Happy Birthday Trevor Micah!

Happy Birthday Trev, you would have been 24 today. I miss you more than I ever thought possible.

Gingerbread tradition

Every year since she was three, Alorah has spent a Saturday before Christmas over at Mammy's (Ev's mom) house making gingerbread. This year Lainie got to join in the fun. It usually takes a whole day to complete the process from start to finish and they look forward to it every year. Here are a few pictures courtesy of Mammy:

Visiting Santa

We spent last Saturday afternoon visiting with Santa. Alaina was especially escited to see him and woke up at 6:30 to make her list for santa. it included a yo yo, sunglasses, chapstick and pretty clothes. She asked me to write it down so she could copy it.

THere wasn't a very big line and Santa spend a lot of personal time with each child. He greets each of them with "my how you''ve grown this year" or "look at you, you're so much taller" Santa commends them on how well thry're keeping their room clean and how they need to work a little harder on picking up toys. He is just the best and the kids love him

Micah was the first to see Santa. He RAN and gave him the hugest hug and then spilled his wishlist~ cho cho trains, cars, and firetrucks

Lainie Boo was next and she forgot her list at home. But she shared most of it with Santa. He seemed quite surprised that all she really wanted was a yo yo. He said it's been a long time since he's heard that request.



Isaiah walked up and seemed a bit awkward with santa but santa got him tp cheer up and give a nice cheesy grin. Zaiah told Santa that all he wanted was a kitten. Santa informed Zaiah that he rarely brings live animals anymore after the big accident in '84 when a puppy fell out of the sleigh, they were able to swoop down and save him but it was such a big scare that they don't really do live animals anymore

giving santa a high five
Alorah told Santa that she just wants a webkinz for Christmas. Santa told her that he's gotten lots of request for those this year and he was thinking about getting one for rudolp and what did she think? She said probably get the reindeer one and santa said "nah, he's already got 7 brothers"

Overall it's always a magical trip to see Santa!

I WON, I WON, I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am absolutely stunned over here. They were supposed to announce the winners yesterday and I spent all day checking the computer, nothing. I was on absolute pins and needles but I went to bed. I checked first thing this morning and there was my name!!!!!

YEAH!!!!! I am doing the happy dance and ran down the hallway to jump on Ev asleep in bed :0)

This is what I just won!!!! I've always wanted a personal diecut machine!!!!!!

layout contest

Ok so there's this new contest going on and you submit your digital layouts to win huge prizes, like a $1500 camera, $500 printer, $100 wacom tablet (which I've been wanting SOOOOO bad, can you say Christmas anyone ;0) Anyway these are two of the layouts I created and submitted. I'll of course let you know if anything comes of it . . . doubt it though, there's some stiff competition out there. If you're interested in the contest check it out here.
If you want to see all the layouts in the contest click here.

Here is a post of Isaiah doing his homework. For kindergarten he had to memorize the entire passage of Psalm 23. He worked for a few weeks on this and I asked if I can video him. This was while he was still learning it, if you ask him now he can remember it perfectly. In the first part of the video he says his verses and you can hear Alorah prompting him in the background. In the second half of the video Daddy and Micah are helping Isaiah work on his sight words ~ quite cute!

Isaiah's Outfit

Last week I went to pick the kids up from school on their last day before Thanksgiving break and I found Isaiah sitting on the bench wearing this adorable outfit. He had made this in kindergarten with Mrs. O'Day and the rest of his class. I think is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen and something I'll probably save forever! He told me he was Squanto ;0)


The outfit came complete with beads, a feather headdress and some kind of primitive writing . . . something about a fire . . .
And lastly he even had a papoose on his back ~ simply precious!

The last one!

Here is the last layout from my class. I'm really sad to see this class end and can't wait to do the next class!

2 new layouts

I am in the last week of my Jessica Sprague class and I have learned SOOOOOOO much. I am absolutely going to be so sad when it's over. Here are my last two projects from the class

Journaling reads:
I love to dress the four of you in coordinating colors. Almost like the Von Trapp Family Singers. Two times out of the year that I especially love to do that are Christmas and Easter. 2005 marks one of my favorite Easter combos. You four looked just darling in your blue tulle dresses and blue striped vests. What an adorable lot you are. I couldn’t take enough pictures especially with Micah just two months old.


This is from when mom took the kids out to Folsom lake. They came back filthy but had a great time digging, swimming, chasing gophers, crab walking, and riding around in Gram's car with the top down!

A very, very special day

On Thursday my actual birthday I was a bit stressed prepping for my annual dinner party on Friday night. With 4 kids in the house I can't clean too far in advance otherwise it's totally pointless and then I have to clean all over again. My dearest friend Jill called on Wednesday night and asked if she could come help me clean my house on Thursday. I was of course over the moon thrilled and accepted right away. (no arm twisting needed for that one!)

The Bell family showed up at 9:30 am with all 5 kids and two hours to work. (jill homeschools and they still had schoolwork to get done that day) So I made up a list of things I hoped to get accomplished and off we went. The three big kids were all put to work while the 4 little ones watched some cartoons and played. In that two hour timespan the 5 of us got 8 - 10 hours of work done! Jill of course had lots of tips to make things more efficient (She's always the one I call on to get me more organized). I was amazed by how much we got done and as always I was in awe of what an amazing family they are. Her kids came with servants hearts and a willingness to help. I never heard one word of complaint, the kids were all laughing and smiling. (they did have to take goofy pictures though to show us how exhausted they were ;0) I feel so blessed to have them in my life and I love watching what beautiful young adults Johanna, Madison and Colson are growing into.
Madison swiffering my floors:
Scrubbing up all the rough spots (and with a two year old there was quite a few of those)
Acting the part of exhausted
Colson scrubbing windows:
Colson was worn out:
Johanna scrubbing my toilets
Back breaking labor
Jill and I were such slave drivers the three of them couldn't even stand up straight ;0)
Later that evening Ev came home to a nice clean house. He brought me roses for my birthday and my favorite candy, snickers. This was a huge deal to me because he's not ordinarily a very thoughtful or romantic guy. So the fact that he put that much thought into it and brought me my two favorite things was very touching. We had filet mignon for birthday dinner (Ev grilled) and then the doorbell rang. My 22 year old brother Taurean baked me a cake and surprised me for my birthday. I was again deeply touched and felt so special.
the Bell family minus Steve:
to sum it all up i felt very, very loved on my birthday!

Ok, so sorry I haven't been blogging as of late. It's been a bit busy around here and unfortunately a blog is at the bottom of the heap. Scrapbooking, however, is not :0) I'm doing a second more advanced scrapbook class from Jessica Sprague and here is my first layout:

Journaling reads:
You found this toy camera, Lainie, amidst your toys and it was very important to you that we bring it with us on Isaiah’s field trip to the fire station. You took pictures of everything, the boots, the knots on the wall, all the kids, the fire truck, EVERYTHING! You even took pictures of me taking pictures. It was a joy to watch. It lightened my heart to see that recording memories was so important to you. While I still think you’re a bit of an amateur to have your own camera, I do let you “borrow” mine from time to time and I love to see the pictures taken from your perspective. Thank you Lainie, for reminding me that you’re always watching.

Ring tone

I just found the most hilarious ringtone to put on my phone and I just had to share it:


Create free ringtones at Phonezoo

Micah singing

Micah is our little songbird. Everything he does is usually accompanied by music. He hums and sings himself to sleep, he makes up little songs about his trains and sings them while he plays. He plays his pianos and makes up songs and he even gets the microphone and performs. He's always from birth loved music. Singing was one of the only things that soothed him when he was really upset ~ still to this day. I wanted to capture him singing his favorite, twinkle, twinkle little star but he wasn't very cooperative. I got a few other songs instead ~ even an improvised one ;0)

Latest layout

Here is another layout I made in my Jessica Sprague class:


The Journaling reads:
Goodbye old friend . . . we’ve spent a lot of time together, and the memories are dear. You’ve held and kept safe my four most valuable treasures for nine years, with never a day off. We’ve had many late night visits. I’ve leaned against your rails for comfort while holding tight and rocking those treasures. You’ve heard my many melodies and songs. You’ve listened to my many whispered prayers. You’ve held strong through wrestling and bouncing, sometimes
holding up even though more than one treasure was visiting you. It’s very hard to say goodbye to such a dear friend, but we must. Goodbye, old friend . . .

Alorah's birthday

Alorah celebrated her ninth birthday on Thursday. SHe of course spent the day at school and I came down at 1:30 to bring her birthday treats in. She shared root beer floats with the whole class and they all loved it! Then that evening we made her favorite dinner (macaroni and cheese with hot dogs) and had the grandparents over for ice cream cake. Alorah opened presents and just had an all around great time being nine! Here are a few pics from the evening.



Deep breath to blow out those candles . . .


With Papa and Gram
With Grumps & Mammy
With Nanny
with Poppy D

scroll down . . .

The slideshow is now up ;0)

Point Reyes trip

We spent the past extended weekend in Point Reyes having a wonderful camping trip with our family and Mammy * Grumps. It's a tradition we've been doing the past 6 years and I think this was the best trip so far. The first night we set up camp and had a grumpy Micah on our hands. He basically cried from the time we arrived at 6:30 until 9pm when he feel asleep from exhaustion. At that point I was a little worried that it may be like that every day of the trip. But he got up that next morning chipper and happy.

Friday we spent walking the earthquake trail. It is so cool, with a walk right along the faultline of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. You can see where the ground shifted and split open like 10 ft. It's amazing. We had some of Mammy's fabulous sandwiches and then we went over to Drakes beach . . . only to find it flooded, with no sand to play on. Since there was no where to play we climbed a bluff over looking the whole area, just beautiful ( i've got video of that) Next we had some hot chocolate because the air was a little nippy and then went on our way to get oysters on the other side of town. The kids were quite interested in the oysters as you'll see in the slideshow. Everyone tried one, but Isaiah LOVED them he ate 3 bbq'd and 3 raw. I was astonished and Mammy was just thrilled to have another foodie in the family.
We roasted marshmallows and smores by the fire. Micah sang happy birthday to everyone, then asked "Where's my cake???" then off to bed for another action packed day.

Saturday we left the site around 10 am for our hike out to the bluff. It was a mile hike there and then a mile back. The kids of course complained the whole way until we made it out there. IT was BEAUTIFUL, just at the tip jutting out into the ocean ~ amazing. We saw quite a few deer up there and even some bucks. Isaiah's first question for Grumps was "did you bring your guns". I don't know where the kid gets this stuff!!!
Then we drove an hour away to another beach called McClure's beach. It's about a mile hike down a ravine to get to the beach, but it's so worth it. It's tucked away between fog covered cliffs and it was just gorgeous. Again, check out the slideshow. Micah would run to the waves and when they came up the beach he would run away yelling "The Ocean is coming'. It was really quiite adorable. We built sandcastles and the kids played catch with Grumps & Daddy. After we hiked up the ravine, (which I didn't know if I was going to make) we headed for our campsite an hour away. We got back and did sauages for dinner then showers for the kids (even though we were filthy by the time for bed rolled around) and once again smores & marshmallows roasted away in the fire. Everyone was pooped so it was an early night.

Sunday we woke u and broke down camp. We made it home by 2:30 and then worked on cleaning up ;0)

On a side note you'll see Isaiah wearing a 49er bandana (courtesy of Grumps) throughout this trip he has decided that the 49ers are the "baddest" team there is and he wants to be a 49er when he grows up. At first Ev told him he couldn't go watch any of his games if he was a 49er but Isaiah announced that Papa and Uncle Tom would love to come watch his games! So now he wants to be a 49er when he grows up!

Check out the slideshow, some of the pictures Isaiah took but I had to add them in, I'm just excited to have little budding photographers ;0)

Off to the fair

Alorah, Isaiah and Alaina spent the day at the California State Fair today. Every year Nanny and Poppy take the kids to the fair along with their cousins Josh and Rachel. This is an event that's anticipated all year long. THey talk about it a million times through the year, and save up all their money for it. Nanny & Poppy picked them up in the morning and didn't bring them back until late afternoon ~ a welcome relief for mom & dad. They all came back with prizes and tons of stories about their favorite thing.

Alorah's favorite was a puppy ~ Her cousin Josh (the sweetest kid in the world) won a prize and gave it to her. She's talked about it about a million times and has kept that puppy close by (i'll post a picture later)

Isaiah's favorite was some kind of jet ride, where you lay on your stomach and fly through the air. He also loved the swings and came home with a batman as big as he is.

Alaina's favorite part of the fair was the Dora she bought, the carousel, and the fact that Poppy pulled her through the whole fair on top pf a wheeled cooler ~ she told me it was a "free ride" at the fair.

Mr Micah stayed home with us today and helped redo his room with his big boy bed (i'll do another post about that experience) and clean out the garage. Ev has his garage meticulous again and is over the moon about it ;0)

Overall it was a great day, but we're all pooped! No where near as exhausted as poor Nanny & poppy I'm sure!!!!!!

3 more layouts I completed for my class by Jessica Sprague. The photo on the last layout is courtesy of Jen Stewart Photography ;0)

Jessica Sprague class

Ok, so I'm taking this online class from Jessica Sprague (MY digital scrapbooking heoro!!!) and she's teaching us all her tips for digital scrapbooking. I thought I was fairly well versed in digital scrapbooking and photoshop (which I was) but I have picked up so many tips from her and she is challenging me to think outside my comfort zone. I am absolutely loving this!!!

Anyway she challenged us to go to this website: www.aiga.com I'm not sure what it stands for but it's something with graohic design awards. We were supposed to pick one design that inspired us and use it in our scrapbooking, be it layout, color scheme, etc! So here is the design that inspired me and above is my creation ;) my inspiration

First Day of School

Today was an emotional day for me. I sent my Isaiah off to his first day of kindergarten and my Alorah off to fourth grade. All summer I've been excited especially for Isaiah to go and this week I've just been weepy about it. I can't believe how big he is, with no fears about school, only excitment. He didn't even look back when we dropped him off today, but his mother was crying in the parking lot afterwards. It just hurts my heart to know that never again will he be home full time with me. I don't know how I'll cope when they actually fly the nest for real ;0) Just for today I miss my boy. Then I look at Alorah off in fourth grade, wow! In my memory that's the year I remember everything aboiut, fourth grade. THat's a big year . . .

Here are some pictures from this morning. Every year we take first day photos out by the post in the front yard (Just to compare from year to year). I guess if we ever move, we'll have to sneak into the front yard for pics :)



Isaiah's first day of school photos.





Alorah's first day of school photos.





Walking into FOURTH grade for the first time ;0(


Alorah's bag all lined up with the others for school.


Isaiah hanging up his bookbag and setting out his lunch . . .


Isaiah at his desk, with some of his new school supplies!