January 30, 2009

The girl doesn't sleep

I have the hardest time getting Allison to nap during the day when R works 3rds. We moved her out of the bassinet 2 months ago and refuses to sleep anywhere but our bed now. I have tried the pack n play, the couch, moved the crib downstairs, the swing and even the floor. She'll sleep for maybe 15 minutes after fighting for at least half an hour and then she's up again. I tried laying her down for the second time since Andrew's been napping and am listening to her talking and grunting. I know she's tired. She looks tired and acts tired, but refuses to sleep. Usually, R will wake up in about an hour for lunch and then I send her up to bed with him so she'll nap, but it sucks because I'm not able to get anything done, now, while Andrew's sleeping. It's like I constantly have one attached to me.

We've also been dealing with what I believe to be an ear infection from little mister. He's been acting like his ear was bothering and was running a slight fever. I was going to take him to the doctor wednesday (scheduled for Allison's 6 month appt) but had to cancel because of all the snow. He's better now and acting normal. I do have to go Tuesday and finally have her six month checkup done, over a month late. I did take Andrew to the doctor last week because he had a staph infection sore on his thigh. That was his first appointment since his 12 month checkup. He weighed in at 28 lbs. and I'm guessing little Alli is pushing 25lbs. She's chunky.

Sometimes I take for granted how lucky I am to be stuck at home all day with these two. They always seem to do little things, that make me stop and think about how truly lucky I am to have them. I find myself getting a lot more frustrated with Allison than I did with Andrew at the stage she's at. She will be fussing or trying to get into something and I'll be about to lose it and she'll look up at me, directly in my eyes and just smile that gummy grin that's so big it makes her eyes closed. She just amazes me so much. She has a very determined personality.

Andrew is just so stinkin smart. The other day I was making hamburgers and french fries for dinner and jokingly asked him to get the ketchup out of the fridge. He went to the fridge, pulled on the handle, came to get me to open it for him, then got the ketchup out by himself. I just can't believe his vocabulary. We don't use or say ketchup very often and yet he knew exactly what it was. I can ask him to get me just about anything specific in the house and he'll get it. He's also figured out how to turn the knob on the bathroom door, open the locked kitchen cabinets and how to move things around to climb and get something he can't reach.

He was a little slower developing certain things and I stopped reading "parenting" books when he was about 3 months old because I KNEW he was just where he was supposed to be. I haven't even touched a parenting book with Allison. She's just perfect as well.

Finally, she's asleep. Better get some cleaning done.
Here's my half an hour napper

Lots of pages to share!

Here are some pages I've done recently. I'll post here in a bit about some of the things going on right now.
Some of my Amazing Digiscrapping Race challenge pages:
A layout featuring Haynay's newest template set, 3's company:
A layout of me and my mom using Julie Marie's Winter Majesty kit:
Some pages using the awesome products of SherrieJD at Scrap Orchard. I'm now on her amazing creative team!!
I'm also so stoked to be a Sunshine Sweetie!! I'm also CTing for Sunshine Studio Scraps!!! I'm so excited! They have a new store collab coming sooned called No. 9. It's so versatile! Just look how different these two pages are:
(fyi: the flower isn't included on her book page. I just would hate for some perv to see my daughter's little butt)
Madame Wing was my first designer to work with at the Sun. Here's a page I made using her Love Me Not kit:
And FINALLY here are some pages I've done just because. Some are for challenges and some I just wanted to use some of the new goodies I won through the race.

January 20, 2009

I made a template!

I did a page for the speed scrap at Scrap Matters today that I called Unconditional Love (see previous post). I liked it so much that I made a template.

I removed the password, but if it still asks for one it is: Andrew




Here's the link to download: http://www.4shared.com/file/81551534/2e72bee3/Sarahs_Scraps_-_Unconditional_Love_template.html

Playing Catch Up

First of all, Haynay Designs has a new football kit out just in time for Superbowl pics! It's half off right now too!
http://scrapmatters.com/shop/product.php?productid=1225&cat=0&page=1




http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/21042/ppuser/364


Ziggle designs and Amanda Heimann teamed up on this awesome Smooches collab, (which I just love) http://scraporchard.com/market/product.php?productid=17459&cat=0&page=1

If you buy it before 01/22, you'll get a coordinating brag book for FREE!


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/21519/ppuser/364


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/21340/ppuser/364

I've struggled with the last two challenges for the Amazing DigiScrapbooking Race.
My Artsy page:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20663/ppuser/364

For this one, we had to use three different frames, but no pictures.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/21598/ppuser/364

And, finally, I did this one. I found an old picture of me that I had scanned a long time ago on the hard drive and noticed the kiddos resemble me a lot.


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20990/ppuser/364

January 15, 2009

BIG News!

I got an e-mail yesterday from an amazing designer asking me to be on her creative team!!!! Still excited about it! I'll be creating for Julie Marie! She sells at http://sunshinestudioscraps.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=50 Sunshine Studio Scraps
http://faithsisters.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=43&zenid=d98705160a8e53aa51f40e6be62e09ff Faith Sisters

She has a new kit out, Love Hearts, that is just a perfect Valentine's Day kit!



I've only just had time to do one page, but I'm loving this kit!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20774/ppuser/364



Also, I'm a guest creative team member for Ziggle Designs at Scrap Orchard. I'm absolutely loving her stuff! I've been lucky enough to work with her Cheese-a-lini kit and Happy Feet, a collab with Krystal Hartley (one of my fave designers!!!) Here's what I did with them:




http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20834/ppuser/364


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20780/ppuser/364





http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20115/ppuser/364


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/20125/ppuser/364

I've been pretty busy scrapping. I have lots more pages that I haven't uploaded here, but you can follow one of the links below the pics to be directed to my gallery at Scrap Matters and see all of my pages.

I'm so proud of myself for staying on top of taking pics for the project 365, now if I can turn them into pages. I'm also still in the ADSR and ready for my fifth challenge already!!

Okay, need to go finish what I was doing before I got on here :)

January 6, 2009

I haven't posted in forever!!

I'm glad the holidays are over. We really didn't do anything major, but it still felt like we did a lot. I can hardly believe it is already 2009!!! Where's the time going???
One of my goals this year is to do the project 365. Basically, I'm going to take a picture a day for a year of each kid, then scrap a two page layout of the week. At the end of the year, I'll make a "year in the life" book for each kid. Let's just hope I stay on top of it. I've already forgotten to take a picture of andrew and it's only day 5!!

Another one of my goals this year is to take some time for myself. I've been so consumed with babies the last two years that I really really need to focus on me more. Little things like painting my nails, reading a book, watching a movie. anything for me.

I also want to start menu planning. We waste so much food and I spend way to much money on it. I've tried a couple of recipes this week and they've went over quite well. I really want to learn how to make use of leftovers.

I'm taking part in the Amazing Digiscrapping Race with my scrapping buddy, Becca. We had our first challenge yesterday, which I've already completed.
Here's some more I've done recently. I'm sure I've done more than 4 since december 18th, but I'll post later. Is it bad that I'm still up when the newspaper carrier comes??? He just scared the crap out of me. :)