~ I love your socks! ~

S
o this year I really wanted to
something super creative for
Advent. I looked on blogs,
Pinterest and Google for ideas
and a really fun idea I saw using

socks!

So I gathered up all those silly holiday socks that we don't wear too much,

and I went to the thrift store for the remaining. I gathered together 25 total.

I wrote down from 1 - 25 ideas for family activities, verses and gathered

a few fun candies for here and there...

I have to admit I didn't stuff them from day one

and I definitely should have because I tend to forget... in fact, I should just stuff the rest today

so we can finish up strong.

::sigh::

Raise your hand if your getting a bit overwhelmed...

[waving both hands in the air]

The types of things I stuff my socks with are little messages

that have a family activity which have included:

* Paint Christmas Pictures and hang them in the windows

* Go as a family to pick out Christmas Tree

* Family Game Night

* Decorate the House for Christmas as a family (including all of our bedrooms)

Kitchen Window

(that is not a chalk board fyi - I took poster board, painted it black, and drew on it with white crayon)

Sister's room!

Boys' Room!

I surprised sister one night when she got home from work with her whole bedroom decorated!

She loved it!

I put a touch of greenery in a vase so she can get a daily whiff or two of Christmas! ♥

Her room is very shabby chic so I went with gold and vintage looking apples in there.

She got that giraffe from Africa -- she's spoiled rotten. baaaha!

Me and My Loverboy's bedroom.

 I adore blue and silver - these were all on my Christmas Tree last year actually

* Picnic on the floor for dinner

* Bake Cookies together

that is just a few ideas that we have done and then

every other day or so I add a verse to go along with the Christmas story

and also randomly add in a little candy for the kids.

All the kids take turns opening the socks - they really love it

and I love thinking up the ideas. We don't open them till after nap time because

we wanted to wait for sister to get home from school and all the activities are for the

whole family pretty much so we do them after dinner.

For tonight: We are taking a drive as a family to go see the Christmas Lights.

Wishing you a fabulous day

and

Don't forget to wrap a scarf around

your neck cuz Baby - it's cold outside!



~ to the trees!! ~

W
e went as a family to go
pick out our Christmas
tree this year. We went
to our church tree lot, it
was so much fun!

Everyone was all bundles up

with fabulous hats,

scarves,

 puffy coats

and cheerful smiles!

 Oh - and some of us had our

GIDDY

smiles on!! Lol!

 Any tree lot that has a warm cozy camp trailer

with Christmas Lights on it

and blaring Christmas Music

is definitely the right place to go! 

It smelt like Christmas goodness!

 We all walked up and down the little tree-aisles and

picked out our favorites.

The kids were running and dodging through the trees!

I have to admit I was dragging my feet to pick out one because it was

just too much fun just being there together.

I mean -

this is where the memories are made and I knew we were in the middle of a memory...

I was trying to savor it as much as I could...

you know, that precious moment of memorie-making-ness...

We finally got one picked out and I paid the lady

while Daddy loaded it up in the Buick.

 Even our little princess found one for her very own bedroom!

 We got it home and Daddy put it up for us...

the next day we decorated it.

I had little vintage red apples that my mom had given me that we used,

strings of wooden beads,

old straw-like snowflakes that were my first decorations I ever bought,

and I topped it with a pretty cross that my mom had also given me,
and I attached it to a bow that had some berries, greenery and pine cones.

These are the great little snowmen decorations that my Grandma Sally sent to my boys.

And this little nativity ornament was to Ben and I.

I love it!

Our little tree turned out really cute this year...

not quite what I had in mind originally as I had hoped to do something a little different with plaid and handmade little blackboards -

but there is always next year for that.

And I'm oh SO thankful for this sweet little tree chalked full of precious memories of little boys and dogs rearranging things for me.

It's glow at night is perfect.

What more could a girl ask for?

~ to catch you up ~

O
h Man! I've missed blogging!
There is just something about
sharing, getting my thoughts
out and keeping in touch with
other friend's lives that I really

LOVE!

I wanted to write today to catch all ya all up on what is going on in our

little life here at her Household - 

so here goes...

God is doing amazing things in my heart! Yay! We have become involved in a

awesome church and all of us enjoy it so much! I've met some awesome women,

my kids love their kids' program and THEY all are truly part of an answered prayer.

This church happened to be a church I had drove by a half a million times and a old schoolmate

from high school's family goes there - so that was encouraging that we would know somebody there.

Just goes to prove you never know when, where, who, how God

will work in your life. He is oh, SO good!

My body is healing nicely from my surgery I had.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughtful messages to me.

I started just this week going back to the gym. I was inspired by

this gal as well as several different messages I've been hearing at church - namely,

a message from this last Sunday, regarding complacency. I hadn't ever really thought

about the word but doing the Brave Girls Soul Restoration class I did at the first of the year

definitely put a whisper in my ear and then all the things God has been putting in my road (including a sister who humps herself to work out at 5am, comes back to the house and gets herself and daughter ready for school and work - I thought, Whoa - if she can do that, I can go spend a half hour to 45 minutes at the gym every morning. I'm a tad competitive so I like to see if I can wake up before

her...  lol!) I decided it was time. I'm only on my 3rd day - so far SO GOOD. The time for myself is turning out to be such a blessing! Then when I come home my boys are still asleep and I get even more mama time and couple that with a cup of coffee and my Bible... VERY happy girl. 

Can't go wrong with that!

I think we've come into the crash and burn episodes of our life here in the Melton house - one night Pauly falls off the bunk bed onto his head, the next night William face-plants right into the wooden drawers under the bunk bed only to give himself two beautiful black eyes.
To sum it up...
THEY'RE FREAKING ME OUT!
I feel like I need to wrap them all up in some bubble wrap!
We haven't had any trips to the doctor, thankfully, but you know... scares me.

We are all LOVING the fall crisp weather that has finally shown up!
My trees are turning colors and I've got my bulbs all ready for this weekend as I attempt
to develop my green thumb...

I've given myself a new challenge and that is a weekly-challenge and I've decided I need to go to a new neighbor every week and take them cookies, a gift, or just go introduce myself. So far, it has been such a blessing and I'm so glad we decided to do it. We tend to make it a family event so far and the kids love it and finally, I'm able to meet my neighbors. We don't live in a subdivision - we live in just a old-town neighborhood that has tons of rentals... I've been using this as my excuse for years now NOT to get to know my neighbors but I decided ... (and again, this was influenced from Paula Dunn) it's time to LOVE ON my neighbors - no matter how long they stick around. No matter who they are. No matter where they live. 

So this all sums it up... We are still enjoying, very much, my sister living here with us. Sweet Pea is in her first year of school (preschool) and the boys and I go pick her up everyday at noon. It's so fun to see her sweet lil face everyday - so happy I'm there. Makes my heart skip-a-beat. I just love that girl.

Now, I've got to get on some planning and plotting for decorations for a birthday party for a very special lady in my life (more info on that later). If you have any suggestions for websites or decorations that are fun, affordable, and totally girlly - let me know. I would love to for you to share your ideas with me! I will do a post soon on what I'm working on all ready.

You all GO and enjoy your week and soak up in God's goodness!!

~ quatro ~

Y
es, my little boy turned 4
years old. It amazes me how
time flies by. I remember the
day he was born, I didn't think
I was ever going to get to hold

that little man in my arms.

All my family had been in and out of the hospital waiting for almost 3 whole days

when Paul finally made his presence through an emergency c-section.

Going back and reading the actual blog post I posted about his coming home

brought a tear to my eye.

Now, he's huge!

And now I have another spitfire little brother to match!

My cup runneth over.

Here are some pictures from his little party we had at the park.