oh joy!

oh, joy....the whole family's sick! not fun. especially for the caretaker! been taking it easy and getting much needed rest. that means i've been going to bed early. feeling a bit better today.
here is a little deer card for christmas. quick & easy. what took the longest was tying that bow!since i've been sick and not going out to get crafty supplies, made this card out of paper i've had for a while. feels good to use up what i have and not buy & hoard paper. card was made from 1 piece of leftover patterned paper. joining the challenge here.

made some more christmas cards to send here. such a great idea and glad i was able to contribute some cards. these ones below were fast & easy. again, i used up some supplies i had. the images are vintage-y winter scenes a crafty friend gave me a while ago. added some sentiments and voila---instant cards.

TFL! be on a lookout for a giveaway soon........as soon as i get my act together!

i have a new niece

my sister & brother-in-law had baby jadeyn on 10/27/10. she weighed in at 9 1/2lbs, 22" long!


i made this card for her but thinking i may make this into a wall hanging....perhaps for her room? whadda ya say sis? want this as a wall hanging? LMK.

i hope to meet jadeyn soon & i will be sure to take TON of pics to share! congrats eva & matt! you'll be super parents!

side note, brybry woke me up this morning at 1am, 3am, 4am and 5am. he had a high temp and complained of his tummy hurting. when he got out of bed, he threw up. 3x to be exact. i asked him (for fun) if he wanted a piece of candy cause he did not want to eat anything. he repled, "no, it's just all sugar". that's my good boy! and yes, he really wasn't feeling good to turn down candy!let's hope brandon is not next.

halloween

how was everybody's halloween? brandon woke up halloween morning and greeted us with a very loud, "happy halloween"! he was so excited all day and couldn't wait for it to be dark. brandon had the plastic pumpkin buckets at the front door 2 weeks before the 31st, all ready to go.

we went trick or treating with 2 different families---separately. don't ask how that worked out....but we ended up with the same family we went with last year. the kids all had a blast. and can you believe I forgot my camera?? hoping to get pics from the mom we went with. here is our loot. there's something in there for everyone! we must have about 5lbs of candy. yay---cavities!
here's my buzz lightyear.

some pictures from brandon's school parade. he was extremely excited!

brandon as a kamen rider. he handpicked his costume this year from the party city catalog. that catalog is such a coveted item in our house. the boys would fight over looking through that!bryan's a sweetheart......no really, he had the underwear to prove it ;)

brandon had a class party with many activites. cookie decorating, bingo, coloring a frame, cutting a black cat and word search. class picture

treat bags i made. i found an online free printable to make these tags here. they were perfect for his class!

right before the kids came into the party from recess, brandon's teacher told the parents that volunteered for the party, that friday was her last day. WT....... really? what happened to 2 weeks notice? i was just glad i was there so that i could take this picture of her with brandon. we hardly got to know her. [she was little red riding hood BTW]

i forgot to take a picture of the card i made for brandon's teacher so i had to do it outside his classroom. excuse the half shadow.thanks for stopping by and looking through all these pictures!

the 1-3 count

don't let brybry's usually sweet face trick ya........he can be a booger. a real BIG booger. i came across these pics from my iPhone. i don't even remember what he did but he got the 1-2-3 count from daddy. [i actually only got the 1-3 count documented here =)]L O V E his face here

daddy still has his 3 fingers up waiting for bryan to stop crying.

last month, brandon got an award at school. here his is walking up to receive it. the principal [L] knows him by name since his 1st day in kindergarten. could be a good & bad thing. his 1st grade teacher is at the mic.

it was an extra special day since daddy took the morning off to see brandon at the awards assembly.

brandon's so proud and it shows!! (holding up his award) he got the outstanding citizenship award (friendship) just like he got in kindergarten. at least he's consistent!

like my ugly, bumpy pumpkin? made a tag here.another lawn fawn card. after making this card, i thought maybe i should add some pictures on the wall or something. looks so bare----- but it reflects how our house walls are. BARE!! hubby has a thing about knocking holes into the wall......... the string of lights has glossy accents on them.

i made brandon write his own thank you notes to his friends for coming to his birthday party and for his presents. i let him do the stamping on the front with a stamp of his choice.

thanks for stopping by today!

happy birthday brandon!

a thank you card going out to the families who came to the birthday party.

these are pictures from brandon's 6th birthday party on 10-10-10. [his actual birthday was on 10-11-10] we had it at tanaka farms. the kids all got to go on a wagon ride around the farm, go to the petting zoo, pick veggies, see pumpkins get shot out of a cannon and pick a pumpkin right off the vine to take home!! it was so much fun despite the 95* weather!! it was HOT!! luckily, our party area was under a tent!

there was so much room for the kids to roam around. just hard to wrangle 15 kids when you want them all in one place! we must have taken over 10 pictures each between 2 cameras and we still didn't get a good picture of all the kids!brandon & his brother in the petting zoo area.his ultraman birthday cake and halloween cupcakes. i wish i had a picture of brandon when i presented him with the cake. he was SO surprised!!

i always love the look on the kids' faces when the cake is lit! the gang

after the party, i attempted to get pictures of the (hot & tired) boys.

all brandon wanted to do was go home and open his presents!

he DID manage to smile in this picture with his mama! =)

look at who was all pooped out! brybry fell asleep in the car the minute we left the farm!

so let me share with you that i had a bit of a panic attack yesterday when picking up brandon from school. he ALWAYS waits for me at the backgate. after i saw his classmates come down and still seeing no sign of brandon after 5 minutes, i went up to his classroom. keep in mind it was thundering lightning & rain and i was carrying a half asleep bryan with no shoes on. i asked the sub if he saw brandon and he said no (i'm not even sure if he even knows who brandon is). so i walk back down to the gate. no sign of him. i asked a mom friend if she saw him & she said no. another mom was also helping me go to the front of the school and office to see if he was there. i go back up to the school. he wasn't in the classroom. i go back down and by this time, mostly everybody was gone. i was on the verge of tears thinking he worse possible senario. i went back up to the classroom and was so happy to see brandon in there, taking his time packing his backpack. i told him i spent the last 20 minutes looking for him and where he was...... turns out he was socializing in the hallway, talking to friends. that's AKA dilly-dallying!!! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh, boys!!!! i'm so glad he was okay but he sure worried his mama!
happy 6th birthday brandon!

we're all set

the boys are all ready for halloween with their costumes!! brandon picked out a kamen rider one and bryan will be buzz lightyear. we were having a dress rehearsal just to make sure everything fit right!i've been MIA planning brandon's 6th birthday party. we had it on 10-10-10 at the pumpkin farm. it was HOT that day....in the 90's!! it was so hard to get a decent picture of them both together. this was when all the partygoers left and these 2 boys were in no mood to take pictures! more on brandon's party next time!

i'm a bit behind on sending out birthday cards. hard to send out when they haven't been made! LOL!

a wedding card

are these just the saddest pictures of bryan? this is from his allergy scare from last week. such a trooper---still smiling for his mommy. never knew what caused it but he was fine the next day. thanks for stopping by!

allergy scare to we don't know what

after dinner sunday, i cut up some apples, pears and grapes for the boys. nothing out of the ordinary. i noticed brybry's one eye was a little swollen a bit later, so i asked him what happened. he told me brandon knocked him in the eye when he was looking through his play binoculars. later as we were getting ready for story time, i looked at bryan's face and both his eyes were super swollen!! we immediately administered benadryl. how scary for us! we still don't know what it could have been. nothing at dinner that was out of the ordinary. can you be allergic to fruit? he's had grapes before. and apples. and pears. maybe not all 3 at the same time. poor little guy.....his eyes were so swollen that we could barely see his eyes!
here's an old picture of bryan. he's eating blueberries and no, he's not allergic to those. i'm really lucky both my boys love fruit!

a few cards i made over this past weekend for WCMD. getting ready for halloween! the boys are all set with their costumes! any guesses as to what the boys will be? they are super excited!

TFL! have a great week!