The tree isn't coming down...

Yes, you heard me right, our tree is staying up this year. Anyone that knows my well will tell you that i am just a tiny bit obsessed with my Christmas trees. The weekend after Thanksgiving i can remember telling Alex one night that i felt sad thinking about having to take down our trees after Christmas even though we still had WEEKS left to enjoy them. I despise the post Christmas decorations blues when you are left with a fairly stark house and just COLD COLD bitterly COLD weather. Liam was also pretty bummed that the trees and decorations needing to come down once the New Year came. Then one day i saw someone post a comment on instagram how they wanted to "add some red and pink ribbon" and call their card tree a Valentines Day tree and at that moment the creativity light bulb went off and my mind started coming up with all sorts of ideas.

Why do i need to take the tree down? Why not keep it up all year and make it a statement piece to decorate for each holiday? Hmmm.. that may be a pretty cool thing. I even wrote to a friend of mine "we will be that house with the awesome tree that everyone needs to come see every month to see what we've done with it for the upcoming holiday or season" HAHA i know i am crazy but this gives me so much joy.

So here we have it, our first Valentines Day tree. I am in LOVE, which is perfect for Valentines Day. I plan of picking up some glittery hearts and glittery valentines day signs and words to hang then once the stores start stocking their shelves. .... and i may or may not (i totally do) have a box of green and gold ready to go for St. Patrick's Day in the basement! Gotta stock up when the stores are 80% off!

 

I picked up these bakery girls at Michael's and i just can't tell you how adorable they are! So perfect for a "holiday" about love and sweets! 

 

 

and no post would be complete without my little helpers, both of which LOVE our new tree. Yesterday Liam would just wonder into the living room, glace at the tree, smile and walk away ... just making sure it was going to stay. 

Lucy loves to "fly" Liams little airplanes and helicopters, here she is showing off her skills today. 

 

Liam was hard at work playing with his cars on this track rug. 

New Years Party 2012

Last night we hosted a New Years party for a few friends and family. We all had a really great time!

I served appetizers and desserts at our party which include: spinach artichoke cups, mini tacos, coconut shrimp cups, popcorn chicken, meatball sliders, caprese skewers, Mississippi sin dip, pizza monkey bread, clams (thanks Aunt Deb), lobster (thanks Annette), tuna salad bites (thanks Mom). Everything turned out so yummy and thankfully we had very little leftovers to store!

 

 

I was a little short on time so i didn't get a change to make menu cards so i laid out some butcher papers and wrote each item on there.

 

 

Desserts!! Baileys tiramisu cupcakes, mini cannolis, S'more cake pops, peanut butter fudge, sugar cookies, and chocolate raspberry mousse bites (thanks Mom). 

 

 

Lucy made it to 10:30 and boy oh boy was she entertaining! She was dancing up a storm most of the night and had us all laughing so hard! She was a little party animal!  

 

 

Videos of the kiddos dancing 

 

 

 

Liam made it to watch the ball drop!! He was so cute. Around 11:15 he was trying so hard to stay up and kept saying "Mama, its so hard". After the ball dropped he said "i did it, i'm so brave" hahaha.

watching the ball drop for the first time! 

 

 

 

Project 366 Complete!

Late in 2011 I downloaded the project 365 app on my phone. On January 1, 2012 i loaded my first picture into it and didn't look back. I am so so so happy that i stuck with this project because it is so much fun to look back on. I can remember sitting with (an itty bitty) Lucy in her room late at night desperately trying to get her to sleep and loading in my picture for the day, it seems like so long ago now. On one hand i feel like this year just FLEW by but when i look back on those January/February pictures it feels like so long ago. So without further ado i hope you all have a good time looking at a snapshot of our year! Happy 2013 everyone!!!!