Thanksgiving Weekend '08

We are back from our Thanksgiving weekend in Sequim. We had yummy food, saw a movie (I saw 4 Christmas' with Becky and Kenny saw the new Bond movie with Kevin), watched football (I didn't do that part, you can guess who did though), ate more yummy food, read, relaxed, and visited friends.

Shane eating his Thanksgiving dinner. His first ever actually. He LOVED the cranberries (Kenny's son for sure!). And by my surprise really liked the turkey, too.

His first taste of pumpkin pie was a hit, too.

He needed to get closer to the source here. Dad's lap was the place to be.


We picked the doggies up early this afternoon. They are very happy to be home and out of the noisy kennel. We also got our Christmas tree and put up Christmas lights outside. A very productive day. Shane seems to have no interest in the Christmas tree. I was surprised by that, but I guess it's better then him trying to climb it. Which I thought was a huge possibility.

I read The Shack by William P. Young this weekend. It was great read. Very thought provoking. It's a read at least twice kind of book in order to really grasp all the meaning in it. It made me think about making a list of books for Shane that I would love for him to read someday. So far the list has The Shack on it and Catcher in the Rye. I'm sure I have more to put on there, but that's it for now.

Fremont, WA

Kenny took me to a bakery called Flying Apron in Fremont this morning that makes items that are vegan (no eggs or dairy is the part I was interested in), gluten free, and had some bread items that were yeast free, too. Sadly though the two breads that don't have the yeast in them they only make on Mondays. But I did get a bread mix, a muffin and a cinnamon roll.

We then went and hung out at the farmers market. It was really cool, tons of neat things. Next we checked out PCC (a local natural food market). I could spend so much time and money there!! Finally we visited a t-shirt store Kenny had just saw on TV the other night called Destee Nation. They carry logo t-shirts from the Seattle area and a few from other places too. Another super cool place.

I love hanging out over in the "big" city. The neighborhoods are so cute. And each little area has great little stores and events going on that are fun to check out. It's nice just to be a hop, skip and a jump away from all the city hustle and bustle, but not to have to live in it every day.

Lake Washington Toddler Group -- AKA "preschool"

Kenny took the day off of work today, so that he could join Shane and I at preschool. Shane had a very mellow day at LWTG. His teeth seem to be bothering him again. He did enjoy showing Dad all the fun things he does at preschool, though.

This weeks theme was Transportation. A huge hit with Shane!

This was a new center this week. Sand with diggers!!

Paint center...he loves to paint.

New car station. Dad was making the cars do down the ramp.

Sensory table with lentils. This is most fun when you dump the lentils on the floor.

Playdough...which he LOVES to eat. Blue this week wasn't as good as the previous colors. Black seems to be his favorite to eat?!?

Slide in the gross motor area.

Climbing structure in the gross motor area.

Water table. This is good to do after the playdough, so he can wash it down with a cup of "yummy" water.

Trains.

Sticker art. He is really into stickers right now.

Circle time. He does great, staying usually the whole time.

Bubbles. For sure the best, best part of the day.

Snack time.

More trucks.

Noel Wall Hanging

Yesterday I completed this cute little wall hanging that says "Noel". I really wanted to try embroidering on paper, this was my first try. It was fairly successful, but the original plan was to embroider all 4 circles. As you can see, I only did 1. It takes a lot of patience, time and embroidery string. I ran out of the color I was using with the 1st circle. I decided that must be a sign that I wasn't meant to do all of them. :)

The project came from Close To My Heart. I used the Everlasting Paper Packet, Cottage Floral stamp set, buttons and sparkles.

Mini Photo Star

I had a few mini barn stars sitting around. So last night I decided to see if I could make one with pictures on it. I have made a couple using just paper. By golly it worked! It is a little busy being that the star is so much smaller then the larger sizes and the pictures are in color. I'm still happy with the finish product. They are all pictures of Shane from last winter.

I used all my fabulous CTMH products: Aspen paper packet, sparkles, buttons and rub-ons.

Here is the end result.

Christmas in November

Kenny and I decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to give Shane a wooden kitchen for Christmas. We also decided that he should get it ASAP. Since this year he still doesn't understand what the whole Christmas thing is, we figured why wait a couple months when he can be playing with it now.

It arrived about two weeks ago. We spent three days putting it together.

Day 1: Sorting out the pieces

Day 2: Half way there

Day 3: All Done!!

We brought it into the house Friday evening after Shane went to bed. We wanted him to wake up and see it. Saturday morning Kenny brought Shane down and he saw it instantly. He just loves it. Hours have already been spent playing with it!

Memory Keepers Box

I had this Memory Keepers box from CTMH up in my scrapbooking room and I've been really wanting to get to it. But I just wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I took it out on Thursday and started to mess around with some ideas. As I was thinking I came up with the perfect use for it...a place for Kenny to keep all his concert and baseball ticket stubs. Currently they are in a ziplock baggie packed away in some box. I figure at some point Shane may find them interesting to look through. I presented it to Kenny Thursday evening as a little surprise. Now we just need to dig out the ziplock baggies of ticket stubs.

Halloween Fun!

Shane didn't wake up knowing that it was Halloween, but he sure enjoyed wearing his Giraffe costume and going door-to-door trick-or-treating. He took us by surprise and totally caught onto the treat-or-treating part of the evening by the 3rd house. We went out with our cul-de-sac (8 other kids in all). He would walk on up to the door with his buddies, hold out his hand to get the candy and then stick it into his pumpkin. He was then ready for the next house. He only made it to about 7 houses though. When I asked him if he wanted to do another one or go home, he turned around and headed down the street back to our house. One strong point in his personality is he knows when he is done with something.

Welcome Gracelyn Diane to the world!

Congratulations to the Johnson Family (friends of Kenny's from college), Melanie, Greg and Big Brother Jeffrey. They welcomed a baby girl into their family on October 26 at 3:37pm. She weighted 7lbs 9oz, and was 19.5 inches long. She even scored a perfect 10 on the apgar!

We wish the family tons of rest and an easy adjustment to life with two kiddos at home!

Journey To Director

As some of you already know I'm a Consultant for a scrapbooking and stamping company called Close To My Heart. I've been doing this for over 2 years as a "side gig". I joined the company in California after attending a gathering and falling in love with the products. I had scrapbooked a little here and there before attending the gathering and had really wanted to get into cardmaking at the time. Now I'd consider scrapbooking, cardmaking, altering, etc., a huge passion and hobby of mine. As well as a business that I would like to see grow.

Recently CTMH has started a 12 month program called Journey To Director. I'm currently a Manager. Your title is given by the number of "downlines" you have in your "unit". I currently have 4 downlines, but need to have 20 to become a Director. This means growing my business by leaps and bounds. Which also means having the time to do that.

The past month I've developed a new schedule that has helped me a lot to focus on my goals of growing my CTMH business. I still haven't found quite enough time in my schedule that I need, but with time I think it will come (as Shane gets older).

Mondays and Wednesdays (during nap time and evenings) -- I work on CTMH business
Tuesdays and Thursdays (during nap time and evenings) -- I work on house work
Fridays (in the evenings) -- Date Night for Kenny and I
Saturdays and Sundays -- Family Time, CTMH Time and Personal Time

CTMH has lots of great perks as a consultant. One of them is each year you can earn an incentive trip/cruise. The next one is in 2010. I would LOVE to earn this cruise for Kenny and I. It will require a lot of hard work and time, but it's a goal I'd love to achieve.

How can you help me out?? If you know of someone interested in scrapbooking, cardmaking, or stamping I'd love to let them know what CTMH has to offer. If you yourself are interested, then I'd love to book a Home Gathering for you where you can earn some FREE products from CTMH. I'll also take any support, positive thoughts and prayers, too as I work along this Journey To Director.

November's Craft Club Project: Acrylic Album

November's Craft Club project is at my house this time. I've selected an Acrylic Album project. I really like how the album turned out and am excited to have every one make theirs. Each person will be using different paper, so it will be neat to see each individual completed album.

Pumpkin Carvin' and Paintin'

We got the pumpkins all carved/painted this morning. Shane got to paint his and "help" Mom and Dad with theirs. You'll notice in the pictures he is painting with his left hand. I swore he was going to be right handed, he did everything right handed, until this week, he now does everything left handed. Guess he is just trying both options out.

We also headed to a friends Halloween party this evening. Here is a sneak peek of Shane's Halloween costume.