My pride and joy painting

Isn't this incredible? I get to look at this everyday and smile. I know I have the originals living in my house, but this painting doesn't talk back, fight or whine. It is truly one of my favorite material possessions. It was painted by a dear friend and incredible artist, Simini Blocker. Can you believe she doesn't even enjoy doing this type of work? I wish I was as good at things I don't like. Since many of you won't get to come to my house, I thought I'd put a picture in my blog. A picture of this painting doesn't really do it justice! My kids personalities and mannerisms seriously come to life!

I decided to put in some other pictures from around my house. Since I do this blog so that I can "journal" our year by printing all these entries into a book at the end of the year, I thought it would be fun to have some pics of the house. Actually I took most of these because we were getting ready to repaint and I wanted to be able to remember how things were on the wall.

Here are some photos of our house last Christmas season.