there was this one time...

wednesday baseball

i love how spunky he looks in this next one.. he's usually soo serious.

he hit, he pitched, i watched. i tried to tell chris a few play by plays via ichat which led to lots of confusion on his part.. he came back at me with.. if he did this, how did he do that? i was like, ummmmmmm. i dont know. chris is just too dang sport saavy to fall for my messy commentary. :)

and our little snack stand groupies. :)

the day i manage to get all 4 kids in one blog post will be a miracle. sorry no caleb today. he was among the snack stand groupies eating sunflower seeds and licorice. ahhh so many kids to keep track of. :)

us: "elsie, you're..

crazy."
her: "thank you."

us: "elsie, you're funny!"
her: "no not. mommy funny!"

us: "elsie, you're weird!"
her: "no not. i HAAAPPPPPPY!"

and she is....a very happy girl!!!!! but she does miss you, daddy! :)

helllllllooooooooooo daddy!

he's flying across the globe right now to NZ again! bear with us while we post a plethora of pics and nonsense this week for him. :) after hanging out with him near LAX today, i was greeted by a little girl who just got out of the bath and had her hair done by her big sister. :)

tonight's prayer from cam was long and detailed but i made a mental note to remember to share this part about daddy: "it's most likely he won't crash but keep him safe anyways.. i love him.. i'm honored to be his son, he has the coolest movies and i respect him." :) awwwwwww!

and just because i don't want to forget this cute convo on the phone with els while i was taking chris to the airport...
Els: (enthusiastically) HI MOMMY!!!
Me: Hi Els!
Els: (sadly and very dramatically) Hold you.
Me: Did you have your cupcake? (C and I had a wedding last night and brought home cupcakes)
Els: (enthusiastically) What?!?! Cupcake? Yes!!!!! (then total switch back to sad, dramatic voice) Hold you.

that little phrase is repeated numerous times throughout the day. Hold you. Hold you. Hoooooooold  YOOOU. such a  big part of our day. lots of holding : )

saturday afternoon baseball

last week was his first time pitching this season. he had fiddled with it a few times last season but really seemed to get the knack this year. so- he got the first 3 runners out in a row. i asked chris, is there a name for that?! what's that called?! he said, 3 up 3 down. :) i love that there's a name for that.

anyways..not that today's nearly 100 degree game wasn't stressful enough... but in the middle of the --i'm not sure what inning it was but it was close to the end and we were down 3-- inning, the coach pulled out the current pitcher and called cameron in to take over. just like that, in the middle of the inning. we didn't know he was going to pitch and if you could see my stress level rise.. it would have been crazy. all the mommy requests from elsie faded away as i totally focused in on cameron. we neeeeeeeed him to get 3 outs quick. he gets 2. one walk. and then a 3rd out. just like that. holy cow we were proud. we didn't end up winning but if he could withstand that little bit of pressure-- it's just a sign of good things to come.

we are SO proud. :)

i know i've been slacking on blogging but i am gonna do a week of daily blogging starting monday for someone who is going overseas again. wah. especially since we have 2 games.. 1 of the games i have snackstand duty, if cam pitches, i might just have to close up shop. :)

lunch

im not a big lunch person. when it's just me (and els) i just nibble on her lunch, or make a PB&J.. i never want to take more than a minute to make something for me. but while making my list for the week from the new  everyday food i came across so many recipes that i knew i'd love but not the rest of the family. so thus began my new lunchtime-- making little one serving meals that i love. this one is full of tomatoes, artichoke hearts, prosciutto and parsley. i have a soft spot for pasta.

this is for my cousins. :) we finally made it to print! this layout is in the bhg may/june issue.. but for some reason, we are only about 2x2 inches big. LOL sorry girls. :)

and a self portrait of us today. me and my little buddy.

last weeks layouts

for hero arts

for ki:

more later!

have a good weekend

i really don't have any words right now.... i'm too busy trying to figure out where my baby went. 

those fingers!!!!!!!!

this was the phone she slobbered all over when she was a baby.. she killed it.. little did i know she had big  plans to take it over. :)

recycle

when the big kids are gone, els has free reign over all the toys in the house. although, i don't really think they'd care if she played with them anyways. they are not big toy kids anymore- which makes me sad because it's going by so fast, but happy because there are less of them to step on around the house. :)
so today was american girl doll day. kira took such good care of her dolls and all their clothes, els looves dressing them in crazy outfits. :)

i secretly love playing dolls with her.. doing their hair and all that.. it's the little girl in me. :) and then she switched gears to blocks. her new love. blocks. i think her kitchen toys and blocks are tied for first place. she could sit for a long time building....

and then crying when it falls over...

heehee. :)
then she made the village of all villages and kept it up for the big kids to come home and see....

and then she made them sit there with her for over an hour and scolded them and dragged them back whenever they tried to sneak away. LOOOVE it. :)

totally calling this in....

i haven't had much to blog about until i whipped the camera out today.. but haven't had a chance to download the pics. so calling this entry in with my midmonth layouts for 2peas

hopefully will post today's pics tomorrow.. or the day after.. or... or... :)blog rut, scrap rut.. blah blah blah. :) i have been reading like a little bookworm though :)

in other exciting news, elsie and i watched this being taped yesterday... it's right outside our public library- we were earlybirds waiting for it to open and els was running around the background.. i'll have to watch it and see if we made the cut, LOL. that big tree behind her is one that all my kids love to play on. it's huge! ah, so fun to see movie stars when you go out and about. :)

this afternoon

the weather is so nice, a friend is coming over for cam, we couldn't help but wait outside for him to come.

im not sure if it's her in white (we don't usually wear white due to toddler tendencies) or her new haircut, but she was particularily captivating this afternoon! :) and these ones just cracked me up.

and these melt me. cam on the sidewalk doing homework. els comes to sit on his lap. he totally doesn't mind.

friend arrives. cam gets up. els tackles cam with hugs. i can't focus fast enough.

that might not be fabulous to anyone but me. :)

catching up

last week we took a quick trip to the beach before we met up with elsie's BFF :) this is the way i like the beach, no crowds and leaving dry and sandless :)

and caleb brought this home from school yesterday. besides the huge run on sentence, this melted my heart!!!!!!

layouts :)

for the first of the month at 2peas.this month is user inspiration- which is always such a treat! 
this first one was pretty much totally inspired by michelle.
i literally looked in the gallery, found her and immediately contacted her. she made copying her very easy. she's good!  LOL :) that one is really straight in real life. i had no patience to re-photograph it.
next is vivian
i'd seen her work in CK and loved it! so glad i found her at 2peas! consistently solid stuff!
and then tina
this one is thanks to the internet and blog hopping. :) i found her blog and loved her work.. looked her up at 2peas and was so happy! her blog is so  amazing. so many  fun  projects. 
and this one was for one of lisa's articles.

i've got a plethora of new products but no desire to scrap right now. i hope this rut doesn't last long.

museums times 2

a few weeks ago, cam went to the autry museum with school and he was so excited to bring us there.

i didn't put together that it was a western museum, meaning cowboy stuff... which was sooo entertaining for our little cowgirl! look at one of the first things she spotted!

she liked these $1,600.00 boots at the gift shop!

els loved the stagecoach... miracle, i am actually in a photo. hooray for caleb asking to take a pic of us! :)

and years ago, chris and i took this photo of kira at autry:

and here's els! ah the difference of a good camera.. but it doesn't really matter, the subjects are adorable :) i think els might be a little older than kira was in that pic.

then it was off to the la brea tar pits!

the boys found it totally fascinating, i remembered it being  alot bigger when i was little, and els was a little frightened of these fellas!  and then we heard lots of this phrase when she did see something she liked, i go there?! i go there?!

there ya have it. an exciting day field trip day for the waters. :) today was mellow- library and such. :)