Prayers Please....

I don't know Melissa in person but I feel like I know her very well from the adoption and the digital scrapbooking community. She is going through some big stuff and not having been through it myself but my "boyfriend" at the time (later my husband) went through cancer and chemotherapy too. It can be very rough and emotional and I really remember some of the things she is going through... like losing her hair. It was a struggle even for a guy to go through it! (we didn't have the insight to shave it first thought!)

So I just wanted to give a quick and simple shout out to Melissa and her family. She has already shown amazing strength and faith that it is super amazing how strong she is being (or showing us...which she doesn't have to put on a front for us....)  So please if you are reading just give her and her family a minute in your prayers!

THANK YOU...

A Day in the Life of Purple Bear...

I am loving my photo class (not loving that now I don't have access to the website to load my pictures---reminder to email Nicole and let her know...maybe she will let me email her my photo submissions???)
Another week one Photo Class assignment was do a Day in the Life of .  I really wanted to do something that I or we as a family could relate to (aka perfect for a scrapbook page or mini album) so after some thinking I decided to do Bella's Purple Bear (also known as her purple Share Bear Care Bear). Purple Bear is what he has always been called. E picked it out for her on her 1st birthday and lets just say this bear is flat as can be from it constantly being with her. After almost 5 years of her playing with it, it isn't as constant as it once was but it is still one of her most beloved items she has well right behind her 3 identical baby blankets (there is a story behind that one too... but I will save it for another day).

So here is the Day in the Life of Purple Bear....

Waking up with Bella

The ride to school

All alone in the car after drop off

(these aren't the best we were rushing (running late as always) and needed to get the kids inside to school)

"laying around" at daycare waiting for Bella to get "home" from school

(I was manually focusing here and I wish I would have got the focus on the heart on the heart on its foot)  =(

One the lookout outside for Bella to get home

Birthday present shopping at Target

Watching some TV before bed

and lastly back in bed for bedtime

(yes my baby girl still sucks her thumb...not sure what to do about that)

It was a lot of fun to do this Day in the Life of. Actually I am looking forward to that with a few more items!

I wish I were a computer geek!

So all of a sudden the other night my computer started giving me trouble. It won't connect to the internet yet I can still access the internet from my iPod touch. So confusing...something about the DNS server and an IP address conflicting with something. Who knows! I only have a desktop and an iPod so not sure what is going on. I think I will try connecting it back to the "wall" instead of having my wireless connection and see what happens! The whole point of that story is that I have tons of great photos (or what I think of as great photos) that I want to post and some fun information so I will see what I can get posted from my iPod (imagine typing on that little tiny thing and I can't really link up photos) and what I can do from work's laptop.... Gotta love some of the perks!

So onto a new post with hopefully some pictures!!

Photo Class!

I have wanted to take a photo class for the longest time and I still really want to take one in person, but I finally signed up for one online (and I know of a couple more that are supposed to be excellent so I hope to keep taking classes). It just started last week and already I feel like there is a ton more understanding of the manual exposures!

Needless to say I have been trying to snap pictures where ever I can. At home, outside, at work (which happens to be a daycare; so I have lots of little subjects!) Now to some this photo looks like any others they have seen or I have taken, but the amazing thing is that I somewhat understood what I was doing when I changed the manual settings!

This is Gavin....our busy little boy, but check out that face!!!

ISO 200   f/1.8   1/100   50mm 1.8 lens

Now maybe this is where I mention that on Wednesday when I went to mass with the kids at school that I pulled my camera out of my purse (I know first mistake) and when I pulled my camera out the strap hooked around my 50mm lens and it "crashed" okay it dropped onto the floor with a loud THUD. Sadly I think it isn't focusing right, maybe it is because I'm trying to work in only manual settings and I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm hoping it is just me and not the lens. I really am not in the market to buy another lens. For those photographers is was my favorite lens; my 50mm 1.8  =(

After I dropped the lens I was able to take these photos for my Photo Class (Week 1). It was about Aperature settings and the Depth of Field and how adjusting the Aperature the effect it has on the photo. I wish I would have been able to get outside earlier in the day, but these were taken right at dusk at about 8pm a couple nights ago!

shutter 1/320 ap 1.8 50mm lens ISO 400

shutter 1/20 ap 6.3 50mm lens ISO 400

Now there is no guarentee that I did it in equivalent exposures but as far as shutter and aperature I'm slowing "getting it".

I still need to do an ISO set of pictures example, a shutter assignment (person running or running water. I think I will be working with the running water). Today I am working on the Day in the Life part of Week 1's homework. I am pretty excited for this one. I am doing Bella's Purple Bear!

If you have made it this far.... THANK YOU!

1st Communion

Well I know there has already been a few things that have happened since the last post, but might as well start with the newest! E had his first communion today (Sunday 5-1-2011). The whole class did wonderful and oh they were so beautiful/handsome in their white dresses and suits. His 2nd grade class has talked a lot about communion, we did a retreat, and we've been practicing at home with our vitamins so he would feel comfortable his first time!

Here he is after mass. We came back to the house and had sandwiches (Honey Baked Ham) and mom brought potato salad and the basics. I won't bore you with all the details. Plus I promised he could change out of his new suit after GMA and GPA H came over and saw him (and Bella) all dressed up. So being the "good mom" I am I hurried and snapped a few pictures. The only thing we didn't do was get a family picture of us all 4 dressed up. Oh well next time! =)

Of course I had to snap a couple of Bella all dressed up in her Easter dress too. Thankfully E likes dressing up. Meaning he doesn't put up a fuss when I ask him to where a tie or when I buy him ties to match his sisters clothes! Actually there are plenty of times he will get all dressed up all on his own! But back to Bella....

Boy does she LOVE her big brother!!!

I can't leave out this one either! After they had hugged (Ethan tolerated VERY well), but I said, "Act like you love each other!" E got a wierd smirk on his face, but Bella leaned in and kept trying to give him a good kiss!

Congratulations...We (even Bella too) are soo proud of you! You are growing up into such a handsome, caring, and giving young man!

Forgotten Blog!

So yet again it has been a few months! I wanted to pop in real quick and say yeah I do have a few people that read my blog or try to read it LOL.... Lee here you go!

Our baby girl is learning to ride her bike finally with out training wheels! (No bike pictures today... I need to get in bed) I wanted to throw a couple pictures of Bella up here from today during our bike riding "lessons". She pretty much has it down, but prefers to go across the driveway and into the grass. We are trying to explain to her that if she just went down the sidewalk she could keep riding, the grass is actually stopping her! Oh well so soon she will have the confidence...

For now a roll of the eyes

and her riding attire!!! LOL

HAPPY EASTER!

Every few months

So my blog has become every few months I post (and I'm sure I only have my family reading now) which is just fine! Looks like maybe I just post every 6 months when I get a scrapbook page done!

Ethan turned 8 this past week and it is soo hard to believe he is already 8... just seems like yesterday he was 3 and 4! We bought him (a fleece jacket) 2 African Dwarf Frogs! Actually they are super cute and move all around their little water tank! Now Izzy had her moments not understanding why she didn't get a pet and we tried to explain over and over to her that it was Ethan's birthday! Ahhh to be 5 again!

and here is to seeing you again blog readers in another 6 months LOL

I scrapbooked (GASP!)

I know it is super hard to believe, but I have scrapbooked! I might keep the shock coming and try to do some more pages =)

and 

I really have missed it!

Birthday party planning!

Okay seriously with ALL of the digital scrapbooking supplies you would think that I would have the most beautiful birthday invitations and thank you cards (I won't tell you that I am the WORST at sending thank you cards) I know that is horrible of me! But here we are just about a week away from Bella's birthday party and I have yet to even decide where we are having it and at what time! Actually I found a company that has jump houses and carnival items to rent. So I found a basic PRINCESS jump house that surpringsly available on her birthday and sadly the football toss is NOT available (thought that would be great for the boys and the adults men) but the popcorn machine is. I was happy to see that the popcorn machine was only $35 for 4 hours. I thought that was a decent price and then basically have some cake. Silly me forgot that you would need a plug in for the jump house so it does limit where you can have it. Personally I would double check the size of the jump house and then I would just have it at our house. I think the only problem is the way our yards are set up is that the backyard is super small =( and so it would be a possibility that it would have to be in the front yard and well then you would have neighbor kids over and well sad to say I don't want them over =) and then everyone that drives by would see the kids jumping! So sounds like an email to the bounce house company is in order to find out the size and then CROSS MY FINGERS that it will fit in the backyard. I just think it would be super fun for the kids to have the jump house to play in....who doesn't like them. So we will see what happens!

Enough about that ..... I was playing around on my smugmug account and found this photo... 

So I see yet again I have failed to stick with it...I am hoping that once the kids are back in school that I can go back to my WW meetings like I should be! =(  I have seen a bunch of my online friends start doing the C25K program and am thinking I will have to start that back up again. I did really enjoy the running! So to just get back to it....everyone I read about starting it, well it just seems to jump start soo much more!

Why not share a few more pictures while I'm here...

Here are just a few of my favorites from the 4th of July:

I just love this picture, dirty face and all. She HATES fireworks yet hates. I tried to hold her in the yard to watch them and she was sucking her thumb trying to cover her face with her blanket and crying and just simply shaking. I finally gave in and let her go inside. I honestly don't think she has ever watched the fireworks. So in this photo she is holding a SPARKLER and really didn't know what to do, she wanted to cover her ears but she had to hold onto the sparkler too.    =)

My boy on the other hand loves fireworks and everything else involved....

 See just his happy smile and don't you just love the new sports goggles! Actually he wears these glasses quite a bit too... I think he doesn't have to worry about them falling off, but they have been such a blessing... no more runs to the glass shop because he took a basketball to the face or he was wrestling in the floor!

Before the fireworks we watched the local parade and well again Miss Bella does NOT like the noise and Ethan being my helper was trying to get Bella to smile for a picture!

Oh and one last photo for the day... as you can see in the photo above the boy had some hair, well he wanted it shaved! So this was the best mom could do...

(Happy 4th of July) LOL

Not meant to be a blogger?

Well I always have the best of intentions of keeping up with the blog...ok so maybe not daily, but at least weekly and not here it has been just over 2 months since I have blogged last! Lots has happened in the past couple of months

• The 4th of July
• Annual trip to Sunriver (will have to post a recap, but these are a few of my favorites)
• Trip to local outdoor water park
• Trips to the libraries (Both kids have earned their book bags)
• The start of flag football season, so far so good Ethan is really enjoying it!
• Girls night out to see Eclipse (and hopefully getting ready for another girls movie night the first week of September)
• Trip to Medford with my inlaws and my BIL and SIL and their 3 kids (uploading those pictures tonight) We finally took a picture of all 5 cousins together first since miss Lily is turning 8 months)
• In a matter of a couple weeks my Bella turns the BIG 5; now to get her birthday party planned!
• Nearly not enough scrapbooking has happened over the summer, I have still bought a few kits and some a few album templates so I've got a few projects in mind to get started on, now to make it happen!
• I also started a project from Knock Off Wood, now to get it finished!!!!

Now maybe those few readers I have will have to endure some posts about the above events because I want to share a few of my favorite pictures!

P.S. If you have never checked out these two blog I would check them out Becky Higgins and Stacy Julian, I especially like her section on SPRINKLES.

Summer Activities...

I've been trying to think of some fun activities to keep the kids busy this summer. I've been looking forward to trying Letterboxing (or check out this link). Whether we try one that is already hidden or "make our own" and let the kids find them, I think they will enjoy following the clues and find what is hidden. Heck I'm not above buying the cheap party favor animals, you know the bag of 6 or 12 little plastic themed animal packets and spreading them in the yard, the park and sending the kids on a hunt for the animals! =) Lately all Bella wants to do at daycare is look for bugs so I'm thinking a simple kids bug catcher might be in store for her!

Our local library has a great reading program. Every year they have a "theme" and then you sign up and read all summer (you choose whether you are tracking in 15min, 30min, or 60 minute increments) and you keep track of how much time you are reading, being read to, listening to audio storybooks, etc and then I believe it is for every hour you get a BOOK BUCK to be spent in their "store" (aka trinkets or used books) or they can be used for a raffle ticket for multiple different prizes. At 10 hours of reading you are rewarded with a new reading bag. Here is this years bag.

They are great quality bags and quite large. We are still using our bags from last summer for vacations, simple playing around the house and of course for trips back to the library!

I am hoping to talk with our local fire department about making a trip there or having them come the the house and get a group of people together for that. Kind of hope to work a whole safety them for a week or two. We have recently taught Bella our phone number so next we will work on our address and Ethan slips up a little still on that one (usually just the house number).

I would love to work with Bella a lot more on reading. She is getting really close to figuring it all out. I hope to work some on the sounding out and the Dolce sight words too. I found this great Kids Zone website that has multiple grades and options which works perfectly for both my kids.

Now of course we are still planning on hitting a few fun places too; like the park/carousel/water fountains, the local water park, play dates and just general fun stuff! Looking forward to a great summer....Only one more week of school.

Our typical Summer nights to come...

Tonight we had a beautiful evening. Mid 70's and sunny with a few clouds, with all the rain we have had lately it was a welcome evening. Something we all needed. I believe though it gave us a glimpse of what our evenings will be like this summer! Bella being a beautiful ballerina! Nevermind the dressed up baby doll, the string headband or the hair scrunchie bracelet! (Oh yeah she had on her pink ballerina skirt which I told her I could see her undies, so she left the room and I hear some commotion and she comes back asking, "How is this?" She had went in and took the skirt off her "jumbo Barbie" (which is as big as she is). LOL

     

and Boys shooting hoops. Ethan wakes up talking about "his team" and who will be on dad's team. He talks stats, he talks player names, he talks about anything having to do with basketball! Seriously he talks non stop about anything basketball. He does mostly shoot on the big hoop, but usually can't pass up "dunking" on the little hoop!

     

Before I go.... you can never have too many purses right? Okay you probably can that is why I am going to go through and clean out my old purses because check out the new purse I bought from a Miche party.

I am in love with the yellow color and it has great pockets inside and lots of room so I can still carry my camera with me! (A heads up...Miche consultants can set their own prices, so if you are interested I can hook you up with this consultant!)  

Quick Weekend....

Don't the weekends always go too fast? This weekend was NO different! Saturday morning we hit the nursery and spent too much money for what we got (actually we spent quite a bit, but we got quite a few plants and it was worth it) and even though the kids were barely any help we got it all planted and now crossing our fingers that it all grows and fills out the areas they were planted in!

What you don't see is all of the vegatables we bought. Todd had already moved them to the backyard to start planting! =)

I am really loving the "orange" flowers we bought to plant in our concrete planters. This main/middle one also has a salmon geranium on either side of this orange one. I can't wait to see them all bloom together!

We dug up the "tall" flowers out of this bed, they were bee attracters and I love the hostas we have in the very front yard so last year we planted 3 in this side yard and now adding 3 more (a different color though) and then some ground cover. Now for the ground cover to "take over" the area and the hostas grow together with the other ones. =)

As much as it was a beautiful day out (read I got my first burn of the summer) the kids seriously walked around like they were bored and didn't know what to do. Ethan was tired (up at 6:45am) and thankfully Bella had slept all night in her own bed..........yeah for her!!! They just didn't know what to do with themselves...we got our stuff done and Ethan got a little basketball in.... (too bad it wasn't in better focus)

I would say let summer begin, but we woke up to a night full of rain on Sunday morning... I am ready for the sunshine! =)

Fun new finds...

I love reading other peoples' blogs and finding fun new things! First I will start off with my newest favorites: Knock Off Wood, what an amazing site! Ana is the "owner" of the site. She has posted tons of "plans/blueprints" on how to build soo many fabulous things from kids tables and chairs to family room tables, dining room tables, to beds! My I want to build list is very quickly growing! I have started my first project: kids picnic tables (for my moms for mothers' day...now to finish them). I am making my MIL (mother in law) the toddler version and for my mom the bigger kids version! Here is a great example from another blog readers picture in the difference in the tables!

Here is what I have started soo far............Yes I know I need to get busy! If you can't tell that is the top of the picnic table (it is sitting on the saw horses).

Most of the plans have been taken directly from the Pottery Barn catalogs, West Elm, Land of Nod, and many other very popular magazines! My list of wants to build is very quickly growing!

While we recently redecorated Ethan's bedroom (just went looking for the post about Ethan's bedroom and it looks like I never posted it....look for that maybe tomorrow) Back to my point... we got Ethan's room all decorated, but I am still struggling with putting together Bella's room. I have lots of little things to be hung up or great ideas but haven't followed through with them! Here I talk about what I bought for Ethan's room and some of the stuff for Bella's room...but I found this great canvas and would love to hang it somewhere in her room. I really love the brown canvas they show, but the pink would match her room! Now to see if I can find a spot so I can purchase one (or make my own with my scrapbooking supplies). I would save a lot by making one myself!

I am super thankful that Ethan likes to dress up. I guess I can thank private school and their uniform policy. I mean when you have to wear a polo and "khaki's" everyday. He CHOOSES to wear ties to school all on his own or to church on Sundays. I found My Favorite Pal that sells matching ties for adults and kids (clear down to new babies!). This one is my favorite. I actually sent them an email...it looks like the kids ties only come in the zipper ties and we have never had luck with them... I want a "real" tie in the kids sizes! Don't you love this one too? I look forward to getting an email back....cross your fingers for me! Won't daddy and son look fab in this tie?

With summer coming it also means lots of BBQ's. It means thinking of something to take along. My usual take along is brownie muffins (again will post soon on those!) I saw on someone's blog about this Picky Palate site and OMG do these not look delicious or what?

I seriously can't wait to try these and they sound super simple!!! If you try them before me you have to let me know what you thought!

Along with those summer bbq's comes trying to find new things that keep the kids busy. I recently took a walking/running class at a local running store and I heard one of the other ladies talking about Letterboxing. I actually forgot all about it until the other night on Facebook when a "friend" was asking about what to do over the holiday weekend and it came up again. I read up on it and it is a super family friendly activity and something that the kids can get really excited over. Matter of fact when I explained it to both of the kids, they were both very excited to go out and try it (granted for us basketball and princesses took over our weekend instead). I plan to try  it in the next couple of weekends though! Has anyone else tried it? I hope you check it out too, there are "letter boxes" everywhere and you can even make your own to "plant" around! HAVE FUN!

I have a couple more things to share, but I think this has got long enough... I will post them real soon!

A Long Weekend

First off can you believe we had a nice long three day weekend and I didn't even take ONE picture! I haven't taken very many photos lately period and it has been kind of freeing lately ... Yes the camera still pretty much lives in my purse, but it is nice to not have it attached to my face! (But that means no pictures for this post) =(

We had a great relaxing weekend, nothing super fantastic, but lots of family time. Last week I had my bike tuned up (it had been since we bought our bikes back in 1996 so it was due) so we took a simple bike ride to the local grade school where we saw a fellow school family. I chatted with the mom for a few minutes while the kids played. Hubby came back over to where I was at and was smiling from ear to ear. It sounded like the other little boy (B) has Ethan if he had ever received a referral at school (a bad letter, you are in trouble letter) and Ethan said NO, I have only had one when I was born! (For those that don't know that is what it is called when we received his medical information and the first picture of him). It just made us smile. I'm sure the other boy was royally confused at what that meant!

Seriously all Ethan wanted to do all weekend was either play Wii NBA 2K10 (he is good; there is NO letting him win!) or outside shooting hoops in the driveway. Basketball is ALL he seems to be talking about these days! He talks about who and when they were drafted and I'm not talking about only current players he goes way back. A lot he has learned from the Wii (who says video games aren't educational), some from watching the games on TV and well he reads the back of old basketball figurines and well who knows where else! He is a walking bit of information. He wakes up talking about basketball and goes to sleep talking about basketball! Poor Bella she just ever so "patiently" waits her turn to play Wii or for Daddy's attention. It is a little hard but she has done great....

She is very excited for summer to be here, but is soo excited to start kindergarten in the fall! She is very excited about getting 3 recesses and taking her own lunch too. Just tonight she was saying how we haven't gotten her new backpack and lunch box. I tried to explain how we would do that shopping over the summer. We will see how excited she is when she has to get up EVERY morning and dress in her uniforms ... She will be one tired girl, I'm thinking she will be having a 7 o'clock bedtime! =)
I think we may even find out which kindergarten class she will be in next year. Hubby wants one teacher and I want the other one. I think she will end up with my choice, but I think in the end hubby will be pleased with that decision too (not like it is ours, the school is making it).

Maybe I will take a few pictures for tomorrow's post or find some that I haven't posted before! =)
Yeah tomorrow is already over the hump day! Gotta love 3 day weekends!