This last weekend we deiced to decorate our house for Christmas. I'm not one who hated Buffalo weather. Most people would say I'm crazy, but I actually kind of like the cold and snow. You get to wear nice cozy sweaters, and curl up on a snowy day with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa...So when the weather here was sunny and high sixties it didn't really make me feel like decorating for Christmas. However I do love the way the house looks during the holiday season so I figured we'd better get going. Unfortunately in order to make the house look nice first we had to mess it up by bringing in all the boxes and tubs of decorations from the shed.
Ayla found an ornament she liked. (Yes she dressed herself, as a matter of a fact she got up from nap with this on. Apparently instead of sleeping she decided to raid her closet.)
Ayla helped me out by dusting everything to make it clean before we put the decorations up.
Caiden helped by being his normal happy guy self and entertaining us with his jumping and giggling!
Lucas set up the tree
Then we all started decorating it. Ayla chose the first two ornaments that should go on the tree. I absolutely did not influence her at all. She happens to like football (at least football ornaments!) Here's a picture of the first two ornaments.
Uncle Leif stopped by and helped out a little. He mostly entertained Caiden and played with our new camera. ...oh I forgot to mention that we bought a new camera. We really needed one. Our old camera was six years old and had the slowest shutter speed. It was nearly impossible to get good pictures of my kids. We saved up some money and got a really good deal during the Black Friday sales. After doing some independent research and talking to my sister Annie and brother-in-law Brett when they were here visiting, I decided that a Canon Rebel would be the best camera for us. When the black friday sales were announced I found that HH Gregg had a good deal on a Canon EOS Rebel T3 which is what we got. I LOVE it. I'm still figuring it out and probably will be for months, but the pictures are soooo much better.
Here's Uncle Leif and Caiden putting the garland on the tree.
Ayla and I putting garland on the tree. Notice the Bills ornament and the little football ornament on the bottom of the tree, after Ayla hung those I made her stop to hang up the garland first.
Ayla hung all the ornaments she could reach to hang!
Caiden entertained himself by trying to climb on Ayla's big ball!
Lucas and I hung the ornaments higher on the tree.
After we set up the tree, Ayla and I put up our Nativity set and other random decorations. Ayla is very into the story of the First Christmas this year so she was allowed to place Baby Jesus in the Nativity set.
Later on that night Caiden decided that he didn't want to sleep so I brought him out into the living room. He was being so darn cute and I wanted to play with my new camera so I took some pics of him. He rolled his little butt all the way from the middle of the living room, around the chair, and over by the tree. Here he is happy that he made it to his desired destination!
He really wanted to play with the ornament that was hanging within his reach. I wanted some good pics so I watched him trying to get it and photographed his efforts.
"Victory!"
"Are you seriously going to let me chew on this glittery thing Mom?!"
I decided to continue playing with my camera and take some random pictures of our decorations on different camera settings to see how they turned out.
...and my all time favorite decoration (which stays out all year round), The Christus. This was given to me years ago by my sister Kari and brother-in-law Will as a Christmas present. At the time I was inactive in our church and remember thinking "Oh great another churchy thing!" Wow have my feelings changed. I treasure this statue. It means so much to me now. When the earthquake hit our house back in August I first grabbed by kids and second grabbed this statue! I'd be really upset if it broke. Yes I could replace it, but the fact that my sister bought it for me knowing how special it was before I knew how special it was, really means something to me. Kari and Will are a big part of the reason why I am the way I am today...but that's a story for another post.
As you look at this picture please remember the reason for the season!
8 comments:
wow! it seems like a really good camera! i remember when mila was cadens same age, she managed to pull the tree down on top of her TWICE!!!
sorry about not responding to your text. i dont know of a way to upload a lot of photos at one time. unless you use the "new editor feature" under your dashboard. i do it manually though.
That's ok, T, I figured that. Thanks!
Nice moon above the nativity, and here I thought it was a star :)
Great pics with that camera. If we hadn't just bought one a couple years ago, I'd take your recommendations. I love how it takes close-up shots and the background is blurry. What fun Christmas will be.
I'm with you with the snow. Hope to have one in ID this year.
Ha Steph! That's a funny comment. My Mom and Step Dad are moving to Boise. Ray is already there my Mom is going to join him after the holidays. Where in ID does your family live?
Payette. North of Noise, just across the river from Ontario, Or.
What? Auto-correct doesn't know Boise? North of Boise ...silly phone.
Your decorations are looking really cute. Brinly started crying at the breakfast table this morning because she didn't know your kids weren't coming for Christmas. We'll miss you guys.
Oh, that's breaking my heart. We really miss you guys too! I hate this being so far apart.
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