post x-mas, x-mas picture

But you're not 16 yet.....

This was one of Noah's favorites in Legoland! ...and look, I'm finally putting that cricut to use!

Finishing up

So I did manage to catch up on almost all of my projects. I have about two dozen finished layouts that we only 1/2 finished a few weeks ago. I even finished up a couple of mini albums and did a few new layouts along the way.

Since we are only 10 days away ... I thought I would share a layout from last Christmas -- which by the way, was one of my unfinished success stories.

Key to My Heart

I know I resolved to work on my unfinished layouts but I just got this new CTMH papers and I couldn't resist. These are pixs of Hannah and I on the beach in La Jolla, CA.

Quotable

Heard yesterday on our way home from school----

Hannah, age 5: "Mommy, the heart is at your home."


Kids are like sponges...even if they rearrange the wording a bit!!

Resolutions

I never make a New Year's Resolution -- I know that I do NOT have the will power to keep it so I just don't bother. Instead, I have decided to make a December resolution....I want to start the new year fresh (at least from a scrappy perspective) so...I have a stack of unfinished layouts that I resolve to finish this month. Most are just waiting for me to add my journaling (which doesn't come easily for me!).

This layout I did at a getaway with the girls back in early October. I finally added the cows last night..... One down, 20 or so to go!!

oo-oo-ah-ah....

Are you ready??

For her b-day, a friend of ours sent Hannah a package. She couldn't wait to rip it open....inside she found this adorable winter mitten/scarf set. As soon as she got them on, she was begging for snow. The problem was it was only October and New Jersey doesn't really get any snow until close to the end of the year (if even then)! But she and our dog Jack just looked adorable, didn't they?!?


by the way michelle....you may not be able to tell but there is lots of sparkles here....glitter, beads, paint....you would be proud!!

Time to Scrap

I am so far behind on scrapping....that is not to say there was ever a time I was "caught up" but I feel like I haven't sat and scrap for ages!! Over the past few nights, I was able to do a few layouts. As you can tell, I am not one to scrap in any kind of order. I scrap what inspires me at that moment...could be pixs from yesterday or 6 years ago. These pages are of this year's pumpkin carving, a picture of Hannah on our trip to San Diego, and some photos of Noah and I at our friends pool goofing around. Hope you like....

promises

I promised Halloween pixs ... so, here they are:

Noah had been planning to be a football player for Halloween (and was for the Halloween party the week before) but once the Phillies won the World Series, he just HAD to be a baseball player!! Note the World Series cap!!


Who knew Hannah Montana was the secret sister of Snow White??!



Aren't they just the cutest??!!

Whirlwind of Fun

I haven't really had a chance to keep you all updated on our trip....

Day 3 - Sea World San Diego: After a weather scare (it was pouring here when we were planning to leave for the park), we made it to the park. It was empty! Good for us...we saw all the big shows--dolphins and of course Shamu. But the part the kids liked the best was petting the stingrays. It took them awhile to try but after that, they had to return 3 times to pet them! One even tried to climb the side of the pool to get to Hannah (it must have thought she would be tasty).

Day 4 - Hannah woke with a fever. Not a good day for a fever. We had 9:00am reservations for a private tour of the SD Zoo. We didn't want to be out all of that money, so we went to the zoo. Luckily, we were driven around in a golf cart otherwise I think Michael's arm would have fallen off trying to carry her. As it was, we only stayed for the tour and didn't get to walk around on our own afterward. The tour was a good idea (thanks Michelle and Ira). We got to get up close and personal with two polar bears -- we had a polar bear within arms reach on both sides of us, it was very cool! We also got to feed the giraffes, some llama camel things, and stand a foot away while a panther was fed.

Day 5 - Disneyland!! What's not to love about disney? Sarah was scared of the characters and wanted nothing to do with the princesses but the rest of us loved it! We got to try out the new Star Wars ride (which either Disneyworld doesn't have or we skipped it last time we were there)....Hannah loves the rollercoasters and just couldn't get enough....Noah's favorite was the Buzz Lightyear ride.

today off to the Wild Animal Safari....tomorrow HOME!!!!

San Diego - Day 1 & 2

The kids have NOT adjusted well to the time difference!! Yesterday, we were up at 4:00am and today 5:15am. My girlfriend, Michelle, told me it takes one day per hour of time difference to adjust so that means we'll be getting up at 6:30am!! Wahoo!! (that is sarchasm!) So, michelle, how long does it take for kids to adjust to "Vacation time"? I need them to sleep until 10 and go to bed at 7pm!!

Day 1 -- We spent roaming the beach in La Jolla ...then we got rained out. "It hasn't rained in La Jolla since March" (to quote my bro-in-law). It wasn't really raining but it was misting, overcast, and too cold to continue our picnic. So, we headed to basecamp, ate, and then headed to the Scripps Aquarium.

Day 2 -- Legoland!! Fabulous, fabulous time!! Then off to Ruby's Diner for a surprise birthday treat for Noah....he turned 7 today!!

catching up....

Ok, so I am going to end up going a bit out of order. I know my family is still waiting to see pixs of the kids in their halloween costumes but right now, I am updating my blog from sunny San Diego, CA. I don't have a way to resize pixs to post now so will have to update and post pixs when I get home.

We survived our flight out. The kids were great. The only bump we really experienced was that 2 of our 3 dvd players wouldn't work. ARGH...but I will say, the kids kind of took it in stride.

Hannah was funny though, she got antsy about 2 hours into the trip and asked, "are we there yet?" ... which of course we weren't we still had 4 hours!! When we told her that, she said, "then, I just want to go home." I wonder how the other 200 passengers would have responded when we told the pilot that he just had to turn us around and all those going to CA were going to be SOL. I will say though, if anyone is capable of convincing a pilot to turn a plane around (w/o bodily harm to him), it would be Hannah!!

Still not Thawed

Guess where I went????

Hint: With LOTS of "friends", say like 40,000



Have you guessed? I went to the Phillies World Series game with my husband last night!! It was CRAZY there. My husband is a HUGE Philly sports fan, and when I say HUGE, I mean there probably isn't anyone alive who is as big of a Philly sports fan as he. He has tickets to everything!!

Anyway, he couldn't have been more excited that the Phillies are in the World Series. Not only might they win another penant (he was at the 1980 series as well!!) but this year he got to take his son, his uncle, his dad, and of course me. We didn't all go to the same game but I am certain each of us had a Great time!! Now if you didn't watch the game last night, it was not your typical cool night at the ballpark. It was 42 degrees and POURING!! So not fun when you are in seats NOT under cover!! Fortunately, we both semi-planned for it so it wasn't so bad...and being a diehard fan, we stayed at our seats watching until they put the tarp on the field.

In the end, they ended up postponing the rest of the game until tomorrow night. I'm not sure if I will go back for the game or if someone else will go in my place but it was well worth the frozen fingers and drenched clothes!!

GO PHILLIES!!

Call Me Jack...

as in Jack-O-Lantern. That is what the kids decided to name the pumpkin we carved this weekend. Nice and original, right? It does make me laugh when they put one and one together and think they are the first to ever come up with the idea. A pumpkin named "Jack", who would have thought? LOL.

I had my son a pen and paper and told him and the girls to go draw Jack's face. The rules as I stated in a previous post are that they must agree on all parts of it. Unfortunately, I am not much of an artist so they also have to stick with squares, circles, and triangles. After much debate the kids decided on this ----



We had a great time digging the guts out and getting all messy!!

My Little Monkeys

I haven't had a lot of time to scrap...nor have I felt very inspired. However, I did sit down last night and crank out a few pages. The first are pixs of my girls watching their bro's baseball game this summer. They just loved climbing the fence and pretending to be monkeys.



This next one, I'm not too sure about. I tried something different -- not sure I love it though. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the prettiest of all?" I feel like it is missing something...Come on girls, I really want your feedback here.

Weekend Whirlwind Part II:

Sunday -- Hannah's 5th Birthday Party

We took our oldest daughter and 6 of her friends to a beauty parlor/dress up place. It was too cute!! However, I don't think Bella-the-Ball has ever seen anything like the tornado we brought in! The girls took one look at the dressing room and went crazy!! We had girls fighting over shoes like it was the annual sale at Filenes. After a few compromises and at least 3 wardrobe changes for each of them, they all decided on their outfits and were off for make-up, hair, and nails. I can honestly say that I have never seen the girls have so much fun. They even got to walk the red carpet at the end....with me snapping pictures as they stuck a pose....what great shots for scrapping later!! ]

Without boring you with the other two hundred shots, here is a cute one of the group. Mine are the two in the front (the rock star and the littlest princess)...

Weekend Whirlwind Part I:

This weekend was jam packed with activities. We had our usual Saturday morning -- soccer, gymnastics x 2, ice hockey, soccer again --- afterward, the two older kids and I decided to try out our local farm's corn maze. We had never tried before so thought it would be fun. In theory, it is a great time! However, they told us that the average time to go through the maze is 1 1/2 hours, about 3 minutes and 17 SECONDS into the maze, Hannah decides that she is done. Lucky for her, in about 10 minutes, we found our way out...except that we had found our way back to where we started from. I certainly hadn't paid all that money to spend 10 minutes, so we went back in. After another 40 minutes of listening to Hannah beg to go home, and about that same amount of time of me contemplating the idea of just leaving her in there to fend for herself (i'm kidding, really, I am :))we asked for help to find our way out.....at least Noah can say we finished even if we did cheat.



Anyway, as soon as we found our way out, Hannah was a perfect angel...but of course that meant she wanted something....she spied a face painting booth! The kids each got something small and then it was off to find our family pumpkin. Each year we buy a relatively large pumpkin to carve together. But the rule is that they have to agree on the pumpkin to bring home with us. The two of them must have spent a good half an hour debating the choices...this one was too small, this one too bumpy, the next too flat....

They did finally decide on one...22 lbs of perfection. Next weekend we'll carve but again, we have to agree on the face design so we're just hoping to finish before Halloween is over!

They Crack Me Up

Kids just say the funniest things sometimes....

I drink coffee occasionally. I love Wawa's Hazelnut with hazelnut creamer. Everytime I get it, Hannah asks if she can have some. I tell her "no, because it makes little kids stop growing and it is important that she continue to grow. She can have coffee when she is an adult."

Tonight, Hannah was taking her vitamin and asked if I took a vitamin everyday too. I responded that I did not but vitamins are good for little kids to help them grow up to be big and strong. I also said that I am already big and am not growing anymore...to which she says, "yeah, because you drink coffee."

Ok -- it doesn't sound as funny when I tell the but it had me laughing out loud!!

I'm Back....

My girlfriends and I spent the weekend away in the Poconos....scrapping. It may sound silly to those non-scrappers out there but it is so much fun!! It was nice to get away, laugh with friends, and just RELAX. I know it was nice for me to get away from the stress of working these days with the plunging stock market! We all had a great time and were unbelieveably productive. I made 35 pages--that is about what I do in 2 months! Here are a couple of the pages I completed:

True Love...

Hannah is OBSESSED with Tattoos! I have come home from work to find her covered from head to toe (face included) in tattoos. She loves them!!! So of course I had to do a scrap page....

Latest projects

This first layout is my latest entry to the Pen Pals Challenge (see my favorite blogs link). The challenge was to create a layout highlighting a conversation. The journaling reads:
N: Mommy, when I move into my own house, will you come over to babysit sometimes?
M: Sure honey to babysit your kids?
N: No mommy, to babysit me!!
M: (laugh) You do know when you have your own house, you won't need a babysitter anymore, right?
N: Oh...


Hannah and I were taking the dog for a walk a few weeks back and she keep running ahead, turning around, and growling at us. It was too funny. As soon as we got home, I made her do it one more time for records sake....


This last one is made using my latest SO kit -- which is just awesome!! Unfortunately, I just haven't had to time to really play with it. These pics are of my dd when she was only 19 months old. The pics speak for themselves.

October...

It is hard to believe it is October already!! I must say though, this is my FAVORITE time of year. I love the crisp air as I head out to work, I love the changing leaves and their crunching under my feet, I love the burnt colors of the season, the preparations of Halloween and Thanksgiving, the family gatherings, etc. Today the kids and I went to buy our mums and ended up with more than just that...check it out....




Of course, now I see that you can't even really see it all but we got 3 bales of hay, 4 mums, and our "warted" pumpkin....yes a WARTED pumpkin. I had never seen anything like it but apparantely is a type of pumpkin that grows little wart like bumps all of it. The kids thought it was so cool and just HAD to get one. They even had little green ones that looked like huge apples with green popcorn stuck all over it. They were certainly interesting! ... the only issue with this whole thing is now my van smells like a farm from all of the hay!

Caught up in Life

I have been slacking on the blog front! With all of the kids activites and work, I am just wiped by the end of the day.

Quick overview of life --- my son started roller hockey last night and LOVED it! There about 16 or so kids and it turns out some camp friends were also in the class. His ice hockey skills certainly helped him out on the rink. I will tell you though, they certainly got a good workout! He was literally DRIPPING with sweat when he came off for water breaks. It's nice to see him really working!

The girls are loving gymnastics. This is my youngest first year in a child only class (no parents allowed). She has been fabulous. Not a single tear has been shed. She loves getting to do all of the flips like her big sister.

Han has yet to decide if she really likes soccer or not. She gave up about 1/2 way through the first week. The second week she went but told us we weren't allowed to cheer. I told her that was fine but then I was going to boo instead....so, I did. It was very funny and put a smile on her face every time she heard it! The other parents probably thought I was a little nutty but oh well.

Work is well, work. Managing a long strategy hedge fun is no easy task in today's volatile (and negative) markets but I'm hanging in there.

I have still managed to do a little scrapping. I am certainly not on pace with last month's production but I have finished 17 pages so far with a few more just waiting for finishing touches. Oh....and now my sister is back in the scrapbooking state of mind. She came in for a visit this weekend and did some pages with me. It was fun!! I'm sure we will make it more of a regular thing. Besides, it was wonderful to get to see my neice and nephew (maybe next time my nephew will sleep though! - lol).

Anyway, enough boring you with my chaos. Here are a couple of my latest layouts...

Welcome Baby Bailey

My best friend from college welcomed a little baby girl on September 17. She weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz. While I was kind of hoping she would wait until September 22 as was scheduled (the 22nd is a common b-day in my family), I think her mom Cheryl was quite happy to have her a little early! Congrats Cheryl!!

Now, when am I going to get out to Minneapolis to meet this new addition??? Doesn't it start snowing there like next week?

My Princess

Here's what I did with S's b-day princess pixs....used some of my new Close to My Heart papers and a design I saw in the latest issue of Scarbooks, Etc.

A new Favorite

The other night after work, I decided to take the kids out back for a photo shoot....it was a good idea but only Sarah wanted to dress up and go out. It wasn't the group shot I was hoping for but I was able to get a really great shot of Sarah!

Starting 1st Grade....

Life has gotten quite hectic so I apologize for the delay on posting these pixs...Noah started 1st Grade last week. He still doesn't know anyone in his class -- he is quite shy when it comes to meeting new people. But, he does love school --- especially getting homework (lol).

Pen Pal Challenge

I created this layout for Colette and Beverly's Pen Pal Challenge. I used a blank calendar page and Scenic Route's Appleton papers.


The journaling block reads:

3 active children, 7 days a week = 4 sports,
3 games, 2 practices + 1 Hebrew school
Noah = Soccer, Ice Hockey, Roller
Hockey, Hebrew school
Hannah = Gymnastics, Soccer
Sarah = Gymnastics
Total of 9 hours of extra-curriculars each week
and 3 hours of travel time
Craziness!!

Scheduling 3

How do you juggle the multitude of activites with 3 children? Yes, we allow our kids to participate in almost any activity they want to .. provided we think they can handle it and we can swing it all. Noah will not only be playing soccer this fall, which requires one night of practice and one Saturday morning game, he will also be playing ice hockey, roller hockey and has hebrew school. Each of these other activities is only an hour a week but they add up. Hannah will be continuting with her gymnastics as well as soccer and Sarah will have gymnastics. Luckily the timing works for everything and with a couple of car pools, this won't seem like so much but given the kids are only 3, 5, and 7 (well almost 5 and 7), I assume it will only get worse!!!

Anxiously waiting...

Noah and Hannah can't wait for soccer to start! Still over 2 1/2 weeks away, they are already out practicing with each other daily. Noah was given a list of possible sports to play this fall and soccer was consistently his top choice. I'm curious to see how it goes...he will be playing with kids his age as well as a year older (7-8 yr olds). Noah is an athlete through and through but by nature he is a reserved kid who doesn't like to be in the midst of any commotion. It will be interesting to see if he goes out on a limb and really gets involved in the jousling that happens in soccer. I will say, last year, he did not. He always hung back and in his words, played "d" when everyone else was playing "pack ball". You know what I mean, when every kid on the field runs for the ball. He does know a few kids on his team so hopefully this year they will learn to pass and really play as a team. He even has practice once a week in addition to his Saturday morning game.
And then there's Hannah....she will be making the other little kids cry. She is a tiny little girl herself but fears nothing and no one! She will most certainly be kicking for the ball regardless of who is in her way. She just loves her new cleats and shin guards. Doesn't she just look too cute? Now, who wants to wager on how many kids' parents we need to apologize to for Hannah being too aggressive. LOL :)

3 already!!!

We celebrated Sarah's birthday tonight...she doesn't turn 3 for a few more days but we wanted to have a party while her Uncle Larry was still in town. We just had the family over as well as a few close friends. Sarah's friend Sophie came as well. Sophie has basically been her friend since birth. They were born only a week apart but had been scheduled to be born on the same day by the same doctor...I ended up going into labor and having Sarah a week early. They have weekly play dates and are just the best of friends. As soon as Sophie arrived they each insisted on wearing their princess dresses..so off they went to bounce in the moonbounce with their royal attire. They had a ball! Here are a few pictures....hard to get a great shot b/c they just wouldn't stop long enough to get a good pix....must have been all of the sugar!

Club Libby Lu's

Over the weekend, my friend Robyn and I took our girls over to Club Libby Lu's for the first time. What a great time the girls had!! Aside from their begging for every item in the store, it was fabulous! They each got to pick some things to take home in their goodie bag, then each had their hair, make-up, and nails done. It was just too cute! Check out these pictures....

If you don't know what it is, Libby Lu's is a retail/kids beauty salon. They give the girls about 12 hairstyles to choose from and each get to have their make-up applied (which they then get to bring home). Hannah of course picks the only non-princessy hairstyle. She instead goes for the punk rock look --- only after me telling her she can't have the Hannah Montana style b/c I didn't spend $25 for her to go out with her hair looking exactly as it does every other day! The style totally matched her normal attitude though so in the end it just seemed too perfect. Sarah on the other hand picked a very cute princess up-do...if only I had dressed them in cute dresses like their friend Emma was wearing....oh well, maybe next time.

Big THANKS!!

I want to send a big thanks to Colette! She was nice of enough to send EVERYONE who participated in one of her scrap challenges a prize pack! I got mine in the mail yesterday...just before I went out scrapping with some friends. I couldn't wait to use it! Here is one of my creations...the papers are from the PDQ-tropical line. Thanks agin Colette!

Family Photographer

Hannah just loves to take pictures so this past year for the holidays my sister bought her her own little camera. She loved it! Of course she still to use our camera when we get it out but at least she now has one of her own!