December Daily: 5

December Daily: 4

December Daily: 3

Decmber Daily: 2

December Daily: 1

This december I am joining Ali Edwards in celebrating our daily life as we cherish every moment of the holiday season. I am making a simple album of pictures photoshopped with overlays and some simple words. I will try my best to share daily on the blog here is day one:

*edited*

the journaling states:

The start of the Advent calender is a

big tradition on Mama's side. This year

the children were happy to have

Grandma watch them and start opening

the doors with December 1st.

giving thanks....

we had a wonderful day with family... it was very peaceful, beautiful, simple and thankful....
Kevin made his real Chocolate Creme Pie (no Dream Whip here!) the night before...

I set the table for our first formal meal in this house (something I am very thankful for) complete with real silverware (thanks Aunt Barb), china, vintage table cloth, last minute purchased Thanksgiving napkins, paper leaves

and a cornucopia of thanksgivings (this was the MOPs craft I came up with for our November meeting... a paper cornucopia decorated for the season with tongue depressors for everyone to write what they are thankful for...

here my parents are working on carving the turkey...

I am trying to stay out of the way and even though I am starving I am try not to eat anything till I sit down knowing I'll be stuffed in an hour...

Daisy and my parents waiting to dish up food...

the feast begins...

Carter's new best friend... Bobby my sister, Christina's, boyfriend...

I try in a last stitch effort to get a picture of the kids dressed up before I have to leave for work.... fat chance!

I would like to share the experience we had over dinner writing our that we are thankful for and sharing those with everyone... it was nice to physically write everything down... however I could never fit it all on a tongue depressor! so here is a quick list: my family, wonderful supportive parents and in-laws, siblings that we really enjoy spending time with even though we are growing older and have different lives, my wonderful husband (he is such a gift... I could never repay him for all that he does for me), my Savior and loving Father, my children that have been a constant joy even when they are mischevious (it is hard not to laugh sometimes) and the experience they have given me to love, teach, train and keep me humble, our home that is becoming a fulfillment of a big dream and a wonderful place to share God's love with... I am thankful for my job that it is flexible enough for me to work and support my family while still spending most of my time at home, my friend who always put a smile on my face and the ability to create and learn more about myself and my Creator everyday...

wow that was a serious list!... now I need to go to bed!

a treasure to be thankful for...

this afternoon while making dinner I found the box in the living room with Daisy in it and Carter's feet in it... they were apparently reenacting a familiar scene that takes place at Mimi and Papa's all summer long... Daisy was swimming while Carter was siting in the rocker soaking his feet...
not sure where the xylophone fits in!

his "e-mail"

as Daisy sleeps in her crib upstairs I settle into check e-mail... Carter finds the crayons and a coloring sheet and states "Mama, look at my e-mail! I am all done"... I peer around the wall to see this "eager to watch a movie with me" boy show off something truly productive... my e-mail?.... well.. for that I can't say is very productive... my inbox is severely backed up... I am working on it!

little surfer boy...

here is the much awaited debut of Carter's "surf shack"...

the inspiration (everything I create has some) was the surfer swim suit hanging over his window and the poster over his bed that i found on ebay months ago....


the boogie board is one of Kevin's and mines and I love the picture on it and the glow of the night light behind it is really cool...

the vintage light in the corner is well, a find in a relatives house and has been repaired twice now, we'll see how it holds up...

I still can't part with Carter's baby signs so until he yells at me for still having them up they will be...

the dresser is a hand-me down from Aunt Em and Uncle Sean... with a little paint, walnut stain and polyurethane it looks perfect for a surf shack!...

still have some organizing and sign hanging and one more addition that is a Christmas present... that has to wait...
my hope was that this room will grow with him and he could be there forever... well maybe not with all his lovies on the bed!....

sorry for the hiatus....

over the next couple days I will fill you in about all that has been happening around here...

yesterday was spent putting this collection of fabric together and a vintage chenille bed spread...


since I woke up at 6am with no ability to sleep any longer (the pregnancy induced insomnia is kicking in)... I crept downstairs to cut out squares of fabric and watch the sun rise... I usually never see that...

this fabric will eventually be two (not just one) crib quilts for my little girls... not matching but very similar...
with the addition of a my parents beach blanket (a pink chenille bed spread) as the back of the blankets I have everything I need... they are a bit crazier than I intended but every time I create something I believe it reflects my life in some way.... this time colors crashing together in a beautiful arrangement not necessarily planned to be that way is a great metaphor for my life right now.... not a crazy quilt (those take effort to make them so crazy looking) but a simple quilt gone a little crazy...

and the "girlie-ness" factor? wow I am shocked by how girlie this is and how much I love it...

so today I have to sew together the second front with my "no-napping" helper at hand... and then it is off to the store for batting and yarn to tie it... I am addicted to creating many things at once so tomorrow you will see the much awaited finished creation of Carter's "surf shack" room...

still treasured...

while checking e-mail this morning I overheard....

"Get in the car, we have to go to the hospital!"- as Carter jumps in the car and Daisy piles in too

As I hear this I think maybe he is talking about me going to work or having the babyso I ask- "The hospital? What's going on Carter?"

he replies- "The bug is not working and needs to be fixed at the hospital."

After a complete conversation describing the situation over the "cell phone" they are off to fix the bug....

the box is still a big hit but every time I nearly trip over it I want to rip it a part and then I am reminded that this "toy" has brought so much joy to their lives.... Carter's imagination has grown so much since we invited this box into our home and it still has many miles to go!

Trick or Treat!

we had lovely weather and lots of fun dressing up and showing off our little cow and farmer....

~our front porch decor~

~hill-billy teeth~

~Daisy says "Moooooo!" and "Boooooo!"- they sound the same~

~Daisy doesn't like to be pulled by a rope-no surprise here"~

~a visit to Nanny and Grandpa "B"~
~the porch at night~
~Daisy pulling her own rope to ring her cow bell~
~knocking on Mimi and Papa's door~

~Daisy stole the farmer's rotten teeth.... yuck!~~Papa's pumpkins (well every one's really)~

this mama gets a new look...

I really needed some spicy in my life... I settle for a new hair style... just that thing I needed to put that pep in my step... with 12 weeks to go before this baby makes it's grand entrance I have a lot to do.... Carter's room is under construction (new taping and mudding done but needs sanding, primer and paint... oh and new carpeting)... then onto the girl's room (definitely more excited for that one!)... haven't decorated a girls room since I was in high school... previews of all the gathering I have done coming soon.... until then I am trying to reorganize a couple things (habits) in my life that just don't work anymore... I'll share later...

Hallo"queen" is coming....

Carter likes to say "Halloween" like it is a holiday for the royals or something.... we have been making progress on costumes... decorating the front porch and trying to not eat too much candy that we have already accumulated.... today we visited Daddy at work in fopra dry run on the costumes and then headed to Ikea... over the past weekend we carved pumpkins at Papa's house.... the kids love this!.... here are some pictures from our afternoon...





meanwhile I am trying to catch up on sleep... I work four out of five nights this past weekend... looking forward to a full night rest tonight (last night was very restless)... I am also healing from a wicked charlie horse in my left calf from sleeping yesterday (I know this is common when you are dehydrated but who wants to drink all night long when the have baby feet kicking their bladder when they are trying to sleep the next day)... with Carter no longer napping I get so excited when he is tuckered out around 4pm and wants to watch PBS... I want to read or catch some ZZZs myself....

"oh-wee -oh... he looks just like Buddy Holly....."

due to an eye infection Kevin was forced to where his glasses instead of contact.... most people don't even know he wears contacts because he literally wears his glasses two minutes out of the day... from the bed to the bathroom and then the bathroom to the bed... the issue once he developed this eye infection thing was that those glasses he has worn for two minutes out of everyday for about six years no longer gave him the correct vision to watch TV let alone drive to work.... he had to go with the kids while I slept on Saturday to pick out new glasses.... having an "accountant's" mindset he got the cheapest glasses and the cheapest lenses.... and he has been wearing them all week... this has made for many laughs and me breaking out in this Weezer song.... his eye is on the mend at this point and I think he will be wearing contact soon enough!...
here he is being a brat... while i try to figure out my camera he takes the glasses off.... took me three shots before I noticed....

from the mouths of babes....

after getting dressed yesterday Carter states....

"I look like Kev or something!"

"Excuse me? Do you mean Daddy?"

"Yeah! him!"



and Daisy is simply amazing us with her language skills everyday from saying apple perfectly clear to me yesterday to trying to repeat words we say like... fuzzy wuzzy spider or purple.... I think she is a perfectionist because she says a word until it is perfect and says it perfect from that way on.... in this way she is much more like Kevin than me!