December Daily Check In

I'm still keeping up with all the photos and have lots to share! I was going to update the blog last night but the internet connection wasn't working and I was really up to late anyway. It was a sign to go to bed. I plan to update the blog with Days 3-5 tonight. I will probably then order prints and plan to scrap the first week on Thursday. This should give me a good start on the month and perhaps then doing a page each night will work out better - or maybe I will prefer doing the whole week at the end on the weekend. We'll see.

December Daily - Days 1 & 2

Day 1
It was cold. Very cold.

We bought our house for the third time, signing papers to lock in at 4% for 20 years. Shaved 8 years off our current mortgage. A good deal.

Best quote "Mommy, she has a lot of papers." - Carter

I worked on decals that are a work of art in the bathroom upstairs. It's going to take me a few days to finish that project.

Day 2
I slept in, dropped Anna off at school, went to Starbucks, washed car and vacuummed it out. Found old popcorn, fossilized french fries, a jump rope and... surprise... $10! Got gas, headed home to shower. Got dressed and found a $1 in my pocket. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. Then Carter helped me put Taco Soup into the crockpot.

Did the dishes and cleaned up our mess and then headed out to go shopping. Carter was surprisingly a good shopping buddy. I let him pick a toy to take. He picked a stroller and baby doll. And he pushed that stroller and baby doll everywhere. The weather was nice and I'm so sorry I didn't get a picture of him pushing his baby doll. Lots of comments and very cute. We listened to XM23 holiday music. He loved it. Until he remembered that Alvin and the Chipmunks is the movie in the DVD player in the car and then he just wanted to watch that for the millionth time. After picking up Anna we went to Target to get gifts for two of the kids for the adopted family at the daycare. While there we got new Unbreakable Christmas Ornaments - genius. So then of course, when we got home the kids wanted to put up a tree.

It's a work in progress.

Before bedtime Carter was banging two snow globes together and broke one. Those are fun to clean up. That's the second one that's broken.

I haven't uploaded or ordered pictures yet. Will probably scrap this weekend.

Baxter's First Bath

Washed, blow dryed and brushed. He's not spoiled or anything.

Daily December - Foundation (Video)

Two weekends ago Kevin and I moved my scrapbook table from the guest bedroom into the closet of the guest bedroom. That closet is huge. If I had unlimited budget I would convert half of that closet into a full bath and keep the other half as the walk-in closet, but I digress.

I'm excited to have a dedicated space to scrap! I built the foundation of the pages for my 8x8 album with one page being white with a number for the date of the month and the opposite page being a matching colored cardstock to coordinate with the number. If you are looking for the numbers I got them at Elle's Studio a few years ago - these must be the 2010 version and are super cute!

It took about two hours to assemble this base. Ali says the key is having this assembled prior to December. and after putting together the foundation I can see how that can be key.

Daily December - Album Foundation from Cara on Vimeo.

I know a few friends who are planning to join/do in some way - whether scrapping or online. There are about 200 other scrappers who have posted a link to their foundations on their blogs if you'd like to check that out.

You can keep up to date on all of Ali's Daily December posts here.

Carter's 4th Birthday Party

We held Carter's 4th birthday party about a week before his actual birthday. I thought this might work out better with the Thanksgiving holiday. Having a child around a holiday is not ideal for party planning. We had it at a local community center with indoor pool. His choice. Can you tell the theme?

(Un)happy Halloween

This Halloween definitely wasn't one of my happiest. Thank you so much to our best friends Sam and Candi for feeding our kids and taking them trick or treating. Otherwise they wouldn't have gotten to go.

Here are pics from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Can you tell it was cold? 

Welcome to the family, Baxter

Wow, has it really been over two weeks since I posted!? Lots going on - prepare for daily updates!

I've been browsing Wayside Waifs and local animal shelters for a new dog over the last few weeks. I finally decided I really wanted a true Golden Retriever. We had one when I was growing up. His name was Chapter and he was such a great dog (other than jumping fences). After looking at the classifieds online I called a man near Emporia KS who had bred his Golden and had three males left. On Sunday we drove to "look" and of course picked one out.

The man told me the littlest one was the "smart one." He came right over to me and sat down, almost as if he picked me. Carter started to hug one and it coward so I immediately ruled that one out. We picked the runt and took him inside to get another shot. The man's wife said "oh we're going to miss him." I felt good about my choice. Then she said "he's the ornery one. he dug a hole under the fence and got out one day." oh great, maybe I should have picked that other one, ha.

The road trip was a little farther than I expected. 3 hours there and 3 hours back. Thank god for XM radio and DVD players in the car.

We've named him Baxter and he is super sweet. The first day we had him he was the sleepiest dog I've ever met. He has been gaining confidence in his surroundings more and more each day. He is already going to the front door when he needs to go out and only had two accidents. I think that is pretty great considering he has not been an inside dog at all until now.

He's three months. His paws and ears are huge. He's going to be bigger than Tassie. He super soft and fuzzy. The kids are constantly playing with him when they're up. He has a love for chewing socks - he can pick them out of a huge pile of laundry.

Welcome to the family, Baxter!