Post Christmas post

Did you all have a great christmas? We had a splendid christmas here. This year was VERY much focused on family time and the Real Reason for the Season - Jesus Christ! There are very few new toys taking up space on my living room floor - which is kind of nice! The girls loved the gifts that they got - which is always a bonus! Braelyn got a pink Sansa Fuze (and let's be honest - I am sure I will be using it as much as her!), Selah got a Hannah Montana music player thing, and Gracyn got a tub toy. The Sansa Fuze is a great thing for kids - quite a bit cheaper than the Ipod's (depending on which one you get), and it has FM radio which is kind of nice! We are VERY happy with it so far! We also got all three girls an art easel and they have been loving it! Braelyn has been REALLY into drawing and coloring and art, so I knew she would love it, but the other two girls have been just as into it!

Christmas Eve was the party at my parents - didn't take my camera, so I am hoping I will get pics from my sisters that did! We had a great night hanging out - it was very low key. Christmas morning we opened presents with the girls (Kyle and I did not exchange gifts - I think we are calling our table our Christmas gift!), and then they opened their stocking from Santa. Santa got the girls candy, cute furry winter croc type shoes, art supplies for their new easel, and toothbrushes! After opening presents and getting ready we went to Kyle's parents for a great breakfast! It was so good and I was hungry by time we got there! We had some time to come home and relax before bringing the kids to my parents while we went to our traditional Christmas Day movie with Kyle's parents. We've done this for quite a few years. We saw the movie 7 Pounds - which I LOVED. I would recommend it - don't read too much about it or it will ruin it though - I loved that I went into it not knowing much about it! After the movie we picked the girls up and went to a chinese buffet restaurant (which I really only have to do once a year). It was a great Christmas in my books!

Today Kyle took the girls out to run some errands and he also had to work for a couple hours. I got to clean the whole house and take down all my Christmas stuff. I normally wait until January 1 to take down all my Christmas decorations, but I was kind of bored and I wanted the space back in my living room. There is nothing better then putting all that stuff away and vacuuming so good and cleaning things up again! Braelyn just got over a little cold and now Selah has gotten it in full force, so after dinner I hung out with her and Gracyn watching Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer while Kyle and Braelyn headed off to Sam's club! I just got those two girls in bed and am enjoying some quiet time! The best thing is - Kyle is going to bring home a Steak -N- Shake Christmas shake for us to enjoy tonight! I've been working out like mad lately so I feel like I deserve it! :)

I have probably bored you out of your mind by now, so I'll leave you with a few photos and call it a night! I can't believe it's only Fri. night - two more nights of weekend - Wooohoooo!!!!

Slipping and a Sliding

So I am sitting here and again I am watching the 5th person get pulled out of the ditch behind our house. For those of you that live here in my town - you know Adam's St. between 96th and Drenthe. Apparently it is VERY slippery right by 76th (our back road). I truly do feel bad for each and everyone of them, b/c I know it must suck making the call to your spouse to come help you out. Today I caught the whole thing as a Tahoe spun around and threw powdery snow all over the place. Yikes. (Edited to add: make that 6 now - and this one hit a road sign and the cop had to come out because of property damage - awe).

The snow here is just incredible. Yesterday Kyle had to take me and the girls to my mom's house and then I took her 4WD to work. My minivan would have never made it out of the cul-de-sac. My little 'ole mini van has been in the garage, not even started, since last Thur.! With the flu and Kyle being home a bit more we have been forced to use his truck to get around b/c of all the snow!

I have a few pics to share of our new dining room table!!! We finally found one we liked and that would match our house! I LOVE it! Then as I was taking pictures of it I remembered that I never took "final" pics of our kitchen and house. I took a few today of rooms that were halfway decent looking! :) Here is my new table! We are looking for a bench to put one side so that two side chairs can go on the ends and we can seat 6-8! The table also has TWO additional 18" leafs so it will get HUGE if we ever needed it to!

And here is my most favorite room in the house! ;) my half bath! I know I know - I'm crazy, but I love it even though we barely use it! I got this super cute lamp for Christmas from Kyle's mom!

This is the garage entry - and the door there to the laundry room. The locker system is almost exactly like our last house and I love having it!

A view of our pantry (which has a nice counter in it so I can hide some of the obnoxious stuff that I hate having on my counters!), and our little desk/mail area in the kitchen.

And a little different view of the living room, from the kitchen - with our new couch. This room was kind of a mess with a new kitchen set (that will NOT be staying there), and the extra christmas decorations that I am actually almost ready to take down to declutter again!

Here are a few new LO's I had been working on. All using The-Lilypad goodies!!!

Are you still here with me???!!! Kind of a long post - guess I am making up for lost time! OK - Merry Christmas everyone!

MandaKay

Oh, The weather outside is frightful...

and it's not much better inside. We had a frightful night last night. Around 12:30 I started to feel nauseaus and so I layed down for a bit. About an hour later I threw up. It continued until about 7:00 - out both ends. I had thought that hopefully it was just hitting me b/c I had gotten a flu shot while at the Dr. on Wed. I also started some new meds that had side effects similar to what I was feeling so I hopefull that no one else in the family would get it. Well, by 8:00 Kyle had started and shortly after I got the kiddos to bed (while I was still in a state of pure exhaustion), Selah threw up in bed and then Braelyn. I was back an forth from one room to the next all night long. I was also busy keeping the laundry going all night. Thank goodness that Kyle let me stay in my bed all day yesterday to prepare. Unfortunately he couldn't be much help at night b/c he was doing the same thing as the girls. The only one spared was sweet little one year old Gracyn - hopefully she doesn't get it either. So here we sit this morning hunkered down in the house today relaxing, disinfecting, cleaning, laundry - all that good stuff. Church was canceled due to the horrific weather out. Fri. morning we got a huge storm that canceled schools, and now this morning a huge storm that canceled churches. Ugh. I guess I am glad we are stayin in. We were supposed to have quite a busy morning at church too with me having to spotlight our new nursery committee/sign-up, and some stuff in our Fusion group. I felt bad last night that we weren't going to be able to make it, but now everything is canceled.

I haven't blogged in a while - guess maybe I am/was feeling burnt out on it. From the week before Thanksgiving until Mid Jan. it is just really busy - I know you all know what I mean. Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed with all there is to do. We are doing a VERY scaled back Christmas - there are 3 presents under the tree and that is all there will be - other than some stocking things. This year we spent more on supporting others than we did on our family and it feels good. I am thankful that we will be healthy hopefully on Christmas Eve and Christmas day! Our party on Sat. night got canceled (which is good b/c we were sick), due to one of my cousins little daughters' being ill and in the hospital, so that party I guess will get rescheduled.

Other than that its just been christmas pageants, shopping, and baking going on around here!

On the scrapping front - I did muster up a LO this week using SMJ's new kit: Rock Star - girl edition. And thankfully Janet Phillips templates saved me again - these things are a lifesaver when you are low on inspiration or time!

That's all I can muster up today gals - I think I will take another nap today - Kyle's doing it now, so I'd say it's my turn next! :) Hope you all stay healthy and if I don't check in before Christmas then I want to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Frustrations & Thanks

Just feeling frustrated lately. To sum it all up...Kyle is cut down to 32 hr. weeks, which is really quite an adjustment financially. I am impatient with my girls and I don't think they like me all that much right now. The economy is a while frustration in and of itself. The nice thing is...God is always faithful. I have no reason at all to doubt that he will remain faithful to Kyle and I and our family, so I just need to hold on to that!

On the other hand...I am thankful that Kyle HAS a job at all right now! I am thankful that my girls do really love me and that they are healthy and adorable! I am thankful that the economy will get better - it always has! I need to just remind myself to view the positive and not the negative!

It's been a busy week around here - we have something every night this week! Monday night was a very nice dinner with Kyle's work group for Christmas. No cruise giveaway which we were VERY bummed about this year, but they did bless us with a little mastercard spending money which is ALWAYS nice this time of year! It was an enjoyable dinner/night out. Last night I had some of my church girlfriends over for some scrapping. I got NOTHING done whatsoever, but it is always nice to chat and hang out! Tonight is Taco Supper at church and Braelyn has class. Tomorrow night I have to jog off to a Nursery Committee meeting. Friday Kyle and I get to go shopping for the girls' christmas presents finally (they are getting VERY little this year - mainly just stocking stuff!), and then nothing at night (I hope to sit on the couch maybe watch a movie and snuggle by the fire - seems like I haven't really connected with Kyle lately!). Sat. we start our first of family Christmas parties! I am most excited for that! We will have a wide variety of yummy food, and then Santa will make a little visit (which the kiddos love!), and then we will all open our little gifts from eachother! This first party is with Kyle's mom and dad and siblings! Sunday we have a busy day wth church stuff. Our Fusion group is having a Christmas breakfast during the Sunday School hour, and then at night the girls get to be in the Christmas Program! There's my week in a nutshell - bet it's pretty boring to some! :)

I have been VERY unmotivated on the scrapping front. I have been doing little things here and there for gifts and stuff, but nothing much for LO's lately. My pictures are all horrible - I wish I actually had some good pictures to work with. May have to borrow a decent camera for a week or something to get some fun pictures!

Well, I hear Gracyn jabbering away in her crib right now - and I am guessing the other two girls aren't far behind, and when they wake up I am going to have to apologize to them for being impatient and unkind to them before naps :). Such is life! :)

Hope everyone's week is going well!

One holiday down...

The biggest one to go! I really do love Nov. and Dec. I hate certain aspects of these months (like snow, shopping, driving, etc...), but there is so much to love too! I love that these two holidays are so close and that we see friends and family so much! I love my kids excitement over all the holiday stuff! I haven't bought too many gifts yet - I just said to Kyle that we really need to get rid of the kids for a night and go out and do some shopping. The thing is, we really don't have a lot to get. For the girls I think we are mainly sticking to stocking type gifts and then I got a great deal on an art easle. I think we are going to get Braelyn some sort of cheap MP3 player too (like a Sansa - with FM tuner as well). So that is about it for that. Kyle and I are not doing any christmas gifts we said, and then that just leaves a couple DVD's for Kyle's side, and a family gift for the family name we drew on our side - that's it! I am done with Kyle's parents and I think for my parents we will all go in together as kids and get them something. Pretty basic Christmas around here and that is my FAVORITE part about it! I can't imagine having to buy something for EVERY little niece or nephew, or something for every extended Christmas party. It's all about hanging out and having a good time if you ask me - I could leave the present thing altogether!

Thanksgiving was great for us - lots of good family time. Braelyn kept saying she was thankful for our family being together - so cute. I think that stems off of Kyle being gone for that week hunting and her having to eat dinner with just mom every night! On Sat. we went out to Grand Rapids (about a 45 minute drive) to go and get some Krispy Kremes and then to sit at the airport and watch planes. We acutally got to see two take off and one land, so that is better than what we normally get to see! :) We like to do this little ritual every couple months and we were long overdue! Love me some Krispy Kremes! My favorites are the blueberry cake donuts and the maple glazed donuts!

Got all my decorations up - I'll share a few pics! I put the tree up when Gracyn was asleep and when she woke up and I took her downstairs she just stared. She did not go up to it and touch it or anything! All three of my girls have been amazing with not getting into things! I will say yesterday she did take an ornament off and bring it to me. I told her NO in a stern voice and brought it back to the tree and told her "no touch" and she never went to the tree again! Love that! So thankful for kids that never got into things like that!

(shocker - the picture is blurry - nice camera)

Pretty standard week this week. A vet appt to take Gauge to, a Dr. Appt. for Gracyn for her follow up flu shot, and Braelyn back into school routine after a week off. Church night again on Wed. night and pretty much this weekend is pretty low key. Starting next Mon. we have Christmas parties every weekend and quite a few throughout the weeks too on weeknights. Let the festivities begin!

I have a few LO's to share too (of course!)

This first one is for The-Lilypad Blog challenge this week - about your christmas wish! Here is one of my many wishes even though I KNOW it will not be a dream come true yet - it's fun to wish! I am also submitting some of my LO's to the Penscrappers Contest (b/c I do a lot of my scrapping on my Bamboo Tablet) and would love it if you would put in a few votes for me! Here is the link to it: http://www.penscrappers.com/2008/12/02/christmas-wish-mandakay/

And this one was a LO i just did for fun b/c I loved these little ballerina goodies! I also entered this one into the contest - VOTE HERE!

Thanks a bunch guys!
Hope you all have a safe and nice week!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I LOVE thanksgiving! I am quite sure it is my favorite holiday b/c it is a day that you just can't help but be thankful! I love the church service on Thanksgiving, I love the lunch with Kyle's family, the kids running around, the dinner party in the evening with my extended family (cream turkey - YUM), and crashing on the couch after kiddos are in bed!!! What is not to like about that? Hope you all can find a million and one things to be thankful for!

Tonight we go out with friends to a local pizza place with all our families - it is so fun to hang out with everyone - it's our little tradition! Tomorrow is the usual busy fun day. Friday I always set up the tree and decorations - I think the kids will be a big help this year, and it should be fun to see what little Gracyn thinks of all of it! Will she pull all of my ornaments off??? No shopping for us - we try to stay in on Black Friday! I think Sat will be a nice "veg" day too - should be a very nice weekend and I think we will all just enjoy having Kyle back around!

I have a LO to share too - shocking right?!

This layout was done with the new Funky Junky collab - Home for the Holidays from The-Lilypad. The pics are all of the progress of our house in the building project. I am so thankful that we are all settled in now, but I wanted to document the process!

Once again - Happy Thanksgiving everyone and hope you all have a great weekend!

MandaKay

My Guy

It's his birthday! We celebrated it earlier this week since he is gone on his birthday! We are so happy to have him in our lives! Happy Birthday Babe! I got Kyle an IPod "in home" radio, and it seems as if I am enjoying it more than he! ;) I got one with an FM radio on it also, so I have been listening to 105.7 non-stop (Full time Christmas music for those of you that don't live near me!) I also have free reign to Kyle's IPod while he is gone, so I am enjoying that as well!

I have been playing with some new kits as well!!! Shabby Miss Jenn has put out some great new holiday goodness! Not only did she release 3 new kits, but she also put out a TON of new albums, blog packs, treat toppers/wrappers, and also a freebie Dec. desktop calendar!!! Go check it out HERE! I did a LO of Kyle and I on our wedding day - we had a winter wedding so the kit Snowy Day worked out great!

For this LO I used the Grandma's X-Mas kit - these are the ornaments I made with some girlfriends last week!

And if you would HOP on over to The-Lilypad you would find a TON of new products over there too! Oooo...I just can't get enough of all these BEAUTIFUL new kits and goodies! This LO was done for the Hodge Podge Art Challenge also!

So there is quick update from me - normal life is just normal - not much different going on. I am looking forward to this week - Braelyn is off from school all week and of course Thanksgiving (did I tell you yet that it is my FAVORITE holiday?).

Light at the end...

of the tunnel. We moved in about 2 weeks ago now and there is finally a little glimpse of light that I can see. It's not a bright bright light yet, but it is light - and I'll take it! I am finally getting things put away where they "belong", and I can actually clean a little bit, now that there aren't boxes everywhere. Maybe just maybe I can begin taking pictures of everything set up!

Speaking of pictures - I have a picture of some ornaments I made Tue. night - they turned out great!

I found these on this website - she has got some great crafty ideas. So anyway, I really had a good time making these last night with my girlfriends.

And I did get a chance to play along with the Lilypad Blog challenge this week - great challenge by Emily Merrit! Here is my LO - it's Gracyn and her love of the kazoo - girl could play that think like a champ by her first birthday!

There are some really great products coming out at The-Lilypad tomorrow and I have been trying to grab a few extra second here and there to create a few fun pages - we'll see if I can finish them up. I have had something EVERY night this week, and this weekend I will be spending some quality family time with Kyle and the girls before he heads our for some hunting soon!

We hope to go see Madagascar 2 this weekend so that should be fun - Braelyn and Selah have Madagascar, so they have seen it quite a few times now! Hopefully we can find someone to take Gracyn for 2 -3 hours - she could NEVER sit thru a movie! Not sure what else is really on our weekend agenda - just hanging out probably!

Have a great day!

Unsettled

Just been having that unsettled feeling lately. Not just in our new home, but in life. I'll take it in paragraphs!

We are all moved into our new home. ALMOST everything is in our possession and with us (I say almost b/c there are still some items at our storage unit, but it is really mainly garage stuff and it doesn't effect me!). I have come to find out that I am kind of a neat freak. I've always known that I don't like messes, but I am constantly being reminded of it in the last week. I hate that there is not a home for everything like I want there to be. I hate the clutter. I hate the boxes. I can't wait until we get a bit more settled in this house! And you all know that once we get settled it will be time to box it all up and move again! :) Such is my life! Anyway, on a more happy note...I LOVE our new house! Here is a little list of the things I love about it!

1. my wood floors (dark hand hewn wood)

2. my gas stove (first time for gas for us - cooks so much better!)

3. the girls each having their own room (they seem to sleep a bit better)

4. my master bath shower (a touch bigger than the one we were used to at my mom's!)

5. my new hutch in living room to house all of my scrapbooks and some kids toys and stuff

6. our half bath (do you remember me telling you this was going to be my favorite room in the whole house??? Well, it just might be!)

7. our fully grown front yard full of grass!!!

8. my little cozy office which will get even better once we get our new couch in there!

There you have it! Once we get more settled I will take more pictures on a day after cleaning it up all pretty and post them - just right now it really doesn't look that much different from the last pics I showed at the end of construction! :)

Life unsettlement:

I am going thru those feelings of being unsettled here on earth. Can't really explain how or why, I just know that I don't belong here. I am made for a better place, which is comforting and yet frustrating all at the same time. I feel unsettled about our country/world's future. I feel unsettled with my role as a parent. So many things that I just feel frightened about. Do any of you have those feelings lately? I know a few of you do just from talking with you lately. Glad I'm not alone!

Anyway, on the scrapping side of life - I've been in a rut lately. I haven't had time to really sit down and scrap some pages. When I am on the computer I am either selling things on Craigslist, checking emails, checking my scrapping, forums, but never really scrapping. I am gonna get behind if I don't watch out. That's probably another reason I want my house all settled so that I can sit and scrap! :) I did host the Lilypad blog challenge this week though! It's a fun easy one, so if you scrap you should join in - a very high chance of winning the gift certificate since not that many people play along!!! Here is the LO I did for it!

Hopefully I will blog sooner than I did between these two! Our weekend is pretty busy with a family date night, settling the house more, going to the movie "Fireproof", and a Sunday night Fusion leadership meeting! Hope you all have a great weekend too!

I just have a quick second to update - whew - the week has FLOWN by! It has been my most busy/stressful week in a LONG time (well - probably since June 27 - when we had to move OUT!). Moving in is overwhelming, but tonight is do or die time - we are moving in at the stage it is at - and that is MESSY! There is so much to still do, but I really just want to get in there! I won't have final pics until everything is much more settled and "pretty"! Stop by if you are in the area though!

Besides a couple mental breakdowns things are good - some day I will have to blog about my parenting thoughts - lots to talk about on that front! I should be hooked up with internet at the house now, just haven't gotten a chance to really check it out. The Tech guys for our cable company were there last night until 7:00pm (which is ridiculous to me), and they claim I am good to go. I left at the same time as them b/c we hadn't eaten and we had nothing in the house - Kyle was waiting for us b/c we were supposed to go out to eat and to Sam's for a big grocery run. Instead we did dinner out and came home to put kids to bed and left to go to Meijer for regular groceries - my parents have been so good about us leaving at night - we will TRULY miss that!!! Anyway - so Sam's Club will be another night!

Ok - hopefully I can do a real post at some point this weekend (kind of doubt it!). Have a happy halloween and you scrappers out there - go check out SMJ's new shabby kit - I did a page with it - found here!

Bye!

Crazy Busy Life

So, it's been crazy busy life as usual! We are finalizing stuff on the house, and with three kids it's just near impossible for me to be there and get anything done. I took them with me on Mon. and Tue. night and it just doesn't amount to much. They get crazy and run around and they stress Kyle out! Anyway - the cleaning ladies are there today and yesterday they cleaned the whole upstairs. I can't thank Kyle enough for hiring that part out. On the last 2 houses we built we did EVERYTHING. We built most of it, cleaned it all, etc... I am telling you right now - the best thing we could have done on this one is have these ladies in to clean it! They know just how to clean every nook and cranny!!! It is going to look great and be all ready for us to move stuff in this weekend!!! The plan right now, if we get occupancy permit, is the move our stuff in slowly this weekend - but still live with mom and dad until maybe middle of next week! I would love to be all settled and organized in the house before actually living there! VERY exciting! And get this - the 27th of Oct. will be 4 months exactly from when we had to be out of our last house! We built this house in 4 months which to me just seems inconcievable! It went quickly!

So our weekend last weekend was great! It was awesome to have an adult weekend away! The weather up in Drummond Island was beautiful - about 45 degrees and sunny. We hung out, played games, talked, went bowling, went quading, and I even went for two decent runs! (I've been trying to excerice a little more and I'm pretty proud of myself! I want to get this workout video too!) Anyway - I have a LO that I did when we were up there of us all bowling - I'll share that. We really didn't get any other great pictures. We took quite a few pictures of the FLY mess we had to deal with. I am now utterly facsinated by the life of a fly - let's just say that!

Off to church tonight - night off from the house! We hope to start moving stuff in on Fri. night, so if any of you locals are looking for something to do feel free to come on over! :)

Home Pictures!

I haven't updated our house pictures in a while so here ya go!

The Great Room - kind of a tan color brown

The office/sitting room - and Braelyn, Kylie (my niece), and Selah - the color is a Restoration Hardware blue/green

The Dining Room and Kitchen - again the same blue/green! We also now have our hardwood flooring down - so I need to take pictures again, but Kyle and I went today to cover the floor with special paper so they don't get scuffed in the rest of the process! They look awesome though!

Front entry! Same tan brown as main living space!

This is the girls bathroom. The green will get punched up with pinks and tans!

This is Braelyn's room - special order PINK! Her bed is black and her spread has many colors so that should tone it down!

Gracyn's room - the same green as in their bathroom (saving money by using less colors!) Her room also gets punched up with some fun and playful pinks!!!

And this is Selah's room. It is BRIGHT. We had used this color corral (bright salmon color) in Braelyn and Selah's room in our old house, but only on one wall. We used it again because we knew it matched the bedding we had. IT IS BRIGHT. When the sun is shining in you need sunglasses! Hopefully it tones down once we get the carpet up there and once the black bed and stuff goes in! Yikes - it is BRIGHT!

For some reason I didn't take pics of our master bed and bath - those are looking great too! This week is fnishing up the plumbing, finish electrical, getting carpet laid, tile backsplash done, and numerous other little things. The thing is - Kyle and I leave for up north this Wed. night. Nothing like perfect timing - right?! We are TOTALLY looking forward to getting away though!!! The house can wait - right?! We are way ahead of schedule and we need to have a little fun! Anyway - so our target move in date is like the following weekend - we'll see how it goes. I think we will stay here at my mom's until about the 1st of Nov. I wouldn't mind gettting everything in and settled before we actually move in. It will be nice to have everything in it's place for the most part, and then move in! So there you have it - the most current pictures I have!

Tomorrow is back to work for me - just one day again this week. Tue I am going on a field trip with Braelyn's class to the pumpkin patch, and at night Kyle has a father night with her at school. Tomorrow night we need to work at the house! Toss in there packing for our get-away and we have one busy start to the week! Hope you all have a nice week ahead too!

Thank You, and LO's

First off, I just want to a HUGE thank you to everyone who said a little prayer for my husband and I, and our family! They were definitely felt! We had a wonderful funeral and burial service. I feel bad saying that about a funeral, but honestly - WOW - the funeral and burial were so heartfelt and beautiful. Grandpa Hains would have been proud of such a service! Thank you all!

So, I do have a lighter side to this LO - some more fun LO's from me! I can't explain how much I just enjoy creating my LO's! Most people think I am nuts and think I maybe spend too much time on the computer. I disagree. You can't tell someone who really doesn't have many memories of her childhood that my books are worthless. I spend as much time or more with my kids making the memories, so it's justifiable to me! Anyway - here are some of my latest LO's!

Full credits for both LO's can be found in my gallery links (which is linked on the right hand side of my blog).

Had a long day with the kiddos today, so I think I might turn in for the night. We have a busy 4 days ahead of us, as Wed. we leave for a weekend in the upper penninsula! Lots to do in those 4 days.

Heavy Heart

I have a heavy heart this afternoon as I just heard that Kyle's grandfather past away. Grandpa Hains has struggled with cancer just in the past 3 months, but up until that point was such a healthy man. These last few weeks are always tough though as we watched him slowly slip away from us. He is a Reverend/Pastor, and was still actively preaching at Royal Park, and some other events up until probably 6 months ago. Almost a year ago he baptised my third daughter, as he did both other girls too! He married Kyle and I, and so we have so many special moments to remember. my sister in law Sarah wrote a beautiful couple paragraphs about Grandpa HERE. I am 100% certain that he is a saint. The man knew God so well, and he lived out his life for Him. He is the epitome of what a christian should be and how a christian should act. I am so thankful that my girls got to know him a bit. I pray that Braelyn and Selah at least remember parts of him. I told them this afternoon that Papa Hains went up to heaven to be with Jesus. This is really the first time I have tried to explain this to them. When my grandmother died a year ago they just wouldn't have grasped it really, so we didn't really talk to them much about it. Braelyn knew Papa Hains quite well, because grandma and grandpa Hains are quite active in their great-grandchildren's lives. Braelyn just said she didn't want Papa Hains to go up to heaven, and said she would miss him. I tried to explain heaven a little bit and then told her that if we love God and accept Him into our hearts, then some day we will get to see Jesus and be with Papa Hains again. I hope I did a good job with such a big topic. Yikes. That's the part of parenting that no one prepares ya for. So yeah - just a heavy heart today that we will miss Grandpa Hains here on earth, but wow - I bettcha Jesus and the angels are rejoicing, and I can just hear Grandpa's beautiful voice singing praise to his King! Thank you listening!

Templates & Quickpages

I've just had a chance to play with some template this weekend from Janet Phillips! Her grab bag is out right now until the 5th!!! Run and grab it!!! There are a TON of great templates in it this month!!! Here is a LO I just finished up with one of the packs!!!

And check out these quickpages by Amy Martin - all done with the Oct. BYOC!!! Another great set of LO's that will help you scrap those memories when you are running short on time!!!

All I did with these quickpages was add a title and some journaling and a few extra little bits!

Off to the pumpkin parade today! Braelyn is on the white banner float for her school!!! She is very excited and does not want mom or dad to walk with her. :( Make sure to yell for her if you are at the parade today - she will love picking out faces she knows!!!

Birthday Messes and Other Messes

Gracyn's birthday was very nice! We had a great party and she seemed to enjoy all the attention! It was a busy loud night! :) Here are some pictures - as promised!

Gracyn with her balloons!

Braelyn loving on the birthday girl!

Gracyn eathing her webkinz!!! (And yes - I registered her and I LOVE playing the games and earning points!)

Gracyn adoring another soft cuddly singing bear!

All the cousins looking on the presents!

The Feast! Meat and cheese sandwiches, meatballs, beans, chips!
Aunt Tammy and Gracyn


The Cake and cupcakes - pretty simple - just picked it up in the morning from Zeeland Bakery!


Gracyn had no problem eating the whole entire cupcake. She still wanted more!




I love messy 1st birthday cake pictures!


These messes however.....I do NOT like them. Today is the day that my nieces are all over at my mom's and since we live here, we have 6 kids here all day! Well the two year old must feel like they have to prove that two year olds are really in the terrible twos. My mom found these two girls in my girls' bedroom with the vaseline and cornstarch and baby powder. Ugh. After a little chuckle an some pictures it was time to clean it up. That's the worst part.


And then, after they got in trouble for getting into things they are not supposed to, they went outside to play and they decided to take the whole gallon jug of car wash cleaner and dump it in a bucket of black dirt that my mom had and also on the driveway. Ugh. Needless to say they got chucked in their beds for naps mighty early! Right now they are playing together beside me...where I can SEE them! The morning situation was kind of our fault b/c neither my mom or I were really being hands on watching them, but this afternoon I was right outside on the driveway talking to the neighbor when they got into the carwash stuff. Naughty naughty naughty is the word of the day.

We have church night tonight, so I better figure out what to feed the kiddos and get ready!