i can smell it coming….christmas.

yup…it’s coming.

and although i didn’t get what i wanted today for her christmas picture….

(call me crazy but i didn’t exactly envision the addition of a butt-naked baby for this year’s pic…and i couldn’t peel it away from her without a few tears)

we had a lot of fun playing…

oh, taking pictures of toddlers is not easy! she moves like lightning these days.

…and in other thoughts…

the balls i’ve managed to juggle for so long–that whole wife, mom, friend, housekeeper, etc. thing? yeah, they’re all falling everywhere…rolling into lost corners, knocking everything down on the way. my mind is just a rolling pile of crazy balls today, and i mean that in more ways than one. and, although on the verge of tears and reminding myself that negativity gets you nowhere, i can honestly say i feel so much better when i come into the little blog world and write. it forces me to take the bird’s eye view, fly above it all and see that life really, really is…beautiful.

i spent an hour the other night looking at old posts…looking back at when i started this thing.
and i cried, laughed and thanked everything that is holy that we are blessed. and enjoyingthesmallthings.blogspot.com reminds me of that every day.

so there. no more venting. positivity powers activated.
after the last one is asleep tonight, i will roam the dark halls, looking for the lost balls.
i will hoist them back into the air with a smile.
and i will juggle.
i will juggle them well.

tomorrow is a new day.

…enjoying the this-too-shall-pass things. ~k

a little sneakity preview at lainey’s christmas pic shoot…

now you’re just gunna have to wait.
and i have more to say…but the little cubby just peeled off her diaper and made a puddle on the floor.
…enjoying the be-back-later things. ~k

5. date night…at home.
so, the economy’s in the crapper and going out to a fancy dinner just isn’t in the cards for us lately, but i’ll be darned if we don’t have a little ambience. so, i surprised the daddy last night with a full-out fancy meal. it started simple, but as it went along, i got more and more excited to make it special. i am envigorated…inspired…roused to the challenge of making life as beautiful as it can be for everyone around me.

4. she gets in her book suitcase now to read books.

she’s such a cool, funny kid.

3. these absolutely fantabulous shoes i picked up a few weeks ago on clearance at marshalls for…twenty dollars. that’s right. twenty. i had done four photo shoots that week and come sunday, i grabbed my purse and said to brett, “i’m going to buy a pair of shoes.” that’s it. and i left. didn’t know where i was going or that i’d come home with something quite this fabulous, but i knew in the end, i at least was coming home with a pair of shoes. when i saw these, all by their lonesome on the size 9 rack, the heavens parted, the angels sang, and i think i almost caught a glimpse of my grandma. they’re delicious, and i haven’t had a chance to wear them out, but girl’s night is this friday so….

2. upon dig’s fabulous suggestion that i start a series of these mommy/baby self-portrait things…

1. to pull out all her clothes in her second drawer that’s just a little too high for her, she has to stand on her tippy tippy toes…and it’s just about the cutest thing i’ve ever seen…

…enjoying the positively delicious things. ~k