Exploration Place

We have been trying to take advantage of Brian's time off. Since it's winter and so cold outside, we don't feel like braving the elements to go to the zoo. But, I know Eli goes a little stir crazy (and so do mommy and daddy) if we are just at home all day long. So.....I decided that we should give Exploration Place a try. Eli has actually been there several times before, but he was never big enough to actually get down and play. In fact, I think the last time we went, he wasn't even sitting up on his own yet, so he definitely wasn't into the play. That's definitely changed. They have this great area there that is for kids 3 and under. Everything is just his size and there's all kind of stuff to play with and lots of room to run around. I figured Eli would probably enjoy himself; he does love any toy that he's never played with before. He did have a blast and was so ticked when we left. He loved playing at the water table. He's always been such a water baby and the fact that the water was freezing didn't seem to faze him. Good thing, I sure wouldn't like to stick my hands in it for too long. He also loved playing on the big wooden boat. He had so much fun "steering" it. I'm thinking that this is a place that we probably just need to get a membership to. I know Eli would enjoy going much more often to play.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Huttons! We've had a busy 5 or 6 days full of lots of presents and family. I always love the holidays, but I'm always so exhausted by the time they are all over. Hopping from one house to another can get very tiring. Especially with a 16 month old who likes to run ALL OVER the place wherever we go. But, despite the business, we had a great Christmas. Eli seemed to enjoy himself a lot too. He didn't seem to care too much about presents this year, he was much too busy running all over the houses we were in.

We started the season off at Granny and Papa Huttons. This is probably the worst house to chase Eli around in. He's got so much room to run free that he just can't stand being in one place for too long. And, he always wants to be in the room that everyone else is not in:). If no one is downstairs, that's where you'll find Eli (playing with all of his granny's musical toys). If we are all in the basement, he wants to be upstairs. There's just no winning with him. So..... I have to give a big thanks to Brian for being a wonderful daddy this holiday season and doing the majority of the chasing. I did my fair share, but I can promise that Brian clocked more "chasing miles" this season. After naptime on Christmas Eve we braved the weather and headed to Udall for Christmas at the farm. Eli has never been there before or even met most of his family down there. He seemed to have fun; he just kept walking back and forth in the house. It was pretty funny.

Christmas day we started off opening some gifts and stockings at home. Again, Eli was more interested in other things than opening, but I know that this too will change sometime. After we got around we headed to nana and grandpa Beards. We opened gifts there and had a very yummy brunch. That night we headed back to granny and papa's for Christmas dinner and presents with Brian's grandparents and Aunts. Saturday we got a break from the holidays and just enjoyed spending some of our gift cards and playing with all of Eli's new toys at home. Last night we got together with Brian's aunt and uncle and cousins. And that's the end of it for now. We still haven't been able to do Christmas with Grandpa Baker yet, but we will sometime soon. Then maybe I will finally be able to get the house organized!

Even though I feel like the house has been total chaos for the last week, I did finally get the Christmas stuff down. Brian was probably the most sad to see it go. Eli doesn't really know the difference. And even though I'm still getting used to not seeing all of our decorations out, I'm loving not racing Eli to the tree. Now I only have to worry about him plugging things in when I have the vaccumm out:).

I don't know why we spend money of gifts for this kid. He loves to play with all the stuff we just have around the house. Here he is playing in his toy tub out in the living room. He just climbed right in like it's the most natural thing in the world.

Eli was much more interested in all of granny's singing toys than in any of his presents. He's not going to know what to do with when this little basket of goodies is gone

This is what 4 (almost 5) grandkids, 4 mommy's and daddy's, and 2 grandparents looks like. Santa was busy this year!

Eli in his very cool new hat. He's not a fan of it all the time, but he sure looks super cute in it.

Quite possibly one of Eli's favorite Christmas gifts. He got this from his Nana Beard in his stocking and he just carried it around for the longest time. He didn't even look at his toys until much later.

Eli's first bb gun. His red ryder gun. Don't worry, he's not allowed to use this for a very long time:). Besides, right now he's more interested in walking on the box.

Eli's new favorite book: Panda Bear Panda Bear what do you see. A very nice change from Brown Bear Brown Bear. I was getting sick of that one!

Here's my belly with Hutton #2 at 37 weeks. Three more weeks to go! I keep hoping that she might join us just a little bit earlier, but I'm thinking that that's definitely wishful thinking on my part. She's dropped just a tiny bit, but other than that, she's still sung as a bug. However, I did manage to not gain ANY weight over the course of week. GO ME! I was very happy about that. I was definitely surprised when I stepped on the scale at the dr. office today. I was actually nervous about looking at first because the holidays aren't usually very forgiving. But I managed to get lucky this week. We will see how lucky I am in the weeks to come.

Is this not the most mischievous grin ever. I don't even want to know what he's thinking.

Random Thoughts

* I have decided that being an early riser has it advantages. It's always nice when I'm up early enough that I can have all of my house cleaning done by 8 in the morning. That sounds totally ridiculous I know, but I actually split my house cleaning days, so I don't really clean the whole house top to bottom in a few hours. But it is just so much easier to do all of that stuff without Eli underfoot. It's always an added bonus too if I'm up early enough to be able to do that stuff and then some, like knitting or reading. Sadly, that's happened several times in the last couple of months. I've decided that the baby is just trying to get me ready for getting up for early feedings again. I used to sleep until about 6:20 (which seemed plenty early for me), but now my standard is 5:30-5:45. Crazy I know. But, I just love being up early. Seeing the sun rise, and feeling like I've accomplished a lot before its even 10. I have a feeling that this too will pass one of these days; but for now, I'm going to enjoy my early morning alone time.

* I love all things Christmas. But as I've said before, I hate putting it up and taking it down. However, this year is different. I'm counting the hours until I can take the tree and stockings down. I think they are beautiful, and I know the house is going to seem so empty for a few days until we get used to it again; but I'm tired of the "great race" every time we walk in the door. Eli has such a fascination with the lights that we literally have to beat him to the tree everytime we walk in the door. The second you put him down, he's off to the electrical outlets. My hands are usually full, so I have to throw everything down just in order to beat him. Not to mention that bending over isn't nearly as easy as it normally is at this point in my pregnancy. I definitely lack grace when I do it. Eli's actually fairly good at getting the lights plugged into the socket, but it's just not something I like him to be so good and independent at yet. Besides, he will just sit there and plug them in a pull them out if he gets there before us. So, as sad as it is to see all the beautiful Christmas decorations down, they won't be around in our house much longer. I'm thinking that Saturday is a great day to get the house back in "non-Christmas" mode. Brian told me that they had to stay up until New Years, but I'm pretty positive they aren't going to survive that long in our house.

* I love pop tarts. I don't really know what it is about them, but I think I could survive on them as a breakfast food. They are a pretty standard breakfast for me, and it's not unusual for me to have pop tarts 5 or 6 times out of a week. It's definitely not the best thing I could be eating, but I just love them so much. They never get old! They are definitely a staple in our house (along with mac n cheese).

* I love crafting. It's kind of ironic that I do too, because I was never really a huge fan of any of it when I was younger. But now that I've gotten a taste of it, I can't stop. It started with knitting, then went to scrapbooking, and finally sewing. I think sewing is the most surprising of all. My grandma was always trying to get me interested in sewing when I was growing up. I wanted nothing to do with it. I thought it was the most boring thing ever and had no desire whatsoever to do it. But now, I love it. Out of all the crafting that I do, it's the most frustrating for me, but I keep going back to it. I go through spurts though. Recently I've been on a huge knitting kick (I think the cold makes me want to make scarves) and have been knitting scarves like crazy. Before that I was on a huge quilting kick and made a couple of quilts in a short amount of time. So now I'm back to scrapbooking. I feel like I've been negelecting my first love and have been working on Eli's scrapbook recently. I want to get fully caught up so that I don't have to play catch up when the baby is born. I kind of wish that I could do all of my hobbies for free, but I've decided that it is all totally worth it.

Out with the old....In with the new

I was finally able to convince Brian to paint our bedroom and bathroom! I'm so glad that I did. All I had to do was promise him Buffulo Wild Wings for lunch and a friend to give us an extra hand. Pretty simple demands I think. But, regardless, we did finally get out room and bathroom painted. It looks amazing and SO MUCH better. I never truly hated the color we had in there, but I just never really liked it. Now that it's al repainted, I realize how much I truly didn't like the old color. The new is definitely more our taste and looks so much better. It was actually kind of fun too. I don't mind painting, but it does get old after a while. This was a little bit bigger project than most because of all the taping that Brian and to do before. Oh, and painting the ceiling. I'm actually thankful Brian wouldn't let me up on the ladder for that part of the job. But he did an amazing job on it. So, here are some pictures of our before and after room paint makeover.

Before:

We finally got a little step stool to have around the house. Eli obviously had a ball on it. I think he thinks we bought it specifically for him. (Don't worry, he wasn't unsupervised.... I was right there ready to drop the camera and grab if he decided to come tumbling off)

Again with the ladders. We got a climber on our hands. This one is a little bit scarier to have him on, but at least it's not in the house on a regular basis.



After:

We added the curtain rod and curtains over our glass block windows. Something Brian wanted to do that I didn't really care too much about, but it ended up looking amazing. Makes the whole room look a little bit warmer and roomier:)


Now that I have that project crossed off the list, we can move onto the next one! We do want to do some more painting in the kitchen, but I think it's very safe to say that I'm going to have to wait a couple of months to be able to get Brian to agree to that.

Ready for occupancy

We officially have the baby's room all ready for her arrival. Well, technically, it's been ready for a pretty long time since we already had the crib and changing table and stuff. But, now it's suitable in my eyes. With the exception of her name on the wall (I know you would all be happy if we put it up now, but no such luck, we are holding out), we have it all ready. Now all we need is baby. That will be the tricky part. These kids have it too good in there, there's no telling when she might decide to grace us with her presence. I've come to grips that I will probably be a lot closer to my original due date with is January 19th, but that's okay. Whenever she decides to come will be great with us.

I've started my "weekly" appointments now. I enjoy going to hear the heartbeat and see if I'm making any progress to getting her here, but I can tell you I hate waiting. It always seems like they are behind at the doctor's office. I had an appointment today at 9:50, I finally made it out of there by 11. But, baby's healthy and that's all that matters. However, Dr. Feuille did inform me that I wouldn't be having her this week:). I could have told him that, like I said, she's got it too good in there. But we are very excited and anxious to meet her. I can't believe that in no more than 3 1/2 weeks (keeping my fingers crossed that it's a little less and definitely no more) we will be a family of 4. And it's so crazy to think that Eli won't actually be our baby anymore. I'm excited for him to meet his sister and for our family to be that much bigger.

Sadly though, I'm gaining weight very quickly. Being a stay at home mom and being pregnant during the holidays makes it very hard for a girl to keep her girlish figure. Especially when it's cold outside and I can't walk twice a day like I did when I was pregnant with Eli. Besides that, Brian's kids at school all gave him a ton of goodies for christmas. So, consequently, I'm sitting around eating the stuff because it's too delicious to leave on the counter (the oreo bon bons I made yesterday and McDonalds we ate for lunch can't help either). I think he's going to have to start requesting fruit and vegetables from his kids for holidays. I have a pound to go before I weigh as much as I did when Eli was born. I should really stop looking at the scale now, but I just can't help it. It's like a magnet, my eyes are drawn to it no matter how hard I try to look down. But maybe if I don't look from here on out, I can just be in a state of denial and the weight won't really be added on. What I don't know no one else has to know, right?:).

Here's a picture of the wall with the changing table. I just added these dots last week. I was trying to cover up some wall boo boo's. We don't know the paint color of the wall, so we can't actually just repaint the walls to cover all the scratches and stuff. And, I love this color, so I didn't want to change it anyways. So, we opted for dots. I'm glad we did. I love them and I think it gives the room a whole new look.

View looking in from the hallways. We found this perfect rug at Target. It has all the colors of her room on it; pink, brown, green, and even some blue.

Every girls dream. Her walk in closet and all of her cute little baby clothes. I have to say, I think my little sister is a little jealous. She would love a closest this big. I definitely have a ton more space to fill up with little girl clothes if I want.

Her crib and toy cubes. I had to change the cubes from boy colors to pink and brown. Of course, I had to get some cute pink sheets and blankets. My little dream accent is something I ordered from Uppercase living. It's probably one of my favorite things in the room (along with the dot wall).

Here Eli is helping us move the mattress up. He loves to play on mattresses, and anytime we have them out, he crawls on them and Brian usually bounces him up and down like crazy. He just kept sitting on top of it and trying to make himself bounce. Aren't the sheets cute? I saw some like this when I was pregnant with Eli, but couldn't get them because he was a boy. So excited I can finally do some pink!

This picture has nothing to do with the baby's room, but I had to add it in because I thought it was cute. Eli loves to try to wear our shoes when they are laying around the house. So here he is sporting my Uggs. He unfortunately couldn't walk in these at all. But he certainly tried:)

3 years

Three years ago today I married my best friend. Having known Brian for so long, it's so weird to think back to when we knew each other in high school. I never thought that someday I would be married to him. I always had a crush on him, thought he was very cute, and a ton of fun, but not my future husband. My how things change. And I'm very thankful for that too! I'm so thankful that God chose us for each other and the he reunited us in his perfect timing. It's crazy that it's already been 3 years; there are days when it seems like it happened just yesterday.

I'm so thankful for the amazing husband and father Brian is. He does so much for me and for Eli, I would never be able to thank him enough. He's a very devoted and loving man, and I consider myself the luckiest woman out there to have him as my husband. I'm thankful that he drags his butt out of bed everyday so that I can stay at home with our kids. I'm thankful that he puts up with my nagging and crazy moods at time. I'm so thankful for the love and patience he shows Eli (seems like he's even better on the days that I have none left). I'm thankful for the joy and laughter he brings into our home, for the weird night-time quirks (shaking me to wake me up just to wave hi, then rolling over and going back to sleep:)), for the help he gives when I ask, and even when I don't sometimes, for his easy-going, fun-loving spirit, and so much more. Not only did I gain a great husband when we married, I also gained an amazing family.

So thanks for the last three years babe. It's been an amazing three years, and I can't look forward to many many many more years to come with you!
This is Brian striking a pose at Thanksgiving as he was managing the boil pot. This is the crazy man that I get to experience everyday; never a dull moment in our lives. So glad to claim him as my husband:)

Nesting...or Just a Little OCD?

So I've recently been on a big kick organizing the house. Not just the baby's room, but everywhere. I even think of things while I'm laying in bed (should be sleeping, but ususally wake up because I'm thinking about these things). Most would probably say I'm in my nesting stage. Which could be partially true. I, however, think it has just a little bit more to do with my slightly obsessive compulvise organizational nature. I can't stand clutter and am constantly trying to rid our lives of it. This is something that I've had to work on a little bit in the past few years since Brian could care less about the clutter. He's a very clean person, but he just doesn't care if stuff is laying around. Also, we have this very crazy little one year old who feels like it is his duty to drive mommy crazy by spreading his things (and even household things) all over the house. I do often wonder if he intentionally tries to see how far he can get a toy or a pan from it original location. He does an amazingly good job.
My most recent "project" was our pantry. I'm so lucky to have this amazingly big pantry that I can put a ton of stuff in. But I tend to actually just throw stuff in there and not really care what it looks like since I shut the doors. For whatever reason, the other morning this just bugged me. So, when I was laying in bed before getting up ( I actually think I was half dreaming about our messy pantry and how badly I needed to organize it), I decided that Eli and I needed to head to target to do some jar/tupperware shopping to get a little organization in there (this is when I'm very thankful for a husband who just rolls his eyes, laughs, and says whatever, when I get on the these kicks). So, to target we went. And I found a ton of great stuff. You can tell you're getting older when the idea of new organizational tubs excite you:). Well, I was very excited about what I found. And I lucked out; Target had these great glass jars on sale for $5 dollars because they had red and green lids for Christmas. Our pantry doesn't care about lid color, and neither do I. So I was able to stock up on more than I would have originally been able to. I did have to stop myself from buying them totally out of stock, but I definitely got enough to get a good start. When we got home, Eli and I got to work. I was finally able to get rid of all of my stupid boxes of pasta and put them in a container. And I was able to jar up all of my extra flour/sugar/chocolate chips, ect (the baking section of the pantry was by far the worst. Looks amazing now:)). I even threw out some things that had been in there since we got married. Eli was such a great helper. He was trying to help me clean out. He kept taking the mac n cheese boxes out of the pantry into the living room. He gave a couple to Jake to watch over, and lined the rest up on our ottoman. He even pulled out a can of pepsi and some soup just in case he needed it. It kept him entertained for quite a while. Amazing the money we spend of toys when all we really need to do is let our kids go crazy in the pantry:). So.....our pantry is much more organized now. And even though I could probably buy about 12 more tubs and do way more work, I will take what I have for now. It already looks like a whole new place. And now, my mind's got the wheels going for my next "project". I'm thinking painting:). Now I just have to convince Brian to do it (this is always the hard part).

Always a little short....

It amazes me that one thing can get on my nerves so incredibly fast without really even doing anything. No, I'm not talking about Eli or Brian, I'm talking about our lovable four legged family member, Jake (keep reading Brian, I do actually have a positive spin on this post:)). He has the power to put me in the most annoyed mood just by being in the same room with me sometimes. It's a special power that I'm sure he would love to not have, but for whatever reason, he does. Some days I try to blame it on the pregnancy. But, in reality, I know that's not the case at all. He's always driven me nuts, it has just gotten worse since I started staying home. And truly, the amazing thing is, it's really not like he does anything wrong. He's just being Jake, and a dog, and it just grates my nerves so much that I want him out of the house. There are many days (well, let's be totally honest: MOST days)that I want nothing more than to have him gone. And if it were up to me, he wouldn't be around anymore. But, it's probably a good thing that that decision isn't up to me. Everything he does, down to how loud he is when he shakes out his body drives me crazy. I can't stand how I can't leave pillows on the couch or he drags them all over the house. He doesn't chew them thankfully, but who wants nasty dog slobber covering their pillows? I hate that we have a whole couch dedicated to his laying pleasure and it has a nasty, dirty quilt on it ALL the time. And of course, to further add to the annoyance, whenever people come over, that's the couch they always sit on! We do have a nice couch without dog hair all over it:). I can't stand the way he sniffs at your butt and crouch when you walk in the door, I hate how he goes crazy barking whenever anyone comes over, his bark:definitely annoying to me, how he has to be within a 2 foot radius, or touching Brian at all times, how he hovers over Eli when he's eating, when he licks the floor, the fact that he is truly incapable of sitting and staying when commanded, that he scratches the door when he wants in or out and won't stop until you do what he wants (really, I know just by looking at you standing at the door that you want out!), him tracking paw prints in the house, especially right after I've cleaned the floors. The list could go on and on. Our little furry family member just drives me nuts!
HOWEVER (here's the more positive side for you Brian), I love the patience that Jake has with Eli. He has his moments where Eli gets on his nerves (and who wouldn't when you constantly have someone wanting to pet/give you kisses), but Jake is extrememly patient and loving with Eli. Eli absolutely adores Jake. He's one of the first things he talks about in the morning and always likes to greet him with a hug or a kiss. Watching Eli with Jake truly does melt my heart. It's so adorable to watch the relationship that they have and how it grows and changes as Eli gets older. Also, I'm very thankful for the safety and security that Jake provides. If Brian is out late, it's always nice to know we have a fairly large dog protecting us if we need it. I know that he would never let anyone hurt any one of us. So, while it's safe to say that when Jake's time with us is up, we will probably not be dog owners for a while ( I would be okay with years and years, but Brian isn't ), i'm at least thankful for the little things that don't drive me nuts when it comes to Jake. I keep thinking that one of these days, I will actually be given the patience with him that I have with everyone else. So far it hasn't happpened, and believe me, I've tried. But maybe, just maybe, Jake will be lucky enough one day to not earn my frustrations.

Illuminations

Last night we braved the cold to go out to Botanica's annual Illuminations. We thought it would be a lot of fun since Eli is so crazy about all things Christmas right now. So, after dinner we all bundled up and headed to Botanica. Eli was cracking us up because he was so bundled up in the stroller that he couldn't hardly move. It reminded me of the kid on "A Christmas Story". He just sat there the whole time and hardly moved his head or anything at all. He seemed to enjoy looking at the lights, but he didn't chatter nearly as much as I thought he would. Of course, if i was strapped into a stroller and couldn't move because of all the coats and blankts piled on me, I would probably be silent too. It was the first time we have ever used gloves on him too. Surprisingly he kept them on. There were a few times that he tried to get them off, but he wasn't quite sure how to get his fingers working right with them on. Even though it was cold, it was a beautiful night and I was very thankful for the lack of wind. After we walked through and were throughly frozen, we went inside to get some cookies and listen to some Christmas music. We had a nice surprise and were able to see my Grandma Betty as well because she was volunteering at the cookie table. Now, that's my kind of place to volunteer:). I've decided that this will definitely have to be a yearly tradition for us now. Here's a few pictures of the fun at Botanica. Brian and I decided that the huge heaters they had set up around the gardens are one of the greatest inventions ever and would love one of those in our backyard. I could have probably stood under that all night.

And just because I think this is one of the most handsome boys ever, I had to take a picture of him looking all grown up in his khakis and button up shirt this morning. Of course, the goofy pose is a nice added touch. Every time I got the camera out to try to get a good picture of him in this new outfit, he would run away. This was the best I got. What a goof ball:)

And I figured I'd update the belly picture too. I've been trying to remember to take a new picture every 3 or 4 weeks so I have some fun ones to scrapbook. Just ignore the double chin in this picture though. Here I am at 34 weeks.

Move over Martha

Well, we finally managed to get our Christmas decorations up in the house. I'm such a stickler about not decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, so we don't usually even bother thinking about it until then. But, we were even a little slower this year than that. We finally got all of our stuff (ok, we actually only have 3 tubs, which is very little compared to most) from the attic. I have to say, I love Christmastime, and Christmas decorations, but I despise putting them up and taking them down. That's probably part of the reason we didn't get things put up until Sunday. And probably the reason we only have 3 tubs. But something tells me that's going to change soon. Eli absolutely LOVES Christmas stuff. Anytime we go into a store or someone's house with trees or lights, really anything Christmas related, he starts talking up a storm and pointing like crazy. I have to make sure that the lights on the tree and stairs or on before he gets up in the morning, or I hear it from him. And the first thing we have to do when we walk in the house is turn on the lights. He's definitely a boy after his granny's own heart. We've even driven around and looked at Christmas lights a couple of times. He goes pretty crazy for him. it's pretty darn cute, and makes me want to get things put up for him and add to our collection so he has more fun stuff to look at. On the list for add-ons this year is an advent calendar for him to open everyday, and a "kid friendly" nativity scene. I do have to say, as much as I hate putting up the decorations, I love the beauty they seem to bring into the home. And I was very proud of myself this year. I feel like I got more creative and put more stuff on the tree and elsewhere in the house. As Brian was leaving the house on Sunday morning, I told him to be prepared for a Christmas oasis when he got home. "Move over Martha Stewart, I'm decorating the house today," were probably more like my actual words:). But either way, Eli and I got busy while he was gone. Eli was a big help by moving the plastic tubs all over the house for me and pulling all the tinsel out of them. He only broke one ornament, so I was very impressed.


Today Eli and I made some peppermint bark for our neighbors to put together with the chocolates we dipped this weekend at Granny's house. We skipped out on bible study this morning because Eli's been battling a cold, and I didn't think he needed to pick up any more germs, or give any of his away in the church nursery. So, we ran a few errands and got crafty at home. He loves to sit on the counter while I'm working on the stove and "help" me. So that's exactly what he did today while we finished up the neighbors gifts. He helped me stir up the almond bark and crush up the candy canes. I think his favorite part was beating the candy canes. He's such a boy:) Anything loud and destructive could keep him entertained for hours.

Here is the finished product of all of our hard work. We had the plate full of chocolates and peppermint bark and then a jar of cookie mix. We've never done this for our neighbors before, so it was a lot of fun. And I'm thankful I am able to get all this candy out of the house. I certainly don't have any problem gaining weight on my own right now, the last thing I need is all this yummy chocolate laying around to tempt me:).

The pictures are slightly out of order (i'm still trying to figure this thing out:)), but this is the finished plate.

And here's my little helper stirring the almond bark for me. He did a very good job; the trick was making sure he kept the spoon in the bowl. He kept trying to take it out. Boy that would have been a huge mess! Can I just add that I'm so very thankful to Brian for dragging his butt out of bed everyday and going to work so I can stay home and do fun things like this with Eli. I'm very blessed and love being able to stay home with our rugrat. I can't even imagine missing out on some of these fun things with him. So thanks B! You're a great husband and daddy!

And here's our beautiful Christmas tree. It's kind of hard to tell since the picture isn't too big, but I added ribbon and white flowers to it this year. I love the way the tree turned out this year. It's bigger and fuller than our "charlie brown" Christmas tree we have used the last 2 years that Brian had from college.