Hey There Stranger....

So it's been ages. I have thought about blogging on one occasion or another but just didn't have the motivation. Or the desire to go stay up after I got the little ones to bed. But here I am, looking for a distraction from my homework. Yep, I said homework. The last few months have been a complete blur but I think I may be on the path to where I will ultimately end up. I'm currently in graduate school trying to determine if I even remember how to study, or write a paper or the very tactful skill of getting all of your class participation points without sounding like a know it all. Turns out I still got that part nailed down, the other stuff, I think it is coming back to me. The good news is that I have a new lap top so my internet life should be much more streamlined. I have an professional organizer coming to my house tomorrow to help me determine a game plan to maximize the space in my house while getting rid of all the crap that I have let accumlate. I want to make stuff. Play with pictures. And maybe get my sewing machine out. I have lots of photos to share and once I get my act together I may even get them off of my camera. I really want to document the next two years as best as I can since I think I will blink and I will miss my kids growing up. Trying to juggle grad school and being a good Mom is a challenge that I know will be worth it. So here's hoping that I get to say hi more often than every 6 months. Maybe once a week? Who knows but gosh darn it I'm going to try. Can you even get over how cute they are?!

Guess Who Got A New Phone....

I have entered the land of constant contact and eternal peace, also known as the iPhone.
Am I overreacting that this phone has improved my quality of life?

Totally Random Thoughts....

I'm eating an apple while blogging on Colin's iPad.
I finally figured out my Pampered Chef can opener. Totally awesome btw, thanks You Tube.
I died a little on the inside when our high speed Internet wasn't working. If it wasn't for my Blackberry I may have totally lost it.
Just got home from the gym and the kids are with their grandparents and Matt is at work. I am so excited to take a shower in peace.
Going to purchase a new car seat today for Miss C, we have rewards dollars and Babies R Us has their trade in event going on.
I love saving money.
I am currently working on my Project Disney book. Each spread will be a summary of each of our past trips. I love that they will all be in one place and I will get see how our family and the park changes over the years.
It's really hard to type with just one finger while eating an apple.
Happy Saturday!

We Are...Because You Were

How I Am Using Project Life....

Yeah, I know.

If you read blogs or are on Pinterest. It's everywhere.

If not you can read about it here.

So I started thinking about this project 11/13/2009. This is the day that I decided to have a baby. I still have no idea what changed my mind that day I was driving to work, but I did, and that was the day our life changed.

So I started taking a picture everyday so I could document the process from infertility treatment to birth. I was so excited to keep track of every detail...and then I got pregnant and totally forgot how exhausting growing a person is. So I pretty much stopped everything related to memory keeping since I was just barely keeping my head above water. But now I am starting to feel little bits of my old self and I'm ready to tackle a project. (Or at least I think I am).

So I've decided to finish the album I started but also use it to catch up.
I have barely printed a photo in the last two years. TWO YEARS! Everything is kind of a blur from 2009 to now. One of the great aha moments of my life happened when I realized that I didn't have to try to take a photo for everyday or have a layout in this album for every week. Seriously this was a pretty life changing revelation for me. Yes, I know...I don't get out much.

So this album will cover weeks from 11/13/2009-January 2010. Then I got a little sketchy with taking photos and January-September 2010 will be months in review layouts. I am using We R Memory Keepers 4x6 page protectors for this project so months that I have 7+ photos get a 2 page spread, months with less than 7+ photos get one page. Again...LIFE CHANGING :-)

October it picks up again to weekly layouts since this is when Miss C was born and babies sleep so much at first and well I was excited and I took lots of photos. Yeah that didn't last long and once we get to January 2011 we are back to monthly highlights. This album will hold everything up until 2012. I plan on starting a new album and stick to the week in review approach.

I'm so stinking excited for this and I suddenly feel much for organized and less guilty about sleeping. And get this...I saw an idea to use this for frequent Disney trips and I was all like..."Hey that's us...we have 8 trips that are just waiting to be put somewhere." Again, LIFE CHANGING. Seriously.

Happy New Year!

Yes, I realize that it is already seven days into January but this is the first chance that I have gotten to slow down all week. I am currently sorting through photos to attempt, again, to be successful with Project Life. If you haven't heard of it by now, you may be living under a rock, or you don't spend a great deal of time on the internet...good for you :-)

So for me this year, I purchased two styles of page protectors, (B and F) and a new We R Memory Keepers album that I was able to use a 50% off coupon. For everything else, I'm going to use what I have. I have so much stuff that has been collecting dust over the last year that it all seems like new product to me anyway. That's the one good thing of getting out of the whole publishing thing for awhile, the pressure to use the latest and greatest is gone. I can just use what I like regardless of when it was manufactured. Don't get me wrong, as soon as I can start fitting scrapbooking into my life again I will start submitting, but for now I am learning to appreciate the break.

Before I go, I just wanted to share a few photos of our Christmas holiday.


This is TJ, our very naughty elf. He is wearing the bow tie I made for Colin's Christmas concert. I originally volunteered to make 155 of them. Don't worry, I eventually came to my sleep deprived senses.


Reindeer Food and Teacher Gifts.


Eating our Gingerbread House.


Colin squeezing Miss C. too hard as usual.
I can't explain why his legs are in the air.


This is a weird face that Charlotte is making but it's the only one where she kept on her headband that I made her. I threw this together 5 minutes before we left for Christmas Eve dinner at my Mom's. Gotta love a glue gun and a cuttle bug.


Miss C. is starting to be much more aware of whatever Colin is doing and wants to sit right next to him or even on his lap. Keep in mind that Miss C. walks around like she owns the place so it is very possible that she thinks Colin is her toy, chair, servant etc but I still think it is cute.

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.