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

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

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!!!

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....

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

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

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!

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!