Sometimes they make me smile!

I have NEVER had children that fall asleep spontaneously- you know, in the car, at church, on the floor in the family room, etc. They have a hard time sleeping anywhere but their room. I have been envious of many of you at times, although I am VERY grateful that they have always sleep in their own room, in their own beds from the day they were all born (OK, and thanks to my magic mother!). So you can imagine the surprise and gut busting laughter on our faces when we found Liv like this on Sunday night!!! I am going to preface that we had a VERY busy weekend, lots of family events and fun things, which in turn meant that she hadn't had a nap since Thursday. We did get home from my in-laws house around 9:30pm and we shuffled everyone up stairs to put on their pajamas, I went in to put Eva to bed, while Paul was doing, something (I don't know!) when next thing I hear is "Bree, you have GOT to come see this!" I rounded the corner to Liv's room and busted out laughing- how does one fall asleep in that position while trying to put on their pajamas? How could she not possibly hold her eyes open or her body upright for one more minute! I will never know, but it sure did make me smile- even though she is going to kill me in a few years that I shared that with everyone!!!
Oh, and on Friday night we went to the BYU tailgate party with my parents and the Mickelson's- the girls had a great time playing all the games, jumping in the bounce houses, eating cotton candy and of course Abby's favorite part was getting her face painted like a butterfly:
You just got to love it!

Only the lonely

It seems that I have been finding myself alone at night. After long days with my darlings I am ready for them to head off to bed, sometimes at 7:30pm because I am done, and lucky me, none of them can tell time! Usually this is followed up with some one on one time with my other darling, honey, lovey, snookums... I digress, but you understand right? In case you don't that would be my Paul, in which we usually engage in lying on the couch and, yes you got it, watching some TV, our favorite shows (thank you Tivo)!! However, as stated before I am finding that after getting my children to sleep and walking down stairs I am sitting on the couch alone with not a thing to watch, and missing my mate to laugh with and ease away the tensions of the day!! Many a late nights has Paul been working, one disaster after another at work, duty calls and he then calls me to say that yet again he will not be there to rub my feet and laugh with me while we watch mindless meaningless banter on TV. So, what is a girl to do? How do I fill the next several hours until I crawl my lonely old self up to bed? I must admit that several night I have popped myself a bowl of popcorn and curled up to a chick flick, much to my pleasure, with out a snide remark from Paul that he just can't possibly hold in for one more second! "Oh come on!, That is so stupid!, I saw that coming a mile away!, I can't take it anymore!..." you get the picture, and if any of you have watched a chick flick (Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives etc.) with him then you know what I am talking about!! Mostly I don't mind, because I am just that loving and understanding of his inability to keep it in!! One night I totally lost it and while watching recorded cooking shows I somehow managed to eat an entire box of chocolates by myself (Dove Caramel filled dark chocolate pleasures) and I am not even a chocolate girl! Although while pregnant with Eva I craved Dark chocolate sooo sooo much and I guess I had a traveled back in time moment! Don't even ask me about the scale right now- I need Paul back to talk some sense into me- "No Bree, you are not hungry, you are just thirsty, put the candy away!" Ok, I am lying he doesn't say that, he actually talks me out of my chewy gummy candies only so I will make us a bowl of nachos instead!!
So all of you women that deal with your traveling husbands, have men that work long and draining hours and find yourself alone, a lot, how do you spend your evenings? Mostly I am at the computer with a box of gummy chewy treats (mentioned previously) scrappin to my hearts content, or until my eyes are a constant stream of tears from drying out looking at a computer screen for too long and I hit a creative block!! Not the worst thing I could do right!!! Here are some of the results. All are for Abby's book, which is now complete and a monster of a book at that! When the cropping is done and uploaded to print it will be 96 pages comprising two years and then I begin her "School Days" album.

Of course we have Amber and Trace's wedding, I decided to keep this one simple, and I just love that little word art!
This layout combines both of the July holidays into one, I haven't done that before and I think it works.
This one started out totally different then it ended up, but I really like it! I have been wanting to do a tree and bird layout that is all the rage right now, so I went with it.

This is her "Summer Review Page" I got the "We were Here, and here and here" title from a layout in Creating Keepsakes Mag. But I decided to "circle punch" everything and stitch it on.

Hopefully Paul is getting a big bonus for all his overtime hours so that I can actually order the mammoth book!!! Because I KNOW that it is definitely the only way he would ever like to spend his money!!

To all the Soccer moms out there...

When Abby started begging to play soccer last spring you can imagine the joy that filled Paul's whole being! So, I signed her up to play in the city league that started at the end of July. In all of Paul's enthusiasm to have a child playing sports he decided that he would like to coach the team as well. I was a little apprehensive about this but went ahead and checked the box. Sure enough, because who volunteers to coach 12 4 and 5 year olds, we were named coach. So as we now near the end of our season I have decided that while coaching wasn't all that bad, it did have it's moments and I think it would be more enjoyable for me and Paul if we just let someone else do it next year so that we can cheer on our little athlete from the sidelines!!!Abby fully enjoyed playing- loves going to practice, kicking the ball around in the back yard with Dad, and especially getting all geared up in her uniform complete with "tall socks" cleats and shin guards.From the very beginning she loved getting out there with everyone, determined that they would win(even though we don't keep score and I have to keep reminding Paul of this also!). At the first game she proved to be a little timmed when it came to kicking it (she didn't want to hurt someone else, or have them hurt her!) But as the weeks have progressed she has done much better, even though she still laments not having scored a goal. I just keep telling her, while that is true, she has been able to dribble the ball all the way down the field and tried making a kick at the goal- so much progress from the first game!
I have to say that with one more game to go next week I am sorry that Abby will be done with a very fun activity that she really enjoyed. However, I am glad to be done, the sister's are glad to not have to sit for an hour on the sidelines and not bother mommy while she subs players, and Paul, I think, is glad to not have to take care of 12 rambunctious kids anymore, not to metion the early game starts!!

Until next year round soccer ball, until next year!

PS- Thanks to my Mom and Dad who came to a game and took pictures for me!!

PPS- I find it very funny that nobody could tell who was in the pictures in my previous post!! I had better make sure to identify in the future- by the way, it's ABBY in these pictures!!! HAHAHA

Sunshine on a clowdy day

While the rain that has befallen the valley has it's down points- it canceled my swim last night, and probably tomorrow mornings as well, wet shoes tracked across my floors, trying to find a bug for Abby to bring to school in her bug house for science (nearly impossible in the rain) and the bottom ridge of my pants getting wet in the grass, etc. There is a bright side. Not only being able to open the windows and smell the freshness lofting in on the breeze or listening to the thunder crashing while all snuggled up with Liv on the couch, but this of course:
Watching these two run up and down the street together laughing and giggling while I sit in the doorway and smile!

It's off to School she goes!

As stated before, Liv started Preschool on Wed. She was so excited to be a big kid like Abby and go to school. She has started getting herself dressed in the morning, which is good and really not a problem because she has a great sense of color and flow, she has always picked things that match. Naturally the first day of school was no different, so not the dressed up photo I would have liked (she has started to LOVE wearing shorts everyday, no dresses, now this is different!) but she matched and was very pleased with what she picked and I am proud of her independence.Then we made the walk through the neighborhood to Mrs. Sherrie's school and found that Liv isn't the fastest of walkers!! It took us forever with all the stops to admire peoples flowers, pointing out every bug in our path or jumping over every crack in the sidewalk- you got to love her!So today we had her ride her bike which sped her up quite a bit and she thought it was great to wear her backpack and ride at the same time, not to mention leaving her bike on the porch until class if over and then riding it home, she felt so cool!!!

I have been able to get back to scrapping this week, which has been very nice. Here are a couple of pages for Abby's book, sorry about the drought of creativity around here lately :)
Have a good weekend all, ours is a busy one as usual!!

I know, I know...

I have not been a good blogger! I can't believe that a week has gone by already, where does the time go? I guess when you are dealing with a new schedule and routine mixed in with a sickly husband for four days it can sneak past you pretty quickly!!!
We are all better now and I have started to scrap again (hallelujah!) so this is just a quick post to say we are all still alive! This last week it was discovered that Eva's hair has finally reached a length in which we can do more than just one pony on top, yeah for versitility! The girls decided that they wanted matching do's and because it was a soccer day for Abby (who INSISTS on NO bangs for the game) they all had them pulled back. I almost didn't recognise them all day!!! Don't they look like such fun sisters!I will be back soon because Liv starts preschool tomorrow!!!
Have a good one!