Kresta's Blog

STOP

2010-12-28T22:29:00.007-06:00

Stop

Collaborate & Listen

JUST KIDDING! Thought it might get your attention - haha!

So, I'm changing to a WordPress blog. Meaning, I will not be blogging at this address anymore.

I'd love for you to follow me over there, so here's the new bloggy address: http://three4me.wordpress.com/

It's not all fancified yet, but I've done an initial post to explain the move, etc. So go check it out, and don't forget to change your bookmark or RSS feed settings.

Thanks!

Christmas Music

2010-12-08T14:55:00.008-06:00

I really love Christmas Music. Now, if you are or have ever been in a worship band with me, you might say that sentence is false.

Here's the deal, and you can agree or disagree....either way, I've felt this way for a long time and don't see my views changing anytime soon.

I'm a worship leader. More specifically, I lead contemporary worship (aka, praise songs, worship choruses, whatever you might call them). My goals in leading worship are to 1) glorify my God Who is so much more worthy than I can even proclaim; 2) present a holy and loving picture of Him that will encourage others to also want to worship Him; and 3) (although very similar to #2) create an atmosphere that is inviting for people to engage in worship and draw near to Him.

Back to the original thought -- I really love Christmas Music. I do not, however, love to lead Christmas songs in a worship setting. A lot of Christmas songs are story-telling by nature and just don't seem to fit in a vertical worship kind of setting.

Another issue is this... I'm usually playing with a modern/contemporary band. For us to try to lead some traditional Christmas song, played traditionally, just sounds weird, 'cause that's not our thing. For us to try to take that traditional song and make it sound contemporary or modern, often sounds forced and cheesy.

Give me a nice intimate Christmas Eve service, just a little guitar and/or piano, and I'd be happy to sing traditional Christmas carols the whole evening long! :)

While classics and traditional carols are my favorite to listen to during this season, there are a few non-traditional Christmas songs I also like.

I've just found a Christmas album by Dave Barnes (who is completely wonderful singing anything and everything)! Seriously, he's amazing. I absolutely dig his style.

His Christmas album does not disappoint either. Feel free to take a listen. Hey, feel free to keep this open in a tab while you're working on other stuff. I think you'll like it!

Okay, tried inserting a widget playlist here in the regular post, but it's showing "no songs", so here's a link to the playlist: GROOVESHARK - DAVE BARNES - VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

I also did successfully put said widget in my sidebar, so you can click play and give it a listen right here, too!

I promise it's worth listening to! :)

Disney!

2010-12-08T11:48:00.007-06:00

Well, it's almost been a month now since we took the older two kids on a complete SURPRISE trip to Disney for the weekend (they didn't know what we were really doing until we told them after landing in Orlando!).

I didn't want to lug around my nice camera (and after experiencing some surprise water squirts and stuff during some shows and rides, I'm glad I didn't). So I just took my old Point&Shoot. Therefore, the pictures are not great......but the memories are!!

Here are some of the pictures we took:

I gave descriptions on the photos, so if you'd like to read those, view the slideshow HERE!

What a Week!

2010-11-22T09:25:00.002-06:00

It has been one of the craziest weeks around here.

To start it off, hubby and I surprised Wes and Claire with a trip to Disney! We flew down to Orlando on Veteran's Day and spent the weekend there. I'll do a whole separate post about our trip soon. It was a really fun trip and we were absolutely exhausted, as most people are when they go to Disney.

Well, on Saturday morning (our last day in the parks), we got a call that my husband's uncle had passed away suddenly. He was young, only 56, and it was unexpected. We continued our trip and came home as planned on Sunday.

The uncle's children live a couple of hours away. They all came in town, and we let them have our house for the week. Since they were there, we came to live at the lake.

We love being at the lake, of course. But it was just crazy coming back into town from vacation and coming straight here to the lake. The whole week was filled with family gatherings, driving into town to take kids to school, to go to their Thanksgiving programs and lunches, running errands, etc. And, of course, there was the funeral and all of that.

On top of the craziness of our schedule and living arrangements, it was also emotionally draining. A death like this is very bittersweet. We enjoyed spending time with his children, whom we don't see near enough. They had such a beautiful perspective on all of it. They were understandably heartbroken and grieving heavily for their father. But they knew, and rejoiced in the fact that their father was in the presence of God Almighty; that he was welcomed by his parents who had gone before him; that he was probably singing and dancing before the very throne of Jesus! How wonderful and exciting!!

And the funeral service was probably the most beautiful, sweet, and moving I've ever been to.

Aside from all of that, I dealt with sinus issues all week. I was to sing at the funeral on Thursday, and didn't even have a voice on Wednesday. God came through as He is faithful to always do, and I was able to sing Thursday. But the sinuses issues continue....'tis the season.

In addition to all of that, my grandmother passed away over the weekend. We had not really had a relationship at all for about 10 years. In any case, the loss of life, and my grandpa's loss is very sad. Her service will be Tuesday.

Then there is Thanksgiving on Thursday. We'll be doing it at the lake again this year. We started the tradition last year of having Thanksgiving at the lake, and plan to do it probably every year from here on out.

So, the craziness continues!

What is wonderful and comforting is to know that through it all, God is always faithful. His Spirit was sent to be our Comforter, and it truly is. May I continue to depend on Him...

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

2010-11-16T13:28:00.001-06:00

time to think about Christmas cards! Ack!

I have a love/hate relationship with this every year. I love creating our cards, but I also stress over it. I don't know why. I guess because I love photography and I digi-scrap, I just want them to be perfect. I want the best picture possible of my kids, I want the perfect digi kit and all to make the card just right.

I've started looking online a bit too. Most years after looking online, I think that I can make a card in PhotoShop that looks as good or better than what I find in online stores. I don't know if my tastes are changing, priorities are changing (regarding time required to make my own), or if the premade cards are really getting better, but I've found a lot of them that I really like.

I'm finding myself attracted to the more graphic types of cards where the photo(s) is really the main focus. This year, I've mainly been looking at Shutterfly's cards...

Here are their Christmas cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

I'm really loving these:

And this one is fun too:

Here are their "holiday" cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

This one is so simple and sweet:

And you can just go here to get started with whatever kind of card you might want: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

I've usually done flat 4x8 photo cards similar to this:

But I'm considering doing a different size or even a folded one this year. We'll see!

I think the hardest thing about this whole thing is going to be getting my three crazy kiddos to pose for a photo! May have to just get one good one of each, rather than one of all of them together!

Have you started thinking about your cards yet? What are you doing?

P.S. Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

He's 7

2010-09-29T15:18:00.001-05:00

I honestly feel like I just brought this child home from the hospital. How in the world can my Wesley be 7 years old today??? I know they say the older you get, the faster time flies by. But I never realized it would go by this fast!

Here is a pic of my sweet boy at only a couple months of age: (We have his newborn pics somewhere, just not on my hard drive since they weren't digital.)

Can you even stand those chubby cheeks! And I loved him wearing this little jean jacket that some of my teacher-friends gave me at my baby shower --- soooo cute!

Here he is at his 1st birthday:

Here he is at his 2nd birthday:

Here he is at 3 years old:

Here he is at 4 years old:

At 5:

At 6:

And a few I took as he was playing outside yesterday. Here he is at (almost) 7:

I am so very proud of the little boy he has become. He is scary smart, has the most incredible imagination, and loves with his whole heart. I am so blessed to be his Mommy!

Following God

2010-09-22T15:28:00.006-05:00

Following God's leading is not guaranteed to be easy. Just look at Jesus' life and death... definitely not easy. But He did what He was called to do.

Recently my family has been in this weird place of stepping out in faith and following God's direction...

I don't really know who all reads this blog, so I'll just tell it as if you know nothing...

My family has gone to Lynn Haven Methodist for the past 9 years. I have been leading worship in some capacity or other there for about 8 out of those 9 years.

For the past year, my husband and I have felt a stirring in our hearts and spirits that God was calling us to be somewhere else, do something else. This would be no easy decision, as LH has been our church home for quite some time. We have dear, dear friends there, many who are more like family. My praise team is definitely part of those who are family.

So we began praying. We spent a lot of time praying, thinking, and talking to each other about this. There was nothing sure about any of it, and we didn't want to make any haste decisions. Where would we go to church if not LH? We need to go somewhere, but we had visited many, many churches in our area in the past, and did not feel a connection to any of them.

A little over a month ago, we decided that it was time to follow God's leading, to act on it, step out in faith, even though we didn't know what that really even meant for us.

I led worship for the last time at Lynn Haven on August 29th...

We left LH not having any idea where God was calling us. Honestly, we expected months and months of visiting other churches and being disappointed and frustrated at what we found.

However, at the very same time we were leaving LH, a church plant was launching at the beach. We visited and immediately felt drawn to this fellowship. In fact, after the very first service we visited, we were overwhelmed at what seemed to be happening. We stayed for an informational meeting after that service during which the pastor introduced some of the staff. He introduced the guy who had led worship that day and said, "He now has 364 days to find his replacement. He's great at leading worship, but his main gifting is in another area." Uh, whoa!

So we met with the pastor that evening at Starbucks. We discussed what kind of church he felt called to lead and what kind of church we felt led to be a part of. Fast-forward a couple of weeks and we started helping with worship. Fast-forward a couple more weeks and I am now the worship leader for Baypointe Church.

Because it's a church plant, it's much different than the established church we've been at for many years. At times the differences are uncomfortable, but it is also extremely exciting! Through the ministry of this brand new church, already many people have started a journey with Jesus Christ! I can't think of anything I'd rather be a part of than God moving so strongly.

I'm really blessed to be working with some amazing people, both on the church staff and on the worship team. And we already have some additional prospects for the worship team, which is great! I'm so excited about what God is doing now and what He is going to do!

In addition to diving head-first into my new role at this new church, I am continuing to pray for Lynn Haven. I know they now have holes to fill, and that is not an easy thing either. I also know how important it is to find the right people -- people God has called and sent. So I pray for Lynn Haven nothing but blessings, God's will, and a strong impact in our community for Jesus Christ.

So, that's what's been happening in our lives. It's honestly felt like a roller-coaster ride of emotions -- deep, deep sadness of "leaving" people we love (I put "leaving" in quotation marks because I don't believe those friendships will end, they will just be a little different) mixed with absolute excitement of what God's doing both in our lives and in the community.

Following His leading is not always comfortable or sure-footed, but it is exciting!

Claire's First Day

2010-08-16T13:09:00.003-05:00

My sweet Claire Bear went to her first day of Kindergarten last Friday:

(LO is linked to my gallery if you'd like to see credits)

She was really excited to go. I was so glad that she had gotten to meet and see her teacher a number of times in the few days prior to her first day. Every time she saw her, they gave each other a big hug. So Claire was really comfortable with her and ready for her first day! And I just cannot tell you how adorable she was in her little uniform -- be still my heart!

I'm so proud of this girl!

Oh, and this morning she said I didn't need to even walk her to her classroom, I could just drop her off in the drop-off line. I did end up walking in w/ both kiddos since I had to tell Wes' teacher something and their classrooms are right next door to each other. But she is already getting so independent!

Even though Friday was her first day, the other half of her class started on Thursday. But they were all there together today. I can't wait to hear how her second day went!

"CHEESE!"

2010-08-12T16:17:00.002-05:00

I have no idea who taught her to say this...

It certainly wasn't me...

But, lately, whenever I point a camera and lens in her direction, she says...

"CHEESE!"

I really would much rather a natural smile...

or even no smile, just her pretty face would do the trick...

Because, really, her little face is so very sweet...

Even when she doesn't quite understand that she can't do all her brother and sister can do...

And...

ESPECIALLY

when she's being a little stinker...

Is it any wonder I'm absolutely head-over-heals for this girl???

First Grade, First Day

2010-08-12T09:49:00.002-05:00

Wesley's first day of First Grade was yesterday! He was really excited!

I got up and made a nice bacon, egg, and biscuits breakfast to get my boy started off right! As we were talking over breakfast, I asked him if he was excited. He said that he was excited to get to know his teacher better and to make lots of new friends. What a sweetie!!

He had a great day! Not sure he made a lot of friends yet. There's only one in his class this year that was also in his class last year. But he got to play on the playground with a couple of his class friends from last year.

My Claire-Bear starts tomorrow! Eeek! :-)

Kindergarten Teacher

2010-08-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

As you all will recall, Wes started Kindergarten last year. We were so blessed to have gotten the incredible teacher that all our friends recommended! She was the one all our friends said we really would want. And we got her!

Wes did such an incredible job in Kindergarten. He learned so much and, by the end of the school year was reading at over a 2nd grade level. While I believe he would have been just as successful in any class, with any teacher, we really loved his teacher. And she loved him too! She was such a wonderful teacher for our first experience with "big" school!

Naturally, we assumed Claire would get the same teacher. We cannot officially request teachers, but we made mention of it a few times last year that we really wanted Claire to have the same teacher. I had already told this teacher that Claire was a very different child than Wes, but that I thought this teacher would be as wonderful for her as she was for Wes.

Through the end of last school year and the summer, we found ourselves talking about Claire starting kindergarten, and we'd just talk as if she were in this teacher's class.

You see where this is going, right?

I had a weird feeling about this for the last few months. As we'd talk about Claire being in Wes' former teacher's class, I just kept feeling inside that it really might not happen.

I talked with another Mom from our school (and our church) about teachers her children have had (she has children a couple years older). She said she has never requested any teachers at all, even though she could have since her husband was on the board. She said each year she just prayed about it and really trusted that God would give them the right teacher for each child. I really took this to heart. Even if I could request a teacher for Wes (going into 1st) I wouldn't know who to request this year; so this insight really helped, and I've been really praying about it.

Soooooooo....................We got a voicemail last night from Claire's new Kindergarten teacher. Guess what........different teacher than Wes had.

I was really upset at first. We had (unofficially) asked for a particular teacher, our son just had her last year, I couldn't see what went wrong.

My husband, who heard the new teacher's message first while I was out running errands, and texted me telling me we had not gotten the one we expected, is actually glad about this change. He thinks it will be really good for Claire to have a totally different experience than Wes.

I took quite a bit longer to come around. It has absolutely nothing to do with this "new" teacher. I saw her a lot last year, and from what I've seen she's an amazing teacher as well. I've heard really great things about her, and really, she would not ever have even been hired at this particular school if she were not an awesome teacher.

My issue was just my own disappointment. Not getting what I thought we were going to, and what I thought we should have gotten.

I think this is really a lesson in trusting God to know best for our children. Trusting Him and knowing that He knows us (and our children) better than we do.

After a night of sleeping on it and praying about it, I'm actually really excited now for Claire to start her year with this teacher. I know she's going to learn so much and have a wonderful year!

I told Claire about her teacher after we'd been up for quite a while this morning. I wanted to make sure my attitude was, in fact, very positive about it. I didn't want to show any disappointment at all about not getting Wes' former teacher. When I told Claire, she was very excited. She even remembered who this teacher was, after I reminded her what she looks like.

I'm so excited to see what God is going to do in Claire's life (and all my kids' lives) this year. And, obviously, He has some lessons for me, as well.

Jamaica Mon

2010-07-28T21:59:00.002-05:00

Well, if you're a FB friend of mine, you've probably seen these already, but thought I'd post them here as well.

I mentioned in my last post that hubby and I went on vacation to Jamaica for a week. We went to the Sandals Grande Resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It was such a wonderful vacation!!

Here are some pics and commentary: (Oh, some of the pictures are really horrible quality. We took my D50 instead of my D300 just 'cause we thought it was safer, but we also bought a cheap, waterproof, disposable camera for those times when we couldn't bring the big camera. Terrible quality, but good memories!)

On our second night there before going out to dinner. The only light in our villa was in the bathroom, so that's where we took the picture. Think we would have been better just using the flash! :)

This was the inside of our villa. It was nice!

The is the back of the outside of our villa. We stayed in the bottom left one. The pool was just behind us, shared w/ the other 3 villa guests (although we didn't ever see them). These villas and pools were all over the hillside of this side of the resort.

JM and I enjoying the pool behind the villa. It was really nice to be able to swim there instead of having to go down to the big (more crowded) pool whenever we wanted to swim.

More enjoying the pool.

This is the Manor -- the main building on this side of the resort. This is where you waited for a golf-cart (jitney) ride to your villa or for a bus to go to the other side (beach) of the resort, or a bus-ride for your off-site adventure. Also a few restaurants and the concierge in this building.

The signature Sandals pool. I only went in once to get a drink from the swim-up bar. We mostly only came here a couple evenings to people-watch. By that time of the day there were a lot of people who had been drinking all day, totally wasted, kinda entertaining to watch!

Just a photo of the beach side of the resort from the water.

This was the 65-ft. catamaran/booze cruise we went on one day. It was really fun. Took us snorkeling on a dead reef (ha! I told them I could see better stuff at home in FL, so they kept calling me "Florida girl" the rest of the day). Then they took us to Dunns River Falls. Good thing they wait until you finish the Falls climb before serving up the drinks!

JM and me on the catamaran.

JM and me at Dunns River Falls. I think it's about 960 feet high and you form a human chain with a group to climb up. So fun and exhilerating in an I-could-fall-and-die-at-any-given-second kinda way!! :)

This was some of the staff on the catamaran. They were definitely the party starters - so much fun! Even delivered drinks on their heads while we were cruising on the boat and while they were dancing! Jamaicans are seriously the happiest people I have ever met!

Just a pic of the beach and boardwalk, etc.

Pics of us after taking out the hobie cat one day. JM said he felt 14 again! It was fun, although there wasn't a whole lot of wind. (Yes, I know I'm looking super chubs here -- yuk! Surely it was just the weird angle and lighting, not the spread of food and rum punches, right? right? hehe!)

JM has many talents - lol!

This is us after we went tubing down the White River. It was really nice and I only got thrown once on the rapids. :)

Tubing down the White River.

My super-hot hubby!! ;-)

At one point where we stopped, they had a rope swing you could jump off.

The second half of our tubing adventure was doing a little bit of zip-lining!! It was really fun. We only did three sections of zip-line, but I would definitely do it again (more than just three sections).

One night, eating dinner at the "Italian" restaurant at the resort.

Fun reggae band that played one night. The lead singer was dancing all over the stage -- very fun and entertaining!

Sunset on our last night! The sun dropped so fast -- was still just above those clouds as I was taking my camera out of the bag, already below by the time I could snap the pic.

At dinner, our last night before returning home. The food at most of the 10 restaurants at the resort was pretty good, but this was our best meal (too bad we only went there on the last night).

It was such a fun trip! Hope you enjoyed the photos!!

Yes, I Know

2010-07-27T14:07:00.004-05:00

I know, I know, it has really been a terribly long time since I blogged. It's been a busy summer!

I've had all three kids home for the summer. We've spent a lot of time up at the lake (which currently has no internet service, but that soon should be changing!). Plus, hubby and I spent a week in Jamaica (yeah-mon)!

So now you understand why I haven't blogged in, well, forever.

Enough about that. Let's just pick up from here, shall we?

Since we've spent so much time at the lake this summer, I decided to keep a photobook of just lake photos up there. All of you know that I digitally scrapbook. But I just wanted a photobook -- like actual printed out photos manually placed in sleeves in a book. :-)

And you know what? I LOVE the photo book SO MUCH! Turns out, I'm not such a terrible photographer, and more importantly, we have printed memories of so many family and friends that have spent time with us at the lake.

I got a big photo book which I will continue to fill as I take and print more photos.

This past weekend, our best friends came into town and stayed with us. We had a really great weekend together! Of course I took some pics! We also went up to the lake the last night they were here and we got some pics swimming and playing the next day before they had to leave. I just got them printed today (at Sam's), and I'm IN LOVE! They are such good pics. My in-laws and niece and nephew also came up later Sunday afternoon, so I have pics from that too.

So, here's a slideshow of some of those recent pics I had printed. There are a few others from the weekend mixed in here that are not from the lake, but you get the idea. Also, this slideshow does not do justice to the printed photos, but again, you get the idea. :-)

Enjoy!

She's 5

2010-04-29T10:44:00.002-05:00

I don't know how it happened so fast. I was just telling Claire last night that it's like I've blinked my eyes and she's grown up. It seems like she was Sadie's age/size just yesterday. And today she's 5.

I am so proud of this little (big) girl. She is beautiful inside and out. She is caring and loving and kind. She shares and is giving toward others. She is spunky and silly and as funny as can be. She can be the girliest of girls one minute (loves makeup, jewelry, clothes, dress-up, purses, etc.) and then a tomboy the next. She likes to give me kisses in 3's - one on the lips, and one on each cheek!

Here she was as a newborn 5 years ago:

At her 1st birthday:

At 2 years:

At 3 years:

At 4 years:

Today:

Okay, wiping away the tears after looking through those pics.

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Claire-Bear!

Hello, again...

2010-04-20T13:32:00.002-05:00

So it's been a long while. And my last post was so gripey. But, I have to say I got so much response from that, here on my blog, on facebook, and in the Sweet Shoppe forum. It was a fun discussion!

Well, we've been busy in this household! We had Spring Break a couple weeks ago and had a really nice time. We've been spending lots of time at the lake, both during Spring Break and on the weekends. As I just told a friend this morning, we just can't seem to stay away. It's so nice up there! And we enjoy having people come hang out with us up there as well.

During Spring Break we had some friends come and stay the night. The water was just warm enough for the kids to swim and be pulled around the lake on the tube! I couldn't believe how brave my kiddos were, but they absolutely loved the tube! We've also had lots of family visit, including my grandparents. My Grandaddy isn't doing too well these days, and I think he really enjoyed being there and visiting.

In other news, I'm going to be leading worship for another women's conference in the area. I was really honored to be asked, and just pray that God will use me for His will. If you're local and want to know details, just let me know!

Here are some LOs I've created recently. As always, they are linked to my online galleries, if you'd like to see full credits.

And I saved my newest favorite for last:

Whew! That was a lot! I've been trying to catch up. I usually try to scrap chronologically so I can order books by the year -- just makes it easier for me. But I feel a little overwhelmed when I get behind.

Well, I'm off to get Wes from school. I'll try to blog again soon and not have such a long break again!

This Is Why...

2010-04-01T11:48:00.001-05:00

So, I've been thinking about this and, honestly, pretty frustrated about it for quite some time. I don't know if I'll articulate it very well (and it certainly won't be brief), but I think it will be good to get it out "there."

Here's the thing -- I really love photography. Like really really love it. I'm ~~just a tad~~ obsessed with it. My wish-list for anything photog related, be it lenses, flashes, software, etc., is a mile long. I have spent hours upon late-night hours studying photography - by following incredible and reputable photographers whose work I love and analyzing what it is they do that makes their photography so amazing, by reading and participating in photography forums, by taking online classes and doing online tutorials.

And of course, I take a lot of pictures. I got my first DSLR about 3 years ago and upgraded to my 2nd (surprise!) at Christmas. I shot on Auto mode for a while, then moved to Aperture Priority, then to full Manual. I have a fairly good understanding of things like F-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. I like to discuss that kind of thing with other people and even help other people understand it a little (I am, by no means, a photography teacher or expert). I do not know everything about photography and am not anywhere near professional.

But, if you'll bear with me for just a second to say this about myself, I think I'm pretty decent. Good photos that started as pure luck have slowly turned to a more common occurrence because I'm understanding what it takes to create a good photo.

I have been asked by some friends who have liked my photos if I have ever considered "being" a photographer, as in photographing paying people. And, the answer to that is yes, I consider it almost every day. Who wouldn't love to get paid to both do something they love and create keepsakes for other people?

But this is why I haven't gone into business and probably won't ever...

First of all, I don't think I'm quite good enough yet.

Second, and probably more of a reason than the first -- there are plenty of people who aren't even at my level (which I just stated is not yet quite good enough) who are claiming to be photographers and starting businesses.

This is so frustrating to me. You see these "businesses" popping up everywhere, especially on Facebook with Fan pages and the like. (If you're reading this and you just created a fan page for your photog business, I promise, this post is not directed at you.)

And it's not just online. There's a fairly new studio that was just set up in my town, so I went the photographer's website to check out her work. I really was not terribly impressed.

The frustrating part is that many of the photos I see from these "photographers" show that they really don't understand photography at all. The composition is terrible (like cut off limbs, etc.), the exposure is off, they selectively color hideously, they put a vignette on everything, or do a really poor black and white (or sepia) conversion. (This doesn't apply to the new photographer in town I mentioned -- I can tell she knows what she's doing, I just didn't think her work was that great.)

I guess the reason that it's frustrating is because I feel like I've put in lots of time and effort and still won't make that plunge, and others really haven't put forth the effort and have no knowledge. They've just bought a new nicer camera that takes decent pictures on Auto Mode and they all-of-a-sudden think they're a photographer.

I'm not really sure what I want to come out of this post. Maybe it's just a little vent. I don't know. I'm certainly not writing this for compliments on my photography or encouragement to go into business or anything. So please don't think that. That will not happen, at least any time soon. Plus, most people who read this know me and love me and would support me even if I were one of those "FAUXphotographers!"

And, because every post is better with a photo, here is one I took last weekend of my boyfriend (hehe!). I think he's pretty great:

P.S. While I'm on a soapbox and kind of whining today, I'll just go ahead and put this out there. There is a very distinct different between LOOSE and LOSE. You cannot imagine how often I see these spellings confused (esp. on Facebook), and it drives me NUTS!!! If you've lost weight, your pants might be loose. But if you're dieting, you're trying to lose weight.

P.S.S. Hmm, I'm a little something today. Maybe I need a nap this afternoon! :)

CityReach

2010-03-30T09:55:00.004-05:00

For the past six weeks, our church has been on a journey together for spiritual renewal. The three components of our studies (through sermons, daily individual devotionals, and weekly small group meetings) are Connect, Grow, Serve.

We spent two weeks studying each component and this Saturday, our church put the third, "Serve" into action. Numerous service projects were organized throughout our community, and our church members signed up to spend a Saturday morning giving of themselves and serving others.

I spent a couple of hours photographing the event, and then a little while singing old standards with some residents at a local retirement center. One of our pastors (the one who organized all of this) said on Sunday that he had never been more proud to be a pastor at our church than he was on Saturday. I really understand his sentiment. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of.

Here's a slide show of some the photos I captured. Well, actually, I passed the camera off to someone else at the retirement home, but you get the idea! Enjoy!

(oh, and I know it's really long, but I think the ones outside at the Mission, towards the end of the slideshow, are my very favorites)

LO Update

2010-03-26T17:19:00.001-05:00

So, I got some positive feedback on the watermark/logo thingy from yesterday, but I'm pretty sure I hate it. Hehe! Oh well. I'll keep trying 'til I find something I like. :)

Here are some recent pages I've made: (most are clickable for links except ones I can't upload yet)

I think that really should hold you over for a good while now! :)

And yes, I realize I have more pages of my girls than I do of Wes. There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) I find girly kits so much easier to scrap with; 2) I'm around my girls more since Wes is at school for longer than they are; 3) He's in this phase where he only wants to make crazy faces in front of my camera, and I just can't stomach making 75 pages about a silly face. :)

Well, we've been busy busy with baseball starting up and just life in general. The kids are both playing -- Wes is in AA and Claire is playing T-ball. It's fun, and I think they're enjoying it. We're just finding that pretty much every night of the week is filled with something we have to do. It can be exhausting, but it's fun. :)

Have a great weekend!

Ack!

2010-03-25T16:25:00.001-05:00

I said last week I'd be back on here soon to share some pics and/or LOs, and I haven't. So, here I am to share some pics with you. I'll share some recent LOs tomorrow (yes, I will be back tomorrow). :)

She's a full-time walker now!...

Sweet kiddos. This got a little out of hand a few frames later, but this one turned out really cute!...

And, how did these kids grow up so fast?!?...

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" (super duper bad hair day / bed head)...

T-ball girl...

Being silly together before Opening Night...

Handsome little AA-er...

Watching Bubba & Sissy play...

So there ya go.

And you probably noticed the new watermark/logo thingy. Not so sure about it, just trying it out. I think I liked it better just after I made it but before I actually used it. :) Any thoughts??

Be back tomorrow...

A Little Business-y Post

2010-03-17T10:34:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to win a give-away on The Savvy Photographer (http://thesavvyphotographer.blogspot.com). It looks super cool and like something I could really use to help with photography. So, one of the ways to enter was to blog about their contest. Here ya go! Blogging about it! :)

Also, while we're on the topic of business, I've started doing the whole Swagbucks thing (http://swagbucks.com/). If you don't know what Swagbucks is, it's not a scam or anything. It's just a search engine that you use (like, instead of Google) to earn points which can be redeemed for prizes (for me, will be Amazon gift cards). It's free money, just for using their search engine. And, if you can't find what you're looking for w/ their search engine, you can just go to google or whatever. There are also free codes (which turn into points) given out randomly. Seems like a win-win thing to me. I need to search occasionally, and I need some Amazon $$!! :) Anyway, if you'd like to start this, please use my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/kresta. I know it sounds pyramid-like, and I guess it is in one little sense - I would get points for you using that link and I think I'd get a few points every time you get points as well. But if you refer someone, then you get their points, and so on and so on. So give it a try if you'd like! ( I also have a "Swidget" down on the right side of my blog for Swagbucks.)

Okay, end of business talk. I'll try my best to get on here in the next couple of days with some pics and LOs! :)

No Title - ha!

2010-02-26T09:52:00.003-06:00

I have no idea what to title today's post. I was going to call it "Layout Share" since I'm going to share some recent scrap pages with you, but I was also going to blab a little bit. So, no title.

Today in Wes' class they are attending a wedding. "A wedding in Kindergarten?" you ask. Yes, the letters Q & U are getting married because they always belong together. Is that not the cutest thing ever? Well, the kids were allowed to wear their "Sunday best" rather than their uniforms if they wanted to. Wes wanted to wear a brown polo shirt......... umm, I just had to laugh. It looks about the same as his uniform shirts, just without the logo. I had to explain to him that we dress very casually for church and he doesn't really own any "Sunday best" type clothes. He looked a little confused. I told him that "Sunday best" meant like nice shirts and ties and stuff. He said, "Oh, uh.....I'll just wear my uniform." Hehe!

Well, last weekend was exhausting, but really wonderful. We had an awesome time at the women's conference and had great services on Sunday. I'm also leading worship this Sunday. And we have three parties to attend this weekend. So it's looking like another busy one. :)

Here are some recent LOs I've completed (click them to go to my gallery for credits):

(created with Zoe's new kit, Note to Self, which will be hitting the Sweet Shoppe tomorrow [or midnight tonight, if you just can't wait 'til tomorrow!])

And some older ones I realized I never shared on my blog:

Well, that's A LOT of LOs. They haven't all been done recently. As I said above, some are older ones I just had not shared yet.

I did get all of my 2009 books completed and printed earlier this month. They turned out really well, and I'm so happy to be able to look back on last year. It's amazing how quickly kids grow up. :(

I haven't taken nearly as many pictures so far this year. I didn't commit to any P365 projects or anything. Even though I wasn't consistent in taking pictures every single day last year as part of the project, it did still help me to remember to break the camera out more. I'm trying to do better though. :)

Have a great weekend!

Picture Share

2010-02-19T10:56:00.003-06:00

Well, I haven't scrapped much lately. We have been extremely busy preparing to lead worship at the Women's Conference at our church this weekend. This is always a huge event and this year will be no different. I believe there are about 560 women registered. The event is Friday night and Saturday. We will be leading one set Friday night and a few more on Saturday. It's going to be a really wonderful time, and I know that the women who come will be blessed. But it's also been exhausting. :) I've kinda felt like I should just move a bed to the church and just stay there. :) I haven't even put in as much time as other people who are working on making this weekend great. But w/ three kiddos going in different directions, it makes it interesting trying to juggle it all!

So, now you understand why I haven't done much scrapping lately. I really haven't taken that many pictures either, but I'll share a few I have taken.

I know you can't see much of Claire in this one of the girls in the bathtub, but this picture just shows you how much fun they have together when taking a bath! Sadie's smile says it all!

And, this is Sadie's latest game she loves to play:

And all three of my (clean -- after baths) sweet children:

Sadie also loves blowing kisses (which she sometimes confuses with peek-a-boo, since both include hands at the face):

A couple of my handsome little boy:

A few of my beautiful Claire:

And a couple more of Sadie eating her "na-na's" just because, well, babies are just cute:

Well, I'm off to start this busy and wonderful weekend! Hope you have a great Friday and weekend as well!

Wow! It's Been A While

2010-02-10T08:36:00.002-06:00

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. I probably don't have anyone even checking here anymore. Life has just been busy!

Last week we had a storm blow through. Not too bad rain, but lots of wind... that caused this:

Yes, that's a ginormous limb from one of our huge oak trees that fell only about 10 feet outside of my son's bedroom. It completely blocked our street and was resting on the power line. It didn't knock out power (well, did for our neighbors, but not us), but they had to turn off power to clean it all up. Of course the city left the part of the tree that was in our yard. So we had someone come split it all. Wow -- we definitely have a lot of wood for the fireplace now. It will just have to wait for next year to be seasoned enough.

In other news, I have a lot of pregnant friends right now. It seems they are all having babies within the next couple of months. Some have just had their's (Jaime's surprise!) and some could go at any second. So I've been going to and hosting baby showers. It's fun!

I've also been scrapping a bit. Here are a few recent pages:

I'm sure there are probably more that I haven't shared on here, but you can just click on one of the pages above that link to my gallery. That'll show you credits, then you can also browse around my gallery if you so desire.

I am so proud that I had all of my 2009 layouts printed in books through Winkflash. They had one of their flat-rate book sales a couple of weeks back, and I just can't resist have 3, almost 100-page books printed and shipped for around $50!! They look so great too! It's really fun seeing the pages I've created on the computer come to life in a book!

I'm ashamed to say that I have been terrible about taking pictures so far this year. You'd think w/ a brand new fancy shmancy camera I'd be using it all the time. We've just been super busy, and I haven't thought to pick it up and click!

One more thing we've been busy with is getting ready for the women's weekend at our church. We are doing the worship/music in-house this year (all the worship teams together), and it's going to be incredible! But it's also taken up a lot of time trying to get it all together and hold rehearsals, etc. It will be worth it though -- all for His glory!

Well, I'm off to take Claire-Bear to school, head to church for Bible Study (we are studying this incredible book right now), and then I'm going to work at the church for a while.

Have a great Wednesday!

What Do You Think?

2010-01-21T06:48:00.001-06:00

So, yesterday on Facebook and in the Sweet Shoppe Designs forum I asked about the quote I used for Sadie's cake page. I ended up with a few suggestions and ended up making the page with two different quotes. I showed you one yesterday, but thought I would ask which one you like better. So which is it, 1 or 2?

Also, I had someone suggest yesterday that I show a comparison of Sadie's monthly bunny pictures. Well, just so turns out that I was planning on doing that anyway. :-) But, it's not quite ready yet. Will post that in the next couple of days.

Have a great Thursday!

Bittersweet

2010-01-20T17:39:00.001-06:00

My sweet little girl turned one year old on Tuesday. I have to admit to being really sad about this. Just something about knowing she's the last, and she's quickly leaving the baby stage which I have so absolutely enjoyed.

We celebrated her birthday with family on Monday evening. She had a great time!

And then there was cake....................

Hehe!

Of course, she then needed a bath. Here she is looking beautifully, sparkly clean (after said bath)!

Of course I had to take her bunny picture on her actual birthday. She seriously sat there like a pro, almost like she knew exactly what she was supposed to do (pose for a minute with a big pink stuffed bunny rabbit while Mommy makes crazy faces and says funny things and snaps a million photos!).

We also turned her car seat around, which she absolutely LOVES!!!

While I'm really sad my baby is growing up too quickly, I'm also so excited to see the little girl she becomes! She's already so much fun, and so sweet and loving; I can't wait to see her little personality develop even more!

Layout Share, pt. 2

2010-01-15T08:33:00.001-06:00

So, I'm back today to share the rest of the layouts that I've recently completed. Thanks for all the sweet comments yesterday. :) Just like yesterday, most are linked to my online gallery, so click on it if you wanna see credits or see it bigger. (A few of the Christmas pages are not linked to my gallery because I didn't think the gallery could really stand anymore of my Christmas pages, so I didn't post them!)

Okay, that's it for now!

I think I've mentioned on here that we now have a place at a lake not too far from home (about 45 minutes up the highway). We've spent a ton of time of there and will be going up this weekend as well. It's so wonderful being up there, and once we're there, we don't want to leave. We love having friends and family up to visit as well. We're going to have some friends up tomorrow afternoon/evening, so that should be a lot of fun!

Hope you have a great weekend!

What the **** Happened?!

2010-01-14T15:25:00.001-06:00

This is not my normal language, however it did come out of my four-year-old's mouth Tuesday night. Before you judge me too much, she was only repeating something she heard a contestant say on American Idol. She heard it and turned around to the rest of us with a smile and asked, "What the hell happened?" We couldn't help but burst out laughing, ya know, right before we told her that wasn't a nice thing to say. :)

Anyway, what happened as far as this blog goes is that life just got busy with the holidays and then getting back into regular routines, etc. So I'm just now finally getting back into blogging about it all.

I'm not going to give every detail about Christmas and all, so no worries about being bored to tears. What I'll do it show you some layouts I've done.

Actually, I've done a ton of layouts because I've been trying to finish 2009. I'm soooo close, only a few more to go and I'll be done!!

So, prepare yourself for lots and lots of pages to look at. As always, they're linked, so if you wanna see the full-size version or the credits, click on it and it will take you to my gallery. And I'll just show some today and more tomorrow.

Okay, I think that's enough for today. I'll show more soon!

Kiddo Quotes

2009-12-14T10:35:00.001-06:00

Last Friday night after our usual dinner at a local Mexican joint, we rode around our neighborhood, looking at Christmas lights. The kids were having a blast pointing out all the different colored lights and all the blow-up characters they saw in people's yards. Claire got really excited in front of one house and exclaimed, "Look! It's Santa....and a crazy man!" (The so-called "crazy man" was a nutcracker soldier - haha!)

Wes, this morning before we left for school, asked me to fill his water bottle because the water had been in there a couple of days and would taste funny. Of course. So I told him that was something he could do -- just go pour out what was in it, and pour in some fresh water. After a second he came back to me and said, "Mommy, can you wash my water bottle while I'm at school? It smells like a goat." A GOAT! Haha! I don't know where that came from, but it struck me really funny. So he took one of my water bottles to school (even though it's pink) and I'll be washing his. :)

And my sweet little Sadie. Everything is "Dada." Yes, she can say other words, Mama, Bubba, bye-bye, but she much prefers to say "Dada" instead. She often says it long and drawn out, "Daaaaadaaaaa" in the tone of those old beer commercials where the guys would call each other and just say "waaaassssuuuppp". Hehe!

Little Miss-Chief and Tree-Trimming

2009-12-10T10:11:00.002-06:00

Sadie is a little mischievous, I think. If you're not watching or stopping her, she will head straight for the junk drawer in the kitchen and proceed to pull everything out of it, including flash lights, pencils/pens, clothespins, and batteries. No matter how many times I take her away from it or tell her those are not her toys, she just doesn't seem to get it. :)

Little Stinker!!

The kids helped decorate the Christmas tree Tuesday afternoon. Doncha just love how kids put all the ornaments in one little section right on top of the others? The top area of our tree is a little bare, so I need to put up the others they left after they grew tired of decorating.

They got tired of decorating a little mostly because their grandparents came to watch them while I went Christmas shopping. I've done lots of shopping online, and I got lots more done Tuesday afternoon and evening. Just a few more things to pick up and I'll be finished!! I need to make a few gifts as well, but that's pretty low-stress.

Well, I'm off to Christmas lunch at Wes' school! Have a great Thursday!

Christmas Decorating

2009-12-08T10:46:00.003-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, I've decorated the blog and spruced it up with some Christmas music. Now it's time to decorate my house! I feel like the last person on earth to get my tree up.

Actually, the tree went up yesterday, but there's nothing on it. And it needs to be fluffed. :) I'll be fluffing it in a few minutes so the kids and I can decorate it after picking Wes up from school.

I also get to go Christmas shopping this afternoon thanks to my mother-in-law coming to watch the kiddos! Yay! I have done most of my shopping online and love it. But there are some things I need to get in the store. Hopefully I'll be mostly finished by tonight and will stop feeling like I need to get it done! I hate that feeling and just want to enjoy the season.

I took some pics of the kids yesterday for Christmas cards. Got some cute out-takes and a couple that were good enough to use in our cards. I'll post more later in the week, but you can see a couple in my header up there at the top of the screen.

Gotta go fluff a tree!

Have a great Tuesday!

Playing Catch-Up Again

2009-11-24T09:34:00.002-06:00

It's been a long time again since I've blogged. So it's time to play catch-up a little bit.

We've been doing well. Kids are doing great and growing like weeds, of course.

Right now the kids are out of school for Thanksgiving. This is the first year the school system has taken the whole week off. Not sure what I think about that yet; ask me at the end of the week. But I'm pretty sure my children will be begging to return to school by Monday. In fact, Wes was not happy about not being able to go to school yesterday. He loves school!

I think I mentioned on here a while back that we bought a place on a lake just north of town. Well, hubby has been working hard to remodel the mobile home that we moved there. He's taken out walls, put in windows and sliding glass doors, redone the kitchen and bathrooms. It's practically brand new. We didn't think it would be ready for us to be there at Thanksgiving, but it turns out it is!!! We will do more renovation later, like building a huge wrap-around porch and all, but that doesn't have to be done right now.

So we will have Thanksgiving there at the lake. We are so excited about it. I know we will be spending a lot of time there in the future. But since we will be spending some time this week, we've had to rush trying to furnish this place, getting it ready to stay. It's like we're furnishing a whole other house. Thankfully, we're not concerned w/ getting as nice of furniture as our regular house, so it's not quite as expensive. But we've gotten living room furniture, bunk beds (the kids are so excited!), will be getting other beds, bedding, towels, pots and pans, lots of other stuff.

I've been busy the past couple of weeks trying to catch up with my scrapbooking. I've determined in the last year or so that it really is easier for me to scrap chronologically. It's not as easy during holidays because the designers I create for come out with kits before the holiday actually happens. So sometimes I pull out old photos for those pages. But I find I'm much more organized and remember details better when I scrap chronologically.

So here are some of the pages I've completed lately (they are each linked for credits):

Wow, so I have been busy! I still have a little more to scrap -- Wes had his Thanksgiving program at school last week, and Sadie is now 10 months, so those pages need to be completed.

Well, I'm off to get ready for the day -- shower, run more errands for lake stuff, etc. And the kids are begging to do something "fun" - hehe!

I'm sure I probably won't be back before Thanksgiving, so I hope your's is very happy!!!

Correction & Results

2009-11-06T09:21:00.002-06:00

Well, I got some of the names of those actions wrong on my last post. Just go check out Sarah's site -- http://www.my4hensphotography.com/. But I got the gist of your vote. And the winner is......... [insert drumroll here]............

The first and the fourth ones, which I labeled Autumn Air and Dirty Knees (although I think those were some of the ones I messed up the names on). Anyway, THANK YOU for voting! I got 15 votes - pretty cool!

Also wanted to pop in real quick to tell you about DSD. What? Yeah, for all you non-scrappers, that's (international) Digital Scrapbooking Day. There are sales and activities all over digi-land.

There will be lots happening at Sweet Shoppe Designs and some incredible kits going into the store. Here's a page I made with a collab between Traci and Melissa, called You: Captured:

Definitely check out the Sweet Shoppe tomorrow for this and many other fabulous kits!

Oh yeah, here's another LO I made yesterday w/ another kit from the Sweet Shoppe. Just click on it to link to my gallery for credits:

Well, we're off to a birthday party this morning (Claire didn't have school -- teacher's conference or something), then lunch. Tomorrow is super busy w/ a Fall Festival at Wes' school, at which I am working the Duck Pond booth for an hour, and then I'm singing at my great Aunt's funeral in the afternoon. :(

I think the weather should be great this weekend though. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A little less talk, a lot more ACTION

2009-11-03T08:23:00.004-06:00

I really strive to get my photos well-exposed and as good as I can in-camera. I also shoot in RAW format, so I can make adjustments as needed. Once I load the photos onto my computer and tweak them in my RAW tweaker-thingy (very technical term, I know, but I can't remember exactly what that part is called -- it's in Photoshop, kinda, just a different part or something), then all I have to do is defog (I use the unsharp mask at 20, 60, 0) and my photo is pretty much ready. Every now and then I may run an action on it for a black&white or sepia conversion. I rarely run actions on photos that I keep in color. Sometimes I just boost the brightness or contrast.

Anyway, remember that photo I showed you that hubby took with my point and shoot in South Dakota? I thought it was pretty cool, so I played with it a little. I used lots of Sarah's actions (My Four Hens Photography) for these, but I'll discuss some other great actions after I show these off a little.

So, here's the original:

And here are copies after running various actions:

Autumn Air:

Boy Scout:

ChalkBoard:

Dirty Knees:

Gummy Bears:

Monkey Wrench:

Skipping Stones:

Tin Soldier:

Wheat Bread:

Pretty cool, huh? I really like them all. I'm considering maybe putting a vignette on one and then printing it to hang in our house (maybe our bathroom?). But I can't decide which one I like best.

So please take my little Action poll...

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As I mentioned before, I used Sarah's actions from My Four Hens photography. I only have the ones available for PhotoShop Elements (PSE) since I don't have full PhotoShop (btw, if anyone has an "in" w/ Santa, PS CS4 would make a great gift, just sayin').

I also have some actions by Holly McCaig.

And I have some PhotoBlast actions.

There are many more places you can get actions. And if you have full PhotoShop, you have even more options:

Totally Rad Actions

Itty Bitty Actions

Pioneer Woman actions

MCP Actions

There are many more I haven't listed and I'm sure tons and tons I don't even know about. There are lots of free ones you can find as well.

Actions are lots of fun to play with and can have a dramatic effect on your photos. So go find some and have some fun playing around with your favorite photos!

Ready!

2009-11-02T10:22:00.001-06:00

When I got into the shower, he wasn't even out of bed. When I got out of the shower, Wes had eaten breakfast, brushed his teeth, and gotten dressed -- complete w/ tucked-in shirt, belt, socks & shoes. Then I asked him to get a Capri Sun out of the fridge for his lunch and put his lunch box on the counter for me. He did that and got out the ham & cheese for his sandwich!

I think it's safe to say this child was READY to go back to school today! After missing two days last week, he could not wait to go back. Plus, with the time change, he kept thinking it was later than it was and was worried that he would be late! :) He kept coming into my room over and over, while I was getting ready, telling me he loved me. After the 4th or 5th time, I looked at him like "okay, I love you, but what is the deal?" He asked, "Are we gonna be late?" I said, "So all this coming to tell me you love me was really just checking to see if I was ready yet and if you were going to be late to school, huh?" :) I tried to explain the whole time-change thing -- yeah, not easily understood by 6-yr. olds.

We had a great weekend. Hubby got back into town safe & sound on Saturday afternoon. Just enough time to go get the kids from his Mom, have a little down time at home, then have some friends over for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on the golf-cart-pulled trailer. It was a fun time. Here are a few pics:

All the kids (except Sadie):

Daddy & Sadie:

Grainy/noisy pic, but everyone on the trailer:

Hubby had a great time in South Dakota. He was there pheasant-hunting. For not really caring a thing about the ins and outs of photography, he's got a pretty good eye:

(not bad for a point-and-shoot either)

And here he is with all the guys and their pheasants:

Well, I've already got dinner in the crockpot. But I've got a number of other things to take care of around here today, so I better sign off for now.

Have a great Monday!

Well, Look At Me

2009-10-30T11:44:00.003-05:00

Look at me - blogging for the fourth time this week!! Oh yeah, I've still got it. :-)

Actually, hubby's been out of town and I've had a kid home sick for two days now. So that all lends to it being easier to blog more.

As I said, hubby's out of town. I hadn't mentioned it earlier in the week, 'cause you just don't really know what kind of weirdos might read your blog. But it's only for one more night...and I've got an alarm system...and a gun. Hehe! (No really, I do.)

Anyway, he's in South Dakota on a pheasant-hunting trip. Sound familiar? Yep, he went to the same place he went last year. They flew up on Tuesday and will be coming home tomorrow. This year, they took a private plane, so I was much more nervous about him flying up. They were delayed a while due to weather, but made it up there safe & sound. The cell reception where he is (in the country) is terrible and every time he calls I just get bits and pieces. By the end of the call I'm ready to throw the phone out the window. I much prefer him being here to talk to. :) The kids have really missed him, but have done very well with it.

Wes has been home sick for 2 days. He's not like stay-in-bed kinda sick, just not feeling good. And his eyes looked pink yesterday, so I didn't want to risk it being pink-eye and spreading it to others. Then he started complaining that his throat and ears hurt. I hated to keep him home -- he loves school; and he was going to go home with a friend to play on Thursday afternoon. But I thought it was the best decision. Took him to the doctor this morning. Doctor thinks it's just allergies since he's been stuffy for a week and has itchy eyes, but no fever. So we got him some Claritin and hope that will help him. Good news is, I'm not worried now about him spreading sickness to anyone else. So, assuming he feels well enough, he will be able to do lots of fun Halloween activities tonight and tomorrow.

I've been emailing Wes' teacher, letting her know about him being sick and staying home from school. She left some work for him in the front office, so we picked that up this morning after the doctor's visit. He's been a busy little boy since we've been home:

Speaking of Wes being home, we worked on his costume off and on all day yesterday. He wanted to be Wall-E this year. Despite my begging and pleading with him to just let me buy the costume, he insisted on making it out of a box. I helped with some of it in PhotoShop. I think it turned out pretty well:

And while we're on the subject of Halloween costumes, Claire got to wear her costume to school today. We curled her hair up with rollers -- which she totally loved -- she is such a girly girl! To say she was extremely excited would be an understatement!

Is she not the most beautiful Goldilocks you've ever seen??

(if you look closely, you will see she had one brown shoe and one black shoe on; she noticed it and changed before we left!)

Well, we have the Trunk or Treat at Claire's school tonight, Trunk or Treat at our church tomorrow afternoon, possible a friend's Halloween party to go to, then Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Plus, hubby will be arriving home sometime tomorrow in the middle of it all!

Have a great (and safe) weekend!

A Good Evening

2009-10-29T06:43:00.001-05:00

What does a haircut, a pedicure, a new pair of jeans, a little ice cream, and doing all of this all by myself equal? You got it -- a good evening. Scratch that -- a very good evening.

As a Mommy of three, time to myself is a rarity; so this was a treat! My Mother-in-law was so gracious and sweet to come watch the kids and give me a chance to get a away for a little bit. Wonderful!

I was way overdue for both the haircut and pedicure. They both ended up very good. But I have to admit I got a little scared at the beginning of the haircut. I went to a new salon (one my mother-in-law recommended) rather than the lady I usually see. It was later in the afternoon, and this place takes walk-ins, so I thought that would be best.

So I'm sitting in the chair with my hairstylist, Shawn, and start to make small-talk:

Me: So how long have you been cutting hair?

Shawn: Oh, over a year! (she says, as if this is a long time)

Me: [slightly panicking inside; seriously, my usual hairstylist has been cutting for most of her 40-ish years]

Shawn: I just got back from a hair show. They showed us this new way to cut a bob without using your hands, so I'll try it on you.

Me: [okay, seriously panicking now]

I didn't say anything. I just sat there very tensely, trying to will myself to just relax. It is just hair after all, and mine grows very quickly. Plus, if it was terrible, I could definitely go to my normal lady and beg forgiveness and for her to fix it.

It ended up fine. Ya know, probably not the top #1 cut of my life, but it's good.

And the pedicure... very nice. It had been way too long since I'd had one. I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered while sitting in the massage chair, sipping a diet coke, and reading a mindless magazine. And I went way darker than I ever have for the polish color. Claire even asked when I returned home why I got dark brown painted on my toes. It's actually a really really really dark purply red. It's pretty though, and very fitting for fall (even though it doesn't feel like fall).

WARNING: If you are one of those people who are grossed out by feet, #1, well that's just silliness; #2, just scroll past the upcoming pic real quick. :-P

Then I swung (is that a word?) by JCPenney at the mall to try on some jeans. Let's just say, I am not a size 6 anymore. I once was and in my mind I still am or should be. It's not really that bad, but it's just weird when you look at a certain size, think it looks much bigger than would fit you, then try it on only to find that it fits perfectly. Here's the pair I ended up with. They're Foster Jeans. I've never heard of that brand, but they fit well and were on sale from $45 to $30, so I got them.

Well, I hope you have a great Thursday!

As Promised...

2009-10-28T06:45:00.001-05:00

Here are some layouts I've created recently:

Wow - looks like I've been super busy. But I think it's more that it's been that long since I posted any LOs.

As always, they're linked to my gallery, so please check that out for credits.

It's Been a While

2009-10-26T10:08:00.001-05:00

I have been a terrible blogger lately. I remember when I started this blog a little over a year ago, I went through a spell where I was blogging every single day. I can't imagine being able to do that now. It's just too busy with the kiddos and all.

We've had a good past few weeks. Here's a little overview of what we've been up to:

Wes was chosen as Student of the Quarter for his class. This is a very big honor, and we were/are so proud of him.

He has also got a short hair cut and lost both of his top two teeth (not on the same day even though he happens to be wearing the same shirt)!

We bought some property at a lake, adjacent to hubby's family's property. We have moved hubby's parents old mobile home up there and will be completely renovating it and adding on to it to have a lake cabin. Hubby has also been busy building a shed up there. We went camping up there a couple weekends ago. It was good fun until Sadie just wouldn't sleep and she and I hopped in the car around 1:30 in the morning to come home. Fun times! But here are a few pics from the previous evening around the camp fire. (My apologies - they're terribly grainy 'cause it wasn't light enough outside and I had my ISO super high 'cause I hate using flash. I just need to get an external flash, I think.)

My Mom & Sadie:

Dad & Wes enjoying the fire:

My sweet hubby all bundled up and holding his baby girl (yes, it was that cold!):

We've had some really beautiful weather here lately. I think Fall may finally have found it's way to our area. Hasn't really been cold (except for the night we camped), but it's been nice. We've enjoyed spending a little more time outside.

Claire collecting acorns:

Like father, like son:

Sweet girl w/ a little boo-boo on her chin from the slide at school:

And Sadie turned 9 months. I have no idea how this precious little baby has grown up this much already. I can't tell you how sad that makes me. In fact, if I don't quit thinking about it, I'll start tearing up right now.

She is such a mess. We just thought maybe we'd end up with a third baby that is meek & mild. Oh no. She is a wild child and so much fun. I love seeing her little personality come out more and more each day.

Well, I guess that's about enough updating for now. I'll try to come back in a few days and post some recent LOs. Have a great Monday!

Sometimes...

2009-10-07T15:08:00.004-05:00

~ sometimes I let Sadie eat Cheerios off of the floor. the ones she's dropped, of course.

~ sometimes I have to rewash a load of clothes in the washing machine because I've forgotten they were in there and they soured. for those who don't know, vinegar is awesome for getting out these types of smells (and others - use your imagination).

~ sometimes I ask Wes if he has a girlfriend. here's our convo from the other day:

Wes, giggling: today at lunch, Katie said "who likes goldfish? raise your hand." (He thought this was hilarious!)

Me: so did you raise your hand?

Wes: yeah, she's a really silly girl!

Me: is she your girlfriend?

Wes: no

Me: do you have a girlfriend?

Wes: no, nobody wants to be my girlfriend.

Me: have you asked anyone?

Wes: yes, but they all say no.

Me: well, what do you say when you ask them?

Wes: ppllleeeeeeeaassee

Me: [giggle] I mean, how do you ask them?

Wes: I ask if they wanna marry me when we grow up.

Me: [more giggles] well, buddy, maybe kindergarten girls don't want to think about getting married right now. maybe you could just ask them if they wanna be your girlfriend. do you think that would work?

Wes: no...

:)

~ sometimes I eat stale chips at lunchtime. they're really not that bad. especially when that's all the chips you have in the house.

~ sometimes the craziest things come out of Claire's mouth. the other day it was raining as we were walking out to the van, leaving her preschool. when we got in the van she said, "my dang backpack got wet." hahaha! i am not one to use the word dang much, so she didn't learn it from me, and I told her it wasn't really a nice thing for a 4-yr. old girl to say. but it was really funny at the time.

~ sometimes I find myself practically cross-eyed around 6:00 in the evening, thinking that my head might literally explode if I hear "Mommy....." one more time.

~ sometimes I don't drink even one sip of water all day. yeah, this happens way more than I would like to admit. i try to do well with drinking water, but it just doesn't stick.

~ sometimes I'm terribly spacey. i have to have lists to remember anything these days, especially for trips to the store.

~ sometimes Wes eats school lunch, but he usually prefers to take his lunch. i do not prefer this because it involves me making his lunch, which is just one more thing to be done first thing in the morning. yes, I know I could make it the night before and refrigerate it, but wouldn't the sandwich bread get all soggy?

~ sometimes I don't take any pictures for days.

~ sometimes I chase Sadie down the hall. she is so cute turning around to look at me and then taking off.

~ sometimes I score a good deal. one day last week, I got on live chat w/ our phone/cable/internet company and bargained my way to a pretty hefty upgrade in our services for less $$ than we are paying now - WOOT!

~ sometimes I pack the girls up and go early to Wes' school for afternoon pickup. the girls are contained in the car, and I can get just a few short minutes of pleasure reading in. right now I'm reading An Echo in the Darkness from the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. my Mom got the books for me for my birthday a couple of years ago and they are soooo good. if you've never read anything by Francine Rivers, I highly recommend starting with Redeeming Love.

~ sometimes I spend too much time on the computer. but lately some of that time has been spent on an HTML class (code for web pages). I've just finished the first course and will be taking a few more later in the month. my hope is to be able to manage some web pages for people/businesses as a little side gig (ya know, side to the full-time Mommy position). i created this whole post in HTML code. i will probably continue to use LiveWriter in the future, but just thought I'd try it this way today.

~ sometimes I tear up thinking about how blessed I am. i have an amazing husband and three children I love more than I ever imagined I would. we have everything we need (and a lot of stuff we don't need). GOD is an amazing GOD!

~ sometimes I stick a picture in a blog post just 'cause a post is so much better with a picture:

Wes' Birthday Party

2009-09-28T10:38:00.001-05:00

Wesley's Birthday Party was this past Saturday. We had the party at the Yacht Club pool and despite having only 7 other kids there, he had a great time.

We've had really extravagant birthday parties in the past w/ probably 50+ people. This was way scaled back -- not necessarily on purpose -- but it's probably a good thing to scale back a bit. Out of his whole class of 19 kids, only one came (she's one of his good friends, though, so he was really glad she came). I had heard from a few parents that they had been sick or were going out of town, etc. He also had a few friends from preschool last year and a couple of cousins who came. But it broke my heart a little when around 3:00 he asked when it would be 2:00 and everyone would get there -- aww. It was a very sweet little party though, and we all had a really nice time.

Here are a few pics:

Swimming in the pool with his friends...

Claire had fun too...

Cousins...

Sadie enjoyed being passed around, and her Aunt Heather seemed to enjoy playing with her...

Cupcakes...

Make a wish...

Opening presents...

His friend Isaac and the really cool lizard book he gave him...

His friend, Maddox who gave him his favorite present, a telescope!...

His sweet friend, Lena, from his class...

Only my child would be so excited for a desktop organizer (from his grandparents who know this kid so well)! Seriously, this was his 2nd favorite present...

Another favorite from his other grandparents who know exactly what he likes, LEGOS!!...

Silly teeth that were in the kids' goody bags. They thought these were hilarious, and they were...

I can't believe my baby is already six. Well, he will be tomorrow, his actual birthday. He's excited to be bringing peanut butter cookies (his request) to his class for snack in celebration of his birthday!

Well, have a great week!

It's Monday...

2009-09-20T23:49:00.001-05:00

Real creative title there, eh? Oh well. :)

We had a pretty good weekend. Had some friends over and just hung out Friday night. Then Saturday, hubby wasn't feeling well, so I took the kids to their soccer games. Saturday afternoon we rested and then rode up to hubby's parents' house. The two older kids ended up spending the night. Then we had church yesterday morning, more resting in the afternoon and family dinner at my parents last night. It was a nice weekend.

I've decided not try to catch the blog up on all of the LOs I haven't posted. I'll just post a few recent LOs and trust that if you really want to see more, you can just click one of those gallery links in my sidebar and see what I've posted in my galleries.

So I actually posted more than I originally intended. Oh well, hopefully it didn't make the page load too slowly. I have an online (digi-scrapping) friend who just creates a separate post for each of her LOs as she makes them. I think I may start doing the same.

Well, this is a new week and a busy one at that. I'll be helping in Wes' classroom this morning. He is so excited about this. Every day he tells me about who's Mommy helped in his class that day. He has asked me over and over when I am scheduled to come help, and the day has finally come! :) Then we'll have praise team practice Tuesday night, Bible study on Wednesday, soccer practices on Thursday, church conference on Friday, soccer games on Saturday morning, and Wes' birthday party Saturday afternoon. Whew! - I'm tired just typing all of that.

Have a great Monday!

Can You Believe It?

2009-09-15T06:47:00.001-05:00

Two days in a row of blog posts! (Actually, I prepared most of this post yesterday.)

Wanted to update w/ a few more recent pics of the kiddos:

My precious baby girl, getting so big...

Sadie swinging, one of her new favorite things to do. Really, she loves it!...

Claire Bear or Claire & Bear...

Claire truly loves her baby sister...

Okay, seriously, how did this boy grow up this much overnight? If I didn't know better, I would think he is about 11 years old in this picture. Watch out girls!

And, ohmygoodness, could this child be any more beautiful?? I mean, I know I'm her Mom and therefore extremely biased, but even seeing her everyday and knowing how beautiful she is, seeing this first picture made me gasp. Watch out boys 'cause Daddy's got guns and knows how to use them!!! :)

Alright, that's all for the pictures for now. Maybe later in the week I'll update w/ some recent LOs. I dunno, three posts in one week? Hmmm, may be pushing it a little. :)

Oh, before I go, I wanted to make sure to mention a very important detail of our recent happenings that I left out yesterday: This past Sunday we were so very blessed to have had lunch with our dear friend. It was a WONDERFUL time...... (for her...... 8-P pppbbllllllllllhhhhh Megan!!!). hehe!

Since I've Been Gone

2009-09-14T11:21:00.001-05:00

Okay, are you hearing Kelly Clarkson "Since You've Been Gone" in your head, 'cause I am -- totally what I was thinking when titling this post.

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in forever!!! My sincerest apologies to ~~all of~~ my 3 blog readers. hehe!

There has been a lot happening, so not much time for things like blogging. But I'll do a quick-as-I-can catch up. And btw, the pics in this post will be kinda small since there will be so many.

Both kids started school. Here are some pics:

He had a great first day and has loved every day since! He is so excited to be in Kindergarten and is doing really, really well.

Claire also started school, preschool:

She has the same teachers Wes had last year, so she already knew them and was totally comfortable with them and their classroom. Right when she got to school she got busy playing with some friends of hers from last year.

Let's see, what else has been going on. Well, we went camping at a friend's place in Alabama. I was not looking forward to this trip. Even though our version of camping involves our nicely air-conditioned camper with kitchen, bathroom and a couple of beds, camping with a baby just did not sound appealing to me. We didn't do great the first night -- I think Sadie was too cold and probably also uncomfortable in the old pack-n-play I bought her off Craigslist from some very dishonest girl (I'll save that story for another day). But the next two nights were great. We just did a lot of relaxing, a little swimming, a little hunting (the guys), a lot of hanging out with our friends we went with in their trailer, and a lot of eating!! Here are a few pics:

Let's see what else.....oh yeah, Sadie's growing up so much. I want to just freeze her in time. She is the perfect baby and is doing things sooooo early! I think I mentioned she started crawling around 6 months (which is also when she got her first teeth -- the 2nd came one week after the 1st). Well, she almost 8 months and for about the past month she's been pulling up. Hasn't started taking any steps or anything yet, but I'm sure that will come soon. She's also clapping, waving hi bye, and saying a few words at her will (i.e., not when I ask her to show anyone else!! hehe!) -- "mama", "dadda", "bubba", "bye-bye", no "sissy" yet but we're working on it. She's also eating absolutely anything I give her and will probably be mostly on table food in a month or so.

Okay, I think that's a pretty good review of what's been happening in our lives the past few weeks. I'll try to post a few more pics tomorrow or another day this week.

Have a great Monday!

We Survived!

2009-08-23T23:11:00.001-05:00

Yes, we survived the weekend. And it was a really good one.

Friday evening, we went to dinner at this sweet little Italian place that has the best pesto salad. Joe Michael and I used to go there when we were dating, and still love it, but rarely make the trip to the beach to eat there. Then, Joe Michael decided to take the kids to ride gokarts. I really wish I had brought my camera with me. The kids had such a fun time racing around with Daddy!

Saturday was the day I was worried about surviving. It was a duplicate of last Saturday except that JM wasn't with us. [He had some work that had to be done that day.] The kids had soccer games at 8:30 and 11:30, then a birthday party at 2:00. It was a really busy day traveling back and forth to the soccer field, being the snack Mom for Wes' game, keeping Sadie happy, sweating like crazy, getting to the birthday party, etc. But it was a good day. No pics, but a good day.

Sunday we led worship at church -- good services. We grabbed some Subway on the way home -- we've been doing this the past few times we've led worship. We're at church from about 8:30 to almost 12:30, so we're exhausted by the time we leave. As much as we like to eat lunch out on Sundays, it's just easier to grab the sandwiches or pizzas from Subway (have you had their pizzas - they're really good!) and go home. After lunch we all (except Claire) had nice long (much-needed) naps.

When Joe Michael woke up he decided to take us all to his family's lake. He had done a bunch of work up there recently and wanted to show me. Plus the kids had never been there (or not that they could remember). So we all packed up, stopped at Dairy Queen (have you had their Thin Mint Blizzard!?!?!?!? OMGOSH it's divine!), picked up Joe Michael's Dad, then headed up the highway to the lake. The kids had a great time digging in the sand and playing in the water. Here are a few pics:

Claire playing in the sand...

Wes wasn't feeling too good, so a fake smile...

Sadie had fun watching everyone...

Daddy was getting them under the water...

Love this pic of Sadie and her Grandaddy...

We went back to JM's parents to visit and his mom made us some of her delicious pancakes for dinner - YUMMO!

This is going to be a busy week.

Monday - parent orientation at Wes' school

Tuesday - Wes' last day before school starts & praise team rehearsal at church at night

Wednesday - Wes' first day of school (insert Mommy tears here)

Thursday - Soccer practice for both kids in the evening, plus Open House for Claire's school

Friday - nothing extra

It's going to be quite an adjustment getting the kiddos out of the house and Wes to school so early. We're used to 9:00 a.m. school starts, and now he has to be there by 7:40.

I mentioned above that Wes wasn't feeling good. He and Claire, both, are sniffly and coughy today (he is moreso than she). I really hope he's better (and doesn't get worse) before his first day on Wednesday.

Okay, hopefully I'll update the ole blog another day this week. Have a great one!

Officially a Soccer Mom

2009-08-18T10:21:00.001-05:00

I seriously don't know what I was thinking putting both older kids in soccer at the same time. Their practices are on Thursdays at 5 p.m. (Wes) & 5:30 (Claire) on opposite sides of town. And it looks like we are spending most of our Saturdays for the next couple of months at the soccer fields. They, of course, never have games at the same time.

But I'm trying not to complain too much. I am the one who signed them up and who wants them to play. And they like it so far. They actually only had 1 practice each (due to storms, vacation, etc.) before they each played their first games last Saturday.

Here are some pics of the kiddos in action:

Wes...

Claire...

And some pics on the sidelines:

Sadie cheering on her big bubba...

Claire w/ Gram & Papa...

This one makes me melt...

We have many more Saturdays of soccer, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more pics.

Well, have a great Tuesday! I'm off to figure out something for myself and kiddos to do!

Home-Made Baby Food

2009-08-11T15:14:00.001-05:00

This is something that I'm really passionate about, like I am about breast-feeding. I do my very best not to get on a soapbox about either one since I know there are many people who choose to do things differently than I do. I realize the same thing will not work for every person/family/baby/etc. But I really love the fact that I've nursed all three babies and made baby food for my last two.

One of the main reasons I make my own baby food is how much money I save. Think about how much money those Gerber jars or packs cost, then think about the cost of a few apples or a frozen bag of peas. A few apples or a bag of peas probably costs the same as a couple jars of baby food, but will go so much farther than those jars.

The main resource I use for making the baby food is WholeSome Baby Food (http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/). They have very basic recipes, more involved recipes, guidelines for what to feed baby and when, and lots of other info. I have found it very helpful.

So here's what I do...(sweet potatoes are my example in the pics)

Peel, cut up, then cook the veggies (usually steam or boil, sometimes bake; just follow the recipe on the website above)...

After cooking, put them in your nifty little puree machine (food processor). This little one is super easy to use and clean and I'm pretty sure it was very inexpensive (I'm thinking less than $20). Press and puree....

Then put the pureed fruit or veggies in ice cube trays to freeze. [Each cube is about 1 oz., so when it's time to feed baby just pull out an many ounces as you want.]...

Place in freezer, and after it's frozen pull out of trays and store in labeled freezer bags in the freezer.

Thaw out and heat a little, then feed to a very happy baby who knows she's about to get some yummy food!

Such a Slacker!

2009-08-09T23:00:00.002-05:00

I have to admit I've only taken my camera out maybe once or twice since we got back from vacation. I am such a slacker!

And, my Mom had to tell me to change my profile since it read that I had two (almost three) wonderful children. Slacker! - Sadie's almost 7 months old!!!

Well, the profile is updated and I'm sporting some new blog-wear, courtesy of Zoe Pearn. Definitely go check out her selection of blog-wear at Sweet Shoppe Designs - she's got some great stuff, and it's super easy to install (yes, even YOU, Morgan, can do it!). :)

Okay, hoping to take lots of pics this week. Hold me to it, okay?? :)

I'm Back!

2009-08-02T23:22:00.002-05:00

I'm back from vacation...unfortunately. Hehe! It was such a great week!

We spent a week with incredible friends in a beautiful 4-story home that has the beautiful Gulf of Mexico as a back yard. It was such a wonderful, wonderful time. We went scalloping every day except the first and last Saturdays we were there. We pigged out (no dieting allowed on vacation!), played on the beach, relaxed, played games, played with babies, pigged out some more! It was such a good time, and I'm sad it's over.

Speaking of scalloping, after the first day, the guys found a hole that we quickly termed the "mother-load." Seriously, they would limit out in like 10 minutes and there were tons and tons more waiting for us the next day!

Here's a slideshow with lots pics since I couldn't just choose a few!

Ack!

2009-07-22T23:25:00.002-05:00

I feel like I have a million things running through my mind right now - mostly lists. Ya know, errands I need to run, things I need to buy, things I need to cook, things I need to pack, things I need to make sure to not forget when I pack. All before Saturday. Why? We are going to stay at a beautiful beach house for a week and we're leaving on Saturday!!! Woohoo!! We are so excited!

We stayed at this same house last year and it was so wonderful. It's a beautiful home with the Gulf of Mexico as a back yard. Can't get much better than that. Add in some great friends that are coming to stay and you've got a really awesome week planned!

To say that the kids are excited is like the understatement of the century! They keep asking about all the details. They halfway expect it to be just like last year, since that's all they really know of vacationing there and haven't lived long enough to know that no two vacations are just alike. But they can't wait to be at that house again and to build lots of sand castles and all the other fun things they'll get to do. I'm excited that we'll also have a couple of babysitting friends coming along to help with all the kids!

So, in addition to the 3007 lists I have running through my mind, I've really been meaning to blog. I usually at least try to blog on Mondays and Fridays, but here it is, barely still Wednesday, and I haven't blogged the first time this week. So let me at least catch you up a little.

Sadie turned 6 months on Sunday - 6 MONTHS! I just cannot believe she's already that old! And at 6 months, she's eating pretty much anything I give her (which so far consists of orange veggies-carrots, squash, etc.- and a little fruit); sitting up unassisted; is almost crawling (so early; the older two were close to 9 months when they started crawling); and her first tooth poked through. Bless her heart, she worked hard for that sharp little thing.

Here's her monthly bunny picture for 6 months:

Here are a few more pics and LOs to bring us up-to-date:

(kit is C'est La Vie by Zoe Pearn at SSD)

(kit is Summer Solstice by Kristin-Cronin Barrow at SSD)

(kit is Bright Sunshiny Day by Lliella Designs at SSD)

(kit is Wild & Craz-He and template is Bottoms Up template, both by Traci Reed at SSD)

(kit is Squeaky Clean by Heather Roselli at SSD)

(template is Transformers {Piece Out} by Lauren Reid at SSD; kit is Summer Sorbet by Zoe Pearn, who sells at SSD, but this kit is available in this month's TheDigiFiles)

Whew! That was a lot! I have a couple more, but I'll save them for next time! :-) [One of them is using a really fun new kit Traci Reed is releasing at SSD this weekend (if you're a mom of boys, be sure to check it out!)]

I'm planning to try to blog a little from the beach. Last year there was wi-fi there, and I'm hoping that's still the case. If not, I'll be back the following week to give all the details and, I'm sure, show off lots of pictures.

God bless!

Woohoo!!!

2009-07-13T08:06:00.003-05:00

So, I was going to blog and share the news on Saturday, but ended up spending the day with friends and family. But the news is... I'm a SugarBabe!!!!!!!!!!! (For those who have no idea what that is, read the last post below.) Anyway, I'm so excited. This is such a huge honor, and I'm absolutely thrilled!!!

If you read my last post, you know that hubby's Nanny had a very major open-heart surgery last Friday. The surgery was much more complicated when they actually went in. She got through it well. Had a little set-back with some blood pressure issues Sunday, but that got taken care of. So we are so thankful that things are going so well with her recovery. She's, of course, not out of the woods yet. She'll probably still be in ICU for a while. Continued prayers are appreciated.

Saturday morning, hubby went fishing with some friends. They caught the biggest snapper they've ever caught. Take a look!

Just to give you some perspective, hubby is 6'5" - big guy, so for that snapper to look so big next to him, you can tell how huge the snapper was!

While the hubbies were fishing, Adria (that's her hubby Stephen above with Joe Michael) and her little one joined my kiddos and me for swimming and lunch at the Yacht Club. We had lots of fun splashing around. Then we went to dinner at some friends' house that evening. Sunday morning we had church - we lead worship, so it was a long morning. Lunch at our fave Mexican restaurant, then naps all afternoon. Hubby woke up in time to go see Nanny at the hospital during the scheduled ICU visiting time, then came home to make a yummy meal of fried snapper for all the family that has been at the hospital with Nanny. It was nice to have everyone over, but felt weird that Nanny wasn't there with us. Hopefully she will be soon.

Here are a couple of LOs I made recently:

(using Traci's new kit and add-on, Scrumptious)

(using a new kit Susan [ScrapKitchen Designs] called To Grandma's House)

In addition to checking out the kits I used in the pages above, be sure to check out this edition of Simply Sweet Magazine:

It is such a great digital magazine and is absolutely loaded with inspiration! You might also like to see a certain LO on page 91 from a certain new SugarBabe!! Actually, I was asked to contribute a page for the magazine before I was asked to be a SugarBabe! You also get an incredible exclusive kit by some of the Sweet Shoppe designers.

Well, we're off to a play-date at some friends' house this morning. Have a great Monday!

Some Pretty Cool Give-Aways, and some other cool stuff...

2009-07-10T11:17:00.003-05:00

What can I say, I'm just "cool" today! LOL!

On the MCP Actions Blog, she's giving away a very cool Tamron lens. Go HERE to check out the details. I am a little addicted to all things photography and personally think one cannot have too many lenses (or any photo equipment, for that matter)! So I am entering for sure!!

And Pioneer Woman is giving away 3 copies of PSCS4 (be still my heart) and also gives details about how to enter for a Nikon D80. Go HERE to check out those details.

I'm the Sneak Peek girl for Traci Reed's new kit today. It's coming tomorrow to the Sweet Shoppe, so be sure to visit the store tomorrow. But for now, here's a peek of this Scrumptious kit:

Also at the Sweet Shoppe tomorrow, the new SugarBabes are going to be announced. [For those who don't know, that's the Creative Team for the Sweet Shoppe.] I have applied for this most-coveted-in-all-of-digi-land position many times and every time get the sweetest of rejection emails. But I still always look forward to seeing who made it. So that should be fun as well as seeing all the new kits I could spend tons of money on!!

What else? Oh, I'm having such a late start this morning because we had quite the night last night. I think I mentioned on here before about hubby's company moving locations. Remember he bought it and started renovating it like the day after Sadie was born. Uh huh, that's the one.

Anyway, we had his big Grand Opening shindig last night. It was such a fun party. Great turnout (I'd say 150+ people), great food (yummy catered meats, veggies, fruit, seafood, brownies, sweet tea), great booze (hehe - well, I don't know about that, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it!), great music (kickin' band). It was such a fun time and I think everyone who came really enjoyed themselves.

Alright, I better get off my tushie and off this computer and go run some errands. I need to get these kiddos out of the house before they go crazy and drive me there all at the same time!

Have a great Friday and great weekend!

P.S. Before I go, let me say this. I know this post has been pretty light-hearted (not like it's ever really deep or anything). Anyway, I'd love for you all to pray for hubby's Nanny. She's in open-heart surgery right now as I'm typing. They were originally going to replace a leaking valve, bypass an artery, and do ablation (sp?) for arrythmia. But when they got in there, they found things to be much worse than they thought. At last update I got from hubby, they were having to replace two valves and bypass two arteries. So, we need your prayers. Nanny has had a wonderful and long life, and if this happens to be her time to go, she's said she's ready. But we, of course, want her to stick around much longer. And she needs all of our prayers right now. Thank you.

If She Could Talk...

2009-07-08T15:54:00.001-05:00

Yay, you're going to feed me something new? I like to eat!

This tastes, um, interesting...What did you say it was again?

Carrots?! Yeah, not so sure I like carrots.

Scratch that - they're pretty bad!

I mean, really bad...

Just getting worse...

and worse...These things are DISGUSTING!

And now I'm mad about it! If I could talk I'd be telling you off right about now for sticking something that horrible in my mouth!

Happy Tuesday

2009-07-07T00:46:00.001-05:00

Well, I would have posted yesterday but I was just soooo ~~busy~~ lazy! Seriously I could not shake the sleepies. It was a very busy and long weekend (fun, though!) and I was still tired from it yesterday. Add to that the fact that it was raining and you understand my desire to be in bed all day. I wasn't in bed all day, just wished I was!

Actually, we hung around the house yesterday morning. Sadie really needed some good long naps (after not getting enough naps this past weekend) so we hung around here and let her sleep. Right after lunch, we ran to SuperWalmart to get a few groceries. It had just been sprinkling, so I thought we'd be fine. Of course, right when we finished checking out, the bottom dropped out of the sky and it was pouring!!! So the kids and I got a Redbox movie (had a free code) and I took them to the in-the-Walmart-McDonald's for milkshakes. They were so confused about why they were getting milkshakes -- they do not get these kinds of treats very often. They loved them though. Finally we got back home. The three kiddos lay down [isn't lay also the past tense for lay? I so want to type laid, but I'm thinking that's not grammatically correct. Maybe I'm just confusing myself], but only one (Sadie) napped. I was about to lay down for a few minutes, but the phone rang, and then Sadie started stirring. Oh well.

Before I get to the past weekend, let me just show you last Friday's pic and LO:

Is she not the cutest thing ever?!?! The kit I used is "Garden Angel" by Nikki Beaudreau and Kristen Rice at After5Designs.

Oh, and last Friday night, we ended up doing dinner and a movie -- we stuffed our dieting selves silly at Chili's and then went and saw The Proposal. It was a really cute movie!

So, July 4th weekend.... we had a great one. A friend of ours invited us to his family reunion up at a local creek. There were lots of sweet people, tons of yummy food (the family is in the meat business), and lots of swimming! The kids had a great time! They jumped off the floating dock a number of times. They were surprised at how cold it was (spring-fed). They also went on the big rope swing with Mr. Sam. Actually, they held onto him for dear life!!!

Here are just a couple pictures (and LOs) from Saturday. I'm sure I'll have more later.

(used "Fun in the Sun" collab kit by the Sweet Shoppe designers; of course you can click each LO for full credits.)

Another LO from Saturday:

(used Traci Reed's American Spirit kit and her new Bad Sewing Machine stitches)

We came home Saturday afternoon and took naps (well, some of us did, not me). Then we had some friends over that evening for burgers and fireworks. I wanted to make a dessert, but our oven is currently messed up (either the board or the face -- the buttons on the front are not working), so I had to make something that didn't require baking. Here's what I came up with:

(used "I Am Free" kit by Shawna Clingerman)

This was seriously soooooooo easy! I just bought a store-made pound cake; sliced it up and put the slices down in the bottom of my 9 x 13 dish; put app. a cup each of strawberries and blueberries on top of the cake; spread CoolWhip on top of that; then made the flag design with the fruit on the top. I didn't make up this recipe, but I can't remember where I saw it originally. Super easy and really yummy!

We went out on the big boat in the bay, as we always do, to watch the fireworks. We really enjoy this every year and so do our kids. It seems that each year, we take someone with us who has never seen the fireworks from the water. This is usually my favorite thing about it, because they are always so amazed at how much better the fireworks are from the water!

I didn't take my camera that night 'cause once you've seen one pic of fireworks, you've pretty much seen them all. But as I was sitting there watching the fireworks, holding Sadie who was also watching them while sucking her thumb, and watching the others enjoying the show, I wished I had brought my camera. Wes was sitting in front of me and it could have been the coolest picture with his silhouette against the fireworks in the background. Oh well, maybe next year.

Well, the kiddos (the two older ones) went to my in-laws last night and most of the day today. I think Sadie and I may go shopping this morning. Hubby has a Grand Opening shindig later in the week for his company's new office, so I want to look purty!

Have a great Tuesday! Hopefully I'll be back later in the week with another post! :-)

Happy 4th!

2009-07-03T09:10:00.001-05:00

Well, it's Friday again! We have had a fun week. Unfortunately, I haven't taken that many pictures. I did take this one the other day and made this page with it:

I used a kit by Libby Weifenbach and MandaBean (at Sweet Shoppe Designs) called Easy Breezy Beautiful. Also used two alphas by Traci Reed (also at SSD) and one by Amber Clegg at ScrapArtist.

I thought it was a cute picture and page!

Well, we have no real plans for the holiday weekend. I think we will spend part of it on the boat at the island. We usually do. And we always go on the boat to watch the fireworks from the water, so we'll be doing that tomorrow night. But we have no idea who will be joining us.

I do know we have a babysitter for tonight (my mother-in-law), so hubby and I will get to do something fun together, just the two of us, unless we decide to pack the whole family up and spend the night on the boat at the island. I was thinking more like dinner and a movie, but the boat would be fun too. We'll see...

Whatever you do this weekend, stay safe and have lots of fun!

Starting Over, sorta

2009-06-29T08:19:00.001-05:00

I'll get to that title in a minute...

Hope you had a good weekend. It was pretty good here. Started out with some swimming and then dinner at our house Friday evening with some friends. Saturday we went to some friends of ours' two year old's birthday party. It was fun hanging out, and the kids had fun playing with the other kids. Not to mention they came home with lots of candy from the pinata, so they were super happy. Saturday night we went out to our favorite place for some BBQ - yum! Sunday morning, Hubby took Wes (plus 5 other men) fishing while the girls and I went to church, then to Red Elephant for lunch.

Hubby has been doing a lot of fishing lately, but the season for what he fishes for is fairly short (only 'til August 31st, I think) and according to him, it's probably about to start getting too rough too often to go. I guess the further you get into the season/Summer, the greater the possibility of rough seas.

Anyway, on his way back in, he called and asked us to go to the end of the city marina and take some pics of the boat. He turned in close enough for me to get a few (here are a couple):

And then I got back home as he was coming through the bayou, so I clicked a little more as they were coming in:

And a few more pics:

Claire making faces at Wes as they backed in at the dock...

Wes, waiting to get off the boat.

He had gotten pretty sick out there because the seas were a little rough. I think a couple of the other guys did too. But I guess it's worth it when you come home with this...

Okay, so back to the title of the post. I'm starting to diet again today. I was never officially off of it, but I had gotten tired of it and pretty relaxed about it. I had lost 18-19 lbs., which I think is very good. I've only gained back 1-2 I think, so, not too bad. But it's time to get back on it hard and heavy. Hubby is too.

I'm not doing the NutriSystem meals or anything, but I'm going to go by their food plan (eating certain foods at certain meals, lots of water, etc.). I also got the 30-Day Shred DVD by Jillian Michaels (the trainer from Biggest Loser) in the mail the other day, so I'll start that. I've heard it will kick your hiney, and since I don't love to exercise, I'm not looking forward to it. But I am looking forward to getting the last 10-15 lbs. off.

I'm fitting in whatever I want to wear fine now, but I still have a little belly pooch I'd love to see disappear. I'm not sure it ever will, as some of it is sure to be just extra skin from being stretched out with 3 big babies. But I'm going to try. And I also just want to be healthy.

We're staying at a beach house at a nearby beach the last week of July, so I'd love to have lost that last amount by then. Staying strict on the diet and doing the workout -- maybe it's possible.

Well I better go get Sadie up, feed her, and figure out what in the world we're gonna do today. I need to run some errands, but that's not fun for the kids, so we'll see...

Have a great Monday!

What a Week

2009-06-26T09:56:00.001-05:00

Well, ~~all of my many~~ you couple of blog readers will notice I haven't blogged all week. I've been dealing with some major sinus issues. Monday wasn't great, but not bad. Tuesday started getting worse, so I took some Tylenol and Sudafed (I don't like taking Sudafed b/c if it dries up mucous it also dries up milk prod., so I only take when I absolutely have to). That night I talked to a nurse pract. friend at church and told her about my issues (she knows about my previous sinus issues as she's been gracious enough to call in a number of prescriptions for me). She said she'd get some medicine together for me. That night it got really bad, lots of pain, no sleep, so I called her and told her I thought it might be an infection. Wednesday morning was bad, felt awful, didn't go to Bible study. I went to my friend's Dr. office and picked up the meds and script for the infection. Did not sleep hardly at all Wednesday night. Honestly the whole night it felt like at any second my teeth and eyes would shoot out from my head and my face would explode - just from all the pressure. It was so painful. Thursday morning, I could not even see straight when I woke up. The kids were disappointed we wouldn't be doing anything fun -- my father-in-law ended up picking them up and taking them to his house to play with their cousins. Sadie and I hung around here and napped. Last night (Thursday night), I finally got a good night of sleep. I wasn't in pain. So the meds (netti-pot, 2 types of nasal sprays, singulair, and some antibiotics) are working. Thank You, Lord!!! (and thanks to Connie for being such a blessing!)

So I haven't taken many pictures or done much scrapping. I'll show what little I have done though.

Okay, here's the page I made with Sadie's funny crib picture from last week:

(Used Twitter by Zoe Pearn, Robin Carlton, and Fee Jardine at Sweet Shoppe Designs)

Then, here is her 5 month pic w/ the bunny and LO:

(Used a beautiful kit by Nikki Beaudreau at After5Designs called Under the Sky)

And here is a pic I took yesterday and the LO I did:

(This is one of those instances where I took a picture to go with a kit - LOL! Wes really did learn those pledges this past school year and did so well with them, and I remembered I never scrapped a page about it, so Traci's new kit, being released tomorrow at the Sweet Shoppe [nice subtle plug, huh?] was a great ~~excuse~~ reason to take the picture and make the page! In addition to being a patriotic, 4th of July kit, it will also have an adorable add-on with American Heroes like fireman, police, etc. Oh and just for the record, this kit is so much better than my page makes it look. With my being sick this week, my scrapping mojo is nowhere to be found.)

And here's a photo I took this morning. Of course I haven't had the time to scrap it yet.

I just love her messy, just-woke-up hair and puffy eyes. And I love her natural, whole-face smile that just exudes joy. What a beautiful child! (if I do say so myself!)

And here's a couple of Sadie from this morning, just 'cause I think she's quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen!

(can you even stand that pouty little bottom lip and that tongue?!!)

Well, I'm off to shower, get ready, and run some Friday errands. Have a great weekend!!!

Just a quick one today

2009-06-19T08:01:00.001-05:00

I wanna hop in the shower quick before Sadie gets up, so we can go ahead and run our errands after I feed her.

A couple of P365 pics and LOs to share (LOs are linked if you wanna see credits):

6/16/09...

(created with a beautiful kit by Dani Mogstad and Eva Kipler at Sweet Shoppe Designs, called The Girls of Summer)

6/17/09...

(created with a new kit Zoe Pearn will be releasing tomorrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs called C'est la Via)

6/18/09...

I don't have a page created for this one yet, so I'll give an explanation... During Sadie's nap, I heard her cry for a minute, then fall back asleep. I didn't go check on her 'cause she went back to sleep and I thought it was just random waking up for a second. Well, when I went to wake her up so we could go somewhere, this is how I found her!! Of course, rather than rescuing her, first I ran to get my camera! She was hurt or anything, just a little trapped. :) Sooooo cute!

We've had a week full of trips to the pool, running errands, and VBS! It's been a good one. We're off to run errands again in a bit, so I'll be going now. Have a great Friday and weekend!

...And Many More...

2009-06-16T10:22:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday (and, of course, my twin sister's birthday). We turned 16, er, ummm, for the 2nd time! Thirty-two sounds a lot older than I feel. Not that thirty-two is old by any means, it's just that I still feel (in my mind) like I'm at about 22. Well, to celebrate, we had family dinner at our house Sunday night with some of the best fried snapper (courtesy of my hubby, the chef, who says maybe one day when he retires he'll open a little snapper shack -- yeah, we'll see about that) I've ever tasted and great company. My parents, sister and family, and grandparents were here and we had a really nice time. Mom brought some yummy strawberry pretzel dessert, cookies, and ice cream and I have to say I did indulge despite the diet. Come on, a birthday only comes around once a year -- gotta make the most of it.

Then yesterday, I took the kids (older two) up to my mother-in-law's house to spend the day. It was a little gift from her to give me some time (almost, since I had Sadie) to myself. She also gave me a little $$, so I looked through a few stores for some shoes. I honestly have no need for more shoes (just ask my husband!), but I want a couple new pairs of sandals. Didn't find any yesterday, but didn't spend much time looking. Sadie really needed some rest, since she didn't seem to rest much on Sunday. So after looking in a few stores, we came home and she slept most of the afternoon while I piddled on the computer scrapbooking and seeing all of the "Happy Birthday" wishes my friends sent on Facebook (<-- click it and it'll take you to my page since I got a new username).

I did catch up a lot of some P365 LOs and stuff...

LO from 6/6/09 pic:

LO from 6/7/09 pic:

(btw, the title is referring to the very last fish of the day)

6/9/09:

6/10/09:

6/12/09:

6/15/09:

Feel free to click on any of the above LOs to see full credits.

Well, the kids had swimming lessons last week, Tuesday thru Friday. Wes was swimming pretty well before the lessons, but he's just an absolute fish now. By the end of the week he was jumping off the deep end and swimming the length of the pool to the shallow end. Claire is doing very well too. However, she tends to either not breathe enough or breathe too much and wear herself out. She's doing great though! I'm so excited they won't have to wear their swimming vests all summer. The more we go to the pool and let them practice, the better they'll get.

The kids also have Vacation Bible School at our church this week. It was so adorable last week to hear them counting down the days until VBS ("Sissy, there are only 4 more days until Vacation Bible School!").

Well, Sadie's napping, the kids are going between playing and watching PBS, I'm finishing up here on the computer. I think after Sadie gets up and eats, we'll eat a little lunch and head to the pool. I want them to continue to practice their swimming and stay confident and remember what they learned last week. Have a great Tuesday!

Sooo Tired

2009-06-08T09:23:00.002-05:00

Hubby had a fishing trip planned for yesterday morning. The kids and I were already getting ready for church. Hubby came in and said that two of his friends who had planned to go backed out on him. So that left his mom and one other family of 4 going. He asked if the kids and I would go as well. He's been begging for me to go with him -- he just wants to share with me his favorite hobby in the world. I've been hesitant to go, especially with the kids. But he said we'd take some DVDs and the kids could sit inside and watch movies. So we agreed to go.

The trip out to the fishing spot was about an hour and a half away. About halfway there, we decided to turn on a movie for the kids. Uh oh, the DVD player died. Really, the kids were very good anyway, but the one thing that we had banked on to keep them occupied, didn't work. They had a good time anyway.

I mostly played photographer while the others fished. Kinda hard getting good pics when the only place to stand is behind the people, but I got a few okay ones. Then hubby had me put the camera down and fish myself. I got a number of hits, but the fish would always get off before I could pull them up. Hubby had me pull in a few he had hooked. These things are fighters, I tell you! We could get one more fish before we limited out, and guess who caught it - me! I actually hooked it and reeled it in! It wasn't the biggest of the day, but I was proud. I think hubby was even more excited than I was!

So here's my photo for yesterday (taken by hubby, not me):

And here's a shot of all the fish in the box:

There were a lot more than it looks like in this picture! We'll be eating snapper for a very long time! :)

It was a fun day, but I'm soooo tired today. Even when you're not doing anything on the boat, your body can't just relax -- you're constantly using every muscle to balance since the boat is constantly rocking in the water.

Saturday morning, I got up and went to a garage sale I had read about on Craig's List. I've been wanting a Bumbo seat (see below) for Sadie and they had one for sale. I was so glad to get it for $15, when they usu. sell for over $35! I also grabbed a few things at Sam's and Publix. While at Publix, I got some baby cereal for Sadie.

I thought she was kinda getting ready for some "food". She watches us eat and opens her mouth if anything spoon-like gets near it. She's only 4 1/2 months, and just like with Claire, I wasn't really planning to start her on anything but her milk until around 6 months. Claire just didn't seem to need it before 6 months, and I was planning on the same for Sadie. But she seemed to be a little ready, so we tried on Saturday morning...

She didn't really know what to do with it...

And seemed to prefer to eat her bib...

Or suck her thumb...

She was tongue-thrusting a little, which makes me think she may not be ready for food. She did a little better after more practice. I'm still not positive she's ready. We'll try again either later today or tomorrow and see how she does.

Before I go for the day, wanted to show you the LO I did with the pic from our playdate with Wes' friend last week:

I thought it turned out really cute! Click on it to see full credits.

Well, I'm going to try to motivate myself to do something productive today. Have an errand or two to run, and my house really needs a good clean. Hopefully I can gather a little energy to get some of that done.

Have a great week!

Happy Friday!

2009-06-05T09:18:00.002-05:00

Hello all my faithful blog readers! Hehe - I'm sure there are like 3 of you. :)

Well, it's a rainy morning here, but it's kinda nice. Took me a while to wake up since I was listening to falling rain and rolling thunder, but I'm up now and ready to start the day.

We've had a pretty good week. Hubby went fishing again on Tuesday and caught a bunch more snapper. This time he got to go on someone else's boat, so he was able to fish a little more and had so much fun (sorry, no pics of that trip).

The kids have been in Vacation Bible School all week. They have had a blast. They are so cute singing the songs and doing the motions to them and all.

Another great thing about this week is that Wesley's friend, Noella, and her mom and sister came into town to visit. They became friends in their 2 1/2 year old class and remained friends last year in school. Her family had to move to Rhode Island last summer. But they came to visit this week. They've been in the same VBS class and also had a playdate at our house yesterday. The kids had so much fun together, and I enjoyed catching up with Noella's mom. They are moving to Germany next month -- cannot even imagine! I always say that God knew what He was doing matching me up with a non-military man. I just don't think I could handle that. But HUGE thanks to all the military families who do handle it. :)

So here's a picture of the kids playing yesterday.

No LO yet, but there will be one soon.

Here's a pic and LO from Wednesday as well.

Scrapping stuffs:

For the LO above, I used pieces from the June BYOC (build-your-own-collab) at The LilyPad. It is such a fun BYOC, so be sure to check it out! Oh yeah, and the template I used is from Kaye Winiecki, also at The Pad (love her templates!).

Also, here is another page using the same kit as I used for the "Perfect Catch" LO the other day:

(cute picture, huh?!)

So, more about this kit -- it's a collab btwn two of the designers for whom I CT (are you so impressed with my grammar? hehe) -- Traci Reed and Susan (ScrapKitchen Designs). It's called Shabby Daddy and will be released tomorrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Well, we have a morning of running errands -- office, bank, returning some things to Target and Ross, Sams, Chick-Fil-A. Then we're going to try and rest for a short while. Then VBS for the kids -- I think they're going to have a little mini-program for us tonight when we pick them up. Then we're taking them up to my in-law's to spend the night. Tomorrow night, we have a friend's belated birthday hangout. Sunday, church. Sounds like a nice weekend. Hope you have a great one as well! :)

Quick P365 post

2009-06-02T14:48:00.001-05:00

June 1st:

Yesterday was the opening day for snapper season. Hubby's been itching to go and set out early yesterday morning with a boat full of friends and anticipation. They came with a lot of fish (as many as are allowed), and some of the biggest ones he's ever caught before. Needless to say, he and the other guys had a blast! He's even out fishing again today on another friend's boat, and I think they're doing very well too! It'll be nice to stock the freezer again. :)

(P.S. - I'll tell you more about the kit I used for the LO later this week; but for now -- it's a great kit...I've already made two pages with it!)

Sit Back, Relax, Grab a Beverage...

2009-05-29T07:31:00.002-05:00

...it's gonna be a long post. Sorry, I don't mean for it to happen like this, but I get busy in the middle of the week and don't get around to blogging.

Monday was Memorial Day. It was a pretty normal day for the kids and me, other than the fact that they were at home instead of school. When hubby got home, the 5 of us hopped on little boat and headed out on the bay to a little spot to swim for a bit. The kids hadn't napped, and Claire really showed that she needed to -- she completely flipped out over a hermit crab. She never used to freak out over stuff like that; if anything, Wes has always been more iffy about stuff like that. We finally convinced her that hermit crabs are not the kind of crabs that pinch you -- they just stay in their shells and crawl around. Her freakout was so bad, she had to sit in the boat in a timeout (her behavior during said "freakout" was terrible). To earn the privilege of going back on the beach to play, she had to carry one of the hermit crabs (in the shell) in her hand from the boat to the beach. She actually did it. Are we terrible parents? Hehe! She had to learn somehow that her fear was completely irrational. :)

Tuesday we ran errands, which included taking Wes to spend some of his birthday money at Toys 'R Us. Yes, his birthday was last Fall; yes, we are just now getting around to spending his gift cards. He picked out a cool Diego camera to buy. He's so cute walking around with it, asking if he can take my picture doing something or one of Sadie over here or there.

Wednesday we had a playdate with my Mommies-of-Little-Ones Bible Study group and everyone's kids. It was a pool party, and we all had a great time. Here are few pics of my kiddos there:

And here's a LO of Wes from the pool party:

(using a new kit Sabrina Dupre released today at Shabby Pickle Designs called Verano)

Yesterday, we mostly hung out around the house. I will go ahead and admit I was in my PJs until after 1 p.m. The kids just played and played and watch a few PBS shows. I was so lazy because I didn't get much sleep the night before. Oh well. The kids got to play outside though. I got some adorable pics of them that I will show soon. For now, here's one of Claire... (I have no idea where she learned to pose like this!)...

And here's a LO I made with the pic:

(using a new kit Traci Reed is releasing tomorrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs called Angel with Attitude -- perfect for my little Claire!)

Then, late yesterday afternoon, I got my hair cut again. Yes, I did just get a new do just a couple of weeks ago (remember I won the Digi Dares with the LO I made about it). After a few days, I decided I really didn't like it. When I mentioned to hubby that I was gonna go back and have my hairstylist chop it off, he said, "Oh good! I really didn't like this latest style, but I didn't want to say so and hurt your feelings." I said, "That may been better to tell me after I came home with it chopped off." Men! Hehe! Anyway, it's an angled bob again and it looks so much better. Hubby definitely likes it better!

Speaking of hubby, tomorrow is our 11th anniversary -- ELEVENTH!!! That makes me feel so old! Anyway, we're going to stay in a condo at the beach for the weekend. The first night will be on our own. Then my parents (who are keeping our kids -- all 3!!!) will meet us for dinner and leave the kids with us. I couldn't save up enough milk for Sadie to stay away a second night, and formula doesn't seem to agree too well with her stomach. Plus, the older two will have a blast playing at the pool and such on Sunday. It should be a fun weekend!

Been Busy

2009-05-24T17:15:00.003-05:00

First, in honor of Memorial Day, I'd like to say thank you to all of the men & women in the military who ensure our freedom continues. Thank you so much for your sacrifice for our country.

Last week was a really busy week, which is why I wasn't able to blog much. I know all three of you, my faithful blog readers, were disappointed. :-P

Anyway, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, we had Claire's dress rehearsal for her ballet. Wednesday morning was her class end-of-the-year party, Thursday was Wes' Water Day at school (which Claire also participated in), and Friday was the kids' last day of school and Claire's ballet recital. Whew! I'm tired again just typing all of that out. Oh yeah, can't forget Sadie turned 4 months last week too! :)

So here's a visual recap:

5/19~

(used a new beautiful collab kit from ScrapKitchen Designs and Zoe Pearn, called Joie De Vivre)

A little more info on Sadie. She's definitely learned to roll over from her back to her stomach now, although she doesn't do it a lot yet. Just sometimes I find her in her bed on her stomach, when I laid her down originally on her back. Most of the time, I find her sleeping on her left side in her bed. And get this, she started sucking her left thumb recently. I didn't think she was going to be a thumb-sucker, though she has never liked a paci. Claire is a thumb-sucker, and I can still remember taking a picture of her when she "found" her thumb, and emailing the pic to my Mom at work with the subject line "woohoo!" Her reply -- I'll remind you of this in a few years when you're trying to get her to stop. A few (4) years later...Claire still sucks her thumb. Ugh! Anyway, I am glad Sadie has found a way to soothe herself. She's not really a fussy baby, but sometimes when she's tired in the car or somewhere, she can wail pretty good. Maybe this will help with that.

5/20~

(using Over the Rainbow kit by TheDigiDares designers included in the May TheDigiFiles)

Speaking of TheDigiDares, I won their challenge last week with this LO about my hairdo. It was just kinda a funny take on the challenge (believe me, I don't really think I learned everything I need to know from getting a new hairdo):

5/21~

(using Traci Reed's new kit at SSD called 1 Up)

(usung Garden Angel by Nikki Beaudreau and Kristen Rice, and Traci Reed's Paintity Doo Dah Alpha)

Well, it's time to start our summer. The kids and I have "planned" to do a lot of things this summer (I say "planned" b/c they're not like on a calendar or anything, they're just things we want to do) -- swimming lessons, swimming at the Yacht Club, go to the swim park at the beach, go to the State Park (beach), play at our own beach here behind the house, have playdates with friends here at home and at restaurants w/ playgrounds, go to a couple Vacation Bible Schools (one at the kids' preschool & one at our church), work on Kindergarten-readiness stuff with Wes (although he is way more than ready for Kindergarten since he's already reading simple words), work on learning-type things (mostly letter & number recognition/sounds and writing) w/ Claire, etc. Sounds like a pretty busy Summer, huh? It should be fun!

Happy Memorial Day & start of Summer to all of you!!!

Happy Monday

2009-05-18T03:59:00.001-05:00

Do you like Monday's? I usually like them okay, other than the fact that the weekend's over. But Monday starts a whole new week of activity and I like that.

We had a nice weekend. Hubby went fishing Saturday morning. He's been itching to go and could not because of T-ball and weather conditions, etc., so he jumped on the chance on Saturday! They caught some nice-sized grouper that we'll be eating for dinner tonight!

While he was fishing, the kids and I just hung out around the house. Saturday morning, Sadie was awake in her bed, just not fussing to get out and eat yet; so Claire was in there talking and playing with her. She went out for just a minute, then went back in to find she was laying on her belly (she had been on her back a minute before). Claire was so excited and came out pointing to her chest and belly saying, "Mommy! Sadie's laying on this part!!" I told Claire that Sadie had rolled over for the first time. Here's a cute pic I took:

And I made that into my P365 for Saturday, so here's the LO:

(used Kristin Cronin-Barrow's kit, Flourish, included in this month's DigiFiles at The Daily Digi)

Now to backtrack a little. Wes' graduation was last Friday. It was so adorable. They showed all of us parents and grandparents all the things they do and learn in their class, and they sang some songs. Loved it! Wes was so excited! Here's a pic and my LO:

(kit used is Heather Roselli's What's Your Story at Sweet Shoppe Designs; template by Kristin Tilley)

[Both the LOs above are linked to my gallery.]

I also got some video of his graduation. I won't share that, though. I'm not a very good videographer yet. You may get a little sick from watching. Hehe! :-)

Yesterday we led both worship services at church. My voice is finally almost back to normal after being sick. I'm still clearing my throat between verses, but it's so much better than it was. Thank God!

Then, my mother-in-law took our two older kids to her house to play with their cousins. Hubby and Sadie and I went for a yummy lunch and then home for naps before heading to my parents' for a yummy family dinner. It was a really nice day.

Well, time to start the week. It's a busy one, with Claire's dance recital rehearsals, the actual recital, class parties, water day, etc. (it's the kids' last week of school). Have a great Monday!

It's Friday...

2009-05-15T06:43:00.002-05:00

Yep, we made it through another week. :-)

Let me update a little with some pics and LOs:

Sadie's starting to play a little on her playmat. It's so fun to see what I learned in Child Development classes in college actually play out in real life. She started by just laying there, then accidentally hit one of the toys. Then she did that a few times and realized that makes them swing and she likes that. So then the hitting the toys becomes purposeful and turn into play. So cool!

(using Fresh Cut Blooms by Robin Carlton and Christy Lyle)

On Wednesday, I let the kids stay at school for Lunch Bunch (they've been begging to since Santa gave them lunch boxes for Christmas), and I made a hair appointment. I had her cut it so it still has length, but also has a style. I like it...

(haven't made a LO with this one yet...)

Just a little more scrapping stuff... Traci Reed has a fun new kit, Belly Flop, coming out tomorrow. I was the Sneak Peek girl on the team blog today, so I thought I'd show the peek here too:

And here's the first page I've made with the kit (I'm sure there will be many more!):

Well, I'm off this morning to take the kids to school, then run a couple of super-quick errands before going back to Wes' Preschool Graduation. I can't believe he's already graduating Preschool and will be in Kindergarten next year! He's so ready for "big school" -- already reading a little; and his Daddy even made a math worksheet for him last night! He was doing really well with it. Smart little cookie, he is!

Let me tell you about my new toy... Hubby and I have been saying for the longest time that we need a video camera. We have one from when we got married that my parents gave us, but that will be eleven years ago (11 YEARS!!! OMG!) at the end of this month. So we were definitely needing a new one, specifically a digital one. I looked online through Target's sales paper from last Sunday and found a good deal on a nice Sony one. I trust almost anything Sony, but looked the camera up on Amazon to read the reviews -- not a bad one in the bunch. So I headed out to Target to get one....they were out and so was the other Target in our area. The sweet Target employee man printed out a rain check for me and I went right down the street to Best Buy. They had it in stock, but of course, for the regular price. I dared to ask the Best Buy girl if they would match Target's price, and she said yes!! So I got the camera for $30 less than I would have paid if I hadn't asked her that! I was so proud of myself. When I got home I realized that the camera didn't come with a memory stick or the little DVD-RWs, so I dropped another little chunk of change on those at Walmart yesterday morning. So now we'll be able to record Wes' graduation and lots of other fun memories of our childrens' childhoods. I'm sure I'll have to post a few of them every now and then. Oh yeah, here's the camera we got:

Well, I'm off! Have a great Friday and a fun weekend!

It's Tuesday

2009-05-12T00:44:00.001-05:00

Nice title, there, huh? Yeah, can't really think of anything catchy, so there ya go. :-)

A little update of the weekend. It was a very nice one.

When hubby got home from work on Friday afternoon, he and the kids went out and jumped off the dock into the bayou. It took a whole lotta persuasion for them to jump, especially Wes. He's much more cautious than Claire when it comes to stuff like that. They did have life jackets on, so they were safe -- and hubby was waiting right there in the water for them. After swimming, they played for a little bit at "our beach." Here are a few pics:

And here's a LO I did:

(LO is linked for full credits; used an older kit by Dani Mogstad at Sweet Shoppe Designs, called Deep Blue Sea)

The water's still coffee-colored, as it is every Spring. Hopefully it'll clear up and be pretty again soon.

Friday evening we went to dinner with some friends. Hubby and I shared a delicious steak. You never know how much you miss stuff like that until you're on a diet. But the diet's actually going well, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Saturday morning, Wes had his last T-ball game. Here's a LO, then a few more cute pics (my Mom and Dad with the girls):

(LO is linked for full credits; kit used is Little Slugger by Julie Billingsley at Sweet Shoppe Designs)

After the game, we took my parents out for an early Mother's Day lunch. We sat out on the deck overlooking the bay, under a beautiful oak tree, with a really delightful breeze blowing. It was really nice. Saturday night we went to some friends' house for a little visit. Sunday morning we went to church, then took the older two kids to my in-laws. Hubby and I went to lunch at our fave little Mexican restaurant, then went home for naps. In the evening we stopped to grab some ice cream at the grocery and took it up to the in-laws for a little Mother's Day treat and to pick up the kids.

So, that was our weekend. It really was nice.

Oh, speaking of Mother's Day, the two older kids made me some gifts at school that were really sweet. I haven't taken any pictures of them yet, but I need to so I'll remember them when they're grown. :( Also for Mother's Day, hubby gave each of the older two some cash to give me to go shopping with (love this kind of gift!). Claire was so funny on Saturday night when I tucked her in -- she told me that she had a secret; that she was going to give me something in the morning when she woke up for Mother's Day. She was so excited I couldn't believe she didn't give away what it was; she did really good! When she woke up on Sunday morning, she was sooooo excited to give me the "dollar". (It was definitely more than a $1, but so adorable that she doesn't know the difference!)

We have a busy next couple of weeks. Meeting at church today, Praise Team practice tonight, ballet tomorrow night, Wes' preschool graduation Friday morning, meeting on Friday evening, lead worship on Sunday. Then next week, Claire has two dress rehearsals for her ballet recital and then the actual recital that Friday evening. Somewhere in there, I need to get a haircut and go buy a video camera.

***Before I go, I wanted to mention a great deal to those of you who like to print photobooks or who like their scrapbooks to be hardbound. Winkflash sent out a flat-rate book code: BOOKSALE25. If you use this code, you can create a photobook up to 99 pages for a flat-rate (rather than per-page over 20 pages rate). Trust me, it's a great deal. And usually you can only use the code for one book, but it let me use it for two. So, by printing those two books using the code, I saved just under $50!!! I'm printing two books (one is 75 pages, the other is 61 pages) for less than $20 each!!! Great deal, if you ask me.***

Well, have a great Tuesday!!

Update 5-8-09

2009-05-08T14:21:00.003-05:00

So, I'm going to update things here a bit.

Here's a recap of Claire's birthday party last Saturday:

(I'm not the best at collages, but you get the idea)...

I think a fun time was had by all!

We went to the Strawberry Farm with some friends yesterday. It was kind of craziness getting there. My grandmother was going to watch Sadie while I took the other two kids; her meeting ran late, so we took Sadie along, trying to pack everything last-minute. In all the craziness, I forgot my camera -- I hate forgetting my camera when we do fun things like this. Anyway, I was sure to get a few pics when we got back home:

(in case you can't tell, that's a heckuva lotta strawberries!)

(YUMMY!)

The strawberries are so sweet and delicious! We're gonna eat some and freeze the rest!

Okay, now for some digi-scrapping updating, here are a few pages I've done lately:

(using a new kit Traci Reed released last week, Around the Rink)

(using a new kit Susan [ScrapKitchen] released last week, Matryoshka)

(using a new kit Zoe Pearn released last week, Some Like It Hot)

(using another new kit Traci Reed released last week with Kristin Cronin-Barrow, Lil Buggy)

(using a new kit kit Traci Reed is releasing tomorrow with Meghan Mullens, called Flutter Lovin')

All the pages above are linked, if you'd like to see full credits.

Yes, last weekend was a huge release weekend in digi-scrapping because of (inter)National Scrapbooking Day. I didn't participate in any activities and only did a little shopping because of Claire's birthday -- that's probably a great thing for my bank account! But I did get lots of CT (creative team) goodies and a few other new things!

~~We're~~ I'm trying to teach Sadie to sleep un-swaddled. Until now, we've swaddled her using the Miracle Blanket. I'm telling you, this thing is an absolute miracle! I used it with both Claire and Sadie, and they were both sleeping through the night around at 6 weeks of age. It's amazing. But Sadie's getting too long for it and is kicking out of it. I don't want it to become a strangling hazard, so I'm trying to teach her to go to sleep without it. So far she doesn't like it at all. She keeps scooting all around her bed despite the sleep positioner thing (I gets if it's not keeping her positioned, I should take that out as well). She went to bed okay last night, but awoke around 11 p.m. I went ahead and swaddled her again, just so I could sleep. But I've got her in bed now for a nap and she's not swaddled. She's been pretty mad about it the whole time, but she's quiet now, so hopefully that's a good sign. I figure, she's got to learn sometime, and it's going to be hard and unpleasant. But might as well do it now rather than delay it for later. Wish us luck! :)

Well, I think I'm all caught up. Time to see if two other children would like to nap at all today! ;-) I know Mommy would like to!

Have a great weekend!

Ebb & Flow

2009-05-04T22:33:00.001-05:00

The ebb & flow of life is so interesting. I'm not trying to be super philosophical, but some events today made me reflect on this. It's so funny (not ha-ha funny, just interesting) how such joy and such grief can occur at practically the same time.

I got a call a little after 8 a.m. this morning from a friend whose Dad had been taken to the ER. She wanted to know if she could drop her daughter off at my house so she could go to the hospital. She and Claire played and had just the best time, but my friend's father passed away. Diabetic coma and probably a heart attack, they think. He was so young -- early 50s, I believe. This friend and I grew up in church together and her father lead music in that same church and others.

As her husband came to pick up their daughter, he teared up and asked, "How do you tell a 3-yr. old little girl that her Grandfather's gone?"

Wow, I can't help but tear up just typing that. I don't know how you do that. I hope I never have to figure that out.

That's one of my worst fears -- getting the terrible call that something tragic has happened to my parents, or any of my family. The reality is that it could happen any day, at any minute. Not trying to be pessimistic, that's the truth.

The thing is, you can't make someone take care of themselves. They have to do it themselves, and it's so very hard to be on the outside just praying that they would, and praying you never get that call.

I know I'm rambling, but it's a very emotional topic for me.

Back to the ebb & flow. Along with the great sadness of my friend's father passing, was the joy of two innocent little girls playing and laughing together. It was beautiful!

I remember when I was pregnant with Wes I attended the funeral of one of our friends who had succumbed to liver cancer. It was such a terribly sad day, unbearable. But as I was sitting in the pew at her service, I felt my precious baby kick for the very first time. Such profound sadness and profound joy at the same time.

Because all posts are better with a picture and because I would like to focus on the joy, here's a picture from Claire's birthday party that exudes joy! (more pictures from her party to come later in the week)

My Baby Girl Is Four!

2009-04-30T10:51:00.001-05:00

Well, not the "baby" baby, but my sweet Claire Bear turned 4 yesterday. It's happened way too fast! I can't believe she's so grown already, and if you know her, you know she is very growny (like 4 going on 17)! Take a look...

Newborn:

Yesterday:

She was so excited to take cupcakes to school for snack time! And her teacher made her a special crown that she wore all day. After school we met some friends for lunch at Burger King so the kids could play (yes, I was very good and ate a salad even though Lacey's hamburger looked really good!). My parents came over to give Claire her present in the afternoon -- she was excited about that! We topped off the evening with a golf cart ride around the neighborhood (the older 2 and Daddy), and pizza for dinner (plus one more cupcake for dessert)! It was a great day! Claire's also excited about having her friends over on Saturday for her party!

It will be a ladybug party, sorta. I haven't found tons of ladybug things...probably because I haven't really looked that hard. I figured red tablecloths/plates/napkins/etc. and a ladybug cake would be enough. I actually got off easy on the cake -- Claire wants cupcakes. I try to make their cakes each year. I was going to do red frosting and then with decorative frosting do the black dots and stuff to make each cupcake a ladybug. When I was in the grocery yesterday, I decided to go easy on myself by just doing the red frosting and then brown M 'n M's for the dots. Easy peasy, cute, and the kids will love to eat the candy! Close enough to lady bugs, I think!

Hubby and I are still doing NutriSystem. I like it okay, I guess. Of course, I would love to eat a bunch of cupcakes and would have loved to scarf down a few pieces of the pizza last night, but I'd rather be thinner and healthier than have that food. I don't really feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. I actually did have an extremely thin piece of pound cake at my father-in-law's birthday celebration on Monday. I feel like I'm eating all the time, which is good. I'm just eating healthy stuff -- fruits and veggies, etc. After the first few days, I didn't feel so hungry all the time as much. The best news about it all to me...this morning I was down 7 pounds!!! Woohoo! Now I need to add in some exercise. I have some Pilates DVDs I could do. I've also been look at Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred (she's the chick from Biggest Loser). I heard that workout will kick your booty! I need it though.

Let's catch up on a little P365 stuffs...

4/23/09:

4/27/09:

4/28/09:

4/29/09:

(you saw the pic of Claire above, here's the LO)

All the LOs above are linked to my gallery if you would like to see credits.

This weekend will be a busy one. Our dear friends are coming in town for a visit. We are so excited!! They won't be staying with us (seems we've kinda run out of room), but we plan to spend a lot of time with them. Claire's party is Saturday afternoon. Then we're leading both services on Sunday. I've been really sick for a couple of weeks now with sinus infections (now it's mostly gunk in my throat and coughing uncontrollable), so hopefully I'll be able to sing by Sunday.

Saturday is also busy in the digiscrap world as well because it's (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day. There will lots of activities and sales all around digi-land! I'll try to preview some products from some of my designers tomorrow! :)

Have a great Thursday!

Diets Stink!

2009-04-24T07:46:00.002-05:00

That's right, they do! Hubby and I started NutriSystem on Monday and have been sticking with it all week. It's really not too terribly bad, but do you know how bad I want my Chick-Fil-A today??? Ugh! I'll give a review of the NutriSystem diet in a few weeks. Hopefully I'll be skinny and ready for a bathing suit by then! (wishful thinking!)

So, here are some LOs from this week (none of these pics are new)...

Here's one from Wes' 5th Birthday Party using a new kit Traci Reed is releasing tomorrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs:

This one is with a photo from last week, using a kit Zoe Pearn created with Eva Kipler, being released tomorrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs:

And here's one, also using a photo from last week, using a kit In the Garden by Sabrina Dupre available today at Shabby Pickle Designs:

I'll leave you with one last picture, taken yesterday:

Have a great Friday and great weekend!!!

Sick...

2009-04-23T08:46:00.001-05:00

Well, not as sick anymore, but I've been sick all week. Monday I came down with a terrible sinus headache. I went to bed at 4:30 in the afternoon and didn't get back out until the next morning except to nurse Sadie before her bedtime. Since I had experienced a few of these terrible sinus headaches within the last week, I called my OB and had them call in a prescription to the pharmacy for me. Thank goodness they were able to do that! There were only 3 pills of the antibiotics, so I wasn't sure it would be enough, but I'm actually feeling much better today. Not totally well, but not near as bad as the previous 3 days.

Since I've been sick, I have not kept up with my P365. I just haven't felt like doing anything and have only done what I have had to, like take the kids to school, etc. Actually, they spent the night with their grandparents on Monday night when I was so sick. Wes didn't go to school Tuesday or Wednesday because he had pink eye and was a little cough-y. He's fine now. Claire's been a little sniffly too.

I don't really have any LOs or pics to update with. But since all posts are better with pics, I'll leave you with a few of some of the flowers blooming in our yard (probably the reason I've been sick)...

Have a great Thursday! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some pics and LOs!!

Long Time, No Blog

2009-04-20T07:13:00.001-05:00

I didn't blog much last week. No real reason, just didn't get around to it.

I wanted to update all my 10s of readers (hehe) with my P365 and some recent LOs. So, warning, this post is image-heavy!

April 13th:

April 14th:

April 16th:

April 17th:

April 19th:

Well, that's my update. I don't have much else to say. Hope to blog a little more this week. Have a great Monday!

Easter Recap

2009-04-13T00:57:00.001-05:00

Did you have a good Easter? We did. What a wonderful thing to celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made for us all on the cross and his resurrection which provides for us eternal life with a living Savior!

Our day was pretty full. I took tons of pictures and tried to weed through them to find the ones that told the story of our day best. And here's the LO I made:

(I tried to make this big enough for you to read the journaling so I wouldn't have to re-type all the details of our day,)

The kids looked so cute in their Easter outfits. Claire is such a girly-girl -- she just loved her new dress and sandals and wanted to show them to everyone. Hubby dressed Sadie as I was finishing up getting ready. When I finally saw her, she had on a hat that matched her dress -- cutest baby I've ever seen. I never did get a picture of her with the hat on (she didn't seem to like it as much as we did), but I think I'll try to at some point before she grows out of it.

Speaking of growing, I think she may be at her 3 month growth spurt. She awoke around 12:30 last night. She had a little gas as well, so I'm not sure which woke her up. It also may have just been that our busy day (and her lack of sleeping very much through it) had thrown her off. Hopefully we'll be back to normal soon.

And while I'm on the subject of Sadie, here's my P365 from last Friday:

Does it get any cuter than that?!?

Well, have a great week!

Tagged

2009-04-09T06:52:00.001-05:00

Morgan tagged me yesterday for this number game thing. I had to think about it a bit yesterday, but here's what I came up with:

10 (at least) - number of diapers I changed yesterday (may have been more, I think I lost count towards the evening)

5 - number of LOs I completed on Tuesday, trying to catch up with P365 (also got yesterday's done yesterday!)

3 - number of pictures I took at Claire's Easter party (she was sick so I needed to comfort rather than photograph)

2 - number of shots Sadie got on Tuesday :-{ (poor baby)

20 - days 'til my Claire Bear turns 4

8 - loads of laundry I've done this week

30 (at least) - number of times I heard "Mom", "Mama", or "Mommy" yesterday (again, lost count towards the end)

30 (at least) - number of kisses that were given yesterday in our house (yep, lost count again; we're a very lovey family anyway, but with a cuter-than-cute baby in the house, none of the rest of us can keep from kissing her all the time!)

11 - number of hours Sadie slept last night

34 - number of pounds I would ideally like to lose (starting....next Monday)

52 - degrees fahrenheit - temp at 8:30 yesterday morning -- in APRIL! Brrrr!!

75 - degrees fahrenheit - supposed to be today's high temp!!!

11 - time I went to bed last night

89 - number of LOs I've completed this year (not counting cards or mini-albums made as gifts)

Fun game! I don't even know who to tag now. So if you're reading this and want to play along, feel free and then link me up in the comments!

Here's yesterday's P365:

Have a great Thursday!