Teaser

If you hang out on Facebook, you've already seen this, but here's a little teaser for a little something I had done this weekend.

Can't wait to tell you all about my experience of crossing off Item #1 of my 25 for my 20s list!

More to come....

Shakeups

It's been pretty quiet over here, hasn't it?  Sorry about that.  If it makes any difference, it's only been quiet over here because things have been a little crazy over in our "real world."  Let's review.

Despite its initial signs of promise, the new approach to naptime with Micah is failing miserably.  He still isn't resting during that time and has now taken it upon himself to use that time to climb up into his brother's bed and drop his books to the floor like bombs.  Oh, and when I went in there about five minutes ago, I found him with his shirt pulled down around his waist, using the wooden giraffe bank as a hammer to pound on the collapsed clothes hamper.  Did I mention he also had a poopy diaper?  Yup.  Good times.

Our open house last weekend was a complete disaster and we didn't have a single person show up.  Again.  That makes 3 out of 5 open houses where we didn't have anyone come to look at our house.  Considering how the clock has begun to tick very loudly in our ears, we had to make the difficult decision to break up with our agent.  I hated doing it, but we're down to only a month and a half before we MUST have this house sold.  We had to do something drastic.  So, we met with our new agent on Wednesday and our first impression is that he's got the aggressive style we're looking for at this point in the game.  I'm praying that this is the spark we needed to get this house sold....FAST.  Still, it's stressful because I feel like we're starting all over again at square one.  New agent, new photos, new listing, the whole nine yards.  Only this time, we only have about 8 weeks to get it done instead of 11 months.  Yikes.

Thomas is this close to busting out his first tooth.  I can feel it and can see it hanging out just underneath the gum.  He was awake at 4:15 am last night, soaking wet and crabby as all get-out.  Baby's toofers hurt.

My blood pressure is probably running at a few notches higher than usual because I'm getting my very first tattoo tomorrow.  I'm both excited and scared to death at the same time.  I've been on the brink of calling to cancel my appointment about 15 times, but I didn't do it.  I'm really hoping I don't chicken out at the last minute.

Isaiah's going though a little phase right now where every single teeny little thing prompts a massive whiny fit. He will jump up and down, stamp his feet, and send his voice up into an upper octave that would make Mariah Carey cringe.  It's really quite the scene.  I am just praying this is short-lived.

There's some other stuff that's weighing on my heart right now as well, but I'm not going to get into it on the blog.  If you're the praying sort, just do me a small favor and take a second to ask God to guide my heart in the right direction and to give me the wisdom and patience I need to figure this stuff out.  He'll know what you mean.  :)

I do so love these little stinkers:

You know what?  Even when I'm having a particularly tough day where it feels like I can't even put on my socks correctly, there is something I can count on to make me feel better.

This.  When he walks through the door, I immediately feel better, even if it's just a little bit.  Even after he's been at work all day and, on most days, in the car for a total of four hours, he is quick to give me the attention I crave.  He never fails to make me smile, to say something to make me laugh, and to give me the embrace I need to feel loved or the space I need to regain my sanity.  We're a great team, but it's more than that.  It's going to sound so hokey, but I really don't feel complete without him.  I'm a better parent, a better woman, and an all around better me when he's with me.  I look forward to hearing that door open every night.  No matter what shakeups life throws at us, I feel confident in knowing that we can handle it.  We can make it through anything, as long as we have each other and the faith to remember that God has a plan, a plan for us to prosper and thrive.

Big stuff coming up in our world.

Big stuff.

(All photos by Jenn Van Wyk Photography.  Love her.  Love her photos.  Amen.)

Potty Talk with Micah

Enjoy a little glimpse into Micah's take on potty training!

Project Life Wednesday - Week 12

Sorry for the delay this week!  It was a really busy weekend and there was just no time for me to whip my layout together in time.  Only a day late!  Not so bad.  Here we go.

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday Wednesday! This is my third year of doing Project Life and I have found it to be so beneficial to have this post planned every Tuesday because then I have a standing deadline to get my photos done!  I'm doing things a little different this year and instead of the Photo a Day approach I've done for the last 2 years, I am approaching this year on more of a Layout Per Week basis.  This means that some weeks might have more photos than others, some weeks will be missing days, but the goal remains the same: To provide a glimpse of our life and preserve it.  This isn't meant to be stressful.  It's a wonderful way to simplify scrapbooking and memory keeping.

If you're looking for inspiration on what others are doing with their Project Life, you can check out my board on Pinterest and be sure to link up on The Mom Creative!

(Click on any photo to see it larger.)

I used two regular Design A pages this week and one Design B that I trimmed a bit.

Left Page:

I used a 4x6 template for Sunday's photo, a couple Cathy Z templates for the 3x4 photo spots, and I busted out a new Ali Edwards "Remember This" brush for that goofy photo of my kiddos.

Design B:

I trimmed off the right side of this insert to make it a little smaller mostly just because I like the look a little better when it's sandwiched between the Design A pages, but it also fit my photos better.  For the front side, I used some letter stickers on a regular grid journaling card to create a title card an an Avery tab label to make this page stand out.

The Design B page was all about my day trip to Chicago on Saturday, and it's pretty clear my photos centered mostly around shopping and food!

P.S.  I love washi tape now.

Right Page:

Pretty simple for the right page.  I used a lot of journaling on this page, including a 4x6 card.  I love how the "Hello Today" brush from the Ali Edwards set was PERFECT for the floor scrubbing photo.

My favorite part of this page is the Instagram of my doggie, Brian.  I love how the digital paper worked with the striped washi tape and that little "happy" sticker I found in my stash.  So cute.

I hope you had a great week!  See you next week for more Project Life - and hopefully I'll be on Tuesday this time.  :)

Not Gonna Happen

This is just a quick note to let you know that I'm about eyeball deep in photos from this week and since I was out of town all weekend, I haven't even started to go through them.  Project Life Tuesday is totally not going to happen on Tuesday this week.  If I'm lucky, I'll be ready on Thursday, but just bear with me.

Thank you for grace.

P.S.  Have you seen The Hunger Games yet?  Is it good?

P.P.S.  This happened while I was away on Sunday.  I swear, I can't leave those boys alone for a minute.

He's just fine.

What's Up

Someone said to me recently that she thought all along that everything would work out with our whole sell the house and relocate thing at the very last second.  That as soon as we took some actual steps toward starting our new lives in our new city, things would work themselves out back here.

I really hope she's right.  This week, we're leaving the kids with Grandma for a day while we head down to our new town/city/whatever.  We're meeting with a couple potential Realtors, a mortgage broker, and the two people (yes, we know a total of two people in the metropolis we're moving to) we know in town.  I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also apprehensive about getting too deeply invested into the cart before we know what's going on with the horse.

Wow.  That made no sense.  Sorry about that.

Bear with me; all three boys are napping at the same time and I didn't even have to fight Micah at all on it today.  I showered and everything and I still have time to blog.  It's messing with my mojo, I think.  Free time....strange.

Anyway, so that's on tap for the week.  Plus, I'm going to be crossing off another of the things on my "25 for my 20s" list and spending the weekend in Chicago with my sister-in-law and my cousin-in-law.  My sis-in-law made a point to warn me that she and Sarah (cuz-in-law) like to "go out and have fun," so I guess I better make darn sure I pack some cute jeans and my black boots.  Say a prayer for me that I don't make an idiot of myself, ok?  I've never been one for the nightlife scene and I always feel slightly awkward doing things like, you know...."going out."

Stop laughing.

If that weren't enough, we'll be holding an Open House at our home on Sunday (yes, while I am away) in yet another effort to bring in our long awaited buyer.  I am praying fervently that this is the time, this is the day when our buyer is going to walk through that door and make an offer so we can move on with our lives.

Very busy few days coming up here.  It is weird that all I can think about is how the heck I'm going to find the time to get Project Life done on time for Tuesday's post?  Please grant me some grace if I'm not able to pull it off.

Thomas is teething.

I pop that teething ring in the freezer to get it nice and cold and he does seem to like chewing on it.  The lower left tooth is just about ready to pop out of there.  Of course, that means that Thomas goes from looking like this:

to looking like this in about 5 seconds flat.

It's hard being a baby, I guess.

Well, I'm off to scrub some sinks before the little boogers wake up.  Gotta get something constructive done before my pedicure this evening!  What color should I get?  Decisions, decisions.

Project Life Tuesday - Week 11

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! This is my third year of doing Project Life and I have found it to be so beneficial to have this post planned every Tuesday because then I have a standing deadline to get my photos done!  I'm doing things a little different this year and instead of the Photo a Day approach I've done for the last 2 years, I am approaching this year on more of a Layout Per Week basis.  This means that some weeks might have more photos than others, some weeks will be missing days, but the goal remains the same: To provide a glimpse of our life and preserve it.  This isn't meant to be stressful.  It's a wonderful way to simplify scrapbooking and memory keeping.


If you're looking for inspiration on what others are doing with their Project Life, you can check out my board on Pinterest and be sure to link up on The Mom Creative!

I swear, if I keep adding this many inserts to most of my weeks, I'm going to need to make two albums for this year!  I used a 6x12 and a Design F in the middle of this week because I had a LOT of photos.

Click on a photo to view it larger.

Here's how it looks when you first open it up:

You can see the Design F peeking out there from underneath the 6x12, but we'll get there later.

Left Page:

Isaiah learned a song about Noah and the Ark at preschool and I couldn't resist taking a video of him singing it and using the QR code trick again.  It's such an easy way to incorporate video into this project!

6x12 Page:

 We took a trip to the zoo on Tuesday and that took a starring role in my Project Life this week, especially in this 6x12 insert.  I copied a blog post I wrote about the boys going absolutely bonkers over the river otter and used templates from Ali Edwards to pull it all together.  I had to get it printed online because I don't have a wide format printer (translation - $$), but I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

Design F:

There were just so many good photos from our zoo trip, so I had to bust out a Design F for the first time in order to include as many as possible.

Flip Side of Design F:

Isaiah ran around with my point & shoot camera and got a little snap happy.  He had so much fun and I must admit I enjoyed going through the photos later.  I think this is a neat way to showcase my little photographer's collection.

Right Page:

 Very simple page, but I love it.  :)

 I took a screen shot from our local news station to show the week's weather.  It has been absolutely INSANE.  I wish it would continue!

 Our copy of Game of Thrones arrived from Amazon this week.  My husband and I have both read the books and just love this show.

 Another gem of a moment from one of my boys captured by a sweet printable in Project Life.

First time I've used washi tape.  I like it.

This was a really busy week and this coming week is only going to get crazier!  I'm so grateful for Project Life to help me document it.  Love it.

See you next week!

A New Approach to Naptime

Clearly, I need to try something new with Micah and his non-existent naptime.  It's a daily struggle and it drives me absolutely crazy.  I won't go into the gory details because I've written about it over and over and over and I realize you all are probably starting to get tired of seeing yet another "Micah wont' sleep!" blog.

But that's not what this is about.  Micah is very strong-willed and if he has decided that he's not going to nap then there really isn't much I can do to change his mind.  Months and months of this song and dance has made that painfully obvious.  Instead, I think I need to take a new approach.

Naptime is from 1:00 to 3:00.  Maybe I just need to let Micah choose whether he uses that time to sleep or to quietly look at books in his room.  I've caught him with books more times than I care to count, so clearly it's something he likes to do.  It's quiet and restful and quite honestly, I've always felt kind of weird for scolding him for "reading."

He'll be required to stay in his room and be quiet for the duration of naptime, but should I maybe just allow him to look at books if he wants?  Who knows.....maybe he'll fall asleep anyway.

Thoughts?  Do I stick to the current routine of putting him back in bed every five minutes or just let him choose whether he sleeps or reads and only punish the bad behavior (like emptying out his dresser drawers)?

What would you do?  How do you handle your strong-willed child?

Building the Ark

Just in case you were curious, this is how it was done.



It kills me that he insisted on holding the paper with the lyrics on it.  Like he can read them anyway.

Love that boy.

When Otters Dance

The weather on Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't get a single thing done at home because we were gone pretty much the entire day.  In the morning, I brought my brood to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison and it was a picture perfect day for it.  Since it's technically still March here in Wisconsin, this kind of upper 60s / lower 70s weather has taken everyone by storm, but it's still a little early in the year for the big crowds to hit the free zoo.  Heck, the concession stands weren't even open yet!  The crowds were thin, the animals were loving the nice weather, and I got some amazing photos of my boys enjoying their outing.

The best part was when we were in front of the river otter exhibit.  At first, the otter was sunning himself up on the rock, but he decided to take a swim about 30 seconds after my boys pressed their faces up against the glass.  I wish I had been thinking quick enough to get out my camera with video because it was the coolest thing.

The otter danced for my kids.  I kid you not. These photos give you an idea of the show this otter was putting on for Isaiah and Micah.  Those two were FREAKING. OUT.

It was incredible.

That guy was a tough act to follow, but I did pretty well by bringing them to the Babcock Dairy Store on the UW-Madison campus (My alma mater! Go Badgers!) for the best Blue Moon ice cream in the entire world.

They each gave me a bite of their ice cream.  I dang near died and went to heaven.

Project Life Tuesday - Week 10

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! This is my third year of doing Project Life and I have found it to be so beneficial to have this post planned every Tuesday because then I have a standing deadline to get my photos done!  I'm doing things a little different this year and instead of the Photo a Day approach I've done for the last 2 years, I am approaching this year on more of a Layout Per Week basis.  This means that some weeks might have more photos than others, some weeks will be missing days, but the goal remains the same: To provide a glimpse of our life and preserve it.  This isn't meant to be stressful.  It's a wonderful way to simplify scrapbooking and memory keeping. 

If you're looking for inspiration on what others are doing with their Project Life, you can check out my board on Pinterest and be sure to link up on The Mom Creative!

I got to try out some sweet new tricks on this week's layout, so I am stoked to share it with you!

(click on a photo to view it larger)

Here's the full layout.  I finally got my butt to Staples and got a pack of those Martha Stewart labels so I busted them out this week.  I also used one of those super-cute cards from the Cobalt Kit that was absolutely perfect for a moment like this:

Left Page:

This page is all about those crazy boys.  Thomas liked to play with my camera strap, Micah came down with a fever, Isaiah gave Thomas a lesson in family dynamics, and Micah gave me a really rough time of it at naptime.

Right Page:

Thomas FINALLY ate some solid foods!  We had a really nice day with temps in the 50s, so we got to get outside for some playtime.  The boys tried out their bikes they got for Christmas and I did some creative advertising for our house with chalk.  :)  I also included photos of hitting my "Before Children" Weight and the creative way that we destroyed our very last credit card after paying it off!

I won a blog giveaway from The Mom Diggity for these super cute scarves, so I included the tag and the sweet little note included in the package.

Now for the really fun part.

Raise your hand if you've seen this video of Tracy's Disney trip in her Project Life album:

Source: youtube.com via Sarah on Pinterest

If you're like me, you got to about 7:50 in that video and felt the heavens open and a lightning bolt shoot out of the sky as you screamed, "That's GENIUS!!!"

Needless to say, I had to try it.

So, you'll notice a QR code on the lower left corner of this page.  I basically slapped a 3x4 photo onto a 4x6 canvas, used some Cobalt digital paper, and put the journaling on top. Next, I copied and pasted the QR code that I created HERE (after uploading my video to YouTube) on the bottom and voila!

Check out how this works:




How cool is that??!!!

Have you tried out anything new with Project Life recently?  Still loving this project as much as I am?  Leave me a comment if you've tried out the wicked cool QR code trick so I can go check it out!

See you next week!