Is this thing on? I mean really?

I have just not been into blogging lately, I mean like for a really long time.  But it's almost a new year, so why not make a bit more of an effort?  Yesterday I gave the blog a remodel and refresh so we are ready to go. It will be a short one tonight, kiddos need to get to bed.

We are having a nice Christmas recovery week off.  I have been off since Friday and it has been great. I was worried at first, when Nicholas came down with pink eye last Thursday and we thought that Jackson was getting it too, but since N won't do eyedrops, the doctor gave them antibiotics and it cleared up before Christmas and J never completely got it.

Mike is sick as is our usual after Christmas tradition.  The upside is we have stayed close to home and relaxed a lot.

Since you can't blog without a picture here is my first collage I created at Picasa today (how did I not know about this).  This would have taken me 30 minutes in Photoshop and it was whipped out in 5 minutes on Picassa after a bit of fixing on the cropping.

Meet Happy the Elf he arrived on Thanksgiving night and kept an eye on N & J for Santa through Christmas. The boys were sad to see Happy go back with Santa on Christmas Eve, but I am making them a little mini book to capture all his adventures while he was here.

Be back soon!

July 4th Weekend Roundup

We stayed inside for most of the long weekend.  With temperatures like this….

It was not pleasant outside.  And we had some humidity thrown in for fun too.
Jackson started eating with a fork this weekend, and picked it up like he had been doing it forever.

I definitely have kiddos that do things when they are good and ready and not when I want them to.

Since we stayed inside Jackson spent a lot of time dragging every toy he cold find in his room to every other part of the hosue.

Mike beat Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy with Nicholas cheering him along the way.

Nicholas hi-jacked my iPad and iPhone and played Angry Birds and ended up figuring out how to look for more games. After we paid for 2 or 3 games I told him he could not have any more that cost money. He figured out which ones were free and would bring me the iPad or phone and say “ Can I play this one? this one “don’t” cost money”. Kids.

After a hard afternoon of playing, Jackson crawled in Mike’s lap and fell asleep. He doesn’t look very comfortable to me.

On Sunday we did leave the house to go to the church in the morning.  We also went out to a late lunch at the new Coach and Willie’s in downtown Chandler. The food was good, but expensive. It seemed like we were the only one’s brave enough to leave the air conditioning. The restaurant and the streets were pretty empty.

When Nicholas wasn’t playing the iPad, he took over the Wii.  It is funny that something that he didn’t pay a lot of attention to a couple of months ago is now a complete obsession.

Last night we got a really bad dust storm that knocked the power out. The Wii wouldn't power back on and we thought it was a gonner. Mike was not looking forward to Nicholas's reaction, but thanks to Google we figured out how to reset the power supply.


I don’t even know what this shirt style is all about. LOL!

On the 4th, we stayed inside and Mike grilled slider burgers for dinner.  We headed over to our church for fireworks.

We met up with friends, Michelle and Barry, that we hadn’t seen in forever.  Nicholas and their little girl hit it off immediately.

And we ended the night with a bang!



Have a great week!

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day!  May your day be filled with....

eating sweet treats 

celebrating freedom

spending time with family and friends

and ending the night with a bang!

This evening we are going to watch Fireworks in the Sky at our church while roasting in the evening heat.  Enjoy your day.

Hoppy. Happy Easter!

We are getting ready to check out the baskets from E.B. (that's Easter Bunny for those of you that did not see the movie "Hop"). And then a big Easter Egg Hunt with lots of kiddos. 

Happy Easter!

(HOP decor from a Lickety Split kit)

Happy Friday

I unexplainably woke up at 4:00 am this morning and could not go back to sleep. I figured I may as well get up and be productive with the time. I am sure I will be loving it about 2:00 this afternoon when the lack of sleep hits.  It will be even more fabulous because my entire afternoon is filled with back to back meetings. At least I have a 4 day weekend to look forward to.

Last weekend was Mike’s big 45th. 

His choice of celebrating was to stay at home most of the weekend and cook for us.  He started off the day with his Bobby Flay inspired Bloody Mary’s and brunch on the grill.  Those breakfast sandwiches are too die for.

We just hung around the house all day and he grilled us fabulous burgers for dinner.  I told him I would make him anything he wanted for his birthday cake. He picked Oreo Cheesecake. I found a few recipe ideas and made a Cheesecake Factory inspired Oreo Cheesecake for our dessert.  It was probably my best cheesecake effort to date.

Nicholas loves birthdays, singing and helping blow out candles.

Nicholas has decided he likes to stamp and made his Daddy a birthday card.

The great thing for me is all weekend he wanted to go down to my scrap room to stamp and do crafts. He is pretty self sufficient down there, I set him up with his own drawer full of old stamps and stamp pads, paper, stickers, and other items I didn’t want anymore.  It let me get some scrap time in too, I just have to let him have control of the TV while we are down there. But that’s okay. 

This was my simple card for Mike.  And since I have a ton of layouts I haven’t shared, here are a few….

Jackson’s first Christmas….

At the pumpkin patch, I scrapped the enlarged photo I had in our entry way during the fall season.

ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo in 2009 in a rare 2 pager…

Have a great weekend….

Life, Organization, Scrapbooking and Valentine’s Day

(Photo heavy post ahead)

2011 is already zipping on by.  We have been keeping busy with long work days, home organization projects and trying to fit in some creative/hobby time (usually late at night after the boys go to sleep.

Today’s challenge at ScrapTiffany was to use metal or wire. I ended up making 3 layouts using this challenge. This is the one I submitted to Tiffany for the design team layouts.

This layout was rolling around my brain since a few days after my mom passed away in December. The Orianthi song Courage came on the radio and I knew this was something I needed to make….

For this one I used some old metal flowers mixed with new. 

and this one I embossed a thin sheet of metal with the cuttlebug for the heart in the title and the photo corner. Pictures were from our photo shoot with Maggie Holmes.

We have been on a clean out, get rid of and organize mission lately.  Two weekends ago we attacked the pantry and the linen closet.

This is what the pantry looked like when we started.

And now, although I am not happy with a few things, so I have ordered some more of the larger baskets and will move some of the smaller ones to the laundry room cabinets. But it is nice to have a place for everything,.

This is the start of the new backsplash, behind the stove. I have one more piece on backorder that will fit below the shelf area down to the counter top. But this is making me very happy.

Superbowl Sunday was spent hanging around the house. Or climbing if you are Jackson…

Making some yummy treats…

Nicholas liked watching half time and the commercials more than the football game (just like his mommy)….

I was home early from a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. Jackson was playing and then suddenly it was quiet….

Nicholas now knows how to play Daddy’s train game on the computer….

This past Saturday, Mike’s mom came to watch the boys so Mike and I could attack this disaster.  Our house has a 2 car and 1 car garage set up. The 1 car garage has become a dumping ground for everything….

We took out everything opened all the bins and boxes. Moved all the shelves, swept, and wiped down everything.  Then we added new shelving and a file cabinet. And we actually have a garage again.

In January I also did the larger garage. It wasn’t as crammed with stuff. This side just needed a better set up and a good clean out.  I guess I didn’t take a before shot, but here is how it looks now….

my favorite area is this one. We do most of our grocery shopping at Costco, saving money is great, but storing the bulk stuff is a pain. Now it is all in one place, convenient to grab when we need it and easy to unload after the Costco trip each week.

Nicholas in daddy’s shoes (showing off the closet that is coming up on the list of things to clean out).

Mike has been busy working on his radio project.

We celebrated Valentine’s with a few goodies for the kiddos.

my Valentine’s present will be shipping from Verizon soon….

After the kiddos went to bed, my Valentine and I spent the rest of the evening enjoying

Dinner….Greek Salad

Wild Mushroom Lasagna and Meatballs….

and a movie…

Have a great week!