Festival of Trees!

Ayla and I went with my sister, Marion, my nephew, Lane and my mom to the Festival of Trees last Friday. We had such a great time! I love the Festival of Trees! I try and go every year as a tradition. I didn't go last year so I was so excited to go this year!

Here is Lane with Sally Rag Doll and Jack Skellington.
Someone went through a lot of work to sew these life size dolls. I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas!"

I took lots of pictures of trees. I had a hard time picking out what pictures to share but I will show some of our favorites.

Ayla loves Tinkerbell so I took this picture for Ayla!

Here is Lane showing of his guns with a "Toy Story" tree in the background.
Lane and Ayla both love "Toy Story."

Like I said, I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas!"

Ayla and Marion.
Ayla was in the middle of eating some yummy fudge in this picture.

I had to take a picture of Marion next to the Coke tree. She loves Coke and has to drink it every day. I also thought this tree was for you, Monica!!

This tree rotated with the "Cars" on it. It was cute!

I felt this was the best Twilight tree they had this year.
I liked it but I like the ones I saw 2 years ago more because the trees were a lot bigger. They still did an excellent job!

This is the only picture I got of me.
Notice the dinosaur tree behind us? There were so many dinosaurs all over. Ayla loved this tree! I had a hard time getting her away from it.

Ayla point out another "Toy Story" tree.

This Princess tree was so cute!

I adored this Cookie Monster tree!

Beautiful Santa tree!

The Santa in this one moved and sang.

I had a hard time getting Ayla away from this tree too. She got upset any time anyone blocked her view of Santa.

Fell in Love with this sign!
I so wish it wasn't sold and I had the money for it! It was so beautiful!

I really liked this cute little Elf tree.

This tree was so amazing!
They used 4 trees to create the wave that Santa is surfing. They had all kinds of fish all through the trees to look like they were swimming in the water.

Had to get a picture of Lane with the little bull riding figurines. Lane loves bull riders which is prefect because he was named after a famous bull rider.

Here is my mom and Lane.

Such a cute candy cane tree! I love red and white trees!

This was a cute snowman set up.

This one was my favorite of all the trees! A Mickey and Minnie tree set up!

I love Disney! The picture is kind of wired because it is actually 3 different pictures that I put together in Photo Shop to try and creative a panoramic view. It was too hard to get a picture of it with people constantly walking by.

I so adored the quilt that was on the bench!

Loved the ornaments that were on the tree!
It was so adorable! These pictures don't do it justice!

One of the things I love the most about the Festival of Trees are the gingerbread houses people make! I guess it is because it is like cake decorating and I can stare at people's art work for hours. I love the ideas I get from looking at their amazing work! This year I was really impressed! I think I enjoyed them more than the trees and I loved looking at the trees!

This one was a suite case that was opened up and had some hotels inside!

This one was a little brick house where the bricks were Pez! I was so impressed that some one had the patience to do this! It almost looked like real bricks.

Had to take a picture of the Nativity! I love Nativities!

I liked the skiers on this one!

If this was a real home it would be my dream home!

Cute country home!

Loved the little bakery on this one!

This one was so well done! I loved the roof!

I love how lights were inside a lot of them!

Cute swamp, with Santa fishing!

Loved the candy rocks on this one!

This one was one of my favorites! It is Bonnie's house from "Toy Story 3." It actually had Buzz and Jessie hanging from the tree and they were rotating.

This one was my favorite!
A candy land amusement park! I couldn't believe the detail on the carousel and ferris wheel! You might have to click on the picture and look at it bigger to see the detail. The picture doesn't do it justice!

We all had a great time!

I so love the Festival of Trees! I just love Christmas!

Our Thanksgiving!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

This is what our Thanksgiving decor consisted of. I am working on getting more. I get one new decoration for each holiday a year. This year I got the Harvest sign. I love it! Last Christmas, I got this shelf for my Christmas decoration. Now I use it for all the holidays. I have decided this is my holiday decoration shelf. I wish I would have gotten a picture of our Halloween shelf. It was cute too!

Anyway we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my sister, Marion's house.

I made these cute cupcakes. I got the idea from my friend, Cherie's blog. Normally it is just an Oreo cookie but I decided to make cupcakes with them. Yes, that is an Oreo holding up the candy corn feathers. I loved how they turned out! Don't you think they are cute?

I also made an Oreo pie. I always make an Oreo pie for Thanksgiving. I do it because I know Kurt and my brother, Robert look forward to the Oreo pie.

Here is most of the family waiting for the food to be ready.

Everyone loved the cupcakes! We didn't eat them after dinner. We were all too full. Not to mention that every one ate pie. They became a little gift from me to every one to take home. They were such a hit, I might make them every year.

My brother, Robert and my nephew, Lane.

Me and my Papa Daddy.

My sister, Marion made rolls from scratch.
Notice her cute sweater? Ya, I told her to buy that. At first she wasn't sold on it but when she put it on, she loved it! I think it is her favorite sweater now.

My cute little concerned little Ayla. I love you!

My hubby on his Droid.

Ayla with her little plate of food.

We had eaten dinner at 1:00 pm. so Kurt, Ayla and I had the entire evening together as a family. It was great! This year we did a Thankful jar. Where you fill the jar with pieces of paper that you write things you are thankful for during the month. Then you read them on Thanksgiving. This was a great experience! It really added to our holiday. I loved hearing the thing Kurt was grateful for! Ayla even participated during the month too. She would draw on the pieces of paper and put them in the jar. It was so cute! She loved participating!

The day after Thanksgiving we had the privilege of seeing a couple of our aunts that were in town for the holiday. We all met over at my grandparents house.

I like this picture of my brother, Robert in the door way.
My aunt, Cathy is the one in the front of this photo. Out of my mom and her sisters, I think Cathy and my mom look the most alike. They have the same smile when their mouths are closed.

Grandpa Paul sitting in his chair.

He was just diagnosed with cancer a few months ago. He is doing very well and looks great! We love you Grandpa!

Grandma Marion always pulls out the toys for Ayla when we go over there.

Here is my mom with her uncle, Paul. Yes, Paul isn't really my grandpa but him and his wife are the closest thing to parents my mom has had in her life other than my Great Grandpa Truman. Her parents both died when she was 4. I did a post on it a while back. Anyway, Paul and his wife, Marion have always been my grandparents.

Our aunt, Pam and my sister, Marion.

Me and our aunt, Shirley.

My mom with her two sisters.

And the two Marions.
Yes, my sister was named after our Grandma Marion.

That Friday evening, I started putting Christmas decor out. It took me until Monday to finish but I am happy to say, We are ready for Christmas! Presents are all bought and wrapped. I had them wrapped the day before Thanksgiving. Christmas cards have been filled out and sent. We sent the most part of them out on Thanksgiving. I am so happy to be able to sit back and enjoy the holidays! I love to watch Christmas specials, read Christmas books to Ayla, go to the Festival of Trees, look at Christmas lights, have our nieces and nephew night out , sit back and relax with my little family and most of all focus on the meaning of Christmas, my savior, Jesus Christ and his birth!

Here is our tree.
Actually this is Ayla's tree. My parents bought us a tree this year for our Christmas present but my mom has consistently reminded me that it is Ayla's tree! I love that my sweet little girl is so loved!

Here is another picture of it without a flash. This picture kind of shows what it really looks like. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice. Also notice the shelf in the background? Yes, it is decorated in our Christmas decor! I love that little shelf!

Here it is with the lights off.

This is what we have under the tree. Our Little People Nativity and other toys and books. We don't have the presents under the tree because Ayla loves to open presents and I don't want to torcher her.

And every year I take the cards we have received in the past and use them as decor. I love to make a wreath out of them!

This is what is on our computer desk. I love silver decor! Actually almost all of our stuff is decorated in sliver and red, including our tree!

I actually have more decorations in the kitchen but I didn't take pictures. I am so grateful to be ready for Christmas!

Let the Christmas Holiday begin!!!