Tis the Season ...

So Carolyn made up this quiz to put on her blog and asked others to fill it out too. Here are my answers:

Do you celebrate Christmas? YES!!!

What are your favorite "holiday" colors? Silver & Blue

Favorite Christmas song? White Christmas

Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street (1995 version, not the old B&W)

Favorite Christmas cartoon? Charlie Brown Christmas and an old Disney cartoon called "Small One"

Real tree or artificial? REAL! And we cut it down today too!

Special family traditions? We have lots. We always cut down a real tree at the tree farm, watch all the Christmas cartoons, eat chocolate from our advent calendars each day, visit "Santaland" and ride the monorail at the huge deparment store downtown (which is closing after this year :( ... we visited today for the last time and I took this photo amongst their displays), make cookies for Santa, leave huge carrots (complete with the greens on top) for the reindeer then wake up and watch the Disney Christmas parade on Christmas morning.

Travel or stay home? Always stay at home. I put my foot down on that when we had kids. Family is all close enough to visit us on Christmas.

Does Santa wrap presents? No, he leaves them out each year with a big bow and an elf-made gift tag with their name.

Do you do an advent calendar? The kids each have a chocolate advent calendar to open each day in December

Do you send Christmas cards? Yes

Store bought or handmade? Sometimes one, sometimes the other. Depends how adventurous I get.

Christmasletter? No, I write personal notes to everyone.

Pictures? Yes! What kind of scrapbooker would I be if I didn't send photos!?!

What do you put in stockings? Small toys, toothbrushes and some candy

Typical holiday meal? Ham, potatoes, rolls, banana cream pie and homemade cheesecake

Are you done shopping yet? Nearly ... 3 more gifts left to get!

That's Me!

One of my oldest friends got married last summer. She came over this weekend to show me the photos from the wedding and this is what I found.
<---------------------
I printed it out and showed it to Brian and he immediately said "That's You". Yes, that's me. I'm the one behind the camera. The one saying "Smile", the one obsessed with snapping the photos , the one meticulously trying to capture the moment. And while you wont' see me in every (or even many!) photos, you can rest assured in knowing that I'm there. I'm just behind the camera instead of in front of it.

THANK YOU!

A huge shout out to Deanna for helping me with this stinking programming junk. Finally got my links set up on the sidebar. THANK YOU!!!

2 know me is 2 love me

So, I saw this on another blog and thought I'd copy it to mine.

2 - names you go by: Annette, Mom
2 - parts of your heritage: Scottish & Irish
2 - things that scare you: Small, tight spaces & bees
2 - of your everyday essentials: Old Navy t-shirts and my computer
2 - of your favorite bands or musical artists: Nickelback and Nickelback (can you tell I LOVE them right now?!?)
2 - favorite songs: "Photograph" and "If Everyone Cared", both by Nickelback
2 - things you want in a relationship (other than real love): Kindness and affection
2 - physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex): Tall and stocky build
2 - of your favorite hobbies: Scrapbooking and surfing the web
2 - things you want really badly: A longer day so that I can get some sleep and someone to come in to do ALL my housework!
2 - places you want to go on vacation: Ireland & Paris
2 - things you want to do before you die: See my children grow & prosper, take Brian to the Great Pyramids
2 - ways that you are stereotypically a chick: I love PINK and girly movies.
2 - things you are thinking about now: That I really need to finish this up and go help out at school and that my house is dirty but I want to scrapbook.
2 - stores you shop at: Fred Meyers and Old Navy
2 - people I would like to see take this quiz: Bonni (cause you are hilarious girl!) and Deanna (imazeta) [And just so you know, you are both obligated to take this now and post it on your blogs! LOL]

Shine

Carissa amazes me every day. Maybe it's because we spend all day together, but I am really seeing her shine. Her speech has progressed at an extraordinary rate this year, much in thanks to the Articulation class she has been attending. She has definite opinions of what she wants to wear, what she wants to do, what she wants to eat. She's talkative. She's funny. She's artistic. She's lovable and full of hugs and kisses. She has grown so tall, yet still seems so small. She's losing the baby face. She's reading small words. She's holding her own with her brothers. She's still my baby (and always will be), but she's growing up. She's shining all on her own and I am so proud.

Fabulous Fall !!!

I was so excited for the leaves to start falling this year because it's the first time we've had leaves fall in our own yard! Our trees are mature enough this year to allow us to rake and jump in all the fall leaves. It was an absolute blast! Even got the kids to take some fun fall pics for me.

Fall is good, in some many ways!

It hit me ...

...yesterday that I don't have any Christmas decorations. Sure, I have all the trimmings for the tree (including some awesome new plastic Christmas ornaments from IKEA!), the kids Christmas stockings, lights for outside the house and a fresh wreath for the front door, but I don't have much "decor". You know, the extra stuff that goes all around your house to make it feel are warm and Christmasy. So I'm on a mission: finish buy Christmas gifts and spend what is left over on Christmas decor.




The one thing I did have plenty of in the Christmas box was books. So while perusing the Christmas boxes yesterday the kids dove right into those. They amaze me with their constant love of reading. And it's not just one, it's all of them. I couldn't help but take a photo of them sitting together reading their favorite Christmas books. Chase's favorite is "Bob" the Reindeer, Tristan's is "If You Take A Mouse to the Movies" and Carissa's is "I Smell Christmas". My favorite is "The Bears Christmas".

Now I'm off to take the kids lunch at school. Bad Mommy lost her groove from having so much time off of school and forgot to make sandwiches last night, so I have to make them and take them this morning instead.

My life ...

I was driving to the store on Friday and this song, "There Goes My Life" by Kenny Chesney, came on the radio. Keep in mind that it was on a country station - I don't listen to country so Brian must have left the station when he was driving. But this song came on and instantly I was inspired to create a page using it. It's such an awesome message, because these kids are my life. I dug up this photo of them last summer that I had decided not to scrap because I didn't have anything to go with it (no story, no inspiration). A little editing with PSE 3.0 and voila - a super simple and meaningful LO. This is why I love scrapbooking so much.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Or as my kids call it, "Sandwich Day". (They don't like turkey, can you tell what they eat instead?!? LOL).
I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am happy, I am healthy and I am loved. What more could I ask for?

PRIMA **drool**

I love Prima flowers ... I have loved them since the moment I got my first ones. They are so cute, so fun, so versatile. Did I mention I love them? So when the call went out for DT submissions I decided to go for it.

I've never submitted for a manufacturer DT before, but this one was just calling my name so I went ahead and applied. I had to do 2 LO's (OK, to be honest I only did one new one and used one old one), do a card (ugh, not my favorite thing but it did come out OK) and do an altered project (see the photo of the altered canvas I did which, if I may say so myself, turned out awesome!).

Now here's the kicker. I thought this project would be great for my father for Christmas. But now that it's done I want to keep it. I LOVE it. It matches the paint in my front room too. So hopefully my Dad doesn't turn to my blog and see what he was *supposed* to get for Christmas! LOL

Anyways, back to Prima. I won't know anything for a while, since the call doesn't end until Dec. 9. But keep your fingers crossed for me. It would be heaven to be on their DT!

Dragging

You know I love Christmas. Really I do. But the whole money thing is such a drag.

I've been buying gifts since early October and I still don't have everything purchased. And now that there is only a month left I am starting to worry about getting everyone their gifts.

I know that's not exactly the reason for the season. But Christmas is more fun with gifts. It's one of the few times each year that the kids actually get the new stuff they want. And I love to see the faces of my family when they get something they wanted or are surprised with something they didn't know they wanted.

So I'm going to take a deep breath ... think about trying to do what I can with the money we have left and make the best out of it. Besides, it's a day we get to spend together, sharing our gifts, food and love.

YAWN!

What is it about fall that makes me tired? I am just a zombie lately. Couldn't be all the nights I stay up until 3am scrapping, could it?!?

So we're all excited ... the kids are taking off early from school tomorrow so we can go see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (insert oohs and aahs here). Chase and I have both read the book so are totally psyched for it. It was my favorite of all the Harry Potter books and I'm excited to see it on the big screen. I'm sure I'll be disappointed - I always am. There just isn't a way for them to fit every nuance of the book into the movie. But I'll enjoy it regardless.

Brian and I doing the weight loss thing. Cutting down on portions and making better choices about what we eat. It's hard. Sometimes we blow it and have pizza and ice cream, but slowly and steadily we are both losing weight. Within the next 6 months I hope to be down to my goal weight. I'm not obsessed with getting there, but I think it would be great to feel better about how I look. So keep the good thoughts coming our way that we can persevere and triumph over the fat.

Have yourself a ...

I heard my first Christmas song on the radio today and I couldn't help but smile. Just hearing it gave me an instant sense of joy. I love Christmastime and am so excited that it's on it's way. Sure, it's still 3 weeks until Thanksgiving, but I am already in the Christmas spirit.