Scrappin' & Yappin'!

I got up early this morning and went out to water my plants before 7:30am! I waited on the babies, but they never came. Seems Monkey is sick. So it was just Hannah and I for the morning.

Since she was doing her own thing, I decided to put together the layout I sketched out last night. It turned out really well, and I thought I'd share it. LMK what you think...

The journaling is this blog post. I just really really loved this picture for some reason and felt it just HAD to be scrapped. :)

I had a very special phone call a little while ago. Em called me and said she'd like to come by. We haven't seen each other since Christmas - I've been so out of the loop that it never dawned on me that it's been that long. But she's coming over this afternoon, so I'm really looking forward to seeing her. :)

Lori, Mom & hopefully the girls are also planning to come over for supper tonight as well. I've got the crockpot filled with pork chops with apples, onions & cabbage. It smells awesome. I also made a wonderful tomato salad yesterday. Will try to get a picture of it and post my recipe if it's a hit tonight. Am planning to make some mac & cheese a little later this afternoon, as well as oven roasted squash & onions. Watermelon for dessert. I'm SO loving all this fresh new produce right now!! :)

I'm off to put something relatively cool on so I can sit in the swing out front while Hannah swims. Have a fabulous day!!

*Smiles*

Sharing...

It's been an interesting day today. The girls are in rare form - don't know if there are storms in the forecast or if it's full moon or what, but they've been whacking each other, knocking each other down and just being kids. Val's trying to move into her "terrible twos" early. LOL

Anyway, I managed to get a few really cute photos this morning and wanted to share!

The girls love to climb on "My Pete"!

Isn't this just too cute??

My sweet Val - I just love the look on her face. :)

Val looks so sassy here! And yes, for those of you who were wondering - those are my SU! stamp blocks - the kids love them! :)

I looked over and saw that Hannah and Val were sitting in the block basket, and Monkey has her feet in and was upset that she couldn't sit in it too!! They cheesed it up for the camera. LOVE this!

Sisterly Love

The babies are getting so big! They were playing the other day and I managed to sneak a few shots of them. Too, too sweet. :)

Funny Girl

Can you say "Bad Hair Day"?? Monkey's such a funny girl!

Good times, good food, great company

This evening, we were invited to a mystery dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday. Five out of seven of us siblings were there, which was great. The food was awesome, but then again, the food is always awesome at Mimi's. :) She's a great cook!

I ate a baked potato with a steak knife, along with banana pudding. I ate my salad and a chicken breast with a toothpick. My options for eating my Jell-O was either try to use my toothpick, eat it with a knife or just slurp it from the cup. So I slurped, and almost choked. What fun we had! It's something that I'd love to do again. Thanks for the invite, Mimi!

I got lots of fun pics, and got Oma to take a couple of Peter and myself. I just don't have very many of us together, which is sad when I try to scrapbook a page on us. I'm usually the one behind the camera, so it was nice to have someone take a pic of us tonight. Just hope they turn out.

It was great seeing the babies - and it was funny to watch them. Little Miss Savannah was a hoot, and kept us laughing.

All in all, the evening was fantastic, and a nice change of pace for the adults to get together. I hope it was as much fun for my siblings as it was for Peter and me. :)

A Pleasant Surprise

Someone who means a lot to me called this morning, and asked if we'd like to meet up for lunch. We went to Rosie's and had a great time. It was so nice to see them all again. Only bad thing - I bit into something plastic in my quesadilla. Got a replacement meal to go at no cost, so that was nice of them. Anyway, it just made my day to get that call this morning. :)

Turning the big O-N-E!

Wow, I can't believe a year has passed since she was born! The past ten months that we've been keeping her has flown by. There were rough moments, especially the first 4 months we had her. The many, many clothing changes both for her and us because her poor little tummy wouldn't behave. The crying jags, the teething, the fevers and colds.

But on the other hand, we got to be there for many of her "firsts" - first smile, first time rolling over, first time reaching out for a toy, first time sitting up, first time standing on her own, first tooth, first time puckering up and giving a kiss - they've all just happened in what seems like a blink of the eye.

We love our baby girl SO much, and are so thankful to be able to spend so much time with her, to teach her and share in all the fun stuff she's learning so quickly.

So from all of us - Hannah, Amber, MyPete & Nene, we just want to say....

Happy Birthday, Valerie!!

We did it!

We finally taught Mazie how to pucker up! This afternoon, I was holding her and I asked her for a kiss, and the little sweetheart puckered up her lips and kissed me!!! Normally, she puts her head against your lips or else comes at you with her mouth wide open and slobbers all over you, but somehow, during the day today, we got her to do it right. It's SO cute, and as much as I tried, I couldn't get a good pic of her giving Hannah a kiss. I'll keep trying, though. It's just too precious for words! She's such a joy to have with us. :)

Oh YEAH!

Since you've all been subjected to some truly bad quality photos on my blog, I just wanted to let you know that hopefully, you won't have to see any more of them! We got a new camera, and we absolutely love it. Here, for your viewing pleasure are some great shots we got of the girls this morning. :)

Creative Geniuses

The girls have gotten into puzzles and lacing shapes lately. It is a good thing, since it fosters thinking, dexterity and creativity.

Hannah put together all the puzzles I had here for them, so I ended up going out and buying two more the other night for her, to present a bigger challenge for her. Needless to say, she loves them! And I love that she loves them!

Amber, on the other hand, has had a problem figuring out how to actually lace the shapes, instead of just pulling the laces through the holes. The other day, she finally "got it". She strung all the shapes together, and was SO proud of herself. Nene's proud of her too.

An unpleasant surprise

Ever have one of those days that begins fabulously? You know the type - you wake up early feeling rested and content, all the children are happy and cheerful, everything seems to be going just right. Yeah, that was my morning. It started out wonderful, until we hit a speed bump.

When I got the girls this morning, they were feeling froggy, so they were playing together. Mazie wasn't ready to go back down for her morning nap, so I put her in the exersaucer. About 8:45 or so, one of the other girls informed me that she smelled bad. I looked at her feet and saw some brown stuff smeared on the base of the exersaucer. Then I realized what had happened. Poor kiddo!!

While we were out yesterday, I hurt my knee somehow, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to get her into the tub, so I called Peter. He was on his way home, thankfully. He was sweet enough to clean her up and put baby girl into the tub. He gave her a bath while I cleaned everything else up. The exersaucer is no longer an exerSAUCER, but is an exerWALKER now! I'm thankful that the base comes off! It's outside to be washed with bleach.

Let me just say that I REALLY appreciate my sweet husband! He doesn't blink an eye at helping with things I'm not physically able to do. He loves helping with the girls, which is wonderful as well. He totally rocks, and I am so blessed to have him for my own. Thank you, sweetheart, for all you do for me, and for us. I love you.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Finally got a chance to put a few pics on my blog, so just for your viewing pleasure, here they are!

I put Val (aka Mazie) in the floor to play with the other girls yesterday and when I turned around, she had crawled under a chair and was lying across Hannah's lap, and Hannah was patting her on the back. She didn't feel good - apparently she's trying to cut another tooth - and I guess Hannah was her comforter of choice. How stinkin' cute is that??

Yummmmm, chocolate! This is our "accent wall" in the office. Peter painted it today, and this shot was taken while still wet. It looks so yummy that I had him get a Butterfinger bar for me while he is out. Perhaps having this color on the walls will be dangerous??

You know your girls are growing up when you can put them both in the same spot to nap, and they actually go to sleep instead of aggravating each other!! Man, it's so nice around 2pm at our house! All the girls take a nap, and it's just MY time!

Apparently Miss Priss likes my new desk! She sat on the desk top for close to an hour, looking at her book and "talking" to me while I did things that had to be done on the computer. When I picked up the camera and pointed it at her, she immediately grinned. Looks like she's getting used to being around a scrapbooker! Yep, she's gonna be another little ham for the camera...

So that's what's going on around here. I've been up since the wee hours working, we've made a huge dent in the things that need to be done. Peter's gone to work and I'm exhausted. I think I'll go bag up my Avon orders, take a shower and call it a night. That sure does sound good right about now!

How to keep a child quiet

Not to mention keeping them out of your paint! I got these awesome lacing buttons a long time ago, and forgot about them, but Hannah's been bugging us to help paint, so I got them out, and now they're very busy. Too cool. These will be going into our "going to Grandma's" bag! :)

You know your're tired when...

You can't keep on jumping, but just want to go to sleep. Thank you to medication and lots of carbs for lunch - baby girl is SACKED! Hopefully her sleep will help her feel better.

Cookie Day 2006

Our family has a really neat tradition. Each year, we all gather at my sister Kathryn's house on a Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We bring our prepared cookie dough, along with any candy we want to make or pretzels, etc for dipping. We try to get there as early as we can, but no earlier than 8am, or Kathryn would be upset.

We bake all day long. We all help each other, rolling cookies, dipping pretzels, or whatever needs to be done. Usually one person mans the oven, while another takes the cookies off the baking sheets to cool. It's just a huge team effort, and the payoff is great.

Not only do we have a great time together, but we all end up with an assortment of all the cookies that were baked, along with what's left of our own cookies after they're divided. Only the people who participate are lucky enough to get cookies. It's a really fun tradition, and it's almost more anticipated than Christmas each year.

Peter was put to work mixing the Monster Cookie dough - looks like he was just the man for the job, they turned out delicious!!

Cookies waiting to go into the oven...

Jonathan freehanded holly leaves & berries on these choco-dipped Oreos. He did a really great job, especially since it was his first time ever using a pastry bag!

Just a portion of the cookies & candies waiting to be divided. There was at least this many more that I didn't get a photo of.

The dipping station. This really cool crock-pot has two sides so they could melt both white & milk chocolate at the same time.

Can you say chilling?

I walked into the the living room, and Mazie was in the playpen. Even when I went into the office to get the camera, she never moved - just lay there and let me take pictures! Needless to say, within a few minutes after the "photo session", she was fast asleep. Love the way she sucks her thumb - she doesn't really suck on it, but sorta chews on it instead.

Bad Hair Day

I love these pics of our Monkey. She's so silly!