Charlie's 1st birthday: a little peek

Oh my goodness... you have to see the photos that our friend Josh took at Charlie's birthday party.
Oh. my. goodness.

Click here to be amazed.
And while you're there, check out the other beeeautiful work he does.

How lucky are we to have a super-talented photographer friend? Wow.

Hopefully, I can convince him to give me a few of the photos so that I can share the party details with you later.
Thank you, thank you, Josh!

almost wordless wednesday

Last weekend, we were listening to Christmas music while decorating the Christmas tree. (Specifically, Chris Tomlin's Christmas CD. So good, FYI)

I turned around to grab some ornaments, and when I looked over at Avery this is what I saw:

Are you kidding me with that?

Somebody's Daddy is a worship pastor.

Oh, my heart...it just hurts with love for her sometimes...

really?

This is what happens when you leave your camera around my brothers and sister for a few days.

...And this post is what happens when crazy pictures end up on a blogging mom's camera.

Oh yeah. They're on the blog. 
That's right.
Yes, that's you.
Running across the pool cover.
Looking cool on the blog.

FYI: There approximately 55 photos like that on my camera.

20 of them are of my mom sleeping.

Poor Mom.

The thing that really kills me is about these pictures is the props they used.

They actually spent time looking for props.
Time that might be spent doing more... constructive things.

And yes, those two goofballs dress up like that for every holiday.

                              

Don't think I won't be grabbing a camera or two at Christmas this year.

counting the days

This Christmas, I decided to make an Advent Calendar.

If I'm really honest, I'm more crafty than I am creative.
There is a distinct - and very important - difference between the two.

Creative people come up with brand spankin' new ideas.
Crafty people copy Creative people's stuff.

I'm definitely not creative.
But I am a pretty good copy cat.

And thanks to Al Gore's super-cool invention, I can be inspired by Creative people all over the world.

So without further adieu, I bring you a few souvenirs from my cyber trip around the globe:

I found a few made out of round tins.
Nice.
And some made to open like drawers
Cute. 
Then there was the banner kind.
Nice and cute...
And of course the pie tins
super nice and cute.

I saw about a zillion-and-two cute ways to create an Advent out of fabric too, but I didn't even entertain the thought that I could copy any of them.
I just lovingly gazed at them and stashed the ideas in my mental files for another day.
A day when I learn how to sew... without someone standing over my shoulder telling me EXACTLY what to do.

It took me awhile to make a decision, but here's what I finally settled on:

Instead of the traditional round tins, I chose square ones that I bought from a store on Etsy named Lilian Olive.

The process went something like this:
I painted a 16 x 20 canvas.
I used Cosmo Cricket's line of Christmas papers named Jolly By Golly to cover the tins.
I found a few odds and ends to embellish the tins with and then put velcro on the back of the tins to adhere them to the canvas.
I added a little ribbon to hang the canvas with and... we were ready to roll.

Each box has an activity that we will do during the nights before Christmas. Most of the activities are free, (local parades, making cookies, looking at lights, watching Christmas movies) but some are things we will do around town (storytime with Santa, a living nativity, etc). All the activities are things that we will do together as a family.

I'm soooo excited about it.
Way more excited than anyone else in the family is.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that Charlie would be happy if I let him play with the toilet paper for 25 nights straight.

So - anyone else make an advent this year?