Some more pages

I ended up getting everybody's sickness on Monday and pretty much stayed in bed all day, and now the three of us have head colds! I'm hoping we will all be healthy soon.

I've done a couple pages. I really, really want to get in gear and make up a book for Andrew. He's always looking at the paper scrapbooks of the girls and I have so many pages of him, that I want to print off some. I want to do loose pages in protective covers for him so that he doesn't destroy a bound book, but I would like to have an actual book for myself. I just need to get in gear and finish up some of his earlier pages. I just don't have the desire to do something I need to do. I just can't seem to find the perfect colors for those beginning pages.

Both babies are sleeping right now so I'm doing a little internet surfing. There are so many other things I should be doing, but honestly I don't really feel like doing them. I'm still not feeling 100% better and I just love doing nothing when my house is quiet.

Andrew has started doing the cutest little thing. He'll stand with his arms crossed and hold his elbows with the opposite hands then push his little hip out and start babbling. He'll pause and wait for you to say something, then continue to babble. It's just the cutest little thing ever!

These two pages were from the Winter Shimmer kit available in the Scrap Matters newsletter:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17409/ppuser/364

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17410/ppuser/364

This was for the speed scrap the other day:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17444/ppuser/364

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17519/ppuser/364

Here's one I did of Misty's baby Hayden:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17531/ppuser/364

Okay, my eldest monkey is upstairs yelling at me to come get him. So much for my quiet time!

Oh, the challenges of motherhood

I'm sitting here at midnight watching Allison sleep. She's the latest one to catch some bug we have floating around our house. Randy and Andrew were both sick yesterday. Throwing up all day long. I felt so bad for Andrew. He had no idea what was happening. He's only vomited once before and this time was really really bad. I spent the whole night doing laundry and taking care of Andrew who just wanted loved on (in return, I was puked on multiple times) then I had Allison who couldn't stay asleep from all the noise and the girls were here as well. Poor Randy was stuck up in bed all day and couldn't be of any help.
Finally, at about 4am, Andrew stopped throwing up and I finally put him in bed. He woke up today feeling puny, but keeping food down. Same with Randy. They both kind of lounged around today. Then tonight, Allison decides it's her turn. I felt so bad for her and actually started crying just watching her (5 months old) throw up. Poor thing. She is my little trooper though and smiled throughout the whole ordeal. So with 5 hours of sleep last night, I'm still taking care of a sick baby. I want to watch her sleep since she's on her back. My fear is that she'll choke on it. So she's laying right beside me in her bassinet.
I'm the only one who hasn't had it yet. I'm afraid I'll wake up in the morning sick after Randy is gone for the day. That would be my luck.
I actually feel really blessed though. This is the first time that I've ever had to stay up with a sick kid and Andrew is almost 20 months old. They are both really healthy and Andrew has only really been sick one other time with just the sniffles.

First, Heather *Haynay Designs* has a new kit in her store at Scrap Matters:


Here are my pages using it:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17007/ppuser/364

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17006/ppuser/364

I did the nighttime speed scrap last week and this is what I came up with using Erica Zane's Woodland Fantasy kit.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16958/ppuser/364

I've started shopping at Scrap Orchard here recently and stumbled across Ziggle Designs - A New Leaf kit, which I love. I can see me using it lots:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17201/ppuser/364

I got this kit free at Funky Playground when I purchased another kit by Corina Nielson:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17228/ppuser/364

I was RAK'd by Matahati Designs and picked up the goodies to make this layout:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17257/ppuser/364

Here's another page using Matahati's All That's Fall kit. I just love these pics of Emma:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/17194/ppuser/364

I bought the new Heaven & Nature Sing kit by Krystal Hartley and made this cute little layout of Allison:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16889/ppuser/364

I need to go finish up the laundry that I started earlier. I swear, the stuff multiplies overnight.

Probably only exciting to a scrapper!

This layout was chosen for the layout of the week at Scrap Matters. I honestly love that place. I feel like I "fit" in nicely:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16024/ppuser/364

This one's of me and Randy at the Brickyard last year. I did it for a scraplift challenge at SM.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16592/ppuser/364

I went shopping at Scrap Orchard and bought some really great stuff from Matahati. This is from a long time ago when we went to the East coast on vacation.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16666/ppuser/364

This one is for the cookie exchange at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I'm in love with the way it turned out!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16733/ppuser/364

Haynay has a new kit out this week called Little Boy Express available at Scrap Matters. Here's the page I did using it:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16244/ppuser/364

She has some wordart freebies on her blog. Go check them out!

http://haynay.blogspot.com/

She's also hosting a daytime speed scrap Friday December 12th at 1 p.m. EST. Verdict is still out on whether or not I can make it, all depends on if the babies nap.

Just showing some pages

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16286/ppuser/364


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16207/ppuser/364



http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16193/ppuser/364

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16579/ppuser/364

Sometimes I feel like I'm raising a monster.

I really do. The child is only 19 months old and I believe I've already entered the terrible two's. He gets into absolutely everything. Has to undo everything I try to do. Yells. Kicks. Hits. Screams, oh how he screams. Gets into everything he's been told repeatedly not to. Today, I actually thought of implementing a time out chair. Already!
My mom says I went wrong by never putting him in a playpen. The child just learned to crawl in June and didn't walk until August. I never had to put him up. He just stayed there. I totally disagree with playpens. This is his house too. If he can reach it, it's his to reach. Now only if I could make sure to put away everything he's not supposed to have.
I'm dreading the day when Allison decides to become mobile. When that time comes I may just have to gate them into a couple of rooms. And make sure I'm in another. he he.
I love him deeply though. More than I ever thought I could possibly love someone. I am amazed at the little person he is becoming. He definately keeps me on my toes.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16065/ppuser/364

I love little Allison too! She has this smile that is just too big for her little face to produce. You can tell she wants to smile bigger, but the poor thing can't. She really is my little breath of fresh air. She is always so happy. She's been doing this little dinosaur cry. She will open her mouth really wide and let out a long "aaaaaa" from the back of her throat.

Back to my monster.... He's feeding the dog with a cooking spoon. Time for bed for him. :)

Just some recent pages I've done

This is from Thanksgiving.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/15880/ppuser/364

This one is for a scraplift challenge at SM:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/15895/ppuser/364

This one is using one of Sweet Shoppe's cookies, part of the cookie exchange:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/15952/ppuser/364

This one is for the Tuesday template challenge at SM:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16006/ppuser/364

I just love the way this one came out!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/16024/ppuser/364

I did this one for a Roadmap to Scrap challenge at scrap Matters:

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/15835/ppuser/364

It's early for me. I couldn't go back to sleep this morning and got up with all intentions of cleaning before the kids woke up. I just don't feel like it. It's just too early :)

Actually, I love it when I'm awake and both kids are still sleeping. It's so quiet in the house and I just love sitting, listening to the silence. I believe I'm going to continue doing that. I can clean later and get frustrated with Andrew helping me. He just loves to help mommy do everything.

What a Weekend

I'm so glad this weekend is over. It was just exhausting. We had a nice Thanksgiving with the family, but man was it chaotic! Randy and I went shopping on Friday and Saturday and pretty much finished up Christmas shopping. I'm so glad. I try not to leave the house in December because of all the people.

After doing some Black Friday shopping online, I was able to do a couple of pages. I also needed to finish up some challenges for Scrap Matters points.

I used Haynay Designs new Grab Bag for these two pages:

the Very Merry collab of Britt-ish Designs and Decrow Designs for these. I'm so happy I bought this kit! It's one of my favorites!!:

This is done with Britt's White Christmas that was in her grab bag:

This page uses the Scrap Matters collab Comfort and Joy:

Well, the kids both decided to wake up at the same time, I'll have to add credits later.

Who wants some Quickpages?

I forgot to put on here that Haynay Designs is giving away a quickpage a day from her Beautiful Blessings kit this week on her blog. Go check them out!
http://haynay.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=50

I so need to get ready for Thanksgiving. I have yet to clean my house or finish shopping for the food. I need to get on that right now so that I can start preparing the food tonight. I started to last night but came down with a killer migraine. One of the ones that are so bad it made me get sick! I took a Treximet, but it didn't really help, usually those suckers kick in in 10 minutes, but not last night. I was in pain. I feel better today, but I'm just not in the mood to get it in gear.

Off to try to clean. Andrew makes it nearly impossible to get anything done. He likes to "help" me and always ends up making more of a mess than what I start with. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Black Friday!!! I can't wait!!

I've been working on some top secret pages for my CT, but I can't share just yet. I will say that I'm getting excited about Black Friday!! I don't know if we really need to go out shopping because I think we're pretty much done with Christmas presents, BUT I'm just so excited to take advantage of some of the killer deals in the digi-world.

Scrap Matters is having a 40% off sale with a free mega kit w/$10 purchase!!

Here's what I'm eyeing so far:

http://scrapmatters.com/shop/product.php?productid=1000&cat=39&page=1

http://scrapmatters.com/shop/product.php?productid=977&cat=0&page=2

I'm sure I'll find some other stuff that I just have to have, but there are a couple of other places I wouldn't mind shopping at as well. Too bad I don't have an endless supply of money for scrapping supplies :)

I did a page with Britt's Very Merry add-on and I absolutely love the way it came out!! Can't wait to buy the kit to do some more pages of this photo shoot!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php?photo=15142

cousins

I'm so ready for the holidays. I love all the food, smells, atmosphere and general morale of everyone! They especially remind me of how grateful I am to have my family. I don't know what I would do without them. The holidays have been pretty hard for us these last couple of years since Samantha has passed. It's hard to celebrate and be merry when a loved one is gone.

I hope that since Andrew is actually old enough to kind of get opening presents and can enjoy all the yummy food, it might be a little easier. Also, we've added Allison and Hayden to our family since last year and will have another little one next year! (Brad's. Not mine.) There are going to be babies everywhere!

So anyways, with the family in my thoughts, I did a page with my cousins. This is from Wayne's wedding last year. I miss him. Can't wait til he gets back from Japan. There are so few of our actual "family" left, it's hard when one of them is 1,000s of miles away. I truly am grateful for my cousins. We've all grown up together and even though we are all not as close as we use to be, I'm glad we've all found our own paths in life!


http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14789/ppuser/364

Just adding a couple of pages

I did the speed scrap at scrap matters last night. Love how my page turned out! I'm digging this collab kit!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14676/ppuser/364

I did this one using Deck the Halls - Melissa Bennett & Zoe Pearn collab. I'm starting to do pages from last Christmas. My hope is that I will have last years done before this Christmas. This is also one of the Saturday Specials at Scrap Matters. The challenge was to create a text path.

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14648/ppuser/364

Sick again.

I swear I was just sick! Actually, I was. Two weeks ago!! Then, this morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and no energy and I feel pretty lousy. Hopefully the kids don't get it, but they have both been sleeping all day so I'm wondering if they have. I absolutely hate being sick. I hate not being able to breathe properly and being all snotty!

Yesterday I went and did most of the shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. I was so excited to go to the grocery store alone while my mom watched the kids. And, I got to go to Meijer!!! Oooh, and Target!!! I can't wait til they finish building the Meijer here. I was so proud of myself at the grocery. I saved almost $40 in coupons. The people behind me were talking to me while the cashier was scanning them all. I kind of felt bad that they had to wait so I tried talking to them. I love double coupons!

At Target, I bought Allison the cutest little sweater dress ever! I can't wait to put it on her! I had to buy a 12 months because that's the smallest they came, but she is already wearing some clothes that size. Little chunker! I also bought Andrew's birthday decorations stuff. They had Hallmark kits that had 8 of each: big & little plates, cups, big & little napkins, invitations, a serving tray and I believe a banner done in Cars. I got it for $4.98! Hope he's still diggin cars in April.

I went shopping at Sweet Shoppe Designs this weekend and bought bunches! Okay, not too much, but a few kits. :)

Here's a page using the Little Red Caboose a collab b/w Kristin Cronnin-Barrow, Shawna Clingerman and Melissa Bennett. I loved this kit and it's going to come in handy when Andrew get's his train set for Christmas!

When you bought $10 worth of stuff you got a huge collab from SSD and Scrap Orchard for free! I finally opened it up and started playing with it and this is what I came up with:

Say What?!?!

Something must be wrong with me (and the kids) I laid them down for bed last night at around 6:30. I put Allison in our bed with me and fell asleep!!! I woke up around 2am from Allison waking up to be fed and stayed up for about an hour. Went back to sleep and slept until 9 this morning! That's the most I've slept in a really long time. I think all three of us are refreshed and ready to go now. :) Actually, they are both napping now. Thank goodness for naps!

I did some pages this weekend. We had the girls so not much computer time for me.

This one used the freebie kit in November's Scrap Matters newsletter. It's an awesome kit!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14203/ppuser/364

I used Haynay Designs really versatile Summer in the Hamptons kit for these little pictures of Andrew. He was such a cute little baby! I miss him like this!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14353/ppuser/364

This page uses the Scrap Matters welcome kit that you can get simply by posting an introduction in the Scrap Matters forum and uploading 10 layouts to the gallery! Erica Zane made this awesome Welcome Home kit. It went perfectly for pics of Andrew and my mom from last Christmas!

http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/14183/ppuser/364

Well, it's 2pm and I still haven't found my way to the shower. I should probably do that! And the daily cleaning, starting dinner, entertaining the kids, blah, blah, blah. Oh and I need to go haul in some wood for this darn fireplace.