{Project Life Cover Page}

This afternoon, while Anna was napping and I was catching up on work emails, the UPS man stopped at our house and delivered my Project Life starter kit (yah!)  Anna was only half way through her nap, which meant I could get started right away (double yah!!).  I was able to put my cover page together, and then later tonight put weeks 1-3.  I absolutley cannot wait to get my pictures organized from week 4 of January so I can get started on that one as well.  I am really liking this project.  It is a different type of scrapbooking than I am use to, requires more journaling than I am use to (totally taking me out of my comfort zone, but I think that is a good thing, right?) and while I feel I have no idea what I am doing, I love finding out!!! 

{Winter}

Bob and I finally got a chance to take Anna sledding this past weekend.  Anna absolutely loves to play outside, winter or summer, warm, or cold, it doesn't matter, Anna is totally an outdoor girl!  Our winter weather wise has been less than desirable and while we are loving the mild temperatures, Anna is not loving the lack of snow to play in!  So Sunday morning we bundled up and took Anna to a park that close by that has a hill perfect for sledding.  Unfortunately, once we had Anna all bundled up to play outside, she was absolutely devasted when we got in the car and didn't go out front to play like she is use to.  Luckily, our desination wasn't very far from home! :)

A very sad Anna:(

Once we got to the park, Anna perked up and loved the sledding!  There were lots of weee's, squeals, smiles, and laughs from all of us:)

{Project Life 2012}

So I have been going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to take on a project for 2012...it seems like ever since the holidays have ended, I have been itching for something creative to do.  I have been reading about Becky Higgins's Project Life online and thought it sounded like a really cool thing to do, what a great way to document all the fun day to day stuff that happens, the stuff I know I don't want to forget, but inevitably will.  And when Anna is older, what a great gift to give her!  However, documenting every week for an entire year seems like a big commitment for someone like me who has yet to finish Anna's one year scrapbook and she will be 18 months in just a few days.  However, if I am going to do it, I better do it now, so I bit the bullet tonight and purchased my 2012 Project Life kit from Amazon.  Now that it is ordered and on it's way, I CANNOT wait to get started!  And, with any luck, I am hoping before I get too deep in this project I will find the time to finish Anna's scrapbook from last year...here's to hoping!!!

So, tonight I purchased...

I want to get more of the 12X12 sleeve protectors, type A, but they are all out until Feb...so I went with a multi pack to get started.  I love the color of the Cobalt edition, but wasn't crazy about the matching Cobalt Edition binder, so I went with the Clementine Edition binder, just to switch it up a bit...plus I could not take my eyes off of that fabulous orange color!

I plan to use the following links to help me along with tips and tricks....

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/

http://ellesstudio.blogspot.com/

http://studiocalico.typepad.com/

And plan on keeping a camera on the kitchen counter, in my purse, just about anywhere we go, and my phone handy at all times so we don't miss a beat!

{Christmas Love}

What a whirlwind of a holiday it has been!  We want to wish everyone a very New Year and hope everyone had a great holiday!  Our holiday started last Friday when Michele and Mike came into town.  We had planned on spending Christmas Eve at my parents with the rest of the family, so Friday night, after visiting with everyone, Bob, Anna, and I headed home, tucked Anna into bed and waited for Santa to come.  We really wanted to open gifts from Santa as a family, so Santa visited the Seidel house a night early.  I was so incredibly excited for the morning and watch Anna open her gifts, it was me who didn't sleep that night!  Needless to say, Anna was very excited to open all her gifts and has not stopped playing with her new kitchen since! 

One lucky little girl, Santa Came!!!

Opening up our first gift from Santa with dad

In major L.O.V.E. with my new kitchen, all the different pieces are my favorite!

Multitasking, playing with multiple new toys at once!!

And finally, a video of Anna finding Santa had come during the night:

We spent Christmas Eve day visiting friends and family, including my cousins and grandma in Manitowoc, The Houston family in the evening (LOVED holding sweet baby Henry, Stacy and Scott's 2 month old little boy) and finally enjoyed a visit from Matt and Stephanie Balzola and their little boy, Vincent before heading off to bed.  Christmas Day was another busy day including opening gifts, visiting with the Zimmer family (my dad's cousin), and a Packer tailgate hosted by my parents before Bob, Michele, Mike, Jason Zimmer, Jerry Zimmer, my dad, and I headed down to Lambeau for the Packer game.  We had such a great time at the game, the Packers pulled out yet another win, and we all managed to stay warm!  What an awesome opportunity it was to spend the night at Lambeau on Christmas!!!

Michele playing with Anna and Vincent

Opening a gift from Liz and Brett....Happy Feet Penquin!

Cuddles with Belle on Chrismtas Monrning!  (Yes, those are matching PJ's!)

Smiles with Aunt Michele:)

Merry Christmas!

Anna in her Christmas Tutu!

Anna and Brett cuddling!

Mike and Mike enjoying their "flights" at Hinterland

Michele and I at the game in our matching santa hats!

Mike, Jason, Bob, Michele, and I at the game

Monday we met my Aunt Di Ann for breakfast and then visited with my grandma and uncle at my grandma's.  We had a wonderful visit and it was fun watching Anna play with all of my grandmother's "pretties."  The rest of our week was filled with more time with family, a dinner out at Ogan and Titletown, some time out with friends Thursday night, taking Anna to Sir Bounce Alots with Paul, Lois, Becky, and her girls and finally, Bob and I ended our weekend dressing up on New Year's Eve for a wild wild west themed party at a friends of ours, we had a blast!

I also wanted to share a video of Anna opening some of her gifts from Grandma Lois and Papa Paul.  We are celebrating Christmas with the Seidel clan in two weeks in Wausau, but they brought these gifts over this week when they came to watch Anna one night because they were larger and didn't want to travel with them (nor would we have the room to bring them home with us!)  Unfortunately, Anna went to bed before we got home and so we opened them the next morning. 

We are so thankful to have had a wonderful family and friend filled holiday and thankful for all the many blessings in our lives.  We look forward to continuing to celebrate with the rest of the Seidel clan in two weeks when we go to Wausau and stay at the Grand Lodge waterpark. 

Many wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!!!!

xoxo,
Bob, Mel, & Anna