Serious Scrappin Sista

I have somehow managed in the last 7 days, to complete 12, count them, TWELVE scrapbook pages. I believe that this is a new record, but I could be wrong because there was the weekend of 08(it's a legend in my mind) when I got somewhere close to that completed, but I was all alone. This was all done during naps, early in the morning and late at night. All of this flurry of creative activity was the final push to get Ava's 1st year scrapbook done. This is the only scrapbook that our kids get all to themselves. As it indicates, it incorporates so many of their firsts as well as documenting what they were like at each month. After the first year, all of their amazing feats are incorporated into our family scrapbook. I really think this scrapbook is my best yet! I will have to say, if it wasn't for Creating Keepsakes, I'd be staring at a blank page a lot! It gives me a lot of inspiration to spring from. Without further adieu, I give you a flurry of scrapbook pages....

Random Ava moments

Ava constantly gives us something new to laugh at. She is a free spirit and has added so much to our family. Here are a few random things I took pictures of.

Here she is on the swing in the back yard. She thought it was too bright so she just laid under her jacket for a good ten minutes. I wonder what she was thinking about for those ten minutes that she couldn't see anything?

Her and Daddy having a sweet moment together.

Though she looks asleep, she isn't. She and her sissy entertained themselves the other day by taking every single toy that Ava owned and dumping it into her crib. She then wanted to pretend that she was sleeping in the mess. I think this could be a glimpse into the teenage years.

In other news, we are on day three of Ava keeping a dry diaper all day long. She tells me every time that she needs to pee pee! She only has a wet diaper after all night! Still hasn't gotten too keen on pooping in the potty, but I'm excited that she's all about peeing in the potty now!!! yeah!!!

Big girls

Elle got some makeup for Christmas that I'd been keeping "safe" in the top of my closet. The other day during Ava's nap time, we got it down finally and I let her do whatever she wanted. She was actually way more conservative with the makeup than I was! It was cute to watch her so carefully put lipstick on. I estimate that we each had around 7 layers of lipstick/gloss on our lips by the time we were done.

Valentine's Date

The MASH group got together last night for our monthly event. We all went to Pappasito's. I have never in my life witnessed such a crowd in a restaurant. I felt like a foreign tourist gawking at something that everyone else was oblivious to. I guess I sort of was a foreign tourist...we don't go out to nice restaurants at 6:30 on a weekend nite so this kind of crowd was new to me. Thankfully for us, one of the girls that is part of our congregation works at Pappasito's and made reservations for us! They don't do that on Valentines unless you have connections :) The food was wonderful; shrimp, lobster tail, the best beef and chicken fajitas anywhere, and chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert....yes please! After that, we headed to one of our couples houses to watch Fireproof. Here's my critique on it: I thought the story line was really good, and touching, and if you've been married for more than 5 years, or had a rough go from the start, this movie was quite truthful. The downside; other than Kurt Cameron and the actress who played his wife(it may be his real life wife?) it was pretty cruddy acting...think H.S. play-type acting and the cameras used to shoot the movie where pretty low-budget too. But again, the story line was touching, the fact that is openly discussed Jesus was wonderful, and the cleanness of the whole thing (no cussing or crude joking) made it totally great. It was a wonderfully redeeming story that made you feel good at the end. So, that's my 2 cents.

This was our 12th Valentine's to celebrate together!

What a fun bunch!

...and pretty rowdy too!

Love is on my Plate

Valentine's has been great so far. We started this morning with pink heart-shaped pancakes. At lunch the girls had heart shaped pb&j's and heart shaped strawberries and pink drinks. They loved all of it! We gave them little gifts and they have loved them. It's been a great day and it's going to get even better. Shawn and I are headed out with the MASH group for a group date tonite. We are going to Pappasitos and then headed to someone's home to watch the movie Fireproof. I am excited to watch that movie...and I'm bringing Kleenex. Happy V Day!

What's keeping me from Blogging

Well, I have taken on a few more scrapbooks this year than normal and that has taken quite a bit of my time. Besides doing our regular family scrapbook (which I'm up to August 08 in) and Ava's 1st year scrapbook (which I'm at 9 months with) I'm also doing a 52 foods scrapbook. As I've said before, we are trying a new food each week and then scrapbooking about it. Here's a few pages I've done so far. They are all going to follow basically the same template, with different paper on each.

I've also started a 365 scrapbook. I am taking one picture each day capturing either the minute or the grand in our daily lives. I journal a small card each day telling something about that day. This scrapbook wouldn't have taken me so long if I had been able to buy the kit, but it was so popular that the site I tried to order it from crashed within seconds of offering the kit, so not many people had a fair chance to get it. So, being crafty, I made my own kit. I love it much more than what was offered but it has taken a huge amount of hours to get it together. It will be worth it though...I might be my favorite scrapbook ever. I love that I get to use my photography skills on still life as well as family. Anyways, that's why the blogging has slowed down...and the fact that life just moves faster and faster the older your kids get!

Necessary?

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

I absolutely love that quote! It is what fuels most of my creativity. I have the artist ability to copy just about anything, but to really be creative usually comes when I don't have the money to buy it already made. So, with the recession we are in right now, I've been SUPER CREATIVE lately! We are headed to the library tomorrow morning for a big Valentine's party and everyone is suppose to bring goodies. Well, my first thought was to make something all Martha Stewarty but unfortunately for me, Martha doesn't have a budget. So, I started looking around the house. I remembered that at Halloween the girls got huge handfulls of dum dum suckers. Being the mean mom that I am, I wouldn't let them eat them almost ever so we had around 70 or so in a bag in the pantry. Then I started tinkering with my scrapbook stuff and this is what I came up with. I am proud to say that every single bit of it was something we already had! (and if you're grossed out because we got that candy for Halloween, get over it....dum dum's don't go bad.) So I used pink cardstock scraps, printed out the middle part from a quick design and then punched those out, stuck them to the lollipop and finished it off with green painters tape that I cut to look like a leaf. YEAH for free treats! Plus, I think they will be unique tomorrow so yippie!

Ava wants WHAT?