well hi there.  my name is shalonda.  aka mommy cheeks.  yep its been that long hasnt it?!?!  our house is so busy this time of the year with me wrapping up my all wrapped up sessions (ha that sounds kind of nerdy), me preparing for cheeks#1 birthday party (i was thankful to have a december baby when i was pregnant with her bc ummm hello i spent the final stretch of my pregnancy enjoying days under 100 degrees but geesh i guess the joke is on me now!)  Plus tinsel returns dec 1 and im sure you remember so many of his shenanigans from the past 3 years…work your way back with last years antics here or here or even here and follow them back….PLUUUUS there is this little thing called sending out christmas cards, i have worked so hard so that my own clients can send theirs out thanksgiving day if they want and then come dec 1 im all wigging out that i need to do my own, hahahaha…neddless to say decemeber is full of sleepless nights for me, but ill admit i still love every second of the season!!!!

but i digress….

so after see’ing this post from another photographer from last year i knew i HAD to create something like this for my family!  i mean ya know ill be the first to admit that even though my children do chores and earn money to buy things i am also “that mom”…insert raised eyebrows…that caves everytime we are at target or HEB and someone pulls some 4.99 gummy plastic princess toy off the shelf or yet a-nother tube of chapstick that i will find nelted in the cup holder of my car in a few weeks…yep im THAT mom… afterall its not really that much right?!  well guess what?!  i have created a mess for myself and their future husbands, hahahaha…no but really we have a serious case of the “i want’s” in this house so i decided to implement the 25 days of giving!  its not that my children dont/wont love/understand the concept its that i have never really given them the opportunity to do so.  The funny thing is daddy cheeks and i used to do inumorous hours of community service in college, it was very important to us as a couple then and after life getting in the way a bit for a few years we are getting back on track!!!!!

SO the story gets better i called up one of my best friends Melissa from dallas , who was seperated at birth from me and was all “hey have you seen this?!  ”

melissa: “ummm yep we are doing it”

me: “halla lets do it together” (yep im pretty sure i really said that)

and from there we decided to involve several of our other photog friends from all around the US.  the thought of these random act’s of kindness touching people here in spring tx, in roanoak, tx, in ohio, california, north carolina, and so on is truly awesome!  while we dont plan to blog it everyday we will all be quietly documenting it in the hope to share with you in the end what our familes and most importantly what OUR CHILDREN learned and experienced.

i encourage you to consider doing something with your family this year to celebrate the act of giving and as always DOCUMENT IT 😉

oh and a HUUUUUUGE THANK YOU TO MY MOM AND AWESOME AUNT who burned the midnight oil with me to handmake those little envelopes with kraft paper so my vision would come to life….the homemade chalkboard was kinda of a hit with the girls already 😉 NO hobby lobby, michaels and not even container store carry kraft 5×5 or 5×7 envelopes…guess i should have ordered them months ago from paper source but alas we made some memories…love you my little elves!

 day one for us was to create a holiday/thankyou card for soliders and mail them off…. and already my kids have learned something!!!  plus they are already pretty excited about what tomorrows “project” will be…so yay its already a success in our house!