The polls opened this morning! Please vote for my post “Adventures in Babywearing.” This is a really exciting thing for me. I’m very happy to have been chosen as a finalist. And I’d be even more excited to win {and that has absolutely nothing to do with the $600 Visa card and $600 writing contract}*! You don’t have to register on the site to vote, just go and click. It’ll only take a second. :)
And if you wanted to you could ask all your Facebook friends and Twitter followers to vote for me too. *hint hint*
Thank you!

*liar, liar pants on fire

We don’t have a mantle, so we’ve decorated our shelves/TV stand. I pretty much love anything with a holly theme {duh}. Come back tomorrow for another picture for the 31 pictures in 31 days challenge!

Here I sit, staring at my blogging program trying to decide what exciting news I should share first. See, this morning I woke up to find that I am one of six finalists in the Blog To Inspire contest I entered. Just last night I was telling Adam I didn’t think I would be chosen {and I may or may not have been pouting about it}. But I was wrong {oh how I love being wrong some times}! Here’s what YOU need to know:
Voting starts tomorrow {Dec. 4th} at 11am EST.
Voting ends Dec. 11th at noon EST.
I would love to have your vote {you could consider it your birthday present to me}. I would love to have your support. Please tweet about the contest, share it on Facebook, whatever you feel comfortable doing. And a big THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my entry. You helped me be selected as a finalist. And frankly, ALL of you help me be a better writer. The more followers I get the more I feel driven to provide you with quality content. Thank you for making this blogging thing so much fun and so rewarding.
So there’s that bit of exciting news.
But that’s not all. No, it’s definitely not all.
Last night,
my baby took her first step.
Two, in fact.
I immediately jumped up and spoke in a high pitched voice of excitement…promptly followed by crying.
My little baby is growing up.
She’s not a baby anymore. She’s a toddler. She toddles.
And yet, she’ll always be my baby.

I made this after seeing the idea in one of those seasonal craft magazines you get in the check-out line at the grocery. It’s just spruced up matchboxes tacked to a bulletin board. But I used scrapbooking paper instead of construction paper and went to town on little decorations {you can never have too much glitter, ever}. Here are all the boxes {click to see larger}:

And what’s inside?

PS: Head on over to Coffee for free holiday wallpapers for your computer!

I decided, on a whim, to sign up for this picture challenge. I already take a LOT of pictures. And I love anything related to the holiday season so this seemed like fun. Basically I just need to do is “capture all 31 days of Holiday chaos” and share online. As for chaos? I have plenty! We’re still unpacking and decorating {in fact I just barely found the USB cable for my camera}! And the blog is suffering. This way I’ll have a post every day, even if it’s just a picture.
And now, without further ado, I present my first picture:

This is what my dining room table looks like today. What a mess! I can’t wait until everything gets squared away! I’ve got so much to do! The Christmas tree is assembled, but not decorated. The advent calendar is finished but not hung. And don’t even ask me about Lucy’s birthday party right now. We’re making progress, but s-l-o-w-l-y.
But there’s always time to stop and take pictures.