Our Christmas Gift {It's A Girl}

For Christmas we opened the most exciting gift...the gender of our unborn baby. Everyone was so convinced "it was a boy." What a surprise it was to discover this feminine little ornament lovingly wrapped in tissue paper. Hello baby sister.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you Katherine for taking our family pictures. Merry Christmas everyone!

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Found a free pattern for these ADDORABLE tooth fairy pillows on mmmcrafts.blogspot.com. My nieces, Julia and Corynn will be turning five this coming year and I thought these would make perfect Christmas gifts. As a child, we didn't believe in Santa, but the tooth fairy was REAL. Real, I tell you. Sharing one of my favorite childhood memories for Christmas....perfect.

Advent Calendar {Or Advent Forest}

I LOVE the season of Advent. So weeks before Thanksgiving I began scouring the internet for advent calendar ideas. My favorite was a calendar that another graphic designer, Julie Ree, had created using paper truffle boxes. Our calendar is a variation of her design. When I saw her pyramid shaped boxes I immediately envisioned a forest of Christmas trees.

If you visit Brownie Points, they have a downloadable pdf file of the truffle template. It's funny how a simple box template can inspire so many fun ideas!

To create our advent calendar, I recreated their template and scaled it to four different size templates. Then I traced the templates onto colorful scrapbooking paper I found at wal-mart. Many evenings in November were spent cutting, scoring, folding and hot gluing. Each "tree" is filled with a tiny treat. Stickers, new socks, finger puppets etc. Finding numbered stickers is impossible, so I created my own numbered star stickers.

Today we opened the first of 24 advent trees. Christmas is on its way!

Bradford Family Photos

It's that time of year! Family time. Time for photos, fun and love. I thought photos from this family photo shoot I did two weeks ago, would be an appropriate "after Thanksgiving" post. The thing I'm most grateful for is family. Looking at these fun photos makes me happy that there are others who share the same happiness and love that I enjoy with my immediate and extended family.

Thanks, Bradford family, for being so much fun and thanks Jenn for suggesting such a quirky location. Can you guess where these were taken?

Marin's First Trip to the Zoo {Nov 2, 2009}

Marin's first Zoo experience was on a sunny day in November with Ganny and uncle David. They took her to the Lufkin zoo where she saw otters, carrots (or parrots whichever you prefer), ducks, turtles, giraffe, lions, tigers, hippos and peacocks. She had a blast. And although I was a bit jealous that they were getting to share this "first" with her, it was appropriate that the two people most responsible for Marin's love of animals would be her tour guides at one of the best zoos in Texas.

Pregnancy and Potty Training

Hi. It feels like I should offer a confession or something..."Forgive me reader, for I have failed you, it's been 13 days since my last blog post." But there is a reason....and they both begin with the letter "P." Pregnancy and Potty Training.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant with our second child. I knew things would be different with a new pregnancy but I'd forgotten how much work it is to stay healthy. Pilates in the morning, walking in the evening. Cooking healthy meals and finding decent snacks. It takes time. Time I'd much rather devote to blogging, but I'm sure my unborn child appreciates my efforts. Oh and potty time. I forgot how often you have to pee!!! Speaking of Peeing...

I've (WE...Steven and I) have also been potty training Marin. (I'd love to insert a photo of her tiny hiney in a pair of big girl panties because frankly it just so darn cute, but I'll resist.) My mother's fail safe potty training methods have proven tried and true once again. We've been at it just over two weeks and Marin is doing great. We have had our good and bad days. Like everything with Marin it's been a learning experience for all of us. And just so you know, taking a toddler to the potty every 30 min all day every day is time consuming to say the least.

These two obligations seem so minor and silly when I go back and read them, but piled on top of regular life plus chaotic deadlines and changes with my other non-mother full-time job, life's just been, well, FULL.

I'm not saying I won't be blogging anymore I just might not be blogging as often. Oh, and no, that's not my belly, I just thought it was funny how similar in shape the pregnant belly is to a potty.

Trick-Or-Treat {Halloween 2009}

Marin is in love with the movie 101 Dalmatians so I thought an appropriate costume would be a Dalmatian puppy. Why the tutu you ask? Well, Marin also loves dancing, so we morphed her two loves into one costume. If a costume isn’t fun, then what’s the point…right?! We enjoyed the hospitality of friends and went on a hayride trick-or-treat expedition through Lakeside Village subdivision. Marin was the caboose of the group and was most always last to reach the door and the last one on the trailer. However, she was the first to yell “YES” when the group was asked if they wanted more candy.

Cutest moment of the night? When Jesse asked Marin if she would share her Skittles and she told him “No, my skibbles.” She would, however, gladly share her breath mints and tootsie rolls. Oh! And she LOVED the tail on her costume and was convinced everyone else had tails as well. She must have asked Steven 20 times “Daddy, do you have a tail?”