Raising Cubs in a Campground

I didn't make resolutions this year....they always seem to set me up for failure. Instead I set a few goals. 1) To work out every* day in January (last year was all about losing baby weight, but now it's about maintaining - something I am finding is actually harder!)  *I know you are suppose to give your body a chance to rest and recover - that is what my yoga days are for. 2) To write a line or two in my planner about what happened that day. 3) We also implimented our new chore chart on the 1st of the year, but that was really more of a coincidence than a new year's resolution. A couple of wonderful side effects of our successful chore system are the fact that I have done some sort of laundry task every single day and with only 10-15 minutes of effort had the house in company ready shape every single day . 4) Design 10 pages in a personal blog book or photo book every day. I'm 250 pages into a book about Sam's first 2 1/2 years already. I am SO excited to ...

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! You can read more about my memory keepsake meme by clicking on the Alphabitty Moments label on the right hand side of my blog. I am using Instagram as a quick and easy way to share photos this time through the alphabet and as a resource for many of the photos too. This week, C is for Cart Car: ...those wonderful contraptions that buy me an extra five minutes in the grocery store to grab the things on my list. As you can see Julia barely fits in them any more...just another fleeting childhood moment that I'm so glad to have captured before it is too late! What Alphabitty Moment do you want to remember this week?  Link up in the comments or use the hashtag #AlphabittyMoments on Twitter/Instagram...

B is for {The} Bang Bang Song. It is a family favorite . Click on Alphabitty Moments on the sidebar for more details on how and why I chose a word for each letter of the alphabet each week. You are welcome to join me in this memory keepsake adventure either by blogging or using the hashtag #AlphaBittyMoments on Instagram . "C" you next week!

The crappies and sunfish in our lake don't get very big, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to catch them! Before the cold snap sets in (high of -2 on Monday) PapaBear took Sam and Julia out on the ice after school today. I love these shots he got of them and their fish with our park in the background.

It all started yesterday when I picked the kids up from school. We went through our normal routine handing out baby wipes & snacks as well as the after school questions Sam and Julia have come to expect from me over the course of the three mile drive home. How are you? Who did you play with at recess? Was everyone at school today? How was your spelling? Did you have fun on your field trip? Who did you sit by on the bus? That last question is the one that started an avalanche of questions because I learned that Julia didn't ride the bus to her field trip. She rode with a classmate's mom in the front* seat. By the time my fingers were flying over the touch screen on my phone I had learned that Julia had been seated in the front seat of that mom's vehicle.  I considered titling this post, "The day I yelled at my child's teacher" but I opted against that because as I said on twitter shortly after I talked to the teacher, the take away message for me was DON...

Three and a half years ago I began matching an everyday moment from my kid's childhood with each letter of the alphabet. That was the beginning of Alphabitty Moments . I have used Blurb.com's free Booksmart software to make custom layouts for a photobook version to preserve these fleeting moments.  Elsa's version even became her 1st year baby book .  Many photos in my most recent book were taken with my cell phone since it is always with me. I expect that trend to continue so I can capture real life without spoinling the moment getting out my DSLR. Search Alphabitty Moments on the side bar of my blog and you'll find lots of ideas for 'moments' that might inspire your own series of photographs. You'll also find that I started (and stopped!) sharing these moments on my blog over the years. Thanks to Instagram it is now so much easier to share the little things in photographs and using a hashtag of #alphabittymoments it will be a piece of cake to share ...

I'm the first to admit that the reason chore charts fail around here is because I let them. I am not disciplined enough to keep up with the chore of monitoring the chart, writing out new ones, getting the cash for pay day etc. We've started and stopped a variety of systems over the years and while the one we used in 2012 worked for the longest of all of them, by December it was limping along at best. I knew it was time for a change when: 1)I resorted to nagging about checking the chart to see if everything had been completed. 2) I hadn't actually payed the kids in a long time (I had only been tallying their earnings.) 3)The house was still in shambles even when chores were complete. That last one was the deal breaker and was the final straw that pushed me to get over my concern for using 'bins' and just go for it. I figured it couldn't get any worse! Initially I was worried that if I collected their things and put them in bins for them to empty after s...

We love you Rosie!!!

The end of January marks my sixth year of blogging. It's easy to remember how many years it's been because this blue eyed beauty was only three months old when I wrote my first post on the eve of my 30th birthday. Speaking of birthdays, I took this the day Julia turned six. It's tradition to take a few portraits on 'the rocks' as we call the landscape rocks across from our home. Her colorful crown is part of our Saturday morning program in the park. The kids are really good about testing out crafts and activities for me. The trees were stunning this year so we ended up with some really pretty crowns! For more Best Faces of 2012 entries visit i heart faces .

I had been really worried that Elsa would be a tornado of distruction in my mother-in-law's house but surprisingly she did a really good job of leaving all the breakable decorations alone. There were lots that she could touch and while the noise from the musical snowmen was loud, I love that Grandma and Grandpa's house is full of memories & momentos of past Christmases. There are so many memories of time with our family that we treasure. We get silly with cousins, sled/snowboard down the big hill, eat until we can't eat another bite, sing carols, listen to PapaBear read the Christmas story, exchange gifts, play games like Pit and Cranium, and take the obligitory photo of the cousins in front of the tree. We were sad that Sharon, Jamey, Josie, and Amelia couldn't come this year but were grateful that at least everyone was out of the hospital and on the mend. Our kids were plenty tired at the end of the night so after setting out their chosen cookies for Sant...

Snowflakes were falling when we woke on Christmas Eve morning. We have been limping along with what little snow was left after the rain decimated our 9 inches so it was really nice to see a few flakes. Isn't Christmas snow suppose to be magic snow? It was rather fitting I think - seeing as this year has been so.much.fun. The kids were up at their normal times and we had a lazy morning of cinnamon rolls & Christmas movies. I was busy in the kitchen prepping our Christmas Day breakfast bakes of Sausage Strata and EggNog French Toast (sans egg nog). I also had a pot of chicken noodle soup going so we had some easy meals to come home to. When you aren't the host at the holidays there isn't the convenience of leftovers, but then again I can treat our house as a staging area and simply leave our rubbermaid bins in the middle of the floor for the next round of Christmas gatherings. By 10am we were ready to open our family gifts which include the packages that come from my...

All of the girl's Christmas dresses came from garage sales for $1-$4 dollars. It's how I justify having a different dress each Sunday. The one exception was this silver dress. Josie is wearing the one Elsa wore last year when we attended Aunt Dianne's Christmas Tea and Elsa is wearing one I bought off of Ebay for $14. It was my one splurge. Totally worth it right?

We used baby sign language with Sam and Julia (more, please, all done, sorry, bath....) but not nearly as much as we have with Elsa. With more experience under my belt I knew that this time I wanted to be more proactive in helping Elsa communicate with us. Sam didn't talk until he was two and I wanted to be prepared in case that happened with Elsa too. A huge reason why she has a 50+ sign vocabulary is the video series called Signing Time that we get from our local library. There are some libraries in our county that don't carry any of the videos so I feel very fortunate that we only have to travel 5 miles to bring this wonderful teaching tool into our home. We primarily use series 1 videos but Grandma Gayle got Elsa a series 2 one called, My Favorite Seasons. The reviews just weren't good enough for series 2 to justify buying all 14 of the second ones to watch whenever we wanted. After 6 months of watching the first 9 videos they don't hold Elsa's at...