Your not so ugly sweater party

UGLY SWEATER parties are SO LAST YEAR, and the year before that and the year before that. It seems as though EVERYBODY now throws an ugly sweater party.

Well our friends the Littles always throw a fabulous Christmas party with a

DIFFERENT fantastic theme every year.

Two years ago was the Ugly Sweater Year.

Last year, the Ugly Christmas Pajama Party.

This year....

A VERY MERRY JERSEY CHRISTMAS

Oh my gosh.

I love my friends.

I love that they are willing to dress up, be funny and have a good time.

Our night was filled with delicious food, awesome white elephants, tattoos, spray tans, fist bumps, puckered lips and the Snookie Pouf.

**To get the full Jersey effect click on any of the picture to enlarge.

A few of my favorite quotes from the night,

Lacey: "It really is a white elephant." In reference to a white elephant given at the party.

Adam to Ryan: "You look like a butch lesbian."

Liz to me: "Laura you fit the part well. Do you have some Italian in you?"

No my friends, I'm not one bit Italian. It's kinda scary how well I do fit the New Jersey part.

And if you are wondering if that pregnant belly is real, it is. My friend Amanda is due with her first baby boy any day now. She is one hot pregnant momma.

Our hosts Lindsey and Jon Little had the best embodied the Jersey looks the best.

We came home with the best white elephant gift, A book full of AWKWARD family photos. It now sits on our coffee table.

We missed all of our friends who are out of state!

Foulgers, the party just wasn't the same without you this year.

What themed parties did you go to this year?

Ever been to a Jersey themed party?

What's the best white elephant gift you received?

Have you seen the blog with awkward family photos? Hilarious.

She's ONE

Call it cliche, but I can't believe my baby was born one year ago.

It's been a challenging, exhausting, joyful, emotional, exciting, wonderful year.

We've loved watching her spirited personality shine through.

It's been a joy watching her grow and learn new things.

We knew a year ago our lives would never be the same we just didn't know how much better and more fulfilled our lives would be.

We love you Charlotte and count ourselves lucky each day to be your parents.

Evolution of the perfect picture with Santa

Saturday morning we had a Christmas party with our church and a special visitor arrived. I've been so excited to get a picture of Charlotte with Santa, this being her first Christmas and all! Neither Mike or I could wait to see Charlotte's reaction. You see, she has this weird phobia of people with white hair. I'm not kidding. She cries and cries every time she sees my sweet Grandma Wynn who has brilliant, beautiful white hair. So we wondered if Santa Claus in all his white beard, long haired glory would bring out Charlotte's phobia or not.

Here's how things played out...

Mike takes Charlotte to Santa. Things are going smoothly. She's our happy little bug so far.

Charlotte usually goes easily to other people, so getting her on his lap was no big deal.

Charlotte fine and content to be held. Things seem as though they are going to be ok.

Uh oh. Checking out who's holding her. Wait for it.......

Realizing the person who is holding her has white hair, a beard and creepy tinted glasses!

All hell breaks loose.

Enough is enough! She is done being on this man's lap!

Call me mean if you want to but I laugh every time I see this picture. It's just so funny.

I secretly want to frame this picture in our house.

Is that bad?

Not to worry we didn't keep her on his lap for long.

She was back to her happy self once she was back in Mike's arms.

Classic.

**Thank you to the lovely Jen Garriott who so perfectly captured this experience for us with her fancy camera.

Do you get pictures with Santa every year?

Love or hate the pictures of crying kids with Santa?

Are you working on your list of things to do each day to bring the Christmas spirit? (I am!)

Are you sending out holiday cards this year? Are you done with them?

Please share!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Do you realize Christmas is just 16 days away? Yikes.

Although I have some fun projects up my sleeve, bought a few presents here and there it still doesn't feel like Christmas at the Walker home.

Perhaps it's because we have ZERO decorations out. Well ok the Gingerbread house I made at my grandma's house is out but that's it. Either Mike or I have had something almost every night for the past couple of weeks so we just haven't had the time to decorate the tree and set up our decorations. Hopefully this weekend it will happen. IT WILL HAPPEN, we've got to make it happen.

Plus the snow is melting and while I don't love the snow, it at least helps it feel like Christmas when everything is covered in a lovely white blanket of snow.

Every year I seem to have the discussion with someone, yesterday it was with my sister Emily, that it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I've decided it is TIME to make it feel like Christmas. Christmas is only 16 days away! Let's get going with the holiday cheer!

A couple of things have helped me bring out the warm, fuzzy feelings of Christmas that I wanted to share...

First is this wonderful video. Please watch it. You'll probably laugh or cry but either way it will make you feel good.

The best part about this is that my MOM sent me the video. What? I didn't even know she knew what youtube was. Way to go Kristyle on being hip and happenin!

Then I was blog surfing while C was asleep and found this awesome POST. It lists 25 things to do to get into the Christmas spirit. The idea is to start at the beginning of December and do one each day up until Christmas day. Sure I've missed 8 days but I don't think it's too late to start! I'm going to pick my favorites, add a few of my own and get going TODAY!

What about you?

Are you in the Christmas spirit?

What do you do to feel the holiday spirit?

Have you bought all your gifts?

What acts of service are you doing this year?

Please share! I want to hear all about it.

Oh how I love my babies.

Thanksgiving Daily

If you know me at all, you know this is my most favorite time of year.

I love Thanksgiving.

I love the feast, the turkey trot, bingo and gingerbread houses at my Grandma's, bowling with the Walkers, the brisk air, and pie night.

I'm especially excited this Thanksgiving week because Mike has the entire week off.

But honestly, I love this time of year because we have a week set aside to give thanks. I try really hard to live a life of thanksgiving daily, but know this is an area I could definitely improve upon. I do know that when I live each day with a heart full of gratitude, I'm a much happier person. I loved watching THIS VIDEO. Take a moment (one minute and 50 seconds to be exact, you can spare that time I promise) and watch it, I was reminded once again of the simple things that bring so much joy in life.

This Thanksgiving I'm especially grateful for good health, my hardworking husband, a healthy, happy baby, my sisters who I can't go a day without talking to, loving parents, my selfless in laws, extended family, close friends near and far, and the knowledge that families can be together forever. These are the things that really matter my friends.

Ok and maybe just a couple more things I'm grateful for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, the mountains, and new running shoes.

What about you?

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

What is something you can't live without?

What do you do to live in Thanksgiving Daily?

Please share!

Simple things

I can remember a time when I thought "happiness" or "heaven" meant traveling to some exotic city, laying on a beach with a book, and stuffing myself full of food.

And while I do enjoy and look forward to traveling to some exotic place, in the months since Charlotte has joined our life, I have found a new, much more FULFILLING HAPPINESS.

I've had a couple of these moments of happiness lately that as my sister Mandy would say,

I want to LOCK IT IN.

The first one was about a month ago when Mike and I took Charlotte to a local elementary school to play on the playground. I had no idea Charlotte would love it so much.

My bug loved it all. The slide, the swings, being with her dad, and a friendly, small dog who was also enjoying the playground .

I've never seen the girl so ecstatic.

I'm sitting here smiling thinking back to that afternoon we spent at the playground.

It was blissful.

Why did we wait so long to take her to a playground?

Another noteworthy moment of happiness was over the weekend. On a whim Mike and I took Charlotte to PETCO. We just walked around showing C all of the animals for sale. May not sound like a lot of fun but it was "heaven" listening to Charlotte squeal in delight as she looked at all of the animals. She was giddy my friends. Giddy. I wish we would have had our camera with us to capture her eyes light up as she looked at the animals.

So simple but so much fun.

Other moments of happiness:

Watching the movie "Babies" while talking to my sister in CT about our babies who are only a couple of months apart.

Watching Charlotte clap. I love when babies learn how to clap.

Going for a run on a brisk fall day with Charlotte in the BOB.

Laughing with my mom and sister Katherine while helping Katherine put things together for Pretty Little Me open house.

Watching a movie on Mikes' laptop in bed together.

Laughing, laughing and laughing some more with my little sister Emily.

Sanding my dining room table with Carol, my mother in law.

SIMPLE? Yes.

But really isn't the simple way better?

Yes I still want to travel, lay on the beach and stuff myself full of food,

but for now I'll take these moments of happiness over anything.

What's making you happy these days?

Are you a dog or cat person?

Have you taken time to play on a playground lately? (If not I highly recommend it)

Do you think simple is better?

Please share!