DIY with mama saigh: Holiday decor.

Has anyone else had their Christmas decor up since November 1st?!

No?! Well, even if you're just thinking about getting your holiday decor out of boxes and up around your home, you still have lots of time. This week, I was back on The Jason Show with some easy DIY home-decor ideas for the holidays that you can do with your kids!

DIY DECORATIVE VOTIVES

WHAT YOU NEED: Square blocks of wood, wood glue, Yoplait Oui glass jars (cleaned and dried), rice, and votive candles

I am officially addicted to the new French-style yogurt from Yoplait. We served them at our 2-year-old's birthday party, and they were a hit. These little Oui yogurts come in their own glass jars, which make adorable wine glasses, or can be used to make decorative votive candle holders. For this project, simply enjoy your Oui yogurt, then clean out the jar, and peel off the labels. I went to Lowes and bought a long pine board for under $3, and had Papa Saigh cut it into perfect square pieces for me. I stacked the square wood pieces, and glued them together using wood glue. Once dry (about 12 hours), I used gold spray paint to give the wood blocks two coats. Once the paint was dry, I super-glued the empty glass jar from the Yoplait Oui yogurt onto the top block, filled it 1/4 full with white rice, and places a white votive candle in the jar. These inexpensive DIY decorative votives are placed around our home for the holidays, and make great hostess gifts over the holiday season!

DIY SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENTS

WHAT YOU NEED: Wood clothespins (the kind with the wire spring), wood glue, spray paint and glitter (optional)

This craft is super easy, and is a beautiful way to decorate your Christmas tree. I got a 50-pack of wood clothespins from Lowes, and had my 6-year-old help me take them apart. Then, you place the wood pieces back-to-back, and use wood glue to secure them together in twos. Once those pieces are dry, you can glue the heads of the wood pieces together, creating your snowflake shape. Once they dry, you can spray-paint them white and add glitter, or keep them in their original wood state. These snowflakes make lovely Christmas tree ornaments, and you can make 7-12 of them for about $3!

DISPLAYING HOLIDAY GREETING CARDS

This is the easiest trick for displaying your holiday greeting cards, courtesy of my friend, hair stylist, and Jason Show Contributor, Jen Senescall. Simply take a blonde/gold bobby-pin, and use it to hang your holiday greet cards to garland. We have holiday garland on our mantle, and use the gold bobby-pins to secure our friends' and families' holiday greeting cards to that. Super simple, and it doesn't damage the cards!

This is our family's 2017 holiday greeting card. We use Minted every year because of their free address printing, good deals over Black Friday, selection, quality, and service. This year, we had photographer Jayme Peterson come into our home to take photos of our family. I could not be more pleased with the results. She was SO wonderful with our kids, and was in and out in about 45 minutes. Mention Minnesota Baby or The Jason Show when you book your first session with Jayme to get 20% OFF!

Jayme Peterson Photography
JaymePetersonPhotography@gmail.com
(612) 298-4447

We also display holiday greeting-cards on our home's DIY chalkboard wall:

INEXPENSIVE GIFT-WRAP

Another easy way to save money over the holidays: Simply use non-adhesive craft paper to wrap gifts. I found a roll at Lowes for under $3, and I'm going on my second Christmas wrapping gifts with it! Let your kiddos decorate the paper to add their own personal touch, or simply add ribbon to the packages to dress them up a bit. You can mix these wrapped gifts in with gifts wrapped in designer wrapping-paper. This craft paper is so much cheaper than the wrapping paper you can buy in stores!

ADDING TEXTURE

It's simple! Just use blankets, faux-fur pillows, stocking, etc., and decor such as real or faux antlers to add texture to your holiday home-decor. I found faux-fur Christmas stockings in the dollar section at Target last year, and some great faux-fur pillows and blankets at Lowes this year. Throw pillows and blankets over chairs, sofas, or even in baskets to add depth and texture to any room.

Jimmy is two.

Today, we celebrated our little man's second birthday. I can't believe Jimmy is two years old. We celebrated at home with Papa Saigh's parents, and my sister. Jimmy was so excited about the cars, trucks, and other gifts he received from family. Although we've misplaced our thermometer, I'm pretty sure Jimmy is running a fever, and he was so tired by the time we sang happy birthday to him. He wasn't even interested in his birthday cupcake. Linna was a fantastic big sister today, letting her baby brother have the spotlight. We are so proud of both of our kids. We'll celebrate Jimmy's birthday with family and friends on Sunday at his birthday party. Happy birthday, Baby Jimmy!

Baby Jimmy on his birthday: November 14th, 2015.

Tired birthday boy: November 14th, 2017

Thanks for the gift, MeMaw and PeePaw!

Happiest birthday boy on the morning of his 2nd birthday.

Baby saigh #3: 20 weeks pregnant.

It's so crazy to think that tomorrow (Thursday, November 2nd) I will be halfway through this pregnancy.

19 weeks pregnant with Baby #3.

My last pregnancy. My last baby.

Ugh.

This is such a bittersweet moment, and we've had so many wonderful experiences over the last few weeks.

The most exciting moment was feeling the baby kick on the inside and outside of my belly. At 19 weeks pregnant, I had finished a Coca-Cola in hopes of getting the baby active. I hadn't felt much of anything in terms of movement yet, and was getting a little worried. Well, the Coca-Cola pepped the baby right up, and I felt his or her little jumps and jabs with my hands on my belly, and all the rolling around on the inside. I tried to let Papa Saigh feel it too, without success. I've been feeling these little movements more regularly lately, especially after my morning coffee.

Can't believe we'll have another one of these little faces, come March 2018!

Linna (our oldest) and Jimmy (our almost 2-year-old) are talking more and more about their new baby brother or sister (well, Linna is, at least). I don't think Jimmy understands that there's a baby in my belly, but whenever there's a baby in a book or on TV, he points and says "baby" with a big smile on his face. Linna is constantly asking questions about the baby: "Where will it sleep? What if it's a girl? What if it's a boy? What if it cries?". She's also is beginning to realize the craziness we're about to dive into. Today, Jimmy was being a whiney, fistey, almost 2-year-old, and Linna goes, "when we have three children, this is going to be a disaster."

Well?!

I had my 17-week check-up a few weeks ago, and we made it a family affair. The baby's heart rate was 142. We're waiting until the baby is born to find out if it's a boy or a girl, but this baby's heart-rate points to a boy. All of my bloodwork came back as "low risk" for fetal abnormalities too, which is very good news.

Belly popped SO much earlier with Baby #3.

I'm hungrier than ever, and gaining a ton of weight. Oops. I need to get back to the gym and start being a little more active, but chasing after two kids while Papa Saigh works and travels is pooping me out. I'm not really craving anything in particular, but give me candy, Thai food, or a Caprese salad, and I'm one happy preggo. I'm actually looking forward to being pregnant all winter, because I can basically hibernate and wait for Baby Saigh #3 to make his or her debut mid-March. I already look like I'm 7 months pregnant, and getting comfy is getting more difficult as the weeks go by. I still think there's a hidden second baby in there. I'm also incredibly emotional, which is not like me at all. I cry listening to songs about people falling in love, as I imagine Linna growing up and getting married. I cry whenever I hear any song from Moana, and when the new song "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran comes on the radio. I seriously melt into a puddle of emotions when I simply look at my kiddos these days.

(Baby Saigh #3's heartbeat at 12 weeks.)

After Christmas, we'll be getting bunk beds for Linna's room, so we can slowly transition Jimmy into a "big boy" bed, and into Linna's room shortly after the baby arrives. The plan is to have the baby in our room for the first 4 to 6 months, while we transition Jimmy out of his crib. I hate taking him out of his crib (Linna stayed in her crib until she was almost 3), but I guess Jimmy will be close to 3 years old, come summer 2018 (that's CRAZY to think about). I'm really not concerned, or worried about a plan, to be honest. I feel like I'm so much for relaxed and carefree with this pregnancy, so I'm expecting things to NOT go as planned, and we'll just deal with whatever comes our way. We already have one kiddo in our bed from 10:30 p.m. to sunrise... What's one or two more?! Lol.

Onto the second half of my last pregnancy...

(Cue all the tears.)