Official 2012 Christmas Photo

Why does EVERYONE say, "Wow, this year has flown by?" um....they say it because it is TRUE! lol At least I got our picture in under the wire this year. I actually really like it. Christian's "mean-mugging" face cracks me up. 

Halloween 2012

This little cutie was the "Joker" last night. 

After we got his makeup on, he went and looked at himself in the mirror and got scared! LOL

He is still my baby......

First Date

When I was pregnant with our 4th baby, Brendon and I decided not to find out the sex. Since we already had 3 girls at that point, we decided we could only make girls and accepted our fate. LOL

Well, imagine our surprise when sweet, little Justin arrived. It was the first time Brendon cried in the delivery room. (In his defense, I was screaming rather loudly during labor with our first, and he passed out cold, literally, when the twins were born! LOL)

When Justin was two years old, he told me I would always be his "girlfriend". Well, that sweet, baby boy turned 14 before we knew it, and this past weekend he went on his first date to the Homecoming dance. 

This was my favorite picture and it just tugs at my heart. His date is a sweet, beautiful girl, but I hope he remembers that I was his first love.

Wordless Wednesday

Remembering how amaze-balls San Diego was last week. Sigh........ 

Color Me Scrappy

Color Me Scrappy is up with a new challenge. This month's palette is a wonderful, neutral color combo. I found it so easy to work with. 

I chose my papers based on the colors, but as I design,  I end up adding, subtracting, shifting, moving etc....so it never ends up like I pictured originally! lol

I used some October Afternoon, Crate Paper, a bit of Lawn Fawn washi tape, Studio Calico wood veeners (obsessed with those!)some stitching and called it DONE! Pretty easy page, and only took about an hour start to finish.

The "Cherish" is a Cricut cut that I cut out a LONG time ago and never used. But it seemed to work here.

Now off to scrap the rest of the "First Day of School" pictures. 

Wordless Wednesday: Just because he is pretty.

Sigh.......

"Buh-Bye Summer!"

There are no tears today. They. Gotta. Get. Out.!!!! LOL

It has been a long, hot summer. I am ready for routine! And I am sure they are ready for me to quit yelling:

 "Get up, it is 1 o'clock in the afternoon!"

 "7 hours of playing Minecraft is ENOUGH!"

"No, (insert random neighborhood kid name here) _______,  can NOT spend the night again!"

"If you can't think of some way to not be bored, then you can go clean something!"

Yeah, summer......its been real...but I think fall is definately my favorite time of the year! LOL

Bye, guys.....mommy loves you. She really does! (now, where did I put that Margarita machine?)

Summer 2012, Almost a Wrap!

Around here, there has been a whole lotta, 

 A little bit of,

 Some neighboorhood parties,

Even happy, cooperative teenagers! (Ack!)

Now we get to have one last "Hoorah", before school starts in a couple weeks. Our family is off to a cruise! The kids are so excited. Is it sad that I am most looking forward to the photo ops and making a vacation mini-album?! LOL

I have been hoarding the Simple Stories 6x8 album for the perfect time, and this is it! I am going to use a bunch of papers from the Simple Stories "Awesome" line. 

I am off to Pinterest right now to gather some ideas and inspiration for our travel album. Guess I won't be getting much housework done today, huh? LOL

Happy

Wow! It is certainly summertime, because I haven't been on here in forever. Main reason? My kids are home, ALL DAY LONG. (yes, I am shouting! lol)


I have been scrapbooking, and keeping up with my Project Life, just can't seem to get anything blogged. How do my favorite mommy/scrapping blogs stay current when kids are home? Y'all are amazing! 


My favorite challenge blog, Color Me Scrappy has given me the perfect opportunity to catch up a bit.

The color pallette for this month was gorgeous!! And seemed to be the perfect outlet for the page I had in mind. I don't know about y'all, but I don't scrap myself very often. It feels.....I don't know.....self-indulgent or something? 

My little boy was playing with my phone, and caught this picture of me. It captured my happiness and contentment I felt at that moment perfectly. (even my 7 year old is a better photographer than I am!) I want my children to remember that their mom was a happy person. Of course I flip out, yell and threaten to sell them to the circus, but I hope they remember my smile, my sense of humor and how grateful and happy I am to be married to their dad and to be their mom.(which I said to them in my hidden journaling). 

Love, love that woodgrain paper, and I am completely obsessed with all of Studio Calico wood veeners (I may or may not have bought 6 packages...shh...don't tell my husband). I broke out my trusty Cricut (why won't that thing break so I can justify getting a Silhouette?) for my title.

Thanks for looking, and go make something pretty!

Color Me Scrappy

I am once again linking up with the fun challenge blog, http://color-me-scrappy.blogspot.com/. This month, we were given another beautiful color pallette to work with.


This layout showcases my  twin "baby" girls, TJ and Alyssa. I pulled this picture from TJ's Instagram account. My girls are such natural photographers. It takes me forever to line up a shot, set my settings, ect...They just whip out the camera and snap away.

I find it difficult to get pictures of them as much as I used to. At 17, they are just not at home very often. School, activities, jobs and of course, hanging out at the mall, take up alot of their time!  But they have Facebook and Instagram accounts. I pull pictures of them from those sites all the time to scrapbook. I don't stress too much about pixels, image quality and all that. I just love getting a peak into their lives. 


This layout came together so quickly. Once I started, it took me only 35 minutes from start to finish. The colors were so easy  to work with,(and my 2 pretty subjects didn't hurt either! lol)


Thanks so much for looking!

Wordless Wednesday

All-Star game yesterday. He is such a good dad. Doesn't miss practice or a game.  Love them so much.

Didja know about this?!

I am a LOVER of podcasts. Driving, doing housework, and exercising always seems to pass by a little quicker if I am listening to a favorite podcast. I like a wide variety, Dave Ramsey, MacLife, and I may or may not have at one time downloaded a "Twilight" fan podcast....shhh....don't tell anyone! 


My top 2 favorites for scrapbooking (yes, there are shows for scrapping!) are, "The Paperclipping Rountable" (they have more traditional paper-based discussions), and "The Digi Show" (marketed for digital-scrappers, but really, the topics are perfect for almost all scrappers). 


Now there is a new show to add to my iTunes library, "This Memory Keepers Life". This is a wonderful podcast that features regular, non-celebrity scrapbookers. I immediately downloading the first 5 and listened to everyone of them. Love it!


So if you are as obsessed with scrapbooking as I am, here is another outlet for our passion! Hope you enjoy!

Color Me Scrappy

Color Me Scrappy is up with a new challenge. This time around we were given this beautiful pallette to work with:

Pretty, right? Well, I knew I wanted to work with a picture of my little boy, and I was a bit worried that it would come off a little "girly"

I grunged it up a bit with ink, and distressing the "jeans" type paper I used to mat the picture.

There are a few feminine elements, but overall, I think it works. And with such a cute subject, how could I go wrong? (yeah, I am THAT parent) LOL

Check out the fun ladies over at Color Me Scrappy. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Mother's Day Inspiration

Holy cow! It is May already. Anyone else feel like time is flying by?! 


During this busy month we celebrate my mommy's birthday, my mother-in-law's birthday and of course Mother's Day. I was inspired by the talented Marcy Penner on the October Afternoon blog to make these fun "Accordian fold" cards for my 2 favorite ladies this year. I know they will love them because they feature the most beautiful, smart and talented kids in the world. (ok, we may be a bit biased! lol)

Over at the Color Me Scrappy blog, they have a new challenge up. I thought their color scheme was beautiful, which is what led me to these papers. I threw in some pink, and I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I am going to drop these in the mail today!

I am so grateful for all the wonderful inspiration that is out there. Have a blessed day and go make something pretty!

Thursday: Pictures and Words

Since I have consistently been keeping up with my Project Life album, (just not keeping up with blogging it!) I didn't find it necessary to participate in Ali's Week in the Life. But I did like the idea of delving deeply into one day. So, yesterday was the day! 

I stumbled out of bed at 6:50am for coffee, and to make my boys lunches. I usually make a salad for my big girls the night before. The high school starts at 7:15am, so they are up and gone by 6:30am, and I ain't waking up that early! lol

After everyone is off to school, it is breakfast time for me. Well....if you can call chalk breakfast! Oh well, that's what you eat when you have given birth to seven children and you have the metabolism of a slug!

After I eat, I go start my housework. I begin in the little boys room. I usually require them to make their own beds, but we were running behind this morning, so I do it for them.

Then to the kitchen where I do dishes, sweep and take out chicken to thaw for dinner. Start a load of laundry, fold and put away a load, vacuum living room, straighten up our room, and make our bed.

By now, it is 9:45am, so I go get dressed. Since I have errands to run, where I might see people I know, I put on makeup. lol 

Groceries, post office, car business, then off for a special treat.

Pedicure!!! While I like getting my toes pretty, what I LOVE is that massage chair. Bliss!!

Home, where I pay some attention to this cutie pie. Then before you know it, kiddos come home.

Evidence that they are all home. Am I the only mom who YELLS thru out the house to "Come throw your trash away!!"  Why is that so hard?!  : )

I look down and discover he has been wearing these all day! Oh, what his teachers must think of me! LOL

Everyone is allowed to watch a show on TV. Then, homework, then I kick em outside while I finish up dinner.

A quick dinner, then we are off to Sam's baseball game, (my hubby helps to coach) then Justin's drum lesson. The big girls stay home to do their hair. (that is a 2-3 hour process. Condition, blow dry, straighten....it is hard being a girl!!) The whole family is home by 9pm. Everyone finally gets in bed by 10:30pm.


It was fun to capture our day more in-depth. I took a TON more pictures, but pared them down into a manageble amount for this post. I plan on doing a multi-page insert to slip into Project Life, or maybe a mini-album to document this wonderful, ordinary day. (oh, the Simple Stories album would be cute, or even Heidi's new Memory Files!) 


Check out Ali's blog for more info on "Day in the Life". Fun stuff! 

Color Me Scrappy

I am once again linking up with the super fun blog, Color Me Scrappy. This time around, we are using this beautiful color palette:

I love the "tone on tone" look that has been going around a bit, so I thought this may be a fun time to try it out. 

I don't think I have it just yet, but it was only my first time!! Don't judge me! LOL  

I popped up a few of the stars that I cut out of the same sheet of cardstock used for the background and lightly misted with Mr. Huey, "barnwood". I cut out my title with my trusty, OLD Cricut. (Calligraphy cartridge)

I am starting to become slighty obsessed with Challenge blogs lately. They are such a fun way to help break me out of my ruts and to use up my stash. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and be sure to check out the fun ladies at Color Me Scrappy!