'Tis the Season...

Jessica was soooooo helpful in putting up Christmas decorations! :-) Actually, she loved every minute of it! It was so much fun to see how excited she was about everything we got out. She kept pointing and laughing and saying, "oooooooo!" Not that I'm biased or anything, but I have a pretty adorable kid!

As you can see, Jessica was in charge of the all-important task of 'steadying' the tree as Daddy put it together. I really wonder how we managed without her! And (one of my favorite touches) is her Halloween purse on her arm that her Grammy made her. Jessica LOVES that purse and carried it throughout all of the Christmas decorating festivities.

Some of our Christmas decorations... The basket of flowers in the corner is actually not Christmas decorations. When we got married, my aunt made all of our flower arrangements. I had decided to go with silk flowers because I really wanted to (a) save money and (b) save my bouquet. So, in that basket in the corner, is my wedding bouquet from our wedding day and Jer's boutonniere. How cool is that? PLUS, the go great with all of the Christmas decorations!

Some good friends of ours gave this cute little train set to us one year. It is simple ceramics that have been painted but I absolutely love it! And, it fits perfect on top of one of our movie shelves.

By far, one of my most favorite features of our cute rental house, is the fireplace that we never use as a fireplace. We put our couch right up against it with no fear of said couch catching on fire because we never plan to use the fireplace. What I absolutely adore though, is having the fireplace because we can utilize the mantel with my Lemax Christmas decorations as well as hang our stockings up! It is truly a Christmas looking fireplace & mantle now! (Before it was looking so not-Christmasy!)

Our first year of marriage we decided to splurge and by our 6 foot (really 5 ft 10 inch) Christmas tree! We have never had a place with tall ceilings and wondered how the tree would look since it's dwarfed by such a large-looking room. But, I have to admit I really like the smaller tree in this room! It makes Christmas look and feel so much cozier!

I LOVE my piano! And, I decided to break out my Christmas music books to assist in the decorating of our living room. I like the effect so much that I am going to find music for other holidays too. 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving... I'm even going to do my best to find Groundhogs Day music! Not a CLUE what type of music that means but I am going to try!

Doesn't this picture make you feel as if Santa Claus were right around the corner?!? One of my favorite memories is sitting by the Christmas tree after everyone in our family went to bed. The lights would be out except for the Christmas tree lights. I love to sit and contemplate the Savior and His birth. Often I find myself reading the Christmas story by the Christmas tree. I always feel so much love and gratitude for my Savior and that God loved me enough to send His Son...

"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ." - President Thomas S. Monson

"This little child, born in a stable and cradled in a manger, was a gift from our loving Heavenly Father." - President Henry B. Eyring

"If we look for the good, we can see this time of year with new eyes - perhaps even with the eyes of a child." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Deacon, Avery, and Amelia Fullmer

On Thanksgiving Day, my Aunt Tirzah gave birth to Deacon, Avery and Amelia. Deacon had already returned home to his Heavenly Father and was stillborn. Avery and Amelia are doing well. This is a picture of one of the girls (not sure which girl) holding her Daddy's hand (my Uncle Troy). They were born at 25 weeks and 5 days. Their original due date was not until March of 2011. These sweet little cousins of mine are a miracle in so many ways. In addition to Deacon, the girls have another older brother, CJ who has been spending lots of time with his aunts and uncles while Tirzah has been in the hospital. I'm sure that CJ is the best big brother in the world already. I know Jessica absolutely adores him when she sees him! 

We love you Troy, Tirzah, CJ, Deacon, Avery, and Amelia! Our hearts and prayers are with you! We pray that those precious girls continue to grow, develop, and get healthier with each passing minute. I can't wait to see you all at Christmas!

Merry Christmas

And what better way to kick off the Christmas season than with a new blog design?!? Honest Abe is standing over my shoulder though so I need to give the credit where credit is due. This means that I need to give a shout out to my cousin Brittany because she re-did hers and I LOVE it!!! In fact, when I went looking for blog backgrounds that were Christmasy her's was the only one I liked. (Something about great minds comes to... uh, mind...) lol! Anyways. Then, I decided to actually CREATE my own banner at the top! For my birthday last year, my mother-in-law gave me Photoshop Elements. I love it, I'm just not very good at it yet. I spent about 3 hours figuring out how to place the pictures, edit them, add text, add shadows behind the text (so very cool and my new favorite computery thing to do!) and then saving it, changing the blog... blah blah blah. Long story short (trust me, it's a much longer story than this) here is my new blog design with my banner design! Love it! I'll post again later with pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas!!! (Have I mentioned that I like Christmas a lot?)