I'm glad we're not dealing with this kind of weather yet! This is from our March ice storm.

Christopher has been sick this week, but I think is finally on the mend.

To tell this next story requires a bit of background for those not intimately familiar with Michael and his quirks. His main hobbies, at age 21 months, are garbage, vacuums, dogs, and books. He makes a weird rattling sound in his mouth, kind of like ACCKKKKKKKKKKKK for garbage, and can point out any garbage can, anywhere, no matter what style or how well camouflaged into the environment. Case in point: he spent more time pointing out garbage cans at the Henry Doorly Zoo than looking at the animals.

He is obssessed with vacuum cleaners and says the word quite well, with a twist. "Vacuum-me" We're not sure if he's saying the vacuum is his, or "vacuuming" or what. He's not fond of it when it's turned on, but he'll play with the real one or his toy all day long if given the opportunity. Jeff has even looked at pictures of vacuums on the internet with M, and Christopher interrupted them last night and wanted to look at his favorite LEGO site. M gave him a nasty look and let out with his first sentence, "No, Titter, vacuum-me"

Well I must be an official geek now- as of last week, my laptop was FULL, as in would not let me download things, could not even open a file in Photoshop. (Help, Santa!) So until I have a better solution, some of my digital scrapbooking files will have to live on the desktop.

In the last week, Michael's vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. We know he understood most of these words before then but had yet to say them himself. In the last month he's become very good at parroting what we say, but he's now crossed the border into talking on his own initiative. Example: While shopping at Hy-Vee the other day, he pointed to the bakery and said, "cookie," plain as day. He remembered a time or two ago when Christopher was along and they got cookies. Michael even asked politely "pease" at the bakery and received his prize.

Scrapbook pages above:
Top left: Christopher with Jill (my sister-in-law) on her hospital bed right after Lucy was born. Journaling reads:

When I met Lucy 4 days after she was born, Jill mentioned she was glad she had a girl b/c if she’d had a boy, she was sure he would be “gross” like her friend’s son. Jill was full of praise that Christopher isn’t “gross” like that.

After returning home, I had to email Jill back: Jill, I thought you were thankful that Christopher isn't "gross"...but I just scrutinized the pictures from Lucy's birth day and lo and behold Christopher is sitting in your hospital bed with a WHOOPIE CUSHION!…

Jill’s reply: I don't consider that gross. I can't explain it, [the friend’s son] just is gross. That is funny though. Here I am on the day I give birth, playing with a whoopie cushion with my nephew. He was hiding it in my bed covers. I can practically imagine my speech at his wedding. :)

The layout at lower left shows Christopher and me making the carrot cake for Michael's first birthday party. Jeff stood up on the counter to get the way cool picture (very creative...two thumbs up, Jeff!)

Another two thumbs up to Jeff for the picture of Daisy...he'll have to explain the technique in the comments section, but it involves a special program that integrates 3 pictures together...one purposely underexposed, one right in the middle, and the third overexposed.

Family Heritage Photos

My favorite local photofinisher, http://www.waldenphoto.com/ acquired a drum scanner this summer and began offering bulk scanning services at quite reasonable rates. I collected a motherlode of all the family photos I could find, from both Jeff's and my sides of the family. In all, they scanned close to 1800 photos for me! I finally have them mostly organized and even labeled (with the exception of Jeff's family), and the next project is to burn DVDs or CDs for any members of our family who want them.

This layout is a blatant scraplift (for you non-scrappers out there, this is when you copy or partially copy someone else's scrapbook page layout) from Erica Hite at www.scrapgirls.com

The photo is from Mom's side of the family. It feels good to be working on heritage pages again...it is one of my specialties! And the best part was, Walden scanned all 1800 pictures in a teeny tiny fraction of the time I could have:)

Murphy's Law

Did you ever wonder why...when it's a preschool morning, you must DRAG the preschooler out of bed whining and crying, but when he COULD sleep in an extra half-hour, he's up 45 minutes earlier than usual of his own accord?

Well anyway, if anyone ever figures out why this happens, please fill me in.

This is Christopher and Daisy on the bottom bunk. Normally, C sleeps on the top bunk and Daisy sleeps with us, but somehow this night they fell asleep together and obviously, being the good scrapbooking Mommy I am (hehe), I took a picture. Warning: You will likely see this picture again someday on a scrapbook page here.

Hope you had a good Tuesday! I harvested a couple more basil plants and made two batches of pesto this afternoon after work at the scrapbook store.

Inaugural Post

Well this is it, the inaugural post...hm, wonder how long this will last? I guess that depends on you, the reader. Funny to think no one but me even knows this exists right now! Ok, to do list for me: send out a mass email:)

I plan to put a TON of our scrapbook pages/pictures on this blog to make it easier to share with family and friends. If you see a photo here you want, let me know and I'll either print a double to get to you, email you the original (ie. large) file, or upload to walgreens.com and you can order and pick up locally.

This layout is primarily for the Thieleke's and Purcell's out there who knew and remember Max. I've been slowly but steadily scrapbooking pictures from 1994, so this is a selection of Max pics and memories from that time.

Thanks for reading!
Cheri