my sweet and simple life: November 2009

I'm grateful for...

11/30/09

I know Thanksgiving is over, but I still wanted to mention some of the things I'm so grateful for this year...

My Savior

This amazing man

this hilarious little guy

this cute little lady

Our newest addition coming in February
and the blessing of being able to carry it.

and...being able to spend this Thanksgiving with my sister Beth!

I had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving and hope you did too.

11/24/09

image via Alisha Stamper Photography

So this picture of pregnant me (taken a couple weeks ago) is the most beautiful pregnancy picture I've ever had, or probably ever will have, taken of me. (It looks like something out of a painting!) I'm blessed to have a very talented photographer as a friend, who I've known the past 13 years of my life (She knew me in my dorkiest years and still loves me? True friendship!). Her name is Alisha Stamper and she specializes in large format photography, but can do it all. If you're looking for a great photographer in Utah, she's your girl! Check out her amazing portfolio here. She's also took family pictures of us that day. (the one in the right hand corner of my blog is one of them) I love how colorful they turned out. Very fitting to our family. I'm so grateful to have family pictures out of the way for the year and so happy Alisha was able to do them for us. We couldn't be happier with them!

I'm now 27 weeks along in my pregnancy and it has gone incredibly fast! I can't believe I'm more than half way there. I've been so busy with my other 2 kids and the upcoming holidays and just life in general that I haven't had much time to sit and day dream about baby #3. We don't know what we're having (we're actually waiting till the end this time) so for now "baby #3" is it's name.
It hasn't been too hard to wait. It's actually been kinda fun. It's only hard when I see a cute baby dress, or something gender specific that I'd like to buy but can't. It does mean I have to pick out a boy and a girl name too. My last 2 kids I knew right away what I wanted their names to be. That's not the case this time. Hopefully we figure it out before it comes! I'm happy to have all the distractions with the holidays though. I'm especially grateful I'm not due till February - AFTER all the holiday madness is over and life has calmed down again.

I'm really looking forward to meeting this new little spirit. I know it won't be easy, readjusting our lives all over again to accommodate a newborn, but it'll be great! I feel very blessed to be able to birth children. I realize not every woman that wants to, gets that opportunity, so I try not to take that for granted. It's a beautiful and sacred thing. Definitely not easy, but very worth it.

Christmas Activities

11/20/09

You can all tell by now that I have Christmas on the brain! Well this morning I was reading a favorite blog of mine, Bloom, and just had to share their list of suggested activities for December. It's full of great ideas and I plan on using many of them on my Activity Tree for the kids. I hope it inspires you too.

1. Present advent calendars to your children
2. Sing Christmas carols together then eat yummy cookies
3. Visit Santa Clause and have their picture taken
4. Go shopping and allow each child to pick out a new ornament
5. Attend a Holiday event
6. Host a family game night and invite another family
7. Take kids to pick out your Christmas tree
8. String a pop corn garland
9. Build a Ginger bread house
10. Serve Sparkling cider with dinner
11. Bake cookies together
12. Paint holiday scenes on your windows
13. Coloring night...each year color in the same book and date it
14. Make Christmas cards
15. Movie night….popcorn and yummy treats
16. PJ Night...everyone gets a new pair
17. Go for a ride and look at all the decorated houses
18. Have dinner by the Christmas tree, picnic style
19. December 6th - St Nick Night. Have kids place their shoes out with carrots and apples in them and while they are sleeping replace with a small gift
20. Make homemade fudge
21. Decorate your Tree
22. Make Christmas gifts
23. Host a Christmas craft club for your children and their friends
24. Help a family in need ...choose ways to teach your children to give.
25. Make or purchase thank you gifts for community service workers then take your children around town to drop them off.
26. Red or Green night….Serve food in these colors, decorate the table in these colors
27. Tell the Christmas story and place a light in your window inviting Jesus into your home.
28. Make paper chain garlands
29. Snowman night—decorate table with snowmen, be creative
30. Ice Cream night ..make sundaes or go out
31. Take kids shopping for daddy or siblings or grandparents
32. Wrap gifts…. kids love to help
33. Bake a pie
34. Make a sugar cube castle
35. Elf hunt
36. Let your kids decorate their bedrooms
37. Bake a gingerbread man and tell the story
38. Play bingo with dollar store prizes...invite your neighbors over
39. Advent wreath
40. Learn about another country's Holiday traditions
41. Celebrate/learn about Hanukkah
42. Tell the Christmas story and wear costumes
43. Dec 22nd - first day of winter..take a day trip to the snow
44. Have a slumber party by the tree

For the rest of their great post click here.

Homemade Christmas Ordaments

11/18/09

image via

The Purl Bee is never lacking in inspiring things to create. It's one of my favorite resources for handmade lovelies! So it's not surprising I found this felt ornament I'm dying to make (lots of) and hang on our tree this year. They look so easy and cute. I really need to keep my ornaments unbreakable because my young kids are still too curious for their own good. This will help me out with that perfectly. These would even be cute hung in a window or doorway...oh the possibilities!

Okay okay, I know Thanksgiving's not even over yet, but I can't help it. I look forward to Christmas all year long. I promise I won't actually decorate until after Thanksgiving, but now's a good time to figure out what I'm going to do and get a plan going. Right?

Well, in case you're interested in making some of these lovely felt snowflakes too, you can find the tutorial here. Happy Sewing!

family pictures 2009

11/16/09

Image via Alisha Stamper Photography

Remember how I mentioned we had a family photo shoot with the lovely and talented Alisha Stamper? Well folks...you can see the results for yourself. Just click here.

The kids got bored with the shoot really quickly- especially Emma. (way too many distractions in the studio) But despite the kids un-cooperativeness at times, Alisha was still able to capture a lot of great images of us. (cause she's amazing like that!) I'm so happy with them! I love how colorful they are and I'm really happy she wanted to do a few pregnancy ones too. They turned out beautifully! I'm so lucky to have such a talented friend who is willing to take time out of her busy photography schedule for us. Thanks again Alisha!

Of course...

11/13/09

My wonderful wonderful friend Alisha is taking our family pictures tomorrow and my kids' faces look like this...

( I realize this is really weird picture of aiden but the best one of his scratches.)

What's a mom to do? Oh well. This is real life right? This is what they look like. I swear Emma has some sort of accident every day and Aiden's wounds are frequently a mystery to me. I just keep seeing new ones appear! They sure are hard on their little bodies. Emma's lip wound happened last night by falling off the couch face first into the coffee table. Ouch! I debated taking her to the doctor but it seems like it'll heal fine on it's own. I hope she survives being a toddler. Aiden wasn't quite as accident prone at this age as she is.

Getting a 2 year old to sit still enough for me to take a picture is hard, so bribes were used...

Me...at 25 weeks

11/12/09

Look! I got Kart to take some pictures of me. :)
I love the color of the leaves in these pictures. Isn't fall the best season? My awesome crocheted flower headband is from Emily Sparks. (she was a vendor at our boutique) I love all of her products. She's the one who inspired me to start crocheting again.

Handmade Gift Ideas

As soon as Halloween is over I love tuning into the radio stations that have started playing Christmas music again. It gets me in the gift giving mood and excited for all my favorite holiday traditions! I really want to make most, if not all, of the gifts I give this year. It's so much more fun and rewarding for me to give someone a gift I made them. I think it just feels more personal. Plus it can really save you money!

So I've been searching the internet lately for handmade gift ideas and thought, since I'm putting a list together, I would share these great ideas with you! I hope it inspires you to do some handmade gift giving this year too. Check out these great links!

Laura's Handmade Gift Ideas

scrabble tile pendant

printable stationary

silk scarf pillow

A new addition

11/9/09

For those of you who like my Mama and Baby print, I just added a blond version to the shop! You would think I would've done a blond mama first, since I'm a blondie, but no. Well I'm loving the blond version and hope to get a black haired one in there soon too. Let me know if you ever see anything in my shop you'd like customized. I'm happy to do that for you! I also do commission work. Just email me at mysweetandsimplelife@gmail.com if you're interested.