today caleb shares his 7th birthday with Chinese New Year. hooray! instead of just wearing red, caleb opted to wear the full chinese garb. 🙂 go kk! at this morning’s school parade…

i think he’s rather cute. he was so excited to wake up this morning and open his presents… he was told he wasn’t going to get this for a few more years but mom and dad gave in. he was totally surprised!

seven years ago today, we were living in virginia beach.. i was supposed to babysit my neighbor and she joked ‘are you sure you won’t go in to labor?’ i said, ‘i hope not- im not done washing everything!’ and of course, she was right.. a few hours later, the little dude wanted out. he was born in chesapeake on a gorgeous, east coast-crisp kinda day. a lovely day to be born.

caleb is such a little ball of warmth and happiness. he’s always down for a snuggle but quite a spitfire at the same time. a good balance, i think! 🙂 we’re so proud of him! he decided we shall have chinese food for dinner tonight since it’s the new year- mmmmmmm!

so thanks to my sensible husband, i realized i might have been a bit hasty with that earlier post. bottom line is that i am a mother who loves her kids, and NO ONE MESSES WITH ELSIE! lol

there’s so much to love about our scrapbooking community but lots that goes on that make grown women look like teenagers…and i have been around to see lots unfold. i usually stay away from the drama but you can’t help but get all riled up when someone points fingers at your child. 🙂 so there you go. im a rule follower and wouldn’t bring her and im sane. i want to enjoy the show without having to stop and change a diaper. 🙂

i’m scrapping this picture tonight and getting ready for my son’s 7th birthday on friday.

thanks to all the truffle recommendations. im pretty sure chris and i know what we’re getting each other for valentines day. LOL keep em coming.. there’s many more holidays coming up. ha!

it’s official! elsie’s first ear infection @23 months. it’s strange to think that her 3 older siblings had chronic ear infections and tubes in their ears by this age, and now she’s having her first. poor bubba! sunday and today have been filled with lots of tears and screaming and tantrums. i took her in the office this morning and said, in my medical opinion, she has an ear infection… or else there is something else very wrong with her. chris and i laughed at the thought that it could possibly be the beginning of the terrible 2’s. oh no!

chris posted a hilarious post at the jacshoot blog feel free to post a comment about your favorite truffle. it’s our plan to try them all. lol

ps- it’s my first day on the dw cal and i have a few left- even though it’s february.. there are still 11 months left. i’ll send out 2 of them to the first 2 commenters who live in the US. gracias. 🙂   

and i only got one layout done for the garden.
but it’s of the boys, so i get extra points for that! seeming they don’t get a lot of page love these days. must do better at that. im blaming my lack of work on the 1st on our NZ trip. but midmonth will totally make up for it. 🙂
this month’s theme is art inspiration. there is so much good stuff out there, i find myself overwhelmed sometimes. i decided to go back to my roots of hallmark love- sooo many love cards for chris were bought from there and then when i first started scrapping, i would go there for inspiration. so this felt good. and i wasn’t so overwhelmed.
this one was for autumn leaves

i know he get’s very little scrapbook love. sorry! it’s one of my resolutions this year… more him. us. 🙂

tomorrow chris and i have an exciting shoot, sickie sick els is going to her papa’s– wish him patience, she’s been a bit high maintenance lately. 🙂 the next few weeks are crazy busy. have a great weekend.

ps- i got a new printer last month and it is so wonderful to be able to print my pictures at home. i will still send the majority of stuff out to be printed, but it’s so nice to click, print and scrap right there in my room. thank you epson. 🙂

i can’t believe it! here are a few layouts i did for a new kit club, freehand scraps.

heidi did a great job putting together some fun stuff in the kit. you’ll have to check it out. i had chris write els a note and it is so stinkin sweet. i don’t know why i don’t ask him to do that more.. i am totally gonna now. 🙂

also.. cha is coming up and although i am not going to be working in a booth this time, i will be walking around there for one day…unless i can bring els with me, which i did last year.. but now she’s a crazy toddler… hmmmmm. anyways,  it’s always exciting to see all the new stuff that’s coming out.

last night’s sleep stunk again. sigh. im all frazzled today. next week my caleb turns 7. today els is wearing overalls and i am going to attempt photos to compare to kira’s toddler photos. we have to go to target. and els just asked me a series of why? why? why? questions…hehehe.

are such little partners.

they totally play together and right now, they are sick together. caleb looks like he’s getting near the end, while els is just beginning. look at those glassy eyes. poor bubba! last night’s sleep was not a good one. for any of us. 😦 and just a bit ago, elsie fell asleep in my arms while at the store. (sure sign of being sick) she hasn’t done that in soooo long. wittle baby girl. 🙂

i made them sit for my pics, then they both decided they wanted a turn taking pics of me. caleb’s version:

elsie’s version:

not bad! 🙂 i guess i have a thing for shoving my forehead into them. they’re just delicious. 🙂 but it’s all fun and games till you stick your foot in my lens.

such rascals.

happy monday!

this is what’s happening in my house:

it’s quiet…ahhh…. kira on her computer, i temporarily moved to the downstairs table to scrap, els and caleb are napping in my bed, caleb is under the weather and i hope elsie won’t be in a few days too. cam’s at basketball with dad.

last night chris and i saw juno. which was wonderful. but to our disappointment, the crowd was a bit rude and noisy.. some people were even answering their cell phones (we counted 3 times, at least!) and having full conversations out loud.  soooo, we want to go back and watch it again. 🙂

hope you have a good weekend! if you are feeling productive, head over to ali’s blog and do her super cute project.

the light was gorgeous today. unfortunately i was competing with mickey mouse clubhouse and elsie would much rather stay inside under the cozy covers watching that then playing in the puddles. again. 🙂

and these were taken on the way back in- i was holding her and just aiming the camera at her. i always end up getting flare on faces. ahhhhhhhh!

but i think i like this one more.

but i think i like it in bw even better.

AND! i want to thank everyone for all the resources on finding the lost photos!!! i was able to recover a few of them, but i am going to hit up the rest of the list and dangit i am gonna get those photos back! here’s one of the recovered from day one: (see that bit of blue sky peeking out! mmmmm!)

and that’s it. i think we are both done with the puddles for awhile. (or until kira drags me out with her new rainboots! ha) im back to wanting the rain to go away. 🙂

we hardly got any rain last night which meant puny puddles. the light was flat and not shining through the trees like the day before. she was not into the puddle too much. sigh. reenactment not so successful.

these are all with the 28 lens… up close — i LOOVE how big her head and eyes look!!!!

and this one just cracks me up. she was sooo over the puddles. 🙂 or lack of….

thanks for all the comments on the card rescue.. i will not give up! i will try more when i get a minute. 🙂

today i took over 50 photos of elsie splashing in the puddles with the gorgeous 8 am light…then for the first time in the 3 years that i have been using digital.. the card got corrupted as i was downloading them. i feel like i have been in a photo rut and i was really happy with these so.. my heart aches. 😦

chris posted a shoot from his australia trip if you want to check it out: jac shoot blog.

hopefully i’ll be back tomorrow with the reenactment. 🙂 being a no rain kind of person.. i am hoping for rain tonight so we get some juicy puddles for els to stomp in 🙂