December Photo of the Day...yeah, the whole month at once!

Phew!  And goodbye to 2013!  I have been diligently collecting my pictures but just decided at one point to just wait until the end of the month.  We have had a wonderful holiday season, but it has finally taken it's toll.  I have spent much of the day on the coach, sleeping on and off between episodes of Blues Clues and Sesame Street.  Just what Joe wanted to do on his day off....

Anyway, here was our December!

dec 1, 2013
the start of the Christmas book countdown and decorating

dec 2, 2013
our Christmas bucket list (we got most of it done)

dec 3, 2013
opening the book
notice the Hello Kitty earmuffs that once put on for the day, stay there

dec 4, 2013
a new PD book 

dec 5, 2013
more books...and earmuffs

dec 6, 2013
snow day!

dec 7, 2013
our view from our front window.  winter doesn't usually look like this.
  when it does, unlike living in Montana, we just stay inside until it is pretty much gone

dec 8, 2013
our 10th annual gingerbread house party
we had 18 kids...so there weren't many pictures from the
actual party, but here is Taelin's creation

dec 9, 2013
obligatory letter to Santa

dec 10, 2013
on our way to Taelin's preschool Christmas concert

dec 11, 2013
the happiest place on earth
(can I just say one more time I love my half time super flexible job?)

dec 12, 2013
so much braver now

dec 13, 2013
teacups and my favorite two people.
i love this picture

dec 14, 2013
princess lunch

dec 15, 2013
night time teacups while daddy is on Space Mountain
I got the way better end of that bargain

dec 16, 2013
she was so cute with rabbit...he had been teasing her he whole time we were standing in line

dec 17, 2013
this is pretty much how all of us felt after getting home

dec 18, 2013
i hosted my teachers for a holiday get together but didn't take any pictures
so this will have to represent the great time we had!

dec 19, 2013
let the Christmas break begin

dec 20, 2013
nothing like getting your tree 5 days before Christmas
our favorite tree farm was closed this year :(

dec 21, 2013
we visited Santa on this day and in my project life book I will probably
add a picture of Taelin and Santa, but this one that Joe took is my favorite of the day

dec 22, 2013
tea with Mrs. Claus
so. much. fun.

dec 23, 2013
the universe told me to slow down this day.  That is an entire bottle of maple extract
 on one side of my stove and a pound of powered sugar on the other.
Taelin was running a fever and we had to miss The Nutcracker.
Oh...it was also Joe's birthday!

dec 24, 2013
because you have to leave Santa cookies...

dec 25, 2013
inside Taelin's new princess castle

dec 26, 2013
playing with a new game, with a new doll, wearing a new princess dress

dec 27, 2013
Taelin got this coat and hat from Joe's aunt.  She absolutely loves it.
 The purse was already a part of her collection

dec 28, 2013
growing pains attack

dec 29, 2013
making popcorn in the new popper

dec 30, 2013
errand time...one of the worst, recycling cans

dec 31, 2013
a wild new years eve...homemade pizza and jenga!

Gratitude is the music of the heart, when its chords are swept by the breeze of kindness. ~Author Unknown

I have written a lot about gratitude on this blog and am going to continue to do so.  As I was building my new list, I wanted to try and include some weekly features for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it will keep me writing. I can always tell when I have not been writing as much.  I have come to need it and don't feel 'me' unless I have enough time to write.  Second, I thought it would be good for you, my readers, to know that there is at least a few posts coming each week. 

I am planning on getting all fancy with a blog button and everything for my once-a-week gratitude post but my technical support is currently otherwise occupied.  Until then...you will just have to have a regular old post without any fancy buttons.

The last two Christmas seasons, I have gone a little over the top with my planning.  In wanting to be intentional, I overscheduled myself with December Daily items so that we were doing something each day leading up to Christmas.  I made (and cursed most of the way through) a super cute countdown calendar and filled it with activities that were great ideas the end of November but less doable as the crunch time of the holidays took hold. (Let's just say that more than once I took advantage of the fact that Taelin couldn't read.  Like last year when I pulled the day's activity and it said, "Make a snowglobe" and I read to her "Watch The Polar Express".) At the end of December, I print off pictures for the albums, did a bit of journaling and packed them away.

I told myself this year I was going to do it a bit differently.  Taelin and I were going to generate the list together of things we wanted to do.  No dates attached, unless necessary, and no elaborate December Daily album; "I am just going to include it in my Project Daily album," I said to my friend's Peggy and Betty who if reading can already tell where this is going.

This last weekend, we took down all the Christmas decorations and have been slowing unpacking them.  Today, Taelin found the last two years worth of December Daily albums.(Here is my 2011 album!)  She started to look through them and all that time I spent planning, prepping, photographing became all worth it.  She sat and looked at each picture and wanted me to read her the words.  She noticed how much shorter her hair was last year and remembered the trip to the fire station to deliver the toys.  She said, "Can we do that again?" and "We can't forget to do that!"

Melt.  My.  Heart.

So, after looking through the last two years, we generated a list for this year.  I used the printable from this blog post to record our final list.  There are no dates, except for where appropriate, so if we want to do three things in one day we can.  It is so cool that she is getting old enough to be part of these conversations...

I am sure there are things that we will do that aren't on here.  We are volunteering to wrap presents this Friday for a service project my work is doing and she remembered after making the list that last year we bought coats to donate to another organization.

I am so grateful for having the past records of our Decembers. I am so grateful for my amazing little girl; her intelligence, her thoughtfulness, her humor. (And I am grateful I found the Christmas paper that I bought a earlier this year because I am pretty sure I am making another December Daily album this year!)

Photo A Day April 17-30

What a couple of weeks we have had.  A ton of fun with a nasty virus thrown in the middle of it.  (I spared you any really gross photos...I have my limit of recording life events.)

Anyway, this group of photo's closes out April, which means two weeks from now I will have completed a full year of photos each day.  I keep telling myself to get on here and post these weekly but it just isn't happening.  Apparently, I am really getting in this two week at a time thing.

april 17, 2013
She is super excitied to go kayaking

april 18, 2013
I walked by this clean basket of laundry for 3 days before I took
 this picture...and waited another day to put it away.

april 19, 2013
Trying to finish up my 2012 December Daily book  :(
 This is why I don't even try to "catch up" anymore.

april 20, 2013
a lucky beautiful day at the beach

april 21, 2013
My Scentsy launch party!

april 22, 2013
Rainbow toenails 

april 23, 2013
Taelin's play kitchen...notice the labeled containers...they may look a little like mine

april 24, 2013
Because I love you, my readers, I am going to spare you the
details of Taelin being sick and just say that hydration was the
name of the game for a couple of days 

april 25, 2013
finally feeling better

april 26, 2013
and a little help for me

april 27, 2013

april 28, 2013
a crack in my favorite baking dish...was sad to throw it away

april 29, 2013
I didn't get a picture of Taelin and Joe playing
but a side by side picture is still pretty cute.

april 30, 2013
plastic flowers...the best few dollars I have spent for Taelin in awhile

Photo A Day Jan 1-6, 2013

The first week of 2013 is in the bag!  It was a great week of catching up after Christmas and then vacation.  We caught up on some sleep, we caught up on some laundry and just in general, got back to whatever it is that passes for normal in this house!

I did get a new phone on Saturday (with a really great camera) only to find out today (Monday) that my main lens for my Nikon was somehow jammed.  So I took the lens to the camera store and they have sent it in to see if they can fix it.  They told me it would be 3-4 weeks before I even heard what was wrong with it and then would have to wait on top of that if I decide to get it fixed after they give me an estimate.  ...sigh...  I am not completely dead in the water because I have different lens for my Nikon, it just isn't the one I use everyday. Well, it is now I guess, but you know what I mean.  While a bit of a bummer, I am choosing to look at it an opportunity to use this other lens more.  Who knows what I could learn?!?

Anyway, here are this past week's photos!

jan 1, 2013
On our way home from Sunriver

jan 2, 2013
the unhappy chore of putting everything away

jan 3, 2013
Pampered Chef party...I may have pampered myself a bit

jan 4, 2013
the never-ending chore

jan 5, 2013

jan 6, 2013
my 2012 December Daily album...or at least the beginnings of it