Favorite Photo of November

November in Photos

Hard to believe that November is drawing to a close!   I love November - my birthday falls in it, Thanksgiving, the moment when I finally get to put up the Christmas tree - ok and a few other things in between!  This year we enjoyed a trip to Disneyland, another 5k to support my dear friend Katie as she continued fight against colon cancer, an election, and many visitors near and far!   Looking forward to December - I am seriously baffled how 2012 is nearly at a close....

A North Pole Breakfast

Once upon a time there lived a little elf named Ellie who lived at the North Pole - she decided to come visit and enjoy a bit of frivolity around here for an extended game of hide and seek!  Oh boy what excitement - well she likes to arrive in style and in doing so she brought Ace and Mae breakfast.  :)   Last year, Ace had a great time with Holly the Elf so we can't wait to see the enjoyment that Ellie brings to our lives this year!

Welcome, Ellie!

Thanks to Pinterest in a few key links my inspiration for menu choices and decor were brought to life. Although I have to give a good shout out to Little Pumpkin Grace ... and Hudson too! as she was my main inspiration for this project.  :)  Ellie's helper (me) got to work to make a winter wonderland at the kitchen table.

The kids woke up and Ace came downstairs and lit up with excitement!  Ellie had brought marshmallows (which she had thrown everywhere!) donuts (which she had sampled) a few frosty friends from the North Pole to hang out, candy canes and hot cocoa.  

Ellie had also brought socks for the kids!  Ace was adorable asking - "Did Ellie really bring these or is it just pretend?"   He knows the reality of Santa and so he's always trying to figure out what is real and what is pretend.  It's sweet and I said it's pretend, but we can pretend that it's real!  That made him smile that Ellie had brought him socks from the North Pole!

Mae enjoyed dressing up in the table decorations and putting all the marshmallows into her hot chalket.    She did not drink any of it.  :) Eventually the candy cane went in the drink as well. 

Ace had a great time and wanted to eat lunch at the North Pole table too. Sounds good to me, little man!    Happy Holidays!!

The Magical World of Disney

Have I mentioned that I love Disneyland?   :)  I do and I love even more sharing the experience with my children and seeing it through their eyes.  It's so exciting to get to see my boy giggling with delight on a ride, or Mae in awe as a "Printhess" walks by her.   It's adorable to hear Mae say "Hiiiii" and "Byeee"  to everyone that goes by on the parade route.    Ace so excited that he meets the height requirement that allows him to soar over California ;-)  or ride on Star Tours for the very first time!    The energy that they produce is infectious and their joy is so catching.  :)   I love that Mae all through Pirates sang "Yo Ho Pirates" (and still does) -  I love that Ace does pretty darn well shooting things on the Buzz Light Year ride (another ride where Mae said 'Hi' and 'Bye' to every alien as we moved along the ride.)     I love sharing it with them!  I also love photographing it!  Enjoy!

Black Friday 2012

In what is now our sixth year V and I headed out around 11:20pm on Thursday to embark on our Black Friday adventure.   Having very little need for any major doorbuster deals and no desire to fight crowds at the big giants (Wally World, Target, etc. who opened around 8-9pm)   we headed straight to the mall and the Disney Store and Baby Gap.   

What a different mall we entered into than the one in the past few years.   Last year there were a handful of stores open along with the two we wanted to go to, but this year the entire mall was hopping - almost as if it was 3pm in the afternoon during Christmas vacation.  Very bizarre but added to the chaos and fun!  

We waited outside the BabyGap with a handful of people and got what we wanted and had a short 15 minute wait in line and off to the Disney Store for more fun, a short wait 5-10 minute wait to get into the store for crowd control, and also not a terribly long line of 20 minutes to check out.  Not too shabby!    After that we headed throughout the mall and landed in one more store before heading home.    This year all done right around 2:15am.   

Came home and went to sleep by 3am with the plan for my sis-in-law and I to wake at 7am and head out shortly after that.  Of course the one time my kids aren't up with the strike of 7am, I awoke around 7:40am - oopsie... a bit of a slow start but finally out the door to Fred Meyer for half off Christmas lights and more fun!    

We hit Fred Meyer and 2 other stores and we only had one line and it was about 15 minutes long... otherwise between checking out at 9am and 11am  we had no line at all.    We got everything that we wanted and then some and no crowded chaos... I could get used to that kind of Black Friday shopping - the best of both worlds a little early chaos and then later for a more relaxed version of the madness that some see as apocalyptic training day.  :)

Finally home and done with the shopping the four adults sat down and began snipping strands of lights off the 'pre-lit' Christmas tree that as of the close of Christmas 2011 was no longer 'pre-lit' just pre-wired-with-dead-bulbs.  A HUGE thanks to said family for their efforts that between the four of us (mostly the three of them as I was on child duty inbetween my efforts) took quite a bit of time.   The tree is now strung with some new 50% off Christmas lights and and is free from dead bulbs! 

Before the end of the evening we hung the first ornament of the year and Mae was the one that got the honor of hanging her very first ornament onto the tree.     She chose an Elmo one.  :)   Happy Christmas Season, everyone!!

Thanksgiving

It was another fine festive Thanksgiving with family around us!   The morning began with the boys participating in a football game and I introduced Mae to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!   Ace watched a bit and SIL joined in as well between playing with the kids. 

We hosted the meal at our house and Loving Husband and The Brother-In-Law did all the cooking!   Yes, BIL and LH had a good time in the kitchen and the 'women folk' stayed out of their way.  It was blissfully awesome!     The food was delicious with dishes such as turkey meatloaf (it's really yum!) and a molassas and pomagrant glazed turkey.    Gran and Pop Pop joined us along with SIL who came with BIL of course! 

After much prepping over the span of 4 hours (not too bad compared to the hours some people put in the kitchen on this fine feast of a day!)  then it was time to chow down.    The table was set with a bit of decor - mostly the kids' handprints cut from some finger painted pages that Mae and Ace had done a few weeks back.   Sort of a hand-leaf smattering about, some wooden trivets, and a centerpiece that I pieced together with some gerber daisies and random other bits I had laying about.

After most of the meal was consumed there was a bit of familial frivolity while those of us married in refrained from participation for a more an amused spectator role.    Ace thought it was great fun and decided to try himself, although it was ruled his nose needed to grow a bit more.  :)

Overall a wonderful evening!  A nice blessing to gather all together.   Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thankfulness

There are so many many people and things that I am thankful for - I am blessed with the ability and means to travel to visit my family and see people that I haven't seen in years at my college reunion.   Love getting together with everyone whenever I can - often it is far too long between visits - but I am always so thankful for when I can gather with them.

A Few Months in Photos

In order to preserve the historical aspect that I love so much about keeping this blog, I'm doing a bit of backlogging of things that I did stay on top of - photography.  :)    So here are some fond memories of the last 5 months.   Enjoy!

Favoite Photo Catch Up

Yes, I've been woefully slacking in my blogging and so tonight I decided to play a little catch up and update my favorite photo of the month.  Last posted in May!



I had the privilege of taking this sweeties newborn shots when she was a week old. 

This was taken for my photography class that I took through Clickin Moms.  All natural, no editing.



October was HARD to choose just one.   It's my favorite time of year and it's my favorite time of year to take pictures!

Ten on Ten - November

It's been a few months since I participated and even this time I didn't do it hour per hour. :)  But throughout the day there were some fun moments to take some photos and then in some downtime I had some fun editing them.  Mae wanted to be more of a model than her brother today (as is most of the time.)  

To see more joy and photography hop on over to the hostess: A Bit of Sunshine