Capture Your Life

Enjoying the little things

Now starts the insanely busy, ever-crazy time in our family schedule: baseball and soccer season. I'm trying to enjoy the little things and cherish every moment of this craziness . . . for in a few years, my four kids will all be off with friends and I'll be trying to figure out what to do with my spare time. But right now, 6 baseball games a week + 3 soccer games a week + 8 practices a week is enough to drive a woman mad!

This is a series of photos I took of my son, Zack. First tournament of the year, first at-bat. And what did he deliver? A homerun! Although his team didn't have the best tournament, he did pretty well.

I love springtime!

It's an invasion

Take a deep breath. Here we go again.

This happens on a weekly basis at our house . . . just as we get the house cleaned up on the weekend and I finish up the laundry, something ruins the calm.

Because I don't have a monster-large laundry room, I 'm a fold-as-I-go type of person--folding and placing pieces in the closest basket. (Yay, me for folding right away!) Then comes the fun task of sorting all of those clothes into piles for each person in our family so they can put their respective "pile" away.

6 people+dirty clothes=lots of laundry!

My cute mother-in-law, Joyce, once told me, "You must be doing laundry every day!" Close to being 100% true. I'm doing laundry A LOT 'round these parts.

It almost looks like my dryer threw-up folded clothes all over my living room, doesn't it? It's a definite invasion of some sorts. (At least they come clean, folded and "in peace!")

You know what the funny part is about all of this? I don't really mind doing laundry. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. And once it's done, it's done for the week. Now, cleaning bathrooms on the other hand? NOT a favorite!

A Christmas visitor

This is Charlotte the elf.

Charlotte is a cute little Christmas elf who came to visit us the week before Christmas. Ellie and Kailee immediately fell in love with this cute little friend. She came with instructions on how to take care of her and information about the steps the girls should take to help Charlotte come to life while they were asleep in their beds.

To be sure she enjoyed a comfy visit at the Anderson house, the girls hooked Charlotte up with a barbie bed in the kitchen. To keep her fed, they faithfully put out crackers and water for her each night--the crackers remind her of the crunch in the snow, and the water is melted North Pole snowflakes, of course. (Oh, and the candy cane in the photo is something we found out to be one of her favorite snacks!)

Imagine my surprise when I realized that each morning, after Charlotte comes to life, she makes a mess somewhere in the house then hides for the girls to find her. This particular morning, Charlotte messed up the girls' bathroom by leaving newspaper all over and draping swimming towels around the room. (This was one of their favorite parts about her visits and mommy's least favorite part.)

Each morning the girls would run to the notebook they shared with Charlotte and read the note she had written the night before. They asked her fun questions like "What time does Santa wake-up?" or "When is your birthday?" Charlotte would answer their questions and let them know she was watching them through the night.

It was a riot! The boys even got into the act and were often on the hunt for Charlotte in the morning. Who would have thought that one little elf could bring so much happiness into our family's life?

We had 6 fun nights with Charlotte, then on Christmas eve, we needed to set Charlotte by the Christmas tree so that she could return to the North Pole with Santa. It was kind of sad to have to set up her last night of crackers and water, but we know that she'll return to us next year to have more fun. We're all glad she came for a visit, and we can't wait until next year!

This time of year is truly magical. Love it!

Time for an upgrade

Being the family historian, photographer and scrapbooker, I'm often seen toting my camera around. You can usually find me at sporting events, school activities, family parties and at home with my trusty camera always at my side.  (Although the at-home part has been lacking as of late, and I'm trying to do better with that one!)

Today, I'm a lucky girl. For my birthday, my sweet husband surprised me with a new Nikon D90. I know! This was a huge surprise for me, after all, my D50 did its job well and we weren't really in the market for a new camera. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and there it was--shiny and new with two new lenses. I'm feeling a bit spoiled. Isn't it beautiful?

And now, because of the surprise-upgrade in camera, I decided it was time to upgrade my blog as well. So here I am on Christmas eve snapping photos and starting a new blog. It's kind of funny how a new gift can inspire us to try other new things, isn't it?

Honestly, it really doesn't matter what Santa brings me tonight, because this is the gift I love the most. The one I've longed for. The one that will inspire me to do some awesome things. You never know, I guess, I could always open something even more wonderful in the morning! A trip to Hawaii maybe?

Here's to new gifts and new adventures!