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

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!

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.

enough said

sickness + holidays= neglected blog

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

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

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

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

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

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.