poor sick baby (revisited)

No, it is not Brenna again. Sarah is sick for the first time. She had a minor fever a few months back that didn't seem to faze her much and didn't last too long. Last night about 10P I knew this was going to be a full-blown illness and that I would be taking her into the doctor's office. I measured her temp at 102 when I took her upstairs. I couldn't get her into the doctor's office until 2 this afternoon, so the poor thing had to tough it out until then. The tylenol I gave her brought the fever down some, but not all the way. By the time we got to the doctor's office it was back up to 103. We saw one of the nurse practitioners, and when she came in she was all ready to give me the 'it's a virus we can't do anything about that' lecture (since we have something viral going around the house at the moment). Then, she looked in Sarah's ears... yep, she has a raging ear infection going on, just like I thought. She has had a runny nose for about a week and a half and I was just watching and waiting for an ear infection to result. Mom knows what's going on, and I knew it wasn't the stomach bug that Mark and Brenna had (yes, Mark had it too Tuesday night). We have amoxicillin now and found that ibuprofen works much better than tylenol for her in getting a fever down. Hopefully it won't take too long for the antibiotics to start making a difference.

Sarah and I went to Trinity for the monthly crop tonight. Sarah took a nice long nap, which she really needed, and after she woke up and I got some ibuprofen in her she was her usually happy self. She sat and played with the toys I brought for her and just generally charmed everyone there. I was even able to get some scrapping done. Check out what I've been playing with the last couple of days- I had to go to Marta's to use her fast connection so that it wouldn't take me days to get Dani's new kits DLed, but it was so worth it! (thanks again, Marta!)

journaling: Now that Sarah is sitting up on her own, she gets to see things from a whole new perspective. all of her toys are new again!
credits: Cabana Boy by Dani Mogstad (coming May 1 to designbydani); fonts: tweed

credits: Tribute by Dani Mogstad (available May1 at designbydani); Shabby wood alpha by Dani Mostad; fonts: Sweetheart Script

Cabana Boy and Tribute will be coming to Dani's store May 1 :)
I also 'borrowed' some pics from Bonnie of their Hawaii trip earlier this month so that I could do some more scrapping with Cabana Boy, and also do a LO for TracyB with her revamped Beach House kit. Lots of stuff to scrap! I've got to focus on getting my digicraft templates put together since the chat is next Tuesday :eek: So, there probably won't be another new LO for a few days.

I'm beat, so I'm off the bed. Have a great weekend everyone!

digicraft kit

One last post before I have to go start dinner now that coerced Sarah into taking a nap by putting her in the swing... I just finished this kit up this afternoon. It will be the posting prize for the digicraft chat/challenge at RAKscraps. It's nice to know I have the elements team prizes to fall back on if I don't have time to do my own, but this month I just had to create! I plan to make up a set of card templates (not sure how many or what exactly yet) and an envelope template or two. Everyone needs a card to send to their mom for Mother's Day right?

I'm a Dani's Girl for the month of May!

I was so excited a couple of nights ago to see an unexpected email pop up in my inbox when I was trying to wrap things up to get to bed. Dani Mogstad invited me to be her Guest CT member for next month! I have loved everything she has made since I found a few of her freebies, and then I started buying. Being on dial-up helps me keep my spending under control usually, but watch out PayPal account when I get to use a fast connection at a friend's house! ;) I think her Clownin' Around kit is my all time favorite so far, mainly because it is perfect for all of the brightly colored baby toys we have around the house. I never had anything I really liked to scrap those pics before she made that kit. I didn't even wait for a sale on that one, I just went and bought it the day it came out!
Dani has a gorgeous new kit coming out May 1- you can check out a sneak peak on her blog.
Thanks for the invite Dani! I can't wait to work with you and the other members of your team this month!

Thank you RAKscraps Admin!

Did you know it is Admin Professinals Day today? So, the secret is out and I can finally talk about this :) A bunch of us on the RAKs CT made up a special megakit to thank our wonderful Admin ladies for everything they do for us, the members and the site. It's a good thing we didn't have much notice about it, because I had a hard time not talking about it the last couple of days ;) Usually it's not hard for me to keep a secret, in fact I am one of those people who can leave a present sitting on the table for days and not open it. We evidently surprised them, so that's good. Everyone's contributions are so pretty. The Women of Strength kit will be available at Scrapdish as a fundraiser for RAKscraps soon.


and here is my contribution up close.

this and that

Brenna is pretty much recovered now. She was feeling better by dinner last night and was able to eat a little. Today she was following me all over the house talking up a storm, and not wanting to take a nap, so I would definately say she is feeling better!

I got a fun surprise email late last night, but I'm not sure I can share just yet so I will have to leave it at that cryptic remark for the time being. I'm awful, aren't I? LOL

I am going to share a little of the things I've been cooking up on the computer the last couple of days though.

You can't see much of the details there, but it gives you a little bit of an idea anyway. The top row is part of the kit for next month's digicraft chat and challenge, and the bottom row is, of course, from the secret agent kit. I LOVE how the building papers for that came out. not sure if I'm happy with the footprint paper yet. Something just isn't there visually for me when I look at the whole paper. I like the idea, but I just don't think I have the execution quite right yet.

I've been in have to get my RAKs CT assignments done mode again since the beginning of May is creeping up on me much too quickly. this month's digicraft is going to be cards and an envelope or two to go with, so hopefully that will come together quickly. I am collecting info for the newsletter tutorial. I know once I finally get it started it won't be too hard to write, but for some reason making myself sit down and just start doing it has always been the difficult part.

and to at least put up a few pics from the big birthday bash last weekend:

Secret Agent Bryce
All of the kids were fingerprinted, measured and pics taken for posterity at the beginnning of the party

Bryce had been waiting (not so) patiently since after school on Friday (his actual birthday) to open his family gifts, so we did that right after breakfast on Saturday. Of everything he got I would have to say that the miniature golf game has been the biggest hit.

the finished cake. Can you figure out the code?

My favorite part of the party was when they were all sitting down and being quiet. Occupying them with the packet of code info and examples was an idea that worked really well! they enjoyed it and I had a few minutes to work on getting a couple of the other activities ready to go.

The obstacle course was the biggest hit with the kids. I recruited Mark at the last minute to help get that put together and he came up with some great ideas for it. In this picture, Aaron is just starting- he had the fastest time at about a minute and a half. Beth timed everyone with the stopwatch she got at the library from the reading to teh dogs program earlier that week.
I'll have to go into greater detail about the obstacle course another time because I am ready for bed.

and his favorite presents from the birthday gifts were probably the new Bionicle figures.

and finally, a LO a did for Amy's Spring Cleaning challenge on Sunday. Gina Miller's Build Your Own Bulletin Board kit is really fun to play with!

journaling: Events in April
2nd- Brenna turns 3
15th- coloring eggs, baking easter cookies & Kristen’s belly dancing recital
18th- Sarah has started sitting up by herself
20th- second grade play
22nd- Bryce’s secret agent birthday party
- finished Mom’s Advice album
- Mark starts the new terrace building in the backyard

credits: Build Your Own Bulletin Board kit and addon by Gina Miller; pushpins and tape by Black Squirrel Designs; calendar template by 455rocket at pbase; fonts: FG Amelia

poor sick baby

I have a sick baby :( Brenna was talking up a storm to me this morning after I got up and while I was making lunches for the big kids. then, she laid down on the floor and got real quiet after they left; about 8:30 she started throwing up. She's running a fever too, but I don't think she can keep any medicine I give her down. I'm hoping her stomach will settle in a bit and then we can try some tylenol.

Sarah still has her runny nose too, but at least it doesn't seem to be progressing much beyond that so far. It's just annoying for both of us as she hates having her nose wiped.

Laundry is definately at the top of the to do list today (it was anyway, but vomiting definately pushed me to get it started! I'm washing the second load already).

I'll try to get some party pics posted a little later.

poor sick baby

I have a sick baby :( Brenna was talking up a storm to me this morning after I got up and while I was making lunches for the big kids. then, she laid down on the floor and got real quiet after they left; about 8:30 she started throwing up. She's running a fever too, but I don't think she can keep any medicine I give her down. I'm hoping her stomach will settle in a bit and then we can try some tylenol.

Sarah still has her runny nose too, but at least it doesn't seem to be progressing much beyond that so far. It's just annoying for both of us as she hates having her nose wiped.

Laundry is definately at the top of the to do list today (it was anyway, but vomiting definately pushed me to get it started! I'm washing the second load already).

I'll try to get some party pics posted a little later.

a bunch of misc stuff

Here's what the progress on the back yard looks like so far. He's got a few more bricks put down but it is still going to be a while before it is all done. I really don't like having a hole in my back fence, but I know it is much easier on him since he doesn't have to carry the bricks nearly as far.

Sarah sitting and digging around in her basket of toys- this is the picture I mentioned a few days ago ;)
Bryce indulging me and posing for a shot for the spy kit... not sure how I will use it though.
and a couple of new LOs
*eating rice cereal, apples, peas, bananas, sweet potatoes, greenbeans, carrots, pears, peaches, turkey, chicken, and anything she can sweet-talk someone out of
*rolls from stomach to back
*rolled from her back to her stomach for the first time 4/4
*ticklish on tummy & under arms
*can sit by herself briefly, with lower back support for longer periods
*puts everything in her mouth
*toes are the best toys!
*wearing mostly 6m size clothes
*has to have Mama in sight all of the time, or she starts crying
*is distracted from nursing very easily by things going on around her

credits: Hide and Seek by Dani Mogstad; paint frame and zigzag stitching from Sweet Treats embellishments; button stitch from Clownin' Around embellishemnts pack; LO design from Scrapbooks, Etc magazine brochure; fonts: tweed

I can finally post this since it was done for the RAKscraps April newsletter and that has been released now ;)

journaling: Sarah just loves her feet and toes. She kicks off her socks all of the time, and it isn't uncommon to find her with a toe or two in her mouth when she is laying on the floor.

credits: Pop Star by Robin Cabana at Scrapdish; ribbon knot made using tutorial by Jan Bolton; inked edge and chalked edge actions by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: MT Curlz and Comic Sans MS

journaling: Brenna saw this little car at the MOPS garage sale last year and it was instant love. She sat in it the whole time we were at the garage sale, except for brief periods when she would share it with the other kids; but the instant they go out, she would get back in. She wouldn’t get out when I tried to leave until I agreed to buy it for her. I could barely fit it in the van to get it home. She loves it though, and I think the best part for her is that her brother and sisters are too big to fit inside, so it is all hers!

credits: A Little Country Chick by Tracy Blankenship available at Digital Freebies and ScrappinDigiKreations; A Little Country Chick Doodle Kit by Tracy Blankenship; staple from Little Gentlemen kit by Tracy Blankenship; LO design from Scrapbooks, Etc magazine brochure
fonts: Tangerine, Tweed

OK- I've got to get up and go make a birthday cake and pick up a few more things around the house. I have lots of laundry (try 5 loads worth) to fold and get put away too. I'm hoping Sarah will take a nap this afternoon and let me get some things done- she hasn't been sleeping as well at night. She has a slight cold and runny nose and I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it. I just hope it doesn't turn into an ear infection. She is sitting in my lap right now and making life difficult by pulling open the desk drawer and reaching in to grab things and then grabbing and yanking on the trackball cord. great= now she's got a ruler. I'm off- have a great day and weekend everyone!

To Bee or Not To Bee

.... that is the question~ to bee or not to bee, that's what it's all about!

The second grade musical/play was last night and we got to enjoy seeing Beth and Carissa in their 'debut'. This was the first year that they decided to try out for an actual part in the play and not just stand in the choir the whole time. Beth was assigned the role of "Bluebelle" and Carissa was a "Quilting Bee". Beth as one of the flowers got to stand on the stage during the whole play, she had 4 lines she had to say, and she and the other flowers got to sing the first verse of the song "To Bee or Not to Bee" by themselves before the rest of the choir joined in. Carissa didn't have any lines, but she got to have wings on her costume, wear an apron (provided by her mother ;) ) and go up on stage at the appropriate time with the other quilting bees. It was a cute little play, but I have to say that the other roles were not assigned by the music teacher with a child's singing ability in mind. We are a very musical family and it is hard on the ears when listening to other people sing off pitch and out of time LOL We have been listening to our girls sing these songs for months now (even Bryce and Brenna know the words) and I know they can sing them 10 times better than most of the other kids. I'm not sure if the flowers were given instructions to dance during the songs, but if they were then Beth was the only one really following them. She was bopping back and forth and having a good old time with a big smile on her face while the other kids mostly just stood there and looked petrified.

Beth and Carissa in their flower and bee costumes.
Carissa standing in the choir and watching the performers on stage doing their thing.
The quilting bees...
Beth saying one of her lines at the microphone
Beth standing on the srage looking like a happy flower while WandaBee (who has to figure what job she wants to be) says one of her lines. The girl who was the sunflower stood almost directly in front of Beth during the whole play- I wanted to march up on stage and make her move to stage left so I could get a good picture LOL!

The pictures are actually pretty good- especially since I was sitting almost at the back of the gym and these are not touched up in any way other than resized for uploading. I haven't played with the lighting levels at all on them. My Nikon does a pretty darn good job in low light situations on the auto setting!

trying this again

I tried to post this morning, but blogger wouldn't upload my pics. So, I finally just got back around to trying to post again. On with the show!

I got this finished up over the weekend, and after a few days finally got it posted to RAKscraps. I am really pleased with how it turned out- it's good to know my templates work like they are supposed to ;) I had a blister on my left thumb from setting so many eyelets at one time- I use a set of spring-tools instead of the regular hammer and it can be hard on the fingers holding the tool steady when you use them a lot. The neighbors were probably glad to have me finish too because I have to go out on the front porch to set eyelets and Sarah was sitting there next to me in her little chair screaming her head off at me the whole time. It takes a long time to punch the holes and set 16 eyelets the right way.

Look at Sarah now! my goodness she is getting big. She started sitting up by herself for brief periods last week, and every day she lasts a little longer. She was having a blast tonight sitting on the floor with her little basket of toys next to her and being able to reach in and explore and grab the one she wanted. I have a pic or 2 on my camera, of course, but I haven't off-loaded them yet.

Brenna insisted that I take her picture too when I was snapping pics of Sarah sitting. She is such a ham! No progess on the potty-training. She isn't ready to give up her 'baby status' yet and is very forthright in telling you so. It will come eventually.

Journaling: Once again, because of the weather (it was really windy this year) our church's easter egg hunt was held inside the building. There weren't that many kids there this year, so everyone got to fill their basket and then some! Brenna found a sparkly egg, and that gave her one of the special baskets filled with goodies such as a stuffed floppy-eared bunny and a magnetic doodle board.

credits: Hide and Seek by Dani Mogstad; LO design from Scrapbooks, Etc magazine brochure; fonts: tweed and xerography

And a LO from the easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. I just love the sparkly accents people are coming out with lately!

My friend Kristen has been taking belly-dancing lessons for a while now, but this last weekend was the first time she has invited us to one of her dance recitals. I ended up taking all of the girls with me because Mark was exhausted from hauling bricks all day. We all enjoyed it. After all of the performers have finished their routines, they do one last song where audience members are encouraged to join them. It didn't take much encouragement to get Beth and Carissa up there trying the moves out. We have been talking about maybe giving the girls a couple of months of dance lessons for their birthday present in August. The dance school closest to us, which I have heard good things about, always has a BOGO coupon in one of the local coupon books that come in the mail. I think that will be a good way to try it out and see how it goes. I know they will enjoy it, but always the question is: will they practice? Summer would be a good time to try it out, but I think the vacation plans will interfere with getting them started before August.

Speaking of vacation plans, ours are up in the air all of a sudden. Mark had things mostly figured out, and then he found out on Thursday last week that a class he was planning on attending was cancelled and now he has to find something new to go to. There are 4 possibilities, 3 of which are in WADC during the month of June. If he goes to DC when the kids aren't in school we are all tagging along! Another advantage is that some of the travel expenses would be covered by the government as part of the class expense, so we could actually stay in hotels a good portion of the time (YEAH!!!) There are quite a few things in DC I want to see that weren't there when we visited last not too long after the twins were born- the WWII memorial, the International Spy museum, and the Native American museum- to name 3. Will keep everyone posted on how that is all shaping up.

I spent most of my computer time today working on Secret Agent papers. I got 3 done and I have to say that I LOVE how 2 of them came out. They are looking pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I also got some ideas for the next mini-album project I am working on with Tania put down in my notes program.

It doesn't look like we are going to get any eggs in our bird nest this year. The finch pair seem to have disappeared. Maybe I confused them when I moved the Christmas wreath off of the door and onto the side of the house next to it, and put my grapevine wreath up on the door. Brenna keeps asking to see the eggs and I have to say that there aren't any. I'm pretty sure the eggs last year hatched right around Bryce's birthday, so I don't think we will be getting any this year. I have to say it is nice not to be dive-bombed by the birds leaving the next everytime we walk onto the front porch though.

I've got to go do my 'homework' before I head to bed. Carissa brought home a paper that I need to fill out with dates of when she did certain things- walk, lost first tooth, etc. I dont' remember a lot of these thing specifically- geez louise. I am going to have to spend I don't know how many minutes digging through the scrapbooks looking for them and also my HD because some of the events in question have not been scrapped. It is due tomorrow too. The worst part of it all was the glee in Carissa's voice when she brought me the paper and told me that she had brought me some homework. Bryce has another field trip to Denver tomorrow for his SOAR class (the gifted program in our district), so he has to be at school at 6:30- UGH!!! and double-UGH!!! They are going to Golden to visit the mining museum there. Iguess I had better get busy so I can go catch a few winks before I have to get up again.

Night everyone!

'sneak' peek ;)

So, did you notice the new header? ;) I have so many birthday party pics from Bryce's birthdays that aren't scrapped yet because I never can find the right things to go with them. So, this year I am just making my own! The header up there has a few of the things I've been cooking up for the secret agent kit the last few days.

I went to the book store on Friday and found a book on codes for the party. I was originally thinking I would come up with some stuff on my own- everybody knows a few simple codes, right? morse, semaphor, pig latin, alphabet shift, etc. I'm sure you can think of a few more. I just came to the conclusion I just didn't have time to tackle that. In one of the book club order forms Bryce brought home last month was the book on the left. Since I missed the order time frame, I had to go find it at the store. What a cool book though! It throws in a bit of history along with the info about how to generate and decode ciphers from the simple to the more complex. Great illustrations, and best of all for me, predone questions and answers for them all!! :) I plan to hand the kids a packet made from the pages of this book and let them have it for a while. Hopefully it will keep them occupied for a good while. Bryce saw the book sitting out when he got home from school and wanted so badly to go read it, but I told him he had to wait until after the party so that it wouldn't spoil the party activity.

We've sent out 14 invitations, it remains to be seen how many kids will actually come. In the past we've never had more than half the number of invites we sent out, and usually it was even less than that. I think kids are just way too busy on weekends these days with sports and other activities.

I've got loads of other stuff to share (including some easter pics from this weekend), but I am going to wait until tomorrow to get that done.

Catching up on LOs

I think this is everything I haven't posted yet...

credits: Naturally Shabby by Robin Cabana at Scrapdish; peach flower by Ashley Olson, blog freebie; yellow flowers from Petal Pushers collection by Dani Brath; scraplifted from LO by Kori Babb in Scrapbook Answers magazine, January 2006, p44; fonts: MA Sexy

At 5 months old, Sarah:
*actively reaching for things
*able to pick up and hold things
*likes rattling toys
*puts everything she holds in her mouth
*hasn't quite figured out the solid food thing yet, but she is getting close
*sleeping through the night (8+ hours)
*doesn't like to nap
*wants your undivided attention
*likes Mama to hold her most of the time, though others are OK too if she is not hungry
*loves playing with her toes
*puts her toes in her mouth
*kicks off her socks
*plays peek-a-boo and laughs when you find her
keywords: baby duck 5 months night owl
credits: Molly by Tania Cordova; Forever in Stitches #1 by Janice Dye-Szucs aka Maya of Scrapbookgraphics
fonts: LB Rhonda

credits: Good Times by Carrie Stephens, Fishscraps; peas and pea pod from Baby Soft by Heather Douglas; pea picture by me
Fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate and 2Peas Beautiful

credits: Good Times by Carrie Stephens, Fishscraps; Fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate and 2Peas DW Journal

journaling: The things I find myself saying over and over are those “don’t do such and such” phrases. I feel like a broken record when I have to say “don’t jump on the couch” and “get off of Daddy’s exercise machine” usually with “so that you won’t hurt yourself” as an addendum. I KNOW the kids know not to do these things, but yet they keep on repeating them.... I wish I knew why.

credits: Good Times by Carrie Stephens, Fishscraps
Fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate and 2Peas Beautiful

Well, that wraps up the mom's advice album. I've got everything printed, now I need to get everything cut out and put together. It was a really fun project. Meredith is doing an ABC album project of some sort next, not sure if I will do that one since I just did the one for Brenna's birthday. Tania and I are thinking about the project to come after that already, but I'm not giving any hints ;)

I'm headed to bed, I think I have a cold coming on. My nose has been itching constantly all day and driving me nuts. I was hoping to get to finishing up the tutorial for the RAKs newsletter, but it didn't happen this afternoon. I did get quite a few things done though- lots of little checkmarks next to things on my to-do list were added. Tomorrow it definately gets done before anything else because the deadline is looming the day after and Correen's going to start cracking her whip!

Oh, and Mark found 2 of the unmatched socks out in the backyard a few minutes ago. now that is one place I would not have looked for them. And coincidentally they are the ones Carissa is wearing in the pic on the Mom's Advice page- I wonder how long they have been out there.... I guess they sort of match in a way- one is purple and the other is white with purple trim on the top edge ;)

where oh where did the little socks go?

oh where oh where can they beeeee?
are you singing along with me?

I just finished folding and putting away the girls' 4 loads of laundry I did over the weekend. There are 10- yes, 10!!- unmatched socks in their drawer at the moment. Honestly, I have no idea where the missing socks are. I haven't seen some of them in months. My kids don't leave the house with just 1 sock on, and they come home with 2 socks on their feet after they do leave the house (well, except for the one time some kid stole one of Beth's socks at McDs), so those darn things have to be hiding in my house somewhere.... don't they? The logical part of my mind says that yes, they are here somewhere, but I have to secretly wonder if there isn't a gremlin running around at night eating them just to confound and confuse me. I did happen to find 2 socks I missed on the closet floor when picking up the dirty laundry to wash, but there was only a match for 1 in the unmatched pile.

So, that leads into this LO for my Mom's advice album:

journaling: OK- so yes, she did leave the house dressed that way since I took this picture at church. In our defense, the dress was torn as she was getting into the van and we didn’t realize it was that bad until after we were already there. The socks and hair though, they’re another story....
credits: Good Times by Carrie Stephens, Fishscraps
Fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate and 2Peas Beautiful

You know, people just aren't very observant about things such as mismatched socks, or if they are they are too polite to mention them. I don't think anyone probably would have paid attention to Carissa's unmatched pair she wore to church that day excpet for the fact that I happened to notice them while sitting in the service and had to whip out my camera after it was over to take this picture for the album. Jeff Townsend had to give me a hard time about her state of dress when I got to Sunday School a bit later... he said he never would have noticed though if he hadn't seen me take a picture and wonder why LOL

It's Monday

We didn't do anything exciting this weekend. We drove up to Hellen Hunt Falls and did a little hiking on Saturday, and Carissa went to a birthday party at the rollerskating rink Sunday afternoon. I bought the new Narnia DVD last week and we kept thinking we would all watch it together, but it just didn't happen as it was always too late to start it by the time we had the opportunity.

I have a bunch of LOs to show you, but I've got 4 large loads of laundry I need to take care of first now that Sarah has fallen asleep for her morning nap. the laundry and dishes never end. I also need to get the tutorial for this month's RAKscraps newsletter finished up so I can get it submitted to Correen. I'll try to get the LOs posted later today.

I've started a new to-do list for the week. It took me all week to get the list I started on Monday last week done, so I will just be realistic this time and expect it will take me all week again to get everything checked off LOL! Have a great Monday everyone!

Brenna is 3 years Old party LO

journaling: pg1- We had lots of Dora decorations and cake with sprinkles, just as Brenna requested.
pg2- I decided to hold Brenna’s third birthday party a few days early so that we could have it while Grandmama & Grandaddy were here to help celebrate it. The Tamblyns joined us again too. Grandaddy saved the day when he was able to fix the Dora candle for her birthday cake, which we found was broken we opened the package. She, of course, got lots of Dora gifts- Dora slippers and lacy poncho from the Tamblyns, an Aquadoodle mat from Grandmama & Grandaddy, a Dora Memory game, Dora Fairytale Land CD-ROM game, Dora Colorwonder books, and Winnie the Pooh and Disney Princess Aquadoodle colorings sheets, and a Glowy Star from Mama & Daddy. Two princess books and a crown headband from her cousins Molly & Brandt arrived in the mail a few days later. Brenna was thrilled with her party and keeps talking about it a week later!
credits: Capering Cutie kit by Black Squirrel Designs; Smootzy alpha stamps by Nancie Rowe Janitz; Dora clothing tags I saved and scanned; based on sketch by Amy Knepper
fonts: Teenage Girl1, Times New Roman

I swear Kristen made this kit for scrapping Dora pics- it is so perfect for them, colors, theme, everything! go buy it here if you have Dora pics to scrap!
OK, off to fold the laundry I've been avoiding for days and start washing the girls' clothes- yuck, I hate laundry! there's dishes to put away and more to get in the dishwasher too- more yuck!

It's been a few days

gosh, time just gets away from me these days. Brenna and Sarah both conked out early this morning and took naps before lunch, so now my internal time clock is really messed up because it is 2:15 and they are both up. I did get one thing crossed off my to-do list while they were sleeping this morning, so that is nice.

Speaking of to-do lists, I love them but can't seem to keep track of the pieces of paper I write them on lately. I've tried notebooks of all sizes too, but they just seem to get buried in my piles of stuff. When I got my Wacom tablet, it came with a CD of programs one of which is a nifty little thing called Evernote Plus. Now I can keep track of everything I need to work on on my computer- I usually know where that is located ;) I do so love being able to put that little checkmark next to the things I have accomplished! They have a free version of Evernote you can DL if you want to give it a whirl- just go to the Evernote website. The Plus version is a 30 day trial, or check the CDs that came with your Wacom tablet if you have one of those.


Let's see what else have we been up to? Mark worked on the terraces in the backyard all weekend- he found termites up there and we have to redo them so that we dont' have a migration to the house. He got them all dug out (it took him 2 days to do that), cut up Monday night (see the picture), the pieces moved to the front of the house last night, and they were hauled away for us this morning. Now we have to figure out exactly what we are going to do with that area and get the retaining wall stones ordered. I really dislike landscaping, doing it myself anyway. I appreciate a beautiful job when it is done, but digging dirt and hauling heavy stones around just isn't my thing. We tend to only work on the yard when we have to in this house.

Sarah rolled over onto her stomach for the first time yesterday morning; so far she doesn't seem to be inclined to repeat it LOL She has finally figured out the solid food thing and will eat a bunch now, usually more than I expect. Of course this means the dirty diapers are bigger and smellier. I moved her up to size 3 diapers a couple of weeks ago, but I have still had to clean up several 'explosions' in the last week. I'm hoping her bowels will become better adjusted to the new diet and things will get more regular and less messy soon. She is sleeping through the night pretty regularly now- once I get her to sleep she tends to stay that way until morning. The tricky part is getting her to sleep. Of course the time change hasn't helped that. She was going to sleep around 9:30, but now that we moved the clocks forward it has been 10:30 or 11 before she finally conks out for the night. Mark needs a haircut and he tried to stay awake until after Sarah had fallen asleep so I could take care of it, but they both fell asleep around 10:30 (LOL). Maybe since she took an early morning nap today she will oblige and take a little evening snooze tonight. I actually got her to take a nap in her crib yesterday- whoo hoo!


I've got a new purse. The picture to the left there is not the exact one, but is pretty close- it's the same color and almost the same style. Mine has a little front pocket for storing your ID and cards and a little coin purse, that that one doesn't. Actually, I've had it for a couple of weeks and just hadn't gotten around to actually moving my purse contents into it. I did that this morning, it of course isn't as big so I already feel like I'm overstuffing it. The denim one needs a washing so badly though that I will at least give this one a try for a while and see how it goes. I can always move my stuff back to the other one after it has been washed, right?

I noticed this morning when I went out on the front porch to pound eyelets on the baby gift bag that our pair of finches have started building a nest in my Christmas wreath again (yes, the Christmas wreath was still on the front door....). I moved it to the nail on the side of the house and finally got out the grapevine wreath for the door. I guess it remains to be seen how well they do at parenting this year. This is the third year they have chosen to build their next in my wreath; the first year the eggs didn't hatch. Last year they hatched, but the parents didn't do a very good job keeping the babies warm or feeding them and they all died within a couple of days during a cold snap in the weather. I'll keep you informed ;)

I have no idea what to have for dinner tonight and the leftovers are all gone, darn it!

How'd I do that? *this one's for KimJ*

Kim asked me twice how I took the picture of the gift basket I made with Robin's Flair kit- I guess that means she really wants to know, huh?! There's really not any great secret to it, especially since I got all of my instructions from the February 06 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine LOL! They had a fabulous article on how to take still-life pictures; it starts on pg 105 if you have the issue. So, in a nutshell here's what you need to do:
*go get a piece of white posterboard (mine cost a whole $0.45 in the office section at WallyWorld)
*tape the top edge of the posterboard to something- I use a diningroom chair
*let the posterboard curve down in a smooth arc so that there won't be any corners to cast shadows in your pic; you can tape the bottom edge down if you need to so that it stays in place
*arrange the items you want to take a photo of on the posterboard
*take your pic- get down on the same level as the items, or shoot from above if you want overhead shot, so that you can fill the frame and only have the white background showing.

Pretty simple, isn't it? I haven't got the white balance thing on my camera figured out yet, so I usually end up adjusting the pics in PSE some.

Aren't those little goodies adorable? I made this 'baby shower gift pack' for TracyB using her blog freebie Sweet Grandson (did you know she is going to be a granny in a few months? :D ).

Happy Birthday Brenna!!!

credits: Capering Cutie kit by Black Squirrel Designs, Dora scanned from a clothing tag I saved; fonts: Poplar Std

Today is officially Brenna's third birthday. She is still talking about her party last Monday- I guess she really enjoyed it LOL!

and a LO I've been working on for a few days using TracyB's new Daddy's Got the Blues kit.

journaling: I’m not sure who was spoiled more during my parents visit- Sarah or myself. It was so nice having them here to help entertain the kids, hold Sarah and help with the cooking and cleaning up. This first night of their visit, Grandaddy and Grandmama held Sarah and entertained her while I worked on dinner. She was so excited to have someone’s undivided attention that she was wiggling with excitement for several hours. She finally wore herself out completely and fell asleep sitting in Grandaddy’s arms at the dinner table.
credits: Daddy's Got the Blues by Tracy Blankenship at Skrappindigikreations and Digital Freebies; chain links from Resolutions addon by Tracy Blankenship; heart doodles by Susan Cyrus (stitched) and Gina Cabrera (solid) from DDE CT Doodles Collection; bow by me
fonts: LB Plainstamp, Arial Black

I've got to head to bed since we have to change the clocks tonight- I just hate that!!