November Wrap Up!

Happy December!!
I have taken a break from blogging, so thought I'd do a little end of November "recap". It really is amazing to me how fast time flies. It's already December! Yikes! Christmas is only 25 days away. I love this time of year, but wish it didn't fly by so fast. There are always so many fun things (and some not so fun) to do, and never enough time. I am also one of "those" people who can listen to Christmas music all day long....every day. It drives my husband crazy I think.



















Here are a few pictures from the annual "raking of the leaves" (that is **so** much fun- ha ha), Ella eating rice cereal for the first time. (She is now 5 months old and can sit up by herself.......I tried it one day, and she just sat there all happy.......wow!) The last picture is from Thanksgiving dinner, of Malia & Ella. Ella looks so tiny in the huge high chair!

First bite of rice cereal. She was not loving it at first, now she seems to enjoy it. Yeah!!

Well, I'm off to do a million things!

Have a great day~
Linda

Happy Birthday KIM!

This post is later than I anticipated! I have been out shopping with my enabler friend Kandi. :) The fabric store & craft store are dangerous places for us....together.

So............Kim, I'm sorry this is so late!! We hope you are having a FABULOUS DAY!!

Name: Kimberly Marie

Relationship: Niece

Birthday: Nov. 23rd, 1981

WE HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY DAY!

Love,

Linda & the whole family

;)

Happy Birthday JANET!!

Today is Janet's birthday!!
Just a quick post to wish her (and her Twin Teri) a VERY HAPPY DAY!



Name: Janet (aka Grandma Jan to the kids)
Relationship: StepMom
Birthday: Nov 19th


ENJOY YOUR DAY!

Love,
Linda & Fam

Another Use for Post It Notes

So, about a month ago Malia and I were marking pages in a catalog with strips of Post It Notes......I obviously took a break to do something else for a few minutes and came back to find this:



























Luckily I didn't leave her alone with a big fat SHARPIE! :)

Happy Wednesday!!

Happy 18th Birthday NICK!

Friday greetings to you!

Today is my nephew Nick's 18th birthday! I can't believe it............It doesn't seem like that long ago since I was 18. (but I guess it has been awhile!) If I remember right I was in my Business Law class at OSU when he was born.

Here is the birthday boy -- (picture taken at Alex's 2nd birthday back in March....hence the hat)

Name: Nick
Relationship: Nephew
Birthdate: November 14th, 1990



We hope you enjoy your day!!!

~Linda & Fam

Holiday Marketplace Dec 5-6...DON'T MISS IT!

Hello!
I have been a bad blogger lately. I'll admit it. :) I have caught a cold and have been super tired these past few days. Right before it really comes on I always wonder why am I so tired??? Then the next morning I realize.......as I'm all plugged up, sore throat and achy. Hopefully it will pass soon. I **need** to get working on some "crafty goodness" for a couple of upcoming holiday bazaars. The biggest one is this one:




















(Isn't that the cutest ad??)



















So, if you are in the Portland, OR area Dec 5th & 6th.....I highly urge you to check it out. I was just a "shopper" last year, but am lucky enough this time to be a vendor. (Thanks Jos!)

Lots of quality gifty items will be there.....so YOU should GO!


The other bazaar I'm doing is for a women's luncheon (of course on the same day), but I don't have to be at that one. The big "Crafty Ladies" holiday sale we usually do has been put on hold this year. Which is probably good for me this time around....

Well, we are off to a play date this morning. Gotta love holidays! :) Thanks to all the Veterans for their service to the USofA!
Have a great day~
Linda

Trick or Treat

Whew! October is over. I love October, but by the end I am totally pooped!

Last week was Malia's birthday, Rourke's the next day, followed by Halloween the next. Last night we had a family birthday party for all the October birthdays in my family (which also included my Mom, Dad, and niece Kelli)... Those pictures are still on my camera, so I don't have any to share today.

On Friday night we took the kids Trick or Treating around the neighborhood. Ella stayed home with Dad and gave out candy to the trick or treaters. I had a ballerina costume for her, but we never ended up getting her in it because there was so much drama getting Malia ready. Ugh. Five year old girls................a precursor to teen years I'm sure. Anyway, the weather was perfect and the kids had fun. Alex was a little freaked out by a kid with some red mask. I guess it was something from Star Wars? Of course we were on the same path, so we saw him the whole night.

Here are Alex & Malia right after we got ready. I think Malia was a little irritated with the pictures and just wanted to get going....the next picture is when we were actually **READY** to walk out the door. This girl has more energy than all of us combined!

My mom came with us, which was a fun treat. After the kids went to bed we had some yummy apple crisp.......me a little too much and felt totally sick. :) Oops!

Got to get going.........

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

~Linda

Boo!! Happy Halloween!

Halloween Greetings to you!

We are gearing up for a fun day and lots of Trick or Treating tonight. Malia is going to be Supergirl and Alex is going to be Superman. The weather had been great until today...and now it is drizzly outside. Ella is a tiny bit sick w/ runny nose, etc, so she may sit this year out. :)

Before November rolls in, I thought I should finish off October with a few pumpkin patch pictures and Malia's 5 year birthday party pics.

We went to a new pumpkin patch this year (with our friends Kandi & Chico and their 2 boys) & it was great! We took a train ride out to the pumpkin patch, then the kids rode ponies, played in a hay maze, picked pumpkins, then we rode a boat back with our pumpkins in the wheelbarrow.. There was a shark that came out of the water too. FUN!

A few last birthday party pictures.........we had a wonderful face painter named Tina. If you are in the Portland, Oregon area and need a face painter, check her out: Tina. She also does balloon animals.

I'm off for now.

Enjoy your day..............

~Linda

Happy __th Birthday Rourke!!

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday! He will shoot me for this I'm sure...so just a quick photo & wish. :)

We love you & hope you enjoy your day!!

XO

Happy 5th Birthday MALIA!

Wow! I can't believe how fast time flies. Five years ago today our little Malia was born. :) I will never forget the night before she was born, and my Mom telling me "Get a good nights sleep...this will be the last quiet night for a long time". I didn't think much of it at the time...but boy was she right! I almost laugh now when I think of it. I don't think I will ever sleep peacefully again. :) LOL!

Malia at 1 week:




















Malia at 1 month:
















(We didn't have a digital camera when she was born........but got one right after...........hence no hospital pictures to post here.)


Here is the Birthday Girl Now:
























We had our first "kid" party this past weekend with a small group of kids. It was lots of fun! We hired a face painter and she was GREAT!

Today we are having a lower-key day, but are taking cupcakes & goody bags to pre-k. She got to open 2 gifts this morning, one of which was an "Easy Bake Oven"........so I'm sure we will be doing some baking after school & before Dad comes home. We are letting her pick what's for dinner tonight........so that should be interesting.

Well, I need to get going. We have lots of celebrating to do!! :)

Have a great day~
~Linda

p.s. I forgot to mention 2 cute/funny things that Malia said. Last night she asked if we could light candles today, for her birthday.........apparently that is something special. I didn't know! I light them less & less now that we have 3 kids. I worry about them a bit, but said sure! What an easy thing to do to please a 5 year old. The 2nd thing was this morning. out of the blue she said she would still be happy if all she got was a bag of rocks & leaves! Dang! I could have saved some money. :)

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY KELLI! ... (a day late)

Okay....so we had a 5 year old birthday party for Malia yesterday (Oct 25th)...her birthday is 10/29...and I didn't get a chance to do a birthday post for Kelli!!


Who: Kelli
Relationship: Niece
Born: October 25th, 1994

Congrats! You are now 14 years old!!

We hope you enjoyed your day!

XO Linda & Family

A Short Video......It Makes Me Smile :)

Hello! I'm too tired for a long post tonight, so I thought I'd share a video clip I took of Ella a few days ago. She is now 4 months old! Where does the time go??

Have a great week!

~Linda

Happy Birthday MOM!!

Today is my Mom's birthday! She and my Dad were born 2 days apart - in the same year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Here she is a few days ago, holding Ella. Yes, that is Ella. She kind of looks like a boy in the pic. Those pants are like clown pants! They are huge.

This post is late today. The day has flown by! My sister & I took Mom to a birthday lunch at Chevy's.......complete with clapping, singing, the birthday dessert & a sombrero! :) She was very surprised. :) Luckily the lunch crowd had thinned out quite a bit, so she wasn't completely mortified.

I would also like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Aunt Joanne. Mom's twin sister. :) Unfortunately I don't have a picture of her handy......but you can get an idea from looking at my mom (ha ha!.....twins...get it??)

Well, that's all for today.
Mom: I hope you enjoyed your day!
XO Love,
Linda

Happy Birthday DAD!

Just a quick post to wish my Dad a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is the day....but he thinks he was really born late on Friday, October 13th. Rumor has it that his Dad (my Grandpa) was superstitious and changed the date on the birth certificate to October 14th. :)

Here is the man of the day (holding baby Ella the night she was born).









Dad: ENJOY YOUR DAY!!

XO Love, Linda

I'm a Winner!

Happy Monday!

Guess what? I'm a winner! I won a blog giveaway today...my first time ever. :)

I won a great book called "Sew Easy" from Crystal over at: http://littlebitfunky.blogspot.com/. She also has a great Etsy shop...you can check it out here: http://littlebitfunky.etsy.com/

(I'm not sure why I can't get my links to be cool anymore.....without showing the web address...does anyone know?)

She just found out she is expecting her 2nd boy. Congrats to her. :)

Okay, that's all for now. I need to make dinner.

Pumpkins!!

FALL GREETINGS TO YOU!
Hopefully you are enjoying the season. I know I'm enjoying the candy corns. :) You either love them or hate them..........me....LOVE THEM!


I thought I'd share some fun pictures from last week when Rourke's Mom (known as YaYa to the kids) stopped by with a big bag full of Halloween goodies for us. The kids got new Halloween clothes (see Alex & Ella in these pictures - Malia was at school, but she was not left out of the goodies), books, pez dispensers, pajamas and more. Even I got some cool pumpkin candles. THANKS YaYa. :)

We decided to take some pictures in the new clothes....and Peggy/Yaya was wearing purple, which coordinated nicely with the orange. :) They were making scary faces and sounds and it was a lot of fun. I thought they turned out cute...........too bad Malia wasn't here. :(

On a different note, Malia went to a birthday party for her friend Holly today at Build a Bear! It was actually fun - more fun than going on your own and doing it. Holly is one of Malia's best friends from preschool, but now goes to a different school. They hadn't seen each other in a few months, so I was wondering if they would still be joined at the hip.....and yes! They were. They even picked out the same koala bear, named it the same (Sara - everything is named Sara!), and the same outfit. They are twins.

It made me really miss her class from last year. She had so much fun. This year the class is small, and most of her friends have gone to Kindergarten. Boo hoo. It also made me think I should have planned our kid party for Malia SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN OUR HOUSE! It seemed so easy. Oh well. I have a couple of weeks yet to get it together. :)

Tomorrow Malia is going to Swan Lake with her Yaya. Such a busy life for a not-even-five-year-old. I've been told it only gets worse. :)

I'm off to get crafty. I need to get working on my "goods" for upcoming bazaars and my poor empty ETSY shop. :( It looks pathetic.

And.....one last thought. I was at Target and saw these cute pj pants:

I really think I **NEED** them. I tried to tell my husband..........we'll see if it worked. I also told Malia. Not that it will help, but you never know.

(In case he is reading this, they are "Nick & Nora" and are by the bathrobes!!)


Okay, I'm outta here......

Big Crumbs........Did You Know??

So........do you shop online? Do you shop on EBAY? Have you heard of Big Crumbs? I had heard of it, but never took the time to pay attention to it. DUMB!

You can earn money back from shopping online or on Ebay. I just joined today and figured I might as well earn money back from any online shopping I do for Christmas, and a ton of birthdays that are coming up. I *love* Ebay and am so mad at myself for not joining sooner. Ugh.

Anyway......you should check it out. It's **FREE** to join. They pay you back via Paypal for your shopping commissions.

Here is the link:





So I hope you JOIN! :)

What Color are You?

Happy Friday.
I saw this on my friend Kandi's blog and thought I'd give it a try. I'm not sure if it's exactly me. I was stuck on one question, so not sure how drastically that will effect the results.
It's fun.........give it a try! :)

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors. You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius. Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way. While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

What?????

Yikes! I am soooooooooo not ready!




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