Trade!

My brother-in-law Brad introduced us to this awesome website called swaptree.com. You can go on and list items (books, music and video games) that you own and are willing to trade with other people on the site. You also list items that you want and the website matches you up with people who have those items. When you've settled on a trade, you can print a shipping lable right from the site and shipping is way cheap. We've shipped about 8 items now and they have never been more than about $2.50 each. The shipping is paid through the website, so you don't have to worry about calculation, etc. You just print their shipping lable, slap it on your package, stick it in the outgoing mail, and receive the item that you chose, in return! Joe and I have totally been into it this week! We've traded old books for others that we've wanted and a Wii game too :) Anyway, we just wanted to spread the word that we think the site is pretty darn cool! Check them out!

All In A Day's Play

Janie, Janie, Janie...was in full-blown "toddler aka master of chaos" mode today. She snuck downstairs early this morning to wake up Grandma and Grandpa and came back up wearing this cute bow on her head! As you can see, she's wearing her favorite piece of clothing, her Little Mermaid nightgown, which is as essential to her as chocolate milk and I couldn't pry it off of her wth a crobar. We went to the doctor to get flu shots and she emptied the garbage onto the floor in the exam room, ate little pieces of the paper on the exam table, spilled the contents of my purse all over the floor, turned my camera (which resides in my purse) on and off about eighteen times, and said, "I want a sucker now!" at least as many. All this while the doctor was talking to me about Gracie's cough. (Roughly 2 minutes total.) Then we went Grocery shopping...which I don't even want to talk about...all I've got to say is, if your local grocery store has those mini, children's size carts, don't let your child push one around unless you'd like to have both of your Achilles' tendons severed.

(Deeeeeep breath.)

After we came home from the store we were downstairs talking to my mom and she said, "Why don't you let the girls watercolor today? They haven't done that for a while." So I totally gave in later, just before Joe got home from work. The results of said artistic expedition are the second two pics...

Quote of the Day:
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." ~Pablo Picasso

song of the day, coldplay, life in technicolor ii

A Weekend in Boise!

Last weekend we drove up to Boise to visit with Andrea and the girls! We were sad that we didn't get to see Ryck, but we're looking forward to seeing him at Thanksgiving.

The drive up went really well. The girls were so excited to see their cousins and play with different toys that it kept them happy the whole time! They read a lot of books, watched Kung Fu Panda and Disney Princess Sing-Alongs (their current favorite) and ate lots of snacks. We stopped at a rest stop about half way there and had a few races on the grass to stretch their legs. Gracie was so into it...she's got a seriously competetive streak. There were some other people there at the rest stop and one guy said to me, jokingly, "I thought this was supposed to be a rest stop." :)

While we were in town we went to a Birds of Prey center where the girls got to see a Peregrin Falcon, Kestrel, and Turkey Vulture, among others, up close. The Tanners even had a hawk on their back fence watching squirrels eating out of the feeders!

We had a great time! Thanks for hosting us, Tanner fam! We love you guys!

Janie with my swanky glasses.

We ate at Joe's Crab Shack and they had these outdoor tables with holes where the shell buckets go. The girls loved them :)

There is a LOT of attitude sittin' on that couch!!

On our way home.

Quote of the Day:
"Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply..." ~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

song of the day, i can't help myself, the four tops

To Scrap or Not To Scrap...

I had basically decided that I'd never scrapbook again. My blog acts as a scrapbook for me now, and that really is enough for me. But Gracie has recently discovered my old scrapbooks and loves to look at them! There are lots of pages of my high school years, Joe and my wedding and early years, and just a few of Gracie as a baby, but that's where they stop. As I've started looking at them with Grace and she asks so many fun questions about the pictures, I realized that scraping the pages of Grace were my very favorite to do. Finally, there was a cute little kid to fill the pages with! That's what REAL scrapbooking is about...capturing the essence of a unique family growing up together. (And the cute kids in the pictures loving to look at their younger selves.) So, I decided to start scrapbooking again! I even comandeered April's cool, rolling, hold-it-all holder for scrapbook stuff! Sa-weet! (Thanks April!)

Here are two pics that I found. It really is shocking how quickly I forgot how my babies looked when they were small and how life was at that time. Grace was an absolutely adorable toddler (if you disregard her diva attitude!). She looks completely different to me now...all lanky legged and beautiful instead of cute and little! Janie is in that adorable toddler phase right now. But it is so fun to see the pictures of her birth and first days. She was such a lovely, perfect baby. (Sigh)

Quote of the Day:

"Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other." ~Ed Howe