Project 365 - Day 281

My little photographer. Every chance Laura gets she wants to get her hands on my camera to take pictures. She comes up with some very interesting shots and I love to look at the world through her eyes (I am working on a little book just for her of pictures from her point of view). There is always, always, always one like this. She seems to love to point the camera down and take pictures of her feet. They are such cute little toesies aren't they?

Project 365 - Day 280

This didn't go as smoothly as I had thought and my dad gives me an "F" in patch sewing. I tried to sew them on by hand and it just was not happening so I got the machine out and tried my best to get them on straight but it was more difficult than I thought it would be, which is how most of my sewing and life projects work. I think oh, this will be easy, this won't take long. Well, maybe when I have more time I can take them off and try again. Yeah, when the kids are about 10 years older that should happen, right?

Project 365 - Day 279

My sweet, smart little boy. He is obsessed with going outside to play. I always tell him he has to get his shoes on before he goes outside. So, he goes and gets his shoes and grunts and waits for me to help him so he can go out and play. It just makes me smile and chuckle, just another day living lacerda.

Project 365 - Day 278

Nathan's first cub scout den meeting. He has been so very excited to start cub scouts. I just love a man in uniform - hee hee! Their den has 9 boys and after this meeting Mike was wrangled into being the den leader. Let's see how that goes. Nathan is over the moon that Mike will be so involved. The meeting was so great and ended with s'mores! I think this is going to be a great experience.

Project 365 - Day 277

We all went to a fabulous wedding in the Bay Area at Ruby Hill. Chris's brother Sean married Michele in a beautiful wedding. I wasn't sure what to get and decided on a stock pot with some soup recipes. Chris served as best man and Jaylyn and Jayce were flower girl and ring bearer.

The Zakas family was there too and all the kids had a blast playing together. I had not seen this set up before at a wedding but they had an entire room set aside for the kids connected to the reception room. They had crafts, snacks, tables, chairs and lots and lots of little toys in gift bags for each kid. It was such a great idea!

I love how Nathan found a leaf and was trying to be fancy like the wedding party. He is so cute.

Project 365 - Day 276

Happy Anniversary to Mike and I! It has been 11 years of marriage for us and we had to split duty today.

Mike had soccer duty with Nathan and I got to go to the bay area with Laura and Noah to celebrate my friend Cristina's son Joaquin's first birthday. He and Noah are one month apart. It is fun to have kids at the same time, we just wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often.

Project 365 - Day 275

It's been a while since a food picture was the POTD. I can't remember how I came across these, as I subscribe to quite a few food email newsletter things, but they were so fast and easy I have fallen in love with them. I substituted my one point corn tortillas and weight watcher cheese so they were much better numbers than the actual recipe. They are so yummy I have a new favorite enchilada recipe. The fresh crunch from the raw onion and the queso fresco and cilantro on top make these delicious in my opinion.

Here is the recipe just in case anyone is interested: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chicken-and-cheese-enchiladas-recipe/index.html

Project 365 - Day 274

This is another one of those 'Lacerda' milestones. Just like the LeapFrog letters being pushed onto the floor from the refrigerator, being able to reach the blind strings from the couch is one of those milestones in our family. Each child has gotten such a sense of joy and accomplishment from these findings. This had to be the POTD.

Project 365 - Day 273

I am really hoping photoshop will help this photo. Mike's colorblindness does not allow him to see anything at all in this photo. This was Nathan's favorite 'new school clothes' find. It is a glow in the dark shirt and he requested this be the POTD. He has been wanting it to be cold enough to wear this long sleeve shirt to school and it is finally turning fall so we headed into the closet with the lights off and I snapped away. I hope I can fix this so you can see the green better.

Project 365 - Day 272

Nathan is so very excited each and every morning to ride his scooter to school. He loves getting faster and faster each day and parking his scooter in the bike rack next to his friend Ethan's. He thinks he is so cool.

Project 365 - Day 271

I got this idea from my uber crafty friend Annie a while back. I love the idea of little somethings for their lunch. It is such a fun way to prepare and eat lunch for them. Thanks to my mom for finding the cool boxes and cute silicone cupcake liners. These work much better than the paper cups I had been using.

Project 365 - Day 270

I really don't know what it is about pictures of my kids sleeping but I never get tired of seeing them sleep. It makes me reflect and rejoice and have peace. I love when they fall asleep together after reading books. Now I just have to get my muscles ready to pick them up and move them to their own beds.

As a side note, it is my full intention to reload photoshop onto my laptop after our big hard drive crash earlier this year and fix all of these terrible pictures but I am just trying to get them organized and up on the blog. I hope my intentions will be met with completion before the end of the year. We will see...we all know how good intentions can go.

Project 365 - Day 269

This is where I find Noah most everyday. He still loves his "arc" and plays with and in the ball pit every chance he gets. This is what joy looks like for my little guy.

Project 365 - Day 268

Nathan's new scooter! I am not a big fan of getting my kids new things when it is not a birthday or christmas but Nathan didn't really have any big boy things to ride on (I see a new bike under the tree from Santa this year) and I have been wanting him to get more exercise so he got a new scooter (thanks to Papa and Bup) and he loves it. He has been on this thing everyday since he got it so it has been a very good thing.

Project 365 - Day 267

Some days have moments like this. I get to to out into the backyard and watch the kids play. When the days are really busy with all the errands and running around and places to be I wish I was spending more time just watching them play. These don't happen as often as I would like but I was glad to take the moment to remember how totally blessed I am to have this time to watch my children grow and play. I still love my backyard more and more each day we have it done.

Project 365 - Day 266

Nathan's school sing. I love attending the school sing assembly. It is so much fun to watch the kids sing songs and dance around (the chicken dance is a favorite). They also give out certificates to children who have excelled at the school's Lifelong Guidelines. These are values they teach all year long and reward students who display them (in the older grades they let the students vote for those they think demonstrate them). Nathan did not receive and award this go around but I went anyway to watch the festivities. Can you believe I was the only parent there? I am not sure why but I don't care I just love to watch the kids having fun.

Project 365 - Day 265

Every morning that Nathan has pancakes for breakfast he makes a 'millinuem falcon' and asks me to take a picture. I finally got around to it this morning. He still loves Star Wars and talks about it and the characters daily. He has a little group of friends at school (that includes two girls) that play Star Wars at recess every day. I love hearing about the adventures they come up with.

Project 365 - Day 264

This is our nightly ritual of reading books. Nathan on one side, Laura on the other, me in the middle taking turns reading the books they each have picked.

Lately I have completely run out of steam and I fall asleep with them. This is really cutting into my crafty time and cleaning house time. I find it very peaceful at night when everyone is asleep. I clean bathrooms, the kitchen floor, do the dishes and take a shower (usually at 1am) but it is all my time. I wish I had the energy I used to because I felt so much more accomplished when I was able to get those things done.

In other news, Nathan has become quite the accomplished reader and takes a tour for me reading to Laura.

Project 365 - Day 263

So this is how Noah uses a sippy cup. I find this very interesting. Noah seems to have grasped the whole use a sippy cup thing way better and faster than Nathan and Laura but certainly in his own way. I just find this funny to see him walking around 'drinking' like this. It cracks me up every time.

Noah's First Birthday!

We had a very small birthday celebration for Noah's first birthday. The Dobies and my parents came over for lunch, Nathan's soccer game and then we had dinner. Lunch consisted of Noah's bagel pizza's in honor of the birthday boy's namesake food item (we seemed to have named our children after food products: Nathan's hot dogs, Laura's Scudder's potato chips and Noah's bagels).

We went with the Noah's arc theme because the kids thought it would be cool because it matched his name and I went with it because I thought the babyish theme would only really be appropriate for the first birthday, maybe even the second since it is two by two (my mind is already going for next year). The Dobies actually got him his very own "arc" (well it is a Wonder Pets boat but for our purposes it is now an arc). Auntie Joni did some research and found this lovely little gem but found the reviews said there weren't enough balls (25 came with the boat), so she bought extra. 250 extra balls. I will say the reviews were right on, the 25 wouldn't have even covered the bottom of the boat. Noah LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his special toy. And yes, there are balls EVERYWHERE. I find them all over the house in very conspicuous places. The washing machine, the hampers, the shoes in my closet, of course under the couches and beds, the pantry, basically there are balls everywhere Noah follows me around to. I honestly don't mind. He loves it so much and has so much fun with it the joy far out weighs balls all over the house. I really think Chris and Joni were worried I would be counting all 275 balls, but no I have not found myself counting to make sure I have them all. His favorite thing seems to be to either sit in or lay in the boat and throw all the balls out of it. Thankfully he finds picking them up and throwing them back in as much fun because then I might be in trouble.

Project 365 - Day 261

Library books and Legos. This is a normal after school scene. Eating snacks and playing games.

I was on a roll...

I have foregone doing the dishes and cleaning the house today to organize my photos and upload my blog. I have still been keeping up on Project 365 just haven't been updating the blog. It has been a very busy and emotional few months for me but I am determined to complete this Project I started on January 1st. Looking back at these entries I am trying to catch up on has made me realize how wonderful and rewarding this little project actually is. A lot happens in the every day life of a family with young kids. There have been lots of firsts, birthday celebrations, love and frustration, but mostly I am grateful for these memories and the record of a year in the life of living lacerda.

So while I was on a roll, I can't seem to upload any more photos, even after logging out and back in, so maybe tomorrow I will find some more time to post the rest.

Project 365 - Day 262

We celebrated Noah's birthday with a little party today. I did a little Noah's arc theme. I figured it would be cute for his first birthday. I still haven't take pictures of the invite I made but I used the same figures for the cupcakes. My decorating stand leaves much to be desired but I was just happy that these were done.

Project 365 - Day 260

So I attempted to get Noah's first birthday picture at the Picture People today. I should know better by three children now. Every time you schedule a picture day they either get sick or injured. Noah fell smack on his forehead on the floor in a store right before I was to take him to get his picture. I obviously canceled the picture appointment and am freaking out at the huge egg shaped lump on his head and trying to get an ice pack on it, debating whether or not to take him in for a CT scan and I won't even go there with the totally rude obnoxious comment from the salesperson of a children's store who thinks I am overreacting to my injured child. It was a day for the memory banks for sure.

Project 365 - Day 259

It is soccer practice day. I love how this is Nathan's 'ready' position. He is having fun even though they have lost every game so far. I am just hoping they will score at least one goal this season. Noah is really into the practice and can actually dribble the ball. This little boy is always on the lookout for a ball. He plays ball all day long every day. I am a little ashamed to admit I actually play fetch with him. He loves to go get the ball and bring it back to me. He giggles with delight and keeps coming back for more play time. I wonder if this is how David Beckham started out?