happily random

First Photo Shoot

I set up my first photo shoot today. I meant only to take photos of Samantha, but she was napping, so I took some of Rebekah too. I shot about 60 photos of the two of them and came out with about 6 that I like. 10% isn't bad? :) This one is my absolute favorite. It wasn't the pose I intended, but the one I intended wasn't working, so we improvised. I love how it turned out though. Shows off my husband's muscles too! :)

On another subject entirely, we also discovered that Rebekah has a loose tooth. Her very first at just 5 & a 1/2. Guess she's going to be snaggletoothed soon. I see another photo shoot in our future! ;)

No layouts done yet, but I have been working on my diminsional project for my Scrapworks DT entry. So far so good. I feel like I might be getting back into the groove! Thanks for the mojo, Wendy!

2005 in Review

My answers to the 2Peas challenge, finally. :)

JANUARY
1. Did you have a new year's resolution this year? Yes, they're listed in my last post, yesterday. :)
2. Who kissed you at midnight? I wasn't awake at midnight. What can I say, I'm a mom of preschoolers & I cherish sleep.
3. Did it snow where you live? No, although it does snow here. It was a really light snow season last year.
4. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? Nope. Never been to New York. Maybe Shannon & I can plan a trip? ;)

FEBRUARY
1. Who was your valentine? My husband, Joel.
2. What did your valentine get you? Umm... I don't know. We don't really "do" Valentine's Day. My husband likes to say that he shouldn't need a day to tell him to express his love to me. He's good at telling me he loves me all year round.
3. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class? Yep. Lots of fun. :)

MARCH
1. Are you Irish? Yes, I am, which is why my handle is "irishsheila." ;)
2. Did you wear green on St. Patty's Day? Oh yes!
3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day? Nothing spectacular, just wore green.

APRIL
1. Do you like the rain? Yes.
2. Did you play an April Fool's joke on anyone this year? Gosh, who has time for that kind of planning? No.
3. Did you get tons of candy on Easter? No, but the kids did, and of course, I raided it. Don't want the kids getting too many sweets. LOL.

MAY
1. What's your favorite kind of flower? Tulips & Casablanca Lilies.
2. Do you like the spring? Yes.
3. Finish the phrase: "April showers bring...": Um... May flowers? Is this a trick question?
4. What would you think of as a spring color? Any light pastel.

JUNE
1. What year did you graduate from school? High School: 1992, College 1997
2. Did you go on any vacations last June? No.

JULY
1. What did you do on the 4th of July? Watched fireworks with the kids.
2. Did you go on any vacations during this month? Nope, we're boring.

AUGUST
1. Did you go swimming a lot in the summer? Me? No. I hate swimming. We took the kids a few times though.
2. Did you go to the beach a lot? Not a lot, but some.

SEPTEMBER
1. Did you attend school/college in '05? No.
2. Who is/was your favorite teacher? In high school, Coach King for World HIstory. In college, Dr. Alexander for Choir.
3. Did you like fall better than summer? YES!

OCTOBER
1. What was your favorite Halloween costume ever? A bee costume that I wore for 2 Halloweens in 2nd & 3rd grades. So cute!
2. What's your favorite candy? Snickers & Godiva Truffles.
3. What did you dress up like this year? A pregnant mom. No wait, that's what I was most of the year too. ;)

NOVEMBER
1. Whose house did you go to for Thanksgiving? My in-laws.
2. Do you like stuffing? Love it! It's my favorite Thanksgiving dish.
3. What are you thankful for? My husband & kids.

DECEMBER
1. Do you celebrate Christmas? Yes.
2. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? Yes.
3. What do you want this year for christmas? A Canon EOS D20.
4. What's the best present you ever got for christmas? A Canon EOS D20.
5. Do you like cold weather? Very much.
6. How would you rate your year on a scale of 1-10? A 10. I made it through, didn't I? :)

"Resolutions"

With the New Year just a couple of days away, I've been thinking about things I want to accomplish this year. I don't have any lofty goals, but I do have somethings that I would like to keep in mind each week.

My first one is this: spend time playing with each one of my children daily. Seems like a simple thing, doesn't it? Wrong! It's so easy to let the days pass without really playing with my kids. I get caught up in just the "taking care of them" or taking care of the house, that I forget to just sit down and play with them. Samantha's birth has made me realize how quickly each one of my children is growing and how quickly this moment in time will be gone. Before I know it, they'll all be in school and then I'll hardly have any time with them at all. So, my goal is to spend 15 minutes with each kid playing whatever they want to play.

#2 - Create at least one quality LO a week. With Joel back to working full time, my scrapbook time is very limited. But I would like to finish one quality LO each week that's just for me, not for any LO call or contest. Not that I can't submit it, but I would like to get back to the joy of scrapbooking, of recording my life and scrapbooking just for me a little bit. :)

That's all that comes to mind for now, but they both have really been on my heart. Joel has promised me 4 WHOLE HOURS of scrapbook time tomorrow and I am thrilled. Hopefully I'll have a new LO to post here tomorrow or Saturday. :)

Just had to share...

I fit into my regular jeans today!!! Just 4 weeks postpartum. Yeah! NO MORE MATURNITY CLOTHES!! :)

Ahhh...

The holiday is over. I absolutely love Christmas, but with four kiddos I have to make a sigh of relief when the day is over. It was a wonderful day.

After my parents arrived, the present opening began. Joel insisted I open my present first, that I might find need of it that morning. Hmmm.... So I opened it and lo and behold, inside it was the camera of my dreams, the one I have been drooling over for what seems like forever: the Canon EOS 20D!!! Not only that, but with it was a 1 Gig card. So of course I shot pictures all day and tried to make sense of the instruction manual. Honestly, I'm surprised this camera doesn't make coffee with all the features on it. LOL.

The kids enjoyed all their gifts, but they had favorites of course. Rebekah seemed to like her Fairytopia Barbie & her 2 My Little Ponies the most. Luke carried around all day this tiny stuffed elephant my mom gave him & played with his little airplanes and landing strip. Tyler pushed around his Little Tikes steamroller all morning and I can actually hear him pushing in through the hall right now.

I made calendars from the kit I bought from Heather Ann Designs for my mom & MIL & they were a huge hit. I took them to Kinkos to have them bond & they looked fabulous. Thanks Heather!! I'm in the midst of making one for me too.

My dh has the whole week off, so I'm really hoping to get some LOs done this week. That and get this place straightend up... it looks like a bomb went off. LOL.

HO HO HO!

Santa has come for his visit, although all my kids have gotten to open just yet are their stockings. We're waiting for the grandparents to show up. Joel is making Eggnog Lattes with his espresso machine that was his Christmas present from me 2 years ago. This will definitely be a Christmas morning tradition...yummy.

Oh, and my husband had this waiting next to the eaten milk & cookies...that's our kitchen fireplace in the background. Creative Photoshop editting. ;) So sneaky!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We're off to open presents!

Twas the night before Christmas...

Here we are, the morning before Christmas & I'm still using that threat with the kids, "Christmas is tomorrow & if you're not good, Santa could still not bring you any presents." I guess it's my last day to use it, so I'm living it up. It got my oldest to drink all her milk...hee-hee. Let's see what else I can do with that today.

My mom, stepdad & sister arrived yesterday. I haven't seen them since last Christmas, so it's great to finally see them again. Guess that's what happens when you move across the country from your mom. Isn't amazing how there are some people that even if you haven't seen them for ages, when you do finally see them again, it's like you were never apart? That's how it is with my mom. I do miss seeing her all the time though.

I have some last minute shopping to do. In all the craziness I forgot to get stuff to put in the kids stockings. Do you think a bag full of M&Ms is enough? LOL. I thought not. So this morning I'll be stocking shopping.

Looks like it's going to be a gloomy, overcast, rainy day. Ugh! So annoying!!! Just 4 days ago we had 2 feet of snow on the ground and, wouldn't you know, it warmed up to 40, started raining and it all melted. What a slushy, icy, muddy mess. I was so looking forward to my first white Christmas. Oh well, maybe next year.

Well, have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!