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)