hold onto your seats...

cause i did something tonight that i didn't think i would do for a long time...

we cut the milo man's hair.

like, buzzed it.

here's the before.

okay, he did look like a little girl.

here's me getting the side mullet.

and the after.

a new milo man.

my grandma is probably doing cartwheels right now.

she's wanted this boy to have a haircut for a loooooooong time.

:)

love is big.

photo taken by kristina, oct. 2008

so, i'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

my trip to kansas was a good one.

i got to be with my best friend, who was put through some unimaginable pain last week.

my heart is broken for her.

but she is overcoming.

she is moving forward.

i told her "you are so much more of a woman than i ever could be".

and her response?

"em, you never know what you can do until you're faced with the situation".

only by God's grace is she moving on.

only by God's grace is she forgiving.

only by God's grace will she be able to mentor to others one day.

only by God's grace.

i'm so inspired by her, and have since turned to my blessed, little family of 5 and loved on them a little more than normal these past few days.

love is big.

and can overcome anything.

a winner......finally.

sorry ya'll.

had some unexpected biz-ness in kansas that i needed to be there for.

milo and i left on friday.

froze our hiney's off.

and got back late last night.

milo and i had a good time, with the exception of the 10 degree weather.

speaking of 10.

that is the lucky number today.

since it was 10 degrees when i got off the plane in kansas, i decided that that would be the winning number.

which (after i skip ashlee's comment---she can't win her own baby leggies), it makes the winner:

shawnna said...
I love the green leg warmers with the white yellow and green polka dots :) So cute Off to add a link to my blog.

thanks for linking up shawnna...you are officially the winner, winner chicken dinner!

email me at emilymaeanderson(@)gmail(.)com

and i'll get you hooked up with ashlee.

have a great day ya'll...be back soon!

what's that you say? another give-a-way?

you betcha.
i told you that more goodies were right around the corner, and here we are!
so, if you know me (and yes, i do mean in the blogging sense too) then you may know these things about me.
1. i am a lover of cheetos (seriously. i am. give me a pack of natural brand cheetos and i'll give it back to you empty, anyday.)
2. and also, i like to make sure my babies have the best leggings on the block.
seriously.
so, i'm not giving away any cheetos today, (but please mark my word that they are the best snack ever) i am however giving away some leggies!
well, not me, technically, ashlee from tweetbabydesigns over at etsy has a pair up for grabs!

all you have to do is head over to her shop and let me know what your favorite item in her shop is!

and if you post this give-a-way on your bloggity-blog i'll give you an extra point.

i'm so nice like that.

you have till friday at noon to leave me a comment.

she's so sweet that she sent me some of my own pairs to try out on my kids...here's some pics i got with my kiddos in them.

yum.

those sweet, chunky, baby thighs.

and no.

the chunky baby with the man boobs is not included in this give-a-way.

i must be feeding him too many cheetos.

k, so off you go...check out her store then head back here!

good luck.

**edited to add: hey ya'll, i'm extending the deadline till saturday at noon...i'm taking an unexpected trip to kansas, and flying out tomorrow...so ya'll get a little more time!**

a new president and some cereal.

here's milo telling me all about the big inauguration, and what his opinion on it is.

very interesting, milo.

****************************************

and note to self.

do not think that it's safe to leave 3 small children and a bowl full of dry clifford crunch cereal in a room all by themselves.

inevitably, the cereal will end up all over the floor.

and they will step on it and crunch it into the carpet for life.

dang, i should have known that.

me and the little people.

sarah from sarahbrayphoto.com contacted me, about taking some pictures of her and her kiddos.

well, we decided that it would be fun to trade sessions...

so, that's what we did this morning.

here's some that she took.

i just love them!

i love having photos of me and my kids together.

i'm always the one snapping away.

thanks sarah!

winner, winner, chicken dinner.

random.org picked my first number for me...

the first wee-ner:

#36, which was

Rebecca said...
Congratulations on being published! (I am another Google Reader 'lurker'--so I hope that gets me an extra point)

yes, rebecca that gets you 50 extra points, and some goodies in your mailbox.

and then my own personal random.org (a.k.a mr. anderson) picked a number, 26 to be exact, and i went down the "followers" list, and the 26th person down won my second box'o'goodies:

Rachel said...
Ok...time to confess! I have been a lurker for awhile...time to come out of the shadows! Love your blog and your posts! Congrats on being published! And free stuff? I am always down with that!

so, apparently it paid to be a lurker this time around.

and also to have a "R" name.

sweet.

girls, email me your addresses so i can get your goods to ya!

emilymaeanderson(@)gmail(.)com

there are more goodies around the corner...

stay tuned!

happy birthday papa!

hope you have a great, warm day in arizona!!

********************************

and don't forget, you have until the end of the day to sign up for my give-a-way still!

give it all away..

i was recently published in scrapbook trends "oh baby" book...fun stuff.

they sent me 2 of the wrong book though...

and i got this one:

so, i emailed the pretty ladies there and they made it all right by sending me the right book:

as well, i got gobs and gobs of goodies for being published and i want to share with my super cool blog readers.

so, leave me a comment and i will draw 2 peeps to get a box o'goodies plus an idea book on their doorstep.

and, i'll give you extra brownie points if you sign up to "follow" me on my sidebar.

sweet.

have fun.

and tell your friends.

i'll draw a weee-ner on sunday.

snooze time.

apparently my dinner is boring.

and apparently the next day, dora the explorer was boring as well.

it's funny how kids can just fall asleep anywhere.

wish i could do that.

it's all about the change.

gross dirty floor...

and now a beautiful, clean floor.

not to mention mr. anderson cleaning.

what a good mix.

***********************************************

and some of you have asked how i do i change the colors of my text and the size.

if you use a blogspot, then it's easy.

while you're creating your post, highlight your word, then click on the T(with the colors attached to it) and pick a color.

you can then highlight the word again and change the size if you'd like as well.

it's a fun little thing that i like doing...i feel like it adds emphasis on the words i'm trying to emphasize.

good times.

A1A...beach front avenue.

we headed to cocoa on sunday, so i could take some beach shots of some great friends.

they got married 1 year ago, and since then, have never been happy with their wedding photos, so they wanted a re-do, so to speak.

so they got in their wedding attire and off we went.

keith and the kids played in the water, while we did some fun photos.

here's a sneak peek of them...more will be up on my photog site later.

and then afterwards, gabe took some of us.

i look rather odd, cause i'm in jeans and a shirt, while every one else is in their swimming gear, but oh well.

one of the few reasons why living in florida is cool.

me, myself and my camera.

while i am no expert at the self portrait, i did manage to snap a few pictures in the bathroom mirror today.

i got my hair done yesterday and it turned out fabulous.

so, i had to document it.

and show it to you all.

i'm a blondie blonde now.

the blonder i get, the more i look like a babysitter to my children, and not their mother.

oh well.

aren't the earrings fabulous as well?

they are from forever 21.

and while my self portraits are nothing to brag about...

that camera sure is.

love my new 40D :)

the happiest place on earth. if you like to wait in lines.

mr. anderson and i spent a lovely day at disney, on his birthday.

the magic kingdom to be exact.

here's a recap of the good times.

keith got a button to wear, letting everyone know it's his bday.

*cough* nerd alert *cough*

i told him that i wanted to take a picture of us kissing in front of the castle.

but he was too embarrassed to do such a thing.

but he didn't mind making this pose?

again i say, nerd alert.

the 2 thumbs up, so sexy.

my favorite ride.

making out on a boring ride.

and a pretty cool night scene of the castle.

check out the reflection in the water.

sa-weet.

good times were had by all.

random, tis true.

i had a few questions from the last couple of posts, so i thought i'd answer them here, for ya'll to see...just in case you had the exact same question to ask me :)

1. how did you take the pictures of you and keith on your "birthday" post to keith?

i did not take those pictures, my good friend (and fellow photographer) snapped those for us...you can view her work here.

2. how do you get your titles in your sidebar to be scalloped circles.

ahhhh, this is a simple (not really) answer.

i make them in scrapblog.com. then download them to my computer. crop them in my editing software. then upload them to blogger.

that is the really condensed version, so if you need more help you can email me :)

3. what do i do if i don't go to those scrapbook sites? how can i see your scrapbook pages?

well friends, if you are not a follower of SIS or CMK, then click on the linky loo to the right that says "my scrap in style gallery"...there you will find my gallery that holds most of my scrapbook pages.

it's a treasure, i tell ya.

4. is that a bus on the wall in your bathroom photo?

he-zeck no. that is an unpacked box still sitting on my counter.

it's beginning to look like a fixture on our counter...when will it ever leave.

5. how hard is the peel and stick tile? really?

not hard at all! the only tricky thing is doing parts like around the toilet. i traced first, then cut.

it's much easier that way.

hope i answered all your questions!

***********************************

and by the way.

have you seen this:

i took pictures for a cute couple the other day and their precious newborn.

they are surfers, so naturally, we took a shot of the babe on the surfboard.

this is a keeper.

one room down...many more to go.

here's what 1 afternoon,

a box of peel and stick tiles

and a little labor of love will do for you.

turn this:

into this:

*sigh*

i'm in love with my floor.

i kind of want to make out with it.

or on it.

sorry dad--too much information, i know.

it's been my "house dream" for quite some time to have this black and white checker look.

i am also doing the kitchen and laundry room the same.

and i really love it.

i just stop and stare at the floor as i walk by.

sometimes i walk by the bathroom (even though i don't need to go over there) just to get a peek at it.

i am a retro/vintage style girl at heart, so this suits me perfectly.

*****************************

and just wanted to say that mr. anderson thanks you for all his birthday wishes.

it brightened his day.

we had a fun time at disney (just the 2 of us).

i hadn't been there since i was like 12, so all the rides that i remember being sooooo amazing, were really not quite so amazing after all.

ahhh, oh well.

it was still fun.

keith, my main squeeze.

ah yes,

january 6th.

the day my main squeeze was born, 29 years ago.

29 reasons why i love mr. anderson.

here ya go.

1. he knew he wanted to marry me, after only hanging out with me for one weekend.

2. he moved to kansas to be with me.

3. he can still take a smokin' hot picture with me...6 years and 3 kids later:

4. he puts up with my crazy organic eating/healthy lifestyle living that i choose to put us through. even though he thinks its silly.

5. he comes home for lunch everyday, even though he doesn't always want to.

6. he gets up with the kids during the night.

7. he lets me practice my photog skills on his beautiful face:

8. he lets me check my email 25 times a day, and only makes fun of me once for doing it.

9. he supports the fact that i "need" a scrapbook space in our house.

10. he comes home from work, just to get a lizard out of the house, cause he knows i can't do it myself.

11. he is smart with our money and has kept us debt free. (we all know i would have been stacking up the debt if it weren't for him---a girl can't have enough accessories.)

12. he lets me be the center of attention:

13. he took a job halfway across the country, because he knew it would be better for our family.

14. he lets me sleep with a huge body pillow, even though it means less space for him in the bed.

15. he gets up with the kids every morning and makes their breakfast, just so i don't have too.

16. he's my biggest fan and brags to people about my accomplishments.

17. he takes care of the kids when i have to be gone. and he allows me to be gone quite often.

18. he's a soccer player.

19. he's helped in the production of 3 lovely mini versions of himself:

20. he will get up and check to see if all the doors are locked, even after we are already in bed.

21. he comes home from work and is ready to take over for me with the kids.

22. he has read through the entire bible this year.

23. he cares about this marriage and is always thinking of ways to make it better:

24. he never complains about changing poopy diapers.

25. he's teaching his sons how to treat and respect women.

26. he's teaching his daughter how beautiful she is and always will be.

27. he loves us with his whole heart, but more importantly loves God.

28. he does the bedtime routine with the kids every night.

29. last but not least, he wears this charlie daniels band shirt all the time and doesn't even know the who the band is:

and those are just a few of the reasons why i love him.

i could go on...and on...and on...

but alas, i have to stop.

cause keithie and i are off to disney today!

you get in free on your birthday so we are taking advantage.

the kiddos are being cared for.

it's a good day.

happy birthday mr. anderson.