All About Family

Once again, time has gotten away from me! Where does time go?!

I want to highlight a few of my favorite layouts from my scap binge last weekend. I got so many done, that there's just way too many to post here.

You'll be able to find all my layouts in various places- either here, here or here. My Pinterest also includes all the items that inspired me, too.

First up, First Snow. Way back in October, the first flakes of snow fell. The girls and I got all dressed up and headed outside to make our very first snowman, and attempt showing them how to make snowballs. Both turned out to be a project for mommy only, but we still had fun. They love catching snowflakes on their tongues- that was something else mama taught them while we gallavanted in the snow.

I absolutely love the papers I chose to use on this layout. Blue and red is another fave color combo. And the patterns on this one? Out of this world! I just LOVE it!!! All papers used are Jillibean Soup, from the Winter Tortellini collection. Oh, except for the one strip of blue polka dot paper that's punched. That's from Carta Bella (Merry and Bright Collection).

Another favorite is my Family layout. The content is fairly intimate; its another layout dealing with my struggle with Post Partum Depression. A song that has come to mean a lot to me during this period in my life is I Will Not Give Up, by Jason Mraz. I wanted to find a design that saved a lot of room for journalling (so I would write out the lyrics to the song), and the one I chose for this layout met that requirement beautifully.

My favorite part about that layout is all the white space! Its short and sweet, and to the point. A lot like me, now that I think about it.

You are Beautiful. We frequently tell our girls that. We may be a little biased, but I think its 100% true. My hope is that if the girls hear it enough throughout their lives, they'll believe it, and not think less of themselves. Part of that hope is also instilling in them the trust that their mama and daddy are incredibly proud of them (which we are), and we tell them that often, too. I never heard it much from either of my parents growing up; I don't want my children growing up without hearing those important words from the most important people in their lives.

The sticker sentiment that makes up the title on this layout sums up how I feel about both of the girls perfectly. I couldn't have said it better myself!

Next comes my Cozy layout. Its another layout of Neruda, the cat we're taking care of for my sister. She just looks so snug and cozy all curled up under the curtains like that! All I had to do was lie on the floor (a short distance from her), zoom in, and snap away. She didn't even notice a thing! Lucky for me :)

The title is my favorite part of this layout. It has a real home spun, cozy sort of feel. LOVE!!

Lastly begins the Boudoir photo layouts! I won't actually post any pictures of my boudoir photos, but I will post (and scrap) some of the lifestyle pics I had done with my bestie (I was able to sneak a few of those into my boudoir shoot, too). All the layouts I've done of those up to date are located in the three links I provided at the top of my post.

Enjoy and take care!

~a

Four

Happy Wednesday, all!

It was an incredibly productive scrappy kind of weekend for me. If you can believe it, I completed 22 entire layouts, some of which I've submitted for publication to Canadian Scrapbooker, and the rest of which are slowly being uploaded to my online gallery at Scrapbook.com. Its too much work (and unfair to everyone there) to bomb them with that many layouts at once! Ha!

And, instead of starting at the beginning, I'm just going to share with you the four I uploaded tonight. If you'd like to see the rest of the layouts I made, just head over to my Facebook page or my online gallery at Scrapbook.com. That'll be way easier- for all of us!

The first one up tonight, is of my sisters' kitty, Neruda. We are babysitting her. I'm sure I've referenced her before. Anyways, I'm glad I'm starting to get some layouts in of her, because next week she's going back home to live with her mommy! I'm sad! I don't want her to leave. She's crazy, but I like having her around. I'm sure I've mentioned that before, too. She's added a lot of color to our household- more than there was before. I've told Kyle that the next pet we own needs to have a larger than life personality like this cat. I'm not sure we'll know what to do with ourselves after she's gone.

The sentiment at the bottom of this layout, Each day, my heart grows fonder, is sooo 100% true. We took to each other like butter on bread. She's been my little pal these last 7 months. She hangs with me every night when I scrap, and when there's a quiet moment without kids hanging around, she's cuddled in my lap. Or getting stuck in my drawer.

I'll share that story another day. Its worth a little chuckle, if not a belly laugh, for sure.

The next layout, Addison the Builder, has a bit of a story behind it. Just lately, we've been coming across signs and whatnot all over the place that references Bob the Builder. On our way home last Friday after dropping the kids' at their grandparents, I happened to see a sign for a welder entitled Bob the Welder. LIke, seriously. So, when I came across the sketch for this layout, and began thinking about a title, I couldn't resist playing on the Bob the Builder theme.

Addison is our little builder. She'll stack anything and everything, and when it tumbles over, it just makes her giddy with delight. She squeals and shrieks with incredible happiness. She loves it! She may just grow up to be our engineer! Or someone that destroys buildings for a living. Who knows.

The card sticker at the bottom of the layout, on the right, is actually symbolic of Addisons' age when this picture was taken (2 years old). I'm glad I thought to put that on there, considering it was just recently the girls' birthday. If I hadn't, we'd be wondering come next year, how old she was- two or three? I can just see it. LOL

Finally. That's the title of my next layout. I'm not sure, but I think this might be a cycle that every little girl goes through. At first, they didn't want me to touch their hair, unless I wanted to unintentionally start world war 3. Then, they gradually grew to be ok with it, and now they finally like it. They might not let me do their hair every day, but more often than not now, I'll be able to get a pony tail or two or three into their hair. I'm a happy mama!

On this layout, I punched the butterfly 5 times and stacked them to give it more dimension, and journalled on the circle. I also included some stamping in this one- the purple card stock has flowers on it, and the pink card stock has the hearts. All of which (both stamps and ink) are Stampin' Up.

The last layout I'll share tonight is one of my absolute favorites. Ever make a layout that you're so incredibly proud of, you think you need to frame it? Yeah, that would be this one.

Its all entirely Jillibean Soup- from the Country Pumpkin Chowder collection. The only thing that isn't Jillibean, is the tiny scallop sticker border on the journalling spot. That's Stampin' Up, I do believe. If not that, then its Creative Memories. This one is called Thanksgiving. And yes, its all about Thanksgiving!

What's so special about it? Everything :)

Go. Go now and check them out! You won't be disappointed. {I hope}.

Till next time,

~a

China Dolls

I couldn't resist scrapping a layout dedicated to the beautiful, perfect, tiny little girls I gave birth to. I wasn't sure I had made a layout documenting exactly how tiny they were, so that's how this layout came to be! It was also the result if flipping back through all the older pictures, hunting down shots of the house we owned in Manor.

I can happily report that my next layout WILL be of the house in Manor. Watch for it!

The layout of my preemie babies is pretty busy. It's a bit busier than I wanted it, but I think that the main focus still remains the photos. And, that's the most important to me!

A piece of scrap paper with multiple hearts punched from it, that was lying on my scrap table, inspired the row of punched hearts at the top of the photo mat. I used some of those hearts for the banner along the bottom portion, alongside the journaling spot. For a little extra something-something, I cut a small piece of green patterned paper and layered it behind one of the hearts. I also punched a circle from that paper, and created a date tag, at the top right of the page.

I wanted to add more detail to my layout, without making it too heavy, so I pulled out the cuttlebug and embossed away. I really need to buy some more of them! It felt a little boring and flat without any patterned paper, so I added a larger piece of (SU) patterned paper. Add some punched borders, as the sketch that I lifted shows, and you've got the layout I created!

I hope you enjoy, and thanks for dropping by!

~a

Looking Back

While the kids napped this afternoon, I pumped out two layouts. I'm quite impressed with myself, actually. When you've got your groove on, a lot can be accomplished! And, not only did I get two layouts done, I also vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, and re-organized and cleaned out the front entry closet this morning. It was a very productive day!

Every day, for the month of February (and then some), I'm tackling one room or cupboard- anything that desperately needs some cleaning and organization, and I'm getting this beloved house of ours straightened up. The girls are going to be three- I've decided I've lived in a baby proofed house long enough, and its time to start bringing out some of my prized possessions. My wedding pictures made it out onto the sofa table, along with my wedding bouquet; my prized hand made table runner for the sofa table (that I bought while visiting Michigan a number of years ago- specifically an Amish town, but I don't remember the name of it), and the table runner for the kitchen table. I need a centre piece, but haven't the slightest idea what to put there!

I printed out a whole bunch of pictures this afternoon- I had a ton of picture frames that I found in my linen closet when I cleaned it out yesterday, and I plan on putting up the rest of my gallery wall tomorrow, hopefully. If not tomorrow, definitely in the very near future. Its already become obvious that I desperately need more picture frames! Currently, the gallery wall is only on one side of the wall into the basement. It may expand to the other side of the wall, too. We shall see!

Back to scrapping. The first layout, Published, is celebrating my first.ever. publication in a magazine. Every so often, I submit my layouts to Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. I make a lot of one photo layouts, and it would be nice if they accepted more of those, but they don't. Well, they do, but they prefer multi photo layouts. Such as the one that was published. The girls were riding on their little scooters in the backyard last spring. Originally, I was going to title my layout Zoomy, because it was (and actually still is) one of their most favorite sayings. But, once I found the paper I used for the layout, inspiration hit me, and I changed the title to Metro. The lamp post was ingenious, and the girl- well, she was too. It just worked. Beautifully!

I picked up the colors in the girls' outfits- the pink in Addisons' dress, and purple, instead of blue, for Maren's dress. That is all in the original layout that I made. That was published.

The layout about being published was made with papers from the Faded Denim collection by Colorbok. Mostly. The green/yellow patterned paper is from another collection, and at the moment I'm not sure what it is. Once again, I was inspired by a layout I found on Pinterest. How did I ever survive before Pinterest?!

There is a tag peeking out from the side of the picture in this layout- its hidden journalling for the kids. The tag reads, 'don't ever give up on your dreams'. Being turned down a number of times didn't stop me from submitting layouts for publication. I kept hoping that one day my dream would come true. And, it did. I hope they hang onto their dreams and never let go. One day their tenacity will pay off.

The second layout, Great Oma, happened while I was flipping through older pictures, looking for material to scrap about our life in Saskatchewan. I feel its important for the girls to know where they came from, and give them a glimpse of the house they lived in for the first year of their lives. I've been avoiding doing it, and part of me still wants to avoid it. I'm not totally sure why- I miss living in Saskatchewan, and part of me wishes we were still there. The other part of me is uber happy that we're here back in Alberta. I honestly can't put my finger on why it bothers me so much. But, its there.

Anywho, when I saw these pictures of the girls meeting their Great Oma for the first time, I couldn't help but smile. She obviously loves children- which is testimony to why she had so many children to begin with (9, as a matter of fact!!) Every time we visit her at Miller, she brightens right up. The kids are the highlight of her day. The smile on her face, and the obvious happiness they bring her, warms me to the core, and makes me smile in turn. She doesn't know who they are; she doesn't know that they are my children. But, it doesn't matter. They are children, they are full of life and energy and purity, and they give her more to be happy about and look forward to than anything the nurses could give her.

The girls were only 5 months old when they met their Great Oma for the first time. She was in the hospital with a broken hip, and I remember her asking whose kids they were when we walked into her room. She remembered me as a small child myself. She couldn't believe I was old enough to have my own children. And, twins to boot!

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my Oma (their Great Oma), is Blue and White. To me, they symbolize being Dutch. Most of the artwork in her house, and in her apartment before she moved into Extended Care, was what I call Dutch Blue. I don't know the correct term for it, or what style of art it is. Its just Dutch. Heh. That's where the colors come from in this layout. I thought the yellow would stand out nicely against the blue, so I used a yellow/green combination patterned paper for the journalling spot the title work is adhered to, and for the banner. To tie the red of the title work into the layout, I used a pink paper flower.

I just love how this layout came together. Quickly, seamlessly, and incredibly quickly! And, with the kids (half way through it) interrupting me every two minutes. Of all the layouts that I've made lately, I have to say this one is my most favorite. There is a lot of love, meaning, and sentimentality behind this layout. I'll treasure it for years to come, and I hope the girls do, too.

The sketch that inspired this layout didn't include any room for journalling. I needed to add a little something about the girls meeting their Oma, so added a few lines underneath the title mat, and journalled away. I think I'll have to do more layouts of their Great Oma in the future. They need to know what a good natured, saucy, strong lady she is!

I'm grateful and incredibly glad they had the opportunity to meet their Great Oma. I only wish they could have met their Great Grandmother on their Papa's side (Grandpa). She would have been enamored with them, too.

Till next time...

~a

Seriously Nuts

What the...??

What a nut!! 

Sketch #28 is up over at Miracle's Momma's Designs- you should check it out! What a fun sketch to play with. 

Since I didn't actually have a layout of the actual air show, that's the subject this layout covers. None of the pictures I took really turned out all that well- except for the vintage planes, the others move just too stinking fast to get a good picture of! Luckily, the F-18 fighter showed us what those planes look like flying half speed- its still ridiculously fast, but slow enough to get a picture of! 

And, the highlight of the show, the Snow Birds, didn't perform for us because a thunder storm blew in as they took off. Luckily I got a picture of one before the show started. 

So, I know the scan didn't come out the greatest here. Its just way too bright, and the papers and colours are severely washed out. I guess it makes for a cool effect, but I think it looks much nicer IRL. 

I didn't leave any space for journalling, but to remedy that, I used the picture with a ton of white space in it. (And, because I can just see people in the future asking what plane that is in the picture, I wrote it up in the top right hand corner of the picture). LOL

To highlight our Canadian roots, I found a stamp that looks fairly similar to a Maple Leaf. For some interest, I stamped it a few times, then used some pop dots to show case the one that's cut from card stock.

Taking these pictures at night still doesn't do my layout any justice, but at least this time you can see that the one banner is actually a water droplet design. I thought that worked quite well, since it was a very wet and soggy day.

The 'adventure ahead' badge is K&Co.

And lastly, just to show the dimension- both pictures and the circle badge are pop dotted as well.

Hope you enjoyed! Seriously, check out Heather's newest sketch, and let me know what you think! If you play along, I'd love to see how her sketch inspired you!

Baby C's

Hello from chilly, wintery central Alberta! My goodness we've been getting a lot of snow over the last week. I can deal with it as long as we don't have any more freezing rain. Its made life pretty interesting when you're attempting to travel from place to place. I highly DON'T recommend it!

When the girls first began learning songs and singing, one of the first I shared with them was the ABC's. They still don't have every single letter down pat, but they have the majority of it. They are also starting to sing along to the theme songs of some of their favourite tv shows- especially miss Maren. I love listening, and I love that she's trying to sing along. It makes my heart happy. They are learning so much and growing so incredibly fast!

Anywho, Addison affectionately sang the 'Baby C's', at the beginning, because that's what it sounded like to her. Now she knows that the song is actually ABC, but I thought it was so stinking cute! I never want to forget some of the sweet things they said and did. I'm so thankful for this hobby of mine.

Why do I say that? I scrapped about it. Naturally!

Reveal day at Lets Capture Our Memories is today, which means I have another layout to share with you.

I'm not sure that Addison was actually singing the ABC's to her Oma in this picture, but she could definitely be doing it- the toy that's in the middle of the bottom part of the picture, is a leap frog fridge magnet that sings the ABC's (including magnetic letters- all 26 of them- from the alphabet). That's what they sing along to now. This picture was taken the morning of our outing to the air show this past summer.

Its incredibly hard to see (I should have stamped it in a darker shade of ink, but I was afraid to try it over again, for fear of it looking bad), but I stamped 'I love you' in SU's Close to Cocoa along the upper right hand side of the picture. The scalloped circles were first stamped using SU's Always Artichoke ink, then cut out with a pair of ridiculously sharp scissors. The journalling spot was also stamped, using SU's Chocolate Chip ink.

The lady bugs and flower are all from the Susan Winget collection of K&Co.

The patterned papers are all fab scraps. Yay!

The sketch? Can be found at the LCTS blog. As always, please let me know if you played along with the sketch challenge this week, and don't forget to post your finished masterpiece to the website, using the link tool there. I'd love to see how this sketch inspires you!

~a

Smokin'!

Hi everyone!

What a fantastic weekend! Oh.my.word. Seriously, I had such a blast! It went all to quickly, unfortunately. But, doesn't it always!? In addition to having my hair done, and then having my boudoir photo session on Saturday, I also had the chance to (just barely) buy the girls some new winter coats, boots, running shoes and dress shoes. I wanted to hit Costco for their winter attire, but they had nothing out yet! What???! I was astonished. Walmart didn't have anything, either. Luckily, we found two (of three or four) coats in their size, and that.was.it. I still need to buy snow pants for the kids. I find it incredible that the supervisors at Walmart under ordered at this time of year. Another brownie point in my little black book for lovely Walmart! LOL

Here's a little preview of what my girlfriend and I looked like after we were all made up. Here's what we looked like before:

Dramatic difference, huh? I can't help but continually stare at the picture of us...I SO need to learn how to do my make up that way! We were smoking!!!!

Since I didn't have the time to, and since I hadn't uploaded the camera before this last weekend, I thought I'd take the time now to share with you some close ups of the last layout I completed.

Later on this week, I'll have a couple more DT assignments/reveals to share with you. I can hardly wait to get them posted!

In the mean time, I'll share a card with you that I made for our nieces' 3rd birthday two weekends ago:

This was super simple to make, and I think the final result is super duper cute! I used my Cricut to cut the cupcake card, using the Wildcard cartridge; I cut the cupcake liner out of blue/turquoise card stock, and the icing from white card stock. The candle and flame (as well as the birthday sentiment) were made using scraps. Everything is adhered to a kraft card stock background. For some sparkle and bling, I added clear rhinestones (to mimic sprinkles, naturally), and I used MS glitter in Crystal Fine for the sentiment.

Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

Till next time,

~a

A Layout and Christmas Candy

Hi everyone!

Ever get totally side tracked while you're trying to compose a post? It never happens to me. I want to share a layout with you; its a scrap lift of another layout I saw on Scrapbook.com, and I saved it to my Pinterest for future reference. Well, in the natural course of things, I went to the board that I wanted--well, not quite. Not before I browsed through the home page and pinned a few other things that really caught my eye. Obviously Christmas is on everyone's minds- because the Christmas theme isn't just showing up on cards! (Maybe it has something to do with how hot its been all over the place? Just taking a stab in the dark on that one...) Then I went to the particular board that I wanted.

The inspiration behind my layout came from Sasload4's layout 'Domestic Princess'. I absolutely loved the way she placed her pictures, and the strip of card stock bordering them with the stars inset in it. So pretty. I wanted to replicate it!

Here's what I came up with:

Rather than using three pictures, like Sandra did, I only used one- which is a 5x7. I put the border strip along the top- in an attempt to create a night-like sky. I also used black card stock to further enhance the theme. My girls like playing 'night-night'- they pretend to sleep; they'll lay on the floor, pretend to snore, then jump up shouting, 'wake up, wake up'! They get even more excited when mama and daddy play along with them. (I think its actually mama and daddy that inspired them to play this game in the first place!!)

The purple strip of card stock was stamped with an SU Easter set- the polka dots reminded me of stars in the sky that are far, far away and clear rhinestones help add the sparkle factor to my night sky. Pop a few stars up there, and a cloud or two, and voila! You're basically done!

So, now that I mentioned it, are you wondering what the items were that I found on Pinterest that snagged my attention?

I thought so.

 candles, adorable cutlery, and two fabulous cards- one of which I want to scrap lift into a layout.

Aren't the candles and the cutlery fabulous??! I have a grocery bag full of pine cones that mom collected for me, then gave me, and I've been somewhat cruising around looking for creative uses for them. This is definitely one that I want to try out! Also, I've found a way to use up this one particular set of cutlery that we don't like using! Yay!

Have a great night everyone. See y'all again tomorrow!

~a

Prepare to be Amazed!

On a whim, I brought out one of my scrapbook albums this afternoon, and showed it to the girls. I never imagined that at this age (2.5) they would be so into looking at the pictures in my albums. In total, we browsed through 4 entire scrapbook albums! And, I've concluded that I need to do it a little more often- so they learn the faces of the people in them, and a little bit about who they are. In that respect, its better to start now than when they are older. For example, there's a few layouts with my Oma- the girls' great Oma- and they wouldn't know who she is from Adam. They have met her- when they were tiny little infants, but they don't remember her. And, they'll never know her intimately like I did growing up. But, they can learn about her and love her through the pages that are dedicated to her.

On another note, I'm deeply touched that what I've been dedicated {obsessively} to working on for my family and those still to come, is so special to the girls. Already.  I was almost moved to tears this evening when I was talking with Kyle about it! Of course they would appreciate it, but in my mind, that appreciation would be many years down the road. I never thought that it would be this soon. Wow. Just. Wow!! At least I know (thankfully) none of what's in those albums is in vain. KWIM???!

I have another layout to share tonight:

This was such a fun layout to make! Its based on the Monthly Sketch Challenges' Bonus Sketch for week 3, which you can find right here. I flipped the sketch upside down and turned it backwards so that it would work better with the photo I chose to scrapbook.

And, the picture I chose is still from the Father's Day weekend bash. Here, Auntie is walking with Dear Maren in her arms. I just adore this picture of the two of them! And, I love that she's taking such a keen  interest in spending time with them. But, how could she not? She's my person, after all! She helped bring them into the world- by extension, they're almost like her own children!

I began thinking that when we look back on this picture, we're going to wonder exactly how old Maren was when this picture was taken. So, in the journalling spot, I jotted down the magical number (which is 29 months old. But, I realized that's a typo after I got it scanned. She's actually 28 months old in this picture. My bad!! I still have to fix that).

All the papers I used are K& Co, but not from the same lines. (The one that the title is matted on is from the 'best of' paper pad, and the rest are from the Brenda Walton Designer paper pack). The black card stock is Recollections, I think.

Have a great night, everyone! I'm off to work on another layout before heading off to bed.

~a

Once, Many Moons Ago...

Thought I'd share a fun layout with you today!

While auntie and uncle were down here last celebrating Fathers' Day with us (you may remember that I've been referencing that a lot lately!!) we played at the park with the kids until their bedtime. Auntie and daddy got the bright idea to try and go down the twisty slide like the kids (auntie, mainly as a way to encourage the girls to go down it with her. They still think its a pretty scary thing!!!) Daddy- just because he was showing off. LOL

He did mention that we may need to call 911 if he got stuck. Thankfully--he didn't! It was a tight squeeze, though.

Hilarious, right?

The sketch I used for this layout was done by Melissa over at What's Scrappenin'? You can also find her over at scrapbook.com. I did this for the Monthly Sketch challenge (which is where the sketch came from), week 3.

I did a lot of stamping on this one, and everything that's stamped or inked was done using SU's chocolate chip. The stamps I used on the grey card stock are Autumn Leaves (Walmart), the journalling spot is also Autumn Leaves; the ties and the 'best dad ever' stamps are all from SU's Best Dad Ever set.

The blue gingham pp is SU (from many, many moons ago), and the alpha stickers in my title work are probably also from Walmart. (They're half used up- from my MIL...I am not sure where they came from!) I fussy cut the banner on which my title work is adhered.

There you have it! Simple, but loads of fun! (And a laugh or two)

ANother weekend is here. We are laying low this weekend. What are your plans?

Monster Jam

Good morning! Incredibly, its 9:30 am and my children are still sleeping!! What's up with that?!

It was a late night for us last night. The kids were scheduled to come home from their grandparents place. Originally, the plan was to take them out for dinner, but it didn't work out that way. We waited and waited to hear from them (to find out when they were coming), and never heard from them. So, at 5 yesterday afternoon, I finally texted Grandma to see where they were. She texted back saying they were just eating supper then were going to hit the road. Bummer.

Kyle and I were getting grocery shopping done while we waited for (as it turned out) Grandma and the kids. Grandpa had to go to work. He was able to meet up with me after my massage yesterday (yes...mmmm bliss!) and we got the grocery shopping done together. It was fun! After getting what I could from Walmart, we headed over to IGA (Sobey's) to get what I can't from Walmart- basically fruit, veggies and meat. (And a couple scrapbook albums because my lo's desperately needed to be bound!! I was afraid they were going to get mixed up if I didn't do it SOON! It was a big job, but I just.finished.it. Phew!)

Grandma called while we were in the checkout line saying she was broken down three blocks from home, and we needed to come pick up the kids. Ok! Zip home, quickly unload the Yukon, re-stock my fridge and freezer, hit up McDonalds (which I am so.sick of junk food!!! We've eaten way too much fast food this weekend. Enough already. I can hardly wait to cook a square meal tonight!) and 'beep beep, zoomy zoomy' down to Grandma's.

We got home at 10 last night, got the kids changed and ready for bed, made them some porridge for a snack (upon their request), read their bedtime stories and turned out the lights. All by 10:30. And, they slept right away, I think. I'm impressed- they didn't even nap on our way home. I think they were too excited about mama and daddy and going home. They chattered most of the way home- until it turned into fussing and whining (only on Maren's behalf, thankfully).

We were definitely tired when we got home! I had wanted to scrapbook last night, but obviously it didn't work out that way! My goal is to play for a bit this afternoon, should I decide to put the kids down for a nap. Since they're sleeping in, I might not get the chance. If not, there's always tonight!!

So, here's the few pictures that actually turned out from Monster Jam:

On our way into Edmonton on Friday, the girls fell asleep. Naturally. I was driving, and daddy turned around to have a peek at the girls, and he found Addison sleeping still hanging onto her Manny (Happy Meal toy)

I didn't get a picture of it, and now I really wish that I had. Maren had her first tumble at Oma and Poppa's house (we needed to stop there before meeting up with Grandma and Grandpa K to pick up the girls' playpens). She was walking along the sidewalk to the backyard, and tripped on an uneven piece and scraped her knee. She cried, daddy picked her up, and mama made it all better. I gave her a big hug, brought her to the bathroom, cleaned it up and put a 'doctor' on it. Then kissed it all better. As I put the band-aid on, she told me 'thank you, mama'. It melted my heart.

Then, on our way out of the house, we stopped to leave Oma a love note. She scribbled on some paper, and said 'thank you, Oma' while she was colouring. (So, I wrote on Maren's note that she said thank you for the 'doctor'). I wish I had a picture of that too, but alas, I left my camera in the Yukon. I guess there'll be many more boo boo's right?

Just gotten seated at the show.

Uncle- after the cranky pants face he pulled :)

Uncle and J (we--ok I experienced some confusion between these two boys. If Kyle and I talked about either one of them, I always had to clarify exactly.who we were talking about--they both have the same name!!)

This little guy was so.stinking.cute! He was sitting in front of us and is 7 months old (his mommy told us, after I guessed him to be 6-8 months old). He was just going nuts on an empty water bottle that his mommy let him play with, but as soon as his ear muffs were put on, he went cuh-razy!!! Just talking, and squealing and carrying on- he was such a sweet, happy baby boy! My heart really aches when I see babies like this, and husband gets all fuzzy and mushy over them. It always makes me think, 'seriously?? You're done? We could have this again, you know???' But, I never say it. Maybe one day I will, but that's truly what's in my heart.

And, of course, husbands' absolute favourite monster truck. Too bad Dennis Anderson wasn't driving, though! That'd be like the icing on the cake! We did, however, buy the girls each a Grave Digger tee, and a little Grave Digger stuffy toy. (They'll have to share it, though. We only got one).

Other than the motor x stunt team, a jet car came out and burnt a car to the ground. Literally. Pieces from it were flying all over the place, and at one point, the force of the fire coming out actually pushed the car backwards a few yards. Yeah, it was incredible!

Shortly after this, the batteries to the camera died, and I had no back ups, so this is where the pictures end. Not that much else exciting happened, other than the jet car taking an 8 second cruise down the quarter mile drag strip.

We bumped into friends (k, not really. I found out via Facebook that they were planning to surprise their boys- also twins- with a trip to see the Monster Trucks. We did manage to see them, amidst the crowd of 3000 + spectators, and I happened to see my cousin, her husband and their kids, though I'm not sure they saw me. So, small world when it comes to stuff like this!

In a nutshell, that's the majority of our weekend. Its at least the highlights of our weekend. I also got my Yukon washed and vacuumed- inside and out and we had brunch with my sister, BIL (who is in the pictures above) mom and dad. Then, we spent a nice evening to ourselves, and an incredibly quiet and too fast day by myself.

Having said that, though, I'm so happy to have my kids back at home.

On that note, its time to go. Kidlets are finally awake!

Reveal Day

Reveal day for Team B over at Lets Capture These Sketches was last Friday. You can find sketch #140 and everyone's incredible work right here.

This is my take on the sketch:

Good things come to those that wait: some of the layouts I made of the kids' twin cousins' birthday party were a bit of a surprise- I had done them for DT assignments! This is one of them. Obviously, mama and daddy are helping P and O blow out their candles.

Because there were some people in the background that I didn't necessarily want in the picture (and cropping them out wasn't an option), I decided to blur the edges of the picture to help keep the focus on the subjects I wanted: the birthday kids and their parents.

Also, reveal day for Miracle's Momma's Design Diva's was over the weekend, too! If you haven't already, you should really go and check out her wonderful blog; you'll find Sketch #21 (the latest sketch template) and the design teams' gorgeous work!

This is my interpretation of her sketch:

Addison told me, after wanting to 'jump' out of their playhouse into my arms that she loves me and I'm '...her hero'. If she ever wants to melt my heart, all she needs to do is say mushy stuff like that. I'm defenceless against it! Hence the title of my layout. I took a picture of the rock wall leading up to the playhouse to help illustrate the fact that Addison jumped out of (though I would have rathered her go down the slide instead of exiting the wrong way) the playhouse.

There is hidden journalling to help tell the story as it actually happened (behind the photo mat), but the journalling that's obviously out in the open is a brief heartfelt note to my sweet daughter, letting her know that if anyone's the hero around here, it would be her sister and herself, hands down. Being their mother is teaching me to be more patient, diligent, considerate, problem solver extraordinaire, creative...the list goes on. They are incredibly special and even more incredibly loved!

Well, this is all I have to share for right now. I don't quite understand why the pictures I took this weekend aren't loading to the computer. So, I guess I'll have those for you (keep your fingers crossed!) tomorrow!

Until then...

~a

Peace Out

Hey hey everyone!

Just wanted to drop in and say a friendly 'hello' before stumbling off to bed. Its late, I'm tired, and so looking forward to a day off without the twinlets (though they'll be home around supper time tomorrow night), and a much needed appointment at the massage therapists in the afternoon. yippee!

but, before all that great stuff happens, I'll be back to share the weekend, some pictures, and a few layouts! 

peace out and sweet dreams!

Cheers

Good evening! Where has the day gone?! The weather has been gloriously beautiful today- although muggy. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous right through next week, and I suspect that all the thunderstorms that have by-passed us this past week will probably dump on us this week. At least, I hope! Some cooler weather would be almost a good thing :)

I have another layout to share with you. Today, its a two pager! The next few layouts are going to contain a number of pictures. I've finally made it to the point in the month where we celebrated with the girls' twin cousins on their first birthday. If you recall, a ton of pictures were taken that day, so a few layouts are going to be dedicated to that day! I'm waiting on permission from my cousin, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to post the layouts I make with her kids in them. But, if this is the only layout you see of that day (possibly one more), then its because I don't have permission to post pics of her kids on the net! Just a little forewarning!!

The inspiration behind this particular layout comes from the incredibly talented Kelly Klapstein. She created this layout for a new segment in the Canadian Scrapbooker magazine called 'Double the Fun'. We were encouraged to play along and try this sketch out for ourselves- with the possibility (I think) of being published along with her. After thinking on it for quite some time, I decided to try it out. I must say, I just LOVE how it turned out!

All the accent patterned papers are from the same sheet(s) of 12x12 paper. I cut out the mushroom portion of the paper to make the border along the top of the page, and the lined/stitched portion for the bottom of the page. The flourishes were also part of that paper, so I fussy cut it out, then cut it in half and adhered it to the bottom right corners of each page. The banner was also created using the same paper- the parts of the paper that hung off my 8.5x11' card stock base got transformed into that- its double sided paper, so both sides were effectively used. Its incredible how much usage a single sheet (well, two, really, so that I could take advantage of the all the mushrooms and lines) of paper can give you!

For a little bit of drama, I outlined the flourishes, banner and photos in black pen, then decided to make the only horizontal photo a focal photo, by drawing two lines around it, and adding the buttons and ribbon (I wanted to highlight the fact that it was the only picture with both girls in it on this layout). I guess the journalling helps draw the eye to it, as well! (And, speaking of how well things worked- how about the flourishes underneath the only two pictures with water?? In my mind, they kind of mimic water...perfect, or what?!)

Here's a few close ups:

Oh, I forgot to mention that I stamped in a few places on my layout with SU's whisper white ink, using an Easter stamp (of all things) for a bit of a subtle 'something else'.

301* that Maren finally told me (numerous times today) that she loves me (which I never doubted, but its always nice to hear)
302* all four of us had the opportunity to really play this afternoon
303* and how good it felt
304* the slushy/treat dear husband is bringing home for us
305* cuddles with Gregory
306* someone came and had a look at the trailer (here's to hoping they buy it!!)
307* how excited Maren was over their tickle trunk full of toys
308* that their trunk full of toys finally made it into the house!
(and thus begins my nightmare---I'm seriously going to have to go through their toys and donate all the ones they no longer need/play with--they're no longer babies and don't need baby toys!!!)
309* that their (my) storage trunk made it into the house
(now I can put all the clothes that I want to hang on to into their 'trousseau', or whatever you want to call it)
310* that dear husband (and J) made an even bigger dent in the garage clean-up tonight. yay!!

Here's to a great day, and looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow! Cheers!!

Busy as Bees

Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend?

As I mentioned on Friday, it was an action packed weekend for us again. May I indulge??

Here's my favourite snap shots from the weekend:

I'd love to share pictures of the birthday kiddo's, but I don't have permission from their mama, so this will have to suffice! There were a lot of fun things there for the kids to play with- a giant bouncer, a tiny little fishing pond, complete with fishing rod and duckies to 'catch'. It wasn't long before they just walked right into it and began splashing and playing and just generally carrying on! There was also a face painter- and sweet Maren got her first 'face' painting. The air brushing (I had never met a face painter that used air brushes instead of the paint brushes to do her face painting!) freaked the poor girl out, so she got it done on her leg. A pretty butterfly for my sweet first born! The feel of the air scared her, too, so its lighter than it could be, but she still had it done! She was proud as a peacock after it was done, that's for sure! The girls also got their first taste of cotton candy, too.

(Yes, a pretty lavish first birthday party, but still loads of fun!!)

The kids, lately, are fascinated by Super Bunny. Anyone have little ones that really enjoy Max and Ruby? My girls just adore the show. They often ask for it, so we've begun recording episodes, so they can watch it anytime! For those that do, you'll know that Max's hero is Super Bunny. Apparently, he's become the girls' hero, too.

Just the other day, they were chasing each other around the living room, through the kitchen, and down the hallway to their bedroom- and back again- shrieking and hollering, "super bunny!" (Addison, screams it with her arms held out behind her as she runs. Too cute to watch!) I finally said to them that all super hero's need capes, so I raided my linen closet, and found an apron for Addison to tie around her neck, and a hand towel for Maren to pin around her neck. Another brownie point for mama in their books, I think! They had so much fun running around with their capes on!

I can hardly wait to scrapbook these two photos. I'm excited about scrapbooking all of them- don't get me wrong- but these two are most precious to me. I love catching Addison 'red handed', so to speak, while she's enjoying a quiet moment by herself. And, I've got the perfect sentiment sticker for the picture of Addison (that says quiet moments). Its so totally going on that layout!

There is a story behind the next picture, and it melts my heart in every way possible. My daughter is becoming a very affectionate young lady. (Addison). While I was pushing Maren in her swing this afternoon, Addison had climbed up the ladder into their playhouse, and asked for my hand. She wanted help down the ladder. I wouldn't help her, because she can do it on her own. I've seen her do it numerous times. So, to get my attention, she turned outwards, so she was facing away from the ladder as she was trying to come down.

After suffering a minor heart attack, I told her to never do that again, as I was pulling her into my arms. I kissed her, snuggled her, and held her like I used to when she was a tiny baby. She looked at me and said, 'my hero, mama'. I wasn't sure I heard her right, and just as I was taking a deep breath in to ask her what she'd said, she repeated it: 'you're my hero, mama'. Then, 'I love you.'

Can words any more precious be spoken to a mama by her own child? 


***SIGH***


261* that no hail broke through the windshield in the freak storm that hit on Saturday
262* that said hail was only pea-sized
263* beautiful words that were spoken by a precious child
264* that grass is finally growing in the 'pit'

Lastly, I just want to leave you with a layout:

The inspiration behind this layout is the June 2012 sketch at Canadian Scrapbooker. Now that it's done, I'll be submitting it for (hopefully) a chance to be published! (A pipe dream of mine- that hopefully becomes a reality, one day!)

Now, back to my usual after-supper clean-up routine.

Enjoy your evening!