Happy New year Friday Pretties

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. 

 Here are some pictures from our Christmas eve

and Christmas.

This has been a hard year for my family.

I lost my Mom is September. My husband was deployed to Afghanistan and i was diagnosed with cancer.

 But God is faithful and has brought us through.

 My husband being Mr. funny guy.

 So many things to be thankful for.

My husband returning safely from Afghanistan!

Us acting out a scene from White Christmas.

 I am so thankful that my treatment is over and I am feeling good.

 Thankful for my children!

Brotherly love.

Thankful for

Craziness!

 Thankful that even when we do not know what a year has in store for us God does and he carries us through know matter what trials we face when we trust in him.

I am thankful that I can cling to that truth like I never have before. This has been the hardest year of my life but with God's grace and love I can have come through it with a stronger deeper faith! 
What a gift!

Thankful that I am

leaving for Michigan to spend New Years with my sister :)

SO thankful for my big sister! So excited to bring in the new year with her.

Make sure to hop over to her blog

I love pretty little things

for 

Friday Pretties!

Happy New Year.

MERRY FRIDAY PRETTIES

MERRY

CHRISTMAS

The miracle of Christmas isn’t that a little baby was born in a manager, or that a star appeared, or that angels filled the sky.

The miracle of Christmas is the incarnation of Christ Jesus, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

That is the true miracle of Christmas!

Make sure to visit Joyces lovely blog

I LOVE PRETTY LITTLE THINGS

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Girls weekend & Teacher gifts

Girls weekend

Here are a few photos of my girls weekend with my favorite girls.

My cousins ,

 And of course my sister!

It was a celebration weekend to celebrate my end of chemo!

 So we headed to the beautiful city of Chicago

for some 

shopping

eating

and theater going.

We saw Wicked

it was great!

But nothing compared to the 

laughing

crying 

and reminiscing that we did.

I am SO blessed to have each and everyone of these women in my life!

I also wanted to share these teachers gifts i picked up at a local nursery

Blumen Gardens

I found these beautiful glass ornaments and 

set them on these pretty candle holders.

i loved my brilliant idea so much i had to buy 2 for my mantle.

countdown

Baking Done

Wrapping  done

Sewing  done

Blog post done:)
My list is getting smaller!

Friday Pretties its beginning to look alot like Christmas

Friday pretties

over at

I Love Pretty Little Things

friday Pretties its beginning to look alot like Christmas

FRIDAY PRETTIES

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I love pretty little things

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White Wednesday

I love the coziness of Christmas lights

And the warmth of sweaters.

And there is nothing like sitting in front of the fire on a freezing night and believe me we have plenty of those in the Midwest.

I have been looking for a rug for my living room for awhile. I wanted something to warm up the room.

I was very excited when I found the woolly bully at Lowes.

I did not make up that name it is seriously what it is called.

It is warm and snugly not bullyish at all.

Make sure to hop over to Faded Charm for more white Wednesday.

December weekend fun

This weekend we put up our Christmas tree.

My oldest daughter came over and we drank hot chocolate and ate cookies.

It was very fun but as you can see my children weren't being very productive helping their Dad string the Christmas lights.

Sunday we attempted Christmas pictures.

I thought this was suppose to get easier the older they were.

I was wrong.

After many pictures in the freezing cold we finally got one!

More pics to come of our tree.