month in review

ever since returning from the national stationery show, i've been a bit consumed with work. i've been working from the moment i wake up in the morning until the moment i go to bed at night....literally. plus, i'm working on the weekends every chance i get. i feel like i pretty much missed the last month of posting about my family and what's going on here. so, in order to catch-up, i'm doing one big post about what we've done since i got home.


the little dude graduated from pre-school


and got a big boy bike that his cousin had outgrown


and built a kite with daddy and went to the park to fly it.


in his own words: "mommy, look! a zebra running with a party hat!"


again, in his own words: "mommy, i brought you some flowers and a pebble so you can look at them and they can make you happy!"


we went to a father's day event at the local airpot where he got to sit in a plane....


and a flight for life helicopter....


and a firetruck.....


and a tractor....


and an ORANGE! tractor....


and then we got to eat CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!!


my stubborn orchid decided to finally grace us with some flowers!

9 months

this month has been a challenging one. since learning to crawl, this little guy has not stopped moving. he now crawls up the stairs and pretty much anywhere else he's not allowed. it was nearly impossibly to take his monthly photo, thus the image above. most of the others were of him crawling away from me. i still wouldn't trade him in for the world. when this guy is happy, he's so smiley and funny, and giggly, i just want to eat him up.


and here's a photo where you can actually see his chubby-cheeked cherub face.

progress

i've been so busy updating my new little business website i can hardly see straight. i've gone through and taken down a lot of products that i still need to edit and re-posted others that i've already "worked my magic" on. i'm pretty happy with the changes i've made so far. once i get everything looking the way i want it, i'll transfer the site to my new secret domain name and swap out the graphics with my new "look" and logo. i'm pretty excited to reveal it all, but i want to wait until i'm happy with everything first before putting "my" name on it.

i've also been busy developing a new series of designs for the new site. (the image above is a sneak peek) they're more the direction i want to take once i get up and rolling. until then, the edited designs will work.

that's what he said : part 5

it's that time again!

[his pronunciation of magazine] : "maz-a-geen"

[his pronunciation of spaghetti] : "ska-bet-ee"

mommy: what kind of fruit did you have?
little dude: a cookie!

mommy: what's wrong? why are you crying?
little dude: i cry because grandma was missing us

little dude: we need to take a picture of you painting.
mommy: we do?
little dude: yeah, & then hang it up!
mommy: yeah?
little dude: yeah, by my........ummmmm......toybox.
mommy: oh really?
little dude: yeah, and you can look at it and like it ALL the time.
mommy: haha, you crack me up kid.
little dude: yeah.

[little dude talking to daddy in the bathroom]:
"this is an important story.....ok?
you go fast with my toothbrush.
i'll go fast with the water
now let's do this!"

mommy: what did you do at school today?
little dude: we planted beans!
mommy: oh, maybe we should plant a little garden this year. we could plant, carrots, beans, peas......
little dude: and sami's! [as in sandwiches]
mommy: haha, no honey, you don't plan sami's. they don't grow in the ground.
little dude: [truly upset and looking very close to crying] but they'll be so yummy!

little dude: mommy, what's this?
mommy: it's a tootsie roll honey. you know, tootsies, just like your toes!
little dude: [examining the tootsie roll closely] no. it's not like my tootsies. mine have long legs!

[lyrics to ring around the rosie] : "ring around the rosie, poppets full of rosies"

[when asked what he wanted to eat after he ate a brownie] : "now i want something that isn't chewy and brown!

a BIG announcement

one of the many reasons i've been so lacking in posts lately is this:


i am now the proud owner of simply sweet announcements! it's an online shop that sells custom photo correspondence. i actually bought this business from another paper entrepreneur. there are a ton of things i want to do with the business. the first are going to be a name change, tweaks to the webite and the products, and then the addition of more "marzipan inc.-like" designs! i'm super excited about the possibilities of this business and all that it can become. so please visit often and tell your friends! after the revamp is done i plan to do a major marketing campaign to get the word out. my goal is to have everything done that i've listed above by the beginning of september...just in time for the holiday photo card season! until then i will be working my patootie off and filling any orders that may come my way!

still plugging along

as i mentioned in my last post, i figured it would be awhile before i got around to another post. boy was i right! i really shouldn't even be posting now, but i thought i should let everyone know that i'm still alive. there is so much going around here that my head is just spinning! so, for now i leave you with a list of things that have happened/are going to happen/i hope will happen:

: i attended the national stationery show (had a lot of fun and met a lot of new friends as well as old)
: the little dude graduated from pre-school (we're so proud of you!)
: the baby is still sick/teething/who knows what (ugh)
: i got me some braces! (yeah, like on my teeth....and let me tell you, they hurt like hell!!)
: lots of business opportunities that i hope to flush out and make decisions on soon! (weee!)
: i'm finishing up my new releases for shipment to my reps next week (almost there!)
: finished up and shipped out 2 re-orders of previous projects for st. jude (phew!)
: i'm currently working on 7, yes 7 different NEW projects for st. jude (oh my lord!)
: oh, yeah, and we won't have a real nanny again until the middle of june! (fun.)

busy, busy, busy

so it's been over a week since i posted, and it will probably be another before i post anything real. just wanted to say "hey", and that i'm alive. i'm just busy working on the following:

about 15 million projects for st. jude
my june release for my "real" job
taking care of a sick/teething baby
in fact, taking care of both kids because we no longer have a nanny
getting ready to head out to new york on saturday to the national stationery show
clean the house/cook dinner/all those daily requirements

see you in a week or so!

tats

this is how my kid came home from school on friday! i'm not sure if he was supposed to be doing this at school or if he did it while nobody was looking! it reminds me of a sleeve of tattoos! i better lock this kid in his room before he turns 18!

today

my little guy decided he could do this....

8 months

my little boy just turned 8 months old. i know every mother thinks their own kids are the most beautiful things on the face of the planet, but seriously.....how can you argue with this? i just want to eat him up!

minneapolis trip : part 3

my kid LOVES escalators.


we could spend an entire day going up and down escalators with this kid! "let's go again" is the first thing he says when he gets to the bottom. luckily for him, his father is very acommodating!

minneapolis trip : part 2

lego land was one of the most memorable experiences for the little dude during our trip last weekend. we were only there a short time but, man, it's all he could talk about!


the little dude with the gigantic dinosaurs made of legos.


and here are the two lego sets he got while he was there. he was allowed to pick and he picked the big fire truck, and then (no surprise to us) picked a street sweeper! (he is my kid) he actually loves watching the street sweeper come by our house with their big "vacuum" and "spinning brushes".

minneapolis trip : part 1

all ready for our 5+ hour trip to minnesota. (or "minneso-a") as the little dude like to call it. comfy clothes....check. cup....check. snacks....check. rusty (trusted travel companion)....check. books, magnadoodle, activity books, leap pad....check.


and then hours later....boredom.


this shot was taken on the way home. i cannot tell you how much this kid loves his ipod and headphones. best $50 we ever spent!

first flowers

the morning we left for our trip to minneapolis, the flowers in our yard started to emerge from their winter sleep. i got out of the car with the little dude and we stopped to smell them and snap a few quick shots. above is my favorite flower in our garden. i don't even know the name of it. i bought it a few year back and it's just so fuzzy and cute. i want to eat it up! if anyone knows the name of it, please let me know!


and here's a shot of our forsythia. i just love this little bush and can't wait until it's a huge display of yellow flowers years down the road.

first public performance

phew....it's been quite a week around here. we took a trip last week to minneapolis (our old stomping ground) to visit some old friends, so i'm way behind on my blogging! i'm hoping to catch up in the next week. i'll start with the oldest first and finish up with our trip! so here we go....


the little dude had his first public performance with his pre-school the weekend before last. it was during their morning church service. his class went up to the front and sang a song together and then had a little "learning" session with their teacher about making good decisions in life. it was so cute to see those little guys up there singing their little hearts out! (sorry for the horrible photo quality, the lighting was really bad in there)


and the little dude during the decision making lesson. he has a thing with his lips lately. makes getting a good photo a real challenge!

the winners are....

it turns out a lot of you visit for stationery posts! i was a bit surprised to hear that seeing as i seem to post less and less about my business and more and more about my kiddos. i guess i'll just have to make a point to write more about my biz and what i'm up to.

on a separate note: i also found out a lot of my friends are lame! several friends wrote me e-mails instead of commenting because they didn't want to sign up for a blogger account. (you know who you are and that's cheating!!) for future reference, you don't have to sign up for an account, you can just post under anonymous and then sign your name if you so please. ;)

and now what you've all been waiting for......

i decided to choose two winners just because i'm feeling generous today. i used the number randomizer found here.

so post # 2 & #7 are the winner!

that would be: puglyfeet & katrina

if you two would like to contact me at lori at marzipaninc dot com and we'll discuss your prize as well as how to get it to you.

changing of the guards

i nursed both of my boys. i nursed the little dude until he was about 8 months old, at which time i had no choice but to stop. it was not my decision. i had an emergency appendectomy at about 6 months, after which my milk supply decided to vaporize. i tried hanging in there, taking herbs etc. but nothing helped. i was able to continue nursing him about once per day until about 8 months and at that point it was pretty minimal. i was pretty upset about it being "taken" away from me before i was ready. we then moved over to formula without any issues. he took the bottles we had (which he had been using all along for outings etc. in which i would still use breast milk.) it was easy peasy.

baby rowan on the other hand is not so fond of the bottle. last weekend the boys stayed at my parents so we could get some work done on our bathroom that we've been remodeling for the past year. (but that's for another post) during the 2 days he was there, my mom said he took a total of about 5 oz of formula. he's not so fond of the bottle, which might be a slight understatement.

this wouldn't be a huge problem in and of itself, however, i'm going on a trip next month to the nss (that's the national stationery show for my non-paper readers). the baby will be with my mom and my hubby while i'm gone, which means he'll obviously need to be ok with the bottle by then. after a week of trying to bottle feed him, i gave in and took a trip to target to find a different bottle hoping it would be the answer.

i found the most wonderful bottles on the face of the planet! after 1 day of bottle feedings with the new bottle, he is now taking it like a pro! thank you gerber for these wonderful bottles which saved my life! (i think the secret is the wide neck which, in turn, increases the surface area of the nipple making it feel more like the real thing.)

happy baby

the baby was super happy yesterday after an extra long morning nap, so we had a little photo shoot. it's so nice that he's finally getting to the age where he can sit and play with a toy for awhile and be happy for more than two minutes!


happy boy!


here he is trying to "find me" behind the camera. it was so funny. he kept peeking around as if i was really "hiding", and then giggling when he "found me".

hello? is this thing on? (giveaway time!)

ok, so who's out there? is anyone still reading this thing?

as i've said before, i write this blog mostly for myself. i'm hoping that it's something i can look back on many years from now and remember great old stories that i had forgotten.

with that said, it's always nice to know who's out there reading. so, in order to entice you lurkers out to say "hi", i'm having a little giveaway!

leave me a comment on this post. tell me why you come. what you like to read about. what you want more of. tell me to shut-it. really, just tell me something! you have until sunday the 20th at midnight.

here's what you can win:

in honor of spring, a set of our nostalgic flat notes. if jacks aren't your thing, you can pick another design.

and a set of our gift tags in a cute reusable tin. again, if this isn't your favorite style, you can pick another design.


depending on how many comments i get, i may be so inclined to pick more than one winner! comment away!

tax day sale!

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