Zander - Mr. Independent!

Today I was helping Zander with his homework. We had to read a book that had an emotion in it. I let him pick and he chose Snow White. We talked about how Snow White was sad, but then she was happy (but much more in depth than that). He wanted to fill out his homework sheet all by himself. He's so proud of his writing!

He also like to buckle himself into his carseat - even if it takes 5 minutes. He doesn't let me help him at all!

Mana was watching him go into the bathroom earlier today and saw that his undies were on backwards.... he got himself dressed. Picked everything out himself and put each piece on himself. He decided that he wanted to keep the underwear on backwards. I guess we can't stop Mr. Independent!

Jenny's baby shower

I was going back through iPhoto and realized that I totally forgot to post pictures from Jenny's baby shower - which was almost 2 weeks ago!

Jenny and Brian are due in mid-October. They're having a boy and Jenny shared some names on their list - all very cute!


I made a quilt - as I have been doing for all the first- borns of my friends.













Teresa crocheted a blanket.








Kerri made her hooded towels.








Stacy knitted a pumpkin hat - SO cute!

North Shore here we come!

Mana and I are leaving for a 3 day excursion to the North Shore on Sunday. This is the first time we've away from the boys at the same time.... and it's MUCH needed. We haven't taken a "vacation" (if you can even call this 3-day getaway a vacation) for over 5 years! Mana keeps telling me that we're going back to Hawaii for our 10-year wedding anniversary (next September). I told him that we better test the waters first with a smaller scale separation from the kids. My parents are watching the boys and I'm sure they will have a blast! The kids, that is. Hopefully my parents can say the same thing after 3 days!

We're staying at Lamb's Resort - which sounds fancy, but is really only rustic cabins. No TV or phone. They've been around for a LONG time (1920's) and Mana's grandparents used the stay there (back in the day :) ), so we thought it would be cool to check it out.

Mason video

How crazy life gets in the summer! We had 2 SD cards with videos going back to mid-July that we had not yet put into iMovie. Anyhow, I thought I'd share a recent one (9-22-08) with mostly Mason. He loves when we turn the viewfinder around so he can see himself. Zander (Bean) and Mana make an appearance too. Mason is SO into saying people's names. I told him that my name is really Keisha and now he calls me Keisha sometimes. Zander is know as either Zander, Bean or brother. I think it's pretty smart (at 18 months) that he knows those all refer to the same person.

office clean-up

It's time for me to get back to scrapbooking again. I've been making cards like crazy - but that doesn't get me closer to being caught up in books. My room has turned into a disaster lately, so I decided to use tonight to rearrange and clean. I moved all my idea books (from the various places they were stashed) to a shelf above my computer. Holy crap, no idea I had so many!

This gave me room to re-arrange a few other places. My next project was to tidy up my ScrapRack area. In this whole process, I re-discovered some products and tools. That's always a plus!





Then onto my workspace. This still needs some work, but it's a little better.

Sept Card Club

I stole this design from a class I took many years ago.

ScrapFest 2008

Mom and I went to ScrapFest at the Mall of America on Saturday. In previous years, we've gone on Fridays and it's been a lot less busy. Note to self for next year. Anyhow, it was still fun. They had a lot of cute make and takes offered by 27 vendors. Many of them had LONG lines - so we had to be selective about which ones we did. Mom and I both took a class from SEI (1 hour baby boy book). The products were cute, but it wasn't really a class. They just gave us the supplies and we put it together in the hour of class. We've taken other SEI classes and learned new techniques or tips/tricks. Not this time. Kind of a bummer. The highlight of the day was a class I took from Hero Arts. When mom and I signed up, I signed up about 30 minutes after her (my fault) and did not make it into the Hero Arts class that we decided on. Mom didn't really want to take it by herself - she's not as "into" all this as me. So, she gave her seat to me. What a mom! The class was taught by the talented Jennifer McGuire and Shari Carroll - both artists for Hero Arts. I've been following Jennifer for quite some time - took a class from her at ScrapFest last year (also awesome), follow her blog and the Hero Arts blog. She has such fabulous ideas. She and Shari did a great job - adding tips along the way. I learned a lot.