I decided to take my own photos for our Christmas cards again this year, simply because there are so many talented people out there in cyberspace who can design me a custom card, rather than having to pick a pre-made card with only one picture AND they are cheaper! I'm not posting the final images from our cards, but I WILL post some of the cast-offs. They are still super cute, they just didn't make the cut! My Christmas cards are being designed now, and will hopefully be completed soon...

In the meantime, maybe these will hold you over!
With this outfit, I took over 200 pictures and the ones below were the only ones I liked!! It was a nightmare! She would absolutely NOT sit still when I was trying to take these pictures!!!! I finally gave up and started bribing her with chocolate, and if you'll look closely at one of these pics, she's got chocolate all over her face!!!






This photo "shoot" went way easier. I only took like 10 pictures and got what I was looking for. It was really tough deciding which of these to use on my cards!

Winter Wonderland????

Whoever coined this song did NOT live in a snowy area!!!!

Another song I don't get is "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas". Another case of not living in snowland like we do, because I am dreaming of a brown Christmas in Arkansas. I even asked Nic the other day if it would be too hard to snow blow the entire yard. He told me to go ahead....:s

We've got at least a FOOT of snow on the ground and I am soooooo done with it. I can't go anywhere, because the only car that will make it through this mess is the jeep and Nic takes that to work, and besides, I don't know if I can tackle driving that by myself. So Abi and I have been stuck here for the past WEEK!!! We did take one outing...to Wal-Mart for groceries. That was the longest grocery trip ever because I did NOT want to leave!

Oh, it's not all bad! We've actually had a lot of fun in our wintery land. I made us all some snow ice cream last night and Abi and I love it...Nic of course said it is too sweet! We are going out tomorrow to play in all this snow and make Abi's first snow man.

Here are a few pictures of all of our snow:

I don't know if you can tell, but that is our bird bath buried out in all that snow. Just so you can see how deep it is!!


This is my front yard. Even the driveway is covered! We are having someone come out to clear all that snow later today. I think it would take Nic 2 or 3 days to uncover the driveway from all that snow. These guys will probably do it in like an hour - they have their own snow plow!!


This is Anthony's boat that he parks here...and forgot to cover!!! He'll have fun cleaning it out this spring...if he can find it!!!!!!!!!!


And here are a few of Abi that I took the other day. I was taking pictures of some stuff for craigslist and she kept jumping in the picture. She was in such a cute mood!


I wish this one wasn't so fuzzy! I love this picture!

It snowed again the other day putting us up to about 5 inches on the ground -- WAY more than Abi had ever seen before, and the amount of snow she will see this winter is only going to continue to grow!!! She really liked the snow -- kind of like the water!! -- she DID NOT want to come in!!!!

Larry and Betsy got Abi a sled while they were in town. They got a two person sled, specifically for Abi and Titan to be able to ride together.

....but of course Daddy had to try it out with Abi too!!!!


This was at the beginning of the day, when we first went outside. Daddy was helping Abi get used to the sled.


Here's a few pictures from when everybody was here for Thanksgiving. Abi wanted to go snowboarding with the big kids!!!


And here's a picture of Abi with the boys and Candace. She was really excited about all of the attention she was getting!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

One of the great things about living in Wisconsin now, it that it gets cold so early! The weather here is definitely putting me in the Christmas spirit. Here are a couple of pictures of the living room all decorated for Christmas. We had a Christmas party for some people from Nic's work on Tuesday and had a great time!




These other pictures are from a Christmas parade we went to before Thanksgiving. It was super cold, so we all bundled up in our best winter gear (thank goodness Abi's snowsuit had arrived THAT DAY!!!) She kind of looks like a marshmallow in her suit though!


Waiting for Santa Claus...


Watching the parade with Mommy!

I lost my camera cord for a couple weeks, so I have a lot of posts to do today!! Here's a post from another trip to the waterparks a couple of weeks ago. Abi really does love it there and would probably go and have a blast every day if I would let her!

Here she is on the baby slide with Daddy. She sort of liked it, I thought, but check out her stomach muscles, she looks like she's trying to stop, but can't!! Poor baby!



Here's a happy picture of her in the water swing. She TOTALLY loves the water!!! If you look close, she's kind of blue...she's FREEZING!! But she doesn't care, she will still scream if we try to take her out of the water!


Here's Abi and Mommy floating in the lazy river. I love the tubes they have here. I've never seen anything like them, but they are perfect for small children!


Here she is lounging and having a snack at the end of the day...


And then she collapsed! She just couldn't play any more!!!!


More to come....