It's Beginning to Look a lot......

....like Christmas!

 

This last week has been BUSY. Holy cow!

 

My brother and his wife are expecting a baby ANY DAY now, so my mom headed up to help them out. My dad and I have been hanging out quite a bit, which is always fun. We hit a BSU men's bball game this week and had a fantastic time. It was a nail-biter of a game! 

 

 

Then we made plans this weekend to get my outdoor Christmas lights up on the house. I went through all of the lights to do an inventory of what was working and to replace the bulbs that had burned out.

 

 

We also took the kids to get a Christmas tree. The lot where I got my tree last year really didn't have anything good this year, so I tried out a new place. I paid about double what I normally do, so I probably won't go back to that lot. But I did end up with a really nice looking tree. We loaded it up and got it all set up in my living room.

 

 

 

After my dad got the lights up on the house, I got started on decorating the tree and the inside of my house. Christmas has officially puked all over my house. ;) I love it!

 

 

 

Right as I was finishing up, all of the neighbor kids showed up to play. We have quite the issue going on, on our street right now, so the kids wanted to play inside where they would feel safe. My quiet afternoon of decorating quickly turned into a house of six kids having a gaming marathon. I truly love this group, so I'm glad my house is a safe place for them.

 

 

The rest of my weekend was devoted to baking. A TON of baking.

 

 

 

 I think I ended up with 14 dozen cookies, four different kinds. I also did a huge batch of chocolate covered peanut butter balls, and a chocolate/white chocolate macadamia nut bark. Hello! I dropped off platters to the Y for Carter, Kendall's preschool, and then took the biggest platter to work. While it's a ton of work, and my back is killing me, I love passing around homemade goodies this time of year.

 

Us

I realized the other day that I didn't really have that "one" picture I wanted to use for my Christmas cards this year. Usually I'm more prepared for this, but things have kinda been all over the place the last few weeks. I have attempted to do a more formal picture with just the kids and me, but it was either too dark, too windy, or I didn't have anyone available to snap that pic when the stars aligned and all three of us were dressed appropriately and had our hair done. ;) I took this one a while back thinking, if I don't get anything else, this will do. Apparently I just need to hire someone to do MY fall family pictures, that way I'm not scrambling at the last minute.

Marci & Louis {wedding}

This wasn't really a wedding in the normal sense of what I shoot. These two were married earlier this year, I believe, and then this was their sealing ceremony at the Boise Temple. There are no cameras allowed inside, and obviously I'm not a member, so I can't go inside either. Except that I DID! I was allowed in the waiting room area. That's right - I stepped foot inside the temple, it didn't crash down, and I lived to tell you about it. ;) We braved the frigid weather for some quick pictures.

Best Buds

These two.......pretty much within a foot of each other every waking moment of the day.

Hey, Santa!

The other night, the kids and I started a list of things we wanted to do over Christmas break. It's quite the list! One of the things was to go see Santa, obviously. We actually knocked that off the list this evening! We went over to The Village and had such a fun time, despite the wind today.

 

 

When we got to Santa's Shop, there was NO line at all. Score for getting there early!

 

 

Absolutely no one was excited to see Santa this year. ;)

 

 

Not!  OMG they were an absolute riot. Carter had this long list of questions he wanted to ask Santa, but when we got in there, he totally clammed up. Chatty Cathy took over and I had to drag her off of Santa's lap to give him a break!

 

 

It was quite comical! They ended up telling Santa what they wanted most for Christmas, and then got coloring sheets, with crayons, and a candy cane. This place is so fun if you can catch it before the lines get too long!

 

 

She Used To Be Mine

Every once in a while, there comes a song that moves me to the point where I just can't shake it. This song is one of those songs. It's been a damn shitty two weeks for me, and this song is one of those that is so beautiful, yet so gut-wrenching at the same time. It doesn't just move me to tears, it flat out reduces me to ugly crying. I feel like I have gotten so far off-base from.......ME. I feel like I'm standing at a crossroads and I have no clue where to go.