Cincinnati

Anthony got back from a week of backpacking in Colorado and had a few days off for Columbus Day, so we took a trip up to Cincinnati. There's a little historic German town just outside the city we stopped and walked around the glockenspiel and the little town square. Saw the bell and purple people bridge, then took Ethan to the aquarium. He really enjoyed seeing all the fish and getting to touch baby sting rays, crabs & sharks. He would have gone swimming with the sharks if he could, he kept trying to jump in. We had to stop at skyline chili but were a bit dissapointed... sorry Ohioans (and Texans), but we like beans with our chili... Anyway, the city is beautiful at night with all the bridges lit up. We had a picnic in between the two stadiums and played some frisbee.

And of course, no trip to Northern Kentucky would be complete without a stop at the GAP distribution center. While you really have to dig to find cute things, I did find a great pair of jeans and got the boys halloween costumes for $5 each. Can't beat that. Anthony actually outshopped me. He spent more on himself than I spent on me and the boys. I've made him watch TLC's "What Not to Wear" with me the last year or so and he's started to become more aware of what he puts on his body, so now anytime I go shopping he loads up on stuff for him. I use to think I wanted him to like shopping now I don't think I'm going to bring him along anymore- the more he buys the less I get to spend on myself! Anyway it was a really fun weekend and nice to spend time together as a family again.

Anthony's sisters were having their annual sister retreat so they gave me a call and I got to talk to all of them while I shopped. I miss you all and wish I was there! Also my mom got married on Saturday- I wish I could have been there also but it was impossible for us to make it. Hope everything was perfect for you- have fun on your cruise! We sure miss all our family and are really sorry we can't be there for all your important events!

Going digital!

I think I've finally made the plunge! I never wanted to do digital scrapbooking because #1) it kind of feels like cheating- there's no hands on creativity involved #2) I am already so invested in real products and my other albums are paper #3) printing photobooks were pretty pricey
BUT...I finished all my pages for 2007 this weekend but it will take me 2-3 albums to fill- I actually broke the binding on my oversized album trying to fit half the pages in it. They just don't make albums large enough! I was feeling a little discouraged- what's the point of scrapbooking all these pages if I can't even display them...then a light came on...

Digital pages take up much less room in an album, plus I can cram a ton more pictures on each page because I can resize them all. And I can save money on paper and embellishments because I can create them myself. I started to realize that the creative options were endless. I am usually so focused on creating a chronological documentary of our life I forget to take the time to make the fun creative layouts and journal the simple things. Plus since I already have a bunch of backgrounds I've created for my announcements, I can use those and when I make new elements I can use them for my business and scrapbook. Why has it taken me so long to connect the dots???

I seem to be doing lots of things I never wanted to do. Like stamping. I never ever ever wanted to get into stamps. They seemed too overwhelming and possibilities endless I just didn't even want to start. But, Amber got me hooked and now I love them! Next think you know I'll be quilting (something I never ever ever want to do)...

Anyway, I'm going to try to do all my layouts for 2008 digital and print them in a photobook and see if I like it as much as my paper albums. I think I'll miss the 3d elements and hands-on, but since I am into cards and such now, I can still be creative that way. Anyone have recommendations on good (inexpensive) photobook printers? Thanks Sara for the extensive list of digi resources- I keep going to your blog to get more ideas (I LOVE shabby princess)! Here are my first two layouts...

Balloon Festival

Last Saturday after our stake fall festival we took the boys to the hot air balloon festival in Louisville. Ethan got his first taste of cotton candy and ran around like a wild thing. But when the real fun began our chicken little didn't have so much fun. As soon as they lit the torches he screamed like a baby and cried the whole time we looked at the balloons (Joshua fell asleep). Kind of reminds me of when we took him to the ocean, or on the train ride. He's such a scaredy cat. The kid will climb up something three times his height and jump off on his head, but he hears a loud noise and screams and cries like a little baby...Oh well, we tried...

Fun in the Sun

We just got back from our trip to Florida, it was so much fun. We spent the week at a resort on Pompano Beach and despite the hurricane threat, we had gorgeous sunny weather the entire time. Ethan loved playing in the sand and the first day loved the ocean but the rest of the week he got scared of the waves and the salt in his eyes and mouth, and would scream and cry anytime Anthony or I tried to go swimming in the waves. He loved the kiddie pool though. We bought him some floaties and he pretty much spent every morning and every evening swimming. We weren't able go scuba diving like we'd planned since the hurricane did affect the seas, but it was nice and relaxing. Plus we picked up the last Twilight series book and read it straight through. It was a little more cheesy than the others, but we still love them.

Ethan had two incidents- the first funny. At the airport waiting for our plane he made friends with an older gentleman who entertained him for an half hour or so and all the sudden he started pulling down his pants (we're potty training) and flashed the entire row of people sitting there! The second wasn't quite as funny- Anthony got up early one morning to go to the gym and I was still asleep. Apparently Ethan heard him leave, climbed out of his bed and opened the locked door, it didn't shut behind him so I didn't hear. Anthony came back yelling for me to help him find Ethan. Dazed and confused I stumbled out of bed and heard Ethan running back into our condo completely naked. I walked down the hall to figure out where his diaper was and there it was neatly sitting in front of someone's door filled with poo, with his blanket and binky nearby. That would have been a nice surprise for someone. Needless to say we propped chairs in front of the door before going to bed.

We went to the everglades holiday park and took an airboat tour through the everglades and saw alligators. Ethan got to hold a baby alligator. And of course had to hit the sawgrass mills mall for 5 hours of shopping. I could have gone a lot longer but Ethan was having a meltdown. Despite the hurricane threats, it turned out to be an awesome vacation. Just wish it were longer! Just before we left we took Ethan on a train ride in KY. You can view more pics at http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/

ch-ch-ch-changes...

Wow time flies. The boys are getting so big. Ethan's getting to be such a little man. I can't believe he's almost two! Joshua is coming up on 6 months, it's amazing. His new favorite thing is to stick his pointy little tongue out and to suck on his bottom lip. He rolls all over the place and jabbers away (has even managed to reach down and undo his diaper a few times). Ethan loves his brother so much. Every morning he makes the sign for baby, slides down the stairs and gives Joshua a kiss. He's so sweet. He's still a complete and total daddy's boy. I think it's getting worse too. I swear every 5 seconds from the moment he wakes up until Anthony walks in the door he says "dada, dada". It's getting kind of annoying ;) It was really cute the other day though, we met Anthony at his work for lunch and on the way home I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Ethan was asleep. A few seconds later I hear him whisper "dada"! It was the cutest thing, asking for his daddy even in his sleep.

Well the big change around here is Anthony got called to be the new bishop of our ward. It was a complete surprise and shock to us both. We've only been here a little over a year and only have 2 years left, but I guess this was what we both needed to be pushed out of our comfort zones (way out!) and raise the bar. I've only been primary president for a month or so now, but I won't complain about getting a less time-consuming calling. Miracle of miracles though, last Sunday- when he was set apart, Ethan fell asleep on the way to church and slept through sacrament meeting for the first time ever! I hope that becomes a new trend!

We're getting ready to take our trip to Florida in a few weeks and are getting excited. Anyway, I've posted some new pics of the boys at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CZsmjRy3cMJM&notag=1 Oh and if you want to be notified when I create a new post- enter your email address at the top of the page.

Soggy 4th of July

We went camping for the holiday. The boy scouts have some land outside Elizabethtown with a creek on it, so we went camping there with some friends. The kids did a little skinny dipping in the cold creek. It ended up raining the entire weekend. We set up a tarp to keep us dry while we ate (there was a nice covered pavilion, but like true campers we huddled under the tarp instead and got a nice shower whenever the kids tripped on the ropes holding it up). It was miserable sleeping though because it stormed all night long and was so loud, I was just waiting for lightining to strike one of the trees by our tent. But thanks to Kelty, we stayed 100% dry, I love our tent! I was sure glad to get home and get the mud off of me. And...I FINALLY got my new camera!!! So I'm open for business (yay!). I'm setting up a new website, so stay tuned. Here are a few shots from this weekend (camping pics not with the new camera).

New family pic's

On Saturday my friend Amber and I did a family photo shoot. It was miserably hot and humid we were sweating like pigs, the locusts were dive bombing us the entire time, and Ethan was trying to jump in the water...but we did manage to get a few cute shots (even if we couldn't get the kids to smile).

Ethan's growing up so fast. He's finally starting to talk (favorite words are cheese, milk, and Joshua). He loves his brother and gets so excited when he wakes up in the morning- he runs down and jumps around then hugs him. Unfortunately his big head usually ends up hitting the baby’s and then Joshua cries. But hey, at least he tries to be loving… I’ve been trying to introduce him to the potty since he’s a year and a half old now. It only took one try to figure out if he peed he’d get a candy, so now he does a few drops, reaches for the candy, a few more drops, reaches for more candy, and so on until he weasels out at least 4 little candies. Such a little stinker. We took him to a park with ducks today and he was so excited he ran around for probably 15 minutes straight chasing the ducks all around and saying “quack quack” and squealing. The poor ducks.

Joshua still sleeps through the night and is our little angel baby. He’s finally starting to learn to scream when Ethan gets near. He smiles, laughs and squeals anytime you smile at him, it’s so cute. He loves to laugh at Ethan too. It’s so nice to have such a calm laid back baby since Ethan is such a wild thing.

St. Louis, Missouri

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, it seems like I never have time to sit and sort through all the pictures I take anymore. We are all doing really well. Joshua is getting bigger by the minute and laughs and smiles all day long. Since my last post he's slept 7 to 8 hours every night. He's upstairs in the room across from Ethan now and doesn't even wake up until 6 or 7 in the morning. He's my angel baby. Ethan is finally starting to say a few words although he prefers to sign them or grunt. He speaks Chinese really well, we just need to get him to learn English.

We just spent the last week in the St Louis area and had a long needed vacation. We set a new record- almost 6 months without a vacation (not counting our DC trip since that wasn't technically a vacation)! I really shouldn't go that long again, we're all much happier when I'm traveling. We also combined our trip with a little camping, Joshua did awesome on his first camping trip and Ethan loves to camp, so we had a lot of fun. We camped the first night outside St Louis and then saw the sights of the city the next morning. We had fun going to the top of the arch- a little freaky how it sways though. We took the river cruise and of course did some shopping, went to the zoo, a few historic sites and just had a great time.

It is so much slower traveling with a toddler though! When Ethan was little we just packed him around and he did great, now he gets tired and doesn't want to sleep unless he's in bed and gets grumpy and wants to run around like a madman everywhere. We only saw about half the things on my list I thought we'd be able to see. Oh well, we got the important things. And I found another place I could live. Our hotel was 15 minutes outside the city in Fairview Heights, IL. I first fell in love with the town when we stopped for dinner the night before we camped- there was a mall on one side of the street and a target, burlington coat factory, babies r us and tj maxx on the other side of the street, not to mention lots of great places to eat. Then when we went to find our hotel the next day I got all excited about seeing those stores again when I realized it was the same place we stopped for dinner the night before. It seems like you're in the country even though you're only a few minutes outside the city and it didn't have half the traffic of say Sandy, UT. Perfect for me. Oh and the big kicker- just 4 miles away is the world's largest catsup bottle ;)





Anyway... After spending a few days in the city and doing some fun shopping, we went south to hike the high point of Missouri. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the Mark Twain forest- called Taum Sauk mountain (although it was really a hill). It was a nice 3 mile loop and at the top there were some small waterfalls, we let Ethan skinny dip and he had a great time. He fell asleep on the walk back and Anthony carried him out. Then we drove through more country roads on our way back to KY. We camped again that night on the border of MO and IL at the Trail of Tears state park where we got eaten alive by mosquitos. We stopped in Paducah, KY on our way home the next day and let Ethan splash in the water again- this kid loves water and will find a puddle to splash in no matter where we go. We had a great time and are kind of glad to be home, we're already working on the next trip... To view all the pics of our trip visit http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/

New pics of the boys

Last night Joshua slept for 7 hours again!!! Unfortunately I didn't go to bed until 2 hours after he did, but still, it gives me hope for the future ;) Here are some pics I took of the boys yesterday, they actually cooperated! You can view the full photshoot at http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action/