Swaneeeeee River...

My neighbor (across the street/2 doors down) sits outside and plays this on a keyboard all day long... sounds like an ice cream truck and I'm getting soooooo sick of it! Why can't he get sick of it too?

Just wanted to share some pics quick, I know I will take hundreds more tonight so wanted to get these done first. We went to the beach last night anticipating it being kinda chilly, but it was gorgeous! And there was very few people there, most of them doing senior pics. Seriously it was so nice, definatley not swimming weather (although there were people in the water taking pics), but great night for the beach... here's what I captured of the night!









Here is one of Bailey in her leotard too...

1000+ and counting...

So, I've been using the camera for just over 24 hours
now and taken over 1000 pics... granted I shoot on continuous shoot mode so when I push the button once I get anywhere from 2-6 shots, and I've deleted most of them! Here are some pics of our night last night and our day today...

The neighbor kids spent the night last night, the kids loved it! They play together all the time, but have never spent the night, and rarely come in the house even. I love waking up to Elliot's smile in the morning, it makes getting up much easier! Elliot loves to watch the kids outside, surely wishing he could be out there with them. In the afternoon while Elliot took his nap we went to my parents and the kids swam in the lake, the water wasn't bad at all, I even went in and I really only like pools! Unfortunately I wasn't real careful when applying the sunscreen and I got fried... yes, again!


Landon had a baseball game tonight, they all did great, except Elliot, who was so incredibly tired and crabby we were all kinda sick of him, but look what he finally did (below), this is maybe the second time since he was 2 months old that he fell asleep in my arms! Gotta say, even though it was scorching hot out, I LOVED it!


Bailey has her recital this weekend, so we will be super busy on Saturday with that, otherwise no real plans, I would love to go out on the boat tomorow, but we'll have to wait on the weather for that! I'll let you know what we do later... enjoy your weekend!

I got to play...

I was so excited to be able to really use my camera today... but first we had stuff to do. Gymnastics, groceries, nap (for Elliot), and doctor (Elliot has been rubbing his ears for a few weeks now, cranky, nose running, I tried to pass it off as teething, but it's continued for a while so I called and got an appointment. What a waste, absolutely nothing was wrong, no ear infection, no teeth, nothing! Which is good and bad, it explains nothing for me, but at least he's ok). Then I got to play... I took these of Elliot and was pretty happy with them...



Then Bailey had a t-ball game...


Now I've got five kids watching a movie in the other room, making popcorn for them and then I'm watching Traveler, have you seen this yet? It's on ABC, Wednesday's at 10, it's great! Suspensful and addicting, definately a summer fav! Tomorow morning I have a doc appt for my diabetes, it's supposed to be HOT HOT HOT tomorow, and Landon has a baseball game at night! Keep cool and have a great day!

It came today...

So, my camera finally came...at 2:30 it was delivered to Matt's work, I was there shortly after to pick it up! I didn't get to open it until about five though because I got to go do a little birthday shopping with Mary, we went downtown to Soul Mate to look for shoes (I found the cutest pair, or a few of them, but I will be going back for one of them) and then we went to Old Navy where i got a pair of shorts for myself and a cute surfer top for Elliot and the coolest shades ever... I hope to get pics of him in them soon, but he doesn't like to keep them on for very long at all! We also got clothes for the kids to go get thier pics taken in (I'll be taking them), Old Navy has the cutest Black and off white clothes right now, so Angela got a cute floral tank in black and white and some black gaucho's, Landon and D got striped gray and black polo's to wear with denim shorts and Elliot got a gray polo! It's something different than the normal white and khaki or denim, I love black on little kids, but it's so hard to find! Oh, yeah and this is the outfit Bailey got...

This is a better pic of the shorts, they are Seersucker Bermudas (pinstripe)

Here are the boys shirts too... I couldn't find Ange's shirt on-line so you'll have to wait for our pics to see that... if you even really care (I know minor details, no one really cares about but me)




So then we came home and I cracked open the box...and quickly started shooting lots and lots of pics (I REALLY need to read the instructions, but I knew enough of the basics to be able to take some right away). I got a great lens for far away shots... you can see examples below...
I was so frustrated though because it seemed to me that I had to manually focus the camera and it seemed to look clear through the lens but then when I downloaded it was so blurry... but after going to a friends house for a minute she showed me a quick fix... switch it to auto focus (duh!) I was thrilled the fix was so easy, I was beginning to have a little buyers remorse, but that passed quick! The only thing that irritates me about the camera is I was under the impression I was buying a silver body and I received a black body, but really that's just cosmetic so no big deal! I really want to take a class though so I can get the full use out of this camera, not just use it for point and shoot!

Here are some other pics I took of Elliot outside, crawling on the driveway...

I managed to take Bailey to gymnastics today after totally forgetting yesterday. Its just not a great time for Elliot he needs to be eating lunch and sleeping during that time, but what can I do?

It was FREEZING out today, I don't know that it made it over 60 degrees, I had on jeans and a long sleeve shirt, Elliot had on a sweatshirt, yuck, I'm hoping for summer again sometime before next year!

OK, enough rambling... here are a few layouts...




Once again... you can check layouts here.

Have a great Wednesday!

Can you bottle that?

You know how (at least for me) certain smells bring back memories? Like I still (13+years later) have a bottle of perfume that my mom wore whenever she went out and still to this day I can open up that bottle, smell it and "see" her, all dressed up, ready to go, it is such a blessing to have that to me! Well, I wish there was a way to do that with every baby stage. Elliot is getting around so well now, he scoots from one end of the house to another in no time (let the babyproofing work, please), he is constantly underfoot in the kitchen (he'll finally crawl on hard floors), he finds every cord that might be visible! Yes, this stage is busier and requires more effort on my part, but I L-O-V-E it! I wish I could bottle up every stage of a child growing up so I could go back to that stage whenever I felt like it! I want them to grow up and move on to the next stage, I really do want that for them, I just don't want to forget one minute of the growing up. I didn't feel this way so much with the older two, I think it's just hitting me that this will be my last, the last time I nurse a baby, the last time I see a baby smile for the first time, crawl for the first time, sit up, eat cereal... the list goes on! OK, enough sentimental stuff, sorry, I just am so overwhelmed by these feeling each day!

So this morning we walked to the post office to ship some candles that I sold on e-bay, that cost way more than I expected, then we walked over to the library to get some books for the kids, so they can keep up reading during the summer. They have a great kids program with incetives etc for the kids during the summer, which starts next week. I'm so thrilled too that this year it is based on time reading instead of books read. It was so hard for Landon to complete b/c I wouldn't let him "dumb" down the books he read, just to get books, so this will be much better for both of them, they always read for half an hour before bed on the weeknights anyway, not sure yet what the time requirements are for the program, but I'm sure it won't be a problem.

On our way to the post office Landon said, "I'm glad we live near downtown so we can walk places" (I'm sure he was thinking of the bakery at the time, while I was thinking more like coffee), but he's so right, it is so convenient and neat that we are able to do that! I'm sure when we move this won't be an option anymore and honestly I think I will miss it a little! (cars are great too, but just not the same)!

I just called for a tracking number for my camera and I'm so excited... it will be here TOMOROW! Unfortunately it's being shipped to Matt's work so I just have to convice him to stay there ALL day or they won't deliver it! We had that problem with the laptop, they said they tried to deliver it twice, which they really never did which we know b/c we were sitting there in the office waiting, and refused to come back, telling me that they had no contact with the trucks, well after over an hour on the phone with FedEx, guess what, they called the truck and... he came back, with my laptop. Luckily my camera is with UPS so hopefully we won't have the same problem! (Did any of that make sense...sorry if I was rambling!)

ETA: This is the new camera I'm getting with a telephoto lens (and the kit lens), which is something I've wanted for a LONG time!




So, the weather is a little cooler today, I actually turned the air off and am sitting in front of an open window enjoying the breeze while the kids play/sleep! Enjoy your day!

Lot's of random thoughts...

So, it's been a while since I showed off any layouts, so here you are... All credits can be seen here






And, I just got a PM from Amy Martin (designer at the Lilypad) that I won a $10 gift certificate just for scrapping with her featured product! Yay!!!! I never win anything! The layout I did with the featured product was the Mother Daughter one above (Bailey and I), the featured product was the sequined frames, what I bought with my gift certificate: Flower Frames Bundle and Cut Out Stars! I already had a lot from Amy, but love everything she puts out so I can always find more!

Bailey had ballet pics today, here are a few of the ones I took before we went to the studio... can't wait to get my camera and set up a little studio of my own to get some better ones!

Aren't those flowers great, they go so perfectly with the ones on her outfit! (They are from Natalie Braxton at the Lilypad)

Matt went fishing last night and look what he got...

We aren't doing so well with stocking the freezer though (which was our hope), we keep just eating it as soon as we get it. We had some friends over for dinner tonight which was fun! They have a son Landon's age (Landon is normally the oldest and out of place one), so the boys played really well together, and a three year old daughter that Bailey played with for a little bit and an 18month old son that Elliot thought was kinda funny for a little while! It was a good time, and good salmon! We marinated some of it in a garlic herb marinade (from Heinz) and then cooked the rest in butter with mushrooms and onions (our standard way of cooking it). If you have any great salmon recipes PLEASE let me know, if Matt is going to keep catching them I need to have other ways to cook it!

Today was so hot and sticky, but guess what I did... I ran! Yay for me! I seriously never have liked running, and I'm still not sure I do, and I definately don't like to sweat (I despise sweating in fact) and today I did both! I got terrible shin splints about half way though, so I ended up walking and let me tell you it was all I could do to keep moving, I so wanted to sit on the curb and send one of the girls that was with me on bike to go get Matt to pick me up, but I made it and then right into the shower! Ultimately it felt good, I just need to figure out how to prevent shin splints... any ideas????

Have a great Sunday!

Summer starts with a BANG!

So, this isn't even all the kids that were over today! And they were BORED, already, oh and it was hot, they wanted to come inside! Seriously, it's June 1, we have til Sept 4 to survive, what am I going to do? I took 11 kids to the park at one point just b/c I was sick of listening to everything here! ELEVEN I said, that's like a small class! And guess what... they were bored! I was with at least 6 kids from the time I got up this morning until 8:30, then it went down to four, and then around noon it was back up to seven kids until 8:30 tonight I was back down to just my three... but crabby boy Elliot is not making my night easy! (Matt is out fishing again, so it's all me again!, but he called and they have at least two salmon this time!) Summer sure is going to be LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG!

I got myself an early birthday present this morning, and kinda a running reward too! An iPod! I know music motivates me to run further/faster, especially peppy oldie music... totall eighties! LOVE IT! So I went running again tonight, not far at all, but I ran more of it than walked! Yeah for me!

Tomorow Bailey has ballet pics, I know I will take some of my own and share them later! and then we are having a salmon dinner in the evening! Matt wants to get some more painting in the bathroom done too! Then Sunday we are going to visit my grandpa in St. Joe (something we haven't done in a long time)! Then Monday... summer vacation AGAIN! What will we do?????? Pray for me!

"Praying for Patience"!

The pictures speak for themselves!

No Title!

The only thing exciting that happened today was this...


I did it myself! Matt is so not going to be happy with me, but oh well! He absolutely despises the mo(faux)hawk! I thought it would be cute to try, all I had to do was trim the sides and back with the clippers, I left the top long! I'm sure it's not perfect and it actually needs some thinning on top, but I don't know how to do that, so thick it will stay! I like it and Landon likes it, so that's all that matters, Matt will just get used to it!

Parade Pics

Finally got the parade pics uploaded...
And guess what... I ran again tonight! I got a terrible side ache though so didn't make it very far, but it was far enough to make my legs hurt!

It's almost June...

I'm happy and I'm sad. First of all, I was a guest for Amy Wolff's creative team in April, that got carried over to May, but now May is almost done so that means I'm almost done! It has been great fun and I will so miss it! You can check out Amy's stuff here!
But, for June I was asked to be a guest for Cori Gammon, you can see her designs here (site is actually down, but for future reference) and here! I'm sure that will be a fun time too and can't wait to get started!
So, all in all a bittersweet ending to May!

For some reason I can't get my pics to download from my camera right now, I had this last week too and had to put them on my other computer, then on the EHD, then transfer to my laptop... quite a process and I don't feel like doing it right now... so maybe later I will be able to share some Memorial Day pics!

We had a good day yesterday, or at least productive! We went to the parade in the morning, which turned out to be quite hot! Then the kids both had friends over and played outside most of the day while Matt and I cleaned the house and yard. The house is actually clean for once, not perfectly, but it's clean at least! While Matt was mowing the lawn I was on the phone with Great Wolf Lodge trying to get reservations using a coupon a friend got in the mail, with NO luck! I talked to four different people, with different answers from each, then when I finally got one that started understanding me we got disconnected (or maybe she hung up on me...), so guess what, we just aren't going to go! (Bummer)

Then in the evening we grilled with Matt's mom and brother, we had salmon (some of it was marinated in this...seriously, you have to check it out if you like fish, this is marvelous), fruit salad (with Cool Whip), party potatoes (marvelous), and zuccini squash! Followed by some fruit salad! Yummy stuff!

After all that dinner I decided there was no better time than the present to start running! So I went for a brisk walk, followed by some running, something I never have done or been at, but I was proud of myself. I made goals that I had to run this far before walking and I surpassed by goal by quite a bit! YEAH for me!

I just had to go to get blood drawn and renew my license at the SOS office (always lovely fun) now I'm off to Grandville in a bit to return a shirt and maybe pick up something different! Have a great monday (oops, Tuesday I mean), I'll be back later with some pics hopefully!

J-E-L-L-O...

...that's how my legs feel right now, but more on that later...

So, Friday we went out for dinner. We ended up getting pizza at Clover Bar, not my typical kind of place, kinda small and grungy looking, but I know they have great pizza, so that makes it all ok! I'm kinda fanatical about my pizza, I know what I like and what I don't like, I don't like Pizza Hut, Vitales, Hungry Howies (although I will eat all but Pizza Hut), or any of the other chains really, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE, Marios (tons of cheese and great hot sauce/salsa to put on the pizza), Fricanos (for when your looking for tons of grease), Skiles (nice thin pizza, lots of cheese, great sauce) and Clover Bar (with fresh garlic), oh and there is a place up in Ludington with great pizza too, called Irish Pub I think! Anyway, it was great to get away without kids with friends.

Saturday we woke up pretty late, took our time getting ready (literally we didn't get dressed until 11:00), kinda a nice lazy morning! Then we went to get some steak at Bob's Butcher Block, our first time there, the steak was incredible and not any more expensive thatn the chain grocery stores! Then Meijers to get some other necesities. Matt trimmed the bathroom, so all we have left to do is flooring and some paint! So excited to be almost done! My goal is to have the For Sale sign in the front yard by my birthday! Were going to try By Owner first, if that doesn't work after a while we will have my brother list it!

In the evening we went to Ryan and Kari's to grill with some friends. It was nice to get out of the house and socialize, it was raining though so we couldn't do a campfire, but that didn't stop us from s'mores, we just had to use the stove! The kids all played well together, Mayci and Elliot actually kinda played, Elliot was a master at crawling, he is getting around so well now and getting faster by the day, which may not be all that great, but for now it's fun to watch! Mayci was quite the ham when the camera came out...so cute. The babies actually stayed up quite late (like 9:00, normal bedtime of 8:00 or before for Elliot), and they were doing great, smiling and all!




Today we went to church and then out for lunch, then home for naps (the kids had to take naps b/c they chose to stay up LATE to watch the Jazz/Spurs game)! Matt is out fishing this evening, he couldn't wait to get out salmon fishing, as many times as he has tried he hasn't been able to salmon fish with his boat yet! And yeah for him, I just talked to him and they have one and lost one right at the boat, I'll update later on how many he comes home with! While they have been gone Bailey and I went for ice cream at Coldstones and then put Elliot to bed and we went and jumped on the trampoline for about half an hour, which brings me back to my title, my legs feel like jello! At one point I couldn't even breath and thought I may be dying, but it was good for me, I can't believe how out of shape I am. Then we came inside and played 2 game of Sorry, we each won once! And now we are watching Ice Princess on ABC family, such a cute movie, and munching on popcorn!

Tomorow we are off to the parade, not sure if the kids will be in it or just watch it, we'll decide that in the morning I guess! I need to clean my house (don't I say that every time I post, it feels like I always need to do it) in the afternoon, then grilling Salmon in the evening with Matt's mom for Mothers Day (yeah, a little late, but we didn't have any fish before)!

So enjoy your Memorial Day!

And a couple of random pics to share with you...

Have you seen enough bath pics of my boy yet, this was his first one in the big tub without a seat and he was so thrilled to get in! He seriously goes CRAZY when he sees water running, CrAzY I tell ya!

And...Elliot just LOVES his dog, (ok really any dog, but especially his), he always is crawling over to him to try and play with his feet and as often as I try to stop him, Dex has licked him a few times, much to Elliots JOY! He giggles so hard, but grosses me out so bad!

ETA:

Family free time, finally!

Today was a HOT, windy, gorgeous day...


This morning I had to go to Target to get...diapers! Gotta love spending money on that! I also got myself some of these...in both black and camo, not sure about the camo ones yet, they are a size smaller than the black ones and I wore the black ones today and they were sooooo comfy!

I also picked up some of these...in cream soda, berry lemonade and green apple, they are kinda fun!

So after target I had to get home to give Elliot his nap and get him all ready to go to EJ's while I went on a field trip!

Bailey's class had thier class picnic today, we walked to the park from school (not a long walk, but not right next door either), ate lunch together, played on the playground, did a few relay races and blew some bubbles, then ate ice cream sundae's then walked back to school. The walk back was way longer than the way there, the kids were tired and complaining about everything (God didn't grant me a lot of patience when it comes to complaining!). While at the picnic I had brought sunscreen and was putting it on anyone that asked, but in the chaos I forgot to put it on one important person...me! Keep in mind that I never used to burn, I could be white as winter, go to Florida, spend a day on the beach and get nicely brown... sometime during my pregnancy with number three the hormones changed and it only took about 5 minutes outside (sunny or cloudy, maybe even rainy) and I was lobster red, well I was hoping that would go away when Elliot was born, but no such luck! I am in soooo much pain right now, I have never ever been so red, it's almost purple!

Here are a few pics from the picnic...

For the first time in a very very long time we had no plans and no sports on an evening...so we decided to take advantage of it. We took the boat out for a ride, no fishing poles (which was very hard for Matt to do), just our family, life jackets and the boat. Keep in mind this boat isn't huge, it's not even big, but it's bigger than the fishing boat we had before. It's nothing super special, but we like it, it's perfect for fishing (which is the main reason we have a boat) and it doesn't take $100 or more to fill up the tank. This was Elliot's first boat ride and we weren't sure how he would do with the lifejacket on. He wasn't thrilled about the lifejacket at all, but once we started moving I think the noise and vibrations of the motor calmed him down and he almost zoned out. Then I fed him a bottle as we rode through the channel which made him real happy. It was so hard for him to sit with that jacket on so he prefered to lay, which is the top middle pic, I finally just laid him on the floor and he was so thrilled with that, except that he couldn't roll over! Anyway, it was so nice to get out with the fam, away from the things we have to do at home and I'm sure we will be going again soon!


After our boat trip I had to run to Target AGAIN to get new bike helmets for the kids, both of thiers were broken and I won't let them ride without them and since Landon rides to and from school he needed a helmet!

Now the kids are in bed, all is well, I'm resting so I can clean clean clean tomorow, we need a good deep clean around here, what a fun fun Friday that will be. Actually we are going out for dinner tomorow night with some friends (no kids...) and then a campfire and grilling with other friends Saturday, so that should be fun! Enjoy your memorial day weekend (I'm sure I'll be back before you know it, but just in case you aren't...)

80 degrees and lovin' it!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day! Sunny and warm, finally (although that could change again this weekend...gotta love Michigan). I tried to lay out for a bit and get a little sun on these white legs of mine (aren't you lucky, no pics of that!) So, yeah, that worked for like 10 minutes, then Elliot decided to wake up way early from his nap, so I tried taking him outside with me, tried putting a hat on his little head, tried being the key word, I tried about 15 times and finally gave up! :) And you can see in the following picture what we did next to stay cool... our own little "pool"...

This lasted about another 10 minutes and then he decided he was tired again and needed another nap..., but that time I was over being outside, so, no sun for me...

Here is Landon's baseball team picture...

And I scrapped one of the pictures already last night...

Credits can be seen... here! I used these new papers by Amy Wolff...Just Plain Wonky, check them out! And, while you are there, check out the gallery at the LilyPad, there is so much great stuff to be seen and ideas to be had!

Today I'm babysitting so were a little busier, but it will be a fun day for the kids none the less...as long as Bailey cheers up! The baby's are sleeping right now and the girls are playing Polly's so I had a quick break...and here I am, should be cleaning more...ok, off to clean!

Enjoy your day!