You rock.

So the morning jam session has become a bit of a norm around here. E now works 4 ten hour days so half of the week this is his only time with the kids. They're fast asleep when he comes home at night. So the deal was, when he shifted his work schedule, that he would be ever so kind enough to "do" mornings, feed the kids, make the coffee, etc., while I got a peaceful shower in. Then I would go ahead and be solo with the kids the rest of the day. Well, as chaotic as it can be to start a day as a SAHM without a running start, I can hardly complain that they aren't accomplishing enough at this time or I'm not getting enough help. They simply eat and listen to their dad singing songs about kids named True and Carsen. In fact, if this is their only time with this phenominal man for another 24 hours, I can't think of a better way for them to spend it.

Week in the Life, Day 3

Someone isn't napping today :)
Waiting for sister to get out of school.
Kid yoga class.
The bell has rung and every little Kindergartener is ready for a new day!

Here are a few shots from last night and today. You can see in the keypad shot that True has snuck out of his room at quiet time!

For a good cause.

The crop I went to over the weekend was for ScrapPink, which you can read more about here. Well, they had a fabulously clever and very re-useful idea of auctioning off some of their gorgeous sample projects to raise funds for breast cancer research and awareness. Here are my lucky wins! The first are Christmas decorations/gift. The second and third are the outside and inside of a card to journal and add photos to. The last two are the inside & out of a very cool pop box, this particular one is a teacher gift, but just think how fun it would be to make one of these for everyone on your list, filled with gift cards, journaling and photos!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas? Halloween? Both?

I got a start on my Christmas cards, as I always do following my September birthday. And at the same time the Halloween decorations come to life out of their boxes in the utility room. Here are a few sneak peeks! My friend Wendi again gifted us her photography skills, so you'll get to enjoy a first glance at those too!

A few shots from today's "Week in the Life."

And Mr. Bean has some news too!

Boo. Mr. Bean. Tootoo. Our little guy is little no more.

He's nearly three.

Not to mention a superstar race car driver "Rock and Troll" singing Big Guy.

Just see for yourself: he's in swim class- without Mom, he's on a soccer team- the Hoppers, and he has his own Big Guy work to do. My sweet pea is sure growing into a big three year old!

He says:

"Mom, check out my cool moves!"

"Mom, I put my head under water!"

"Mom, I drew a rocket por Dad." And he did.

Meanwhile, I am sadly wondering just when I turned into plain old Mom. Where or where are the days of Mommy?

The times, they are a changin'.

I'm still spinning from the thought of our girl being a Kindergartener. Carsen was 7 weeks early when she was born, which left her at 3 pounds, 11 ounces when she entered this world. I cannot get that amazing and tiny little image of her out of my mind every day as she helps pack her lunch, does her homework, and walks to school. It is so very special for our family this fall to embrace these big shifts in who we are.

Day one.

Here are a few photos from day one of the Week in the Life challenge.

Ideas brewing.

So after just returning from my scrap weekend, I also just turned 35! See the b-day flowers I received from the two boys in my life- the bright one from my man while he was on a business trip for my big day, and the orange ones from my little man True (thanks Wen!). With both events shaking things up around here, I decided to put my refreshed perspective to work. Here's what I'm working on:

1. Get healthy. I have popped in and out of some seriously blue times in my life and I have also always gone up and down on the scale. The answer to both life-challenges is a healthy lifestyle. I want to be around to kiss grandbabies, but I also want to have a great quality of life while I'm doing it. Fo that matter, I want a great quality of life while I can still kiss my own babies. So my friend Gia turned me on to this site: http://www.stickk.com/. I am posting and monitoring my good-health goals on this site and all my supporters can help me reach them. This site is great, and your goals can be anything- make partner by January, quit smoking, make more family time, skydive... you name it. You can even deduct money from your credit card to benefit the charity of your choice when you succeed! Pretty cool.

2. Get back into the everyday exploration. I'm going to take Ali's challenge and document my life for a week. You can read up and get inspired here: http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/. Again, pretty cool.

3. Expand my scrapbooking horizons. I met a gal at this crop and boy oh boy this girl had a gift. She made art out of the most surprising things, and it was so inspiring. I've always been a paper-crafts kind of girl, as opposed to sewing (all thumbs) for example. This gal made pop up scrapbooks, made a book out of file folders, a chipboard suitcase, geesh... you name it. It was so cool, and it got me to thinking outside the album. I've been a big fan of the mini-book over the last year, as my family albums are mostly caught up. So I've made travel albums, friends and family books for the kids to leaf through at their liesure, and love stories. This gal got me on the wavelength again of seeing where else I can bring my story.

Surprise!

So, many a month has passed since I've posted, and perhaps it's laziness, perhaps it's busy, fun summer activities, but whatever the reason, I'm back for now! I just returned from a weekend retreat in which my dear friend and I scrapbooked for nearly 2 1/2 days straight with a fabulous group of women at The Mad Scrapper in Issaquah, http://www.madscrapper.com/. It was a fundraising weekend for breast cancer research, and it was a total hit. We already want to sign up for next year!

I can't believe the inspiration that followed me home, creatively speaking, but also as a huge sense of being refreshed, looking at my day-to-day life in a found sense of appreciation and examination. Therefore, I'm back at the blog, and ready to kick off a few new projects. Enjoy!

Captured

My friend Wendi has been developing her photography skills for quite some time now, and when I spoke of getting my daughter's 5-year portraits, Wendi said she wouldn't mind taking the shots for practice.
This is her "practice."
These magical images capture all that is Carsen: so very sweet, happy, expressive, and unpredictable.
How lucky am I that my friend that knows Carsen so well can prove it on film? And all for the affordable price of FREE. Watch out, local photo studios. I'm takin' my business elsewhere. Thanks, Wen. They're beautiful.

Purse Making Party

My friend had a birthday get-together for a few women at a purse design center here in Seattle, and each of us got to pick out the design, fabric, buckles, liners, and buttons for our own purse. It was so fun, I absolutely recommend it! It was a lovely girl-bonding time, and some serious creativity was floating through the air, which is always a good thing! This is my little piece of art and I love it! It's perfect for when I have a date or a girls' night, which is a rarity, and all I have to pack is my wallet & keys! Here's the website for Laura Bee Designs, in which you can find out about their shop, designing your own bag, and online services:

http://www.laurabeedesigns.blogspot.com

Boot Camp

Like many families, we ebb and flow in and out of consistency. We seem to have a successful streak and get a little lazy with our discipline. Then things start to turn into bad habits so we get a little strict and reteach the skills we want the kids to develop in self control. I'm a big believer in Love and Logic and Positive Discipline. I have a mommy-reliant little guy that totally responds to the former and an independent daughter that responds well to the latter. So when things start to slide a little and it's time to reinforce the good habits we want around the house, I pull these books off the shelf again for a refresher course.

So this season (we have quarterly "boot camps" it seems) I've made a chart that seems to really inspire both kids to do well. They each have a photo of themselves on their bikes and a chart that leads up to 12. They are asked to move their bikes up the "mountain" when I catch them being good, and move down a number when the opposite is true. When they hit 5, and then again at 12, they get to draw a prize out of the bowl. These consist of little folded pieces of paper with free treasures, like picking a show, having one lollipop, 30 minutes alone with one parent, an extra bedtime story, picking supper for the night, helping to cook it, etc. So far my daughter really grasps it and True just feels great when we all clap for him, but he's not totally getting the upward movement idea.

Secondly, I've reintroduced the timer, which then becomes the notifier of when clean up should be finished, when it's time to get ready for bed, taking turns with a toy, etc. This is a fabulous, cheap little gem that takes Mommy out of the equation and leads to less power struggles.

Lastly, I posted a schedule of our days. This seems a little drill-sergeantish to me, but I can simply refer to it when the kids seem really irked that it's time to brush teeth when they'd much rather be smashing leftover blueberries or climbing on one another until the other one screams in pain. I point to the chart and all the good cop/bad cop issues are out the window.

Wish me luck!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I made this and it hangs on a hook in my kitchen so I can capture all of those cute things the kids say that I swear I'll never forget but write down because, sadly, we do forget. I used items I already had around the house, like photo filing dividers, extra snapshots & the odd scrap book embelishment. I attatched it together with binder rings.