Currently: Christmas

Watching: The Snowman
Reading: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
Listening: LeAnn Rimes - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (My favorite Christmas song and I just learned she did a cover....don't judge.)
Making: A blanket. It won't be ready in time.
Feeling: A little panicked. I have a couple Christmas orders that haven't arrived yet and they are for the same person and if they don't come the person won't have ANYTHING to open on Christmas. ACK!
Planning: Resolutions for 2016
Loving: Munch's awesome toothless smile...even if he flat out refuses to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

Dallas Arboretum Through the Eyes of Munch

I love that Munch likes to grab our point and shoot and take his own pictures. 

He isn't always steady and his photos aren't always straight, but it't always exciting to see how he views the world. 

Here are my favorites from our trip to the Arboretum for his birthday. 

 

I can't wait to see what he photographs next.

Munch Turns Seven

Yesterday, Munch turned seven. We opened presents, went on a family field trip,  and ate good burgers and ice cream cake. 

Yesterday marked seven years of being Mama and I am so proud of this sweet boy who first called me that name. 

Munch has always been my laid back boy. He is mostly easy going and is a natural at helping others.

He joined the Boy Scouts last month and he is so proud and excited about it. I love seeing his face light up when he talks about it. 

Munch LOVES to read. He will read anything he can get his hands on. His current favorite is my Doctor Who Encyclopedia that he picked out for a Mother's Day gift. which makes sense. He LOVES The Doctor.

This year he is making plans to be an Egyptologist when he grows up....but also a Dad. 

He is an awesome brother and adores his little cousin, Juliet. It's really wonderful watching him interact with them.

Munch really is a blessing and while I often wish he would stop. I love watching him grow.

Throwback Thursday and a Deep Freeze

I  have joined a no buy challenge for all things scrappy. It's mainly for the month of October, but some (me included) are going into a deep freeze. My goal is to not buy anything scrapbook related (other than prints and maybe adhesive) for 3 months.

I have a pretty large stash of stuff that I haven't looked at in forever. After having Munch, I moved away from traditional scrapbooking and into digital, but kept all my old goodies. Then when I started Project Life, I started buying stuff again. I usually just buy a little at a time, but it's added up. 

So NO shopping until January. 

My first layout of the month fits well with Throwback Thursday. .The papers are a good 8 years old and the picture is of my sister and I in the 80s. 

It's fun looking through my photos and searching my hoard of supplies for the perfect items to use. I'm really looking forward to getting everything down to a more manageable level. I'm going to reevaluate in January and if I can, I would love to go six months. 

And Then Nox Turned Five

My sweet and crazy Nox turned 5 today.  

He has the best crooked smile, which I realized the other day is almost exactly the same as my sister's smile. He just lights up a room.

 He loves Spidey and adores R2-D2. He's a Lego addict and will talk Mixels with anyone who listens, even if you don't listen. 

His favorite snack is "Rock Carrots" aka raw carrots and he'll down gallons of lemonade if you let him.
He loves to sing and I could listen to him all day. 

 He is a roller coaster. A crazy ball of ginger and freckles. He is stubborn and smart and impossible and amazing. 

And he's mine.
Happy Birthday, Nox! We love you. 

Currently: Happy

Currently Happy is...

Waking up early

Enjoying our morning walks with Kaiser.

Picking up any bag he can carry and giving out air kisses. (Just like Daddy when he leaves the house for work.)

Loving his I'm a Little Teapot book. He makes me sing it a dozen times a day and his "thank-you" smiles are precious.

Dancing on tables and laughing like a maniac as Mama and Daddy run to "save" him.

Doing whatever Daddy and the Bigs are doing, whether they want him to or not. (He is, at this moment, "helping" put together our new vacuum.)

Project Life Tuesday: Munch Edition

Lately, Munch has been completely fascinated by my Project Life albums and all my supplies. He's been begging to let him help. Instead I grabbed an "extra" album out of my stash and gave it to him. We went through my left over photos that I had copies of or ones that just didn't make the cut.

He decided to start with some 6x8 layouts and had so much fun going through my stash for the perfect embellishments.

 I told him it's important to put the date and maybe write about the picture. We got one page journaled. The rest I need to find tags for.

He used up EVERY candy corn sticker I had!
 

This one he used a tag he took off his new Batman jacket. He was so thrilled with the idea of reusing something for his book.

He's grown up so much since these pictures were taken. I love that he's interested in scrapping with me, because it's so nice to have a scrapping buddy.

First Day of School

It's official! I have two sweet boys in elementary school. If Happy had his way I would have THREE boys in school. 

Munch has been bouncing with excitement for the past week. He has SO been looking forward to being back at school with his friends. We were all delighted to see that he had so many good friends in his 1st grade class.

So super proud of him. He's worked hard on his reading this year and worked all summer on his work books, a lot of time without being asked. He is so ready for this year. I can't wait to see how much he grows and learns. 

My little Nox finished up his very last day of preschool on Thursday. He is so insanely happy to be in school with his big brother this year. 

I have been nervous about him starting. He's only 4 and makes cut off for this year's class by mere days. I worry about how he'll do. I wonder if he's mature enough. He might know as much, if not more than Munch did his first day. He knows all the teachers already and they all know him..but still, he's only four.

And I'll miss his crooked smile, the out of the blue hugs and kisses and his singing to himself all day as he plays. 

(I didn't start crying till now.)

I can't wait to hear about their day when we pick them up. 

In Memory of Skye

Today we said farewell to our sweet furbaby, Skye.

She had gotten seriously ill in November and I don't think she truly ever bounced back. Last night she refused a can of tuna and just stared weakly at her water. This morning I found her barely able to move next to her litter box and we knew it was her time.

John adopted Skye while we were dating. She came to us in 2003 as Miss. Molly. We found her on Petfinder and John had to request a special meeting.

She was insanely shy at first, but it was hard not to love her. One look at those intense blue eyes and that fluffy cloud of white fur and John knew her name had to be Skye.

She for sure was John's girl. They had a super special connection and she never loved another human so much, until Munch was born and she warmed quickly up to him.

She was always happy to visit company and sit down for a chat.

She loved being pet and wasn't afraid to let you know by giving out love nips.

She probably would have preferred to be the only furbaby and never quite warmed up to Kaiser and Joplin. She did tolerate Gandalf though and at times her relationship with The Old Bear resembled an old married couple.

I never met a single person that didn't live her. She had some crazy quirks, but on the whole was an amazing, sweet and beautiful girl. We will miss her terribly.

Nox believes she has crossed the rainbow bridge and found a good beach to play on with plenty of fish to catch. I hope that's true. 

One is Fun

Saturday Morning our Happy turned ONE!

He woke us up at 3am sharp. He was sick and miserable, but after a few hours of snuggling brightened up a little. 

We didn't get to do the amazing weekend we had planned, but we did get to open presents. 

Which was insanely exciting.

AND we got to have cupcakes. 

Also, super SUPER exciting.

Happy at one is a pretty amazing guy. 

He is super focused on learning to walk. 

He coasts easily all over the place, stands on his own like nothing and even manages a few small steps before crashing. He loves holding hands though, because then he can really move. 

He is SUPER into music. Doesn't matter what really. If it's got a beat he'll dance to it. 

He loves LOVES animals. Our personal, at home zoo cracks him up and delights him. He also loves watching animal videos. Those are pretty much the best things ever. 

He likes to wave, salute and point and everything. He's working on a heart stealing trick of blowing kisses too. 

He likes to talk to and watch strangers, but isn't all about them touching him. Lately, you really have to be the right person at the right time to get holding rights. 

Through this whole year it has been so delightful to have such a joy filled baby. From day one he has been quick to smile. He almost always has a laugh for you, even when he's just gotten tackled by his brothers. 

We all adore this sweet boy and are looking forward to seeing his journey from babyhood to toddler. 

Scrappy Sunday: 3 Loves

I have been working on getting pictures organized for Happy's baby album this past week. Most of the book will be PL style which so far is working beautifully. However, there are always those stray pictures that just have to be in there, but can't really go on a PL spread all by their lonesome.

This is one of my favorite pictures and one of the very few of Happy and my sister (and my niece). It was a lucky snap with my phone and I'm so glad I captured it. 

Created using: Piccadilly collaboration by Designers for Pixels and Co and Geocaching template by 2Paws Designs.

I'm loving the flow I have right now with Happy's book and hope I can go back and finish up Munch and Nox's books in the same style. 

Eleven Months

Just one more month till our Happy little ginger turns ONE year old. 

Those top two teeth have come in, but he's still chewing everything. 

He thinks wishes make for the perfect snack. His brothers find this HILARIOUS. 

Happy is trying to go out of our 6-9 month clothes and onto our 9-12...although the pants are still insanely long and loose. 

Mama is pretty sure that walking is coming VERY soon. Happy is certainly thinking long and hard about it.

Right now Happy only gives very rare kisses, but when he's sleepy he will grab your face and pull it close to his and just smile. 

And my heart swells. 

Ten Months of Happy

Our little man turned ten months old on Monday. 

This month our little guy is in to EVERYTHING and loves tearing into the book shelves and toys like a hurricane. 

He's still working hard on those top two teeth and is loving trying new foods. 

He is all about Daddy at the moment. His whole world lights up when Daddy comes into the room. 

He recently learned how to wave. Which is a pretty fantastic trick if you ask me.