Photo Days 2 & 3

So I meant to post this yesterday but ran out of time somehow. Day 2 of the Photo-A-Day Challenge is Your Favorite Holiday Movie. I don't really have one. I LOVE all holiday movies. Some of my favorites are: Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version), Charlie Brown's version of course, and National Lampoon's. I do still love Home Alone, Jingle all the Way, and Santa Clause. But my favorite movie of all is the experience: just sharing it with my boys:

Focused on the Grinch

 

 

Day 3 of the Challenge is red. We decorated our house for Christmas this past weekend so we have lots of reds and greens, but I went outside for my inspiration. There's these red berries on a bush next to where I park my car and they make a wonderful contrast to the snow we're getting today.

 

Yes, I know it says a photo a day, but I couldn't decide between the two of the "red" photos, so you get both.

Capturing December

I'm joining in with A Content Housewife's blog to do her photo-a-day challenge.

In her own words, "This is such a fun way to get those creative juices flowing AND you capture memories that will last a lifetime! Even if you don’t want to do every day, this can still be used as a holiday photo checklist to make sure you capture some of those important moments during the Christmas season!"

Sounds wonderful to me! Today's challenge is Your View Today.

 

So I hated picking just one photo for this challenge as both boys were super helpful in decorating the house for Christmas, but I really love this one of Link showing me the ornament. In the photo he's telling me that it's purple. LOVE that he knows his colors now. He even helped choose the correct color-coded branches for our tree earlier (I'd have a real one but I have allergies to them).

 

Linking back up to A Content Housewife

It's an Infographic Christmas!

Inspired by my love for infographics, I came up with a Christmas photo card design that combines the best of two worlds: a photo card with a newsletter! Highlight your favorite moments of 2012 and showcase your beautiful family at the same time.

Love the modern and simple look of this. Completely customizable and available in my store now.

Discipline

So maybe this is a bit ironic of a post to follow my Thankful post, but today was a very frustrating day. My eldest son, now five, drove me nuts at the doctor's office. He was well-behaved until he got frustrated with the iPad. He couldn't beat a level in Mega Jump so he banged it on his forehead in frustration. While I can appreciate his frustration, he needs to find a better outlet for it. I took the iPad away and made him go back to reading magazines in the waiting room. He then proceeded for the next FIFTEEN minutes to ask for it back. In his most annoying whiny voice. Complete with big crocodile tears. Our conversation went something like this:

D: I won't do it again. Can I please play it again?
Me: No. What you did was unacceptable. You cannot play it now.
D: I'm sorry. Can I play it now?
Me: Thanks for the apology. But you're still not playing it. The answer is no.
D: But I waaaaaaaaaaant to play it. I wannnnnnt to. Pleassssssse.
Me: The answer is going to stay no. Quit asking.
D: I wannnnnnnt to play. I wannnnnnnnt the iPad. I won't do it again. (repeat ad nauseum)

I tried ignoring his requests, after asking him to stop asking. I took away tv time, computer time, and told him he was going to take a nap as soon as we got home. I ran out of things to take away. I was very frustrated with his lack of listening. I don't go back on my word. He can earn back privileges for good behavior, but it has to be consistently good behavior out of the goodness of his heart, and not for the sake of earning privileges back. I guess this is what I'm doing wrong. Because the kid just won't take no for an answer. He badgers me until I get so frustrated that I end up just as upset as he is. How do you stop your children from badgering you when you give an answer?

Thankful

This year has been really a very blessed year. Nothing in particular, just everything has been wonderful. I've been really blessed and I'm very thankful. I've been trying to convey that to my children so that they grow up with an attitude of appreciation as well. It's sometimes hard when you're 3 and 5 though. The boys grabbed a flyer from the BX for holiday toys and they circled ALL the toys when I asked them to find ones they wanted to ask Santa for.

My birthday boy and his brother opening gifts on Thanksgiving

So here's the main things I'm thankful for this year: Drake, Link, my wonderful husband, my supportive and loving family and friends, a loving and forgiving God, my creative outlet in the form of my business, my wonderful customers, food, shelter, and comfort. I have them all in abundance so I'm very blessed indeed.

Our Thanksgiving feast: cranberries, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, devilled eggs, mac 'n cheese, turkey, and dinner rolls.. Yum!

Hope your thanksgiving (and year) were just as blessed.

Potato Stamp

So I know this isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but we had a lot of fun with it. We created stamps from potatoes (I had red fingerling potatoes in the house as I am obsessed with roasted potatoes).

What we did: Mommy carved a heart into a few potatoes, then poured some different colored paint into plastic-coated disposable plates (I suppose you could be fancy and use palettes if you have them!), then let the boys go to town.

Perfect indoor craft for little hands, especially if you have a toddler (like me) who lacks fine motor skills. We ended up with quite a few lovely sheets of hearts, so we wrote a short message to Daddy and tucked it into his deployment bag.

Yay! I'm thinking these would also look great this time of year with leaves carved into the potatoes or snowflakes.

Thanksgiving Printable

So there's an awesome (atleast in my not-so-humble opinion) free Thanksgiving printable up over at A Bird and a Bean. You can go check it out HERE. 

Since I created it for Erin as a contributor and I want it to remain on her website before I post it on my own, I won't post a photo here but will tell you that it's a fun, hand-lettered chalkboard inspired design. Fun! Go check it out. You won't regret it.