: Merry Christmas :

We've had a wonderful few days celebrating Christmas from the Christmas Eve service at church {followed by driving by some lovely lit homes, dinner from a drive-through (ha!), talking about Jesus' birth, watching Charlie Brown Christmas, reading "twas the night before Christmas}Hide all

Then on to both our parent's homes on Christmas day and returning home well into boxing day...we've had a wonderful Christmas and today we're still enjoying the magic of Christmas -- the tree is still trimmed and smelling wonderful, Mr. L is still off work, boxes of goodies spread throughout the house, vanilla candles burning; it's all still so wonderfully, delightfully enjoyable! Quality time spent as a family can never be replaced! And it's noon and we're all still in our pj's :)

We ALL got spoiled, the gifts have been overwhelming - we are so blessed and count it one of our greatest blessings to live in Canada, we don't know how good we have it!

Well, going to get back to my family here, but I just wanted to officially wish you a Merry Christmas, I hope you're taking a moment to take in all that this glorious season means to you!

Oh, and Meg...you asked how I keep my house so clean, stylish & white...If it was me I would have an all white home, but I live with Mr. L and he likes colour. I find that white is one of the easiest thing to keep clean..everything is washable!

And my house isn't always tidy, of course I took those photos when there was less junk spread about, but truly I hate clutter so I have to like to put things away c o n s t a n t l y. I am continually tucking things into there proper places; from mail to bills to dishes etc. it doesn't really ever end.

One thing that I swear by is a play room...we have one {it's upstairs in this house} and the boys have to keep their toys in it. However if they want to bring some toys in the family room {like in this post}, that is okay bu the rule is only one toy per boy. They get it and typically it's a toy that they play with non-stop. The wood trains set was in our family room for 3 days until it was cleaned up on Christmas Eve. And I'm okay with that...I find that when they are only able to play with one toy they play better. I also take 15 minutes per day to do a quick clean up, doesn't get everything taken care of but generally the house is clean and tidy and I don't get overwhelmed. So there ya go, hope that helps ;)

But we're just like everybody else, this is currently what our family room looks like....

Have a great day --- I'll be back with a photo re-cap and some of my favorite gifts I got ;)

{XoXo}

: Home Tour 2011 :

Well, since it's been a CRAZY long time since I posted anything, I thought I may as well start with a {albeit partial home} tour of our decked out home for Christmas...I've had quite a few who don't live close ask if and when I'm posting pic's of our new home...so here you go!

Welcome to our new home! I wanted a new wreath but wasn't prepared to spend $30+ on a real green Christmas wreath, but this one from Michael's fit the bill just right and at $5.39 I couldn't beat it! I've already got an idea for our front door wreath next year, jut couldn't make it happen this year. I also found a "L" ornament for cheap {$3 cheap} at a local grocery store and the little birdie is one of three that are new additions to our trees.

Here's our dining room/living room

Lovely gifts wrapped with love

Another one of our new ornaments, I thought they were just so sweet!

Christmas flowers, bought 4 bouquets from a floral outlet and put together little bouquets of fresh cut greens, salal leaves, Lillie's/tulips and faux silver leaves...nothing beats fresh flowers!

On we move to the kitchen where I have a daily reminder of what this season is all about; thanks to Jones Design Co. You want one too, you can find it here...she's a sharing girl ;)

Here's the rest of my little corner I see daily, paper straws in a mason jar, silver snowflake napkins in an old peach jar, Santa's cookie plate for Christmas Eve, fresh cut greens and my framed printable - Love it!

Last year I made this wreath, since my front door is glass and no longer black -- I needed to find a new place for it. Along with the silver topiary trees, blanket of snow with a strand of 20 lights, made a perfectly dreamy window scape above our sink.

...brown paper packages tied up with string...
this is our annual pannetone this year ~ can you say YUM!?

Here is a full shot of our kitchen

On to our family room with our real tree

This tree is much wider than we thought, a whole 4.5 feet wide, but it's a beauty and smells SO great! Thankfully it's very moist and doesn't drop many needles. I purchased a new skirt for this tree...we have a very traditional red skirt for this tree but when Mr. L and I were out for a date a few nights ago we stopped by Lee Valley and found an old coffee sack for just $1 -- I needed it, not even knowing what I would do with it. Mr. L gave me a look but when I took it apart and wrapped it around the bottom of the tree his quizzical look vanished. Both of us love this tree and the best part is; the boys put all the ornaments on it by themselves! They had a blast and loved really being part of the tradition this year

This is my favorite ornament from JJ - it's his hand print and 5 little snow men. We have yet to open up our ornaments from Cole, they are still wrapped and under the tree :)

We've got quite the little collection of Christmas books that we get to read throughout the holidays - every night or so we light the lantern and pull the blankets out from my new Land's End tote that I got for my birthday {thanks M&D} and read a book by the light of the tree...really is the small things that count!

View of the fireplace inset in the family room

Here's a little dressed up nook we have in our kitchen just leading into the front hall, love the little shelves Mr. L put up for me, they don't match but I don't care, I just LOVE them!

On your way out of the kitchen you pass by a door {to the basement} and that's where I chose to put up all of our photo cards from our friends and family -- I had made the gray wreath for the boys room in our last place, but it never made it up..so I just added some white satin ribbon I had left over from our front door wreath and a little tag "knit together by love" and voila a cute little display! Ps. remember "funtak" that's what I used to stick up the cards with...totally forgot about that stuff; it's amazing!

Here's the view from the bottom of the staircase looking past the basement door into the kitchen.

And amazingly enough you're back at the start of the house ;)

Hope you enjoyed our house tour and I look forward to touring you through the upstairs soon -- If you want to see our previous years tours here they are 2008 & 2010

I've spent the past 3 days hibernating as I had basically been away from our home working for Cranberry Creek from November 28th - December 20th - so to say the least our kids & home needed some loving tender care and I've never been so happy to be in my sweats playing trains and cleaning then I have in the past 3 days!

Hope to get on here more and in case I haven't stopped by your blog lately, don't worry I'll be catching up over the holidays ;)

{XoXo}

: Christmas Wish :

Oh. My. Goodness. It has been a pathetic Fall for this blog! Oh well, we've been "doing" life and life has been FULL ~ All good, and full.

But things are starting {HA!} to come around and become a little more routine..but more on that later!

For now I've been dreaming of all things Christmas, from singing songs that celebrate the REAL king of kings, to the time with family, the traditions we depend on, to decorating, gift giving, strolling hand in hand with a cinnamon something from Starbucks...it's all such a wonderful time of year! And all in celebration of Jesus' birth!

I've been requested from both of our families to compose a Christmas Wish {dream} list...and even though I like specific things, it's really hard to put together a real list of "oooh I want", "oh, I like", "that would be great to have!" especially when we have SO much stuff.

At any rate, it was truly fun to have the time to sit and write a list, so I thought I would share. Here's my gown up Christmas List . .

Christmas Wish by shawnalad featuring adidas running shoes

Sweatshirt hoody
$118 - lululemon.com

Tory Burch ballet shoes
$195 - simplysoles.com

Adidas running shoes
$80 - zappos.com

Coach shoulder bag
$398 - coach.com

Hoop earrings
$50 - jcpenney.com

Voluspa 'Maison Blanc - Gardenia Colonia' Boxed Candle
$27 - nordstrom.com

Amazon Kindle 3G Wireless + Wi-fi Reading Device
$189 - amazon.com

Michael Buble 'Christmas' Music CD None One Size
$12 - nordstrom.com

Item: Clear Bubble Umbrella - Silver Ombre Trim
$17 - target.com

Bobble 550 ml Bottle Black
€12 - welikefashion.com

Hope you've taken some time to dwell and enjoy what Christmas really means, and by all means if you've got a Christmas list; share it! It was really fun to do!

{XoXo}

: Cole's 4th Birthday :

Coley's birthday was one of the first things we hosted {other than our moving in day} in the new house..we had just been in the house slightly over a month and hosting 2 birthday parties days in a row. It was a little nuts, but he's worth it!

He wanted everything pirates and I was happy to do something that we had never done before -- I googled printable pirate party and I found some super cute {FREE} printables -- that's such a great savings for us!

Cole asked for a treasure chest birthday cake and thankfully my friend Tawn had done one a few months before I needed to do mine, so I just copied her ;)

{I would normally have photos of the kids at his "friends" birthday but unfortunately my other camera that I was using as they are quite quick little kids decided to go on the fritz and I lost the photos and video...I was SO sad!}

A few days later we had the family over for his "family" birthday - we hosted a spaghetti dinner {his fave} along with Caesar salad and bread.

Here's Cole with big brother JJ & Nana & Papa

Jacob with GG {remember he really loves his GG}

Daddy and the birthday boy - these two have such a great bond, really warms my heart!

The "Grandma's"

Our little family just before cake consumption ;)

Opening of gifts -- this was the first year he was REALLY into it!

He too was SO excited about his Jessie doll -- just look at this face!?!

Cole loves his GG too!

The birthday boy was VERY wired by the time we tried to get a photo with G&G -- this was the best we got :s

Tried to get a decent photo in front of his birthday board...this was the best one I could get - oy vey!

Coley-Bear, you are a delight in every way..you continually bring smiles to our face. God has blessed you with a sensitive heart and a huge sense of humour -- we are SO blessed by having you as our son! May your 4th year be filled with learning, fun and lots and lots of love!

{XoXo}
Mama & Daddy