A Week in the Life...2010

Well, looks like I've found something new to inspire me to continue scrapping. Even though I've fallen off the wagon with taking a picture a day for my Project 365, I have committed to taking many pictures this week so that I could document a week in our lives at this moment in time. Read all about it here: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/ . There are people all over the world documenting their lives...the everyday stuff you know you'll forget...like what you eat for breakfast, what the kids are doing at this age, what the house looks like (for better or worse) and other things along those lines. I thought I'd share some photos from the past couple of days that I've taken as I do this project, and once complete, I'll post the finished product. Here's to an (extra)ordinary week!

Monday 4-19-10: A visit from friends... a trip to Wal-mart...a nap in the car...neatly staged train set...and the sample for my Album in a Day class

Tuesday 4-21-10: Adam smiling so cute as I make dinner...fajitas for dinner...waffles for breakfast...Yas doing her chore of putting the dishes away...and my favorite show-LOST!

LOAD is over :-(

Now what? I've been on a scrapping binge and loving every minute of it. Yes, it was challenging to keep up the pace, but even if I'd only gotten 1/2 of the layouts done, I would have been that much ahead. For all you scrappy friends reading this, I totally recommend getting in on the next LOAD in May. Check out my post from February 3rd for more info on where to go and sign up. You won't regret it. So, as I sign off from LOAD for now, I'll leave you with the last few layouts I made this month...until next time.

More scrapping goodness...

As promised I thought I would add some more layouts to get everyone up to date on my LOAD challenge. Here are the rest of the layouts through yesterday...

Look what I've been up to...

The month of February had a fun surprise in store for me...I joined this scrapbooking challenge called LOAD (LayOut A Day) and have been doing great with it. I've made a total of 22 layouts and we still have a week left to go. I thought I'd share a few layouts that I've made to see if I could inspire you to try a challenge of some sort this month. Here's to a little fun and creativity!! I'll post more layouts later...maybe some 2-pagers. Until next time...

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!

Halloween and other happenings!

So Halloween has come and gone and the girls had a good time despite the steady rain that was forecast on that day. We attended a 1st birthday party and although it was steadily coming down when we got home later that evening, the girls insisted on trick-or-treating...so we did what any sane parents would do...we stayed in the van and followed them from house to house while they slowly got drenched (yeah, we discovered the umbrella under the front seat a little too late).

The girls' were off from school all of last week for Fall break. To keep them busy, we had a day trip to the farm and a local park one day. Luckily, we've been having unusually mild weather here. Today was just in the mid 50's, but last week we reached the mid 70's! We also had our first "baby" playdate here for Adam on another day and he was mesmerized as he watched his little friend use a walker toy to get from one side of the family room to the other...and before his friend left, Adam also started walking with that walker. Too cute! Another day, we headed out to the bowling alley and the girls competed for top bowler status against one another. Neither one bowls, so it was fun watching them try their hardest. Leena's skills won out. The girls were also dying to see Adam at swim class, so I took advantage of someone else besides me taking pictures. Thanks, girls! Of course we needed a day or 2 of rest after that, so we hung out at home, watched some movies and generally passed the time together. Here is a photo recap of the rest of our October, including one picture just for fun. Stay tuned for November!!

In Full Swing...

So it's been just over a month since my last post, right after school started, but it seems like we've been at it much, much longer. We are in the groove of getting up and getting ready for school, going to our after school activities, doing homework, and GASP...even cooking dinner on a fairly regular basis each week.

Just recently, both Leena and I had another birthday. She really wanted to go to the American Girl Place in NYC, so we took her last weekend and she had a fabulous time picking out a doll (Julie: circa 1974) and a bunch of accessories. Yasmeen made out pretty good considering it wasn't her birthday (well, if you ask her, it was her 1/2 birthday). She was able to take her long forgotten friend that she gotten for her 5th birthday, Marisol, to the hair salon for a complete "makeover" and even bought a new "sk8er girl" outfit for her. Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch at Bubba Gump's in Times Square and walked around for a bit before returning to the peace and quiet of Hillsborough.

Adam is enjoying his music and swim classes. Unfortunately, soon after his first music class, he got a virus that knocked him down with high fevers for several days. I guess it wasn't a good idea to let him mouth every nook and cranny of every darn musical instrument he came across at that first class. Now I go armed with antibacterial wipes and grab everything within his reach before he does and give it a good rub down. Thankfully, no more germs for now. As for swimming, it takes me a good 45 minutes AFTER class to get us both showered, dressed and ready to head back to the van. All that for a 30 minute class...but, if you saw how utterly excited he is while in the water, you'd do it too! He is a natural swimmer...kicking, kicking, kicking all the way up and down the pool length while I try to hold him securely and avoid getting totally DRENCHED by all the splashing. Now if I could only get someone to take pictures of us so that I have proof.

Adam has also started pulling himself to a stand on just about anything...whether it's stationary or not. Since he's been confined to the family room for most of his gross motor skills practice, he's used the toy bins, the TV stand, and Leena's easel as balancing objects to help himself up off the ground.I bet it won't be long before the girls are begging me to make him stop chasing them or taking their things! He's also becoming much LOUDER! Maybe it's the girls' influence, but that boy knows how to holler! Today at Girl Scouts, we went outside for a bit to play a game, and I bundled him up in his Elmer Fudd hat and he was not happy for long. But he sure did look cute!

Yasmeen continues with Tae Kwon Do and is really enjoying it. She has 2 more segments to go before she is ready for her first belt testing. We are going between 3-4 times per week, but she never complains, and somehow I manage to pack everyone into the van and get her there each day on time...well, most days, anyway. She enjoys practicing her kicks at home and I often catch her doing her moves in the family room for a captive audience-Adam. Once she sees me, though, she acts as though she was merely scratching an itch or something...gotta get her on video!

Mohammed is working hard, both at his regular job and at firefighting. He will start traveling a bit more this fall, so we aren't looking forward to that. At least, we'll have his return to look forward to.

And for the record...IT'S GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME. Get your order to us right away before you have to wait another YEAR to eat some yummy cookies. Come on...if you don't want to eat them, we can always donate them on your behalf to our current charity: Operation Shoebox, which give the cookies to soldiers.

Well, that's it for now...here are some pics from the recent weeks!