Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

I know it's hard to believe, but 2010 is really coming to a close. This has been a pretty good year. We definitely had our struggles at times, but we had many, many blessings too. I try not to dwell on the bad too much and look forward to what lies ahead.

A couple of friends did this and I thought it would be fun. Here are my favorite 10 layouts from 2010.

Cowboy Boots

When you're a kid you hate bedtime. When you're a grown up, you love it.

Will is getting to the stage where he's really trying to stall at bedtime. Last night I went to tuck him in and as usual he starts asking for things, his Mickey Mouse, his Tigger, a book. I have one of his little JonJon outfits from when he was a baby handing on one wall and he noticed it. I told him it was a baby outfit of his and he wanted to wear it. I explained that he is a big boy now and it will no longer fit him. After this, and asking for several other toys and being told no (I guess he's running out of things to ask for at this point) he says he wants to wear his cowboy boots in bed. :) Silly boy...I love him!

A Couple Layouts

Now that Christmas is over, I've had a few days off to just relax. The kids and I have played and watched a lot of tv. I was able to get a couple of layouts done too.


I love these pictures of Will and me. There aren't a lot of just the two of us. This Becky Fleck sketch was perfect. I used the November kit from Little Red Scrapbook. I like how the page turned out with masculine colors and feminine touches.


These are a few pics of our Christmas decorations from this year. I used a sketch from Sketch Inspirations on this page. I had a hard time finding just the right papers I wanted to use. I finally settled on a mixture of different Basic Grey Christmas lines. I'm so excited that I have actually scrapped a Christmas page within a week of Christmas.

Sometimes it's the Little Things

As I was thinking about what to cook for supper last night, I realized that we were down to our last two boxes of condensed cream soups. Ordinarily this would not be a big deal; I'd just pick some up today when I went to the grocery store. Problem is that Will can no longer eat Campbell's or any other brand of condensed cream soups due to his food allergies. William and I were very excited when we found a boxed brand on condensed soups when we were at Whole Foods in November. Unfortunately the closest Whole Foods is 100 miles away. Since his diagnosis in early October I have changed my cooking and have just made do with out them until we found them in November. There are some family favorites (and quick favorites of mine) that you just cannot make without them. I decided to look up the brand last night and just see if I could find them anywhere else. I went to the Pacific Foods site and was thrilled to find out I could buy them from Amazon . I ordered a case of each of the three flavors and they should be here at the end of the week. William laughed and said I was going a little overboard with ordering over $70 of condensed cream soups, but I was just so happy to find a way to get these for little Will without having to make a trip to the city each time.

And here's a shout out for Swagbucks . I had $25 worth of gift cards in my Amazon account I have gotten through Swagbucks so I actually paid less than $50 and no tax or shipping for the soups. Gotta love a deal!

Christmas 2010

We are so blessed! We had a wonderful time visiting family for Christmas and then had such a nice relaxed Christmas Day at home with just the four of us. Santa was really good to all of us this year. Some of our favorites were a football uniform, stompers and track, Felicity doll, new scanner and new books.

All Aboard the Present Train

We keep finding this done to the presents. He doesn't try to open the presents; he just enjoys making a train out of them. :)

Happy Things

This makes me happy tonight. ♥

Santa's Village

On Thursday the second graders took a trip to Santa's Village at UT Martin. I had never even heard of the place before I found out about the field trip. It turned out to be a pretty neat place. It was indoors (thankfully!) at the Ag Center. There was an Enchanted Forest filled with lighted trees and displays, a petting zoo, rides and Santa was there himself.

Having seen the real Santa when we were in the mountains for Thanksgiving, Rylie knew this wasn't the real deal. She even made up something to tell him he wanted because she knew the real Santa already knew what she really wanted. I explained to her that the other Santa's were actually helpers of Santa and they report back to Santa what the children want. Now she's worried she confused Santa. Good thing we have our Elf on the Shelf, Mike, to clear things up for the Jolly Ole Elf.

The kids had a blast at the village. They were about the only kids there so they pretty much had free range of the entire place. When it was time to leave we were able to take the kids with us. I had rode with AG's mom so the girls got some more time together on the way home. It was such a nice day to spend with Ry and friends.

White Stuff

We woke up to the tiniest sprinkling of snow this morning. The kids were so excited though since it's the first we've had this year. They were ready to go out and play. Too bad they're both sick today (sinus troubles for both due to the constant changing weather). I for one am glad there wasn't more. I love the snow, but I'm not ready for it this early in the year.

Christmas Cards

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas Cards. I always love how they turn out, but I hate all the prep work, wrestling the kids trying to get the perfect photo and then designing the card afterwards. I try to get them done before or right around Thanksgiving but with being out of town for so long this year it just didn't happen. To top it all off, the Christmas shirt I ordered for Will to wear for the photo shoot hasn't shown up. Talk about a little anxiety starting. Today I decided to just make do with what I have. I washed the kids faces, threw a shirt on them and a santa hat each and braved the cold outside for about 10 minutes. I snapped away in that time (while fighting the dog who wanted in all the shots too) and hoped for the best.




I even used a premade card from shutterfly. Surprisingly enough it turned out to be one of my favorite cards I've ever done. What a huge relief to to have them done!

What's for Dinner?

I just love the mind of a 2.5 year old. Tonight I was cooking taco soup in the kitchen when Will came in and said it smelled like monkeys in there. Where this came from and how he knows what monkeys smell like I do not know. I love that boy!

Journal Your Christmas

I'm very excited about this project this year. I just decided last week to give it a go again. I did it (well most of it anyway) back in 2006 and loved it. Now with it being 4 years later I thought it would be a good time to do it again. Things will be different about our Christmases now than they were four years ago, mainly we have another child to share in the joy of the season. I want to capture Christmas in our home as it is right now in these still wonderful, magical years.



To start off, here is my journal I am keeping. It's just a simple 8x8 album I found at Hobby Lobby and decorated a bit with some stash. I actually like how it turned out. I'm hoping to use up some of my over abundant stash with this project and not buy so much new stuff. We'll see how that goes. :)