~GIVEAWAY~

OK - so you have heard me mention a couple times now that there is some big stuff happening in the digi world coming up. Well, if you haven't gotten over to the Lilypad or haven't checked their blog lately (which I had the big job of hosting this weekend!!!) then you better RUN! But wait...before you run I want to host a little contest here on my own little blog!!! This is officially my first giveaway here! Now before you go thinking all crazy on me and assume that I made you something - you are wrong. Nope - you wouldn't want anything from me anyway - I am NOT what you would call a designer or a real creative person! But Jenna Desai from The-Lilypad has offered up some $5 coupons for me to give away! BUT, you are going to have to work for it! That's right - work! I want to see a LO that you have done in the past or that you can do this weekend that has a Jenna product on it! Shouldn't be too hard to do since I know you are all Jenna doodle-lovers! So show me what you got! comment here on my blog with a link to a LO using a bunch of Jenna goodies or just one Jenna goodie and a winner/winners will be chosen at random! I can't wait to see some of your gorgeous LO's using Jenna's stuff. I will be picking winners on Tue. morning so you have all weekend long!!!

Here is a list of a few other blogs that are having little contests too!!!

Mabel

Andrea

Anso

Heather
And definitely keep your eye on the forums at DST and MSA too!

Now - go - run over to the the Lilypad and see all the awesome new stuff! And if you need inspiration - don't forget to check out the gallery there too!

Here is one of my favorite LO's ever, using some Jenna goodies

And Shabby Miss Jenn Designs has put out a couple new products too!!! Jenn collabed with Annie from Paint The Moon Designs for one of the kits and it is beautiful! I did these two LO's with Jenn's two new kits!

As always - all my LO's with credits can be seen in my galleries too - links on the side!

Blogs I Love

So Jenna Desai (also is a designer at The-Lilypad!!!) has tagged me as a blog that she loves! What an honor seriously! So now I get to tag people with blogs that I love!!!

Here are the rules:

1. If you've been tagged, you can put the logo on his/her blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links to those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

And the blogs I love are as follows (in no particular order!!!)

Janet Phillips

Lisa - Momy4Him

Lynette

Selena VK

Sarah (sister-in-law)

Jody Ferlaak

Kate Hadfield

and of course I love even more blogs than that!!! :)

Happy Day everyone!

No Title

Pretty creative, ain't I? Not much going on today here. It's a Wed. so my mom watches my sister's girls, who are the same age as my girls so it's chaos, but fun. I took the older two to the Farmer's Market for some yellow bean. We had deliscious sweet corn last night. Not looking forward to summer coming to a close, b/c I LOVE fresh veggies like that! Now I am just catching up on some computer time - I feel like I have not been getting enough of that lately - just too busy. Last night we met with our decorator. It went really good - I think we have our color schemes picked out and we narrowed down a few other things too! I found out that I don't have "a Style". I mean really, I should have known that, but it's kind of funny to me. I like so many different styles. Shabby chic, contemporary, modern, traditional, beachy, etc... I guess my style is just eclectic! Might drive my decorator nuts though! Sarah had asked who we are using - her name is Bridget Schopp - very fun gal and I think she will tie my house all together - even if I am a bit eclectic! Anyway - it is fun to start thinging about the house coming together with all that kind of stuff! The main thing we need to figure out is what we are going to do with our couch and two chairs. If we keep our couch then we are going to have our wing back chairs recovered. If we don't keep our couch we are going to have to start figuring our what we are going to do. I am leaning towards keeping our couch yet for this house - might not be the greatest fit for the house, but with little kiddos yet, why buy a new one - KWIM?! Anyway - that is house stuff! Here is a couple updated pics!

All of the drywall is actually hung now, just have to finish it! Trim guys start next week sometime I think!

Am I boring you all to death with the house stuff yet - just holler if I am! :) Probably pretty boring to most people. Oh well - it documents it for me and that's cool!

Check this out - you better stop by The-Lilypad this weekend!!! You will not be disappointed! And there may be some giveaways so keep your eyes peeled!

So, what are everyone's plans for the Labor Day weekend??? Looks like we should have perfect weather! We have no real plans. We do get to go out with friends on Fri night, which will be great! Sat. will be Kyle working on the house and possibly working for work, and then Mon. Kyle will have to work too I think. His company needs to finish up building the school before school starts on Tue. so they are calling everyone in! Should be a fun weekend for me! ;)

Adios chicas!!!

P.S. - I ended up picking up just a fun crib skirt and a changing table pad for Gracyn's room - figured I don't need a whole nursery set! I also FINALLY picked out my bedding set - ugh - I hate decisions like these - it was tough for me and I feel like there is just not great stuff out there! (can't find Gracyn's, but here is ours!)

Girl Crib Bedding

So - you local mommas...do any of you have any girl crib bedding that you are dying to get rid of/sell at an affordable price? We have always had a very neutral nursery set that I am SICK of. I am not sick of it enough though to go and buy all new - KWIM?!!! So I thought I would check if any of you have a set you want to get rid of or borrow out! If you do just email me at kahuiz@netzero.net!

Thanks!

Home and back at it

We made it home safely. The puking incident aside it went better than the ride down. I think the girls knew more what to expect on the way back! I think we did it in 19 hours instead of the 21 on the way down! We are back in for a busy week. The house looked great - they have some siding to finish up b/c they didn't order enough I guess and now they have to wait for it to come in. The drywall was started, but not quite as much done as what we had hoped. I think Kyle will be on top of them a bit today! He had a list of people to call this morning from going out there yesterday! We meet with the decorator tomorrow night to go over some things like paint colors and stuff like that - I wanted just a little bit of help with that stuff so should be fun to get a better idea of that type of stuff! Things are moving along real quickly I feel like! Anyway - just wanted to pop in to say we are home safe - thanks for the prayers! I'm gearing up for some big digi scrapping things coming this Labor Day weekend!

Hitting the Road

We are going to hit the road tonight - hopefully on the road by 8:00pm! Once again - just pray for safety on our trip back and for the girls to be good and sleep alot - LOL! I am looking forward to being home again though - even more looking forward to seeing our house and the progress on it last week while we were gone! Vacation was wonderful, but it's always nice to get home too (or maybe it's just me that's wierd like that). Here is another group of pictures from vacation!

Look at my little aligator wrestler!

Gracyn and I at the aquarium

Kyle and I - before our night out with adults!

Me and my girl Braelyn!

Isn't this precious???

Miss Sadie Clair - cute as always!

Me taking a picture of Sarah taking a picture!

And my favorite picture yet! Just little ole Gracyn with the BIG ocean in front of her - the world is right before her eyes!!!

And of course a few LO's!

Puddle Jumping - the girls were splashing around in a big puddle that came after a big rain at my parent's house. This kit is new out today - by Amy Martin and Jackie Eckles at The-Lilypad!!! And did you see that Miss Amy made Memory Makers 2009 Masters list - WOW - that is awesome! I also saw a gal from Zeeland, MI made it too - our hometown - way to go!

And my sweet little Gracie Goo. This girl is just so so cute, and she is giving the cutest little looks lately. Getting that stinker attitude at 10 months! This kit is by Amy Wolff - Sunshine and Stardust!

Well, I think that wraps it up for today - going to finish up a few LO's that I started on the ride down here!

vacation pics

Having a great time here on vacation! It's been busy busy. Lots of laying out, swimming, running matches at the beach - all that good stuff! Just here to post a few pics. We are going out with just the young adults with NO kids!!! Will be so nice!

VACATION

We are here in North Carolina safe and sound! The 12 hr drive turned into about 21 - which was HORRIBLE. The first part of it went fairly decent - we left at 6:00 pm and drove until about 9:00 when we stopped for a Mc D's flurry/shake stop and put PJ's on the girls. We drove until about 2:00am, and then stopped to try to "sleep" at a rest area. After not really sleeping at the rest area we pulled back on the road at 5:00am. I think we'll skip that stop on the way home. The kids were wide awake for the first hour of that at least, and we didn't get much sleep either. The girls did alright considering the circumstances, but it just sucked. They have never really done a big road trip like that before and have never slept in the car before for something like this. Braelyn just kept tossing and turning in her seat and saying she couldn't sleep. Selah kept complaining that her bum hurt, probably from sitting in one place for too long. So yeah - a lot of complaining was heard in the car and we finally arrived at the ocean house at 3:15pm! It is a beautiful house and we are all settled in nice! The girls are just in heaven here with a pool in their back yard and the beach across the way! Kyle saw a guy catching fish (a 4' shark, stingray, and a Spanish mackerel) so he is excited to fish tomorrow. He took the girls for a long exploring walk this morning while Jen and I took a nice long walk/exercise. We then even had time to do a couple laps in the pool to cool off with no kids! That was so nice for me! We hung at the beach for a bit early this afternoon and then came back to swim in the pool while Gracyn napped. The older two took a little "rest" while 4 of us adults went back to the store for some things we forgot. (mainly stuff to make an apricot brandy slush)!!! So good times are being had by all and now that we are all back on our game sleep wise I think we'll enjoy our whole week! I took a few pictures today, but haven't uploaded them to my computer yet - maybe another day! I did get three LO's pretty much finished up so far - started them on the way down here in the car! Can't show those yet either - some new stuff coming!!!

Peace Out

Yep - that's right - we are 2 1/2 hrs from leaving for North Carolina!!! Very excited and very nervous about the whole ride down. I figure if I expect the worse, then I may be pleasantly suprised at how well it really might go! It's been a hectic end to the week so it will be nice when we are finally in the van and can take a much slower pace to life! The house is all buttoned up so to speak. The building inspection, electrical inpection, plumbing inspection, and heating and cooling inspection are all compelete and approved!!! So you know what that means??? We will have some drywall being hung next week!!! I will be very excited to get back and see it after vacation - I am sure Kyle will be excited too! He has been working his tail off, being pulled in 300 different positions so I pray that he can just forget about all that stuff while we are on vacation!


One quick LO before we head out - this one I did last week or so for the new Shabby Miss Jenn Blog Challenge! We did a lift of Ranie's amazing LO found here. SMJ always gives away great prizes so be sure to play along! She even is giving everyone a freebie to try out!!! She's just too too sweet! Anyway - here is my lift:

I pray you all have a fun and safe weekend - some of you may be getting ready for school to start already next week or so - CRAZY! Braelyn starts Sept. 9 I believe - so I have a little while yet before I need to be crazy with preperations (and hey - I'm lucky - she's only going two mornings!)

Hopefully I will be back in early next week with our first round of pictures!

Toodles!

Tuesday ramblings

Just some Tue. ramblings here. Hubby got home from his little guys weekend on Sun. afternoon and we hit the ground running right away. That guy has a fast pace in life I tell ya! He is go go go! We ran to Sam's club, then to Best Buy for a new Garmin Navigation thingy, and then to Logan's for dinner. After that we went to see the house - he hadn't seen it since Thur. morning! They had done a lot as I had shown you last post! Roofing is still well on it's way and all the rough-ins (plumbing, electrical, and heating and cooling) are all being worked on this week. We are making all these little decisions as we go which is totally overwhelming me. It would be heaven to have a designer walk us all the way thru every step!!! We will have a designer that we are going to use just for a bit of consultation on color choices, but again - it will be VERY minimal to keep costs LOW! Anyway - so on top of all the house stuff we are leaving on a weeks vacation on Fri. Kyle is STRESSING out about all the stuff we have to do before we go. Needless to say we are not seeing eachother a whole lot lately b/c he is busy working at the house and I am tending to kids and packing plans! Such is life - right?! We will sure enjoy the vacation though!

About our vacation:

We are going with Kyle's whole family. We are renting a house on the ocean in North Carolina. My sister in law's family (so two families) is also meeting us there since they are from North Carolina so we will have a big size group! So much fun! The house has a pool right in the back yard for us and we are just a short walk away from the ocean. My guess is that for our family we will mostly stick to the pool b/c our girls are a bit young to "swim" in the ocean, but it will be nice to go over and play in the sand! So we have a 16 hr. drive that we are going to do thru the night - should be interesting. We just pray that the girls and us all get along in the car! We will have internet access which is a GREAT thing!

Scrapping related:

a few LO's to share. Both are for challenges. This first one is for the Lilypad blog challenge - all about shoes!

This second one was for the DigiDareYa challenge this week! I just love a challenge that gets me to scrap a LO - challenges are always good starting points for me!

Ok - I am off - busyness is surrounding!

A relaxing Sat. morning

Here we sit - hanging out this cool Sat. morning. I sit here and ponder all of the busyness that is involved with this next week, but here I sit updating my blog, reading emails, checking out my fave websites! Kyle left Thur. night for the upper peninsula with a bunch of guys for the weekend, and my parents are out camping with their church so I get a quiet house!!! It's rather nice! Last night we had a birthday party to go to for my nephew Corbin. He turned 6 yesterday and my sister threw an AWESOME Olympic birthday party. Every single detail was perfect. I think she got some great pictures of it, so I will have to get those from her since I didn't take my camera! We even had olympic games! I think I got the girls back here and settled in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 - yikes. And of course they were awake at 6:30am. Ugh.

Yesterday we went out to check out the progress on the house - all I can say is WOW! It is sailing right along! So exciting to see the progress! Here are a few pictures from yesterday!

(I am just noticing that those clouds in this pic look amazing - and they were amazing yesterday - big fluffy low white one's - I even pointed them out to my girls in the car on the way to the house! This photo was untouched and they just pop on here!

On the front of the house, the roofing was going up, and by end of day yesterday they were probably done with all the windows!

Have I told you that we are going to North Carolina on Fri.? We are going with Kyle's whole family. We are renting a house on the Ocean in Emerald Island, NC! We will be driving there (mostly thru the night - 16 hrs.), and we have a house with a pool in the back yard and Braelyn, Selah and Gracyn will be there with their 6 cousins also - we are guaranteed to have a great time! I always feel overwhelmed with how much I need to pack though, and with house stuff on top of it all, our week will be CRAZY. Oh yeah - and of course I need my hair done too - LOL!

I've been a little un-motivated in the area of scrapbooking - I hope I get my mojo back soon. I can assure you it is not for lack of GREAT supplies! I feel maybe I am really just overwhelmed with the GREAT stuff I have to play with right now that I just am intimidated. I have one that I started last night that I hope to finish up tonight! I did this LO with a template by Janet - that's about the only way I could scrap this past week.

A few things to do today:

*Wash the van

*play with kiddos

*Cut some hair

*good baths for the girls (might have been like 3 nights since I bathed them - LOL - oops - we've been busy, but that's gross!)

*Run on treadmill

*sand my vanity furniture for the new house

(this is going to get painted black, get some really great knobs put on it, and then a large sqaure chunky vessel sink will set on top of it for our sink vanity in our half bath! I am super excited for that little room!)

OK - off to accomplish this list - we'll see how much I get done! :)

Hope you all have a great rest of your weekends!

Mostly Scrapbook Related

Some big things this weekend in my favorite stores!!!

~The Lilypad~

August BYOC!!! I swear these BYOC's keep getting better and better! Here are a few of my LO's with it!

~Shabby Miss Jenn Designs~

We are celebrating SMJ's 2nd birthday this weekend!!! Lots of big things going on over there!

A new bithday HUGE kit, a new going green kit, a new summer kit, some new frames and textures from Lanne, and some freebies too!!! Here are two LO's I got done with the new stuff!

~Janet Phillips - Scrapbook Graphics~

So with Janet's big move to Indonesia she still managed to get her August Grab bag up!!! The woman just amazed me and is such an inspiration for me! Her August grab bag does not dissappoint either! I have yet to play with it, but I hope to get some great use out of it this week!!! A little secret for ya - it's worth EVERY dime and THEN SOME!!! (coupon inside!!!) I believe it's available until the 8th or so, and then she breaks it down and puts it all in the store seperately! I am telling you too - I NEED these templates for summer scrapping b/c I have SOOOO many pictures and not enough time to sit and scrap!!!

~HOME~

I need to go get an updated picture for you all b/c we officially have a house! I mean walls are all up, roof boards are on, etc.!!! The roofing will already be going on on Wed! We have narrowed down our plumbing stuff this week, our kitchen stuff (still deciding between two options, but we are close), and the siding and roofing material! I still feel like there is a lot more to pick out though! But all is going good - it's amazing to watch the progress!

~WEEKEND~

We had a great weekend. We are heading out to my sister-in-laws pool tonight to round it off with a little pool/dinner party! We had a party Fri. night with Kyle's family also - which was a riot! Sat. night we did the Farmer's Market in am, and had a family reunion for my Dad's side of the family at night! So we are nearly partied out I would say! :) We love family and friends and spending time with them - can you tell?!

Hope you all have a great week - i am sure I will check in at some point!

MandaKay