.
5. she let the boys drink red punch out of christmas mugs. so special and fun. :)
6. the night before christmas. AJ and i had everything ready to go by eleven. i felt super pumped about that!  it's always so fun to set everything out with him. we're both so excited. :)
7. christmas day was so fun with my sweet little family. they have precious happy hearts and were thrilled with everything.
8. sissy girl slept in so she opened her stocking after everyone else. we all had a bawl watching her open every little thing.
9. AJ and i have always just gotten each other stocking gifts. we usually both stretch the rules on what will actually fit inside a stocking, but this year he totally cheated! i am one blessed girl.

1. the day after christmas we headed out to kansas to AJ's parents. we always love going there. i was honestly so looking forward to the 5 1/2 hour car trip to just have some time to relax. i'm telling you, december was a marathon.
2. we immediately got to work relaxing.....in our matching tube socks. #hot
3. & 4.  the boys had a blast going on several four wheeler rides in the snow as well as getting to go snow-tubing!
5. we played so. many. dominoes. this was my favorite thing. playing games with grownups. eating yummy desserts and laughing and talking. our kids are all finally old enough to stay pretty entertained so we actually had more adult time than we've had in a few years. it was so nice.
6. ruby. because, ruby. :)
7. love birds. it took 5 shots to get this one of us looking semi-normal.
8. pam's made-from-scratch cherry pie. oh my word. it is amazzzzing.  with a hot cup of coffee. yes, please. i was living a dream and i didn't want it to end.
9. pam is so great about getting the kids involved with baking. the little ones were helping her make pizza. they love it and she is so patient with them.


and lastly i want to leave you with a little video of what we heard every single time we drove at night for all of the holiday season.
lucky for you, you can turn your volume down. ;)

"look mommy, lights! boys!"




happy weekend, y'all!

p.s. i'm itsgoodtobequeen if you want to find me on insta. :)





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christmasfied

our home is looking cozy and christmasy.

this is our first christmas in this house and it was so fun to decorate. 

i love pulling out all of our boxes and spreading christmas cheer throughout the house. :) 

the kids love to help decorate the tree with us.
we have a tradition of putting on a christmas movie and decorating the tree together.
i usually get a little stressed out at some point but try to hold it together. ;)

i love our family tree.
we put tons of vintage tinsel and all of our ornaments on that one tree.
i love my fancy, girly ornaments right next to a homemade kid one. :)

we decorated the weekend after thanksgiving and i spent the better part of the weekend adding stuff all around the house.
it's not perfect for sure, but it's happy and christmasy and makes our home feel so cozy. :)

avery made this lego nativity to set out. :) 

love his creativity. 

we have loved doing the jesse tree this year....i found the free printable ornaments and jesse tree study guide for free on ann voskamp's blog.

bottle brush trees are so sweet, right?
plus vintage fake snow and little vintage silver deer...such a sweet little vignette.

i may be slightly obsessssed with my antique ornament tree.
i'm thinking it would be weird to have it up all year long.....

antique ornaments are one of the only things that i collect and i loooovvveee them.
vintage tinsel....vintage ornaments....all stuffed into a milk glass vase.

christmas cards displayed on the piano.
ignore that chandelier hanging in the way....seriously we need to raise that sucker up.
we've only lived here since march.

that's when avery and finley were four and two....and avery kept pinching finley's nipples while i was trying to create a christmas card photo shoot.
ha. it was so frustrating at the time. makes me laugh now.

vintage christmas apron.
red plaid mug i picked up at the thrift for 99 cent.
i'm so trendy with my plaid.

we did a little easy christmas crafting on our bazillion snow days last week.

more vintage of course.

dining room....i love decorating these shelves.

the shelves are just barn wood that AJ attached to the wall with heavy duty brackets.
they are one of my favorite things in our house.

the little tree is just one that i had on hand.
i spray painted it silver this year to give it a midcentury feel.

advent calendar...the kids open a window each morning and read the verse.
simple and sweet.

even the bathroom shelf got a little christmas love in the form of a big ol' strand of vintage tinsel shoved in there.

avery's room and the stairs to the playroom got some lights as well.
not fancy, but super fun and exciting for the kids.

so that's our bits of christmas cheer!

merry christmas, friends! :)

{linking up to the nester's christmas tour of homes}.

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holiday cards by minted

did y'all have a good thanksgiving??
thanksgiving is the best.
yummy food. family. focusing our words and thoughts on thankfulness.
love it.

the holiday season is just so much fun.
and now, it's time to think about christmas cards.
do you send christmas cards?
i've done them every year since....well forever.
i remember sending them out when i was in college.
never is it more fun to check your mailbox, than the month of december.
i love when all of the holiday cards come rolling in.

i've had it in my head to figure out christmas cards for a while now and i recently discovered, minted.
that is some serious eye candy.
there are so many unique designs that i hadn't seen before.
they also have many shape options, post card options, flat or folded cards, paper thickness, etc.
lots. of. options.
okay....gonna let some photos speak for themselves.
here are some of my faveys.....

who doesn't love a good chalkboard print? 

glitter. need i say more? 

i need all the glitter things. 

simple and lovely, right?

my favorite christmas song ever, ever....in a beautiful fun, font. love it.

there are so many colors, fonts & shapes to choose from to make your card unique.

i have no idea how i am going to choose ours.

they have a neat feature where you can see your photo in several cards at once, so that should help.

also, bonus...they are having a 20% off holiday photo cards sale through today.

you can even buy now and upload your photo later if you're not ready with your photo yet. :)

yay for the holidays and super yay for holiday decorating! 

i can't wait to get started!  :)

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kansas city trip

welp, i don't blog for a week and them bam! i hit you with a post full o' photos.
i'm making up for lost time. . . or something.

anyhooooooo....we got back last night from a super fun trip to kck.
i am happy to be home but am so sad it's over.
boo hoo.
summer is flying way too fast.

aj took a half day off last wednesday and we headed to the big city to stay the night with some dear friends in their {amazing} new house.
new, like they moved in two days before we came.
those are good friends right there.

we had the best time.
our kids play so well together.
so happy it worked out to see them. :)

on 4th o' july we met up with aj's family and spent the next four days with them.

3 boys and a girl each...pretty perfect cousin combo, i have to say. :)

they got started catching up immediately.
these cousins love each other so much. what a gift!

thursday night we went to watch a big firework show.
i always love it but it's always so late for my little ones.
bless his heart, saw tried so hard to stay awake and only made it to seeing the first few.

right before he crashed out, he said, "mama, when i gwow up, i want to make firewuks for you."
oh bless his sweet baby heart, he's such a lover, that one.

friday was a much anticipated day for my boys.
we took them to legoland discovery center.
avery had been counting down the days.
they'd read all about it in their lego club magazine so they were pumped.

{cute cousins}

my boys build and create with legos constantly so this was the perfect place for them.

munchkin land out of legos.
they had all the scenes from wizard of oz made out of legos.
obviously the pictures don't do it justice.

kansas city.

go cheifs.
so many minifigures!!

all in all, legoland discovery center was really neat.
it was a lot smaller than avery had hoped, but it was still fun.
i think the 4D movie was everyone's favorite.
they sprayed water and snow and wind on you at different points....very exciting.

we also went to deanna rose farmstead one afternoon.

this is one of my favorite activities to do when we're in KC.

ruby loved all the animals.

it was so much fun to watch her discover them and talk to them.

"hi ca ca!" {quack, quack}.

we did lots of park playing as well.

with 8 young kids, that's a top priority. 

run those boys!

so many boys and two sweet girlies. :)

it was such a fun time.

so hard to see it end.

loved the time with aj's awesome family and loved all that extra time with my AJ.

yay for summer. 

the best time of the year. 

:)

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