Hot fun in the summer sun!

We made it through another hectic week, I really thought that getting through dance recital would mean smooth sailing, but it didn't. But anyways... So dance recital went wonderfully, Lindsay did a fabulous job and I think that the whole class did a great job, better than some of the older kid groups. I am a little biased! I am actually excited to get the DVD, being a stage mom you don't get to see any of the other dances and there were some I really wanted to see. I am glad that we have the summer off and no dancing until fall.

So for Father's day we spent the day without dad. Jeff had an archery tournament to get to and well it was his day so let him do what he wants. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on baby shower invites. I had told my SIL (who's having twins) that I would do the invites, but didn't think it would be last minute thing, it was. Oh well I got them taken care of and even had a little fun inbetween cutting, stamping and sticking. We made it to Library hour wednesday at the park, that was interesting. I had an extra little one and well the babes were good but it would have been better if the show would have been the 45 mins it was supposed to be and not the hour 10 it ended up at. We saw all kinds of wild animals, from a huge earth worm thing to a tiny creature related to a bear and even a python. The big kids had fun and that is what it is all about! Then Wednesday night was concert at the park, great band, great music and lots of fun. I had brought my camera, but left it in the van didn't really know if I wanted to take pictures or not. Ended up kicking myself for leaving it. All of the little girls, Linds included, were at the front of the stage dancing and playing together they were so cute. Oh well!

Thursday we hit the pool, always good. And Friday I worked. Friday was Kaleb's birthday, can you believe I have an 8 year old son??? I cannot! I just know that I will blink again and he will be 18! So the first picture is K's present a skateboard, this is what he has been asking for since Christmas. He likes it a lot and is pretty good for someone who has never touched a board before. I of course brought up the fact that I dated a guy who skateboarded (like 20 years ago), but I know nothing of how to ride the thing. Jeff was gone early for Badger State Games archery round, so we will see what pointers daddy has. I think I heard him say he had a skateboard when he was younger???

Today we hit the road and ended up in Spring Green for a craft fair and then onto the farm market/petting zoo. They've got tons of fun stuff for the kids to do from swings to monkey bars to a bike race track, we had a blast. Came home with some heaven on earth strawberries, so so good! It is so terribly hard to get a picture of my three children together one running here the other running there! but I did get a good one of Carter and the goats, love it!

The craziness has started! Someone get me outta here!

Poor little Carter had to come along to yet another "girly" thing. And he didn't seem to mind so much, at the end he was getting a little squirrely so I let him play with the cell phone (off of course). He just looked so cute I had to snap a couple shots. Can't wait to use them on a page...

Back to the craziness, it's dance recital time! Linds is in three dances this year, she is a Strawberry Shortcake, an Aristocat and gets to dance in the Finale with all the big girls! They were just adorable yesterday and they did an amazing job too. It was stage lesson day where they run through their dances in costume a few times and Miss Betty (the head of the school) can decide on what looks good and what doesn't. The lessons went good and there are only a few things that need to be taken care of before the full dress rehearsal tomorrow. I am just in love with the last picture, it's just all the girls running to get in the right place and I love how they look all wild. This has been a really good year for dance and I am actually excited for the recital. Not sure how excited Linds is, our schedule is sort of shot to heck, today she told me she didn't want to do it. I am wondering if she may feel nervous. I hope the fun and excitement of tomorrow cures that.

Look at these FABULOUS ladies!

So every summer for the last few years my mom (far left) has hosted a "Girls Day in the Country" for her "city" friends. I think that I may have just shown up once and that sort of got me into the group. Now these women have been friends for almost as long as I have been alive. It really is amazing to just sit and listen to the stories they have to share, be it reminiscing, or talking about all the concerns of today. Last year I was pg with Carter, so this year we had to come and show him off. I nominated him as "boy toy" for the day! I had a great day and Linds had fun "helping" papa too. Enjoy the pictures ladies, these two were my favorites. Just pop me an email if you want a copy for yourself.

The other boys in my house spent the day working on the hunting land, I saw them briefly when I got home, not sure why they even came home. They were here and then they were gone again. They had spraying to do??? I sure hope the deer appreciate all that they are doing. Kaleb has a blast driving his four wheeler around.

Oh other exciting news about Kaleb, he got his very first win at an archery tournament the other weekend! We got results in the mail yesterday and boy was he excited. I was excited and bummed at the same time, we were going to go with the boys to that shoot and I could have had pictures, but the weather was iffy and I didn't want to take Carter so we stayed home! I am now kicking myself! I think what I will do is take a picture of K with the results letter to scrap and even scrap the letter itself.

Toads, monkeys, and bugs oh my...

So life is running a little bit crazy, but we are sailing along. Yesterday K caught this toad, we kept it in a big box with some dirt and leaves but today I made him let it go. We may see it again. This was the second time the toad ended up in K's hands...

Linds picnic was today also, it was great this year. The weather was perfect, kinda cool but when the sun poked out of the clouds unbelievable. they do hot dogs on the grill and chips and cookies. Nothing spectacular, but the kids love having all their families come and play for an afternoon. I caught a few shots of Linds being a "monkey", I have to laugh because the other day she came home and tells me her hands hurt. she has blisters from the monkey bars. I told her to stay off them for a few days, her reply but I just can't mom! So tomorrow is the last day of school, wow this year has gone by so fast. I am not ready for Linds to not be a kindergartener, she getting to big to fast. I am excited for summer, we have plans for concerts, library fun at the park and lots of pool time.

I finished up the teacher gifts tonight, got them gift cards for M's, and then decorated gift card boxes. I like how they turned out. I think I got a little burst of creativity from a surprise run in with Katie. Katie you always give me insperation, just seeing me makes the wheels turn in my head. Had to stop at Scrapbook Superstore to check out new QK's and as I am browsing I hear a voice saying I know Nicole is here. I am starting to wonder if Katie and I spend way to much time at that LSS... oh well!

Off to post my boxes on Tallyscrapper, good night all!

So we went to the Zoo on Thursday...

It was Lindsay's Kindergarten field trip, this make three trips to the Zoo with school for me in three years! I think I could have done the info program myself, but it was fun still. Before leaving school we were certain that it was going to rain on us, but God was on our side and not a drop fell. It was dark and cool for the most part, but that is what I would rather have than sweating in the sun. We visited the animals with two of Lindsay's dance class friends. Three little blond girls, think there might be trouble in the future??? The girls were wild, I think we took no more than 5 seconds at each animal, hence the lack of photos. I guess I'm happy with what I got and that is all you can ask for. Linds said her favorite animal was the flamigo. Other than that I think they had the best time at the park.

Today has been a bit of a bummer, it was the county dairy breakfast this morning and well the rain had to come sometime. It was pouring when we got to the farm and the planned parking "lot" was not something cars should park in when wet and muddy, so we were instructed to park on the street and then walk the 1.5 miles to the farm. Yes I do have a tendency to exagerate, but really it was that far. In the rain with a baby, this was not something Jeff wanted to do, so back to Dodgeville and Country Kitchen breakfast for us. I don't really think the kids were all that dissapointed, but I was. I love the dairy breakfast, first the food is fabulous and they have so much fun stuff to check out and play with. I guess there's always next year...

I think I am off to check the radar, the rain stopped and I would love to get out for a little walk. Jeff has both K and Linds and well I am just sort of relaxing with baby Carter. I should be cleaning out the craft/office room but I have tomorrow.

More pictures from the Holiday weekend, ok these were all taken yesterday...

First one is Carters first ride on the four-wheeler, I asked Jeff if he liked it and Jeff's reply was I think so.
Picture two is Jeff and his dad playing bean bag, anyone else out there have this backyard game??? Not really sure if it's a new thing or an old thing made "trendy" again. I do know one thing the Johnston family is way competitive, but in a good way, most of the time. They love to do game stuff. When Jeff and I first started dating, 15 yrs ago, YIKES! We were all still young enough that volleyball was the thing. all the kids and the significant others would meet at the Johnston's for volleyball, beer, and bonfires almost every weekend. Those were the days... But I love the picture, can you say like father like son! Hillarious!
Picture three is Linds with cousin Brittany petting one of Brittany's horses,
And picture four is the races! Kaleb likes to race daddy, it was K's day to win. He got the best of three from Jeff. He loves that four-wheeler. I practically had to threaten him just to get a short ride on it.

We had a fabulous weekend, hope everyone else did too! These pictures are from Saturday, we finally got around to a visit with Aunt Judy. It has been way to long, but sometimes life just gets in the way. Linds, Carter and I headed off to Hartland for the day (the big boys did archery stuff), we had a wonderful lunch and beautiful time just lounging and gossiping outside. Mike even took Linds and Austin (that would be the adorable guy in the blue hat) to the park while us girls and Carter chatted. Then after Carter had, had enough outside time, he is so silly he likes being outside but he will not crawl in the grass, so after a while he gets fussy cuz he really wants to move around. Anyway we took it inside and got to gossip more while Mike took Linds to the amazingly renovated rec room and let her go crazy with his drum.

Thanks for the hospitality Jud-a-bee (only I can call her that), we love you so much! In a perfect world we would be neighbors...

So is it wrong to eat shrimp cocktail for breakfast??? Ok so I am in a strange mood this morning, maybe lack of sleep... but anyway I am a seafood freak, love it! And this morning shrimp just seemed like the thing to eat.

It's been crazy this week, Monday has been the most quiet day and everyone knows what Mondays are like. Tuesday we had an extra baby. She is just a couple months younger than Carter and he was just intrigued by this little person. They got along quite well and their schedules messed perfect. The only tears I had all day were from Carter who was a little upset that Mommy was feeding someone else first. Yesterday we had parents day at Linds' dance class. Not sure if I had my camera set wrong or the fact that I was trying to take pictures and hold Carter that most of the shots came out blurry??? I think that I may be able to make a couple scrap worthy.

Today is an exciting day, a friend of mine had a baby this morning! Congrats to Mary and the new little one, hoping that I can stop and see them later tonight. She has been waiting as best as she could since the beginning of the month when she went in to be induced and they sent her home 48 hrs later without a baby. Not fun!

And tomorrow it's off to the LSS to work, I think we are getting into a schedule with working fridays. I bring baby carter with me and he just plays in the playpen all day. Last week when I was there I even got some work done, 4 double page spreads for a customer. We'll see what I can accomplish tomorrow. I do feel a little bad, I have had something going on each Friday I've worked so far and have been sneaking out. The boss knows so it's not like it's that bad, I just feel bad about it. And of course tomorrow Linds' class is going to the High School for their "Ag" fair. I've gone with Kaleb's class so Linds' wants me to go with her too. It is always fun, but again I have to sneak away from the store for an hour or so.

We've gone mobile!

Nothing is safe, especially the phone books that were on a low shelf in my kitchen. They are already missing a few pages from the back. It always amazes me what little people will go for. Carter seems to love the legos, goes right to the bucket and dumps it over. Then of course there is the shelf of kids books that Carter has pulled down on himself three times already, you'd think he'd learn...

Anyway the weather is fabulous today and as much as I would like to just waste the day away walking the town, I feel like scrappin. Got a great idea from Tallyscrapper and I really want to get working on it. Nothing else exciting has been happening this week, that is a really good thing. Tomorrow will be a little crazy, I am working and then Jeff is taking off for the weekend, big archery tournament in Indiana. Every year he hits this shoot and every year something happens and he comes just short of winning it all. Maybe this will be his year...

Kaleb is excited because he is going turkey hunting with grandpa on Saturday. I am not sure if he is more excited about the hunting or not having to go shopping with mommy and nana. It's probably the hunting.

Well another week is coming to a close and what a week it was!

We made it though the first of many "big" school projects. In first grade they have all the kids do reports on an endangered/threatened animal. Kaleb choose the grey wolf. And again being the freak that I am I went a little over board on helping. We were lucky to find tons of fabulous pictures and info on the net. Kaleb was hillarious when it finally came time to write the report. I was typing away while talking about what we were going to say and K keeps on telling me, "Mom after this sentence we can be done," to that I reply, "but we haven't explained this picture yet." We ended up with a full page of info for K to read to his class. He was so excited for his turn, he practiced three times the night before and twice the morning of. His teacher said he did a great job and that he really enjoyed this project. YEAH! I am so proud of him.

Friday I got my mojo back after being at the LSS all day. Cranked out three cards and then went to scrap night and put together a great spread for Carter's book, plus I have lots of ideas floating in my head.

Today we went back into Archivers for more make/take's. Created some really cute gifts for the mom's in our life. Can wait to see if they like them...

Right now I am avoiding cleaning up a huge mess, had to finish some projects when we got home and there are scraps and glitter everywhere. But hey the blog had to be updated, right??? I really would like to scrap one more page tonight, but again that means I really need to clean up the mess...

Better clean, all you moms out there have a beautiful day tomorrow!

Happy May!

Wow it really seems like it was just February, where are the days going???

So this last week was a good one, the weather was perfect. We walked home from school all week! That so gives my attitude a lift. Think we get to walk today too!

So Saturday was National Scrapbook Day, not really sure if that is a big deal or not. I ventured into Archiver's early Saturday morning with Janell and we did all the make/takes. Carter got to tag along with us too. He was pretty good. Got a little fussy during the second project, so I have some finish up work to do on that one. I have decided that I am totally addicted to chipboard. I see it and I need it! Picked up some swirls, flowers and letter chipboard. Only problem was that I didn't seem to have any ambition to scrap when I got home with my new goodies, infact they are still in the bag. Oh well this friday is our scrap group, that gives me the week to prepare and pick out the perfect LO for my new chipboard.

We also headed over to M's to check out the new Martha Stewart line. That was rather ho, hum. Nothing really new or exciting about it and rather pricey. They did have a really cute birthday party kit. Now that could make things a little eaiser for me this summer, that may be a future purchase.

This week Kaleb and I are working on a Gray Wolf report for school. Kaleb is to give his report on Thursday. We have found tons of really great photos on the internet and tonight we need to start putting them on posterboard and making his notes. He seems kinda excited about the whole thing so that is encouraging. Now to see if they will let me come and take pictures while he reports... us scrappers can take things a little overboard I know.

Very excited because starting this week I will be working Fridays at the LSS! Love that! It keeps me motivated and happy.

All is quiet...

for now at least everyone (kids I mean) is fast asleep and I have a little time to myself. I have been planning in my head for the last three days what I wanted to say for an update here and I figured I had better get it out.

We had a wonderful week, extra busy but good. I've got some new little ones for daycare so that is where the extra busy comes in. It worked out good last week, I had an extra body Monday, then different extra bodies Tuesday and Thursday. Then Friday it was just me and Carter. I decided that I needed some shopping time!

Carter and I headed out of town right after drop off of Linds and K. We hit Target first, boy oh boy do I feel like I got the deal of the century. Needed ink for my photo printer and they had packaged sets of all the inks with 150 sheets of 4x6 photo paper. Ok the deal is my printer takes 6 different inks, the black alone is $18, then the five colors are normally around $9 each, so that's like $60+ dollars right there. The packs I got were $35! OMG I felt like I was stealing and it was hard not to buy every pack off the shelf. So excited! Got a few other things at the Target but nothing else as good.
Next we hit Kohl's, I so needed a wardrobe pick me up. Got a couple new things, but I have decided that I must have some sort of odd body type cuz nothing seems to fit right. I should know better to not even try on things like shorts and pants, they never fit.
After that it was on to the Mall, and after a bottle for Carter and some hair care products. Any one with straight hair do's you must try Aveda's Smoothing Fluid love, love, love it! Then we hit my fav store, Gap! If I was only allowed to shop at one store I would pick the Gap every time, they have bottoms that fit me! Got new jeans, new crop pants, new jean capri's, and tried the new boyfriend pant (LOVE IT!). I was so giddy when I left nothing could go wrong for the rest of the day, oh yeah and nothing did!

Saturday we just hung out for the morning then K and Jeff went to an archery shoot and I got organized to scrap. Booked myself and a friend for Scrapbook Superstore's Crop Mania. That was fabulous, it was a totally last minute thing but TallyScrapper has me so motivated to scrap I just needed to go. Let Katie and Shannon know my plans and was way excited that Katie was able to join in. I so love scrapping with Katie, she is such an insperation, and of course I could just spend the night looking at her photos and be happy! If you want to see what I accomplished you'll just have to check my TS Gallery. We did miss ya Shannon, but Katie updated me on the latest gossip. Next big get together with all the girls and a new scrappin friend (Jen) will be in June, almost to long to wait.

Today we had a wonderful day too! Got up early and went out for breakfast, love that no cleaning for me! Then Jeff and K took off for another shoot. Kaleb is doing so good, one of these days I will join them with camera in tow so I can get some pictures to post and scrap. Me, Linds and Carter tried to get a few things done, laundry mostly. I am actually really excited to crawl into bed tonight. Hung the sheets outside! I am so not a hang things outside gal, way to much work for me. But every now and again when the weather is just perfect I do the sheets. I love the fresh smell. Then we headed to WM for all the things we forgot at Target (didn't have a list Friday). After Jeff and K got home we all went to the land that Jeff hunts on. The guys plant corn for the deer every year and leave it standing all winter. It is time to cut it down so they can plant this years crop. Jeff had one last field to do. While he was cutting I let the kids go loose in the stream that runs along the property. They had a blast as you probably guessed from the pictures above. It was such a perfect day, I only wish it was summer and the kids didn't have school tomorrow. I was just thinking the other day how back in August I couldn't wait to get then out of my hair and back in school. Now I can't wait until the last day so I can have them all day to play with.

Wow this has turned into a mini novel of an entry, thanks for reading

Time to get rid of these icky snow pictures! I think that spring is finally here to stay, today it is fabulous outside. I took baby Carter out to play with my camera, tell me what cha think.

Funny story to share...

Yesterday I get a call from Linds' teacher, seems there was an "incident" durring rest time. Lindsay put a rock up here nose. (Side note - Judy all I could think about was the corn story, LOL!!!) She says that "someone" told her to do it, I can't imagine that she would do this on her own, but the "someone" said they didn't tell her??? Anyway here's the really funny part, Linds with some help from the school nurse did get the rock out. Nurse Kari asks her what we learned from this, and what does my child say... "I learned that you have to blow really hard to get a rock out of your nose!" OMG!!! Oh yeah she had to bring the rock home with her too.

Alright gotta update ya on last weekends fun, I was scheduled to go to a scrapping retreat, but Carter had other plans for me. I did mange to spend 12+ hrs there Saturday, check out Blooming Escapes if you need a fabulous place to get some crafting done. I can't wait to go back and spend a full weekend. Even better I got four 12x12 pages done and a 9x9 for Carter's book. When you write it out it doesn't seem like much, but for me it is amazing!

So Carter is finally on the winning side of all the sickness, my gosh we have been dealing with one thing or another for the last four weeks, maybe he won't get sick again until he's a teenager. Knock on wood. He has even gotten a little better at sleeping the last few nights. It is amazing how good you can feel when you get 6 hrs of uninteruppted sleep.

This morning I was up and ready to go before 6 am! I decided to hit the Garage sales, did a few and then I remembered why I dont do Garage sales, to much work for nothing. Maybe we just don't have quality around here??? Who knows, but that will probably be the last garage sale morning for me. I was really wishing I could head to Madison for the farmer's market, but it's just too far.

Scenes from my back porch this morning...

Gotta love Wisconsin weather! Schools are closed today so it will be an even more wackier than normal Wednesday. They are saying that we may have up to 10 inches of snow! YUCK!!! Of course it the very wet sticky kind and the kids are dying to get out and play, think we'll wait until after lunch then I'll let 'em loose.

Worked at the LSS yesterday, taught a class using felt. That is an interesting medium to work with. We made big tags decorated with felt die cuts. I may try this on a scrap page or I may not. It was a lot of work to get my QK machine to work. Everyone like it, and I had 7 students. Which has been the most I've had in quite some time. New people too, so that's even better.

I'm hoping today that the kids keep each other busy and I can scrap a page or two. Gotta get my page done for the class I'm teaching next week. I'm going to use the new MM Grommet tool and grommets. If you've used it and have pages to show drop me a line or a link I would love to look at some examples. I could search two peas I'm just too lazy.