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I started my New Year’s resolution today.

My resolution is to get in shape. And to cut down on the caffeine (that’s going to be TOUGH) and to drink more water. I think I can do it this time.

And yes, I am fully aware that it is January 5th.

I just like to start things on Mondays… I am OCD like that. It is too weird for me to start something in the middle of the week.

Today, Mr. Treaddie and I got reacquainted. I had a great routine going with him for a while last year, then I got busy and life happened and guess what part of my routine went first?

My goal is to do 30 minutes of alternating walking/jogging at least 3 times a week. And I want to drink at least 5 glasses of water every day. I know my kidneys will thank me!

And of course I had a workout buddy today.

She definitely marches to her own drummer

And I love that.

With the Christmas holiday behind us and 2009 underway, I can’t believe it is time to start thinking about Valentine’s Day already! Love is definitely in the air!

I have started planning for the lovey dovey holiday myself. I started working on an idea (that I swiped from Brenda that she did with her daughter last year). I am making K’s Valentine’s cards for preschool this year, and I wanted them to be cute and memorable. I got tons of great advice and input on the design yesterday and took it all to heart, and here is the (maybe) final version.

What do you think?

And my boys have BOTH informed me that if I make cutesy Vday cards and make them take them to school, they will kill me. :p

It was another lazy vacation day here at the Bell house. The kids only have one more day of Christmas vacation left so we are just vegging and hanging out together. I must admit I WILL be glad when they go back on Monday to get some peace and be able to get things done (and have them STAY done!).

So while the kids played Guitar Hero World Tour,

I sat on the couch with the laptop alternating between getting some work done and surfing the ‘net.

It’s a rough life, I’m telling ya.

Then a little later, Kaitlyn played “fingernail painter do’er” and painted my nails and hers. She is getting better but a lot of polish still winds up on our skin. Oh well, that is what nail polish remover is for, right?

I’m still playing with my new vintage actions… the first shot is my red vintage wash ran straight through and the next two shots are the red vintage ran over the photo after I had already converted it to black & white.

I also worked on a Valentine’s card for Kaitlyn to take to her preschool next month, I think I might be decently happy with it so I’ll share it tomorrow because I doubt I’ll have any exciting photos yet again. Spring can’t come soon enough, I can not WAIT to get back to shooting outdoors!

(I’m not even sure those are real words, but I’m using them anyway!)

I decided that instead of cleaning up K’s room today, as was the original plan, I would just slap on the fisheye lens and photograph it in all it’s glory- there has been a toy EXPLOSION in there since Christmas!

Plus I wanted to use my new actions, and what better photos to vintage wash up than photos in K’s room that is full of pinks and greens?

All of these are done with my new orange vintage wash action, I was having a hard time choosing between it and the red or blue vintages… it might be bragging but I just love them all!  I hope you guys don’t mind seeing photos processed this way because I have a feeling I will be using these actions on every photo I can!

Anyway, here is the princess, playing with her new obsession:  Her Caring Corners “Mrs. Goodbee” house and accessories.  She plays with this thing for HOURS- and I have to admit, it is pretty darned cute all the things it says and does- plus it teaches manners and sharing, so it’s educational to boot!

Here’s the whole disaster area of her room…

She didn’t even notice me taking her pic, even though I was literally a foot away from her!

Then, after she DID notice me, she thought the “twins” needed their picture taken:

Even now, I can hear her in her room talking to her toys in that super high-pitched voice she uses when she is pretend playing. I tell ya, I am going to miss hearing that when she does grow out of it!

Wow, I am a bad blogger!

I would LOVE to be able to say I have been off having amazing adventures and haven’t been around the computer to blog, but confession time:

I am completely and utterly obsessed with Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii.

There.

I said it, and I’m not ashamed! Now you know what has REALLY been taking up my time these past few days! I haven’t even picked up my camera at all, it was a nice little break.

I did, however, take ONE photo today. Austin finally let me make him an appointment to groom his self professed “man pelt” and I took an “after” photo (darnit, I didn’t think to take a before shot.)

Doesn’t he look SO grown up and handsome? That chin dimple just kills me. *swoon*

He wants to get contacts, so I know I will probably let him. He is such a responsible kid. Can you believe he will be THIRTEEN in April? Where did my baby go?

..and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

Their stockings were hung by the chimney with care

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

I hope everyone had the BEST Christmas ever!

I gotta say, all the chaos and stress that Christmastime brings to me is always completely worth it to see faces like these on Christmas morning:

and LOOK- even boy-who-never-smiles cracked one when he saw that guitar hero game!

Santa done good.

In the midst of all the cooking, cleaning, and chaos I just wanted to take a moment to STOP and wish everyone who reads this a wonderful holiday, whatever your beliefs. I truly cherish every friendship I have made this year and every comment that is left here on my blog is greatly appreciated. I hope that tomorrow you are all surrounded by friends and loved ones and the love of the season. Bless you all.

Today was the preschool Christmas program at K’s school. I have been to my share of preschool programs, and I may be completely biased here, but I gotta say this was THE cutest one I’ve ever seen! The kids were all so energetic in their singing and you could really tell they had practiced hard to learn the songs.

When the kids all came into the sanctuary, they all walked single file down the aisle, each carrying a small box wrapped in paper with a bow (a “present”) and one by one, they sat their gift on the floor beside the baby Jesus in the manger on the stage. It was SO touching, I teared up and I didn’t even think to get a photo of it. *sigh*

Of course MY child was the one who lost her shoes climbing up the steps… LOL.  Check her out putting them back on the wrong feet, of course!

They sang about 6 songs, the first song was “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”- hence the reason they all have antlers and red noses.

Here’s a shot where you can see how into it they all were, it was the cutest thing! (sorry about the blurred faces, I wanted to protect the other kids in the class):

After the program, Santa dropped by to visit with the kids and have cookies and lemonade- I was worried how K would react after last year’s Santa disaster, but this year she loved him and wanted to sit and chat with him all day. Unfortunately there were other children waiting in line to see him too, so she had to cut her visit short (or should I say, MOM had to cut her visit short, she was talking his ear off!).

I don’t have a “real” video camera but I tried to take a short clip with my cell phone. It’s horrible quality (both video and sound) but hey, it’s better than nothing. Too bad I couldn’t zoom in on K, I just had to take what I could get. She’s the 2nd one from the left, in the back row.

It’s hard to understand what they are saying, so here are the words:
3 little Christmas trees, standing all alone
Their hearts were very sad, cause they didn’t have a home
Then CHOP! went the axe
DOWN! went the trees
and off they went with happy families!

(the kids really got into the CHOP! part)

I spent the afternoon cleaning and baking cookies yesterday (I know, what is WRONG with me? LOL). I dunno, all of a sudden I was just in the mood.

And of course I had to set it all up so I could photograph the occasion…

I missed the theme last week, which was food (were supposed to share the recipe too), so I’ll share my secret cookie recipes today:

Chocolate chip cookies:

1. Go to grocery store.
2. Buy tub of premade chocolate chip cookie dough.
3. Scoop dough onto cookie sheet by spoonfuls
4. Eat a few spoonfuls while you’re at it.
5. Bake.

Sugar cookies:

1. Go to grocery store.
2. Buy package of precut sugar cookie shapes.
3. Put shaped dough on cookie sheet. Eat the leftover dough.
4. Bake.
5. If you’re feeling REALLY “Martha Stewart”, decorate the cookies with the pack of icing that came with them.

Hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?

So I just found out the other day that my new cell phone takes VIDEOS! How did I miss that? LOL.

I tried it out quickly with my (only) willing subject (guess who) and the quality is pretty crappy, but in a pinch to record short clips of things, it might be quite useful…

I just wanted to share this silly girl with the world- finally you can see and HEAR why this child is the light of my life, she is literally like this ALL THE TIME. It is exhausting but life is never dull with her!

She wanted to perform a couple of songs she learned at school… please pardon the shirtless child, she honestly does own clothes (and plenty of CUTE CUTE outfits!) but at home, she thinks she needs to be shirtless. Guess it’s because that is how her brothers are when they get home from school, the first thing to go (after the shoes and coat of course) are the shirts. *sigh* Also, please please ignore the background clutter! I swear I am a better housekeeper than what you see…

Without furthur ado, the videos!

(Words: A turkey is a funny bird, his head goes “wobble wobble”. And he knows just one word: Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!)

And here is her attempt at “Jingle bells”… LOL!