Maverick: 17 Month Update

Fun at the library!

Doing a little re-decorating of his own in our living room after Christmas.

The blog has been notably Maverick-less as of late, and I'm starting to feel a little bad about it. While it's more of a 'creative writing' outlet for me, it's also for documenting our life as a family. Instagram helps me remember most of his milestones, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading through his monthly updates when he turned one...in fact, I was surprised at what qualified as 'news' during his first three months of life. "Finding and eating his hands?" Big whoop, this morning he played at an indoor playground for almost two hours then downed a banana for a snack. How is it even possible that much can change in a year? If I didn't have written documented proof, I wouldn't believe it myself.

Spending a lot of time at the mall/library/CFA/church play places these days.

Maverick doesn't like: winter coats, hoods, winter boots, snow pants, hats, and ESPECIALLY not mittens. I think he might always be a summer-loving pool baby. :) 

Anyway...these here are a few of Maverick's Favorite things...it's funny to see what has stayed the same and which things have drastically changed.

BATHTIME- I'm convinced we could leave him in the tub for an hour. Longer if he has toys to play with. I've started flossing, taking off my make-up, putting on lotion, using face masks...an extravagant beauty routine is accomplished every three days when Mav gets a bath. To say we both look forward to it would be an understatement.

SWIMMING - We weren't in a pool for about three months, but we've been to three hotels this month and Maverick hasn't forgotten a thing! It's more fun now that he's able to crawl and walk around on his own (and 'jump' in standing up) but that means pool time is a whole lot less 'lazy' than it was last year. Practicing this winter is a good thing (for both of us).

SNACKS - He frequently walks to his snack cupboard, pulls stuff out, and brings it to me to ask if he can have it. I'm not big on letting Mav snack all day long...but now that he gets breakfast at 8:00, he's allowed a small mid-morning snack. And one small after-nap-snack. The toddler schedule and routine we've finally accomplished is so amazing.

TRACTORS - It's common for Maverick to spend the first half hour after breakfast playing with one tractor all over the house. The tractor he picks changes, but ONE can occupy him for a looooong time. He knows where the farmer goes to drive, and can match each animal to the places they're supposed to go. He's also mastered his farm animal 'puzzle' and matches the animals and is pretty good at putting them in their shape.

READING - He asks us to read to him all the time. He will find a book in his room and bring it out to us in the living room, then climb up on our laps. This morning he crawled into a tiny spot between the chair and the tall shelf in his room and sat reading books while I got ready for the day. I kept peeking in on him because I kept getting that 'he's too quiet something is wrong' feeling and he was just in there flipping the pages of his books! GAH!

TALKING - So. Much. Talking. He's suddenly able to communicate much more effectively than he could even a month ago. He points to things, 'asks' for things, and tries to repeat after us when I request he say, 'More' 'Please' 'Thank you' 'Up' 'Yes' 'No', etc. Most of what comes out of his mouth sounds like 'Deeees?' But his inflection and tone changes depending on what he is 'telling' us. He likes to cry 'Maaaaamama' and say 'Da!' and 'Dada!' all day, but my favorite is when we change his diaper, he points, I say 'Wenis' and he goes, 'Nana!' Haaaaahahaha...his 'real' Nana does not like it so much. He also says, 'Uh oh' and 'OooooOOoooO!' when observing stuff.

TV - This is a bad habit we've started this winter, but I have just decided I'm not going to feel guilty about it. The list of things he's allowed to watch is pretty slim...Baby Einstein YouTube shows, tractor videos, anything on PBS...and we will turn it on if we have friends over and want to visit during dinner like adults without a whiney baby at our feet (or I'm meeting a friend for coffee/we're visiting someone and I flip on my phone for a 20-minute Einstein video). It's never on for more than an hour a day, and never more than once in a day (if he watches in the morning, I don't turn it on during the evening and vice versa)...but he's started going to the coffee table, getting the remote out of the drawer, handing it to me, and then squealing because he's excited. Perhaps a sign of too much TV? Perhaps a sign it's winter and when we're in the middle of an ice storm and stuck inside the house...this is how we deal. Either way...he loves it, it's semi-educational, and on the worst teething days, it gives me the sanity I need to carry on.

Cuddled up watching Elmo on a snow day...

So good at playing on his own...

A rundown of some other stuff favorites...

He likes putting his toys away and just generally putting random things inside of other things (the other day I found Ball jar lids hidden away in a yogurt box I had sitting beside the door to throw away). He likes the vacuum, the dryer, faucets, and 'wrestling' on beds and couches. He LOVES to be scared. He inspects new things very precisely. His favorite thing about Christmas was all the lights being turned on every morning (and his trees, of course)...along that same note, he likes lamps. But not just one being turned on...ALL OF THEM have to be turned on. We have two in the dining room and two in the living room and he will point and shout 'Dees!' until they're all on. It's hilarious. Another 'word' he says all day is 'Dis!' or 'Dhis' (like 'this' but with a D). He likes helping us turn light switches off and on when we enter and leave rooms. He likes looking out the window at the traffic and the snow, though his feelings about snow are still generally negative. He likes walks in the stroller, walks around Target/Fareway/Sam's Club. The play place at Chick-Fil-A and the mall...he likes watching other kids and will observe them as entertainment, but he's still happy to play by himself or ignore them altogether. He doesn't 'get' sharing' yet, but he also doesn't get upset when kids 'steal' things from him...so I'm not tackling that too hard yet. He fully understands what 'no' means...and it seems like we're in a phase where I have to say it a little less these days. Whereas a few weeks ago, it seemed like I spent all day following him around, saying no, redirecting, saying no some more, and enduring the fits that came from that. I guess we're in a spot where we're reaping those rewards before we go through it all over again. He doesn't usually get too 'rough' when he plays, but he quickly learned what 'nice' touching and 'gentle' meant during Christmas. And that translates well when we're in other places and especially when we're around other little babies.

He's starting to 'help' empty the dishwasher. He's learning how to carry his dirty diaper to the door (for me to throw outside in the trash). When I come to take something away from him (like my phone, the remotes, my earrings) he's started 'handing' things to me when I ask for them like he's helping instead of me just snatching stuff he's not supposed to touch. I let him put the wet laundry in the dryer if he doesn't throw too much of a fit about the door being closed (another favorite...opening and closing ALL doors). I've started getting out paper and Crayons every couple of days for him to try so we can start working on colors, but he's not super interested in that yet. He knows where his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tummy, wenis, feet, and toes are, which I'm pretty proud of. And he likes the 'So big!' and 'Where's Maverick? - PEEK!' games. Loooooooves being tickled in his neck, the palm of his hand, feet, and my favorite, in his 'arm pitties' (don't ask me why we say it that way, we sort of just started to and went with it). Some days he prefers speed-crawling to walking, but some days he will just 'tour' around each room of the house and do laps for 20 minutes before settling in to play with toys. He likes giving and getting kisses, but doesn't always like it when Josh and I kiss and leave him out. Which we find to be hilarious. He likes throwing and 'catching' balls...and by catch I mean chase after balls when they've gone right by him.

How I find him at least once a day...in a random spot in the house flipping pages and pointing at his books.

Brushing all those naughty new teeth he has...

Now...for the stuff Maverick doesn't like. He's can be very sassy, vocal, opinionated and whiney. On a good day, the bad attitude usually only shows itself during mealtime or right before bed. But during a week or two when teeth are coming in...it's 'round the clock.

TEETH - Why are teeth so hard. He got three during the last bout of teething (two in the back) and with it came my very first, "I can't handle him being like this for another minute so he's going to bed at 7pm" mothering-moment. We made it through with a couple bottles of infant ibuprofen and extra cuddles before naps and bedtime. However, today he woke up for the day and from naps whiney and his toothbrush was pink after brushing...so I think we're in for another interesting week.

FOOD - I'm pretty sure if he could, Mav would be happy with bottles of milk all day, a couple snacks, and nothing else. Some days he seems like the worst little eater. Some days he's great. We definitely have more bad days than good in this department though. I've tried to be diligent about offering a balanced meal, he eats what he wants (he doesn't get more of his 'favorite' item) and the rest either goes in the garbage or back in the fridge for him to try again at the next meal. When he was getting those dang teeth, we spent almost every mealtime plopping him down, letting him fuss and cry for 20 minutes (barely eating anything), then calling it 'done' and moving on with life.

DIAPER CHANGES - This comes and goes, but it seems like for the past couple of months...diaper changes and changing clothes are the worst thing about his little life. He haaaaates them, especially if he's interrupted while playing. I try and do them as soon as he gets up in the morning, after nap, and as the first thing in our bedtime routine...but the extra ones thrown in throughout the day are a struggle. I rarely have to discipline him about it, but kicking, flipping, rolling, and waving his arms to hit are not allowed in this house.

LONG CAR RIDES - For so long I was training Mav to NOT fall asleep in the car while we were cutting his morning nap...so now I think he associates being in the car with staying awake. I'm not really mad about it...but we generally avoid trips longer than two hours for this reason. And that's not exactly hardt, being that my parents live an hour and a half away and Josh's parents are only 30 minutes away. There are times, though, where even that hour and a half drive is more than he's willing to put up with and toys and snacks don't even do the trick. So we crank Jon Foreman or Katy Perry (depending upon who is driving) and high tail it home. Christmas Day is the only time we've traveled during naptime in the past six months...and I'll say, it certainly wasn't the highlight of our Christmas memories this year.

Doing some exploring at Reiman Gardens.

Trying the snow day after day to see if he will warm up to it (haha see what I did there) but we haven't had much luck.

 I guess based on the fact that his 'dislike' list is significantly shorter than the list of things he loves...he's pretty easygoing and sweet overall. I think we'll be keeping him. ;)

Here's what every day looks like right now (this is more for me to remember in the future than anything):

8:00 - Wake up, diaper, breakfast
10:00 - Small snack
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Bottle, nap
3/4:00 - Nap over, small snack
6:00 - Supper
7:30 - Bedtime Routine, diaper, bottle, books, cuddles
8:00 - Bedtime

18 month pictures are scheduled for March and I can't even believe Mav will be a year-and-a-half old! Last year during his six-month pictures, it was one of the warmest days of the spring (we were both in shorts by the end of the day!) and it gives me hope that winter might be winding down a little bit and spring (and even summer!) is in sight! Here's to hoping anyway... ;)

MmB

untitled.

This is a post I wrote over a year ago and discovered in my unpublished drafts the other day. I'm not sure why I never posted it...but it's as true now as it was 12 months ago...so here you go.

We three Boersma's can't believe Christmas is over. Which is why we plan to leave the tree up until February, open presents to each other this week, party like animals on NYE, celebrate with extended family and grandparents in January, and keep the Christmas music BLARING for as long as we can.

Christmas is our favorite time of year, for sure. I knew this year would be different with a baby to travel with, but other than a couple semi-sleepless nights (because I CANNOT sleep in the same room as my loud-breathing, farting, lip-smacking child) all went smoothly. So smoothly that Maverick is sleeping through the night in foreign environments (including the basement utility room and walk-in closets) and napping like an Olympic champion as we speak. Woo!

Becoming a parent has made me annoyingly reflective during the holidays. I know...I disguise it well, but my heart is heavy. Maybe this year was just a doozey for tragedies...I don't know. My uncle died from heart surgery complications in May...a Salt Company student died suddenly of an appendix rupture in November...an ISU freshmen was killed in a hit and run the week before Christmas...a Cornerstone family said goodbye to their precious newborn baby girl last week...and a friend from my home church mourns the loss of her fiance and mom killed by a drunk driver every year at this time.

That poor girl's' parents were expecting their baby to be coming home for Christmas after she took her finals and instead they got a call from the Ames Police saying she was hit by a car, the person drove off, and she died in the hospital.

I. Cannot. Even. Imagine.

These stories break my heart and I don't even know the people involved. Instead I hold my Maverick tighter, cuddle him longer, and pray that nothing like this ever happens because I think it would actually kill me. I vow to watch him like a hawk, never allow a skinned knee, a broken arm from a bike ramp, or stitches from the gutter at the swimming pool...

Except I know that's not how it works.

That precious Salt Company student was surrounded by 20 of her friends praying, worshiping, and pleading with God for a miracle during her last night on earth and the next morning she died. Instead of telling the story of a healing miracle...her family ended up planning her funeral.

And though it's hard to understand why it happened, I know that God is still good.

This little Maverick of ours was a gift. He's basically 'on loan' to us and we get to parent him for his time with us but he has always belonged to God. We can shelter him and I can desperately try to keep him from riding in cars with crazy 16-year old boys who want to do donuts in icy parking lots (wait...that's also a description of his father)...but God has a plan for his life that will probably include a few broken bones, split lips, and tears...but it might also include cancer, a tragic car accident, or severe special needs. And if it does, it will insanely hard, but I'll know that God is still good.

The responsibility of raising this little boy is a big one and it's not something we take lightly. I'm thrilled that I get to watch this little human grow and change every day and I get to see it all from my front seat view as a SAHM. It's the heartbreak of the impending unexpected tragedies that I literally can't handle on my own as these stories played out one after another this year...the empathy and pain I felt for the friends, siblings, and especially the parents was heartbreaking. And the shock from it all...more than anyone should have to bear.

...but that's the thing. WE don't have to.

I found myself accidentally crying in the shower last week. To quote The Grinch, my actual first thought when this happened was..."WHAT IS THE DEAL?" This is soooooo NOT me. And I refuse to spend anymore of my precious shower time crying over what-ifs. I have a healthy wonderful baby to raise and enjoy HERE AND NOW. God already knows all the possible what-ifs and he's not worried about it...so why should I be?

Maybe you wouldn't expect this, but I tend to be the more laid-back parent in this family. Josh is always wanting to take Maverick's temperature "just in case" and change his diaper every 10 minutes and check on him all night long and I remind him (as much for me to hear as it is for him)... "God can take better care of our baby than we can." We physically can.not. be awake 24 hours a day watching over Maverick. We can't be in his room all night making sure he's safe while he sleeps. And none of that would be remotely healthy. We care for him to the absolute best of our ability, but when we can't or when we fall short...our heavenly Father will be there to pick up the slack.

A few weeks ago at connection group we talked about how reminding ourselves when life is 'easy' that God is good, His plan is perfect, and memorizing scripture to reiterate those truths is important...because then when hard times come that truth will be locked in brains and our hearts. When it's a struggle to remember how God's plan could be perfect in the midst of such pain, we won't need to rely on our own feelings and emotions, we can fall back on what we already know to be true. I feel like practicing this now when Mav is little (and it's relatively easy) is important.

So a week ago when Maverick was up in the night and I had him all to myself...I prayed over him for the millionth time but this time, I gave him back to Jesus. It was weird, but in my heart I totally gave him over to God...because how else could I possibly handle a tragedy like one of these stories if I don't? I might be able to muscle through tantrums and the daily mom-gind stuff 'on my own' but why? There is absolutely NO other way to take on this parenting gig than with Jesus by our side. It became so clear to me as I heard one sad story after another, stories completely out of anyone's control. This time, my prayer meant more than the words we said at his dedication...more than claiming him to be our 'gift from God' on his baby announcement...he literally belongs to Jesus period. The Father who I so desperately want to occupy his heart someday can love and care for him WAY better than Josh and I could ever hope to.

Every minute we get to be Maverick's parents is an undeserved gift that God could choose to take away at any minute as part of His perfect plan. But whatever happens, I'll know that He is always good.

MmB

on accidentally becoming an introvert.

How we prefer to party these days...at our house, in comfy clothes, once Mav is in bed.

I'm not sure when it happened. But I know it's happened since becoming a mom.

I went into this thinking I would be the type of mom to crave constant social interaction...and have playdates and outings and trips scheduled with friends every day of the week. I was more than ready to beat those lonely SAHM blues because I'm an extrovert! I love talking! I am Mollie!

As it turns out, I love doing those things all the time...
Except, actually the opposite is true.

I literally want to crawl into a cave when my phone rings and it's anyone besides Josh. I suddenly LOATHE talking on the phone. Unless I'm driving and I initiate the phone call to my mom for a chat. I'm not sure why a panic attack ensues when I hear that stupid iPhone ring...but it does. This is very new for me.

If I have more than one thing 'booked' per day? Just kill me now. On Wednesday I had a coffee date with a gal and her little peanut at Burgie's and it was great! I came home and said, "Josh I made a new mom-friend! It was so fun!" After this coffee date, I spent a couple hours hanging out with a family friend who has autism (the point of our time together was making conversation) and that was also super fun. I was surprised at how awesome I was doing handling THIS MUCH social interaction in one day. That was until everyone left, I realized there was nothing on my calendar until Friday night...and I proceeded to spend the next two days without leaving the house, living a leggings + zero makeup existence.

Every month a couple girls at our church throw this thing called 'Third Thursday' and it always sounds so awesome. They plan a craft or some kind of activity along with a fun themed-supper. Last night they wanted everyone to wear pajamas, bring breakfast food, and we were going to sit around some discussion questions painting our nails.

If that doesn't have MOLLIE written all over it, I'm not sure what does.

I haven't able to attend in previous month's for various reasons, but I was about 75% sure I was going to pull it together and go this month. I was even a little excited. That was until Maverick decided to walk around the house throwing a nonstop tantrum from 5:00 to 7:00 (it's a delightful phase we're in)...at which point I put him to bed an hour early then locked myself in the bathroom for a hot bath in coconut oil, the latest episode of This is Us, and a glass of wine.

I wasn't angry. I didn't yell at either of my boys. I just needed 45 minutes of silence before I could act like a person again. I emerged at 8:00 ready to eat chips and salsa and watch New Girl with Josh, as is our usual weeknight tradition. Some moms would have probably been dying to leave the house after an exceptionally bad night like this one, but not me. The very idea of leaving the house sent me running straight for my yoga pants.

Disclaimer: The last time I took a bath was when I was pregnant. Jamie texted me at 8:00 asking for a picture of Mav and I replied with, "He went to bed at 7:15" She goes, "He's already asleep?!" I said, "I don't know. I took a bath." And she immediately understood. 

Church on Sunday just about does me in if I'm serving in a classroom, attending church, and then meeting for Connection Group (which is what's going down this Sunday). Sunday's are the reason we don't leave the house on Monday's. I like to pretend it's because we're recovering from a busy weekend (which is sometimes the case!) but really it's because I want to hibernate. I loooove hibernating. Maverick does not love it so much.

The impending ice storm was really a thrill for me because I knew it meant I had a perfectly valid excuse to stay home. #praisehands

The thing is, I never regret meeting up for a play date, grabbing coffee with a friend, or hitting the library with Mav. I just really have to make an effort these days to want to do those things...which is the struggle for many introverts, I imagine (I find it's especially hard during these winter months). And because Mav loves climbing in the play place at Chick-Fil-A and playing with other kiddos at church playgroup, I'll be putting my new-introvert tendencies aside. I prefer connecting with other moms and their kiddos in a low-key one-on-one setting (I blame Josh's extended family for this one...40+ people gathering for Christmas in one house? I'll be hiding in the bathroom, kthanks.) but I've even blocked out Tuesday mornings for those big, crazy church play dates this semester too.

So...anyone want to drink coffee and sit at the library with me while we try to keep our babies from putting dirty Legos in their mouths?

MmB

422 13th St Xmas House Tour FINALE: Master Bedroom

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The day I finally finish our Christmas house tour (how did this take take eight days? Our house isn't even that big!)! I know you're all jumping up and down.

The big tree is still up in our house...last night Josh goes, "Can you imagine if we only had ONE tree in our house like most people do?!" It took seven Christmases folks, but my precious husband is fully on board with a tree being in every room. An idea he once thought to be completely crazy. #winning

As we do when it goes up on Thanksgiving every year, we've made plans to order pizza and watch Inglorious Bastard's on Sunday night (after we've officially had our last family Christmas) while undecorating the big tree. 15 days in...we might finally be ready to tackle our goals and plans for 2017. Haha.

I've worked pretty hard on our bedroom the past couple of months. It started with selling the unused elliptical followed by a semi-impulsive speed-trip to IKEA for a black dresser (because I was sick of Maverick having bigger and better storage in his room than we did). Then I painted my old beat-up dresser from college, swapped out the hardware, and repaired and hung an antique mirror I'd been meaning to get to forever. Back in August, my main goal was to have everything deep-cleaned, organized, and in place so I could fully enjoy our bedroom at Christmastime without it feeling stuffed and cluttery...and I like to think I achieved that.

A panorama shot of most of our room. Not huge, but oh-so-cozy. 

Originally I wanted to keep this room free of bright Christmas reds, but it's so hard for me to decorate without throwing a few pops of color in. I also needed to find a good spot for this red pillow. ;) 

I picked up some fresh flannel sheets at Wal-Mart before Christmas this year in a more neutral color so we can keep them on our bed through the winter if we want.

I'll tell you something...this cotton wreath looks amazing no matter where I put it. This is the fourth place it's been and it stays out 12-months of the year! I just added some berries and a sign when I stuck it to the french door in our room with a Command Hook.

Maybe it's because this is something I see in magazines...it's not practical at all, but I like that it adds some color and interest to the foot of the bed. If you've been a house guest in the past three months, you will be happy to know all decorative trays have been removed and I just finished taking three decorative pillows off the guest bed. You're welcome, I guess.

There's the dresser I drove six-hours round-trip for...chatting with my sister-in-law almost every minute the whole way. ;) It was well worth it. The tree in here kind of evolved into what I call our "Everything Tree"...all of our special ornaments got mixed in with silver, brown, gold, and cotton. 

Switching pictures in frames around our house to Christmas is such an easy cheap thing to do. That truck picture is just one I found on Pinterest and printed, but it's one of my favorites!

Eventually I added a garland to the top of that mirror...the cotton in the corner is so perfect for adding height wherever I need it.

A little detail shot of our tree. Ignore the tag that I suddenly see poking out from a string of lights. I just wanted to show everything I used. Lights, thick gold ribbon, silver beads, hymnals, cotton, brown and silver ornaments, and then all of our special things as the finishing touch. 

I hope you enjoyed this (by now) very late tour of our house at Christmas. I'm off to make some homemade chicken noodle soup on this cold as (insert descriptive word of your choosing) day. ;) My aunt and cousin we never get to see are traveling our way for family Christmas this weekend and we get to spend tonight and tomorrow morning with them all to ourselves...so the Christmas music is BACK ON in the house today! :)

If you missed out on the tour excitement...here it is:
Kitchen
Dining Room
Bathrooms
Hallway/Cloffice
Living Room
Maverick's Room
Guest Bedroom

MmB

422 13th St House Xmas Tour: Guest BedLaundry Room

The first of our three bedrooms was up yesterday on the blog...and today I'm sharing our Guest Bedroom, which coincidentally, doubles as our laundry room. Aaand also functions as my sewing/crafting/wrapping/scrapbooking/spare closet room. I love getting creative with the limited space we have. This room works hard for us, but it does it so well.

You may have seen my status about 'accidentally painting our guest bedroom' amidst all the Christmas decorating. It's a long story, but one minute I was opening a can of paint for some touch-ups and the next minute I was brush painting an entire room without paint clothes on as fast as I could to beat the naptime clock. It took about three naptimes (an an annoying trip to Lowe's for more paint) to completely finish. And now it feels lighter and brighter...and fits the colors of the rest of the house better.

This is a cheap white shelf Josh threw up a few years ago with some L-brackets and I like adding garland in here at Christmas to make the laundry room feel a *little* more like a bedroom. The rest of the year it holds jars and baskets of laundry supplies.

I know these don't make any sense because people are always having to move them when they sleep in a bed at our house...but they're cute and they add Christmas cheer. So just, ok?

Josh took my desk out to the Man Cave and we moved this table from our farm into the laundry room instead. I love the look but I'm still trying to figure out a way for it to function as well as my desk did (since I no longer have drawers for storage). I like that I can flip the leaves up for more room to sew...but again...the storage thing. I'll report back with my findings once I can tackle this room again this spring.

This is the area on top of my metal shelving...It's just a bare spot that needed a little color. I threw these odds and ends up there and called it decor. 

Our rooms always evolve throughout the Christmas season...I added a plaid pillow and also a white body pillow to make this bed look bigger and fuller. And that brought the pillow count in here to 9. :S I can assure you we are simplifying significantly when I switch out the bedding. 

And because I always like to show you what our house looks like when it's lit up at night...

The last room in our house is up tomorrow...then Christmas will officially be over in my house AND in my heart. ;) I'm already enjoying the cleaner, fresher look we have here...uncluttering feels SO good. It also suddenly feels like we live in a mansion! 

MmB

422 13th St Xmas House Tour: Maverick's Room

Taking on a 'boy' room when we found out Maverick was a Maverick was a little daunting. No pink. No princesses. No glitter. Completely foreign for me. But I have to say, it's ties the living room for the title of  my 'favorite' in this house...especially at Christmastime.

I stick to neutrals in here too, which makes swapping out seasonal decor and rotating different signs Maverick has pretty simple. This Christmas I decided to throw in some red because I'm a complete sucker for buffalo plaid. But you already knew that. Maverick even got buffalo plaid flannel sheets (justified by the decision to keep him in his crib until he's 3 ;) because of my plaid addiction.

Daddy was given TWO Charlie Brown trees last year and I love the tiny pop of red on each side of the dresser.

Yes, that IS a coon skin cap for a tree topper. #boymom

This is literally just a picture of the sheets, but how great are they?! Not bad for $17.

That's 'The Night Before Christmas' written in cursive on the chalk door. Jamie was initially excited to help me with this, but didn't realize how LONG that poem actually is. I let her quit early because her lunch break was up, but that empty rectangle bugged me all season. ;)

Maverick "helping" decorate.

We even managed to accomplish a few projects during the holiday season. Josh's handyman list tends to spiral out of control during the ten months of the year he's working nonstop. Here's Maverick "helping" with some of that too.

And because we prefer to add to Maverick's book collection vs. his toy collection...this is what we ended up with at the end of the year! We have exactly 25...and thanks to an idea my sister-in-law told me about...I plan to wrap each book so Mav can open one every night before bed during the 25 days of Christmas next year. Based on our experience this year, he won't care about 24/25 because he only wants us to read 'Goodnight Manger' on repeat every. single. night.

We only made it through about 30 minutes of the each of the classics (Elf, Grinch, Peanuts, Home Alone, Rudolph, Frozen, Polar Express) with Maverick...we hit 'pause,' did the bedtime routine, and came back out to the living room to finish watching them ourselves...so it all worked out. ;)

And fitting with the woodland theme I have going on in here...a reindeer sign for the door. ;)

Only two rooms left to go in our Christmas House Tour! And as we speak the only part of Christmas that remains are the sheets on the guest bed and the big tree. It's sad but I think I'm starting to cope a little better. A fresh, clean, uncluttered house tends to do that for me.

MmB

422 13th St Xmas House Tour: Living Room

Judging by the number of views...the cloffice post wasn't what you're interested in. Sorry. It still had to be documented. ;)

On to the living room!!!

This room is a beast to get 'right.' I loved spending our nights together on our couch watching movies with nothing but Christmas lights on. I am having the HARDEST time taking it down. I don't want to say goodbye to it all for ten long months.

I will say...I think I'm ready to undecorate a little earlier than usual this year because I hit the ground running on November 1st...an entire month earlier than I typically decorate because we host Thanksgiving (we didn't this year). I don't regret it at all! Josh kept saying, "It's too early. This isn't right. I'm still working." But I got to 'perfect' everything and then enjoy it all SO MUCH MORE this way. I HATE the idea of hosting Thanksgiving in a Christmas Wonderland, but that just might be what happens next year.

There are a LOT of pictures coming your way...so if you want to know how I did something or have questions on where I found/bought anything, just comment or message me because I can't go into detail describing it all. ;)

This picture was snapped post-Christmas so the pretties under the tree are a little jumbled and doesn't look quite as perfect as it did pre-Christmas.

Did I already post my recipe for garlands? Here it is again:
1. Garland
2. Lights
3. Magnolia leaves (or whatever 'sprig' is your fave!)
4. Beads (they add so much sparkle)
5. Hymnals (texture & depth)
6. Berries (color!)
7. Banner (optional)

There's a shot of my pretty wrapping! Some years I've put my nativity under the tree, but thought that would just be 'asking for it' this year. I'm proud to report that sweet little MaverickWes did not break a SINGLE THING! ALL. THE. PRAISE. HANDS. 

I Instagram way too many pictures of our tree. I know ok.

These stockings were one of my favorite additions this year. Now that we're a 'real' family...you know with a kid and everything...I decided we were going to start doing stockings the way a 'real' family should. And filling them for my boys was so fun! And then going to Target on our Christmas Day to pick out goodies for my stocking because Josh forgot... was also so fun! ;)

Haha there's my lone empty stocking. Josh really did feel bad, but I was on a high from rolling out my new rug so the empty stocking didn't really matter. However...I will say, a shopping spree to Target to choose my own stocking stuffers was so fun, it's darn near close to becoming a tradition of its own.

I slept on the floor by our tree one night when we had too many house guests...and it was as magical as it was awful. I'm fairly certain I didn't sleep a single second all night. #worthit

Last Christmas I did an in depth post on how I go about 'building' our tree (and yes, it was written and posted in February). I'll leave out the details on this post, but link the old one here. I used the same approach again this year.

Already experiencing withdrawals and it's not even put away yet.

This shelf is so much easier to decorate now that it's WHITE! I just used a good mixture of vintage with new things to get the look I wanted on each of our shelves. I do my best not to overcrowd them because there's so much going on in this room. 

...because Christmas is always prettier at night.

...and because this is just a cute picture of our happy buddy.

Made this tree a week before Christmas and it might be one of the best I've ever made. You read that right...made! With the help of my sister-in-law, her glue gun, and the time we have while our babies nap...we made three of these in one easy afternoon. Then I just decorated it with odds and ends I 'borrowed' from other places in the house. I should probably post a tutorial on that sometime soon too to save you all from ever buying another tiny tree from a store again.

Another shot of the mini-villages I made this year. This is the one I kept for myself, but the rest did look really cute sitting around our house in the meantime. ;) This is a pretty old box I rescued from my mother-in-law's 'trash' pile and I think it fits in our house perfectly!

This is such a naughty wreath. It's always falling down and shedding approximately one million pieces of glitter and crystals each time it falls. I'm not even sure how it still looks this good because it happens at least once (or twice!) a year. Anyway, after falling down once I decided it should go somewhere other than directly above my Willow Tree nativity. Hung on the window above the tv (with TWO Command Hooks) is where it spent the majority of the holiday season.

Another one of my favorite things! These big jars filled with vintage ornaments, wrapped in garland and lights...mmmmmmmm. Yes. Already missing these too.

I realized I don't have a picture of our TV/shelf wall as a whole...and that's because it's nearly impossible to get good picture with all the windows in our house. Too sunny during the day and too many things reflecting at night. But if you've been reading around here for any period of time (or follow along on Insta) you know what it looks like. So here are the pretty 'up close' pics of each shelf.

I keep plenty of pictures in frames throughout the year (haha, that's an understatement) so swapping them out with each of our (seven!) Christmas cards is pretty easy to do. 

While I wander back and forth working on these shelves I have a couple main goals:
1. Spread out the black frames
2. Spread out the shiny ornaments
3. Spread out the mason jars
4. Add berries wherever things seem too 'bare'
5. Symmetry without looking too 'matchy matchy'

Josh made the mistake of telling me his favorite thing about my decorating was the 'old stuff'...at that time we didn't have very much 'old stuff' at all. In fact, he said this ^^^ box was his favorite part out of everything in our whole house and it was the only one I had...

...I have since, fixed that problem. ;) And maybe taken the box collecting to an extreme. But aren't they cute?!

Growing my old book collection, one $ book at a time.

I love the memories we recall about each Christmas card when they're displayed this way. This was the year we bought our acreage and nearly killed ourselves painting and cleaning and drywalling during the holiday season. ;)

See what I mean about the old books?! I had nothing else to put on this shelf, so I just started stacking books and it worked!

After I wrote all of that about the shelves, I ended up snapping a picture anyway. They're starting to look a little bare as a snatch things to pack away, but you get the idea.

Probably more pictures than you cared to scroll through, but this room is the HEART of our home...it's not huge or furnished with expensive things. But it's where we play and cuddle and read and Netflix and sing and nap and fall asleep watching Christmas movies and I love it so much.

MmB