Twelve for 2012

Wow. It's the last 5 days of 2012. Is it just me or is it scary how quickly the years pass by as you grow older!

I wanted to take a moment to share my fave photos from 2012.

1.  Super sweet note from my hubby (ignore the part in green). I had applied for a promotion at work, then had to wait 2 1/2 months to find out that I didn't get it. I'm now grateful, but it did hurt my pride at first. But I'm so glad that I took a chance and applied for the job, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And it helped me decide what I REALLY want to do with my life. So, not getting that promotion pushed me to open my shop and start this blog. And I'm lucky enough to have a great husband who supports my crazy ideas to bring happiness into my days!

2.  Princess Daisy entered our lives (and our hearts) in February.

3.  Baby brother got married and we were honored to be able to attend their wedding reception in May. Kristi makes him a happy, happy man!

4. Mark and I at the reception (painkillers + 1 beer = 1 happy woman). I delayed my knee surgery so I could attend the event, and my knee was seriously angry that day!

5. Spring Break in San Diego with all my kids. This makes my heart very happy!

6. Mini trip to Carlsbad in July. Just the girls came with us. We found some great new places to visit and took a ton of great photos. This one at Pacific Beach makes my heart melt.

7. First day of school in August. Everytime I see this photo, I am blown away by how grown up my girls are becoming. I'm so proud of them, but I wish I could freeze time.

8. 20th anniversary in June. We snuck away for a few days and went to Palm Springs. I love it there, but maybe not the best choice for June. We spent the actual Day of Love at Mickey's house.

9.  The big move in September. Back to the Valley. Back to family. And shaking up our kids lives with new schools. It was rough, but we made it! And couldn't love our new home more.

10. Fall Break in Newport Beach. Rented our first beach house and had the best 5 days relaxing and spending time together (many hours were spent in this papsan chair on the front patio). If I found out there was a meteor heading to earth in 3 weeks, this is how I would spend my last days. It was that good!

11.  December has been an Epic month for Alec. First job. New driver's license. And as of last night, first car. It's great to see this one so happy!

12. This last one has been a bit difficult for us to wrap our brains around. We're not crazy about the timing, but there is a little one about to join our family. And she is going to be loved by everyone in her little world. And I'm sure she will be the center of this familys' universe the moment we get to hold her!

 

  

Thanks for staying long enough to go through the list.

 

I'm so incredibly happy that I went outside my comfort zone and started this blog.  I take so many photos now, and I love having a place to document our life and share with others. Thank you for dropping in from time to time!

 

May 2013 be full of many happy moments spent with those you love!

Choose Joy

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Christmas Morning

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

My house is quiet. Everyone is still asleep. At 9 am.

Weird. But in a nice way.

We celebrated Christmas last night. Mark thought he had to work, so we planned on opening presents Christmas Eve, but then he got the day off. Kids wanted to keep gift unwrapping on the Eve.

So last night we watched Family Stone. My Christmas Eve movie. It's kinda predictable, but has a few laughs and gets me teary eyed at the end. I need to get a little emotional to truly love a movie!
Some of my fave quotes:
"Don't dilly-dally there, pretty lady. We're all gonna be down here talking about you." and "You have a freak flag. You just don't fly it."

I'm sure you can find it on Netflix.

Then we feasted on tamales and beans and chips and salsa. Yum.

I also bought a ton of deserts, but no one was really hungry by then (we had appetizers too).

Next it was present opening time. Emma kept asking all night "can we open presents now?" She was so excited. It's nice to still have one that can hardly wait! I think everyone was pretty happy with their gifts. Just a few clothing items need to be exchanged for larger sizes.

Then a QT run, breakfast was made and chilled overnight in the fridge, then we all went to bed.

So this morning, I just have to bake that casserole and some cinnamon rolls. That's it. Nice and relaxing!

We're going to Mark's parents' house today for a barbecue and to Zoo Lights tonight.

Moments to remember:
Mom spitting wine all over herself.
Mark giving a toast (new tradition?)
"It's a Samsung"
Listening to my family talk and laugh while I'm getting tamales ready
Alec walking through the front door in his work clothes and everyone laughing and cat calling
The smell of the undecorated tree (just white lights and a star on top), it's like it was showing off for the holidays!
Katie screaming as she opened her Hello Kitty sketch book.
Trevor/Chelsey falling asleep on the futon while Emma, Mark, and I made the breakfast casserole.
Being surrounded by my family.
Being surrounded by my family.
Being surrounded by my family.

Merry Christmas. And I hope everyone has some special time this holiday with their loved ones!

And no, I did not take a single photo. Had the camera phone all ready, but instead just sat back and enjoyed the moment. And I don't even regret it this morning.

Friday Wrap (InstaFriday)

Happy Friday Saturday all. Happy busy, busy Friday Saturday.
Update: I started this post on Friday, but somehow got distracted and never finished until Saturday morning.

3 shopping days left. And yes, I still have shopping to do, but not much. And planning to see friends tonight for dinner. (Had a great time laughing and sharing a fabulous pizza!) So some fun to look forward to.

Here are the little moments that happened in our family this week.

1.  Bad photo of a big moment. Boy # 2 got a driver's license this week. Husband is on the phone right now adding him on to our car insurance. (be careful driving if you are local-actually, he is a pretty good driver).  We let him take the car to the gym and to his girlfriend's house. All went well, except our nerves are shot!

2.  Shopping trip to Cost Plus to pick out a gift for a friend. And the oddest thing happened. This cart just wheeled itself over to my hubby and whispered that it would make a certain wife very happy if it came home with us. Merry Christmas to me. Yikes. That sounded bad.

3.  You don't see penguins hanging out in Phoenix very often. Drove past these cute guys in my neighborhood and they made me smile.

4.  Christmas cards are ready to go. Now, I just have remember to go to the post office. They have been in my purse for 2 days now. Yep, still in my purse.

5.  Little one had to test out my dry erase markers. This made me smile too!

6.  Beautiful sunrise while driving kids to school.

7.  Princess Daisy got her first mani.

8.  A rare dark and rainy day in the desert.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a safe and happy holidays. See you next Friday!

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Tempe Festival of the Arts





 Hi everyone. I have a few more photos from the Tempe Festival of the Arts that I wanted to share.

 

It was a sunny day in early December. The girls did not want to go with us (silly girls). So it was just Mark and I out alone. Sweet.

 

There were many cool things, but most were just out of our price range. And many booths had signs requesting "no photos". Bummer.

Hope you are finding time to slow down and enjoy yourselves this holiday season!

I'm finally starting to get into the Christmas spirit. About time!

Have a great Wednesday!

I Spy....Color

Photos from Mill Festival of Arts a few weeks back.

Enjoy your day!

star wreath

One of the projects I made this past week was a giant star wreath.

I got the idea from Little Bit Funky, but I used thin wood dowels rather than yardsticks.

I bought 5 dowels (5/8 inch/orange tip) at Hobby Lobby for $0.59 each, and a tube of yellow paint for $0.99. That means this was a $4 project. Gotta love that!

And it was super simple. I just painted the dowels yellow, then added a brown wash on top (brown paint watered down). I wiped off most of the brown wash, then decided it was too dark so I used my finger to add more yellow paint in certain areas to brighten it up again.

 I played with the dowels until I liked the way my star looked. Then I hot glued the pieces together.  All that was left to do was add a ribbon and hang it up outside.

I had some extra popsicle sticks left over from another project, so now I'm working on making smaller stars to hang from a tree in the front yard.

It's a great project for little hands to work on also. None of  my kids wanted to help though (way to mature for that).  Just do the hot glue part yourself (I always burn myself with hot glue).

Hope your Monday is going great!

Sunday Inspiration

source

 

Friday Wrap (InstaFriday)

Hello.

I'm a little late with the Friday Wrap this week. Woke up yesterday with tummy yuck and just laid on the couch until I had to leave for work. But I'm feeling much better today.

So here it is:

1.  Boy number 2 (Alec) got a job. His first job. We're very proud of him!

2.  Family dinner celebration for the boy. Wings galore (74 to be exact) and fried pickles and onion rings. And first born and his main squeeze (Trev and Chelsey) even showed up, making one happy momma!

3.  Several craft projects were done this week. I know, what a surprise! I made this gigantic star to hang up on the front of our home. There will be a post soon on how to make your own. Super simple and super inexpensive.

4.  Days 1-6 completed in my December Daily journal.

5.  Spotted this beauty and stopped in my tracks. Want it BAD. Maybe if it is still around after Christmas and I get some money.....or maybe if my husband reads this blog.......

6.  12/12/12 @ 12:12. Driving to pick up Emma from school. Just a screen shot of my phone with the most adorable puppy in the world (Einstein @ 8 weeks).

7.  Waiting in a massive line to see The Hobbit. Intel gave away sneak preview tickets and we scored a pair. Got to see the movie Thursday night at 7pm. Felt bad for the people camped out for the midnight show. Only condition was we we not allowed to talk about the movie with others until after the first official show at midnight. Very top secret!

That's it for me. Did a bit of Christmas shopping, finally. And bought a tree, but no lights or decorations on it yet.

Have a great weekend!

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