BUSY - isn't everyone?!!!

I see alot of you are getting ready for Spring Break - how fun! Can't believe we are almost done with school and church events - it's nearing an end so quickly here! It always seems like from Spring break to end of school year flies! We are obviously sticking around here for spring break - we don't really get effected by spring break much yet since our kids aren't in any real school yet. I am not sure if I will ever really do the whole spring break thing anyway - going to a beach where everybody and their brother are doesn't sound too fun to me! Probably feel that way b/c I have never done a spring break trip in my whole life! I guess if you grow up with that luxury you kind of get used to it! Anyway - things are clipping right along here in our house. Normal usual busy stuff happening - nothing all that exciting really.

I had a GREAT birthday yesterday. I got to sleep in a bit b/c all the girls did! For lunch I got to go out with my mom, tammy, Kyle and me and the kiddos to Red Robin. mmmm... When Kyle got home we were planning on using my birthday coupon at Crazy Horse along with a gift card we had so he showered up and then his mom showed up. This was unexpected and a nice suprise. I must say as well that he had the girls give me a card and some purple peeps (my favorite easter candy and fave color) when he got home. So anyway - he said I should change my shirt to a little more dressy and that we were going out. When I opened his truck to get in I found a single pink rose and a purple rock candy! So thoughtful! Anyway - we went out to the Chop House in G.R. which is a very nice, VERY expensive restaraunt. I stress that only b/c we would NEVER go here again without the gift certificate that we had!!! The dinner was FABULOUS and the setting was so nice, but we just don't spend money on food like that. Anyway - it was a great night and I love Kyle so much for his thoughtfullness. Oh yeah - he then had a little note on a candy at the end of the night saying I get a free backrub - no strings attached! ;) Too sweet. It doesn't get better than 29 - right folks?!

Here is a little family update. Just something for me to look back on for journaling or what not!

:::Kyle:::

Still working his 32 hours. Not much relief in sight from that. Their company has some jobs lined up, but none of them are really moving. Hopefully in another month or two he will be back to full time. As of next week he will be using that day off to save the babysitting money we were spending on the extra day I work and he will stay home with the kids. We should have done that from the beginning I guess. He will love hanging with the girls on that day - they have such a special bond. Kyle's funny attitude always is a blessing to have around.

:::Amanda:::

Just celebrated a birthday. Not the big one yet - that's next year! I am enjoying life right now for the most part. Getting settled into the new job and routine. I am entered into a scrapping contest that will last 6 weeks - one LO each week pertaining to a challenge. I am hoping to just learn and try a few new things and hoping it just stretches me a little knowledge wise. There are some amazing entries already this first week so I don't expect anything more than just what I stated! I am still working out - although not quite as frequently. I try to do it 3-4 times a week as opposed to the 5-6 that I was doing in January and Feb. I'll have to ramp it up again before summer time comes!

:::Braelyn:::

My sweet Braelyn - oh how she is growing. Sometimes the girl just amazes me! She is in her second half of Preschool and for the most part she loves it. She does say that she doesn't want to go some mornings, but when she is there she loves it and afterwards she is fired up about it. The main reason she doesn't want to go I think is b/c she doesn't want to miss out on whatever Selah, Gracyn and I do during that time. Fri. mornings was normally bible study and Tue. is normally errands or just going back home. Braelyn has been more interested in the computer and we got a PC set up for her in the office now. My brother set up Linux on the computer and it's got great kids programs. She loves to color and paint in Tux Paint and she also loves to play some of the games on pbskids.org. Braelyn has become a pretty easy going good kid. She doesn't give us too many problems other than the occasional sassyness! Braelyn's favorite thing right now is getting backrubs at night - spoiled! :)

see - sweet, right?!

:::Selah:::

Selah Reese. My stinker! So full of life, and oh so smart - in a naughty way! The girl has me pegged! Lately she has been crying about everything. She cries when I bring her to Sunday School, she cries when the sitter comes, she cries when I have to bring Braelyn into school and she can't come. The funny thing is - she stops crying they tell me the minute I leave. And I have never once let her get away with not going to Sunday school or anything like that - bascially I have never really given in, so one would think that after a month or two of trying her shenanigans she would give up. This morning she pulled it again and I said "now Selah, you know you are just pulling this on Mom and I know you are fine when I leave right?" and instantly she starts giggling. She went from a fake cry to a giggle in a matter of seconds. Now you know why I call her my stinker! She's had a few potty accidents in the last week that bother me, but I guess at early 3 that can still be expected. If she gets busy playing she just doesn't want to take the time to go to the bathroom to go. Selah also loves back rubs at night. She still sucks her first two fingers and we try to remind her to take them out during the day when she does it. I know with her it is effecting her teeth a bit b/c the dentist asked about it last time. Selah is a typical middle child I would say - always trying to get the spotlight away from her older and younger sister.

I love how this picture has Selah in focus and that she is in the middle - my precious middle child!

:::Gracyn:::

Gracyn is my little Goo. A pretty happy child for the most part. She has increasingly been interested in playing with her sisters. She is starting to want to be little miss independent. The girl loves playing outside when the weather is nice. Gracyn says so much already - it amazes me. She repeats almost everything we say and she sure does ask for what she wants when she wants it! Gracyn LOVES fuzzies. She will pull fuzzies off of our blankets and off of a sweater - whatever is in reach. She rolls it around in her hand that she sucks her thumb of. It's so cute. She also can chew gum for hours. If the girls ask for gum (which really isn't all that often, but enough) then she immediately yells for gum. We give her a little piece and last Sunday she got a piece of gum on the way to church and then on the way home we noticed she was still chewing on it - 2 1/2 hrs. later! I have never known a little 1 year old to do that. My other two girls would swallow it after 3 minutes. She is not a swallower of things we have noticed - she just likes to play with things in her mouth I guess.

See the fuzzy?

:::Gauge:::

What would a post be without our dog Gauge. Gauge has adjusted well to the new home/neighborhood. The girls love to play with Gauge, although they have also been asking for a cat, but I am not too into that yet! What more can I say about our dog - nothing really. Jeff - I do think he misses you asking him "Why the LONG face Gauge"!

Guess that's it folks - that's all I got for ya after a week and a half!

Weekend pics

Some pictures from the weekend!!!

We are winding down now on an awesome weekend here. I have a few windows open, we took a long walk today, and the sun was shining bright! Church this morning was an awesome experience as well! I just absolutely love Sundays! I love weekends! I love the time we get to spend as a family with little stress! Anyway, last night we went to see Brian Regan - the comedian. He gave a great show and it was so good to laugh for an hour and a half straight! Kyle and I left by 4:00 so that we could take our time going down to Kalamazoo. We had a great dinner downtown Kalamazoo. We got to just talk and converse. No kids to tend to, no food to cut up, just Kyle and I! It was awesome! We then headed to the State Theater for the show. We were done by about 10:00pm and headed home - we were sleepy by then - we must be getting old! :)


As you can see from the pictures above, I am loving my new camera - I have been trying to take lots of pictures to get practice! I know I have so much to learn, and I hope I can learn some more about settings very quickly, but still love that I can get fairly decent pics of our everyday life. I love playing around with the kids and snapping pictures! Braelyn has taken a little love to the camera too - both in letting me take pics of her, but also in wanting to take pictures! She loves snapping away. Today she went around the house and took pictures of things she wanted to take pictures of. It was so cute to see what she took pictures of - gonna have to do a LO of the pics!

I think the coming week is pretty low key for us - just the normal things. Monday night Kyle has class, Tue. night pretty open, Wed. night church, Thur. night open and I don't think we have much going on next weekend either! The forecast shows pretty nice weather all week - one day hitting 60!!! That's good stuff around here! ;) Have a great week everyone!

MandaKay

All things Digi today!

Yep - it's all digi related - and I am going to be QUICK!!! Lots going on around here!

:::Shabby Miss Jenn:::

New kit released today - LITTLE BUCKAROOS - it's a massive kit and you can get it for under $5 right now!!! Here is a LO I did with it. Of course it is of Kyle b/c it is a touch more on the boyside than the girl side! (although look at what Nina did with the kit. The girls is amazing!!!)

I did this LO with a template by Pencil Lines - it's a blog I found recently that gives away free weekly templates - they ROCK! I think you can post your LO's done with the templates too to be entered for something!

:::The -Lilypad:::

So The-Lilypad is spotlighted at TheDailyDigi today! They actually have been a part of the DigiFiles all month! They've got a great collab in the files with some neat quickpages! The Lilypad also of course put out some great new products today as well! I have yet to scrap with them, but I hope to at some point this weekend!!!

OK - I'm out - hope I enabled everyone to do a bit of shopping!

;)

Lots of layouts

As you will see in this post - I was VERY productive this weekend at my scrap overnighter!!! It was so wonderful to sit down and scrap all weekend! We had no internet so that was nice because when there is internet I get FAR LESS DONE!!! We watched some great girly movies while scrapping and we ate a bunch of JUNK!!! It was great! Kyle and the girls had fun while I was gone as well - sounds like they were pretty good for him, and he always spoils them a bit when he has them alone! So here are some of the LO's that I finished up this weekend - I use a lot of templates and I scraplifted as well!!! Most of the LO's I did were of our vacation b/c I want to do a hardbound book of vacation LO's for Beth and I. I also worked on the rest of Gracyn's Baby Daze book - so that I can get that hardbound as well! When I got moments of getting sick of scrapping while on my getaway I just sat on the floor and organized my scrapbooks - I had a hundred or more LO's that I needed to get in books. So all in all I feel like I conquered a TON!!! Felt great!

This week is a pretty standard week. Working three days like normal, Wed. night church and I teach. This weekend we have a birthday party on Fri. night for my niece, and then Sat. night Kyle and I are going on a big date out to Kalamazoo to see Brian Regan. I not a huge comic gal b/c if they are too dirty then I get turned off, but Brian is funny and fairly clean. I think it will be great to watch Kyle just BUST UP all night! He is such a contageous laugher! So that is our week in a nutshell! Hope you all have a fun week planned!


MandaKay

Snippet of the everyday life...

Since my blog is titled Everyday Life, I thought I would post a picture I took this morning that just spoke "everyday life" to me. On most mornings, my daughters will get dressed before coming downstairs. They do this because if they get dressed before coming downstairs then I can't dictate to them what they can and cannot wear. ;) This is especially true if Braelyn and Selah get up at the same time, because Braelyn will help Selah get dressed. Sometimes she will dress Selah in her clothes and sometimes she will dress her sister in her own clothes that are a little too big. This is one battle I just don't fight too hard unless we are going somewhere that I absolutely don't want to be seen with a child that is wearing "THAT". :) Anyway - after the girls get dressed (lately it has been in jeans, a shirt, and then a dress over top b/c Braelyn wants to wear dresses so badly!), they come downstairs. They grab themselves a bowl of cereal - again - helping eachother out and whispering all the way! They then go over to our office, turn on their cartoons, and hop up on top of the couch and munch away. This all takes place generally between 6:30am and 7:00. Kyle is up by then getting himslef ready for work - if not heading out the door at that point, and I am normally laying in bed trying to wake up. Gracyn follows shortly after which forces me to get out of bed and get her! Anyway - I had to take a picture of it this morning b/c it just made my little 'ole heart well right up for some reason. The mirror above our couch was full of fingerprints and in that moment I didn't care. The girls looked a little raggemuffinish, but again - I didn't care. These are my girls. This is my life - I embraced it for a moment! Then it was off to work! ;)

I believe that much of this came from a God moment I had last night. I have been in a bible study with a bunch of great friends and we are nearing the end of the book: There's Gotta be More. Enjoying the Spirit Filled Life. Now it's not that this book hasn't given me little revelations all the way thru, but I must say last night was like - WOW - this was written for me! In chapter 21 - Follow Me As I Follow Christ - there is a section about the writer George Barna, who wrote Growing Disciples, and he asks every Christian to ask themselves "To what are you absolutely, fanatically devoted? I answered this in all honesty and said "digital scrapbooking". Sad isn't it? I know I am truly devoted to God, but am I fanatical??? Not really. Just being honest. Anyway, the chapter goes on to talk about a little tribute that a woman wrote for her mentor. It was all about how the best book that she has ever read about how to passionately and obediently follow God was not a book at all, it was her friend - a person. She goes on to explain how this woman lived her life. It was so well written. As I was reading it I thought "wow - I wish someone could say those GREAT things about me"! I am going to write out the last paragraph of this woman's letter to her friend:

"There have been those who have told me through the years, "you are going to be a writer. You will write a book someday". But the only book I desire to leave on this earth is one like my friend is writing - the story of a godly life filled with pages of obedience and God's grace, a story written in love for my husband and children to read. And may their response be, "I want to know Jesus more."

Isn't that what you want? I just thought it was very ironic that after I answered scrapbooking as what I am fanatical about - in a sense - our story, that this would bring me to a whole different perspective on our story. On my story. Now, I am not going to STOP scrapbooking - come on now - that would be near impossible for me! But I do realize that I need to be maybe more fanatical about my relationship to God.

OK - I am going to spend a little more time with my family before I go scrapbooking for the weekend! See I can't stop!

Have a great weekend!

MandaKay

Want a creative title.

And I can't come up with anything. I have lost all creativity I think. I am drained from last month, and I am hoping this fresh month will be great! Just a quick update on myself: LOVE my new job, but I am completely still in training mode. I have the stress of wanting to do everything correctly the first time and to do it efficiantly, so a little more pressure. I am slowly getting it all figured out, just a learning curve. We are also struggling with balancing the evenings when I work. It is hard to manage our dinners, kids, evening tasks on work nights. Hopefully we get used to that soon too. I know it's only one extra night, but it is amazing how much more stess it causes. For those of you working moms out there - any tips would be appreciated! I am liking where Kyle and I are in our lives. I like our family. We still randomly dabble in the thought of having another child, but I am pretty sure we are good where we are. I love Gracyn's age b/c she is so darn cute! Kyle is still working a bit less, although we see an end in sight so that is good. Spring always opens up new construction projects around here, and we are thankful for that. He has been taking a class on Mon. nights for 5 weeks on Environmental Building. The girls are all doing great as well. Braelyn is doing great in school and I have no doubt that she will be ready for Kindergarten this fall! I can't believe she will be riding a bus though. :( Selah is our little spirited 3 year old now - full of life. Gracyn is growing up so fast and she says SOOOOO many words! It's unreal really. She will try to say ANYTHING we say - guess we better be careful! :) There you have the family update!

I managed to do a few LO's in my spare time - although I feel like I am a little behind on the whole scrapping thing. Here are two new ones though.

A LO of my girls having a sleepover with their cousin, Sadie! They did great!

This LO is a scraplift of one of the new Pollywog on my team at The-Lilypad, Peppermint. I LOVED this LO of Peppermint's from the moment I saw it. Lucky for me, this week's Lilypad Blog Challenge is to scraplift one of the new girls' LOs from their gallery. I quickly jumped on this! I got this shot of Selah working on something at our counter with my new camera and I think it may be one of my favorite so far!

And seriously, check this out: Anne De jonge - the newest designer at The-Lilypad - just put this kit out - and it's only $1 today. you get a ton of stuff for $1!!! I had to get my hands on it and of course I have a ton of house pictures to scrap yet for our house book!

OK - everyone have a good week!!!

MandaKay

Were you waiting for me?

I FINALLY have a moment to show off what I have been waiting YEARS for!!! On Wed. in the mail I recieved this:

And below is what I have shot pictures with for the last 3 or 4 years. Isn't the difference in picture quality amazing? Obvisouly I had to use my Canon G6 to take the picture of my new 40D, and I took the picture of the G6 with the 40D. So much more crisp and clear!

I bought the 40D camera body. And then the following accessories: Tamron lens (Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR DI ASPHER f/CANON), this lens (Canon 50mm f/1.8 II EF LENS), this flash (Canon SPEEDLITE 430EX II), and then the battery grip as well! I just love the feel of it in my hand!

Can you tell I am excited?!

Here is a picture of my tulips from Kyle with my 40D and then the following is the picture I took a few days ago of the tulips with the G6 - major difference (I do realize that they are taken at different angles so that makes a difference too, but it really is so much more crisp)! I still have so much to learn about with the camera, so I will be shooting in manual mode most likely for a while, but I love that I will be able to get some great pictures of my kids and our life!

So, anyway - it came in the mail on Wed. while I was working. I went right from work to a quick dinner at home with the family and then off with Braelyn to church for Wed. night classes. Then I went to my friend Amy's house to go over a class that we are going to hold, and then Thur. I worked all day again! My mom and dad took over pizza and then I had to cut my dad's hair and do my mom's nails before they go on their service project. So needless to say I have been too busy to even take it out of it's package until late last night! Maybe I'll take it to all of the fun stuff we have going on this weekend. The only thing is - I don't have a bag yet - haven't decided on what I want - open to suggestions from you all that have DSLR's!

I must say that this economy stuff is getting pretty depressing. I know that sounds funny after I just bought a 40D and Kyle got a new grill, but I must say we buy things in cash - so that means we wait until we have the money to buy what we want. Unfortunately a concept that is not real well known in America. Kyle and I are VERY blessed with what we have in life and I know that not a single penny of it is ours. Last night though we heard of two more local family run business' that are either going under or struggling. Well established businesses at that. My heart goes out to the owners and what they are going thru right now. Working in a financial leasing company I see daily the struggles of people not able to make their payments and how it effect EVERYTHING. Ugh. I am praying so hard for a renewal of some sort in America. I will say though that I don't doubt for a minute that some of these trials we are going thru are to further our faith. Many will disagree with me or say "what kind of God is that then?", but I have been reading the book of James and he says this to the people:

"Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4.

I pray that we grow in knowledge as a country and people. Knowledge of how we are supposed to live and Who we need to trust and give our blessings back to. OK - not sure where that came from, and I am sure that I didn't write it just right b/c I am no writer, but it is what it is.

OK - hope you all have a great weekend! And in Michigan here - all I can say is when is it going to warm up???