Living The Dream

Menu Monday is back!

So, before I got pregnant, I was pretty good about consistently posting our menu for the week here on the blog. When we found out we were having a baby, things got crazy and then of course I was on bedrest and there was no menu planning to be had. Now that things are settling down and we're back into some sort of routine, I'm back to menu planning and I'm hoping to do more sharing here too. SO, despite having the wekend off from baseball, we still managed to fill it up good. Lots of family time, which was awesome. Now it's Monday and I was able to (thanks to a sleepy baby) get through the grocery store with everything on my list. ;) Here's what's cooking this week:

Monday - Belated Cinco de Mayo meal (we were out and about last night, so we're pretending today is the 5th;)...Tacos, Yellow Rice and a special dessert-----> Fried Ice Cream from Skinny Taste

Tuesday - Baked 4 cheese Ziti...found this one on Pinterest and they say it tastes just like a meal from Olive Garden. We'll see, but it looks good...how can it not be with all that cheese?! ;)

Wednesday - Baseball Practice...something quick and easy for the boys

Thursday - SkinnyTaste's Sloppy Joes and Annie's Baked French Fries (if you haven't tried these fries, you need to....so good!)

And for my scrapbooking friends....did you have a great NSD? I, sadly, didn't scrap a single thing over the weekend. Studio Calico has a bunch of challenges up on the blog and they continue throughout the week. Here's a layout I did for the button challenge...

BasicGrey also has some great challenges on their blog...I've got a grid challenge going on over there, which is open until the 10th. Would love it if you played along! 

That's it for today....happy Monday! :)

Back on track (and a giveaway!)...

Whew. I feel like the past 2 months have been such a whirlwind. It seems as if we are finally getting into some sort of a routine and the nap gods are finally being kind to me (for now at least!) ;) The big boys have been so amazing and have handled the transition so amazingly well. They absolutely adore their little brother and really just can't get enough of him. They are even more smitten w/him now that he's super smiley and more interactive. They love seeing who can get him to smile first. (I took this photo weeks ago, but forgot to post it)...

I've started back to work officially as of this week....having your own photography business is really nice at times like these when you can ease yourself back into working w/out overwhelming yourself too soon. I'm excited to get back out there for sure though. :) I've been busy scrapping when I can...the past few days have been nice, since Sawyer is napping better and I have a tiny bit of free time. I'm mixing up the Planetarium kits w/the Atlantic collection and I'm loving the results. Here's a layout that I did for the SC blog...

And a special offer to tell you about. BasicGrey's Knee Highs & Bow Ties album kits are currently on sale for $25...this is an amazing deal for all the product you get! The deal is good through May 12th and you can order via BasicGrey's website. I'm also giving away an album kit to one LUCKY winner! Leave me a comment here and I'll draw a winner next Monday. Thanks for stopping by...Happy Tuesday!! :)

Still here! (Studio Calico's Planetarium Reveal)

I'm still here. Little Sawyer has decided he's not much of a napper, which leaves me almost no time for much of anything. ;) Thank goodness, he's still a great nighttime sleeper. Anyhow, just popping in on SC reveal day to share what I made w/the kits. Planetarium was a really fun one...

The Project Life kit is, once again, outstanding! I can't tell you how much more I love PL now that I'm using the SC kits...they make it SO easy! Here's a spread using ONLY the PL kit and Geralyn's printables...

 

I had quite a bit of photos for this week, so I added a style H insert and cut it down to fit my needs. I love that I was able to include more photos this way.

Two more PL spreads....

Aaaaand, if you're still with me ;), a few layouts with the scrapbook kit....the first is made w/the main kit only.

The next two use a mix of the kits, but this one uses mostly Orion...

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT weekend!! We're off to the baseball field for the entire day! :)

One Month!

Ack! How did that happen already?! Sawyer officially turned one month old on the 5th. We're nearing the 6 week mark next week and I'm blown away with how fast it's flying by. Even having been through this twice before, it still amazes me how quickly the days pass by and how big they get so quickly. I'm trying hard to soak it all in...this is my last baby and I don't want to take a minute of it for granted. Here's little man at one month old:

• He is soooo close to being a regular smiler :) He stares and stares when you talk to him and has flashed a few smiles here and there, especially to Brady (who he loves!). We are waiting for them to make more regular appearances soon though. 
• He weighs 8lbs 14oz. He gained well over a pound since his two week appointment and is nursing well. 
• He loves to be swaddled at night and has been sleeping pretty great for the most part. He sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hour stretches at night, which only has me getting up once to feed him, so I can't complain one bit!
• He fights sleep BIG time during the day. (see yesterday's post) He loves his car seat and likes to be on the go, but is hard to get to sleep when we're just hanging out at home. 
• He's starting to coo just a little bit here and there, usually when he's tired midday.
• He's lost most of the hair on the top of his head and it's already starting to grow back a little bit already. We love his little receding hair line ;) 
• He's in constant motion when he's awake...always kicking and moving his arms all around. He's going to be an active boy I think ;) 

He is truly such an adorable baby and we feel blessed beyond belief that we've been given another beautiful little boy to take care of. <3 Happy Friday...have a great weekend! 

Little One...

It's been a rough week with the little guy. He's having a hard time sleeping for any length of time during the day, which makes for one overtired baby and one worn out Mama by the end of the day. :P I remember Jackson being like this too at this age, so I'm trying to remember that he will fall into a good nap routine soon enough. It sure does make it hard to get anything done though. ;) I'm popping in for a sec to share a layout I made for BasicGrey using their Hey You, Hello and Hey Boy collections. I really can't get enough of these lines and I love how they coordinate so well together too! You can read more about it here on the BG blog :) 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Thursday! :)

Spencer's layouts...

I only managed to make three layouts with Studio Calico's April kits, but considering I also made 3 Project Life spreads, I'm considering that a success with a newborn baby in the house! :) The main kit, Spencer's, is still available by the way (hint hint ;) 

P.S. I've also got a couple of BasicGrey Hipster layouts over on the BasicGrey blog today. Hipster was my very favorite BG release from CHA. Be sure to check it out! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Good Intentions...

Oh boy. The mama karma came to get me after my post last week about my "dream baby". lol! I should have known. After 8.5 years of motherhood, you'd think I'd know better than to open my big mouth and jinx myself by now. ;) So he's still a really good baby, but boy oh boy, when he hit 3 weeks it was like a light bulb went off and he decided he wanted to see the world a LOT. haha. Now this isn't really a bad thing, just more of an adjustment since he really likes to be awake and likes to fight going to sleep during the day now :) He's still as cute as ever though and I'm pretty sure I got a REAL smile out of him today, which makes every bit of it worth it! Here's a photo of him I snapped last week...I can't wait to see more real smiles and see those dimples really come out :)

So, I did have good intentions of blogging last week, but that cute little guy threw me for a loop instead. Here I am today trying to make up for it. I wanted to share the PL spreads I made with Studio Calico's April kit Spencer's. 

First up is week 8...Even though we were fairly busy for week 8, I didn't end up snapping too many photos to document the week. I did, however, save a sticker from the dentist, a screenshot of a Shazam tag I did of the boys' current favorite song plus a note that came with a baby gift, which helped fill up my spread.

I think week 9 is one of my favorite weekly spreads that I've done recently. Having such a great kit to work with definitely helped, but I also had plenty of photos for the week which always makes things easier. I love the addition of the pockets to the PL kit...I used one here to hold some notes that Brady has been bringing home for his soon to be little brother :) I tried to stick to using just the PL kits, card kit and a couple of shop items for this spread. I also used the PL add-on stamp set, which has such great stamps!

Since week 10 was the week that Sawyer was born, I decided to devote the entire spread to his birth. I certainly had plenty of photos to fill up the spread and even used a Style H insert to include more of them. I definitely wanted the photos to be the focus of the spread and kept everything else fairly simple and tried to stick to a fairly uniform color scheme of blue, black and white. My nurse, who is also a long time friend of mine, was clever enough to make sure I got TWO sets of footprints so that I could include one in my albums. Is that a good friend or what? ;) Again, I loved the large pocket and I used it here to hold our hospital bracelets. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow to share the layouts I made with the kits! Happy Monday! :) 

Officially introducing...

...our newest addition! Our little guy, Sawyer Benjamin Noel, was born March 5th at 10:01am. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20.5 inches long (the same EXACT measurements as both of our other boys...isn't that crazy?!). Everything went perfectly and we are SO in LOVE with this boy! He has so far been a DREAM baby...he hardly ever cries (only when he's hungry) and has been sleeping 7 hour stretches at night since week 1! 

 

 

The big boys are loving him and really just can't get enough of him. I've got lots more to share and now that we're getting settled into a regular routine, my plan is to share more here, so stay tuned :) I'll be back with more photos in a couple of days....

One more day...

First things first, thanks everyone for entering the Silhouette giveaway! Don't forget you have until March 8th to order the Cameo, Portrait and/or Designer Software at the discounted prices. Without further ado, the winner of the Silhouette Portrait is.......Jennifer!!

This would be amazing! I am such a fence sitter on this purchase and would love the push over. There are some awesome cut files in the Bright Ideas class that I wasn't able to use without this tool that I would be cutting first thing with this win!

Posted by: Jennifer | February 28, 2013 at 07:46 AM

Tomorrow is the BIG day! The sweet little baby that we have been working so hard to stay put for all this time will finally get his eviction notice. ;) I have to admit, I've been so ready for him to get here these past few weeks knowing that he'd be okay if he were to be born at this point, but now that it's really time, I could use a few more days. ha! Of course now that it's time, I can think of a million and one things I would like to have done before his arrival, but I know everything will be great and those things will get done in due time. The boys are over the moon excited, his nursery is pretty much ready (minus a few details that I still want to add), our bags are packed and we cannot WAIT to see what he looks like! I'll be sure to post photos as soon as I can...be sure to follow me on Instagram if you don't already, as I'll definitely be posting photos there in the first few days :)

Before I head out, just wanted to share quick this layout I made for Studio Calico. Amber and I are hosting the SC blog challenge this week...you can see more info HERE. Be sure to play along if you can! 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week and I'll be back soon with photos :)

Silhouette Promotion and GIVEAWAY!!!

Do you have a Silhouette? I've had one since it first came out and I use it ALL the time! One of my favorite features is being able to cut out titles for my layouts in any font I want. I also love the ability to use any of the shapes in the Silhouette Online Store as accents for my pages and my Project Life spreads. One of the newest perks of the Silhouette is the Silhouette Designer Software...if you already have a Silhouette, the software can be downloaded and used instantly. The great thing about the Designer Software is that you have the ability to purchase and use shapes (in .svg file form) from other stores and designers. The software also gives you more freedom to create and edit your own designs. I created this layout with some .svg files from Studio Calico. I was able to create my own background w/several different arrow designs and I love the way it turned out. 

For the next week, Silhouette is having a GREAT promotion!! From today (February 28th) through March 8th, you can get an amazing discount on the Silhouette Cameo, Silhouette Portrait and Silhouette Designer Edition. If you've been on the fence about getting a Silhouette, NOW is the time to purchase one with these incredible discounts! To take advantage of this offer, click HERE and enter code CALICO in the promotion code box. 

Now for even more fun, Silhouette is doing a huge giveaway and one of my lucky blog readers will win their very own Silhouette Portrait machine!!!! To enter, just leave a comment here and let me know why you'd love to win one and what you'd be excited to make with your new Portrait. I'll draw a random winner and post the winner on Monday March 4th. GOOD LUCK!!!