These are a few of my favorite things... from this week

I participated in Secret Santa at work, which is always fun as long as people can keep a secret and not blab about who their person is! My Secret Santa knows me well, she is one of my best friends so she should, BUT she got me nail polish along with other items! But I loved this polish and had to paint my nails that night! I bought an Advent calendar for me and Pablo! My mom always had one of these for me and my brother, and even though the chocolate in them is not very tasty it is still fun to get a treat every day until Christmas! When I was in Kindergarten we learned about Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. I came home from school and told my mom I wanted to BE Hanukkah... not celebrate it, be it! Because I thought it was SUPER cool that you got a present every day, maybe that is why I love this little Holiday treat!

This is our Christmas Tree! Most of the ornaments on it are mine. My mom started a tradition where she would purchase me and my brother a new ornament every year. Some years it was an ornament to represent something important that happened that year, for example I have a martini glass for the year I turned 21, and a bride and groom the year we got married. It is so fun to decorate the tree and get to re-live the memories that are in each ornament. And the angel on top was my great grandmother's angel. This was her most favorite time of year so it is nice to turn my tree on and see the angel blinking at the top!

This is my baby love! I really and truly can not get enough of this sweet, squishy face! I know one day I will have a child and some how love it even more than I love my Lucy-Goosey... but at this point in my life... I'm not sure how I can love anything more than this one.

December!!! Where did you come from?!

I am shocked it is already December! Where did 2011 go?! It's crazy how quickly years, months, weeks and days go by as an adult! When I was a kid I feel like days went on forever, the only time that went by too fast was summer! I really need to decorate our apartment for Christmas, so far I have only been able to hang out stockings and get the tote of lights and ornaments out. No tree yet, it will eventually be put up... maybe this weekend! I have a lot going on right now and as blessed as I am by everything that is happening, it can get a little overwhelming at times. Lacey's is... well Lacey's. It always will be the same, stressful and chaotic but home and a great job. BUT this photography business is coming along well if I do say so! I am impressed with myself after each shoot. Never did I think a birthday present would turn into such a blessing and a potential carreer for me. Don't get me wrong I have always loved photography and have always been crafty and creative and of course LOVED having my own photo taken!! :) But to be behind the camera, as a PROFESSIONAL!? Never did I think this would happen and boy has it been fun! I can't wait to see what the future holds for me and my Nikon! I know it will be GREAT!

Celebration

Tonight we celebrated my brother's birthday! His actual birthday is Christmas Day, which seems like a cool idea until you really think about it and no one will be available to go out and celebrate YOU on that day... it's all about Christmas! So he gets to have birthday parties at other times during the year. He will be FIFTEEN years old this year, woah when did that happen?!

Happy Birthday Jake (in Germany)

My littlest cousin loves my brother and really enjoyed helping him open presents tonight! He would open all the cards first then tell my brother how much he got when there was money in the card! So cute!

Cole and Jake smiling for the camera! Cole is a camera hog like me! I love it!

Every year the day after Thanksgiving, known by many as BLACK FRIDAY!, the ladies of my family go out and shop, shop, shop! It is a great tradition that I LOVE! I make sure to request off months in advance so I am available to enjoy this day! Usually we go to my grandmother's around 3:30 or 4:00, depending on when the first store opens, to meet everyone and my awesome grandfather makes breakfast for us! He really is the best! But this year these stores are all opening at midnight.. really messing up our breakfast plans!! :) I guess we will just go shop right after dinner this year and go for as long as we can! It should be interesting!

Passion

Things have been good... Kind of a whirl-wind going on around me as I try to keep both feet on the ground. As stressful as it is, I do enjoy the busy life I lead. I am loving the photography and realizing more and more that I wish that was my full time job and maybe one day it will be! I just have to continue to put as much into it as I can so I can fullfill that dream! It's nice to know that I can make people happy with photos of themself. I have ALWAYS loved my picture to be taken, it's sickening really, but it is the truth. So my goal for my photography is to make others love for their picture to be taken. Many people dread having their picture taken, dread family photos and never get these special moments and memories captured. Which honestly makes me sad. I want people to have the same love for it as I do, and I know that I am not going to be able to "convert" the world to all love photos of themselves.. BUT I want to make my clients enjoy their time with me while I am capturing special, precious moments in their lives. Even if I don't change their minds forever, maybe I can get them to enjoy it just that once!

aiyaya....

So last night about 9:00pm I suddenly had an overwhelmed, freakout, OMG I can't do any of this moment! I guess I have a lot on my plate, and it's flimsy plate, like one of those cheap paper plates that you have to have like 4 to keep it from falling apart! So I made a list, because I'm crazy & OCD and for some reason instead of attacking the task at hand I must take a moment and organize it all FIRST, then attack! So I made my self a list, separated different task by day to complete and took a deep breath. Feeling a little better, I began working on the list. Beginning with a Psychology test, I made an 88! YAY! I have finished 1/2 of today's task but still feel very overwhelmed... maybe it's just the weather that's making me feel blah!
I blame part of this anxiety I have on my car.
My dear little "Hot Tamale"..... You see I got that little thing my Senior Year, I paid her off and she is alllllll mine! Which is fabulous. She only had like 53 miles on her when we got her! About a week after the purchase, she just cut off on me one day on the way home from NCHS. Her timing belt broke. She was repaired and has been a wonderful little ride ever since. UNTIL last Wednesday.. It was October 5th, my Father.in.law's birthday! We went to dinner at the new BBQ place in Acworth, JD's, after eating and being COMPLETELY stuffed. We left to go home.. about 50 feet from the road JD's is on a loud noise comes from my car then it sounds like we are driving on an old grave road, with LOTS of grave. She cuts herself off and Pablo pulls her in a nearby street. We get out and there is tons of oil coming from under her. A nice fellow JD's goer comes walking up with a piece of metal that he found in the middle of the road. Wonderful, a piece of my car was in the road, yippie! So Pablo's parents come back to assist, then a family friend, who is also a mechanic, comes to help. Pablo, my FIL & the family friend, attach my car to his truck in a not-so-traditional way & tow it to my in-law's house. That was an enjoyable ride, as I watched my car race through the streets of Acworth attached to a truck by a rope. Waiting for that special moment when the engine, which is attached to the rope, flies out and my car zooms the other way! This my friends is what my Mother.in.law & I like to call a "Sierra Family Moment" were going to write a book so stay tuned! We later find out that my little lady "threw a rod", aka something broke & put a hole in my engine. How wonderful! So now I am car-less & feel like a 14 year old having my wonderful family and friend tote me around. Hopefully we will fix H.T. soon or purchase THIS lady a new car! :)
Now I am off to finish the rest of my list and possibly move on to task that are listed under Tuesday. Where has productive Lura gone? I must find her soon!!!

recent discovery

As you all know I got a fancy new camera for my birthday! I wanted to have it to take nice pictures when we went to cool places. Well I took some photos of Lucy that turned out pretty good. Then my good friend wanted me to take some photos of her and her two boys. So I did and it turns out that I'm pretty good at being a photographer. Since my first "photo shoot" I have done a couple of more. Here are some from the shoot I did with my brother and sister in law and their children. They turned out really good. Gabriel is probably the cutest little boy I have ever seen! :) So since I am pretty good at this photography thing, my supportive husband and I are in the works of making this a business for me. I'm very excited and I can't wait to really get it going! Wish me luck!

devastating news...

My precious little nephew has been fighting a hard battle against AT/RT for almost a year now. For the most part things have went well for him during his treatment. Obviously it has been very trying on his little body, he has lost his hair, his beautiful long eye lashes, and has to be poked on a weekly basis. A couple of months back he had an MRI & Lumbar Puncture to check for any tumors or tumor cells in his body. They found some small spots in his brain, but were not sure if it was actually tumors or if it was just inflammation, and no tumor cells from the LP. So he had another MRI and everything was still the same, they were there but they had not grown, so in a way this was good news because we assumed they were not tumors since they were not growing, but it was still a possibility. Well this past Friday he went in for another MRI and a Lumbar Puncture. The results this time were not at all what we had all been hoping and praying for. The spots on his brain have grown, there is a spot on his kidney and tumor cells showed up in his lumbar puncture. The doctor said they should stop the current treatment plan and they will discuss a new plan Tuesday to keep Gabriel comfortable for the remainder of his time with us. This was completely devastating news for all of us. I still do not even know how to handle it. I break down when I think about it, my heart is just crushed! I don't think it is fair that horrible things happen to little children like this. I know that this is God's plan for Gabriel but it's just so hard to accept that. He's just 19 months old (on the 26th of this month)! So I need all of you to just pray for him and for us.