I cannot believe my baby is 5 today!

Where did the time go? Anyone know? Seems like just yesterday I was in labor with him.

He has grown so much. You would never know he is only 5. He is a whole head taller than Alexa who is 3 years older than he. He is also the “caretaker” for the girls. He protects them, bosses them around, repremands them, and watches over them like a BIG brother would. He is my OCD child-which means not only is he a fabulous cleaner (*wink*) he knows where it all goes. Yes I am proud of that! Some woamn will LOVE him someday. Plus he loves ART! So should he marry a stamper-she will be in heaven.

He is also very sensitive and caring towards others. The teacher says he’s a joy to have in class and very likable amongst his peers. He is especially friendly/patient of other kids with behavior/other issue’s. THAT is what really makes me proud. Especially having a child with Special needs. As THAT parent you always hope for the kind and sweet caring child to befriend yours. I do expect that Noah should inhert that, having a sister like Alexa. When they are out of your home though, you just never know.

So I’m happy Noah is “that” person for his peers. It’s people like that, that make this world a good place.

I am including 2 Smileboxes for today. At Noah’s request. He LOVES seeing himself on the computer. He did professional modeling for a while at Model Inc in Boston Ma till he was about 18 months. He then began to NOT like it, so we stopped. He definitely “works” the camera!

The first one, is a postcard style, easily send-able, with a photo of him every year since birth.

I LOVE doing those. It shows a quick view of how much he has grown and changed. I still see my “baby” in there though.

Hope you like it.

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

This next Smilebox is a re-cap of Noah’s party at the space center.

We had 11 kids, and they all seemed to have a blast.

They were able to play in a huge tunnel/slide playhouse, then got tokens to play all the games.

It was a great day for high energy kids. Noah felt so special and had so much fun with his friends. He didn’t want to leave :C

We had pizza, cake and ice cream. Best part, I only had to show up with the kids! They provided decorations, paper goods, cake and everything! Given our family issue’s that week (sick kids, ER visits and tooth pulling) it was a saviour to me.

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Thanks for looking!

I haven’t done a Smilebox in FOREVER it seems.

This one is a reflection of time.

I wanted to do something, to show each childs growth over the years. What better way to do that than with Christmas photos!

So, I did a quick Smilebox, only 5 pages. I was excited to find I had simalr first Christmas photos of Alexa and Amber!

It shows each child from their very first Christmas to present. It was a fast way to show how much they each have changed, and grown in this short time.

Makes me all sad and sappy, thinking someday, they will be grown, and I will be looking at their children.

Time has flown past. I cannot believe that I have 3 children who just yesterday seemed to be babies, but are these little “people”. Each one very different from the other, yet amazing.

Tomorrow comes so fast, and we never know what will be year to year.

Hope you enjoy watching.

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

I made this Smilebox to share our photos from our Christmas photo shoot. What a cool thing to send to the family! Do you know that not only is it EASY, but PRINTABLE?? Now that is cool. NO POSTAGE! I like that idea too. Now I need to compile a family list of email addresses.

Those of you stressed for time may consider this option

You can choose the number of photos, music, and background color! Even the style of snowflakes that fall! LOL!

 So here are all our photos. Its hard to get 3 kids happy at the same time, looking in the same direction!

We chose 2 photo collage’s that we felt captured our favorite’s.

Hope you like it.

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

I wrote in an earlier post that I was determined to get my Christmas cards DONE by November. That meant an early Christmas photo shoot-and I actually followed through!

 Well, Im happy to say Im well on my way!!!

I have 25 postcards completed.

No need to rush. Im only needing 50ish more. My problem is, do I make more postcard style cards like this one?

 Meader Christmas postcard 2007

I loved the group shot, with the individual photos at the bottom. It already say’s Christmas 2007. I considered for a brief second-just sending the photo. But the stamper in me said Um, NO!

I used the NEW! Snowflake Serenade from Paper Trey Ink.

What do you think? Are they OK? Im thinking of making a “stepped-up” version to share. Afterall, I DO have PLENTY of time. RIGHT?

I could put another layer of white behind the main red layer-but, I wanted these to be SIMPLE-easily mass produced. Not too much going on. I definitely achieved that here. Maybe a bow at the top?????? HMMMMM.

I just put the 3 snowflakes on my block-strategically placed. Inked with white craft, then stamped twice on the red layer.

I attached my Christmas photo, then stamped the “With Love” sentiment, then the “Joy” in the corner-for balance. Our “With Love” is a personalized stamp by Stampin Up! that I had put all our names on, and use every year for our Christmas cards! Its fast, and easy, and is way nicer than my handwriting. I LOVE that idea!

This measures 3 1/2 X 5 1/5. Very simple to make.

Next I did an ornament of sorts-which I think would be a really nice and different thing to send in the mail instead of a card!

What do you think of this?

 Meader Family 2007 ornament

This was EASY! EASY! EASY! Nothing fancy here.

I just used my NEW! Spellbinder’s Nestabilities rectangle die!

On the back I stamped the largest snowflake from the set, in white craft ink-added a red adhesive rhinestone, and then our “With Love” sentiment. The ric rac adds to the scalloped appeal from the nestablility.

Decisions!!!

Thanks for looking-Id love your opinions, and to know what you plan on doing this year.

Is a Smilebox in your future? Or have you even thought about your Christmas cards? I REFUSE to do the mad dash this year! REFUSE!!

So let’s hear it!

This post will be stuck to the top for the month of October in honor of breast cancer awareness! Please scroll down to see new uploads for the month.

Slide shows, scrapbooks, photo ecards, and more

Do YOU have a blog? Did you go pink? (I didnt cause I couldnt figure it out with my type, but thats another story about my computer challenged nature!)

Have you been touched by cancer in any way, or believe in spreading the word?

I challenge all my blog Girls out there near and far-to go to Smilebox, and post this one to their blog! OR send it to a friend!

EDITING TO ADD: It doesnt have to be THIS one with MY face! LOL! I already got alot of emails asking about that! Just THIS DESIGN or there is ONE more you can do! Those are the special ones for the cause

If you do let me know-by posting a link here! It only takes a few minutes, REALLY EASY, and FUN, and all procedes from the download of this go to Breast Cancer Awareness!! Smilebox teamed up with Lifetime Network to raise money for the cause!

Thanks for looking. And supporting research!

Id also love to hear if you know someone who has been diagnoised with cancer.

Everyone who downloads this smilebox style for breast cancer and shares the link here will be entered in a drawing for a surprise pack of ALL PINK goodies!

If you want to contribute to the box of pink goodies-let me know! The bigger the better!

Have faith-its a super box! Im not showing what you will get till a winner is randomly selected. Because when you have Cancer you have to have FAITH! I will pick on Oct. 31st-the last day of October.

You comments about cancer count as a entry as well as a Smilebox link-thats another entry!

Thanks everyone

We never know if this will affect us personally!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Well here it is! The much anticipated Smilebox of the Princess party! I couldnt get the video portion to work-but when I can you KNOW I will fill you all in!

I love how I was able to capture the moments of her party with this Smilebox.

The party went so perfect! I think they all had a great time. You could hear a pin drop during the craft time! And each girl gave Alexa her gift themself.

Most special to me was to see how accepted Alexa was, and her social interaction with the girls! I tell you these girls parents did an excellent job raising such lovely princesses!

To see Alexa as happy as she was was all I could ask for!

The girls made crowns, necklaces, and decorated jewelry boxes!

We used Alexa’s set and polyshrink, and the center charm for the necklaces, and for the top center of their boxes! It was really cool. Whatever wasnt done got sent home with them.

I’m so thankful for my mom who came to help me set up, and Jason did an amazing job too! He is in charge of the decorations-Im in charge of ordering him round! LOL! If it weren’t for them it never would have gone so smoothly.

He’s use to my stress over these things after all these years and takes it quite well

The best part was when it was all over Alexa came out to me and gave me a huge hug and kiss and said “Thank you mommy for my party. It was so fun. It was the best ever.” Then another squeeze and kiss!

That melted my heart!

All I wanted was for her dream party to go well, and it went better than I could have hoped for!

Thanks for following our journey I cannot believe my baby is EIGHT!

Well here is the much promised Smilebox of Amber singing the Apple Poem she learned in Pre-school! After we went apple picking she sang it the whole ride home in the car. I knew I had to find a way to share it with everyone.

Truly a MOM moment.

Im not afraid to be one of those parents who GUSH over their kids! Dont we ALL think our kids are the cutest on the planet? So here I am saying it-she is adorable and would make the cutest commercial EVER! LOL!

Hope you like it. I know this is one of those moment that will be so precious when she is all grown up. You have to love the little kid voices they have.

If she stays this cute Im in BIG trouble.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Thanks for lookin!

Well since you all LOVED the “movie” of Alexa and Amber I did a movie/photo clip of Alexa getting her Surprise Princess Party Dress! You all have followed Alexa’s story and agonizing journey I thought you may enjoy this.

Wait till her party! Now that will be a great video. All the details leading to this video can be read below. Not a reader-no problem-watch the video!

BTW-I hate my valley girl voice, and I am originally from Massachusetts hence the probable accent.

Here it is!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Her actual birthday is the 29th! I got ONE RSVP to her party today, and am anxiously awaiting more! Alexa is so excited for her Princess Costume Party-its insane!

I bought her a really pretty purple Princess Costume dress. In NO WAY CHINCY. You could easily wear it as clothing. She loved it,  but when she put it on said “Oh but its not a Cinderella Dress.”

I was quick to ask her if she wanted Cinderella instead of the purple and she basically spared my feelings by saying “Well this one is pretty too! Its OK Ill wear this one to my party” I thought OH GREAT! She’s secretly disappointed. Now THAT is the type of thing you NEVER forget. I can see it now-20 years from now…………………………..

” Mom, remember my cool princess party. Its was really great. I really wanted that Cinderella dress. That would have been perfect. Remember X (insert girls name) She came in the dress that I wanted. She got to be Cinderella for my party.”

Well you know I couldn’t let that happen! The girl wanted a Cinderella dress ,well then she was gonna get a Cinderella dress. You only turn 8 once ya know!

So my online hunt began! For a mere $60-$80 I could get one online! GULP! Explain that to a DAD! Guys do NOT understand nor do they care about the NEEDS of an 8 year old girl, who NEEDS a Cinderella dress! Let alone one at the cost of $80 then shipping!

My dear, sweet, very pregnant-like due literally today-PSF friend Tracey said Hey Im going to go to the Disney store and try to find a dress for you! She knew there was not one close to me, and the kids have been sick! So she and her very preggers self, along with cutie pie daughter Shannon not only went there to find the PERFECT Cinderella dress but they found the matching GLASS LIGHT UP SLIPPERS! HELLO!!!

The dress was on SALE! $25! Unless she lied to me and in that case I would NOT be happy! And its beautiful!

Thank you so much girls for helping me find the perfect dress for Alexa’s party! I wish Shannon could go!

Paulette-if you are reading this I would love for Ally to come but was unsure if it was “too young” for her. If not, let me know. She is just at that ‘age” when you arent sure what is too young for her KWIM??

So anyway-that is the whole dress story! Imagine when the girls get married! Good Grief!

I did get an amazing compliment about the invite and party festivities! Cant Wait!

Well I better TRY to go stamp something! Havent done that at all today.

Tomorrow I’ll share my Blogger’s Challenge! (Oh yeah now I really need to get inking), and a Smilebox of our Apple Picking adventure. Wait till you see Amber sing a song! OMG! WAY cute!

Well Im so happy you all like seeing my Smilebox creations! They are so fun! And they even inspire some card ideas too! Maybe even a scrapbook page-OK maybe not-I think I’ll stick with the cute, interactive, and fast version instead! LOL!

The reaction to the video of Alexa and Amber was so heartwarming! I will definitely have a video one of Alex’a birthday! I just bought her Princess dress today, after going to the dentist for my first cleaning after 10 years!

OMG! I should have done a Smilebox video for that! LOL! Too funny. I had a death grip on the chair!

For those who have NOT gone to the dentist in a while I can tell you it wasn that bad! They numbed my gums before the cleaning-that was NEW! So its wasnt totally awful! I have another step 2 cleaning in 2 weeks where they will fill one big cavity! YIKES!

They do some water thing instead of scrapping-they did scrap after alittle but it wasn that bad.

OK here is a Smilebox of Amber making cupcakes for her class! Speaking of cavities, and dentists!!!

She made these for her Pre-School class! They turned out super yummy!

She did it ALL by herself! Even the frosting! I just measured everything out-then put it on the counter.

 I admit it was hard to give up control! LOL! But she was so proud and did so good.

I chose black and white cause it matched the bkgd better! LOL! Plus my lighting was not too fabulous!

PAY NOT ATTENTION TO THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I will talk to Smilebox about having some things so showcase kids and cooking without a specific sentiment!

I really hope you try one! If you do send it to me-Id love to see it! Or if you have suggestions for some you dont see but would like to in the future!

Thats part of the fun of what I get to do! Test products, and give my input on future stuff. Its  really cool!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Alexa came home with this cute little book the colored in school. She came home and read it to me. I am so excited that her reading skills are improving in leaps and bounds! She can read most on any stag 1 reading book. She is doing well with sounding out words she doesnt know. This is a HUGE milestone for Alexa. People with Down Syndrome have a harder time learning to read, and seeing her be at just about grade level of “normal” kids after missing 1 1/2 YEARS of school is just proof that you should not limit ANY child-weather they have a “diagnoses” or not!

Personally I find if you have low expectations of ANY child they wont really strive to go past them. But if you challenge your child and make them feel anything is possible they try harder!

I am proud to say I have never limited Alexa-EVER! Nor have I let our public school system. She has amazed many people, and I am so proud of her!

There was a BIG deal about holding her back in first grade due to the No Child Left Behind policy. While it may be a good policy for some-I found that they may also be PUSHING kids who aren’t ready for the next grade through, just because. That is not necessarily a good thing IMO.

OK I feel like I could get into a whole big thing here, along with my personal expieriences and this isnt why I was posting this! LOL! I am just a proud mama-who had to share this cute little event!

So here she is reading the story to Amber

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Before you watch this you need some background info!

Jason is the coach of Noah’s team. There are 6 kids. All ages 4-5. it was a very hot day too!

This was their very first game, and it was against an older team! They only had 3 practices!

I was so proud of the team. Noah LOVES soccer, and I was so happy to see him do something he truly enjoyed. He likes to run-alot on and off the field! LOL! He did so well. He even scored 3 goals! Too bad it was in the other teams net!

He didnt even care he was jumping up and down waving his arms saying “YEAH! I SCORED! I WON! I’M AWESOME!” That was precious!

I dont care if he’s the star player-just that he work as a team and participate. Just seeing him truly enjoy himself and count day the days till the next practice is so great for me as a parent. Isnt that all we want? Just for our children to be happy. Seeing this first time playing team kick butt was great. The ending score was 6 to eight-we lost! But Noah did score 3 of their goals!~

I’m also proud of my husband for being such an involved father, and seeing his patience with the kids-that is a virtue I do NOT possess! They did pretty good following his directions and aside from going the wrong way a few times did awesome.

The first clip is a video. Its of Noah’s kickoff-watch the kids try to follow directions! HILARIOUS! The boy who is suppose to stand over the ball kicks it, and in the end tackles it! Its like he decided to play football instead! Very precious!

 Here is Noah’s first game! Sorry some of the stuff is a bit fuzzy! I was far away.

WARNING if you get motion sick-dont watch my video I took using our camera! OH BOY!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox