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Coffee Mate Cinnamon Bun liquid creamer = YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ABCs of Me - Letter E

I'm back with another "ABCs of Me" post! (finally!) This time, I'm on letter E.

Here's what I have:



1. Evan - My first-born. :) I never knew the depths of motherly love until Evan came along. And my heart is still filled to the brim, overflowing with love for this boy. He's amazing. So very, very smart and studious. The most gorgeous eyelashes in the world....women would kill for his eyelashes. They curl back and touch his eyelids, and they are super long and dark. People (especially women) comment on them ALL.THE.TIME. He's got a stubborn streak...but with two stubborn parents, of course he does. He's got never-ending amounts of energy...that's probably why he's so skinny and already has a six-pack. ;) He is growing like a weed. Can't keep pants that fit because he wears them one time, and then they are too short on him. He's going to be tall like his daddy. He's an awesome example to his peers. He's unashamed to share his faith with others...but he does so in a quiet, respectful manner that makes people WANT to learn more about God. I love that about him. He's got the most contagious laughter. On the first day of school this past year, both of his teachers told us that if they could clone any student, it would be him. And this is just after having him in their class for one day. Yes, I am bragging...because this boy just makes me so darn proud.

2. Every Day Minerals - I love this makeup! Especially the Base/Pressed Powder. I used to wear liquid base, and I never ever could find the right color for my skin tone...and I hated how "caked on" it felt. Every Day Minerals has all natural ingredients, and you can't even feel it. They have great eyeshadows and cheek colors too!

3. Encino Man - For the life of me, I do not know why, but over the course of one summer in my early teen years, I watched this movie at least 15 times. At least. I loved Pauly Shore and thought he was so funny in this movie. Some of my friends even called me "Weasel" because of my obsession for this movie and because I quoted it all the time. Stupid really. But, everyone has their stupid teen years, I suppose. lol So don't harsh my gig, corn cruster.

4. Erasers - My older sister and I collected shaped erasers when we were kids. I guess that's as cool as it go back in the 80s. We had all kinds of shapes/themes....everything from hamburgers to Smurfs. Sad thing is....we still have this collection at my parents' house, and our kids love playing with our erasers!

5. Eighties Party - I'm not ashamed to admit it...I LOVE THE 80S!! The music - OHHHH the music - so great. The hair - so big. The clothes - not so cool, but hey...we didn't know any better! My husband and I and a group of our friends thought it would be cool one night to host an "80s Party." We all went to Goodwill and found some great 80s clothes and dressed up. Yes, folks, my hair is CRIMPED in this picture. And yes, I have awesome lace gloves on. I wish you could see my boots I got at Goodwill in this picture. The ugliest boots I've ever seen...but oh so 80s! And someone apparently reallllllly loved them because they were very well-worn. We had some totally rad 80s music playing. Combos, Reeces Pieces, and Coke in a bottle for snacks. An original Atari gaming system (yes, I still have it) hooked up to the TV for everyone to play. A tacky TACKY shiny pink backdrop hung in the corner of our living room for pictures. Michael Jackson, Rick Springfield, Journey, and Genesis albums (yes, albums...not CDs) hung on the walls of our dining room. My husband wore penny loafers and did the famous "tuck & roll" on the legs of his pants. I went for a more "punk" look with my Cindy Lauper-inspired outfit. My older sister wore a HIDEOUS prom dress from the 80s (hello puffy sleeves!). Someone had a Swatch Watch. The blue and pink eyeshadow was abundant, and the hair was BIG. It was awesome. Gotta do that again some time.

6. ER - One of my most favorite shows ever. But I didn't watch back in the Clooney days....I started watching whenever Dr. Carter was the main character and then so forth. Abby, Dr. Carter, Dr. Kovach, Archie, Sam, etc. And then when John Stamos joined the cast....oh yeah. Hubby and I watched this show faithfully until its demise. I hated to see the show end....and there will never be a hospital-based show like it again, no matter how hard they try.

Backyard Puppet Show

My youngest son loves puppets. I mean...LOVES...puppets. Marionettes, hand puppets, finger puppets, whatever...he loves them and loves putting on puppet shows for us. He has ever since he was little bitty. He went to a puppet/marionette show at our local Art Center one year around Christmas time when he was just a tiny baby, and he has been hooked ever since.

During last summer, all he wanted to do was go out to our building behind our house, open up the window on the glass door, and entertain us with puppet shows. I spent many hours sitting on our back patio, watching him do these shows....over.and.over.and.over. I'm glad I remembered to grab the camera and capture these pictures and this stage in his life. He's not nearly as obsessed with puppets as he used to be (thank God), but today after he saw this page that I made, he suddenly remembered doing this and ran outside to do it again. LOL So funny.

These moments are ever so fleeting. While they may drive me crazy right now, I know one day I will look back and miss them. So for now, I will encourage him to do what he loves doing...and hope that he always sees life as fun and entertaining like he does now. :)

Spring Fever

Okay, so Texas weather has been absolutely PERFECT the past few days! I am LOVING.IT. In fact, the boys and I have spent most of the past few days outside almost all day long. We have a very big backyard, and I have been raking leaves for 2-3 days straight. Got it all done, though, before the Texas heat and mosquitoes hit! Feels good to have it done, and it was great being outside in the beautiful weather while watching and hearing my boys play together in the backyard. :)

Speaking of Spring Fever, did you know that there is a super fun online crop going on over at Have Your Way With Paper? It's true! And guess what it's called? "Spring Fever Crop." How 'bout that? The lovely Erin has come up with some fun challenges for us all. Come by, register for the message board and gallery (if you haven't already), and play along!

Here are a couple of pages I've done for the crop so far:





Both of these pages contain older pictures that I'm just now getting to, but I'm glad to finally have them scrapped. :)

Here's another layout I did, just for fun:



Again, an older picture of Aaron (Valentine's Day from last year), but I LOVE this pic of his little sweet face and am glad to finally have it on a page.

Hope you all are having some warmer temps like we are. Sunshine really is good for the soul...it has definitely helped me shake the winter blahs! ;)

Don't forget to visit Have Your Way With Paper for our Spring Fever Crop!

A 2-Pager

Good morning, everyone! Hopefully the temps are warming up where you are....we are supposed to get to 75 this coming week, so I am TOTALLY looking forward to that! :)

Today, I'm sharing a 2-pager I did for The Scrap Room. I have been a Barista for The Scrap Room for a couple of years now, and let me tell you...I LOVE this monthly kit club!!! You get SO many goodies with each kit, plus...a little pack of flavored coffee. Scrapbooking supplies (always the latest and greatest) + coffee = One happy scrapper! :)

If you are looking for a monthly kit club, look no further. The Scrap Room is the best! :)

For February, my assignment for my 2-pager was to use the Pink Paislee "Sweetness" part of the kit. Here's what I came up with:



Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that last summer, I went on a super fun trip to Chicago with my Have Your Way With Paper girls. We had a blast! I loved Chicago...such a beautiful city! I was so impressed by the beautiful architecture and landscaping of the whole city. I had these pics of some of the buildings/landscaping from our trip, but I never could find the right papers to scrap them...until this kit came along, that is! And the little glittery yellow alpha stickers? Adorable! (and they smell like my sticker book from when I was a child LOL)

Happy Friday...stay warm! :)

A Couple of New Layouts

I've got a couple of new layouts to share today! Yay for scrappy time! :)

Both of these were made with the Fancy Pants "That Boy" kit. This is an older kit that I just HAD to have when I saw it at a scrapbook convention a couple of years ago. And you know what? I never even OPENED it until a couple of days ago. *rolling eyes*

Anyway, it's a great boy kit, and I love the colors/patterns! I like to accent kraft colored papers with a bold white pen, like I did on some of the outlining here.



I've still got plenty of this kit left, so I hope to use it some more soon. I'm also working on my oldest son's 7th birthday mini album. I try to keep at least bday mini albums caught up-to-date, but I'm already a couple of bdays behind! :( Oh well...enjoy the process, right? :)

Hope you all are staying warm!!!

February REVEAL from The Scrap Room!

Hey everyone!
Are you staying warm? We are on Snow Day #4 here in Texas....that's 4 days in a roll my oldest has missed school because the roads are too icy and dangerous! This is crazy! We were never lucky enough to miss school like this when I was a kid. ha!

Anyway...being locked up inside the warm house has at least provided a little bit more scrappy time (when my boys are playing nice together, that is).

Speaking of scrappy time, have you seen the February kits from The Scrap Room?! Here's what you'll get:



How's that for a gorgeous loaded kit?!

Here are my projects for the month using this kit:














PLUS, a 2-pager that I can't quite show yet!!! All of that with ONE monthly kit. You can't beat the value of the TSR kits! If you are looking to join a kit club and want to get a lot of bang for your buck, The Scrap Room is the only way to go!

When Life Gives You Snow...Make ICE CREAM! :)

What do do with all this snow??? Well, make ice cream, of course! :)

Here in Texas, we don't get much snow (thank GOD!), but when we do....my boys cannot wait to get out there and play in it! So, today we dressed in layers and headed outside for a few minutes before my fingers fell off. When we came inside, we decided to make some homemade snow ice cream.



Recipe:
2 3/4 cups milk
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
Freshly Fallen SNOW!

Mix it all together and add as much snow as you want until you get the right consistency/thickness.

I added chopped up chocolate chip cookies to ours and drizzled a little bit of Hershey's syrup on top. Sugar rush all day....it's gonna be great! ha!




The boys scarfed it down. This tastes just like homemade ice cream...without the use of an ice cream machine! Yay!

I think this will be a new snowy tradition for us. Good stuff. :)