Merry Christmas

to all of you.

Hope you have a great holidays!
We'll be enjoying ours with each other and with family.

9 Days left

Sometimes I forget that we live in a big city. I am soooo not a big city girl. And today it was right in my face why I don't want to stay here! It took me 2 hours to do a 20 minute errand. Combine tons of people and bad roads. And a crying baby in the car seat and a 3 year old chastising me since I was doing nothing about the baby crying. Good times.

On another note.
i love Photoshop.

It's cooooool.

In the Craftroom: Christmas Crafts

I've found a bunch of great links to fun things to make. Some with kiddos and some without.

LOVE the Santa beards and the snowmen garland here. We are totally making those.

If we lived near good trees, I'd be making these.

I think this paper snowfall would be so fun to make and hang up at the beginning December.

Totally and completely love these cute little trees. And love that they are recycled too!

Love this simple holiday decoration.


Easy, cheap, fun sock snowmen.

Any crafts you are making for the holiday season?

And on a completely different note, I can't seem to fix my blog so that I can have an RSS feed and it drives me crazzzzzzyyyyy. I've been playing around with the html but I just keep getting problems. Anyone know lots about html that could fix it for me?? :)

Christmas Traditions

Some things we try to do every year to celebrate Christmas.
Haven't gotten to all of our usual things.
These are ones we've done so far...

Our advent calendar.
I made this last year. This is the first year trying it out.

(I got my advent calendar published in this magazine.)


Decorate the house.
We didn't do a tree this year, so instead I put all my ornaments in a hurricane lantern on the piano.
My angel. I just love it. Bought it a few years ago in Nova Scotia and I still love it every year I pull it out. And my lantern I taught at Super Saturday.
More ornaments from Super Saturday.
Paper Chains.
We love to make these each year. The kids were pretty excited at how long this was. Goes all around our dining room.
Reading Christmas Stories.
Love the costumes with the stories....

Seeing Santa.



I thought this was pretty cool. It's a book and activity to count down to Christmas. And totally an idea I want to do next year. Even if I don't use their books, but use the ones we have, I think it is a good idea. Totally fun!

Guess Who

had cereal for the first time tonight??

(Reg took this picture tonight as I was feeding him)

At 5 Months Eli
• loves tummy time and can lift all the way to his waste (will be on his hands and knees soon)
• sleeps on his tummy with his arms spread above his head and his legs kicked out spread eagle
• really really wants to try food. Often grabbing at any that is near him.
• loves to look at books (and try to taste them)
• can sit tripod (with one of his arms on the floor too) for about 1 minute (most of the time)
• will smile at anyone or anything that comes near him
• has started sleeping horribly lately (up every three hours for the last few weeks)
• has started drooling constantly.
• seems to have started teething (didn't he get the memo we don't teeth in this family until like 10 months!)
• loves to put everything into his mouth
• just noticed his feet
• loves to use his voice to make all kinds of sounds
• thinks Alden and Lucy are hilarious
• is so excited to see his dad when he gets home
• loves to play with toys, especially his little lap music maker, and gets quite a serious face while trying to press the buttons
• is wearing 3-6 month clothes with some 6-9 month clothes too
• tries to sit up constantly (like he is doing stomach crunches)
• breastfeeds every 3 hours
• wakes up around 8:30am each morning
• naps at 10am until noon
• awake until around 2:30 when he napes until his mom rudely wakes him up each day to go get Alden at 3:15pm
• awake until around 6pm has a short hour nap
• then goes to bed around 830pm
• loves to stand up
• thinks that mom laughing is soooo funny
• loves to chew his blanket
• recently decided that the bath is awesome and loves to kick the water and suck on the washcloth (gross)
• has at least one poo blow out a day (even more gross)
• loves to roll from front to back to front
• is just a real sweetheart

On the Bookshelf: Book Tag

My friend Amy tagged me.

Pick up the nearest book to you, open to page 56, write out the 5th sentence along with the next 2 sentences. THE CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL...

My book is the creative family by Amanda Blake Soule.


"Imaginative living needn't and shouldn't be limited to childhood, and it is our job to tell our children through our actions that their imaginations are something they can use, rely on, and find comfrot in throughout their lives. It is through their strong sense of imagination that they will find solutions to life's puzzles and problems, create art in all its forms, and comfort themselves and those around them. The activities in this chapter are all about imagination in childhood."

I love this book. :) She's a little over the top for me, but so many good things in here. (And lots that my mom did when I was growing up and it never occurred to me that other people didn't do it! (like family art time)

And since a photo is more fun with a picture....
My last bride Steff.

Overheard: Alden's View on Christmas

This picture is Santa. And what he wants for Christmas. It is a transport truck.


Alden: "Mom, I want Batman little people for Christmas."
Mom: "I don't think there is such a thing."
Alden: "MOM, silly, Santa has elves that can make it."

Alden: "Mom, I want a new bed for Christmas."
Mom: "um, that's to big"
Alden: "Don't worry mom, 40 Elves can make it."

Alden:" Mom, I want one of these and these and these for Christmas" (while pointing to pretty much one of everything in the Toys R Us flyer)
Mom: "All that is too expensive."
Alden: "Don't worry, Santa's elves can make them for me. It'll take about 49 of them."

In the Craft Room: Challenge with Heather

I saw on Mary and Heather's blogs the challenges.
And I wanted to play along too.

Heather was gracious enough to play along with me this time. I just love Heather. Regan always jokes with me that he should steal the kind things that Heather says to me so he could look like a better husband. That's the kind of friend she is. Always positive, totally boosting of you. SUCH a good quality in a friend. Totally and absolutely supportive, encouraging, and oh so generous. I really have enjoyed getting to know her over the past few years. And wish that we lived closer so we could hang out more!

The details of our challenge were:

1. Polka Dots - (I must admit I knew that Heather loves polka dots, and even though I think they are cute, I find I rarely use them. Not sure why.)

2. Hybrid - i looooooove using my computer for scrapbooking. Photoshop is near and dear to my heart. :)

3. Handwriting - i love to write. it's quick and i like the look of it on my pages.

4. Sewing - This was kind of a cop out for me since I use sewing on most of my pages.

Here's what Heather created:


The thing I love about Heather's scrapbooking is that she is so clean. Her pages are never cluttered but they have lovely little touches to make them homey. Make sense? Love to see her handwriting too - since I know that part was a challenge for her. And the making the digi stuff fit to her tag. AWESOME. And her color scheme. Awesome. Love the whole thing. That cutey little Silas too!

Here's mine....


I'm kinda in a little mojo rut, so it's not my FAV page. But I do love the photo that Heather in fact took for me of Eli. Love it. Just little bits of patterned paper for me. And some cute stickers that someone (forgive me I can't remember who) sent me when Eli was born. My digital part? I made the circle patterned paper that's the strip across the page. Something I designed a while ago when my dreams where to design scrapbook paper. :)

This was really fun to do and I totally want to do it again.
Thanks Heather!!!!!

All About Me

By Alden Steed.

I like cars. I play with cars. I am 6 years old. My name is Alden Ryan Steed. I like trains. I play with trains. I go to Kindergarten. I like Superheroes. I have a baby brother, a sister, a dad and a mom. My favorite color is all colors. I like to watch cars and trains. I like to be funny. I have a friend named Sam. He comes over to my house every day. My sister is 3 years old. Her name is Lucy Ann Steed. My baby brother is 5 months old. He is 0 years old. His name is Eli Davis Steed. I listen to stories. And also make up stories. I like to hear make up stories. Some about Transformers. I like to play with Transformers. My favorite letters are x and s. My birthday is October 15. My mom is 30 years old. And so is my dad. I forgot one of my favorite letters is h. My mom’s name is Rhonda. My dad’s name is Regan. My favorite number is 8. And my favorite word is 10.

Photo Talk: The pre-kiss

I love the look people get who are in love, and are about to kiss each other. Most of time the picture is more flattering the second before we kiss.
Next time you are taking a photo of someone kissing, take them leading up to the kiss. And you'll see what I mean. It's the anticipation.

More of this lovely couple and their seriously CUTE twin girls here.

Today

So Super Saturday is over. And it went well I think. We had lots of women show up. Especially for lunch and our special entertainment. Probably about 40 I'd guess. So that was awesome. I had a busy Sunday too with some nieces here and then the whole family for dinner. It was noisy but super fun.

So normal life is back on track. :)
Photo editing to do this week for this family before the wedding shoot I have this weekend for this couple which will be a lot of fun.

We are getting started on Christmas gifts and decorating and general preparing for the season. Trying to really keep the real meaning of Christmas in the forefront of our minds. Hoping to do that by doing some specific things.

1. Last year my kids got too many things. I bought things ahead of time (which was a first for me) and then hid them and then promptly forgot I had even gotten them. Then when we were getting all the stuff together to go down south I kept finding things. heehee. This year (and I think for now one) we are using this mantra for gifts.
Something to read
Something they need
Something they want
Something to wear
And I am doing mostly homemade stuff. For my kids, I already have the ideas and I am planning on getting started this week.

2. Making sure we keep some of our traditions that we started when we were living in Nova Scotia. It makes it hard when you go to your inlaws or your parents house for most of the holidays, since obviously you are going to do the things they do. We did some fun things with our little family that I am going to do again. Whether before we go south or with our family south.

3. Talking about the Nativity and the real reasons for the season. Thru stories, the scriptures, movies, etc.

And since a post isn't any fun without a photo, here's one.

Super Saturday

We are having a Super Saturday at the church for our ward. (It's a big day of crafts and fun.) On November 22 from 9:30am - 2 pm.
You can sign up for multiple classes.
A few people have been asking the classes, so here they are:

1. Nativity Hurricane Lantern
Cost:$10


2. Ornaments: $10

Trees: $15


3. Visiting Teaching Gifts: $5


4. Apron Class:

This apron here.
For this class bring your sewing machine along with 1 yard each of two coordinating fabrics, 1 yard of coordinating fabric for straps & some thread.

5. Chocolate Dipping:
Cost: $10

6. Appetizer Class: Come learn to make some fun appetizers for others.

And then for lunch we are having Soups & Breads & Desserts with special guest singer (Rob Clark) who will be talking about the Messiah & performing some of the numbers for us.

12 on the 12th

1. Been editing a neighbor and friend's photos.

2. We got two days of Regan around (Monday and Tuesday) and it was great. Especially in the middle of all of these 24 hour call days.

3. I really really am enjoying taking an online class called the Stories At Hand Class with Jessica Sprague. (I'll try and post my cute little binder I'm making soon.

4. I'm finished editing the last wedding photos.

5. I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming move for us. (Not until next spring) and where we will be going and where we will be living. Read this and thought it was gooood timing for me.

6. We watched the Remembrance Day programs with the kids and thought about how thankful I am to live in a free country. And that my family has not had to fight in a war.

7. Someone asked me about photography tips and I can't seem to find my post about it. But, Read this. There are some great articles here!

8. Read this about Christmas gifts and thought it was a good idea.
"1. Something to read
2. Something they need
3. Something they want
4. Something to wear"

9. Two recipe blogs to share.
Full Bellies
A Year of Crockpot Recipes

10. All three of my kids have runny noses. And I HATE boogies. Nothing grosses me out more than green snot. Nasty.

11. Eli isn't sleeping so good because of his plugged up nose. Makes sucking his thumb a little bit difficult for the little man.

12. Found this new blog I like.

Question and Answer

"BTW, love your watermark on your photos. Is it new or have I just been rather unobservant??"

Nope it's new! And it's pretty new, so you haven't been THAT unobservant. I just decided one day I needed a new one. One that is there, but less distracting. So that's what I've got for now.

"Question: Could you pass on some book titles that are good for getting toddlers to eat healthy and ideas for them? I think you mentioned a long time ago about some excellent books and I'd love to know what they are! Maybe put them on my Christmas wish list! Thanks Rhonda."

Books about feeding Kids that I just love love love.
1. First Meals by Annabella Karmel. This was my first book about feeding kids and I think it is an essential one. It starts from breastfeeding and goes all the way until kids are 5. (And it has some cute cute cute food.)
2. More First Meals by Annabella Karmel. I just got this one from the library and it is really good. It's exactly what it says, more good meals for kids. :)
3.Super Foods for Kids by Straten Van. I really like this one too. It talks a lot more about the science of food and why there are good for kids. I borrowed this one from my friend Kathleen back in Nova Scotia and really liked it. I spotted it at Homesense in their book section for $5. It was a steal! And it has the best minestrone recipe there is!

"Question: My prayer cards aren't printing very good. Help me"
You need to select print to size when you go to print it. It's called something along those lines, fit to page, or just pick 95% and it should fit for sure. (The prayer cards are here.)

"Question: How do you find such great books, and the time to read them?!"
Breastfeeding. That's when I read most of the time. And with Eli around I do that a lot.

"Question: I love that paper on the cover - who makes it?!"
The patterned paper on the cover of my Calaway mini album is from the Scraptivity November 2008 kit. And it is made by We R Memory Keepers, the Nonsense line.


"Question: very fun! How many scrapbooks do you have? I bet lots! You need a cricut! If you don't have one already. I don't even scrapbook and I want one!"
No, I don't have a cricut, but I'd LOVE one. It's one my list of SB tools I want. Along with the Bind-it-all and the Big Bite Crop-a-dile. One day maybe.
As for Scrapbooks, I have 1 6x6 album that is our dating, a set of K&Company 8x8 linen Albums, lots of mini albums that are in a basket on my piano, and then probably 20 full 12x12 albums (at least) maybe more. And I have enough pages finished and stacked to fill 3-4 more. Then a few 8.5x11 albums. Yes, I have a lot of albums. Regan jokes that I need a room just for those. :)

"Question: What happened at Canadian Tire?!"
Last week I posted about my trip to Canadian Tire. I went there are 10:30am with just Eli to have a "load test" done on my battery to see if it was toast. My dad told me the exact thing to say so I would look like I knew what I was talking about. They lost my keys twice, put on new tires (which I didn't order and I had brand new ones on their anyways, they told me I could keep the new ones - but I wanted MINE since I have a 5 year warranty on them), argued with me about it being my van or not (you'd think I would know what my own van would look like) and then finally hooked it up did the test and then had to put in a new battery. 5 hours later. Good thing I have a good baby.


"Question: Did you make the Halloween cake pops? We want pics! :)"

I did make Cake pops, they were totally not that cute. So I didn't take a picture. But they did taste good. I think I need a LOT more practice before I get good at them. And an eatable marker. Trying to make faces on small cake pops with melted chocolate was.... hard!!!

There are more q&a's tomorrow!!

Guess Who

Guess who learned to roll over on Thursday?

"Huh.... me??"
"Yep, totally me. And I am sooooo proud of myself."

Isn't it good to see people excited about things....

Tomorrow I'll be answering a few questions I've been asked in my comments. So if you have anymore, add them. :)

On the Bookshelf: current reads

The current books I have purchased and a lot of which I have started (as it seems I constantly have more than one book on the go at once.....)

Living Simply With Children by Marie Sherlock
I am excited to start this one. Looks really good to me. And something I want to improve upon. Living Simply.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Which was my Book Club book last month, but I had to return it to the library before I finished it. And now I am way on the bottom of the wait list. So I got it off Amazon (should have done that to begin with but oh well!)

Hello Cupcakes by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
(wait i didn't buy this one I got it from the library last night but I WANT to buy it. It totally rocks!)


One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds
Which I've started reading and I am really enjoying it already. It has monthly goals all set out for you and covers every aspect of your life. I am already thinking of buying it for my momma.

I'm also in the middle of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
Which is totally thought provoking and he has some amazing quotable lines!
What are you reading??

(sorry my pictures are so wonky!)

In the Craft Room: Calaway Park Mini Album

Regan often tells me I am pretty intense about the scrapbooking stuff. And I know I am. But I love it.
I think too many people make it too complicated. I used the November Scraptivity kit to make this mini album.
I pulled in past stamps, past papers and scraps. And the whole thing (these are all the pages) took me about 2 hours. I didn't really stress out about photo placement or if it was "right". I just glued and cut and pasted. And played.





















And I am so happy to have a little record of all of our Calaway Park trips. Both Alden and Lucy have looked at it multiple times already and they both enjoy it. And that is what counts!