locks layout

here is the locks of love layout some of you were asking for. i used almost all pink paislee product. i wanted to post it on their web site so i tried to use their stuff. and really it wasn’t hard as they have such perfect products. if you haven’t bought anything pink paislee you need to. they are becoming one of my favs.

an awesome summer week...

someone told me that “the greatest gift a parent can give their child is a sibling.” so i got lucky because i have two of them. my older sister and family came out to see us at the end of the summer and we had an absolute blast. even though we see each other maybe, once a year… when we are together it feels like we have never been apart. how many people in your life can you say that about? not many.

here are some of my favorite pics of our week together.

i can’t believe we’ve never gone to the aquarium of the pacific. it was awesome! the kids got to touch sharks. o.k. they were little, tiny sharks…but still, they were sharks. one thing we learned…don’t say your husbands in the bathroom when he’s not actually present. (inside joke).

noah’s ark at the skirbal center is totally amazing. my jaw dropped at some of the art. one thing we learned…you need to make reservations to get in.

the american girl store and tea room were just about the cutest place to celebrate my irsh twin nieces b-days. one thing we learned…you are never too old for a bitty baby doll.

oh… the swimming pool…we spent a lot of time in the pool. well at least more than i have done in a long time. and amory and maelee could both swim using floaties! if you know anything about my little guys…you know that is quite an accomplishment. one thing we learned… forget the advice “don’t give your kids a false sense of security with floatation devises”.

the main thing i learned that week: my sister and her family are so incredibly special to me. they make the world a better place and I can’t wait to see them again. thanks guys for a wonderful week! we can’t wait to see all of you again. xxxxxxxxx

1st day...

here we are in september of ’08 and my little ones are heading out to school. for the past 4 years amory and maelee and have been in our own little world. it was just us all day long. we woke up together. had a leisurely breakfast together. thought about what we wanted for lunch and quietly ate small bites together. then we would sit and wait for daddy to come home. we have been cocooned by each other, while the earth whizzed around us at lightening speed. it’s been such a precious time together, like nothing i could have imagined. so here we are in september and the first day of school has passed for both of them and for me too in a way. things have changed. not in a bad way, but they have changed. we move on together to the next part of our lives. we’ve jumped into a big pool together…a pool called school. and the only words I can mutter are “thank god for floaties”!

tomorrows flowers

i can’t sleep…as you can probably tell by the time of this post. i’m going through, or about to go through a huge transition. in fact, several of them. so i’m wishing that I had a shut off switch to my brain at this point. ‘cause when i can’t sleep, i don’t get enough sleep and when i don’t get enough sleep i get flustered and cranky. which is fine if you don’t have to be around me…but my poor family does. i guess i’m lucky that they love me so much.

anyway just thought i’d post a layout i did a while ago…featuring my precious girl and some cool rusty pickle product.
i hope you are all sound asleep dreaming sweet dreams.

cruisin'

here is our new taste of freedom. after getting over buyers remorse…i am so ecstatic that we have a second vehicle. i had my eye on a minivan, but that was not to be at this point in time. if you have never been without a car, it’s hard to explain how limited your freedom actually is.
today i took the kids to the grocery store during the day. we didn’t have to wait for jon to get home to go food shopping. it is such a simple thing, but it was great to be able to say “we need to go to the store” and actually be able to get to the store. we left when we wanted to leave and we came back when we wanted to come back. having this car means that if we want to go to story time…we can go to story time…wherever we want. it means that i can take the kids to school. it means that i can schedule all of the kid’s activities during the day, instead of during dinner time. it means that we can get out and be more involved with the world and everything around us. i feel like someone has just opened the door on the bird cage and now we can fly whenever we want to or need to.

the beach

this was maelee’s first trip to the beach. we had the car and we took off to see the sea. after a picnic lunch the kids ran straight for the water. which I never imagined would happen as amory is petrified of water.
it was quite a sight to see the kids heading for the water and ty heading after them in his “tight black pants”. yes “tight black pants”. i guess it’s all the rage…but at the beach?... really.


seeing them play together is a dream come true. ty is an awesome biggest brother and if you could see how the little ones look at him your heart would melt. at the end of the day we have some awesome memories and of course a lot of sand in our pants (especially ty).

just wanted to share a peek of the wonderful prize package i got in the mail from Daisy D’s. how exciting! i’d love to share with you guys so let me know when you can come and crop…. tracey, you are already booked = ).

p.s. they have a contest every month you should try it. go for it!!!