Some recent layouts

Thought I'd share the layouts that I created using the MSS Red Star October kit:











This last layout also doubles as the October DT challenge-- "lists." I made a list in my journaling-- five things that I love about Jonah at age five.

Thanks for looking!

Resourceful

I'm sitting at the computer this afternoon and Sage came and found me. She spotted the can of diet root beer that I had on my desk and asked:

"Mom, can I have some root beer in a cup?"

"No, you can just have some from the can."

"But I want it in a cup."

"You can just have some from the can, Sage."

"Why? I want it in a cup."

"Because I don't feel like going and getting you a cup."

"But I want it in a cup."

"Then go and get your own cup."

"Okay." Minutes later, she returns with a little plastic cup from her toy kitchen and does this:

Gotta love her resourcefulness!

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Well, after a wild goose chase around southern Manitoba yesterday evening, we finally found my nephew, Luke's pumpkin patch.

He and his parents, Sally & Dale, were so great! They picked a bunch of pumpkins and piled them up so we could use them as a backdrop for our photos. The sun was a little bright from the side, but I'm really happy with the photos, nonetheless.


(I bribed Austin with a GameCube game rental to smile nicely for the photos!)



This guy was making lots of silly faces, but I managed to get a nice one!


Love this one of the three of them!

We went to the patch with Anita & two of her kids (I still feel badly for all the driving around we did to find it.) Sage and Jorja are friends and I was really happy to get this picture of the two of them:



Thanks for looking!

Friday stuff

Sage & I went to volunteer in Jonah's kindergarten class this morning and had a great time! I stuffed folders, helped them with their craft (apple stamping-- messy, but fun), cut out some stuff for the teacher and really enjoyed being in the classroom and seeing what they do. It was really great to see how much Jonah enjoyed having Sage there, too.





And Sage fit right in-- sitting on the rug for songs and the calendar stuff, playing with the kids during center time, making the craft, and participating during show & tell (in her own three year old way ;) ). Hmmm, will definitely have to consider pre-school for next year...


At lunch, the doorbell rang and there was a delivery man with my Scenic Route prize. Here's what I got:





All from their Sumner line: 15 sheets of double-sided patterned paper, a sheet of alphabet stickers, a sheet of word stickers and a package of chipboard accents. Very exciting! Definitely enough to get me in the mood for scrapbooking.

And tonight, if the weather cooperates, I'm going to take the kids to my nephew's pumpkin patch to take some pictures. Hopefully it'll be a good time.

My best, best girl

turned three today.



We went mini-golfing as a family on Sunday afternoon. And so this morning, I thought we'd invite Anita & Jorja and Susan & Abbie to come over for a little party, complete with pink frosted cupcakes. (Here's a shot that Anita took at snacktime.)



Then, when the boys came home at lunch, they were all upset that they missed her birthday. So we relit the candles at lunch and of course, they all wanted a turn to blow them out.


(Love Sage's expression in this one!)

And then, my favourite picture of the day:


a moment of pure sweetness!

Saturday stuff

First of all, I just wanted to thank you for your kind comments and encouragement from my last post. I must confess, I was stressed when I wrote it and used my blog to vent. But you made me feel very cared for-- so thanks!

We got the church basement done by six o'clock last night. (Our meeting started at 6:30 :) ). It looks great! So much brighter and fun! I had four people come over the past two days and help, which was absolutely fabulous. Such a great way to connect with people when you work on something together.

So, I was tagged by Marcy. The rules...

You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.) When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post and then choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't' forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

N - nice. Right?

I - initiator. It's often me who'll call friends and suggest getting together, etc.

C - creative. I love being presented with opportunities to be creative, whether it's scrapbooking, painting this week at the church, solving problems or planning stuff (for R.O.X., etc.)

O - organized. I love things neat and orderly and in their place.

L - living life to the full. Or at least trying to.

E - enthusiastic. I like to get excited about people & things. Probably the reason my "c" word isn't "cool." ;)

Okay... so let's see... I tag Anita, Heather M., Heather V., Carrie, Linda, & Cindy.

Well, the goals of my day are to:

Tidy up my house (this is much needed after several days of neglect.)
Make a birthday cake for my best, best girl. (She wants a bunny cake for our gathering with Cam's family tomorrow. Her cousin Luke, who's seventeenth birthday is tomorrow, is being a very good sport about the cake.)
Scrapbook. Yes, this will happen today.
Take Austin for a haircut at 3:30pm. (Picture day is Tuesday.)
Head to Winkler to pick up my pictures at Walmart and check out the new goodies at the Shoppe.

Busy

This week feels crazy busy.

Now I normally like being a little busy, but this week feels a little overloaded.

Jonah is in school every morning and Austin is all day. So it's out of the house before 9am every morning.

This weekend we're having a volunteer orientation for R.O.X. and we're kicking off Sunday School on Sunday morning. So, I've been getting stuff ready for these two things, which are pretty big in themselves.

But...

Add on top of that that we decided to paint the whole Sunday school area and it's just getting done this week. Which wasn't too bad, because I had two people lined up to help me. But now this evening. one of these people said they wouldn't be helping after all (not creative enough for her and the last minute thing didn't sit well with her either.)

So, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, trying to prioritize things.

I talked to Anita this evening at soccer and she said someone said to her: "You think you're busy now, wait til you have teenagers!" Why do people say things like that? Is it helpful or encouraging? Not so much. I felt busy with one baby, I feel busy with three kids. Busyness isn't something that can be measured. And it's felt in different ways.

Anyway, I'll just pray that God will send me wisdom in what needs to get done, strength to do ti and peace.

Back to School

Well, last week the boys started school.

Austin had his staggered entrance Wednesday morning. We took this photo on the front steps before leaving:

He's holding up three fingers for grade three and Jonah's making a "k" in sign language for kindergarten. Sage is just trying to be like her brothers!

I think grade three will be a good year for Austin, even if he has to play on a different playstructure at recess (his only complaint so far!)

Jonah went for his first day on Friday. At home, he gave Sage a big hug in his room and said: "I'm really going to miss you, Sage!"

At the door, he asked: "Mom, are you going to miss me?"

I said: "Oh yes, Jonah. Are you going to miss me?"

"No."

LOL!

We biked to school. Love this shot:

And I took these at the school:

Here's looking forward to a great year!

Bye-bye curls

I took this photo of Sage a few weeks ago. I love how curly her hair looks in this picture!

Well, yesterday afternoon, she decided that she didn't like her curls anymore and chose to do something about it. Using her new pair of scissors.

I was sitting at the dining room table and all of a sudden, I heard her say something about "no more curls." Then I saw all the hair on her lap.

So I made an emergency hair appointment and this morning, we went to get it fixed. Here's what she looks like now:

I won!

Scenic Route has a monthly contest on their website and for the past two months I've submitted some of my scrapbooking layouts for it.

Well, yesterday afternoon, I got an email saying that I was one of the 10 winners for the month of August. They picked this layout:



which is now on their website here. (Just scroll down to "boy" if you'd like to see it.)

And my prize: "some goodies from their Sumner line." :) Sounds good to me!

Too funny!

So, it turns out that the man who I wrote about in this post, the one who took some pictures of Val & me at the Corn & Apple Festival parade, is named George Siamandas. I guess he likes to go to different festivals in Manitoba and take pictures of people, create montages and post them on YouTube. I got an email from a Corn & Apple Festival committee member who passed on a link of someone who made a film about the festival. I was half way through watching it when I thought--I wonder if this is the same guy who took our picture... when suddenly, there we were!

You can watch it here. (Sorry I didn't post the actual film in my blog-- couldn't quite get that to work today.)

Corn & Apple Festival story #4

Okay, not another story. Some highlights & favourite pictures from our weekend at the Corn & Apple Festival.

On Friday, we went in the afternoon & checked out the booths first. Austin always likes to take a turn in the Bison driving simulator. I love this picture, because Sage has become such a little poser lately, smiling so nicely for the camera. Love it!


Here's a cute one of Sage at the petting zoo. See what I mean? She poses so nicely.


Cameron went to drive the shuttle bus


and I took the kids on some rides. You'd think from these photos that putting Sage on the Dragon Wagon was a bad idea, but she really enjoyed herself. Really.



We saw my niece (Heidi) & nephew (Luke) at Luke's farmer's market booth. (Jonah isn't as good of poser as his sister-- LOL!)


At the petting zoo on Saturday afternoon, on the pony rides.


We met up with Austin's best friend, Soren, and they went on the rides together. This is on the Sizzler


and the tea cups (love this one!)


and the pirate ship.


Sage loved the merry-go-round just as much as she did at Tinkertown.


And two tired little boys at about 5:15 Sunday afternoon, just about ready to go home.

Corn & Apple Festival story #3

It's towards the end of the festival. The kids have gone on rides for a good part of the afternoon. They've eaten the kids combos I bought for them (hotdog, chips & a pop) and a good portion of a bag of cotton candy while sitting at the Chris Rice concert. We were just about to head home, when the Jonah spotted Laurie, the clown on stilts who makes balloon animals.

Now, on Friday, we stood in line for said balloon animals for over half an hour, only to have Jonah's balloon pop once we got home. So, of course, he wanted a replacement.

So, while standing in line, this woman comes up to me and asks if my name is Leah.

I said, it's Leigh.

She said her name was Lori. And I recognized her as one of the managers that I worked for at McDonald's 15 years ago.

I told her I was surprised that she recognized me.

And she said that I look exactly the same!

So I thought, that's pretty good that I still look 19. ;)

(By the way, Jonah's balloon animal popped when we pulled into the driveway-- it didn't even make it through the front door!)

Corn & Apple Festival story #2

Last night, my kids spent the night at my MIL's, so I could volunteer in our church's booth at the C&A Festival.

So this morning, I went for a run. And I've run about 7 blocks when I hear:

"Nice butt, Leigh!!"

I turn around and there are Marlo & Mary running behind me.

Thanks for the compliment, guys! ;)

Corn & Apple Festival story #1

This morning, as per our Corn & Apple Festival tradition, we went to watch the parade. We picked up doughnuts from the Youth for Christ golf cart and staked out a spot to watch.

My friend Val & her family came and sat with us. The parade was good and it was nice to catch up with Val, as I hadn't seen her in a week.

Towards the end of the parade, I noticed an older gentleman take a picture of an older couple sitting close to us. He encouraged them to sit closer to each other and for the man to put his arm around his wife.



Then when he walked past us, I said, jokingly: "Did you want to take our picture, too?"

And he said: "Sure!"

So I actually handed him my camera and he took some pictures of Val & I with it and then took some more with his own camera! It was so funny!

When he asked us where our husbands were, I told him that mine was driving the shuttle bus.

"Oh," he said. "I met him. He's a real ambassador to Morden."

So when Cameron came home later, I asked him if he had any passengers on the shuttle bus take his picture, he said: "Yeah. How did you know that?"

Apparently, he took pictures of everyone riding on the bus! That just makes me laugh, because he was such a nice man and so funny and you could just tell that he was enjoying himself immensely.

Here are the pictures that he took of Val & me:

What's new

This week has gone by so quickly.

Austin had soccer practice on Monday, which he enjoyed. Except we can't find his shin pads. I told him that he'd have no screen time (TV, computer or gamecube) until we found them. So far, they are still missing. But he's been playing more with his toys, so that's good.

We went to Tinkertown on Tuesday with Mary and two of her boys. That was a really great day! The kids had a blast and the weather was quite good. I'd post pictures, but my computer isn't reading my camera for some reason, which is not good. I'm going to Winkler tomorrow to get a new USB cord. So hoping that that's the problem and nothing serious.

Cleaning/organizing/purging in the house this week. Feels good. I'm thinking of having a garage sale in September, so I'm starting to put stuff away for that. And just tossing lots of stuff out. Of course, I'm putting toys aside for it that the kids never play with and then they see them and start playing with them!

And the Corn & Apple Festival starts tomorrow. It's fun and it's free. Riding on the shuttle bus, the parade, petting zoo, rides, free corn, helping out in our church booth, Chris Rice in concert. Should be a good weekend.

And this weekend is our monthly online crop at MSS. That should be good, too.

I've been looking forward

to taking this picture all summer.

I took it last night on the dock at the beach. I love it. I love him.

Birthday week

On Tuesday, it was my birthday. (As well as my twin brother's birthday-- Happy Birthday, Chris!)

But it seems like I've had a week's worth of birthday celebrations.

To kick it off Monday evening, my wonderful friend, Valerie, brought a cake, chips and pop to baseball in the evening and surprised me with a "party" after the game.

Then, Tuesday, we went to Grand Forks with our friends Al & Darlene and had a great three days together. (Here's a a picture of Darlene and I in the hallway of our hotel.)

Then, yesterday, my friends Cyndie, Pam, Mary & Val took me out for brunch (& provided babysitters, too.)

And then, my very good friend Anita stopped by in the afternoon for a visit.

I love my birthday week. If anything, it is just a fabulous reminder that God has blessed me with awesome friends!

Eight blocks!

So, I started running in spring again. I started with two blocks jogging and one block walking. Then I went up to 3 & 1. Then 4 & 1. And then I pulled a muscle in my leg. Which I took as an excuse to stop running for four weeks.

Then I started again with 3 & 1. And up to4 & 1. Then the other day, I thought, I should try to take out a section of walking in the 2 1/2 km that I run. So I ran 6 blocks at the beginning. This was on the weekend.

So this morning, I thought I'd do again. But for some crazy reason, I'd played with the math in my head, and decided that I could take out another section of walking if I ran eight blocks and walk one. And I did! I've never run that far before! I did two sections of 8 & 1 and then a last section of 5.

I'm so excited! It's so cool when you can do something that earlier seemed impossible.

The Lost Book

We enjoy going to our local library and taking books home to read. In Spring, Sage took out the book Dora’s Starry Christmas (she’s quite the Dora fan!)

And we lost it.

We renewed it to give us some more time to find it.

We searched high and low, but couldn’t find it anywhere.

So on June 10th, I paid for the book. $5.50.

The librarian told me that if we found the book in two months, then we could return it to the library and get our money back.

And I joked that we’d most likely find it on August 11th: the day after the deadline.

Well, wouldn’t you know it? We had water in our basement yesterday, so last night, Cameron was moving furniture out of the spare room to lift up the carpeting, when Sage said:

“It’s the Dora book!”

It had slipped behind the bed in the spare bedroom, behind the headboard. And when did she find it?

August 11th.

Of course.

Summer favourites, part 1

I LOVE summer!! Hands down, it is my favourite season. And after Jonah's birthday, I start to feel a little panicked that it's ending. So I try to enjoy my favourite things about it as much as possible.

And a few of these favourites include:

Playing baseball. Well, slow-pitch, really. A bunch of people from church gather at the park on Monday evenings and we make up teams and play. So much fun and such a great way to fellowship with part of our church family.

Ice cream. I splurged on some Breyers Heavenly Hash this week (it was on sale!)

Fresh fruit. Especially strawberries and watermelon.

Going to the beach. I love having a local beach. Such a luxury! I figured we've been over twenty times this summer already.

Birthdays. Cameron's. Jonah's. Mine. Love celebrating birthdays.

Going to the park. Morden has such nice parks, all within biking distance. So nice!

So, now it's your turn. What are some of your favourite summer things?

Sand Pie

I love the stage Sage is at right now. Totally enjoying playing with her toy kitchen and "making" food and serving it. Yesterday, when my friend Mary was over to scrapbook, Sage came up to each of us in turn with a tray with little plates and food on them (a plastic strawberry and tomato!) What a great hostess!

And then later in the afternoon, while playing in the sandbox, she came up to me and offered me some "sand pie." So cute!

It's somebody's birthday today

I can't believe he's five already! I'm so thankful that God blessed me with this sweet, imaginative and wonderful little boy.

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

My week

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.

Here's what I've been up to:

It was Cameron's birthday on Monday, as well as his dad's . We had supper at my FIL's where he lives at Salem in Winkler. Cameron's mom and sister and her family joined us. I made Cam's dad a framed layout of our family and when I gave it to him, Sage pointed out who everyone was to him. So cute!





Played slow-pitch on Monday night with people from our church. I love playing ball! So fun. And such a great way to connect with people from our church family.

On Tuesday, I met my friend Darlene at the church and we picked out music to sing on the worship team on Sunday morning. Then we biked to the doctor's with the kids to check out the infection on Sage's arm and the infection on Austin's toe. Then we had lunch at McDonald's, followed by ice cream at Tasti's, where the kids played until after 2pm. I love days like that with friends where the day just stretches out as we spend time together.

Wednesday thru Friday were somewhat the same during the day. We went to the beach in the morning to hang out with my friend Val whose kids are having swimming lessons. In the afternoon, we'd relax or I'd clean. I've also done quite a bit of reading this past week.

(I'd reserved Sophie Kinsella's newest book in the Shopaholic series from the library and figured that I'd reread the first four books so I'd remember the characters, plot lines, etc. Well, I read all four books in five days! And then the library called yesterday morning to say that the newest book Shopaholic & Baby was in. I picked it up on the way home from the beach and finished it last night at 2 am!! )

On Wednesday evening we took Cameron's new boat (his birthday present) to the beach for a test run (test float?) The kids and I bought it last week and at supper one evening, Austin said: "Dad, we got your present. I'll give you a hint." And despite the fact that Cameron and I told him not to, he said this:

"It's not a boat."

Silence.

Followed quickly by Jonah and Sage saying: "Yes, it is, Austin. It is a boat."

So much for surprises.

So we took the boat to the beach and had some fun.







Sage liked the idea of the boat much better when she wasn't sitting in it. If she was in it and we moved off the shore, she'd start crying and asking for the parent on the beach.

This morning I went for a run (that's twice this week!) and biked with the kids to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for Jonah's birthday party tomorrow. I spent part of the day baking and icing his cake and making salads, etc. for our barbeque tomorrow. (And I also got a chance to scrapbook a little this afternoon.) I was inspired by a Lisa McGarveyLisa McGarvey layout in the August Scrapbooks Etc.Scrapbooks Etc. and created this layout:



I used:
Bazzill cardstock
Patterned paper: Scenic Route, Bo Bunny, Rhonna Farrer, Magnolia, MOD & Foofala
Buttons: MOD & Stampin' Up!
Chipboard: Scenic Route (title) andI can't remember the swirls. Maya Road. Or maybe Fancy Pants? I adhered pp to the chipboard, cut it out and sanded the edges. On the two largest swirls, I didn't cut right along the chipboard, making my own shape.

Thanks for looking!