My kids have had the last couple days off of school for state wide teacher conferences. Paul was home the first part of the week because all of his loads had been falling through. He was first supposed to leave on Monday afternoon, but thankfully that got changed because he was still working on his truck. Then he was supposed to take a load out to Pennsylvania and load it on a ship going across the ocean. He was really looking forward to it. He had just talked about how he had taken loads over there that were supposed to be loaded on a boat had never gotten all the way there before. Unfortunately the boat never came in, so that was another load that fell through. He finally left on Wed afternoon just as the kids were getting home for a couple days. So Kailee and I really had a different week than we normally do with just the two of us.

Thursday the kids and I headed over to my grandparents' house for them to play with my cousin's little boy who is only 6 months older than Hunter (He's the baby in the layout below). It also meant I got to see my cousin's baby girl, too. :) She is such a cutie. I think I spent most of the afternoon holding her. ;) Kailee was pretty taken by her, too. When we got there, she was sleeping on the living room floor. Kailee tried to cover her with her blanket. As soon as she started to cry, Kailee grabbed a hold of my shirt and pulled me over to her to pick her up. I thought Kailee would get jealous of my holding the baby instead of her, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Tonight the kids and I are headed to the zoo for the Zoo Boo with my sister.

With everyone around this week I only managed to get two pages done. As I mentioned earlier this is my cousins' little boy who is a little older than Hunter. I used Graham Like the Cracker & Bella Gypsy's Love that Boy kit. Mark one more page off the list for my grandparents' photobook. Woohoo!

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These pictures of Kailee are from when she stayed at my parents' this summer. I used Erica Zane & Denise Beatty Original's Eat Your Veggies kit and Erica's new EZ Date Bits V. 1.

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Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Michaella had her first ever volleyball game yesterday. She did so good! She is really loving it and wants to go out for JO Volleyball this spring, but Paul and I have been undecided of whether or not we would let her go out for it. We were worried that she wouldn't put much effort into it. With as much of a time commitment we would have to put into it, we wanted to be sure that it was something that she would actually do. After watching her yesterday I think she would do very well in it and am leaning toward letting her.

Another new venture we have decided to take up this year is 4-H. Paul decided that it would be easier to have both kids in the same club instead of one (eventually two) in girl scouts and one in boy scouts. This way we only have one meeting to attend. So last Sunday the kids and I went to our first 4-H meeting. It was combined with another local club. The kids played softball and then we had a potluck dinner. The kids had a really great time and are looking forward to all the different things they will get to do throughout the year. Michaella is especially looking forward to the fair. She wants me to teach her how to bake. Paul said that this first year she won't be doing any animal, so she was a little disappointed about that.

Apparently my scrapping mojo still hasn't quite come all the way back yet because I only did 4 pages in the last 2 weeks. :(

First up is this page of Hunter from Oct. 2005. I used Jady Day Studios' Harvest Happiness kit. He looks so small in these pictures. My how time has flown by.

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I'm loving this new Autumn Falling kit by Stolen Moments and Kristin Aagard. I also used Stolen Moments Scraps by Number: Just Call Me Jordan templates.

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geniaBeana also has this hauntingly beautiful kit, Haunted, out this week. This is the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. I love how different it looks from the one in Disney World. I think I like this exterior better of the two.

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Yes, I'm another page closer to finishing my grandparents' anniversary photobook. :) This page is of my parents' wedding. My mom threatened me that I was not allowed to put their wedding picture in the book. So I didn't...I just used snapshots. lol. She didn't tell me I couldn't use those. ;) The colors of LDrag & JennCK's Love is kit matched the colors of their wedding so perfectly, I just had to use it to scrap this page. I also used Stolen Moments Scraps by Number: Just Call Me Andrea templates.

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Well that is it for now. Until next time...

Happy Scrapping!

I'm so glad it finally stopped raining this week. Last Friday morning I woke up to a phone call from the school at 6:20 am saying that even though there would be some transportation issues with the roads east of town being closed due to flooding school would still be on time. Didn't think much of it because as long as we have lived here (over 11 years) our road has never been closed because of flooding. So I laid back down until my alarm went of 25 minutes later. I had to substitute at the school that day, so I had to get up earlier than normal to get myself and everyone else ready. Just out of curiousity I decided to look out my bedroom window and what I seen was quite the surprise. The field across the road was full of water. It's not unusual to see a lot of water in that field in the spring when the snow thaws, but this was a lot more than normal. These pictures were taken around 3:30 in the afternoon, so the water had gone back down a bit by then, but this will give you some what of an idea.





So I watched several cars drive up to the corner and turn around. That is when I realized that the road was closed. At that point I didn't know how I was going to get into town. Our road was the highest one I could think of that was close. When my grandparents came to pick up Kailee, (they were watching her for me that day) they confirmed that the road was closed. So I decided to call the bus garage to let them know the kids weren't riding since I didn't know if the bus would be on time or not. I also asked right away which roads were open and found out I had to go all the way around to interstate to get into town. It was the only road open to get into the town from the east. So my normal 8 minute drive turned into closer to 25 minutes.

After school I did what any good scrapper would do and went and got pictures. They are not quite as impressive as they would have been if I could have gotten them first thing in the morning, but there was still quite a bit of water there. On the other side of all the trees in the picture is our city park. It was under 5 to 6 feet of water.



Check out this layout using Happy Scrap Girl's new Serenity kit. The pictures are from our vacation to Yellowstone National Park in 2008. I'm slowly working my way on getting the photobook done. I have a long way to go though. I have about 30 done and only 70 more to go. I did get a couple more pages done for my grandparents' anniversary photobook, too, this past week you can check them out in my gallery. I'm so close to finishing it. I need to have it done and printed in time for Christmas. My cousin had her baby on our anniversary, so now I just need to get pictures of her and there shouldn't be anything else from stopping me getting it done. :)



How great is this? A free kit from the awesome designers at ScrapMatters! Check out the add below or the sidebar for details. Hurry and get signed up for both before Oct. 8 because you don't want to miss this.

September has been another busy month around our house. (Actually what month isn't busy. lol.) The kids are getting into the school routine and Kailee and I are getting used to it, too. Michaella's activities are in full swing. This year besides dance Michaella has decided to give volleyball a try. She did it for a week this summer and really enjoyed it so when the opportunity came this fall for her to do it again she jumped at the chance. So two days a week afterschool she has practice. One day it's just the fifth graders and the other day the sixth graders join them. They are going to have 2 games against a neighboring town. Michaella is pretty excited about it. She is also in dance again this year. This too is with the sixth graders, though, their dance teacher is talking about splitting them up again since the class is so large. She seems to be enjoying dance much more this year, also. When volleyball is done for Michaella we have a couple weeks before Hunter starts basketball practice. All of this makes for never a dull moment around here.

Last Friday was my anniversary. We decided to take the kids to a large county fair about an hour from here on Saturday. It was so cold and wet. Definitely not the greatest fair going weather. We got there around 1:30 and headed straight for the commercial buildings to get out of the rain. Apparently everyone had the same idea because those buildings were packed. Thankfully the rain finally quit by the time we were finishing up the last building. The temperature didn't get much warmer, but at least we weren't getting wet while we walked around the rest of it. For Christmas last year Paul got a gift certificate for a hotel about 20 minutes from the fair, so we decided that it would be a great time to use that, too. We got a 2 bedroom suite and it was so nice. The kids even got some time in the pool when we got to the hotel that night. I really liked that the kids had their own room, so they could go to sleep but Paul and I could still stay up for a while.

My scrapping mojo apparently is still on vacation. I so wish it would hurry up and come back. I sure miss it. I did manage to get a couple layouts done the last couple weeks though.


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Andilynn Designs has a great freebie up on her blog today that coordinates with Forget-Me-Not.



You can download it here.

Summer officially ended for my kids 2 weeks ago. If felt so strange sending them back to school in August. But I'm really looking forward to them getting out of school in May instead of June. So far school has been going great for both of them and they both like their teachers. I can't believe this is Michaella's last year in elementary and next year I'll have a middle schooler. AHHH!!! :O lol. Kailee and I have already gotten settled back into our routine. I think that is one of the things I look forward to the most about school starting. Finally getting some what of a normal routine back, especially this year. The entire month of August was kind of crazy around here. I only had one or two of the kids at home at a time the entire month.

My scrapping mojo decided to take a vacation in August without me. I hardly scrapped a single page the entire month. :( The last few days though it has started showing signs that it might have finally returned. I have made more pages this last week than I did the entire month of August. :)

Andilynn Designs has another beautiful kit in the store today called Rosalie. The colors in this kit are so pretty! There is also coordinating wordart and clusters, too. Here is a page I made using the kit. The pictures are from our trip to Walt Disney World in 2005. We met Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, so the kids were dresssed up in their costumes. Andilynn has also made a Quick Page Freebie for you using Rosalie. You can grab it here.



I have officially started my term on the ScrapMatter's Creative Team. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that didn't I. :) In August they had a short CT call and I made it as a permanent member now! I'm so excited to be a member of such an awesome team.

I had a chance to work with Haynay Designs fun new My Magical Place Bundle and Erica Zane's great new Wave the Date. I used them to scrap our pictures from Chef Mickey's.



ScrapMatters is also looking for some more people to join us ScrapMatters Girls! I ablsolutely love being a ScrapMatters Girl. We have such a great time. I can't wait to see who is going to be joining us. You still have a week to get your applications in if you have applied yet. So what are you waiting for? Hurry and get your application in. :)



Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Check this out!

Scrap Matters is turning 3! Woohoo! Congrats Scrap Matters. You are going to want to head over there this weekend for all the great fun going on in the forum. There wil be games, chats, speed scraps and awesome prizes you won't want to miss. Don't forget to also check out the blog starting Saturday morning to hop on the blog train to pick up some fun additions for the kit you get free after spending $20 in the store. And what would a celebration be without a great sale. Starting today all personal use items are 30% off (sweet deals not included) & commerical use is 20% off.

Here is the schedule of all the fun.



And if that weren't exciting enough geniaBeana is also making her Scrap Matters debut today. She is one of the August guest designers.



What an awesome way to start this last month of summer!