lots of scrappy updates

Just wanted to let you girls in on some of the fun stuff going on out there in scrap world. LOTS of fun stuff going on for the month of September. So here goes:

*Simply Obsessed is having a month long "School of Scrap" contest/challenge/get your scrap on with challenges and even some "homework"

*ShopCropSuey is now officially OPEN for BUSINESS! Woohoo! And the kits Bree and Camille put together are scrumptious! I can't wait to get mine in the mail! :D

*ColorStory 8 is up and includes a luscious color board with some Pottery Barn inspiration.

*Another great place with some Pottery Barn goodness is the Noel Mignon challenge blog. Michelle's challenge this time around is fabulous!

In an ideal scrap world, I'd be able to get to all of these challenges, and I'm going to do my best. But I wanted to tell everyone about them even though I may not get to every single one. I *think* that's all of them, but I wouldn't put it past me to have left something out! If I did, y'all remind me, k?

More pics and a few LOs too!

I've got lots to share, so here goes! First, we spent the long weekend at the lake. It's the last time we'll be there until Thanksgiving, so it was our last chance to swim and enjoy it's long lazy days. These are a few of my absolute favorites, but I actually got quite a few that I love.

Caroline splashing Nana


Caroline (not Dora) the Explorer


me and "baby Kate" as Caroline calls her


Baby Kate playing on BobBob's beach


Daddy's girls on game day:
Lil Rebel cheerleader


Lil Rebel princess (so her outfit reads)


And of course, Color Me Daisy's September kit is now up! It features papers from the new smash hit company Black Market Paper Society, Dream Street, and American Crafts. It was fun working with fresh stuff!Here's what I did with "Chocolate Dreams":

"You @ the zoo"

I have the hardest time with zoo pictures. So I decided to do a collage with them!

"Together"

A really simple one using rub-ons only.

"Austin"

This one's another one for Tab. I didn't add journaling so that she could do her own, but if it were up to me I'd simply add "Ausin-coming of age. Summer 2008" To me, he still has his babyface, but he's losing more and more of it each day. Her "little" boy's growing up!

"Family Fun"

A fun one of Sarah Kate and Granddaddy. They're always so playful.

"Thanks" card

New favorite picture!

Caught this one as they were rolling around on the kitchen floor! LOVE the way it turned out! :D Just thought I'd share!

Indecisive

For those of you who frequently check my blog, sorry for the the many looks you've been seeing from me. It just seems that no matter how cute a background is, I can't get used to it because I like the black. So, sorry that it's been kinda crazy. But I think I've finally decided that I'll just stick with the black. Well, until another cute background comes along! :)

Fun pictures from the weekend

What a fun weekend! Josh's parents came up on Saturday and met us downtown. We ate at Tony's, which is one of our favorite restaurants in the Art District, then we took the walking bridge across the river to Coolidge Park. And man was it hot!! But we had fun too! Here are some pics from Saturday:

On the walking bridge

Chattanooga has 4 bridges that cross the Tennessee River, one of which is a walking bridge that connects the downtown area to the North Shore.


The 4 of us


1st carousel ride

Coolidge Park has a great old fashioned merry-go-round. And I was completely shocked when we walked up on it and Caroline knew exactly what it was! And she just HAD to ride it. Obviously, she was a little scared at first. But then she preceded to ride it about 10 more times! LOL! And once she figured it all out, she insisted on riding the pig! (Nonnie has those pictures.) And believe me, she comes by that bottom lip all on her own. She's had it since the day she was born! (SK has it too!)

Sarah Kate and Nonnie

It was also SK's first time to ride, but she was so sleepy that it really didn't phase her. Poor kid!

Adin and Caroline in the fountain

Before the day was over, we definitely had to let the kids play in the fountain. It was so stinkin' hot that it was really the only way to cool off! Caroine was timid at first, but she finally walked in after she ran circles around the fountain first!
Saturday was really fun, but we were all exhausted too! Heat, humidity, and lots of walking will do that to ya!

Yesterday we had a nice restful day. The worship service was amazing, and I was really moved by what Gary had to say. (Hopefully I'll get to download it soon. You can find it here.) Then it was home to rest. While everyone else napped, I got to scrap. At 6pm we went to a picnic with a new small group. (We're just visiting this church, but it seems very promising.) Everyone was very nice and welcoming, so we'll have to see if this is where the Lord wants us to be for now. It's hard going somewhere new where everything's so unfamiliar. But then it's kinda refreshing too.

Enter cliches here

that's how the cookie crumbles, gotta roll with the punches, when life gives you lemons you've gotta make lemonade.....yeah, any of those will do. Yesterday wasn't such a great volleyball day. And though I try my hardest not to let it (the sport) dictate my mood, it's still hard to do sometimes. I guess it's needless to say that we lost. That's usually not too big of a deal to me, especially for the first game of the season, but this time I saw where not having a net for the last week really hurt us. Yeah, you read that right. We were a volleyall team practicing without a net for the entire week leading up to our first match. Not fun. Definitely not easy. And I feel like our match would've gone in a completely different direction if we'd had a net....so today we move on. Our net is up, and we have to move passed the disappointment of that first one, and just move on. But I'm so stinkin' competitive that it was still a hard pill to swallow. (sorry. had to end on a cliche too!)

for all my scrappy friends

thought you'd appreciate this!



Yep, those are my all-time favorite Thickers---and all the E's at that!