i'm back.

well, first things first.

i've been MIA cause i've been out of town.

i went on a much needed, relaxing, girls only (plus kohen) weekend.

it was perfect.

(minus the airplane ride home, which was pretty much my own personal version of h-e-double hockey sticks...kohen decided he would like to SCREAM nearly the entire 2 1/2 hour flight.  not just a "i'm tired and think i'll whine" scream, but a scream.  he finally gave up and went to sleep about 10 minutes before we landed.  the whole plane cheered.)

moving on.

(i'm not bitter)

the winner of the RV designs blog header is:

danielle said...

still laughing about the ipod. but i do love that picture of your baby boy, seriously SO cute!!

8/25/10 7:53 PM

yah for you danielle!  email me (email is on the sidebar) and i'll get you hooked up with the RV girls.

thirdly,

this little bean starts school tomorrow.

i may or may not cry.

just sayin'.

i will miss her and her sassy self.

the everyday chaos drives me nutso most days...

and with hadley and caedmon gone...it'll be a little bit more quiet around here.

but don't you worry...this kid is planning on giving me a run for my money.

he says "chaos?  you haven't even seen it yet."

what's happening in my kitchen.

gawl.

anybody want to come over and do dishes?

playing a game of checkers with the bean.

checkers is the new favorite game in this house.

kohen, pulling all the magnets down and eating them.

as usual.

he's a fan of trying to find, well um, everything, and seeing if milk comes out of it.

the ninja turtle guarding the puffs.

momma enjoying her favorite snack.

cherries.

are your happenings as exciting as ours?

ha.

happy weekend, ya'll.

embrace the camera: august 26th

caedmon and i...playing checkers.

caedmon is probably telling me what move to do next, while i'm going through all the ways i could kick his hiney in this game.

and i did.

embrace the camera "rules":

-take a picture of you with your kid/s...or of your spouse with your kid/s.

-post on your blog.

-link blog post to mr. linky, below.

-visit others and leave comments.

-have fun.

a cute baby and a give-a-way.

well yesterday, our monkey man turned 10 months old.

iy-yi-yi!  where does the time go?

i snapped a few pics of him today.

as each month passes, pictures of him get harder and harder cause i can't contain the little beast.

he had to hold a basketball in all of these shots, so that he would sit still.

the photos took all of 3.8 seconds.

scrumptious baby tush.

i did manage to catch him standing on his own.

he does this often...but then, once he realizes he's doing it, he falls to the ground.

and my favorite picture of the day.

but then as i was looking at it, i realized caedmon is in the background, sticking an i-pod down his underwear.

lovely.

the cute baby leggies are from my friend, ashlee at tweet baby designs.

she's got a fabulous etsy shop---and is one of our sponsors this month---check her out.

i'm a fan, always have been...always will be.

a homeschooling, mama of 6 (yes, you read that right).

super mom to the max.

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and speaking of sponsors.

another fab sponsor this month is RV Designs.

rachel and victoria are in the business of beautify-ing (is that a word?) blogs.

here are a few blog headers they've done.

cute, eh?

check out their site to see the full-on blog designs they've done.

not to mention, they are funny.

i appreciate funny.

and guess what?

they are fabulous and want to give-a-way a custom blog header to one of my super cool readers.

can i get a holla?

all you have to do is leave me a comment on this post.

easy.

extra points (leave a separate comment for each)

-follow my blog?  let me know!

-follow rv designs blog?  let me know!

-have any wise advice on how to deal with a stubborn 3 year old?  let me know!  (okay, just email me answers to that last one).

have fun, my lovelies.

oh, milo.

it's amazing that i can love this kid so much...

...and at the same time feel like i can't handle another minute of him.

just being honest here. 

 being a mom is hard work.

being a mom to a stubborn 3 year old is really hard work.

DIY: centerpieces.

phewwwwwwww.

these past 5 or 6 days have been ba-ba-busy.

we are part of a very unique school, where the parents play a very heavy role.

it's a parent-run school, and each mom has a part---i am in the office this year, which is fabulous for me.

i love to label things...booya.

so anyways, last week was spent getting the school ready for the school year.

all the dads took the kids on field trips while the moms stayed around and set up the school.

gooooood times.

busy times.

i got a bit of a taste of what a working mom's life is like, and man.  ya'll get major props.

major props.

we also had a parent dinner last week, for caedmon's school.

i was asked to do centerpieces (i LOVE doing centerpieces)...so i chose a "back to school" theme.

these were the worlds' easiest centerpieces.

and cheap too.

supplies needed:

mason jars (of course!)

paper doilies

pencils

ribbon

crayons

apples

books

i used a ton of school books that were lying around and stacked a few on each table.

wrapped ribbons around the mason jars...threw in some pencils...and set it up the way i liked.

the best part?  all of these items are totally usable in a school, so nothing went to waste.

we even got to munch on apples all weekend.

so today is caedmon's first day of first grade.

oh, ya'll know i'll be back with pictures of the cute kid in his uniform.

and speaking of pictures...check out my guest post over on amy's blog...all about how to get those good back to school pictures.

till later...

embrace the camera: august 19th

i love my photos today.

these are more from my time with sarah bray.

me and the boys...

               

and of course, one of me and the crew.

what?  did we seriously get a picture with everyone at least looking in the general direction of the camera?

and nobody is giving the stink eye?  and no tongues are sticking out?

that is brilliant.

learn all about embrace the camera here.

the point is to get out from behind the camera, so your kids have some photos of you, 20, 30, 40 years down the road.

not all of our pictures are this put together...in fact, while i love these photos, the ones that tug at my heart are the random ones i snap during the day...where you can see the piles and piles of laundry, toys scattered...just basically, our life.

cause really, those day to day moments with our kids, are really going to be what they remember.

although, they may remember this photo shoot, as we collectively have about 489 bug bites all over us.

dear florida...i hate you and your dang bugs.

link up, visit others, leave love and have fun.

go make some memories.

picture time.

it's fun to have friends who are photographers.

my friend, and fellow photog, is not new to the scene of capturing the andersons.

she's captured the kids and i before...and also kohen's birth...all extremely special moments, that i'm so glad i have on "film".

she's a fun friend, and let's face it, once someone takes pictures of you giving birth, you're friends with them for life---they've seen it all (literally) and still accept you.

so, sarah and i decided to hang out with our kids, and try to capture pictures of each other, with our kids.

we were trying to embrace the camera.

here's one to wet your pallet...

i love my girl.

and i'm so excited to add another little girl to that mix.

sarah captured some great moments of us this morning.

even though it was 110 degrees, the bugs were biting, hadley's "itchies" (aka: eczema) were driving her crazy, the boys were running all over the place and i was pushing the cadillac (aka: double stroller) through grass and brick paved sidewalks...not easy, my friends, not easy.

you'll have to wait till thursday to see the rest.

i know, i know...how will you go on?

oh, and i got my hair cut...it might be hard to tell in this picture but it's short ya'll.  real short.

crafternoon times 100.

some of you read my BFF's blog...if you don't, you should.

anyways, she recently celebrated her 28th 29th birthday.

she loves mason jars.

i love making fabric flowers.

so, i decided to combine the two and create this:

i love this jar...but will never make another one.

it took me the last month to make this.

as jami would say, this took many "crafternoons" to complete.  or in my case, "crafternights".

anytime i was watching t.v. with mr. anderson, i was hot glue-ing fabric flowers.

if you're feeling ambitious and would like to make one of your own, and have hours upon hours of free time, then here are the supplies you shall need.

1 mason jar.

lots and lots and lots of fabric.

1 bag of cork.

hot glue gun.

make the fabric flowers and glue on to the jar...i used the cork to fill in any spaces.

have fun...lots and lots and lots of fun.

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and the winner of the bird cage designs give-a-way is:

April: Bridges to Blessings said...

Those are just gorgeous! I love the black with peacock eye on royal!

congrats april...you should be getting an email from me shortly!

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a few other random links that are making me smile:

anna from in honor of design  featured our blog today, and our adoption story---thanks anna!

and ohdeedoh featured our redwoods adventure.

and this cute blogger made me smile with this post.

happy monday, ya'll.

water in the pants.

our theme this week is "science projects"...we decided to see what would float.

let me show you how you go from this:

to this:

all it takes is 1 mischievous 6 year old.

and 1 saggy pants 3 year old.

{hadley wanted nothing to do with the boys, so she went back inside}

{{and yes, they are in their undies.  what's the point of getting them dressed when we don't go anywhere?  it's how i wash less clothes}}

first off, caedmon shows milo how it's done:

"just dump the water on your head bro, like this."

then milo gives it a try...

and loves it.

then caedmon says:

"no look, this is even more fun than dumping it on your head.  pour it down your pants...you'll love it."

"see...it's the best" {said in our best nacho libre voice}

"okay, i will try it." says milo.

"wooooooooo-weeeeeeeee, that was some good water in my pants"

"look milo, i have even more ideas...just you wait"

"try this."

"or this."

"oh caedmon, you are funny, but i am not going to try that.  i prefer to keep my bum out of the water bucket."

good times.

sometimes, things don't go as planned, but this, my friends turned out way better than i hoped.

embrace the camera: august 12th

a little self timer action this week.

i love kohen's chunky butt in this picture...

and kohen's face in this one...

craziness...that is my house.

alright my fellow "embracers"...

show us what you got.