Have you all spent way to much money yet this weekend???

Have you all spent way to much money yet this weekend??? I know we have over here!!! Kyle and I don't really shop very often for "stuff". We like to grocery shop, but neither of us ever just go to Target, walk around, and leave with toys and "stuff". This weekend we did just that! Our kids really only get new toys at Christmas and birthdays. And they only get new clothes when they need them. I realize too after this weekend that I have no urge to do this again until next year - LOL! I don't really like the feeling of handing over wads of cash without end. Some people use buying stuff as therapy. Not me. Not Kyle. It just stresses us out! :) We're probably weird like that! Anyway we are MOSTLY done with our Christmas shopping. We haven't drawn a family on my side yet, so I will have to get one gift for one other family, and then for Kyle's dad, but mainly I am done!!! I even have stuff wrapped and under the beautiful tree!

Thanksgiving was GREAT! We hosted Kyle's side of family, which consisted of 21 people. It was CRAZY fun! The 9 kids (well - really I guess only 8 since I can't say Gracyn really played LOL) played so well together. Braelyn thoroughly enjoyed playing with her BOY cousins. She sees her girl cousins that she has so many of on my side quite a bit, so this was a refreshing change! They seemed to allow her to fit right in with them okay too! Our house was cleared out by about 5:00 and I went to my mom's to grab her paper ads. They had two of my aunts and uncles over and some cousins to eat a cream turkey sandwich dinner and play games so she invited me and Kyle back with the girls. When I got home Selah was MELTING DOWN. She did not get a nap so she was BAD. I decided we better stay home and let them sleep. I gave them a bath and then mentioned to Kyle that one of us should go to Meijer to get some shopping done before the rush! They had some good Thanksgiving day sales too! Well, seeing that we BOTH like to shop together he suggested we maybe put the girls down for bed at my mom's since she was home anyway, so we trucked over there for dinner. Selah fell asleep before we left the driveway. Braelyn, Kyle and I ate and then Kyle and I left with Gracyn. We hit BOTH of the Meijers by us and ended up with pretty much everything! By 10:30pm we were back for the girls (although I played two rounds of chicken foot dominos - which was quite fun actually - I had NEVER played and my parents play it ALL the time!) Fri morning we just stayed in - didn't want to battle crowds just to save $20 here and $20 there. You folks are insane! We did hit a few places at night and ate at Olive Garden for dinner. Of course for the girls we also got Krispy Kreme donuts and sat and watched airplanes at the airport too - had to do something for them! Truth be told though I also had to feed Gracyn so the airplane watching was partly for that! Today we hung out home again until 12:00 and then ran a few more errands. Girls are napping now and then we will take them to Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner and games. Kyle's parents are going to join us! So that is our weekend in a nut shell! If you stuck with me thru our boring life story this far - good job!!! :)

I have had NO time to scrap in the last 4 days, but I have two LO's to share that I did early last week for Shabby Miss Jenn - these two new kits are AWESOME and HUGE!

Other than that I have just been printing up my calendar and other projects too.

Tomorrow is the big Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house which I am super excited about again. Two thanksgiving meals on two different days - now that is perfect. I feel bad for all of you that have to go to two meals on the same day - that is just not fair! I am thankful for two good meals on two totally different days! Bring it on!!!

Hope you all are having a great weekend with your families!

Busy week - and a lot of religeous stuff today.

What's new right? Aren't we all just so busy! The hussle and bussle of holiday stuff. This week will go so fast for me. How about you. I hope we all at least take some time to be thankful, and to praise God for all He has given us. That's why I like Thanksgiving - it MAKES me think about it for a bit. So here is a little list from me to start the holiday off already today.

1. My husband

2. my kids

3. my extended family (mom, dad, brother, sisters, in-laws, etc...)

4. my house being my shelter

5. my '97 Tahoe - it's such a reliable truck for me - even if we barely fit in it anymore as a family!

6. my job - they are just great people over there - they are soooo flexible!

7. the good food we get to eat (especially the candy I love!)

8. I'm even thankful for my miniature dachshund that is snuggling on my lap

9. the cloudy misty day that it is today

10. for my friends - what would I do without my friends

11. for God's word to me

12. BSF - my bible study - wow have I learned a TON already. Very convicting stuff

13. for Braelyn being able to go to Christian school this year. Not sure if that will always be the case, but I am thankful right now for what she is learning

14. for my church

15. OK - I am totally thankful for digital scrapping b/c it is going to give my kids years of memories and it's something that I enjoy doing that lets me just be me and relax!

16. I am thankful for life. For my life, for my husband's and kids life.

17. thankful for having so much more than I even deserve!

18. Thankful that my sins are fogiven.

19. Thankful that each day is a new day

20. thankful for the smell of my roast cooking in the oven.

There are 20 just to start. We have so much to be thankful for! OK - so last night I made it only to lecture for Bible Study Fellowship. Kyle and I had flown around ALL day - like Sam's Club, Meijer, Mall, Logan's. So we did not get back home until 7:45pm. I knew I had missed small group part of BSF, and I debated just skipping it all together. So glad I didn't. That is always the way it goes. So anyway, here are the principles from this week - I know Sarah and Lynette might appreciate this!

Matthew 8

Who's in Charge?

1. Jesus' Authority over Disease (8:1-17)

Principle: Miracles point to Jesus' divine power to heal the damage of sin.

Challenge: Where can I let Jesus heal me?

2. Jesus' Authority over Disciples (8:18-22)

Principle: Jesus has authority to direct the lives of His disciples

Challenge: Where is Jesus directing me? Do I believe that Jesus has authority over MY life?

3. Jesus' Authority over Disaster and Demons (8:23-27)

Principle: Trusting in Jesus' control gives peace, and calms fears.

Challenge: Where do I need to trust in Jesus' control? What is the storm in MY life that I can turn over to Him?

Some things to think about. My notes today from BSF go further into all of these issues. Just good stuff! If any of you that read this from close by me want to start BSF - let me know and I will get you the date of next orientation. There is no problem jumping in at any time - you just start off from where we are. I can guarantee you it will be an awesome experience!

Have I shown you this yet???

Isn't she the cutest??? This was taken a week ago! She is really starting to smile when we talk to her. She has great neck support too. Very alert.
Here is another LO. This one is for the Lilypad Blog challenge. I have NEVER blended two papers together so that was new and interesting for me. Here I blended two of Nancy's papers. The LO is one of my hubby and the guys sitting down to a hearty meal at hunting camp. Did you see too that The Lilypad is having a Black Friday sale - 50% off. This only comes once a year I would say for the Lilypad so be sure to check it out!

Kyle came back with quite a few pictures and he said one or two other guys took some good pictures too so I would love to do a hunting album for him and the guys.

OK - long enough post again. Thanks for listening! Have a Happy Thanksgiving if I don't check in here before then! Tomorrow night we have our annual friend dinner!

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!