Any May a Beautiful Change

My friend Marie's sister Katherine has written a book. A book I've heard is absolutely fabulous and is on my to-read list. 

May is all about celebrating this wonderful book. You can read about Any May a Beautiful Change here on Katherine's blog. There are also links to many others sharing their stories about a Beautiful Change.

For me, the beautiful change in my life was becoming a stay-at-home-mom. It's something I never thought I wanted. I knew I wanted kids and I was excited to become a mother one day. But it wasn't until I met Michael and we started discussing having children one day that I realized I wanted to stay home with them. I thought for sure I would be a career woman. I was in college long enough, I had to work to make that degree worth it, right? But no. The next work day after I found out I was pregnant I told my boss (who was also my friend) that I was putting in my nine-month notice.

I love staying home with my kids. 

I can't say it enough. For me, it's the perfect choice. I get to spend every day with them. I see every milestone occur. I get to experience all the things they learn right along with them. I get to have pajama days where we snuggle in the chair and watch cartoons. I get to color and craft and do puzzles with them. I'm able to teach them and watch them learn. I get to help in their classrooms and attend their school parties.  I get to eat breakfast and lunch with them. I get to take them with me everywhere I go - errands, to the gym, the library, to visit friends and out to lunch. I can grab a hug and a kiss whenever I want. 

Now that's not to say there aren't times when I need a break. I'd be lying if I said every moment was joyous and every day runs smoothly. They aren't and it doesn't. But that's okay. I'll take the bad with the good and embrace it. Because before I know it all three will be in school and my time with them will become limited and I'll be wishing they were there to drive me crazy.

So I'll take the temper tantrums and crushed Kix and underwear left all over the house (I have no idea how this happens) and messes and frustrations and whining and the constant calling of my name.

I'll take it all and I will treasure it and try to remember every little detail and embrace it. Embrace them.

This is what I'm meant to do. Be a mom. Be home with my kids.  

I wouldn't trade it for a thing.

locker room self-portrait

I attempted to get a picture of me with all three kids in the locker room of the fitness center's family restroom. Because of course I always have my camera with me. You never know when you might want a post-workout, pre-Chick-fil-a bathroom break picture.

Ten on Tuesday

1. When will the snow stop? Depending on who is reporting it we either have 19.5 inches, 20 inches or 2 feet. Or, to put it simply, a lot. And it was still snowing tonight, albeit lightly. Thankfully, Michael fixed the snowblower that broke when I was using it last week. I took this picture Monday morning. Lots of snow. Lots of wind. And it just kept coming.


2. Saturday was Breakfast with Santa. I don't think we'll get a family picture with all of us looking at the camera until Mackenzie outgrows the put-my-fingers-in-my-mouth phase. But I still like it.

3. Snow days are still fun. Michael has had two so far this week.

4. I took Christmas card photos after church Sunday. Not bad for only 10 minutes worth of pictures. It'll work. Ryan's not smiling. It was too much work keeping Mackenzie in place and making sure Emma wasn't dropping him or strangling him to try and get him to smile. Of course, I could've done it when Michael wasn't outside snowblowing and had him try and get Ryan to smile but I wanted to get it over with.

5. And tonight I picked up my cards. Now to address them all.

6. I love The Sing-Off. But Nicole is the Paula of this show. I want to fast-forward when she comes on.

7. One benefit to living on a hill? You can make your sidewalk into a toboggan chute. Michael and the girls were sliding down the sidewalk yesterday. I didn't get any pictures because the wind was blowing the snow everywhere, but I did watch them go down once.

8. Christmas shopping is done except for two presents. One I know just have to pick up. The other I'm stumped.

9. The girls are really in to Charlie Brown right now. Tonight we watched "All I want for Christmas is a dog, Charlie Brown." They giggled a lot and shouted Snoopy! when he came on the screen. I laughed at Rerun in the bicycle seat that was over the rear tire, yet three feet behind his mother, ya know, so you only hear her, rather than see her. I wish I knew how to type out how the Charlie Brown adults sound.

10. I wish I could have all my house clean at the same time, all the time. Yet what usually happens is I get the basement, kitchen and upstairs cleaned and the family room becomes a mess. Clean that, and the girls room is a disaster zone. And so on and so forth.

Food, rides, food, rides...

...that pretty much sums up our day at the Canfield Fair Saturday. Well, I guess it actually went like this:

Food (fries, pulled pork)
Rides
Food (funnel cake)
Rides
Food (giant cinnamon rolls)
Animals
Food (shaved ice)

Yes, we Sweeney's were eating healthy that day.

But back to the rides. Of course the all-day ride bracelets are way overpriced. But worth it. The girls had so much fun. The swings were Emma's first pick. Mackenzie too. Until it was time to get on, then she changed her mind. Which made me a tad bit nervous about the $20 bracelet on her wrist.


Thankfully that was a fluke. She was more than ready to ride when Emma got off. The funniest thing had to be the dragon roller coaster. Mackenzie had this look of fear half the time...



And a big smile the rest.

More rides followed:

Including the Carousel and slide with Daddy.

We had a bit of a meltdown when Mackenzie wasn't big enough to ride a different swing ride with Emma. She was an inch too short and none too happy about it. I was heading there way from the previous ride they were on when I heard Mackenzie crying. Loudly. She was so sad to not ride it with Emma.

Of course we had to bribe the girls with seeing the animals (which we were going to do anyway but they didn't know this) in order for this picture to be taken. Check out Mackenzie's face.

There was one before that in which she was smiling. Then she decided to do make the pouty face. Then it was back to smiling.

By the time we'd seen cows, horses and chickens, then watched a line dancing demo (the girls are always ready to dance when they hear music) we were ready to go. Especially Mackenzie. I believe her exact words were, "Mommy, I'm ready to go home." She was asleep in the car rather quickly, which was no surprise considering we'd been walking around for nearly five hours.

We couldn't have asked for better weather - 60's, partly cloudy, a bit on the windy side but compared to the 90 degree heat we'd had, I was loving it!

Breakfast with Santa

This past Saturday was breakfast with Santa. Emma wanted to go because Lisa, Tim, Bree and Ava were going to be there. But she said she did not want to see Santa. When we walked in Santa was standing there greeting everyone. Emma made a wide circle around him and Mackenzie clung to my leg. She warmed up a bit when he let her ring the bells he had, but later when he visited the table she started to cry. And he wasn't even next to her, he was across the table by Emma and Bree!

I've probably mentioned this before, but Emma is really in to drawing and coloring. And she draws very well for her age. She's also gotten very good at staying in the lines when coloring. Hopefully she'll have more artistic abilities than her mother. She always wants me to draw things and I'm limited to a whale, a house and a tree. Oh, and those "v" birds.


Mackenzie was really concentrating.


After breakfast it was time to visit Santa and of course neither girl wanted to go. But I told them we had to so we could give Santa their Christmas lists. I filled out a list for each girl that included what they'd like for Christmas and how they'd been good this year.

Mackenzie told me she wanted (in this order): Dora, Diego, baseball, football, Minnie Mouse. She wasn't telling Santa though, Mommy handed him the list.


Emma said she wanted a princess bike, princess Barbie, markers and tic tac toe. Emma also wasn't telling Santa, in fact she wouldn't even look at him. He was a very nice and understanding Santa though.


After that, the girls worked on their crafts and I took some pictures for a mom who forgot her camera and her mom's camera's battery had died. Her children, on the other hand, smiled quite nicely for me!

We had fun. I love that our city does this. And Saturday, we're doing it again. Michael's baseball team is having a Breakfast with Santa fundraiser. Pretty sure I'll have pictures very similar to the ones above!

Scrapbooking family stories

I've been a bit of a blog slacker. And not for any good reason. I've had things to blog about, I just haven't gotten around to it. I've got a lot planned for December, though!

Tomorrow is December 1st, which means the new Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery goes up. Make sure you check it out! November's gallery theme was family stories. I did a layout and started mini-album. If somehow you missed it, make sure you take a look. There are some great ideas for capturing your family stories.

It Always Comes Up...
These are the stories that seem to come up whenever I’m with my mom and sister. At least, the ones pertaining to me. There are also quite a few about my sister (losing her car at Blossom) and mom (eating a Whopper) so I’m going to do a page like this for each of us in the mini-album I've started. I like that I have these stories down, but didn’t have to devote a whole page to each one. While not every single detail of these is here, it’s enough to tell the story, and also prompt me (or my mom or sister) to fill in the blanks if I ever forget.

(Basic Grey papers; AC Thickers; 7 Gypsies sticker)

The Stories That Always Come Up (title page)
After I did the above layout, I realized it was the basis for a fun mini-album. Each individual page will be titled based on whom or what the stories are about. This will be a great way to get down all the stories that you don’t necessarily need an entire layout to tell, ones that you do not have pictures for or those where you might be a bit fuzzy on the details. I’m planning on pages devoted to vacations, childhood, Sweeney family (stories that always come up when I’m with my in-laws), my parents, sister, school-related, stories about my ancestors and more. This can easily be added to as more stories are remembered. I’m keeping the album simple, and the design is based on my “It always comes up” layout. All the pages will consist of strips of patterned paper, a border punch and sometimes ribbon. A great way to use scraps! The uniform design will keep the focus on the stories and will make it easy to add to later.


Ray and Althea (filler page)
All the filler pages will have the names of whom the stories are about on the left, place on the patterned paper. I haven’t filled up this page yet, as you can see. But since I always have kraft paper on hand, I can easily go back and add more stories. I just need to print the story, cut it out and attach it with pop dots. No one would think it wasn’t originally meant to be like that, plus pop dots are always fun.

I really like the idea of mini-albums that are on-going. They evolve. They can be added to. I've actually got a few going right now and a couple more planned. I'll be sharing them over the next couple months. If you're interested in the concept or have any questions, let me know in the comments. :)

Best. Biscuits. Ever.

No one makes biscuits like my grandma. I think the best part of visiting her in Virginia might just have been getting to eat her biscuits. You couldn't eat just one. More like 5 or 6 at a time. They were that good.

My grandmother, Mrs. Barbara Sizemore Elliott, passed away Sunday. She was 91.






I rode down with my sister and her family Tuesday morning, got there that evening in time for the calling hours. We left Wednesday afternoon after the funeral and I got home late Wednesday/early Thursday at 2:30 am.

It's always great to see your family, especially when you don't see them very often. We'd just been there last summer (when the above picture was taken) and I'm so glad. Grandma got to hold Mackenzie, and while she didn't really know who we were, I'm still happy we were there. That we got this picture. That I'll be able to show it to my girls when they get older and tell them all about their Great-Grandma Elliott -the funny things she said, how good her biscuits and fried chicken were and just how much she loved her family. Love you, Grandma.

The weekend

Saturday we went to family fun day at our church. We've been wanting to go to one of these for months now, but we've always had plans but this weekend we finally made it. Of course, Emma passed on all the bounce houses, which was expected. But she did want to get on the bungee jump thing, where you're attached to harnesses and can jump and flip around. Unfortunately the line was really long as after a half hour of waiting she was over it.

The girls played games, got prizes and had fun running around. We had lunch there, although all they ate were chips, pretzels and carrot sticks. Mackenzie was afraid of the cotton candy, which meant I got to eat it all. The girls had their first ice cream sandwich, and although Emma was afraid to try it, they discovered just how yummy they are.

(Emma performing for us)

Emma's discovered the joy of taking pictures. And she took this one, which is actually pretty good!

Just before we left, Emma decided to get her face painted, which then changed to hand painting. She was so excited to get a music (pronounced by her as musk-ick) note. She picked it out herself with no guidance from me.

Here's Mackenzie wanting Mommy. She was getting tired of the wait.

That night we attempted a movie under the stars at the amphitheatre. It started off well. We had snacks, drinks, loveys and blankies. The girls were in their pajamas. We were watching Madagascar 2. But then Emma wanted to sit in my lap. And then Mackenzie wanted in my lap. Neither would sit with Michael. They got mad. Then there was fighting, wrestling, crying, yelling. It was time to go. We were scrambling in the dark to fold up our chairs, find all our stuff, keep out of everyone's way, shush the children. It was pretty funny. Looking back that is. At the moment we were just trying to hurry and get out of there! They made it an hour though, pretty good for a 21-month-old and a three and a half year old, I think.

Malachi turned two last week and Sunday was his birthday party. It was a great evening. Emma of course couldn't help but assist Malachi in the present opening. I think unwrapped presents are irresistible to 3-year-olds. Happy Birthday to my adorable nephew!



At the party, Michael was pulling the kids in the wagon. It was like they were on a roller coaster, they loved it!


(Mackenzie, Malachi, Claire, Emma)

Catching up.

I haven't blogged much lately, it's mostly been scrapbooking. Which means I've got a lot of pictures to post and stories to tell.



My mom, sister, niece and aunt came over yesterday and we headed to the outlets to get Emma some fall clothes. I got some great deals at Carter's and Osh Kosh as well as the perfect, fitting, so her, shirt for Emma. If you know her, you've probably guessed it has something to do with talking. And you're right.

The girls (especially Emma) love the outlets because of the ducks, the playground and being able to run. I love this picture of the two of them walking back to meet my mom and aunt. They're getting so big. And Emma's got some long hair.



After only going to the pool once or so in July due to sickness and crappy weather, we've been then twice so far this month.

(Emma and Bree jumping in to Michael and Tim)

Lots of playground trips. Trying to hit all the parks in our area.

Emma fell Monday night at the park. It was very traumatic for both her and I, even though she wasn't really hurt, more scared with a sore bottom. To soothe her (and Mommy) we got some ice cream. We kept pushing Coldstone on her, but she was insistent on a chocolate cone with sprinkles from DQ.

This summer brought the girls their first treats from the ice cream truck, which also happened to be Mackenzie's first popsicle. Mackenzie and I got junior bomb pops, Emma had a Dora ice cream pop and I can't remember what Michael had. I'll ask tomorrow.

Mackenize ate her's shirtless and it's a good thing since she had blue all down her chest/stomach. She ate a little more than half of it, decided she was done so I threw it away, then proceeded to eat the rest of mine.

I babysat Caroline and Jack last month, always fun for the girls, especially Emma. She loves having Caroline over.

Celebrated my sister's birthday.

Tomorrow we're going to Deer Park, Emma is excited to see lots of deers, hee hee. This weekend is Twins Days and we're going to the parade Saturday morning. We haven't been to the actual festival yet but if the weather holds up we might check it out. There are fireworks Saturday night I'm hoping we can see them from our house because that would be great.

Still to come (I hate playing catch - up!) - the zoo, camping, our family reunion, the work we've done outside around the house this summer and a bunch of other stuff I've got to get down before I forget. :)