Ah, sweet summer.

The weather has finally turned beautiful in MN. Today was sunny and dry, with a slight breeze. The kids were out enjoying one of the first gorgeous days of the year for the better part of the day. The guys built the "pergola" for the backyard. We have shade - yay!



Right now, G and his next door cohort are playing in the sand/mud boxes. She is dressed in girly pink camo and is covered in mud. He is wearing his Burger King crown from last week (since Mommy has major BK chicken sandwich cravings).






Quinners and Daddy ran to grab dog food and a few supplies.

Noah and his next door amigo are playing Indiana Jones Legos inside the neighbor's house.

And I am trying to put the finishing touches on a massive scrapbooking assignment. Not so into the scrapbooking right now, but I'm sure it is temporary. It helps when I have photos like this to scrapbook, though:



I think she looks quite good in pigtails. :-)

My weekly heart attack

The scene: I am in the living room, and Quinn and G are in the toy room. It is quiet. Too quiet.

ME: G, what are you doing?

G: I am just cutting Quinner's hair, Mommy.

ME: WHAT?!?! (Rush crazily to the steps to see what is going on)

G: See, Mommy? I cut hers hair.

***
Luckily, it wasn't a scissors in G's hand. The old infant carseat was sitting in the toyroom, waiting to be passed along to Marcy & TJ. Quinn had climbed in it and was happily sitting still while G "cut" her hair with a pair of plastic pliers. It was quite cute.

But dang. I better make sure all scissors in the house are hidden!

New specs!

Miss Quinn decided to fold her brother's glasses for him over the Easter holiday. And if you are Miss Quinn, folding means snapping the bow off.

Luckily, G just had an eye doctor appointment and was due for new lenses. We picked out the frames last week, and he got his new glasses on Thursday.

I think he looks adorable. The frames are a little funky. I actually wanted to get him some little Drew Carey black frames, but I figured those would last about 6.7 seconds before they were demolished.



And here is Miss Quinn, in her latest sweater knitted by Mommy. She's not the most willing photo subject, but it is totally worth it. ;-)



Noah has been so busy with school and friends that I don't really have any new pictures of him. Here is one from the Saturday before Easter - he's very intent about art stuff.

Have a great week!

My Griffin is 3, part 2.

This time, with pictures. :-)

My Griffin is 3.

Where does the time go? 

Sadly, my computer broke. And died. And then when the new computer came (good-bye, tax rebate!), there was a problem with the fan so it immediately went to the shop for service. Sigh. It was here just long enough to download all my Griffin birthday photos from the camera onto it. I'm using Bob's computer tonight, but when my computer comes home I'll post some pics of the big 3 yr old.

Until then, here's a pic of Miss Quinn. She's not a fan of the camera, but it certainly loves her.  

Let's pretend that the writers' strike applied to blogland too.

That would explain my complete lack of activity on this blog for the last 3 months or so, right?

Or it could be the fact that between Thanksgiving - the last post - and today, we have managed to squeeze in the following:
- Noah's birthday
- Quinn's birthday
- my birthday
- Grandpa N.'s 90 birthday party (and a trip to SoDak)
- Christmas
- a visit from Grandma Ruth
- a visit from Ray and Laura
- a trade show trip (by me) to California, followed by a trip to SoDak to pick up G & Q (thanks again, June and Mom!)
- finishing my first term of teaching, and starting my second term (2 classes this time)
- Bob teaching a new class this semester on one night each week
- Noah's school program and a visit from Mark, June, Turner, Grandpa, Grandma, & Jackie
- New Years
- our 10th anniversary

Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I've missed some stuff, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. :-) Anyway, I'm hoping that life is about to settle down a bit. We are falling into a routine: school, a little teaching, a little playing, and a little sleeping. Very little.

The kids are growing like weeds. Griffin and Quinn stayed in SoDak while I was at CHA Winter from Feb. 9 to Feb. 13. Noah and Bob held down the home front. They apparently watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies. I wonder if they consumed anything besides popcorn while I was gone. Griffin came home referring to himself as "Oreo Boy Lessinger." Wonder what he ate in SoDak? :-)

Oh - I forgot one thing in my long list. We went to the Cities to see a life-size McQueen at a car show. Griffin was in HEAVEN. Absolute heaven! Here is a layout I have posted in the garden at 2peas about the event.



A few other photos and highlights:

My G. Funny, funny kid. He eats "frosted snowflakes" for breakfast, and is seriously my very own mini-me. I've never met a kid that made me laugh the way he does. And now he'll grin at me and say, "I so funny, Mommy."



Noah had his turn to be student of the week at school. Part of the deal is to bring in photos that you want to share with the class. Noah wanted me to take new pictures, so we spent a good hour getting "just the right shot." He had really specific ideas of what he wanted. "Now get a close one of my ship, Mom. Now take one of me holding the ship. Wait. I need to move this way a little." You get the point. In the end, he was happy and had a great week.




Last but not least, Miss Quinn is now a walker. She still has the cute little bowl-legged baby thing going on, but she's improving quickly. This shot is from Grandpa's 90th. Her little tights were black by the time the party ended, because if she wanted to move fast she'd drop and crawl. :-)

Happy Monday-after-Thanksgiving

Hope everyone is back in the swing of things after a weekend of fun and food. We spent the weekend in South Dakota. We stayed with Mark, June, & Turner this time - it was a lot of fun! The kids (big and small - ha!) had a great time playing Mark's new Wii. In fact, Noah had so much fun that he asked Santa for a Wii, and Santa said, "Yes." Hello, Santa. Hope that toy shop is busy churning out the impossible-to-find Wii's for all the good little boys.

Noah and Quinn had a little birthday party on Saturday night. Great Grandma Shirley made Quinners a little doll cake. It was adorable!



Noah had a Star Wars cupcake cake. The black frosting was interesting. Especially when we let the little guys go to town with it. :-)



We also took all the kids to see Santa. Noah, as I mentioned above, was more than willing to talk to the guy in red. Quinn sat on his lap but wasn't too sure about things. Turner, Jackson, and Griffin wanted NOTHING to do with that guy. In fact, Bob was taking photos and couldn't even get Griffin (with me holding onto him and acting as his human shield from Santa) in the picture! June bought a new camera, the new and improved version of mine, so hopefully she has a few shots where you can see me and G off to the side. And I have to say, it was a lot of fun to go camera shopping with June. I have some serious camera envy going on!!



I also bought a new knitting book to make Quinners a hat, and I knitted up a storm on the drive to SoDak. I need a better picture to show off the hat, but you can sort of see it here.



Then I decided Turner needed a hat. I didn't get it finished there, but the drive home was enough time to put on the finishing touches. G is my reluctant model - I bribed him with a promise of McD's chicken nuggets for lunch later.



I am also going to make Jackson a hat but don't have the yarn yet. Stay tuned for more pictures (of course).

If your kid is a cousin to my kids ...

he is now *famous* ... or at least has appeared in one national magazine. :-) Check out the latest Scrapbooks Etc. to see this layout in print!


I was assigned the layout on the right as inspiration, and the layout on the left is my interpretation.



Note: I have this photo in a frame in my living room. It cracks me up!

For the 3 people who read this blog that are not related to me by blood or marriage ...

or for any of you that might scrapbook ... even if you are related to me ... I have some free passes to Scrapafaire to give away so you can check it out. I'll give them to the first 25 people who leave me a comment. I've always wanted comments on my blog. Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to myself! :-)

ETA: If you want a free pass, leave your email or email me directly so I can send it. Only 4 days left (I think). Thanks for the posts. Totally made me smile!

A quick trip to the Cities ...

Grandpa and Grandma came to the Cities last weekend with Tracy. We were able to run down for a quick visit.

Grandpa was quite in love with Miss Quinn. He said, "She speaks with her eyes." I love that. I think I see a scrapbook page in the near future.

Here are a couple of pictures. Stupid hotel room lighting ... but the one where he is kissing her makes me melt.



In other news, life is getting back to normal here. Last week was crazy busy. Between my class, Bob's class, Halloween, Halloween parties, going to the Cities, and Bob and Noah going to a hockey game, we barely had a chance to breathe. This week is looking much more laid back.

I checked out of reality for a few days to finally read the last Harry Potter. Man. I'm so sad those books are finished. I really enjoyed reading them.

And in case anyone forgot - happy birthday, Mom! Here's a page I did about you that was in the DW 2007 Calendar. :-)

Pre-Halloween fun.

Hi again! No, don't unplug your computer. This is really a new post, within a week or so of the last one. :-)

The kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes for the school Halloween party on Friday night. Here they are, in all their Star Wars glory. Quinners was a huge hit at the party - lots of "oh, how cute is she?!"

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Princess Leia Lessinger

It has been brought to my attention that I need to update my blog. Consider it updated. :-)





I only have pictures of Quinn's costume so far ... hopefully I can snap a shot of Noah (as Obi-Wan Kenobi) and G (as Yoda) in the daylight tomorrow.

PS: I made the dress - made my own pattern and sewed it up. Impressed?

PPS: I also made the buns. But I'm sure you figured that out. Ha! I got the idea from this Etsy shop.

September is here ... and almost gone.

Where did it go??? We have been crazy busy. First, I worked at the Mall of America for a scrapbook show in mid-September. Then I went to Las Vegas for Memory Trends last week. I actually flew out of SoDak because I drove the kids over to Grandma & Grandpa's house. Well, Griffin and Quinn went for a visit. Poor Noah had school and had to stay home with Dad. He did get to go to class when Bob taught on Wednesday night, so that part was pretty fun.

The trip to Vegas was awesome from a "get to visit with friends" standpoint. Jenn Bertsch, Leslie Lightfoot, Becky Novacek, Kelli Crowe, Tracy Kyle ... what a cool bunch of girls. The show itself was teeny tiny and very slow. I worked in the Autumn Leaves booth, like I usually do, and also walked around with my "Scrapbooks Etc." hat on for a bit to make a list of favorite products. There was some cool stuff there, even though the show was so small.

Flying home on Thursday was horrid. I called Bob from the airport as I went through security, and he said they were heading to the basement because of tornado warnings. Yikes. My flight was delayed but we eventually got into the Cities. It was a bumpy bumpy ride. You know it was a rough flight when a huge plane is bouncing around. Everyone clapped when the pilot finally got us on the ground. The bad news is that I flew into the concourse furthest away from where I needed to be to catch my connection to SoDak ... and I had less than 20 minutes to get to my boarding area. I ran. Literally. Kicked off my heels (I was still dressed for working the show) and RAN. I am seriously out of shape. And when I got there ... the pilot was standing at the gate desk and said we didn't have a gate agent. And that the flight was delayed (despite the fact it showed as "on time" on the displays). ARGH. So we waited and waited, and finally left the Cities about 40 minutes late or so.

As I was trying to get to SoDak, Ray and Laura G. were trying to get to our house in MN. They were delayed as well, and finally got into the airport late. They rented a car and made it to our house around 2 am. I made it to my parent's around midnight. And of course, I had to kiss G and wake up Quinners to cuddle her. They were in the bedroom across the hall from my parents (both in the same room). Since I am not the quietest person, I figured my parents heard me come in. Especially since I tripped over a pair of shoes in front of the door and nearly wiped out. But I guess not, because after I went to bed (about an hour later!), Mom got up and was worried. She even tried to call my cell ... before realizing I was already in the house. Why didn't they sleep like that when I was in high school? ;-)

Friday morning, the kids and I drove back to MN. We hung out with Ray and Laura, and then went to Valley Fair on Saturday. If you don't personally know Noah, this story will not seem impressive. But if you do, you better make sure you are sitting down. He went on the Power Tower. It's like a 275 foot drop. We went together, and he was braver than me ... I got to the top and started freaking out, especially because they held us up there for a bit. Noah was looking around and enjoying the view. Of course, I enjoyed the drop down to the bottom, and he didn't like that part so much. But can you believe it? The Power Towers? My 6 year old? WOW!!

Griffin didn't like the rides at first, but he eventually started to get into it. We let the kids pick their favorite to ride again one more time before we left. Noah picked the Tilt-A-Whirl. G picked "the cows." Which in G-ese means the merry go round. :-)

So that was the not-so-short synopsis of what we have been doing. Bob is still teaching his class. I am going in for an interview to teach a class at a local business school - not sure what will happen with that, but I can't refuse an adventure. :-) The kids are good and fun and all that wonderful stuff. :-) Here are a few pictures.



Super cute butterfly jammies from Old Navy (and supercute little Quinners). She's teething. She's had the 2 bottom teeth forever, but now the top 4 teeth are coming.



G, in the pink sunglasses he found outside (they belong to the neighbor girl). Goofball.

Sweater weather?

No, not really. It was 70 degrees here today. But I finished up this little sweater for Quinn so I needed to take a picture, of course. Here it is - the Baby Hoodie by Blue Sky Alpacas . I used Classic Elite Waterlily ... lovely yarn. I don't know if it is going to be baby friendly or not, but I couldn't resist the colors. Besides, I bought it on the way to SoDak, when I realized I had forgotten the pattern for my bonsai tunic and had 7 hours of riding in a van with nothing to entertain me. Total impulse purchase. Griffin saw it and said, "Mommy, Quinners wear yarn shirt?" - how cute is that?



Other than that, we are gearing up for school. Noah and I did his school supply shopping over the weekend. He is quite excited, although he's concerned that the 1st grade room is smaller than the kindergarten room and therefore not as good.

I've been putting finishing touches on the powerpoint document for the online scrapbooking class I'm teaching at Scrapafaire. This time I'm teaching a class on design. Here's a peek at one of the layouts I'll be using to illustrate the concepts.



In other news, we are 95% sure that Bob will be teaching his first ever university class this fall. You'd think we'd be 100% sure, since the class starts next week. We'll know for sure by then. Ha! Anyway, he had a chance to teach last year, but it fell through at the last minute. He's hopeful that this time it will happen. The class is about information technology. Bob has always wanted to teach, and he's good with people, so I think this is going to be a great experience for him.

Table and chairs for 5, please.

I have a dining room table and six chairs! Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

Quinn also has a special spot now. We bought a "space-saver" high chair. Saving space wasn't necessarily the priority, but we liked the idea of having her sit at the table with us. I think she approves. :-)

Gotta love a bonfire.

Our friends Ray and Laura are in town for a visit. Tonight we did a little bonfire in the backyard with the neighbors. Mmmm ... s'mores. I've been wanting s'mores since I got back from the lake last weekend but it has been windy.

Ray played football with Noah and Trev. Football is a loose term. It was more of a "let's pile on Ray" sort of game.


Note G and his lawnmower, completely ignoring them. G actually mows in pattern sometimes - he is quite fascinated with mowing and watches Bob from the window so he sees Daddy go back and forth. Little mimic.



Quinn scootched around and looked cute. As usual.



Plenty of s'mores were eaten by all, and now the kids are in bed. Yay!

Here's a couple of quick shots from last weekend at the lake.

Mark - getting some air.



Turner on the boat (where he likes to take a nap).



The kids watching tv as the night wore down.