For Sarah

No more boogies.

My Future Daughters

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. No, I don't know the sex of my baby, yet, but just in case, I've got my daughter-in-laws already picked out.  Their parents have already agreed to arranged marriages for our children. Remember my crazy weekend with 6 kids? This last weekend, I got to take their pictures.

Kora just turned 4, so I got some extra shots of just her

I love this one

 

So with 3 girls, ages 4, 2, & 1, it's was a challenge to get everyone looking at the camera. I don't know how people do it. Luckily, I'm a head-swapping photo-shopping master. Who's the fake? I'll never tell.  

Isn't my boys' future mother-in-law just gorgeous? 

Though getting everyone to look at me was hard, being a regular sweet family was simple. 

My friend just found out that she's pregnant, again. She was scared to tell her family, so to soften the blow, I made her a slideshow with all her sweet pictures, a sweet song, and a little surprise announcement at the end for her to email to them. It worked! Her mom was too impressed by their beautiful family to be upset about their lastest additon. Now, if only that last one will be a boy and mine a girl - life would be bliss - could keep them all in the family!

Operation Christmas Child

Our Church, for the last couple years, has been a part of Operation Christmas Child, a Christian Christmas gift project for children all over the world. Last year, we took part and donated a shoebox full of items for a child. We found out that the church had to redistribute some of the items in the boxes (some were huge boxes stuffed, and others weren't quite full). So this year, I decided to put my couponing to good use and donate a lot more.  Instead of filling up one box, I just gave the church my collection of deals and/or freebies to fill the boxes that aren't quite full. They have another Christmas backpack project that they are working on, too for the things that are more appropriate for American children. Anything else they are unable to use, they're going to give to Salvation Army. All of the things pictured below probably cost me a total of under $3. Most of it was free.

I didn't count exactly, but approximately . . .

• 6 tubes of toothpaste
• 15 toothbrushes
• crayons, markers, glitter glue, chalk, paint
• train kits
• 4 boxes of pads
• 3 bottles of mouthwash
• 10 rolls of floss
• 10 packages of bandaids
• raviolis

I was really excited about my donation. Not in a prideful way, but just excited that we were able to donate so much, more than we could have before I started couponing. Full price, I sure all that would have been well over $50. Now, I can use the money I would have for the shoeboxes for a different Christmas donation project. It's great to be able to be a blessing to so many, even when your budget's tight.

Cheese!

Lately, I've had several people ask me to take their pictures. Seeing how we have very little income, I, of course, accepted. It's the season for it, and I know a lot of photographers are booked up already. I love photography and of course, photoshop is my toy. I wish I understood photography better, though. I know I could read up on it and I have some, but I do better learning from experience or hands-on. If only I had relative who knew a lot about it who could teach me. ;) My dad. The funny thing about that is he's a landscape photographer. I think what I enjoy photographing (people) bores him and what he likes is a little boring to me. We both see God's handywork, but in different things. I'm sure he could give me some useful pointers though. Anyway, that's a whole different topic. So this was my last shoot.

 My friend used to be a hairdresser, so we're exchanging services for services.

 He's showing me his superhero moves

 

I have a few more shoots scheduled and even more people that have asked. I'm not looking to start a business (have plenty on my plate with 3.5 young kids, homeschooling, piano lessons, making cards, etc), but the extra income when it comes is nice. And I really do enjoy it.

Check it

I have gotten a couple of things done from my to-do list. Now only if I had written down the to-do list, I could have literally checked them off.

• Starting to get a plan for November for co-op - 1/2 check
• Zane's 5T winter clothes hung, 4T boxed - check - only 3 more sets of clothes to go
• Make new Christmas card templates - check. Here they are. I'm really happy with that first one. I saw one similar, loved the paper, and decided to make my own. It involved layering lots of other papers and lots of manipulating, but I loved the way it turned out. The leaves are mine, too: went outside, took a photo of a leaf, and with a little photoshop magic, whalah!
• Get cards up on my card blog - check. I've also decided to sell the cards as files, too, this year. The printed cards are so awesome - thick, high-quality, gorgeous, but they are a bit pricey. I thought some might just rather print their cards at HEB or somewhere. FMI: go here. There's about 8 more card templates to choose from. I also do custom cards.



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