Christmas Pajama Party Link Up + Holiday Home Tour

Since it's Thursday (and I seem to like to confess things on Thursdays), I have a confession. I am a HORRIBLE blogger and have exactly TWO photos of Mason in Christmas jammies. Oh wait! I take that back. THREE. But only if you count the cousin Santa photo that Mason and his cousins did two weekends ago. {{insert monkey covering his eyes emoji}} Yeah, I know. AND to top it off, I am one of the hosts of the pajama party link up. So, without further ado, I bring you, my three failed attempts at pictures of Mason in his Christmas pajamas.

So this is attempt #1. He was playing with his new Go Go Smart Wheels set the other day and wearing his Hanna Andersson snowplow pjs and I snapped a picture real fast. Snowplows are used in the winter and Christmas is in the winter, so it relates, right? :)

And this is attempt #2. Same toy, different day, different pjs. These are his Hanna Andersson Christmas pjs. I seriously LOVE them. He got some last year as well and even though Christmas ended in December, I think he kept wearing them all the way until March or April or even May when it got warm enough to wear short sleeves and/or shorts jammies.

And attempt #3. His Carters "Santa's Helper" jammies with Santa. At least in this one he's facing the camera and smiling? Total fail on my part this year in the Christmas pajama photo department!

Link up with me (below) or with any one of my co-hosts and show us your kids Christmas jammies too!

Stephanie // Jen // Liz  // Jessica // Meghan // Whitney // Crystal

Since I was so, so horrible with the Christmas jammie portion of today's post, I thought I would share a little of our holiday decorations with you as well. I swear I love Christmas and all the festiveness but somehow I just never take a picture of my kid in his cute pajamas!

Please keep in mind that we live in a small town home. There's not much room to decorate, BUT I did the best that I could given the constraints.

One of my very favorite things to do is to hang lights inside. I think I've mentioned this before but ever since my mom first did this when I was a little girl, I have loved the look of it. I like to hang lights around our windows and then over around the door and around the bathroom door until it ends by the tree.

our tree topper - Mason's Santa hand print from when he was just 4 months old!

my first attempt at bokeh (taken on my iPhone 6 using the "Manual" app)

This is where I've been hanging all of the Christmas cards that we've been sent. I had originally planned on tying a ribbon around our closet door and hanging them on there but all I had was tape to attach them and because of the softness of the ribbon, the tape didn't stick well and I'd come home to a pile of cards on the floor every afternoon. So. I moved the cards to our pantry doors. I literally may keep them up way longer than I should because seeing all my friends and families faces just makes me so happy :)

This table is my make shift mantle. I'm DYING for a mantle to decorate. ONE DAY! So, for now, I decorate the table and pretend that it is my mantle. I absolutely love the look of hurricane glasses filled with Christmasy decor and I love to put these cute ornaments in them. I hope to get larger ones someday and possible fill them with those red, white, and silver bows (that you attach on to packages) or pine cones or candy canes or maybe just more ornaments. The possibilities are endless and one day, friends, one day I will be able to do this! Stay tuned!

I also updated the art gallery wall to reflect Christmas pieces. Thankfully Mason's school sent home some of his artwork early! That top left Christmas tree is my absolute favorite. They traced his hands and then cut them out using scalloped scissors (the teachers, not Mason) and then made a tree. He glued all the "ornaments" on himself!

And our last place of festiveness is Mason's room. He absolutely ADORES his tree. Every single night when he comes home from school, he wants me to turn on the lights. He loves to blow on the tree (I think to "blow out the candles" like on a birthday cake) and so we tell him to blow three times and then I plug in the lights. I don't know if he thinks that blowing turns them on and off or what, but he gets the BIGGEST smile and his face just lights up with joy when the tree turns on. I'm going to be crushed to have to take it down at some point in January.

So, even though it's small, I think we decorate a good amount where there is just the right amount of Christmas without being too overwhelming.

Some of you may have noticed that we celebrate Hanukkah too, which is true. However, I really only have one Hanukkah piece and since Hanukkah is over, I had already taken down the wooden Menorah that we have before I took these pictures. So just use your imagination on that one!

Don't forget to link up your Christmas jammies with us below!

[Home Tour] Update. And Amazon Mom

I thought I was all good on posting Mason's room yesterday and then this happened... as I am posting my blog post, I check the monitor to check on Mason and he is sticking his leg through the crib slats (yes, even WITH the bumper there. Apparently the bumper is not THAT tall or Mason just has super long legs). At first I'm thinking "aww, how cute" until it looks like his foot is stuck. He's pulling and pulling and starting to whine and I realize... his foot is stuck. He starts crying and I run upstairs to try to get his foot out. It was stuck. I actually started to get kind of worried and thought I would need to call Seth to come help but then I realized it was just stuck because of the angle he was laying at. So I straightened him out and was able to get his foot out. Needless to say, I checked on him constantly until he fell asleep to make sure he didn't get his foot stuck again. This also led me to my second blog post title...

I joined Amazon Mom! I've been toying with the idea for months now... actually probably a year. I've wanted to but didn't know if I would use it that much so I just procrastinated. I don't know why though...it is free to join and you get free 2-day shipping! It's basically a free 3 month trial to Amazon Prime that they call Amazon Mom because you have to be expecting or a mom in order to join (I think... though I don't know how much they check).

My first purchase? A new, taller bumper for Mason's crib!

Before

After

The shipping was ridiculously fast. I don't know why I didn't join earlier!

One last picture to end on... a post can't be a post without this face.

Rockin' his new shades.

[Home Tour] Mason's Room

I've been wanting to post pictures of our new place for forever now....but as much as I hate to admit it, we are not totally unpacked yet or totally, completely moved in yet. I know, I know...we have lived here for over a month now so we totally should be but with work and a baby and life happening... it hasn't happened yet. Over 99% of the boxes are opened and put away but there are still a few with pictures that I don't know where to put yet.

Without further ado...here is Mason's room!

standing in the doorway, looking in

crib

can't live without our sleep sheep

changing table/dresser

changing table/dresser

pictures and "M" above changing table/dresser

i love love love these

window and closet

directly across from window,

next to door

bookcase

signed baseball

signed by Mike Scioscia, manager of the Angels

hand and foot prints from when Mason was 1 month old

rocking chair

no post would be complete without a picture of the boy :)

i think he likes his room!

It is still a small work in progress but it is the room that is the most done :) I need to hang a couple more pictures and then we need to figure out where to hang I need to figure out how I want to hang some baseball stuff. We went to Ikea this past weekend to try to find something but I had commitment phobia and couldn't commit to buying anything. Hopefully soon!

More home tour's when a few things happen...

- master bedroom : we get the new part for our bed that broke in the move so we can finally put our bed frame back together
- living room : i make my chalkboard
- kitchen : when i finish figuring out where i want to put everything away (there are so many cabinets here but somehow i can't figure out where to put anything!)

Enjoy!