So far so good!

So far I am accomplishing some of my "to do's" while Kyle is gone!!!

Working on LO's - check
picked up my perrenials and black dirt - check
playing and snuggling with the girls like he would - check
keeping the house clean - check

Now my list is still rather large yet, but I love making head way!

Work on some more LO's!
mow the yard for him on Sat. so that he comes home to a nicely manicured yard
pick up Braelyn's birthday cake on Sat. from Cold Stone Creamery for the Sunday party
pick up B's birthday gift too!
snuggle and play some more with the kiddos

Anyway - just a re-cap!

Last night was awesome. My friend Beth called me and invited herself over b/c she had a sitter and knew I would just be home scrapping. At the same time I was telling my neighbor Amy who just got a new laptop that she needs to come over ans scrap. And Beth called Mindy and Julie to join us and Julie could make it so I have a little scrap fest at my house!!!

The other night as I was cleaning out my scrap folders and organizing I went thru all my PSD files and found 4 LO's I had never finished. 2 were for Braelyn and 2 for Selah. This made for some quick and easy finishing up since the hard work on them was already done. (finding the kit and doing the main composition). So I finished up the two that I had of Braelyn - Quite a Pair and Cupcake Queen - both started last summer/fall! The other LO I finished up was the Snuggle Time LO of Braelyn and Kyle - love these pictures of them playing and snuggling! Her smile and giggle are something I never want to forget!

Credits Here for Snuggle Time

Credits Here for Cupcake Queen (at least the credits I remember)

And Here for Quite a Pair

Currently I am watching Dreamer with Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russel (multi-tasking kind of - LOL) We had bought this movie thinking that some day Braelyn will like it. Her grampie and grammie have a horse and so I thought she would think it was cool. We have never watched it, and have had it for over a year. So far it is very good - though Braelyn might be quite young yet for some of it?! I guess you could say this is my weekend for "finishing" things up - LO's, movies, etc...!

Tomorrow is a nice day at home - hopefully it is nice enough that I can get my flats of flowers planted - I hope tonight is the last frost advisory night! Kids can play outside and all that good stuff - they LOVE riding around on the gator! At night I am going out with a few friends for pedis and dinner!!! Very exciting stuff! Hope you all have a great Friday and I am sure I will post again Sat. with some more LO's I am finishing up!

Toodles!

Good Stuff

Just some good stuff to chat about! Last night I went to our local BSF chapter, and I just want to say WOW! This is an international and non-denominational Bible Study. I went tonight on some prodding from my girlfriend Julie and my sister-in-law Sarah. I was not dissappointed and it was just the intro night for me. I went tonight with the hopes of getting enrolled for the class that starts up again in the fall. I sat thru our intro. class while others were in their small group discussions. After that everyone comes together again (our chapter is about 300 ladies), and then they listen to a lecture. Both Sarah and Julie said that I didn't need to stay if I didn't want to b/c the lecture was on their last bible study in Romans. I still felt like I should stay for the lecture for some reason and let's just be honest - it was an adult night away without kiddos -LOL! The lecture was amazing - it was on Romans 16. Specifically to me it was on Romans 16:17-20. Now for the last 3 years I have kind of felt stagnant in my relationship with God. I don't feel like I "hear" Him speaking to me. Tonight folks I KNEW He was speaking to me!!! What a cool feeling! I have been praying for some peace and re-assurance on how to deal with some things in my life and I am at TOTAL peace right now. So glad I went and so glad I stayed! I am VERY excited to start this fall in BSF and to really STUDY God's word. I feel like their principles are VERY God based - like they don't even want you looking to extra concordances or anything - just the Bible - until you have really gotten it and did the full study. They focus on different aspects of study too which is good - in one way or another I think that each and every person can understand it when they teach with different methods b/c everyone learns in different modes! Anyway - good stuff I tell ya!!!


So I found my new favorite fonts! I have used them on my last two LO's! These fonts are so much fun (Audrey's Birdie Fonts!!!) I just love me the hand-written fonts lately! There is also a buzz that Audrey is going to start selling fonts for you in your handwriting! How cool would that be?! I for sure want to sign up for one!

And here is my latest LO. Credits here. I kind of started my own challenge on this one - to do a LO using something from EVERY designer at The-Lilypad. That's 5 gals! I can't believe I did it and it was quite easy actually - their stuff just all goes so well together! Of course I had to throw in an alpha template from Janet Phillips and these cool cardboard tears by Digital Couture shop!

Tonight we are going to try to work on yard stuff before Kyle heads out of town (given that the rain stays south east of us!), and then tomorrow I get to stay home again!!! A nice break for me - working 2 1/2 days has proven to make my life a little bit chaotic. To answer a few questions that a few of you had also:

When is ultrasound: one week away!!! Wed. the 22nd!

How did open house go: Sounds like pretty good. Haven't heard anything back of course so I am not holding my breath, but they liked it and she is a cosmetologist and the salon I have in the house was a BIG draw!

Where are we moving to when we sell: Well first to my parent possibly while we build our 3rd house. Might have to rent depending on when things happen. We are staying right in our area just like we always have and probably always will!!!

OK - hope you all have a great rest of your day!

MandaKay

Mother's Day Weekend and a LO!

Good morning everyone! I hope all you mother's out there had a great Mother's Day. We had a very busy day here! Church in morning then on to my Mom's for lunch until about 3:45pm, home to put kiddos down for a quick nap and then at 6:00pm off to my hubby's mom! Home finally at 9:00pm! Braelyn made me an adorable card and picture frame with a picture of her in it at Sunday School - almost made me cry! So sweet! Her Sunday School program is so awesome and she just LOVES going now! So sad that it is done next week. Kyle and Braelyn brought home flowers on Sat. morning which was nice b/c we had a house showing and it is always nice to have fresh flowers out! They got me a nice card too.


Sat. afternoon we went to the big parade in town! It is a 2.5 mile long parade with like 50 bands and a couple big balloon things, horses, all kinds of good stuff. It was two hours long!!! The girls did great and we got our last fix of junk food. Carmel apple, carmel corn and cotton candy! MMMM... Glad this is only once a year! LOL. Fri. night we just spent cleaning up and getting the house ready and we did have a little bonfire out back behind the house - Braelyn and Kyle LOVE those! That was our weekend in a nutshell! Fun stuff.


My one wish for Mother's day was just some good 'ole scrapping time. I got one hour last night and still got grief for it. My hubby does not like me being on the computer. I don't really get it b/c we can both be sitting on the couch next to eachother and he still HATES it. He thinks I put scrapping before him, which is NOT the case. I try to be sympethetic to his feeling and do not do it at night if I can tell he doesn't want me to. I try to do it at nap times, but if he knows I was doing it then I can tell he thinks I am lazy. I can't win. I wish he could understand that it is something I love to do and that it is stress relief for me. I could understand if he wanted to like cuddle with me on the couch or something like that - I would for sure take that - give me the loving over scrapping anyday! Not the case. Can't think of the last time we just cuddled. We need to work on that I guess. It is so easy to slip into just plain comfort mode. Going about our normal days activities just being husband and wife and parents! I will get my scrap time this weekend though. He leaves Wed. afternoon with the guys to work on deer blind stuff while the weather is nice (just an excuse to go up and play I think ;) ). So he will be gone until Sun. afternoon and I will stay up every night I am sure just scrapping away! I have a lot of stuff to do and work on! BTW - I no longer give him crap about hunting or make him feel guilty for doing something he loves - shouldn't that count for something?



Here is the LO I finished up in my hour last night. This was done as the sketch challenge for May over at The Digi Shoppe. I love how it turned out - it had been awhile since I had played with some of Jen Wilson's papers - man are they great or what?! And can't beat these adorable pictures we got of my girlies at Avalanche Bay when we went there a couple weekends ago with our little 4 person family. Too bad we didn't get any pics of us as a family- they had a great lobby/fireplace!




























Credits Here for this LO!

The verse on the LO is from Proverbs in the bible and it is in the scriptual word art pack by Audrey neal at The-Lilypad, it is about training a child in the way he should go and in the end he will not depart from it. Oh how I pray this proverb every day! And one of the ways I try to train my girls everyday is about loving eachother. I tell them everyday that they are eachother's best friend. Having 3 others sisters (and now great sisters-in law) I realize that life will bring trials and it will not always be easy to love eachother, but it is so important. And life will throw curves at ya and I know it will to my daughters. They will not be above these trials. In fact I will try to embrace the trials in their days b/c I pray that it will expand their faith in ways I cannot comprehend. I pray they never lose their love though. Love will look different at times and that is okay too - I think that is important for them to know too. I think they dynamic of sisters is amazing. I am coming to peace with the fact that if I have another girl here in a couple months that it's all good b/c there is something about sisters. My biggest fear though with girls is the "girl" issues - like girl catfights and stuff. It will happen I guess no matter what - that is the girl dynamic I am talking about! Anyway - there is the synopsis of my LO - what I was feeling while scrapping it! My life experiences lately compelled my to do a LO on this and these pictures were just what I needed! It came together so easily!

Thanks for listening gals - have a great day - Gotta get back to work!

Some pictures

Hey, just hopping on quick to post a few pictures I have taken this week. Took the kids to our local Tulip Festival and so some are from the parade, some from just going down to watch dutch dancers and eat junk! Enjoy!

Braelyn and Paige (in her cute dutch costume! I am too cheap to buy my kids an adorable dutch constume - always regret it later - b/c Braelyn would have loved it - she keeps thinking "dress-up" and princess dress!)

Braelyn intently watching the parade - chewing on her little purse strap.

Selah - intently watching the parade as it passed by. She loved the bands even shook her little booty a little in the stroller! I was afraid that she might get a touched freaked by the noise! Not a bit!

Selah enjoying our picnic like lunch of JUNK FOOD! Hot dogs and greasy pizza. Kyle got some big ole rib eye sandwich thing - yuck! Later in the night we got elephant trunks (meaning elephant ears - Braelyn kept saying elephant trunks - LOL) Fun times!

I am sure you will see more dutch/tulip time photos after this weekend b/c tomorrow is the big parade and Kyle will be with me which makes it easier to take more pics and all that good stuff!

We have a showing on our house tomorrow morning so I have been busy cleaning. I am actually very happy about it b/c my house needed a really good once over and this will make me do it. Even if/though nothing comes of it I will still be happy to know my house has been SHINED!!! Always a good feeling.

Hope you all have a great weekend and of course to all of you mothers have a GREAT mothers day! I know for me each mother's day gets more important just b/c I feel like a mother more and more each day! With the third kid on the way there is no denying that I am a MOM!!! Yippee!!!

Short post!

I finished a LO using ShabbyMissJennDesign's new Old Cabana kit! I started it last night and was loving it. My sister in law Selena had taken this picture and given it to me and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it! So I started it last night while watching "24", and just had a few finishing touches to put on it today. Well, I got home from work, got the kids to bed (in which Selah is still just gabbing away in there - argh), and then checked my blog feeds. I noticed the new hodge podge challenge had been posted so I went to check it out. Low and behold the challenge was all about FLOW - and I loved how this picture just "flowed". Loved the movement. I finished up the LO and did a challenge - Yippeee!!!

So I worked my half day today instead of tomorrow this week, so I have tomorrow off! There is a parade locally for Tulip Time that I will probably hit with the girls and maybe my sister! I need me some junk food!!! We have been having some great warm weather here and the girls have been playing outside with us every night!

Nothing else new here really. Life is just moving along I guess!

Signing off!

Good Day to you all!

Hey guys,

Did you all make it thru NSD??? I really should ask did your paypal accounts and families make it thru NSD?! Belive it or not I did not buy ONE thing!!! I work for so many amazing women/designers who are SOOOO generous that I didn't need to buy anything. I have a few things I want of course, but I also did not get on the computer at all!!! I checked my email once or twice yesterday and that was it. A sorry day! My garage sale is complete - and garage is empty. Whatever didn't sell got put on the end of driveway for the Bibles for Mexico truck to come and pick it up!!! We made about $375 for Kyle and I. We did not sell some of our big items which was kind of a bummer. We really wanted to sell our nice microfiber Chaise Lounge b/c we want a Lazyboy or recliner. We also want a glider rocker for the nursery. I would say we will still try to sell the chaise and get both of those things.

So today is Sunday and believe it or not I am staying home from church for some much needed R & R. I am sick and look miserable (cold ickies), and I just needed a break and some peace and quiet. Setting up for a garage sale and doing the garage sale is too much work for a pregnant woman I tell ya. I hate to miss church for this, but honestly - it feels needed this morning. I hope this cold doesn't linger either - my nose is already raw (and it doesn't help that I have HONKIN zits under my nose that KILL!!!), I am tired from not sleeping great, and I hate being short of breathe from being pregnant and then not being able to breathe thru my nose! OK - done with my rant - I am supposed to be relaxing! :)

And here is the LO that I finished up using Dawn's new paper pack and template and Amy Martin's new fun folded flower ribbons! Now to just get to using Shabby Miss Jenn's new kit that she was selling for $1 yesterday - WHAT??? I saw that and about died. If you did not pick that up then SHAME ON YOU!!! This kit is AMAZING and the one reason I did not use it yet is b/c I totally want to do justice to it which means I need to really have a game plan and the PERFECT picture for it! If you didn't pick it up yesterday for $1, I would still suggest getting it b/c it is great and still worth way more than $5.99!!!

I was thinking yesterday how digital scrapbooking is so great! I sold a TON of my scrapbooking goodies at my garage sale - like I barely have ANYTHING left!!! And one thing I realized is that in paper scrapping I was crazy and bought like 1 paper for .75 cents. One paper that I glued down and could only use ONCE. And then I would buy all the coordinating stuff to go with that paper like stickers and elements and ribbon and my one page just ended up costing $5.99 (minimum). Now I can pay $5.99 for one mega kit and I can use and re-use over and over and over. It almost feels illegal! LOL! I just love it! Not to mention all the big bulky tools I don't need to haul around anymore. Just my heavy laptop and hard drive! Great stuff I tell you - great stuff!

That's it for today folks - I hope you have a relaxing Sunday and God bless you all today!

Garage Sale Scrapping!!!

Signing in here from my garage!!! Kids playing, people browsing - nothing like a garage sale! It is sunny and a little cool, but it should warm up by noonday!!! SO much fun stuff going on the digital world so I have to stay tuned in today - LOL!

Got a LO done with an AWESOME collaberative kit coming out tomorrow at the-lilypad!

Credits Here

I also am currently working on a LO that is almost finished that I am using some of the new templates and kits that Dawn has put out today! Just so much good stuff!!! I also get to play with a new FAB kit that Shabby Miss Jenn Designs just might be coming out with too ;) I am so blessed to be on such great teams I tell you - these gals are so so great!

So, I will be checking back in maybe later with more LO's - today or tomorrow I would say! Tonight we get to go to see the fireworks as the kick off of the Tulip Time Festival!

You all have a great weekend!!!