Knock, knock...Who's there?

It's Me!
I've been absent for a very long time, I don't even think I can call myself a blogger anymore. Now I am just an occasional visitor here. Life has been on fast forward and I don't think it is going to slow down any time soon.
I blinked twice and summer was gone. Where did it go? I have no idea. We were busy all summer long and time just got away from me.
Now we are back to school and that always makes me a tiny bit sad. I watched the boys head off to school and now Hannah started preschool and I am left with a couple mornings a week to do...I don't know. The idea of having time to myself is something that hasn't happened in quite a while.
On Tuesday I came home from getting everyone to school and preschool and the house was completely quiet. Not a sound, just me making noise to fill the quiet. I tried to catch up on a little bit of housework, and tried to scrapbook a bit...and there was that noise again, silence. I just couldn't concentrate and I finally had to get up and find some errands to run.
When it is all said and done, I miss my kiddos when they are not here. I'm completely not ready for Hannah to be gone during the day...that just means she is growing up. I just don't know if I am ready for everyone to grow up.
Until next time, which will be again soon, I promise.

Hello...back again!

Hi...it's me. It has been a while since I have updated. (I am a bad blogger.) The last month or so has been a busy one, with school winding down, dance practices and recital, football games and everyday life.
Here is a brief review of our month, in pictures of course...

a little of this...

a baby bunny or two...

making some music...

some more music...

throw in a school fun day...

and getting ready for a dance recital...

and you can see why we have been busy around here. I promise I will be back again and I will not wait a month to do it.
Thanks for checking in...until next time!

Determination

Okay, determination is a good thing. But is there such a thing as too determined? Why? you might ask. Well, there is a family of robins that frequent our yard. Here is one of them, we'll call him Mr. Robin.

Mr. Robin is trying to build a nest. He has been trying to build a nest for two weeks now. I am sure Mrs. Robin is getting ready to lay eggs and needs a place to lay the eggs, so Mr. Robin has been trying to get a nest ready.

Unfortunately, the place Mr. Robin has chosen to build a nest is the light outside the front door of our house. Call me crazy, but I just don't want a nest hanging on the light outside my front door. So, it has been a battle of wills the last couple of weeks. He starts a nest, I take it down. He starts again, I take it down again. Sometimes this happens four or five times a day. I thought the Robin family had given up and found a new place to build since I hadn't seen them for a couple of days. But guess who showed up this morning?

Yep, a very determined Mr. Robin and the start of yet another nest. Sorry Mr. Robin, but I took it down. I really hope they find another place to build.
Until next time...

An "interesting" new Easter treat?

I don't know how fast this will catch on anywhere else, but around here it is a new favorite. The kids call it an "Easter Nest". I call it interesting. Ingredients include: one shortbread, a LOT of chocolate sauce, some spray whipped cream, a marshmallow peep and some strawberries. Uh-huh, thats right, there is a lot going on there. I didn't try one myself, but Noah, Isaiah and Hannah gave them a thumbs up. By the way, I had nothing to do with creating this, um, treat. The kiddos did it all on their own.

Something new

This past weekend we tried something new...well, Noah did something new and we all watched. Sunday was his first day of flag football. (insert crowd cheering here.) Noah has played football at recess at school for the last couple of years and when he comes home it is all he can talk about. We decided that this year, maybe he should try it on an organized team. Me, being the somewhat cautious and protective mom thought that flag football might be the way to start, as there is no tackling involved, and so he began.
Sunday was not the nicest of days, it was a little overcast and windy. Oh, and throw in a couple sprinkles of rain for good measure. But we sat on the sidelines cheering on his team, the Eagles, nonetheless. It was a lot of fun,(a little cold)and I took lots of great pictures. So think of us when we are enjoying some football on Sunday afternoons!
Here are just a couple of pictures from the game. It looks like Noah had a great time!



Thanks for looking, until next time!

Random thoughts...

Hello all...just checking in. Not alot going today, it's been a pretty normal Wednesday. Kiddos got out of school early today, finished with homework quickly so we could go outside and enjoy the nice weather. Maybe spring is near and we will not get anymore surprises from Iowa winters.
Keep your fingers crossed for continued nice weather...it will get here one of these days.
I think that's all for now, I will be back soon with some scrapbooking goodness!
Until then...

On the Mend

Sorry for the absence for the last few days. We are slowly on the mend and getting back to feeling normal. Isaiah has had a tough time getting back on his feet. The first day we kind of took it easy and stayed close to home. When Isaiah gets a sinus infection, it tends to affect his asthma more than anything. He tends to breath a lot more through his mouth and then ends up coughing. I really feel bad for him, nights are tough for him. He is doing much better, and I am glad we caught it all in time before he got too far along.
Hannah has started feeling better much quicker. She was fortunate enough to just have a sinus infection and no ear infection. She has been wiped out in energy though. She must have felt under the weather, as she asked if she could stay home from dance on Thursday. Poor dear.
So, all in all, we are getting there slowing. We will be fine after a bit. Keep a good thought and we will continue to mend. Until later...

How could we be so lucky?

Or not. We just came off some wonderful weather, and now 3/5 of us are sick. Sinus infections and ear infections all around our house; number 2 and 3 and I are sick. Today we trooped to the doctor, waited for the pharmacy and enjoyed some mighty good Krispy Kreme doughnuts during the wait. (doughnuts are a great way to kill the wait time for meds from the pharmacy).
I think now we can recooperate and maybe feel like ourselves again. Keep your fingers crossed that the other 2/5 of the family don't get sick as well. Catch you later, I need some sleep!

Back to Real Life

Here we are, back at Monday, which for us means no more Spring Break. I have to say, it was a very enjoyable break this year. The weather was lovely, better than I could have ever imagined just coming out of an Iowa winter. The kids were able to play outside almost every day last week, so that helped our time go smoothly. Joe had the last couple of days off work, so we could all take in the St. Patrick's day parade together. Add in some bowling, some trips to the park, lots of roller skating and general fun, I think it was a good break.

And now we are back to real life; schedules and homework, and saxophone practicing, and dance lessons and school and stuff. Oh well, break was fun while it lasted.

Oh and on our last day of break, which also happened to be the first day of Spring, we decided to have a quick photo shoot in Valley Junction. I leave you with one of my favorite shots...

Until later, bye!

Some scrappy stuff!

I have had a few spare minutes to get some scrapbooking done...gasp! I feel like I sit down, move some paper around and get back up again, only to come back to my desk to scrapbook days later. So in honor of having a couple back to back minutes of scrapping, I decided to post a few pictures of pages recently completed. Mind you, these are not the ones I have been working on in the last couple of days, as those are still works in process, but at least these are done!


Journaling is the words from the Sidewalk Prophets song "These are the Words I Would Say". Everytime I hear it on the radio it reminds me of Noah and the things I hope for him as he gets older. (it also makes me cry every time. I am just a big softy.)
Products used include patterned paper, grungeboard and distress ink from Tim Holtz, and Bazzill cardstock.



It just seems like the time flies by and Isaiah is growing older by the minute. I wish I could just stop time so my kiddos could stay small!
Products used include patterned paper, grungboard and distress ink from Tim Holtz, brads by Making Memories and cardstock by Bazzill. I used my handy label maker for my journaling.

Journaling says that everything in Hannah's world is pink. If you ask her what her favorite flavor is, Hannah will tell you pink. There is lots of pink at our house, all belonging to Hannah. Products used include patterned paper by Making Memories, Basic Grey and October Afternoon, Prima flowers, Autumn Leaves flourish stamp, and Bazzill cardstock.

It is getting late...who am I kidding, it is really late. I must head off to bed so I am ready for another day of Spring Break! See you later...

Spring is near, finally!

It's official, the kiddos are on Spring Break! The weather here was beautiful on Friday, and our good fortune, no school! The kids spent a good part of the day outside, shooting hoops, and in general playing like they hadn't been outside in months. Oh wait, it has been winter in Iowa, so there is a little bit of truth in that. It was so nice to see everyone outside playing, together, laughing and having a good time. I think they were so glad to be out and enjoying the sunshine that they didn't mind spending all that time together. (teehee)!

More Spring Break to come this week, but I think it will all go smoothly, just knowing that warmer weather is just around the corner and Spring is finally near. I will leave now with a quick picture of my three kiddos enjoying their time outdoors. Catch you later!

I'm Back...

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. If I can manage to piece together two consecutive blog posts, who knows what I am capable of! haha!
Still working on learning how to post pictures and all that, but that will come. Thank goodness for wonderful tech support around here.
On an entirely different note, it snowed here last night. SNOWED. Not a lot, but enough to remind us all that it is, in fact still winter, and we are in Iowa and anything is possible in Iowa in March. I am tired of winter, I want spring. Now. ( said in my best toddler voice, with arms folded and stomping my foot.) Next week is Spring Break...we could use some nice weather so we can get out and enjoy the time off school. We will be keeping our fingers crossed.
Well, I think I hear a child stirring in their sleep...and talking. Must go and check on them.
Until next time... :)

Yikes!

Where has the time gone? I guess I haven't given my blog much attention, um, okay, any attention since I started it. You see it here first...I am going to increase my blogging.
Life is crazy around here, three kids running in three different directions everyday. It is a wonder I have a chance to catch my breath and get things done around here. (this might be a reason why the blog here has not been attended to in quite a while.) That's gonna change!
So since I am going to update much more often, I decided I would from time to time post some recent scrapbooking. ( I kind of like to do that, scrapbook, I mean.) However, I have to learn how to post pictures first. Insert incredibly helpful husband and crazy computer skills. Hey, I can type and I can scrapbook, but I don't claim to know much about computers. So it might be a couple of days, but I promise, crossing heart and all that jazz, that there will be pictures! So stay tuned...