Our December...

***Note: My camera is acting crazy (maybe its time for a new one!) so I'm sharing pictures that my S-I-L, Alicia, and my M-I-L, Linda, took during our Christmas celebrations. And they are huge, but I'm not going to figure out how to make them smaller.***

I have a million things swirling in my mind. I want to share about what we've been up to. I want to share some things on my heart and in my head. I want to share pictures of my sweet little family. I want to record memories for me (and my family). I could go on.

None of my girls like Santa. There were many tears shed over him during this season. But Mika seriously has the cutest sad face ever!


I've had an incredibly busy December. I would say it is the busiest December I've ever had (and that includes those three Decembers I was in Law School).

Laila, during Santa's visit to our family Christmas party.

I literally did not give myself any free time during the month. My Christmas gift to myself was to have this week off. Too bad I have a nasty cold/sinus infection thing so that I can't really enjoy it.

Love this girl!

But we survived December. Praise God!

And we even managed to enjoy it.


God answered our prayers and only one of us came down with the vicious stomach bug. I spent every waking minute for two whole days begging Him to spare the rest of us while Peyton was sick and he answered my prayers.


We've all had colds and sinus infections over the past month. But I'll take colds over the stomach bug any day!

This was not posed.... she LOVED that snowglobe and stared at it for the longest time with this sweet smile on her face. 

I have spent the last month (well actually the last two months) painting and filling orders for Christmas. I've enjoyed every minute of it. I still can't believe God has given me this artistic gift and that I actually make things that people want. I'm blown away! So if you have ordered something, thank you from the bottom of my heart.


We enjoyed all of our different family Christmas celebrations. My girls were blessed beyond belief with the gifts from our family and friends. Which brought about one of the things that is on my heart. I'm thinking I'll write a separate post on that. :) I have to say, being a parent is the greatest gift EVER. I've never been as overjoyed or excited or just plain happy as I have been this holiday season - watching my girls enjoy Christmas, making Christmas memories with them, starting Christmas traditions together, seeing their eyes light up in not only receiving their gifts but in choosing and giving gifts to others - I really think it is far better being a parent at Christmas than it is being a child.


I know how blessed we are to get to enjoy Christmas in so many ways and I do not take our blessings for granted. In fact, I have been so very emotional and my heart has felt very burdened this Christmas season. We have spent much time praying as a family for all of the people who didn't get to have the same kind of Christmas we did.


I guess I don't need to get into too much detail about our December... If I give away all of our happenings now, what would I write about in my next few posts? :) I do have much more time now that I'm not in a mad rush to finish Christmas orders, so I'll be on the blog much more! I have some great posts in my head that I'm hoping to get typed up in the next few days. We'll see.....

And this picture is here because it really isn't a get-together unless there is some photo of me laughing. One day I may do a picture post of all the photos I have of myself laughing. Ha!

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your December and the rest of 2010.

Back in the Saddle....

Look at me, two consecutive days of posting.... Will I keep it up?

So I've been looking through cookbooks and talking to my grandmother trying to get some ideas for some fun Christmas goodies to make (alone and with the girls). I also get emails from different recipe websites and I've gotten a few ideas from there.

I'm thinking of trying some new things this year - caramels, fudges.... who knows! I'm so selective with the foods I like that most Christmas goodies don't appeal to me. I do love Christmas cookies (we've made two batches and EATEN two batches so far this season). And I could make myself sick on chocolate covered pretzels. Oh the chocolatey-salty goodness.


So I'm wondering..... What are your favorite Christmas goodies? What do you love to bake and what do you love to eat???? Maybe y'all have some ideas I haven't thought of yet. So let me know! I'm going to try to take pictures and share with y'all our Christmas baking adventures.

Happy Thursday!

Merry Christmas!

Wow. Life is so busy for me right now. I realize I haven't blogged in an age but I honestly have not had time to sit down and write. I have no excuses, but I do have explanations :)

I have three girls - and one of them just took her first steps today! She's super-mobile people! Yikes. :) Check out this hilarious picture of Mika Lynn - we took it in the window of a store in the mall we were in on Saturday night. Hahaha! I laugh every time I see it. 

I'm dealing with some personal issues that may not exactly be time-consuming but are definitely thought-consuming. I won't get into it but I will say that being a wife and a mom and a sister and a daughter and a woman is HARD y'all.

All of my free time (which is the time after the girls go to bed at night) is spent working on paintings for some sweet people who actually wanted ME to paint something for them. Me? I still can't believe that.

We've been gone so much spending time with family and friends. I love this, but it doesn't leave much time for blogging. Making these memories as a family is much more important though. :)

I got our Christmas cards in yesterday. I've been working on getting them addressed and ready to mail out. This is the first time since Jared and I have been married that we are sending out Christmas cards. Can you believe that?

I could go on. But I won't.

I decided to take the time to blog today at the prompting of a sweet friend's blog post. Elaina wanted us to blog about our favorite Christmas movies. I love Christmas! I love movies! I love Christmas movies! Ha!

So my favorite Christmas movie of all-time is probably Miracle on 34th Street. Oh, I do love this movie. However, I'm a sucker for all Christmas movies. Well, unless they are sad. I am already too emotional around the holidays so I don't like to watch the sad Christmas movies. Anyway, I also love The Grinch and Home Alone and Elf. In fact, the girls and I watched a couple of Christmas movies today.

I'll try to be back before Christmas, but I'm not making any promises. Our schedule is full and I don't see it letting up until after the New Year.

Happy December!