December Happenings {Catching up Post: Part 1}

Catching up from the month of December because it was a whirlwind of a month! Our foster kiddo was reunified with his family(after 4 months of being with us)  a week before Christmas and we were SO very happy for him! He did get to help decorate the tree, so we were happy to be able to share a little bit of Christmas with him before he left!

The kids got to do some ice skating at Southglenn which they loved.

 We started our book advent to count down to Christmas! 

We had some nice snow in December and I got to go with Elijah to the Littleton Historical Museum on a field trip. It was actually really cool to go in December. It was so pristine and looked so authentic with the freshly fallen snow! 

The kids and Mark got to go to The Parade of Lights downtown 

with our missional community group.

(I was home with our little foster guy who was sick) 

 The girls and I went to The Denver Flea which was this VERY cool small business warehouse- the coolest thing ever. I was in love. 

 The twins Girl Scout troop helped throw a fun Christmas community event at the Grange. 

 After the party, we took the kids to see some nearby lights. 

 I got to go with Ella's 3rd grade class to the Denver Art Museum. Good times. 

 The kids typed up this awesome Christmas list that I never want to forget! 

We had to say goodbye to our mice (very sad day) 

and got a new hamster which the children named, Dr. Calico

 We made Christmas cookies and delivered them to all our neighbors. 

Stay tuned for the last half of December in my next post.....

Kitchen

 Moving forward with the Gomez home tour... the kitchen. 

 LOVE that tea set- it was my Great Grandmothers. My mom is sending me my great grandmother's dish set too! I'm so excited! And notice those pear canisters. I found them at Target a few years ago and only bought 2 of them (there is a large green one as well to the set). I got them for under $10 on Clearance. Well, I went on ebay to see if I could find the green one to complete my set and it was selling for over $70!!!! The orange one was around $50 and the gray one around $30! I seriously contemplated selling mine but I like them too much:) 

I have a green pear mug that went with the set and it was selling for around $20 on ebay! CRAZY! 

I wish I could predict whats gonna be in high demand because I would buy it all up and resell it! 

So there you have it! Our kitchen. I spend a lot of time in this room and I like the calm colors and the counter space and the plethora of cabinets! If I owned this house, I think I would paint the cabinets a darker color.

Red Dining Room

 I have had several people say that they would like to see pictures of my house on my blog so I thought I'd do a room to room view, starting with the dining room.

Its RED! very red! especially in the late afternoon when the sun comes through the back window and the whole room glows. I like it. Its bold and bright with accents of black, orange and white.

 I have a VERY large wall on one side that my sweet friend Megan basically decorated for me with pictures of our family that she took!  

 We have needed bar stools for forever and I FINALLY found the perfect ones at a yard sale. They are old and vintage and wrought iron and have so much character and did I mention, have burnt orange vinyl seats?! They match perfectly and I got them for around $10 a chair- steal of a deal!

Here is the view when you walk in the front door. 

Now for the crazy part.. here is the dining room when we first moved in 3 years ago. It is amazing to me how my style has changed so dramatically but it really has- even the way I dress has changed and I'm not sure what started the change! I think its amazing how VERY different my style was then and is now! I think part of it is that I never really bought things for the house in the beginning- I was given a ton of stuff by my mom and her style is country and more romantic, so I just adopted that style because it meant I could use all her things that she didn't want any more and not spend money which is a good thing. I was very grateful for them because my home would have been VERY bare if not for her:)
But as my style began changing, I just worked at one room a little at a time switching over to a style that was more me. In my head that was too much work but it just took time and patience to switch over . I rarely buy items full price. I find them at garage sales or at deeply discounted sales or I make it. So once I decided I wanted the room red and actually painted it, then I sewed some curtains and worked a little at a time to transform it to what I wanted in my head. I really enjoy the "hunt" for the perfect things  to add to the room and get even more excited when it costs little!

Next to come, the living room!