Mantooths and More

New and Exciting things

2010-03-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

I know I have totally slacked from this blog. BUT I have a good excuse. I have been working on some new and exciting things. I am starting a new buisness. I am finally going to take the plunge and get myself out there as a photographer. SO Nicole Mantooth Photography is now underway.
You can check me out HERE at photographybynm.com . I have a new website with a photo blog and a calendar and a gallery is in the process. It has been so exciting. I have so many ideas, that I am going to start writing them all down so I don't forget some of them.
My husband had to fly out early this morning to Texas for work and I am so sad. So my goal is to keep my mind off of him being gone and focus on getting some (ok I have tons) of my half started projects done. I need to finish painting the babies room, take pictures of my latest scrapbook layouts, finish painting some picture frames black, vacuum out the car, buy Marcus his baseball pants and socks and belt, clean the house, take in the recycling cans....just to name a few.
So my 2 main goals for today are to take in the recycling cans (I have coupon for almost 2.00 a pound) and work on the painting in the kids room. Ok I have 3 then because I am going to make myself take pictures of my latest scrapbook pages and post them. Now lets see how much I actaully get done today. I am already running on fumes... I couldnt sleep last night because of the time change and then I had to get up at 230 this morning, however I overslept and didn't get up until 330. Then we drove to the airport and home again. So now I am feeling really tired. Thinking I need a quick nap before I get going for the day.

Chloe is 1 month already

2010-02-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

Time sure seems to REALLY fly lately. Just wanted to share miss Chloe's one month photo shoot from today.
Editing photos tonight from another photo shoot I did tonight for a friend.
Then tomorrow I am taking little Jacob's 5th birthday photos.
I will also share a picture of my "make shift" photo studio....

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

Life has been very busy getting used to a new normal routine lately. I have a ton of things to share, so I will be
back as soon as I can.
In the meantime have a very Happy Valentine's Day.
We had a very nice day here. We had errands to run, including Costco. Today was sample day so it took us twice as long to get through the store. When we got home I made taquitos for dinner and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and pink and brown sprinkles for dessert. Jacob got home from work and ran to the store and got me a pretty pink and lavendar boquet in a pretty pink vase and a beautiful card that sang (and made me cry).
What a nice day.
Here is a cute picture of Miss Chloe in her valentine's Day dress. I had so many people stop me at Costco to look at her today. :)

Natalie

2010-01-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

This layout was a pretty quick one. I used some older Basic Grey paper that I had in my stash. I never used alot of "girly" papers so when I did get them I held on to them for a long time.
This is our niece and she was born in August and I had been dying to scrapbook thepictures I had from the first time we met her.

I cut flowers from the matching patterened paper and then the same flower in a little bit smaller size from vellum and layered them over the cardstock flowers. I love the way the flowers turned out. I just happened to have yellowish-orangish buttons that matched perfectly as well. I also just happened to come across this piece of a rhinestone swirl in my stash and thought it added just the right amount of bling to the girly layout. I didnt really have any journaling for the layout so I just added her birth information under the small picture on the left.
Now since we have a little girl I think I am going to need to stock up on girly papers and blingy things lol. :)
Off to feed the little one now.

Quick Cards

2010-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ok first of all the coloring of these pictures is not the best. I had to take the picture at night in the kitchen and it just didn't turn out great.
I needed some thank you cards quick for some gifts we had gotten lately. I didn't have the brain power to sit and come up with a card idea, so I improvised. This is actually an easy way to customize a premade card.
I have had the card in my card box for some time now. Well it is a tri fold card with all white on the outside and green on the inside. I wanted something with some girly colors so I thought why not just add pink to the card somehow. So I grabbed some little buttons and added some twine though the button holes and tied them off. Then I wrapped some twine around the front flap of the card, glued on the buttons to the center of all the flowers and done. I think the entire thing took me longer to think up than to actually put together.
A quick way to add a personal touch to a premade card for sure. I am thinking I should grab some sets of premade cards (this one came from the dollar spot at Michaels early last year) and do this to a bunch of them so they are done and ready to go for when I need them.

Gift Box

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well a few weeks ago I was at the dollar store and found this set of body wash and body lotion. I thought the color was nice, but the original box was ugly. So I brought it home and already knew I wanted to do something different with it. I did like the size of the original box though. So I carefully took the box apart and traced it onto some acetate that I had here at home. It isn't as thin as a tranceparency and not so thick that you can't cut it with scissors either. So I put the box together...which was DIFFICULT. The only glue I had at the time was glossy accents, and for some reason it just wasn't doing the job. Finally I got it to stick together and stay. Then I just wrapped some ribbon around the sides, and added some flowers and some silver wired thin string.
I have no idea yet what I am going to do with this little package, but I guess it is good to have a few spare gifts around for when you need one quickly.

Happy Mom Day Layout

2010-01-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

I used last years Valentines Day line from Basic Grey for this layout. I have been seeing one of my favorite bloggers use alot of vellum over some of her patterened paper to soften it up a bit. So I thought I would do the same thing so that it wasn't too much with the other patterned paper on top. I love the effect it came out with. I cut this funky frame from the silhouette. When I cut the hearts from the silhouette I accidentally put in the wrong size of paper since it was a scrap and the sides of the hearts got cut off. So I just made due and put them all to the side or under other paper to make it look like I wanted it that way. I really love when mistakes turn out to be a good thing.
I typed the journaling on white cardstock and added the letter stickers happy and day. The m's were cut from the silhouette and the o is another heart. The letter stickers had little hot pink hearts on the sheet as well so I added a few of those around and some buttons in colors that matched. I had to add twine since I love the stuff, and added that to some of the centers of the buttons as well.
At the last moment I pulled out some white pearls and just randomly scattered them around the layout for a finishing touch.

Suprise Party Layout

2010-01-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

Back in May I threw my mom a suprise birthday party at our house. It was a very small party, but was alot of fun. I wanted something in bright colors and was going to go with orange and white and then decided to throw in some green in there, and totally didn't even hit me that those are also the colors of her bedroom. Funny how it worked out that way, and I let her take home some of the decorations to go with her decore.
I cut the big Birthday saying from my silhouette. Then I used American Crafts Remarks alphabet stickers to finish off the rest of the title. I used a few buttons around the layout and my favorite border punch to add some finishing touches to it. I printed out the journaling on some vellum and glued it right over the green paper on the right side of the layout. I added a few orange rhinestones to finish it off as well.
I also decided that instead of one larger focal photo, they all were a good representation of the party, so I printed them all the same size and just trimmed them to fit equally across the entire layout.
A very quick and simple layout, but I enjoy those kind of layouts the best. I am re-learning again that sometimes less is more in the end. :)

Birth Announcement Photo Shoot

2010-01-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

I got a chance the other day to do Miss Chloe's Birth Announcement Photo Shoot. The natural lighting was perfect at that exact time as well. I LOVE how they came out. The last picture is the birth announecement photo. I love putting bows on her. :)
I look at my children everyday and I thank God for an amazing and wonderful husband and great kids.

This is my absolute favorite picture of her. We have it framed and on the mantle already.

Welcome Little One

2010-01-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome Baby!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chloe Renee

01.19.2010

8:45am

7lbs. 12oz.

19 inches

Having a baby....

2010-01-18T07:50:00.001-08:00

Yes tomorrow is now the official day. :) We have to be at the hospital at 5am for my scheduled c-section at 7am. I do have a few new layouts and a box to share, but we have a lot of stuff to do today so I don't know if I will get them up on time. If not I will share late next week after we get home and get settled in from being in the hospital. :)

No More Casts

2010-01-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

We got to go back to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles on Monday for little Jacob to get his last cast taken off. He asked the guy if he could keep the spiderman cast. The guy (who happened to be the same guy that put the cast on and hand drew the spiderman on it) said no problem and he would fix it up all nice so that it would look good when we took it home. So he took off the cast and then we went to get x-rays and then to see the actual doctor. When we were in waiting for the doctor, the cast guy brought Jacob his cast to take home. He had put new lining in it so it didn't smell and put the cast back together. I thought that was really nice of him to do.

Here is Jacob waiting for the doctor to come in and holding his new cast. He was pretty excited about that.
After seeing the doctor we went and they gave us his new foot brace. His foot isn't completely straight yet, but with the screw in place now it will help for the foot to grow into itself and grow straight over the next few years. He is already doing great walking all by himself. We are waiting for the physical therapy referral to be approved so we can start that process next.
We even went yesterday and got new shoes that fit over the foot brace.

He just is so excited that he can walk by himself again he can't stand it. He is all ready to play sports he says . Soon he will be running and jumping and this entire process will just seem like nothing.

Thank you card

2010-01-13T10:52:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to make sure that I got out the baby shower thank you cards quickly, since it is almost time for her to be here. So I kept with the colors from the bedding and the invitations for the Thank You cards as well. The lighting on this card isn't great, but it is a little overcasty today so I couldn't get any good lighting for it.
I heat embossed white dots on the left side of the Kraft cardstock. Then I layered a piece of vellum over that. I printed the actual thank you squares on the computer. I added some orange ribbon and a flower gem and the punched border strip and they were done. It was such an easy card to make, and really quick too. Gotta love that.

I have a small errand to run today so I am hoping that I can get a chance to sit down at my desk and make something. I don't know why I am dying to scrapbook so much more than normal right now, but seems like it is the hardest time to get the chance to actually do it. We have been so busy and trying to get ready for baby is a chore in itself. But hopefully I can just start a layout or card, or something.

Name Picture

2010-01-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share this cool frame we got from my mom for Christmas. Each space has a picture of something that looks like a letter, which spells out our last name. I have seen these, and it was a total suprise when we opened it.
I think this would be such a fun thing to do for someone. It really makes me think when I look at things sometimes now because I wonder if I could look like a letter in a picture.

I think it would be fun to spell out the word HELLO and put it on the front of a card too.

The Story...A Layout

2010-01-10T06:47:00.001-08:00

This is the layout that I actually got done the other day. I was suprised because I started it late one night and actually got to sit down with it again the next morning and finish it up. This usually never happens and it ends up taking me much longer than that to get one layout done.
Since I haven't gotten to do anything with the pictures from my ultrasounds yet, I was dying to use something in a girly color. I was going to go with pink at first, but since I am a true purple lover, I went with purple. I really love the way it turned out, and love this Basic Grey line.
I used the story torn notebook sheet cut from my silhouette.

Overall the layout is very simple, with not many embelishments, but I think that it is good that way. I know sometimes I get a bit excited with all the little extra things, and sometimes end up taking some off because it just looks like too much. Remember what our mothers taught us...Less is More.

I have had these pretty pins for such a long time and finally used them on a layout. I love the shimmery ribbon as well.

I really had tons of ultrasound pictures, but alot of them were the same pictures, so I decided to just use the best of the ones that I had. They are a progression of ultrasound pictures over all of the months.

The journaling just talks about how we were going to be done after having Caleb, and then after we got married in April we decided to try once more and no matter boy or girl it would be our last child, and we just happened to be lucky and got a girl this time. It talks about when I went to my ultrasound appointment and found out it was a girl as well.

Well the time for this little one is getting so close, and I cannot even believe it. I really need to figure out what outfit she is going to come home in and pack our bags. I am always a little nervous the closer it comes time because even though I am scheduled for a C Section...she could have a mind of her own and want to come early. So since it just a week and a few days away, I better get on that.

I have to go to LA on Monday for little Jacob to have his cast removed, and Jacob is making my mom go with me since he has to work because he is worried about me driving that far by myself. :) Which at first I didn't think it was a big deal about me going, but I do understand where he is coming from, so I am taking her with me.

I am dying to do some more scrapbooking, but just have not had a chance to even sit down at my desk the last few days.

I am actually going to work on my baby shower thank you cards before I do anything else. Hopefully I can get a few things done around the house today, and make it to the grocery store and then sit down to work on those.

I will share what I come up with.

Quick and Easy Cassarole

2010-01-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share this quick and easy cassarole. We all really like this cassarole and it is so easy to make. I usually serve it with a salad and rolls, or bread with butter.

Quick and Easy Cassarole

3 lbs. ground beef

3 cans of corn - drained

2 -3 bags of boil in bag rice

1 large family size can of cream of chicken soup

1 large family size can of cream of mushroom soup

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

*Cook rice according to directions (you don't have to use boil in a bag rice, I just find it isn't as sticky, but you can use the same amount of minute rice, or any rice)

*While rice is cooking, brown meat in a large pot or skillet

*When meat is cooked and drained, add soups and corn.

*Start adding rice. This step varies....add as much or as little rice as you would like. Sometimes the rice soaks up all the soup and can make the cassarole a bit dry. So start with less and then keep adding more as desired. ~If you feel it is too dry you can add more of the soups as well

*Mix it all up

*Add salt and pepper to taste

*Heat for a few minutes to warm the corn and soups

*Serve

Framed Butterfly Art

2010-01-05T20:11:00.001-08:00

I just got done hanging this above the crib and wanted to share.
I have been wanting to make a butterfly framed picture for above the crib since I knew we were having a girl. It started out in my mind totally different, but I went with this and I love it.
I am not happy with the pink on the frame though. The pink craft paint I had just isn't the same shade of pink as in the bedding and now it is bothering me. So I am going to repaint the frame. I might stick with pink, but I might go back to white like I was originally going to do and a pink ribbon to hang it with, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Here it is upclose. Really simple and easy, but I just love that I made it and it matches her area.

I added just a hint of red, since there is actually quite a bit of red in the bedding. Then I found this love definition quote in all of my stash, and loved it, so I added it in there as well. Which worked out great since I needed to cover up a little rip in the butterfly anyways.

For the longest time last night I just sat and stared at the picture because I just didn't know what direction it was taking me, and i wasn't happy with how it was turning out. Then I found this turquoise cardstock in my stash and it all just came together. Now let me tell you this paper matches the turqouise in the bedding PERFECTLY. I love when things like that happen.

For the actual project I found the frame in my stash of unused frames and decided it was just the perfect size. The frame was a goldish color and always had every intention of painting it white. (It was a total last minute decision to go with pink).

I went in search of papers that matched in my paper stash. I found this orange paper and liked it right away. I wish it was a little brighter orange, not as muted, but I loved the dots on it like in the bedding. So I cut it to the size I wanted to fit into the frame. Then I cut the butterfly image from my silhouette on a regular 81/2 x 11 piece of white cardstock. I then decided I wanted some pink in there, so I cut the butterfly again in the pink paper and just cut off the leafy part and glued it down over the white part on the butterfly. While looking through buttons and stuff, just for ideas I found the turquoise brad. PERFECT match again. Then that is what made me search for the turquoise paper. Lucky again. I added the string under the brad, and the turquoise swirls. It was just coming together so well. I then added all the little pearls for a little more girly touch. Then I added the love definition and I thought it looked good. I still was staring at it, but sometimes I have to learn that less is more and sometimes you can over do it. lol. So then I painted the frame and glued some ribbon on the back.

**note: our staple gun wouldn't work, so I just taped the ribbon to the back. The ribbon really isn't holding the frame up on the wall. The frame is hanging on a nail, and then I put a clear tack in the wall to make it appear like that is what is holding the frame to the wall**

Getting Ready for our Baby Girl

2010-01-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

So thought I would just quickly share some of what we have been up to lately. After my baby shower I have been busy getting it all set up and put together.
I found this baby bedding and INSTANTLY knew this is the exact one that I wanted. I didn't want all pink. Plus since her crib has to be in with the little boys, I wanted something with colors that I could draw from and use for the entire room without making it all too girls or too boyish.

Now don't mind the stars on the walls, we haven't had a chance to paint yet in the room. I am going to hang up beadboard wal paper, much higher than the midway point and then paint the top half of the wall. Im not exactly sure what color the top half will be yet, but it will match the bedding. Then I am going to make comforters in either the orange or turquoise for the boys beds.
I hung the paper lanterns and really like how they look. I want to get 2 or 3 pink ones to add to the mix as well.

Side view.

The room view from the door. I should have made the beds lol. I am going to paint the lamps and buy new white lamp shades at Target this weekend. I saw some for like 5.00. I will be making new curtains as well for the room that match.

**Note to self : Can't leave the baby wipes on the little bookcase because Caleb loves to get into them and take them all out of the bucket. I should have remembered he always loved doing this.**

This is a close up of the blanket that my grandma made for us. I think it is so darn cute. I love the little pink and grey elephants. :)

I got the pack and play all set up in the living room for right now. I wanted to make sure that we had the bassinet part to it. We used it for Caleb, but never the bassinet part, so I couldn't remember. The swing is all set up next to it for now as well.

The carseat all ready to go.

I got this carrying thing at Ross yesterday for 12.00. SCORE! It is like 25.00 at Target. I really wanted one of these, so I was so excited to find it for such a good price.

All the clothes hung up in the closet. :) I love how they all look together hanging in there. Look at all that pink lol.

Some of my favorite stuff, and some new stuff as well.

I love the colors in this dress that my aunt got for us. Pictures are sure to follow in this dress.

I got this winnie the pooh outfit on clearance yesterday at Target. Love that it isn't pink lol. I love black and red together, and winnie the pooh is so cute too.

I got this outfit along time ago, and have always loved it. It is pink, brown and red.

I got this outfit at Target last night as well. I think it looks very springy. I love that it isn't pink either. Not that I have anything against pink, I just got so much pink already.

I found this one at Ross yesterday too. It was also on clearance. This is a 6 month outfit. I thought it was so cute...those little polka dot pants and the spagetti straps. :)

Tonight I am working on a butterfly picture for over her crib. Can't wait to share. I keep changing my ideas, so it is taking longer than I thought it would. But I did finally find the frame I am going to use in my frame stash..so that is at least a good start.

Baby Shower 01.02.10

2010-01-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

The invitation I made.

The yummy cake. It was a white cake with raspberry filling. Then white icing with shaved pink chocolate all over. It was SO good.

Guests.

My mom the Host.

My aunts.

My cousins.

Friends Coree and her mom Julie and the back of my sister in laws head.

TONS of gifts. Look at all that pink.

LOVE that wrapping paper.

Scrapbooking gifts.

We got 2 of the same carseats. :)

So many gifts.

The bottom of the picture above is the bedding I picked out for her. I love that it isn't the tradtional pinks...like everything else around is.

It was a very nice baby shower. Not many people came, but we figured it was after the holidays and the New Year weekend. But we still got showered with gifts. I could not even believe all that we got.

We came home and I had so much fun putting all the clothes away and all the bedding in the crib.

I will share photos of it all put together tomorrow.

Fridge Calendar Magnets

2010-01-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

I made a few of these little magnet calendars for a few people in the family this year. Nothing fancy smanchy or complicated, but just a little something fun.
Here is the brown and green version I did for my brother and his wife. The 2010 was blending in a bit more than I wanted so I outlined it in brown stickles.
Here is the entire thing. The calendars are printed from print and cut image from the silhouette.

This is the black and white version I made for the rest of the family. Super quick and easy.

Just wanted to share.
The look a little plain to me now, but on the fridge they are just a little calendar and look cute. Everyone loved them, so I guess that is all that matters in the end right. :)

New Years Resolutions

2010-01-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have to admit that I am always making big New Years Resolution plans and they NEVER seem to last.
So I have been thinking that instead of the regular ...I'm going on a diet kind of resolutions, I want to have goals and plans for the year ahead.
So I thought I would share some of these goals for not just me, but for us as a family as well.

**Save money. This is a big one for us. We are always trying

to save money, but can never

save like we would like to. So one way I plan to do this

is by really thinking about our purchases before me make them.

I try to do this often, but sometimes we just spend on things

that are just not needed. So I really want to be

concious of what we really are spending

our money on**

**Have more family time. Weather it is just a night when we watch

movies and have popcorn together, or

play a game together. I know we get so caught up

sometimes in the everyday routines, and the

day to day stuff, but these are the moments that matter

the most and it is good for the family.**

**Find more family things to do that do not cost much or

anything at all.**

**Spend more time with extended family as well.
With Jacob's uncle and my grandmas husband all in the hospital

at the end of this year this is something we need to do.

You always know that those people in your life that are

getting older won't be around forever, but

sometimes things happen that hit so hard home and are

a sure reminder that life is short. I miss my dad

all the time who died 6 years ago now, and

my grandparents are getting much older, and once they

are gone, you can't go back and spend the time

with them that you wanted to. So cherish the moments that you

do have with them now. **

**All of us need a new dentist and dentist appointments**

Some of my goals...

**Lose weight after the baby comes**

**Scrapbook more**

**Tackle a picture a day kind of project**

**Do a layout of a month in review each month**

**Try to say yes to the kids more often when they ask for something,

especially my time instead of saying "hold on a minute".**

**Do more activities with the kids**

**Learn to move on. There are things that I could hold a grudge on

forever for. I am tired of fighting. I may NEVER forget

certain things, but I can move past them (hopefully)**

**Stop thinking about the things that we don't have, and

be so greatful for all that I do have. There are so many

people that have so much less, or familys that really suffered this

year and we are a lucky family who had no layoffs this year, always

had a roof over our heads and food on the table. Life really isn't about

cars, and tvs and houses and "things". **

**Take care of me, health things.**

**Stop and really remember that life is so short!**

**Don't stress and get worked up over those things

that I cannot change. It is what it is most times and there is no point

in getting upset over those things**

**Relax**

**Keep up on the laundry...so far so good for the last month and a half lol**

**Keep up on the blog more**

**Follow through on all the millions of projects that I start.**

**Try to accomplish many of the ideas that I have for things we want done

around the house this year.**

**Get AHEAD on ALL the bills...which in the long run will also help with

the saving money part.**

**Try to sell some things in my etsy store.**

So I know the list could go on and on...but these are not just things I want to accomplish for this year, but in life in general.
Well off to make some spagetti for dinner. We are taking it to Jacob who has to work tonight and then me and the kids are probably going to stop by my moms house for cake for my brothers birthday. My brother and his wife are here visiting for the weekend and I am so excited because my SIL will get to be there for my baby shower tomorrow. :)

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. However you celebrate tonight, be safe and be with the ones you love.
I am hoping for a good year to come along with the new year.
Hoping the new year brings lots of change for the better for many people in this world.

HAPPY 2010!

My Scrapbooking Wish List

2009-12-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well we all have "wish lists" of some sorts, weather it be for supplies for scrapbooking, things you want around the house...anything. I am a list maker and love making lists of things I want or need or ideas I want to implement in the near or distant future.

Well one of the many lists I have going at the current moment are some scrapbooking things that I want. There are tons, since I am in deed not rich, but there are a few things that I have had my eye on that I am really wishing for this year.

Martha Stewart Loops Edger Punch

**I love edge punches. They are so useful, and versitile. I love the look of this loop one by Martha Stewart**

Martha Stewart Scalloped with 2 Dot Edge Punch
** As the first edge punch, I love this one just as much. I have seen some really cute things done with this one. Add stickles in the holes, add rhinestones...so many possiblities**

Basic Grey Sugar Rush Collection Pad

**Who doesn't love a good ol Basic Grey Collection....gotta love it. I love this one because it has the girly colors, which I am sure are going to get so much use this year with the new baby coming in January. **

Basic Grey Origins Pad

** I love that these colors in this paper could so go good with boy pictures and girl pictures. Just the right blend of feminine and masculine**

Quickutz Epic 6

**Well I already have the revolution, but had my eye on a cuttlebug. Then I fell in love with the letterpress kit that goes along with the Epic 6, and saw no sense in getting 2 new machines. So I figured the Epic 6 is better, since it also accepts all the other machines dies and has the letterpress kit you can get with it too. I am saving my SWAGBUCKS up to get Amazon.com gift cards to order this one....so basically it would be free to me (since there would be no money coming out of my wallet for it at all)**

Quickutz Letterpress

** I think this would make for some really great gifts and things to sell this year. I love that you can get that professionally printed look right from home, and it can be totally personalized. Excited for this one.**

I know there are more things on my Scrapbooking Wish List, but these are most of the ones I would totally buy right this second, if I was rich lol.

Etching

2009-12-29T11:19:00.001-08:00

For Christmas I made my mom and step dad some etched coasters. This was my first attempt at the etching process, and I have to say it was very easy. Alot easier than I thought it was going to be.

I bought some glass coasters at Michaels on sale ( for $5.00). So then I picked a design on the silhouette that I really liked and cut it out on some vinyl. Then you pick up your design with transfer paper and lay it right down on the coasters. After that you lay on a thick coat of the etching cream on and let it sit for about 15 minutes and then rinse with warm water. Remove the vinyl and walla!

The coasters that I got you can add pictures to, but I just added a black piece of cardstock to match their house for now. I didn't want the etched design to cover up parts of the pictures.

Instead of making all 4 of the coasters look identical, I changed them up a little bit for each one. I didn't line each design up in the middle on all 4, but instead I put some off to the side or top. I like that it gives a different look to each coaster, yet it is the exact same design.

I was always afraid that working with the vinyl and etching was going to be a big to do and a big mess. So I can't wait to make something else now, as soon as I get some more vinyl. I am really wanting to make some vinyl sayings for our walls and the front door too. First I need to order some more vinyl.

Christmas is over...

2009-12-28T22:32:00.001-08:00

and time to clean up now. lol

So how was Christmas? Ours was great. The kids scored as always.
I don't have my pictures from Christmas morning loaded into the laptop yet, so I will post those later.
We had a nice day on Christmas. We got up around 7am and did our family Christmas. Then we relaxed and didn't have to rush..which was so nice. Jacob wasn't feeling great, so he went and layed back down. We all finally got ready and went to my moms house about 12:30. We did gifts and then had a nice lunch. We had ham and scalloped potatoes and good conversation. We stayed a little over 2 hours. Jacob still wasn't feeling real great. So we left there, came home and unloaded the packed car and then gathered the gifts for his moms house and headed over there. We got there and did gifts there and then had dinner over there. We did some family pictures and then we left to come home. Again we unloaded the car...right into the living room. I had to finish up some gifts for another gathering we were going to. So I finished up the calendars that I was making (will share as soon as I take a picture of the last one I have here), and printed some pictures and framed them and finished up a blanket I had to make for my cousins son.
Then we got up early and went to my grandmas house Saturday morning. We got there about 10am. We had brunch there. Then we did gifts and played a few games. We got home around 4 and we relaxed before Jacob had to go to work, and I slept on the couch since it was now my turn to not feel good.
We took Jacob some Del Taco for dinner that night and then I was in bed with the babies by 830 that night.
Then the next morning we got up again and went to Jacob's uncles, and his girlfriends house for breakfast. It wasn't a Christmas gathering, but Jacob's cousins were visiting and most of the family hasn't seen them in almost 10 years. So it was nice to meet them and visit with everyone. We finally got home from there about 4ish. We came home and I started cleaning the house.
I ended up cleaning out every single cabinet in the kitchen and almost all the drawers as well. Then I moved on to the babies bedroom. That was a task in itself. I got enough out of the way though so Jacob could put together their new toddler beds. They were so excited to have their own new beds. So they even slept in them last night and didn't wake up once.
So then today continued the cleaning and organizing. Jacob started laundry and rug washed the entire couch today...wow it so needed it. He is so wonderful.
I continued in the babies room. I went through the entire dresser and closet. What once was no room for new baby clothes, was now 2 full empty drawers in the dresser and an entire side of the closet. It was so fun to put the new girly baby clothes away. I cleaned out the crib that had collected stuffed animals I didn't want to get rid of, and some "to find a home soon" stuff. We moved the dresser over on the wall and moved the bookcase. The bookcase is now all straightened and is all organized on top. I can't wait to get the beadboard wallpaper on the walls in there and the top half of the walls painted. I want to wait for the new baby bedding so I can match the colors I want to paint better. I don't want it to be off enough that it bothers me. But in the meantime I think I will go in search of the beadboard wall paper (that I did see online that Lowe's carries in the store) and maybe at least get that up before the baby comes.
I have so many plans and ideas that I want to do around the house this year, and can't wait to share so many of the ideas that I have.
I am going to take a few pictures of the babies room this week and then I will share the progress of it as we do it. I plan on doing that with all my "makeover" and "to do" things as well.
Tonight though..I am tired and heading to bed. I am excited for the new year and to put forth and complete so many of my scrapbooking, crafty and decorating ideas this year...and have a new baby along the way. :)

Traditional Christmas morning breakfast

2009-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

So I thought I would share this real quick. It is the same thing that I make every single Christmas morning for breakfast. It is so quick and easy. You make it the night before and just toss it in the oven the morning you are going to eat it. I don't even know the real name for it.
So I just thought I would share this.

Toasted egg bake....sounds like a good name to me.

You will need:
A large baking dish..like a cake pan size.
Depending on how large your pan is depends on how many eggs and how many loafs of bread you will need.
Cheese
Sausage

Spray your pan with non stick cooking spray.

Brown and crumble your breakfast sausage. I usually use about 2 pounds. Let cool while you work on the rest of the stuff.
Take eggs. For my big cake pan I usually use about 2 dozen eggs.
Scramble them all up in a bowl and add a little salt and pepper. Add just a bit of cheese as well.
Add the cooked sausage to the uncooked egg mixture.
Take the bread. This bread does not have to be fresh...I usually go for the clearance bread or cheap cheap bread at the store.
Cut all the cust off of all the bread. Then cut each piece of bread in half. Line the bottom and all the sides and corners of the pan with the bread.
Now pour the egg and sausage mixture over the bread.
Now top the entire thing with cheese.
Cover with foil and put into the fridge until the next morning.

The next morning. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In heated oven place the dish into the oven, with foil still on. Bake for about 45 minutes. You just have to check it really. If I use more eggs and the mixture is thicker, I give it longer in the oven to make sure it is cooked all the way through. About 10 to 15 minutes before I am going to take it out of the oven, I remove the foil.
Let it bake for the remaining time with the foil off.
When it is done, take it out of the oven and slice up like a cake and serve. My kids don't like anyting with it, cause it really is a meal all in itself.
The bottom of it is softer, and the bread that is left sticking up on the sides gets a little crunchy. That is my favorite part. It works out good because the kids like the middle pieces the best and me and Jacob like the outside pieces. So works out good for all of us.

My mom used to make this every now and then on Christmas morning, and then many years ago I started making it, and then it just kind of became a tradition for us and now I make it every year. One year we took 4 pans of it to Jacobs moms house on Christmas morning. Last year Jacob had to work Christmas day, so I sent 3 pans of it with him to work that morning....well I sent 2 pans and everyone loved it so much and ate it so fast, I took out another pan that I had just as extra (good thing I did).

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas...

2009-12-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

to you and your family.
Enjoy spending time with the ones that you love.
I am definately not rich, but feel rich in love from our closest loved ones.

Loot and baking

2009-12-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

The layout I posted yesterday was from all of this loot. It was from the stuff I won from Memory Makers. I got all this wonderful yummy fun stuff. So needless to say I didn't even touch it from that layout is the truth. There is still so much stuff to go around. I can't wait to use it all up.
The other day we baked some yummy goodies. I just thought I would share some of the stuff we baked. Chocolate Chunk cookies.

Here are the boxes of cake mixes, brownie mixes and cookie mixes all lined up on the counter before baking.

These were SOOO good. They are mini red velvet cupcakes with vanilla icing. I have heard from so many people that they like cream cheese frosting on red velvet cake, but I think it is too sweet sometimes. This was just the right amount of sweetness. I found these dot sprinkles, as I like to call them, at Walmart and love the festive look it gives to the already red cupcakes.

I am so mad that I didn't get a picture of the kids helping me pour batter into the pans, but it was fun having them help. They love to help bake and cook with me all the time. Sometimes it reminds me to slow down and take in those moments because they won't be like this forever.

Christma Tree Hunting...a layout

2009-12-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

Well I actually got a chance to sit down at my desk this morning and scrapbook. I just needed to. :) I have been wanting to do this layout for a long time, but just have not had time with the Chrsitmas madness going on lately. So I printed the pictures out the other day and had them ready. First I had drawn out my little rough sketch that I had invisioned in my head. Well then Caleb decided he wanted to draw on most of the pictures. So I just went ahead and used those pictures this morning. I didn't stick them down all that great so I can reprint them and replace them on the layout.
I got this Christmas paper from my Memory Makers winnings. After we went Christmas Tree Hunting I knew that this was the paper I wanted to use for the layout. I had a few ideas in my head for the layout...and I counted out my pictures and just started working it out in my head, and looking at some layouts I had saved on the laptop for inspiration. So with a combination of it all...this is what came out of it. I am really happy with the end results.

Here it is...
I love this see threw black Christmas tree. I have had these alphabet stickers for what seems like forever, and I finally got to use them and I love them. I also love this scalloped black dot ribbon.

I didn't think I was even going to use these glitter Christmas Trees, but I ended up trying them and really like the way they just added a little something to the circle paper. On one tree I tied a little floss on and added a 3D flower embelishment. On the embelishment I added a green rhinestone as well.

I cut up the fancy shaped paper to add to the top for the title. I hadn't originally planned on doing this, but the tree paper is pretty busy and the title seemed like it was just going to get lost, so that is why I added it, and ended up loving that as well. This is the right side of the layout. I also hand journaled on the red and cream striped paper as well.

I used the same sticker set to add the year to this side of the layout. The Christmas Cheer tag came in the embelishment set as well. I added some green rhinestones to the sides of it as well.

All the little pictures are printed in black and white and the larger pictures are printed in color. I love the contrast between having both on a layout.

My overall inspiration for this layout came from none other than one of my FAVORITE scrapbookers Nichol Magouirk HERE .

Here is the entire layout all together.

I really like this Memory Makers Christmas line. I only used 2 sheets of the paper that I got. The paper on the right and the left side of the photos is all one sheet, patterened just like that with all the different designs. I used to not like paper like that, but found I do love it, especially in cases just like this. It looks like I cut up tons of different patterned paper and pieced them all together...this is so much easier. I like that. Doing this layout this morning, really gave me the itch to scrapbook some more..thinking I might go clean up my desk from this mess and see if I can get some other ideas worked out.

Older Layouts

2009-12-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

When I was going through the computer the other night, I ran across the older pregnancy layout and then I also ran across some oldies but goodies. So I just thought I would share.

I can't believe that Christmas is so darn close. I am ready for the year to be over and start out a fresh new year. We have alot going on right at the beginning of the year already, and I am excited.

I want to really keep up this year and do a layout each month of a "month in review". I started out with January last year, and that is as far as I made it...lol. Figures. But I am going to get a little notebook and make notes everyday so that I can go back for journaling. I want to try to do a photo a day as well, to go along with it. I will try my hardest that is for sure. I was really bad last year about writing on my calendar like I usually do, so I think that is why I got so discouraged and got behind and never followed through on it. So that is one of my goals for this year. We will see how well it goes.

I am excited that my baby shower is on January 2nd already. I can't believe we are this close already to meeting our new daughter. WOW. I have gotten some cute things here and there as I see them, but other than the 10 outfits we have for her we have nothing girl related. lol. So I am excited for everything that we are going to get at the baby shower. I loved seeing all the little girly Christmas dresses out this year. Next year it will be our turn picking out a cute one . :)

Of course right now I have no time to scrapbook and here I am dying to get a chance to sit down and do some. I just don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done. Just doctors appointments for me alone are alot, I am having 2-3 a week between the 2 different doctors, then trying to finish up shopping, finish up the last of the wrapping, baking and delivering the goodies to doctors offices, friends, neighbors...and just getting ready for Christmas day in general to come.

I will share the goodies we baked, and our traditional Christmas morning breakfast in the next day or two.

Pregnancy layout...from Caleb

2009-12-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Just last night I was going through some files on the laptop and I came across some older layouts that I had saved. This one made me smile. This one I did right before I had Caleb 21/2 years ago..and here I sit ready to pop with our last child and it is going to be a girl. I haven't even done my layout yet about us finding out that we are having a girl. I so need to get on that.

Christmas Parade

2009-12-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas parade here in town was really the first Saturday in December, but I forgot to share some pictures. The little ones enjoyed the parade, but I think the big kids were getting bored quickly. I personally did not think the parade was as good this year as all the previous years we have gone. There were several school bands that were not there this year, Jacobs work wasn't in it this year with the big cement truck, and the floats this year were nothing grand. But it was something we do every year, so it was fun still. It was cold out this year too, but not nearly as cold as last year, so it was managable.
Here are some photos from the parade.
The boys. This was the best one I got out of a few.
Here are the babies getting excited and all bundled up.

A school marching band.

An army truck.

Some little girl cheerleaders.

The kids school.

The kids school band.

A girl race car driver.

A firetruck.

Horses. One painted like a candycane.

Mini cars. The kids love these.

Santa and Mrs. Clause.

Another marching band.

An old fashion firetruck.

The statue of liberty float.

Mini trucks. The kids love these the best. They drive all around and wind in between each other. The are fun to watch.

Well Jacob is at the hospital right now visiting his uncle. They took him off the medicine that put him in the coma, and they took him off the respirator as well. He woke up and is breathing on his own. He was asking to see everyone, so that is great. God was with him that is for sure.

Our little Caleb woke up this morning at 5am throwing up. :( He threw up a few times too. Then we went to sleep and when he woke back up he seemed fine. He ate and had some gatorade and was riding his bike. He was enjoying some Mickey Mouse on tv too. Then he was laying on the bed and started to cry and then threw up again. Twice this time. So I put him in a warm bath and after that he layed down and took a good nap. When he woke up he was complaining that his tummy hurt again. He drank some water and layed down again. He was starting to feel warm too. Then a little bit ago he climbed up on the couch here with me and fell asleep. I really hope our poor little guy isn't getting sick.

On a happy note though, I got every Christmas present wrapped today. I am not done shopping yet, but at least I tackled that much. Feels so good to have it done.

Now to just figure out what is for dinner and we will be doing good.

Christmas Card

2009-12-17T07:17:00.001-08:00

I am so tired today. Yesterday was a long day. During the day we found out that Jacob's uncle had a heart attack while he was at his dialysis appointment yesterday morning. I guess he turned blue and stopped breathing. We were told he was without oxygen for anywhere from 5-7 minutes. That isn't good. The doctors put him in a coma to stabalize him. He was in the ER all day. He was not doing good at all. Jacob went to the hospital after he got home from work to visit with him. Me and the kids went up there about an hour later. The kids couldn't go in, but we sat with Jacob for a long time. They finally moved his uncle to the ICU at 730 pm last night. More of the family came to the hospital. I did go in to see him once he was in the ICU. I was told that he looked a lot better once they moved him from the way he looked in the ER. They did an EEG on him and won't know much of anything until today.
Jacobs grandma and aunt are flying out here today from Oaklahoma. I think they are going to be staying with us while they are here.
Nobody knows anything that is going on yet, but he is in our prayers right now for sure.
We didn't get home from the hospital last night until around 11 pm. So it was a long day for sure. Now we have another busy day today.

I have a few things to pick up at Target today and hope to find a few more Christmas gifts I need to pick up. I have a doctors appointment as well. Guess I should get off the computer and go get into the shower here pretty quickly then.
But quickly I want to share a card.
Even though I haven't mailed out all my Christmas cards yet, I am still going to share them.
Ok so I have decided that even though I love the creative process, next year I am definatley doing photo cards and just buying them all printed out . I made one card and really like it and it was farely easy, but this was such a long process to make 60 of them. I always get like that too. I love making a few, but as soon as I have to mass produce alot of them, I don't love it so much anymore. It seemed like it took me forever to make the cards too, because I could only work on them some here and some there. So it was a long process from start to finish.

First I heat embossed all the sliver snowflakes, then I went back and heat embossed all the red snowflakes. Then I went back and stamped all the white snowflakes with white Staz-on.
I had precut the silver glitter paper with the border punch. I had precut the ribbon as well.
So after all the stamping and embossing was done, I still had to assemble them.
I did them here and there as I could sit and glue a few together.
After it was all assembled I just tied the sheer white ribbon in a bow and tied in a piece of twine. I attatched the jingle bells to the twine and then tied that into a bow as well.
The inside of the card is just stamped with a red Merry Christmas.

In one night I got them all filled out, photo included inside and all the envelopes addressed as well.
I was feeling pretty good about it all finally and happy I finally got them all done...until I went to the post office. Because of the bulk from the jingle bells, each card was going to take 3, yes 3 stamps to mail them out. Many people suggested to just take the bells off the card....well that would require me to take the entire card apart...so I didn't. I bought some stamps and mailed out a few. Then a few days later I bought a book of stamps and mailed out some more. Now I only have a few left to get into the mail.
I hand delivered the ones to friends and family that we often see to cut the cost there. I am also going to bake some goodies hopefully this weekend and hand deliver some of those with the cards to doctors offices when I have my appointments next week. So it really didn't end up costing too much to mail them out since I took out more than half to hand deliver.
But next year I am so doing the photo cards. I have seen some beautiful ones out this year. I am doing the same with the baby birth announcements as well. I was going to make them ahead of time as well, but I just don't have the time right now and I know I won't have the time after she gets here. Plus to buy all the materials to make them, usually works out to cost a bit more than to just have the photo cards made. So that is the plan for next year.
Off to hit the showers and get the busy day started.

Christmas Ornaments

2009-12-16T06:43:00.001-08:00

First an update. This was the little happy guy yesterday. He looks so darn happy. Here he is with his new spiderman cast. The cast guy said they are a little out of date on casts, so he put on red and blue and then hand drew a spiderman just for him. He has been doing so good. He wants to walk, but it is just hard still for him. Last night he was holding on to the couch and the coffee table and walking back and forth a few times.
I have the order for physical therapy and need to call the insurance to find out where they will cover and the closest place to us to go. The doctor wants him to go 2-3 times a week for 4 months. Then we go on January 11, and the spiderman cast will come off, and he will have a foot brace for his left foot after that.

Now I wanted to share some Christmas ornaments I made the other day. I started with one, and they turned out so nice and they were so quick and easy I kept going. I ended up making 10 and have a list of a few more I would like to make.
I got a 2 pack of the snowflakes at Target for $1.00 and I had all the rest of the stuff...so they were cheap cheap too.

This one is for my best friend. It is in Blue and White. The 09 has blue glitter and I glimmer misted the blue ribbon.

This one was a white snowflake, but I glimmer misted it with wheatfield to give it a more creamy color to it. It matches the ribbons much better. This one also has a giant crystal hanging from it. This one is for my Aunt.

This one was fun for sure. I have a friend that has a few trees up at her house. One of the trees has bright colors on it. So I took a turquoise snowflake and added green, pink, orange and white ribbons. Then there is rhinestones and hot pink dots. Then I also used some orange stickles on this one as well, and green stickles on the year. I hope that she likes it.

This one is for my other Aunt and her family. Her tree is in red and white, but she is going to be moving, so I don't know if she even has her tree up this year. But either way she can put it up another year. I love the look of the red rhinestones on the white snowflake.This one is for my mom and stepdad. For the longest time growing up we always had a gold and white tree, but lately she has been adding more red to add a pop of color. This one is an actual gold snowflake. This one as a giant gem hanging from the bottom too. The red ribbon on this one is velvet.

This one is for my newest little niece. This is actually what got me started on this entire thing. I wanted to make her a "first Christmas" ornament. Well it just all evolved from there... This one I did with her initial. I am thinking I might still add the year, but small just so she will know it was always for her first Christmas. I love the look of red, white and silver together. I love the little snowflake on the N as well.

Since I made Natalie an ornament, I had to make my two other little girl nieces and ornament as well. I did thiers in Blue and White. Both of these are the same for the most part, but just the blue snowflake ornaments in different places. Both of their names start with an H though, so I might add their name in there somehow so they will always know the difference in their ornaments, and maybe the year as well.

My brother and his wife will be celebrating their second Christmas together this year as husband and wife. I made them an ornament last year, and had to do it again this year. Their tree is turquoise and green. When I saw the turquoise snowflakes, I so knew I had to get the pack for them, and then had decided on making all these. I used green fine glitter on the date for this one. This one is for my grandma and her husband. It is in simple gold and cream. I had some white glittery thickers. I sprayed them with wheatfield glimmer mist to give them a goldish/creamish tint to them. Love this color combination as well.

These ornaments were so much fun. It was fun to figure out the best color combination for each person or family.
Now I have to make my own kids their ornaments for this year as well.

I am thinking I want to make us a decoration one as well. I want to connect 3 snowflakes and have it say JOY with ribbons and rhinestones and glitter and all that fun stuff from all of the other ornaments.

I am so far behind on my Christmas shopping this year, I cannot even believe it. Then we won't even talk about the wrapping that goes along with all of the gifts....

NOTE TO SELF: do not get behind next year on shopping for Christmas....start even earlier!!!

Back to LA

2009-12-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the day already. Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for, since the surgery. Tomorrow we are headed back to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles so they can take these double casts OFF. He will get them off and just go to a single cast on his left leg, so that ankle can heal longer.
He has adjusted so well to having this cast on. I thought it was going to be a very hard month, but it was very easy. He got around all over the house in his "wheelychair". He just pushed himself wherever he wanted to go. He fit in the back of the carts at Stater Brothers and a bit tighter in the Target carts...and those are the only 2 places that we went in this time.
My big little guy is such a trooper. He just takes the issues that life throws at him and takes it with a smile. He adjusts well, and rarely complains.
We are so proud of him, and so excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Christmas Decorations

2009-12-09T22:21:00.000-08:00

So I have been in a non festive mood this holiday season. Putting up the tree and the decorations has helped some.

My favorite part of decorating this year was that since I built a mantle over the fireplace I was able to display all of my Santa collection together and hang the stockings from it.
So here are a few of my favorites around the house.

This is our mini 12 days of Christmas tree. My mom got us these ornaments a few years ago and the tree was an after Christmas clearance tree a few years ago as well. There are 12 ornaments, each one painted to go along with the 12 days of Christmas. They are really beautiful ornaments.

The mantle with my santa collection on top and the stockings all hung.

The bookcase with all the snowmen stuff we have.

And finally the tree all decorated. We got a 9 foot douglas fir this year. I fell in love with the tall tree, and we brought it home.

Today I reorganized all my completed scrapbook layouts, and cleaned and perged my scrapbook desk and closet. So I am enjoying the clean space now.

Now to go create on it.

I will share soon my Christmas cards I created this year. I want to wait until I get them out in the mail.

Quick Thanksgiving Name Cards

2009-12-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would share this quick little place setting card that I made. It was really late the night before Thanksgiving and while I was trying to finish up some stuff I got the grand idea to make name cards for the table as well.
I used a new download from quickutz for the silhouette. It calls for one leaf, but I cut the same leaf from brown, yellow and orange paper. I cut the card part from green cardstock. After the leaves were cut out I then glimmer misted them. I used coordinating colors on each leaf (Ill have to check the exact names of the colors). Then I made everyones names on the computer with the circle around it. Once I printed those out on cream cardstock, I used my oval scalloped punch to cut them out. I glued those on after the leaves and there you have it. Had I thought about it sooner, or the day before I could have added some pretty ribbon and jewels to them as well, but it was late and I was ready for bed at this point.
Off to work on the Christmas cards some more. Hopefully I can get them all assembled today. We will see though.

Baby Shower Invitations

2009-12-04T10:14:00.001-08:00

So another thing I have been busy working on are these baby shower invitations.

My mom is throwing me a baby shower, but I told her she didn't have a choice I was making the invitations. As soon as I found the crib bedding that I wanted, I could invision the invitations in my head. So this is what was born from that idea. It is hard to tell in the picture, but some of the flowers are from glitter paper. The colors of the pp in the back match perfect to the flowers. They all have the same color theme as the bedding.

The printed You're Invited part was a print and cut design from my silhouette. I just sized it to be a little smaller that the 5x7 card and pop dotted it on the final card.

I of course had to make the envelopes match as well. So I just cut some more flowers and glued them to the envelopes. Quick and easy.

The final part of the invitations was that I tied some thin white string around the bottom of the card, and embellished all of the flowers with a white pearl.

I am excited for my mom to get these out in the mail very soon.

Off to run some errands today, and then hopefully I can get the house cleaned up so I can work on the Christmas cards some more today...heck maybe even finish them up (ha ha ha).

Tomorrow we are going to the annual Christmas parade too. I am excited for that becuase the kids always love going, and seeing Santa at the end. I am SO far behind still on my shopping however and that is starting to stress me out....

Halloween Layouts

2009-12-02T15:36:00.001-08:00

Finally I am taking the chance to get on here and post some layouts. We have just been so busy lately I just haven't had a spare few minutes to get on here to post them.
This one is of the kids carving their pumpkins. It uses the Pink Paislee Halloween Paper.
All of the green elements I added to the layout were covered with Green Stickles. Gotta love stickles.

This is a layout from the kids all dressed up for Halloween. This one uses the Basic Grey Halloween paper line. The matching sticker sheet came with a sticker that had a witch silhouette in front of a moon. Well it was so small I decided to make one of my own to fit the space I needed. So I just cut a circle from cream paper. Then I cut the witch on her broom out. I inked up the moon just a bit with some old paper distress ink to make it have a "real" look to it. Then I just glued it all on. I really like the way it turned out. I was thinking this would make some cool Halloween decorations for next year to put in the windows.

Well off to finish up the Christmas cards so I can share those. I do have a Thanksgiving placecard to share and a baby shower invitation to share as well. Will get to that tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. My parents and brother and sister in law
are coming over for lunch today and dessert. My wonderful husband has to work graveyard tonight. :( So after we eat it will be nap time. I stayed up way too late last night making cheesecake, cherry pie, deviled eggs and a make ahead breakfast. I am so ready for a nap already lol.
I will share this amazing cheesecake recipe tomorrow. It looks so yummy I don't know if I am just looking forward to eating so that we can get to the cheesecake. I have some layouts to share too, and am hoping to get to those tomorrow.
Until then Happy Thanksgiving. Remember to be grateful for the good things in our lives, as there are so many people with so much less than all of us.

Christmas Card photo Shoot

2009-11-19T14:43:00.001-08:00

I wanted to make sure that before little Jacob went in for his surgery I got their Christmas Card photos done. I had great plans to take them somewhere that was full of trees (ya ok we live in the dessert, but thought I could find a park with trees or something). It ended up being really cold that day, and it was the last day we had to take them, and since we were leaving early the next morning we had a ton of things to do. So we just went out front as usual. They turned out though so I am happy. Off to check on my little guy now.

Headed to LA

2009-11-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

Today we are leaving for LA for my little guys surgery..be back soon.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2009-11-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check this out here . I WON.

I won the new mistletoe collection from Making Memories. I can't wait to get it in the mail.

On other notes I was so sick for about 4 full days. It was HORRIBLE. I am so glad that my wonderful husband was off for of those days so he could take care of me and the kids and do all the cooking and cleaning and house stuff.

Now of course I have managed to get the little ones sick...

Off to the grocerry store now though...back to the "routine".

Want to win this?

2009-11-01T16:42:00.001-08:00

I am posting this so I have an extra entry to try and win this. If you would like a chance to win as well go HERE
What an amazing give away. If I won I would totally give most of the stuff to my mom since she has roosters in her kitchen.
I would keep all the other stuff for myself.
Good luck to everyone.

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween photos

2009-11-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

This was a busy Halloween Season. On Friday we went with some friends to the pumpkin patch. The little ones picked out a little pumpkin and the bigger boys picked a medium pumpkin. After that we got the little ones dressed and went with our friends to her dads work for a little trick or treating. He works at a reatly company and they had some little games for the kids and some trick or treating. They had pizza and drinks as well. The little ones got their picture taken too. The older boys wanted nothing to do with the picture taking.

Then we went to dinner at Applebees with our friends and had a great time. We don't go out to dinner often anymore with Jacobs crazy work schedule and especially not with anyone else. So it was fun for many reasons.

Then on Saturday we got up and cleaned up around the house. Then we went in search of a costume for the older boys. We have never waited that late and it was a mad house. We ended up at Party City and it was CRAZY. I think after we found them each a mask we ended up waiting 25 minutes in line just to pay for them.
We came home and the kids carved their pumpkins. We saved all the seeds and today Jacob is making roasted pumpkin seeds.
Then we went to my moms church and the kids did some trunk or treating. They also had some bounce houses, blow up mazes, slides and games for the kids. They also had cotton candy, nachos and popcorn. It was fun and the kids had a great time. After that we went to In n Out for dinner and then off to trick or treating. We walked around for about an hour and a half and the kids got another bucket full of candy. We now have a huge box of candy sitting on the kitchen counter.
It was a fun filled weekend and I am glad for today to relax. I have some laundry to do and pick up around the house again and must go to the grocerry store later, but that is about it. I want to get some pictures printed and would like to scrapbook them soon.
I have plans with my friend Coree to go shopping on Tuesday and I can't wait. We are going to go down the hill to Collective Journey and then stop at Joanns and Michaels as well. We both have a project that we want to make, and so we are going to do it together...I am excited I can't wait.

Now that it is November 1, that means that little Jacob's surgery is only 17 days away, and only 16 days until we have to go down to LA. I have so much running through my brain about it all and I know it is going to be a long process for his recovery. My poor little guy.

There are so many things I want to still get done in this next 2 weeks...crunch time. Hopefully that will give me alot to share here though. :)

Birthday Layout

2009-10-28T13:59:00.001-07:00

Man for some reason when I cropped this photo it made it look yuck. Don't know why that happened.

Wanted to share another layout. This one is from Caleb's 2nd birthday party. I wanted to hurry up and get this one done so that I could get his hand print that I kept forgetting to do.
A pretty simple layout, but I still like it. The little tag on the bottom left was so easy to make. I just printed several rows of Happy Birthday in grey and then one row of it in red. Then I used a die cut shape that I had to cut around it and instant custom die cut. :) I should have taken a close up picture of it...maybe I still will.

Working on a bunch of stuff still and have plans for a few projects that I am really excited about. Can't wait to get on those and share.

His and Hers Layout

2009-10-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

I found this paper at the store the last time I went and I loved it. I saw it and instantly had a page idea in my head. This was almost exactly what I had imagined. I love black and red together and seem to use that combination alot as well. I didn't know exactly what photos I was going to use for it until I got started on the layout. I used photos from our wedding since those were the most recent photos of us together.

On the right side of the layout I printed out different things about me and Jacob. Things like the cars we drive right now to our favorite kinds of movies to things we like to do in our spare time. I really like how it turned out. The little restroom people are cut from the silhouette. I do have to add that when I went back to Jaonns to get some other papers I knew that I needed a redish cardstock. Well I didn't have the patterened paper with me, so I had to guess and the one that I picked out ended up being the exact shade of red that I needed. This never happens for me, I never seem to guess correctly like that, so I was pretty excited. Yes excited over a piece of paper...oh the little things that excite us sometimes. lol. More layouts to share later.

Holiday Treats

2009-10-23T13:20:00.001-07:00

I made a few little treat bags for Halloween. I got the little bags last year at Christmas time, and never ended up using them. I made a few different versions. This was the first one. Let me say that hand stamping the kraft cardstock with the orange and black version was taking me FOREVER... so that is how the other version came about. The circle trick or treat is a print and cut from the silhouette. Then an orange rhinestone is glued to the back of a black button. Easy peasy. Then I filled the bags with either peaunut butter cups, or the jelly sticks. Then stapled the topper to the bag. Super easy and something I think the kids will like to get. I made some for all of the cousins, my 4 and then some for some of our friends kids.

This one used a pack of $1.00 paper I got at Target. I wasn't LOVING the paper, so I got it to use on this exact kind of thing.

I started these Thanksgiving treats back a few weeks ago as well. They are clear pillow boxes. It has a piece of Thanksgiving colored paper wrapped around it. Then some thick twine tied around that. Then I took some strands of Thanksgiving vines I got from the dollar store and pulled the leaves off. I glued those on and tied the tag onto the twine and done. Super easy as well. These will go on everyones plate on Thanksgiving. On the tag I clear embossed the saying from a cute stamp set that I got on sale at Joanns. I found a bag of candy at Target that had Thanksgiving colored wrappers to fill the boxes with. Just a fun little unexpected thing on each persons plate this year.

I have some layouts I finally took pictures of that I will share as well (probably tomorrow).

Cards

2009-10-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get an early start today since I have a few things to do today. Just been moving along, and by the time I would sit to post something I had no energy to do it, so the blog therefore suffers.

I have been in the card phase again and wanted to share some cards that I have made recently.

I made this one with glimmer mist. I haven't played with the few bottles that I have in a while. So then it caused me to pull out the few bottles of alcohol inks I have as well. I ai with several shadeds of blue on photo paper. I let it dry and then punched out the butterflies. I then white embosses on the glimmer misted sheet. Rounded the corders and pop dotted the entire thing to a white card. I really love the way it turned out. This picture gives it no justice really. The lighting was bad when I took it, since it was dark outside already. I love the little last pop of detail that the little silver pearls add.

I made a set of 3 of these (well similar) to put in my etsy store as well. I was just having so much fun playing with the glimmer mist and embossing. On the etsy store cards though, I embossed bridal ( I think it was bridal) embossing powder on the large button. Love how it gives just a little extra "sparkle". (that is the picture above..blogger won't let me move any photos right now)

This card was cut out from my silhoutte die cutting machine. I love this card. I love black with a pop of color. Then I cut from the same color paper the flower image. I used the purple side and glued it to the front of the card, and added some more of those silver pearls. Love it. Such a simple and easy card. I need to get this in an envelope so I can give it to my sister in law today (whose birthday was last weekend).

This was a print and cut image from the silhouette. I love those little birds. I wanted to cut out or stamp the thank you, but had run out of time when I needed to use this card, so I just hand wrote it. I added some stickles to the feathers of the bird after I cut it out too. The green image behind is also a silhouette cut out image. Man the lighting on this card is horrible too....uck.

I cut out these little cupcakes on the silhouette also. It was really a more detailed cupcakes, but I ungrouped them all and then added the icing image to the top of the cupcake and then welded it all back together to make it one solid image so it would cut out just like this. Another pretty simple card, which I love.

Here is one last image of the first card (again since it won't let me move it to the top of this post lol).

Well off to start the day. I have to run to Target and pick up a few things, go grocery shopping since the cabinets are bare and my poor husband has been without coffee 2 mornings in a row now when he left for work, and I have some layouts that I want to get finished and another one I have an idea for that I am dying to sit down and work on. Oh and I have to stop at Joann's as well. Today starts the 5 for .95cents paper and I need a few more sheets to finish up the baby shower invitations for my mom.

A few things...

2009-10-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have seen this on a few blogs and thought it would be fun...

Outside my window. . . a little breeze, and a fresh air smell coming in from the bedroom window.
I am praying . . . for rain.(yeah right though)
I am thinking . . . I want to get in the shower in a few minutes.
I am celebrating . . . that fall is here finally
From the kitchen . . . only a few dishes in the sink, but bare fridge and cupboards. We need to go grocery shopping today.
I am wearing . . . . tank top and capri jammies.
I am reading . . .. a few scrapbooking magazines
I am hoping . . . . I don't get any hearburn today
I am hearing . . . the smoke alarm keeps beeping from time to time to tell us the batteries are going dead, and the dog and cats chasing each other. Other than that it is pure silence around here...all the kids are still asleep....such a rare thing around here.
I am creating . . . birthday cards, Halloween cards to send out, Halloween tags for goodies to give out, little treat bags for the kids, their friends and cousins, Baby shower invitations, Christmas cards, Birthday party invitations for February, Thanksgiving place cards, Thanksgiving treat pillow boxes...and I think that is it??? lol.
Around the house . . . it's messy. Laundry to fold and needs a good vacuuming. (always)
One of my favourite things . . . . family time like we had yesterday. :)
A few plans for the rest of the week . . . return something to Joanns, grocerry shopping, 2 doctors appointments, 1 school appointment, clean the house (everyday)....nothing else major.

:) I just ate a doughnut and now I need something to drink. Milk actually sounds really good...but we don't have any. But since I don't even like milk there is no tears here. I think I will just have a glass of ice water.
Then it is off to hit the showers and run a few errands today. Return to Joanns, lunch to Jacob at work, grocerry store, clean up around the house, finish creating alot of stuff I am working on...stay warm :).
Yesterday was Jacob's day off and we were thinking about going to the air show, but just never made it out that way. Instead we decided that we were going to go down the hill to Bass Pro Shop and look around and get some stuff to fill Jacob's tackle box since we have doing alot of fishing lately. We didn't get as early of a start as we wanted. We went to get Jacob some new work boots first and then we had some friends stop by that we haven't seen in a long time. So we headed out about 7pm. We got the older boys each their own fishing poles and then a few odds and ends. We stayed down there for dinner at their restaurant. It was so good. The best part was the family time we had together. It was great. No attitudes from the older kids, no whinning from the little ones.... Had a great time.
There was a big fire on the freeway on our way down. Strange to see such a terrible thing so darn close to you. Sad...
Off to hit the shower before anyone else wakes up and wants to get in.

New blog colors again.

2009-09-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

I got so tired of the black yellow and red. So I went with a simple white background now. Loving it much better. Funny that in my scrapbooking I am also loving using a white background, a tan background or black. Guess I am just trying to go with the simple element in life. lol.
Lately I have been really into making cards, as I mentioned before.
Have some ideas...so as soon as I get them down on paper (made) I will share. I am hoping to get some done today.
I do have one card to share later, but right now I have to go pick up Marcus from school.

Halloween Tags

2009-09-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ok let me try this again.
Blogger was having an issue this morning and didn't save my post, and then cleared it.

I was angry...so I just walked away.

I wanted to share these cute Halloween tags that I made yesterday.

I am going to make some yummy goodies for family and for both of my doctors offices. So after I put the goodies on a tray, I am going to wrap them in clear celephane and then tie on the tag. Wouldn't that be a cute little treat for a teacher too?

The images were printed on glossy photo paper and then pop dotted onto black cardstock. I tied on a little twine, used a black button and a orange rhinestone. I threw on a few silver pearls, and outlined the image in orange stickles. Quick and easy, but a nice little added something. I am thinking about making some Halloween cards similar to the tags as well.

Homemade Doughnuts

2009-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made the kids homemade doughnuts.

It is so easy.

What you need:

I got 3 cans of .45cent bisquits.

Cinnamon

Sugar

Oil

Put oil in pan and let it start heating.

Mix cinnamon and sugar together. I just sprinkled about a cup of sugar in a bowl and then kept adding cinnamon to the amount I think it looked good. Mix well.

Take the bisquits out of the can. Poke a hole in the middle. Work the hole to a bigger hole and it looks like a doughnut.

Place about 5 in the hot oil at one time. As soon as the bottom starts to get a light golden color, flip. The second side does not take very long at all. Take them out and while they are still hot place one side in cinnamon sugar mixture and coat. Place on a plate to cool.

* I was taking mine out and immediately putting in the sugar mixture but it was making them other doughnuts stay in the oil too long, so I took them all out and then quickly put them in the sugar.

* I also tried making some without poking holes in them and in some the outside was done but the inside was a bit doughy still. So the holed ones turned out better.

Happy Birthday

2009-09-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

to my handsome husband today. I am going to make a nice dinner tonight and we are going to relax at home.
I wish that he didn't have to work today...but such is life when you become and adult. :(
I wanted to upload a picture but blogger is having issues this morning.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

That long...

2009-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

since I last posted. WOW. Lots going on around here I guess. Getting back into a routine with school and everything else.
Just wanted to stop in and share more excitement.
We found out on Thursday we are having a GIRL....
I went that night to Target and got 3 little outfits. It was so much fun buying little girl stuff knowing that it wasn't a gift for anyone else. I always love buying girl stuff for other people, but there is just something about being able to pick it out for yourself.
We are really excited.
Some of the girl names that I like at the moment are Chloe, Aubrey, Addison, Abigail, Lilly, Layla.... just a few.
Well Caleb spilled my water on my desk this morning and I had some paper and a scrapbook page up there, so I am hoping that it dries and it is still usable...oh please let the layout be ok.
Jacob was talking about going fishing with a friend of his, so I don't know what we are doing today....

Natalie Frame

2009-08-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share the frame that I made for sil and bil. I made the frame and then added the photo once I got one of her. The frame was originally dark brown, so I just spray painted it white.
I went to Michaels the other day to look for those Prima rhinestone and pearl swirls they had and of course now they don't have any...since I was looking for them. So I decided to not put them on there. I was actually afraid it would make it too busy, but still wanted to try. Guess the decision was made for me. I stapled the ribbon to the back and tied it in a big bow on the top. Pretty simple, but still cute I think. The tag on the side has her name and all her birth info. The swirl frame with her initial is a quickutz silhouette download shape. I just sized it so the outside was the size I wanted. I wanted the picture to be a little smaller than the frame so you can see right through to the wall. I glued it all on a piece of thin acrylic cut down to size. Then the frame is on top to protect it all.

Back to School Photos

2009-08-26T14:03:00.001-07:00

The kids went back to school today. Of course even though they greatly protested I still had to take first day pictures.
I made them breakfast to start the day off well. I made eggs, fried hot dogs and orange glazed cinnamon rolls. It was a pretty good breakfast if I do say so myself.
Marcus doesn't have a first period, so he didn't have to be there until 9:35 this morning. He gets out at 3 pm.
Ryan is on a home schooling program until January. He came home and did all his work really well.

I will share the frame that I made my sil when we get home from picking up Marcus.

Natalie Kaylin

2009-08-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share pictures of our new neice Natalie Kaylin.

She was born on Tuesday the 18th.

I got these picture on Saturday night.

I would love to do some scrapbooking tonight, but darn it I am so stinking hot. The air is taking forever today to cool down the house. UGH!!!

We were really busy today. We took Ryan to my moms so he could go on his birthday lunch date with her. Then we had a doctors appointment for Caleb. Then we went to the indoor swapmeet. Then we went to the mall. We had lunch there. Taco Bell and Hot Dog on a Stick were what me and the kids had. Then we shopped with no such luck. Then my mom brought Ryan to the mall. Ryan got a new skateboard with his birthday money. Then we went back to the indoor swapmeet to get the original jeans we saw (they were the cheapest of the day). Then we ran by Jacob's moms house and Ryan ran in to get his birthday gift from her. Then we went to the grocerry store. We stopped by home and picked up the propane tank and had it filled. Then we came home and I started the laundry and loaded the dishwasher. My feet hurt today. Jacob is bbqing steaks for dinner when he gets home from work. YUM!

School starts Wednesday. They are having movie night already on Friday night and then there is a field trip on Monday already. I am tired just thinking about it all. Plus I have a doctors appointment on Thursday and next Monday and blood work to get done.

How does your garden grow?

2009-08-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

Man O Man. We went to Jack in the box this evening for some milkshakes and I should not have let Caleb drink the half of his that I let him drink because now he is hyper city. That combined with the almost 3 hour nap he took today. It is bed time, not jump on the bed time. I thought it would be a nice end of summer treat, but boy I didn't think of the end results. Oh well.

Thought I would share my layout that I did the other day.

Organizing

2009-08-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

So my mom just says that I am nesting WAY early. lol. I have been wanting to go through a bunch of stuff around the house and just organize it all. Finally I am getting around to most of it.
My list of things to clean/organize/purge/go through include:

(red means is done already)

go through kitchen cabinets including
*tupperware
*pots and pans
*baby cups
*old dishes we don't use anymore
*cups and glasses
*under the kitchen sink

our closet
my scrapbook closet
my scrapbook desk
under our bed
the older boys closet and dresser
the babies closet
the babies dresser
the babies room in general
clean up and organize the garage
the hall closet
3 cabinets in the living room
backyard
the linen closet
under our bathroom sink
under the other bathroom sink
move the large pictures to a different wall in the living room
hang the shelves in the living room
go through old cookbooks
go through the 4 drawers on our nightstands

I am thinking there are more, but can't think of them right now.
So it was crazy how one thing started the other day. I went to Joanns and got a few things, mostly paper. Well I started organizing my desk, which made me change my paper storage (which I am always having an issue with) and now I am much happier with it. Which then caused me to move my desk to a different wall (well the kids moved it for me). Which made me clean and purge everything and completely clean out my scrpabook closet. This made me move my salvation army desk from the living room to our bedroom. Now I have my scrapbooking desk and then the SA desk with my printers and silhouette on and the laptop. I love the setup. So I cleaned it all that night except for 2 boxes I needed to go through. So I got up and did that the next morning. This caused me to go into our bathroom and completely clean out under the sink, the medicine cabinet and another cabinet we have in there. I took 2 bags to the trash. Then I came into the kitchen and spent another 2 1/2 hours organizing and purging it all. Tupperware, sippy cups, dishes, pots and pans...all of it. I then moved cabinets around and organized it all. Then under the sink as well. I found stuff under there I forgot we had.
Well last week I spent and entire day doing the babies room. I cleaned out the dresser and made 3 empty drawers for new baby stuff. I hung everything and cleaned out all their toys and books. The entire crib is filled with garage sale stuff (Caleb doesn't like to sleep in there. He likes to sleep with Jacob in his queen bed...which we want to get rid of from their room).
So then today we went through the big boys closet and dresser. We had to make room for new school clothes... well we definately got rid of much more than we will be buying lol. We took out 4 large garbage bags for garage sale stuff.
I so love the feeling of getting rid of "junk". It may not really be junk, but just stuff that is taking up space that we don't use or want or need anymore. I moved 2 large pictures in my living room and I am loving that.
I have done a new layout, but just haven't taken a picture yet. I made a frame for sil and the new baby as well. Will share maybe tomorrow.

More Cards

2009-08-15T08:07:00.003-07:00

Really I don't know what has gotten into me. Cards are on my mind alot lately. So I made 2 more yesterday.

This first card was inspired by Nichol Magouirk (again lol ) HERE . I haven't decided if I am going to stamp in a sentiment the orange circle or not. Still deciding.

This is a giant card/hanger/tag thing. (Ya whatever that is). It turned out bigger than I thought it was going to, but I kinda like that it is bigger. My SIL was due yesterday, and so I wanted some kind of tag or card to attatch to the flowers or balloons that I get her for after she has her. I put the initial letter N on it because they are naming her Natalie. So me and her will have the same initials :) This is from the silhouette. I cut the flower tag 3 times. In white and then pink and then green. I just cut it apart and glued the colored pieces over the white pieces. On the back tag part I added the It's a girl title (also silhouette design) and cut that out. Then I removed the title and cut another back piece. I added pink cardstock behind the title and then glued that entire piece down to the full back piece. So that way you can't see the pink cardstock on the back. It is hard to tell in the picture but there is some white pearls over the entire thing too. I figured she could even hang this in the babies room later if she wanted. I wanted to make her a blanket too, but didn't get it done in time for her baby shower, but her grandma made her a beautiful one anyways. So I am thinking that I will still make her one, but a different style. I was going to make her a rag style quilt. But now I think I will get the fleece and make her the kind that you tie all the pieces together all around the blanket. Joanns has it on sale right now, buy one get one free. So we will see. Guess I need to get on that like right now though so I can have it for her when she has the baby. I am so excited I hope she has her soon.

Getting ready for all this back to school stuff. The kids really start on the 26th, but we have a meeting with their facilitator on Wednesday. We have a busy next few weeks coming up. We have the facilitatior meeting this Wednesday, Ryan's 15th birthday is Sunday the 23rd, Caleb has a doctors appointment on the 24th for these mole bump things on his inner thigh that he keeps saying hurt, we are going school clothes shopping on the 24th, I have no idea exactly what we are doing for Ryan's birthday. He doesn't really want a party so I was thinking we could let him bring 3 or 4 of his good friends and we would take them to this place here in town. It is called Monarch Family Fun Zone . They have miniature golf and lazer tag. Well I have one of those coupon books that if you buy a lazer tag game you get one free. For 20 minutes of lazer tag it is only $9.00. Then mini golf is only 3.50 or 4.50 a game depending if you go after 6 or before. I thought we could take the kids to pizza before and then take them there, and then get them ice cream after or something fun like that. We haven't decided exactly yet. Jacob has to work on Ryan's actual birthday, so we would have to do it either the Saturday before, or the day after, but we have alot to do that day. So I don't know yet.

Ok so I never was going to want the silhouette and now it is my favorite toy. So before that I had the revolution and that was the only machine I was going to want too. Well now I have my eye on this . I really just want it for the embossing folders. WOW. They have some really great embossing folders. I am thinking this is what "Mr. Santa" might have to get me for Christmas. :)

I have a few things to do around the house today, and a few errands to run...so I guess I better get my butt off this computer lol.

Cards.

2009-08-10T10:04:00.001-07:00

Ok truth be told, I am just not that into making cards. I mean I do make them, but I really struggle with them. I don't know why, I just do. But every now and then I just totally get into making them. I always want to "stock up" on cards so that I have a bunch on hand for birthdays and what not. However it just never happens. Until last night. I don't know what got into me, I just had this urge to make some cards. I guess it was that I was just playing with some of my embossing powders and stuff and it just came together. I like the way they came out though. I made the purple one first, and then the masqueline one. There are a few men birthdays coming up around here (Ryan will be 15 on the 23rd and Daddy Jacob will be turning another year older in September). I guess I always had this notion that the cards I made had to be traditional 4x6 card size. Well I made these smaller and I think I really enjoy the smaller size. I have some more ideas, and some ideas I am lifting as well.
Well here are the cards

You can't tell on this picture, but the design next to the happy are some birthday candles. It is embossed with opaque silver powder, and has a nice shine to it.

One thing I am liking with my white embossing powder is sprinkling a little all over the surface and then heat setting it. It looks like white paint spatters. I really like it.
Oh I embossed the back of my cell phone too, but forgot to take a picture of it. I will share that later.
Cleaned up most of the house already, kids did their bathroom. I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. I started and switched another load of laundry...now a few loads are waiting to be folded on the couch, which the kids are playing on. I can't vacuum yet becuase last night was Jacob's last night on graveyard so he is asleep right now. So when he wakes up a bit later I will vacuum and clean up our room and clean our bathroom. It is a bit warm in the house right now anyways and I am refusing to use our air conditioner because it isn't working exactly right and the bill that we just got is a large $404.00. OUCH!!!! So I am refusing to use it. I am just keeping all the blinds shut and it isn't too bad, but warmer than we are used to. For a few days the weather was so nice and we didn't need the air, but I think the heat is creaping back in there. Darn it.

Dry Erase Calendar

2009-08-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have always loved this dry erase clear calendar I keep seeing at Joanns. (Which I can't find online right now). Well then I saw THIS on Jennifer Priests blog .

Then it totally hit me... I can make one too. The thing I didn't like about the Joann's one was that it was just clear, so you would just see the wall behind it, and my walls are on the darker side, so I figured it would be hard to read, and it was a bigger size as well, I want to say a 16x20?? size maybe. Oh and it was $40.00. So as soon as I read Jennifer's post my brain started to have all these ideas. I was originally going to use a 12x12 scrapbook frame. However when I went to Michaels yesterday they only had them in red, and I didn't really like how skinny the frame was, and how deep it was. I wanted something flatter for my idea. So for the same price of $9.99 (then I used my 40% off coupon) I got this Black 11x14 frame. It was EXACTLY what I wanted, the right thickness, color and I really wanted the bigger size. Since there are so many of us, and I am always writing myself notes on the calander, the size was perfect.

Well then I don't have paper that is 14 inches long...so I thought about it and the inside liner that came in the frame got flipped over and that is what I printed my calander on. I was going to make it fit across the entire page, but it wasn't printing correctly, so I printed it like it is. I was going to trim it all up, but I ended up liking the extra space, for those notes I am always writing to myself. Then I just added a strip of creamish and redish pp to the top and it was that simple for the inside. So then it was just winging it from there. I bought the tiny mug hooks at walmart yesterday too, because that was part of my original idea.

So I added some wide ribbon, and kraft color twine and made a bow. I glue dotted two buttons together, and added that to the middle of the bow. Then I screwed in the hooks. I had a different idea for the tags for the months and year, but ended up going with this one and I love it alot. I just cut the back part in black, and the inside part in the pp I used inside the frame. On the silhouette software, I typed the word inside the frame so that it would just cut out the word and the black would show through. That way I didn't have to glue on all those individual letters. Then I punched out some holes and tied some of the thin twine on the tags and then hooked them on the hooks.

I only had a black dry erase marker, but I want to get some colored ones like Jennifer did (you know for my color coded calanders lol). I saw some at Michaels, but thought I might find some cheaper ones at Walmart, and forgot to even look.

So here it is.... My version.....

(Please pay no attention to my kitchen cabinets that are not done getting painted yet)

Now I searched all over Walmart for some magnet sheets, and couldn't find it anywhere. Everyone kept sending me to different departments after I searched everywhere myself. So I gave up. I had some little magnets that were flat at home on the fridge (something the kids had). So I cut them up and super glued them to the back of the frame. I wanted to hang it on my fridge. However, I don't think the magnets were strong enough, because it all just slides down the front of the fridge. So if I can't find a stronger magnet, then I am going to do like Jennifer did and staple gun another ribbon to the top, and then get a strong hook magnet and just hang it that way to the front of the fridge. I can't wait to get the colored markers and color code everything on it. :)

I think that this is going to be the gift that I make as my handmade Christmas gift for my side of the family. I will just make each one to match each persons decor. I think I will only have to spray paint 2 of the frames. :) It was so quick and easy to make too. And it is cheap to make as well, but doesn't look cheaply made. The paper is cheap, the frame came to about $6.00. Ribbon is pretty inexpensive, although I did see the green one in the Christmas section at Michaels that I want to use for my brothers and it was $7.00 a roll, so gotta love those coupons. If I start now and make one a week, I will be done with all 6 way before Christmas. I might end up making 8 though. I wasn't going to make my cousins each one, by why not. One has a son in school and sports, and one has a busy job so they could both use it. I am thinking I will just buy one dry erase marker for each person too, and cover it in pp that matches their calendar. Then I will attach the dry erase marker to some more twine and attach that to the calendar. Man I am so excited to do these for everyone for Christmas. :)

Cleaning and organizing

2009-08-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

I spent most of yesterday cleaning out the little ones bedroom. OH MY GOSH it was a mess. Ok I clean up mostly everysingle day. However I have slacked on their room lately, since I just get so frustrated that I clean it and 10 minutes later it looks the same or worse than when I cleaned it. So 2 days ago they were in their playing, being pretty quiet which should have been my first clue that something was going on. They got into the dresser and took out all the clothes and misc stuff in 2 drawers, took all the clothes off the hangers in the closet (and I mean ALL), and took and entire bottle of baby powder and it ended up all over said clothes and books, and toys that were on the floor. I was dreading going in there and cleaning it all up. So I had to wash all the clothes. I moved the crib (that Caleb doesn't sleep in, but there is no point in taking it down now) to a different wall, I cleaned out all the dresser drawers, the entire closet. We took 3 stuffed trash bags to the trash plus a few other large items. I have the entire crib full of stuff, as in old toys they don't play with, old stuffed animals, old chairs, old clothes that don't fit, a diaper pale...etc of stuff for the garage sale I want to have sometime soon.
I was going to go to Kmart and put the bunk bed that they have on layaway, but I am thinking that if we have a garage sale in the next month or so, then whatever money we get from that I will just put towards the bunk bed. The bunk bed is only 179.99. So depending on how much we make I might just be able to pay the difference and buy the bunk bed right then.
I am going through so many things in our house for a garage sale because I am so tired of having clutter around here. The next mission is our closet in our room. Oh boy is it out of control. So I have an out of control amount of laundry to now catch up on...just what I love...NOT. So since I did that all day yesterday, and it was Jacob's day off I didn't get any scrapbooking done. Maybe this weekend.

Ladybug hunters

2009-08-05T14:11:00.001-07:00

Here is my ladybug layout. I embossed the ladybugs with Red Glittery Embossing Tinsel. I love the look of the glittery ladybugs. I was originally just going to cut the red part of the ladybugs out of a bright red cardstock, but I didn't have a shade that was bright enough. Then I remembered that I had this red embossing powder. It adds just enough sparkle, without going over the top and looking too girly.

I am going to work on some more sketches and see if I can get some more layouts done. I am on a roll lately. I have been getting about 1 layout done every 2 or so days.

Things to think about.

2009-08-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

I read many blogs daily (or at least close to daily), and Kerri Bradford's blog is one of them. Today she posted THIS . I love stuff like that. The old journals from our older generations in our families. I love to see how they lived and things like that. It really reminds us how good we have it now, how different things are now, how different the world is this day and age.

My grandma on my dads side was good about similar things like this. She wrote out her "life" in short sentences. Like in 19XX she started school, she started work and she wrote out her wages at that job and stuff like that. I loved reading that she made 25cents and hour. WOW!!! After she died I got really into family history and was working so hard on it, and then I got busy and then my dad died. Then I got really into scrapbooking. Now how I wish I had them to ask questions and learn family history stuff from them. My dad was one of six kids, I am sure there were tons of stories.

So after reading Kerri's blog post this morning I decided I wanted to start keeping a journal again. Even if I feel like it is boring now, it may one day be interesting to someone, if not only myself when I am older and look back on it. I do write tidbits of information on our calendar though. I don't know when I started doing it, but I just write little things on our monthly calendar...things like what we had for dinner that night, the weather, if we ran to Target, if we took Jacob lunch or dinner to work, the kids school schedules... It isn't the same things I write everyday, but just whatever I feel like writing that day. I love looking back years later at the calendar and reading what we did on different days in years past. However a few years ago all the old calendars got thrown out, without realizing it. Oh well there is nothing I can do about that now..but I am still doing it again. Right along in my color coded calendar. lol. But I think it would be nice to have it all together in a little journal as well.

So I am going to start...today. When better to start something, then right now.

You 4 Layout

2009-08-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot that I did this layout, until the other day I was cleaning my desk and there it was in the pile of finished layouts to be put away. I took this picture on Easter, and it is my all time favorite of all 4 of the kids. Sometimes I get so caught up in using the pictures as they were, Easter pictures and I just don't use them in other ways like this, like I want to. I really like the way this layout came together too.

Well I am taking the kids swimming at my moms today, even though it was a bit cloudy yesterday and it seems that it is going to be that way again today. But oh well. Since there isn't much summertime left I want to squeeze in all those last minute things. I like summer, but fall is one of my favorite times of year. I love the cool crispness in the air, Thanksgiving, the colors...all that wonderful stuff. I told mom I would like to do Thanksgiving at our house this year, but I don't know if we would all fit. There will be 22 of us this year again...and our house isn't huge. But it is something that I have never done. However, I am thinking that maybe it will be a better idea to wait. I don't know. I just really wanted to do it. I know I will be very pregnant then as well, but that never stops me from doing things. I am pretty sure that little Jacob will still be in a cast at Thanksgiving as well. Depending if I can get any answers from CHOLA to tell me if the doctor is going to just call us and schedule the surgery, or if we have to go all the way down there to schedule it, then we will know when they are going to do the surgery. So who knows, we will just have to see what is going to happen.

I am hopefully going to finish up my ladybug layout today as well. I cut out these cute chubby ladybugs from my silhouette. However I didn't have the shade of red paper that I liked so I cut them from white, and then heat embossed them with some red tinsel glitter embossing powder and they turned out so cute. I am very pleased with the way that they layout is coming together.

Fun things

2009-08-03T16:16:00.001-07:00

I don't know how I came across this but I so want this organizer/day planner. It's called a MOM AGENDA . I love that it has the regular calendar space and then it has room for you to write in up to 4 kids names and write in specific things for each of the kids. I don't want to pay the price of the bigger one, so the refill will do just fine for me. I can make my own cover for it. I love to stay organized and love writing everything in my little and big calenders each day/week and month. I color code everything in my purse calendar as well. I do it this way so at a glance I know what is going on weather it be a birthday/a bill due/an appointment or whatever. Here is how I do it. I just write what it is and then highlight it in a given color depending on what it is.

Birthday and Holidays = Pink

Bills Due = Yellow

Appointments = Lavendar

Jacob's work schedule and paydays = green

Anything school related for the kids (days off, testing, etc.) = blue

I have been like this since I was in high school. I used to color code my biology notes and so on. I am very much a visual learner and it was just my way of learning and retaining the information. So I guess it is just one of those things that never changed about me.

The next thing I wanted to share was my search engine. I don't use google. I use a site called SWAGBUCKS. As you search with them you are randomly given Swag Bucks and then with your bucks you can buy things. The last thing I got was a few Amazon.com egift cards. You just use the code and can purchase things on amazon. You can get gift cards from so many places too. You don't just have to get gift cards though. You can get physical things as well, all paid for with your swag bucks. It is basically like getting things for free. Who doesn't love FREE? Especially in this day and time. Check out the site SWAGBUCKS. It is so easy to sign up for. Check it out and start searching.

I am in love with this yogurt right now. I am not usually a huge fan of the thick yogurts, but this one is so yummy. It really is like eating a cinnamon roll. I go on spurts where I eat tons of yogurt and then I don't eat any. However since I am pregnant the milk is really good for me. Especially since I don't drink milk so they always tell me the more yogurt I can eat the better. I always get coupons for yoplait, so it always works out great. I had one with my ham sandwich for lunch and want another one already. I love it as a bedtime snack, or dessert. :) Yummy goodness right in my mouth.

With my amazon gift cards I ordered this book. I know it is an older book, but hey it was free. I love reading Nic Howards blog. She does beautiful work. Read it HERE . It should be here anyday...along with my Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I don't know about anyone else but I love a good reality tv show. I have been watching The Next Food Network Star . Now usually when I watch these kind of shows the person I like most usually ends up off before the end. Except this time. I liked Melissa from the very beginning and she WON last night. I liked her instantly because she is a mom of 4 young girls... and I have 4 boys. So I think that is what drew me to her first off, then I just really liked her. Her new shows starts next Sunday. I can't wait.

Well I think I am going to do some more sketches of some layouts I want to do.

It's going to be a long day.

2009-08-03T06:55:00.001-07:00

I got up at 5am this morning to make Jacob breakfast before he had to go to work. Well for some strange reason, both of the little ones decided they needed to be awake as well. They are NEVER awake this early. I mean they get up early sometimes, but never that early. I don't know what their deal was this morning. So I definately see a nap in both their futures today, because it is only 7am and they are both cranky already. If they don't take a nap it is going to be a very long day. I am sitting here on the couch in the living room with them trying to get they to lay down now, while we are watching cartoons on the Disney Channel.

Breakfast was good. I made homemade McDonalds. We had sausage, egg, bacon and cheese bisquits. They were pretty good.

So here is a layout I did a while back, that I finally got a picture taken of. Actually there are two layouts. The first one is of Caleb at 2 years old. I made a huge list of many things about Caleb at this age. Some are things he likes to eat, sillly things he does, some are personality traits, some are just random tidbits of information. I finally got to use the Basic Grey Lime Ricky line. The colors are not the greatest in these pictures. I really need to start taking the pictures outside, but really I was being lazy this morning. lol.

Here is the second layout. This is my first silhouette layout. I was inspired by the layout of photos from HERE (Nichol Magouirk) . I am pretty happy with the layout. I just need to add the journaling. I am going to hand write it on the left side of the layout on the white distressed file folder. I just need to find a sharp pencil to draw the lines to write on.

I think I am going to need a nap today too. lol

My New {handmade} Purse

2009-07-30T20:00:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share this new purse of mine. It is handmade. by me. On a total whim today I had this idea to make myself a cute new purse. I had some stacks of fabric squares and I totally love these colors together, and so I made it out of those. The pocket on the outside was a total after thought, but it is good for my cell phone and keys. The top color isn't red, but a hot pink. I am the type of person that likes instant results, so I was glad I got it put together and finished up today. As soon I was done I put all my purse stuff into it and it holds it great.
Off to play with my silhouette now. :)

It is fixed

2009-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

YA!!!!! I called quickutz customer service this morning and it was a simple fix. All I had to do was to into my order history and recover that one order and it was fine. Wish I would have known it was so simple. But now I know for next time if it ever happens again.
So I will have to wait until tonight to play with it. Jacob is on graveyard and asleep in our bedroom where my silhouette is. But that is fine. I want to go through some of my pictures and draw out some sketches for them today.
But until then right now I am off to make some pancakes for the kids (and myself) for breakfast. However I did realize this weekend that Jacob makes much better pancakes than I do. Mine always turn out small and flat. His were big and so fluffy. So I am going to see if I can make mine that good too. :)

My brother said...

2009-07-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

that a GIF file is a picture file. So today when I was probably trying to download the new designs from quickutz probably had a corrupt file. So he said he would have told me to uninstall the program and reinstall it, but since I have already done that then to just call customer service tomorrow. So that is what I will do. Oh well. I will just have to play tomorrow then.

First Silhouette Project

2009-07-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

The first thing I made (besides just cutting out things for fun) was this Thank U card. Ok so we go to my moms on Saturday for lunch and guess what...surprise on me my entire family was there including my brother and sister in law who drove down from Sacramento just to come to my little surprise party. :) It was fun to have everyone there. We had lasagna for lunch and then we had cinnamon strusel cake with strawberries for dessert. It was yummy. Then I got to open presents. One aunt got me a trunk. I love it and put it in the living room with a blanket and a tray on top. Since I had just rearranged the living room again (lol) I had the most perfect spot for it. I will just be storing extra blankets and pillows I think in it. Then my other aunt got me a Target gift card, a baby's first year calendar, and a purple shirt. Of course my mom and step dad got me the silhouette. My brother and sister in law got me another Target gift card. Then my grandma gave me some money.
So I went to Michaels yesterday to spend the cash I got. I spent only $20.00 extra dollars. I got a heat gun finally. (I got this at Joanns actually with my coupon so I only spent 12.00 on it).

Then at Michaels I got some open stock papers and a DCWV stack...which I cannot find anywhere online. So I will just take a picture of it for you. It is called the ECO stack. Lots of greens, browns blues and reds. I usually don't like to buy stacks but it was also on sale and I got it for 12 or 13 bucks, so I said why not. I like all of the papers in it. I also got some birthday party supplies for Jacob's next birthday party. (in February). But we are going to do a pirate party and they had some of the stuff on sale so I got a few things.

So here is my first Silhouette project. Everything is cut out using my silhouette.

Then I just had to use my new heat gun of course. So I embossed the white circles on the front of the card, and the word Thankyou on the inside of the card. I like the way they turned out.
However now I am mad at my silhouette. It has been working fine since Saturday. Well I went to use it this afternoon and it isn't working. When I try to open my Library it says "invalid GIF signature". What the heck is that? I called quickutz and they had already closed. I emailed them and didn't hear back from them. I tried uninstalling the program and reinstalling it and that didn't work. I tried to call my brother, the computer tech guy and left him 2 messages and he didn't answer or call me back. GRRRRRRRRR. Of course both the babies are already asleep tonight and it would be the most perfect time to work on stuff and it won't work. So I guess I will just have to wait and call quickutz first thing in the morning. Darn it.

We got this movie today and watched it. We have all of them, so we of course had to add this one to our collection. We liked it, but still the first one is the best.

So off to see what I can play with now since my new toy isn't working.

Silhouette Day...

2009-07-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

:)
So we are going to my moms house for lunch today. After lunch I will get to open a few gifts. I know the silhouette came, because she told me 2 weeks ago when it got there. :) I am so excited. I am going to come straight home and set it up. I don't know what I will scrapbook first.

I am running low on cardstock... I guess I need to stock back up on some. I mean I have a lot still, but it is the colors I use least often, or just not the right shade of the color that I need. I just won't settle either. What I really want is to get my hands on some new Basic Grey papers. I want to get some of the plain colored cardstock that they make now too.

We might be going down the hill tomorrow night for dinner, and I might have convinced Jacob to stop at the scrapbook store down there to let me pick up a few things as well. :)
I really miss being able to go to work and just pick up what I need. :( Such is life though.

Well I haven't taken pictures of the other 3 layouts yet, so as soon as I do I will share. I did finally get to use the Basic Grey Lime Rickey line. I love that line. I used it on a layout about Caleb at 2 years old.

I am thinking I want to stop and vaccuum out the car on our way to my moms for lunch since it is so dirty. I know I really shouldn't let the kids eat and snack in the car, but I do... and now I need to clean it up.

Jacob has to work today, so he can't go with us to my moms. :( But he is off tomorrow and so that will be great.

I go back to the doctor on Thursday. It is still too soon to tell if it is a boy or a girl though. But the doctors office did call and as usual my blood sugar was extremely high, so they will go over that again with me and they sent a referral over for me to go see the high risk doctor again. It is the same doctor that I saw both of the other times, and I know the routine. :) I am really convinved that it is a girl though. Everything feels different. Also, I have always been an easy cryer, but omg it is so much worse right now. I was crying at a total random commercial the other day, shows that never make me cry have me balling my eyes out, my soap opera which just so happens to have 2 pregnant people on it had me in tears as well. I was never like that with Jacob and Caleb. I was so much more tired for the first 3 months this time as well. So tired that it was all I could do to get out of bed before 8 or 9 and keep myself awake for the entire day, and then ready for bed by 7 pm. With two young ones running around it was exhausting ..literally. lol.

I will share a few bracelets that I made for my best friend and for my sister in law, each for their birthdays. I made them each a matching keychain as well. I did make myself a pretty orange keychain too, but as much as the kids play with my keys, they broke it. :(. Oh well, I will just have to make a new one.

I am watching a recorded Criminal Minds and then it is off to the shower and get ready.

Crazy Hair Layout

2009-07-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't done the journaling yet for this layout. Only because I haven't decided exactly how I want to do it yet. I am thinking I will go with my "go to" journaling strips down the right side, but just haven't gotten to it yet. This was last year before Caleb got a hair cut and his hair was always seeming to look like this. lol. He is my wild child, so I guess the hair just fits. The pictures were just printed like this and when I trimmed them, I just left the little bit of white around them.

It has been so HOT here the last week. Yesterday we had a baby shower to go to at the park and man it was so hot. It was 110 when we got in the car. Today when we went to the store the temp in the car was reading 112. Thank goodness for the air conditioner. I am afraid to get our electric bill next month. We run the air all day and all night because it is just wat to hot not to.

Well I talked to my mom yesterday and we are having lunch at her house on Saturday for my birthday. Which means I am getting my silhouette on Saturday. :) So I will come straight home and play with it. :) I am so excited. I have so many ideas running through my head I just can't wait.
I will share whatever I create first.

Caleb's 2nd Birthday Layout

2009-07-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

This layout is from when we went to Chuck E Cheese on Caleb's actual 2nd birthday.

I haven't scrapbooked in a few days, and have no desire to right now. Not because I don't have a million ideas, but becasue my birthday is in 10 days and my mom ordered my the silhouette. So I just want to get my hands on it and start using it. :) So I don't want to do any scrapbooking until I can use that. I think Nichol Magouirk does amazing things with her silhouette. I want to be like her. LOL. So I am sure the day I get it I will start using it and some fun stuff to share. I have so many ideas for stuff other than scrapbooking as well.

Yesterday we went to a BBQ. I got a bit sun burned, but not too bad. I had no plans of going swimming, but Jacob pulled me right into the pool. :) I would have been mad but it really did feel good in the heat. The kids had fun playing in the pool too.

Now I think I will go fold the 4 large loads of laundry that are currently sitting on my couch calling my name. lol. If I had one chore that I hated more than any other it would be folding the laundry. I don't mind washing it, but I hate the folding and putting away part. So it is usually a few loads that pile up on the couch until I do it. I love the feeling of it being done, so why I don't like it I have no idea. Maybe it is because it is one of those chores that is just never ending, no matter what, there is always tons of laundry to be done...especially around here.

Then I think I am going to make a big pot of spagetti for dinner tonight. Yum.

New Layouts and a Recipe

2009-07-13T15:24:00.001-07:00

I finally down loaded the photos off my camera. I have done about 10 layouts, but thought I would just share these 2 with you today.
This first one is a 2 pager. It is of my sil (to be) Bridal Shower. It is always fun to work with 'girly' colors since I don't get to very often. I even used the last of my larger rhinestone swirls on this layout.

This one was just about my thoughts on being pregnant this last time. A pretty simple layout.

I thought I would share this yummy recipe. It is so simple and easy.

Cassarole

3 pounds of ground beef (or turkey..or your choice of meat)

2 cans of canned corn (drained)

4 bags of boil in bag rice (cooked and drained)

1 large family size can of cream of chicken soup

1 regular size can of cream of mushroom soup

salt and pepper to taste.

Cook meat in a large skillet and drain. Add rice and corn and soups to same skillet. Mix until eated through. Eat. I usually serve this with just a salad and that is it. It is so good. I grew up eating this and my kids all love it as well.

Tonight I am making green chili chicken enchiladas. I made them 2 weeks or so ago, and I have been craving them again everyday since. So we are having them again. Yum. In fact I am going to go start them now since my chicken is done boiling.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T09:51:00.001-07:00

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

I know I have been away for awhile. I am just still trying to find my energy. It has been stolen and I want it back. All my effort goes to making it through the day without falling asleep. lol. It is getting better, but I still don't feel "normal" yet. Some days I have more energy and others I have none what so ever. Even the doctor said this one might be a girl since it is so different from the others.
I went to my doctors appointment yesterday. It was good. The doctor said everything looks pretty good. I have to go have some blood work done. I think I will get that out of the way on Monday. I got some ultrasound pictures too. Looks like a little peanut alien. :)
I cannot even believe it is the 4th of July already. The year is almost over. lol. Daddy Jacob has to work until 7pm tonight. So we are just bbqing hamburgers (well I am bbqing) and corn on the cob and I don't have a clue what else I am going to make with it. Then for dessert we are having strawberries and cinnamon strusel cake. YUM. Then when it gets dark we will go outside and watch the fireworks.
I have done a little creative stuff lately but not much. I made my best friend and my sister in law Amberley each bracelets for their birthdays. I need to get them mailed out on Monday. I will photograph them first. I have done a few layouts as well. I will try to get those photographed today as well.
Well for now I am off to clean the kitchen and vaccuum and do some laundry.

Michael Jackson...

2009-06-25T16:31:00.001-07:00

I wasn't a huge fan, honestlly I thought he was a bit strange...but really it is still sad that he died today. I mean really my age group and the older generations grew up listening to his music. He was only 50 years old. My dad was only 53 when he died and that is sooooo young. Then my mom told me this morning that Farrah Fosset (sp) died this morning too. Her colon cancer got the best of her. That is so sad too. She was only 62 years old.
Sad times.

No Energy

2009-06-20T07:10:00.001-07:00

I have never felt like this before. I have no stinking energy lately. I am usually the type that was awake by 6am everyday and in bed by 10 or 11pm. Now I can't seem to keep my eyes open before 8 am. Then I am usually dosing off several times a day, and ready for bed by 9pm. Darn this pregnancy is so different from both the other ones. Honestly my gut says it is a girl...but really we will just have to wait and see. I go to my OBGYN on Tuesday June 30th at 10:00 am. But I still won't be far enough along to see if it is a boy or a girl. I am thinking the end of August will be around the time I am 20 weeks, and they say that is the best time to be able to tell. So hopefully it will go well. I knew at 12 weeks with Jacob, because I had to have the amnio, and then I knew when I was about 6 or 7 months with Caleb.
So I finally even had the energy to scrapbook some yesterday. I will photograph that today and share it...

I'm feeling the urg to scrapbook again right now, so I am going to get up and head to my desk before the urg goes away. lol.

Do you give to Charity?

2009-06-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have never really given to charity of any kind. I always say I am going to donate something, but it just never works out. Well not this time. I just went through ALL the babies old clothes. WOW...there was so much. There is 6 black trash bags and 2 white trash bags FULL of clothes.
About 2 weeks ago my mom mentioned this lady from their church that is involved with an orphanage in another country (I want to say Afghanistan???) and they are in desperate need of childrens clothes. I told my mom I would go through all the old baby clothes we have and I would donate some. Well I thought there would be more that I wanted to keep honestly. Well I only kept maybe a grocery bag size pile worth and the rest I am donating. I was originally going to go through it for whenever we have a garage sale, but honestly I would much rather go to a place like that where it is desperately needed. I know it will go to great use. There are clothes from sizes newborn to 2T. There are summer and winter, pants and shorts, pajamas, jackets, sweatshirts, swim trunks, shoes and slippers, mittens and winter hats.
My mom is probably going to come by tomorrow and pick it all up and take it to the lady at their church on Sunday.
It really makes me feel good to know it is going to somewhere like that.
I thought it would be hard to get rid of all those baby clothes, but it was so much easier that I thought it was going to be. I kept a few things, just in case we do have a boy, but not much at all. I said if we do end up having another boy, I will just buy new stuff. But hopefully we will have a girl.
So off to scrapbook now.

My Photography site.

2009-06-11T20:20:00.001-07:00

Check out my photography site. I am going to be updating it soon with alot of pictures. I have been neglecting it, but it is so time consuming to edit all those pictures and then upload them to the site...but I am going to do it.
So I would love to recieve any comments on any of the photos. I have indeed taken all of them myself. I would love to start a photography business one day. Many people actually asked me how I was going to take my own wedding photos.... lol. Wish I could have really!
Anyways here is the site... MANTOOTH MEMORIES . Leave a comment if you stop by, I would love to hear what you think.

I always forget

2009-06-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

how much work it is to change the look of the blog. I have to add in each blog link on the sidebars individually. Man it takes forever. What I do first is save each of the links on the computer. Then as I add each one in I have to go delete it from the computer. It takes forever. Glad I am done with it. Now weather I decide I really do like this look or not, I am not changing it for a long time. lol.
Off to clean up around the house and then sit down to scrap again...maybe????
I also need to make a list of some of the things we need tomorrow. Fridays that Jacob gets paid are our busy errand day. We have to pay rent, and we need some groceries, and some Target stuff like laundry soap...good thing I was all caught up when we ran out yesterday. I have a few other bills to pay...yuck.

Girl crib bedding

2009-06-10T19:04:00.001-07:00

So I have already found the girl crib bedding that I really want ... if it does turn out to be a girl.

It is the Cotton Tale Lizzie Collection from Target. Although I did find it at a few other places as well. I totally just fell in love with it the second I saw it. Jacob said he really likes it too. Our crib won't be white, but a light pine color, which will still look good with it. I love turqouise and green and orange together, and just add that pink and I was in love with it at first site. :)

I guess I should just wait to find out if it is for sure a girl or a boy, but I can't help it.

So all the kids are not feeling so hot yesterday and today. It is this stupid strange weather. Hot to cold, to windy and then hot again. With a little rain, hale and thunder storms mixed in there as well. They all have stuffed up noses and can't breathe. Poor things. We didn't go anywhere yesterday or today because I don't want any of them to get any sicker. We have some errands to run on Friday so I hope that it clears up...even though I hear on the news it was supposed to be like this until next week.

Well hoping I can go get some scrapbooking done tonight. HOPE is the key word. My engery level lately is somewhere in the major lacking department. I am usually awake and out of bed no later than 6:30-7:00 am. Lately I can't keep my eyes open before 9 or 9:30. I am never like that and it makes me so mad...but I go to bed earlier and I am just the same. I think it is this pregnancy..it is draining the energy right out of me. Oh well that is ok....

Photo Heavy Post

2009-06-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Because I am feeling lazy tonight, these photos are in no particular order. So here we go....

Caleb on his actual birthday. He is eating his cupcake that we made for just us on that night. I think him and Jacob both just licked off the icing. lol.
Here are all 4 of my boys on Caleb's birthday. Nice glare from the flash in those stupid mirrors in our living room. Look at all those little hand prints as well. :)

This was Caleb's actual birthday as well. My mom takes each of the kids on a date on their birthday, and since Caleb was still young, we decided that we all needed to go. LOL. So we went to Chuck E Cheese. Here are Jacob and Caleb in one of the rides.

Caleb on the merry go round.

Mommy and Caleb. Yuck on my but Caleb looks so cute.

This was at his party. He was pulling those clothes out and handing them all to me. He got so many clothes. He got 14 outfits. That is great though because he really needed clothes.

This was the decorations at his party.

Blowing out his candles.

Cupcakes and cupcake topers.

This is the glass hutch. This is all full with all the glass stuff.

This was today. I took a few photos of Caleb for his 2nd birthday photo shoot. Which reminds me I still need to do Marcus' 13 th birthday photo shoot. I know the lighting isn't great on this one, but I got it quick and haven't edited it yet.

We added two new pets to our family the other night. Two kittens. The kids love them. Here is Caleb holding the white and grey one.

Here are all the kids with both cats. One is white and grey and the other one is all black. I think we are going to name the all black one Midnight.

Here is the all black one.

Here is the other one.

So I haven't scrapped since before Caleb's party. Hopefully this week I can get something done. I need to make some birthday cards for a few people this week as well. Oh and an anniversary card for my brother and his wife. They just had their one year anniversary this past weekend.

Off to watch some recorded General Hospital and Jon and Kate Plus 8 and CSI. :)

SO GUESS WHAT.............

2009-06-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEP.
We are hoping for a girl, but will be just as pleased with a boy as well.
I went to the doctor today and it was confirmed, even though I was positive I was.
My due date is January 21, 2010.
I am 7 weeks and 4 days pregnant.
Jacob is excited too.
This is FOR SURE the very last child we will be having no matter what. One of is getting fixed so we cannot have any more children.
I am so excited.
I only went to my primary doctor today, and they sent over a referral to the OBGYN that delivered Caleb and my doctor wants me to get in to see him as soon as possible. Both my pregnancies were high risk, and my blood pressure was high today so she wants me in as soon as I can get in.
OMG.
I have known for about a month, but it seems so much more real now that the doctor officially confirmed it.
:)

Cheap Silhouette

2009-06-04T17:52:00.001-07:00

Go HERE

to find out the information from the site.

If you are in the market for a silhouette you should check this out. It is a great price for all that you get.

QuickKutz Silhoutte Digital Craft Cutter- Ultimate Kit (no other discounts apply)
QuickKutz Silhoutte Digital Craft Cutter- Ultimate Kit (no other discounts apply)The Silhouette is designed for crafters who:• Have a PC with Windows 2000, XP or Vista• Have an Internet connection for software updates and additional image downloads• Want to cut out QuickKutz designs and computer fonts in multiple sizes• Don't want to worry about cartridges or CDs• Want to explore advanced features of digital craft cutting
Instant access to fifty tags, shapes, words and 3D templates that are included with the Silhouette.(Click on Silhouette image to see detail of included shapes.) You can also cut custom words and titles from any True Type Font installed on your computer, such as those used in Microsoft Word!

What Will It Cut? ••Patterned Paper ••Iron-on Transfer Paper ••Vinyl ••MagneticPaper ••Cardstock ••Wood Paper ••Vellum ••Sticker Paper • Transform designs to your exact need, from 1/4" to 8" tall! • 16" length x 7" deep x 4" high. Please note, because of the nature of this product software, no refunds will be given for opened or used Silhouttes.

In addition to the 50 original designs, we have added the Home Decor CD (alphabet, letters and 44 other shapes and quotes), a roll of transfer paper and a roll of holiday green vinyl!

and the price $149.99

Birthday Boy Caleb

2009-06-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

I cannot even believe that my little guy is 2 years old today. WOW. He amazes me each and everyday. He is so silly, so mean and yet so loving at the same time. He loves to play with brothers, but loves to play by himself as well. He is so smart. He is such a dare devil. He is a bruiser that is for sure.
I am going to make pancakes right now, and then we are going to Chuck E Cheese with my mom for lunch. Then we will have a nice family dinner of spagetti and meatballs, garlic bread and salad for dinner. I am going to make cupcakes for us today as well. :)
Happy Birthday my Little Man!!

Ok, finally sharing the layouts

2009-06-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

I am finally going to share some of those layouts I have been working on lately. Some of them need journaling still, but just haven't gotten to that yet.

This was my thirft store finds the other day. I got the black metal tin thing half off ...so 2.50. The large glass bowl for 4.00, the small flat glass bowl for 3.00, the other glass thing for 1.50 and the picture frame for 1.99. The picture frame made me mad though. I got it for 1.99, but today when I took the thing apart to spray paint it black I saw that it came from the dollar store. So I actually paid more than it was even worth. Oh well....

All the glass pieces are looking so good on my cabinet. I found some more glass stuff around the house so it is filling up nicely. One of the glass mugs was my dads and it is from Germany, from when he was stationed there in the Army. It was fun to be able to put that out there. I will have to take a picture of it getting so full now.

We did a little yard work in the front yard today. I put down 2 bags of bark in the smaller planter, planted my new plants that I bought yesterday in my two pots and pulled some weeds. It looks much better already. I have to be honest and have neglected the front yard lately. Ever since the owners put in rocks and took out the grass, I have not liked our front yard. But I figured until we move, this is what we have. And besides with the wind it was starting to blow trash in our yard and it was looking like crap. I had great intentions of coming inside and cleaning the entire house as well... That didn't happen. I remade our bed with new sheets, and am waiting for the comforter to dry. I switched some laundry, and loaded the dishwasher and started that.

Thinking I am going to get dinner started soon. We are having bbq steak, baked potatoes, and salad. Maybe some white chedder noodles too, but I am not sure yet.

Working on some stuff for Caleb's birthday party too so I haven't had time to scrapbook any in the last few days, and I probably won't until after the party is over. Tomorrow we have to go to CHOLA (Children's Hospital of Los Angeles) for some tests they need to do on little Jacob before his foot surgery. They are going to hook him up to some wires, and then study the way he walks. This will help them determine exactly how they need to address his issues, and see which way they need to rotate his hip bones. His hip bones have compensated him in his walking, so that is another issue he has. So hopefully we can get this surgery done with soon and give him time to heal all better.

June? Already?

2009-06-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

Tell me it isn't true. It is June already? WOW. What crosses my mind first is that now it means that Christmas is only 6 months away. AHHH. I have started shopping, but now I really need to get my shop on. lol. I have some ideas on what we are going to get the kids, but nothing definate yet. For my moms side of the family we are making gifts again. I had this idea to put together a magnet board or cork board and a white board and frame it. Well I found a framed cork and white board at Target for $13.00. Ok I couldn't even make it for that price. The frame is black, and if I wanted a different color, I am just going to paint it. Then on top I am going to add a name, or some initials, or a word of some kind. Then I am going to attatch a ribbon to hang it from. So I need to start getting on those. I think I might stop at Target today and pick up one to play around with. I need to go to Michaels today anyways, so I will pick up some letters to attatch to the top.
For Jacobs side of the family we usually draw names, but who knows how that is going to go this year.....we probably won't be doing anything with them this year.
For Jacob and the kids I am thinking...
Ryan....?
Marcus...?
Little Jacob.... I am thinking a kid computer. They have some at Toys R Us or Target usually for like $20.00 or so. It is a learning computer with games and stuff like that.
Caleb....I was thinking maybe the same thing with the computer for Caleb. Depends on the age of thing.
Daddy Jacob....I am thinking about something like a turkey fryer. He has always wanted one, but it is just something we have never gotten. So I thought that would be a fun thing to have. It can go with our 2 bbq's. Then I can get him a big huge thing of oil to go with it as well.

Then there are the usual things I always get for Jacob and the kids. Every year they all get socks and underwear. We grew up getting that kind of stuff and I always do it for the kids as well. Then everyone usually gets a calender. I don't know why but my favorite thing to buy are the stocking stuffers. I have so much fun finding the perfect little things to put in their stockings. Each of the kids have 2 stockings...so there is a good amount of room to fill up. I mean most of it is pretty cheap stuff, but not junk at the same time. There is usually candy, and candy canes in there, oh and the ornament that I make each of them for that year. This year I want to put a fast food restaurant gift card in their stockings too. I had the idea for last year, but just never got around to actually getting them. I was thinking about 2 different $5.00 gift cards. Not that $5.00 will even buy a meal anymore these days, but I just thought it would be a fun little thing. So far this year I have gotten each of the kids a battery operated toothbrush for the stockings. I don't remember what else I have, but know I have gotten a few things. Really I don't have much shopping done. I got an outfit for Jacobs neice and a long sleeve shirt for little Jacob and 2 long sleeve shirts for Caleb. That is it so far. Like I said I really need to get on the ball now.
We have some more errands to get done today, but I want to get them done early so we can come home and I can get some stuff done around here.

omg...little Jacob just made me breakfast. A broken hot dog bun with a cold hot dog with ketchup. And he brought me a capri sun to go with it. ahhhh...how sweet. He made the same thing for Caleb as well. Man my little guy is growing up so fast. If we had milk he probably would have gotten into the milk and cereal too. :)

Loving cable again...

2009-05-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so haven't had cable at home in about a year now. We turned it off because we were paying soo much for it and basically didn't want to pay that much anymore. The cable company kept telling us they didn't have any promotions for us so we would have to continue to keep paying almost 200.00 a month for cable, internet and phone.
So we were really tired of just watching movies all the time. You know sometimes you don't want to have to sit there and watch something for 3 hours, we would just rather watch some mindless tv show for 30 minutes. So on Friday we got cable again. Plus in our room we got DVR. Which is where you can record tv, pause and rewind tv, and record shows for when you aren't home.
With it we got HBO and CINEMAX.
I am just really enjoying having it again. I feel like a little kid. :) I am watching a murder mystery case show right now. I have watched alot of HGTV and Food Network already. lol.
Just wanted to share.... oh the simple things that bring me joy. :)

Garage Sale Mood

2009-05-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Although I love going to garage sales, I don't often like to have them. They are a big deal to get ready for. Sorting and going through everything that you want to sell. Then what if you sit outside all day, for a mear $20.00....is it really worth it?
Well I am in itching to have a garage sale soon. I have been going through stuff and really want to have one now. I am in an organizing mood lately.
So I want to sell stuff like and old red rug we had in the living room, the old stroller and carseat that we got for Caleb (like new), the old highchair we had for both babies, we have BAGS and BAGS of old clothes from all 6 of us. Some purple pillows, so old frames from when I worked at Kiddie Kandids, some of the kids old toys that is taking over their room that they just don't play with anymore. I was thinking about selling the queen bed we have as well. Right now it is in the babies room, but just takes up way too much room. I want to get a bunk bed for their room soon. Some old dishes and most of the grape decorations I took out of the kitchen. Some old sheets and blankets that we have an over abundance of. Things like that. Oh I want to go through the pots and pans as well. They are spilling out of the cabinets and I seem to use the same ones over and over. I have some old scrapbooking stuff that I want to get rid of....Stuff like that.
Now it is the whole process of getting it all together, pricing it, and then commiting to it.

What to do with a tall wall

2009-05-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well I mentioned in the post about rearranging that I knew what I wanted to do with that tall wall in our living room/kitchen area.

Ok I found this HERE on the Thrifty Decor Chicks blog. I love this idea. Here is a photo of her wall.

This is in her play area/loft. I am going to do this with our tall wall. Here is our wall.

I am going to be on the hunt for shelves like this now. I have two white ones, and if I can find 3 more that are similar...then I have got it. I can't wait to get it all together. I know myself and will probably not wait until I have all 5 shelves to actually start putting them up on the wall. I will also be on the hunt for tons of cheap frames (thrift stores and garage sales) to spray paint and add photos too. When I rearranged we had that black bookcase that had all the photos on it, but daily got rearranged by the two little ones. So they were usually just laying down on the shelves. Well this way I can still display them, and no little fingers can reach them. I love it. I also really like the framed monogram she has on the very top shelf. I am thinking along with the photos I want some M's to display. I have always liked the look of letters on shelves, and I think this would go great on these shelves. I know this picture of my wall doesn't even show exactly how tall the wall really is, but it is tall. If you look in the back of the photo, you can kind of tell how the ceiling slants up. Well it is tall and I have always struggled with what to do with it.

Kids just know.

2009-05-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those moments when your kids say something to you, and it is just the most perfect thing? It is like they just knew what you wanted them to say, without you ever telling them?
Just a little while ago, I gave little Jacob a coupon to throw away. He says to Caleb ,"Caleb, this coupon says she is the best Mommy ever."
It brought me to tears because it was like he just knew I needed to hear that at this exact moment on this exact day. Then of course he asked why I was crying and I told him it just made me so happy that he said that.
See the reason being is that recently someone told me that in their opinion I was a horrible mother, I didn't like my kids and I didn't deserve my kids, I was a *itch, and I am not nor would I ever be a mother to Ryan and Marcus. Well I could care less what other people think of me, but sometimes weather you believe the words that someone is saying to you they still hurt. As a mother we all know we question ourselves daily, and to hear that it stung alot. My response to these people was nothing. I chose not to fight with them INFRONT of my kids as they were yelling this at me.
If anyone knows me at all, EVERYTHING I do in my life is for Jacob and the kids. I wake up each and everyday and thank God that I have them all in my life. I would not be a complete person without them in it.
So as I sit here and type this (and cry again)... I just thank my child for thinking that. There is not many other greater moments being a mom as when you hear that from your child.
To those that said that about me, I don't care what they think and if that is they way they feel then they need no part in my childrens lives (ALL 4 of my children that is).

The Rearrange

2009-05-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the kitchen table before. Hard to tell but the long part went with the long part of the kitchen.
This is an old picture of the living room, but pretty much how we just had it. The only difference was that we didn't have the fish tank anymore, and behind the couch is where I had my salvation army desk.

This is the kitchen now. So the table is turned in the different direction. The black hutch is now in there. I have decided that I don't like the faux brick painting on the wall anymore, and am ready to repaint over it and the walls in a lighter taupey tanish color.

This is now what is on the black hutch. All clear crystal stuff. The orange and green arrangement is my moms that she forgot at her party, and I keep forgetting to give to her. The top left crystal plate....funny thing about it is that it is plastic. lol. It just matched and looked nice when I was trying to find stuff to put up there.

This black bookcase used to be right on the wall when you walked in the front door. It had only pictures on it. But the babies were always touching them and the pictures were always knocked over. So now it has scrapbooks and actual books on it.

This is the living room arrangement now. The tv was in the right hand corner.

Here is where I moved the bakers rack in the kitchen. Don't look at the cabinets that still need to be finished painting.

Here is the entry way now. This table used to be right under the window in the kitchen. Since the table is turned it didn't fit. So now it is in the entry and I love it so much more here. This table was my grandmas and got it when my dad died. I am thinking about painting just parts of it black, but haven't decided yet. The candle holder is going black though. The arrangement used to have red flowers in it too, but I took them out as I am trying to windle away the red. My grandma made me the arrangement years ago.

Here is the living room view from the front door.

Here is the salvation army table now against this wall that the black hutch was on. I saw today what I am going to do with this super tall wall. Ill find the link and show you.

I didn't photograph my layouts yet, but I did get a photo of what I have been working on for a few days now. I got it finished tonight and got a few printed out. It is Caleb's 2nd birthday party invitations. I did it all in Microsoft Word, and printed them out on photo paper. I love the way they turned out. I am pretty proud of it actually. I kept redoing it over and over again, and just wasn't thrilled with it. Then this one just kind of all came together from ideas from different ones that I had done. We are having a Circus party. :) I can't wait. My mom is finding out about a clown. I think a clown doing balloons or face painting would be so cool.

We are having bbq beef sandwiches, beans and fruit at the party. Then for the drink I am doing something I saw in a magazine or online somewhere. They got sprite in a huge punch bowl. HERE (I found it) This idea was for 4th of July...but still I like the idea. So the ice cubes are different colors. It is just frozen gatorade. So to go with the theme of the party I am going to make them red yellow and blue. Then just put them in a huge bowl of sprite. I think that will be so cute. :) I am getting so many ideas. So here is the invitation.

We are going to a fish fry at my aunts house on Saturday and I am excited. I think it will be alot of fun. Even though Jacob and I have been together for over 10 years he hasn't met my extended side of the family and there are going to be alot of them there. But I think it will be fun. Something different we have never done. I am sure that I will have alot of pictures of it to share.

Off to put away some laundry and get into bed and watch shark tales with the babies. They always sleep with me when Jacob is on graveyard. lol.

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

What are you doing to celebrate today? Us...NOTHING. Feels good too. :) Jacob is on graveyard so he has to work tonight, and is sleeping today. So we are just chilling at home today. Seems to be the thing for us lately. I have been not sleeping well for the past 2 weeks or so, so I seem to be tired alot lately. Then all the other days off that Jacob had were spent working on the new boat, and getting it ready for last Tuesday when we took it out to Silverwood. (I think I'll share those pictures too). So this weekend and week are just spent relaxing. However, today when Jacob went to bed me and the kids compeltely rearranged the kitchen and living room. Yes I said kitchen too. I moved the black hutch into the kitchen, turned the table in a different direction, moved the bakers rack, and then moved all the furniture in the living room. We moved the tv back to it's original wall, moved the couch around, moved the bookcase. I have to say that I LOVE how it turned out. I really love the kitchen too. This original tan hutch that I painted black, has always been on this one wall in our living room. The wall that I have a hate hate relationship with. Our living room is a horrible shape, and this wall is there, but hard to put anything on. It really isn't in the kitchen area, but isn't in the living room either. So the black hutch has always been there, with a catch all of things. It had some candles, books, mini scrapbooks..like a mish mash of all things that didnt' really have a home. Well I scooted it into the wall in the kitchen and took everything off and just put back on some clear crystal things that I we have in different areas. I LOVE it. I will photograph it later when I can go in my room and grab my camera. I turned my kitchen table, and even though the chair by the window, doesn't have tons of room to be pushed in and out, there is still enough room that I can get in and out, so it is fine. It totally opens up the kitchen and almost makes me not want to move. lol. I will find before and after photos to show you here.

So on to the boat pictures.

Here is the boat that we bought for.... $400.00. We got such a deal on it. We had to drive to San Pedro to get it, and then tow it home. Then the mans wife works at the DMV, and hooked us up helping us out getting the paperwork done to put it in our names. We even got a forever plate for the trailer. Cool. So the registration and transfer for it all was only $148.00.

Here is Jacob out driving it at Silverwood Lake last Tuesday.

Here are me and the babies. We all wore tons of sunscreen and didn't get a bit of sun.

Here is Marcus lounging on the boat as we took a drive in it.

The kids loved playing in the COLD water when we weren't out on the boat.

Jacob was not afraid of the water as much this time, which is a big improvement from other water times.

Here is my handsome (and now REALLY REALLY tan) husband driving the boat. He was enjoying himself so much.

Here is a view of the water from the back of the boat.

I caught this rainbow as we were out on the lake as well.

We had a good time on Tuesday. We took the BBQ with us, and bbq's hamburgers and hot dogs. We took some chips and bean dip too and it was all good. (Ok...I brought ketchup and mustard that were almost empty, but it still worked out). We headed home about 7:30 pm ish. It was fun and I can't wait to go out again. We need one more little life jacket, since Walmart only had one in the little size that we need. But it was all good.

Happy Weekend

2009-05-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. We are still having connection issues, but I can stay signed on for only a few minutes at a time. GRRR.... Jacob is off tomorrow, and then graveyard again on Sunday-Wednesday nights. So for Memorial Day me and the kids will be relaxing at home and just taking it easy. I don't feel like driving or being out on the road. So today we have a few things to do and then we will just take it easy tonight and we are doing nothing tomorrow so I can stay home and scrapbook all day. I have some stuff to share, but I haven't taken pictures yet. I will share them next week.
Have a safe and sober weekend.

Internet issues...

2009-05-20T19:04:00.001-07:00

be back as soon as we figure out the issues

Check this out.

2009-05-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this great giveaway HERE . I know I'd love to get that great stuff in the mail. Go now and leave a comment to be entered to win as well.

Last Paycheck

2009-05-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Going in a few minutes to pick up my very last paycheck from Scrapbook Boulevard. :( I have layouts to share later too.