Spring has almost sprung

We finally got a few nice, warm days a week or so ago. I took Ellie outside to play, but she didn't like the feel of the grass on her feet. She sat with her feet two inches in the air so they wouldn't touch the grass! Notice the foot that is on the ground has her toes all curled up....funny kid!

Typical dirty face on Ellie. She won't stay clean no matter what I do! She is always finding something to get all over her face or clothes!

Again, the foot in the air. Right after these pictures, I loaded her up in her new wagon and we walked the three or four blocks to the post office. I had her buckled in the wagon and I laid the mail in the bottom of the wagon. I figured she wouldn't be able to get to it since she was buckled. WRONG! I looked back about halfway home and she had the mail in her hand flinging it all over the road. What am I ever gonna do with this kid?

Thoughts for today

Here are just a few random thoughts that I have had today (in no specific order)

1. I am the luckiest girl in the world: a great husband, 5 happy, healthy kids, a home that I adore, a town that I love, and so many wonderful friends and family members. Aside from my own scrapbook store loaded with every new and fantastic product, I am pretty content.

2. When was the last time the kids' sheets were washed? I put it on their chore charts every week or so, but do they really wash them? *side note- I went upstairs to get the girls' sheets off their beds, Chelsey didn't even have them on her bed from the last washing....go figure!

3. I need to find something new to make for dinner next week

4. Wow- Gary mowed the lawn on Monday and it's already long

5. Where did this week go?

6. I haven't read a really good book for a long time.

7. Woodpeckers suck- more about that story later!! lol

8. I wish I didn't have to work-why can't we win the lottery and spend the rest of our lives on vacation? Oh yeah- we don't play the lottery, duh!!!

9. It's time to lose Ellie's pacifiers- they leave a red rash on her chin

10. Braquel graduates in about three weeks..what the hell? Who said she could grow up and get a life of her own?

Treven's Baseball Pictures

Here a few of the pictures I took at Treven's game last Saturday. We sat through two games in the freezing cold wind. It was pretty miserable. Poor Chelsey only wore a tank top because it was gorgeous when we left Albion. As soon as we hit the bottom of the grade, the wind picked up and never stopped! In this pic, Treven was pitcher. The ball looks like it is a part of his foot for some reason!

Here he is getting ready to bat. I guess the only hit he got was when I ran to the store to get treats to settle Ellie down- I missed it! Hopefully this Saturday he will get another one and I will be there for it!

Isn't he just the most handsome little boy in the world? I'd like to take some credit, but I think he looks just like his daddy....I guess I did grow him, though....maybe I did have a little to do with it!

Poor Ellie

This is Ellie in her normal, happy state. We noticed this weekend that she seemed particularly grumpy and was sleeping a lot compared to her normal sleep schedule. Monday night, the girls put her to bed. I got home around 11 and was watching tv before going to bed when Gary brought Ellie out to me. She had woken up and I figured she would cuddle for a minute, drink some milk, and go right back to sleep. No such luck. I put her back in bed and she screamed. I tried to settle her down several times between putting her in bed with Gary and I and then back in her bed. All she did was cry. So I ended up taking her out in the living room until 3:30 or so in the morning. Even out there, she just cried. I was starting to think she had an ear infection or something. Finally about 4, she went to sleep. The next morning (about 7- yeah, I got 3 hours of sleep!) we got up and Gary asked me if maybe she was cutting some teeth. I said no- I had not noticed any bumps in her mouth or diarrhea (which seemed to accompany all new teeth for my other 4 kids) I told him that maybe she had an ear infection. Later that day, I checked her mouth just in case and found three new teeth! There is also one more trying to break through. This poor kid must have been absolutely miserable!

This was Saturday at Treven's baseball game. I didn't see much of him playing because all Ellie wanted to do was go down the slide! She would go all by herself and I would catch her at the bottom- pure, complete, joy for her! The smile on her face was pure, complete, joy for me!

retreat layouts

This is one of the three layouts I did for Ellie at the retreat. I had taken these pictures of her all wrapped up in a pink blanket and I just love them. The little journaling spot has a quote from my favorite children's story: I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be."

This is one of the two layouts I did for Braquel. It has pictures from her spring dance show two years ago. The pictures are kind of yellow because they are in the school gymnasium. The picture of Treven kissing her is so sweet. He loves her so much and took her flowers out to her after their award assembly.

This was a layout for Mikayla's 8th birthday. There isn't any journaling since it was 7 years ago and I can't remember anything from that far back. I love the colors, though.

This is a layout for Chelsey. I had a lot of various pictures from the summer of 2004 so i just combined them for a 2 page layout. I didn't really have enough pictures from any one event to do several pages.

This is one of Treven's layouts. Woody came over and was teaching him to play marbles the "right" way. We just had to have it documented!

AAAAHHHHH....Sunday again

It's Sunday again and let me tell you, it's the best day of the whole week! Finally a day off! (Well, sort of!) I did 12 loads of laundry today along with cleaning the entire house top to bottom, raking the yard, playing baseball with Treven, Mikayla, and Chelsey. I also planned meals and a grocery list for the coming week, made new chore charts for the kids, and I cooked a fabulous dinner. Whew....I think working is a lot less work!

I tried a new recipe for pork loin tonight and I have to say it was pretty good. It cooked with apples, onions, and garlic as well as rosemary. It was yummy, but for some reason, one end of the loin wasn't quite as done as the other. I had to slice it and throw it back in the oven for a bit longer. I also did fried red potatoes with onions, bacon, and covered in gooey cheese! YUM! Also served green beans out of our garden from last summer and strawberry pie. We invited Lee and Woody over for dinner and had a good time visiting with them. It always makes me nervous to cook for Woody as he is such a great cook (having owned his own restaurant for 20 years or so!) He is always so gracious, though. I'm pretty sure he would say it was good even if it sucked eggs!

Anyway, it was a great day...beautiful weather and so many chores done! It feels good to get a few things off the TO-DO list! I'm getting some new pictures on a cd tomorrow so I will have something new to post in the next few days. Hope you have a super week!

Back in the Saddle Again

Just got back from the 4 Girls and a Dream retreat...whole lotta fun...whole lotta tired! I'm pretty sure that I only got about 4 hours of sleep in the two nights I was there and I got home on Saturday just in time to work from 4 pm to 1 am. I'm not really sure how I stayed awake the last hour!!! I got a lot more than I thought I would get done, though. I did most of the cooking so I really didn't think I would get much done. I did 2 layouts for Braquel, 2 layouts for Mikayla, 2 layouts for Chelsey, 2 layouts for Treven, and three layouts for Ellie. We also had a cute book to make as the retreat project, but I did not get that even started. I decided I could do that anytime-I really wanted to get the pictures I took done. I also took enough to do a Roaring Springs layout for each of the kids, but I didn't get to them. Maybe later this week I can do them. Well, I'm off to do another load of laundry and put a few things away from the retreat. I just don't have the energy to put it all away yet.

Ponytails

Ellie's hair is finally getting long enough to something with it. Mikayla is the only one that can get these tiny little ponytails to stay in her hair.

Because her bangs and hair in the front are not long enough to get into the ponytails, we have to clip them back with a bow so it doesn't look weird. What a cutie-pa-tootie!

Easter 2010

This is Braquel and Keven posing with their gummy bunny teeth! They didn't come outside for the egg hunt at my mom's, but they wanted some of the candy, so I told them they had to pose with the teeth!

Here is Mikayla and Brooke searching for eggs at my mom's. I didn't think the bigger kids would still want to do the egg hunt, but I guess they proved me wrong! It had snowed and the wind blew all night so there were snow drifts in most of the yard. The front wasn't too bad so we hid all the eggs there...didn't leave a lot of hiding room! It was so cold the kids really didn't care anyway.

We dyed eggs Thursday night since I was off work for a meeting at Chelsey's school. After dinner we rolled out the newspaper and went to art. Each of the kids got a dozen of their own eggs. Chelsey took her time and dolled up each of her eggs. It was starting to get a little competitive on who had the best eggs!

Treven's first egg was quite the adventure! My only instructions were to not mix spoons or colors or all the eggs would end up pooh-colored! First thing he does is dip the egg in the green (that's his favorite color). Immediately, he pulls it out and sticks it in the blue. I tell him- NO! So he pulls it out and throws it in the purple....what part of DO NOT MIX THE COLORS was unclear? Anyway, he calls it his tye-die egg and it was his favorite one in the end!

This is Ellie looking for eggs at our friends house. We got together and we were going to each do treat bags, but Victor said it wasn't Easter without an egg hunt, so we did one. She would crawl all around and get to an egg and then she would see another one and take off toward it without picking up the first egg! Very funny to watch...she didn't know what to do with all the eggs! Notice the bows in her hair? Two little tiny ponytails with bows were in her hair that day....stinkin' cute if I do say so myself!

All in all, we had a great Easter. I think it lasted three days rather than one, but it was so fun. We dyed eggs Thursday, Treven had an egg hunt for school on Friday, and we got together with the Gibbons side on Saturday. We took the kids to How to Train Your Dragon before we went to mom's. It was a really cute movie. Treven really enjoyed the 3-D effects. When we were leaving the theatre, he says- Can we buy that one? After the show we went to moms and had a huge yummy dinner. Then we did the hunt and then we played Just Dance on the WII. Talk about addictive-the girls couldn't stop if they tried! Steph, Dave, Lindsay, and Brooke came up and played games with us later that night. We made some snacks and pigged out some more! The next morning, Treven came in at 6:30 and said in a loud whisper- Mom, the Easter Bunny came. I asked him if I could please sleep another half hour and then I would get up. He says-how long is that? One cartoon, I say. He actually let me sleep two! He came back in and asked if I could get up now. So I did-he was so cute. He had peeked in his basket, but he put everything back! Braquel asked me Saturday if the Easter Bunny would be there by 5 because she had to work. I told her maybe. I could see she had peeked through her basket, too! It's her last Easter at home so it was kind of sad. All I could think of was that next year, there would only be 4 little baskets sitting out. It just about breaks my heart! Anyway (I think I am starting to ramble here!) we went out to Victor and Michelle's later that day for another Easter dinner and another egg hunt. The kids have more candy than they will ever know what to do with! It was really great spending the holiday with our friends and family.

Gary's 37th Birthday

Gary celebrated his 37th birthday on March 30th. We threw a little BBQ celebration for him on Sunday, the 28th and invited a bunch of friends up. He got to pick the menu and of course he picked mexican BBQ meat, beans, Spanish Rice, homemade pico....I swear he was born the wrong color!!!

For his birthday, I got him stuff for the new boat that we are buying. I got him a new tube and the kids gave him a new life jacket, a pair of shorts, a new shirt, and a new hat. He also got money from most of his friends and family so we can get more life jackets.

This is his new captain's shirt! He was such a brat that he guessed every single stinkin' one of his presents. There is no use even trying to surprise him...it's impossible!

This is his new life jacket. Don't ask me why this pic didn't rotate- usually it automatically rotates them for me and I just assumed it would again-guess I was wrong!

Anyway- hope you had a Happy Birthday, Love!!

Final Retreat Challenges

This layout was for the challenge of paper piecing. I didn't really want to do a lot of piecing-I wanted the focus on Ellie's first birthday and I really wanted to use as many photos as possible. I paper pieced the candles and then I added big heart rhinestones for the flames....something about rhinestones lately...can't get enough of them!

This layout was for the $5.00 challenge. I bought two sheets of purple cardstock, 1 sheet of black, eight flowers, eight brads, and 1 yard of ribbon. My receipt is below to prove that it is possible to create a cute double page spread for less than $5.00!

The retreat is starting on Thursday! I'm getting excited, but I have so much to do to get ready and I feel overwhelmed this time. I'm not as organized as I would like to be...oh well, even if I get nothing done, I will have fun! It will be great to get away for a few days- no diapers to change, no noses to wipe, no carpooling to driver's ed, no kids fighting....