Without the Perfect Photo ~

So I don't normally post without a photo - sorta seems pointless. However, I've heard you can print your blogs out and make a little book out of them so this seemed a great way to get my thoughts down for this time of year.

I am GRATEFUL...

for my salvation.
the Holy Spirit.
the truth that permeates our beings.

for my amazing husband whom God so clearly sent my way.
for my amazing children - whom I love dearly but can in the same breath drive me CRAZY!
for a home that is safe!
for a home that is our soft spot to fall.

that my children aren't growing up the way I did.
because they have food to eat, clothes to wear and they aren't all handy-me-downs.
that they don't have to wear shoes that hurt their feet.

that I have several "old" friends who still love me even though I'm flawed.
that occasionally a new friend can be worth the effort.
that technology (facebook) can help us stay in contact with them all.

Though some of this may sound petty and maybe even shallow - I believe the Lord knows my heart and that it isn't meant that way at all. I truely and grateful for the blessings in my life. I don't want to be guilty of taking anything for granted and even though everything doesn't fit on this list today, if you are ready this, I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOU TOO!

New Years Eve 2009

Random.. & Not So Random

So I'll start by saying this is FULL of pics but since I'm trying to purge, organize, etc. today (in anticipation of my new furniture) I didn't want to do too many posts cause I'm ready to get movin'

I loved this day - amazingly there was no fighting, minimal complaining and an all around day of memory making - love this girl! On a side note, this was in Baytown Wharf in SanDestin and it cost $10 including skate rental - totally worth the drive!!!!


This made David laugh - I kept saying "did he make a silly face?" and David just kept laughing (hard) so when I checked the photos - this was the surprise. He is always trying to be funny - reminds me alot of his Uncle Bryan ( i mean that in the best way possible)


This was just too cute (it isn't coffee) He had to stop every lap for hot chocolate but boy was it good! Starting 'em early on starbucks - hee hee!


Super-sized game of strategery - I loved how Mason wouldn't give up even when he appeared clearly beaten. Abbi wanted to quit but he wouldn't hear of it - gotta love that!


So, if I had been there I would've brushed her hair (Sunday School must've been wild that day) but I am so, soo, soooo proud of her! She played Away in a Manger during the offering time in Children's Church on her 9th Birthday! SO WONDERFUL!


Christmas P.J.'s - our tradition - they knew what they were but were still excited to see what they looked like.


This year we had to leave carrots for the reindeer - Mason thinks of everything!

Christmas night was spent at Bryan and Melissa's house and Ms. Tori was super excited about her pig that Aunt Teresa bought her.

A Florida Soccer ball - no way!

Taylor was excited about her NEMO game for her Leapster.

This was the hit of the night - Grandma bought this toy for Tori that works with the t.v. but also spins and makes horsey noises too - she spun round and round, un-dizzied herself, and started again. Can't you see the wind blowing her hair? TOO CUTE!!!

Well, that's all for now (hope you read this far) Hope you are all having a fantastic day and making those changes today!

Love to you all!!!

3,285 Days Ago.....

these sweet babies were born!

In some ways it's so hard to believe but in others, not so much. I am so proud of each of them (in different ways) and know I couldn't fit it all in here but here's a short version.

She is artsy, athletic, obedient (mostly) and very smart..in English and the literary stuff.

He is logical, avid reader, pushes the borders in almost everything and is very smart...excels in Math and Science.

If you know us (their parents) it is fair to say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - someways that is good and other ways just "rotten" ha ha!

He is so silly! I try not to discourage it because I think it could come in handy one day with whatever the Lord might choose to use him for.

She wants to please us so desperately and I pray that quality doesn't get her in trouble one day with her peers. Trying to keep it all balanced is a tough act (I know from personal experience!)

Anyway, just wanted share a happy birthday tribute to my beautiful Abbi and Mason!

Now that I've got my computer "figured out", I hope to be back soon with some Holiday fun - there clearly is no scrapping going on right now and I'm longing for when that will start up again - maybe after my new office furniture comes and I get seriously organized! Yippee!!!

Merry Christmas to all!

I love this season.....

of my life! It's been pretty fantastic lately around here and I'm trying to soak it up and enjoy it because as well all know, things are subject to change - without warning. I haven't posted for a while for multiple reasons and I'm trying to get back on track (in alot of ways . . . I ran this morning!) My new computer system makes looking at my pictures a bit difficult and I'm still figuring that out so these are the ones I thought I could share today.....

The Eiffel Tower at night.... (hard to believe we were actually there, staring at THE Eiffel Tower)


The first presents wrapped and under the tree...always a HUGE accomplishment.


The lovely kiddos in their costumes for the church Christmas presentation...I was pretty proud of my little ones. Mason was much calmer than in years past and Abbi did a great job with narration - on a side note, she and her friend Hannah taught their Sunday School class this past Sunday morning - I tear up thinking of how God might use her in the future (all of them actually but that was just amazing)



Braden learned to ride his bike without training wheels while we were gone... sigh!!! I was so sad to hear I had missed that huge milestone but he didn't mind showing me again. I told him I wanted to get the camera and he said "so I can remember it forever?" Mine are finally figuring out why the camera is snapping constantly - Mom's trying to capture this crazy life we lead.

So, I gotta get ready for the work party at our house tonight (probably shouldn't have stopped to blog but I needed a break!) Happy shopping, crafting and time with your families!

Bonjour from Monte Carlo . . .

Hello everyone! Just a few quick pics (now that I know how this works) we are headed out for a tour of Sanremo, Italy, shopping and dinner. So grateful for these wonderful opportunities to see God's creations. Here are a few shots of our trip - much of it looks like places we've been before so the pics so far are few.

Street view:

Food view - this stuff is amazing - you can totally tell they make stuff fresh each day!

Enjoying more great food:

The view from our window - I always like to take these type of pics:

Au Revoir for now!

Sweet November ~

So November has been very sweet so far - enjoying the weather (mostly) and gearing up for the holidays so that life isn't one big stress fit wrapped up with a bunch of things I planned to do but didn't get done! It's my goal anyway. One thing I've been working hard on is purchasing household decor that is not just attractive but functional - this was a great purchase from hobby lobby - it's holding my photo CD's (so they aren't confused with music CD's) as well as looking pretty on my armoir top (of course the lid is only open for purpose of this picture) Anyway, it's something I've been trying to do to streamline the clutter around here. If you have any other great ideas please send them my way.


Also, I've been trying to make some hair bows for Abbi - the ones in the store are either for itty bitty's or either as big as their head - neither of which satisfies me. SOOOO, I decided to try my hand at it. So far, we've been relatively happy. She thinks it is cool which makes it cool in my book too!


Spent a little time this weekend at the beach playing with my brother and his great little family. Here is Taylor sportin' her pink sunglasses - another reason why November is so SWEET!

Trying to get all three of them to look at the camera at once is no small feat (which you can see we didn't do ourselves) but at least they are all in the same shot and we can see their beautiful faces! The position of the sun at this point didn't help with a great backdrop either :(

I was pretty proud of this shot since I didn't have braces on (I don't get bored of saying that) and the angle wasn't bad either - hee hee!

My plan is to have some more scrappy stuff soon but who knows - Thanksgiving, a HUGE vacation, and other holiday duties are piling on fast - who knows what will happen. Happy day to you all!

p.s - the 5K is the weekend if you need a laugh you can come watch me "run"

The Most Exciting Thing Today . . . .

SOOOO EXCITED!!!! Those of you who know me will hopefully know right away what the latest change is.

For those who might not recognize it right away - my braces are FINALLY OFF!!

That's all for now, just wanted to share my pic with you all. Happy day to you :)

A Card a Day. . . Makes us Crazy!

Ha ha! Just wanted to throw a little fun in the midst of life's unending drama. I've been making at least one card a day for various occasions and these two were for an anniversary and a birthday. Both make great use of my Cricut which I'm falling in love with all over again (especially since I have a place to keep it out "permanently") Anyhow, I again scraplifted the second card from Creating Keepsakes (they did butterflies but I don't have a butterfly punch). Using the tone on tone paper (someone thought it was embossed at a glance) gave it a really neat look and then I "lightened" it up a bit with the polka-dot ribbon. Overall - I was really pleased with both of them. Hope they inspire you to take a moment and use some of your scraps to brighten someones day.

Finally, all these cards are making us crazy! J/K, it was crazy hair day at school (something to do with Red Ribbon week) and this is how my kids left the house - not the normal but they were PLEASED!!!

Have a great weekend everyone if I don't see you before Monday :)

I finally caught him! (or her?)

So this guy (I think the males are red) has been everywhere except when I have had my camera, so this morning while waiting on the dog I took my camera out with me and he showed up. I know it's a big grainy but it was pretty good distance away. With my love for red and birds combined - how could you not think this guy/gal is stunning!

For a little creative inspiration (my list of cards to make is a MILE long) I thought I would share a card I did that I scraplifted from the card section in my Creating Keepsakes Magazine. I purchased this ribbon a while back and it wasn't really fitting into my current stuff so I thought it would work great for this "Thinking of You" card. The flowers were my Spare Parts and I'm pretty certain the button was American Crafts (and I know the ribbon is). Enjoy your day and take the time to tell someone you are thinking of them - it'll surely make them smile:)

In the Grooove!

After several days (even weeks) of my groove being broken - I think it's working again. (At the expense of one VERY UGLY two page layout which I will spare you!) Finally, I was pleased with something . . . not my alltime favorite ... but at least I'm willing to show it. You be the judge!

On another note, Lovely Amber tried to teach me how to link to other websites - so let's see how much I actually retained. Let me know if you get to the Elle's Studio Blog for WCMD.

Have fun!

p.s. - I think it worked!

A Few Days . . .

So it's been more than a "few" days since I posted and didn't realize it had been so long! I did this one today to just catch everyone up on what's going on and make Lisa feel like she's not so far away from home (we miss you Aunt Lisa!) So here's why I haven't been here in a while.....

Sweet Taylor's 3rd Birthday (& Abbi scored her 1st goal of the season on the same day)


(This hasn't kept me busy but just thought it was cute - apparently eating watermelon is a contact sport at our house!) Almost makes me want to put him in T-ball just cause he's so stinkin' cute in that helmet!


We've enjoyed fall & dashing into the "pile" of leaves we raked together.


We (I mean Abbi and I) had a "sleep" over at church. This is my girls/class doing their crafty pic frames - way to go girls (& Amber)!


We took this little ladybug to the CIRCUS - she was just as excited about the cotton candy - SUPER CUTE!!! (And for those who don't know my brother, she is his "spitting" image!

Then on Sunday - This little jewel visited our church and spent the night with Mrs. Stacey - she was soooooo excited! (So were we.)

And this is what we have done today to catch up from all the fun we've been having. Braden had such a meltdown after school - I forced him to take a nap or else someone was going to get hurt - I'm sure you mother's out there know exactly what I'm talking about.

So anyway, my goal is to share something crafty tomorrow (hopefully I'll get to stay home most of the morning - a RARE treat!)

Good evening to you wherever you might be reading this ;)

Crafty Chic in the Making~

Talk about lettin' go - this was a complete exercise in that! It was just us girls and she wanted to scrapbook (partly 'cause that's what I was doing) I gave her the pics of time by the pool with Taylor, Tori, Aunt Melissa, and Uncle Bryan. I let her pick the paper, rub-ons, everything and tried to only provide the guidance she requested and here is what we got. Pretty good for an eight year old without a kit. Her only struggle was the tape-runner kept giving her troubles (and Lisa, you and I know how that is even for grown-ups! ha ha!)

Well, we're off to our first piano lessons (aside from the ones they did at school). Can't believe my children are taking piano lessons - it's kinda weird since they are doing something that I did - dejaveax (sp?) Anyway, enjoy!

Our Weekend (at a glance)....

So it was pretty busy (but a bit lazy too) around here this weekend. We started off with our first trip ever to Sizzlin' Science. This was held at GCCC and had tons of science related "experiments" for the kids to get excited about. Mason loved it so much he didn't even complain once about that heat - talk about a miracle!


Woo Hoo! Soccer season has begun & Abbi along with the other Purple Terminators won their first game (1-0) but who's keeping score right? Wrong! She plays hard and that's what we love about her: Never Say Die! That's her bootin' the ball #5.

Once that excitement died down, the boys went off to work on Derby Cars and Abbi and I scrapbooked together (I'll save those pics for tomorrow's blog) I finished the mini-album that was intended to be submitted for a challenge but didn't quite make the deadline.

I'm not a huge fan of mini-books because they tend to just sit around, they aren't chronological necesarily and I've honestly got too much other scrapping to do to justify a side project.

But I gave it a try and here are a few of the shots (not all of them!)

Well, I hope this week starts of well for you all!