Haircuts

This morning I looked at my children and decided it had been way too long since I had their hair cut. So while we were out running errands I took them in to get haircuts. Let me know what you think!



For some reason, when I finally persuade Aubyn to come and let me take his photo, he always makes this face! I think he's trying too hard to smile. LOL













Maddie's hair was getting so long and the ends were so damaged that I could hardly brush her hair every morning. We decided to get a few inches cut off. I think it turned out cute.

Yippee!

As some of you may know, my mom has been battling breast cancer since last year. She had surgery, chemotherapy and she has been in radiation therapy as well. I am happy to report that today was her very last day of radiation. Yay! We were all so excited for her that my dad took the day off of work and took her to lunch, and the kids and I bought her flowers and a big cookie-cake to celebrate.

I just wanted to thank everyone who has given my family support through this hard time. I really appreciate it, and I know my mom and dad do as well!

When my mom was first starting her treatment for breast cancer, the girls and I took her out to dinner for a girls night. It was a lot of fun!

From left to right: My mom, me, Aimee, Sarah, Kim(my sister), and baby Sawyer.

The Many Sides of Moo Moo!

If we had known when Madisen was born that one of her nicknames would end up being Moo Moo, we may have named her differently. I know, how did Moo Moo come from Madisen? Long story....her main nickname is Maddie, and one day we said Maddie Moo, and then that evolved into Moo Moo. We're crazy, I know!

As a child, I was the biggest tomboy around. I loved to be outside digging in the mud. I hated dolls, and loved cars and transformers. I loved overalls, and hated dresses(still do!). So I think it was a blessing that I had a boy first. I knew how to play with a boy. I knew how to dress a boy and comb a boy's hair. And then came Maddie.

I swore I'd never put her in pink, because I hated pink. So what did I do after she was born....I bought EVERYTHING pink! I took a lot of abuse over that one. But she looks so good in pink! But clothing aside, I was terrified! I was sure Maddie would be a tomboy, since I was. And then came her love of dolls and hair bows and nail polish! I had no idea what to do with a girl! I am still working on that one. She's hard to figure out. She's a girly girl, a tomboy, and sometimes a hormonal wreck all rolled into one! And I wouldn't have it any other way. :-)




Here is Maddie being "one of the boys" during a soccer game. I don't remember what she was celebrating in this shot, but I just love it!

I guess Maddie is being a professional wrestler in this shot. Scott got this mask in Mexico.














And here is my girly girl Maddie. I made her this hat a couple of months ago and she wore it non-stop for several days. She still wears it around everytime she finds it in her dress-up pile.

Watching the kids

Ok, so I'm in a blogging mood today...so many things to talk about this week apparently!

Yesterday my sister fell and hurt her knee, so my mom and I rushed over to her house to help her. I ended up bringing all the kids back to my house for the afternoon while my mom took my sister to urgent care to have her knee looked at. She ended up with no broken bones (thank goodness!), but she'll have to wear a brace and be on crutches for a little while. Anyways....while I had the kids over at my house, I broke out the camera and took some new shots of my baby nephew, my neice, and Maddie. I tried to convince Aubyn to get in the photos too, but he refused. Will he not humor me even once?

This is my baby nephew, Sawyer. He is the one I made the BABY blanket for in an earlier post. He's just learned how to sit up all by himself. What a big boy!

Here I am experimenting with the black and white setting on my camera. I don't know, there's just something about black and white photos that I like. I wish my own kids would pose so nicely for me! :-)

My daughter, Maddie is on the left, and my neice, Tatum is on the right. I can hardly believe Tatum is almost 9! Wasn't she just born yesterday?

Wedding Photo Fiasco!

The other night I was talking to my friend, Allison online. It was very late at night and we ended up talking about everything from the time we were 12 up until now. Long story short, I realized that the silly woman I am, I didn't have a wedding photo of Scott and I hanging up in our house. I have the album in our bedroom, and I wallet print in my wallet, but nothing framed. I have no idea how that managed to happen, but I vowed to fix it! The photographer that took our wedding photos was a family friend, and she gave me all the negatives so we could make whatever prints we wanted. Now right after the wedding I went through the negatives and made enlargements for family and friends that wanted them. On Wednesday I went to get them out to see which poses I wanted to print, and I discovered....half of the negatives are GONE! Apparently when I went to print enlargements the last time, I didn't put the negatives back in the box. I tossed my house looking for them...couldn't find them. I tore apart the garage looking for them, but I found nothing. I panicked! I took out the album and scanned in a few photos, but they are 4 by 6's so I can't enlarge them. I even went so far as to take photos of the photos, but they came out blurry. I called Scott at work and had a panic attack on the phone. Finally, I did manage to find a couple of 5 by 7's in an envelope with other photos. I calmed down a little bit.....I called my mom and she said I could take all her 8 by 10's and make copies. I calmed down a little bit more. I realized my mother-in-law and my grandmother also had 8 by 10's I could copy, so I managed to get my heart rate back into the normal zone. And now I have decided that I can't do anything about it, so I may as well let it go. I feel much better today. And while ransacking the house I found tons of other photos I had forgotten about. :-)

Part Time at Petsmart!

In March I went out and got a part-time job as a cashier at the new Petsmart that opened up right by my house. We needed some extra money, I love animals, and it was so close to my house that I thought it would be a good fit. When they called me the very day after I submitted my application, I knew it was meant to be! Now, I have never really worked with animals before (aside from dog and cat-sitting), and I know next to nothing about them, so I wasn't sure how it would all work out. We had two weeks of training that ended with a huge training weekend. We watched videos, we filled out worksheets, we separated into groups and went all around the store learning about the various different kinds of animals and products we sell. And we played a game or two. The trainers were wonderful. I was dreading the whole process (because I am the biggest worrywart around!), but by the end of the weekend I had a lot of fun.

Grand Opening was a lot of fun! Just about the entire staff worked that weekend, and there were TONS of managers from other stores helping us out. A little girl named Riley got to cut the ribbon to officially open the store. She received a gift card for helping us out. There were clowns making balloon animals and face painting, there were different posts around the store with free giveaways, and there were people running around with clipboards registering "pet parents" to win prizes. We also had a photo booth for people to take pictures of their pets and make them into buttons. For the first half of my shift I got to blow up balloons and hand them out. One of our employees even dressed up in a dog suit and walked around. It was a great weekend.

Our store is lucky enough to have a Banfield vet inside of it, as well as a grooming salon, dog training classes and a Petshotel. The Petshotel provides not only boarding for dogs and cats while their parents are out of town, but Doggie Day Camp (which is like daycare for dogs! Seriously.) as well. The Petshotel just had their grand opening last weekend, and I was lucky enough to be sent over there to help out the whole weekend. The hotel was giving tours to pet parents, and I was picked to be a dog-sitter while the tours were running. I literally got to play with dogs all day for two days! It was great!

This coming week we are having a pet bikini contest! My dog would never let me get pet clothes on her, but it's going to be fun to see some dogs that will! We are going to take photos of them all. It's going to be great. Cheesy, but great.

So all in all, my new job at Petsmart is going really well. I've made tons of mistakes, but I am learning. It has been hard to be away from the kids and my hubby, but at least it's only for 2 or 3 shifts a week. Aubyn and Maddie love going in to see all the animals. They would stay there all day if I let them!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for....

It's finished! At long last, it's done! I was lucky enough to find a new skein of yarn at the very first store I went to. I was happy, and the kids were happy we didn't have to go all over town in the car. It was a good outing. Yay!


So when I started this blanket, I asked what colors Paris liked, and was told that she liked the color pink. I didn't want to make a plain pink blanket, so I went to the store looking for a varigated yarn that had a nice pink in it. After I found the varigated, the pink was obvious, because I had to get a pink that matched. The green, however, was very hard to match, and it actually isn't the same color of green as in the varigated, but it's in the same family, and it was the closest I could find, so we'll all have to live with it!

I chose to make this blanket using the "BABY" pattern I created for my baby nephew because I really liked the heart square pattern. It is my favorite square to make, although I think I am ready to put it away for awhile and learn something new!


For this blanket, I tried out a new border that I found in a pattern book. I really like how the ruffle turned out. I think it's really girly, and I hope Paris likes it!









Ok, so that's the new blanket! I think it turned out great. On to the next one! :-)

The Never Ending Blanket!

As you all know, I have been working on a blanket for my neice, Paris for quite some time. I have set deadlines and goals and blew them all. Everytime I thought I was getting close, I ended up losing momentum due to work or the kids or a million of other things. Well this morning I am ready to pull my hair out! Paris will be coming on Friday night, and I NEED to have this blanket done before she gets here. For the last week or so I have been working on the border. This is the last step before it's done. Before the photos...before I wash it....before I see if washing it will totally unravel it, or if I've done a good job weaving in all the yarn ends. So I thought for sure I was nearing the end. As of this morning I was almost done with the last side of the last round of the border. I actually got within three feet of finishing, when the skein of yarn I was using was gone. I went into my room to get another skein of pink yarn and realized....I had no more pink yarn! I looked again with the same result. Aargh! So my choices at this point are to go on a yarn hunt at Walmart, Michael's and JoAnn's to see if they have one stupid skein of light raspberry colored yarn, or I could pull out the entire last round of the border and redo it with the varigated or the green I used in the blanket. Since either choice would take probably the same time, and I hate ripping out my work, I'm going yarn hunting! I'll let you know how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed!