{Pre}ma

Look at all that Ballerina goodness! Thank you Grammabon! Look at those leg warmers! I totall forgot about those. Now Morgan is all set for ballet class. She has a pink leotard and a black tutu that she got for her birthday, and I got her another pink tutut and another hair cover when we were at the coast (there are amazing things to be had at the Tillamook Cheese Factory gift store... seriously!)... so she's allll set. Can't wait! Ballet runs with the school year, and her first class is on September 5. I might not take any photos... not until I know the routine and what she'll be doing there... but I might take a couple pre class photos... we'll see.

Very excited about the goodies! The shoes are a bit snug, but they are leather, so I think they'll stretch out. Hopefully her feet stop growing for a few months, sheesh.

Flip'n 12 Calico Camping Trips!

heehee.

So... a few things.

First. Yahooooie! Check it out:

I am SSSSSOOOOO excited to be part of this team. Their kits are fabulous. This is a huge thing for me, and I'm over the moon.

Next.....

I've had a head cold the last week and have some things coming up, so I was going to cancel my next class at Scrapbooking Outside the Box. And then Suzie told me I had 12 people sign up. 12! So I am reorganizing, because I'm not missing out on an opportunity to have a class for 12. I'm so excited! I was scared at first, because that's a lot of eyes, but the more people you have, the more they talk amongst themselves, which means the LESS they look at you. We are making a 6x12 album... I'm working on it now! So, Tuesday night, I'll be busy. With 12 people. Wish me luck!

On Wednesday we leave for the lake. For several days! We leave Wednesday and come home on Monday. I hope the weather is nice! We bought a yellow raft just like the one we had as kids, for Morgan to play in, and are packing up the camper as we speak. I'm excited and just crossing my fingers for warm weather. This year I won't be pregnant or nursing, so I might even go out in the boat for a dip! I'm going to at least try and get Morgan to ride the tube with me again. That might be fun!

Lastly... we just got the word that we landed our first flip. This one is in Prineville and is going to be CAKE. Seriously. It was in foreclosure so we got it from the bank. It needs some new flooring, but otherwise just has some cosmetic upgrades. And a yard. The yard is so dead it isn't really a yard anymore. I've only seen photos, but from what I've seen, it looks like a house that would have been in our old neighborhood. Same siding too. Not as big as our other house, but similar. We'll get it at the end of September and hope to have it back on the market by Halloween. Yahooie!

Speaking of the other house, sadly, our renters are getting divorce so will be out in a couple of days. Rather than worry about trying to fill it ourselves, we went with a Property Management company, and learned that we have been undercharging our rent, so between the raised rent price and the % we have to pay for their services, we are at about the same place we were before, which is fine by us! Paperwork hasn't been signed yet, but our house is the most popular on the market for this management company, so we aren't worried about it at all. If anything we'll pay a partial mortgage for October. So I'm excited about that.

That's it in a nutshell... I think. ... Oh.. I signed Morgan up for ballet and bawled on the way home because I am SO excited. I can't wait to go to the first recital. When I walked in the door that day I had the mail with me, opened it, only to find in addition to some outifts for the girls, Grammabon had sent tights, a leotard, and ballet slippers. It was so weird because I hadn't said anything, and I had JuST got home from the ballet studio! Morgan immediately put everything on and was ready to head in to class. She'll be going on Wednesday afternoon. I can't remember, but she's going to have preschool on either Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-11:30am. So it's almost that time... the time to get the family calendar where we start noting who is where, when. I'm actually quite excited about it!

Okay... i think that's it. Oh. I'll post some layouts, the latest I can share anyway. :)

MY little flower girl

::sigh::


3 1/2 year old Miss Morgan Paige was in a wedding on Saturday night. On Friday we went to the rehearsal... and we hoped for the best. On Saturday she practiced several times with the other flower girl, so we were still hopeful that she'd be able to do it.

Saturday night. 7pm. At the appropriate time our little sweetie slowly walked down the aisle, tossing the flower petals just as they practiced. Of course, during practice, they were holding pretend baskets and tossing pretend petals, which is a big difference when you are someone who is only 3.

At the altar, they went up the steps just as they were supposed to and stood there, just as they were supposed to. And then Morgan became fascinated with her basket of petals. She sat down and started unloading them. Here, there, everywhere. And then she saw the mass of petals on the ground around her, so she got down and started gathering them up. She sat with them. She rolled around the floor with them. She turned toward the altar and leaned over them, her little flower girl dress up in the air, the faint pattern of her panties under her tights flashed to the crowd.

Me? Well I was having a heart attack. Miss PJ wouldn't let her daddy hold her, so I was standing out the end of a side pew, trying to get Morgan's attention without attracting the attention of all the attendees. Eventually Morgan got up off the floor and sauntered over to me. I whispered to her to sit down at an empty chair and she did so for a minute, but when I stood up and looked back at Steve, she got up, and sauntered BACK to the front of the church. She sat down, she stood up. I nodded my head when she stood. I shook my head when she sat. And then when she started messing with the petals and looked at me again, I did the sign for "all done", hoping that she remembered the signs from when she was young. Nope. She started making faces and waving at me! I decided it was going to be time for drastic measures, so I handed Payton to Steve and he immediately left the building, because she started crying, wanting me to hold her again. Shortly thereafter, Morgan decided she was done, and walked back down the aisle, head down, but eyes up and this fiesty look to her face. I walked down the outside of the aisle with her, and when I got down to the end to where she was, she started trying to dart in the aisles to get away from me! ACK! I grabbed her hand and we went straight outside.... and stayed out there for the rest of the ceremony.

Did I mention that throughout the ceremony and Morgan's antics, the other flower girl had her arms crossed over her chest and a big scowl on her face because Morgan wasn't cooperating? Priceless.

There's always those flower girl stories.... but this was the first time that person came from MY womb, so at first Steve and I were quite embarassed... but then we thought about it and decided that she DID do as requested... she got down the aisle.... and she IS 3. What more do you want!

I did NOT get any good photos.... my camera was still inside the church when I darted outside with her, and it was almost 8pm before the ceremony was done.... Morgan had been at the church since 5:15 for pre-wedding photos, so she was hungry and quite DONE with the whole thing, but this is what I did get:

::sigh:: There were kids from a church group next door running all over the place, so she would not look at me and cooperate, but the one smile I got was this one: Did I also mention that in the post wedding family photos, this is the same face she was using? The bugged eyes and overexaggerated grin? THAT's my girl.

:: sigh :: She and Payton made it till 10:15pm at the wedding reception, which was good. And she LoVED her dress. She's been wearing it every day since... she's wearing it right now with some orange tights. So she thinks she's quite the little princess.

I hope the pre-wedding photos turned out! Steve took her while I was home getting ready with Payton, and he said she did cooperate then. Phew!

Before:

During:

Isn't that a fun chair?
Morgan's not really a fan of the hairdryer, but she allowed it as long as it was on LOW.

After:

One headband, one cute necklace, and one adorable girl later..... (I know it doesn't really look it, but she had 2-3 inches trimmed).

Oh man, wouldn't it have been great if she had given me a pretty, genuine smile?

And on a PJ note.... she went to the doctor yesterday for some booster shots.... and she is 33 inches tall and 26 pounds. That's the 85% for weight and 98% for height! Turns out our sweet tiny girl is not so tiny after all! So funny, because she still seems so little to me! Looks like I have another amazon woman. And I wouldn't change a thing. I love every inch, every ounce! Sadly... she is now to a TBS when she needs some tylenol, no more 1/2... but she is now happily facing forward in her carseat! Steve read the manual on our carseats, and while you can turn them forward at a year, they still recommend that they face backwards. I turned her around and it is so weird to have both my babies looking at me in the rearview. They are growing so fast!

And in a couple of weeks Morgan starts preschool! ACK! AND BALLET! WAAAAAHHOOOOO! (well, hopefully ballet. You can't register yet.... crossing all fingers and toes that they have enough room in the 3 year old class).

:)

FAIR! and Morgan's Mellon

My blond girl wanted the blond horse... named Paris. (See PJ?)

Payton no likey the horsie... but we tried!

Morgan liked driving this car... it was on tracks, went at a consistent speed, and steering was unnecessary!

Payton's first carnival ride!

Can this one go for a ride? Is she 2? Say she's 2. She's 2 !

All in all, good times! PJ decided she didn't really appreciate missing her afternoon nap, so we grabbed our soba noodles and headed home. For some reason, I didn't take pictures of the kids in the animal barns, etc... all part of that "enjoy your children and let go of the camera" thing.

My only disappointment was that they didn't have a Ferris Wheel! I wanted to go on that ride with Morgan!

:)

On another note.... the other day my sweet girl told us she was ready for bed, so her daddy said "let's go get your vitamin", to which she enthusiastically agreed.... off she skipped into the kitchen, and somehow she tripped, and spanked her mellon, straight into the corner of our island. Dead center of her forehead. It IMMEDIATELY swelled to the size of a golfball, black... and she CRIED. I cannot believe the skin didn't break. She might get a scar, the skin separated so much... but it held together. I am so grateful Steve was home at the time, because if he hadn't, it would have busted just like Sabrina's head busted on that swingset at the park... and Miss PJ got scared too and was hysterical. It would NOT have been good if I had been home alone, and there had been blood EVERYWHERE and both girls had been hysterical. EEK. Morgan shortly thereafter acted like she was going to pass out, but she was tired before the accident, and the crying really wore her out, and after a few questions from her daddy, where do you live, what are you going to do in a couple of weeks for Josh ( by the tower on Nickernut, be a flower girl in Josh's wedding) etc., etc., we thought it was okay for her to go to bed. Steve woke her up and checked on her a few times, but she got a clean bill of health. Right now her head is a puce, brown, grey, green color, with a vertical reddish scab strip. It's quite a beauty. But her bangs cover it up so you can't see it.

Speaking of bangs, I'm very excited, because I've always cut her hair but she's going to be a flower girl in two weeks, and she needs a trim and I don't want to mess it up, plus her hair is getting really, REALLY long... so I made an appointment for her at a child's salon in Bend. Oh my, they will treat her like a princess, she gets to sit in a special chair, they use glitter spray when they are finished. Wowee. She's going to LOVE it. I'm going to also check it out because they do birthday parties there, where the kids dress up and they do their hair and paint their nails and such... with a January baby, sometimes you have to be creative about what you do for their birthday parties... this might be an idea.

So there!

Stylin' Idol Week 5 - Paint

I made it to the top 10 of the Stylin' Idol challenge at Scrapbook Lifestyle. This week the challenge was paint. You needed to use at least 3 colors.



With camping, etc., I ran out of time and did my layout at the last possible second. I actually like how it turned out and even used a photo from last weekend.

Link to the gallery: http://community.scrapbooklifestyle.com/photos/stylin_idol_challenge_-_week_5_paint_wendy_reed_moderator/default.aspx

Link to the voting: http://community.scrapbooklifestyle.com/forums/4413/ShowThread.aspx#4413

Check out what the top 10 did with this challenge and vote!

:)

A camping at the beach... we did go!

Yahooie! We've been having a blast at the beach! I've been wanting to take my girls to the beach all summer... Morgan loves it so much and I really wanted PJ to experience it this summer when she can walk. Steve had already scheduled a vacation day for last week expecting to camp, so we decided to do both and grabbed our dear friends the Hagan's and headed to the coast. It seemed as if EVERY campground on the Oregon Coast was full, but we managed to snag the last two spots at a campground just 7 miles inland from Tillamook. It ended up being ideal! It was along the Kilchis river which was slow moving and deep enough to swim, and was only a short drive to the beach. We set up camp, took the camper off, and played, and played. The girls had a blast! Payton did just as Morgan did when she was her age, and darted in and in the ocean. We'd grab her, set her up on the beach, and she'd run right in the surf, where Morgan already was. The weather was perfect, in the low 70's, which is great for the Oregon Coast, and while it was a little windy on the second day, it was still quite fabulous! I wish we could have stayed longer.

I didn't take as many photos as I usually do. I kept worrying about sand getting in my camera, and decided it was also more fun to play with the family than to observe them behind the lens.

On the road there, our camper took an 8 second ride on these rolling bumps we weren't prepared to hit, so our next camping trip, to Big Lake over Labor Day weekend, will probably be it's last for the family. Next year? A trailer baby! A big 'un! That'll be fabulous. We love taking the kids and experiencing the outdoors. Such a fun family time. And they enjoy themselves so much! So relaxing and refreshing. So nice to get away from home and all the drama.

Now we are back and recharged. What's next? The FAIR! And Morgan can go on a lot of the rides! I hope PJ doesn't really notice! Next year, girl, next year.

On another note, I'm teaching a layout class at my scrapbook store on Thursday. I'm really excited about it! I love this craft! Here's my two layouts for the class: