Brenda Carpenter

Signs of Spring...

It's finally getting nice outside - the grass is getting green and the children can go outside to play (Yeah!)  Here are some photos from the past few days...

Lily got to try out her swing for the first time - and she loved it!

 

And she also has a new skill - pulling herself up in her crib -

 

At nine months - she has only 2 teeth on the bottom.  Loves to eat and feed herself (favorites are cut up bananas and baby goldfish) and can use a sippy cup!  She really loves to stand up with help and even tries to takes steps on her own - although the balance is not there yet.  She doesn't like to sit still - always wants to be on the go and getting into something.  She says "da da" and "hi" with a wave and "uh oh" - although some days she is very quiet.  It is hard to believe that she will be 1 year old in a couple months!

Love Elsie layouts (Cody and Claire paper lines)

I also have these two layouts posted at Scrapbooks.com

I Love Sports layout

My Girls layout

Layouts using the April Scrap-Room kit

Scenic Route Grafton paper -

The next two use Cosmo Cricket Get happy paper and chipboard -

 

Opening day...

Today, despite all the rain and cold, is a great day - it is the opening day for the Miwaukee Brewers!  They are playing the Cubs at Wrigley and it doesn't look that enjoyable to be at the game - but I am enjoying watching it on WGN and listening to "my announcers" on the radio (WTMJ.)  I am a big baseball fan - I love listening to a baseball game on the radio.  Hopefully this year I will make it up to Milwaukee to take in a game in person - although with 4 kids in tow, you really don't get to watch much of the game :)

We had a nice Easter at my parents house.  We were very excited to meet my brother's little girl Cadence.  She was just under a month old and made Lily seem so huge!  Here are the kids all dressed up after church on Easter Sunday -

And for fun, I picked up these bunny ears from the Target dollar spot - and took these photos of Lily.  I just love her expression -

The week before, Owen celebrated his 5th Birthday on the 15th!  He requested a chocolate cake with Oreos on top.  His cousins Nolan and Nick were here to celebrate with us.  Here are some photos -

   

Sweet as a Strawberry

  I wanted to share some photos that I took of Lily earlier this week.  My neighbor Candy has a photography business and she let me come over and use her pink backdrop.  I had a lot of fun trying some portrait style photographs - and I was very happy with the results.  I used my Canon 30D with the 50mm1.4 lens and natural light.  Her outfit is from Gymboree (my favorite place to shop for kids clothes!)

 

   

And this one is my favorite-

 

Is is Spring yet?

Ok - so I know it has been a long time since I last posted... sorry. I will try to update with some photos of the kids and some of my latest layouts.  I did have good intentions of posting on Valentines day - Here are some photos I took of the kids (love the girls in their matching shirts!)

        

It is a good thing that I got some good photos of Owen with all of his baby teeth - because Sunday morning (Feb 10th) he jumped off the couch, slammed into the end table and knocked out his front tooth.  I guess I am glad that it was only a baby tooth and he is almost 5 years old, but I don't think that the new tooth is going to come in for a long time.  Now his other front tooth is starting to look kind of gray in color - so I am thinking that one is going to have to come out too.  Yikes!  Here is his new smile -

Lily turned 7 months old on the 19th.  She figured out how to feed herself the Gerber Graduate puffs - and now she really enjoys eating them.  Overall she is a very happy little girl - loves to smile and blow raspberries.  She can sit up and play - but would rather have help to stand up.  Loves to "dance" and sway to music and play peek-a-boo.  Wants to touch and taste everything - but doesn't have any teeth yet. 

In other exciting news - my wonderful husband has been making great progress on my room in the basement.  The walls are all painted, doors and trim installed, cabinet and countertop are installed - and he is working on building the custom "wall of cubes" for storage.  I can't wait to have all of my scrapbooking and crafting materials organized - hopefully I can be a little more efficient.

And finally, here are my layouts created with the March Scrap-Room kit.

 

   

February Scrap-Room Layouts

Here are my layouts and cards that I completed with the February Kit at The Scrap-Room -

 

 

The last one is the title page for my 2008 Year in Review album.  To answer some questions about my last post, the quilt is from Pottery Barn Kids - and here is a photo of Lily's room (we finally got her butterfly mobile hung up above her crib!)  The room is painted a light butter yellow - we matched the paint color to the yellow color in the quilt.

And here are some photos of my three girls in their matching shirts - so cute!

6 months old

Yes, Lily turned 6 months old on Saturday!  It is hard to believe that she is half way to being a year old.  Overall she is such a happy baby and goes along with the flow of our family.  She has discovered that she likes to be held - and knows how to get her way.  It is hard to say no to those deep blue eyes and cubby cheeks!  She has really started babbling this past week - and it is so cute to hear her "voice."  Lily is also a good eater - like her sisters and brother were.  Right now she can sit up on her own for a few minutes, but really likes to stand up with help.  Here are some photos that I took of her -

   

 

 

Sharing some more layouts

I finished my last two month in review layouts for 2007.  Our family really had a great year - it is so fun to be able to look at this album and remember what happened each month.  The biggest event of the year had to be the birth of Lily - she is such a joy and has fit in with the rest of us so easily.

Here are my January designs using the kit from The Scrap-Room -

   

      

December Love, Elsie Projects

Here are instructions on how to make the cute little paper boxes - http://www.wikihow.com/Fold-a-Paper-Box and I love this video too - http://revver.com/video/424450/folding-an-origami-box/

I got this cute felt stuffed tree at Hobby Lobby and added some chipboard buttons and ribbon to make it more festive!

I really need to catch up with a lot of posts - life gets so busy this time of the year.  I always remember waiting for Christmas with such anticipation as a kid - December always seemed to last forever!  Now I think that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just flies by.  And this little baby girl is already 5 months old...

The kids did make a visit to Santa this year - Audrey was a bit apprehesive at first, which is why her dad had to be in the photo.

 

But then she warmed up to him - but wouldn't get too close!