Memory Monday - Happy Birthday to a special sister

Tomorrow is my sweet sista's birthday! Happy 34th Sarah! You've come a long way baby. To commemorate this special day I thought I would take a trip down memory lane (not that I actually remember all of these photos mind you) - I will just note what does come to mind...

One of the first photos with just the two of us. Obviously it is 1977, and we were living on W Street. I recognize the outfit I am wearing from a few years previously. The couch is the one mom and dad were starting to purchase when I was first born. They still have it although it has been recovered. I see that Macy looks like Sarah.

I just like this one because you look so scrappy. You are in the kitchen on W Street. Your were just cute - probably 1978 since you are walking.

I like this one because again you are cute. It is probably summer 1979 since it is at the cottage and your hair is a little longer and you look to be about a year older then the previous photo. I like that it shows a bit of the cottage landscape behind you.

I like this one primarily because of the "knocky knees"/ droopy tights (isn't that what mom says you said?) Did you always have droopy clothing? Funny that we still have this dress too. You are in our back yard on W Street and you can see L & T's back yard as well as the Cr's house. Wasn't there talk of some animals buried in the back yard next door that made us refer to it as a pet cemetery? I remember not wanting to play back there very much. That and their very damp basement that smelled. But I digress. Date:?

Awww. My maid of honour. Blue is such a nice colour on you and I really like your hair then too. What a day. Hard to believe we are coming up on 13 years. I should add the photo of you with your scarf - FUN! Thanks again for all your support that day! Date: August 29, 1997

And here we are just recently at the outdoor Christmas Eve service. December 24, 2010. A new mom. Wearing mom's poncho and a distinctly Canadian hat. Are you trying to remind yourself that you are capable of withstanding the cold Canadian winters that you have left behind?

It was so fun to see you in this new role and to be able to visit when you were here.

So Happy Birthday sista! I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow (although it will probably BE tomorrow by the time I finish this lol!). So glad you are my sister!

Freak me out!!!

We had a really hard time getting Mitchell to bed last night. He was acting tired around 6:30 so I took him and gave him a bath and nursed him down. He got a second wind though and perked right up. I probably should have worked with him then but often it's just been easier to get him up and then try around 9ish when he is more tired. He had had a good afternoon nap anyway. So I started nursing him again around 8:30 and then tried to put him in bed. No go. This went on for a good 45 minutes but he just wouldn't transfer. I then put him in bed (totally rubbing his eyes) and laid on the floor beside him. Another 20-30 minutes at least. He was mad. He settled a bit and continued crying but would not lie down. Drew came in around 9:45 and took over. He got even madder! He finally settled around 10 after some patting, some holding and some shusshing. We went to bed around 12:30 after I had a shower. Not a peep. I woke up all of a sudden at 4:51am and realized he had not woken up! I got out the flashlight and yes he was fine. Pheww. Your mind can do crazy things. Thank you Lord. Of course in the process I woke him up so I took him into bed with me. I then had to wake him up at 6:45 to go downstairs. Go figure.

How can I repeat this process a little earlier in the evening and without the crying and without the panic?

Yesterday and Today wk 2 & 3 layouts

I finally uploaded my layouts to the Big Picture Classes site so I thought I'd share them here.

This was for the Yesterday and Today class - Week One's Introduction page. I thought I'd try the digital template. It came together so quickly (literally less than an hour)! Gotta love those tight red shorts and the lollipop!


I thought I'd also do a paper version and try some of Ali's technique's. I learned how to do the photo strip in PSE which I hadn't done before. It was also neat to use one of my old school photos - especially the big one. I never know what to do with 8x10's! That was a trip down memory lane. I'm so glad you got those books for us mom! I just wish I had a smaller family photo that included Mitchell too but I didn't feel like fiddling anymore and I wanted to use up some of the ones we had.

The final one is my first page of Christmas memories. I like how it turned out and can't wait to get some more on the go. I'm afraid we don't have too many Christmas photos of my childhood though. There will be quite a large gap until highschool. But some is better than none!

I'm really inspired by the design above. I can see doing layouts for the kids I babysat, the people who stayed with us over the years, extended family stories... It is so adaptable! The BPC gallery has shown me all sorts of variations. Fun fun fun!

2010 Intentions List

Now that we are well into 2011 and our first month of goal setting/ attaining is just about over, I thought I might review how I did last year. Here is my list and my One Little Word.

2010 Intentions – SIMPLIFY!!! (blue were completed, green were/ are in progress, black - well...)

TO READ
7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
5 Books I already own
Power of a Praying Parent
3 books from Gotta Dos-Wanna-Dos List
Simple Mom book Club 2010 reads - I've read two of the books and read along with the discussion. The other 2 looked innteresting but I totally forgot about the club. I need regular email reminders or something.

TO DO
De-clutter – at least 1 box/month
Eat at 5 new restaurants (Eat-in or Take out) Pie; Barrie Burger,
365 Blog Book
Family Mission Statement, Financial Goals and Post
Slides to photos

TO CREATE
52 layouts for the year
10 digital layouts
Complete at least 5 “started” projects - see this post

TO LEARN
Canon Info/ Photography I read the manual but I can't say that I have any clue how to go o manual or how to do videography yet.
Sillouette – use it for at least 10 layouts it's still in the box!
Digital classes x 2 I've learned a tonne from Ali Edwards and started a class with Jessica Sprague but I am still not through it
Complete 2 online classes - LSNED ( a blog post for every day), LOAD210, LOAD 1010

Well all I can say is LOL!!!! I don't know what happened but not a lot from this list that's for sure. When I discussed this with Drew he was surprisingly supportive and did point out that I did simplify in many ways (not that he could really how) . Of course the main thing to point out was that I had a baby. I guess that is a valid reason. However I think one of the main things that I did learn from this was that I often set my goals WAY TOO HIGH. What was I thinking? Don't get me wrong, I did do a lot of reading, a lot of learning and a lot of creating. I just wasn't specific to these goals. I think in the future I need to evaluate the purpose of my goals. Most of them are just ideas to finish up on things I've thought about. Many coincided with my Gotta Do's and Wanna Do's List (which hasn't been updated since August - yikes). I think bottom line is that I should have simplified BEFORE I wrote my list out. Oh well. I don't know that I can say that I have learned from this experience. I still think that I am just destined to be an overachiever - whether I actually achieve anything or not remains to be seen. I like lists. I like goals and I like to check things off those lists. Some lists are easier to do this to than others. Obviously for me SIMPLIFY is still a word that I need to work on. And trust me I'm trying.

10 months old already...

and here is where we stand (literally...)

• weighs 20 lbs 10 oz and is 74 cm long (Jan 20 - measurements show you have leveled off a little in your weight growth but are still okay - most likely the baby led weaning)
• I love (most of the time) how you bob when you eat
• you have done a few hand signals - I think 'eat', 'toilet' and 'all done'
• not so many of those cheesy grins these days although you are always happy
• scooting on the potty all around the house (occasionally tipping - yech!)
• pulling yourself up to a stand around the furniture
• still doing the worm type crawling and also the push-up style with your bottom in the air
• doctor visit on 20th where you were measured, weighed and you got a vaccination
• tooth #7 (Jan 20th)
• many EC successes, signalling, ~early~ mornings, and nakey butt time - so much so that your dad is wondering if you will ever want to wear pants. I'm sure you will!


• your daily routine starts around 6am with you kicking me in bed, I get you up and potty you. It is usually a success. We then go downstairs where I feed you and then give you some table food. We then get dressed and head off to school - driving or in the back pack mostly this month. In this last week I have preferred the stroller so that you can get a full nap in it. You have had a really rough week sleeping and we are working on you getting enough. It has been a struggle to get the stroller through the snow though. After you wake up you are pottied, fed and then we sit at the table for table food. Then we hang out doing chores, computer work or errands until Cierra gets home. We then help her with lunch prep and getting snack ready for all the kids. We then bundle up and head to the school to get the kids. We hang out there for 40 minutes playing outside and then walk home. You are usually asleep at this time and stay that way until 5ish when the kids start going home. I'll then get dinner started and kitchen clean-up going. You are usually wanting up and/ or to be fed. We sit down to eat around 6pm and you get more table food. You are such a messy eater! We will then clean you up and take you for a bath or to play with your siblings. I will often try to get you down for bed by bathing you, reading you a short story and then nursing you. You have been waking up though when I transfer and refusing to sleep. I will sometimes put you in to bed anyway but I can't handle you crying for more then 15 minutes although you have been known to fall asleep. Usually we end up getting you back up, getting the other kids into bed and then trying you again closer to 9pm. Yes we have set up some bad habits we know. When you finally go down I can usually be assured that you will sleep for 3 hours at which point I will feed you again, hopefully put you in your own bed and if not ours and then go to bed ourselves. That my boy, is your routine in a nutshell. Always changing and yet staying the same. Go figure.

making some love

I had some fun playing for a few minutes... i got the idea from here where you can download your own copy. I wanted to play with the idea a bit more and here is what I came up with.

And on another tangent..

Fun!

More Christmas memories

Here are the next few photos that I have of our early Christmas days.

There isn't a lot to say about them other then commenting on how old we are are and how we look at the time. I can gather a few limited details from each photo that you will see below.

I currently have our family now do the customary "in front of the tree photos" and I am now seeing how maybe we will want to include a little more in the photo in the future. No offense mom - glad to have them! Part of the appeal is to see the changes in us as people over the years so this definitely captures that but it is also cool to gather details about the time from other things in the photo. Let's see what we can do with these!

Who: Alison, Sean and Sarah

When: ? I can't tell if this is the earliest of these photos or if #3 is. late 1970's/ early 1980's

Where: Our house on W Street

What/ Why: I just love looking at the clothes we wore and seeing the expression on our faces. Do you think we wanted to be there? And poor Sarah looks a little stunned.

Who: Grandma and Grandpa, Mom, Alison, Sean and Sarah

When: ? late 1970's? early 1980's?

Where: House on W Street

What/ Why: customary photo by the tree. Grandma and Grandpa rotated their time between their 3 kids each Christmas and this year was obviously our turn. With dad a pastor, we weren't able to travel at Christmas time so our relatives came to us when they could. Look how fashionable my hair was! And pearls! I really like this family photo. Dad must have been taking it. Other things to note: You can see Chimo in the back ground, the pantry entrance with the bulletin board, and the shelf with the encyclopedias where the phone was. You can see our old tv with the bunny ears (it was a while before we had cable). You can see one of Grandma's paintings on the wall. You can see evidence of mom's creativity with the macrame lamp stand and the dried flowers in the pottery vase.

Who: Alison, Sean and Sarah

When: late 1970's early 1980's

Where: House on W Street

What/ Why: Another photo by the tree. I love the outfit I'm wearing- another made by mom. We look happier in this photo - glad to be in it.

There you have it. Not a lot of details but they bring back memories none-the-less. I will have to look back and see what things were going on those years in our family. Perhaps then I can comment more on Christmas. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I think our next Christmas photos jump to high school unless I can find some more.

That's when I started documenting more in my life.