Sorry for being Mia

Sorry for not posting lately. I have been very, very sick all week. I have not been this sick in a long, long
time.

I have done nothing but sleep, try to take care of the kids, and catch up on my t.v. shows. So I hope to be back soon.

So please stand by.

Let's go fly a kite

Katelyn got this wonderful kite for her birthday. It is huge and awesome. She wanted to go fly it the day after her birthday. It was a windy day, but the wind was not really predictable. It would come and then die down. Sometimes there was no wind. But we did manage to get the kite up in the air. We live on a cult a sack and so we went out in the circle and tried to fly her kite with some success. A lot of nose dives to the ground and Patrick even managed to get it stuck in the neighbors tree once. Not fun. But luckily we were able to get it out without calling the fire department!!

 

Katelyn loved it, as did the rest of the kids. She kept saying things like "look, it's a baby bird learning to fly." And " I didn't know it could do tricks like that". "Look everyone, it's flying, it's really flying." It was really fun. 

 

 

Here's the kite stuck in the tree. 

 

 Patrick was able to get it out of the tree with only a few lost streamers. He is amazing !! 

Here it is finally on the ground and both girls were so happy to have it out of the tree. They ran straight for it just to make sure it was alright. 

We all had a great time together flying the new kite.

Project Life Week 4

 

Here is my next week of Project Life. The first picture is of Noah sitting on Patrick's lap. Patrick was trying to do our taxes but all Noah wanted to do was sit on his lap. Noah is such a daddy's boy. Whenever Patrick is home, Noah will not leave him alone. Noah got his wish and he was so happy to be sitting with his daddy. The next picture is of Tyler, Patrick, Paul, and Danny. Tyler is Patrick's brother and he was in town. He is in the Air Force and is over in Italy right now. We got together at Danny's (Patrick's brother) house for dinner. It was great to see him again. The next picture is of Katelyn. She was having a rough day and so Patrick was trying to talk to her. She ended up staying home from school and just was not her self the whole day. Poor thing.

This is the last page for January and it worked out perfectly to have it be a divider between the month of January and my traditional 12x12 layouts. I had really wanted to put everything in one album, to have everything all together and all in one place. Both my project life and my traditional 12x12 pages. The first year I did project life I had everything separated. One album for project life and the next one was for my layouts. It worked. But last year I tried to put everything together and I loved it. So when you looked through it, everything from that year was in one place. So I think this might be the best solution that I have come up with. 

I really like putting together layouts. And I really like doing project life so I didn't want to stop doing one and not do the other. So I am going to do both. I am not going to do as many layouts this year as I have in the past. I am going to try to include most stuff into the project life style. But there is the satisfaction that I get when I play with patterned paper, embellishments, pictures ect. To see the final end result, the two page layout is really rewarding to me and I love to buy and use scrapbook products. 

This next page is a collage I put together of extra pictures of when Patrick took Maddie up skiing. On the other side is the 12x12 page I did and I will show you that next. So I had extra pictures from that day that I couldn't fit all on one layout and so I made a collage. 

This is the layout that I put together of their "SKI DATE". In January Patrick took Maddie up to Deer Valley(where he teaches) and they had a great day out on the slopes. She didn't want to stop skiing. This layout I did really quick and just used products that I had on hand. So a simple yet finished layout and I had fun doing it. It has been a while since I have done a layout. I have plans to do a two page layout of our overnighter up at Midway for our anniversary and then also this month Patrick took the kids to the Air Force Museum with Uncle Tyler, Danny and his kids. So those will be all the layouts for January. I will share them when I get them done. 

This the first page for February. Since I am not doing a picture of the day, or even a weekly version of project life it really is easy to fit whatever I need to on a page and divide the so called weeks up. I think I will probably do a weekly based project life next year though. That sounds like a good idea. We will see. So since I have the layouts in the middle of the two pages I just put some pics from February in there and will keep going on the other side. This way of doing it seems to be working for me and so we will see how it goes. 

The first picture on this page is of the two Potato Heads that Maddie and Katelyn put together. They were very proud of them and so they took them up to my room and set them on the night stand. To keep them safe from Noah !! So cute. I do want to remember stuff like this. The next picture is of Maddie and Patrick having their first Maddie + Daddy day. I read an article about this idea in the newspaper and loved it. So each month the kids get to pick an activity to do just with daddy. They get to choose what the activity is and the day falls on which ever day that they were born on. Since Maddie's birthday is March 1 her day is the first. So each month on the first she gets to do something with Patrick. And Katelyn and Noah each get a turn and it was a big hit. I think I already blogged about it so sorry for the description again. Forgot. The next picture is of Maddie playing with some of the Toy Story toys. Toy Story is huge in our house right now and it was so cute to find Maddie playing with her toys that morning. So I think this might be the longest post in history so if you are still reading this you should get a medal.

It is so late and I need to go to bed. Until next time. Take care everyone.

Valentine's Day + Katelyn's Birthday

Noah trying to help with breakfast

breakfast

cupcakes decorated by the girls

Valentine's found on the doorstep

This Valentine's Day was great. Full of love, laughter, cracked eggs, heart french toasts, unicorns, cupcake decorating with Grandma Merrell, finding Valentine's on the doorstep, Olive Garden, Carl's Junior for the kids, playtime, and Wii time. It was kind of a low key day and it was kind of nice. Nothing really too exciting . Patrick and I got to go by ourselves for dinner because Grandma wanted to have the kids over that night. So that was great. Katelyn got a shirt with a dinosaur on it - super cute. Maddie got a unicorn named Goldie(she is pinkalicious's unicorn) and she was thrilled. Noah got some cool bubbles. He was more interested in the candy though !!

Katelyn turned 6 yesterday !! And I still can't believe it. We started out her birthday with the typical Niebuhr way, eating breakfast at Johanna's Kitchen. While we were there Paul and Tona wanted to do a Skype call and talk to Katelyn. (They are over in Greece) So Patrick called him using his iphone and that was wonderful to talk to them. We came home and it was time for Katelyn to go to school.

She wanted a toy story themed birthday this year and so we searched and searched for a cake idea. Not really much luck. Everything was too hard to make, so we found a simple one that I could kind of copy. And here she is. Not the fanciest thing ever, but she loved it. She wanted it to be a surprise and asked me to make her cake while she was at school. So I got the cake put together and decorated just in the nick of time. She came home to find her cake sitting on the table and she loved it !! I was so relieved. For the next few hours we were busy transforming the house into Party Central.

Party started at 6 and I think it really turned out great. Here is a picture of some of the table. 

 

When the kids arrived, they were given a Sherrif Woody Badge with their name on it. 

 We started out making Mr. Potato Heads. I had scanned in some of the Potato Head parts, colored them and then printed them out. The kids loved it. 

 

 

Here they are all on the wall. I had them tape them on the wall when they were done. 

We then played Musical Chairs to the Toy Story song "You've got a friend in me." And I think that was the kids favorite part of the night. They wanted to keep playing it. I didn't get a good picture of them. Oh well. 

The next activity was Zurg's Balloon Blaster. I had gotten some balloons and pinned them to a cork board. The kids took turns throwing the dart at the balloon to try to pop it. The kids loved it and would jump up and down when they popped their balloon.

  

Some of the decorations were in 3D and so the kids were given some 3D glasses to wear. 

 The kids also went on a scavenger hunt to save Woody and then a Search and Rescue Mission to find the army men. I sure hope the kids had fun doing all their activities. 

Next was dinner of pizza, alien jello, fruit, and alien punch. 

 

This next picture is the reason why I do what I do when it comes to birthday parties. The countless hours looking for party and game ideas. The tedious hours spent in photoshop making badges and Mr. Potato head pieces.  The three hours spend making and decorating the cake. This single most precious moment of the night was worth all the time, effort, and planning. To see Katelyn's happy face as she sits in front of her cake, all her family and friends singing her happy birthday. That moment makes it all worth it. So happy birthday sweetheart.

 

And with that said I am going to rest now. I am exhausted.

Valentine's Spontaneous Photo Shoot

I really did have good intentions of getting some cute valentine's pictures of the kids. Including matching outfits, hearts galore, and even confetti. Well, you get the picture. But real life got in the way and I had to settle for a quick, let's throw some clothes on the kids,go out in the cold,hurry and grab the candy hearts photo shoot.

This is how it went:
Two o'clock on Saturday. Noah decides that today of all days he decides he is not tired and is not going to take a nap. Well okay then, let's go take some pictures for the crazy photographer lady that we call mommy. A mad rush to get the kids changed, hair semi done and gather props. Put the kids in the car. Two minutes from reaching the photo shoot destination Noah decides that he is now tired and falls asleep !! Well, plan B for now. Go to the grocery strore and then go and take pictures.

Groceries bought, Noah has had an hour long nap, off we go with a grumpy 19 month old. Great.

The weather is actually not bad for winter in these parts. It was probably 52 degrees. Katelyn starts complaining immediately when I ask them to take their coats off really quick for a few photos and didn't stop complaining the whole time. Maddie is the best one of the bunch and is happy to smile cheesily at the camera. All Noah wanted to do was chase the ducks except when I brought out the lolipops. (There were ducks at the farm that we went to). So that is how it went. With that said I am happy with the few shots that I got and so I want to share them with you.

Happy Heart Day to everyone !!

Project Life Week 3

So I finally finished another week of my project life album. This week has been so busy but I finally found some time today to get it all done. Plus there was so many extras that I needed to include for the week. Here is the first side of the week. January 21 -27. The first picture is of the heart garland that the kids and I made. We hung it on the mantle and I love it. The second picture is of our Elders Quorum activity at Church. (Patrick is the President) We had a Chili cookoff where we had two judges, eat the chili and pick a favorite. Paul, father in law, was one of the judges. That night we also had the Wii's hooked up to projectors and we played bowling on the big screen. It was a big hit !! The next picture is of us playing our mostly weekly game of phase 10.

This next page is of Noah outside. He came to us on Saturday and pleaded to go outside so we let him. He was in heaven. I went around with him taking some pictures of him exploring. I had so many cute pictures of him that I couldn't choose one of them. I made a collage page and I love it.

This is another collage that I did which is on the other side of the previous collage. My mom and I went down to the dinosaur museum that monday. They have museum mondays down there and do extra fun stuff. They had put some fake snow like stuff around the museum and had the dinosaurs dressed up in hats, gloves, scarves, ect. The girls thought that was so funny. Before we left the girls got our their DINOSAUR sighting gear, hats, binoculars, and walkie talkies. They pretended to Dino Dan and Track (one of their favorite shows on TV) all night. They really had fun. 

This page is my journaling from our museum night. I used on of Ali Edwards Journaling blocks and added my text.

This is some journaling from the next set of pictures. We are going to do a fun family photo every month and the day we took Januarys it was snowing and it 

really made it kind of cool. The journaling just tells about the photography project that we are going to do, which is the monthly family photo. Again, I used one of Ali Edwards journaling blocks. 

This is my favorite picture from the museum and so I wanted to blow it up and print in for the book We had just gotten to the museum and the girls were really excited about searching for dinosaurs. Katelyn had spotted one and was pointing it out to Maddie. It is a 6x12 picture. 

These are some pictures from our January family photo shoot. I love, love how they turned out. I love that it was snowing and that we had hats, and gloves on. 

This is our family photo for January. The snow was falling, the timer was set, maddie is saying Cheese instead of actually smiling, and Noah was not to happy, but I love it. It shows us in really life. Nothing is perfect. 

This was one of my favorites from that day. Noah and Patrick adore eachother. Noah follows Patrick around like a puppy dog and wants to be with him all the time. He is such a daddy's boy. 

As I have gotten three weeks into my project life album I have really come to the realization that I love this way of  preserving our lives. It really does work for me, for the here and now. It is fun, not to stressful, and I am really enjoying doing something new. I have really enjoyed finding different clipart pieces, or different things to go onto my journaling cards.  I don't just have to leave them plain all the time. I am still doing traditional layouts and I will post them here for you to see but for the everyday, real life other stuff, this is great. I feel really ok about not doing a layout of our dinosaur museum trip or all the snow pictures that I took that week. It is really freeing to be able to do something with my pictures that I adore but not have to take the time to do a two page layout. I had to really come to the realization that I don't have time to do two page layouts of every event, or every multiple photo event that I have. I still am going back to when Noah was born and doing pages from then. I even have to finish his baby book. But wow, look at me ramble off. I guess my point is, if any of you out there feel like you don't have the time or the creativity to scrapbook, PROJECT LIFE, might just be the thing that you need. 

Everyone have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I am off to put some finishing touches on Katelyn's Birthday party plans. 

XOXO

Maddies photo shoot

I had bought Maddie a new outfit the day before and so she wanted me to take her picture. Of course, I said let's go. I grabbed my camera and we headed downstairs. So here are a few pictures from our photo shoot.

The full length shot.
The Sweet shot.The "I want to play peek a boo" shot.

This girl refuses and will not wear pants. So it is all about the skirts and leggings.
Another sweet shot.
What a great smile.

I am working on my project life week 3 so I will post that soon. Have a great Sunday everyone.