And in other news pigs were actually seen flying over Susan's house!

In a rare occurance (especially since I became pregnant!) I actually cooked some food! I KNOW....it's craaaaaaazy!!! I have been wanting to make these yummy looking muffin thingy's on TASTEBUDS blog. The official name is not muffin thingy's it is in fact CINNAMON HEAVEN which is a perfect name for these! The girls and Bri just sat patiently waiting for me to whip these up, every few seconds asking me "are they ready?". G was especially excited to see the blog pics of the muffins and to know that her beloved "Anne-Boree" (like Gymboree) had made them first!
They were yummmmmmmy! And I took the advice of Tastebuds and did not have one moment of guilt over putting a warm cinnoman heaven in my mouth :)

And to top off my cooking weekend I also whipped up some fresh salsa! Dearest Vanessa who always supplies me with excellent conversation and food made some salsa last week and sent some home with me. It was so freaking yummy I ate the whole bowl, Bri kept trying to get in there with a chip but let me tell you I was quite clever at boxing him out of the action. When something tastes good and does not threaten to reappear in the toilet bowl or barf bucket I'm going to eat it until the plate is clean!
I called her the next day to order a few gallons of this creation, she gave me the recipe instead *snicker*. Now apparently the anaheim peppers are not as hot so I used these since Bri is not a spicy salsa fan. It tastes super yummy the next day after it has been soaking in its' own goo over night. I'm wondering what it would taste like with regular tomatoes? Hmmmm perhaps I'll have to try this out mwahahahaha.
Vanessa's Salsa
7 Roma tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c cilantro
2 serrano or anaheim peppers
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lime (juice)
1/4 of a medium onion
Chop 'em, mix 'em up, let 'em sit, eat 'em with chips. (All measurements approximate and changeable to taste).

And in one final joyful surprise today....better grab the big puffy coat and hat and bundle up tight....




MEMO TO WINTER.....ENOUGH ALREADY.....GO AWAY.....AREN'T YOU TIRED....DON'T YOU NEED A BREAK TOO?.....FEEL FREE TO SIT DOWN, HAVE A CUP OF JOE, PUT YOUR FEET UP AND REST UNTIL DECEMBER.....WE PROMISE WE WON'T FORGET ABOUT YOU!

You Can Just Feel the Love

Me: "Can you give your sister a kiss?"
G: "Okay!"
Little One: "NO WAY!!!!"

Spring Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo

So we are now on Spring break, which is slightly over a week. I suggested that perhaps I should take the girls to Florida where we could get into some GGW trouble but Bri said no way so home we shall stay.
This is the first official day of our break and I have to say the girls were quite marvelous. They played so well together, spending some time outside as well as inside. Of course during part of their intense game of "Barbies getting dressed to go to Hawaii" I had to pop in with my camera and get some pictures.
You can see from the pictures that it isn't easy picking the correct wardrobe for such a trip, you can also see how dangerous going through customs can be....occasionally perfectly healthy travelers can and do lose legs.








I am also in process of re-decorating for Spring. I am in that restless phase where I need different colors around, different textures, new photographs etc. I started this weekend with the front room, one of my favorite rooms in the house.
I informed Brian that I had introduced a new color into the mix....he stared at me with a look that said "I know I should care about this revelation but I don't know what the heck she is talking about?"
The new color is green! Not a luck-o-the-irish emerald green but a more chartruese green.




I also received these wonderful flowers from Bri's mom. Wouldn't it be great to be like Elton John and have fresh flowers delivered everyday to freshen up your home! Right now I'm pretending that this is todays delivery ....

I've also started adding new photographs like this fantastic pic of my dad while he was in the Navy! We have very few photos of him as a youngster so to receive any photos of him is a score! I placed it in this rustic frame that I have never found a use for and then used a new pic of my parents as a backdrop. I love how you can see it as then and now. G talked to my mom today on the phone and said "Mom put a pic of Gramps up when he was young. Wow, he's not as young as he used to be!"

I also framed one of my personal photos that I took last year of some poppies in my neighbors yard. I love the bright colors, I can spot it clear across the room! Eventually I want to have it framed in a large frame with a wide mat.

*original print of "POPPY" By Susan

I've added some new scents as well, spring scents with a grapefruit and passionfruit diffuser. This morning when I walked by the room I had to back up and do a double take it made my eyes and senses sparkle!
Next....on to the kitchen!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! We set out today to take some shots in the Easter dresses so I wouldn't have to put everyone on edge early tomorrow morning trying to get pictures before we ran out the door!
It is nice to see some smiley girls up and out of their sick beds :) I have to say, I haven't done an official "photo shoot" like this for awhile and PHEW it wore me out, I even had Bri along to help and I was exhausted!
I hope everybody has a wonderful Easter, I've been trying to impart the meaning of Easter to the girls beyond the "we get candy and it's about Spring!!" answer. Hopefully some of it will stick.

What do to while sick.....hmmmmmmm

SHOP!!!!
I needed something to brighten up my time spent here in the confines of my own home so of course where is the best place to to find such things.....ETSY. Ooooooh I love that site so much I just wanna hug my computer screen everytime I am visitng!!
Today I purchased this fantastic photo (shown above) from THIS SHOP . I am completely fascinated by her work with miniatures but especially with this picture! I plan to give it a nice little mat and framed home when it arrives and put it in a place where I will see it everyday!
I also did a little shoe shopping. I am addicted to shoes. It honestly could be a problem....especially when I buy them and then leave them in the closet in their boxes for awhile just admiring them before I dare break them out of the box and wear them. I will have to post pics of the shoes later as they are stinkin' cute and also very comfortable. I rarely buy shoes for anything other than the aesthetic quality so to have them come and actually be comfortable is a BONUS.

Does anybody else have something they LOVE to purchase to make them hap hap happy!?

As we slowly recoup I am bringing up the rear of the family illness. I've been sleeping when I can get it and finsihing up my Z pack. As we coast into week 26 of the pregnancy I continue to grab for anything suitable to hold vomit when it hits at random times. I have to say there are days that I'm not sure I could make it if it wasn't for the kindness of friends and family. In my mind it is already June and I'm days away from giving birth.....that can have it's upsides and downsides. But so far it is keeping me going!

I've had to completely put the photography on hold. I just can't see my way out of the sickness to think about scheduling any appointments. I will try to start back up in the fall, I'm so sorry to all of my cute clients! I am missing seeing those kids grow :)

Well it's off to bed now, I've just got to beat this thing before the week is up!

P-N-E-U-M-O-N-I-A

**(feel free to sing out the title to the Gwen Stefani song Hollabeck Girl...B-A-N-A-N-A-S..)

I honestly think I may have to eat my words and declare my father-in-law the most clever of all men? We could honestly be the "sickest people" in the world!
We found out last night that dearest G has pneumonia. Her fever was running low grade all week and she just didn't seem to be getting better so we finally took her into the Dr. and sure enough that is what she diagnosed her with. She is now on a Z pack and will hopefully be perking up in the next few days. I am also going to be on a Z pack soon. I called into my OBGYN and described the pain and misery I am going through and she decided that a Z pack could clear up some of what ails me.

A quick note on illness and motherhood....first of all it never fails that when I am sick and really down and out Bri doesn't seem to think I am doing to poorly. I hear him on the phone telling people "well she might be sick" as I'm lying in bed hacking up a lung with a raging fever and 400 used kleenex piled around me. But when he is sick.....OH MY GOSH HAVE AN AMBULANCE STANDING BY!!!!! And a husband will NEVER know what is like to be so so so so sick with two sick children and to have someone say to him as he comes to the doorway of the sickbed with briefcase in hand a perky bounce in his step "Okay well I'll see around 6:00 p.m.!"
The last time he was sick with the girls I was running around care taking all three of them, while he slept the sleep of the dead on the couch. In between I was barfing in anything available to hold it and still trying to run the house. I asked him "now how would it be right now if I said "okay I'll see you after work, good luck today!" but he just glared at me and rolled over to go back to sleep!

I'm not complaining about the mom job, I love the mom job and I know the reason that I am the mom and he is the dad is because he could never be the mom!! He would have checked himself into an insane asylum years ago. BUT a little pretend sympathy goes A LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNG way!! Just try to turn the corners of your mouth down a little, or say "I'm sorry you are feeling so lousy" or even lie and say "I will do my best to get home early and try and help." ANYTHING but what you usually do!!

Okay, that is enough of a rant for today, or at least for the 12:00 o'clock hour :)
Happy Friday

A True Companion

In cases of illness there is nothing better than a little dog to keep you company. The way he curls up by your head, stays close by your side throughout the day. Sleeping when you sleep, entertaining you by tossing used kleenex all over the bed, and then curling up again by your side.
Most people don't even know we have a dog. If they have heard of this so called "dog" I speak of they haven't seen him!
Cody was my first baby and until June has been my one and only son! In December he turned a frisky ten years old.
From the time I brought him home he was slightly quirky. I would go from the bedroom to the bathroom and he would sit in the bedroom and cry until I came back and got him. It was evident quite early on that he wasn't really a fan of strangers. He had some insecurity issues (such as the having to be with me at all times the first month he came to live with us.) I had to take him to "doggie day care" every day for a month while I was at work. Otherwise he would sit in the condo and scream like a woman. I would drop him off before 7:00 a.m. and pick him up at 4:00 ish. He was the size of a tin can so I'm sure being so small and having people always want to pet him is intimidating to a tiny dog, and as he grew slightly larger he decided that really the most fun thing to do with people was to chase them and bite their ankles and scare them.
It was subtle at first and then over the years it became more obvious that he wasn't just singling out certain people (like my brother whom he particularly had a great hatred for) but really anybody was fair game.
When we moved to our house and I was pregnant he was very protective of me. People could enter the house but were not allowed to leave the front room....or really just move in general. If they moved even a muscle he then saw them as fair game to go after and scare.
He enjoyed lying in wait in our new backyard, flat in the garden, waiting for our elderly neighbor George to come walking in his backyard, oxygen tank in hand, for some fresh air. As soon as George got half way across the yard Cody would pop up from the garden and start barking. One day George exclaimed "That dog scared the s#@t out of me!"
If we took him on walks he found it entertaining to go after much larger dogs, soon the walks had to stop. If we held him while people came over he would look innocent and sniff the backs of their hands and then looking up at them with his big dark eyes he would proceed to try and snap a chunk of their skin off. That was when we started having to lock him up when company came.
He is the most loving, sweetest, cuddly dog when he is with family. He has never attempted to hurt the girls or any of us (although he has tried to attack Bri when he is wearing a baseball cap coming up the walk, "hey you can't expect me to recognize that guy if he is going to disguise himself with a hat!")
He also loves my parents and Bri's parents but that is it. He does not see the point in expanding his circle of friends.
When we take him to be groomed or to the vets he couldn't be sweeter. There is something about home and his need to protect that makes him act this way.
People have suggested the Dog Whisperer, or taking him to a dog shrink. At this point we have just accepted the fact that this is his personality, and we must keep him under lock and key at all times to prevent any kind of law suit!

He has a particular newfound love for G. As she has gotten older he is less wary of her motives when she approaches him. He actually stays put and doesn't just slyly remove himself from the room when he hears her call him name. He sleeps on her bed at night and takes her his little stuffed bear for a game a catch. When she is worried about something we find her sitting somewhere with him tucked in her lap. They are true companions.

And on a day like today when she and I are hunkered down sick there is no better company than our little dog.

Is it something in the air?

So week before last when we were in the death grips of the nasty flu that consumed everyone in the house but me, my father in law called. I am still not sure of the point of the call other than he informed me that we were the "sickest family he had ever known."(in an ill sense not a mental sense). After the phone call I hung up quite offended. I don't consider us to have any more colds than the average family. And I reminded him that pregnancy cannot be considered "sick" in the germ sense, to catagorize me as "sick" is sort of insulting at this point when even after 25 weeks I am still not feeling that elusive "burst of energy" and "hunger returning" that they describe in the happy go lucky pregnancy guides!

So last week we had a lovely week of being germ free. The girls were able to return to school full time and we even hit the park on Friday with three of my favorite friends and their children for some fresh air and conversation.

Then came the weekend......

It blew in like a fierce storm, a nasty cold that attacked Little One then spread to G and by late afternoon yesterday I was firmly caught in its' whirlwind. Fever, runny nose, aches, sore throat. BLAH.

This morning for a brief second my father in laws ever so comforting words of us being "the sickest family he had ever known" popped into my head...but I shooed it away like a pesky little fly.

Don't the rest of you get sick too? Or do you just tell me you get sick to make me feel better about the fact that we should be listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for "SICKEST FAMILY STILL LIVING."

And now onto something happy!

If you're digiscrapping away and need some fun new things head over to Diginirvana. They are having some excellent 40% sales on their kits....I have my sites set on some of the new "Little Darlings" kits! Right now the site appears to be having issues when it comes time to pick the categories so keep checking back, I'm sure they'll get it fixed soon!

This is a page I did yesterday using the photo rings tutorial from Jessica Sprague. I truly want to be her when I grow up! She is so amazing, the things she just "does" with photoshop. I recently ordered and received her magazine in the mail and have been LOVING it. Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking. This is the second one, there is a first edition as well that would be fun to have!

Welcome to the new Le Petit Poulet!

Phew....this is much better! Much better than battling the forces of html to try and figure out what the heck happened to the old blog. I hope everybody will make their way over here to visit and change their bookmarks! :)