December 21

Playing with my camera tonight didn't provide much success, but I did get to use a trick I learned from Understand Exposure. This is the moon taken from our back deck. As you can see, there is antenna and some other lit buildings across the field from us.

December 20

Dani and her mini-me making Christmas treats together!

December 19

Leila has recently learned to read. We were very impressed when driving around a car lot Leila yelled out, "Trucks!" as she read the sign on the lot. That was a few months ago and since then she has has taken to reading every sign to us that she can see. We bought her some first readers books and she breezed right through them. The latest language test...her very first email address. Here she is typing an email as I helped her spell the words. What a little grown up!

December 18

Our friends the Bishop's came over for dinner and a play date. Amanda and Bryan's daughter Lilly is just days older than Leila and the two get along beautifully. Yeong Ho is a little bit older than Thea and one of the cutest little boys I know. I was a little worried that Zoey would make him nervous, but then I looked over and saw this.

December 17

The 24 hours fever free rule proved to be a challenge for two parents who needed to get work done at home. Finger painting saved the day, but this girl is ready to go back to school!

December 16

Leila needed a sick day, so Cory and worked from home while she lounged around and watched cartoons. A little Tylenol goes a long way and she seemed to feel a lot better, at least good enough to play with her box of art supplies.

December 15

I hate pictures of myself. This is a terrible self portrait taken with Thea after my workout at the gym, so I look an extra special kind of crappy. Blech.

December 14

There are a lot of ugly nativity scenes out there, so when I saw this one several years ago I knew that I had to have it. It actually consists of several small sets, and over the course of a few years I accumulated the majority of them from my Mother in Law and my Grandma. I am so glad to have a safe, out of kid reach place to display the figurines this year.

December 13

A late night attempt to get caught up on Christmas obligations. We didn't send out very many cards, because we are both lazy and busy. We mostly tried to hit those that aren't on Facebook and would also be interested in our new address.

December 12

A bitter sweet day for me. I love to purge, I hate feeling like I am giving up on the baby making portion of my life. I just tell myself that getting rid of all of these adorable baby clothes doesn't mean I can't have another baby, it just means that I will get all new baby clothes when the time comes. This way I don't have to really accept that that time may never come.

December 11

Snack time!

December 10

We spent a few hours with our good friends the Webers. After listening to the kids running around and screaming and playing for a while, we decided we need some peace and quiet. These two little peas are big movie fans!

December 9

Leila had her annual school program this evening. I got lots of good pictures of my girl. She has come a long way from the first Love A Lot concert of her career where we had to pick our crying child up from the stage. This year she sung her little heart out and had a great time with her buddy Clara.

December 8

I am not the only one in this house who likes to take pictures! :)

December 7

My Christmas present to myself. I Love it. When I bought this canvas picture I had a place in the house in mind for it. Now that it is here, I think I like it too much for that out of the way place. So for now it is still wrapped in plastic, sitting in the kitchen. Soon enough I will find a place of honor to hang it.

December 6

Leila is left handed, just like her mama. Cory always jokes about how he hopes that at least one of them turns out "right." It looks like he got his way.

December 5

Lazy Sunday.

December 4

I like to sew. I really appreciate being able to see something that I think is neat, and recreate it for myself and my family. Every Christmas I have big plans to make gifts. This year I set my goal pretty low as far as homemade gifts go. I spent a couple of hours making some cold packs for the accident prone little people in the family. Leila has one that Grandma Sandi gave to her a couple of years ago and it has served us well. Hopefully the little nephews in the family will get some use out of these as well.

December 3

The view from my first of hopefully a whole lot of trips around the track at the new gym. Momma needs to drop some pounds.

December 2

These tender moments seem to happen less and less. The girls are getting very good at pushing at each other's buttons, but after a trip to visit Santa at the mall Leila must have been in the holiday spirit as she fed her sister grapes at the food court.

December 1

I should have known that the Christmas tree would be too enticing for Thea. Looks like the ornaments are going to be moving on up out of little girl reach!

November 30

The first snow of the season. Thankfully it didn't stick, I don't think we will get so lucky for long though.

November 29

Six weeks into the new house and I am feeling so grateful to be here. We love the house, and we love the neighborhood. There is such a nice sense of community around here and that was apparent the day that Cory was putting up Christmas lights, along with neighbors on both sides putting up their own lights. While Cory was trying to test the limits of our step ladder, another neighbor across the street offered to bring his larger, safer ladder over to help out. The streets lined with beautifully decorated houses filled with friendly neighbors is just another reason we are happy to call this home.