Project Life (Weeks 18-22)

=Week 18:

Week 19:

Week 20:

Week 21:

Week 22:

Project Life (Weeks 13-17)

I’ve actually been keeping up with my project life album, for the most part. It took me a little bit to figure out how I was going to go about putting this album together, but I think I’ve got a good groove going now.

I’m just about caught up to the current week and realized that I haven’t posted a good portion of my finished pages…so, here are weeks 13-17.

Week 13:

Week 14:

Week 15:

Week 16:

Week 17:

She Swings (Scrapbook Page)

I’m not sure why I’m just now posting this page I made way back in April, but I guess late is better than never, right? Maybe I didn’t post it because I was afraid someone might overdose on all the pink…who knows. :)

This was one of the first times Dakota got to swing. She was a bit hesitant at first, but once we got her going, she loved it! She isn’t as big a fan as Harper is, but she likes to go out every once in awhile.

Marking Our 13th Year

Tony and I celebrated our 13th anniversary on the 9th of this month. We didn’t have any definite plans, we just wanted to get out of the house without kids for a bit. Mema came over to babysit the two littles and we made it as easy as possible by having them ready for bed before we left.

After deliberating for a bit we decided to go to the Annapolis Harbor to find dinner and walk around. It was late when we got down there and we were starving, so we chose the first place that didn’t have a long wait; Middleton Tavern.

(Tony picked up a dozen white roses and a new lace paper punch for me. The gift for the 13th year was supposed to be something lace, so instead of going with a traditional lace item, he got me something I’ll use in my scrapbooking. He’s just awesome like that.)

We got a little table outside and enjoyed talking and people watching until our food came out. We ordered a steampot to share and boy was it good!

After we finished dinner we headed out for ice cream. I overheard the waiter telling another family that the best ice cream on the harbor could be found at the Annapolis Ice Cream Company, so we headed that way. I got a scoop of chocolate and Tony got a scoop of strawberry and I have to say, it was delicious! As we ate our ice cream we walked back towards the car to head home.

(Our wedding song was Wonderful Tonight. I found a company on Etsy that printed out the words to our song with some of our personal details on top. I was able to print it at home and pick up a nice frame at Michaels…I just love it!)

I sure hope we don’t have to wait until our 14th anniversary to get out again!

Laser Tag Birthday Party

Last Saturday we had Landon’s 12th birthday party. He doesn’t turn twelve for another month, but we celebrate early, before everyone heads out on summer vacation. He wanted a laser tag party so we went back to Shadowland since he had such a good experience last time. When I asked Landon what kind of cake I should get (he’s not a big fan of cake, but I insist that birthday’s must have cake!!) he suggested cupcakes from our favorite little cupcake shop. They sure were delicious!

The boys had a great time running around “shooting” each other and he got some really nice gifts. I think having a party at a location is the way to go. It costs more but its so dang easy! All I had to do was bring the cake, ice cream, and birthday kid…they did the rest. Easy peasy!

Landon had been asking to get a badminton set for our backyard so that was what we got him for his birthday. That and a little hamster that he named Pickles. She’s super cute and very sweet…but so incredibly messy! So far Harper and Dakota haven’t messed with her too much, but they are certainly interested!

Another few weeks and I’ll have a full fledged 12 year old living in the house. Wow.

NOT a Soccer Mom

Anyone that knows me at all knows that I am not a soccer mom. I mean, I am a soccer mom, I’m just not a fanatical soccer mom. While I do enjoy watching my kids play I don’t like the other stuff that goes along with it.

For instance, I do not enjoy the hours spent practicing, the required 30 min./1hour arrival before a game, the 20 minute post game run down of every significant event that happened on the field, the heat, the cold, the bugs. In those ways, I’m REALLY not a soccer mom, and I won’t apologize for it. But, like I said, I’m happy to sit and watch my kid out on the field…which brings me to the whole reason I’m even writing this post.

Today was day one of Landon’s soccer tournament. Luckily, we’re only doing one tournament this season, so I figured I’d just go with it and keep the complaints to a minimum, which I was very successful about, I think.

But, here’s what going to a tournament looks like on my end:

I’m up early (6am as usual. Thanks Koko!) and jump in the shower because I know I’m going to be busy and leaving for the game kind of early. (Game starts at 10am, which means Landon has to be on the field by 9:30am, which means leaving just after 9am to get there.) After getting the kids dressed and fed (Tony did help here some) I start thinking about what I need to pack in the van.

• blanket to sit on the ground
• chairs in case ground is too wet
• bag of toys for Kota
• toys for Harper
• snacks for both kids
• drinks for both kids
• change of clothes for both kids
• diapers for Dakota
• camera
• stroller
• hats for both kids
• sunblock (which I ended up forgetting)
• comb and hair tie for Dakota’s hair

You get the picture.

Since Landon’s game started at 10, I thought I’d let Kota get her morning snooze which is usually about an hour from 9am-10am. She was tired by about 8:45 though so I put her down early and she fell right to sleep. Perfect! After getting all the stuff packed in the car, all I had to do was get shoes on Harper, have him use the potty, find my sunglasses, get Dakota up from her nap and go…but not until I’d let the dog out one last time so that she wouldn’t have an accident in the house.

I get both kids in the car and we’re on our way with plenty of time to make the game before it starts. Except the second I see route 97, I know we’re going to be late. It’s crawling for some unknown reason but our exit is the first one, so I’m not too worried. We make it to our exit and just as I’m thinking we may actually make it on time after all, we come to a dead stop because of another traffic issue; this time a backed up stoplight. It didn’t take too long to get through, and we made it to the field only 7 minutes after the first half began. Not too bad.

I get out, get all the above stuff out of the car, and make my way to the field. I throw out our blanket and all the toys and snacks and prepare to watch Landon play. I realize about 5 minutes in that my pants are getting wet through the blanket, so I go and get a chair. Neither of the kids wants anything to do with any of the toys I brought, and Dakota finds a water bottle she’s much more interested while Harper goes through every snack I’ve brought. I sit in the chair for about 2-3 minutes and then realize that I didn’t change Dakota’s diaper after her nap because we were in a rush to leave, so I grab her and go change her diaper in the car. She’s so happy in the car that I decide we’ll just sit in the back end of the van and watch the game from there. Once Harper realizes what we’re doing (he was sitting with Mema, not alone!) he too wants to come sit in the van. Once they’re both in the van climbing all over the place it’s hard for me to watch anything on the field because I have to worry every second that one of them is going to be injured.

The final whistle blows and the game is over. I head back over to the field with both kids to start gathering our things. I’ve watched approximately 2 minutes of the entire game and have no idea what the score is. Fortunately, Landon had the ball for a good portion of the time I was about to pay attention and I saw him play very well. He was doing everything he could to get a goal, but it just didn’t happen for him today.

I get everything thrown back into the van and everyone is wondering why I’m not staying for the second game. The second game that doesn’t even start until noon.

Ugh.

How We Spend Our Time

Dakota is finally (as in the past month) sleeping through the night on a regular basis. She typically goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up between 5 and 6am. Sometimes I get super lucky and she sleeps later, but she’s an early bird for the most part. I like spending the very early morning with her though. She’s super happy in the morning and it’s nice quality time with just her. She’s at that age where she just seems to be picking things up left and right, too. She just figures out how to do new things all the time. Recently it’s been putting these small rings onto a peg board; the video is below.

Dakota mastering the rings.

Harper, as of this weekend, is no longer taking naps during the day. I decided that it was better for him to go to bed earlier and go right to sleep than for him to nap and then toss and turn for an hour (sometimes more) at night. He’d usually go down for nap around 1pm and sleep for 2 hours, but it just got to where he couldn’t go to sleep at night until 9:30 or 10pm and I hated making him lay in bed so long because I know how frustrating that can be. The only problem with this is that he is so tired in the middle of the day. When he naps he falls right to sleep and I usually had to wake him up, so I know he’s tired. I guess we’ll see if this works for us, and if not, I’ll try something else. Maybe a short 1 hour nap just on days when it’s absolutely necessary? I don’t know.

While I’m dropping his naptime, I’m still enforcing quiet time. He can play my iPad, watch TV, read etc. It just has to be quiet, for about an hour. Then, since Dakota’s usually asleep I spend some one on one time with him. Today we worked on writing numbers with his dry erase markers and we also found all the letters in the alphabet on the keyboard, which is what he wanted to do. I think he’ll really benefit from the one on one time since I don’t get to give that to him when Dakota’s awake. It’s also nice to be able to take him outside to play while she’s sleeping. I can help him ride his tricycle, play with the chalk or take him on the swing that he loves so much.

His favorite pastime.

Library Visit

Even though story time is over until September, the two babies and I still make it to the library every week. Sometimes Harper wants to play in the play area and other times he just wants to get books and leave.

Last week both he and Dakota were happy to play for awhile. There was one other little girl there when we got there and Harper immediately began playing with her. He certainly isn’t shy and I just love to listen to him talk and play with other kids.

Dakota was happy to stand and play with the blocks and bus. She’s totally independent these days and likes to crawl around and explore. Every minute or so she checks to make sure I’m still near her, but as long as she can see me, she’s happy to go about her business.

Peanut Butter San-wich

Harper requests a peanut butter san-wich at least once a day. Some mornings, before he’s even out of bed, he asks for one. Not only does he want a PB&J sandwich, he also wants to help make it.

First HE must get out the jar of peanut butter. Then, while I’m grabbing the bread, knife and jelly, he pulls a chair from the dining room table over to the counter to watch the magic happen. He just loves to stand and watch me make his sandwich, and once it’s made he insists on standing on the chair to eat it. He doesn’t mess around either. He eats that sandwich like he may never get another one. There was a day this weekend that he had a total of 3 PB&J’s and I thought for sure he’d be done with them for awhile, but I was wrong.

His love runs deep.

Gift for a Graduate

Last Saturday was super busy. Not only did we have Landon’s soccer swim party, we also went to my nephew’s graduation party. Just Zoe, Dakota and I went because Tony, Landon and Harper had to stay and get things done for the pool party.

About a week prior I decided that I didn’t want to give Travis a card with money in it, so I looked on Pinterest for some ideas. There were tons of ideas and I was able to recreate one easily with just a 2 liter, paper and ribbon.

Zoe helped me and it came together really quickly. We were both satisfied with how it came out and I just loved the look on Travis’ face when he saw it was stuffed with money!

We didn’t get to stay very long as we had Landon’s party to get to, but I’m so happy we were able to stop by to congratulate him.

End of Soccer Pool Party

Last Saturday we celebrated the end of soccer season with a pool party for the team. They had a great time hanging out together outside of soccer and had a ton of fun in the pool. Since Tony’s the coach, we had the party here at our neighborhood pool which made things super easy for us!

The party was a lot of fun for the kids and was a nice way to end the season. Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures because I was super busy with Dakota but I was able to snag one of each of my kids!

11 Months

This little firecracker turned 11 months old yesterday!

And when I say firecracker, I mean firecracker! She is spunky, demanding, hilarious, curious, smart and downright amazing. She knows what she wants (most of the time) and cute enough to get it (most of the time).

Her favorite things right now are pushing anything and everything as she walks around the house. She crawls super fast too, and it’s a chore keeping up with her whereabouts. She just loves when one of us is chasing after her, especially if we’re doing it down on our knees with her! She loves playing “I’m gonna get you” and nearly jumps out of her seat if I use my “monster” voice when I’m coming around to get her.

She likes to play what I call the “thank you” game. She’ll be playing with a toy and as I sit down beside her she hands it to me and waits for me to say “thank you”, then she wants it back. We do this over and over and even Harper has caught on to this game and will play it with her. She can sit and occupy herself for the longest times, I’d say a good 20 minutes is the longest, but that’s really long in baby time! She likes to put things in and out of buckets, and she’s recently begun putting rings onto pegs (one of Harper’s toys).

She says uh-oh every time she drops something to the floor, and most times we are eating, she’ll purposely drop food to the dog and lean over her chair to watch the dog eat it. She babbles all day long and is forming new sounds all the time. Right now we’re hearing a lot of da-da, but she still doesn’t seem to recognize that da-da is a person…not just a sound.

Hard to believe that next month I’ll be writing about her first birthday! Time sure flies!

Pool Time with Zoe

As soon as the babies woke up from their naps on Thursday Zoe and I took them to the pool.

I think Harper likes to put his toys in the drain more than anything else. He’ll gather all the toys just to drop them in there and then later gather them all back up so he can do it again. Silly boy.

Dakota was happy to float around the pool in her seat. We just put her in there and give her some toys to play with and she’s good to go.

When Harper finally got tired of putting his toys in and out of the drain, he was happy to float around on his turtle. He just loves that thing!

I didn’t get many pictures from that day because I spent my time in the water with the kids. Zoe kept asking Harper if he’d go under water with her and at one point he said yes, he wanted too. So, she brought him under with her and that boy cried and cried about it once they came back up! I don’t think he really knew what she was talking about. After calming him down I let him jump in to me from the side of the pool several times and he ended up going under once more, and again he cried, but not nearly like he did the first time. (Probably because he knew what was going to happen the second time around!)

I told Zoe that if I could afford it I’d pay her to help me this summer. It was so nice to have someone around to help me do things with the two little ones! And who better than their sweet older sister who adores them anyways? (Thanks, Zoe!)