December Daily 2014 {Days 8 + 9}

Hi everyone!

I'm rushing a bit this morning. It snowed last night and it is predicted to rain/ice/snow again today, but I need to go to the grocery store! So I want to run out and get there quickly in case the roads get all messy again because skipping a trip today is so not an option - we have no milk, no bread, and basically nothing to eat at all besides frozen chicken (yeah, this is a long overdue trip!)

So on to Monday + Tuesday's layouts.

Monday's story is another one of those "could have happened anytime in December" stories that I just happened to share on Monday.

"I love wearing Christmas themed jewelry. Mom and I usually find a few new things every year: present bow + candy cane + snow flake + ornament earrings, Reindeer watch and this year's new addition, a jingle bell bracelet. Mom and Jamie have the same bracelet too!"

And Tuesday's is a totally Tuesday-related story. Its all focused on the weather and the snow that we got (man do I love snow!)

"The weather prediction for today had been really crazy. It kept changing between snow and sleet and freezing rain. All day, we just had ice and freezing rain. I was so disappointed - after spending 18 months living in "Southtown, USA", I was so ready for snow this winter. And snow around Christmastime? That is just awesome!
But I figured we'd have to wait for another day. Until AJ got home from work and said it was already snowing at the plant (just a few miles away) In just a few minutes, huge flakes were falling from the sky! I ran outside to eat December snowflakes. I wasn't waiting until January!"

Do you love snow as much as I do? I would love if we had fresh snow on the ground every single day!

The rest of December 2014: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Days 5 + 6 + 7

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2014 {Day 4}

Happy Friday! The weekend is almost here, and I can't wait!

We are hoping to do some Christmas-y things this weekend, including going to visit a Christmas celebration in the next town over and putting up the outdoor lights! Yay!

I didn't make a collage of my pictures yesterday because almost all of them ended up in my layout! Aside from the morning (when I was doing work related things), I spent most of the day getting ready for our Christmas movie marathon!

We were both having a bit of trouble getting really excited about Christmas this year. We'd both been very excited earlier, but it had kind of went away. So last night, we had a movie marathon + hot chocolate (well, I had hot chocolate!) + Trader Joe's blondies. I would say that it worked!

"AJ and I both were having a little trouble getting in the Christmas spirit. We'd both been so excited, but for some reason after the beautiful Thanksgiving snow melted away and Mom, Dad and Tommy went back home after Thanksgiving, we were both feeling like the Christmas magic had gone too. 
But we knew just how to fix it: hot chocolate + Trader Joe's blondies + a few of our favorite Christmas movies. The Santa Clause, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Home Alone were all part of last night's movie marathon. I could watch these movies over and over again (and to be honest, Home Alone has been on at least 4 times in since last Friday!)
Hello Christmas Spirit! Its nice to see you again :)"

Yesterday, I also noticed that I am being more careful to create continuity between the pages on my album this year. In the past, I didn't really mind if they didn't coordinate - I treated each page as a totally different layout. While I still see them as different layouts, because they are different days and different stories, I am definitely more conscious about making sure that they "go" together. Like Tuesday/Wednesday...same red plaid carries from one day to the next.

And I am seriously loving that red plaid!

I guess its kind of a silly thing, but it makes me happy that they coordinate :)

Do you worry about making sure facing pages "match" in your scrapbooks?

The rest of December 2014: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2014 {Day 3}

Happy Weekend Eve!

I'm hoping to get a wreath for our front door today. I was going to stop yesterday after house hunting, but I ran out of time!

I almost did what I feared house hunting yesterday - I found an awesome house! Seriously, great layout, brand new amazing kitchen, hardwood floors, lots of windows, big backyard, a deck, a new roof. It was awesomely maintained, and even the wall colors were ones I would have picked!

But the location wasn't great. And not even like "not perfect, but doable for this amazing house" not great, I'm talking major major issues on many points - including adding an extra 45 minutes without traffic to the trip already 3 1/2 long trip to my parents' house!

So the search continues. Which is just fine since we haven't sold our house yet! Know anyone looking for a house in Louisiana? ;)

Other than house hunting, yesterday was pretty quiet.

I started out the morning extra early, with a cup of tea and an advent calendar chocolate. And then later on, I totally burnt dinner! I was seriously upset, but decided to try the honey mustard chicken anyway, just to see how badly I messed it up. Turned out, I burnt the marinade that spilled onto the (fortunately tin foil covered) pan, but the actual chicken was awesome! I'll definitely make it again, but maybe I'll be more careful not to spill anything on the pan!

This year, I am approaching December Daily slightly differently. In the past, before I did Project Life, I would document what we did everyday with an accompanying picture. But since I document our daily going ons in Project Life, I'm focusing more on December stories this year.

So instead of talking about house hunting and burning dinner (which will still be documented, just not here), I talked about one of my favorite family Christmas traditions - our advent calendars!

"Every year, Aunt Diane buys us these exact chocolate filled advent calendars (she is awesome!). They have been a part of our Christmas tradition for as long as I can remember - the chocolate just tastes like Christmas to me and I almost memorized the sayings on the inside of the windows! I love waking up and having a little chocolate "present" waiting for me - its the only time of year I have chocolate with my breakfast every day!"

While I love my other albums (seriously, woke up this morning and read my 2011 and 2012 books again while drinking my tea), I am really loving this story centered approach this year!

Does using Project Life affect how you approach other projects?

The rest of December 2014: Day 1 | Day 2

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2014 {Day 2}

Happy Wednesday!

I'm so excited, I am going to look at more houses today. Our house in Louisiana hasn't sold yet, so we aren't ready to put in an offer in New York, but I am really enjoying looking at all kinds of houses in all the different towns around here. I figure by the time we are ready to put in an offer on a house, I'll know what all of our options are!

I just keep my fingers crossed that I don't find a "perfect" house, because I would want to buy it right away, and that's not an option right now!

But I'm sure it will be fun, and I should have some interesting pictures to share tomorrow!

Yesterday I took a ton of pictures!

Waiting to cross the bridge on the way to the grocery store | Cold weather + an advisory for an ice storm | Blogging in the morning | Writing up a menu + grocery list | And buying groceries | One of our Nativity scenes, this one is near the tree | Finally getting the empty boxes off the dining room table | Setting up the advent wreath

After I was done grocery shopping and decorating, I was playing with my camera and taking pictures of the tree. I decided to try out this tutorial.

The pictures reminded me of looking at the tree without my glasses on - something I love to do, and something I'm always trying to convince AJ is pretty. He doesn't wear glasses and can never understand what I mean when I try to describe what anything without glasses looks like!

"I've tried to explain to AJ (who has perfect vision) why the tree looks so beautiful without your glasses on. He never got it, until I found a tutorial showing how to take photos like this. He was shocked that this is my world without my glasses!"

Do you wear glasses? Do you love to look at the tree without them like I do?

I'm linking up my Day 2 with Ali Edwards again today. And the rest of my album pages are here: Day 1 (and by rest, I mean the other one...because its only Day 2!)

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2014 {Day 1}

Good morning! How was your Thanksgiving?

Our Thanksgiving weekend was fun, but the two weeks before...craziness!

Can you do me a favor? The next time I decide to move cross country and host a major holiday two weeks later, please remind me how crazy it was to unpack and shop and cook and get the house ready at the same time!

But really, without the deadline of hosting guests for a holiday, I seriously doubt we would have gotten everything unpacked and organized so quickly. So maybe I should always plan a big party right after a move so we have to get everything done?

Of course, the house is in upheaval again as we pull out all of the Christmas decor and try to figure out where it all fits in our new apartment!

And its time to begin another one of my favorite holiday traditions - December Daily. Like previous years, this will be my only digital project of the year.

I'm using Shutterfly again, because it is just so easy! Every morning I upload the pictures from the day before {or I upload my iphone pictures directly from their app - so easy!} I add the pages to the book one at a time, and by the end of the month, my book is done and ready to order!

I'll be sharing a bit about our days + my layouts here. It might be daily, it might not...I guess I'll just have to see how it works out! But I will be linking up with Ali Edwards.

And so, its on to Day 1!

It was a pretty normal December day. A little baking, watching food network by the tree.

We started our advent calendars. They are a wonderful tradition in my family. Every year, my aunt buys us all a chocolate advent calendar. It is one of my favorite December things, and I can't imagine starting off a Christmas season morning without that little piece of chocolate!

A little out of the ordinary today, AJ came home for lunch. He called around 1:15, he'd forgotten his lunch and since we live just 10 minutes away, he decided to come eat here. It was so fun to see him for a bit in the middle of the day!

Of all those stories today, I decided to start off December Daily with the peanut butter oatmeal cookies I was making. Which is nothing new really. 2011 and 2012 started off similarly, talking about cookies and baking...and 2013 started with another favorite holiday treat!

"It seems December Daily always starts with something baked. The start of this month, bringing out the Christmas decorations, watching our favorite Christmas movies {Home Alone | Christmas Vacation}, the cold weather, it all makes me want to fill the kitchen with flour and sugar and vanilla.
I tried a new recipe this time - peanut butter oatmeal cookies. I'm calling them "breakfast cookies", but just so I don't feel bad eating them in the morning!"

It feels awesome to start this project. How are you documenting your Christmas season?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Bachelor Party {Mini Album}

Happy Tuesday!

I am so glad that I finally found some time to scrapbook this week and I was able to finish up this mini album that I started way back in February!

Last summer, I made two mini albums with the Bella Blvd. Engaged at Last line - one for my shower and one for my bachelorette party. So I wanted to make a matching one for AJ's bachelor party. But AJ's bachelor party was a lot closer to the wedding than mine, so it took a long time for this album to get put together.

I left a blank journaling square to fill in where they ate, what they did, etc. But I have to get the information from AJ, and I keep forgetting to ask him! That's what happens when I scrap when he isn't home.

Do you ever create matching albums or mini albums for events? I can't think of too many things were I'd be able to do this, but I loved doing it for our bachelor/bachelorette parties!

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Honeymoon Album {Part 4}

Happy Tuesday!

I'm a little sad about sharing the end of my honeymoon mini album today.

It has been so fun sharing this with all of you, and reliving some of my favorite memories from our trip to Sandals Emerald Bay.

Sunday was the start of our "Bonus Days". You see, most of the people we met at the resort were only staying for one week, which would have meant leaving on Sunday for us. But we were staying for 10 days, so everything after Sunday morning was a bonus! Sunday, we got our favorite seats at the pool again, with the cute little in the pool table. And we played pool that night. I wasn't very good, but it was fun!

Monday, we hung out at the pool for most of the day. We were supposed to go snorkeling at 1:40, but just before the trip, it started to pour! So the trip was postponed until the next day.

It was also Canadian Thanksgiving. So we went to the Canadian Thanksgiving dinner that night! Of course, I thought of Tracy :)

Tuesday we were able to get another cabana on the beach! I was so glad, because I loved hanging out there. We stayed there all day, until it was time for our rescheduled snorkeling trip. To be honest, we debated not going. It was our last day, we had a great spot by the beach, the weather was gorgeous. But we decided to just go anyway and it turned out to be awesome. It wasn't very long, maybe an hour, and we saw some really cool fish on the coral reef!

And when we got back, our favorite seats were open by the pool! So we hung out there for a bit as well.

That night, before our second dinner at the French restaurant, we walked around the resort and took some pictures. They one on the top left is my favorite, and the one on the bottom right is the background on my phone right now!

Wednesday morning we were sad to be leaving. But we had one last omelette breakfast - wow did I eat a ton of omelettes while we were there! And then we just hung out and waited for our car to the airport. When the cars first got there, everyone jumped to get on them, but we stayed back and ended up getting a private car to the airport! It was a great way to end our trip.

And before we knew it, we were back in Florida, and after one more flight, we were back in Baton Rouge!

I wish we could go back tomorrow, but I know that's not possible, you know, because of work and all that. Maybe for an anniversary trip one day?

Where did you go on your honeymoon? Did you ever return for another trip?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Honeymoon Album {Part 3}

Happy Tuesday!

Did you have a good St. Patrick's Day? We did our taxes...but we also had green mashed potatoes and green broccoli and green beer! So it was a little festive!

Over the weekend, I almost finished organizing my scrapbook room. I'm looking forward to creating a few new pages to share. But first I want to finish sharing my honeymoon mini album.

Friday we decided to hang out at the pool. We played BINGO in the morning, and as we started playing AJ told me that he's never ever won BINGO. Of course - he won! Then, some of the other people staying at the resort asked us to play volleyball. There was no way I was playing, but AJ had a lot of fun! While he was playing volleyball in the pool, I decided to read, take a nap and run around and take lots of pictures.

That night they had a mini Junkanoo party at the resort. Junkanoo is a big party/parade that is traditional in the Bahamas. The parade at the resort was very cool, there was dancing and music and a guy who did all sorts of crazy things with a flaming limbo stick. Unfortunately, it was getting super windy, and there was lots of biting bugs in the sand, so we didn't eat at the outdoor party. Instead, we ordered in in our room!

Saturday morning the weather had cleared up a lot! We decided to start the day off with a walk on the golf course. But as we were walking over, I noticed that there was a cabana on the beach open! Those can be so hard to get, so we threw our towels and beach bag on there and started our walk. I loved the golf course, it was right on the water, and there were beautiful views from there.

We spent most of the day on the beach, playing in the water and taking pictures. There were photographers who would take your picture, but when we went to go look at the pictures, they were super super expensive. So I used our cabana as a tripod and took a bunch of pictures myself!

Saturday night was our 1 week anniversary, so they decorated our bed with towel swans and flowers! I thought that was so cute. We also went to the bar before our dinner at the French restaurant (that we loved so much that we immediately made another reservation!) But back to the bar - they noticed that I was taking pictures of my drink, so they decided to show me something fun to take pictures of and lit a shot on fire! That was so so cool!

Well, that's it for today! I'll be back tomorrow with another wedding update :)

But until then, I'll just be working, and maybe starting to paint another wall in the house! Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Honeymoon Album {Part 2}

Happy Tuesday everyone!

How was your weekend? AJ was off Thursday and Friday, so we had a long weekend together. We got a lot done around the house, including having our alarm system installed, finally picking a paint color for behind the fireplace and ordering a dining room table!

Last Tuesday, I shared part of our honeymoon album, so I thought I'd continue on this Tuesday and share a bit more!

Wednesday we decided to skip the pool and got a spot by the beach early, but while we were eating lunch, it started to rain! So we took all our stuff back from the beach (after it had gotten all wet!) and went to the pool after the rain stopped.

We also had a special dinner to go to on Wednesday night for people who had been to Sandals before. The dinner was really fun - we ended up (totally by coincidence) sitting with two other couples from Louisiana! And our Sandals hosts bought each couple a professional picture by the golf course. And the food was so so good, it was seriously the best dinner we'd had all week!

Thursday morning started off with breakfast on our patio. I was so so excited about breakfast on the patio, I'm not sure why exactly, but I thought it was very cool.

After breakfast, we decided to get off of the resort and explore Exuma a bit. We called the taxi driver who'd dropped us off at the hotel, and he drove us around the island so we could sight see a little bit.

He dropped us off at the water taxi that brought us over to Chat'n'Chill. This place was the coolest. It is a bar on a tiny little island that you can only get to by boat. And they have sting rays that you can feed and pet
them, which I absolutely loved doing. And I even got to pick a conch shell out of the water to take home :)

AJ loved the fresh conch salad that they made in that little shack, and we both loved sitting at the picnic benches by the water, just relaxing. For almost the whole time, we had almost the whole island to ourselves. Around 3, some more people started showing up, but that was about the time we were taking the water taxi back to the resort.

I would love to go back there again, and just hang out on that island again!

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Honeymoon Album {Part 1}

Happy Mardi Gras!

I am super late posting today. I'm super late doing everything this week. But that is probably because we are on a school vacation, and I am just loving not being on a schedule this week.

Even though I still seem to be waking up at 6 every morning.

But anyway, today I unpacked my mini albums. I'm not sure where I am going to keep my big albums, but my minis will be in a bucket in the living room.

And when I did that, I realized I never shared my honeymoon album!

I really loved the idea of using a Project Life mini album for our honeymoon album, specifically this kiwi one. But, I couldn't find a Project Life kit that worked with what I wanted for the album. And you guys know how much I love Project Life, but there wasn't anything beachy and tropical enough.

But the Bella Blvd Sand and Surf line was perfect! I scooped up lots of this paper + stickers + embellishments and got to work with my paper cutter and corner rounder.

Fortunately, I was able to make all of the cards over the summer, while school was on break.

So when I got home from the honeymoon, all I had to do was add the pictures + journaling + Bella Blvd cards and it was good to go!

It ended up just taking one evening to put it all together!

I just did one spread for Sunday night, since we got to the resort late. But they had champagne and flowers waiting for us in our room, and we were able to order dinner and relax after a super super long day of traveling (that included a 6 hour layover!)

Monday morning was our first real day of our honeymoon. I had so much fun taking pictures of everything on the resort. I couldn't believe how gorgeous everything was, and I had so missed the beach after my first summer not living close by the water. It was so wonderful to be able to walk to the beach again! We spent half our day at the pool, and half on the beach. And I'm sure AJ is going to love that I shared this picture ;)

Tuesday was more of the same, beach + pool. We got my favorite pool seats today, under the roof, but right next to the pool, with a table in the water, perfect for pizza eating! And there was a chocolate party at the resort that night. Before dinner, we played some pool, and after, we filled up on lots of chocolates. My favorite was the Nutella filled crepes...which didn't last long enough on the plate to get a picture!

Looking at these pictures makes me wish I was in the Bahamas again! It is freezing here, and I couldn't have sworn they told me the south was warm!

I'm off to go figure out how to start the fireplace, and start dinner! What are you up to today?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily {Christmas Eve + Christmas Day + The Rest of December}

Would you believe that I am not excited that it is Friday?

Just because I was off for the past two weeks, and on Monday I have to go back to school. Going back after a long break, especially one that has included a family visit, lots of scrapping and house shopping is hard! But we have a day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so that's something to look forward to!

We started a few new traditions this year. Instead of a big dinner with my mom's whole family, as we usually do on Christmas Eve, we went out east with just my immediate family. We didn't change everything though - we still served lots of seafood favorites, and some non-seafood dishes for my brother and I!

Christmas Day is always very quiet around here. No one even got out of their Christmas pjs for most of the day! We just hung around, watched movies, played games and ate!

Earlier in the month, I was unsure about continuing my December Daily past Christmas this year (I usually don't). But we were having our family Christmas party after Christmas and I wanted to include it - and then I didn't take any pictures of the party! So instead, I created a collage page of everything we did for the rest of December.

And I finally finished the cover + back cover of the album too!

Well, we are off to drive around and look at some more neighborhoods! And to get ready for our house showings tomorrow :) What are you up to this weekend?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Third Thursday Scrapbook Stories {12.19.2013} + December Daily {Day 16 + Day 17}

Happy Weekend Eve everyone!

I am so excited! Today is a half day at school - and the last day of classes before Christmas break (although the teachers have to go in tomorrow for a professional development day!)

Today, I have two fun things to share with you.

First, I'm over a Julie's sharing a few Project Life layouts.

And I'm also linking up with Ali Edwards to share some December Daily pages!

Monday I was feeling pretty sick most of the day. I took a few Advil and nice long nap at the end of the day, and it definitely helped!

Tuesday was a very busy day! I ordered new glasses at the store! I am really excited to finally have an up to date prescription in my glasses. Of course, they won't be ready until after Christmas.

Speaking of after Christmas, I have a question for everyone doing a December Daily. Usually, I stop my December Daily on Christmas Day. But this year, we are having our family get together after Christmas due to scheduling conflicts. I kind of want to extend my December Daily to go to the party, but I'm not sure about it.

What are your thoughts? Do you keep up with your December Daily past Christmas?

And then, do I end it on the party day, or take it all the way through to New Year's? So many decisions to be made!

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2013 {Day 13 + Day 14 + Day 15}

Wednesday is finally here!

It seems like its been a long week, and I'm not sure why. I was just thinking that when I was a kid, December moved so slooooowly, and as a grown up, it goes by too fast. That's when December decided to slam on the brakes. I'm grateful, because it gives me more time to enjoy every moment of this awesome season.

And this weekend was the perfect time for time to slow down a bit. We held our {now annual} Cookie Exchange Party! I so love this party, and was so glad we held it again!

Since we were hosting our cookie party on Saturday, we spent all of Friday cleaning up around the house. Well, AJ did most of the cleaning Friday while I was at work (although I did help out by making sure all of the clutter and things were put away so he could do the more heavy duty things, like scrubbing floors and such!)

Saturday was party day! I decided to make my extra special Santa Cupcakes this year. Normally these are treat that my family saves for Christmas Eve, but I thought it would be fun to add them to our cookie table!

Can you believe how many cookies and treats we had left over? And that is after everyone packed up cookies to bring home! Our tummies + freezer are full of cookies now. And I even brought two big containers into work!

The day after a party is always a day to relax in our house. I was still pretty wide awake after everyone left, so AJ and I cleaned up from the party (leaving out only those cookies in the picture above!) so when we woke up Sunday, we had absolutely nothing to do! Well, AJ had to work, and I had to do some paperwork + run an errand. But aside from that, we had nothing to do! I spent the afternoon scrapping and drinking tea from my Spode mugs.

Do you feel like time has slowed down yet this month? Or is it still flying by for you? I really really hope it stays slowed down - especially when we are spending time with our family!

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2013 {Day 11 + Day 12}

How was your weekend?

Saturday night we held our (now annual) cookie exchange. It was so much fun, but I think we are both still recovering from the  number of cookies we ate. And we still have tons at home! I need to put together a little bag of cookies to bring to work to share tomorrow!

Wednesday we finally got our wedding film. I've been waiting and waiting for it to come. Although to be honest, our photographers were super fast in getting it back to us - I was just so impatient to finally see it! And when we got to watch it, it was so worth the wait! Cinematography was one of the things we really stressed about for the wedding. It didn't fit into our original budget (at least, not the documentary style film I wanted!) but after weighing all of our options, we decided to just splurge and go for it! And I am so glad we did, it is so worth having a full length (almost two hours!) film about our wedding day.

I already told you that Thursday was not the greatest day ever. But my this beautiful nativity scene sign made the day all better!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a fun recipe from our cookie swap! What's your go to cookie recipe?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily {Day 9 + Day 10}

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I love Wednesdays, my schedule at work is so much more manageable on Wednesdays. And on this particular Wednesday, it will be even easier because one of my one-on-one classes is cancelled (because the student is out of the country) and my 5th grade class will be out for the first half of class for Christmas show rehearsal. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of paperwork + grading done today!

Monday was a cold and dreary day. AJ had to go to an unexpected business dinner when a job candidates flight was canceled due to snowy + icy weather (not in Baton Rouge, but where he was going). Instead of leaving the candidate stranded in a city he wasn't familiar with, AJ took him out to dinner. So I stayed home, made a quick dinner for myself and spent the evening scrapbooking! I finished up so many layouts that I ran out of pictures. I am planning on ordering more today though :)

One thing that I love to include in my December Dailies are traditions that carry over from year to year. These Advent calendars make an appearance in pictures from my 2011 and 2012 books. This year, I decided to record the story behind these calendars, because they are such an important part of December for all of the kids in my family.

I'll be back tomorrow with a home decor piece made possible last year by Heather :)

As usual, I'm linking up my December Daily with Ali Edwards

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2013 {Day 3 + Day 4}

Happy Weekend Eve!

I am so excited that it is Thursday!

This weekend, AJ and I plan to go to a tree lighting ceremony. I know it sounds a little weird, but I hope it gets a little colder before we go! The past few days have been 80 and humid, and I just don't like that for Christmas!

But, I am looking forward to creating a December Daily page for the tree lighting!

The past two days in my December Daily weren't very Christmas-y, but that's one of the things I like about this project!

On Tuesday, I decided to focus on the fact that I am trying to get back to eating healthy and exercising. With the wedding + honeymoon in October and my family here for Thanksgiving last week, healthy eating hasn't been a priority, and I just haven't had time to exercise. Even though Christmas doesn't leave a lot of spare time - and has so many delicious treats going around - I am trying to get back on track. Plus, I can't get over the size of that apple, it was huge!

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling so great. Unfortunately, I'm coming down with a cold (despite the crazy amounts of clementines I've been eating!) We didn't do too much, just a regular day at work, plus sitting by the tree eating pizza + watching movies + Christmas specials + tv shows. But I love our wrapping paper this year, so I thought I'd share a picture of the presents!

Hopefully this cold goes away before our Christmas plans this weekend! I'm going to try to knock it out with a bunch of vitamin C and some Sudafed!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Linking up with Ali Edwards

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

December Daily 2013 (Cover + Day 1 + Day 2}

One of my favorite projects is December Daily. I look forward to it all year long, and always miss it when it is done.

Just like previous years, my album is on Shutterfly. Its the only digital album that I do each year, and I think that's part of the reason why I love it so much. Its different from my other projects!

The cover isn't quite ready to share yet...I haven't found the perfect picture for it! But my title page doesn't need a picture. I am loving the big phrases that are available on Shutterfly this year!

All week, I told AJ that I was saving my peppermint hot chocolate for December 1. Its been featured in my December Dailies every year since I started making them, and I knew I wanted to feature it again. And I couldn't wait any longer for my favorite holiday drink!

Yesterday (Monday), we both had to go back to work after having a week off (me) and a long weekend (AJ). It wasn't fun going back. We both said the same thing, it wasn't a bad day, but it wasn't a good one either! It was just kind of blah! Fortunately, Charlie Brown was on TV last night, so we watched that and it definitely added some Christmas spirit to our day!

Well, I guess I better get ready for work...and see what other Christmas-y things December has in store for me today!

What December traditions have you enjoyed already this year?

Linking up with Ali Edwards.

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin