Productivity=Success

It has been a busy week. I keep meaning to get a blog entry done, but life has been a little uneventful. (Not complaing!) I have also lacked creativity. I think I used it all on my scrapbooks. They are finished!

Here are the links for the other two. There may be a few typing errors in them. I had not final edited them before I uploaded to Facebook but that is ok.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150510767802545.367879.502597544&type=3&l=b2fa9f9399

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150514406177545.368368.502597544&type=3&l=4f48091cf4

It feels good to have Eli's second year completed! I even got my personal calendar done which I usually have done before now.......I was a little behind!

This past week has gone from cold with snow to rain with warmth and I think it will be cold again the end of this week.

Don't mind the fact that the kids tore off the plastic on the window. They had great enjoyment with that! The weather change has not helped Eli. He can't catch a break. He has felt pretty yucky lately and has a terrible cough and yucky nose. Although as we speak he is taking a nap with no coughing.

He also has not been in the mood for pictures. So honestly, there are very few of him! He just I think wants to be left alone. He and I have spent a lot of time cuddling which I enjoy. There has however been a lot of exciting things for Lilliana this week. Her hair is so curly when wet. We have noticed if it is really dry and our house has been because of the heat it is straight but as soon as any moisture touches it it is curly! I took this after she got out of the bath.


Also notice Anthony's beard! It means he needs to go back to work! LOL He has been laid off so it means he does not have to shave. It was nice having him home but the kids and I are ready for our time again. He went to work today and will be there for the next couple days. Not sure if he that will continue next week or not.

Little Sister has reached a few milestones over the week also. She is really taking off with her walking. She uses her walker to get around a lot of  places.


I joke she is being a little old lady. It is interesting we start out in life using assistance to get around and sometimes at the end of life have to do the same.  With the walking around has also brought some braveness. She always stands and admires the stairs and looks up. She has not tried to climb until this weekend. Got to love our sweet retro carpet too! One day these will look different but it is going to have to wait some more time!


Eli has also been helping her walk. He loves to do this with her.


The biggest accompolishment for Little Miss is she is standing on her own for a few seconds. The first time she did it we missed it but I did get this picture as she sat down ever so balanced. She can do it but is scared.

We did get it on video yesterday though. Excuse my frantic yell of telling Anthony to get a picture. I was playing with her and did not realize he was videoing.

Here is another one of her and I playing Peek-A-Boo. She kept saying, "this" too. It is hard to hear but she was. I also got her to say, "no" at the end. She is saying, "book" now and she has a fisher price boy we have gotten her to say "boy" for.

Eli asked me to take a picture of him painting yesterday so that is the one real picture I have of him from the week. He painted for a good 45 minutes. He loves to mix the colors and it makes Anthony so mad. LOL I just laugh. I have realized he is going to do it so let him! This particular picture was a wall.

Both kids are playing so well together with each other. They have animals that make the entire alphabet with their name and those have been the coveted toys for the week. They play together for hours with them.


Today marks 17 weeks of being pregnant. It is hard to believe I am already 17 weeks!



Friday I have an appointment with my midwife. I will also make an appointment for my 20 week ultra sound that day. That is always exciting. I am close to halfway. It is really hard to believe.

All in all it has been a great week! I have gotten a lot accompolished this month that I have wanted. It feels good. Now I am working on kids birthday parties. I can't belive they will be 1 and 3!! It is hard to believe! More to come on those. I am off to fix dinner and make some cookies! The week is half over enjoy the rest of it.

Productivity

Anthony has been laid off last week and this week. Needless to say we have not killed each other yet. I say that completly joking. We tend to drive each other crazy when we are together too much. The kids and I have a schedule and Anthony being home makes things all out of whack so we get a little unorganized. Thankfully it has not been to bad. It actually has afforded me some extra sleep and the chance to get some much needed scrapbooking done.

I have credits for Storybooks that need to be used by January 24 or they expire.  I have four books to finish, each 20 pages. Normally I do not do the kids books that way but since at this point they are free I am doing Eli's second year in a total of 5 books. When I am finished with them his second year will be done. So far I have 2 completed. Here is one of the books and here is the other. I have gotten a lot of questions about what I use to do these so here is the information again. All my scrapbooks and pages are done with this program found Here. You can do a 30 day trial version to see if you really would like it. This is a link for that.   It is very worth the investment. If you want to know how I organize my 20,000 some pictures on my computer and keep them backed up so that nothing is lost...........Here is the program I use. For those dealing with JPEG files it is perfect and even holds video files. It is amazing and well worth the money.
If you have ever thought about scrapbooking and have not known where to start I challenge you to complete the Day2Day challenge. Here is more information. Whether you want to do it digitally or traditionally it is never to late to start. This is a great way to get going and learn. Hopefully my next blog entry will include the two more scrapbooks! I took today off and did not do any so that will be my goal.


This week has also brought a cranky Eli at times. He got in trouble a lot monday and I saw a lot of this attitude.



He did help Anthony fold clothes all on his own. It was really cute because he really wanted to learn how to fold them nicely. He is a big help and I was very proud of him.


Lilliana learned the art of making noise with the pan. We have always given them to her but she finally just went crazy and made a lot of noise.

She also finally learned how to get her horse to bounce and had so much fun doing it.


All our snow melted and it was supposed to snow again yesterday. Eli waited anxiously for it to arrive. He asked a lot. Instead he insisted on wearing his boots and playing in the rain.



He got his wish as this morning there was snow to shovel. He began asking to go out as soon as he woke up. He even had a new shovel from Aunt Tracy to use. He was very excited about it.


Today also marked Lilliana's 11 month milestone. Oh my little girl is not a baby anymore. She is getting so big. It is hard to believe next month she will be a year. Tomorrow I am taking pictures for her invitations. It will be simple and low key but still fun. When I got out the blanket, her onesie, and bow to do her pictures she knew what to do. I put her in her onesie and had the blanket ready. She crawled over and started posing. Of course I did not have my camera ready and it didn't last but I did get one shot. Then it went downhill from there. Needless to say the sticker did not stand a chance today.




Last but not least a little bragging on my part. Two of my pictures made it into Nick Kelsh's Radio picture show again. You can enjoy his show by clicking on the link and watching it. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150504493547545.367016.502597544&type=3#!/photo.php?v=3104910624398

Winter......

has finally graced us with cold and snow!

It is hard to believe my last post consisted of 50 degree weather and sun because the past two days we have had cold temps and SNOW!!!




It has even included perfectly formed snowflakes that stay that way when they drop on us.

I was not satisfied with this picture. I just needed to try something. So I pulled out my macro filters and had some fun. It was an experience and for never doing macro photography I feel pretty good. I still would love a macro lens but for now my $5.00 filters worked!



The kids of course enjoyed the snow!



The snow brought a cute little finch into our back porch. He finally got out but I took a couple pictures of him.



Lilliana has been a bit cranky this week. Her molars are really trying to make an appearance and are giving her grief. She has either been crying or just wanting to snuggle daddy or me.

She is not watching TV but about ready to fall asleep in this picture.

One thing I can count on to cheer her up is a bath. She loves taking a bath and I never have to ask Eli twice. They would live in the bath if I let them. Eli loves that his fingers get wrinkly and will only stay  in the bath until then. They usually only get one every other day,  but Eli will ask everyday.

They both like to splash. Eli is not usually allowed to because he gets carried away and the bathroom ends up swimming. Lilliana has now gotten to the point where she is going to have to stop also. She loves when it gets on her face.

I have also been organizing pictures all week. It has been on my list of stuff to do along with organizing digital content. When we got a new computer everything got all messed up. So that has been a chore. Now my pictures are all organized again and it feels great!!! The digital content is still a work in progress. This brings an advertisement on my part. I said I was doing a picture a day for this year. So far I have kept up with that. Here is my first scrapbooked page.




All my scrapbooks and pages are done with this program found here. It is also 25% off. It is very worth the investment. If you want to know how I organize my 20,000 some pictures on my computer and keep them backed up so that nothing is lost........... This is the program I use. For those dealing with JPEG files it is perfect and even holds video files. It is amazing and well worth the money. It is also on sale 25% off. All Creative Memories products are 25% off until the end of today. Take advantage!

If you have ever thought about scrapbooking and have not known where to start I challenge you to complete the Day2Day challenge. Here is more information. Whether you want to do it digitally or traditionally it is never to late to start. This is a great way to get going and learn.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Glorious Sunshine

Today brought us another wonderful day full of sunshine...........


This shot gave me a workout. I accompolished it while swinging and sticking my legs up in the air to get the sun behind them. I am sure I looked like a dork but I was determined. Plus, my abs had a burn after.

I took Eli to the park this morning. It was just too nice not to. He enjoyed it so much.


I enjoyed the fresh air also. The dogs are shedding a lot and our lilacs have buds. I think everything is mixed up from the weather, or we are just going to have a very mild winter. Eli tells me he would like snow though as does Anthony. I could take it or leave it. I am enjoying the wonderful sunshine. I do know we need it to get cold and some more moisture but it is so nice outside.

It also makes for much better photos so I really am not complaining.

One Fine Weekend

I would like to say come Friday night I was feeling a lot better, and I was. Then it hit about 7:00 that night. I felt ten times worse than I had in the 2 previous days. I went to bed and slept. It was a long night and I can't say I was comfortable. Saturday I woke up feeling much better. I did take a morning nap and that really seemed to help. Then we made our way to Detroit to see Anthony's brother.

It was a nice warm day. It may have been cloudy but it felt like a beautiful spring day. Sunlight would come through the clouds and it was beautiful.



Eli told us Uncle Steven was coming from the "Soldier House." I think that is just too cute! He also informed Anthony that he needed to go to the Soldier House.


We got to the airport and rode the moving sidwalks. Eli loved them.




Unfortunately Uncle Steven was not in uniform. They are not supposed to travel in uniforms anymore as they are targets. I was super bummed. So we did not get any reunion pictures because I saw him too late. That is ok though. Eli loved waiting for bags and stood like a little man with his hands in his pockets with the older boys just waiting.

Miss L loved that there was a lot of space to go if we would let her. She loved to just watch everybody.



We headed to eat after we met those that went for graduation and enjoyed some good food. I had one of the best salads I have had in a long time. I downloaded pictures and found these I am assuming Anthony took so here you have another one of our finest.............

We are so proud of Steven. He has changed physically and mentally but under it all is still Steven. He rode home with us. We were able to hear some of what he did for training. It was interesting. He has so many opportunities ahead of him and we can't wait to see where he goes.

We got home and two days of doing nothing spurred me into a cleaning spree. The kids went to bed and I cleaned the entire house. It felt good.

I still felt a little under the weather yesterday, but was much improved. The kids had a good day also. They wrestled a lot of the day together.

They both love to wrestle. They love it more when Dad is involved but with settle for each other.



I plan to get some more organizing done and things gone through this week. Hopefully we accompolish it.
I have some birthday planning to begin and a lot of scrapbooking to catch up on. It should be a nice calm relaxing week.

I leave you with a photo of Miss Goof! This is how she is every night after her bath. She cheers her brother on as he runs through the house back and forth in front of her. She giggles, claps, and screams. It is funny to watch and always makes me smile inside because these are the moments that make my day.