Celebrating the Season!

Wow Christmas has exploded here in Taylor Town! We are really going all out decorating this year. My poor husband spent two days getting the lights on the little porch tree to work but he did it and now we have two decorated trees filled with ornaments, bells and bows! I love pulling out the tree ornaments, unwrapping each one and remembering where they came from, the stories behind them and the memories linked to each one. I find perfect spots on the tree for each item and I will now spend the rest of the holiday season staring at my tree, savoring every moment that it is up.

As if a tree on the porch wasn't enough Mike also put up lighted garlands, which he added more lights to of course and he added flowers and then the item on the porch I'm most excited about - The Animated lighted Deer we bought today!! So cool!! It was a weekend long project but well worth it I think now we just have a few final touches to put up inside the house!!

Yesterday aside from all the decorating we also spent the evening at Sea World with Monika and Dave. It was so much fun. They have amazing Holiday activities going on! Great shows, and their Sea of Trees which is beautiful and then my favorite the Polar Express ride! It was so much fun! We of course took lots of great pictures and had a wonderful evening all together!

Today aside from the decorating I enjoyed a lovely girl's afternoon with Claire, we had breakfast and browsed the Farmer's Market where i picked up some Christmas gifts so I'm excited about that. Then when I came home Mike and I headed out shopping for more decorations and some little gifts! We are definitely making progress!!

And now a look at the first two days of pages in my Celebrating the Season scrapbook. Yesterday got extra pages because it was so full of goodness. I will do today's page tomorrow sometime and be sure to share them with you as soon as possible! Until next time won't you share with me how you are Celebrating the Season?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Today is the day that we started putting up all of the Christmas decorations and it's the day I start my Celebrating the Season scrapbook (AKA Ali Edwards December Daily) I took tons of pictures of the process!

First thing I did this morning was put all the Thanksgiving decorations away and then we started pulling out box after box of Christmas decorations. For a while it looked like we were packing up to move that's how full the living room was!

Mike did a great job putting lights up on the porch, we reached a little snafu when it came to the tree we are putting on the porch and we are working on getting all the lights to work so we can decorate it. I have our stockings up and some really cool wall decals up.

The fur kids had a good time exploring all the boxes they are so curious - luckily they are also so adorable.

Tomorrow morning I will print some photos for the first page of my scrapbook - I will be sure to post photos for you here!! We have more festive activities planned for tomorrow and hopefully we'll finish the decorating! Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

A Super Fabulous Thanksgiving!

Yesterday we had a beyond awesome Thanksgiving! So much fun hanging out with Cynthia, Marie, Lacey, Claire and Aimee! We ate a lot of yummy food of course and then we hung out talking about absolutely everything and laughing harder then I have in a long time!!

Here are a few highlights! I totally can't wait to scrapbook some of these photos!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Good Morning everyone!

I sure hope everyone's Thanksgiving is off to as good of a start as mine is! I took myself on a 3 mile walk this morning and there is no better way to start a Thanksgiving then walking as the sun rises. I was so inspired by the brilliant colors in the sky this morning, the hot air balloons floating over head and then coming into the house and being greeted by the leftover smells from last night's baking extravaganza and my sleepy husband getting out of bed to start his day of cooking.

I won't lie, this time of year I always feel a little sad because as each year ticks by I am reminded that we still don't have a child, no matter how hard we've tried, but this year I feel happier because I'm pretty darn thankful for all we do have. We have our four fur babies who cuddle and snuggle and bring us so much joy even when they misbehave. The fur babies are getting used to having mommy work but it has been making them extra cuddly in the evenings and I don't mind that too much!!

We are also thankful for our close friends who are always there when we need a helping hand or shoulder to cry on. I look forward to today when we share our Thanksgiving with some of the greatest people we know. The five gals coming over today started out as neighbors grew into friends and now are really part of our extended family they are fantastic in so many ways!!

I am so incredibly thankful for my family. I can't be with them today but with the help of email, facebook and skype I never feel too terribly far away and even with the distance my family has been so incredibly supportive on my weight loss journey. Especially my cousin Denise who encourages me and yells at me when necessary I couldn't have lost 36.4 pounds without the support!!

This year I'm also thankful for my fun and exciting new job. Good things truly do come when you're not really looking! I'm getting used to a new schedule and getting household chores done in the evenings but I'm loving every minute of the day at work and I'm happy to be out meeting new people, challenging myself and being a part of something so awesome!

I'm thankful for my husband Mike - where would I be without him?? Lord knows. He's currently slaving away in the kitchen making an awesome holiday feast, the house smells so delicious! Today and everyday Mike takes good care of me. Knowing when I needed not to work, encouraging when it was time to go back, loving me even when I'm unlovable and thinking I'm beautiful even when I look like a big mess! I'm so very lucky to have this man in my corner!

Today for sure is a day to remember what you are thankful for, to enjoy the time you get to spend with loved ones, and of course to eat your weight in mashed potatoes and stuffing haha! I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe and be healthy!!!

Tune in tomorrow I start my celebrating the season scrapbook (AKA Ali Edwards December Daily) I will be sharing our happy holiday traditions, outings, celebrations from now until January 1st!! Would love to hear everyone's special holiday traditions!

December Daily!!

I'm in the holiday mood and I just can't help myself partly because everything is so decorated down here and there is already Christmas music playing in the Disney parks and I just get sucked right in. But partly I'm in the Christmas mood because I've been working on my December Daily foundation pages. Some of you might remember that I did the Ali Edwards December Daily project last year only in typical Danielle fashion I make more work for myself and I don't just do a December Daily album but I start it the day after Thanksgiving and go straight till New Years Day! You can find out more about Ali's project here. It's a fun project though and I'm super interested to see how this year's album differs from last year especially now that we have so much new fun stuff going on like that little thing called my job!!!

So I thought I would share some of my favorite foundation pages with you tonight. I have over 20 pages ready to go but these are my top picks. I will get the rest done over the course of the next few days - I hope! Then once I start the project I will post here daily or as close to daily as I can manage updating on all the fun holiday activities and some of my favorite things about the holiday season!!



Can't wait to hear what you think and maybe you can share with me some of your favorite holiday traditions! Also looking for new fun things to add!

Visitors!

Howdy Everyone! Happy November!! For those waiting for your prize I'm sorry for the delay but I hope to get everyone's goodies sent out this weekend. The delay in shipping were happy reasons for me first I was getting ready and having a blast with my sister, Andrew and Caroline. We had so much fun!! We ate super fabulous foods, we went to lots of theme parks, took super fun photos and just had a great great time. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.






Aside from the visitors I have been busy GETTING A JOB!!! I know can you believe it! After three years of focusing on trying to get pregnant I've decided it's time to go back to real life and I got very lucky and a job just sorta found me!! I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and can not wait to sink my teeth into a new role and just be out among real people on a regular basis again. I will be working part time so I will still have plenty of time for blogging and crafting! I start on Tuesday so wish me luck that the three years off hasn't left me so far out of the loop that I can't learn new things!! haha!

More soon...