Busy, busy, busy!

Since Halloween, things have been so busy! Between trick-or-treating, Thanksgiving, visiting family, planning for baby, and getting our Christmas tree up, I feel like we've been going non-stop!

Here's a nice family Halloween pic our neighbor Barbara took of us when we visited her:

Kelcie has been wanting to cut her hair for a little while now, and I suggested donating it to Locks of Love (Marina and I both donated our hair earlier this year). So after 10 or so inches, here's her new short 'do:

River is our budding entrepreneur :) Here she is "helping" daddy build a pedal!

A few days before Thanksgiving, we visited my grandma and aunt up in the desert. The kids and I had been sick earlier in November, but unfortunately Brian caught the bug the day before we visited, so he stayed home in bed.

Thanksgiving day brought more family visits. Brian's aunt visited us from Las Vegas. Too bad River wouldn't sit still for the pic :(

Marina got her first trimester report card a few weeks ago, and did very well (which we expected). The school had an awards ceremony this month, and she received 3 awards: Perfect Attendance, Honor Roll, and a special achievement award in Language Arts for her reading. She's reading about 24o words per MINUTE and the average 3rd grader is expected to read 80 wpm.

I got a surprise at a scrapbooking crop Dec. 5th, when a few ladies threw me a little baby shower! Everything was blue; very cute!

And here's my baby bump at 32 weeks (almost 33 wks now)

And last but not least, a recent layout. River looked absolutely adorable for Halloween as Little Red Riding Hood!

Well, that's it for now... will post some Christmas pics after we get the tree decorated! TFL!

Our little pumpkins

Happy Halloween! I love this time of year; cooler weather, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating... lots of fun things to do! We carved our pumpkins last weekend. Kelcie and Marina (with a little help from Brian) carved their own pumpkins:

River wanted nothing to do with them once she saw the "guts" inside.

It was her naptime anyway, so it kinda worked out that she didn't want to help. I put her down for her nap and I was able to carve my own pumpkin. :)

And here's a little pumpkin Brian and I "made" together! LOL

Happy Halloween everyone!

It's been a long week...

The last few days have been really draining on me. After discovering a problem with the Jr. High, I find myself wondering if I should homeschool my 12 year old. I have been mentally exhausted these last couple days asking myself what I should do. I'm hoping a resolution can be found so I won't have to make this decision.


On to better things...

Last week River had her first real bubble bath. She loved it!

She also said two new words this week: cookie (which sounds like "doo-dee" most of the time) and hide.



We went to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of everyone (well, except me since I'm taking the pic). River did NOT want to sit still for even a second! The pic is also blurry because I was in a hurry to take it so I apparently didn't wait for it to auto focus. :(





Marina, on the other hand, loves to pose:




I managed to get a few of River when we visited the little petting zoo there. She wanted to feed the goats, but when they got too close she didn't want to anymore :) She did pet a few of them though.

This afternoon, Kelcie and River played in the front yard for a little bit while Kelcie was waiting for a friend to pick her up so they could study. I got a few good pics :)

And today I am 25 weeks pregnant and as big as could be:

Hopefully we'll go in tomorrow and get another ultrasound. Just can't get enough of seeing my baby boy!

And last but not least, a few of the layouts I did over the summer:

Kelcie and Marina in a rare cuddling moment back in January 2006.

Marina getting ready for preschool in October 2004.

Kelcie's band concert in June 2009.

TFL!

Where have I been??

I've been a bad blogger... my last post was in June! That's a big gap considering I was posting weekly when I was on the Cuttlebug Challenge Design Team. So, where have I been and what have I been doing?

We found out in late May/early June that we are expecting our 4th child! And with pregnancy comes fatigue, which means lots of naps! Luckily my first few months were during the older kid's summer vacation, so I was able to sleep in every morning and nap almost every afternoon! Now things are much busier, so no 12 hour nights and no afternoon nap most days :(

The older girls have been back in school for 2 months now, and we are all pretty set in the new schedule. Kelcie (12 yrs) started 7th grade this year and is in Junior High! She is in the Magnet program, which is an accelerated program that includes Algebra and Spanish; classes that usually aren't offered until High School! She also has an extra class in this program, so she has a zero period that starts at 6:45 am! She and I have been getting up at 5:45 am!

After I take Kelcie to school, I wake Marina up (around 7 am) so she can get ready for school, which for her starts at 8 am. Marina (8 yrs) started 3rd grade and is in the advanced groups for both Language Arts and Math. Over the summer we got back their State test scores, and she scored 100% in Language Arts and 97% in Math! We are so proud of her!

River (2 yrs) celebrated her 2nd birthday over the summer... time really flies!
She is getting so big and independent! She's talking more and more too. Her latest thing has been repeating colors and numbers. It's the cutest thing hearing her "counting" her toes!





We had the big ultrasound appointment in September when I was 19 weeks. Everything measured perfectly, and all blood tests came back negative for birth defects. We also found out the biggest news: IT'S A BOY!


There's no denying it in these pictures! We are excited to welcome our first son in late January/early February!


As I did with River, I started showing early, and was huge by just 3 months! This pic is from September 17th, when I was just 20 weeks. I am now 23 weeks 4 days and even bigger, though I think I'm starting to look more "normal" for this stage :)


The girls are excited about him too! Marina and River especially :) River likes to pull up my shirt and give him kisses... it's too cute!

As if things weren't busy enough with 3 kids, another on the way and a new school schedule, I have been busy scrapping too! In July and August I managed to crank out 95 pages and 13 cards! Here's a few of the layouts I completed:

Marina singing with the school choir at the OMSD Education Expo in May 2009

River eating licorice and wearing a "bucket" on her head in December 2008

Kelcie about a week before her 6th birthday from January 2003.

Well, that's about it.... our summer was busy, and it's going to be a busy school year too! I'm going to change the format of the blog a little bit. Instead of just scrapbook related stuff, I'm going to include short family updates as well. I'm planning to include an update and scrapbook layout in every post, so there's something for my family and scrapbook friends to see. LOL I figure it will be easier than trying to update 2 separate blogs! I'm hoping to update the blog more often, though I don't think it will be every week like it used to be. Maybe someday, when I have more time and energy, I will make a separate blog for the family updates, but for now this will have to do :)

Cuttlebug Challenge #36

Well, I missed Wednesday again.... The days are just flying by and before I know it, it's the end of the week! Here's my card for this week's Cuttlebug Challenge. This week's challenge is to create a masculine card by embossing on cardboard or grungeboard.

With the flowers and crystals it is a little girly, but in person it really doesn't seem girly at all. The flowers blend in with the cardboard and origami paper I used, so they're less noticable, but they really stand out in the picture.

Materials used:

origami paper

cardboard

Cuttlebug embossing using the Argyle embossing folder

dye ink (coffee)

Glimmer Mist (auburn)

Prima flowers and crystals

acrylic stamp and StazOn ink for sentiment

TFL!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #34

This week's Cuttlebug Challenge is to use Basic Grey. I LOVE Basic Grey, and one of my favorite colections is Urban Prairie. It's just perfect for my little girl's scrapbook pages and other projects. I decided to make this simple card for this week's challenge:

Materials:

white cardstock: the Paper Co

black ink: CTMH

Prima flower

black Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest

Threading Water punch

Elle's Studio journaling card

Butterfly cut and embossed using the Cuttlebug

TFL!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #33

This week's Cuttlebug Challenge is monogram with Elle's Studio! I made this 5"x7" board book album using a Ready-To-Go! book from Create & Treasure.
The monogram is a chipboard letter I covered with patterned paper and the journaling block on the cover is from Elle's Studio. Some of the photo mats are embossed with D'vine Swirl using the Cuttlebug.

Materials:

journaling block: Elle's Studio

blank board book: Create & Treasure

patterned paper: DCWV Fun in the Sun Summer Stack

flowers, crystal swirls: Prima

lettering cut on the Cricut using Learning Curve

Cuttlebug embossing using D'vine Swirl

Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest

misc: flowers, ribbon, chipboard letter

TFL!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #32

Hi all! This week's Cuttlebug Challenge is to use butterflies and/or hearts. Provo Craft graciously sent the Design Team the die/embossing combo sets and I got the butterfly set. I LOVE it! And having 3 daughters, it will most definitely be used! Provo Craft is also offering this week's prize, so make sure you post your project on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog.

My friend Debbie lent me her pink Bind It All, so I figured I'd make a 7x7 mini album for this week's challenge so I can use it. :) It's not quite finished.... I keep adding pages to it! LOL So, I still have to bind it. I'm going to include black and white photos of my youngest DD when she was born. My printer is out of light magenta ink, and it won't let me print anything! Anyway, here's my project:

I love the way this little album is turning out! I can't wait to get the photos printed so I can finish it!

Materials used:

recycled cardboard box for front and back covers

black cardstock: The Paper Co.

patterned paper: Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection

flowers, lace, and crystal swirls: Prima

felt borders: Queen & Co.

ink: CTMH black dye ink pad, StazOn jet black

misc: ric rac, rhinestones, pom pom trim

stamp: Studio G

Threading Water punch

felt letters: American Crafts "Thickers"

Pink Bubblegum Glimmer Mist on covers

Cuttlebug embossing using butterfly die/emboss combo

TFL!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #30

Wow, I can't believe we're on Be Inspired #30! Time flies! This week's challenge is to create a wedding/anniversary themed project using die cuts from Creative Cuts and More. I was first going to make a card using the purse die cut I received, but I just couldn't get the mojo flowing for it. I finally decided to make a little mini-album out of it instead. After a rough weekend of little sleep, and fighting some sort of cold or allergies, I finished it up and I am happy with how it turned out.

Purse from Creative Cuts and More

Cuttlebug embossing using Swiss Dots

black and red cardstock scraps from stash

Prima flowers, lace, and crystals

EK Success letter stickers

misc: brads

TFL!

Spa Retreat Weekend- Mother's day mini album

I hope you have been enjoying our Spa Retreat weekend on Cuttlebug Challenge!

Today, I am going to show you a Mother's Day paper bag album to display photos of you and your little girls. Or even a photo of you and your mom.

materials:2 paper bags (folded in half)

2 or 3 patterned papers

2 sheets of cardstock

Cuttlebug and Stylized Flowers embossing folder

misc items: ink, Glimmer Mist, flowers, pearls, gems, ribbon, Stickles, border punch, rings for binding

1) Cut 2 pieces of cardstock for front and back cover the same size as the paper bag pages, and also cut 6 sheets of patterned paper this size for inside pages. Cut 2 pieces of patterned paper 1/4" smaller than paper pag pages for front and back cover. Ink papers and spray with Glimmer Mist if desired. Adhere in the desired order to the paper bag album

2) Cut strips of cardstock and use a border punch. Emboss strips for the inside pages of the album. Ink embossing and add Stickles to the flowers and pearls to flower centers.

3) Cut 2 pieces of cardstock 1/4" to 1/2" smaller than the openings of the paper bags. These will be your pull-out tags that can be used for more photos and journaling. (I added white cardstock to the back of the tags to make journaling more visible.)
Emboss cardstock with Stylized Flowers embossing folder, ink, and add Stickles to flowers. Take white cardstock and use Glimmer Mist and border punch on one end if desired. Adhere to debossed side of the tags.

4) Adhere flower, sentiment, gems, and pearls to front cover. Adhere other embellishments to album if desired.

5) Carefully punch 2 holes on the left side of the album (make sure the fold is to the left, bag ends and openings to the right) Carefully punch holes for binding. Insert binding rings and tie lengths of matching ribbon to rings.

Now all you need to do is add your precious photos!