Black Friday Preparations!

So every year, it has become tradition to go out and buy our Christmas gifts with all of the crazies on Black Friday. This year, my aunt and cousin were in line at Target, while my sister-in-law and and I were in the Kohl's line late Thursday evening. It was so much fun! We were totally crazy, yes, but people watching was hilarious.

Target has been putting out these hilarious commercials for the last couple of years about their Black Friday sale that crack me up. Here are a couple of my favorites from this year's.

So by the time Luwannah and I actually made it over to Target, we had to mimic some random parts from the Target commercials. We just couldn't find a red parachute to run down the aisle with though!

Oh, and yes, those are socks on Luwannah's feet...and flats on mine. The heels just weren't cutting it for the all-nighter.

This next photo was in the Victory Lakes shopping center in the JCPenney/Sports Authority area. Seriously, this was the security that night. We were laughing our tails off... no one was in the SUV. The policeman was in this lifted box thing. I can just imagine it now, "Thief! Stop! Freeze!! I'll be down in about 5 minutes!!" (humming/squeaky sounds start while the thing slowly lowers towards the ground and the criminals make their escape...)

I have to say, I did most of my shopping online before venturing out to people watch... so it was nice not having to stress about getting a certain gift for someone. Everything was so smooth and I even got my first little annual JCPenney snow globe!

Psalm 100

So in preparation for Grandparents' Day at Celeste's school today, she has been learning to recite Psalm 100. It's so cute hearing a 5 year old say all of that by herself! I absolutely love her school!! Enjoy the video I took of her saying it in the car yesterday... after she played that afternoon in the school playground!

Taylor Family Christmas Photos

Well, it's been 2 years since we've had our family pictures taken, and Celeste has grown up quite a lot since then. So last Saturday, we made it over to Portrait Innovations for our Christmas pictures. Here are some of the photos!

As part of the bribe to get Celeste to come and take photos with us, I told her that she could pick out anything she wanted from her clothes to wear and that we would take some special pictures of just her in that favorite outfit. Eric's eyebrows shot up when I told her that, and we both knew it would be interesting to see what she would come up with. She did a pretty good job, and it is totally her!

For this last pose, the photographer had been enamored with her hair and told her to turn around and face the camera. Well, he took about 3 shots of this same pose, and she turned around for each one. It was so cute.

Hard to believe how quickly time flies. Has it really been 5 ¹/₂ years since I had this little baby girl?

Progress

A few months ago, I posted about improving my lifestyle a bit more to tone up. After four months of changing my habits, I'm proud to say that I've seen some awesome changes. But I didn't notice them until I went through some old photos yesterday, and I just had to share!

These two mug shots were taken exactly 2 years apart. You can see the changes in my face!

I'm finding that the clothes I use to wear fit me a lot differently now and while I'm certainly not perfect, I'm really enjoying the way I feel. Eric is also changing a lot! Although I'm not sure he would be okay with me posting his before and after photos on here. :) I really enjoy our new lifestyle and I hope we continue to live it for the rest of our lives.