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Last Saturday, Jim, Molly and I rode with my parents to the mountains to get our Christmas tree. We told Molly we were going to a tree farm and then I immediately regretted that, realizing she’d want to see cows and horses and sheep and ducks. And a barn. I was able to quickly interject that the farmers only had time to grow trees and that there’d be no animals. Luckily, she accepted that.

M was such a good traveler, tree picker-outer and winery guest. {Yes, that’s two times in two months that I’ve taken my two-year-old to a winery.} After we picked out our trees and wreaths, we drove a little farther up the mountain to have lunch at a cute little cafe where we almost got into a scuffle with an older woman about a table. No blood was shed and we got the table, so all was good.

 

We finally found the perfect tree:

And if fit perfectly in the middle of our family room. Ha! {Ok, it was a *little* bigger than we originally planned.}

Then Molly was a great helper, putting all of the ornaments on the same branch.

When she finally accepted that branch would hold no more ornaments, she was happy to tell me where to put the ornaments.

The stocking are hung and the tree is decorated…now I just have to get to the rest of the decorations!

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For the first time in I don’t know how many weekends, no one at our house was sick.

We had a great weekend together and enjoyed the beautiful weather – Mexican food Friday night, the park (for Molly, Nana, and me) and golf (for Jim) on Saturday, dinner with friends Saturday night, errands and lunch on Sunday, and then Beverly and I had a Sweet Birdie’s Nest meeting.  We wrapped up the weekend with family dinner at our favorite pizza joint, Hawthorne’s.  I felt like we actually had a good mix of productiveness and fun.  {Although for me, productive and fun usually go in the same sentence!  I’m a dork like that.}

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The park in our neighborhood is situated right by the railroad tracks and this weekend, I have a whole new appreciation of that train.  Usually, I’m annoyed because it’s so close to the house and it never fails to come when I have no time to spare.  And then it’s really hard to turn left off our street.  Or, I remember when I had a 45-minute commute home from work and I’d be 30 seconds from home but the lights would start flashing as I approached the tracks.  However, watching Molly watch the train speed past was one of the coolest things I’ve witnessed.  Mind you, we see the train every day.  She can see it from her crib in the winter when there are no leaves on the tree and I’m worried we’re going to lose the blinds on her window because she pulls them back and chants, “Choo Choo” or “Twain Twain” while she’s supposed to be napping.  And she sees it on a regular basis from the car.  But she saw it up close for the first time on Saturday, and her mouth formed a big “o” and she pointed and gasped and then ran the length of the park like she was chasing the train.  It was pure wonderment and I loved it.

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I know I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a Dairy Queen less than a mile from our house.  It’s one of the “old fashioned” ones where you stand in line outside and order from the window.  My parents used to take us there as children and now I love that I get to take Molly.  Well, usually I love it.  I gave up sweets for Lent, but Jim and Molly didn’t.  After pizza last night, Jim wanted ice cream, so I sat in the car while he and Molly shared a Blizzard.  A Snickers Blizzard, which is my favorite.  I have a feeling Lent is going to be a loooong 6 weeks this year!

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I’m wanting to make some small changes to our house; we’ve lived here five years this month and with the exception of a few new pieces of furniture and Molly’s room, everything has stayed the same.  I really want to freshen things up and organize the house so it works for us.  It’s so funny because Jim thinks we’ve made a lot of changes {which we have done a lot, mind you, it just depends on who you ask as to HOW much we’ve done!} and I think it looks the same as it did when we moved in, except for the paint colors!  But anyway, my first priority {well, today’s first priority – it could change tomorrow!} is to paint the family room and update some of the accessories.  I bought new pillows for the couch last week that I love and we tried out two paint colors.  Jim likes the one we currently have on the wall, and while I do too, I think the room will seem bigger if we go lighter.  And, as you can tell, we will obviously – eventually – do something, since we already started the job.

I’ve already decided which one we’ll use but could probably be easily swayed…want to vote?  Let me know “left” or “right” in the comments.  I’d love to see if your opinion matches mine!

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What a gorgeous weekend!  We were busy, of course, but made some time to spend in the sunshine.  Molly loved swinging in her swing and figured out how to climb up her little slide and then get her feet under her so she could sit down and slide down the slide the right way.  Once she figured that out, it was a constant up, down, up, down.  She loved being outside and made sure to let us know that she didn’t want to come in.  She did learn a new word this weekend:  dirty {although it sounds more like “dooty”}.  She would fall and her dirt or grass on her hands and she was quick to say, “dirty.”  At one point, she was swinging and she pointed to the porch light filled with bugs and told Jim, “dirty.”  {That’s my girl!}  The daffodils and crocuses have bloomed, so Molly got a good lesson in being gentle with the flowers.  She had fun walking to each one and saying “ye-yo” and “pu-ple.”

Jim had to work on Saturday, but when he got home, I was determined that we were going to start at least one project, so we recovered the dining room chairs.  I loved the fabric that the chairs were covered in, but after five years, a dog, and a toddler, the silk was looking a little worn and there were water stains on all of the chairs.  My mom found this purple velvet fabric on sale over a year ago, so we finally got around to the using it.  I missed the stripe at first, but think the solid looks great and will hopefully be easier to care for.  And that just means I can incorporate a pattern with some new drapes!

 

Old fabric - that I found out Jim didn't like!

 

Like new!

 

 

And finally, on Sunday afternoon, a years-long search for a new television ended.  {You think I’m kidding about the years part, don’t you?  Well, I’m not.}  So of course Jim wanted to hook it up right away, but we haven’t decided if we’re going to wall mount it or find a console with drawers or cabinets underneath and we haven’t gotten rid of the old tv.  Lucky me, I’ve got TWO tvs in my one family room.  But I’m excited about the new tv – it is not near as bulky and visually-imposing as the old one and I know in the long run {once the old one is gone!} the family room will seem much larger!

All in all, it was a productive weekend.  I can’t wait to tackle a new project next weekend!

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This kiddo just makes my day!

 

Hollywood!

 

 

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