Love You Forever

Supplies : Paper, Cardstock, and Heart Prints stamp set by Papertrey Ink; Watermelon, Blush, Cranberry, and White Daisy Ink by CTMH;

I used an older 2 Sketches 4 You sketch for this card. I tend to jot down sketches or ideas I like on a little 3x5 file card or my notebook and then work on them later. I don't always get to use them, but they are there if I need a jump starting point ;) Anyway, I wanted to make a lovey Valentines card and decided to break out my Heart Prints set since I haven't used it probably since last Valentines. I have the right punches now too so that made it much easier! I have to say though that this was kind of a tough card for me, I'm not used to making the tall skinny ones. But it was fun to break out of my usual routine plus a smaller card wouldn't of had room to stack the hearts like that and I'm really enjoying the heart stack ;) Thanks for popping by and have a spectacular Saturday!

Beloved You & Me - Sketch Friday

Supplies : Paper Beloved by My Minds Eye; Cardstock by CTMH; Aqua Mist buttons and White twine by Papertrey Ink; You & Me and Heart stickers by Pebbles Inc.; Basics 1 Slice card by Making Memories

It's Sketch Friday over at Practical Scrappers! Lucy created the sketch this week and it sported a cute Valentines theme with hearts so I thought why change a great thing and went along and did hearts on my layout as well ;) I broke out the Beloved papers and printed these two cute jammie pics of the girls from last year. Though they weren't taken at Valentines I loved the huggy little poses they were doing here. They share everything, even clothes sometimes, and I know that can't be easy for them. In fact sometimes they just plain don't get a long because one or the other is sick and tired of ALWAYS having her sister around, lol. But for the most part they are sweethearts and I love how by bedtime no matter what scruples happened during the day, they are back to best friends again. Below is the sketch. Remember to link it to the Mr. Linky at Practical Scrappers if you play along ;) Enjoy the layout and have a fab Friday!

Your Couch or Mine?

Supplies : Cardstock, On the Couch and Background Basics Hearts stamp sets by Papertrey Ink; Black and Cranberry Ink by CTMH; Stickles; 3D foam tape

I know this is probably not what Lisa meant when she made this set, but the naughty version was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this sentiment. So with Valentines coming soon I thought it would be funny to make a Valentines card with it ;) I pop dotted the couch up for dimension and the hearts in the background are glittered up for a little bling. I took the design from a card I saw in one of the Scrapbooks Etc. magazines. I loved the simple clean lines and thought it would be perfect for what I wanted to do with the stamp set. Simple and sassy! Enjoy the card and thanks for visiting!

Mini Forest Friends Thank Yous

Supplies : Kraft cardstock, Raspberry Fizz and Pure Poppy Ink, Forest Friends and Cupcake Collection Stamp sets by Papertrey Ink; Cocoa and White Daisy Ink by CTMH

I wanted to include some little thank you notes with some scrappy goods I sold and since I was feeling in a Valentinesy mood I broke out the pink, red, and white ;) The skunk is my fav, but this little guy has really been growing on me! I think it's so fun to get even just a small note of thanks when you purchase something. The Quilted Works store gives us a little chocolate with a note and I thought how sweet! Oh I could spend hours in there looking at fabric and it's a small store. I think it's worse than the scrapstore now since I have a pretty good idea of what I want to work with when I go scrap shopping. But fabric shopping is so different, probably because it's newer to me, so I am just in awe at everything! I got a free pattern for the lantern bloom quilt and I'm slowly buying up my fabric since I love those colors, I wear them all the time ;) Because all I've made are baby quilts and I haven't machine quilted anything I'm making smaller projects to practice so that when I do get ready to make my pretty quilt, I'll be able to do it more confidently. Anyway back to the cards, these were super simple and quick, no layers just some fun stamping and I used the entire 8 1/2 x 11 kraft sheet in about 10 minutes. These are 3x3 and didn't use up the sheet completely so here's what I did with the scraps.

Supplies : Kraft cardstock, Raspberry Fizz and Pure Poppy Ink, and Forest Friends stamp set by Papertrey Ink; White Daisy Ink by CTMH

Since my goal is to whittle it down my scrap pile even though they were odd sizes I thought just finishing what I began and making more thank you notes would work with these bitty strip scraps I had left. I ended up with a long 2 1/2 x 11 strip and a 2 x 6 strip. I cut the long strip in half and then folded each card for two 2 1/2 x 2 3/4 cards and one 2 x 3 card. Just little babies ;) And they were so cute and tiny I couldn't help but put some cute and tiny toadstools on them. Since the sizes were funny I played a little with the placement to get three different looks using the same stamps and colors. Enjoy and have a happy Wednesday!

I Scream!

Supplies : Paper by October Afternoon (various collections); Thickers Letter Stickers and Christmas Cupcake Flair button by American Crafts; Rhinestones by Kaiser; White mini ricrac; Circle Nestibilities; Sweet Blush cardstock, Journal Jots stamp set, and Raspberry Fizz ink by Papertrey Ink; Basics 1 Slice Card;

This week the supply challenge on Practical Scrappers is pattern paper! I guess that's not really a challenge for me though since I'm always using my patterns, lol. I did do a little cutting out with my patterns which is something I haven't done a whole lot of. The cherries by the top journaling were cut out from paper and pop dotted on the layout and the star element was cut using my Slice and also pop dotted to the layout. I used sketch #29 from Inspired Blueprints for the layout. It's a little older, but it's also a sketch that I never got around to playing with. The star balloon Audrey's holding in the picture was inspiration to use this sketch ;) Thanks for popping on by and have a great Tuesday!

Summer Love

Supplies : Paper by Scenic Route (rainbow and green dot), October Afternoon (clouds) and Cosmo Cricket (Girl Friday for letters and orange floral); Giddy Remarks stickers by American Crafts; Cardstock; Handwritten fonts Slice card

Every Friday Practical Scrappers does a layout sketch and we just started getting them early to make samples for the site now! I was so excited to see this sketch in my inbox and had the perfect photo of Cait to go with it. Since I had all those valentine cards to show you all I waited until today to post it. The best part about this layout for me is that it uses some new goodies I just got. The background paper I had just picked up that Monday as well as those cute American Crafts Giddy stickers. Everything else is scraps ;) Yay for using them up a little more right! I love this photo of Caitlyn and this was one of my favorite summer tanks of hers. She might fit into it this year, I had bought a 6/6x but she has been growing like a weed and eating like a teenage boy. She is ALWAYS hungry, lol. Enjoy the layout and have a happy Monday!

4 Calling Birds

Supplies : Paper Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey; Mistletoe Card Slice; Sprinkles Thickers by American Crafts; white mini ricrac; white embossing powder; Fancy Flourishes stamp set by Papertrey Ink; Marvy snowflake punch; shimmer white cardstock; sewing machine w/white thread

So I started another card using four little birds and I just was not liking it. I kept thinking as I went along that it would come together but it never did and I did a big 'ulgh!' and tossed it, lol. Then I started this card, which I really like but if I could change one thing I would have picked plain cardstock, that same pale aqua, for the background so that the bird would have more pop. The blue and green print just seems a little too busy for the style I was going for and I didn't realize that until after I had already sewn my base together. Anyway, I really like this idea with the numbers and one big cut out so I might be doing all the rest similar to this. We'll see ;) The card is for Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge. This Sunday the challenge is no coloring which turned out easy for me since I haven't been coloring cards of late, lol. We've been having a lazy Sunday today. I've been reorganizing some of my crafting stuff again, mostly going through my scraps and tossing the ones that I probably won't use into the recycling bin then organizing them by brand into baggies instead of styles. I like to go through all my papers and scraps every couple months and sometimes switch up the way I have them organized. It helps me remember what I have and if I switch them around it gives me fresh eyes after I'm done. Anyway, thanks for visiting and have a lovely Sunday!

You Are Dino-mite!

Supplies : Paper, Cardstock, and Tiny Treats Valentines and Background Basics Hearts stamp sets by Papertrey Ink; Sharpie and CTMH Markers; Cranberry and Black ink by CTMH

I had an extra dino from the mini card set that I didn't need so I turned him into a simple big card. The circle is pop dotted up for a little more dimension. I wanted it to be more of a little boy card so I kept it really simple. It feels like Valentines is just right around the corner! This month has just flown by. I think a big part of it is Caitlyn being in school. Since she's started Kindergarten I swear the days whip by twice as fast. Geez, I wonder what will happen when they're both in school full time! I would hope that means more time for me, but I doubt that's how it'll work out ;) Anyway, I'm rambling. Enjoy the little card and have a super Saturday!

Mini Girl Valentines

Supplies : Paper, Cardstock, and Tiny Treats Valentines stamp set by Papertrey Ink; Sharpie and CTMH Markers; Cranberry Ink by CTMH

Here are the girly ones. Like I pointed out yesterday there are some that would easily be boy ones like the dog and the pail. Now that I look at them they are all pretty unisex, handy for making school valentines and not having to worry about who gets what card ;) I didn't use the plain heart or the lemon in these though I did use the lemon in another card. When I started stamping the owl was my favorite of these, but now that their finished I'm really liking the pail, lol. Probably because of the bright blue. I suppose I could make a bright blue owl ;) I haven't bought goodies yet and I'm debating whether to do candy or something less sugary, lol. We'll see! Thanks for visiting and have a fab Friday!

Mini Boy Valentines

Supplies : Paper, Cardstock, and Tiny Treats Valentine stamp set by Papertrey Ink; Sharpies and CTMH markers; Cranberry Ink by CTMH

Super simple mini Valentines! I wanted to make a little project where I got to use most of the images in this set and mini Valentines for our nieces and nephews fit the bill perfectly. Plus this got Caitlyn excited for making her own again this year. I will be letting her color all of her own ;) These are the nephew ones. I used scraps from some of the Valentines cards I've been making to put these together. Aren't they too cute!! I knew I wanted this set the moment they started showing sneak peeks, there were just so many cute little animals and sayings. Plus I was so happy that there were a lot of boyish ones because all I really have is girly images. That dino is one of my favs, isn't he too adorable! The images came out fuzzy after I colored them, I realized after that I had used regular black instead of my brilliance pad, but the kids won't care I'm sure ;) Tomorrow I'll be posting the girls. Some of them could have been boy ones, we just have more nieces. Thanks for stopping by and have a happy hump day!

Mermaid

Supplies : Paper - Sassafrass, October Afternoon, My Minds Eye, and Scenic Route; Bazzil and CTMH Cardstock; Thickers letters by American Crafts; Cuttlebug with swirl and bubbles embossing folders; scrap embellies ;)

Embossing! That's the challenge over at Practical Scrappers this week. It was fun to use my bug with something other than my nesties and I remembered a layout I saw in a scrap magazine forever ago so pulling the inspiration from memory I created this page featuring Caitlyn's Ariel doll. When Cait saw me making this page she kept asking over and over if we could go to the store and get her a new Ariel since this one has been gone for a couple years. Ms. Purple, Scissors, in the Bedroom ;) I started pulling scraps from my blue pile to compose the page and then added the stripe in there for some fun color. Then I embossed the two blue cardstock pieces in the swirl and bubbles folders for a water theme. A fun easy layout! The panels are all 3.5" x 5.5" in case you're wondering and the strip across is about 11"x1". I simply rounded the corners for a smoother feeling to the layout and added the premade embellie and some scrap strips to journal and finish it off. Enjoy and have a terrific Tuesday!

Trim the Tree

Supplies : Paper and Elements Colorful Christmas by My Minds Eye; Remarks Letter Stickers by American Crafts; Black Rhinestones by Kaiser

And here's the layout I made with which the scraps I used in the last two cards were made from. I had actually cut the papers out weeks ago for the Inspired Blueprints #38 sketch and never got around to actually putting together the layout. And I had even made the cards before I finally glued everything down on this page, lol. These are of Audrey the Christmas before last. It was her first year getting to hang the fragile glass ornaments and she was so excited, I could tell she felt like such a big girl. The pictures weren't that great but the sketch's smaller photos made them look a lot better since it focused in on her. I love it when I can make funky photos look better on a layout ;) I've enjoyed the comments on whether or not you'd redo any of your pages. I think for me I'm going to consider redoing some of them, especially since a lot of them didn't have the journaling that they should since back then I didn't journal on the pages. I don't mind if I get further behind since I know with scrapping you're never really caught up, lol. And I think it would be fun to go back and do something different with the baby pictures. I don't want to take apart any pages though, so I think I might put them in books for the grandparents since neither Paul or my mom scrapbook but they love the albums ;) To answer Kim's question, the daughter title on my baby girl layout is a sticker from Pebbles Inc baby line. Thanks for popping by and have a splendiferous Monday!

Tis the Season to be Freezin'

Supplies : Paper and Snowman from Colorful Christmas by My Minds Eye; Black Rhinestones by Kaiser; Pop Dots

Here's my card for Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge. The week #7 challenge is a fun sketch and I started by following it pretty exact, but without the outside mat. But my pieces weren't meshing well together that way so I turned my card horizontal and smooshed all the elements of her sketch together toward the bottom right corner. Much better fit for the chilly little snowman and his catchy matchy papers, and I didn't even have to trim anything! I added black rhinestones to his eyes and the sentiment for a little bling ;) Took me less than 10 minutes even with the rearranging. Love those little quickie cards! Don't forget to stop by Sparkle's blog for her darling card and tag! Enjoy and have a lovely Sunday!

An Orangey Cuppy Cake Card

Supplies : Paper by My Minds Eye; Raspberry Fizz Ink, Twine, and Cupcake Collection Stamp set by Papertrey Ink; CS, Orange and Ocean Inks by CTMH; Buttons by Doodlebug; Ribbon by Pebbles Inc.

I had this darling Anya image with a cake on her head partially colored with the blue, orange, and raspberry. It must have been months ago that I started coloring her and I never got around to finishing since I didn't have any particular card in mind at the time. Then when I was browsing through my scraps of these papers I remembered her, because the colors matched so perfectly. So I cut my panels and set up my card base, cut a mat for her and went about finishing the coloring and... I ruined her! My skin tone marker leeched some of the black and got on her face around the edge. I wiped off the marker thinking to save her and started in the middle of her head, I know what was I thinking? Anyway, you can image what a big mistake that was! There was still some black left over so she had a greyish peach smear in the middle of her forehead. So I thought it's just for a kid maybe I can divert the attention to her mouth and figured red would be cute.... another disaster!! Alas poor Anya though her dress, hair, and cake hat were cute, she ended up so badly colored that I cannot even bare to take a picture to show you, lol. So here we come to where I saved my card base (thank goodness I hadn't glued her mat down to the card yet!) and I went with quick and simple since I was still recovering from my coloring loss. I think it turned out pretty cute. Inside I stamped three star candles in the raspberry and then over it Make a Wish in ocean. This card was sent to my little niece along with one of those cute dolls I made for her 3rd birthday. My how time flies! It shouldn't surprise me that she's three. She's only a year younger than Audrey and we've been sending her Audrey's hand-me-downs since she was born but everytime I see a pic of her I think, 'Oh my gosh she's getting so big!' Anyway, enjoy the card and thanks for popping by!

Baby Girl

Supplies : Paper by October Afternoon and Basic Grey; Daughter and Heart stickers by Pebbles Inc.; Premade Embellies from scraps;

So as I was looking through my misc photo file I came across these two pictures of Audrey and Paul. Look how little she was! I didn't think I had any unscrapped baby pictures left but I've found a few in this file. I probably put them there because they weren't the best pictures like these. I had to crop a lot of the background out mostly because the house was just a mess, lol. I used the Inspired Blueprints sketch #39 and shrunk it way down to fit the photos. And I even got to use some of my premade embellies, too fun! It made the layout go by super quick too, I love it when I can finish a page in 20 minutes! Anyway, I thought it was funny that I was just talking about wanting to redo baby pages and I found some spare photos hanging about ;) What are your thoughts on redoing scrapbook pages? Would you ever remake some of the ones you've done? I'd love to hear your comments! Thanks for dropping by and have a fab Friday!

Pretty Flowers

These flowers remind me of sorbet and baby girl nurserys, of sweetness and innocence. With two little girls I've done plenty of pages with the yellow and pink theme over the years ;) So I just had to make some of those lollipop flowers with those same scraps I used for the embellies. I used one of the blooms nestie sets as well as the scallops. I'm hoping to get the pinking ones soon since they look like fun too. Instead of just popdotting the buttons on with jute like I usually do I did a little extra and sewed them all the way through the flower with embroidery floss for stability. These make me want to redo baby pictures. I was looking through one of Caitlyn's old scrapbooks and while there are definitely some favorite pages, a lot of the pages I did back then I cringe at, lol. Maybe I'll start pulling photos and doing some here and there for a change of pace ;) I put the flowers on acetate with glue dots which I will warn you adheres them to the acetate. Really adheres them. I am having quite the time trying to get these babies off. I'm assuming I needed to use repositionable glue dots or something but I think from now on just to be safe I will just be leaving them loose ;) Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific Thursday!

Baby Girl Embellies

I did another couple embellishment sets, this time in baby girl colors. I'm so excited about these. When I go on crops it's hard to take everything I want to for making pages. Even cards I have a hard time with because I don't always know which stamps or inks I want to bring and then with both cards and pages I want to bring ALL my paper.... just in case. On my last crop all I brought was my scraps, nesties and cuttlebug, plus a box of embellishments like my buttons, candy dots, rhinestones, etc. I also took my Slice since it makes some fun shapes but I didn't have time to use it. That may sound like a lot but usually I'm bringing all my papers, chipboard, flowers, photos, embellishments, it's crazy because I feel like if I don't bring everything I'll miss the one item that would have 'made the page'. Anyway, deciding to create these instead of scrapping made packing for the crop so much easier and I was much more productive too! And these are way easier to clean up after, a big plus at my friend Julie's house since we have dinner on the same table we scrap at ^_~ And my my dinner was soooo good that night - Chicken Marsai with homemade french bread. So delish! Jules is an amazing cook, I would rather eat at her place than any resturant in town. And the company is awesome as well ;) Anyway, these make a great small project that's fun to do whether at home or away and makes your scrapping or cardmaking go by quicker later down the road. The added bonus - I'm reducing my huge mountain of scraps, yay! Have a happy hump day and thanks for visiting!

The Second and Third Days of Christmas

Supplies : Paper by Basic Grey and My Minds Eye; Cardstock by Bazzil; Rhinestones by Kaiser; Button by Papertrey Ink; Slice and Mistletoe Card

I missed Sparkle's Christmas challenge last week so this week I did them both ;) The extra challenge this week is to use embossing and that worked perfectly with these little doves! A couple challenges ago I started with the little partridge image. I'm hoping to make an entire set of the 12 days of Christmas. We'll see how it goes. I used a bit of some border paper I had left of that My Minds Eye birdy set. The little cage was just what the card needed. It's really different trying to make cards with die cuts instead of stamped images, but so far I think I'm doing alright. Below is the card for last week. The extra challenge for week 5 was buttons. I tried to work more into the card but I wasn't loving it so I added just the one big button. I've started printing out the sentiments for these on the computer. I'm not sure how much I like them yet. Maybe if I print them on some colors next time instead of white cardstock.

This first week of school has been kind of hectic. New Years I was coming down with some sniffles and a couple days later I had the worst flu. Not the worst I've ever had, but definitely one of them. Luckily by this weekend it was back to simple congestion but I have to say that week was really a doozy. I'm so glad Mich and Paul helped out the first few days Caitlyn was back in school otherwise she might have ended up stuck at home. Then yesterday I was walking down the sidewalk to our apartment and I tripped and fell hard. I haven't fallen like that since I used to skate back before I had babies! Oh it hurt so bad, I have a huge palm size bruise below my knee now and my knee caps are still sore. No broken bones or anything, but still... ouch! I got to be a big baby all night and nurse my sore legs lazying on the couch with some tea, orange rolls, and the first episodes of Lost. Anyway, today has been much better so I'm hoping that's a good sign that the rest of the month will be too. I hope the New Year has been treating you all well ;) Enjoy the cards and have a lovely Monday!

Pretty Prima Tin

Supplies : Marrakech paper by Basic Grey; Buttons by My Minds Eye; Flowers by Prima; Ribbon in Ocean Tides and Jute by Papertrey Ink; Repurposed Calypso Prima Tin

The Practical Scrappers challenge this week is to use up buttons! I have so many buttons and I love using them on EVERYTHING! It seems like I'm always sticking a button on something here or there, but for the challenge this week I really wanted to make something that uses more buttons than my usual. This darling Calypso Prima tin that I had hanging about was just waiting to be altered! I picked out the buttons first and decorated the top then found some paper to match. Thinking back I probably should have picked the paper first, but everything worked out ;) Doesn't it make such a pretty little jewelry tin! Or for a crafter I think it would be darling holding prestamped images, flowers, or a kit! I stuck my current watch in there for the picture, I love how the turquoise looks against that paper. I'm so addicted to these watch bands and am always excited to see the news ones at our Pebbles store. Anyway, enjoy and have a great Tuesday!

Passing By

Supplies : Paper by October Afternoon, Scenic Route, and My Minds Eye; Flowers from Prima; Buttons and Jute from Papertrey Ink; Candy Dot by Pebbles; Thickers and Remarks letter stickers from American Crafts;

I used some of those fun embellies I posted on Saturday on this layout I made using the Inspired Blueprints #37 sketch. March of last year Caitlyn was in speech therapy 1-2 times a week and at that time the rehab clinic was in the main hospital building. They have an area with a fountain that goes down to a stream and a little bridge that takes you over to some seating where they created a spot of lovely desert landscaping. It's an area we usually rushed past because there was always someplace to be and because it's nothing all that special, just an area around a hospital. After therapy it was errands or going to the preschool, another doctors appointment, picking up Paul, etc. And every visit Caitlyn would ask to see the fountain and go across the bridge, each time receiving the 'we don't have time' answer that seemed to become so commonplace in our lives. One day I finally realized we needed to slow down and so after the therapy session that day we crossed the bridge and played. Caitlyn spent most of the time just sitting near the water, listening and watching it and in those quiet unrushed moments I saw that this was something she needed and she needed this more than I needed to finish some other errand right at that moment, or to be early to another doctors appointment for her where we would wait another 20 minutes before being seen. So almost every time we had therapy after that we spent a little time across the bridge or by the fountain wall. And it made all the difference, not just for her but Audrey and I as well. I no longer had to drag her to therapy and running errands afterwards seemed to go more smoothly. I was more patient with them and they were more tolerant of doing things that weren't fun. Just 5 minutes to get away from the hustle. Five minutes in someplace beautiful and quiet. And I wonder how much we miss when we're just passing by. I've noticed since she's started Kindergarten that we've been in that rush again and I need to break us out of it. Take some time today to enjoy something you haven't noticed and have a lovely Monday! Thanks for visiting ;)

Scrappy Embellies and Resolutions

I have sooooo many scraps. And making cards or trying to find ways to put them on a page is more thinking work than I want to do sometimes. What can I say, I've become a lazy crafter ;) So I thought about trying to use them up by making little embellishments, which is funny because I made these last week and yesterday I popped on Nichol's blog and saw that PTI was doing a use up your scraps challenge so I'll be making more of these with some of my PTI valentine's scraps soon for fun. I made two sets of these, one which I've been using for myself and the other I think I might gift, save for later, or if I get really ambitious - start an Etsy and be putting them there. I've made a couple things with these already and will be posting them laters ;)

And as is customary I made myself some New Year's Resolutions. I have this notebook that I keep in my purse all the time where I can make lists, jot down notes, schedule my day. The current version is a pretty little GreenRoom book, which I don't have a picture of and should probably take one to scrap ;) Anyway, I ended up with a ton of resolutions once I started writing, most of them involving fairly simple tasks such as get the new curtains I've been oogling at Pier 1 for the living room or get a cute lined basket to hold my dryer and straightener for the bathroom, lol. Some of them are more ambitious like make both Paul and I quilts, learn how to topstitch with Mom's sewing machine (mine is just a little cheapo), and make the backing, quilt, and bind the king size quilt top I finished 3 years ago that's still sitting in storage under my bed along with making the other kiddos quilts I have the material for and take a class to learn to sew clothes. Then there's my papercrafty goals, like streamlining my supplies, using up scraps, and starting an Etsy to sell extra cards, embellies and maybe even the extra dolls I made this past year. And of course the everlasting lose the baby fat goal which I am sorely tempted to get a gym membership for because if I spend the money I'll guilt myself into going in and then maybe I will finally shed this muffin top, lol. I also have Mommy goals such as try to be more patient and find more healthy foods my kids will eat, plus explore more of the fun things to do in town as a family since we always tend to go to the same places. Then my blogger goals such as to have a post at least once a week and to be more personable which is hard for me since I don't type at all like I talk (think a whole lot of spoonerisms and mixed up words, lol. Now think of my hubby the Lit major and how much fun he has with that ^_~) and a lot of what I would say is usually filtered out when I edit. I filled a page both sides with my goals for the year. Sometimes I think having less goals is easier, but this year I'm taking on my SIL's approach and setting many goals. That way if I even only get to doing half of them, then I've still done a lot. Anyway, whether or not you make resolutions I wish you luck in the New Year and I hope you had fun reading some of mine. Thanks for visiting and have a fab Saturday!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years Eve. Audrey fell asleep before midnight but Caitlyn stayed up with us as and we watched a couple movies and played some Lego Indiana Jones 2 ;) The big booms of fireworks going off alerted us to the ringing in of the new year, otherwise we might have missed it, we were having so much fun. And Caitlyn actually wanted to see the fireworks, so maybe that means this year will finally be the one where we can see fireworks on the 4th! We didn't want to wake up Audrey so we didn't see them last night. Poor girl has been sick like her momma with a sore throat and fever. We also haven't gotten to see our nephew yet because we've been sick but hopefully we'll get over it soon! Anyway, my head is still fuzzy so instead of a year in review for 2009 I thought it would be fun to simply share a picture and small caption for each month. Enjoy ;)



January - We actually got some snow! It only lasted a couple days but the girls had a blast and were spoiled with hot cocoa and marshmallows afterward. Our friend Mark edited this shot I took of Audrey, I love the way it turned out!


February - The girls had a blast for Valentines. We spent a whole week between preschool and home doing fun stuff for the heart holiday!


March - I love this sister picture. March was by far my most photo shot month of the year.

April - It rained Easter weekend so we didn't do an egg hunt. I got this shot later in the month and it is still one of my all time favs of Audrey.


May - I think this is all Caitlyn did outside for April and May : blow bubbles, lol. We must have gone through 3 six packs just in that time I remember always having to pick up another pack of bubbles whenever we went to the store!


June - Caitlyn broke free from her water fear and started swimming by the 3rd time we went to the pool. We're so proud of her!


July - No fireworks for Caitlyn again this year but Audrey watched though she was afraid the sparklers would 'shock' her, hehe. We got some cute family pictures even though the girls were not being cooperative at all ;)


August - Cait started Kindergarten! Their class theme is pirates which used to scare her but after the 2nd day she loved it!


September - Paul and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, crazy! Cait lost her first tooth in the car of all places, lol.


October - My baby turned 4! Where does time go? Both the girls were superheroes for Halloween and Caitlyn was able to trick or treat for the first time! Here's hoping 2010 is completely panic attack free!. Hey, I can dream ;)


November - I took less than a dozen pictures this month, which is just soooo unlike me. I spent a lot of time sick that month so that's probably why. I did get this adorable shot of Audrey with her Pout Pout fish face though, lol. And we had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We made 2 new recipes this year and loved them!


December - My Caitie-bean turned 6! She's getting so tall, I swear by the time she's 10 she'll be as tall as I am, lol. We had such a fun Christmas season this year. The girls got their own mini trees to decorate even and we had a terrific Christmas day and weekend with family and friends.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I've really enjoyed blogging and reading your wonderful comments this past year. You have all been such a great support to me. I know most of the time all I post is art and I don't always talk about our lives, but whenever I do it's so heartwarming to read your comments and it always puts me in a better mood. Thank you for being a part of my life this past year. Our family wishes you all a blessed and prosperous 2010! Happy New Year!!