It's been a while...

At first I thought I would update my blog everyday, then every other day, then I thought maybe every 2 weeks, well let's just say it's been a while and I'll try to do better! It's been harder to do creative things since Nico stopped napping 3 weeks ago. I treasured those few hours I had when both napped so much and now, it's gone!
What's else is new? Nothing much except that we've had tons of snow last week (around 2 1/2 feet) and I managed to go cross country skiing on Sunday which was pretty cool. The kids are doing great, Nico is now going to preschool on Wednesday and Natie, well, she's becoming such a big girl and plays wonderfully with her big brother.
They're both having trouble sleeping at night, and waking up way too early (5am!!!!) so Craig and I are soooo sleep deprived, I guess we'll get over it and miss these times at some point in our lives but for now we are just sooo tired! I thought it would get a little easier now that Natie is 14 months old but it hasn't yet.
We're looking forward to Xmas but are going to be missing Melissa and Josh lots and lots. They've spent a few Xmases with us, including last year's, and I wish so badly we could all be together, by now we were supposed to be in Australia but that hasn't happened, I'm crossing my fingers we'll manage it by early next year but I almost don't want to say anything anymore so I don't jinx it!
To all our friends and family who live far, far, far away (I do love the Shrek movies!) we will miss you very much these holidays. Lots of hugs and kisses heading your way.

Natie's b'day celebration, Halloween, etc

It's been a hectic week. Nico was sick all night Thursday and all day Friday. He was well enough Saturday that we went to our local Halloween celebration at the small open air mall in Winter Park. Nico looked too cute dressed as Shrek and his little girlfriend Marie was Princess Fiona, their pic was even featured in our local newspaper which I just got today. Natie was our little monkey ballerina, she looked precious.

Yesterday, Sunday 28th we finally celebrated Natie's 1st b'day, 3 weeks late because the deck was being fixed but she doesn't really know the difference and she had lots of fun. I made a nice butterfly cake for her and she even had a pinata.

We don't have any big plans for this week because I have a bad cough and Craig is sick too, hopefully Natie won't catch whatever bug is going around this house.

The World Series ended and unfortunately the Rockies lost against the Red Sox but they did a great job of getting to this point and it goes to show that determination and good teamwork can take you a long way.

And here's a scrapbooking layout I just finished, it's pics of Craig and I (B.K = before kids) at some hot springs in Steamboat Springs:

Paper and stamps: Club Scrap, Ribbon: Basic Grey and Title Stickers: Liz King

And finally I wanted to send a huge hug to all our family in Australia and Peru, hope you guys are all doing great!!

It's snowing!

It's been snowing a lot these past 2 days, I took this picture today in our backyard, Nico and I went outside once Craig came home but we didn't stay long because it was FREEZING!!! I'm already longing for summer and winter isn't quite here yet.

We haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary this week, just the regular scheduled activities: Gymnastics for Nico on Tuesdays, Storytime at the Library on Wednesday, Friday is Preschool Day for Nico, some stops at the bank and supermarket and that's about it. Last Friday while Nico was at school Natie and I went down to Denver (around a 3 hr. roundtrip) to do some shopping for kid's clothes, we did manage to get a lot done fortunately.

A cute pic from a few days ago of Dad and the kids:

The Colorado Rockies, our baseball team, has actually made it to the World Series, which is the final US national baseball championship, I'm so going to try to get tickets to go to at least one game! They'll go on sale online on Monday so I'm going to be glued to the computer (more so than usual!).

On the crafting creative side, a couple of Saturdays ago I had a scrapbooking crop with 2 of my friends, Karen and Yolanda (for those non scrapbookers it means getting together at some place relatively quiet -sans kids- and working on your scrapbooking pages and hopefully getting something accomplished). This coming Sunday I'm hosting a Club Scrap banquet and that's going to be fun, how can it not be? 6 women, Club Scrap ALSB layouts and some M&M's, it will be perfect.

And to share something crafty: I created a digital ATC (artist trading card) today for a swap on the Club Scrap Chat Forum. It's done with the Sept. 2007 Be Still Digital kit.

Have a nice day you all!

Letting go..Nico's First Day at Preschool

You drop them off for their first day of preschool and you think you'll be able to accomplish lots of things and suddenly it hits you, the house is silent as a tomb and you miss him. You look at your watch wondering how long before you can pick him up. And that's how it starts, then it will be school, sports, friends' houses, and so on. OK Gaby, get a grip, that's still in the future!

Natie had her 1st year Drs. appointment and fortunately she's fine and very healthy. A little bit on the small side but then so was Nico and so is Craig and so am I. She was a bit feverish that night because she had vaccines applied.

Today was a beautiful day, sunny with a little bit of breeze. I breathed in the fresh crisp air and felt lucky to be alive.

Take the time to hug somebody today. Life is so short that we should enjoy it to the fullest while we can.

Hugs and kisses to everybody!

And of course I need to share one of my scrapbooking projects, this one is a maze book (made with one 12x12 page, 2 chipboard covers, a ribbon and some smaller pieces to cover the front and back. I then used different scraps, stamps and other small embellishments to complete it.

Cardstock: Club Scrap Refresh Kit. Stamps: Club Scrap various collections and others.

Lo dejas en el nido para su primer dia de clases y piensas que vas a poder hacer un monton de cosas, pero luego te das cuenta que la casa esta silenciosa y lo extranas. Miras tu reloj esperando que pase el tiempo para recogerlo. Y asi empieza, y luego sera el colegio, los deportes, los amigos, etc. (Ya,ya Gaby, eso esta en el futuro, olvidate por ahora).

Natie tuvo su visita del ano con el dr. Felizmente esta saludable, un poco chiquita pero todos somos chiquitos. Esa noche tuvo un poco de fiebre porque le dieron vacunas.

Hoy estuvo lindo, soleado con un poquito de brisa. Recibi el aire puro y me senti feliz de estar viva. Toma el tiempo de abrazar a alguien hoy. La vida es tan corta que hay que disfrutarla al maximo mientras podamos. Besos y abrazos a todos.

Y claro comparto con uds. otro de mis proyectos de scrapbooking. Este es un mini libro.

It's Natie's 1st Birthday!!!

I can't believe it, our little rascal is already ONE! We're not doing anything special today, Dad had to go to work and we don't have any specific plans for later. We are having a party for her next weekend though, she won't know the difference and we still get to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake and have a pinata! Yeah for b'day parties! I love them!

This pic of Natie was taken just a few days ago, she's such a big girl.

Our 2 eldest kids, Melissa and Josh live in Australia with their mum and we miss them heaps so we are really looking forward to moving there so the 6 of us can be together. We'd certainly be living a lot closer than we are now! Hugs and kisses heading your way kids and wishing you could be here today for Natie's b'day.

I am discovering that one of the benefits of having a blog is being able to get back in touch with some of my friends who live far far away. Here's a shout out to Mauricio, Paola and Rocio from Peru from whom I received emails yesterday. And of course hugs to my parents and siblings who live over in Lima too.
And since I'll be trying to post at least a couple of my finished scrapbooking layouts a week (yeah that's my goal and I'm sticking to it) here's one of Natalie and myself that I finished last week.

Background cardstock: Club Scrap Bistro kit. Patterned paper, stickers and rub-ons: Basic Grey. Flowers: Prima. Chipboard flourish: Fancy Pants

Journaling reads:

There are so many memories that I have of summertime in the park: the warm sunshine, the bright colors, the smiles and happiness on my children’s faces, their cute summer clothes, the joy of just watching them play. This day we were in one of our favorite playgrounds and while Nico was running around, you and I my dear Natie were having a little bit of girl time. And I now have these beautiful pictures of just the 2 of us to treasure forever.

En Espanhol:

No lo puedo creer, nuestra pequena cumple un ANO! No lo vamos a celebrar hoy porque Craig tuvo que trabajar y no tenemos mayores planes para el dia. Si le pensamos hacer un cumpleanos el proximo fin de semana, a ella le da igual y nosotros todavia podremos cantar Feliz Cumpleanos, comer torta y tener una pinata. Yeah por las celebraciones. Me encantan.

Nuestros 2 hijos mayores, Melissa y Josh, viven en australia con su mama. Los extranamos mucho y no vemos la hora de mudarnos para alla para estar todos juntos.

Estoy descubriendo que una de las ventajas de un blog es ponerme en contacto nuevamente con amigos del Peru. Hola para Mauricio, Paola y Rocio con quienes 'hable' ayer por email. Y abrazos tambien para mis padres y hermanos que viven en Peru tambien.

Comparto tambien una de mis paginas de scrapbooking. Mi intencion es poner por lo menos 2 a la semana en el blog. Veremos que pasa.

Coming up this week...

We have quite a bit of things happening this week..Natie's 1st b'day is tomorrow..I can't believe she's going to be one, it seems like yesterday that I was at the hospital...Then her 1st year doctor's appointment is on Friday 5th which is also Nico's first day at pre-school. He's already 3 (time does fly) and he'll be going to pre-school once a week.
I'll share one of my digital scrapbooking layouts, I did it for the Club Scrap September Digital Challenge..I love Club Scrap, it has the best scrapbooking kits ever and an incredible customer service.

Title: A Daddy's Love
Club Scrap Digital Kit: Everything from Academy - August 2007 except flowers from Simply Beautiful - May 2007

Esta semana esta resultando super ocupada, manana, Jueves 04 de octubre es el primer cumpleanos de Natalie. Es increible como pasa el tiempo, parece que fue ayer no mas que estaba en el hospital. Luego el viernes tiene su cita del ano donde la doctora. El viernes tambien es el primer dia que Nico va a ir al nido. Solo va a ir una vez a la semana. Comparto con uds. una de mis paginas de scrapbooking, hecho con un kit digital de Club Scrap, un club que tiene un servicio excelente y materiales de primera y que me encanta.

New blog, new post. Nuevo blog.

Hi everybody. Hola a todos.

Wow. I can't believe I finally took this step.
Since we have family and friends living all over the world, I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now so everybody can see pics of the kids and hear about what and how we're doing on a daily or more likely, weekly, basis.
I will also be sharing my scrapbooking layouts because that is one of my passions. And my travel pics and my comments about stuff in general, and some random thoughts, there will be a lot of rambling too. Hey, my name is Gaby and I am a gabster.

Photo: Me, Nico and Natie - August 2007

Wow. No puedo creer que finalmente empece mi propio blog. Como tenemos amigos y familia que viven en diferentes partes del mundo hace tiempo que vengo queriendo empezar mi blog para poder compartir nuestros quehaceres diarios, o semanales con todos uds., asi como fotos de los chicos.

Tambien estare compartiendo mis paginas de libro de memorias, o scrapbooking, que es uno de mis hobbies. Asi mismo pondre fotos de nuestros viajes y comentarios sobre cosas en general y pensamientos que se me ocurren de vez en vez. Mi nombre es Gaby y soy super conversadora.