Cousin pics

Trying to get a decent picture of 4 kids - ages 3.5, 3, 13.5 months and 9 months....now that's crazy!!

Saturday events

Medtronic Holiday Party

Well, Mana's predictions were correct (not that I doubted him)... not a successful visit with Santa. All week, we've been talking to Zander about what he's going to ask Santa for x-mas - cars. Very simple...cars. We basically got right into the Santa line (since we arrived 20 minutes before it ended - which is a story that's not worth telling). Anyhow, we were escorted into the Santa #1 line (they had 3 Santas!), where we saw the family in front of us finishing up with their pictures. Right then, I felt Zander grab onto my leg. I looked down and his lip began to quiver. I had pretty much lost all hope of the visit we talked about with Zander. Sure enough, when it was our turn, we walked towards Santa and Zander started screaming. (Did I mention that Mason is just observing everything going on - no crying whatsoever). So, the photographer suggested we do a "family" picture. So, that's how it all went down. All 4 of us in the Santa photo.
After the formal photo, we grabbed our treat bags and munched on them for about 5 minutes before seeing the mime from MarketFest and getting kicked out. Quick, but painful ordeal.



Archiver's Scrap Mania

As mentioned in a previous post, I attended Archiver's "Scrap Mania" with my friend from work, Nikole. It's basically a night (5-11pm) to scrap all you want and use all the tools onsite. It's $15 which includes dinner, a page layout to do (or take with you) and a make-and-take which was a snowman tag. It was cute, but too glittery... I'll be finding glitter everywhere for days!
In my preparation for the "mania" (as the "avids" would say), I was apparently very optimistic. I packed supplies for 3 projects. I almost finished one of those projects. If I do this again (which I would like to do) , now I know how much I can realistically get done. Tonight, I put the finishing touches on the pumpkin patch album I worked on. I bought the album kit (SEI) at the scrapbook convention this summer and I think it works really well with these photos.

Prep for Saturday scrappin'

I've been feverishly going through iPhoto the last few days picking out photos to get reprinted in time for the Saturday crop at Archiver's in Coon Rapids. My friend Nikole from work invited me. I guess there is a group of Nikole's husband's friend's wives are going and they invited Nikole. She doesn't know them that well, and I don't know them at all. I'm really looking forward to it. A whole night to focus on scrapping. At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. I've only done one other crop and that was at a convention when mom and I first started scrapping. At that tome, everything we owned fit in a tote. Now, I'm lucky if I can get 10% of my supplies in my tote! And I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on. However, knowing that I'm going to this crop, it has forced me to get some "pre-work" completed so I can work on a project or two while I'm there. I KNOW I wouldn't have down that if the crop wasn't looming.

Thanksgiving

Just wanted to post a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We went to my parent's house on Thanksgiving Day. In addition to my parents were: Grandma June, Grandpa Bob, Uncle Glenn, Marissa and Jason.



On Saturday, we did Turkey Day all over again with Mana's family - at Eric & Mindi's house. Zander & Ayden had their own "kid table" and they kept claiming that they saw deer outside. Mindi and Eric made a wonderful turkey. I know Mindi was excited to be able to finally entertain in their new house. After dinner and dessert, the Fitzgerald family visited. Dan, Sheila and Brady came from Florida. It was SO great to see them. They will probably be moving back to MN within a year. That would be awesome!!

My scrappin' buddy

Love this picture of my little scrappin' buddy! It makes me so happy that he's so into watching and helping me. He helps tame my type-A personality. After several shirts got ink on them, I bought him his own washable ink pads. Now, he can have fun without me being paranoid the whole time. I didn't realize how my type-A personality still comes out every once and while. The other day, he was drawing letters and asked me if it was perfect. I told him it was great and things don't always have to be perfect anyhow! In this picture, I think we were making a card for Gma Karen and Gpa Kurt. He likes making "mixed media" projects - some stamps, markers, punches and glue. Quite the artist!!

Books!

Several weeks ago, I went to a "home party show" at the Andover YMCA. They had different booths like Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, etc. They had an Usborne Books booth set up. It was the company that makes Zander's finding book and about 4 other of his favorite books. I knew I had to buy something. They have great books. Anyhow, I ended up buying another finding book for my nephew Ayden (for this 3rd b-day) and a book for my niece Zaylee for x-mas. I also got a pirate finding book for Zander for x-mas, but it was out of stock. The consultant just delivered it yesterday. He's going to LOVE it. He loves anything pirates, thanks to g-ma Karen. My 3 year-old can point out Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Carribean movie. Impressive!

Thanksgiving... defined by Zander

According to Zander, Thanksgiving is.... "when the princesses [pilgrims] come over on the flower boat [Mayflower ship] and bring lots of food." I just about lost it when he told me this!! Tonight, I read him the usual two stories, off go the lights, and then cuddle and talk for a few minutes. During our talk tonight, we talked about how we had fun at Gpa Kurt and Gma Karen's house today. I told him we'll be seeing them again this week for Thanksgiving. This is when he informed me that this is the day we eat turkey. When I asked him if he knows why we have thanksgiving, he proceeded to tell me about the princesses and the flower boat. Too funny! He said he learned about this at Lizzy's. I'm impressed that he knew about Thanksgiving even if he did get a few words wrong.