The Ballard Bunch

Thinking of poor Beau out there plowing all night and thought I'd post some of my favorites of just us. He's such a great husband and dad and we are so grateful for all of his hard work and long hours.

Enjoy!

I've got everything up besides our tree and outside lights. It feels good to have everything out and in it's place - there is something about Christmas decorations that make a home feel a little more home-y. And I'm not talking Snoop Dogg, yo. :)

This may be boring for most of you, but this is a great venue for me to post pictures of boring things that moms like to see when they are far away. So, please bear with me. Mom, Cheryl - these are for you so you can get a feel of what Christmas is like in our new home!

Lots of loves from us to you.

This is on our front door. Last month it was turkeys, this month it's stockings. I'm still bugged that my "s" is slightly higher than the rest. Those of you that know me know that I'll probably fix that before too long. But here's what it is as of now. What will next month be? Ooooooooo.....the suspense. :)

This is on the inside of our front door. I found this great double wreath hanger so on the front I can hang our welcome sign and on this side I can have a wreath for Christmas. This red matches our living room so well, I'm sometimes tempted to leave it up all year long!

This is a nothing craft - all I did was "modge podge" paper to the front of wooden letters. Kind of an experimental craft that I started last year and had to refine this week. I think it turned out pretty darn cute, if you ask me! Now, if Tatum would stop trying to knock them off of the TV!

Shanna and I made these last night. Another easy, pre-cut wooden craft. But he sure adds a little to the living room. I can't tell you how much I love the $8 hand sanders we found last week. They really do save quite a bit of time when doing things like this!

This is the other project from yesterday. I'm especially excited about how these candy canes turned out because they were a beast to paint. We ended up trimming the edges with black magic marker to make them look cleaner and when we sanded them down, it acutally gave it a cuter look. Tate's been realitively kind to these, surprising considering how close they are to her level. I wonder how she'll do with the ornaments on the tree?

This year I actually have somewhere to hang our stockings! The banister that sits behind our big couch is the perfect place. I found a new stocking for Beau (it's got a cowboy feel to it) so now we all have full sized stockings for Santa to fill!

We made these last year at Shanna's Super Saturday (that sounds like an event when her name's attached to it like that). They make for a great centerpiece on the table that I'm still totally in love with two weeks later. I want my barstools to arrive, though!

As is the tradition of Day After Thanksgiving shopping (we had so much fun this year - pulled the classic all-nighter with the girls!), so is pulling out the Christmas decorations the day after the big feast. Keeping with that tradition, a new look for the blog. I know we didn't keep the fall theme long, but we started late. Anyway, enjoy. Thanks for visiting!

When you have a baby with so much hair, you really don't put hats on them too often. I found this darling hat that I had purchased for Hayden before she was born, but had never put on her as of yet. I have to admit, as much as I love her fun head of hair, she looked pretty darn cute with a hat on, too. She was so good and kept it on most of the day.

Here are a couple of pictures, one of her cracking up and flashing that contagious grin. As you can tell in the pictures, we're still having the barf problem and wear bibs 24/7. This one ended up in the wash pretty soon after the pictures were taken.

We just finshed up a very fun week-long visit with my step-mom, Cheryl and my little sister, Jessica. We had such a great time and the girls absolutely loved getting to know them both better. Tatum would wake up every morning saying, "Jeshie? Where is she?" Jeshie!!!" They really did become fast friends. Hayden especially loved cuddling with "Grandma Olson" and flashed her awesome grin all of the time. The only sad part of the week was that Cheryl caught a bug and was sick most of the visit. We still managed to have a great time and were so sad to see them leave this morning! Thanks so much for visiting - we love you both so much!!!

Here are some pictures from their time here.

Don't ask me how he discovered he could do this, but here's Beau's latest and greatest talent...suctioning a soda can to his forehead. :)

I love this new layout because I can change the look for the seasons. Just thought I'd give you all a little Thanksgiving love for the rest of the month! Christmas, here we come!!!!

I had been told that it would take at least two weeks for my dining room table to arrive, but received a great surprise on Tuesday. It had only taken 5 days - so it's here and ready for the holidays! I even hate my "pink" walls less now that it's in the room. :) We'll still paint, don't you worry! I'm just not sure when we're actually going to get to it now that Thanksgiving is almost here.

Here is the table and chairs (the barstools are on back order and we should have them in a week or two)

I have to brag, too, about the crafts that we've made as of late. Below are pictures of three that are out now. Thanks to Karen and Shanna for the inspiration/company when making them!

Here's our welcome signs for our front doors. The pumpkins and turkey are replaced with a different themed craft each month. For instance, December will have five stockings with the letters S-A-N-T-A on them. We'll be making those soon enough - I'll post pictures for all to see.

This is the pumpkin that I made on my own. It was so inexpensive and I'm in short supply of fall decorations, so I thought I'd give it a try on my own. The stem is a sanded down branch from outside our old house!

Gobble gobble! Shanna's favorite item, the turkey. She's got one in slightly different colors.

Another random Evonne project that turned out surprisingly cute. This sits on my kitchen counter for now - I need to find it a better home somewhere in the house.

With so much focus on our new babe, Hayden in the last few months, I wanted to pay tribute to the cutest 20-month-old girlfriend in the world. Tatum has grown so much over the last year and a half and I'm so proud of the beautiful and kind little girl she's become. Enjoy!

Thanks so much, Jocelyn, for your help making this blog so cute! I really appreciate it and I'm glad we touched base - now I can look at your blog in the open - no more "secret" viewing - haha!

Here are some recent pictures of our littlest babe. I took her to JcPenney's for the super $7.99 deal and this is what we got. Pretty good, considering the girl that took our pictures was absolutely horrible and terribly rude. I guess it helps to have the cutest baby in the world as your subject. :)

Check out the cheeks!

Here I am, posting for you from our NEW house! I love being here and am so anxious to finish unpacking and making this place a home. We love being here already!

Last week was a hectic one of packing, cleaning and running around. I'd like to send a quick "thank you" to all of our friends and family that helped us with everything - we couldn't have done it alone and we're so appreciative.

Here are some pictures from our last week in the Haunted House:

I had all of the kids (mine and Shanna's) over Friday morning while Shanna went to her dentist appointment. Here they are eating cereal on our living room floor. Now that we're in the new house, we'll have room for all of the kids to eat at the table - yay!!! As you can tell by these pictures, Shantell is in her "loser" phase. Gotta love it.

Here are Tatum and Hayden hanging out in the living room the day before we moved. Tatum even let me take pictures of her being a mommy - she LOVES her baby. She's taken to copying everything I do with Hayden with her own baby.

Here's our sweet little Hayden in her Halloween gear. She was such a trooper and went out trick-or-treating with Beau, Tatum and I - she even let me put a little "costume" on her face! It seemed fitting to make her an indian, having all that dark hair and all. Her face paint is a little rubbed off in these pictures - it was a long night!

I had to share these pictures of my cute Miss Tate in her Halloween-themed outfit. She totally dug the cutsie scull and crossbones! This was for the non-costume part of the day.