One template - two ways.

I must be feeling nostalgic that the huge birthday month is over and my kids are officially growing up. October becomes such a rush with all of the birthdays in our family and I end up in autopilot until the end. Tonight though, I stopped to put down some of the things I've been thinking about. I wish I was a better writer... sometimes I feel like I don't say enough to them.

I think I must really like my new digital brushes. I noticed I used the circle ones in each page! LOL!

Happy early Halloween!

I want my flurries!!

I can hear Piper now, "I really hope one of those people drops a piece of their food for me." She's in the best place in the house...if you love food, and you are a dog.

Today is cold! I was promised snow flurries and December like weather but I haven't seen a flurry yet. They did get the December like weather right... or at least what feels like December like weather to me. The "feels like" number on the weather said that it was in the 30s today. Brrr. I still want my dang flurries.

Today when the kids came home from school I had a pot of hot chocolate on the stove for them. It went over pretty well! :)

Not much else going on around here today. Matthew stayed home sick today. Not really sick like contagious sick, but every now and then the poor guy has an asthma attack so bad that it puts him out of commission for a few days. We spent most of last night awake between coughing and breathing treatments. It was nice to have him home though, we stayed on the couch for a long time and watched some TV together and kept each other warm. He's still so perfectly snuggly, and now he's wearing flannel jammies and socks. Cozy.

For Lisa....

It is FREAKING COLD outside right now. And dark. It's officially that time of year. Which means more time to spend indoors. Lisa sent me a few photos to cure my boredom, and like paper scrapping once I get addicted to one kind of paper I like to use it to death. This floral comes in 4 different color combos though, but the pink reminded me of Anna. I just thought it was funny that I used it on Megan's layout below too. Plus the design of this isn't too far off from the one below. I get in ruts in digital too. ;)

Kaelene, I got your photo too! Thank you, and I'll do something with it this weekend!

So Lisa, here is a peek at Anna's layout. I promised to watch last weekend's Amazing Race with the kids. We're going to dogpile on the couch under a blanket.

Stay warm ya'll.

Frost on the pumpkins. Brr.

Future Cincinnati Reds player...

All of my kids are obsessed with baseball right now. (leave it to mine from non sporty parents, to like something during it's off season!) But any chance they get they want to be outside tossing a baseball around. Daddy is by far the favorite to play with. I'm no fun. I don't like to run anymore and I catch like a girl. But I couldn't stand to not take a picture of Matthew in his poofy warm jacket.

Do de do de do de do... I am soooo bored. It's cold outside. Not freezing cold, but I'm not feeling adventerous anymore today. I've been out in it a few times, came home and made a nice peppermint hot chocolate that has me feeling all toasty. The next best thing is to find a willing child to snuggle on the couch with me while the fireplace is on. THAT is heaven.

So until then, I did a digital page. And since I'm bored somebody needs to send me a photo and I'll do a digital page for you. If you love it, print it. If you hate it, delete it! That's the beauty of digi. Just give me something to doooooo!

Pretty please! ;)

Happy birthday Matthew!!

Guess who is SIX today? My little dude. I love him soooo much!

Edited to add: Whew. All of the October birthdays are over. October is such a crazy month for our family. It begins with mine, then my sister, then Megan, then Matthew. Then before you know it... Halloween. October goes by faster each year.

We dropped off cupcakes at school for Matthew's class. I needed to run back to the store to get another dozen of them after hearing the night before that there are 32 kids in his class. I thought we had been so perfectly planned out and bought two dozen the night before in hopes of NOT needing to go to the store again. Imagine - $40 on cupcakes this month. I miss the days when you could actually buy a box of cake mix and make your own goodies to take to school. I bet that the grocery store bakeries and the schools have some sort of conspiracy. Yeah, that's it.

Today was a good day for Matthew. He woke up and opened his presents. More Thomas stuff, a Thomas movie and a construction set. After school we headed north to Ohio to Quaker Steak and Lube. It's one of Matthew's favorite places to eat. Trevor's too.... they have good wings, and the kids meals come in little open cardboard cars. You can get onion rings or soft pretzels served on an antenna. Then there are race cars and cool car things everywhere. Perfect place for boys.

Then we came home, played a bit and watched the Thomas movie together. It is cold out tonight, so I enjoyed the snuggly couch time with him. Then stories before bed. Today went by fast, but it was a good birthday.

I'm having a bit of a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I have a 10 year old after this month, and that Matthew is on the downside of turning 10 himself. You know, because at 6 you have to round up to the next nearest.... 10.... I'm weird when it comes to numbers. But somehow it seemed like they were all so little still when one was 5 or under. It's just another tick in the passage of time. Although I have to admit with Matthew I'm glad that those toddler years are disappearing. He was one tough toddler. I love him to pieces, but you know the saying that if he'd been my first child there wouldn't have been more! Haha! The terrible twos lasted a few years. Thankfully that is becoming a distant memory and each day gets easier with him. He's such a good kid. :)

picture post

**D'oh! Don't forget to go to Jessica's site to register for the free class. It looks like it's going to be really neat. Not that I'm ali and have a million people reading my blog, but I am totally into the storytelling aspect of scrapping! It's free! Why not?!?! Go. Register. Now!

I'm killing some time before the bus gets here so I thought I'd post some pictures for the fam.
Here is Megan and the quest for the perfect walking stick. I think she finally may have found it. Every time we go anywhere for a walk or hike, she has to find some sort of stick to take home with her. I'll have to go back in old photos and find more. But she's always got a stick. So she found this and we had to get a picture. I don't think she'll ever be able to beat that one.
Here is Matthew playing with some early birthday presents. He got a gift card from my mom and dad and my sister and family. We took him to Target to do some shopping (and so we could enjoy the peace and quiet from a imagination play weekend!) on Saturday night. His birthday is actually tomorrow. He loved being able to pick up something and say, "Do I have enough?" and we'd say YES. His eyes lit up every time. Then he'd add something else he'd been coveting and ask again. "YES." He was the happiest Thomas loving boy in the whole wide world. Poor guy, a couple of times he'd pick up something I had already bought for him and wasn't going to give him until Tuesday. We'd have to lie and say, "Aw, sorry, that is $100. You don't have enough for that." Sometimes it's nice when they don't understand money yet. ;)

This is only a portion... my family room is covered with tracks right now. I love that he still thinks Thomas is the coolest thing in the world. He is so intense when he plays. I asked him not too long ago if he was always going to love Thomas, like when he's in college. He said so intensely...
"Mom.... I will NEVER give up on Thomas."
T McD. He's such a handsome guy. I want to squish him.
One more of Matthew this morning. It was cold.

A sneaky peeky

In a few more hours I'll have ____ amount of girls over. How many? Who knows because nobody RSVPs anymore!! We sent out 18 invitations, but I also found out that we decided to have this party on the high school's homecoming game night. High School football is BIG news here. So I only know that 4 are coming so far.

This is what happens when Valentine's day and Halloween collide. I have been patiently waiting to use this stuff that I bought for Megan's party the day after Valentines Day last year! Look familiar Maddy? This is all her fault because she is the one who asked me to do some Target clearance shopping when she needed these cute treat boxes for Ellie's party. I figured I should do the same. I'm a party poser, and you all know that Maddy is the party over achiever... so how could I go wrong? I bought all the boxes left, napkins, plates, cups everything. All of it was at least 74% off or 90% off. Yep.. I'm going to do this again for next year. FOR SURE. Heck, I even made the cake.

Pumpkins that we'll be glittering. Thanks to Martha Stewart. We're going to get our craft on tonight. Along with pizza and high pitched voices. ;)

feeling nostalgic

I reallly should save posting these pictures for next week, when Matthew turns 6 years old. But I'm feeling nostalgic tonight and realizing that I can't stress to myself or anybody else...

TAKE. PICTURES. LOTS. OF. THEM.

Because before you know it.... this baby becomes a six year old, crazy, sweet, reading books on his own, bus riding first grade boy.

I realize when I look through these too that I don't have some of these things anymore. Like this fridge. We sold that before we moved to Spur a few streets over. Don't laugh at the elastic thingies around Matthew's legs. He was a heavy duty crawler and had red knees for the longest time because of that tile. I bought these things to pad his knees but they never stayed there. They always rolled down onto the bottom of his legs, and eventually onto his feet. Where he'd pull them off and put them right into his mouth. Ew. I wish I had that $4 back.

He still shops in the fridge like that. Typical boy. Some things never change, they just get taller.

I don't have that TV anymore either. This is also back when Megan was fascinated by her brother and didn't call him an idiot. (Which she knows is not appropriate!! But still throws it at him occasionally in a fit with steam coming from her ears.)

They both look sooooo little. So my message tonight... and to remind myself. The photos that you think are nothing - the everyday stuff - end up being the best ones after all. They are my favorite to go back to a time that I couldn't wait to get out of because of lack of sleep, but kind of wish didn't seem so far away from where we're at right now too. It all goes by so fast.

Fall Ya'll.

Michelle is having a bit of a benefit on her blog today. Go check it out.

Not many words tonight.... the long weekend is over and the kids need to be in bed! Then some snackage to make up for the calories I just burned with my drill sergeant daughter.

One more.

One more for the day, since it's still her birthday. I spent most of the day thinking about the changes in the past ten years since Megan was born. She is amazing, and such a joy in my life. I love her beyond words.

She woke up early this morning and opened some of her presents. One model horse and some new clothes and jewelry. Then we went to Cincinnati for some errands and shopping, and then finally to a tack store where she was going to buy another horse she's been wanting since last Christmas. We had looked at this tack store last week since we heard it sold Breyer horses, and she about died when she saw THE horse she had been wanting. They put it on hold so she could go and buy it today.

We made a huge dinner and she invited a friend over to join us. After dinner and her friend going home, she asked me about taking a walk with her. This girl is kicking my butt. Since she started Girls On The Run, she reminds me that she made a commitment to healthy living and getting exercise everyday so my lazy rear end could make the commitment to go with her every now and then. She's mean. She's a drill sergeant. You wouldn't think it by looking at her, but she makes me RUN. She knows I'm old and falling apart, so she's easy on me. She says I need to walk with a purpose and then she'll pick 'landmarks' in which we'll run. So she'll see stop sign coming up and say, "OK mom. When we reach the stop sign we are going to slow jog until the next streetlight." She's killing me.

I keep reminding her to be easy on me. I mean, it would be hard for her to carry me piggyback back to the house if I fall or just wear out. She's still smaller than me.

We were laughing so hard tonight because there was this little tiny woman who kept jogging past us. I don't know how she did it, but then she would end up lapping us!! She'd pass us, then come out of some corner street and run past us again. Each time we would start laughing so hard we'd both end up gasping for air! Stupid little jogger lady making me look bad. We'd hear her feet coming out from the dark and just start laughing.

So yeah... apparently *I* have made the commitment also. If you don't see a new blog post in a week, you know she's killed me with healthy living.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

Happy birthday to Megan! 10 years old today. Double digits. One fullllll decade. Holy cow.

OH!OH!OH! I am so excited about this! I LOVES me some Jessica Sprague, so it was like Christmas to me to see this announcement on her blog! And you can't beat the price. ;)

I am definitley going to be doing this. The Week In The Life project was fun to do, twice now. I know it will be something that I'll do again throughout the years. I love to write about stories, everyday mundane stuff, thoughts and the biggies that are going on in our lives. The best is, my kids like to read them too.

Life feels like it's amping up right now too with Mike's new job and the holidays coming, so it seems like a good time to be writing all of this down.

My kids are off for a four day weekend! It's nice to have them home. Who knows what we'll end up doing this weekend! We also have a birthday for somebody around here. I forget who. ;)

Oh yeah... It's MEGAN. (She won't let me forget. haha!) She has been beyond excited since the beginning of October. She thinks it was really nice for the school district to give her a long weekend for her birthday!

Boo.

No amount of cruddy economic climate can squelch the Halloween spirit.

We were BOOed the other night! This is one of my favorite Halloween traditions, and usually one I seem to start in a neighborhood on October 1st, but I slacked this year. Good thing some other holiday over achiever lives here.

I got a great bowl full of candy, decorations and a few toys. The kids LOVED seeing what we got.

So, it is my turn tonight. Technically the rules are you are supposed to do two houses, but I wanted to stretch it one more so each of my kids could ring somebody's doorbell. They each got to pick out a friend's house that they are going to ding dong ditch and leave behind our BOO baskets. My photography skills are lacking today, there are three baskets in that photo.

It's really not as extravagant at it looks, most of this stuff is from last year's Halloween clearance at Target. Like the ceramic pumpkin I know I probably paid $2 for, dish scrubbers and things I know I got for .25 each, gel window clings, pencils, notepads etc. It's my favorite way of being able to really load up a halloween basket. (No worries, the Pillsbury Halloween cake mix and frosting is from this year!)

I felt frustrated in the Halloween aisle not being able to do a million more. I swear, next year I am going to do at least 25 houses. That's my plan. I love Halloween, and I know how much fun my kids and I have both receiving and especially the fun of leaving them at a door and hiding.

Now I'm just waiting for the sun to go down. Bwahahahahaaaaa.

A week in the life...

Like a million other scrapper people who I've been reading their blogs, I'm doing the challenge from Ali's site for A Week In The Life.

I did this project a few years ago at CKU, and it was so fun. More than the fun of just scrapping is going back and looking through that album now. What I thought was so boring and mundane back then is totally different compared to now. You don't realize how much your life changes sometimes, when you feel you keep waking up and doing the same thing everyday. My kids are older, no more sippy cups, no more pull ups, new grades, new job, new state.....

I really don't have anything else to blog about right now so I thought I'd post a few of the photos I've taken over the last week. It should be weird for some who remember these things in my old house to see them in a new home. Michelle... here is your hutch. In a happy corner, with a wreath that used to be on my wall near the kitchen. Look familiar?
Piper does this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Without fail. She hears the bus come down the street carrying the high school kids. It's the same bus that goes back to pick up my kids and bring them home. I'm not kidding that she recognizes this ONE bus, because others can come and go and she doesn't care. But for about 45 minutes every day, after she hears this bus go down the street the first time, she'll sit there and stare out the window until the kids come home.

Who's a good girl?
Continued below... if you can contain your excitement....

Mike's trip just beginning, and a hopefully a new chapter in our story.... Flightaware.com. Pencils ready for homework:
The view out my window where my computer desk sits.
Mike back home, packed and ready to go on another trip. This time for work and in the US.

Birthday day.

I really have to take some photos of the paper pages I've done lately. I promise I will. I've been a busy scrapper lately. Paper and digital.

So today is my birthday. It didn't even dawn on me at first when I woke up, took the dogs out into the backyard, freezed my butt off while they sniffed around, and came back in. Then Matthew who had been sleeping with me, woke up when the alarm wasn't turned off. He ran up and gave me a HUGE hug and kiss and said, "Happy birthday mommy!" I love kids' enthusiasm for birthdays. - I'm sure I would have remembered, but it felt sooo early.

I got some great notes from my kids. I'll have to post them, they seriously are great. Then got them all off to school.

I took a birthday nap, then went to Cincinnati to get gas and to go to IKEA for a few things I needed. By the time I got back to Kentucky, it was time to get Mike from the airport. Then soon after that the kids came home from school and then we went out for dinner. I couldn't get mexican food out of my mind, so we ended up at a place here. With ground beef tacos. Sigh..... It was good, but man do I miss Rositas. I'm seriously considering finding out if a to go order from Rositas could do a non rev flight from Phoenix to Cincinnati. Don't take your awesome mexican food for granted you AZ girls!

All in all, it was a great birthday, and I have some tv to watch tonight and plan on spending some time with some new scrap supplies. Mike is on England time still, so he's keeping me company by sleeping on the couch for awhile.

Love you all!

wednesday - Megan's project.

This is Megan's big project that we've been working on. She had to pick an indian tribe to do a report on, then build a model of their home. This is our funky version of a hogan. Complete with doughnut looking roof, and playmobile animals. Oh, and the indian is actually a cave person from Trevor's dinosaur set which I know she didn't ask if she could use. I'll have to point her to this post the next time she flips out that Trevor even GLANCED in the direction of her room, let alone took something from it without asking. ;)

It was fun to make though. Mike helped her with the foundation of the house and built the roof. Which Megan and I put plaster on and then painted to look like mud. Even though it reminds me of a doughnut and I want to eat it.

The dirt and the grass is from Hobby Lobby. I used to be a model railroader in a past life. I'm convinced of that, because I am fascinated with all of the miniature landscape stuff. I could have easily gone overboard and this indian family would have had the most plush landscaping ever. Perfect lawn and topiaries at the front door.

Since we were outside kind of early before the bus came I hoped to get a quick picture of Megan while we still have a week or so of her being 9. But then Trevor sat down really quick. Obviously Megan being the big sister waving her hands of, "What are you doing? You are in the middle of MY session!!!" Haha. Trevor looks like Jim Carrey for some reason. Honestly, he's a pretty handsome kid.

I got one after all, but then when I loaded these photos on the computer I noticed that big ol' bug on the door. I guarantee neither child would have sat there a few feet in front of it, smiling, if they knew it was there!

And one more of Matthew. Cuz he's cute.