Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you have a very safe and happy New Year’s celebration tonight and tomorrow. I wish for you a blessed and prosperous new year. May you find happiness and joy in your daily lives, peace and love with your family and friends and prosperity and gratification in your jobs!

I am thankful for having a very good 2009, I’ve been blessed beyond measure in my life and am grateful for my family and friends.

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A little shoot with the princess… Kali

When Kali woke up from her nap she asked to take photos with my little Sony camera, I totally bribed her and told her if she let me take some photos of her she could have the little camera for a bit to take her own photos. Here’s her happy new year’s eve smile!

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A Very Happy New Year’s Eve for Krista!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. We have another reason to celebrate… when you get a ‘Congratulations’ letter from the State Board of Examiners as Krista did today its a happy day all around. She passed her board test and is a nurse!!! She is going back to UL in January to take 15 hours of classes to get her bachelor’s degree and then two semesters at LSU-E in the LPN to RN program to finish off the next level of her education. We’re so proud of you Krista, you’ve worked hard and its paid off!

Kris Congrats

She’s going to be one heck of a nurse! We love you Kissy!!

New Year’s Eve Napping

The littles have all come to spend the day with me while Bubba, Claire, Krista and Zach are taking care of house cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. Kali, Alex and Eli are all napping right now and I realized I didn’t take one photo of any of them while they played. Gonna rectify that situation when they wake, but here are a few for now!

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They love their little chairs, they had snack and lunch on them and watched a little Disney program on them before lining them up before nap time. The twins photos are a lil bit blurry, I didn’t want to turn on the light so I shot it in the dark, the flash didn’t bother them one bit!

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This is Elijah, he decided to nap on top of the covers today.Alex-002

This is Alex, he was under the sheet and I guess it was a little warm for him since his little cheeks are pink.DSCF2178-003

Kali sleeping in my bed after watching a little cooking show. She had to get up out of bed to come and let me know that the cooking channel is 52 in case I’m interested, then she went back to my room and finished watching her program.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Wickedly Wonderful

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One of the best things we did in NYC when we were there last week was take in an extra Broadway play. Everyone who had been advised us that if we had a chance to see Wicked that it was THE best play they saw while there. So on Friday afternoon Alexa and I went to the Gershwin Theatre and found out that there were indeed great tickets available so we bought them and were excited to return that evening for a delightful treat.

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Erin Mackey played the part of Glinda and she was phenomenal, she brought just the right amount of humor and sarcasm to the part.

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Her green counterpart Elphaba was played brilliantly by Dee Roscioli. She was absolutely wonderful!

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Here’s Lexi before the show.

 

It was a special night for the two of us, we experienced our first Broadway play together and it was magical and magnificent. Everything that everyone said it would be and more… Thanks to all of you who recommended it to us, we’re so happy that we saw it!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Home Sweet Home

One limo ride to the airport after a lovely day spent in the city exploring the museum and dining on scrumptious food, more shopping and a very sweet ticket agent who worked her magic to put us both in comfy first class seats on a plane two hours after arriving at the airport and we made it home in a flash! Gotta love checking bags at no extra charge… especially when you have to buy an extra large duffle to bring home all the Christmas gifts purchased in the city! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers to our friends and family for your care and concern, we love and appreciate you all! I will be uploading more pics soon! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Alexa and I are so happy to be home!

Monday, December 21, 2009


Here's a photo of Alexa as we were leaving the Museum of Natural History early this afternoon. We're back in our room for a little bit and we'll be going to get a bite to eat and spend a little time on Fifth Avenue this evening. The city is iced in pretty white and we're loving the sites and sounds of the big apple! (The MET was closed today so we will be going there tomorrow!! I can not wait!)

Home for Christmas

We've secured a very comfortable flight out of Newark on Christmas Eve, best arrangements that could be had for us at this time. We're going to make the very most of our extended stay here in the city taking in more sights and sounds and magic!! We're off to the MET and so excited about it!! I miss my kiddos, the littles and my sweet honey Dave more than you can possibly imagine! Love and hugs from me and Lexi in the big city!

Alexa in The Big Apple

Alexa's dream of coming to New York City at Christmas time has come true, she is enjoying the shows, shopping and dining at a few fabulous restaurants. In spite of our being snowed in here in the city... and praying that we will get flights home in time to spend Christmas Day with our family we're enjoying a magical experience of our own. The shopping has been wonderful, we got a lot of Christmas shopping done while here. We saw Wicked and Mary Poppins on Broadway and both shows were exceptionally wonderful in their own ways. We dined at the beautiful Tavern on the Green in Central Park and we were treated to our first real snow that same evening. It was absolutely beautiful and the food was divine! Seeing the sights, visiting Fifth Avenue and checking out loads of hot spots and getting great shopping deals has been a blast, I'm so glad that Lexi and I have been able to share this trip with one another! She's on top of the world and has enough new purses to last a very long time! More photos in the coming weeks!! Stay tuned and have a Very Merry Christmas!



Sunday, December 20, 2009

A Magical Time for Kali


I have over a fifteen hundred photos from my trip to Orlando and Disney World with Krista and Kali to process and I will be sharing the highlights of that trip as soon as possible. I have a special photo of our girl Kali enjoying a most magical time! She enjoyed each of the special meals where she was able to meet her most favorite characters, especially Cinderella! Enjoy!


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Snowmen and Snowflakes

There is definitely a snow theme in my decorating for the holidays, we rarely see any snow, but I adore these little dishes. The pitcher and cake plate are propped in the middle of the tablescape and the cookie jar and little peppermint salt and pepper shakers adorn the bar. The little ones love the red and white festive pieces we take out for the holidays. Just TEN more days til we celebrate the coming of our Savior Jesus at Christmas. Have a fabulous week!

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Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Time Tablescape

I love these bowl and salad plates from Fitz and Floyd that I got a few years ago on sale after Christmas. I pair them with simple red dinner plates from Pier 1 Imports. I adore the soft cream and how nice the look with some of my other Christmas dishes collected over the years. I hope you are having a very blessed and happy Christmas Holiday Season.

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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Christmas Cards

I made a few little cards with Christmas photos of Kali, Alex and Eli and they came out just too cute, printed them up for family and we’ll be sharing them soon! I made them using A Warm and Cozy XMas kit by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs. See the kit here: SMJD

The photos came out a little fuzzy because I used the little P&S to shoot it. They’re so much sharper in person!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Happy Holidays from our Home to Yours

Dave and I want to wish you a very happy holiday season, we hope your travels are safe and the gatherings you attend with friends and family are blessed events.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Little Santa Shakers

I have had these little Santa salt and pepper shakers since a few years after Dave and I were married, I am guessing they’ve been with us for a little over 25 years now. Its amazing how something you have had for such a long time brings back happy holiday memories. There’s nothing extremely special about them but I like putting them out every year at Christmas time.

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I wish you and yours a very happy and festive holiday season and all the blessings of Christ at Christmas.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Christmas Pajamas Layout

Here’s a little layout created with Shabby Miss Jenn’s Sweet Holidays kit. Check it out in her shoppe: SMJD

Christmas Memories: Kali, Alex and Elijah. Christmas 2009

Christmas Memories

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Fabulous Cabinets!

First of all, I am loving everything about the cabinets being built for our new home. I’m in love with the laundry room/craft/sewing room! These are the units that have been installed so far, we still have the cabinet and shelf that go over the washer and dryer to be built and brought in and installed. All of these cabinets go to the 10 foot ceiling and have oodles and oodles of storage in them.

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This cabinet is in the laundry room, the top will have shelves in it and its a super space for hanging clothes, the little space at the bottom will hold my little canister vacuum.

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these cabinets are to the right of the washer/dryer area and we’ll have a mop sink here and cabinets above, the closet on the right is for mops, brooms and whatever other tall items need storage and the top will be shelving.

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On the space on the left here will be the washer/dryer and above a handy open shelf for my detergent, clorox, stain fighters and all the other goodies for cleaning laundry. Above the shelf I’ll have more storage cabinets.

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This lovely piece is going to house the upright freezer that we’ll put in the space in the middle. The right side shelves are 30 inches deep and it will be perfect for storing rolls of wrapping paper, the bottom has two huge drawers for holding the other gift wrapping necessities, on the left side there are 15 inch shelves that are accessible from the front and the other 15 inches are accessible from around the left side. There are big deep cabinets on top for storing larger items up on the top of the whole unit.

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This is my sewing/crafting desk area, I have drawer units on left and right at the bottom that will have a pretty granite top added later and super roomy storage up on top in those cabinets. The wonderful thing is that the 16x13 foot room still feels spacious and comfy even with all these cabinet units installed, I will be able to easily set up a work table in the middle of the room … or an ironing board and have enough room to move around them comfortably. I do love this room! Another added benefit is that we have an office in the home, but in the event that we have Dave’ mom or my parents move in with us, (and I do see this happening eventually) I can easily set up office right here giving them the office as a second downstairs bedroom suite since there’s a walk in closet and private bath attached to that room. I would be perfectly happy here in this room. I have visions of baskets and storage ideas galore and can’t wait to make good use of this wonderful room! Thank you to my sweet husband for making this room nice and big and filled with useful cabinetry!

Angels Among Us

As part of our holiday decor we always include a few angels. The Holy Family in the midst of the angel’s wings is a new piece. Dave bought it for me on our first shopping trip of the season and I absolutely adore it, the cream one goes on top of our tree … we will be decorating it very soon. Photos to follow in a bit.

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THe Princess’ Wardrobe

… is being packed and she’s almost ready to go. Kali’s got some awfully cute little outfits and she’ll be just adorable at any event she goes to at Disney World. She’s got reservations for Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, a Mickey Very Merry Christmas parade to attend, the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique appointment to keep, not to mention the Fantasmic light show and the Illuminations parade to see! With the variety of weather being experienced right now at Disney World we’re going prepared for anything and everything! Here’s a little peek at the royal wardrobe.

Kali's Disney Wardrobe

Monday, December 7, 2009

Happy Holidays

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Krista, Kali and I are going on a little adventure! We’ll be at the most magical place in the world for six nights and seven days. It will be Kali’s first trip to Disney World and we’re positive that she will enjoy every second of it. I’m really grateful that Krista invited me along to share this special time and I’ll be the official photographer of the trip. ;) We’ll be going with Dave’s sister Chandra, her daughter Natalie and her two little ones, Riley who is six and Kali’s best buddy and Anna Claire his  little sister who is about 9 months old. I just can’t wait!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ornaments from Days Gone By

These are all ornaments we’ve collected for Davey over the years, he loved the covered wagons and horses when he was little and we’ve added to the collection over the years. They’re on Davey and Claire’s tree now and the boys love them too!

Cowboy Christmas Ornaments

Christmas Jammies

While walking through the mall a few weeks ago I dragged Dave into one of my favorite kiddie stores and picked up three pair of adorable pajamas for the littles. Here are a few photos of Alex, Eli and Kali playing together in front of the Christmas tree at Davey and Claire’s home. They all look absolutely adorable in them! Hope you are all enjoying a warm and snuggly holiday season and are ready for Christmas!

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Those boys sure love their bear with his sled. He’s getting lots of hugs and kisses from Alex and Elijah!