december 10th :: photo*a*day

my isabella loves to draw.

our family is all abuzz over our elf on the shelf, foddy.

today she came home from school and asked to draw him a picture.

i love watching her work.

december 10th

isabella drawing

bella and i had a rough day today.

she was emotional, argumentative, and defiant.

i was frustrated and short-tempered.

not a good combination.

at the end of the day we spent some time talking,

apologizing, and forgiving each other.

i'm grateful that we ended our day like this.

i love this little girl to the moon and back.

being a mommy is hard.

but it's always worth it.

december 9th :: photo*a*day

what's better than being outside a tree?

how about climbing IN a tree

and becoming one with the ornaments?

december 9th

bachmans make good ornaments

december 8th :: photo*a*day

color+exercise+friends+traffic=

super awesome day 

well, minus the traffic.

jeff +i, along with our fun friends chad & kelly,

"ran" a 5K color mob today.

sure, the race was 15 minutes from our house,

but it took 2 hours to get there.

total craziness.

about 2 miles out, people started parking their cars on the side of the road and walking.

we saw tutus, rubber ducky inter tubes,  and even toga-wearing santas drinking beer at 10am.

we finally got there, and then the real fun started.

here are some before shots

(and for obvious reasons, all of today's pics are iPhone only.  

no way i was taking my fancy camera in all that crazy color!)

you start the run with just a little color,

and then progressively get more and more covered.

kelli got this pic of me towards the beginning.  

probably my favorite of the day, despite the face i look a bit cray.

but i think it shows just how fun it was ;)

i wish i could tell you we ran the whole thing.

but girlfriend is out.of.shape.

all that work at the first half of the year apparently doesn't translate to five months later.

so we ran/walk/jog/leaped our way through the 5 kilometers.

along the way, there are stops with a new color.

that's when you get to pelt your friends and spouse with direct blows to the eyes and mouth.

leaving you looking like this

it was awesome.

we had a total blast.

probably one of the weirdest double dates ever,

but totally memorable and worth it.

thanks, coltmans, for joining us in the madness.

can't wait to 'run' with you guys at the next one.

maybe we'll actually run it ;)

(in their defense, i think we were holding them back a bit)

we finally made it back to our car grateful for the towels we'd brought to sit on.

and headed home to our kiddos.

(who we almost had to bring with us. which would have been a DISASTER)

it was fun to see their reactions to us.

sorry for totally cheating-

this is way more than one photo for the day.

but worth it, right?

when is a color run coming to your town?

you don't want to miss it!

december 7th :: photo*a*day

our little isabella is never the girl to get on stage,

dance in front of people,

or be the center of attention.

as loud and crazy as she can be,

she is also totally shy.

tonight was rockharbor's 'twas the night before christmas',

a super fun event to get the season started.

families come in jammies, drink hot chocolate, sing songs, and watch the drama team act out favorite christmas movies.

bella was asked to be cindy lou who from the grinch who stole christmas.

we weren't too sure how she'd do.

but she was amazing.

totally rocked it.

so proud.

dec 7th

bella as cindy lou who

here's a little video of her:

and for all the grandparents,

a few more photos of our night

(this one may have been taken during rehearsal, hence the grinch not totally in his gear yet)

(throwing candy to the crowd :)

december 6th :: photo*a*day

i had a sweet little six-month-old in my studio today.

i couldn't help but take a few pics of my own kiddos and some friends that were over to play, too.

such a fun, christmas-y backdrop :)

day 6:

the many faces of charlotte

(with twinkle lights)

and (because i apparently am not good with the single photo-a-day)

my bella boo

we made gingerbread houses with our life group tonight.

lots of little kids and sugar.

it was... amazing.

my jackson normally isn't into this kind of thing, but tonight he was so excited about it.

my proud little boy with his gingerbread house.

blogger is being a bugger and not letting me center.  but i've been fighting with photoshop already, so i'm over it. ;)

see you tomorrow!

december 5th :: photo*a*day

december 5th

big kiddos on their scooters.

this happens every.single.day.

and bella can scooter circles around jackson- 

she is pretty amazing.

and since i started a bit behind,

here are two more from today:

jackson reading christmas books by the tree.

kids anticipating hot chocolate

(their elf on the shelf, foddy, promised them hot chocolate after dinner. they were quite excited :)

dec 4th photo-a-day

i'm joining my sweet friend cori at derksen photography 

and bruises and bandaids

for her december photo-a-day.

life is just too busy.

and when something has to go.... 

lately it has been blogging.

time + a serious case of writer's block means not much to say.

and since i am so often taking photos of others
  (which i LOVE)

it's easy for me to forget to take pics of my own kiddos.

all in all....i needed this challenge :)

sure it's december 4th,

but better late than never, right?

who knows... i may even have more than one on some days.

if you want to join the fun,

check out cori's challenge here!

december 4th

my sweet charlie needed to paint.  

right out of the bath.

why say no when you can say yes, right?