Chip off the (young and beautiful) block

 Three weeks ago, my friend Mary asked me to come to her home to help her decide if some curtains went in her house. We chatted for a bit, Milo barfed on her, then she said, "Can I carry him home for you?" Why not?

When I arrived back home, my friends and their kids were gathered in my family room.  There were cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and a few candles!  A surprise party for me. 

Now between the fabulous baby shower my girlfriends threw me in October, and Mark's 40th shindig in November, I think we've worn these guys out with Merrill celebrations, but to my total surprise, they revealed that it was all Ava's doing!

She made invitations,

baked the cake at Danae's,

and formulated a plan to get me out of the house.  (You mean Mary doesn't need my "expert" opinion on curtains!) 

That's my girl!

Unfortunately, this marks the SECOND time in my life that I have shown up to my own surprise party in sweats! (Click on the picture for a closer view, there's no way I am going to retype this story!)

Guest Blogger: Ava

For Christmas, my parents gave me and Mia identical hats and gloves, plus ice skating lessons. On the first day, we discovered that we could also go for free any other day of the week.




My teacher was the US champion in ice dancing and even competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics.  We have been watching her on YouTube.  (Al's note:  Google Lang and Tchernyshev)



My friend Hannah has been taking figure skating lessons too.  She sold me her figure skates!



I love ice skating!

The Haul

Sunday kicked off the week of celebration in our home.  Remember, birthday, V-Day and anniversary in 4 days.  WHEW!

It was the fourth anniversary of my 29th!  This photo was taken over Christmas break in California.



To the victor, goes the spoils....

Roses from my sweetie



Stamped jewelry for our completed family


Cuddly minky blankie.

Major Renovations on Memory Lane

This is the bookshelf of scrapbooks from my pre-digi days. Tomes that weigh about 13 pounds each. Some of the holes on the sheet protectors have torn so they swivel and fly around. My sister-in-law, Joy, gave me the idea of scanning each page and printing them into a hard bound book like my digi-scrapped books.

So I employed Ava to do my scanning. She is trying to earn some money, so I promised her $5 per whole book scanned (about 100-115 images). She was a little miffed that this took about 2 hours and she could not play on Barbie.com simultaneously.

She did a great job, although I keep finding files like this.

Some of the images will be left in their original state.  Not fancy, but the memory is there.  Like these.

Others will get redone.   Digi allows me to add the flair I could not do with paper since I had a hard time spending hundreds of dollars on ribbons, flowers, expensive stickers, and many, many sheets of paper.  I can also easily resize photos or blow up small details that I could not do with the standard 4 by 6 photos.

So these

become

I can consolidate pages and add some much-needed journaling.  I also add names in the off chance that say, Carrie D becomes famous for something other than her amazing transformation from all-American girl  to high school tartlet.  


Hindsight has given me an interesting perspective on these events and I can also write down things that I think my posterity will enjoy.  For example, my mom and I went the rounds about sleeves on the dress shown above.  I am glad she won!

This

becomes

This little ditty

becomes

And the coolest part?  This becomes

this!

Boy Wonder

I employ a monitor to help me hear Milo when he is in his room. I just don't want him to get worked up trying to get my attention. I was in my room on my computer when I heard him cooing on the monitor. He seemed content so I just let him go. Then I heard him say, "Dada." I thought is was a coincidence until I heard it again! My baby can say "Dada" at three months! Boy genius!

Then I heard a female voice and a child's voice that didn't belong since Milo and I were the only ones home. Turns out, we are picking up the neighbor's monitor.

By the way, she is a screamin' mom. She really scared Ava.

Thrice as Nice!

Our sweet Layla turned 3 years old!  This is a bittersweet birthday for me, as it marks the beginning of being a big girl.  Being three means preschool, moving into Sunbeams at church and a host of other big girl things!

Mark and Mia went and got her some balloons.  For some reason, she is wearing her Santa Claus dress.  Hey, it's your day sister!  Do what you want!



In true Layla fashion, we had a wardrobe change into her blue denim dress.

Opening Grandma Penny's present.  Two outfits and a Blue Ginger dress.  Our favorite.  Also a mermaid doll.  Layla has been nursing all her dolls lately (gee, I wonder why?)  We will find out if mermaids are breastfed too.


The big present from Mom and Dad.  A PINK Razor scooter.  When we purchased this, I told Mark, "Mia is going to be SOOOOOOOOOO jealous!"  Sure enough.  I explained to Mia, "Layla is the third girl.  She will never get anything new."  That seemed to help.  Mia now wants to buy pink spray paint for her scooter.

The woman knows what she is doing!  I should add that Layla has a fever of about 100 deg through all these and was doing the croup thing the night before.  Turns out, an ear infection.

'Nother wardrobe change.  She is wearing the aforementioned outfit and holding the mermaid.  Notice the clippie in the hair!  We are now able to "do" her hair!  Yay!

Manual labor with dad.


Oh yeah, this guy is three months.  Mia wants to know why he can't walk yet...