A New Discovery

Hello! Are you watching the Oscars? I am, but haven't seen any movie that is nominated. We did see Hotel for Dogs yesterday (all of us except Ella). I doubt that one will be an Oscar nominee next year...but it was fun for the family. :)

Last weekend the kids discovered that the computer was magic! Well, that it could be used to play games on nickjr.com, playhousedisney.com, etc.

Here they are totally engrossed in this new find:

And here is another, once Alex saw the camera (but notice he still couldn't take his eyes off the screen). I don't even think Malia knew I was there. (It was the morning, hence the pjs and bed head).

We are keeping this a "once in awhile" activity - well, at least as long as we can.

Have a great week!

A Blog Giveaway!

Hello & Happy Monday.

I ran across this new blog (well, new to me!) by Moralia, and she is having a crafty giveaway! You can enter by simply visting her blog here: Blog Candy Giveaway and leaving a comment (Scroll all the way down). To get an extra entry, you can post a link on your own blog, like I have. :)

These are the goodies you **could** win:

Just think of all the fun things you could make!

Good Luck!

We are off to a play date with some friends we never see anymore due to conflicting school schedules. Yeah for President's Day! :)

Bye for now~
Linda

Bryon ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is my brother Bryon's birthday!!

Here is the man of the day:

Name: Bryon J. B_________

Birthday: Feb. 15th 196_

Factoids: Father of 4, Olympia WA Firefighter and my big brother!

We all hope you have a super happy day!

Love,

Linda & Fam

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello!
This is just a quick little hi to wish you all the best Valentine's Day ever.

Here is Ella saying hello - and she's wearing her new Valentine's bib from this cute little shop:

Little Bit Funky.

Here is Alex sending his wishes:

And one more of Ella:

Sending lots of Love your way~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:) Linda

A Much Needed Break.............Saturday Night Fever BABY!!

After a couple of rough days with the kids........I thought I'd post something fun! I just saw this on another blog tonight, and thought it was perfect. It has always been my favorite scene from Saturday Night Fever.

Make it *full screen* for maximum disco enjoyment!

**EDITED: Apparently you can't make it full screen on the blog.**

Cheers~
Linda

Motherhood............Ugh!

This sounds like such a fun and uplifting post - doesn't is? Lately I am feeling the "one step forward, two steps back" motto was made for me. So..................this may be a little "rant-esque", and I apologize in advance. I'm hoping I'm not the only one - I doubt it, but sometimes I feel like I am the "out of control" Mom. Where do I begin? My kids are having sleeping issues, well, mainly Alex, who is almost 3. His new "thing" is to sneak around at night time. Last night it was TWO HOURS from the time I put him to bed, until the time he actually fell asleep. In that time he had taken his pajamas off several times, went p@@P (in his pull up), spilled water in his room, played in Malia's room (and made a huge mess - she was asleep), snuck downstairs about 4 times, then......the final straw was when at almost 10pm I heard a funny vibrating noise coming from upstairs. I tore upstairs and could not find him anywhere.................and finally found him in the master bathroom, on a little stool, with shaving cream smeared ALL over his hair, on his chin and Rourke's razor laying on the counter covered in shaving cream and some HAIR! If I wasn't so mad at that point I would have taken a picture - because it was actually funny. (The vibrating sound was a pair of massage slippers that he had turned on and hid under all my clothes in the closet. Thankfully he turned those on, otherwise he would have been up there in silence - probably bald and bleeding. Ugh).



Then......this morning I wake up to my #1 daughter at my bedside telling me she went potty. Half alseep, I thought, "great, but you don't need to tell me".......then I realized she meant IN THE BED. (and all over the bathroom floor). Ugh again. This is very rare ---------------- but I was still irritated. I tried not to show it...........but couldn't help it when I saw that she used the brand new Pottery Barn birdie towel to clean herself up!! A splurge that doesn't usually happen these days..........Pottery Barn shopping. It's not like we don't have 10 other towels in the cupboard that are old or from Target or NOT POTTERY BARN! :)

These 2 events in an 9 hour span have made my patience a little thin. I feel like our house is never **really** clean. Too many toys, kids outgrowing clothes right and left, "artwork" and papers from Pre-K (how long do I have to keep things???? ---I do have a box for the "keepers" - but everything else???), laundry, blankets, cups, food spills, CALGON take me away.

Okay, I sound like a total loon. I'm really not, just needing to vent. And I am getting so tired of "stuff". I really need to purge. That's something I have a very hard time with. I need a 12 step program for that.



Well, I need to go. Today is our snack day and before school a tumbling class for Malia.

Have a great day. Thanks for listening to me complain. ;)


~Linda



p.s. I thought I'd leave you with 2 photos. The first one is Alex from a week or so ago.......he had put on mascara. His shirt isn't dirty.......that's my face powder that is spilled all over.



The second picture is just Sweet Baby Ella..............loving her bath in the kitchen sink! Happy times. :)

Feeling Posh.............Well, I Mean

CRAFTY!

Here are a few cards & tags I have been working on for the good ol' ETSY SHOP .

Time is what you might call "limited" these days, but I figure a little bit here & there is better than not at all...right?? Alex is hit & miss on naps these days AND he is having a really hard time GETTING to sleep at night (sneaking out of his bed, playing in Malia's room, sneaking downstairs into the computer room, etc. ) Some nights it's almost 2 hours later, and he's still awake. Sometimes I don't even know he is lurking around, then he scares the p@@p out of me when he pops up. I could go on. But I won't.

Well, I'm off to start dinner and get some paper goodies in the POSH PAISLEY Shop.

Have a good night.

~Linda

A "Perfect Day" --- Scrapbooking Anyone?

Hello!

Hope all is well in your world. This weekend we had a Close to My Heart meeting and it was my turn to be "project leader"....so I decided to do a little 6x6 scrapbook layout. I don't usually scrapbook this size (heck, I haven't had much time to scrapbook at all lately....but that's a whole different story). It's such a cute little size that I think I might have to do a little more of it here and there. It would be fun to make one for each of the kids to highlight special events, holidays, birthdays etc.

Here is a close up of the left side:

I used the "Perfect Day" paper kit, some twill ribbon, and a couple of rub ons.

And the right side: (a little more simple-no sewing around the edge)

And if you haven't seen the new catalog, and want to - just let me know. Here is a sneak peek:

Have a great day. I'm off to get snacks ready for preschool. Fun stuff.

Bye for now.
~Linda