my bitty baby...

maelee has wanted a bitty baby ever since she first saw a picture of one in a magazine. some of you may think that american girl dolls are overrated…and i had not even heard of them until the little girls amory’s age started raving about them 3 years ago…but when you take them out of the box and hold them in your arms it is pure magic. there is something just heavenly about them. so i asked santa for a bitty twin to match maelee’s bitty baby request. that way we could play together , both of us with a bitty something. now i kept trying to encourage maelee to ask santa for a bitty twin also. but she would have none of it. all she ever wanted was a bitty baby. that was until i opened up my bitty twin. and since then I don’t think that i have had a turn with it. she has overtaken my bitty twin and we have had a fabulous time together, just as i had imagined, my "bitty" maelee and me

christmas...day two

we had two days of christmas this year. jon went out early to pick the big kids up and I got to work on the freshly made crumpets…yummy. when they walked in the house was warm with the smell of dough in the air. amory and maelee were so excited that they had one more present to open. on christmas night as amory was snuggling down into his covers he remarked that maybe santa could bring a wii next year. and he didn’t even have to wait a whole year ‘cause that was what was waiting for him and the rest of the family on our second day of christmas. everyone was overjoyed with their gifts. they loved everything from the little packet of bubbles to the wii and all that goes with it. so thanks again to all the santas out there! you know who you are.

I also wanted to share a poem that my dad wrote on christmas eve. i thought it was nice and think you might like it too.

Christmas 2008

My heart does yet sing
of what Christmas will bring
My heart pains this year
for those who aren't here
The hurts, the joys,
our girls, our boys
Some in person, some by phone
All in our hearts, if not our home
Decorations go up,
But not as before
Some hang from the ceiling,
Others, on doors
The presents, the people, the places, the chores,
Some different, some same, some less, some more
The food and traditions
oh how they will stand
By spirit, by power,
and by Nana's hands
Oh will my eyes tear, with bitterness and fear?
Or will my heart fight, with love, and with might?
I will take my stand
and uphold my joy
To remember the past
and say "oh boy"
But to look forward too,
with faith and with hope
To overcome all things,
with family… we cope
So, onward we go, it's 2008
Merry Christmas to all
... it's never too late!

By Robert Christmas Eve, 2008

and to all a good night...

here we are on Christmas night…all snuggled up…still in our pajamas. except for maelee, who has changed several times throughout the day, as per usual.
thanks to everyone who gave us the most fab gifts ever. i wish you could have been here to see the kid’s faces as they opened each one. your smiles would have been so big, that by the end of the day your cheeks would have hurt. i hope that you can tell how warm and wonderful our day was from the picture, and i hope that yours was just as memorable and magical!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas

had a wonderful visit with my mum. this picture is from one of the highlights of her trip. who would have thought that coming from the east coast, she would find so much joy from snow in LA (even if it was fake). so here’s to you mum…thanks for a lovely visit.

a little hope goes a long way...

never before have i felt so strongly about voting. maybe it was the billions of dollars pumped in the campaigns or maybe it was just that this was the first candidate i have felt was “the one”. either way we voted and we felt proud. we voted and we felt that we were heard. we voted and felt that our votes counted. we feel hope about the world we live in and i am sure that hope is contagious. If everyone can just have a little ember of hope in their soul America will be a better place, the world WILL be a better place.

and so halloween begins...

this will be the first of a few halloween posts. the kids will be wearing their costumes to at least 4 events this year so brace your selves for lots of pictures. the first event was their school halloween party. can you say cute or what? there is nothing like a bunch of proud, excited kids in adorable costumes. it really doesn’t take a lot to make kids happy. there were drinks, food, games and of course prizes. it’s funny that even with a lot of prizes to choose from amory and maelee kept picking the same ones. amory was a fan of the black spider rings and maelee was enamored with the purple bat rings. so they left with bags full of little plastic rings… and they loved them.
as you can see I did finish maelee’s tinkerbell costume in time. almost as soon as we got there the wings came off and she didn’t want to carry the wand, but she of course still looked adorable. and as for amory, the mustache and hat were quickly removed. tyler was the costume reject king. he just put on whatever they took off. by the end of the party he too was in costume.

checking in...

the new schedule is keeping me super busy. who knew pre-school was a major commitment? i’ve been having a blast! here are three layouts i did recently. the halloween picture is from last year. amory was the tin man and maelee was dorothy. this year he will be captain hook and maelee will be (of course) tinkerbell. well, I’m off to go make the tink costume. i’ll let you know how it turns out.

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!!!

firework extravaganza

it’s not often that the English celebrate their defeat…but fireworks are so much fun that I put my pride aside and celebrated the 4th with those that I love dearly.
besides slicing my finger open with the forever sharp knife® (and let me tell you the knife lives up to its name). and getting a huge migraine at the celebrations, having to go to first aid and then throwing up my festive lunch (very colorful), the day was perfect.

the fireworks were more than amazing, but the looks on the kids faces while they were watching them were priceless! as the rest of the stadium was watching the show in the sky I turned to the children and tried to capture their awe. when I think about their expressions a week later it gives me happy chills.
so here’s to celebrations…with those you love close by. i can’t explain in words how much my family can lighten up a dark night. thank you…

p.s. thanks to sheila in first aid for taking care of me…

just socks and toothpaste

it’s late and i am missing my husband who is hard at work…still… luckily i had the car today and was able to pick up a couple of simple and necessary items. not much really, but i’m hoping that it will put a smile on his face when he comes home…even later than now.
so to my dear husband, who i madly love…goodnight and i hope you fall asleep with a smile in your heart. i love you!

my greatest gift is you…a new class.

this is a first year album. we will go all the way from month 1 to month 12. The album opens up from the middle to display 4 months at a time. i have wanted to finish my little girls portrait album for two years…yeahhhh! i finally did it. so come join me and make one for a baby on the way or a baby that has now grown into a toddler or kindergartner or 1st grader…you get the picture. just come and take the class. a boy version will also be available. date and time tba.

we love you

my husband’s fathers day:
1. breakfast in bed, made by the children.
2. saw Indiana Jones at the movies (with the big kids)
3. came home to some warm pizza.
4. had a soaking wet water balloon fight.
5. played a few games with the fam.
6. ate some yummy chimichangas.
7. fell asleep on the couch.
8. felt loved by all.
i can’t thank you enough for being an awesome father and of course husband.

we love you!!!xxxooo

you are my...

i can’t believe it. i won the Daisy D’s june challenge! when i was working on the layout i just couldn’t get it right. i even cut around the photo a couple of time because i hated what i had done. the challenge was to use their rub on tapes that look like stitching. last thursday i was complaining to the class i was teaching that i had to go home and finish one of “those” layouts. you know the ones that you just can’t finish, because every time you touch it, it just gets worse and worse. when it was finally done…i took a picture of it and slid in just under the deadline…time had passed and i decided to shoot off an email to see if i could find out what the winning projects looked like. to my surprise back came an email saying i was chosen for 1st place. unbelievable!

enjoy the ride

i know i made the right choice, to be a stay at home mom. the thing is… that with that comes certain sacrifices. like having to taking the bus. sometimes i worry that it’s not fair to the children, also having to make sacrifices, even though they are too young to realize they are sacrifices. as we sit on the bus, that is too crowded, we are squashed and uncomfortable and pushed into a single seat like a can of something…and i think…”what have i done wrong”? then finally, we get off after a final ding of the bell and grasp a breath of fresh air. i push maelee... and pull amory along the street, dragging myself to the appointment we need to keep… wondering “what have i done wrong”? then as we walk, i am holding amory’s, little, warm ,perfect hand and he looks up at me and asks “tell me more about when you were a little girl”. i look down at my little rose in the stroller, fast asleep with her fairy wings tucked behind her all askew and i begin to tell my stories that even i had forgotton about. we then stop at the corner waiting for the light to change…and i look at the smiling, passing faces and i can see that they are thinking “there is someone who is doing it right”. we continue to walk and talk, in our own little world. everything around us is bustling and still at the same moment, as we enjoy every second that passes us by. and i remind myself that this is what it’s all about. my heart sinks as we arrive at our destination …and my heart longs for our next bus ride.

locks of love

after nearly a year i had the thought that i needed a hair cut. at the same time i saw an episode of oprah. no, i don’t watch oprah (buy a mountain people) it just so happened to be on where i was. And as i was watching Hilary Swank came on, talking about donating hair. i had heard of this before, but at that moment in time it was a crystal clear. i needed to cut my hair and i needed to give it away. from that moment on it seemed pointless to cut my hair just to cut my hair. so it was decided…i would cut my hair for locks of love. after all, they only need 10 inches to make some child very, very happy. and change is always good for you. i will admit that it came out much shorter than i had imagined, but when i think that mine will grow back…and for some people it won’t…it makes it all worth while.

my double delight

this photo was taken at our neighbor’s house. last summer my little ones would go over to her house and play in her sprinklers. they always had a blast. of course the fun was always followed by some sugary item (cookies, candy, cookies and more candy). Lois also has the most beautiful roses that i’ve ever seen. they are called double delights. they smell and look absolutely gorgeous. and very much remind me of my Baby Girl. she is more than an double delight, but you get the idea. sadly Lois is 85 and has moved into a retirement home…so this summer we shall have to admire the beautiful roses from across the street. unless, of course, we make friends with the new neighbors.

Painful...

here is the rusty pickle entry for may.
and no, there were no children harmed in this photo shoot. he just got a little scrap from sliding one foot down on his favorite tree. and yes, as i was taking the pictures all the other mom's at the park did look at me as though i am the worst mother alive for photographing my son's pain as he screamed "painful" over and over, very loudly, i might add. but he is fine. a kiss took away all the pain.
p.s.hopefully you fellow scrapbookers will understand.

smiles are contagious

bet you didn't know that smiles are contagious. all i have to do is take my little guy to gymnastics and i can smile for an entire hour, because he is smiling for an entire hour. having children is magic. it helps you remember what pure joy really is. when Amory smiles in that hour there is a ball of sunshine that comes from his belly and shines through his smile for all to see.

laugh with me

i know this is also at the bottom of the blog...i love it so much...no matter how many times i watch it...i still giggle.