Wow, over 2 months have gone by...

Guess this is what people mean by time getting ahead of them. Well, I've definitely been busy with the kids, their activities, my classes, Adam's big FIRST birthday, the New Year, breaks from school and the occasional scrapbooking outing, but the biggest news of all is that Adam took his first steps last month...yep, on January 13th, at 13th months, while my back was turned to him, he got himself up off the floor and walked! The girls witnessed this, but I missed it the first time around...and then he did it again, and again, and again. He started off a little like a drunken sailor, but has since progressed to a lively zombie. Before long, I'm sure he'll be running like a madman and life as we know it will be over. Time to pull out a few more gates and make sure the house is on lock down before setting him free on his feet...

Let's start with Adam's birthday...the grandparents were visiting from North Carolina and all was going along just fine...we were having some work done on our furnace and planning on going out to eat with the kids to celebrate December 3rd with Adam until Daddy returned from a business trip and we could have a party on the weekend. Yasmeen was heading off to TKD and

then we would go to dinner from there...but even the best laid plans can (and will) change when you least expect it. The next thing I hear is screaming and crying and Yasmeen running up the stairs telling me that Leena was hurt. Before I could make my way downstairs, she was running up the stairs behind her sister with a significant gash over her right eye. She had accidentally run into the workman's truck outside and hit her eye against the lift-gate. Now, normally I would access the damage and take care of it at home, but this was definitely going to need stitches. Yasmeen was beside herself (found out later she was the one to ask Leena to go back inside to get her a bottle of water, so she felt guilty about the whole thing) and I was trying to calm her down, while getting everyone into the van, balancing Adam on one hip, gathering my belongings, including my insurance card, filling Mohammed in over the phone and driving to the hospital (not at the same time, though :-) . It was chaos, but thank goodness my in-laws were around to help with the baby because it could have been a whole lot more chaotic. In the end, Leena needed 4 stitches, we spent the time that Adam was actually born (7:14pm) in the ER,

and managed somehow to still get out for a quick dinner and celebratory cake by 9pm. It was a wild ride, but it'll be a day that we won't ever forget!

We sailed through the holidays and winter break and had our first major snowstorm a few days before Christmas. Adam wasn't too sure about all the white stuff and while outside, didn't once smile for the camera...the girls on the other hand would love it if they lived in Alaska!!

Fast forward to this month, and I've started a new scrapbooking challenge...it's call LOAD and it's all about making sure to do something creative everyday...well, more specifically, it's a LayOut A Day. Amazingly, I've been doing it and have already made a total of 9 pages in 6 days. I find that if I pull out some pictures first thing in the morning...I can steal tidbits of time

throughout the day until it's done. They may not be masterpieces, but they didn't cause me undue stress or hours of my time to finish either. It's very cool and I'd recommend it to anyone who is having a bit of scrapper's block. Check it out here: knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things under the 12/29/09 post called "It's That Time of Year".

Ok, well, since no blog update is complete without pictures,here they are...enjoy!