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!




Get Myspace Christmas Countdown

Wordless Wednesday (Take 2) - A Flashback to 1988

Okay.........So It's Not Wednesday

I originally thought today was Wednesday......but it was rudely pointed out to me that it's only Tuesday!! :) j/k. Thanks Kandi!! :)


So............Look for a new "wordless Wednesday" post tomorrow.

Look! More Towels. :)

Happy Sunday!

What a beautiful weekend it turned out to be..........I'm sure the weather will be changing soon to the cooler Fall days. I am kind of excited!!



Today we are heading to a pool birthday party for Malia's friend Mia. She's turning 6!! It should be fun. For part of her birthday gift I thought I'd attempt to make her a personalized towel set. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the towels are a pretty pink and really soft!

I'm no pro with the sewing machine, and if you look too close you can see some mistakes (so don't look too close!). Luckily she is only 6. :) She's also getting a kid gift to go along with the towels..........don't worry!



Well, I need to get groceries and head back to Costco. Yesterday we saw some good Christmas toys for the kids that were going fast. Hopefully they are still there.



Have a great day!
~Linda

Baby Update! Ella at 3 Months

Wow! How fast time flies. Baby Ella is now 3 months old. It's so bittersweet. It's fun to see her grow, laugh, "talk", try to figure out what in the heck her hands are....and so much more. But at the same time I get a little sad inside when her 0-3 month clothes no longer fit, or the bouncy chair that used to seem huge, barely holds her anymore. It's probably a little more sad for me this time, because I know THIS IS IT! No more babies.

Here are a few pictures from this past week. I thought the outfit was cute, and it barely fits anymore.........so had to snap a few pictures while the house was quiet and the outfit still fit. :)

Enjoy your day. I'm going to a "big girl" lunch with Mom & my Sister. How exciting to go to a real restaurant with no kids!! Funny how this is such a treat now. Anyone else know what I mean?

:) Linda

p.s. Is this bird a pigeon? It has been showing up now and then on our patio...........I don't know if he's lost or what!? He was here again this morning. Anyone????? Bueller??

Something Crafty

Hello & Happy Tuesday!
I thought I'd post something crafty...because I haven't done so in a long time. :) There are so many things I have on my mental "Craft To Do List" and I get so frustrated that there just never seems to be time in the day for it (unless it's 10pm and I am totally tired and in NO way feeling creative). I always think I should be doing a million other things first.......anyone else feel this way?

Anyway......

Here are a few more baby "thank you" cards I made last week. I used "Close To My Heart" textured cardstock and stamped my own patterned paper.
















Then I cut up the patterned paper and made it into cards.

















I dressed up the front of each card with some layered punched circles and a little picture of Ella with a clear window charm on top.

















I am still learning the "art" of making my own patterned paper (aka: random stamping).......there's a fine line between too much and too little. I tend to overdo........so then I try too hard to have restraint.........then it looks too plain. Anyway.........stay tuned for more holiday crafts in the months to come (hopefully!!) I'm doing at least one Holiday/Christmas bazaar so I need to light a fire & get working on some things.

Happy Tuesday!

Our Latest Adventure...........

POTTY TRAINING!

Well...somewhat. We're trying the "no pressure" route. Somedays are great, somedays not so much. It would be so nice to only have 1 child in diapers!! :)

And.............

HAPPY 1st Day of FALL!

Happy 20th Birthday Ryan!!

Name: Ryan

Relationship: Nephew

Birthdate: September 18th, 1988

Other: HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY!!























(Picture was taken at Alex's 2nd birthday party.......hence the Bob the Builder party hat) :)



We are going to a birthday party tonight to celebrate September birthdays! Today is Ryan's 20th, Sept 26th is Kevin's 22nd (wow!) birthday (he's another nephew) and Sept 29th is my brother-in-law Dean's birthday. Should be a fun time. :)

Happy Thursday............the weekend is almost here. :)

~Linda

A Flash Back to May - A Test

Just testing a video I took on my camera back in May at Malia's preschool. Hopefully there is sound! Her "best friend" is Holly. She's in the green toward the left. Sadly, Holly is going to a different school this year. :(

I was obviously having a hard time holding the camera still. :)

Whew! Weekend Pictures

Hello! Boy am I tired. We had a fun & busy weekend and now I am POOPED! The weather was great so we spent Saturday at Oaks Park and today at Mom's pool. I am not up for a lot of typing tonight, but here are some pictures.

















Rourke, Malia & Alex went down the big slide. I thought Alex was scared, but apparently he bumped his mouth on Rourke's shoulder trying to get into place on the blanket at the tippy top of the slide. By the time he got to the bottom his mouth was bleeding like crazy. I thought for sure he had knocked both teeth out. All I could see was a mouthful of blood. Luckily it was just his gums, and his teeth appear to be fine. It was an awful moment, or half hour, and he and I looked like we came from a crime scene by the time it was all over. Of course we both had white shirts on. oor guy. Lesson learned on the big slide.

Rourke also did some serious tree trimming on our 2 big trees out front. He got a bid on Friday and thought it was ridiculous, so he went to Home Depot and rented a tree-trimming device, I call a "chainsaw on a stick". Apparently it weighed like 100 pounds on a 10 foot pole. He had to climb on the roof (2 stories up) and on a ladder (2 stories high), while balancing the "chainsaw on a stick". I'm happy to report he survived without cutting off any arms, legs, part of the house, etc. Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures of the event. I was trying my best to keep the kids in the house!

Enjoy the pictures & good night!

First Day of Pre-Kindergarten

Yippee!!!!!!!!!

The first day of Pre-K finally came this past Monday September 8th. I thought it would never come ;)

She is now going 5 days a week and in the afternoon. We had always had the morning class for preschool, but I thought moving to the afternoon might work better for us. My goal is to have the 2 little ones nap while Malia is at school. So far the plan isn't perfected. I am having a hard time getting Alex OUT of the preschool (there is a little play area right inside the front door), and then getting him right to sleep once we are home has been tough. I end up having to wake him up before I go-go (a little '80s joke), which isn't fun.

So...........something to fine tune for us.



Here are a few pictures from her first day. She is sporting a new "Tinkerbell" backpack (that's almost as big as she is). She also has some almost-matching Tinkerbell shoes (not shown here). I'm not a big fan of character clothes and shoes, but these ones were pretty with just a small picture of Tinkerbell. At first glance you don't even really see her. :)





















I'm not sure what was happening here. I think Malia was trying to get Alex to stand by her (a little forcefully as usual) and he wasn't going for it.
















Outside our front door.





















Here she is saying hi to Teacher Patty. Patty was one of Malia's teacher's for Malia's first year of preschool when she was 3. :)

So far the class is pretty small. We are hoping for more kids soon. Apparently the afternoon class is not the one that people want. The morning class is FULL with 18 on the waiting list. CRAZY!

So.....we are trying to find our new daily schedule. I was hoping to get TONS of things done in the afternoon while Malia is at school and my other 2 are sleeping like angels.....ha ha. So far, not happening. Wish me luck.

Happy Saturday. I think we are heading to Oaks Park today. It is suppose to be beautiful weather. I haven't been for probably 25 years. Or more. Hope it will be full of fun and not drama.

Bye!
~Linda

8 Years Ago...This Hour...

We were getting MARRIED!!!!!

















Cutting the cake:























And we're off....Jamaica here we come!!!






















I thought a with a wedding date of 9-9-00 Rourke might remember our anniversary. ;) So far, so good. I've gotta run.....we're having Mexican food with the kiddos.



(please excuse the quality of the pictures! I had to scan them in. We didn't have a digital camera way back in 2000!) :)