Here are a few shots from our recent family photo shoot with Kellen Jacob Photography…
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Happy Birthday, Jesus!
Merry Christmas! From our little family to yours. We hope it’s merry, meaningful, and full of Christ! In the new year, may God equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in you what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen! (Hebrews 13:20-21)
Right Now..
I just read a post written by one of my favorite bloggers, Tara from Between You & Me. I’m pretty sure Tara and I were separated at birth because we love all the same things, we both have a huge heart for adoption, we both live in the south, we both love Friends re-runs, and the list could go on and on. Right about now, Tara is thinking about getting a Pinterest restraining order on me because I re-pin everything she pins. I can’t help it…I love it ALL! Anyway, you need to click over to her sweet blog right HERE. You need to click around and check out their Family Rules Signs. Beautiful and so meaningful!
Today, I’m using the highest form of flattery and copying her blog post idea. It’s called right now. I thought it was perfect considering there are so many things I could be doing, but right now I’m procrastinating and wanting to just blog instead. Here it goes…
Right now…
Watching: Toy Story 2 on Disney. Liz just brought me the remote and wanted me to skip it back to the “Woody’s Roundup” part because they love to sing and dance to that part. I tried explaining I couldn’t because it was on TV and not our DVD, but she just stared at me.
Eating: Chocolate and oats fiber bar. I love them! Eat one every morning. 
Drinking: H2O, but seriously thinking about treating myself to a tall, non-fat, half decaf mocha with light whip cream from Starbucks when I go to Target in a few…
Wearing: Oooo. This could make or break me. Pink pj bottoms, a t-shirt and a fleece pull over. And sadly, I’m still wearing my make-up from the Christmas party we went to last night. That wouldn’t be such a big deal except it was a “Tacky” Christmas party. I went all 80′s with green and blue eye shadow. Don’t worry, I’m not going to Target like this. 
Don’t worry, there will be pictures.
Avoiding: Ha! Do you have time to read a book? I’m avoiding cleaning the house (don’t really know why, but I want it clean before Christmas morning and before we go out of town), laundry, wrapping gifts, last-minute shopping, dirty dishes, blog posts I had planned for this week because I have to edit the pictures….this list could go on and on.
Feeling: Tired. Very tired.
Missing: My family. We didn’t go to our family gift exchange party because Liz was sick with strep. We are going a few days after Christmas, but my sister won’t have her kids those days, so I’m kind-of sad.
Thankful: For our family, our gifts and talents, our home, our kids. And, thankful it will be Christmas soon. I’m so excited about the gifts we’re giving this year.
Weather: 54 degrees. A few days ago it was 70 the other day. Only in the south…
Praying: For my sister, her divorce being final so she can have a peaceful Christmas.
Needing: Hmmm. A job for John Taylor.
Thinking: About all I need to do before tomorrow. About our church’s Christmas Eve service that I’m so excited about. I’ve heard from other’s who went last night that it was AWE-to-the-SOME!
Loving: My husband. He works so hard. He’s been building over time out there in the garage. I love the crosses he’s been building and he’s giving heart.
Gift Wrapping Ideas
I was shocked at how many gift wrapping ideas I have pinned on Pinterest, so I decided to dedicate a whole post to it! There are so many great ideas and they aren’t too involved. My kind of wrapping!
Sweet little burlap bags….
Love this chevron ribbon! And the colors…
What a wonderful idea for the cook in the family! So creative and thoughtful…
Shut the door! Maps!
Shut the door and get out of town! Fabric!
Who says gift cards have to be a small, boring gift?
Love these tags…
Newspaper. Hello, it’s free! And, love the initial tags…
So cute! But, mine would never look like that, would they….
Love these tags, too…
If you’re traveling with your gifts like we are, you’ll want to check out these wrapping jobs that are flat. No more messed up bows, etc…
Love the stripes and simple bow. Oh, and the tag…
Why didn’t I think of this? Zip lock bag covered with scrapbook paper! Genius!
Um…..probably my fave….names cut out of book pages or newspaper…
Nope. This one is my fave. Awesomesauce. (I just learned that word from twitter)
Even more awesome….
Cupcake liners. Beautiful!
Sheet music??? Yes please! And the jingles make it that much better….
All images from my Christmas board on Pinterest. You can click over to that board and click on images to visit the sites they came from. Happy wrapping!
I. Need. More. Time.
There aren’t enough hours in the day. Y’all would seriously just laugh and hang your head low shaking it back and forth if you saw me trying to just live every day. It’s comical, it really is. My day NEVER goes as I have planned the night before or that morning. I’m trying to figure out just why so much chaos follows me. I am the common denominator in any and every daily situation. What is it about me? I did come to one conclusion — I commit to way too much. Maybe my New Year’s resolution is JUST SAY NO sometimes.
I do know this….there are only two things I really feel called to do in life every day. One is be a mom. You know, spend time with my children. Actual time. Like, sitting down, giving them my undivided attention. The other is to write. I have SO much to share. I even have a long list of blog posts I’d love to share, but don’t make the time to “blog” much anymore….which makes me sad. Oh, and I also feel called to lead a small group, serve in our preschool at church every Sunday and Wednesday, join a marriage small group, join a Mommy & Me small group, Homeschool, teach my child to read, work on his speech/language skills at home, take a shower, read a book, pray…..
See what I mean?
I’m seriously doing good if I get to pee and I’m really doing good if I get to pee alone.
When I take a moment, stop, and look around at my life and it’s craziness, I sometimes think I should tweet some of the things happening because they are so comical. But, then I also want to actually have some blog readers.
This year (just like the past 8 years), I’ve committed to doing Christmas photo shoots for my photography clients and through the years I’ve even taken on designing/printing Christmas cards. Well, I realized this year it’s just not worth it. I’ve sort-of been in survival mode the past 3 years and feeling like I “needed” to make that extra money for us….especially during the holidays. Y’all don’t know how thrilled I was to hear my sweet husband say that he didn’t expect me to do it and in fact he’d rather me not (I think he likes the well rested, nice mommy me instead of the staying up til 1 am, coffee drinking, frustrated and stressed about “work” going in a million different directions me) Sigh. Relief. Don’t get me wrong….I love my photography side business. And, I love designing. It’s such a creative outlet for me. But, I don’t want to wake up one day when my kids are grown and realize that every Christmas I spent less time with my kids and family than I do on a regular month all because of “work”.
I had this desire to do a family advent Christmas devotional book every day in the month of December. We were going to sit down as a family every night and read the devotion and hang the corresponding ornament on the tree. I really want to instill the true meaning of Christmas in my children early on…..you know, before the world makes it all about gifts and Santa to them. I came to the conclusion that “all this” just isn’t worth it when we really did not have to time to sit down as a family. Plus, when I don’t even have time to read my emails, much less respond to them, there IS a problem. Something has gotten out of hand.
So, with all of that being said, I would love to share some of my faves from this season’s photo shoots and the Christmas cards I designed this year. (great intro for that, huh?)
And some card designs…
front & back:
front & back:
front & back: (photography not by me)
another option for this customer, front & back: (again, photography not by me)
front & back:
another option for this customer, wide format card with inside spread — front, inside, & back:
front & back: (photography by kellen jacob photography)
Stay tuned! Working on more posts to share some beautiful frames from Kiwi Wood Werks, new products (you’re gonna LOVE) from Kiwi Wood Werks, and some photos from our family photo shoot with the awesome Kellen Jacob Photography!
Posted in Constant in Chaos
Tagged cdm photography, cdm photography {babies}, cdm photography {kids}, Life
5 Responses
Not Me! Monday….
I haven’t done “not me” Monday in a while, but decided to this week because….well, because I guess I like telling lots of friends and strangers about all the ridiculously ding-bat-ish things I did during the week prior. Or should I say the ridiculously ding-bat-ish things I DID NOT do…..
So, here it goes.
This past week, I did not stop in various (semi empty) parking lots and did not open the driver’s side door and the door behind it and I did not stand behind it with my 4 year old son and I did not let him tee-tee in between the doors. No. I wouldn’t do that! I would of course take more time out of my busy schedule to take BOTH children out of the car and take them in a nasty restroom before I would do that! And, even if I did do that (which I didn’t), I didn’t tell him to aim at certain rocks on the ground while I watched for people coming around the corner. Nooooooo! Never.
And, let’s just say I did the above once. I would have never done it 3 times in one week. Nope. Not me!
I did not hang a few Advent ornaments on the tree before a friend stopped by because I was ashamed that we were 2 days behind on our advent devotion book we’ve been doing with the kids. Nope. Not me. I’m such a great mom and I’m so on top of things. We are never behind on anything, so why would I need to do such?!
I most certainly did not go into a giant baby super store called Bye-Bye Baby just because. No, I would only do such a thing if I needed to buy a baby gift or was pregnant one. I wouldn’t just browse in a store full of any and every thing baby just because I love that sort of thing. And, even if I did, it does NOT mean I have baby fever. No. Absolutely not.
And, while I’m on the subject. I definitely do NOT pin beautiful baby nurseries on Pinterest all the time. Nope. Not me!
I did not religiously swish whitening mouth wash every day this past week, twice a day, because I thought it might whiten my teeth in 5 days before having a family photos taken. I’m not that vain. And, I didn’t Google how to get rid of bags under your eyes before having our pictures taken either. Why would I need to do that? I get PLENTY of rest.
And last, but certainly NOT least, I did not put a non-microwavable Vietri coffee mug in the microwave because I was NOT heating up water to drink hot chocolate at 6 o’clock in the morning. And, I did NOT burn my hand on the non-microwavable cup upon NOT taking it out of the microwave and I most certainly did NOT say a four letter, inappropriate word. And, 5 minutes later I did NOT hear my toddler repeat that word upon dropping a toy, which means that I did NOT have to have a little talk with them about how I was wrong to say that word.
So, you know you want to join the fun after reading all that! Click on over to Mckmama’s blog to link up your “not me” Monday post! Can’t wait to hear what all you “didn’t” do this past week!