Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Zoë: Live and in Color

What can I say about Zoë? Words really can't describe my girl. She is just so fun and creative and animated, that words don't do her justice. I will definitely write a post soon documenting all of her four and a half year old quirkiness, but for now I thought I would post some videos from last week of Miss Zoë.

First up, we started attending church three weeks ago and Zoë is loving Sunday school. Last week she asked me every day if it was Sunday because she wanted to go so badly. This week she learned a couple of songs that she was more than happy to sing for me. I think that I may literally have a drama queen on my hands. (I am looking into some drama summer camps for her. I think she has a knack.)

Sunday School Songs from Maegan B. on Vimeo.

Over the last few weeks we have been working with Zoë to pronounce the "th" sound correctly. She still says "f," as in "free" instead of "three." Before she starts saying it correctly however, I wanted to get a video of her singing "The Thankfulness Song." She has been singing it at night before bedtime and randomly bursts into song during the day. Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?

A Fankful Heart from Maegan B. on Vimeo.

Overheard from Upstairs

Scene: Kelly tucking Zoë into bed.

Kelly: Good night little one. I love you.

Zoë: Good night big one. I love you too.

School of Life

I just got Zoë's "School of Life" album all caught up and I have to say, these layouts were so much fun to create. Honestly, I think it is the most fun I have ever had scrapbooking. They are not terribly fancy (not that I didn't try, but it distracted from the journaling) but they touch on all the important milestones from each year of Zoë's school life thus far.

The school year in the album has a very simple format.

• 12x12 Yearly title page. You may remember Zoë's title pages from the last few years: 2, 3 and Pre-K. I am using the School Days Quick Page by Heather Ann. The title page has the official school picture (or a picture I took since Zoë hasn't had an official picture yet) and some journaling about her school year, teacher, etc. I am also going to have Zoë write her name each year and include it on this page.
• 2 page layout of "Life at School" photos. This would include photos from field trips, play dates, special friends, etc.
• 2 page layout of "Life at Home" photos. This would include photos from holidays, important milestones, fun family activities, etc.
• 12x12 pocket page. The last page will have a pocket for special pieces of artwork, report cards and the class picture.

So that's the formula. Pretty easy, right? I was able to get these layouts done in about two hours. Well I take that back, they were 95% done in two hours then I fiddled with fonts and elements for awhile. Wanna see?

Credits: Template by Jen Wilson, String-A-Ling by Natalie Braxton, MA Googly Bear and Arial fonts.

I showed them to Zoë this morning and she gasped, "Mommy, I wuv them!" And that blog readers is why I do what I do. It doesn't get any better than that

Half a Year Old!

I cannot believe my baby is six months old! Half a year! She is such a sweet and happy baby. I know that most people say that about their babies, but it's true. There are two things that make her cry: not getting her food fast enough (so funny, I really shouldn't laugh) and getting stuck on her tummy (not so funny in the middle of the night.)

Routine:
She goes down between 6:30-7:00pm, waking up around midnight for a bottle. She usually wakes up around 5am for a bottle then sleeps until 8:30ish. Nap times are all over the board. She naps about three hours after she wakes up in the morning.

She takes a bath every other day because her skin is so dry. The CeraVe cream seems to help her body, but nothing is working on her poor little cheeks. We have used: Aquafor, A&D Ointment, CeraVe, Aveno Cream, Eucerin, Cortizone, Crisco, and California Baby Cream. This is so frustrating!

Eating:
This girl has never met a food that she doesn't like. She drinks about three bottles a day, mixed 80% milk and 20% purified water (to help out her kidneys.) She also eats: bananas, sweet potatoes, carnival squash, applesauce, prunes and avocado like a champ. She gets two food cubes for breakfast and lunch and three for dinner (all with cereal mixed in to bulk it up.) Now that she is eating solids her acid reflux and gas problems have completely dissapeared. Yay!

Clothing:
She is wearing 6-9 month clothes now. I had to go shopping last week and buy her a new wardrobe. She is hypersensitive to elastics, fabrics, buttons, zippers... and as it turns out, all of Zoë's old clothes have those things. Awesome. So, I had to go shopping. Darn I had great luck at The Children's Place and stocked up. They have a wonderful assortment of yoga pants (darling little 6-9 month yoga pants!) t-shirts, and dresses. So cute!

Other Tidbits:
She loves her exersaucer and will play happily in it for thirty minutes at a time, no problem. She also loves to lay on a blanket in the bathroom while I get ready (in her diaper) and chew on her toes and stuffed animals. Again, she will do that for about half an hour. Speaking of stuffed animals, her favorites are: green jelly bean, Tyrone, Austin, and her baby. She also likes to sleep with her yellow silky blanket and her "Girls Rule" leopard print blankey that her daddy bought her.

She simply adores her big sister and watches her intently when ever she is in the room. Nobody can make her laugh like Zoë. She is also extremely curious about Archie. She will even stop eating (shocking) to watch him.

New Tricks:
-She rolls easily from her back to her tummy.
-She sits up all by herself without a problem. She tips over occassionally, but it doesn't bother her at all.
-She has a tooth! It broke through at 5 1/2 months. She is still chewing on everything she can get her hands on, but nothing else has surfaced.

Now for some cute Eden pictures from the past month.

We now return to our regularly schuedled blog programming.

The Silent Auction

Last week was a busy school week. Kelly and I attended Zoë's spring parent-teacher conference on Thursday, which is always interesting. We spent the first hour observing her in her classroom. It's pretty cute really. There is a little room with windows that you observe from, that way you don't disrupt the class. Unlike last time, Zoë was very much aware of our presence and was strategically placing herself in the room so that we couldn't see her. Stinker! LOL! Afterwards we met with Steven and he gushed about how wonderful Zoë was. What parent doesn't love that? He is most impressed with her extensive vocabulary. Shocking, I know.

He was sad to hear that Zoë will not be returning to the school next year. That was a very difficult decision for us to make. We love TLS. Truly. The environment, the teachers, the school community... It is a fantastic school. However, we moved into a great neighborhood in a great school district last summer, with schools (all of them, elementary-high school) less than a mile from our house. It is ridiculous for us to be driving her twenty minutes to school each day when we could walk to a good one right down the street. The clincher was the fact that Kelly met his best friend when he was five years old. (The age Zoë will be in a few short months.) Kelly and Jim went to school together from kindergarden through graduation. They rode their bikes to each others houses. We want that for Zoë. We want her to meet friends in the neighborhood. Maybe even a best friend. That being said, we fully intend on sending Eden to TLS for preschool.

Saturday was the school's big fund raising event for the year, the silent auction. Each family was in charge of procuring two items for the auction. I donated two Year in Review scrapbooks made by me. Do you know how much they went for? TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS! It is going to cost me more than that just to order the finished scrapbook from Shutterfly, and that is before I even factor in my time. Needless to say, I will never be doing that again. Lesson learned.

I also made Oreo Cookie Truffles for the dessert auction part of the evening. Would you like to know how much those went for? $400. Next time I am just making dessert.

Scrapbook insult aside, Kelly and I had a really nice time at the auction. The event was planned very well. Kelly and I couldn't imagine how they would stretch the auction to a five hour event without it seeming really long, but the time just flew by. We did win a few items: Karate Lessons for Zoë (called Little Ninjas-ha!), a Gene Juarez spa package for me, and some beautiful artwork for Kelly's office. All in all, a sucessful evening.

For parents in charge of other school fundraisers, here are a couple clever items that the auction committee came up with. The school had a photographer come in and take pictures of all the children. They were hung around the dining room and available for purchase. (Clever.) The same pictures were also combined into a poetry book for each class. The photos were paired with a little poem by each child and the parents were able to bid on the book. (One book for each class so the parents were bidding against each other. Also, very clever.)

And that's all I've got for now. I'll be back once I edit some pictures. :D

Thank you, and good day.

Conversations with my husband...

Yesterday I let Kelly sleep in and took Zoë to school. The poor guy was up working until 4am so I took pity on him. As it turns out, we crossed on the road when I was on my way home. He called me to say good morning and our conversation went something like this:

Kelly: Hey honey, you look really cute in your red hat today.

Me: Thanks, babe. (Thinking it was strange that he knew that because I hadn't seen him since he woke up.)

Kelly: I just passed you on the road. I thought I saw you picking your nose, but then I realized you were just adjusting your glasses.

Thanks, babe.

And just to clarify, I try to make it a point not to pick my nose.

Crafty Baby Goodness

I am so proud of my latest little project. It took me less than fifteen minutes to create and it just makes me happy. I am going to laminate this, punch two holes on the top, and hang it from some pretty ribbon on the front door. (I also made a blue version for our neighbors who are going to have a baby soon.)

Credits: Baby Doodles & Alpha by Kate Hadfield (The Lilypad)

Making this little sign gave me a great idea. I am going to create my own little baby shower gift basket using these doodles. So far I have decided that I am going to make onesies with the doodle numbers much like this for 1 month - 1 year, and the door sign. I'm not sure what else, but I think it will be fun. Oooh, maybe a coordinating blanket? I'll have to think about it.

Now for some layouts. I was a busy girl last weekend. Wanna see?

Credits: Paper & Chipboard alpha by Kate Hadfield (The LilyPad), Frame by Kate Pertiet (Designer Digitals), Glitter Swirls by Heather Ann (recolored) HAD.

Credits: Word Art by Ali Edwards, Date Journal by Kate Pertiet (Designer Digitals)

Credits: Quick Page by Cinzia Loosemore

Credits: Word Art by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)

Credits: Paper from "Chatterbox" kit by Heather Ann, Glitter swirl from "Love Birds" kit by Heather Ann (HAD)

Credit: Word Art by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)

To Infinity and Beyond! No wait, that's not right...

I completely forgot to post about our Family Movie Night from two weeks ago! Geez! Look at the pictures and try to guess what we watched. One clue, it wasn't Toy Story.

If you guessed Space Buddies, you would be correct. We saw a commercial for it a few weeks back and I immediately went to the movie store to rent it. (I am trying to broaden Zoë's movie horizons to include non-animated features. I can only watch so many cartoons, you know?) For treats we had "dog food" in dog bowls (new dog bowls) and drinks in our Denny's rocket cups. That was the easy part. The costumes took some work, but it was totally worth it. I made helmets out of white buckets I found at Lowe's. I used the Skil saw to cut out the face holes. (I was pretty impressed with myself after that one.) We dressed all in white to make sure we looked like astronauts. I also found a NASA logo online and put in on a storage bin to make a rocket. It was definitely a hit and you can bet we will be reusing those helmets. I already have two other movies all picked out. I did break out the power tools after all.

Now for some scrapbooking. I've had these layouts finished for quite a while now, but my computer time has been spent in Quicken lately. However, I am happy to report that I am finally done. Whew! Every penny is accounted for and categorized. That makes me happy. Sometimes I wonder though, does a person really need to know how much they spent on lattes the previous year? Or scrapbooking supplies?

Back to the layouts... Have you seen Gina Miller's quick pages? They are gorgeous. I have quite the collection and I fully intend on using them all this weekend. Here are two for now.

Credits: Quick Page by Gina Miller, Ribbon Heart by Michelle Godin (Spring Fling Colab with Kate Hadfield)

Credits: Quick Page by Gina Miller

And I also finished a few baby layouts. The first is of Zoë. I re-did her new baby page. I couldn't handle the cheesy paper layout any more. It had to go. It is identical to the one I made for Eden, but I changed the accent color to lavender. Love it.

Credits: Quick Fill #73 by Heather Ann

And some of my very favorite photos from the day Eden was born. Love, love, love them. I am actually kind of torn about where to put this in my Library of Memories. Eden's baby book? "All About Us: Zoë" album? (Since it is about her being a great big sister.) My "All About Us: Just the Girls" album? Thoughts?

Credits: Baby Word Art by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals)