Wow!! I can't believe Christmas is over! We had such a wonderful Christmas but it went sooo fast it almost feels like a blur! I keep looking at all the kids toys and wondering "where did they get that?" lol

Thought I'd share a picture or two, I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Whoooohooooo I've been scrapping!! I'm pretty excited that in between getting things ready

for Christmas that I've been able to find some time to scrap! Its a little easier with my afternoons free while both the kids are at school!

I have to say again how THRILLED I am with our weather right now! Today was almost 50 degrees (again) it rained for a little bit and we have NO snow on the ground!!! I just LOVE it!

Here are my latest layouts:

My Prince: I used a Fancy Pants swirly and painted it with

Gold shiney paint (I painted the Heidi Swapp letters too)

Basic Grey patterned paper, Prima flowers and a Heidi Swapp journaling spot.

Our Idol:

I gotta admit I have a thing for Swirls right now!! :D

They are sooo cute and can be added to anything for that

pefect touch! I didn't use any patterned paper on this one, I just

didn't feel it needed any. Love the pictures!

Papa:

I love this picture of Ciaara and her Papa! I used the Basic Grey gypsie line

of papers and letters I got from my secret sister Nicole at Memory Creators!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day :D

Its already Sunday afternoon, where do the weekends go? How do they go by so fast!

Its been a beautiful weekend here weatherwise, its in the high 40's and sunny!

Nate went out and cleaned up the rest of the yard today, he been putting it off because itjust hasn't snowed to even been threating to snow! I am enjoying this warm weather and have enjoyed our first months of "winter", the longer it takes to get super cold and snowy the better in my opinion!

Yesterday I got in a little more Christmas shopping, we are almost done and I got a few more items crossed off my list. The kids and I also picked out a present for Nate. We didn't make it all the way to the cities beacause we had a late start. Ciaara went to her very first birthday party yesterday and had a blast! I picked her up at 2:30 and then headed south, we just went to Target and Wal-mart grabbed some pizza and came home.

I have been scrapping a little, glad to have some mojo back! Thought I'd share a couple!

I also did one for Becky's sketch contest at Pagemaps but I'll keep that one to myself til after the contest! Wish me luck :)

Last night I decided to take some pictures of the kids that I can put in our Christmas cards!

Its always an enjoyable time lol, the kids get antsy and I start to get impatient beacause I can't get the perfect shot! I think I ended up with a great one though! I thought I'd share a couple photos from the photo shoot , I won't share the one I decided to use just some of the rejects ;)

hehehehe aren't they silly??

Tag Your It

I was tagged by Jess----
A - Available or single: neither, I'm married :D
B - Best Friend: I have a few really good friends!
C - Cake or Pie: neither
D - Drink of choice: water
E - Essential Item you use everyday: many: shampoo, soap, toothpaste, makeup
F - Favorite color: Purple
G - Gummy Bears or worms: Neither
H - Hometown: Grand Rapids MN
I - Indulgence: getting my hair done and colored
J - January or February: February, its closer to summer
K - Kids & Names: Noah and Ciaara
L - Life is Incomplete Without? love
M - Marriage Date: 7/24/99
N - Number of Siblings: 1 older sister, 1 younger sister and a younger brother
O - Oranges or Apples: apples
P - Phobias or Fears: dying :(
Q - Fave Quote: Dance like nobodys watching, love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody is listening, live like its heaven on earth
R - Reason to Smile: Noah and Ciaara
S - Season: Summer
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Shannon, Dawn and Jen
U - Unknown Fact about Me: I'm a picky eater.
V- Vegetable You Don't Like: Peas and Beans
W - Worst Habit: Being online to much ;)
X - Xrays: had a couple in the ER for stomach pain
Y - Your Fave Food: Pizza or Spaghetti
Z - Zodiac Sign: Libra

I got a lot of things to share today!! lol
First of all I FINALLY got a layout done---WHOOOHOOO!! I went through my inspiration binder today and found a layout that called out to me, it was a one photo layout but knew I could use these pictures on it and make it my own!

I am happy with the result! I love these picture of Ciaara that SHE took of herself! She is so silly!

Next we had a SUPER busy weekend, we were in the cities all weekend!

We went to a NHL (MN Wild) Hockey game on Friday night--the Wild lost BIG time but its always fun to be there watching!

Nate's store was nominated for an award and we went to a banquet on Saturday night, the banquet went a little slow but there was a comedian there and we ended up going out with another couple and had a BLAST! We went to a club called SHOUT and they had dueling pianos there where they were singing and playing--it was GREAT!

I met up with Jess on Saturday -YAY!! It was so fun to see her again! We shopped around Archivers and the mall and chatted a lot! It was great to see you Jess!

I bought these goodies at Archivers! I had a 30% off coupon that I used on the stamps, they are super cute! Then I grabbed a few pieces of Christmas patterned paper, some of which have glitter on them! Sooooo pretty!

I shopped at Joanns also on Saturday Morning and found these AWESOME tins filled with KI products! I was armed with a few different coupons and used a 50% off coupon on each of the 2 tins I bought so they were only $9.99--what a deal! I thought I'd share what they look like!

Well thats all for tonight, sorry for the super long post and to think I didn't even get in to the Christmas tree we put up--I'll save that for next

time! Thanks for reading!

I've been meaning to show off a picture of the goodies I got from my secret sister!

I've been playing secret sister for 3 months at Memory Creators and its been a blast!
I've loved picking out items for my secret sister and have loved getting stuff in the mail!

Look at all these goodies that NicoleinHB sent me-- love all the Christmas goodies!

I actually cleaned up my scrap area a little yesterday and sat down and did a 8x8 layout today! whoohooo! I have a couple other 6x6 layouts I should photo also! I will try to photo them a little later!

We are playing poker tonight, one final night before our friend Matt moves away-- I wish him the best of luck and we will all miss him!

Thanks for reading!

WOW!! We had such a busy fun weekend being up north for Thanksgiving!
This is the first time in 6 years we went up north for Thanksgiving, we usually

stay home and I cook here and put up all the decorations for Christmas. We did

make it home in time last night to get our decorations up outside! They look good and the

kids were thrilled!

Noah hit a milestone over the weekend and lost his first tooth! He looks soooo cute!

Today when he woke up the tooth fairy had left him 2 dollars and a trail of glitter where

she had been, he was thrilled :D (he still has sleepy eyes in the picture) I have sooo much to do today, I can't believe how much laundry we come home with! Happy Monday everyone :D

I copied the questionaire from Jess's blog and thought it was a good way to kick off the holidays! :)

A little Christmas questionaire, that could also be used as a scrapbook page!

My answers......

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? just sits them under the tree
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? depends on the year, I've done it both ways.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually on Thanksgiving but this year we will be up north, so probablyright when we get home.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Does Chex Mix count?? lol-- I love buttery mashed potatoes.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: seeing all the presents under the tree!
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? probably when I was 8 or so... I saw my mom with the presents and went and asked my older sister.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We did when we were little! We also do Christmas with Nates parents on Christmas Eve so I still get to :D
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? blinking lights, bulbs and tinsel and an angel on top!
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? DREAD IT!!!!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? hmmmmm nope.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with family, watching the kids learn and enjoy the holiday and of course remembering why we celebrate Chirstmas, The birth of Jesus.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fudge
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Singing Christmas songs with the kids everynight before bed startingweeks ahead a time.
17. What tops your tree? an angel
18. What's your WORST holiday memory? Getting in to a fight with my sister.
19. What do you usually serve/eat for dinner Xmas day - a 'traditional' meal or something else??? traditionalturkey/ham, potatos, stuffing etc.
20. What is your favorite holiday movie? Rudolph and Frosty
21. Do you dress up on Christmas for dinner, or do you have special holiday PJs? We don't have to dress up but we usually wear something "semi" nice and we dress the kids up!
22. Do you exchange gifts with all your family? Just some? pick names? How do you do it in your family? Last year we started not buying gifts for our siblings, it just got silly that we were exchanging gift certificatesbut we still buy for everyone else.

First and foremost....HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH!!! Mommy can NOT believe you are 6 years old!! I wish I knew how and why time flys by so quickly!

We had a SUPER busy weekend! We drove up north to see the grandparents for Noahs birthday. He got soooo many presents(too many!!!) and we went to the bowling alley on Saturday! Here are some of my favorite pictures:

I just can't believe how fast 6 years have gone by! I am so grateful to have such a sweet happy healthy little guy! He amazes me everyday by his good, sweet nature and how VERY smart he is. Speaking of which...... we had conferences today for both of the kids! They both got high praise from the teachers! Noah's told us that he is reading higher then a 4th grade level and that she will be challenged by Noah to keep him interested this year but she will be doing reading with him on his level. They also have 25 words out of 300 that they are supossed to recognize by the end of Kindergarten and Noah knew 297 of them lol!!

Ciaara did really well also, the teacher said she is a pleasure to have!! She is going to see a speech therapist though, Ciaara is a little hard to understand sometimes. She talks really really fast (she gets that from me) Usually if you ask her to say the work one at a time she gets it right but when saying the sentence it runs together. I'm glad they are watching her and they say speech is soo easy to fix, especially when they are little.

I thought I'd share this picture of Ciaara also since I was talking about her and I think it is soooo cute! Thats all for now, I hope to get some scrapping in tomorrow and Wednesday and then I am helping in Ciaara's class on Thursday! Thanks for reading!

Here are my latest layouts! My dear friend Jess helped me with the title for the fair one and gave me an idea for the swing batter one when I was stuck--Thanks Jess!!

On the word Swing I had to use a U upside down because I was out of N's, can you tell?

Have you seen the KI kits that Joann's is selling? I used THIS kit for the Bike layout and I loved it!There is TONS of stuff in the kit and if you can get it half price it is sooooo worth it! I also used my first swirly on that layout and I LOVE it!

Thanks for looking :D

If you need a smile click HERE !
Just wanted to get this on my blog-- its soooooooo cute!!

I'll be back later to get some layouts here :)

FINALLY some BOY layouts!! I did two of them today and the other two are the ones I started and couldn't finish, I still have one more sitting here that I just can't get done! Maybe I'll start that one over!

The "fanatic" one isn't one of my favorites but I just couldn't get it how I wanted it! I really like the other ones though, nice simple easy layouts!

Noah is sooo photogenic, he always takes good pictures and almost always puts on that same smile!

Happy Halloween to everyone, I hope you all had a great night! We had a Cute Witch and Batman invade our house for a day!

They both were excited about their costumes and we had a wonderful time!! I spent time at their school yesterday, watched the costume parade at school where they start with a class "parading" through one room and that room joins in and so on until everyone is back in to their own rooms and have seen everyone else. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up! They were all so proud!

It was VERY cold last night and WINDY! Ciaara couldn't wear her witch hat outside because it kept blowing off. We just kept the wig on. I had the kid bundled up under their costumes, they both looked like they gained about 30 pounds. The kids are getting so grown up and brave, they walked up to most houses on their own while Nate and I stood back and watched them take yet another step of independence.

We carved a pumpkin on Monday night, we bought one those stencil sets and tryed a "cool" pumpkin this year! We were all proud of how it turned out--much better then the faces I attempt to draw out! hahaha :)

Happy November to everyone and thanks for reading :)

Here are a couple of my newest layouts!

I have THREE yes THREE layouts of Noah sitting here

that I started and just can't finish! :( I'm just not satisfied with them so they are sitting there waiting to be finished! I will not start another layout for Ciaara until I finished the three I have started for Noah!! What can I say, I'm a girl and I just "go" for the pinks and the flowers!

Anyways I'm pretty happy with both of these layouts, I love the picture of Ciaara holding the caterpillar!! I really love all these pictures I'm glad to have them scrapped!

Well I did it! I turned 30! It really didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I think the worst part was just knowing it was coming.

This picture Nate took of me my last day of being 29--I plan to scrap it for my All about Me album.

I had a GREAT birthday and a GREAT weekend celebrating with my friends.

I have a couple of new layouts I hope to take pictures of and get them here later.

Here are my 2 latest layouts. I laugh everytime I look at Noahs, its so silly the way he hogs his whole bed. Hes really hard to sleep with, he kicks alot because he wants his space. I used Rob and Bob papers and stickers on his page with Sassafras Lass dot stamps around the photos and a Sassafras Lass Bracket stamp.

For Ciaara's layout I used Primas flowers, and my new Technique Tuesday stamps that I just got in the mail. Love them!

She is so cute and loves to wear fun "dress up" items!

Thanks for looking :)

My Baseball "Kids"

We went outside yesterday to enjoy the fall day, we all played baseball even me!

It was soo nice just to be outside and enjoy the beautiful day we had, it was sunny

and in the 50's! I'm not looking forward to the long winters that come every year!

Anyways, I took a ton of pictures yesterday these are some of my favorites.

My cool new stamps came in the mail yesterday! I already used some of them on a layout last night (I'll try and get that posted soon)

I LOVE LOVE my new stamps, I want more!!

This package came for me today from my Secret Sister at Memory Creators. I love everything in it and can't wait to play with it all!

Thank you Secret Sister! :)

Its amazing what can happen with our weather we can go from a beautiful day at the Apple Orchard with Ciaara and her class. It was about 70 degrees and just a lovely fall day!

Not even a week later it is FREEZING, only 30 degrees and snowflakes flying at Noah wearing a winter jacket and hat before school!

The Joys of living "Up North"!!!!

Finally I got some scrapping in and have done these layouts over the last couple days!

I had fun doing each one, I feel in kind of a "funk" though using solids backgrounds with just a bit of patterned paper--I seem to be stuck on that look lately! I do like all of these though and they all came together fairly easy! I also have a thing for brackets and arrows and chipboard--- lol who am I kidding I just LOVE everything scrapping and want all the latest goodies! :)

I ordered some stamps today from scrappersXchange -- some new Technique Tuesday stamps! I get a dollar off for every 10 points I had saved. I had 45 points saved, you get a point for every dollar you spend--I saved 4 dollars and 50 cents, plus she discounted my shipping since it was only stamps. I am pretty happy with my purchase and only spent 16 dollars :D

I have my eye on the new CherryArte Stamps too, they will probably be next!

Anyways, I just wanted to get my layouts up here! Have a GREAT night :)

I can not believe it is October already!! Where does the time go??
Its fall, my birthday is coming, Halloween is right around the corner!

Well we had a SUPER busy, exciting weekend. We went down to the cities on both Saturday and Sunday to see the last of the regular season Twins games. We had free passes for games and got our tickets weeks ago, the kids (especially Noah) love going to the games. The Twins clinched a playoff spot earlier in the week so we were excited to see them play this weekend especially with a chance to win the division on the line! So many things had to happen though; we had to win, the Tigers had to lose.
Bottom line: The TWINS took the division!! It was SOOO exciting to be there and experience that! Noah got interviewed by KARE 11 television station and part of it was shown on the news last night. Such a big deal for the biggest little baseball fan I know!!

I got my first Design Team package in the mail on Friday and have to get to work on some things for that! How exciting!!

I could write more today but I have to much to do! Happy October everyone!

Here are my latest layouts! I used the Autumn Leaves Journaling stamps on 2 of them, I just LOVE those stamps! I know I keep saying it but if you haven't gotten them yet you may want too!!

I used notebook paper on Ciaara's layout and really like the look, I also handcut the Princess title. I've been in a pretty scrappy mood lately-- we won't be home much over the weekend so I hope to scrap some more today.