My hubby's coming home!!!

After 7 days of being single mom, I am finally going to get some relief!!! My husband left for deer camp last Monday morning. I have been flat flying ever since. It's quite a chore to get three (wait - 4 including myself) girls ready for going out, ready for bed, fed, etc... The girls did fairly well all week though. Yesterday and today I am hitting my breaking point though. I really can't wait to see Kyle either - I miss him and his companionship. The girls miss his rough housing. Luckily my dad came over the other night and him and my mom played with them - some of their normal "dad" games too - duck duck goose and a little wrestling. They also love musical chairs.

:::A break from your normal broadcast to just give you a snippet of info. Braelyn is currently screaming like a one year old in her room. I sent her to her room for pushing and fighting with her sister for the umpteenth time this morning. Man do they fight a lot!:::

Ok, so anyway, I did not get as much done as I would like this week - scrapping wise. I did finish up my calendars and now I need to decide if I want to print them, or if I want to bring them in to get printed. I get one free one from shutterfly, but they will only use their bottom grids and I just don't think that looks as nice. So the one I have printed there will be my work one! I have at three others to print - which would be quite time consuming right now, and not to mention -a TON of ink. I printed out one CD calendar and might print up one more - not real sure though. I am thru letter I in Braelyn's Alphabet book - so slowly making progress on that too. Gracyn's Baby Daze book is up to date too - just not printed yet - I need an album to put that in. And then I also try to scrap just for fun - with Lilypad and Shabby Miss Jenn goodies! I love being on these two teams b/c they are totally my go to for designers! I have no problem playing with these goodies! Here is one LO that is just for fun to show off and I have two more that I will share this week sometime! It is up in my galleries if you want credits!

Today I am heading over to my mom's for a good lunch and then home for naps for the girls. My friend might come over for a bit to scrap since Kyle is gone thru the day. Then tonight I get to see my hubby!!! Tomorrow he has off of work b/c they will be home late and then we will spend the day together as a family! I won't post until Tue. or Wed. for sure - and then look at that - it's Thanksgiving and Kyle will have that whole long weekend off too! I hope you all enjoy your last weekend day and we'll chat at you soon!

Not much to really say for some reason. I have been busy busy, but not really a whole lot worth blogging about. We had a great weekend - went on a family date Sat. night which was great. We went to see the Bee Movie. Very highly recommend. No scary part which I appreciate with youngens. Selah didn't do real great, but what can you expect from a 22 month old with no sit. Braelyn loved it. Gracyn was great - we had a good "hidden" seat so I could nurse. We went to the theater in Grand Haven - which is about 20 minutes away and not our normal theater. We had a Goodrich Quality Theater gift card and our local Goodrich Theater did not have the Bee Movie. So off we went up the road a bit and we LOVED the theater. Matinee and kid price is only $3 - so we all got in for $9!!! Regular night movie price for adult is only $6 - as apposed to $7.50-$8.00 at our local theaters. AND it had stadium seating! Good price! So that is a new option for those of you who live near here! After movie we just did dinner at Russ' and then dessert at Cold Stone. Did I tell you though what a process everything is with three kids??? Just getting them in and out of car for Kyle and I is sometimes hectic.

Not a ton going on this week. I have my 6 week post partum check-up and hopefully get my hair done. Some color and a cut! Braelyn of course had school today - gymnastic day field trip - she had fun - and then school again Fri. It is so wierd not working and being home everyday - even though I am not home everyday -LOL! I do look forward to going back though for the break from kiddos. Fri. night I am having a little scrap get together and that is it for the weekend. I am going to have to find some more stuff to do! Anybody want to play??!!! :)

I have been working hard on Christmas projects and what not - so many ideas - it's almost overwhelming! Oh - guess what else? My LO of Gracyn's first hospital bath is featured on DiScTalkRadio this week! I am so excited. This is the first time on of mh LO's was chosen for this online radio show!!! Check it out if you are interested or do digital scrapping - lots of good info on this show! And I leave you with one LO for this week's Lilypad Blog Challenge.

Ciao folks!

No Hugging

Really - what is this world coming to? Now you can't hug in school. For fear of lawsuits. Seriously. Ugh - I get so frustrated. No showing love kids - that would be a horrible thing to do. I mean we'd rather have you be cold and standoffish to people please. What the heck kind of message is that? Anyway - my vent is over - but I couldn't believe that when I was watching the Today show this morning. And on a short note - what is up with kids toys now days??? They can't make safe kids toys now? Every toy seems to have some danger to it.

Christmas gifts. I have been working my little toosh off preparing Christmas presents. Calendars, preparing to make tile coasters, recipe cards to add to my growing key ring, etc... It is kind of putting me in the mood for Christmas. :) Here are a couple previews!

Recipe Card

CD Calendar preview (probably will make one for my desk at work and one for Kyle's work trailer!

The bottom of my two page calendar ( I have finished all of my bottoms with birthdays and anniversaries!) Now just to get to the tops with some good pictures!

The CD calendar is made using Shabby Miss Jenn Designs premade calendar - LOVE it! The two page calendar is made with Shabby Princess' two page calendar. No work to it. I finished the CD calendar last night in about 1 1/2 hr.! Now to just print.

Oh yeah - I made one more little thing - my Starbucks mug insert! I LOVE drinking my hot chocolate out of my personalized mug!

Did I leave you with enough inspiration? I have uploaded a few new LO's to my galleries too so feel free to check those out from the link on the side. I didn't want the post to be too picture heavy!!! I don't do crafty things with my hands really, but digitally - I am on a roll!

The week is going well - trying to just stay in for the most part to keep everyone well. We had a nice double date on Tue. night with just some great conversations (Thanks Tam and Brian), and last night we stayed home and had a scrumptious meatloaf (thanks for the recipe Amy - that is my next recipe card!). Kyle took a walk with the girls in the pitch black back in our field and saw 4 deer - they thought that was great. Tonight is dinner at the in-laws, and tomorrow Kyle is out with the guys getting their hunting food. Braelyn has school tomorrow again so we will be out and about I am sure tomorrow. I have done a fair amount of cleaning - although you'd never be able to tell - LOL! I am looking forward to Sat. night b/c we are doing a family date night. We are forgoing the babysitter b/c our favorite gal had to work so we decided to not try any harder to get a sitter and to all go out to see "The Bee Movie". A family movie - yikes - I hope it goes well. Selah has never been to a theater. Gracyn should be fine - we'll just sit in back and I can nurse while we watch if I need to. So there is the run down. I can't believe it's Thur. night already - where does the week go? I love it.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

There's bad days and then there's good days

We all have them. Good days and bad days. this weekend was a bit of both. Even good minutes and bad minutes. Good hours and bad hours. They go hand in hand I guess. Can't have it all good all the time and that's okay. I think the bad times made me a little stronger. Made me question myself.

The weekend was a bit different than we had planned. Pretty much stayed home. Fri. night was dinner home. Sat. morning we went to breakfast and figured out that Selah has hand foot and mouth disease (coxsackievirus?). Her niece Ainsley has it and she must have gotten it from last Sat. at the pumpkin party. Anyway - so she needs to stay home for about a week. So, Sat. afternoon and night were spent just hanging out here at home. We picked up pizza and Braelyn played with her cousin Paige for a while - she LOVED that! Sunday we made a quick run to the mall (20 min.away) to get Braelyn her Children's Place winter coat. Wanted to get it before it was gone and cold weather I think has finally set in here! Selah stayed right in the stroller and we were literally in and out! Kyle went to his mom's for lunch yet since they needed to discuss Thanksgiving and Christmas plans - nice to have some of that on the calendar and planned out! I can't wait for Thanksgiving! It will be at our house again so I will need to do a bit of prep for that, but I just LOVE Thanksgiving! More than Christmas actually! Good food and the meaning of it for me is great - true holiday for thanks! Christmas has a great meaning too obviously - I am just often a little disappointed by the materialism of it. So last night I made blueberry muffins and Braelyn and I made Tollhouse cookies. They both turned out good - which is suprising for me! :)

This morning I was awake on time and finished up my bible study for BSF. Totally good lesson again. We are studying Matt. and Jesus' words. What a teacher he was. I think the part that I will like in lecture tonight will be on the treasures in heaven from Matt. 6. So often we store up treasures here on earth. I place more value on money than I should. We all do it. It's impossible not to in this world. I worry about saving it. I worry about spending it. Then ironically Jesus goes right into his next sermon about not worrying. What? OK - stop. Stop worrying about money or lack of it. Stop worrying about tomorrow. Just simple words from Jesus that hit home. Yesterday I was a bit stressed/depressed about some issues and then I read Matt. Love when God sets you straight. I am going to have faith that God will take care of me. And really - I don't NEED all the stuff I have been stressing about. Sure - I have a list of some things I want, but I will not just go out and buy them. How many of us right now have lists because of Christmas. Things we want to get for our kids, for our spouses, for us. We do pretty lean christmas' around here. Kyle and I usually buy VERY little for eachother. Like I believe some christmas' we have bought nothing for eachother. I like to have the kids see us exchange a little something though so we will probably fill a stocking of little things for eachother, but really we don't NEED stuff. I NEED a relationship with Jesus Christ. I NEED to tell others about him. I NEED for my treasures to be in Heaven, because at the end of the day that is what is going to matter. And STUFF just clutters my house - LOL! OK - that was another ramble!

So after feeding the kiddos I felt I needed to do something fun with them. We went for a walk. Braelyn rode her bike. Selah and Gracyn did great in the stroller. Braelyn kept saying she wanted to ride all the way to Grandma's house so that is what we did. It was a great workout for me! Sounds like snow flurries are on their way here so I figured it may be the last day b/c I HATE the cold. It was just brisk this morning. Actually sweating when we stopped!

So did you all have good weekends? Hopefully the sickies haven't hit your houses yet - and hopefully won't! Pretty basic week here - BSF tonight, dinner out tomorrow night, nothing Wed., Thur. dinner at in-laws. Fri. - Kyle out with friends briefly, Sat. night I think Kyle and I will do a DATE night! Movie and dinner or Movie and dessert. We will go see Dan in Real Life - can't wait!!! So I will chat at you later in the week - OK?!

All kinds of good stuff

All kinds of good stuff today folks! First off - everyone's blogs I visited last night and today are great - all kinds of kiddos dressed up so cute!

Both the girls LOVED trick-r-treating this year! We did have a little rain which made it quite cold, but all in all it was good. We left our house at about 5:40 to go to my mom's church for "trunk-r-treating" and then we stopped home and did a few neighbors, headed out to Kyle's grandparents for a stop and to feed baby, and then to our church by 7:30pm. Next year we will just be staying here in our neighborhood though. Way too much running around and church was WAY too busy for my liking! I though we lost Braelyn for a couple minutes - luckily she was with Grandma and Grandpa. So Halloween was great!

I NEED to share a few photos of the sky last night though. We were blessed with the most BEAUTIFUL rainbow I have EVER seen! Not only a great rainbow (with a slight second rainbow next to it), but also a gorgeous sunset. Here are my photos.

These pictures don't do it justice whatsoever. I was telling Braelyn what a great God we have to allow us to see such beauty! She thought it was pretty awesome! At school we are working on orange and pumpkins this week so she pointed out the orange sky to me since I was so busy looking to the east at the rainbow. I would have totally missed that gorgeous sunset if it weren't for her!

More photos - these are some pictures from a local farm I took Braelyn and Kylie to yesterday morning with a little school group I went to last year. Lots of fun there too!

Now to scrapping stuff!!! I have a LO to show off for a kit that is SOOOO fabulous! The designers at The-Lilypad along with Meredith Fenwick, Jan Crowley, and Janet Phillips did a Christmas kit for Songbird Avenue. Songbird Avenue composts a kit every month that strictly funds charities. This month the charity the proceeds are going to is Toys for Tots - which is an AWESOME and fitting charity for this month - with Christmas approaching. What a great cause and just by buying a kit that you will use over and over you are helping out!

And tomorrow stay tuned to The-Lilypad blog - I am going to be blogging there about some new and fun stuff coming to TLP! So very exciting. This Saturday (really the whole weekend) is also National Digi-Scrapping Day so there are fabulous things going on all over in the digi-community!

A good friend Bethany made me such an ADORABLE little baby gift and gave it to me yesterday at the farm. I love getting home-made little goodies from shabby fabulous people! These were so cute - little blocks that she gussied up with papers and a letter on each block spelling Gracyn. Thanks Bethany - so sweet of you!

OK - folks - I am checking out. I have dinner in the crockpot, 3rd load of laundry waiting to be folded, and Gracyn is fussing so off to motherly duties again! Have a great day and happy weekend!

Pumpkin Party

Wanted to pop in on my busy day to show a few pics from the pumpkin carving party. It was a great time. We had some white chicken chili and reg. chili, chips and dip, party potatos, rolls, etc... Of course we carved pumpkins. The kids did a pumpkin face craft that I had brought. Campfire with guitar and songs. Fireworks. What a night. I have to get better pictures from my family with better cameras though. I got a few "decent" shots, but most were bad. I fixed every single one up with NeatImage, which helped quite a bit actually, but not good enough.

This first one I actually got into a LO already yesterday afternoon - it is for the Lilypad blog challenge this week.

And here are a few more pics!

Kyle and Braelyn worked on their two pumkins - Both were pretty greusome. Braelyn's was a skull, and Kyle's was just a puking pumpkin. See the bottom pic!

Lindsey (my cousin) helped Selah do her pumpkin. They did a cute pumkin heart eyes and a cute mouth.

I carved Gracyn during the 10 minutes that I wasn't holding her. No just kidding, but I felt like i had her all night and missed out on quite a bit of the festivities b/c of it. Such is life with a 4 week old I guess.

Lindsey and Selah - being cute as ever!

And here are the finished pumpkins - Notice Kyle's pumpkin puking in the back, Braelyn's to the right. Selah's in the middle, and Gracyn's front/center. I just did a bunch of circles, squares, & stars around it. It was a tiny pumpkin so I thought that would be best.

This morning was one of those mornings that NOTHING went right. Braelyn and Selah fought ALL morning. Selah was HORRIBLE. I don't even know how to explain it, nor do I know what to do. She got like three time outs - as did Braelyn. I just want them to play nice together and I want Selah to not whine. I am not sure how to instill this in them. I try to be nice and calm about it, but I just can't. Any advice on what to do or how to handle this would be great! Since I have already told you all about my week I guess I can sign off. Back later in the week!

MandaKay

A week???

It's been almost a week since I last post. For a while I was doing 2 -3 posts a week. Guess that's life! My main reasons is that I am only on the computer when I am sitting and nursing (which is actually a lot! I figure I might as well be doing something as productive while I am nursing right?!) Anyway - it is quite tough to type out a story or journal entry one handed. I can do words or comment on LO's and blogs occasionally if I am set up right, but to do a whole blog entry is tough. There's my excuse - not that I feel I need to justify! :)

Life is good here. I really still feel like the adjustment from 1 to 2 kids was harder than from 2 to 3. Gracyn is my best baby yet - still cries and is fussy, but partly I am probably more relaxed too. My house is going to be cluttered with toys at times. I might have to change a diaper or two in the middle of the night. The kids are going to spill on my newly cleaned wood floors. What's a mom to do? I am trying to just let some of it go. There will come a time when I can have a clean house for more than one day - and then guess what - that will get boring. Someday it will be just Kyle and I, and our kids will be grown. Yikes - what will we do with all our time then??? I pray we as a couple stay close enough that we don't go thru that awkward stage after our kids move out that we don't know what to do with eachother. I don't think we will. My sister teases us b/c we seem to go away alot and get sitters (like our last weekend). She teases, and I know it's true - but her and I both know it is necessarry for a marriage to do those things. I love that time - just driving on the road - 6 hours - sometimes saying nothing, sometimes chatting up a storm - just being together. Have I mentioned how much I love my hubby - he's such a goof - makes me smile so much. Generally it is a "roll your eyes" kind of smile b/c of how crazy he is, but deep down my heart is beating with delight!

Aren't I so scatter brained? That is one thing I have been thinking about today. Here are three things about me that I just am (ETA: or aren't, actually). I am NOT a deep thinker. I am NOT real emotional (except when pregnant - LOL). And I am VERY scatterbrained. I just randomly think of things and forget them two minutes later. I can be praying to God and then venture off into my own random thoughts and then get back into the prayer again. In BSF we are really challenged to pray - like before each day's study and for others in our group, etc... I struggle with prayer. I do not think I am a very good "pray-er" I cannot/will not pray in front of people and even to myself I think "gosh - I am so not good with words". Oh well - I do know that I am in constant conversation with God every day. Like I said - I start to pray, think of other things, pray again more, etc... I at least have the faith that God knows what I am saying and thinking. And by the way - I have asked Him to help me to concentrate more and to be better with my words. He has answered my prayer more and more daily, but man do I wish I could pray like Kyle's Grandpa (who is a reverend).

OK - what else. Tonight we are heading to my mom's for the annual pumpkin carving party. Good food. Good times. We'll dress the girls up for a bit just for fun (Braelyn will be the ladybug costume from Old Navy, Selah a flower - an old costume of Braelyn's, and Gracyn just a halloween orange shirt) and then carve pumpkins and I am bringing a little pumpkin craft too for the kids. I feel like my week - starting Monday is kind of busy for me. Probably my busiest since having Gracyn. (which by the way - was almost a month ago already!) Monday I have to take Gauge to the vet and then BSF at night. Tue. I am the parent helper at Braelyn's school, home for naps, and then late afternoon off to Kyle's mom's work for some trick or treating early. Wed. I am going to trade a few kids off to my mom and take Braelyn and my niece Kylie (since my mom babysits her on Wed.) to a local farm where the kids get to do some fun stuff. And of course Wed. night is halloween so we will be heading out early to make it to all our stops. We go to our church for a big halloween event (big blow up stuff, food, candy, games) and probably visit my mom at her church to show off the kids at her church's Trunk or Treat event, and of course hit a few neighbors! I think Thur. and the weekend are kind of slow though - thank goodness. Two mornings with out Gracyn for a while - what will I do??? That girl has been attached to me. So, that's our week in a nutshell - not like you all really care though - LOL! Just more of a reminder for me!

And here are two more LO's. Like I said I do have my computer beside me while nursing so I tend to just work on LO's since I can do that one handed for the most part! So I may seem like i am scrapping a lot, but hey - what else is a mom to do while sitting down anyway. I really do still clean and cook and do domestic stuff (probably not near as much as hubby would like yet, but my house stays quite clean I would say!)

This first LO is using Shabby Miss Jenn's newest kit Uncle Patrick's Banquet. I LOVE purple so this kit jumped right out at me when I saw it! Yummy colors in my eyes! I will get good use out of this kit!

And, oh boy, are you guys going to LOVE Nov. at the Lilypad!!! There are some new, fun, exciting things that are about to hoppin over there! The above LO is done using some new goodies from a new "mystery guest designer" debuting Nov. 2! You better HOP on over next week Fri.! I am scheduled to do the blog post and I am super nervous b/c of all the stuff I get to "show off" and talk about! Exciting I tell ya! But there are some other goodies on this LO that have already come out - the straight ribbons by Natalie Braxton (the ORIGINAL ribbon queen) and now some new paper clipped ribbons by Natalie's up and coming rival - Amy Martin! And of course I used Nancy's famous frames, and Amy Wolff's highlighting brush for the words. The girls were having fun painting a week or so ago - I just let them go to town - with washable paints of course! I think I will do an identical LO for Braelyn just change out the pictures! Keeping it easy and real for me folks!

So there you have it. That's it for me today folks. Who knows when you'll see me next! Ta ta for now! Keep it real!

P.S. - wanna see what I have on my christmas list???

Bamboo Fun tablet by Wacom. I have never had a tablet nor wanted one, until now. I think it would be fun to play with. Probably would be easier to nurse and scrap too! :) Hubby will kill me if I told him I wanted this. I am sure I won't get it, but a girl can dream, right?

You are seeing my scatterdness come out now aren't ya???