There Goes My Life...

Answered prayers.

Every night when I tuck Stewart into bed he says a bedtime prayer.  Lately, he has started saying silent prayers, so I don't know what he is saying in his prayers.  A couple nights ago I had tucked him in bed, and was trying to get a million other things done so I could go downstairs to pack backpacks for the next day along with a million more tasks.  As I was about to go downstairs he called me into his bedroom.  Excitedly he said,

God answered by prayer!

I asked him what he had prayed about and he told me that he had been praying for Molly and Elizabeth to be nicer to him.  He said and Elizabeth had been.  

She has been so nice to me the last two days.  God answered my prayer!

Now if you have been around Stewart and Elizabeth very much you know that they don't get along very often.  So nothing short of prayer is likely to get Elizabeth to be nice to him.  He even told me about something Elizabeth had helped him to do. 

Apparently he didn't pray for it the next night though because yesterday they were back at it and then again this morning. Maybe I should remind him tonight.

And since I don't like to post without a photo, here's one I found on my computer from the two of them back in 2008.  

My 3 Sweethearts.

I was on such a roll last week with my posting.  The most consistent I have been in a long time.  I feel like I have fallen a little behind, but I have been busy with work.  That is a very good thing! This past weekend I had Valentine mini-sessions.  Before my first session of the afternoon, I had a little shoot with my own three kiddos.  They needed photos for their Valentine cards, and I needed to do Molly’s 9-year photos.  Well, as far as that goes I still needed to do Elizabeth’s 10-year photos.  Little behind on those. :-p

It was a gorgeous sunny day and was warm for January.  It was still a little chilly in the shade, but they were troopers and didn’t complain too much.  I found these dresses for $5 on clearance at Wal-mart after Christmas. 

A couple of my favorites of Molly. She recently had her hair cut after asking me for over a year.  It is pretty cute.

 

Elizabeth. This one about took my breath away when I first saw it.  When did she grow up? I always struggle with her glasses in photos because it seems that no matter what angle I try the frames still cover one of her eyes.  So we took them off, but I told her to hold them because they are so much of who she is.  I think she looks so much older without them.  Maybe I won’t let her get contacts this summer after all! ;-)

And my little heartbreaker.  Love, love, love this boy.

We did some Valentine themed ones, too.  I’m going to save those for a later post those. ;-)  Just a little more February sweetness to look forward to!

Not so smurfy.

My youngest is currently obsessed with the game Smurf Village.  He plays it on my phone.  As soon as he gets up in the morning he asks me if he can check his crops on Smurf Village.  When I pick him up after school in the afternoon he is asking if he can see my phone ever before he has his seatbelt buckled. 

Can I check my raspberries?

I need to see if Handy’s house is ready.

If I don’t build Smurfette’s house she is going to leave!

I will give him permission to check his crops and will get busy with something.  A while later I will start looking for my phone to find him still playing and my phone battery almost dead.  The other day I scolded him because I found my phone on the kitchen counter with the battery completely dead. We don’t have a home phone, so I asked him what would we do if there was an emergency and needed to make a call?

I am surprised I don’t hear the music in my sleep at night.

This morning he really topped the cake though. For the past week or so he has been coming up with excuses to get into our bed.  He had a bad dream…he saw a shadow that  scared him…

Last night I woke up to find him standing beside our bed.  It was dark outside.  I had no idea what time it was.  When I was finally awake enough to understand what he was asking he said,

Can I check on my carrots?

I. could. not. believe. it.

No! Go back to bed!

At the time I thought it was like 3:00 in the morning. I now realize that it was probably about 6:00.  Chris’ alarm went off at 6:30.  Not a very smurfy way to wake up to say the least! We will be having a talk this afternoon.

Doing it my way.

I tried the Project Life thing last year.  I will be the first to say that I was a major failure at it.  Sure, I started out great, but somewhere mid-February I fell behind and never attempted to catch back up. So many of my friends are doing it again this year.  When I open Pinterest that is about all I see these days.  My Twitter feed is full of tweets to inspire.  Inspire me it does not.

I was reading my friend, Robin’s blog the other day and I noticed where she had posted her family’s 2011 book.  Robin says she doesn’t scrapbook anymore, but I would have to disagree.  She has started putting together a memory (some of us would call is scrapbook) book of her family each year.  She does a page from each month with a collage of photos from the events of that month.  Then she mixes in a few special pages. It’s a simple approach that documents their family life. Inspire me it did.

I opened one of Heather’s old quick fill pages and started putting together a page about last January.  As I started picking out photos, I knew that there were way too many of our snow storm last January to not dedicate on spread to it.  So,  I quickly put together a page about the big snow on Chris’ 40th birthday.

 

So this is my plan.  I am going to do at least one page highlighting each month.

Simple.

Quick.

Templates.

I will also include any scrapbook pages I might have done.  I’m going to try to get 2011 done, and keep up with each month through 2012.  At least that is my plan.  We shall see how well I do.

This year his birthday was a little different.  No snow, but we had fun anyway.

(photo taken with my phone)

This one will have to make it to the January page for sure. :-)

The last day of 2011.

This last day of 2011 I…

…watched a movie with Stewart.

…went for a run alone in shorts and short-sleeves.  It is a gorgeous, warm day.

…scrapped a Christmas layout.  At least one is done if I don’t get around to doing any others.

(layout credits here)

…am planning to read a little of the book I just started.

…am planning to spend a quiet night at home with the family.

In all honestly, I cannot say that I am sad to see 2011 go.  This year to quote a friend “has been a roller coaster ride.”  I love roller coasters, but I am ready to get off of this one. To paraphrase another friend, God got us through 2011, and He will get us through 2012. 

I’m not making a lot of goals for 2012.  I did last year, and I don’t think I fully completed any of them. 

I set a goal to read 50 books in 2011, and I think I am finishing the year with around 36 read.  I didn’t mark that one off, but that is a lot more than I read in 2010.  I enjoyed each and every one, and I am glad to have read the ones I did.

I planned to read a classic each month of 2011.  I think I read 10.  I started on the other two, but I haven’t finished them yet. So another failure you might say, but there are 10 less classics on my list of books to read.

I planned to lose weight.  A lot of weight.  10-20 pounds.  I started off great (as I do most years), but soon fell off the wagon.  I am not 20 pounds lighter or even 10 pounds lighter for that matter, but I am ending 2011 with a slightly smaller number on the scaled than I ended 2010.  I guess that is something.

I was committed to 2011 being the year that I took a photo each and every day.  I made it farther than I ever have before – some time in February I believe.  I don’t think that is a goal I will ever complete.  I think I need a different approach all together.

So here I am on the last day of 2011.  I’m not making a lot of lofty goals.  There are a few things I would like to accomplish.  I would like for 2012 to be the year of my second marathon.  I would like to scrapbook more, sew more and just craft more.  I have lots of new ideas for my business, and I am excited about those.  Chris and I are entering a new chapter in our lives, and while it’s a little scary, I know that we can make it successful.  I have all faith in him, in us and above all in our God.

So with that I say good-bye to 2011. I am so ready for a new year and new beginnings!

Jasper and Jingle Belle.

This hasn’t been the scrapbooking, paper crafting December that I had planned. Work-wise, I am pretty much finished for the holiday season, so I took a few minutes yesterday and put together a quick page about your elves, Jasper and Jingle Belle. 

(layout credits here)

Love their scarves?  The girls made those for them last year and left them for them to take back to the North Pole with them on Christmas Eve. When they came back this year, they were wearing them.  They get into a lot of mischief, but I have to say I am always sad to see them go.

Visiting Santa

I think using this photo on my last post made me want to scrap it. 

(layout credit here)

Nothing fancy, but so glad to have it documented.  That means a lot these days when I don’t scrap near as much as I would like.

I am planning to look for an album to start my December Daily tomorrow though.  Very excited about that!

December plans.

I really don’t know where November went.  I think I lost a few days somewhere along the way. Of course this is my busiest time of the year business wise, so I am sure that had a lot to do with it.  I love November so I am a little sad to see it go.  However, I am looking forward to December.

I learned the hard way a couple years ago not to schedule any sessions for the month of December.  I am still so busy in December getting everyone’s Christmas orders taken care of that I just don’t have time to shoot.  Well, shoot and see my family at all.  I am trying to get everyone’s sessions edited before December 1st this year, and I think it is doable.

Better than last year, I have already ordered our Christmas cards.  Last year I didn’t even get them all out. The kids have already seen Santa and turned in their lists.

I have done a little shopping.  The outside of the house got cleaned and decorated this weekend.  Just in time I might add before the cold and wet weather moved in.

For the first time ever I am seriously considering doing a December Daily album.  I have always oohed and aahhed over Ali Edwards’ albums each year.  This year may be my year.  I totally fell flat on my face on the Photo Of The Day album this year.  So maybe I will do better with a one month album.

We already have some fun plans that I would like to document.  Like going to see The Muppets this weekend with CHP friends, and the Christmas parade this weekend.

Chris and I will be celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas again this year but with a twist.  This year each day will have a Christmas song assigned to it to inspire our gift giving.  Although it is Christ’ favorite, I doubt I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas will make the list!

The monster mash.

I’m a little sad today that Halloween is over.  It had become one of my favorite days.  Lots of planning goes into our costumes each year, and I love that in recent years Chris has started dressing up.  We have so much fun as a family.  When we started making plans about costumes this year, The kids all wanted traditional Halloween costumes.  Elizabeth wanted to be a vampire.

Molly wanted to be a witch.

And Stewart wanted to be a mummy.

Well, that was his first choice…

Since they had all decided to be what you might call monsters, I suggested that Chris go as Frankenstein and I could be the Bride of Frankenstein.  That was when Stewart decided that he wanted to me a mad scientist.  Mad scientist?  Well, then he had to be Dr. Frankenstein!

And what did he create?

These photos were taken by Molly last night before we headed out trick-or-treating.

Here is one last shot of our little monsters.

I’ve got lots of scrapbooking to do!

Oh, and for those wondering.  Yes, I made a large part of this years costumes as it my tradition.  I made mine and Molly’s dresses.  I also made Elizabeth’s skirt and cape.

I hope you all got lots of candy last night.  We sure did!

Warning: Proud Mom Post Ahead!

So if you don’t want to hear how awesome I think my three kiddos are, you will want to skip right over this post. Earlier this week was Awards Day for the first quarter of the 2011-12 school year.  All three kiddos came home with awards.  I am so, so, so proud of them!

Other than all three having Perfect Attendance (you get a gift certificate to Sonic for that, BTW), they all received awards.

Stewart received the Fabulous Friend award for his class.  All awards are great, but I just love the ones that are for being a good friend. He also received all Very Goods (the highest mark for 1st Grade) onhis report card.

Elizabeth made High Honor Roll.  She was one of just two in her class, so I was very proud of her for that.

And Miss Molly received the Fruit of the Spirit Award as well as making Honor Roll. She is now in 3rd Grade, and this is the first year for honor roll awards. I cannot tell you how proud I am of her.  She missed High Honor Roll by just two points! Two points, and she was really struggling in spelling in the beginning of the quarter.  She brought a C up to a very high B.  She was a little disappointed that she didn’t make High Honor Roll, but I am super excited about it.

So it looks like we will be making quite a few trips to Sonic with all these award certificates. :-)