Bo-Ring...

Not much to share today! We didn't really do much! Bailey had gymnastics again, then I made the kids take a nap, they were so crabby and driving me C-R-A-Z-Y! Tonight Bailey had a t-ball game (her last) and then we went for ice cream afterwards! See lot's of pics below!

Tomorow is my birthday and Matt took the day off, he's going fishing in the morning and then we are hanging out either at the beach or a pool! Depends totally how Elliot is doing, but it sounds so good to me! Matt and I are going out for dinner at night (not sure where yet though, maybe Buffalo Wild Wings or maybe Cabrera's, never been there before) and getting stuff for the summer party that the kids are having on Friday night, so far there are 20 kids coming (between the two of them), should be a fun night (for them at least)! So yeah, not sure I'll post again until Saturday (but hey, I'm pretty faithful, who knows)! If I'm not back, enjoy your weekend, I'll be back with pics I'm sure!

No calls on our house yet, not sure exactly what I expected, but I guess I was thinking we would have at least had a call by now, just a call wondering at least, definately not ready to show it to anyone for sure, but I could be if someone just wanted to ask! Yes, I know some of you have had houses for sale for a LONG time and I know I'm expecting a lot, but I guess I was just excited, although I don't plan on moving for a looooonnnnnnggggg time!








P.S. Yay for us, Matt just got back from Meijers with ... not one but two new cordless phones with caller i.d., no more being attached to the wall while on the phone, seriously, I shut my phone off for a while today I was so sick of talking on it and not being able to move. and double yay, I am ordering a Lands End suit (with birthday money) when I'm done here they have one in my size today for some reason, in brown, really wanted black, but brown is just as good!

Good day...

Today was a good day, all around really! I was blog hopping this morning and checked Sarah's blog and of course she had to mention something about the bakery! YUMMY! I absolutely love donuts from the bakery! Specifically Zeeland Bakery! YUMMMMMM-MEEEEEEE! So, the kids and I headed over there by foot (gotta walk off that donut ya know!), got our donut and headed to the benches to enjoy them outside in the beautiful weather! Wouldn't you know it but Sarah ended up riding by while we were eating so we visited with them for a bit which was nice and also did some other visiting, it was like social time in downtown Zeeland!

Then Bailey had gymnastics (only 2 more days...) and then we met Matt for lunch which was fun, Elliot did wonderfully despite the fact that it was naptime! Elliot came home and took a 3 1/2 hour nap and Bailey had Morgan over to play while Landon was at Dimitri's!

Matt had to go look at a job tonight so we went along and the kids got to go swimming, we ate pizza, Landon and Baily bowled on the Nintendo Wii (guess what's now on his wish list, which is where it will stay until the price comes down a LOT) and then we went to get ice cream! Great times, the kids had a blast! Definately tired now though!





And, I did this for Matt today for Fathers day, I'm getting it on a stretched canvas from winkflash (40% off using coupon code RM77CV63)! He can put it in his office, he was wanting more pics of the kids, so this should be good for a while!

The good and the bad...

First the good...
Our house is finally FOR SALE! I figured we would never get it truly ready, so even though there is still stuff to be done, I went ahead and put the sign out. It's an older home, we are doing a few things yet and if someone wants to see it they may have to look past a few things... oh well! It feels wierd to have it for sale even though this has been our plan for quite some time, it's our first home, our kids have pretty much grown up here (Landon at least), and as much as we need something bigger I may actually miss the place, even the train running through the backyard!

OK, so now the bad... actually there are two of them!
Yesterday while getting ready to go out on the boat I called Matt from my car on the way to pick up lunch, he answered the cordless and talked while on the boat (in the driveway), then he set the phone down on the edge, he thinks once he got out he put it on the steps by our door (but it's not there...). Well when we got home I went to check caller i.d. to see if anyone important called, couldn't find the phone, paged it, still couldn't find it, called it, and still couldnt' find it... so now we don't know where our phone is. Unfortunately it's our only cordless and our only phone with caller i.d., so all day today I've answered the phone every time it rang (when I could hear it at least) which is something I normally don't do, and when I do answer the phone I'm stuck to the wall with it! Ahhgggggg, what did people do before cordless? I'm holding out on replacing it, hopeing it will turn up SOON, but if it doesn't by tomorow night a new phone is in the forcast for us!

Today I finally decided to get a bathing suit from Land's End, something that would hide my not so prego, but looks prego belly, found one I really liked (which came in a one piece and a tankini) and guess what... nothing in my size! Wouldn't you know it, so that was quite a bummer too!
And, wouldn't you know it as I'm trying to post a pic of the suit I like it won't let me, so in case your wondering I will post the link... just in case you care you can see it here! And if that doesn't work, well bummer for you! :)

With that I will wish you a wonderful Tuesday! (No pics, can you even believe it, I took some tonight but the process of downloading is so much bigger with these much larger files so I may actually share tomorow!)

OK, I'm back it's killing me, I need to add something visual... so here is a layout I've finished recently, I've been finding it so hard to scrap, no inspiration, definately still trying though...

Not doing anything special with the pics...

but here are some anyway! We went out on the boat today for a few hours, totally taking a chance by giving Elliot only an hour nap so we could go in the afternoon instead of evening, we were worried that it would be a really short trip, but it worked out so well. Elliot actually fell asleep and Matt got to put some lines in the water... one fish on, none in though! Bummer!



Oh, and Sarah, guess what... I put on SPF 45 and didn't get burned, yay me! Matt on the other hand wasn't so smart! He is a bright red tomato! Bummer for him!

Great family time today and now let the busyness begin again...lots of games and meetings this week, supposed to be nice weather so hoping to MAYBE make it to the beach, MAYBE, not sure how Elliot will do though!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Big day today...

Today was Bailey's recital, she was so excited and loved every minute of it, although we are both really tired (her more than me of course), I helped backstage during the first show and then was able to sit in the audience during the second, I got some ok pictures, I just need to figure out how to work my camera, even with some tips from Nina I didn't do so well, I need to play around more, I just didn't want to mess up, so I went with settings I knew would "work" but not produce anything wonderful, here is a very small percent of the pics I took...









She was in tears when she saw her hair in the mirror after taking all the pins out, partly because she was so tired, partly because it looked soooo funny! Poor girl!

Tomorow is church, then we are hoping to go out on the boat if Elliot naps well! Have a great sunday!

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"!