Wi Fi Where Have You Been All My Life?

As I sit on my couch soaking in all of the possibilities, I am in awe of technology. In just one day we have increased our online presence significantly with a new iPad and a Google TV. Santa was very good to us this year and we are truly blessed. It will take a little time for me to learn how to do everything I am used to doing on my regular computer but I hope to be able to blog more regularly. Because that, my friends, is the gift that keeps on giving :-).
So just a quick update while I learn to add photos to posts.
The kids are great although why any toddler should get 5-6 teeth at once is beyond me.
Miss C is running all over creation and wants nothing to do with being held and certainly does not require hand holding.
Colin has been enjoying his Christmas gifts even though he was really sweating the Santa stuff. He was sure the big guy was not coming to our house this year. Colin's doing well and being well, Colin. See previous sentence about being worried that Santa was not coming.
I have been trying to craft but it's been hard to make time. I'm hoping to start working on Miss C's newborn photos. Maybe that will get my butt in gear? It was around 18 months when I started scrapbooking for Colin so I only have a few more months, right?
Anywho that's a lot of words with no photos, I will post some Christmas photos soon. Promise.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

A Few Photos...

Yeah, I'm a terrible blogger right now. It will get better...right?!?

SO over the last several months Colin has started first grade, Miss C has turned 1 and we visited Mickey and Jo Pa. See why it's been tough to blog, lol!

In the midst of everything I also need to make two costumes for Colin. One is a ninja as requested and the other is for All Saints Day for school.

Yeah, somehow I just think that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Have I mentioned that Miss C has started running?

Yep, totally going to get worse before it gets better :-)


Get the FREE Printables here, they are awesome.

Welcome....

Seems only fitting that the first layout I completed is about Miss C's birth story.

This layout was completed with Vintage Vogue by College Press Studio for Pink Paislee.

On Saturday, Matt took the kids so I could spend some time cropping in the scrapbook store. It was great to just clear my head for a bit, spend some time away from the kids and just focus on something that makes me happy. I can't explain how much of a difference this makes. I'm so grateful for having the opportunity to have a little me time. I really didn't get that much done but at least I started. I'm thankful that I have been able to clean my room a bit and get reacquainted with my supplies.

The one benefit of not scrapbooking in over a year is that all of my supplies are new supplies, (well at least to me, lol!)

I have to admit that when I received these lovely supplies from Pink Paislee, I was just grinning from ear to ear when I opened this box. So maybe I should thank them for helping me find my mojo again. Thanks so much Miriam and College Press Studio for thinking of me. You really made my day!

Two Posts in the Same Week....

What's even more surprising is that I scrapbooked yesterday.

Seriously, I hardly believe it either.

This is prompted the urge to clean my craft room. I forgot how much being creative gets my butt in gear. All of my laundry is sorted. Baskets that have been sitting upstairs since we left for the beach, in August, are put away and I even baked snacks for Colin.

It feels good to be me again.

So while I'm cleaning here are a few photos from the summer. Enjoy and I will be back with an actual layout. :-)

So Much to Catch Up On....

But first I wanted to post about something that is very important to me. I first heard about milksharing in the news with angry mobs of people denouncing the practice and participating in the traditional mommy wars. I am always surprised at how hot buttons issues can bring out the best in people when they have a computer and internet access.

When I had Colin, I diligently got up each morning on maternity leave and pumped so I could have a large freezer stash ready and waiting for when I returned to work.

Then Colin got sick.

I had no idea what I had eaten the weeks prior and I had to assume that all of my milk was contaminated with milk and soy proteins. So I took everything out of the freezer, defrosted it and poured it down the drain. I cried and cried for all the time and effort lost, but also I now had no safety net. The only formulas that Colin could tolerate smelled of dog food and were extremely expensive. The type of formula he needed we couldn't buy in a store and we needed to get it at the pharmacy. Our insurance would not pay for this even though it was medically necessary.

Thankfully he could tolerate human milk.

So we continued our breastfeeding relationship on a restricted diet and he continued to grow and thrive. There were many a days that I was panicked since for well over his first year of life I was his ONLY source of nutrition. If I got sick or had a drop in my supply there weren't many other options that I could provide.

Oh how I wish I knew about milksharing then. I could have given that freezer stash to a needy mom. I could have found another mom who was on a restricted diet and gotten some milk from her.

Fast forward to me having Charlotte and being a little obsessive about building a freezer stash. Several 100 ounces later I no longer had room in either of my freezers and decided to give it away. As much as I worried about my insurance policy being gone in my freezer, it was never a problem. Charlotte always had enough milk with just a little extra in the freezer for an emergency. I never rebuilt my stash to that capacity again but as she turns 1 year old next week I realize that everything I pump now is a bonus. I am so grateful for that.

I realize that this isn't something that lots of people talk about. But we need to talk about it. This isn't about making people feel bad for choosing formula. It's about human milk being available but not accessible to everyone. I choose to breastfeed, I nurse in public, I milkshare. However, I also let my children play with plastic toys, watch TV, and eat at McDonald's. As parents we all make choices that are the best for our families, it's just so much easier when we know all the options that are available to us.

The End. :-)

Look, I'm Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I realize that it has been far too long since I shared anything here but life has been a major zoo here. And not a small town zoo either, think major wild life and exotic hard to find animals kind of zoo. Yep, it's been crazy.

Here's a brief run down of what we have been up to. I'm pretty sure my family will be looking for me soon.


I am officially working 40 hours a week. I am anticipating the few extra hours a week will totally kick my butt until I get used to it again.


We got all dressed up and went to a wedding.


We have been spending loads of time at the pool.


At Dutch Wonderland and Hershey Park. Poor Charlotte, we just drag her around wherever we are going. Luckily she travels well. Although by the look of this picture you think I told her we were about to go around the whole park again :-)


We have also been finding things to do inside. Again, poor Charlotte since it usually means we are sharing a chuckle at her expense.


Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind :-)

Hope your summer is off to a great start!

Disney in the City...

We are back and just like I predicted, it really was all about the fashion, (and the allergen free food). We had a wonderful time and seriously cannot wait to go back. I think one of my favorite moments from the trip was on the way to the resort from the airport. We were watching the movie on the bus and they were playing that stupid memories begin commercial that makes me cry everytime I see it. I started to tear up and I looked over at Colin who was tearing up too! I said are you okay? He said, "I'm just so happy!"

That just makes my heart so happy.

Here are a few quick photos before I head off to bed. The red and white dress is the one I made and the cupcake photos are from Babycakes, the vegan bakery downtown.

It's All About the Fashion...

As we start packing for Miss C's first trip to the mouse I have noticed one very interesting theme...I'm very concerned about what she is going to wear. :-)
I have always packed Colin's best summer duds on a trip where there are photo opportunities galore but never with as much gusto as I have with Miss C.

Miss C has 5 swimsuits...most of these have ruffles like this one.



She has three costumes, Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse and Belle.

We have a pirate wig that I got for Colin that he wasn't too into but we nearly peed our pants when we put it on Miss C. If I have time I may make a peasant dress out of Muslin just for kicks.

I have cut out all the material for a few handmade dresses to take along as well as purchased her clothes for summer.

Now I have overpacked for her mostly out of concern that there will be blowouts. But now that I am thinking about it there may need to be costume changes just for the heck of it.

I can't wait to finally start taking pictures again :-)

Six and Six....

And just like that I have a six year old and a six month old. I can't get over how quickly time is flying right now. Miss C is eating and Colin has matured so much in the last few months. His sense of humor is sarcastic and borderline inappropriate at the same time...I'm so proud. :-) I love seeing him take an interest in his little sister and it melts my heart everytime I hear him say, "I just love her so much!"


Miss C is something else. We just started feeding her about a week before she turned 6 months, mostly because I wanted her to try most of the things we will be eating on our upcoming trip and well she was basically wrestling me for my food.

I'm not even kidding.

You would think I was starving the poor girl. Ummm she is obviously getting enough to eat, lol!
She hasn't turned down anything that we have offered her and it has been weirdly liberating to offer her something without looking for a manager and tracking down all of the ingredients. We just hope and pray that she continues to tolerate everything in her diet.

And just because I was looking though my 4000 photos today realizing that I really need to back my files up and found this for your viewing pleasure. This seems like it was five minutes ago but it was from 2009. I can't believe all of his "babyness" is gone. He is a riot and this totally made me laugh. We have one of these for every super hero.

I'm Baaaack....Kind Of :-)

It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks but nothing that a last minute to do list can't fix. We had Miss C. baptised this weekend and she needed a special dress to wear. This is Miss C. with her lovely Godmother Liz.

I used this pattern to make a simple blessing dress. It took me about 2 hours since it was a little late and I sewed one side backwards since I was getting tired. In my defense I did bake 5 dozen cupcakes this week since it was also Colin's birthday.

Here's the fam after the longest Baptism EVER.

Since both my kids are sleeping and I'm wiped I going to share these photos and hopefully come back soon with words and stuff. We only have a few weeks until our trip and I want to make at least one princess dress out of a knit material. Or maybe two or three.

Poor girl, she has no idea what she has gotten herself into.

This is Colin with his "baby" in our rented Boba. We rented a Boba to try it out and we loved it. We purchased ours on sale here. The owner Jill was a doll to work with and I just wished I had one of these with Colin. We chose this one since you can wear them until 45lbs and it has neat little foot straps to keep their hips where they are supposed to be. Very awesome.

I was going to share this one or the one where Miss C is eating Colin. Those are my favorite. But I think this will be my new facebook profile pic :-)

Okay that's it. I'm going to sleep, have a lovely day, week or month till I get a chance to say hello again!

Have I mentioned that I am ready for vacation?

Yep I'm 30....

First of all thanks to everyone who sent me lovely messages and emails. If it wasn't for you I may have forgotten that it was my Birthday altogether. :-)

Things are so busy right now that it kind of snuck up on me. It's probably better that way...way less traumatic.

Anywho since I continue to get snarky...I mean friendly, reminders that I haven't posted photos here are a few that I can muster together in between getting ready for tomorrow.




Happy Wednesday!

So I HAD to Blog About This.....

There is a Babycakes VEGAN bakery in Downtown Disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How did I not know about this??? Just goes to show that I have been away from the blogging world way too long when something like this slips through my radar.

So basically Colin can walk up to the counter and order ANYTHING!

He is going to freak. We had been thinking about going this Easter and well, finding out about this put us right over the edge.

How could we not go?

I cannot wait to walk up to the counter and let him pick whatever he wants...he has never had that many choices even in Disney. Donuts, cupcakes, cookies, and breads oh my! He knows about the trip but knows nothing about the bakery. We want it to be a surprise.

This is how Miss C feels about that....

Mommy feels the same way too.

Even though we had to think long and hard about it.


But watching your brother eat anything that he wants and you eating your brother it totally worth it.

If anyone needs me I will be cutting coupons and eating Ramen noodles.

Yeah...So I Went Back To Work...

And my life has kind of turned into a zoo. My Christmas tree is still up in my living room, in all of it's brown glory, and it's starting to get difficult to tell the difference between the clean and dirty laundry. I have officially completed four weeks back at work and I have showered everyday AND Colin hasn't missed the bus to his new school.

Impressed?

Although you can't tell from my house that I am succeeding, I feel like I am SLOWLY finding a new normal.



Well, at least the kids are fed :-)