Hero

On Saturday, the Winkler police department were sponsoring Spiderman. They'd invited him to come and do a presentation and sign autographs, etc.

We waited until Sage was done her nap and then hurried to the Southland Mall. We caught the tail end of his presentation and then got in line. Jonah had no desire to see Spiderman, so Cameron walked around the mall with him and Sage while I stood in line with Austin.



They were so great about posing for pictures and Austin got a signed card from Spiderman. He was quite thrilled.



I loved what the card said on the back. Good rules to live by. Nice to see a superhero promoting them.

Oh and sootherless, day two: an update. Sage did a little better today. No crying about the soother but she did ask for it about three times. It really takes her quite a long time to fall asleep without it, both at naptime and in the evening. But we're plugging on...

Look who's a big girl!

So, this morning, Sage comes up to me with her soother and points out the fact that it has a hole in it. And I thought: "Here's our chance to get rid of it!" So, I suggested because it's broken, that she should put it in the garbage. And she did.

I even got a picture of her putting it in the garbage.






What I didn't get pictures of, however, were the tears and drama that followed all morning when she'd ask for her soother. I'd remind her that she put it in the garbage and she'd cry and say: "But I need it! I need my soother!"



Then, at naptime, when she always uses it to fall asleep, it was a very difficult time. More tears. More drama. More: "I need it! You get it, Mom!"



And then she actually snuck out of her room and walked to the kitchen garbage where she was going to try to get it back! I wrapped up the garbage and threw it out.

So, it's been a bit of a long day. Nightime routine was minus the crying (thankfully!) but it took her a LONG time to fall asleep.

Hopefully it'll get easier after this!

What a great...

scrapbooking weekend!

We hosted our scrapbooking weekend! We hosted our monthly online crop this weekend at MSS and it was great. Lots of challenges. Lots of fun.

Susan came over on Friday night and, after a not-so-quick run to Walmart and the Shoppe, we scrapbooked together until after midnight.

On Saturday, I was able to scrapbook in snatches here and there and I just finished up a layout tonight.

I loved the challenges and loved getting #1 through 9 done out of 10. Don't know why that excites me, but it does! So here what I got done this weekend:


This layout was for the challenge I posted, which was to put a title on your photo.


The mini book I created (and fulfilled Marcy's challenge to use 7 products from different manufacturers.)


Austin's field trip layout for Liz's challenge to use something you'd normally throw away on a layout (I used the map of the park) and Val's challenge to combine circles and squares.


This layout was for the copycat challenge-- I scraplifted a layout from Anita's gallery.


Marcy challenged us to use negative space on a layout (not a very difficult challenge for me, as I am a fan of negative space.)


And Liz's first challenge was a sketch challenge. I made this layout using her sketch.
Thanks for looking!

10 things

Gratitude.

Ten things that I am grateful for...

1. A God who loves me and knows my name

2, 3, 4. Three beautiful, healthy children.

5. A warm house that I love.

6. That spring is coming (I know it is!!)

7. A husband who's willing to make our marriage work.

8. Great friends.

9. A fun evening planned for tonight with friends, scrapbooking and an online crop at MSS.

10. Sugar-free chocolate.

What are you grateful for?

Telling it like it is...

For a My Life, My scrapbook challenge on MSS, Jen suggested we list 10 of our favourite something (books, movies, whatnot...)

Anita posted her take on the challenge, which was to ask her son to list her 10 favourite things. (You can see her fabulous layout here.)

After signing up for the Kid Perspective class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, I thought this would be an interesting way to include some of my kids' perspectives in my albums.



So, I asked Austin to write down 10 things that I love. Here's what he came up with and the layout I made with it:





Some of the answers surprised me (like #7-- tag!) but all in all I was pretty pleased with his perspective-- especially where he listed himself twice!

Le Festival du Voyageur

Austin's class went on a field trip to le festival du Voyageur yesterday. And of course, I volunteered to go along.

I love going along on his field trips. He has such a great class that I really enjoy connecting with. And I love watching him interact with his friends and take everything in.

I especially enjoyed going to the Festival du Voyageur park in old St. Boniface yesterday. It totally brought back memories of going there on field trips with my school as a kid. And now, Austin's doing the same thing. Kind of a neat thing to connect on.

When we got there, we walked around and looked at the ice sculptures which were amazing.

Then we went to the toboggan run where the kids got to slide down the hill on innertubes.

After that, we had lunch (we brown bagged it!) Then heard an outdoor presentation about transportation in the time of the voyageurs. This was followed by a horse drawn sleigh ride.

Then, the kids enjoyed playing on a large snowhill with a pole with ropes attached to it sticking out of it.

Then we stopped at the Cabane a Sucre (the sugar shack) and saw them make taffy by pouring warm maple syrup on snow and rolling it up on a popsicle stick. This was followed by a presentation of an aboriginal legend of the creation of Lake Manitoba and a craft. After another stop at the washroom, the kids loaded back on to the bus for the ride home to Morden.

Joy in the moment

I found this quote on Ali's blog this afternoon:

"...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less." (Anna Quindlen)

When I read this, it totally struck a chord with me. I do that. I don't live in the moment enough. It seems as if my mind is always already onto the next thing.

And I was also struck by connecting this quote to my word for the year: joy.

I wonder how much more joy I would find in the moment, if I paid more attention to it (really lived in it) and didn't rush it along so much.

Just a thought.

These two...

are so much fun!

I love being a stay-at-home-mom and getting to enjoy Jonah (4 1/2) and Sage (2 1/2) on a daily basis.

Here are a few pictures I took today of things they did that made me smile.

Jonah giving his iguana a "ship ride." (After their baths, Cameron puts the kids in a towel and swings them back and forth. They call this a ship ride.)



Sage "hiding" in her room on her change table.





Jonah and Sage "being animals."



Just hanging around.



Playing Go Fish with Jonah while Sage napped.



Hope your day is full of smiles, too!

Why I scrapbook...

In Ali Edward's ezine today, she challenged everyone to come up with their own personal scrapbooking (or creating) manifesto.

She gave suggestions to finding it and asked us to answer the question: "why do I create?"

I discovered scrapbooking 4 years ago through my good friend, Anita. She was selling scrapbooking supplies at the time and when we had Bible study at their house, I loved looking through her albums. I'd think: "I would love to do this."

So, in May 2003, I dove in, hosted a CM party and haven't looked back. (Well, except during my first trimester when I was pregnant with Sage-- then the very thought of scrapbooking made me feel nauseated. Thankfully, that passed.)

For me, scrapbooking is a lot of things. But mostly, I think, it's telling the story behind the photos in a creative and enjoyable way. I love every aspect of scrapbooking: photographing, cutting, adhering, tearing, embellishing, journaling... When I started scrapbooking, it felt like finally everything clicked and I'd found a craft/artform that I could do and enjoy.

So, for my manifesto, I'd probably say:

1. It's good.
2. Tell the story. (which by the way, can be about the event, or just sharing your thoughts on the subject of your photo.)
3. Use your mistakes to make your layout better.

That's about it for now, but I might add to this later with a little more thought.

A typical Sunday

Today, was a typical Sunday.

Got up. Got myself and the kids ready for church. Our first service starts at 9:30 and this is the one we attend. During second service, Sage and Jonah go to preschool Sunday school (J.A.M.-- Jesus And Me) and Austin and I go to R.O.X. (Radical Over Christ). During both services, Cameron runs the P.A. This morning in R.O.X., our lesson was about prayer.

After church, we went through the McDonald's drive-thru and picked up lunch to bring home and eat. After lunch, Sage and Cameron took a nap. Jonah and Austin played on the computer. And I made brownies & scrapbooked.

After Sage's nap, we watched A Bug's Life on TV. I made waffles for supper. We all hung out together in the living room.

Austin got his dominoes out in the evening and set them up.

Unfortunately, Cameron wasn't feeling well, so he went to bed early.

Sage and Jonah got baths. We had a snack, read some stories and tucked the kids into bed. Austin stayed up a little later and read to me.

Once Austin was in bed, I checked a few items I'm watching on ebay, updated my blog and waited until 10pm to watch Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

A relaxed, casual Sunday. The best kind of day.

February 1st

I cannot believe that February is already upon us... Wow, January just flew by!

And with the arrival of February means that the Design Team at MSS have posted their layouts using the fabulous February kit.

Here are the layouts that I made with it:

(for Sage's album)




(for Jonah's album)


(For Austin's album)


(For my family album)


(Also for my family album. This one makes me smile-- I asked Austin to take the photo and it took , like, 10 tries before I got one I was happy with!)


(And this I made after being inpsired by Lisa McGarvey at Two Peas. I decided to do something similar for my word for the year and framed it with my verse.)


Happy February!