{more joy} Merry Christmas!

to all my friends in this digital land...

And in case you haven't seen me since this pic was taken, you might be interested in my Halloween costume...

Yes, I really have a tiny person taken up room inside of me. Hoping she will make an appearance in February.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

{more chaos} I'm Here

I don't know where I've been lately, but I guess it hasn't been here. Well, I'm here today and will try and post on some fun things that have happened in my absence, like my birthday, Squiggle's birthday, a Spring Break vacay and soccer. For now I want to let you know I'm hosting a Speed Scrap this Thursday, May 12 at 7PM MST in the ScrapMatters Forum and Chat Room. Come have fun with me, chat with me in real time and get a prize just for playing!

Doesn't that look like fun? Well, it will be.

Next up I am still racing in ADSR. Let me update you on my LOs that I have liked:

This one I made for my partner, Fi about her car and all the places it takes her family.

Oh yes, we also had Easter at our house. My favorite holiday--maybe that's why I actually scrapped pictures the day after:

{more joy} I am racing...

One of our favorite family traditions is watching The Amazing Race every Sunday. Rob and I used to watch it ourselves when the kids were little but now we let them join in the fun--it is the only prime time TV they get to watch--so that makes it pretty fun for them. This season is fun because it featured past 'fan favorite' teams. It is fun because you don't have to get to know the teams to know who you want to cheer for--the problem is we like most of the teams and have a hard time seeing someone eliminated. Do you watch AR? Who are your fav teams? Buddy & Lulu have to pick their 'teams' each season. Buddy usually picks a team that is nice to each other and other racers, Lulu picks all-girl teams and get annoyed when they are mean to others but they are still 'her team'. I appreciate the teams this season that are generally nice to each other because they are a good example for my kids. I feel like this is a pretty decent show for them to watch and it gives us a chance to talk about right choices vs wrong choices and how people could have reacted differently.

Because I love the Amazing Race and I enjoy scrapbooking I am participating in the Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking. You race around to different digi-scrap sites and complete two challenges a week. If you complete your challenges on time you receive a prize and the chance to continue onto the next week. You can only eliminate yourself. Anyway, I wanted to share my LOs I have completed so far (click for credits):

Challenge #1 was to talk about our family:

Challenge #2 was to do a LO about someone that inspires you--I chose my dad. This is a pic of us when I went to visit them in Brazil.

 Challenge #3 was about games you play as a family. We enjoy many games--my kids love Life and are learning to play chess from Rob; we a couple different Monopoly Jr games they enjoy as well as Uno, Memory, Clue Jr & Scene It Disney. I chose to do a LO about us playing Yahtzee on the iPod while we waited in line at Disneyland.

I forgot to mention we have partners for ADSR. My partner is Fiona--we were partners last year and it worked out so well we are doing it again. We are the Pixelicious Punks (our alter egos, we decided )

{more joy} Where in the World am I?

You know how real bloggers always pop in and say, "today you'll find me guesting ___". Well, not quite the same, but today you can find me on Andilynn Designs blog talking about myself and one of Andrea's kits. Check it out!

{more challenge} Days 22-25

Okay, let me catch up a bit on this blogging challenge...Day 22 What's in your makeup bag? Nothing interesting. I wear makeup, but not a lot and everything is cheap (well, as makeup goes)

Day 23 Favorite Vacation. I'm going to break this into two parts--fav vacation without kiddos and fav vacation with my family.  My parents served an LDS mission to Brazil for three years. After they had been gone for one year I took my grandma and we flew to Brazil--just Grandma and I. Doesn't that sound like fun? Well it was and it gets even better. While in Brazil for ten days I whisked my Mom out of her mission (shhhh, don't tell) and we flew to Iguassu Falls for a few days. My Mom really is my best friend. I don't have sisters and her and I share a mother/daughter as well as a sister-type relationship. I had really missed being with her and talking to her everyday. We had a lot of fun together and it is a vacation I will never forget.

About 18 months later I went back to Brazil with Rob and Squiggle. That was fun because my parents got to meet their granddaughter, I got to take Rob to a beautiful place I had been, and Rob and I got to have some time alone as Grandma and Grandpa couldn't get enough of Squiggle--can you blame them?

 My favorite family vacation is the one we took last fall to California. We went to the beach, Disney Land, Sea World and even went to church where Rob grew up. Our family had been saving for two years and we almost had as much fun anticipating the trip as we did enjoying every moment.

Day 24 Something I've learned: I have learned that God is watching over us. I have learned everyone has strengths and weaknesses, trials and happiness. I have learned God is aware of each of his children and has armed us the the experiences, faith, perseverance and those around us to help us and rejoice with us along the way back to Him.

Day 25 10 Random songs from my ipod:
 "Show Me" from My Fair Lady
"Bullet the Blue Sky" U2
"A Dustland Fairytale" The Killers
"Bad" U2
"Joe's Head" Kings of Leon
"Alleluia" Kenneth Cope
"The Sweetest Thing" U2
"Fly Away" John Denver
"House in the Woods" Tom Petty
"Little Star" Jim Brickman

That is pretty representative of the random songs on my ipod. I am going to see U2 perform in April and am VERY excited, so I'm glad they had a good showing on this list. By the time I go we will have had the tickets for about 18 months!!! You probably remember U2 had to cancel their North America tour as Bono had back surgery. Well, I was going to the first show of that part of the tour and the set was partially up! Needless to say, I was disappointed, but I am starting to get excited again.

{more challenge} Here I am...

{more challenge} Day 20 Nicknames

This is kind of a funny topic for me. My dad actually doesn't like nicknames and made sure to name each of us kids a name that can't really be made into a nickname. When I was growing up sometimes I got teased by people calling me Emma or Emma-Lou. My brother calls me Em as do a lot of my friends online, but that is about all.