– Isla got her picture taken with Santa on Sunday. My mom and I waited just over an hour in line for her to see the big guy, and it went really well! She seemed to love Santa and was quite into pulling his beard, lol. (Luckily it was a real one or the other kids in line may have been scarred for life.) Anyway, there were no tears and her photo turned out pretty awesome!

– We put our Christmas tree up on Wednesday! Well, actually – Kyle put it up in the stand for me and then decorated it. You know how long it took me to get it all decorated? 11 hours! I’m not even joking. I started around 12 a.m. on Wednesday an discovered that I didn’t have enough lights to string through the tree. (It’s a girth tree this year!) So, after getting through appointments in the early afternoon, I was able to get more lights. I started hanging lights and beads, but then I had a hair appointment so I had to postpone yet again. Then I was starving, so dinner had to be eaten, and we needed stuff from Walmart, so a trip to the store was in order. AND THEN Isla needed to be fed before she went to bed. So – around 11 p.m. last night I finally finished it – and it looks awesome, IMO :) See for yourself:

– The Christmas cards that I designed and ordered through Costco’s website arrive yesterday, and as I was writing them out and addressing the envelopes, it looked like I didn’t have enough. I counted them out, and they only sent me 22 cards and 20 envelopes! I ordered 40!! Needless to say, they’re going to get a lovely phone call from me this morning.

– I really want to do some Christmas baking, but since it’s just Kyle and I it’s pretty much pointless unless we both want to weigh 600lbs each by the new year. I have SO many things pinned on Pinterest it’s not even funny.

– You know how much of a pain in the ass it is to grow your bangs out? Well, it is. Ugh.

That’s it from me.

Happy Friday!

– Last weekend I was doing a little Christmas shopping and saw that the exersaucer I wanted to get Isla for Christmas was on sale at Costco for $80 (Toys R Us wanted $150!). There were only 4 left, so I snatched it up! Since Isla is too little to know what Christmas is, I got the go-ahead from Kyle to give her her gift early! Needless to say, she loves it!

– I’m finally transferring the rest of my photo files from my PC to my new Mac. There’s so many, it’s going to take forever, but thanks to Dropbox, it shouldn’t be so painful. It’s probably going to take me a whole week to transfer everything. Ugh.

– Only one week to go until I can FINALLY start decorating for Christmas :)

– My grandpa is in town this weekend for a visit until he starts to make his way down south for a few months. He’s spending Christmas in Victoria with family and then making his way down to Palm Springs/Phoenix. I’m going to miss him!

– Isla has her Christmas photo shoot this morning, and the photos should be ready to go in time for Christmas cards. SO – if you’d like a Christmas card from yours truly, send me an email! (kara[at]karaschatter[dot]com) And of course, I’d love to receive one from you too ;)

– I’m finding very hard to resist decorating for Christmas! Just a couple more weeks until I can go crazy! At least I can satisfy my urges with Christmas shopping. I’ve already crossed two people off of my list! Go me!

– I’m having a really hard time trying to think of something to get Kyle for Christmas. Part of my problem is that his present to me (my awesome Macbook!) is so epic that it’s going to be nearly impossible to 1-up. The other problem is that I’m not exactly rolling in the cash-money pile since I’m on maternity leave, so really, it’s kind of like he’s buying his own present, except he won’t know what it is. I have a couple ideas, but we’ll see how they pan out.

– How is it already the middle of November? I don’t even know.

– You know what the saddest moment is? When you go to have a sip of your coffee but forget that you’ve already drank it all. When you see your mug is empty, it’s the saddest thing.

– I think Isla is starting to teethe. She’s been chewing on EVERYTHING lately and she’s been super cranky come nap/bedtime, but I just don’t see anything going on in her gums. It’s kind of frustrating, but oh well.

– Our family photo session was post-poned yet AGAIN last week because of the craptastic weather we’ve been having. It’s finally going to happen next week, except instead of family photos it’s going to be an Isla-only Christmas themed in-studio session. It should be fun and will make for super cute Christmas cards to send out. Which reminds me – Want to be on my Christmas card list? You can email me your mailing address to kara[at]karaschatter[dot]com and I’ll happily send you a Christmas card!

– Have I mentioned how in love I am with my Macbook? Seriously – LOVE! No longer will my fingers be confused switching from Mac to PC when I go back to work. No longer do I have to wait a zillion hours for movies to preload before I can watch them.

– 10 years ago on Sunday, Kyle asked me to be his girlfriend and I said “Yes.” Best decision of my life :)

That’s it for today! Have a happy Friday, everyone!