My husband wins all the brownies!

Alec is so good to me.  He's in crunch time right now getting ready for a show to tech next week, and between that and USITT he's basically only been home long enough to sleep 4-5 hours each night every day for the last two weeks.  It's been taking quite a toll on Ethan and I.. Ethan's become quite the little terror - running around like a crazy person, needing all sorts of extra attention, being kind of violent - kicking, throwing, pinching, etc - and he still hasn't quite gotten back on track with his naps..  I would like to think that I'm handling it a bit better than he is, but I'm probably not.. So after I put him down last night, I came back to the computer and saw an email from Alec titled, "This is a Gift - Unwrap It."  I, of course, proceeded to open the email.  In it, he told me that he had arranged for a sitter for 3 hours today, and that I could have the car to go do whatever I wanted wherever I wanted!  Seriously - does it get any better than that?  I think not! 

So - today came, and I was so happy when Melody got here at noon.. We packed Ethan up and she took him to the park where he was fitfully worn out.  I, in the meantime, had a yummy scrummy surprise lunch date with Alec at Panera then dropped him off at the school and headed to the library - a quiet place with a beautiful view and free wi-fi.  I spent the rest of my time just scrapping, messing around online, and having a totally carefree time.  And what's better - after two long hours at the park, and some time playing at home, Ethan when straight down for a nap as soon as I walked in the door - double score!  

Now tell me - is that not impressive for him to come up with all by himself?  Probably the sweetest thing he's done for me.  Ever.  Thanks, babe - I owe you big time!  :D 

Where Has All the Time Gone?!?!

My goodness!  You finish one project and vow to spend more time on others and somehow manage to mess it up completely.. Ah well... what can you do?  :D

A quick recap of what we've been doing the last month and a half..

Alec

• Took a nasty spill on the ice about a month ago - he was holding Ethan, and managed to twist his body around so the bug landed on top of him instead of under him.  However, that meant he landed right on his ribcage...  He was in some serious pain for about a week, and it seemed to be getting worse, so we eventually had it x-rayed.. Nothing showed up, so he went on a steady diet of ibuprofen and is just now being able to go throughout the day without some sort of pain..
• Has started working full time on the last show of his grad career, Train to 2010.  This is the show he went to South Africa last year to workshop.. As far as anyone is concerned, it won't be mounting in SA anymore, but it's still slated to go to The Crossroads Theatre in NJ sometime next year.
• Spent this last week at the USITT conference which was held in KC.  {Basically all the theatre techies get together to show off their cool toys and techniques.}  He made and reestablished some contacts that will hopefully lead to some work for him in the very near future.. more on that momentarily.. I even got in on the action, for a brief moment, to meet up with some friends from USU for dinner one night.. It was so nice to get out and see some familiar faces.. much needed, for sure!  :D

Ethan

• Wow!  So much!  He is learning SO quickly!  He can count to 3, and also recognizes other numbers as well.. Knows circles, triangles, squares, diamonds, hearts, stars, yellow, pink, white, black, orange, green, and usually blue, brown & purple - we're still working on red.  I've lost count of how many words he knows, but he strung two together for the first time last night and said "Bye bye, Daddy."  Too cute!  :D  
• Right around the time change, he started an AWFUL phase of not sleeping.. He would refuse to go to bed until 10 or 11 at night - sometimes as late as 12 or 1, then he'd be up again at 4 or 5 - sometimes for the day.. And he wasn't napping, either.. Seriously.. we just couldn't take it!  I don't know what happened or changed, but finally these last few days he's gotten back on track.. His schedule has changed a bit, so he's napping later and longer than normal 3-6-ish but then he'll ASK to go to sleep right around 8:30 or 9 each night and sleep until 7:30 or so in the morning.. MUCH more manageable for everyone involved!  ;)
• We've also been spending more time outside lately with the warmer weather - minus the random day last weekend when we got 9 inches of snow in between 2 days of 60+ weather.. It's so fun to see him running around by himself and making choices of what to do and where to go.. He's such a grown up boy now - and SO independent {not sure where he gets that from} I see lots of fun and exciting times for us this summer.. 
• His imagination is really expanding, too.. Last week he asked me to draw a plate on his magnidoodle, then he proceeded to "eat" food off of it.. Such a silly boy.. :)
• His OCD is also expanding.. oy.. He's obsessed with putting things "away" - he'll walk through the house and point at things and say "away, away" until I put it away or help him put it away.  It's a good habit, though, and I love that he wants to put his toys away before bed.. :D  He also insists on all doors being closed all the time - something I appreciate - especially when it comes to the cupboards - but it's also cute when he wakes up in the morning and proceeds to close his door before coming out...

Amber

• Still just scrapping away.. Designing is going well, and I really love working with that.. I haven't been doing a whole lot of pages since the last post, as I've been trying to catch up on designing.. In the digiscrap world, people really only buy stuff when it's new, so if you're not putting out new product, you're not taking in any cash...
• Speaking of new products.... something I've just started offering is custom blogwear - aka make your blog look pretty using the kits I've designed.. And I kind of have a little favor to ask.. I would love to give links to some of my work in the product description in the shop so people can see what I'm capable of.. If you're willing to let me post a link to your blog in a public digiscrap store, I'd love to do a blog design for you.. If you're interested, email me at stolenmomentsdesign AT gmail DOT com, and I'll get you more info.. :D

And now that this post has been far too long, I'm going to end.. But I PROMISE that I'll post more later with pictures and details of our Easter excitement in the next few days or so.. :D

... and we're back...

So, after a long break of non-existence, we're back on the scene... I finished 78 pages for Ethan's first book.. It covers the first six months of his life and I'm really happy with it - especially since 47 of those pages were completed in 10 days!  I tried to have the site share the book on this blog, but it couldn't do that without me making the blog be found by search engines and such, which I really didn't want.. so if you wanted to see them, you can check {most of} them out in my gallery HERE.  And here are just a few of my favorites..

 

 

 

 

Okay - so that was more than a few, but what can you do??  In other news, things here have been going mostly well.. Alec had a job interview with University of California - Irvine a couple weeks ago.  He feels like it went pretty well, and we should find out sometime this next week if they want him to progress to the next stage of interviews.. We're hoping and praying it works out, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see..  I try not to think about it too much, because that warm California sun just sounds too wonderful to pass up - but don't tell Alec I said that.. ;)

Ethan is just as crazy as ever, and we're definitely looking forward to warmer weather where he can run and play outside - and so are our downstairs neighbors.. oops..

Also - something kind of big - I got a new laptop.. :)  Our home computer has been dying a slow and torturous death - and believe me, it was very slow, and I felt like it was torturing me.. So for Valentine's, my birthday, our anniversary - and any other holiday that might require a gift for the next several months - we made the splurge and got one.. wanna see??

And this is where she lives.. :)

Anyway.. I guess that's really all that's going on here - exciting, I know.. so.. how about you??  :D

Who Doesn't Like a Good Deal?

So attention.. If anyone out there is looking into getting some photo books printed, NOW is the time to do it!  Winkflash has extended their flat rate sale through to Feb. 10th..  Meaning, you can get a 100 page 8x8 book for only $12.95!  That's amazing!  It's like 80 pages FOR FREE!  I had been sauntering through my photos working on Ethan's first year book, but once I heard about the sale, I went into overdrive.. I've scrapped over 5 pages this weekend, trying to get it all done.. It looks like we'll actually need two books for his first year, but at that price, I'm A-OK with that!  I've never printed with Winkflash before, so I can't attest to their quality or anything, but here's a thread with more info from people who have, if you're interested.. I figure it's worth the $12.95 to risk it, but it sounds like they do great work...

Anyway, here are a few of the pages I've done recently.. Can't show all of them, because some use kits that haven't been released yet, and that's way taboo.. ;) 

And here's one for a challenge I'm hosting next week.. The theme was to scrap a routine you have..

Just a Few Pictures

Here are some of the pics I've taken this past month.. 

It got REALLY cold for a while there - highs in the single digits - so we tried to get creative to entertain ourselves...

making jello jigglers

Ethan is kind of going through a naked phase, but he loves my scarf.. 

I figured this was a good compromise to keep him warm...

 

 Sometimes he likes to feed us.. and sometimes we let him...

Making cookies

Boxes make great playthings...

Cookies... again..