Spring Things

Today was a beautiful spring day with a high of 67 degrees. It was a perfect day to get some gardening done since it was sunny but not hot. I took advantage of the soft soil from the last two days of rain and started hoeing the weeds out of the garden area. The picture above shows one area I had done before. Today I started on the areas that were the vegetable garden last year. Here is the upper area. It’s fun to take pictures so I can see what I accomplished!

Before

After

Here is the side of the house after I hoed the weeds. I don’t have a “before” picture.

Here is our lawn. I wanted a picture of it now, early in Spring, because HOPEFULLY it will look better after we treat with fertilizer. Right now there are a lot of patches of these blue flowered weeds – I think it’s chickweed and it seems to have taken over a lot of the yard. I was explaining to Asher and Ellie that weeds grow because of the curse of sin. They’ve recently watched “In the Beginning” on DVD and so I was trying to tie it in with that.

Here is Ellie in her fairy wings, swinging away!

I got a great picture of Asher here! He’s finally learned to SMILE for the camera! Lord, I thank you for the beautiful day, for safety, for fun, and for hard work and health. Amen!*****************************************

After we got home from soccer practice, the kids played outside while Jeremy and I (mostly Jeremy) removed the stones from the path out front. (We want to extend the flower bed to include that area). As we worked, Jeremy remembered a time working on this same area with two other children – Kaylee and Kearstin. They were spending the night with us when we were working on digging this flower bed and putting the stones down for a path!

Ellie was helping by picking up stones and putting them in her wheelbarrow.

Virtual Open House

As the holiday season approaches, I’d like to help make this season especially memorable. That’s why I’m inviting you to view my virtual Open House! In less than 10 minutes, you’ll see 10 ideas, including new products, gift ideas, money-saving offers and money-earning opportunities, Creative Memories is offering in the upcoming weeks. Creative Memories has solutions for anyone who takes pictures, not only the "crafty" ones!

Those of you who were unable to attend my Open House last Saturday at Janeen Kime's home, can still receive my Open House gifts by participating in my virtual Open House that’s available from November 19 - November 28. Watch the program, complete the Holiday Wish List (attached to the email you received) and email it to me, and I’ll set aside an attendance gift for you. Place an order by Nov. 28 and receive a sheet of coupons to be used in 2010 when you order from me! Order $50 or more from me or purchase online, and I’ll give you the coupons and a bonus Open House gift.

To ensure holiday delivery, you need to place your order by November 28. If you have questions, I can make a customer care call in the coming weeks so that you can share with me how I can assist you this holiday season.

There are many great benefits to hosting a Get Together, including earning FREE products! Please take a look at the attachment detailing our current Hostess Benefits. If you schedule a Get Together, I'll also set aside a special gift for you.

I would also love to share with you the fun I'm having using Storybook Creator Plus. I have just printed some of my first digital 12x12 prints and placed them in an album. Below is one of my favorites. They look amazing and I'm excited about this new way of memory keeping. If you are interested in attending a party at my house to learn more about the features of this program, please let me know as I'll be holding one soon!

Thank-you and enjoy the Virtual Open House!
Click here: virtual Open House

Sincerely,
Erin Groff
CM Consultant
717-333-3935
ejgroff@comcast.net
Shop online at www.creativememories.com and search for Erin Groff at checkout.

A Great Christmas Gift Idea!

For the past three years I have given a homemade, personal calendar to each of our parents for Christmas. Using a Creative Memories Picfolio Minutes Album, I have created a little scrapbook page for each of 24 sleeves in the album. By adding a little calendar printout to 12 of the sheets, it creates a display calendar - a gift that lasts all year! Our parents absolutely love it because it contains pictures of their beloved children and grandchildren and memories from the past year - all year long!


The Picfolio Minutes Album converts to a display easel with the exclusive magnetic cover strap. Just lift the cover open, clasp the magnet from behind and the album is ready to be displayed on your desk or coffee table!

This year I am so excited to be doing these pages digitally on Storybook Creator Plus. It should cut my work in half, seeing as I'll easily be able to print two copies of each page! I can also easily make one for our family, something I've always wanted to do but I've never had time to do as of yet. Secondly, I don't have to purchase double supplies - I can use the digital papers and embellishments as many time as I want!

This is my favorite gift to make and to give, and I'd love to share it with others. This year, I thought I'd see if anyone else would be interested in making a calendar such as this as a Christmas gift. So, to anyone who purchases a Creative Memories Picfolio Minutes Album from me, I'd like to invite you to come to my home and use Storybook Creator Plus Software to make calendar pages, free of charge! All you need to do after ordering the album is to pick out 25-30 of your favorite photos and bring them to my house either on a CD, DVD, or a thumb drive. Then I will help you use your own pictures to make your own calendar album!

Please let me know soon if you would like to create an album so that we can order your album and get started soon!



Below are samples of the pages I have created for my gift calendars for this year.

It's about time for me to write about Ellie at one year old! She will actually be 13 months in 3 days so I'm not too late yet!

In the last two months her looks have really changed from baby to more todder-like. She now has 4 teeth - 3 of which have appeared in the past month! She enjoys eating real table food more now than baby food - but we're still giving it to her to make sure she gets her fruit and vegetables.

She started walking on September 17th! I was changing Asher's diaper and all of a sudden I saw her walking towards us! I quickly grabbed the camera and started taping her!

She likes to try imitating what people do and imitates talking a lot, though her vocabulary hasn't expanded too much yet. She did go on her first plane ride and trip to Nashville last weekend! She liked the plane ride a lot. I tried nursing her while we took off but as soon as she felt the plane moving she sat up and looked out the window. On the way home I was telling her we were up in the sky and I think she was trying to say "sky." Mom came with us and I also think she was saying, "Mama" for "Grandma."

Asher and Ellie are really starting to interact and play with one another! You can tell they like being together and playing together.

Capture the Moments

This is really what I should use the blog for - to capture the moments of life that I want to remember always. I wish I were a great writer, but I'll just do my best to get the moment written.

Right now, Asher and Ellie are watching, "Baby Faith" - God Made Me. Asher was singing along to "Oh How I Love Jesus." It was so cute and sweet! I love that he is learning so many songs of the faith. Ellie was sitting on the trampoline and now she's on the bouncing zebra, and now she got off. They are both making noises along with "A Mighty Fortress."

I put the video on because they were getting a little crazy, wanting the same things at the same time, Asher pulling on Ellie, etc. They needed a distraction and I needed a break. Actually I should lay back and close my eyes while they watch this. I think I will. Night night.

Ellie is 11 months old! She has made a lot of progress. The week we were at the beach (Sept. 2-7) she has had a lot of firsts! The one I am most happy about is that she has finally figured out how to drink from a sippy cup! This is giving me a little more freedom! During the week at the beach, Ellie also learned to wave hi (she now waves to everybody all the time), say hi and hello, and uh-oh. The day after we got home from the beach she said "Asher" when she saw him and "Ellie" when prompted! She also cut her first tooth that week (bottom right), and the second one (bottom left) is very close behind - now just starting to poke through. The top two can be clearly seen under the gums so I suspect they'll all come in rather quickly now. She's growing so much! She can now stand for a few moments on her own before plopping back down, and she can walk when holding one or two hands. She can also walk with her walker toy.

As far as eating, besides drinking milk, water, or juice from her sippy and the usual baby food varieties (including stage 3), she also enjoys scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets, and broccoli if they're cut up really small.

She is doing better at night - sleeping through and not needing to nurse. Daddy has been helping with that and also getting up with her in the morning since he's been home. That has helped her not be so dependent on mommy. (But I still think I'm her favorite person!).

Asher is continuing his potty training, though we haven't gone hard core yet. He has worn underwear several times and kept them dry - only one accident. I'm thinking we'll soon go to underwear and get it done. Something interesting just happened. I heard Asher crying and went upstairs. He was crying very hard when I found him and saying, "I need pee potty." His diaper and jammie bottoms were both off! I quickly comforted him and carried him to the potty where he went! Odd, but perhaps he's really learning how to hold it and what it feels like to go!

Well that's all I have to update for now. Bye bye!

Ellie is 10 months old! I can't believe that in two short months she will be one year old. As you can see, she is still a happy little sweetie. Her sweet smile can melt your heart!

Physically she is changing all the time! She crawls quite proficiently now and also pulls to a standing position. She is also starting to cruise along furniture or toys that she hangs onto. She is very strong and is developing those walking muscles! Speaking of strong, this girl has quite a grip! Try to take anything from her hands and it's quite a struggle! She is wearing size 12 m or bigger in clothes. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I am thinking they may start to pop through very soon. We are trying to get Ellie to be able to drink from a cup but at this point she still prefers Mommy as her beverage of choice - and cup of choice. Hopefully that will change soon!

What does Ellie like to play with? She still likes anything she can chew on but lately she is getting into some of the toys Asher enjoys - things that light up or make noise. She likes to stand at her Leap Frog table or at the little piano. She just started putting balls in the dragon toy that Asher used to play with...I'll have to get a photo on here. Ellie also enjoys swimming in the pool! She kicks her legs and smiles sweetly.

What does Ellie eat? She eats stage two foods - pretty much everything! She's had small bites of apple too and other things like that. I'll probably try her on the chunkier stage 3 foods soon.

Night time is difficult for Ellie. She needs Mommy to get to sleep and Mommy to get back to sleep if she wakes up. It's quite tiring on all of us and I hope to be able to break her of that soon. We've had to let her cry it out a few times and I think that will have to happen more often soon. I just bought her a Baby Tad of her own to help her sleep at night. That helped Asher when he was a baby and now Tad is his best friend. In fact, he has three of them...long story.

What does Ellie say? MaMa, Dada, Baba, and Puh-Puh. She also likes to sing! When we sing she sings along by saying "Aaaaah". It's very cute.

That's all I can think of right now...more later if I think of it!

Here's something! Ellie has had moments of standing on her own...she just had another one as I handed her a wagon wheel snack. She took it and stood alone and then reached toward me and took a step! She put her hand on my lap to steady herself, but it was almost like a first step!