there was this one time...

i would have loved having a big sister

while growing up. these two are huge extroverts. huge girly girls. elsie has been over the moon having the big kids home. yesterday i had a big deadline and i pretty much left kira in charge. she painted elsie's nails, they did chalk together outside, they watched movies and just p l a y e d.

im so glad these guys have each other :)
ANNND! I didnt want to leave caleb out! :) he's been surrounded by girls since cam is at camp ALL week :( and with dad at work, he gets girl overload. but kira has been SO good to him too. they have a different relationship when cam is gone.. caleb has more patience for her-haha, the other night they were giggling-- she made a game out of sniffing all her lipgloss and having him guess what flavor it was. yeah, he would have never put up with that if cam was around :)

chris just sent this from his iphone-- he relieved caleb from the girls and took him out to a dodger game for some male bonding :)

 

we just had an earthquake!

it was scary for the kids but nothing fell off my shelves (and i have a LOT of shelves with stuff on them) and we are okay.

and here are your winners via the lovely kira:

Posted by: Anika | July 28, 2008 at 12:18 PM

Posted by: Megan Spinks | July 28, 2008 at 05:55 PM

please email me your info and i will get it to Trish who will mail your kits to you :)

again.. thanks everyone. your comments are much appreciated. SO sweet. for the questions about how i get stuff done.. i am pretty fast. those 2 layouts were done in an hour or so. and lately, i've been going downstairs to the dining room and scrapping while the kids are playing there.. so i am not holed up in my room. i take a few things and scrap with them near.

thanks!

the rush

there's still a rush when i see a box of product sitting at my door. i love getting mail. good mail :) (that dates back to me and my cousin writing letters in the 4th grade-xo mihan) and this month i was a guest designer for WIP kits. i loved the stuff that trish, the owner, chose-- i immediately scrapped these two layouts with it.

and that is the rush. getting something and creating immediately. and liking what you created. :)
here's another layout i did for the ki blog

i hope you'll join me at that challenge :)

and just because i've been the anti blogger these days.. the lovely trish from WIP is donating a couple of kits for me to giveaway via my blog. so leave me a comment and i will pass a few winners on to her :) gracias.

**updated at midnight on tues-- thank you for all the super nice comments. you guys are great. im gonna have kira pick names in the AM. :) she sleeps in, so hopefully by 10ish :)

we've been busy!

usually in the summer, i feel like we have hours upon hours of 'nothing to do' time.. this summer has been different! we have been on the go go go! this one has been busy with cheerleading camp, mucho sleepovers and babysitting...

these guys (my boys and their cousins) have had like 10 playdates in a row! my SIL was in town so they played all day/night long.. been busy with day camp and summer school. but now the cousins are done (wah) and this is the last week of summer school, before soccer camp and another church camp starts for cameron.

and this one has been busy-- trying to keep up with everyone above. :) she managed magnificently.. when they ran around the house with swords, so did she.. when they dressed up in costumes, so did she.. when they took off their shirts and ran in the sprinklers, so did she.. when they sang and performed at church, so did she... she is SUCH the little sister.. there's something that totally gets me about a little girl with older brothers to follow :)

my 10 day playdate with my SIL is now over too.. :( so i am catching up on assignments and editing. and in totally unrelated news.. this came to an end this weekend. i don't think i have ever followed a cartoon like this since i was 10. everyone in my family loves it -from elsie (2) to the boys and kira (13!) and chris and i.... i just can't believe it's over. i loooooooooove avatar. it's so good. i even saw batman last night.. that didn't come close to my appreciation for avatar :) i know, major dork :)

off to cook dinner.. which i've also had a major break from for a few weeks :)

taking the day off

after a chaotic day with elsie in the craft room, it was suggested i take the day off today, LOL.

yesterday's craft was to make a bird feeder with peanut butter. while i was assisting the kids, elsie was sticking her hand in the jar of peanut butter, licking it off her fingers.. and managed to get a handful of bird seed in her mouth... which she continued to spit out ever so dramatically. while the other craft leader was giving directions to the kids, elsie stood up on the chair and said, "no no no no". there were other instances that made the day verrrrry long for mommy. she'd sense that mommy was losing it, she'd make this face at me and say, 'do you like this face mommy?' or 'you happy, mommy?' which of course, i could deny neither :) so today we are taking the day off. we'll drop all the kids off and just have some downtime. we'll give the craft break room a break from elsie. :)

day camp day one

this week we are volunteering at our church's day camp-- well, me with crafts and photos. the boys go to class and kira is a counselor. elsie is to tag along. she did her best considering day camp is right smack in the middle of nap time. my lovely sister in law is here from WA so we are playing tag with elsie between her class and mine. by the end of the day, this was els. "i ti-red. i want blue blankie. i wanna go hoooommmme."

lovely. but i did manage to get them somewhat together - not really a great effort on my part-- a quick pic 'for daddy' as he is away on business. i love that caleb is still totally into craft time.. dig the visor and necklace! :)

a quick fill of the tummies at in n out. our FAAAAAAAVorite.

and a sweet one of my sister in law with elsie. it has been fun chasing all of our kids (between us we have 7) all day long! she has bonded with els during this trip.

and i just have to point out that chris rented this fun lens and put some of my most favorit-est lovel-iest wonderful-ist pictures of elsie on our jac blog if you wanna peek :)

(thanks for the top, brooke!) and i miss you chris :) xo

aw!

someone made it on the packaging of an autumn leaves stamp set!

there's another one out there of me and chris and one of me and my friend, shannon tidwell :) my model wasn't cooperating with me anymore when i was trying to get those shots :)

im so behind on internet stuff... hoping to post a lot next week :) for now here's some layouts-- one for a 2peas challenge

and a few for KI memories... the bloom line has got to be one of my favorites lines EVER!

 

 

that's it for now...happy friday!

 

 

4th of july

our 4th was spent with grandparents, a BBQ, lots of running around and getting grubby. and as much prep talk as i gave her... it's gonna be loud, gonna be big, gonna be bright, gonna be loud... i dont' think she ever expected what she finally saw.

LOL LOL
we have the best seats for the 4th of july.. right in front of us with the high school across the street. they fired over 300 fireworks this year. the best show yet :) and for the first time in years.. i didnt have to take a crying baby inside. go els! :)

so inviting!

(click for bigger image)

for our 10th anniversary, we skipped the schmancy dinner and went white water rafting on the merced river instead. it's something i've always wanted to do (after i saw a kevin bacon movie that had white water rafting in it.. sooo strange but that's when the fascination started) and now we are pumped to do it again :) so the next day, on our way home, chris takes one last swim in the river, and his daredevil sidekick, kira, follows along with him as they jump off this huge rock. so refreshing. :) i for the record, also jumped off that rock the day before :) so now, as i sit in the Los Angeles heat, i look at my new screensaver (this picture) and just daydream :)

london

i didn't realize how little photos we took in london till i was looking thru them now. i think we were SO tired by this time.. we opted to do the red tour bus thing for our one day in london. we left the hotel bright and early and came home late.

we were so glad the sun came out for us that day.. the night before we came in to rain.. went to notting hill in the rain so didn't get to really see it much or take pics. i want to go back!

this was taken outside of the national gallery where we checked out some van gogh and monet's.. lovely. i fell in love with vincent's yellow chair.

outside buckingham palace:

chris with a bit of guards behind him. teeny.

ben and a cathedral

and we ended our day with this.. there were so many good shows playing, it was hard to pick but this was spectacular! i'd love to take kira- she'd love it!

and the view from our hotel room. i am a hotel freak. i spent hours researching hotels.. and was sooo pleased that ours was clean and lovely and when we go back, im totally staying here again. earl's court, we love you!

thanks for all the sweet annivesary comments... i need chris to get our yosemite pics off his laptop so i can blog those. we had a blast :)