Some New Cards

I needed to get several Thank You cards done for Christmas (I know I am really late), Nicholas's Birthday and some gifts we received for Jackson. So I spent a couple of nights this week doing a large batch. It helped that I went shopping for some new stuff to get some inspiration. I used Making Memories Paperie Greenhouse. The bird stamp is by Imaginisce. The Thank You stamps are all Studio G. I made 20+ cards in just a few hours.

Sneak Peeks & Some Layouts

I got to play with the Color Me Daisy February Kit a couple of nights ago. Here are a couple of sneak peeks from my layouts:

I had some time to work on some other layouts as well. This one is from the Color Me Daisy December kit.

Here is a close up of the trees, I staggered them using pop dots with varying thickness to give it some dimension.

I finally got a page done of Jackson's birth. Took me long enough, LOL! Used Making Memories Animal Crackers line, plus My Minds Eye and Heidi Swapp tags.

I also have finished up several layouts from classes I took at the CK conventions in 2008. Most of them were mostly finished or just needed pictures. It was good to get some pictures on the pages and call them done, even if some of them weren't my favorites.

These are from the September CKC in Phoenix Latest & Greatest class. We used Imaginisce and Basic Grey papers for one page layouts. The store Embellish sells a matching page, which I bought even though I usually don't like to do 2 page layouts. And when I was finishing these I rememberd why. I usually don't like to have to work with so many pictures of the same event.

Journaling on the left says: Nicholas, Clark Kent has nothing on you!"

These were using the Basic Grey lines from last year.

This Layout "Why I Scrapbook" was done at the Backstage with Cathy Zielske class. She's one cool ladyand this was the second time I took a class from her. While I don't think my style is quite as "clean and simple" it is definitely more on the "simple" side so I appreciate a lot of what she has to say and she has a funny blog too.

These were from a Quick Quotes class I took in April at the CKC Mesa Convention. I like their classes but they are not relaxing at all. Very fast paced.

The next ones are probably my least favorite layouts. I took two classes from CK. Usually you get really nice products in the class for your projects, but instead this year they gave you the CK scrapbook in a kit's like they sell at JoAnn's. The cardstock and patterned papers in it were thin and the embellishments not all that exciting. But the pages were done, so I may as well use them for some pictures and not worry about it!

These were from a class called Flocked and Fabulous. I didn't really learn anything new. Here we flocked some foam squares.

On this one we flocked some glue pop dots and Doodlebug flocking stickers. The leaves and green border was flocked paper.

This was another CK class - What Matters Most. The papers and embellishments were a bit girly, so for the first one so I made some changes to minimize it since the page was for Nicholas.

365 2009 - Week 4

Monday, January 19
Every night while we are eating dinner, this is what errupts at some point. Jackson must be able to smell the food.



Tuesday, January 20
A typical day after a nap, Nicholas gets his cookies, water and Baby First TV to chill out to while he gets the cobwebs out. Then it's back to playing.



Wednesday, January 21
Often when I am feeding Jackson, Nicholas crawls up in the chair with us to snuggle and watch TV.



Thursday, January 22
Nicholas helped Daddy sort the never ending laundry.



Friday, January 23
Went to IKEA in the morning to get a small table and chairs for Nicholas. Then we headed to the Santan Mall to have lunch at Kona Grill, sushi, MMMM! Then we walked around a bit before heading home. We brought out the old high chair for Jackson, he loved being part of the group at dinner. Nicholas was making goofy faces as soon as I brought out the camera. Mike and I got some hobby time in the evening. I was able to make a layout from the Color Me Daisy February kit. I need to clean my scrap room.



Saturday, January 24
I spent some time looking at the Design Team applications for CMD. We walked to the park for a community party celebrating the park opening. Nicholas had lots of fun playing on the slide and swinging. He used to be afraid of the swing, but he loves it now. Another hobby night for Mike and me after the boys go to bed.



Sunday, January 25
Just a day to hang out at home. I took Nicholas outside to play in the backyard, while Mike ran out to Costco. Jackson snoozed in the Baby Bjorn so I could chase Nicholas all over. Opening and closing the screen drawer was completely fascinating for Nicholas today. Nana (R.) came over in the afternoon to see the boys. Jackson slept most of the time, so Nicholas got lots of attention.

Nicholas Turns 2!

So I am a bit late in sharing pictures of Nicholas's birthday party. He turned 2 on January 9th. His Uncle Jon and Aunt Krista and his 4 cousins came for the weekend to help us celebrate.

We had a Winnie the Pooh themed party. I used my Cricut machine to make Nicholas a birthday sign. Mike had got me the Winnie the Pooh cartridge for Christmas so I could make this for Nicholas.

Party decorations including Pooh themed ballons.

I made Nicholas's cake. It was my first effort at baking a themed cake. It wasn't too bad except for mixing all the frosting colors. It wasn't as perfect as a bakery cake, but completely made with love!

I also made cucakes, which was really so I could practice applying the frosting before I did the cake.

Me and my big boy! I cannot believe that he is 2 years old. The time has gone so fast. He is as sweet as he was the day he was born!

Nicholas and his Grandpa Carr. Love his little Pooh ears!

We had hot dogs, so Nicholas could have one of his favorite meals. Of course he had to have potato chips too!

Opening presents was still a little overwhelming. Fortunately cousin Bella was here to help. She would open his presents and while Nicholas would play with the new toy. Bella was ready to open the next one! They made a great team.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the cake.

The hit toy was picked out by Uncle Jon. It was a Winnie the Pooh treehouse complete with characters from the Winnie the Pooh Sleuthing series (not sure what it is, but I guess it is a newer Pooh cartoon theme). Whatever it is, Nicholas loves it. All the kids played with this most of the night and into the next day. Even 2 weeks later it is one of the first toys Nicholas starts playing with each day. He loves opening the doors and figuring out how it all works.

365 2009 - Week 3

Monday, January 12
Had a pediatrician appointment for Nicholas and Jackson today. Our doctor wants us to get an evaluation for autism for Nicholas. There were some red flags in a screening they did, but I know in my heart he is not autistic. Starting to work on the accounting for the business. Our TV shows started back up this week. So lot's of TV time for two nights of 24 and two nights of American Idol at 2 hours a night. I love our shows, but don't like how much time they take up.


Tuesday, January 13
It's a two therapy day for Nicholas, speech in the morning and then physical back to back. The therapists were proud of Nicholas's accomplishments this past week. I re-joined Weight Watchers in the morning. I still have 14 of the 42 pounds of baby weight to lose, plus some more. I did a little grocery shopping in the afternoon, just picking up a few things to get us through the week. Scott, Lori and the girls are visiting this weekend so I'll do a bigger trip before they come.


Wednesday, January 14
More working on the business books. Jackson and I were hanging out in the office and I put him in the Bumbo seat. He sat up pretty good for a 9 week old.


Thursday, January 15
We were lucky and got into Phoenix Children's Hospital to see Dr. Ellis, a developmental pediatrician for Nicholas's autism evaluation. She does not think he has autism, just that he is still behind developmentally from the prematurity. He is about where an 18-month old would be. It was good to have the appointment, to put our minds at ease. Although I was certain there was nothing wrong. We do have to go back in 6 months for a follow up. Dr. Ellis did want us to stop spoon feeding Nicholas, so for lunch that day we gave him a spoon and some fruit and he started using it right away. Just over the weekend he didn't want anything to do with it. Funny how that works.


Friday, January 16
A long push today to get the books done for the business. Almost done at the end of the day. Just a few more hours.


Saturday, January 17
Running around to Costco, Sam's and Fry's to get the grocery's done and get ready for Scott, Lori and the girls coming tonight.


Sunday, January 18
We all went to Mike's mom & dad's to visit in the early part of the day. We came back and hung out in the basement watching the Cardinal's win their final playoff game to go to the Superbowl! Who would of thought?

365 2009 - Week 2

I got a couple of weeks behind, so I am going to do a couple of catch up posts this weekend.

Monday, January 5
We spent some time today preparing shipments for the January kits. We are going to have a busy week. Mike's brother Jon and his family are coming this weekend and we have a lot to prepare for that and Nicholas's birthday party. I did the grocery shopping and some errands for the party while Mike did some cleaning.



Tuesday, January 6
We took advantage of not a lot of new TV shows to watch and Jackson going to sleep at a good time to have a hobby night. Mike played his train game and I did some scrapbooking.


Wednesday, January 7
Mike was cleaning the kitchen and had put the dog's bed in their toy basket. He came around the corner and found Marti had crawled in the basket to lay on her bed. She likes to snuggle into her bed or under blankets. This is so typical of her. Such a sweetie!


Thursday, January 8
We went to my office to show off Jackson in the morning. It was nice to see everyone and hard to believe that I have to go back to work in 3 1/2 weeks. We went to Babies R Us and Michaels and then had lunch at Garduno's. Nicholas loves to eat lunch out with us and sit by his Daddy. We also went to Target to get Nicholas's presents for his birthday. This will probably be the last time we can shop for his presents while he is with us. It was a big day, Nicholas added three new words to his vocabulary "purple", "puppy" and "bear".




Friday, January 9
Our big boy is 2 years old today. It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago today that we experienced the scariest day of our lives when our baby boy was born 11 weeks before his due date. That day was also one of the happiest in our lives because Nicholas was brought into our lives. He is the sweetest little boy, and so good natured. We are very lucky to have him in our lives. Today Mike's brother, Jon and his family came to visit. Nicholas loved playing with his cousins, especially Rhianna and Isabella. It is fun to watch him play with kids his age. He even learned how to ride on his fire truck and rode it around the kitchen all night.


Saturday, January 10
Today was Nicholas's birthday party. I made him a Winnie the Pooh themed cake and cupcakes. During the day, everyone went to the park. Nicholas slid down the slide by himself and loved the swing. He had fun playing with his new toys that Isabella helped him open. He stayed up really late playing with his cousins. Mommy is really proud of her big boy, he was so easy going and happy today.


Sunday, January 11
Jon & Krista stayed until the evening. So Nicholas had a lot of time to play with his cousin's today. While everyone else was napping or doing other things, Nicholas crawled up in the chair with his new book. While we were looking at the book I pointed out a picture of a little boy kissing a little girl and said "kiss" to Nicholas, and he blew a kiss. All these new things this week!