My friend Leah designed a fantastic digital kit called Gentle Waters, and she asked me to work with it! Here is the first of the two layouts that I designed with it.
And here is the second!
Her kit just has the cutest little beach themed embellishments, and the best part of all is that she’s giving it away for free! You can pick it up here.
Ronnie’s parents, his sister, and her husband have all three of my kids tonight. They picked them up this morning at nine for a sleepover tonight, and Ronnie and I have been at loose ends. Sure, when they’re here we are overwhelmed, overworked, and overtired. When they’re gone, we miss them like crazy. It’s a no win situation!
I have to update my pictures of the day since it’s been forever since I’ve done so. The first photo is from this past Sunday, and it's a very common sight in my house. I get so tired of doing endless piles of dishes. With a five person household, the dishes are never completely done. There’s always one person who adds a dish to the sink after I finish loading the dishwasher and turn it on.
On Monday at dinner time, Jordan went over and started kissing Brandon. Alexis decided she didn’t want to be left out, and together they made a Brandon sandwich and kissed him all up. He laughed at first, but he quickly got tired of being loved on.
Tuesday found me doing another chore around the house that I never finish. Laundry is never ending. There are never enough clean socks, or underwear, and I wash CONSTANTLY. I had been folding clothes before bed time and decided to snap the piles of them as my photo of the day.
I finally got Alexis to pose for a photo of the day session. She is not a big fan of having her photo taken, which is why you don’t see her much on these posts. She tends to stick her tongue at me and make mean faces. I threatened to scrapbook the mean faces, so she agreed to pose for a decent photo. I took this one Wednesday evening before we headed out to bring her to gymnastics. It’s not a big smile… but I’ll take it!
On Thursday, I had to bring Alexis to the eye doctor. She has had many problems with her eyes crossing. She has had two eye surgeries so far, and we may be looking at another one if her new eyeglasses don’t help correct it. Ronnie says he wants a second opinion if it comes to that again. It is absolutely awful for her. She’s not able to see for hours after the surgery due to swelling, so I totally agree with him.
We ordered the world’s cutest purple frame glasses for her. They should be back in about a week. She is not thrilled about having to wear glasses. In fact, her last pair was broken when she took them off and hid them in her backpack. A little boy accidentally stepped on them. We read her the riot act about keeping the new ones on at all times until bed time. I’m not sure how well that is going to go.
After her eye appointment, we came home to relieve my mother in law and sister in law. They were watching the two youngest kids. Then my brother and his wife Tasha came over with their two kids for a little while during all of the chaos. They have a new baby boy named Christian, and I’ve only gotten to see him twice in his whole life, so I was thrilled to see them. He’s an absolutely adorable little man.
I got my brother to take a picture of me with all of my grandma’s great grandkids. We don’t all get together often, but when we do… I’m telling you chaos is putting it lightly. LOL
Yesterday, I spent at least four hours altering a hat box to store some of my mini scrapbook albums in. I was so proud of it when I was done. I showed Ronnie when he came home, and he said it was “nice”. Four hours of work = nice? I don’t think so! LOL The other boxes were made a few months ago for the same purpose. I love making mini albums, and I’ve had to find creative storage solutions for them.
I’m signing off for now to watch “The Dukes of Hazzard” again with Ronnie. LOL
Yesterday evening at the dinner table Jordan told us that she had a joke for us. I thought I would share it.
Jordan: Knock Knock!
Me: Who's there?
Jordan: Cargo.
Me: Cargo who?
Jordan: Cargo "Beep Beep!".
(Insert hysterical toddler laughter here.) Even I couldn't help giggling. I'm such a sucker for knock knock jokes. Brandon got in on the fun as soon as he heard we were talking about cars.
Brandon: Knock Knock!
Me: Who's there?
Brandon: It's a car!
Me: It's a car who?
Brandon: Knock Knock!
Me: Who's there?
Brandon: It's a car!
Me: It's a car who?
Brandon: Knock Knock!
He just kept doing it over and over. Jordan and Alexis were crying because they were laughing so hard. Little moments like those are the ones that make parenting worth while.
I ended up teary eyed this morning too. I've been trying to teach Brandon to say "I love you." He keeps trying, and it usually comes out a bit garbled, but you can understand what he means. He always waits for me to say it first before he repeats it though. Until this morning...
We were sitting in the car waiting for Jordan to finish therapy when he came up behind my seat and leaned his head on my shoulder. He looked up at me and said "I wub woo."
Yep, even though there are some bad days... this parenting thing ain't all bad. *Sigh*
It has been a while since I've shared some of the scrapbook pages I've done. So I figured I would add a few here. If you click on them, they'll open up in a new window and you can see more details and read the descriptions.
This layout is of Jordan's 4th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I know, I got the age wrong in this photo, but it's already been fixed. (Thank you Michelle! LOL) Created with the July Mosh Posh kit! It's a little brighter than I'm used to, but I love how it turned out.
Do you ever feel like life is all about waiting for something? Waiting for your paycheck… Waiting for people to do what you need them to do… Waiting for your children to behave? It can’t just be me! I have been dealing with problems with my minivan, and let me tell you that a dealership is not where you want to be if you don’t like waiting. More on that later…
I have to update my pictures first! On Tuesday I was really busy, and almost forgot to take my photo of the day. At the last possible minute, (eleven at night) I took this photo of my purse. I was very thrilled to get to carry a small semi-fashionable purse once Brandon got a bit older. Of course it’s green, my favorite color!
This photo isn’t a photo of the day, but it’s one I had to share anyway. You know how I am always saying my kids are crazy? Well, if you didn’t believe it before… here is some evidence for you. Jordan dumped all of her toys out of her storage box. Then she got her stuffed Dory from the Finding Nemo movie, and pulled the storage box over her head. She then informed me that she was going to live forever in her aquarium. Uh… okay honey!
On Wednesday, I tried to put the kids in the van to go to the library. We were bored and had cabin fever because it had rained for four days straight. We got in the van and started out, then it began to rain. I turned the windshield wipers on and they would NOT work. Again. I high tailed it to the dealership and gave them a piece of my mind.
I informed them that if I got in a wreck because they wouldn’t fix the wipers that I would “sue the pants off of them and own part of Dodge”. Yes, I lost my temper. I’m not proud, but that lit a fire under their butts, and they agreed to order the part. Keep in mind that it was my fourth trip to complain about the wipers not working. The first three times, they could find nothing wrong with them. Thank goodness they had a play room where I could contain my children in reasonable peace. (For the dealership, not for me.)
Here’s Brandon reclining on one of the bean bags in the play room. Right after I took this picture I was informed that the part wouldn’t be in until Friday. I was NOT a happy camper. Then he told me that hitting the steering column would probably make the wipers kick on. Umm yeah. I’m going to punch my steering column to make the wipers come on. I pay how much a month for this van?! Thank you Dodge! Have I mentioned my next car will be a foreign car? No? LOL We drove home in the rain, but made it safely.
On Thursday I did it again. I almost forgot to take my photo of the day. I have been very distracted lately. I snapped a photo of Brandon laying in Ronnie’s lap. He was trying to go to sleep, but I got a quick photo. I’m glad I did. It shows how quickly he’s growing. Even though he’s super tall, (check out how his legs go up the back of the recliner) he still loves his cuddles. This one was really heavily edited with a Coffeeshop and a Defog action.
Brandon and Jordan have been getting along so much better lately. It’s practically a miracle. Of course to make up for it, Alexis and Jordan have been fighting like cats and dogs but that’s another post. LOL I caught the two little kids snuggling with their teddy bears together in Brandon’s bed on Friday morning. I couldn’t resist having it as my photo of the day.
My wipers were finally fixed after ANOTHER visit to the Dodge dealership on Friday. I didn’t even have to yell. I did have to pay $108 dollars for my deductible on my extended warranty. I had never heard of such a thing. Ronnie swears it’s standard procedure, but I don’t think so. I think he was willing to pay whatever they asked just to know we would be safe to drive. He was even more upset about the situation than I was.
To continue the Brandon show, I have today’s photo. While everyone else was napping he came in my room with me and laid in my bed to “read”. Basically, he looks through the pages and names what he sees. He kept telling me about the “bear” and the “squares” in his Winnie the Pooh book. I am so relieved that he is talking more. He is no where near where he needs to be yet, but he is picking up words and phrases at a rapid rate. His favorite new saying is “Dang, Yo!” He got that from his Daddy, and his Daddy got it from a Jay and Silent Bob movie. LOL
Since this has turned into the longest blog post ever I’ll say goodnight!
