Holiday Happenings

I hope you've all had a wonderful holiday this past week. We spent the day(s) with my husband's family, his parents, two sisters, brother-in-law, grandparents, and aunt. It was lots of fun! And of course, I was too busy chasing little ones around and making my mama's famous bakery rolls, so I got ZERO pictures of the festivities. Seriously, zero. I'm not proud. But for now, I'm glad I got to enjoy the holiday.

E and W loved having lots of playmates to entertain them, the hubby got some great Wii playing in, and we (the girls) even got to do some shopping that night! Who knew, Old Navy was open until 8pm! Those poor workers. But at least I got a nice new winter coat, so I'm happy.

There are so many things in my life that I'm thankful for right now. I'll only list a few so as not to bore you all, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share some. 

• my Savior, Jesus Christ
• my absolutely amazing little family
• modern medicine
• Sudoku
• Harry Potter Lego's
• dish gloves
• muddy buddies
• a cell phone that takes pictures
• digital scrapbooking supplies (so I don't have to mess with glue)
• really exceptional friends with whom I can pick up right where we left off, no matter how much time has gone by
• this great fall weather that has finally come to California!

Those are just a few of the things I've been thinking about lately. I'm SO SO SO blessed in my life, and I'm practicing acknowledging that and making a point to remember it.

And since I don't have any Thanksgiving photos to share, I'll share a recent layout instead. :) 

You can find links to the supplies I used here.

What I was doing Monday night

Do you want to know what my idea of a perfect evening is?

Well, at least when the hubby is out of town…

It’s putting together THIS:

while watching THIS:

Yeah. Perfection.

(And don’t worry, the hubs is home safe and sound now.)

And you’d better believe we’ll be going to see THIS on Friday night! I literally get goosebumps every time I watch the trailers. Every. Single. Time.

I love this giveaway

Check it out, there's a giveaway going on over at Impatiently Praying for Patience (don't you just love that title? It's the story of my life...but I digress) and the winner gets 5 prints from a cute little etsy shop called Winterberry Cottage.



I'm digging the Alice in Wonderland scheme. Although, since I don't actually have any girls, I may have to settle for the Spongebob one.

Oh, she doesn't have Spongebob?

Then this guy is a close second:


Hahaha, can't you see that framed in the bathroom?

LOVE.

Then maybe the hubby would shave more often. Hmmm....

Really, though, this one has got to be my favorite:


Okay, so this one really is my favorite:


I swear. :)

Not really, though, because it's actually this one:


I'm such a fickle creature.

Check it!

Our friends, Matt and Shayne, have the coolest little family. They’re always doing fun stuff, and they have awesome, creative parents. For Halloween, they made the best costumes for their kiddos and asked me to photograph them. I was so excited!

I was really impressed with their skillz, especially Corr’s.

Want to see how cute they looked? Check them out HERE.

I'm Amazed

I have a friend, Mandy, who is constantly amazing me. She has this ability to put into words the very things that I would love to say but don't know how. The way she places words within sentences draws you in and pulls your heart towards a direction you didn't know you wanted to go. And this post is no different. But then again, in a way it is. Because it really spoke to me, more so than any recent one.

I wondered why. Then I realized that it's because within this post, I could 100% relate to what she was saying. It wasn't just that part of it applied to me, or that I could imagine where she was coming from. It was because I had been right there in that exact situation and felt like she was talking about me. And I love that.

Obviously that isn't always the case with everything I read. So I was glad to have found something that spoke directly to my heart and put words there that I didn't know how to place myself.

So thank you, Mandy, for sharing your words and ideas. You make me want to be better, and that is truly the best compliment I could give.