Mostly Scrapbook Related

Some big things this weekend in my favorite stores!!!

~The Lilypad~

August BYOC!!! I swear these BYOC's keep getting better and better! Here are a few of my LO's with it!

~Shabby Miss Jenn Designs~

We are celebrating SMJ's 2nd birthday this weekend!!! Lots of big things going on over there!

A new bithday HUGE kit, a new going green kit, a new summer kit, some new frames and textures from Lanne, and some freebies too!!! Here are two LO's I got done with the new stuff!

~Janet Phillips - Scrapbook Graphics~

So with Janet's big move to Indonesia she still managed to get her August Grab bag up!!! The woman just amazed me and is such an inspiration for me! Her August grab bag does not dissappoint either! I have yet to play with it, but I hope to get some great use out of it this week!!! A little secret for ya - it's worth EVERY dime and THEN SOME!!! (coupon inside!!!) I believe it's available until the 8th or so, and then she breaks it down and puts it all in the store seperately! I am telling you too - I NEED these templates for summer scrapping b/c I have SOOOO many pictures and not enough time to sit and scrap!!!

~HOME~

I need to go get an updated picture for you all b/c we officially have a house! I mean walls are all up, roof boards are on, etc.!!! The roofing will already be going on on Wed! We have narrowed down our plumbing stuff this week, our kitchen stuff (still deciding between two options, but we are close), and the siding and roofing material! I still feel like there is a lot more to pick out though! But all is going good - it's amazing to watch the progress!

~WEEKEND~

We had a great weekend. We are heading out to my sister-in-laws pool tonight to round it off with a little pool/dinner party! We had a party Fri. night with Kyle's family also - which was a riot! Sat. night we did the Farmer's Market in am, and had a family reunion for my Dad's side of the family at night! So we are nearly partied out I would say! :) We love family and friends and spending time with them - can you tell?!

Hope you all have a great week - i am sure I will check in at some point!

MandaKay

Weekend Recap

We had such a great time on our weekend get-away! I'll share some pics that will sum it all up!

On the way to Cabela's - the guys are gearing up! I think they got all they needed there. Mindy and I were content to just browse.

Here we are at Cheli's Chili Bar

just outside of the Comerica Park. My boss said we MUST stop there for a drink before the game. We enjoyed a drink on the rooftop bar - could see over into the stadium! Neat atmosphere!

Mindy and I in Comerica Park. We stopped by the Fan Store while there and each picked up a super cute Tiger's sweater!

Just a pic of my hottie enjoying the game! :)

The fireworks after the game were PHENOMENAL!!! It was so cool to have the lights all go off and then these fireworks just lighting up downtown Detroit. They were RIGHT in front of us! Awesome!

Matt and Mindy

Kyle and I just before heading out. We sat in traffic for 1 hr. - that was the worst part - but totally still worth it. We stayed in a hotel about 10 miles away from Downtown Detroit. I think we got back to our hotel room by 12:30am and hit the hay!

We all slept until 9:00am (which I haven't done since before having kids I think!), an enjoyed the nice breakfast and headed home! I was excited to see the girls again! They had a BLAST at Grandpa and Grandma Huizenga's - they swam, and went for walks, and boated!

So Sunday night we had a dinner at our new pastor's house to talk about a new family marriage ministy he wants to start up at our church. We were asked to be on a "planning" group with him to discuss ideas. Our ministry is going to be called FUSION - bringing the family together in one accord! Love it - very very excited for the things to come in our church!

Back to the daily grind - have a bunch of things to pick out for the house this week. Here is one last updated pic for you all on the house! It's moving right along. I took the kids out there tonight with Subway for Kyle and us, and we had our first dinner in the house! I set up a little picnic and we all sat and ate together - too cute!

OK - I must go to bed now!!!

Time for a fun Weekend!

It's Friday and I cannot wait for the weekend to officially begin! It's been a fun week - busy, and it actually went quite fast! Tomorrow morning we leave for a fun kid-free 28 or so hours! We are dropping our kids off with Grandma and Grandpa and heading to Cabela's, and then since we will be half way across the state we decided to pick up some last minute tickets to the Tigers game!!! The Tigers will be playing the White Sox which will be a VERY exciting game! We will be spending the night in Detroit after the game! I am just so so excited because I have never been to the Tigers stadium and everyone talks about how cool it is! I am sure to take lots of pictures! And watch for me behind 1st base if you watch the game - we will be 11th row!!! Should be perfect seats!

Have you visited Janet Phillip's store lately??? 50 products for $50!!! Janet is cleaning up her store and retiring a bunch of products and you can get all 50 of those products for $50 - and that must be like a TON of templates!!! I noticed some of my favorite things included in this deal are the template alphas (which I need to use more), the ABC album (which is a work in progress for me), and the Fat Pack 1 (which has like 40-50 templates in and of itself!) So run and grab it before the 28th!!!

I scrapped a couple LO's last week too!

My niece Ainsley - sitting on my Mom's garden bench (using Natalie Braxton and Gina Miller's new collab!!!)

Braelyn being a monkey! (Using Jacque Larson and Sarah Jones' Coconut Collab)

And, my favorite LO right now. I made this one for the Lilypad blog challange this week (you have a few more days to play and particpation has been fairly low so you'd have a great chance of winning Lilypad $!!!)

So what do you all have planned this weekend - all kinds of fun stuff??? I can't hardly believe we are almost into August already. I spent about a half hour this morning filling out preschool papers that are due Aug. 1! Braelyn has a great teacher I think and a good group of kids in her class, although she is bummed that her friend Taylor won't be in her class. In three weeks from today we will be traveling down to North Carolina with Kyle's whole family to spend a week on the ocean! All kinds of fun stuff to look forward to!

Hopefully I can be back early next week and post some pics!

Whining

I have been working on my whining this week. Last week was just a horrible week of me being a whiner. This week I have been trying to just be concious of what I am whining about and when I am whining. I think it has helped a ton just to be concious about it! We are so so blessed as a family, there really is no reason to whine. I decided to make just a short list of my blessings this morning.

*I am 100% saved by the Grace of God! Not only that he loves me and watches over me!

*I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband and 3 healthy girls!

*Iam better off than the majority of the world. God has given us more than I even deserve. There are so many people in so many countries that do not have the blessings that I have.

*I have a roof over my head (albeit not my own - LOL), plenty food to eat, and clean water to drink.

*I have a reliable van that gets me where I need to go. It's so easy to take our transportation for granted and complain about gas prices. Yeah - gas prices suck, but I CHOOSE to drive a vehicle!

That is just a quick short list - obviously I can count so many more blessings! Sometimes just doing this - getting it down in writing - helps remind me of what I sometimes don't think of. God is Good - All the Time - All the Time - God is Good. I find it so easy to praise God when times are good too, and almost impossible to praise Him when times are tough. I need to remember when the going gets tough, the tough PRAY!

Weird how that just came out - LOL! Anyway - life is good - things are coming along. The framers start framing the house on Monday - I am so excited for that! This week has been pretty un-eventful over there. The girls seem to be in a good routine here at my mom's which is nice! Kyle's shingles are clearing up (wait - did I even mention on here that he got shingles - yeah - stress!) I get to go out with the girls tonight - a nice dinner and maybe walk the mall or see a movie and then scrap - at McD's - LOL! They have free wi-fi and they are open until 12:00! And they have any size pop right now for $1! Love me a good McD's fountain pop!

Today is pretty laid back - I have 2 pool invites so once Gracyn wakes up I need to figure out what to do. The hard part is is that the girls all nap again by 2:00 so our window is pretty narrow of time to do stuff in! I hope it's not raining tomorrow morning b/c I'd love to hit the Farmer's Market!

Here are a few LO's - credits are in my galleries - along the side bar!

My nephew Owen and my mom - it was great to post a "boy" LO! I am sure Tam won't mind having another LO in her book either! ;)

Braelyn playing at the park - she has been into the monkey bars this year (with our help of course!)

I wish you all a great weekend!

MandaKay

Summer Time

Here I am - over a week from the last time I blogged! Such is life - summer is just so busy! All the usual stuff going on really - lots of decisions being made, lots of fun being had, lots of family time! We are having gorgeous weather here lately - today is quite warm, but beautiful! Gracyn had her 9 month appt. today at the Dr. Always my favorite appt. because she got NO shots!!! Gracyn weighs 19 lbs. 1 oz. and is 27 1/2" inches long. Under 50% so she is evening out now - she was quite the chunker for a while there! I think she is just so so active now and she is working off those lbs.! Her favorite thing to do right now is to climb up my parent's flight of stairs (with us behind her of course!).

I don't even know what LO's i have or haven't shared here recently so here goes nothing!

(Kyle already told me I have to change the pumpkin nickname to Gracyn Pants - we call her that more I guess!)

For this week's Lilypad Blog challenge - It is my week to host so come play!!!

Well, I really don't have much to say so I will leave you with that! Have a great week everyone!

MandaKay

We slept thru the night!!!

So after a week and a half of waking up each night at least one if not two or three times, we finally made it thru the night sleeping! See the thing is, my kids have been GREAT sleepers. They have all slept thru the night from 8 weeks on. I bet I could count on one hand (prior to the move) the number of times any one of my kids has woken up in the night. So to say I was a bit frustrated this last week is putting it mildly. Sat. night (Sun. morning really) was HORRIFIC. Gracyn cried from 1:45 until 3:30. And then she was back at it at 6:30. Now I will say she has a tooth finally which may be the reason for the fussiness. Anyway - I am very thankful for a good nights sleep! I pray the sleep pattern continues now!

And just for fun - here's a tag that I thought was quick and easy!
The Rules: Answer the questions using only one word. Then tag four others.
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your significant other? stressed
3. Your hair? unruly
4. Your mother? worker
5. Your father? humble
6. Your favorite thing? sleep
7. Your dream last night? none
8 Your favorite drink? Pop
9. Your dream/goal? pictures
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your hobby? scrapping
12. Your fear? lose
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? together
14. What you’re not? healthy
15. Muffins? cinnamon
16. One of your wish list items? vacation
17. Where you grew up? Michigan
18. The last thing you did? typed
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Favorite gadget? computer
21. Your pets? Gauge
22. Your computer? friend
23. Your mood? rested
24. Missing someone? yes
25. Your car? Vantastic
26. Something you’re not wearing? skirt
27. Favorite store? Meijer
28. Like someone? yes
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? dunno?

I now tag Kim, Sarah, Janet, and Shabby Miss Jenn

And of course I have another LO to share! Did I mention that I am LOVING Janet's new grab bag - if you digital scrap and want to create pages in a hurry (what mom doesn't) then you MUST grab this bag - this is Janet's best bag to date I think!!! Trust me - it will be $4.00 well spent!!! This is another LO I did using it! The kit is The-Lilypad's July BYOC!!!

OK - I am just finishing up here at work so I am going to wrap it up and go see my family! Hope you all have a good week - ours is going to be pretty mild.

P.S. - house update - our poured walls keep getting pushed back because of this dang rain. Ugh - so frustrating.

MandaKay

Whew...settle in for a long one!!!

So it seems like I am just now getting a second to breathe. Not sure where to even start to talk about what we have been doing! I am sure my post will be all over the place since my head is still spinning itself! We are settled in at my parents - it is going pretty good. The girls are still not sleeping great and I am costantly worried that they are going to annoy my parent's, but I reeally think it's going fine and it seems to get better every day as they adjust to this new living. The new house has only footings so far. The DANG rain has pushed us back on getting poured walls, which is really disappointing. They are scheduled again for Mon., which again - looks like rain. If you can't tell, rain & I do NOT get along lately. It sure can ruin a lot of things.

We've really had a fun week. Lots of family time! Monday night (I think it was Mon. - maybe it was Tue. - I can't evn remember) we got invited to Kyle's parents condo on a little lake. It was a gorgeous night and we enjoyed some lake time and good food and fellowship! Thur. night we had a huge party here at my parents. My hubby and my brother-in-law put on a GREAT fireworks display - I would say as good if not better than professional. Best thing is we didn't even have cops show up! :) Gracyn slept right thru them, Selah was slightly frightened by them, and Braelyn loved them! It was a great night! Yesterday - 4th of July - we went to breakfast with my folks and then washed the car, cleaned our living space, laundry, etc... Then we headed back to Kyle's parents for some more lake time! We stayed there until about 6:00 and then headed home after picking up a movie. We got the kids to bed by about 7:30 pm which was awesome! We figured we didn't need to do the fireworks in Holland because we had such great ones yesterday and we are having more tonight! It was great to have kids in bed on time (they were so tired out from all the activities), and for Kyle and I to just sit and enjoy a movie night. We watched Bucket List. It was a great movie - very thought inspiring. What would be on your bucket list??? A bucket list is a list of things to do before you kick the bucket. I really would love to write a list of things I might want to do before I die - I just hope it's a long time before I even need to think about it. Anyway - great movie - great actors!

So that is a sum up of what we have been up to. I have quite a few LO's to share. Lots of new kits out and I have been getting some fun pictures too!

This first LO is done using the new July BYOC at the Lilypad! What a phenomenal set of goodies. I know I will be using many more of these goodies in the next few weeks!

This LO is one I did using the kit I bought called Celebration of life (the one I spotlighted two weeks ago to benefit Laurie Garza)

Here is another LO - actually a quickpage freebie by Gina Miller while she was spotlighted at the Shutterfly Blog a few weeks ago. This is a cute quickpage I think!

And these next three LO's are all using Shabby Miss Jenn Designs' newest kits! She has a new kit called Nature Guide, a new one called Little Kahuna's, and a new one called Summer Posies. These three kits are phenomenal!!!

Swimming lessons are done for Braelyn - she loved them. This was the first summer I have actually experienced the busyness of "activities" for the kids. Braelyn did gymnastics, VBS, and then swimming lessons. I am looking forward to July being a bit more laid back!!!

Tonight we have another fun party with friends and kids! The kids will all play great I think and it is supposed to be nice out. I am looking forward to the food though to be honest!!! We are going to grill out and then each take our own dish to pass. I am taking steaks to grill (because we have had enough burger/hotdogs lately), and then my dish to pass is snicker salad. YUMMM. I take apples and snickers cut up, mix cool whip and some 5 minute made pudding and fold the two together and then mix everything together and let chill! I think we are also going to have yummy party potatoes, veggie pizza, and something else that I can't remember! Just a bunch of good food! Can you tell I love food???!!! It's one of my favorite things about fellowship - there is normally food!!!

I hope you are all having a great 4th of July weekend. I love our country and I love that we have a weekend to celebrate our freedom and our country!