again catching up on blogging, so things are totally random and out of order!
our ward has a great playgroup! (shout out to teasha for taking charge of it for the past many many years!) so a few weeks ago i thought i'd try to take some fun pics of nathan. that didn't happen! he was way to involved with playing with "the boys". i say "the boys", because mainly that's all that shows up ;) occasionally there will be girls, but not too often.
he's such a boy!
when we got home and i got the mail, he grabbed the target christmas catalog and i still don't think i've had a chance to look at it! lol.
a few post ago when i shared what my living room looked like with all that photo studio equipment in it, here's an outake while i was trying to figure the lights out.
i needed some christmas cheer earlier then normal this year. so i think the first sunday of november we lit a pine scented candle...
turned on some christmas pandora...
and started to decorate. this picture makes me happy :) no diaper, just cute little undies, lol.
if you know me, you know i loooooove christmas!!! i think it stems from always having an amazing christmas while growing up. my mom always decked the house out. we even had a rotating base for many years that slowly spun our tree around! it was just a magical time of year in our house. and i always got every gift i wanted ;) lol. we've hosted many great christmas eve parties throughout the years. (shout out to my uncle steve for having a laser show set to music on the living room wall when i was like, probably 6? and craig stickler for always reading, "twas the night before christmas". lol)
what brings me great joy is the flood of memories while i unpack ornaments. i remember who gave it to me and when. they've become super important to me! so i wanted to document them in case heaven forbid one of them breaks :(
obviously this one speaks for itself. it was a gift from my mom my first christmas as a married woman :)
nathan's first christmas, we made this ornament. it's his handprint turned into snowmen with a poem attached. it read, "these aren't just 5 snowman as anyone can see. they're made from my handprint, which is a part of me. so each year when you trim the tree, you'll look back and recall. christmas of 2009 when my hand was just this small." this one will definitly be a tear jerker each year it appears.
our of place picture. while nathan and i were decorating the tree, jaren hung lights on the house.
jaren bought me this ornament in 2006. it's a big heavy silver ball. but what i love about it is it plays music! when you twist the snowflake, it plays "silent night".
aww, i love this one too, lol. seeeeee!!! ornaments are an obsession for me! jaren bought me this one in 2008. there's a star over the belly symbolizing me being pregnant during christmas time with nathan.
so far this year, this one is nathan's favorite. mimi (my mom) gave it to him last year and it lights up and changes colors.
christmas of 2007 while we were living with my parents, i went to home depot on black friday and they had this train on sale that i just had to have! so my mom bought it for us as a gift :) this is the first year we've been able to have it out! lol. and of course, nathan loves it!
he also really enjoys the fisher price nativity he got last year from his mimi. he calls the angel a butterfly, lol.
back to on of my favorite ornaments, this one is from my brother matt and his girlfriend niki. basically if you give me an ornament, i love it.
this one is from my sister andrea to nathan in 2010. the wings read, "tis a gift from god." and the little boy angel is holding a blue blanket.
this one amazes me and i'll probably make an attempt to make one this year. i got this from jaren's aunt marilyn while we were in utah for thanksgiving in 2009. she has crocheted around a glass ornament and there are beads throughout the thread.
my mom knows my obsession with ornaments and fulfills my itch every year. jaren and i moved in with them in 2007. we were never allowed to have a dog while growing up. and here jaren and i move in with a dog! we had had him for a year and they weren't going to ask us to get rid of him. little did they know that they would fall in love with bugsy and treat him just like a one of their grandchildren. true story ;) so much in fact that she bought an actual hallmark ornament for him that year.
it's fun to unpack my moms ornaments and look at the years that they received them. this is one of those for me. i got this from my primary teacher in 92. i just loved her! and later she became one of my young women advisors which made me just love her more. and of course being 9, having things with your name (spelt correctly) on them is awesome!
a few years back, my sister andrea showed me these awesome ornaments her brother-in-law made them. it's almost like a ship in a bottle kind of thing. your name is spelt in wire and floating in the ornament. so the following year, i ordered around 25 from him. and the year after that i think the same amount! lol. they are pretty unique. i've given him some tough request, and he never lets me down! one year i had him write "fortner family 2009"! funny thing though, the hardest name i've given him is my niece ekaterina. since it's a pretty long name with 9 letters, he said it touched each side of the ornament, which made it tricky.
to keep with the tradition of getting a new ornament every year, jaren bought me this one in 2009 while we were in utah for thanksgiving and took nathan to see the hogle zoo. my memory of that trip... it was FREEEEEEZING cold!!
here's my name in ornament...
here's nathans...
and the longest one i've had so far... "babys first christmas 1983". thanks mom for hanging on to it for me! this is probably why i have an obsession with ornaments.
ahhh yes, the hula shark. when jaren buys me ornaments, he really puts some thought into it. last year our gift to each other was our upcoming hawaii trip. so he thought this one was fitting. and funny enough, it was from target of all places!
here's our entry way lined with our stockings...
that santa is an heirloom, lol. my mom made it at some relief society activity before i was even born. he's been beating up over the years from various boys/grandkids and yet has remained in good condition. i can't believe it! i was just reading this to my mom and she just informed me that the santa was store bought! oh my goodness! the past 28 years have been a lie! i could've sworn the story was that she made it!! ROFL! and the sleigh, i don't remember where my mom and i were shopping but she saw it and just had to have it. we didn't even know how much it was but that didn't matter to her! thankfully i do remember it being on sale ;) unless that's a lie too. lol.
lights are up on the house :)
i think they played with the train ALL DAY!
"families are forever because love never melts". got this from my mother-in-law and i love it as well. plus there's nothing breakable on it. so when nathan wants to bodyslam it, i don't worry.
after all that decorating, he just layed down and fell asleep. i can't remember the last time he has taken a nap!
back to ornaments... of course i love this cinnamon one nathan made me last year in nursery.
here's my christmas wreath this year.
the weekend before thanksgiving, my entire family came to town. some of them i haven't seen since nathan was blessed in march of 2009. here's one of his cousins who's 5.
my sister andrea hosted a taco night so we could all get together. nathan liked playing cars with his uncle matt. (who we haven't seen since his 1st bday)
we played a little rockband.
nathan and his cousin aaron.
again, random order of pictures, sorry... my christmas advent is probably one of my favorite decor items.
i made a super cute christmas countdown at super saturday this year.
ok this has taken me 8 days to write, lol. that's it for now. more soon :)
