Like an old friend...

...that's what I've become to think of my blog. Someone I rarely talk to, but start right where we left off.

It was our first traditional summer vacation, and I loved every second of it!!  Even with summer school for five weeks, we had plenty of time to relax. I can't say I was thrilled that Matthew had to attend summer school, but it really was the best thing for him. Not only did he bring his grades up, but he got used to the middle school campus, and come the first day of school, he wasn't nervous at all! It did help that his hero, Greg Heffley, is also in middle school; and Matt would get a locker, which apparently was the secret to his academic happiness.

The other huge adjustment has been dealing with a toddler in the house. I can't believe it's been a year since we've moved, and since then we've gone from having a cuddly baby to a runaway toddler!

As of July she's finally walking (actually, running), and I've never been so thrilled to see one of my children start walking! Despite having to overcome some challenges with her BCF, it's actually nice to have a baby start walking when they already understand basic one-step instructions.

In the last few months we've gained another member of the family (more on that later...), and my creative endeavors have turned to cooking! Everyone under my roof shuddered a little bit, but most have been supportive, and I'm please with my success so far.....

Summer is coming!

We successfully survived Mia's last casting, she is such a phenomenally patient toddler! The only thing she couldn't do, which she enjoys, is climbing up on the couch, the casts were just too heavy.

And now she's back on track, crawling as fast as her legs will carry her, and toddling with support.

Plans for the summer are well underway, this will be our first traditional summer break from school, it will be so nice to have a long, relaxing summer! Matt's already signed up for extra academic classes, golf, and tennis; Sofia will be continuing dance lessons, and start Girls Scouts. And they're both signed up for their first scrapbooking class, Matt was polite enough to only give a 3/4 eye roll when he heard that news!

Another one step forward, two steps back

Yesterday was our quarterly visit to Shriners for Mia's feet, and what should have been a 15 minute check-up turned into a four hour ordeal. Her dorsiflexion has been getting worse over her last two visits, and it was time to go back to the casts.

She was a tremendously good sport about the whole visit, considering she missed a nap and her lunch was very late.

She also didn't make a peep during the casting process, but she's always sort of liked it. They're warm and cozy for the first ten minutes or so, and I think she's like that. Things don't go downhill until she realizes she can't move her legs. As of now she has to wear them for at least a week, we'll know more after her visit next week. So far she's only had a few moments of outrage about her casts, she's been fairly easy to distract with the Baby Channel, and my iPad. Pretty soon I'm sure she'll realize how immobile she is, as the casts are about 1/3rd of her body weight, and her outrage will flare again; but I also have no doubt that she will have figured out how to scoot around, despite the added weight, by tomorrow.

Fingers crossed the casts will come off next Monday, and stay off!!

Another busy week

But really, are there any other kind? We've been through kid check-ups (with shots, but no tears!), an out of town funeral, and a trip for Sof to Grandma's for the weekend.

It seems we've been going to funeral after funeral lately, the older two are really getting the hang of a Catholic funeral mass! This time we lost our great aunt Teresa, the last of that generation in my husband's family. We will miss her a great deal.

On the home front, I've been trying to continue work on getting the house "done," which basically has involved painting, hanging things on walls, and generally driving my poor husband nuts! And also working more on getting through my stash of scrapbook kits, with a fair amount of success. I've decided to grab a kit at random, and just work through it until it's used up.

I'm almost done with this kit, there were a few other layouts done with it, and I'll be working on cards this afternoon. And with the weather being gray and dismal, I'm looking forward to having a lot of creativity time this weekend!

My dirty scrappy secret....

...though I love this hobby, in the last year I really haven't had the time I would like to create. Sadly, each purple bag represents a monthly kit, waiting to be used. I guess their only consolation is how pretty they look, waiting to be used.

My very secret stash, my JB stash. Now that my craft room is completely cleared out, and I have a table space to work on, I might be able to work through this stash.

Small Creative Steps

One of the baby's favorite activities is wandering the aisles of Lowe's in the morning. I'm not sure if it's the music that's played, or what, but even in the foulest mood she's happier wandering around their appliances, electrical and construction. In our wanderings I found fabulous outlet/switch covers, and what a great way to spruce things up.

I get so frustrated when this happens, you take a picture of something really cool, and the result doesn't do reality justice! The rising sun last night was enormous, and the boy wanted a picture of himself pointing to it. You'll have to trust me that it was much bigger in person!

Progress!

Time has flown since last summer, we've been working hard to make our a new house a home. This deck was the last bit of the backyard that needed to be done, and it's such a relief to have it finished! Sofia, the ham that she is, loves the stage-like quality of the deck, and is furious that we've since added furniture. 

Happily, we've not only made progress on the home front, but Mia has made wonderful progress with her feet. She's moved into real shoes for a few hours every day, and hopefully she'll be walking soon!

Now I just need to catch up on my crafty projects, things in that regard are incredibly behind!