Soccer

For a while now, Stephanie has expressed an interest in Soccer. We got her her very own net and soccer ball last October for her birthday and set it up in the backyard. Since then, we have had little mini-tournaments where we switch turns being goalie and we try to score goals on each other. Daddy lets her win alot.

Then, a friend of hers from school had a soccer birthday and Steph was all excited because she scored a goal.

So.....needless to say, I just signed her up for indoor soccer. 10 weeks, every Saturday morning one hour. She doesn't know yet.....I plan on telling her tonight and I know she will be very excited.

I also signed Jen up. She will get to run around with all the 3 year olds. Can you imagine the photo possibilities that I will have in the next 10 weeks!!!!????

The best thing about it is that one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, Becky, has also signed her two kids up! Molly is 6 so she will play with Steph, and Josh is 3 so he will play with Jen. I really can't wait.....let the fun begin!

Snow.

We finally got a really good snowfall on Friday. Maybe 4 - 5 inches, enough to coat the ground.

School was closed and it was the first time that the girls got to get all bundled up in their snow gear and head out in it to play.

We could not have had any more fun.

Building snowmen, sledding, snow angels, shoveling, snow fights.............we really had a blast.

Oh, and Jen is fearless.

Andrea, Conqueror or Frames.

I did it.

I conquered my frame.

It is finished and I delivered it to the store today.

I am very pleased with how it turned out, I think it is even better than the original design that I had in my head.

I am in love with all things stars lately, so I tried to incorporate them into it as much as possible. Ron took the pics of me (thanks!)...... this was the first time that I scrapped about myself, so it was very new for me.

So, without further ado..........."the frame":








The journaling says:

Today I am

31 years old

super loyal

5 feet tall

creative

in love with my husband

usually happy

obsessed with scrapbooking

trying to be a better photographer

crazy about my children

always tired

a really good friend (until I get hurt)

emotional

hard on myself

a good mom

Frame update #3

Ronnie sanded my frame for me so that it is as good as new.

I'm starting over again with a whole new concept.

It's Friday night and I have been working on it for a couple of hours......I am about half way done.

I feel so much better now.

THANKS RONNIE!!!!!!! (love ya!)

Work and school and kids...oh my!!!!!

I've been busy lately.

Very busy.

My life seems to never slow down all that much.

I am currently going to school for my Bachelor's degree in Business, while working full time, taking care of my two kids and two dogs, trying to spend some quality time with my husband, friends, and family, and doing just a few layouts or scrapbooking projects.

I also occasionally like to sleep.

Oh...and shower.

Seems like my house is what gets neglected sometimes. I feel like it is a PIT right now and I know I will end up spending a bunch of time cleaning it up this weekend (when I SHOULD be doing something creative or fun with the kids).

I have two projects, a final, three chapters and 6 discussion questions due next week. Have I started on them......not really. I have one of the projects started but not completed. Guess I should work on that.

While I would love to clean my dirty house, do something creative with the kids, or work on my projects for school this weekend.....there is one thing that is a bit more pressing at this time. One thing that I will dedicate my entire weekend to finishing.

You guessed it......my frame.

That thing has now sat for too long. I must get started on it and get past the fact that I royally screwed it up.

My good friend Colleen nicknamed me "Andrea, Conqueror of Frames" today....and I don't want to let her down.

Stay tuned......I will "unveil" the frame as soon as I am somewhat happy with it!!!!!!!!

:)

President's Day

We had such a nice day off today. The weather started off downright balmy (nearly 70 degrees in the middle of February.......). A good friend of mine, Rachael (and her two kids Macy and Jack) picked up the girls and I, and we all took a road trip up to Quakertown to meet with another friend Patti, and her two kids.

We met up at a McDonalds that has a huge indoor play area and let all 6 kids have at it. They ate, then played, then Jen ate some more (man can that kid put some food down when she wants to).

We stayed there for quite some time enjoying ourselves, and then we packed the kids in the car and headed to MLPA for a little scrapbook shopping. They have a play area in the store and the kids all played so good together while Rachael and I shopped.

Rachael took a few pics of the kids.......

Left to right is: Macy (5), Jen (3), Steph (6), and Jack (3)

Oh, and Chloe peed on her training pads about 5 or 6 times today.

What a really great day........................

Some recent layouts/projects

Here is a project that I did for the store (it stands upright):


And here are a few recent layouts:

Our newest addition.........

On Sunday we all went to the Mall to walk around and just get out of the house.

We came home with this:

Her name is Chloe, she is a Miniature Pinscher, and she is 4 months old. She is TINY right now and will only get to about 10 or 12 pounds. Our other dog Daisy really needed a buddy to play with, and Chloe has a very sweet temperment, so we decided that she would be a great fit.

As soon as Daisy and Chloe met they acted as if they have known each other forever. They play very well together and all is well (so far).

Potty training is step one, and Chloe seems to be catching on pretty fast. It is Winter here in PA, so we have started her off on piddle pads which we have put out on the patio (because she is so small she gets too cold outside). We have not heard her bark at all, so we are hoping that she isn't a yapper. She has tons of energy and the girls are loving that she will chase them through the house for 20/30 minutes at a pop.

Welcome to the fam Chloe!!!!!

The unfinished frame....part 2

I had the frame pictured in my head... and man, was that thing beautiful.

I went out to buy all of the things necessary to make the frame that was in my head, but I couldn't find anything like I was imagining.

So, I settled on some paper that wasn't quite right.

Then, I messed up when I was cutting it and had to settle for a shape that wasn't exactly the shape in my head.

I painted it black and modge-podged the paper on.

I then stared at the darn thing for HOURS. It just wasn't right and I was soooooo stuck.

So, I decided to put it down and go to bed and come back to it fresh the next day.

Fast forward 4 days.

I picked it up today to see if I could get something accomplished and noticed a big huge air bubble in the middle of one of the papers. I mean huge.

So....I guess what I am saying is........I totally messed up my super cool frame and now I have to start all over again, except that it has black paint and paper with air bubbles all over it.

~sigh~

This is life.

Oh, and I read this today on a blog that I love: It is better to be happy than to be right.

That quote spoke to me. It said:

You ain't happy with your frame and it JUST AIN'T RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for more episodes of "As the Frame Turns".

Bus Driver

A few weeks ago we switched Steph's bus route so that she is picked up closer to the house, which means that she has a brand new bus driver.

This morning, as Ron was walking her to the bus stop, they had the following conversation:

Ron: So Steph, how do you like your new bus driver? Is he nice?

Steph: Yep! He's really nice!

Ron: What's his name?

Steph: Wanna guess? It starts with an M.

Ron: Ummmmm.......Matt? Mike?

Steph: NO DAD!!!! It's Mr. Larry!!!!

:)

Autoshow

A few weekends ago, while I was teaching my class at MLPA, Ron took the girls into Philly for the day to see the Philadelphia Autoshow. At first I thought the girls would be bored and that they would be on their way home within an hour TOPS. However, they had a blast and stayed there most of the day!!!

Here are a few pics of the girls in a $100,000.00 Corvette (Ron didn't take a camera, but luckily the Chevy people were taking pics that day). Check out Steph with her arm on the steering wheel looking like she is cruisin'.

:)

My newest obsession....

So we all know how obsessed I am with scrapbooking.

I believe we have established that already.

And what goes hand-in-hand with obsession #1? Obsession # 2, of course! And that happens to be photography.

It all started when I realized that the first digital camera Ron and I owned (years ago.....and the thing was as big as a small laptop) took nothing but blue pictures. I'm not kidding.....every picture had a blue tint to it. So when I started scrapping I HATED to scrap pictures from that camera because they were terrible. We moved on to a better point and shoot camera for a few years, and I was pleased. It took nice pictures.

Until someone spilled soda all over it and the lens stopped opening up.

We then got the camera that sent me into fits of extreme anger.

You see......a scrapbooker can't really scrapbook without pictures. And this last point-and-shoot that we owned could not take a good picture....EVER. It was crap plain and simple. When a special occasion would come around, I would take 300 - 400 pics so that I knew I would end up with 2 or 3 good pictures to scrap. It made me insane. I complained and complained and apparently Ron listened.

This is where we come to the turning point in my entire story..........

Ron bought me a Nikon D40 camera for my birthday last November.

Yep.....a "big girl" camera.

No more point-and-shoot for me.

I instantly saw a difference in the quality of my pics and then quickly realized that I KNEW NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY!!!!

I started by reading my manual and following a few blogs of photographers that I admire. I bought a few books and am now starting to take classes with a scrapping friend of mine (thanks Donna!!!)

I am seeing things differently now that I own a decent camera. I look at things and think that would make a perfect background for a shot or wow...........if I zoomed in close on that it would be so pretty on a layout.

I also pay attention to things like making sure a pole isn't shooting from the top of the girls' heads
in a photo.

This camera has really made me a better photographer.

And for that I want to say thanks Ron, I love you.

What is this white stuff on the ground?

Well.....February is almost half over and we finally got a little bit of snow.

It is supposed to turn to rain tonight so it won't last very long.....but it was just enough that Steph had an early dismissal day from school.

The three of us girls got home around 1:00....Jen went down for a nap right away and Steph filled out Valentines cards (Spongebob Squarepants) for all her friends while I did some work.

Thank goodness for laptops.

After dinner we sat down and I got to take a few pictures of the two sweet girls:

And my favorite one of all:

Randomness....

Just a few random things:

Steph is sitting next to me coloring. She just turned to me and said, "Do you know that if Piglet was all pink then his name would be Pink-let???"

Jen calls Piglet "Plig-et".

She also calls the computer "The Puterator".

When it is dark outside she says it is "too late".

And she will do just about anything for a special treat (candy).

The unfinished frame.....

It's Friday evening.

The girls are fed, and are now enjoying a lovely movie in their toy room together. (Garfield I think).

Ron is on his way home.

When he gets here I am heading out to my favorite LSS to get some supplies for a couple of projects that I need to get done for the store.

I was honored to receive an unfinished frame from Sarah (LSS owner) last weekend.

You see, everyone who is on the design team or who is a teacher at said LSS gets to make a huge frame with a picture of themselves to be hung in the crop room for all to see. Sarah presented me with my unfinished frame on Saturday, and it was among my biggest honors!!!!!

So.... I have been thinking about my frame all week and really want to get started on it.

Only one thing is holding me back.

I don't have ONE decent picture of myself to put in it. Not one.

And the biggest problem is that I hate my hair right now (I'm in that really bad in-between stage of growing it out). So any pictures that I DO take will be......well..........just wrong.

So now my entire existance will be focused on getting some sort of decent shot of myself. Maybe I will get lucky and have a good hair day this weekend.

When I finish my frame I will post a picture of it.

Until then, please pray to the "good hair gods" and tell them that I just need 15 minutes of their time.

Thanks.

100th day of Kindergarten....

Stephanie has been in Kindergarten for 100 days.


They did all kinds of neat things to celebrate the 100th day of school: crafts, a party, and they made a journal to bring home.


Last night after I put the kids to bed I realized that I hadn't gone through the folder the Steph brings home everyday with papers for me to sign and craft projects for me to see.


I looked through the journal and came across page 5. Check it out for yourself:

Wait.....did that just say BUTTS!!??

It was one of those moments as a parent where I was extremely proud on one hand (she spelled apples CORRECT!!!), and extremely mortified on the other (doesn't she know that we aren't supposed to draw butts at school???!!!!)

Then I laughed so hard that I cried.


It was a great moment, thanks for the laugh Steph!!!!

Jen's ABC's....

I overheard Jen singing her ABC's today:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G.....

H, I, J, K, I'm a little pee.

big girl!

Jen has been out of diapers/pull-ups during the day for a long time. She caught on to potty training very quickly (thank goodness).

A few months ago we asked her to try and keep her pull-up dry at nap time, and if she was able to do that we would keep her in her underwear for naps.

She did it with no problem.

At that point we were down to one pull-up a day, and that was for bedtime.

Then she started to ask about wearing her big girl underwear at night. We told her she had to stay dry, and didn't really expect much until she got a little bit bigger.

She has kept her pull-up dry all night long 5 out 0f the past 6 days!!!!!!!!

WAY TO GO JEN!!!!!

Winter 2007/2008

This winter in PA has been crazy. Where we live we have only had one snow that stuck to the ground and covered everything, and that was in late January. I managed to get one picture of the bushes in our front yard covered with the white stuff, but it was gone by the next day.

And it’s supposed to be 71 degrees tomorrow.

And it was 60-something today.

I’m not so sure that the girls will get to use the snow suits and boots that we got them this year.

I guess there’s always next year……..

Hanging out....

Last weekend Steph and I ran a bunch of errands together.

Just the two of us.

I love spending time alone with her.......she just makes me feel calm.

And she tells me that she loves me every 10 minutes or so.

I LOVE YOU TOO, STEPH!

A birthday party!

Jen turned 3 on January 20th.

She is so big now, and every day I realize more and more that she is no longer a baby (but she is still MY baby).

We had her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese this year and she really had a blast! Here she is at her party:

Here is Steph (on the left) at the party with her friend Macy:

And here are some of the tickets that daddy won once he figured out how to hit the jackpot on the kiddie games!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!!

Big accomplishments for this little scrapbooker.

In the very recent past I made what I call "big accomplishments" for my creative side to be extremely proud of. Things sort of happened at a frenzied pace, here is the recap:

In early December 2007, I was asked to be the guest designer for a monthly memories kit at my favorite LSS (local scrapbook store). I designed a two-page layout and a one-page layout for the kit....and I was insanely nervous about all of it!!! This was my first time EVER making anything that people may want to duplicate, and actually BUY! That is a scary thought, and I fretted over it until the second I handed the projects in. ~whew~ Glad that one was over!!!

Then, in late December 2007, I was asked to be the January Scrapper Spotlight for that same LSS. I created a two-page layout, a one-page layout, a Valentine's card, and a mini album to be showcased throughout January on the newsletters that are e-mailed to about 2,500 people weekly. Once again, insanely nervous about that one!!!

Then, Sarah (the owner of said favorite LSS and all around super-human lady who I aspire to be JUST LIKE when I grow up) asked me to be a part of the design team for the store. Man was that a big surprise..........and I was too excited to be nervous about that! YES, YES, YES.........the answer is an absolute YES!!!! (What it actually means to be on a design team I am figuring out as I go............). :)

Then, when Sarah saw the mini album that I created for the January Scrapper Spotlight she asked me to teach a class on it.

Hold up.

A CLASS!!????

ME????!!!

A TEACHER!!!!????

OK.....so the butterflies stuck with me on THAT one for a good week or so, but I knew that it would be all right.

I set forth making 10 kits of all the product necessary for the project. I put together an instruction sheet, which included pictures of each page of my album for reference. I thought. And thought. And worried a bit. (What if NOONE signed up!!!???? What if they HATED the project!!!!???)

I'm a worrywart, so this is nothing new to me.

Then......on February 2nd, 2008, I taught my first class. And it was fun. And easy. And I had no reason to worry. And now I can't wait to do it again (which is a good thing cause Sarah already has me signed up for different classes in March, April, and May!!!)

:)
And here is a layout that I created to commemorate my recent accomplishment.

A conversation with Jen.....

Here is my newest layout. Jen is just such a wonderful little person.....

Scrapbooking.

About 2 1/2 years ago I decided that I loved scrapbooking. Not only loved it, but REALLY LOVED it.

Obsessed is more like it.

For the first 2 years or so my family and friends were the only people whom I shared my layouts with. I never thought they were very good, but they captured memories for my children to see when they are older and that was all that mattered.

Then I found a local scrapbooking store that had a message board. I decided to join and take a look around. The board was (and is) such an inspiration to me because all of the women were so complimentary of each other's work. I got up enough courage one day and posted a layout of my very own. Being so new I didn't expect much..........until........

Everyone told me they loved it and asked that I post more!

Wow. Really??? They wanted to see MORE of what I did???

So I posted more. And more. And more.

And each time they made me feel so great about it!

And now they can't get rid of me.

:)

here i am.

Well......I thought it was about time to join the world in documenting my life and the life of my family. I have read quite a few blogs and am fascinated with the fact that people can look back 2 or 3 years and see what they were feeling or thinking at that time.

So here I am.

Ready, set.....GO!!!