She has been a *very* good girl this year :)

Hi :)
Even though I am still at home with the Flu, I couldn't stand laying around anymore and decided to post these while I had a little bit of energy :)

Here's the princess with her mountain of Christmas gifts! :) She had so much fun opening gifts, and everyone definitely spoiled her...how could we help ourselves? :)

I wanted to add a few close ups of some favorite gifts...the Bible her Aunt Lesa and Uncle Max bought her, the rocking horse from Mimi and Peep (Kevin's parents) the Looney Tunes DVD collection from someone...I think Uncle Mike, maybe? No name on the bag. Kevin was more excited about that than anyone! ha ha

and the cutest jewelry box in existence from my sister Jessica :) I love Hello Kitty! Katie doesn't have any jewelry yet, but we are going to use it to hold some of her bows.

I have Katie's birthday party supplies ordered to ship overnight...is her birthday *really* going to be this Friday?! Doesn't seem possible. If I am all well and Katie bug doesn't get sick we should have a really fun Hello Kitty birthday party Saturday. :)

I just feel like time is flying by, I need time to come to terms with her turning one!

She's getting so big. Just over the past couple of days we've really noticed that she is becoming a lot more interested in standing up on her own, she's pulling up on everything and cruising a little bit along the couch. She gets so excited when she realizes that she is standing on her own that she falls forward, laughing the whole time. :) Love that little girl so much :)

I also wanted to say that I think I have the most thoughtful sister in history. Jessica lives about 45 minutes from here, and tonight she brought by homemade potato soup, fresh baked bread and cookies just so I wouldn't have to cook since I am still sick. She is so sweet! She also brought over some movies for me to watch and a get well card. Between her and my Mom they could put Martha Stewart to shame. Wish I had inherited that domestic ability :)

Well, my energy spurt is officially gone so I am going to go back to the couch with a glass of OJ.

I am so ready to be well again!
Charin

Back soon?

I have a really bad case of the Flu, so it will be at least a few days before I feel up to updating with our Christmas pics. Yuck.
I am on two kinds of medicine and have been sleeping about 3/4ths of the day so hopefully this will be out of my system soon.
Say a prayer that Katie doesn't catch it! That worries me more than anything, her birthday is next week and she can't be sick! :)
Charin

'Tis the Season :)

*Oops! Caught Jamie with his mouth open! he he

*Jared and Jathan kept taking pictures with me with the play

camera's I bought them, aww! :)

Just wanted to share some pictures from our Christmas party at my sister Jessica's house! :) We always have so much fun when we get together. I *loved* how quickly Katie picked up on opening presents! She's a pro! Ha ha :) Jessica and Jamie got her a beautiful Hello Kitty jewelry box, I love it! I think that was my favorite gift of the night. :) (although she got lots of cute clothes and toys too!) After the little ones were in bed we played Monopoly and drank some yummy sparkling grape juice. :)

We had such a fun night! I'm really glad that my Granny and Aunt Linda were able to come over too, it's not always easy to convince my Granny to get out in the evenings. :)

I will have lots more pictures to share this week! We have two more parties to go to...I *finally* got all of our Christmas shopping done. Wal Mart was so busy this weekend that I seriously debated about sitting down in the toy section and crying after I had to wait 15 minutes just to get through an aisle ;) I'm glad that part is over with, sheesh!

I have one big Christmas project that I am working on for my in-laws and then I will be all set. I am going to get off here and get started on it again! :)

Merry Christmas if you don't get a chance to visit the blog again during the next couple of days! :)

Charin

The prettiest Christmas Card ever :)

My sis-in-law Brandi made this card, I *love* it!!!! :) :) She is such a good photographer, and she needs to teach me some editing! :)
Love you girl!

My little cookie thief :)

Katie found a package of oreos the other day, and then she found out how to open them....and after she got so excited about seeing the cookies inside how could I take it away from her?? :)
She looked so cute even though I had to give her a bath and change her clothes :)

I've been thinking...

I was talking to a friend of mine recently, and that has gotten me thinking a lot about some old dreams of mine. Do you know how you meet some people and they just *inspire* you to reach a little harder for your dreams, to not be satisfied without growth and change? And maybe it's not anything they say to you directly, but you can just see through their actions and life that they are making it happen for themselves. :) And that is a wonderful thing!

I used to believe that at some point in every one's life they would grow completely content with their life, never need anything more. But, I know now that would not necessarily be a good thing. If you don't have a passion to believe in, something to work towards and that makes you feel alive, you aren't really living!

Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about being unhappy in your current situation, or not being grateful for what you have. Just realizing that you can have more :)

I have been so inspired lately by the little things in life..there is always something beautiful no matter what situation you are in. I have been trying to slow things down a little bit and re-focus on the things in life that really matter to me. I want to dance, sing and create. I want to constantly learn something new! I want to spend every second I can playing with my little Katie Shae...it is such a blessing to be able to see her actually learn something new right before my eyes. :)
And I want to start believing in myself, that I am able to achieve my dreams. :) It really can happen! :)

I am feeling very grateful for my talk with this friend of mine, and it really makes me realize too that you have no idea what effect your words can have on people (for better, or for worse!)

Thank you, my friend, you have made me want to reach for old dreams again :)

It's midnight, what are you doing?

I am finishing up baking cookies for my doctor (early Christmas gift) :) and since I need to wait for them to cool off I thought I would post :) I look like such a boy in this picture! *Note that I am wearing my hubby's shirt and it looks like I have practically no hair :)*
But oh well, it's midnight so I am not too worried about looking glamorous :)
I think it's kind of funny that our lives are so busy that the only time I have to bake is this late at night! Ha ha :)
Charin

Photo session with the King's

I took some pictures of The King's today for their Christmas cards, they are such a cute family! :) And their two year old baby Charlie is adorable. (That's him in the pictures with them) :) Just wanted to share a few of my favorites!

Some fun things to share! :)

I got some fun mail last night! :)
LaTisha sent me the fun goodies in the top picture!
She made the snowflake ornament, isn't it cute!? :)
I love it, and it was sweet of her to send this to me!

The second set of goodies is from my Scrap In Style Secret Santa! :) I *love* all of it and can't wait to use them! :) :) Whoever you are, Secret Santa...I love you! :)

And I can finally let the cat out of the bag, I have a tip published in the January issue of
Creating Keepsakes magazine!!! SO excited about it, it's my first time being published! :)

So that's the fun stuff that's going on in my world today, the not so fun stuff is that my little Katie Shae is cutting another tooth (her 8th!) and she's miserable. :( I feel so bad for her..and she's *really* fighting sleep today, which is making her feel even worse. She's rubbing her eyes again now, so I'm going to see if I can get her to take a nap before I start getting ready for work. Wish me luck! :)

Evolution of Dance

This man has some mad dance skills! :)

More more more! :)

Still working on editing the pictures from our Thanksgiving break :) I had so much fun taking these! You can see more here.

We finally got our Christmas tree up! :) And I've been busy today wrapping presents for our little Katie Shae :) Definitely getting in the Christmas spirit...I'm going to go now and make some hot cocoa and finish watching my favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life :)