Great Mail Day

well, it was actually yesterday, but who cares. Thank you so much Secret Pal for your awesome gifts. It is so nice in this day of getting gift cards to actually receive something in the mail. The box was filled with awesome stuff, there was a Hershey's Symphony chocolate bar, two sets of super cute refrigerator magnets, a huge yarn magnet (the kids love it BTW) and a felted flower kit. Funny story about the flower kit, I got the same one for my secret pal and was thinking of buying one for myself, glad I didn't. I can't wait to make it, by the looks of the yarn, it will be an orange gerbera daisy. OOOOH, this was also the reveal gift, my SP7 is Tracy. She has been an awesome secret pal, her boxes were filled with great goodies. Can't wait to start commenting on her blog. Here is a pic of the goodies.

Last night my parents came over, we BBQ'd and my mom brought the homemade chocolate cake. It was so yummy. The chocolate frosting was more of a glaze, it was oh so oooey, gooey. By the end of the night, Nathan had chocolate everywhere (good thing they get baths at night). Good thing it was just my parents, Nick was exhausted and passed out at 6:30. I got the kids into bed and then my mom did some reflexology on my feet. They feel so much better today.

Today

Today is my birthday, I’m now 31 years old. For whatever reason, I handled 30 pretty well, but 31 is bothering me. I have done so many things while I was 30 and I know I will do a ton more while I’m 31, but today it is bugging me. It is a totally normal day for me, I don’t or won’t get to lounge around at all. Jared has school this morning and I have the usual errands to run, except that I’m going to stop at Barnes and Noble and get the new Vogue Knitting. I would stay in the Chandler Mall and shop a bit, but I’ll have Madi and Nathan with me and I really don’t want to listen to complaining today. It will be a quick in and out bookstore trip. Nick gets home from work at 10:45 am but he is going to go to Costco first and pick up the usual; milk, butter and chicken. Somehow I didn’t realize how dangerously low we were on these three essential ingredients. Seeing as how I love to bake, being out of butter would be horrible. No banana breads or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The rest of the day should be the normal chaos, but I’m looking forward to maybe getting a few hours in at my scrapping table to either clean it up or do a quick layout. I’ve been inspired by Ali Edwards so much lately and she blogged about a challenge that she participated in. Scrapping yourself. I have a picture that I took the last week of myself that I’m going to use. Wish me luck. The creative juices need to be flowing.

My parents are stopping over tonight for dinner and they are bringing a homemade chocolate cake. I promise I’ll take pictures of it. My mom already told me what she got for me (gift cert for Fiber Factory), I’m so excited for that. Nick had actually asked me what I wanted yesterday, but nothing truly came to mind. Since I signed up for CKU-A, I think that birthdays and holidays for the next two years are all taken care of.

I finished the first sleeve for the baby bolero on Thursday but haven’t even gotten to start the second sleeve. I’m hoping to do that during naps today and tomorrow so I can seam it all up at Coffee Rush Tuesday night. And yes, Heather, I will put sticky notes all over my house and car to remind me to take the cheese. I know you said it wasn’t a big deal, but I’m bound and determined to remember it this time.

Ladybugs and Yoga

Funny combo don't ya think!!! Nick went to Home Depot and came home with a package containing approximately 1500 live ladybugs. They are so good for the garden that he couldn't pass up the opportunity. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take about a 100 pictures of the kids playing with the ladybugs. here are the highlights



Madisson didn't like it when they landed on her hand, but she loved looking at them. The boys thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the ladybugs, neither one minded if they were crawling on them.

I also got to go to a Yoga Studio for an introductory session. It was amazing. It is part of the Dahn Yoga Centers. It isn't going to be a traditional yoga place, there is much more emphasis placed on breathing, mediation and mental well being than on stretching. This is exactly what I need though. I've been too stressed lately between trying to balance the kids, crafts, hubby and house. I signed up for a 3 month trial. I can go up to 3 times per week and the class times fit in really well with the kids and Nick's schedule.

We did it!!!

Elisabet and I got into all but one of our first choices for CKU-A in San Jose in June. We are both so jazzed. The scrapbook album that we'll be doing is going to be a Week in the Life. it will be a snapshot of an ordinary week, all of the nonsense that entails an ordinary week. I can't wait to start capturing that week. I definitely want it to be a week that jared is in school. We are taking it with an amazing Life Artist, Ali Edwards. I just purchased a few of her shirts that are for sale through CafePress, the AE Manifesto and the Capture Life, Create Art sayings. I really feel that the Capture Life saying is perfect for me with photography as well.

This will be the first trip that I have taken without anybody else since before Jared was born four years ago. Okay, I did leave the house for 24 hours, but that was to have Nathan. I couldn't wait to get back home then. Now, I can't wait to do something like this for me. I love being home with the boys, but I need some time for me.

I've got one more sleeve to do on the Baby Bolero and then it is time for seaming. I think this is why I like one piece garments so much, I'm not big on seaming, but this bolero is way cute that I'll deal with it.

Jared's 4 year check up

He is getting so big, we can't believe it. We've had the same pediatrician since he was born and she can't believe he is four already. Time certainly flies. She was very happy that he was doing so good in school and already starting to write his name. Jared was excited to tell her all about school and the friends he has there. It was too cute. He is now 36 1/2 lbs and 42 inches tall. His ears have cleared up so hopefully we can avoid anymore ear infections with all of his allergy medicine he takes now. The appointment went great until the nurse came back in to give him his shots and then it went downhill from there. Luckily though besides flu shots he doesn't have to get any more immunizations until he is 11. Of course there wasn't any solace in that comment. He is playing normally now like nothing happened this morning so all is fine again. Back to being a little bit mean to Nathan.

Just got me some new technology!!!

This baby will be delivered sometime very soon,

I sold a bunch of scrapbooking stuff on eBay to get the $$$ to buy this. I do a lot of big titles on my scrapbook pages and this baby will come in handy. It can print up to 13"x19" size whereas most regular printers can do up to 8.5x11. That means more journaling and fluffy titles will be coming my way. I ordered it off of the Epson website to avoid that pesky tax that Staples would be charging me. There is also a $100 rebate on this printer through the end of the month, so it is all working out grand. Hopefully I'll have a free Fedex shipping number by the end of the day.

Onto some knitting, I gave the first baby hat to Dionne last night at her shower, I think she really liked it. She was so overwhelmed by everybody, that I doubt it has all settled in yet. I'm also working diligently on the Baby Bolero, it is coming along really nicely. I finished the eyelet motif that it calls for and now I'll be working on the other front piece, hopefully I can get the sleeves done for tomorrow's Stitch n' Bitch group so that I can sew it all together. Once this bolero is finished, it will be socks and Tivoli all the way baby.

Hope that everybody had a great weekend!!!

Lots of new projects

I started a bunch of new projects this week, they aren't going to look like much yet, but I'm hoping they all turn out well. I'm almost done with all of the baby knitting for the babies that the sexes are known for. Still waiting to find out the sex of my cousin's second baby and my SIL's second one. They both go the end of the month so we all can't wait. Since I've never actually finished a pair of socks yet, I decided that knitting baby ones for gifts was going to have to wait. The twins in California will be getting a Blue Sky Organic cotton baby hat and a Baby Bolero (made of the same cotton). I got the Baby Bolero pattern from the new One Skein book. It is a really cool book.

The next new projects is a pair of socks knit on two circulars both at the same time. I had a lot of help from Heather on these, especially getting started. It didn't matter to me that both of them didn't exactly match, that makes them more unique. They are coming along quite nicely. Going to be a really simple knit, K3P2 ribbing for the top and stockinette the rest of the way. I am knitting these in Sockotta in the purple/pink combo. I really like the pretty colors so far.

Last new project is the Tivoli. I'm knitting this out of Debbie Bliss Cathay in the teal color, I figure it will be a nice spring/summer color, should be a quick knit since it is knit in the round. I'm not so good at seaming so this is definitely my style.

Not much else is going on, I work the next two nights and we aren't watching Madi today, she is going to be headed to Payson to try to find some snow with her parents. I was trying to convince Nick that we should do the same, but he just wants to veg out at home today.

Less than one week until registration for CKU-Albums in San Jose.

Jared's 4, part 2

Here are the pictures from the family party last night. Again, Jared had a field day, really enjoyed himself. He got a few more Vsmile games, clothes and art supplies, Vsmile art studio, huge bubble producing thingy and a fish tank with four goldfish. The cake we got for this party Jared picked out himself at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream store. He picked out Mint Chocolate Cookie and Sweet Cream and Cookies as the two ice creams. It was an awesome cake. Picture heavy post below.

Jared's 4, part 1

We ended up having two birthday parties today for Jared. The first one was at Peter Piper Pizza for the kids who he goes to school with and his other friends. He had an absolute blast there. What could be better than a ton of tokens, games, pizza and cake???? All of the kids had a really great time. It was especially easy on us, we didn't have to set up, cook any food or clean up. Total worth it. Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy with his friends




They had a car that rocked and sang songs, we couldn't get the grin off of Nathan's face while he was in there


I'll post pictures from the family party tomorrow, time to clean up the house and pass out.

Following in parents footsteps

I never thought my own parents would be as bad as my grandparents, but they are exactly alike. Every time we go to my grandparents house we always check expiration dates before we eat anything. Sometimes my grandma just stocks up and doesn't realize that stuff has expired, other times it just hangs out in the refrigerator so long that it is forgotten. Okay, back to my point. I took the kids to my parents house on Sunday for breakfast and the milk was expired (only milk in the house) and about half of the stuff in the pantry was well past the dates on the boxes. I give my parents a hard time, but they just laugh it off. Of course that didn't necessarily stop my from taking a box of Trader Joes Meyer Lemon cake mix that had expired in January. I'm baking it right now. I sure hope it is still good, because it sure does smell good baking.

Here are some cute pics of my mom with the boys, my dad was manning the camera today.



here is the baby sock so far. I'm having issues visualizing what turning the heel is supposed to look like so the sock is waiting for SnB tonight. My mom is coming along with me. She has been needing to get out and socialize since they moved to Gold Canyon.

Ooooh's and Aaaaaah's

The latest ooh was this,
Fedex just delivered it and it is loading as we speak. I have heard some awesome things about this version, I can't wait. Of course I'll be working tonight so I won't get to play until the morning.

Then I also finished a baby hat, our friends are having their shower in a few weeks so I needed to get on the ball. I used Blue Sky organic cotton for the hat and then the tassel will be blue. I'll be making the baby booties or socks (can't decide yet) with the same blue yarn so it all ties together.

Here are two random pics of the boys. Nathan and Jared are finally starting to act like brothers, only waited 19 months for this to happen. They really enjoy each other now as seen here. They are taking a ride around the yard in the top of their sandbox. It is daddy who is dragging them around, I wouldn't be able to move them together at almost 60 lbs combined.