{Ahh..the little things}

2 years ago

I started blogging :)

Yep, today is my blog's birthday or blogiversary, as I have heard some people call it.  I may spend some time later looking through my archives for some good things to share, but I've got alot of things that I want to get to today.

Like setting up my scrap/craft space in the basement.  I was tired of looking at it all while I was pregnant & hauled it all down there and piled it up.  That is where it has stayed.  I've not been getting into much since then, and if I do I just grab what I need out of the piles.  Considering I've not been pregnant for almost 10 months now, I decided it was time to tackle the mess. The kids have been playing down there each morning before Ellie goes to school, so I thought maybe I could be down there more too.  I could be with them, yet get some scrapping/crafting done too.  I miss that outlet, and I want to get things back to where I am able to use some of the stuff I have.  Maybe (if I am brave enough) I can post before pics so you can see how bad it really is...

We are also going camping this weekend, so I have to get things packed for that.  Sounds like I have a busy day ahead of me already :)

the missing shoe(s)

Near the beginning of the summer, we were camping at the lake.  Zander must have fallen asleep on the way, and when he does, his shoes fall to the floor.  No problem.  Except that he sits right next to the door.  So, on one of our stops along the way, the older kids must have kicked his shoe out the door going out.

Of course, they were his cute little Old Navy "flip flopppers", but we move on.  We have no other shoes for him, so we make a run to the dollar store.  He picks some silly Wiggles sandals (really there were not much better choices).

So, summer moves on & we buy some adorable new "crocs" which are actually sketchers, but he calls them crocs to fit in with his siblings.  He even gets a dinosaur jibbit to make them even cooler  :)  We get into the car one afternoon after the beach...and no croc.  And of course we are missing the one WITH the dino *sigh*

Now he has been wearing an old pair of slip on sandals that were Kaden's or the wiggles sandals (if I am not woried about what he looks like, LOL).  Yesterday he fell asleep in the car while we were picking up the kids & of course, the shoes fell off.  But here is the strange part...no one was getting OUT of the car, only INTO the car, yet guess what? 

He LOST another sandal!!

Yes, that makes THREE sandals lost this year.  I am thinking that this kid needs SHOES!

But, the funniest part is, he has never lost one of those darn wiggles ones :)

thanks

to Hummie for starting her digiscrapping blogroll  :) 

I am getting lots of traffic from it,  I hope they are not disappionted when they come over here to find I am not doing much scrapping or designing...maybe I should come up with a freebie to show my digiscrapping love!

Here it is just in case you'd like to see it.  It is HUGE, I am sure it could keep you busy for hours looking through all of the great scrapping blogs!!

Get this Blogroll Code

an AMAZING day

Sunday was just that. 

The weather was PERFECT, so we headed to the lake to visit my parents.  My Mom & her husband for the first half of the afternoon, and my Dad and his new FIANCE (just this week...congrats again guys!!) for the second half of the day.  It turned out to be a great day, relaxing for the grown ups & lots of fun for the little ones.  We love being there visiting :)

And just look how beautiful the day was....

Who could ask for much more?

the routine

We are starting to get back into the "normal" busy routine that is life with four kids...

Today I dropped Ellie off for her first day of Kindergarten (it was cancelled last Friday due to the heat).  It was MUCH easier than I thought, I was proud of her for being such a big girl.  She started to slow down as she was closer to the door, and I started to feel anxious for her.  Just as I thought I would start to cry, I took a deep breath....

and from the backseat comes   "MOMMMY, are you gonna play with me when we get home?  Are you going to play in the basement with me?  Mommy?  Mommy? MOMMMMMMY??" 

Yes, I was ignoring him, just trying to think about Ellie going into her school and if she would like it, if she would be brave, if she would talk to her teacher, etc.  But he would have no part in that...he screamed until I finally answered him for fear that my head might explode.  I felt bad for him, I know he just feels left out & wanted to make sure that he still had me to play with while Ellie was gone at school (she told him that on the way to school).  I assured him that we'd play together at home, and I'd get him a drink, and he could finish watching Dora and Diego, and I am sure that he asked me 12 other things that I can not think of right now :)

Kaden started school last Tuesday, and he looooooves the second grade!  We already had two postive notes sent home form his teacher  :)  He gets in the car & is so wound up though, I am glad that the weather is cooler than last week so he can play outside to burn off all of that saved up energy! 

He also had his first soccer game on Saturday where he scored 3 goals, helping his team win 7-0  It was awesome, we were very proud of him & he loved being on of the "big kids" on the team this year.

Next week I'll add my weekly Bible study to the schedule with big hopes that Ava will be tolerant of staying in the nursery.  The good thing about it is that they just have a small group of kids, so they are all together (meaning she'll be with Ellie & Zander).  The bad news is that it is during her naptime, so I am thinking it will be a tough start for her, but I know she'll get used to it. 

Things are good here, I am already missing the lazy summer pool days, but am feeling good about a freash start too.  And now that the pool is no longer an option, I am longing for the cool days of fall :)

A letter...to my van??

You can't be serious. 

That means (in my mind anyway) that my van would have to have a name.  I mean, I can not just call it Pontiac Montana, because, well, that is just too boring for me.  So, if I was going to write a letter to my van, I'd have to find a name for it first.  I decided to discuss the situation with my 7yr old on the way to school today  :)

I said "Hey, don't you think that our van should have a name?"  He just kind-of looked at me with that look.  You know the look, the one that looks as if he is thinking "My mom has officially gone crazy!"  I started with a list of names like...Ponty, Monty, or Ponty-Monty (cause I am creative like that, LOL).  He suggested Luigi, and a few other that I can not remember now. This was becoming harder than I thought.  To name it, it had to have some personality (in my mind anyway) and let's just face it...it does not. 

I started to think I needed to stop thinking about my van, because all of these things were freaking me out a little.  A personality, a name... I began to picture the movie Christine and decided that as much fun as it sounded to join in the blog blast this week, I was just not doing it!

Sorry Ponty-Monty (or whatever you like to be called), maybe some other day I'll tell you how great you are.  Oh! and I apologize that we've been home over a week and you STILL have sand in every nook & cranny, I'll vacuum you very soon, I promise :)

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To see a picture of Ponty my van & read how excited I was to finally have it, you can read this post.

To read the creative letters that some people wrote to their cars/vans/trucks, you can visit Parent Bloggers Network (PBN) for all of the fun links. They have a contest going on for those people who do feel like writing an open letter, and they are helping to promote a website for women called Ask Patty.

AskPatty is a fantastic website providing automotive advice for women, and the staff has recently launched CarBlabber, a place for women to write about their cars - the good, bad, and ugly - and to learn what other women think of their own cars.

 

This must STOP!

She must stop this. 

Now. 

I am just not ready.

But she is. 

She is so very ready.

She is always on the move, trying her best to keep up with her bigger siblings.

And it looks to me like she will be & very SOON...

vacation slideshow

LOVE these pictures

Love these crazy kids  :)

the filters used on these was ambience in virtual photographer, which are AWESOME!!!

tomorrow

*edited to add this picture from 2003, and to change my words/thoughts around some*

I must take Kaden to 2nd grade! 

And later this week Ellie starts Kindergarten...

I will have TWO school-aged kiddos, can you believe that? 

I am having trouble when I think back to the preschool days of these two "big kids" Those days seem so long ago already, and it saddens me to know that those days are already in our past.  The past (before kids) used to seem like a time that I wanted to move on from, like I was always ready for a change, for the next step in my life.  When I was in school, I wanted to be older, then I wanted to be in college, and when I was in college, I wanted to be a "grown up" and I wanted to be a wife & a Mother. 

Now I am all of these things, and time is going by way too quickly.  I already feel like I look back at the "past" (since becoming a Mommmy) in a WHOLE different way.  I feel like I am looking back all of the time instead of ahead, and would LOVE to have it back.  To soak it all up even more.

Those times they were just little ones, when they would still depend on me for everything.  I miss that already.

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Here are a few of my fave pictures from our vacation.  Still no scrapping going on, I guess I am just doing collages for the time being, LOL  :)