Happy Halloween!

Beth was the pumpkin carver this year (with some help from the other kids in designing and scraping and help from Dad with the carving). The kids are looking forward to dressing up for trick-or-treating tonight. Sarah was taught the proper etiquette the other night when we were at Grandmama's house to help out with a few things- they found a pumpkin bucket in one of the toy boxes and Sarah walked around the house filling it up with things she could fit in it, showing it to me and saying 'teat'. So adorable!

The girls and I are off to the store in a few minutes to buy some candy, as somehow I have managed to put it off until the very last minute this year (probably a good thing for my waistline, actually). It turns out that we won't be home the whole evening this year- Mark is going to choir practice, while I take the kids out trick-or-treating, so we won't need as much this year it turns out since we won't be here to hand it out most of the evening. I think first I'll go have another cup of tea in my new Halloween mug I splurged on to replace the mug Sarah broke not too long ago. It's so big, and I think the spider inside is just too cute ;)

I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with pics of our trick-or-treaters in their costumes!

Fall Leaves

Most of the leaves on the trees in our front yard were now IN the front yard, so it was time this weekend to get out the rakes and get them cleaned up so that DH could get the lawn mowed one last time. Of course we had to spend some time playing in the leaves too- you can't have a pile of leaves and not jump in it, right? right! Here are a handful of my favorite shots from the Friday afternoon leaf extravaganza with Brenna and Sarah.

and my favorite photo of Brenna that I've scrapped already:credits: Second Spring October 2007 Collaboration Kit by FunkyPlayground Designers; Grungy Photo Templates by Tracy Rivera at SBB

Christmas is in the air

well, at least at our house it is starting to have a holiday flair LOL I spent some time last week making Christmas cards for the monthly card exchange we've been doing at TrinityCrop. I got to dig out some of the Christmas kits I bought during the sales last year and hadn't used yet. Nothing terribly fancy on these, but it is amazing how much a little glitter glue can dress something up ;)

and just because I don't remember if I've shown off the other cards I did for the previous months here those are too, sorry if they are repeats ;)
for October:
and the ones I did for September:

It sounds a whole lot like Christmas at my house too lately since the kids have started picking out Christmas videos from the library to watch, and Bryce has been practicing 'Jingle Bells' on his trumpet. The middle school band is going to march in the city christmas parade on December 1. They had their first after school practice with all of the grades together Wednesday last week, and the first few bars went pretty well I'd say. I happened to have my camera and snapped a few pics to share. You'll have to pardon the sun glare on them, I fixed them up as best I could. It didn't seem to matter which way I was facing, I still ended up with glare.
I started my Christmas cookie baking Saturday night too. I know Dale appreciates getting cookies to enjoy with his evening coffee every year, and plus I just like having an excuse to bake bunches of cookies! :D We started out with Snickerdoodles. It went pretty quickly with all of the sets of hands I had to help shape the dough balls and then roll them in the cinnamon- sugar topping. Yum!

Sarah's birthday party LO

credits: Canvas of Colors Papers by Gina Miller; Candy Coated by Natalie Braxton and Gina Miller; Color Me Funky by Kate Hadfield and Gina Miller; Birthday Bash (number 2) and It's My Party (confetti) by Dani Mogstad; Birthday Collab by Lily-Pad Designers; Funky Free by Kate Hadfield and Corina Nielsen (ribbon wrap); Alpha Bits by Christina Renee; 365 Remembered- January Template by Lauren Reid; drop shadows by Tania Cordova Shaw; fonts: CK Extra

Sarah is Two! and fall break is over

Can you believe my baby girl is now two years old? me either. Most of the kids' fall break was spent at home with one family member or another sick with a stomach virus- yuck all the way around for everyone, especially mom who had the pleasure of cleaning up after them all. Bryce and I were the only ones not to get it. I did have a few days of congestion and general achiness, but thankfully not the stomach bug everyone else was passing around. Sarah is still not quite recovered fully yet, though she does seem to be getting a little better every day.

It looks like winter is starting early here this year- here's what we woke up to Sunday morning:
It snowed until mid-afternoon. It's mostly gone now, but the air and wind are still down-right chilly!

I had originally planned to have Sarah's birthday party on Friday the 19th, but with several people ill it didn't happen. We finally had the party yesterday afternoon. I invited Grandmama and Becky and her family over for lunch after church, presents opening, and of course cake and ice cream. Sarah decided to be super-shy when she saw everyone in the house and all paying attention to her. She went and curled up in Daddy's lap and ended up sleeping all the way through lunch. We had to wake her up when it was time for presents, and even with a pile of presents in front of her she didn't have to wait to open she still wanted to go hide. Once we got her started she did OK, but she most definitely did not like the spotlight being all on her!
I started her off with the Dora gifts because I knew that would get her excited about opening the rest. She got the new Dora Saves the Mermaids DVD from Aunt Megan and family.
and a large Dora doll from Brenna and Brcye- it's almost as big as she is!

Becky and family gave her a stuff dog and a couple of books to read:
Her older sisters gave her a few of their Polly Pocket collection (these are the ones from McDonalds and don't have any little parts)- Sarah loves them
Grandmama got her a large Doodle Pro board with stampers:
and Mama and Daddy got her a Little Touch Leap Pad. She tries to use the regular Leap Pad we have and it is just too difficult for her. This one is much easier for her to do and definitely more her size.

Then, we moved on to cake and ice cream. Nothing terribly fancy for her cake this year- Dora and flowers in lots of colors. All Sarah really cared about was the Dora on the cake- she kept trying to run off with it after I took it off the top. It does look a lot like some of the other small Dora toys we have around the house.

and since she skipped lunch in favor of nap time, she was ready for cake and ice cream and gobbled it all down!
Happy Birthday, Sarah! we love you!

Many thanks to Becky who was my photographer during the party and took all the photos for me!! Now, if I could only settle on something to scrap them all with.... I've spent hours looking at the kits I have and can't decide on anything. Nothing seems quite 'right' yet.

and a couple more LOs

credits can be seen HERE
(yes, I'm still working on vacation photos from last year- don't think I will be done any time soon either LOL!)

Brenna and Sarah were having fun spinning around and around in the black chair at Grandmama's house last week.

credits can be seen HERE

scrapping scrapping and more scrapping

credits can be seen HERE

a flash back several years - I've had lots of Halloween kits to work with this year, so the pictures I haven't scrapped already are getting pretty thin ;)

credits can be seen HERE

The October digicraft- template can be found at RAKs in this thread for a couple more days ;)

credits can be seen HERE

I've been waiting a long time to find the right scrapping materials for these photos!

credits can be seen HERE

Angela and Saxon are getting ready to go on their Disney vacation and they have a suitcase full of scrapping goodies for everyone in anticipation! I've been enjoying reliving some of these moments while scrapping Disney stuff- makes me want to go again!

credits can be seen HERE

credits can be seen HERE

credits can be seen HERE

credits can be seen HERE

I think that is it for tonight- I have one more LO that is done, but I can't post it until tomorrow so you will just have to come back!

Prowling For Candy

My favorite series of pics from last Halloween was of Sarah trying to help herself to the goodness in the candy bowl when I wasn't watching.

journaling: It didn’t take Sarah long her this Halloween to figure out that the kids coming to the door were getting good stuff from the bowl. I caught my little leopard eying the bowl and trying to help herself to the candy inside. ~Halloween 2006
credits: Spookylicious and Alpha-Pa-Looza- Stampers by Corina Nielsen at Funkyplaygrounddesigns; frame by Nancy Comelab at The-LilyPad; pawprints by Christina Renee from Exotic Adventure at ChristinaReneeDesigns; Alpha Bits by Christina Renee at ChristinaReneeDesigns; fonts: TXT Abrasive

The Mom Song

I've seen this on a couple of blogs now, and it just so funny that I had to share it here too.


It's drop off day for the MOPs garage sale, and I've got a huge pile of boxes in my LR floor that need to be loaded into the van for transport. I'm always amazed at how much stuff there is, and I'm sure I will find more things after I get back this afternoon. Here's hoping that more than half of it doesn't come home on Saturday afternoon!

Slidin'

I'm guest CTing for the fabulous Corina Nielsen this month! :D Here's the LO I did with her new collaboration with Kate Hadfield- Fun and Fancy Free

journaling: Sarah was so determined to make it to the top of the slide by herself on this early spring day. Step, reach, and pull- success! Slide & repeat again.
credits: Fun and Fancy Free by Corina Nielsen and Kate Hadfield at funkyplaygrounddesigns; date stamps by Amber Clegg at scrapartist; 365 February template by Lauren Reid; fonts: Yippy Skippy

Today's LO

credits: October 2007 Collab Kit by Scrapdish Designers at Scrapdish; Square Matties by Corina Nielsen at funkyplaygrounddesigns; Yellow Alpha Bits by Christina Renee at christinareneedesigns; Original Cluster Frames by Nancy Comelab at The-LilyPad; Paper Tears by Jen Caputo at scrapbookgraphics; Pin Dates by Holly McCaig at mydigitalmuse
fonts: FG Gabriella