i'm alive

although i don't completely feel like it yet, it has been announced that i am, in fact, still alive. i'm slowly recovering from the worst flu i've had in my entire life. i felt like death. unfortunately, so does my sweet little baby. more on that later. hopefully i'll be back to 100% by the end of the week and have some energy to post something real. ta ta until then.

my son : the songwriter

just a little ditty that my little dude was singing at lunch today:

jingle bells, jingle bells
all the way
with a horse, horse there
and a horse, horse there
e-i-e-i-o
old mc donald had a farm
e-i-e-i-o

that's what he said : part 3

and now, for another round of "that's what he said!". . .

[when referring to some newly discovered dust bunnies] : "mommy, mommy, look at all that fuzz dirt!"

[when singing his favorite song to his baby brother] : "you my are sunshine. . ."

[when asked if he had to use the potty] : "no, i just went 50 miles ago."

[when asked if he wanted vanilla or mint chocolate chip ice cream at grandma & papa's house] : "i want va-mint!" (and so, because it was at grandma & papa's house, he got both!)

me + you = the sweet life

aaahhh. that's me taking a nice deep breath!

i have been running around like a mad woman for the last 4 months with a very colicky baby and a business that needs much attending to. (not to mention a 3 year old who's decided that listening is no fun anymore.)

after a rather short discussion, the hubby and i agreed that i couldn't do it all by myself anymore. we broke down and hired a nanny/babysitter. this was her first real week and i feel like a different person. it's quite the little arrangement we've got. she comes to our home for about 3 hours a day to help with the kids. i'd love her to be here more, but we've agreed that 3 hours per day is about all we want to shell out for childcare at this point. she's 24, married, with no kids. the little dude loves her. he can't wait for jenny to get here every day to "play with me". what's even better is that she expects to work for her money! when the little dude is off at school and she only has the baby to watch, she insists on working around the house if the baby is napping. today she washed the inside of our windows without me asking her to do so! she's done our dishes a few times and informed me today that our swiffer wet jet needs new batteries!! it's a little awkward to have someone doing your work in your house while you're there, but hey, i think i'll deal with it!

another great thing is that she's also interested in helping with my business. my current office assistant works part-time. during the busy times of year it gets overwhelming for her to keep up, but she has another job that provides her insurance so she's not able to work for me more than she already does. so jenny has been in the office with us a few times this week when the little dude is napping. (we just bring the baby with us for those few hours and tag team taking care of him.) it's a win/win for everyone. jenny gets the added hours that she wants without us paying her out of our household income. i get another office assistant who also takes care of my kids while she's working! i think i'm getting the best end of the deal since she's doing the work of 2 people while she's in the office!

i feel like i'm a much better mother with her help. i'm not stressed out to the breaking point and have much more patience with the kids. don't get me wrong, i still have piles and piles of work that's stacked up over the last 4 months, but at least now i feel like i can start to make a dent in it.

sixth project....finished

the latest st. jude project to be shipped and added to their shopping site are a set of valentine's cards featuring patient artwork. we designed 5 cards based on the illustrations of 5 different patients. the backs of each card feature the original artist's name as well as their age and diagnosis. they come packed in a set of 10 with matching magenta envelopes. (you can click on the above image for biggie bigness!)

it's that time of year again

i've been known to set some pretty thorough and extravagant goals and resolutions in the past. for example, 2006 & 2007's (and if that wasn't enough, i added a few more later!)

this year i'm going to tone them down a little and focus on a few key items. mainly because i am so overwhelmed and busy with a new baby and a booming business that i don't have time to go to the bathroom some days!

#1. fix better dinners. after baby #2 arrived, dinner kind of went out the window. dealing with a colicky baby all day left little time for any meal planning or preparation at all. since i've recently hired some new help (more on that later), i'm feeling more capable of at least making sure that we have at least 3 food groups covered at every meal.

#2. loose the baby weight. pretty self explanatory. just some effort on my part.

#3. get my office organized. we've been in this house for 2 years now and i've never been happy with my office. i always say that i'm going to get it organized during our slow times of the year, but those times are so few and far between they end up being filled with other things like babies and life.

#4. keep on top of my business accounting. in general i think i'm pretty good at keeping up with my daily bookwork for the business. however, there are a few things i'm not great with so i put them off and put them off. by the end of the year it's overwhelming and now i'm suffering trying to get it all set for my accountant. hopefully with the addition of the new help i mentioned earlier, i will have some more time to dedicate to thorough accounting.

so that's it. four (hopefully) attainable goals for the year. there are many, many more i would love to add to the list, but i'm trying to be realistic. if i get past these four, i'll think more about the others later.

the greatest gift

no, not love, silly! jewelry!

my lovely friend kelli sent me the greatest christmas gift of the year!


a few months ago i picked out the necklace with the circle "joy" charm and the swarovski crystals of my boy's birthstones shown above. (click for biggness) so many times mommy jewelry is so overdone and ugly....i was glad i had found something simple that i enjoyed.

fast forward to christmas, when my bestest friend kelli, who is miles and miles away, picked out the second necklace with two circle charms containing my boy's initials! so simple and dainty! my kelli knows me like the back of her own hand! and how great do these necklaces go together? especially since she didn't even know i had the first one?

if you like the necklaces as much as i do, you can check them out here: joy & initials
(looks like "joy" is sold out, but she has others like "wish", "dream", & "laugh".

4 months

rowan had a half hour stint of squeals and smiles today so i took advantage of the rare opportunity and shot some 4 month photos. his little dimples kill me! i just wan to eat them up! enjoy!

he's going to hate me.....

my child will someday loath my existence because of this photo!


the funny thing is i had nothing to do with it. daddy and the little dude were taking down the christmas tree for me while i tried to catch up on some work. i heard some whispering going on in the other room and then the little dude came around the corner wearing this......the christmas tree skirt. i couldn't resist taking a picture. so just remember little dude, your daddy did this to you....not me!!!

everyone loves papa

it was my dad's birthday just after christmas so we went over to celebrate with some cake and ice cream.


here are all the grandchildren ready to help papa with his candles. (austin, rowan, finley, emma)


mmmm......nothing like a cake that 3 kids spit on trying to blow out candles! (just kidding kiddos, you did a great job!)

sledding

the little dude has his first real sledding experience over the holidays after we got buried with some fresh snow. he had been pulled around the yard in his sled many times, but had never really gone "downhill" before. so daddy took him out and he had a blast. as he said: "again, again, again!!!!"


here he is coming in from his sledding excursion.


and here he is showing me how packed with snow his mittens were from falling off the sled!

after he got in the house and un-bundled from his many layers, we enjoyed a lunch of soup and hot chocolate.

rice cereal

after baby rowan's 4 month check-up the other day, the dr. gave us the go-ahead to try some rice cereal. the little guy likes it to say the least! we literally have to strap his hands down while feeding it to him otherwise none of it gets in his mouth because he's too busy trying to intercept it with his hands. here are a few pics.


his first taste of something other than milk......mmmmmm.


and this is what happened before we figured out to put his hands under the straps of his bouncer! he wouldn't keep those darned hands out of his mouth!