Eva Eva Eva

Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet GirlShe had her first party on Friday with a couple of her playgroup friends. It was really fun stringing fruit loop necklaces, playing Birthday Bingo and Freeze Dancing over and over!! They sang Happy Birthday and she blew out the candles.Eva is the greatest (well all my girls are the greatest!), we all just love her beyond measure. She is CRAZY, and silly and happy all the time. When I asked her what color of balloons she wanted, she said "Dreen and aurange" Really? Green and Orange. OK! Here are a few of her favorite things:

- Chocolate Balls with NO MILK for breakfast every morning
-Baths NOT Showers
-Sharing a room with Liv and singing songs together all night
-Having Abby read her stories while snuggled in blankets on the couch-Playing with Little Ponies, Pet Shops, Polly's, Barbies, Baby Dolls (she is a girl!)
-Helping mom put on her Make-ups
-Pineapple and Grapes
-Combing Moms hair at night and putting in clips
-Peanut Butter and Fluff sandwiches-"Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga (She sings and dances to it like no ones business)
-Dora
-Playing Mom and Kid with Liv
-Library Story Time
-Being with Dad- she is a Daddy's girl and he LOVES it!Happy Birthday Eva- You overflow my heart!

It was

a leaf jumpin' kind of afternoon!!!

The Recipe:

A mountain of leaves

4 rakes

1 neighbor friend Kate

Lots of laughs!!


A Dash of this:

Mixed with a lot of that:Sprinkle with grins like these!

This is cold enough for me, can it be spring yet?

Confidence

I have finally figured out my new Photoshop CS4! It took several hours of browsing around finding tuts to help me. It is the same, but very different then Elements and it has taken some getting used to. I now feel comfortable, confident and proficient- which is great.

Here are my pages this week. I know, I haven't scrapped again in ages- but 2008 is officially complete in all three of the girls books- can I get a Whoot Whoot!!! (Don't even mention to me that 2009 is almost over, I may have to hurt you!)

I am in full creative swing, more to follow soon- I will get caught up, you just wait!!!

Back

Sorry for being slow to post. I always find myself doing this after a vacation.

Yes, Paul and I took a fun little weekend get away last weekend in celebration of my birthday. He asked me what I wanted and I told him- to go away, be away, just him and me, all to myself. No work, no kids, no responsibilities, with sunshine- and he provided. It was wonderful. We slept, we ate, we played golf, we reconnected, we had a blast. As we awoke Sunday morning Paul leaned over and said "I don't want to go back". It was a great break, the only thing that could make us return was the anticipated smiling faces of our sweeties. So, like all good things, it came to an end. Far to quickly we were right back into life and all that it brings. Do you find yourself ever feeling this way? Why can't life just ease us back in after a brief reprieve? Why does it come to such a screeching halt!

Laundry, cooking, cleaning, dishes, shopping, carpool, exercise, sleepless nights...

I guess I will just focus on the good things. The ability to run away together for a moment because I have AMAZING in laws, for little hugs and kisses, for laying around in pajamas with Eva all day, for chocolate dipping pretzels with Liv, for laughing with Abby at silly things, for a girls night out with friends, for a treadmill that just keeps spinning, for TiVo and it's ability to let Paul and I unwind at the end of the day together.

It is the ebb and flow of life, it is what makes it all worthwile.

Birthday Girl

Last Monday. My 32nd to be exact.It entailed:

-Homemade gifts and cards from the girls
-5 mile run
-School carpools
-Lunch with Paul
-Lovely calls from friends and family
-Visits and beautiful gifts from friends
-Took the girls bowling for the first time ever!
-Blew out candles on my cake

Another year flies by and the adventures continue- the 30's really are great!!!

PS: I don't want to hear it from my family about how runny that frosting turned out!!! It still tasted devine:)

Halloween past and present

Paul and I were talking the other night about our love of Halloween, going Trick or Treating, getting the candy, spending hours running from house to house while our parents drove us from neighborhood to neighborhood. I began to think about the costumes I had as a child and honestly I can't remember being anything but a witch, the same witch, year after year!!! So I pulled out my baby book and began to look and sure enough I was a witch every year!!These Casper costumes are Paul's all time favorite Griffiths costumes!!! So funny and yet so creepy at the same time!!! This is Shamae, Brandon, Cory, and Me (Bree) when I was two days away from being 2.

This year I thought it was great that the girls wanted to be witches, takes me back to my childhood. Liv has been obsessed with witches for several months. Every week at the library since about June she has hunted out a book that had a witch in in. She always tells me "I just love witches mom, they kind if scare me!" So funny. Then two weeks ago Eva declared that she wanted to be a cat- absolutely perfect, my two witches with there little black cat!!(Waiting to enter the neighbor Halloween party)

This year I mixed things up a bit, kept the french maid costume in storage and dawned a witch costume as well. Paul joined in with us for the first time and dressed up as Billy Mays (ie. The OxyClean guy). I thought it was very funny!
Cory and Jill popped by with the kids- can you even get over how adorable Lily is as a Garden Gnome!!!Of course I was ecstatic that my Dad showed up with his scary mask to scare all the neighborhood children as he manned the door with candy while we were out. He would wear a mask to answer the door every year when I was a kid. He was such a quiet mild person that the kids never expected to see it when the door flew open and he yelled "Who is it! Oh, it's you. Do you want some candy?" LOVE IT!!Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween as well!!!