Merry Christmas to All!

December went by in a flash. So much to report so little time. The kids had a great Christmas. They got way too much stuff and are on toy overload. Brody has the concept of opening presents down. He opens every present, doesn't matter who's name is on the tag. He gets really impatient because he has to wait while someone attempts to free the toy from the thousand metal twist ties in the packaging.
Our Wii is on the brink of death, I am hoping it lasts through Christmas break before we have to send it in for repair. Cooper finished first season basketball, and second season will be starting soon. Cooper and Daddy will be working on their pinewood derby car soon.
The elves went home with Santa on Christmas eve, I am working on a scrapbook layout of their antics during their visit. I backed into an empty parked car in a parking lot, completely my fault, I was in the car by myself, so I can't even blame it on anyone else.
Our dining room remodel is finished! Carpet install was a mess. They came to install it twice before the scheduled date, when I was at work. On the install day, they got half done and realized it was too small, then had to rush order a new piece before the factory closed down for the year and finally on xmas eve, they got it installed right. Next project: Replace the hideous ceiling fans in the living room and kitchen.

Kids on Christmas Eve, in their new jammies.

Everybody look at mommy:



Can everybody clap? Hmm, this one is pretty good, maybe I should quit while I am ahead.


Where is your hair?



Where is your belly?


And they are done, what little control there was, is now lost...

The elves have arrived

Dudley, Dean, and Belinda arrived last week. For those that don't know, Santa sends us 3 elves each December to stay with us. When they get their work done at the North Pole, they get to come. They are nocturnal, and Cooper needs to take care of them and feed them. Sometimes they are naughty, sometimes nice. they stayed up all night last night and played Guitar Hero. I am sure they have other stuff planned during their stay.

Here they are (from last year)...

Back to work

Thanksgiving is over, back to work. Getting the kids back into the morning routine is always a challenge after a long weekend. Cooper's arm is all better, the other kids are healthy also. The Johnson Thanksgiving was here Thursday, and there were no major food mishaps, just a small problem with the meat thermometer, and the deep fried turkey. We traveled to Cedar Rapids for "Ellsworth" Thanksgiving and the roads were snow and ice covered on the way home, the two hour drive took nearly 4 hours. The kids were getting cranky by the time we got home.

Remodel is still in progress. We had a dining room hutch delivered, Jeff installed two new light fixtures, I have been busy staining chair rails and doors. Need to get the drywall finished so I can paint, and then get the carpet installed.

Here is Lexi from Halloween:

Busy Weekend

The weekend started early Friday. The school nurse called and I had to pick Cooper up from school because his right arm was swollen, red, hot, and inflammed. I took him to Dr. Jay and we determined he had a reaction to the flu shot he had on Wednesday. We spent the weekend keeping it iced and elevated, and drugged up on antibiotics, Zyrtec, and Ibuprofen. He was feeling pretty good today, so Jeff took him to Mnpls for his first concert - AC\DC. Saturday was busy running errands - picking up oak trim for the dining room, picked up the side of beef, scout popcorn pickup, winterized boat picked up, and we went to the food and wine show downtown and took advantage of the yummy samples. It was like Costco on a Saturday, only better food, and no old ladies telling us where the product was located. They had alcohol samples too...it was all good.

Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, so I need to figure out the menu asap.

Here are a couple for the baby books:

Dining Room Remodel Started

There was a cold air return in the wall so it couldn't be torn out completely. The drywall guy didn't show up this weekend, so I will be looking for another contractor if he doesn't call soon. Jeff installed new light fixtures, we found a china cabinet that matches our table, ordered carpet, and decided on paint color. We still need to find a chair railing that matches what was already in the room. Next weekend we will be painting and staining. I can't find sitting room furniture within my budget, so I need to keep looking.

It is cold!

It turned cold this weekend. I am not ready for winter. Halloween was last week and it was unseasonably warm for Beggar's night. Surprisingly, Brody ended up wearing his costume, but drew the line at wearing the hat part. We took him trick or treating just in the cul-de-sac, and he caught on pretty quickly to put out his bag and he would get candy. At some point he decided to start giving back, he would select some things from his bag, give it to the person handing out candy, say bye, and run away. So by the time we got home his bag was empty, because he had given away all the candy he collected. He had fun, and Cooper got enough candy for everyone anyway.
In other Brody news, he got a haircut, and didn't bite the girl so I don't think we are banned from that Great Clips yet. He also out of the blue decided to go potty on the toilet this weekend. We haven't started potty training, and in my excitement didn't expect him to follow up his business, by washing his hands in the toilet. Oh well, baby steps.

I was looking for some old pictures and found these:

Going Out of Town...

Jeff is pheasant hunting today, I am trying to get the house in order because I need to travel to Florida for work Monday am. Tonight we have tickets to Metallica, next week we will see Rain at the Civic Center for my birthday. Last night was Logan's 4th birthday party.

Cooper's last football game was Saturday morning. He scored a touchdown, and got several flags on defense. I missed it, I stayed home with the kids because I thought it would be too cold to take them out. Cooper is working on his first major school project, he needs to recreate a continent with land forms they have been studying. Daddy has been helping him and it is coming along nicely.

Lexi moves to a new room at daycare next week. She will be a grasshopper. Brody pushed her off the steps and she has a battle wound on her forehead.

Brody doesn't think much of wearing his Barney costume. We tried a test fitting yesterday and it didn't go well. Hopefully he will warm up to it by Thursday.

Catching up...

It's been awhile since I have updated. I took Cooper to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the beginning of the month. The live show of the BBC tv series. He quickly surmised the large dinosaurs were mechanical, but the smaller ones were more convincing. It was a good show, the official review from the seven year old - The teradachtyl was lame, and there should have been more dinosaur fights and kills.

Jay and Jessi had a small wedding at the Rose Garden at Greenwood Park. I helped out by taking pictures that day.


I needed to take Brody to the ER because he couldn't walk. We couldn't figure out what was wrong and it didn't get better so after a good dose of Codeine, xrays, blood work, and 4 hours in the ER, he miraculously started walking after not for two days. Final diagnosis was no broken bones, and some sort of inflammation in his hip. He is all better now...

We had the softball team and lots of others over to the house for a party. Small keg and lots of Jello shots made with some fine Hawkeye vodka, a cornhole challenge, and just hanging out to celebrate the end of the softball season.

Lexi started walking! Cooper rocks at spelling, needs to work on math. One more football game left. He was asked to be on a basketball team, need to decide if we will do that. Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch.

Halloween Costumes

I got Lexi's costume in the mail Friday. She is going to be an Octopus for Halloween, we tried it on, and it didn't bother her at all. I was trying to find something for her and Brody to be together but let's face it he will not wear anything I choose, so if I have a chance of him wearing any kind of costume, I am going to try for Barney. The kid is a freak about Barney. They watch videos in the afternoon and that is how he knows who Barney is, problem is...Barney is not popular. You can't go out and buy a Barney costume or a Barney toy. Barney is so...1991. That is why someone invented Ebay I guess. Cooper is going to be Janga Fett for halloween. I guess the money I saved last year buying his costume on clearance, I just spent this year on discontinued costumes for the little ones. Here they are last year. Cooper loves to "help" me scrapbook his pages. He helps me pick pictures and tells me to move stuff around. When I realized a while ago, who I was scrapping for, and unfinished pages are never printed and seen, it makes me want to try to keep getting layouts actually completed.

In other news we played three ballgames tonight. We took 3rd place in the end of season tournament. I slid into second base and scraped up my leg and I am already stiff. Oh well we have all winter to rest up for next season.

Tired...

I took Lexi and Brody to Target this morning to have their one year \ two year pictures taken. Of course Brody was a wild man and would not sit anywhere near Lexi. So they didn't get any of them together, but she was able to get some good ones of them individually.

In other news, Jeff got a new contract last week with an insurance company, so he will be finishing up at the State next week.

We will be getting bids soon to remodel the dining room, I found some french doors that will work for the entry way, need to find new light fixtures and decide on a paint color and carpet.

Cubs made the playoffs, Go Cubs Go!

We got tickets for Metallica this week, and Jeff is taking Cooper to his first concert in November - AC\DC.

Here are some new layouts, not feeling particularly creative so these are some quick and easy ones. I would probably have a heart attack if all three kids actually sat together, looked at the camera and smiled at the same time. Oh well, it is fall so I am on my quest for a picture suitable for a Christmas card.

Disney

We went to Orlando in April. I had a work conference, so the babies stayed with grandma and Jeff and Cooper flew down to Florida with me for a few days before the conference started. We did a Gator day, a day at Disney and a day at Universal. They are already planning out what activities we are going to do next spring when we go again. I have quite a few in layouts started but here are some that I have done so far.

Second Grade

Here is Cooper on the first day of school. They have a meet and greet before school starts and the kids get to take their school supplies in, meet the teacher, organize their desk and locker so it is not so hectic on the first day of school. There are four sections of 2nd grade at his school, so his best buddies are not in his class this year, but he knows everybody in his class and already has new best friends, and still gets to play with his other friends at recess and after school.

September is here!

Cooper had his first football game today and he scored his first touchdown. He was so happy! Fall set in this week, the days are cool. I had to dig out the warm weather clothes. Brody is set with a complete winter wardrobe, but I was caught unprepared for Cooper and Lexi. She needs pants and a jacket. Cooper needs some workout pants that aren't 3 inches too short.

I need to get busy on the baby books. I am doing pretty good on Brody's but I need to do a lot of layouts for Lexi. I don't know if I will ever go back and redo Cooper's, I would need to scan in all of the pictures I have from his first years before I switched to a digital camera. I was paper scrapping then, so at least he has something.
I am not sure why but I struggle to do birthday layouts, so I wanted to get this one done before the double birthday party next week. I also got Lexi's grow layout done. I am so glad I did these for each of the kids.

Happy Birthday, Sissy!

I can't believe my baby is a year old today. She completes our family and I am so thankful for her.

Brody is a Turtle now.

Brody got bumped up to the Turtle room today at daycare. Miki will be his primary teacher. I spent a few minutes this morning talking to the teachers about his schedule. His naptime will be later in the day now, and instead of a crib he will nap on a cot. I brought him a pillow to use and also his monkey blanket. Sometimes when I drop him off he clings to me and doesn't want me to leave. Not today, there are all new toys to explore in the Turtle room. He found the Fisher Price parking garage\car wash, and a box of cars and didn't give me a second thought.

Chicago

Quick trip to Chicago this weekend. The kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. We left Saturday morning, headed straight for Wrigley Field, only to watch the Cubs lose to the Phillies. We went out to dinner with Dave and Diana at Bob Chinn's. On Sunday, Dave came to the game with us, and the Cubs lost again. We headed home after the game, after stopping for deep dish pizza at Gino's East.

Mostly Cooper

Just a few layouts I have worked on recently, these are mostly Cooper, of course I have a backlog of 7 years worth of pictures to work on for him.

First Holidays

I love doing layouts with pictures that show change \ growth over a period of time. The nice thing about having two little ones so close in age, is I can reuse the same format for some of the layouts in their baby books.

More Baseball Layouts

I try to keep up on sports layouts, mainly because I forget who the all of the different kids are about 5 minutes after the season is over.

State Fair Scrapbook Entries - 2008

These are my Iowa State Fair entries in the scrapbook division. I have been entering layouts in fair competition off and on for several years. When I was paper scrapping I won a fair amount of ribbons for my layouts, since I have converted to completely digital scrapbooking, I haven't managed to even get an honorable mention. Not sure if it is because of my skills, or if the judges are a bit "anti-digital", I am thinking of campaigning for a digital category. I would probably be the only one to enter.

Anyway here are my entries:
2 page:

Judge Comments: Really like the focal photo, it balances nicely with the photos on the left page. Nice Digital layout. Attention to detail = 8; Color Coordination = 10; Overall effect = 10
Workmanship = G+
Color\Texture\Finish = G
Presentation = E


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1 page:

Judge Comments: Nice Photos - Great Digital Layout
Color\Texture\Finish = 9
Presentation = E or 9


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Embellishments:

Judge Comments: Cute Digital Layout
Presentation=10


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State Fair Theme:
I didn't enter this category this year.