A Bekah Funny

Bekah cracks me up. She has her daddy's gift of linguistics, and already at two she's learning how to put words together in unique ways. Some of it is just being two, but seeing how much she thinks like Josh, I think it's something that will just increase in time.

Like, for example, the following story:

Creative Projects

Today's been a bit of a rough day so far. That's putting it mildly, but my outlook is enough better now that I just look back at the morning and am glad it's over.

anyways, I had a couple pictures to upload this morning.

Hudson climbed in there himself (it's his change table). He loves it, until he realizes he can't get back out. (linked to my digichick gallery)

And a fun little box I made. I'm not exactly sure what I'll use it for yet, but it's sooo cute and I'm sure it will make the perfect package for someone soon :D


Kelleigh's templates are awesome! I was never ready to try hybrid projects until she started selling her templates at TDC. And the awesome thing?? She has them all set up so you could use normal scrapbooking paper from the store and use her templates. So if you aren't a digital scrapper but still love her creations, you can do it that way :D

Kissable Hudson

Tonight starts the World Series. I guess I'm a post-season fair-weather friend: I only watch when the Yankees are in! I washed both of my jerseys so I can appropriately cheer on my team. Can't wait!
I just posted a layout I did last week, but had to wait until this morning to post. I love how it came out!

Credits: Papers and elements from ViVa Artistry's Organic Baby (at thedigichick.com)
Alpha from Mari Koegelenberg's Luvbug (at thedigichick.com)
arrows from Studio mgl's 365 International Edition, take 2
font: CK Easy Goin'

For any digiscrappers who read, there's a HUGE file full of Xs in all sizes and colors that you can download to play along with my challenge!

Three Cuties

Seriously, could they be any cuter??

I honestly don't think so.

50 things I love; 50 things I hate

I made layouts for things I love and hate...um, I won't tell you how long ago I finished them *blush*. But I'm finally getting them uploaded! I'll list what each page says, since it's unreadable at this size.

(these are alphabetized so I could be sure I wasn't duplicating!) Air1 ~ baby toes ~ Beatles ~ Beethoven ~ blue ~ cheesecake ~ chocolate ~ Christmas ~ clarinets ~ coconut-taro boba ~ coffee ~ culture study ~ daisies ~ dancing ~ digiscrapping ~ family ~ finishing ~ fresh starts ~ garlic ~ getting a second chance ~ ham ~ happy endings ~ hats ~ Istanbul ~ Jane Austen novels ~ Jesus ~ jigsaw puzzles ~ Josh ~ Kermit ~ languages ~ lists ~ lolcats ~ music of the 60s ~ newborn baby heads ~ Newsboys ~ Nikon ~ seeing God's hand in things ~ sleeping in ~ snow crab ~ spinach ~ taking pictures ~ Target ~ TDC ~ thunderstorms ~ TobyMac ~ transparency ~ travel ~ Turkish food ~ Wegmans ~ Winnie-the-Pooh ~ Yankees


"Char" ~ arrogance ~ babies crying ~ bad sports ~ being cold ~ being late ~ being treated like an idiot ~ bridges ~ clutter ~ Comic Sans ~ commercials ~ disloyalty ~ Dora ~ drama ~ Elmo ~ failing ~ feeling stupid ~ Fox baseball Commentators ~ goopy pens ~ Halloween ~ heights ~ immaturity ~ intentional rudeness ~ lies ~ liver ~ migraines ~ misused apostrophes ~ mosquito bites ~ MSG ~ nagging ~ nausea ~ negativity ~ orange pop ~ peppers ~ potty humor ~ public bathrooms ~ pushiness ~ putting away laundry ~ Red Sox ~ saxophones ~ scary stories ~ snow ~ spam (the food OR the emails) ~ spiders ~ spoilers ~ swearing ~ the color orange ~ warm milk ~ whining ~ winter

What a day

Today's just one of those days.
Hudson is getting more mobile, which means he is much more aware of my absence. Which means he howls if he realizes I'm not in the room. Which means I'm not getting much accomplished. Which means the house looks like a bomb went off and there's not much I can do about it.

But that doesn't mean I want to be frustrated. I know his needs come first. So to cheer myself up, I'm going to list all the things I have done today. Maybe things aren't finished anywhere, but I have done things. Important, albeit little, things.

Today (not necessarily in this order) I have:

• gotten the entire family out of the house at 8 for an 8:30 doctor's appointment
• nursed Hudson
• run the dishwasher
• washed all but one of the handwash dishes
• sorted a pile of clean socks
• put away the towels and Hudson's clothes
• nursed Hudson to sleep
• "made" lunch (reheated leftovers)
• got a shower (I remember the days when that wasn't a thing to take for granted)
• put dirty clothes in the back hamper
• folded about 12 pieces of clothes on the girls' floor (they'll help by putting it away later, but I figured I'd get a head start on my part of the job. Don't ask why it's on the floor.)
• put away the stack of DVDs and videos on the armoire
• nursed Hudson
• cleared off the dining room table
• read books to the girls
• put all the boots back in their bin and in the back room

Not too bad for a day when I "can't get anything accomplished!" :)

Window Clings

The girls and I made a fun project this afternoon. Super quick and easy, and so adorable! We'll have to do it again closer to Christmas! You can read about it on this blog, or read my less-illustrated tutorial:

I took this adorable kit and put all the pictures on two sheets of paper. Sent them to Josh, who printed them on the laser printer (otherwise, you need to photocopy things. Inkjet printers won't work for this). He brought them home at lunch :)

I took the papers and put clear contact paper over them, then cut around the individual shapes (leaving a little around the edges because I like that look and it's a TON easier!).

Then the girls helped me put each piece under water and peel the paper off of the contact paper. The colors will stay but the paper comes off.

And we all hung them up on the window! There's still enough stickiness that they stay put, but they'll come back down easily when it's time to make Christmas ones.

Autumn

I would really enjoy autumn here if only it didn't get followed by long, cold, snowy winter.

I Dig a Pony

(title is a Beatles song, in case you don't know it. I kept getting it in my head whenever I looked toward the pony)
Today we went to the same farm that we discovered last year. It was as good as I'd remembered. The feel of a family farm (and the family was full of well-behaved, polite children) without having to, you know, live and work on a farm the rest of the year! The girls rode the pony:

We visited the other animals, our favorite being the goat named Jasmine (can't figure out why she was our favorite, though!)

We went on a hayride pulled by two horses. Last year they took us around the farm, over to the pumpkin patch, where we picked our own pumpkins. But it's been too wet, so we took a ride down the street and back. Not quite as exciting but still fun!


Then back to the farm for cider and to pick out pumpkins from the ones they'd brought in from the fields.

Jasmine had to intersperse everything we did with a run through the straw maze in one of the barns (no pictures of that!) It was the thing she remembered most clearly from last year and definitely her favorite thing again this year!
Bekah decided she was done after awhile and asked Josh if we could "go to our home now." So we put her in the wagon and let her rest for a minute while Jasmine ran through the maze one more time.
We did a little more before we went home (Bekah got her second wind) and she got a chance to do what became her favorite thing today: "the spinny fing." (the antique corn grinder they got to try)
I got a picture of Jasmine that we're calling "What are we going to do with her when she's a teen?" We think a burqa is in order.

Initiative

I made a scrapbook page this morning about Bekah's newest phrase.



The journaling is a little hard to read. It says:
Bekah was very easy to potty-train. One of her difficulties, though, was that she would tell me she had to go and then wait for me to put down Hudson (and/or the computer) to go in. So I told her she needed to take initiative. Just for fun, I had her try to say it. If you've never heard a two-year old say *take initiative* you've really missed out.
Unfortunately (?), now, instead of telling me she needs to go potty, she tells me *I need to take initiative."* It works for me, but it could confuse our families when they're playing with her and I'm not around to translate! I wonder if I should un-teach her?? Nah.

This is a kit by the amazing Fee Jardine. She used to sell at TDC, and I fell in love with her style back then. So when I joined her creative team last year, it was a dream come true for me! Now, even though I don't scrap as often as I was for awhile (since I've been focusing on photography more), I'm always thrilled when she puts out a new kit. She has a fan for life!

Look at those EYES!

Hudson has killer eyes. And I think he knows it!

Constructive Criticism

I have so many pictures I'm almost happy with, but feel like could be better. So I was really excited to hear about I Love Faces' Constructive Criticism Day!

Here's what I started with:
And here's what I did with it:

I'm not happy about the drainpipe going through her head, but I'm not sure how much can be done about that. My biggest struggle at this moment is skin tone. I'd love suggestions on how to make that better! Any other suggestions on how to make this picture shine are MORE than welcome! :D

Thanks!

Details: Nikon D70s, f/1.8 1/4000sec ISO 200 50mm, edited using Adobe Camera RAW and PSCS3

Mobility

Hudson is on his way to full-fledged mobility. He likes to get up on his hands and knees and rock. Tonight he started the motions for actual crawling, lifting up one hand and putting it down, and then doing the same with the other.
I'm filled with mixed emotions. I love watching them learn new skills. It's so cute watching them start to crawl. But that means he's leaving behind a stage of development, and it also means it's time to seriously baby-proof the house. Neither of which I'm quite so ready for.
So for now I'll just enjoy the partial mobility and how that looks right now:

(in case it's not clear, he backed himself under this toy. I don't usually put him underneath his toy!)