Water is a boy magnet

A few weeks ago, Leo and Aaron were outside playing and for once, I didn't hear the hose turn on. Later when I went to investigate, there was Leo, happily sitting in the turtle pool. I thought to myself, it's OK, I didn't hear the hose. Ummm, I forgot that it had rained 2 days before. There he was sitting in a puddle of muddy water. AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Project 365 week 8

Sorry it's a bit late, but here's my Project 365 page for last week. I can't believe that I haven't missed a single day. Yesterday, I thought I had, but Martel took a picture of Leo sleeping on the kitchen chair as the picture of the day. See, now I'm glad I told him about it!

The first day of this week is another interactive one. The picture flips up and there's anothe one underneath. I needed 2 pictures to tell my story that day!

The journalling says:

1. Two things are going on with Leo and Aaron at all times. Either they are playing nicely, watching TV like they are in the first picture OR they’re wrestling and screaming like they are in the bottom picture. (Lift the top picture to see the underneath picture.) When they’re screaming and wrestling, it starts of nicely, but then someone usually winds up crying. 2/15/09

2. It was so nice and quiet. They boys were sitting on the couch reading their books. They left each other alone. No fighting, no screaming, no taking books from the other one. Ahhhh Heaven! 2/16/09
3. Leo was a big helper today. He decided that he was going to vacuum the floor. He really likes doing it and I really like letting him! 2/17/09

4. The boys and I needed to go deliver the Park and Recreation Activities Flyer today. It was a beautiful mountain morning so we decided to stop at Comanche Point Narrative Trail for a few minutes. 2/18/09

5. This morning, I guess I wasn’t fast enough getting Aaron more cereal because he decided to help himself to more. 2/19/09

6. Ready, set…….. GO! That’s how Aaron attacks the day. Every time I get him up in the morning, the blanket and lion go with him. No matter how I wrap the blanket around his head and shoulders, he flips it off and runs down the hall, dragging it behind him. 2/20/09

7. Aaron just loves to lay on Bailey. She doesn’t seem to mind too much. She’s so good with the boys. She doesn’t mind them doing pretty much anything to her, although she doesn’t really like to be “ridden.” 2/21/09

the last of the baby shower gifts

Sick of baby gifts yet? I kind of am. he he he. Vicki, yet another CTMH sister saw Jen's Daydream album and made one in Stardust. I also loved that one and was inspired to do one in Stardust also.

Part of the boy gift

Life would be so much easier if Andrea would just find out what the baby's gender is. Here's the box Memory Box. As with the girl one, as soon as there's a name, it will go on the bottom.

Supplies used: CTMH Stardust, mini sparkles, Summer and Autumn Craft Buttons, Rusty Pickle chipboard

more baby shower gifts

Here's the second part of the girl gift. A fellow CTMH sister, Jen made one for her friend and I really loved the way it turned out. So much that I even bought the Daydream paper pack! Stay tuned tomorrow for the boy set!

One of the baby shower gifts

Here's one of the baby shower gifts I was working on last week. It's another Memory Box. Not much to say about it except that once I have a name to go with it, the name will go across the bottom. Since my friend (who had her baby shower last Sat) isn't finding out what she's having, I had to make 2 sets of gifts. Oh brother! But, never fear, if she has a boy, I have a friend that's having a girl in May. If she has a girl, I'll have to make another girl set and keep the boy one for me!

Close up of the flowers and buttons

Supplies used: CTMH Daydream Paper, Winter buttons and mini sparkles, and misc flowers

Baby Shower Favors - Stardust and Daydream

Here are the baby shower favors I made for Andrea's shower tomorrow. They're Sour Cream containers and you can find the directions here. (I did use 4x6 pieces of paper so there was no waste.) Again, she's being a stinker and not finding out what the baby's gender is. For these, I had time to order some "girly" papers so I made half the favors with Stardust and half with Daydream. Now I just have to finish her gifts (I have to make 2 sets after all) and do the Thank You cards. Ahhhh, the shower's tomorrow!!!!!

Another Memory Box

My wonderful friend, Chris, just had a baby in January. She was another one of those annoying people that wouldn't find out the baby's gender in advance, so I had to wait for Robbie to be born before I could make him a Memory Box. (Again, this is my new go-to gift for babies, so if you're my friend and ever have a baby, this is what you're getting.) Chris just emailed me today to let me know she got it, so I can finally post pictures of it. I again didn't want to put too much "stuff" on it because I wanted it to be able to be stored on a shelf or someplace easy. I also didn't want to make it to "babyish" so Robbie can use it when he's older.

Supplies used: CTMH memory box, Stardust Level 2, Stardust Stickease, Extreme Alpha.

Chipboard: Rusty Pickle, Glimmer Mist to make the chipboard and star sparkly.

Project 365 week 7

I wasn't feeling well over the weekend so I didn't do much but lay around and watch almost an entire season of Boston Legal on DVD. I'm bummed they cancelled that show.
Here's last week's Project 365 page.

The journaling says:

1. Aaron is one of those kids who only wants to snuggle when HE want to snuggle. Undoubtedly, when he wants to snuggle, I’m busy and can’t. Today, however, Aaron wanted to snuggle and we were about to watch an episode of Numbers, so I could snuggle him. 2/8/09

2. We lost power sometime during the night so Martel overslept and missed his carpool. By the time he was ready to go to work, it was snowing so he decided to stay home. That afternoon, the UPS guy came with 2 big boxes. Martel bought me a set of All-Clad for an early anniversary present. 2/9/09

3. 99% of the time if you ask Leo what he wants for lunch, he says “Mac and Cheese!” Today was no exception. But, I had my new pans (yesterday when they came, dinner was already in the crockpot so I didn’t get to use them) so I said, “No problem!” I initiated my beautiful new pot with Mac and Cheese. 2/10/09

4. I’m a mean mom, if you don’t eat your dinner, you don’t get dessert. No exceptions. Aaron didn’t like that rule and threw a fit because the rest of us had cupcakes for dessert. He consequently went to bed without dinner last night. I guess he figured out that I mean business, because today he ate it all, no questions! (Last night, Leo ate a grilled chicken breast, smashed red potatoes with caramelized shallots and garlic sautéed spinach so he got a cupcake). 2/11/09

5. Leo’s a little bit of a monkey. Here he is laying on the couch arm watching an episode of Go Diego Go on Nickjr.com. He knows he’s not supposed to do anything but “sit nicely” on the couch, but at least he wasn’t jumping off the arm. 2/12/09


6. I was trying to finish up some work and all of a sudden I realized that the water was running in the kitchen. Ummmmm, didn’t seem very good. Leo had climbed up on the counter and washed his lunch dishes. He’s turning into a real little helper. 2/13/09

7. Yesterday, we got about 6 inches of snow. This morning, Martel needed to go get our produce basket and actually put chains on Zoe (the car’s name is Zoe). What a funny sight to me. 2/14/09

Share the Love!

I saw this on a fellow CTMH Sister, Jena's blog and thought it sounded like fun. Plus, Jena's an amazing artist so I'm excited to play with her.

To show the love this week and celebrate Valentine's Day, here is what you do...
The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! If I don't have your e-mail address already, please include it in your post, or e-mail it to me at learnwithlea@gmail.com. Remember, only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

Squishy Face

Oops, I found one more of the Simple Sunday layouts. This one is another Inspired Blueprint sketch. I could't get the journaling how I wanted it, so I tucked it under the pictures. Aaron does this thing that he thinks is cute. He smiles and squishes up his face, then he slowly opens one eye, just to see if you're looking. I guess it is kind of cute.

Edited to note that I know that I left out the "h." It's been fixed. :)

Project 365 week 6

Project 365 is in it's 6th week and I (amazingly) haven't missed a day. I'm still kind of in shock myself. So far, the hardest part is deciding which picture to use for my daily one. On Friday, I had 4 to choose from! I decided to go with the one of me (self timer on the camera) because I've yet to be in the book.

The journaling says:

1. For the last few days, our fridge had been looking pretty bare. We finally went to Costco and Trader Joes (and got our produce basket) on Saturday. I feel so blessed in these times to be able to provide for my family. Actually, to be married to a man that provides for us so well. Not only do we have an abundance of food, but also it’s healthy, nutritious food that I enjoy preparing for my family. 2/1/09

2. My friend, Andrea, is having a baby in March. I volunteered to make the baby shower invites and spent all day (and most of the next) making them. They turned out great and she loved them. 2/2/09

3. Leo and Aaron are typical kids with their “loveys.” Leo has a tiger that Nana gave him and Aaron has 2! Nana thought it would be funny for Aaron to have a lion (it is, lions and tigers and bears, oh my) and he also loves this blanket that Julie got him. The two of them drag their loveys all over the place, including the breakfast table. 2/3/09

4. Aaron has one heck of a temper! He wanted another cereal bar (that’s all he’d eat if I let him) and I said No. So he threw himself on the floor and had a temper tantrum. 2/4/09

5. The weather was crummy and Leo was bored so I actually let him play a computer game. It was his favorite, Dora the Explorer on NickJr.com At the end of the game you could make a Valentine card. 2/5/09

6. I actually brought my computer home last night in hopes of getting some work done today. I managed to get most of what I wanted to accomplish done, in amongst meetings and kids and life in general. 2/6/09

7. Martel built us our first fire of the year yesterday afternoon. He’s kept it going and the house is toasty warm today. 2/7/09

Crashed

Here's the last of the 4 layouts I whipped out the other day. This is another of Brandi's Simple Sunday concepts. By the time I got to this one, I was pretty done, but I had the Stardust paper out and wanted to use it for this layout too. Leo usually goes and goes and goes. On occasion, he just crashes. When he does, he's in the most ackward looking positions. I would have had a stiff neck if I slept like this.

Silly Boy

Normally Leo loves to have his picture taken. The other day Aaron was drinking out of a big boy cup (layout coming soon) so I was taking pictures. Leo was sitting at the table next to me and when I went to take his picture, he hid behind his Diego cup. This is a Got Sketch? sketch.

Supplies Used: CTMH Stardust, Die cut stars, sassy strands. Scenic Route Alpha stickers, SU tag punch

Dancin King

Here's another Inspired Blueprint sketch, #8. Aaron likes to "dance." It's pretty funny, he dances by spinning in circles and stomping his feet (a la Flashdance) and screams.

Supplies Used: CTMH Stardust, Giggle Alpha Stamp, Rust Pickle Chipboard Stars, Tag punch: SU.

I {heart} This Face

I actually squeeked out some time for myself today to scrapbook. Brandi has a Simple Sunday challenge, basically to realize that you don't have to spend hours upon hours on a single layout. So with that philosophy in mind, and the help of some sketch blogs, I cranked out 4 pages in about 2 hours. I'll be posting one a day for the next few days. That way, I'll have some time to get more stuff done. I hope.

This is an Inspired Blueprints sketch, the first one actually. I never got around to doing it, but gave it a shot with this picture of Aaron. Rarely does he "smile" for the camera. He normally does this funky eye squint thing that he thinks is cute. (That page will be coming soon) I hope you enjoy these simple layouts.

Supplies used: Bazzil Bling Cardstock (some color brown), Bazzil curvy edged textured cardstock, CTMH Cocoa Cafe Papers, Giggle Alpha, and a misc chipboard heart.

Baby Shower invites - Stardust

I spent the last few days making Baby Shower invites for a friend. I know these don't look to "baby-ish" AND she doesn't know what she's having. But since I only have boys, (and I had very short notice as the shower in in 2.5 weeks) I had to go with what I had on hand. After I cut out 35 Moonstruck (the dark blue) inserts, I thought that I should have done pink. That way it looked "boyish" on the outside and "girlish" on the inside. I had to settle for some pink and blue footprints instead. The really bad thing is that I don't have a single baby stamp set.

Note: She loved them!

Tehachapi Club Card - Unforgettable

Here is the card for the Tehachapi Club. It's pretty much cased from Heather Gerard and uses the Unforgettable paper pack, Aspirations and Intrinsic Background stamp sets. There's really not much else to say about this card. But I've got 2 posts in a row now. LOL! Stay tuned tomorrow for the layout.

Tehachapi Club Layout - Unforgettable

Here is the layout for the Tehachapi Club. The ever lovely Yvonne went to the CTMH album retreat and this was one of the layouts they did there. It's Imagine Follow the Lead, page 71. The photo suggestions are four 4x4 and one 8x10. My "big" picture is an 8x10 that I trimmed to fit in the 7.5 x 7.5 frame.

Whoops, this one wasn't supposed to post until Thurs, but you get it early.

Project 365 week 5

Well, remember how I said I was going to try and post every day? That sure didn't last long now did it? BUT, I am still going strong on Project 365. Yay!!!!! Here are my pages for last week.

Here's what the journaling says:

1. Martel washed his “new” car today, in the rain. Not too sure why, but he insisted that the rain “helps.” Oh, and it’s supposed to snow tonight. (Note, it sure did snow last night, about 3 inches). 1/25/09) Oh, and today is my dad’s birthday. I’m a looser kid and didn’t even send him a card.)

2. It snowed last night, the first snow of 2009. It sure looks pretty until the kids and dogs get out there! Lucky for Leo (and me) there was no school today. He told me last night that he didn’t want to go. 1/26/09

3. Martel took part in Project 365 this morning. I actually slept in this morning and when he came out into the Living Room, what did he find??? A quite comfy, snoozing Bailey. She knows better than to be on the couch but just doesn’t care. Funny thing is that her dog bed is right next to the couch. (Notice the pile of laundry waiting to be folded?) 1/27/09

4. I was so tired today. Aaron was asleep so I thought that Leo and I could go lay down on my bed and take a little nap. I turned on Season 1 of Bones and watched 2 episodes. I didn’t sleep, but Leo did. 1/28/09

5. Today Aaron took a drink from a big boy cup. I don’t know which of the three of us, me, Leo, or Aaron were the most excited. I actually think it might have been Leo. He kept yelling that “baby Aaron’s drinking!!!!” Aaron was pretty proud of himself. Where’s my baby???? 1/29/09

6. Martel got me a Bissel Flip It Hard Floor Cleaner a few years ago. I really wanted it and after we brought it home he told me that I couldn’t use it on our floor. WHAT???? I tried it just the “dry” side and Orien’s hair clogged it in about 2.3 seconds, so into the closet it went. Yesterday I fished it out and said, “the heck with it” I’m using it to mop. Man, it worked great! My floors are going to look great from now on! 1/30/09

7. I bought a CD today, David Cook’s debut album. I haven’t bought a CD in years. I seriously think the last one I actually bought myself was the Rollins Band, Nice (circa 2001). I really don’t know what it is about this kid, David Cook, but I just love him. I got home, got the CD going and listened nonstop for 5 hours (the whole thing 5 times). 1/31/09