Bowling and the Slurpee Slip-up

After running around all day yesterday we were all pretty tired and ended up sleeping in kind of late this morning. We hung around here doing nothing for awhile, which was nice, but I knew it couldn’t last all day, so we headed out for some bowling after lunch.

We started the game without bumpers, but by the 5th frame both kids wanted the bumpers put up. As you can see from the pictures above they both had their own methods…but really, Zoe’s only bowling like that because it was the only way she could get the ball to actually hit the pins! LOL! After the bumpers went up, she bowled the “right” way. :)

They played 3 games, but I didn’t think to take a picture of the first scores. I believe Zoe won the first round, but not by much. I think they both had scores in the 60’s. They both improved as time went on though, and Landon even beat Zoe once.

After bowling we swung by the 7-11 to get Slurpies, a real treat around here since we only get them about once a year!

For those of you who know Zoe, you know that she had made an agreement of sorts (with herself) that she was only going to drink water and milk for a year. Well, as evidenced in the photo above, the deal is off. After 7 months of nothing but water and milk, she’s broken her own deal.

For a Slurpee.

Breakfast Request

We were supposed to go bowling today, but it didn’t happen. We just found ourselves busy with other things…like eating breakfast at I-Hop (Zoe’s request).

These are the pancakes she ordered:

 

And this is the rest of her order: hash browns, sausage links, scrambled eggs with cheese and chocolate milk.

She was hungry. :)

I had two pancakes and two scrambled eggs and big glass of OJ.

Landon ate both my sausages and Zoe’s. He thought he wasn’t hungry…at least until our food arrived.

 

After breakfast we headed over to the allergy office so Landon could get his weekly shots. We’re planning on going for another round of shots on Thursday then he’ll be done with the weekly routine and he’ll start going bi-weekly! Landon is really excited about that!

Once we were done at the allergy office we headed over to the mall so Zoe could use up some of her gift cards. She has several left over from Christmas and her birthday, so she was thrilled to get so much stuff today! She was able to get 6 new tank top style tops, one pair of shorts and a skirt and she still has 2 more gift cards to use!

I picked up a couple (much needed) maternity shirts and Landon had some money burning a hole in his wallet too, so he got himself the new Indiana Jones DS game. All in all it was a pretty good day. We are going to try making it to the bowling alley tomorrow…unless something better comes up!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

To start off our spring break I decided to take the kids to see the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was a tough choice between that and How to Train Your Dragon, but I had heard such great things about Diary of a Wimpy Kid I went with it.

Landon and I read the first wimpy kid book together at the end of last year and we both really enjoyed it. He went on to read the second book by himself and now he’s on the third book. I think I might just go back and read them myself; there’s just something amusing about a middle school boy’s point of view!

While we were waiting for the movie to start I got a few more pics of the kiddo’s:

 

 

We did a little craft project when we got home, but I’ll save that for another post!

Meeting Lea

I was really looking forward to making this page about baby Lea. I just love these photos of the kids having their first experiences holding her, and to me she looks like a little baby doll!

I’ve got another page of her put together and I’ll be posting it tomorrow…but right now I’m going to go finish watching T.V. with the family!

Baseball 2010

And so it begins.

Today was Landon’s first baseball practice with his new team, and he did great! He’s doing machine pitch again this season, and it’ll be his last because next spring he’ll be old enough for kid pitch. We are all a little scared about that one! The machine is dangerous enough, but when kids are throwing the pitch…look out! :)

Too bad the weather wasn’t a little better, it was quite cold sitting out on the field (in the wind) for an hour and a half at a mere 38 degrees…soon enough it’ll be so hot we’ll be dying for a breeze and some shade though, so I tried not to complain too much!

Zoe is at a track meet today, and I had hoped we would be able to go see her run, but unfortunately we aren’t able to. She’s got another meet on April 8th and I’m planning on going to that meet no matter what. From what she’s told us she’s really improved and I can’t wait to see!

Google Art

Landon’s school participated in the Doodle4Google challenge this year, and this is the artwork Landon came up with.

The idea was to finish the sentence “If I could do anything, I would…” and he said “make the world smoke free”.

Does the sign seem clearer now?

The G is a man smoking a cigarette, the O’s are land and water being polluted by cigarette smoke, the g is another person smoking, the L is a HUGE cigarette and that’s a man on the bottom (smoking it, of course) and the e? Well, it’s just red. Maybe because it doesn’t like the other smoking letters and is holding it’s breath…who knows?!

Unfortunately Landon didn’t know what day the artwork was due back and didn’t get his turned in on time. He was pretty bummed, especially since he was positive he was going to win. I’m also pretty sure he was going to win…oh-well, I guess there’s always next year.

Kick This

I guess you have all figured out by now that there hasn’t been much going on around here this week…I mean all I’ve posted pretty much are layouts!

 

Good thing I had all these saved up or I might not have had anything at all this week! I just realized how crooked that page looks, but it isn’t really like that in real life…I just didn’t get a great picture of it. And no, your eyes are fine; it’s my pictures that are blurry, but I just really liked them anyways!

We’ve actually been pretty busy with 3 doctor appointments this week (1 for me, 2 for Landon), track meet and daily practices for Zoe, lots of paperwork concerning the house, and I even made myself get the gym twice this week! Yes, only twice, but that’s better than last week! :) When you throw all that in with the regular stuff, it makes for a busy week!

The kids have off from school next week for Spring Break and we are all thankful for that. I’ve got a few things I hope to do with the kids but nothing crazy…just stuff we can do right around here since Tony will be working.

Hopefully I’ll have lots of stuff to post about next week. It’s either that or I’d better get some pages scrapped!

Bounce

Today’s layout features pictures from 2003.

Zoe had gotten a pogo stick and was just dying to get outside and try it, even in the freezing cold weather! She actually did get the hang of it, but after the initial interest it got put away until it was warmer out.

This layout is very spring looking although the photo’s were taken during the winter. It kind of bothers me now (it didn’t bother me at all when I was making the page!) that I did that, but it turned out cute enough so I guess I’ll just leave it alone.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun at the Park (2003)

This is one of my favorite pages ever.

Mostly,I love the pictures of the kids because they are just so darn cute! But I love the silhouette I was able to cut using my Cricut too! The cartridge that makes these types of silhouette’s is A Child's Year. I can see so many possibilities with this cartridge…but this is my first page using it. The little birds and branch are some old Hambly rub-on’s that I’ve had forever, but I think they look really good on this page; so, I guess what I am saying is that I love everything on this page, and I suppose that may be why it’s my favorite! LOL!

K’Nex Builder

Landon and I broke out one of his new K'Nex sets that he got for Christmas during one of our big snowstorms. He could probably do this entire thing by himself, but he likes me to sit and “help”. I don’t mind, I actually enjoy helping put these together, so it’s fun for both of us.

 

This page photographed kind of weird, the background looks funky, but you get the idea. Can you tell I was stumped for a title? Sometimes that happens and I just have to state the obvious!

In other news, I had my 5 month check up today and everything is looking good. I’ve gained 5 pounds so far, so that’s actually pretty decent. I feel like I’ve gained a lot more than that, but the scale doesn’t lie, right?!

My appt. only lasted about 15 minutes and the doctor and I spent most of it talking about the Kindle. I brought mine along (because you never know how long you’ll be waiting in a doctor’s office!) and she happened to see it when she came in. She said she was thinking about getting one and was wondering if I could show her how it worked. So, I gave her a quick demo and she said she couldn’t wait to get home and order one! At the rate I’m going I should work for Amazon. This is the 4th person who has said they were going to get one after they had asked about mine and I’d given them a quick demonstration! I know at least 2 of them actually did buy one, and they both love theirs!

Down on the Farm

Here’s another page I finished while on my scrapbook weekend.

The pictures are from 2004, and are at the same farm as my Pumpkin Patch page from the other day. The kids really enjoy this farm because they can go in so many of the cages with the animals. Being the suburbanites that we are, it isn’t every day that we get to chase down and hold chickens!

Celebrating the Spring Weather

My parents rode over on their motorcycle so we took them over to see the house that we are hoping to buy and they seemed as impressed with it as we are! We were there for about an hour looking around and thinking of all the possibilities…

 

We decided to make some ribs on the grill since the weather was so beautiful, and we were even able to eat outside for the first time since last fall.

Ah, I love spring!

I got some cute shots of the kids and my parents on the bike:

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, especially now that the house is sold and we didn’t have to worry about leaving because people wanted to come and look at the house! I am really looking forward to more grilling out and nice walks around the neighborhood…I just hope it doesn't get hot to fast!

1/2

Here I am at 20 weeks…

I know it’s only been a few weeks since I posted a picture of the baby belly progression, but a few weeks sure makes a difference! I’ve got a very noticeable bump now, and when people who don’t really know me see me, I can tell they are dying to ask me if I’m pregnant, but are holding back because they wonder if I’m just getting fatter!

I’m happy to let them wonder! LOL!

At this stage I’m feeling really good, but I feel like it doesn’t take as much to make me tired. I don’t know if I’m not getting enough sleep, or if it’s the pregnancy. Either way, I’m feeling very zombie-like these days.

I need to say thanks to my friend Susan who took and posted pictures of herself throughout her pregnancy. I don’t think I would have thought to do it without seeing her blog posts first, and I’ve kind of “borrowed” her pregnancy pose too! The hand placement to be exact! Thanks Susan! 

Dork Alert!

Do you notice anything new on the side of my page?

The purple button perhaps?

This past Friday I received an e-mail saying that I had been recommended by someone else as a favorite blog/blogger. I don't know who recommended my blog as a favorite, but I thought it was very nice of them! I debated on whether or not I should complete the interview, but when I looked at the questions I figured why not? The questions weren't all that difficult but I will warn you, if you read my interview I sound like a total dork!! Just click on the button and it will take you to my interview; if you can stand the dorkiness that is! :)

The Pumpkin Patch (2004)

There has been a lot going on around here, especially since we got the contract on the house. Yesterday we had the home inspection and today the appraiser stopped by to get his measurements and drawings. I’ve also been thinking about all the things we are going to need/want for the new baby. I forgot how much stuff you just have to have for a newborn!

We have also been sending papers back and forth with the realtor, the loan officers and title company all in preparation for buying our new house. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that everything works out with the house we like, it seems to be exactly what we were looking for; same school districts, 4 bedrooms, larger yard etc… It needs work, but we are kind of excited about taking the house on as a project, there are so many possibilities!

My page today is another one with old photo’s of the kids, this time from October 2004. We have been going to this farm for years, ever since Zoe was in preschool. We actually missed it this year though but I don’t know why…I think we might have just been too busy.

Family Photo (circa 2005)

Today’s page is one I’ve been meaning to get to for quite awhile, about 5 years to be exact. We were on vacation at Massanutten Resort in Virginia and had taken the ski lift to the top of one of the mountains. There are some awesome views up there and of course we all had to get some photo’s up there. Massanutten just happens to be one of our favorite vacation places, we’ve been countless times and never seem to get bored of it.

I can’t believe how little my kids look! Zoe was only 10 and Landon 5! I love these old pictures of us, but sometimes they are so darn depressing! I need to look through some more of my old pictures to see if we’ve got other ones from other visits…I wish I would have thought to get progressive yearly/bi-yearly shots on this mountain top, it sure would be have been cool to see us change year to year.

Explore Outdoors

So here is the first of the ten pages I worked on this past weekend. I brought a bunch of old photo’s as well as some newer ones, that way I could just pick something I felt like working on at the moment.

These pictures of Landon at the park are from 2002 which means he was only a little over a year old when I took them! It’s hard to believe this was only about 7 years ago; time sure does fly by! Thanks for stopping by!

Home Sweet Home

I’m home again!

I was happy to see that my awesome husband kept up the ol’ blog for me while I was away. I asked him to think about contributing more often but he says he’s too busy. I even tried to bribe him with “Tony Tuesdays” but for now he’s holding his ground. I sure did like reading the parts about how he missed me…

I had a great time scrapbooking this weekend and I finished 10 pages. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but it’s actually pretty darn good for me! Even better though was that of the 10 pages I finished I actually like them all! As you all know we are our own toughest critics. I’ll be sure to share them over the next week or two; I wouldn’t want to share them all at once because I am trying to blog daily and I tend to run out of things to write about!

Zoe was out all morning/afternoon so Tony took Landon rock climbing. Here’s a little video of him:

And, in case you’re wondering, he did eventually go down the fire pole! :)

A River Runs Through It

Our Backyard that is.

The neighbor living behind us has a l6 inch deep lake in their backyard and it does not appear to be draining. We’ve had so much snow this year the ground is saturated, and with all the rain this weekend we now have a river flowing through our backyard. Go Go Gadget Sump Pump. At least the rain seems to have stopped for now.

In the last post I wrote about Angela’s trip to WVA for a mini vacation. While we miss her dearly, we are still having a bit of fun while she is gone.

Last night I was up til 2am playing Modern Warfare 2 with my brother, a neighbor, and 4 others. We were doing extremely well, due to the communications via microphone. I haven’t been up that late in ages, and I actually stay up later than my 15 year old daughter and her friend who spent the night. They just couldn’t hang with the big dogs. In other gaming news, Landon and I have downloaded Toy Soldiers. It is a pretty good Tower Defense style game for the XBOX, and Landon is enjoying it.

Zoe had a friend spend the night, and she went out to Charm City Run for spike night, although it was during the day. It is shoe store gear towards athletes. They evaluate their running style and recommend shoes for track stars like them. I think we will need to head out there some day and see what they have to say since Zoe didn’t get evaluated. They want you to buy the shoes before the eval, of course.

All in all, a nice slow day at home while the world floats away around us.

Tony Out

Angela has Left the Building

You read correctly, Angela has left me, her husband Tony, at home, with the kids, this weekend. She is on a mini vacation as she puts it. She left this morning after seeing Landon off on the school bus. Her and 5 friends have run off to a cabin in West Virginia for a weekend of scrapbooking, relaxation, and who knows what else.

I am left here to watch over the kids and to act as a guess blogger so she will not miss a day; while, she is off producing mass scrapbook pages. I have given her the task of finishing 20 pages, we shall see if she is able to accomplish that meager amount.

So while she is off having fun, I have been planning our weekend with the help of Landon. Zoe went to the mall with a friend. I dropped them off at 5 and picked them up at 8. They had dinner at Chevy’s and walked the mall, shopping and watching people. Meanwhile Landon and I were off to Pizzahut, and we came home to play some Lord of the Rings Online, before going back to the mall to get Zoe.

At the mall we stopped in Starbucks so I could pick up some whole bean coffee, Sumatra flavor. Landon had a pretzel and I almost picked up 1600 Microsoft Xbox Points. I am planning on buying Toy Soldiers for download so Landon and I can battle it out.

So far everyone is happy and getting along. We will see if it can last through the weekend.

Angela, We love you and miss you, but we also hope you are having fun and enjoying your mini break. See you soon.

Tony out.

It’s a Boy!

Today was our big day!

I was so excited about going to find out the sex of this baby that I actually started getting a little nervous! Just a little of that nervous butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of feeling.

Once we got to the radiology building we checked in only to find out that they had scheduled me wrong. The office had sent me an e-mail saying that I had a 9am appointment, but marked their books for 3pm. They were great about it though and went ahead and let me get my sonogram done.

Everyone was sure that we were having a girl; Tony even had a dream that we had a girl. I guess his dreams just don’t account for much though, because we could clearly see that this was going to be a boy. We are thrilled, and the kids are both happy as well. Zoe did say she wished I was having a girl because she would like another sister, but she said she’ll love this baby brother just the same. Landon was ecstatic because he had bet a friend at school it was going to be a boy…and he won…a mint. Hopefully the kid produces the mint or he’s not going to be too happy! :)

Now the great baby name search begins…any ideas?

The Music Man

When Zoe was in 5th grade, her school put on the play The Music Man. I was so happy that she decided to take part in the play, and proud of her for trying something new, and outside of her comfort zone.

The play turned out to be really cute, and Zoe had a really good time with it. She played a “Pick-a-Little Lady” and a townsperson and was in a few dance numbers. Her role wasn’t a major one, but she did have one scene that she stood up and said a line, and that was enough to make her a star (in my eyes at least). Unfortunately her middle school didn’t have a drama department and the fun she had doing the fifth grade play was forgotten…and she’s never been interested since. 

So, while these pictures aren’t the best (nor the layout) they are important because they will probably be the last I ever have of her in a show onstage…which is fine with me because she has many interests elsewhere. I’ve just got to remember to always have my camera ready. 

SOLD!

After nearly 5 months we finally have a contract on our house!

It has been rough keeping the house clean at all times and then rushing out with only 5 minutes notice. The worst part of all though were the times that people would schedule and then not show. I can’t think of anything more obnoxious than that…well, at the moment anyways!

So now the fun part begins. Looking for a new home should be more fun than selling one, right?

Now I can choose to be annoying and show up with only a few minutes notice or right in the middle of dinner time.

I could also choose to be considerate and do most of my looking during the day…I guess I’ll just decide on a daily basis how I’ll go about it. Bad day = be annoying. Good day = be considerate. ;)

Either way I just hope that we can find something we’re all going to be happy with. The kids are already freaking out that they might have to change schools and we haven’t even looked at a single house yet! Maybe this house hunting thing won’t be as fun as I thought after all...crap! Wish us luck!

Pretty in Pink

I love this picture of Zoe. It’s one I took of her right before she left for a Sweet 16 birthday party, and we were in a hurry…so I’m just happy that this one came out cute. She has a smile that she can just turn on and off and fortunately it doesn’t look forced. Usually.

My latest scrappy magazine has all these “make your own” flower ideas, so I had to give that a try too. I’m glad I did because they sure look cute and they were so easy to make! Just punch out circles in different sizes, crumple, and add a brad. Easy peasy. (I know that you can’t tell here, but I also sprayed my circles with some Vanilla Smooch, just for a little extra glimmer.)

Entomology anyone?

Sometime last week I came across a notice that there would be a bug exhibit at a hotel in Annapolis today. I don’t know where I saw it but I put it on our calendar should we need something to do between 1 and 5 pm today.

Good thing I did because we had 3 showings this afternoon, so we made a trip out to Annapolis for something to do. I had no idea what to expect since I’ve never been to a bug exhibit, but I figured if we didn’t like it we could always go find something else to do.

We ended up spending nearly 45 minutes looking at all different species of butterflies, scorpions, cockroaches, beetles, and many other weird looking creatures.

I had no idea there were so many kinds of butterflies! There were just tons of them on display, and this is just a small sampling of what we saw. (It was hard to get some of these without the blur, it was very crowded and everything was behind plastic or glass.)

 

This is one of the many cases of beetles…I sure would hate to find any of these in my yard or house! Yuck! We did think they were pretty cool looking though.

At one of the other stations Landon got to make a painting. Actually, this Madagascar Hissing Cockroach was dipped in paint and then walked all over this sheet of paper…interesting, no?

Here, Landon is holding one of the cockroaches, though it wasn’t one that had been painting.

And, since he could hold a cockroach, he figured he could handle a walking stick as well. I even got brave and held the walking stick but Tony wasn’t quick enough with the camera so I don’t have proof. You’ll just have to take my word for it!

The exhibit turned out to be pretty cool and I’m glad we went. I don’t think we’ll be adopting any as pets, but just seeing all of those different kinds of insects was enlightening.

Alice in Wonderland

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a big movie lover. I mean, there are some movies that I get really excited about, just not many. I always tend to feel like I should/could be doing something better with my time, especially if I’m not loving the movie.

I have been waiting month’s for the new Alice in Wonderland to come out, but I am sad to say that I was a bit disappointed.

I was just positive that the Tim Burton + Johnny Depp team would make this the best Alice ever, but unfortunately I don’t think it was.

I do have to say though that all of the acting in the movie was great. I really liked Depp’s Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carters as the Red Queen. I also think that Anne Hathaway is pretty awesome, but I thought she was a very strange White Queen! The way she held her hands up during her scenes made it hard to pay attention to what she was saying or doing…but she really is a terrific actress!

New Baby = New Stuff!

Since Tony stayed home today we headed out to lunch then to look at some baby room furniture. There are some really neat new baby products out there that I know we are going to “have” to have!

For instance:

The Bumbo Seat

I think that little seat is just too cute! The reviews on it were mostly all positive too, so that’s a plus. Some of the items I originally thought looked great got terrible reviews…I guess that is one of the positives about the internet!

I’m pretty sure I want to get either a black or white crib and furniture, but as far as room decor I’m just not sure. At first I thought maybe we should do something gender neutral, but the more I looked the more I want to just know if I’ll be decorating for a girl or a boy. Either way we found some gorgeous stuff at both Babies R Us and Pottery Barn Kids. The prices at Babies R Us are much more reasonable though, so I’m thinking I’ll probably go with something from there…but I have plenty of time to look and I plan to search the web some for ideas before I settle.

17 weeks + 6 days

I can’t believe I am doing this, but for some reason I feel compelled to embarrass myself today. I broke out the camera and tripod and took some photo’s…mostly because at 4 months I am still  able to wear my own jeans (woohoo), but to also document my pregnancy progression.

I wasn’t going to post this on the web for everyone to see, but I figured what the hell? I am who I am. Fat, skinny, tall, short, happy, sad; whatever. With both my other pregnancies I was always too embarrassed about how I looked, with my big baby belly, but this time I’m older and wiser and I know that this doesn’t last all that long. Nine month’s sure seems like a long time, but when you put it into perspective to the rest of your life, it’s nothing more than a blip in time. Before I know it I’ll be huge with this baby, so I wanted to capture the moments before that happens…because I know I’ll be in the comfy maternity jeans very soon, and holding another beautiful baby not so long after that.

Project 365, Week 8

This is my last page for February:

Doesn’t it seem like the first two months of the year have flown by?

This past weekend we signed Landon up for baseball, which should be starting in the next couple of weeks, and Zoe started outdoor track this past Monday. As much as I like winter, and all the snow (yes, I’m one of the 2 people that like snow) I am looking forward to spring and all the outdoorsy things we get to do when it warms up. We weren’t able to make Zoe’s indoor track meets so I’m really looking forward to seeing some of her outdoor meets as well as Landon’s baseball games.

Those couple of weeks without any sports to worry about were nice, albeit short lived…but, on to the next thing.

Right?

Right.