Home decor...

My last post for my thankful November is light and fluffy....I am thankful for decorating my home! I am in a big overhaul mode right now and I want to change so much!! I am thankful that my husband is willing to paint....he is in the midst of it right now....neither of us are sure about the new color, but we will see...it is a little more of a greyish/white than the cream that I was hoping for!

I am also thankful for the day after Thanksgiving sale that I went to at Christine's house...She was a Southern Living at Home consultant and it was bought out. She was a leading sales woman for the company, so she had tons of stuff that she wanted to sell! I grabbed this shower curtain knowing that it was going to be a perfect match...it was only $5...so excited!!! I got to shop at her house and the kids got to play with her kids...it made life so easy!

Douglas's cooking...

I am thankful for Douglas's cooking...He has always been a better cook than me...He is a "natural" and I am a recipe follower. I am SO appreciative that he likes to cook and does it often for us...breakfasts, lunches and dinners...He is a great cook and is always whipping up something new.

After Thanksgiving I was sure that he would want a little break...I was surprised to come home on Saturday evening to find Douglas cooking...Not only was he was making Vodka Sauce for the first time (my favorite), he was also making HOME MADE pasta!! Crazy!!

It was delicious and I even thought that I had a little buzz going on from the Absolute!

Thanksgiving traditions...

I am thankful for Thanksgiving! I am so happy that we have started a tradition for our family...For the past 5 years we have hosted and our families have come. It is the only holiday that Tyler and Kelsi get to have both sets of grandparents with them at the same time. For the first couple years, we ordered a pre-made dinner but for the last few, Douglas has done the cooking....He is great at it!

We usually play a couple of games, eat, play a few more, etc! This year Jorja, Jeff and Sue stopped by too!

This must be where I get my tickling from! My parents are ticklers too!

Before everyone started heading out, we grabbed a quick family picture for Tyler and Kelsi...

Then I jumped in for one and Douglas took it...He of course didn't want to jump in...surprising!

A mother that loves to be a grandmother...

I am thankful for my mother...She is in love with being a grandmother. She turns 60 next month and is FULL of energy. She can have the kids from the morning until the evening and not look tired! She loves to take them places and play with them....games, puzzles, art projects, visiting the mall, feeding the animals, to the movies, Children's Museum, swimming, bowling, and more. I used to do these types of things with her and the kids, but now with my work schedule, she usually does it on her own (or with my Dad if he has a day off). I GREATLY appreciate all of her help and I know that she loves her alone time with the kids too.

The pictures below are from last week...She asked Kelsi if she wanted to paint her nails...It was Kelsi's first time painting someone else's nails and she LOVED it!! Tyler then got in on the act and then I let Kelsi paint mine too!  The whole project probably only lasted 10-15 minutes, but was such a special time...

Thank you mom for all of your help and thank you for being such an involved Noni!

6 more things to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving has come and gone and tomorrow is the first day of December! I want to wrap up my month of thankfulness with my final 6 things that I am thankful for....6 more will make the 30 days of November!

I am thankful that I have a little boy that is enthusiastic about doing homework and a little girl that is always willing to help!

Tyler had his first homework assignement just before Thanksgiving...He had to decorate the tree that Mrs. Sherman sent home. He had to add picture or draw each person in his family and we had to write the one sentence that he said about each person. While Tyler was doing this, Kelsi was a bit jealous...She wanted a tree and needed attention to help draw one on her easel and write her name on it!

Look closely at the tongue....I used to do that when I was coloring/concentrating too!

Although both of them are little helpers, Kelsi always needs something to do, so she is ALWAYS ready to help! On Thanksgiving I wrote everyone's names on cardstock so that they could go in the turkey holders...Kelsi helped me put them in each one. When I turned my back for a minute, she had opened the permanent Sharpie marker and was writing all over her name tag. Although she likes to "help", she isn't quite there yet with actually being productive...she is still a litte work in progress!

Crops...

I am thankful for crops....When I first started scrapbooking, I did it in the comfort of my own home. I couldn't understand why people would want to spend money to go somewhere to scrapbook when you could do it from home for free.

NOW that I have children and a busy home life, getting out to a crop is fabulous...It is really the only time that I can find time to actually scrapbook! I LOVE crops for the time that I have set aside to only scrapbook, for the social time with friends, and for doing something I love with my "out-of-the-house" time.

These pictures are from January 2009 at Right at Home. January is a great scrapping month for me because the winter is a bit slower for my photography business. January is also the time that Erica, Rebecca and I head to the Holiday Inn, Taunton for a weekend crop. Friday at 6pm through Sunday at 2pm...just fabulous!

Loving kids...

I am thankful for kids that love each other and play together...most of the time! We absolutely have our moments of fighting and jealousy, but overall, there are quite a few things that they love to do together. They love to play outside (especially in the sandbox), they love to play house (cooking with their kitchen and playing with their "teddy" animals upstairs), they both love to do puzzles and art projects together and they love play-doh.

Just recently, Pat (our daycare lady on Mondays) told me that she has never seen such a loving brother. When he is there, he is saying, "Kelsi, sit next to me, Kelsi play with me, Kelsi here have this, Kelsi I love you....This is MY sister Kelsi." She can't get over it!  That made me so happy...I hope that he is always protective of his sister and that they always remain close as they get older!

Trips to Florida...

I am thankful for our trips to Naples...Tyler and Kelsi love to visit their Noni and Nono and sleep in their house. Tyler talks about his "bed on the ground" there all the time (and Kelsi talks about sleeping in her bathroom - but that will change this year!). They love the pool, the beach and the zoo that we always visit! We are thankful that we will be making our annual trip again this year...Special thanks for our "early" Christmas present of airline tickets!!

(Photos from April 2009)

Cousins....

I am thankful that my children have cousins...Although we don't get to see everyone very often, we spend a lot of time talking about everyone! It is something that I had always wanted as a child (my two cousins were quite a bit older than me, so we weren't together very often), so I am so happy that my children will grow up with theirs!

.com computer....

Today I am thankful for Tyler's Click-Start Computer...He got it when he was two and couldn't really use it until he was 2.5 almost 3 (Here he is 3.5). He still uses it almost everyday...and he has learned SO much from it! I honestly think that he learned how to write his name from it - just from seeing his name and letters so much!

Just this week, he is now calling it his ".com computer" (dot-com computer). I think he hears web addresses on all of the tv stations, and he has now associated it with his computer....he is such a riot!!

Good friends...

I am thankful for good friends...This weekend we went out for Douglas and Brent's birthdays...We headed to CBS Sports Scene (overlooking the stadium) and had a great time. Douglas was overly thrilled when we had the waiters sing to them...it is totally his favorite thing (haha)....The super cool thing is that the cakes were "on the house"...Todd and Troy went to school with the manager and he totally knew Erica and even recognized me...amazing...So nice of him...

This is the same group that went to Falmouth this summer for a couples weekend...We have since named it The Falmouth Shore after a slightly rough end to our night...reminiscent of the show The Jersey Shore that is very popular now!  So I have to say that I am thankful for my Falmouth Shore Friends!

Home cooked meals and a fabulous pot...

I am thankful for home cooked meals...Most often they are made by Douglas (in the recent couple of years), but sometimes, I make the time to cook (and if not, I am his little helper!). Regardless of who does it, it is always nice to have a hot meal at the end of the day. We always eat as a family (except for when I am working - then they are down to 3), but for a little while there recently, we were eating out more often than we should. We have gotten back on a "home cooked  meal" kick for the last few weeks and I am thankful for that. These pictures are from one night when I cooked. I made a Kale and Lentil soup from a Racheal Ray recipe and used my dutch oven that I am also thankful for! It is a rather expensive pot, but it well worth it! There are so many recipes that call for it and it works like a charm!!

Photography...

I am so thankful to say that I am a photographer...I can now say that with confidence and I love every single thing about it (ok...maybe except for all of the computer hours!).

I love the actual act of taking pictures, I love meeting so many new and fabulous people, I love the creativity of picture taking AND the endless artistic editing possibilities, and I love having an income (again!)!

I do believe that I was always meant to do this...I have always been "artistic" (as people would call me), but I have never felt good enough...I have always felt that my "good-genes" were evenly distributed...I am ok at everything, but never excel at any one thing. Even when I won the Art Award senior year, I could name at least two other classmates that deserved it more, but they just never applied themselves and took the classes. It made me feel like a fake.

With photography, I feel like I have found my niche...With a ton of practice and a ridiculous amount of dedication over the last 2.5 to 3 years, I am feeling the most confident that I have ever felt. I feel that I am officially a true "artist" and that I can stand on my own two feet doing it - without any help. I can officially call myself a photographer and say it proudly.

 Photography has opened up a whole new world for me...literally. I meet so many new people in the industry and with my clients. I get to revisit my past (like in the picture below), and I capture my family in a different way. Photography has made me see my family and my life, through the eyes of a camera...which also makes me feel like it is from a birds-eye-view. There are so many fantastic things that photography as done for me personally and professional and for that I am thankful...

The picture above was taken by my second shooter Sharon from the balcony...I am the one squatting in the isle...That is the church that I grew up attending in Foxboro. I received First Communion (I believe) and Confirmation there. I also got married there 9 years ago. I am not sure if I have been back since then. I have to say that it was a bit amazing being the photographer there...it felt like a full circle moment.

The picture above is MY LIFE....I sit at this desk 10+ hours a day, working on my two computers...It is a bit scary when I think about it. The cake was a RIDICULOUSLY good cake that Douglas had made me for Valentine's Day....It honestly put 5 pounds on me because I ate it for days....

This picture is a shining example of what my love of photography brings to our family....It is a perfect moment captured during our first time as a family on our new boat (June 2010).