December Daily, Days 5 & 6

Noelle helped the little girls write letters to Santa. Betsy's reads:

I believe in you. I'm Noelle's youngest little sister. I'm Betsy.

1. Woody, Bullseye, Rex, Jesse, Evil Doctor Pork Chop, barbie, and Slinkey.

2. baby doll

3. teddy bear

4. crib and stroller for baby doll

5. mickey mouse and mickey mouse pajamas

Love, Betsy

December Daily, Days 3 & 4

December Daily, Days 1 & 2

As I get time, I'm going to try and post a few pics of my December Daily album that I am working on. This year it is SUPER simple. And to be honest, the pictures that I'm taking of it aren't even that good (I'm not taking too much time with lighting and placement). However, I know the time that I spend taking just a few moments to record our memories of December 2010 will be well worth it when we look back on it.

As you can see the album is looseleaf right now. I'm not sure how I will bind it ... probably either with my bind-it-all or binder rings. Again, nothing fancy. I'm finding that with the baby this year, that as long as I get my page done each day (or fairly soon after each day), I'm pleased. I'll worry about hooking it all together later. : ) I'm even printing the pictures on my home printer (which isn't really a photo printer). Again, keeping it simple; just a quick print to capture the memory and marking it.

Day 1: The paper and number on this page is from the wrapping on one of our Christmas books. This year, I wrapped all our Christmas stories (and some from the library!) and we're opening one a day and reading them. Truth moment: we're a few days behind on reading our stories even though we've been opening them each day. Hoping to catch up today.

Day 2: Just a little photo of the boy in a Christmas outfit that a friend passed on to us. He fit into this "Baby's First Christmas" outfit for all of about 34 seconds (literally) and we moved it to the bag to pass on to someone else.

You can click each picture to see it bigger.

7th, 8th & 9th Weeks

Playing catch up here with a few of my weekly Ethan layouts.

7 Weeks:



Journaling: Your 7th week was kind-of a crazy one! Mama had some minor surgery this week so you spent some of that day with Ka-Ka. Then Daddy fed you bottles for about 24 hours while the medicine got out of Mama’s system. You even went and spent one day with Miss Gina while Mama got well! We ended the week in Townsend on our Thanksgiving trip and you were held almost 24/7 by Grandma, Jordan, & Ka-Ka. You were such a good baby through all of it!

Materials:
Papers from Crystal Wilkerson:
- brown wood grain from Phoebe's Room collection
- orange from September 2009 bonus paper pack
- journaling spot from the Room Elements Collection
Template by Cathy Zielske's 12 x 12 Template Package 1 (No.17)
Fonts: CK Ladder (journaling) & CK Keystroke (title)
 
8 Weeks:





This week has seen you moving into more of a schedule which I am benefiting from! You are typically eating around 6:30 or 7 p.m. in the evening, and then I wake you around 10 or 10:30 p.m. to eat again. Then you and I head to bed and I get to slep until about 2:30 a.m. which I thoroughly appreciate. You are usually up for the day around 7 a.m and are so happy in the morning. I think you agree with Buddy the Elf when he says, “Smilings my favorite.” In the last week you have celebrated your first Thanksgiving and been on your first Smith family trip to East Tennesee. Safe to say, you enjoyed yourself as you were held almost 24/7 by your Grandma, Aunt, and cousin Jo-Jo. You were one spoiled litle boy when we got back home!


Materials used: Crystal Wilkerson papers, free template from The Daily Digi. Fonts are CK Sassy and CK Ladder.

9 Weeks:



Journaling: 14 lbs. 4 oz  and 24 1/2 inches @ your 2 month checkup; 3 yucky shots; so many smiles & coos; much love from the sisters. Happy boy.

 Materials:

All papers from Crystal Wilkerson.
- red - December Noel pack
- brown - December solids
Template from Cathy Zielske's 12 x 12 Template Package 1 (No.19)
Fonts: CK Keystroke (title) and Arial

Are you feeling the merry?

Are you feeling merry? Or stressed by the holiday season? I am feeling the merry, but I think I have about hit my limit of evening activities for a while. We have had something every. single. night. this week which is highly unusual for us - especially after coming off the end of a pregnancy where I didn't do much of anything, plus the last 8 weeks of medically advised slowing down (which I happily complied with). : ) I'm not disgruntled (not at all!) but feeling the need to do a little Friday Felicities list to keep my eyes on happies as we have two more days of busy before a few days of downtime.

• Grandma's chex mix, in big gallon size bags that now sit on my counter.
• a husband that took me (and the 4 kids) shopping, at the MALL (at Christmastime no less), and bought some clothes for this post-baby Mama.
• for Sonic diet Sprites with cranberry in them.
• for our humble little Christmas tree. It's not fancy or coordinated, but it's home-y and makes me happy.
• for maybe coming to a decision about making an offer on a house?? Maybe?? More on this later...
• for little three year olds that are stretching their limits and testing their boundaries, but are so stinkin' cute that it all balances out in the end.
• for coffee in the morning. Always.

What are your happies this fine day? Hope you have plans for a wonderful December weekend with lots of merry as well!



Early December Daybook

Outside my Window ... sunny and COLD! We've had snow flurries the last three mornings and that makes me so happy. I am very much a cold weather person and the fact that I haven't had to wait until January or February to see a little snow is a good thing.

I am thinking ... that I should be doing things other than making this bloggy list, but I'm not. However, I am allowing myself about 10 minutes to sit her and capture a bit of life and then it's back to work. Spare time to blog has been few and far between of late.

I am thankful for ... the energy that I have had lately. Truly, for the most part, now that I'm 8 weeks past baby and about 2 1/2 past surgery, I'm feeling almost back to normal. Still a few twinges when I twist the wrong way where they repaired the hernia and I'm supposed to watch the amount of bending that I do for a bit ... otherwise, I am feeling almost 100%.

In the learning room ... Busy, busy we are. At home, we are continuing to plug along with the regular school work that I do with Noelle: language arts, math, Bible, etc., however, she also (on her own initiative) asked if we could do a lapbook! The timing worked out perfectly as I was given a chance to receive and review a new Download N Go unit study called Creation Camoflage and we are doing it as we have time. (My review will be up next week and I'll have a copy to give away). At her tutorial, they are moving into Christmas party season (along with her regular science and social studies) and she is participating in a Little House Christmas event next Monday that sounds very fun - I'm hoping to remember my camera when I go and take lots of pictures. In her science, she is studying taste buds and told me about the different tastes that your tongue can ... taste, ie. sweet, sour, salty, and in social studies, she just finish a mini geography unit that resulted in her being able to name and locate all 7 continents on map.

School has been going well of late and it has had me dreaming (already!) of next year when I will have a 2nd grader and a kindergartener to school ... and pre-K and 1 year old to keep busy as well. Maybe it's a good thing I am thinking about this so early. : ) Also, in other school news, Noelle had her first school picture taken last week. This happened two days before her picture:

Poor girl was VERY self-conscious about her eye (which turned a splendid purple on picture day). It runs in the family sadly. I have a first grade picture with a skinned up face from a playground fall myself, but that wasn't much comfort to Noelle.

From the kitchen ... Christmas baking is in the works although not much as been done as of yet. We have made one batch of pretzel hugs and have plans for a few more to give away and I am dying to make a batch of my Grandma's chex mix. Last weekend I made egg nog cheesecake for my niece's birthday and I kinda want to try that recipe again, with a little tweaking with the spices. (My niece loves eggnog and has called it Christmas milk ever since she was little-bitty. She turns 13 tomorrow - ai yi yi).

I am creating ... I am working on a December Daily album but it has been slow going to find time to work on it much this year. I had a plan and had the beginnings of a direction for my album but it has been more complicated that I anticipated and that has been frustrating when I don't have a lot of time to work on it as it is. So, I'm sort-of switching gears about a week into it and we'll just see what turns out. It may not be pretty, but I ALWAYS am thankful that I record snippets in December to look back on.

I am going ... for a Christmas haircut today, along with the three girls. Part of me is really ready for a change and the possibility of some cool Mom hair, but I am nervous about changing it up too much. We shall just see!

I am wearing ... (shhh) I'm still in my jammies (big t-shirt and sleep pants). We jumped headfirst into school + laundry + plus life today and I haven't stopped to get real clothes on yet. I promise to do so before going to get my haircut. : )

I am reading ... with the girls: Tumtum & Nutmeg (we're almost done!) as well as lots of Christmas stories. I just finished Emily of Deep Valley (excellent!!!) and am currently working through Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson. I have a couple fiction books from the library (one is Redwall that I want to preview for Noelle) so I may start that next. Or I may read Emily again!

I am hoping ... to finish all the rest of my medical/dental stuff in the next week or so. I'm so done and over being poked and prodded.

I am hearing ... the sounds of little girls that want to get up from their rest time before it is time.

Around the house ... um, it's kind of jumbled looking right at the moment. Lots of laundry in process (lots and lots!), a smattering of toys in our big room, and some school things strewn about in different spots where we've been working today. However, on the plus side, there is also a very pretty Christmas tree up in one corner and that makes me happy in the evening when the lights are turned down.

One of my favorite things ... sitting up at night rocking and feeding my baby with the Christmas lights one. Love, love, love this.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ... lots of good things over the rest of this week. Tonight are haircuts for the girls in the family, Wednesday is the last Awana night for the girls before Christmas so there will be festivities then, Thursday is a girl scout cookie decorating party for the oldest, and Friday is a Christmas party for the adults (and Ethan who will be tagging along). Saturday and Sunday are last rehearsals and our church's Christmas program which is always a special event. This is our big week for lots of evening activities ... next week is a little slower although my husband and I are both in a wedding the following weekend which will make it a little crazy. Good crazy, though. : )

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you ...

Really, I can hardly stand how cute he is. And in overalls? He is such a good baby. : )

Give Thanks

This is the gratitude album that I made for our family's Thanksgiving trip last week. Thanks to a free download from Monika Wright over the write.click.scrapbook blog, all I had to do was print and make my covers. Easy-peasy.

I used a digital paper and owl from Cosmo Cricket's Mr. Campy and made the branch from digital tape from Crystal Wilkerson's November elements pack. FYI - if you are interested in picking up some digi supplies dirt cheap, you need to do what I do. : ) Troll Jessica Sprague's website on Wednesdays for one buck Wednesday. That is where I get most of my supplies at a great deal. She has a site-wide sale on right now for December, but one buck Wednesday will be back in January! (I don't make any money off sending you her way; I just love almost all of the designers that she sells in her store!)

You can see a couple of the pages that were created. This first one is my neice Jordan. We are all about the bubble letters right now.

This is Noelle's:

The letter stickers on the front are Remarks letter stickers (font is Getty), and the little date strip is 7 Gypsies mini label stickers.

This will become at least an every-other-year tradition, I do believe. It will be so special to be able to look back and see what we have written in year's past. Thanks Monika for sharing your inspiration!

Wordless Wednesday

My heart.

Ten on Tuesday: A Post-Thanksgiving Edition

1. We are in full charge for the holidays now that our wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving get-away is over. We alternate families at Thanksgiving and this year we spent it with my side at a cabin in Townsend, Tennessee. There was hiking, Uno, playing with cousins, and a lot of relaxing. I came back ready to hit the ground running for December which is a good thing.

2. This little guy is having the most fun with re-entry into regular life as he is having to adjust to not being held 24/7 by his grandma, aunt, 13-year old cousin, etc. See evidence below:

Exhibit A: Grandpa holding Ethan.

Exhibit B: Grandma holding Ethan.



Exhibit C: Uncle Boo holding Ethan and making him laugh. : )

3. The biggest girl got to go on a horseback trail ride and loved it! The little girls have already calculated that they will be old enough to go when we go back in two years and I'm just waiting for them to ask me how many days that will be. They were most envious.

4. In other current events, I had my gallbladder surgery the Friday before Thanksgiving and am SO glad to have that behind me. I won't go in to too many details on the old blog, but I was most uncomfortable for most of the weekend and Monday. I was so thankful that my sister took the 3 & 4 year old for the weekend and Travis and Noelle were home to tend to me and the baby for several days as I was on bedrest. By Wednesday I was on the upswing and thankful that I was feeling well enough to head out of town with my family.

5. My copy of Emily of Deep Valley did arrive yesterday. I am engrossed in it.

6. I am very thankful that we don't have a Trader Joe's near us. The kids and I made a trip there today and in one fell swoop we knocked out all our teacher gifts for the year (tutorial teacher for Noelle, Sunday School & Awana for all kids). However, all these other little goodies (holiday and not) fell in to my basket as well. A batch of peppermint coffee is brewing right now and I am looking forward to trying it as soon as I finish this post. : )

7. Pondering a year long project next year a la Project 365 like I did this year. I don't think I want to tackle an every-day-photo project again - I already take a ton of photos and have really been enjoying getting back to more traditional scrapbooking of late as I have found time. Thinking something along the lines of a simple gratitude album. Monika has a super cute and simple one on her blog that I love (scroll down this post to see it), but I may just go the route of a cute decorated notebook.

8. Also, courtesy of Monika and a free download, our family made a gratitude album while away on our Thanksgiving trip. I'll try to photograph and share soon. I love how it turned out!

9. December is big month here (for many reasons) but my best friend and I - who share a birthday coincidently, and who's birthday just happens to be New Year's Eve, and who both happen to be turning 40 this year - are working on a super fun family-friendly New Year's Eve birthday party. I'm starting to get a little excited! The invitations are done and in my hot little hands and I have some addressing to do! (No evites for me, thankyouverymuch!) I'm in serious list making mode for the event ... our husbands are throwing the party for us, but since invitations are kinda my thing, I went ahead and took care of it. : )

10. And, with that I've reach 10 and am off to have my cup of coffee and work on my lists. The little girls are watching Mickey's Christmas Carol and after they head to bed I have a date with Emily. It's a good evening.

Book Review: Emily of Deep Valley

I was so excited to be able to sign up for this blog tour and review one of the companion books to the Betsy-Tacy series - Emily of Deep Valley. However, my review copy of the book never arrived! I've been told a 2nd copy is on it's way to me so I'm hoping that when our Thanksgiving mail is all delivered today I'll have a new book to read. However, this is the week that the tour is posting so the official release information is below if you are interested in reading it.

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingEmily of Deep ValleyHarper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition (October 12, 2010)byMitali Perkins

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A word from Mitali: Who In The World Is Mitali Perkins?

That's a good question. I've been trying to figure it out myself, spending most of my life crossing borders.

I was born Mitali Bose in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, and always tried to live up to my name—which means “friendly” in the Bangla language. I had to! Because my family moved so much, it was the only way I could make new friends.

By the time I was 11, I'd lived in Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York and Mexico before settling in California just in time for middle school. Yep, I was the new kid again, in seventh grade, the year everybody barely makes it through.

My biggest lifeline during those early years was story. Books were my rock, my stability, my safe place as I navigated the border between California suburbia and the Bengali culture of my traditional home.

After studying political science at Stanford and public policy at U.C. Berkeley, I taught in middle school, high school and college. When I began to write fiction, my protagonists were often—not surprisingly—strong female characters trying to bridge different cultures.

Mitali Perkins is the author of several books for young people, including SECRET KEEPER (Random House), MONSOON SUMMER (Random House), RICKSHAW GIRL (Charlesbridge), and the FIRST DAUGHTER books (Dutton).

ABOUT THE BOOK

Often cited as Maud Hart Lovelace’s (of Betsy-Tacy fame) best novel, Emily of Deep Valley is now back in print, with a new foreword by acclaimed young adult author Mitali Perkins and new archival material about the characters’ real lives.

Emily Webster, an orphan living with her grandfather, is not like the other girls her age in Deep Valley, Minnesota. The gulf between Emily and her classmates widens even more when they graduate from Deep Valley High School in 1912. Emily longs to go off to college with everyone else, but she can’t leave her grandfather. Emily resigns herself to facing a “lost winter,” but soon decides to stop feeling sorry for herself. And with a new program of study, a growing interest in the Syrian community, and a handsome new teacher at the high school to fill her days, Emily gains more than she ever dreamed...

In addition to her beloved Betsy-Tacy books, Maud Hart Lovelace wrote three more stories set in the fictional town of Deep Valley: Winona’s Pony Cart, Carney’s House Party and Emily of Deep Valley. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be delighted to find the Deep Valley books available again for the first time in many years.

If you would like to browse inside Emily of Deep Valley, go HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving!