Cohen's first 1st Birthday Present

The mailman and the UPS man love bringing packages to our house. Not only because they can hear the stampede of Ella's running feet toward the door, she is squealing on her way there. Then, she busts through the front door like she's part of the SWAT team. This time, as she is running to door, after hearing the UPS truck stop in front of our house, I tell her this one's for Cohen's birthday. We get the package and walk into the kitchen, Ella still squealing- knowing it's for Cohen. After all of this Cohen finally makes his way to the door to see what all of the commotion is about...but it's over. Somehow he knows he missed something and he starts fussing! But we call him into the kitchen and he eventually crawls over to us so we can open the package and show him what the excitement is really about. Thank you, Aunt CeCe for bringing a little happy chaos to our afternoon!

I haven't posted any layouts in a while...so here are my most recent ones- probably in the past 6 weeks or so.

My favorite layout!

Ella and I went to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D.

This layout helped me get on the VIP Scrapbook store Design Team. (I am no longer doing Design team for Rochester Scrapbooking Company. Although, my work is still all over their store- probably only until they find out I'm on the competitor's design team!)

This was a challenge to scrapbook an ultrasound picture from the Studio Calico blog.

thanks for looking!

Back to School!

I posted EVERY picture I took...they are all so precious. I may try to take a couple more after school if she lets me. It's a rainy day, so she was a little disappointed that her class would not be playing outside for recess...but the she said "that's okay, there are a lot of fun things to do in the gym, too." She asked a few questions last night about what she would do in preschool....but she wasn't too concerned. She brought her baby, and was worried about her being okay (being able to breath and that sort of thing) in her backpack, so I left it unzipped at the top. Then, she walked into class without saying goodbye, imagine that! I called her back and she gave me a quick hug and kiss and then she was off to sit for circle time with her new friends. There's a big window inside that looks into the classroom, so I watched for a minute or two and she was just as comfortable as could be! That makes things easy on me to. I came home and put Cohen to bed and now it's so quiet. Almost everyday I think "oh, could it just be quiet for 5 minutes?" And now the quiet is a little overwhelming....just a little. No, actually it's great!

"last day" of summer

The beginning of a new school year reminds me to soak up whatever remaining beautiful days we have left before the we are hit with Minnesota's harsh winter and lonnnngggg days being cooped-up. Oh, goodness, I don't want to think about it! So, once I finished the final things on my to-do list (for the day), I grabbed the kids and we booked it to the park before anything could stop us! On the way home, Ella got a "last-day-before-school-starts" McFlurry from McDonalds. Which sounds really nice of me and special....but I really just wanted a coffee for myself! :)

Well, Cohen is supposed to be napping, but he's chatting away in his crib and Ella is ready to get out of her "back-to-school-bath." Notice the "back to school" spin I'm putting on things! I'm going to try for a "back-to-school-early-bedtime," too!

Cohen's First Hair Cut

Before

After

What a handsome little guy! He did such a good job sitting still- he made it until the end of the haircut before getting squirmy. No more mullet. We'll see about the mohawk once he wakes up from his nap...I'm skeptical that's it's gone. But, I think it's totally Cohen and a little bit charming.

Eric and I are celebrating our 8th Anniversary! Wow, how time flies. We've come a long way in our lives...it almost makes me feel grown up! We are going to celebrate in style- at Ella's preschool at Parent/ Teacher Orientation...then we'll head home and tuck our babies in bed. They are the best part of our marriage, afterall!

Happy Labor Day

Happy 3-day weekend! The house is clean! The laundry is done! The cupboards and fridge are full! I even know what's for dinner for the next 10 days or so! Ahhh! Deep breath....preparing for the week ahead. Eric's surgery and Ella's first day of school, both on Thursday. As mom's, we are a lot of things, to a lot of people...and I'm hoping to be everything everyone needs me to be this week. And, to be in two places at once on Thursday! That may be a tough one...

Club: Engelhardt

The kids love having music on in the kitchen (and so do I). Ella, of course prefers dance music...so we dance to anything from Enrique to Lady Gaga to The Black Eyed Peas. Hmmm.... I wonder what the neighbors think!!!