Joy School Christmas Festivities

This month we had a little Joy School Christmas party at my house for our little class. 

We made a paper chain to count down to Christmas, played games, sang songs and decorated sugar cookies.

Here are some of the grainy, indoor photos. :)

The two newest Joy Schoolers

And then the next week we combined with the younger Joy School class and put on a Christmas program for the parents. 

Luke was one of the wise men.

Luke and his best bud Emmett, and Wyatt (not shown) were the wise men.

A common sight to see, Luke pickin a winner!

This pic is so cute. They were checking out their gifts to get to baby Jesus.

They sang a few songs, including Jingle Bells in sign language.

It was super cute! I remember when I was in Joy School and we did the nativity. I was the angel and remember being mad that I wasn't Mary, because it was obvious that I should have been! haha

Merry Christmas!

Photography

The past few months I have had a major increase in opportunities with my photography. I am so happy to have so many great experiences! This month has been especially fun. Two of my clients have me take monthly photos of their babies. It's a lot of fun, but since it's so often we really have to get creative. And since it's Christmas this month we have done Christmas themed photos. I love how these ones turned out, so I wanted to share.
To see more of my recent work check out my website, here.

A couple years ago I was assisting another photographer and when they swung the child in the air she dislocated her arm! That one ended early and in the emergency room. 

This picture is just funny. Not all photos go exactly as planned...luckily this one had a good turn out.

Thanks for all the kind comments and encouragement along the way. I love what I'm doing!

Come into my house.

We've lived in this house for a year and a half. We haven't done a whole lot with the place due to the lack of time and money, mostly the later. My sisters have been asking me for a long time to post some pics of the place. I waited and waited for it to be super clean and perfect to take the photos, but that opportunity never came. 

So here are several pictures of my house on a pretty normal day. Seriously, what normal person has a pristine perfect house anyway?! Don't judge the messes, or the baby proofing.

The front room.

The kitchen from the dining room.

From the kitchen to the backdoor, down to the bathroom and basement.

Tinsy tiny half bath.

The office/play/entertainment room.

The scary side of the basement.

Laundry room. I'm still trying to figure out why anyone in their right mind would split the washer and dryer up like that! It's annoying, but still a million times better than our last one, so I'll take it!

Coming back up the stairs. Kitchen to the L and living room to the R.

Dining room. Notice our chandelier? It used to be gold, but we spray painted it a textured brown color and we love it! Way cheaper than replacing it. Still need to refurbish the furniture in the dinning room.

Our starved, Charlie Brown Christmas tree...

Some of these pics are a little blurry...I was in a hurry.

Probably my favorite Christmas decoration this year....my wicker-ball lights. They make super easy ornaments too.

Going up stairs. Super sharp left goes up to the attic, slight L bathroom, straight L Luke's room, straight R master bedroom, slight R Dev's room, sharp R closet.

I am not all about the decorating lately...so the upstairs bedrooms have been slightly neglected...

And I've found even if I try to decorate Luke's room, he rearranges things, takes things down, puts things up, basically he does his own thing in there.

I'm really embarrassed to show our bedroom, because it's probably the least decorated (notice the empty shelves?), boring room in our house. Plus it's messy today, but at least the laundry is done! :)

Dev's room.

Hallway to go up to the attic, behind that door is the bathroom. No pictures, because it's just bright yellow and hasn't changed much since we've moved here!

The guest bedroom. COME STAY WITH US!!!

This is where I let Matt put up his things...like the chinese scroll or the knight guy...we compromised.

Well that's our house in a nutshell! 

Don't mind the mess. Now come and visit us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A whole lot of randomness and some Thanksgiving

I'm trying to catch up on some photos, so here are some random ones....

Here's a random picture from Luke's joy school class from the beginning of the year.

Funny story: Luke got in trouble for drawing a "happy face on his chin" and as I was taking the picture he quickly pulled up his shirt and said, "Oh and there is an L-U-K-E on my belly."

For Thanksgiving we had our friends the Egberts here from Virginia! It was so fun! We love when they come and visit. My camera was only used a few times, because Maddy's camera is so much cooler than mine! (I'm saving my pennies). So here are a few random ones from the weekend. I'll add more when I get some from her.

The boys went and picked some of our carrots from our garden! It was so fun and they seriously taste amazing.

Damon eating the carrot tops like a little rabbit.

Some of our feast (which was a lot of planning and work to feed about 4 people, but it was worth it and fun!).

Dev devouring the frog eye salad.

Going against all traditions and what I was raised to do...we nixed the pie and made this SUPER chocolatey sour cream bunt cake with a delicious chocolate ganache. I loved it.

We had fun shopping, going to parks, going on walks, watching lots of movies, eating lots of good food and just hanging out and letting the boys play. It was such a great week. Thanks for making the 10 hr trek! 

After everyone left it wasn't long before the Christmas decorations went up. And every day since, Luke asks if it's Christmas.

I'm shocked by how many pictures Matt has been taking lately without me even having to mention it!

Matt told me Luke was up in our room looking through the "princess book," which is actually full of Disney stories, not just princess ones! And he was up there a while. Eventually we went up to get him and this is how we found him.