Rita Oliverio

Hot, hot, hot!

...and other randomness...

It's going to be 107 here today and that is about 30 degrees warmer than I like it.  It is too hot to do anything, so we will be heading out to the little kiddie pool in the back yard shortly so the kids can cool off for a little bit.  We aren't used to this weather at all!

Nick is leaving for camp tomorrow so I do have to do a little laundry and get him ready, but other than that we are just going to try to stay cool.  It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive each way and it's still supposed to be 99 tomorrow so that should be fun with three kids and a bunch of stuff to lug up what I've heard is a big hill to camp. 

------breaking news---------

Doggy is home!! 

 

That doggy that goes everywhere with Logan had been missing since his birthday party on the 19th.  He has never gone without doggy for more than a day (and that day was not any fun!).  He has a back-up doggy, or doggy #2 as he is also known, but he absolutely knows the difference.  He has now started to refer to them as the itchy doggy and the soft doggy.  Doggy #2 is softer because he hasn't seen as much love...or as many baths in the washing machine, lol. 

Logan actually did much better than I thought he would with the disappearance of doggy.  He latched on to doggy #2 and seemed confident that the real doggy would reappear.  I, however, was devastated!  He has had doggy since he was 6 months old.  My sister got it for him and nothing else has ever come close for his favorite lovey. 

We looked everywhere.  Tony even went through the garbage...yuck!  We live on 13 acres and Logan had been all over the day of his party so he could have been anywhere.  My worst fear was that he was outside because I was afraid the real dog Buddy might get to him.  Even though I searched everywhere in the house, I held out hope that he would turn up.

And he did!!  Last night Nick couldn't sleep because it was so hot. He was getting his Bumblebee transformer off of the very top of his huge Ikea shelf in his room, and there was doggy, back behind some toys and the glass part of the light fixture that I set up there because I lost the wing nut when the light bulbs were changed.  The smile on Logan's face was priceless!  I had looked through the whole shelf, and even on the top, but I had to stand on a chair to see the top and I must have missed him. 

How did doggy get up there?  Well, I'm pretty sure he had some help when Nick was playing keep-away with doggy.  He is home safe though, and that is all that matters!

--------now we return to our regularly scheduled programming--------

And, if you made it through that, here's a layout I finished yesterday :) It's a picture of Nick from last July in front of the hood of my car when he jump-started my dead battery all on his own.

 

 

 

I used the July Studio Calico kit plus the SC coffee stain and story time stamps.  I thought the coffee stain could also be an oil stain so it fit my car theme.  I popped up the vowels in my hand-stamped and cut-out title for some added dimension. 

That's all for now.  I may sneak over to my inlaws if the heat gets unbearable because they have central AC and I've heard the basement is quite cool.

A few more sneaks...

It can't be said enough just how fun this kit was to work with!  So many possibilities and all of the DT has posted fabulous sneaks!  The kit and full projects will be revealed on August 1st, so be sure to check it out here.

 

 

 

And yes, there are not one, but two, fabulous alphas included in this kit!

Not much else to report from around here.  I've spent all week scrapping and relaxing after many weeks of party preparation.  This coming week will be busy.  Nick is heading to Cub Scout camp on Thursday.  He'll be gone until Saturday. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive each way so we will be spending a lot of time in the truck! 

Some Peeks!

I am absolutely loving working with the August Kraft Girl Kit!  This kit is right up my alley...lots of different manufacturers and products to play with! 

Here are a couple of sneaks of a layout and a little project I've finished.  There is so much fun stuff in this kit that I have several more planned!

 

 

  

Be sure to check back for more sneaks in the next few days!

And, I just wanted to add that Logan's party was a success.  We got *most* of our to-do list finished and I was happy with how things turned out.  We also learned a lot about hosting a party for that many people and had a few mini-crises that in hindsight were nothing, but will make for a funny post, lol.  I was so busy that I hardly took any pictures, but I did get this one of the little guy yesterday in one of his new shirts:

 

Classic Logan.

Making Me Happy

This amazing sneak for the August Kraft Girl Kit:

 

I am so excited to work with this kit!  Love the mix of colors and manufacturers...so many possibilities are already swimming around in my head :)

This project is almost done:

 

The floors will not be done by this weekend, but I have now finished the painting.  Yeah!  I'm pretty happy that I did it on my own, but it also reinforced just how much I hate painting and why I usually get Tony to do it!  The floor and front of the tub will be tile, but we're saving that project for another day.  The toilet and pedestal sink are on the left side of the room, hidden by the giant ladder in the way :) I'm going to hang a shelf above the toilet and some towel rods with some brand new white towels and call it good.  I'll post pictures when it's completely finished.

This little girl just makes me smile:

 

I swear she is 22 months going on 10; she is just so grown-up.  She is talking in complete sentences, singing songs and says please, thank you and your welcome without any prompting.

My mini is now finished, including the journaling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will be very busy with Logan's party this weekend, but hopefully I'll have some fun pictures to share on Monday!

Exciting News!

I'm a Kraft Girl!

I am so thrilled that Pam asked me to join her team!  She puts together beautiful kits {all include kraft paper...one of my favs!}  and I am really looking forward to working with them and the great group of ladies she selected!

You can see her kits here and meet the rest of the design team here.

A sneak peek of August's kit will be up tomorrow!

I did manage to snap a few pictures yesterday.  None of the kids like to hold still right now, so these are definitely "in the moment" photos that show what life is like with three rambunctious kids!

 

Logan is the king of funny faces right now...that title will definitely be appearing on a scrapbook page soon because I have lots of goofy pictures of him!

I really wish I had my journaling finished so I could share my mini, but I got involved in a bathroom painting project last night and didn't get any time to scrap.  Half way through tearing down the wallpaper border I wanted to stop, but I'm glad I didn't!  Every muscle in my body is screaming, but I'm done with most of the hard part. 

I'm now off to make a latte so I can try to recover from painting until 1:30am!

Snapshot

of our life right now:

 

Tony had the last in a series of three steroid injections in his back yesterday so he is pretty sore today.  I have to drive him, so this is a pretty familiar scene to us: loading the kids in the backseat of the truck.

Unfortunately, yesterday we discovered little Ashley apparently suffers from car or motion sickness.  She has been getting sick in the car pretty frequently and yesterday I finally put the pieces together when I saw how positively green she looked.  I hadn't brought a change of clothes so we made a quick trip to Target to pick up a new outfit for her while Tony was having his procedure done.  Poor baby :(  I'm not sure what we are going to do to keep her comfortable during car rides.

This is going to be a crazy, busy week for us getting ready for Logan's party on Sunday.  I really have no business scrapping, but I couldn't help but work on this mini of Logan's trip to the Aviation museum back in February:

 

I just have to finish the journaling and then I will share the rest tomorrow!

I also discovered while searching for pictures for today's post, that I haven't taken a photo in almost a week!  So I decided to challenge myself to take  a photo every day for the rest of the month so I will have some more snapshots of our daily life.  Wish me luck!

Paper Pusher

That is usually how I scrapbook.  I push my papers and pictures around until I like what I see and then start taping down. 

My last two layouts I have had an idea in my head before I even started and I am so much happier with the results!  For the layout I have to share today, I even printed my pics at home so I could have that instant gratification.  It's really not fun to have to stop creating to make a trip to town to pic up two or three small prints for one layout. 

For this layout, I used bits of the March, April and June Studio Calico kits.  I added the little bit of ribbon and the paper flowers.

The journaling reads:

From the bows in your hair

to the dresses you love to wear

and the bracelets on your wrist

and your precious baby dolly

you are such a girl

and I love it!

 

And here's a pic of our little girl in pigtails from Wednesday.

 

So cute!  Her hair is deceptively long.  When I give her a bath and I first get it wet, it goes down a good four inches past her neck.  In no time at all, her springy curls come back and she is surrounded with a halo of curls.  I'm already having a hard time combing and detangling it...I can imagine it's only going to get harder!

Since I spent the better part of yesterday playing, I am seriously behind in party preparations.  Just a few of the things we (and by we I mean Tony) are trying to accomplish this next week:

paint the hallway

paint the entryway

finish the fence

finish the stairs from my scrapbook room to the backyard

hang some pictures

move some furniture

paint the trim and doors

I am in charge of the food, and at least I know that will be good :)  Logan will have a blast and that is what is important.

Oh, and on one last scrappy note, my layout from yesterday of Ashley saying I want made the Top Ten at Two Peas! 

Happy Birthday Logan!

I cannot believe this boy turned four today!

 

He is smart, sensitive, loving, and very, very, funny!

 

He is at such a fun age.  Sometimes I look at him and see this boy that is so grown up that it makes me wonder where my baby went. Then there are mornings like today where he crawled into my bed and said, "Mama, I want to sleep with you," and slept and cuddled with me for two hours.

I love his reaction to the Lego Indiana Jones game that was one of his gifts:

 

 

We are having a full-blown birthday party for him on the 19th, but today we all went out to a late lunch/early dinner together and then I made him cupcakes when we got home.

 

I love the look on his face - so full of joy and excitement!  Life can't get much better when you are four and it's your birthday!

I also have a layout to share.  I've had this one in my head for awhile and I'm really happy with how it turned out! 

 

 

I want is one of Miss Ashley's favorite phrases and I had to document it.  Most of the supplies are from the June Studio Calico kit.  I added the leaves, flower and stick pin from supplies I had on hand.

Thanks for peeking!

Summer Fun

A few summer pictures to share:

 

Nick at Cannon Beach on a school field trip the day before the last day of school.  We had a great time, but it was a long bus ride there and back!

 

Ashley and her "po-do", as she refers to popsicles.  Tony found these great popsicles that are called "mini-melts."  They are the perfect size for her, have a longer stick so she doesn't get her hands all messy and they melt really slowly so she always finishes them and never drips everywhere. 

 

Eating a gummy worm, another of her favorite outside treats.

 

The kids in the hot tub.  This is probably their favorite thing to do! 

 

Ashley and Logan are such a funny pair.  Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs, other times they are so sweet together.

 

 

I got my hair cut!  It had gotten to the length that I was pulling it into a pony tail every day, and that is when I know it's time to get it cut.  I'm always very spontaneous about it, and fairly trusting, so I tend to go to those walk-in places.  This was the first time I ever had a guy cut my hair, and he was bald, so I was extremely nervous the whole time!  Honestly, who doesn't judge a hairstylist by his or her own hair?? (And no, you don't need to adjust your monitor...I really am that pale, lol.)

And of course, a layout.  I finished my April layout for the A Year of You class at Two Peas.  This is probably my favorite layout of the class to date. 

 

The journaling card pulls out and has a list of what we did during the month of April.  Now I just have May and June to do and I am completely caught up!

Still playing catch-up

but at least it's only been a week this time instead of two months!

We have an unbelievable amount of home improvement projects going on simultaneously and that is really taking up most of our time and energy.  Well, mostly Tony is doing them, but I'm keeping him well fed and am working on lots of stuff indoors.  We are racing against the clock because Logan turns four next month and we are planning a family barbecue and Batman birthday party for him.

I managed to squeeze in a little scrapping time and have two new layouts to share.

This picture of Logan is from a year ago.  I can't believe how time flies...

 

 

And these pictures are even older...this is three years ago on the Oregon Coast!  I've been rummaging through my old pics I already printed since I haven't had much time to get any new ones printed.

 

Pretty much everything is from one Studio Calico kit or another :)  My latest favorite supply has got to be those SC Story Times stamps that I used for "at the".  Love, love, love them!