Josiah Alan Heslop

Carla wanted me to post on her blog a few pictures and the info on our new baby!

Josiah Alan Heslop was born on Feb 28th, 2008 at 3:04pm. He was 8lbs 2.6oz and 19 3/4 inches. He is a beautiful baby and we are proud parents. Both Carla and the baby are doing well. I'm sure Carla will post more pictures in the future as they come.

What would you do?

Back in October I purchased a set of baby boy birth announcement and a set of girl birth announcements from Target. They were exactly what I wanted....similar to Aliza's with a place for a picture and requiring some assembly that gives it a personal touch.

So last night I was sortof excited about getting to send them out in the next month and opened them up to look at them. I opened the boy's first and realized that at the bottom of the box was a whole bunch of folded plain white computer paper, no instructions, and no ribbon. Jeremy was right here and I commented to him that I thought that was really wierd because Aliza's was so user-friendly.

I opened the girl's box and there was ribbon and instructions and no blank paper and then I realized that the girl's box had about twice and many cardstock pieces. I then counted the boy's cardstock...21 pages....in what was supposed to be a 50 count kit. Yup, someone took out what they wanted, filled the box with blank paper and returned it to Target.

What would you do? If I have a girl I was planning to return the boy's announcement and vice versa if I have a boy. Do I return a half used kit that I purchased 4 months ago? I would feel like I had to explain and hope that they would believe that it wasn't me. (Each kit cost $19.99).

Tonight we did go back to Target and buy a complete boy's kit, just in case!

Latest Projects

I was feeling sentimental about being in the hospital and coming home out of commission so I made this Little Book of Instructions about Aliza (at 23 months). It is made out of chipboard coasters and I just did it in an evening so the pages are super simple...stickers and small embellishments. The cute thing is that Aliza loves to look through it. So... if someone else posted this picture I would want to know what the instructions are.....
1. Let Aliza drink the milk out of her cereal bowl---even if it makes a mess.
2. Bear and Pacifier solve all the world's problems.
3. Fresh air and exercise bring contentment, joy and usually a good nap.
4. Sometimes Aliza likes to read books and play by herself.
5. Often she will find you, take your hand and tell you to "sit" so that you can play or read stories.
6. Good luck playing song charades. (Father Abraham, This Little Light of Mine, Deep & Wide, I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy and Arky, Arky are pretty obvious)
7. "D? Yes?" means that Aliza wants to watch a DVD.
8. When getting ready for bed, if Aliza touches her hair and "hair" she wants her hair played with. If she rubs her tummy, she wants her tummy rubbed. If she touches her back, she wants her back rubbed. Be warned! She won't want you to stop.
9. Aliza will keep playing happily no matter how tired she is. Put her to bed at 1pm and 8pm.
10.Lots of hugs, kisses and positive words are required for optimal functioning.


This layout is another Christie and Carla scrap challenge. This time we agreed to use crayons on our layout. I had Aliza create my white background paper with crayons. The pictures are of her playing in the snow for the first time and the title is "cutie pie". Sorry the picture is overexposed. I was also happy to reduce my collection of buttons!!

A very "little" thing

While Aliza and I were grocery shopping this morning she decided, for the first time, that she wanted to sit in the back of the cart with the groceries. I decided to give it a try and she had a ball. I even got the "excited" look on several occasions. I had to remind her to sit down, but, today, she listened and sat back down. (I'm sure that boundary will be tested.) There was no organization to my groceries and I had to rescue the eggs (I forgot they were in the back), but I could easily envision myself shopping with two. Aliza in the back, baby carrier in the front. Finally, Aliza got to put all the groceries up on the counter by herself. You can not imagine how cool she thought she was!

You know you're Pregnant when....

you don't fit in a restaurant booth! Jeremy and I ate at Chili's tonight and I didn't fit in the booth. The table didn't move and luckily there was more space on the other side. So Jeremy just slid in when I had sat down and I sat on the other side. I'll just keep repeating to myself...."I'm not fat, just pregnant." I am so motivated to lose weight right now....for more than one reason that I'll share soon!

Ready for Baby and other Random Thoughts

Jeremy and I took some time to play the with photography the other night. I don't always like being the subject, but this time it was pretty fun and we got a couple good ones of the two of us.

Before we took the pictures, we looked at a bunch of glamour maternity photography sites and it appeared that the thing to do was wear regular (pre-pregnancy) jeans with the button and zipper open to allow room for your tummy. It looked really neat so, of course, I had to try. Well....that was depressing....even though I knew it would be when I started. Jeremy said, "Well, at least you got them over your knees." (Thanks, honey!) The moral of the story is that glamour maternity photography is done well before 36 weeks.

So I'm ready for this baby. The last couple nights I've been dreaming of having contractions. The baby's room is ready, we've got names picked out (don't ask), I have coming home from the hospital outfits, the freezer is full of Dinner Company meals, etc. So....no need to wait 'till the 28th. I'm 37 weeks tomorrow!!

Jeremy has been changing his eating habits the last couple weeks to lose some weight so he has been eating all this healthy food. Just makes me realize how many sweets I'm eating now. I'm not inclined to stop at this point. Milk and cookies just make my tummy feel so good! lol. I'll join him in a couple weeks.

You know you're a Scrapbooker when...

• You usually have a camera with you.
• You wonder if you'll ever get caught up.
• You have tools your husband doesn't know how to use.
• You pull buttons off old, unused or outgrown clothes to use on a layout.
• You know who Lisa, Becky, Ali, Jennifer and Tim are.
• The clerks in the local scrapbook store know you by name.
• Your house is a mess because you've been scrapbooking all day.
• You know what CK, CKU, CKC, HOF, SOY and KOTM stand for.
• You can spot an Elsie sticker faster than you can say "Louis Vuitton."
• You check online galleries and blogs more than you check the news.
• You save ribbon off Godiva chocolate boxes to use on your pages and cards.
• You change your child's outfit to match paper you just bought...so you'll have the perfect photo to go with the paper.
• Your scrapbook bag is the first thing you pack for vacation, prompting your husband to mention something about your priorities.
• You know that "Scrapbookers don't lie. We embellish."

This was in the Feb. issue of Creating Keepsakes and I thought it was cute. Thankfully I didn't check every box. The one that I was most embarressed about that is that I do dress Aliza to coordinate with paper that I know I want to use!

Latest Fashion Trend

This is the latest fashion trend at our house.


If you live in Alaska (Christie) you may not want to read this....We have had amazing weather this week. It has been in the 70s all week and today in the 60s so we have been playing outside. Aliza gets so excited. Today I could hardly get her to come in for lunch. My reward for keeping up with her outside is that she has taken 3 hour naps all week which is a very worthwhile reward for this very pregnant Mom.

Baby Luncheon

My sisters, sister-in-law, Mom, mother-in-law and Chrissy took me out to lunch on Saturday in honor of the coming (very soon, hopefully) baby. They gave me a gift certificate to get my hair cut and for 12 meals at The Dinner Company. Yeah for sisters!!!

Playmates

This is a very stoic picture of Aliza and Aiden. We met Aiden and his Mom, Elizabeth at Barnes and Noble late last summer. Then we ran into them at Wal-Mart and later Elizabeth and I ran into each other at the Doctor's office. At that point I got the clue, and we exchanged email addresses and have gotten together for play dates since then. Elizabeth is expecting a baby in June so both of our children will be very close in age. Aliza and Aiden are 6 weeks apart.

This picture was taken last week, the first time they came to our house. (We usually go to the mall or park where the kids can RUN!) I was uncertain how Aliza would respond because she never had someone her age to share her toys with. But there were no tears and she did really well. I was quite relieved.