Blake is on the move! Watch Out!!!

We now have another mobile Doyle! He's proving to be harder to photograph too now that he wants to get the camera! I can't believe my little boy is crawling! It started with him sitting, turning around in his seated position, scooting on his bottom, rocking on all fours, rolling to what he wanted, and now he's suddenly a pro at getting anywhere he wants. Kylie walked at ten months and only crawled for a few weeks so I imagine Blake won't be far behind her.

This has not been a fun week for the Doyle household. We all got sore throats at the beginning of the week. A doctor visit confirmed strep throat and we got some antibiotics. Then Blake started getting a rash on his bottom and knees so back to the doctor we went. I thought he might be having an allergic reaction to the medicine and did not expect the diagnosis of Chicken Pox!!!! He's just three months shy of the age that they give the vaccine. Poor little guy! We'll see how good the vaccine works for Kylie. Scott and I both had them as children so hopefully we are immune. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to put a sign on our door, "Enter at your own risk!"

April's Bonus Layout

This shows how far behind I am in Blake's album! These are pictures of him coming home from the hospital! He's now 9 months old. Time certainly flies. For this layout, I used the Silhouette papers with Bamboo and Keylime cardstock. Stamp sets used are the Rustic Alpha and the April SOTM (Stamp of the Month) Express Postage. I used four 2x2, and four 4x6 trimmed slightly. I still need to add journaling and hope to do so soon!

May 1st Mother's Day Workshop

Here's our project for the Accordion album workshop. We will use the True fit folios in a totally different way. Paper is Paper Garden and stamp set is Friendship Puzzle. Contact me to see if there is still a spot for you!

Choose to be a Tigger!

I recently saw the last 15 minutes of a special with Diane Sawyer on Randy Pausch. I wished that I had seen the whole thing b/c it was an inspiring story of a man fighting for his life. Randy has pancreatic cancer and was given a bleak prognosis of 6 months to live. He has a wife and young children. I could not imagine being in that situation! He has decided to not take the words of the doctors, and try to make his own destiny. He hosted a lecture at the University where he works and gave his philosophy on life, which is ultimately a message for his children. He talked about the difference between being an Eyeore and a Tigger in life. Even though I only saw the last 15 minutes of the broadcast, I am trying to take this to heart. Keep track of his battle http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/ In my day to day struggles with my strong willed two year old, I can lose sight of what's really important and teaching Kylie life lessons. For instance, in the car, Kylie has this annoying habit of just making loud yelling noises over and over again. In the past, I feel myself getting angry and asking her to just be quiet. Does this stop her? Of course not! I think it actually makes her continue. So I stopped myself in the car the other day from repeating our same pattern. I decided to yell louder than she did at the top of my lungs. This surprised her and for a moment she was quiet and unsure what to do. Then she yelled back and I yelled back. It was actually fun letting out some pent up anger in a productive way. Kylie thought it was the funniest thing ever! I found myself smiling and then laughing too. What a great way to turn things around. I don't want to raise quiet compliant children! So choose to be a tigger and participate in life!

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Spring is here!

Finally some warm weather! Kylie loves being outside! These pictures were taken at my Aunt's house on Sunday. She has a huge backyard so Kylie went nuts running every where. I love seeing all the trees in bloom. Kylie even found one lonely little purple flower. I played around with my camera's settings. I'm still learning and just need to break down and take a class. Thank goodness for digital! I can take a ton of pics and find a few good ones in the mix. Enjoy the weather!

April's Layouts

The procrastination is not getting any better! Here is one of the layouts I finished last night for my group that will meet on Tuesday! I hope to work some more tonight. I used the paper garden papers from CTMH. I wish I could say that I came up with the layout all on my own, but it was scraplifted from the My Reflections book from CTMH. I love that book! I can't wait to copy more layouts! For club members, you are supposed to use 4 3x3 photos. I couldn't crop mine that small so I printed mine in the 3.5x5 mode and cropped them to 3.5x3.5. On two of them I could not crop off some of the photo so they are actually 3.5x4. Is that clear as mud? On the other page it uses an 8x10 so that's easy!