Another week almost gone

Time sure does speed by these days. I've been collecting little things to put up here on the blog for a few days, so here goes:

Sarah gave me a hug on Saturday morning (4-19) and then said 'I Love You.' That was the first time I have heard her use those words all together like that. It made my heart melt. Mark says she has been telling him too- often 3 or 4 times in a row :)

Beth's tooth that was really out of place before she got braces has moved right where it is supposed to be already! amazing!

One of the ladies at church crocheted all of our girls ponchos and gave them to us after church on Sunday. Beth, Carissa, and Brenna wore them all afternoon and evening while Sarah won't even put hers on.

My laptop is running smoothly and quietly again after DH vacuumed it out for me Sunday afternoon. It really is amazing how quickly the dust accumulates around here now. It definitely seems worse now than the first few years that we lived here.

Brenna asked this morning if she could use some scissors to cut some paper. I said yes, but she also had to clean up her mess when she was done. She made a right nice pile of paper strips on the little blue table and has refused to clean them up when I told her it was time to do so. She has spent well over the amount of time it would have taken her to do it throwing a fit about how it is 'boring to clean up' and refusing to do it. TV priviledges have been revoked until she gets the mess picked up. Sometimes it's no fun having to be the grown-up.

I think I can say it is truly getting to be spring here. I just saw a fly in my kitchen and yesterday the girls were in the backyard for a while, but came in when they saw a bumble bee. We don't have too many bugs here- which is a good thing in my mind as I like it that way! My sis and BIL can keep the big ole bugs down there in TX as far as I'm concerned! some of the trees are finally starting to get buds on the ends of their branches and I saw a bed of daffodils that were up when I was out for a walk one evening last week.

Here's a LO I did with Corina's contribution to the latest FPD designer collab- my favorite Shortcake recipe: credits: By Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Funtastic, Bucket of Fun- Scalloped Mats, Trims 1, Painted Overlay, and Doodled Frames, Alphapalooza Doodlers 2, Alphapalooza Stampers, red ribbon from One Sweet Day, Matties- Big Squares; Heavy Duty Staples by Kate Hadfield; Baker's Dozen by Kate Hadfield and Jacque Larsen; Glitter Paint Splats by Christina Renee; Paint Brush Strokes by Michelle Coleman; fonts: CK Sketch, 28 Days Later

and I got to make this to replace a hybrid project I had put in some of my galleries, but hadn't gotten up on my blog yet: credits: Unamused Boys, note paper and ricrac from Outnumbered Girl, Wings from Little Darlin' Addon, Graph Cuts Alpha, Cardboard Cutouts, staple from Regiftable, Messy Painter, Foam Stamp alpha; fonts: LD Letterpress

A card I made was accepted for publication in the May issue of Digital Artist Magazine- whoo hoo!

and I did this LO yesterday for a challenge over at SBG to scrap about games you love to play. I'm not fond of Monopoly, but Mark and the kids sure do love it. I started this LO over two years ago and never finished it. I had photographed and scanned all of the pieces for it and done some extracting of them- I can tell my extracting skills have improved a lot in two years as I had to pretty much start over those first ones were so bad! LOL and goodness the kids look young in these photos too. You can barely see Brenna peeking over the railing below Carissa in the picture where she is saying "I'm Rich!" after winning the game, and Sarah is slung over Mark's arm in the top left picture as she is only 2 months old.

journaling: Mark used his Christmas money from the Rodeffers to buy a classic Monopoly game and introduced the kids to the world of real estate, mortgages, and going broke. They loved it
& spent a lot of time playing Monopoly with their dad during the school break.
credits: Photo Grids #1 by Jen Caputo; by Jessica Bolton: scalloped edge paper (Just Another Memory), green paper (Impressions of Anticipation), Teeny Tags; Paper Bag Alpha by Michelle Godin; Monopoly board and pieces photographed and scanned by me; fonts: CK Journaling Condensed