Just can't get enough of this smile ;-)

I just love this smile - can't get enough of his cuteness!

He has a crooked smile very similar to Brailee's when she was this age - here she was at 2 1/2 months old...

And this will give you an idea of how much he has grown. The first picture is Trysten at 12 days old - in a size Newborn diaper - look at his scrawny arms and legs. The second picture is Trysten at 2 months - growing out of a size 2 diaper - notice how his feet have not grown at all, but the rest of him has!

2 Months Old!

Yes, Trysten is now 2 months old! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I can't believe how time flies! He sure is growing, too - he hasn't been in for his 2 month check-up yet, but I figure he weighs about 12-14 pounds now, he's really filling out. He is quite the social bug, he's happiest when he is in on all the action. He sleeps less during the day and spends his awake time observing the world around him. He loves it when his sisters hold him and talk to him - they take such good care of him! Here are some fun pics that I took today.

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I just love those chubby cheeks and that darling little dimple in his chin.

Trysten and Big Sister Brianna

Practicing his different expressions ;-)

Sweet Baby Face - PageMaps Sketch Contest

Here is my last minute entry for this month's PageMaps Blog Sketch Contest. I have been really sick today so while David and the girls were outside playing and doing a little spring cleaning, I just took it easy inside. I had an hour where I actually felt good enough to do some scrapping, so I pulled out these old pictures of Brianna, and this fun bright paper that my SIL Sandy gave to me, and put together this page. I didn't think out of the box with this sketch since the pictures fit perfectly, plus I wasn't feeling very creative with this cold ;-P but here it is!

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ETA: I just noticed that the contest deadline has been extended, so give this sketch a try! You now have until the 25th.

I used a variety of White Daisy rub-ons from CTMH, flower brads from the White Daisy Mini Medleys, Color-Ready alphabet stickers, and the following stamp sets from CTMH: Calendar, Noteworthy, Precious Alphabet, Sans Alphabet, and Adorable.

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Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments.

Butterfly Wings

I had a club gathering yesterday, so this was the card that I came up with for the Make & Take using this month's Stamp of the Month, Butterfly Wings. I loved the different ways some of the club members ended up stapling on the ribbon - some really fun, unique ideas!

Then I wanted to show them another moving card idea, so I created this fun Spinner Card thanks to Kim's Tutorial.

So while I was on a Butterfly Wings roll, this card for my Word Puzzle Workshop was just TOO plain and simple, so I decided to add a little dimension.

Thanks for looking!

Thanksgiving 2003

I'm trying to get back on track with my goal for this year of scrapping my old pics before I print new ones. With a new baby in the house, it's been hard NOT to print all of his latest pictures. I've really struggled the last week or two and finally decided I need to take a break from the recent pictures and pull out some old ones. I pulled out my 2003 photo box and went through that until I found some that would work with one of this month's challenges. So I was finally able to complete a layout with pictures! This is the layout I did for this month's Imagine Challenge. Once again, I used a cut-up photo storage page to fit more pictures on the pages.

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Products Used (all CTMH): Abundance paper and Stickease (retired), Color Ready Alphabets (Oxford & Bold), Autumn Garden Organdy Ribbon - Goldrush (retired), Six Pocket Photo Storage Page, Autumn Terracotta Photo Clips (retired), and the Friendship Alphabet stamp set.

Here is the page with the hidden journaling and pictures:

I just love this picture of my Grandma with Kaylee and Brianna.

My Snow Angels and Handsome Little Man

The snow that fell on Monday here lasted until this weekend - I think that's the longest that we've kept snow on the ground this winter! There is still a little here and there but most of it has now melted and you can see our lovely brown grass, just like we've seen all winter - blah! Anyway, the girls had fun playing in the snow every day after school, so here are some pics of my little snow angels...

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Kaylee was always the first to come in, begging for hot chocolate...here she is throwing a snow ball at me, the little stinker ;-)

Brailee would come in about 20 minutes later...

Brianna, on the other hand, stayed out forever! She built many snow blocks out of any kind of bucket or container that she could find. She even used an orange cone to make pointy blocks!

Here she is with her tiny snowman...

Here is my darling little man - so happy! This was the first picture I took during this 'photo shoot' and just look at that smile - he's a keeper! He is growing so fast - he has already outgrown some of his 0-3 month clothes, especially the one-piece outfits! These clothes here are 3-6 month and I thought they'd be too big for him, but they fit perfectly! I may have to take his Easter outfit back and exchange it for the 6-9 month size, we'll see!

And when I say little 'man' this is why - check out that receeding hair line! Most babies loose their hair in the back, but no, he's going bald on top! I think it's because he had such bad cradle cap when he was a few weeks old, so I scrubbed his hair a lot, but it was worse in the back, so you'd think he would have lost it there first - who knows! Anyway, you can see where the new hair is coming in already, so there's hope for him ;-)

Here's a reminder of how much hair he had when he was born - he has the cutest little cowlick right in front, just like Brianna - you can already see its pattern in his new hair coming in.

May Word Puzzle

Here are the creations for this month's Word Puzzle Workshop - we are using the May Word Puzzle and Amore papers. This was actually my least favorite new paper pack, but I really like what I came up with - it's starting to grow on me! For complete workshop details, click here.

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12x12 Option

This was created using this month's Cherish Challenge, so here is the companion page (we are only creating the left side for the workshop). Which right page do you like better? With 3 Chocolate photo squares or just 2? I think I like 3, but I'd love to hear your opinion.

I don't know if you can see the detail in this picture or not, but here is what I did on the white edges of the layouts: I stamped the flourish border stamp from the word puzzle set in Vanilla Cream ink and then used a sponge to chalk around the edges with Chocolate Chalk from the Autumn Soft Chalks. It gave it a very soft, subtle look, darker on the edges, I really like how it turned out. You may be able to see this effect better on the 6x6 layouts or one of the cards posted below.

6x6 Option

Card Option

This card is using this month's Originals Challenge

This card was inspired by Kim - I just made a few changes. You can view her card here.

Blog Candy

Lori has hit the 20,000 hits on her blog, so to celebrate, she is giving away some sweet blog candy! Click here to check it out!

Smile!

I finally caught some smiles on camera! It's tricky because as soon as I get the camera out, he is just fascinated by that big black thing in his face - plus the light that comes on before the flash gets him distracted, too ;-) So here are some pictures I got this morning of his sweet smile - I turned the flash off and I think that helped, but they're just a little blurry. Enjoy!

First smiles and LOTS more...

WARNING - this post is full of lots of pictures from the last week ;-P

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Trysten has started smiling, and not just in his sleep anymore. It's really hard to catch on camera so far, but here is a picture of the end of one smile. He is really checking out his surroundings and tries to find who's talking to him.

Brailee is such a big helper - she especially loves to take out the trash right now. If she sees me with a garbage bag in my hand, she will hurry and put her shoes on and tell me "I do it!" Here are some pics of her helping with that chore. She has always loved to help - I remember at just 14 months old she was always helping her sisters empty the dishwasher. Then one day I was doing it while Kaylee and Brianna were at school and she came in to help me and I gave her the kid cups, which go in a cupboard that is low so the kids can reach them, and I told her to put them away, and she knew exactly where they went and did it without any help!

And here she is helping Daddy make jerky on Saturday morning - quite the outfit, isn't it? She had just woke up, went potty, and found her cool shades ;-)

Here she was holding Trysten Saturday night - he fell asleep in her arms and it wasn't too long after that and she was out, too ;-)

Here is Kaylee holding Trysten - she is also quite the helper - she loves to help with Trysten, but it makes me quite nervous the things she wants to do all by herself. She tries to carry him, burp him, and move him from one place to another, and then she will come tell me. I am trying to get it through her head that I'm proud that she can do these things but I'd rather be there when she does it, just to supervise!

Here is David and Brailee telling each other secrets last night after dinner - it was too cute, he would whisper something in her ear and then she'd whisper it right back.

When I got the camera out to catch their secrets, Brailee wrapped her arm around his neck and said, 'Smile Daddy' and gave me this shot - notice her messy face and dress from dinner.

And here is David and his girls, just being silly!

Last week it was so nice and warm - by the middle of the week it was almost 70 degrees! This is what we woke up to this morning. Kaylee said, 'How can it snow in March?' and I just told her that's typical Wyoming weather for ya! Here is Brianna all bundled up.

As you can see, I had to wake up Brailee so we could take Kaylee and Brianna to school so she's still in her jammies with messy hair. I am looking forward to the move to the new school which will be just down the street, then I won't have to wake up Brailee and Trysten if I don't have to, the girls can just walk the 1/4 mile. They were supposed to move after Christmas Break, and then that got pushed back to February, and now it's pushed back to after Spring Break - I hope it happens this year!

I was just praying that we made it to school safely - yesterday on our way to church, the Yukon suddenly died on me as we were turning onto the street that the church is on. Luckily I was able to coast off to the side of the road until it was able to start up again and then we finally made it into the church parking lot. David was at a Branch Conference about 30 minutes away and none of his family was in church that day, so I found a neighbor who was willing to follow me home after church to make sure it didn't die on us again. It did this once before back in December or January and at the beginning of February the fuel pump went out so we had to change that, so I was hoping to be past any big problems. David has a company truck for work, so at least we have the truck for a back-up vehicle, but when the fuel pump went out in the Yukon, it was parked behind the truck so I was stuck. Thank goodness for good family, friends, and neighbors who are willing to help out at the last minute!

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Yesterday before church I wanted to get a family picture but once again David had to leave for a Branch Conference, so this is the best I could do - here is our 'Auto-portrait-o' as my mom calls them - it's getting harder to fit everyone in these pics, my arms just aren't quite long enough! But hey, everyone is happy and looking at the camera, I think that's pretty good!

And here are the necklaces that my dad gave us for Christmas - they are teeth from an elk he shot - he had a friend make them into necklaces for me and the girls.

You can't see her necklace at all, but I just love that face ;-D

Hope you all had a great week, too!