Ten on Thursday

1.  So, we sold our house, or at least we believe we have.  There are still inspections and all the things that lead up to a closing process.  We also think we've picked out a house, but similar caveats apply. (Aside, there is a street in our town called Caveat Drive with lots of houses for sale.  We sort of think it would have been appropriate to end up there...)

2. Something keeps going wrong with our current house nearly every week.  It either doesn't want us to leave or is a sign it is going to all fall apart soon or something.  First, small things like the toilet lever and a series of other things leading up to the garage door spring breaking today ($180).  Seriously.... sigh.

3. The new house, of course, has issues.  It is completely beautiful inside, but has a wide variety of issues in the backyard.  We may yet back out and go another way.  Also, it is expensive and spending this much money freaks me out.  In concept, we should be able to afford it, but in practice, yeah, freaking out.

 4.  The day we put the offer on this house we had a long-scheduled photo session right afterwards.  I'll probably sprinkle the photos in to posts for awhile, but I've added several favorites here today.  I love Heather and she photographs us so well, in part because we are so comfortable with her.

 5.  M took a picture in this exact pose exactly 3 years ago.  The look in her eyes was, ummm, not the same.   My how she's grown. This summer she is taking swimming lessons & (for half the summer) french lessons as well as attending one day of dance camp and one week of Disney Musical Theater Camp.

6.  I could not be happier to have a picture of B with his real smile.  Love this  one. This summer he is learning to type, reading, taking swimming & spanish lessons, and maybe learning a little programming.

 7.  Serious face, curious, and silly - ours all three.

8.  This is a classic expression of his and the first in a serious right after this of all his favorite faces.  Glad she got them all :)  This summer he "might" start swimming lessons, but is mostly working on potty training, playing with his little guys, and snuggling his mom.

9.  Today, we embarked on some summer fun.  It began with buying rainboots because the rain seems here to stay (or maybe this will end the cycle? ) It ended with ice cream at Roxy's new ice cream store.  We've loved the truck forever, but are so excited to always be able to find them now!

10.  In between, we enjoyed our picnic at the Myriad Gardens, got wet in the Thunder fountain, and climbed and played all over the children's garden.  We will be back next week for Charlotte's Web in the gardens (We're just about finished with the book and next week the garden will be transformed in to scenes from the book!!)  Next time, we're bringing swimming suits for sure!  I so want summer to be more about hanging out in the gardens and less about stress, moving, money, stuff, logistics, things breaking, people being sick, mud, and all the things that have been the focus this week.  Tomorrow begins farm camp and hopefully some less stressful times!

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I sometimes wonder about the settlers on these plains before the weathermen learned their craft.  Think how astonishing it would be when the temperature drops from 77 to 30 overnight with no warning? We had warning, but still amazing.  We also picked all of our fall flowers, unhooked hoses, etc...

2.  Since we knew the weather was coming it was "everybody outside" afternoon."  Many, many months ago we attempted to teach B to ride his bike without training wheels. It didn't go that well and ended in tears/emo situation that landed his bike on the wall of the garage ever since.  Yesterday, M was riding her bike and B had been using his scooter as he has all summer. I tentatively suggested maybe trying the bike again.  He agreed.  Loved it.  And easily learned to ride it in just a few minutes.  He still needs a little help getting started, but only just barely. Today it is 30 degrees and he wants to know if he can ride his bike after school.... Victory?

3. Lady M had two birthday parties to attend on Sunday.  They were both girls she loved and she just couldn't choose so we split the time and did both. First, we went to Ashtyn's 5th birthday party.  She borrowed this cheerleading outfit, took pictures with cheerleaders, hit the pinata, and generally enjoyed a beautiful party straight out of pinterest.  Then, we switched into this "princess" dress for her friend Alescia's party. Alescia's party was also fun, but much simpler and with both boys and girls.  By the end of 4+ hours of parties though Ms. M was very tired and ready to go home.

4. B had what will likely be his last baseball practice of the fall on Saturday.  It was a perfectly beautiful day for baseball. This was my first time at practice and surprisingly the coach and I were the only parents.  I had M&E along as Brent was driving back from the OU game.  I mostly watched the nature explorers while B practiced with a few friends.

5.  Playdates are weird and I still have no idea what to expect from them.  All of B's early playdates were with his friend P and they last a minimum of 5 hours, often much longer.  This weekend during all those birthday parties B&P had a play date at our house that lasted 7+ hours.  (I don't mind the long play dates actually as these guys rarely see each other and have such a good time together).  Then yesterday, four of B's neighborhood friends came over after school and had a play date that lasted, I kid you not, 7 minutes and 37 seconds.  Their mom said they could come over for ten minutes but it too them more than 2 minutes to arrive.  M's play dates seem to be around the 2 hour mark, which is probably more normal, right?

6.  Motivated by internet discounts on ordering Christmas Cards early I have actually ordered our Christmas Cards (they will be addressed for me so just stamps necessary when they arrive).  I also sent out Christmas Tea invites and ordered paper versions of those, not to mention having plans in place for the next three weekends. I am feeling delightfully organized and hoping to be able to sit back and enjoy the celebrations more with plans and some of the product all set. I do still need to figure out what I'm cooking for the, at least, five Thanksgiving celebrations we're participating in (2 family, 2 school, 1 church).

7.  I'm taking a photography class of sorts this month.  It is called "Lens of Joy" and is taught by Ali Edwards (my favorite).  I hadn't planned to sign up, but did at the last minute.  I'm amazed at the amount of content and the thoughtfulness in the early lessons.  In week one, we don't pick up the camera. Rather we think about what is influencing our vission, why we take photos, our history with photography, and our "voice."  I like the idea of wanting each photo to capture a story as I really do search for that in my scrapbooking, but often don't think about it enough while taking the photos. In any case, you'll find me listening to lessons most evenings now as I attempt to catch up, but also reflecting alot on the whys and vision of my photography.

8.  While Brent was at the game this weekend, we made a three hour trip to the Y.  It is a great set-up for not so busy Saturdays.  First, I do yoga alone and then it is time for family swim to begin so we all switch clothes and do family swim for an hour or until E is too cold.  It makes both seem like more worth the effort and entices my kids to not mind childcare if we get to go swimming afterwards.

9.  We are trying to focus on gratitude this month. I'm not completely sure it is reaching the kids.  We've given food to several different food drives.  We've talked about bringing food to the Church's Thanksgiving dinner for the needy and my possibly volunteering there.  We talk almost daily about what they are grateful for (after explaining what grateful means).  The themes are being reiterated at school/Sunday School, but I'm not really sure if they get it.  M was able to recite to me the story of the first Thanksgiving (the nice version) yesterday and everyone seems to be making turkey crafts daily at school so progress is being made on some fronts, right?

10.  Mr. E is feeling a bit more 2 of late.  One interesting conundrum is that he really wants to be carried a lot.  When M was this age I was definitely not carrying her due to my costocondritis and being pregnant.  E is smaller than she was, but still getting to be pretty heavy.  That said, he's my last baby and I have a very hard time saying no to carrying him when I know there is so little time left on that front.  It is possible last babies get spoiled a little bit, but you knew that right?  Otherwise, he is completely sweet and tells me he loves me way more than any of the other kids.  He loves to snuggle still, which is awesome.  He does a lot of running these days all over the place (when not being carried).  He likes to watch B play minecraft, but is also completely able to get to the Toca Boca games he likes on the ipad and start them up.  He will do this while the big kids and I are doing chores, just quietly slipping away unnoticed to get some game time by himself.  In snort, he also remains sneaky.  Love that little one so much. 

2013 Spring Family Pictures

I am impossibly bad at narrowing down all the amazing images Heather gives us each time.  In theory, if I look through them a few more times I might be able to pare back some more, but here is a sampling of the treasures of our photo shoot this spring.

I love that we do this twice a year.  I am continually amazed by how much the kids change just in the six months between sessions.  This time, Heather and I were both struck by the change in M since the last session. So much more a little girl, not a toddler any longer (sob).

Working with Heather for two years now has been amazing as not only has she become a great friend, but the kids are so comfortable with her that sessions go much more smoothly even if they are tired or frustrated.  This particular session required an ice cream bribe, but it all worked out so beautifully.

Now I have to somehow narrow down which ones to print.  Do you all have any favorites?

DD3: Our Christmas Tree

Day 3 - We set up our Christmas tree and my DD got its first two page spread.  

The picture is Brent and B putting the star atop the Christmas tree.  The story is about setting up the tree and Tracie joining us this year for dinner and decorating.  I think my favorite part is becoming my role as storykeeper and telling the children about each ornament as we unwrap it and have them add it to the tree.  We determined that most of the ornaments fall into one of four categories: made by the kids, glittery, from Grandma or from Tracie.  This made it even more appropriate that Tracie was there to share in the fun.  E, sadly, missed the decorating portion of the evening, but will, at long last, show up in the album on Day 4 (foreshadowing??).  

Crafting note - the silver Christmas tree is one of the SC wood veneer trees embossed with silver metalic zing.  I rather think a gold glitter one would have been better, but my gold glitter zing isn't here yet and somehow the entire remaining package of these trees has disappeared!!  It is a mystery and I've even "cleaned" my space a bit and it hasn't reappeared. So sad. I do really like the wood veneers generally and you'll see more of the Stars on the below JYC entry, which also features gold metallic zing and my favorite twinkle, twinkle stamp by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday. 

Even though I got a late start I still had time for my JYC entry as these things are so quick this year.  The prompt was about scheduling happiness.  Reading this prompt in the morning got me started on the invitations and planning for the Christmas Tea this year and the journaling is about our Christmas Tea tradition.  These teas have been happening most years since I was in grade school.  The attendees change, but at the moment my mom, Tracie, Sarah, Audra, and I are the keepers of the tradition and most frequent attendees.  This year, M is technically the hostess as she is now of age to invite her own friends so we're starting the next generation of Christmas Tea attendees.  As per tradition it falls during the actual 12 days of Christmas and close to the 28th (Feast of the Holy Innocents).  Although some years, we've held it earlier closer to Saint Lucia's day, which is December 13th.  In any case, I'm excited and nervous to begin this tradition with the little girls and to continue to enjoy it with the ladies from my generation and my mom too.  The picture is of the current core group (minus Audra) at the most recent Christmas Tea in 2010, as I think it got skipped last year, as happens on occasion. 

Photography tip:  See those interesting sparks around B and M as they decorate? I had forgotten about this problem as it really only happens to me around Christmas and Birthdays.  Do you know what it is? As my friend Michelle reminded people recently on facebook this is from taking pictures of these sort of lights with a filter on your DSLR lens.  I routinely have a filter on my lenses in large measure to protect the lens  but also for its other benefits. I'll likely remove them for the remainder of the season, at least when shooting inside, although sometimes I kind of like the reflecting twinkles.  They make it seem a bit magical, right? 

Scrappy Sunday

I continue to work through the "Pop off the Page" class at Studio Calico -- thus, lots of layers.    Any interesting thing did start to happen (aside from lots of layers), I have noticed that I really like adding big shipping tags to the vellum envelopes.  This works for me on several levels.  First, more soft layers and colors for visual interest.  More importantly, it gives me lots of room for writing without taking over the page with my messy handwriting.  Telling the stories behind these photos is probably the most important part to me.  When I add the journaling this way I gain WAY more space and the stories seemed to follow easily. Hooray!  

Also, if there were some journaling that I wanted to be more private this slight blurring or hiding of it would be a good way to do that too.  As scrapbooking is a therapy of sorts for me sometimes the journaling can be pretty personal so a solution like this does make sense from time to time.

This one combines what is increasingly "my" style:  PP, some layers, emphasis in the lower right corner, trailing splatters, dots, etc moving up across the page, small letter stickers, and increasingly more doilies.  More practically, this page on its face is just E's very cute newborn toes (all photos on these pages are via Heather Warren Photography --- so gorgeous!).  However, with all that journaling space, I instead told the story of a special rhyme that I've done with M and E as babies.  It goes like this: "Left foot, Right foot, feet on your nose, kiss on your toes."  The first two steps put each foot on the babies nose one at a time, then together, then kisses.  M was so incredibly flexible that this was super easy.  With E, it requires a bit more effort, but both babies and I have loved it.  Such fun!

(Side note: most of the supplies are from the September SC Kit, SC Store, or from Amy Tangerine's new line). 

We take family pictures every six months.  We started doing this because M and B's birthday's are six months apart so we get annual pictures for each as well as "1/2 birthday" pictures.  Granted, the photos are often not in the months of their actual birthdays, but close.  From this tradition, I started doing journaling and an 8x10  photo for each 1/2 birthday.  I am always a little behind on these, but try to get around to them when I feel inspired.  These papers by Rhonna for MME have been my go-to 8x10 pages this year as they come beautifully layered in images that I can usually cut just a bit to overlap the photo, which I like.  The layering in the bottom left somehow evolved a bit more than anticipated due to my recent class, I suspect.  Again, you see the more extended journaling on the tag in the vellum pocket.  

(Supply Note: This one is a mix, with lots of things from the kit that came with my class.  I will note that the letter stickers I use for M's name are the Hey Day Thickers in Aqua... I am using them a ton lately so I wanted to note it.  I just wish they would stop falling off the page they came on  - pet peeve!)

So, not too many pages this week, but hopefully more to come.  We took more pictures with Heather today so I'm sure we'll have some beautiful images to inspire more creating as well. 

Scrappy (Easter) Sunday

So, I "might" have ordered a bit more than usual from Studio Calico this month thanks to a birthday gift card from my sister.  While I was waiting for my presents to arrive, I went happily to work trying to use up some of my existing goodies before the new treats arrived. This happened just after our spring family pictures so I decided it was time to scrapbook some of the pictures from the fall shoot -- (Note: all pages referring to the Fall 2011 photo shoot feature images taken by Heather Warren).  Final bit of inspiration came from the 'Blow Out Your Stash" Challenges at Studio Calico. Whatever the reason, I am so happy to have made some pretty pages and recorded more of our family's stories.  Enjoy!

Family Picture Fall 2011 - using the County Fair kit;  the design is also based off a page by Shimelle in her Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking class. 

More snuggly family time - Fall 2011 Photo shoot - based off of the 11/6/11 Studio Calico Sketch Sunday.

M & us - with tales of her personality and likes @2 from the Fall 2011 photo shoot - using the Candy Shoppe Kit

Me & my love - a rare feature for our albums from the Fall 2011 photo shoot

B's smile and more favorites - Fall 2011 photo shoot

M was refusing to go to sleep Thursday night and inspired the page about our sleeping struggles complete with lyrics from our most "magic" lullaby 

 I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend.  We are happily celebrating Easter with our families and enjoying our brand new Minivan!

Ten Tuesday

1.  More M at gymnastics pictures this week.  She was pretty tired by the end and spent the time waiting for her next turn on the trampoline snuggling this stuffed frog.  It was her last day with Coach Darby, which was sad, but she is now quite awesome at forward rolls.

2.  We went to Riley's fifth birthday party this weekend after a very long morning of activities (see more below).  Both kids adored the mustaches in their treat bags, at least three of which are strangely attached to our planter outside...What is it that makes mustaches so awesome? Definitely an instant disguise.

3.  B popped out his second tooth today all by himself.  Apparently he just decided it was time and then, randomly, decided to try to use his tooth to open his small bug house and out it came!  I was off helping M and fairly dubious when he told me it was out, but as you can see he is quite proud of his achievement.  In semi-related news, he is off to see his new dentist tomorrow.

4.  Soccer was lots of fun this weekend.  B has a new teammate who is very fast and added lots of excitement to the game.  B did a great job and even scored a goal.  The kids all had a fabulous time even in the extremely warm weather.  (Yes, I brought my camera, but forgot to bring a memory stick.... obviously).

5.  While the Dragonflies were running all over the place, M was dancing merrily on the sidelines.  Here's a sneak peak.  Keep in mind she did this for most of the 45 minute game and that it was about 85 degrees outside.  She was very hot and tired, but happy by the end.

6.  Before all that soccer fun, we had our family pictures taken by Heather Warren at Will Rodgers park .  M, in true 2-year old fashion, declined to wear her Easter dress as we had planned.  I gave her an alternate choice or two that were still "ok" with the rest of our outfits and she selected her sparkly Christmas dress so she will be looking quite fancy in our family photos.  It remains to be seen if she is actually smiling or looking at the camera in any of the photos, but her big brother was an excellent photo subject!

7.  The lengthy car buying process continues.  This is our first time to add the variable of a trade-in to the mix.  I think the dealers find us generally annoying as we insist on say, gathering competing quotes (both on price and trade-in value) from various places before making a final decision on where to buy, rather than just committing once we have a price quote. It is annoying, but we really don't think it is fair/rational to expect us to make this large of a financial purchase on less than complete information so the data gathering continues.  Yes, we will almost certainly buy a minivan and please no laughing (at least not while we're with you).

8.  Cooking update:  Yesterday, we attempted baked, raised doughnuts.  They were just "ok" and not really sweet at all--- that said, they were very low in butter and sugar.  I have a couple other baked doughnut recipes pinned and think I'll give this method at least one more try as this pregnancy baby and I are really in to doughnuts, but I really don't think the purchased, fried variety are going to work with keeping my weight gain under control.  Today, we tried English Muffin Bread.  It is a raised bread, but quicker than my normal homemade bread and also contains no fat, eggs, and very little sugar.  The texture/density were substantially different, but it was a tasty, quicker alternative. 

9.  Shared room update:  In good news, I think sharing a room has made the kids closer and more into co-conspirators.  It is fun to watch them plot and play together in the shared space.  At first, it was a bit of an issue getting them to sleep at night and then it sort of tapered off into just M's usually brief chatting spell.  This week, M is back to taking a long time to go to sleep and trying to drag her brother into her shenanigans.  I don't have a big list of ideas for how to get them to stay quiet and in bed so suggestions are welcome.

10. Pregnancy update:  I haven't blogged nearly as much about my pregnancy this time so I'm trying to make sure it at least gets an item a week here.  That said, there isn't too much going on just now.  I definitely feel like I'm growing each week and that my balance continues to shift.  My back has started hurting and I'm trying to think consciously about my posture to help with that.  I find I'm waking up a lot in the night already, if briefly and cannot lay on my back at all anymore.  

In better news, all of my other injuries (road rash, costochondritis, plantar fascitis, etc...) are fairly moderate just now. I am, however, doing very little exercise which is not great and I am assuming as that picks back up that some of my ailments probably will too. 

 The baby is definitely feeling stronger and kicking higher up on my stomach more.  His siblings remain firmly in love with him and give him lots of kisses, pats and snuggles.  A few of these were even captured in our family photos.  I've never done maternity portraits per se and think I may be glad to have a few from this session where we are loving on the little guy in advance.

It has been a busy week and plenty more business to come.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Scrappy Sunday

This week, all the pages are made from the Story Hour kit, with a few extra embellishments along the way.  Enjoy!

 I made the underlying collage based on a page in Shimelle's Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking class, but hadn't selected a picture. I found this one in my "to scrap" pile. It is a picture of dinner with my Grandparents & Able at Legends in Norman. I believe it is actually the day before I graduated college and the day I was selected into Phi Betta Kappa and awarded their scholarship for graduate school.  While the later two are cool, the best part is the memories of all the dinners they took us to throughout college and the time we had together.  The second part of the journaling is wondering what my Grandma and my 22-year old self would have thought of my path since then.  (Random note--- see those letters in the middle left-- noticed after cutting them that they were WAHM = Work At Home Mom. This did inspire some of the journaling of the page belated.

The page is about my Mom and B working together to learn new things, particularly new technologies.  So glad to have these pictures and the stories of their relationship in the book. (The page design was inspired by this page by Piradee).

Next up, a rare two page spread. This one is inspired by this week's sketch from Sketch Support and features fun at Zaney Boy's firsts birthday party.  The little guy is rich in cousins and they had an awesome watergun fight. 

Next, we turn to the story of B & M's build-a-bears. (Most of the journaling can be found here).  The page is based on the Starting Point of the Week from Shimelle, but turned on its side.  I don't know how easy it is to see in the pages, but the brown glittery ribbon is so fun in person!

This last page is my unlikely favorite of the week. I'm not sure precisely why, but I love it. It could be that it is just us, being together.  Or maybe those fun little green sparkly things. It was also my first attempt at the trend of adding confetti to pages (which you can see at the bottom of the Zane pages above too).  It exclusively uses items from the Story Hour kit + ink. The border around the edge is the repeated date stamp, which I saw elsewhere this week and really liked in person.  This was the one that sat out all week and I smiled at as I walked by. Hooray for pretty happy things. 

Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday is brought to you by me actually uploading pictures from our month thus far!

1. I adore these guys.  I love that they love each other and my husband smile rocks!

2.  My kids get to go to the OKC Zoo pretty much as often as they want, but when I was a kid, this was our zoo--- Mr. Riesen's farm.  If you look closely up in the trees there you can find about five roosting peacocks.  They were always my favorite part of the mini-zoo troops down the road to this farm. Other animals include: donkeys, sheep, turkeys (many and varied breeds), guineas, pheasants, cattle, dogs, ducks, other assorted birds and I seem to remember rabbits when I was small, but we didn't see any this trip.  I am so delighted we got to relive this with our kids who seemed fairly interested in the many kinds of birds as well. 

3.  Sibling time:  As I went through all the pictures I was struck repeatedly by how awesome B and M's relationship is.  Here, B is pushing her in the swing at Grandma's. She could do this for hours. He was very patient with her. The next photos a few moments later (not pictured here) show her carefully observing the ladybug that was crawling on his arm. He was so excited and she patiently joined in the fun and helped him search for more.  They are very different, but I am so loving watching them grow together and be kind and close to each other. Not that there aren't screaming times too... but just now, its being pretty awesome. This does help encourage me about adding another and that they and we will be richer for it and are nearing ready for him.

4.  Cousin time is awesome:  M is a good distance between Lil' Zaney Boy and B, so she makes a great playmate for each.  Riding in the wheelbarrow or a wagon is always great fun. I think all three are interested in doing it as often as they can find an adult to push or pull them around. I so hope we get to spend time with our Jones cousins soon too!

5.  Can you get the whole vista here? It is a zoomed out view to capture the scene. At left, B is holding Zane's hand so he can walk carefully through the wheat field to Brent, M and the kite flying. This is sweetness on many levels.  First, B's gentle care of his cousin and their holding hands. I immediately love the moment and picture him doing the same with his little brother in a few years.  Next, is the romance of the family moment. This land has been part of my family's story through now five generations. True, these little ones won't likely be farmers, but they are still loving and enjoying the land.  Also, isn't the contrast of green wheat and sky amazing?

6.  Enthusiasm -- She's got it. I have a whole series of her just being excited in the spring wheat. After looking through about 100 of these I have to recommend spring wheat pastures to local photographers.  Great light, color, and opportunities here. (OK, and having very cute subjects helps). 

7. Once our family weekend was over, we moved on to soccer season.  The first practice of the season was bad again, but by the morning of the game everyone was better.  Here, Brent is carrying our nearly forty pound daughter (and big bird) while trying to play goalie against maybe six four and five year olds on a cold dreary morning. He rocks, in case I haven't mentioned that...

8. Uncle Able joined us for the first game of the season on almost zero notice.  M so very badly wants to play, but is not quite old enough yet.  Uncle Able happily kicked the ball around on the sidelines which both keeps her happy and off the field.  Everyone wins!

9. B did great in his first game back this season.  He started right where last season left off. He ran, kicked, fell, got up, hustled, threw in the ball and is doing some sort of kick to his teammates here. (No, I still don't really get soccer rules). Despite Brent (jokingly) admonishing them not to have fun B and his teammates all said they had a great time and they even won!  So awesome to watch him enjoy it.

10.  Team - We were so lucky to be randomly assigned to an awesome soccer team last fall. They have a great sense of community and are very supportive of each other and all the kids. This was awesome when B was struggling last season, but even better now that we can all celebrate together.  One of the fun traditions is the parents forming this tunnel at the end of the game for all the kids to run through at the end of the game. Able took pictures of it from a variety of angles this time. It is so cool to both see it from B's perspective and to have captured Brent and my participation.  Thanks able and thanks to the Dragonflies for being a great team and new friends to our family.

That's what we're up to lately.  Hope you're having a lovely week and enjoying this beautiful weather. (Yes, it is much warmer now than in the soccer pictures---roughly 80 degrees today so Summer is sounding terrifyingly hot).