Why are we the only one's laughing?

December Daily- Day 1

2010-12-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

It all started at 6:30 this morning. Running, shouts of excitement, all 3 children awake. Did I really oversleep.... is it Christmas morning? Hauling myself out of bed I remember why they are running around like they have eaten sugar for 6 days straight. Dec. 1st, advent calendars....ahhh yes the excitement begins. I kept the theme a surprise this year to torture, I mean add to the excitement. They had no idea what they were going to wake up to.

Sissy was a bit of a challenge this year. Since she loves anything crafty and anything to do with books (wonder where she gets that from?) I ended up making a tag a day for her. On the back of the tag is a quote or passage from the Bible or a Christmas story. Today's passage was from How the Grinch Stole Christmas;

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch- feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't thought of before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Of course, there has to be Thank you LEGO..you made me look like the best Mama in the world! He was beyond excited (and so was I since they were actually ready for school early today because of these oh so lovely calendars!). He told everyone he encountered today about this amazing thing he woke up to. Sissy told him since she wakes up first, she will come get him in the morning so they can see what they get for Day 2. Sounds like a plan to me!

A snowman it was for the first day of the LEGO calendar.

Owie P. is too young to understand what is going on but, he does understand Sissy and Mr. B were getting something and he isn't so an animal cookie it is.

I loved seeing the excitement on their faces and can't wait till tomorrow!

Oh blog of old...how I have missed you!

2010-11-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking for a while now about resurrecting my blog. I enjoy writing but since I am back in school I have spent so much time on the computer writing papers I couldn't stomach the thought of anything else. Since it's time for December Daily again what better time to bring the blog back and keep updated instead of falling off the wagon!

So.....here we go! See you in the morning and glad to be back!

P.S.-what would a post be without a picture!

Ms. KK is growing up way too fast!

One year ago...

2009-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Our little monkey was 3 months old. He laid there quietly and would cuddle in your arms.

Today is a very different story. He is 15 months old, still sweet and loving (when he wants to be) but, he is a bit of a wild child! He climbs everything, puts everything in his mouth, runs around screaming (very ear piercing) just because and kicks every round object hes sees. He also still likes to cuddle, has the biggest smile that lights up his face, giggles over everything and makes us laugh constantly. What would we do without our Owie...

P.S.- this picture was taken after he pushed the chair to the counter, climbed up and dumped a cup of water over and pulled silverware out of the drawer in a span of 30 seconds.

Thankful

2009-11-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

so many things to be thankful for this year. Where do I begin....this is going to be a quick post so we'll do the list format!

1. for trusting in God

2. my husband, our marriage

3. my beautiful, loving, funny children

4. a supportive, loving family5. a roof over our heads

6. food on our table every night
7. amazing friends

8. grilled cheese sandwiches made with goat cheese

9. my job

10. Diana Gabaldon for coming out with the next book in the Highlander series, I was waiting very impatiently for the next book!

11. the fact that the "someday I will wear these jeans again" fit again!

12. crafting

13. Scott working hard so I only have to work part-time

14. my Dad having another year cancer free!

15. crafting, crafting, crafting and that Scott doesn't mind our bedroom also being my craft room (atleast he doesn't tell that he minds)

I hope everyone has a blessed, relaxing and safe Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to the holiday season and hope you are as well!

Brendan

2009-11-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

Even Batman has to listen to Mama.....

30

2009-11-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

When did that happen? Wednesday, November 4th I turned 30. Do I feel different...not physically. Mentally and emotionally...maybe. for some reason I am having a really hard time with 30. It's not the fact that I am starting to notice changes in my body, I have 3 kids it's pretty trashed already. Although I did find a gray hair when I woke up Wednesday morning. Starting to notice really fine lines along my eyes. I am okay with that too because it means I am smiling and laughing a lot and if the price is lines around my eyes then so be it.

In my head and when I look at myself in the mirror, I am still 22. When I see actual 22 year-olds I think differently but for now in my head I am still 22. I guess that's a good thing because as long as I think I am young, I will be! I have had a few encounters this last week that did lead me to believe that my age idea that is in my head might not be believable to everyone else. I went shopping for a new vacuum at Target this week. Not a big event in most people's lives but for me I was VERY excited about getting a new vacuum. So excited in fact that I had to send Scott a text message to tell him just how excited I was. I was informed that I was very dorky. Oh well, that has nothing to do with age I always have been a little dorky. As I was walking towards the back of the store where the vacuums are I was approached by a young man and asked "can I help you with anything MA'AM?". Are you serious? When did i cross the threshold of being called Miss to being called Ma'am? I swore yesterday I was still a Miss. Though I was very traumatized by the store clerk that CLEARLY needed glasses, I purchased my vacuum and headed home. This is where I started to worry about myself. All I could think about was getting home and trying out my new vacuum. I WAS EXCITED TO VACUUM! There has to be something wrong with me. Maybe I am getting sick, it can't be because I am turning 30 and might be considered a responsible adult. Holy Moly!

Vacuum story aside, Tuesday night by best friend since we were 5 years old got me out of bed at 10 o'clock and to me to TGI Friday's. She said I need to have dessert and a drink at midnight as I turned 30. Lots of fun... when I was younger I would have just been getting ready to go out at 10 o'clock but, now that is way past my bedtime. Concern again. when we walk in the bar there is a DJ. A DJ on a Tuesday night? The bar was packed (don't these people have to work in the morning?) and we found a spot. Chatting non-stop like we always do, I paused mid sentence and said (I still can't believe these words came out of my mouth) "It's a little loud in here. I can't even here you talk." What? Did I just complain about it being too loud? Yikes.

These are not the reason's I am having a hard time turning 30. I do feel like I just turned 22 and now all of the sudden I am 30. How did this happen? When did this happen? If my 20's went SO fast it scares me that the rest is going to go even faster. I don't want it to go faster. I want it to slow down. Enjoy everyday not rushing through life and then realize it's close to being over. I want to stay this way forever (not just because I am so clumsy that Scott tells me I am going to be in a wheelchair by 40) because I am loving life right now.

There is only 1 upside to turning 30. My 20's were crazy and fast-paced. A roller coaster of emotions. Getting my degree, having 3 babies (one I had while in college), getting married, illness, surgeries, death in the family, almost losing our marriage. Such extreme highs and lows. Financial struggles, emotional struggles, just lots of struggles in general. Becoming responsible for 3 human lives. My 20's were very unpredictable. That is the one thing I am looking forward to in my 30's. The only wish I have. A very boring, non-descript decade of life. Will it happen...probably not but, I will try and love every second of it. Here we come 30's...hope you can handle me!

I know it's only October but,

2009-10-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

I am already getting in the mood for the holidays. I want to bake things and have holiday parties. Snuggle on the couch drinking hot tea out of a fabulous coffee cup while watching a movie with the fireplace on. Where did this come from? Getting the new Pottery barn catalog in the mail is the problem. They had so many beautiful things that make you want to have Thanksgiving dinner at your house and to be honest who actually wants to have Thanksgiving dinner at your house. Look at this....
(all of the images are from the Pottery Barn catalog)

sorry the image is small but aren't these little squirrel salt and pepper shakers cute. Totally impractical which is what I usually am but isn't everyone entitled to whimsical everyone once in a while.

These salt and pepper shakers are more my style...

Look at the black and white pictures in the vases! Love it!

Too bad snow is not something we get at our house...

Isn't this table setting beautiful...

I know I haven't been around the last week or so, okay two weeks. We have been busy, busy, busy. I promise to come back and post pics of what we have been doing!

Girly Girl

2009-09-15T17:17:00.001-07:00

I can't believe you are 7 years old today. You definitely make us laugh with your funny sense of humor. You are also such a smart girl and we are so proud of your accomplishments. We are going to have quite a fun birthday celebration starting tonight. On the menu for the birthday girl's dinner... pesto pizza with pine nuts, goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, fruit salad and salad with cranberries, goat cheese, candied walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette. for dessert the birthday girl is requesting homemade berry cobbler and vanilla ice cream. Not quite the menu most 7 year olds would pick but it sounds good to me! Enjoy your day sweet girl...we love you so much!

2009-09-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

"Circumstance does not make me,
it reveals me."
{ william james }

This has definetely been tested and proven this last year and 9 months

Weak in the knees

2009-09-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

Everyone has their weakness'. Some it's food, others it's shopping. Here are the things that make me go weak in the knees...... (not in any particular order!)

1. a REALLY good book, the kind that you think about when you aren't reading it and when you are done you feel a loss. Like this series...

2. pretty paper...well any type of paper. I have loved paper since I was a little girl. I remember receiving stationary as a little girl and I would never use it because I liked it too much.

3. going to the bookstore (are you seeing a pattern here?)

4. dessert. How can one not like dessert? I am convinced it should be a food group.

5. My sports team(s) winning. I am a happy girl if I can watch the game with an adult beverage adn some good food. It is even more perfect if the food is something like wings followed up with dessert. It's a good day at our house if the Angels, Chiefs, Lakers, or Gators are winning.

6. Putting the kids to bed and having a quiet dinner for two with the lights low and no interuptions. I am always surprised at how much discussion goes on when you are not repeatedly saying "where's your napkin" "sit in your seat" "use your silverware please".

7. clean sheets. I love the feeling of climbing in bed right after the sheets have been washed. The feel crisp and cool and I just like it!

8. Seeing my husband walk through the door after work everynight. Not just cause I love him but because my partner is here and now we can tag team the 3 monsters destroying our house.
9. any flea market. I love the hunt and the happiness when you make a good find or get a great deal!
10. anything vintage

I know this is a random post today but it's always good to sit and relfect for a few minutes about the things that make you happy.
On a side note, funny 6 year old story. I took Ms. Kennedy to school this morning and when she got out of the car I noticed her shoes didn't really match her outfit. I commented on them and then said "oh well, doesn't really matter. Nothing we can do about it now." She looked at me with the exagerated eye roll only a young girl can do so well and said "Geeezzzz Mama, you have no style." Awesome.

We survived

2009-09-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

the 1st birthday party. It was bittersweet to me. So happy my boy is turning one but, at the same time sad because my last baby is no longer a baby. I tried so hard to enjoy every moment of his baby time and I still feel like I didn't get enough. So enough mushy lets get back to the party.

We call Owen our little monkey or monkers. So, we decided to have a monkey party for our little monkey. The cake was our splurge and it was worth it! It turned out so cute and tasted just as good!

Here is the book I made for Owen. I left it our for everyone to write him a little message.

The kids swam while the adults relaxed. For the first time I was actually able to relax during a party. We had a man come and make tacos. Can I tell you how nice it was to not cook a thing for a party! When it was time for cake Owen was not that into eating it. He didn't like the frosting on his fingers at all! Once he got past the frosting he really enjoyed the cake and ended up making quites the mess!

Less than a week till the next birthday! Not ready for my girly to turn 7. It's going too fast...

someone make it slow down please...

Homework oh homework!

2009-09-08T08:36:00.001-07:00

Most children think of homework and it makes them groan. Not Brendan. The night before his first day of school I was laying in his bed with him and I asked him what he was most excited about for the new school year. I was expecting an answer along the lines of my friends or playing on the playground. Instead his answer was "HOMEWORK!" He has been looking forward to getting homework for a long time now. Friday was the big day. I picked him up from school and he came down the hall with the biggest smile on his face. In his hands was his first packet of homework. How do I describe the look on his face? It was almost reverent. You would have thought he was holding a piece of paper telling him we was going to play for the Angels. We got in the car and he said, " Mama, can you get a pen out of your purse. I need to do my homework." A discussion ensued and he tried to convince me he needed to do the homework right then. He couldn't wait for me to get home from work and would do it as soon as he got to Grammy's house. I talked him out of it but he took it up to his room when he went to bed that night and the next morning came down carrying his homework ready to begin. When he finally sat down to start the packet on Sunday he could hardly contain his excitement. I am so glad my boy is so excited about learning!

1 year ago today

2009-09-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

my little man was born. My last baby is now officially a toddler. Happy birthday my little monkey! We love you SO much. I probably should have put a cute picture of you smiling sweetly but this one sums up your personality the best. At 12 months you have everyone charmed. you definitely have an opinion about everything and if no one is listening you make sure we all notice you. Owen, you are definitely the wild child of the family. You have been walking since you were 10 months old and haven't stopped since you took your first step. Monkey (or monkers) fits you to a tee. You are constantly climbing something, hanging off of the train table or doing something crazy. your favorite trick is to stand on the train table and throw toys off of it or scream loudly so everyone looks at you. You have Kennedy and Brendan wrapped around your little finger. They come running if you make a peep and give you almost anything you want. At the same time Brendan is your protector. He follows you closely to make sure you are safe and not getting into anything you shouldn't. Who needs baby proofing when you have Brendan the worrier around! You have made our family complete and we love every day you have been in our life! We love you Owie!
We look forward to the many exciting things you will accomplish in your life and will be there to cheer you on every step of the way.

So it's been a while...

2009-09-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

too long of a while. I have missed my blog. Missed writing, missed reading comments, missed reading old posts and seeing the passage of time. Life takes you on paths that are completely unexpected. Sometimes they are pleasant scenic paths and other times they are rough and untraveled. They make you work hard and dig deep to see what kind of person you truly are. You discover pleasant surprises about yourself, see things you don't really like about yourself and endure things you never thought you could endure. When all is said and done you look back over the journey you have made and say look how far I have come; distance-wise and and as a person. I know that I have just finished traveling one of those unused, dark and unpleasant paths. Looking back over my journey I definitely see baggage that I dropped along the way to make the load lighter. I see how I have changed to endure the journey. I am very happy with the me that is at the top of the mountain looking back along the thorny road I traveled. I have people in my life that are questioning my journey. Why didn't you turn back around? Or I would have done "X" instead. To those people; I hope they can see me standing at the top of the jagged mountain terrain with my arms triumphantly raised above my head. See, I knew deep in my heart I would make it through.

2009-01-28T11:06:00.001-08:00

Maya Angelou : The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

growing so + a layout

2009-01-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

How is it possible Mr. O is already 4 months old? Yesterday we had the 4 month well check at the doctors along with shots. Yay for shots, they are always so fun! Anyway, Mr. O needs to eat some fattening food because he is only 11lb 13.5 oz. He's right on the 50th percentile for height but weight he is only hitting 10th percentile. This boy needs some food to stick to his bones. Why can't I have this issue? Here is my daily pic (did I mention I am trying to do a picture a day for the whole year, 365. Let's emphasize the word try...I am doing great so far but we are only a couple weeks in!)
Just to put something scrappy in, here is a layout I did a while back. I don't like to spend a long time on one layout and my style is pretty simple. I haven't added the journaling in yet but here it is...

This is from our trip apple picking. Mr. B was very excited and was walking ahead of us because he really wanted to pick apples. The picture on the right is a black and white photo. I printed one color version and one black and white. Using a circle punch, I punched out Mr. B and used pop-dots to adhere the picture right over the black and white. this way he really stands out and I like how it isolates him.

Since I only have one child at home right now I need to take advantage of it and get something done so, off I go! Have a great day!

2009-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

So because of all the stuff and busyness going on in our life right now I have not had time to do many creative things. My brain is spinning with ideas and every time I walk by my desk and see my half done projects my fingers are itching to make and create. I have a new sewing machine I got for Christmas that is still in the box that calls my name as I walk by. Will I ever have time.....

Here are the things that are making my brain spin right now

apple pillow

love the use of the cutouts in the flowers from retrospections blog...

the butterflies from Pottery Barn Kids...so cute!

I want to make these canvases for Kennedy's room...

I think Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas would be perfect for this project. I have two packs waiting for me to play but like I said, I just haven't had time.

P.S.- I found the Wii!! Yay for us and ya for the kids. It will be shipping soon. can't wait to have bowling tournaments! Dorky, I know. What can I say.

2009-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

enough said

sickness + holidays= neglected blog

2009-01-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

Never a good combo those two. My poor blog has suffered dearly and I apologize. I don't want to bore you all with the longest blog post ever about our holidays so I will just say they were very nice. My aunt and uncle from New York flew in and my aunt from Pasadena came down so we had quite the crowd spending the night at my parents house. I think there were 13 of us spending the night.

New Year's was fun as well. We went to our friend's house and played games and just had a fun time! The kids played Wii ALL night. They are now begging for one

There's the quick holiday recap.

Now we are back in the swing of school and all the other goodies that go along with it.

Happy 2009! Great things are in store for the new year!

Wrapping, wrapping, baking, shopping

2008-12-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

everything is getting wrapped up for Christmas. Speaking of presents, my friend Amy just received the best Christmas present in the whole world! Welcome to the world Heather (8 lbs. 6 oz. ). We can't wait to meet you!

Now time for some NYC pictures...

yea! We were on the show twice!

Carriage ride thru Central Park

So beautiful!

Love the view of the city from the Statue of Liberty

The place I was most excited to go

I was so excited to see a Frida Kahlo painting in person...she is my favorite artist

Another amazing sight... Rockefeller center

All right, Owen has had enough typing for the day. Enjoy!

Throw up throw up everywhere

2008-12-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

throw up up in your... oh wait that's not appropriate! We did have throw up everywhere last night. It was not at our house though. We were over at my parents and Mr. B decided he didn't feel good and threw up all over the place. I picked him up and started running but I just wasn't fast enough. He hit the carpet, the kitchen cabinets, my wool coat, Ms. K's lunch bag, the wool rug in front of the sink, more cabinets and himself from head to toes. What a mess! I don't know what the deal is but my children feel the need to throw up while we are at my parents. It's unusual to throw up at our house but if we are at their house and someone doesn't feel well suddenly it's a guaranteed mess.

Ms. K had her Christmas performance yesterday. so cute! It's always adorable when first graders sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". Mr. B had his Christmas party at preschool yesterday as well. It was so cute, he got his two little friends (they are girls) a little gift. He picked out a My Little Pony Coloring Book for each of them. My little boy so thoughtful!

It's been a whirlwind since I have been home from New York. My trip was fabulous and I can't wait to post pictures. All I have to say is Magnolia Bakery has the best chocolate frosting. It tastes just like my Grandma's recipe which is amazing! Here's our six-pack we got and took to keep in our room. More pics of New york later.

Did I mention that it snowed where we live 2 nights ago? It did! Southern California does get snow!

I'm leaving you with a picture of Mr. O and my niece. They had a play date yesterday and were so excited when they saw each other. they started kicking and talking. so cute! Enjoy your day!

Runnin around like a crazy woman

2008-12-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

trying to get ready for a trip. My mom and I are meeting my aunt in NYC for a long weekend. So excited but so much to do before I leave tonight sans kids. Can't wait to go! Be back next week with lots of pictures!

Random things

2008-12-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Quick post with random things...

Daily December day 2

reading a story about the meaning of Christmas. Kennedy totally got it, Brendan mmmm....maybe not so much probably because he was to busy watching the hockey game. Oh well, I tried!

Today my boy is 3 months old! He grows and putting some more weight on so he doesn't look as skinny!

December Daily

2008-12-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Wow! December is here already. I started my December Daily (ali edwards) project yesterday. How to narrow down the pictures is another story! I am going to start posting my daily pictures and we can experience the holidays together. I tried to post last night but my computer was not cooperating so we will try again today. So here is December 1...

I just had to include this picture because I get excited about geeky things like planets and the moon. What an I say my Dad was a science teacher. So last night when the moon was out and Venus and Pluto were so close in alignment we had to go out and look and take a picture.

This next picture was a moment that meant a lot to me last night. As scrapbooker I try and record my family's history. I always am asking my family to write things down for me and many times I get eye rolls. Each year at Thanksgiving I try to get them to write down what they are thankful for. I keep them all and enjoy looking back at the previous years comments. They are stored in with my Christmas ornaments and when it's time to decorate the tree they are always a nice surprise. Last night when it was time to decorate the tree I was pulling ornaments out and found my bag of thankful from previous years. I was so excited to find them so I pulled them out and started to read through them. My heart stopped for a minute as I found one that my grandma had written a couple of years ago. It was in her writing and to see her signature at the bottom made all the eye rolls worth it! I showed it to Scott and he hung it on the front of the tree for me. It felt like she was right there with us as he hung it on the tree. So if you are a scrapper and always type your journaling or are the eye roller that gives your family member a hard time for doing these types of things...don't. Use your own handwriting... write down the memory without complaining because it does mean something down the road.

Off to take Mr. B to school. Take time and enjoy the season today.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T22:18:00.001-08:00

a day late! I hope everyone as able to enjoy their day and spend time with their loved ones. We were lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners and ate way too much like I am sure everyone else did! First we went to my in-laws house and were able to spend time with Scott's Grandma who is here for New Hampshire. The kids had a great time with their Nana! Time for the next dinner... we headed over to my sister's in-laws. Confusing, I know! There were lots of people, lots of good food and we had a great time there as well.

My Mom and I got up bright and early for our yearly tradition of black Friday shopping. We don't get in line and do all the serious shopper stuff. don't get me wrong, we get there early but we wait for all the intense people to act crazy and then we go in to the store. If the line is ridiculously long we walk right out like we did at Kohl's this morning. We did clean up at Children's Place though (no lines either!). I love doing this with my Mom every year. I look forward to it for weeks before hand (not for the deals but just the tradition that my mom and I have).
Can I tell you how excited I am that it is officially the Christmas season! Oh my mind is spinning with all the fun things coming up. I also love how excited my kids get although I am not sure who gets more excited... them or me! Also excited to start my December Daily album on Monday. Here are some pictures of the album before I begin.

So my littlest man is growing up so fast. I can not believe he is going to be 3 months old this next week. so sad. I already want to freeze him right like he is. Here are some pictures I took of him this last week...

All right, time for some sleep. Last night Mr. O slept from 10:15pm till 4:50am and the night before he slept from 9:00pm till 5:00 am. Awesome! I am so excited about it! So now it's my turn to catch up on some sleep as well. Good night!

Things will be back to normal

2008-11-24T00:06:00.000-08:00

as of tomorrow. Ms. K goes back to school (vacation is over) so we will be back to our normal routine. This means things will actually get done! I am excited about that! So back to normal programming shortly...

100 years old

2008-11-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

this is a conversation from yesterday while we were driving in the car. I don't recall how it began so you will be joining us mid-conversation.

B: sissy (that's what he calls her) I am three, you are six and Mama is 8.

(I am liking the way this conversation is going)

K: Mama is NOT 8

B:yes she is!

K: No, she's 28. right Mama, you're 28.

Me: Well, I did have a birthday earlier in the month, remember? I turned 29. So I am no longer 28.

K: See I told you.

B: You're 29 Mama?

Me: Yes hunny (not liking this conversation anymore)

K: yeah and after she's 29 she'll be 30! Mama's gonna be 30.

B: (laughing) 30! and then she'll be 100!

K: yeah after she's thirty she'll be 100!

great so only 2 more years till I am 100.

What post is complete without a picture ( I know it's been a while)

Here's our Christmas pictures we just took with my niece. I know it's a bad copy but I had to scan it and it didn't turn out well.

are you serious

2008-11-12T10:05:00.000-08:00

I was brushing my teeth yesterday and when I looked up in the mirror I found a gray hair. That's right, a gray hair! You've got to be kidding me! Is this supossed to be happening already. I'm so not ready for gray hair!

On a scrappy note, I have in my possession the new October Afternoon Weathervane line. So excited to use it for a new class. I didn't think it was going to get here in time. As soon as my camera battery charges up I will post pictures

29

2008-11-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

is what I am celebrating today. Yes, as in I am turning 29 today. I always love when my birthday falls on election day. It adds extra excitement. There is such a feeling of excitement in the air. I hope everyone has a great day today and get out and vote! It does matter! More tomorrow, it's a busy day today. First day back to work, I am surprisingly calm about leaving Mr. Owen (so far).

EDITED***10:00 P.M.**
Wow! I have typed and erased quite a few things because nothing is coming out quite right. I am very proud to be an American today. I might not agree with all of the political ideologies of our President-elect Barack Obama but, he knows how to inspire a crowd like no one I have ever seen. I feel very lucky to be a part of this historical event (albeit a small part) and I am very excited to see where our country is headed. Wow!

Is it possible

2008-11-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

that I am already 2 months!!!

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

a day late! I go back to work on Tuesday and have had major mom guilt. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to go back. I love my job, miss the kids I work with and only work a few hours a day. Here's why I feel guilty... this summer the kids were so patient with everything crazy going on in the family mainly Grandma dying and me being on bed rest. Because of these extenuating circumstances I did not get to do any fun things with them this summer. So that is where the guilt comes in. Now I am going back to work and Ms. K is off track (on vacation). To rid myself of the mommy guilt we have packed every possible fall activity into a 2 week period. We went to 2 pumpkin patches, apple picking, 2 fall carnivals, soccer, Disneyland, Pumpkin painting and we went to see Wicked. This explains the absence from blog land. Since I intended this to be a short post since we have to go to soccer today let me get straight to the Halloween pictures for certain family members in new york! Mr. B had the funniest costume. It totally fit his personality and he wanted to be a banana so bad! So without further ado...

So, I ended up with a candy corn and 2 bananas. The kids thought it was very funny that they were all food. Very appropriate for our family!

Pumpkin season

2008-10-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

is in full force! I love this time of year and would go to every pumpkin patch around if I could. We went to one on Sunday as a family and then the boys and I went to one today with MOPS (yes, I joined and that's another post). Here's some pictures from the family trip...

Love corn mazes!!!
and the MOPS trip...

What does everyone else like to do during the fall??
Baking?

Love to cook fall food. Anything with pumpkin, soup or stew with crusty bread (not the same without good crusty warm bread), cobbler, yum!

Any good fall recipes to share?

new kit up for Halloween

2008-10-19T12:48:00.001-07:00

chck out the link on the sidebar (Lindsay Marie) it will give you more information!

growing so fast

2008-10-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

already my littlest man is growing like a weed. the doctor saw him on Monday and we are catching up in size. We have hit the 25th percentile mark! (up from 10). he is now 8lbs. 10 oz. and 22 inches.

I had to throw in the shoe picture cause they are so cute!

Just to gross you out I thought I would add the picture of me with throw-up on me so you can share in my delight of baby vomit! Oh, it was down my back too!

had an inpromtu photo shoot with Ms. K the other day at Gigi and Papa's house. When I was looking at them on the computer I almost feel out of my chair when I saw how big she is getting. I need to put new pictures up because she cut her hair and looks much different now.

You know your husband loves you when

2008-10-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

he goes to the store at 2 in the morning to get you diet coke. Yes, you heard me correctly. Diet Coke. 2 Am. What can i say, I had a horrible migraine that had me in tears and I can't take anything because I am breast-feeding. Scott went to get me the DC to take the edge off the migraine. And yes it worked enough that I was able to go to sleep. Love my husband!

On a scrappy note, I have my Halloween album finished for the kit. I just have to finish the instructions because the boxes are already packed with goodies. Here are some pictures of the project...

I used the Jenni Bowlin 4x4 star album, lots of Jenni Bowlin paper, Pink Paislee Paper, Making Memories journaling stickers.

grateful day

2008-10-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing a side of myself that I do not like the past few months. My patience level has been really low and my oldest has been having listening issues. The combo does not lead to good things. I have been catching myself doing a lot of yelling and I haven't liked the way I have been sounding. The part that bothers me the most is the past couple weeks I have heard the kids talking to each other that way and it's not okay. i wasn't sure what to do to change my behavior and my temper has not been getting any better. So at Mass on Sunday I prayed about it and today I had a calm come over me. I have not yelled once this morning. Things went smoothly, everyone listened, we got out the door and to school without one incident. Today is a good day!

updated later in the day***

So this afternoon I had a test of my patience, Kennedy hit Mr. B in the face with her pencil. I was very proud of myself, I did not yell. Mr. B is okay and Ms. K is in timeout. Did you keep a mental list of things you thought you would never say. My friend and I do and we like to compare notes. Things like "don't sit on your brother's head" So, today I added to the list. "What made you think it was a good idea to stab your brother in the face with a pencil?" I think that one might take over the top spot on the list!

All right, off to get dinner and ready for soccer practice!

day 2 and 3

2008-09-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

okay so yesterday i was really good about taking photos of our day. It wasn't a typical day since Ms. K was home sick. the kids are already complaining about the picture taking. Tonight at dinner they told Scott, "Daddy, Momma's taking pictures of our food again!" It's going to be a long week! I think I have lost their cooperation already. Here are some pictures from day two (yesterday)...

I know it's blurry but Mr. B was running around in his underwear and superman cape. He was yelling faster than a speeding bullet so I think the picture is perfect!

checking my email and posting on the blog

the art box the kids use to store all their art supplies, they had it out to color

and pictures from today (day 3)...

grocery shopping

Mr. B eating his yogurt and granola before school

I feel like I am organized so far. My pictures are in folders by day and I have my notebook that I record our daily "stuff". I just need to decide how I am going to organize it in the album and what album I am going to use.
Back to normal tomorrow since Ms. K is going to school.

so I started early

2008-09-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

because I was excited to do this week in the life project. Here are some images from our day yesterday...

mass and K's first day of CCD

laundry

the splash zone (water park)

picnic

(this is how Owen spent his whole day at the park)

etc.

what's a sunday without a little football watching!

Here's some pictures of a layout I worked on this weekend. My friend Michelle came over saturday night and we scrapped. I was a lot of fun and something I would like to do again soon. I def. don't get to do that as much as I would like!

Saturday ms. K had a soccer game. She was awesome! She had 5 goals (almost 7) and her corner kicks were amazing. One corner kick she kicked the ball so hard she

knocked the goal over and pulled the tethers right out of the ground. It was such a hard kick you could here the whole crowd say "wow!" I was very proud of her!

I'll keep posting my week in the life pictures. More so I won't stop the project and I finish the whole week. I'll be back!

love this idea

2008-09-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

by Ali Edwards (http://aliedwards.typepad.com/). totally want to try and do this next week. Does not have to be a scrapbooking thing. If you look at her blog she uses a regular photo album to document a week in the like of. Love the idea of keeping tidbits from the week like the coffee receipt and groceries to include in the album. check out her blog... I hope you will be inspired to try.

thursday

2008-09-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

I really need to be a better blogger! I am trying to balance the whole 3 kids thing and I have had my moments(like being a 1/2 hour late for K's soccer game on Sat.) but, I am getting there! We had two big things happen on Thursday last week (well, they were big to us!). Mr. B finally had a morning where he didn't have to be pulled off my leg when I dropped him off at preschool. I was so relieved when he didn't cry! He was such a rock star! Not so much today, today was another screaming day.

The picture is from Saturday when we watched the gator game. He is singing and playing the guitar (or Quintar as the kids call it) out by the pool.

So back to Thursday. Mr. O slept thru the night! Amazing news! Well, we were excited about it. Not bad for 2 weeks and 1 day! It hasn't happened since but that one full night of sleep was fabulous! Here's some pictures of Mr. O from Saturday as well...

Love, love, love the picture of Mr. b kissing him. Mr. B is so sweet with him and it makes my heart melt.

We had a great weekend, spent time with Great Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Caroline and Uncle Paul. It was also Papa's birthday so there was lots of family time going on. The kids went straight for the pool of course. Here's a picture of Ms. K (the princess)

Uh-oh, someone's waking up gotta cut this short!

It's looking like fall

2008-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

at least it is in our house. The air is on because it's a ittle warm out but I had to get my decorations out for fall becasue it's my favorite time of year. Here's what it's looking like around our house right now...

is it possible

2008-09-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

that my girl is 6 years old today? How can that be. I swore that she was just born. She amazes me everyday with her smartness, her wit and her idea that she is really 13. Sometimes I forget that she is this age because she really does carry herself as if she is older. Don't get me wrong there are definetely days when I think maybe she is 13, her mouth gets her in some trouble! My one and only girl, I hope you have a great 6th birthday today. I love you so much!

P.S. - about 5 this morning Mr. O rolled over. I didn't know babies could roll over at 12 days old! We are in trouble!

lovin' this

2008-09-12T15:46:00.001-07:00

Cats life Press came out with new stamps on the 8th and here are the ones I am lovin! Love the holiday seals and the word of the day stamp. The calender stamps are also on my list of wants. One of my favorite stamp companies. Check 'em out!

6 days old

2008-09-09T09:27:00.001-07:00

Has it been that long already? Wow, time is flying!
Today was my first day with handsome hubby back to work. The kids got to school on time and everyone was dressed and fed. Not to bad. Mr. B had a hard morning though. I dropped him off at preschool and he had to be pulled off of me. As I walked out the door he was screaming "come back". I had a hard time leaving even though I knew I needed to. He has so much fun at preschool it's just the dropping off part that he has a hard time with. I think it is just too many big life changes at one time. It did make me laugh though, his teacher was telling me he has two friends that like to play with him. They are both girls! Too cute. She said they hold his hands and take him all over. We have been saying he was going to have the girls flocking to him, little did we know it would be this early! Okay, off to get my shower!

catch up time

2008-09-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

wow...I didn't know there could be so many big events in such a small period of time! We have had quite the whirlwind around here the last 2.5 weeks. If I go into detail it will be the longest post in the history of blogging so instead I will try and summarize. It will be difficult because each event does deserve their own post but because I was so overwhelmed I needed to take a blog break and let it all settle in before I tackled it all, so here we go.

August 16- Ms. Mckynna Therese made her debut and about 4:30 in the morning. I am now an aunt! I was on bed rest and was not able to go to the hospital but I was able to see her when they came home and she is beautiful! I thought I had more pictures of her but I don't so here is a picture of she and Ms. K.

August 16- Yes, you are reading this right the date is the same as above. Kerry (my sister-in-law) married Mr. Chris Lewis at 5 in the evening. she looked beautiful from what I saw in the pictures because again, I could not attend this event so my mom and hubby took lots of pictures!

My handsome hubby with his sister

August 17- Grandma started to go downhill fast. We knew this was it so we were over there every minute we could be.

August 24- grandma passed away after a long and hard fought battle with COPD. She was as strong and gracious in death as she was throughout her whole life. We will miss her greatly but she could not be in a better place. I feel very lucky that Ms. K and Mr. B were able to have such a great relationship with her. They both loved her more than anything. Words can not describe what a special lady she is... we love you Grandma!

August 24- I came off bed rest and brethine, Owen could come at any time as I am already 1 cm.

August 26- Brendan has meet the teacher for his first time at preschool...

He was so excited and had been looking forward to this for weeks. As we arrived at preschool (Gigi was with us) my mom got a phone call from my sister saying she was bleeding bad. We rushed Brendan in to meet his teacher and see his room then sped to Megan's house to take her to the emergency room. She ended up having to have surgery and stay the night in the hospital. So many emotional highs and lows at this point.

August 27- went to the doctor's and I am dilated to 2 cm. Had to go back on the medicine to make sure Owen did not come before the services for Grandma.

August 28- Mr. B's first day of preschool...

He was very excited until it was time for us to leave. Then the tears started. We have had tears everyday since. When we come to pick him up he has a big smile and tells us all the fun things he does so we know he likes it. I think there have just been too many big life changes for a 3 year old. We hope in the coming weeks life will slow down a bit and we can get back into our routine.

All right, I think I am caught up on the craziness we have called our life for the past few weeks. i think I am ready to return to the normal blogging routine.

Where has the time gone

2008-09-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I know where but there has been big changes going on around here. Some great and some not so great but, the greatest one is

OWEN PATRICK is here!

He arrived September 3 at 3:24 in the morning

6 lbs. 5.5 oz

20 inches

he came a few weeks early but it was a struggle to keep him in that long. All he does so far is sleep and Ms. K and Mr. B kiss him all day and night.

Here is his debut...

lots going on

2008-08-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

both good and bad. Will be back to update soon, Grandma is not doing good so all will depend on her.

can't see my feet

2008-08-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

even though I am on bed rest. well, I take that back, I can see my feet when I am sitting but stand up and it's a no go! Still 1 cm. dilated and 50% effaced which is good because that means the medicine is working to stop the contractions. I am now taking it every 3.5 hours. Fabulous! Okay off to rest again!

first day

2008-08-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

of first grade for my baby girl. I think I was the apprehensive one and she could have cared less. Scott and I were driving her to school this morning and I asked her if we could walk her to class today (she doesn't like to be walked to class). She thought for a split second and said "Well I guess you can today since it's the first day but that's it." wow...thanks! Oh my independent child! She is so confident and it makes me very proud. So here are some pictures of my girl on her first day of school...

sassy shoes for the first day

new backpack

the only reason I got this picture at her desk is because I snuck it. She did not want any pictures once we got to school.

So another year begins, it's going to fast already.

underwear

2008-07-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

why can I not keep them on my son? It seems to be a growing problem. We get dressed in the morning and they are on. We leave to go somewhere and we when we get there he has no underwear on. I feel like I need to start doing checks before we leave the house to make sure he has underwear on. Is this weird? Does anyone else have this battle with their 3 year old? When we discover there is no underwear under the shorts he just giggles and says he doesn't want to wear any. WHY? Maybe someday I will understand...

rock and roll

2008-07-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

that's what we did yesterday morning. Had a bit of an earthquake (5.4 I think). We were at my parent's house because I took the kids over there while I was at the doctors office. We all sat there looking at each other because normally it stops before you even have time to get up. This one seemed to keep getting stronger so my Dad said okay lets get in the doorway. Ms. K went right over to my Dad but, Mr. B wasn't quite sure what to do. He had fallen on the ground next to the fireplace and objects were falling off the the fireplace. He just froze so I grabbed him and off we went. Luckily my parents had no damage to their house and nothing was broken. The kids stuck right next to me for the next 30 minutes and Mr. B kept saying "but that was my first one". About an hour later he changed his mind and kept saying "that was awesome!" We were only a couple of miles from the epicenter and they are still trying to determine which fault line it was on (between 2 fault lines). There is one that runs about a half mile from my parents house and they think it could have been that one that was moving. Lovely! We got home to check out our house and the only thing broken was a picture frame that had fallen off the fireplace. Pretty lucky! Off to get new school shoes for Ms. K becasue school starts on Tuesday!

trying to be patient

2008-07-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

this bed rest thing has really put a crimp in my plans. Today was supposed to be my first day back at school (summer vacation is over) but here I am, on the couch. I think the thing that is driving crazy over everything else is the fact that my house is disgusting and there is nothing I can do about it. I have to sit and look at the filth and just think about cleaning it. I have a husband that is trying to help. He did all the laundry this weekend and emptied the dishwasher. There is just so much more that needs to be done. Errands to be run, clothes to be put away, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms that need to be cleaned, etc. I am really trying to be patient. I think he did agree to get a someone to come in and clean while I am down for the count. Can't wait for that! Is it sad that I am excited for a cleaning lady to come? Like really excited!?

I did have two showers to attend this weekend. My sister had a baby shower on Saturday. She is due really soon (like 11 days!) and she is still so tiny. We are all thinking she is going to be late. It would be funny if we had the babies within days of each other instead of 6 weeks. I did attend the shower but I didn't go till later. It took her 2.5 hours to open presents. Craziness! This was her 4th shower too! Where to put it all?! Sunday was my sister-in-law's bridal shower. She is getting married on the 16th of August. I went to that one for a while too. I got lectured for going to both but to me I was more relaxed at the showers than I was at home. I got to sit with my feet up and not have to worry about anything (and I didn't have to look at filth!).

Since I am not up taking pitcures of anything and I haven't been crafting I will end with some vintage pictures of things I wish I was doing right now...

so why don't my boys

2008-07-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

want to stay inside me when I am pregnant with them?! Why do they feel the need to try and come out way to early!? So it's official, I am dilated at 31 weeks. Now comes the fun medicine that makes me feel so good and this time around I have to be monitored twice a week along with it. Fabulous. Mr. B tried to come at 32 weeks so I'm not really surprised but I was holding out hope. My summer vacation is over as of Monday and I am not allowed to go to work. I am not a good bed rest person. I get very restless and bored FAST. Hhhmmm......maybe this will be some time to get some scrapping done! I hadn't thought of that yet. All right, enough complaining. It's not really that bad. At least they have ways of trying to keep him in so he won't be in the NICU. I am very grateful for that.
Time to go sit in the chair some more...

2008-07-22T12:31:00.001-07:00

been sick and just now starting to feel somewhat normal. will resume blogging soon...

So many activities in so few days

2008-07-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

well, since the last time I posted we have celebrated a holiday, an anniversary, attended a bbq, been to the movies an made a big purchase. 4th of July was very fun. Hot, but fun! Hmmmm....how can we sum it up? Parade, sweat, friends, family, food, fireworks,swimming, tired. Yup, I think that sums it up pretty well! Here's some pictures from the day... Did I mention margaritas...there were lots of those had by my BIL Mike (pictured above) and my husband.

This was also the day my husband decided to surprise me with a day early anniversary gift. I am now the owner of one of these...

A 2008 Explorer w/ a third row seat so we can fit all our babies now!

Mr. K came up behind me in the kitchen at my parent's house and put his arm around me and kissed me on the head. I thought "awww..he's being sweet". Then he said happy anniversary and opened his hand. Hanging from his finger were the keys. I think I have the best husband!

So Saturday was our anniversary. Happy anniversary hunny!!! 5 years already! We had quite the exciting evening. Well, the fact that we actually went out somewhere just the two of us was amazing enough but we went to dinner and a movie which also never happens. Can I say the movie Get Smart is VERY funny! We laughed the entire movie and I left with bruised ribs (not from laughing) from the baby kicking.

Sunday was another busy day. I did manage to squeeze in some scrapbooking. Here are some pictures of my 4th of July mini-album...

Love the vintage look of Melissa Frances!

Yesterday my Mom and I took the kids to see Kit Kittridge (the American Girl movie). I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really cute. One that I wouldn't mind watching again (and I know I will have to).

I also had a doctor's appt. and I now have to go twice a week to be monitored with a fetal monitor because I have been having contractions already. Not good when I am not 8 months yet! She did give me the choice to be monitored or go on "the medicine". I quickly choose to be monitored because I was on that medicine with Mr.B and it was horrible! So tomorrow will be my first monitoring day. I will be back to let you know how that fun experience goes!

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

I hope the day is everything you wanted it to be! It's always nice to take time to remember why this country of ours is so wonderful!

Oh by the way...

2008-07-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

kits are for sale on the Lindsay Marie blog (follow the link to the left for pictures and more). The kit includes enough for a mini-album and at least three double-page layouts. Go check it out!

Summer Vacation

2008-07-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

is here and I am so ready for it! The last week of school we were going a hundred miles an hour. After the awards ceremony, baseball and everything else we still had Ms. K's kindergarten promotion thing, luau party, my last day of school and other things I know I am forgetting because the baby is still eating my brain cells! Ms. K's promotion was very cute, they sang three songs for their families, received certificates gave presents to their parents. They gave us a clay hand print and memory books made by her awesome teacher. Her teacher also put together a DVD with pictures and music from the school year. Needless to say everyone in the room was crying. It was a difficult year for Ms. K's teacher because the afternoon teacher she shared a room with passed away right after the New Year. Her partner also happened to be her best friend. Not once during the rest of the year did she let it show to the children that she was having a hard time. She was amazing and I commend her for that! After the movie was done she stood up in front of all of us and thank us for our children and everyone was crying again! My husband even got a little teary-eyed which never happens! We took Ms. K out for a celebratory lunch afterwards and she wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A. We got off easy with that one!!

The kids also had a good time at the end of the year luau. Me, not so much as I am still throwing up and my body decided it would be a good idea to do it right before we left for the class party. I had sent letters home to all of the kids in the class with a page to write about why their teacher was the best kindergarten teacher so they had a gift to give to her at the end of the year. I only had one person out of the whole class not bring theirs back. It was a surprise and the entire kindergarten class kept it! I could not believe that no one leaked the surprise. they all included a picture as well as their writing. It turned out really cute and Mrs. B loved it. The kids were so excited for her to read their page. Here are some pictures of it....

Now that school is out, we have done a lot of swimming, spent time at Gigi and Papa's house and visited with a our family friend Mary that is out from Virginia. We miss her so much and wish that the rest of the family could have come with her but it has been nice to spend time with her this week. Ms K has been her shadow and followed poor Mary around everywhere.

Can't wait for the 4th tomorrow! It' s one of my favorite holidays of the year. We will definitely be going to the parade in the morning followed by swimming and bbq as is tradition every year. the firework show has moved locations this year so we might try and see it form my parent's backyard... we'll see (I don't like to miss them!).

Okay...off to rest since my ankles have been non-existent and I have been having a lot of cramping and pressure (fabulous!).

Hope everyone has a safe a fabulous holiday!

Just a thought for today...

2008-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

"Some days, doing "the best we can" may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect- on any front- and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else."
~ from The World According to Mister Rogers

Last Week of school

2008-06-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

is always a busy week! Parties, presents, grades, etc. Since it has been so busy let me give a quick look at what has been going on...

* 18th- water day at Ms. K class. Very fun, very hot! Both the morning and afternoon kinder classes were there to participate. Lots of parent volunteers. Halfway through the fire alarm went off for a drill. Chaos!

* Mr. B started a parks and rec program called all-sorts-of-sports. He gets to play basketball, soccer and baseball. Last week was soccer and this week is baseball. He is so excited and he is so focused on baseball. Here are soccer and baseball pictures...

I taught a scrap class over the weekend. It was fun. This was the second time I have taught to this group and they are fun to teach to. I also packed kits this weekend for that new thing I am starting. I had talked about it in a previous post, kits with directions for a mini-album and three double page layouts. I am excited to get this going even though I am not going to do a kit every month.

Today was another big day. Ms. K had an awards ceremony this morning. She received a super student award for reading. Kindergarten doesn't have a honor roll or any award for good grades and this is kind of their award for it. We were very proud of her. We hadn't told her she was getting an award so she was a bit surprised! she had no clue that Mr. B, Gigi and I were there to watch either. Here she is, she wouldn't let me take pictures so this was the best I could get...

My stomach is growing and I don't feel like there is any room left for baby boy to grow. I already feel him in my ribs and it doesn't feel pleasant. Okay, I'm off to go to bed as I can't seem to get enough sleep this past week. More later...

home sweet home

2008-06-15T13:00:00.001-07:00

This is were my hubby wanted to spend Father's Day. Sounds good to me! Didn't get much sleep last night. We had the relay for life that started yesterday morning and ended this morning. Long, hot, emotion filled 24 hours. Ms. K stayed with me ALL day (until 10:30pm). I came home and slept for three hours and went back to walk. I ended up walking from 2:40 in the morning until 4:30 and then 5:00 till 6:00 in the morning. as much as my body was completely exhausted I felt very lucky to be there having the ability to walk and doing it for my loved ones that have survived/lost the battle to cancer. I liked walking at this time of the morning. It was dark out still and I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise that I got to enjoy as I walked around the track. It was very peaceful. It was also inspiring to walk around the track and listen to people's conversations. People sharing stories of loved ones they have lost to cancer, stories of people that have fought the battle and are now survivors or just how cancer has touched their lives. I think the thing that kept me going the most was something I had overheard while walking. everyone was extremely tired and I heard someone saying "I might be tired but this is nothing compared to what cancer patients go through." So true. You don't complain about your back hurting or the dirt and rocks in your shoes. You just think if I keep going maybe the money that my team helped to raise will help someone find a cure so my loved ones won't have to fight this battle anymore.
Can you tell I feel strongly about this subject!
So today on this Father's Day I want to say thank you to my husband for being one of the best daddy's I know. I would also like to say thank you to my Dad for fighting the fight and being a cancer survivor for almost three years. We love you Dad and we can't imagine life without you!

went on a date

2008-06-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

with my hubby Monday night. Hhhhmmmm...last time that happened? Can't remember. We had a good time at the Angel game even though they lost (bad, really bad). I think we are officially old though. We were both tired and were ready to come home at 9:30. We did get some good pictures for Mr. B...

So today was the big day...ultrasound day! I won't find out about my cyst for a few more days but we did get to see the baby. He gave us a little show so we have no doubt that he is a boy! We also got to see a lot of him sticking out his tongue and wiggling his little fingers. Here was the best part...

I know the picture's not the best but, Ms. K got to use the little camera on my stomach. She moved it all around and got to see all of him. It was very cool!

All right...off to finish watching So you Think You Can Dance!

Just home to sleep

2008-06-09T14:48:00.001-07:00

that's all we did this weekend. We spent the rest of the time running around. All fun stuff though so it was okay. Friday night I went to scrap with a group of ladies. Got a lot done! Ms. K went to the talent show at school so the boys were home alone (lots of sports watching occurred!). Saturday we woke up and went to an antique show in town. It was nice. They had lots of old cars, face painting, a band, model trains, crafts for the kids and of course...antiques. Here are some pictures from our morning...

an old fire truck (Ms. K loved the inside)

Mr. B had to wear his train hat to go see the trains

Mr. B with the handsome husband

That night we went to the Taste of our town. Husband was supposed to go but he got a page and had to go into work. We were sad but still managed to have a good time. We met up with some friends and ate still our stomachs felt like they were going to burst. Well, they did. We ate until Mr. B had an accident and had to go home. It was still fun though.

Sunday was the big day! We had a birthday party for my Grandma. It was to celebrate her 80th and we had family come from all over. If you would have asked us after Christmas we didn't think this party would be happening. We were all so excited that it did we made sure we spoiled her! Here are some pictures from the party...

this picture had to be included because I was told it better not appear on the blog so of course it must!

my boy eating smores and making a mess

Of course the birthday girl was wearing a tiara and blue boa. She received many fabulous gifts like an Angels jersey (she is a huge Angels fan and does not miss a game! When I was in the hospital having Ms. K she came in and told me I had to hurry up because the Angel game was coming on soon), rally monkey (need to be an Angel fan to appreciate this), lotions, a beautiful scarf, a picture of my Grandpa when he was young, and the list goes on. The food was amazing and so was the company. It was a very emotional day for Grandma and there were many times that she got teary-eyed.

Tonight my handsome husband and I have a date. I got him tickets to the Angels game for his birthday back in March and tonight is our game night. It's John Lackey bobble head night and the kids are already deciding who gets the bobble head (he's our favorite pitcher!) Can't wait to spend some time with my hubby.

Checkin' lots off the to do list

2008-06-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

which seems to be getting longer not shorter. How does that work? I must say, multi-tasking is a fabulous thing! Right now as I type a post I am talking to Scenic Route to straighten out an order, ordering boxes for the kits, emailing back and forth with Scott and feeding my son a banana. (Sigh) I think I am going to be tired before I have to go to work today!

I am very excited about something I am changing with my little scrap business. Since I am having a baby in September I won't be teaching any classes in august, September or October. Instead I am putting together kits for sale. The first one will be a summer kit and will include a mini-album and 3-double page layouts. So excited!!! They will have directions for each (if you want to use them) or if you like to do your own thing you can. I hope these are going to be loved as much as I love this first kit. Since all the scrap stores in town have closed, getting new product or product that's not carried in a box store can be difficult. So that is the new path we are taking here in our little ol' house.

The end of the school year is approaching quickly. I can't believe my girl is going to be in first grade and my boy is going to be in preschool. The next couple weeks have so many obligations on the calender. Tonight is Ms. K's open house. I tried to keep here home from school on Tuesday because she has ANOTHER ear infection (3rd one in 6 months!) but she wouldn't have it. She told me she couldn't miss out on anything for open house. So glad my girl loves school. Will definitely be taking pictures of that tonight. Between her school and my school I think I will be lucky to make it through the next couple of weeks. Luckily my partner and I are going to do grades next Wednesday so that will be one more thing to check of the list.

Oh yeah, next weekend we have the Relay for Life. My partner and I are captains of our team for school. We somehow inherited this job about a month ago (I think we opened our big mouths!) and that is not a lot of time to put together fundraising and get everyone signed up. We are very proud of the kids at school because in 2 weeks they have been collecting coins and managed to bring in over $900. How amazing is that! By the way if anyone wants to help fight back we are not to proud to ask for donations! If you would like to donate to the Vicentia Relay for Life team let me know!

Okay, enough rambling for today... my son has patiently been waiting for me to play baseball guys with him. Gotta go!

Leaving you with pictures of the yummy dessert we brought my Mother-in-law for her birthday, Brendan enjoying his yummy dessert and Ms. K with Daddy at the baseball game on Sunday...

by the way the leopard surrounding the dessert is solid chocolate!

and yes they tasted as good as they looked!

retirements, birthdays and baseball

2008-06-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

So I never came back to update... Sorry! Thursday night we went to a retirement party for my Dad. It was for his school so there were 5-6 of them that are retiring this year. They did a little roast on everyone and turned out to be really funny. My Mom wrote my Dad's biography and she did such a great job and had everyone laughing. I was very proud of my Dad that night but at the same time it was kinda surreal. I think it felt that way because the idea of my Dad retiring means life is still progressing and at a rate faster than I would like. He's been talking about retiring but it always seemed like it was something in the future and now that it's here I'm not quite sure where the time went. Okay... enough talking about feelings and stuff. I might start to get emotional from all the pregnancy hormones! Here's some pictures fromt he night, Dad is the one on the right looking embarrassed.

Last night we celebrated my mother-in law's birthday. She wanted to try a new restaurant so I we all met in Irvine at the Caspian restaurant. None of us had been there before so we weren't sure what to expect. It was Persian food and I was hoping the kids would like it. We a ll had a really good time. The food was great! Not only was the food great but they had music and a belly dancing show. To say the kids were enthralled would be an understatement. We got our dinner right as the show started and I don't think either of them ate much because they were so busy watching! this was a place we would definitely go to again. I don't know if I would take the kids again only because you don't eat at this restaurant until late (like 8:15-8:30). We didn't leave the restaurant till almost 10 and the place was packed with more people coming in. I am so glad my mother-in law suggested the Caspian because it was nice to try something new and different. Here's a couple pictures of the kids watching the show with no attention on anyone else at the table...it was really dark in there so bear with me!
my boys!

Ms. K ignoring all of us so she could watch every second of the show

Today Ms. K and Scott have a date at the baseball game. She earned free tickets to the minor league game by reading books for school. She has been looking forward to this for a long time so I can't wait to hear about their date!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

2008-05-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Lakers...NBA Finals...Yeah baby!

There is excitment in this house! More on what we did tonight early tomorrow. Good night!

Tonight felt like a summer night

2008-05-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

We had homemade BBQ pork sandwiches on toasted onion rolls and watermelon for dinner tonight.
I am ready for bare feet, eating outside, children sweaty from running around as the sun is setting, watermelon and strawberries for dessert after dinner, same sweaty kids running around in their bathing suits, that happy tired feeling from a long fun day swimming in the sun, smores...
what summer activities are you ready for?

going for my monthly

2008-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

baby doctor appointment this morning. I always take Mr. B with me and he is so good. Today we were sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor and he starts asking me question about things in the room. Not a big deal until he gets to the birth control posters. Fabulous, just what I want to answer questions about. So he says look Mommy there's a baseball. Even better! Now my 3 year old thinks a cervical cap is a baseball. How do you explain that one?! Starting to question bringing him to the appointments with me... beyond that the appointment went well. Can't believe I will be 6 months on Thursday. Time has flown! Going for an ultrasound on Friday to check that lovely cyst growing on my ovary. more news on that later.

Our veggie garden is growing very nice. Ms. K has been my helper in planing and maintaining. If she gets homework done quickly today we are going to plant some green beans. I've never grown these before so if anyone has any tips they would be well appreciated!
Hope everyone is having a great day!

Did everyone have a nice

2008-05-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend? We were looking forward to relaxing, swimming, cooking out.. you know nice warm weather activities. Not so much of that happening here. The weather was not exactly cooperating. High's in the low 60's lows at night in the low 40's. That is not Southern California weather at all! Oh well, it kept us inside a lot (no swimming!) and forced us to take a look around the house at things that needed to be done. We did get lots done. Mr. B's room is coming together. Well, I shouldn't say Mr. B's room because in a couple months it will be the boys room. But I am very happy with the way it's looking!

Little things need to be done still. We have vintage baseball signs coming and the crib needs to be bedded (can you see the siding to the crib in the corner). Mr. B is very happy in his sports room! (Thank you Gigi for the rug!)

There was some outside time this weekend. Today we went to my parent's house and cooked out even though it was a bit chilly. Scott was on the grill and the kids were outside golfing. I came out to take pictures but after about 10 minutes I called it a day and went back into the warm house. Here are the little golfers...

I did manage to touch my scrap stuff this weekend but it wasn't to make anything. I cleaned my desk! Yes, I know it's something everyone does but it had been a while because if I am in the middle of something I don't like to put it away. Then I start something else, and something else. Well, you get the idea.

Gotta go...my Dad's here with a piece of furniture we are inheriting!

summer is coming...

2008-05-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

and the weather has been very nice. I am not quite ready for the hot stuff but it has definitely been play outside weather. Tonight Scott got home early (6:00) so we went for a walk around the neighbor. So nice to be out and about and the kids had a blast taking turns riding in the wagon. Been doing some crafty stuff lately but nothing I am sharing at the moment, mostly layouts for the kids albums which I don't exactly consider to be my best world. I have my sample ready for my next class but I have not advertised yet. Here's some pictures of the album though, not the best lighting...

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of life in the last week. My Internet is finally working again so I will be on here much more now. Mr. B has been spending a little time in time-out lately and I had to take a picture the other day because he is way to funny. When you tell him to go to time-out he sticks his nose way into the corner of the wall. Not only does his stick his nose in the corner but he does not move an inch the entire time. After this time-out escapade he came downstairs with a sweaty forehead because he was in that corner so well. Ah..if this would only work so well when he gets older!

I had to share this picture as well. My sister, Dad and I joined some friends for the Relay for Life last weekend. My Dad participated in the cancer survivor portion of it and I was so proud of him. He didn't like the attention on him and it was more emotional than we expected it to be. I am proud of you Dad, almost 3 years cancer free!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T13:58:00.001-07:00

Growing belly... 21 weeks... just grew this big in the last week, before there was nothing!

Birthday fun!

2008-04-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had Mr. B's birthday party. Wow was it cold! Did that stop all the kids from playing baseball? Not so much. They had the best time playing baseball. The funny part was that when they hit the ball none of them ran to first base. All of them ran straight to second base. Mr. B was in baseball heaven. Here's some pictures from the day (these are for you Charsie!)...

the Grandma's were wrapped up in jackets and blankets because it was so cold.

He received both of the things he had been asking for, an Angels hat and a batting helmet but hs favorite part of the day was birthday cake. One party down, We will have dinner on the actual day and his request is Panera. Off to develop pictures for my sample for my next class.

Baby Names

2008-04-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Scott and I always have trouble deciding on a name for our babies. This time around Mr. B has taken it into his own hands. He has it narrowed down to 2 names. According to Mr. B the baby will be named Elmo or Big Daddy Vladdy (as in the baseball player). With great names such as these how will we ever decide?

Someday my internet will work again

2008-04-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

and i will be able to blog more often instead of when I go to my parents house. If I start to talk about it I will get frustrated so lets move on!

Lots of things going on in our household. We had quite a busy weekend. Soccer on Saturday and Ms. K scored a goal and played a great game! After the game my two boys left for the Ducks/Kings game at the Staples Center. Four rows from the ice spoiled them a bit.

When the game was over they decided they hadn't had enough sports for the day so they went to the Angels game. They didn't just go to the game, they sat in the front row. Scott said they were 15 feet from big Daddy Vladdy. Mr. B's favorite player in the whole world. He has a stuffed animal named after Big Daddy and when the angels are on he's all Mr. B talks about.

How exciting for my boy!

So while the boys were off playing Ms. K wanted to go to Gigi and Papa's. That left me childless at home. What to do?! I wasn't quite sure at first but then quickly decided on a day of nothing. It never happens that I am alone so I thought I would take advantage of it. I read my book, watched girly movies, scrapbooked an ate rocky road ice cream for dinner while I sat in bed and watched Under the Tuscan Sun. Could have been the greatest day in a long time! ahhh to be lazy again like that. Probably won't happen again for another 5 years! Oh well.

Yesterday was the big day! We went and had our first ultrasound. Scott, my Mom and the kids all went to the hospital to see the baby. The hospital was running late and my 5:00 appointment turned into 5:45. Anyone that has been pregnant knows that this is just plain torture! I could not go to the bathroom at all! By the time they called me in I was ready to burst! The baby was not being a cooperative baby and had turned sideways. After a search we were told "Looks like a boy!" The kids were so excited! Well, that's not the part that excited them the most. When the girl was taking a picture of the baby's face, he put his hand up and started to wave it around. It looked like he was waving to us. The kids were bouncing out of their seats, "He's waving at us! He's waving at us!" That's all they have talked about since. It was very cute. I am going to try and scan an ultrasound picture in. The girl took a picture of the baby waving at us so hopefully it will turn out. Sorry for the long post!

Year round school

2008-04-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

is something i enjoy. Ms. K has time off throughout the year but I have to say the first week back on track is a killer. Ms. K was lucky to make it through the week in one piece. Good behavior choices were not at the top of her list of things to do. This lead to lots of timeout, restriction and misery for all of us. So glad the first week is over! short post, off to pay bills and order stuff for my next round of classes.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone a great day. Since we are at my parents house, I thought I would post some pictures from today. The kids woke up this morning and the Easter bunny had come. We quickly did that and got ready for church. It was SO crowded! Now we are waiting fir everyone to get here for the BIG Easter egg hunt. Here are some pictures of the kids and Scott and I. My belly's growin!

More later!!!

Happy Birthday

2008-03-18T16:02:00.001-07:00

to my handsome husband! He is turning the ripe old age of 28!

This is the only picture I have on hand because my

internet is STILL down. This is the only picture my Mom had on her computer. Scott is the handsome one on the left.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!

Dances,Soccer and Birthdays

2008-03-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

I would have posted sooner but my internet has been down at my house and I haven't been able to fix it yet. I feel lost without it! so here I am at my parents house using their internet.

so this last Friday Ms. K had her father daughter dance at school. She has been excited about this forever! It's all she talks about and she has been practicing her dance moves. She has also asked Scott many times "Daddy, have you been practicing your dancing?" So on the big night Scott came home early and they both got fancied up. Ms. K didn't know it but Daddy and Gigi had planned a surprise for her. Daddy and Gigi had a wrist corsage made for her. Gigi had told the florist to make it glitzy so it had silver and pink ribbon and the white roses had glitter on them. she was beyond excited. Here's some pictures of the night...

So Saturday morning we woke up and went to soccer. We got there and I couldn't see anyone from our team. Hmmmm....suspicious. I see our coaches son and we walk over to see where everyone was. Oh, the game was over. Just missed the whole game. awesome! I starred our team name on the whole schedule then went back and wrote the times on the calender. I still have no idea what happened. Oh well, we got to go home and have a relaxing afternoon.

so it has begun. I am starting to have cravings. Saturday night about 9:30 Scott and I were watching Law and Order and they were eating pizza. I couldn't help it. so my fabulous husband got in he car and picked up a pizza for us to eat. I hope this doesn't start a pattern or it won't be pretty by the end of the pregnancy.

Sunday (yesterday) we celebrated Scott's birthday.The family got together and watched the Laker game and ate and ate (did I mention that we ate?)

Okay, it's too quiet in the other room so it's time for me to get off and go check.

I swore we were off track

2008-03-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

and were suppossed to have time to relax and sleep. Did I mention sleep? Well, ths week it's not happening. Monday we went to Papa's softball game. the kids love going to all the games he coaches. It was really warm, I'm talking 83 degrees in the beginning of March. The kids had a great time even though Papa's team lost.

It was minimum day on Wednesday so I had the day off. Mom and I decided to take the kids to Disneyland. we hit both parks (Disneyland and California Adventure) and we got to see the preview show for Playhouse Disney. It's a new show and Mr. B LOVED it! It has Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. His eyes were huge the whole show. We also rode the river boat which we had never done before. It was nice and relaxing.

Actually the whole day was because their were no lines for anything. We walked on almost every ride. The popular ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear where you have to shoot the aliens with the astroblasters. Very fun! I think Gigi and I had just as much fun as the kids on that ride.

Mr. B did a lot of crying yesterday because he was nervous about going on the rides even if they were ones he likes. It seemed like he cried on ever ride when we got on and then by the time he got off he would say "that was fun!" Here he is crying as we get on Winnie the Pooh...

I had to throw in a self portrait just to show that I actually was there since I am never in any of the pictures! notice all the freckles forming on my face from being pregnant. Fabulous!

So to top the day off since we hadn't done enough, Scott called and he had tried to find someone to go the Anaheim ducks game but the notice was too short. The work tickets were going to go to waste and since we were close... we all went to the game. My Mom and Ms. K had never been to a game so they were very excited.

By the time the game was over, the only one that still had energy was Mr. B. How, I don't know but the rest of us were exhausted. All right, it's late and I am tired so there will be more later.

Busy weekend

2008-03-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

We are back into the swing of soccer. Ms. K had her first game this weekend and in the spring they play co-ed. They also split the team in half and play two games at one time so everyone gets to play or at least have a chance to touch the ball. When her coach split the team, she was put on the team that only had boys. Well, she showed them! She scored 3 goals! The only person on the team to score! We were so proud of her.

(Brendan thinks he is on the team too!)

Not only were we proud of her for soccer but, she got her report card on Friday and she earned straight O's (which is like straight A's in kindergarten). Such a smarty!
I had a scrap class on Saturday after Ms. K's game and she came as my assistant. She is always a great helper. It was a LONG day!
Sunday we went to Megan and Mikie's house to watch the Laker game. Well, the boys watched the game and Megan and I scraped. We actually got a lot done. It was fun to just scrap things I wanted instead of planning projects and making samples.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and Scott and the kids came with me. We were able to hear the babies heartbeat which is always exciting even when it's number three. Now I am anxiously waiting for my ultrasound so I can see the baby.
Okay, time to go clean up !

Can't wait till I get out of the first trimester

2008-02-27T09:57:00.001-08:00

It has put me in such a funk lately (just ask Scott!). As soon as the kids go to bed, I go too and then I can't sleep so I toss and turn all night. The next day I am like a zombie because I have had no sleep and the pattern continues. Add that to my morning sickness and I am just a lovely person to be around. Hopefully not much longer of this especially since I have been so neglectful of my responsibilities lately.

We have been spoiled the last two days and I am wondering if it's going to last. Yesterday it was 81 and today we are supposed to have the same. So beautiful! I loved being outside with the kids at school yesterday and they were actually sweating it was so warm. Love it!

So I am very behind on what's been going on in our lives lately and I don't think I will be able to catch up so I will just fast forward to now.

Things you would hear lately if you lived in our house...

* Mr. B- It's winding me! (the wind was blowing very hard and he was having trouble walking)

*Mr. B- hey sissy, wanna call Great Grandma? Press one for more options.

*Mr. B- (cuddling up to me yesterday) Momma, I love spending time with you.

Ms. K only has two more days till she is off track for a whole month! She is very excited. Me, not as excited because as much as she and Mr. b love each other after 4 days together they start to irritate each other and the bickering begins. Ms. K started spring soccer this week. Sat. is her first game and it's a co-ed team. It will be interesting to see how she reacts.

Okay, I am off to start some laundry and finish some kits for some classes coming up. hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy Love Day

2008-02-14T11:40:00.001-08:00

Between all the class parties and events we hope you have a few minutes to spend time with the ones you love.
Happy Valentine's Day!

it's been so long

2008-02-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

i know, i know. Big changes in our life. I haven't been feeling very well so I haven't had the energy to get on here and talk about anything. so big news....

WE ARE NOW GOING TO BE A FAMILY OF FIVE!

Are you shocked? I still am. It was planned but only for one month so we were a little surprised when we found out. That means Megan and I are only five weeks apart. It will be fun but I swore I would never be pregnant during the summer again and here I am with a baby due in Spetember. Such is life. Ms. K has fluctuating feelings. One day she is excited the next day she is not. She def. wants a brother. When we told the kids we said do not tell anyone yet because we want to tell family first. Ms. K went to school the next day and told her whole class. Mr. B doesn't quite get it or he doesn't really care we are stil not sure about that one. One thing I know for sure... I don't feel good at all!

Hopefully feeling well enough to go to CHA this weekend in Anaheim. I will def. be back with pictures of new crafty products coming out and I will also be back with what we did this January since I haven't been on at all. Class pictures are still on here. Scroll down to the next to posts to see more pictures!

The other new class

2008-01-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of the love class I will be offering from now until February 29th. The album is a word album from Bo Bunny. I will also have other word albums for sale. The paper we will be using is from the Smitten line by Bo Bunny. Here are some more pictures of the project....

New Classes

2008-01-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

Okay so I am not technically savy at all! I am trying to add a slide show to the sidebar to show the two classes I have coming up but I just can't seem to get it to work. Since I can't get it to work I'll just put them in a post for now. Here is one of the classes, Lucky. So fun. 7 is a lucky number so we will be making a mini-album about the seven things that make you feel lucky.

Happy New Year

2008-01-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's and started there year on a great note. We have been living in a bubble lately. Grandma came home from the hospital with hospice. Not what we expected when she went in but suffering is the last thing we want her to do. So many hard decisions to make, so many things you want to make sure you say. The kids know that Great-Grandma is sick but we have not told them what is really going on. Everyday I tell them to make sure they tell Great Grandma how much they love her. Am I chicken for not telling them? We haven't had to deal with this before so I am not sure how to approach it. Ahhh... one of the not so fun aspects of being a parent.

Okay I had said I would share what the GOOD news was that we received on Christmas Day so here it is...

That is my baby sister and my Brother-in-law Mike. This was a big shock. Totally not expecting this news at all. My sister kept saying she wasn't ready so when we found out we all fell out of our seats. I think all I kept saying was "shut up!" I couldn't get much else out. so I will be an aunt for the first time in august. Updates will continue. I know I have more to share but it's time to get ready to head over to my parent's house. We have been there everyday since we got home. Trying to spend as much time with Grandma as possible.

Bittersweet Holidays

2007-12-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

So, so much to catch up on. Have been very busy, sick , busy and still sick. I think the best way to cover it all is in short bits, so here we go...

*December 22- Scott and I took the kids to the Nixon Library. Very cool. Train exhibit. Brendan loved it! Ms. K did too. Loved the Presidential Helicopter. Would defin. go again. Great-Grandma is put in the hospital for an infection, we are all worried.

Conversation overheard while sitting on this couch:

Mr. B: Sissy, are you going to take your shoes off?

Ms. K: No Brendan, this isn't our home.

*December 23- Spent the day wrapping, cleaning, resting (everyone is sick)

*December 24-last minute gifts (so not me), last minute wrapping (again so not me). We didn't make it to church because we didn't want to infect everyone at church (we were very disappointed, really affected the Christmas spirit). Found out Grandma's not coming home for Christmas (even more disappointing). Did have a nice night with Scott's family. My mother -in-law knows me very well. Got me great gifts but we were laughing because everyone else was looking at us like we were crazy. she got me an vintage window frame from an old house, so very cool (I already know what I am going to do with it!)

I am going to do Christmas in the next post because I don't have all my pictures with me.

*December 26- Great Grandma came home from the hospital. We found out on Christmas that she is in the final stages of COPD. They told us it could be 2 days, 2 weeks or a year. They just don't know. Kind of a shocker on Christmas. There was also good news on Christmas but I want to wait to share it until I have my pics.

*December 27- Off for an 8 hour car ride to Gardnerville, NV to visit my dad's parents. when we arrived it started to snow. Very fun! Will be here for a few days sans my Scott (he has to work). Here is the view from my Grandparents place...

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!
Okay more later...

100th post!

2007-12-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

I thought I would never get to my 100th post!
Lots to catch up on since we have all been sick this week and still can't seem to shake the loveliness that my hubby shared with us all. Ms. K was running a fever of 103.2 degrees on Thursday. That was loads of fun!

Anyway, let's back it up day to Wednesday when Ms. K had her Christmas program at school. They hadn't had one in many years so it was packed with parents. When I say packed, I mean the fire marshall would have shut it own there were so many people crowded into the multi purpose room. The students were very cute and they did a great job singing their songs. Ms. K's class went first and since she is tall she was in the back row. They had all the children set up s their heads were in between each other but my sweet girl decided to move over. All we cold see was her hair bobbin' around because she was being blocked by someones Santa hat. Oh well, she was still cute! I took a video, I apologize for the shakiness but i was sick and had no tripod. After the poem it gets steady so bear with me until it gets to their song...

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. I was telling Scott the other day that I am sad because I just don't feel in the Christmas spirit this year. usually I am jumping out of my skin with excitement but this year I am just blah. I think it's because we have all been sick but still I am disappointed. We did some Christmasy things this weekend but I am going to split it into 2 posts otherwise it will be WAY too long. Here are a couple pictures of Ms. K after her performance. She has red puffy eyes because she was crying. Still not quite sure why she was crying. I think it was a combo of her starting to not feel good and she didn't want me to take her picture. Hello, I am her mother she knows there are going to be lots of pictures involved! So I took pictures anyway and she can look back on them and laugh (she wasn't the only one crying, there was 4 of them crying!)

Laying Low

2007-12-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

for the weekend. Scott is still sick, Mr. b is coughing and now I am not feeling so hot. I already told Scott I am going to be really mad if I get sick this week because I have so much going on and I have to finish Christmas shopping. Hoping the rest will do us all good.
Oh yeah... this is my 99th post so next post will be my 100th! I would have a little party and maybe a little giveaway but no one likes to post comments! (hint, hint!) More later...

Pull up a chair

2007-12-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

and join Mr. b and I for our Friday date. Since we go to the same place every week and sit and the same table we are easy to find, so join us. It's "the usual" for both of us today which entails a pumpkin muffie and OJ for Mr. B and I will be having an asiago cheese bagel, lightly toasted and a coffee (but today I switched it up for a hot chocolate). would you like a bagel and some coffee also? It was cold here this morning so I hope you brought your jacket. It's 43 degrees and you will need it! We're sitting near the window so we will have a nice view of the 18 foot Christmas tree right outside. The Christmas music playing makes for a perfect December breakfast date. Mr. B is very messy today, there are crumbs everywhere! Time to go run the rest of our errands, Daddy's home sick and we want to get home to check on him. Thanks for joining us on our Friday date!

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly...

2007-12-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our house for Christmas. Usually the decorations are all hung the weekend after Thanksgiving but it just didn't happen this year. So here's what I do have up so far. some are the result of our crafty weekend. I didn't put up all of our decorations this year. There has been a lot of handmade stuff going up. Here we go...

The cones are hanging on our tree. We have no ornaments this year. Only the paper cones, flowers and I took our favorite pictures and mounted them on chipboard with ribbon to hang them on the tree. Turned out very pretty. I see the start of a new tradition. The kids love seeing themselves on the tree. At first Ms. K complained about no ornaments but she gets very excited to hang a new picture.

These usually house pictures of the beautiful babies but at the moment they are holding enlargements of vintage postcards. Love looking at them above the fireplace.

Homemade tags on every gift. Not the best picture but it was late last night and I was tired.

I love having bowls of ornaments around the house. It always makes me smile as I walk by.

Here's a vignette that I made during our crafty weekend. It is actually three pieces hooked together. I love how it turned out. It was one of those projects that just evolved and had no beginning plan.

Here's my garland made from bingo cards. The chipboard letters are Making Memories, the stamp is Tim Holtz, and the paper behind the letters is Cosmo Cricket. It spells out Merry Christmas. Love it!

hope you all are having a great day today!

All I want for Christmas...

2007-12-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

Me: Mr. B what are you going to ask Santa for?

Mr. B: a baseball stadium

Me: a baseball stadium! Oh is that all? Is there anything else that you want?

Mr. B: No, that's all just a baseball stadium.

We're in trouble!

Ahh the busyness of the holidays

2007-12-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

I had said I would post pictures of our Christmas craftiness and I never did it. Sorry! As in everyone's house during the holidays, the craziness gets to be a bit much. This last weekend Scott had his holiday party for work. His very generous boss flew us all to Las Vegas for the weekend. So nice. Scott and I were able to spend the whole day together on Sat. Just the two of us. Amazing right! When you have children that never happens! We had a really nice day. Not only that but we didn't put a penny into any machine or on any table. We went to the Bellagio and saw the beautiful decorations. Pictures to follow. From there we walked to the Venetian and went to the Modern Masters exhibit. I highly recommend seeing this if you are in Vegas. Here's our pictures from the Bellagio...

After the Art exhibit, we walked over to Caesar's and the Forum shops. We ate at a deli in there that had THE BEST onion rings ever! They were SO GOOD! We couldn't pass up FAO Schwartz while we were there and can I tell you how much fun it is to go to toy store with no kids. We got to browse and not have to say "put that down" or "stay here". We had t take a picture in there for Ms. K because she loves Groovy Girls and they had a whole wall of them. I couldn't get them all in the picture so here's the part I could fit.

I also got to experience my first fight while we were there. I had never really watched boxing and I didn't think I would like it but the Mayfield/Hatton fight was fun to watch. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

It felt good to get home though and here is what we were greeted with when we came out of the airport...

So beautiful! The picture does not do it justice. Okay this post has been long enough so I will make the craft post a separate one...

It's Here!

2007-12-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hooray!! December is here. Have been busy crafting for over a week now and I have no finished projects to show for it. Love, love, love making Christmas projects. A little ambitious this year and I am trying to make all the tags to go on my presents. The problem is, we have so many presents to give that I might not get them done. I will defin. post pictures this weekend because today my sister is coming over and we are going to craft the day away. Our boys and our Dad are golfing in the church golf tournament so we have a whole day of glue and glitter ahead of us. It's the perfect day to do it because it rained all day yesterday (poured) and today it's still not sunny. That leaves the the perfect combination to have a movie/craft/popcorn/warm drinks/present wrapping day. Love it! Can't wait to stay in our sweats while the kids are bundled up under blankets watching Christmas movies. I wonder what's on the Christmas movie menu today... Rudolph (requested by Ms. K), Shrek the Halls, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon). Okay, more later gotta get the glitter ready...

Time flies when family is visiting

2007-11-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

My aunt from New York was here for the week and boy did we cram a lot in! It's always crazy at thanksgiving! So much fun! Thanksgiving was nice. We had two dinners on Thanksgiving. My hub's parents came over during the day. I lucked out and didn't have to cook any of it. After eating lots there we headed over to my parents house for another meal. Can I tell you what a great cook my Mom is! Wow! Homemade skillet creamed corn, pineapple casserole (my favorite), stuffing with apples and cranberries, mashed potatoes, the list goes on and on. Here are some pictures of the overeating...

Gigi and Brendan

Friday my Mom, Charsie and I got up nice and early and headed out to the stores. This year we went to one store and then went to breakfast. After breakfast we headed back to shop and it was so nice. Not one line! How did we avoid all the lines? We got some really good deals. Can't wait to get them wrapped!
That night we all went to the Mission Inn for the festival of lights. It's a historic hotel in the next city and every year the ;lights are unbelievable. There are so many lights and they have animated people singing carols. Wow is the only word I can think of. we had never been to the lighting and we defin. want to go back next year. The had the streets blocked off and there was an ice skating rink, food stands, and all the stores had a window display contest. Lots of the stores surrounding the hotel are antique stores so of course their displays were fabulous. My camera batteries died before the show started so I was not able to get pictures of the firework show but I got lots of pictures of the window displays we saw before it was dark.

I think we are going to go back again so we can really enjoy the lights when they aren't thousands of people there.

Ms. K went back to school yesterday. Mr. B missed her so much he was crying while we were running errands. "When can we go pick up sissy?" "Is it time to get sissy yet?" That's what I heard the entire time she as at school yesterday. When we picked her up he was SO excited. He was walking next to her with his arms around her waist.

I know I have been a bad blogger this month. The whole tearing stuff in my foot and being on crutches messed everything up this month. I have to say it was an experience to teach a three hour scrapbook class on crutches. Not something I want to try again anytime soon.

Gotta run, Mr. B is pulling pictures out and spreading them everywhere!

My funny boy

2007-11-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

He makes me laugh every day. Yesterday this conversation came about during the day...

Brendan had hit Ms. K in the head with his baseball bat (not to worry, not wood or aluminum).

Me: Brendan, you need to go apologize to your sister for hitting her with your bat. How sad, now it's in timeout.

Brendan: (crying) okay

he runs down the hallway with his two year old run that's still sort of a waddle and his arms a pumping to get him along (love that run!)

(overheard when he gets to his room to apologize)

Brendan: Okay, hold on I have to get my tears out of the way (wiping his eyes)

How can I be mad when he says cute, funny things like that?! Good thing I was out of sight because I was laughing!

Later on in the day Ms. K and I were in my room and I hear him coming down the hallways ( because he has to bring an armload of toys with him everywhere). This is what we hear...

Brendan: Here comes the man!

Glad he feels the need to announce himself. Not just "here comes Brendan" but "here comes the man". guess we won't have to worry about confidence right!

Plans have changed

2007-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

now that I have to wear this dumb cast (soft) on my foot. It's really hindering our vacation plans. We did manage to go to the American Girl store as planned. It was really fun! We went with Mom, Julie and the Peters. The girls had a great time and I think they would have taken everything in the store home if we let them. The Grove was getting it's Christmas decorations up so it was starting to look very festive! Here are some pictures for the day...

The dolls were set up in displays with their accessories according to the books. Very cute!

The kids wanted to ride the double decker bus so the Kennedy rode while Mom stayed with Brendan and I because he was asleep and I couldn't get on it. Here they are getting off...

The stores had so many cute projects that I want to make. I took pictures of the ones I am going to duplicate! Can't wait to get to work. It's going to have to wait till I am done teaching my classes this month. I have one mini album class left this Friday. It should be fun.

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-11-05T20:26:00.001-08:00

Well, actually it was yesterday. Had a really nice day thanks to my hubby and my mom. The family met at Mom and Dad's and we watched football. Mr. B and I wore our Chiefs jerseys even though they lost. My hubby knew I had been saving up for a camera and so that's what I got, a new camera. So excited! My mom made a fabulous birthday dinner (as she does every year!) but the best thing of all was my cake! Mom made my favorite, German Chocolate with homemade chocolate frosting. When I say amazing it does not even do it justice. WOW! So we ended our nice day and came home and put the kiddos to bed. Then the day went downhill. Literally. I fell down the stairs. We went to the ER because it was really swollen and bruised. Luckily it's not broken but I am still in a soft cast because we don't know if there are torn ligaments or anything like that yet. I am on pain killers right now so lots of sleeping occurred today. So besides the whole ER visit I had a great birthday!

Halloween Pics

2007-11-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

okay the throwing up is done and now he is destroying everything in the house. since he is feeling better I can post our Halloween Pics! Here's my little lion and my medieval princess...

We had a fun night. We went to trick-o-treat at Grammy and Grandpa's and Gigi and Papa's. Then we went to our friend's house (Angie and Ric). Angie and I took the kids trick-or-treating while the guys passed out candy and handled dinner. So fun! Love having goods friends for a great night! While we were out with the kids, Amanda (Ms. K's best friend) told one of the houses, "they can't have that cause it's chocolate!" The lady felt bad and tried to tell her it was all she had and Amanda kept telling her Mr. B and Ms. K couldn't have it. So funny! She's always looking out for the kids and informs everyone they can't have milk or cheese or chocolate. What a good friend!

Sorry, I guess I was on a blog vacation

2007-11-01T09:00:00.001-07:00

I didn't realize how behind I was! Happy Halloween (late!). I've got lots to catch up on! So sit back, relax and get ready for a long post. Scott and Brendan had a great time in New England. They got to see lots of family and Scott had a great time at the Red Sox/Indians game. The kids were so funny, David Ortiz (Boston player) has a nickname. He is called "Big Poppy". Brendan thought it was Big Poopy and the name stuck, so throughout the playoffs they would yell "Go Big Poopy!". When we were watching the World Series the other night, Carrie Underwood was going to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Kennedy stood in front of the TV with her hand over her heart the whole song. SO cute! Scott started to talk and she turned to him and said "SHHHHH". Love my patriotic daughter.

Last Wednesday (10/24/07) we had Ms. K's parent conference at school. We were so proud of her. She had a great report card. Her teacher said if she left the classroom, Ms. K could run it by herself. That's my girl! She also received an award(10/25/07) called the Lifeskills Award. it's for students that use respect, responsibility, patience, etc. everyday. Here she is getting her award and at her fall party at school..

Now she is off track and it's time to play. Monday (10/29/07) we went to Disneyland with Mom and met up with some friends of ours. We had a great time and Disney did a great job decorating for fall. Everything looked beautiful. Here's some shots from the day...

Sorry this post jumps around a lot. I have so much to cover an Mr. B has the flu today so I ave been typing this post for over 2 hours now. I keep running back and forth from the table to the couch because he's throwing up. I feel so bad because when you are little like he is it is hard to understand why you can't have a drink whenever you want. He just had his first sip of pedialyte so hopefully it stays down! I am going to post again today to show Halloween...