the summer rundown

we are in full school mode now. but here is a summer rundown of what we did (for those who are still out there ;)

 

we sure went to the pool A LOT this summer. at least once a week if not more!

 i swooned over this chair and really wanted it but passed....outta my price range :(

 took a trip back home to SF in july. brandon has been wanting to go fishin' for a long time and we finally did. it was windy & cold. we didn't catch anything but the boys had fun.

 our main purpose for the SF trip--------to meet this little guy, evan, my brand spankin' new nephew! he weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds 14.5 oz!!! he was about 11 days old when i took this picture. he's such a cutie! thanks to my sis & BIL for letting us come to meet him and to stay with them so soon after his birth!

 the boys were super excited to hold baby evan! brandon even got to feed him!

 we got to have some time at the playground with big sis, jadeyn. she is super smart & super adorable!

 one treat i discovered while in SF was this flavor of it's-it. i was so happy to have found it at 1 grocery store back here in SoCal!

 back home & back to reality.....4 new tires for my car. we had some more maintenance done and it was costly!!

 added to our list of "improvements" this summer were getting these puppies out. brandon had severe over crowding in his mouth and after a ortho consult, they suggested brandon have 4 teeth extracted. OUCH! i was not looking forward to it thinking i'd have a very cranky kid after but he did extremely well---both times. they pull 2 teeth a visit. i am so proud of brandon for going though this. we were told after the 4 teeth gets pulled out, it'll make the teeth erupting out over the existing ones fall back into place and you know what---it has and his teeth are looking a lot better!

more pool time

 adding to the improvements this summer was replacing our tile. i cannot believe we ever had this! we had to be out of the house all day while they demoed & blasted out the tile so what do you do all day w/ 2 boys?

 have a picnic. and go to the library. and the bookstore. and drive around.

 caught some work in progress. the boys though it was hilarious having the toilet sitting outside in our backyard!

 looks SO much better than tile don't you think? and it changes the whole look of our house.

 random pics

 bryan is still afraid to take swim lessons but miss jessica noticed that bryan would just sit around while brandon had his lessons so she convinced bryan to come dressed in his trunks the following week and she said she'd take him in the water. bless her for taking him on her break time. she tried to make it fun but he still does not want to learn.

 the OC fair is a must for brandon every summer.

 super giant turkey leg and corn dog

 clowning around

 one of my favorite meals

 went into a store and bryan's eyes lit up and said, "what is this?" it's a rotary phone my dear boy....

 my plate would be the one on the left...

 and more pool time

 i convinced bryan to go on a big boy roller coaster with me. he was nervous waiting in line but he was brave--didn't back out. i could tell during the ride, he was silent and scared but after the ride ended, he said, "let's go again!" big bro brandon chickened out...

 summer treat and someone grew a goatee!

thanks for sticking around! hope to be back on track soon!

MIA

hello! it's been a while since i last posted. so many things have been going on. my aunt recently passed away. she had a heart attack and within a week, she passed away. it was so fast....i regret not going home (SF) to visit her in the hospital. she's was more of a grandmother to me than an aunt. i will miss her dearly........the above card was made with hero arts.

the 2 below are cards made with new lawn fawn paper & stamps.

brandon's 2nd grade homework has been kicking us in the butt. we had the whole month of february to complete a biography of someone who made a difference. we chose rosa parks. he had to submit the subject for approval, then a rought draft and then a final draft in addition to making this can (trader joes tomato sauce). ok, so it doesn't exactly look like her but it's a lot different when it's not flat! oh, and did i mention he had to present this in front of his class? man, being 7 is hard nowadays!

here is his write up. (sorry the pages are reversed)

ok, so i am going back a month! yes, it's been THAT long!

this is what i made for brandon's 2 teachers for valentines. a starbucks gift card and a trader joes choco bar. it all fit into the coffee cup perfectly.

i prettied up the cups with a hero arts heart and some red crochet thread.

wrapped the choco bar with 2 doilies & tied it up

as always, i made some for the support staff & the crossing guard.

brandon's monday & tuesday and sometimes wednesday teacher

his valentines

we went home to SF to attend my aunt's funeral beginning of the month. not easy but seeing this cute face kept me busy. can you believe my niece jadeyn is 16 months old now?? such a big girl and such a cutie! she'll be a big sister in JULY!! so excited for my sister & BIL!

she held her own with the boys. except she was trying to get her iPad back---the boys were hogging it!

we took advantage of the nice SF weather and made some playground time.

as you all may know, i hardly cook & we go out to eat often. so ever since bryan can read, we make him order his own food at restaurants. when the waitress came by to take our order, he said, "i'll have the mini hot dogs but i don't want the all beef ones. just plain hot dogs". she looked at him weird and just laughed. i whispered to her that he'll have the hot dogs.

saw this and thought it was pretty. i'm sure it has a name. anyone know?

a card i made for stamp fever's card of the month. it has lawn fawn stamps & papers. i love those butterflies!

a hero arts card

lawn fawn recently celebrated their 2nd anniversary with a celebration at stamp fever. i would have taken more pictures but i was busy with the make-and-take table. i didn't even get to take a picture of the cute card kelly designed. but you can see it here.

i am lucky enough to have local flickr friends tiffany & nancy near. and i was excited to meet annette, another gal from flickr! she is local too! (from L-R: tiffany, nancy, me, annette)

i have a project for the beauties in the near future!

last friday, i spent 3 hours at the pool with bryan. it was so hot already at 8:30am that i told him that he can go to the kiddie pool. a friend and her son met us a little bit later. i had time to read the newspaper & relax.

went to ikea and saw lots of pretty things. a sure sign spring is near!

can you believe all these pictures in this post were taken with my iPhone? pretty good quality, no?

sorry for the long post! one last thing, does anyone have recommendations and links to any place that sells good wool felt? i'd like to have a variety of colors. thanks!

pool one day...to the snow the next

last friday after school, i took the boys to the pool to play with their friends. yes, the pool in the winter... in the middle of january! it was probably in the high 70's or low 80's.brybry is like me when i was little. i tagged along ALL THE TIME when my older sister hung out with her friends! [hi sis :) love ya]

so that was friday. saturday, we decided to take a drive to big bear. although it wasn't snowing, it was fun for all of us. the boys don't get to see snow all but 1x a year! and does this even count? it was man-made snow blown out from a snow machine! LOL

this place was better than the place we went to last year. no scary chairlift!! plus i didn't have to hear whiney boys tell me they're tired from walking up snow hills! let me introduce---the "magic carpet". it's a moving escalator that takes to to the top of the hill! genius, right?

ok ok....brandon doesn't look that happy but daddy is!

bryan was happy. he's holding snow :)

ooops--picture is upside down! who has an iPhone 4s?? when my pictures from my phone are uploaded via iCloud, i cannot edit/rotate my photos. apparently, it's not compatible with windows. grrrrr. i managed to fandangle pictures from my phone by emailing them to myself and then editing them from there. does anyone have any other tips for me for editing iPhone 4 pics?

snowball fight!!

let me tell you having a good, inflated tube with no holes or rips makes for a smoother & faster ride down the hill! see how the blue one is 'puffier' than the yellow?

can you tell brybry was ready to call it a day? he actually wanted to go down one of the smaller hills by himself and he did. at the bottom of the hill, he said, "that.was.AWESOME"!!

fun saturday for us. and we were lucky we didn't choose sunday to go...it rained sunday off & on.

we went here a couple weekends ago, bruxie. it's a gourmet waffle house.

i had the bananas & nutella waffle. YUM!

no crafty cards to share this post but this store front caught my eye. love the pompom garland!

and this cute sign was outside that same store! super fun!