check out this stamp!

isn't it cool?! my amazing friend becca designed it, it kit studio produced it, and now you can get it for only $10! not only that, when you purchase the stamp your name will be entered into a random drawing to win a slice from making memories! 100% of the sales go directly to jdrf. i know i'm not passing this one up! go to itkitstudio.com to get it! while you're there you might want to check out their HUGE sale too. the more you spend the more times your name will be entered to win the slice too! have fun shopping! :)

the three hour Christmas card photoshoot

we had high hopes this morning of quickly snapping a picture of the kids, picking a premade card, and printing our Christmas cards. i told the kids they didn't have to dress up - they could just wear normal clothes, and that i just needed one fast picture. well, ella insisted on wanting to wear her dress. anna wanted to wear her outfit too, but then the shirt was too tight, apparently (it looks fine to me, but what do i know?). wilson's pants were too big so we got out his pants from last year, but they were on the same hanger as last year's shirt, and he insisted on wearing that too, even though it was too small. ok, we said, fine, we aren't going to argue. finally, we get them outside and these are the faces we got...



"how about a hug?," i said. and we got this:



at this point kurt was frustrated and took away computer and tv for the day. and then we got this:



"ok!" i said, let's just take individual pictures! ella was very cooperative.



except i didn't notice the bird flying out of her head. eeek!

wilson finally cooperated after a little bribery.



it took anna a little while longer, but finally she at least smiled.



i was so excited that i thought maybe we could try one more time for a group shot outside. i came soooo close! first i got this.



and just as i asked anna to brush her hair back wilson hopped down, ran around and did this.



and then went and hid in a basket.



the girls gave me a few more smiles like this.



but wilson never did cooperate. so this year's card is going to be a collage. stinkers!!!

Christmas!

well first, happy thanksgiving! we had a great day! we were invited to eat at our friends' house, so i didn't have much cooking to do. kurt cooked the turkey and i made stuffing and green bean casserole and that was all. since i'm used to hosting thanksgiving i didn't know what to do with myself! lol! so i made these pumpkin cream cheese muffins (without the pecans for the kids). yum!









wilson loved everything! :) friday i did a little shopping. i didn't get up early and face the crowds like i usually do. it just wasn't the same without mimi. i did find some great bargains at dillards and i got to buy a new christmas tree! for the past 12 years we had a very cheap tree from target. it had brown tips that were supposed to stimulate pinecones. kurt and i bought it right after we were married. we had just found out he was going to be overseas over christmas so we rushed out and got the cheapest thing we could find. it was a little hard to let go of the old tree, but we love our new one. wilson seems to love it too. almost every morning when he wakes up and sees it he shouts, "Christmas!" as you can tell the girls took their decorating jobs very seriously. ;)







sorry for the dark, grainy pictures. i'm not sure if it's my camera or my lens. or user error! lol! my 50mm lens is really dirty and just not as sharp as it used to be. i've really abused it. i would love to upgrade to the 50mm 1.4. also, my camera battery just ran out tonight, and i've started to notice that my meter doesn't work very well right before my battery runs out (and these were some of the last ones i took). also it gets dark at 4:45 practically, so i'm having to crank up my iso. i bet they wouldn't be quite so grainy if i had the canon 40d. ;) i don't think that's in the budget, but a girl can dream, right? lol!