First Love

I did this page last night. I was in the mood to scrap, but I didn't know what to work on. So I started going through some of our older pictures (Lord knows I have tons of those that I've never done anything with!). I came across this picture of Lucas and Meagan. I had done a page a while ago that had a bunch of pictures of them that I took at this same time. But I just couldn't skip this picture & not put it in our scrapbook. It's too precious! She looks like such a little peanut in his arms, and I just love the way the two of them are looking at each other. She definitely loves her Daddy!

Credits

A little bit of not very much

No motor development this morning - I guess she decided to start spring break a day early. That was fine with me. I didn't have any big plans, since I had gotten the house pretty much cleaned up the other day. So I figured we could just take it easy this morning, and I would figure out something to do. Well, around a quarter 'til ten, the phone rang, and a friend of mine was calling to see if I wanted to get the kids together to play. She has 2 little boys that are Isaac & Meagan's ages. She had invited us to her house, but since Sebastian had to catch the bus at 11:10, I told her it would work better if they came here. So, the kids spent the morning with friends, playing with all those organized toys in the basement! Well, I came upstairs from the basement to get something, only to notice that it was 11:15. And Sebastian was still in the basement. Oops! We missed the bus! So, I guess we could have gone to her house after all. Oh well! It ended up being no different than every other Friday, when I drop Sebastian off at school after motor development is over.

Not much planned yet for the weekend. I still have to clean out the oven, so I may do that for the remainder of nap time. I may go up to Lansing tonight or tomorrow to look at buying a new couch. Other than that, we're just hanging out and hoping for good weather. It's gorgeous up here today, so we'll probably play outside this afternoon, once Meagan wakes up. That's it for us for now...oh, and I DID pick my drivers this week, so I am hoping for at least more than zero points this week! Keeping my fingers crossed! Have a great rest of the day!!

(just coming back w/ an update - thanks Shane! I took your advice & it worked fine - no explosions or anything!)

Finally

I finally got my act together and took some pictures of our basement now that it's nice and clean and organized (at least more than it ever has been!). Here are a few pics for you so you can see what it looks like now that the toys have somewhere to belong!

And I have to share something with you! I had to laugh at myself, and I'm sure you'll laugh at me too! I thought I would be a good mom & surprise my kids with a cookie pizza for desert tonight. So I made up the dough, threw it in the oven & baked it all up. Well, the timer went off, and I opened the oven to get it out, only to find the cookie dough had expanded way more than I realized it would! It ran over the side of my pizza sheet, and I have a perfect ring of cookie dough droppings baked to the bottom of my oven. So, it looks like I'll NOT be using the oven to make dinner, and I will be cleaning the oven when we're done eating. That cookie pizza better be mighty tasty to be worth all this trouble!!! LOL! I guess next time I'll use a regular cookie sheet with a ridge around it instead of the Pampered Chef flat pizza stone. Maybe the ridge would have caught some of the dough??? Oh well. It was good for a laugh. Live & learn!

An update on Meagan's eye - yesterday it turned all shades of blue - even up under her eye all the way over to her nose, which was only reddish the day before. Today it is a lovely shade of indigo with a hint of purple. But it seems to be bothering her less and less. And she's back to her crazy ways - getting into all kinds of everything today! So I think she's feeling much better!

Spring is in the Air

I took these pictures of Meagan 2 days ago while I was doing some cleaning. I had just put clean sheets on our bed, and she got up on the bed & was having the best time flopping around being silly. I was lucky enough to have my camera handy, and I got some great pictures of her. She's such a happy girl! So here's a page of pre-black-eye Meagan!

Journaling: Windows open. Warm breeze blowing. Fresh sheets on the bed. A happy baby girl. And one lucky momma. Spring is in the air.

Credits

Change of Plans

Well, I had planned on getting caught up on our TON of laundry that needs to be folded. That WAS my plan for the afternoon, until Meagan came up with another idea. During 'nap' time, she decided to find new uses for her baby stroller (at least as much as I can tell). She was in her room, and I was in the hallway, when I heard a really loud crack followed instantly by hysterical screaming. I went right in to see what had happened. I found her lying on the floor, face down at the foot of her bed. The stroller was near her feet, tipped over on its back. From what I can tell, she was trying to stand in it, when it tipped over & she went face-first into the bed frame. And, even though the frame is rounded, she somehow managed to cut her cheek open. There was nothing else around her, so it had to have been the bed. ??? Immediately, her cheek bone got a huge blue welt on it. So I called Lucas, and he came home from work to stay w/ Isaac while I took Meagan to the ER. The doctor said it looked like the skin had split, probably from the force of the impact from the looks of it - no stitches needed though, since it was pretty superficial. She also got lots of x-rays, and thankfully nothing was broken. So we now just have to do the typical head-injury stuff - you know, wake her up ever hour all night long, and so on and so on. So, thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and the only real aftermath is going to be a black eye to match nicely with her Easter dress!

Warm Weather & Snake Hunting

Well, I missed the game of freeze tag last night. When I went outside, Lucas was spinning the boys in circles (you know - hold their hands & spin until you think you're gonna fall over, and then they scream 'again again' and you're thinking 'please don't let me puke!'). I asked him what happened to freeze tag, and he said after a few minutes of running he felt like he was going to throw up. So spinning is the best plan for NOT getting sick??? LOL! But they were having fun with their daddy, so if he didn't mind, I didn't mind! Later, we played football, boys against parents. That was fun! We played on the swings, in the sandbox, on bikes, and in the dirt. And then we stuck the kids in the tub!!! They had dirt, sand and grass from head to toe! Aaah, warm weather! I love it!

I did a little more scrapping last night after bed time & Prison Break. Here's the page I finished. I used a new kit by Krista called Just for Fun. These pictures are of Isaac from summer 2005 - look how little he looks!!

Journaling: You might be just a little guy, but you sure are brave. this hot summer day we got out the snake sprinkler to cool off. as the snakes spun around and around, Sebastian kind of hung back, a little timid & unsure of the whole thing. but not you! you found it in you to sneak up on the snakes and pounce. you had the best time making water spray every which way...up, down, at your brother, and even in your own face. i cracked up just watching you. i hope as you grown you keep this sense of fearlessness that marks your personality right now. to live life unafraid is a gift.

Silly boys

I know, I know, it's been almost a week! I'm slacking! Actually, I've been fighting off the illness that my husband was nice enough to share with me. That, combined with a busy weekend, has left little time for blogging. Also, the designers whose teams I'm on went nuts releasing new stuff all at the same time, so I've been trying to keep up...not so successful. But I can only do what I can. Here's a quick layout, just for your entertainment, until I can get around to something more substantial. I have some CUTE pictures of Meagan today that I can't wait to share with you. But, right now, I have a pressing game of freeze tag to attend in the back yard...I can't leave Daddy out there to fend for himself!

This is a some new stuff by Sweet Genevieve...she just started a line called candy graphics...so far she has alpha, flowery, and starry. This layout has the alpha & the flowers.

Journaling: Silly boys! I love it when the 1 of you are getting along. you're such a good team, you have so much fun together when you're not fighting!

Credits

How could I forget?!?

I almost forgot one of the most exciting parts of my day!!! I finally printed my digital layouts, and I got them in the mail today. Love them!! I learned a few things - like digital staples look like double-sized industrial staples when they're printed out - so, for anyone interested, I would recommend resizing the staples to be about 1/3" or so before sticking them on your layouts (just an FYI). Also, on one layout, my font was too small, so the journaling is difficult to read. That's easily fixed, though. All in all, the layouts turned out better than I had even hoped for. I just kept looking at them over & over - I know, I'm a little obsessed. Now I just have to get them into albums before Meagan finds them & decorates them like only she could.

Clean Sweep!

Woo Hoo!!! The basement just keeps getting better & better. Tonight I picked up a $50 desk at Meijer for my computer. You wouldn't believe how much room it saved us just to have this desk instead of the hodge podge of furniture we had going on in the basement. We shoved all the boxes against the wall, turned my scrapbook table to sit in front of the boxes, and put the desk where the table used to be (we're hoping to floor the attic this spring & get most of the boxes out of the way - that will be awesome!). Now I have a little L-shaped work area with tons of space. We're going to trash a few pieces of furniture we had down there. Also, Volunteers of America is coming by next Wednesday to pick up donations, and I can't wait!!! I have 7 bags of clothes, and maybe some other items to give them. I have a few boxes of toys that I'm going to take to the church to donate to the nursery (which is a little lacking in toy variety). And I have some unopened or almost new scrapbook stuff that I'll never use, so I'm going to stick that on e-bay. After all of that is done, our basement is going to look almost empty! There's still lots of projects to do, but we're making progress! I like it down there better already! Now, if we could only find a living room couch that wasn't busting at the seems, I'd be in heaven! I know...one thing at a time! :0)

Busy Living Life

Oh, woops! I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted...no wonder I'm catching crap from the in-laws! LOL! I guess I got too caught up in living life that I didn't have time to blog about it. Not such a bad thing, I guess!

So, you're probably wondering about our weekend, and our Monday, and our today??? Well, Saturday I went shopping for storage furniture - for toys! I found some really nice shelves that are deep enough to store a lot of their bigger toys (Little People for starters!). So besides church on Sunday, the only major thing I did this weekend was sort through toys and get them organized. We threw out a few garbage bags full of parts & pieces & broken toys that no one would want. It feels so nice to finally be getting a bit of a handle on the toy epidemic in our house (no thanks to grandparents, really!)

Yesterday, Lucas surprised us by taking the day off. I had been thinking of taking the kids over to Meijer Garden to see the butterfly exhibit. Since Sebastian was home from school (conferences, or something or other), and Lucas was off of work, we decided to make a day of it. We got to Grand Rapids around lunch, and went to Bob Evans (kids' choice) to eat. Then we headed to the gardens. Their butterfly exhibit was awesome! They had at least 29 species on open display, just flying around their rain forest room. We all had a great time trying to spot each of the species & identify each of them (we had a pamphlet to go by - although we may not have needed it anyhow, because the boys seemed to be pretty schooled in butterflies, courtesy of Go Diego Go)! Some of my pictures turned out okay - most were pretty blurry. Plus, my battery died. So I have a few to share, but not as many as I would have liked!

From their, we headed to the mall about 15 minutes away & went to Build-a-Bear. We had intended to take Meagan for her birthday. I guess we were just a few months early. So we let Meagan build a critter, since she's never done that. And the boys each got to pick out one new outfit for their bears. It was a tough choice, and they tried their hardest to weasel out more than 1, but in the end, they both chose the firefighter outfits. The car ride home was spent dressing & redressing the bears. For Meagan, we did the same thing we had done with the boys - we went down the row, holding up 2 choices. Whichever she chose, we compared to the next choice, until we had gone through them all. She kind of went back & forth between the dog & the cat, but in the end, she chose the puppy. She was not having a single thing to do with stuffing it, or cleaning it (maybe she wasn't too fond of the guy working there...for working at Build-a-Bear, he wasn't exactly clued in to how to approach a 2-yr-old???). But she wasn't letting go of it after it was made! She even asked for it as soon as she woke up from her nap in the van. "Hey, my doggy!" (I had stolen it to use as a pillow LOL).

And today, we had story hour this morning, we sorta did a little of this & a little of that during the day, and then we went & picked up the shelves after dinner. So Lucas & I worked together this evening to get those put together & the toys on them. I'm SOOOOOO happy!!! (I'll try to post some pics tomorrow - you won't even recognize my basement without toys all over the floor!) For now, it's late, and I'm headed to bed. I'll leave you with 2 sets of pics - the first from Meijer Garden, & the second of Meagan & her puppy 'Peanut Butter Cup' (aka Doggy). Love ya!

Need for Speed

Isaac is feeling inspired this morning...inspired by Anakin in his really fast pod racer. "Mom, I hope some day I will have a really fast drag racing car and I will win all the drag races." First thought - oh, Grandpa, Daddy & Shane will be so proud! "I hope so too, Buddy. It would be so much fun to watch you driving a race car." So Daddy now has big plans to get him into junior drag racing (how old do you have to be for that, anyway???). Not to be outdone, Sebastian decided he was going to be a stock car driver. (Heaven for Grandpa #2 LOL). The discussion continues...Isaac has decided McDonald's will be his sponsor because he wants to drive a McDonald's race car. Sebastian gets all excited, and says, "and then Isaac, people in McDonald's clothes will change your tires and give you fuel!" Wow...I guess I better brace myself now for a life full of motor sports!

Speaking of racing...I'm an IDIOT! I forgot to pick my drivers for fantasy racing this week, so I have a big ol' goose-egg for this race. BUMMER! I thought of it late Thursday night, but was too tired to get out of bed, go back downstairs, restart the computer & log in & all that jazz. I thought I would still be able to do it Friday morning, but no such luck! Oh well, at this point, I will just have to aim for winning weeks instead of the whole deal. LOL...not that I really expected to win anyway...oh well!

Our little Special Person

Sebastian is Special Person of the Week at school this week...poor guy...he's been waiting ALL year for his turn! I think he started to thing he was never going to get a turn! But, all of his waiting paid off, and it has been everything he hoped it would be - he got to share pictures of himself, be first in line, and be Mrs. Long's special helper all week. For him, that's the definition of heaven! I'm glad he's enjoying it!

We had our second parent-teacher conference today. This time, Sebastian was supposed to go with us. So we got a babysitter to watch Isaac (who played play station) and Meagan (who ate marshmallows & played ball with Lilly)...that was easy money for her! Anyway - Sebastian showed us all around his class room. There were stations set up for him to show us - reading, writing, poem books, math materials, science and so on. I think he could have shown us around the room for HOURS! When we sat down to talk with Mrs. Long, she had nothing but great things to say about him. He's 100% on letters & letter sounds; he can count to 100+; he recognizes about 85% of his sight words; he's an all around good student (I think she called him a laser at one point, which almost made me laugh - just a funny term for a kid, I guess). But we were both really proud of him, and he was really proud of himself (although he was very humble about it, which I was thankful for). It was a good evening.

Oh, for those of you who have been waiting on pins & needles for the answer to the unsolved mystery of the locked-up cat... Lucas got a confession out of Isaac at lunch yesterday! LOL! It was soooo funny! He said, "Buddy, did you sneak out of bed and lock Lilly in her cage?" Isaac turned his head the funny little way that he does and said "Hmmm, maybe it was Meagan." "It couldn't have been Meagan," Luc says, "She was in her room with the gate up." "Maybe Sebastian then?" Isaac says. "No, I don't think it was Sebastian, either." (Smart Daddy). "Well, MAYBE it was me" he says with a huge smile on his face! So this morning guess what I found in the living room...the cat carrier sitting up on end...with Lilly just sitting up inside of it. One of the 2 boys (my bet is on the blond one!) just lowered it down over her as she was sitting there relaxing. That cat is such a good sport!

Anyway, after bedtime, I hit the computer... Genevieve has a new kit that just came out, and I had to get my layout done for it. Here's what I came up with.

Credits: Sweet Genevieve Hanami Kit

Updates

Just an update for the day -
1) Sebastian is officially signed up to play t-ball. He starts practices in April.
2) Meagan & Isaac were at Nicole's during nap time, so NO NAP! Yikes...can you say early bedtime? They went to bed at 7:30. Meagan crashed right away. I just handed her paci & pointed her in the direction of the bed. (she's so cute!)
3) I took some 'me' time & went up to Lansing to buy a CD. I've looked at Meijer & Wal-Mart here, but neither place had it. I got Barlow Girl's new CD - Love it! Thanks for the birthday $$
4) Go NO scrapping done tonight, but I did manage to get a new digi tutorial posted on my other blog.
5) Didn't watch Idol tonight, so I'm gonna go watch the last 2 minutes on tivo to see who got the boot, and then I'm going to bed! 'Night!!

We had a great day yesterday! What beautiful weather (although today it's overcast & dreary - at least it's not snowing)! We had a great morning at story hour, and we even got back early enough to play outside for a few minutes before the bus came. The kids took a really good nap, so I got some stuff done around the house (I FINALLY got all of our laundry folded & put away, after having an overflowing collection of baskets since we got back from Ohio. So I was pretty happy about that.) We took Meagan to the chiropractor to get her ears checked & to get her adjusted for her many tumbles down and off of stairs lately. No ear infections, just a little irritated, so we caught it in time again! Yea! Then, more playing outside until dinner time - at Applebees (so no cooking)! Then MORE playing outside. We - well, the kids - rode bikes down to the circle (I walked) and played. The new family (someone finally bought the other 2-story!!) was out playing too. They have 3 kids - a boy who's 4/almost 5, and 2 girls who are almost 3. The kids had a blast! Then an evening of scrapping. So all in all it was a great day!

Oh, one funny thing...I was up late last night scrapping (time change is getting me, and I just can't sleep at 11:00 yet!). Well, I was on my way up to bed, and as I was walking through our pitch black living room, I heard Lilly 'meow' like she needed help. So I flipped on the light and found her locked in her overturned cat carrier. The last I had seen her, she was snoozing on the couch. So apparently one of the boys wasn't feeling very sleepy either, and they decided to sneak downstairs to 'play' with he cat! Poor girl! She puts up with an awful lot from these kids!

Let's see...what's up for today? Right now the kids are playing dress up/ghost people with blankets. Sebastian is waiting patiently for computer time. Other than that, not a lot planned. I'll definitely let you know if anything of interest comes up.

Here's the page I got done last night. Oh! I forgot to share this news with you - I'm on one more Creative Team (this is the last one for a while, I swear!). She's a new designer at Elemental Scraps. I really like her stuff, and her kits come all together instead of having to buy paper & elements separately. I like that. So anyway, here's my first page using some of her designs. (Credits)

Journaling: Why does this seem like a daily battle...to keep you out of the cupboards, to keep your food off the floor? You've only just turned one, and already it's clear to me that you have a very independent and determined personality. Meagan, July '06

Why don't Grown-ups act like Grown-ups?

Well here's something interesting. I had to call the bus garage after school today to report our bus driver's bad behavior. Nicole called me as soon as Sebastian walked in the house and asked "What was that all about?" I had no idea what she was talking about, so she proceeded to tell me that the bus driver had screamed & yelled at Sebastian when she dropped him off this afternoon. She actually unbuckled her seat belt, and stepped down to the bottom step, hanging out the door, yelling at him over & over to get in the house. I asked Sebastian about it, and he said the same thing - that she was yelling and being really mean because he had to sit down on our front porch to fix his boot. Yes, he probably could have gone a few more feet & just come in and taken his boots off, but I don't think that's cause for unbuckling to yell at him. Can I just say that he is NEVER in the house by the time she drives away. NEVER. He's five. His attention wanders. He plays a little, and eventually makes it inside. One day, (which I blogged about LOL) he actually got stuck in the snow in our side yard - no way he was ever going to get in the house - and yet she drove away and left him there. So I'm not sure why today she felt like chasing him. When I called the bus garage about it, the supervisor said "She's a 65 year old lady who ways 220 pounds." "Yes, she is" I agreed. I guess that was his argument for why this couldn't have really happened? At any rate, he said he was going to get the camera off of the bus & review it. Unfortunately it's not the first time I know of that she's done this. At the beginning of the school year she once dropped one of Nicole's daycare kids off at the wrong house (about 5 housed down from me). When he wouldn't go in (the WRONG house), but rather started walking back toward Nicole's house, the driver got all the way off and was screaming at the top of her lungs at this poor little boy - so loudly and for so long that I heard her with my windows closed and went outside to see what was going on. It was embarrassing to watch a grown lady behave like that. I just don't understand why a 65-year-old woman would need to treat any child like that.

Speaking of grown-ups acting like children....
This weekend Lucas went out and played with the boys - really played! He got on his ROLLER BLADES!!! He skated down to the circle while the boys played on bikes & scooters down there. What an overgrown kid! Just one reason I love him!

I finished this page last night, and it's one of my favorites! It was just fun to do - fun to think through. I just love times when the creative process isn't forced, and this was one of those times. I started out in search of a fun way to use Genevieve's wings kit because they just looked fun. So, naturally, I turned to my Meagan pictures (not that boys can't be butterflies, I guess - I'm sure there are lots of boy butterflies)! Anyhow, I came across these pics of her right after she was born, and the princess hat & the little baby back were just asking to be scrapped! Here's the end result - hope you like it!

Credits

A Breath of Fresh Air

Just posting for yesterday for now...
We skipped Motor Development - none of us felt like going, so we figured it would be a good day to stay home. The boys had earned PlayStation time, so they played that in the morning while I got some stuff done around the house. The weather was so nice yesterday, that we couldn't pass up the chance to go outside. We decided to stick to taking a walk, though, because there was still too much snow for bikes & scooters, and the grass is just green mud at this point from all the snow melting. So, we walked down to the end of the circle & back. The kids were outside playing at Nicole's, so we stopped over there for a while. Sebastian, Isaac, Meagan, & Monique made beautiful sidewalk art until it was time to go in (had to take Lilly to the vet for shots). It was so nice to finally get a breath of fresh air! Again today the kids are outside playing...I'm on my way out now to join them. Maybe I'll take some more pictures & post another slide show. Hope you enjoy this one of our pics from yesterday!

Digital Tutorials

Hi all! For those of you who are interested in digi scrapping, I have just started yet another blog dedicated to Photoshop Elements 5.0 tutorials. I've added a link to the left under my ever-so-lovely picture. If there are any questions or topics you want addressed, you know where to find me! Also, I would love to know if the format / content of these is helpful & easy to follow. Thanks in advance for the feedback!

ScrapGalaxy has just started up a digi section to their forum...the design team is starting to add tutorials & answer questions on there. Here's the link if you're interested: ScrapGalaxy. The Digi Scrapping section is toward the bottom of the forum.

Back to Paper

I finished a layout for Grandma's album that I thought I'd post to share (I haven't forgotten about it). I blurred out the names because it seemed like an awful lot of info to just hand out on the Internet. I figure I'll post these as I get them done so you can see my progress on the book. I want to be able to be done with it by the next time we head down that way, so I can bring it all with me. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Goin' Rounds.

Meagan and I are going rounds with Lilly's food and water (and apparently now litter). Today, around 11:00, Isaac said, "Uh, Mom, you need to come see what's downstairs." I went to the top of the basement steps & looked down to the bottom. I was NOT happy with what I saw. At some point during the morning (which I still can't figure out), Meagan struck again! This time, she did all of the following:

1. took the lid off of the litter box
2. unwound the roll of litter box liners & strung them across the basement (and through the dirty litter box)
3. used the poop scooper to scoop some litter into the water dish
4. filled the remaining clean water with cat food
5. threw some cat food into the litter box, just for good measure
6. and just basically sprinkled the basement floor with litter and water, creating a clumpy clay litter MESS!

So, we've moved the water to a different floor of the house from the food & litter. I've also turned the litter box so that the opening faces the side (the thought being it will be more difficult for her to get into, so she'll leave it alone - hmmm...wonder how well that's gonna work?). We'll see what tomorrow brings. For tonight, all I can say is I'm glad it's bedtime.

Polka-dot Bikini

I did this layout partly because I can't wait for warm weather, and partly because I couldn't wait to use this paper! I LOVE this picture of Shelli from last summer! Just look how happy she is in her cute little bathing suit & floppy hat (thanks for the picture Sher)! All the paper & elements (except the teeny tiny brad) is from Sweet Gen's Sunny Days mini kit.

Cat Soup

We have another chef in the family - and her specialty is CAT SOUP! It's turning into at least a weekly occurrence that Meagan cooks up some form of of this delectable dish. The basic ingredients: water and cat food. Other ingredients are optional - we've found toy cars, puzzle pieces, crayons, and the occasional clump of cat litter. Mmm Mmm Good! Poor Lilly has had to resort to sink and bathtub water for something clean to drink because her water dish is frequently filled with another one of Meagan's concoctions. I wish I could understand what the fascination is - I wish I could figure out how to make her stop! (But, at least it's better than her eating litter!) I never knew having a pet would bring my children (well, mostly just Meagan) so many creative outlets!

Last Year of 20-something

It's official - I've entered my last year of my 20's! This has been an all-around great birthday! This morning, first thing, I got my birthday gift from God (as Sherri called it). I woke up at about ten 'til 9:00, and I was actually the first one (other than Lucas who was long gone at 6:30) up. This NEVER happens in my house. My kids - especially Sebastian - just don't sleep past 8:00 most days, and I'm almost always up by 7:30. So when I woke up this morning - not because someone was crying or hungry or had had an accident, but because I was just DONE sleeping - I was beside myself. I just laid in bed & soaked up the silence for a few minutes. Then, I got a Happy Birthday call from one of my favorite people in the whole world - Sherri! Not a bad start to the day. The rest of the day we just kind of took it easy. And other than nap time, which was pretty much non-existent since they slept until 9:30, everything went rather smoothly. Meagan even went potty in the potty a total of 4 times today, and 2 of those times she had a dry diaper when I took it off of her to sit on the potty! (woo hoo!)

When Lucas got home from work, we loaded up in the van & headed to Lansing for dinner. I picked Red Robin. I know, that's a weird place to pick for my 29th birthday, but never underestimate the value of a place that entertains your kids during a sit-down dinner!! Plus, there's something about a burger that someone else cooks for me that I just can't resist! After dinner we headed to Target for a quick browsing. Click (you know - the Adam Sandler movie) was on sale for $13 so I got that for my birthday from the kids (love that movie!). I also got a new hair dryer (so Guy, you won't have to worry about any more tripped circuits in your house when we visit). And, as we passed by the clothes, I scouted a few REALLY cute outfits I might go back & try on (minus the kids and after tax return money rolls in & gets allocated to all the stuff that's not as fun as new clothes). So now we're back at home. The kids are in bed. And we're just chillin'! Thanks to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday wishes! You guys are awesome & really helped make this a great day! And, Lori & Leroy, Happy Birthday guys! I miss you - wish we were together to celebrate!

A Quick Layout...

Since I was away from the computer all weekend, I decided to spend my free time this evening doing a little scrapping...no surprise, I'm sure. Still doing some Creative Team stuff - I used the new paper & elements Genevieve just released, as well as one of her new templates. It was my first time ever using a template - not my typical style, but it made for some quick work! I've had these pictures for almost 2 years now...it's about time they found their way to a page!

Journaling: 'When you walked in, I could see the uncertainty and anticipation on your faces. But, you laid your gifts in the bassinet, and just stared at your new baby sister. Three strangers about to become best friends. (Isaac's gifts: Duck, Doll; Sebastian's gifts: Bear, Rattle)

Birthday Breakfast & Dead Lobster

Just a quick post today to give an update. Finally, we've gotten a chance to visit family - after almost 3 months of being away. We headed down yesterday after Lucas got off of work. What an interesting experience that was! The roads were AWEFUL - cars & trucks spun off into the ditch every 50 feet or so on both sides of the highway. I've never seen so many flashing lights, between all the tow trucks and police cars. At one point, a car that was FLYING up behind us, on its way to pass us, lost control about 50 feet behind us, spun around who-knows-how-many times, and stopped facing into the oncoming traffic. To put it mildly, I was glad he hadn't gotten any closer to us before he lost control of his car. Thankfully, once we got a little ways past the state border, the roads cleared up & it was back to normal traveling. But what should have taken 2 1/2 hours took 3 1/2. Oh well, at least we arrived safely.

After staying up way past my bedtime to visit last night, we all got up this morning & headed to Bob Evans for breakfast - even Shane got up & went with us, which was nice! Then later this afternoon we headed to Red Lobster for a birthday dinner. Two meals I didn't have to cook in one day!!! That was a great birthday gift!

One funny thing Isaac said at dinner, I think is worth mentioning. We were trying to decide which appetizers to order, and someone suggested Lobster Pizza. Isaac didn't miss a beat, and he said, "Mom, does Lobster Pizza have dead lobster on it? And lobster butts?" I didn't know what to say - it was such a funny question! I had to be honest - "Yes, honey, it has dead lobster on it. And maybe lobster tail, but no lobster butts." "Okay," he says, "then I'll try it." What a cutie. I think I'll keep him!

Okay, off to lounge around on the couch for the rest of the night, trying to sleep off all this food!

Strength and Beauty

Here's my first layout for Sweet Genevieve's Creative Team. (Credits)



Journaling: Baby girl, you are beautiful to me. It brings me such joy just to watch you be who you are right now. To a casual observer you are beautiful in the normal sense of the word. Your big blue eyes, your cute little nose, your sandy blond hair, and those cheeks! You have always been, and you will always be admired by the casual observer. But by those who know you, you will be admired for so much more. There is a strength about you that makes you get back up no matter how many times you fall, that makes you try again until you get it right. No one can deny that you are a pretty girl, but it is your quiet strength that makes you beautiful.

Sweet Genevieve

I am SOOOOO excited about this! I have been selected as one of the members of Sweet Genevieve's new creative team! For those of you who don't know (which is probably most of my family & friends reading this LOL) Genevieve Sass is a very talented digital scrapbook designer. And I am so so so excited to get to use her stuff! It's like a dream (you all know how giddy I get over scrapbook stuff)!!! Here's a link to her blog and her store, if you want to check it out! I'm almost done with my first layout using some of her new stuff (which comes out in the Oscraps store tomorrow), so I'll upload as soon as I can.