A Caranci Christmas, Part 2 (for Auntie Jo, the Adamsons crew, and Poppie)

Part two brings us to Christmas eve morning, when we were able to celebrate with Jason's dad and open gifts from his sisters and their families. 

New accessories from her Auntie Jo!

Classic shot of Jas with his eyes closed:

Poppie was thrilled with his new handmade afghan from Jen:

As you can see, we were completely spoiled! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Joanna, Poppie, Jen, Scott, Will, Jamie, Aaron and Grace for such an abundance!

Caranci Christmas Part 1 (for Meme and Pepe)

I seriously considered skipping all holiday posts since I didn't do them in real time and I really am ready to move on toward a new year. However, once I (finally) got my pics loaded and started looking through, I knew I had to post pics from all the fun! Especially for our family that lives far away and missed out on the action with the kids. So this is the first in a series of posts recapping our holidays. 

To start, we opened gifts from Jason's mom and her husband, Meme and Pepe. The kids were in heaven with all of their new goodies!

Jason even got some homemade stollen from his mom!

A BIG thank you to Millie and Jim for giving to us so generously! 

Just a little note...

to say I'm still alive! I apologize for the long break in posts, but you know how it goes: holidays, family, technical difficulties (i.e., my camera usb isn't working to upload photos), sickness - including bronchitis, pink eye, respiratory virus, pneumonia - we've been busy! Hoping to get back in the regular rhythm of things next week. Hang tight, don't give up on me!

Eden's Big Girl Room Makeover

For Eden's 4th birthday this year, we decided to makeover her room. She has been taking dance classes this year and has just fallen in love with ballet, so it was the natural pick for the theme. Her favorite color is purple and she loves sparkles, so we did as much as we could to incorporate all of that into her new design. She also got upgraded to a "big girl bed" (a daybed instead of her toddler bed). Here are some before pics:

And now, the afters:

  

(this is a practice mirror for her ballet)

(growth chart on the wall)

(her first ticket to the nutcracker ballet, framed)

(hard to see, but this is 1 Peter 3:3-4)

I was really, really happy with how it came together! It went from simple and sweet to oh-so-Eden. And I'll let her reaction speak for itself (please excuse the horrible quality and shaky camera):

Trying to catch up!

I know I'm not winning any awards for consistent blogging these days - sorry, folks! Things get away from me and I forget to post all about the stuff going on. But hang tight, I've got several posts coming up in the next few days!

First up is a shout out to my lovely sister-in-law's blog, G.I. Joe's Wife (G.I. Joe is my brother :) ).  She hosted a mug swap for her readers this year for Christmas. I thought it was such a charming idea, I had to join in! This is what I snagged from my match up:

I LOVE it! Downton Abbey has been a favorite show of mine since it premiered, as I love all things England, historical romance, etc. Thanks to Nicole B. for my first Christmas gift this year - it's awesome! 

Stay tuned for several posts catching you up on the latest in the Caranci family!

A Little Late...

I got a little ahead of myself and forgot to post pics from our church's fall festival several weeks ago. We went just for an hour or so, but had such a good time! Most of the pics are of Eden, since Harry is so hard to catch. :) But they both had a good time!

Eden got her face painted:

We had some yummy food:

 The kids were impressed with all of the music, fun and games:

We even got to roast s'mores:

Striking a pose after getting some cool hats, pencils and stickers from the police department:

Fall festival was a big success for the church and we had a blast attending for the first time!

Night Stand Makeover

For Eden's birthday, we are planning a makeover for her room. Her favorite thing is dancing, so she will be getting a purple and pink, frilly ballerina room! She will be upgrading to a daybed, getting new art and decor, a new rug, and a practice mirror for her ballet. Another thing she will be getting is a nightstand. 

I re-did a dresser for her room way back when we first moved in, and it looks like this:

My mom had a nightstand that perfectly matched the style, but needed a little paint help to match the dresser. Here it is before:

And after:

I just painted it white and sprayed the hardware in a metallic silver paint. Just used what I had on hand, so this was a $0 job! 

I'm so excited to put all of her new stuff together, so stay tuned for a big reveal of the big girl bedroom next week!