Wednesday, January 20, 2010

i'm a zia!!!

sadie isabella
7 lbs. 9 oz.
20.5 inches
born 1.16.10
she is absolutely beautiful and danielle did the greatest job!

if you wondered if danielle was serious about assigning me bronzer/lip gloss duty....




she was! she gave birth looking better than i did standing beside her!
here i am with this sweet bundle of love.

doesn't she have the prettiest face?
here she is right before mckinlee and i left to come home.
it was all we could do to leave her.
...and look who looks gorgeous 3 days after giving birth!
this is only the first of many posts with this beautiful baby in it! stick around...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Project Life Tuesday-Week 1

i thought i wasn't going to do this again, but it was so much fun last year, i decided why not? what is this, you may ask. project life or project 365. it's basically a photo-journal of your year. you can learn more about it here. i wasn't able to get the kit last year, but kept up with taking a picture a day and a quick little note about each picture. this year, ordering a kit was much easier and it should be on my doorstep this afternoon. yay! it's neat to look back at ordinary things and see your year all spread out in one book.
anyway, this year i found this blog-the mom creative-where every tuesday her blog will be on project life and you can see how other people are documenting their year. it will be a good source of inspiration when you need ideas on some interesting pictures to take. so here are my pictures for the first week and a half of january.
i'm sorry for the 5 people who read my blog--most of these will be repeats for you! :)

1.1 friday
finally got all my winter decorations out
1.2 saturday
going away party for jade
1.3 sunday
mckinlee and amber playing dolls. mck was "french" remember?
1.4 monday
cleaned all my kitchen cabinets with murphy's oil soap--they look so nice now!
1.5 tuesday
finally decided on and ordered our family pictures.
1.6 wednesday
washed an old blanket that disintegrated in my washer.

1.7 thursday
no school because of ice. mck and i had breakfast in bed.
1.8 friday
first step to organized scrapbook room--cleaned off my desk.
1.9 saturday
dinner and football at michele and kevin's
1.10 sunday
lentil stew--made just for my husband who loves lentils.
1.11 monday
i popped out my old lenses and let mckinlee wear these glasses. she said "i've never had a disability and i'm sad about it!" i have never met a child who wants to have something wrong with her as much as mckinlee does. she wants to have crutches or a cast, glasses, braces--anything. she sometimes pretends she has no legs and goes up and down the stairs practicing just in case. my strange child.
1.12
tuesday
i went to the doctor because i have had a sore throat for over a week. it hasn't been too terrible-- just uncomfortable. he said i had tonsilitis and put me on antibiotics. go figure.
so that's my first few days of project life. tuesday's posts will now be on project life and i'll combine thoughtful tuesdays and thankful thursdays--just in case anyone was wondering. :)

Monday, January 11, 2010

the monday update

good monday morning! what a cold weekend. all i could think of all weekend was summer and those wonderful 100 degree days--i cannot wait for them to get here! i want to be tan and wear flip flops~not pasty white and covered from head to toe in winter wear. sigh. only a few short months. big sigh.

here's what i saw when i opened the washing machine to take out an old velour-type blanket that we were using outside for dreamcicle. what a mess. i am still finding green shreds in my laundry!
thursday morning the phone rang at 6 something. knowing no one else would call me that early, i jumped from my warm bed, not bothering to get my glasses and raced to the kitchen where the phone was, expecting to hear danielle panting on the other end of the phone. it was, however, not my sister in the throes of labor, but the automated school message telling me school was canceled. what? i even told chris, "they just canceled school because it's cold?!?" apparently, though, there was a good amount of ice on the roads--so no school for us! yippee! (once my heart didn't feel like it was going to beat out of my chest i was very excited. it took me a little while to calm down though. if sadie doesn't come soon, i am going to have a heart attack--i just know it.)
i sat in bed and read and watched the news until mckinlee came walking in with a troubled look on her face. she thought i'd forgotten to wake her up! i asked what she wanted for breakfast and she informed me that she'd never had breakfast in bed. poor child. i told her today was her day! we had pancakes, fruit and scrambled eggs. so yummy--especially in bed!

in other news, my scrapbook room has been as disaster. this was my organizational project this past week--and i got a lot done! nothing's been done with all my stampin' up stamps, but that is my project this week!
this was what my desk looked like. looking at that has been making my heart race for weeks. it just all seemed overwhelming and i couldn't find a place to start. but i finally was motivated and was just going to do a little. i kept telling myself to just get the desk cleaned off and not think about anything else.

and this is what it looked like less than a hour later. why, oh why, do a put things off? it didn't take nearly as long as i thought. as an added bonus...underneath all that schtuff was a partially completed scrapbook page.
so not only did i organize, i also did something creative and finished my layout. i was so proud. i organized sunday too and got almost everything cleaned up off the floor. i'll post those pictures later this week.
saturday night we went over to kevin and michele's for dinner and to watch football. we had cheese ravioli, gnocchi with a spicy cream sauce, salad, bread, jalapeno/bacon/cream cheese bites, 3 layer yellow cake with chocolate icing and an incredible cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce. we stuffed ourselves and i felt sick the rest of the night. good times.

here's edway and emily before dinner.
there was a group watching the game...
some working on a puzzle...
and some reading scrapbook magazines. (betcha didn't know what group i'd be in!)
here's what my view looked like most the night.
mckinlee in her cute outfit.

and keeping up with zane!
we had such a fun time.
sunday before the meeting, i put a crockpot full of lentils and ham to cook while we were gone. this is not one of my favorite meals, but i did it lovingly for my husband--and he loved it. me? not so much.
it's grocery day for me--and i don't have any meals planned yet. i hate that.
have a great day :)

Friday, January 8, 2010

fabulous friday finds

(can't have a post without a picture. this is one of mckinlee on vacation in myrtle beach a few years ago--when she was losing teeth and would actually smile with her mouth open. i love it!)


today my finds are my favorite scrapbooking blogs. i posted some in december~these are ones i've found or rediscovered since then. prepare to be inspired!

jennifer mcquire
she makes some of the most beautiful cards and she has lots of videos on her blog of different techniques (usually involving ink or paint.)

blackflipflops
she makes some really neat projects and is kind of vintage-y. she just had her 4th baby and still does more creatively than i have in 2 years!

evalicious
this is her blog, but you can get to her online store from there. i love her art journals. this is where i ordered the travel journal i used for our mexico trip--still need to finish that all up!

tim holtz
one of the few guys in the scrapbook industry. does amazing distressed stuff. (funny story i heard about him. someone asked him if he gets recognized at all in public. he said yes, all the time. most people think he's the lead singer for rascal flatts! ha ha.)

october afternoon
so many great links on this blog. their stuff is just so cute!

jenni bowlin
here is her blog. and here is her store.
absolutely love her. antique and vintage goodness everywhere!

lily bee
what can i say? beautiful, beautiful pages.

studio calico
they make the greatest monthly kits. if i ever join a kit club, i think it's going to be this one. their stuff is so pretty with a vintage flair (i think i am on a real vintage kick lately!)

i have GOT to organize my scrapbook room so i can do some creative stuff! i just can't be creative at all in a mess and i have not felt like organizing at all!
i must do that this weekend. in keeping with my goals, i will work on my room and make at least one thing this weekend.
have a great weekend and stay warm!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

thankful thursday


"may you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door."
isn't that a nice quote?
i just wanted to do a quick 'thankful' post before thursday is over.
i am so thankful on this cold, cold day that i have a warm and loving family and a warm place to spend the night.
what are you thankful for?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

thoughtful tuesday



my thoughts today are on goals.
i just love the start of a new year. it feels so refreshing and motivating~just knowing there is a whole year to accomplish new things.
and while i don't make new year's resolutions, i have been thinking about goals i have this year.
i love this quote i read earlier:

"goals that are not written down are just wishes."

~unknown~


since i really want to incorporate these goals into my everyday life, i figured i should write them down.
**read the bible everyday
(even if it's just one page, i want to get into the habit of doing this.)

**start my day off each weekday with personal bible study
(this goes along with the first goal. i have already been doing this and it feels so good to start my morning off on such an encouraging note.)

**make something creative each week
(this can be a card, a scrapbook page--anything that helps me think creatively)

**keep a good schedule of cleaning
(i love the end result, but cleaning is not something i enjoy. and when i don't enjoy things i put them off. so keeping a cleaning schedule is going to keep me focused on doing this each week.)

**be more o.c.d.
(usually i just do things "good enough." i am in no way a perfectionist and if something is good enough, that's just fine with me. if something isn't done perfectly, it just doesn't bother me. but i am going to try and let things bother me. that didn't sound right. what i mean is i am going to do things better than just good enough. this might be my most challenging goal so far.)

**be more involved
(more about this next tuesday.)

**organize something each week
(whether it's a room, a closet, a drawer--whatever. but something at my home will be organized every week!)

so...those are the major things i will be focusing on this year.
i'll let you know how i'm doing.


i'm already doing good on my cleaning schedule. yesterday was spent cleaning all the cabinets in my kitchen with murphy's oil soap. it took much longer than i thought, but now i have shiny, pretty cabinets! today was spent cleaning downstairs. my floors are sparkling!



in other news...we finally decided and ordered the family pictures we had taken this summer (see? procrastinator!) i can't wait to frame them.
that's all for today--i'm off to make dinner and watch the biggest loser. a new season starts tonight and we love that show!