Crazy for Reptiles

Though Cherry is usually the reptile fan in our family, Apple also jumped the reptile bandwagon while we were at the zoo. She really got into all the lizards, snakes, and turtles. She calls the huge snake she got as a souvenir "daddy snake". Paul and I like to call him Jake the Snake like from Rango since his tail jingles, he's got the evil viper eyes, and well Jake the Snake is just plain fun. I truly expected Cherry to get a snake since snakes are her favorite but she was really intent on bringing home a dinosaur. She picked out this very bright blue T-Rex which reminds me of blue raspberry icees. The T-Rex has yet to gain a name that actually sticks other than T-Rex, but we're working on it ;) 

The zoo trip was just the girls and I. Paul had a few doctors appointments and some tests to do and it just turned out that they were on a day that I didn't have any classes. So we thought it would be fun to take the girls up north with us and I would spend the day at the zoo with them. They loved it so much that even after getting home late at night after a 5 hour drive home, Apple still asked the next morning if we could go back up to the zoo again, lol! They really loved seeing all those animals. We'll definitely be doing this again next year ;)

Elephants and Rhinos

The elephants were so cool that the girls wanted to visit their exhibit twice. And I'm glad we did. The first time was for the elephant show which was really just the zookeepers talking about how they care for the elephants and the elephant demonstrating a few things. Both the girls liked the elephant, but weren't overly amazed about this show like they were at the bird show earlier. However, the second time we came back, the baby elephant Zoey was out. The girls loved watching her and her momma ;)

This is the last week before school starts back up for us, so we're definitely trying to make the most of it! Plus we still have our back-to-school shopping to do, eek! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the pages and have a great Monday!

Big Cats

Apple's favorite thing at the zoo was seeing the big cats. There was this beautiful leopard pacing right next to the glass of its exhibit. It both scared and delighted all the kiddos that were watching. Both the girls were more excited than frightened. Most of the big kitties were lounging in the shade or napping. Last week when we went thrifting we picked up the cutest white tiger for $1. It looked brand new but even so she still went through a cycle in the wash. Apple's named her Sasha. She's a great addition to all her other tigers!

Cherry has had a big thing for maps lately and she played our little navigator at the zoo. This page happens to be one of my favorites that I've made, even though it doesn't use my favorite pictures. I think I just like the sampling of all the papers and the fun little animal stack ;) Last month we picked up a yearly pass to the wildlife museum here. It's just a small museum, but every Saturday it has a fun kids club activity where the kiddos get to learn about a specific animal. The girls love it and it adds a little something educational to their week while out of school. Plus I think in a way it feels like an extension of the zoo. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the page and have a fab Friday!

Exhibits

Cherry and Apple loved looking for the animals in their exhibits. "It's like I-Spy!" Cherry said a few times. Of course her favorite was looking at the snakes. Apple was amazed with all the animals and got quite the fun surprise in the rainforest open exhibit as a bright blue bird flew right by her and up to a branch. It flew so close that it whooshed her hair up! The cutesy animal papers are from Sassfras that I picked up on clearance quite a while ago. I had no idea what I'd use it for at the time and I'm so glad I have it now! The alpha viper is from a darling paper I got years ago. The animals were all very boy and boy colored, but I just loved the embossed animals and alpha theme.

The girls really liked giraffes as well and it was a real treat to get to see one up close. The zoo wasn't doing a feeding activity today so we just watched as the giraffe walked around her exhibit. Cherry mistakenly read the height sign as 6 feet instead of 16. She shouted out "Woah, that giraffe is 6 feet tall!" lol, too funny! Thanks for visiting and enjoy the layout!

Braces and a Zoo Page

Guess what Cherry got last week? Yup, braces! She's got a 'shark tooth' coming out - a tooth that's erupted into her roof palette. Long story short she had to have 2 baby teeth pulled (one still had a long full root) and had her braces put in to set her foundation for when the tooth has fully grown out. Then they will attach the shark tooth and the braces with pull it forward to the gums where it needs to be. The orthodondist said 6 months to 1 year and then 4-6 months wearing a retainer after that. Not all her permanent teeth have showed themselves so hopefully this will be the only 'shark tooth'. Cherry was super excited to get them and loves them even with all the extra weird brushing and floss stuff. I'm so glad she's happy about it because her attitude makes it about a million times easier for us to help her take care of them. Her favorite part is choosing the color of her ties, of course ;) She had purple and pink, but because one of the brackets came off (it was on a capped tooth) we had to go back early so she picked out new ones and is currently sporting watermelon and red.

Most of my time lately has been spent cleaning, reorganizing, and listing things to make for birthdays and Christmas (yup it's about time for me to be prepping for that already) plus a little back-to-school sewing. But I've managed some blog hopping time and came across a cute and probably old idea for talking about the kiddos online by using nicknames. As you've probably already noticed, I've come up with aliases for the girls here on the old bloggo - Cherry and Apple. I figure since they're such little fruitcakes, I'd nickname them after fruits. Obviously C is Cherry and A is Apple so nothing drastic ;) Anyhoo, it's been forever since I've actually printed any pictures and I figured I'd start with the photos I love right now - our summer staycation activities - to kick start my scrapping mojo. So here's the first page to the zoo part of what will be our summer 2011 album. Hope you all have a happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Our Store

I have to admit that even though I love the Echo Park's paper lines, I really have a hard time using them for some reason - unless it's for making goodies for the girls' room, lol. They currently have a new fun paper chain along one wall of their room. I used up all those papers that I adored, haven't been able to scrap with, probably won't scrap with, but love too much to simply give away. Now they decorate C and A's room and it looks so very cute! I get to see the designs all the time now ;) Anyway, I did keep a couple sheets that I knew I'd scrap with and the background paper was one of those. The sticker sets come in ultra handy too, which I also used here. Another Susan case, you should probably expect that of all my layouts until my next summer break when I have more time to fuss over my pages, lol. Anyway, just a silly layout of my silly girls. I couldn't figure out what they were doing two years ago until C saw the pictures while I was scrapping. She cuddled up to me while I started putting the page together and said, "Hey, that's our old store!" When I asked her about it she told me the whole story of how they were setting up a shop for their dolls and animals. So that's what they were doing, lol. Now I know ;)

Pucker Up

Can you tell I'd been in an American Crafts kind of mood? This layout was another basic sketch case from another one of Susan's layouts. Casing or using a sketch helps me to just create when I'm lacking in time, that way I can just play with my papers and goodies - not worry about layout design ;) Anyway, I've adored this funny puckered up pic of C for quite a while and finally realized the colors go perfect with the lipstick print paper I got forever ago. Lately she's been big into The Little Mermaid again and everytime Sebastain says "You got to bat your eyes, like dis... You got to puck out your lips, like dis," she puckers up and says the lines right along, laughing while she's trying to say them like the crab. I miss being at home with them so much. I know right now I'm technically not missing out on anything since they are home all day, but I can't help but feel like I just don't have enough time with them. Since starting back to school, I've been even more grateful for the time I had as a stay-at-home mom, to be there every moment when my girls were babies and toddlers. Gosh they grow up so fast! Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the layout ;) And have a wonderful day!

Home Is Where You Are

I must say I've been patting myself on the back ever since I finished these adobe layouts because I used up practically all my adobe papers and stickers. Yay! I love that feeling of completion. I just used the scraps to put this layout together and picked a home theme so I could use up more of my adobe stickers. Quite cute, though in retrospect I think I was supposed to use trade-in this photo for an older one in a frame. Ah well, I can always reprint another and this time I can make it black and white since I've had a b&w kick with my displayed photos lately. Anyway, just a quickie post - hope you enjoy! Have a lovely Sunday!

What's Cookin'?

A few weekends ago I managed to get a bit scrappy ;) I cased one of Susan's layouts. I love her clean-lined, kid-friendly style and her layouts make great sketches for jumping-off points. These two cooking layouts were actually done without the photos because I didn't have the photos printed (and was out of ink in my printer) so they didn't get completed until a week of so after I made the pages.

This page was perfect for using up all those stickers that I adored but had no idea what to really do with. Both C and A still love their aprons and wear them any time I bake so that they can help, which, trust me, is quite often, lol! C is getting old enough to start helping cook just a little bit. I have her mix the saute veggies or help brown meat to try to get her accustomed to what it's like to cook. It's hard sometimes since she gets scared of the heat on the stove. Ever since Audrey burned her hand on the stove, both girls have been very wary of the range and oven. That can be good though. Being careful while cooking definitely isn't a bad thing ;) Anyways, thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed the pages!

Stuck 2 You

These pictures crack me up. One day I left the stickers down for C to use, A was 3 at the time. It seemed like I had just turned around when suddenly I see A has covered herself in stickers, lol! Toddlers are so funny ;) I'm certain C had been helping her as well. I love my silly girls. Since this was my last page at the crop, my mojo was starting to wane. I took inspiration from the 1x1 inch patchwork I did on the girls letters in their rooms and created a fun border. I love the way it turned out, like a mini sampler of all those cute patterns! The extra plus is that it really goes well with all the square stickers A had on her face ;) So that's all I have to share. I hope you enjoyed the pages. Thanks for stopping by and have a fab Friday!

Vegging Out

The rick rack sticker that I used in yesterday's layout came from the Farm Fresh Sticker set from October Afternoon. This set also contained a bunch of fruits (almost all of which I have already used), some farm animals (which I've only used a couple), and other various things including... vegetables (which I hadn't touched). Truthfully, I thought I would need to do a dinner page or something to use up those stickers, but when I saw these pics of Paul and the girls just vegging out, I knew they were destined to be together. What even worked better was that those odd Girl Friday letters that I had left from the bedroom art projects, I also used here. The colors matched so perfectly, I couldn't have planned it better! I hope you enjoy the page and have a terrific Thursday!

Catching Some Zzzzzz

My second layout from the crop. I adore watching the girls snuggle with their daddy, and A loves to snuggle with him while he naps. She doesn't nap along, much as we wish she would. Instead she lays quietly, watching him sleep. When she snuggles with me she likes to rub my arm. She says I'm soft, lol. This page came together rather quickly and was pretty simple. I love that it used up my feltie Sassafras birds as well as the rest of that rickrack sticker from OA. I also used a fun swirl that I had no idea what I would use on when I got the set. It ended up being just the thing the page needed to feel complete. Using up various thicker Zzzzs was also made me feel like I was getting the most out of my stash. This was definitely a scrappy layout ;) Enjoy the page and have a wonderful Wednesday!

Who's Who?

These are the old pictures I was talking about in my last post. The ones that had been in the frame. Before I took them down we had these fun pictures up on our hall wall: a set with me and a set with Paul. Both our girls looked so much a like as babies that you couldn't tell their baby pictures apart. So what we did for fun was put pictures taken in similar poses, during about the same ages (nope we didn't plan this but we took so many photos with both our girls that we just happened to have some that worked out this way), and framed them. This set was me with the girls. They are so hard to tell apart! If you look really REALLY close, A has slightly (very slightly!) different eyebrows and chin. At that age their noses were the same which is their biggest differencing feature right now (though a lot of people still mistake them for twins!) They are both 5 months in these pictures ;) While cropping at my friend Julie's, I decided to scrap this story of how we tell their baby pictures apart, which is basically to look at the clothes they are wearing ;) A was a little smaller than C. Instead of growing out of things a month early like her big sis, A didn't get to wear them until often a month later. I also used a bunch of scraps from the girls room redecorating project. In fact all the pages I made at the crop use at least some of the those scraps ;) Anyway, I hope you enjoy the page! Have a great Tuesday!

My Model

I started and ended my crop pages with the pictures from the same session - C modeling the Analise Dress. C still wears this even in the winter. Of course she has a darling red sweater or her hot pink cardigan that she puts on over it ;) I've been going over some of my other dress patterns, the ones I bought during the summer but haven't made anything from yet. There are a couple I'm really excited to try out. Hopefully I have enough fabric onhand to make a few more dresses this spring, maybe over spring break, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'll just be happy my girls still love the dresses I made so much! That's all the layouts I made from the crop. I hope you enjoyed the pages! Thanks for visiting and have a lovely Wednesday!

Papers by Crate Paper and My Minds Eye; Print Flowers, Sticker, and Brads by Sassafras; Flowers by Imaginisce and Prima; Thickers by American Crafts

Fairy

A loves Tinkerbell. She basically loves everything fairy, princess, or mermaid and she'll often skip or dance or twirl around the house. It's so stinkin' cute and I love having my very own little fairy running around in the house. She is also such a poser. A always wants me to take pictures of her and she'll really ham it up when I pull out the camera randomly, which is another goal I want to focus on. Once I started classes in the fall I almost never took pictures and I'm really sad that happened. So this semester I'm making a pact with myself to take out the camera at least once a week (hopefully more often than that) to snap some shots & to get at least a couple pics of me each month ;) Enjoy the page and thanks for stopping by!

Papers by Crate Paper and My Minds Eye; Rubons and Glazed brads by Bo Bunny; Rhinestones and rhinestone butterfly by Kaiser; Thickers by American Crafts; Butterflies from Basics 2 Slice card;

Hula Hoop

C tried so hard this summer to learn how to hula hoop and she nearly got it down! I noticed that the smaller, lighter hoops were easier for her to use. She is so cute to watch! This page was the second layout I did at the crop. The Slice and Thickers title was the inspirational starting point for the page. I knew I wanted to cut the word hula out with that Basic Grey paper and then layer the Thickers over it but that was about it, lol. Luckily the rest of it just came together after that ;) I hope you enjoy! Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Twirl

Right after the New Year I printed out some 2010 pics so I could crop with Julie. I picked out all my papers and embellishments and then chose photos to match before printing. I had a total of 13 pictures and I'm so proud to say that I scrapped them all at the crop! Twirl was the first page I made. While cleaning up my folders on my laptop I found inspiration in a very cute valentine layout and committed the things I loved about it to memory specifically for this page. I love how it turned out! Enjoy and have a lovely Wednesday!

Paper by Crate Paper and Basic Grey; Ribbon by Pebbles Inc.; Stitched Brad by Sassafras; Glazed Brads by Bo Bunny; Rhinestones by Kaiser; Thickers by American Crafts; Flower by Imaginisce; Just Chillin card on Slice by Making Memories

Watch Over You

I've finally gotten around to printing some photos from 2010, lol. Maybe I should add to my resolutions this year to print and scrap more of the current year ;) As I was looking for photos to print I realized there are a ton of darling 2010 pics, so I printed out 16 that coordinated with some papers and got to work. This is my first page of 2011. I actually printed all my photos to go with a single set of papers, but when I saw the big and little elephants in my Sassafras chipset I knew I had to use them on this daddy/daughter page! Thanks for visiting and have a lovely Monday!

Hooray for the New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Happy New Year! We had a fun casual get together and then yesterday I spent our usual first weekend after Christmas to take down all the decorations. I also managed to get in more organizing - hitting our closet and underbed storage, the junk drawer, and the laundry room, yay! My goals this year are to really concentrate on enjoying and appreciating my family. When I started back to school in the fall, I noticed that I didn't spend enough quality time with my girls during the week. It got to the point where they wouldn't come to me anymore if they needed something because I was 'busy doing homework', C says. I don't ever want my girls to feel like I'm not there for them, so my main goal this year is to find a balance where I can manage school while still giving my family the time and attention they need. I also want to maintain a 3.8 GPA or higher (I'm at a 4.0 right now) so that hopefully I can get a scholarship this fall. And I also want to take time at least once a week to do something for myself. Just a few goals, but very important ones to me ;)

After Christmas I've been in an organizing storm and each day I take on a different part of our home. So far, including what I did yesterday on the 1st, I've organized the armoire that holds my scrap stuff, our entry closet, the girls' closet, our outdoor storage closet, our bedroom bookshelves, and our living and dining areas. It's amazing how much a freshly organized space can motivate you to create! I'm sure it also helps that I haven't had the time to papercraft as much as I used to, lol. I used these same papers to decorate my binder and dividers and I'm really proud of myself for using up all the leftover scraps in these pages! This page is of A helping make the green coconut grass topping for her B-Day cupcakes back in '09. Look at those chubber cheeks!

Here's another of A the same year. She practically lived in her swim 'soup'. The only time she wasn't wearing it was when it was in the washer! Of course we live in a desert where summer seems to last from April through October so it completely makes sense, hehe. It's so fun to make something pretty at the beginning of the New Year. Today I even get to go over to a friend's to crop! I haven't done that since August! I hope you enjoy the pages. Good luck with your own goals this year and have a wonderful weekend!

Chalk It Up!

This was the last page I made at the crop and also the only page I didn't use any circle cut paper in. It ended up being a perfect stop since I had used up all my mojo by the time I got to this layout. These pics were taken after C and A discovered that chalk and water made super bright and fun pictures. Of course at the time C was the one who drew and A just liked to get ultra messy as you can tell from her showing off her grubby little hands! It's so weird to think that this was two years ago! Next year both the girls will be in school, crazy!

I was really in love with these Beach House Glittered Paper Flowers by American Crafts. They were great for layering with primas, adding rubons to, and just looking fun and glittery! I used them on every layout I made at the crop and I still have nearly half the package. These little babies go a long way ;)

Prima flowers, rhinestones, and glazed brads were also used on nearly every layout ;) Gotta love pretty accents! I hope you've enjoyed the pages. Thanks for popping by and have a fantastic weekend!