Guess who is back! A Catch up post!

Ok so I have been away, but it turned into a CRAZY few weeks. First of all, traveling for Christmas, Parties, New Years, traveling some more, I have been SICK for 2 weeks and well we may be moving! So you can imagine I am a tad distracted. But since the past few weeks are a blur I will use a few pictures to give you a glimpse and remind myself! First up, My DEAR SWEET Great Aunt Bea. She is the only thing I have that remotely resembles a grand-parent as my biological ones have long sense passed. ( when I was a kid) So Aunt Bea has assumed the role, whole-heartedly I might add! She is the best, FUNNIEST lady and I am SO blessed to have her!

So to kick off the season we started with a little party at a friends house! The day LESLEY wore a pull-up for the first time!

TOO FUNNY

She really likes being a big girl

Ok so then we hit the road to go to Augusta, GA the holidays with the in-laws. Up first was a trip to a beautiful light show in east nowhere GA. It was great except for the the temp, 35 degrees, and my lack of preparedness I was wearing LOAFERS! HA!

SO, after the great thaw (the ride home from the light show) I still had to wrap presents. But I had been up for 16 hours, had the day from you know where, and I had frostbite. SO I wasn't as concerned with perfection when wrapping like usual. HA! Here is the photo evidence my husband took while mocking me!

I mean really what are you supposed to do with this...

Wes would normally not mock me, especially when I have scissors at the ready, but I normally mock him mercilessly for his TERRIBLE wrapping skills, so it was his payback.

So then there was Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, otherwise known aas my 21 month got overwhelmed and we had to call it quits for a while! HA

But once attitudes were better we resumed Christmas!

Notice that face I am making, Not really sure what that is, but I am too lazy to find a better one!

My nephew got a big ole car, and they had more fun riding it Christmas Day!

Lesley showing off the shirt I made her for Christmas dinner. I am still upset I do not have picture of her dressed up from Christmas Eve services, but alas, I have a 21 month old. It is a miracle I remember to put on deodarant.

Ok so home from Augusta, and my darling cousin Audra came to visit. I am a photographer and we are working on some concept work I have and she was a good sport and modeled for me!

BTW Audra "Auab" is Lesley's FAVORITE person EVER!

So new years was totally uneventful as my sickness was starting to kick my butt and Lesley was/ is still cutting cutting 4 teeth! So we hung around the house... I am pretty sure we dont even have a picture. But we enjoyed chinese food, sweet and sour chicken which Lesley named "hiney chicken" God I love this child!

SO, my sickness, well that pretty much gets us current I am still sick. I go through waves of FREEZING and sweltering! Another hubby mocking pic.

Notice I am under the covers, with 2 layers of clothes and a ear warmer, oh and I was sitting in a heating pad!

Then to top off all the sicky fun we got SNOW! Which is SO exciting! I LOVE SNOW!

But we were so sick, hubby tried to go get meds... he didnt have much luck!

So even sick we had to play, there is still snow on the ground 3 days later, and it is COLD OUTSIDE! Thanks for sticking with me for a long post, and I am glad to be back!

Technical Difficulties and a WINNER!!

SO sorry I haven't announced the winner from the Linky party giveaway, or put up my tour for the Nesters party, but my computer was NOT cooperating yesterday! So with out further ado, the winner of the Magical Moments Pillow is JEN from http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/ Thank you to all who linked up and added comments! Jen just visit the shop www.littlechickendesigns.etsy.com and convo me which one you would like and your address and it will ship by Friday! Also, I do plan on still doing a tour, but i have to figure out why by computer isn't reading my camera card!grrr.... Have a great one, be back in a bit!
Lani

My Christmas Wish List

Ok, so everyone keeps asking me what I want for christmas. It is a really hard answer to give. I really do not need for anything, and frankly there isn't much I want for. What I do tend to want is more expensive and not anything I would dare put on a list. But for myself I thought I would make my wish list. If I could have 5 things under the tree for purely selfish reasons what would they be...

1. $17,000 to have all of the remodel work I want done to our house paid for! (this includes giving me a laundry room that isn't in the basement, where the morons who lived here before me moved it to)

2. A table saw! I have just about every other saw and this would be the PERFECT addition to my tool collection.

3. A new Sewing Machine I have one, and it works well, but I hate it's button hole function!

4. 2 new soft box lights and stand. I love soft box lighting for studio work. Plus I plan to become involved with NILMDTS http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/ this year, and a small one may come in handy.

5. Oh and a serger!

So there is my top 5. I hope to make at least a few of them become a reality very soon.

What about you? Is there anything you would really love to have?

I am officially done decorating!

SO I couldn't be more excited! I have officially finished my Christmas decorating and thank goodness, because I want to be ready for The Nesters Tour of Homes.
So now I can focus on several of my handmade presents, and finishing my Etsy shopping. I decided for Christmas this year I was going to get most of my gifts from Etsy, or make them, and I have discovered SO many great Etsy stores. SOOO, I am going to start featuring a store once a week! We are such a talented group of crafters, artists, and bloggers, that we deserve a little nod every now and then. If you have an Etsy shop and would like to be considered for a feature let me know! I will start next week and already hae several atores in mind. I think it will be a lot of fun! Make sure to join the Linky party and Giveaway!

Christmas Memory Linky Party and Giveaway!

I always enjoy linky parties, and who doesn't LOVE a giveaway! SO, I wanted to host a giveaway for Chistmas and make it a Linky Party. To participate you need to blog about your favorite Christmas memory from your childhood and then link it up to MckLinky! Make sure to mention in the post about the giveaway! Up for grabs is a Magical Moments Pillow Letter to Santa Pillow. You will get your choice of pillow to use for one of your own precious children or as a FABULOUS gift! The purpose of the pillow is to help create the magic of the season. For me the magic and wonder of this time of year makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! Also, coming soon, as in once things get a tad less stressful there will be prayer pillows, and tooth fairy pillows. I like the idea of Children writing letters to Christ or to their gaurdian angel. I digress, SO... blog, link it up, and on Monday. Dec 14th I will announce the winner!

http://www.littlechickendesigns.etsy.com/

 http://www.littlechickendesigns.etsy.com/

Tuesdays Unwrapped and Little Chicken Designs GIVEAWAY

So I have been stressing a ton lately. I have been given so many blessings, that at times I think they may actually be trials. It frightens me to think that God is making me stretch and grow when all I want to do is go back to bed. Change is frightening to me and it has been a VERY interesting 6 months. Then in the midst of some craziness I was given clarity! A friend said "why are you affaid?: sounds an easy enough question to answer right? WRONG! I was dumbfounded. When faced with the facts, that God is in charge, that God is leading this change, that God is all knowing, loving, and merciful, what was I afraid of? That same day I found this:

Don't Worry about anything;

instead, pray about everything. Tell God waht you need and Thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.His peace will gaurd your minds and hearts as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

I LOVE that our Lord "speaks" to us when we need to hear him. I love that we guides us to his words over and over again. I love that our Lord gently reminds us. It makes me try so hard as a parent to guide gently.

In the spirit of blessings and giving I wanted to give, and I hope that in giving something made be me through blessings, you are blessed!

I wanted to host a giveaway for Chistmas! To participate you need to blog about your favorite Christmas memory from your childhood and then link it up to MckLinky! Make sure to mention in the post about the giveaway! Up for grabs is a Magical Moments Pillow Letter to Santa Pillow. You will get your choice of pillow to use for one of your own precious children or as a FABULOUS gift! The purpose of the pillow is to help create the magic of the season. For me the magic and wonder of this time of year makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! Also, coming soon, as in once things get a tad less stressful there will be prayer pillows, and tooth fairy pillows. I like the idea of Children writing letters to Christ or to their gaurdian angel. I digress, SO... blog, link it up, and on Saturday Dec. 12th I will draw the winner!

Busy Bee

Good Gracious I am busy! I am almost done puttin gup my tree and decorations. I am also almost done sewing for the year. I have almost started Lesley's new play room! OMG I can't wait to show it to you.

I mean to post everyday, I come up with great things, then when it comes time, I can't remember a thing! So I have decided that instead of keeping a pad of paper and pen with me at all times (because I enevitably lose the pen) I will start carrying a micro recorder with me to record what I am thinking... wonder if it will help? HA! Anyway, I have makign ornaments and all sorts of presents, and I hope to have time to show it all to you in the next few days so stay tuned.



PS: the bathroom redo that I started like 6 months ago is finally done! Will have pics up this week.