it’s that time.

what time, you ask?

time to get your advent on.

(among other things on my list.)

remember last year’s advent?

no?

whelp, here you go.

not to mention it was spotted and liked just a little bit.  I was featured at the crafty blogstalker.  (!!!!)

she has the perfect help for anyone planning on doing an advent for this all too fast approaching christmas season.  darling ideas there I tell you!!

a decade.

lynn is 10 today.

ten.

just in case you didn’t get that….

(!!!!)

she keeps reminding us about this annual increase by sating things like: I’m in the double digits!!” or, “I have been alive for a whole decade!!”.

she is a little excited.

please, someone explain to me why she is so happy, when I am so sad.

I am happy, don’t mistake my joy for sadness, but seriously, just where exactly, has the past ten years gone?  and while you are answering my questions, tell me why it went so fast.

(there is a little bit of mourning going on at this house.)

but really..

I am so thankful for this girl!

I was SO.FREAKED.OUT. to find out that we were having a girl.  SOFREAKEDOUT!!  turns out it isn’t that bad.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

she is our designated babysitter, and she is pretty awesome at it.

she is always helping.  (even when it isn’t a mandated punishment for flooding my bathroom.  what?  you haven’t heard that story yet?  I must document it soon.)  she is always asking what she can help with.  as my life has seemed to increase in the level of craziness, she is always the one to help me out when she can see that I am about to blow.  as I was getting ready for a book club meeting, she vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom, and tidied the living room.  she just knew I was going to lose it, I swear! 

she is pretty good about rolling with the punches with our “experimental parenting”.  she is the oldest, and sometimes, she gets the newest of stuff tested out on her.  if we don’t screw her up completely, she will be an incredible mother.  she will remember the tried and true.

but about that whole “being a mother” bit, she says she doesn’t want to do that.  she doesn’t even want to get married!  she wants to live with me and merrill forever and take care of us.

she will ever be a bookworm, and I love it.

she is eager and so excited to learn how to do many new things.  her latest is laundry, but she loves to cook with me.  she was my little assistant making thanksgiving dinner.

while I am emotional, a little sad, looking back on all of those pictures that I love of her as my little girl, I am so thankful at the same time.  so thankful to be her mother, to be a part of her everyday life, to see the sweet young woman that she is growing up to be.

happy birthday sweet lynnie-lou!!  I love you.

p.s. thanks for being so cool with me and dad when you opened your new walkie-talkie set and we were awesome and forgot to buy batteries for them.  your patience is quite impressive!

beebe family

ryker and drake are like my nephews at this point.  I think their family are my best customers!!

my friend, and their momma, tracked down this awesome orchard in fruit heights.  the owner is a generous, kind man, who lets photographers use his orchard at no cost, anytime.  all he asks is that we don’t hurt his trees.  what a kind man!!  you don’t find many people who just let you use their property these days.  where we entered his property, there isn’t even a gate, just a sign posted, telling us the rules.  at other access points to the orchard, there are gates, but get this, no locks on them.  amazing. 

sadly, he does warn that if people continue to break these rules, he will have to close it.  so sad that some people cannot show their thanks in appropriate ways.

it was a gorgeous place, wish we would have been there at a better time for lighting.

falling for you.

so let me tell you about this dream I have always had.

(okay, not “always” but for a long time.)

ever since I learned to understand and appreciate drop shadows as a key element in my digital scrapbook pages (because a shadow it totally an element), I have desired a tool that would enable me to grunge up papers and frames, other accents of my choosing.  sometimes that super cute clean frame, just doesn’t fit on my grungy page.  or maybe it is a super cute clean page that just needs a touch of grunge?

do you follow me, please say you do.

liv has made all my dreams come true.

(she is amazing like that.)

she has created a tool perfectly named “creasers”.  and it gets better than that.  it’s “creasers: volume 1”.  guess what that little tidbit tells me?  there are bound to be more!!!

(more = awesome)

these are overlays that you can clip to different elements to have them appear to be creased.  I have played with these (so fun!!), adjusted the opacity, the blending mode, and I have even duplicated the creaser layer to give it more depth.

love these.

you will too!!

they are new in the store today.  go snatch them asap!

(click on the layout for full list of credits.)

corbin

here’s a sweet little guy and his darling sister.

I could not get over how happy and content he was with her!

the kapetanovs

this is my darling friend and her husband, and believe it or not, their puppy.

(I am so lucky to have such good-looking friends!)

(they are also great people, I am not completely shallow.)

thor is my first pet to photograph, and he did well!  just like babies and small children, he really seemed to get a hang of the whole bit by the end of the session.

I just love kylee and cory.

because I am just mean, but have a terrific sense of humor.

peyton now fits into the size 5 hand-me-downs.

(gasp!!)

really, for the most part the 4s were alright, minus the fact that her sleeves were too short, and her little tummy was peeking out a bit, or that one other fact that she looked like she was waiting for a flood all. the. time.

yeah, it was time to bump her up.  she is a lot like lynnie-lou in this area.  makes me wonder if peyton will be skinny and leggy as she gets older.

so we went through 3 tubs of size 5 stuff.  3 tubs is a lot.  thankfully, one whole tub is still packed away, awaiting warmer weather, and some things that are in exceptional condition are being held back as school clothes.  she will start kindergarten next august after all.

(double gasp!!)

among the longer pants, better-fitting shirts, crazy amount of swimsuits, and this awesome coat I forgot that I scored at old navy for $2.99 (!!!), there were these pajamas.

clearly, peyton loves them, and as she was prancing around the kitchen the other morning in this number, a hilarious idea struck me:

post a picture of her wearing them on facebook, and let the good times roll.

so, I did.

it was hilarious indeed.

the congratulations immediately started rolling in, people who know us well accompanied their congrats with shock.  I couldn’t stop laughing!  every “like” and comment just incited another fit of giggles.

I called merrill to let him know what was up, just in case he started getting congratulations of his own.  I wasn’t sure how long I was going to let it go on.  then I called my best friend who is anti facebook for good reason, and maybe if I were as good as her about not going there, I wouldn’t feel annoyed/enraged/the need to throw up/homicidal so much everyday.  she is as good at not going on facebook as I am at the whole not yelling thing.

side note:  I have a rule about the facebook.  I do not post anything unless it fits one of the following criteria: 1) it has to be terribly important.  b)  it has to be funny.  III)  it has to be exceptionally cute.  I will not bother others with updates on what I am doing/thinking/eating every changing minute.

so since this fit two of those three criteria, it was perfect.

julie and I had a good laugh, and I dare say, she didn’t regret going on the facebook that day.

as we were talking, a man in our neighborhood figured it out.

“Wait....your youngest is now old enough to wear her big sisters PJ's?”

see.  nailed it.  he even said just that a few comments later, after I confirmed his first comment with a “like”.

but what is funnier is that other people didn’t read his comments or other’s comments, and kept on congratulating. 

after all was said and done, those who figured it out AFTER their congratulations were given, didn’t like me so much.  rude, jerk, suck, and mean, are all words that were thrown at me.  it was kind of mean of me.  but it was funny.

for the record, if I were to get knocked-up, again, I would be more than happy, but merrill would have blood-shot eyes, and his hair would no longer exist in his head, but would most likely be pulled-out, in his hands.  he is done.

done!

I did manage to give us a small chance (infinitesimal really), to have another one. 

my own personal pundit was so sure that obama would win re-election, and I hoped that that wouldn’t happen.

(sorry to get political on you, it won’t be for long, promise.)

so I proposed a bet of sorts.  if romney won, we would have another baby.  guess what he said to that?

“okay.”

holy crap, he was confident.

but I hoped.

so the bottom line is, peyton is really enjoying her hand-me-downs.

my friend savannah.

this is my gorgeous, fun, funny, friend savannah and her family.

I will just say it right now, but these pix were so hard to narrow down!!  I kept finding more and more favorites…  seriously, you will understand soon.  she and her hubby are so cute together, and then there’s her adorable kids…

she makes me think about cutting my hair, she makes me laugh, and she is so fun to be around!

enjoy your picture overdose.

a start to your gift list.

have you already started thinking about Christmas?

is your list started?

are things actually crossed-off yet?

what about teacher gifts?

stocking stuffers for your kiddos?

well, I have a solution for you, and guess what, it’s a buck.

click on the image to take you directly to the link in the store!!

it really does make a great stocking stuffer for your kiddos and teachers that my kids have been lucky enough to have, have loved this!

happy one buck wednesday!!