Blogs that make Me Happy...Happy New Year!

I was thinking back on my year and the things I really enjoyed doing, one of them being reading beautiful Blogs. Reading a good Blog is usually just what I need for a little downtime while the kids nap or sometimes to get some inspiration.

I wish I had an iPad so I could spend more time reading these beautiful Blogs or hey, even better so I could make more time writing on my own Blog. I think I will put that on my 'wish' list for the New Year, it seems like the perfect way to 'stay connected' when I can't be at my computer which is most of the time chasing after 3 kids.

My favorite Blog by far is Kelle Hampton's enjoying the small things, her entires are all so inspirational and her pictures are all sooooo beautiful.

I love keeping up with my crafty on-line friends, so many of them have great Blogs:

Joyfolie - yes you knew already that these are my very favorite shoes for Harlow but also I love reading her Blog because her talent and pictures are both so inspiring.

Joyfolie has a fur wrap giveaway going on right now over on the Blog so hurry and enter by tomorrow night.... crossing fingers that I win it.

Dear Lillie - love the Blog and I LOVE to shop all things Dear Lillie

Evy's Tree - my favorite Hoodies ever!

Forty Toes - Jenn takes some really beautiful pictures of her gorgeous daughter Stella Marie and also has a fabulous Etsy store

Princy n Paris - has some of the sweetest hair accessories in her Etsy store

Just this past week I have found another couple of Blogs that I also really enjoy reading, one of them is the Roseland family Blog, Jenni seems like such a fun mother that I can really relate to. She is also very generous, she has a wonderful Matilda Jane giveaway I hope to win for Harlow.

The other is ashleyannphotography Under The Sycamore Blog, she has a really great DIY project section.

I could go on and on, I really love a good Blog and lucky for me so many have them.

I have a few resolutions for my New Year. I would love to learn to sew. I just need a sewing machine first so I can get started on the 'learning' part. I also want to learn to use my camera, I think I need to take a local class so I can start to 'own' my camera in the manual settings. Lastly, I hope to stay-up on the laundry. With a 5 person household and Harlow in cloth diapers it almost seems impossible not to have laundry on the couch but my hope is I can come up with a schedule in the New Year making it easier in some way.

So that's it, now it's time to sit on the couch with Jon and greet the New Year just before heading to bed. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year filled with much love and happiness!!!

Ho Ho Ho it's Santa time 2010

It's always so exciting to get to play Santa, I set everything out and Jon is the official 'builder'. I think my favorite part is seeing all of my hard work come together, when I see it all on display it's always picture perfect.

My favorite purchases this year was Paige's pink 16GB Nano, Aiden's Darth Vader Sleeping Bag and Harlow's vintage Sesame Street playset with all the figurines that I won on Ebay. I think the kids would agree those were some of the favorite Santa toys this year.

We started Christmas day at 7am, the kids checked out their Santa loot, I made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, after breakfast it was time to open presents and then it was time to play with all the new goodies.

After getting dressed we Skyped with my sister Jennifer and her family and of course played some more until it was time to enjoy our Honeybaked Ham dinner. After baths, we played a couple games with the kids before putting them to bed.

Aiden wanted to sleep in his new sleeping bag so he invited Paige to sleep in his room with hers but he couldn't stay quiet enough for the 'sleep' part so Paige wanted to go back to her room; Aiden stayed in his sleeping bag and quickly fell asleep after settling down. Jon started a fire and he and I watched the very funny movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'.

Christmas Eve

they each opened a present

Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve

hay and carrots for the reindeer

more reindeer food on the grass

milk and fresh-baked cookies for Santa

Aiden's Christmas - Mighty Beanz, Darth Vadar sleeping bag, cars, Pillow Pet, double Lightsaber and Super Mario figures

Harlow's Christmas - Happy Blankie Pig, Little Giraffe Pillow, vintage Sesame Street toys, Joyfolie shoes, doll clothes, toys and Coupe Car (below)

Paige's Christmas - mini-Lalaloopsy, pink nano, nightgown, Imogen's Garden doll, doll clothes, art supplies and Hello Kitty stuff

squinkies are a favorite

crayon making

we made new rainbow crayons

our youngest Jedi

beep...beep

Harlow enjoying her new Clickeroos

Paige's new doll Calantha with Harlow's doll Aster dressed in fabulous Melamoose Co. clothes

My house is still a mess from all of the toys but I think it's fun to leave it out for a few days to enjoy Christmas a little longer. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, you can tell we did.

Holiday Fun in December

Wow I can't believe it's almost Santa time, really the month of December just flew by. The best thing about December is all of the fun things you can do together as a family and we did A LOT of them. I did my best keeping up with our Avent calendar and Jon helped me with moving our Elf Sam around the house.

Here's some pictures of our very fun filled month of December.

Paige drew our Elf Sam a picture

Harlow was so cute running around with this Santa hat.

While the two younger kids napped Paige painted some wooden ornaments for the tree.

When Aiden woke-up from nap it was time to put the star on top of the tree.

It was Aiden's first year getting to put the star on the tree, Paige had done it in previous years.

Our beautiful 9 ft tree

Ever since we went to Great Wolf Lodge the kids have begged to go back so we used some of the holiday funds and surprised them with a one-night visit.

Aiden making an ornament with the Frisco mom's group that I organize.

Paige's gingerbread themed party at school.

Decorating our gingerbread house.

Harlow was helping us clean the spatula...

Paige had begged for Clarice so we put more of the holiday funds to good use and took the kids for some fun at Build-A-Bear.

Aiden made a Snow Monster.

Downtown Frisco Christmas activities

I always love watching the hot-air balloons glow

Paige, Aiden and Jon all enjoyed some fun in the snow tubes.

I guess this will be my last Blog post until I share our Christmas with you so let me take this time to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.