Jack Anthony Taylor

4-27-2009 7:51am 9lbs. 14oz. 22 inches

Mama & baby are doing great :-)

Tomorrow...

...we will be meeting the newest member of the Taylor family.

Wish us luck :-)

Random Wednesday

Although technically it is in the wee hours of Thursday morning, I am calling this post "Random Wednesday." We have had a lazy, perfectly low-key day here. Mark was under the weather last night and this morning, and I didn't sleep well last night either, so we did pretty much nothing all day. Sometimes those are the best days. Evan also fully embraced our laziness and watched entirely too many cartoons this afternoon with Mark, and a movie with me in the morning. He was in heaven!

I did get around to creating a few cards this evening. Mark got me a couple of really cute Stampin' Up! stamp sets for my birthday, with a ton of accessories, and I hadn't gotten around to using them yet. I love the owl! And the bright summer colors. With our weather being just fantastic the last few days, I was in the mood for bright colors.



[Supplies: Stamps, paper, & accessories: Stampin' Up!. Embossing templates: Cuttlebug.]
The owl card is my own design. The other two cards were inspired by cards from Split Coast Stampers.

Evan and I went to another WSU baseball game on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, and even though I didn't see the end (the game went to 11 innings), the Cougs won! Evan had a great time, although you would never know it looking at this photo:


A couple of nights ago the baby had the hiccups, and Evan was very concerned. He could feel the hiccups and would say "It's okay baby" and rub my tummy :-)


A pre-nap smile... this one is for my dad's computer background at work. I love his grin!


Another trip to the park yesterday. Evan really wanted to be lifted to the top of the ladder so he could go down the big slide, but because I am so pregnant, that wasn't going to happen. This is the look I got when I said no... He can be "so 3" sometimes!


-E

Love Watching You Grow

What should have been a quick digital layout ended up taking forever, but it's done! I'm super excited about all the digi layouts I created in recent months. My goal now is to get them uploaded to Costco or scrapbookpictures.com for printing.


[Supplies: Ali Edwards layered template, patterned paper, solid paper; prissy frat boy font.]

Evan & I are heading to another WSU baseball game tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Totally procrastinating about getting my office clean. I have dozens of layouts that need to be put in their albums, photos to sort & put away, and projects to wrap up, but messing with PSE7.0 is way too much fun!

Mark installed our new infant car seat today. He also mounted two tall bookshelves to the wall to prevent a major accident if Evan decides to climb them. He cleaned Lorelai's cage & made us dinner & cleaned off our back deck. I definitely married an awesome guy :-)

-E

Projects

As we get closer to the big day I am feeling a ton of pressure to wrap up all the little projects I have been working on since the 1st of the year. I spent New Years Eve deep cleaning my office, and until now it has stayed that way. Unfortunately with only a handful of days until the arrival of baby T, I have managed to turn my office into a disaster! I am working on layouts, a new miniBook about Evan, Thank You cards, and trying to play with my new-ish Cuttlebug (without much success). Add to it feeling tired all the time & little or no energy to actually accomplish anything... I'm getting a bit panicked! I really want to feel "settled" when we bring our new baby home, so I need to start following through on my ever growing to-do lists, but I would much rather watch the Mariners!

One of the projects I am trying to finish in the next week is a cute little miniBook I found at Michaels yesterday. Our Michaels is about as big as our apartment, so finding new products is rare! I did spot a new line by K & Co. that is simply adorable, including this flip-book mini album. I am not usually the type to buy pre-made or cutesy products, but I think Evan will really enjoy looking at his book when I'm done. What I love about it are the animals at the bottom of the page. Each animal is actually two pieces that can be flipped, making silly combinations. Evan liked the octopus head on the dog body the best. I am still at least one evening away from completing the book, but I really like how it's turning out. Different from what I normally do, but sometimes that is a good thing. Stretching my creativity a bit:




I need to add journaling to each page, which I think I am going to do on the strips at the bottom. I am three pages in and only 7 more pages to create! I tried to include photos that corresponded with each pages animal. The front page has a dog, so I chose a photo of Evan in his dalmatian Halloween costume from 2007. Pages two and three are water themed, so pool & bath photos seemed appropriate.

In honor of Spring & wanting to spend every second outdoors in the warm weather, Mark & Evan each got new gloves and baseballs this week. Evan isn't so sure about the glove, but he definitely gets the baseball! He has quite an arm for a three year old, which he demonstrates at every opportunity. Because our winter has been so long and cold we have been bending the rules a bit about playing catch in the house (or soccer, or hitting a baseball, or shooting hoops...), and my poor artwork has paid the price. Just today he took out my butterfly wall hanging for the second time this winter! I have also lost two framed photos in the last month due to flying objects. I cannot wait to be at my parent's house this summer: they have a nice big backyard for Evan to use. We will be spending lots of time outside!



Another fantastic trip to the park on Thursday. It was a little cool, but Evan didn't care. He could have stayed all day! I cannot believe how independent has become. Last year we had to follow him around and make sure he didn't fall or hurt himself. This year we do much more watching & listening to him yell "I did it!" when he crosses the scary bridge :-)




Evan wanted to get out his "Thomas the Trains" tonight to play with. My Uncle, Evan's Great-Uncle, got him an add-on piece for this set in March, and Evan just loves it. I wanted to make sure Uncle Tom got to see photos of his great-nephew playing with his train set:





I love how his leg is propped up in this photo. This has become one of Evan's signature "poses" during serious playtime. He also spends a lot of time flat on his tummy pushing his trains along. I have no idea why he does this, but he's been doing it since he got his first Matchbox car.

Tomorrow is a serious cleaning day. It's the last free Saturday I have with Mark before our c-section & I am taking full advantage. He has shelves to attach to the wall, his bathroom to clean, a carseat to install, and many other tasks on his honey-do list. I will feel so much better when the carseat is installed, just in case. Although I have been having a lot of talks with our little guy about staying put for just a few days longer. Everything is planned, which means something will inevidably go wrong... or go early!

Wish us luck on our cleaning endevours :-)

Layout Supples, Easter, and Spring Flowers...

I wanted to include a supply list for my "Blessings & Challenges" layout from Sunday's post:
Background paper: unknown, 12x12 Text Frames: Ali Edwards, Dots Brushes: Karla Dudley Designs, Dated Journal Stamped Brushes: Katie Pertiet, fonts: Ali's Writing & Univers, Program: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0.

We had a very relaxing & enjoyable Easter here.

Evan was up at 8:00am & delighted to discover our family room was full of Easter eggs for him to find.

His Easter basket was next to his bed, full of goodies. This is a tradition my mom started many, many years ago for my sister & me, and now I get to do it for Evan. I loved waking up Easter morning to treats next to my bed, & Evan seemed to enjoy it just as much.





A goofy photo of the monkey. He was watching "Charlie & Lola" with a basket on his head, completely oblivious of his mama snapping photos.


As our weather has been more pleasant (except for today... it was 38 degrees this morning!), I have been wanting to get some fresh flowers for our kitchen table. Evan helped pick these out at Safeway on Friday. He likes to lean forward during lunch and "sniffen' the flowers."


That's about it around here. I have a layout to work on, thank you cards to send, and a graduation reception card to create in PSE7.0 today. Not to mention grocery shop & watch the Seattle Mariners home opener here in a bit.

Peace.

Blessings & Challenges

It's late, so I am just going to post the new digital layout I did & I will give credits and details in the morning.

Happy Easter :-)

Better late than never...

So I know I said in my last post I would update with a couple of layouts, but life has gotten in the way:

Evan & I have been enjoying our beautiful Spring weather.
I have been nesting like crazy... putting together a swing, bouncer, stroller/car seat combo, pack 'n play, etc.
Two trips to the park & two walks with Daddy in the last three days.
Grocery shopping, lots of laundry, & visiting with friends.

I did get a chance to finish a layout tonight inspired by Simple Scrapbooks last "special issue" Scrapbook Play with Photos. I love the idea of using a photo as a page, and one of the prompts was to do just that. I chose to use the photo as the right page of my two-page layout:


**I love how messy my desk is in these photos! I am definitely a "cluttered" scrapbooker... I love looking through piles & creating freely. I tend to do all of my cleaning after my page/project is complete, not during the process. It works for me. And I apologize about the horrible pictures. My external flash is in my car (I think), and it's almost one in the morning, so I'm not going out to get it!


[Supplies: Cardstock/ink Stampin' Up!, pattern paper Basic Grey, orange letter stickers/green "e" Scenic Route, green thickers American Crafts, die-cuts/felt flowers/mini alphabet stickers/brads Making Memories, stamp October Afternoon.]

The weather the last three days has been so perfect, and we have been taking full advantage by getting outside. Sunday evening Mark called the house from his office & asked if Evan and I wanted to join him & a couple of his buddies at the park. They were throwing a football around & enjoying the beautiful weather. Of course we obliged, and Evan had such a blast playing with the big boys:






We also had a visitor yesterday for a bit. Evan's friend played with us for most of the morning & I was able to get them to sit still for a few seconds to take a couple of photos.




We took our second trip to the park this morning. We were there for about 3 minutes before I regretted putting Evan in long sleeves. The weather report said it was going to be 60 today, but by noon it was creeping toward 70 degrees! Evan was a little sad no one else was on the jungle gym, but he went down the slide a few dozen times until another little boy joined us.

The last time we visited the park Evan slipped on the bridge of the jungle gym and hurt his hand. He was so upset by the injury & talked about it for weeks. When we got to the park today he once again brought up his "owie on the bridge" (pronounced "fridge") & wouldn't go across the bridge. Right before we left the other little boy, who was many months younger than Evan, crossed the bridge with no problems. I could tell Evan was flabbergasted that this younger person had done something so amazing as crossing the very dangerous bridge. So Evan got on his hands and knees and scooted backwards across the bridge. When he got to the other side he jumped up and down yelling "I did it! No big owie! I did it!" Way to celebrate your victories, kid-o, no matter how small.





We are off to a doctor's appointment, pre-registration @ the hospital, and other appointments tomorrow.

Peace.

Evan & Butch

It is finally Spring here in Pullman, so Evan and I headed to the WSU men's baseball game this afternoon. The last time Evan went to a game he was only a month old, so this was a totally new experience for him.

During the 7th inning, Butch, the Cougar's mascot, was in our section & Evan waved to him. Butch saw that Evan was playing with his cars on the bleachers & joined him! I'm glad I always have my camera with me! Evan didn't want to sit on his lap, or get his picture taken with him formally, but he was more than happy to share his firetruck & police car with the giant cougar sitting with him:







I'll post a couple of new layouts today or tomorrow. For now, I am going to enjoy our beautiful 60 degree weather & relax!

you = joy

Ali Edwards simply amazes me sometimes! Her new digital kit, Bloom & Grow, is so beautiful & her samples are totally my style. I "scraplifted" her second sample & did a layout about my little boy:


[12 x 12 Layout. Supplies: Photo Frame Bloom & Grow Ali Edwards, Star Paper Shaped Notebook Journalers Katie Pertiet, Title You Word Art Ali Edwards.]

My husband is home safe & sound. He is so exhausted, and has plenty to do tomorrow for work & school, but he's home & sleeping now. I'm feeling so blessed by the last few days... many opportunities have opened up for us, and it's all because of Mark's hard work.

Evan is going through so much right now, but he continues to surprise us with his goofy personality & sweet, sensitive nature. Doctor's appointments, a new baby, a new big boy bed, potty training, & lots of talk about going to pre-school in the fall. I hope he continues to adjust to all these new changes.

Have a peaceful Friday, friends.

Today I love...

... knowing my husband is safe, even though he is 3000 miles away.

... looking at photos of my son's 3rd birthday with my parents & hubby & a new big boy bed.



... waking up to a little love note from Mark, written just before running out the door @ 5:30am.

... embracing the last few weeks of having an only child.



...getting some much needed creative time in my studio.


My current "work in progress."

... watching my son get his hands messy with paint & foam brushes & paper towels to add texture to his masterpiece.



... play-dates & good friends.