Beautiful Life

Santa brought us...

The stomach flu.  I wish I were joking but we have been locked up in our home since Christmas night.  It has not been fun.  I hope it will pass soon.  

On the bright side, we've done a lot of snuggling, watching movies and reading.  

And my house is sanitized (yes, I am a bit OCD). I basically did spring cleaning early.  

I hope we can ring 2012 on a healthy note.  I've totally let go of getting my second batch of cards out for the new year.  For those of you who sent me a card and did not get one in return, I will send you one next year.

This last week has just not gone the way we hoped it would.  Sometimes life is like that, isn't it?

xo, maria

Christmas is Coming

It's nearly Christmas!  And I never got to my blog post about organizing for Christmas.  So sorry friends:) I am "off" this year.  With moving,  getting my two babes settled into new routines, making new friends, home construction, and more, blogging has taken a back seat.   You will have to wait till next year, God willing, for my holiday "organization" post.

But, I will share with you that I have incorporated a new thing to our Christmas routine.  This year we are focusing on the birth of Jesus and spending time together.  We are NOT focusing on our Christmas list and our presents. My children will each receive 3 presents from my husband and I.  GASP!!!

In addition they each get a new pair of darling holiday pajamas on Christmas Eve and an overflowing stocking from Santa on Christmas morning.  As for the three gifts, I picked three nice things I knew each child would love. And I wrapped them special with lots of love. 

Last year was just too much.  By the time I got everything wrapped and under the tree, and added all of the gifts with gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., there were so many gifts. I could tell that ERH wasn't even appreciative. She was overwhelmed.  And the meaning of Christmas was gone.  Right then and there I promised myself, this year would be different.   We needed to refocus the holiday...pronto. 

So this year I am doing more baking with the kids, more snuggling by the fire, more talking about Jesus and what He means to us, more giving to others, more spending time with family.

Exterior Color Opinions Needed

I need some exterior color opinions.  We have color restrictions in our neighborhood and white is not on the list.  Don't think too hard about that one, it will just stress you out.  If we didn't have a restriction, I would have gone for white siding with black accents.  But that was not to be.

On a happy note,  I found two color combinations that I think I like. Which one should I go with? I have a favorite but I want to know what you think.  

Option 1 

option 2 - 

Keep in mind this is my stone

And I am planning on using this door system (which I can get in a multitude of colors - I originally wanted black when white was the siding color)

 

Finally, I would like to have shutters on my home (black or some shade darker than my siding).  

Thank you:)  Maria

 

Tidbits

Here is what's going on around here.

1.  I turned 34 on December 1 and I feel younger and better than I have since I was 27! YAY for that.

2.  We took the kids to Disney on Ice last weekend.  They LOVED it which made it fun for us.

3.  The foundation of our new house is in!!!

4.  This house stuff is about to do me in.  We had our preliminary budget meeting and I was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY over budget.  Imagine that. Ha, ha.  So, I've spent the week revising things to make this home more affordable.  After spending a lot of time in thought I realized one thing - the most important thing to me is that this home is well built and that our family is blessed by it.  I do not need fancy to feel blessed.  It needs to be practical and in our budget.  It is amazing how expensive certain things are.  It's all about prioritizing, which is exactly what I've done.  I will detail where I've cut back as soon as I have the concrete numbers but I can say for now that I cut over $100,000.00 very easily.  How sad is that?  

5.  Did you know that painted wood cabinets are much more expensive than stained wood?  I never knew that...but I do now:)

6.  I need to start working out again.  I've been eating really well but I haven't been moving enough.

7.  This weekend I get to see two of my favorite sorority sisters.  These ladies and I are such kindred spirits. I can't wait.  

8.  We got our Christmas tree on Sunday.  We went to a tree farm and had an adventure.  Greg got the van stuck in the mud, we had a hard time finding a pretty tree but we knew we couldn't leave without something without the kids freaking out, etc.  We felt like the Griswolds and we laughed our heads off about it.