What a long week it's been

I know I should have been updating the blog every day especially since I was doing "A Week in the Life", but life got the best of me this week. I went from not really doing too much, to having four photo shoots, working two days, going to yoga a few times, knitting and finishing off the week with a bit of scrapbooking. I have a ton of pictures from the week, but they mainly pertain to my assignment. I did get some super cute pictures of the kids however though. Since it seemed like I had the camera attached to my face I captured many more true to life moments. There had certainly been times in the last few months that I would got at least a week without wanting to take a picture. Not a good attitude to have when you are a photographer/mom. I think I'm definitely out of my rut and I can see the minute details in everything that occurs each day.

I think someone at school told him to smile like this, I certainly would never promote such a funky grin, looks like it hurts!!


On Monday we went to Target to look for quilt clips (they didn't have them, but I ordered them online), Nathan saw this Nemo hat and then I had to listen to a Hello Kitty sob story throughout the rest of the store, so I caved and got Madisson a hat as well. None of the toddler hats fit Jared anymore, but the boy sizes are still a bit too big, poor kid.


All three being pretty civil to each other,

Nathan backed up to a wall this morning and just looked too adorable for words,

Yesterday, I took a walk with Nathan and we visited one of my friends down the street who has a little boy just two months older than Nathan. They get along really well, in this photo, Nathan was trying to reach the ceiling with a broom and his buddy being so helpful.

And to end the day, here is a photo of my favorite facial cleanser. I've been using Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel for more than 5 years, still in love with it.

Week in the Life has started

To explain, I'm going to a Creating Keepsakes University in June where I will be immersed in all that is Ali Edwards. I will be working on an album entitled "A Week in the Life". The idea behind this album is that the everyday mundane things that I do are special, so while the hell not document them. I figured that this week would be as good as any. I set out this morning with camera and journal in hand keeping track of the little things and the big things that I spent my day doing. I ran errands, picked up Jared from school, hung out with him and Nick while Madi and Nathan napped and Ken came over to hang out as well. I handed Ken my camera and told him to snap a few family pictures for us. I didn't care that we were all wearing hideous combinations of clothing, it is just important that we can be photographed together. Normally I'm behind the camera, if it wasn't for my journaling in their scrapbooks, no one would really know that I exist. here is the family picture and a super funny picture of Nick with the kids. They are playing Choo Choo. Nathan is hanging onto Madi for dear life, I guess the train was going a little nuts. Can I just tell you that I was a little peeved by this activity, not because anybody got hurt but because said activity occurred as I was trying to get Madi and Nathan down for their naps. No one wanted to stop the train. Oh well.

Weekend craziness

I can't believe how fast this weekend has already flown by. I kinda start my weekend on Friday since I'm normally working. On Friday I took Jared to school, went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention at the Mesa Convention Center, got back just in time to pick him up from school, then the two of us headed to Maricopa to pick up the Step 2 Lifestyles Custom Kitchen that a lady was selling on Craigs List. It was a really good deal, and in awesome shape. The kids haven't stopped playing with it. Nathan is really getting into imaginative play right now and Jared loves anything to do with food, so this was a perfect combo. After getting home with the kitchen, I had to run back out and head to work to the crop night at Recollections. Those poor 34 ladies looked wiped out. Most of them had gone to the convention during the day and then came to our store to crop the night away. We got out of there right on time since everyone was cleared out by 11:50pm.

Saturday started out just as hectic, but then got better. Both kids decided that the crack of freakin' dawn was the right time to get up. Jared wouldn't listen to reason, but Nathan went back to sleep. We went to a birthday party for one of the boys in Jared's class, he had a really good time, but both of the boys were tired and Nathan was getting a little pesky so we escaped before any true misbehavior ensued. My friend Andrea came over tonight and we got some scrapbooking done since I was homebound due to Nick being at the NASCAR race. So far I have gotten three pages done and am waiting for my printer to finish up on some pictures and then I'll have two more done. Andrea got three pages done before she headed out of here. Traffic really sucked on her way out and she was exhausted by the time she got here.

Not much on the agenda for tomorrow, pancakes with my parents in the morning and that is all she wrote.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Awesome knitting progress last night

I had a blast at Coffee Rush last night. I got there a bit early and met up with Sarah, Kelli and Heather at Pita Jungle. I had a really great piece of Raspberry Mango cheesecake. Then we were off to Coffee Rush. I knitted most of the night on the Bunny Blanket Buddy. This will be a gift for my soon to be born niece. It is super soft, using Lion Brand Velvetspun.


I'm also still working on the Picovoli Tshirt (minus the picots) off of the Magknits website. I love the pattern, can't beat something that is knit in the round. It is my car project, whenever Nick is driving, I knit on it. It is also a perfect braindead knit, since I have to knit something like 4.5 inches straight before I do any decreasing for the waist. It will take me a while.

Egg Dyeing and Hunting, lots of pics

On Friday, Jared, Madi and Nathan got to dye their eggs. They had an absolute blast, of course it was not without a huge mess. Trying telling an almost two year old to keep his hands out of the dye and then also tell his four year old brother and 3.5 year old cousin to do the same thing and you have an exercise in futility. It was like I was talking to a wall. I warned them their hands were going to be stained and they would be that color forever, but they didn't believe me. It all started out good, but then Nathan accidentally got his hands messy, it was all over from there. One thing that I'm glad I do have on hand is a huge container of OxyClean. It got everything off, dye out of clothes and off of hands. Thankfully no clothing was ruined during this fun experience. Here are a few pictures of them coloring their eggs and then hunting around for the plastic ones. Cadbury mini eggs were within the plastic eggs, that was a hit. Nathan was the first to figure out what was inside, which is strange because the Jared and Madi were shaking the eggs trying to figure out what was inside. Nathan opened his on accident.

Last night's creation

I've been a bit more motivated to scrapbook these last few days, maybe it was going to work, who knows. Here is my latest creation. This picture of Nathan was taken a few months ago, he was 18 months old. It is the cutest smile. Of course he was being mischievious, but that is okay, because the picture was worth it.

We are also getting ready for Passover at our house. The Seder will be held at my house, but it is just going to be the four of us and my parents and brother. It is so hard to travel the hour to my aunt and uncles house with the kids and then leaving there late wouldn't make for a very happy ride home at 8pm. Nathan has a 7pm bedtime and it is the end of the world if he is up late. I'm in charge of making the Charoset (mortar), it is made with apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sweet red wine. Of course I had no red wine in the house so a trip to Cost Plus was in order. They suggested Framboise from Bonny Doon Vineyards. I also picked up a tablecloth (sure hope it fits the table. It was on sale though so really good deal. I'm also going to make some Chocolate Matzoh. Yummy.

Yesterday was the Model Seder at Jared's school. Nick came and had a blast with Jared. Rabbi Strauss officiated the Seder and he was really good with the kids. I'm glad because Temple Emanuel is probably where we are going to join.

Finally a FO

I can't believe how long it's been since I've actually finished a project. Although I enjoyed making this cute little bolero, I probably won't do it again. It wasn't a hard pattern, but wasn't the easiest either. The instructions were a little goofy in places, which I think is my problem with it. All it said originally was to cast on using waste yarn, but then in the very last sentence right before you were supposed to pick up stitches and do the ribbing it told you to rip away the provisional cast on. Now did it really tell me to do that originally, heck no. It took me a while to get those stitches off so that I could pick them up. This super cute item will be headed to friends of ours in California. The ribbed hat that I have made before will be going to them also as they just had boy/girl twins. They will be growing into these items since they are still pretty tiny, but oh so adorable.

Now that almost all of the baby projects are done, I can work on a few things for me, namely some socks, a picovoli tshirt and the sweater on the front of IK Winter 2005.

Congrats to Tony, Tanya and Madisson, they will be welcoming a baby girl in late August. I've got some time to pick out the perfect project to make this little one.

A Bird

We had gone in the backyard yesterday and noticed a birds nest in the tree. We didn’t see any birds in there, but I knew to stay away. Yesterday afternoon the kids needed a break from the house so they ran outside. I was going to trim the tree a bit, wayyyy overgrown, and I noticed that a dove was staring at me from the nest. It was really checking us out. I decided to use my longer lens so I didn’t have to bother it, but of course Jared wanted a closer look. He was so cute, he said that the bird was staring at him. I said it was just checking him out to protect the nest. So cute.

Saturday stuff

I got to go the Scottsdale Knitting and Fiber show in the morning. It was pretty cool, but Jared was with me, so I didn't get as much time to look as I would have liked. He was very interested in touching everything he saw, which was getting him a bit of trouble. There were some very fun fibers there, but I actually felt the need to finish some of what I've already got started, namely the cute little baby bolero that I still haven't seamed. AFter the fiber show I met my friend Andrea. She had just come back from a two week sabbatical in Brazil visiting friends. She had a blast and she kept a journal of her travels. Back to the fun part, we went to lunch at Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale. My family has been going there since I was very small. It still looks the same and tastes the same. I was starving and so was Jared. I had a turkey club and Jared got the grilled cheese. it must have been really good, but he finished his sandwich in two seconds. I now remember why they serve chocolate milk on a plate, because inevitably every child starts blowing bubbles into the milk.
WE finished the meal off with a Top Hat Sundae. This is the only thing that I have every gotten there. Amazing sundae, simply amazing. Sorry, no pictures of it, it was finished way too fast. Here are some other cute pictures from the afternoon.
Outside the Gilbert Ortega they had these cool old chairs, Jared looked so cute in them.

When we were walking back to our car which was located in the Parking Corral (totally hilarious name by the way), there was a very interesting church. I can't remember the name of it, but I'm sure someone seeing this picture can name it for me.