oh tannenbaum.

we bought the biggest and fattest tree we could find. i’m talking 10ft tall and almost equally round. stunning. so what else would you do with a tree besides trim it? and trim it we did. with parker playing in his jammies, doug and i decorated our monster of a tree. with the christmas music playing, christmas cookies baking, and only one holiday ornament broken our tree was finished and our home was christmasfied. i am smitten with all the warm fuzzies that christmas brings to my family and my home.

feliz navidad.

home sweet mess.

i love our home. it’s cozy. it’s comfy. it’s us. this home is the home we became a family. first a family of two. then three. counting the cats – five.  10-foot ceilings. a brick fireplace. molding. it’s just right. i adore this home. the memories these walls hold are irreplaceable. i’ll never forget where i stood when i told doug we were pregnant. i’ll never forget walking through the door after stepping off the place from our honeymoon. i’ll never forget the day we heard a tiny drip that turned into a massive flood. i’ll never forget the day i moved in. i’ll never forget the laughter. the tears. the everything. this house holds our lives.

this house is also messy. lots of people come into our home and comment how beautiful it is. how inviting it is. how clean it is. clean? yes, clean. by that i am normally shocked. i must admit i have my moments in which i will clean every square inch. i also have my moments in which, well, i don’t. i don’t life a finger. and that’s alright. a home is a home because it is lived in, not because it is for show. i love the worn in coushins on our couch. i love the cheerios i find from time to time hiding under the coffee table. i love finding sticky spots when sippy cups lay slowly dripping apple juice. that’s home. my home. our home.

so to all the non-believers who swear they have never seen our home a mess, i would like to showcase our home on a typical thursday night. well, friday night. monday night. thursday night. you get the picture.

without further ado. home sweet home.

in the picture on the right you will see a bowling pin, a bowl that was full of bananas, a pillow, a blanket removed from the arm of the couch, a controller for the ps3, a stuffed puppy, a stuffed monkey, a sippy cup of apple juice, a bottle of milk, pat the hammer, another bowling pin, a bucket and shovel, a pretend steering wheel, a tiny ball that goes in the green dragon, a bouncy turtle, and a ride-on elmo airplane. oh. and my child. what you don’t see are the 5 bowling pins, 2 bowling balls, 3 tiny balls that go with the green dragon set, a book about animals, a rubber chicken and another stuffed monkey hiding under the couch.

the infamous toy basket. this is normally dumped completely out. probably takes a good half hour to clean up when all is said and done.

who doesn’t have a 4-wheeler in their dining room?

and last but not least. things we keep up high. like shoes. if we didn’t keep these out of little fingers reach we would never have a pair. at least not a matching pair.

keys, sunglasses, phone, valuables. all out of little sticky hands reach. my phone is beat-up. that’s the third pair of new sunglasses. and keys are never a good thing for kiddos. do you know how many times he’s hit the panic button and i’m the one running around in a panic trying to first find the keys and second, to shut the alarm off?

enjoy my beautiful mess. i do.

for sale.

my house that is.

we have a lot of great memories here. it’s going to be so bittersweet when we sell it. and the day we close the big blue and very solid front door for the last time i will more than likely cry – a lot. this is our first house. we fell in love here. we got engaged here. we came home from our honeymoon here. we found out i was pregnant here. we ran out of the front door when my water broke here. we brought our first child home here. long sleepless nights were spent here. milestones were made here. crawling. talking. walking. all here. we celebrated so many firsts here. christmas. thanksgiving. mother’s day. father’s day. many dinners were made here. cookies by the dozen have been baked here. gallons of paint have been put on the walls here. baby birds made a home in our attic here. friends and conversations have been made here. many nights bar-b-q’ing have been spent here. inside jokes were invented here. we have laughed harder than ever thought possible here. we have cried here. we have fought here. we have danced here. we have dreamed here. we have made here a home. but it is time to move on. for my family. it is the right time and the right thing to do. it is time to turn the page in this chapter and start a new. i will miss our home. but i will always have the memories.