the most wonderful time of the year.

This may be my largest blog post ever :)

Thanks for all the GREAT comments on my last post!! I need to jot down all the music suggestions :) It was so fun to read your Christmas favorites!!

Last weekend we celebrated Dave's bday with a little surprise party at his favorite pizza place.

My sister ordered Dave this delicious cake :)


Here's the little table I set up so that it looked like we were having a party :)

Here is Dave looking at his 'sport card' album.

Some of you know about this, and even contributed!

I emailed everyone I could think of who knew dave (and everyone I could find on dave's emails) and asked them to make a tiny card to add to the book as a birthday surprise. We got several cards, and it was so fun to look through them all as they came in the mail!! A BIG thank you to all who sent in a card/cards. Dave loves his book!!

Perhaps Dave's best birthday gift (actually a gift for the whole family!) was starting a new job! He was laid off the end of October due to downsizing of the firm where he used to work. Those 5 weeks in between jobs were hard... financially and even more so mentally. I am SO proud of all the hard work he put into finding a new job so quickly in this struggling economy. I am SO thankful for all the people who stood behind us and helped us through. There are so many amazing people in our lives :) THANK YOU!!

And now... more Christmas at our house :)

Dave put up some old school lights this year.

Our doormat :)
I'm in love with doormats :)

Our stockings... made by my Grandma :)

Our Christmas CD collection.

May look like a lot. But when you go through about 10 a day, you want more ;)

Our tree.

Looks pretty plain here, but it is pretty at night lit up.

We have mostly Hallmark ornaments. Probably about 80%.

I worked at Hallmark in college and stocked up.

Glad I did :)

Here are some of our favorite ornaments....

Lilly's favorites (her favorites when i took these pictures at least...)

The Strawberry Shortcake one smells like Strawberries :)

Brady's favorites. (Brady is my other child :)

He likes to pose like these hockey ornaments.

The Grinch... he dangles from the presents that open!!

The other Grinch has a holographic heart that grows :)

I got the display Nemo at Kohl's when he was no where else to be found!

LOVE this one. I got it half off the day after Christmas when I worked at Hallmark. (It's not Hallmark, but we sold them there...) I was making sure that it didn't sell so I could by it for $15 instead of $30. It's one of those glass ones that is painted on the inside.

This one reminds me of my friend Vicki that I worked with :)

She loves birds :)

Just a fun one!

Dave and I have 2 of these between the 2 of us.

I had/have at home and his parents gave him his.

Just about forgot this one!
It's a spring ornament. so cute :)

My mini Hallmark ornament tree :)

Lots of cute little ones on here.

Here's our wall of cards as of today... not too many yet, but we usually fill the wall!

Here's what I use to hang the cards.

They sell little card hanging kits with string and mini clip things.

Not sure if they are hard to find or not, I think I found my last set at a garage sale :)

And lastly... because everyone who is getting a copy in the mail probably already has theirs... our Christmas card :)

Montana (as in Hannah Montana) is our new last name to protect our true identity :)

I am planning on taking a break from blogging as the holidays are quickly approaching. So much to do, and I am trying to make things as less stressful as possible. Blogging isn't stressful, but wanting time to blog is what gets me.

This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year ;)

I'm trying to make it that way :)

Merry Christmas everyone!