Bump Watch–38 Weeks

How far along: 38 weeks and 3 days! Almost at the end!

What’s the baby up to: He’s plumping up and is around 19 1/2 inches long. He’s organs have matured and ready for life on the outside!

Best Moments:  We are pretty much ready to meet the little guy. The house is clean and organized. His nursery is all done. Our bags are almost packed. His baby gadgets are all set up. We’re 98% ready and let me tell ya it feels soooo good. I feel at peace this week and it’s pretty awesome. It’s been a busy week but I’ve been able to relax when I’m at home without a mental list running through my mind.

 

Funny/Odd Things that Happened this week:
Kent’s company surprised him with a baby shower. It was so sweet as men do not usually get showers at his office. A few of his employees got together and planed the whole thing…..tons of food, decorations, the whole nine yards. It made my heart happy to see people do something so special for him! Anyway they got in touch with me and wanted me to be a part of the surprise so I got dressed (out of gym clothes) and waddled my big sweaty butt up there! I don’t personal know many of the women he works with so this was my 1st time meeting them. At one point I was huddled around and told tons of awful labor horror stories by the women in his office! Why do women do this to other pregnant woman? It always seems like you get told the worst of the worst ya know?  In the beginning of my pregnancy I was fine with it but with D day knocking on my door it freaked me out! Stories of epidurals, massive blood loss, surgeries, babies getting stuck and having to be vacuumed out, wrecked bodies, and so on.  I literally got dizzy and had to sit down. I wanted to be polite so I tried my best to look interested and not horrified but goodness gracious! I came home and search youtube for positive birthing stories. I needed a little pick me up!

Lately I’ve been getting the “Aww you poor thing.” look from strangers. One lady even did a double take yesterday….no joke! I got a good chuckle out of it. Yes I’m big! Yes it’s hot! Yes I’m about to pop! Really though I’m okay. No need to pity or feel bad for me. I’m actually really going to miss being pregnant.

Clothing: Thank goodness for stretchy gym clothes! When I need to look a little more presentable I’m still LOVE my Jessica Simpson jeans capris, Old Navy maternity tanks, maxie dresses, and a few non maternity tops. I always accessorize to change things up!  I’m at the point where I could buy a few items with more room but I have a week and some change left so eh I’ll just need to squeeze into what I have until the end. My feet are pretty puffy and sore these days so I love my Corkys flip flops. I call them my granny shoes but they are oh so squishy and comfy!  The shirt I’m wearing in these photos is a Ross score and is not maternity. I thought it was petty funny!

Cravings: Pretty much anything clod……sandwiches, yogurt, salads, wraps, cold fruit, iced decafe coffee, fro yo,. I’ve been on a cold food kick for a couple of months. Even when I’m eating something that’s usually served hot I let it cool to room temperature before I dive in. I think the Texas heat has something to do with this cold food thing. It’s stinking hot here!

Symptoms:
-I’ve entered the end of pregnancy puffy stage. My face, legs, feet, hands. I feel like the Goodyear blimp!
-The waddle! I’ve got it down especially if I’ve been on my feet at lot!
-The more active I am…….. the bigger my feet get…….. the more they hurt the next day. It’s a chain reaction.
-If I'm cleaning or doing a lot of stuff with my hands they get super sore and stiff. As if my hands were chopped off and replaced with the hands of an 80 year old with arthritis. I totally get those commercials where they show an elderly person trying to open a jar and getting super frustrated. Yeah I get it now!
-I’m sleeping pretty well besides a few potty breaks and needing to change sides due to my achy hips. Last week I was waking up at 3am on the dot and could not fall back asleep but thankfully that’s passed and I’m back to a normalish sleeping schedule. Oh and naps, naps are my BFF!
-I have patches of skin that get itchy. It’s usually worse at night or when I’ve been in the heat.
-This one is kind of weird. I have these white spots on my skin (legs, feet, forearms). It kind of looks like I’m not getting enough circulation but my doctor said it’s hormone related.
-I’ve lost my mucus plug and had my bloody show. Seriously can’t they come up with better names for this stuff….yuck!
-Not feeling any contractions
-Still stretch mark fee!
-My stats as of last Friday: 2cm dilated, 35% effaced, his head is at stage-2  

For the most part I feel great to be this far along. I’m staying pretty active. I’m still my happy silly self and I’m not too uncomfortable. You hear tons of horror stories about  how awful the end is. For me it’s not that bad. Don’t get me wrong I’m not running marathons and doing cartwheels but I feel pretty good! I really love being pregnant!

Notes to Nugget: We’re ready for ya buddy! People kept telling me to “Relax”  “Forget the list.” “You’ll see none of that stuff matters in the long run.” but I stuck to it and made our Prepare for Baby List important and ya know what? We got it all done and it feels amazing! I so badly want you to come home to a calm clean environment all set up and ready for you. Your nana, grandpa, and grandma came over to help us finish up. It was a team effort! You’re nursery is all done and the house is clean from top to bottom ready to welcome you. We even made some changes to the backyard so you’ll have a nice big space to play in when you get older. Your Dad’s getting excited and says he hopes you come next week! As much as I want to hug and kiss on you I’m going to miss you being in my tummy. I love feeling your hiccups and nudges. It’s been a gift to carry you these last 9 months but I can’t wait to carry you in my arms. I have a feeling your nana and I are going to be fighting over who gets to hold you! 

 

Update: We just got back from our weekly checkup. I’m currently 38 weeks and 5days. Wanted to update this just in case I don’t get a chance to do another bump watch post before Mr. gets here. Weston is a BIG dude! Our doctor thinks he’s  8.5lbs and has a big head (just like his daddy). I think babies with big heads are so stinking cute! Due to my mother’s labor history and we’re at with Weston our doctor is considering inducing us next week if she can get us in to our crazy popular hospital. Right now they have a wait list for most upcoming induction dates. We’re going back on Monday for a sono to get a better reading of his weight and see how he’s doing. If she feels that’s he’s ready thus having a medical reason to induce we may be induced next week. It’s all still up in the air and I’m not really sure how everything is going to play out BUT maybe baby next week!
Stats from our appointment: Still 2cm dilated, 75% effaced,  his head is at stage –1. These stats really mean nothing as they can change in an hour but I’m always interested to see if I’ve made any progress.

I’ll be updating though our Instagram account if you would like to follow along!

 

The Day We Canceled Cable

I woke up with the urge to write. Things I wanted to say swimming through my head.

It’s 5am
Visit the Keurig, heat up a protein bar (it’s good you should try it), and here I am in my office, carpal tunnel braces on and all (instagram buddies get the inside scoop on this).

I used to have the urge write quite often. I wrote wacky post like this one or this one which to you may be just that, wacky but to me they are some of my favorite post.

What’s changed you may ask……..

Well today is an important day a day I want to remember……….

It’s the day we canceled cable.

Silly yes and I know tons of folks live without cable but for us it’s been a part of our lives for a very long time. We had cable when I was a kiddo, had it in my 1st apartment, 2nd apartment, and now our home. The same story rings true for Kent. Cable/TV in general has been a big part of our lives.

I got the itch to put the dagger in our cable connection last fall while we were tucked away in a log cabin up in the mountains. Just us, a fire place, and the dogs. It was heaven. Our annual trip to the mountains also sparked my dream to move far far away, buy land, raise chickens, and honey bees, fill our home with barefooted children, and live a simple but beautifully inspired life. I became obsessed with shows like Alaska and Ukon Men. Hard life yes but their families were bonded, strong, they lived with little and they were happy.

Living with little and being happy…..hummmm

How could we achieve this but still live a life that fit what we already had going on. Kent has a great job that provides for us. I have a job I’m passionate about and a wonderful client base that I’m beyond grateful for. We have a nice home full of pretty things we worked hard for. Our family is close by. Kent’s parents live just a few streets away. Our friends are here and well I just couldn’t get Kent 100% on board with the whole mountain living idea so I started small.

I started cleaning out rooms, closets, created piles of items I wanted to donate and sale. This is still in the works.

THEN I started planting the seed about canceling cable. Mind you this alone has taken 8 months to come to fruition.

-Our cable bill is around $160 a month including internet.
-We spend countless hours watching mindless TV. One of us (not naming any names here *cough* Kent) can waste a whole weekend doing nothing but watching TV. Sun up to sun down just glued to the TV like a zombie. It drives me NUTS!
-We have a house that needs out attention. Things had gotten cluttered and projects needed to be done
-I had a pile of books I wanted to read.
-I longed to live an active life. For the hubs the TV and a comfy couch got in the way of this idea that he too thought was nice
-We wanted to cut some of the fluff so we had more $ to travel, work on the house, SAVE!
-Then we found out we’re pregnant and that’s what finally put the nailed in the coffin for my Mr. TV lover.

 

 

Mind you I’m 6 months pregnant so he still needed a little coaxing but he agreed with all my points and on June 4, 2013 he made the call to cancel cable! 

 

What came on when I turned the TV on this morning. It says “AT&T U-Verse is not available at this time.”

Today is our 1st day without it.

I’m not going to lie I was a little scared.
What would we do with our time?
How could I sleep at night without the noise of the TV?
Would I get bored?
Would we end up taking trips to Best Buy to stand in front of their TVs to get our fix?
What about all our shows? Would they survive without us?
I even had a dream last night that we could still get local channels…..NOPE! But to be honest here we still have NetFlix (starting small folks). 

Instead I woke up feeling…….
at peace
creative
hopeful
and excited about not having the old ball and chain to turn to.

I mean really look at me. I’m cuddled up in my office at the crack of dawn coffee in hand cute pup by my side writing. I even have a new Bump Watch post all ready to go for next week.

Kent is sleeping so he hasn’t weighed in on the whole no TV/Cable thing. I have high hopes that it’s going to be a good change for the both of us.

In the meantime's here's to living a more simple life

one
step
at
a
time!

Christmas in March

What you didn’t hear about the new trend “Christmas in March”

Well get with it! It’s all the rage.

Juuuuut kidding! Of course we celebrated Christmas on the actual holiday. I just never got around to blogging about. So I figured why no share now? Better late than never eh?

Here’s how we celebrated Christmas this year uh I mean last year.

 

Santa Bags:
This is a tradition for Kenty-Poo and I. We grab a bag and stuff it full with random goodness. We still spoil each other with gifts but our Santa bags are always our favorite thing to open.

Ps…Kent is obsessed with sponges just in case you’re wondering what the 3rd pic on the top is all about. Oh and he got me the best chap stick. It’s shaped like an egg and smells like strawberries!   

 

 

Seriously y’all how sweet is this guy?

If you follow us on Instagram (Kendra_Pryor) you know allllll how about how mischievous he is but just look at his widdle face. It makes all the “OH MY GOSH BRADY WHAT DO YOU DO?” moments worth it!

 

Kent and I celebrated Christmas together on Christmas eve this umm I mean last year because we were road tripping it to my mom’s lake house on Christmas day.  Little something new for us. I’ve never been away from home on Christmas but we were excited to getaway for a few days.

My mom is a super fab decorator and loves to fluff things up for the holidays. Isn’t her tree stunning?

We didn’t put a tree up so this was Brady’s 1st time to see one. I was watching him like a hawk  just waiting for another Brady mishap but he did pretty good. No ornaments died and it was still standing when we left. 

 

 

Kenty-Poo took this one of us. How precious….right?

 

Pretty table set by my mom!

 

Okay I know a lot of people think the canned stuff is gross and lets’ face it it’s pretty much junk in a can but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE canned cranberry sauce. My brother and I are the only ones in the family that eat is so my mom always makes sure to have a can of it for us.

 

My mom and I.

What do think, do we look alike?

I either get that I’m a spitting image of my Dad or that I look just like my mom. I’m not really sure. I have my Dad’s dark curly hair. My mom and brother both have straight blond hair.

 

Awe my sweet Kenty-Poo. I love him!

 

And then it happened……..

A white Christmas like I’ve never seen.

It was beautiful!

 

 

Being a Texas gal I’ve never seen this much snow.

I know it’s nothing compared to what folks get up north but to us it was a fluffy, white, winter wonderland.

We threw snow balls and enjoyed it until our fingers were ice cubes. 

We woke up the next morning and played it in some more. Oh and  I took a million pictures. Yeah that’s a different day a different post.

 

Here a little peek at what we woke up to.

Our 2012 Christmas card.

We took these photos outside of the cabin we stayed in during our annual trip to Arkansas with a little help from a tripod and an auto shutter release button.

Front

Back

When a Facebook Update Turns into a Blog Post

I started to type this as a Facebook status update but thought “Um yeah wayyyy to long.”

Enter blog……..

Kent meet me for an impromptu lunch at my fave place….MARKET STREET! We chatted and enjoyed a yummy lunch. Y’all if you don’t take advantage of Market Street’s Café you’re missing out. It’s reasonably priced and a great place to pop in for a good healthy meal.

Okay back on track

I’ve been struggling with something that’s been a huge goal of mine for a long time. I’ve had several people support me to make this dream happen which means the world to me!

It was all there….right in my lap……. I just had to put myself out there and grab it.

 

 

What did I do?

I got scared
overwhelmed
and downright sick at my stomach thinking about going for it.

I let my dream slip through my fingers and decided it just wasn’t meant to be. Pretty much I became a big fat chicken and lied to myself. What? It wasn’t meant to be? Who says? Fear said that’s who!

I let Mr. Fear get in my ear and sing his nasty negative song!

 

 

Kent gave me a firm talking to during our little impromptu lunch.

He reminded me that I’ve worked hard to get where I am and THIS was something that I really wanted.

He said things like……..
“You only fail if you don’t try.”
and
“All you need to do is go for it.”

He was so right and it was something that I really need to hear. To him we were just talking but to me he was filling me with inspiration and support.

Our little conversation made me think……….

Not only about what I was struggling with but about being that person of inspiration and support to others.

You never know when a friendly smile, a meaningful hug, or words of inspiration and positivity may be just what someone needed hear.

Because of our organic conversation about my struggles and being a BIG FAT CHICKEN. Kent inspired me to get back on track with my goal which I may have otherwise let fall by the wayside.

Words are powerful and uplifting!

You can choose to be a person of negativity and anger.

OOOOORRRRRR

You can step outside of yourself and your world and be a person of light and love to those around you! I chose the latter.

Now get out of my way. I have some high-fives and bear hugs to pass out.

Meet Brady Our New Pup

 

Y’all haven’t officially meet Brady so let me introduce you to our new furry family member.

I’m sharing more about this little guy over on my photo blog…….

-More photos
-Blooper pics because I LOVE a good outtake shot
and wait until you see how he kept himself busy while I was working.

It was a BIG NO NO BAD DOG moment!

Click HERE to check the post out!

 

 

 

Hodgepodge

 

Definition
Hodgepodge- a jumbled mixture

Yep that’s exactly what this post is going to be.
My brain works best when it’s a jumbled mess.

 

My fall shooting schedule starts in 18 days.
I’m excited and scared at the same time.
Last year was hard.
I was a walking zombie and under a lot of stress.
Me and stress are NOT BFFs.
My body just doesn’t handle stress well.
I gain weight even though I’m busting my butt at the gym and eating a good diet.
My skin breaks out.
I zone out a lot.
My eyes which are already big get even bigger and well it’s just not pretty.
I’m dead set on making a change this fall.
Remember? I wrote all about the change here!  
I’m getting better about saying no, and setting boundaries!
I think it’s going to pay off.
This fall you’ll see me skipping down the streets loving life and doing cartwheels instead of hooked up to coffee IV looking like a scary mess.

 

Speaking of cartwheels I decided to do one the other day.
I ended up pulling something in my back and neck.
Kent was there to witness the awesomeness. 
I will not be defeated cartwheel! 

 

I’m crossing something off my bucket list!
At the end of this month I’m getting certified to teach a cardio dance class!
I’m soooo excited!!!!!
I 1st started working out to help with my anxiety but ended up getting so much more out of it!
I’ve lost 60lbs……
changed my lifestyle……
been motived by MANY others…….
It’s time for me to pay it forward!
I can’t wait to teach and use my class as a platform to help motivate and inspire others in their journey.
Sometimes a workout is so much more than just a workout!

Y’all know I love to dance!
The class I’ll be teaching is called Flirty Girl Fitness. If you’re in the DFW area and want to give it a try I’ll keep you in the loop as to when and where my classes will be! I would love to see you!

 

 

I was planning on doing an Instagram How-To post.
Yeah……
I worked on it off and on all last week BUT
I’m just not good at explaining things through type.
Sooooo I thought I could answer a few questions in vlog form.
Now talking…..
THAT I can do!
So if you have any Instagram questions throw them at me!

 

We’re still making pointless random videos.
I like them.
I think one day we’ll look back and get a kick out of them!
So we keep on…….

PS…..We have a new family member which I’ll be introducing to you later BUT you can see a little glimpse of him in the clip below. If you follow me on Instagram you already know allllll about him!
Instagram folks get the inside scoop!

Kent Wants a Man Cave

Kent wanted to talk to me about football.
I say Football shmootball!

 

I think that’s enough randomness for today.
PEACE!

Don’t forget to leave your Instagram questions!

Setting Weekly Goals and Planning Your Schedule

          I have a confession…….I’m totally old school when it comes to keeping up with my schedule. I have yet to jump on the digital scheduling bandwagon. It drives Kent nuts that I keep up with my schedule the old fashion way, pen and paper. He’s constantly showing me scheduling apps I can use on my phone or trying to get me to keep track of things through Google's calendar feature BUT I like tangible things ANNNND being able to cross items off my list so I have embraced the fact that I am not hip when it comes to my planner of choice! 

Actually I’m not hip when it comes to a lot of things! If you follow me on Twitter I’m sure you’ve caught onto this!

          I purchased an Erin Condren planner this year. It’s my 1st time using her planner and I’m hooked. Love how detailed it is. It’s perfect for an obsessive list maker/planner like myself.  It’s taken me a month or so to figure out how I wanted to go about using the planner and creating a system that works but I think I’ve got it down. Let’s chat a bit about how I layout my weekly goals!

 

I start every Monday with a cup of coffee and my Weekly Wishes. Yes I am lame and like to give things cheesy names. Come on you know you like to do it too! My Weekly Wishes are just that, my wishes or goals for the week. Things I need and want to accomplish.

 

I break everything down into categories (Health, Home, Work, and Relationships). Some weeks I may have more categories depending on what’s going on but these are always my core.  

 

Health: When setting my health goals for the week I come up with my workout schedule and other health related things I want to focus on. For this particular week I had been on a plateau so I really wanted to focus on my workouts and portion control. This week I’m focusing on my water intake as well as my diet. I have decided to drink a green smoothie as a meal replacement a few times this week. I’m happy to report that my plateau has been broken!  

Home: This is an area I struggle with. I put in a lot of hours in the office, hit the gym 7-8 hours a week, and am pooped when it comes to my keeping my house clean and organized. I’m just not motivated in this area. 2012 is my year of organization (see something else I have given a name to.) sooooo all the clutter and unorganized closets are going down! Each week I pick a home organization project. Last week I wanted to start working on my studio transformation. This week I’m tackling my nightstand! I also include things like change the sheets, put away all laundry…stuff like that. 

Work: I use my Erin Condren planner for work and my personal life so I also keep up with my work task for the week through this planner. Under work I write meetings I may have, e-mails I need to reply to, shoots on the calendar, photos that need attention, sessions and so on.

Relationships: I’m always striving to be a good wife/friend/daughter/aunt…... I am in no way the best which is why I’m always working on it but it’s an area in my life that is important to me and deserves focus. I think at times we get comfortable in our relationship whether it be a marriage, friendship, or even a relationship with your family member. We can take those closes to us for granted. Under the relationship category I write things like leave Kent a love note, tell him randomly 5 things I love about him, call my mom, send my friend a birthday card, set up a coffee date with a friend …..stuff like that.  

 

Once everything is all typed up I print it out, add a colorful tab to it so I can easily flip to it, and paper clip it to my planner.

The next thing I do is break everything down into days. I look over my Weekly Wishes and decided what I want to tackle each day of the week and jot it down.

 

*Note I NEVER write in my planner in a pen. It freaks me out! Yes I am weird!

 

As the week goes on and I accomplish my tasks I cross items off my Weekly Wishes sheet. At the end of the week I have a neon yellow highlighted beauty staring back at me and I can give myself a pat on the back! 

I have ADD (self diagnosed but I swear I have it) and this system is helping me a lot. Feel free to copy away if you think it’s something that would work for you. Create categories on your Weekly Wishes page that work for you and your lifestyle. 

 

I’m all over the place! Find me here…..

*Twitter
*Facebook Personal Page
*Facebook Photography Page
*Adventures of Ninja the Bunny
*Pinterest

When a Facebook Status Turns into a Blog Post

I was going to try and get a discussion going on facebook  but decided to turn my  status update into a blog post! Below is what I was going to post.

If you work from home, are the COO of your household, or just a gal/mommy/wife trying to do it all you may find this post interesting!

Because every post needs a picture!

This was my status update: I think I’m finally getting into my “work from home grove”. It took a year but I think I almost have it. What am I doing? I’ll list the changes I’ve made in my comment below. If YOU work from home I want to know your tricks too!!!!

 

What I was going to put in facebook my comment:

Things I’m doing to stay focused while I’m working for home-

-No personal phone calls while I’m working.

-I start work at 8:30am every morning and try to wrap up around 7pm (depending on my work load).

-I no longer drop what I’m doing to play with friends or family during my work day. If there is something I want to do I schedule it and work evenings to make up the hours I took off during the day.

-Every Monday I write my goals for the week. I write goals for Home Organization, Project Completion, Relationship, Health, Work, and If I Have Time I need to…..
I keep my goal note book on my desk and look at it several times during the week.

-If I want to write a blog post I get up early so I have time to do it before my work day starts or I do it in the evenings and schedule it to post when I want. I love when I have several post scheduled! 

-I take an hour lunch break! This is my me time! I watch TV, read blogs, whatever! I make sure that I look at the clock when it starts so I know when my lunch break is over.

-I take dance breaks during the day! I’m not a sitter and get antsy if I’m sitting for hours on end. To keep my self going and energized I pick an upbeat song and break it down in my office. Yet another reason why it’s good that I work from home alone! My dance breaks are fun but NOT pretty! A 2min dance break will do ya wonders! Go ahead and give it a go. I promise you’ll like it! Sometimes I share a link on facebook to a song I had a dance break too so others can get their grove on if they like!

-As I’m still growing as a business owner and photographer I have A LOT to learn! I schedule an hour a day to read something that will help me in those areas. Some days it ends up being longer than an hour but it’s important to me that I continue to strengthen on those areas.

 

These pics I’m sharing really have nothing to do with this post.
Just random pics I’ve taken.

What I’m still struggling with: 

-Balancing working and our home. It seems like I can never keep up with our house! There is always something that needs to be organized, washed, or cleaned. We don’t even have kiddos yet! I need to get this under control!

-Not over scheduling myself. I have a real hard time saying NO!

-Learning the power of NO and not feeling guilty when I have to say it. This is a big one for me. I’m really hard on myself and saying NO to someone brings on tons of guilt. I hate that I do that to myself. I need to learn that I can’t do it ALL or keep EVERYONE happy.

-Getting in gym time. I have the time to do it I just don’t make it a priority. That NEEDS to change!

-I do something work related every day including the weekends. I need to find a balance so I’m caught up with work and not struggling to catch up on the weekends. A day off without guilt would be nice! See there’s that guilt again!

-Setting boundaries with friends and family. I LOVE them and want to chat on the phone, meet for lunches, have fun with them but I just can’t do that and stay on track unless I schedule it.

I had a friend that thought I was mad at her because I’m always so busy during the day. I wasn't upset with her just busy working. I had to explain the new leaf I’m truing over and how I’m trying to stay focused during the day. If I want to continue to grow my business and proved the best service I can I must treat my work days like anyone else. Just because I work for myself and from home does not mean that it’s not a real job. I need to keep telling myself this! My job is one of those “There is always something I could be doing” type jobs!

 

 

Spring is going to be a busy time for me! I’m almost all booked up for March, April, and May, and will be getting married in the mix of all it! I’m so blessed that my business is taking off. I still pinch myself at times. I can’t put into words how grateful I am for the opportunity to follow my dream; a dream that I didn’t even think was attainable.

I’m slowly but surely learning to work smart not hard! I’m not prefect at it and I still have Shinny Ball Syndrome but I’m trying to overcome that! :o)

To be able to make it through the next few months I’m going to need all the focus I can get!

Don’t Leave Me Hanging……….

If you work from home, did work from home, or are the COO of your household I would love to know how YOU stay on track! Let me know your tips or tricks of the trade!

OR if you work from home and are struggling to stay focused let me know what you’re struggles are!

I would LOVE to hear from YOU!

Celebrating 56 Years of Life

Last week my family got together to celebrate my aunt Saundra’s 56th birthday!

Let me just say that my aunt is a real character! I’m not too sure that you’ll ever meet anyone quite like her.

She always keeps us on our toes and often shocks us with the silly things that come out of her mouth! Maybe that’s where I get it from……hum.

Our server sang happy birthday to my aunt and fed her a mouth full of dessert. Love the expressions on her face in the pictures above!

After lunch was over we walked to Cheesecake Factory to enjoy a little dessert!

 

 

My mom, like myself is trying to lose weight before the wedding It’s hard eating strawberries when everyone around you is eating decadent cheesecake!

I ordered the splenda cheese cake but I was good and only had a few bites. Y’all their splenda cheese cake is delish! If you’re watching your weight and want a little treat I would highly recommend it!

 

Isn’t my aunt Mary beautiful! She’s 80 years old but you would never know it. I can only hope that a smidge of her grace rubs off on me. I love her to pieces. Side Note: Aunt Mary is not really my aunt but that’s what I call her. Want to know something even more tricky? I used to call her husband grandpa, so it was Aunt Mary and grandpa.

After our bellies were full we headed to HomeGoods to get our shop on!

 

Guess who was the only one that ended up buying something……yes me!

I found the cutest pillow I’m going to use as a prop in my upcoming newborn shoots. I always feel better about shopping if I’m buying something that’s work related. I’m starting to get a little out of hand with all the work shopping. I bought a new pair of jeans the other day because I thought they would be good “shooting jeans.”  See what I’m saying.

It was nice to get out from behind the computer and enjoy the day with my family. We always have such a great time when we get together! 

Our Christmas Weekend in a Nutshell

That’s right Christmas isn’t just a one day celebration in this family. We milk it for all that we can! We start celebrating on Christmas day and continue the family festivities well into the week!

Here’s a glimpse into our Christmas weekend extravaganza!

 

 

Parker decided he wanted to open ALL my gifts this year!

He’s a hoot!

He pulled out the tissue paper, then the goodies.

I have no idea where he picked this up or how he even knows goodies are inside a gift wrapped package but he’s a pro!

 

Kent is the hardest person to buy for. We’ve been together for almost 10 years and I STILL struggle when deciding what to get him.

This year was different!

I finally had a few gifts that I knew he would love.

What I got him: a fire pit, fire proof safe, authentic Asian cookbooks, a bag of his favorite snacks, a new belt, a couple shirts, and a guitar!

I couldn't wait for him to open his gifts this year! 

 

     

Kent gave me one gift that made me make this face (left pic)……..
then this face (right pic) when I figured out what it was!

He spoiled me like crazy!

More on that later.

 

 

We stuffed our faces.

 

 

 

Spent time with family.

 

 

 

 

      

Celebrated her birthday (my mom)                          and his birthday (my uncle).

 

 

Took tons AND tons of pictures.

My 2010 Christmas picture folder on my PC has over 1,000 pictures in it. That’s out of control!

 

 

I look like a monster next to my sister-in-law. She’s tiny….me, not so much. ;o)

Note to self: Set up a hair appointment on the fly! The ole roots are not looking so hot! 

 

    

We played games………

and gave lots of thumbs up!

 

 

     

AND had our 1^st annual water bottle walking competition.

Everyone participated……..

Even the guys!

 

Doesn’t my uncle Charles look thrilled!

 

We ended our Sunday night jubilee with a few Christmas carols. Each family member picks a song, then we all join in ! This is our second year doing this.

I was right there with my video recorder. Don’t worry……I’m not going to post clips of us singing.

I like you and I want you to stick around so I’ll be kind and keep the singing clips to myself!

Here are a few that we sang-
-Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
-Jingle Bells (the barking dog edition) I’m not joking, we totally did! 
-Silver Bells (this one didn’t last too long, all we knew was the chorus).

Now I’m thinking about it I should have should have suggested The Italian Christmas Donkey. Love that song!

I went a more traditional route and picked Away in a Manger.

All in all it’s been a great Christmas! I love spending time with my wacky family any chance I get.

I’m off work until January 3^rd so I have BIG plans to sit at home and do a bunch of nothing!!!

Life is good!