I have a style!!!

I found descriptions of digi scrapping styles on a website the other day and I'm proud to say I'm a BLENDY! Basically this means I use odds & ends from lots of different kits to create very unique, sometimes super-cluttered pages. I started a poll on the right so you can tell me your scrapping style, too!

The house is straight, fall cleaning is done and I'm back in the saddle and doing LO's:



This is Aiden's first lick of an ice cream cone. I know every mom has a thousand messy ice cream pictures but these were so funny to us! Especially how he kept opening his mouth SO wide to let me know he wanted more. He's so expressive!

I wish I could say I had more interesting things going on but I don't. I "helped" Kelsey today decide which of her forty thousand gorgeous new pictures should go on her website and then stayed at her house because everyone kept dropping by. (Her house is the hang out place. Totally baby-proof and the twins will entertain ANY kiddo, even Aiden!) Random get-togethers are fun for us mommies!

No Scrapping, Just Housecleaning!

How boring am I? Not a single page scrapped in three days! That's okay, my house has come back together nicely and I'm doing some serious fall cleaning that is making the place look great. (Ever scrubbed all your baseboards? I did this week!)

Also today I have been filling bracelet orders not only for my webstie but also for Alisha Ashton's website, Small but Splendid. She sells GORGEOUS blessing gowns & outfits and now, my bracelets! I have to admit that I thought we would only get one or two orders a month from her site but this week, her sales are keeping pace with my site's! Way to go Alisha! What is really funny is how different the product sales are. Of COURSE the pink chocolate is the best-seller on both our sites right now. It always is in the fall. Oddly enough, Alisha is selling tons of the cotton candy swirl on her site while I continue to sell a completely random mix of other bracelets that seems to change every week. (Although the candy sprinkles bracelet and the purple bracelets are picking up!) It's been really nice to have the "trends" from both sites!

This month is zooming by. We leave in 10 days to go to my parent's place on the lake for Thanksgiving and I don't have a single gift wrapped. (We're doing Christmas at the same time.) When I get home I have to find a place to stash all the gifts because I'm hosting a lunch for our new mom's group the very next day and then the holiday kits will be out and I'll have pages to scrap. Then my sister is getting married December 14 and thank goodness it's here in Houston but that will be a Thursday-through-Sunday kind of deal and then we leave for Christmas with Brian's family in Oklahoma. CRAZY!

Oh, and somewtime after Christmas while it's still cold I simply MUST have Kelsey take our family pictures. The stuff she has been cranking out is magazine-worthy and STUNNING!!!

Holidays!!!

I love the holidays! Thanksgiving is next week and I'm actually looking forward to the trip - maybe because we're also doing Christmas at the same time? Mostly I enjoy seeing my siblings and my dad is always hilarious at the holidays. Aiden will have a lot of fun out at the lake and since my mom has been shopping for him since August, he's sure to make out like a bandit!

Unfortunately not all my Christmas shopping is done. I have a few more people to shop for and some jewelry gifts I need to get made....and very little time to do it in!

This weekend was fun for us. We had a birthday party yesterday and then we went to Babies R Us to pick up some new goodies and items to baby-proof the house. Brian has projects to do now and he loves it! I got just a touch of scrapping done, too. Here's the birthday girl:

This is Adalyn, one of Aiden's playmates. Diana threw an adorable hot pink party for her and Addy LOVED her cake! It was the cutest thing ever! I'm so greatful for my group of friends. I am so lucky to have so many other moms close by and Aiden is lucky to have so many children his age to enjoy being with!

Friday

Yesterday was a great day! I ran errands in the morning (the weather was gorgeous!), grocery shopped around noon, came home & unloaded everything, cleaned, had the carpet re-attached, cleaned some more and made our favorite salad for dinner. A very productive day! Unfortunately Brian caught some sort of stomach bug and went to bed at 8 something last night only to wake up around 11 throwing up. No fun for him. Or me - I didn't really get an evening break but luckily Aiden wasn't too bad and Brian took him all this morning so I could get a little extra sleep.

Any ways, while Brian was snoozing, I scrapped a couple pictures of him holding Aiden when he was just a few hours old:



I like how boyish but sweet this page looks. I used a bunch of different kits and everything mixed quite well.

We're off to a birthday party this afternoon!

Peeing Picasso

Aiden's mischevious personality is starting to show through. This afternoon I was busy dusting and putting decor items back when I noticed Aiden's diaper needed to be changed. I got his diaper off but like every 7 month old, the changing table is a battle trying to keep Aiden from flipping over and off. Sometimes I let him flip over towards the window and look out, which is exactly what I let him do while I wrapped his diaper & tossed it in the pail. Five seconds, right? I flipped him back over to find a big wet spot on the terry cloth cover and an even larger pool of pee on the wood dresser top! He must have leaked a full cup! I quickly dressed Aiden then placed him on the floor in the kitchen with a Gerber wagon wheel fruit puff to eat while I went back to get the pee-soaked cloth cover & his laundry to wash. I got everything in the washer pretty quick and looked over to see that he had army-crawled over by "Brian's Chair", which is up against the half wall in our kitchen, and was painting the wall with the soggy, wet gerber puff! What a handful!

No pictures of all of this but I did have to call Brian and laugh! I'm afraid we're going to have to touch-up paint Aiden's first masterpiece...

It is finished...

The crew finished grouting last night around 7 and it looks great! Here are some quick pictures:

Now there is just cleaning to do. Boy did the house get dusty and boy did I underestimate the time it would take to clean. Last night I started in the entry way, expecting to have everything wiped down in about 25 minutes. A little over an hour later I had barely worked my way into the front hall by the mirror. Every inch of the door moulding, door facing, base boards and light switch plates have to be wiped free of dust. It's so time consuming to get it as clean as I want! I rubbed my finger tips raw just doing that one small area. It's going to be a fun day, let me tell you...

To make matters worse Aiden has either been spoiled by attention from us over the last few days or he is uncharacteristically clingy today. Either way, he hasn't really quit fussing all morning since Brian left. I mopped him a clean place in the living room and laid down three thick floor blankets on top of each other to make a soft play area. I set him down with lots of toys and his learning puppy (which sings to him) and thought he would be content to play while I cleaned. NOPE! He wailed. He has to be right by me. Of all the days, I don't need this today!

Now he sees!

For just a moment today, after Aiden had been awoken from sleep too soon for the second time by the sound of the tile saw, Brian realized that maybe taking care of the baby all day really is an all-day thing. I will admit that circumstances were unusual and by this afternoon Aiden just needed his crib and some quiet but it wasn't coming. He wouldn't let us put him down so Brian and I spent the whole day passing him off to each other and rotating walks & errands out with him. I usually have one bad day like this every 7-10 days, because that's generally how often he is teething, completely refuses to nap or is sick!

My days aren't always quite this crazy but at least Brian has gotten to see why I am so scheduled about naps and why some days nothing visible gets done around the house. I wasn't kidding the other day when I simply told Brian, who asked what I had accomplished during the day, that I "prevented nuclear war". That little blondie of mine has a way of melting down and exploding faster than anything we dropped on Japan! I love him so much, Brian too, but I genuinely spend most of my days trying to keep him from screaming, trying to get some baby food in him and praying for a little free time in between when I can recharge my self and maybe do enough around the house to keep me out of trouble! There is always room for improvement, though, and I would like to be better about a few things.

Any ways, I did get another page scrapped this afternoon while there was no cleaning to do!



The tile is coming along quickly. They are almost done laying. The entry and part of the hallway need to be finished and it's ready to grout. We have been able to walk in the kitchen and living room tonight and see how the tile looks under our feet and around the house. I'm totally in love with it! Really, I don't think I could be happier. It looks so much like stone! The pattern is awesome, too. I haven't ever seen a staggered joint lay with 1/8 grout lines. It's very unique and adds a lot of personality to the house, which has begun to feel more formal as the floor has been laid. I'm so anxious to get the furniture back in and start living on it!

And Kelsey, thanks for the impromtu dinner party tonight! It really is fun to come over and hang out with friends. We owe you - Brian is going to make that famous chilli of his and we'll have everyone over! Did I mention we are baby-proofing when we move furniture back in? Hopefully the place will finally be ready for a ton of babies and we can relax and enjoy a nice meal!