Christmas Tour of Our Home

Hello and welcome to the Crow family blog!!!  So glad you could stop by for a Christmas tour of our home!

I am linking up to Kelly's Korner: Show Us Your Life  - Christmas Tour of Homes  There are some beautiful decorations that  you really must check out.  :)

So, let's begin....

The front entry way:

As you walk in the front door, I hung some ornaments to separate the living room and the dining room:

Side table in the living room:

Dining room decor:

Christmas tree #1 in the living room:

topper of tree #1:

another view of tree #1:

Mantle in the living room:  (I hung a curtain rod from the stocking holders - an idea I saw on pinterest - my new addiction)

another view of mantle:

Christmas tree #2 in my daughter's bedroom: (she loves anything that glitters and sparkles, she actually said that her tree needed more sparkle, lol, yes she is most def. my child)

Christmas tree #3 in my son's bedroom - he loves sports, especially Alabama football (even though I have tried to persuade him to be an Auburn fan like me, lol)

Christmas tree #4: Gone with the Wind tree in our bedroom.  For as long as my husband and I have been together, he has given me a Gone with the Wind ornament almost every year

Tree #5 - Family tree - this is the tree in our basement.  Santa delivers to this tree.  This tree is ever changing.  Most years, it holds ornaments that J and I had has children along with ornaments we have collected since being married.  On the years that J is deployed, I make this tree a patriotic tree.  I was so glad to be able to decorate this tree this year, as I normally would :)

Tree #6 - Kids Tree - this tree is in the kids playroom.  We allowed the kids to decorate the tree all by themselves.  And they did.  We had no help in it at all.  This tree is full of ornaments that they have made at school along with ornaments they like. 

Another view of Tree #6 - close up of the topper...the kids decorated with jump ropes and costume jewelry at the top.  I can not help but smile. 

Did I mention I love pinterest???  It is so full of neat fun things!  I saw on there an idea to put ribbon on the front of your cabinets and pin Christmas cards on there to display.  So, I copied it.  Instead of securing the cards with clothes pins, I just use tape.  It is holding up great and I love how it makes the kitchen so festive too.

Another view of the cabinets:

and one last tree...Christmas Tree #7 has traveled many great distances.  Last year while J was in Afghanistan, his parents sent him this tree for his room.  It was so sweet to see (in pictures) this little tree set up in his room with the gifts wrapped up under neath all ready for him to open on Christmas morning all while we watched via skype.  We are surprised to see that this little tree made it back all in one piece and I wanted to set it up in our house just as a reminder of how blessed we are that Jesus has been so merciful to us to return our soldier home (for the 3rd time) and how faithful He is to give us this time together. 

I hope that everyone remembers the reason for this season!  Merry Christmas from our family to you!

Getting Crafty

This weekend I decided to do a little crafting.  A few weeks ago, J and I went to an annual arts and crafts festival in our area.  I had seen some frames that I loved, but was not willing to pay the amount they were asking, especially knowing it was something easily re-created.  So while shopping with a friend she and I got to talking about the frames because she had seen them too and we bought the supplies to make the frames ourselves. 
I am not much of a bow maker so I enlisted my mom's help because she is my expert bow maker ;) 

The project was easier than I thought it would be and took seriously no time at all...I think we made 5 frames in less than 30 minutes...super easy and quick project. 
I took a picture with my phone and uploaded it to pinterest (my new addiction) and got so many re-pins from it that I thought I would share it here on the blog.

Here is a picture of the 5 completed frames (we would have made more, but I did not have anymore frames or accents):

Some supplies you will need:

-Ribbon  ~ I recommend thick, wired ribbon.  It is easy to work with and holds it's form.  There is a lot of ribbon to choose from.  I got ribbon that could be used year round.  You could also go with a holiday theme if you like.
-Floral Wire ~ once the bow is made use the floral wire to secure it together
-Glue gun and glue sticks ~ to secure the bow to the frame
- Frame ~ use whatever size you would like-I suggest 5x7 or even 8x10.  I did a 4x6 size and it was almost too small (I like a bigger bow so we had to scale back on the size of the bow for the 4x6 size.  You could also just glue a cute felt flower or stone to a smaller frame without a bow - I think I may do that next) 
-Decorative pins/stones ~ to be placed in the center of the bow.  I found mine at a local craft store in the bow making section (I like the ones with pins or clips on the back because it secures it to the bow)
-Scissors ~ to cut the ribbon

One of the blank frames I purchased:

My mom showing off one of her completed bows:

Bows glued to the frames before I secured the decorative pins to the center.  The hardest part was deciding which pin to put in the center.

One of the completed frames: (I decided to keep this one for myself)

I tried to get a variety of frames and pins to see how they would do.  I like how each one turned out.  The following frames are going to be Christmas gifts:

The frame that I decided to keep for myself, I placed the 4 generations picture we had made for my grandmother's birthday.

I am linking up this post to the Sundae Scoop Link Party

So, that is my crafting.  Let me know if any of you precious readers make one of these frames.

Some Elf Antics

My friend, ShaRhonda at The 4 Crow's, is having a link up party for Elf on a Shelf until Christmas Eve.  So, I am linking up to her blog today and sharing some of the silly-ness our elf, Dan, has been getting into. 

Dan found the kid's camera and went around the house taking pictures.

We found Dan hanging out in Jack's tree.

Dan needed to do some reading.

Dan got a little hungry one night and got into the gum drops.

Doing some climbing...

close up of Dan climbing

Dan decided to hang out in the chandelier

Dan wrote a letter to the kids telling them to have a great day (how sweet of him, lol)

Dan got into a wrestling match with John Cena...Looks like Dan used some of his elf magic and managed to get Cena in a headlock.

The other wrestlers caught wind of what Dan did to John Cena and tied Dan up to the Charlie Brown tree...something tells me that Dan will not mess with anymore wrestlers, lol

Dan also got into some silly-ness last year.  Here are some of those pictures:
Dan wrapped himself in the kids countdown chain:

Dan tried to brush his teeth:

Dan toilet papered the kids bathroom:

Dan traveled with us during Christmas.  While we stayed the night at my grandmother's house, Dan got into her undergarments drawer and hung them from the tree.

Head over to ShaRhonda's blog and see some more elf mischievousness.  I will share more of Dan the elf's antics between now and Christmas (something tells me he has much more in the works, lol)