On the 10th Day of Christmas...

Can you believe it?! Only 3 more days until Christmas! Do you have all you shopping down? I don't yet. I still have a couple more to get. One for my youngest and one for my parents. We are having the most trouble finding something to get for Kailee. We have quite a few toys left from the other two kids, so that doesn't leave a lot of options left for her. Plus since her birthday is the 26th we have to get her birthday present for her right away, too. I know what I'm getting for my parents it's just a matter of locating one that we like.

It's also starting to look a lot like Christmas here, too. We are expected to get about 8-12 inches or more of snow by Christmas. I'm all for a white Christmas, but...WOW, not quite that white! lol. Hopefully it doesn't get as windy as it's supposed to, also. Otherwise it will be a snowed-in Christmas. We are supposed to start with our Christmas parties on Wednesday after the kids get out of school. It's a good thing Paul is home already, so I don't have to worry about him making it home in time.

Speaking of Christmas, I got my Christmas present from Paul earlier. (or I should say it should be delivered today, as long as the weather holds out.) It's a Nikon D5000! I'm so excited to get it and start playing with it. He decided I could have it early so I could use it for Christmas pictures. I'm so spoiled. lol. Now I just have to start saving my money, so I can get a zoom lens for it.

Those of us on Trixie Scraps CT have gotten together with her and have made a bunch of little gifts for you for the 12 Days of Christmas. If you missed the first 9 days go to Tracy's blog to get the stops. So on to day 10-A bonus alpha for Trixie Scraps Snow Day kit. If you are looking for the full kit to go with it you can find it at Scrap Matters.


Download here

Hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to check Tracy's blog tomorrow and Wed for the last 2 days.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A weekend full of FUN and a freebie!

Who is ready to party?! I know I am. Tomorrow is Digital Scrapbook Day (DSD) and Scrap Matters is having all kinds of fun things going on over there in the forum, plus an awesome sale in the shop. Come on over and check it out. My kids are headed over my to parents' today and are staying there until my cousin's little boy's birthday party tomorrow night, which means I will have the entire house to myself to scrap, scrap and scrap. Yea!

I forgot to mention my awesome news-I'm a Scrap Matter Girl! Woohoo! I'm so excited to join the team. We are kinda of like the "welcome wagon" to the site. So far I have been having a great time. I feel so behind on everything the last couple weeks.

I have finally gotten back to subbing. I hadn't subbed since last October. I spent all last week teaching preschoolers. Wow, I forgot how much energy that takes. By the time I got home from school the first couple days I was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling well on Saturday and by Sunday night I was miserable. I had to call in on Monday and say I couldn't come in. Thankfully my inlaws still watched Kailee for me, so I pretty much slept all day and by about 3 I was feeling much better. I finally felt good enough to sub again yesterday. Man have I missed this. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being in the classroom. It's been great getting to stay home with Kailee but I'm also glad to be back to it.

Now on to some fun stuff. :)

Trixie Scraps has been on a creative roll this week. Check out all the awesome products she has in the store just in time for DSD. First up is this really great grab bag.

This first layout I used the contents of the grab bag along with her template pack she released last week.

This layout is made with the contents of the bag.

If you want to see all the goodies you get in the bag check out her facebook page and become a fan. Not only will get you get to see the contents of the grab bag, but she is also offering an awesome freebie that goes with her other new kit for all her fans. So don't forget to become a fan before Sunday, so you receive it.

"Girls Day Out!" is also being released this week. Shopping, lunching, manicures,a day at the spa - if it’s a day out with the girls, this is the kit you need to scrap the memory with! Perfect for photos of your gal pals, best friends, sisters and more, too! Grab it this weekend while it is on sale. While you are there don't forget to grab the glitter styles to go with it. If you go to the forums at Scrap Matters and participate in the posting challenge there is another freebie addon!

And as promised I have a little freebie for you today, too! This is the third set of zoo wordart.

You can download it here or here.

So have you all checked out the new stuff at Scrap Matters yet today? Both Andilynn Designs and Trixie Scraps had new products. Cute Lil' Punkin by Trixie Scraps is the perfect kit to use when scrapping visits to the pumpkin patch or any other fall or Halloween type pictures. The best part is it's on sale for only $4.00 today and tomorrow. What a deal!


I used it to scrap this picture of Michaella dancing with Minnie Mouse at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party a few years ago. I love the way it turned out.

Andilynn Designs released a 2010 Quick Page Calendar. It's 8 1/2" x 11". It would make the perfect Christmas gift to give to anyone on your gift list. Grab it this week while it's only $8.95.

Ok, as promised here is the next set of zoo wordart for you.

Download it here or here.

Happy Scrapping,

Amanda

A Sneak Peek and a freebie

Can you believe its already October? I know I can't! This year has sure flown by. You can definitely tell it's not summer here anymore, too. The weather has turned cold and rainy. Yesterday was the first time in about a week that it didn't rain. The sun was out and it was actually a very nice autumn day. As soon as the kids got home and Michaella was finished with her homework, I sent them outside to enjoy the nice weather before it turns cold again this weekend. They found a salamander in my garden pond and were so excited.

I was so hoping this was going to be a nice weekend so we could take the kids to the pumpkin patch and get our pumpkins to carve. If we do go, the kids will definitely have to wear their winter coats. (which don't exactly go with autumn colors. ;) ) This has become a tradition for us. Every year we go to the Pumpkin Festival at the apple orchard and pick out a few pumpkins. Then the kids each get to pick out a pattern to carve in them and we spend the afternoon carving them. The kids have such a good time doing it and look forward to it every year.

And look at this little sneak peek from Trixie Scraps...

Doesn't it look like a great kit to use with those pumpkin patch pictures? Can't wait for you all to see how awesome this kit is! So check out Scrap Matters in the morning to see it revealed.

I thought this summer was busy...this fall sure feels just as busy if not busier, especially this week. I'm glad next week is a short week because we'll need it to catch our breath. Though I don't know if it'll be any slower. lol. Michaella has dance and a Girl Scout sleepover on Friday. The firemen are also having their annual Fireman's Movie. This year it's G-Force. The kids have been asking to go to that since before it came out, so we will definitely have to make time to go to it.

Well it's been a while since I've given you all a freebie, so I thought I would come up with a little something again. My parents gave us a membership to the local zoo for Christmas, so we made it quite a few times this summer. I'm always on the look out for zoo stuff, so I thought what better thing to make for you is some word art that is zoo themed. Well I might have gotten a bit carried away with it, which is a good thing for you. I couldn't stop with just this pack once I got started. I ended up making 3! Plus a pack of frames!!!

Download here or here

Well that is all for today. Remember to keep checking back in the next week or so, as I will be posting the the rest of them when I get a chance. :) Enjoy!

New Daily Download

Woohoo! It's time for another Daily Download at Scrap Matters! Trixie Scraps has teamed up with Plum Dumpling Designs, Pressed Petal Designs, Haynay Designs & WM Squared Designs to bring you this awesome new kit.

Click here to start collecting.

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ScrapMatters has kicked off a *NEW* weekly feature -- MANIC MONDAYS!!! Don't miss out on your chance to get products at extra reduced prices.... Sales will last for one day ONLY.... Make Monday your FUN DAY!!!!! Check the ScrapMatters Shop for more details!! *Manic Monday sales go into the shop early Monday morning and will "disappear" around midnight! So don't wait!!!
This week, Trixie Scraps has decided to put her kit For the Girls, on sale for 50% off - it's just $2.50, today only!! Click on the preview below to hop on over to Scrap Matters to scoop it up.

Did you know that she has several coordinating products for this kit, as well? While they aren't on sale, they would be a great compliment to your purchase if you decide to snag the full kit! They include glitter styles, quickpages, and a scallop-edge brag book .

Andilynn also has her Hot August Nights kit on sale for 50% off, making it only $2.75!!

While you are there checking out these awesome kits make sure to see what some of the other designers have on sale, also. There are some really great buys to be had today.

My exciting new!

Well I can now officially announce that I'm a Scrap Star!!! Woohoo! I'm one of the new members of Trixie Scraps CT. You can check out her awesome products at Scrap Matters. I'm so excited to work with her and all the other lovely ladies on the CT.

Here is a page I created using her It'a a Slumber Party kit. It was so much fun to work with. There are so many fun slumber party elements in there. It also has a lot of other elements in it to make it great to use on pages other than sleeping or slumber parties, too.

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I also got to work with her new You're a Star kit. It's full of glitz and glam and so much fun to use. Perfect for the little diva in your life. :)

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Don't forget to get her August Grab Bag because tomorrow it is getting broken up. It is full of some great items and is a great deal at only $4.oo.

Happy Scrapping!

I finally have all my little munchkins home with me. After Michaella got home from being in the truck, she and Hunter switched places. Michaella went to Paul’s mom and dad’s from Sunday to Sunday and Hunter went in the truck with Paul. Hunter ended up being in the truck with Paul for 2 weeks. They were all over with the truck (PA, VA, CO, MI and everywhere in between). So I ended up only having one kid home for 2 weeks. The second week Hunter was gone I had Michaella at home, too. It was nice to have some time with just one or two of them, but I’m glad to have them all home with me again. As the saying goes, “They drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.” I think they are happy to be home, too, though they both had a great time being away.
Only 3 ½ weeks left before the older two start school again for the year. The girls and I did the school shopping last week. Still have to get them both gym shoes and some new clothes, but other than that they are ready for school to start. We got the school letter in the mail on Saturday with who their teachers are. Now they are both wondering who will be in their classes. Hopefully they both have at least one of their friends in the same class again this year. I can’t believe Michaella is going to be in fourth grade already this year. Two more years and she will be in junior high already. Ahhh, where has the time gone.
Kailee has grown so much in the past month, too. Her top two teeth finally broke the surface last week. Not only did they come in but she got another one on the bottom at the same time. I think the one on the bottom is working its way through, too. She has also started crawling on all fours now. She started getting around by doing a combination of sitting up and rolling to get where she wanted, but it didn’t take her long to figure out the “army crawl”. On Monday, she finally started to move on all fours. She has also started to pull herself up against anything she can. Boy does she get herself in trouble now. It’s amazing how fast she is and how far her little arms reach when she wants something. LOL. We are also one step closer to getting her moved up to Michaella’s room. My dad got the new window installed up there this week. Now we just have to clean it up a bit and rearrange the room.
I had to take Hunter to the dentist again on Wednesday. Apparently his mouth isn’t quite big enough for his permanent teeth. So he had to have two of his bottom baby teeth pulled to make room for his one permanent tooth that is coming in. He will probably have to have the same thing done with the other side because that one is coming in way behind the baby teeth, too. He was pretty excited to finally teeth because that meant the tooth fairy was going to come and he would get money. He thought that since they had gotten pulled he should get a million dollars, though. The tooth fairy on the other hand thought that was a bit steep. LOL. He got the going rate, instead.
Did you get a chance to check out Scrap Matters’ Birthday Celebration last weekend? I managed to get a few of the festivities, but not near as much as I had hoped. Since Paul was home we got a few things around the house done and took the kids to the zoo on Saturday. I did manage to do quite a bit of shopping at the sale, though. Andilynn Designs released an adorable set of page kits called Love You Forever Emma & Love You Forever Ethan. You can get them separately or as a set. They work great for baby pages to wedding pages to everything in between. I did a couple pages with Love You Forever Emma. Go check them out at Scrap Matters if you haven’t seen them yet.

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I also have some very exciting news, but I need to wait until it's announced before posting here. So check back later to find out what it is. :)

Happy Scrapping,

Amanda

3 post in one week!

Oh my, this is my third post in one week. Can you believe it? hehe. :)

Andilynn has a couple new alphas in her shop. :) They are so versitale. I did a couple of Disney layout with them. The first one uses the Simply Stamped Alpha-Red. The pictures are from 2005 when we went to Disney World. It was a complete surprise for the kids. During our 24 hour drive we dropped several hints where we were going, but they didn't catch on. We thought for sure they would figure it out once we were on International Dr., but even with all the Disney signs and ads they still were clueless. As we pulled on to property and Michaella seen the big arch with the Disney characters on either side, she finally figured it out. It was so funny. :)

This one uses the Simply Stamped Alpha-Charcoal. When we went to Disneyland, we decided to see Mickey in Toontown. I had never seen him in the Steamboat Willie outfit before.

Hunter ended up leaving me this week, too. So I only had Kailee at home this week. Hunter had his last Kinderball game on Wednesday and Paul's mom, grandma & aunt showed up to watch him. After the game, Paul's mom asked if he wanted to go home with her for a couple days. Of course, he jumped at the chance to spend a few days with grandpa and grandma. :) It has definitely been different having only one of the kids home this week. I feel more tired this week, than when I have all three of them here. Since the other 2 aren't around to help entertain Kailee, she has to have me in her sights all the time. It makes it a bit hard to get everything done and take care of her that way. :) The kids have been having a good time, though, so that is what matters. Well she is taking a bit of a catnap right now I better keep going with the rest of my work.

Happy Scrapping!

Amanda

Free Sisters Wordart

Well Friday night was a lot of fun. It was nice to be able to watch the movie without one of the kids needing something or asking what is going to happen next. Kailee slept off and on through both movies. I have to say, though, that Paul and I were slightly disappointed by Harry Potter. :( Since there is so much to cover in this book a lot of things were cut and it didn't follow the book near as well as the last 5 have. We will still buy the DVD when it comes out, though. ;) 17 Again was a pretty good movie. It was quite funny.

The kids had a great time at the lake this weekend. By the time their grandma brought them home yesterday, they were absolutely beat. Hunter actually slept in this morning. They only got to go swimming on Saturday since the weather was a bit chilly this weekend. They both went tubing behind the boat and had a great time. Michaella even went fishing. They also spent time with a few cousins they don't get to see that often. Neither of them can wait to go again next year.

I'm down to just 2 kids this week. Michaella decided to go with Paul in the truck this week. Hunter stayed home, since he has his final Kinderball game tomorrow. The plan is to have him go with Paul next week. The kids really enjoy riding in the truck with Paul. This is the first time the two older ones have been apart from each other for more than a day. It'll be interesting to see how this goes. They have been each other's closest friend since the day we brought Hunter home from the hospital. When Michaella first started going to school, Hunter was lost without her here to play with.

Now time for some goodies. :) I have been meaning to make a wordart pack of sister quotes since I made this page of my girls for a Speed Scrap at Scrap Matters.

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Well I have finally gotten it finished. :) And you get the reward! Woohoo! Each wordart is in both black and white. The links to download it are below the preview. Enjoy! :)

*Links expired*

Happy Scrapping,
Amanda

Christmas in July

Scrap Matters is having a SALE!!! Woohoo! :) Until Monday you can get 25% off all Christmas and Winter themed items. To celebrate the sale a bunch of the designers at Scrap Matters have released new Christmas kits and other Christmas themed items. Andilynn Designs has 2 new releases-Be Merry kit and Traditonal Christmas Word art. Here is a layout I did using the Be Merry kit.

I'm so excited, Paul and I are going to the drive-in tonight to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (and 17 Again)! I have wanted to see a Harry Potter movie there since it reopened a few years ago and they have finally gotten one. We are having sort of a date night. The 2 oldest are with the grandparents for the weekend, so we still have Kailee with us.

Well I better get her fed, so we can head over to the drive-in to wait in line to get in. The line has been really long the last few night. ;)

Long time, no post

Yikes, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I have last posted. :O Things have been pretty busy around here the last couple months with school getting out and all the kids' summer activities. But they are finally starting to wind down and I'm getting a little bit more time to get around to doing other things again. How is it that summer's are so much busier than during the school year it seems. This post might be a little long, so please bear with me. ;)

Anyway since I last posted we have gone camping, had bible school, gymnastics, swimming lessons and kinderball. (plus a few other things thrown in there)

Memorial Day weekend we took the camper out for the first (and probably only) time this year. Kailee did great. It was also Hunter's birthday that weekend, so we had his birthday party out at the campground. We had tried to do it last year, too, but unfortunately it got rained out. This year the weather was perfect for it. We also took the kids to the zoo. My parents' got us a membership for the zoo for Christmas. The kids had a great time, even Kailee. She got so excited when she seen the penguins. Paul thought she was going to jump right out of his arms. Her little legs and arms were just swinging all over.

The kids each got to pick one activity besides swimming lessons that they wanted to do this summer. Michaella chose gymnastics, just like she does every year. :) Hunter decided to try Kinderball, which is basically t-ball but the first week they played kickball just to get them used to running the bases and stuff. He's not quite sure yet if he likes it completely or not. He has definitely improved since the first week. Here's a picture of my little leaguer.

Michaella has been doing gymnastics since she three. We have it available for 2 weeks in the summer and 2 weeks in the fall. She absolutely loves it and is always asking when it starts again. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera this year. One of her closest friends' mom took a picture of the group, so hopefully I can get a copy of it from here.

They also had swimming lessons. Hunter passed, but Michaella did not. She was very close to passing it though. This was her first time at this level, so she did a great job. They didn't get to work on everything she needed to pass the level because there weren't enough kids signed up for levels 3 & 4 so they were put together.

This weekend Paul's extended family is headed to the lake. Every year they rent the group cabins at the state park and go for the weekend. Michaella and Hunter are so excited about getting to go again. They have such a fun time playing with all the other kids. They are going for the entire weekend with Paul's parents. Kailee and I will probably head up there on Saturday for the day. We'll have to see if Paul makes it home this weekend to go with us. He should be since he wasn't home last weekend.

Not only has my life been busy with all the kids' stuff this summer, I've had a few scrapping things going on, also. In May I participated in the Queen of Scrap competition at Scrap Matters. I managed to get just over 60 pages done for the month! :O I have never done that many pages in one month before. I unfortunately didn't make it into the top 10, but was quite impressed with the amount I completed. The ladies that did make it into the top 10 did a great job. Unfortunately it also kinda burnt me out for the month of June, too. :( I didn't get many pages done for that month. I finally seem to be coming out of my creative slump this week.

I also joined Andilynn Designs Creative Team. Woohoo! :) You can check out her store over at Scrap Matters. http://www.scrapmatters.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=25 It's been so much fun to work with her stuff.

I also decided throw my hat in for the Creative Team contest over at Scrap Orchard. I got all the way to round 3, but was eliminated for the last round. There were quite a few very creative ladies competing and I was quite happy to have gotten as far as I did. Congrats go out to all the lovely ladies that made it all the way through! You all did an awesome job on your creations.

I hosted my first challenge over at the DIS Boards a couple weeks ago. Thanks to everyone who participated. I loved all the pages. For those of you that missed the challenge keep an eye on my blog because I may be offering the Mickey heads for a short time here on my blog later on. I'm also working on another participation prize so when I get that done I'll be hosting another challenge. :) If you haven't yet checked them out, head over to the DIS boards. Every Wednesday a new Disney Digiscrap challenge is posted.

I have also been slowly working on a new kit when I get a little bit of time between everything. (and when Kailee decided to take a bit of a nap. ;) ) I'm not sure when I'll get it finished but when I do I'll post it here. :)

Well anyway I better get to bed, since the kids will be up again in a few hours. :O Where does the time go in a day. It seems like I can never get to bed before 1:00 am lately.

Until next time (which hopefully won't be another 2 months), happy scrapping!

Amanda

Choo Choo! The train has entered the station

If you are here for the blog train, scroll down. :)

Well I'm having a great time doing layouts for the Queen of Scrap contest over at Scrap Matters. I've already done 30 pages, since the beginning of the month. I can't believe I've gotten that many done already.

On Saturday was the annual Children's Miracle Network fundraiser. This year they did "Dancing with the Stars." We found out on Tuesday that Michaella's dance team was one of the two that the teacher picked to dance at it. I went with her while Paul stayed with the 2 little ones. The theater was packed. They sold out of tickets over half an hour before it started and there were some people that had to stand because the seats were all filled. I was up in the balcony helping the dance teacher with the girl. They did a great job again. I'm so proud of Michaella and how far she has come this year with her dancing. We were just about ready to pull her out because she didn't seem to like it, but now she is doing an awesome job. :)

Kailee got her first two teeth of Friday. :O I'm so glad they are finally through. It has been a month long battle for her. :( I hope the rest of them come in easier for her because it has not been fun.

Anyway now on to the fun stuff. ;)

A few of us that didn't get to the last round of the Design Star Contest over at Scrap Matters decided we had so much fun designing that we came up with a blog train for all of you. As you can see from the preview there's a lot of great stuff in the kit. :)


Here is my part of the blog train.

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Next stop is Amanda.

Here is the full list of stops.
1. Carol - carolzeitz - http://carolzeitz.blogspot.com/

2. Jill - Jillyfish - http://chocolatekidsmommy.blogspot.com/

You are here-3. Amanda - dznyscrapper - http://mhkscraps.blogspot.com/

4. Amanda - apatchetear - http://greenboxcreations.blogspot.com/

5. Hillary - http://designsbyhillary.blogspot.com/

6. GeniaBenia - http://geniabeanascraps.blogspot.com/

7. Lovemy4kids - http://digitaldesignsbylisa.blogspot.com/

8. Dallasrobyn - http://digirobyn.blogspot.com/

9. merchi - http://merchimakesit.blogspot.com/

10. Jude - judet - http://judet95.blogspot.com/

11. Jen - http://wolfffpack6.blogspot.com/

Post NSD

I hope everyone had a fun and productive National Scrapbook Day on Saturday. :) I know I did. I managed to start or finish 14 paper pages at the scrapbook stores' crop and then came home and did the Speed Scrap at ScrapMatters. I also did both of them on Friday. I'll try and get them posted later on.
Not only did I have a productive day of scrapping. I also had a lot of fun shopping! :) I made good use off a bunch of the great sales this weekend. I'm going to be busy downloading for days, though. :O But I can't wait to play with all the fun stuff I got. Woohoo! :) That will definitely help me with the new contest going on at ScrapMatters-Queen of Scrap. It might be just the kick I need to get my grandparents' anniversary album started and finished.
Not only am I working on trying to get a bunch of layouts done this month, I'm working on making some goodies for all of you. :) Hopefully I can have some more freebies up for your soon.
Well it's just about time for another Speed Scrap, so I'm going to sign off for now.

Dance Results

What a weekend we had last week. :) On Friday night the in-laws came to help Paul put up the kids' new swingset. It was a bit more involved than Paul had first anticipated, so it's not quite done yet. They got the main frame work mostly put together, but that's about as far as it got. So right now it's sitting there in the middle of nowhere waiting to be finished. ;) The kids are chomping at the bit for it to be done, so they can play on it. Hopefully it won't be too much more of a wait for them.

Saturday we headed out around noon for Michaella's dance competition. Paul figured it would take about 4 hours to get there. Instead of taking interstate, he decided to take the "cut crosscountry" way. Well he missed the corner where our road turned and didn't realize it until about 30 miles later. :O Needless to say that the hour cushion that we had started with was completely eaten up and we got there right on time. Michaella was supposed to have all her bangs back and her hair curly for her routine. When we left the house, I had her hair done right and there was a fair amount of curls. By the time we got there, her bangs had come out of the ponytail holder and were standing straight up! :O It looked quite funny. Unfortunately she lost all the curls in her hair, too. No matter what I try on her hair it refuses to hold a curl for longer than about an hour. I tried to curl it a little bit when we got there but it wouldn't hold a curl anymore no matter how much hairspray I put in it. ;) The girls did a great job. Michaella said she wasn't nervous about all the people watching because the stage lights were so bright, she couldn't see anyone. ;) They ended up getting High Gold! They can go on to Nationals if they want to. I'm not sure if we will be able to go or not yet. We stayed and watched a couple of other groups dance, grabbed some supper and headed back home. We didn't get home until 12:45 am. :O It definitely made for a long day. The kids did great, but I wasn't too worried about them since they are used to much longer drives. ;) It was more Kailee that I was worried about on the drive. This was her first long distance ride in a vehicle. She did pretty good. There were a couple times we had to pull over to get her out, but other than that she was pretty content.

Here's a picture of the dance team in their end pose. There was one girl that didn't make it. Michaella definitely looks different without her bangs. (She told me the other day that is how she wants her hair now, too. So I guess we are going to work on growing out her bangs.) I was so proud of how well she did that night.


I decided to play around with my sister's prom pictures a little bit today. I had picked up a couple of tropical kits the other day and wanted to use them. I figured her prom pictures would be perfect for them. ;)

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This layout I did for a Roadmap to Scrap challenge over at ScrapMatters. I love how it turned out. I've been trying for so long to get a picture of her smiling. I get get her going and as soon as I take out the camera it disappears. I did manage to get it a little bit in these pictures, though, that is before she turned her head on me. ;)

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I participated in the Speed Scrap at ScrapMatters on Tuesday. I'm loving how the layout I did for it turned out. :) The kids are playing in the water area at A Bug's Land in California Adventure. By the time they were done they were quite wet, but they had a great time. :)

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This weekend it National Scrapbook Day! I'm so excited I finally get to work on some paper layouts again. I hope I didn't forget how. ;) I plan on trying to get in some digi scrapping, too. ScrapMatters is doing a ton! of Speed Scraps this weekend through Wednesday. They are also starting the Queen of Scrap contest. I decided to give it a whirl. ;) I'm sure I won't get near as many layouts done as last years winner did, but it should be fun.

Well this post got a bit longer than I had planned. :) I guess I should try and update more than once a week. Time for me to head to bed, so I have lots of energy for this weekend, so I can scrap, scrap, scrap. ;)

Catching up

Wow it's already been two weeks since I last posted. Things have been quite busy around here. The kids had a great time over Easter. The Easter bunny visited both here and at grandpa and grandma's, so Monday they had quite the sugar rush. Thankfully it was a nice day and I could send them outside to burn off some of that energy. :)
Last Saturday, I got to play photographer for my little sister's prom. It was the first time I took pictures for someone other than family. It was a very interesting experience. They had run out of time to set up a place for pictures, so when I got there I needed to find somewhere to take them. They didn't turn out too bad. I just have some editing to do on the background to tone it down a bit. Here's what my little sister's looks like when I finished editing it.

This weekend we are headed to a dance competition for Michaella. She is quite excited to be going. This will be her first year being able to participate. We are still trying to decide if we want to take the two little ones with us yet. It should be quite the experience. ;) All those excited girls in one place. :O She's excited she gets to wear make-up, too. Yikes! ;) I'm hoping we might be able to do a little shopping, too, beforehand. Can't go to the Twin Cities without a stop at the Mall of America, right? ;) Besides that I need my Disney fix from the Disney Store. And of course, since next weekend is National Scrapbook Day, I should really stop at Archivers and stock-up on some supplies to keep myself scrapping on Saturday. Kailee could also use some more clothes, too, since she is starting to outgrow the size she is in now. She's getting so big. I can't believe she will be 4 months on Sunday already. Time sure flies.

Anyway here are some layouts I've completed recently. Since Kailee was born I haven't been able to work with any of my paper pages, so I've been getting quite a few digital pages completed to keep up. That will change next weekend though. :) I'm getting to spend the entire day at the LSS store. Woohoo. I love going there for NSD. They always have great challenges and stuff. It fills up very fast every year, too. They started taking registrations for it on a Monday morning at 10 when they opened and when I called at 10:30 they were just about full already. I'm really looking forward to getting to work on some paper layouts again.

The first one I used my new Frog Princess kit. Click layouts for credits.

I participated in the last few Speed Scraps over at ScrapMatters and really like the way the layouts turned out.

This one is of Michaella and Hunter from when we went to Sea World San Diego in 2007. I'm slowly working on getting my California album done. I'm doing it in both paper and digital. It's still 3 volumes big though. :O What can I say I like to take a lot of pictures. ;)

Kailee really dislikes laying on the floor, so the other day when she was actually in a good mood I decided to quick take some pictures. I got some pretty good ones, but unfortunately I still had the laundry baskets and stuff on the couch behind her. :O So, with some creative editing I was able to get rid of the. The picture of the girls turned out really nice, but Michaella had on a neon orange and fuschia shirt. It was much easier to work with in black and white. ;)

Anyway I think that is about it for now. Hopefully the gallery is going again at ScrapMatter soon, so they don't have to cancel anymore Speed Scraps. They have one scheduled again for Tues. afternoon and Thur night. It sounds like May 1st-6th there are going to be 10! :O Woohoo! Can't wait. They have definitely helped me to think outside of the box for some of my layouts.

Until next time, keep scrapping. ;)

Frog Princess

One of the movies I'm most looking forward to coming out this year is Disney's new animated movie, The Princess and the Frog. Have you seen the trailer for it? It is so cute! You can view it on the movie's official website. I love that they are doing it in the old style animation like all the classic Disney movies. Even though technology has advanced so much since Walt did Snow White, there is just something about that type of animation that makes the movies great. Can't wait to hear all the great songs they come up with, too. :)
Well I decided what better inspiration than a Disney movie for a digital scrapping kit. ;) I teamed up with Project B Designs to create this great kit. It went into the store today! :) Check it out:

There are so many great items included in this kit. :)

You can pick it up here. Hurry and get it quick because it's on sale until next Friday.

Pictures Take 2

Well pictures went much better today than they did on Saturday. :) Still not great, but much better. We got 5 good ones out of her before she decided she had enough. Of course I couldn't pass any of the poses up because she is such cutie, so I ordered a 10 x 13 that the 4 that aren't part of the package are on so I could cut them up and scrap them or whatever. :) Can't wait to get them back on the 20th. We started out in her dress, tights and little dress shoes. After the first picture I took off the shoes hoping to make her happier. It worked for a few more. Then tried a bottle because she had started on it before pictures. She didn't seem to want that, so the tights came off. ;) Boy did she start cooing and smiling for me then. Unfortunately the photographer was on the phone and by the time she got off the cooing was done. :( At that point she had enough. While I was picking out what pictures to choose, my mom finished feeding her, which of course brought on the cooing and smiles again. She can be a little stinker in front of the camera, that's for sure. At home whenever I have her smiling and cooing and think I'm going to get a pic of it, she stops as soon as sees the camera. Hunter was the same way. I had to sneak a picture of him to get his smile. It only took me about 4 months. :O Hopefully it doesn't take quite that long this time. ;)

On Tuesday I got Hunter and Michaella their first baseball gloves. They are so excited. They can't wait until they can go outside and play ball. Now we just have to get the ball. ;) They have been playing with a whiffle ball and bat the last couple years, so we decided to finally get them a regular ball and bat. Michaella has gotten pretty good at hitting the ball. Though she likes to make a line drive straight for the pitcher. Paul has been hit a couple of times. ;) Hunter still needs a bit of help when it's his turn. I think this summer we are going to sign him up for Kinderball.

Well I should really get to bed now because morning is fast approaching and Kailee has been getting up around 5:30/6:00 the last week or so.

Well pictures didn't go quite as planned. Kailee wanted nothing to do with them. :( She cried about the entire time. It just wasn't a very good day to do pictures. Hunter didn't want to cooperate very well either. We managed to get 3 pictures of her looking at the camera. The first one Hunter had a wierd look on his face, so that one was out. The second one she was pretty much laying flat on her back, and you couldn't see her very well. The third was ok except her dress was sticking up in the back. So we ended up with the last one. It's a good thing the package was cheap. I think I'm going to try and get Kailee's picture done again on Thursday morning.
Yesterday we had my parents, brother, sister, her boyfriend and the foreign exchange student staying with them over for lunch. My brother is taking off next Monday for Montana for the next 2-3 years. He will be about 40 miles north of Yellowstone. He won't be able to come back home until September for our cousin's wedding. On Saturday we are getting together with the rest of the family for a going away party. It will definitely be different not to have him around here all the time.
On the design front, I have some exciting things come up. :) Stay tuned for more details. ;)

Well I didn't make it on to Round 4. :( I had a lot of fun and am happy I made it as far as I did. I definitely learnt a lot and plan to keep dabbling with designing. I've already started on another kit. I don't know when I will get it done though.
Kailee has finally started to sleep through the night this last week! Yeah! She usually goes from about 11 until 6:30. Now I just have to get myself to call it quits when I lay her down. I've been staying up late and getting some things done around the house that I haven't been able to get done during the day. Morning definitely comes quick then. :P
Going to try and get the kids' pictures taken tomorrow. I have the hardest time picking out what clothes to put on them when it comes to pictures. I'm getting Kailee's 3 month picture done and then all 3 of them together. The grandma's keep asking when they are going to get one. ;)
Speaking of pictures, Michaella had her dance pictures taken this week, too. The girls had trouble deciding on how they wanted to have their group picture taken. Cindy finally stepped in after about 10 minutes and set them up. You can definitely tell we are getting close to the teenage years with some of the looks they were giving. ;) Yikes, where has the time gone!
Well my kids seem to think I'm starving them so I better go get some dinner made.

The Art of Nature Add-on

Today is such a dreary day. :( Yesterday was so nice. The kids spent the majority of the day outside, and now today they are cooped up inside. Paul unloaded in Georgia yesterday, so it's just the kids and I. Good thing it's a free view on Starz this weekend and they are playing a bunch of good Disney movies. Definitely a good day to stay home and veg out. I'm also working on getting some challenge layouts done at ScrapMatters and trying to keep busy so I'm not obsessing about finding out if I made it to the next round or not. ;)

Well here it is. :) I finally finished the preview for "The Art of Nature Add-on".

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Enjoy! :)

Bright Sunshiny Day Elements

Wow, things have been pretty busy around here lately. I had planned on getting the paper pack addon posted sooner, but as you can see I didn't get that far. On Sunday we had Kailee's baptism. Everyone thought she looked so cute in her little dress. Monday night I had my beginners class at the LSS. Had a full class again. It has been quite awhile since I have had that many, so it was really nice. I was offered the Advance Cardmaking class since the other teacher quit, but had to turn it down. I can't make a card to save my life. ;) I have tried and tried to make cards, but I just can't seem to do it. This morning Michaella had to dance at the local Home Show. She did fairly well considering the person she lifts several times in the routine wasn't there. She is getting excited to go to competition for the first time the end of next month. Hopefully we can make a weekend away out of it. She also has her school program that Friday and is trying for a speaking part this year.

Most of my week was spent working on Round 3 of the Design Star competition at ScrapMatters. We were to make an element pack to go with last weeks paper pack. Well without further ado, here is what I came up with.

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I had a lot of fun coming up with these elements. :) I will find out sometime on Monday if I move on to Round 4. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Here is the Paper Pack Addon for Bright Sunshiny Day. Hope you enjoy it. :)

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I will try and get "The Art of Nature Addon" up soon. ;) I'm still working on the preview.

First Posting

First I would like to welcome you to my blog and thank you for stopping by. :) Wow, did I have a surprise earlier this week! I decided to try the Design Star Competition at ScrapMatters just for the heck of it. (http://www.scrapmatters.com/) We had to design a mini kit with 3 papers and 3 elements. The color palette they gave us was so awesome. It reminded me of our vacation to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks this summer.

If you want to grab my Art of Nature mini kit from round one you can find it here:

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I also have some more elements and papers for this that I will try to upload later.

When I uploaded my kit and posted it, I figured that I would probably not make it past the first round. I had dabbled around a bit with designing scrap products, but nothing too serious. Well when I logged into the message board on Monday morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading. There on the list of participants moving on was my name!!!:O Talk about making a person do a double take. ;) Anyway our assignment for round 2 was to design a paper pack with 3 solids and 5 patterns. My inspiration for mine came while I was trying to get my little munchkin to sleep. ;) Her sleeper was just the inspiration I needed for colors and theme. Here is the preview for my paper pack:

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Well I also came up with several other papers to go with it, too. I will work on getting them together and uploaded so you can pick them up, also. I had a lot of fun designing these 2 items. Even if I don't move on to round 3 I learned a lot.

Enjoy!

Well my little munckin decided her nap has been long enough, so I better go get here.