Emily and Benjamin were making up their own card game with Ryan's leftover Spiderman valentines cards. It amazes me how kids do that. They make up some totally random game and somehow they all know the rules even though they're unspoken. It's an enigma as old as time. I wonder if children have some alternate form of communication that you lose as you grow older.
All I have to say is she is so cute! Okay, I guess I have more to say than that. I love the pictures of her trying to get the toy in her mouth. She's coming into that stage where she tries to get everything in her mouth. She vehemently sucks on her fists too, it's so cute, yet somehow a little frightening.
The first grade singing program was Monday night at 7 p.m. Julia had a speaking part and did a great job. The last picture is my big kids sitting by Julia's artwork which was on display after the program.
Cousins came over for Sunday dinner. Here they all are outside sitting at the table waiting for dinner. They're SO cute!
Here is Haddie having her nebulizer treatment. The doctors think that she may be asthmatic too. She tries to suck the vapor and gets frustrated because she can't get ahold of anything, so we've started letting her suck on her binky while she does her treatments.
They are definitely good friends. Julia is a good big sister to her Haddie.
In the bottom picture they are sitting on the couch before Julia's program Monday night.
Julia and Emily's new favorite thing to do is pick clothes out for Haddie to wear. One morning Julia did everything to get Haddie ready but change her diaper. It's so nice to have helpers!
I had a great birthday. A lot more people than I thought remembered me and made efforts to do something special. I appreciated all the calls and emails! My friend Kristi came over at 11:45 p.m. the night before my birthday and hung this on my front door with a package of skittles and a package of peanut M&M's. When I opened the front door to send the kids off to school, it had actually fallen and was in a heap on the doorstep. I had no idea what it could be. It was fun to pick it up and realize that the birthday fairy had made a visit!
Benjamin's newest obsession is this Dora puzzle. For two weeks I found it in different locations in our house in various stages of completion. He got very good at putting it together.
In the second picture I had watched him put the whole puzzle together all by himself. I was duly impressed and decided to photograph the occasion!
These were taken by an anonymous photographer. I thought they turned out pretty good--interesting to say the least. By anonymous I mean these pictures weren't on my camera when I set it down in the kitchen. When I relocated my camera upstairs in the playroom, these pictures had "magically" appeared. Please mentally insert the theme to "The Twilight Zone" here.
Here's what I bought for myself using birthday money from my Gr. and Gr. Kohler and my mom and dad. They are stickers that represent each family member to go on the back of your car.
It's probably a silly thing to spend $40 on, but I absolutely adore it! I've been looking for something to personalize my car with for a long time. Recently, I've been seeing similar stickers on other vehicles and they just made me happy. It's a way to showcase my family a little bit. Scott's in his work clothes, I'm listening to my iPOD, Ryan's playing on the computer, Julia's dancing, Emily's reading, Ben's playing baseball and Haddie's a cute baby--a perfect match!
I like how this one turned out. This kit is called "For Laura" from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I was experimenting with the burning tool to make the paper look 3-D where the fold is. I thought it turned out pretty good. I also love the colors.
I copied a layout idea from my friend Sarah for this one. She is so much better at digi-scrapping than I am. For this one I used a kit by Julie Bullock from Elemental Scraps called "Savannah."
I've made a decision! I'm going to put my layouts into books. That means that I now have to scrapbook in chronological order. Kind of a bummer in some ways, but it has given me a clear purpose and direction. I've decided I'm going to try to complete two layouts a day. Hopefully, by the time summer is here I will have enough layouts done in chronological order to purchase my first book! I'm very excited. This is my absolute favorite layout I've done in a long time. I love the blue, I love the open space. This is Lindsay Jane Designs, a kit called "Snowbiz". I even copied one of her ideas for her quick layouts.
I love how this double page spread turned out! Ryan used to carry the phone around with him and say, "Hello?" over and over again. He was such a cute little guy. This kit is called "Little Dragon" by Everydays Little Moments Designs.
For this kit I used a Shabby Princess kit called "Harvest Spice."
I turned 30 years old today! Where has the time gone? I can remember being Julia's age, looking at my mom thinking that she was so old, that she knew so much and was such a cool person. It felt like forever would have to go by for me to be where she was. Now I'm exactly where she was! 30 years old with five children, a stay-at-home mom struggling to do the best I can for my children. I don't see how there's any way I know as much as she did or was as cool as she was. She probably felt the same way I do now--falling much too short of the desired mark.
Here's Hadley trying to "talk" to her daddy. She was oohing and aahing and making all kinds of precious noises to keep her daddy's attention focused on her!
Once again working her daddy with her baby charm!
She's just too cute, what else can I say? I love how the pacifiers take up most of their faces. It's kind of funny that pacifiers are so small and can look so big next to a tiny baby!
