Tinkering L8

Lucius Lookin Smart

2012-02-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

I haven't been creating pages for awhile so I dug right in and found some half finished projects (like my smash book) and it was amazing to finish a bunch of pages in very little time!

Poor Lucius, I looked at his pathetic excuse for a scrapbook (the girls already all having at least 2) and saw that he only had 4 pages! GASP! Can that be right?

Oh the shame!

So he's gonna be the focus for the next little bit!

Love Love this picture of my baby reading my library book before he can really even sit up on his own! I REALLY love to read and will be passing this on to all my kiddos!

Read anything good lately?

Laterg8r

Smashbook III

2012-01-30T05:59:00.000-08:00

Some more Smash!

I love how the picture of the Ghost Mickey turned out. I added a part of our wristbands, clothing tag and a picture of our entire suitcase full of CANDY from our Trick or Treat night - unforgettable.

The kids all dressed up and crashed out after "frick-er-freet-ing" (Skyler's phrase). Rayna was so good, she could do it in her sleep LOL - check out the closed eyes and open bag!

Lucius got so sticky and yucky - we said he was the "Boogyman" for Halloween! Check out his protective ear wear for the fireworks - he slept through them.

My little goofball Princesses making wishes at SnowWhite's wishing well.

They also did a quiz to see which Disney character they were most alike. Rayna was Mrs. Potts, Skyler was the Evil Queen (I swear, I didn't even read the test to her, I just let her press the buttons LOL). Serenity was Cinderella, but I missed it, so she went again and was VERY unhappy to get Nala LOL!

We all LOVE Phineas and Ferb and were stoked to see their dance party. Rayna shook her groove thing all the way over to dance with Phineas and the rest of us danced on the sidelines. My fave song - Squirrels in My Pants!!!

I love the giant pocket that says "so good I want to put it in my pocket!" I put our vaca planning CD and a brochure in it. I took pictures of the 4 prints Snuffy bought too. They are the Cars characters as painted by Chip Foose.

My mom and my kids on her scooter - plus Serenity's comment when she first saw it. "I want that for Kilometer Club" LOL
If you can't get enough Smash-ing ideas - go here to their Blog!

Laterg8r

PS - I just got a Mini-Smash book - didn't even know they had them but now i've got one to carry around in my purse!

Friday Funnies - Book Bandit

2012-01-27T05:08:00.000-08:00

Oh my sweet Lucius, how he loves to read. We have a mini book shelf at the end of our hallway with all the kids books on it. Lucius loves to go down there and pull them all off the shelf. Which is OK, because then he sits and tries to read them.

However, one day I noticed a lot of the books were missing off the shelf but they weren't on the floor. Weird!

Then I caught the Book Bandit later that day, shoving books under the door to his sister's bedroom! LOL

He loves to give them a big surprise!

It's even funnier when one of them is in their room and they shove the books back! He looooves that!

Anyone hide things on you?

Laterg8r

Smashbook - Part Deux

2012-01-25T05:50:00.000-08:00

Part Deux - some more pages in my Disneyland Smashbook! I used the orange smash and loved it for this because we went at Halloween!

I used an entrance ticket, fast passes, rub ons and some fab pics I took. The one on the right was taken while riding Goofy's Sky School. I love the blurry mess!

This page was a hoot to put together. Especially the little blurb about when the employee told us all not to fling any Poo on the people below us. We were in the Monkey cage after all!

Add picture and leave it at that! Love this pic of Lucius and Captain Hook so much (and the cowgirl that came on the next page) that I left it this way.

See the hook around Lucius's neck and the fear in his eyes!

My beautiful girls all dressed up for Halloween! Sweet, sassy and cute beyond compare!

Oh how we love Lightening McQueen - we're car people here! Even better, getting to drive one at 2 years old! Skyler couldn't quite believe it! The big girls loved smashing into the rails and driving crazy on Autopia!

Do you have a fave Disney ride?

Laterg8r

Smashbook

2012-01-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

I love the new Smashbooks. They are exactly like old scrapbooks used to be (so you can totally create your own)- shove in everything, totally beautiful. If you want to want to buy one, this video will make it so! (it will also take you to every other person's video of what they've done on youtube)

I especially loved the idea for a vacation album. I always come home with tons of mementos, maps, etcetera and I always write a journal and I always do a scrapbook - just none of them all together.

Soooo, for our vaca to Disneyland I decided to Smash! I wrote in the album and on smash cards (journalling spots) but didn't really get much else done in it until I got home. (hey, I took 4 kids and was exhausted at the end of the day) LOL

The girls 'gave' me some of their Disney stickers throughout my book. Such generous hearts.

One side of the page is tips and tricks I got from a travel book that I wanted to remember on our trip. Plus the cutest picture of Skyler and Serenity sharing Nana's sweater. The other side is a picture Serenity drew me before our trip of all of us on the Ferris Wheel.

The HoJo's brochure and our room key (forgot to give it back - no really, I totally forgot - that's what they get for letting us check out in our room on our TV - LOL). Plus a journalling spot discussing Skyler's fave: the "Ass-le."

The girls with their Princesses. Dressed alike and oh so cute. Loving the tiny type stickers, rub ons and other bits and bobs that I used up from my stash here.

Oh the Queen of Hearts, she stole our hearts and made us giggle too. Goofy was THE BEST with Lucius, getting down to his level to play!

Journalling about our trip, a fortune cookie type quote from a McDonald's toy, stickers, rubons and a cutie pic of my girls measuring Skyler to see if she could go on the Tuck and Roll Bumper Bugs.

Do you Smash?

Laterg8r

The Great White North

2012-01-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

Take off eh! LOL

It's been snowing here for awhile, check out the kids.

How's the weather where you are?

Laterg8r

PS - The kids are all now sick too!

Serenity and Rayna's First Scrapbooks

2012-01-15T05:39:00.000-08:00

The girls got scrapbooks for Christmas so I put together a bunch of pics and embellies and stickers and stuff and here are some of their pages.

I love that she wrote all over the page.

The bottom of this page has her airline ticket on it. Such a cute drawing of all of us on the plane to Disneyland.

I love how she cut out herself and her sister. Do you remember doing that?

Rayna's first page - just her name, no pictures LOL!

Love that she put glitter glue allllll over the top photo.

The queen of layering.

Cute cluster of her initials and good use of memorabilia.

They scrapped with me while I worked on my smashbook (coming soon) and it was a hoot.

Do you love the new smashbooks?

Laterg8r

Friday Funnies and Outtakes

2012-01-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

Whilst giving you a funny I thought I'd share some Outtakes from the "Fingers" shoot!

1. Serenity: "Mommy, why is that man wearing a little kid t-shirt?" - referring to Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory (which totally rocks btw - Clingon Bingo = most hilarious nerd game EVER!)

(doesn't she look like Gene Simmons from KISS? LOL)
2. Skyler: "Mama, your bum is still dirty" - said to me as I stepped out of the shower LOL

3. Lucius: Snuffy always tries to get Lucius to say "dada" by patting himself on the chest and saying 'dada'. Lucius got all excited the other day, hauled off and slapped Snuffy right across the face and screeched "DADA". Now THAT is funny!

4. Rayna: (my little negotiator) "Mom, do I have to brush ALL my teeth?"

Right above my desk I have a card that Patti sent me and it never fails to make me smile and put things into another perspective. The quote in it says, "You know it was a good day if you didn't hit or bite anyone." Nathaniel Parizer, age 4

I'm sooooo with you today Nathaniel.

Anything funny or inspiring in your world today?

Laterg8r

Giving everyone the Finger(s)

2012-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last year I took pictures of the kids doing the "fingers" for 2011. This year I did the same.
If you want to see how much they've grown, click HERE!

Do you have any New Year's Traditions?

Happy New Year!

Laterg8r

Happy New Year and some Trees

2012-01-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

I know it is the New Year but I couldn't resist showing you the project my sister and I did with my girls this Holiday season.

You just take a foam cone, punched circles, quilting pins and a star and Voila - Christmas trees!

I made the tallest one, Serenity made the one with all the same patterned circles and alternating colored pins (she is in love with patterns these days), Rayna made the second smallest one and Skyler made a teeny one (so did Sarah).

I love how they all turned out so different!

What are your crafty plans for the New Year?

Laterg8r

PS - I used the same scrapbooking paper that I used for my wreath a few years ago too, so they match - BONUS!!

So this is Christmas

2011-12-31T05:54:00.000-08:00

My sweet baby boy Lucius with his stocking stuffers!

Opening stockings and matching PJ's. Then for a great big brunch made by Snuffy!

Rayna loves her new scrapbook and has already completed almost the entire thing. I'll have to post some pics of her pages soon. Loads of stickers and glittery stuff - very girly.

Skyler gives her new dolly a hug.

Serenity is overjoyed at her Reindeer and even more excited when she realizes that the nose LIGHTS UP! Wooooo!

Skyler is not so happy but the rest of the gang are at our Christmas on Boxing Day (aka Xmas II).

Oh how Skyler loooves her "Nic-nic" - WTG Auntie Jen.

Ryan needed some dude-stuff and gift certificates, he's a teenager after all.

Lucius loves his new trucks so much he can't put them down to open another gift.

Nana looking good in her new "flirty" apron.

The tea party is a HUGE hit. Skyler is in LOVE!

Can't get Lucius to smile? Get his sister's to RAWR at him! LOL Then he roars back. With his new Godzilla shirt and city rug he really is into the monster of destruction theme.

Soooooooooooooo Cute!

Woo hoo - crafts! We love crafts! Sock Puppets!

A cuddly blanket and pillow - that his sister's are about to abscond with!

Serenity loooves her new Tag - anything to keep their interest in reading! She spent the rest of the day reading with it. She still loves it (Rayna loves hers too).

Lucius thinks that his new carpet is a blankie and loves to lay down on it. Definitely softer than our hardwood floors!

Here Serenity is with her new Tag and Lucius's new pillow.

Having kids so close together is a bit of a double edged sword. They all love the same things so it is like they get 4x the toys. However, they all like the same things so they want to fight over them too. Oh well, they are working on their sharing skills. LOL (Skyler needs the most help!)

Rayna sung "So this is Christmas" at her Christmas concert and couldn't have been cuter. They gave the kids candles and angel halo's and made everyone laugh when they couldn't sway together.

"Another year over and a new one's just begun...."

Here's hoping the new year is the best one yet!

Happy New Year

Laterg8r

Baking with Auntie Sarah

2011-12-30T05:49:00.000-08:00

Everyone KNOWS that I cannot bake to save my life! If you need a refresher, look at THIS!
Soooo, sweet sister that she is, she came to stay and help teach my girls how to bake. She also swears that it is NOT me that can't bake, it's my oven (and I love her for it! LOL)

They made Reese Cookies (the best), sugar cookie star sandwiches and snowmen.

I love that Serenity and Rayna wore their Home Depot aprons - they totally work!

Serenity makes some frowny faced snowmen.

Rayna got her chef hat at a birthday party where they went to a cupcake store - great party idea btw.

Check out Model Skyler - she ate most of the decorations.

Sarah's cookies looked the sweetest.

Lucius just wanted to EAT them!

These are the ones the girls decorated. Love that they made the noses stick in the air. See the 3 eyed one? That's Rayna's!

This one was Serenity's Reindeer Snowman - the obsession continues!

Do you bake for Christmas? Love it or hate it?

Laterg8r

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-29T05:20:00.000-08:00

It's our family tradition to cut down our tree. It is always an adventure and this year we tried a new place (the old place was closed)

Skyler had to strike a model pose!

Reindeer Rayna!

Reindeer Serenity

They all watched Snuffy intently and then each got a turn to try the saw themselves. Very sweet!

We trimmed our tree with the help of Auntie Sarah. It is the most fun mish mash tree ever! LOL

Later Lucius gave this ornament a taste! I think he was trying to decide if it was a cookie or not!

Man, I can never get her to look at me these days!

Rayna in her "Beauty Sleep" mask - so cute!

Auntie Sarah helps with the high ones!

My giggle pus!

Guess who is gonna get the bear first?

Do you have a real or fake tree?

Laterg8r

Gingerbread Houses and Fountains

2011-12-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

We went to see the gingerbread house display and several old Woodwards windows.

While the first Woodwards window was a bit of a snoozer, the other 2 we saw were a hit with the kids. Anything with a duck in it is sure to be Skyler's favourite.

The sweet thing is that the kids were just as excited to see the waterfalls and the wishing wells (oh how they love to make wishes - in fact, they call pennies 'wishes.') as they were to see the gingerbread houses.

What simple thing do you love?

Laterg8r

P.S. This was the winning "house"

Downtown Christmas

2011-12-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

It was an awesome crisp cool December day and we decided to go Downtown to see all the Christmas trees!

Ohhhh, we wanna touch it ALL!

Serenity is obsessed with Reindeer this year - so she spotted this little guy right away.

"Fishy - Gwub, Gwub" says Skyler

My angel Lucius loved all the trees but was dying to get out of the stroller to touch all of them.

The very creative snow man tree - looks to be a fave of Rayna's.

The land of the misfit toys and Rudolph, the favourite of all!

Chloe's tree - this picture is for my neice, a tree named after her!

The old fashioned tree with the Canadian winter hat tree topper and carved wooden ornies was fantastic.

The gang outside freezing and giggling the morning away.

Part 2 - the gingerbread houses is next.

What is your fave outdoor Christmas activity?

Laterg8r

Seeing Santa

2011-12-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

Skyler only wants CANDY for Christmas! LOL

Rayna showed Santa her Kilometer club ribbon and they talked about running and being healthy.

Serenity wants a REAL reindeer for Christmas. Yup, she says we could keep him in the backyard.

Lucius buzzed out on the beard. How cute is that?

No one wants to look at me LOL!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Y'all!

Do you have any funny Santa stories to tell?

Laterg8r

Lick-able Art! (tutorial)

2011-12-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

I saw this in a mag and thought, I can do that! So I did! You can too!

Supplies: Wreath 12 or 14 inches (I used 12 but the mag said 14 - oops! LOL)

Duct tape

Ribbon

Few hundred candies (I bought in bulk from the Superstore and spend approximately $23 - still had a handful left at the end too)

Hot glue (I used 16 little sticks) and glue gun

Pen

Plate

Step 1: Cover the wreath in duct tape. Otherwise the hot glue will melt the wreath. You could use any color duct tape too, it does show a bit through (this is what I had).

Step 2: Draw a pencil line around the wreath to glue your first line of candies to. I used a blue pen and pushed hard - there was a crease and a line to follow. I traced a plate.

Step 3: Unwrap some candies. Just don't pile them on top of each other because they'll stick together. I unwrapped tons, as I wanted to keep working fast.

Step 4: Glue your first candy on at a 45 degree angle and hold until it dries (about 1 minute). Do a bead of glue and start layering your candies. You can experiment with how far apart you are willing to have them. Farther apart = use less candy.

You will freak out when you get close to the end of the first row, hoping that the candy will meet well. Don't worry, you can do it. Just start your next row in a different place, so if it looks a bit odd/squished, it's not all in one place. Trust me, when you are done no one will be examining it!

Step 5: Start another row going in the Opposite direction. Once that row is finished, go the opposite direction again.

I advise finishing the front/one side of the wreath entirely first. If you want, you can be done at this point, just hang it against a wall and no one will see the back side. This also uses less candy.

Step 6: Hang in there, this took me about 1 1/2 hours to do. DON'T EAT ANY CANDY - YOU MAY NEED IT! LOL

Now comes the oops. See the picture below? How can I alternate for my last row? I can't!

So WHAT! Just pick a direction and glue em on! Still looks awesome cool (give it a lick - you know you are dying too)!

Step 7: Hang in your window - enjoyed from inside and outside your home! You could use thicker ribbon than I did or even florist wire to hang it. Just be sure to use a heck of a hanger/hook. This sucker is HEAVY!

Voila!

Step 8: Hope you have extra candy to give your kids every time they see it! Otherwise, hang it up high or you'll be missing candy before you know it!

What are you making for the holidays?

Laterg8r

Wordless Wednesday - Bumper Cars Edition

2011-11-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Laterg8r

Wordless Wednesday - Charmer Edition

2011-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

Laterg8r

Wordless (and Toothless) Wednesday

2011-10-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Pumpkins Pumpkins

2011-10-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Happy Birthday and Friday Funnies

2011-10-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

First off - Happy Birthday to my Mom today!

Second: Rayna is fuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnny! Lately she is the question lady. She doesn't just ask WHY all the time, she also asks WHEN, WHERE, HOW MUCH and anything else she can think of. But she's a talker too and looooves to chat to whomever is around (gee, wonder where she gets that from LOL).

Here's a sample:

(at the park- me chasing wildly after Skyler and leaving her in charge of Lucius)
said to another mom "Do you KNOW how hard it is to raise 4 kids?"
other mom "Yup, I have 3"
Rayna "Four is MUCH harder"

I love this little girl like crazy!

What's up with you?

Laterg8r

EEEEEKKKKK!

2011-10-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

Look at my new toy!!!! Sooooooo exciting!!!!! My first dSLR and I am in LOOOOOVVVVEEEE! (move over Hugh Jackman) LOL

(the above picture was taken with my old camera which is having focusing issues)

How gorgeous is Skyler?

She's very concerned about a piece of dirt she found on the floor. LOL (and yes, those are bats in my belfry)

Look at Little Man! Such a charmer.

And all these FAB pictures were taken with the Automatic settings! Wooooo HOOOO! This camera ROCKS!!!

What (or who) are you in love with these days?

Laterg8r

Friday Funnies - Bath Time

2011-10-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Because I suffer from CRS, I'm not sure if I posted this story before, but it does bear repeating!

The first time I put Lucius in the bath with his sisters was an emergency, dirty baby moment. I was holding him over my arm and washing his back when I noticed Skyler yanking back and forth on his penis!

Before I could say anything, Serenity looked over and said, "I know Skyler, Lucius has a weird Gine-y!"

(much discussion of girls and boys parts ensued)

PS. check out this big butt (I forgot to put on the swimming diaper) LOL

Laterg8r

We're going to.........

2011-10-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Artwork by Serenity

Laterg8r

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Rayna's Party

2011-09-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, since I went overboard for Serenity's party earlier in the year I had to do it for Rayna too!

These are the invitations:

This is a sign I painted:

These are the treats we gave out after we played (a) follow the white rabbit (aka follow the leader) - their favourite!

(b) pin the grin on the Cheshire cat (see pictures to follow) and

We used these roses for the relay race "painting the roses red" and these poor girls couldn't do a relay race to save their lives. Apparently it's a skill learned in Kindergarten because Serenity was great at it. The rest of the girls didn't know how to tag someone in line, gently placed the rose in the vase and then forgot that they were racing and sometimes didn't even know what to do when tagged. Veeeerrrrrryyy funny to watch though! LOL

Serenity did all of these characters below to help decorate the kitchen too!

These are the giant flowers I drew, painted and glittered up for the garden:

"You are a WEED!"

Ok, so one has whompy eyes - big deal! LOL

These are the centre pieces: (love the bread and butterflies)

So easy to make the tags with the free Alice in Wonderland font from the Internet. The A's had little hearts in the centre!

This is the Cheshire cat grin and the "Pin the Grin" game I made:

This is the rabbit hole (which I stuck on the gate):

This is Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum: (cut out of aluminum by a friend and painted by Super Sarah)

This is the caterpillar Sarah made (and the smoke letters I made):

This is the Mad Hatter (also made by Sarah!)

This is the table all set and ready to go:

This is the ceiling: (remember Wordless Wednesday?)

These are the goodie bags: (I cut the teapots out of felt and glittered the steam)

This is the girl that loooooves it all and her super duper Auntie Sarah:

Totally worth the MANY MANY hours spent by myself and her Auntie Sarah!

Laterg8r

PS - I just noticed that this is also my 400th post! Can you believe it???

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

My Baby Curses Like a Sailor (Friday Funnies)

2011-09-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

That's right, Skyler can curse!

We all know kids who say "Clock" or "Truck" and it comes out as a curse word but my Skyler is just a weeeee bit different! LOL

I almost said "Clock" myself, when I saw this...........

..........and her little blue footprints! ACK!

I asked her if she wanted a piece of Chocolate the other day.

Seemed simple enough until she said, "I wan F-it!" WHAT????

Yup, seems like Chocolate is the F word at our house!

Super fun to hear her say the exact same phrase at the grocery store today! Got some pretty nasty faces!

She's about to be in the dog house! LOL

She also says "Castle" as a very bad word! Very creatively, I might add!

Imagine my surprise when she starts calling me the "A" word at the mall! Castle mommy, Castle!

OOOOOOh My!

(OMG - they are going to let the child drive a BUS!)

Doesn't she look so sweet here?

Are you crazy?

Did you look closely?

She has a badminton racket AND a TOMATOE!!!!

Soooooo, the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, call them a Castle and have a giggle because they have no idea what is going on!!!

Who is embarassing you lately?

Laterg8r

PS - Serenity said "Pimp-it" all the time. Can anyone guess what she meant?

Four Funnies on Friday

2011-09-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna post some funny things my kids have said and done every Friday!

1. I tell another mom that Rayna passed her Kindergarten evaluation with flying colors and she yells, "That's right, I'm a SMARTASS!"

I have to explain that smart ass and smarty pants are NOT the same thing!

(she also loves and extreme close up)

2. Last year, after the first week of Kindergarten Serenity was quite tired. On Monday morning I said, "You gotta get moving Baby, you have to get to school." She said, "Again?"

I had to explain that Kindergarten is a YEAR long, not just one week!

(she got a new helmet and wore it around everywhere for a week)

3. Skyler decided to give herself a yoghurt bath while I was cleaning up Lucius after his lunch. When I asked her why she said, "I SWEET."

Yes you are Baby, but you don't need yoghurt for that!

(here she is feeding Lucius some yoghurt)

4. Serenity was told to label all her school supplies, so I left her to it, only to come back and find her trying to label EVERY SINGLE CRAYON. Sooooo literal these days.

Label the box only baby!

(the girls with their new backpacks and runners for school)

What is funny with you?

Laterg8r

PS - A VERY funny blog to go visit is The Bloggess. Click on her name and be brought to the chicken post! I laughed so hard I cried.

PPS - Mom, the above blog is NOT for you. Loads of swearing and stuff!

Happy Birthday Rayna

2011-09-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

My sweet little girl is 5 today! Lucky her, it is also her first day of school! She is very excited about school because she's watched Serenity all year and knows what it is all about.

She is digging her new backpack with matching lunch box and shoes.

She really loves the water and took loads of swimming lessons (outdoors) this year. When her teacher asked her to bring her some cookies she said, "My mommy can't bake but she sure can buy stuff at Safeway!" Awesome!

She likes weird food together (just like her Daddy). Ice cream and a pickle??

She made a pencil box at the Home Depot kids workshop with Serenity and Daddy. The best part, it was all FREE! Even the apron. (and they do a new one each month)

She went to dance camp and loved making friends and the Art best! LOL Great idea to try dance for a short period of time so that we didn't fork out the big bucks for something she doesn't love to do. She'd much rather dress up like a ballerina and dance around our house!

She got buried at the beach! Oh how we all loooooove the beach and spent lots of time there this year.

She learned how to wash clothes like they used to and thought it was fun. When we showed her the one room school house I said, "The kids from Grades 1 to 7 all gathered here." She said, "and then what?"

Biking fool. Loved to race up at me and then slam on the brakes. Little monster!

Oh the wonderful ice cream at Dairy Queen. Great treat on a hot day.

Rayna is such a character. She often makes goofy faces or gives me the "Pirate Eye" in pictures. So hilarious that she wore her goggles all day at the beach (in and out of the water).

She is such a beauty, inside and out!

I love this little face more than I can say.

Laterg8r

PS - this cow picture is for my friend Jo, who is an amazing artist and who also finds weird topiary cool!

No more babies (aka Lucius turns 1)

2011-09-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

That's right, no more babies! Lucius has officially turned one!

He needed loads of help opening his gifts. All he did is smack them a bit until the girls helped him out.

Then all he wanted to do was taste them. LOL

He was really interested in the trucks on these PJ's

Lucius loves his Auntie Sarah.

He got a play table and was very excited about it, but so were all his sisters. It will be a miracle if he gets to play with it on his own.

When Grampa arrived Lucius crawled on over and gave him a hug all on his own! How sweet!

OOOO Cake, Let me at it!!!!

I love how he decided to eat his cake! Face first!

He was so excited and even started flinging cake on the floor and walls! Woah, Sugar HIGH! LOL

These new Lightening McQueen shoes were a giant hit! They light up! Skyler was pretty upset that they weren't for her, she loves "A-Queen".

Serenity held Lucius's head and we still couldn't get a great shot. C'est la vie!

I love my little man and can't believe he's 1!

Anyone celebrating anything?

Laterg8r

Xmas PJ's

2011-08-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

I looove buying the kids matching PJ's every year (these are from Old Navy). Lucius got his in green.

I love this fuzzy pleated ribbon.

This year it is going to be much harder to coordinate. Serenity and Rayna will no longer fit toddler size clothes. ACK! Anyone know of anywhere else to get some?

What tradition do you love at Christmas?

Laterg8r

Almost 4

2011-08-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

Rayna last year at the park. On our way to swimming lessons today we saw a bunch of fire trucks and police cars and Rayna said, "Maybe someone fell down and scraped their leg REALLY bad!"

Can you tell that she's taken a few big falls lately? Poor bug

Usually I sew on buttons but I couldn't find a small enough needle so I had to use glue dots - Dang!

Rayna still has a larger-than-life personality!

We've been spending tons of time outside this summer - how about you? What's the best thing you've done?

My fave is hitting the beach!

Laterg8r

First Xmas

2011-08-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

Lucius's first Christmas! What more can I say?

Love my little man! Amazingly, he was the best behaved at the photo shoot!

Anyone looking forward to September? What are you looking forward to?

I looooove school supplies and crisp fall days!

Laterg8r

Santa Baby

2011-08-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

I've been in a bit of a mood to scrap Christmas - go figure! So here's the first shot of all four of my bugs and Santa. We went to get our picture taken on Food Bank Donation night so that we could help out and see Santa at the same time.

All Skyler really wanted was the Candy Cane afterwards. LOL!

What are you wishing for for Christmas?

Laterg8r

Serenity and a Feather

2011-08-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

Serenity LOOOOVES this Peacock feather. As soon as she saw it in my stash she said, "Mom, you have to make me a page with that feather. It did come attached to a whole whack of other stuff but I just cut it off.

This clock was made by a fellow Scrapaholic Trisha. She very generously gave clocks to a bunch of us at our crop on Sunday and most of us used them right away! Very cool - thanks Trisha!

This picture was taken last summer and I love how sweet Serenity looks in it.

I'm still bitter that Dymo no longer makes these tapes for their hand held machines - I am currently down to 2 rolls and always get upset if I misspell a word and have to do it again!

What has been discontinued that you love?

Laterg8r

Angelic

2011-07-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of Rayna, so sweet and angelic and gorgeous!

I made my own bling swirls and then had to fill in the spaces between the bling with black dots. I also sewed everywhere and distressed the heck out of everything.

I also wanted to enhance the beauty of the paper so I outlined the ornaments with crystal laquer and put glitter in it.

Only 5 months to Christmas! LOL

Did that freak you out?

Laterg8r

PS - Super duper happy birthday to my super sister Sarah today! You rock and I'm glad we're sisters!

my pet monsters

2011-07-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love my crazy little girls! They love having their picture taken and often go for the extreme close up!

I cut some extra monsters out of another piece of patterned paper to make a cute lineup of them all.

The horns on Skyler are from the Iron on kits I won from SEI last year! I Ironed them onto a white t-shirt, cut them out and glue dotted them on the picture! It's my fave part of the whole layout.

Any monsters in your life?

Laterg8r

4 Maniacal Monsters

2011-07-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

This picture is from last Halloween's photo shoot with their SEI Iron on T-shirts. Poor Lucius kept startling from all the girl's noise!

The eyeball frame is one I created by ironing the eyes on a t-shirt and cutting them out. I also used half a zipper (that actually still zips) and the great Martha border punch that I got on sale after Halloween.

How is your summer going so far?

Laterg8r

Lollipop Love

2011-07-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

Oh the sweeeet taste of your very first lollipop!

Skyler spent a very quiet half an hour sucking on this lollipop like we'd take it away at any moment. She had so much drool we had to put a receiving blanket under her chin.

I got the idea for this page and the lollipops from Stacey at "It's Just Paper" (great name for a blog btw). Go visit her, she's got talent!

What's your fave candy?

Laterg8r

peek-a-BOO!!

2011-07-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

We spend tons of time at the park and the kids always find a new way to play with the same equipment. On this day, the rock climbing wall became a great place to play peek-a-boo!

I used some more of the mesh that came covering my hot dogs again! Loving the texture and dimension it adds to a page.

What items are you reusing on your pages?

Laterg8r

Captain Adorable

2011-07-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

This picture is adorable, but Snuffy still wishes to remain anonymous so you only get to see part of it. How sweet is my little boy in his Daddy's arms?.....................THE SWEETEST!

I have been reading a series of books about Superheros so this page just naturally fell together in that light. Lucius's hat says "Captain Adorable" on it.

Who is your fave superhero? I think Wonder Woman rocks!

Laterg8r

I'm Gonna Kill Auntie Linda

2011-07-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yup, only Aunties get away with buying your kids colored bubbles!

Check out the MESS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa!

Tentative at first...

looks like blood.....

bloody fingers....

one perfect purple bubble.....

quiet contemplation before pulling out all the grass.......

messssssss (note: Rayna, is not messy - she cried when the first bloody bubble hit her and ran inside to get cleaned off)

Yup, letting her pour it out if she wants, then only ONE day of mess..... no repeat performances of this mess.....

now she's painting her face with it ....ACK!!!

look at the bloody murder on the wall behind the very proud and STANDING Lucius....

soooo soooo funny that mommy is freaking out....

Serenity has to get every last drop of the mess out!

Who is messing up your life today?

Laterg8r

Skyler's Party

2011-07-01T09:14:00.001-07:00

Skyler recently had her 2 1/2 year birthday party! Poor December baby, it's just easier to have parties on her 1/2 birthday. That way everyone can attend and it's just about her and not about Christmas too.

The decorator at DQ did this Strawberry Shortcake free hand. Awesome!

I created a strawberry patch with balloons.

Skyler had a choice between party hats and these glasses - she made the right choice.

See how much she loves her "Bye". I think that's baby talk for berry.

Nana reads her a story and Lucius reads to himself in the background.

Skyler used her chalk to draw and to kill bugs. LOL!

Look how happy her new ballet shoes make her.

This is how old she thinks she is.

A woman after my own heart - she loves shoes AND she wants to keep them organized!

Notice the "AQueen" backpack in the background. She wears it Everywhere now.

Do you love shoes? How many pairs do you have?

Laterg8r

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!!

Bullseye

2011-06-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

I actually scrapbooked!!!!!

How cute is this picture?

It's the first day of summer vaca for us and everyone is sick except Serenity.

What are your summer plans? Vaca or stayca?

Laterg8r

Giving in to Facebook...

2011-06-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have finally given in to the monolithic, omnipresent Facebook and signed up! What prompted me to do so?

SAVING $$$$$$$

Yup, that's right, Facebook saves you money! For example: right now, if you "LIKE" Olay Canada they will send you and your friends free stuff! Woo Hoo, who couldn't use more free stuff? Especially makeup and skin care stuff? (SO, if you are my friend on facebook then I probably sent you an Olay invite to your mail box - open it, FREE STUFF!)

Ever since I saw the show Extreme Couponing on TLC, I have been fascinated by the idea of using coupons to save money and get free stuff. It is much easier to accomplish this in the USA because Canadian companies are ~~a bunch of tight asses~~ much more conservative! LOL

HOWEVER, my Canadian peeps, there are several websites that you can go to to get coupons and they mail them right to your door!

http://www.save.ca/
http://www.websaver.ca/
http://www.brandsaver.ca/

There are also sites that send you FREE samples. My fave is:

www.nexttonothing.ca/canadian-freebies.html

As you can see, I am a bit obsessed these days (my latest) and really getting a buzz from getting things for FREE! Did you know that you could get free makeup and other products by mail in rebate? Just look for items in the store with stickers or hang tags that say "free with mail in rebate" "full price rebate by mail" etcetera.

Today I picked up these three items and will fill out my rebate forms tonight to get all my money back!

(*always read what you have to do to get the rebate carefully, date and other restrictions may apply)

If you want to learn more about Canadian Couponing check out this site:

http://www.mrsjanuary.com/

If you want to learn more about USA Couponing check out this site:

http://coupondivas.com/

Kitty has over 70 videos you can watch to find out more about couponing and lots of what she has to say applies to Canada too.

How do you save money? Do you know of any good coupon sites? Do tell!

Laterg8r

Paint like Pollock

2011-06-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sparks to an art studio called 4Cats for their year end activity and it was a blast!

We got a Starbucks (Serenity had Caramel Apple Spice and I had Passionfruit Lemonade).

The girls started off tame with a bit of spinner art - they were a bit afraid they'd get paint spattered! LOL

Then they got some paint and it was ON!

The girls went mental, flinging paint all in the air, all over the walls and floors and all over themselves! There was laughing and screaming and such awesome mayhem!

This is what my painted lady looked like when it was done!

Love her grin - even with paint in her mouth!

Here is her back, her hair and her feet!

And this interesting shot is the shot I got when my sweet angel decided to squirt paint across the room right at me! And YES, she did hit me! All up my body, on my face, hair and in my mouth!

She is the one on the left - my little mischeif maker!

This is her finished canvas - How cool is that?

Do you paint on canvas? Do you like Pollock?

Laterg8r

Whackadoodle

2011-06-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling rather whackadoodle lately. Running all over and doing so many things. So here are some crazy pictures.

Now where do I put anything I want to buy?

Look at those teeth! He also has a fang LOL!

The first time we could bust out the sprinkler this year and they all wanted to drink the water!

Skyler liked to lean in Superman-style!

Woo Hoo, she is interested in the potty!

My little bear!

Did you know that once you pet a slug the slime on your hand acts like superglue?

Here is proof - she's holding a rock up with it!

The Sparks stop, look and listen. Serenity is third from the right.

Look closely at the tiny green caterpillar on that rock!

What have you been up to? Anything whackadoodle?

Laterg8r

Cinemazoo

2011-06-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

We went to a Cinemazoo night and my brave Serenity did this:

And then a chihuahua rode a turtle. LOL

Crazy good fun.

Have you ever held a snake or other creepy creature?

Laterg8r

For Nana

2011-06-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hey mom, I thought you would like to see these pictures:

Do you think I should put them in dance?

She's got the helmet, now she wants to learn to ride.

After school snack before we play in the park (on any day that it is not raining).

Lucius finally sits up without falling over and smashing his face - so we gave him this penguin (having kept it in the closet since xmas) and he loooooves it!

Serenity's class went out to play and she drew this on the sidewalk.

I went out with Snuffy ALONE, for the first time since September! It reminded me that:
a) date nights are good and should be done more often
b) it's weird eating without anyone needing me to feed them
c) garlic mashed potatoes ROCK, even if they make me exceed my caloric intake for the day!
d) i loooove sour apple martini's and now it only takes ONE to make me tipsy LOL!

Where have you gone for a great date?

Laterg8r

(everyone else: I will get back to crafting this month - I PROMISE) The only crafty thing I have done lately are these:

I can't show you the inside of any of them because they are for my Sparks and there are RULES on using other kids pics.

Another Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Best Sister EVER

2011-05-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Serenity had been dying to get her ears pierced for the longest time.

These were the earrings she had picked out. We ordered them and are still waiting for them to arrive.

Impatience runs in the family so when we were out and about we saw the free ear piercing at Walmart and she had to have it done. Rayna must do everything her big sister does so she was in too.

Rayna quickly picked out a pink pair of butterflies while Serenity was racked with indecision.

When she finally picked pink too, the saleslady said, "Sorry, that was the last pair!" Serenity started bawling!!!!!

Rayna picked up her pink pair, handed them to Serenity and said, "You can have my pair, I will choose blue instead - to go with my eyes!" BEST SISTER EVER!!!!

Serenity flinched but didn't cry.

Rayna changed her mind so many times one of the ladies went off shift so she had to have each ear done 1 at a time.

This is the first ear:

This is the second:

This is afterwards with their matching necklaces. (also wearing their "baby-soup's")

Have you ever had a traumatizing ear piercing?

Laterg8r

Wordless Wednesdaaaay

2011-05-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

First time at Camp

2011-05-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Serenity's and I had our first camping experience with the Sparks on the weekend (5 and 6 year old Girl Guides) and she had a hoot.

She loved picking out the bunk bed (the top, of course) for her and I.

She loved doing the arts and crafts.

She loved the nature walk and geocaching. I love the Geocaching too and think I now have to buy a GPS for our family.

She loved the campfire and the singing.

She really loved the giant smores too.

On the way home she said to me, "Can we go somewhere else Mommy?"

I said, "Where do you want to go?"

She said, "Anywhere Mommy, I just want to stay with you!"

Then when we got home we crawled in bed together and she reached out and held my hand and we fell asleep for a 3 hour nap.

And that is why I volunteer so much of my time with Girl Guides!

Were you ever a Guide or Scout? What was your fave activity with them?

Laterg8r

Felt Fish

2011-04-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

I made these felt fish for Serenity's party.

I got the patterns from the Purl Bee. She made the fish into a magnetic aquarium. I blew up her patterns, stuffed them with cotton balls and added metal washers to them so we could use them for a fishing game.

We also used them for an Under the Sea game involving a sheet (used like a parachute) that was the hit of the party!

Here's the thing though. After I finished, I let the girls start fishing but not all the fish would allow themselves to be caught. Whaaaaat? That's right, not all metal is magnetic! Half of my washers (that I had sewn in) weren't magnetic so I had to take the fish apart and start all over! ACK!

This got me thinking about other "common sense" things I haven't known about over the years.

1. How the heck to get my "blinky" Christmas lights to blink? Turns out, that extra crappy bulb that had half the paint chipped off was actually the bulb that breaks the circuit and allows the light strand to blink!

2. That there is a night vision part of your rear view mirror. You just tip the lever up and Voila, no glare! I just pushed my rear view mirror up to the ceiling whenever someone's headlights got too bright.....for YEARS! LOL

Now, I don't feel too bad about this because I had a friend who was soooo disappointed that she couldn't figure out how to read a sundial for the time..................at night! HA!

What common sense things have stumped you?

Laterg8r

Sparks and a Mess

2011-04-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Lately, it's been alllll about Sparks. Check it out

Cookie Selling - even in the rain!

Rayna took great joy in ringing the doorbell..............and ringing the doorbell.............and ringing the doorbell. LOL! Gotta love her enthusiasm, she ran from house to house! As you can see, Serenity was getting tired.

Just bought sleeping bags for Serenity and I to go to camp in a few weeks. Then I had to go back and get one for Rayna too. Tons of static-y fun in these bags!

I was all proud of myself for making the camp blankets (aka: poncho's) for the girls. I even included pockets on the inside for flashlights and hands.

Happy Earth Day everyone!!! In honor of the occassion, I am taking the Sparks to a fish Hatchery tomorrow. These are the traders I made for them (they trade these pins with other Sparks and we had no meeting time to create them so I stepped up). I used branches from our friend's blueberry farm.

And here is the mess maker! I should have named Lucius Victor (Vomitting Victor)! Man, he upchucks at least 5 times a day! Sooooo disgusting. And yesssss, I have gone out of the house with vomit on me and not known!

Skyler is a wild woman - she even has crazy hair!

She can't even eat a muffin without making an enormous mess!

I've been a bit frazzled lately and on my way out the door I said to Snuffy, "Man, I need a vacation!"

He laughed and said, "Why, they'd just come with you!"

Do you need a vaca? Why?

Laterg8r

The Party is Over!

2011-04-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

The party is OVER and it was a big hit! We played loads of games, had 11 giggling girlies and ate tons of ice cream cake! The kids loved the hot dog octopus's (but don't bake em, they just get hard and "crusty" according to Serenity). You just cut em and boil em (or wait till after b/c you forgot and burn your fingers LOL).

Here is my 6 year old in her new outfit from Auntie Sarah and her crown!

Guess how many rolls of streamers I used to do this?

We had balloon issues - we ran out of helium, so we had to thumb tack them to the ceiling (way cheaper to do this in the first place I guess) and the ones we did fill were like mini grenades (let them go and wait for the scary POP!) Overall, we did get the effect we wanted though.

There was fishing for felt fish (more on that later)

Had some crab races - masssssive giggling as they stumbled over their skirts!

My sweet Serenity closed her eyes and really wished hard before she blew out the candle - love her!

1/2 hour before the party was scheduled to be over we ran out of stuff to do ACK! Brilliantly, I decided to let them watch Serenity's new Barbie "A Fairy Secret" movie which most of them hadn't seen. They were so worn out that you could have heard a pin drop!

The party was a great success and Serenity said that she had "the BEST time EVER!" I had one parent tell me that her daughter now wants a great party at home, just like Serenity! Very cool!

What was your fave birthday party theme from when you were a kid?

Laterg8r

PS - I used 26 rolls of streamers! Good thing they were cheap!

Wordless Wednesday part 2

2011-03-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Fill You In Friday

2011-03-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Just a weird assortment of pictures of what we've been up to.

1. Lucius has a new obsession - sticking out his tongue.
2. Snuffy has been bringing home his childhood treasures. This one struck me as particularly funny. Not because he still had it, or the box, but because it still had the original soap! LOL
3. Serenity enjoying the sugar cube castle she made - practice for a Sparks activity (always try these things at home first).
4. Paper mache - not alien pods, but the start of some fish for Serenity's Under the Sea Birthday party coming up.
5. What Skyler did with the newspaper she found for the paper mache! ACK!!! Total Terror these days.
6. An edible aquarium - blue jello, gummy fish, shark and coral (brains) and seaweed (green licorice). Put all in a ziploc bag, seal without a lot of air in the bag and squish around to see the fish move. The open the bag, pour in a bowl and eat! The kids loved it and so did my mom and sister. Definitely on the list of things to do at Serenity's birthday party.
7. Serenity with her tongue hanging out from spinning so fast - Daddy can RUN!!!

All my creative energy is going into Serenity's Birthday party preparations and stuff for Sparks - no scrapbooking for me lately.

I'll leave you with this picture - want one of these in your bed? LOL

Laterg8r

PS - Check these girls out!

Surprise, we were reading Amelia Bedelia (who we all love) and she had a cake recipe in the back of the book. So I let them make it. No picture of the cake afterwards because it looked like it had been through an earthquake. I reeeeeeeally cannot bake, but the girls sure have fun trying.

This is how they looked after (I disguised the look of the cake with lots of icing - can you tell?). LOL

and yes, that is a stingray about to eat Rayna's head!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Laterg8r

Project Life - Year #3

2011-03-11T05:23:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right, year THREE! I started taking a picture a day when it was Project 365 and then last year switched it up a bit by devoting whole weeks to one topic. This year I've got a plan to add more memorabilia to my book. Even a boring old movie ticket will be cool in 50 years, if only for the price. I've already got the itunes gift card my sister gave me. Very cool is that it fits perfect in the extra journalling pocket slot.

Another plan I have is to use a Now and Then approach to journalling.

For example; see Lucius sucking his thumb. Well, I did it too and I remember my mom putting horrible tasting stuff on my thumb to get me to stop. The only thing that got rid of the taste was milk and I don't like that much either.

Poor Skyler has hair drama. I won't get into it now but one of the best ways to fix it is to give her this side ponytail. She thinks it makes her look like a "cin-cess". It reminds me of the 80's and getting up early to fix my little sister's hair for her. She had super long hair and totally let me experiment on her head. Even if it turned out a bit crazy (like the braid around her head) she always wore it proudly to school. LOL!
I think my kids will love seeing and reading stuff about me when I was a kid (and Snuffy too). One of my fave stories of Snuffy's childhood is that he got danger pay for his first job at age 11. Whhhaaaaaat? Yup, danger pay for his paper route because he had to cross a highway. LOL

Here are some of my pictures so far this year:

Serenity got it into her head that she wanted to try coconut milk so Snuffy got her a coconut! None of the girls liked it LOL!

Our poor snowman with the rock hat and face. Somehow I never remember to get that carrot!

Crazy cool costumes given to us by friends! Love to play pretend, especially if puppies and kitties are involved.

I reallly love this project for so many reasons:

I never feel behind in my scrapping because all the stories, big and small, make it into this album.
I get to take pictures of weird stuff. (check out the hot dog octopus - Patti says if you bake em in the oven the legs curl up - gotta try that)

I have the little things (that i wouldn't consider "page-worthy") recorded.
Even the occassional bad picture makes it into this album and it doesn't mess it up.
The changes I see in our lives and our kids even in one year are phenomenal - and i have it all in one place!

Go buy it (at Becky Higgins blog or on Amazon), it won't change your life but it will change the way you scrapbook!

Laterg8r

Chug-a-lug

2011-03-08T05:20:00.000-08:00

This was the funnniest moment. Read below to see what happened!

I made everything wet on this page with Crystal Laquer. Love the wet thickers too.

These weren't the best pictures but they do capture the moment so I scrapped them anyway!

Anything funny happen in your life lately? I could always use a good giggle!

Laterg8r

Puppy Picnic

2011-03-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

More puppy love from the girls. There is a Teddy Bear Picnic every year near where we live and the girls love bringing in their animals for a Doctor checkup (provided by the Girl Guides).

Loving this paper and the fact that this took me less than 1/2 hour to complete.

Really wishing for Summer and the nice warm weather these days. What are you wishing for?

Laterg8r

Water Fountain

2011-03-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

This water fountain was great entertainment for the girls while they waited for their summer swimming lessons.

Oh how my girls loved this crazy fountain.

I love the look of the dewdrops but accidentally spilled some of my Vanilla Roboz tea on the bottom of the page. It was Serendipity - so I flicked some more on the page and love the result.

Any happy accidents in your life or scrapbooking?

Laterg8r

My Funny Valentines

2011-02-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

Last year we got a Build-a-Bear around Valentines day and the box it came in had this heart shaped window that I thought was perfect for playing in. The girls got a giggle out of being box headed too.

I layered paper and cut out flowers and a brad to add to my title. Couldn't resist a few stitches too!

Loving the look of tone on tone accents. I made them stand out by inking them. I also did this under the word "Valentines".

Loving the idea of being thrifty these days. Watched a TLC special on Extreme Couponing and used their idea to call the manufacturers of our fave grocery items and got loads of free coupons sent to me. I won't ever have time to be "Extreme" but that didn't take long and had a great pay off.

What is your fave way to save money?

Laterg8r

Puppy Love

2011-02-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

My girls are obsessed with puppies. Check it!

Ok, so I didn't have a picture of Snuffy handy so you got a monkey from the barrel (still appropriate). I think it is cute how it looks like it is dancing on Serenity's head LOL!

These dew drops were colored to match the paper using alcohol inks. Love this idea!

The girls love their puppies and I love my ipod nano. I am groovin to Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue."

What is one of your fave songs right now? Maybe I'll get a chance to add it to my playlist!

Laterg8r

Family Time

2011-02-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

The girls always love having Nana and Auntie Sarah visit. They make it possible to go to the park and have loads of fun (instead of a frazzled mom)!

I love that my girls are so close to my family and look forward to their visits each and every time! My Nana lived with us for part of my childhood and I have such fond memories of her.

One of my crazier memories of my Nana is when I almost killed her! Yup, a sick kid left alone with a thermometer and a hot cup of tea. I couldn't resist sticking it in and it exploded. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, I never let her drink the mercury/glass combo - I fessed up as soon as she picked up the cup!

Do you have any crazy Nana moments?

Laterg8r

Mad Splasher

2011-02-15T05:06:00.000-08:00

Oh how she loooves to splash!!!

I love that Serenity always wants to show me her throat! LOL!
Do you love/hate the water?

Laterg8r

I'm Lookin at You

2011-02-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

How do you get your kids to stop and look at you for pictures? This is my new bribery for Rayna!

Loads of distressing, inking, doodling and sewing here - loving the banner look (as is everyone else). Nook inspired again!

What do you like looking at lately?

Laterg8r

It's a TRAP!!!

2011-02-09T05:01:00.000-08:00

Oh how much fun the Maze turned out to be this year! Look at them running full tilt!

When I got this sweet little mouse and cheese from Lydia (she got them from My Little Bit of Whimsy) I knew they would be PERFECT for this page! Thanks Lydia!

Loads of stitching and inking and loving the clouds lately too!

What's getting you lost lately?

Laterg8r

Car Wash

2011-02-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

Who knew this could be so much fun?

One of my favourite things about this was that they insisted on wearing skirts to wash the car. Why? I have no idea, but it sure is cute!

I added crystal laquer to the water drops to make them look wet.

This was actually the last time I cleaned my van. When was the last time you washed your car? Fess up!!

Laterg8r

Dancing Queen

2011-02-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

I love Rayna's crazy blonde curls and how they stand out so prettily against our hedge!

She is so full of personality and enthusiasm - just like her mama!

We dance all the time in our living room! Some of Rayna's current faves include:

Roll that Barrel Out - Dean Brody

Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches and Herb

Do you like to dance? What are some of your fave dancing songs?

Laterg8r

You are my Sunshine!

2011-01-30T05:06:00.000-08:00

When Serenity smiles she lights up the room! She has really been smiling about the fact that her birthday is next (not for a few months, but she can't stop talking about it).

I love these Lillybee paper and did tons of pages with the Kit and inspiration from the Nook girls.

Serenity wants to have an Ariel Birthday Party - any suggestions? Games, decor, treats, etcetera. I am totally open. One great idea I saw was to do a message in a bottle for the invitations.

What was your best birthday party ever?

Laterg8r

The Perfect Pout

2011-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing she's soooo cute these days, otherwise..........to the moon! She is Hell-on-Wheels and I think it is having a bad influence on her big sisters! Today Serenity and Rayna were caught in the bathroom squirting toothpaste all over each other and giggling like crazy! I swear, I heard an evil MWAH Ha ha ha from Skyler when she saw them! LOL

This is how Skyler looks when she doesn't get her own way. I made the scallops on the paper from a template I'd made of a shaped paper. I do that a lot. I trace a shape I like so I can use it on other paper later.

Then I put Liquid Pearls all over the paper, inked and doodled too. It wouldn't be one of my pages if I didn't do some hand sewing too.

These are just a few of the things Skyler has done lately:
1. Emptied out the entire contents of my purse and scattered them all over the house
2. Emptied the diaper bag and snacks on the kitchen floor and then crushed the goldfish into dust and tracked it all over the house
3. When I finished cleaning up mess #2 I found her chug-a-lugging my Diet Pepsi, pouring it all down her chest and all over the couch and floor. (she had the nerve to smile and say "WET" very proudly)
4. Empty out her entire closet when she should have been napping (deviously quiet too). I had sorted all her old clothes to sell at a swap meet and she mixed them all together. Snuffy just crammed it all back in a big giant mess.
5. Took off all her clothes, streaked through the room, ran into her room and peed on the floor!

Oh the TRYING TWOS!!!!
Do you pout? What about?

Laterg8r

Not so little Lucius

2011-01-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

Lucius recently had his 4 month shots and checkup and he's now 16 lbs 1.5 oz's. Woo Hoo! After all the trouble he gave us in the beginning (FTT, children's hospital, etc) he's a BIG BOY now! He's even taken up reading my books.

And, I finally did a page about him! Check it out!

I downloaded a file HERE, for the love tree and hand cut it out. I got the idea for this page HERE. I love that Melinda used real sticks on her page but I used paper rolls instead.

She also gave me the idea to bust out my quilling stuff again. Gotta love going retro with techniques.

In case you didn't see them, these are the pages Yvonne made for me of Lucius. They are even better IRL.

Thanks again Yvonne.

What is bigger and better in your life right now??

Laterg8r

2011

2011-01-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures to represent this year! So fun that I have a kid for each number now!

I was trying to get the fingers in focus and the kids blurry (except for Lucius, I had to hold his hand). I like how they turned out (each girl did all the numbers and Skyler's zero is priceless).

Two

Zero

One

That's one thumb up for Lucius - Serenity took the picture! Guess what she wants for her birthday - her own 'REAL' camera (not her kid one).

My one little word for the year is going to be "FIT". I want to get FIT and FIT things in my busy life a bit better. More time for exercise and less time for blogging. After 4 babies in 5 years it's time to get my body back.

I will be coming around to visit you all more than I have been lately but probably more sporadically. Of course I will visit the people who leave comments first.

The puzzle pieces of my life need to FIT together better. I'm gonna be working on it.

What are you trying to FIT more of (or less of) into your life right now?

Laterg8r

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T06:12:00.000-08:00

I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope Santa brings you BLING! LOL

Here are some of our xmas card photo shoot pictures.

Why is it that only the BABY will look at me??????

Notice how impressed Skyler looks LOL! But I actually got them all to wear their hats for 5 seconds!

This was the picture I chose.

This was the bribery!

Laterg8r

PS - We are almost all still sick (Serenity is finally better) with Bronchitis and Ear Infections all around! Hopefully the meds will kick in soon! I guess this is what happens when your kids go to school - they bring home the plague and we pass it around to each other LOL!

Fortunately....Unfortunately

2010-11-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Did you ever play this game as a kid? Tell a story that starts with fortunately and then hand it off to another person for the unfortunately part?

That's how I feel these days - up and down, up and down!

Fortunately, on the days I have been most down I received this:

WOWSER! A 6 pound box jammed with goodies from Susan! She was so uber generous with this prize, I still can't quite believe it! When I'm better I'll be scrapping like a mad woman with this stuff! She has such talent too - definitely go check out her blog HERE!

Unfortunately, we are all terribly sick! Poor Lucius is so stuffed up it's hard for him to eat and Serenity has the opposite problem, every time she eats she chucks it back up! Rayna has the worst cough and Skyler has the runniest nose! Me, I'm exhausted!

Fortunately, I got this package in the mail yesterday:

Woooo Hooo! I entered the contest to win these goodies on several ladies blogs but I won it from Shanna! She makes some of the coooolest cards - go check her out HERE! Thanks soooo much Shanna and Elmers, these goodies will be put to gooood use! AND they are pink - how awesome is that!

Unfortunately, I am not feeling up to blogging, or doing much of anything, so I won't be posting for awhile. It's the crazy busy season for us all - see ya'll when it calms back down around here!

What are you feeling fortunate/unfortunate about?

Laterg8r

Ducky Momo

2010-11-16T05:26:00.000-08:00

Skyler is the sweetest little toddler and soooo unique! Not only is she loving up her new ducky (stolen from her new brother) but she is also wearing her raincoat and a purse around her neck!

She has always loved ducks.

I made these ducky buttons from an old baby hat she used to wear! Eco-friendly, upcycled buttons!

I layered two hearts, stapled them together, pop dotted them up and lined them up to create these banners.

Did you have a fave stuffie as a kid? Do you still have it? I had my first ever stuffed animal (a pooh bear) but made the mistake of letting Serenity at it and she tore that sucker to bits LOL! Ah well, I do have a picture of it!

Laterg8r

Busy as a ....

2010-11-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

.....beeeee! I bought these bee hats for the kids for Serenity's third Beee-day Party! Who knew that the adults would have just as much fun with them as the kids did?

I added these Busy Bee buttons to the page for an extra touch of whimsy!

How busy are you these days? Anyone freaking out about Xmas yet?

Laterg8r

Nana & Skyler

2010-11-11T05:46:00.000-08:00

My girls are lucky enough to have my mom around to play with. Skyler ran my mom ragged at the park this day but she loved it.

It cracked me up that my mom was even willing to ride on the "horse" with her. Skyler giggled like crazy!

Lots of stitching and liquid pearls here - this Bo Bunny paper is awesome!

Do you have fond memories of playing with your grandparents when you were a child? I remember my Nana coming to our sports days and cheering us on and making us 'ladyfingers' for a snack.

Laterg8r

PS - Go on over to Yvonne's blog to see the CUTEST page EVER about Lucius! Yvonne is super talented and I loooove her layouts! Her title should be: The Queen of Misting and all things Beautiful!

Love those Boots!

2010-11-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

I love that Skyler has such a quirky personality! She looooves these boots and wore them everywhere.......until...........she discovered her dress shoes and now she wears them all over!

I loved making all these paper flowers - don't you love when you find a new one you can make? Harry the Hedgehog was the perfect color and size for the center of my flower bow.

I hadn't distressed anything for awhile so this was fun! I ran the ribbon sticker up the page but felt it needed more so I weaved a real ribbon through it. I also stitched in pink over the red stitches on the page because they didn't go with the colors in my layout.

Do you have a pair of shoes you love to wear everywhere?

Laterg8r

Whoo loves them...

2010-11-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

...we do!!!

I used 3 (4x6) pictures of the patch to make the big pumpkin. How cool is that mosaic?

These pinky owl buttons totally go with the owls on their matching T-shirts.

I used a Starbucks sleeve for the stem and I paper crimped and curled for the leaves. Of course, I never pass up an opportunity to stitch, so the pumpkin is outlined with floss.

Do you visit the pumpkin patch?

Laterg8r

Halloween

2010-11-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

You have got to see these adorable bugs:

I took my pics in the morning when the kids were fresh and the lighting was good! (lesson learned from last year, my camera doesn't take good shots in the dark LOL)

Skyler couldn't wait for "WEEEN" and kept looking out the window at the neighbours decorations!

Serenity raced from house to house but didn't want anything to do with taking candy from a skeleton ("You do it for me Mommy"). Rayna dashed in, grabbed and giggled, and dashed away!

Serenity also said to me today, "I want a new Princess dress for Christmas Mom."

I said, "Then we'd have to go back to Disneyland" (where we got these ones and their ones 3 years ago)

She looked at me slyly and said, "That would be allllllright!" Smart Girl!!!!

At one house Rayna fished the item she received out of her bag, showed it to me and cried, "They didn't give me a TREAT, all I got was Playdoh!" She was genuinely upset - poor bug! LOL

Skyler was content to run, eat candy and be carried around by Auntie Sarah when the big girls got too far ahead. Thanks Sarah, I know you got quite the workout!

My poor mom had to keep up with Rayna, no easy feat, and couldn't believe how fast the girls could go! Kudos to her for dressing up like a dalmation because she knows how much the girls love puppies!

Super grateful to them for coming to help b/c that meant we had one "man" per kid. Poor Snuffy had Lucius who cried the entire time (afraid of the dark and fireworks).

Do you ever struggle with finding a balance between taking the pictures (and missing the fun) or having the fun (and missing all the pictures)?

Laterg8r
Check out this super cool punch I won from Melissa's blog for the Kreaxions blog hop! (it came in the biggest box and the girls loved pulling out the newspaper to 'find' it)

I'd never heard of them before (see, blog hops do work) but I looove this punch. The coolest thing about it is that it comes with 3 attachments so you can make it into 2 different corner punches and a border punch too - AWESOME! Definitely want to get more of these versatile puppies!

THANK YOU MELISSA and Kreaxions!

Buzz Totem Pole

2010-11-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

The love of Buzz Lightyear has yet to wane in our house! Serenity is super tolerant of Rayna's Buzz love and even let her make her into a ....

Snuffy says that Buzz reminds him of a toy he had as a kid called Billy Blastoff.

What was your favourite toy as a child? Do you still have it?

Laterg8r

I'm 5

2010-11-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of getting your kids to hold up how many 'fingers' they are on their birthdays!

I will definitely do a compilation page after their 10th birthdays to show how much they've changed over the years.

This is a very simple page for me but I love how the white paint contrasts so nicely with the purple paper.

I was going to embellish the butterflies but they looked better plain white.

So thrilled to be working my way through the birthday pages! I find them hard to scrap.

What do you have difficulty scrapping?

Laterg8r

Ode to Sleep

2010-11-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

Sleep deprivation is a cumulative thing. One minute you think you are doing fine, the next, you walk into a wall! LOL So I thought I would share with you how I am feeling today. This is my ode to sleep:

There is a tractor beam in my bedroom,

It's inside my beautiful, soft, pillow top, king size bed!

It becons me with a whisper and I yearn to answer.

It's even dangerous to put away the laundry because

I could be sucked in
Face down
Fully clothed
For at least 36 hours!

So I avoid my bedroom like the plague

And hope that the sandman can't find me

In the livingroom!

All I really want to hear from Snuffy are those three little words (No, not "I love you") "Have a nap!"

How are you feeling?

Laterg8r

Creepy Spooky

2010-10-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's almost Halloween so I thought I'd share this creepy layout. These pictures were supposed to be soft focus, but somehow ended up creepy instead. Check out the girls eyes! Woooooooo!

The girls were making the same face as their pumpkins, so this Creepy button totally works!

I loved giving my spiders creepy eyes too. I added crystal effects to the spiderweb to give it a dewey look.

I am deathly afraid of spideys but these ones are too impressionistic to make me squirm. I do have to brace myself for Halloween every year because the realistic looking ones are everywhere. What are you afraid of?

Laterg8r

PS - To see the winner of my contest, head on over to my other blog HERE!

My Shadow

2010-10-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

Even though this is not a Halloween layout it sure has a Halloween feel to me. Orange, purple, black and spooky shadows, LOL!

I took these pictures of the girls while waiting for the pool to open in the summer. They acted like puppies and airplanes and then had fun trying to step on each other's shadows. Simple pleasures!

Are you excited about Halloween?

Laterg8r

PS - last call to enter my contest HERE!

PPS - RUN, don't walk, over to Yvonne's blog NOW to see a FANTASTIC page featuring Lucius!!! Yvonne is soooo talented and she puts me to shame because she has scrapped a page of Lucius and I haven't yet!

Fingerpainting

2010-10-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

This was Skyler's first time fingerpainting, but as you can see, not the first time for Rayna or Serenity!

Skyler only wanted to get the tip of one finger in the paint for the longest time. Then the bad influence of her older sisters covering their hands and growling like monsters took over and Skyler went crazy for the paint!

I was going to use my pinky finger to paint fingerprints on the background until I remembered that I had a baby hands stamp so I used it instead. Love how it turned out.

My friend Patti teases me that my muffin tins get more action as paint trays then they ever do making muffins (she is soooooooooo right!)

Do you like messy crafts?

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE!

PPS - Check out my little monsters in their new shirts - did you correctly guess which girl made which monster?? Skyler is, of course, the little vampire. Serenity wanted to be the baby (regression???). Rayna wanted a "big mouth with the lips inside" LOL!

Check out the monster boxes I made with the girls (and for Lucius) from an idea in Scrapbooks Etc. this month. They made theirs out of paper but I decided to cover some hard boxes and let them have them from year to year. The big girls looooved wrapping their Mummies!

Getting excited for Halloween yet???

Neglect-O-Matic

2010-10-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is a tongue-in-cheek layout about baby swings. We weren't going to buy one (because we were in a one bedroom apartment at the time) but when one was given to us we fell in love!

Serenity loved it, we loved it and cousin Mark called it the Neglect-O-Matic (which I think is hilarious)!

I had two pieces of this patterned paper so I cut out the flowers and enhanced them with buttons, brads, liquid pearls, a paper crimper and a white pen and then pop dotted them on the page.

However, not all babies love the swing. I have a friend who called hers the Poop Machine because every time her daughter went in for a swing she pooped! LOL

Laterg8r

Serenity's Fifth

2010-10-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

First up, I wanna say Happy Birthday to my Mom! She's 39 again this year! Woo Hoo for her!

Second, I am still working my way through the birthday pictures and did this page about Serenity's Fifth.

I saw the Birthday candles that Imaginisce had in their embellies and thought, "I can do that!" Super easy paper roll with a bit of rick rack sticking out the top. Then I attached them at the back to a piece of paper and wrapped floss around it before I stuck it to the page.

Do you ever think, "I could do that" when it comes to embellies?

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE!

Zoom Zoom

2010-10-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

The girls love to ride their bikes - zoom zoom! Lots of stitching and BoBunny goodness here!

If you look closely the mesh background to my journalling is actually a bag that our hot dogs came in. I saw it and thought "cool, i'm using that." Then I noticed that lots of things come in mesh bags - like garlic, oranges, etcetera. Lots of creative opportunities here!

I made the "O's" from suns on the patterned paper and pop dotted them up - love not wasting vowels because I always run out of them first.

Do you like to go fast? I looooove to go fast! It is soooo hard not to speed everywhere!

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE!

PPS - Check out this UBER cool card that Lydia sent me!

Now this is a spider I can get into - check out the web!

And if that wasn't enough - look what was inside:

Thanks so much Lydia!!!

I encourage you to hop on over to her blog right NOW! She has a very cool paper pieced pumpkin and a few posts down she shows you how to make clouds from a flower - how cool is that?!

Mama

2010-10-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

I just love this picture of Rayna playing Mama to her baby bear. She loved giving it a bottle and cuddling it tight!

Snuffy took one look and said, "It'll get squashed in her book." Pessimist! LOL I plan to put a few stacked pop dots under each paper hump.

I don't normally scrap 8x10 pics, do you?

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE.

SEI Win

2010-10-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

I won these totally fabulous iron on's from SEI recently!

What I didn't realize is that they are totally customizeable and come with tons of extras that you can iron on to other stuff for other projects. You can make sock puppets or iron them onto fabric and use them on your pages (I'm gonna do it and have totally coordinated embellies).

Here's what the kids decided their monsters should look like:

Can you guess who is who??

I'll post a picture of them in their shirts soon! In the meantime, check out these little monsters:

SUPER DUPER THANK YOU SEI!! Go check them out!!!

Laterg8r

PS - I also won these totally FABULOUS buttons from someone's blog but I am embarassed to say that I cannot remember whose? Please let me know who you are so that I can properly thank you. (the envie they came in didn't have a name or blog name on it)

Rayna in Stripes

2010-10-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

This sleeper got so much use by Rayna, that I can't ever see it without thinking of her. She looked like the sweetest prisoner ever. LOL!

I put crystal laquer and liquid pearls on the paper to enhance it and popped up some of the flowers for dimension. Sure wish I'd bought more of this heart lace paper too!

Love these Tim Holtz tickets, using them on everything lately!

What embelly are you loving?

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE!

Artist

2010-10-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Our little artist Skyler loves to draw. Imagine our surprise when she started drawing so young! Perhaps it was having 2 older sisters set the example.

Now she draws on paper, and occasionally on her leg.

I used dew drops and flowers and hand stitching to enhance the paper on this page.

Did you like to create when you were young?

Laterg8r

PS - there is still time to enter my contest HERE!

Misunderstandings

2010-10-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been having plenty of misunderstandings.

#1 - "Mommy, I want you to cut my hair"
"Are you SURE??"
"Yes"
(before)

(after)

Can you see how happy she is with me? This is the death face! She totally cried!

#2 - "Serenity, go ask Larry if he wants to buy some of the cookies (girl guide ones)"
"No (looking upset)"
"Yes, you need to do it to get a badge, go ask"
(Bursts into tears and runs away) What the heck???

"Why are you so upset? (me assuming it's shyness)
"Because you keep giving away MY cookies!!!"

Poor little bug thought the entire case of cookies was hers, just for being a Spark. She had no clue we had to sell them. Lucky for us Nana bought a few boxes and left them for the girls so I could reassure her that we'd kept some.

"I even put some in your lunch for tomorrow baby"
"Oh THANK YOU Mommy!" (such relief)

Little kids are sooo literal!

Have you had any misunderstandings lately?

Laterg8r

PS - I am working on getting caught up with all of you and have loved seeing what you have been up to this last month - very inspiring!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian Friends!

3 Toddlerz

2010-10-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

Hey it is 10/10/10 today! But I'm blogging about 3 little toddlerz instead! LOL

I saw this LO in CK in January this year and I just had to go and take these pictures and replicate it. This is such a distinct time in the girls lives and I wanted to document how much they've taken over our house!

From safety gates to tiny plates, they need different things than adults. I am sure that I will miss this when it's gone but I'll also love when most of their stuff is contained to their own rooms!

I love the signs of life!

What is taking over your house these days?

Laterg8r