An Evening with Mozart

This past Saturday started out as a dreary, foggy day. In the early afternoon, the fog lifted,

our kids left to spend the night with Hop and Nana (thank you!!), and Bob and I headed downtown for a date. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown.

(That's Lewis and Clark in the foreground)

I enjoyed my first "Flying M" mocha. Yum!

We were getting a bit cold and needed to find someplace for dinner.

We happened to be right by the Spaghetti Factory, so we stopped in there.

We used to go quite often when we lived in Portland, but we've only been once or twice

since we've moved here. Their Creamy Pesto dressing is still delicious!

We stayed the night at the Courtyard Marriot. Such a beautiful hotel!

The Courtyard.

I'd like to come back when everything is blooming and it's a bit warmer.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying some of

Mozart's work. Simply beautiful!

~~~

Thanks, Bob, for a wonderful Christmas gift!

It was so nice to spend some time with you before tax season swallowed you up!

When it's time to decorate for Christmas, I prefer to decorate with snowmen.

Besides being cute, they can remain out until spring time. This year, however,

my snowmen are making an early departure. I needed spring colors and a bit of

Valentine's red, pink and white.

Bob gave me this on our wedding day.

Miss Emma has become the "Go Fish" Queen. Yesterday, we played three games. She won two of them. And in one game, I didn't get a single match! After that game, she said, "Mom, can we play another game? I promise I won't win this one!" But, she did!

Bob took Ryan to Scouts last night and came home with these.

A month ago, I would have eated on of them right away. Last night when they appeared on the counter, all I would think was how incredibly disgusting they looked!

(If I'm gonna have a treat, it's going to be worth eating!)

The main reason I was able to avoid them was the calendar posted on

my cabinet. It shows my exercise for the month so far. Most of it is either walking or riding the recumbant bike (often while using the exercise band or weights for my arms). Since January first, I've walked/biked 15 days. (The others were either Jillian micheal's Yoga, volleyball, etc). In those 15 days, I've 'traveled' 131.3 miles. And it feels soooo good!

~~~

Happy weekend to all. The hubby and I have plans for a downtown date.

Can't wait!

One...Two...Three

Here's a great way to get full use out of each piece of scrapbook paper.

I'm finally working on my 2011 calendar. I've always made one (or two) for Mom and Dad, but last year was the first time I made one for our house two. I love walking by and seeing the kids' smiling faces. After the year is over, I cut off the spiral part and put the pages into an 8.5x11 album. I arrange the photos chronologically, so I end up with a page per month for each year. I use photos from the year before for each month. So, the calendar page above is for January 2011, but the photos are from January 2010. It's fun to look back and see what the kids looked like a year ago.

This is another project that I'm working on. I took the scraps from the calendar pages and made monthly headers.

And then with the scraps from that project, I'm making some of the simpliest cards ever!

(I saw the idea in a magazine at the mechanic's office today)

So, I'll end up with a complete calendar (and then 12 scrapbook pages at the end of the year), twelve month headers and twelve cards!

Ahhh....multi-tasking!

Crafty Kids

Ryan received a wood burning kit from his grandparents for his birthday.

He broke it out this week and has been creating ever since!

The piece above was his first project.

He made one for his sister,

and one for himself (that's a football on his).

Sometime last year, he also took up soap and wood carving. The wood carving is put on hold until I can find a protective glove in his hand size (has a bit of an accident one day...really don't want to repeat it!) He can safely practice on soap, however. These little beauties are filling up my cabinet in the kitchen.

Above...turtle.

Bird

3-D heart

Tree

This is Emma's. I think she sees it as a cliff. I see a pretty strong resemblance

to a certain great state.

To make a house a home...

you need a well-built structure,

a pet or two,

dear friends,

and those extra little touches.

Quiet Days

We've had some pretty quiet days here lately.

It seems that January is always like that. Here's a bit of what we've been doing.

~~~

1. Since we moved into our house a year ago, my stamps have been stacks in little cubbies and, quess what?, I haven't used them! It's so time consuming to sit on the floor and go through each pile trying to figure out which ones to use. So these past few days, I've gone through every stamp set, pulled out the ones that I know I'll use and plan on getting rid of the rest. Then, I've taken each stamp set, numbered them, stamped them on a piece of paper and then stored them vertically (with the # showing) in two plastiic tubs. When I want to stamp, I can look through my three-ring binder of stamped images, pick the ones I want and then head straight to the stamp set by looking for the number. I think it will encourage me to use my stamps more often...it's just so much easier.

~~~

2. Ryan has been completely lost to us. He spends most of his at-home hours lost in a book. He gets this from me...the ability (curse?) to totally ignore that fact that you're tired because you just gotta see what's gonna happen next!

~~~

3. Bob is finally just about all better. He still has a bit of a cough, but he feels like himself again. He's already set his alarm an hour earlier in preparation for tax season. It starts in just over a week. I guess we'd all better get ready!

~~~

4. Emma...well, Emma is just doing what she always does...listening to Skippy John Jones as often as possible on the radio while she pulls out her toys into the living room and then plays for hours...telling the story right along with the author since she's heard it SO many times.

She has homework each week now, and it's so much fun to watch her read! Soon, it'll come naturally to her and she'll have her head stuck in a book, but I'm enjoying this now. The time of discovery.

~~~

So that's our life in a nutshell. We've got a couple of long weekends coming up. This weekend, we're having the kids' ten- and six-year photos taken, cleaning out the garage, and hopefully a bit of relaxing and crafting. Happy weekend!

Pre-made First Year Scrapbook

This has to be the easiest card I've ever made...I feel like I'm cheating!

I bought a CuddleBug from a friend and have started to buy a few embossing folders to use with it. This one is so cute...I didn't think that it needed anything else!

~~~

Following are photos of an 8x8 scrapbook that can be made in advance and is

intended for a photo or two for each month of a baby's first year.

Patterned paper is from October Afternoon and all solids are from my favorite line, Bazzill.

Cover page

"Coming Home"

Months one and two

Month three with a two page layout...a bit more space for the milestone months (3, 6, 9, and one year) and some room for journaling.

Months Four and Five

Month Six

Months Seven and Eight

Month Nine

Months Ten and Eleven

One Year

Back page...additional photos can be added here or some solid cardstock

for a journalling block.

~~~

Our Weekend

This weekend was our Special Meeting over near Mom and Dad's house, so the kids and I spent the night with them. Bob, still recovering from the bug he caught at Christmas, spent a quiet weekend at home. Here's a couple of goofy pics of us on Sunday morning.

Look at how tall Ryan is! And I have on my boots with heals! Yikes! When did this happen?

Whenever I go to Mom's, she usually send me home with a bag or two of stuff (her way of

cleaning her house). This time, she sent me back with a quilt that she made for Bob and I.

Isn't is gorgeous?! She pieced it, and another lady quilted it on her quilting machine.

I'm going to attach the binding and it'll be all done. I plan to paint and decorate our bedroom around this. I'm not sure yet if it will end up on our bed or hanging on the wall behind the bed. Can't wait to see how it looks!

Beautiful!!