3 years later...CHRISTMAS DECOR!

...I forgot I had a blog. Until yesterday when I started a new one on WordPress to share my DIY projects with the world. You can check it out here Toolbelts & Tweenagers - be sure and follow!

On another note, it is snowing today! LOVE.

Only 23 days until Christmas! All of the decor we are going to have is up. Basically just our 4 trees and the mantel decor. We are not doing the outside of the house this year. I'm just not feeling it (I am secretly hoping we will be moving) :)

Speaking of trees, I hate cutting down a beautiful tree and tossing it out to die a month later so this year, our real tree is in a pot so we will plant it when we are finished with the holidays. New tradition. No more dead trees will be exiting the Ditsch household. We are very happy about that.

You can see my holiday home tour here: Christmas Home Tour

Happy Wednesday!

DIY & the month of Logan...March...

This month is Logan's birthday. We've heard about this day for the last 11 months. (Yes, E L E V E N...) He was so excited that the time had finally come (it seemed like it took a year, you know). His idea of a good time was a dino pancake breakfast, dinosaur birthday cake, roller skating and friends. So, that is what we did. He also attended his first sleep over that night. It was the "best day, EVER."

And then, he opened gifts from us at home...

I transformed the kids bathroom too; the last room in the house to be completed. After 14 months in this house, all 13 rooms have been repainted/decorated. Whew! Here it is; MONKEY bathroom (DISCLAIMER: all monkeys, vines, etc. were all painted freehand by me. No templates, stencils, etc. were used in the making of this bathroom. The chalkboard was also handmade by me using chalkboard paint, left over trim and paint, and craft buttons from a curtain project. Enjoy. Thank you.)...

 

 

 

 

The month of Shawn...

Yes, this month we celebrate the birth of my hubby, Shawn. The big 'ol 3-5 this year. These 30's birthday's really get me excited. I feel like we are still young and "hip" but not considered so "wet behind the ears" anymore. The 30's have been very good to us thus far. We are very blessed. For my hubby's birthday, I threw a surprise party for him (yes, another one, just like last year) only this time, we restricted the crowd to us "young" folk :). We had the shindig at a local bar/grill here in Topeka called Reed's. They have a philly cheesesteak pizza that Shawn and his buddy, Chris, could die for so I thought this venue would be the best fit. He could get his pizza, and eat it too :)

For a gift, the kids picked out for him a K-State concrete yard rock thingy to put in our landscaping by the front door with a Power Cat on it. We also put some of his other favorite things in his birthday bag, like Dr. Pepper, a fruit energy drink he really likes and some Kit Kat candy bars.

I did not take pics at the party. I forgot all about it. We were too busy chatting and laughing. About 16 of Shawn's friends came to celebrate with him. It was wonderful and he was so thankful. Again, I am the "best wife ever" (his words, not mine).

We also celebrated Valentine's Day, of course. We do not make a really big deal out of it. He buys me flowers ('cuz I love them), I buy him chocolates ('cuz he loves them) and we exchange cards...

As you can see, we managed to buy each other the same card! Out of the hundreds of cards, we both buy the same card for one another. We had a good chuckle over that and agreed that we were meant for each other. They read, "I will love you...'til I croak!" :)

Last but not least, this month Margot also performed in the talent show at school they call "Curtain Call." She sang an original song that she wrote (and she also sang in a large ensemble group). She did FABULOUS! We were so proud of her! The name of her song is "Guarded" and it is available for download on iTunes!!

 

CLICK THIS LINK: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/guarded-single/id591970736 to preview and purchase Margot's song for only $.99!

 

Here are some pics from the show...

And here is a video performance of her act...

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW: http://youtu.be/Uv0IOGYu79c
 

Happy New Year, 2013!

How fast 2012 left us.

This month, my husband, Shawn, had his GE Christmas party. We celebrated at a super delicious pizza joint called AJ's New York Pizzaria. We had a great time!

My favorite item served was a drink one of his buddy's ordered up for me called a Costello. I am in LOVE. I also tried a beer from Belgium called, Stella that Margot recommend I try. It was pretty good, but not something I would yearn to drink. Shawn thought it would be funny to ask me how I felt about Stella compared to (a NASTY beer called IPA, and take my picture. This was the response...

He's a funny guy, isn't he? Tricky, tricky, tricky.
The kids and I also rode the train at the mall when we went "after Christmas" shopping (we received lots of gift cards, which is awesome)!

We also decided to a family night (we do these a couple of times a month - this time, I happened to take pictures so I might as well share them). Our activities included making our own homemade pizzas (yes, we have snow!) and game time on the Wii. We will beat that darn Super Mario game, if it kills us!

 

Margot month (aka, December)! (pics)...

Yep, two major events this month. Christmas, and Margot's birthday! :) She turned the big 1-8 here with us in America!

Before we left for Wisconsin, we celebrated Christmas as a family here with our gifts and (some new) traditions. Because we have a foreigner (whom we wanted to learn more about) in our home or the holidays we were very lucky to be able to celebrate Christmas twice! Yes, Santa (or some guy close to it) comes to Belgian homes TWICE in the month of December (the night of the 5th, and the night of the 24th)! Sweet, huh?! We were all for it! Rather than hanging stockings, they place a (worn everyday) shoe by the fireplace with a carrot inside it (or celery, if you are like us and out of carrots) for Santa's horse (yes, horse) to eat and bowl of water for his equine to drink.

On the kitchen table, Santa gets water to drink (we gave him cookies, too) and his "Helper" (a little black man) gets WINE to drink. (Yeah, poor Santa gets gypped...) Santa places your little gifts by your shoe for you to get when you get up the next morning. (You get the "big" gifts on Christmas morning, the 25th, just like in America)...

 Shawn's family came to visit. His mother, Yogie, stepfather, Rodger, sister, Sonya, brother-in-law, Dustin and niece, Allison...

We spent our Christmas holiday in Wisconsin with family, for a week. We had a great time playing in the snow (it was cold, but that didn't stop us!)...

Trying different restaurants (had our pictures taken in front of the fireplace at one of them - long story), visiting old favorites and visiting with family and friends...

It was perfect.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!

 ~The Ditsch Family



(No shave) November... (pics!)

My husband decided to participate this year! So he had to shave his head (which he does almost daily anyway) with a straight razor. He has had a goatee since the day I met him but I insisted in order to participate fully, the facial hair needed to be shaved as well! He wasn't too enthused, but did agree that I was probably right. (Yes, I marked that one down in the books.) As the month progressed, he had a really hard time not shaving - he hates to be unshaven and scraggly looking - so about two weeks in he told me that it was driving him crazy and he was going to have to quit. I encouraged him to use this a learning opportunity; make it represent more than just shaving/not shaving. "You quit now when things are a little uncomfortable, you will quit the next time things get a little rough." He thought that made a lot of sense, thanked me for my wisdom and raved about how glad he was that he married someone so smart (a few more notations for the book) and never complained about his shagginess the rest of the month. I was so proud of him. Here is his transformation:

This month, Margot was also in her high school's annual musical performance. This year they performed "Lil Abner" and worked very hard rehearsing for it every night after school for about 3 months. The student's had a lot of fun with it, and it showed in their performance. It will certainly be an experience she will not soon forget. She made a lot of friends in the process.

This month, I also decided to give my hideous fireplace a makeover before the Christmas holiday. Thanks to my best friends "liquid nails" and "tile cutter" I knocked this puppy out in about 12 hours. My original plan was to demo and rebuild the surround, but now that the tile is changed, I love it as is!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home as a family. Shawn smoked our turkey and Margot and I prepared the "fixings" and set the table. This was Margot's first Thanksgiving obviously, as Belgium does not celebrate it (yes, people have asked!) Here was our little spread...

Afterward, I took her Black Friday shopping - she was not impressed with the numerous "rude Americans" (nor was this American, for that matter) but we found some great stuff!!

At the end of the month, we chose our Christmas tree as a family, and attended the holiday lights parade in downtown Topeka. We all LOVE this time of the year.

Last, but not least, CONGRATULATIONS to my baby sister, Laura and fiancée, Ryan on their upcoming arrival AND engagement!

October... (pics)

Ah, my favorite month of the year! I love everything fall and Halloween related. Next to Christmas, it is my favorite holiday. (Well, after my birthday too, I guess.)

This month started with me tearing apart my kitchen to install a tile backsplash. Yes, I did all the work myself (took two days to demo, cut and install tiles, and grout). So here is the before and after transformation...

This is Brooklyn's birth month. Her actual day of celebration is the 22nd, but we had a birthday event about every week, it seemed. Any time I would make a dessert to have after dinner, she would claim it as her birthday treat. Here she is with her claimed angel food cake...

 

 

I also went to get my hair done, and she insisted on having her hair done too (and she just HAD to sit under the dryer, because mom did)...

 

Brookie received (early) birthday gifts from Grandma (Christensen) and Tom...

My husband is a graduate of Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, KS) and every year his alma mater play a football game at Arrowhead Stadium (home of the KC Chiefs) against a rival school. Again, we wanted to introduce Margot to anther American staple; football. Can't have a complete American experience without football :) We had another great time. Is was cold and wet, but we made the most of it!

 

We celebrated Brookie's birthday on the 22nd...she is now a 4 year old. Man, how fast those first four years flew...

 



 

We carved our pumpkins on the 27th. You may think that it is odd that I remember the exact date. I would not, normally, but this year on pumpkin carving day, I received a phone call from my brother, Robert, announcing that he and his beautiful wife, Stacie had just brought their first child into the world. My new nephew, Bowen Stephen Christensen had finally made his first appearance. Isn't he a doll?!

 

Here are our carving photo's. No, Brooklyn is not a fan in the least. She refuses to put her hands in the yucky pumpkin - daddy tried to make her...

 

And, here are our pumpkins... (My husband takes pumpkin carving very seriously. He is the last one to leave the patch - it has to be juuuust the right pumpkin; he is also the last one left at the table carving - it has to have juuuust the right look. He is known as the "pumpkin master" at our house (among a few other names - like "Yard Nazi" when it comes to his anal lawn manicuring tendencies during the spring and summer...))

Top left to right: Logan's pumpkin, a snitch from Harry Potter; my pumpkin a K-State power cat.

Middle left to right: Larynn's Wisconsin Badger pumpkin (yeah!!) and Margot's Harry Potter Deathly Hollows pumpkin.

Bottom left to right: Shawn's "unexplainable" pumpkin and Brookie's "mad" pumpkin.

And of course, there was trick or treating, parties at school and church activities...