Pics, Pics...and more Pics!

We’ve been on a park craze this past week, going almost every day! It sure has been a lot of fun and good exercise since I walk there (and lately I’ve been having Kyra walk too). One of our highlights was playing ball with the girls before my softball game on Sunday. We packed up the waffle balls & bats, loaded up some sandwiches & snacks & headed for the park!

Ava likes to pick up the cones & stack them up, despite my efforts to keep them in place! She’s here in this pic, trying to hit the ball off the tee.

Daddy & Kyra are having a blast in the background!

Kyra is a natural athlete & really enjoys hitting the ball. I just love how this pic turned out with the sun peeking through, her swinging pigtail braids & the twist of her shoes on the grass. Plus as a bonus, Ava made it in the shot! This was my pick for the Project 365 pic of the day last Sunday.

After a while, Ava kinda lost interest in the ball, and wanted to try on my shades. She loves to try on hats of all sorts, eyeglasses, shoes or any other accessories! She’s getting so big and is now putting 2 words together.

I have seen a couple tutorials on how to make your own dress form using duct tape & wanted to try it out. So I picked up some purple duct tape from Jo-Anns the last time I was there & asked my hubby to tape me up!

Believe it or not…there IS a method to this madness! You start with an old t-shirt & cut up the side seams. I sewed another 12” to the bottom (like a skirt) using another old t-shirt. Then you start taping the spine up & down in rows, then the waist. Then you tape from the back to the front in a v-shaped taper. It goes on and on…

Here are a few pics I just had to have my hubby take of me!

I felt like a samurai warrior or something in this deal! HI-YAH!!!!!

And here it is after we cut it off me & re-taped the back…now just to stuff it!

I was so excited when both of the packages I was waiting for arrived on Wednesday! The first was a big box filled with fabric!!!! Thanks so much to materialshoppegirl.etsy.com for awesome customer service & quick shipping. I am in heaven here with all this beautiful fabric! Take a peek at all this goodness!

Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, Amy Butler, Anna Marie Horner and more!

My business cards came in as well. I got 100 free from my favorite place, OvernightPrints.com . They have awesome quality, quick turnaround & good prices. I use them for all my postcards, business cards, birth announcements & nice invitations. They have a nice (and free) UV coating which adds strength & thickness to them…not to mention a nice glossy look. I added the rounded corners for just $2 more…keeps them from getting bent & messy looking.

I designed these myself!

Wednesday was more exciting than I had hoped. Ava took a header off our little slide on to the concrete driveway! I almost caught her, but she fell forward off the slide, hit her head on the ground & flipped all the way around into my arms. Luckily, she didn’t have much of a bump (we had a hard time finding it until it showed itself) and not even a scratch! You can hardly see her red mark on her forehead by her hairline. This was taken a couple hours after impact!

I was trying to get some pics of the girls on the slide (before the incident) & managed to get this one of Kyra, telling me, “no pictures!” It reminds me of a celebrity with a case of paparazzi paranoia! I chose it for my P365 pic.

It was certainly an exhausting day, and even Kyra was wiped out! Here I snapped this shot of her in her bed with several books strewn about! There are three on her left, at least one under her pillow & the mini Horton book on the floor next to her! My little bookworm…I LOVE YOU!

Thursday brought our little friend, Jordan! We had fun reading stories, dancing, playing ball & exploring the “river” in the backyard. Here they are, all lined up on the couch watching Dora & Diego! Talk about a captive audience!

Out of nowhere, Kyra wasn’t feeling well & had a little fever. I should have known something was wrong when she didn’t eat any graham crackers! She’s feeling better but now Ava has a runny nose…sheesh!

Here she is in my P365 pic of the day for Thursday with Arthur, getting some good face time. She’s talking to him about the cool Barbie fishing pole she carried around at Target the day before. She wants it and she wants to go fishing! This reminded me of my experiences fishing with my dad & sister at El Dorado park. I couldn’t stand to see the fish flopping around & gasping for air! It was so sad! I liked hanging out & being outside in the (somewhat) fresh air. Good times nonetheless.

Today I got a great little shot of Kyra getting her hug on Ava. She told me she just wanted to give her a hug. Ava wasn’t so thrilled, but that’s okay. I appreciate what a loving sister Kyra is & she certainly is affectionate as well! This is my P365 pic for today…“holding on.”

Another walk…more stops to smell the flowers & check out the bugs. We had a nice conversation with a crow…he squawked, we squawked, etcetera, etc.! It was actually really cool but I had no idea what he was saying. The girls got a kick out of it and enjoyed the back and forth bantering.

I have been talking to my girls about everything and anything…counting at every opportunity, pointing out colors & talking about the differences between things. It’s a conscience effort to teach all the time. I am putting an emphasis on reading, arts & crafts, physical fun & sign language. I actually enjoy all of those things! I’m hoping hubby will pick up the slack in the math department. Kyra is coming along with her writing skills & can sound out many words. I haven’t done any aggressive reading programs with her; just instilling a love for books is the main thing. Thankfully, it is paying off with both of my girls. Ava can often be seen curling up with a couple books by herself! She is extremely vocal & is saying new words everyday.

I know that I am very blessed to be able to stay at home with my girls.
It’s worth more than any amount of money that anyone could pay me for the time I have with them now.

Catching Up...KEEPING Up & Running

I'm playing catch up with my Project 365 pics...I didn't have much to choose from since I wasn't officially doing it yet, but managed to find a few that I liked so far.

This is New Year's Day, wearing my very first pair of size 2 jeans! They are from Express, who is so generous with their sizing, so it is more like a 4-6! =) That's okay, I was just thrilled to have to buy smaller jeans because my skinny jeans were falling off of me! I had been working really hard (running 3 miles at 6 AM before my girls woke up) to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes so it was VERY satisfying for me.

I have gotten a LOT of satisfaction from sewing, so I was excited to take a picture of the new thread I got from Jo-Anns. I used the purple/pink one for the quilted wallet shown in the picture with it and I loved how it turned out.

One of my very favorite things to do is GO to the public library & GO CRAZY! I check out a million books at a time & do heavy skimming for the most part. I look for what interests me & soak up as much as I can, when I can. I love reading to my girls (Dr. Seuss is my favorite to read) and they LOVE being read to! Another thing about the library that I love is all the cheap books you can buy! I try to pick up something everytime I go. Today, I bought a little wooden bookshelf for $4! I was so excited!

So today's P365 pic is of Kyra at the library. She was excited to wear this flower clippy that I made. I love how big & bright it is! She is really soaking in Mrs. Campbell's story about Groundhog's Day...look at the focus on her face!

I had a personal victory today - running to & from the library with the double stroller! It is a tough workout...especially against the Santa Ana winds! It works out to be a 2 mile round trip, so I feel good about that. I DO miss running my 3 mile route and will have to work up to taking the girls with me on that one. Knowing that my girls are "watching" me run makes me push that much harder. They make me tougher & better.

New Stuff

Man oh man...I just LOVE going shopping at Jo-Ann's (or any crafty store). I went to pick up the fusible interfacing & a cool tool to add snaps for my quilted wallet. Picked those puppies up & headed for more thread (can never have enough) and browse the fabric isles.

I found these 3 and am brainstorming on what to DO with them now...creativity is brewing!
I was looking for something to catch my eye & really wanted something Asian inspired.

I am trying to take a picture everyday for the whole year...aka "Project 365." So far, so good but I haven't actually DONE anything with them. Here is today's picture with some Picasa & Photoshop love added! I could tweak out on this for hours & hours...

My nieces Chase & Cali, my daughters Kyra & Ava! I thought of monkeys at the zoo when I had them behind the bars!