February 24

For today's mess, I present the dining room. It is used more to hold our bulk food purchases from Costco than for eating fancy meals. I love the light and furniture, and it can be quite lovely a few times a year for special occasions, but...here is what it looks like on a regular day. 

February 23

Another day, another mess...

This is my closet. I try, I really do. Every few months I redo the shelves, and I only have space for one season of clothes in there at a time, yet still it looks like a clothing shop threw up in there. 

February 22

Okay, get ready for mess #2…(I should have made the office two days worth of messes, there are parts of the room I did not include in those two shots).

Here is Aaron’s closet. It is the largest bedroom closet in the house. That is ridiculous. Chris’ dad moved in with us right before Aaron was born, and that green dresser in the back of his closet is full of my paper scrapping supplies that have been neglected for 1 1/2 years now. I had to move it out of the basement to make space for my father in law, and I figured, what will a baby need with that giant closet? OH BROTHER!!!! Boy was I wrong? But at present, I don’t really have a better place for it. (other messes featured later in the week will demonstrate that…) It takes up so much space and his closet is SO full of stuff. It frustrates me every time I am in there. Do you have parts of your house that do that to you?

February 21

I am starting a themed week of photos that I will call “A Week of Messes”. I am putting myself out there on this one, but I’m going to give it a shot. Maybe sometime later in the year I will be able to do a week of cleaned up spaces! These are the places in the house that bug us the most, that we hate to see, but that have just become areas where we throw junk and then never get organized. Let’s start with the office. YIKES. Chris’ desk is on the right side of the top photo. Although the photo might be too far away to show the details, let’s just say he has his own system of organization. About every 4-6 weeks he gets furious because he can’t find something (easy to understand) and he cleans it all up, but then it slowly piles up again. On the left side of the top photo is the corner that holds…stuff. We have been doing a great job of getting rid of things, but that corner is a junk trap. The bottom photo is my part of the mess…a bin full of things that I clear off my desk and then…leave in there. Looking forward to an update? Me too!

 

February 20

Today was mostly a grad school day for me. Chris took Aaron, Courts and Ash out for a few hours so I could get work done. First they went to get Aaron’s hair cut at Cartoon Cuts, which he loves and is a really good boy for. Then they went to Chucky Cheese’s (ON A SATURDAY!!!) I personally think Chris is crazy for wanting to do that…but he did it for my last paper too, and I guess if the weather was better and the world wasn’t covered in snow they could do something different, but he seems to like it, so okay! Aaron loves it, of course, and the girls play games to get tickets so Aaron can get a little something. I worked on my paper, a short one, and got the research done and got it all typed.

My picture today is of Aaron and Ashley. He LOVES his sisters so much. Here they are laying with a blanket and pretend sleeping while listening to an Imagination Movers song about going to bed.

February 19

Chris was so cute tonight fixing dinner, we had hot dog night. He just got up and started fixing dinner with the little chef helping, and he wouldn’t let me come into the kitchen and do anything at all. That is FINE with me! Here are the cute guys getting fries ready to go in the oven.

February 18

Today is Auntie Kathy’s birthday! We hope she has a GREAT day! Here are some pictures I took of my Valentine’s flowers, because the three lilies that were buds when I got them finally opened up last night and I think they are just beautiful! Really I also wanted to experiment with my camera a bit. :)

February 16

We went back to school today, with a two-hour delayed opening. Can't see how the buses could possibly have been successful, but all but three of my 60 students made it to school today. We are completely back to regular schedule tomorrow, which means I should NOT be up this late, but I am really happy for two reasons. 1. My Tahiti book arrived in the mail today from Winkflash, and I am SOOOOO pleased with the way it turned out. I was a little nervous, since it was my first time using any kind of printing service, but so many of the ladies at ScrapMatters seemed pleased with their product and the price during their sale is too good to pass up! 

2. I JUST finished all of my 2009 scraps (from June-December) and will be able to send that album in tomorrow to still take advantage of the sale. I am really proud that I was able to get all that scrapping done, couldn't have done it without the snowcation, during which time I made 23 layouts in 8 days! WOW! Long day ahead tomorrow, too, so...I will be paying for this late night, but getting the books printed is SO worth it!

February 15

Well, it looks like this is our last day of snowcation. We should be back to school tomorrow, but with a delay, because sidewalk conditions are still really bad. The delay is supposed to ensure that rush hour traffic has passed and kids will be walking to school and waiting for buses in safer conditions. I have SO enjoyed our surprise winter break. When I was home on maternity leave two years ago, I had the opportunity to realize just how much stress and strain comes along with my job, even though I love it so much. This break has been just GREAT for me. Lots of sleeping in, some housework, lots of lounging, and plenty of scrapping. Here is Aaron lounging and enjoying some Disney channel with me on the bed (while I scrap)before we all head back to reality tomorrow. Love that little face.

February 14

We had a very happy Valentine’s Day, and hope you did too!

February 13

I got my "Valentimes" flowers from my little man today. Since Chris and I have been together, they have been delivered to me at school, but we have been out for a week, so my hubby had to arrange for them to come to our house. That has only happened one other year, the year Aaron was born, when we had a lot of snow days at the same time of the year and I was able to finish the painting of his room just one month before he arrived! 

Here is a rare shot of my little man and I and one of my lovely flowers! 

February 12

Aaron had his very first playdoh experience tonight, thanks to Colleen and Cameron! He calls it “playing the messy game” because I kept putting it off when he would ask at inopportune times by telling him it was a messy thing to do, which is true, but…he REALLY enjoyed it and Courts and Ashley joined in on the fun too!

February 11

Pictures like this one are the reason I love P365. Here is a picture of Aaron, the worst hider ever, during a LONG game of hide and seek. Although we play hiding games all the time, this was the first time I ever tried to teach him the counting without peeking, you know, like the real rules of hide and seek. As a seeker, he peeks and only counts to four and can't stand the wait and screams "READY OR NOT HERE I COME". As a hider, well....his skills need some refinement, as you can see. I laughed REALLY LOUD when I saw this scene, but he was so concentrated on hiding that I had time to go all the way downstairs and get my camera and take the picture. Reasons Aaron is the worst hider ever:

1. see picture

2. He giggles the WHOLE time he is hiding.

3. He hid in the same place for his first four turns, the same way!

4. When he hid someplace new, he announced where he was hiding on his way there. 

We played for about 40 minutes...and he sounds so mournful while he is looking for me! "Moooooooomy, where ARE you???" Lots of fun on another day indoors. 

February 10

Well, we are still out of school (have been out since last Friday) and we learned today that school will be out for the rest of the week. That is A LONG TIME! I am loving this snowpocalype, snowmageddon, snoverkill, blizzard, thing. LOVING IT! Here are my pictures for the day...Ashley is in the recliner with ice on her knee, playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Aaron loves to "play the kiwi" and we give him the other steering wheel while keeping it on one player, so he thinks he is playing it. It is SO cute how he turns the wheel! 

More Christmas scraps

Okay, I have scrapped all of OUR Christmas here in Virginia, and for the past few years we have been going to California for Christmas part 2 with my family, starting a couple of days after Christmas and coming back home around New Years. This has really worked well for us. As my sister and I and my cousins (there are only four of us grandkids in the family) get older and have changing families, and because our grandparents have all passed away, our traditions have been changing along with us. Being in our house at Christmas allows us to start family traditions with Aaron that he will grow up with, and then we still get to have family Christmas time in California. It was really hard for me the first time I did not spend Christmas morning with my parents and sister, but giving Aaron the special Christmas memories that I always had is very important to me. So, I guess he is really going to grow up thinking there are two Christmases! Here are the first pages from our California Christmas.

I am so happy to say that many of the California pages will also feature my amazing nephew Cameron, and my sister Kelly and brother-in-law Caleb, in addition to my Mom and Dad.

February 9

Last night we stayed up later with Greg and Denise watching movies (Love Happens, very cute, and Surrogate, horrible) and I was scrapping. I will post my new pages in a bit. George got back to Colorado late last night. This was a rough day, as I was feeling very under the weather, you know, like you feel when you are getting sick, so I actually took a two hour nap while Aaron was taking his. Today I have a picture of my Demy, the amazing kitchen gadget that I (and my mom and sister) got for Christmas from Dad. I am slowly but surely getting our recipes online so I can have them at my fingertips in the kitchen. If you have not jumped on keyingredient.com, you must do it! 

February 8

We worked on some more letters today. Ashley hurt her knee when she went skiing, so she is reclining, and Chris and George ventured out to the store, because we are expecting MORE snow Tuesday and Wednesday, so Aaron and I had some quiet time to work. We spent a lot of time doing his Highlights seek and find magazine, which he calls ISPY (he LOVES seek and find books) and then traced letters until it was naptime. He was really concentrating for a long time! Again, I did not hold his hand at all. He is really getting good at understanding HOW to use the cards, the starting and ending points. These are the Write and Wipe cards from Kumon. We have numbers too, and a tracing/drawing workbook where kids follow paths on fun activity pages. I love their products!

Christmas scraps

February 7

Today is Super Bowl day, which in my world means the game is in my peripheral hearing and I get to eat delicious food. Ashley went out on a skiing expedition with our friend Greg and I really kicked my scrapping into high gear because I want to get these Christmas pages done in time to get a winkflash book on sale! Here are some pictures for today.

that dino finally hatched, and Aaron named him Pinty. He has been playing with him since.

Pinty and Lizard enjoying a breakfast waffle.

George’s journey to the back deck
 
Greg and Ashley, going to hit the slopes Monday!