HELP!!

It feels that I am tripping over clutter and chaos in every room of my home. The corners, the middles, the sides all covered in crazy messiness. I keep going through things and adding more to the pile for DI, but it doesn't seem to help. Washing and folding mounds of laundry but the pile is not getting any smaller. Pulling weeds, scrubbing the toilet, washing dishes, breaking up arguments, making meals/snacks, going through piles of school papers, wiping the counters and table and highchair, only to turn around to another yet another mess. Ahhhh! If you don't hear from me, send help. I might be swallowed alive in this mess.

A few tidbits of cute.....

Ryan "a-tackling" Sam. "Atackle" is one of our favorite Jakey's made-up words. and baby giggles are addictive.

This birthday purse that I could not leave because it was only $1. It's fabric is like a carpet. Thus the name of carpet bag possibly? I honestly don't know what I would do with it, but I like it just as much as Ryan doesn't like it. But he let me get it anyway. Because it was my birthday. And it was a dollar.

Apparently, it's time for the lemonade/garage sale. Jake is the major sales man of the family and has been selling pencils all Winter long. When there is the slightest bit of sunshine, Jake is out there working the crowd of neighborhood kids. All three of them. Must remember to buy more cups. It's going to be a loooooong summer of sales.

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Does anyone else but me see the orange polka-dot border on my blog?? Does it just say "flickr" on it?

Happy Birthday to me!

Growing up, birthdays were a huge deal in our house. We looked forward to being completely entertained and spoiled all day long. I remember my mom making breakfast in bed served on the "You are special today" plate, lots of singing - made up songs are always the best, Mom renting me a favorite movie to watch after school with popcorn and gummy bears, making my favorite dinner and a beautiful cake. It was always grand and always fun and who doesn't love to be spoiled? As we have grown up, moved out and had our own families we have continued some traditions, others lost, and some new traditions made but we haven't lost the birthday song. Oh no, it's has only improved over the years. The best "singer" in our family, hands down, is Sharmyn. All day long she will call just to sing you another rendition of birthday songs. It's so hilarious and I love every second of it. Today, I seemed to miss everyone of Sharm's calls. The only thing that makes it okay that I missed these calls are all of the messages that I get to keep. Several amazing, original songs were created today. You see, Sharmyn has this special talent of making up songs on the spot and she is most definitely gifted. Thank you Sharmyn for all of your calls and songs! They make me so happy! I think that the yodeling song was my favorite of the day!




Another tradition is that everything that you do during your birthday day, has to be explained as if it was some sort of spectacular birthday celebration. For example, my celebration started off with getting Jake out to school and a washing dishes! Later that day, we went shopping with all the customers that came out shopping for my birthday. Everything is a birthday something when it's your birthday, no matter how mundane and un-birthday it might be.


Ryan grilled us a wonderful dinner. Steak and asparagus that was so tasty. (Side note, I actually dislike steak in general but love the way Ryan makes steak. I only like his and no others. He knows just how I like it! Odd, I know!)

The kids made me birthday cards tonight. They were so cute asking me not to peak but coming over and having me pick my favorite animal or favorite fish. They created a birthday card masterpieces and were very proud of themselves. They were more than excited to give them to me. I enjoyed their excitement and their cards, a candy bar that Jake bought for me with his own money, a pretty silver bracelet and as always, a great card for Ryan. He finds the best cards and writes the nicest things in them.

We moved onto the birthday cake which was yummy fruit pizza. I love fruit pizza! I love the strawberries, kiwis and the orange zest sauce. Mmmmm!! Yum!! We didn't have 31 candles of course, so the kids made a three and a one out of several candles. They sang me a song and blew out the candles when Mia proclaimed "This birthday is the best birthday I ever had for you!!".


Mom, Dad and Colin came over late tonight and spoiled me. It was so fun to have them over. I am happy that we live close to them. Overall, it was a good birthday I think. I am grateful for my family who loves me and all the calls that I got and the special songs sang just for me. Thank you everybody!! I really loved it!

And finally, of course, a very Happy Birthday to Megan!! No, not me silly. Jessica's Megan. She was born on my birthday and as Jess puts it, just needed her name to be Megan. She's an adorable spunky little girl that we all love to bits!

Caution! Monkeys painting!

Mia really enjoys painting. Today, she set out to paint some pictures of the beautiful flowers that are blooming all around us. "This is a picture of a different daffodil, tulip and ladybug Mom" she said to me.


Sammy couldn't help but join in and, he completely understood the concept of dipping his paint brush in the paint then brushing it on his paper.

Cute little monkey painting on the table!

Seeing yellow

*Edited: It's like I knew that Cottage Magpie's Color Change: Yellow would have yellow as the color challenge this month. *

This last month I found that I have been craving yellow. I am not usually a yellow person, but I kept picking it over and over again. It started with a yellow shirt I bought for myself then snowballed from there. Since we are stuck inside since it's snowing today, yes snowing. Yesterday, in the 70's. Today, snowing. Anyway, since we are stuck inside, why not post our own little rays of sunshine?

(1. Our first daffodils 2. Mia's new yellow skirt which is now in the mending pile after she shredded it after wearing it twice. 3. Ryan's childhood blanket just recently found. 4. Dandelions - we grow 'em good! 5. Forsythia 6. Sammy's baby bike 7. Beatrice Bunny 8. Mia's Easter dress 9. Sammy's Easter outfit.)

Or how about making your own little ray of sunshine?? These lemon squares or lemon cheesecake perhaps?? Or how about joining in with Ryan thinking that I am crazy for seriously considering repainting the front room that I just did yellow, like Pratt and Lambert Chamois ?

Sprinkling little rays of sunshine when there is none to be had, yellow is really making me happy right now!

Don't want to blink because we might miss Spring.

Today was beautiful, perfect spring weather. We knew we had to take advantage of it because if we blink, it will probably start to snow again. We enjoyed some bike riding today. I am itching to get my bike out too*. I really wish I had a baby seat on it for Sam. Or maybe Jake. This year is the year that we will learn to ride without training wheels. I know that I have said that for the past few years, but maybe this will be the year! And hopefully, Mia will have the hang of it soon too!
(*Edited: I got my bike out and took it for a ride. I learned a few things. One: I need a new tube for my back tire. Two: Mosquitoes already?? Three: I am most definitely, positively out of any sort of shape except flabby.)

Nine Years

Nine years ago today, Ryan and I were married. It was a beautiful spring day. The flowers were blooming and it wasn't too chilly. Crazy since the day before was a blizzard! We were young and in love and had no idea what to expect. Our lives have changed dramatically since that day starting with welcoming Jacob into our lives just ten months later!

I am so happy to be have Ryan. He's a good father, provider and husband. He still makes me laugh and he still gets good laughs at my expense. I can't believe that he can still pull one over me after all these years. You would think that I would have wised up by now.

Happy Anniversary Ry!!

New Finds

For some reason, I have seem to be in some sort of funk this month. Usually, I love April because the flowers start to bloom, it's getting warmer, our wedding anniversary and my birthday. All good things but so far, I am not feeling it. So, in an effort to feel more anything but blah, I have been wanting to shop. Oh, what a good little shopper I am! Shop, shop, shop, shop, shop! Isn't it fun when you find the best little treasure or that perfect something?? I know you girls know what I am talking about.

This month, I found a few favorites while thrifting. (Thrifting sounds so much fancier than saying shopping at the DI. I just found this interesting article about how Desert Industries came to be.) I found lots of little things, but here are my favorites:

• This vintage material. It was in a bag that had some natural colored canvas and some really loud 70's floral for just $3. I really liked the colors and the design and it wasn't until I came home that I discovered the border. I think it is cute, but but doesn't the girls bonnets look a bit more like duck heads. Duck headed maidens or bonnet wearing maidens. What do you think?

• How can 50 cents make your life so much happier? When you buy this darling pattern! I love how it wraps and that it is reversible. How fun! I am excited to try it out for Mia. It's marked size 7 so it might be a while. I want to make one and see how it fits. It's marked "easy cut - easy sew" so it shouldn't be to tricky.

• This cute tin wall flower bucket. It still had the price tag on it from J&J Nursery, a fancy dancy garden shop. Originally $44.99 (though I really doubt any one would pay that much for it) mine for only $2. Added the greenery and it makes a very cute new spring door hanger.

Speaking of the front door, it's desperately in need of new paint. Ever since we bought the house, I thought that I would paint it black but now, I am leaning towards a pop of color. What if my door was say, springy green similar to the bucket there? Opinions?

And of course, today is my darling niece Lauren's birthday. She is so stinkin' adorable!! She is so fun to be around. Ryan and I got married the day after her birthday so of course, the day before the reception, my family decorated the church all day. It was beautiful and they did a lot of work and of course, were there late. Lauren was there with her parents and didn't complain even though it was her birthday. She is wonderful like that. Her big sister Kaylin wrote a nice post about her today found here. Kaylin is pretty cool too. Happy Birthday Laursy! We love you!!

Cards

Time for card club again.

The first one is my card from last month. I used more scalloped edges because they are so cute! Tinkering Ink paper, Ric-rac and some thrifted buttons finish it off. This is a leftover card. I didn't line the buttons up to good, did I?

And this months card.

There are four different versions of this card. It turned out decent, but it's not my favorite. Very cute, brand new Basic Gray balloon paper and the cute stamp was done from Stampin' Up by a gal I work with. Looking at the picture, I think that I would rather that square be a circle. It was a last minute addition. Needed some color. Yeah, I agree with myself. Needs to be a circle.

It's very fun to see the cards the others come up with. They are so talented!

Just because......

Just because we bombarded Aunt Jessie at the last minute, just because she is awesome like that, just because baby bottoms are cute, just because we have so many pictures of Sam and just because we wanted more.

Village Baby

On Sunday, Ryan had to work so I was left to teach our primary class alone. Not really a big deal unless you have "Mr. Major Distraction and Has A Meltdown Almost Every Time I Teach Alone Sam". Halfway through opening exercises, he starts to lose it. Normally, I leave it alone and just deal with him, but that day, I knew I needed help. Looking around, there were no counselors or secretaries with the Primary President. My good friend was most likely not at church since she worked a grave the night before. I let it go contemplating what game we would play instead of attempting an actual lesson. We were just about to go to class when hooray for me, my good friend had just walked in to see if she could help. Sam was more than happy to see her and happily went with her. Hallelujah! Peaceful teaching. Big plus in my book.

Sam was great with her and now all we had to get through was Sacrament meeting. I wasn't too worried because I had packed a great bag of tricks. I had the entire contents of my pantry, new books, crayons and other goodies in my bag ready to entertain Sam who was now two hours past his nap time. No good. He was cross and I don't blame him. The treats were devoured, the crayons colored, the books flung and he.was.DONE! Problem since we were only five minutes into the meeting.

Kids were doing great, but Sam was so loud! I knew I had to take him out but the kids weren't hearing me. I told the kids to stay put and I would be right back. Stood up and my neighbor offered to sit with Jake and Mia. Another Hallelujah! While I was out in the hall, I was talking with another friend who was out with her baby. I mentioned that I was going to leave after the next speaker and she offered to keep Sam with her while I gathered my kids. Thank you! Such a big help. On the way in, yet another friend checked with me to see if she could help. How 'bout that! I know that I must be crazy trying to get tired Sammy through church, but I have to be in Primary and I want to be in Sacrament meeting so I keep doing it hoping it will get better. Jessica put it just right when she said that Sam was truly the village baby. I was so thankful for all of the help that was given and offered. So thankful for friendly neighbors and good friends that I can trust. So thankful that they care for my kids too.