Paisley, bags and other birthday stuff...

Have I ever mentioned how talented my mom is??


Just look what she made me for my birthday! My obsessions with paisley and bags run a tight race...but put them together and WOW! I squealed so loud when I saw it, that I scared Bryson to death! Mom had been searching for the perfect paisley fabric for a while and this definitely qualifies. She'd bought a set of designs for her embroidery machine with this in mind. Can't know me for 33 years and not know what I like, I guess. Absolutely LOVE it, Mom!

In other birthday news, my friend Mary took me to lunch yesterday at The Looking Glass Cafe .


It's one of my favorite places to go for the atmosphere AND the dessert is to die for! Plus the scrapbook store is right next door, so that's a plus too! And get this.....I went alone ...as in no kids. TOTAL rarity. Thomas was off and stayed home with them. I almost don't know how to act when I'm not trying to coral 2 little wild dudes. The peace makes it hard to think.



Hey, and just for fun, because I never get a chance to do a project, much less post one, here is my latest scrapbook page:

It's all about simple around here! And speaking of simple, if you are any kind of scrapbooker and haven't checked out Rebecca Cooper's new book, it is an absolute MUST! Totally in love with this book right now. It is exactly what I have been needing to get me out of my rut! DO yourself a favor and go get it!!

-M

Somebody turned ONE...

I can hardly believe that my baby boy turned one year old just a few days ago! In contrast to the anticipation of waiting for him, it seems like this first year of his life just flew by. It is amazing how different he is now from the day that I brought him home. Well, except for the waking up at night part. Can't BELIEVE he's still doing that! Twice last night, but anyway...

So many exciting things happening for us. Braden graduated Preschool, Bryson started walking, we are moving to a new house in just two weeks. Life is sure to be exciting. Actually having time to post about it? Well, now that's another story!

Just a little something...

Been playing with a new little stamp set I got last week. This one's pretty special. My friend Nichole recently came out with her very own line of stamps and this is from the first set! Lovely, versatile set. I can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeve!

My basket runneth over...

Sometimes I need to remind myself that those little things that tend to get on my nerves right now will be the little things that I will really miss later.

Take this basket, for instance. This is my basket of all things Braden. He has a little desk here in my office (which he refers to as HIS office) where he makes me approximately 542 things every day! So I made this as a place to put it all. In this basket, you will find every sort of "gift" you could think of.....Many envelopes with little notes, stickers, homemade puppets, workbook pages. He's really starting to get the hang of sounding out words and he writes a LOT nowdays. My favorites are the little pieces of paper with "MOM" and hearts to decorate as his little token of love. Sometimes I just look at this overflowing basket underneath my desk and sigh in frustration as it can get completely out of control, pieces falling here and there. And I think to myself "I really need to clean this out!" But then I just can't bring myself to do it. Besides the fact that he checks it periodically to see if it's all still there, it's a nice little reminder for me. One of these days, my little boy will be too busy for such things.

So I took this picture to help me remember this sweet gesture. But right now, all I have to do is look at this huge stack of notes to be reminded of how much one little boy loves me!

-M

First one, then two!

...Teeth, that is! Missing ones! Braden finally lost his first tooth on Monday afternoon. And after much crying and freaking out (over the blood and there was barely ANY), he was excited about the Tooth Fairy coming.

After that, the one next to it started getting so loose that it was hanging sideways. Well, I knew it wouldn't be long until it came out too, but he was too nervous to pull at it. So as I was picking him up from school on thursday, it literally fell out of his mouth and into his hand! So now he's double toothless and he talks so stinkin' cute with that little slur. I make him say "S" words just to hear him do it!

-M

Three boys, two generations, one theme...

Spongebob!

I thought it was too cool when I found Thomas and Braden matching pajama pants a while back. But there was only one thing missing....Bryson didn't have any! I couldn't have him left out, now could I? So I searched high and low for baby Spongebob PJ pants with none to be found. Luckily, I have a talented mother who can sew just about anything, so she was nice enough to whip up a pair for the little guy.

Are they not the cutest bunch?? Seriously, I am one lucky girl!

The Tooth

I was surprised to learn a couple of nights ago that Braden has a loose tooth! As a matter of fact, BOTH the bottom ones are wiggly. This called for something special! My good friend Nichole had her oldest lose his first one just last week and when we were talking about it, I commented that we'd probably have that happen in a few months! Little did I know how quickly it would happen. So I was inspired by her project to make a little something of my own! Only a few more days until toothless pictures! I can't wait!

Look at these cuties!

Here is the boys' Christmas photo. Braden had school pictures and they said Bryson could be in them too! Turned out pretty good I thought. (sigh) I used to have time to do the portraits myself, and had been struggling to make time for a while so I finally gave up and let someone else do them.

So much going on lately. Mostly been trying to take care of 2 sick boys for the past 3 weeks. It's been rough. From croup and a double ear infection to viruses, dehydration and a flu -like thing! I am SICK of this already (no pun intended!)

Gearing up for Christmas. I'll tell you what....I think it means your old when neither you or your spouse can even figure out what you want for Christmas. I used to think my parents were CRAZY when they wouldn't exchange gifts or just do something really small. They always say "Oh, the funnest part is watching you kids get stuff" and I was like "What the...?????? You have GOT to be kidding!" You know what? They were right. I can't wait to see my boys' faces in just 13 days!

-M

Who couldn't love this face??

'Nuff said!

-M

Woo hoo! I made somethin'!!

Lookie lookie! I made something cute for Halloween! I'd tell you more about it, but my baby is crying.....AGAIN! Oh, happy day! < insert insane laughter here >