Silver Rocket Scraps

The Day After

2009-09-05T08:22:00.003-05:00

So my due date has come and gone (that would be yesterday for anyone who doesn't know). My house is looking better and better. I'll post pictures after we finish putting everything back in the proper place. We've crammed a whole lot of home improvement projects into the last few months, and Tyson and Rex really stepped it up during the past month.

My fabulous sister Jenni took both of the kids for the entire weekend, so I'm trying to balance my massive to do list with equal parts rest/putting my feet up so that the swelling in my ankles goes down. I have decided to go private with my blog. I've been thinking about it for some time, but do to some recent developments, I'm going to do it within the next few days. Please leave me a comment or email me if you'd like an invite to the new blog. I'm actually exporting this blog to the new place I'll create, so that I can leave this current one running and use it if I decide to do any more scrapbook designing in the future. I want a place to be able to discuss the kids and put up baby announcements without using code names etc.

I'm OK with whenever the baby decides to come now, but I honestly don't mind waiting a few days longer, as it will give me a few more days to put my house back in order. I'm a little nervous about finally being outnumbered by my children, but I think everything will go great. I've already designed the birth announcement, I'm just waiting to fill in the details and the picture. Now we wait...

2009-09-03T23:13:00.003-05:00

Tonight after dinner I retired to my room to put my feet up. My left foot looked as though it was about to explode (still does) and I just needed to relax. BittyBit came into my room after she finished her dinner and cleared her plate. "Are you having a fun time?" she asked. I told her that I was just resting and was about to begin reading a book. She asked if she could join me, but I pictured her getting bored quickly with just sitting there next to me, so I asked her what she would do while she was there with me. "Why don't I rub your feet so they don't hurt so much" she suggested. And she did. What a sweet kid.

Pioneer Day

2009-07-24T22:29:00.007-05:00

We had a fun time at our Stake's Pioneer Day celebration at church. They had a ton of cookies and breads, along with lemonade and water to drink. I heard that there was a pie eating contest, but I didn't join in that particular event. I talked with some friends I hadn't seen in a while and Tyson took the kids around to the different activities. We were running out of time for the craft activities, so I went into one of the rooms and made rag dolls for each of the kids. They thought those were pretty cool.
When I tucked the kiddos into bed, BittyBit asked me what my favorite part of the day was and I told her that it was when I was able to make dolls for her and her brother. She said her favorite part was the parade (where they got to walk around the parking lot and pretend that they were pioneers crossing the plains). Then she asked LittleMan if he had a favorite part of the evening. He said, "I eat cookies". There's a man for you, give him some cookies and he's happy. Tyson told me that LittleMan ate so many cookies and drank so much water that he lost it all during the parade. A minute and a half later he was back at the dessert table trying to cram his mouth full of more goodies.

More Conversations with BittyBit

2009-07-23T19:11:00.004-05:00

My friend Jessica has taken to calling the baby Sam (for Super Awesome Man), since Tyson and I won't tell anyone the baby's name until he is born. Well tonight "Sam" was wiggling around like crazy in my tummy and during one particularly uncomfortable moment I might have gotten an incredibly uncomfortable look on my face. BittyBit noticed and asked, "Mom, is the baby about to come out?" "No", I replied. "Then why is your face sour?" she asked.

On another note, happy birthday to my big sis Jenni!

El Chico

2009-07-09T21:50:00.005-05:00

We met Jenni and the gang out at El Chico for dinner. Her best friend Spring (from when we lived in Fredericksburg) came to stay a couple of days with Jenni and Derek. She and her family were relocating from one state to another and swung by Texas on the way to visit. We had a good time at dinner, then headed back to Jenni's for dessert.LittleMan and Jenni BittyBit asked if we could take pictures on the colored tile bench that was in the entryway of the restaurant. I love the picture of her looking up at Tyson. LittleMan was much less into having his picture taken. When we arrived back at Jenni's house he was able to do what he really wanted...play with her computer.

July 4th

2009-07-04T23:49:00.002-05:00

We awoke early to eat breakfast and get ready to head out to Arlington for their annual parade. Tyson made smiley face pancakes for everyone, complete with red and blue fruit. Independence Day has to be my favorite holiday, or it is at least tied for me with Christmas. I love the parades, the fireworks, the patriotism. It's a lot of fun and we are developing fun traditions with the kids.
After breakfast we drove out to Arlington, where we met Julie and her family to watch the parade. We actually missed a good portion of it. It seems to take 3 times as long to get anywhere when you have young kids. It was just as well though as it was over 100 degrees outside and extremely humid. We were there just long enough to get a feel for the parade and then it was over and we traipsed back home.
After everyone took naps, we headed out to our friend Peggy's house in the country for BBQ dinner and to set off small fireworks and sparklers. We took the kids to look at some of her animals. The donkeys came right up to us and let us pet them. The kids favorite animal was a miniature horse named "Miss Texas". She followed us around and ate right out of the kids' hands.Check out Tyson's shirt up close, then take a look at this link. Our friend Sean started a really cool service project and the article describes it well.

After the kids had their fill of the animals, Grandma Connie took them for a ride on one of Peggy's golf carts. LittleMan paid close attention and tried to take himself for a ride when Connie declared that they were finished. He knew how to turn the key and everything, so we had to take the keys and hide them.Some of her neighbors bought some good sized fireworks and set them all off. We got to watch another free fireworks show. What a difference a day makes. This time LittleMan was captivated by the lights and not the least bit bothered by the sound. Granted these weren't quite as loud as the ones from the day before, but he didn't mind at all. He kept saying "Fireworks go BOOM!" and clapping after each one.

Pre-Independence Day Festivities

2009-07-03T23:55:00.002-05:00

On July 3rd we packed up the family and Terrence and met up with some of our friends for an Independence Day celebration in a nearby city. We've gone to the same event on July 3rd for most of the last several years, the exception being 2 years ago when it was postponed and eventually cancelled due to weather. They have a park where the kids can play, a live band with family friendly music, free snow cones, train rides, water activities, a rock climbing wall, etc. Dickies BBQ even caters the event and offers a very reasonable BBQ sandwich, chips, and a drink for only $2 per person. They offer shuttles to take you from the parking areas to the area where they host the event, and at the end of the evening there is an impressive fireworks show.
*Note to parents - Make sure your husband locks the double jogging stroller before he tears off ahead of you pushing the stroller, with both kids in it and decides to pop a wheelie...your kids might not like it if the stroller collapses and folds them over inside it. Just a thought. ;)

I got a snow cone for LittleMan, thinking it was the least likely to stain his shirt, but he ended up tipping half the juice on himself anyway. Tyson suggested that if we poured out some of the juice it might be easier for him to eat it, so I "borrowed" the snow cone and went around the corner to get rid of some of the syrup. I figured Tyson would keep LittleMan entertained while I did it so he wouldn't see what I was doing, but I guess I wasn't specific enough in my instruction, because he let LittleMan pad off after me. When the poor guy saw what I was doing he screamed bloody murder for a full five minutes. Our friends could hear him over the band and all the way across the park. He didn't fuss a bit when I took off his shirt and rinsed it in the fountain, he just didn't want me messing with his snow cone. Lesson one about coming in between this man and his food, I guess.

Here is a video of LittleMan dancing along to the live band's music.

LittleMan still wasn't a fan of the fireworks this year, they were too noisy for him and he spent most of the show in Tyson's lap cringing every time he heard the explosion from the fireworks. At least he didn't cry this year. BittyBit however was relaxed and right at home for the whole process.LittleMan's vocabulary has exponentially increased during the last month or so, and on the ride home he kept saying "Fireworks go BOOM!"

Backyard Waterpark

2009-07-03T21:25:00.004-05:00

I introduce to you my summer splurge (which is available for rent for local birthday parties, etc, by the way). I see these things every summer at the store and this year I decided to go for it. The kids had a ton of fun and Tyson even got into the mix and went down the slide with the kids. I tried chasing them around on it, but I kept forgetting that I'm pregnant and I can't climb up the slide like I might normally be able to do. Oh well, maybe next summer. :)
Tyson has a few phrases that he likes to say in a funny voice, and every time he says one of them, LittleMan cracks up laughing.

Pantry Progress

2009-07-02T23:23:00.010-05:00

Tyson and his dad began working on building a pantry in our house about 3 weeks ago. So far I think this is the fastest home improvement project we've ever had. He's been motivated to get all of our projects in this house finished so that it will be ready to rent out when we close on our new-to-us home. We are in underwriting for the bigger house we are trying to buy. Our fingers are crossed that everything will work out quickly before the seller gets tired of waiting, as we were supposed to close June 30 and we still don't have an ETA for our closing date. We were told they are putting a rush on it and will try to get everything approved this weekend, but we'll see how that goes.

Here are the progress pictures for the pantry. Everything is primed, we just need to pick a wall color for the exterior and paint it.

2009-06-28T22:41:00.002-05:00

When I was maybe five years old my dad and I were in the ward talent show for my church. I wore an "Annie" wig and my dad wore a fake cap on his head to make him look bald like Daddy Warbucks. I sat in his lap and belted out "Tomorrow".

My mom found the wig somewhere in a closet of old stuff and brought it over for me to give to the kids. LittleMan would only wear it as long as we'd hold him in front of the mirror to look at himself and laugh.
I guess this is what he could look like if curly hair ran in the family.

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-06-26T19:24:00.002-05:00

...My kids, I mean.

Last night I found out another thing that my kids can do to entertain themselves when they are supposed to be sleeping. The kids have been resisting bed time a bit lately. Usually they'll open the door a few times and ask for drinks, or tattle on each other for something. I try to just ignore them so that they'll go to bed and they usually do fairly quickly. Last night however I was 45 minutes post bedtime when I heard a mysterious thumping coming from the kids' room. My mommy alarm went off immediately and I went to go investigate.

I opened the door only to see a giant white cloud settling over the entire room, with LittleMan standing in the middle of it coughing, laughing, and shaking the bottle of baby powder. I wish I hadn't been too angry to think about grabbing the camera at that moment, but unfortunately I wasn't able to calm down enough to think about pictures until after I'd vacuumed and wiped down the entire room, stripped the kids bedding and gotten new sheets and pillow cases, and had hauled LittleMan into the bathroom to begin cleaning him.
BittyBit was laughing it up until she realized she was in trouble too, then she turned completely serious and said, "Hey, that's not fair, why am I in trouble? He's the one who made the mess." I explained that she was laughing and encouraging him instead of coming to get me, to which she replied, "I thought I was supposed to stay in my bed and not tattle". Augh!!!

LittleMan thought it was hilarious until I realized that I couldn't get the cornstarch baby powder out of his hair without several shampoos. He normally loves bath time, so mean mom that I am, I stripped him down to his diaper and leaned him backwards over the sink to wash his hair and body instead of letting him play in the tub more than an hour after he should have been asleep.

This morning I awoke to a fine film of baby powder all over the house, thanks to my central air conditioning unit. Sigh. A day later I can see the humor, at the time, not so much.

Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:11:00.003-05:00

Tyson suggested that we pick up my dad for Father's Day. We had him over for dinner then chatted in the living room while the kids showed off for him.

Quilt Project

2009-06-20T21:54:00.002-05:00

The nurse practitioner from my work had a baby at the end of May. She and her husband decided to wait until the baby was born to learn the sex, so all of us at work decided to have a shower for her after the baby came. That way we could give personalized gifts. She ended up having a little girl, so I traipsed to the fabric store to pick out some girly prints for a quilt. I finished it in less than a week, which only required a couple of days where I completely abandoned my children. My mom came by the day of the shower when I was trying to scramble to finish the binding because a) I'm a procrastinator and b) a couple of days before the baby shower the hostess moved the time of the shower to about three hours earlier in the day. I was on a tight schedule as it was and I didn't quite finish, but it all worked out. I took it to her later and she absolutely loved it. Here are the pics of my project.
I originally had something more elaborate in mind, but as I got closer to the deadline and life kept getting in the way, I decided to do a simple 45x60 crib size quilt with 4"squares. I designed the quilt on my computer and color coded it for the fabrics
Then I strip pieced the squares together. I made a little puzzle for myself and labeled each different set of pieced blocks. Then I pieced them together using the labels I'd made "A-G-F-B-C" etc. All of the patterns repeated, so it was pretty easy to piece after I'd mapped it out. I double checked everything as I went then I went and then ironed the rows and lined them all up to make sure they still matched the original design. So far so good.
Then I sewed all of the rows together and pressed the finished top. I pinned the top, batting, and backing to the quilt frame that Derek built for Jenni years ago. (I inherited it when they moved to Florida years ago.) Then I tied the quilt together at the corners where each square met, 4 inches apart, with brown embroidery floss.
The finished quilt.

Fruit by the Foot Races

2009-06-14T21:48:00.005-05:00

Most of the tribe met out at Jenni's house for a farewell to Robyn, who is moving back to Virginia. We all brought our own dinner and ate and laughed throughout the evening. The final event to our festivities is a game that Jenni calls "Fruit by the Foot Racing". The gist of the game is that each person unrolls an entire fruit snack and puts the end in her mouth. Then on "go" everyone tries to eat the entire thing as fast as they can. You can't use your hands, only your mouth. Fun stuff.

Baby Brother

2009-06-14T21:40:00.002-05:00

This morning BittyBit found an oil and vinegar bottle from her play food set and decided that it would make a good baby bottle for LittleMan. The funniest thing is that at her request he climbed right into her lap and played along. They must have sat like this for 5 full minutes while she "mothered" him.

Daybed?

2009-06-07T01:15:00.004-05:00

Ever since Tyson took the side rail off of the crib and we convinced BittyBit that it was a day bed, LittleMan has been sleeping in the toddler bed. He always ends up on the floor next to her bed sleeping on the sheepskin rug. Every night before we head to bed, Tyson checks on the kids and puts LittleMan back in his bed. He's mastered the art of moving him without waking him.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2009-06-05T23:59:00.001-05:00

Our church stake organized a night for any members who wanted to be able to buy discount tickets to our local minor league baseball team. Tyson bought tickets for our family and we joined a lot of our friends for a night of hot dogs and baseball.
The game was fun, but at one point BittyBit said, "Mom, why won't that cat come shake my hand?". The mascot for our team is a cat and he came out to hype up the crowd. He was dancing along on top of the dugout and waving to everyone. BittyBit thought he should come right over and say hi. Just before the seventh inning stretch, he came out into the crowd a few sections over, and she begged me to take her to meet the cat. We made our way over to the big cat and he gave her a hug and shook her hand. That was definitely the highlight of the night for her.

9th Anniversary

2009-06-03T21:12:00.001-05:00

Today was my 9th wedding anniversary. Tyson and I had already agreed we weren't going to exchange gifts this year. There just wasn't anything that either of us wanted or needed, plus we are trying to buy another house, so we are pinching all of our pennies. We had some coupons and ended up going to Souper Salad for dinner. It's not much, but at least neither of us had to cook.

LittleMan has been showing some interest in potty training and during dinner he exclaimed,"pee pee!" So I scooped him up and ran to the bathroom. My limited experience with him has told me that he says pee pee but usually ends up peeing in his diaper and doing the other business on the potty. So even though I had a fleeting thought of making sure all of his anatomy was angled in the right direction, I didn't actually follow through. A few seconds later I jumped back, realizing my mistake as he began to pee on me. I somehow found this hilarious as I was cleaning up the bathroom floor and trying to keep him from climbing under the stall door with his pants around his ankles. I think this shows my limited experience with little boys, but hey, I learned my lesson.

Shortly after this we finished up dinner and daddy made another rookie mistake. He lifted LittleMan out of his high chair and put him on the floor of the restaurant while he picked up the receipt and put it in his wallet. LittleMan was off like a shot running down the aisle, stopping just long enough to pick up a piece of bread off of the floor (which had been there long enough to turn it into a crouton) near an abandoned table and bolt out the front door. Tyson ran out after him and caught him before he ran any farther. When BittyBit and I caught up to them, Tyson had LittleMan by one arm and was squeezing his cheeks open with the other while ordering the little guy to spit out his floor find. LittleMan kept shaking his head and grunting something equivalent to "no" until I bent down and fish hooked it out of his mouth in a couple of swipes, while muttering "That is disgusting!"

I looked up to see a middle aged man standing about 10 feet from us observing the entire scene. He asked us with a bemused expression, "Should I even bother going in?" (Seeing as how we were trying to get LittleMan to spit out the restaurant food, this seems like a valid question). Tyson laughed and told him, "Don't worry, he got that off the floor." To which the gentleman replied, "Well I guess I'll be OK, I'm not planning on eating anything off the floor." Tyson and I must have laughed about that little incident for 5 minutes solid.

Slip & Slide

2009-06-02T23:06:00.002-05:00

The other day Jenni and Derek invited us over for dinner. We had great BBQ and Jenni even bought a slip and slide for the little ones to play on. LittleMan wasn't a big fan of it because it sprayed water on the slide and he doesn't like it when water falls on him. He did enjoy the splash pool though and he and BittyBit had a good time.

Tyson related the rest of this story to me after the kids were in bed tonight. He was working in his office when he heard the kids shouting "Wheeee!" over and over. He thought he'd go and investigate, so he poked his head through the doorway to the living room where they were playing and saw that the two kiddos had emptied LittleMan's sippy cup of water onto Tyson's sleeping bag, which was on the living room floor. They were running and jumping on it and sliding across the slick fabric like a slip-n-slide. He told me he was laughing so hard that he had to leave the room and calm down so that the kids wouldn't see him laughing.

We're all about picnics

2009-05-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

Lately Tyson's business has been so busy that he hasn't had much time to go grocery shopping or fix dinner. As I'm at work all day, sometimes we just don't have anything in the house to eat. We've started having picnics occasionally to get out of the house and have a simple meal. Afterwards the kids get to run off their excess energy, so it is a win-win situation.

Fireflies

2009-05-28T22:17:00.004-05:00

I had our monthly Cub Scout pack meeting tonight. Usually I go by myself but tonight's activity was a picnic dinner at a nearby park, and everyone brought their families. I zipped home from work, packed a dinner in about 5 minutes and loaded everyone into the car. BittyBit spent most of the evening chasing LittleMan and trying to keep him from running off into the woods (she's such a good big sister!).After dinner the Scouts distributed Popsicles to everyone. BittyBit ate hers like she eats everything. Extremely slowly, which meant that most of it dripped down her hand and she was still eating it when we went off with the group to see the world's-most-something-or-other Bur Oak. I don't remember if it was the oldest or the tallest or thickest or whatever, but it was huge.
The kids also ran around catching fireflies. BittyBit had finished her Popsicle by this time but her hands were coated in sugary drips, so I told her not to catch the fireflies with her hands. She was a little disappointed but compliant. Instead she picked up a stick and gently eased it underneath the fireflies when they came close enough. She actually had several that landed on the stick and she was able to observe them closely.

Scarborough Faire

2009-05-23T20:28:00.003-05:00

We finally made it back out to Scarborough Faire for the first time since the kids were born. Rex, Teresa, and Brittany joined us and we all had a great time, in spite of the heat. We saw quite a few of the shows and Tyson and the kids got to ride a camel.
The park entrance.
This tree man kind of freaked the kids out. He was on stilts and stood about 9 feet tall.
LittleMan goofing around at the Falcon show.
Part of the parade.
A fairy in the parade.
Waiting in line for the camels.
Camel ride.
Cousins.

Hall bath floor

2009-05-22T23:19:00.005-05:00

We've been working on more home improvement projects. On May 9, Tyson and I decided to take up the indoor/outdoor carpet in the hall bath and scrape the paint off of the floor so that we could lay new tile over the floor. BittyBit wanted to help, so we let her go behind us with the trashcan and pick up all of the scraps of paint as we peeled and scraped them off of the tile.
This past week Rex and Tyson cut and installed the travertine tile.

This morning...

2009-05-21T07:12:00.004-05:00

BittyBit: Mom, do horses have birthdays?
Me: I suppose they do, but they don't know to keep track of them.
BittyBit: They could have an apple on their birthday because horses can't have cake.

BittyBit: Can ducks fly?
Mom: Yes.
BittyBit: Penguins can fly too...if they are in a helicopter. But they can't fly when they are waddling around on the ground.

"I did it!"

2009-05-07T01:14:00.004-05:00

The other day BittyBit came running into our bedroom in the morning and said, "Mom, Dad, he did it!" To which we warily asked what her little brother had done. "Well, I told him, 'just put one foot up, now the other', and he did it, he climbed out of his bed!" Needless to say Tyson and I were not nearly as excited for LittleMan's achievement as his sister was. But we were very proud of her for encouraging her brother and being kind to him. If we can only direct this energy into more productive activities...

Tyson went into LittleMan's room right after this to witness him trying to shove his blanket and toys back into his crib. When he saw Tyson, LittleMan threw both of his hands above his head and shouted, "I did it!"

Easter pics

2009-04-12T23:00:00.004-05:00

After church Tyson and I took the kids over to Jenni's house for Easter dinner. Kayla was in town visiting, so we were able to have both her and Ashley there with all of the rest of my sisters.
I think they were pirates or something...
This is one of LittleMan's favorite games - bounce on daddy's tummy as hard as he can.
Probably the one picture I have in 500 where Derek is actually smiling and not making a goofy face. A face like this...And here you go folks, I really don't like taking belly pictures, so this is probably one of the only ones you'll ever see.

Pre-Easter Hunt

2009-04-11T23:14:00.003-05:00

Connie's church had an Easter egg hunt and she invited us to come out and bring the kids. They had face painting and other activities inside while they were waiting for everyone to show up and setting up for the hunt. The Easter Bunny even made an appearance. LittleMan wasn't a fan until he realized that the giant bunny was holding a basket with candy. After that little discovery we couldn't keep him away.He must have gone back for more Hershey kisses at least eight times.
Rex and Teresa brought Brittany, who enjoyed the face painting while she was there.It took BittyBit less than 2 minutes to polish off this cupcake.The hunt...I tried to get pictures of all three of the kids, but LittleMan didn't really catch on to the concept at first, so I tried to follow him around and point to the eggs so that he would put them in his basket. They had separate hunts for the kids 5 and under and for the older kids, but the eggs were still gone in less than 2 minutes.Post hunt loot.
Hey, what are you doing out here, I thought you lived inside?
Oh well, I'm game...

Family Home Evening

2009-04-08T20:50:00.002-05:00

We sat down for a friendly game of "Chutes & Ladders" after we finished our Family Home Evening lesson. Obviously Tyson doesn't believe in letting the kids win, but luckily they don't really care.

Modesty

2009-03-19T21:04:00.004-05:00

We've been teaching BittyBit lately about our standards for dressing and showing her what we consider modest and appropriate and the kinds of things that we don't wear. I know that not everyone believes as we do about this or other issues, so when I teach her something like this, I try to show how important it is to us, but also teach her to have respect for people who believe differently. This can sometimes be a hard concept for a four year old, as they tend to see everything as black and white, right or wrong.

I still remember when we told her that we don't drink coffee or tea. BittyBit was only three at the time and Tyson's mom came over about a week later to watch the kids and brought a cup of coffee with her. Naturally BittyBit wanted some of whatever Grandma had, but when she found out it was coffee she said, "Grandma, you shouldn't drink that, it's bad for you!" I explained to her later that Grandma has different rules in her house and she doesn't know all of the same things that we know, and that Grandma is still a good person whom we love and respect.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and Terrence's birthday (Happy Birthday Terrence). Some of his friends and family met up at The Olive Garden to celebrate his birthday. Tyson and I came along too and brought the kids. When dinner was mostly finished, BittyBit pointed across the table to one of the women, who was wearing a strapless dress, and said very quietly, "That dress is not modest." (I've been working on the pointing thing with her too, which I'll address again after this incident) The sweet gal in the dress didn't hear what she said, but saw her pointing and asked what she needed. BittyBit repeated herself, again very quietly. By this time everyone at the table was looking at us and even though I was glad that our lessons about conservative dress had gotten through to her, I was mortified that she was singling someone else out as an example of inappropriate dress. I had to explain to everyone at the table that we had been discussing what kind of things were appropriate for little girls to wear and BittyBit knew that she wasn't supposed to wear a dress that didn't have straps. Everyone thought it was cute, and the gal in the dress put on a sweater so that she could set a good example for my kids, but now I'm going to have to have the discussion on tact with my four year old again.

Last fall Tyson and I went to several stores to hit the clearance racks and stock up on some new clothes, including church clothes for the kids. It can be difficult to find dresses for little girls that are not sleeveless. We found a dress that was very cute and on sale, but it was sleeveless. I wanted to buy the little black sweater that was sold separately, but Tyson didn't want to shell out the extra money for the sweater, which was not on sale. We had a brief discussion about when we would start teaching the kids about how we want them to dress, and he basically voted for later as he thought she was too young to understand or remember. Since then we have begun to teach her about how we want her to dress now and when she is older. Often she'll ask, "Mom, are these clothes modest?", and then we'll discuss it and explain why they are or aren't.

She had already realized that her favorite dress of all (the sleeveless one we bought last fall) is not modest according to what we have taught her. I told her that I was sorry that I had bought an immodest dress and that I would make sure that all of the dresses that we bought in the future were in line with our standards. Tonight in the car she said, "Mom, I realize that my polka dot dress is not modest, so I'm not going to wear it anymore, even though it is my favorite." I told her that I can buy a sweater for her to wear over it and she thought that was a great idea. I can't tell you how proud I am of that kid for internalizing something that we taught her and making her own decision.

Week 5

2009-03-10T21:09:00.003-05:00

Ok, I'm a little bit behind, but I'm slowly catching up. Here are my week 5 layouts (click to enlarge). Template and pictures are from Weeds & Wildflowers.

Wednesday Update

2009-03-04T20:34:00.003-06:00

So I think I forgot to mention it, and a few of you have asked, but I'm due in September. I'm steering clear of mentioning an actual due date, as I went 5 days past with LittleMan and was ready to strangle every sweet person who asked me if I'd had the baby yet. So I'll just say early to mid September and that should cover things. It's too early to try to find out the sex of the baby, but we're going to if we can when I'm far enough along. As always though, we're keeping the name a secret until sweet baby #3 actually makes his/her appearance.

I was reading Persuasion again on Sunday and only had about one chapter left. BittyBit asked me to read it aloud to her. I thought she would find it boring, but after a few paragraphs when I tried to read it in my head again, she asked me to keep reading to her. I knew she probably didn't understand most of what I was saying, so I picked certain themes to explain to her as I read. At one point I told her that Captain Wentworth was writing a love letter to Anne and BittyBit said, "Oh, mom! We should write a love letter for Tyson! And I can draw a heart on it!" I was going to help her with that later but she got sick and has slept for the last 4 days.

This morning she came into the kitchen and announced, "Mom, Sally's not real. You think she is real, but she's magic". (Sally is one of her imaginary friends) I asked her if she meant imaginary and she said, "No, magic, you know - she's not real." I've always heard that it is good to encourage kids to use their imagination and to play along with things like imaginary friends because it is healthy for that age level and teaches them to be more creative. I guess I've played along too convincingly, such as finding another chair when BittyBit tells me I'm about to sit on Sally or asking her if Pink or Orange (more imaginary friends) would like Kix for breakfast too. She seems to think that I actually believe that her friends are real.

p.s. - Ha! If this tells you how tired I am, I don't even know what day it is. I originally titled this post "Thursday Update".

Project 365 Week 4

2009-02-27T07:26:00.000-06:00

I've been so exhausted lately that I haven't even turned on my computer most days. I get home from work, play with the kids, then go to sleep by 9-something. My morning sickness is beginning to subside (although I would feel a lot better if I could convince my sweet husband to stop eating garlic and onions until the pregnancy is over, as the smell of them makes me extremely nauseous.) Overall things are going well. I've done fairly well with my project 365, but I wasn't sure if some of the pictures would reference the pregnancy, so I didn't want to post anything until we decided to tell everyone.

I've had this layout ready for a month, but I have been too busy to post it. Here is week 4. And yes, I totally skipped Friday and used two pictures from Saturday, but it's my project, I can do whatever I want. :) Click on the previews to view them larger.

Template and papers are from Weeds & Wildflowers.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words...

2009-02-26T07:36:00.002-06:00

Project 365: Week 3

2009-01-23T22:25:00.005-06:00

Here's the next week worth of pictures. Click on the pages to enlarge them.
I think my favorite part of the week was when I took BittyBit to see her first movie in a theater. I'd been meaning to take her to see "Bolt" for over a month, but I finally made the plans last Friday, which meant that it was only playing at one theater and I had to drive 25 miles to get there. It was totally worth it. She was so excited and she behaved so well. Although the theater didn't have stadium seating and she was too petite to see over the top of the seat in front of her, so she sat in my lap the entire time.

The template and all of the papers and elements are from Weeds & Wildflowers.

*Edit- apparently I can't spell my own sister's name, so I had to go back and edit the second page to correct it. Sorry Jenni.

Week 2 layouts

2009-01-19T22:34:00.003-06:00

I'm a little behind on my posting. I've done a pretty good job of taking my pictures every day, but when I was putting together my layouts last week, my computer froze up and I lost both pages when I was almost finished. I was so frustrated that I didn't attempt to finish the layout until tonight. Here's the layout for my second week of Project 365. Click on the pages to enlarge.

Template is by MOriginals, papers are by Weeds and Wildflowers.

Project 365

2009-01-05T21:06:00.005-06:00

I've decided to succumb to project 365. The gist of it is to take a photo everyday of something that is an important part of your life. It can be of your neighborhood, community, pets, children, friends, dinner, anything really that will tell a story of what your life is like. I did miss Jan 2, but I didn't commit to this until the third, so from now on I'm going to do it. I'll try to scrap each week as it happens too, so that at the end of the year I'll have my scrapbook all made up. I'll learn to take better pictures and remember to document what goes on too.

Here's my first weeks layout:

click on the images to enlarge.
The template is by IkeaGoddess and the background papers are by Weeds & Wildflowers.

Primary Spotlight

2008-12-28T22:12:00.000-06:00

BittyBit was featured as the "spotlight" in primary at church today. That means that the primary leaders sent her home with a questionnaire the week before and I went over the questions with her and then got to share her answers with all of the other kids at church during the primary sharing time.
Some of her answers surprised me (tomatoes, really? cause the kid never touches them when I serve them to her) but some of them were obvious (favorite color!)

Favorite Food: Tomatoes (pronounced toe-mott-ohs, just like on Charlie & Lola) & craisins
Favorite Color: Orange
Favorite Movie: Enchanted
Favorite Book: Princess ABCs
Hobbies: Playing with toys
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Vanilla
Favorite Subject in School: Art
Number of Siblings: One brother
Special Awards/Accomplishments: learning to read & to add numbers
Special Qualities: Compassion - when her brother is sad, she always tries to help him feel better
Relate or have your child relate a time when they felt Heavenly Father's love for them. At Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus' birth. She knows Heavenly Father loves her because he sent Jesus Christ to be our special friend, elder brother, & the savior of the world.

BittyBit's fourth birthday

2008-12-27T22:12:00.001-06:00

We had BittyBit's birthday party on the 27th (Tyson's idea, not mine - I didn't think people would show up two days after Christmas). Her birthday wasn't actually until the 29th, but we wanted to have the party on a Saturday. Most of our family and a few friends showed up and we had a good time. We had Sunchips & corndogs, followed by Costco cake. I was going to make her birthday cake this year, but she requested a Costco cake instead, and hey, I'm not one to argue with convenience and deliciousness! Afterwards, BittyBit opened her presents from family & friends (we saved our presents so that she'd have something to open on her actual birthday). Thanks to everyone who came and made her birthday special.

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T21:50:00.004-06:00

The kids were pretty good this year and I guess Santa noticed because he brought BittyBit the Tinkerbell movie that she's been asking for since October and brought LittleMan a really cool wooden train set. We started the morning off by opening gifts with the kids. LittleMan still wasn't very into opening the presents, but sister was more than happy to help him open his presents.At lunch time most of the family came over and we all enjoyed the delicious meal that Tyson prepared, as well as all of the delicious goodies that everyone else contributed. Then of course there were more presents: The Secret of Nimh from Jenni, Derek & Ashley, and handmade scarves from Gram. LittleMan's is a miniature version of Tyson's birthday scarf and BittyBit's is her favorite color - orange. **Sorry there are no pictures of Robyn or mom on here, I had a few, but someone was blinking or something equally unflattering in each of the pics** :)

After lunch there was generally a lot of goofing around, then everyone drifted out the door and Tyson, Terrence, and our friend Glen followed Derek home to watch The Dark Knight. I like super hero/comic book stories, but not enough to endure one with a freaky clown, so I passed on that one. Jenni stayed with me to chat and help me keep an eye on the kids, since I was almost in a sugar coma from all the fabulous desserts. We were going to catch a movie after the boys got home, but they were a little later than we thought they'd be and we were both exhausted, so we called it a night and crashed.

The best part about the whole day is that I've been trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas with the kids. We've read New Testament Stories every day this month to really focus on Christ, and I stressed to BittyBit that while presents are fun, that's not really what Christmas is about. When I asked her if she had a fun Christmas, and if she liked her gifts, she replied, "Yeah mom, but Christmas isn't about presents you know. It's about Jesus."

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T21:45:00.000-06:00

On Christmas Eve we packed up the kids and went with Connie to her church's candlelight service. Afterward she and Aunt Kathy came to our house to watch the kids open their presents from Connie. LittleMan wasn't sure what to do with the wrapping paper but BittyBit was only too happy to show him how it works. And no, she didn't poke herself in the eye, she had pink eye. I knew something was wrong when she woke up in the morning and had a serious look on her face. She has asked me every day for the past two weeks if it is Christmas yet, or her birthday, or at least Halloween. I thought she'd be pretty excited when she asked this morning and I told her that Christmas was tomorrow, but she was just worried about her poor, swollen, painful eye. Kudos to Tyson for following through with the pediatrician. We caught it early and it didn't get too bad or spread to anyone else.

Looking at Christmas lights

2008-12-20T21:27:00.003-06:00

BittyBit was very excited for the first 20 minutes, but it didn't seem as though we could find an entire street that was decorated. We did see this cool tree that must have taken forever to wrap in lights, but I couldn't get any neighborhood shots because there just weren't enough houses next to each other that were decorated. The kids, well, maybe they'll appreciate it more next year!

2008-12-14T21:19:00.001-06:00

LittleMan in his new tie, so cute!

12-6-08 Naga Tournament

2008-12-06T21:12:00.001-06:00

Tyson competed in another tournament at the beginning of the month. My photos have been trapped in my camera for almost that long, so I'm playing catch up. Tyson placed third place out of 16 people in his division for the men's gi portion.

A glimpse into my world...

2008-12-03T20:30:00.007-06:00

1. As soon as I walked in the door from work, BittyBit ran over to the fridge and pulled off a piece of paper with stickers all over it. "Look mom, I made this at the library!" she said. I asked her about the story she heard and she told me-
BittyBit: It was about the jungle.
Me: Was it a story about animals?
Tyson: Well, in a manner of speaking.
BittyBit: Yeah, and they ate the humans!
Tyson: I guess she got more out of the story than I thought.

2. Later that night, when I was back home after Cub Scouts...
BittyBit: Mom, I'll be Giselle, LittleMan can be Edward, & you be the stepmother. (From "Enchanted")
Me: Ok. Did you know your Aunt Jenni is a stepmother?
BittyBit: But she's not mean.
Don't worry, I took the teaching moment to tell her,"Not all stepmothers are mean, that's just in fairy tales. Well, some step mothers are mean, but lots of them are nice."

3. Still later...
BittyBit: Mom, I'll be a kangaroo & you be a witch.
Me: Ok
Bittybit: Are you a nice witch?
At this point Tyson chimes in,"I need some of your body parts for spell components!" and promptly begins chasing both the kids around the living room while cackling loudly.

4. At this point Tyson sees me laughing hysterically (after 10 years of knowing him, I'm still surprised by some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth) and writing on a pad of paper. He grins and asks,"What are you doing, writing down all of the reasons why I shouldn't be left in charge of the kids?"

5. A few minutes later Tyson is wearing a Santa hat and swinging his head around so that the ball of the hat smacks the kids as they are running around him. The hat falls off and BittyBit picks it up & holds it out to Tyson saying,"Dad, put this hat on and swat us with it."

So there you go. I won't say that's a typical night, because some nights are much more mellow and some are filled with different crazy adventures, but all in all, that little slice of the evening isn't out of the ordinary. I'll leave you with another picture, just to show that not everything is frenetic around here.
LittleMan loves to read and it's about the only thing that will get him to sit still for any length of time.

Oh, p.s. - Happy Birthday Tyson! His birthday was actually yesterday, but I figured he would appreciate me spending time making him cupcakes more than he would enjoy a blog shout out on his actual birthday.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T21:02:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving: A day in pictures.
After some early morning shopping for me, and a turkey-bowl football game for Tyson, we headed over to his mom's house to see his Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jim, and Grandpa who were visiting from Nebraska. BittyBit spent much of the day making this face. Life sure is hard when you don't get everything you want. :)Here's a picture I took of Terrence before he remembered that someone told him he looks better when he's not smiling. All of the pictures hereafter show Terrence with a look of studied seriousness. After we stopped at Connie's house, Terrence, Tyson, the kids, my dad, and I all headed over to Jenni's house for Thanksgiving dinner. LittleMan wasted no time in trying to grab any food in his reach.LittleMan: "I'm hungry, hey look a turkey leg, that'll do!"
"Fine, I guess I'll settle for this delicious pumpkin bread, since nobody took my hint about the turkey leg."After dinner, Jenni showed off her target from the shooting range. Enlarge it to see how awesome she is.Ashley let BittyBit play with her pink pony. "Look ma, now it's a unicorn."
LittleMan didn't want anything to do with this horse. I think it's because he was trying to protest that he always gets stuck doing the girly stuff. This theory is backed up by the fact that later when I thought he might be warming up to the horse, he got close enough to hug it or climb on, but instead he shoved it over and walked away. That's right, you show that pink horse who's boss.
Like father, like daughter. Ashley was more than happy to share her toys, but she refused to smile for the camera. That's OK, I'm just mean enough that I'll post all of the frowning, scowling, and otherwise uncooperative pictures of my subjects if that's all they give me to work with.
Time out for tickles. LittleMan was so into this he even helped Aunt Jenni out by lifting his shirt for her every time she came at him.I saw my youngest sister Rose for the first time in a few months. Last time her hair was long, now it looks kind of like mine. Sorry guys, I'm not posting the angry badger face pictures here, I have to maintain the pretense that I still have a shred of dignity.
Anne and Rose, aka Fourthborn & LittleBit (not to be confused with my BittyBit - my mom came up with all these names, kind of confusing, but oh well.)A lovely picture of Robyn - after viewing the preview I said to her,"Wow, your expression looks just like mom's in that picture"...Which led to this picture... Followed by several more where her expression changed from surprise, to laughter, to resignation when I showed her the preview. Yes, someday all girls turn into their mothers in one way or another.
LittleMan was just as happy to clean up as he was to eat all of the food in sight. Here he is after single handedly loading all of the dishes and starting a load in the dishwasher. Ok, maybe he just pushed all of the buttons on the dishwasher, but a mother can dream, can't she?
This is maybe the fourth picture that Tyson and I have been in together during the last two years.BittyBit gave up her scowling for a little while and posed with her mom and aunt. She was really fairly pleasant considering this week's schedule has been turned upside down.
Then it was time for a serious game of chase, with BittyBit being running from about 4 grownups at once. Ha ha, you think Grandpa Cary is going to save you?
Jonathon doesn't believe in safe zones, he'll scoop you up and twirl you around no matter who you try to hide behind!

We were all so tired by the end of the day. We brushed the kids' teeth when we arrived home and tossed them in bed. I stumbled off to sleep just after 8:00pm, although I didn't fall asleep until 45 minutes later as I was scouring the newspaper ads for Black Friday sales at the local stores.

What a day! I am so thankful for my family and that I live in a country where I can worship as I choose and while I may not agree with other people around me on some issues, I have the right to express my opinion and vote as I see fit. I really do live in a blessed country and I remind myself every day how much better life is for even the poorest among our country than it is for other people in so many other parts of the world. I'm thankful that I have so many family members close by and that we get to see each other as often as we want. I'm thankful for education and job opportunities and that I have clean water and good food to eat. Life is good.

Thanksgiving Savings

2008-11-27T10:36:00.001-06:00

I didn't think I'd be one of those people who blogged about how much I saved on a shopping trip, and actually took pictures of the stuff, but I just have to after my Thanksgiving CVS trip. They had some crazy sales where a lot of stuff was actually free after Extra Care Bucks. I actually made two separate trips obscenely early on Thanksgiving Day, but here is the haul:
Total Value of Merchandise: $328.19
Total Savings: $312.70
Total Out of Pocket: $15.49
Leftover Extra Care Bucks: $7.00 (that's CVS store credit, for you non-couponers)
Adjusted Out of Pocket after subtracting ECBs: $8.49

Twilight

2008-11-22T10:27:00.006-06:00

I felt like a silly school girl yesterday because all day at work I just couldn't wait to leave so I could stand in line for good seats to the Twilight movie. Julie bought tickets for several of us on Monday (good thing too, the shows were all sold out). Julie, Sarah, Rhiannon, Jenni, Ashley, & I all met up at the mall for the 7:15 show last night. I was the first one there, I arrived just before 5pm and was the third person in line. I quickly made friends with the fun gals in front of me and we planned our strategy of locking elbows when we got into the theater so that all the teeny-boppers wouldn't run past us and get the best seats.
We all brought snacks, including some oatmeal-cranberry cookies that made for my work party earlier that day, but only 3 people ate any, so I brought a few of them home and took the rest to the theater. Jenni made a Sonic run so that we'd have something to eat before the movie. We had so much fun just waiting in line.
(Jenni's MySpace pose with her Twilight tickets.)

After we ran inside and got our seats we laughed at all of the teenage girls who were gushing over Edward & Jacob. I didn't necessarily have any expectations for the movie. Some of the previews looked a little cheesy, but I loved the books, so I thought the movie would at least be entertaining. I only thought there were one or two silly moments at the film, and I probably wouldn't have thought they were silly if all of the teenagers in the theater didn't laugh every time a scene from a preview came on the screen. Some of the scenes weren't even funny but the audience was so excited to see something familiar that they laughed.

I thought the movie was good, although I don't know what someone would think of it if they hadn't read the book. There were so many plot points that had to be left out due to time constraints that I wonder if some of the critics are right that if you don't know the plot you might not know what is going on. It seemed easy to understand to me... I hear so many people say that they think that Bella is whiny in parts of the series, and while they are entitled to their opinion, I disagree. I think she's somewhat insecure and she wants to protect the people she loves, and at times she is left nearly alone to deal with difficult issues. Plus she's only seventeen. I think her character reacts humanly and realistically, I don't think she's at all whiny.
After the movie our group wanted to take a picture in front of the Twilight display or poster, so we looked, and looked, and looked for it. Finally Rhiannon asked the information desk, and they said they didn't have any promotional displays for the movie. What?!? I mean, we got over it, but I can't believe they don't even have a measly movie poster for what will certainly be their biggest grossing movie of the year. So we settled for a plain old group shot, without any Twilight background. :(
Here's Jenni playing "who am I?". The answer is Derek - who always jumps in front of everyone else and tries to ruin their pictures.
Here are all the girls - Jenni, Rhiannon, Ashley, me, Julie, & Sarah.

Birthday week

2008-11-09T21:05:00.010-06:00

I had my birthday last week; it was fairly uneventful, which is how I like it. Tyson gave me a DVD boxed set of A&E romance classics, which I wanted mainly because it contains the Colin Firth version of Pride & Prejudice. I started watching the BBC versions of all the Jane Austen works when they came on PBS earlier this year. Now I keep checking them out from the library and watching every version of every Jane Austen movie that was ever made. I'd never read the books, so I also bought Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion and read them both several times. I think Persuasion is my all time favorite of her books.

Tyson also bought me a new stapler to use when I clip coupons so that I would stop taking his (which was actually mine that he stole from me a couple of years ago and he now keeps in his desk). He actually gave me that gift first, and I just stared at it for a minute trying to figure out if I was missing something or if he really bought me a stapler for my birthday. After he explained it though, I thought it was great. It has a really comfy grip and even has a staple remover that fits into the handle and can be taken out when I need to use it.

Tyson has a new calling at church. He's the new ward mission leader, which means I see much less of him because he is often out with the missionaries. Tyson has always helped the missionaries a lot, so it was fairly easy for him to transition into his new calling.

Yesterday Tyson and I packed up the kids and headed out to Grapevine Mills Mall. It's a bit of a drive, but both of the kids have outgrown almost everything in their closet so I was ready to hit some of the outlet stores in the mall and restock their clothing for the next year and a half. Every store we went to was running massive sales and we got most of the stuff for more than 50% off. LittleMan has his first sweater vests and slacks. I tried to find some dressier clothes for him several months ago, but apparently those sorts of things are somewhat seasonal and are difficult to find if it is not near Christmas or Easter.

We bought some new dresses for BittyBit too, and we are planning to get family pictures made next weekend. We are way overdue for family portraits, since the last time we had any made was back in 2001, when it was just Tyson and me. We've had some pictures made of the kids individually, but nothing with all of us except the occasional snapshot - and now that I think about it, we probably have less than 10 photos with all four of us in them.
Out of the ten pictures I took of the kids before church, I don't have one where they are both looking in my general direction and smiling, but they sure look sharp in their new threads.

Yesterday when we were in the Carter's store looking for sleeper pajamas for the kids, BittyBit saw a pair and said,"Wow, those are HUGE! Maybe you can wear those mama." They were probably about size 8 in the little girl sizes, and I guess they were huge compared to BittyBit, but um, yeah - now I'm old and apparently huge.

But lest you think that BittyBit only gets into makeup and humbles me to the dust, she had a really sweet moment in the car on the way back from the Trunk or Treat on Halloween. LittleMan had had enough and was tired and sobbing. I loaded both of the kids into the car and was about to take off when a friend came up and asked me a question. I closed the door to drown out LittleMan's screaming, and was amazed at how soundproof my vehicle is: I couldn't hear a thing from the outside. I fully expected him to be in full blown hysterics when I climbed in the car a minute later, but it was nearly silent. He was quietly staring at his sister, who was softly singing I am a Child of God to him over and over to calm him down.
I'm more amazed by her every day. She is so thoughtful and considerate of other people, especially her brother. Every night when we have our family prayers she prays for us each by name. She comforts us when we are sad and she pipes up randomly throughout the day with,"Mom, I love you!". If LittleMan cries when I step out of the room to grab the laundry, she is right by his side hugging him and saying,"It's OK, mommy will be right back. It's OK." - in her best soothing mommy voice. Her tantrum moments are few and far between, which is fine with me, and I'm glad to see the young lady she is becoming.

New Car

2008-11-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

BittyBit and I decided to wash the car last weekend. The lease on our car was going to end in a couple of weeks, so Tyson and I went to the car dealership to decide if we were going to get a new one or buy the one we were driving. We had talked about getting a minivan, but with gas prices being what they are, we decided instead to get a slightly wider vehicle than the Corolla we were driving, so that we could fit a third car seat in it in the future if we decide to have another child.

We ended up getting a really good deal on a Toyota RAV4, which is the car I've wanted to drive for the past 8 years. Our car payment went up less than $15 and we have a ton more room. We thought about getting the Camry instead, but the RAV4 gets almost identical gas mileage and has better resale value (because Toyota makes a ton more Camry's every year, so even though they sell better, there are more flooding the market). So here we are with our new vehicle, which we've had for about a week now, and we love.

Halloween

2008-10-31T22:02:00.002-05:00

I've been under the weather for a few days, but thankfully I was feeling better today, because I'd already asked off at work so that Tyson and I could take the kids to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound. We were going to go last weekend, but both of the kids were sick. So this morning we packed a picnic lunch and headed off to see the pumpkins.After the kids had their fill of bounce houses and hayrides, we headed over near the farmhouse on the property, where they had a picnic area set up. The first table we picked was abandoned by us before we even unpacked the lunches when we realized that it was right near the horses and hence, their manure. We moved over to another area where we were immediately accosted by hordes of flies, bees, and yellow jackets. I tried to eat my lunch as quickly as possible and avoid swatting at the flying insects, as there were as many bees as flies buzzing around me, but when a bee landed on my finger and tried help me finish my half eaten sandwich, I gave up, flung my sandwich through the air, and quickly vacated the picnic grounds. I watched from afar as my family at the rest of their lunches, then we packed up and went home for some much needed naps.

BittyBit wanted to be a goose for Halloween this year. I thought it was going to be one of those things that she forgot about, but weeks later, she still wanted to be a goose. Unfortunately I couldn't find a goose costume in all of my Halloween costume hunting, so she got stuck being a pink monster. I might have been able to find a goose costume online, and I'm sure I could have made one if I'd had the time, but I haven't had time for much of anything since I've been back at work. LittleMan got to wear the monkey costume that his sister wore last year for Halloween.
Monster and...monster pirate?Tyson picked up our niece Brittany, and we suddenly had a rainbow princess in our party!Tyson and I weren't going to dress up but we stumbled upon an idea for a costume earlier today. This morning I found some of the kids' magnetic letters on the floor and I put one on BittyBit's forehead and told her to hold it in place and ask her father who she was supposed to be. He of course immediately answered correctly - Arnold J. Rimmer, a character from Red Dwarf, which is one of Tyson's all time favorite shows. This guys is supposed to be a hologram, and he has a holographic "H" on his forehead to represent that. The show is a low budget British sci-fi comedy, which I am not a big fan of, but Tyson realized that with very little preparation, we would have our costumes for the ward Fall Social. Tyson made the H's for our costumes while I tried unsuccessfully to take a nap, then we picked up the missionaries and took them to Costco for pizza before heading to the ward party. The most amazing thing about our costumes is that several people actually knew who we were supposed to be!Here's our little monkey man in his cage during the "trunk or treat" portion of the evening. By this point he was beyond tired, so I put him in the back of the car behind the cargo net and let him scream eerily at the trick or treaters. Very spooky special effects, and it didn't cost me a thing (well maybe another shred of my sanity).

Kayla & Ash's birthday party

2008-10-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago Saturday, my niece Kayla came into town and all of the extended family met out at a local (some of my family would argue THE local) Tex-Mex restaurant to celebrate her and Ashley's birthdays. Their birthdays are only 4 days apart. It was nice to get together with family and catch up, and the girls obligingly wore sombreros while we sang "Happy Birthday" to them and Kayla's other sister April, who also has a birthday within a week of the others.
BittyBit made her rounds around the table, sitting in anyone's lap who would share their chips and salsa or queso with her. Ashley taught her a useful life skill during the evening, making the "MySpace" face every time someone tries to take a picture. That's OK Ash, you know what they say about paybacks... :)

Primary Program

2008-10-20T06:54:00.002-05:00

This is the first year my eldest was able to participate in our ward's primary program. For those of you who might not be familiar with the concept, it is our congregation's annual program put on by the 3-11 year old children and their patient teachers. The children sing songs and say small spoken parts during the main worship hour of church.

They sent BittyBit's small part home from church with her a month ago with a request to mom & dad to help her memorize her part. We practiced every Sunday and many times during the week. She had the part memorized in a day and a half and I was so impressed that we actually remembered to teach her the part and she learned it so well. My only regret during the program was that all of the children in her class were whispered their lines, so she didn't have a chance to say it from memory. But that's really a vanity issue I suppose, wanting to show off how wonderfully my child memorized her part, and the way they did it was good, because it left no room for a child to be put on the spot if he didn't remember his line. The program was great, and afterward I was able to follow BittyBit into the children's primary class and help her give a talk on service in front of all of the other children during sharing time.

Oh, and here's a funny update to the makeup incident. Yesterday morning before church, BittyBit saw me putting on my makeup. She looked at me and said,"Mom, I'm sorry I got into your makeup. I won't do that anymore." (We'll see.) To which I replied, "I accept your apology. When you get bigger I'll teach you how to put on makeup like a young lady." She looked at me, furrowed her eyebrows, and stated,"When I get older and older and I can wear makeup, you won't have to teach me how to wear it. I already know how to put on makeup!"

Adventures in Makeup

2008-10-18T23:50:00.002-05:00

This is what I found when I awoke this morning...
Apparently she was trying to look like me, so I guess she really meant it when she said she thought I look like a clown when I wear lipstick. This isn't the first time BittyBit has gotten into my makeup, here she is in April using a similar technique, only using eyeshadow instead of lipstick all over her face.

LittleMan's New words

2008-10-17T06:44:00.005-05:00

LittleMan is growing so quickly. We've been teaching him signs, but until a month and a half ago, he wasn't interested in learning those. Now he has a growing list of words he can sign to us. He's so excited that he can communicate and we actually understand what he's saying.

Right now he can sign:
Hello/bye bye
fan
light
eat
drink
more
sleep
change (as in "let's go change your diaper")

A few nights ago, as I was brushing his teeth, he said his first (non family name) word. He said "light". He looked right up at the light, did the sign, and said it. I was so excited and BittyBit shared my excitement. We gave him a huge round of applause and she said, "Good job! You did it, you said light!"

Later that day...

2008-10-16T07:36:00.001-05:00

After BittyBit attended her first princess party, we stopped by Grandma Connie's house and visited with Breanne and Liam before they left town. Liam is the kids' cousin and right now he lives far away, but when Tayton and Breanne relocate back to Texas from Tennessee sometime in the next few years, it will be fun for them to get to know each other better. When I was younger, I always wished I had cousins my age.That evening we had yet another princess birthday party to attend, this one for our friend Jordan. Check out that cake...amazing! It was so much fun to see Jordan tear into her presents. I think she would have had more fun if she had taken her nap earlier, but she's already little miss independent.

What a cutie.

Sweet & Sassy

2008-10-15T06:48:00.005-05:00

I know, I know, it has been forever since I posted. I've been trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour, since I have to be responsible and awake early to get ready for my new job every morning. I've also started clipping coupons, and I spend much of my evenings trying to stay on top of that hobby.

Almost a month ago BittyBit attended a friend's birthday party. I was a little skeptical before I went, because I'd been told it was a dress-up party, makeup and all, and I was expecting my daughter to look like some sort of JonBenet Ramsey clone when we were finished. The making up mostly consisted of fingernail polish, hairspray, and glitter. It was actually a really cute party and I'm glad I let BittyBit go (and that someone else was paying for it, I don't even want to know what something like that for 12+ four year olds costs!)

Here are some pictures from the celebration.

The birthday girl
The painting of the royal nails...
This was the best part of all...All of the little girls were boogeying to techno versions of the hokey-pokey and other formerly mellow children's songs. Then they each walked down the catwalk one by one as their names were announced and were crowned with their very own princess tiara.
The princesses in all their glory.
About 2/3 of the way through the party, LittleMan decided he'd been exposed to enough estrogen and demanded some fresh air. As soon as Tyson put him down on the sidewalk, he took off running. He's a smart kid, he can see when he's outnumbered and he chose the path of least resistance!

Stevie's party

2008-09-28T07:32:00.008-05:00

I am a week behind on my posts, but my brain is just starting to calm down after a week and a half of training at my new job. The computer system there is very complex, but I'm getting it, slowly.

A week ago Friday was our friend Stevie's 4th birthday party. We packed up the car and headed over to Mike and Stacy's house to celebrate. There were tons of parents and little ones there, and the party was lots of fun.Check out that last pic. I was so proud when my kiddo disappeared and I realized that she went to the potty all by herself (it's never happened without assistance while we've been out in public). She was so excited to see the rest of the presents being unwrapped that she ran out in the living room half dressed. What a goofy girl.And here's LittleMan entertaining at the party: quite possibly the next Harry Connick Jr.

New Job

2008-09-17T21:23:00.002-05:00

I am exhausted. I heard about a job opportunity on Sunday at church. I interviewed on Monday, then again on Tuesday, and I started my new job today. I woke up at 6:00, got to work just before 8:00, learned so much that my head felt like it was going to explode (until 5:15pm). I made it home by 5:30, scarfed down some dinner, then headed up to the church to teach scouts at 6:00pm. At 7:00 scouts ended and Young Women activities began, but Tyson was in charge of the YW activity, teaching self defense. I stayed to be his attack dummy, so we got home at about 8:45pm. I saw my son for 5 minutes in the morning before I left, and my daughter for 15 minutes after work while I was eating dinner. They were in bed by the time I got back from church tonight. I miss my kids and wish I didn't have to get a job, but I think that the Dr.'s office where I'll be working is full of nice people and will be pleasant enough. Now I'm dragging myself off to bed so that I can do most of this all over again tomorrow.

Hey Zepp

2008-09-15T21:57:00.006-05:00

So my daughter's Sunday school teacher came up to me after church when I was retrieving BittyBit from class and said, "Your daughter is so cute. She talks to me in class and is like 'Hey Zepp' and asks me a question." Later BittyBit asked me, "Mom, can Zepp come to our house and play with me?" and as we were leaving the chapel she shouted,"Bye Zepp!" At my church we usually call people Brother or Sister and then their last name. I guess she dispensed with the formalities and just cut to the chase.

Here is a double page layout I did of my brother in law's wedding. I removed the journaling for their privacy. Click on each of the previews to view it larger.

Credits: Template by Simply Yin, White background paper by Weeds & Wildflowers Designs Follow Your Bliss Kit, Red paper for ribbon from Chris Greiser's Love in Paris kit. Font - Black Chancery.

Kids say the funniest things.

2008-09-14T16:17:00.007-05:00

Fishing for compliments
This morning at Church my daughter and I had the following exchange:

BittyBit looked at me and asked: Momma, what's that on your lips?
Mom: It is called lipstick.
BittyBit: Why do you have lipstick on?
Mom: So that I can look prettier at church...do you like it?
BittyBit: No, it makes you look like a clown.

The moral of the story is don't ask a three and a half year old what she thinks unless you really want to know!

Scrapbook layout
Here is a layout I completed for the Weeds and Wildflowers Birthday celebration a month or so ago. These pictures are from BittyBit's first birthday and if you look closely at the pictures where she is opening the presents, you can see the rash on her cheeks that she got from eating the red sprinkles on the cupcakes.The template is by Courtney Wilson, and everything else is by Weeds & Wildflowers.

Best. Party. Ever.

2008-09-13T22:34:00.004-05:00

I just went to a Twilight book party and it was so much fun. All of the attendees were Twilight fans. The party was a themed birthday party for the main character in the book, Bella (whose birthday is actually today, or would be if she was real). There was tons of good food to munch, great games, trivia, and of course debate over who Bella really belongs with. I have never been to a book themed party before, but this was a blast. I'm not giving too many details here because I totally plan to rip off the party idea and have Amy help me throw my own! Check out Amy's blog in a day or two for more pictures and a better description.

Hurrican Ike

2008-09-13T17:32:00.001-05:00

We have some friends in South Texas who had to evacuate to escape from Hurricane Ike. There was supposed to be heavy thunderstorms here, but we just got light rain and some wind. We are thankful to avoid the brunt of the storm, and our prayers are with all of our friends and all of the other people who have been affected by the hurricane and related storms.

VA Hospital

2008-09-11T21:22:00.002-05:00

Several people mentioned veteran's benefits for my dad, since he served in the military. I looked into what I needed to get him benefits, then I went spelunking in his apartment to try to find the correct forms. I knew they would be in his Book of Remembrance, where he keeps all of his important documents, but I didn't know if I'd be able to find it in his apartment. My dad doesn't like to throw anything away, so it was quite a job to sort through things and locate the book. No one had seen it in three years. I was able to find the paperwork I needed, so I then called the hospital to make sure I had everything, then Jenni, my aunt Judy (who is here for a few days from California), and I took my dad to the VA hospital last night. We left the hospital at about 1:30am, but he was admitted and we knew he'd be taken care of. Now we fill out a ton more paperwork and hopefully get some sort of referral to a rehab center for stroke patients and maybe some assisted living or nursing home resources. At least we have a bit of help with all of this now, as the VA Hospitals definitely take care of their veterans.

2008-09-09T22:34:00.004-05:00

My dad's sister arrived from California today to see him. Tyson and I went with the kids to pick her up from the airport. We headed over to the hospital, but on the way over, I received a call from Derek saying that the hospital was about to release my dad. The last thing that I'd heard was that they put a scope in his veins this morning to search for blood clots. Apparently they didn't find any, so they decided to release him.

I have a big problem with this, because hospital staff told us not to make any arrangements for his care because they had no idea what was wrong with him. Then they release him without giving us time to prepare anything. While I was talking to a member of the hospital staff, trying to argue against his release until we could talk with a doctor, Tyson was in the room talking to my dad. He didn't even know what year it is. He can't walk unassisted, and he can't even cut up his own food. I was told that my dad had already been released, so if we wanted him to stay longer, we would need to pay out of pocket up front. We wouldn't have known they were releasing him if Derek (my brother in law) hadn't called the hospital to learn the results of the tests they ran in the morning. What kind of hospital releases a stroke victim who can't take care of himself, without even notifying the family?

We took him to my sisters house for now, because he can't be by himself. We are trying to arrange to have someone with him all day, but he really needs more help than we can provide, and I don't know what we can get for him on his fixed income. He had another stroke almost as soon as we got home. I don't know what to do for him. This is the worst.

My Dad

2008-09-07T23:38:00.005-05:00

Recent events have threatened to turn me into a no show on the blogosphere again, so I thought I'd give a little update, just in case I do disappear for a while.

My dad was rushed to the hospital Friday night. My youngest sister was with him and noticed that he was behaving oddly. She decided it wouldn't be good for him to drive so she drove him home. When they arrived, he was unresponsive, so she ran to get help. Somewhere in the course of things he stopped breathing, but a quick thinking office staff at his apartment complex found a maintenance man who knew CPR and they were able to revive him and keep him breathing until the ambulance arrived. When he got to the emergency room, they did a CAT Scan and told us it was likely he'd had a stroke. A few days and an MRI later, the Dr. said that he did indeed have a stroke, and it wasn't his first. They found evidence of many previous strokes located in the memory and balance centers of his brain, which would explain a lot of his behavior recently. He seems to be stable right now, but the doctors are still trying to figure out where the blood clots are located that keep causing the strokes so that they can decide how to proceed. My sisters and I have been scrambling trying to get information and figure out what to do after this.

What I've Been Up To

2008-09-04T21:54:00.013-05:00

OK, I know it has been an extremely long time since I last posted, (hence the extremely long, picture heavy post today). I have been incredibly busy. I watched a whole lot of the Olympics. Now I'm busy watching the political conventions as the presidential nominees explain their platforms. I have to say I enjoyed the Olympics a lot more, but I know it is important to be educated about the issues.

I also received a new calling (cub scout den leader) and did a bunch of training for that. I completed some scrapbook pages. I'll come back and post those later, after I gather up all of the credits and finish the titles for a couple of pages. I have also spent a ton of time learning how to effectively clip coupons and use the sales of the local grocery and drug stores. I have already saved more than $100 on my grocery bill in the last week and a half and I got a ton of stuff for free. It's very exciting for me, and every thing else got put on hold for a while. So here is a rundown of some of the stuff that has happened during the last two weeks:

The Kids
The kiddos have been busy too. Here is BittyBit with the animal school that she set up a few weeks ago.LittleMan has perfected his walking technique and has even learned how to run all over the house.They have been playing so nicely together lately. Sister is getting so excited now that her little brother can interact a bit more. She is his biggest fan - she cheers and claps whenever he walks by himself or signs something to communicate with us. She is trying to teach him his ABC's and all the noises that animals make.LittleMan is going through a clingy phase. He screams anytime I leave the room. I mean bloodcurdling, why-are-you-beating-me screaming. It makes it very difficult to get anything done around the house, but I sure do love the cuddling that has resulted. He'll sit still in my lap for a long time and listen to a book or say nursery rhymes. We have a duck puppet that Connie brought back from a weekend trip somewhere. It quacks when you open and close its mouth, and LittleMan loves it. Here is LittleMan again after he learned how to work the mouth of the puppet. He was so proud of himself!

The House
I've been in a real "spring cleaning" mood. I know, I know, it is fall, not spring, but the feeling is there anyway. Tyson took apart the gargantuan dollhouse that Santa left in our living room last Christmas and put it in BittyBit's room. Then we moved around some of the furniture, pulled out some of the clothes that she has outgrown, and threw in a couple of toys for good measure. I'll load it all in the car and donate it after I finish with the rest of the house.

I reorganized my closet as well and today I tackled the baby's closet. I pulled out some of the gadgets that he has outgrown and made some more space in his closet.

Tyson primed the trim in the bathroom, and we are a little closer to finishing that room.

Activities
My brother in law is awesome. (Derek is awesome, not my good-for-nothing, soon to be ex-brother in law N., who had better be glad that he lives too far away for me to damage him after the last stunt that he pulled.) I had my niece over a few times in the last couple of weeks before school started. One day when Derek came to pick her up, he stayed and talked with me for a while. He realized that I could use a day out, and that his wife could use a day out, so the next day he called me and asked me to please bring my kids over that night and go out with Jenni. He even suggested that I call Julie and have her drop her kids off too so that she could join us. I think he deserves brownie points for a year for that move. :) We wandered around an outdoor mall for an hour or so then bought smoothies and talked on a park bench outside. It was a nice and unexpected outing.

My friend Rhiannon came over on Saturday to take maternity pictures. I'm a lazy bum and have only processed a couple of them, but check them out.That evening I met Julie, Shannon, and Sarah at Chili's for dessert and girl gab. Afterward Julie and I joined her sisters Lauren and Kara for Karaoke at a local sports bar. We got there kind of late, and I didn't sing, but I had fun hanging out with the other girls. I'm so jealous of Kara's dimples though!
Monday I went with the family to a Labor Day BBQ at Rhiannon's house. I got to see her house for the first time and swim in her pool, which was so nice after the hot weather that we've had lately. That night we headed over to Tyson's dad's house for another BBQ dinner. I'll admit that I was so stuffed from the first BBQ that I didn't have room for anything, but the company was nice.

Today finds the entire family well. The kids wrapped up the day with a team horsie ride on daddy's tummy. I had to crop the picture close because BittyBit is in a habit of "losing" her pants lately. I'll look up and she's just in her training panties and a t-shirt, which I usually don't even notice until I've taken pictures of whatever cute activity is going on and then realize that I can't post underwear pictures on the blog. That's OK, that habit is less annoying than her most recent middle of the night activities. On the plus side, she is starting to wake up in the middle of the night when she has to go to the bathroom. On the downside, she is starting to wake me up in the middle of the night when she has to go to the bathroom. 3am, give or take an hour and she's banging on my door yelling, "Mom! I have to go potty!" I have got to rig a nightlight or something so that she can take herself. She can't reach the light switch to turn on the bathroom light. We don't have any outlets in the hall, so I can't put a nightlight there. The one outlet in the bathroom is wired into the light switch, so unless I leave the overhead light on, the nightlight won't work. There has got to be a happy medium. It probably involves Tyson climbing into the attic and rewiring something, which will not make him happy, but that's a story for another day. OK, I think I'm done. I'll try not to take so long between posts next time because I don't want to leave poor Jenny hanging all the way in South Texas!

Got your tickets?

2008-08-18T11:21:00.003-05:00

So I was just in the car with both of my children, when a commercial came on the radio. The DJ was talking about an upcoming Maroon 5 concert (which I would love to go to by the way) and mentioned that the radio station would be giving away tickets. My daughter said, "Mom, they said tickets!" "Yes they did", I replied. "Like tickets to the gun show...Mom, do you have tickets to the gun show?" she asked as she flexed her biceps. Ah, the education of children when left alone with their fathers...

Jenny's visit

2008-08-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

My friend Jenny moved to Galveston in June and those of us who were left behind miss her immensely. Jenny was able to come back for a visit with her kids last weekend and we all got together at Julie's house on Saturday to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance and gab. Jenny's brother Joey even came to hang out with us for a little while, which was nice because we hadn't seen him in a while and I'm sure he had much better things to do than hang out with a bunch of silly girls.Sunday after church Jenny brought the kids over to my house and we watched the Olympics for a few hours and talked some more until the kids were completely worn out. It was so nice to be able to get together again and hang out. Hopefully soon my family will be able to go down and visit Jenny in Galveston so that she doesn't miss us all too much. :)

Finishing Projects

2008-08-12T10:24:00.015-05:00

The master bathroom is usable. Tyson installed the sink before we went on our San Antonio trip, and his dad helped him install the commode after they got back. Tyson would have done that earlier, but he separated a rib a couple of weeks ago at Jiu Jitsu and he couldn't lift anything. Now he only has to install the wall cabinet and mirror, paint the trim around the door and window, and touch up the paint around the outlet. We are eventually going to install a glass door in the shower, but for now we're going to put in a curtain.In additional exciting news, I finished a baby quilt that I started four and a half years ago. My mom helped me design it and I cut the fabric and pieced the top together a long time ago. I didn't end up finishing it before my daughter was born and it ended up hiding in a hall closet for a year or two. I attached all the layers together and quilted it before LittleMan was born. I finished everything except the binding, then it wound up buried in the hall closet again. My ward assembled ten quilts to send to Salt Lake for the humanitarian aid store houses. We got together several times to tie the quilts. My mom is very crafty and always hand quilts her projects. I didn't even know how to tie a quilt, even though I have completed several quilts on my own before. I was motivated after helping with those other projects to finish the binding on my quilt, so I did. Here is the most recent finished product. This one was made with leftover scraps of fabric that I had in my stash.Here is a crib sized baby quilt that I made in about a week from start to finish in May of 2006. Here is the first quilt I ever made. I designed and completed this when Tyson and I lived in Florida, and I gave it to a friend of mine for her new baby.

San Antonio Vacation

2008-08-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

We spent the beginning of last week in San Antonio. We listened to one of those time share presentations and got our hotel room for dirt cheap, plus two free tickets to Sea World. That's the kind of vacation I like! I'm currently making scrapbook pages to document our trip, so rather than tell the story twice, I'll just post those layouts as I finish them. Here is the first one:
Template by Yin Designs, Paper by Bren Boone (altered).

This is why I can't have nice things...

2008-08-09T11:13:00.003-05:00

This morning I turned my back on LittleMan for about 5 seconds and he pulled my lamp off of the end table, causing it to crash to the floor and break. I love this lamp (and its intact partner).

Most of my furniture is hand me down, and I'm OK with that. I'm sure some day I will be able to decorate my house more how I want it and less in the "work with what *generic nice person* gave to me" style. I bought these lamps, and the gorgeous lampshades that go with them when a local store went out of business. I got them for dirt cheap, and they are probably my favorite (i.e - only) decorative but useful items in the house.

You might notice in the picture above that there is no lampshade on my broken lamp. I left Terrence and Tyson in charge of the kids about a month back so that I could do something useful and when I came back, LittleMan had gotten to the lampshade and begun to de-bead the fringe. He couldn't reach the lampshade by himself. *Someone* put him up on the couch within easy reach of the lampshades and let him play the "how close can he get to grabbing the beads without actually destroying them" game. I was miffed when my lampshades were damaged, so I removed the shades, in the hope of preventing future damage and possibly repairing them myself.Now I'm just resigned to the fact that I can't have nice things while I have small children.

LittleMan's birthday

2008-07-28T15:20:00.008-05:00

My little guy is getting so big. He had his first birthday on Saturday. He wasn't too interested in ripping open the presents, just eating the wrapping paper. But he did love tearing into the cake. After the first few bites he picked up the entire piece of cake and went after it, Cookie Monster style.The Aftermath...To celebrate LittleMan's first birthday, I made a small freebie to share. Click on the preview to download. Leave me a comment if you like it, and enjoy!

A Grand Old Flag

2008-07-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

I finally decided to take a break from designing my own stuff and actually try to get some layouts done, because that's the whole point isn't it?This layout was made using my Stars & Stripes Forever papers, a template by Yin Designs, and a font called Attic. I'm still playing catch up with pictures from when my daughter was a baby.

Spunky Girl Add On Freebie

2008-07-18T08:20:00.012-05:00

Tyson finally finished the attic foil on Tuesday morning, shortly before the installation company came out to install the new insulation and seal the ducts. They didn't actually end up sealing the ducts, I don't know if we misunderstood what they were going to do or what, but they did seal all the leaks around the vents where cool air could leak into the attic. We had 29% leakage of cool air before they sealed everything, and now we're down to 8%. I don't know how much more effective the new insulation is than the old (except that we have more of it), but it sure looks cleaner. If that's any indication, I give it an A+. :P We had the cable company come out yesterday and install new cable wire so that we could switch our internet service from DSL to cable. Our service is almost twice as fast, at half the cost. You can't beat that. Tyson spent half of this morning running the cable in the attic and trying to push it down into an interior wall where he's going to install a cable jack. The installer would have done it yesterday for an additional $75, but Tyson said "No thanks, I'll do it myself."
Now I have blazing fast internet and Tyson won't have to crawl around in the attic for anything anytime soon.

Here are some new layouts by Amber spotlighting my Spunky Girl and Stars & Stripes Forever Kits.I posted this originally at the beginning of the week, but if you haven't picked up the first part of my Spunky Girl kit, you can snag it below (image is clickable).
And now I'll leave you with a bonus, an Add On to my Spunky Girl kit! Click on the preview to go to the download page. *No longer available**Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

Action Sale at Atomic Cupcake

2008-07-15T20:56:00.005-05:00

I don't usually plug stores, but Atomic Cupcake is having a sale through the end of July.
Many of my scrapping buddies have asked how I make some of my embellishments, or create a torn paper look. There are other places out there to buy these types of effects (actions) for photoshop, but Atomic Cupcake is the first place that I found and I use those actions the most often. Atomic Cupcake used to have an "all you can download buffet", where all of the actions were available for download for the length of the subscription for a flat fee. Since then the pricing has changed to a per action price, but to celebrate the site's 3 year anniversary, they have re-instated the all you can download buffet. This is a great value if you want to get into design, or even if you'd like to create some of the effects for your individual layouts.

Spunky Girl has arrived!

2008-07-13T23:02:00.006-05:00

I'm already succeeding at this better outlook on life thing. At six-something yesterday morning when Tyson and Terrence were clunking around in the attic installing more attic foil, sounding like they were going to fall through the ceiling at any moment accompanied by a herd of elephants, I thought, "Isn't it great that they are climbing up in the attic, in the middle of July, in the Texas heat, so that they can make our home more energy efficient and save us money on our utility bills?"

My Creative Team girls have come up with some more great layouts from my new kit.

Here is Jenny's heartwarming layout Live and Laugh As Much, an ode to her parents. She used my Spunky Girl kit and a template by doudouloirsirs.

Shannon created this great brag book page entitled Nat's First Birthday using template #76 by Curth's Digital Designs.

Shalene has a treat for you on her blog (if it's not there yet, check back, it will be there soon.) She created this cute FREE brag book set for you using my new kit. Hop on over and snag it!

The kit is here folks! It has five papers, several frames, doodles, and acrylic buttons and charms. Click on the preview to be taken to the download link. Thanks for all of the comments! *Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

A Positive Attitude

2008-07-11T23:44:00.000-05:00

I've decided I'm going to make a conscious effort to improve my outlook on life. For instance, when I come home late from a girls' night and find the kids' dishes still on the table with food stuck to them, and an empty cup and spoon from someone's rootbeer float on the counter next to the sink, I'm no longer going to think, "Is my husband OK - or was there a terrible accident between dinner/dessert that rendered his arms and legs useless and forced him to drag himself into the other room to call for emergency assistance, leaving the dishes in place?" Instead I'm going to think, "It sure was nice of my husband to watch the kids so that I could enjoy a night out away from the kids. And it was very thoughtful of him to leave a few small tasks for me to complete when I got home, so that I would know how much I am missed when I'm gone, and that I'm an essential part of the household."...I'll let you know how that works out.

Upcoming kit

2008-07-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

I've been busy creating a new kit this week. My creative team is hard at work putting together some layouts to feature my upcoming "Spunky Girl" kit. There is even a set of free brag book pages in the works, so check back soon. Here is a hint to pique your interest.

Julie created two layouts: the first using my "Spunky Girl" kit and template #55 from Templates Etc. By Erica.
And the second using papers and elements from my "Sunshine Day" freebie kit and template #61 by Curth's Digital Designs.
More layouts and the freebie kit to come soon, so stay tuned!

Patriotic layouts

2008-07-08T07:10:00.002-05:00

UFC 86 Results:
Well, Griffin won the victory by decision, and it was a close fight. I think it should have gone to Jackson though, because I thought he won three out of five rounds, but the judges scored it differently, and I might change my mind when I see the entire thing again. I do like Forest Griffin, I just didn't think he would match up well with Rampage, but I was wrong. I did well overall in my fantasy picks though. I ranked 60th out of more than 17,000 people who picked the winners, method, round, and minute of each fight.
I decided to scrap some pictures from a couple of weekends ago when we all drove out to Celebrate Freedom. We were in the car for half of the day, but it was really fun. Click on the images to view them larger. I used a sketch by Becky Higgins to create the double page layout, and I used the papers from my Stars & Stripes Forever kit.
I've had several people send me layouts they created with my kit, and I'm sharing them with you here.

This one is by Julie:And another one by Sharon aka Scrapcat4914
Here is a layout Mandy sent me. Her husband is currently serving in Iraq and I gave her special permission to use my kit for fundraising products for his Troop's welcome home activities. If you'd like to check out her cafepress store, it's here.

Energy Efficient Attic

2008-07-05T13:09:00.006-05:00

Tyson found a local company that will give us a bunch of rebates for adding insulation to the attic. They are coming out next week to install the blown-in insulation. We won't get any rebates for the attic foil, but Tyson researched the foil, vs the spray on barrier and found that installing the foil barrier will prevent 97% of the radiant heat from coming into the attic, vs. the spray - which only prevents 15-79%, depending on brands and application method. That combined with the new insulation we'll be getting, and the new windows that we have in half of the house should save us a bundle on our utility bills. We should recoup all of our costs for the insulation and the foil in savings on our electric bill by the end of the summer.
Tyson and Terrence have been in the attic since 6am clearing out the attic and installing the foil. They were trying to get most of it done before the temperature got too intense. As of noon, they had the attic foil installed on an eighth of the ceiling, and they could already notice a difference in the overall temperature in there. Apparently it still feels like a sauna, but it's a cooler sauna than it was a couple of hours ago. When they called it quits for the day they were finished with about 1/4 of the attic. They'll work on the rest of it next weekend.

Tyson is planning to redo some of the duct work as well. Apparently when the house was originally built (in the late 1950's) electricity was so cheap that the builders didn't worry much about energy efficiency. The ducts are connected at each joint with two screws, so dirt and insulation from the attic can get inside the ducts, and then that debris is blown through the house via the air conditioning unit. He's going to clean the ducts out and reseal them before we have the crew come out and put more insulation in the attic.

Tonight Terrence, Tyson and I are meeting some friends at the Sports Bar to watch Rampage Jackson destroy Forest Griffin at UFC 86. It hasn't happened yet, so I suppose Forest could win if he has a miracle (remember when Serra got lucky and grabbed the victory from Georges St. Pierre?) but barring that, Jackson should win easily.

4th of July Festivities

2008-07-04T22:41:00.021-05:00

We have had such a busy and fun week. Yesterday we drove about an hour to meet up with Terrence and some other friends and see some fireworks in a neighboring city. We went to this particular fireworks display three years ago and were impressed by it. We tried to go again last year, but it was postponed due to rain and we didn't make it to the rescheduled event (which was postponed again, so it wouldn't have mattered). I thought it was neat that the city had their fireworks display a day early so that their fire department and city employees could have the day off on Independence Day.
The first time that we went was nice, but this year was so much better. The event was at a public park near the new fire station. They had free snow cones for everyone, a free water balloon slingshot-wars booth, a couple of rock climbing walls (I'm not sure if those cost money or not), and a children's train. They also had a bunch of bounce houses set up on the baseball field, and a pitching booth where you could clock the speed of your baseball pitch. We didn't even make it to most of the booths because the kids ran around and played on the playground. There was also a live band, who mostly played covers of 60's songs, which seemed to please everyone. Dickie's BBQ had a huge tent and they were selling a brisket sandwich (or a hotdog), chips, and a drink for $2.00. You can't beat that.
Tyson thought it would be fun to get our 11 month old hopped up on sugar. He had a love/hate relationship with this snow cone. I think it felt good on his gums (he's cutting another tooth, that's the fifth one he's gotten in less than a month) but he seemed shocked by the cold every time he took another bite.

When it got dark, the band wound down and one of the performers and his daughter sang "The Star-Spangled Banner". Then the pyrotechnics started! I got to play with the dedicated "fireworks" setting on my camera. I think it would have worked better if I'd brought a tripod, but I took a couple of cool shots. When we brought BittyBit when she was six months old, she screamed the entire time and I had to take her into a friends van and cover her ears and sing to her until the entire thing was over. I don't really blame her, because it is a loud and somewhat sensory overloading experience. LittleMan is a little older than his sister was when she first saw fireworks, but he loved them! She still didn't like them when she was a year and a half but he sat quietly and took it all in. It is amazing how different their personalities are.
We didn't make it home until midnight (we had to drive back to the friends' house to get Terrence's keys, which he'd left on the counter, then drove him home so he could get some clothes for the next day and follow us to our house). The kids stayed awake almost the entire drive back. Considering they are usually in bed by 8pm, this was an amazing feat. We were so tired, but we woke up early to attend our church's 4th of July breakfast and kids' parade. We stuffed ourselves full of pancakes, sausages, fruit, and juice/milk, then headed outside for the parade. All of the kids brought their bikes, tricycles, scooters, rollerblades, or ride-on toys and decorated them. (Well, we didn't decorate our daughters, we had too much going on the day before - maybe next year?) Then they made a couple of laps around the parking lot while all the parents snapped pictures and cheered.
My daughter's friend C. had some seriously cool blue hair. Afterwards Tyson, Terrence, and I packed up the kids and headed home to clean up the house and get ready for a BBQ at our house. Connie brought over her grill - ours is just a tiny one, not big enough to cook for more than a couple of people. Tyson grilled burgers, hotdogs, and steaks, while Brittany and BittyBit dug for buried treasure in the backyard. Note the giant hole there, that's where Tyson started to dig a hole to plant a new tree a couple of weeks ago. He wasn't able to go get the tree that day (it's free, but we have to dig it out of a friend's yard) so now we just have a giant hole. But apparently the kids who lived here before we bought the house liked to bury matchbox cars, so it turned out to be great fun. Connie also brought over her ice cream maker, so we had homemade ice cream after lunch.Buried Treasure!LittleMan didn't like for his knees to touch the grass, so he moved around in a bear crawl for most of the day.After Rex left with Brittany, and Connie went home, the kids and I took a nap, while Tyson and Terrence took a road trip to pick up some attic foil that we purchased online the day before. That is going to be their project for tomorrow.

Little Doctor

2008-07-02T22:33:00.002-05:00

Tonight while I was overseeing the Personal Progress activity at the Young Women activity, Tyson watched the kids. BittyBit noticed an abrasion on Tyson's knee and asked him what happened. He told her that he hurt it at Jiu Jitsu the other day. She had a ton of "why" questions for him then, and when he was finished answering all of them, she looked at him for a moment then said, "Stay right here, I'm going to make you better." She came back in the room with her Dr.'s kit and brought out her toy stethoscope. She started to put it on his knee, but when it hurt him, she put it on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. You could tell that she was paying attention at her last checkup a week ago, because she moved the stethoscope around and instructed him, "Breathe in and out slowly, like this." (As she closed her eyes and demonstrated the proper way to breathe.) "Hmm, sounds good." She took the ear pieces out of her ears and hung the stethoscope around her neck, then got eye level with Tyson. In her most serious voice she said (while wagging her finger at him),"No shots today...I'm going to give you some medicine to make you better." Then she reached over, pulled the cap off of the plastic medicine bottle that came with her toy Dr. kit, pretended to remove a pill, then handed it to Tyson. Does this kid have a future in medicine or what?

Central Market

2008-07-01T22:01:00.003-05:00

It has kind of been one of those days. I feel a bit stressed out, but can't really think of a reason why. The kids were pretty good today. Both the kids took naps and I got some stuff done around the house. I even managed to stay away from my computer for most of the day and played with my kids and read to them instead.

Tyson and Terrence put together a swing set that we inherited from my father in law after his last move. (Speaking of giving credit where credit is due, Tyson's brother Tayton reads my blog and noticed that I didn't give him any credit for cutting down the tree in the front yard. It is something I mentioned in a previous post. Tyson pointed out that he and Tayton did most of the work, so thanks Tayton. All I did was pull on a big rope that was attached to the upper branches so that I could keep them from falling on the cars and the basketball goal in our driveway. I would have done more, but I was seven months pregnant.) Anyway, my daughter loves the swing set and she played on it for a long time today. In fact, the reason she took a nap was so that she could go back outside and play later. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Tyson watched both of the children this morning so that I could get all the grocery shopping done. I usually take them with me, but I had a huge list today and it would have taken me 3+ hours to navigate the grocery store and Costco if I had the kids with me. As it is I finished up in less than two hours. I'm always a little dazed and confused after I complete errands without the kids because it takes so little time and it doesn't feel like I did things that much differently. Why on earth should it really take 1 1/2 to 2 times longer to do something just because I have two kids with me? Anyway, I was thankful to have some time to myself today, but I needed another dose, so I hit Central Market after the kids were in bed.
I love C.M., what more can I say? Where else can you buy seventeen different kinds of herbs and spices, in quantities that you need, for less than $5.00? My entire bill was slightly more than that, but that is only because I got a craving for sweets as I was leaving the store and bought some delicious blueberry cranberry muffins. I chowed down on a muffin in the car on my way back home while I listened to "Love the One You're With" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young on the radio. I remember when I was 14, 15, 16, 17, and still pining away for the same guy after things didn't work out. My mom quoted that song and told me I needed to move on. I hated that song at the time because I wanted to wallow in my misery, but now it's kind of funny when I think back on it.I almost published this post on a book club blog that I am a member of. That would have been strange.

Celebrate Freedom

2008-06-30T06:12:00.008-05:00

Yesterday I went with my sister Jenni and her family to a large outdoor concert. We didn't hear much of the actual bands performing because it was very family friendly outside the arena and we spent a lot of time walking around and letting BittyBit try out all of the bounce houses and slides in the kid area. It was so incredibly hot outside. We had spf 50 sunscreen slathered all over us (Jenni even had spf 70) and we kept having to re-apply it because we were starting to burn. There is nothing like the vicious Texas sun to beat you into submission.

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I thought it was only fitting that I create a kit for the 4th of July. There are only a few items that are specific to the holiday. Most of the rest of it is neutral enough to use for any occasion.
You can download the papers here, and the elements here. *Sorry, this freebie is no longer available for download. You may now visit my blog store to purchase this kit.*

My friend Shalene of Jordan's Boutique designed this fabulous desktop calendar to coincide with the release of my kit. She is amazingly crafty and does all kinds of hybrid work, including cards and invitations to events. Check out Shalene's blog to snag the desktop wallpaper, and remember to leave some love if you do.

My Other Mom's Birthday Party

2008-06-27T21:41:00.001-05:00

Last night was Julie's mom's birthday. She was a second mom to me when I was a teenager, and I almost spent as much time at her house as I did my own. She was in Paris for her actual birthday a few weeks ago (I know, I'm jealous too) so she wasn't expecting a party at all and it was a big surprise. Her family lured her to the party location by saying that a friend called and was at a church building for some sort of activity where there was free food. She reluctantly agreed to crash the event, only to be surprised by the flash of my camera as she walked through the building. I could tell she was doing some of that split-second reasoning as she thought "why is someone taking a picture of me, and why is it so quiet?"

Here are a few party guests and family members
Julie's sister Kara made the cake, I designed the invitations, and Julie planned the entire thing with a little bit of help from the people she recruited for various tasks.

How many people does it take to light a candle on the birthday cake?
One...
Two...
Third time's the charm! (Hey, those childproof lighters are tricky!)

Our birthday gal decided to enlist some help from her grandsons when it came time to blow out the candle - just in case it was as tricky to extinguish as it was to light.

Presents are always fun. Note the always useful hot flash extinguisher on the table.
She's probably thinking, "If I'd known you were going to fly back home from college a day early, I wouldn't have worn argyle - I know that's your signature thing, DD."

Gym Playdate

2008-06-25T08:56:00.004-05:00

LittleMan's cousin Liam invited us to a kid's gym where he goes a couple of times a week to exercise and socialize with other babies. My kiddo was at the top range of the class, according to age, so he was more interested in crawling around and exploring than bouncing on the balance beam or doing somersaults. He had a fun time though and we were able to hang out with Tayton and Breanne and little Liam for a while.All he wanted to do was stand up.
Chin-ups are fun!
Pretty good for a six month old.
But bubbles are the best part.

Texas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament Results

2008-06-22T12:49:00.021-05:00

Tyson did an awesome job at the Travis Lutter Texas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Invitational. He competed in three separate divisions and won first place in two of them. You can click on the "match" links to be taken to the video on YouTube. Tyson usually walks around between 150 and 155 lbs. He and a friend cut weight on Friday before the weigh-ins. Tyson only had to cut two pounds to make the 149 lb cutoff and be able to fight in the 140-149 division. His friend had to cut seven pounds, so Tyson stayed in the sauna with him for moral support, but he was losing too much weight, so he got out when he reached 147.

The first division was the Men's Absolute Novice. There were no weight restrictions, but everyone who fought in this group was brand new to the no-gi style of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Tyson finished his first match with a triangle choke.
Tyson's second match in the Absolute division was ridiculous. He had to fight a guy who was 340 lbs. Tyson still had to fight in the adult (18+) and the masters (30+) divisions later in the day. I was worried about him getting injured fighting the huge guy before he even had a chance to compete against guys his size. When the match started, the other guy knocked him down and planted all of his weight on top of him, then tried for the next three and a half minutes to twist his arm into a submission. Tyson couldn't even close his legs around the guy to get him in his guard. He finally managed to flatten Tyson completely out during the last thirty seconds of the round, and Tyson couldn't breathe at all, so he couldn't defend well and had to tap out when his opponent was finally able to catch him with an americana.
That eliminated him from the Absolute division, but he was not too upset at losing to a guy more than twice his size with the same level of experience. Usually when tournaments have an Absolute division there is no weight class, but they tend to group people of similar builds together. The first opponent that the big guy had to fight was 149 pounds, then he fought Tyson who was 147. Tyson didn't care, but I thought it was a bit ridiculous the way it was organized.

The third match was in the Men's Novice division. Tyson won this one by triangle submission. (The guy he beat was the poor guy who had to fight the 340 lb guy in the first round of the Absolute division.)
The next match was for first place and Tyson won that one too, but he was unable to finish his opponent by submission, so he won by decision (7-0). He did manage to possibly re-fracture his nose during this match.His fifth and final match was in the Men's Master's beginner division. He had less than 5 minutes to recover from his fourth match before he had to fight this one. There was only one other man who showed up - the rest of the competitors dropped out. They could have gone best of three, but were both tired from their previous fights, so they decided to only go one round. Tyson finished this fight after about a minute by getting his opponent in an arm triangle.
Overall it was a very successful day and Tyson was pleased with his performance. He was also glad that he was able to roll with so many people who were, with one exception, close to his weight. Almost all of the guys that he trains with are more experienced and at least 20 pounds heavier than he is.

I See The Moon, The Moon Sees Me...

2008-06-22T00:09:00.006-05:00

Julie, you mentioned trying to look at the moon Wednesday night when it was supposed to appear larger than usual. I read about it in an article on the Yahoo! main page, so I went outside and tried to take some pictures. I am even more convinced that I want to buy lenses for my camera, but I think the results are respectable.My mom used to sing a song to me when I was small, and I sing it to both my kids before bed every night. The tune is something that is unique to this song (meaning I can't say "sung to the tune of...") but the words go like this:

I see the moon
The moon sees me
Down through the leaves of the old oak tree
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountains
And over the sea
Back where my heart is longing to be
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

This is LittleMan's favorite activity lately.
He races as quickly as he can to the bookshelf, then before anyone realizes he's there, he pulls as many books as he can off the shelf.

He got his first haircut on Wednesday. I was too busy trying to finish the elements to my kit to remember to blog about it. Here are the before and after pictures.
Before
He's not sure what he thinks about the scissors, but he liked them better than the clippers.
And after, smiling with his favorite hairdresser, Grandma.

New Windows

2008-06-20T16:17:00.003-05:00

We had a local company come out an install new windows in half of our house. Tyson previously installed the small bathroom window in the pictures by himself, and he did the windows in the baby's room too. We found such a good deal on windows and installation though that we decided to let this company install the rest of them for us. As soon as we pay off this half of the windows, we are going to have them come back out and do the rest of the house. My house should be so much more energy efficient, and just in time for the hot Texas summer. Next Tyson is going to put more insulation in the attic.

Out with the old...
...and in with the new.

I created a couple of alphas to coordinate with my "Sunshine Day" kit. The one with the dots is a clear epoxy alpha with glitter polka dots. The lowercase letters are in the same font but are solid blue glitter. I also have some bonus punctuation and numbers included in the files. Thanks for all of your encouragement, it makes me excited to design a new kit. Click on the previews to be taken to the download links. *Sorry, these are no longer available as freebies, they are now available for purchase in my Blog Store.

Tagged, and the Long Awaited Elements

2008-06-17T23:58:00.006-05:00

Sory created a great layout with the papers from my "Sunshine Day" kit. Check it out on her blog.

HeatherMSU and Michelle tagged me. I don’t usually do these sorts of things, but I thought I'd try something new.

1) I’m only 5’3”. I had to shorten the hem on all of my pants until I finally got smart and started shopping in the petite section of the clothing stores.

2) I love chocolate. I know this isn’t unusual in itself, but my husband can’t stand the stuff and objects to it even being in the house, so I have stashes of it hidden all over the house so that I can get my fix without the teasing.

3) I met my husband at Scarborough Faire, the somewhat local Renaissance Festival. It was not love at first site though, as I was dating his friend at the time,and Tyson and I didn’t start dating until more than a year later.

4) I am very particular about how certain things are done around my house. The other night a friend helped load the dishwasher while Tyson wrote up an appraisal and I bathed the kids. When I came out later to add a cup to the dishwasher, I noticed that the plates were on the wrong side and were facing the wrong direction. I tried to leave it alone, but I ended up reloading the entire machine.

5) I have a thing about the textures of my food. My eggs have to be cooked until they are dry. I like my bacon cooked to a degree that most people would consider burned, but I like to think of it as crispy. I do not like soggy bread either, although I am not so crazy as to freak out about the foods touching on my plate. It is strictly a texture thing, but you are probably thinking I am completely OCD!

6) I do not like to clean the house or do chores when other people are around - which no doubt frustrates my husband, who works from home. :) I prefer to clean the entire house while he is gone, so he can come home and be surprised.

7) I love everything about digital scrapbooking. I am enjoying learning how to create my own kits. I really love collecting other people’s freebies. It is a personal mission of mine to teach any of my friends (and their friends, and their friends) who want to learn. I have already taught seven people since last fall and I can’t wait to learn more so I can share what I know with everyone else!

Now I am tagging:

Jenny - She only learned digi-scrapping a few months ago but she is spinning out layouts right and left. In addition, she just moved far away and I miss her already, so I need a Jenny-fix.

Missy – I am super jealous of her mad photography skills. :)

GingerScraps - She is a collector of freebies, like myself and has her own freebie list to feature other designers.

Mrs. Wresh – I love reading her super long blog posts and feel like I know her family personally. Plus she has amazing template designs and gives away great freebies – and yes, I read to the bottom of each post before I snag the freebie. She is such a great writer.

Andrea Gold - another great designer. I love all of her templates and have even found some great commercial use textures lately. I have seriously bought every template Andrea has ever made.

Michelle Coleman/Little Dreamer Designs - Her kits are full of grungy patterns and bright colors and the depth and textures of her designs are amazing. She is also a budding professional photographer and her pictures are great too.

Misty Cato - I love her style, and her tutorials saved me from chucking my computer out of the window when I first bought photoshop and had no one to teach me how to use it.

Here's the part some of you have been waiting for. I finally finished the elements pack to my "Sunshine Day" kit. It took me forever because frankly, I'm still learning photoshop, and I wasn't sure what I wanted my style to be. I'm also just learning how to use my graphics tablet, so I wasn't entirely comfortable drawing the doodles. I took inspiration from a ton of different people, so the elements are rather eclectic. Several people asked for shovel, pail, sand, and that sort of thing. I did not include those items in this kit because I'm going to use all of those items in a different beach themed kit. The drop shadows are for the preview only. So without further ado, here are the elements.

I love your comments and I read every one. Thanks so much for all the encouragement, and can I just say that I am so glad that I am finished with these - I haven't gotten to bed before midnight in over two weeks!

*Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

Eight Years

2008-06-04T07:57:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my eight year wedding anniversary. It kind of snuck up on me. Usually I look forward to my anniversaries for a while before they happen, but I woke up yesterday morning and it was suddenly the big day. Tyson and I kept things low key. We spent a lot of time together during the day, and we went to visit my sister in law Breanne and her baby Liam, who came out ahead of Tayton to stay here for the summer. In the evening Connie watched the kids so that we could go out to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant and the food was good. It was so nice to just sit across the table from Tyson and not have any distractions. We don't go on enough dates, I think, because I can't remember the last time we were out alone without some sort of agenda (like a martial arts tournament or something).

I am working on an elements pack to match the papers, but I'm not sure what style I want to make them. I have a few different things started but it will probably take me a while to finish them.

My First Freebie

2008-05-31T20:18:00.007-05:00

Ok, it's not much, but I designed my first paper pack. I might dabble in trying to make some embellishments to add to the kit later, but for the moment this is it. There are 13 papers in the kit. If you have any suggestions or any ideas for elements you would like to see in an add on, I would love to hear them. If you send me your layouts and I will post them on the blog. Please leave some love if you download. :) *Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*
Download Paper Pack Here
*I changed the preview and updated the link to one download instead of two, because the files are not so big that they need to be split up.

Sally

2008-05-31T00:20:00.005-05:00

My daughter introduced me to her imaginary friend "Sally" a few weeks ago. She usually joins us at meals, but sometimes she shows up to play dolls with BittyBit. Tyson thinks it is silly to have imaginary friends, but he probably never had one himself. When I was a child I had "Jamie-boy" and we got into all kinds of trouble together. I was more than a little jealous when my younger sister Robyn took over as Jamie-boy's best friend. I had kind of outgrown him, but I didn't want to share. Good times.

LittleMan learned how to wave goodbye this week, and he also learned how to sign "milk". He got so excited when he made the sign and we actually delivered a bottle. Now that he knows how to communicate, he gets extremely impatient waiting for us to prepare his food.

I finished my first digital paper pack today. I might make elements for it later, but for now I'm just going to package up the paper. I'm still getting the preview ready, writing up my terms of use, and getting ready to upload my files to the file sharing site, so it might be a few days before I post it.

Memorial Day Fun

2008-05-27T21:56:00.012-05:00

First of all, I want to say thanks to Julie for picking me up for the second time in a week so that I could be part of the festivities. It is driving me nuts having to rely on other people for everything, but maybe the Lord is trying to teach me patience and humility.

Julie came by my house early Monday morning and helped me round up the kids and load them in the car. We camped out at her house in the morning while she prepared food for her BBQ later that day. The food turned out great and I had a wonderful time hanging out with old friends and meeting some new people. My daughter ran around with Shannon and Kelly and the other kids and managed to get completely soaked by a water gun, but it was so hot outside that I bet she was more comfortable than the rest of us. BittyBit and Shannon after a serious water gun fight.LittleMan chilled out most of the day, in spite of being tired.

In the evening we all went over to another friend's house for Jenny G.'s going away party. The gals who put the party together did a wonderful job and we all had a great time. It was nice to be able to get together for one last hurrah before Jenny & her family move far, far away. My only regret was that neither of my kids got much of a nap, and they both pitched fits for a good portion of the party. Especially my eldest child, who realized how slow I am on crutches and decided to take advantage. It is always humbling to have the worst behaved child at a party. Check out Missy's blog for some great pictures of the event (I mean the party, not the tantrums).

Last, but not least, I finished another layout. I've been trying to complete this one for weeks, but I couldn't find papers I liked that didn't clash with the page that will go next to this one in the album. The two pages are of different events, so I didn't want to use the same papers. I finally found a kit that has a similar feel to the other page I did, but isn't too much the same. As always, click on the layout to view it larger.

Credits: Template by Andrea Gold, Papers from Danielle Corbitt's Don't Be Shy kit. Font:CK Stenography. Atomic Cupcake action used on title.

How Firm a Foundation...

2008-05-16T17:14:00.002-05:00

...at least it is after today. We had the foundation company who did the repairs 12+ years ago come back and adjust 7 of the piers, as well as install 5 new steel piers. The piers that they previously installed were still under a partial warranty, so we only had to pay 50% of what they cost to install twelve years ago. The other owners never had any supports put on the front side of the house, although the foundation needed them. Because of that the house shifted down several inches on the front side and slid off of the piers that were supporting one side of the house. That is what caused the pipe to burst under our slab several months ago. We are going to fix everything correctly this time, and hopefully we won't have to deal with any more foundation drama while we own the house.This is what the house looked like with all the foundation jacks sticking out from under it.
I thought these jacks looked kinda cool. They must be strong to be able to lift the house.

Rude Telemarketers

2008-05-15T23:38:00.001-05:00

I always try to be polite to people who call my house, even when they call me when I am home by myself trying to get both kids ready for bed. I really don't like it when the telemarketers call. I have been getting tons of solicitations recently and only realized last week that it is because my time on the National Do Not Call Registry had expired, so I had to put my numbers back on the list.

I think most sales people take a speed-talking course before they begin the job. As soon as I pick up the phone they begin their sales pitch, not even pausing to breathe, and I am left listening carefully for an opening to tell them, "No thanks". I make an effort to be polite, because I know that they are just doing their job, but as Dear Abby once said, in response to a whiney letter from a telemarketer (I am paraphrasing) - "People have no obligation to talk to sales people on the phone. Hanging up on a telemarketer is not terribly rude, as the call was unsolicited and the caller often doesn't give the person a chance to disconnect politely."

I spent close to a minute listening to the guy who was trying to sell me a termite treatment package. When he finally took a breath I said,"No thank you, I'm not interested." At which point he promptly hung up. No mumbled "thanks" or "bye". So I've decided I'm tired of being polite. I'm not interested in torturing the poor people who try to sell me something(like my brother in law enjoys doing), but I'm not going to feel obligated to listen to their sales pitch either.

I thought I'd list some of LittleMan's accomplishments
words: Ma-ma, da-da, (He said his sister's name once, but he has yet to say it again)
talents: clapping hands - he just learned this skill last week
crawling, pulling up on the furniture, and a little bit of "cruising" along the furniture
giving kisses - the big, slobbery, open mouth kisses that babies give, but he does it on command
moving around on his ride-on toy, Mater (he can do this by himself, but prefers to ride around with his big sister)

He is very happy and laughs a lot. I can tell he's going to have a great sense of humor and maybe even be a joker like his dad.
BittyBit and LittleMan riding Mater

Dinner & a Movie?

2008-05-10T09:18:00.005-05:00

Saturday morning Tyson and I packed up the kids and headed to a nearby park for a family picnic hosted by the Priesthood quorum. The guys (and a few girls) played softball while the rest of us watched the kids run around on the playground, then we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and chatted.

Saturday afternoon, Tyson and I asked Connie to watch the kids so that we could go to a movie. At least she thought that was why she was watching the kids. Tyson helped her reface the frame of her kitchen cabinets last fall and they built new cabinet doors together. Connie primed the doors months ago, but between her surgeries, social life, and Tyson's busy work schedule, the doors never got installed. Tyson headed over to her house and dusted off all of the cabinet doors, then lined them up to see which one went where. Then we fastened the hardware and installed the doors, assembly line style. Tyson drilled the holes for the hinges and screws, then I attached the hardware to the door and took the finished door inside and placed it in front of the cabinet to which it belonged. Then I would bring out another door and we would do it again. We had a pretty good rhythm going and finished the project in about 3 1/2 hours. We wanted to affix the knobs to the doors too, but the cabinet doors needed another coat of paint, and I knew if we spent any more time away, she would be suspicious of our "dinner & a movie" ruse.
This is the "before" shot.
Some of the openings are different sizes, so we lined up all the doors to see where they fit.
Tyson drilled the holes for the hinges.
I attached all the hardware - with a screwdriver at first, until I began to get blisters, and we hunted for a spare cordless drill.
I held the doors in place while Tyson marked where to pre-drill for the hinges on the cabinets, then we took turns attaching the doors.
Finally, after all our hard work, the doors were all in place. We couldn't find the drawer panels to go in front of the sink, and we didn't have time to make more this time. Later Connie told us that she already has the wood to make them, she just hasn't gotten to it yet.

We tried to put everything back where we found it, but we almost made the garage too clean. We had to sweep up all the sawdust and beat it out of some carpet runners that she has next to her car. I think I put one of them back in the wrong spot. She told us later that she walked from the garage into the kitchen and thought, "I don't remember leaving the garage this clean". But she was still surprised when she walked inside and was greeted by nearly finished cabinets, instead of open shelves. She was pretty happy that we'd gotten all that done for her for mother's day, but she also was a little disappointed that we hadn't actually taken time to go on a date ourselves. Connie is awesome that way, always looking out for everyone else. I think we did get our date, and it was a service date, which was somehow much more fun than a traditional date.

Haircuts and Treadmills

2008-05-06T23:04:00.002-05:00

I got my hair cut again today. I love going to Erik to get my hair done. It always looks much better after he styles it than I can ever get it to look on my own. Tyson's mom was talking to him the other day about how male hairdressers usually make more money than females. If a woman cuts another woman's hair and tells her it looks good, the patron might believe her, or she might think that the hairdresser is just trying to get some repeat business. If a guy cuts a woman's hair, when he tells her that her new 'do looks great, she is more likely to believe him.

I don't know if there is any truth to that, or if it is one of those made up statistics, but I can see how it could be true. Assuming that the guy cutting my hair does a great job, I'll keep going back because I will take a little flattery wherever I can get it (I said flattery, not flirting). Tyson has always been good about noticing when I change my hair, and sometimes a few weeks later, he will notice if I buy new clothing. I think (especially after the relationship is no longer new) that sometimes guys forget that women need compliments. Once you get married, friendships with people of the opposite sex are mostly off limits. You are pretty much limited to your spouse's friends, and if you do remain friends with people you knew before you got married, the dynamics of the friendship definitely have to change.

I walked over five miles on the treadmill today. Tyson's comment that I looked pregnant in the sweater I wore to the wedding finally motivated me to either kill myself or start working out, and since everything else in my life is going ok right now, I guess I'd better start exercising. I watched a Cold Case episode and part of Northanger Abbey (thank goodness for DVR) to keep me busy while I walked. Now I am going to be hooked on all of these Jane Austen movies. I have already recorded over 30 hours of them from PBS's Masterpiece Theater. I wish real life were as romantic as the books. I think after reading enough of Jane Austen, no man will ever be able to measure up!

Here's another scrapbook page I finished yesterday. This page was the last of the June '05 pictures, now I am ready to tackle July.
Credits: Template by Andrea Gold, Spring Garden kit add on by
Mira Designs of The Digichick, Font - CK Stenography

No boots in the house

2008-05-05T17:39:00.004-05:00

Last night BittyBit wanted to wear her cowboy boots in the house. We usually take our shoes off while in the house, and it was almost bedtime, so I told her that she could wear them to school tomorrow instead. She looked at me and said, "I don't want to go to school tomorrow". Most of the time she loves school, so I asked her why she didn't want to go. "I don't want to go to school tomorrow because I'm mad at you mom", was her reply. I had to fake a cough to cover my smile. I am glad that she can tell me when she is upset, and even gladder that she can be civil when she tells me. It just surprised me and the expression on her face when she said it struck me as funny.

I started the layouts below about a month ago, but I have not been able to get the second page to look right. I think I'm done messing with it for now though, so I will post it. I can't wait to start scrapping 2006, when I lost the rest of the baby weight. Those pictures are always easier to look at.

Credits: Sketches by Becky Higgins. The papers and elements are from Buzy Bee Scrapper Designs

Tuesday layouts

2008-04-29T21:20:00.004-05:00

The weather has been so nice lately. I love to take the kids for walks in the stroller, but I have been reluctant to do so recently because BittyBit is still in the potty training phase. If I'm going to get out and exercise (and sweat, yuck!) then I might as well get my time in. I used to take 3+ hour walks with BittyBit before LittleMan was born, but I don't know where to stop for a bathroom break along my route. I finally decided that I'd walk to a park about a mile and a half from my house, then after BittyBit had played for a little while, I would go to the nearby strip mall and try to find a restroom we could use. Instead I ended up making a mad dash for the nearest elementary school when I saw the look on BittyBit's face that told me I had about a minute to find a potty or it would be too late. It was almost 6pm, but thankfully the building was still open, so our mission was a success. Then we were able to play for a few more minutes on the playground and I was able to take my time the walk home. LittleMan even fell asleep on the return trip, which was nice.

I completed two more scrapbook pages today. My goal is to scrap the rest of my pictures for 2005 by the end of the summer. Then I am hoping to finish 2006 by the end of this year. We will see if that actually happens. Here are my layouts.
Credits: Template by Mrs. Wresh, font - Georgia, papers from Miriam Lima’s LDD Celebration kit, bear sticker from Nancy Kubo’s Hullabaloo kit.
Credits: Template by Andrea Gold, Papers from Mints & Taro kit by
Fei-Fei’s Stuff.