Pen Scrappers - Vote Please!!!

So I have been scrapping lately with my Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet and I love it! I really would love to learn how to use it even more when I have the time, but I love the pen and have gotten used to scrapping with it! I am doing something I don't normally do and I am entering some layouts in the Penscrappers challenge. I just entered this LO (that I did for The-Lilypad Blog Challenge this week) and so if you have a second go on over and vote for it!!! (just follow the link and hit the VOTE NOW "tape" button!) HERE is my entire gallery there - I only have submitted about 4 LO's so far I think.

Check out The-Lilypad Sale Calendar this month too - all kinds of deals going on because of the 2 Yr. B-day celebration - and don't forget the great $1 deals tomorrow - some good "staple" items coming out that every digi stash should have!!!

I also have to just mention how proud of myself I am. On Dec. 13 I got the workout video "30 Day Shred" and I have done it every day except for 2 since then (the two days off were during the flu episode!) I feel great (tanning helps too here in Michigan - getting ready for that warm tropical weather!!!). The workouts are only 20 minutes long and although they are tough they are bearable. I am not a workout type gal -let me tell you. Prior to October of last year I HATED excersizing, and I also don't eat all that great. I am just feeling that now that I am probably done having kids I can actually work at being healthy and I can maintain a decent weight. It's amazing to me how my abs were shot from having 3 kids in 3 1/2 years! Anyway - just wanted to post a little bit about the workout video - I HIGHLY recommend it!

It's all Digi

It's all about digi today! Ok, Ok - I'll fill ya in on our New Year's Eve, but mainly it's going to be all about my digi scrapping! There is so much going on at the sites I love! First of all The-Lilypad is having a birthday!!! 2 years and the designers have done a year of BYOC's!!! This January BYOC is the colors of The-Lilypad site again (just like the first BYOC)! Such good stuff in there! There are going to be sales all month there, and they have 3 guest designers this month - CD Muckosky, Anne deJonge, and Kasia Designs!!! Hop on over and check it out. Here is my first LO with the BYOC. I have a feeling I am going to do more b/c Gracyn's room has these exact same colors!!!

And, with some sadness I have learned that Janet Phillips, my template making QUEEN is going to change direction a bit and not design templates right now. :( She has one LAST GRAB BAG that you MUST buy - it is WELL worth it and it is available until the 6th I believe! On the same note - it is with MUCH excitement that I want to tell you about her new dream! Janet has opened a site called The Daily Digi (TDD) and it is going to be the go to site for everything digi! Great little tips, tricks, info, spotlights that you will not want to miss if you are looking for information! So I am sad that I will not be on Janet's template team, but I am so happy and excited for Janet and the new site that she put together! Congrats Janet - it looks GREAT!

I do have a few more new LO's to post.

This LO uses most Lilypad goodies and was done for the Lilypad blog challenge this week - THREES!

This LO was done using a kit by Sabrina Dupre at Shabby Pickle Designs - first time using her goodies - I got a little gift from her right before the holidays - too sweet!

We had a great New Years Eve. We got together with 2 other couples (was supposed to be 3 other couples, but one of my girlfriends got sick) and we did a progressive dinner. We started here at our house with appetizers - I had fondue for mushrooms, cauliflower, and green beans, a chip and dip thing and a few other little munchies. After that we headed over to the Maat house for dinner - a great ham, party potatoes, brocolli, rolls, and applesauce. After dinner we played a little Wii Guitar hero and played around with the Wii Fit! By about 9:00 we headed on over to the Tibbs' house for a whopper ice cream dessert! By 11:30 we made our way back here so we could relieve our babysitter and we rang in the new year together! Beth took all the pics so I will have to wait until I get a few from her to post! Speaking of - I need to get pictures from a few people - Tammy, Nina, Beth, Kim, Shawn - if you have any good pics of my kids I'll take them!!! Really - I will take any good pics of any of the last few parties - even if they don't have my kids so that I can document the parties!!! Anyway - I am enjoying these nice long weekends with Kyle home and it will be eye opening to get back in the swing of things next week! I better go enjoy the weekend while I have it!

Adios Amigos!

Post Christmas post

Did you all have a great christmas? We had a splendid christmas here. This year was VERY much focused on family time and the Real Reason for the Season - Jesus Christ! There are very few new toys taking up space on my living room floor - which is kind of nice! The girls loved the gifts that they got - which is always a bonus! Braelyn got a pink Sansa Fuze (and let's be honest - I am sure I will be using it as much as her!), Selah got a Hannah Montana music player thing, and Gracyn got a tub toy. The Sansa Fuze is a great thing for kids - quite a bit cheaper than the Ipod's (depending on which one you get), and it has FM radio which is kind of nice! We are VERY happy with it so far! We also got all three girls an art easel and they have been loving it! Braelyn has been REALLY into drawing and coloring and art, so I knew she would love it, but the other two girls have been just as into it!

Christmas Eve was the party at my parents - didn't take my camera, so I am hoping I will get pics from my sisters that did! We had a great night hanging out - it was very low key. Christmas morning we opened presents with the girls (Kyle and I did not exchange gifts - I think we are calling our table our Christmas gift!), and then they opened their stocking from Santa. Santa got the girls candy, cute furry winter croc type shoes, art supplies for their new easel, and toothbrushes! After opening presents and getting ready we went to Kyle's parents for a great breakfast! It was so good and I was hungry by time we got there! We had some time to come home and relax before bringing the kids to my parents while we went to our traditional Christmas Day movie with Kyle's parents. We've done this for quite a few years. We saw the movie 7 Pounds - which I LOVED. I would recommend it - don't read too much about it or it will ruin it though - I loved that I went into it not knowing much about it! After the movie we picked the girls up and went to a chinese buffet restaurant (which I really only have to do once a year). It was a great Christmas in my books!

Today Kyle took the girls out to run some errands and he also had to work for a couple hours. I got to clean the whole house and take down all my Christmas stuff. I normally wait until January 1 to take down all my Christmas decorations, but I was kind of bored and I wanted the space back in my living room. There is nothing better then putting all that stuff away and vacuuming so good and cleaning things up again! Braelyn just got over a little cold and now Selah has gotten it in full force, so after dinner I hung out with her and Gracyn watching Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer while Kyle and Braelyn headed off to Sam's club! I just got those two girls in bed and am enjoying some quiet time! The best thing is - Kyle is going to bring home a Steak -N- Shake Christmas shake for us to enjoy tonight! I've been working out like mad lately so I feel like I deserve it! :)

I have probably bored you out of your mind by now, so I'll leave you with a few photos and call it a night! I can't believe it's only Fri. night - two more nights of weekend - Wooohoooo!!!!

Slipping and a Sliding

So I am sitting here and again I am watching the 5th person get pulled out of the ditch behind our house. For those of you that live here in my town - you know Adam's St. between 96th and Drenthe. Apparently it is VERY slippery right by 76th (our back road). I truly do feel bad for each and everyone of them, b/c I know it must suck making the call to your spouse to come help you out. Today I caught the whole thing as a Tahoe spun around and threw powdery snow all over the place. Yikes. (Edited to add: make that 6 now - and this one hit a road sign and the cop had to come out because of property damage - awe).

The snow here is just incredible. Yesterday Kyle had to take me and the girls to my mom's house and then I took her 4WD to work. My minivan would have never made it out of the cul-de-sac. My little 'ole mini van has been in the garage, not even started, since last Thur.! With the flu and Kyle being home a bit more we have been forced to use his truck to get around b/c of all the snow!

I have a few pics to share of our new dining room table!!! We finally found one we liked and that would match our house! I LOVE it! Then as I was taking pictures of it I remembered that I never took "final" pics of our kitchen and house. I took a few today of rooms that were halfway decent looking! :) Here is my new table! We are looking for a bench to put one side so that two side chairs can go on the ends and we can seat 6-8! The table also has TWO additional 18" leafs so it will get HUGE if we ever needed it to!

And here is my most favorite room in the house! ;) my half bath! I know I know - I'm crazy, but I love it even though we barely use it! I got this super cute lamp for Christmas from Kyle's mom!

This is the garage entry - and the door there to the laundry room. The locker system is almost exactly like our last house and I love having it!

A view of our pantry (which has a nice counter in it so I can hide some of the obnoxious stuff that I hate having on my counters!), and our little desk/mail area in the kitchen.

And a little different view of the living room, from the kitchen - with our new couch. This room was kind of a mess with a new kitchen set (that will NOT be staying there), and the extra christmas decorations that I am actually almost ready to take down to declutter again!

Here are a few new LO's I had been working on. All using The-Lilypad goodies!!!

Are you still here with me???!!! Kind of a long post - guess I am making up for lost time! OK - Merry Christmas everyone!

MandaKay

Oh, The weather outside is frightful...

and it's not much better inside. We had a frightful night last night. Around 12:30 I started to feel nauseaus and so I layed down for a bit. About an hour later I threw up. It continued until about 7:00 - out both ends. I had thought that hopefully it was just hitting me b/c I had gotten a flu shot while at the Dr. on Wed. I also started some new meds that had side effects similar to what I was feeling so I hopefull that no one else in the family would get it. Well, by 8:00 Kyle had started and shortly after I got the kiddos to bed (while I was still in a state of pure exhaustion), Selah threw up in bed and then Braelyn. I was back an forth from one room to the next all night long. I was also busy keeping the laundry going all night. Thank goodness that Kyle let me stay in my bed all day yesterday to prepare. Unfortunately he couldn't be much help at night b/c he was doing the same thing as the girls. The only one spared was sweet little one year old Gracyn - hopefully she doesn't get it either. So here we sit this morning hunkered down in the house today relaxing, disinfecting, cleaning, laundry - all that good stuff. Church was canceled due to the horrific weather out. Fri. morning we got a huge storm that canceled schools, and now this morning a huge storm that canceled churches. Ugh. I guess I am glad we are stayin in. We were supposed to have quite a busy morning at church too with me having to spotlight our new nursery committee/sign-up, and some stuff in our Fusion group. I felt bad last night that we weren't going to be able to make it, but now everything is canceled.

I haven't blogged in a while - guess maybe I am/was feeling burnt out on it. From the week before Thanksgiving until Mid Jan. it is just really busy - I know you all know what I mean. Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed with all there is to do. We are doing a VERY scaled back Christmas - there are 3 presents under the tree and that is all there will be - other than some stocking things. This year we spent more on supporting others than we did on our family and it feels good. I am thankful that we will be healthy hopefully on Christmas Eve and Christmas day! Our party on Sat. night got canceled (which is good b/c we were sick), due to one of my cousins little daughters' being ill and in the hospital, so that party I guess will get rescheduled.

Other than that its just been christmas pageants, shopping, and baking going on around here!

On the scrapping front - I did muster up a LO this week using SMJ's new kit: Rock Star - girl edition. And thankfully Janet Phillips templates saved me again - these things are a lifesaver when you are low on inspiration or time!

That's all I can muster up today gals - I think I will take another nap today - Kyle's doing it now, so I'd say it's my turn next! :) Hope you all stay healthy and if I don't check in before Christmas then I want to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Frustrations & Thanks

Just feeling frustrated lately. To sum it all up...Kyle is cut down to 32 hr. weeks, which is really quite an adjustment financially. I am impatient with my girls and I don't think they like me all that much right now. The economy is a while frustration in and of itself. The nice thing is...God is always faithful. I have no reason at all to doubt that he will remain faithful to Kyle and I and our family, so I just need to hold on to that!

On the other hand...I am thankful that Kyle HAS a job at all right now! I am thankful that my girls do really love me and that they are healthy and adorable! I am thankful that the economy will get better - it always has! I need to just remind myself to view the positive and not the negative!

It's been a busy week around here - we have something every night this week! Monday night was a very nice dinner with Kyle's work group for Christmas. No cruise giveaway which we were VERY bummed about this year, but they did bless us with a little mastercard spending money which is ALWAYS nice this time of year! It was an enjoyable dinner/night out. Last night I had some of my church girlfriends over for some scrapping. I got NOTHING done whatsoever, but it is always nice to chat and hang out! Tonight is Taco Supper at church and Braelyn has class. Tomorrow night I have to jog off to a Nursery Committee meeting. Friday Kyle and I get to go shopping for the girls' christmas presents finally (they are getting VERY little this year - mainly just stocking stuff!), and then nothing at night (I hope to sit on the couch maybe watch a movie and snuggle by the fire - seems like I haven't really connected with Kyle lately!). Sat. we start our first of family Christmas parties! I am most excited for that! We will have a wide variety of yummy food, and then Santa will make a little visit (which the kiddos love!), and then we will all open our little gifts from eachother! This first party is with Kyle's mom and dad and siblings! Sunday we have a busy day wth church stuff. Our Fusion group is having a Christmas breakfast during the Sunday School hour, and then at night the girls get to be in the Christmas Program! There's my week in a nutshell - bet it's pretty boring to some! :)

I have been VERY unmotivated on the scrapping front. I have been doing little things here and there for gifts and stuff, but nothing much for LO's lately. My pictures are all horrible - I wish I actually had some good pictures to work with. May have to borrow a decent camera for a week or something to get some fun pictures!

Well, I hear Gracyn jabbering away in her crib right now - and I am guessing the other two girls aren't far behind, and when they wake up I am going to have to apologize to them for being impatient and unkind to them before naps :). Such is life! :)

Hope everyone's week is going well!

One holiday down...

The biggest one to go! I really do love Nov. and Dec. I hate certain aspects of these months (like snow, shopping, driving, etc...), but there is so much to love too! I love that these two holidays are so close and that we see friends and family so much! I love my kids excitement over all the holiday stuff! I haven't bought too many gifts yet - I just said to Kyle that we really need to get rid of the kids for a night and go out and do some shopping. The thing is, we really don't have a lot to get. For the girls I think we are mainly sticking to stocking type gifts and then I got a great deal on an art easle. I think we are going to get Braelyn some sort of cheap MP3 player too (like a Sansa - with FM tuner as well). So that is about it for that. Kyle and I are not doing any christmas gifts we said, and then that just leaves a couple DVD's for Kyle's side, and a family gift for the family name we drew on our side - that's it! I am done with Kyle's parents and I think for my parents we will all go in together as kids and get them something. Pretty basic Christmas around here and that is my FAVORITE part about it! I can't imagine having to buy something for EVERY little niece or nephew, or something for every extended Christmas party. It's all about hanging out and having a good time if you ask me - I could leave the present thing altogether!

Thanksgiving was great for us - lots of good family time. Braelyn kept saying she was thankful for our family being together - so cute. I think that stems off of Kyle being gone for that week hunting and her having to eat dinner with just mom every night! On Sat. we went out to Grand Rapids (about a 45 minute drive) to go and get some Krispy Kremes and then to sit at the airport and watch planes. We acutally got to see two take off and one land, so that is better than what we normally get to see! :) We like to do this little ritual every couple months and we were long overdue! Love me some Krispy Kremes! My favorites are the blueberry cake donuts and the maple glazed donuts!

Got all my decorations up - I'll share a few pics! I put the tree up when Gracyn was asleep and when she woke up and I took her downstairs she just stared. She did not go up to it and touch it or anything! All three of my girls have been amazing with not getting into things! I will say yesterday she did take an ornament off and bring it to me. I told her NO in a stern voice and brought it back to the tree and told her "no touch" and she never went to the tree again! Love that! So thankful for kids that never got into things like that!

(shocker - the picture is blurry - nice camera)

Pretty standard week this week. A vet appt to take Gauge to, a Dr. Appt. for Gracyn for her follow up flu shot, and Braelyn back into school routine after a week off. Church night again on Wed. night and pretty much this weekend is pretty low key. Starting next Mon. we have Christmas parties every weekend and quite a few throughout the weeks too on weeknights. Let the festivities begin!

I have a few LO's to share too (of course!)

This first one is for The-Lilypad Blog challenge this week - about your christmas wish! Here is one of my many wishes even though I KNOW it will not be a dream come true yet - it's fun to wish! I am also submitting some of my LO's to the Penscrappers Contest (b/c I do a lot of my scrapping on my Bamboo Tablet) and would love it if you would put in a few votes for me! Here is the link to it: http://www.penscrappers.com/2008/12/02/christmas-wish-mandakay/

And this one was a LO i just did for fun b/c I loved these little ballerina goodies! I also entered this one into the contest - VOTE HERE!

Thanks a bunch guys!
Hope you all have a safe and nice week!