My Two Girls

In a Funk

2011-06-28T17:33:00.000-04:00

I don't get it, I just came back from a great vacation with my family to Disney World for the first time ever and I am in this terrible, horrible funk! I don't know what it is but I am feeling so down and dumpy and depressed. I keep wanting to think that it is "after-vacation blues" but I don't know what the deal is!

You know, people always say the grass is always greener on the other side and I think I have a touch of that going on right now. Watching families in Disney and looking at the happy parents and kids and then I look at my family and kids and think, "Where did I go wrong?" Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and my husband but I just don't feel that "bliss" that I feel I should be feeling. I feel like my children fight from the time they get up in the morning and they will do whatever they can to get under each other's skin. Whether it is name calling, hitting each other, or just being down-right nasty, this is what they do every day! My oldest child is grateful for nothing and takes everything for granted (at least this is how I feel. I am sure this isn't the case but I feel like it is often). She doesn't yet get the whole concept of money and how much we actually do for her and sacrifice for her on a daily basis just so that she can dance and do what she loves to do. I am actually getting a second job just so I can support her and still have a little "fun money" for other things. Everything that I do daily revolves around her and her schedule and yet I get this mean, obnoxious little girl almost daily! I know inside of her there is this wonderful heart and very caring person in there but it is so tough some times to see this and remember that this is a little person that I am dealing with. She wants to be so grown up so fast and I am not handling the attitude and the greediness too well. I allow myself to get aggravated and nasty right back with her and I know this is not the answer.

Looking at the way my 3 year old behaves as a result of watching and listening to her older sister, I get just as discouraged and annoyed. I don't know what to do with her! She is feisty as all get out and she does exactly what Kayla does. Today she told Kayla that she was dumb and she hated her! Where does this come from?! I know she has learned it from Kayla! It is so not nice! I did not teach my children to behave this way and I just can't wrap my mind around where I went wrong in teaching them how to treat others!

Watching the people interact in Disney, I really took notice of the couples that were around us. It was so sad for me to watch married and unmarried people around me with such love and affection for each other and then look at myself and see really nothing. Where did I go wrong in my marriage that I am just co-existing with my spouse? I wanted to be in a place where I was absolutely in love with the person every day of my life and where I would look forward to the time we spent together, this just isn't the case. This is not easy for me by any means to sit and write. I am writing this as a way of coping and dealing with my feelings and emotions. Just like in raising my children, I wonder where I went wrong in my marriage. After 15 years of marriage in addition to 5 years of dating, we just exist. We are roommates in our house and we communicate basically when we have to. Our schedules revolve around the kids and work and rarely do we ever meet up, if we do, it is for a quick minute or two at dinner and then it is off again. This isn't anything new in our relationship, it has been building for about four years now and I have thought more about it lately than I ever have. I feel like a failure and I am not sure how to get that spark and romance back...will it ever come back. It is really scary to think that I am going to spend the rest of my life just existing with this person that I have spent more than half my life with. I don't know if we will ever get back to the way we were especially when we rarely talk. When you have let things go and neglect your relationship for so long, can you ever get it back? I know I am mostly to blame for all of this but at the same time, marriage is a two-way street. I notice more and more that he seems to want to spend less and less time with me. We both have neglected our marriage and we both have chosen to do nothing about it. This is what is so difficult for me to process. Watching people this past week who you could tell were absolutely, totally in love with each other and then here we are fighting. Not good for the morale. Hmmmm. I know he loves me and I do love him, but as I lay awake at night I wonder if that is enough to last a life time when there really isn't anything else.

One More Obsession!

2011-06-08T13:15:00.000-04:00

So in my previous post I mentioned that there were very few things that I am obsessed with, well this is another of those obsessions:

I am in LOVE with this site. Basically what Pintrest is it is a virtual bulletin board so to speak. You can "pin" anything that you have an interest in onto bulletin boards that you create! For example, I have been working on several designs for wedding invitations and when I find something I like I drag the image to my Pintrest icon and I can "pin" it to one of my saved bulletin boards. You can follow other people's bulletin boards as well. When you follow a person's boards you can choose which of the boards of theirs that you would like to follow or you can choose to follow them all. It is great to follow a person's boards because when you log onto the site, you come to a home page where you can see all of the items that have been pinned by those you are following. You can then take any of their "pins" and "pin" them onto any of your boards! I love it because it is just such a wealth of fabulous ideas and images!

Your boards can range from ideas for the home, fashion, crafty, pretty much anything you want! I am in LUST with this site! I think this past Sunday I pretty much spent my entire day playing on it!!

If you have a chance check it out! Please make sure that you note, you have to be "invited" to a part of this site. You can ask for an invitation, which is what I did, and when they decide to make space for you, you will receive your invitation to join. I PROMISE, you won't be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by! :-D

Obsessed!

2011-06-06T18:17:00.015-04:00

So I have to admit, I am kind of a nerd!! I started reading this series back before they even became popular.

I started reading the series not only because it looked good but also because I am always looking for good books to "suck" my students into reading. When I started Twilight however many years ago, I was captivated right away!! I quickly read the first book and moved onto New Moon but I can say that I had a more difficult time reading through this one for some reason. I put it down for about a month before going back to it. I am glad I did! I finished New Moon and Eclipse just in time for Breaking Dawn to be released. I had been trying to convince my friends and sister that they NEEDED to read these books but they all thought I had lost my mind! Finally my sister-in-law picked up Twilight and she was quickly sucked in!! My first victim!!!

I convinced her to go with me the night Breaking Dawn was being released in bookstores. We went to the bookstore to hang out until midnight when it would go on sale at a discounted price! I was sooooo excited! I felt like a teenager hanging out at the bookstore with all these teeny-boppers!! We had fun and I realized that I am very grateful for no longer being a silly teenager!

I think I finished Breaking Dawn in about 2 1/2 days! It was so good! I have convinced more friends and my sister as well to read this series and I think they are glad they did!

I have seen all of the movies several times and probably could recite Twilight by heart if I had to! I am soooooo looking forward to seeing Breaking Dawn in November (not that I am rushing my summer or my life, just looking forward to seeing it!)! There are few things that I am obsessed with in life, but this is definitely one of them!!

Click Here http://youtu.be/uycOpnYnd5g to watch the new trailer! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Thanks for allowing me to share my obsession with you!! Be back soon!

My Scrapbook Room

2011-06-02T12:11:00.010-04:00

Hi!

I just wanted to stop in real quick and share some photos of my scrapbook room that I have been working on for about a year. The basic pieces have been complete since probably July of last year but I am still working on the organization. I have to say, I absolutely LOVE my new space!!

We live in an old 1950s Cape Cod and our upstairs was finished when we moved in. It has the old slanted ceilings and the previous people added some cool features in the two rooms up there, like pocket doors, built in drawers, and built in shelves. There are cute little features that have been to my benefit organizing scrapbook supplies!

Here are some pictures:

These are pictures from the entry way in my room:

I would have never imagined green, hot pink, and black working together but I absolutely love the color combination!! I feel like when I go into this room, it is a happy, comfortable, creative place!! LOVE IT!!

I have plenty more things to share but didn't want to make this a super long post! I will be back soon with more pictures of my room and some ideas on how I organized things. Maybe some one out there has some ideas that you would be willing to share that may work in my space as well?!?

Thanks for stopping by!

Cards for James

2011-05-04T17:59:00.016-04:00

Hi Everyone!

I have FINALLY been allowed to download pictures onto Blogger! I don't know if everyone else has been having these problems or if it is just my computer illiteracy! Glad to be back though!!

So my friend Shane has been doing a card drive for a sweet little boy in her son's kindergarten class. Here is James's story (taken from his Carepage - written by his parents)... "We wish that we didn't have a story, but the truth is we do. A few days after Christmas James experienced belly pain which was thought to be constipation. After visiting the pediatrician for an exam, we were sent for an x-ray. The x-ray confirmed a mass of some sort. At that time we were sent to Children's Hospital for an ultrasound which showed a 13 cm tumor in the left kidney. The probably diagnosis is a Wilm's tumor. James was originally scheduled for a left nephrectomy, however, the plan ended up changing due to a finding on the MRI. James has a small spot on his right kidney. This could be a "rest" which would be an insignificant finding -or it could be a bilateral Wilms tumor. Since we don't know for sure, he is being treated as though he has a bilateral Wilms tumor. The standard treatment for this is 6 weeks of chemo then surgery. James is a sweet, fun loving 5 year old with a big heart!"

Shane has been collecting cards for James and delivering them to his family. Just think of what a big smile these will put on this cute little boy's face! So, I need your help to make this card drive a success and put a smile on the faces of this family. All you need to do is create a card (or cards) with an upbeat cheery theme (please...no get well soon cards) and send them to Shane...

CARD FOR JAMES
c/o Shane Rieder
862 Gorham Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45245

*PLEASE INCLUDE A PIECE OF PAPER WITH YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, EMAIL, and THE NUMBER OF CARDS YOU SENT because there will be drawings for PRIZES!

She is also collecting cards for James's family ~
Sister ~ Grace (3 years) and
Parents ~ Matt and Heather

Here are a few cards I have made so far for the family:

This one is for James:

Loving the Hero Arts Monsters!!

Here is another card for James:

For James' sister Grace:

Again, Hero Arts stamps!

LOVE these butterfly stamps and background stamp from Hero Arts!

Close up of the butterfly sprayed with Perfect Pearls and Chipped Saphire Distress Ink.

Card for James' Parents:

Hero Arts Background stamp with distress ink and Perfect Pearls.

Just a little bit of time to create but hopefully put huge smiles on this families faces for a little while.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a lot more to share now that I have figured out how to upload photos again!

Trying to Blog

2011-05-03T18:34:00.002-04:00

Hi!
I have tried now 3 times in the last week to get on here and share some of the work that I have been doing but I am not having any luck! Every time I try to upload pics to share the Blog refuses to upload them! I am wondering if anyone else is running into this problem or if it is something that I am doing?! I am so frustrated. If anyone has any ideas, I would GREATLY appreciate it!!
Hopefully I can figure this out soon as I have lots to share!!
See you soon!

Quick Share

2011-04-03T10:52:00.002-04:00

Hi! Just wanted to pop in real quick and share a cute little card I made for a birthday party yesterday. Love the little Monster set from Hero Arts! This is the only "boyish" set that I own so it was fun creating with him!!

Not sure if you can tell or not but I popped up the balloon, a trick I learned from Heather, and I added some Glossy Accents to the balloon!

Thanks for stopping by, I will be posting again soon some other projects I have worked on over my Spring Break!

Goings On

2011-02-17T16:48:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to pop in and say hi here! It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks here. Audrey got sick last week and I spent two days home with her as she recovered. It was nice to spend two days home alone with just her snuggling on the couch and watching Dora the Explorer (although I was insane from Dora by the end of the second day!). It was nice though to spend some time with her alone.

I went back to work on Thursday to get called into the Principal's office and told that I would not have a job at my school for next year. I have been surplussed. I now have to update my resume and interview at different schools in Cincinnati Public Schools. I am guaranteed a job in CPS at this point unless the district starts to cut more money and more jobs and then I may not have a job in the school district I have worked for my entire professional career! I have been here for 14 years! In a way I am glad that this has happened, it has given me a kick in the butt to go out and find something that I may be happier in. That may be a new school within the Cincinnati Public School District or that may be a job outside the inner city. I have options. I have to be proactive and go out and find something that is going to make me happy. I don't want to just settle to have a job. I would ideally like to get out of teaching altogether but unfortunately that is not in the cards for me! Bills to pay suck!! Some day!

To add to the black cloud hanging over me, I broke a wisdom tooth this past weekend and I had to have oral surgery to get all four wisdom teeth pulled out! Needless to say I was not happy! I know people have this done every day but I was honestly scared out of my mind! I try to play tough guy and in my brother's words, I tried to "Man Up"! But I was scared to death! The last time I went under general anesthesia it was a result of complications in my pregnancy and spent 3 days in ICU. So as you can see, I was pretty scared to go under again. You have no idea how excited I was when the nurse came in and woke me up! I spent the day in bed cuddling up and I am glad to say that I am not in too much pain! I am so glad for that!

I am hoping that this black cloud is now gone and we can get back on our happy road! Kayla will be competeing in Saturday in her first dance competition of the season! She will only be dancing 4 of her 7 numbers which works out fine, get those nerves out now! I am looking forward to spending the day watching her and her teammates dance!

Also looking forward to a 3 day weekend with my girls!! Hoping that at some point I can get a few scrapbook pages wrapped up that have been laying on my desk for several weeks waiting for me to get back to them!! I will post them soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

New Blog!

2011-01-18T18:58:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to stop in and say a BIG, HUGE thank you to Kristina over at Two Happy Mamas for creating my beautiful new Blog!! Kristina did an awesome job and it was all complete in about a day! You ROCK Kristina!!
Just wanted to share and send anyone who is interested over to their website! These ladies ROCK!
Thanks for stopping by!!

2 Layouts

2011-01-17T14:58:00.005-05:00

I have been working on part of my New Year's resolution by setting aside some time every day to scrapbook. It may not be a lot of time but it is time! I have found that laying my things out and starting on it and then going back to it whenever I have a few minutes is working AWESOME! I have completed 2 pages in the last week and have started another! I am loving it!

Since Kayla's new competition season is right around the corner (3 weeks away), I decided that I better get last season's pictures scrapbooked before I have a ton more to do! Here are my creations for two of her dances. The pictures are not that great but I am hoping with my new camera coming soon, my pictures will soon ROCK!!

Well, this is all for now! Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy New Year

2011-01-04T18:56:00.015-05:00

Hi!

I have been really wanting to get back into the blogging seeing as I have seriously fallen behind. Unfortunately I can honestly say that I have not done too much crafting lately and that is what my blog originated as, a place to share my craft. I know people say that if you REALLY love scrapping or crafting, you will find a way to fit it into your life but really I feel like I am exhausted by the end of the day! It is my goal to get out of my rut and get back into the swing of things!

Over the summer I was able to create a new scrapping room all of my own, well actually I did create a space in my room for Kayla to sit and create with or without me. I am very fortunate to have this cozy space in my home to do what I love to do. I took a lot of time planning and decorating it and I honestly need to spend some time enjoying it now! Since it is a new year and time to make changes for the positive in our lives, that is what I am going to do. I have this AWESOME table to create at and I am going to plan to set aside a small bit of time each day to creating. It might be a card, a layout, or an actual craft. I can leave it lay and come back to it every day. Who knows, maybe I will get so involved that I will spend hours completing the entire project or layout!!

I haven't spent a lot of time scrapping or crafting but I have been spending a lot of time doing what I call "Blog Stalking"! I have been reading different Blogs and getting ideas for cards, layouts, and photography tips as I "stalk". One thing that really jumped out at me as I have been doing this is Ali Edwards's idea of "One Little Word" I have been thinking a lot of this concept and absolutely LOVE it! For those of you that are not familiar with it, the idea is that you choose a word that you want to spend an entire year working on, it is a word that is only about YOU. For more information, here is the link to Ali Edwards post explaining it way better than I can. I think that the word that I am going to focus on for the year is PEACE. I feel like I keep coming back to this word over and over again as I have been thinking of this concept. I feel like I need to find PEACE within my life and everything around me. Sometimes I feel like I am surrounded in chaos in my day to day life ~ from rushing out in the morning for work, to the craziness at work, rushing to pick up children, and getting Kayla to dance. Home life seems to be as chaotic ~ rushing through dinner, homework, bath, and bed just to get up in the morning and start all over again! So with all of that said, I strongly believe that I can benefit from PEACE in my life. One goal with this concept is that I want to create PEACE through spending time doing things that I LOVE, one of those being scrapbooking/crafting and then also writing. This is also where my Blog comes into play. I want to be better about getting on here and putting things down on "paper", I tend to feel so much better and feel like I can deal with things better when it is out in the open. I am hoping that through many things I can achieve that PEACE in my life that I am looking for. I know this is a process and I am sooo looking forward to this process! I am even hoping to pick up one of those beautiful necklaces featured in Ali Edwards post with my word on it. I think this will help me keep my focus daily even when I am feeling caught up in the chaos, something to ground myself, you know?

Well, since I have rambled on and on here, I am going to step away for the night and head off to my scrap room. I am hoping that I can interest Audrey in a Dora DVD so I can get something started!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cards for Kids

2010-09-06T14:48:00.008-04:00

I have been away for away but I have been busy creating! I have wanted to join all of the great people that have been helping Jennifer McGuire out with the Cards for Kids drive and I finally got several cards finished. I wanted to make sure that I made everything perfect for these special kids. Here are the cards that I created:

First up for the girls is this adorable octopus. On the outside is a joke that says, "What lives at the bottom of the sea and carries a lot of fish?" The punchline on the inside says, "An octobus!!"

I showed this card in a previous post and I did not like how it turned out so I made it a little better! Instead of handwriting the joke, I typed it on the computer and placed it inside a bubble. I thought it looked better this way! I created pink for the girls and blue for the boys. The joke says, "What kind of monkey flies to school?" Punchline says, "a hot air baboon!!"

This is the punchline for the next card, I can't figure out how to reverse the order!! Sorry!!

This whale card is also from another post that I didn't like so again, I changed it!! Instead of handwriting the joke, I typed it on the computer and placed it inside a bubble. Again, I thought it looked better this way!

This robot card I thought would be cute and simple for the boys!

This is another simple card I made for the boys. (Sorry about the lighting, it doesn't look so good in this picture!)

This is the girls version of the above card! I had to make it girly by adding bling to it, not sure you can really see it in these pics.

I really enjoyed making these cards and I even got Kayla involved, I thought it was a great way to show her how important it is to give back to others and to send smiles to those in need. I hope that Kayla and I can continue to participate in this card drive and really make an effort to make these children smile!!

Until next time............

Quick Share

2010-07-11T13:13:00.005-04:00

Hi!! I just wanted to share a quick few cards that I made!

10 years ago, my sister was blessed with TRIPLETS!! I remember the day they were born and how tiny they were. So scary to see such little tiny babies and I rememeber being so worried about them. I am happy to say that over the past 10 years, they have grown into such wonderful little people!! They always brighten your day when you are with them!! Even though they are triplets, each is so unique and has such a great personality!!

So with that came my challenge this year to create birthday cards that would suit each of their personalities!! This is what I came up with!!

For Ashley I created a butterfly card. Of course I had to use Bo Bunny paper. I used the Hero Arts butterfly stamp and embossed with white. I then added some glimmer mist to the butterfly to make it shine!! Here is a close up.

and here is the complete card.

For Jacob, I had a difficult time. 10 years old seems to be a period of transition. I didn't want to make it too childish but at the same time he isn't quite a teenager yet!! Here is what I created:

Finally for Alex I created this cute girly card. Again I used Hero Arts stamps and then used my Copic markers to color her in. Here is what I came up for Alex:

Well, that is it for now. I am off to get ready for the birthday party!!! Thanks for stopping by!!!

Cards For Kids

2010-07-07T18:54:00.018-04:00

So I have been a stalker of Jennifer McGuire's blog for sometime now and I have seen how she has a drive called Cards for Kids. She enlists the help of scrapbookers and card makers to help create cards for children and their families who have severe illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, etc. and are receiving treatments or are in the hospital for long periods of time. I have always wanted to participate but never felt that I could make cards that would live up to the unwritten standards that were in my mind!!! So finally after watching my friend Heather create cards for some time now I finally decided that it didn't matter how my cards looked, it was the smile that I put on a child's face that mattered!! I have been working on several cards and I am determined to make more to send along to Jennifer. Here are a few examples:

I forgot to photograph the punch line!! It is: an eel-ectric guitar!!! LOL!!!

These monkey cards are not completely done, as I am making a set of 13 so I can send one to each of the children in Jennifer's campaign. I am sending the blue ones to the boys and the pink ones to the girls!! (in case you haven't figured that out!! LOL!!)

I am planning on creating a few more different cards to send to Jennifer for these adorable children before the end of August. I am also enlisting the help of Kayla. I thought this would be a great lesson for her and for giving back to those around us. I thought it would be a good lesson to teach her that we should care for and embrass everyone around us, even if we do not know them personally.

If you would like to participate in Jennifer McGuire's campaign, just click HERE for information.

Also, if you would like other examples of some CUTE cards for kids, click on my friend Heather's blog HERE!!!!

Hope you can participate and help put a smile on a child's face!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, be back soon to post some more Cards for Kids!!!!

Chaotic

2010-06-10T16:04:00.007-04:00

Things are always busy here and it is rare that I grab a minute by myself without someone yelling or needing something! I decided to take some time to try to post some happenings around our house (although it may take more than one day to type everything, we shall see!!).

We have been on break from dance for about two weeks and it is sad to say, but I needed a minute to catch my breath! With school ending for Kayla and the school year wrapping up for me, it has been pretty hectic. Although I am teaching summer school for a few more weeks my room has been packed and ready for our big move! We are moving to a swing building this summer in order for our school to receive a ginormous renovation. This has been in the works for about 8 years now and it is finally happening. It is crazy, let me tell you!! Boxes, trash, packing, UGH!!! As soon as summer school is over I will be in our new building unpacking, making my room presentable and ready for the next school year!!

Tom is always busy with work and it gives me a lot of one-on-one time with the girls. I need to get more creative with our time together! This is where I admire my friend Shane the most, she always has great activities planned for her children!! I need to get better! Tom works 6 days a week and 2 days a week he is up at Kayla's dance studio helping with renovations for a "new and improved" dance studio! It is going to look great when it is completed but we don't see much of Tom around here, he usually gets home after the girls are tucked into bed!

Kayla is loving being out of school even though she still has to get up in the mornings so I can go to summer school. She is staying with her dance teacher and absolutely loves it!! Tami keeps her super busy and it is great because she is exhausted when she gets home!! Once summer school gets out we will definitely have to do some fun things together. She has so many friends now and will look forward to hanging out with them over the summer!

Here are some pics of Kayla enjoying time out at Grandma and Grandpa's lake.

Looking at the camera!

Being brave and jumping off!

Such a poser!

Where soes the time go?!

Audrey has already taken her summer hit! She was running through our living room and slipped on the rug by the front door and split her forehead open on the door! As you know, the forehead bleeds a lot and it just spread wide open! I was a mess, although I did keep it together for her in front of her! In the emergency room they gave us a choice between stitches or glue but said the glue would leave less of a scar. Being a girl, we wanted the least amount of scar as possible, so we went with glue. You would have thought she would have been screaming and yelling in the ER but she was AWESOME!! Thank goodness we have a "Kona Ice" truck which sells Hawaiian shaved ice and it had come around right before her fall and we had bought one. Kona Ice is awesome for keeping a 2 year old busy in the emergency room!!! The doctor and nurses couldn't stop complimenting Audrey on how well behaved she was!! She didn't drop a tear the entire time we were there! You know I took pictures and it will soon be a scrapbook page!!!
Here are some pics of Audrey and her little head!!

Audrey out at Granpa and Grandma's Lake on Memorial Day

Her lovely cut

Well, I guess that is all I have for right now! I have a lot of scrapbook pages to share and I might post those this evening if Tom comes home early, or we will try tomorrow!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Energized!

2010-03-22T13:08:00.000-04:00

Hi!
I have been a horrible blogger lately and I know that! I feel like everything else in my life consumes me and when I think about sitting down in front of the computer to create a blog entry, I am just not motivated! Call it being tired, lazy, a slacker, I don't know! Some times I think I feel like I have to have something creative to share and I know that is not true! My blog is here for my family and friends to stay in touch with all the happenings in our lives here but I feel like I have to show something!! Well, I may show a few pictures at the end of here but that is all I have!! I honestly have not have had much time to be creative with scrapbook pages or with making cards! I have been working on Goodie Bags for Kayla's dance team though! I have created two sets of bags, one for Kayla's dance team and then one for the younger girls on the Prep Team:

This first set I made for their first competition. The message says "Dew your best and Blow the competition away!" I included a can of caffeine free Mt Dew, a Blow Pop, a horn/whistle to make noise during the competition, and then some small candy bars.

For the younger girls competition last weekend I made bags almost the same as these but with a different message tag design and saying. On the little girls I put "It's Your Time to Shine!" since it was their first ever competition. I included in the bags things that "shine". I put in these: roll on body glitter, shiny lipgloss, star suglasses that were all glittery, and Caprisun pouches and fruit snacks. They seemed to like it!! (I forgot to take pictures of them!!)

I have a great idea for our final competition at the end of April and I will share that after I create them! Love the idea but just as a hint, their Production dance this year is called "Junkyard" so it will be along the lines of a Junkyard!!

We have been super busy with all of the dancing and competitions but I WANT to get back into the swing of posting on my blog!! I have some things on reserve that I took pictures of over the winter so since I am on spring break this week I will try harder to get back on and do more posts!!

See you soon and thanks for not giving up on me!!

Invitations

2010-01-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

Hi All!

I am stopping by to get your opinion! I was asked to make invitations for a friend who is having a baby shower for her friend. The girl is having a boy and is getting the "Mod Pop Monkey" bedding from Babies R Us. So I wanted to create invitations that resembled that bedding. This is waht I came up with...

This card lays flat.

This card opens up and will have the invite information.

What I am hoping for from everyone is their opinion of the invitations. Which is your favorite, which isn't, is there anything that can be added to make them look better? I NEED HELP!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and giving me your opinion!

I forgot to add that I used the Hero Arts "Bananas For You" stamp, Bazill cardstock, Bo Bunny dot paper, and Recollections stamp for the invitations information!

Halloween!

2009-11-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

Hi!

Just wanted to stop by with a few quick pictures of the girls from Halloween! I haven't had time to scrap them yet so just the pictures will have to do for now! The girls had a blast making their way through the neighborhood gathering lots of candy!! Audrey only went to about 5 houses but that was fine for her!! My content little cheetah!

Love this picture of the girls together! Not often you can get both without someone yelling or making some sort of face!

My little Lady!

Cheetah!

Daddy and Audrey!

Well, that's all my shares for now!! Be back soon, hopefully with those pictures scrapped!!

Halloween Treat Bags

2009-10-28T16:56:00.000-04:00

Hi All!

I just wanted to stop by with a quick post showing some treat bags that I made for Kayla's Dance Team and her classroom. I absolutely LOVE these stamps from Hero Arts!! They are sooo freakin' adorable!! I learned how to make these bags from Heather who sent me to Jennifer McGuire's link for Hero Arts (If I knew how to add a link I would, sorry!). They were so easy to make and they were a simple idea for a classroom. I didn't realize until after I made these bags and after I posted them on my Facebook that I had created them almost exactly like Heather created!!! Sorry Heather, didn't mean to totally copy!!

Anyway, here are the pics:

The stamps are all Hero Arts. I got the bags at Target and tied ribbon around the top. The ribbon came from Michaels.

Thanks for stopping by!! Be back soon for more shares!!! :-D

I'm BAAAAAACCCKKK!!!!

2009-10-25T20:20:00.000-04:00

As promised (2 months ago!), here are pics from vacation!! Unfortunately I turned the camera over to my husband for part of the trip, the most important part, the beach, and they were not what I wanted! Should have had the camera myself! Oh well! Kayla at Yorktown in one of the farms. Love this picture of her! She looks all grown up, where has the time gone?!Kayla at the ocean. The girls had a blast and did not want to leave!

This is the only half way decent picture of the girls together at the ocean!

We had a great time at the ocean and hope to go back some time real soon!!

Things have been crazy busy around here with the beginning of the school year, new dance team year, and just the daily hustle and bustle. I keep thinking I need to get on here and post but I get busy doing other things and then when I have time, I'm too lazy to get on! Oh well, going to try to be better!

I have gotten to spend a lot of time scrapping with the girls the past two months so I do have a lot to share! It has been nice getting together one Saturday or Sunday every few weeks to catch up on everyone's lives and to catch up on some much needed scrapping!! It's been nice! Here are a few pages that I have been working on:

I LOVED this paper from Basic Grey so much that I stepped out of my box of using pinks and actually used it on one of Audrey's pages! I am so glad that I did because I LOVED the result!!!

This is what I came up with! The photo does not do the colors justice! I love the bright blues, yellows, and oranges in the paper! It worked perfect for Audrey's swim page, it brought out the colors in her swimsuit as well as her ducky!

Well, this is all for now!! I will be back MUCH SOONER than 2 months for my next post!!! I have lots of dance pages that I have been working on to share!! I also have been working on some Halloween ideas for Kayla's class and for her Dance Team girls! Can't wait to share!!!

Oh, one more thing, I have been put in charge of "spirit" at Kayla's dance studio. This includes making noise makers for the competitions that run from February until May as well as "Goodie" bags for the girls for the competitions. I have a few ideas but was wondering if anyone out there that my happen upon my Blog has any ideas, I would GREATLY appreciate any help!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! Be back soon!! :-D

Vacation

2009-08-17T16:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth just to let you know!! I am still here. We went on vacation last week toVirginia Beach. I have losts of pictures to scrapbook now!! The girls had a blast hanging out with all the cousins and family while we were there. Unfortunately I have not been very creative lately so I don't have anything to show!! I will post pics and maybe some pages in the next few days!
School starts tomorrow and I am so bummed! Where did the summer go? It is so sad to say goodbye!! I know we will have some nice weekends ahead but I'm going to miss much of my time with the girls, although there were some days where I felt insane!!
That's all for now!! Be back in the next few days with pics!!

Travel Journals

2009-07-28T21:19:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to share a super quick project. I was reading Scrapbooks Etc. and saw the idea for these cute Travel Journals for kids to take on vacation with them. They showed a chipboard book with the name of the destination on the front and hand decorated by a child. The child could take this Travel Journal with them on their trip and write down the exciting things that they did and saw on their trip. Well, since we are leaving for Virginia Beach next week I thought this would be a GREAT idea for Kayla! After thinking about it, I also thought, since my sister is going with her 4 children, why not have them over this week, since it's going to rain AGAIN and have them make one too!!

Last night I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and Michaels. At Hobby Lobby I found some small journals that I am going to have the kids decorate with a beach theme and then tie ribbons on the spiral. Each day they can write about what they did that they enjoyed. I will have them attach a small pen that they can keep with the journal so they can write every day.

I ran over to Michaels and found these ADORABLE chipboard albums in these cute fish shapes!! They are Crayola Chipboard albums made by Colorbok. I thought it would be a great idea for the kids to decorate the albums and then when they come home from the beach, they can have small photos made and just add them to the books!! Oh, and did I mention that these CUTE books were on slae for ONLY 60 cents at Michaels this week?!! How could I possibly pass that up?!

I made one for Audrey to show the kids as an example and then I am going to add her photos when we get home. I am also going to make her a small journal to write down what we did each day!

This is the before of the Crayola Chipboard Album from Colorbok.

Just a photo of the packaging in case you are wondering!!

This is my example that I made for Audrey. I placed the date and the destination on the front using Doodlebug letters.

Another picture of the front. I also attached ribbon around the ring that holds the album together.

These are the inner pages. I just traced and cut out the fish and then used adhesive to adhere them to the chipboard. There probably was a better way but this is what I went with!

I am going to attach googly eyes on each of the pages but did not have time today to run back to Michaels to get them! I will post final pics after I put those on! I will also post pics of the whole group creating their own!!! I hope things run smoothly, thte kids range in age from 4-9, so it could be interesting!!! Oh, and I will post final pics of the journals that we are going to create as well!!!

See you soon!!!! :-)

Dawn McVey's Color Challenge Take Two!!!

2009-07-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

Ever have one of those nights where you are trying to go to sleep but all you can think about is scrapbooking or creating something new? Well last night was one of those nights for me!! Those of you who know me know that I cannot leave things alone! I was not happy with the card I created for Dawn McVey's Color Challenge last night and that was all I could think about!! Since I am fairly new to card making I don't feel that I do well with them, not like scrapbook pages. So after laying in bed last night and thinking about it, I had to get up this morning and create something new, and what I feel is better! So again, here are the colors Dawn gave everyone to work with... and here is my new and improved project!!

I apologize if the colors are difficult to see, they are soooo much prettier and vibrant in person! I was VERY surprised at how good the colors actually look together!!! At first I thought, "Yea right!" and then after playing, I REALLY like it!!!

So thanks so much for checking out my NEW and IMPROVED project!!! See you soon! :-)

Dawn McVey's Challenge

2009-07-20T21:14:00.000-04:00

So I decided today to finally work on a challenge from Dawn McVey's Blog. I am a huge fan of her Blog and all of her beautiful projects and I am always thinking about joining in a challenge but never have. So today was my day to be brave! Here are the colors that she gave everyone to work with... This is what I created.

Here is a side angle that shows the colors a little better.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I might play with these colors again in the morning when I have a fresh eye!! See you soon!

2009-07-20T14:25:00.000-04:00

I think I messed up!!! :-( I entered the American Crafts Designer Challenge, where they are looking for new designers for their company. Well, I was under the impression that all entries were due by midnight tonight because on the challenge that is due Thursday, that is how it works. Well, when I went on their site to get the email information to send all my projects to, I saw it says, "Due by July 20"!!! It doesn't give a time but says BY...I hope I didn't mess up!!! I hope I didn't blow any opportunity that I may have had!!! I am NEVER late for due dates and I am so afraid I blew it!!! I am BUMMED! I guess as Heather says, at least you got a lot of scrapping done! I guess that's the positive way to look at it!

Well, just to share with you, these are the projects that I created for American Crafts contest. When I downloaded these images I downloaded them backwards because they never end up in the original order and for some reason they are still mixed up!! Please bare with me!! I will figure this whole thing out one day!!

This is a close up of part of the 2nd layout I did for the challenge. I used the American Crafts Teen line on this page.

This is the entire layout using the American Crafts Teen line.

This was the first layout I submitted. It is a close-up to show the stickles that I used on the flowers to sort of make them pop. I used the American Crafts Everyday line on this page.

This is the entire layout my first submission using the American Crafts Everyday line.

This is a magnetic picture frame from Bazzill. I bought this frame completely blank and you add whatever you want to it and you use magnets!! It was sooo fun to work with. For Kayla's frame I used the American Crafts Backyard line. Loved the paper and the Flair that goes with it!

This is the same frame from Bazzill and I made Audrey one using the American Crafts Teen line. Loved the bright colors of this paper and it totally matched Audrey's swimsuit!!

This pic just shows how I attached the magnets on the back of the paper and then you just stick the paper and embellishments wherever you want on the frame!!

This is the basic Bazzill frame that I started with. I think what I am going to do is use this frame for each season and switch out the papers and the embellishments according to the picture that I have in it!! So much fun!

This is the card that I made for the challenge. I used American Crafts Moda bella line. Loved the bright colors in the paper and love how fancy the cards look! I used a Hero Arts stamp and embossed it on to the coordinating American Crafts paper.

I made a set of 6 cards. I think I will use them as a gift for someone!

So even though I am REALLY worried that I missed the deadline for the challenge, I did get a lot of work finished!! I am going to enter their other challenge for this week but I am REALLY having a hard time thinking of something to create!! I know I will come up with something though!!

Thanks for reading!!! Be back soon!!

Some Shares

2009-07-18T11:37:00.000-04:00

So in my time away besides attending many dance competitions with Kayla, I did manage to get some scrapping done!! I attended Cornerstone Memories with Heather, Rena, Missy and the rest of the girls. I spent the weekend working on my favorite subjects, the girls!! It was kind of funny because I didn't have a whole lot of embellishments, believe it or not, so I was forced to use what I had. I experimented with layering paper and just using the paper as my focus! I was so happy with what I created. I would have to say that these pages were some of the best that I have created!!

This is my stubborn child who wouldn't let me out of her sight and fell asleep sitting up in her crib so that she could see me down the hall! I feel bad because I cannot remember the brand of the paper I used.

This I created using the Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Collection. I love the bright colors of the product, it worked really well with my snow pics! I zoomed in on this part of the layout because I LOVE the smaller pics that you can create on the do-it-yourself picture makers at the store now!! I fit so many pics on one page! Love it!
Another pic of the layout using Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Collection.

I created this layout using the Basic Grey Bittersweet collection. I love this collection, so girly!! I zoomed in just to show the paper.

Again, another pic of the entire layout of the Basic Grey Bittersweet collection.

I LOVE this picture of Kayla. I was just playing around with the camera and happened to snap this picture. I used the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection on this layout. Again, I love the girly colors in this collection!

This layout I thought it might be fun to show the goofy side of Kayla!! I used the American Crafts paper on this layout. Love it!!

This is the entire layout of the above.

Finally, I used the K.I. paper (I think) on this layout. I used the sparkly letters from Making Memories and then the snowflakes were white and I used the Sugar Coating from Doodelbug to make them match the letters.

Okay, enough shares for now! I will be back soon with some more layouts I created last night on my scrapping trip with Heather and Missy to Archivers! Be back soon!!

Blog Slacker!

2009-07-15T20:18:00.000-04:00

Hi!! I have been away for what feels like forever!! I have been pretty much overwhelmed with all of Kayla's dancing!! She has had competitions from February until this past weekend. It was a lot of fun but at the same time very exhausting (both for her and for me!!)! I am sure most people I know who did at one time read this have stopped reading!! I hope that you come and check this out every once in a while to see if by some chance I am blogging!!! I have so much to catch up on!

Audrey is growing unbelievably fast! She is at the climbing stage!! She talks a lot and almost daily says something new! I am worried at this point that I may have a table dancer on my hands as she loves to climb on the kitchen table and stand and dance! The other day I caught her up there in a pair of my heels hopping up and down!! Please say a prayer for her that she doesn't find a job in Vegas one day!! Of course I have had to take many pictures of these wonderful things she has been doing and I will post some of the pictures soon!

With scrapping, I had gotten a lot done until about a month ago and then I competely stopped!! I have some new pages to show and I am so excited to finally have a book started fro Audrey! It took me a while to deal with everything and I am finally to the point where I am able to scrap everything and tell the story to her. I'm very excited about what I have been creating!!Well I have babbled enough for now! I will be back soon with some pics and more news!

Miss Audrey

My "Jungle Jive" dancer!

Love this pic of Kayla!

Love that little smile!

Feeling Crazy (Not scrapbook related!)

2009-02-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

Wow!!! Today was the first day back to school after a 4 day snow break, I am flabergasted in the behavior of the students in my classes! It was very evident that these students spent 4 days + the weekend without any parental supervision or consequences for their behaviors! I honestly believe that these kids were free to do whatever they wanted the entire break!! I had tons planned for today since I am now playing catch-up and in addition to ALWAYS being behind the stated curriculum and I may have gotten through a quarter of it!! So irritating!! I am blown away how after these long breaks these children come to school without a care about what they are expected to do or any consequences for their behaviors!!! It's like everything WE have taught them at school about appropriate behaviors and manners and consequences for your actions has been thrown out the window!! It will take at least until Wednesday to get them back under control. I think I woke up some of the students (at least my 7th grade boys class) by giving uncomfortable conequences but I know I am in for a challenge for the next few days!! So annoying!!

I think through working in the environment I work in, I appreciate how my parents raised me and I want to be an even better parent as a result. I cannot justify raising my children without decency and respect for themselves as well as their elders. I am reminded of this on a daily basis and am constantly grateful for what I have. I feel that sometimes I am hard on Kayla because of what I see on a daily basis in my classroom and I just want her to be a good, hard working, respectful child. I think she is most of the time!! Makes you want to be more for your children, that's for sure!

I feel horrible for coming home on these days and totally taking my frustration out on my own family. I feel like this happens every few months but I feel like this is too often. I know Tom understands but the girls have no idea. I am blown away by the inability or the lack of caring by some parents to raise their children in a respectful and nurturing environment. I know the children learn from what they see in their homes and environments which makes me shudder at what is going on in thier homes if they are so hateful in the classroom. I try very hard on a daily basis to create an environment within my own classroom where all the kids feel safe and wanted, although it just takes a few to make everyone not feel comfortable.

Okay, I have rambled enough. I guess it helps sometimes to get things out and maybe even bounce things off of other people. I guess today was one of those days where I feel worthless as a teacher and wonder why I do what I do on a daily basis! Makes me want to have a snow day every day!! After all of this complaining it makes me so grateful that I enjoyed my 4 days with my own beautiful girls!!

I wanted to share a few pics of Audrey in the snow. I shared some of Kayla last week so it's only fair to share some of Audrey!!

This pic reminded me of the movie "A Christmas Story" when Ralphie's mom bundles up the little brother and he "can't get up!" Poor baby, so bundled up!
Crawling in the snow!

She looks thrilled huh?! Love the pic though!

There's a smile!

Thanks for letting me bounce my frustration off of you!! Hope you enjoyed the pics and I hope to do some scrapping this week to share!!

Cards

2009-01-31T19:58:00.000-05:00

As promised, I am posting the cards that I made last weekend. Heather would be really impressed with me as I have had 3 posts this week!! So proud of myself!

I made these cards to put in Kayla's homework folder for her to find each morning when she gets to school. They are supposed to be like lunch notes but Kayla doesn't like to pack her lunch all the time so I figured I would place these in her homework folder for her to find.

Sorry about the picture. These are the cards that I made.

I love this paper! It is DCWV the Blosoms and Butterflies Stack. I received as a gift from Heather for Christmas and absolutely LOVE it!

I had to borrow Heather's scallop punch for this card. Love the scallop punch and REALLY need to invest in my own!! Again I used the DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies Stack and a Hero Arts stamp as well as Hero Arts gems.

I used Heidi Grace paper on this card along with Hero Arts new Hugs and Kisses Stamps. I love the Heidi Grace paper! It's so girly!!

I used the Cuttelbug Swirls on this card along with Hero Arts Hugs and Kisses stamps. I also used some red glitter.

On this card I used the DCWV paper again and the Hero Arts Hugs and Kisses stamps.

On this card I used the Cuttelbug Heart Blocks, which I love, and ribbon from KI Memories Wild Things Sashes. Again, I used the Hero Arts Hugs and Kisses stamps, and gems.

More DCWV paper!

I used Heidi Grace paper on this card along with Hero Arts new Hugs and Kisses Stamps.

So that is everything that I worked on last week!! I need to get the last of my calendars completed for 2009 now!! I actually finally finished my family gifts, now I need to complete mine!! I'm only a month behind!

Grease was awesome! We had so much fun! I guess when I was younger I paid more attention to the dancing and the singing, I didn't realize the entire movie was about sex until I had my 7 year old daughter next to me!! I just pray that she was paying attention to the dancing and the singing like I was at that age!! It was great though!! I hope something else fun comes to Cincinnati soon so we can enjoy another girls day out!!

I hope to post again soon. I need to work on some layouts of the snow and the girls playing in it this past week! See you soon!

Saturday Scrapping

2009-01-30T21:24:00.000-05:00

I spent the entire day on Saturday of last week scrapbooking. It was so nice to get out of the house and spend some adult time doing what I love! These are a couple of the layouts I created during the 11 hours that I scrapped! I only got 2 layouts finished and about 8 cards made! It doesn't matter how much you finish right?!

This is a close-up of a layout I completed of Audrey. Wanted to focus in on the ribbons. Love ribbon!

Here is the entire layout. Love the bum!! For some reason when I downloaded the images, I lost the journaling image of this layout. I will try to post it on my next blog.

This is a close-up of the paper piercing that I did on the layout below. Thanks to Alice I think it made the layout!

Here is the whole layout with the paper-pierced "a". Love it!

Well that's it for now! I will be stopping by again this weekend to post the cards I created last Saturday. We have been out of school for 4 days now!!! I am more tired today than I think I would have been if I had worked the entire week!! Kayla has kept me on my toes this week!

Oh, so excited, tomorrow we are going to see the musical Grease! We are having a girls day out with my mom and sister and her kids, and my brother's girlfriend. Looking forward to seeing it. I hope its as good as I have heard it is!

I'll be back late this weekend!!

Snow Day!!

2009-01-27T20:13:00.001-05:00

For those of you who know me so well can imagine my excitment when I got the call at 5:00 this morning telling me that school was canceled!! I jumped out of bed to look out the window to see exactly how much snow we actually got!! I am such a little kid!! I think I get more excited about a snow day than my own child!!

Once the girls got up we had breakfast and tried to find all our snow stuff. I found Kayla's easily because Santa brought new snow boots and snow pants. Unfortunately, I was not able to find snow pants for Audrey. We waited until Audrey went down for a nap and dashed out the door for some pics! Kayla was across the street playing with Meg and I began snapping pics. There's nothing I love more than snow pictures!

We are supposed to get more snow tonight for a total of around 10-15 inches! I am sooo excited (Sorry mom and dad!)!! I am hoping that I can find Audrey's snowpants tonight so I can get some snow pics of her. She was much too little last year to take pics in the snow. Need some of those!

Here are some of the many pics I took today.

Kayla and her friend Meg standing in the snow.

Kayla shoveling snow for a snow fort!

And more snow for the fort!

Kayla and Meg posing for Mom!!

Kayla up close!

I will be back tomorrow to post some layouts and cards from my scrap day with Heather and Alice!

Come on SNOW!!!! :)

Challenge

2009-01-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Heather for convincing me to try the Hero Arts weekly challenge. I wasn't sure I was up for it but thought I would try and see what happens! I love my result!Thanks to Heather for convincing me to try the Hero Arts weekly challenge. I wasn't sure I was up for it but thought I would try and see what happens! I love my result! The people who leave comments on the Hero Arts Blog are so nice! It's nice to hear good things about your pages, doesn't everyone like to hear good things after all the work you put into them!

The Challenge last week was layering. I hope that I achieved that with this layout. Here are some pics and some close-ups!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with some more pics!!!

Creating...Relaxation

2009-01-05T19:28:00.001-05:00

I was not too sure about going to Archivers this weekend with Heather since it was my last day of Christmas vacation. Poor Heather had no idea how to take my indecisivness and just kind of went with my mood changes as we discussed over email what time we were going to go. I am sooooooo glad that I decided to go!!! It turned out to be a very quiet and very relaxing day! I went into the day with very little expectations and thought I get done what I get done! I was very happy with my outcome! We spent 5 hours at Archivers and I really only completed one page but I am really happy with the page and I really did spend about 3 1/2 hours working on it! I did work on a calendar that I have yet to get finished from Christmas (I feel bad, every year Grandma and Grandma & Grandpa get those calendars about 2 months into the new year!) and I did start another page but didn't have time to finish! I felt so relaxed and I was amazed how much I have been taking out of scrapbboking by putting high expectations on myself every time I get out of the house! I always feel like since I'm out, I have to get AS MUCH finished as possible!!! Not so, I have found out!

So here are a few pics of my layout. The first one isn't so good but wanted to show a close-up of the bottom of the page.

I love the sparkly letters from Making Memories!

Just some journaling so I don't forget the time the picture was taken. I am still blown away that I wasn't able to see Audrey until 13 hours after she was born due to all of the complications and me being in ICU. That's still a difficult thing for me to get over.

An overall look at the layout.

And another!

Products used on this layout:

Making Memories: Circle, scalloped Paper; brads; black rub-on letters; Note-Worthy Journaling Tag

Bo-Bunny: Pink Dotted Paper

Prima Flowers

Heidi Grace: Pink Flourish Rub-ons

Ribbon: unknown

In organization news, Heather came by on Friday and helped me get all of my supplies organized into categories and colors, etc! She spent 4 hours helping me be brave and purge some things for garage sale and trash! I am so excited! I had talked to Tom on his way home from work telling him how excited I was and when he came home he came upstairs with me and looked around and said, "That's it?! It looks the same as when I saw it last night!!" MEN, they just don't get it do they?!

I hope everyone has started the New Year off on a great note! I will be back soon!

Organization!

2008-12-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

I am sooo excited about getting my scrap space organized! I finally got Tom to commit to creating me a new space! We have lived in this house for 11 years now and my scrpabook space started off as an office. I used it to work on lesson plans and get things accomplished for school. Since I have started scrapbooking over the past 7years, my space has evolved into a scrap space/office. I don't feel like I get much of anything accomplished in my space any more! I used to be so organized and now my work has drifted into my scrap space and vise versa!

I took the first step last night and worked on throwing things away and cleaning up my space. I made a large dent in it! I am so happy! I just need to get my scrap stuff organized now! I threw a ton of school stuff away and now I have room for organizational things for my scrap space! My problem now is finding affordable organizers and tools to stay organized! With the kids in my space A LOT I need to find things to keep all my goodies safe from little fingers!

I guess the reason I am posting this is to get ANYONE'S ideas for organizational tools, ideas for the space, etc. Any help that anyone who reads this wants to volunteer would be GREATLY appreciated! Also, any tips on where to find affordable organizers and maybe even furniture would be helpful also!!

I am off now to work on my space some more! I am really excited to have a new, fresh place to scrap and make some beautiful memories for my girls!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-28T19:29:00.000-05:00

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and got to spend time with family and loved ones.

Our Christmas was fairly quiet here. We had the Given Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas since Stacey had plans with Darin's family. It seemed liked it was so early to have Christmas, I wasn't mentally ready!! It was really nice though, we got to eat lots of food that we haven't eaten since this time last year! The girls both got some great gifts and they had a lot of fun playing with their cousins.

We spent Christmas Eve home waiting for Santa. Kayla and I baked cookies and desserts for Christmas day at the Holwadel Christmas! Would you believe I completely forgot to take pictures of that?! We were caught up in the moment I guess!

We have been very busy over the past few weeks! Audrey turned one on November 24. I cannot believe she is already one!! Time flies! Kayla's birthday was the 13th of December so we had a family celebration and then for some reason I agreed to having 9 girls sleep over!! That was a lot of fun! The girls had a blast and barely got any sleep but isn't that what sleepovers are all about?!

We are looking forward to a quiet New Years Eve. Mom has volunteered to watch the girls so Tom and I are going to go to dinner and then spend a quiet evening at home. I just don't trust people on New Years with the drinking and driving, I would rather be safe at home! I am hoping to get some scraping done some time this week and post some Christmas layouts. I need to give Heather a holler!! I wanted to share some Christmas pictures with everyone. I hope everyone had a great holiday! I will be back soon!!

This was taken Christmas Eve. I heard Kayla in Audrey's room talking to her and when I walked around the corner I saw Kayla standing on the otoman talking to Audrey!

Our family! I think this is the first picture of all of us together!

This was so cute to watch, Kayla was showing Audrey how to go through and pull out everything in her stocking!

It's an MP3 player!

I will be back soon with pics of layouts and more to share!

A Year Already

2008-11-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

I am just so amazed that the last year has gone so quickly! It is really a sad thing to see how quickly time flies when you are watching your children grow up! It seems like just yesterday that I was receiving the news that I was going in for an emergency c-section and that my life was basically on the line. I was so worried that I was not going to form that bond with Audrey after she was born since I was not able to spend much time with her in the first week of her little life since I was hooked up to everything in the ICU and having everyone focus on me and not Audrey. I am so blessed that I made it through okay and that this past year has been spent making my heart as good as new!!! It really helps when you have all the support of your family and friends and knowing that I have two beautiful daughters who need me to guide them along their journey.

Audrey has grown so much in the last year and it has been so much fun watching her grow and change. She truly loves life and everyone around her is made so happy from just being around her! She laughs all the time and smiles and you can't help but feel joy when you are with her! Her whole body shows how much she enjoys being with you.

I have just recently started scrapbooking Audrey's first year of life. I am not sure why it has taken me so long to get to this point but I am happy to begin. I think that in the beginning I was still having anxiety and was worried to think too much about the entire process. I am so glad to be able to scrapbook and show Audrey how much she is loved and cared for as I did for Kayla.

I wanted to share a scrapbook page and the invitation to Audrey's birthday party. The theme is "monkeys" because we call Audrey our "Chunky Monkey!"

I made this card with the Cuttlebug "Birthday" folder. I LOVE the Cuddlebug! The stamp is by Stampendous and the card is DCWV.

For this layout I used Heidi Grace patterned paper and Bazzil cardstock. The brads are Doodlebug (I think!)

I absolutely LOVE these photos of Audrey! They totally show how Audrey just laughs with her whole body! The puffy letters are American Crafts and the patterned paper is Making Memories. The cardstock is again, Bazzil.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my Blog! I will be back soon to share some of my projects that I have been working on with the girls!!!

"Given Up On You"

2008-10-27T20:53:00.001-04:00

I believe those were Heather's words!!! I am still here and as much as I have wanted to blog, life has just gotten in the way! I have been writing in a journal on a weekly basis but I can do that in the comforts of my bed!!! Gosh, what I wouldn't do for a laptop!!! Maybe some day that will be in the budget!!! I reassure you that I have been here and I have even found some time for some scrapbooking here and there!

I have just been a little crazy with Kayla's nutty schedule! I don't have anyone to blame but myself, I thought I could handle it all! Busy, Busy, Busy!!! Dance 1 day a week, cheer at least 3 days and with competition, that means 4 days!!! And then homework and school on top of all that!! I'm INSANE!!!!!!! Thank goodness cheer is finally coming to an end this weekend. I think Kayla had fun doing it but I think that this is the one and only year she wants to do it. Unfortunately she had a coach that was not so good and ruined her experience (makes me so sad). I think Kayla enjoyed the competition aspect of teh cheerleading but I'm not sure she liked the actual cheering at football games. We will see what next year brings when sign ups come around in the spring.

Audrey is as cute as ever!! Thank goodness she is such a good baby!! All these trips to cheer and dance, she just hangs out! You will catch her bopping her head to the music wherever we are, it is so darn cute!! I am just amazed that her birthday is right around the corner!! One year! Where does the time go?!

Well, I wanted to pop in and update everyone on the kids and where I have been! I have included a few pages I have created in the last few months. These are not all of them and I hope to get some more up this week depending on the craziness of the week! These are some of the summer layouts I have created. A few of them I scrap-lifted from Archivers pages but added my own twists here and there to make them my own.

This is of Audrey out at the lake. Love the colors in this paper. It's Archiver's paper, how fun!

This is a close up of the flamingo from the next lay-out. Courtney, I totally thought of you here! Love the boa on the flamingo!!

Here is another close-up of a sticker that I added Stickles to, I love the Stickles!!

Audrey at Stacey's pool. She LOVED the water this year!! Again, Archiver's paper!! Love the colors!!!

This is the first page of a two-page lay-out. This one is the first page that goes along with the above lay-out with Audrey. This was at Stacey's pool again.

I will be back soon to show some more lay-outs that I have been working on. I have been mostly working on lay-outs with Audrey as her birthday is coming up soon and I haven't really scrapped much of her!

Thanks so much for checking in and for sticking with me!! I will blog soon!!!

Happy Father's Day! (Warning VERY Long Post)

2008-06-17T11:38:00.000-04:00

This Father's Day was pretty quiet here. We got up a little late and I had to get Kayla ready to go to the movies with Uncle Eric and Rena, they had asked a few weeks ago if they could take Kayla to see Kung Fu Panda, not realizing it was Father's Day. This wasn't a big deal, we were just planning on hanging out and working around the house anyway. We gave Daddy his gifts, a book he had been wanting and a picture frame that we made together with a picture of Daddy, Kayla, and Audrey. Nothing big but homemade and that's what matters. We are just happy that we are together and we get to spend each day as a family.

Uncle Eric and Rena came and picked up Kayla around noon to go to Red Robin for lunch and then to the movie. Kayla was very excited. Kayla hanging out with Uncle Eric and Rena gave Tom and I time to hang out together with Audrey.

As many of you know, I have been making an album for Eric to honor Avery, his daughter. I had been planning on giving it to him when I next saw him. It just turned out that the next time I saw him happened to be Father's Day. It kind of worked out well that this was how everything happened. Those of you who are close to me know the story of Eric and Avery. For those of you who don't here is the story in a nutshell. My brother, Eric, was married right after high school. Eric was overjoyed when his wife announced that she was pregnant. Everyone was very excited for him and we were all excited to have the first grandbaby in the family. Well, like we all would assume, Avery was Eric's child. Come on, they were married and that's how it works right?! We were all there for Avery's birth and then every step of the way after. We were all saddened when Eric announced that him and Krissy would be divorcing, we were more upset for Avery as it would be hard on a child. After trying to gain more custody of Avery because Eric wanted nothing more than to spend more time with his daughter and love his life, he was dealt a HUGE blow. He was presented with papers from a lawyer stating that it was 99.9% positive that he was not the father of Avery! What the heck?!! He was presented these papers in his home from some stranger, not his ex-wife herself, but some stranger. She had been messing around while she was married to Eric and had us all fooled. Krissy did not want Eric and the family to see Avery anymore than we already were. We were all SHOCKED and Eric was absolutely devastated. As you would expect, Eric got a lawyer and fought for Avery. Unfortunately, the court said that legally Eric had no rights to Avery once the "real" father came forward. The "real" father could adopt her because Eric was the father on her birth certificate and then Eric would have no legal rights. Eric had to make the most difficult decision anyone in life could ever have to make. He had to decide to give up all his rights to his daughter that we all believed was his daughter for 4 years. We all loved her so much and it was like having a child die right before your eyes. We were all there with him in court and it was the most difficult thing in the world to watch someone to go through, especially a loved one. Needless to say, Eric has struggled with this for he past 5 years. I know it is something that he thinks about every day and I know that he wants nothing more than to be a part of Avery's life. Unfortunately there are really cruel and evil people in this world who care about nothing more than themselves. Eric wanted to be Avery's father despite what he had found out. Avery was Eric's daughter regardless of what a DNA test showed. In Avery's eyes, Eric was her daddy and she would always love him. As far as I know, Avery still thinks about Eric and has asked about her "Daddy Eric". She misses him very much. Thank goodness we have a source who will pass along bits of information now and then (just bits and pieces but still a little piece of her). It would be so nice to see pictures of her now and then or just hear some REAL things that are going on in her life. Eric misses her so much and so does the rest of the family. I know that Krissy wanted to hurt Eric with all of this but she hurt an entire family as well as innocent children who never got a chance to meet their cousin Avery. It is the hope of all our family that one day Avery will come looking for her "Daddy Eric" and realize the horrible things that her mom did in her past.

As a result of all of this, I thought that it would be nice to honor Avery by making an album of her life with her "Daddy Eric". Eric was not left with much of Avery other than the memories. He had a few pictures of his own and a "Boo" doll from Avery's favorite movie "Monsters Inc" but other than that, he just has memories. I wanted to give him something tangible of his daughter, something that he can show her one day when she finds him again.

I made this album while we were in Indy at Cornerstone. It was a difficult weekend and I hope I didn't make too many of my friends mad at me while I was there. (Sory guys if I did! I TRULY didn't mean to!!! :) It was a difficult few days as I had to process again the events and look at the sweet face in these pictures. Memories and emotins were stirred up that I thought I would be okay with but after working for two days straight on the album, it all began to take its toll! I am very happy with the outcome of the album and am glad I was able to create some memories for my brother.

I LOVE this quote. It says "It doesn't matter who my father was, it matters who I remember he was." Very fitting for the situation I think.

This was taken out at my parents lake and Avery loved the water. She had said this particular day, "Can I put my tushie in?!" I love that quote from her!!! So cute!!

I used Making Memories "Noteworthy" line from Archivers for all of the pages. I also used products from KI, Doodlebug, Heidi Swapp. The album was PERFECT for this product. It's a Colorbok and it is a bifold and the inside is like a box. I loved it for the amount of space that it had in it.

I think Eric was very moved by the album. He is a difficult person to read sometimes on the outside but I think I touched something in him with this. I know he is glad to have a piece of Avery with him and I am so glad I could give him this. We are not always the best communicators in our family but we know that we are there for each other and we will stand by one another in the most difficult of times.

I just wanted to share this with everyone and hope that you like it as much as I do. I would LOVE to hear any comments that you have about the album or my story. Sometimes it helps to hear other people's thoughts and feelings about such a difficult topic!!

Thanks so much for reading my LONG blog!! I will post again soon with a much lighter topic!!!

Kindergarten Graduation

2008-06-07T21:04:00.000-04:00

This Tuesday we had kindergarten graduation! It was so sad to attend this event! I had to admit that my baby is getting older! Kayla has attended the Children's House for two years of preschool and this year for kindergarten. I am amazed at how much she has learned over these past three years. In art she learned about Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Greek and Egyptian architecture...She learned to speak Japanese, each student attended Japanese 2 times per week. I am just amazed at her knowledge and the facts that she can give me in science and geography. Riding in the car she can spout off facts to me out of nowhere! What sponges our children are!
The graduation was very difficult for me nonetheless. Each student marched down the aisle and up onto the stage in thier cap and gown. Speeches were given by the owner, principal, and the two kindergarten homeroom teachers. Each child came down from stage to give their parents roses and books that they made. At this point Kayla saw me crying, and being the emotional child that she is, started crying herself! She was sobing up on stage from then on! Thank goodness she was able to pull herself together as they sang the songs they had been practicing for weeks like "High School Musical" ,"First Grade, First Grade" (to the tune of "New York, New York"), and "So Long Farewell". Each child received a diploma and posed for pics. It was a very emotional event but we are so proud of her! I am so glad that we got to share this event in her life with our family. I was a little disappointed because the seating was so limited and not all of our family could attend, we only received 6 tickets total. I took lots of pictures to share with everyone! We have so many fun memories of kindergarten! I just hope that the remaining years of her school career are as exciting as this one!!

You can see Kayla crying in this photo! Such an emotional child!!
This was when she first went up on stage, she hasn't seen me crying yet!
Nervous smiles!!
Diploma in hand and still crying!
Flipping of the tassel!

I really need to get this pictures scrapped while the event is all fresh in my mind!! I need a few more hours in my day! I will post what I create soon!

Cornerstone Here We Come!!!

2008-05-29T11:32:00.000-04:00

I am sooooo excited about our weekend trip to Cornerstone in Indy! I have so much planned for this weekend and I hope I get at least half of it completed! It is going to be so nice to relax and scrapbook with some good friends! Pedicures, massages, and no dishes, Woohoo!! I am so excited!! I have so much to do before tomorrow though! Gotta go shopping, make pictures, and pack, WOW!
Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

And the Winner Is....

2008-05-11T19:20:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone!!

So sorry I am posting this so late. Never enough time! I just want to let everyone know that the winner of the Scrapbook Bakery drawing was....Courtney Amber! Thank you everyone for all of your positive comments and feedback, you have all inspired me to keep being creative! Courtney Amber, if you could please send me your mailing info at kiawah01@fuse.net, Heather will get your goodies out to you!! Please post your pages of Daphne, I would love to see them!!

What a busy weekend! We went to see my nieces play softball on Saturday for the first time. That was fun to watch, they are in second grade. Unfortunately I left the camera at home and didin't realize it until we were almost there. Guess we will have to make sure we attend another game, have lots of ideas for scrapbook pages in my head! Fun to watch and to listen to their little cheers coming out of the dugout!!

Today we went to the cemetary as this was Tom's first Mother's Day without his mom. It was pretty tough on him and although he didn't say anything, I could tell that this was a rough day/weekend for him. Kayla was excited to go to the cemetary so that she could go see Grandma. This has been very hard for her as well. With the cleaning out of her home and Kayla seing the gifts that she had made for Grandma for her birthday and Christmas she has had a hard time understanding what we are doing. She saw a mug that we made Grandma with photos of Kayla on them and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, Grandma forgot to take this with her!" It about tore my heart out. I'm trying to think of some way that we can "send" it to Grandma. Think we might package it up and send it to Heaven. Very difficult day.

Enough with the sadness! I am so excited about our weekend trip to Cornerstone Memries in a few weeks!! A whole weekend of scrapbooking and relaxation! What a way to begin the first weekend of summer vacation!! I am sooooooo excited!!

Well, I a off to give baths and get children ready for bed! I need to work on being a better blogger! I think about all these things to write as I lay in bed but by moring, I feel like I don't have two seconds! That is about to change in three weeks though!! Woohoo!!

Reminder

2008-05-05T19:10:00.000-04:00

Hi All!!!

I am so excited to see so many positive comments on my page!! I have gotten some good ideas from all of you as well. Thanks for the reminders about Teacher Appreciation Week!! Although I am a teacher, working in the inner city, we never get Teacher Appreciation gifts! So it was nice to have a reminder to check that calendar and make some gifts for Kayla's teachers this week!!

Just a reminder that you have 3 more days to post a comment on my blog to win some fun stuff from Scrapbook Bakery!

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to get some fun things made this week for Teacher Appreciation!

Scrapbook Bakery

2008-04-30T17:30:00.001-04:00

Wow! It's been so long since my last post! It's amazing how quickly time gets away from you!

I just wanted to stop by and post some photos from projects I created from Scrapbook Bakery products! I was so honored to be asked by Heather to be the designer of the month! I was shocked when she first asked me because I do not feel that I belong here with these "famous people"!! It was such an honor to have Heather think that I belonged here! Thanks Heather for believing in me!! : )

I created some projects from the May Green Thumb kit. It was so much fun to play with these bright products! I love the new American Crafts papers, so much fun!! This is the kit that is available at Scrapbook Bakery. The kit includes a clay pot which is not shown here with the image.

I wanted something fun to create for a Mother's Day gift and so I decided to decoupage this pot. I used all of the coordinating papers from American Crafts to create this fun design.

I took pencils and wrapped them in the paper to create flowers. I used Making Memories chipboard for the "blooms". I thought the JellyBelly beans would be a fun treat for Mom. I know how much my mom loves JellyBelly!!!

These are a few of the cards that I created. I thought this might be a fun gift to give Mom along with the cute clay pot. What mom couldn't use some cards?!

I love this layout of Kayla. I tried to make a "Spring-y" page but I just loved this picture of her in the snow so much with this paper that I decided I had to use it!! Fun paper!!!
Finally, this layout is of our new baby Audrey! I plan on using the pocket for journaling of her very scary entry into this world. We have quite a story to tell and I want her to know all about it some day.
Whoops, forgot to include a card with the others for mom!!! (This is my favorite!!)

Well, as I said I was so honored to be choosen by Heather for the Designer of the month on Scrapbook Bakery's website. Even though I am a Designer for the site, I'm not always sure of my talents especially to be included with the likes of all the wonderful ladies who followed before me!!

Since I am so excited to be a part of this I would like to offer those of you who read my blog to post a comment and a name will be choosen on May 8 to win a wonderful gift from Scrapbook Bakery!!! I'm so exicted!! Okay everyone, start commenting! Can't wait to hear from you and to see who will win!!!!!!!! :)

Wow!

2008-03-30T18:24:00.000-04:00

Wow! I have been such a slacker! It's amazing how going back to work full time really cuts down on your free time!!
Speaking of going back to work full time, that was incredibly difficult! I know that the girls are in good hands where they are but it is so hard to give up my time with both of them. I swore I wasn't going to get upset my first day back but of course I couldn't help it and ended up crying my whole way to work! I was tough until I kissed Audrey good-bye and she made this adorable cooing sound at me and that was the end of it!! I was crying which then made Kayla cry, it was a mess!!! Thank goodness the kids at school were easy on me my first week back!
t's funny how I tried to ease back into things, I went back for two weeks and spent this last week on Spring Break! It was nice! I spent much of the week cleaning and redecorating the house. We were in desperate need of new rugs in the kitchen and new runners in the living room and hallways. Bought some new frames and hung some beautiful pictures of the girls. Was so excited about that! I was also sooo excited to get some new bath towels! Why that was such a big deal I don't know but I think I have had the same towels since Tom and I got married 11 years ago!!! Nice to have new towels!!
Kayla and I spent a girls day out at the levee. We went and ate Deweys Pizza (YUM!!) and saw Horton Hears a Who, how cute that was! Of course no trip to the levee is complete without a trip to the bookstore! It was a great day!
Finally on Friday, I taught my nieces and Kayla's friend how to scrapbook. My sister brought her girls and her son over to scrapbook. I had planned o making an entire 5 x 7 album with them for summer. Wow, I was ready to crash by the end! The girls were so into it though with the exception of Kayla's friend. Even Jacob scrapbooked! He was so proud of his book when he was finished, it was great! The girls have been after me for almost a year to teach them to scrapbook. Hopefully they learned a little something this weekend!
I spent Saturday scarpbooking with the Scrapbook Bakery Team at an all day crop. I can't say that I worked on anything for the website but I did get some personal scarpping done! We were there for 10 hours and I got a whole 3 pages finished!! I spent a lot of time in deep thought about my pages! Some times it just takes a while to get all the ideas together! It was nice to hang out with the ladies and get some scrapping accomplished, I am so excited about my pages! I really need to go buy a new scrapbook now to put all the pretty layouts I have been working on in!! Here are the layouts that I completed at the crop yesterday and one bonus from another crop that Heather and I attended a few weeks ago.

I am not sure why the top part of my post is all underlined!!! I can't get it to change so I am going to look like a dork right now with it all underlined! Hopefully I can figure out how to change it at some point!

Well I guess this is enough for now. I have a lot more to write about but have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the underlining thing!!! I will try my best not to be gone so long this time!

Scrap Pages

2008-02-26T20:39:00.000-05:00

Whoops!! I just noticed that I posted two of the same pages! Guess I like that page!!! LOL :)

Scrap Pages from Sat. Crop

2008-02-26T20:26:00.001-05:00

Here are some of the pages that I created for Scrapbook Bakery. These are pics from my sister-in-laws wedding last June. I was able to get some great pics of Kayla and wanted some pretty paper to use. I used Crate paper for these pages. To get all of the products used in these pages go to Heather's website at Scrapbookbakery.com!

Ramblings About My Girls!

2008-02-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

I have to say, I have an amazing little girl. Kayla is only 6 years old but has the heart and soul of a much older person. I call her my "little old soul". She is so into people and making them happy. She gets along with everyone, I don't think she has an enemy. At school Kayla is friends with everyone. Kayla loves everyone and cares so much for everyone. She asks almost on a daily basis about members of our family and is so concerned when someone is sick or hurt. Kayla even asks about my friends and every one of my friends is so into her. They always ask about her when I talk to them and when I meet up with them for lunches or dinners, Kayla is often invited! She can carry on an adult conversation with so many people it is funny. I will never forget the time we were out at my parents house and my brother was on the deck, Kayla followed him out there. He pops his head in the door and says "Oh my god, I'm having an adult conversation with Kayla right now!" So grown up and so truly interested in people.
Her memory is absolutely amazing! She can remember things that happened that were, to me, just petty things and she will talk to me and say "Remember when..." She amazes me! She has this thirst for knowledge that is unbelievable, she is like a sponge! As a teacher I watch as students develop over several years but watching her just astounds me!
Kayla is such a great big sister too. SHe is so willing to help me wheever I need it and she truly just LOVES her little sister. She can be found reading to Audrey almost daily and she is always giving hugs ad kisses to her. When I pick Kayla up from school, it's Audrey that gets the first hug and kiss, not mommy anymore! I am sooooo grateful that she loves her baby sister so much!
Can you tell I'm a very proud mom?! I don't know where she gets this all from!

I have had a lot of time to think lately, for some reason Audrey thinks it's fun to get up around 3:00ish every morning. It's amazing how quiet the house is and how much thinking you do when it's just you and a sweet little girl! Even though at times I complain about getting up during the night with her, I wouldn't change it for anything, especially since there will be no more babies in our house. The other night I was sitting with Audrey trying to get her to burp just listening to the sweet little sounds she was making. So sweet! Her little head was on my shoulder and her little arm was around my neck and she was doing what I call her "purring" in my ear!! How sweet she is! I am trying to absorb as many of these moments as I possibly can and save them up! I am getting so depressed about going back to work in two weeks and I am going to so miss my bonding time with her. I think we have done a great job of bonding over the last three months even though I was so concerned about this while I was in the hospital when I had her. I just realized the other day that I didn't get to even "meet" Audrey until 14 hours after she was born! I was worried about not seeing her in the hospital hardly at all while we were there for the week and not having that time to immediately form that bond. I was so worried about her knowing who I was and not being with me. My little "border baby" as she was called. I was so afraid we would never form that bond. I think we have been successful in forming this bond over the last three months between the early morning feedings and the time we spend together while Kayla is at school. I am going to miss this time so much! What I would do to be a stay at home mommy! I kick myself now for having debt to pay!!

Many of my friends ask how I have been feeling and most days I am feeling 100%! The last two days I have been really concerned because I have been having chest pains again. I wonder if this is something that I am going to struggle with for the rest of my life? I woke up this morning scared because it was hurting so bad and it has hurt on and off all day. What happens when I go back to work and am feeling way more stressed out than I am now? Then what happens? I know that congestive heart failure is something that you have to deal with and constantly monitor. It is really scary. I finally got back on the treadmill last week and was so scared to do so. I made sure Tom was home in case something happened. Isn't that sad that I am afraid to get on the treadmill? I was always looking for an excuse not to get on it before I had Audrey, now I want to and am so scared!! I try not to think about the whole heart failure thing but I find myself thinking about it every day. I wonder if it will ever be something that I don't constantly think about? I know that every day I think about it though makes me that much more grateful that I have another day here with my girls and my family.

Okay, on to something more bright!! I was so excited to go scrapbooking this Saturday with Heather, Missy, and Shane! I feel like I got so much accomplished!! I was so upset at how quickly the time went by! It always does when I am on a roll for some reason!! I am soo excited to have my layouts posted on Scrapbook Bakery's site! I am going t take some pics and put them on here though, just because I am so excited about my pages! :) I am looking forward to having another girl's day out so I can get much more done!

Well, I have rambled on quite a bit! It is time to go and make dinner! I am going to try to get layouts posted either tonight or tomorrow morning!

Some of my work!

2008-02-19T13:15:00.000-05:00

I am going to attempt to add some images of some things that I have done for my home. In Kayla's room I created four canvas pages for her walls. These were fun to do and I ended up making several for my sister's girls as well.

Not all of my pictures are straight! I need to work on taking still pictures!! :)

When we found out that we were going to have a new addition, Kayla was going to have to be the big girl and move upstairs. To help get her excited, we had her pick out the colors for her room and do some art work to be added to her new room. She decided that she wanted to do some canvas work of her own! I took her to Michael's and Hobby Lobby and let her pick out her products. It was a very long trip because anyone that knows her knows what a perfectionist she is! These are the designs she came up with!

We had a really good time working on these! She was very proud when she was finished and anyone that came into the house had to go upstairs to see her canvas art! We hung them in her room right as you come in the doorway.

Okay, enough for now. I'm excited I got some pics up! I need to work on taking pics of our art!!

First Try

2008-02-18T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I am going to try this and see how well I can keep up with it! I'm sure I will be fine at first but since I will be going back to work in three weeks I may not have so much time!

Audrey and Kayla are getting so big. I think that Audrey is going through a growth spurt right now. She spends a lot of time trying to sleep but not always successfully! We noticed yesterday that she is almost too long for her one piece 0-3 month outfits! It's really pretty sad!

Kayla went to her first sleepover last night! We went across the street to watch the Nascar race and have some cocktails while the kids played. Before we knew it, it was midnight and Megan was asking if Kayla could spend the night. I ws shocked that Kayla actually wanted to stay! She did an awesome job! In fact its 4:45 right now and she is still over there playing! My big girl is growing up so fast!!

I was hoping to get some scrapbooking done today but so far that hasn't happened! Every time I put Audrey down she starts fussing and I can't get anything done. I decided to try this real quick while she was snoozing but she is already making noise after 15 minutes on here!!! I was hoping to try to figure out how to get pics and other images on here today, maybe later!