{more joy} Let's talk about Christmas

I know, I know. It is only October, but you should really start thinking about Christmas. Thanks to my SIL, Ashley, I have been thinking about Christmas since July! If you want to make Christmas gifts or beat the rush, now is the perfect time to start a wish list for yourself and a potential gifts list for your loved ones. I am here to help you make and give personalized Christmas gifts without breaking the bank.

You may know that I am the Creative Team Leader for Andilynn Designs. As a CT we made a 2010 calendar using Andrea's awesome kits. Each month contains a 'top' portion where you can place pics of your cuties and a 'bottom' portion that has the calendar grid. Each is sized 8.5x11 landscape and can be uploaded to a place like ArtsCow. Just remember ArtsCow has great prices ($8.99 for a calendar) but they are located in Hong Kong, the shipping time is extensive (I recommend ordering before December) and they can't accept debit cards--but do accept most credit cards. I'm not getting paid by them; I've just used them a few different times and really like their quality and prices.

If you are interested in the calendar and don't have photo editing software, you could even manipulate this calendar Microsoft Word. Just email me with any q's. So without further ado, here is the calendar. And it is currently on sale (I don't get any money from it either, just think it's cool)!

Click on the image to navigate to the store and to see larger pics of each month.

{more love} We're getting the hang of it

IT meaning school. I just realized the kids started school over a month ago, and I never posted pics. Lulu started first grade:
Quotes from the first day:

"I LOVE first grade. It is nothing like Kindergarten. I didn't want to come home."
"I already made three new friends."
"Did you miss me? I feel special being gone all day and eating lunch and school. I'm kind of like Dad."

Quotes from week two:

"I HATE first grade. Why do I have to go ALL DAY? It is so long."
"Do I have to go to school today?"
"I don't like eating lunch at school."

Currently she loves school, except when she hates it and tries to fake a tummy-ache so she can stay home. Too bad I'm onto her evil plan and just dump her off at school everyday--then breathe a sigh of relief. At the end of the day, she is always happy--and healthy.

Buddy is A LOT more easy-going (something he inherited from his dad) and still enjoys Kindergarten day after day, week after week. He never complains about going and seems happy when I pick him up at the end of the day. He has learned a lot during his first month. Here he is on the first day of Kindergarten--one L-O-N-G week after Lulu started:
And what do Squiggle and I do with so much (ha, ha) time on our hands? Well, she sleeps and I clean up whatever mess she created right before taking Buddy to school and try and catch up on other 'stuff'--like this blog. She is turning into quite a character and is getting more and more into pretend play. Here she is helping Rob and I hang a picture rod:

And here she orchestrated her own tea party, even found some chips in the pantry for the event. I let her have the tea party before bed--isn't she adorable? Here are some other LOs I completed of our trip to Colorado with Rob's family:

hiking to Lily Lake

hiking with Cousin A and teaching her to make silly faces
one of my favorite pics of the summer--Squiggle and Mom ready for the train ride

{more joy} More Digi-Scrap

If you are looking for something fun to do tomorrow night OR you want to learn more about digital scrapbooking, you should head over the Miller Conference Center for some fun workshops and classes. I have been to these classes before, and they are very informative and fun. Find out more information here (including how to get in for FREE) and maybe I'll see you there!

{more digi} Jungle Feaver

I know I'm late posting my P365 LO, but bear with me. It's almost finished, but I've had some other stuff going on, so you'll have to wait and see some new LO's I've completed instead.
Haynay and Simply Sweet Designs have this great collab kit called It's a Jungle Out There, and since I CT for both, I scrapped two LO's this with it last night:

credits here


credits here

Buddy & Lulu biking along the Jordan Parkway Trail:

credits here
Incidentally, this is also where Lulu learned to go potty "native-style". Although it took her a few tries, she was quite pleased with herself when she told the story to me. According to Rob, both the kids thought it was kind of cool, because they felt like Bear. They felt like a bear? No, Bear Grylls, from Man vs. Wild. They have watched the show a couple of times and think it is pretty cool. I just think it is funny that my kids think peeing on the side of the Jordan River is equivalent to Bear peeing on the banks of the Amazon.

Okay, back to more LO's:
Isaac and Grandpa the first day they met:


Squiggle on her first birthday:


My cute parents in Brazil, the title translates to Eternal Companions, I compled this LO for a challenge I'm hosting at ScrapMatters where you have to use a foreign language for your title:


A favorite Christmas gift--Marble Maze. Santa really scored with this one :)


My LO of the Draper Temple:


Rob and I on our wedding anniversary:


And finally, Squiggle eating her first ice cream cone at Thanksgiving:


If you've made it through that long post, you are a true friend! Thanks for indulging me ;)

{more digi} More Me

Here are some other LO's I've done, and two actually have pics of me on the LO! Imagine that. Here is a pic of the kids and I before going to the Draper Temple Open House (credits):Lulu & Squiggle having a cuddle after Squiggle got out of the tub (credits):
My kids celebrating New Year's (credits):
My name. There is a challenge at ScrapMatters to scrap where your name came from, and I chose to scrap about my middle name which has been passed down for six generations, including Lulu. I think I will print this and give it to my grandma for her b-day next week. Now I think we (my grandma, my mom, me, Lulu) need to have a picture taken of us together--four generations with the same middle name. Kind of cool. Click here for credits and full journaling (that's for you, Mom).

I'm a guest on the CT at ScrapMatters for a few months. I'm having a great time and want to let you know of a FREE kit they are giving away, one piece at a time, starting next week. It is a really fun kit. CLICK HERE Feb. 23 to start collecting it.

{more digi} How many kids do I have?

Rob--being the wonderful dad/husband that he is--has taken ALL of the kids to the Car Show this morning! that means I have a few hours to myself and I pumped. Of course, most of that time needs to be spent cleaning/cooking for a family party later today, but I'm pumped and am spending some time on the computer before cleaning. I wanted to share some LO's I've been working on lately. As I was uploaded to the blog I realized most of them are about Squiggle--whoops! I know I have three kids, and I totally love each one, but it seems Squiggle gets more pics taken of her as she is discovering new things/trying to be a big kit/is just VERY adorable. Oh well, here they are (click on each for full credits):

This was my pic of the day on Sunday, using Simply Sweet's new kit Blissful Romance.

I did this LO for an Every Day Magic challenge at SM where you had to scrap a 'typical' situation. This is a typical nap time for Squiggle.
Here is Squiggle trying to take off her own shoes because she is a 'big kid'; another kit from Simply Sweet called As Time Goes By.
Okay, see, this is NOT Squiggle. This is my equally adorable niece Breah in her blessing dress one year ago. Shaylah got this cut pic of her and I had to use it for a CT LO I did for Simply Sweet's All in White kit.
More pics and fun from Buddy's 5th birthday.
Haynay (another designer I CT for) came out with this great football kit called Football Fanatic and I used it to scrap about my love for football I acquired from my dad.

Lastly, just some fun pics of us being a family and showing love during 2008 using another new kit from Haynay--Be Still My Heart. My kids really do get along well and are very good to play with Squiggle and help her. We do have 100% love for each other!

{more joy} Life does go on...

Well, it seems life really does go on after Christmas has passed us by. We had a wonderful Christmas and celebrated for about three days. Now I'm ready to take down my decorations and get back to our normal life.
Hope you enjoy some fun/random Christmas pictures from last week. The kids and I made gingerbread cookies, wrapped presents, played in the MOUNDS of snow piled around our house, sledded down our driveway, went to three Christmas parties, and ate way too much Christmas goodies.
Back to the sledding--I guess there are advantages to a steep driveway. Even Squiggle got to sled down the driveway by herself and loved every minute. As soon as she reached the bottom she was whining to go back to the top. She even figured out how to move her body to get momentum to go down by herself.
Today Lulu & Buddy made a hill of snow just off the driveway to begin their descent. Rob made a "bumper" for them to hit at the bottom of the driveway. Everyone had a blast and we didn't have to go anywhere--very fun!
Here are a few LO's I completed about our activities this past month:

This LO was featured here today

Squiggle enjoying the snow

fun times seeing the elves

Since we don't have many grandkids, we all participated in the nativity at my parents house. Having my parents home for Christmas this year and listening to my dad read the Christmas story from the bible was a perfect end to our Christmas celebrations.

{more joy} We love December!

Having kids in your house adds an exciting dimension to the Christmas Season. My kids are so excited for Christmas and Lulu and Buddy have been doing some really fun Christmas activities in school. We have our gingerbread house (see below), advent nativity getting larger, advent chains getting smaller, gifts bought and wrapped and excitement all around. They are also trying really hard to be good in case an elf is watching.
If you were an elf, and you saw this face, wouldn't you immediately check "NICE"?This is Squiggle thinking she is quite hilarious. She really thinks she is a clown. I realized while scrapping this LO that many cute pics of Squiggle are taken while is in her chair. Why? Because that is the only time she is still! I have many other pics of her that are just a blur of color.

Back to the subject at hand--December. We went to watch Snow College (GO BADGERS!) in their national championship game. It was at the new Rio Tinto stadium and my parents were going to watch the quarterback as he was in their mission, so we decided to go as a family (minus Squiggle). We had a fun time watching football, removing our coats, and cheering on the badgers. We were sad they made a fourth quarter comeback only to lose in double overtime, but we are still true blue badgers. Just as a side note, they honored the '80 football team during halftime this year, and I'm pretty sure they are going to honor the '95-'96 pep band next year--stay tuned!
We also saw the Jolly Elf himself this month. He made an appearance at our ward party and everyone sat on his lap and asked for the appropriate gift--I'm just not sure about having a lacey RS tablecloth in the background of Santa pics. Is this odd to anyone else?

We also visited the Elf's, played in the snow, built a snowman, decorated our house for Christmas, had my dad's family Christmas party, and sang many Christmas songs. Now school is over and the real stress--I mean fun begins! Hope your December has been holly jolly as well!

D

(I promise we kept putting Squiggle's hood on, and she kept taking it off!)

{more love}A gift for you!

I know I'm a slacker and have a lot of things to catch you up on, but first things first--I have a gift for you! I made this calendar and it is available in a Quick Page format if you want to keep it for yourself and/or give as a gift this holiday season. Click the image to download it from Kim's (Simply Sweet Designs) blog (click to enlarge):

{more joy} Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I'm a day late, but you didn't expect me to post on Thanksgiving did you? We had a great Thanksgiving with Rob's family yesterday and we're going for #2 tomorrow with my family!
I opted to shop online at midnight and sleep in this morning. Then I took the kids to two stores this afternoon and that was plenty for me--and for Squiggle. Since it is Black Friday, all digital scrapbooking stores are having sales and the designers I CT for had grab bags for only $3. So, I've been busy the last week scrapping LO's I couldn't post until today.
This is Lulu & Buddy portraying the nativity last APRIL--don't you just love kids?
Last year Lulu & Buddy loved sledding:
These are some pics of Squiggle on her first birthday in May. When she was a younger she always made the funniest faces. I caught a few of them on camera this day. I also did this LO for a monochromatic challenge.
Here are my cute kiddos. I love this picture because Lulu & Buddy wanted me to take the picture. They were cuddling with Squiggle and wanted me to take this picture. Can you feel the love?
This is yet another LO from our trip to Arizona. Our last day there we had a few hours to spare before Brenda's wedding reception, so we stopped at the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix and they had a Chinese Garden. Although it was about 110 degrees we still had a good time and the kids loved taking pics with the statues--I think because they were their size. This kit is from Simply Sweet Designs--one of my new CT's.
Here is Squiggle on Santa's lap last year at the Family Christmas Party. She wasn't too interested in him, but appreciated the doll he brought her.
Lastly, I made a LO of "Twilight" for a challenge to scrap the last movie you saw. Since there is so much fervor over this movie, I thought it would be fun to scrap my memory of seeing "Twilight" at midnight.
That's all from me! If you made it through this whole post I'm thankful for your patience and friendship!