Bring on the Snow

WOOOHOOOOO - we may only get a couple of inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. Then again, they may be wrong and we'll get a HUGE pile of snow. Either way, it is out of our hands and on its' way! I am baking chex mix, went to the grocery yesterday and have plenty of food for the weekend. I am ready for a night at home with all my boys! Everyone be safe and enjoy whatever falls in "your neck of the woods" as Al Roker would say!

Ahhh...snow days

Gotta love snow days! I am a weather nut. I love watching the weather and keep track of what is coming our way. I think I have influenced Blake. He can tell you what all the colors (green, darker green, red, black, etc) mean on the maps for severe weather. For a while this fall, his favorite station to watch was the Weather Channel. Anyway - I love snow almost as much as Bill Meck, the Channel 18 weather guy. But today caught me off guard. I went to bed last night thinking we were going to get a "dusting" or a "trace" of snow. The boys and Greg were up and out of the house on the way to school when we got a call at 7:15 that school was cancelled. I had to call and get them to come back. So now, the quiet morning I had planned is forgotten. The Career Speaker I had planned for the high school students is postponed. Instead there are puppets, cars, trains and more strewn about my house. We have played the Wii, watched Wall-E, had breakfast, a snack and lunch. We have been downstairs and upstairs. The only thing we haven't done is play in the snow :) There really isn't that much of it and SURPRISINGLY the boys have not asked to go out. I am holding out for the BIG snowstorm we may get this weekend for sledding and snowmen. Until then....I will be entertaining some little boys :) Is it nap time yet?......

These are just a few scrapbook pages I could find on my hard drive. I need to upload some more recent ones. A few of these are digital and the others are traditional. Two of them are from a trip Greg and I took to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2006.



This one is just aneat picture of Blake at the aquarium.



This one is of Blake, Noah, Carter and Grace and I thought it was too cute!

The need to scrap.....

I confess. I love to scrapbook. I have put memorabilia and pictures in albums and scrapbooks since I was a little girl. My mom had a scrapbook from junior high and high school and she used to let us look at it. It was filled with dried corsages, invitations to dances, ticket stubs, letters and more. I thought that was so neat and couldn't wait to do that myself. Obviously my first attempts are a little less creative and lot messier than my more recent attempts, but they are precious to me.
I have a book by Dr. Seuss entitled, "My Little Book about Me". My grandmother gave it to me for my 5th birthday. I wrote in it myself, counting steps in my home, buttons in my closet, declaring what I wanted to be when I grew up, favorite foods and more. I love seeing it with my 5 year old handwriting and laugh at the things I thought and said then. My sister recently got the same book for my 6 year old and we have had a lot of fun filling it out. I have volumes of books from college full of pictures and road trips and memorabilia. I have every intention of putting pictures I have in boxes from special trips in an album. I have been working diligently on scrapbooks for each of my sons. Since becoming a mother, scrapbooking has taken on an entirely new meaning and purpose. It is not just to have a nostalgic book filled with firsts and pictures. It is an opportunity for me to pass on values, moments when we celebrated as a family, verses that are especially dear to me, trials we have overcome together and the ways that God continually remains faithful to us. I kind of like to think that if something were to happen to me that my words and influence would live on in my boys through these books. I try to impart wisdom and talk about my wishes and hopes for their lives. I want them to be part of their "legacy". Of course, having three little boys really keeps me busy and I don't get to spend as much time in my scrapbook room now as I did when they were smaller. But my need for it has not escaped me. It is an outlet for me creatively and a stress relief. I can always tell when I have not had enough time to devote to this because I think about it more and I have an "itch" to scrap. I have so many stories to tell and so many pictures to choose from it is hard to limit myself to just the best. Ordinary days and moments are my favorite to scrapbook - they tell our story the best.
Speaking of all of this.....I think it is time for me to go down there and put a couple of pages together. I am going to try to post some of the pages I have done in the past on here so you can see what I am talking about and really understand why I "need" to scrap!

An expensive day...

Do you ever have those days? You know - when nothing seems to go as you planned and when everything seems to be EXPENSIVE? Well, today was one of those days. I went to the dentist and spent a lot of money. I didn't even really have a huge amount of dental work done. I HATE spending money on stuff like that. I know my teeth are important and I really need them. But it is just not fun to spend money at the dentist. It would be a lot more fun to spend money on a new outfit or a date night :)
Then I get to go home for about 30 minutes between picking Noah up at preschool and taking my van for a routine oil change. Or I should rephrase that to say what I thought would be a routine oil change. They added a _ _ _ _ _ maintenance to it. Not such a big deal. Then they came and told me I needed a new battery. OK - I thought I was going to spend $30 and ended up spending over $200. I realize it was not like I had to purchase a new transmission or anything.....but good grief!!!
On the flip side of all of that, I did not freak out, simply wrote my check and said thank you. I am comforted by the fact that I have the money to fix those things that need to be fixed. I have a warm home to come back to and healthy kids to hug. I am provided for - in fact, I am spoiled in comparison to most other people in the world. God continually lavishes blessings upon me and my family. Those blessings are completely undeserved, but definitely appreciated. I just have to keep concentrating on that - seeing the bright side!

Loose Tooth

I CANNOT believe my son is old enough to lose a tooth. The dentist told us around Thanksgiving that he had two loose teeth on the bottom. This may not be a big deal to some people, but wow! I was not prepared for this. He is getting so big. Kindergarten still seemed like fun projects, parties at school every month, and he still needed help with small tasks. Now in first grade, he ties his own shoes, gets dressed completely unaided, walks into school without hesitation and has a "big kid" attitude. When he lost his tooth, he was playing the Wii and casually walked over to me with his hand outstretched. His teeny front tooth was in the palm of his hand and he said, "here Mommy". Like, no big deal, here is my tooth. Of course, I reacted and then he kind of fell apart. Then he shifted his focus to the tooth fairy and got excited about the possibility of making some money for his new treasure. The rest of the night I just kept saying to Greg, "how is he old enough to lose a tooth?". Of course, Greg would just look at me like I was crazy! But really - when did he get so big? I know this sounds cliche, but it really did happen overnight. I see pictures of him as a baby and toddler and I am absolutely FLOORED by his quick transformation. I get so intertwined with the everyday activities that I blink and months have passed. It really does make me want to embrace every day a little more. I know we cannot slow down time - it will march on - but perhaps we can be more present. By doing that, we will not feel so flabbergasted when we look up and they have grown up before our eyes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Sorry this is a little late. I am still getting used to this blog thing and I forget to get on here. Our holidays were fun, hectic and yet we had a lot of playtime. I was not ready for the kids to go back to school. I was definitely not ready for Greg to go back to work. We were spoiled with two whole weeks together. I am hoping that everyone had a marvelous Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus.
The boys truly enjoyed all the facets of Christmas this year: lights, cookies, goodies, decorating the tree, wrapping presents, parties, Santa and more. We were overwhelmed by all of the gifts they (and we) received. It took us two days to organize, put away, wash new clothes and reorganize closets, etc. We are so spoiled.
I got a new Cricut (die-cut machine for scrapbookers) and I am pumped about that! My mom got me a new sewing machine and I am hoping to put it to use making some baby blankets this weekend. It has 23 different stitches/embroidery patterns on it. 2010 will possibly be a productive year for me craft wise :)
Greg received a lot of new clothes this year. Probably because he lost over 70 pounds since August and nothing fit him. He looks so great! I told him he is getting too skinny - he has to stop. He is training now to run the mini-marathon for the Derby Festival in May. I am so proud of him for his dedication to running and getting/staying healthy. It is a great example for our boys.
My house currently looks like Toys R Us set up camp. I have Legos, Bat Cave, Planet Heroes, blocks, Toy Story figures and more. Those are just things I can see around my family room!
OK - more later. Have a great one!