ACM Awards Tim McGraw If your reading this

Some Music.... and stuff!

So this week - though busy has been super good! Braelyn has completed her first 4 lessons of swimming lessons and seems to like it. She also finished Vacation Bible School - which she LOVED! She made some cute cute crafts and came home with little bracelets that each had a different statement on them. God is our protector, God is our Provider, Jesus is our Savior, etc.. Her program is on Sunday morning where she will get her last bracelet and she will sing for us parents and we can see a little bit of what they did! Can't wait to see!





While it is SUPER busy getting her off to VBS by 6:30, it is nice to have a little bit of time with just Selah. And Kyle and I have spent a little time too just hanging out while Selah played - much needed! Last night for instance we were sitting on the couch together and talking and he mentioned that Casting Crowns has a new CD coming out in August so we listened to the little sneak preview HERE. We will for sure be picking this CD up and I have a $5 GC to our local christian bookstore that I got for teaching Children in Worship this year! Then I wanted to play THIS song by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. This is my song to Kyle - it starts by Tim McGraw singing about how he needs whiskey and cigarettes (which isn't really my style - but it is sung to make a point) - he is talking about how he NEEDS things - like Faith Hill. Then she goes on to talk about what she needs like an addiction. Such a love song. One part of the verse is about how the Father and the Son need the Holy Ghost. Interesting enough on Sunday that was part of the sermon - about how one can't be without the other even though they do entirely differnt things. Anyway - it is just a sweet love song and then to see them on the video just sitting there singing to eachother - ugh - melt my heart! Then I thought of a song that our country station has been playing by Tim Mc Graw that is not for sale anywhere yet. He sang it at the Music Awards and you can only see it on YouTube right now (see the top post to listen to song). The song is about the war and about a soldier who died and isn't coming home. It has such strong christian reference to the soldier being in heaven and that he is proud that he fought. There are so many anti-war songs and words put out by celebrities that to hear something honoring these men is AWESOME! It was a great tribute to the families of the fallen! So it was just a night of listening to some great music together and hanging out until it was time to pick Braelyn up!



Today is a relaxing day - totally staying home until Kyle comes home and we are going to eat quick left overs and then head out to the mall! I need to get a few maternity things - which I hate doing b/c you wear them for such a short time, but I am wearing the same 5 shirts and I have one pair of shorts that fit me right now. Braelyn and Selah also need a few things and I am sure Kyle will walk out with something just to not feel left out! Always a fun night at the mall. Tomorrow is pretty relaxed. Kyle wants to take Braelyn out fishing on his little boat so I will hang out with Selah so she can get her nap and all that good stuff! At night we have a big friends "pool" party - although usually no one swims - LOL! Just hanging out with friends and no kids - which is always refreshing! Our weather here has been AWESOME! It is going to get real hot again next week early it looks like, but we have been 80 degrees and no humidity the past week which is nice! A slight breeze makes it just perfect!



I will leave you with one LO here that I haven't even posted yet in my galleries, but here it is for you to see. A couple of you that read my blog asked where this lighthouse is and it is in Silver Lake Michigan - and it was great! Great picture opportunities and most weekends you can actually go up to the top for a $2 fee, and look over Lake Michigan!



























Good Bye for now!

Patriotic Pup

So - the other night I got an email from ShabbyMissJenn which is always exciting b/c it normally means she has a new kit!!! Sure enough she sent us THIS kit to start playing with!!! Here is what I created with it!!!

The minute I saw it I knew that I would scrap a picture of Gauge b/c

A. it has been a while since I scrapped him and I took these pictures last month

B. He was our fourth of July pup 5 years ago

C. I scrap in chronilogical order so that means I have already scrapped my 4th of July photos from last year and obviously it is not yet the 4th of July - LOL! Heaven forbid I use a cute kit like this for just a fun picture non patriotic (insert sarcasm here). I have a hard time getting out of my box!

Short post - not much to talk about really - just getting on with my busy fun week!

Have a good one!

Monday Morning

Good morning everyone! Hope that you are all ready for the weekend that is set before us! I had a GREAT weekend and am ready to start this busy week myself! We have so much going on and so I know that this week will FLY and we will be back to a fun weekend! Braelyn has swimming lessons Mon. thru Thur. this whole week and next - at a neighbor's house. The lady that is instructing is actually the same lady that taught me YEARS ago. I grew up with a pool so each of my siblings and I took swimming lessons from her back in the day! So my mom will bring her for her first day today since she watches the girls on Mon.! Also this week Mon. thru Thur. Braelyn gets to go to Vacation Bible School at a church nearby! The church is one of the only ones around here that offers it to 3 yr. olds - so we are excited for that! I feel like this is a monumental week due to the fact that up until now in our parenting we have not had any real "obligations" to sports or busyness. Now Braelyn is doing her swimming lessons and things that take some remembering and running! This is where it all begins right moms?!

The weekend was AWESOME! We had so much fun stuff going on. Fri. night as I have mentioned a million times I got to meet Janet! It's funny how you can talk to someone online back and forth many times and click and then you get anxious moments before actually meeting in person! I was a little nervous and excited at the same time. You worry that they might not like you in real life or that you won't click in a normal setting. All worries aside - I picked her up and I think it went great! After picking Janet up I picked up three other friends that scrap to go get pedicures and do dinner. After our fun night it was time to drop Janet off after dropping my friends off and we ended up talking in the car for a good hour! It was so meat to have the one on one time too to chat about life! Thanks for the good talk Janet - you are everything i expected you to be and more! Very genuine and sincere! Guess what??? NO CAMERA!!! GASP!!! We didn't hardly even talk too much digital stuff. I am bummed that I did not get a picture of Janet and I! Come on - she is moving down to Florida now - a good 22 hrs away and I got no pictures - what was I thinking?! Anyway - good stuff!

Sat. was me and the girls all day - little of this and a little of that! shopping, swimming, playing.

Sunday was super busy with the dedication of my nephew and then lunch after that with the family for the dedication and for Father's day. Home for naps at 2:30 and then at 5:00 off to Kyle's parents for supper and lake swimming! I got a workout swimming from our "swimming hole" back to the condo! Whew - great for this pregnant body!!! Braelyn did so good too - swam the whole way with her life jacket!

Enough weekend recap - that is probably SUPER boring to all of you. Oh wait - one more thing - gave my hubby a shutterfly book that I won and made and her LOVED it! Too cool!

Got to scrap one LO Sat. night and finished up another - both for my creative teams.

Credits Here - This LO was done with Miss hunibuni and Ali Folendore's collab kit at The DigiShoppe - very cute and fun to play with!!! Pictures are of Selah busting a move - not such a good move either! She is so funny to watch dance!

Credits Here - this LO I finished up too this weekend with Audrey Neal's new quickpage she put out. I added a bit to it and gave it my own touches. How fun though that I did the page in about 20 minutes! I am all about that - just preserving those memories - that's the mainn goal here!

OK - I better get going! Again, hope you all have a great week!

Busy Fun Weekend Ahead!

Whew - this week FLEW by - I mean literally - not a spare minute - ANYWHERE! Looks like this weekend will not be any better! I love the busyness too so it's all good! Fun birthday party for my niece Eva last night. I can't tell you enough how fun it is to watch my nieces and nephews mature and grow. Kiddos are amazing I tell ya. To see them interact and play is just so cool - each with their different attitudes and fun tempraments! With 10 kiddos running around (OK - not all running yet!) it gets MIGHTY chaotic at family gatherings!

This morning we got up and out of the house by 8:30am and headed to the bakery b/c hey - everyone around here seems to be doing it - LOL! We headed into the salon that I worked at last year just to say HI to everyone. Made an appointment for my highlight and cut too - not until July 14 though! Hope I can hold off that long! Then we walked over to the library and realized they don't open until 9:30 so we hopped back in the car and headed over to the car wash. By time we were done with that the library had opened. I signed Braelyn and Selah up for the book club this summer. Braelyn has to read 15 minutes and then she can fill in a circle on her chart. Then every 10 circles or so she fills in the star and can take it in for her prize. Selah can fill in one circle per board book I read to her. It really encourages kids to read and be read too, which is GREAT! I love our local library, but man taking two kids 3 and under is crazy. I can't imagine taking more kids - and soon I will have to - LOL! Selah has NO concept of "quiet" in a library. She also has no concept of books belonging on certain shelves so she tears them out one at a time and I have to figure out where they go again. I quick grabbed 10 books - 5 for each - and headed out. I was going to pick up a new video for them to watch, but they were not being very cooperative. Maybe next time. Next time I will have Selah in the umbrella stroller FOR SURE!

Pedicures tonight with the girls! Meeting Janet at a park and drive and then picking up the other gals - good girls night out! Speaking of feet!!! Here is a LO I did for the Hodge Podge Art challenge this week! One thing I do like about myself is my feet - odd I know! I have a foot fetish of sorts! I love giving pedicures and making other people's feet look beautiful!

Also in the LO I wanted to spotlight Amy Martin's tiny beaded disks - her featured item of the week over at The-Lilypad. They are on sale, but also if you use them in a LO you have a chance to win some money to Amy's shop. Who wouldn't want Amy Martin shop money I say!

Credits for this LO found here.

Here is another LO that I finished up the other night while scrapping at my neighbor's (which was mighty fun I might add!) I did not and will not post this in my galleries b/c it is a COMPLETE scraplift of this fabulous LO by Colleen

When I saw Colleen's LO I knew I needed to do one like it with Braelyn's Dora birthday cake. I just LOVED how she did the title with DORA in it and I just loved the whole thing really! So I am loving this LO - can't wait to see it in print! I used stuff from Shabby Princess, Amy Martin, Kate Hadfield, Natalie Braxton, & Gina Cabrera.

I have done a bit of shopping this month too - hoping Kyle isn't led to look at the credit card bill before I pay it! I had a couple inside sales at The-Lilypad from Natalie Braxton and Kate Hadfield - I can't pass up a sale right??? They only come around once in a while! Also today I got to download a bunch of new goodies from Audrey Neal since I am on her team - she put out 7 new wordart packs and I LOVE me some good wordart quotes!!! Will have to play around with that stuff soon! Since getting all this new stuff my "new scrapping supply" folder is jammed packed which means I need to sit and put it all into ACDC and tag it all - that might take a little while of organizing!

Tomorrow Kyle is pretty much gone all day - fishing in morning and then maybe home for a bit in the afternoon and then off to the races at night with Chad - brother-in-law. I guess I might get a little scrap time then since I am spending this nap time on a VERY long post - LOL!

I think I will just leave you with all that - if I haven't lost you already! I enjoyed writing this one!

BTW - I did update my bloggy a little - like the header and some of my blog links - my sister Kim started blogging!!!

Have a great weekend everyone and HAPPY FATHER's Day to any dad that just might be reading this. (OK - so I am pretty sure that would only be my brother Dino - LOL).

Ciao!

Pics from the weekend!

Just some pictures from our weekend away!

How many kids can you fit into a 3' x 5' sandbox??? I can't get over this pick and how so many kiddos fit in there and actually had fun still!

Kyle took Braelyn up into this lighthouse on the beach - so cool that it was open for tours! Braelyn loved it and it was HIGH!!!

See!!!

Selah stayed on the beach with me since she wasn't tall enough to go up - for fear of falling over that side (let alone the fact that my preggo body would have been TIRED from hiking up those stairs - LOL) She got FULL of sand, but we had so much fun!

So - I really didn't take many photos unfortunately, but I am okay with it b/c we had a really great time! I have a few pics to get of Braelyn riding a go cart all by herself so I will post those as soon as I get them! It was so so cute!

This week and weekend are BUSY!!! Wed. morning we have another showing - same couple coming thru a second time so more CLEANING tomorrow! Wed. night going to scrap with some friends, Thur. night we have a big family birthday party for my niece Eva. Fri. night girls night out. Sat. night - Kyle's night out - he is going out to the races with our brother-in-law. Good Father's day night out doing something they enjoy. I think he may try going fishing too on Sat. which will be good for him b/c he has been DYING to go out! Then Sunday is Father's Day which is also my nephew Owen's dedication at church so we go to their church and then big family thing again at my mom's for that and for Father's Day. At dinner time we head to Kyle's parents on the pond for a cookout and boating! Whew - I am tired just thinking about all this stuff!!! Add work into that schedule and I am not sure how I am going to do it other than the fact that Thur. I don't need to cook dinner - Whoo whooo!!! It's the simple things that excite me. And guess what else??? I get to meet Janet Phillips this week which excites me to no end!!! We haven't nailed down specifics, but we WILL get together!!! She is just an inspiration to me both as a mother and as a person, and of course as a scrapper too! Those of you that know me as a scrapper know that I am not afraid to use templates b/c hey - I scrap for my kids and my memories and if it means I can get more pages done and stay caught up for EACH child then I am all about it! I can still be creative with them and do my own thing. I can re-use them numerous times without anyone really even noticing (especially my kids some day or people who don't scrap and are just browsing my books!) Janet's templates caught me quite some time ago - I think I might have happened upon her blog at one point and just LOVED her LO's. Then as I read her blog daily I realized that she is such an amazing woman. We have become little blog friends and exchange emails and blog comments on a weekly basis. So this is one digi scrapper/designer that I am stoked to meet!

Many of you know I have had the opportunity to meet many a scrappers/designers - so very cool. Not one of them has ever disappointed - all of them way better in real life than in digi-land - which is a COOL!!!

Well, signing off for the night! Hope you all have a great week! If you have made it thru this long boring post - GOOD FOR YOU!!!

Farmer's Market

Do any of you go to your local farmers market? Maybe you don't have one near you. We have a GREAT farmers market in my opinion! They re-did the area for it in our town with some nice canopies - just good stuff! So on Sat. morning we went with kids and hubby and got just one thing - snow peas. Still fun to walk around and see all the stuff and people! Today I went with the girls because we saw some great big tomato plants for our garden so I went to get one of those and one jalepano plant - we had planted the garden already, but figured we would add to it b/c the plants looked so good - and our original plants were SMALL. I also picked up strawberries and watermelon for this weekend to go with my fruit dip. A few tomatos for tonights BLT's too! Anyway - good stuff - farmer's markets!

This week has been great b/c we have just been home every night. No big things going on - so refreshing. Just playing outside with the girls and decent bedtimes!

Here is one more LO I finished up. I figured I better get her first ultrasound scrapped so that I can start working on the second ultrasound pics! I am amazed that in 12 weeks she went from a tiny little peanut in the image to a full figured baby - such a cute profile pic we got in the latest ultrasound! So - this LO will just explain to my daughter why we had an early ultrsound and what we were thinking at that point!

Hope you are all having a good mid week - anybody pick anything up at the Shabby Shoppe sale???