Day 365

This morning, Paul was taking a shower and thought it would be fun to put his little handprints all over the inside of the shower door. I thought it made for a great picture for the last day of 2009.

And this picture brings us to the end of 2009. I have to say that I didn't quite do what I intended at the beginning with this project, but I do feel like doing the blog has helped me with improving my photography skills. I found myself looking for things to do just so I could take a picture. I also found myself up at night trying to find something worthwhile to take a picture of for the day.

I'm thrilled to have made it all the way through the year with this daily picture blog. I'm also really looking forward to 2010 because I'm planning to go a different direction and I'm pretty excited (and nervous) about starting tomorrow.

Day 364

My friend and I took our five children (total) to the Children's Museum today. We were walking back to the museum after lunch and four of the kiddos decided to walk through the mall holding hands. It was so darn cute. Matt wasn't interested in participating.

Day 363

We were playing around with the new Wii Fit game and added our youngest member of the family. This is my little Wii family.

Day 362

Paul and I made a run to the grocery store for one last thing for dinner tonight. When we got home, he exclaimed that he forgot to give me his Christmas present from his Pre-K class. Apparently, it was left in daddy's car and no one remembered to put it under the tree. Of course, it was a cute picture of my little cowboy. ;)

Day 361

This little boy was walking around this afternoon with these stuffed animals. It was adorable because he was calling them "my boys".

Day 360

Every year Grandma Barb gets us an ornament for the year. These are the ones we received this year. It's kind of funny, but when I took the first pictures, I didn't realize they were our ornaments. I just thought they were cute.

Day 359

This boy was so happy to receive a banana in his stocking that it just had to make the picture of the day.

Merry Christmas to all!! I hope you are having a very happy and blessed day.

Day 358

Just a picture of our tree tonight before I head off to bed. All the presents are wrapped and waiting for some excited little boys in the morning.

Day 357

We decided to have an early Christmas celebration with some dear friends of ours tonight. I made a few dishes and they brought a dish and a yummy dessert. The kids had a fantastic time, and I'd bet that they were all asleep before they made it out of town. It is really nice to be able to share this time of year with friends as well as family.

Day 356

Today at lunch, I ventured out to my favorite bead shop to get some texturing plates. While I was there, I discovered that they now carry brass sheet. But even better is that they have it in 26 gauge, which is starting to become one of my preferred gauges - especially when shaping and not just pounding. It's much easier to cut than 24 gauge. I'll probably get some brass in 24 gauge as well, but for now, the 26 gauge is going to suit my purposes perfectly.

Day 355

For years I've told myself that I'd make some stockings for my family, but I have yet to be inspired by anything. I'd been searching some of the after Christmas sales too for anything that seemed to suit our family. This year, we finally decided to commit and buy some that we liked. I'm still holding out hope that one day I'll make some, but in the mean time, we have some lovely stockings to hang.

Day 354

I had some Christmas shopping to do downtown, and decided that a visit to some of antique stores was long overdue. I had so much fun looking through the treasures. I came across a collection of furniture, and wish I had a home for this piece.

Day 353

This morning the boys had gymnastics, and since we were out of the house by 10:30 with no obligations, we decided to make a visit to the zoo. It was pretty cold and rainy this morning, so after seeing some of the animals outside, we decided to stick with the indoor exhibits.

I snagged a picture of this little guy, but forgot to get what his name is. I thought he was cute.

Day 352

It's become an annual tradition to get the boys' handprints on plates for the grandparents for Christmas. When I was looking around the store for the right pieces tonight, this snowman was just begging to be made for my parents. My mom collects snowmen, so it's perfect. Fortunately, I brought dad along for the activity because the snowman required a bit of actual painting. I'm hoping he fires up well.

Day 351

It's taken several weeks, but I finally managed to get some lights up on the house this afternoon. It took a lot longer than expected. I didn't get to the store soon enough to really add to our collection this year except for a few strands. I'm hoping to continue the white lights along the roof line, but I've discovered that the bushes are in the way of the ladder, and I'm honestly not sure when I'll get another chance to work on it. Maybe next year.

Day 350

Tonight I'm getting started on downloading pictures from Paul's birthday weekend. I'm not sure how many pictures I have, but over the course of the weekend we had several events. Between two cameras, it will be a picture or two.

Day 349

One of Paul's gifts from mom and dad this year was an evening out to go Lego shopping. We left little brother with grandma and grandpa, and started the adventure with dinner at the mall. After dinner we took him down to the Lego store, and he was very excited to get to pick out his own Lego set.

Then we let him fill up one of the small buckets of Legos. If you haven't been to a Lego store before, they have an entire wall full of individual Lego pieces, and you can mix and match to your heart's content. Paul had all sorts of fun picking pieces out. We think he really enjoyed his special birthday treat.

Day 348

I adapted the technique I learned in a class last month to make this pair of earrings as a gift. I have found so many uses for these quick little flowers. I have them all packaged up and ready to mail today.

Day 347

Paul and I took a Christmas cookie making class this afternoon. He had a ton of fun rolling dough, pressing out cookies, rolling balls, frosting, and sprinkling sugar. He also did a fair bit of taste testing along the way. One of my favorite things about this class is that it was at one of the local wholesome food stores, so a lot of the ingredients were natural and added healthy elements to the delicious treats.

Day 346

It was Paul's birthday party today, and he had a fantastic time celebrating in the nautically-themed room at the Children's Museum. We played at the museum, had some lunch, opened presents, ate cake, and played some more. What kid wouldn't love all that?

Day 345

Today is my oldest's fifth birthday. I'll try not to gush too much over my little man, but he has been such a blessing in my life. I love his spirit, enthusiasm, quirky sense of humor, and sweet, thoughtful nature. I prayed for this little boy for years and God blessed us with more than I could have ever imagined. I count myself lucky to be able to be his mom and help guide his life.

I can't believe how quickly five years have flown by. Don't grow up too fast, baby.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Day 344

Tonight we had a fantastic opportunity to see Cirque de la Symphonie, which is Christmas music played beautifully by the symphony with cirque performances during select songs. It was an amazing and fantastic treat! We had a great view from our first row, cheap seats in the third tier. It was so fun and a very nice evening out.

Day 343

Today was good mail day. I received a CD that I was pretty excited about from my cheapo music club. It's new this year, and when it was back ordered, I figured I'd never see it. I can't wait to add it to the music rotation.

I also received a Thank You and payment for the wedding I photographed late this summer. I'm really happiest that they loved the pictures!

Day 342

I have been hard at work on getting the Christmas cards addressed and out in the mail at a decent time this year. I'm just about done, and if they get out this week, then it will probably be the earliest ever.

This is my "workspace" while I sit on the couch, watch television, and address envelopes.

Day 341

I stopped to capture this gorgeous sunset on my way home from work this afternoon.

Day 340

This afternoon the boys and I went to a meet-the-baby party and were able to greet my very good friend's one-month-old little girl. She's a doll, and I love little baby hands.

Day 339

Today was a good mail day for me. I received a Beadin Path tote in the mail for free through following the store on Twitter. The owner is a sweet gal, and I'd love to meet her one day. Encouraging whatever business I can her way is my pleasure!

The other fun package was from Artbeads.com. My very good friend gave me a gift certificate for my birthday and I'd been trying to figure out what to get for a while. Well, they had 20% off after a certain dollar amount, so I had all sorts of fun. I picked out five metal stamps, some copper charms, and some copper stringing wire. I'm thrilled with everything I got.

Day 338

Tonight was the night of the annual Women's Christmas Dinner at my parent's church. We had great entertainment from The Three Wisemen. It was so fun to see them in concert again. It was also an awesome night of fellowship, laughter, and fun. I enjoy being able to catch up with everyone.

The photo today is of the little gift from our hostess, my mom. It was this cute little silver angel and you can see her packaging in the background.

Day 337

For some reason, I was struck by these little boy's shoes on the stairs every time I went by them this morning, so I had to snag a picture.

Day 336

This morning I had a much better opportunity to get a picture of the moon. I was able to get more what I had envisioned last night.

Day 335

I was noticing that the moon was fun and bright tonight on my way home from work. I meant to take a picture when I wasn't driving, but when I got home, I completely forgot. This is my attempt to still get a picture at 10 at night. It's not quite so close to the horizon anymore.

Day 334

When I got home from work this afternoon, my husband came out to greet my youngest and me. He gave me this look like, "I totally cannot believe you!"

I asked him, "what?"

He says, "You got six packages today!"

Um, well, I knew I had been ordering a few things lately, but six packages in one day? That seems like a lot.

It's true.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I do a lot of ordering online. There have been bunches of sales going on, and I've taken advantage of one or two, or maybe six.

And here's the worst part, all but two of them were for me. Yup, I've been shopping for myself just weeks before Christmas. Two of the packages were CDs. One was for a card creating kit that is absolutely adorable. The other three are clothes - two packages for the boys and a bag for momma. Most of the clothes for me are going back to the store.

Don't tell him, but there are more coming...

Day 333

When we moved into our new house better than a year ago, my father-in-law took one look at our television and stuff hanging out in the nook over the fireplace and told us he could make it neater for us. He took some measurements and pictures, and I didn't really think much of it over the past year.

We found out a week or so ago that he'd been hard at work creating a unit for us, and this afternoon he came over to install it.

It is amazing! It fits so perfectly in the spot above the fireplace. It's modular, so if we were to replace the television to something bigger (not sure why we would), we could just take out the cabinets and it will fit. I just love how neat and clean everything looks now.

Here's the nook before...


And here is after...


It is 1,000% better. Thank you!!!

Day 332

I had a coupon for one of the local craft shops this weekend, so while the kids were napping, I went out to see what bargains I could find. I was really excited to find this beading book for 50% off.

There was also a trunk show going on today, and they had some fun copper pieces including this strand of copper pringles. Those will be tons of fun to incorporate into some new pieces, and they were sooo much less expensive than their sterling counterparts.

I consider it highly successful shopping venture.

Day 331

There was a deal at Costco that I wanted to take advantage of, so we decided to run by and risk the crowds. We were pretty surprised to see that it didn't seem to be any more crowded than any other weekend. The lines were actually very short. It might have been our strategic plan to go right at lunch, or maybe everyone was at the mall. Either way, we weren't complaining.

Day 330

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 329

This afternoon was a lesson in sacrifice. I "slaved" over making this pie for the pie social this evening at church. Each family is supposed to bring a pie, and I wanted to make something that varied from the traditional pumpkin pie most families bring. I made this chocolate pie, and as I feared, I didn't have one bite.

I did buy a few extra ingredients to make it again, so maybe I'll get a piece soon.

Day 328

I'm not really sure how I ended up with this picture today, but since I don't seem to have anything else for the day, I'm going with it. This is the leader board for the Bejeweled Blitz game I've been playing on Facebook. This happens to be the best score I've ever gotten.

Day 327

Today was one of those days where you feel like you work and work and don't accomplish one thing. This was my desk at noon, and I was so ready to call it a day.

Day 326

This afternoon I had the opportunity to take a discounted metal working class with my beading partner. I'm not sure if this would have been my very first choice for a class, but it was what worked out with the timing. I liked the technique and there are a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately, there is yet another tool to purchase if I want to do more with this one.

I do love the wire we picked out.

Day 325

I spent the day doing some learning.

Day 324

As I was leaving the movies after 2am, I paused for a moment to get a picture of the lovely Christmas decorations. The mall is kind of an eerie place to be in the middle of the night, but the lights were pretty.

Day 323

A couple of months ago, I was presented with an opportunity to attend the midnight showing for a movie I was really looking forward to. When you add in the fact that we'd be viewing the movie in a private, luxury theater (complete with recliners and seat-side service), then it certainly seemed like an opportunity I could not pass up.

I have to say that based on my viewing of the lobby at 11:30 tonight, the experience will totally live up to my expectations.

Day 322

I found myself in the presence of a fish tank this evening and used the opportunity to snap some pictures of the brightly colored inhabitants.

Day 321

I've been working on creating the invitations for a certain little boy's upcoming 5th birthday party. I think I have them mostly done, but will probably do a bit of tweaking before I print them up.

Day 320

Paul's PreK pictures came in about a week ago, and I managed to remember to bring one in for my desk at work. It's bittersweet to see how much my little boy is growing up. The other picture of him is about a year and a half old.

Day 319

Little Matt wanted to carry all of the trucks at grandma's house to the coffee table. And he was successful until he went to put them down on the table. You can see one in the lower right corner that is falling down to the floor. I thought the truck in mid-air was fun for today's picture.

Day 318

We were in Seattle again this morning making some preparations for my Paul's birthday party coming up next month. On the way back to the car, Matt spied the fountain and wanted to go and see the water. I thought the boys watching the fountain made a nice picture. It would have been better if I'd taken my stuff out of the way first.

Day 317

I was in Seattle with my oldest this evening and thought I'd get a picture of one of our well known structures at night.