Scrapbook Convention

The Scrapbook Mullet. I am still amazed by mullets.
Here is a fold out hanging thing - I think it's a great idea, but probably something I won't get to anytime soon. Like until my kids are grown with thier own kids.
This was the crazy chaos of the $1 booth - this was just some of the line to pay. People purchase scrapbook clothing to wear.
This girl not only had a scrapbook outfit on, but a matching tote to carry all her new scrapbook merchandise or perhaps her "make and takes".

I know not everyone has the opportunity to attend the annual Creating Keepsakes scrapbook convention like I did, so I thought I would post some pictures of this morning's highlights. I actually got in trouble from Judith (see last picture of "Stamps by Judith") for taking this picture. I think she thought I was photographing her stamps? I think the highlight was the Scrapbook Mullet. Or perhaps the sweet lady that was carrying around her twin newborns in Baby Bjorns - it really gave me the baby bug...and then I remembered that she won't be sleeping tonight. Or ever again.

Samuel and The Toilet

While removing my makeup last night before bed, I caught Samuel leaning on the back of the toilet and staring at me. I fetched my camera and these are what I took. The second one he is saying "One picture, Mama". He's so tired of me taking pictures of him.

The boys went to the naturopath yesterday and I learned a lot and would love to have him as our regular doctor. I found out that Jude is allergic to yeast, oat and peanut and Samuel is allergic to garbanzo beans - both boys were treated accordingly. However, I can't have any yeast in Jude's diet for 24 hours, then I can slowely reintroduce it. I went to the store to find some food for him and after reading many labels, I'm amazed at how much yeast is everywhere. Saltine crackers even have it! Jude has no allergies to dairy, so he recommended we start him on one cup of organic whole milk a day for calcium.

I am off to a convention downtown today. Doesn't that sound important? Don't laugh, but it's a scrapbooking convention. Yep, I said it. Colin wondered if I will be wearing some sort of kitty sweater with lots of flair on it. I am considering taking my camera just to photograph some of the crazy things that go on at this convention - women are throwing elbows to get the $1 embelishments.

Here's a question: how do you keep up on organizing your printed photos? I find that mine are sitting in a stack waiting to go into the photo album and I am always behind. Does anyone have a secret on how to keep up on printing and organzing photos quickly?

Raised Bed and More Random Thoughts

I have suddenly decided that I have to grow a garden this year - I find myself with my jaw to the floor in the grocery store from shock at the sky high prices. I was actually perusing Albertson's ad last night - since when is orange juice at $5 a SALE? We are trying to stick to a $400/month grocery budget (that includes Jude's food and we never eat out - so three meals a day at home for a month for four people). That's a hard budget to stick to when I 1) try to buy organic so as to not kill my family off with pesticides; and 2) cook most meals from scratch. Thus my need for a garden. So Joel stopped by last night to grab some pumpkin bread and helped out while Colin and Samuel built me a raised bed. Please excuse the horrible flash photography - it was dark out.

First random thought: who ever knew Country Living magazine has really beautiful decorating? My mom has been giving me her hand-me-down mags (she has many subscriptions) and I always dismissed it as a frumpy country bumpkin type magazine, but I love it and I'll say it - I think it's my style - GASP! It reminds me of a mix of Martha Stewart Living and Pottery Barn with a flare for French flea market finds and rod iron beds. I even saw a kitchen I hope to be my own. Which leads me to my next thought: I am starting to love the look of white subway tiles as a backsplash in a kitchen. I am a lover of bright colors, but I am picturing a bright white kitchen with black fixtures, black concrete countertops and white tile backsplash. I guess I would just pick one accent color to pop out here and there - an old antique piece of china here, a vase there, etc.

Another random thought: I'm taking my boys in to a naturepath today to get them tested for allergies and any bugs/bacteria that is in thier system. Something in me wants to convert completly natural, but usually health insurance doesn't allow that. Speaking of health insurance, Colin cut the tip of his finger off on Thursday while I was getting my hair done and found himself in the ER waiting for stitches. He didn't wait for one hour or even two. It took 6 1/2 hours to get treated and that was in Urgent Care - not the ER. Thank you, Kaiser. We are seriously considering changing insurances in the summer. Another bummer - Kaiser is starting to filter people through the ER (even for non-urgent matters) to make more money. What has happened to our health care system?

Both Boys at 10 Months

Here are pictures of Samuel and Jude, both at 10 months old. It's so fun to compare these two because they are so different! Jude is so serious and a bit antisocial - Samuel has always tried to be the social crowd pleaser. I would love to fast forward and see how they get along in thier teens. Nevermind, I am actually looking to give them away just from the ages of about 13-17. Any takers? Is it just me or do other parents fret over the teenage years? I am so good at borrowing tomorrows worries...

Beach - Post 2

Here's Jude sitting backward in a chair, sucking his thumb as always.
Samuel and Wes posing outside.
Jude played with this chair for an abnormal amount of time. There's a story behind these pj's he's wearing. I forgot his diaper bag when we went to the outlets, but knew we wouldn't be gone too long, so didn't think anything of it. Well, he had the worlds biggest blowout and let's just say that he found himself naked in a public restroom being wiped down with cold wet paper towels and being laughed at by every female walking by. We just bought these pajamas and threw them on for the rest of the day. Moral of the story: don't ever forget the diaper bag!

Beach Trip - 1st Post

Here is Erin giving Goat a backrub while they all watch some sports game on TV.
Grumpy Jude being held by Grandma Barb.
These boys were obsessed with these little airplane lollipops.

Colin held grumpy Jude when we first arrived in Lincoln City.
Here's my token landscape picture - we actually stayed on the bay, not the ocean. How cute is this?! Samuel and Wes hugged all weekend and right after this picture was taken, Wes pushed Samuel away and said "No more!".

Well, it was a beautiful weekend at the coast and everyone had a great time, be it in the hot tub, lounging in the beautiful beach house or shopping at the outlets. No one got much sleep - we stayed up playing games, having fondue, and generally relaxing. The bummer part was my sweet Samuel getting violently ill on the way home - as it turns out, Wes did too at the exact same time. Poor boys!

I'll be posting more pictures later, but for now, the Oscars are on!

Dracula??

Jude ate his first batch of blueberries for dessert last night and it looked pretty gory.

We are headed out this morning - so I'll probably be posting beach pictures on Sunday. Tanger Outlets, here I come!

This Morning

Nothing too exciting, just some pictures of how the boys started thier day this morning. I'd forgotten how much sweeping/mopping has to go on with a baby that's sitting and playing on the floor a lot. If I leave one small morsel of food on the floor, I will find it in Jude's mouth and that's just gross. I found him licking the bottom of Samuel's shoe this morning - tasty!

We are headed to Lincoln City for the weekend and I can't wait! Even though it's going to be terrible weather, I am going to try to take some pretty pictures of family members - I think it's Jude's first real trip to the beach.

Sweet Boys

Jude's Worm

Here's a series of shots from yesterday during Colin's "lunch break". He's been working days in a row at the fire station and yesterday, his one day off, he spent putting in window trim. The boys and I joined him outside and they spotted a worm. As you can see, Jude had more interest in the camera than what was in Papa's hand. A couple minutes later, however, Jude tried to eat the worm. Or the dirt. I'm not sure which.

Adventures to the Park

Samuel loves to keep Jude well fed - here he's handing him some Cheerios. What a good big brother! They really do have thier moments.
I asked Samuel to stand by the fire hydrant. This just cracks me up of Jude. Cranberry stained sweatshirt with his "Saturday" outfit on - meaning I didn't put the effort into putting cute clothes on him. And doesn't he look like Napoleon Dynamite?? Jude is so bored w/the paparazzi.

The boys and I were really running out of ways to entertain eachother (usually that means a lot of clinging and crying on me, driving me to near insanity) yesterday, so we walked in the park. I must admit, I heard from a friend that if you get your kids out in the cold air, they sleep better. Since it happened to be the perfect time of day to take pictures (or so I thought - the sun was still a little high and bright), I snapped some off.

I had a wonderful, child free outing downtown today to meet Tabs and Roseann for some girl time. It was so fabulous and our goal is to do it again next month. I really miss going downtown - the hustle and bustle and all the beautiful shops. It makes me really pine for New York. Perhaps in 18 years when I don't have to worry about leaving the little ones behind...

Ramblings About Literature

Have you ever found yourself wildly irritated with a protagonist, yet still like the story? I find myself in such a situation with "Eat, Pray, Love". It's a great story, but most, ok ALL, of the drama in her life is caused by her own decisions. It bothers me to no end, but I can't stop reading it. This book is part of a book exchange my three friends (Erin, Wisa and Nicole) and I did instead of giving Christmas gifts. I love the idea of reading other people's favorite books - it's as if you get to know them better somehow. Which leads me to another thought: what's your favorite book, either lately or of all time? I'll start - in college it was "House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende. I could not get enough of this Chilean author that focuses on magical realism. While I'm not a big fan of magic, she has an incredible prose that I have never encountered before. Now, I might say "Year of Wonders" or "The Things They Carried" because I have an odd fascination with stories involving impending death. I don't know why. Post your favorites - I love to hear what others are reading!

The Children's Museum

Eli and Samuel playing in the grocery store.

Some kids play with other kids, Samuel played with the pay phone. And stared at his handsome reflection.

Eli had a great time playing in the water area.

Colin pushed the boys in the parking lot.

We took a family trip and met Tami and the kids at the Children's Museum yesterday morning. As it turns out, Samuel was exhausted by 10:30 because he'd been up since 6 (I can't possibly get strong enough coffee lately). Needless to say, Samuel was clingy and moody and didn't have much fun. Oh well, we'll try again soon.

As a side note, my brother brought me a bag of Peete's coffee beans and I am amazed at how good they are! Has anyone tried their coffee? Because I may just be hooked...

Random Pictures of the Boys

This is Samuel's latest read - boys seem to love it and it does have really good art. Did I ever think I would read this to my kids??

Do you remember these bracelets? Samuel got this at the library story hour last night. Who knew story hour could be so cool? I was the only adult sitting with the kids...
Jude's hair has been a point of contention in our house. It's long and Colin wants to cut it, I love it long so I say leave it. But this picture makes it look like Flock of Seagulls hair or something. If you don't know what I'm referring to when I say "Flock of Seagulls hair", google it. You'll laugh.
Just a close up of Jude. If you blow up the picture, you'll notice he has popped his two bottom teeth through. Maybe he can actually chew all that grown up food I've been giving him...

It's been nice to have a down day around here. No construction noises and I actually accomplished something today! It feels like months since that has happened.

More Remodeling Pictures

Here are the new windows in our kitchen.
Colin and Goat installing our living room windows.
The two most annoying dogs (hands down) running while I threw the ball for them.
Here is the unedited picture of them.

My husband absolutely amazes me at the long hours he's been 1) putting in at work, and 2) putting into our house. Everything he's doing in this house makes it feel a bit more like home. His dad and brother have been over for a few days installing the windows and it's incredible what windows can do for how a room looks.

As a sidenote, someone random put a link to porn and some nasty viruses on the comment portion of one of my posts, so now I have to review every comment before it's posted. Ugh - I have a love/hate relationship with the internet. Has this happened to anyone else, or should I just be really creeped out?

Owen Opton

I finally had the chance to go meet Wisa's baby, Owen, and he is the sweetest, most compliant subject to photograph EVER! Although I struggle with a manual focus lens, so only a couple of photos came out clear.

Two Cowboys

Here's the boys from last night right before bedtime. They dug out the cowboy hats while playing with thier toys.

Miss Ruby Pants

I snapped pictures of Ruby earlier this week and I posted them once only to realize that I didn't completely burn out the background. I quickly pulled the post and hope I now have properly edited them. I feel like they look like JCPenney pictures (not my style) - I can't really figure out why. Feel free to let me know what you think. Also, the second picture is the unedited version of the third picture. Which do you like better - a real life background (who's kidding who? She was all over the place and really not wanting to stay on that black sheet!) or the burned out "fake" black background and super saturated color?