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Tag: holidays

Life

It has been over a month now since I’ve written a real post here – one with actual words and thoughts and stuff.  I’ve kept up with Facebook, but I’ve gone days at a time without posting on Twitter(!) and my other blogs are crying because they think I’ve forgotten them.  The good news is that I’ve been living life in the real world and enjoying nearly every minute of it.

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Over the holidays, we had a house full. Hubby’s mom and dad came up from Alabama and his brother and his family drove all the way here from Utah to spend Christmas with us. We don’t get to see them often, so it was really nice to get to spend some time together. I was bummed to have to work most of the time they were here, but when you do bookkeeping for companies that run on a calendar year, year-end is not the time to take vacation. We ate lots of yummy food, saw Avatar, braved a snow/ice storm on Christmas Eve, enjoyed a chaotic Christmas morning, watched the Chiefs get beat by the Broncos, made an “adults only” trip to Lawrence to meet up with friends, had an early birthday celebration for my niece, and had a blast watching our four kids all play together. It was a lovely two weeks and we were so sad to see everyone head back home.

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While our company was still here, Zach and Evie both managed to come down with a nasty stomach bug. Zach was down for an entire week with it and Evie for about 4 days. Just when we thought Zach was getting well again, he started up an awful sounding cough. After three days of that, I took him to the doctor and found out he had a sinus infection. Hopefully the antibiotics will get things cleared up and he will start feeling well again.

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Also over the last month or so, I’ve put my web design cap back on. I somehow agreed to create a new web site for the church we’ve been attending. I’m doing it the easy way, using WordPress as a CMS with a pre-made theme, but I’m having fun customizing it. I still have quite a bit to do, but I do like the direction it is going. I’m just really nervous about showing it to the team. It has been a while since I’ve done anything other than my own personal sites. I did get good feedback from a screenshot of the main page, but no one has seen it live yet.

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Throughout all the craziness, I’ve been spending every free moment I have trying to learn how to use my new camera. I was able to buy a few accessories for it, including a 50mm lens, with some Christmas money I received. Plus, my boss loaned me several of his lenses to play around with. Straight out of the box, I could tell a difference in photo quality but I can’t wait to see how much better my photos get after I learn more about what I’m doing. Starting at the end of January, I’m going to be taking a short basic photography course with a friend. Hopefully that will give me the little push I need to start shooting in manual mode more often.

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That pretty much wraps up the last month, unless you want to hear about all the snow we’ve been getting and the frigid temperatures. Seriously, I can’t remember ever getting this much snow at this time of year (those pics are from before the last 2 snows!). It really makes me wish I had a garage that I didn’t have to drive down a slippery slope to get to! My poor car is hating me for parking it outside.

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Global Influence Holiday Guide

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Holiday shopping season is here again and the Global Influence network has some great gift ideas for you, tried and tested by real moms. Click on the links to check out what our team of reviewers had to say about each of these gift ideas, and then take a moment to enter our fun giveaway and take a chance at winning some of these fabulous products.

Featured Reviews
pouchee
Pouchees
– Busy moms need all the help they can get to stay organized and keep life as simple as possible. The Pouchee is the perfect solution to keeping all those little things together, putting everything you need, right at your fingertips.

duckhunter Duck Hunter – Duck Hunter turns the excitement of the hunt into an activity the whole family can enjoy. Launch the duck in the air and try to hunt it down with the toy shooter as it flies freely in the air. A fun choice for those who love outdoor sporting.

cardstore CardStore cards– Personalized holiday cards are an important item on everyone’s to-do list and often a hassle to create and print. Cardstore.com has everything from family photo cards to invitations for your big holiday party, simplifying your holiday season.

Great Holiday Gift Ideas

Things Remembered Custom Couture Jewelry

Just Elfin’ Around

Card Cubby

Harumika By Bandai

Harumika Runway Showstopper

Harumika Style Starter

Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo

Strawberry Shortcake Playset

Kota Monty Rex

Wall to Wall Basketball

Nerf Pocket Vortex

Busy Ball Popper

Talking Chuck Truck

Leapfrog My Pal Scout

Leapfrog Tag Jr

Leapfrog Scribble and Write

Animal Planet Polar Land Playset

Animal Planet Dinosaur Playmat

Onionhead Adult/Teen Feelings Pack

OnionHead Children’s Feelings Pack

Onionhead A-Z Feelings Magnet Set

FotoboxPlus

MeTime Tees

Fun Holiday Giveaway!

For this holiday guide, we want to share the love with the blogosphere! Some of our generous sponsors have donated prizes to be given away to lucky readers! To enter to win one of the following fabulous prizes, simply fill out the form here: http://tinyurl.com/y8t92rw

Prizes include:

Things Remembered Custom Couture Jewelry

Pouchee

Elfing Around

Harumika

Onionhead Feelings Pack

Nerf Wall to Wall Basketball

Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo

MeTime T-shirt

Entries will close on December 6, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST. Winners will be contacted by email after the close of the contest.

Global Influence Member Guides

Need more ideas for this holiday season? Check out the guides that some of our Global Influence members have put together on their own sites! Thrifty Jinxy, Happy Healthy Hip , And Twins Make Five , Because Two People Fell In Love, Mommy Musings , Lipstick to Crayons , Bargain Briana , Mommy PR , Shop With Me Mama, Santa Picks, Rave and Review, Connected 2 Christ , 3 Boys and a Dog, The Classy Closet , Contest Corner, Lisa Reviews , A Giveaway Every Day, HulaHoopinMom, Spalibrations, High Impact Mom, From Cribs to Car Keys

All reviews listed in the Global Influence gift guide were product provided. Featured positions were purchased by sponsors. Member gift guides are not affiliated with Global Influence.
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Happy New Year!

So much has happened since I last wrote a real post that I’m not sure where to even begin. The last couple of weeks have been so busy, yet so blessed at the same time. We had a wonderful Christmas. We got to spend lots of time with family which is always a joy, plus we had our own private Christmas morning at home where Zach was only slightly overwhelmed with the gifts that Santa left for him. He was thrilled to get lots of Toy Story gifts from Hubby and I, my sister’s family, and Grandma.

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Zach ended up getting sick the weekend before Christmas, so he spent the day after Christmas at the office with me so I could take him to the doctor. As it turned out, he only had a cold but he was pretty miserable for a few days. Unfortunately, I think he passed it along to his cousins as two of them are sick now.

Hanging out at work with mommy

The best part of the holidays came Saturday though, when my little niece Caitlin was born. We were all very anxious for her arrival. She is absolutely adorable and I love watching my brother hold his little girl. I could spend hours just staring at her cute little face, but I’ve tried not to hog her too much.

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We spent New Year’s Eve at home, joined by my sister’s family. We toasted in the New Year, put the kids all to bed, then stayed up until 3:00 a.m. playing Guitar Hero. Now we’re all just bumming around the house, trying to recover from the late night. Late nights just aren’t as easy as they used to be, even without the alcohol.

All in all, it has been a really good week and a half or so. I can’t think of a better way to start out the new year than being surrounded by family and those I love.

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Building Traditions

Tree Time!

After trying for several days now, I finally found time tonight to get the Christmas tree up and decorated. I was really hoping that Zach would get excited about helping this year and I was not disappointed. He handed Hubby and I branches as we put the tree together (yes, fake tree). He watched excitedly as I wrapped the tree in lights and garland. Then he helped hang the decorations on the branches. The only problem was that he wanted to hang all of the decorations on the exact same branch. I had to do a little bit of rearranging when he was finished, but it was totally worth it to watch him enjoy this small part of our family’s Christmas tradition.

When the tree was finished we decided it was time for a little snack so we finished the night up with this:

Celebrating a Job Well Done


It was so good it may very well become a new holiday tradition.

I’m really excited to celebrate Christmas with Zach this year.  I can’t wait to read him the Christmas story and teach him the true meaning of Christmas.  He may not really understand it quite yet, but I still want to introduce it to him.  I’m anxious to teach him the songs that I have sung since I was a young child.  I can’t wait for him to experience the true spirit of Christmas, celebrating with family and friends.  But the best part is building new traditions that my own little family will carry on for years to come.

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