maybe a little ambitious

in 2 weeks isaac and meagan have their music program at school. meagan has to be dressed like an elf. which means iiiii have to make her an elf costume. hmmm...

well i'm not too hip with the idea of spending money to make something she will never use again. sooooo.... i got this brilliant, although admittedly VERY ambitious idea (considering i haven't really sewn anything in YEAAARS and i only have 2 weeks to pull it off). i decided to make her a little elf costume that she can reuse... maybe even wear for school or play clothes at least. here's my idea...

(i digress for a wee little second... if you haven't tried pinterest yet, TRY IT! it's full of creative genius and inspiration like you would not believe. plus some pretty practical tips, tons of recipes, decorating ideas, you name it. try it, you'll like it.)

i fond these ideas on pinterest. i think i will (TRY TO) alter them to work for what I have in mind.

this shirt for her elf tunic... in her size, not mine, obviously. i think i'll use maybe a 2" ribbon for the draw string in the front. let it hang down mid-thigh or just above the knee.


then these cuties for her leggings.

i'm thinking find some wal-mart leggings and sew the ruffles on. shouldn't be THAT hard, right? ???

and then if i get super ambitious, maybe one of these 2 headbands to match

or


we'll see how it goes. i'm going to start with the tunic and go from there. if i feel like i'm going to have a nervous breakdown with the shirt, then she's getting plain ol' pants and a store-bought santa hat i think. *lol* i'll let you know how it goes.

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today was good

today was one of those days that doesn't really look out of the ordinary on the surface, but it was a really good day. it was made up of all kinds of little things that made me smile.

for starters, meagan had a dentist appointment this morning, which meant she didn't have to rush out the door to catch the bus, and we got to spend a little girl time together. not much, but some. i'll take whatever one-on-one time i can get with any of my kiddos... seems one-on-one time is hard to find these days.

then i found some SUPER deals on gifts for the kids at amazon today. i guess i have cyber monday to thank. but seriously, like $20 off of lego kits and whatever... shhh, don't tell.

i also found a super great deal on a gift for lucas... but that's about all i can say about that or he'll guess what it is. he's a brat like that.

and then i got gas and paid $2.99/gallon. seriously! the price did not start with a 3 for the first time in a looooooooooong time! that in itself was worth the party!

then i got to spend a bit of time browsing through barnes and noble. i was getting books for the kids for christmas. but there is just something about the atmosphere of a book store that i love. i love my kindle.... LOVE... but i hope book stores never go away. i love the little kiddy reading corners tucked away here and there. i love the isles and isles of paper and glossy covers. it all just makes me feel happy. maybe i'll look into getting a job at a book store. i could see loving that.

then it was off to get the kids from school. i love that as soon as they all pile into the van now they start telling me their favorite part of the day! it's the best. even the 2 little girls that we car pool with are always so excited to share their days. it's great!

and even though i had to sit through 2 hours and 15 minutes of gymnastics practice (car pool break down due to auto repairs), it was kind of nice. meagan is all of a sudden not looking like she's lost. she has gotten quite a few of her skills, and has only one on bars and one on floor to master. the rest is a matter of form, which is hit or miss on any given attempt. but it was still fun to see her excitement at her progress! and sebastian is really looking fantastic! i'm so proud of him! i can't wait for him to get his first taste of competition. it's just around the corner!

so there you have it. it was a good day. in all the ordinary sort of ways. i love that.

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Wish Lists

This is for everyone who keeps asking me for the kids' Christmas wish lists. I have made a page full of their wish lists, with links to many of the items they want. You can find the link at the top right of my blog. If you buy something from the list, PLEASE let me know so that I can cross it off the list. I know everyone gets their feelings a bit hurt when duplicate gifts pop up. Hope this helps you out with your Christmas shopping!!

Holiday Album 2010

I've never been good at scrapping holidays. I don't know what it is about them, but I just scrap around them. Like they never even happened. It's sad really.

I've decided this is unacceptable. I WANT my kids to be able to look back and reflect on past holidays. So I decided to start with last year's Christmas. My plan is to put together a Christmas album that documents all of our ways we celebrate the season... baking, decorating, gift opening, and so on.

Just as I decided to dive into this project, The LilyPad designers came out with a Document Your December collection... PERFECT for the project I have in mind!! Here's what I've done so far...

Cover:

(Click here to view full credits)

Baking:

(Click here to view full credits)

Muddy Buddies:

(Click here to view full credits)


(Click here to view full credits)

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow, I have been out of commission lately! Last week I came down with a sinus deal, and have been laid out and sleeping every opportunity that I've had. But thankfully I'm on the mend, and I have had plenty of energy for the cooking and festivities of the day.

I started cooking at 8:00 this morning. We finally sat down to eat around 2:30. After clean up and a bit of down time, Meagan talked me into (aka... begged and begged and begged until I caved) putting the lights on the Christmas tree. Hopefully the lights will be on by the end of the evening, and tomorrow we can dig out the ornaments.

We stayed home for the holiday, just the 5 of us. Lucas had to work this morning, although I was thrilled when he came walking in the door at 10:45!! What a great surprise!

We had turkey, green beans, twice baked mashed potatoes, apple cranberry stuffing, and dinner rolls. Plus apple pie and chocolate brownies. Believe it or not, the tribe is getting restless and beginning to ask for food again.

So that's it from me for now... just stopping in for a quick update since I've kept you waiting. I've got to get back to tree lights and dinner making. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!

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an all-around champion

well, meagan (and the rest of us)survived her first meet. it was early EARLY in the morning. we got up at about 5:30, left the hotel by 6:45, and checked in at the meet at 7:30. warm-ups started at 8:00. but it was run pretty smoothly, and there were very few delays, so the meet was done, and awards were being handed out by 11:15. still, it felt like a very long day. we were tired. SHE was tired. but she had fun.

i thought i might get in a wee bit of trouble if i didn't share at least SOMETHING with you. so i found a few pictures that edited okay... horrible lighting and far distance equals not-so-great photos all around, but these were alright for what it's worth.

getting ready to warm up. this is meagan and her buddy T. T and meagan are in the same practice group at the gym, and they are together a LOT.


they warmed up and stretched as a team before breaking into their different groups for rotations. their team brought 42 level 3 girls to the meet, so there she had teammates on every event at any given time. it was like a small silver and black army.


her first event was beam. then they followed olympic rotation after that. beam, floor, vault, bars. her beam routine started out really solid. great form, even a smile. she did her handstand and stayed on, but she got pretty wobbly at that point and never fully recovered. she ended up falling off on her split leap. but she got back up and finished with no problem. her score on beam was an 8.000 even with the fall. i was pretty excited for her!






floor was next. her weakest even by far. she isn't such a fan of the dance elements. in fact, she once told me about a month ago that floor is pretty dumb because she's a gymnast, not a dancer. that girl. the good news, though, is that she told me yesterday she is getting pretty used to floor and now she likes it. so that's progress.

anyway, she still is trying to get her bridge-kick-over (the forerunner to a back walkover), so she lost points for having to be spotted... but better than losing points for a fall i suppose. it was also her first time ever doing her routine to the actual floor routine music. they've been working all this time in practice just to learn the order of the elements. so floor is a work in progress. her final score was a 6.000. ouch. :) she still came away with a smile on her face, though.


third was vault. that went well. she did a really good first vault, although had too much power so took a few steps on her landing. her score was 8.000. i didn't get any pictures of it though because i was recording with the video camera.

last was bars. again, she still doesn't have all of her skills on bars. but she has great form anyway. she got a 7.300 on bars and placed 16th on bars, which means she got a medal. which means she was thrilled!




her bars medal...

and she placed 21st all-around.


once they had handed out all of the all-around medals, the announcer said, 'here are your level 3 all-around champions!' that's all meagan heard. she came running over to me and said, 'mama, i'm an all-around champion!!' i LOVE that girl!

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11.11.11

what are we doing on this monumental date in history? we are gearing up for meagan's first meet. that's what we're doing.

she has her very first gymnastics meet tomorrow, and i have a list a mile long of things that need to get bought, packed, and done before we head out. but my to-do list is by no means the focus of today. she is. she is beyond excited. and more than a little nervous. she chattered about her meet all morning while i did her hair. she told me (and showed me) how you make pretty hands for dance elements and soluting judges. she told me that you get higher scores if you point your toes, have straight legs, and keep your feet together. she told me that she isn't all the way ready for this meet yet.

i told her it's not time to focus on the scores yet. that her day of being a rock star gymnast is coming, but that it's okay if it's not tomorrow. that tomorrow her focus should be checking out the meet and seeing what it's all about. it should be trying to get her floor routine to line up with the music (since she has never yet actually PRACTICED it with the music, that in itself would be an accomplishment all on its own). i told her to set a few goals, like staying on the beam, or sticking her landings on dismounts. she said, 'my goal is to do everything great.' hmmm... i don't think she was listening in all that time i was talking *lol* what can i say, my daughter is a hyper competitive perfectionist. not sure what else there is to say about that.

anyway, in preparation for their first meet, they had a mock meet earlier this week at their tuesday practice. she wanted to have curly hair, so we curled it all up. this was her for school on monday actually:


then she slept on it monday night, and we pulled it back into a spider web on tuesday for practice...

you should have SEEN the excitement and buzz in the gym on tuesday. it was a sea of glittery leotards, fancy hair do's and over-the-top giddy little girls. giddy.


parents weren't allowed to stay for the mock meet... not enough seating, plus maybe a bit of a distraction to the girls who really just needed to focus on what the coaches were saying. BUT i did manage to see her beam routine. she was just mounting when i got there to pick her up. she stayed on. it wasn't a train wreck. it was actually pretty cute. maybe not technically spectacular, but super adorable nonetheless.

so yes, tomorrow at 8:00 am the show starts. it should be quite a day. it will, at a minimum, be a VERY early morning for us. please be praying for her and her teammates that this will be a positive experience for them. i'll let you know how it goes.

p.s. sorry for the horrible picture quality... these came from my cell phone, and they were all pretty much taken in horrible lighting with very little chance at a still shot. lol
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fyi

it's snowing.

that is all.

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the bad A word

meagan informed me tuesday after gymnastics that one of her teammates had said the bad "a" word during practice. my response was something to the effect of 'that's not a nice thing to say. we shouldn't talk like that' blah blah blah. she went further to say that sometimes her brothers also say the bad 'a' word, to which sebastian IMMEDIATELY took the defensive declaring he doesn't say that stuff... ever... oddly, isaac stayed pretty quiet *lol*. so the conversation went on for a few more minutes, talking about the way we choose to use our words, and so on. then there was a moment of silence, which was broken by meagan saying, "annoying. that's the bad 'a' word isn't it mamma? annoying isn't a nice word to say.'

i couldn't help but do a mental forehead slap. i KNOW better than to assume i know what's going on in her brain. i didn't see that one coming at all. so now i know why she was throwing her brothers under the bus *lol*. she went on to make sure there was a distiniction made between annoyING and annoyED. apparently, annoyed is an okay word to say because you're saying how YOU feel. but annoyING is calling somebody else something that's not nice, so we shouldn't say that. i guess i see her point. so i learned something new. and got a good laugh in the process.

motherhood is never dull.

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smell my feet

okay, it's only taken me a week and a day to get this handful of pictures edited and uploaded to share with you. *shrug* i have no excuses other than being busy. sorry to keep you waiting. i figured at some point the saying 'better late than never' might not even apply, and so maybe i should get these guys up here before christmas rolls around. ya think?

so without further adeu, our halloween 2011 pictures... well, a few of them...




(little sisters. *rolls eyes*)


(this, by the way, is just about the only photo i have of sebastian looking at the camera with his eyes open. he seemed to keep ducking out of camera range... quite the opposite of his sister... i know i said it last year too, but it just seems like he is on the cusp of being 'too old' for all this jazz. makes me a bit sad.)


i dare you to look at these next two without at least smiling. she cracks me up!! this might be a face only a mother could love? *lol*



like i said, our trick-or-treat trip around the neighborhood was brief. not a lot of houses participated. and our neighborhood isn't all that big to begin with. so i didn't get to be the mammarazzi that i usually am. but i got a few pictures, and we had a good time. and it was BEAUTIFUL weather. for that i was VERY thankful!


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Polka Dot Pumpkin Cupcakes

I found this recipe on verybestbaking.com and tried it last night for desert. On those evenings when I make a not-so-favorite meal, or one that's new to us (which I think both could have applied last night), I try to make desert to kind of ease the pain of trudging through the dinner part. So these were desert last night. They were pumpkin-y and tasty. And I made a tray of mini's for after-school snack today.




Credits: Sahlin Studio Kitschy Kitchen Mixed Media

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this is how we boo

finally the halloween season is behind us. while halloween admittedly is my least favorite of all the heavily-celebrated holidays, i confess that i rather enjoy certain aspects of it. i do enjoy the pretties - the decorations and glittery things, the fall colors, and even the bats & spiders. i enjoy the costumes and the candy and the fun parts of it, even if the day itself is quite yucky.

so i thought it would be fun to put a mini album together to kind of highlight all of the fun things we've done this halloween season to celebrate and enjoy the holiday. i used papers from allison pennington's for the love of halloween papers:


I also used Sahlin Studio's monogram journalers on just about every page. those are great every-day must-have's in the digi stash. 1 million percent versatile! love them!

anyway, here's the album... it will have to suffice for a glimpse at costumes until i can get a few more photos edited.

COVER

PUMPKIN PATCH

SCHOOL PARTIES & INSIDE DECORATIONS

SPIDER PUMPKINS

OUTSIDE DECORATIONS

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM HAUNTED HOUSE

CANDY APPLES & COOKIES

COSTUMES

TRICK OR TREATING & PASSING OUT CANDY

CANDY SWAP & TV TRADITIONS


all of the envelope pages will have additional 4x6 photos of that particular event (like the kids making their spider pumpkins, or each of their costumes, and so on... i just haven't gotten the 4x6's printed yet).

this album was super easy to make. i used a pack of kraft envelopes and 5x7 notecards that i got at hobby lobby 50% off (so like $4 for 50 cards & envelopes). i had 5x7 printed at snapfish and picked them up at my local meijer. then i adhered the photos to the cards, punched holes in each card, and bound the album with 2 jump rings that i had on hand.

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update

don't throw stones. i KNOW it's been over a week with no updates.

sometimes life is busy. too busy to sit and blog and edit pictures and whatever else.

so i thought i'd give you all a quick update before i go get read for the day. at least this way you know i'm still around. so here you go, an update of sorts, in random bullet point format.... *lol*

* we went trick or treating. there were very few houses participating. kind of a bummer. but they still have 3 buckets of candy, so i guess it worked out.

* tomorrow is gymnastics picture day. i'm about pictured out. school pictures. football pictures. gymnastics pictures. small fortunes for printed paper. *sigh*

* the door MANUFACTURER is coming to our house today to see if he can figure out why our door leaks. personally, i say, 'who cares WHY it leaks. it leaks. give me a new one.' clearly we are on two different pages at the moment.

* i made pumpkin muffins for desert yesterday. and bean soup for dinner. surprisingly, my two pickiest eaters both LIKED the bean soup. who knew?! i'll try to come back and post the recipe for the muffins later. it's pumpkin season, yum!

* i have managed to at least find the floor in the closet. i have a lot of organizing and arranging and sorting to do in there still. that is quite the undertaking.

* we got a king size bed. my parents had one in their guest room that they wanted to get rid of (downsizing to a full that will fit in there better i think). so they gave us the king. and we about peed our pants laughing at ourselves trying to move this thing up the stairs to our bedroom. poor lucas has ME for a lifting partner *rofl*

* tomorrow is grandparents' day / special person day at isaac and meagan's school. my mom is coming. she'll be meagan's special person, and i'll be isaac's. should be a good morning.

* we are coming up on meagan's 1st gymnastics meet. it's next weekend, and she is starting to get nervous. team pictures are tomorrow, and next week they will do a mock meet at one of their practices.

okay, so since the door people are coming in about 2 hours, i should go get cleand up and dressed. somehow i think pj's are inappropriate attire when conducting a 'give me a new door' meeting. i'll see if i can get some time later to come back and post a few things.

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