The missing sign of spring.

Since we bought our house in 2003, I have looked forward to each spring and the blooming of our Redbud tree.


Ah, beautiful!

Then watching the leaves appear.

(Aiden's first time outside I have pictures of him laying under this tree with the sun filtering through the leaves on him.)

But due to age and last summer's drought our tree wasn't looking good last fall. It dropped it's leaves early. After our harsher winter with a couple good nights of freezing temps, the tree didn't recover.

This picture is from today, a very sad sight.

NASA

Here's a little blurb about last months flight from our local neighborhood paper, The Citizen:

... the last U.S. shuttle flight to launch at night as the shuttle program winds down to four remaining flights, delivered the final U.S. module and a "room with a view" to the International Space Station.

So Bill and I have not seen a shuttle launch. The shuttle was delayed when we were in FL for Bill's award in 06 and we haven't tried to make it to another launch, till now! We're packing our bags and heading out for the April 5th launch. Might even get a little time at Disney.

Here a neat link...Bill's been working this since the beginning!

International Space Station Assembly
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_assembly.html

Milestone Update

Logan turned 11 months a week ago! He started cruising the day before that. He's been crawling on his hands and knees more the last while. He drank from his cup on his own this past weekend. He's not taking to finger foods very well, still just mostly plays with it then eating. Still no teeth! still puts everything in his mouth and goes through 3-4 bibs a day with all the drool. He's been shaking his head and babbling more. He has an "arr" sound that totally reminds me of the aliens in Mars Attacks. He likes to play with the rings, mega blocks, farm (opens the doors to get the animal sounds) and basket of balls.


Some fun pictures I got of us playing peek-a-boo!

What I'm learning and some great templates.

My scrapbooking class only has a few weeks left. I have much more then that of work left but am going at a good pace. Here are a few of the things I'm learning.


Asymmetrical Balance - the two halves are not the same but are still balanced


Sketch 1 - had to do a layout for both boys.

- we also see repetition and a visual triangle

Sketch 2 - A great template to highlight a birthday. I was also happy to get this one done before Aiden's 3ed party. :)

Repetition - repeating something

in a mini album


This was very fun and I plan to expand it to include more of our family members so be warned, you will be asked to gimme 5. :) and yes I know I still need to fill this in.

White Space - open space

This is another digital layout. I'm getting better with them.

(Layouts and concepts provided by Cathy Zielske, Design Your Life workshop at BigPictureScrapbooking.com)

Well these are some of the class assignments that I have finished. It been a great class!

Teddy Bear Parade

Today Aiden's class and the other 2s class had a Teddy Bear Parade. Aiden wore his pajamas and took a stuffed animal to school. I went early to pick him up and got to watch the kids parade their stuffed animals down the hall. Very cute!
The parents stayed for snacks and songs. They did a teddy bear song and their goodbye song.

This past week

we've had a "house full of plague carriers" as Bill (the healthy one) describes us. Yes it's been a rough past week and some. On the 5th, after a few miserable days, Aiden went in to see the Dr and got meds for an ear infection. Last week I battled with a cold and the cold won...went to the Dr today for meds. Aiden has another cold...mild, and Logan's had a cough and runny nose since last week as well but no fevers for either of them. Through all this Bill has somehow managed to stay health so far.

Aiden's Birthday Party

Here are just a few pictures from Aiden's party last weekend. There were 13 kids total and they all had a great time in the jumping area. A friend of mine was having her baby shower at the same time so several of Aiden's friends were there with their dad's, whom seemed to have a good time as well. :)

Birthday Boy ready to start!

Jump N Jungle fun

ROAR!

Dino cake

yumm cake!

Opening gifts

with lots of help

cool dragon

dino wrapping paper from dad and mom

The kids and parents jumped and played for about an hour and half and then we did cake and gifts. Aiden had a great time playing with his friends and classmates. He loves all his gifts and said "big thank you" after opening them. Each kid got a dino favor box to take home with them. Everything turned out really well. Aiden was one tired boy at by the end.