productivity... i like it!

most days i feel lucky if i have made it out of my pajamas by the time chris gets home from school (7 pm). this may sound weird to some, but when you have a 30 pound weight glued to your leg named ellie, and a three year old that is trying to plug the bathroom sink with toilet paper while you are otherwise engaged, it proves quite difficult to get anything done but just survive what life (or jack) throws at you.

occasionally, i MAKE myself have a productive day. and i mean productive, as in, doing something besides just being MOM. even though this does usually mean that the house is a mess or i havent done the dishes, i feel as though its still been a great day because i have something to show for it.

today was a productive day:

visiting teaching easter goody buckets

cards for aunties and uncles we haven't seen for a while:

i let the kiddos each pick out a pack of stickers to use. jack is WAY into spongebob right now even though he never watches it...weirdo. and little miss loves hello kitty. but, by the looks of the toy aisle, what little girl doesn't?

the inside of the cards looked like this:

jack really did sign his name! all i did was rest my hand on his and when he'd get off track, i'd just squeeze a little and he'd get right back on course. i was impressed!

and a little sewing project for miss ellie bean:

i have been itching for a little sewing project for quite some time. yesterday my sis-in-law elena told me about www.makeitandloveit.blogspot.com and it had this little ruffled collar project and i thought it would be easy enough, quick enough, and might just satisfy my need to sew.... without dropping a ton of moolah... and it did! and i'm glad too because ellie looks stinkin cute!

i just picked up this sun dress at target for $8 and a white tee on clearance for a couple bucks. first i cut the white shirt into strips. the dress already had the bow on it. i just removed it, sewed on the ruffle i made out of the t-shirt strips, then tacked the bow back on. not bad for $10!

and the best part of all is that i managed to clean up after each project AND get the dishes done! of course, i didnt take a shower today, but i guess you gotta make sacrifices :)

sasquatch or JACKsquatch?

chris and i have always been amused with BIG FOOT and his many sightings. but

whether you call it SASQUATCH (like in the north) or SKUNK APE (like they do here in the south), "it" is very elusive!

Folks in southwest florida have our own version and we have officially named it

JACKSQUATCH

we were lucky enough to sneak a photo of jacksquatch while getting ready for jammies the other night.

the following picture is a close up and certainly is NOT G Rated... some cropping was necessary!

on to more mundane and less exciting things, here are some pictures from this week:

bagels are supposed to be eaten, not worn...who's kids are those?!

ellie was quite bored with our homemade chinese dinner last night

jack is an excellent copycat!

one of the great things about having a three year old is that i no longer have to be the pony!

long lost pictures

we recently purchased a new computer (a 27" imac). we gave our old computer to my parents because they have not purchased a new computer since TLC was my favorite music group and hammer pants were still cool. ok, it hasn't been that long, but you get the idea.

while chris was transferring all their data from their old computer to their "new" one, he found some pictures that we took back in april and may of 2008, while we were living with them before we bought our house. enjoy!

ellie

everett

alli... yes, i promise, its alli! how is possible that she can still be beautiful even when she takes a "bad" picture?!

girls just wanna have fun!

my sisters all came to visit for a BROWER GIRLS WEEKEND!!!!!!!

my sis-in-law, DeLauna, rented a villa in port charlotte for us to all hang-out and do whatever the heck we wanted for the weekend! even though it was so cold, we still managed to have a BLAST! here is just a smidgen of the pictures we took...

at the villa:

at the beach:

at fisherman's village:

at coconut point:

at our house:

we had so much fun! i dont even know where to start! we had so much good food (at home and at restaurants...we even ate at a little place called sisters, awwww), watched great girly movies, some of us got massages, janie laughed her tail off while getting her pedicure because she's so ticklish, went skinny dippin' in our private pool, and even went shopping together at victoria's secret! it was a great GIRLS weekend and im so glad to have sisters that love to be together

ALRIGHT! i cant say that WE went skinny dipping because I didnt! the water was just too cold for this florida cracker. but half of the girls did including someone whos name starts with J and ends with E...

oh yeah, thanks chris for letting me go... i guess i couldnt have had so much fun if it werent for you :)

when grandma comes to town

Grandma Janie came to visit! we were lucky enough to have her here for a week and a half. unfortunately she wasnt able to escape the cold ohio winter because it was freezing here! whats up with all this cold weather?!

we played at several different parks, blew bubbles, rode bikes, went to "farmer mike's u-pick" for oranges and grapefruit, went on walks, got ice cream, went for a train ride, picked out surprises (toys), and chris and i even went out on a date to our favorite indian restaurant in bonita! whew! that was a long list and im sure i missed a few things. here are a few pictures from the past week with grandma!

this is our conductor, jerry, who was a silly man

a few of the sights from our train ride:

and my personal favorite! a creepy drummer boy

we miss grandma all ready! i guess thats what happens when we are all so spoiled!

i just hate goodbyes!

i think this picture of ellie pretty much sums up how we feel about our friends, the smiths, leaving for pennsylvania!

you know when you have planned things to say to someone and when the time comes, somehow none of it comes out? thats what happened when i had to say goodbye to katie. i feel like we have been such good friends over the past 2 1/2 years, doing all church things together, starting our joy school together, and all of our playgroups "for the kids", that i dont know what im going to do with out her! whenever jack would be going through some rough patch (which was often), i could always talk to katie about it because she had been there with jenna. when it came to chris' work or school, katie had been through it with ben. i couldnt say any of this to her when i was saying goodbye because i knew i would break down and cry like a big boob. we just had such a good friendship and if i thought this was the end of our friendship, then i would be pretty sad right now. but i know it's not and i am so excited for their little family to be moving on and starting this new phase in york.

besides, when chris is done with school, we are going to make sure the boys go to some conferences together so that we can all hang out again... im looking forward to that!