our christmas fun... a little late

We've been enjoying (and not so enjoying) a little hiatus here at home. 

Enjoying a little time off work and lots of time with family. 

And not so enjoying a house full of illness and

POTTY TRAINING!!  Eek!

With that said, I wanted to show a little of our Christmas fun from a few weeks ago.

Here's some cookie tree fun with Noah's cousins, Hunter and Zack:

Here is the night before Christmas reading of the nativity with Grandma and Grandpa Carlsruh:

Putting the oats and glitter on the lawn for Santa's reindeer:

(we didn't get more snow until the day after Christmas)

Noah got to open his traditional Christmas Eve jammies before bed:

Monsters this year.

Abe and I opened our traditional Christmas Eve game:

And now for lovely Christmas morning, puffy-eye pictures!!

Noah enjoying his stash of fun:

Abe seemed happy about his gift cards:

What pregnant woman wouldn't want a spa giftcard??

(please ignore the dark circles around my eyes... another thing to blame on pregnancy)

And Abe got us both some iPod shuffles:

Well that's about it for our gifts.  We tend to be minimalists when it comes to Christmas, so you may wonder what's with all the boxes under our tree.

Well I had a friend ask me about that last year so I'll be telling you all about it next post.  It's a rather fun thing we do and decided to make it a tradition.

But for the rest of the day, we hung out with Abe's family and had such a fun time!  I truly love this time of year!

And one last picture...

Noah sporting his adorable Monkey hat from Grandma Eve:

It's his favorite thing lately!  He wears it all the time.  So cute!

Hope you all enjoyed your Holidays!

the lights at temple square

A few weeks ago, we visited Temple Square to see the amazing Christmas lights they do every year.

It really is such an amazing display!  They wrap each branch of the trees and just make it look so beautiful!

It's such a wonderful place to come and remember why we celebrate Christmas.

We went with my sisters and their families:

As always, Noah's cousins took good care of him.

Abe and Noah enjoying the scenery:

Family photo opp by one of the fountains:

And one with the Salt Lake Temple in the background:



My not-so-fabulous photography skills:

Found this much better photo online:

(source)

The Temple grounds are HUGE and Noah and the kids had lots of fun wandering around seeing all the different displays and nativity scenes.  It was a fun night and really beautiful to see!

oh christmas tree

I realize this is a little bit late since we've had our tree for several weeks now, but it must be documented!

As I keep saying, the holidays are so much more fun with kids!  Whether they're your own kids, your nieces and nephews, grandkids, friend's kids, neighbor kids... WHATEVER!  They just make it wonderful!

We went to the tree lot that we use every year to pick our tree.  Noah loves to run through the rows of trees!

It was soooo bitter cold!

Then we brought it home, got it all set up and started decorating!

Noah helped this year which made it so much more fun!

Unlike most, we START with the star:

Abe's the only one tall enough to put it on top:

Noah had so much fun hanging the ornaments:

We had the movie "Elf" playing as we decorated.  One of our favorites!

And ta da....!!

This year was so fun because I started our collection of ornaments at some "After-Christmas" sales last year.  So it was a whole new tree this year!  So fun!  I'll have a post with a little more detail of the ornaments and my gift wrapping theme coming soon.



the giving-mood discount

The Holiday BOGO Sale has officially come to a close.

It was a fabulous success, so thank you to all who participated!

And since it's Christmas time and we're in the giving mood,

we'd like to extend another discount to our blog readers!

Use this coupon code:

"Holidays2010"

Just type "Holidays2010" when it asks for a coupon code during checkout, and 25% will be taken off your entire purchase!

This includes EVERYTHING in the shop!  Even originals!!

(discount does not apply to shipping charges)

(Discount no longer valid.  Thanks to all who participated!)

So Merry Christmas to you from us here at Pickled Headquarters!

Thank you and enjoy the holidays!

fun in the snow

Noah loves to play in the snow!  Thank goodness because last year he did not like the snow at all.  So this winter has been really fun so far. 

We get all bundled up:

Yes, that is my messy house in the background.  And yes, his snowpants are camouflage.  No one at this house is complaining about fantastic hand-me-downs!  Camo or not!

Then we make lots of footprints as we venture next door to Grandma and Grandpa's:

Then we sit and fill our bucket for a bit:

Then we climb the bushes...

...to find the perfect leaf...

...to wipe off the swing!

Then we eat some snow:

And finally head back inside for some yummy hot chocolate!

Don't kids make everything more fun?!

Yes... most of the time. (wink)

and the holiday BOGO sale...

...must come to an end!

Just a few more days!  The sale will end on Friday, December 17th!

So hurry, hurry, hurry!

Click HERE to get some last minute BOGO savings!

But you'll have to check in for more holiday savings after the fantastic BOGO sale is done!

We're not letting go of the Christmas Spirit that easily!

Stay tuned...

thanksgiving in st. george.... and a dirty Santa?

Every other year we go down south to St. George, UT to spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  We headed down the Tuesday before Turkey Day, one day early to beat the "record breaking" storm that was passing through that ended up not being that crazy.  That's ok, we were glad to avoid driving in any level of bad weather.

Here's Noah showing off his new hat and gloves that we purchased just before we left:

He loves wearing them!

We had such a great time in St. George!  Just hanging out, playing games until the wee hours of the morning, doing puzzles, shopping, eating and relaxing!

Here's Noah at Thanksgiving dinner:

You can tell he's thrilled.

The only stuff Noah is ever thrilled to eat are treats.

The night after Thanksgiving, we went to Tuahcahn to visit Santa and see the lights.

I'm not sure how Noah felt about Santa this year:

All I know is my two-year-old looks GIANT on Santa's knee. 

And then I noticed how nasty and ratty Santa's chair is!  Yuck!  Somebody give poor Santa a new chair!

Here we are right after Santa at the fire:

You can tell by my cherry bulb nose that it was pretty chilly!

And a shot with the Christmas tree:

Silliness...

And then my favorite kind of shot, the cousins:

It's so cute how all their personalities shine through!

Noah had so much fun with his cousins and they all play so well with him and take good care of him!  Such sweet kids, we love them so!

And just before we left, we decided to do a picture with Santa with just us girls:

  This is my mom, three of my sisters and me. 

The best part is this:

Right after the pictures were taken, Santa reached down, patted my boobs and asked me, "So what would you like for Christmas?" 

Yes, I just got felt up by Santa. 

I quickly got up and told Santa I'd like for this baby to come while showing him my big pregnant belly.  See, usually a big pregnant belly sends any man running... I'm sure that counts for dirty old Santas...??

Anyway, I'm 70% sure it was an accident, but it was so blatant that's it's hard to say. 

But it sure had us all in giggles and makes for a great story!

Hope all of your Thanksgivings were as memorable as mine!

holiday craziness

What happens that makes the holidays so darn crazy??  I swear to you that Abe and I really don't have hardly any parties to attend, we barely do any Christmas shopping, so why are we running around like nutty chickens??

Abe has so much work piled up every day (for which we are most thankful!), but such an odd time of year for a carpenter to be so busy!  So I've been feeling like a single mom lately.  It's so hard being without my sweet husband all day long and then all evening long too.  At least we get an hour or so at night before bed.  Sometimes more, so I'm not complaining.  Just missing him.  And so is Noah.

And in the midst of all the husbandless, holiday crazy, Noah decided to embrace the "Terrible Two's".  I've said it to friends and family, his head has been spinning like Linda Blair on The Exorcist!  He has literally sent me into sobbing lumps on the floor on several occasions.  Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit that, but there you have it. 

I'm sure it's compounded by my pregnancy.  I'm so emotional and very short tempered these days.  It's been 4 weeks of this and he's finally starting to calm down and become his normal, sweet, lovable self again.  I think probably lots of prayers, venting, and parenting books have helped me to not completely go insane.  I have missed my sweet Noah dearly.

Just wanted to throw you all an unsolicited update.  I keep getting so far behind on my blogging!  In the works are a post about our Thanksgiving shenanigans, a baby name, and some Christmas-y fun!

I'm promising a lighter note for the rest of the holidays!

And a note to let you know the BOGO Sale is still happening, but not for too much longer!

So go have a look!

christmas cards and more

Because I still love them so much, I am re-releasing last year's designs for the Christmas cards!

There are six different designs and all are very simplistic.

This is one of my favorite looks with lots of negative space.  They are super cute and I love them so.  Especially with the brown Kraft paper envelopes!

Here they are in no particular order:
(click to enlarge)



 They are now available in the SHOP and in very limited quantities so hurry!

You get a pack of 6 cards on lovely white cardstock (blank inside) with 6 100% Recycled and recyclable Kraft paper envelopes.  They are 4.25"x5.5" in size with size A2 envelopes.

And the BOGO Sale is still going for a little bit longer!

So CLICK HERE to get some Christmas shopping done and to pick up your Christmas and Holiday cards! 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!!

is it a boy or girl

We had been asking Noah if he wanted a sister or a brother, or a boy or a girl for a few weeks before we found out.  Each and every time he answered that he wanted a sister and a "gwirl".
I was so curious if we would disappoint him.  All four of my sisters have all boys except one little girl.  And on Abe's side, there is only one girl out of ten grandkids!  So the pressure was on...

Well, we went to the doctor a few weeks ago and after a LOOOONNNNG ultra sound and prodding my belly a little... we discovered that baby #2 will be a....

girl!

I am still having a hard time believing it because, well... look at the picture!  How is THAT a girl?  I can't distinguish a single body part in there, but the tech assured me that the little group of lines is a girl. 

With Noah it was so much easier to see.  You saw two little legs and a little weenie in the middle.  In this one, I don't see legs, arms, feet, bum, NOTHING!  Let alone a girl part!

But I will go ahead with what the tech told us.  She seemed completely confident.  So a little girl it is!

We are so thrilled!

I'm putting together a post to tell you what we're naming her.  We've had a girl name picked out for a LOOOONG time.  Good thing she's a girl because we never did decide on another boy name.

Anyway, we're going to give her a family name and I've got some fun pictures to to post with it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think this news will be good news for Pickled Pumpkins too.  It means I'm going to have a lot more "girlie" on the brain so hopefully that will add a lot more girlie stuff to the shop!

And speaking of the shop, don't forget that the
BOGO Sale
 is happening right now!

So CLICK HERE to get some Christmas shopping done! 

we'll kick off the holidays with a sale!

Get your shopping fingers ready!  There are holiday sales all over Etsy!

And so you can plan for shipping time and get your shopping done a little early, we are hopping on the bandwagon and starting our holiday sale

today!!

We will be having a

BOGO Sale

which is the Buy One, Get One FREE!

All single prints will be eligible.

As usual, you can Buy 1 get 1 FREE, buy 2 get 2 FREE, buy 3 get 3 FREE, and so on!

Click HERE for the Holiday BOGO Sale!

All you have to do is purchase any PRINT that you wish, then tell me which print of equal or lesser value you would like for free in the "message to seller" section during checkout! Again, if you Buy 1, you get 1 FREE, buy 2 get 2 FREE, buy 3 get 3 FREE, etc.!!!
Just a note, this is only for single prints.
**Print SETS excluded.**
**Original paintings excluded.**
**Paper goods/cards excluded.**

So go visit the shop today!


ps... Christmas Cards will be coming VERY soon!