I *heart* deals

Aubrey went to the Dr on Monday to check out her gooey eyeballs. Turns our she caught Daddy's sinus infection and her tear ducts are clogged. I have to give her drops 4 times a day. Have you ever tried to give drops to an infant? Its quite an adventure trying to aim for the whites of her eyes so she doesnt close them. Then we have to play the blinkie blinkie game which makes her laugh but serves to get her eye coated with medicine.

After the Dr we went to lunch and then drove Daddy back to work. While I was waiting for her prescription I stopped by a local thrift store. I got all this for less than $7

I just love books. I want Aubrey to love them too. We read a story almost everyday. She gets very excited and happily smacks the pictures in the books. Its very cute. The VHS tapes were only 50 cents each. I still have a working VCR down in my rec room so I figured why not. She isnt watching tv yet, but i figure they'd come in handy during the toddler years when mommy needs some scrap time.

Of course I wiped EVERYTHING out with Clorox wipes before they went anywhere near my baby. The books look brand new but you never know. I wish I could buy her brand new but that you require me to go back to work. Plus she is an infant.... she doesnt know what NEW is. I figure she'd rather have mommy home to play with her anyways. :)

Are you ready for the CUTEness??

You havent seen CUTE until you've seen this.... although I will admit Im a bit biased. My mom took this picture. They were looking at my sista from another mista Mindy (aka my sister in law) so hopefully she has a pic they are looking at. Get ready for BABIES!!

Didnt I tell you they were cute? Left to right we have my nephew Wyatt who will be 2 on April 1st, my darling daughter Aubrey at 5.5 months and my nephew AJ at 10 months. We went to Breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning. They also had an egg hunt for the older kids. Our babies were too little to play so we had a photo shoot. My grandfathers wife bought they the adorable matching outfits they are wearing from the Wooden Soldier. I could honestly faint at how cute Aubrey was!

The bad news is I think she is getting sick. She woke up that morning with a little cough and her eye is seeping goo on a regular basis. I have to keep giving her a warm compress to help the blood flow and get the goo out. We are going to the Dr tomorrow. You can see in this picture how puffy her right eye was. It's worse now.

I got to work a little more on my mini album tonight! I posted the cover over at Scrap that Baby because well... that's all I managed to get done before the prompt went live. I hunted through the pics I stole from my mom's computer and realized I didnt have the baby shower pics!! Ohhhh noooo! So I just did the cover.

More pics will come soon! I cant wait to finish it! I didnt think a layout could do my kick ass baby shower justice so I did the mini.

Oh and if you have any baby shower projects (both new and old) to share get your rear over to Scrap that Baby and submit it!! Layouts, minis, cards and all kinds of crafts are accepted. Monday is the last day for the call. You could be our guest designer in June!!

March Madness

Its insane how much more Im enjoying the March Madness games now that I quit working at the sports bar. Its only taken 8 months, but I think I can actually stomach SportsCenter again. Hooray for quitting the annoying job I got stuck in when I got laid off  years ago. I know the money was good (so good I couldnt make myself leave)... but I was miserable there.... and it showed. Im thankful I have an awesome husband who works his butt off so I can be a stay at home mom for the time being. I do have to sacrifice my shopping (scrap and clothes addictions!) cut back of my love of going to movies and restaurants and work a wicked budget for groceries, but I wouldnt have it any other way. Heck Im even making my own bagels. And yes I own an apron. :)

Im so looking forward to taking the baby down to my rec/scrap room and craft while watching basketball (after the cleaning etc is done of course) I plan on getting everything done tomorrow so Im ready for games come Thursday! Hopefully Aubrey will cooperate and play in her exersaucer. My meal plan for the week is done so I dont have to obsess about dinner. I can just be free to play.

Here is my latest layout of Miss Aubrey.  Sorry for the wonky scan. The homemade flower is made of patterned paper so its a little bulky and cause it not to scan straight. Had it been a design team project I would have photographed it when I did the closeup, but I was just too tired and it was too dark outside.

I love making these flowers! I made several the other day and they are cuuute! So so easy too! I'll get a tutorial up soon!

If you are into tutorials you can check out the one I posted yesterday at Scrap That Baby! about making your own Epoxy embellishments using scraps and stamps. They cost only a few pennies each!

Happy St Patricks Day!

Ahhh St Patrick's Day.

Truthfully its a day I used to DREAD.

I have nothing against green or St Patrick for that matter..... and I am part Irish and enjoy being kissed. Its the fact that I used to be a bartender than made me dread it. St Patty's is amateur night. It brings everyone out to drink. (a fact that I used to really enjoy before my bartending days) St Patty's usually also meant 12-14 hour shifts ending with green stained hands and a backache from lugging kegs of green beer. It also meant having to cut off the amateurs who always feel like they can keep up with their seasoned drinking buddies andme getting sworn out about 500 times for refusing to contribute to their alcohol poisoning.

I am thankful I am no longer bartending today... despite the fact that I know I could be raking in the money.... and that money could be spent on scrapbook supplies (which I havent had the money to buy in months.....scrapbook supplies that I dont actually NEED just WANT) Actually it has been quite fun using up my old stash. This layout of Aubrey in her bumbo (which I am sharing because of its greeniess) uses several things that have been hiding in el-stasho for at least 2 years. The Urban Lily rubons are probably some of the first rub ons I ever bought.

In other news: Aubrey cut her first tooth on Sunday. Also Friday was the last decent night of sleep I got. Saturday night was awful as she woke up about every hour.... so it didnt surprise me when I felt that the little bump in her gummies was now a sharp little tooth. The lack of sleep has thrown her sleep schedule all to hell and then daylight fraking savings time made me lose an hour. I was finally making progress in her bedtime (which is so late anyways) and now its ridiculous. She is now 3 hours off the schedule I want her to be on.

Le sigh.

Oh and have I mentioned Scrap that Baby?? Its a new inspiration blog about babies! Check it out! Design Team call is going on for a few more days... and the first EVER prompt was posted a few days ago. See if you have something that meets our current call. We will be publishing the 10 best projects!

Spring is almost here.

I cant believe March is here already. Time is flying by. Aubrey is almost 5 months old and getting more curious by the minute. She is rolling around and trying to crawl.... and of course mommy gets big belly laughs out of her in the evenings. Its kinda selfish but I really enjoy the fact that she only laughs like that for me. :) She really is a pleasant baby and only fusses a little.

She is growing like a weed. At her 4 month appointment she was in the 98% for weight at 17.5lbs and the 92% for height at 26"... She is such a big girl. Hopefully she will be tall like me and her daddy. Her hair has thinned a bit since birth, but its still pretty and red.

Spring is coming and I couldnt be more excited! Im looking forward to getting out of this house and into the sunshine. Im ready for walks to the park daily and playing in our yard. (I havent had a yard in 10+ years!) I cant wait to plant flowers out front and hopefully a little vegetable/herb garden out back. I cant wait to have lunch on the patio. By then Aubrey will be on solid foods (we are waiting til 6 months since she is breastfed) and I can pull her high chair outside with me and we can eat. Im sick of the dull gray Ohio winters. I feel trapped inside.

Im scrapping again. It feels really good to be creative. I feel like Im me again. The chaos of the last year is settling into a blur and I feel like the craziness is behind us. I can only scrap when Aubrey naps and I have everything around the house done but Im making sure I make time for it weekly now. Im insisting even if I have to leave the baby upstairs with Matt and crawl downstairs into my scrap cave for an hour. Its good for my sanity.

Here are a few semi-current pictures of Aubrey