EMBRACE THE CAMERA

It's embrace the camera Thursday. I love this picture for so many reasons but mainly because it is rare that I get a picture with all three kiddos and we are all looking and smiling! This is a framer for sure!

Go check out the other embracers at http://www.andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com/!

Jules

VICTORY!!!

It was a big morning at the Lambert home this morning. My 6 year old FINALLY learned how to tie his shoe!!!! We have been practicing without luck for awhile now. EVERY time we have practiced either Brady has ended up in tears or I have given up because he would always start whining or crying saying "I can't do it" in a very prolonged whiny voice. To me, that is the equivalence of nails running down a chalkboard. Patience is not my thing folks. This morning I had to psyche myself up and promise myself I would keep my cool. I told Brady that he HAD to keep his cool too or else this would never work. As luck would have it we both kept our cool. It was just the right combination of patience and practice. He was so proud and told me as soon as he got to school he was going to tell Miss Kumpf (his teacher). He still needs a little practice but he pretty much has it down. Way to go Bradester! Mamma's proud!

Jules

SNOWFLAKES

It was one FRIGID weekend here in Kansas. It was so windy that the wind swept up the trampoline and it landed upside down on the neighbors playset! CRAZY! It was way to cold to go anywhere so the kids and I made some paper snowflakes. This is such an easy yet fun craft that we do every winter then the kids get to pick a place to proudly display their work. They picked the front door windows this year.

I swear.....I get so frustrated sometimes with my photog skillz. The second picture I just couldn't get to be not blurry. I am only trying to shoot in manual these days, which means I select the aperture, iso, and shutter speed. Anytime I shoot at night or in dim light it's ALWAYS blurry. Do I just need a tripod? What's the deal? Anyone wanna help a sister out? I'm happy with the lighting in that picture but I just am at a loss.

On a different note...about my sewing. I haven't touched my sewing machine in forever. I just did get an order so I will be sewing again here probably today? I miss sewing. There are several things I want to be doing but I have just been preoccupied with other things lately. I think I need a trip to Sarah's Fabric store to get my mojo back. Maybe after Christmas.

Jules

6 AND FULL OF TRICKS

My second baby is 6 today. I sorta can't believe it's been 6 years. I love this boy with every fiber of my being. He keeps me on my toes and makes me practice patience EVERY day. Life would seriously be a bore without Brady.

At 6 he is a true comedian. He is always laughing and trying to make others laugh even if he has to say poo poo or pee pee to do it. He is stubborn, he LOVES kindergarten, is very social, loves sports, he is an instigator with his older brother and sadly could probably take his older brother. He weighs more than his older brother. He is probably about a head taller than everyone in his class. He likes this about himself as he brags about it sometimes. He has a temper but can also be the sweetest thing in the world. The boy has an incredible capacity to eat heaps and heaps of food. Sometimes, actually quite often he eats more than me at dinner. I know as he grows the food bills around here are going to be ridiculous. Sometimes I feel like my main job in life is to have food and snacks ready for Brady because he is always "starving". He loves football and his favorite team is the Arizona Cardinals. I think the only reason he likes the Cardinals is because he likes the bird logo. His birthday cake was of course a Cardinal's cake. My friend and neighbor Heather Phillips made it and it was as delicious as it was cute. Visit her blog at www.colleenscakesandcookies.blogspot.com. He has an amazing amount of energy and can rarely sit still. He is seriously all boy. He has only lost two teeth and I am counting down the days until he loses his black tooth. He has fallen on his tooth about 5 times. I don't know why he breaks his falls with his teeth while most people break their falls with their hands or arms. But that's just Brady! It has been so fun watching him learn to read this year. Everywhere we go I see him trying to decipher words and spell out letters in his head. Brady isn't a cuddler like Jake. Jake will let me hold him and love on him forever. Brady can't stand when I do that. I have to honestly refrain myself from kissing his face all over ALL OF THE TIME but I have learned that I just can't act like that! I know I will be BEGGING for Brady's affection for the rest of my life....sigh. I will never give up though!

Anyway...Here's to Brady. Happy Birthday to my fun loving little buddy. Can't wait to see what the future has in store for him!
Jules

I HEART FACES "SELF PORTRAIT"

I haven't entered an I heart faces weekly photo challenge in awhile. This weeks theme is self portrait. I wanted to enter this challenge because I have been wanting to figure out my self timer on my camera for a long time. This was the perfect excuse to figure it out and try some self portrait shots. The self timer feature on my camera is a piece of cake. I don't know why I thought it would be so complicated. Soooo.....I donned my new blingy hat, put on my fav earrings, slapped on some lipstick and voila-my self portrait. Go check the others out at http://www.iheartfaces.com/. I love that little Nick just had to be in the picture with me!

Jules

BABY GONE BAD!

The dreaded "decorate the house for Christmas" time has come. This year I have been a bit scroogy. This year I was especially dreading it because I have a 1 year old roaming around the house that likes to shall we say destroy everything in his path. He isn't trying to be bad he is just really curious. He wonders things like what will happen if I stick my hand down the toilet or I wonder what it is like to stick my finger in the light socket. He also wonders what will happen if I throw my sippy cup at mom in the face as hard as I can or will it even phase Dad if I whack him over the head with a baseball bat. Anyway, putting up the tree was very trying this year. I know if I was an outsider looking in it would have been hysterical because with every ornament that was placed on the tree he was right behind me taking another one off of the tree. Here is the first ornament casualty of 2010

Mind you, this was at about 6:00 this morning before my eyes had even adjusted to the light, before I had my coffee! After a scolding I turned the corner to find this:

So my brilliant tactic of not putting any of the fragile ornaments on the bottom of the tree is basically useless because he was innovative enough to get them anyway. About 10 minutes later when I went upstairs to get dressed I came down to find this:

Yup, he climbed up the TALL bar stool and sat himself on the counter and dumped out a can of leftover rootbeer on his leg. He was splashing it around with a big smile when I caught him. Oh well. Such is life with a 1 year old I suppose. It is impossibly hard to stay mad at a face like this though!

I find that lately I have been in a little "funk". So, I decided that I am going to make a list of things that I am thankful for. Today I am thankful for the gym, Christmas decorations up, friends over playing with the kids, my 5 year olds Thanksgiving program at school and last but not least...Yo Gabba Gabba so I can shower!

Jules

THANKFUL TURKEYS

I've been absent for awhile! Just wanted to blog about our thankful turkeys we did yesterday. Part of being a mom that I love the most is doing little fun "kid" projects. I am a crafty person by nature and I love this one! I did not come up with this one on my own. I got it off of the internet and I am sorry to say I have no clue which website. On each feather is something that my boys say they are thankful for. I thought they might have a hard time coming up with 9 things to be thankful for but they didn't, which I am glad for. The funniest was that Jake is thankful for Dr. James Naismith (the inventor of basketball). Also that Brady is thankful for time, which I still don't really know what that means but hey....it's his turkey so he can put what he wants. I am thankful for way to many things to write about. What are you thankful for?

Jules

EMBRACE THE CAMERA

Yup-you know what today is. That's right it's embrace the camera Thursday! We finally did our pumpkin carving last night. This year was awesome because my eight year old was actually able to help a little. No, I didn't hand him a knife and tell him go for it or anything. He actually helped me clean all of the nasty pumpkin guts which in years past he would never be caught dead doing. He also pricked out the outline for me to cut on. My five year old quickly lost interest and started playing catch with himself until I was done with his pumpkin. Brady picked out the Frankenstein design and Jake picked out the mean face pumpkin. I think they turned out pretty good! We tried to get little Nick in the picture with us but he wasn't having it. Check out the other embracers at www.andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com.

Jules

GETTING OLD?

Well I am officially closer to 40 than 30. I'm not really sure how I feel about that yet. I honestly don't feel like I'm 36. I feel like I am around 29 still. Age is just a number....right? It only matters you feel physically....right? Anyway-I had an awesome birthday and was really humbled by all that others did for me over the past weekend. The weekend consisted of a shopping trip, a date with my husband, a family birthday party, a pumpkin patch field trip with one of my son's, and last but not least a game of domino's with my boys. It was busy but filled with memories that will last a long time! It is really nice to feel loved and appreciated. Thanks to everyone! You know who you are. I am so blessed to have such a fantastic immediate family and extended family. I am so grateful for my friends and family, without who I would be a completely different person. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures this year. This is a picture of Brady and I on his field trip on Monday.

It was nice to try to just have some one on one time with Brady even though he much rather preferred to hang with his friends. It's okay, I get it. I got a new lens for my camera so expect some "photo shoots" with the kids soon!

Jules

EMBRACE THE CAMERA THURSDAY

haven't done an embrace the camera in awhile. We had extra time this morning to play and goof around before school. Does anyone else have AWFUL mornings with their kids? Is it hard for anyone else to get multiple kids dressed, fed, teeth brushed and hair combed? I hope it isn't just me. It probably is just me..sigh. Anyway....we have been having hellacious (is that a word?) mornings around here. They have involved me screaming at the kids for 30 minutes straight to get dressed and eat breakfast. I don't know why it is so hard for my kids to complete these simple tasks but GOOD GOD it is! I implemented a new rule as of Tuesday. The rule is no one is allowed out of their bedrooms in the morning until they are dressed, their teeth are brushed, their bed is made and socks on-no shoes just socks. For three days straight now the morning routine has been wonderful! No yelling or scurrying around like crazy people. They come down the stairs all ready for school. I really think I might be a genius. This is the best rule I have ever come up with all by myself. This morning we had plenty of time to take some photos and everyone was in a good mood to boot! We played, had a pillow fight and Jake even had extra time to read some of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. It was awesome! Nevermind that I am still in my PJ's with crusty hair and all. We just got shots of having fun which for us is really rare in the AM!

WHAT A MESS!!!

I have been absent on the blog for a long time. I don't know why. I haven't felt like there has been anything interesting to blog about I guess. Is that sad and pathetic? I think it might be. I'm sort of in a sewing rut. For several months now I have only been making the same things over and over. Just the appliqued onesies. They sell really well so I guess I shouldn't call it a rut. I can feel that I will be taking on something new and challenging soon. I don't know what yet but I have the urge to create something that I haven't done yet. I guess we shall see.

The following are pictures of my sewing room or as I like to call it my dungeon. I call it the dungeon because it is an unfinished room in the basement. No windows, no carpet, no personality. It also has dim lighting and is very cold. It's a wonder I ever go down there at all. I do feel fortunate that I do have a little corner in the house just for me though. By nature I am a fairly unorganized person. I do not like cleaning my messes as you can tell from these pictures. Yes, the stuff on the floor is trash. Well, I guess I should call it remains from my applique backs which I guess is technically trash. Why don't I throw that stuff in the trash can you ask? Very good question....when I am in the middle of ironing these appliques to my shirts I don't have time to throw them in the trash. DUH! It's just easier to throw them on the floor. Anyway getting on with my point-I need to have all of this crap cleaned up by tomorrow! I am trying to organize another part of my basement and I am bringing all future garage sale items into my sewing room. I LOATHE (I hate the word loathe by the way and moist and loaf-more on that some other time) cleaning the sewing room. I have it so out of control that I don't know where to begin. So many scraps of disorganized fabric and ribbon remains. UGG! Oh well, it has to be done so be it.

Please note that the rest of my house is not like this. Only my sewing room and my closet....honest!

JULES

MY FABRIC CENTERPIECES!

Do you remember a few weeks back when I was stressed out about completing those 58 fabric rectangle thingy's? Well here they are at the wedding. I think they turned out quite nice. The attendance at this wedding was close to 400 people! The tables had to be simple because there was so many of them.

The reception was at an airplane hangar. As you could imagine the space was HUGE. It was really different. It accomodated 400 people perfectly. Here is a picture of just one of the airplanes there. I love how the blue lights reflect off of the silver plane.

I must say that the best part of the night for me, aside from two people getting married, was seeing my little 5 year old in a tuxedo. I know I am biased but I really believe he is the most handsome 5 year old I have ever seen!

GORGEOUS!!!

Jules

EMBRACE THE CAMERA

It is pouring down rain here today and my day has consisted of a little bit of this

a little bit of that

and alot of this

I did manage to sneak in a quick kiss with a smile though

Happy Embrace the Camera Thursday! Man-no offense to my little guy but I can't wait for the sitter tonight!!!!

Jules