A Couple Weeks Late

I took this picture on August 20th. She'll be 6 weeks soon. The time is going sooo quickly. I've been a little distracted with life so finding time to blog has been more than challenging. I've had a lot of thoughts for a post but little time with two hands free to type. Often while I'm nursing the baby I'll type one handed quick responses on facebook or browse blogs without typing any replies. Mostly I just love to cradle her, caress her hair and that soft spot on her head and soak in this time. As I look at my 6 and almost 4 year old kids I am quickly reminded how fleeting this time is. Those little tiny toes and fingers will never be so small again.

Introducing...

Miss. Delilah Brooke

7lbs 14oz, 20.5inches

July 20, 2010

36 weeks ♥

How I Started My Summer Vacation

Today was the first day of summer vacation! Yesterday I was a little sad that my kindergartner was now a first grader, that already 6 years ago I was pregnant with him and wondering just where my little boy went. Today I was over it and excited for what lies ahead. Then I got a little nervous when the "I'm hungry" {right after breakfast} and "I'm bored, what can I do?!?" {at 8:00am} started. I had a thought a few weeks ago that I should plan out some activities to avoid such situations and apparently the thought was a fleeting one. After my morning coffee I attempted to make a simple chart with time displayed on a clock & written out, then put an activity in word and picture - so Lydia can understand too. For some reason my word and publisher programs decided they would freeze up at the mention of clip art. Pansies.

Fortunately a search on google images led me to this fabulous site -  Executive Homemaker  where they have lists and organizational tools galore! I found this particular section very helpful with my clip art issues. More searching on google images led me to a blank clock face with numbers that I printed multiples of and wrote/drew in the times myself. 

So I cut up all my printables, laminated them and arranged them on some scrapbook paper. It turned out to be much larger than I originally had planned but it works. So far. I can make adjustments as needed. Of course this is a general guideline for the day when we're home and the kids have been informed that momma trumps the chart. ;)

I did some more looking around at Executive Homemaker and found an idea for another quick project. This post and this post were my inspiration.

 I used my publisher program (any kind of word program would work just the same) and google images to make my own toy tags. Then I cut, laminated (leaving extra to one side for the ribbon), punched a hole and added some ribbon from my scraps bag. The bottom two labels are on tubs so they didn't need a ribbon.

Now the kids' toy cubbies are labeled with a word & photo making clean up easier for them & their friends that come over to play. I realized after they were up that I really would be okay if everything in my house had a label on it. That's a scary thought.

I suppose the title of this post is misleading. Most would assume there would be pictures of fun at a pool, park or beach {I wish!} but here I am with my print outs, labels and routines. Sigh...there's no denying who I am is there? To top that off I spent more time on publisher {love it second to excel} and have two color coded calendars {June & July} full of fun activities for the kids and our families. I don't have every day scheduled out but there are options for us. Some things like free  morning movie, dollar bowling night and story time at the library are repeated through the week/month so each week I can figure out which day works best. I also put appointments, birthdays and Shawn's days off to make for easy planning. At the top of the calendars I have a list of places to take the kids as a reminder. Though we've lived here 3 years there are lots of places we still haven't been and I'd love to check some off our list.

While I enjoy the slowness of a summer morning I don't want to have a summer overrun with lazy days. I think the calendars with researched activities will help me avoid this. And in fewer weeks than I'm ready to face we'll have a new little member of the family that will throw things off for a bit of time, before she does I want the kids to enjoy summer break.

And now I may be rambling. I started this post when it was still Friday and it's now Saturday and I should get some sleep. Thanks for visiting!

Snow Day = Scrap Day

And I'm not complaining. We were anticipating snow since Thursday night and it finally started falling Friday afternoon. I made it home from my doctor appointment before it got too bad...which I was thankful for because I'm still not very comfortable driving in the snow. By Saturday morning we had 6-10"+ throughout the backyard & field. Shawn & I got the kids ready and took them out for some snow play. A couple hours later I was introduced to the tallest snowman I've encountered yet.

The kids were all bundled up & so excited to go play.

 

 The dogs had just as much fun as the kids did. Jackie looked like a bunny hopping through the snow since it was as high or higher than her legs.

  

And here it is, the biggest snowman I've yet to see in person and definitely in my backyard. Daddy outdid himself. Today Lydia wants to make a snowgirl & I told Michael we could attempt a snowdog.

So with all that snow I wasn't going anywhere and my plans of having a couple friends over for scrapping were foiled I decided to scrap alone with my best friend via telephone. After cleaning up around the house I found out she was game and we got to work. I'm still working on Lydia's album and making progress.

Tada!:

 

This one is self explanatory. She was 9 mos old when I finally got a pony in her hair. 3 years later it's still hard to actually keep one in her hair. ;) I used my Stampin Up catalog again for inspiration. The page shown in the catalog only had one book & more scallops but I made adjustments for my pictures.

 

These next two pages aren't finished and may be completely redone. For my son I did an "Everybody Loves Michael" spread (well 2), it just has pictures of  family members holding Michael when they met him. I decided to do the same for Lydia. I was getting tired last night so I left them alone & will revisit when I get a chance to scrap again. Hopefully today, otherwise definitely this week. I recently ordered more prints through a sale at www.snapfish.com and got the rest of the pictures I need to finish Lydia's album and even some pictures for family albums. I'd LOVE to make a lot of progress on that as well before the new baby comes.

To-do:

• Revisit the last two pages
• Scrap pictures that are already sorted
• Finish up incomplete pages {some are missing pictures, title, journaling and/or embellishments}
• Sort new pictures that come in the mail
• Get a second album & lots of page protectors for Lydia's album
• Get two new albums for Michael

To see what other scrappers are up to or join in the fun click the button above. Have a great week!

Lightening Strikes Twice

...and it's name is Lydia. Maybe that's a little dramatic. I'm sure the odds of a not-quite-3 year old girl finding scissors are much greater than a person being struck by lightening once let alone twice. The odds of said little girl finding scissors twice within a week and going from slight change of hairstyle to what.the.EFF.do.I.do?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? are right about the way things seem to work out for me. That 'murphy's law' - if it can happen it probably will happen and at the most inconvenient time. I don't think I go about my life with an Eeyore kind of attitude but am not surprised when something happens. And it's always something around here - or at least feels that way. Maybe I am more Eeyore than I thought. Hmmm...

So this was the first incident. She found a small pair of scissors in the bathroom & decided to give herself a little trim.
Not a big deal. I gave her some bangs and we all moved on with our lives - noting how 'big girl' she looks without half of her hair in her face.And then yesterday when I had my back turned for 2 seconds. Goodbye bangs. Clean up hair. Wait....that's a lot of hair on the ground. And it's LONGER than her bangs were.....

GAHHH!!!!!!!!! My daughter has a mullet on the left side of her head. alskdjflakfjd WHAT do I do with this??? I'm contemplating trying to 'cover' it with headbands with big bows & flowers to create a distraction while letting it grow out. Or get it 'fixed' and give her a pixie cut, risking the loss of her few curls forever.

I cried last night. Not just over the hair. I told Shawn that one day I would laugh when she calls me up to tell me what happened when her little girl finds some scissors and I would tell Lydia what she put me through as well. At that moment I started to weep. I want to call my mom & tell her what her sweet little angel did - then hear about the time I rolled my hair up in her round brush even though she told me it didn't roll both ways, or the number of times I got gum stuck in my hair...and the other stories that I can't remember because I was too young.

On a lighter note. Here is a picture of Michael yesterday - not cutting his hair {though his would have been easier to deal with} pretending to be a king & building his castle. I love his imagination & creativity.

A Day of Milestones

So if Michael turning 5 wasn't enough he had to start kindergarten. Who does he think he is right? Just growing up leaving me alone with Lydia all day and making me set my alarm M-F...I haven't done that in years. Though I haven't really had a need since the kids are up by 6 anyway. Or were. The first day of school was also the first day that I had to wake Michael up in the morning. Bummer right? It would have been nice to enjoy it.

Then it was Lydia's turn to get all 'big girl' on me. It kind of just happened but then she made a decision and there's no turning back. She handed me a dirty diaper, yes a dirty one. After cleaning her up I realized I was out of diapers. o.O So she got a pair of panties until we made it to the store. Before I could make it out she announced she was going to use the potty. And then she did. And then she did 3 more times {including a poo}. And then I was waiting for pigs to fly by my window. Because that just.doesn't.happen. Right? Michael was nearly 4 before he was interested and we struggled. So for my not yet 3 year old to just do it....I was shocked. Of course it hasn't been that smooth since starting, that pig never flew by.

All in the same day that Michael started kindergarten and Lydia decided to go potty, Shawn found a gray hair. Not his first and definitely not the last but it was interesting timing for one to pop up on such a momentous day. Luckily I didn't have an extra fine line...though there may have been a pimple. Is anyone else out there trying to fight aging {or at least slow it as much as possible} while also fighting the signs of your youth in some degree of acne. Typically it's a hormonal thing for me...I'll put Shawn on alert. ;)

So I promise I've been doing more than washing peed on laundry, adjusting to my son being in school full time and scrutenizing my face in the mirror. But that will be for another day. If your child is in school - congratulations, enjoy your time! If your kids go back to school at the normal after summer time then enjoy your time!

One Whole Hand

My first born 'baby' is 5. This is old news around here but I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would start from here. :D

We had a fun 'pool' party for Michael and this year he wanted to have a Transformers theme - he's all about Transformers right now. Before he had the real thing he would make his own out of his blocks, he still does sometimes. I love his creativity!

Some of his friends from school made it & other friends we've made since living here. He was SO excited to have friends over to play in the pool, eat hot dogs & cake and just have fun. With his birthday in the middle of summer vacation & right after a holiday I was thrilled with the turn out! Plus the weather cooperated. The night before we had severe thunderstorms and spent a couple hours going in and out of the laundry room because of tornado warnings. The day of his party was overcast & a little muggy but still warm enough to get wet and have fun outside. :)

Shawn had fun with the water hose, kids were attacking everyone with water guns and there was a silly string fight to top it all off. I'm looking forward to another bbq soon!

Due to High Demand

So apparently my semi hiatus has been upsetting to some, troubling even. I have had several requests to post about our life & not just my {s}crap. Don't worry, the popularity isn't going to my head, the kids may get an ego boost though. See, it's only been my step mom asking for pictures of her grandkids. Every phone call she asks if I've blogged lately, other than scrapping. I kept telling her I would put some pictures up so here we go. I'll do at least one post a week with photos between my scrappy posts and maybe even a third organizational post of some sort. Also, I do have some news to share but am still writing the post up on all that...until then happy reading! {& pondering}

I tortured the kids with the camera one day before letting them fly kites & play with their sidewalk chalk. They took too long to "smile&lookatthecameraalready" and the wind died down but they still had fun with the chalk. I finally ordered some updated prints for the house - last of Lydia was when she was 3 months old - OVER two years ago. And I don't mean professional photo - no snapshot or anything. So that will be a project for the coming week.

The next day Shawn was having fun with Michael on the little rope swing. Yes, that is our tree that Michael is swinging into. I was a little concerned for his safety but still grabbed the camera before telling Shawn to stop before he fell and broke something - no time for a trip to the ER!

Up To No Good

Have I shared that I'm not a morning person? It seems no matter what time I go to bed {10 is early for me, 11 is average} I wake up with sore eyes, congested sinuses and some sort of headache. My children seem to be the complete opposite. They are up by 6am and until recently thought I should be up to serve them breakfast, put on a cartoon and do whatever else they asked of me. I think they figured out that it was more fun with mom in bed so they stopped waking me up.

And why wouldn't it be? When I'm up with them there are limits on what and how much food they can eat before 7am, they can't play computer games {because I'm online doing something or other} and they don't have free reign of the house. I didn't realize just how much they were enjoying their freedom until I discovered some pictures on my camera. Pictures that I didn't take. Incriminating evidence that my kids supplied for me. Not only that they were using my camera but also pulling out lunch meat to eat, get on the computer, touch the xbox and of course they had to capture the innocent bystander too. Though, Jackie may not be so innocent since she didn't bother waking me up, I think she's an accomplice in the crime.

There were more photos that I deleted before I realized how funny this was and the scrapbook page I could make. Close up self portraits of Michael, the whole package of lunch meat out, Lydia getting into a movie or video game and about 3 dozen photos of Jackie just sitting there not telling on the kids.

Now that I think about it, the time they stopped waking me up in the morning was about the same time they each started waking up between 11pm & 1am, interrupting my sleep and making me want to stay in bed longer in the mornings. I think they plotted the whole thing and kept the dog quiet by sharing their lunch meat.

I love my kids & they're cute but really, they can't be trusted.