Journal Your Christmas - December 3

Loved today's topic - Christmas cards.
We are starting a new tradition this year (thanks to Deb) where, each night at dinner, we take turns to pray for the families that sent us cards that day. This allows us to reconnect with them spiritually and intercede on their behalf... the perfect thing to do at Christmas time. ;)

Journal your Christmas

So I signed up for this great online class called Journal Your Christmas. I love it so far. It's a 37 day course that will take me through the entire month of December and into Three Kings' Day. Each day I will create a little page that tells a little about Christmas with my family. Thought this would be interesting to do right now since we are most likely moving into our new house in a couple of weeks. ACK!!!! Nothing like overloading my plate, as usual. At least I am consistent. ;)

Day 1 is the dedication page:

Day 2 is about winter:

Can't wait to see what we will be doing on Day 3! I am really enjoying this whole process. And now I should probably pack something. ;)

live

or... live if you're Liane

heh heh

www.speckledbirdart.com
my website. still a work in progress, but it's getting there. :)

let me know what you think!

Thankful for

these two kids. :)

First photo shoot

(click on the photos to see them a bit bigger and clearer - use the back button to get back to the blog)


I did my first photo shoot on Thanksgiving day with a beautiful family - the Liptaks. Valerie (the mom) is a wonderful friend of mine, and her family is just fabulous. It was very fun learning the dynamics of taking portraits this way... and even though the lighting wasn't ideal due to the time of day, we came away with some great shots. I burned them a CD of my shots and this was my "custom made" cover...

Here are some of my favorites of the day:



This is Peter, the oldest son. He's in this really cool band called Vintage and is an amazingly talented musician like his dad. He has the best heart and is one of the nicest, funniest people I know.

This is Vanessa and her husband Derek. Vanessa is an amazing stage actress and has been playing the lead in Footloose off-Broadway recently. Her husband, Derek, is a TV actor and most recently has been seen on HGTV Canada hosting a show called "Design to Win." They are so incredibly fun to be around - hysterically funny, amazingly talented.



Vanessa, Derek, Peter, and Stephanie. Steph is one of Jim and Valerie's "heart family" children. She's like a sister to Peter and Vanessa. Jim and Val call her their "red-headed step child" and love her like one of their own. Steph is in medical school right now - we are so proud!!! She's the one who coordinated the fabulous "Rent" night on Wednesday... her love of musicals, her passion for the arts, and her dynamic personality make her a perfect fit for the Liptak family.



Thanksgiving Day, 2005.

Seasons of Love

Wednesday night Rick and I will be seeing Rent with several of our closest friends over here! We've been listening to the Broadway soundtrack to get ourselves ready for the show. Totally excited that much of the original Broadway cast is in the movie... it's gonna be fantastic!

525,600 minutes....
how do you measure a year?

a little FYI for those of you that don't know...

putting a cell phone through your washing machine, however accidental, does clean it remarkably well.

However, it will no longer work.

I am sorely missing my phone book on there - if you are an out-of-town friend, chances are I no longer have your number, since they were all programmed on my phone. Send me an email, will ya? I have gotten a replacement phone (thanks Dad!), but I need to add numbers back in there.

apparently i needed to also show the inside of the new house.

well, here you go ;)

This is the living room. Fabulous red wall. I knew I would love it! The living room and dining rooms are connected.

This is the view from the living room looking toward the dining room/stairway. Family room and kitchen are just past the stairs.

Here's the family room, which is open to the kitchen. Just down that hall is a bedroom to the left (that will be my scrap room/office), full bathroom straight ahead, and laundry room to the right.

The kitchen - LOOK at all that cabinet space!! See how it extends all the way under the window?? YEAH!! Just to the left of the fridge is the pantry. Corian countertops with a recessed sink, too.... wooohooooooo!!

If you go up the stairs and turn right, you are in this room. This will be Violet's room. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's HUGE. 19x11 to be exact. SERIOUSLY huge. Plus a ginormous walk in closet. She will be in here for MANY years. :)

If instead when you go up the stairs you take an immediate left, you are facing the master bedroom with double door entry. You can't see it now, but there is a whole sitting area/nook to the right just as you go in the room.

The Master Bath. Separate tub/shower. YES. Glass block window. YES. Double sinks. YES. YES. Just to the left, off the picture, is the walk-in closet with sliding mirrored doors. AWESOME.

If, when you get to the top of the stairs, you make a left U-turn, you walk down a hallway. At the end of the little hall is a balcony that overlooks our entry way. Isn't that cool? Totally reminds me of the entry at Mom & Dad's house.

On the left side of the balcony is a set of double doors that opens up to our REC ROOM. This room is GINORMOUS. Seriously huge.

Riley's room is to the right of the balcony. It's also very roomy - 12x13. Moving in to this room from his little 10x11 room will be a BIG change for him! He wanted to keep the lizard in that tank there, but alas, it goes with the owners. Darn. ;)

Finally, the backyard. It's quite a bit larger than our current yard. Of course, no park attached, but that's okay. And yes, there is no grass. You may think this is bad... however, with my husband's lawn mowing track record, this is a good thing. A very good thing. ;)

So yes. The house is amazing. No, we do not have near the furniture to fill it. But that will all come in time. Right now, I am just going to be excited with the extra SPACE to BREATHE. :)

the new house

since Carl wanted to see it...















over 3000 square feet! can you imagine??!!!!!

Been tagged again!

Thanks Becky for tagging me! Sorry it took me a few days to get this posted! :p

2 names you go by
1. Mom
2. Jessie

2 parts of your heritage
1. Puerto Rican
2. Belgian

2 things that scare you
1. Spiders
2. creepy noises at night

2 of your everyday essentials
1. Reading the paper
2. drinking half a gallon of water

2 things you are wearing right now
1. my exercise shoes
2. my cool silver mesh ring from Tiffany's

2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment)
1. Rob Thomas
2. the Choir

2 favorite songs (at the moment)
1. Boys of Summer (remake by the Ataris)
2. Collide by Howie Day (our "kissing" song)

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love)
1. Honesty
2. Humor

2 truths
1. I am completely irrational
2. I am completely impatient

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex)
1. smile - good teeth
2. broad shoulders

2 of your favorite hobbies (besides scrapbooking??)
1. reading (not that I ever get to do it anymore.... *sigh*)
2. solving puzzles (crosswords, number puzzles)

2 things you want really badly
1. a Wacom tablet
2. the Bose iPod docking station

2 places you want to go on vacation
1. Jerusalem
2. Italy

2 things you want to do before you die
1. Go backpacking through Europe
2. meet my grandchildren :)

2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick
1. I get serious PMS
2. I love chocolate

2 things you are thinking about now
1. the new house we are buying
2. Christmas

2 stores you shop at
1. Target
2. Sams Club

2 people I would like to see take this quiz
1. Liane
2. Matt

Our House is up for sale!

A couple of weeks ago, I was randomly driving through a nearby neighborhood when I came upon a house for sale by owner... nearly twice as big as our current house and with all the amenities we desire, it would be a perfect move up from where we live now. The price was right, too... so we made an offer, and they accepted! Barring anything crazy, we will be moving in the very near future!

Our offer is contingent upon the sale of our current house, so if you know anyone that would like to move into a great starter home for young families, send them our way...

Our house is 1686 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and a 2 car garage.
We have custom paint and flooring throughout, including slate floors in the kitchen/dining room and granite countertops. The master bedroom boasts a beautiful custom wood ceiling. With surround sound in the living room, phone and cable jacks in every bedroom, and cable Internet hookups, this house is wired and ready for all your electronic needs. We are located in the desirable gated community of Lamplight Village in Centennial Hills and have direct backyard access to the neighborhood park. This energy efficient home has low-e windows, 2" faux wood blinds on all windows, and ceiling fans in every room. All the appliances (refrigerator, washer, dryer) are included in the sale price of the house as well.



So, hey... if you know anyone interested in buying a house, let me know!

Strike is over

Melinda, Liane, Mom, *and* Dad updated their blogs! Oh happy day!! :)

As promised, here are photos from Halloween! :)


Kids are ready to go. See Violet's "decorations" on the front door? She was upset that we didn't have any decorations to put up so she drew some scary pictures to hang on the front door ;)


Waiting for trick or treaters to arrive... Notice Riley's already helped himself to the candy we were supposed to be giving out... :)


Rick's scary costume - he was the Headless Horseman.... kind of... LOL!
While sitting in the car waiting for us to go trick or treating, he held the jack-o-lantern in front of his head... and it totally looked like the headless horseman was driving the car!!


Me & Melissa, whom I love. I am an Oompa Loompa. She's a disco diva. Haha!!


I love my Spider-Man!


Riley "shooting his web" at us...


What's Halloween without singing?? No fun at all, I tell ya!


Violet *loves* her Jasmine costume :)


Checkin' out the stash.... WAY too much candy!

And there you have it! Halloween with the Baldwins! Now wasn't that worth the wait? ;)

It's beginning to look

a lot like Christmas!
I've begun my holiday shopping (and I am quite proud of my purchases so far!), which means Christmas must be right around the corner!

Here's a fun distraction for you to enjoy. It's true! No two snowflakes are alike!!
Start cutting out some snowflakes and see if you can avoid a little holiday cheer!

Make a Flake!

I refuse to post pictures of Halloween

until my mom, my dad, and my sisters update their blogs.
SEROUSLY dad. Your last update was in MARCH.

Halloween

Halloween around here is always fun. The kids have a huge collection of "dress-ups" and costumes from Grandma Dee, and there's always something great for the kids to wear. This year, however, Violet really wanted to be Violet Incredible. No problem. Check out Disney Store.com - but they are sold out. That's fine... I would go to the Disney Store in town and pick up the costume. Except for one problem. Apparently all the Disney Stores in town have closed. Oops. When did *that* happen???

That's fine. I'll check out eBay. Well. The Violet Incredible costume that was her size was going for $160. Um, no thanks.

I decided to hunt around town to see what I could come up with. I did find and Incredibles costume at Wal-Mart, but it wasn't the really cool form-fitting one that Disney was selling. Oh and of course they didn't have one in Riley's size, and if Violet was going to be Violet, he wanted to be Dash. Ack.

That's when I saw it. Jasmine. PERFECT!!! She could wear her black wig, and we already had Aladdin, thanks to Grandma Dee. Fabulous!


Like the wig? Yep. It's the same one I was wearing when I was the Elsie-wannabe ;)


Violet loved it that I put fancy makeup on her :)


I could not believe he was actually wearing the wig. My son cracks me RIGHT up.

Violet loved wearing her costume to school. And her teacher, Mrs. Piccininni, loved it, too! For Halloween, Mrs. Piccininni becomes Mrs. WITCHininni!



Of course this weekend a big box arrived from Grandma Dee for Riley. Inside were more costumes - a firefighter, a tiger, Beast (from Beauty and the Beast), and SpiderMan. Riley has not taken off SpiderMan since it arrived. He even slept in it last night. So the costume choice may change by the time the 31st rolls around. I'll keep you posted as to what they wear when trick-or-treating ;)

Haircut Photos... and a few of Riley too

Here you go. I'm not *that* upset anymore. I mean, after I counted to... I don't know... a thousand... it wasn't all that bad...



And it's only one side. That's a plus, right? RIGHT??



And of course Riley is there to add a little comic relief to the mix. He is forever running around with a pull-up on his head, declaring that it is his "cooker hat!" and offering to bake things for us.





Well tonight he took it a step further... and decided to make himself look like a Power Ranger.
Um, ok...





Ahhhh yes. The things one boy can imagine with a diaper on his head. :)

Memo to Emily,

our next door neighbor little girl.

Don't come to our front door wanting to play with Violet when you are holding your kitten.
Barabbas will run out the door and try to eat it.
The kittie will claw you to escape, and hide under the neighbors bushes.
I will have to rescue the cat while restraining the dog and trying to calm the hysterical 4 year old girl.
And I hate cats.

That is all.

It was only a matter of time

before Violet decided to try her hand at cutting her own hair.

Indeed.
No photos yet. Still too upset.

Always fun! And cool too!

Find out the meaning in your name

here's mine...

Jessie

Wealthy one, He beholds : Hebrew

You are an inspiring leader whose originality, creativity and wisdom are applied to creating practical solutions to "unsolvable" problems. Humanitarian and idealistic your vision is to make the world a better place and you will work to this end. Hardworking and tenacious people admire you for your honesty and integrity. You are a loved and loyal friend and partner. You have the potential to achieve enormous success in the world.

and here's the info for my full name, Jessica:

Jessica

Wealthy one, He beholds : Hebrew

You are charming, talented and have a very positive attitude to life so it is hardly surprising that you attract success and recognition. Focussed and patient you understand that material rewards are a result of discipline. Being so creative and with a need for self-expression you may be drawn towards the arts, travel is also likely to be important. A loyal friend, you are a person who must be allowed freedom and independence.

Let me know what yours says!! :)

Phase 2 of the new 'do

Now I have Puerto Rican hair. :) :) :)

Cleaning out

my scraproom. Val, aren't you proud of me??

I am listing a bunch of stuff on ebay. Check it out...
My Ebay Listings

If you know anyone who wants this stuff, let 'em know of my fabulous ebay deals!!