Schrock Christmas Family Photos

Every year, the Schrock side of my family meets at my grandmothers house for Christmas Eve. It's probably my most favorite day of the entire year.

And every year after we open gifts we do a family photo shoot. It always takes about 5 times longer than it should due to the older generations fading eye sight when it comes to working the camera but it's always fun. We do a "normal" one first:

Then we do a funny one. My grandma usually buys a funny prop for us to use. This year it was mustaches....

 

Then here is one taken at dinner. I love my family!

Silhouette Machine

Ok so I am just dying for my own Silhouette Machine. You can make labels, iron on graphics, really just about anything with it. And for someone who is as OCD as I am; it's heaven!

One of my fellow Houstonians, who happens to be one of my favorite bloggers as well, is giving one away! Jump over to her site Honey We're Home to enter. The winner will be announced on Jan. 1st! Good Luck (but of course I hope I win haha)

 

What does it do, you ask?

Are you in love? I know I am!

ThELaUgHyGiRaFfY

I was introduced to ThELaUgHyGiRaFfY by Tatertots and Jello. I was quickly smitten with their adorable hair bows, binky clips, burpies, and almost any other baby accessory you could need. And although Kevin and I don't plan on having a baby for a little while...it can't hurt to look, right?

Well I became a fan of them on Facebook and I entered a giveaway for $15 worth of free merchandise. Another great thing about this place...you can get quite a few things for $15. Oh and guess what....I WON!!

Check out my awesome swag I picked out:

I tried to to be a gender neutral as possible but I just couldn't pass up the pink polka dots or the robots. I can't wait until I get them in the mail!

Holy Macaroni - I own a Dyson!!!!

Just when I think my husband can't get any more amazing....he knocks me off my feet again. Saturday night, we are watching a movie at home and the door bell rings. I know it's the FedEx man, but I thought he was delivering Kevin's latest brew kit for him home brew beer kit. No...he was delivering the Dyson that Kevin bought for me!

It's the exact one I wanted: the DC17 (Animal). This bad boy is made to tackle all pet hair that comes in its way (which we need so bad w/ a 85 lb chocolate lab and a growing boxer puppy).

 Isn't it just so pretty?

And something that is different about the DC17 is the amount of attachments it comes with:

I vacuumed last night right after I got it and as embarrassing as it is to admit it; the Dyson picked up as much dirt as our old Bissel did after me not vacuuming for 5 days (and I had vacuumed the previous day w/ our old vacuum).

So needless to say, I am in love...with my Dyson and even more so with my awesome hubby! He is so good about surprises, I'm the luckiest gal!

Laundry Room Sneak Peek

Yesterday I got my new ironing board cover in; weird and nerdy, I know, but I just love it! I ordered it from CompelledToCraft on Etsy. My old one was from Wally World and was a weird blue paisley design...this new one fits in with my new laundry room decor much MUCH better! I should be having the final reveal next week after I get the antique mirror in. Try to contain yourselves until then :)

Pantry Makeover

Yesterday I did nothing but paint the pantry, then paint the laundry room and then I stencilled the entire pantry on top of that. I am so happy with the outcome! I picked Glidden paints for both rooms (Pineapple upside down cake for the pantry and Pale Jade for the laundry room). I am waiting to reveal the laundry room until we get a shelf and mirror hung up, so you will have to wait a few more days for that. I got my pantry inpsiration from the House of Smiths Blog. She is always doing the best makeovers - so if you are thinking of spicing any room in your house up, you should definitely check it out.

What do you think? The stencil is kind of light but I love how it turned out.

'Tis the Season

The Christmas Tree is up!! I got a great Black Friday deal on our tree from Macys.com and it arrived on 12/1; how perfect! I think it looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself :)

 

Shout out to my wonderful mother for donating the tree skirt and the decorative ball ornaments. I think it might take a while for me to take down the tree after Christmas...I love having it up!

Lily Sleeping

Check out this funny video of Lily sleeping. So funny!

Oh and this was too cute not to share: a photo Kevin sent me while I was in MS this weekend.

Tired Puppies

What a great weekend! We celebrated all of our families October Birthdays on Sunday with a late lunch of beer butt chicken, MacNcheese and pecan pie - yum! It was so great seeing everyone and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as Kevin and I did.

Sunday evening Rylee and Keeton dressed up as hobos and went trick-or-treating and got some good swag.  Maverick and Lily were so pooped after everyone left! They had been going non stop for two and a half days and did nothing but sleep all day today.

Yeah, they have it SO rough! Thanks again to everyone who made this weekend so much fun.

Finished Product

I made the burlap wreath this weekend like I was planning to. It was super easy and cheap to make. I am so happy with how it came out. I suffered some hot glue gun burns on my fingers but such is the price of DIY sometimes. I think I might have to start making my own wreaths; the ones from Pottery Barn or Grandin Road are so expensive and this was cheap and fun to do. I am foreseeing a winter wreath in my future...stay tuned!

Gone Shootin'

Today Kevin and I took the dogs out to the trails in Kingwood and had a blast. Lily went swimming in open water for the first time and did great! Mav, of course, being half fish had to be coerced into coming out of the water eventually but we all had a great time.

Then after lunch we headed out to Thunder Gun Range so Kevin could put some rounds through his new LCP and I could get some more practice with my Lady Smith. I have to say I did better than I thought. I feel pretty comfortable shooting my .38 Special now. And as corny as it sounds I'm glad Kevin and I found something fun to do together. Here's a shot of my target after I was through:

 

Not too shabby - I got some in the orange! And here's a shot of of Kevin in action:

Wreath

So this weekend I plan on making the above wreath out of burlap and some fun fabrics that I found online. I am going to the fabric store on Saturday and hope to have the wreath finished by Sunday. I'll post pictures after I finish it!