Friday Shares - Haircut Edition

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen my haircut picture last weekend. I decided to start fresh, and we chopped it all off.

I've had mixed emotions, pulling on phantom hair and looking for my long ponytail, but I've settled on happy with it. It's so bouncy and healthy and is holding curl well. And it's much, much easier to brush and style. It just took me a few days to land here. It's a big change, but as Brian pointed out it nothing like when I cut bangs or went dark the fist time.

Apparently I have a thing for changing up my hair.

It's Valentine's Day! The kids had their parties at school yesterday and had so much fun. They've been hopped up on candy and cookies and sugar in general ever since.

Brian's picking up fancy pizza and we're staying home with the kids tonight. Nothing very romantic, but it'll be special all the same. Do you go all out for Valentine's Day?

To celebrate the day I gave Brian a milk frother and would you believe he thought it was more of a gift for me than for him?? I mean...I would never do something like that! :) But honestly, we're both pretty excited about homemade lattes.

I had fun sharing some of my Instagram friends last week and thought I'd do it again, spotlighting some of my favorite calligraphers.

Lauren Essl is a local Dallas calligrapher. I took her beginners calligraphy class back in December and I loved it. Her style is so effortless and beautiful. I need to keep practicing!

Fozzy is just amazingly talented! Everything she does is gorgeous and she's super generous with tips on her blog and her Instagram account too.

Korie at The Weekend Type's work is so girly and romantic. It makes me want to create hand written letters and mail them to everyone I know.

Happy weekend friends! I hope it's filled with all things lovely!

xoxo

Friday Shares - Snowy Edition

We're really looking forward to the Olympics in our house. In fact, I'm probably a bit of an Olympics nerd.

As a kid I was sure I could become a champion ice skater after watching the winter games. We even named our boy cat (we thought he was a girl!) Katarina Witt after the '88 Olympics. She was amazing!

And then there was the time I spent hours, hours, practicing rhythmic dancing with a long streamer thing so that I could be one of those dancer gymnasts. I thought that was a more attainable goal than your common tumbling gymnast.

Dreams, people. I had them.

Andrew loved the summer Olympics two years ago so I'm hoping he enjoys these winter games too. But I'm hoping for no professional snowboarding in his future - those kids are crazy! :)

So I've been kind of fascinated at how NOT ready Sochi is for these games. It makes me sad for the athletes who've worked so hard. I hope all the crazy stuff doesn't overshadow their accomplishments.

But this story from the Washington Post with all its out there Sochi tweets and photos is kind of hilarious. I'm curious to see if NBC will report on all the bad stuff in the city or if it'll be all fun and games.

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I bought Andrew his first pair of lace-up tennis shoes today. I let him help pick them out online and he really wanted the laces. He can't tie them himself though, and I'm afraid it'll drive me crazy having to help him put his shoes on everyday. Does your almost five year old tie his own shoes? When should they learn? I'm having doubts about the shoes now.

I also ordered him a few new Honey BeeTees. They are my favorite. Andrew was so sad that the Apatosaurus was out of stock in his size, but the tiger seemed to make up for it.

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Are you crazy about Instagram? Do you follow my friend Katie? She and her family went to an ICE CAVE in Breckenridge today. Whoa. My Frozen obsessed kids would be so excited! Other Instagram favorites? Blue-eyed Bride and AlliAars. They're both moms to sweet little boys and have big, caring hearts.

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I'm looking forward to a Mavs game, a birthday party, church and warmer weather this weekend. No more snow for we Dallasites. We're about over winter. :)

Happy weekend friends!

xoxo

New Year // New Start

I don't normally do a lot of reflecting at the end of the year - I'm too ready to look forward, get things done, make some progress already. I wandered around Target this morning, hot coffee in hand, alone, and I started thinking, planning, decorating our home in my head. (Because the new spring Threshold stuff? Awesome!)

I have many things I want to work on in 2014, but at the top of my priority list is hospitality, welcoming friends and family into our house. I naturally lean toward being a homebody, focusing on my kiddos and Brian and our time.

And these things are good, but I want to invite our friends in more often, fill our house with the sounds of kids laughing and music playing and fun times being had. Specifically, I'd like to entertain in some form or fashion once a month in 2014.

My other big focus will be on my photos. I'm going to do a better job of sharing my pictures - both in print and digitally. I have a terrible habit of uploading photos and then leaving them on my computer forever, never to be seen again. Well not anymore! I'm undecided on whether I'll try a photo project again - I've still never completed one - but if I do, then I'm going to make sure it's well displayed - ha!

There's so much more, but right now these things seem easy and fun to me, and I'm not dreading them one bit which is a good place to start for the New Year.

Do you make resolutions? Great goals and plans? What is on your list for 2014?

Making Time

Y'all, I've lost my blogging mojo.

I don't know what happened.

I think of all these topics I want to blog on and post about and then, I'm just not making time for it...

I started working out with a trainer back in March. She's awesome, and I feel great. So that gets a little of my time, but not much because it's such a super efficient workout.

I'm going to sleep earlier. That's helping me feel better too - more awake and aware. Don't get me wrong - I still need at least two cups of coffee a day, but I'm not yawning all afternoon anymore, so that's an improvement.

I'm spending what seems like hours sitting in the bathroom with Caroline while she tinkles just a squirt on her potty and then talks about tinkling and then sings about tinkling and then I finally chase her down and put a diaper on her and she says, "I tinkled. Change diaper?"

I'm not sure exactly what Andrew's doing during these long minutes I'm hanging out in the bathroom. Mostly building with his Legos or watching Scooby I think.

It makes me proud that he's capable of keeping himself occupied for long stretches of time without needing too much from me. I love the independence. It's one of the traits I most want to foster in my children. Which makes me worry I'm just neglecting them and not giving them every opportunity to grow.

Like maybe they need to be playing soccer and singing in the choir and going back to swimming lessons, which are all things we decided not to do this fall. Instead we're taking them to the pumpkin patch and the SMU Boulevard to tailgate before football games, and teaching them (well, Andrew) about fantasy football and why we love the Cowboys, and going for long walks in our new neighborhood, hanging out with our cousins and making new friends at tennis lessons on Friday mornings.

I'm also spending way too much time reading fashion blogs and thinking about my fall wardrobe which is just silly, but also super important to me because just because we're moms, in and out of preschool pickup and Target all day, doesn't mean we have to wear yoga pants if we're not going to yoga. I need some style.

I'm making a conscious effort to go through my closet and find things that I feel good in and wear them again, mix them up in new ways.

How are you spending your days this fall?

*All photos taken with my awesome, yet neglected 50mm and Canon 7D in our playroom in the natural afternoon light while my heart swelled with love for these two cuties who can occasionally play in the same room without screaming at each other.

Sunscreen and Pool Water

It's summertime and the living is supposed to be easy, but these last few weeks have been so crazy!

But crazy in a good way.

Last month I told y'all that we found a new house in a new neighborhood and that we'll be moving soon.

Well, it's coming along - we're making decisions and watching it all come together.

Here's a preview of our very dirty new kitchen. This was a week or two ago. It looks a little cleaner than this now, I promise. :)

Yep, we painted the island blue. I'm a little nervous about it, but so far I'm happy with it. The rest of the cabinets are white and the counters are light so the pop of color is a nice contrast.

(The island paint is blue danube by Benjamin Moore and the rest of the cabinets and all the trim are painted in BM's white dove. The wall color is BM revere pewter which Pinterest claims is the best wall color ever - I guess we'll find out!)

I feel like every time we talk about paint or furniture or rugs I say, "well, I want it to be really light and bright." Our current house isn't exactly dark, but it's decorated in golds and browns and creams and I'm moving away from that look here with the new house.

So I hope we like it!

And this house is on the market now so we're running around keeping everything picked up and super clean which is super fun when you have two little people living in your house.

We're in a pretty hot housing market right now so I'm hopeful it won't take too long to sell, but again, we'll just have to see.

Lots of hurry up and wait these days.

But lots of fun too!

I taught Andrew's VBS class last week. We had 22 three and four year olds! I'm convinced that all preschool teachers are saints. :) Andrew loved it so much though that it was totally worth all the early mornings and trips to the potty.

Um, Caroline clearly felt the same way. Ha!

There's been lots of swimming already this summer. Andrew completely wore himself out with all the pool time this weekend. He fell asleep in the car on the way home from my parents' today and didn't wake up again so he's been in bed since 6PM.

I'm hoping his crazy early bedtime doesn't lead to a 5AM wake-up.

The kids are both so dirty right now. They still have sunscreen in their hair and smell like pool water, but I figure that's what summer is for, right?

They'll get a bath tomorrow. :)

Hiya!

Hi y'all!

I'm still here.

But last week we found a home that we're in love with. It's in the right school district on a quiet street and has an awesome floor plan.

And we have a contract already. But it's not finished so we get to pick just what we want for counter tops and cabinets and paint colors and all kinds of things.

Which is awesome. But also a little stressful.

Also, we have to get our current house on the market. It needs a little TLC and some clean out before it's ready.

So basically - I've been running around like a crazy person for nine days.

But I miss y'all, and I'll be back soon. :) In the meantime you can find me on Pinterest pining every white kitchen out there. ;)

How are you?

A Random Weekend Recap

My friend Elaine used to host a Miscellaneous Monday link-up, and let's just say that today's post would totally fit in over there.

Except that at this point it's barely still Monday. Oops.

We had a beautiful weekend here in Dallas and we spent about 85% of it outside. Poor Caroline had a fever most of the weekend and didn't feel well, but she wanted to "go, go" so we kept buckling her into her stroller for a "ride".

It's her favorite thing these days.

Whatever you say, pretty lady.

Our first delivery from Greenling came last Thursday night, and I was so excited about all those fruits and veggies! I wanted to cook Friday night, but our kitchen faucet leaked AGAIN, so we had I don't even remember Friday night.

But also included in our delivery were sweet little limes from McAllen, Texas and we had tequila in the pantry so Brian made margaritas. They kind of helped me get past the leaky faucet. :)

But by Saturday our kitchen was fixed (kind of), and I cooked. I can't wait to tell y'all more about Greenling later this week. I'm a new fan for sure!

I like to have slow, laundry doing, closet cleaning, music listening, water playing (in the summer), list making Sundays. But this Sunday was packed, and I had so much fun I didn't mind it a bit.

Andrew and I went to church while Brian stayed home with feverish Caroline. Then we stopped by Whole Foods, had a quick lunch at home and headed to a friend's birthday party at Pump It Up.

It was our 4th party there this spring. Andrew loves it so much. He's a pro at this point! We had to stop at Kroger on our way home because we were out of paper towels - I know. Mom fail.

So together we survived our second grocery store trip of the day.

And then I cooked again!

After our terrible dinnertimes last week I told Brian I was going to spend my cooking energy on the weekends when he's around and just kind of throw stuff together during the week when we're all so busy and he's not really here anyway.

I think this is the best plan for my sanity in this season.

And that gets us caught up to today, when I went to work and the Container Store. I'm going to organize all my bento lunch supplies this week. I need some serious help there. Like stuff sometimes falls out of the cabinet when I open the doors.

So happy totally random Monday, y'all. I hope it was a good one. :)

Build 'em Up: Friendship

The topic for this week’s Build ‘em Up series with Kelly, Jennifer, Courtney and Erin, is friendship – making and keeping friends - specifically in this season of mothering little ones.

After Andrew was born I knew I really, really needed to find some mom friends. I was the first of my close college friends to have a baby, and I needed local support as I plowed through those first few sleepless months of motherhood.

Our church has a group for new moms that forms every three months so that the babies are all close in age. I called shortly after Andrew was born and signed up and I'm so, so grateful I did.

I can't imagine how different motherhood would be for me without these girls.

We spent those first few months sharing birth stories and sleep stories and breastfeeding stories. Then we all moved onto the toddler phase and we commiserated about life with a two year old.  Now most of us have second (and some have third!) children, but we still get together often to talk about motherhood and lots of other fun stuff too.

Our kids go to each other’s birthday parties and they’re in Sunday School together. Our husbands are friends and look forward to seeing each other at the annual Halloween costume photo. :)

I know so many people who have made great friends through the New Mom’s Group at our church. It’s a wonderful opportunity, and if you have a new baby I’d encourage you to reach out at your own church to see if they have something like it.

But even if you didn’t make friends while you were home with your new baby, once your children are old enough to jump into activities, whether it’s Gymboree or the church choir or soccer, it’s a little easier to make friends. You’re out and about with your kids and you obviously have something in common.

But you still have to be willing to put yourself out there which can be hard, but is so worth it. Moms need friends. Even if busy schedules keep you from spending lots of time together you can still send an encouraging text when you know a friend is having a rough week. Or you can swing by with dinner when you know a friend is home with a sick kid.

We all need support and inspiration and fellow moms make awesome, encouraging friends.  I know I would be lost without mine. :)

Family Routine

This has been the weirdest week. I sat down tonight and thought is it really only Thursday??

We had a leak in our kitchen faucet and had to have it replaced.

In the meantime our kitchen was out of commission with all the under the sink supplies hanging out on our counters and little water available for all the normal day-to-day kitchen activities like washing dishes. So I was ridiculously happy to clean everything up last night after the new faucet was finally installed and running.

My car needs new tires again. Not a huge deal, but it's a 2007 and I've been wanting a bigger car for a while now anyway, so it seemed like a good time to go ahead and start car shopping. Well, car shopping turns out to be a much bigger deal than getting new tires.

So a whole lot of my week was eaten up by car shopping and decision making.

And Brian worked late every night this week. Again, not a huge deal, but in the middle of this weird week it made things harder.

And you know, those are just the little things here in our house that threw me for a loop. It's wild how a few little disruptions and changes to our routine can knock us off our family axis.

But I can't even imagine how the families that were directly impacted by the terrible tragedies in Boston and West, Texas are dealing with it all this week. My heart breaks for these families who were going about their daily lives, settled into their routines and then literally, boom, everything's changed.

I'm sure my kids haven't noticed that this week has been weird. I want to shelter them for as long as we possibly can. They're so little. I've kept the news off and Andrew has no idea that anything terrible has happened anywhere.

Or even that I've felt crazy and harried with all our regular routine disruptions. They are still so innocent and lovely and full of joy, just as they should be. My prayer this week, and always really, is that children everywhere could live with the same innocence.

Saturdays

Caroline seems to have finally given up her 4:30 or 5AM nursing session which is wonderful. I'm so, so glad. But it also means she's up for the day by 7AM now.

Which is not that bad I know, but we're a late night household.

I'm working on changing that, but somehow 7AM is a lot earlier than 8AM on a Saturday.

We are finally going to make it to the kids' swimming lessons this morning. Our Saturdays have been filled this spring, and we've missed the pool. I'm so looking forward to summer and weekends in the water.

After swimming lessons I'm leaving the kids and taking one of those "me" days I talked about this week. My sister and my mom and I are going shopping. Woohoo for new spring clothes!

If I find anything fabulous I'll be sure to share it with you.

But first I wanted to tell y'all about Whitney Rae Paper.

I met Whitney at the Handmade Marketplace at Blissdom. I was immediately drawn to her paper goods because I love all things pretty paper, but her camera stamp jumped right out at me.

I neeeeeded that stamp. I've been stamping all kinds of stuff - my planner, blank note cards, the kids - kidding! Kind of.

If you love photography and you love paper you should put one on your list.

Happy Saturday friends. :)

The Procrastinator

The amazing Jen Hatmaker wrote a post this week about pulling yourself out of the doldrums. To get started she says:

First, make a list of everything you are behind on. The amount of emotional energy this steals from me is almost unbearable. Ironic too, because each line item could be accomplished in minutes at best, a day at worst: mail these things, return this, make those appointments, answer these emails (just, omg), scan that contract over, send in the money for that school thing (this, times a zillion, free public school my eye), pick up that stuff, return that phone call (just, omg), finish writing that article.

I can't tell you how much I identify with all of this. 

I wouldn't say that I’m lazy, in fact I somehow manage to get gobs of stuff done on a daily basis.

But I have this terrible habit of putting off the little stuff.

A document for our upcoming Disney cruise has been sitting in the study waiting to be scanned and emailed to our travel agent (who is also my friend) for two months...

One of my favorite people lives five minutes from our house. Our boys are friends. She has a toddler daughter. Our husbands get along great. We’re going to invite them over for dinner. We just have to pick a weekend...

The shirt Brian gave me for my birthday in January needs to be exchanged for a new size, but it’s still sitting in its shopping bag in my closet...

That box of baby stuff from Amazon has been sitting in our front entryway for a week…

The last of Andrew’s birthday thank you notes are sitting on the counter in the kitchen  just waiting for a stamp and a trip to the mailbox…

Just do it already! Seriously. I’ll get it all done eventually, but in the meantime these small, but somehow daunting tasks linger in the back of my mind, bringing with them guilt and embarrassment.

Writing it all down helps.

And I do go through spurts of great productivity, but I always settle back into my procrastinating ways.

I’m still looking for a permanent solution. 

Simultaneous Naptime

My kids are simultaneously napping. This has never happened. I can honestly say that since Caroline was born the two of them have never taken a nap at the same time. Not even in the car.

(Andrew always fought his nap and when the baby was born it was easier to give in. I tried to have a "quiet time" every afternoon, but his room is right next door to Caroline's and his version of quiet was very good at waking the baby. So I gave that up too.)

The reason for the simultaneous nap? A nasty, nasty stomach bug that knocked Caroline out for about 12 hours and has now taken Andrew out of the game for a second straight day.

It's been really awful. He threw up every 1.5 - 2 hours for 26 hours straight. Neither of us slept much these last two nights, even after the sicks were finally over.

I'm so hopeful that he will be back up and running before Easter, and that Brian and I don't get sick. I'd hate for the kids to miss out on church and our Easter celebration. And I really, really don't want this bug. It's a bad one.

So I should be sleeping, right? The house is so quiet. I'm going to jinx it. I'm waiting....

Nope. Still sleeping. Wow. The power of a quiet house.

I got up super early one day this week. It was Wednesday. I got up before everyone else and wrote my post about playtime. I didn't open my browser. I didn't sneak a peek at Twitter. I just started writing, and it was amazing how quickly it was finished and posted and that was it.

One big idea I took away from my weekend at Blissdom was the power of focusing. It seems ironic that at a social media conference I learned that I should turn it off and not be social all of the time, but I think this is true for me.

I've always been good at focusing on the task at hand. In 7th grade I remember my science teacher telling my mom that I was always the one zeroed in on her during her lectures, and that she never worried about my mind wandering. 

I'm afraid I've lost that ability. I don't know if it's the ding of a Twitter notification, interruptions from the kids, the buzz of a new email on my phone, the TV that's too often on in the background, but it's so hard to focus right now. I'm trying to be a full-time mom, a part-time worker, a part-time blogger, a part-time hobbyist photographer, a full-time wife and friend. That's a lot even with all the help that I am so blessed to have.

I don't have a set-in-stone plan right now, but I think I'm going to try really hard to put some more schedule into my day. Setting aside blocks of computer time each week: these hours are for blog reading and sharing, these hours are for photo editing, these are for designing crafting and photographing.

Maybe then I won't feel like I'm missing something by X-ing out of all my browsers, knowing that I'll have time to get back to it later that day. I've already taken the facebook app off of my phone and I'm thinking of doing the same with Twitter. I won't get rid of Instagram though. No way. I love you too much Instagram. :)

Time management. I need some, and I think setting up chunks of time throughout my day for certain activities is the way to go. 

Also, simultaneous naps are amazing. I could really use a few more of these. I'm sure my productivity would sky rocket.

How about you? Do you try to schedule? Fly by the seat of your pants? 

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My plan for more focused computer time was inspired by Megan Jordan, and sadly I didn't even get to attend her session at Blissdom. But from everything I heard from those who were there and from the Twitter stream during her talk, I think focus was a key component. I can't wait to go back and watch her workshop once it's posted. 

On a Weekend...

The kids are in swimming on Saturday mornings this spring. It makes for kind of crazy Saturdays, but while Caroline and Brian swim, Andrew and I have ended up with some one-on-one time.

This is a rare treat for us, and it's been so fun.

Last Saturday we went to Society Bakery to get cupcakes for Brian's birthday. Andrew was so sweet and we sat outside at a little bistro table while he finished his free sample - yes they had free cupcake samples!

Also? Ombré cake.

This Saturday we ran up to Pottery Barn Kids to buy a baby gift and just one thing for Andrew. He picked out an awesome Batman book.

While we were there Peter Rabbit showed up!

Andrew was so cute. He jumped right up there on his lap like he sat with a bunny everyday. He said, "Mom! He has a giant carrot!" I loved it, and was so glad we just happened to be there and that I had him dressed in a cute outfit. :) You just never know!

It felt like spring today with warm sunshine and a cool breeze. I went to a baby shower and then took Andrew to a birthday party this afternoon. After all that partying we decided we needed a dinner out and it needed to be on a patio. My Dallas friends can attest that the Gloria's patio and a margarita on a spring day really can't be beat.

It's a little different now, what with the constant requests for new tic-tack-toe games and the need to keep Caroline from drowning in the black bean dip, but still. It was awesome. And my kids were quiet and well behaved.

Is there much more you can ask for from a dinner out with two small children?

I hope your weekend was filled with the things you love the most!

xoxo

My "Craft Room"

My poor dining room used to be a pretty room. And now it's doubling as my "craft room".

I try to keep all this stuff in our study, but that's kind of Brian's room and he works in there at night after the kids are in bed so somehow all my crafty project stuff has been landing in here recently.

Let's take a closer look:

Here's the tube that holds my new Printsagram poster. It's waiting on a frame. I'm either going to buy one and paint it or build one, but I don't have one yet. So it's hanging out in the dining room.

Also pictured is my Silhouette Cameo. I love it so much, but it doesn't really have a home. I've been storing it in the study, but there's not a great spot for it, and I have to haul it to the kitchen when I want to use it. Not really ideal, so here it is in the dining room.

This is a sign I've been painting for weeks. I made a set of two, but didn't like the way one turned out so I decided to start over. Ugh. It's like the project that never ends. But I'm happy to report I finished these this weekend. They are finally ready to hang on our back patio. And they are out of the dining room. Whew.

I'm working on Andrew's valentines and it's all currently sitting out. I just hate to put it all away before I finish, but it takes me a long time to finish things these days. So - here it is in the dining room.

I ordered this little bottle holder from One Kings Lane a week or two ago. It's so pretty, but I haven't found its new home. So, it too is waiting in the dining room.

I think the moral of this story is that I need to clean up after myself.

And I need a basement. :)

Camera Fever

{Source}

I have camera fever.

It's much safer then baby fever, but it makes my husband run and hide. :)

I've had my Canon 7D for a little over two years. And I love it so much. It has the most amazing focusing system. I like to toggle focus (see this post from last year) and you can't beat the joystick and the 19 focusing points.

And I have some really awesome lenses too. The 35 f/1.4L is positively swoon worthy with its beautiful rich colors and super sharp details. I use it all the time.

So I should not being wanting for anything.

But.....

Canon recently came out with two new full-frame cameras: The 6D and the 5D Mark III. The 6D has Wi-Fi built in and you can adjust exposure and take a picture with an app on your iPhone. How awesome is that? And the Mark III has 41(!) focus points.

And this is why I have camera fever.

Do you know about a crop sensor versus a full-frame? Basically a full-frame camera is the same as an old 35mm film camera - a camera captured what the 35mm film would hold.

But a crop sensor camera was created to make SLR technology more accessible to the consumer, not just the pros. It essentially captures the middle of an image and throws away the edges. For my 7D the crop factor is 1.6.

What does this mean? Well, the bigger sensors usually do better at higher ISOs meaning you can shoot better in low light. It also can give you a more shallow depth of field, so you can get a blurrier background. You just get more info per photo.

Do I need all that extra info? Do I need that low light capability?

Sure!

Should I spend all that money on it?

Ummm.....

Thirty-three

When I was a kid I thought it was pretty tough to have a birthday at the beginning of the year. We'd finish up with Christmas and the New Year and then - bam! my birthday - just when it was time to go back to school.

But now as a real life grown-up I kind of enjoy it.

It's like double the fresh start that the new year brings. And some years I can use lots of fresh starts.

I want to do a few things to grow my photography this year. I'm thinking of joining a 52 week photo challenge. I have no idea if I'd finish though. Last year I made it about 20ish weeks.

Paint the Moon Photography is doing some kind of big project and My 4 Hens Photography is hosting her challenge again. Maybe if I only had to commit to posting the photo on Flickr I'd do better? I don't know.

Are you doing any photography challenges this year?

I'm also committing to a 365 iphone photo challenge. I know never in a million years would I take a photo with my big camera every day, but my phone I can handle. I'm planning to hashtag them #mrs365photo on Instagram. That way they'll be easy for me to find.

I'd LOVE to have a giant collage made at the end of the year with all our Instagrams. My friend Devon just finished up her photos from last year and they look great. I also adore this giant frame from The Handmade Home. How perfect would that be in a game room?

I have a clean slate. A new calendar to go with my thirty-fourth year. I feel inspired and motivated - a great combination! What will it hold?

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year from our crazy family to yours! 

My only resolution for 2013 is to go to bed at a decent hour. My mantra is going to be eleven to seven, eleven to seven.

If I can get us all on a better sleep schedule I think lots of other stuff I want to accomplish this year will fall in to place.

If you have any tips I'm all ears because we all know I've tried this before. ::sigh::

This time I will do it!

P.S. Here's our family photo from January 1, 2012.

What a difference a year makes!

Just Busy

Oh man.

Brian finished school, and I stopped blogging!

Okay, not really. It just seems like it. Things are just so busy this time of year.

I haven't even ordered my Christmas cards yet. Ahhhh! But they're almost finished and I'll be ordering tonight. I think.

Quality Target Time

But I am ahead on shopping and wrapping.

We spent our first school-free weekend cleaning out the garage, hanging Christmas lights and furnishing our back patio. We also went to two parties and on a carriage ride to look at the Christmas lights with friends.

It was a busy weekend, but not once did I worry about hurrying up so Brian could study. Ahhh...freedom.

It's been cold here this week and both kids have runny noses and chapped skin. I feel so bad for Andrew and his red lips, but he licks them all the time. I don't know how to help him. What do you use for chapped lips?

Daddy Snuggles

I have some little bits of Christmas decor photos to share with y'all. And a new outfit to post. Hopefully I'll be back sooner than later. Maybe when I find someone to come wrap all my presents for me. Ha!

What have you been up to?

Countdown....

Today was the last Sunday Brian will ever have to spend studying for an MBA class. He has a final Monday night and a final on Tuesday night, and then he will done.

Finished. Forever.

I think I will sing the Hallelujah chorus when he walks in the door that night. And pour him a glass of Scotch.

I am so very proud of him.

Caroline has a cold. Just your run of the mill runny nose cold, but I think she's sharing it with the rest of us. My nose is a little stuffy and my throat is getting scratchier by the minute. I'm hoping a good nights' sleep will nip it in the bud.

My house is almost decorated for Christmas. It's such a process. Our tree is up and my favorite santas are out. My nativity is on display, but I have to gently nudge Mary and the shepherds back into place after Caroline and her busy hands have gone to bed.

I have two new wreaths to hang. I'm waiting on some burlap ribbon I ordered from Etsy. And then I'll share some photos.

I've been pouring over Miss Mustard Seed and Perfectly Imperfect the last few days and now I want to paint all the furniture in my house.

But instead I just painted a pair of big dark frames in our breakfast room. They're not exactly what I want them to be, but they're bright and different than they were before. I just jumped in with paint and a paintbrush and did it. I wasn't scared of messing them up; I can always paint over it if I don't like it, right?

Just Do It as they say.

I can hardly wait to get finished with all my Christmas stuff so I can keep painting. :)

But it is Christmas and I still have so much to do. I haven't wrapped any presents yet, but at least a big bulk of my shopping is finished.

I made the great mistake of letting Andrew watch part of the Jim Carrey Grinch movie and now he may never sleep easy again. I feel SO AWFUL. I just didn't know it was going to have such an effect on him. He doesn't understand why Santa is real and CAN go down the chimney, but the Grinch is pretend and will never go down our chimney.

::sigh::

I'm usually so careful about what I'll let him watch, but this was a big mom fail.

I need another Christmas movie appropriate for a three year old that will get his mind off this Grinch. Any ideas?

Happy new week friends! I hope it's off to an excellent start!

Dress for the Day: Color Pops

It was the first day that looked like winter, gray skies and a cold wind.

So I decided it called for color.

Sometimes you just need to do the opposite of what the day calls for.

I had no idea how much I'd love my booties. I wear them way more than I thought I would. You need a pair! Yes - you!

I've been wearing these denim leggings all fall, and I thought they were pretty cute. And then I saw this photo, and now I'm questioning my choice. I feel a little bootylicious. But you know, Brian hasn't complained so maybe it's okay. Ha!

That's the craziest thing about doing these #dressfortheday posts. I'm really liking that I have to think about my outfits a bit more - I think I'm taking more chances and putting things together I might not have otherwise. But I also have to be willing to look at the photos.

It's a tough thing to look at your legs and your hips from all angles. (And you know I pick the most flattering photos to share with y'all!) It's eye opening for sure.

And some weeks it tests my confidence a bit. This week was one of those weeks.

I'll probably wear this outfit again - it's super comfortable and I like it. But I might need to find a longer shirt to cover the boot-ay a bit more. :)

// sweater // shirt // leggings // scarf (similar) // booties //

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