We have been crazy-busy here on the bayou. On December 11th, Caroline turned 16. Here she is as a precious little 3 year old. Check out those chubby little fingers!
Here she is on her 16th birthday, so grown up.
Time. It flies. Insert sad face.
Gil and were married 18 years on December 16th. That's a really long time, considering we're not a day over 30. ;) In 1994, we had a beautiful Christmas wedding in the church where I grew up. Here's a shot of the newlyweds. Can you say "fresh-faced"?
More on the topic of marriage and anniversaries later.
Just four days before Christmas, Anna-Banana became a teenager! WHAT?! I know, I know. Crazy. Here's one of my favorite pictures of her as a 2 year old. This girl was an absolute imp!
And here she is as a 13 year old.
Anna loves to watch Cake Boss on TLC. She's been saying for a couple years now that she wants a birthday cake made by Buddy Valastro. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found this cake at our local Albertson's grocery store. Anna was one happy girl!
On Christmas Eve we go to Mass in the afternoon. I always like to get a shot of the kids all cleaned up and decked out. Here's the picture I took right before we left the house. Poor Anna had sinus misery and had to stay home.
We spent Christmas Eve with Gil's mom's side of the family. After a few hours of sleep, the big day came! I didn't take as many pictures this year, but I do have a few to share.
It was a peaceful, happy day - just what Christmas should be!
A few days earlier, we acquired an unusual pet. Here's how it happened. A Facebook friend posted that her children wanted a pet rabbit, but already had too many pets. If they were to get a rabbit, the kids would have to get rid of something else. Enter Belle, a 4 month old female cinnamon pinto African Pygmy Hedgehog. I know what you're probably thinking. What kind of pet is a hedgehog?! Well, I'll tell you. She is naturally very shy. Once she gets comfortable with you, she is a total lovebug. She loves to snuggle, and likes to press her cold, wet nose against my neck. If she can wiggle her way into my shirt sleeve, she's totally happy and will go to sleep right there. She moves really fast. When I put her on the floor to get some exercise, I have to watch her closely, or she's gone! Hedgehogs aren't rodents, so they don't chew like guinea pigs and hamsters. An insectivore by nature, Belle's diet consists of a mix of high protein kitten food with Spike's Delite hedgehog food mixed in. Every few days I give her a bit of dried fruit as well. Her absolute favorite food is the ladybug. Belle crunches on ladybugs like a dog with a bone! She also loves to run in her wheel. Can you tell that we are really enjoying having this little girl around? :)
On a different note, I've been doing some thinking about how I have created scrapbook pages over the last couple of years. Since I started scrapbooking in 1999, I've gravitated towards a clean, minimally embellished page. I like photo-heavy, embellishment-light layouts. I've gotten away from that style lately, mostly because I've been submitting my work to magazines and design teams for their consideration. Manufacturers and publishers want pages that showcase, and consequently sell, product. That's perfectly fine and makes sense. People won't buy what they don't know exists. For me, however, less is more. For now, I plan to focus more on my tried and true simple style. It just makes me happy! With this in mind, I present for your enjoyment my latest page.
See? Clean and simple, exactly how I like it!
Next post: Project Life. Finishing up 2012 and moving on to 2013. Hope you'll come back and see!
2 comments:
LOVE your hedgehog page. Too sweet!!!
My hubby and I were married 16 years on December 14th. How funny!
Oh, and I'd love to see your Project Life pages. Please post some. :)
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