Easter 2008

I realized that I needed to post some of our Easter pics. We colored eggs the night before with an Aunt and two cousins.

This mess....


Produced these beautiful eggs...

That's Aunt Gina's beautiful artwork with Joshua's name....I couldn't find Kyle's for the picture.

Here are the boys with their baskets. They found them rather quickly even though the Easter Bunny thought he hid them cleverly.

They were so excited about their new boots and so was I! Joshua shouted, "Look! I got puddle boots!" These will definetely save me this coming muddy spring!

Before breakfast, the boys relaxed on the couch. I just loved how Joshua was clutching his new stuffed bunny friend he got in his basket. Kyle was playing the new Transformers game he got for his DS while Joshua watched over his shoulder. They were so peaceful and quiet....a Mom's dream!


I was pretty upset that we wouldn't make it to our family dinner this year. But Gene made a beautiful meal for us.


Gene was very thoughtful and brought home this wonderfully yummy Carrot Cake. I had mentioned a few weeks ago that a carrot cake for Easter would be nice. He's such a great husband!


After Gene went to work, the boys and I bundled up and headed out for our first GeoCache hunt. We didn't find the cache, but we did enjoy a beautiful Easter day out in God's Creation.
We seen these deer.


And visited a local tourist spot on the search for the clue to the cache.

New Tooth

Early this morning, Joshua woke and was trying to tell me that he had a big hole in his mouth. At first thought, I was thinking that his first wiggly had fallen out while he was sleeping. But then when he opened his mouth and I got a closer look.

Here is what I saw:

Yup! His tooth is growing in behind his baby wiggler!

Spring Has Sprung!

And to celebrate.....I created a new blog header!

Here is what we woke up to this morning. Not too spring-like, huh?

So....I just loved those tulips in the window and started to take a few shots of them. They were just gorgeous all fully opened. And I thought, what the heck! I'm sure someone could use these for something. Why not give them away on my blog?


So....Happy First Day of Spring to YOU!

*Link Removed*

I'll leave these up until Sunday, so snag them if you think you can use them! I'd love to see what you do with these, so please feel free to send me a link to your work. My contact info can be found within the zip file!

Happy Spring!!!!!

I Scrap!

Yes, really I do! Look at the header up there....this is a scrap blog right? LOL!

I have started to consider myself a collector rather than a scrapper. Sad, really if you think about it. I picked up this sweet collection from Gina Miller & Amanda Rockwell called Shabby Papier.

Gorgeous isn't it? It looks a bit girly, but I assure you there is plenty in there to create "boy" pages as well.

So they have this scrap the stash contest going on right now and I couldn't justify getting that whole collection and not using it, could I?

So here is my first finished layout.

{Full Credits Here}

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I also wanted to share my new March Desktop. Rarely do I put up anything other than the Shabby Princess Desktops shared on her Blog. They are always beautiful and have photo inserts for the kids pics.

But I came across this Rockin' one at a very Funky place and had to d/l it right away. Because it doesn't have photo inserts, I was able to use this at work as well. It just screams S-P-R-I-N-G! I smile everytime I sit down to my desk now!

You can pick this up for yourself HERE and be sure to leave them a little comment when you d/l!

Since I spent the morning scrapping, I better get something done around the house and get out of these comfy clothes. Gene will be home in less than 2 hours. LOL!

Have a great day and I hope the sun is shining where you are.

Spring is near....I can feel it!

It was a gorgeous day here in NW Pennsylvania! Well, as beautiful as you can get in early March. The 12 inches of snow melted almost overnight and the temperatures....well I'll just let you see for yourself.

See that on the lower left hand corner. Yup...that's right 60 degrees at 7PM. That's a very big change from our 0 degree temps last week.

I had to work all day, but was able to get out of the office at lunch to enjoy the warmth. I even left my coat in the car. It felt kind of weird gathering my belongings to leave and not having to lug on my boots and zip up my coat.

Spring is right around the corner! Well....right after we have this winter storm tonight that is. LOL! Oh well....it was beautiful while it lasted. I'll take freezing cold as long as the sun is shining.

A Day of Remembrance

Sorry there's no photos to go with this post today. I would have loved to get a picture of the beautiful bouquet and the roses and also the balloons we sent up to heaven with papa. But Gene specifically stated that this was not something to scrap. So I respected his feelings and didn't take the camera with us.

We planned to go to Papa's grave today and leave flowers with the boys. The florist gave me the idea to release a balloon with a note attached for each of the boys. We could tell them that the God will take the balloon and letter up to heaven to Papa. I loved the idea! Especially for Joshua, Papa has really been on his mind this past month. It's almost as if he instinctively knew that it's been almost a year.

Everything went wrong on the way to Papa's grave. I ordered flowers from my usual florist. She just recently opened up a second location and this new location was on the way to where we had to go, so I had her have the order there instead. Well, apparently she has employed a man who used to have a very successful floral shop in our area but since retired. I think he's lost his touch because nothing was ready when we got there to pick it up.

I ordered on Tuesday. It was supposed to be two red roses (one for each of the boys to place at the grave), two helium balloons and a small bouquet of flowers(for Gene and I to place at the grave).

He headed back to the cooler and asked me if they were going on a grave, then do I need greens. I thought he meant for the two rosebuds. I said no, it's just for the boys to have something to put there. He came out with a pink carnation, a sprig of yellow daisies, a bright red carnation, a sprig of burgandy flowers and put them all on top of each other. He then asked me, "This is going on a guy's grave, right?" I said yes. He got a wide long green ribbon and a thinner orange ribbon. Then tied them around the bunch and presented it to me. No bow, no baby's breath, no greens, no ribbon curling. Nothing. It was horrible looking. I don't usually complain, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings either, so I paid, left and got in the car.

Gene asked me how much they charged and I told him $10.70. He said, we could have done that ourselves for three bucks! I told him that we would put the roses on the grave and release the balloons with the boys letters to papa, but we were going to the other location where the owner was to show her and have her do something else. I mean it was that ugly. Gene didn't want to, since we were already late (he had to work this afternoon) I told him that this wasn't Shelly's work (the floral shop owner) and she needed to know what they were doing at this other location because it was her reputation.

Then we released the balloons. Kyle's went up free and clear. Joshua's brushed past the top of the ONLY tree branch in the area, popped, and hung there at the top of the tree. He started bawling and saying that, now papa wouldn't know that he loves him. Josh had written, LOVE and drew a heart on all four sides of the paper. Gene tried to reassure him that papa knew how much he loved him and started crying himself.

Of course it had to be Joshua's balloon that popped, not Kyle's. Kyle would have shrugged his shoulders and said, oh well....papa knows I love him. But it had to be Joshua's blue balloon.

So we went to grammy's house and I insisted on running over to the florist. I called her first and let her know that I wasn't happy with the flowers I was given. That it was just something I couldn't leave at the grave and we were pressed for time and I also needed another balloon because one had hit a tree and popped. It's a 10 min drive from where I was to the shop.

When I got there, she had a beautiful bouquet with three tulips, pink carnations, purple iris (I think), white and yellow daisies, a single red rose at the top and baby's breath and greens and a beautiful pale green ribbon bow with the ends curled slightly ready to go. It was gorgeous!

I handed her the flowers I was given at the other location and she said, "I can see why you wouldn't leave that at the grave. That's just WRONG! He should know better and we'll have a long talk." She thanked me for bringing it to her attention and wouldn't accept anymore money for the bouquet she made up and the third balloon.

The second trip to the grave went much better. We released Joshua's balloon in the field in front of grammy's house and watched it for a good 5 minutes. Josh had his hands up to his eyes and after a few seconds said, "It's going up to papa!"

Gene and I had a few minutes at the grave alone with the kids in the car. We placed the new bouquet at the headstone and just hugged. It was then that the tears hit me. I wasn't emotional at all until then. I guess when there is so much preparation it's hard to really be still and think about things.

So to sum things up. Be still and know that He is God. It's in those quiet, still moments that He is able to touch your heart. This is something that I've never understood fully. I'm just now beginning to understand the importance of taking quiet moments amist all the chaos and flurry of day to day life.

~Perspective~

I've been nasty lately. Not nice, sometimes downright mean to others. AND I felt "justified" by circumstances. Anyone ever feel like that?

I've been less than understanding with a co-worker, impatient with the kids and Gene (DH), snapped at my mom on the phone (Sorry Mom!), and this morning was the climax of it all....I was horrible to someone I didn't even know WITH the kids in the car.

You see...I have to park my car near the building where I work because the parking lot slants toward the road. My blazer has a crazy little thing it does when you park on a downhill....it won't start with anything below a half a tank of gas. So, I pull into the parking lot this morning WITH the kids in the car because there was another two hour delay at school. Gene plows our lot at work....so I bring the kids in and he'll take them to school when the lot is plowed.

When I realize that off to the side where I usually park....another employee from the business next door has parked her blue car sideways taking up two parking spaces. There was another car parked behind her (the correct way). SO, being in a mean, grumpy mood I parked in the space next to it....directly in FRONT of her car. Good....I'm thinking to myself....now she'll have to get her co-worker to move so she can get out. That'll teach her. I "justified" it by saying it's rude of HER to park that way and this will teach her a lesson.

I proceeded to take the kids into the office and start the day. After Gene left with the kids, I told Dr. that I needed to go move my car because it wasn't very nice of me to leave it where I parked. But apparently she had gotten out and her blue car is parked next to mine correctly this time. So, I go back into the office and tell Dr. that apparently she moved already.

Then Gene calls and he mentions that HE moved the blazer (because he didn't think it was nice of me). When he opened the blazer door to get in....the lady with the blue car from the other office came out and he said he got a "look to kill" glare from her.

So....it doesn't hit me until lunchtime.....that maybe she parked that way because she got here early and didn't want to be in the way while Gene was plowing the parking lot.

I want to thank Kimberly Geswein for THIS (go ahead....click the link, it's well worth the time to read!) entry on her blog, who put this whole thing into perspective for me. Not only this incident, but the way I've been dealing with things over the past few weeks. It's all about "circumstantial joy". Thank you Kimberly, so much for your service to Him and sharing with us. I am humbled and off to go find the lady in the blue car to apologize.

Our View...

from our front window. Totally amazing!

Kyle opened up the curtains when we heard the wind just howling outside like a freight train. This was his view.

He said, "Wow!!! I can't see anything!" It's pretty much a whiteout right now. Visibility is just a few feet in front of you. Here's another pic of our front yard looking out the window.

So, I guess I'll snuggle by the fire.....or maybe just stay in my jammies and scrap today. A new layout is L-O-N-G overdue!

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Poor Kyle
Just a bit after the snowstorm pics...He broke out in HIVES!


After playing downstairs in the family room with the dog, I brought them up because it's just a bit too cold down there. I thought at first it was due to him and the dog playing around. His whole eye was red and started to look rough. As I looked closer, little bumps were forming at the corners of his eye and down his face. Then he showed me his arms....they were full of hives. Poor thing! I gave him benadryl and bathed him....just in case it came from the weeds outside while walking the dog this morning. He'll probably soon be a bit groggy. So he's in his jammies too!

Happy Birthday NANA!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

Here's some artwork straight from Joshua's pencil to you!
Front

Back


Front

Back


Don't mind the sghetti faces!

We love you NANA!

I hope you had a wonderful fun filled and PAIN FREE day!

SnowTubing

We all headed up to our local snow tubing park and had a blast Thursday night! The boys loved riding down the hill. Even though my tailbone was still quite a bit sore from my fall last Friday, Gene convinced me to ride down twice....on my tummy! Lord, I was praying I didn't roll off the tube on down the hill on my back! LOL!

Funny thing was the tubing park was the ONLY place in our entire county with snow! They had two feet of the beautiful white stuff. And all of it was "made" by the snow guns. We've had some unusually high temps this past week all the way up to 65 degrees, but it dipped back down on Wednsday and they were able to create the snow hill for us to have fun on Thursday.

Here's the hill. You'll notice just beyond the lights.....all green grass! LOL!


Gene


Kyle


Joshua


And there's nothing like a good game of Air Hockey to complete the night! Joshua won!


No there's no pics of me! Gene didn't have the chance to pry the camera out of my hands!

Bad Blogger!!!

I know I should come visit here more often! I promised mom that I'd drop by and share some photos of the boys. It's been awhile since I've shared anywhere. Mom asked if I was sharing my pictures somewhere else than my spot at DST. No mom.....I'm not hiding from you, ok? LOL!

Here's the boys when we put up our tree. They jumped right in the tree box and posed for the camera.


I promised I would share these little photo frames that I made up for decorating this year. I loved these and found them at Wal-mart for only $1.50 a piece!


Here's a few pics from Kyle's school concert. Always the comedian and Drama King he is. He kept hiding from the camera so the video didn't turn out so well. So much for telling him I was taping so Nana and daddy could see later.



Here is our tree on Christmas night. (Just after Santa visited)


I'm ashamed to say that I got absolutely NO photos of the boys dressed in their Christmas outfits or opening presents. But I'm going to take a different approach to scrapping the holidays 2007. I plan to take pics of each of us with our top presents "in use" and showcasing them on a "Year In Review" page. My own take on using a template like that. That's the plan anyway.

And with that.....Happy New Year everyone!!!


I'll be back soon to share some recent snow pics and Kyle's birthday pics. Just as soon as this poor tailbone will let me sit at the computer for a bit.

~Random Kiddie Stuff~

Let me start by introducing you to one of our elementary schools yearly traditions. Every November, all students are sent home with a brown construction paper with a "turkey" outline traced. It's a family project to "dress" the turkey to help disguise it to get out of town before Thanksgiving. EVERY grade participates in this and it is so neat to see the creative results. As the turkeys are finished at home and start to trickle in, teachers post them outside their classrooms and pretty soon the entire school hallways are filled to the brim with fully dressed turkeys!

Kyle has done two turkeys so far and Joshua has always helped with the projects. Since Joshua started a new Pre-K program at the elementary school this year, he gets to participate with his own creation!

Joshua chose to do a Christmas Tree Turkey. We used green Floam.....ick!!! That stuff is so gross! Even Joshua said, "Eeeeww, mommy this stuff is gross!" and promptly went to the sink to wash his hands. So yes.....I had to finish spreading the "gross" floam myself! He decorated his "tree" with beads from our craft bin. And strung jingle bells on pipe cleaners for "garland". The presents I cut out of construction paper and he made "ribbons" using markers all by himself. He made the hat to top the turkey all by himself! I cut a star to put on the hat as a "tree topper" out of some decorative foil. He was so proud of his Turkey!

Joshua & Mrs. Blood hanging up his Turkey


Kyle's idea was much more "involved". He came home with the idea that his turkey was going to be "Elvis"!!! So I got a white scrap of fabric from the bin at Wal-Mart and cut out his outfit. Yes, I know I forgot the bell bottoms! Gene cut out the guitar and drew the "chest feathers". He also made the hair with sideburns from construction paper. Kyle decorated the outfit, belt & all with gold glitter glue. It was a hit for sure at school! His teacher got a kick out of the "chest feathers". And all the kids wanted to "play" the guitar. I only got a picture of his turkey laying on his desk, because his class was out when I delivered the turkeys.


I also wanted to share some handwriting samples. Joshua is in Pre-K and I'm amazed at how well he writes. I promised my mom I would share these. He has a little write-on & wipe-off book and he loves to sit and write. I use this when Kyle has homework and Joshua wants to "help" Kyle with it! Kyle gets so frustrated, so this helps to distract Joshua.




Last, I want to share some Turkey cooking instructions. Kyle's teacher had all the students write instructions on how to cook a turkey and photocopied all the students pictures and directions and sent them home in a little laminated book for us! It was so cute looking through all the kids writings and instructions. Here is Kyle's entry:
Front Page

Back Page

Sorry about the show through on the picture. The pages are very thin. But you get the idea. Notice on the second page that one of his directions is to say "gras" and eat the turkey? He was the only student who mentioned praying before eating. That sure makes this mommy proud!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope your day is blessed with love, family, and happy memories!

{Want Beautiful Eyes?}

Then you need to head straight over to the FPD Blog!!!! Jaime has added a new photo tip that is absolutely stunning and will make your eyes in photos POP! It was so easy to do too!

I tried the technique on my 'lil Joshua's photo. He has such beautiful eyes, but rarely do you see it in photographs because they always appear too dark and do not show the light that's really in there. He has hazel, bits of brown, green and even blue flecks at times and they are gorgeous but my photos never were able to capture them. I was disappointed until I read the FPD blog and tried this:

Very rough makeover at this point....I'm still playing with the settings, but was awed by the results and it only took seconds to do!!!

BEFORE


AFTER


My oldest has beautiful blue eyes and I cannot wait to try this technique on some of his closeup photos!!!!

Thanks Jaime for helping me ROCK my photos!!!!

{Bird Kingdom}

It was such a beautiful Fall day! We wore light jackets but decided to leave those in the car at the parking lot of Bird Kingdom. The ads say come early to experience the quiet rainforest setting before the waterfall starts. It was neat to be in the rooms with all the birds flying around. We moved to the nocturnal reptile area next.

My boys are daredevils....so when they seen this sign....it wasn't enough to stop them from looking down!

And here's what we saw down inside!

Within minutes of being in the atrium, this horrible (Harry Potter) large beaked bird flew down and smacked the side of my head. {see above pic} I read on this page that they are training some birds to swoop down and take food right from your hand or what's thrown up in the air. Maybe that is why I was nearly attacked 5 times by the birds in the free flying aviary??? I must have smelled good or something, 'cause 5 different birds swooshed past my head!!!

Wicked Parrots!!!

These parrots were so wicked! I understand now why they have such high perches. There is even a sign that says do not get too close to the parrots. The boys were trying to talk to them and apparently one took offense at Kyle, squaking and flapping his wings. Kyle ducked and ran behind Gene! LOL! So I guess there are still some things that will scare them after all!

Here are a few more random pics. The Java House is made completely of tongue and groove wood pieces. It was very intricate design on the inside as well as the outside. Very beautiful....the pic just doesn't do it justice! Inside we purchased some drinks and two cups of nectar to feed the lorakeets. There's a pic of us in the walkway behind the waterfall, hence the raindrops falling in front of us. And that toucan was AWESOME!!! The boys both spent a great deal of time "talking" to him. He made noises back to the boys. He perched on a tree branch right below where the sidewalk path the boys were on.

And then we were off to feed the lorakeets....

Kyle loved all the birds around him and he didn't even seem to mind that two had pooped down the back of both shoulders before we were done!

They allowed me to take my camera in and I was so glad that I captured these shots of Josh and Gene!

Yup, that one left a little "present" on the back shoulder of Gene's shirt too! I believe I was the only one who got out of the area without being "marked" by those birds. Unless you count being head swooshed, being marked by them! LOL!

Josh was laughing and giggling....all smiles! He LOVED the experience! Unfortunately, we were one of the first customers to fee the birds that day and they were a bit more hungry than we thought.

Once Joshua's cup of nectar was empty, one of the lorakeets scooped down and bit Joshua on the fleshy part of his skin between his thumb and forefinger. We didn't realize it had broken skin and had him rub the Hand Sanitizer they provide as you are leaving the lorakeet feeding station into his hands. He cried and fussed and once we got to the gift area it was bleeding in two spots! We picked out a frog stuffed animal for him to help comfort him. He didn't want anything to do with the stuffed birds at that point. The lady at the counter doctored up his boo-boo with some neosporin and a band-aid. He kept saying, "That wasn't nice of that bird, Mommy!"

After leaving the Bird Aviary, we strolled down to the falls. I captured some beautiful fall foliage and yes....the animals were not done with Joshua yet. But I'm gonna have to leave those pics and stories for tomorrow!

Credits: (In order of appearance in this post) Cocktail Hour Frame by Christina Renee, Wood Frame & Layered Polaroid from Signature Collection by Christina Renee, Aged Frame from Cocktail Hour by Christina Renee & Tag from Signature Collection by Christina Renee, French Knots by Amy Hutchinson, Piled High Cluster by Christina Renee, Vintage Frames by Jessica Bolton