The sickies

have descended on our house. It started with Sarah Kate, then passed on to both me and Caroline. Thank goodness it's a Friday because that means Josh will be home and I can try to catch up on all the housework and laundry that's piling up. But then, it's Josh's turn to get the bug. Fingers crossed he won't get it. Anyway, it's been a long week, lots still to do, and eventually I'll post all the goodies I completed while on my scrap getaway with Virginia! But for now, I thought I'd check just check in. Sorry for the lame post, but that's kinda where we are right now.

some layout love

Well, here I sit, blogging no less, when I've got a trillion and one things to do! I'm so excited because this weekend Josh is so graciously letting me have my very own little scrap retreat with Virginia, and I couldn't be happier! But in order to get out the door, I feel like I've got a million things to do! But also since it's been so long since I've blogged, I thought I'd leave you with some layout love. These are 3 LOs I've completed this week, and I think I'm finally happy with them.


Sarah Kate playing peek-a-boo behind the crepe myrtle tree.




Caroline riding that gigantic horse this past Fall.


And yes, I think I've decided to embrace being 30.



Anyway, I guess I'll catchya on the flip side of the weekend! :D Hope ya have a good one!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

As you may have guessed today's Caroline's b'day, and she's now 3. Without this little one in our family, there'd be a lot less pink, a lot less "pincess" talk, and a lot less laughter. She brings so much to our family--giggles, adventure, drama, singing, and lots of firsts for her AND us. We love her sooooo much!

We've sorta been celebrating her birthday all week since the grandparents all came up at different times.




Today we had her "real" party on her "real" birthday. Here are some good ones from today (I'm actually disappointed that I didn't get enough "good" ones. I KNOW I was driving everybody crazy snapping pictures!):




I'm quickly learning that a whole new world opens up at the age of 3 and we're looking forward to taking advantage of it! We're anticating swim lessons at the Y, play time at The Little Gym, and even ballet classes later this year! I guess she's officially a "big girl", and has grown so much in the last year! I can't believe it's all flashing right before my eyes! Time PLEASE stand still--thankfully I'm good at remembering to take pictures. They DO stand still unlike my now 3 yr. old! LOL! Here are some of my favorites of Caroline from 2008:







Happy Birthday sweet girl! I love you!

Love of a Lifetime!

I was so ecstatic to get my January Crop Suey kit while I was still at the beach! There's nothing like getting scrappy mail delivered by hand to you, on your birthday no less! I immediately opened the package, and fell in looooove with what I saw. This month I'm designing with Camille's Jazz Cafe kit, and it is just gorgeous! I cranked out this LO in no time, it's almost like it made itself. I love the Prima lollipop flower, and to put a little more bling on the page, I spruced it up with the Glitz rhinestones in the center. Then I used the black sparkly trim as "leaves". I loved adding the bling, so I decided to accentuated the title with some too. And the photo is of me and Josh at "The Hangout" in Gulf Shores, AL, a new restaurant we tried while we were there. Anyway, this is my first LO of the kit, and I'm sure there's more to come. There's so many possibilities!

Color Me Daisy LOs

This month's Color Me Daisy kit was just fabulous! It featured Pink Paislee's "Sweet Cakes" line with some ridiculously yummy Maya Road embellishments including their chipboard cupcake minialbum. I just LOVED playing with it! Here are 2 layouts I did with the kit, and I'm waiting to have Caroline's b'day party this weekend to finish up the cupcake mini. So stay tuned for that. But here are my layouts. I was feeling a little doodle-y on these. hehe!

Dress up girl

Caroline is definitely in a dress-up stage. I caught this shot before Christmas before we got all the Disney Princess dresses. Now she wears those. But this particular outfil was made up of her terrycloth beach cover-up, Sarah Kate's Halloween costume hat, and princess plastic high-heeled shoes! It was toooo funny!

Runway Ready

And this is my niece Emma. I love that Emma will pose for me and do photo shoots. Here she is sporting her latest fashions she received for Christmas. Her outfit includes her new ipod, a Jonas Brothers t-shirt, new purse, jeans and sweater. This one will be a fun one to look back on for sure!

Favorite layouts of 2008

Okay, so I'm just a wee bit late on this one, like by at least a week or more, but I've noticed lots of girls doing this same post on their blogs and I wanted to too. (how's that for a run-on sentence! hehe!)

2008 was a fun year for me scrap-wise. Not only did I learn a TON thanks to discovering scrapping on the Internet, but thanks to the encouragement of Gretchen, I made my first design team with several more to follow. I also was published for the first (and second) time in 2008! I even sold some scrappy goodies to make a little $$$ on the side. So I feel like I've come a looong way, and been very blessed in 2008 as a lot of my dreams came true. I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for me! Hopefully it'll be just as fun a ride as 2008!

Anyway, all that being said, here's my Top 10 favorites from 2008 in no particular order:

Elmo Purse


Mesmerized


Sittin' Pretty


Jam Session (my nephew Ben)


All Things Girly


Budding Artist


Little Lamb


Lil Pumpkin


Lil Miss Sunshine


I believe in Us

Here's a little quiz, and you KNOW I love quizzes! This one's from Virginia, and the trick is to answer each question with only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? work

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? selfless

5. Your father? caring

6. Your favorite thing? paper

7. Your dream last night? kamp (that's spelled correctly)

8. Your dream/goal? sanity?

9. The room you're in? cluttered

10. Your hobby? scrapping

11. Your fear? death

12. Where do you want to be in six years? Alabama

13. Where were you last night? reading

14. What you're not? patient

15. One of your wish list items? organization

16. Where you grew up? Bham

17. The last thing you did? groceried

18. What are you wearing? outfit

19. Your TV? constant

20. Your pet? outside

21. Your computer? addictive

22. Your mood? calm?

23. Missing someone? yeah

24. Your car? big

25. Something you're not wearing? shoes.

26. Favorite store? clueless.

27. Your Summer? anticipating

28. Love someone? yes.

29. Your favorite color? changes

30. When is the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday
(during the book I was reading)

Naptime

What a blessing! I love that my almost 3 yr. old still takes naps! What I love even more is that she does it all on her own. She goes down for a "rest" time, which at our house is defined as playing in your room quietly so your little sister can nap. But inevitably Caroline snuggles herself down and eventually naps too. Today was no exception, but this is what I saw when I peeked in on her.



This is what she'd done.

I guess she wanted to sleep in her tent today, because she snuggled herself right down complete with blankie and bear! And yep, that's ketchup still on her face from lunch.

I'm relishing days like today, because all too soon she won't nap, I won't have a break from the craziness, and it'll be one step closer to her becoming a big girl. But for right now I'm going to go enjoy the peace and quiet (and take down the Christmas tree)!

Inspired

and I mean more than just creatively. Over the Christmas break, I stumbled upon Patter Cross's blog. Now some of you may wonder why I'm just now finding it since she's pretty much IN the scrap scene, but regardless I just found it. I saw where she'd been doing a Scripture Challenge for every week of 2008, and honestly her "words" and descriptions really touched me. At one point I think I even teared up. I was also sad that I found the blog and thus the challenges in December, like week 49 of 52 weeks. So I promised myself that I'd do my own Scripture challenge for 2009 just using her devos from 2008. Well, Patter must've read my mind (we're close like that) because she's re-posting her Scripture Challenges this year too along with the His Holy Name challenges for 2009! I couldn't be happier and more excited to get started! I mean, what a great way to use up my scraps or leftovers from kits while also digging in to His Word, and THEN doing something creative with it! So, I've added Patter's blinkies to my sidebar. The Scripture challenge is a weekly deal, and His Holy Name is every 2 weeks. I can't wait to get started! Who's with me?!

HOME! finally home!

Yesss! We've been away for 13.5 days, and it feels like for-EVER since I've slept in my own bed! It also means that I've got a lot of updating to do, so here's the warning. This will be a very photo-filled post. But I also want to share.

First of all was Christmas. Our Christmas schedule was CRA-ZEE! We were in 3 different state over the course of 4 days, exchanging presents and eating feasts all along the way. We first went to Mom's, where I got these pics:

Cookies for Santa

Belle dress, Belle Barbie, and "make-up"

Elmo


Then it was on to Mississippi to spend Christmas with Josh's fam. It was fun to watch the cousins, primarily Caroline and "Gacie", because they're so close in age and can play together. Our time was also filled with some Guitar Hero World Tour where we all got to rock out!



And Santa brought the girls a Princess tent!

Sarah Kate doesn't quite "get" Christmas yet, so while she received presents her older sister knew more about the excitement of Christmas.

And lastly we spent almost 10 days at the beach. We did Christmas down there too, but when it was all over we hung out, ate lots of seafood (my fave), watched football, and played on the beach. I also took that time to work on my photography skills and attempt to "learn" my new camera more. Here are some of my favorite shots.




And then some of the beach:




Oh yeah, and I turned the big 3-0 while I was there.



I think that's about it. It was a very good vacation! And I know so because I feel like I need a vacation because of my vacation! The girls and I are exhausted, but it's a good exhausted! It was a wonderful time all the way around!

I'll be back soon with some favorite LOs from 2008, as well as my Color Me Daisy projects with the January kit!

Hope you're all having a happy start to the new year!