Hoot!

One of my very best friends is having a baby in January!  I am sooo excited for her.  She is very artsy and loves to decorate.  She is also very GOOD at it, I've told her before she should be on HGTV's show First Time Design.  She plans to decorate the babys room using owls.  She found some GREAT fabric to use, this picture is pretty similar to the fabric!  I made this owl card for her, but I can't think of anything real clever to put on it!  I need some help here!

Summer Time!

I used the Zippadee kit from CTMH for this one.  I LOVE CTMH!!!  I've gotten so used to using their kits and can't hardly function in my scrap room without them! 

Fair weekend around here is kinda sorta a big deal for us and it has NOTHING to do with the fair!  That weekend is when the city car show and cruise night take place and NOW that we live right on Main the parade is sort of a big deal for us.  Our friends and family gathered in our front yard and enjoyed our HUGE wrap around porch during the parade!  They also enjoyed the UMC's ice cream right next door ;)  Gramps REALLY enjoyed the ice cream, he made 2 trips over there:)

Yep, Christmas cards in August!

It got down to 80 today and that put me in the holiday mood!  Nah, just kidding.  I had a free night tonight, no work, no being on call, no plans to do anything!  It was AMAZING:)  I spent 3 1/2 hrs in my scrap room!  Did I say it was AMAZING already!  Just me, my cricut, and a new Theory of a Deadman CD.  I didn't get around to starting my Xmas cards until late last year, so I'm working on them now already!  I got 5 of these made tonight!  No it didn't take me 3 1/2 hours to make just these!  I made some other cards also, including some with a really super cute owl!  I'll share him with ya tomorrow:) 

I also made these Thank You cards!

Dinner for 4 under $5

I am a HUGE fan of Hamburger Helper, just b/c it's so DARN convenient!  I like the chicken helper as well, but don't tend to cook it as much just b/c it's more work to cut up all that chicken.  We also usually have our freezer stocked with ground beef.  Today I tried out the Whole Wheat Chicken Helper.  It was pretty good for a cheap meal.  It might not feed 4 adults, but for 2 adults and 2 kids it  worked well. It looks kinda like a mushy bowl of stuff, but the hubs exact words were, "This is PRETTY good!"

Bought the mix last week on a 10 for $10 special

Chicken cost me $3.23

Sibling Love

My two toddlers are so in love with each other:)  Marissa wraps her arms around her "brudda" several times a day and says, "I LOVE you Ryan!"  Ryan will nestle up to her and give her hugs too, it is sooo freaking cute!  Marissa has her Daddy's sleeping habits and you about have to drag her outta bed if ya want her up before 9:00.  Ryan LOVES waking her up, he runs into her room all giggly and excited.  I hope they always love each other as much as they do today:) 

I CAN do it, I WILL, I WILL!

Friday was payday, which means I took a little look at the budget and made sure all the bills were paid then decided how much money to divide into my envelopes!  I've done this for the last month and each time I've ended up taking money out of my 'envelopes' for other things.  I am determined to make it through the next 2 weeks WITHOUT overspending!

A few of the envelopes that I've created to set aside for the future include: Property Taxes-Both House and Car, Christmas, and Vacation.  These things come up at the same time every year and I plan to be prepared for them!

Thank You Cards

Here's the Thank You cards that I made this week.  I was pretty excited to try out my new set of Thank You stamps from CTMH!

Baby Boy Cards

I've spent Wednesday evening in my scrap room making cards.  I had no particular occasion in mind.  I was in the mode for card making after helping my best friend make invites for her baby girl's first bday, she's the Miss Kayley Marie that I recently posted pics of:)   I LOVE to make cards.  I am hoping to get a booth at the craft fair this November to sell cards and pre-made layouts.  I made these baby boy cards, but now I want to add something to the big empty space on the right side.  ANY suggestions???

The Kiddos

I am a complete sucker for kid's clothes!  Oh how love Gymboree and long to one day be able to afford everything in their store!  I will have to wait for grandkids before that day comes or maybe even GREAT grandkids.  For now I am content shopping the clearance rack.  I set out on a mission to find my kids coordinating outfits for a wedding last weekend.  I think I spent 20 minutes total in the mall before I checked out.  That's after a quickly browsing through baby gap, children's place, and then Gymboree.  I paid 16.99 for Marissa's dress and I think 11.99 for Ryan's shorts and another 11.99 for his shirt.  They looked SO adorable for the wedding.  Marissa may have gotten more comments on her dress than the bride, who by the way was looking beautiful too.  I snapped these pics in our yard before we made the 2 hour drive. 

All the editing I did on these was just on my camera screen, except for the last one, I think I forgot to edit it all together.

Ryan Swimming

The beginning of the summer I was overfilled with joy at the thought of taking my babies to the pool every day possible!  We've gone at least twice a week all summer and sometimes more, well except for Ryan.  He didn't quite get into it, just got cold and mad.  I started waiting til he was napping, then having my sisters or Grandma watch him while Marissa and I went to the pool.  A couple weeks ago I decided that I was taking the kids swimming in the evening.  At 6pm the pool is usually pretty quiet with only a handful of kids, I LOVE going at this time even though it sorta screws with supper time.  The water was SOOO nice that night and Ryan LOVED it!!!  I was so excited!  Marissa has ALWAYS been a water baby and I was worried I was gonna have a boy scared of the water.  He's not scared, he just doesn't like to be cold and who could blame him for that?  Now if I could just get him to stop trying to drink the water.

Do I NEED a mini van??

Nope, I KNOW I don't need this van.  My sister and I planned a little day trip with my mom, the kids, and my sisters.  We were going about 2 hours from home and didn't have a RELIABLE 7 passenger vehicle to take!  So as I was trying to figure out what we should take these texts took place (close anyways, I don't have them saved anymore):


Me: I need a van!  I don't have a way to haul 7 people to Kansas City!
Bob: ya know with your big raise we could afford the payment on a new one.
Me: I'm NOT buying a NEW vehicle
Bob: With all the rebates it's not that much more and we can order it exactly like we want it

A couple days later we go out for dinner WITHOUT the kids, we stop by the dealership on the way to pick up the kids (DH has a dealership key;)  Then we go sit in some vans and jeeps, cause I'm not quite ready to admit that I need a van!  Cause seriously I do NOT need a van!  I insist I need to drive an Acadia before I can make up my mind.  Only one on the lot is being worked on.  Bob shows me the cool touchscreen radio with 2 DVD players and it's own hard drive!  Can't get that in the Acadia.  I decide I NEED this VAN. 

On Tuesday I test drove the 2008 van to KC, help that my Mother in Law IS the dealer:)  Found out my husband doesn't really know what he's talking about and the '08 is way cheaper than he thought.  It's not his fault he gets that from his Dad.  A few more texts as I'm letting my mom drive home.

Me: Ya know when ur driving ya can't really enjoy much of the cool features of the van and I'm gonna be driving usually if we get it.
Bob: Yeah. LOL

We agree that if we're gonna do it we should sell our car then if the '08 is still there buy that one, if not it won't be hard to find a different one.  I drove my Pacifica a long distance today and I think it's more comfortable.  Then Bob tells me that there is ALREADY some one interested in buying my car!  Now I have to decide fast!  I think I'll sell the Pacifica, pay off the loan and then refuse to get another loan and drive our old van that is a little less than reliable:)  Shhhh.... Don't tell my husband!  I'll just let him think I'm buying a van, maybe.   I at least got to drive it for the day that I really needed it:)  He'll probly talk me into it still, he's not really on board with the Total Money Makeover. 

Here's the van I drove:

Miss Kayley Marie

My friend Amber came over today along with her 10 1/2 month old daughter Kayley.  As I was looking out the sliding door, I suddenly had the urge to take Kayley's pics by the rugged door on the old shed out back!  I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.  It was lots of fun and I can't wait to really learn more about using the manual settings!  I edited these all with Picnik, but didn't change too much on them.  My favorite is the 2nd one.  I just love the cross process option from Picnik!

Potty Training

For the first time in MONTHS I finally did a digi page:)  I've had some computer issues that've interfered with my digi scrapping, but they've been resolved for the most part.  I have a lot to catch up on for my 5 year album.  I started it with our wedding which was July 23, 2005 and can't quite decide whether to end it with our 5 year anniversary or with the end of 2010 so I can start making albums for each year.  My favorite thing about the digi album is I can upload it to shutterfly and create a photo book.  I can then order as many copies of the same book as I want!  My plan is to order 3 of each family digi book I make and place one in each of my kids keepsake boxes.  This could get pretty expensive, but once it's all completed on shutterfly I can wait until they have a good deal before I order, such as the 50% off all photobooks they had for father's day!  Enough rambling, here's my quickly thrown together layout.

Dollar Deals!

I've hit some pretty good deals at the grocery store this week!

Applemarket- Hamburger Helper .98/box
                      Lipton Sides 0.98/pkg
                      Philadelphia Cream Cheese 0.99/pkg
                      Cottage Cheese 0.69/tub
                      Hunts Spaghetti Sauce $1 
Thriftway- 10 for $10 deals- Hamburger Helper, Lipton Sides, Pudding cups
                 Toast 'ems poptarts are always $1/box

Every item on this shelf in my cupboard cost $1 or less!  The top ramen hiding back there I think was moved over from our old house, I haven't bought it in at least a year.  Far as I know it may be leftover from college!  Is it even possible for them to go bad!  I never think to make ramen noodles even though I love them,
guess I know what were having for lunch today!

Beautiful Blooms

I've got some BEAUTIFUL flowers blooming right here in my back yard!  I do NOT have a green thumb.  I did not plant, water, or do anything but snap some shots of these blooms!  These were all taken using the manual settings on my camera.

Photography Challenge-Attitude

Over at the photo forum they have a challenge going on.  The subject is ATTITUDE.  I just happen to have an 11 year old niece and a 14 year old sister with plenty of attitude to go around!  I also have a 2 year old with an attitude but she doesn't tend to cooperate with taking pics unless it's her idea.  The contest is sponsored by Lowepro and this bag is the prize!

I'm in desperate need of a camera case!  I can't decide if I want a back pack type that I can also put a laptop in or if I want to get just a camera case and use my old laptop backpack since I will probably be taking my laptop places I won't need my camera.  Yep there really is places that I'd leave my camera at home! lol

Ryan's 1st Bday Layout!

A couple weeks ago I met with some scrapbooking friends to have an evening of scrapping and snacks, and most importantly daiquiris! Ok, not so much daiquiris, not for me anyways, I had to go to work at 10pm that night.  It was a great time and I can't wait to do it again, BUT I just couldn't find any inspiration!  I did manage this layout of Ryan's 1st bday and also one of Marissa swimming, but it's not quite complete yet.  I can't believe in 3 hours I only got 1 1/2 layouts done!  I'm usually WAY faster than that!  I found some layout sketches the other day that I plan to give a try very soon!  I should be getting one of those wonderful orange sutterfly envelopes in the mail soon!  Pics of Ryan swimming, Marissa at swiming lessons, the car show, the fair, AND the parade!