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!