New Year's Tree

Since my camera was broken I was not able to share my New Year's Tree with you. My idea is that I am going to try to decorate this tree on the landing area of our stairs (out of the way so it can't get on my nerves that much) for some different holidays. I just hated to take my Christmas tree down this year, so I am going to try it with this little one. We decorated it for New Year's with some blue, turquoise, and green balls and I left the white snow flake lights on it. I added a quick cardstock topper that says 2009 with silver embossing. I also just threw the snow blanket at the bottom for the skirt. We'll see how long I can leave this tree up, I have never had one past the Christmas season.

In Today's Technology News...

This past weekend I went shopping with my grandma for their first computer. My grandma just retired at the end of December and her and my grandpa have never had a computer at home. She used one at work but my grandpa never has. My grandma's knowledge is fairly limited, but she can get around with one a little bit. My grandpa however, has no idea what to do when we try to tell him about all of the things he will be able to use it for. We have tried explaining to him all of the things he can look up on the internet etc. One of the things we were telling him about was that he could find driving directions for their upcoming trip to FL. As we are telling him he wants to know if it costs to look those up using google. He just isn't understanding the www thing. I think once he gets to using it he is really going to like have access to anything he could want to know about and more. So.... we decided a notebook would be the best style for them and we got them all set up with the computer and a printer. I have called the two options for high speed in their area for them and we need to call back this week to confirm a time for them to switch some of their current utilities to a bundle package and set up a date/ time for installation.
Even more exciting is that a few more friends have joined the blogging world. I am happy to introduce to you Hollie, Monica, and Ashley.
Hollie is my good friend who I used to teach with. She moved away about 2 years ago and is expecting her 4th child.
Monica is my co-coordinator in our MOPS group and is raising 4 boys. She is married to one and has 3. She has lots of crazy stuff that goes on in her house!
Ashley has a private blog so you can leave a comment for her on this post and wish her luck with her blogging experience. She has 2 girls and just had a little boy just over a month ago.

Great job girls! Now, get to posting!
Stop on over to check out their blogs and introduce yourself to them! I am so proud of them for trying to be like me. Just kidding. But I am happy they have blogs now! I hope they get on the ball with their posting however!

Inauguration Bling

Are you ready for a quick and easy craft to show your pride on the big day in history Tuesday? We crafted these cute little Obama neclaces to wear after being inspired by the Amazing Moms website. I used card stock to layer red, white, and blue and glued a picture I printed off the web to the top. I used my star hole punch to cut the hole and saved the 3 cut-outs to glue onto the bottom under the picture. After I had everything in place, I Mod Podged over the top of the front and back. Once dry, we used white yarn and a red, white, and blue pony bead on each side of the neclace. Presto! Wala! Beautiful little spirit badge! You can also check out some more Inauguration fun ideas at One Pretty Thing.

Look who's back!

Yeah, I'm so excited.

Date Night and a few new books

Hubby left at 5 am on Friday morning to go to Kansas for a wrestling tournament. B and I had a little "date" that evening. We went to my favorite Sandwich shop Jimmy Johns for dinner. While we were eating we took some sillly pictures on the camera phone and sent them to daddy. This one is an "I love you" picture he sent to dad. All of us are always doing this sign to each other. Matt was due to get back the following night.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Target and then headed to Barnes and Noble. B loves to play at the train table there and I love to look at books so spending time there is always fun for both of us. We ended up staying there for about an hour or so before heading home. The new books I picked up were:



The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and pictures by Crockett Johnson, illustrator of the Harold books which we love.


Martin's Dream to read to the little ones tomorrow on MLK day.


My Own Very Hungry Caterpillar Coloring Book- I had never seen this one! We love the Very Hungry Caterpillar and this looks like so much fun!

Too Many Toys by David Shannon. We are big David Shannon fans and when I saw this book I had to grab it. I know another little boy with too many toys!
Too Many Toys: David Shannon - The most popular videos are a click away
Also on the subject of books: Here are two other suggestions for you for the next few days:
An old favorite: Martin's Big Words. I LOVE to read this book aloud. I used it in my classroom and the kids really enjoyed listening to it. It is by Dorreen Rappaport. Wonderful book.


And a new favorite: Barack by Jonah Winter. Great book for kids about our new President-Elect and we will definately be enjoying these two over the next few days.

Adventures as a wife and mom

On Thursday my friend Ashley and I ventured up the road to LC highschool to watch our hubby's coach the wrestling dual. This is her hubby's first year to be helping Matt coach and they are both Glenwood Alumni so they have a lot of fun coaching the Rams together.

Where should I start to explain how *wonderful* our night was?

Lets see... First we always make quite an entrance with her 3 and my Brock. Of course we were late getting there. So we have to walk through a huge crowd of fans as we find our way to a spot that looks big enough to accommodate our big clan. It was a mini family reunion for me so we squeezed into section surrounded by several of my relatives. Once we were seated, we moved on to getting hats, coats, gloves, blankets, etc. off of the 6 of us. Next on the plan was discussing what we needed for dinner from the concession stand. We leave right after I get off work so it is always time for dinner when we get to a dual. This time it was Ashley's turn to go get the food so she went down with our order while I stayed with the kiddos. On her list was: 3 hot dogs, a pretzel with cheese, cheeseburger, nachos, pepsi, and 2 gatorades. She calls me from the concession stand to tell me they are out of pretzels (for me so I was totally bummed. They are my favorite!) so I have to switch to the old standby of a hot dog for myself. B and E enjoyed sitting nicely together while they waited for their dinner as I played with C.

As I look over and see her coming back through the crowd in the stands I have to bust out laughing because for the first time, they sent her back with a BOX! I couldn't find my phone to take a picture fast enough (camera still broke). Of course we have to get the kids their food asap to get them settled down so there was no time to take a photo while the food was still in the box, but here it is after we served dinner to the kids.

B, E, and C all enjoyed cheering for the Rams while they yelled out "There's my dad!" and drank their gatorade.

Hubby's mom took a turn holding Ashley's new baby N while we ate. He was sporting his Rams shirt just like his big sisters.

Then it was baby N's time to eat. Ashley spent some time feeding him in the posh surroundings of the ladies restroom. I am at least hoping she used the handicap stall so she has some extra room. During this time, the kids began to get silly. B, E, and C all had fun laying on each other and squeezing into the small space between each bleacher. Usually C was laying on top of them but for some reason she was not in this picture.

I think Ashley asked the question when she came back "Is it even worth leaving the house for this?" I would have to say yes, but I do think she plans on getting a babysitter next time.

We lost the dual to LC that night which is always a bummer, but as we bundled up to go home, I still had fun. B got to ride the bus home with his dad again which he really enjoys. I wanted to go to Target since I had a little time to myself but as I got in the car it was 9:58 and Target closes at 10. Bummer. I headed home and took this picture to show how cold it was that night.

One more thing I forgot to mention. I said that we squeezed into a spot when we arrived with a little space around us. At the end of the night we had a quite a large area around us. Ashely and I said we should have counted the number of people who moved away from us. I wonder why. :) Next time we are going to sit on the visitor side I think, if Ashley doesn't get a babysitter!

Photo Friday

6-11-08

Don't you wish it was warm enough out today that we could go out and blow some bubbles?