Thursday Musings

I have been such a bad blogger ... I'm sorry I've been missing in action. We've had a lot going on and the blog has suffered for it! Let's see ... what have we been up to? Alex was on antibiotics which seems to have helped. He's back to his old self! Meighan, however, seems to have something going on. She's got lots of gook in her eyes and I think its just that she has so much congestion that its coming out in her eyes. Poor girl. But, she doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by it except when I have to clean her eyes. Then, she gives me quite a time. But, we're all hanging in there.

Sami was here for Thanksgiving and we enjoyed getting to spend time with her over the holiday weekend. We had a fairly quiet holiday - we all went to my mom's and had a great dinner. We just hung out together and enjoyed each others company. It was a nice day. Here are a few pictures from the day. I didn't get very many but I did get a few.

I took this right before we left for my mom's and I think its just adorable. She's so expressive.

Here's our little man - is he not adorable. I had a hard time getting him to look at me - he was engrossed in his Einstein movie. This boy is obsessed with Baby MacDonald.

Believe it or not, these two do love each other. Although they also drive each other crazy! They know exactly how to push each others buttons.

At my mom's the kids had a great time hanging from the canopy bed in her spare bedroom. They both had the biggest smiles! So funny! Even Sami joined in on the fun!

Paul helping Megs ride on her car (she was mad that Alex was doing something she wanted to do which is why she's crying). Paul was trying to distract her.

Here is mom and Dave's new puppy - Bandit. He's a little shy with us now but he's coming around. He's a cutie pie!

Meighan loves her grandpa!

Here's one last one of our little man - intense yet hilarious! Gosh, I love him!

Here are a few layouts I've put together recently.

Here is one I did about Alex. He's so handsome yet pictures never seem to really illustrate how darn funny and cool he is - so I wanted to do a page about that!

And here's one of Meighan that's all about her silly faces - she's a master at silly faces!

And here's one I did with that hilarious picture of her that I posted above. A little bright but I love it!

And here's one about the whole hanging thing on Thanksgiving. I really like this one too!

And I also want to share two layouts of Meighan that one of my online friends, Angie (chic_mama on the digi boards), did last week. They are incredible! She was so sweet to ask me if she could do these for me. And I love them. She's such a talented lady! I'm so glad I've had the chance to get to know her! (NOTE: For some reason Blogger won't let me post the second one. I'll add it later when its cooperating!)

Monday Musings

Can you believe it - a post for two days in a row!?! I'm trying! Alex is still sick. Poor little guy still had a fever so Paul stayed home from work with him while Meighan went to Christina's. Alex slept on Paul's chest for the entire morning which definately means he was sick! I've made an appointment with the pediatrician for tomorrow so if his fever isn't gone, off to the doctor we'll go! Meighan is hanging in there - no signs of illness yet. But, I'm just waiting - it's rare that she doesn't get what he has. I'll keep you posted on how he's doing!

Well, I promised pictures so here are pictures ... These go back over a week since I haven't been that great about posting pictures. First, we'll start with last weekend when Sami was here.

Here's a picture of Sami - 11 years old looks good on her, huh?

Alex enjoying his piece of cake and ice cream in celebration of Sami's 11th Birthday!

And Meighan doing the same!

Sami blowing out the candles on the little cake she picked out!

Meighan's started biting her nails - YIKES - is this one of those examples of children picking up the bad habits of their parents. I hope its a phase!!!!

Meighan's new thing is to scream "MINE" as she grabs anything that Alex has that she wants. It happens constantly. She then runs away with his stuff. His usual reaction? To scream at the top of his lungs. Occasionally, he smacks her but usually he just screams. Sibling rivalry already??

Meighan is beginning to show interest in baby dolls. She will rock the baby, kiss the baby, feed the baby, diaper the baby. She likes using wipes to clean her face. Very cute!

Here Meighan is sweeping and accidentally whacked her poor brother in the head. They both love to sweep but sometimes this is the result!

More sweeping (while playing 'Cups' in this particular picture)

She's a silly, silly girl full of hilarious faces and gestures! Man, she cracks us up all day! The newest is shrugging her shoulders, saying 'do know' with her hands up. This is her version of I don't know. So cute!

Alex has become quite the little reader - we have a basket of books which he spends so much time digging through before spreading out on the floor and paging throught the book as he mumbles to himself. I LOVE to see him enjoy books!

And here's another picture of my little man - let's hope that he feels better soon!

Sunday Musings

We've had a nice quiet weekend without anything major to take care of ... other than grocery shopping which we did on Saturday. It ended up being a HUGE trip. YIKES. It amazes me how much food we go through. Anyway, otherwise things were quiet. Alex wasn't feeling 100% - he had a fever most of the weekend and was a bit lethargic and needy. Poor kid. Meighan is fine but I'm sure she'll be next. That's how it goes with twins! Meighan and Alex got to have lots of Daddy time over the last few days - on Friday, Paul stayed home with the twins because Christina wasn't able to keep them due to a death in her family. They visited Paul's work down on the base and had a full day of playing with Daddy! I took a lot of pictures over the weekend but I haven't had a chance to get them onto the computer. I'll try to do that tomorrow and post some new pictures. I think I got a few really cute ones. They are doing so many cool things right now. So, more tomorrow so I can update everyone with more Meighan and Alex escapades!

I've been a busy girl this weekend - I got a record 4 layouts done today! I had a lot that I really wanted/needed to get done and I feel like I actually accomplished some things. So, here are a few layouts that I wanted to share with you tonight -

Meighan on her first Christmas last year - gosh she sure was/is cute!

And here's our little man on his first Christmas - this photo is hilarious!

I'm so looking forward to winter - I hope it snows!!!

I can't wait to see the twins play in the snow!

This is a layout I did using a kit from Rose's new collection - WOW - it is incredible. This was for a CT challenge where I had to include the following on my page - 2 pictures, use all patterned paper, use ribbon, include torn paper, and use a quote! It was a lot of fun!

Did anyone figure out why Friday was such an important day (other than you, Paul!!!)? Well, it was our 5 year anniversary. Although we have been together for 9 years now, we have officially been married for 5 years. It's been quite a ride! Marriage is definately one of the most challenging experiences of my life but I can't imagine my life without my best friend. We have created the most amazing little family and I'm so glad to be spending my life with them. Happy anniversary, honey!

Tuesday Musings

Okay it's been way too long. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I've just had a lot going on and can't seem to make it over here to put a post together. I'll try to do better!

We've had a lot going on and I've just been trying to pull everything together. Let's see - what have we been up to? Well, our Sami turned 11 last week. I just can't believe that she is 11 years old. She is becoming such a lady now! We went shopping for her birthday - it's all about the clothes now! She found a couple of pairs of jeans (that girl is PICKY about her clothes)! Her grandma gave her an ipod for her birthday so we got her some hot pink earphones and we're looking for speakers for her. I made Salisbury Steak for her birthday lunch and we went to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. All in all, we had a nice time. It was good to see her and watch her with the twins. They follow her around like she's the best thing since sliced bread! They just adore her. And she's so wonderful with them. They are very lucky to have such a wonderful big sister!

I've had a lot going on with my digital scrapbooking. I've been working on a few things for Rose Farver's upcoming newsletter and I had so much fun on the project. We'll be doing it on a monthly basis and I'm really having a lot of fun working on it with her! I also was asked to be on two more creative teams this week - Nina Scraps from over at NDISB.com and Jeanelle Paige from Sweet Digi Creations. Nina primarily designs templates which as you know, I LOVE! So, I'm having a lot of fun working with her incredible designs. Jeanelle is a fabulous designer who's design style is right up my alley. I love basically everything she designs so I'm so thrilled to be on her team. Also, NDISB asked me to be their Guest Creative Team member for November which is such an honor. I just love that site and am thrilled to be a part of the team this month!

I have been working on a few pages in the last week that I thought I'd share. There is one that I'm really happy with but its for Rose's newsletter so I can't share it until the newsletter goes out ...

This is another of the monthly pages for the baby book - this one for Alex's 3rd month.

This is one of me and Meighan. I'm just loving this picture for some reason. This is one of Nina's templates - isn't it incredible!!!!

This is one that I put together tonight using Melissa Rose's Rusted Elegance kit and one of Nina's Templates. Alex really is one of the sweetest little boys that I've ever encountered.

Well, that's it for me tonight. I'll definately be back again this week. I have something special planned for Friday since that is a VERY special day for me. Can anyone think of why I might be looking forward to Friday? Have a great week!

Sunday Musings

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I updated the blog but I've had a busy (and difficult) week. There is a lot going on for us right now so I've been just trying to catch up and pull it together.

First, I wanted to say that today was the memorial service for my grandfather. It was very nice and everything went very well. My cousin, Eleanor Morgan, gave the eulogy and she did a great job. Made me cry but she did a wonderful job giving an overview of his life and what we all loved so much about him. I was able to contribute by putting the program together and I was so happy to do it! I'm really happy with how it turned out and everyone had good things to say about it. Here it is, in case you're interested.

This is the cover - Was my Papa not a VERY handsome man?!?!?

This was the inside cover -

This was the back cover -

I spent several days going through all the family photos and finding some of my favorites. (Note to self - I need to scan them all and begin working on my heritage album project!) It also included a schedule for the service and an insert of a paper that my cousin Taylor wrote about our grandfather in 2001. Very moving. I think it was a nice tribute to my Papa and reminded me how lucky I was to know him for so long. I'm going to miss him so much. He was a very honorable man who was one of the most principled, fun loving, and kind men I've ever known. He lived a long, wonderful life and accomplished so much for his family. I have to say that he was one of the best men I've ever known and I'm proud to be his granddaughter. I hope that I can make him proud and try to live my life as honorably as he did.

Okay, now onto other things that we have going on ... Paul is still struggling with the cyst on his neck - he's in so much pain and suffering quite a bit. He saw a surgeon earlier this week who said that it is badly infected and he didn't want to remove it until the infection is gone. He also felt that he needed to have it out in a surgical setting rather than in the office due to the location of the cyst on his neck. So, Paul's been taking antibiotics but they don't seem to be making the infection go away yet and he's getting frustrated. I hope he begins to feel better because I don't think he can take this level of pain for the two weeks between now and his scheduled surgery date. Poor guy! I think he's feeling pretty strongly that November 14th can't come quick enough so he can get that thing out of his neck!

I also wanted to show you a beautiful jewelry box that my grandmother gave me this week. It's a handcarved box made in Asia. A friend of hers sent it to her while he was in the service (I think she said his name was Joe - I need to get her to tell me the story again). Apparently, she only dated him a few times but he was very nice and thoughtful where my grandmother was concerned. When he was stationed in Asia during WW2, he sent her this beautiful jewelry box with her initials carved on the top. (quick note of interest - the initials are actually wrong because her name is Dorothy Evelyn Vass but he knew her as Evelyn which is what she went by so he sent it with her initials as Evelyn Dorothy Vass). She said that later he was killed while in a prison camp in the Phillipines. I love that she wanted me to have this beautiful jewelry box that has such a special history. Here are a few pictures of this special piece - it's one of my new favorite things!

Since it's been awhile, I'm also going to share a few pictures of the kids since they are constantly doing the most hilarious things! Meighan's new thing is making faces - usually a mean face, funny face, mean face, funny face combo. So funny. Here are a few with her mean faces, funny faces. So hilarious!!! (Ignore the spagetti sauce all over her face - she was entertaining us during our dinner)

And here is Alex, trying to brush the little bit of hair on his head. He's practically bald but he decides to give it a shot anyway!

And I have to share this picture of Megs - she decided yesterday that she loved her pumpkin costume so much that she wanted to wear it ALL DAY! She even wore it during her lunch! So funny. By the way, she was not happy with me in this picture - I'm sure I'd just said no and she was mad.

They are just the most hilarious, curious, busy babies that I've ever met. I just can't get enough of them (until, of course, I've had enough and need a break - hey, I'm human!) They never cease to amaze me - Alex is moments away from actually being able to open a door knob - he's already figured out how to unlock the back door. Soon, we'll have to figure out another way to keep him in! They are also facinated with books which I am totally loving!!! Except when I've read the same book 40 times in a row and then I wish I had a few bookless minutes. But, here's a picture of Paul reading a book to Megs. This is their current favorite book - one of the Baby Einstein books about the animals on the farm. You can see from the picture that its well worn from almost constant reading lately. They love finding the various animals on the page and learning all of the animal sounds. So fun!

Okay, that's it for me tonight. I need to get some laundry done and some dishes washed. I'm WAY behind on my usual chores. Days behind, in fact. And I have a ton of CT work to get working on. I just need to get back on track and focused. More soon. Thanks for bearing with me during my very LONG post!