My baby is really, truly 2. Wow! Can you believe that? He got lots of fun goodies (including Spike Red, a Leap Frog texting thing and Tag Reader Jr. ) Thank you to EVERYONE that came and gave my baby a gift.

You can buy that Hot Diggity Dogg kit at SSD. (yes I got it for free, because I create pages for Melissa to use in her advertising!)

Stitiching I bought from Traci Reed also at SSD.

I think most people that read this know that I am a digitial scrapper. I love it. I’ve been doing it since September 2004. It’s a really HUGE community of you are NOT part of it; you’d be surprised.

Anyways. . . it can cost just as much as paper scrapping. It get $$. There is just SO much awesome goodness out there. That’s where the good part comes in. Almost every designer has a “creative team” or CT. I’ve been on various teams throughout the last 5.5 years. I am grateful to every single one of them. Really.

I recently left a HUGE “gig” and sorta regret it because now I am back to buying from a store instead of getting free for giving inspiration. Anyways. I recently made a NEW team. (Fear not! I am still on Eva Kipler’s team!)

I am one of the newest memeber of Melissa Bennett’s CT. So yes….she gives me her kits for free and I make 1 page with it for her to use as she sees fits in advertising.

I have also applied for 3-4 GUEST spots … anxiously awaiting news on those as well.

So this is my post that says I really want to get back into sharing my art with my readers … Especially since it’s a good way to make sure everyone gets to see the boys. So…. here is my latest LO (layout) made with a kit Melissa is releasing tomorrow! This happened YESTERDAY. Hilarious! Click for a full view. Everything on the page was from the mentioned kit!

So yes. My littlest man made me paint his toes. He brought the polish to me. Climbed in my lap and stuck his feet in the air! HAHA!

Ok. This is going to be quick. I am feeling really overwhelmed this week. Lucas DID NOT break his nose (hit my chair and it bruised and became swollen) and he DID not ingest 1/2 bottle of cayenne pepper. Don’t ask. He’s fine. None in his eyes or mouth but, Pleaaaase? Stop?! Just for two minutes. LOL.

Newest is first

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This is what I love. This is what I am going to miss. This week my “baby” has almost an entire week home with me. He only goes to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday is just a “School holiday” and Monday, well, Monday is President’s Day. So, see? Almost a full week home with Mommy.

I’m not really looking forward to this fall when he goes to school. I’m going to be so sad. How is it that I have a 5 year old? I can’t believe I have an ANOTHER child almost 2. It’s so sad. And wonderful. And amazing. And loud. Gosh. I’m gonna miss this!

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Yup. You heard me right. We put our almost toddler in a tent. Sorta. It’s a crib tent. Netting that goes over and he can’t climb out. I remember seeing them but forgot all about them. Then the lovely DigitalKady suggested it and we went on the hunt. Walmart didn’t have it. Target didnt have it. The one baby store listed that supposedly carried it was OUT. Again. He said they don’t stay on the shelf. I looked on Craig’s List. I found an OLD posting from last month. Emailed anyways. Shot in the dark, right? They still had it!! DH went to look since it was by his office and BAM! We bought it and now our baby is in jail. He didnt like it when I zipped it but only fussed — oooh, maybe 1 minutes? Not bad

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I had to take the side off because he almost feel out.

lucas crib

Luckily I was RIGHT THERE as he was going over. Will WAS NOT A CLIMBER! ACK!

I can’t remember exactly when it started but I blame my sister, Karen, entirely. Will became obsessed with Monster Jam all because of her. He went to an unnamed store with her and came back with AVENGER.

That’s the name of a poplular Monster Truck, except it looks more like a car so we weren’t sure what it was at first. Then we looked it up. It hasn’t stopped since then. We watch them on TV almost daily and have since purchased at least 20 more of these said toys. Thanks so much, Hot Wheels, for making me spend my husband’s hard earned money on your products. I guess if I am to be fair William has spent a great deal of his very own moeny on said toys. He earns it by being my little helper. Some might call it slavery but since I PAY him, is it?

Ok … fast forward. He wanted a Monster Jam birthday. Okay. Whatever. Found a bounce house and pinata, wall stickies and other stuff. EAsy peasy.

Then he discovered that that people REALLY go to REAL stadiums and watch the trucks race and do “freestyle” FOR REAL! (FYI, he doesnt like the racing, JUST the freestyle…)
Well…..what would any loving, obedient parent do but find out if they will be touring “a city near you”? They were. Go figure. (Ok … I must say I was (not so) secretly excited, this would be a BLAST!)

So we ordered tickets and my father-in-law picked up what we thought were simple pit passes at some jacked fast food chain. When he actually got them they were “pit party” passes. Ooooh what fun would that entail?! Little did we know we would dirty up my wheels while meeting the drivers for the night! Will was so excited. Just before we left, We told him he could get 2 shirts and 2 shirts only. That’s a laugh. He did get 2 shirts. They are identical. We don’t want the signed one to wash out so we bought a second one we can wear. We didnt decide this until AFTER we bought a hat. Later he said he wanted a flag. We got that too. We’re succors.

Oh yeah. So he got lots of autographs and photographs and he also got to give HIS autograph to a demolition derby car. How cool is that!? Lucas, too!! Sorta. It was really a scribble. The dork mommy that I am took pictures of it. Actually we took close to 200 pictures the entire night, if not maybe over 500. ooops. I think I am going to make a photobook for Will to remember the event. After all….it was pretty awesome!

oooh yes!! How could I forget. Has anyone ever heard of Spanky Spangler Pro STunts? It will give you a heart attack but you must check out some of the stunts. The one we saw blew us away . . .

ANd what is a blog post without pictures besides a blog post withouut pictures?!

Will cause this truck Max of Destruction instead of Maximum Destruction. HE’s a champion and was one of Will’s first favorites. SAdly, he has dropped down on the list and has been replaced by super hereo and cartoon trucks like batman, superman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (none of which were in Houston … BUMMER)

EYes on Will please. This driver cracks me up! He was the only driver not standing and can you see his hair?!! I think he may be the driver Will sees on TV all the time and why he is holding up random fingers in pictures, lately.

ANd of course, here are my boys giving THEIR autographs to the demo cars:

So that’s it. That was our weekend, in brief. It’s not REALLY the end though. We plan to go again next year. We even talked about flying to Vegas for the finale! That would be fun.

We have a BUSY week ahead of us and to top it all off we  have to give Lucas breathing treatments EVERY 4 hours. We were hoping to be able to push it back to 6 today but no such luck. I take him back to the doctor for a followup tomorrow. Hopefully he can get over this wheezing. My poor little baby boy!

Will seems happy to be back in school and for some reason thought tomorrow was Dec. 8th … sorry buddy. ONE more week to go before you are 5. And I cry. Seriously. How did he get to be FIVE so fast?! I mean he is a full fledged boy and everything. I tell him he stinks and he sticks his butt in my face. Yuck.

My son (Lucas) loves shoes.; socks, too! He must wear them at all times. Really.  No joke. When I dress him in the morning he will find them and grunt at me until I put them on his feet. (very cute feet, I must add!)

He leans towards liking the brown pair best. Not sure why. They otherwise look exactly like the blue pair.

Sometimes he even wants me to put them on OVER his footed PJs. It doesn’t work well.

On the bright side he will allow me to remove them for naps/bedtime. Hurray for that! It’s really cute because he will wiggles his toes when I take them off….oh and I must take off the socks AND shoes. Not just the shoes. Silly boy.

I think we will be in the market for new ones soon. These are getting small. I’m afraid.

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On the Will front; he is OBSESSED with Monster Jam — monster jam this, monster jam that — it’s taking over. He has trucks, a video game (wii and DS) and he watches the shows on TV.  I must say that those trucks are pretty  AMAZING! Have you ever seen them?? We are going to a show in the new year.

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me? charlie?

I went to see NEW MOON last night. VERY nice. Charlie bought a boat. A REAL one. Sleeps 7. Details on that once I have real pictures for you!

Ok to start off we are going BACK to the doctor today. Lucas has a little red bumpy rash over a large part of his body. My Pedi friends said “it’s very unlikely to be an antibiotic allergy. Most likely a viral rash or even an antibiotic rash, but not an allergy” …. But we are still going to go just in case. This is our first rash while on antibiotic.

So what happened to me?

Thursday was a day like any other. I just felt bad. I pushed through not thinking much about it, allergies, right? As the day went on I felt worse and worse. My back started hurting, and my tummy. I was really sore and achy and starting to feel feverish….Then it just downright HURT. . . it was a really slow, strange progressions.

Finally I coudn’t take it and was in tears. It was the boys bedtime by now and I REALLY didn’t want to drag them out but my mom was 2 hours away. However, the doctor’s after hours office was open until 8:30 and if I didnt want to sit in an ER I had to go NOW. SO we got our sleepy, jammy wearing boys in the van and headed out. (oooh I was running about 101 at this time.

I got there and they made me pee. Of course. Doc looked  everything over and told me I had a UTI. She also looked in my ears, nose, throat (Sinuses had been bugging me too). Infection there too…. So she gave me an RX and we waited in the car almost an hour before just heading home.

Mom and step dad were already here and we had to chaos to get the RX took off. I don’t even want to write about that. Anyways…took meds and went to bed.

Friday was the WORST day. Fever was creeping up 1/2 a degree every 30 minutes for about 4 hours and leveled out at pretty close to 104 (103.5 or .8 I think).  We got it down for the night and it peaked again Saturday morning. I was miserable and felt like I was going to throw up. My body felt like I’d had a c-section again. Sore and hurt all over.

I was so hot Lucas wanted me and as soon as he layed on me jumped off.

Saturday afternoon we got a call saying they found E-colli in my urine culture. Really? Huh? HOw????

Oksay so they added another antibiotic and Sunday I was still feeling bad, but improving.

Lucas was NOT! He was burning up.  DH had been up with him a few times the night before. SO he took him to doc and Bad infection in left ear, starting to go into right ear. Antitbiotics for him too….UGH

Monday I was feeling a little better … and so on. Finally started eating … Sunday night I think? Before that, just nibbles here and there.

And that’s about it …. Mom and step dad went home yesterday. Life is almost back to normal.

I’ll spill more details another day but for now Lucas and I have been sick.

I went to the doctor and Thursday night and Lucas went Sunday morning

We’ve both had fever and all. We are both on antibiotics and on the mend but I am still weak and Lucas is still running fever.

That’s the best way I can describe Friday night. The play (WICKED) was just incredible. If you have ever been a Wizard of Oz fan you must find a way to see this play!!

We dropped the boys off at 5 and Charlie kept dinner a surprise. We went to a steak and seafood place called Trulucks.

After the play we picked the boys up and they both went to sleep right away. In fact, Will feel asleep on the way. They were GRET for the sitter. Lucas did NOT cry!!! Can you believe that?!!!

Saturday we watched a little tiny bit of LOST …. Yes .. just a little. Not a lot. We did NOT watch anywhere near 4 episodes…..We had to go spend time with friends after all …. LOL

So yea, Saturday evening we were at a friend’s and had to cut out early. Will DID NOT have a huge melt down and DID NOT yell at me really loud. Ugh … Lack of sleep caught up with him……

Sunday we did not watch anymore LOST therefore, neglecting our bathroom project….really! Lucas took naps and they got in the way … that’s why……..

OOh yes and my poor Big Butter Baby woke up feeling bad and complaining about his throat. We thought it was because of the yelling/screaming from Saturday. Then we noticed the fever. We called White Glove and they showed up around 4.The tests for strep and the flu came back negative so now we just wait it out and hope the rest of us don’t get it.

I plan to head to Houston once the fever goes away. My Uncle Billy died Sunday and that leaves my mom with only one living sibling (she was one of six). She really just wants to be there with her little brother. The “funeral” is being postponed due to conflicts preventing my cousin from getting her right away. They are going to go ahead with the cremation and have a “Celebration of Life” in October instead of a “funeral”

I didnt plan on doing a blog post today but what the heck. Lucas is taking nap #2. Go me!

I searched for places to eat while he took his first nap. Why? Well…..Friday is BIG date night. We are going to  see WICKED at 8pm and plan to make a  big deal out of it and go to a fancy dinner before. We usually reserve those for our anniversary, but since we are getting all dolled up…..

Now why was I looking when I told my DH to make where we go  a surprise? Your going to love this part. If you know me the answer is clear. I’m really picky. So..we want to make sure I will actually LIKE it first. I went through and picked a few places and now he will do the rest. Simple enough?

Let’s get back to nap.  The boys were outside playing while we waited for our playdate to arrive. All of a sudden Lucas is fussing out of no where. I pick him and he doesnt stop … about 30 seconds later i see an ant and another and red bumps appearing all over hands, feet and chest. I strip him down.  Here we go again. He’s a magnet for those damn things just like i was.

When he gets that many bites i give him benadrylso he doesnt scratch his skin off. So i took him in, rinsed him off and gave him the meds…which splashed off his gritted teeth into MY NOSE!!! I think at least 1/2 of it went in.

We did find a cool ball  while we were out there:

Yup, Mommy and Daddy missed the first step Lucas took! I was in the shower and Daddy was ripping up stuff in the bathroom for the project … and when we came out My mom told me that he took THREE Steps towards his grandpa. Boooooo Hooo : (

He has NOT done it again!

Here is the video for my SECOND TTT – I would LOVE to have other bloggers participate and link back in the comments!!! If you wouldnt mind pass it along

and a button for your blog post: (again please save and host)

Here is a button for your sidebar: (please be sure to save it and host it yourself please)

This one is almost entirely for my MOM. She gets the biggest kick out of how Lucas just DEVOURS food and wanted me to get him eating pizza on video. It’s hilarious, really. He eats it from the middle and has no shame what so ever. Cute. (for now…)

All I ask is that you link people to my blog somehow so they can play along too…and make sure you leave me a coment if you decide to play along!

So my littlest stinker still won’t say “mama” or “mommy” … I’ve heard him say something kinda like “buba” … “owsi” (outside?) and kiki (kitty?). .. but his FAVORITE. word. EVER. is “hi” . He says it at least 100 times a day. NO JOKE!

Yesterday I was doing the usual.. “say mama” “say mommy” and he looked right at me … put his mouth in the M shape. Raised his eyebrows. Smiled. and said………….
“hi!”
Yeah… he’s doing it on purpose.
oooh and he WAVED for the first time yesterday. A kid at tae kwon do told him “bye” and he siad …
you guessed it. “hi” and he waved!!!
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So.. I made this last night. Total Yumminess. It was super easy too (just make sure you use the jar of salsa as opposed to making your own). It just had this awesome, intense mixture of flavors that just went SO SO Well together. The only change is I am going to actualyl BLEND the salsa next time so it’s less chunky. The directions actually have you put it in a food processor if you make your own.

The salsa we used (our fave brand of salsa .. many varieties available)

Texas girls …. we get it at HEB.

I am launching something new … I am going to call it TUBE TIME THURSDAY!! I want to get other bloggers to participate too!!

It will be fun and simple and a little insightful into other’s lives. All you do is share a video or two of something or someone(s) in your life.You can go into as much detail about what’s “behind” the video as you like or just post the video . It’s up to you.

Here is a button for your sidebar: (please be sure to save it and host it yourself please)

and a button for your blog post: (again please save and host)

All I ask is that you link people to my blog somehow so they can play along too…and make sure you leave me a coment if you decide to play along!

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This week I have TWO videos… both of my boys are BIG helpers (not sure why but they have both ALWAYS loved to put clothes in/out of the washer and dryer) and my big boy likes to spray and wipe the table….who is going to argue with that!?!