A Very Hardy Christmas

For Christmas this year we went to my sister's house in Eugene, Oregon. The weather was chilly but foggy which felt really cool. We had almost the entire family there, minus my brother who had to open a golf course at 5am in Arizona. Sad bro! My parents were there from Tucson as was my grandpa from Wisconsin. It was glorious. We ate like kings. Literally. Filet mignon, ribs, ham. HELLO!!!! It was so great.

We went to a lackluster church service Christmas Eve. I call it that because I had to imagine what was being said as we watched it from the freezing vestibule. Honestly, didn't bother me. Kind of preferred it. Christmas was a blast. All was fab. The kiddos got their very first 4-wheeler and LOVED it. I want one. We helped put together our first toy kitchen. My nephew Sam, nearly 3, totally took it over. Next year he will be enrolling in the Cordon Bleu Academy. Oh! We saw Avatar in 3D before we left. Holy mother drop whatever you are doing now and see it in 3D. Now. Still reading? Seriously? What did I say?

Here are a few pics that I snapped this weekend at my sister's house.
Let's start with my absolute favorite, shall we? Happy on. Happy off. Happy on. Happy off.


And then we have Libby with the crazy blue eyes.

Sisters, sisters.

Mr. Sam



The big guy himself


Santa came!








Hol's new camera

2010 Resolutions

AKA, things that might never happen.

1. Take my gym membership from FAT TAX (once a month payment to the gym but never going, hence large badunkadunk) to actual membership. This means I will have to be an active participant. I am hopeful.

2. Study and finish MLKs online photography class. Actually do the lessons. Learn to use my flash.

3. Make jewelry for fun again. Not that filling orders isn't fun but I want to start designing new things and expanding my shiz. I want to solder more and be good at it.

4. Set-up and learn to shoot indoors in a studio setting.

5. Shoot one senior photo session. Not hate myself for it. Feel good'ish about it. Note, must find DARING individual with low to no expectations.

6. Finish Boise Ad Fed website.

7. Cook more. Plan ahead. Make meals for the week. Eat out less.

8. Give this "saving" thing a go. Cough. Sorry, it's a hard word to say.

9. Put at least ONE stamped letter in the mail and send it. Don't find it in a pile on your desk. Just one.

10. Say no. Slow it down a hair. Just a hair though. No need to go gettin all crazy.


Alright, those are the top 10. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned. Xmas photos coming later.

Lots of champagne and a new dress size

This weekend was my good friend Lindzee's Annual Champagne Cookie Exchange. It was glorious, fattening and liver damaging. Everything wonderful about the holidays. Her blog is one of 24 featured on foodbuzz.com. I always love it when people get on facebook to complain about how busy they are. I always think, then why the heck are you facebooking about it? So in an effort to not be them, and actually get my WORK done...I will just direct you to the wonderful words of dear Lindzee. Here are some pics of the night/day/morning.





Here I am on my 3rd trip through.

HO HO HO

One of our friend's at my husband's office asked me to take photos of their little people Christmas party at the office. Assuming that since I own a camera and enjoy "photography" that I would be a good fit for this job. Oh for the love. I am SOOOO bad at indoor photography. It is definitely high on my list of priorities for things to perfect next year but next year was not tonight. No sirry bob it was not. It was in a really high room so I couldn't bounce the flash off of much. The kids didn't really look at me. I felt slightly awkward but I also had a good time and hope that they didn't notice that I was clueless. Maybe next year I will be better!!!! Fun night though.
Here are a few of the munchies.

Tis the season for JEWELS!

I have been keeping my hands quite busy lately filling numerous jewelry orders. It's a really good problem to have and I have been having all sorts of fun doing it. In fact, in one of the photos you can see what sort of fun my hands have been having. They are chapped and disgusting. But I LOVE it. The custom orders have been the biggest hits from both friends, significant others of friends and plenty of random people. I had to make the photo below a little blurry in case any wandering eyes stumble on this blog and see their xmas present before xmas. I would sure be in trouble!!! Yupsy daisy. I am trying to stockpile my jewelry money for my trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February. It is the largest gem show in the entire world. CRAZY cool. It takes a couple of days to get your shopping done and obviously, fundage. Working on that part. Anyway, rambling now. Conan is on in the other room keeping me rocking. Why am I blogging right now? Back to the jewels!

Still married

Well...we beat the odds. Nick and I went shopping together last night at Target and managed to respect our sacred vows throughout the night. We are still married folks. Anyone who has stepped foot inside a store of any kind with my husband will understand that this is no small feat. I really wanted to go xmas shopping with him for whatever reason; chalking up some quality time when we don't have much time for it. In order to make it a, dare I say, pleasurable experience I had my list organized by department so we were able to cruise the aisles like the lady mall walkers. It was actually fun. I can't believe we made it to the end of the night with our marriage intact. I expect to be knighted for this. I have to stay off the phone, pretty sure the queen will be calling any minute to schedule my appointment.

The Thomas Clan

This afternoon I took pics for some friends of ours. It was downright toasty today at a whopping 28 degrees. I much prefer that to the -3 we have been waking up to. So I threw on my bikini in celebration and stepped out to meet them. That last sentence is a dirty lie. A dirty lie. Will you look at those dogs, er I mean reindeer? How flipping cute are they! (Not a question). They were so preoccupied with the ducks on the river that we had a hard time wrangling them in but we managed to get a few.

This makes me happy.









Are you not seriously dying laughing right now? Look at that SMILE!

Duck huntin'