Employees Only

loving spring time ... summer is almost here...

1. The kids are out of school and very excited about what lies ahead. Several camps are planned but mostly they are looking forward to open ended outside play!
   
  
Stella graduated preschool. Her teachers gave the sweetest ceremony and each spoke a minute about what they valued most about each individual child. I will miss seeing these women and I know Stella will too; however, she is so excited to be at the same school at Oskar next year. Oskar's class hosted a portfolio day to view this years work and progress. It was a blast and ended with a picnic.

2. Baby Parker is a little over 8 (YES, I said EIGHT) months old!! He is sitting, scooting around (not quite crawling), jabbering, smiling, laughing, eating everything in sight, and soooo cute!
               

3. POOL SEASON is officially upon us! It has been unseasonally cool and rainy here in Atlanta, but my folks have heated the pool a few times and we've gone for a dip. Here is Parkers first swim. He loved it for a minute, but changed his mind quickly.

 

4. Mother's Day was lovely. I saw both of the sweet mothers in my life, spent the day with Todd and the kids, went swimming, and ate delicious food that other nice people cooked me. Score! As for gifts, Todd and my mom won some major points with my new grind and brew coffee maker. It took me a few days to figure out, but now every morning is a 'starbucks' morning! Got some neat kitchen stuff from Joy too. Thank you guys!
   

4 Months Flies By

Our Sweet little guy is 4 months old! ANd he is so wonderful: soft, yummy smelling, bright eyed, and a big smiler. Here are some pictures to prove it.
      
   

Rewind to September 15th~

                                        

Parker Was born at 10.46 am on September 15th. He was 9lbs 15 oz and 19.5 inches long. He is a blessing and we are so happy to finally have him here in our arms!

Back 2 School

SO the kiddos are {almost} all officially back to school. THe bigger guys started school last week, and Stella starts next week. SO far, so good. THey are liking their teachers,classes, hanging out with friends etc. We are doing pretty well surviving the early morning routine too {surprisingly}. We are up at 6.30 and out the door at 7.40. IN that time, everyone dresses, does hygiene stuff, eats, and gets there stuff together. There is no TV, and few other distractions. We have learned over the years that morning tv does not work for us. SPeaking of routines, I ran across a great online article about going Back to School: 17 Good Habits . It talks about good habits that are learned outside the class room, but what better time to start reinforcing these habits than right now. There are lots of other great articles on that site too.

ETA: Michelle you are the RAK winner, please send me your address and I will mail you a pack of scrapbook goodies. Thnaks for the comments!    

From the Urban Garden

I just came in from the back yard and look what I brought...

Yummy food! This year we planted watermelon, 5 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of sweet peppers, eggplant, onions, and strawberries. We planted the berries too late, and didn't get much at all, but the rest are growing like gangbusters. The watermelon has pretty much taken over the play ground, lol. I was out there cutting it back some right before I picked the food in the photo above.

Do any of you grow food? I'd love to see pictures of your garden, whether it be a pot of herbs in a window sill or a giant plot. Send me some ideas .... and I'll send out a RAK over the weekend to a random winner.   

Swap-bot, Projects & a new Baby Pic (He's smiling!!)

Hi all,

I had another ultrasound yesterday and this time the tech caught baby boy smiling & made us a picture. See for yourself, LOL.

And here are a few cards & a layout that I made earlier this week.

Also, if you are someone who likes to swap supplies, ATC's, etc. you might want to check out swap-bot.com . It is a very organized site with rating systems and every kind of craft swap under the sun. I just participated in a favorite color swap & look what a wonderfully, vibrant pack I got....

Beads, Buttons, & Bijoux

I picked up the cutest book at the Public Library today:

Beads, Buttons, and Bijoux: 58 Original Designs for Making Rings, Necklaces, and Bracelets (Paperback) by Nathalie Delhaye

It is packed full of bright, fun pics, fresh ideas, and step by step instructions.  If you like  funky jewelry you can make  in an afternoon, check out this one!

Simplify

I love this site. SO many ideas for productivity, time management, creativity, organizing, etc.

{ well-loved articles }

one. Home Management Notebooks

two. Your Morning Routine

three. Going Barefoot

four. 30 Days to a New Habit

five. Handmade at Home: Keeping the Skills Alive

{ Inspiration } - Productivity & Organization

• Your Home: The Best Company To Work For

• Better E-mail Efficiency

• Your Family, on a Mission

• 36 Tips for Productivity in the Home

!UMAX Scanner! And 3 tips for: Scrapping "OLD" photos..

Yay! I finally found the drivers and the card that I need to connect my large format scanner to my laptop. This means that I can scan layouts again without having to stitch them! Yay. Needless to say, I have been scanning recently made layouts and would like to share a few with you.

 

    

Half of these are made with older photos(think 2000'ish). I am trying to sort through the boxes of printed photos that clutter up my shelves. I know that I can't scrap them all, but I am at least trying to scrap (for each year): major holidays, each child's birthday, and any significant trips, get togethers, family events, etc. It's easier than it seems.

1. Since the pictures are already printed, there is no Photoshopping, printing, etc to do.

2. All I have to do is grab a stack, choose a few to work with, and then snatch up some scraps of paper that are laying around and get to work.

3. I am trying to keep them simple. My other goal is to use up tons of "scraps" older stickers, tags, ribbon, etc. I have so many cute things that are "half used" that I don't want to throw out, can't really sell them, and they are hard to store, so the solution must be- TO USE THEM!

SO these are my 3 tips on getting those older photos out of the box and onto the page. DO you have any tips to share? Leave me a comment :p

A COuple of Cards I made from SCRAPs & Incase I haven't told you Yet....

Here are a few cards that I made today. I have so many baskets full of paper scraps. I really need to make more cards. DOn't cha think? I love mailing handmade cards. Here they are:

And for those of you who don't know..... we are expecting a new member of the family sometime in early September. On Friday I had a 4d Ultrasound and got a good look at the little guy. He seems to resemble Stella from these photos, but only time will tell, lol. We are very, super, extremely excited about out little addition and can't wait to welcome him into our home.