I Hate This Part...

I hate this part...really I do. I am absolutely exhausted today. I slept horribly last night - and that was after I moved to the couch, where I usually sleep better. I guess I should have moved another floor down to the basement. I will make a confession, as well, I'm horrible when I'm tired. I don't even want to be around me - think of what that's like for my poor kids. Today, I hate toy cars, I hate lunch and I'm getting quotes for a new furnace (not going so well). It's days like today that the kids always seem to fight more and be more cranky. It's been the cars, again. You'd think with, something like 100 toys cars and 1850 square feet of house, they could each take a few and play in different parts of the room, even...but no, they have to have the same car and play exactly where their brother is sitting. I also hate lunch because I have no good ideas...I am sick of the same 4 things over and over. Can you tell I'm cranky today? I think I need a vacation. But, when it comes down to it, I have to keep going.

It's easier when you remember the sweet things and cute things they do...like Xander getting down in his "ready" position at ball and chasing that ball no matter where it's hit. Or Evan, playing with his truck at the ball game and, when he finds a ladybug, putting the ladybug in the driver's seat. Then I feel really bad. Good thing that God promises to forgive us if only we ask. Luckily, our children usually do, too.

Maybe I'll get a nap in this afternoon. First, one more furnace guy... this is getting expensive!

Until next time...

Why are they cute when they're in trouble?

Well, I've picked out pictures for the next few weeks of the year but I have to edit them so I haven't put them up yet. Everything just seems to take so much energy lately. I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things today (and by that I mean I only had to go down 3 aisles) and it totally wiped me out. In fact, I think I've had three separate naps already and am considering going to bed soon! Anyway, I just thought I'd share a cute story from today (also, then I can look back and remember it!).

Evan got in trouble today. That's nothing new. For screaming. Again, nothing new (if anyone has ideas on how to get him to stop, I'd love to hear them!) Anyway, once he gets over the fact that he's in time out, he's quiet. Then I hear this talking from the corner. Once I start listening, I realize that he's reciting his Thomas' ABC Book. We read this a fair bit and I knew he knew at least some of them but I didn't realize he knew it this well! "A is for All Aboard. All aboard calls Thomas the Tank Engine. B is for Bertie the Bus. Bertie is Thomas' friend. Beep, beep." and on and on he went. He got all the way to Q but then the timer went so he stopped. Of course, this was when I was supposed to go over and give him the stern talking to but it was oh so hard when all I could think was that's so cute and I had to hide my smile the whole time!

Anyway, I think I'll go have some ice cream and then get ready for bed!

Until next time...

New Kits...I'm Finally Posting!

I'm sitting here listening to my 2 year old play guitar and sing a song he made up...it seems to be about the people in our family and how Dad went to work. It's really incredibly cute. I'm trying to enjoy these times as I'm sure that in a few weeks, when the new baby gets here, it will be much harder to sit and enjoy the serenades!

I have been so bad about posting lately but I have been very physically exhausted this last bit. I even ended up starting my mat leave a couple weeks early because it just was not working to get out of the house and get to work and then be productive. I was totally useless for the first couple hours of the day! This means that the list of things I'd like to do (which is a mile long and includes scrapbooking and photo posting on my blog) has not been getting done, either. I basically slept last week.

This means that I'm actually going to post two new kits today. The first was was released yesterday and is on sale for 25% off this week at Stuff to Scrap! This is a collab between Scraps of Ellay and IvoryKeys Digital Dreams and is an absolutely adorable kit called Muddy Buddies! It's kinda grungy and dirty for all those great outdoor pictures you have! It was perfect for me as I had just finished taking pictures of the boys playing in the puddles... here are my two layouts and a preview of the kit.

This is the aftermath of the storm we had April 9th...home renos have been re-prioritized for this summer, I think! This is for the template challenge at STS.
This was done for a speed scrap at STS. We took the boys out on Good Friday after our church service and played in some puddles. It was a lot of fun!

Here is the preview of the whole kit.

Now, for the second kit. Scraps of Ellay created this kit called Three R's to celebrate Earth Day and it is on sale for 50% off TODAY ONLY! I didn't have a lot of pictures along that theme but the colours were SO pretty that I just loved working with this kit!

Here are my layouts:

This was for the recipe challenge at STS.

This one uses a template by Gwenipooh Designs and I really like how it turned out with the contrast in elegant pictures and more rustic background!

Here is a preview of the full kit and you can pick it up at Stuff to Scrap.

Until next time...(which hopefully won't be so long!!)

Hmmm...Do You Think I'm Still Alive?

OK...it has been a short eon since I have updated my blog. I don't even know where I am at the moment. I have had such good intentions but, alas, working 3 days a week, chasing two small boys and being about 7 1/2 months pregnant seems to have gotten the best of me. For example, Easter weekend was great...Friday I napped, Saturday I napped, Sunday we had company, then I napped. I know I need it but it is kind of frustrating in that there are things I would like to get done. Xander and I did go for a kindergarten test drive about a week and a half ago and he is so excited about school now. It took him a bit to warm up to it but then he really enjoyed it (we were only there about an hour). I also found out that one of the other Moms is someone that I knew at university about 13 years ago! That was kinda cool. Now I think we'll get Xander out in T-ball and see how he likes that. We bought him a glove and bat and tee. He likes to hit the ball but is not so keen on the glove things. Oh well, he's still young.

I think I'm on week 3 of my pictures (actually, I had to go back and check the blog because it's been so long). I have two weeks ready to go so I will give you weeks 3 and 4 and we'll try to get out of January before too long!

Week 3 January 10 - 16
I introduced my kids to "it's Sunday supper - I'm not making food" night. We usually did this growing up...nobody really wanted to cook supper Sunday night so we would have sandwiches or leftovers or whatever you wanted to make for yourself, once you got older. This was an old standby, too - popcorn. Xander's old enough to enjoy it but Evan's still a bit too young as he really hates getting it in his teeth!
There's a lot of food this week! This was another childhood food I introduced Xander to...cinnamon toast. Mix a little brown sugar and a little cinnamon, put it on buttered toast and YUM! Again, Evan doesn't like cinnamon yet, still a bit too young. Xander, however, one day ate three pieces of this for lunch. I was amazed!
The 12th was my birthday - I already blogged about this so here's the select pictures that are going in the album...me and my cake (above) and the gorgeous weather (below).

This also happened on my birthday. The Haiti earthquake...I blogged about this already, too, so there's not much to say. I heard that kids are finally returning to school in Port-au-Prince, though (three months later) so that's a good sign that people are trying to find normalcy again.
This was the sky one evening...it was so pretty and this picture isn't even altered! I found the sunrise setting on my camera and it takes amazing pictures of the sunrise/sunset. The colours are so much better and more accurate than the auto setting gives!
Xander wouldn't let me take his picture so I had to sneak this one. He's getting ready for his very first sleepover at Nana and Papa's house. He had a lot of fun but did have some trouble sleeping (as he often does in a new place). He came home and declared he didn't want anymore sleepovers because he didn't sleep! Silly kid.
This is my Evan with his smushed up face. He took a header down the cement stairs outside and landed on his nose. It looked horrible but he didn't seem to care too much. In fact, he gave me the cutest smiles when I asked to take a picture of his nose!

Week 4 - January 17-23

We bought this new stroller (I actually got a triple this weekend, too) but these are the travel ones we like best and they are about twice the price of an umbrella stroller but go on sale for half price, which makes them a steal. Evan loves it, too, as he climbed in when I set it up and sat there to watch TV. He even wanted to be buckled in and refused to get out. It was pretty cute!
Here is my husband playing Wii. The was MarioKart Wii. He has pretty much beaten the game. Xander loves to play it, too, and I'm even getting not that bad at it!
We needed something to do this day as the kids were kind of antsy. I decided that baking is a good thing to do. It keeps at least Xander busy and out of Evan's hair. This time, Evan even joined in the fun for a bit!
This is what we baked...three kinds of muffins...blueberry, raspberry and banana chocolate chip (the favourite). Muffins are so quick and easy to make so it's a great thing to do with the kids!
My boys rockin' it out to Rock Band. Evan loves to "play guitar" - he's definitely our little musician - and Xander decided to do vocals this time. He likes to sing certain songs and was even referring to the Backyardigans karaoke DVD as Rock Band today!

Saturday we went, though the blizzard, to the Rider store at the north end of the city (after Xander had his blood taken and got sick - but he still wanted to go). We spent Jason's Christmas present and got the boys Rider jerseys. They love to wear their football jerseys, especially if Jason's wearing his.

And, it looks like that's the end of week 4. Now I just need to get a few more weeks caught up (and get the old stuff scrapped - but that's another story). It doesn't seem as daunting when I do it by week instead of by day!

Until next time...