Rylee's Birthday

I made this bear hooded towel for her birthday. She also got bubble bath to go with it.

We'd been saving this big coloring pad of Princess pictures for her birthday and as soon as she opened presents and finished breakfast, she sat and colored ten pages and wore the crayons down to stubs. After that, she went and had a bubble bath. (BTW the bubble bath was used for 3 baths because of a certain little brother that liked to pour it out whenever he was in the bathroom).

That evening we had her cake. Six candles on top- I can't believe how old she's getting.

The frosting on the outside may not look professional, but the surprise was the inside of the cake- 6 layers in rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. It was so fun to make.

The cake on a plate- doesn't it look pretty?

Halloween of Years Past

I loved looking through all of the pictures my parents scanned for these of me dressed up for Halloween. It's so fun to dress up! Happy Halloween everyone!

Page Credits: LO for the More with Four challenge at The Daily Digi. Template by Emily and Angela Powers. Papers by Designs by Lili; flowers by Dani Mogstad; Photo overlay by The Digi Chick; Alpha by Ziggle Designs. All in The Digi Files this month.Font is DJB Liz.

About Rylee

A few weeks ago, Rylee came home from school with this crown. Immediately, she got dressed up as a princess and then asked me to take her picture. Of course I said yes! So we went to the front yard by some trees and she kept doing some funky poses (and looking at the pictures later it looks like her leg is broken or something). So these two pictures are the unposed ones I got and I love them. The little photo on the right shows a band aid on her elbow- so typical of the rough, energetic play mixed with the fairy tale dress up play. So Rylee.

This is from last fall. For our joyschool activity we went for a nature walk to use all of our 5 senses. The kids loved it. We even painted toilet paper tubes as viewfinders to use on the walk and used baby food jars (I knew I kept those for a reason) to catch bugs. They love doing this. When we went camping this summer, the kids kept calling our hike a nature walk and we used our five senses and found some cool stuff there.

Rylee loves to do crafts. She recently discovered scrapbooking or "doing papers" as she calls it. She has her own stack of construction paper and leftover pictures that she can use. And she loves my flowers and brads and grabs those when she's ready. This is her own craft table (from IKEA) in our office. Just last week I gave her a three-ring binder to put all of her papers in and she loves it.

She's so funny. She goes in spurts of dressing up every day for a week and then she won't touch them for a while. Anyway, she was being a ballerina this day and posed for me. Can I just say how hard it is to get candid pictures of that girl? As soon as she sees the camera she starts to pose. Oh well, at least she lets me get pictures still.

Oh, and she's lost 4 teeth already! I still need to find those pictures, but I'll post them soon. She lost her bottom middle 2 teeth over the summer (one at the end of a camping trip- eating ice cream on the way home). Then she lost the top middle two in September (one while eating bread and one while brushing her teeth). So yeah, she likes to hang onto them til they're really really loose. It was driving Cole crazy- he bribed her a few times to let him pull on them and then she wouldn't let him near her teeth anymore! It was so fun teasing her about it though- we got such a kick out of her reaction to the "tie it to the door" or "using pliers" suggestions. Kids are so fun to tease sometimes!

Page credits:

First LO: Everything by Dani Mogstad in Softly Falling kit available at The Dail Digi now. Fonts: Porcelain and DJB Tracy Script. Scraplifted from the October blog banner by Shabby Miss Jenn.

Second LO: LO compiled from 2 templates by Janet Phillips. Leaf by Anne De Jong in Hop Skip Jump kit from The Digi Files #2. Everything else in The Digi Files Collab kit Snap & Scrap. Drop shadow actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 Designs.

Third LO: Template by Janet Phillips. Everything else from the Scrap Orchard collab Smells Like Rain in The Digi Files #4. Font is LB Ali.

Fourth LO: Template by Janet Phillips. All papers and elements from Midnight Dreams kit by Matahati Designs; font is DJB Heather E. All are in The Digi Files 7 at The Daily Digi. Alpha by Studio MGL from The Daily Digi Collab kit Snap & Scrap from last month. Drop Shadow actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 designs.

Cade's Turn

Cade makes his own fun. These pictures are from Craft Time. Rylee and I are doing a foam craft and Cade was left to his own devices. He found this crafting sand and had a ball scooping and pouring it from one bowl to another. So funny!

This sly little look is his signature! Whenever he says that he's in charge or that he's not into something he gives this look. It's such a giveaway!

This is one of my new favorite pages. These are the definite Cade-isms right now. I love the way he talks and being able to see his mind work and reason. He has a little bit of a hard time saying some word sounds- like R and L. I find it hard to correct him because it sounds so sweet still and I know that he will grow out of it, but I'll be sad because that will mean he's older too.

He loves cowboy movies and all things cowboy. He now calls his pop gun from Christmas (which is broken and doesn't make noise now- darn it ;) a scatter gun, which he learned from the movie "Magnificent 7" a current favorite. More favorites include "Support Your Local Sheriff," "Support Your Local Gunfighter" (or Sheriff 2), "Quigley Down Under," "McClintock," "Hallelujah Trail" (or Massingale movie). And he wants to be a cowboy for Halloween.

Page Credits:

First LO: Template by Lili at ScrapArtist. Alpha from Parker kit by Digital Design Essentials. All papers and elements from Downtown Loft kit by Amy Wolff. Font is Typewriter Scribbled.

Second LO: Template by Janet Phillips. Title by Steph2 at The Daily Digi. Stitching from Downtown Loft kit by Amy Wolff. Everything else by Matahati Designs in Midnight Dreams kit. Font is LB Ali.

Third LO: Paper from Carefree kit by Holly Griego. Font is Typewriter Scribbled.

All about Telena

Telena is now 19 months old! It goes by so fast. I haven't shared pictures for a while and thought it was due!

I think this is my favorite page right now. Telena is wearing my favorite shirt (watercolor looking flowers in pink, purple and orange shirt from Old Navy that I got on sale for $2) and a cute flower headband. And this page just says how much of a bright spot she is- she is always so happy and fun to be around.

This is Telena asleep in her bed- completely surrounded by stuffed animals. She loves them piled in her bed, but by the end of her nap, they all end up on the floor! So far, I don't think she has a favorite animal like Rylee did with Pretty Bear, but we'll see. She loves this big Kangaroo and she loves to carry around and play with baby dolls. Don't all kids look like angels when they're asleep? Oh and the funniest thing right now is that when she sucks her thumb, she has to have her other hand on her bellybutton. I have to find clothes so that she can access her belly at naps!

I wanted to capture the face I see every morning. The first picture here even has a drip of drool on her chin.

She really is such a sweetheart. This Sunday in Nursery when I picked her up, she was hugging a little boy that was crying- it was so sweet! We can just tell that she has such a tender heart.

Side note about Nursery: She has been going for a month now and has never had a problem! She went right in the first time. Sometimes she's hesitant when I drop her off, but then she sees the toys (and baby dolls) and she's off. It helps that Cade is in there with her. He's such a good big brother and looks after her. More updates later!

Page credits:

First LO: Template by Lili at ScrapArtist. All papers and elements in Midnight Dreams kit by Matahati Designs; Alpha in Downtown Loft kit by Amy Wolff; Font is DJB Heather E; Word Art in title by Stephanie2, all are in The Digi Files 7 at www.thedailydigi.com. Drop Shadow Actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 designs.

Second LO: Template by Janet Phillips. All papers and elements in Hop Skip Jump kit by The Lilypad in The Digi Files 2 that I got at the daily digi a few months ago. Word art by Steph 2 and font is DJB Heather E in The Digi Files 7. Drop Shadow Actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 designs.

Third LO: Template by Janet Phillips. All papers and elements in Hop Skip Jump kit by The Lilypad, Alpha template by Mushy, both were in The Digi Files 2. Font is CK Becky. Drop Shadow Actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 designs.

Fourth LO: Template by Jen Caputo. All papers and elements by Melissa Bennett in a former Digi Files grab bag. Font is DJB TracyScript from The Digi Files 7. Drop Shadow Actions by Kristen Rice at After 5 designs.