Resolutions, Hopes and Goals

Well, it is almost the beginning of a new year, so it is time to think about my resolutions, hopes and goals. I have been thinking about these for the past few days, this year I am going to make my goals SMART

S=Specific

M=Measurable

A=Attainable

R=Realistic

T=Timely

Find... more time to spend with my husband, to keep the spark in our relationship, more time to spend with my children.

Pursue... my photography more fully and my dreams.

Believe... in myself and more fully in the power of God.

Appreciate... the people in my life and the time I spend with my children and my Matt, my husband.

Trust... in God and that he has a plan for us and that he will provide what we need.

Encourage... encourage my children to try new things and to believe in themselves.

Pray... I will make more time to pray daily

In 2009... I'll be more positive; go to church more often; spend less and save more; I will find more time for myself, to be a better mother, wife, daughter, sister and person.

The format for my resolutions was inspired by Jamie's post

Prayer Request

I think most of you who read my blog also read MckMama's but, on the off chance that you don't, I wanted to request that you pray for baby Stellan. As you may or may not know he had many heart issues in the womb over the summer and was miraculously healed of those issues and they thankfully have not re-appeared since his birth. However over the weekend he came down with a severe case of RSV, which you can read about here. Stellan, MckMama and their family are once again in great need of your prayers. Please take the time out of your day and say a prayer for this sweet baby boy and his family.

Christmas Day

We had such a great day today! Allie first woke up at 5AM! But, luckily I was able to tell her that it was still the middle of the night and she needed to go back to sleep so that Santa could come, PHEW! She then slept until around 7ish, but Grammy, Papa and Uncle Steve still weren't at our house yet so I got into her bed with her and she slept/layed there with me till we heard them pull up. She was so excited when she went down the hall to the living room and saw the tree and all the presents, she didn't even know what to do, SO cute!

It was so much fun seeing the kids open all their presents, Allie was so into it this year and well, Jack was into anything that she was *grin*!

Matt got me two really cool presents a photography book and a class with a great local photographer, I am so excited to take this class! Her photo's are amazing and I just know that I will learn so much!

My parents also got us the best present; when we were growing up we went on the same summer vacation every year! We went to this place in Maine, called Alden Camps and I loved it and since we had Allie and Jack I have wanted to take them there to share it with them, so that they too would have the memories that I have. Well, my parents booked us all for next summer and paid our deposit! I am so excited and I can't wait! If you are interested, check out their site.

I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families and friends!

Merry Christmas!

"Not Me!" Monday

Well here are my not me's pre-Christmas edition! Hold on tight here we go...

I did not wait until the last minute possible to do my Christmas shopping and I certainly was not surprised when the mall was an absolute ZOO! Nope, not me!

I did not have our tree up and lit for a week and then FINALLY get it decorated the weekend before Christmas.

I did not go out on Friday, right before our 1st BIG winter storm , just to get the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies AND get stuck in our drive way for an hour! Nope, not me, I have way better judgement than that!

I did not wait until the last minute to get my Christmas cards finished and I have certainly mailed the said Christmas cards!

Ahh, that feels so good! You should really give it a try, head over here and join in!

Winter Storm Austin!

I have definitely had better ideas than going out in our Hyundai Elantra- not the Durango; right before a snowstorm. when we live on a hill with a wicked driveway and all hills to get home! What was I thinking!

I know, I wasn't really thinking; I was being impulsive. I had the day off from school, because of the storm that was on it's way and I just felt that I just needed to go out to the store to get the ingredients to make gingerbread men cookies with the kids. Things that could have waited; going out to the store to get the ingredients. I left at eleven and didn't get home, well when I say home I mean the kids and I, inside with the car in the garage! Ugh, it was a nightmare, the roads stunk and our drive way was a mess. I gave it a try and of course didn't make it up, so I headed up to the house to get a shovel and shoveled the drive way, put down some salt and was optimistic that I would be able to get up; well not so much! SO, I tried and tried and tried some more. I almost made it and I decided to get the kids and the groceries out and into the house. I then got some cardboard and shoved them under the tires and gave it one last try. I figured if I didn't make it I would park the car at the bottom of the driveway and call it a day. So I gave it my ALL and got up the driveway and into the garage!!! Yeah!!! I have never been so happy or satisfied to get up the driveway and into the house! Matt and I are definitely switching cars back tomorrow. If I had been in the truck this wouldn't have really been an issue, oh well live and learn, right!

This is the view out my kitchen door, look at all that snow!

This is looking out our front door...

and this is where our driveway should be! Did I mention that I have shoveled it, when oh when will the plow guy come?

Don't all you southern girls reading this wish you were me *grin*! Just kidding! Well the kids are still napping and it is 4:30 I will get them up around 5 and we WILL make Gingerbread cookies tonight, yum!

Any guesses on how much snow we will get? I think we have about 6 inches so far and it has been only snowing for 4.5 hours!

Play Along With Me!

Game time!!!! I thought that this might be fun to play. All you have to do is make a list of ten of your favorite things. But there is a little catch. Everything on the list has to start with a specific letter of the Alphabet. That letter is randomly assigned by the blogger who you are playing with!

I got assigned the letter P from Alicia.

1. Pandora- I love my Pandora bracelet, each bead has a special meaning and I can remember exactly when I got them!


2. Pixies- They remind me so much of Allie for so many reasons, she is infatuated with Tinkerbell, so cute!


3. Pumpkins- There is so much that I like about them, the symbolize fall and a time for so much fun.


4. Peppermint Stick Ice Cream- Need I say more, I just love it!


5. Pumpkin Spice Muffins and Coffee- love them to!


6. PHOTOGRAPHY!!!!


7. Peonies- They are my all time favorite flower! I love their scent and they come in so many different varieties.


8. Palmer- My grandmother's maiden name


9. Puppies- They are so cute, but oh, then they grow up into awful, dogs. Oh, no, that is another post coming soon! But, seriously, I do love a cute wittle puppy


10. Pomegranates- Yummy, I love picking at them and they are delish

Want to play along? Let me know and I will assign you a letter *grin*!

Wordless Wednesday

I love this face! Muhah!

Lil' Gingerbread House Builders

Gingerbread houses, this is quickly becoming a family tradition of ours. Last year was fun, but there was only so much that Allie could really do. Well not this year... she was so excited and eager to decorate! And the icing on the gingerbread house was that Lily was doing it with us! The girls had so much fun, and I only had to remind myself several times that it didn't matter what it looked like; just that they were having fun!

The joy of being able to eat a little bit of candy when your all done with a hard days work *wink*! It was everything that I could do to keep the girls from eating the little bit of candy that came in the kit!! Note to self for next year to buy some extra candy because the Wilton kit doesn't come with very much candy to decorate with. But I did like that the house came assembled, the kit we used last year didn't and young children don't really have the patience to let the frosting set *grin*!

Oh, and those nice big peppermint sticks, don't get too excited, those didn't come with the kit. I had picked those up from Walmart and thought that they would look good on the house. Other than the frosting that was the only thing that I did to help with the house.

What's this face for you ask? Well silly girls of course! After the girls finished the gingerbread house they quickly moved on to dancing in the kitchen. This went on for at least 15 minutes and Jack got such a kick out of the whole thing.

"Not Me!" Monday

Oh where do the weekends go? I don't know how it is possible that it is a Monday again, but it is and here we go, hold on tight...

This weekend we certainly did not spend several hours trying to figure out which bulb was out on our pre-lit Christmas tree and still not get the tree decorated! Oh, but if this did happen at least we got the tree up, right?

I did not tell my class of first graders that there is a desk fairy and that she is the tooth fairies sister and I certainly didn't tell them that she would be checking to see who has a neat and tidy desk. No, I would never do that! Lie to first graders, that would be wrong!

Oh and about the desk fairy, I certainly haven't been eating the Starbursts that she is going to give to the very few kids who have neat desks!

I did not bug out this morning at work when I realized that almost all of my favorite Uni-ball gel pens are now missing from my desk!!

Over the weekend when I had my friend Melissa's daughter over for a few hours so that they could pack for their move on Friday I decided to make a gingerbread house with the girls and I definitely didn't cringe to myself when they were decorating it. No way, I wouldn't do that, it's all about them having fun and not how it looks.

Ahhh, that always feels so good. Now head over and check out what everyone else didn't do this week!

Honest Scrap

I received this from Lori, who lives in Florida with her husband and two adorable boys. Thank you, Lori!!

Here are the rules that you agree to when you accept this award:

"When you receive the prize, you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing that they were prized with 'Honest Weblog'. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

OK, so here are 10 honest things about me:

1. I hate driving and I would give it up in a heartbeat, if I had a driver.
   
   
2. I am hoping to become a lactation counselor, it is a week training and I am hoping to do it this summer.


3. I love nursing and I wish that Jack hadn't weaned so early, well maybe it wasn't early for some people, but I thought that he would go until he was closer to 24 months.


4. I am a night owl, who is married to an early bird that gets the worm. And to top it all off I have an early bird job!


5. I truly dislike the winter and wish that I lived someplace with more temperate temperatures!


6. I think about having another baby someday.


7. I am trying to start a photography business on the side and I am loving EVERY minute of it.


8. I am always worried about what other people think and sometimes I put to much time into worrying about it.


9. I CAN NOT stand Whining!!! Oh my goodness, it totally gets under my skin and drives me crazy!


10. I would love to try living someplace different, like in a city or in a totally different part of the country. Maybe someday!

So these are the women that I am passing it onto:

Melissa http://www.meltambo.blogspot.com/

Alicia http://www.twobsandme.blogspot.com/

Sugar Mommy http://www.littlebeauties.blogspot.com/

And to anyone else who would like to join in; I know this is breaking the rules but I have been sitting on this post for almost a week because I couldn't decide who to give it to, so I thought I would open it up to anyone who wants to participate. If you do participate and I would love you to, leave a comment here so that we can all come and read about you *grin*!

Some Holiday Bling

I received this award from Lori at Teacher Turned Mommy. She has two adorable little boys and still has time to make scrapbook pages weekly.

The Rules are simple:

You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space*grin*!

Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment on their blog.

5 Things I love about Christmas:

1. Family Traditions
2. Driving around looking at Christmas lights
3. Taking the kids to go see Santa
4. Decorating the Christmas tree
5. Seeing everyones Christmas cards as they come in the mail

I'm passing this on to...
Charity
Hilary
Sugar Mommy

"Not Me!" Monday

Oh my goodness it is Monday again and I can't believe it! Well here goes nothing, if you want to join in or read what everyone else did, check out MckMama's and play along.

I did not fall desperately behind with the laundry again, no not me!

Well, if I had fallen behind in said laundry, it would at least be because we all had the stomach bug this weekend and nothing that we had planned got done, but that's not me, because my laundry never falls behind!

I did not spend much of the day on Saturday lying around suffering from the stomach bug and let Allie watch way too much Noggin! No, I would never let her watch more than and hour and a half of T.V. a day!

I did not let another weekend slip away with out getting our Christmas card done, hang the wreaths, or put up our tree.

And I am not most frantically typing this, hoping to get it posted before Mr. Linky closes on MckMama's blog!!! No not me, why would I care if I got it in on time!

25 Things About Me- Holiday Edition

Welcome to the Holiday edition of 25 Things About Me. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire post and paste into a new post. Then change all the answers so that they apply to you.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Normally I use bags for gifts, but at Christmas I wrap most of our gifts.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the weekend following Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Three kings day
5. Do you like eggnog? No! Yuck!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Not sure, probably my Cabbage Patch Kid
7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother, Stephen.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Allie and Jack
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, of course, a Willow Tree one.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? No gift is a bad gift *grin*!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see something on sale.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'll be honest, yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peppermint Bark
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white ones
17. Favorite Christmas Song? Silent night
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home and have the rest of the family over!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dancer, Dasher, Prancer, Donner, Blizten, Comet, Cupid, Vixen (?) and Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? One on X-mas eve and the rest in the morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crazy shoppers!!!
23. Favorite Ornament theme or color? favorite ornaments are my angel ornaments that my mom collected for me when I was growing up and then gave to me when I got married!
24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Ham and Stuffing, yum!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Something for my camera and some clothes

If you do this be sure to leave a comment so we can all stop by and check out your list.

Merry Christmas!

*Shey* [B] Camera Strap Giveaway!

You know that fabulous camera strap that I showed you all in my Wish List Post, well The Benner Daily is giving one away! Head over here and enter for your chance to win one! And be sure to check out her Etsy shop too! Good luck!

My Wish List

**UPDATED**

This is only my WISH list, most of these are things that I wish I could get for Christmas *grin*!

These are my top five things that I would like for my camera.

I would love this great camera strap slip cover from this Etsy site. I love them, they are so cute and this one is totally me *grin*!

A hood for my lens!

I just love this camera bag! SO much better than the yucky standard nylon camera bags!

A Nikon 50mm f 1:4 lens. Oh, this would be great for portraits...




And the granddaddy of it all is the Nikon D90! This is obviously a long term wish list item; but a girl can wish, right?



So, now that you know what is on my wish list, what's on yours?

"Not Me!" Monday

Well, can you believe it, it's Monday again!

I do not rock Jack to sleep at night just to be able to keep our time together, now that he isn't nursing. That would be crazy, what kind of sleep patterns would that set up.

I did not take all of our Christmas decorations out of the attic on Sunday morning, only to procrastinate all day and still not get the house decorated. Oh, and did I mention that I didn't even get all the boxes out of the attic, whoops! Well, it's all good, because I would never do that, right.

I did not keep my friend Melissa waiting for almost an hour at the park, because I was running late, from errands and stuck in traffic on the highway. No way, not me, I would never do that!

I did not wake up at 5 am on Black Friday to go to the mall with my good friend Melissa to look for deals for the kids for Christmas and buy both kids clothes at Gymboree and then lament over my purchase and contemplate returning it all, until I went to Children's Place and compared prices. No way, not me!

I did not let my laundry sit in the dryer so long on Saturday, that I had to restart the dryer to warm the wrinkles out of the clothes before I could put another load in. Nope, not me.

Ahhh, that feels so good... now go ahead and head over to MckMamma's and check out what everyone else did not do.