Photographer for hire.

If you have read this blog before, you know I love to take pictures. My dad was a photographer, and so was my maternal grandfather, so it runs in my gene pool. Today I did my first head shots. My friend, Pattie, (a.k.a. the tamale girl) asked if I would take some shots for the book that she is publishing. I am pretty pleased with the way they came out.

So here it goes...I am putting myself out there. If anyone needs or wants some shots done, give me a chance. For right now, until I get more experience, I am cheap - really cheap.

My Christmas Week In Numbers

256

(approximation) The number of pictures taken until we finally had a family Christmas photo I was happy with. (honest sentence: The amount of pictures taken until I felt like I didn't look too fat in the picture.)

35

The number of full-size chocolate chip pumpkin loaves I made on Monday. Click here for the recipe. The site is my favorite recipe blog.

4

The number of PJ's I made for the family to wear Christmas eve. By some small Christmas miracle they were ready and wrapped by 8:00 am on Christmas Eve morning. It was so hard to make things for the family when the kids were always around and Steve had been off work for the past 2 weeks. There really isn't any time to sneak away and complete things. Steve can thank me later for not putting a picture of him in his pj's.

3

The number of weeks Steve had / has off until his new job at the hospital starts. It has been so nice to have him home. The kids and I are loving it. We are going to be sad when he goes back to work.

15

Loads of laundry Steve has done since being off work the last couple weeks. I have not touched the washer / dryer since he has been home. What a guy! Merry Christmas to ME!

4

The number of aprons I sewed.

1,245
The number of times I had to sweep my dining room after Clara or Thomas ate the Christmas treats given to us.

1

(1 am)The time I actually made it to bed on Christmas Eve (morning). This is the first time in years I have been in bed that early the night before Christmas.

6
(estimation) The number of inches of snow that kept our family grounded in WA and unable to make it for Christmas. They finally get to fly in tonight! We can't wait, the kids are so excited to finally see Grandma Barb, Grandad and Nana.

130

The number of Tamales I helped make with my friend Pattie. (Thanks again, I had so much fun and look forward to making it a tradition.)

2

The number of Tamale Steamers this town had left on Tuesday morning. The day before Christmas Eve is NOT the day to start looking for one. Thank heavens for Target and Walmarts online inventory checker.

17

The number of dollars I (I mean Santa) spent on ebay buying the beloved Superman toy Thomas has been talking non stop about. (My love of ebay is a post of its own!)

1:10

The ratio of the number of toys Clara cares about compared with the number we bought for her.

Can you believe it? No tears!

Just a normal smile, please.

Problem Solver

This is how you feed 2 babies if you only have one high chair.

For once they knew what they were talking about!

Our "weather people" have been saying for days that we were going to get snow on Monday. I laughed every time they mentioned it because they always get my hopes up when they say there will be some kind of change in the weather. Yesterday we got up and sure enough, there was no snow. Just a bunch of gloom. Around 8:15 am it started to snow. I was so excited. I got Thomas up and we drove over to get Hot Chocolate and Doughnuts to celebrate! When we got home, Steve and him spent the next hour or so outside playing in the magic. They had a great time.

I don't know where this one came from! I guess the pure excitement from the day.

Clara enjoyed it from inside the house. Steve took her out for a bit, but did it when I wasn't around with the camera.

Here's one...

Tonight I made the frozen turkey I had sitting in my freezer from the Thanksgiving sales. I not only made the turkey, I made the stuffing, and the potatoes (sweet and regular), and the green bean casserole, and homemade rolls, and pretty much everything else. Heidi is in town with Ashton this week, so we decided that instead of going out to dinner like we usually do, we would just have a nice Post-Thanksgiving-Pre-Christmas feast. We had my mom come over and had a great time.

After we had all licked our plates clean, we were sitting down in the living room enjoying the pumpkin pie Heidi had contributed. I was bragging about my latest grocery shopping trip when Thomas came over and interrupted me to ask...

"Mom, what day do you start going to Weight Watchers again?"

No joke. I have witnesses, 3 people who about shot pumpkin pie through their nose as they were trying to hold back the laughter.

It's a good thing he is so cute and fun to have around.

(and just so you know, I do not believe in dieting during the holidays, birthdays, or weekends)

Just a little update.

It's been a while since I have posted, it is crazy how busy things are getting around here, you would think some major holiday is coming up or something.

Here are just a few highlights from the past week...

1. Clara is starting to walk. She took a few steps right after her birthday party while everyone was watching. She continues to try, but I truly believe that she thinks we are clapping for her when she falls because she stands up, and then lunges forward like she is throwing herself on the floor. Tonight she took 4-5 steps, she was so proud of herself!

2. A few weeks ago I attended a Coupon Class called Grocery Smarts. It is a website that operates out of NV and UT. It teaches you how to use store adds and coupons and creates a database telling you when and where to use coupons that have been issued. I went and did my first shop this week. I can not even begin to tell you how exciting this was - SERIOUSLY. On Friday I went to the store, before coupons and the store club card my total was $40.18, after coupons and club card, my total was $8.43! I saved 79%! It was so much fun!! I got so much stuff for food storage. I can't wait for this weeks adds to come out, it is kind of addicting.

3. Yesterday we attempted to take our family Christmas card picture. They all turned out awful. It was cold and windy so we couldn't take any outside. The inside ones were not much better. Here is a sample of the disaster. I think I will just draw some stick figures, make photo copies and call it good.

I might put this picture on my refrigerator as a reminder to never again make that face while wearing a turtle neck.

This was my favorite of the bunch, too bad Clara and I were not in it, I would totally send it!

4. This video made me laugh! My friend posted it on facebook, so I am ripping it off. I love Donny Osmond, and seeing this made me love him more.

Out of the mouths...

The kids and I were cleaning up the kitchen after lunch today. We had The Bonnie Hunt show on and were kind-of watching / listening to it. A commercial came on for Oil of Olay Wrinkle Cream, this was the conversation that followed...

T: Mom, I am going to have Daddy take me to the store and we are going to buy that for you and bring it home to you.
M: What are you going to bring me? (I knew what he was talking about, I just wanted to know if he knew what he was talking about)
T: I am going to buy you that lotion for you.
M: What is it for?
T: It's for your cheeks and eye (as he said this, he was pointing to the areas on his face)
M: Do I need that?
T Yes, then your face won't be wobbly.
M: Is my face wobbly?
T Yes, Mom

Note to self: Start using the TIVO remote to fast forward commercials so my self esteem won't be crushed by my little boy when he sees commercials for Jenny Craig or The Thigh Master.

Afternoon Laugh

My BFF sent me this video today, and I thought I would share it with you.

In The Dog House | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Self Explanatory

(I think she enjoyed her first birthday.)

This is what happens when we blink.

Babies grow into toddlers.

Outfits that were way too big are now way too small.

Best friends are created.

Happy 1st Birthday, Clara Jane.

Thanksgiving weekend in a nutshell.

We ate. A lot. I cried when I got on the scale today.

Other than that...

Steve and Thomas put up our Christmas lights.

We got to wear warm clothes. It was actually chilly on Thanksgiving day. Go figure! I am so ready for the cold weather, Bring it on!

I decorated the Christmas tree while the boys put the lights up. The white thing on the tree is a onesie. Doesn't every Christmas tree have one of those? Thomas likes to hang random objects on our tree. Last year we had about half-dozen CDs hanging off the branches. Luckily, the onesie only lasted 2 days.

I'm off to fix the crooked tree.