Pumpkin Picking

Today we went pumpkin picking at Barthel Fruit Farm for playgroup. It was good fun but I completely forgot my camera. Many thanks to Pam for emailing these to me!No luck getting Carson to look...They don't look a very happy bunch, do they? They did have fun, honest!

Milwaukee Zoo

We're having some great weather so today we went to the zoo with several friends. Here's our little stroller convention in front of the "ZOO" bush.
The older kids in front of the "ZOO" bush. Notice there are also animal shaped bushes!

This snake was really active.

When we had lunch the peacocks showed up.
Trying to feed the peacock, not a great idea as far as I'm concerned.

They don't like to be chased Avery!

Hello smiley Carson!

One last try for a group shot of the older kids.
Thanks for driving Mandie, we had lots of fun!

Mr. Darcy or Edward?

So yeah, book club list. I've got it now. These were the ones we finally chose:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Newberry’s (TBA) (We're gonna do 3 Newberry's this month TBD by that month's host)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beacher Stowe
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

So I knew I'd like Twilight (and New Moon and Eclipse which follow it) the way about half of the girls were gushing about it. So I got the first last Monday and had finished all 3 by Saturday. It's now Wednesday and - pathetically - I've only got a titch of book 2 left on my second read of the 3! Good Grief! I think these books have just joined the few others I consider to be my gold medalists.
Can I just say here that I think my beloved Mr. Darcy has some serious competition now. *big sigh* Edward... you can dazzle me anytime!

Need a Tractor?

So here's a digi scrap freebie for you. If anyone ever finds me here that is! :)
Thanks to a little toy tractor one of my sons have, you now can have this cute little guy. I made it to use on one of the father's day cards this year. And since the pattern to it doesn't resize well, I've given you 3 sizes to choose from in the one zip.
Download here.

And Then There Were None

So tonight's bookclub was the one to pick all our books for the next year and one of the ones I brought was chosen. How fun. I'll be hosting that one, but it's not until spring. The book is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It's been many a year since I've read it and it's the only one of hers I've read, but I thought it time for a re-visit. Once I get the list of this years picks emailed to me I'll post it.

Hmm

Well, I think I will TRY and do this blog thing. We'll have to see. I'm set up now tho so maybe I'll get there. :)

First, I'm crazy and rambling. Now for some concrete info - tho reading it may actually prove this first fact...

Starters: I'm a SAHM of 2 boys - a 2 and a half yr old and an almost 6mo old and DH's a dental student.

I love my PS CS3 and photo editing and I'm trying to expand the photography dept. to match that :) I have a lot of hard drive space of digital scrap booking stuff, but don't use it nearly as much as I should. Now I'm trying to give time to creating digi stuff with the CS3 skills but I'm rather lazy about it... I wonder if I'll be lazy about blogging too... Hmm. Okay, maybe I'm not lazy, I just don't get how the other digi scrapper SAHM's (or the few Dads!) out there manage all they do! With only about 2 hours a day on the computer, it's awfully hard to do all the things you want to!

I love to read, and for not being all that big a fantasy reader (I really don't do sci-fi) my biggest reading obsessions happen to be fantasy. But who can say no to Harry Potter? My profile is actually me sandwiched between Melissa Anelli and John Noe from Leaky at the HP7 pre-release party for those of you other fabulous dorks out there who know what I'm talking about! Don't worry, I love the Muggle boys and Laura too. :)
Love Melanie Rawn's works obsessively enough that some years back I actually created giant family trees of her two big worlds. Way too many hours put in there!
Tamora Pierce first got me way back in 4th grade tho with Alanna and I've followed Tammy thru the years. Nothing like a good clean fun read to take you back.
Otherwise, I love my Jane Austin :) Allan Folsom's first book Day After Tomorrow (nothing to do with the movie) was really good. Political subterfuge, espionage, etc are always good, and I love me some good Historical Fiction.

College football, with college basketball a close second, must be the best of sports entertainment.

One last bit: give me nature that's GREEN. Mmm, I just love it.

Okay, that's enough little factoids for you. Maybe I'll come back later and post some of my digi work - can you say FREEBIE? Maybe. Gotta decide if I'm serious enough about this - suppose I could give it a shot tho... Hmm :)

Jeep Ridin' and a Smooth Hat pt 2

My Mom loved the picture I took of Avery in the Jeep like this, so I'm following through on orders and taking some of Carson too. Carson is a few days over 5 months here.

Road Rage Carson:

Um, do you want a ride?

Crazy happy:

The Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo with our friends Amy and her boy Brandon.

The Cheetahs like to stalk the glass, I think Avery was offering himself up here!

Happy Father's Day!

Travis, you're so amazing. Our boys and I love you so much! Happy Father's Day!
Travis with his Father's Day gift - of course Avery had to get his tools too and pose!
I love you Daddy, Happy Father's Day! -Laurie

The card says it all - there's nobody cooler! Happy Father's Day!

Mother's Day

Here's pictures of my Mother's Day card and my gift! I love you boys!

I Spent the Day with Curious George

Yesterday my friend RaQuelle watched Avery so Travis and I could go out for my birthday. RaQuelle's little girl, Sienna is just a day older than Avery, so they have a great time together.

We already knew Avery was related (closely!) with Curious George, but because RaQuelle's escapades with Avery were so extraordinary, she did a write up for me of her experience.

I promise reading it all is worth your time, it's very funny!

I Spent the Day with Curious George

Today we spent the day with one of Sienna’s friends, Avery Hunsaker. He is a great kid but by the end of the night his new nickname became Curious George. Our evening began when Curious George arrived at our house and soon went into Sienna’s room to find some toys to play with. He ran into her room with his arms stretched out and ran straight to the glass princess globe that was sitting on her shelf. I was about two steps behind him and quickly got that put up high before any damage was done. He then ran to Sienna’s framed pictures sitting on her small dresser. So my next task was to do a ten second sweep of everything in Sienna’s room and then it was free for Curious George to play in. Although Curious George soon got bored in Sienna’s room since all the interesting things were put up high. His next task was to discover the kitchen. He ran into the kitchen pulled everything off the bottom of the fridge, including Sienna’s pictures and toy magnets and then he grabbed and opened the oven door. I was about two steps behind to hurry and clean up the fridge mess and get the oven door shut. I quickly decided it was time to take Curious George on a real adventure, the mall.

We drove to the mall in the pouring rain so I decide that the best solution was to undo their seat belts while I was still in the car and then walk out and open their doors and let them out. Bad idea! From undoing Curious George’s seat belt to the five seconds it took me to get out and open his door he had already jumped in the drivers seat and was trying to pull the shift into reverse. I did a quick leap to the front seat and got Curious George and we all hurried inside.

Now going to the mall with my daughter Sienna and Curious George was no easy task but I thought I was up for the challenge. Little did I know what was in store for me. After we ate dinner we headed to potty barn kids where the two kids could play. Sienna soon had to use the bathroom so we quickly found the bathroom. I got Sienna situated on the toilet just when the lights went out, pitch black. I soon realized this was Curious George’s doing and turned the lights back on. After a couple of off and on with the lights Curious George got bored and then moved on to the toilet paper role. He spun it like crazy and the toilet paper went flying all over. I was trying to find a balance between helping my daughter who has just recently become potty trained and still needed assistance and getting Curious George to hold still in the bathroom. I was definitely loosing on the getting Curious George to hold still, that soon became very apparent. I was trying so hard to hurry and get out of the bathroom that I forgot to flush the toilet and just started washing Sienna’s hands and then I saw from the corner of my eye Curious George’s next discovery, the plunger. And boy was he doing a good job with it! It soon became apparent that our adventure at the mall needed to come to a close, quickly. We got the bathroom cleaned up and packed up to leave.

Curious George was pretty tired after all those adventures and seemed to have enjoyed his evening. As for me, I was pretty excited to think I had probably lost 10 pounds chasing Curious George around. Let’s just say we probably will both sleep well tonight and dream of our next adventures together.


After all that, really, THANK YOU RaQuelle!!!

Avery's First Emergency Room Visit

Earlier this week Avery managed to get a hold of a cassette tape case (so random, I know) and somehow pinched his finger in it just right so that it sliced the pad open in a big flap. We were actually getting ready to go at the time to take him to his 18 mo. check-up and figured they could just take care of it there. No such luck. What kind of doctor's office doesn't keep any sutures, at least for just in case?! So off to the Emergency Room.
What a nightmare. After a LOOONNNGGG wait, they finally took us back. The brilliant resident thought a topical anesthetic would be enough (Travis was saying yeah right) and sure enough, after having to wait another 30 minutes for the topical to take effect, it wasn't gonna cut it by half. Of course, Avery missed his nap for all this and spent the 3 hours waiting being miserable, and, of course, that meant he managed to fall asleep literally minutes before they came back in to check on the topical!
So Avery had some local injected and here's some shots of the sutures being put in and the lengths Travis and 2 helpers went to to keep Avery distracted (the bubbles were key!):
Here's what his finger looked like today (4 days later) and I've added the red line where the slice was:
Avery may be all bandaged up - but he's still ready to play on the playground by the day after the incident:

My cake! My beautiful cake!

Apparently, when your child becomes strong enough to open the fridge by himself, you can't leave beautiful cakes where he can reach... Happy Mother's Day indeed... :)

Avery's First Haircut

Today Avery got his "rat tail" cut off! 17 and a half months old for his first haircut. Since we didn't think he had much to do, but the rat tail really needed to go, we decided to do it ourselves.

The before:
No more rat tail!
The final results:
And a handsome boy!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Look at this fabulous cake my honey made me for Mother's Day! It's a 2 layer angel food cake with cool whip for filling and frosting and all the strawberries. There's even cut up strawberries mixed with the cool whip for the filling between layers! SOOO Yummy! Thank you honey!! I love you!