At Home With Lexi

Since Friday I have been fighting not to lose my voice & this morning when I woke up to go to work, it was gone. My throat has been sore & I do have a cough so hopefully I'm not coming down with strep. Losing my voice could not have come at a worse time because today my boss has a huge brief due by 5:00 today & of course I am not there to help him. I'm sure he is just thrilled! I am already counting how many phone calls I get from him today, right now we are on 4.
So anyway, I am staying home with Lexi for the day & when she realized that I was not getting in the shower & getting ready for work she was very excited. So we are having a girls day at home while Daddy is working. Now I ask you, what does one do when there is nothing on TV & you have seen all of the movies that you own at least 3 times? You take pictures of the house all decorated & some pictures of Lexi.
(Our fire place, of course Lexi gets her own stocking)
(Our first fake tree)
(Our dining room table, small yes, but perfect for us)
(Living in a townhouse you really have to learn how to use all of your space)

(As soon as I moved the couches to take a photo of the tree, Lexi grabbed 2 of her toys & went to play under the tree; how did I get her to look at the camera? I said, "where's Daddy?")
As I am working on this post, Lexi is MIA; I have been calling for her & she hasn't come yet. This usually means she has gotten into something that she's not suppose to so I went to look upstairs & this is what I found:
(Someone got into Mommy's closet but before I took it away I took one more photo)
Happy Monday everyone.

HHS Silent Auction

On Friday night Dan & I went to the Herndon High School Silent Auction that was being held at the Holiday Inn in Chantilly. All of the money was going to the Herndon High School baseball team & the night was a hit. There were so many people that showed up & it was a lot of fun. Dan & I did bid on quite a few things but unfortunately we didn't leave with anything except a large poinsetta that was used for decorations which is behind Lexi in her Christmas photo above. Our friends Doug & Meta met us at the auction & it was so good to see them; we hadn't seen them in a few months. After the auction was over we went to the hotel bar called Bob O's & had some dinner & drinks. Below is a photo that I had Meta take of Dan & I: On Saturday we hung out at home & watched the first snow fall of the year. We got about 2 to 4 inches & I absolutely loved it. I was going to take some photos but I got side tracked while getting out our Christmas decorations & putting up our tree. This year I was so excited to decorate because last year we didn't put a tree up because we were going to be in PA for Christmas & thought it was a waste of time. We bought our first fake tree this year & even though I miss the smell of a real tree in the house, I really do like it. This is the first fake tree I have had. My Mom always had real trees when my brother & I were growing up. I can't wait to see what she decorates her tree like this year, it always looks so great. One of the traditions that I miss is helping my Mom decorate our tree. We still have one tradition that is going strong which is watching the movie While You Were Sleeping on Christmas Eve. That is one of our favorite Christmas movies. :o)
This morning while Dan was cooking a big breakfast, I made the attempt to take Lexi's Christmas photo. I can't even count how many photos I took of her before I got the perfect one. She really doesn't like getting her picture taken so I have to bribe her with either treats, people food or naming her toys in order to get that head to the side look. Dan even tried to help me with a handful of turkey & asking her to "sit". This obviously didn't work because she just stood up on her hind legs & begged for the turkey. I was laughing the entire time. She really didn't know what was going on. Eventually, I ended up with the adorable photo above. Here is one of the photos that did not turn out (can you tell she is smelling the turkey?): This afternoon our neighbor Laura is going to come by to take some Christmas photos of Dan, Lexi & I. We are so thankful that she is coming over to help us because she is busy with 2 babies of her own. I will be sure to post the photos for everyone to see. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. =]

Decorating Weekend

Dan & I will be pulling out our Christmas decorations this weekend to make the inside & the outside of our house a little more festive. I am pretty excited about it because we are putting up lights in the front yard & I have been wanting to do that since we first moved in. I have a ton of Christmas decorations for the inside & we recently got decorations for the outside. I like the simple white light look so don't expect every inch of our townhouse to be lit up in ugly Christmas colors. Dan & I argue about that probably every year because he was raised in a house where they only used colored Christmas lights. I can't stand those; white lights say Christmas to me. One of my biggest pet peeves is driving past a house that has used all colored lights & only some parts of the house are flickering on & off because they used a combination of regular & twinkle lights. Just thinking about it makes me irritated!
Anyway, speaking of decorating, I was searching online this week for some ideas & came across this photo: I think the stairs is a great place to hang your stockings if you don't have a fireplace. Of course our house never looks that neat & put together but its nice to dream. If you are looking for more Christmas decorating ideas, you can hop over to these websites:

~ Martha Stewart
~ Rachael Ray
~ Better Homes & Gardens
~ HGTV

Have fun sprucing up your home for the holidays, I know Dan & I will. :o)