On Tuesday we had a little family celebration for the little O man! We plan on having a few friends over to do a more formal celebration when Seth’s parents are in town for a visit but we couldn’t resist celebrating on the real day too! After naps we had cupcakes and Owen got to open his gifts. Seth and I had put up a banner and balloons which were a big hit! Here are a few pictures from our family gig!

Jackson worked hard on Owen’s birthday card. He was so proud of it! He drew the whole family, (heads with arms and legs minus the bodies)

a little groggy after nap, checking out his balloons

Owen loved the birthday boy and excitedly pulled out rubber duckies for the bath!

Sweet big brother!

He DEVOURED his cupcake! So much for being a picky eater that doesn’t want to try new things. He LOVED it!

Love you, Owen! Happy Birthday! We are so glad you are in our family!

On December 17th Seth and I celebrated our 5th wedding Anniversary. After fighting the bedtime battle with Jackson we made a big pot of cheese fondue and enjoyed a quiet dinner. In a couple of weeks we are headed to Paris for a few days while the boys stay with Seth’s mom! Can’t wait!  Everyone always says it but in some ways it feels like just yesterday and in some ways it feels like we have always been together. God has been faithful to us and has stood by us through sickness and health!   From Dallas to DC to Bogota to DC to Bern, it’s been an adventure! So glad we are on this adventure together.

First Anniversary in Dallas, Texas 2006

Bogota, Colombia 2007

Bogota, Colombia 2008

Virginia 2009

(HUGE pregnant with Owen. The coat doesn’t help me look any smaller)

And here we are now, Bern, Switzerland 2010

I think I mentioned previously about how my parents send a box with paperwhite bulbs. I don’t know how it made it through our crazy mail system but it did and it has brightened our holidays immensely as we watch them grow! Next to the paperwhite are a small carved wooden cake topper  bride and groom. I was so impressed. Seth went on Etsy and found some wooden ones to keep with the wooden theme of the 5th yr! They are so fun!

Happy Anniversary Seth!

Well, despite the fact that the tree has already started to turn brown and die, the cheer continues. I thought I would put up a couple more pictures of decorations!

We don’t have a mantel in this house so we are trying to warm up the stairway and have a place for the stockings to hang!

this was hard to photograph but these are small wooden snowflakes that my sweet friend Annie O’Leary sent me for Christmas last yr and said they were for our windows in Switzerland. Little did she know we would have walls of windows and they would fit in perfectly!

This is a happy pot of paperwhites that is now residing on my kitchen ledge! My mom surprised us and sent them as an early Christmas gift. For those of you that don’t know, we gave out paperwhite bulbs as our wedding favor when we got married almost 5 yrs ago! We are watching them grow daily!

Seth’s co-workers now hate him because he has been getting the most packages! Gotta love family and Amazon.  We are so spoiled!

This isn’t a great picture but you can get the idea. I used this thrifted old mesh door to display our Christmas cards from the yrs past. We are waiting to add this yrs when it arrives!

sorry, random pictures of the top of our armoire…again trying to find “mantel” spaces . I put the second picture in so you can see the carved “Joy to the World” from my dad. He carved it a few yrs back for us and it has made our home feel like home during the holidays since! We had one in our house from his parents when I was growing up!

And oh yes, the snow! and snow babies. They love it!

enjoying the tree

I used one of our clear glass vases and filled it with old-fashioned hard candies and candy canes..then put some fresh branches in. I used my cake stand and cover and filled it with extra ornaments and ribbons

thrifted ornaments hanging on the chandelier

this yr the new addition to our decorations on the tree are these gingerbread cookies I found. The house is smelling yummy!

Jackson had his friends Amelia and Amanda over to make a gingerbread house

more Christmas decor pictures to come! That was just to get my mom hooked so she will read again soon!