I received this blog award yesterday from a fellow scrapper friend of mine, Katt. Thank you, Katt!

I'd like to pass this on to 3 blogs that I follow and love:
Lisa: http://positivelylisa.blogspot.com/
Lindsay: http://lindsaysthreelittleblessings.blogspot.com/
Brenda: http://brendacarpenter.typepad.com/

Celebration Time/Giveaway!

Saturday, May 2 is National Scrapbooking Day! To celebrate, I've come up with a fun challenge.

Want a challenge that can involve your whole family? One that your kids are SURE to love? Sound good? Okay...then here you go!

To start NSD off with a bang, let's CELEBRATE! What do you think of when you hear the word "celebration?" Well....CAKE, of course!

So your challenge is to bake a cake, cupcakes, any kind of yummy goody....and either write with icing or make a card to set in front of it that says "Happy National Scrapbooking Day" or "Happy NSD" for short. You must take a picture of your yummy baked goody/goodies with the words and link your photo here on my blog by midnight, Saturday, May 2. Just think...if you make it early, you will be able to eat some cake on NSD! :) I know your kids will love to get in on this, and of course everyone loves to eat cake!

What's in it for you besides yummy cake? Glad you asked! All participants who link their creations in a comment on my blog will be put into a drawing to win this:



This is a retired set of 4 Stampin' Up! "Alphabet Soup" rubber stamps! The "thank you" stamp has been used once, but everything else is brand new. So what are you waiting for?! GET TO BAKING AND CELEBRATING! Remember to post a comment to this message with the link to your photo.

Want TWO chances to win? Add yourself as a "follower" of my blog, and your name will be entered twice!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!!!

Sketch #17!

Sketch #17 is up at 52 sketches...52 weeks! Be sure and check it out and upload your interpretation for a chance to win a FABULOUS prize from The Mosy Scrapper! Here is the layout I did with this sketch:



By the way, this week was my week to post a Tutorial in the forum at 52 sketches...52 weeks. Be sure and check it out to learn my "Hole Punch Technique" and tell me what ya think! I'd LOVE to see your projects using this technique!

Spring

I just love Spring! The renewal of life, the warmer weather, more time outside, Spring cleaning and decluttering....okay, you get the picture. This year, we did something we've never done before. We went to a botanical garden about an hour away. The boys had so much fun! I've already posted a slideshow of all my pictures from there, but I finally got to scrap a layout today of what I consider one of the CUTEST pics of the boys ever. I don't think I really did it justice, but here it is:

Blog Crop and Happy Earth Day!

Hey everyone! Head on over to the Paper Trunk blog and join in on their blog crop! It starts on Earth Day (today) and ends on National Scrapbooking Day (May 2). There will be a challenge posted every day on the blog. Be sure and check out their awesome Showcase for some great inspiration as well! :)

In honor of Earth Day, here is a recent layout I made of Aaron playing outside in our backyard. I tried to keep a nice "backyard" feel with the outdoorsy papers and embellishments. Most of the papers and embellishments were sent to me by my Secret Bunny at Have Your Way With Paper. Thank you, Robin! :)

New Sketch Up at 52!

It's Sunday, so you know what that means! A *new* sketch has been posted at the 52 sketches...52 weeks blog! It is a really cool sketch, and the Design Team has done a great job with providing samples. There is another CUTE kit you could win for participating too...check it out here!

New Easter Layout

So hubby bought me a subscription to a monthly scrapbooking kit club, Scrapbook Deals 4 U for my birthday. I'm loving it so far! I chose the "Swing into Spring" kit and made this layout today using the kit:



By the way, there are TONS of great challenges going on over at Have Your Way With Paper....if you're needing some inspiration or just a fun, cool place to hang out and meet some wonderful fellow scrappers, you should definitely check it out!

Easter Week/Weekend

Well, I'm finally getting some time to sit down and upload some photos from Easter. We had a wonderful holiday! It started on Tuesday night with Van's family. We celebrated my birthday, Van's grandmother's birthday, and Easter all at once with a lovely dinner and an egg hunt for the boys. All of those photos are on Van's computer in iPhoto, so I can't get to them right now.

The following Thursday, Evan had his Easter class party and had a blast!




Saturday was my 29th birthday (yeah, big 3-0 coming up next year!), and Van took me out of town to eat and find an Easter outfit. We ate at my FAVORITE Mexican food restaurant, Abuelo's. Yum! That night, we went to my sister's house and let the kids color eggs with their cousins. Always messy...but always fun!



On Easter Sunday, I got up early and starting getting things ready for church. Van is the praise & worship leader, so he is always gone early on Sunday mornings, leaving me to get the boys ready by myself. This can sometimes be quite a task, but they were very cooperative on Sunday morning and looked incredibly handsome in their little suits I bought at JC Penney. They even let me take a couple of quick pics of them before heading to church!






We had a church Easter egg hunt right after the service. Before the hunt, my sister snapped this family photo of us:



Here are a couple of church egg hunt pics:




And finally....one more egg hunt! This time, we went to my parents' land out in the country and let the kids hunt eggs. We had some long-time family friends, Trisha's best friend's family, my Papa, and our little "adopted" boys (Michael & Jackie) join us....the more the merrier! The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS...we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!




Whew, what a week/weekend! It was busy, busy, but it was a lot of fun. Now if I could just find time to scrap all these pictures!!!!!!!

I Love Sketches! :)

A new sketch is up at 52 sketches...52 weeks! You'll love this one...it's a multi-photo, and remember...not only will you get a cute page done, but there is always a chance to win a fabulous prize too! Visit 52 sketches...52 weeks and check it out! Here is the layout I made with the sketch:



Also, I did this page this week using a Page Maps sketch:



Hope these inspire you to create pages of your own. Happy Scrappin!!!!!!!!!

He is RISEN!!!!

Happy Easter, everyone! Amidst the eggs, candy, and bunnies...may we all remember the true meaning of this glorious holiday.

Easter Joy

Jesus came to earth,
To show us how to live,
How to put others first,
How to love and how to give.

Then He set about His work,
That God sent Him to do;
He took our punishment on Himself;
He made us clean and new.

He could have saved Himself,
Calling angels from above,
But He chose to pay our price for sin;
He paid it out of love.

Our Lord died on Good Friday,
But the cross did not destroy
His resurrection on Easter morn
That fills our hearts with joy.

Now we know our earthly death,
Like His, is just a rest.
We'll be forever with Him
In heaven, where life is best.

So we live our lives for Jesus,
Think of Him in all we do.
Thank you Savior; Thank you Lord.
Help us love like you!

By Joanna Fuchs

That's Hot.

Like....we are sooooo hot. (Trisha's gonna kill me!)


Create your own FACEinHOLE

One Reason Why I am a SAHM....

When I chose a job that I could do at home, I was looking ahead to the future. The future that involved having my own children and wanting to not miss one second with them. Moments like you will see in this video of Aaron this morning....moments like this are why I'm so thankful I don't have to miss out on because of being stuck in an office or other job somewhere. Silly times....times that make us both giggle and make our day brighter. So if you have kids at home, just turn some music on and get up and dance with them, even for just a minute....it makes the whole day better! :)

Bring on Spring!

Ahh, I love Spring! Van and I took the boys to Clark Gardens on Saturday afternoon and spent the day strolling in this hidden treasure and just being together as a family. The weather was perfect, and it was great not having to be anywhere at any certain time...just slowing down and truly "taking the time to smell the flowers", as the saying goes. This place also had train set exhibits throughout the gardens, which the boys really loved. They could have stood there and watched those trains all day!

I want to go back here in the Fall, when everything is changing colors and other things start to bloom. I think we may just have to take off and go here every now and then just for some "away" time as a family...it's only about 45 minutes away, so that's doable. Plus, this town is also home to my favorite scrapbook store, so that's a total bonus. ;)

Here is a slideshow of our little excursion. Just click RIGHT HERE to view the whole show. Enjoy, and Happy Spring! :)

Check it Out!

There is a new sketch over at 52 sketches...52 weeks! And....my first layout for the Design Team is up as a sample using that sketch. I had a lot of fun with this sketch and kinda changed the arrangement of it a bit to fit my pictures better. That's what is so great about sketches...you can change them to fit your own interpretation. The team did a great job on this sketch, and now it's YOUR turn! Make a layout based on sketch #14 and upload it to the gallery for your chance to win a nifty prize package featuring a monthly kit from a club called Kenner Road. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Here is the layout I did for this sketch:

My Sister, The Genius

Well ok, she's not really a genius (LOL)...but I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed that she learned how to make sketches on the computer today. Just like that...she sat down and just figured it out pretty much all on her own. She has a super cute sketch on her blog, and there is a chance for a nice RAK from her if you do the sketch and show it to her. So there ya go...some great inspiration and a super cute sketch...Happy Scrappin!

First Game of the Season!

Evan's first T-ball game of the season was yesterday afternoon. It was waaaaaaaay windy and cool, but the boys did a GREAT job! They really seemed to "get" it. I am so proud of Evan...he played on the pitcher's mound during the 1st inning, and he stopped just about every ball that went by him. I also have to mention how blessed I am by his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cyprian. Four of his classmates are on his team, and one classmate was on the opposing team...Mrs. Cyprian showed up at the game just to watch them play. Isn't that the sweetest?! Here is a little video I made of Evan batting and then playing on the pitcher's mound. Every one of those boys reminded me of Chicken Little with those big-o helmets on! LOL



Here are a couple more pics:

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

So, I'm sad to say that one of my all-time favorite TV shows is over. The last episode of ER was aired last night. Now what am I gonna do on Thursday nights at 9:00????

This show had such an amazing cast. I really didn't start watching it faithfully until around 2004, but once I started watching it..I never missed an episode! I guess with me being somewhat in the medical field, this show just really grabbed my attention. I actually understood the language when they'd start busting out all those medical terms too, so that was pretty cool. Sometimes we'd have to hit pause so I could explain to Van what they were talking about. LOL Yes, I got him hooked on the show too. That was our thing on Thursday nights...to curl up on the couch together and watch The Office and ER. The finale last night wasn't as emotional as we thought it'd be. It left a lot of stories open, but I guess that's just to leave it to the viewers to end them as they wish. I was happy to see Dr. Carter back for the last few episodes...he was always one of my favorites. :)

There's a new show called Southland that will taking the Thursday 9:00 pm spot now. They showed about a billion commercials for it last night. Not sure if we will watch this one or not, but I guess we'll try it out next Thursday and see if it's worth watching. Hey, I've still got The Office, so as long as that stays on the air...I'm good. ;)

Yesssss!

America, you TOTALLY got it right tonight with the American Idol results. What a relief to see the squawking crow gone! CAWWWW CAWWWW!!!!!!

Woohoo, I won!

So there is this super cool scrapbooking blog, The Scrap Review. Really great for us scrappers because they review products with an unbiased opinion...pros and cons HONESTLY. So anyway, they have occasional giveaways, and I entered for yesterday's prize. I checked the blog today and saw my name on there as one of the winners. WOOHOO! I won a Die Cuts With a View "Green Stack" Gift Pack. How cool is that?! I love DCWV, so I can't wait to get my hands on this! :)