#2 turns 10 today.  TEN.

Emma is such a sweet, sweet girl.  Being her mother for the past 10 years has truly been a blessing.  From the moment she was born I’ve been in love.  She’s super helpful, and even though she’s on the quiet side, she can be assertive when she needs too.  She doesn’t let anyone walk all over her, and she’s super loyal.  I *heart* this girl so much and hope that she has her best year yet.  She deserves it.

Wordful Wednesday 411:   Wordful Wednesday is like Wordless Wednesday, except WITH words.  It’s for those of us that just cannot be wordless, no matter how much we try.  Add  my Wordful Wednesday badge to your post (right side bar under “WW”) if you really want to make me happy, and then add your post link to the linky below.  Easy peasy.

Child #3 just joined Cub Scouts.  His very first meeting was The Pinewood Derby, which is a pretty big deal in the Cub Scouting world.  It’s a good thing he has a dad that went through the Scouting program and knew what to expect and what to do.

They had exactly ONE day to carve, mount and paint Garrett’s car.

And I had exactly one day to buy his his cub scout shirt and  iron on the requisite patches.

The race was pretty fun.  We were convinced Garrett’s car would smoke the competition, but it um.  only smoked a few.

It did win a ribbon for most sleek car, though.  Next year we are going for fastest car.  :)

Have any of your boys won The Pinewood Derby?  If so, what is the secret?  

Have you been over to visit my co-host Amanda at Parenting by Dummies yet?

In celebration of seeing what SEO can do for a single blog post, I’m giving away a $50 Gift Certificate from HalloweenCostumes.com to buy clown costumes so that you to can throw a Circus Themed Birthday Party and have the guest or guests of honor arrive in style.

I’ve been blogging for years now, and in that time I’ve learned quite a bit about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  I’ve been able to utilize this knowledge on sites that I write/work for, but on my own blog, my emphasis is not so much of SEO as it is on my family and what interests me.

However, recently I wrote a post using all the tools I’ve learned about SEO, and guess what?  It totally worked.  The post brings in LOTS of organic traffic and it shows up on the first page of a Google search for “How to Throw a Circus Party“.  The best part is that the post was not written with any other purpose than to showcase my twins super fun circus themed party.

One winner will win $50 in credit to HalloweenCostumes.com to use toward clown costumes or accessories.

Entry Requirement:

Nothing like publishing a year in review post 2 weeks after the New Year, right?

These Year in Review posts that I do are always fun for me because it’s a great opportunity for me to see what my monthly highlights were.  Heavens know I can’t remember!  2011 found me busier than ever, but not on my blog.  Apparently.

In January Jeff and the kids and I took a 2 week vacation to Florida.  I believe that I posted about the trip in February, though.  I also became a Contributing Editor on SITS and I geared up for bringing home a DOG.  That was huge.

February found me recapping our Florida Vacation here and here.  Good to know I didn’t drop the ball on that one!

What do you know?  I dragged my Florida Vacation posts into March here and here.  I also finally introduced Bisco the dog to everyone.  He’s cute, isn’t he?  Child #1 also asked to not be showcased on my blog any more.  I’m glad she forgot.

In April I turned 35.  Oh wait.  That was the previous year.  April was the month that we lost and found the dog.  BIG stuff.

In May Jeff and I decorated the twins room in a pirate theme (very cute) and I got my craft on by making my girls a cute bulletin board for their room.  It seems like something else must have happened that month (oh yes, Mother’s Day), but apparently not.

June found the dog ingesting his first dose of chocolate.  Since then he’s become addicted and we’ve had to give him hydrogen peroxide 3 times to get him to throw up after getting into chocolate.  Again.

In July I’m positive I went camping in Utah with my family, and my brother in law crashed and almost ripped off his ear, yet I didn’t post anything about it.  Hum. Oh, I remember why now.  I couldn’t post pictures without giving away my dads Christmas present.

August was a good blogging month.  I attended my first BlogHer (BlogHer Day 1, BlogHer with Parenting by Dummies and More BlogHer) and took the kids to Olvera Street and Union Station in Los Angeles.

In September I wrote one of my favorite pieces for the Million Mom’s Challenge and ABC.  I shared a few glimpses of my trip to Utah from the previous month (herding sheep and Temple Hill).  Oh, we also noticed for the first time that the new Pfister boxes were out with the twins on them.  How could I forget that my kids went back to school this month?

In October I didn’t publish anything worth mentioning.  Sad, right?  Not even Halloween pictures.  Those better be coming in November….

Let’s see:  November.  Nope, I didn’t publish any Halloween pictures….I did recognize that my little guys turned 6 though, and that they still destroy everything in sight.  Oh, I also published my favorite chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe.

And last but not least, December.  I shared pictures of the twins Circus Themed Birthday Party and how to Make S’Mores in a Jar.  Yummy!

Here’s to a better year.  One in which I’m a little more forth coming with things that actually matter to me……

Jeff and I took the kids to the Norton Simon Museum on New Year’s Eve.  LOVE that museum.  It’s relatively close to my house, it’s in a fun area of Pasadena,  and kids are free. It’s one place that we can go as a family and pay the same price as if Jeff and I were on a “date”.  Going on New Year’s Eve was really fun, too because we got to see all the preparations for the Rose Parade, but without all the people.  (The Norton Simon Museum is that building that’s always shown on TV during the parade with a big rose on the face of the building. (The museum is right on Colorado Blvd and directly across from the KLTA cameras.)

Anyway, this was the first time we’ve taken the kids to the museum when they’ve taken cameras of their own, and I was DYING.  DYING.  We went straight outside to the sculpture garden when we arrived and I’ve never seen such avid photographers (with the exception of Emma. I think she might have been appalled).  Click, click, click went those cameras.  Click, click, click some more.

For some reason all of the photos were of a common theme.   Naked People.

When we headed inside I captured this:

Look closely.

Yep, that’s Jacob taking pictures of naked ladies.

And the girls wondering if they were seeing half naked breasts. And taking a picture, just in case.

Those avid photographers weren’t nearly as excited about taking pictures when we got to areas with portraits of clothed people.

See that confused look on Emma’s face?  I think she’s thinking, “another semi exposed breast?“

Are your kids drawn to naked sculptures and paintings at museums, too?

Have you been over to visit my co-host Amanda at Parenting by Dummies yet?

I love the idea of sharing my life in list form, so when my good friend Nicole (and fellow Momo mommy) of Moments that Define Life created the meme Listable Life, I decided it was just the push I needed to try to share parts of my life in a form I don’t usually use.

So, this week my listable life topic is:

5 Posts I’m Proud Of:

I’d do it again if I had to, but I’m glad I don’t.
Humiliation, Thy Name is Mother
Going Home
The Great Escape
My Heritage

I chose these posts because they are more “revealing” (and humorous in one instance) than most.

Are you going to play along today too?

In early December I was shopping in my favorite used book store and hit upon a treasure-trove of LIFE magazines from the 1940′s, 1950′s, 1960′s and 1970′s.  They were filthy and many were really ratty, but I thumbed through them anyway.  I even bought a few but gave them away as Christmas gifts.  Now I wish I had kept at least one for myself because the historical content and ads were so interesting and entertaining.  I literally could have stayed in the store all day looking through the magazines.

Today I came across the Vicks Time Line - A Century of Caring and I started kicking myself for not keeping any of the LIFE magazines, because I would SO love to see a vintage Vicks® ad in original print!  Maybe I’ll have to “borrow” the magazines and take a peek?  {smiling}

I am partial to the ads that Vick’s had in the 1940′s.

I mean, how cute is that little girl?  And the words?  ”MY MOM IS SURE SMART”.  Um, hello.  Me likey.  If only my kids would BOTH say and BELIEVE that.  {laughing}  Since their dad is a pharmacist, I am quite positive that they will NEVER think I’ve got smarts when it comes to medicine.  They know who has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in our home and it certainly isn’t me.  I also love that this was the first color print ad Vicks® ran.

Moving on to another decade….who remembers the line of Vicks® for kids that was introduced in the 1980′s?

In the late 1980′s Vicks® introduced their Pediatric line with 3 “just for kids” products.  I clearly remember always having a bottle of Vicks® Formula 44D on hand at my house. (They also came out with Vicks® Formula 44M and Vicks® Formula 44 with cough suppressant.)  I also remember having it administered on a regular old spoon from the silverware drawer in the kitchen.  Apparently a teaspoon loosely meant a teaspoon (and not the measuring teaspoon kind) in my house.  That form of administration would never fly in this one.  :)

Do you have any memories associated with a particular decade of Vicks®?

A special thanks to the makers of Vicks for some seriously fun advertising approaches over the years and for choosing me to be a Vick’s Blogger!  Images owned by Vicks and used by permission. 

Child number 3 turns 8 today.

I still *think* he’s 4.  A super brilliant 4 that can read and play sports and show kindness to others.  But 4, none-the-less.

I’ve got a problem this way.  I can’t wrap my mind around the rapid movement of time in regards to my children.

My #3 is my gentle spirited child who was my saving grace when my twins were born.  He was only 22 months old when they were born, and if he had been like most 22 month old children, I think I might have seriously gone a bit crazy.  When feedings took over an hour, or I was pacing the floor trying to get them to stop crying,  he would sit nearby patiently waiting for his turn.  He brought me clothes and diaper for the twins.  He took naps when I asked him to.  He was just so incredibly GOOD.

I seriously get tears in my eyes when I think about what a quiet and obedient child he was at a time when I really needed one.  I recall taking him the the pediatricians for a regular growth check and being asked if he X number of words.  I was taken aback.  He had no where near the vocabulary he should have had at that age.  In fact, he only had a handful, and I hadn’t even noticed because he was just that skilled at non-verbal communication.  Rather than chit chatting up a storm, he has always sat back and observed what was going on around him.  A more intuitive child would be hard to come by!

I’m so grateful for my special 8 year old who gave up his bottle and potty trained ON HIS OWN on the same day, and managed to tell me this without words.

I’m thankful that even though words aren’t necessarily his “medium” he makes an effort to use them even though he’d rather not.  And that he’s mine.  I’m one lucky mama.

Happy Birthday, Garrett.  May this year be your best yet.

Child #1 decided that she’d like to spend the day at the Balboa Fun Zone for her 12th Birthday, so off we went.  Such a good choice.  The weather was perfect, and everyone had a ton of fun except me {can we say sick, sick, sick?}.  It wasn’t so much that I didn’t have fun as that I felt lousy.

Isn’t this view gorgeous?

See those happy, smiling faces?  J’adore my cuties!

I still can’t believe my “baby” is 12!

I love this picture because of the backlit light, but also because it’s a shot of Grace and me on her birthday.  Ah, the bloom of youth {hers, not mine}!

The sunset when we were leaving was spectacular.  I just wish I could have enjoyed it more.  Instead I was busy violating the trashcans on the way to the car.  Vomiting in public is really embarrassing, disgusting and something I hope to never do again.

Have you taken any fun day trips lately?

Don’t forget to head over to visit my co-host Amanda at Parenting by Dummies today.  Her post about her grandma is so incredibly touching.  Bet she could use some kind words today!

I’m all about repurposing spaces and items, so I can’t believe that it took me as long as it did to transform my junk closet into a crafting area.  For the first time in years all of my scrapbooking/stamping/crafting items are in one organized place, and it didn’t cost me a dime.  All it took was some lifting, moving, re-arranging, and organizing!  {which in and of itself was a bigger project than I anticipated….}

I WOULD have taken a picture of what my junk closet looked like before I made it into my handy-dandy craft area, but that would have been really embarrassing, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Here’s what my craft area looks like now:

And here’s how I did it:

1. I cleared out all of the junk that was in the closet area that I planned on repurposing.
2. I gathered together all of my crafting/scrapbooking/stamping supplies from the 15,000 places I had them stashed and brought them into my new crafting area.
3. I dragged the display table that I decided to repurpose as a desk (because it fit in the space and I didn’t mind “losing” it to my closet) into the closet and then started to organize.
4. The organizing part was actually quite easy.  I just put things where I thought they logically should go and was really happy with the results.

My closet has 2 shelves built in, so the shelf above my desk contains all manner of fun crafting goodies, right at my finger tips. {My dad made me the ribbon holder and smaller shelf you see here as a Birthday Present.}

The top shelf now contains scrapbooking albums and items that I don’t need to get at frequently.

As you can see, there is plenty of space between the shelf and the desk so that my work area is not too cramped.

I have this paper organizer that my dad made for me on the side of the desk.  It’s a fabulous organizational tool that I can’t live without {thanks dad} and now paper is right at my finger tips when I “craft”.  {using the word “craft loosely”!  ha!}

And the best part?  If I’m in the middle of a project, I don’t have to clean up and start again if I run out of time.  I just slide the door closed and no one is the wiser!  Plus, it was free, and now everything is in one place.  Yahoo!