oh happy day

this pic summarizes the day:



Kris' dad was able to come over for the afternoon. they finished putting all the shingles on the roof. {sort of hard to see....look close...they have the biggest grins on their faces}

this was as close of a shot of the roof i could get. i do not like heights. and they had that ladder....like a ladder. could they not have put it at any kind of angle? i still wouldn't have gotten on the roof...but maybe i could have photographed the shingles. because you would want to see them. no. oh. really? you're right. probably better in person. if you are driving down the back alley? what?! you don't want to hang out for awhile? we only have a portion of our yard as a hazard...

fine. more news...

the garage is now lockable and waterprooof.

can't wait for the siding to go on. white is such an interesting color.....NOT! oh well. it does act as a great light reflector. and with the cloudy days we've been having....not a bad alternative!

i am REALLY hoping our pile of concrete, junk dirt and other junk will be gone in the next week. we're hoping to dispose of it, then get some dirt. and some sod. and somewhere along the way some solid advice on how or even what to do when we go about repairing our lawn situation. that should be fun.

THEN.....the fence will be up. and that will make me happy.

even happier than this!

Kris' mom came along with the dad package today. the kids got a great deal. and so did i!! Kiara tried to escape her nap and get in on the deal....she missed the afternoon "gamma" time, but got plenty on either end of it! Aidan thoroughly wore her out. i think the three of them should sleep quite nicely. oh and i'm sure Kris and his dad will also be joining that group. for the first time i am the one with the energy. and no i did not take any migraine meds!!

i took the kids to a nearby park. it was SO FUN!! this one is quite safe. i used to take Aidan here a lot before Kiara came along. they spent about half an hour running up the stairs and racing down the slides. this was one of those trouble-free trips. it was SO GOOD that i wondered if all the stress and frustrations of the week were just my imagination....yeah, it was that good of a day!

i did get several useable photos. what does this photo remind you of?

the famous Kate Winslet pose from "Titanic"? that's what it reminds me of. i guess you could say that this is the prairie version....

just Aidan having a good time.

ahhhh. great memories.

i just finished this album. you can see all of the pages here. it was a stinkin' amount of work! but the kids love pointing at themselves and the rest of us.

the photos are just of us. taken from this spring. you may just remember seeing some of them here!

so happy it was a good day.

getting ready for

spring!!!!!

Aidan is outside wearing his rubber boots and mittens and shoveling snow and mud into a cardboard box. apparently it is a rescue heroes mission. very important stuff.

this morning both kids wore their spring coats and rubber boots. yay!

Kiara was not pleased with her cute little pink boots that i found at Old Navy last year for $1.99.


these are her friend, Christopher's boots. not pink. (this is where Chris breathes a sigh of relief!)

she put them on all by herself.

sigh.

maybe she will start to like her cute little pink ones...

because how often can a mother find cute ones at an amazing price?!

i spent yesterday on the computer (no, not all day) looking at photos for Kiara's next baby page. and today i'll need to do some more photoshopping. good word.

i do actually (well....some of the time) plan ahead and sketch out the sizes of photos i want. inevitably i can never find the sketch when i actually put the page together. yes it would make sense to have a little book - or something! - to keep all the sketches. but that is too easy.

i have a few envelopes of developed photos that are duplicates or just left-overs from pages and projects. sometimes i will put a page together using some of these. so handy when i just want to do a page and try something without pressure of it fitting any theme. if that statement makes any sense! i came across some photos of my nephew, Malachi last night. (he is in the photos from blog pages in February.) he is now a 2 year old.

i especially love this photo. i was about as pregnant with Kiara as Malachi was weeks old. it was also the same time that i had some complications and wondered if i may miscarry her. thankfully all went well after that and Malachi and Kiara have met and played and fought and found trouble together... so cool since i didn't realize that all this would happen at the time this photo was taken.

this is a sneak peak of the next project i'm planning.

this morning we made magnets (or coasters) with stone tile, rubber stamps, staz-on ink and chalks. so simple. and they look awesome. and now i realize i forgot to take a photo of the masterpieces.

snow days

are still here....

Kiara is not always liking the snow....it gets in her boots, gloves and heaven forbid if she should land on her backside and get a cold bum! and other times she seems to enjoy the cold stuff. i remember Aidan not liking snow at this age either. but now is a different story with him. he actually doesn't mind playing outside---even by himself.

he has helped shovel the snow on occasion. one day we came home from somewhere and he was totally cranky. not an unusual scenario. i sent him back outside (watching him from the kitchen window!) and listening to his tirade. after about 10 minutes of standing out there feeling sorry for himself he grabbed his shovel and cleared the snow off the back deck. when i figured the steam had been vented i asked if he was ready to come back inside. his reply? "in a few minutes, mom. i'm going to finish this first." and he did! and he did an amazing job.

hopefully Kiara will be more willing to join in the fun next winter. that itself should be interesting! did someone say snow fights?

just before winter began (ironically) basic grey came out with a line of festive and wintery patterned paper i loved. well i love most of their stuff (not all, but close!) at nearly the same time i had taken a class by Cari to make a transparent album. it was so much fun and between the class and the paper....i was inspired! and i've been adding to the "winter album" file for a few months. the only problem was the photos. lots of challenges to find the right weather, right lighting and happy children all at the same time. well it all finally came together and here it is!

go here to see the pages in detail.

as often is the case with me, i see things i'd have done differently. so i guess i'll have to put together another one! hopefully i'll find the right paper to start the inspiration to create. as if that is a problem!

so a couple of busy days for us here. took Aidan to gymnastics today and Kiara tagged along. i will have to put her in her own class in the spring. she loves it as well. and she tries to do lots of the stuff the "big kids" are doing. amazingly she accomplishes alot of the routines. he has the best coach this time. i liked the last coach, but this one is amazing with the kids.

Aidan has his valentine party tomorrow at playschool. he wrote his name on 21 valentine cards this week. he was so proud! probably not as proud as i am though. he wants Christmas to come back....so that there can be lights on houses again. i'm sure it has nothing to do with the presents... i think Valentines and Easter might help him get over missing Christmas. chocolate treats seem to be top of the fun list right now.

grandma sent both kids a valentine with a tim horton money card. Aidan was happy to order and pay for his own timbits yesterday. so Kiara gets to buy next time. it's so cute to see those little chests puff out when they get to do something and have nearly full control.

now if the blue bullet slide at wem would be open again...Aidan's little life would be complete!

i just remembered a cute story. Aidan loves stickers. he had some out yesterday. and then he was asking me where Jesus went, because he had a sticker for him. okay. had he seen Jesus recently? what was Jesus doing? what did he look like? well....the Jesus he was talking about was a figurine from the nativity scene. and it wasn't the baby. it was the dad. who actually looks more like the pictures most kids know to be Jesus. now isn't that interesting and cute at the same time?! it is moments like that when i am in awe of this stage of life.

and thanks to everyone who likes this blog. so glad. keep coming back and bring your friends!

cool project

acrylic albums are amazing. i'm still waiting to take the photos of the winter/snow one i made. hopefully soon!
i was blogging this morning and came across a new blog called fire and ice. the two gals both design for prima. they have a RAK for a project called 'build-a-book'. check it out. and enter your name in their contest.

playing

at Gymboree and celebrating Olivers' birthday

this place is awesome. everyone has a good time. even the mother of the birthday kid! no clean-up, only open to invited guests and hosted by a party person....where do i sign up?!

we had a blast and Aidan kept asking when we were going back. Kiara can't communicate that effectively yet, but i think she wanted to know the same thing.

it wasn't great lighting for photos, and the kids kept moving so it was tough for a beginner like me to get shots that didn't have a blurred figure running across the page.

Kiara LOVES to climb...this was heaven for her. she could climb anything and everything and no one told her to stop (until the cake and food came out!) i was impressed when i taught her how to climb down a ladder backwards and then she tried it on her own...successfully!

she adored Mr. M and is smiling as he helps her rock the see-saw. she stayed until she remembered that there was climbing to be done.

as i mentioned before, there was a party person leading games and activities. the theme was trains. can't you tell that the kids are being trains here? yeah. actually i think this was just the free play part. they had lots of time for that too. that was great....free time....game.....free time.....song.....free time....game......free time.....food.....free time......bubbles!

those are the neatest bubbles. they are tiny and a multitude come out each time. i gotta get me one of those....of course Aidan tried to catch them in his mouth. a little mix up with snowflakes here! Kiara was simply mesmerized. yes perhaps bubbles is needed at our house. but it can't just be any bubbles...

i also have great news on the personal side. i had a huge chunk of time yesterday to make a mini-album. perhaps there will be time (and good lighting) to take some pictures of it tomorrow so that i can post it. i bought an acrylic album last fall that i wanted to use to make a winter/snow themed album. and have steadily been buying paper and other goodies for it in the last couple of months. i like how it came out. as usual i see some things i already want to do differently! so next time i decide on a theme album, i will definitely consider doing another acrylic/transparent album to showcase the special pictures. i used glitter as a huge part of the embellishments. so messy....tough for someone like me with OCD tendencies! lol! you'll have to let me know what you think.