work in progress

nothing is glued down yet...
i will play with it more tomorrow...
keep checking back...
jill b

turning circles into butterflies

step one: steal someone else's idea...potterybarn kids catalogue page #12 (new issue, early winter 2009, dr. seuss edition)...
step two: spray paint hand-me-down (free) picture frame...

step three: measure and glue patterned paper to glass...

step four: lay down foam board...

step five: punch/cut different size circles from scrap pattern paper...

come back for the result...

i hope it will be a goodie!

jill b

happy birthday zella marie!

today, 4 years ago, this amazing little girl joined charlie and i and made us a little family. words can not even express, at any level, how blessed we are to have her as our little girl. there are so many things that i love about her. she is sweet, thoughtful, smart, funny, healthy... she is full of life. and brings pure joy to us every day. thank you so much for being you!

yesterday, we went to the park to play. all the way to the park, she told me how happy she would be if she could find another little girl to play with. this was all she could talk about on the drive over to the park. when we got there, there were lots of kids to play with. i watched her as she looked around the playground to find a playmate. she found a group of little girls, maybe 4 or 5 of them. she smiled at me and said she was going to see if they wanted to play with her. she hopped on over to the girls, and i heard her say "can i play with you?" (charlie and i have been working with her and her extreme shyness around other kids, charlie has been trying to get her to introduce herself and then ask if she can play with them...) the girls, who were probably a little bit older than her, looked at her and ran off without her. her shoulders fell, she hung her head and with the saddest face, came back over to me and in the tiniest voice said "they don't want to play with me". she wrapped her little arms around my legs and buried her little face. i managed to wiggle down to where we were hugging. i patted her head while i was rubbing her back. my heart broke, and her sadness became my sadness. my first thought was i should walk her back over to the little girls and ask if she could play with them. but i didn't. i thought that this would be a good opportunity for her to learn how sad you can be when you are not included with the "in" crowd. without saying anything, just holding her, and feeling her broken heart. i thought that i want her to be "that" girl who understands that it is not everything to be in with the popular crowd, to include those who are left out. i want her to be "that" girl that gives everyone a chance to play. i want her to be "that" girl who asks if she can sit by the new kid at lunch. i want her to be "that" girl who stands up for those who are made fun of. i want her to be "that" girl who makes friends with all, not just the popular kids. now all of this thinking happened in about a 1 to 2 min. interval. i told her that sometimes the other kids won't want to play with her, and that it feels bad when you are not accepted. i told her that maybe she shouldn't let those girls ruin her trip to the park, and that maybe she could find someone else to play with. someone else that would love to play with her. she loosened her hug and turned around to see if there were any other little girls to play with. she saw a little girl all by herself. she asked me if i thought that maybe she would like to play with her. i said why don't you go and ask her. she took a breath and bounced over to her and said "can i play with you?" the other little girl smiled and jumped up, grabbed her hand and off they ran to climb up ladders, run across bridges and zoom down slides. i stood there smiling and the tears ran down my face. i was so proud of her, and while i was standing there crying and full of pride, i heard the other little girl say, "come on friend..."

i think zella is already becoming "that" girl!

she makes me so happy!

i love you!

mommy

happy new year!!

from the 3 of us...

from the 2 of us...

and from the birthday girl...

happy new year

here is to friendship, health, and a little bit of silly!

merry christmas!

we took a few cheeseburger shots on Christmas day...

this is Christmas, right after we got zella up and before we left to go to grandma and grandpa's house. she was so excited to open presents.

i will start with Christmas eve.the pictures are starting with Christmas morning. (i need to fig. how to post pictures in the order that i want...). we went over to grammy and pappys house. we played for a few hours, then kim and keith and emma and justin got there. we just kind of hung out, helping grammy with dinner. leah had to work until 6pm, so we ate without her. (she would have already eaten dinner, we are not totally heartless!). the kids knew that we were waiting for leah to open presents. when she got there, there was alot of excitement.

this was the littlest pet shop toy that zella really wanted. the only two things she wanted to tell Santa was this and the pony bus. she got both. grammy got her the pony bus, and charlie and i got her the pet shop. this picture is on Christmas day. she was so excited to open her gifts. we had just come home from charlie's parents house. she also opened gifts over there. so this was round 3 for her.

i told her that she had to smile while she opened her presents so that i could take pictures of her...

ok, now it is time to back up to Christmas eve, here is zella and grammy. zella loves stuffed animals and is playing with grammy.

i love this picture of grammy, emma and kim. i can't belive that they are all the same height. well, actually it isn't too hard, we roberts girls are short!

zella opening her "pony bus". she was so excited! she played all night with it. and when leah showed up, she played it with her.

i really wanted some group shots of us. we took this pose last year, and i thought it would be fun to have the same pose again. maybe start something...

after we took some pictures, kim remembered that there was a photo studio upstairs in the loft. much better for a nice background. i love these two...the day after Christmas was their 43rd wedding anniversary! way to go.

and this is a little video of zella opening her pet shop. pretty cute...

i hope everyone had a merry christmas. and i am looking forward to the new year!

pictures with santa?

guess who is missing? yes, you guested it! zella is missing from the photo with santa. this is the 3rd year that we (my girlfriend, kim, and her kiddo's, zachary and taylor) went to have the kids photo taken with santa. last year, we went 3 times to try to get zella to sit by santa. and she was having nothing to do with it. so this year, we talked about the santa picture all of the way to anthem. she knew what she was going to ask santa for... my little pony bus and some littlest pet shop toys. when we got there, all 3 kids got quiet. and needed some coaching. we decided not to pay for the photo and just talked to santa. they changed their package pricing and it started at 24.95$! i knew zella wasn't going to like it so i brought my camera along to take pictures. the people working at the santa shop, said that we could take pictures, we didn't have to pay to talk to santa. taylor was pretty brave and asked santa for something, zack also asked for some toys. and where was zella during all of this?...

yep! she high-tailed it out of the santa shop! here she is in mid-fleeing action...

we then went to see the big Christmas tree. it was huge! it is probably 3 or 4 stories tall and just beautiful. the kids had fun running around by the tree. somehow zella was able to snag a reindeer hat from the santa shop!

only two weeks til Christmas! we haven't done anything to get ready. yeah, we are on the ball

jill b

thanksgiving round 2

we had round two of thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house yesterday. leah was working and keith has thrown his back out again, so it was just my sister, kim, emma, and justin. charlie b and zella. my mom and dad. charlie and zella started the day off with some games. i tried to take pictures of everyone. so this post will be photo heavy. this my mom and me.

my dad and me. he has been working in the backyard, moving dirt here to there. he has a method to his madness...

my sister, kim and i. notice her beautiful sweater, she made that herself...!

emma entertained zella for most of the afternoon. they started off playing on the stairs. it was hard to photograph them because of the constant movement.

kim was also trying to take pictures of the girls. here she is showing zella a picture she took...

enjoying the lunch...

after lunch exercise...

emma and zella playing on the organ... ok, just banging away....

and we end every lunch with a fresh batch of cookies...

yummy!

and now charlie falls asleep...

and pappy falls asleep...

and here i am trying to take a sneaky picture of my dad asleep on the couch. i don't know why it is blurry...

more attempts....

this time the flash woke him up...i love you dad!

i hope everyone had a great sunday. i know we did!

jill b