long time, no blog...

So........it's been a while. Let me catch you up-

Halloween was a great night- the kids loved their costumes and even posed for me early that morning. The results were great:

Princess Leia:

Boba Fett:

I signed up to make the goody bags for Oliver's Halloween party at school. Thank goodness I had a halper, as it took me a while to assemble them.

The bags included a cute board book about a silly inventor, a Halloween cup, some stickers, a crazy straw, and some yummy treats....

A finished bag of loot:

The next day, (November 1) the kids, mom, and I drove to Nashville to see my friend Tabitha. She and her husband are expecting their first baby (Roma James) in February. SO exciting. She looks adorable pregnant, by the way. Here's Tabitha and Eliza:

And here's a pic of Tabitha, Stavros, and me as I'm giving her the baby book I made for Roma:

Fast-forward 10 days, which brings us to November 10. A Tuesday. Tropical Storm Ida is dumping tons of rain on us, along with some pretty heavy winds. It's raining so hard that Clay can't even go into work. We talked on the phone at lunch time, and about ten minutes later, a HUGE tree fell on our house. Yep...right on the roof. Clay was inside the house at the time, even in the ROOM the tree hit. Needless to say, he was scared like a little girl. (I'm sure I would have been too) It hit on top of the den, and above Eliza's room, but amazingly there's not a whole lot of damage. God is GOOD. Not even a broken window. And LOTS of great firewood for this winter...

Here's Clay being a lumberjack, and splitting logs:

And here's me...(I'm so strong)

Jon, Clay, Kent, and Jeff- thanks to these guys, the tree is now mostly cut up and has already been hauled away!

Above Eliza's room:

Above the den shortly after it fell:

It fell on top of the tree outside Oliver's window and split it:

Not quite sure why there's two of this pic, but go ahead and enjoy it again:
Another pic- that's Clay in those fabulous coveralls:

So, as you can see...it's been quite eventful around here. Oliver has homework this weekend to decorate a turkey that came home in his backpack. We started on it yesterday, and will glue the finishing touches on it today. Pictures to come soon....

Wowza. Close one.

Can't believe we won that ballgame! So glad we did, but my heart is still beating crazy crazy. Clay had to take some tums. I screamed loud at the tv and made Eliza cry. All is good now. And I bet you thought I didn't care, Mallory. :o)

I finished the napkins for the wedding during the second quarter. They are super pretty. I'll post a pic soon.

MK <><

two weeks of happy

So...Oliver came home TWO straight weeks with nothing but happy faces from his teacher at school. Certainly a reason to celebrate and one of the reasons there has been a lot of 'happy' around here lately! We are going to see Where the Wild Things Are today at the theatre and I think I'm as excited as Oliver is. Clay already downloaded the soundtrack from the movie onto itunes, and I must say- it's amazing.

Eliza has been tolerating staying in her excersaucer more and more these days, which makes me happy. It's hard to type, or scrap, or play piano, or make a bottle, or use the bathroom with a baby in your arms.

Here's another bit of happy from this week- I found this super-cool Star Wars shirt at Target. Needless to say, Oliver was a fan and had to wear it the next day.

It's no secret that I love eBay, and here's yet another reason. For every purchase you make, you earn rewards points called 'eBay bucks'. They're collected for a period of 3 months, and then you receive a certificate telling you how many you've acquired and how to redeem them. The points you receive for each purchase depend on how much the purchase costs. For example- I bought some 59 cent stickers this week which only earned me 1 penny in eBay bucks, BUT this past summer, I bought a cricut expression, which earned me several dollars worth of eBay bucks- meaning that i had a pretty good size certificate for the months of July, August, and Sept. I used the bucks immediately, of course, and bought a book by one of my favorite designers, Ali Edwards, and a set of really cool Halloween stamps. When my (free) purchases arrived in the mail this week- guess what i found? Here's a copy of the cover of the book:

and here's what I found when i opened the cover:

I got a totally free autographed copy of the book! Now, I realize that my name is NOT Heather, but what a cool surprise?!

Here are the stamps- How cute will these be on scrapbook pages, or even to make cute treat bags for Oliver's class?

Here is Eliza's 5-month pic with bear. (10.15.09) I'm taking a picture of her every month on the 15th to document how she's growing up her first year. Love her smile in this one.

And here's a pic of baby girl from this morning, sitting by me while I caught up on the blogs that I follow.

And this is Oliver-wondering why I'm taking pics of him so early in the morning.

I hope you had lots of 'happy' this week too!

MK <><

settle in. it's a long one.

okay...so I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm going to play catch-up.

First of all, I got to scrap a little a couple of days ago- I did a page of the story of Clay and I for Eliza's book. Here's a close-up pic of a little clear heart I added. I thought it deserved it's own shot on the blog for being cute.

9/28- the kids and I had some fun with my paint. Oliver got to paint his hands and feet for several layouts I'm working on right now. Here he is proudly showing off some of his handy work. This is a layout with a self-portrait, his current signature, and his handprint. (Becky Higgins school kit pieces)

Here's a shot of BOTH of the kid's footprints. Very, very difficult to get a 4-month old to cooperate with such an activity. Her foot just wanted to slide across the paper. That's why there are multiple pages to choose from.

10/1- Dad got a new car and brought it over to show us. It is quite nice and has lots of knobs and buttons. I'm most jealous of the Bose sound system.

not quite sure what is so funny here- I'm just glad she didn't drop the baby!

Here's a fabulous pic of my parents with Oliver and Eliza. Suitable for framing.

10/2- The kids and I played outside for a bit after school. Eliza tolerated sitting in her stroller for a good ten minutes.

Oliver, of course, found light saber sticks and went to town.

when we went back inside, I took a few pics of the kids on our bed. Don't you just love it when great pictures just 'happen'.

10/3- went to Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D with Oliver, Mom, and Mallory. Also saw a preview of Toy Story 3 that made me teary-eyed. No joke.

10/5- played outside with the kids after school. It was actually a little cool outside, so Eliza got to wear a beanie that Aunt Cindy made for her. I am loving this cooler weather! Oliver is loving riding his big wheel.

I had my first PTO concert of the year that night. Half of the second graders at my school performed "The Broadway Beat". They were fabulous, if I do say so myself.

10/6- the next day, I was hooking my sound equipment up in my classroom and putting away the pieces that are only used for concerts. A speaker stand fell off of the TALL cabinet in my classroom and hit me on the head. I honestly saw stars for a minute, and wanted to go and see what my head looked like, but I had a Kindergarten class in my room and couldn't leave. I called the school nurse and she came in and gave me some ice and a band-aid.

10/7- I finished the invitations for my pastor's daughter's wedding. Aren't they pretty???

10/8- Mom, Oliver and I went to the Fall Festival at his school. Super fun. Oliver would have spent the entire night in the big bouncy things if I'd have let him. He loved this spiderman pumpkin:

(he's doing 'spiderman hands)

coming down the BIG bouncy slide

he was a little confused about the cake walk. we kept having to reming him to walk in the circle when the music played. guess I should have explained the rules first.

after eating a bag of cheetos

10/9- which brings us to today. It's teacher conference day at school and music teachers DON'T do parent conferences. YAY!!!! I'm at home with my kids, or atleast one of them. (Oliver went to Ma'am and Pop's house to play a moment ago) Here's a pic of my baby girl when i went to wake her up this morning. She was already awake and had pulled both of her socks off. Thanks, mal-mal, for teaching her that.

couldn't resist taking a pic of both of us this morning:

and here's Oliver watching Sesame Street. Love that show.

So....now you're all caught up. Whew! See- I told you it was a long one!!!