The Reasons I Do It

  God Gave Us You.....

I spend a lot of time taking pictures of our family, scrapbooking and even journaling.  It has always been important to me.  I recently found two wonderful videos that not only inspire but explain why documenting our lives is so important.  I hope they inspire you as much as they did me.  The first one is from Paper Coterie is a recent interview they had with one of my favorite authors Kelly Corrigan.  The second is from Becky Higgins promoting her product, Project Life.

http://www.papercoterie.com/pages/beginanywheremonth/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a75xtRoxBZM&feature=player_embedded

Girl's Weekend Art-A Dream Getaway!

I would love to attend the Art on the Farm at Na-Da Farm Life.  A great weekend of relaxing with a group of artsty girls, including one of my favorites, Jeanne Oliver.  It would require a plan ride but doesn't it look lovely! http://nadafarmlife.blogspot.com/.

He

He is now 15 months.
He weighs 25 lbs.
He eats mostly table food now and only occassional  baby food.
He was into playing with the Fisher Price doll house and toys a few weeks ago.  Now he mostly just climbs on it.
He enjoys coloring and has discovered stickers.  He spends lots of time pulling stickers out of his sticker book and placing them on other pages.
He also likes to play with the wooden puzzles.
He loves to sort and stack things, laundry, magazines, just about anything.
He loves to watch the Baby Enstein Farm Video, especially before he goes to bed.
He helps feed the pets every night.  It is so cute to see him carry out the dog's food and dump it into the food bowl.
He likes the Sprout  Channel on TV, the Wiggles, and Sesame Street.  When he is watching Sprout at night, he smiles as if the host, Nina, is talking just to him.  He cries when she says "Good night."
He dances.
He climbs on everything and everybody.
He high-fives, blows kisses and says "Hi" to people when we are out and about.
He is growning so fast.  He continues to bring joy to our home and brighten every day!

Doing the Laundry

Doing the laundry was never so much fun!  Kyle helped me take these pictures of Kaleb this past week.  Kaleb had so much fun playing with the clothes pins!  Hoping to get some of these printed out soon.  Looking forward to the next month or so as outdoor scenery will hopefully be great for taking some more photos!

Being A Mother

Being a mother is the hardest job I have ever had, the most rewarding and the one I want to be remembered for. 
Yesterday we moved Jessica to her new dorm room at college.  I am so excited for her and the new adventure she is now on.  I know it is time for her to be on her own and know we are both ready but boy kids sure grown up fast.  I worry sometimes people might think I take too many pictures of my kids, especially Kaleb, but I want to remember and cherish everything about them at what ever stage in life they are at.  It all goes so fast.   They keep me busy and sometimes I feel overwhelmed but I couldn't imagine what it would be like without them.   

He

 He is now 14 months old.
 He is wearing size 12-18 months clothes and size 5-6 shoes. 
 He is running everywhere and climbing everything.
 He is talking more and more everyday.  His vocabulary now includes: Daddy, Mommy, Hi, and garden on a regular bases.  Other words he has occasionally said have been: hat, done, duck, goin' get you, and that.
He loves animals and makes animals sounds for a cow, chicken and pig.  Cows are his favorite.
He is really into reading story books right now and his favorite is a lift the flap animal book.
He loves tractors both the toy ones and the real ones.  He loves to ride in them.
His favorite foods right now are macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese, cheetos, basically anything cheesey!
He dances.

 He gives kisses now and makes the noise"mmmm" to go with the kiss.
He decided in the last two weeks that he won't sit in the baby bath tub.

He loves to color with his sidewalk chalk and he and Mommy have started leaving messages on the sidewalk for everyone, like " Don't worry" and "You are special".
He pretends he is changing the channels with the remote.
He loves to play in his tent with his stuffed animals.

Kenton helped me get these pictures of Kaleb the other night.  I hope to get some more of the kids this weekend before Jess is off to college.  Time is moving by so quickly.  Babies are growing up!

Filling in For Mom

Hello everyone, this is Kyle.  I know, I rarely make appearances on here, but as Mom decides to take a break from blogging, I feel like an update every now and then is appropriate. 
Before you even ask, my heart and I are doing just dandy.  I believe on our last visit for a biopsy I received a perfect score in relation to my level of rejection.  I feel better than ever, with this heart of mine.  It and I have become very good friends, as it lets me do more than I ever could've dreamed of, compared to what my old heart allowed me to do.  Before my transplant, I was around 5'4", 80 lbs. in the 8th grade.  I was very weak compared to the other kids.  Now, I'm 5'11", almost 125 lbs., and stronger than ever.  Yes, I'm still a twig, but compared to before...I'm a new person.  You just don't know how much I smile when we play dodgeball in school now.  Before, I was great at dodging (didn't have to try too hard when you can literally fit in a locker), but I never could throw the ball very hard.  When I would throw, the ball would either be caught by someone, or travel about half of the basketball court and hit the floor.  Gently.  When I came back from St. Louis in the spring of 8th grade, a classmate actually commented on my throwing, asking if I had traded arms with someone while I was out there also.  I could now, from the same distance as my classmates, make that solid thwacking sound that every other kid could make on the gym wall when I threw the ball.  I know it seems petty, but trust me, it means a lot to know that you are just as good as everyone else.  And that's just one of the many things that makes me happy that I have the chance to be here typing this post.
Moving away from the mushy-gushy stuff, I'm not doing much of anything else besides preparing my pigs for the fair show this week.  I think they look very good, and that I have a good chance of doing well.
Closing out this post, it might be a surprise to some people, but I like reading quotes.  Therefore, any post that I make, I will end with a quote.  That being said, have a good evening!

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought.  There is a visible labor, and there is an invisible labor.