Teacher Appreciation

Check out these cute goody bags I made. Thanks to Chic n' Scratch for the idea. She's got some fun stuff! I handed these out to teachers last week for teacher appreciation week. Did you thank a teacher for their hard work? I also gave a few of these for Mother's Day gifts also.

A Mother's Day Gift

Today was a special day at preschool. First a little history. When parents come to pick up their children at preschool the teacher usually brings the kids out a few at a time. The kids are in one half of the room reading stories and the parents wait in the other side. The teacher pops her head out to see which parents are there and then goes back into the room with the kids and then sends out a few of them. Generally, the kids go quickly and excitedly to their parent. Now, to today. All of us parents are waiting for story time to end and for our kids to come out. What a special surprise to see the kids coming out one at a time, walking politely I might add. I think Spencer was one of the first out the door and he walked up to me and said, "Happy Mother's Day" and handed me this...

Now, you have to understand that we've been with the same preschool since Harley was there. So I've seen a few of theses before and it wasn't really a surprise. It was just so sweet to see all the kids coming out and wishing their Mother's a happy day! And if you know Spencer.....he can be such a sweetie! He gives his preschool teacher hugs all the time. She LOVES them, she calls them "sugar."

Happy (early) Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

My 4 Boys

What a good looking group of boys I have!!

Better Lookin'

Carter is more fun to look at than my bruised knee. What a chub! Gotta love the rolls!!

Do you KNEE-d an update?

The color is getting really good now :) Cierra does a nice flinch whenever I show her my leg. The color is starting to run down my shin now. It doesn't hurt to move my knee but it still hurts if pressure is put on it, kneeling, kids sitting on it.

What a Cutie Pie!

Carter was in a good mood this afternoon and I just had to snap a couple photos of him. Well, actually he usually IS in a good mood. He's a good baby! We can't help ourselves, we just have to tickle him and make him smile and giggle.

It's Purple

Day two of my lovely bruise. My knee wasn't as stiff and I thought it would be this morning, that was nice. By this evening my muscles were sore from batting. My legs aren't sore yet from sprinting to first base. Ahhh, the joys of softball! It's worth it though, good exercise and lots of fun!

I'm Injured

"Don't hurt yourself," were the words I heard from my Mom as I headed for the door for my first softball practice of the season. We really should listen to our Mothers. Mother knows best, right? Generally I don't get hurt, not counting sore muscles from the first practice or the first game. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow or the next day from batting! But this is a different kind of injury. I was playing first base and the shortstop threw a ball to me, it was low and I missed it and it hit me right in the leg. I am now the proud owner of a giant goose egg on my right leg, just inside next to my knee cap, right in that tender spot. I think I can even see a mark from the stitches on the ball, no kidding! It stung for a few minutes but then it wasn't too bad. After I drove home and got out of the car I could tell it was getting stiff and sore from not moving around much. Then I sat on the couch and fed Carter and got ice on it. Another 15 minutes of no movement and it was nice and stiff when I stood up again. I just can't wait and see how it feels in the morning, yippee!! And of course I had to take a couple pictures of it. We'll see how the color progresses over the next couple of days.

Notice the nice lump on the inside of my right leg?

Man, those legs need a tan!!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Slide Show Mania!!

I decided to change things up a little. I've gone a little wild with slide.com.
I made a slide show of each of my kids. Still working on Carter's. I always have such a hard time choosing pictures and this helped solve that problem. It's kind of fun to see pictures of each of them in their own slide show. My blog might be kind of busy with that many slide shows but...oh well, get used to it, ha ha. So, I hope you like them, I do!!!

Easter Slide Show!

Freaky Friday

Last Friday at Jason Lee was Freaky Friday. Crazy sock and hair day. Spencer had to join in also. I love the glow of his blue hair!!

Spring Break Pictures

Have you ever seen a red panda? They are so cute. And here is Cierra's mascot, PINK flamingo!

Yummmy! Dinner at PF Changs!

One of these was found picking his nose and eating it. The gorilla, not the kids, ha ha ha.

Top of the Space Needle (or noodle)

Camp Wooten Pictures

Alex is all ready to head up the mountain on a hike.


This is about what Carter looked like all week :-)

Here's a nice sampling of our weather that week. Snow or rain!

Cierra with her cabin, the Chipmunks.

It's been a while

Boy, it looks like I've been a slacker at bloggin lately. Let's see, I've been to Camp Wooten and then we had spring break right after that. I'll try and play catch up for anyone who's interested.

Camp Wooten was tons of fun. We were rained on most every day. Because of the rain (or snow) it made it a little more difficult to tote Carter around outside. He stayed in when it was nasty outside. There were times when we was in the front pack with my coat over him while I was carrying an umbrella. He was a trooper all week. Everyone commented that he was such a good baby all week. Even though it was nice to be able to take him this year it will be nice when i don't have him there next year. Alex also went this year as part of an agreement to help out with Carter and still make it possible for me to get to camp and be with Cierra. Cierra, by the way, had a great week at camp also. She loved being able to see Carter every day. I tried to visit her at meal times whenever I could. Oh, back to Alex...He had a great time and one of the teachers asked him if he would come back again. So it looks like I've got Alex hooked also. I'm sure the teachers from Jason Lee enjoyed having Alex there also to help out with the fishing and all the other outdoor things.

We returned home from Camp Wooten on Friday afternoon and I immediately started doing laundry. We left Sunday morning and headed off to Bothell to spend the week with Alex there while he worked. My brother's wife and their kids also came up so we spent the week together doing fun things. Monday we ventured off to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The animals were a bit boring because it was kind of chilly out. We did manage to avoid the rain that day. It was a good thing we picked Monday to go to the Zoo, it rained (or snowed) the rest of the week. On Tuesday we went to the Seattle Aquarium. There was a local radio station doing some promotion and we were able to print off a coupon for each person to get in for $1 each!!! I paid a total of $5 to get my family into the aquarium, that's unheard of! The kids had a good time but I was a little disappointed. I guess when you've been to the Monteray Bay Aquarium in California, and the Denver Aquarium it's kind of hard to measure up to those. The Seattle Aquarium didn't have any BIG fish, no sharks. Mason really wanted to see some sharks so he was a bit sad about that. So overall, I'm glad I only spent five dollars to get in.
Wednesday was a more relaxed day. The kids and I took a trip to the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. There was a nice play area for the kids. The only problem was that about 20 other mom's also had their kids playing there also, I guess that's what happens in a rainy city. We met my sister in law, Tammy, at the movie theater and saw Monsters vs. Aliens. That was a cute movie, all the kids loved it. Every evening when Tammy and I were done dragging our kids somewhere we met up with the husbands and went to dinner. Mason said he wished we could live in Seattle all the time because we get to eat at a restaurant all the time. I had to explain to him that it's only because we're on vacation. Funny boy.
On Thursday my kids and I did some more shopping. I found a very nice scrapbook store and of course got some goodies!! The boys were good troopers being dragged around looking at clothes for the girls!
On Friday we packed up the car and got ready to head home. Before we left we made a trip to the Space Noodle. Ever heard of the Space Noodle?? Spencer asked me earlier in the week, "Mom, how are we going to feel in noodle?" WHAT?? I was confused on what he was talking about. It took me a few minutes before I realized he was talking about the Space Needle! He kept calling it the noodle, it cracked me up every time. That's one for the scrapbook!!
When we got home I had SO MUCH LAUNDRY!!! I think I'm still trying to catch up on it.
Keep an eye out for pictures of our trips!!

A Green Day

I managed to have everyone wearing green yesterday but I only managed to get 3 out of 5 photographed. Carter even had on a very cute pair of white and green tennis shoes! I even had green on, with green fingernails! The perfect St. Patrick's and BOMBER green :) We'll get lots of use out of that bottle of nail polish!! So just imagine Spencer looking just like Mason, same shirt. Harley had a green shirt on that said, "Good Luck...you need it" It was pretty cute. I was also negligent and didn't make a green dinner, or breakfast. I just had too much going on that day! Next time!

Big Brother Part 2

Spencer, gotta love him!!! Here's another one for ya. A couple days ago I was getting ready in the morning and Carter was hungry and mad. I had him on the floor in the living room and asked Spencer if he could talk to him and make him happy. I was almost done getting ready. Carter never stopped crying but it was pretty dang cute when I looked downstairs. There was Spencer talking away to Carter trying to settle him down....while wearing Alex's hunting earmuffs. He wasn't in a panic or bothered that Carter was crying, he just cut out the noise!

Big Brother

This morning I set Carter in his bouncer and put him in the living room. I asked Spencer to help keep him happy while I went and took a shower. After I got out of the shower I peaked downstairs to see how they were doing and there was Spencer holding up a book in front of Carter and pointing to pictures. I wished I had my camera right there with me but I knew the moment would be lost if I tried to sneak downstairs to get it. What a good big brother he is, I love it when I see things like that!

Dippin Dots in my Hand

More than one person has said that it looked just like raining Dippin Dots today. Poor Harley was at softball tryouts while the white stuff was comming down. Isn't this crazy!

WOW

It's raining Dippin Dots. And then it stops!

Hhhmmmm

I think my blog needs a makeover but I can't decide what to do with it??????

CKC Portland

Just sittin in the hotel with a baby wide awake :) plus he's a little crabby. He just needs to settle down and go to sleep so I can too.
This wraps up a fun weekend in Portland scrapbooking and taking classes. I took Carter with me since there was no way he was staying home at 2 months old. He did pretty good all weekend. Some of the classes he slept though. It was nice when I got lucky to get a seat next to a wall with space next to me or behind me and he could lay on his blanket on the floor. Everyone ooohed and aahhed at him all weekend like they had never seen a baby before.

One of the classes we had to today was with Amanda Probst. She's one of the writers for Creating Keepsakes Magazine. She was so cute. You'll have to check her out. Her blog is listed on the side below. We made an album called "A Peek into my Week." It's very cute. When I get it completely finished I'll have to post some pictures. Anyway...Amanda was so sweet. We got to a point in class where she just walked around and made sure people were doing okay. She came over and asked if I needed her to hold Carter so I could get some scrappin done. She asked in a way that was more because she WANTED to hold him and not because I NEEDED her to. She was such a sweetie.

I have so much more to talk about but I'll save that for next time. It's so much fun to go to Creating Keepsakes Conventions (CKC). If you're a scrapper and you get the chance you should go.

Please don't rain!

Not today, we don't' want rain today. It can rain all it wants AFTER 3:00pm! Today is the day of Camp Jason Lee Park (JLP), also known as Camp Jalopy. The pre-Camp Wooten day for 5th graders at Jason Lee. Normally, the rain wouldn't bother me that much, but Carter has to hang out with me today while I'm at Camp Jalopy. It won't make for a very good day if I have to figure out what to do about the rain and Carter. I may have to make a trip to the store to get a stroller rain cover!! Pray for no rain today :)

Long Naps into Late Nights

Why can't Carter decide to sleep for 4 hours straight AFTER 10pm?? He fell asleep as we went to the store this evening around 7 pm and stayed asleep in his car seat until I woke him up at nearly 11pm!!! It was a two edge sward. On one side I was able to have a quiet evening watching some tv with Alex, which I haven't gotten to do in a while. On the other hand...I'm blogging......it's 12:30am.....Carter's wide awake.....and a bit crabby so I can't really do much.

Today I decided to write down Carter's schedule. He has his two month appointment on Wednesday. I always hate it when the nurse asks "how many hours does he sleep at night, how many times does he wake up, does he nap during the day, how long" etc....HE'S AN INFANT...EAT SLEEP POOP. So I wanted to keep track and see how long he really is awake during the day. From about 11pm Sunday night until now, he's been awake about a total of 8 hours. The rest has been sleeping or eating or a combination of both. We'll see what tomorrow brings.