I. Am. Awesome.

You know those days when you just feel on top of the world and you start thinking non-stop of all the wonderfulness you are?  ...Yeah, me either!

Just kidding!  ...Well, sort of.

This week's Monday Listicles was suggested to us by Ms. M from The Bonny Bard.  In an effort to keep the holiday spirit and positivity alive, she had us write of 10 REASONS WHY I'M GREAT.

Well seeing as how I have always had confidence issues and have the tendency to be modest...this was hard.  But sometimes you(I) just need reminding of all of the goodness you are, of the reasons why people love you, why YOU love you.  So here it goes.


1.  I am a kid at heart.  I don't blow bubbles in my chocolate milk or anything but I still love everything I did as a kid.  I still have stuffed animals and some treasure trolls.  I get super excited when I see the Fraggles, Muppets or ALF on TV.  And I'll still break into any Disney song and sing it almost word for word while dancing around my house.

2.  I can cook.  I wouldn't say that I am a cook, but I can cook.  I am more of a recipe follower and then will add a few things differently sometimes.  I haven't made anything yet that was inedible and I've only burnt/not cooked something long enough a few times.  So that's pretty good, right? :)

3.  I am funny.  I can usually make people laugh, even a little giggle.  If I can't succeed then I just assume that they have no soul.  (hehe)

4.  I am tidy (for the most part).  I guess I am somewhat of a perfectionist, but I like things where I like them.  This helps the utter frustration of going to look for something where it's supposed to be and not finding it there, but somewhere else...or not at all.

5.  I am caring.  If you manage to make your way into my heart, you ain't leavin!  I will bend over backwards and forwards again for anyone I care about.  I'd offer you my shoes, my coat and my couch in a heartbeat.

6.  I am strong.  Every life has a story and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  I'm months from turning 30, that's gotta count for something.

7.  I am smart.  Some of my friends come to me for advice on life, others for computer tips, others for phone tips, and some for cooking tips.  I guess that says a lot.

8.  I am truthful.  As a teenager, trying to lie to my parents was hard.  I've always sucked at it!  As an adult, I gave up trying and realized the truth is always better no matter what.  Plus I still suck at lying, even when I'm trying to pull a prank!  Ex: April Fools Day

9.  I am crafty.  Did I really just say that?  I may not have ideas flowing all the time, but when I really sit down and put my mind to it, I can come up with some pretty good ideas for handmade things.  And thanks to Pinterest my crafty brain works better now.

10.  Last but not least, I am a good mom.  I'm not perfect in any way, but I know that my child is loved and that I try my very best to make sure she feels that every day.

Go ahead and toot your own horn a little!  It feels good and it's self healing.  Why are you awesome?

1 Year Bloggerversary!

It's really officially official!  Today I have been a blogger for a year!  It has officially been one year since my very first post!

If you took the time to click on the hyperlink I just gave you, well thank you.  Yes, that is technically my very first post, but there was really no content in it.  No feeling.  Just a greeting and a very short introduction of me and why I decided to hop on the blog band wagon.

Needless to say, I have had a few intentions with this blog since a year ago.  This blog started as a modern day mommy diary/baby book.  After I gave myself a redesign and not just used a template from a 3rd party and added some buttons and a badge, my blogging head was held a little higher and I began to write more about my life and experiences, in addition to being a "mommy blog".

I then got brave and wanted to stray from Blogger and buy my own domain name and use WordPress, but without knowing anything about the ins and outs of being self hosted or not...I backed out of that (for now) and have been blogging everything under the sun on Our Foto Friendly Family blog.  Once I am able to become self hosted, I will, but I predict that will be some time from now, as that is not really high on my list of priorities.  I am doing just fine on this little "free" blog of mine.

Now, I'll admit, I feel that I have out grown my blogging skin here a little and I don't want to be known as "FotoFriendlyMom" forever either.  I will eventually change that when I am ready and able.  I am, however, very comfortable in saying "one year down, a hundred to go" because I love blogging that much, that I can see myself doing it forever...or at least as long as my hands can do the typing as my brain does the talking.  :)

So here's to being a blogger for a year, thus far!

CHEERS!

How long have you been blogging?

I Did It! Go Me!

This calls for a celebration and a glass of wine...or two!

Three things:

1)  It's Friday!!!  That alone is wine-worthy!

2)  This post will conclude my first NaBloPoMo Challenge and although I technically did not "hit publish" once a day for 30 days, I still am ending up with 30 posts for the month, so that's an A+ in my book!

AND

3)  With all of your love and support (and putting up with harassing posts on Twitter and Facebook), I have accomplished my goal of being in the Circle Of Moms Top 25 Family Blogs By Moms of 2012!  It was a close call, because the margins were very tight for awhile, but after a good campaign and convincing myself that I shouldn't give up, I totally surpassed my goal of being #25 and placed in 16th!

Check out my shiny new badge!


Pretty cool huh?

So with that introduction, I'd like to actually write my post for today.  During this month, I had only used one other blog prompt to write about the last compliment I received.  Today, since it's so applicable, I am going to use the blog prompt for today and that is What Has Been The Hardest Part About Blogging Daily?

Well friends, there have been a few hard parts about blogging daily.

Time-  Where can you find time to blog everyday for 30 days straight? It's especially hard during a month with a big holiday, that includes dinner that you cooked and host it at your house.  It's extra especially hard with a 13 1/2 month old baby who just started walking and you now have to chase all over the house.    Oh and not to mention the difficulty having a husband who still suffers from frequent headaches and foot aches now that it's cold out (from a previous accident).  Even when he gets home there's not much that he can do lately other than give our daughter her nightly bath (along with many other things I appreciate so much) and relax on the couch until it's time for bed.  By the time I am able to sit down with my cup of hot tea and kick my feet up on the recliner, I am beat!  It was all I had some nights to get in a blog post and hit that publish button minutes before midnight.

Content-  What the heck do I write about?  I knew that finding something to write about for 30 days was going to be a challenge, but I didn't exactly realize how much of a challenge it was.  I tried very hard not to use the given blog prompts (mentioned above), and have all of them come from ideas in my head, but it was hard!  There were a few posts that I started to type out, thinking it was going to be a good and fairly lengthy post, but ended up deleting it because it didn't feel right.  I didn't feel passionate enough about one aspect of it and was scattered all over the place with my topic (which I tend to do often).  I accepted this challenge to try to become a better writer, not to repeat my already known mistakes.  Ugh!  So needless to say some posts were mainly of pictures or videos and I'm okay with that.  This is a "Foto Friendly Family" blog anyway.

Motivation-  I signed up for this challenge joined in virtual hands of my friend Sandra over at "Letters of Muse" where she participated in NaBloPoMo with me writing in her other blog "Promptly I Write".  We both have tried to keep up with reading and commenting on each other's daily posts and sending the occasional tweet for motivation, but most days it just didn't happen.  Like most adults do, we have lives.  We have kids.  We can't always be sucked into a computer for hours on end to come up with and write our own stuff...let alone try to be there for your blogging buddies as motivation and inspiration.  It's been very difficult and I feel as though I have let my readers down because I have not been reading or commenting on their blogs.  It's not that I don't enjoy them.  There's just never enough hours in the day.  Luckily Twitter was able to help us stay connected as we were all going through the same "suffering" and we were able to give words of encouragement to keep going and not give up.  As well as a little writing community called Studio 30 Plus where I have met some fellow writers who participated in this challenge and have fought tooth and nail to stay in the game just as I have.  Thank you, friends, for your words of encouragement and motivation!

With all of these reasons why blogging daily was difficult, I will say that this has been very rewarding for me. After falling into a slump of life where I didn't know which way I was going and how I was going to get there, I hadn't been blogging for weeks at a time.  This saddened me because I love blogging!  This is my out, my vent.  This is my little piece of the blogosphere that I can call my own.  This is where I discover myself as a person, as a mother and as a wife, every day.  This is where I meet new friends who are just like me and sometimes even have the same struggles as me.  It's very comforting to know you're not alone.  :)
I am so proud that I did this! It is very self rewarding and definitely boosted my confidence with writing. I think I did an awesome job for my first NaBloPoMo! Would you agree?

Now I'm taking a month off of blogging.....JUST KIDDING!  I'll be back soon!

***Be sure to check out Shareaholic's blog post for today.  One of their writers, Ginny, had reached out to me and has been in contact with me over the last couple of weeks and asked me to be featured in this post.  Of course I said yes!

Until next time NaBloPoMo... a LONG time from now ;)

Feeling The Love For Votes

As you may know, in addition to trying to catch up on NaBloPoMo for this month, I have also been campaigning for votes to be in the top 25 of Family Blogs by Moms of 2012 through Circle Of Moms.

I was nominated earlier this month by a very sweet anonymous person (again, whoever you are, THANK YOU!).

As my second to last post for the month, I am using this post to promote votes for my blog!  Please go to this site and click vote.  I would really love to win this award and have a sparkly new badge for my blog to display.

You can also click this badge to see what place I'm currently in!  Voting ends tonight at 4pm PST!



Thank you to all of my family, friends, and blogging buddies for all of your daily votes and for recruiting more votes, as this means so much to me coming up on my one year Blogger-versary!

Love to you all!

Technically Not A First Christmas

Our First Christmas as a Family's Ornaments

Technically it's not Annaliese's first Christmas.

She was a young 2 1/2 month old when Christmas came around last year.  Justin and I had intentions of decorating the house and putting up a tree because we were excited for Christmas as a new family of three.  But sadly, as you know, because of my father in law passing away on December 15th, we no longer had the Christmas spirit left in us to do any bit of decorating or wrapping, or singing or baking.  We just wanted to sit and cry together as a family.  There were no pictures taken other than Annaliese in her Christmas PJs on that Christmas day.

Annaliese in her Christmas PJs on Christmas Day

THIS YEAR is a whole new world for Annaliese.  Justin and I are excited about Christmas this year.  We've already begun playing Christmas music, we have put up our Christmas tree and decorated it with loving ornaments from Justin and I's childhood, we've hung our stockings, we've watched Christmas classics like Charlie Brown Christmas and Muppets Christmas Carol, and soon, I'll be whipping up some yummy cookies to hand out to the family.

Justin and I's First Christmas ornaments

Very intrigued by the lights

"Our First Christmas" ornament from 2010

Sammie enjoying the Christmas tree

Annaliese's first Christmas ornament next to one of daddy's guitar ornaments

I can't wait to take many many pictures and videos of this "First" Christmas with our (will be) 14 1/2 month old.  She will be so spoiled by her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that we may need a bigger toy box after this ;)