Welcome to my Crazy life.

My attempt at pottery barn plaques FINISHED

2011-03-26T16:51:00.000-04:00

I actually finished these weeks ago, but I haven't had time to post the pics yet. These did take some time to make but I LOVE the finished product! Well worth the time and effort and I actually like my version better because the only ones PB offered were for girls.

Rees' 3rd Birthday Party ~ The Family Party

2011-03-25T22:54:00.000-04:00

I just can't let the actual day of Rees' birthday pass without having him a little party at our home. I only invite his grandparents and his aunts so it's a small event, but nonetheless it still needs to be cute! He is currently obsessed with Go Diego Go as Rees says "He's my best friend mommy". As much as I do not like character parties I gave in to this one. He just begged to have a Diego party so who was I to argue? After shopping at Birthday Express and grabbing up all the plates, table clothes and hats I just had to add a few personal touches. I made the birthday banner on my Cricut (or as mommy says "her best friend") then I made the cute pom pom balls that I hung on the fan and in the entry way. All and all it was fun and Rees couldn't have been happier!

My Birthday Boy

2011-03-18T22:29:00.000-04:00

Welp, it happened. As much as I dreaded it and prayed that the day would not come ... it did! I have a really hard time with my one and only child growing older. I want to keep him tiny FOREVER. I realize that it's not possible, but I just can't give up on it :) I think that's one of the reasons I like to throw huge birthday bashes for him, to keep my mind off of the aging process. So this year the theme was Cowboy; did you really expect anything less? My little man is so obsessed with cowboys that there really was no other option. So I started a month ago gathering the cutest collection of western goodies I could find. I am really happy with the result. This year we had around 25 kiddos! Yep you heard it right 25!!! But, we had several games, great food and pony rides! It went of without a hitch!

Here is Rees making his grand entrance, how else does a cowboy get to his party other than by horse?

Awww look how happy he is!

Happy Easter sign

2011-02-22T21:25:00.000-05:00

I had a spare piece of board from my current project and I couldn't stand to have it just sitting around, but I didn't want to get into another big project so I digitally scrapped a Happy Easter image and printed it out on my printer. I painted the board white, used some Mod Podge over the image and then distressed the edges a bit with some ink and I love the way it turned out. The best part was it took maybe 10 minutes! And the possibilities are endless with this project.

My attempt at pottery barn plaques

2011-02-14T14:57:00.001-05:00

I have found some wall plaques for Rees' playroom that I adore, but there are two big problems. 1.) They are in girl patterns 2.) they would be $157 + shipping. I hate to spend that kind of money for playroom decor that will probably change next year! So I got to thinking.... I can make those. So here is what I want my project to eventually resemble

and here is what I am starting with :)

This is a board that I purchased at my local hardware store for $10.20 and they cut it to my specs (which I borrowed :) from Pottery barn for free. So they next step is painting wish me luck!

Our big summer project.

2010-09-07T18:45:00.000-04:00

This summer sure has flown by. Between the store, a toddler and my hobbies there's not a lot of time for much else, but my wonderful husband finally gave in to the idea of a pool!!! So the fact that it's the end of summer didn't even phase me! I look at it as a fresh start for next summer! We got the pool in now we're (my husband, I try to help but you can imagine how well that goes) building the deck and it is ginormous. It's such a slow process working on it after he gets home from work and on the weekends when we don't have other stuff going on, but we'll get done eventually!

Rees' new obsession

2010-08-29T15:31:00.000-04:00

For months Rees has begged for paint. Every time we pass the craft isle at Walmart he says Rees needs that mom (the paint) and I have avoided it for this long, but he caught me in a soft moment and I said "sure" so that was all he talked about all the way home. We went out to the patio and away he went, he had most of his Toy Story book colored by the time he was done. I must admit it wasn't actually that messy, I should have gave in sooner :)

Love this picture

2010-07-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

I adore taking pictures of flowers. They are naturally beautiful, very cooperative and you don't have to convince them to smile for the camera :) I went to take some pictures last week of some Asiatic Lilies and they were gorgeous. Of course I my favorite of them all was the wonky angle one that I got on my last try! I am going to enlarge this as a wall print and I can't make up my mind which processing I like the best...

Daddy's right hand man

2010-07-18T14:59:00.000-04:00

So we had a water leak in our backyard. We had to bring the backhoe in and Mat had a little helper the whole time!

A boys work is never done

2010-07-17T22:53:00.000-04:00

Love this picture

Summer Fun

2010-07-16T22:50:00.000-04:00

We're having an amazing summer. I have dedicated my summer to my little man and making sure we get plenty of quality time together (he is growing up too quickly) and we have been pool rats this summer. He is doing great at learning to swim. The 99 cent swimmies have been such a blessing. Those big bulky suits with the floats in them are nice, but the swimmies give him so much more freedom to actually swim and he has no fear so he's well on his way. Just thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures!

4th of July

2010-07-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th...our family sure did! We had a great day swimming, eating and then we had a beautiful fireworks display although I am sad to report my pictures sucked. I was not as clever as my dear friend V to research the fireworks procedure for taking good pictures so I wound up with 100+ stinky fireworks pictures. Oh well there's always next year! But back to the good parts of our day, the food was at the top of the list. Potlucks are my favorite I love eating other peoples food as a matter of fact I hardly ever eat what I take to a potluck just because I want to sample all the other new foods. I'll share what I made with you because all the recipes got rave reviews and they are definitely festive and super delicious. I will be making these again in coming years!

Brownie's & Berries Dessert Pizza

Yumm-o you gotta try this one the recipe is HERE

Red, White & Blue Poke Cake

This one was my favorite. Recipe is HERE

Layered Summer Fruits with Creamy Lime Dressing

So Delicious Recipe can be found HERE

Columbus Zoo trip

2010-06-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

We had a great weekend. Mat, Rees and I went up to Columbus for the weekend to visit my best friend from high school and her new baby, which by the way is absolutely perfect! She is too gorgeous for words. After our visit we headed out for some late dinner and then went back to our GREAT hotel! Rees had a ball playing in their bathtub ... weird that's the least enjoyable part for me when I stay in a hotel but it was by far his favorite! The next morning we all got up early and headed to the zoo! By like 10 am it was 90 degrees it was unbearably hot. Rees had a great time and Mat and I did too minus the drenching wet outfits we were wearing, Mat had it worse than I did he had to carry Rees on his shoulders most of the day lol! Good thing mom's not strong enough for that :)

In the hotel opening the $4 bottle of water after he was warned not to.

Our little elephant! What is it with my boy and funny hats?!?

Picture share!

2010-06-22T22:39:00.000-04:00

I LOVE summer. We swam most of the day today. Rees is lovin' the .99 swimmies (orange ones that go on your arms) He can swim so well with those he just paddles all over the pool without a problem! then we came home and he took a nap and my sister and I watched a mediocre movie, Remember Me with Robert Pattinson (Edward from Twilight) and then we went out and swam some more well Rees did in his little pool I finished Eclipse! Yep I actually finished a book. I am super proud of that because within my 30 years on this Earth I have NEVER finished a book. I hate to read, but if anything could motivate me to read it is Twilight. I know I sound ridiculous but I don't even care those movies ** and books live up to all the hype. I can't wait until the movie comes out next week!!!

So I got some cute snaps this week and I wanted to share a couple of my little guy...time is passing by so quickly he is so big aghhhhh!

Vacation post #2 Pigeon Forge . . .

2010-06-17T22:29:00.000-04:00

I am loving summer! We barely come inside these days between the big blow up pool in the back yard, Rees' mud pie station and the book Eclipse we stay really busy. Yes I am reading a book. I am a tad embarrassed to admit it but I support team Edward all the way LOL!!! Who ever thought that vampires and werewolves could be so entertaining. Anyways... the computer has been more of a job to me than fun these days since I much prefer being outdoors but I did manage to go through the other 1/2 of my 500+ photos from vacation and here is another collage of our wonderful vacation (which by the way I am ~~needing~~ wanting another one already)

This was really neat.

Inside the Wonderworks museum they had a big bubble factory.

As soon as we arrived at our cabin Rees started this hilarious thing about being quite because there were bears outside (off of the wrap around porch) and it was really funny. But then the whole vacation kinda revolved around his bear fascination. So we found this cool place called Bear Country and they had everything related to bears including a live bear walk through.

This was part of the bear exhibit. I'm sure it was against all rules to be

climbing the fence over top of the bears, but according to Pap's it's all okay :)

Wonderworks. This place had so many interactive things to do.

He even got to walk on the moon.

Warning: NO BEARS WERE HURT DURING OUR VACATION! but not due to lack of effort!

I am happy to report a month after our vacation that Rees is just as much in love with his raccoon hat today as he was on vacation. He wore it tonight!

Found this growing in my zebra grass next to my Koi pond...

2010-06-15T15:02:00.002-04:00

Does anyone know what it is? If so I would love to know so I can get some more!

Do I have any bead lovers???

2010-06-10T21:49:00.000-04:00

So my sister and I have started a home party business called The Bead Trunk. I am obsessed with beads and our inventory reflects it! These beads will fit all popular bracelets such as Pandora or Troll or if you don't have a bracelet started yet we sell all the hardware that hold beads too. We have bracelets, necklaces, key chains ear rings and tons more. The beads are incredibly beautiful and extremely affordable. I started a Facebook page for our beads so if you are interested check it out HERE.
If you want to earn FREE stuff book a party today! June is full we're booking for July now.

Here are some pics of our bracelets and beads...

Our first family vacation... Pigeon Forge!

2010-06-08T09:46:00.001-04:00

It has been so long since I have blogged. I have so much to share that I don't think I can get all of it into one post so I think I'll make this a series. Over Memorial Day weekend we took Mat, myself, Rees and Mat's mom and dad to Pigeon Forge for a long weekend getaway. We stayed in this cabin

click HERE for more information on the cabin

I can't tell you how much fun we had. Rees was an angel during travel and he LOVED the cabin which was perfect for us. It had 3 levels. The first floor had an adorable fully stocked kitchen and a great living room along with a game room, which Rees had a wonderful time in. The lower level had an indoor pool and a deck with a hot tub on it. Then the upper level had two bedrooms with bathrooms in each. Not to mention a wrap around porch that we bear hunted from each evening. Rees was really into that LOL! The cabin was only a mile away from Pigeon Forge so we didn't have a long drive which was really nice. Our first day there we went to Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. I had been there before and really enjoyed it as a matter of fact I dug this old picture of Mat and I from 6 years ago up and it was the exact same spot that we took our family photo 6 years later!

I can't tell you how much fun we had. Rees was an angel during travel and he LOVED the cabin which as perfect for us. It had 3 levels. The first floor had an adorable fully stocked kitchen and a great living room along with a game room, which Rees had a wonderful time in. The lower level had an indoor pool and a deck with a hot tub on it. Then the upper level had two bedrooms with bathrooms in each. Not to mention a wrap around porch that we bear hunted from each evening. Rees was really into that LOL! The cabin was only a mile away from Pigeon Forge so we didn't have a long drive which was really nice. Our first day there we went to Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. I had been there before and really enjoyed it as a matter of fact I dug this old picture of Mat and I from 6 years ago up and it was the exact same spot that we took our family photo 6 years later!

Rees really enjoyed the aquarium. He liked the sharks more than anything else so we had to chase them around the aquarium. If your ever in the area I highly recommend the aquarium it's hours of fun for the kids and is entertaining for adults too!

Then we found a place in the parking lot of Tony Romas Restaurant to ride camels and Nan took Rees for a spin!

We visted the Dixie Stampede and Rees' mouth was open the whole time. That was by far his favorite thing we did. He was in amazement of the show. It was a great time, but if you ever visit don't forget to take your own silverware! they think it's funny to make you eat with your fingers.

Back to the cabin. It was a lot of fun to have a place to call home away from home. Rees would wake up every morning and head outside to hunt. This particular morning it was a squirrel him and Paps spotted.See the "bullet" in the air. He was pumped about hunting the whole trip and he tried to convince all of us that there were bears off the porch (which could have been possible, but we really didn't see any) Rees + his raccoon hat = the cutest hunter ever!

Here are some other photos of our wonderful vacation.

This pool was in the bottom of our cabin! It was great, although no one got in it :(

I'll end with this cute little fella' that we met at Ripleys Aquarium. I have a lot more to share but I think I'll finish the rest up tomorrow!

My baby boy?

2010-05-18T22:45:00.000-04:00

Everything is changing and I'm NOT liking it. Rees has always been called baby Rees, but all the sudden I get the reply "I'm not a baby, I'm Rees "e" I don't know why he calls himself Reese, but he does. It's like he crossed over from my baby to a big boy overnight. He is so independent and his vocabulary is growing so fast. I find myself debating with him daily and then I sit and wonder how we got here so quick. Anyways *sigh* I begged him to help me get setup for a shoot I had this evening, which by the way went super good! and this is what I got...

Isn't he a handsome little devil!

Happy Day!

2010-05-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

So my friend and I rented this amazing camera lens last week and I feel in love. The day I sent it back was so sad! Then my dear hubby surprised me on Mother's day when he told me to order it!!! So I was like a child yesterday when the brown truck dropped it off! The feeling of excitement overtook me. It was like Christmas morning at age 6 again. Thanks honey! Your the best. So as Rees played with his play doh this morning

I played with my new favorite toy...

This lens is super wonderful. The pictures are amazing. It is so crisp. I ventured out to take some pictures with my new toy.

Rees wasn't that into it. LOL- to say the least. He did want to model his boots though.

That he put on by his self **in case you couldn't tell**
So I headed out back to take pictures of some more cooperative subjects!

Cousins

2010-05-10T23:48:00.000-04:00

I had this ready to post the other day and my internet went down. We recently stopped by to visit our family the other day. Rees has 6 (well 5 mobile) cousins to play with there so he was in heaven. But even then with all the other kids cooperating for pictures he still has to be "difficult" for me. Check it out.

New baby cousin in the middle baby Xander! He is so cute as are all the kiddos. Rees is pouting because he had to stop playing to get in the picture.

And then this. LOL? Who is he giving the fist too?

I love these gift baskets

2010-05-10T23:21:00.000-04:00

My best friend from high school is having her first baby in a couple months and guess what... It's a GIRL!!! I have had the time of my life buying for her. Little boy stuff is cute, but little girl stuff is out of this world cute! I can't help myself. I'm so glad I have a boy or I would be bankrupt LOL! For Easter I made these cute CANDY BUCKETS so I had the idea to try it out with baby stuff and I think it turned out adorable. I have a matching laundry basket with a liner to embroider the babies name on and it's filled with the cutest outfits I have every seen! I threw sensible out the window when I was shopping and strictly went with outlandishly cute instead :) I am so incredibly happy for Linds & Jon I know they will be amazing parents and I wanted her to have a special gift from us so I think I'm on the right track!

Okay now I'm off to embroidery land I'll be sure to share the outcome of that in a few days. LOTS to embroider wish me luck!

Too cute not to share

2010-05-04T22:58:00.002-04:00

Just another quick post as I am editing these gorgeous pictures of baby X I fell in love with this one and I just had to share it. Look at his beautiful eyes. He's not even two weeks old yet, he's so alert and beautiful.

It doesn't get any better than this...

2010-05-04T22:08:00.000-04:00

We welcomed a new baby into our family (Rees' newest cousin) and I got to take pictures of him!!! Baby Xander is so adorable and his personality is wonderful too. His mommy let me do whatever I wanted to with him so I had a blast! Thanks Denise! I gotta admit I got a little baby fever playing with him all day. Here is one out of the hundred pictures I took of him today.

Isn't he precious!

Rain rain go away...

2010-05-03T00:02:00.000-04:00

The rain is good for a couple of things... taking long naps in and playing outside with adorable rain boots and other matching gear! We didn't get to nap today, but we definitely got the adorable boots thing in!

This is one of my new favorite pictures.

I loved it so much I made a scrapbook page just for the boots...

Stubborn as a mule

2010-04-27T16:18:00.000-04:00

I am really trying to practice photography everyday and my very favorite subject is my baby (toddler) boy Rees who despises having his picture taken **by me** But I found this great spot off in our back yard that I wanted to practice with for some upcoming outdoor sessions and here's what I got...

Seriously what is going through his mind right now? I have promised him the sun and moon to smile. Seriously things he's never allowed to eat, drink or play with I had promised (is that bad lol?) and still NO smile. I just don't get how a two year old can be so stubborn.

Then I got this. He was just coming off of a laugh from a fall that our cat took (it was hilarious) but by the time I picked up my camera he had managed to turn it into a smirk. Aghhh

The there's this one. I just love his big beautiful browns in this one!

Another flower picture

2010-04-24T23:46:00.000-04:00

I can't help myself. I am addicted to taking pictures of my flowers right. Spring is the best time of year. It perks me up and pulls me out of the winter blues when the flowers start blooming. So here is a picture of a perfect lilac from my gigantic bush **tree** behind my house.

Spring has sprung

2010-04-21T23:45:00.002-04:00

First of all thank you so much for all the well wishes and prayers that have been shared with me for my father. His surgery went well and he's coming home tomorrow!!! I am so happy that this chapter in his/our life is coming to a close and hopefully life will be much happier/easier/more enjoyable for him after a really tough year!

After work today Rees and I went out and played in the yard. I decided to take some snapshots of my blooming flowers. This is the 5th year for my pond and the flowers (perennials) are very mature and bloom really early every spring. I have several different varieties planted so that it blooms all summer long. The purple phlox is five years old. I purchased it at the end of summer at Walmart for $1 because it was 95% dead and I was being cheap and thought that I might be able to save it and guess what...it's gorgeous. So keep that in mind when your shopping for new flowers, don't be afraid of the clearance section.

This is one of my new favorite pictures. Isn't this flower so unique? I don't know what it's called but it spreads like wild flower around the pond every year and it looks like a pondish (remember when you add -ish to any word it makes it a better word LOL) flower.

close up of this flower

Pond waterfall with it's water irises and lily pads which the frogs are taking full advantage of right now. And one of my favorite plants the Hosta. Love this flower (the green one with white tipped leaves)

Phlox that I paid $1 for at Walmart in the flower clearance section.

My right hand man trying to fill the pond with water from the hose. I wouldn't let him and this was his reaction.

Bernie is starting to show his age

2010-04-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

This is Bernie the 8 year old Shetland Sheepdog that Mat and I purchased a month after we got married.

Isn't he beautiful? Please overlook the dreadful hair cut he got from our new Petland store in town. We will not be going back there! We were laying on the couch the other day and I was petting him and I just suddenly noticed how he is starting to show his age. He is and always has been severely overweight (by about 40lbs) but now I see grey starting to come out in his beautiful coat. He is such a phenomenal dog. Bernie has truly been our best buddy. Rees can do anything to Bernie and we never have to worry about Bernie biting or anything of that nature. Sad to say after Bernie we will be a pet free household. I never thought I would feel that way,but Rees keeps me busy enough animals require so much time and I just don't have that to spare! But Bernie is such a great dog and he is a huge part of our family!

Hidden treasure

2010-04-15T22:49:00.000-04:00

So I woke up this morning with photography on my brain. I had a busy day planned so I had to get little man up and moving quickly to get it all accomplished. So I get a cute outfit together, bath Rees, fix his hair, go find a GREAT location which happens to be in my back yard and I didn't even know it!!! Then I hike up to the old barn with Rees, my camera and a few props and by this time I am already whipped! Then I get my camera geared up and my precious little son says to me "momma Rees wanna go home" What? No say it ain't so. He's had enough before we even began. I beg an beg him to just look at the camera and nothing! I was really excited about how beautiful the spot was that I had found but I didn't really get the "perfect" shot that I was hoping for but I was happy with this one. I'm going to try again when daddy is home to help!

Latest Scrapbook Pages

2010-04-14T23:31:00.000-04:00

My latest scrapbook pages. I am so behind! I have really enjoyed going back through these pictures though :)

Where does the time go?

2010-04-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Is it the middle of April already? I'm in total disbelief that summer is here already. The flowers are blooming, people are wearing shorts and my son has suntan marks? What happen to spring? Kinda like we bypassed it all together but I'm really not complaining I just can't understand how my to do list is just getting longer and longer and time is passing by so fast. I have been out in my flowers a lot this week. Rees never wants to come inside so unless it's nap time we're outside, which works for me!

My dear friend and I went to Columbus for a Kelby training seminar on Photoshop CS4 on Monday and we learned so much. It was a computer class but I already feel that my photos are so much better from my new found knowledge not to mention we shopped too so it was a great day. We're already looking for another one to go to.

Since it's spring/summer and all my mind is just over flowing with new projects I want to do. I have already tackled painting my patio tables and they turned out so cute. I bought them from Hobby Lobby 3-4 years ago and they were rusted and the paint had worn off so I bought a pretty color of light green and painted them and I love how they turned out. And since I purchased multiple colors of paint from the clearance rack I decided to go on a painting spree. I even painted one of my flower pots LOL! Who knew terracotta was a paint color? Probably everyone but me! I even found 2 perfect chairs at the flea market last weekend to spray paint. I am over the moon about one of them. It is the perfect chair for pictures so I can't wait to drag it outside and get Rees' pictures on it! That's it that's all folks! Have a great week.

What beautiful feathers you have!

2010-04-09T15:41:00.001-04:00

This guy wanted to strut around for me and show off his beautiful tail feathers. Isn't he gorgeous? My mother and father in law have 4-5 of these on their farm. Well actually outside their back door. This guy was waiting around for bread to be thrown out.

Catching up on my memory keeping

2010-04-08T15:17:00.000-04:00

I used to be obsessive about scrapbooking ALL of Rees' pictures. I'm not sure when or why I started to slack off but I'm really regretting it now. I am playing catch up now and it's really overwhelming! I do love to scrapbook and now that I do it digitally I enjoy it even more. I'm going backwards doing the more recent stuff first then working my way back!

Easter memories...

Talk about a scary wake up call

2010-04-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

Around midnight lastnight it sounded like our house was going to blow away we jumped up out of bed and ran to the door to see quarter sized hail bouncing off the patio. It was really freaky. Our windows sounded like they were going to brake and we were sure our cars would be dented up, but luckily ours weren't but our neighbors didn't get so lucky.

Random

2010-04-04T14:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday when Rees and I hunted Easter eggs and my mom and dad's my grandpa (my dad's dad) stopped by. I had my camera out taking pictures and when I got home and looked at my 100's of pictures I ran across this one. I just really liked it so I thought I would share.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T14:15:00.000-04:00

Our Easter has been a lot of fun. We have made a bunny gingerbread house, colored eggs, hunted eggs, deviled eggs and we're getting ready to go to our family dinner. Here's how our egg coloring went.

New blog design!

2010-04-03T13:51:00.000-04:00

Well, sadly Rees' birthday month has come and gone so I had to give my blog another makeover. I am loving this color scheme. It just makes me happy. These pictures are from one of the 3 Easter sessions I had with Rees!

Our bunny shack

2010-04-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

I bought this gingerbread Easter bunny house over a month ago and have been looking forward to making it with Rees all month. I already decided that it didn't matter what it looked like that it was the experience that I would cherish. And experience I got! From start to finish this project was fun/sugary/hilarious/wonderful and did I mention a ton of FUN!!! I let Rees do everything. To my surprise he was really into it. I didn't figure it would keep his attention as long as it did and he even took his daddy right to it when he got home from work. Although he ate for of the decorations than he put on the house, but that's okay he had a lot of fun.

Here momma . . .

2010-03-30T22:56:00.000-04:00

I love my son, he's such a sweetie :)

Easter Goodies

2010-03-30T14:24:00.000-04:00

I was at a really cool store a couple weeks ago and saw these beautiful Easter candy arrangements. I instantly fell in love with them, so I asked what the price was and to my surprise they were $60. So my first thought was .... I can make that for much cheaper! So I hunted up some supplies while I was in Huntington and here's what I cam up with

Isn't it cute? this is one that I did for Rees so the candy is stuff that we likes. I know it's a pink pale but there is a good reason for that LOL! I made 2 when I made them the first time and I thought I don't need both so I took them to my store and sat them on the counter to see if they would sell. Well they did immediately and I had 4 special orders come in too. One was for a boy one (which was Rees') so since I already committed to making them I gave his up. He's only two I hope he won't notice :)

Things are finally getting back to normal. . .

2010-03-27T22:44:00.000-04:00

As I sit at my computer Saturday evening at 10:38 listening to my beloved rap music and blogging I have to say things are good. It's been a while since I could say that, but Rees has had his first normal day in 10-11 days and that is such an amazing feeling to have him back to his self. Finally after a lot of whining, crying, fevers, aches, baths during the middle of the night, non-eating, and sleeplessness I can finally say things are getting better and that is such a relief.

My mom kept Rees today for a while so I could clean my pig pen up. I haven't touched the house is a LONG time. I was in the cleaning "mood" today so that combination resulted in a super clean house in four hours!!! I even had some time to play on my computer! So I chose to play with Rees' Easter pics from a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to send Easter cards out but I'm not sure if that's going to happen considering its in a week and I haven't gotten them printed yet LOL or made for that matter but I did want to share some of his adorable pictures.

Rees' 2nd Birthday Party - John Deere Green

2010-03-26T22:39:00.003-04:00

Why am I party crazy? Good question, I really have no idea? All I do know is I love every aspect of planning a party the decorations, designing the invitations, favors, balloons **especially balloons**, menu planning, cooking the food I just LOVE it all. I gotta say, all the hard work was so worth it Rees had such a great time and I'm pretty sure all the sugar crazed kiddos had a good time too :) So here are the details.

Urgent Care trip #3

2010-03-25T14:45:00.000-04:00

Third times a charm, well sort of. When your a mom you have these crazy powers (all the mom's know what I'm talking about) and mine kicked in. I just could not believe that a sinus infect/ear infection was the problem. Turns out my crazy powers where right. We made our third trip to UC on Wed to see our regular pediatrician and she immediately knew something was wrong. Rees was just sitting and crying. It is so sad. She sent us to X ray and turns out my poor little man has pneumonia. Can you believe that? Three trips to the dr to figure out what was really going on. The antibiotics they originally prescribed for him was not strong enough for pneumonia so it's a good thing we went back. She said if he wasn't better by in the morning she was going to admit him in the Holzer Hilton. We went back this morning and the shot he got last night seemed to help quite a bit so she didn't hospitalize him THANK GOODNESS. It's still just heart wrenching to watch him. Oh did I mention he has blisters in this throat too? Oh and a rash??? This poor kid has been through the ringer this week. So hopefully we are through the worst of it and things will get better.

I fell so behind. I can't get anything done in the house cause Rees has to be held 24/7 which I do enjoy because it never happens unless he's sick so I take full advantage of it when he is. I have only worked one day this week so I know my to do list is piling up :( and laundry, oh let's not even go there lol. Oh well, there's always next week.

Off to try to steal a few minutes of sleep while Rees is napping!

Urgent Care

2010-03-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

This weekend hasn't been all that I had hoped. My sister and I got to spend the whole day out shopping yesterday, which was a lot of fun, but my baby boy was feeling really rough so I had that in the back of my mind all day. Then when I got home things went from bad to worse. He lost his voice (sounds like a little frog) he was up most of the night with a fever and the yucky snot just keeps pouring out. It is the most heart wrenching feeling when your baby is sick and there is nothing you can do. So we were at Urgent Care as soon as they opened up which apparently everyone else in the county had the same idea because we had to wait what felt like forever. Poor Rees was burning up and just wanting to sleep so after all that was over we came home and took a two hour nap. We had a bday party to go to at the bowling alley today and Rees actually remembered it and asked me about Conner later in the evening :( So hopefully we'll have more pretty days to come because we didn't get to take advantage of them this weekend. Better luck next week I guess.

Look closely

2010-03-18T22:10:00.003-04:00

Can you see me?

My sweet little donkey Twiggy is such a good test subject :)

Confused

2010-03-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

My son seems to be a tad confused about his sandbox tools. Everything he picks up has a "unique" use. This sand rake is a donkey brush and that's why he looks so disappointed. The donkey is not cooperating with Rees' master plan of combing him with this sand tool. LOL! After the first swipe throw her mane she decided to get far far away from Rees!

No momma...

2010-03-17T22:04:00.002-04:00

I don't wanna go inside!

SPRING!!!

2010-03-17T16:23:00.001-04:00

So last night we were up all night with Rees man vomiting and coughing his head off. I felt so sorry for him. This morning I didn't go to work because he just wanted his momma :) And when I called my mom to tell her Rees wasn't coming over to her house she said she had been up all night with the pukes too. So long story short I think Rees is okay, he just has a terrible cough that after so long causes him to throw up. Today has been such a gorgeous weather day that we couldn't resist going out to get a little sunshine! It perked Rees right up (made me happy too). He fed the donkeys, then he watered them then they fell over from too much grain lol, not really but he made sure they had more than enough! Then we had to dig in the dirt and clean up some debris just anything that gave us more time outside. So it finally hit 1:30 and Rees looked as if he was going to fall over of exhaustion so I took him in for a nap and he's still asleep 3 hours later. This picture just made me happy for some unknown reason.

The pimp mobile

2010-03-15T15:44:00.000-04:00

Is that wrong to use the word pimp to describe your two year-olds birthday present?

My son loves this car so so so much. It takes up most of the room in our living room and we have to disable the battery while it's inside but none of that matters to Rees he still loves sitting in it and watching tv, eating his snacks, and whatever else he comes up with. It's so cute how much he loves this car.

Birthday morning

2010-03-15T15:11:00.000-04:00

I am finally working my way through the 500 pictures that I have of my sons 2nd birthday "week" These are on this birthday morning when he was helping me finish up his Elmo cake. Thanks to little Mr. Rees momma didn't have enough icing to properly finish the cake, but I homemade the icing and was too lazy to make another batch so we made it work :)

I think Rees gave the cat some icing he laid there in a sugar coma for about an hour!

Exhausted

2010-03-14T22:56:00.000-04:00

I am so tired. My eyes are crossing as I'm typing. March has been such a busy month with work/family/birthdays/photography I'm really not a good "no sleep" person. I love to be busy and have a lot of project going on, but I need my sleep. I hear people talking about getting 4-5 hours of sleep and it being fine...what??? No way that just doesn't work well for me. Rees has been sick and not sleeping well at night, my mind has been going in 20 different directions and I haven't been feeling the greatest either so sleep has been hard to come by this week. On the up side of things Rees' party was a lot of fun. We had a great turn out and the decorations turned out just how I had hoped. Rees had an amazing time and that's all that matters! I am so thankful to all of our family and friends that came to party with us! We love you all so much and we're very lucky to have such wonderful people in our life. After his party he lost his voice and sounded like a little frog it was so cute **and sad** but he's feeling better today. I haven't even looked at my pictures yet. I'm so stinkin tired that I'm hoping to sleep 8 hours solid tonight so I can start my Monday out right! Pictures to follow this week!

Two

2010-03-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my little man! My baby boy turned two today. We have partied all day long. This morning he woke up to some crazy decorations in the living room including 2 zillion balloons (his fav), he then took part in decorating his Elmo cake, I didn't have enough icing to finish it properly because he ate half of it **at 10 am** we then had a birthday lunch, then he asked to go to bed from his "sugar crash" so he slept a couple of hours and as soon as he woke up it was time to keep on partying! Family party at his Nana & Pap's. We had so much fun. He is not really into opening presents yet, we had to beg him to stay in the room to keep opening. Mat and I got him the most hilarious gift that he has been playing with every single time we visit Toys R Us...it's so funny.... I'm embarrassed to even say it.... The Cadillac Escalade Power Wheels "pimped out" version. It is so funny (and huge) Black with chrome wheels, big speakers in the back and most importantly functioning doors. That's really why he likes it so well. It is just so funny to watch a two year old get in and out of this "mini" SUV. Every present he would open would go immediately into the car. He even ate his dinner in the car. Actually he got rid of his dinner in the car too if ya know what I mean LOL! All evening was spent in the car so I'm happy to report our gift was a huge success!

I'm a partyholic well I should clarify that a birthday partyholic and I have gone bonkers with his big party on Saturday. I have had so much fun planning and decorating so I can't wait until it gets here! I think I'm more excited than he is :) Although he has really enjoyed the birthday boy thing today.

So finally at 11:41 pm I am calling it a day, a wonderful, long, exhausting, exciting, perfect day. I know we all feel this way, but I still have to say it. I am the luckiest mommy in the whole wide world to have such an amazing child. One that day after day amazes and surprises me in a way that I never thought possible. The love a mother has for her child is indescribable and for this I am truly thankful. I love you so very much baby Rees Happy Birthday!

On that note I am heading to bed. Pictures will follow tomorrow I am too lazy/tired/brain dead to get into that tonight!

My first attempt at Easter pictures

2010-03-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

Rees and I went shopping this week in Huntington. I found the cutest Easter outfit and Crazy 8 (love that store) so I said to myself "Self you better get started on pictures early cause you know how Rees is" LOL - I love when I address myself as self is anyone else laughing? Ha! Anyways I certainly want good pictures this year, last years were thoroughly disappointing and it's still bothering me so I have to do good this year! Our first attempt lasted almost an hour and ended with Rees having blue sucker all over his face. Thank goodness none got on his outfit I really didn't think that bribe through very well. Yes you heard me correctly BRIBE! I have been waiting on Rees to reach the age that he could understand what a bribe is, well maybe not exactly what it is but rather how it will benefit him LOL. We're almost there it worked for like 5 minutes then he started to say no bribe no bribe momma and it made me sad so I gave him the sucker. I can't wait until he will be good for like 30 minutes awaiting his bribe! Is that bad parenting? Nah! So here is a really cute one that I love except for the slobber oozing out of his mouth. Why God? Why? Well there's always next week to attempt it again. So stayed tuned for a lot more Easter pictures.

This lovely Friday evening I will be having a sister night. We used to have sister night ever Friday and I have missed them so much. Rees will be hanging out with the guys this evening while Abby and I dine on Mexican food and watch Dear john at the theater. I'm so excited!!! I really do have the best sister in the whole world **luv ya sister** I hope everyone enjoys your weekend!

I almost forgot this hilarious one...I thought he would like the fake rabbit but turns out it terrified him

Terrible two's... Really???

2010-03-01T22:54:00.001-05:00

Could it be that my sweet little man is going to turn into a raging maniac that can cry one moment and be bossing me around the next? No, not my perfect little angel. HA! He will be 2 in a couple weeks, but just like everything else I think we're early on the terrible two's too. This last week has been trying to say the least. What is the best way to deal with this? He loves me...he doesn't want anything to do with me, he's kissing me...he's hitting me, I want momma... I want daddy I just can't believe how hard heading and opinionated my two year old is. Secretly I love the fact that there is no persuading him away from his original demand, but in the moment it sure is hard to try and reason with a toddler. I can see so much of me in him. I am such a hard head and a hot head that it's just tough for me to figure out how to handle it. He is really into movies right now so that is buying me an hour or two of down time during the day I might even get to cuddle every now and then, but otherwise we hard at it all day long. Puzzles are the "thing" right now. He is obsessed with them. We will do the same puzzle 10 times in a row. I love watching the light bulb over his head when he gets all the pieces in the correct spots and then claps for himself. It doesn't get any better than that! Although I have enjoyed spending quality time with my baby boy I must say I can't wait for Spring so we can get out and about. It's too much work lugging a child around with winter clothing and then all the stuff you have to take and bundle him up then undress and do it all over again aghh I'm exhausted just talking about it! This weekend it's going to be in the 50's! I can't wait!

So here's a capture from this morning. He was so happy about a camera in his face first thing in the morning!

I suck

2010-02-25T23:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I said it. I suck. I can't believe that I only made it two months out of 12 in the 365 challenge. I was so excited and motivated to document our year, but stuff happens and belive me there hasn't been much this past week that I want to document, more that I would rather forget about actually. It's been a tough week between the store, my hubby working 60+ hours a week, Rees not sleeping well (which means mommy doesn't either) and all of lifes other worries. Enough boo hooing, I need to suck it up and get back in the swing of life. I think I have kinda went into hiding or something LOL! I think I'm just going to go back to recreational blogging. I do much better with that.
A good friend and I are having a portrait event at a local business next weekend. We have worked really hard to prepare for it and we're both obsessed with being organized so I'm sure we're doing way more than we would actually have to, but I'm sure all the hard work will pay off and hopefully the event will go flawlessly, I can dream right? LOL! So I was in my studio today practicing with my lighting and a tripod. Well of course Rees wouldn't sit still for 5 seconds to help me so I had to try and be the test subject. Now I feel his pain, LOL! I didn't like it either. It took so long I had to put him down for his nap then go back over. I was trying out some new stuff and wanted to make sure I had a good handle on it before our event. I had to set the self timer and then run over to the seat, I did that like 50 times. This picture kinda sums up my mood. I was little aggravated at this point, but I'm happy to report I figured my light settings out!

Day - 49 Laundry day

2010-02-18T14:32:00.002-05:00

There are 2 adults and a toddler in our house. Where does all the laundry come from? I have done 4 loads today and have 3 more to do. I HATE laundry.

Day 48 - Puzzles

2010-02-17T14:33:00.000-05:00

We pulled out some wooden puzzles that I have been hiding away in Rees' closet, the first time we tried them he was too little and he lost some pieces (which makes me nutty) This time around was a whole different story. He was so good, he got all of them except the ABC puzzle put together. We had a great time doing puzzles over and over again. I think he regrets losing those pieces because he seemed rather annoyed that there were empty spots in his puzzles too.

This was a fruit roll up break he took, but he had to have one of his puzzles with him.

Special post for a "special" family

2010-02-16T15:51:00.000-05:00

Let me introduce you to the Roe Family. They were kind enough to come over and let me take pictures of their beautiful family for an upcoming event I need to promote. We had a good time and we accomplished everything I needed too, but there was one "problem child" in the bunch. This boy was really hard to work with, didn't take direction well, and had something really funky going on with his eyes. Geez I feel sorry for Mrs.Roe.

Just kidding Jason! You were great to work with this was too funny not to share :)

Day 47 - Meet my extended family

2010-02-16T14:28:00.000-05:00

Did you know I have a petting zoo? Well not really, but close to it. I have 4 donkeys and 2 llamas right outside my back door. They are all really friendly and love attention. This cold weather is probably getting old to them too! Let me introduce you...

This is Momma Llama

Original I know, but when I got her she had a baby and I thought it had a cute ring to it.

This is Baby Llama

I know, not original either, but she was my baby 7 years ago.

This was Mat's first anniversary present to me and I love it.

This is Twiggy

She is the latest addition to our donkey collection. I think she's preggo!

This is Jersey

She's a little dirty right now, but when she's all cleaned up she is adorable.

This is Ruby (front) and Donkey trailing her

I couldn't isolate Donkey from her long enough to get his close up! He LOVES Ruby :)

So this is my petting zoo. Before I had Rees I had free time to take care of them and love on them and Ruby used to run around the yard with me when I was working in my flower beds. She never tried to run away, she knew she had it good :)

So thanks for taking time to meet all my furry buddies!

Have a great day!

Day 46 - Another big storm

2010-02-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

Enough is enough already! Snow is beautiful and I love playing outside in it, but two weeks straight of it is too much. The weather is predicting another big one for us. This picture is untouched. The sky really looked like this and then about an hour later the snow came in with a vengeance.

Day 45 - BLOG MAKEOVER!

2010-02-14T14:56:00.000-05:00

I've had this blog design ready for over a week now. I was counting down the days until V-day so I could switch them out. Designing blogs is so much fun. I'm already thinking of what my next one will be. I have acquired so much useful knowledge from the internet about blog design and coding and it's all free! So my picture for the day is the one in my header of my little baby boy who will turn 2 in March.

Day 44 - Grocery trip on a Saturday night

2010-02-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

We are livin' it up this weekend! I worked this morning, came home took a 3 hour nap with Rees then we loaded the family up and went to Walmart grocery shopping and it's around 10:00 and I'm headed to bed. I just can't get enough sleep this week??? Must be this snowy, dreary super cold weather we're having. This is our snack basket. This basket is the most important thing in our kitchen according to Rees. He would live off snacks if we would let him. Just recently he has learned that scooting the chair over to the counter and climbing up is much easier than begging mommy for 20 minutes until she gives in :) NOT A GOOD THING! He can now remove the baby gates what am I to do? Things were so easy when he could only crawl!

Day 43- At least the cat had a good day

2010-02-13T22:11:00.000-05:00

Fridays are supposed to be fun, care free and nights that you stay up late. Well none of those applied to me. ~~Fun~~ we had to cancel our plans to go out with our friends because my hubby had to work late, ~~care free~~ work was very stressful yesterday lots of stuff to do and not enough hours to get it all done and staying up late yeah right I was passed out by 9:30 (from exhaustion). I'm just glad that Friday is gone this week! I'm sure the weekend will be better. But, on a brighter note the kitten sure was in good spirits he laid on the recliner all night long and managed to avoid being captured by Rees.

Day 42- The look

2010-02-11T16:32:00.000-05:00

So today I wanted a cute pajama pic. It didn't really go that well. Little man was not havin it, every time I would raise my camera this is the look I would get. And after promising an assortment of delicious candy treats (at bedtime, I know that's horrible, but I was desperate) this is the best he could do. Don't you love the striped pj's and the plaid wallpaper together??? That was the bench he just had to sit on and at that point I was too tired to argue.

Day 41- You must think we live in the bath tub.

2010-02-10T17:27:00.001-05:00

I know I post a ton of bath time pictures, but it just occurred to me in addition them being adorable it's the one place were his is "captured" for the lack of a better word. He can't get away from me or my camera! Notice none of them ever have eye contact, but that doesn't matter they're still adorable to me!

Day 40 - It finally happened!

2010-02-09T14:16:00.000-05:00

I have to thank my good friend Mary for spending a lot of time and exerting an extreme amount of patience and kindness to my son and myself today. I woke up on a mission. GET GOOD PICTURE OF SON...that's all I could think about so that's what I did! I bathed him, gelled his hair, embroidered him a shirt, blew him up some balloons and asked Mary for her help :) Taking Rees' pictures is not a one person job let me tell you. She was so patient and sweet with Rees and thanks to her I got a TON of awesome pictures to use. I can't tell you how happy I am right now. Is it weird that I get so hyped up over his? Oh well, I don't care if it is. I take pictures or a lot of other children and they always turn out so cute and it's so hard for me to get good pictures of my own child...see my frustration? I am just so stickin happy I have permagrin! Here's a little cutesy one that I thought was a sweet snap.

Day 39- Spaghetti

2010-02-08T21:25:00.000-05:00

A pictures worth a thousand words.

Day 38 - Super bowl Sunday

2010-02-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm not gonna front, I don't like football, but I love a good excuse to get together, eat and have a good time. That's the true meaning of SBS to me. My sister had a great party tonight that was so much fun! The food was so yummy (all appetizers...my favorite!) I have a lady that I get all my cakes and cookies from and I had her make some super bowl cookies for my sista who is madly in love with the Colts take a look.

Day 37 - Really?

2010-02-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

So, as I have previously complained about my dear son being very hard for me to photograph (especially in the studio) this is yet another example of his absolute disgust of me taking his picture. I can promise him the world and it makes NO difference he does everything imaginable to NOT take a good picture. Anyone have any good tricks? It's really starting to get me down I need a good picture for his B-day invites. I already have them designed now I just need a good picture to put in them.

Day - 36 IKEA the greatest place on Earth

2010-02-05T21:59:00.000-05:00

So the hubby and I ventured to Cincinnati for our first IKEA experience and believe me it is truly an experience. IKEA is gigantic. The entire top floor, which has the same amount (or possibly more) of floor space that Walmart has is set up as furnished rooms. They look exactly like someone lives there. Pull the kitchen drawers out and see all the kitchen tools you could ever dream of having and they all have price tags. Then just write down the item number with the pencil and pad they give you and they after your finished exploring the top floor head down stairs and shop! It was so fun. They have a great cafe to eat at. A nursery to babysit your children (we didn't have our little man, but he would have LOVED their playland) and they even sell groceries. Every detail of the IKEA experience is unique, even the shopping carts are amazing. I know this sounds silly, and originally I thought I had a broken cart but the wheels on the cart turn slide all over the floor. I can't think of words to describe it, but just know when you get your cart the first time it's going to be hilarious! So now that I have my love affair for IKEA out in the open I want to share one of my favorite finds. We bought Rees an awesome chair that hangs from the ceiling. It is so cool. and the best part, it was only $34. If you could see how cool this chair is in person you would be amazed. Here is Rees enjoying it.

Day 35 - More bath time

2010-02-04T20:04:00.000-05:00

Bath time at our house is the biggest event of the day. We love it so much that sometimes we take 2-3 a day. Rees and I were kind of lazy today, since someone (Rees) has gotten up in the middle of the night for the past two weeks we are just worn out. My hubby and I are like zombies. Today has been especially bad for me since I had 10 little toes digging into my back during the night my back has been killing me all day. We had a late bath today and he played in the tub for an hour. He loves to wash himself (of course I re-wash him) but he was wetting his hair in this shot preparing to shampoo it.

Day - 34 Gloomy outside

2010-02-03T15:38:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year for me. The time where the flowers are depressing, the yard is muddy and the trees all look like they are on their last leg. This is my koi pond. It is so "dead" looking. It still has ice chunks from our last snow fall and the forecast is saying we are going to get sleet/ice/snow tomorrow & Saturday so it looks like there is no end it sight. Hurry up Spring!

I got an award!

2010-02-02T22:15:00.002-05:00

I got this fabulous award from Heather at butterfly girl ms blog designs. I'm very pleased to accept this award and pass it on to my 12 lucky followers/friends. This award brought a smile to my face when I needed it most. Thanks Heather I greatly appreciate it!

Here are the rules I must oblige by in order to pass it on:

Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are my 12 great bloggers I am passing this fabulous award onto:

Day - 33 A trip to the fabric shoppe

2010-02-02T21:54:00.000-05:00

As you have probably noticed if you follow this blog I am highly addicted to crafting. It's like my drug. I get on crafting binges and just can't think about anything other than my next craft fix. LOL, with that said my "next fix" is a quilt for Rees with his name appliqued on it. So cute, relatively easy and an absolute must have for him. Being that we do not have any place to purchase fabric in our little town now that Walmart is not carrying fabric anymore (not that it was good fabric anyways) I ventured to a neighboring town to go to their amazing fabric shoppe. When you walk in the door it's like your walking back in time. It's so old school and wonderful. I'm not a huge quilter or anything, but I do LOVE collecting fabrics. Unfortunately they didn't have the fabric line I was looking for,but I found me so amazing Christmas fabrics on sale that I had to have. See what I mean about addicted? Who buys Christmas fabric in February? Just thought I would share my treasures.

Day 32 - Meltdown

2010-02-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

Crabby, impossible, unexplainable, crazy, silly, whiny, loving, hateful those are the words to describe my son today. The poor little man has been on the edge of insanity all day long. One minute he is crying the next he's laughing (a lot more crying than laughing though). He has had a very emotional day. The past week has been really terrible in the sleeping and eating department for him and I think it's all catching up with us now. He wakes up during the night about 3ish and stays up for a couple hours then goes back to bed. It's is starting to really take a toll on ALL of us! He got his shots last week and every since then he hasn't been eating very well either. The mixture of those two things and then me trying to take some pictures for his birthday invitations has really pushed him over the edge this evening. This is really the only picture that I can do anything with out of the whole session we had in my studio. I guess I'm going to have to torture him some more later this week :)

Day 31 - I don't want to forget this

2010-01-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

My family and I were driving home tonight about 8ish and I happened to have my camera in my lap when I looked up and saw an amazing view. The moon was even with our car, it looked like we were going to drive right into it. The moon was a beautiful burnt orange color with what appeared to be a grin across the front. It was beautiful. So much so that my husband sat in the middle of the road so I could get a picture. This picture isn't great, but I tried everything to get more detail and I didn't have the right lens with me for the perfect shot, but still I love this and I don't want to forget about it!

Day 30 - My new favorite bracelet

2010-01-30T15:52:00.000-05:00

My dear sister got me this awesome bracelet. I am in love with the camera charm on it and apparently so is my cat!

Day 29 - I love my hubby

2010-01-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

I'm a lucky girl to have such a perfect partner (perfect match for me that is :). I love you honey.

Day 28 - Birthday planning!

2010-01-28T22:53:00.001-05:00

First of all are your children getting mad at you like mine is me for carrying your camera around a lot? I am sorta well lets just say obsessive about this 365 project (I want to print my blog as a book at the end of the year) and it's to the point now that Rees says No mama NO when I have it around my neck LOL. Guess I'm going to have to take pictures of some other stuff and give him a break from time to time. I didn't take ANY pictures of him all day. We went to the doctor this morning and got some shots so I thought I would take it easy on him and not stress him anymore for the day.

It's almost that time of year again. Rees' Second Birthday!!! I LOVE to throw his parties. Well at least the first one was a ton of fun. I love doing parties, but with all we have had going on the past couple of years I don't get to do it anymore so I just put all my energy into one party a year... Rees'! So I picked my theme with Rees' help of course. He chose "ta-cors" or as we would say tractors. and what better colors to go with than yellow and green of course! I found all my decor and now I am starting on the hand made stuff. I swear I get other stuff done during my day people I just stay up really late working on all my fun projects :) I dusted my cricut off and started making circles for my banner. Oh, pitter patter goes my heart here comes all kinds of hand made stuff!!! How I wish I had the BIG Cricut, but my small one will work I suppose! Next comes invitations. I have to get Rees in the studio and get some good Birthday shots. This is seriously better than Christmas to me! This year Rees will know what's going on too so that will make it even better! The cake I had made last year was amazing, but this years is even better. I just can't wait. Did I mention it's six weeks away? I like to get a jump start.

Day 27 - Just like his mama

2010-01-28T08:07:00.001-05:00

So everyone knows that I'm a self admitted internet junkie, well guess what...so is my child :) Not really. He is only Two (almost), but he sees me on my beloved computer all the time so any chance that he gets (when I forget to close the door to my craft room) he makes a B-line for the pc. It's just adorable though. Pen in one hand and the mouse in the other. I guess we'll be going to IUA together. That is my made up Internet users anonymous. Lame attempt at trying to be funny :) But this should make you giggle for real.

Day 26 - Another snow day

2010-01-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

I am a huge sucker for snow. I think I enjoy it more than Rees does. I couldn't wait to get him out this morning to play in it. I didn't know that we were supposed to get as much as we did so this morning when I let the dog out I was really excited. I waited until about 11ish to take Rees out hoping that it would warm up a bit, it didn't :) We had a great time playing and tramping up and down the little hill in the back yard, but it quickly wore Rees down since he has 10 lbs worth of stuff on so he decided to take a load off so I snapped a quick picture. That's really all we plan on doing today. It's been such a nice peaceful day with just the two of us.

Day 25- Got yogurt?

2010-01-25T18:20:00.007-05:00

I've never had as much fun watching my son make a huge mess as I did today. I got him some healthy yogurt packs and he loves them. He loves to lick the container until every last drop is gone. Then he surrenders his spoon hesitantly.

Quick share

2010-01-24T22:27:00.000-05:00

I am working on my 365 of 2009 in my digital scrapbooking. I ran across this picture. It is too cute not to share, I think his aunt Abby will really appreciate this :) love ya sister.

Day 24 - Healthy? That's no fun :)

2010-01-24T17:27:00.000-05:00

Of course I made the same resolution this year as every other year and the results have been the same Nada, nothin, another broken resolution. Can ya guess what it was? Weight loss of course, I think just the pressure of knowing I have to try so hard and that it's officially the first of the year again yada yada yada, or it could just be that I am weak and I enjoy my sweets more than anyone could ever know :) I'm pretty sure it's the second one. So Rees and I took our weekly Walmart adventure this morning and I loaded my cart up with healthy things. I bypassed the snack isle (sorry Rees) and then we finished off by getting one of every fruit available this right now. We got home and I made us a fruit plate yummers! It was really good actually and surprisingly filling. So maybe this healthy thing won't be as hard as I was thinking (yeah right) tonight for dinner it's salad. The only problem is I despise salad and everything relating to salad so if anyone has any good salad recipes please share! I have decided though not to give up my dearly beloved Mt. Dew just yet I don't want my family to deal with me trying to diet without caffeine so if you see me drinking one, don't make me feel bad about it! You know who you are :)

Day 23 - Discovery

2010-01-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

We have a small house and Rees runs around it like a maniac daily. He has passed this little figurine about 3,000 times but for some reason this little angel caught his eye today and he kept running by it and stopping to pick it up and talking to it. It's been there since he was born, but he just noticed it I guess. It was so cute listening to him talk to it in his little language.

Day 22 - TGIF

2010-01-22T22:06:00.000-05:00

I am so thankful it's Friday. I have been looking forward to the weekend all week! Unfortunately Rees is not feeling well again. I never know if it's his teeth or if he has a cold because the symptoms are always the same for both. We had a really lazy evening. Rees stayed in his pj's all day long, he really enjoyed that! by 8:00 we were already ready to hit the bed...even Bernie our dog.

Day 21 - So glad this day is over.

2010-01-21T22:07:00.004-05:00

Today was just one of "those" days. Rees and I were both in stanky moods and we fueled each others fires all day long. Rees is cutting his last tooth and it's been a doozy. He is extremely cranky and has NO patience for anything right now. I have that junky stuff in my throat again and just felt like hibernating in bed all day, of course that was not an option. This picture describes it perfectly. **take note of body language and that get out of my face with the camera look.

Day 20

2010-01-21T07:55:00.000-05:00

Just for fun.

Day 19 It all fell into place

2010-01-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

You know when you want to take pictures of your children and your all hyped up about a great idea and a vision you have of what the pictures are going to look like then you get to your computer after a long stressful stint of positioning your kid/kids and trying to make your vision come to life then you open up your SD card only to find that it was an hour of your life that you can never get back LOL, all that stress and fighting with your kiddos for nothing not one useable pic in the whole bunch. I have that happen to me all too often. I swear that camera = go nuts to my little man. Tonight however was a different story I asked Rees if he would let me take some pictures of him playing and he said Yezzzz so I ran for my camera and low and behold they all turned out so cute. I even broke out my flash and played around. I ended up with some amazing catchlights with this flash in his bedroom. Here are just a couple that caught my eye. I am so tired I'm about ready to crash so I think I'll post more tomorrow.

Second post of the day

2010-01-18T16:11:00.000-05:00

I just really wanted to share the digi scrapbook page that I did today. I am in love with the bath time pictures I took of Rees yesterday. I put together a frame with four openings and hang it in the bathroom it is so cute then I decided I better scrap it too. I really liked the way the vintage look I gave the photos blended with the colors I used for the page.

Day 18 - Isn't he cute?

2010-01-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

Our kitten was declawed last Wednesday. The vet told me to put him on light duty for two weeks. Does he know we have a two year old in our house? Not to mention they are best buddies and Rees drags Bo the kitten around everywhere with him. Needless to say Bo only got 1 day of light duty, I tried to separate them most of the time but it was just too hard to keep them apart. The cat slips through the door into the part of the house we're in and there they go. The kitten doesn't act like he's in any pain so I don't see the harm. Here is a perfect picture of Bo (I tried to get one of Bo and my son, but Rees just wasn't havin' it) this shows off how pretty Bo's eyes are!

Day 17 - Bath time

2010-01-17T17:18:00.002-05:00

Rees has always loved his bath time. The older he gets the longer bath time becomes. He would play in the tub for hours if we would let him. And the bath toys, don't even get me started on the amount we have accumulated over the past months. The worst purchase by far were the bath tub markers. What was I thinking??? It said on the package that they wouldn't stain, yeah right! But, of course they are his favorite thing to play with in the tub :) So I'll deal.

Day 16 - Oh how I love my iphone

2010-01-16T16:44:00.000-05:00

I was never really a cell phone person as a matter of fact I'm still not really, but I just love all the cool stuff that iphones do. I use it all the time. I love making wallpapers out of my scrapbook embellies and using them on my iphone. Here's the one I using for Valentines Day. If anyone wants to learn how to do it I have a tutorial on one of my other blogs you can find it HERE

I tried really hard to get my son to hold this in his hand so I could get the picture that way (ya know creatively) but he wouldn't have any part of it. About the third time he threw the phone I decided it probably wasn't worth it being as I just replaced this phone last week.

Day 15 - My favorite things

2010-01-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

My top 5 favorite things
(material posessions, we all know family is my very favorite thing in the whole world)
1. ANYTHING digital. Camera, Digital scrapbooking, blogging
2. My embroidery machine
3. My craft room
4. Ribbon *random I know, I just love though :)
5. Photography

Here is a collage of the room that brings my a huge amount of enjoyment. This is where I run away to during Rees' nap time. He's not allowed in here, this is mama's playroom :)

Day 14

2010-01-14T14:26:00.025-05:00

I can't believe my little guy is almost two. It has flown by so fast. Not to mention he's the size of a three year old if not bigger. Everyday is a new experience for us. Seems like since he started talking about two months ago (I mean talking were you can understand him) he has gained so much independence and curiosity. I've been so reminiscent of Rees' infancy and how quick it went by that I am so sad about how little time I have left. I mean the time left were Rees will want me to do things for him, and play with him and even the time I have left of him calling me Mama. I'm sure that will turn in to Mommy then just mom, which is all really sad and hard for me to deal with. Wow, where did all this come from? I blame the 2009 - 365 scrapbook project I am working on these pictures are just so different and I remember them like it was yesterday. Sorry to bore, I just needed to get that all off my chest and I know most of you girls know exactly what I'm going though after all Rees is not only the First baby he's the only one too :)

Day 13

2010-01-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

I promise I do more than just craft everyday with that said I just have to share pictures of a V-day wreath I made today. I was having problems finding something to put on the front door that wasn't just one of those hearts with the shiny metallicy stuff so I seen a couple on other blogs that were cute so I decided to combine a couple of things to make one that was perfect for me. For under $10 I made this adorable fabric, tulle, ribbon wreath.

Day 12

2010-01-12T21:54:00.002-05:00

think cleaning out my craft room has re-energized me to craft more. I started this project yesterday night after Rees went to bed and woke up this morning wanting to get it finished so I loaded Rees man up and we headed to Huntington to hit all the craft stores to get the finishing touches. I gotta say I was unsure about how it would go (the shopping trip) but he was phenomenally good. We hit AC Moore, Micheals and Hobby Lobby and he was such a little darling. I found all kind of treasures to add to my collection including the perfect frame for my project. I made a patchwork memo board out of charm fabric pieces. It turned out so cute! I have an addiction to beautiful fabrics but I really don't sew a whole lot so any chance I get to do a quick project that show cases my fabrics I give it a go. This was the perfect fit. If you want to give it a try HERE is the link to Moda's bake shop. They have some amazing FREE projects on their site.

Since I am enjoying my embroidery machine so much right now I threw my initials on the board too LOL!

Day 11

2010-01-11T15:48:00.002-05:00

I know I talk a lot about our kitten, Bo but he is just such a character it's hard not to share his antics. He is an attention crazed cat (but aren't they all?) he will go to incredible lengths to get my attention. Like yesterday he decides to climb on the sewing machine while I'm using it. Then last night he jumped off this little table directly onto my shoulder just because there was no other way to get on me. And this is today's attempt to keep 100% of my focus on him...

Everyone keep Bo in your thoughts he will be losing his claws tomorrow. Bad for him but great for Rees and my leather couch :)

Day 10

2010-01-10T23:17:00.001-05:00

I woke up feeling crafty this morning so I started digging through my fabric and found a great little one day project, a blanket for my little man. It has the cutest fabrics and it is very boyish so he should love it. I cut all the fabric and snapped a few pics or course then I started to sew it together and thought wow this is going so smoothly that I should try to use my new embroidery unit and put his name on it. Well after a couple hours I did get his name on it and it did turn out really cute, but my little project turned into a four hour project after all was said and done, nonetheless I had fun and I think Rees is going to love it. Great day. I even got to edit my pictures I took of my project, I can't go a day without some type of photography :)

Welcome to my Crazy life.

My attempt at pottery barn plaques **FINISHED**

Rees' 3rd Birthday Party ~ The Family Party

My Birthday Boy

Happy Easter sign

My attempt at pottery barn plaques

Our big summer project.

Rees' new obsession

Love this picture

Daddy's right hand man

A boys work is never done

Summer Fun

4th of July

Columbus Zoo trip

Picture share!

Vacation post #2 Pigeon Forge . . .

Found this growing in my zebra grass next to my Koi pond...

Do I have any bead lovers???

Our first family vacation... Pigeon Forge!

My baby boy?

Happy Day!

Cousins

I love these gift baskets

Too cute not to share

It doesn't get any better than this...

Rain rain go away...

Stubborn as a mule

Another flower picture

Spring has sprung

Bernie is starting to show his age

Hidden treasure

Latest Scrapbook Pages

Where does the time go?

What beautiful feathers you have!

Catching up on my memory keeping

Talk about a scary wake up call

Random

Happy Easter!

New blog design!

Our bunny shack

Here momma . . .

Easter Goodies

Things are finally getting back to normal. . .

Rees' 2nd Birthday Party - John Deere Green

Urgent Care trip #3

Urgent Care

Look closely

Confused

No momma...

SPRING!!!

The pimp mobile

Birthday morning

Exhausted

Two

My first attempt at Easter pictures

Terrible two's... Really???

I suck

Day - 49 Laundry day

Day 48 - Puzzles

Special post for a "special" family

Day 47 - Meet my extended family

Day 46 - Another big storm

Day 45 - BLOG MAKEOVER!

Day 44 - Grocery trip on a Saturday night

Day 43- At least the cat had a good day

Day 42- The look

Day 41- You must think we live in the bath tub.

Day 40 - It finally happened!

Day 39- Spaghetti

Day 38 - Super bowl Sunday

Day 37 - Really?

Day - 36 IKEA the greatest place on Earth

Day 35 - More bath time

Day - 34 Gloomy outside

I got an award!

Day - 33 A trip to the fabric shoppe

Day 32 - Meltdown

Day 31 - I don't want to forget this

Day 30 - My new favorite bracelet

Day 29 - I love my hubby

My attempt at pottery barn plaques FINISHED