catch the moment: week fifty-one

Gallery posted on December 26, 2014December 26, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

Okay y’all, it’s 11:22pm on Christmas night and I know I won’t have another chance to do this before next week. I can’t start slacking off 51 weeks into this project, can I? So here are my merry, festive, week-leading-up-to-Christmas pictures. Week FIFTY-ONE, guys! Wow…

Linking up with Sarah, Mindi, and Stephanie. Who’s interested in joining for the new CTM365 starting in January? Come on… it’s really not that hard.

351/365 – Wednesday, December 17th: We met up with some friends for dinner then headed to the library for a little Christmastime event they told us about. This “elf” showed us all kinds of critters and then the big reveal (about an hr + later) was his reindeer! It was pretty cool! Theo thought it stunk…

352/365 – Thursday, December 18th: Sharing secrets with Santa (be still my heart). This morning, after checking out the living room, Theo came to my bedside and said “you know Mom, there’s more than one Santa. You know that, right?” I asked him why on Earth he’d think that, to which he replied “because the one at the mall this year was different from the one the year before.” HOW?? Well, in this picture he looks pretty smitten with that jolly man (or maybe he’s just thinking to himself, “this is a hoax”). Too smart. Too observant.

353/365 – Friday, December 19th: Can someone say hashtag bathroom selfie? Ryan’s parents kept the boys for the weekend. I went to a concert with these girls and some others that we met up with later while Ryan did a little shopping. What a fun night.

354/365 – Saturday, December 20th. More Christmas shopping, wrapping, etc etc etc. And this is what my house looked like when I finally gave up and went to bed Saturday night.

355/365 – Sunday, December 21st: I was craving some comfort food and made-from-scratch potato soup sounded good. What was even better is that Theo (not usually interested in helping me in the kitchen, unlike his brother who won’t leave my side typically) wanted to be involved in every step of making the soup. We spent a nice hour bonding and cooking together and I loved it. And he loved the soup! Funny how that works. Here’s the recipe.

356/365 – Monday, December 22nd: Our 3rd annual Christmas card tree. It got all the way down to the baseboard by Christmas day. Receiving Christmas cards is something I look forward to every day this time of year!

357/365 – Tuesday, December 23rd: I decided to prep everything that I could prep ahead of time on Tuesday night since we were hosting Ryan’s parents on Christmas eve and Christmas day. It was a ton of work Tuesday night but so worth it the next 2 days. First time I ever bought fresh jalapenos, too. We had THIS white chicken chili for lunch the next day (amazing). You are so welcome for the recipes this week. 🙂

So next week I will wrap up this year of photos! Crazy…looking forward to seeing how everyone else who completed the project this year wraps it up.

Which picture is your favorite this week? Those first two with my cuties enjoying the Christmastime festivities sure make me smile. So do my girlfriends. So did that soup. Okay, what’s new? I can’t decide.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: week fifty

Posted on December 18, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

Say what!? Did I just type “week fifty”???? Every night I have plans of blogging about something…ANYTHING! But there’s always a list of a hundred other things to do this time of year. Why do the weeks and days leading up to the most wonderful day have to be so stressful and jam-packed with tasks?

Can’t believe there are only a couple weeks left in this project and this year! I plan to keep moving forward. Learning about photography. Maybe finally take a class. Get better equipment. Practice, practice, practice. Linking up with Sarah, Mindi, and Stephanie for these last 3 weeks of Catch the Moment 365 (2014 edition).

344/365 – Wednesday, December 10th: A few minutes of cartoons before pre-school while I finished packing their lunches.

345/365 – Thursday, December 11th: That “Oh-Crap-it’s-11:29pm-and-I-haven’t-taken-a-picture-yet-today-and-it’s-December-11th-and-I’m-not-gonna-screw-up-this-Project365-now” shot? Yeah, this is it. The little tree in the boys’ room.

346/365 – Friday, December 12th: Cute little downtown Franklin, Indiana on a Friday night.

347/365 – Saturday, December 13th: Took some pictures of this sweet little Santa for his mama/my good friend. 348/365 – Sunday, December 14th: Finally! I’ve only wanted a mantel for 2.5 years on this giant brick fireplace. We had one built and Ryan and his dad installed it on Sunday.

349/365 – Monday, December 15th: A little more detail of our newest piece of furniture. This thing is HUGE! I don’t even know how to begin to decorate it! I need STUFF.

350/365 – Tuesday, December 16th: My little holiday Batman.

What’s your favorite this week? That sweet little Santa with his big beautiful eyes on Day 347 stole my heart.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: week forty-nine

Gallery posted on December 10, 2014December 10, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

I should really be addressing my Christmas cards tonight so I’m going to try to make this quick. We had a fairly festive weekend, despite 2 of our 4 planned get-togethers being canceled due to puking kids (theirs, not ours). Then one of the children at the 3rd get-together was throwing up after we left. By Sunday morning, I felt doomed that we would be throwing up by the end of the day. So far, so good…knock on wood! It’s that time of year. As I selected and edited my pictures for this week, I realized that I’ve done an extra crappy job of taking photos of my kids lately. I will have to focus on that – it’s just getting hard to get a decent picture of them because it’s almost dark by the time we get home and the lighting is poor inside by then. Add in the fact that they rarely ever stop moving and well, it sucks. BOO winter!

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie again this week for Catch the Moment 365.

337/365 – Wednesday, December 3rd: We always check the mail first thing when we get home. Theo LOVES to do this and he and Dexter literally race to the mailbox each day.

338/365 – Thursday, December 4th: We got all of our decorations up early this year, thanks to being home over Thanksgiving weekend. Love pulling up to this sight at the end of a work day! Our home looks so cheery and festive this time of year.

339/365 – Friday, December 5th. When our play date got canceled, Ryan suggested we go to the YMCA for a free gingerbread building activity. As you can see, it was very busy but also very fun. This was the first time I had ever built one, too!

340/365 – Saturday, December 6th. Our friends’ sweet 2 month old baby girl at their annual Festivus party. Good grief, she smelled amazing and is the best little cuddler!

341/365 – Sunday, December 7th: We celebrated our favorite little 6 year old’s birthday at a gymnastics party. She was over the moon excited and so adorable when we all sang happy birthday to her. She’s officially a big girl with a bunch of friends from school at her party. And PS, she designed her own cake! So super cute.

342/365 – Monday, December 8th: Playing with bokeh in my poorly lit living room. Ugh.

343/365 – Tuesday, December 9th. After failing to get any decent pics of my kids, I decided to take a picture of Theo’s choice for his ornament this year. I mean, he likes pizza and all but…okay. The randomness on our tree multiplies each year. I’ll have a pretty, themed tree one day. Maybe.

So that’s it for this week – maybe not the best pics ever, but they captured what we’ve been up to and that’s all that matters. I love the sweet little girls and I also love day 338 – our exterior lights at home. Which picture is your favorite this week?

~C~