Around Here..

We've been .....

Making Charlie Brown Christmas necklaces..

Playing "Angry Birds" on the iTouch..

Eating Cereal...

Taking lots of pictures in front of the tree..

And just generally being cute...

Hope you're enjoying these last few days before Christmas. We are!!

Let's Be Real

I have a bit of a weakness when it comes to taking pictures of my kids. I want them to be perfect. Or maybe not so much perfect, as I want them to look cute. And that's all fine and dandy (they ARE great at looking cute), but it doesn't show the whole picture. And if I'm using pictures and this blog to document our life, then we need a few more "real" pictures around.

I have been known to get the kids dressed out of their pj's and brush their hair, just simply because I wanted to take pictures of whatever it is we are doing around the house. Let's face it. If we aren't going anywhere for the day, 99.99% of the time nobody makes it out of pajamas. Less laundry. Right? So yesterday morning, when the girls were doing their usual, I thought about how I needed some pics of "the standard", and I grabbed my camera.

Both the girls love dressing up. But Abigail, does this thing where she doesn't put the dress over her head. She just sticks her arms through the arm holes and the dress drapes down the front.
Case in point:

How about that pink camouflage t-shirt? And she was watching Cinderella. Touche.

And Natalie. She has discovered the world of PBS and Nick Jr. on the computer. She loves playing the games on there. It's kind of a catch 22 because I don't want her to spend hours upon hours on the computer, but yet all those games are quite educational. I have a feeling she's going to be reading sooner than later. She already knows how to open up the browser, type "p" "b" "s" in the address window and pick the correct url from the dropdown list that comes up.
And it doesn't get any more "real" than this, with the crazy hair, and the completely cluttered desk.

And now that these pics are on the world wide web, I'm sure they will thank me later. Like 10 or so years from now. Kind of puts a whole new spin on breaking out the baby pics for boyfriends.

And just because I can't leave the boy out: Talking to daddy before bedtime.
I TOLD you my kids are great at being cute. ;)

Dixie Pieces *December Reveal*

So much for posting every day this month. There just aren't enough hours in the day when caring for 3 little ones!
I'm still playing catch up with my blog postings, so tonight I have the Dixie Pieces December kit reveal. This was a fun kit because it wasn't your traditional Christmas kit. Some scrappers have a hard time scrapbooking the themed events. If that's the case, this is the perfect kit for you.
I kinda felt like Sherry and Brenna (the owners) looked into my kids closets and custom made this kit based on their wardrobe. And that's happened more than once with the DP kits.
Here are my pages:




And a card.

Check it out here>>Dixie Pieces.

*Joe* the Elf

We have a visitor in our house this Christmas Season. About a week before Thanksgiving, the girls got a book in the mail from Santa. The book is the story of the Elf who will come stay at our house for the weeks before Christmas and report back to Santa every night. Each day, he's sitting in a new spot. First thing in the morning, the girls are up and looking for *Joe*.

So far he's been on the mantel, in stockings, on top of the fridge, just to name a few. And what's even more fun is that once the girls go to bed, before he makes his trip to the North Pole for the night, he has a little fun around the house. He takes self portraits AND posts them on my Facebook!

He colored a page for the girls:

He watched their favorite movie:


He's played with their toys:


We just never know what that elf is going to get into!

Sussies Reveal November and Dec. 2010

I am so behind with the blog. And I know I'm going to regret not keeping it up to date, so I'm gonna make every effort to post quite a bit more this month. First up I need to get up to date with my Scrapbook posts.
I never posted my pages from Scrapbook Sussies November. So even though we are in full swing Christmas mode. Here are the pages from the fun fall Nov. Kit.




So now on to December. I LOVE this time of year, and had so much fun with the December Christmas themed kit. I pulled out some of the pictures from last year for these pages. These pics are from the photo shoot with the girls for our 2009 Christmas card.

I still have one more page and a countdown to Christmas project that I made, but I haven't gotten pics of them yet. More Christmas stuff to come! Make sure you head over to the Sussies website and check out these kits.

Dixie Pieces *November Reveal*

Sometimes it amazes me when I look at the last time I posted. Where did the last 2 weeks go??
I can't believe it's already November!

Today I've got my November pages from Dixie Pieces to share with you. Here is the November kit!And here's what I did with it!



There are some great specials going on over there right now.
Any new subscribers will receive a free goodie bag valued at $20. These bags include alphabets, chipboard, papers, ribbon, and other embellishments. So be sure to go check it out!

2 Months Old

Jonathan turned 2 months old on Monday. Here is it Friday and I still haven't taken his monthly pic with Mickey. (We have a Mickey Mouse doll that I plan to take his pic with each month to easily see how he's grown.)
But I do have these that I took yesterday.



At his 2 month check up on Tuesday, he weighed in at 10lbs 5oz and 23 inches long.
A few other things to note:
*Is still sleeping quite a bit. His awake periods are usually anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour and then he's spent.
*Loves to be held. Especially if he's tired. He would much rather go to sleep in my arms. There have been quite a few times I've just had to listen to him scream while I tend to the girls, get a shower, cook supper, etc.
*Is eating about every 2 hours through the day. At night he's usually awake twice to eat. Typically he has a good four hour stretch of sleep, and then wants to eat again after a couple of hours.
*Is still sleeping in our room in the glider. Since he's up a couple times through the night this has been easiest, but I'm hoping to get him in his crib soon. Both Natalie and Abigail were in their own room after the first couple weeks. I think since I know he is my last baby, it's making it a little harder to move him out.
* Is wearing 0-3 month clothing and size 1 diapers. He had several really cute newborn size outfits that he never even got to wear!

We are loving him so!!

Family

Scrapbook Sussies October 2010 Reveal

I've got the rest of my October Sussie Layouts for you today.
I actually had some Easter pictures that went great with the Echo Park side of the kit.
Natalie really wanted 'The Princess and the Frog' for Easter and she was so very excited when she saw the DVD in her basket. I'm so glad I caught her facial expression when she saw it.


And these two are with the WRMemory Keepers, Halloween side.

As always there is so much packed in these kits that I've got tons of product left over. Hoping to get a couple more pages done with this one before I pack it away!

Happy Happy Birthday

Today this girl:
turns four years old! It still seems like just yesterday we were bringing home this tiny little bundle.
John was off yesterday and working today so, yesterday we took her to her restaurant of choice (McD's) for her birthday lunch. We'll be celebrating this weekend with a train ride (that she doesn't know about yet!) and then a family party on Sunday.
She is obsessed with all things Toy Story right now and she especially loves Jessie the cowgirl. We got her a Jessie costume for Halloween, but she has wore it just about every day since we came home with it. Of course she has it on today:
And I had do make a layout documenting a few things about her right now. Made with the October Sussies kit: (I'll have more Oct Sussie Layouts a bit later)

Happy Birthday sweet girl!