Cute conversations

On the way home from Grammie and Grampie's house tonight the kids were looking out the window and counting stars. I said something to Riley about how when you start counting stars it's hard because as you count more and more come out. He says...

"I count 4."

Ok...maybe it's not so hard. Then he asks Kieran how many he sees. Kieran says, "I saw a bunch when we turned the corner." Riley asks, "How many?"

Pause.

"42."

LOL! It was too cute. They were counting stars the whole way home.

It's no secret that Kieran is our pickiest eater. It's pretty much a family joke. Tonight the kids were eating supper (quickly so they could keep watching Spy Kids :)). Kieran was actually eating supper and Bridget keeps telling us all, "Kieran LIKES it. Kieran LIKES it!!" It was too funny :)

I wish I could just tape them all the time. They are just too cute.

On an unrelated note, perhaps I live under a rock, but how come no one told us how funny 'How I Met Your Mother' is?? We've been watching reruns and I'm hooked! Watching it now as I type :)

We've been having fun on vacation. With all the snow yesterday we spent a couple of hours outside building giant snowmen and snow forts, having snowball fights and sliding down our hill. Oz loved it too! I haven't cleaned the house much but we've been having lots of fun :)

Another big thing we did today was put the boys' bunk beds together! They've had them for awhile but we were waiting until, well, I guess until they were big enough that if Riley falls off the top bunk it's ok. Writing that, it seems wrong, because it's not REALLY ok if anyone falls off the top bunk and I certainly don't want him to fall off the top bunk. The instructions said the kid had to be 6 to sleep in the top bunk. Maybe they pushed some 5 year olds off the top and they broke limbs, but the 6 year olds were ok. I dunno. Whatever the instructions say must be right, right??? Anyway, they're in bed and no crashes yet. They both seem to love it. I told Kieran his was like the Batcave :) He said I could be Batgirl and he could be Robin. I think Riley has him programmed to be Robin. I told him he could be Batman in his own Batcave :)

Looking at our Christmas morning pics, there aren't any fabulous ones, lol. Mostly kids ripping into presents, the standard, you know.

Finally, I leave you with a warning...

Hands off the gingerbread house!! :) I think I should have set up these little guys BEFORE Daddy and the kids ate half the candy off it, lol!

Christmas 2010

Another Christmas has come and (almost) gone. Ah, all of that preparation for one fun-filled day of chaos, flying wrapping paper, woo-hoos, thank-yous, sugar highs. Now Kevin and I are watching the oh-so traditional Christmas movie, Transformers, lol! Guess CTV thought that was appropriate Christmas TV. That's ok, I can roll with that :)

I see that a lot of crazy people found the time in this busy day to post Christmas day pictures and videos to Facebook. I am so bad at uploading pictures, that I haven't yet done that, but I have a few cute ones from Christmas Eve and the lead up to Christmas.

A couple of funny quotes from today:

Bridget: "Bacon is SO yummy!"

Kieran: "Don't touch my herbivore!!" (regarding his Triceratops Dinosaur Train toy :)).

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day! We are heading to visit more family tomorrow and then going to a gathering with friends on Monday. Lots more celebrating to be had! Enjoy!

Riley after earning his white belt in Judo :) Very proud moment for him!

Pretty girl in a fancy dress.

You can dress her up...

Bridget on a chair trimming the tree. She had to find just the right branch :)

What? You don't wear your Nerf protective gear when trimming your tree? You just never know what might be lurking in those branches!

A sick little girl at her brother's preschool Christmas concert. I hate it when she's sick but LOVE it when she's snuggly. I was very emotionally torn that day :)

Kieran was apparently feeling just fine!

Santa took time out of his busy schedule to visit the preschool. I love not having to stand in line or pay outrageous prices for pictures with Santa!

Bridget woke up just in time for a picture with Santa. Literally she woke up and was pretty much thrown into his arms, lol. I did ask her first and she said she wanted to sit with him, but I honestly don't even think she was awake yet.

All dressed up and ready for church Christmas Eve. Oh, and note Riley's mohawk. He had been asking for one for awhile and he and Kevin were getting their hair cut Christmas eve and I thought, "why not?". Kevin thinks he looks like a punk but it's kinda cute. We'll probably shave it off when school starts up again after Christmas, but it's fun for awhile.

Christmas jammies! Riley is sadly too big to find "cute" Christmas jammies that fit him :(

Christmas Day pictures will be up when I get around to it. Now I'm off to watch Transformers and scratch the lottery tickets from my stocking. Maybe in my next post you'll hear that I won big, lol! Merry Christmas!!!

Hello!

Hello, December! Ok, I know I said I'd blog again on the first and now it's the 3rd, but I've been sitting around in my jammies watching tv and eating cake. I mean, what else would I possibly have to do??

Hello, Friday! Hello, almost weekend! I've missed you!

Hello, rain. Did you know it's December? You should technically be snow. I'm torn between wantin the warm temps but wanting the ground to be frozen so the dog doesn't come in with muddy feet...

Hello, laundry, you still hangin' around?

Hello, empty cupboards and fridge. I promise to fill you up today.

Hello, new flavour of DQ blizzard that I'm obsessed with trying. Tonight may be the night :)

Hello, bare living room. I think you need a Christmas tree, but I'm sure Kevin is going to tell me it's too early. And I'm sure once I got you up the three kids, 2 cats and a puppy would be trying to undo you.

Oh, hello, crying children. You were just playing so well.

Hello, blog readers, don't go away, I'll be right back ;)

.......

...........

The 'puppy' (giant puppy) knocked Bridget to the ground. I think they've made up :)

Hello Stuck?! Sketches reveal! Check us out here! Here's my layout of my cutie with her pigtails :) How cute is she?

Stuck?! is also having a CT call. If you are interested, check it out here.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Is it wrong...

Is it wrong that I'm sitting here in my yoga pants and sweatshirt sipping coffee postponing all the many things I have to do today?

Is it wrong that my kids are still in their jammies? Kieran and Bridget are wearing matching candy cane jammies and love that they match. They are calling themselves best buddies and it's just cute. I told them they could stay like that until lunch.

Is it wrong that I really hope the doctor is running behind for my appointment so that I can sit and read in peace? I may even grab a coffee. Sorry mom and dad...hope the kids are good for you :) Yes, stay at home mom's do get excited about doctor's appointments alone! Our lives are so glamourous!

Is it wrong that I'm glad there isn't enough snow outside to make me feel like I should take my kids out to play in it? I hate winter, but suffer for them. I know my days of suffering are coming! :)

Is it wrong that I may not get Bridget's hair cut until she starts school? I love it, it's cute and she IS my only girl!

Is it wrong that there are fingerprints all over my window but I just look at it and shrug instead of cleaning it? Really, they'll just be back half an hour after I do!

Is it wrong that my laundry hamper is always overflowing? I really do try to conquer it but it almost always wins!

Is it wrong that I'm more excited to watch Empire Strikes Back with Riley than he is? Maybe he is a bit more excited, but I think it's pretty even :)

Is it wrong that 2 years ago I made a December Daily album but have yet to fill it? This will be the year!

Is it wrong that I have a sewing machine and I'm afraid of it? My New Year's resolution is to learn to use it! Anyone want to hold my hand?

Is it wrong that I just want to bake everyday in December? I may even start a day early ;)

Is it wrong that I haven't blogged in so long?! Yes! :) My kids say so many cute things that need to be recorded. Kevin said I should get a twitter account to just put those in :)

The other day Riley said, "Lego people don't know they're Lego. They just think they're people." When we asked how do we know if we're Lego, he said that we don't live in a Lego house. We asked how do we know we don't live in a Lego house and Riley kicked the cupboard and said, "if this was a Lego house it would fall down!" I hope all the Lego people all over the world aren't buried under a pile of Lego rubble because they tried the same trick. Maybe it's best to not know :)

When Riley was soundly beating me at Monopoly Jr. he said, "I'm EXPLODING with houses!"

The other day I took off Bridget's dress because she had accidentally gotten the tie in the toilet. She asked why I was taking it off and I told her. She said, "not because I wiped my nose on it?" I said, "did you?" "Yes." Sigh.

She was reading a book to me one day and she turned a page and all of a sudden kind of laughed and said, "I can't read!" LOL! This was of course when she was supposed to be settling down to bed. So hard to get her to do that when I'm constantly laughing at her!

Kieran does say cute things, I promise, but I honestly can't remember any. He's more my empathetic kid. He made us say a prayer in the van last night while we were waiting for Kevin and Bridget to pick up supper. He wanted to pray for a little girl in his class who was recently diagnosed with cancer. He really is so sweet it breaks my heart a lot of the time. He wants to be best buds with Riley and Bridget and is always giving them his most favourite toys to play with! Combine that with his killer dimple and I could just squeeze him all day long!

Is it wrong that I've been sitting her blogging so long? Is it wrong that the kids have actually been playing together all that time without fighting? Something about it feels wrong...there's probably writing all over my walls, lol! And the dog, how come he's been quiet so long... Maybe I should see what's going on...

Is it wrong that I haven't blogged anything scrappy in so long? Yes! But tomorrow is a Stuck?! Sketches reveal so I will be back with that as soon as it's up on their blog :)

Well, coffee cup is empty, guess I should face the day. I'll leave you with some funny pics though :)

Ok, that one's not funny, it's just cute :)

Hmm...not sure why the colour in this one is so bad, but Riley cracks me up :)

Kieran desperately wanted his picture taken too, but then doesn't really smile or look at the camera. I tried. He's saying cheese but his heart isn't in it, lol!

Nevertheless, the pictures make me laugh. It's classic Kieran! Oh, the other day I said, "do you have Middle Child Syndrome? MCS?" He was being REALLY whiny! He went into the living room and told his grandparents, "I know how you spell Middle Child Syndrome...MCS!" LOL!

Ok, really gonna do something productive now (as I type this Lego is flying past my head...never a dull day!).

Hello Again!

Yes, shocking, I'm actually updating. Seems I don't get here as often as I'd like. I've been busy crafting. I recently made some altered frames, clipboards, journal jars and cards for a craft fair. It was my first time selling some of my things. It started out slow, but the day turned out well in the end. I've even started a FB page (Everyday Art...go like me, now...do it, haha!). I have some orders on the go and may try another fair in early December. I also held a card class at my house last night with a really fun bunch of girls! A little wine + a lot of creating = FUN in my books!!! I'm doing another one at my sister-in-law's place on Saturday. So, I've been very busy creatively! In addition to all that I'm running kids places, volunteering at schools, walking a dog and cleaning the house (ok, that one may suffer a bit here and there...as I look at the piles of laundry around me!).

In other big Winchester news, Riley recently lost his first tooth!! It was so wiggly for awhile, so much so that he didn't want to eat (if you know Riley at all, you know that is NOT normal!! lol). One morning he was complaining that he didn't want to eat breakfast so we told him to just pull it out. He didn't want to but he was playing with it a bit and then it just fell out. The look of shock on his face was too funny!

The tooth fairy visited our house that night in her green dress (we know because we caught some of her fairy dust in a glass of water :)) and she left Riley a toonie. He asked in the morning how much it was and we told him $2 and he thought, "oh, I thought I'd just get a penny." LOL! I should have let the tooth fairy know :)

Some more cute Riley-isms:

This morning he was telling Kieran he could see things out of his 'side eyes' LOL! I may start referring to my peripheral vision that way :)

The other night the kids were looking at the moon. They are thrilled that it gets dark early now. Makes them feel like they are staying up late every night, lol! We were looking at the moon and talking about the phases and Kevin told them that when you can't see the moon it's called a new moon, but he said he didn't know why. Riley said, "I would call it a goner moon." Heehee!

And one for Bridget, she said today, "I want to drink coffee in my bed all day." Umm, yeah, me too!

Riley also had his first viewing of Star Wars. It was a special night just for him. I think Kieran would have been a little afraid anyway. He LOVED it and I loved watching it with him because I love it too :) Too cute to see his reactions to everything!

Well, we are off to Judo. I'll be back soon, promise :)

I love mornings!

Ok, maybe not early, early morning when my kids first get us up at the crack of dawn (or at this time of year, way before the crack of dawn!) or when I'm yelling at kids to get dressed and stop running so the dog will stop chasing them. No, that part of the morning I don't love. And I HATE making lunches. But once Riley is off to school, the dog is worn out and sleeping on the loveseat (yes, we've given in, the blue loveseat is his. Sometimes he shares it with us. He just looked so darn happy there and would actually curl up and calm down that I couldn't help but give in. He has also claimed the green couch in the playroom along with the cats. They usually hope he doesn't notice them there!) and the kids are occupied making VERY abstract art. That part of the morning I love I can sit and eat breakfast and drink my sweet, sweet coffee and relax. Sure, I should be rushing so I can clean and get ready for craft fairs and card nights, but I sit. I relax. I contemplate life. Well, ok, I read blogs and check out Facebook. But still. It's nice. It's relaxing. Apart from naptime, it's the nicest time of day! I sit and am in complete denial about starting a crazy day. I put it off as long as I think I can, lol! The kids usually pull me from my perfect world of bagel, coffee and reading. It's a harsh way to leave my world. I can feel it happening now as stamps go flying and the whining starts. Sigh.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here or not but I'm the featured DT member for Crop Addict this month. Here are some of my creations!

This is currently my favourite layout! I love the picture (of course!) and the cute little trees and the beautiful, earthy colours!

I'm thinking of starting and 8.5x11 recipe scrapbook. It will be practical and pretty :) This is my fave sugar cookie recipe. Still reminds me of Grammie and Grampie's house when I was a kid!

Another one of those cute trees :) I love using cardboard on layouts and cards. Gives such a great, rustic look!

The weekly challenge for the week is based on this card. I challenged the girls to use paper piecing (like my cupcake) on a layout or card.

This layout is a scraplift of THIS layout from the CA gallery. My monthly challenge to the girls was to pick a layout from the gallery that they LOVE and scraplift it. I love how this one came out. Eventually I will get first year albums of my kids finished! This is an 8x8 layout for B's album.

Be sure to check out the rest of the team's beautiful work! Tons and tons of inspiration there! You can find the gallery HERE.

Ok, fine, I will go and face reality. Blech! But I look forward to tomorrow morning's cup of coffee :)

Happy Christmas....er, Halloween! and Stuck?! Sketches Reveal

So, I didn't really think I would wake up to a dusting of snow on Halloween, but that's what happened today. As if being awoken at 5:30 isn't bad enough! The kids were really excited and wanted to have snowball fights in the 1cm of snow :) Oz was confused and I'm still not sure he's a big fan. He doesn't seem to like rain or the cold, he's my kind of dog :)

Just quickly, I didn't post the pictures from Riley's birthday. He had a Halloween theme so I was busy making invitations and treat boxes and a spooky cake :) It was a lot of work, but he had fun. It was a crazy mad house with 14 6 year olds running around for 2 1/2 hours, but we survived! Barely...

My scary vampire!

Frankenstein treat box.

Jack-o-lantern treat box

Mummy treat box.

Many treat boxes and Riley's Halloween banner.

Banner up close.

Haunted cupcake house :)

The kids had such a blast trick-or-treating today. They visited Grammie and Grampie and as we were leaving with the loot Kieran said, "I love Happy Halloween!" :) They went out for treats with Daddy in the snow while I stayed here warm with Oz and handed out candy. It was cute when they got back and they gave candy to a few trick-or-treaters, Riley was all business giving out candy and saying, "Bye! Have a Happy Halloween!" It was just funny in the very business-like way he said it, lol!

My trick-or-treaters! Just realized Bridget doesn't have her unicorn head up..oops!

Watching for more trick-or-treaters :) And, yes, Oz always looks that pathetic, lol!

Yesterday, Kevin and I did the Creepy Crawl fun run in Saint John. It was hard going since I hadn't run in 2 weeks and I was coming off being sick. It was so, so cold out and my lungs weren't quite ready but I managed to finish. I did the 5K in 35 min and Kevin did it in 26. He did really well and had his best time yet. The kids also did a 1K run in their costumes. Adults were welcome to dress up too and most did. We didn't really have any costumes on short notice but next year we'll have to get some good ones :)

We also carved pumpkins yesterday afternoon with the cousins. Well, Riley and his oldest cousin were really the only ones interested and my sister-in-law and I did the others :) Kieran wanted a scary face to scare the deer away so they wouldn't eat them (which has happened to us several times in the past!). We actually played it even safer by not putting them out until this afternoon. So, all in all we had a pretty busy, but fun, weekend! Here are our pumpkins :)

On a scrapbooking note, the November 1st sketch is up over at Stuck?! Sketches. There are some amazing layouts up by the Creative Team! Be sure to get your entry in for a chance at an awesome prize! Here is my layout with a pretty old picture :) Trying to use up some of those pictures I have printed in stacks around here!

I should really blog more often so these don't end up being so long but we have been so crazy busy and fighting colds that it got put on the back burner. One more quick funny, this time a Kieran one :) We built a dump truck out of lego today and when we were done he said, "now I have to fill it with 'dump'!" LOL! They're too funny!

Thankful for...

siblings who love each other and get along...sometimes (ok, so maybe video games help....at least until someone gets eaten by a Yoshi then all bets are out the window...)

pathetic puppy dog faces (love those floppy ears!)

imagination and creativity

Laughter!

Little girls who still fall asleep in my arms (ok...in Daddy's arms, but I'm thankful she stayed asleep when I stole her away :) I would endure any discomfort just to get to hold a sleeping child!).

that I get to hang out with my best friend every day!

for fall...beautiful leaves to collect and dance in, cool, fresh air, long walks (and runs!), pumpkins to carve, apples to pick and apple trees to climb!

so many other things that I don't have pictures for....

grandparents who help us on a daily basis! we love you!!

friends and family who are always there for us

little things...

puddle jumping

pig tails

sticky, glue-y art fingers

morning snuggles

bedtime stories

little voices singing all day long

so thankful for my everyday, crazy life. Even when it feels like it's going to do me in, I still wouldn't have it any other way! Lovin' life here this Thanksgiving weekend...hope everyone else had a fabulous weekend too!

Tim Holtz!!!!

Ok, my non-scrappy readers, Tim Holtz is a BIG deal in the scrappy world. We were trying to come up with an equivalent. He's like the Brad Pitt of the scrapping world. Maybe even better than that. He has amazing products, is a fabulous scrapbooker (my fave is when he does his 12 days of tags at Christmas...the most amazing tags ever!!). Anyway, you get it, he's a big deal!

Well, my friends Amy and Emily and I got to meet him today!!!! He's doing classes on a cruise that is traveling New England and Eastern Canada. Through a very strange sequence of events, Amy and Tim got to emailing and he said that he would call her the day he was in Saint John. Jump to this morning and I get a phone call from Amy SCREAMING in my ear, lol. Said that Tim (notice how I call him Tim, like we're all cool and on a first name basis now :)) would meet us at Starbucks. Well, we got there good and early, chilled with a latte and tried to act all cool. Oh, I should add that Kevin actually worked from home just on the chance that I might get to meet Tim Holtz. What a good man! Yes, I felt somewhat like a dork, but that feeling is all gone now that I actually met him, lol. Should be interesting for Kevin to explain to his buddies at work tomorrow why he had to work from home. Non-scrapbookers don't really 'get' scrapbookers most of the time, haha.

When I saw Tim coming around the corner and pointed him out to Emily I thought she was going to break my arm, lol. We watched him get in line and then he looked over at us and saw his books waiting to be signed and all the cameras and kinda figured we were the girls he was gonna meet, lol! He was so kind and sweet. He chatted with us for a bit, signed our stuff and took pictures with each of us. It was even his suggestion to get a group shot...we didn't want to be too pushy :) Such a surreal day! Mario, Tim's business partner, was even taking pics with his iPhone and he put them up on Twitter! So cool! Check it out http://yfrog.com/jbrhosj

So, lattes (yummy!!), a pumpkin scone (a treat from my beautiful friend, Emily!) and TIM HOLTZ!! Well, there's just no way the rest of the week will live up to that :) Such a great day!

So cool! Emily has a ton more pictures...she's probably scrapping them as I type, lol! She was taking pictures of everything us, Starbucks, our lattes :) She wanted to document every second. She loves Tim and we always say she could be his girl counterpart because she does some beautiful work in his style! I'm sure there's a mini album about the day coming soon!

Hope you all had a great Monday too. I know, not as good as mine, suckers, but hope you had a decent day :)

Stuck?! Sketches October 1st reveal and cute kid stories (of course :))

Ack, I'm a few days late on this one! The weekend flew by...cropping, hanging with family, running. Anyway, Stuck?! Sketches had its reveal on Friday and the work is stunning! You can check it out here. Here is the sketch and my take on it:

I really like how this one turned out. There's a little, acrylic house stapled to it, under the heart, that's hard to see in the picture, unfortunately. But I love the colours of the paper and how the black just makes it all pop!

A couple of cute kid stories...what would a blog post be without them?

Yesterday morning I heard Kieran crying and Kevin was in talking with him and then called to me saying, "Amanda, I think you should hear this..." Well, Kieran was crying because he's the only one in our family with black skin! LOL! His skin tone is the darkest in our family, though he has aunts and cousins with darker complexions too. He was sad because he was the only one in our family that has 'dark' skin and one of his cousins that also does never wants to play with him. Honestly, I have NO idea where on earth he came up with it! I tried to convince him that lots of people try to get that colour skin, but I don't think he was buying it, lol! My poor, sad, interracial child :) I think he's over it now, but really, just shows you what lengths he'll go to to whine about something, anything.

Tonight at supper Riley just blurts out, "For the love of Pete, will you guys stop it." Nothing really was going on at the table so Kevin says, "What guys?" And Riley matter-of-factly says, "The guys in my head. You know, I can be in my imagination world in my head and this world at the same time. It's kinda cool. There's a war going on in my head and I'm the king and my guys won't listen and if they don't they are going to get fired...with real fire." Oh man, that kid cracks me up sometimes. At least we know he has a good imagination! He probably convinced Kieran he was adopted from another country or something, lol!

So, they sure keep us hopping! I also heard Bridget telling Kieran that she couldn't go upstairs and brush her teeth because, "my belly hurts so I can't brush my teeth." My kids think a belly ache will get them out of anything! She's lucky she's so darned cute because her red-headed stubbornness and temper is starting to show!

Well, that's all for tonight! I must get to bed...it's been a weekend of late nights and early mornings! Stay tuned for some work for the Crop Addict DT. I just got my kit today (living in the frozen north like I do, it sometimes takes longer for kits to get to me ;)) but you can check out the beautiful work from the other DT members in the gallery.