Our day with Paxton

We had such a fun day today. I was off and I watched my friend Amanda's son, Paxton. Him and Jacq are only 8 months apart so they make great playtime partners. They had so much fun together. I was really nervous about having 2 toddlers in my home, but it was a lot easier then I anticipated. We had a blast.

Organize it!

So I have been off for 4 days and vowed to use that time to organize my house. My house is usually clean but cluttered. I have neat little piles of things everywhere! It was getting out of control. The toys, oh the toys! I thought I was prepared. Before Christmas I cleaned out Jacq's room and closet, got rid of a bunch of toys to make room for the new ones. I guess I didn't get rid of enough. After Christmas there were just piles of new things to put away. I also have quite the collection of magazines 'neatly' piled about. I'll save a whole magazine for just a few recipes that I saw inside.


Here is what my cook book/recipe cabinet looked like before...



Here is what it looks like now!



I went through all my magazines and tore out the recipes that I like. Then I got a binder and some dividers. I have 10 categories; chicken dinners, pork dinners, beef dinners, crock pot, sides, soups and starters, pastas, desserts, misc and 'this week'. 'This week' is in the very front and I put one week worth of recipes in it. Then I make my grocery list from that section and I know I everything I need for dinner all week. Here is what my binder looks like.





We have this really big shelf from Ikea in our living room. It's this one if anyone cares. The bottom two rows are dedicated to Jacq's toys, books, crayons, etc. I didn't take a before picture but wish I would have. You wouldn't recognize it. Here is the after.



I feel so much better. Tomorrow I am doing my bedroom closet. Yikes!

Made by Mommy

Jacq and I haven't been very crafty lately. I did make this really cute Christmas garland on my own though. I saw something similar in The Land of Nod catalog. I looked at them and thought they were so cute. I also thought, 'hey! I can make that!' What do you all think? I think I am going to add a few more to it each year. Maybe someday it will wrap around my whole living room!
Here is a link to my inspiration. http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=9608&f=4819&pc=113

Noble Fir

We got our first Christmas tree today! Yah! Last year we didn't get one because I was too worried that Jacq would pull it on top of her. The year before she was only 3 months old and we lived in a house with roommates. Jacq had a good time decorating it but I think Marc liked it even more. Of course, I have pictures!

Is it over yet?

This has been such a long week. Not really much going on out of the norm. Working, cooking dinner. All the same. It is just one of those weeks that seems to drag. Oh well. Tomorrow is Friday and I am going Christmas shopping after work. I hope to get a majority of it done. I hate waiting until the last minute. Not much to write about. Jaqc and I went out and played a bit today. Here are the pics.

The Reject Christmas Card Photos

So being the super mom that I am, I have yet to get our Christmas cards made. I was just going to order some from snapfish but then changed my mind and thought that making them myself might be fun. After playing around in photoshop for what seemed like hours, I decided against that! I took some pics the other day that I planned on using for the cards but now I think I am not doing cards at all. Maybe the regular paper cards. But I just don't have it in me to send out cards this year. So if you are a friend or family member and don't get a card from us, don't be offended. No one got cards this year! Sorry people. I would hate to deprive you of the beauty that is my child. So here are the pics that I was going to use.

Sneak Peek

So today I went to my friend Jill's house and took pictures of her beautiful family! I was really excited to do this and had a lot of fun. It also showed me just how much I have to learn. Here are a few of my favorites.








I hope Jill likes them considering I am posting them for everyone to see!
I really want to improve my photography skills so if anyone is interested in letting me take pics of your kids or family, let me know. Right now I just want the practice so it's FREE!

I'm still stuffed

Seriously. I ate so much yesterday I think I should be ok not to eat through the weekend. We went over to Marc's parents house. It was fun to have everyone around. Jacq was a little grumpy but she did start to walk! Just got up and took off across the living room and into the kitchen. Yeah. Here are some pics.



Frenchy carving the bird.



After turkey naptime.

Monochrome Monday!

Mondays are pretty boring. Back to work, nothing good on prime time tv, and I have to go to bed early to get up on time tomorrow. Nothing really to post about so I thought I would post some pics. All these were taken tonight with my new bad ass lens that I bought myself. You can tell I am adjusting to the focus but this baby is awesome. Enjoy!