Welcome Gracelyn Diane to the world!

Congratulations to the Johnson Family (friends of Kenny's from college), Melanie, Greg and Big Brother Jeffrey. They welcomed a baby girl into their family on October 26 at 3:37pm. She weighted 7lbs 9oz, and was 19.5 inches long. She even scored a perfect 10 on the apgar!

We wish the family tons of rest and an easy adjustment to life with two kiddos at home!

Journey To Director

As some of you already know I'm a Consultant for a scrapbooking and stamping company called Close To My Heart. I've been doing this for over 2 years as a "side gig". I joined the company in California after attending a gathering and falling in love with the products. I had scrapbooked a little here and there before attending the gathering and had really wanted to get into cardmaking at the time. Now I'd consider scrapbooking, cardmaking, altering, etc., a huge passion and hobby of mine. As well as a business that I would like to see grow.

Recently CTMH has started a 12 month program called Journey To Director. I'm currently a Manager. Your title is given by the number of "downlines" you have in your "unit". I currently have 4 downlines, but need to have 20 to become a Director. This means growing my business by leaps and bounds. Which also means having the time to do that.

The past month I've developed a new schedule that has helped me a lot to focus on my goals of growing my CTMH business. I still haven't found quite enough time in my schedule that I need, but with time I think it will come (as Shane gets older).

Mondays and Wednesdays (during nap time and evenings) -- I work on CTMH business
Tuesdays and Thursdays (during nap time and evenings) -- I work on house work
Fridays (in the evenings) -- Date Night for Kenny and I
Saturdays and Sundays -- Family Time, CTMH Time and Personal Time

CTMH has lots of great perks as a consultant. One of them is each year you can earn an incentive trip/cruise. The next one is in 2010. I would LOVE to earn this cruise for Kenny and I. It will require a lot of hard work and time, but it's a goal I'd love to achieve.

How can you help me out?? If you know of someone interested in scrapbooking, cardmaking, or stamping I'd love to let them know what CTMH has to offer. If you yourself are interested, then I'd love to book a Home Gathering for you where you can earn some FREE products from CTMH. I'll also take any support, positive thoughts and prayers, too as I work along this Journey To Director.

November's Craft Club Project: Acrylic Album

November's Craft Club project is at my house this time. I've selected an Acrylic Album project. I really like how the album turned out and am excited to have every one make theirs. Each person will be using different paper, so it will be neat to see each individual completed album.

Pumpkin Carvin' and Paintin'

We got the pumpkins all carved/painted this morning. Shane got to paint his and "help" Mom and Dad with theirs. You'll notice in the pictures he is painting with his left hand. I swore he was going to be right handed, he did everything right handed, until this week, he now does everything left handed. Guess he is just trying both options out.

We also headed to a friends Halloween party this evening. Here is a sneak peek of Shane's Halloween costume.

Shane Update

We seemed to have settled into our new routine as of September. With MOPS, Toddler Group and work, we are keeping pretty busy, but still have 3 full free days to ourselves to do whatever Shane and I want (errands, clean the house, visit friends, and have some fun).

Shane is now 16 months old and changing every day. Words are coming at a steady pace in his own language that Mom and Dad can sometimes catch onto. He is super super curious. Pointing and asking what everything is. His two favorite things in the world right now are balloons and diggers (ie: anything construction wise, tractor, bulldozer, crane, etc). He can spot a balloon or digger a mile away. Driving by a car lot (tons of balloons) or construction site is the highlight of his day.

He is really adjusting to Toddler Group. He loves painting, glue and singing the songs at circle time. He even likes it when we do the songs at home. He is also starting to catch onto the routine of Toddler group. It just amazes me to see him pick things up so quickly (ie: snack time, bubble time, circle time, clean up time, etc).

MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) still isn't going so well. He is still crying during the majority of his 2 hours in the nursery. We'll keep sticking it out though.

His list of words (some he hasn't said in a while, but did at one point and many do not actually sound much like the word, but we know what it means):
Dada -- he doesn't use this much currently
Mama -- he doesn't use this much currently
Dog = "do"
Up = I can't even explain this sound, but it's always the same
Hot = "ot"...he uses hot for cold things too, we are working on that one.
Digger = "di"
Hi
Duck = "du"

Grandma and Grandpa Hussey got him his Christmas present a little early this year. He has been into coloring and he can now do it on his own little table and chair set! Lucky little boy he is!

Pumpkin Patch '08

We took Shane to the pumpkin patch today. It was his 2nd time to a pumpkin patch, but he wasn't doing much last year when we took him besides sleeping. We went to one out in Snohomish called Craven. Last year we went to The Farm. I thought it was going to be really busy, but it turned out to be a small low key crowd. We visited the petting zoo which made up of some birds, caged kittens, caged bunnies and a large fake donkey and sheep. He was really scared of the two stuffed animals and loved the birds.

We then grabbed a wagon and headed out to the pumpkin patch where we discovered Shane was scared of the pumpkins. Yes....he was scared of the plant part of the pumpkin and not so sure about the pumpkins themselves. He was much happier just riding in the wagon. He warmed up to the patch idea a little bit and we all got ourselves some pumpkins to take home.






Finally, we spent some time wondering the farm checking out the tractor (a HUGE hit), hiding in the pirate ship and sitting in a boat.


Shane at the pumpkin patch last year. Gosh...is it even the same kid?!

Doggie Day Spa

Sadie and Dodger spent the afternoon at Petsmart getting all prettied up. I swore that I would never have their coats cut really really short since that isn't how a Golden is suppose to be groomed. But I had them cut really really short. I just couldn't take all the long shedding hair and with the wet weather coming it's extra hard with long tails and feathers, etc. We think they look pretty good though and smell tons better. I even think they like it.

BEFORE


AFTER

Craft Club

My wonderful neighbor/friend, Julie, created a craft club. Similar to a book club, but instead we do a craft. We created our first project last night....the Star. Julie has made a couple of these already and we've all really wanted to get our hands on one, too. I've been anticipating this night for weeks now! It was a very successful evening with everyone finishing their stars. It now hangings beautifully in our living room.

Next month it's here and we'll be creating an Acrylic Mini Album. The craft club is accepting new members if you'd like to join.

First week of work.

We made it through our first week of work. Our 1st day was Tuesday and Shane sure put me through the ringer. He decided that napping in the morning just wasn't something he wanted to do, instead he wanted to fall asleep in the car on the way to work. We were early so he got to sleep in the car for about 45 minutes. When I tried to move him into the house to continue to sleep he woke up. Their house isn't Shane proofed so I spent a large amount of my time making sure he didn't destroy anything (his new nickname is Destructo). As sweet little Dahlia watched Shane in amazement. Their personalities are on the opposite ends of the spectrum!! He did take another brief nap there which may have been the only thing that got me through the 4 hours. Both Dahlia's Mom and Dad mentioned how active he was and how fast he moved. They have NO idea!

Friday was much better thank goodness. We had preschool in the morning with only one melt down from my kiddo. About half way through he decided he was done with preschool and wanted to leave. He stood over by the door banging on it. He stayed awake until we got to work and went straight to the pack and play and took a 2 hour nap! What a treat for me and Dahlia. She is a breath of fresh air. She'll sit in my lap and listen to book after book and we even looked through a whole Pottery Barn catalog together. She didn't tear any pages out or scream for me to do something else or whine for one second.

I wonder if her parents would notice if I left Shane there and took Dahlia home with me?