Sledding fun! What a wonderful weekend we had, Friday was a snow day and the kids didn't have school, gets wild around here but I didn't have to leave the house the entire day and I love that. I did also get lots of work done on Carter's baby book, I have pictures on almost all of the pre-done LO's from my Cammando friends! It looks so cool, I absolutely love it.
Then on Saturday the kids and I spent the day with Nana, first visiting Grandma Mary (great coffee and treats), then running some errands. Got a new carseat for Carter, he can sit on his own now and is just getting way to heavy for the infant carrier. We bumped into my friend Judy with her little guy, they were getting two year pictures. Its amazing how fast your own kids grow, but some how other peoples kids grow even faster. Really it feels like Austin was born just the other day and now he's two!
Sunday was the really fun day, we got to spend the entire day with daddy! We went out to breakfast, love that no cooking or cleaning for me! Then headed to the archery club where Jeff had to shoot a league score, but then it was K and Linds turn. They both love to shoot and they also love the attention from dad. I think Carter liked watching it all too, as soon as he can walk on his own he'll have a bow in his hands. Next off to a late lunch early dinner at Culver's (I was craving a cheese burger, LOL), again no cooking or cleaning for me, can't get any better! Here's where the pictures come in, we got home bundled up and headed to "killer" hill! So who do you all think had the most fun??? Carter and I stayed out long enough to get some good pics to scrap, then headed back to the van to snuggle where it was warm. We were out until dark, what a great day.

Did a LO for a technique class I am teaching using the HS Masks. Felt good to just do a page, thinking that my mojo is within reach.

It's 4 am and I'm bloggin!

Get this the babe is sound asleep and I'm not! Not sure why, well no I know why I can't sleep but I won't bore you will the trivial stuff of my silly life. Oh wait that's what this blog is all about the silly trivial stuff, imagine that.

But anyway...

Exciting news to share CKU and blogging buddie Christine opened up an online scrapping store! Check her out at Tallyscrapper, I added the link at the right too. I did a little surfing there yesterday and it looks so cool. She has a message board and gallery and these things called tally points and flowers not sure what that's about cuz I didn't get much time to play, but knowing Christine it will be awesome.

Gotta get myself motivated to get organized for the days Scrapmania, I can't wait to see the gals and well I haven't been all that jazzed about scrappin. I have tons of stuff I want and need to do just no mojo. I think it will make me happy just to sit and watch others scrap and chat. But I really should bring a couple things to work on right??? And yes Julie I will be bringing the QK Revolution with my new Blossom font! I may even let you play with it!

So what else can I gab about, well K's conference went well. We got to meet his reading teacher and she's ok. He seems to be making progress and they are going to do some more screening just to rule out learning disabilities and stuff like that. He is far enough behind in reading that he will now do reading group twice a day. My only problem with this is him getting behind with the other classroom stuff. They have a rule that if they don't get their classroom assignments done they don't got out for recess. Now for the child that is messing around and just causing problems I don't have a problem with the policy. Makes kids realize they need to do their work in a timely manor just like the real world, but for K is it fair that he misses recess almost daily because he is out of the class for a full hour everyday??? The good thing is he doesn't seem to mind. I have never once heard him complain about missing recess, in fact if his teacher hadn't told me about the policy I would have never know that he misses so many. Both teachers said he is a delightful little guy, very kind and very well behaved. So at least I'm doing something right.

I think I will head into the scrap land now and pick out some things for tonight.

Freakin out today, we have teacher conferences tonight and well Kaleb is struggling and I am not really fond of the way that our school teaches things or of some of the rules they have. I do however love his teacher so that is why this is so hard. I keep second guessing myself. See K did Kindergarten twice and now I am thinking that I should have had him do two years of first grade instead. They just learn or need to learn so much more for first grade. Why is that??? I was reading the paper the other day and there was an article with questions and answers for four people running for mayor. Of course schools are always a big issue, well question was how do we find more funding or something along those lines. The last answer from a, in my opinion, freaky candidate really struck me as interesting. He stated something about why are we spending so much $$ for computer edu on elementary students when we should be teaching them the basics so they have mastered that first. Yes I do think knowing computers is important, but does it really help my 5 yr old to know more than me??? What has happened to the basics??? Some of the homework K brings home I don't even understand and well I should be able to understand first grade homework. Ok I am ranting and well I just wish sometimes I had the patience to homeschool.

Linds on the other hand is the easy one, she is already doing everything that K is and understanding it all too. She I think will florish in the public school environment, that is if she doesn't end up to much of a socialite. this all makes me wonder what Carter will be like???

I think I will just enjoy Carter the way he is and try and keep him the baby for as long as I can. No need to push him to grow. Although all of this ranting could be coming from the fact that I haven't gotten a good nights sleep in three weeks. Carter had shots at the begining of the month and since then we are up 5 to 10 times a night. Not sure what to do we have tried it all or I have that is. Just hoping that he out grows what ever is going on and soon.

I am way looking forward to scrappin this weekend, doing the Archivers scrapmania Friday night with Shannon, Katie and Julie. Haven't done one of these before so not sure what to expect but with the girls I know we will have a great time no matter what. Then Katie, Julie and I are spending the night at the Hilton next door. Does anyone know if they have a hot tub??? I really should check out the web site.

Then, one month old.

Now, four months old!





















Look at Carter now! Wow has he grown, it goes by way to fast. Last night he was starting to sit up all on his own, before I know it he will be crawling and then I will be crying as I take him in for his first day of Kindergarten.

Speaking of Kindergarten, Linds celebrated the 100th day a couple weeks ago, that means that half the year is done. I so can't beleive it, summer will be here so quickly. That is one thing I am looking forward to. This horrible cold weather has got to go, although I am quick to say thank heavens that we did not get the snow that the states south and east of us have had. Those poor souls out in NY, I can't even begin to imagine what I would do if the snow was as high as our house. The kids however think that is the coolest thing they have ever seen.

So did everyone out there have a nice Valentine's? It was a good one at our house, the day seemed much quieter than Tuesday. Tuesday was of course, being the deadline queen that I am, when I finally got going on the kids Valentines for their classmates. 40 handmade valentines in a day is that a record??? We also had to bake and decorate cookies for each class, I was bummed I didn't get to my favorite baked goods store in time and they did not have any heart shaped cutout cookies left. I settled for round ones. They turned out alright, we frosted and sprinkled and then I drew hearts with red frosting on top. We got rave reviews from K's teacher, so they must have been ok. Then after the cookies were done and the kids were in bed I realized we were also down for cheese and crackers for Linds' room. Off to the grocery store I went and got that done too.

Yep valentine's was nice at our house, Jeff brought flowers, he always does and I always love them. Then get this we actually sat down at the table and ate dinner together! Completely crazy I know!

Happy February!

We are living quite the un-eventful life lately and hey my pictures haven't turned into red "x"'s so I don't really have anything to complain about.

I have to laugh at myself because we waited for so long for real winter weather to show it's face and now we are suffering through only a few weeks of nasty-ness and I can't wait for summer's heat. How many others out there feeling like that. The kids had fun with the whole groundhog thing and I am guessing that in our neck of the woods where six more weeks of winter was predicted that will most definately come true. At least with these sub zero temps it feels like winter won't let go anytime soon. Enough about the weather!

Baby Carter was baptised this past Sunday, all went wonderfully. No screaming or crying from any child in the Johnston group was heard. I hadn't been to church in so long it felt weird and good to be there. I need to re-evaluate my thoughts about the whole church thing. See dh doesn't mind it, but really does not have the time to come with on Sundays. Me I have the time and really should be going with kids but I want to do this as a family and not prolong the tradition of it's the mom's job to take the kids to church and dad can just do whatever he wants. What sort of example does that set with the kids???

Alright so I am sitting here trying to think of other interesting things to type up and well there isn't anything else. It's wacky wednesday and I need to put a load of laundry in and find something to eat for lunch. But I think I will pop my head in at two peas and see if there are any interesting threads today.

I am really not liking blogger lately. What's the deal with the big red "X", oh how I hate that! Looks like it all works fine and then check it and you've got the "X". Was it a total mistake to use the "new" blogger???

Oh well, I am going to try one more time to post the pics from my other post last thursday, I think there may have been a few of ya interested and well I just want to make it work.

Everyday random-ness...

So first picture is Kaleb's Star Board, now what do I do with it??? It is very simple but I really love how it turned out and I can't bring myself to take it apart. Love the "cut" and corner rounded photos, these were already cropped from my CM days. I just don't seem to even like the corner rounder anymore, maybe it will get used again some day...

Last night Jeff was out of the shop early and wanted some cuddle time with the kids, amazing that all four of them fit in the recliner, I am thinking that in the next few months we may have to upgrade furniture so that everyone fits a little more comfortably. I should start searching the internet for oversized recliners.

Last pictures are the first snow shots with the new camera, I have been dying to get some snow shots but my hatred of the cold keeps me inside. These shots are before last weekends snowfall of which I am kicking myself that I didn't get my butt outside and shoot while the big flakes were falling, maybe we will get snow again. Really I would rather that it not snow, but if it does I will force myself to step outside and take pics. Kaleb's big thing is sliding down on his knees, thanking God for the knee re-inforced snow pants, maybe they will make it to next year. I got the shot of him in the air purely by accident, didn't even know it was there until I downloaded.

Nothing exciting going on this week, well today is Jeff's b-day. Of course he has archery league tonight and then tomorrow he is busy in the shop so if or when we celebrate is a mystery to me. I think Linds and I are going to make him a cake when she gets home from school. That will most likely be the extent of celebration, but I know he doesn't care either way. It really is much more fun to make a big deal of the kids birthdays and just sort of roll past ours.

I hear someone calling me, later all!

Friday Nights

This is what the weekends are all about at our house. Sleeping bags on the living room floor and a good movie on TV. Tonight we are watching Madagascar, well Linds and I are watching, Kaleb has already fallen asleep. I think he had a very big week being star and all. Today when I picked the kids up he started telling me about his friends book. Turns out all the kids in class write a note to Kaleb and he got to bring them all home today. They were adorable, some kids wrote about how they like to play with K, and how they liked making the bookmarks with me, and a few seem to think K is a very fast runner. All the notes made me want to cry and smile at the same time. Now I just have to think of a fun way to add them to a scrap book. Reading something like that has got to be even cooler when your an adult.

It's been a busy day for me too, glad that the weekend is here. So anyone know if shoveling is equal to an aerobic workout??? I got up at 5 this morning to shovel sidewalks. See two of our neighbors contract with us for snow removal. Jeff has the whole plow thing on the four wheeler, easy for him to go up and down the street. Not so easy when he isn't here. It snowed yesterday, ok we did not get feet of snow only 2 inches at most, but enough that sidewalks had to be done. My back doesn't hurt so much, but I am glad that there is no more predictions of snow until after Jeff is back. Maybe I should have him teach me how to work the plow... No I really don't want to know. Then it was drop kids off at school and then check out the new Super WM. Today was the grand opening of our new WM, it's cool I guess, well if you like WM that is. I only shop there because I can't run to Madison every time I need dish soap or toilet paper. I went this morn for laundry soap. They had the UW marching band there this afternoon and there are all sorts of happenings through the weekend. The kids are dying to go maybe we will venture back tomorrow.

Next it was on to the LSS, played with the Revolution and did some thinking about my classes coming up next month. I so need to get projects done for my classes, but the insperation hasn't quite hit. Taught a scrapping 101 that was fun and the page we put together turned out very nice. And I even started a page for myself, not done but thinking I might scrap more tomorrow.

Is 8:30 PM to early for an adult to go to bed???

Bad days...

Ever have those days when you feel like you should have just stayed in bed? Well yesterday started out that way, got a little better and then yucky at the end. And now today I am feeling icky all over again.

I think that I have spread myself a bit thin and it is all catching up with me. Kaleb is "Star" student at school. Friday night at my scrap group a friend asked me what that meant. My reply, a whole lotta work for mom! Where did I get the obsessive need to over acheive? Why does every thing I do need to be over the top? I seriously think I need counseling. Oh yeah and dh left for Atlanta this morning, that may have added to the stress level a bit. He's going for an archery trade show and this is the first time in nine years that I haven't gone along. I said I couldn't leave Carter and that it would be fine if we take him. Jeff didnt' agree. So here I sit knowing that I will miss him, but also enjoying the fact that he is gone.

So back to the Star student thing, I made a giant "scrap" page for Kaleb to take to school Monday, used the new QK Revolution to make big letters to spell his name. Love that thing! And today I went into his class and we all made bookmarks. I think the kids had a good time, it turned my additude around for the day. Oh and there was this one little guy who was just intriged by my QK (I let them punch their initial), that made me feel so good. Jeff went in on Monday and brought a bunch of archery stuff, sounded like the kids enjoyed that also. Tomorrow I am having lunch with K (always an adventure), and Friday I am just sending treats. I am glad the week is half way through. Linds is a little bummed that K is getting so much extra attention, but I remind her that she will be a star next year.

I am working at the LSS friday, I even get to do a Scrap 101, very excited about that. Always fun to share the scrap bug with new people.

Ok we're trying this again. Hope they show up...

Here are the pictures of the new crib. I think that Carter likes it!

Crazy day today

Tonight is my scrap group and it's my turn to hostess, got lots of food to buy and prep. Ok maybe not lots, I am doing a taco bar. So just gotta get the meat going and chop up all the rest, that is after I hit the grocery store.

This week has gone by so fast, I can't believe its friday already. Why is it that time moves like the wind the older you get and the older your kids get???

So this past Sunday I decided to venture down to the Super WM, of which I do every now and again and normally I come home with nothing. They never seem to have what we need. Well this time around I did spend some dollars. Carter got a crib! I really wanted to keep him in the bassinet, but he is just getting too long. So Monday night Kaleb, Linds and I did assembly. It took about an hour to get the first drawer together, then it went a little better. But I was very proud Monday night when I had it all up and could put Carter down for the night in his new bed. Who needs a man!!! Ok so Jeff was really busy in the archery shop, I am sure he would have loved to help, but I didn't want to wait. I think I will be scrapping the assembly and fished project tonight.

Yesterday I got to work at the LSS, had a blast. My SIL Joette voluteered to watch after Carter and my other extra guy, so I was there alone for over 3 hours. Weird feeling being alone, but I did get some stuff accomplished. Of course not enough of the things I would have liked to got done but that is what always happens.

Carter Pictures from Tuesday

Hello out there!

So I have totally gotten out of the habit of updating this thing. I think that the 30 min I spend on the treadmill took over blog time. If only there were more hours in the day...

Anyone wondering what's been happening around here? Well whether you want to know or not I am going to type it. The holidays were good, kids got lots of stuff, my house got way smaller. I got a suprise gift from DH, Vixen QK! Every now and again he does something so sweet, and I remember why I love him so.

New year's was pretty blah, no partying or staying up all night. In fact the only one who wanted to be up was little Carter. The stinker was fighting with a cold and did not want to sleep. We did evenutally zonk out around 11:30.

If any of my local pals are checking this out (well even non-locals) you want to check out the Memories blog. I am organizing a weekend crop in February that is going to be totally fabulous! I have already convinced Julie and Katie to come down, love it!

Let's see what else, Carter is getting bigger by the minute. I can hardly believe he is 3 months old already. Yesterday we spent the day running around and the first thing on our list was photos. He did so great! We went to Portrait Innovations, I love this place. We got way to many pics, but it was just too hard to choose. I will have to post my favs.

All the teachers at school today said we must be in for a big snow, the kids have been crazy. Weather man says it may happen, we shall see. It is weird to think that it's almost the middle of January and we have no snow. Today it was a little colder than it has been, still warm for January and I just keep thinking if "real" January weather ever does show up I won't know what to do. I would like to see some snow, haven't had a chance to use the new camera for snowy pics.

Enough nonsence for today, gotta figure out what to do for dinner...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Hope that the holidays bring everyone lots of fun with family and friends. So far that is what we have been up to and will continue to do for a few more days. 

Our Fabulous Float!
 

My boy the scrapper! Kaleb has been bugging me for way to long about making a new page for his frame that sits on his dresser. Well last night we printed some 4-wheeler pictures, searched for the paper and stickers, found them and then K got busy scrapping. He even trimmed the pictures all by himself with my big trimmer. He was so proud. Couldn't wait to show daddy, unfortunately for K Jeff was gone to archery league and wouldn't be back until after bedtime. K was so funny this morning, he kept asking when he could show daddy. Finally I let him wake Jeff up to show off his creation. There must be a scrappin and gene and it runs rampant at my house!

Busy day today, had an invite to produce. That's what I get for working at the LSS, someone comes in and needs something and well I feel like I just have to do it all myself. Ok so really this was a super easy project, and I had fun. Finished that and now I am getting stuff ready for float creation. Dodgeville's holiday parade is Sat night and the LSS has a float. I voluteered Jeff and his trailer, so nice of me! So here's what we have to do, create a monster (6 ft x 6 ft) page, well a page with no pictures, so I guess you could call it a card front too. I have a great idea in my head and I hope that it works out. Besides our page/car we will also have three christmas trees and a 4 ft inflatable penquin (thanks Chris). I think our float will be fabulous. Just hoping the weather warms up a bit. Bitterly cold today, it was only 2 outside when I dropped the kids off at school. Gotta love that.