Project Life week 4

I'm done!!! I just can not get Blogger to cooperate today. I mis-uploaded (is that a word??) my Friday picture so I tried to add it in the correct spot. That didn't work. Then I tried to move it. That didn't work. It's too early in the morning for this and the boys are up, bugging me for breakfast. Martel's in bed sick and I'm sure will wake up soon and want something. (We all know what babies men turn into when they're sick). Anyway, you're going to have to deal with an out of order picture. :)

My mom came to visit us the other day. She was at my sister's house in Denver and flew down here for a few days before she was going to fly home to San Diego. My dad decided that he was going to drive out here to Las Cruces and surprise her and drive her home. We spent the better part of 3 weeks planning and he called me from the front door of my apartment to say he was here. I conveniently went to the bathroom as he rang the bell so my mom had to answer the door. He had his camera ready. Sadly, the picture isn't so great because it took her a minute for it to register. She was totally surprised!

Friday 1/22/10

It turns out that we have family here in Las Cruces. I knew there was a bunch up north in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but was totally surprised when we found out about Raymond and his wife Frances. Raymond is my father in laws first cousin. Today we met them for breakfast and then went over to their house for a while. They were delightful people and hopefully we'll see them again soon. Martel wasn't home so he didn't get to meet them.

Sunday 1/17/20

Martel got home yesterday afternoon and today is a holiday so we took the boys to a park. It's rare when he's able to go with us. We go so much during the week that on the weekends (when it's more crowded) we don't go. But they had fun and got to spend some time with Daddy, who had been gone all week again.

Monday 1/18/10

My mom got here today from visiting (babysitting) my sister and her family. My nephews are 10 and 6 and had sent their reader books down to Leo. He piled them around him and started "reading."

Tuesday 1/19/10

Wouldn't you know it, that big winter storm that passed over most of the entire west coast and moved east came when my mom was here. She lives in balmy San Diego so is a total weather woose. Since it was supposed to be 40 and rainy and windy, we took the boys to the PE class before Leo's preschool class.

Wednesday 1/20/10

Again, the weather was crummy and grandma didn't want to go to the park to play so we went to gymnastics. I can't wait to get a house with a yard so I don't have to constantly take the boys places to run around.

Thursday 1/21/10

(Again, the Friday picture of my mom is at the top of the post.) I had great plans for today. We were going to go to White Sands Monument and sled and then to Alamogordo to the Space History Museum. The weather was the absolute worst of the week so we stayed in. I felt bad that my dad drove 700 miles and we sat around my apartment all day. But he didn't mind. It gave him a chance to play with his grandkids. He hadn't seen them since August.

Saturday 1/23/10

snow play

Leo decided the other day that he wanted to scrapbook. I always print a few extra pictures of whatever I plan to scrap and give him the unused pictures. He did this one all by himself. (I did hand him the letters for his title in the order they go) Not too shabby for a 4 year old.

Project Life week 3

So far so good on my Project Life. It's a fun journey and I'm really enjoying it. I've seen some people who have created dedicated blogs to this project and post their pictures on a daily basis. I'd love to do that, but totally think that's too much for me to handle right now. That being said, you all will just get a long post on Tuesdays. :)

Today was Leo's first day of preschool since we moved to Las Cruces. Aaron and I got to the park/Rec Center a little early and ran into friends. My friend said she'd watch Aaron while I went inside to get Leo. As we were coming out of the building, onto the playground, Aaron saw Leo, yelled and ran to him. They were so happy to see each other and gave each other a big hug. (Sadly, I just had my little point and shoot camera so I missed the hug)

Today Leo told me that he wanted to be 3 again so we could live in our other house with Bailey and Orien (our dogs, who had to stay home when we moved). Orien isn't in good health and we don't expect him to be around much longer, and daddy was gone again on another work trip. I decided to take them to the preschool gymnastics time at Gym Magic to get him mind off things.

While Leo was at school today, Aaron and I went to the Farmer's Market to get some produce. Or at least that was the plan. I get that it was a Wednesday in the middle of winter, but there wasn't a single produce vendor around.

For some reason Leo doesn't like me to sing in the car (it really has nothing to do with how bad I am either). He yells that I'm not a princess, so I can't sing. Where he got that I have no idea. Today, I was singing in the car and Aaron yelled "Quaddy!" I'm assuming that's Aaron speak for "Be quiet!"

Aaron has these crazy long eyelashes. Recently he got his top lashes stuck beneath his bottom lid. Yeah, he didn't get them from me.

I'll apologize up front if anyone has this car but seriously, this has to be the ugliest car I've ever seen. And normally I quite enjoy lime green, but this is just plain WRONG.

If any of you notice that you only got 6 pictures this week, it's because I go from Sunday to Saturday and last week I accidently gave you Sunday's picture and I figured you didn't want to see it again.

I've really enjoyed seeing other peoples pictures, keep them coming!

Snow Family

The last time it snowed we went to the park to play and someone had already built 2 snowmen. Leo decided that he needed to build his own snowman. He started one and that turned into 3. So we had a grandma Jo, an Aaron and a Leo.

Did he come?

On Christmas Eve, we made sure to put cookies out for Santa and Leo decided to sleep on the couch and wait for him. The first thing out of his mouth Christmas morning was, "Mom! Santa didn't come!" He was very upset so I told him to check the container of cookies we left out. They were gone and Leo was very confused about that. He finally decided that Santa did come.
Sadly, I didn't have a cute little chipboard Santa and cookies, so I settled for a bear and cocoa. :)

Santa Leo

Leo was so funny on Christmas Eve. He would take whatever items he could find around the apartment, cars, socks even the TV remote, and put them in a box and wrap them up. He loved giving us presents.

King of the Sand Hill

One of the greatest things about living in Las Cruces is that White Sands National Monument is only an hour away. There are these magnificent sand dunes and the boys LOVE to sled down them. All the fun of sledding on snow, but not the cold. Someone had made a little jump on one of the dunes and Leo kept calling it his "super jump." He really didn't catch air, but he had a great time.

Fun Times!

Like most little boys, mine love to play at the park. Yet another great thing about Las Cruces is there are over 60 parks in the city. We have one for every day of the week. :) This is the "Tues" park and it was a beautiful autumn day. The boys had a great time playing and I love the picture where Leo was trying to climb UP the slide and Aaron extended his hand and was trying to help him. It was so sweet.

Playing at the gym

There is a Gymnastics Academy in town and on Saturdays they have an open gym time where the kids can play. Daddy was out of town so I took the boys for a special treat. They had so much fun and pretty much dove in. One of Leo's favorite show is Ninja Warrior or "the Trick Show" as he calls it. (Yes, I realize I'm a bad mom for letting him watch that.) When he saw the rope over the foam pit he couldn't get enough of doing tricks. Aaron didn't quite get that you're supposed to hold on and jump, he would just jump right in. I had to drag them out of there but now I can bribe them with going. If they complete their reward charts and are good boys then we get to go.

52 Weeks, week 1

Janna Wilson is doing a 52 weeks of stress free scrapping over on her blog. I have this pile of pictures that I want to scrap, but since they're not part of the story I'm telling, that go in our family album, they get pushed to the side. I decided to take up her challenge so I could make a dent in that pile.In this layout I pretty much copied Jana's layout then I went back and read the post again and the challenge was to use circles in your layout. Oops. So while I had the lovely Felicity paper pack out (ask me how you can get yours) I decided to do another layout with the circle paper.

Project Life week 1 and 2

Last year I managed to complete Project 365 (except for one week and I know I took pictures, I just can't find them) where I took a picture every single day and wrote a little about it. It was sort of like a day in the life of the Martinez family. I gave it to Martel for Christmas and he totally loved it. This year Becky Higgins (the creator of Project 365) has another kit out called Project Life. It's pretty much the same concept and this year I actually purchased her kit instead of making my own.

To make things even more fun, and hopefully encourage us to continue through the year (and maybe others to start) Jessica Turner has Project Life Tuesdays on her blog. She's posting her pictures for the week and linking other peoples blogs. I thought it would be fun and maybe I could get some inspiration for some pictures.

I am starting my album at the end of the week as I like to actually start on Jan 1st. So I'm actually posting two pictures of the "1st week" and then week 2.


Jan 1: We went sledding at White Sands National Monument and on the first run, Martel lost his wedding ring. He then spent the next 3 hours on his hands and knees searching for it. We finally had to drag him away because we thought it was a lost cause, he was never going to find it in a 20 foot sand dune. But the effort he showed looking for it was so sweet. I knew I married him for a reason!

Jan 2: As soon as we got home from White Sands, Martel immediately started searching on the internet for metal detectors. He got up first thing Saturday morning and went to Big 5 and bought one. We packed the boys and my mother-in-law back in the car and made the 60 mile drive back to the monument. Martel then spent the next 2 hours with the metal detector searching for his ring. I kept telling him that I thought it probably had rolled down the dune (the sand was wet and very compact). I even made him some search grids so he could go about his quest in a logical manner. When he had 2 grids left, I told him to take a break and I'd look. I finished up the grids and turned around, as I was turning my arm (with the metal detector) swung a bit wide and it started beeping. Sure enough there was his ring not 5 feet from where I had been telling him it was. It had rolled to the bottom and gotten covered by sand. I have never seen him so happy! He knew he married ME for a reason!

Jan 3: My father-in-law was from Santa Fe, NM but moved to San Diego after college at NMSU. Never would we have expected to move to Las Cruces and my mother-in-law came out for the holidays. Martel took her over to NMSU to see where her husband had gone to college. Never in her wildest imagination did she ever expect to walk the same grounds as he had over 30 years ago.

Jan 4: Leo is a very creative little boy. He got these snap blocks for Christmas, the kit makes an airplane and helicopter. He decided that he was going to make a fishing pole instead.

Jan 5: When we moved into the apartment we had to leave our dogs with grandma and the boys miss them so much. We had the opportunity to dog sit for an hour today. The boys had so much fun with Bella.

Jan 6: Auntie Mary got the boys this big box of Arts and Crafts for Christmas. Leo had been bugging me to do some so we finally had an opportunity to make some crafts today. He made a sticker garden and was very proud of it.

Jan 7: We were the first people to live in our building and I decided to leave our assigned parking space for Martel. The covered one with my blue CRV is our assigned one and I "claimed" the one next to it. It's the only spot where we don't have to cross the driveway and with 2 little boys, it's the best spot for me. In the 3 months we've lived here no one has ever parked in "my spot." Today I came home and someone was in it AND as you see, they did a poor park job. All of you who know me know I was watching out the window and as soon as the person left, I moved my car. Yeah, I have issues.

Jan 8: Ahhh, a wonderful cafe au lait! What more needs to be said?

Jan 9: I love nickjr.com! Aaron wants to watch Blue's Clues at 2:00 pm. No problem!

Jan 10: Aaron and I play our own version of Memory. He's only 2 1/2 so we put all the cards face up and then I give him a card and he finds the matching one.

That's the first week in the life of the Martinez family. I'll try and keep the next post shorter. :) If you decide to participate in Project Life and I hope you do, it's a great idea, leave me a message with your blog link. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Snowmen

I was told that Las Cruces has very mild winters and that it rarely snows. Well, since we've been here (3 months) it's snowed 3 times, all in the month of December. I had just received my January kits from A Page 4 All Seasons and what better timing! We went down the street to the park to play in the snow and Leo insisted on building a snowman.

Unwrap the Magic

We had company for almost 3 weeks and with the holidays I had to pack away my scrap stuff. I finally found a few minutes this weekend to scrap. And wouldn't you know it, I had the pictures and couldn't find my... for lack of a better word (I really don't like this one) mojo. Thankfully I still had one of my predesigned December layouts from A Page 4 All Seasons. I changed it up a bit, but I got some of Christmas morning scrapped.

New Spring 2010 Idea Book

Happy 2010 to all! May this year bring you lots of good health and happiness.

Speaking of happiness, the Spring 2010 Idea Book is out and fabulous! Sadly, with the craziness of the holidays I haven't been able to play with my new goodies, but here's a peak at what's new.