on this day...

January 21, 2010

A rolie-polie Pinky frolicked on the couch, I snapped a few shots before she confiscated the camera!

on this day...

January 14, 2009

A quiet morning of Legos captured by Cha-Cha back in her photo-journaling days.

new year, new banner...

Welcome 2011! Time for a bit of a blog facelift. The banner hasn't been changed in quite a while. Since January 2008, to be exact. Wow, it's about time, eh?

Say goodbye to the simple dots...

 and hello to some sweet gingham. 

I even made a pretty little button for you to put on your sidebar if you're so inclined.

Here's the code. Copy and paste to your heart's content!

<center><a href="http://lainakay.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u235/lainakaybanner/goodnessgraciousginghambutton200.jpg" border="0" /></a></center>

santa snapshot...

Here's the photo I mentioned a couple posts ago. The children with Santa. I was so happy with this shot that I designed our Christmas card around it. All the kids are looking (okay - well at least facing the camera), no one is making a strange face or crying, the Boy is actually semi-smiling (he hates having his picture taken) and Santa & Mrs. Claus are pretty cute, too... what more could a mom want?

the christmas story...

It's Christmas eve, we've read the Christmas story and watched this sweet nativity. My kids adored it and would like to make one of their own with their cousins someday. We'll see! Merry Christmas!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The children were looking particularly festive this past Sunday so I snapped a few photos on the front porch. Even The Boy was somewhat willing.

Then we stopped to see Santa on our way to church. He was visiting the historic one-room schoolhouse in town.

The one with a separate door for the girls...

and the boys. (My kids are endlessly amused that they used separate doors)

Santa was a right jolly old elf. Princess even whispered as we walked in the door "I think it's the REAL Santa, not one of his helpers!"  I got some great photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus. One was so darling I featured it in my Christmas cards so until those are delivered I won't post it here, but isn't this one of Pinky on Mrs. Claus' lap sweet? No fussing, just a shy, tentative cuddle with Santa and his wife!

We've visited Santa here before, several years ago. It's a lovely, quiet, activity. Only three other families stopped by while we were there. Santa gives each child a tiny chalkboard ornament personalized with their name and the year. We snacked on cookies and punch before we headed off to church. It was a delightful little detour.

Merry Christmas to all if I don't stop by here before then.  The Husband will be returning home in a couple of hours after being away since the first week of December so, needless to say, I've got a few more things on my list to accomplish before Santa arrives at our house. Wish me luck! Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas Eve eve.

ribbon candy is eye candy too...

on this day...

December 21, 2006

The children registered their gift requests at the head elf's office....

chatted with Santa for a bit...

and checked out his sleigh on their way out.

Look how little they were! Oh time...

portico in progress 3...

Ah the portico, all decked out. It's been a while since I've shared the progress on our project. The portico is mostly complete and has been since just before Thanksgiving. I've always wanted a pretty porch to dress up for the holidays. Merry Christmas to me!

There are just a few things left to do. The screen door is going to be replaced, I'm on the hunt for new light fixtures and there's some touch-up painting to be done. Those items are all on the agenda for spring when the weather warms up a bit. And then we'll move on to landscaping. Poor neglected landscaping that has been waiting ten years for the ever-promised portico. It's time has finally come. Good-bye sad, scraggly bushes! A few boxwoods, some pachysandra, several hostas... I'm going for green and lush. Thoughts?

j is for jack-in-the-box...

Monday, Monday, merry Monday. Finally a coloring page for you. 'J' is for Meredith's Jack-in-the-Box. Her Aunt Betsy brought it for her the last time she came to visit. Meredith's baby sister giggles every time the little clown pops up.

Click here for more of Meredith's Alphabet Hunt Coloring Pages.

To print the coloring page now just double click on the image above and select 'print' from your file menu . Or you can right click on the image and choose 'Save Picture As...' to tuck it away in your files for future use. (Don't choose "Print Picture..." from the right click menu unless you want a teeny-tiny version to print in the corner of your paper)



oodness gracious coloring pages by laina kay are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.;