Happenings

Its been a few weeks...

First off- my computer crashed! :( ka-poot! All 20,000+ photos gone. All documents gone. All saved files gone. The stinkin thing wouldn't even turn on...that's how ka-poot it was!

Luckily the geniuses at the Apple store were able to put in a new hard drive... a bigger hard drive which means more space!!! And by luckily I mean we didn't have buy a new mac! pfew!


I had  two back ups...so I didn't lose much. BUT it could have been really really bad! Good thing I post so many pictures on this blog and fb...because I was able to fill in some lost photos with those uploads! SCORE! The weird thing is about a month ago I felt a strong inclination to backup my desktop files and photos to disk the old school way. Sooooo glad I did! I could have lost a lifetime of Evie's photos! I would have been very sad.


Secondly- we've been sick. REALLY sick! At first John thought it was something he ate, but a few days later Kynna was sick, then Evie, Pucca, me and then Kwynn. Its almost been 2 weeks and this mom is tired...sick and tired!  hahah- get it...SICK and tired! a little sleep deprived- can ya tell!?


Poor Evie got the worst of it. We ended up having to take her to the er for dehydration. Her case has been going on for 4 days where as the rest of us were pretty much ok after 36 hours.

Waiting for the dr in the er

6 wonderful ladies (4 nurses and 2 techs) trying to get the iv in

 Sick big sister...the nurses kindly tended to too. 

Snuggles with mama

pretty much slept the whole day yesterday ;(

But NOW....I have my computer back, my files, photos, documents etc. And everyone is on the mend. Some of us aren't 100% but better than 24 hours ago! Lysol spray, bleach kitchen spray and wipes are my right hand companion...everything is getting cleaned! And if you happen to be sick (possibly unknowingly from us) know that we love you when we say "STAY AWAY!!!!"  :)

A day with Evie

Just an example of what a day with Evie is like!


6:45am - Gets up, has bottle and breakfast (bananas are her favorite, but as of late, she is really liking peanut butter toast)

7:15am - Evie is strapped into her carseat ready to go on the morning school run.

7:45am - We get home and play. Which is usually just Evie emptying every shelf she can reach in the baking pantry, her entire crate of toys, the toy shelf in the family room and her crate of books. I try to pick up as we go, because she really loves taking things out...then loses interest and moves on.

8:30ish - Morning nap; I clean up all the toys and books so they are ready for the next round when she wakes up!

10:30am- I get Evie up. She gets a bath. Then we come downstairs for a bottle and a snack.

11:30am- Round 3 or 4 gets started with her emptying every shelf she can reach in the baking pantry, her crate of toys, the toy shelf in the family room and her crate of books.

12:30pm - lunch and sippy cup with milk. We read a few books- just a page or two before she rips it out of my hands and pushes another one my way. She chases Emma and I hurry to pick up the rest of the debris left in her wake.

1:30pm - Evie is down for her afternoon nap.

2:40pm- Evie gets woken up and strapped into her carseat for the after school run.

3:30pm- Snack and sippy cup.

4:00pm - Evie moves on to emptying the tupperware drawer and soda cabinet. Usually because I'm in the kitchen helping kids with school work, prepping things for dinner or putting dishes away.

5:00pm - She starts to get squirrely and we usually go outside to play, eat dirt in the courtyard or on a walk in her wagon.

5:30pm - John gets home and she gets some 'dad' time.

5:45pm- IF she's having a particularly bad moment she will get laid down for a short nap. Otherwise I occupy her with puffs and string cheese which will count as an early dinner.

7:30pm - on days where she doesn't take a short nap in the evening...this is BED TIME! YAY!

otherwise it's closer to 8:30pm

PHOTO BOOKS!!!!!

I just finished up our summer 2012 travel photo books. Something I do for every trip we've been on since 2007 (some day I hope to make up previous years). Its super easy and pretty compact- so not alot of shelf space needed. In fact, we have ours sitting out on a side table. The girls love pulling them out and looking through them, reminiscing on past travels and where we hope to go next!

I LOVE this idea and wanted to pass it along to all of you! We use Apple since we have macs and all of our digital photos are in iPhoto. But I've used Shutterfly and Walgreens to make photo books and they are just as easy!

Step 1: Choose your photos- which should already be categorized by event or date in your photo program.

Step 2: If your using a mac...just click the book icon on the bottom of your iPhoto app. Drag the event or photos you want to use into the new book project. I usually do a medium plain photo book- soft cover. And I don't use captions with the photos. You can choose page layouts at the bottom.

Shutterfly and Walgreens are very similar except you would have to import/upload all photos to their site and then form the book from there.

Some have auto fill...and they can do it by date of the photo. So this comes in handy when doing a trip because it would autofill your photos chronologically. I had a coupon for a free photo book from Shutterfly (thanks Jeff!) and just made one for Evie's first year. That came in handy! It only took me 10 minutes to upload, design and order the book! Pretty sweet!


Its also nice as a way of compiling a years worth of photos for the whole family! They have tons of formats and design options- if you are more into the scrapbook look. We've used them for brag books for grandmas, birthday gifts (we made one for Gma Tillie's 95th birthday...complete with photos and 95 reasons why we thought she was super great!), the girls wrote a book and we scanned and imported their illustrations so it would could be in print...the possibilities are really endless. If you have an artist in the family (which we do!) its a great way to make a portfolio of their work! Just scan the artwork and import those scans into a book.

I love having physical copies of photos...digital has made it way too easy to just store photos as files tucked away on your hard drive. I like being able to sit down with the kids or friends and actually look through the book! Old school photo albums just take up way too much room and time! And photobooks are pretty reasonable in price. They run about $10 and up depending on if you have a hard cover and/or add extra pages.

Anyway...just wanted to share my love of photo books with you! This was in no way solicited or a way of advertising...I just really love photo books! Best invention yet! 

yuck

So remember when I mentioned this...well the time came for her fillings. She did great and none of them were as bad as originally thought. They were under her old fillings where the cavity wasn't completely cleaned out. Anyway....

Corynn's left side of her face was numb because she had work done on both the top and the bottom. She was cleared by the dentist to eat lunch just watch out not to eat on the left side. As she was eating lunch she noticed blood on her napkin. She checked in the mirror and it seems she bit and chewed her lip and since it was numb...she didn't really feel it.

That was yesterday. This morning she came running to me and said "Mom, we have a serious problem!" Her lip had swelled up and the inside was ... well... just see for yourself.

Not too bad...bottom lip swollen

but this is what the inside looked like...

mouth scabs are the grossest things ever! And she lost a tooth! Woohoo!

These are photos from after school, but this morning was terrible! She looked like Bubba Gump with herpes! I almost had her stay home from school- poor thing! 

Hopefully the swelling will be completely gone tomorrow... the sore will take a few days. 

LESSON OF THE DAY: When the dentist says be careful; kids tend to chew on their numb lips...they aren't kidding! 

Rain dance

Something wet fell from the sky yesterday. Something we haven't seen in a long time around these parts. Something we desperately need. So when the clouds opened up and it poured from a beautiful sunny sky (love sunny rain...so pretty)...Corynn took Evie out to experience it first hand. They sat on the porch catching sprinkles at first. Evie giggled with delight. Soon they were dancing in the rain and loving every minute of it. 

determination

Evie is one determined little squirt. She discovered the phone today. 

Here's how it went...

ooooooh what's this?

I like it! I want it! It shall be mine!

Reeeeeeaaaaaacccccchhhhh! Can't. quite. reach.

Now I'm getting mad! 

Stretch a little more. Almost got it. 

I got it! I got it! 

hehehhehehehehehehehehehe!

It's mine!

Now what do I do with this thing?