Make a Smilebox scrapbook

before after

My hard working hubby & his hard working friend spent the day hanging up 2 new lights inside our house & 1 light on the front porch & a new ceiling fan on our patio! Here's a photo of our new dining room light... isn't it pretty! Meanwhile, wish me look at trying to sell the old one on Craig's list!

The relationship between a mother & son is SO sweet! Everything my son does is just so adorable to me! One of the adorable things he does is crawling up to the front of the car & pretending to be a driver. He's such a cutie pie!!!

I can't believe how much she has changed! I love her SO much!!!

This is one of my favorite Christmases ever (so far). My daughter is finally old enough to be so excited about Santa & Jesus' birthday & the presents she will get. That makes it so much fun! She's already learned how to sing Jingle Bells & You better watch out! The other night we watched Polar Express & she loved it. However, it was past her bedtime & she fell asleep half way through it.

My husband & I watched an interesting ABC show about kids who are adopted from Russia. An unbelievable number of the kids end up with various behavior problems & are so uncontrollable that sometimes the parents wish to UNadopt them! As an adopted child, it made me so sad to hear that some of the parents actually treated the whole adoption process kind of like a transaction; one that could be refunded as needed. Anyways, the program made me even more thankful to my two parents for adopting me & never giving up on me even on my worse days. They gave me a great life & I am so thankful to them for that!

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My mother in law requested a photo of both kids to include in her Christmas card. After about 20 not so great photos of two silly kids, my husband & I got desperate! We ran & got some cookies out of the pantry, held them above the camera & said "if you smile, we'll give you a cookie". It worked! Let's see if you can figure out which picture we sent to Grandma.

My son turned two today! We had a small family celebration at our house. Our daughter pouted a bit at first because she couldn't understand why it wasn't her birthday (again). Other than that, we enjoyed having everyone over. I have continued my mom's tradition of making & decorating a cake each year for my kids. It always meant so much to me when my mom spent time making a cake for me each year. I plan to do the same for my kids! Well, I'm pooped from a weekend full of celebrations & am now heading to bed!

Look what I found at the consignment shop! It retails for $200 & I got it for $100. I took in a bunch of baby items to sell, earned $100 & walked out with this jeep for free! The kids LOVE it. They will spend hours driving it around & around the backyard. My son loves the ride, while my daughter demands that she's the driver. The only thing they argue about is what to play on the 'lil radio that included... I think they've watched their mommy & daddy fight over radio tunes one too many times. What a great buy!

For my husband's birthday, I took him to a VERY nice restaurant, The Grotto! It was such a great date! We enjoyed a candlelight dinner while our kids had fun with the babysitter! We ate an appetizer trio, yummy steaks, & a chocolate dessert. We had our babysitter take a picture of us because it's been a long time since we both were dressed up. I can't wait 'til our next date!

Summers are a blessing! I love being able to have three months to be a stay at home mom. This summer we went to the waterpark, played in the sprinkler, made homemade glitter, created a waterslide in our backyard, ate at ChickFilA ALOT, & had park play dates. It was a blast for me & my kids!

My daughter had her birthday party at the pumpkin patch & it was a blast! She loved riding on the train with her daddy, jumping in the bounce house with her brother, riding on the hayride tractor with her friends and family, and (she of course) loved opening gifts and eating cupcakes.

My two kiddos were M&M's this year for the Primrose Annual Parade of Costumes. My daughter wasn't very cooperative when I tried to take a picture of her. But, here's my son! My kids love going to their school each day & for that I am very thankful. My daughter has a new friend named "Joel" & she loves singing all the new songs that she learns at school each day. My son loves his teacher, Ms. Rhonda, & he enjoys playing with the farm animal collection in his classroom.

One of my friends knows how much my hubby loves cute puppies. So, she showed him the picture of Autumn, a puppy who needed to be adopted for free. Three days later, Autumn was living at our house! She is a cutie! Our other dog, Sammy, loves playing with her & the kids just think she's the neatest thing ever (except when she tries to eat their toys). The most important thing I've learned from all this is that puppies are so much easier than newborns (& almost just as cute).