Christmas Edition...

The Christmas edition of the Daily Scrapper is up! Click here!

Christmas gifts!

I have been making so many Christmas gifts this year and I'm loving every minute of it. In the past I didn't really think people enjoyed the things that I was making for them but in the last few months it seems that some have actually requested them. So this year I am attempting to make something for everyone on our gift list. The downfall is that I'm about to bust with excitement when I finish something. Typically I would post about it so I could share it with someone (yes I can show the boys in my household but they just don't get it all the time!). Two gifts however were already given so I can share the info with you all! Last year Ali Edwards shared what she did to record the Christmas season. So this year I decided to give it a go. But instead of just making 1 album I made 3 and gave two as gifts. This gift does come with work because the recipient has to add to it as the month of December goes on. Here is the album before the month begins. I had so much fun picking out random things to put in here and am getting so excited to start filling it with memories! I'll show you the completed album again in January.

Tomorrow also marks the start of Advent. Last year I started a tradition that each day we pull a slip of paper out of our advent box. The slips include various things like activities, treats or acts of service. I'll keep you posted on how this goes too. Jameson didn't get into it too much last year but this year I believe it will be enjoyed!

So are you making any gifts this Christmas season? Share yours with me!

Thanksful for...

“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.” Psalm 118:19 (NIV)

Here is a limited list of the things I'm thankful for right now:

• Family to share a wonderful Thanksgiving feast (pictured here are the pies that dear hubby prepared).


• A little boy that says he is thankful for: His 4-wheeler, motorcycle, our house and God (his words exactly). Isn't he the cutest, here he was praying while practicing for his upcoming school performance.


• The bible to be able to read and learn from on a daily basis.


• A wonderful, providing husband that loves me for who I am, quirks and all!


• The many friends that we have, both locally and from a distance.

I am thankful for so many others who are using their talents to help others in creative ways...

• Each month Songbird Avenue has a new kit and the proceeds go to a different charity. This month they are supporting toys for tots. Get a digi kit for yourself while helping out at the same time.


• By sponsoring a child through Compassion International we have the ability to share the love of Jesus with a child in a foreign land.

In other news, over the weekend we headed to Charlotte to stay with a friend of James'. We went downtown to go ice skating. It was so funny to watch the little ones on the ice. Jameson did go around about 10 times and seemed to enjoy it. Syd didn't like it so much. Here she is watching Jameson try to get his skates off. We're happy to be home again preparing for our upcoming trip to Disney. I am beyond excited to take this little boy (and big boy for that matter) to the happiest place on earth!!

Thankful!

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

We are so thankful this year! Look at our cute little indian! We are thankful for you too! Hope you are having a yummy meal with those you love!

Christmas!

Are you preparing for a holiday season focused on the true Christian meaning of Christmas? Check out this article that discusses the retailers that are proud to declare that it is the Christmas season. For our family we will be shopping at retailers on this list as much as possible. How about you?

Another option to help on a local level...buy homemade like at etsy.

Or a global option might be to help Samaritan's Purse, World Vision or Compassion International.

For us this Christmas season we're going to try to remember all the people that make a difference in our lives...like teachers, friends, sales/service clerks, family, neighbors and others. Not that we'll be buying something for all of these people, just doing something to help brighten a moment in their life. Now I'm off to finish designing our Christmas card for this year and hopefully update the header on the blog.

Our weekend!

Jameson's favorite part was probably the hot bath (aka hot tub). He had so much fun swimming around, jumping around, overall just having fun in the water. We all enjoyed the awesome homemade goodies from Mother Crill, a mini hike in the woods with Joe-Joe & playing a bit of pool. I had fun taking some pictures of James' sister Caree. Caree & Chris are expecting their first baby in 2009. The rest of the time at the camp was a great relaxing time (no cell phone service or wifi so it was a true get away!).

The real adventure for the weekend begin on Sunday as we were leaving the cabin. We started out down the road and when we got to the bottom of the Blue Ridge Mountains we found that the road was closed (it has snowed on the mountain overnight). So we followed the rest of the traffic and about 90 minutes later we found ourselves in Cades Cove. Now if we had only known this at the beginning we probably would not have gotten to drive through a creek in the road - which surprisingly did not make hubby come unglued, while driving my new truck. Nor would I have gotten the chance to capture the image below with the fawn in the foreground and the snow caped mountains the background. We found a ranger and found out that the main road over the mountain was now open, so we headed back in that direction. We got to the point we had been at earlier in the day and started up the mountain. Things were going good, Jameson was taking a nap and James & I were chatting. I was also able to take a few more pictures of the awesome snow and ice that had covered all of nature. Then we got to the top and found traffic completely stopped. And right there just 6 vehicles in front of us 2 cars had collided and caught on fire. Praise God all of the people had gotten out without harm. Then for the next 2.5 hours we sat at the top of the mountain while we watched most of these vehicles burn away, with a few pops in there when the tires caught fire and then the gas tanks. Jameson got to play in the snow, I took a few more pictures, watched a movie, got to see a few different news helicopters right over us - overall we got to spend some safe time together as a family. Once they had gotten everything cleared away we were escorted down the mountain with a salt truck in front of us. Then we got a little dinner and drove the rest of the way home. What should have taken us 3 hours took us 10 but we were safe and together...thankful to God.

Here is our weekend recapped in photos...

Fun banner!

Hello to everyone out there in cyberspace. Boy do I have a story to share with you all. We had a great time away this weekend. The real story happened yesterday on the way home. I'll come back later tonight to post the full story. Before I go into all of that, I wanted to share with you a couple of other things. First I want to share a charity kit with you. A member of the digital scrapbooking community, Danielle (Artemia) was recently in an automobile accident. 13 fabulous designers got together and created a kit to show support. You can read all about it here. And more about the kit here. I'm planning to work on something with this kit but wanted to spread the word now so you could show your support as well.

One more thing...I recently I had the pleasure of working with a digital leaf template from Cafe J. I sent Janelle the pieces that I used to create it and she added it as a free gift with purchase of the fall leaf stackable kit. Let me know if you get it and how it turns out. Here is a picture of a different version that I'd created using paper from Sugarplum Paperie. I hope you are all feeling thankful today!