Keeping busy...

Wow I am so busy lately that I did manage to get a little behind on my journal. I am happy that yesterday I got all caught up again.

I am still trying to get my shopping done. It is getting closer but still not everything is out of the way. I will be so glad when the shopping is over...

Tonight is Ava's Christmas Program and everyone is excited. She has bee working so hard on all of her songs and poems. I am sure it will be so cuuute!

Hope you enjoy the pages. Sorry for the overload...

Day 10....

This will be short and sweet. Here is day 10....

Could you all please say a little prayer for my moms sweet little beagle Michelle. She is 14 and not doing very well. I hope she is not suffering.. :(

Documenting Day 9

Wow it is hard to believe that it is already day 9...I am still amazing myself that I am so diligently working on the album. I am so happy that I am creating this for my family. I hope to do this every year. If any of you thought of doing it and didn't decide to do so, I urge you to do one next year. It truly is an awakening. I am noticing so many little things. I am really making the most of this holiday season. Ok I am rambling...Today I decided to document our bedtime routine. Every night is the same. Ava, Joey, Daddy and I get on Ava's bed and read. I love this part of my day. She is so sweet and happy. We are reading a lot of holiday books right now and it is really building the excitement for Christmas.

Today I did a little shopping. I am finally seeing the light. I am super impressed with Amazon.com. Cathy gave me that little nugget. I ordered some gifts yesterday and the arrived in less than 24 hours! How flippin' cool is that??? Genious I tell ya. Hope you all have a truly blessed day...

Pages 7 & 8

Tonight we had Jonah's Holiday concert. It was very nice. His band was awesome! Hard to believe they have only been playing their instruments for a year...Ava did well sitting for an hour and a half. She Sang along to all the songs she recognised. She was really good. I am so loving Santa because she says she will only be good now since Santa is watching. Even though last night she said he wasn't watching because he was too busy in the North Pole because it was his busy time LOL. None the less the Santa bribe is working very nicely...Here are pages 7 & 8 and the back of the green tag has the jounaling about the conert...Have a wonderful Tuesday!

for those of you that wanted to see the completed ornaments here they are...I will be posting tonight with the past 2 days of pages for the journal!!!

Happy Saturday!

Wow I can't believe it is already Saturday night! The weekends seem to go so quickly...Today Ava and I went to the craft store to pick up some supplies for our ornaments we are making and she found something amazing-glitter glue! She is dying to play with it tomorrow. I so hope it isn't too messy LOL..Tonight we all went out to dinner and did a little shopping. Jonah has a Christmas Concert on Monday so he needed a new pair of pants and a Santa hat. I still have not bought any more gifts. I really need to get motivated...I am keeping up on my journal. Here are yesterdays and today's pages. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Pages 3 and 4 :)

I felt a little lazy and didn't blog with my page for the third. So here are both pages...I am happy to report all of my decorating is done and I am very pleased with how everything came together this year. Makes me so happy that it is all up to enjoy. I just wish I had a better start on my shopping. I think it will be fairly easy since the boys want big items and that means less shopping. See there is a perk to them wanting more expensive gifts right??? Ava is super easy to buy for and that means I need to just get going on it and then I can relax. The only tough person on my list is John. He has everything he wants or needs and gives me no clues. So I am thinking he would love a Canon 50mm 1.2 lens!!!!Anyone else with me on that??? LOL Seriously,I need to figure something out...I got a fabulous recipe from the uber crafty Amy for applesauce ornaments. We are going to make them this weekend for Ava to give to her teachers and I am sure my mother would love one as well. It should be fun! I thought since i would be needing mass quantities of applesauce and cinnamon I should go to Sam's Club, you know buy them in bulk, so I carried them in and left them in the mud room and John came in from work and was like " What on earth is all of that applesauce and cinnamon for??? LOL So be sure and check in over the weekend and see the pages as well as some awesome ornaments!!! :) Have a wonderful Friday!

Day 2...

I managed to complete page 2 of my album. I am really trying to not stress and keep it fun. Today I kept it much simpler. I am really looking forward to working on the pages at the end of the day. I hope this continues....

Today we had Ava's parent teacher conference. Her teacher is so sweet. Right off the bat she had to pull out Ava's letter to Santa. She said she was so touched she almost cried when they were working on them. She was shocked that Ava didn't ask Santa for anything for herself. Here is what the letter says...

Dear Santa,
I would like you to bring a present for my Daddy.
I really like candy canes.
Love,
Ava

She is so sweet. I can't believe it is possible but I love her a little more every day. This holiday season I am feeling very blessed for my family. I hope you all feel blessed as well.

Stop by tomorrow for day 3 !!!

Documenting December

I started working on my December album today. It is a project that I am happy to have followed through with. I usually want to start a project like this but procrastinate and then feel bad about not acting on it. I think this will be different. I have all the pages ready to go so all I have to manage is one small page a day. I am just letting go and having fun with it. It is all about the memory keeping. :)

Anyone else getting really excited this year? I know all of us here at my house are very excited. I think having a 3 and half year old around really gets you in the spirit of the holiday. I hope you all check in every day because I am going to do my best to update daily with my album pages. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

First Snow

We woke up this morning to a little snow. The kids were so excited to go out and play. They had tons of fun sledding, throwing snowballs and building a snowman. When we finished building him Ava wanted to bring him inside. She is so cute. :) I hope this is a sign we will have snow this winter. We usually don't have snow until much later. We are all crossing our fingers for a white Christmas.

We have been decorating. Our tree is up and quite a few other decorations. Just a bit more and we will be all finished. This Christmas is going to be so much fun. Ava is so into it this year. Yesterday she told me Santa was her best friend.

I am also excited to start my 25 days of Christmas Album. This year will be so memorable and I will have the album help record little bits I might other wise forget.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday!

Monday....

It is Monday and I just attended Ava's feast at her school. It was fun for her to have lunch with Mommy and Daddy. It was not as much fun to sit on the very small chairs. LOL

This weekend I worked on creating an album. It is a daily album for the month of December. I made it from scratch and just had fun playing. I think it is going to be so much fun to work on this Christmas. I will post a terrible photo of the album just to give you an idea...

Ava is really developing an imagination. She loves to play "school". I found her in her play room the other day reading to her kids. Not the best photos but it was so very cute. She plays this all the time. She even made cots for her kids from cardboard. She is so fun to watch.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

More Photos from Janine!

I have been dying to see the rest of the photos Janine took at our photo shoot. Today I received my disc and I love so many of them. The first is my favorite! It was such a beautiful location and Janine is so talented! I can't wait to get so many of them framed and on to the walls! Not much else going on hope you enjoy the photos....

Just playing....

I rented a 50mm 1.2 lens and I have been trying to play with it. I would love to take the plunge but it is around 1500. Maybe I will make it a business investment....
We are starting to gather the Christmas decorations. I normally wouldn't be so eager this early but Ava is over the moon excited for Christmas this year. It is going to be so much fun. :) We may even go see Santa sometime over the weekend. I hope this year I don't have to join her on his lap. :)..Enjoy the photos :)

Photos by the Fab Janine Walker.....

John, Ava, and I traveled to NY/PA to visit some wonderful friends. One of the highlights of the trip was a photo shoot with Michelle's sister Janine who was visiting from Northern Ireland. She is uber talented and I adore her work. I would loved to have been able to take all of the kids but it just wasn't a possibility this time. So I guess that means we will have to do it again right??? Here are a few of the sneak peaks that were my favorites. I jut adore the series of Ava and Mama. I felt she really captured our love.... Enjoy!