Introducing Ada Grace

 

Little Ada Grace arrived at 2:22 a.m. on Saturday, November 30 - 23 days early.

Abby had been having trouble with her feet swelling and when she went to her doctor's appointment the day before Thanksgiving, her blood pressure was on the high side. Her doctor sent her to the hospital to have her blood pressure monitored for a few hours. They went ahead and sent her home so she could have Thanksgiving dinner, but she had to be back to the hospital at 4:00 on Thanksgiving day for an ultrasound and check of her blood pressure.

When we got to the hospital her blood pressure was really high. Like 160 over 110 high. On Friday the doctor on call diagnosed her with preeclampsia and said they were going to have to induce labor in order to keep Abby and Ada safe. Things moved really quickly from this point on. When they broke Abby's water she had dilated to 2-3cm. 45 minutes later it was time for baby!

Little Ada Grace came into this world weighing 4 pounds 15 1/2 ounces and she is 18 inches long and perfect in every way. She did have to spend a week in the NICU because she couldn't keep her body temperature up and her bilirubin count was a little high. But, she is home now and both she and Abby are doing great!

Being a Grandma is going to be so much fun!

Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop

Welcome to the SG Blog Hop for December, if this is your first stop, you might like to start at the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link.

This is my first time participating in this blog hop and I am super excited! My Scrapbook Generations sketch books are the first thing I reach for when I start a layout. They are a great starting point and make it easy for me to get a lot of layouts done. The layout I am sharing today is based on one of their downloadable sketches from November 2012.

And a shot of the journaling:

You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you wanted to try it out.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! Next on the hop is Elizabeth, leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be draw on December 9th, so you have one week to leave a comment.

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list all the blogs
Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/
Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/
Michelle - http://ownerofchanel.blogspot.com/
Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/
Stephanie - http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com
Devra - http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com
Isbaha - http://isbahashome.blogspot.fr/
Tasha- http://tashascreativejuice.blogspot.com/
Pamela - http://reflectionsofmyartandsoul.com/blog
Brenda - http://roseblossomlegacies.com
Sharlene - http://inspirationstationbysbe.blogspot.ca/
Louise- http://madeatnumber27.blogspot.com.au/
Brenda R ~ http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/
Cassie - http://allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/
Lori - http://loriannie670.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth - http://ejoym.blogspot.com
Mandi - http://mjskraze.blogspot.com/
Cicily - http://www.pinkdalmatianscrapper.com/
Laureen - http://mybusyscrapbookinghands.blogspot.ca/
Janelle - http://stillscrappinlettersize.blogspot.com
Melissa - http://www.scrappyjedi.com/
Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca/
Lindsey - http://www.scrapping-by-the-sea.com
Nicole - http://www.lovemesomepaper.blogspot.com/
Tina Gale ~ http://www.myscrappyideas.ctmh.com

Wet and Wild Fun

Today is a dark, dreary, cold day and since I'm a summer lovin', hot temps and sunshine kind of girl, it's hitting me hard! So, I thought I'd share a summery layout. I signed up for the Photo Arrangement Replay class (from Scrapbook Generation) that was going on over at Scrap N Yap last month.  I had bought the class a while ago and never did anything with it and I thought this would be a great way to get it done.I thought it would be easy to keep up with, then life happened! But I did get this layout done in the first week. I just never took the time to upload it to boards.

Once again I was able to use scraps from my stash along with some old photos of Shane (from 2002) on this layout. This was his first experience with the slip n slide, and he loved it! His favorite thing to do was to sit in the little pool of water at the end and wait for Abby and Matthew to come on down!

Ah, summertime - I miss you already!

Challenge YOUrself

There is a new challenge blog called Challenge Yourself that is starting up. Their first challenge will be in December and here is a little about them:

We challenge YOU to make it a goal to snap one picture a month with the ones YOU love and scrap about it!  It doesn't matter what you look like.  It's time to get out from behind the camera and start including YOUrself if those pictures!
 
I've been better lately about handing the camera over to someone else once in a while so I am the pictures, too. Now I just need to start scrapping them and this challenge blog sounds like it will help me do just that!

They currently have a design team call and giveaway going on, so head on over and check them out here.

Happy Halloween!

Since today is Halloween, I thought I would share a couple of layouts that I made a couple of weeks ago. My kids are all "too old" to go trick or treating, so I dug out some old photos for these layouts. For my first layout I used a sketch from the Weekend Warriors Sketch Class that I took earlier this month over at Inspired to Scrap.

They also have a Use it Up challenge going on, so everything from this layout (except the black background) came from my scrap box. The photos are of Abby, Matthew, and my nephew, Justin, before they went trick or treating way back in 1999! What a couple of cute vampires and such a scarey witch!

This next layout is of two of my nieces from 2007.

 

Once again I used a sketch from Inspired to Scrap and scraps from my scrap box. I love using up some of that "old" stuff!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Getting Back In The Groove

3 months.
3 months since I've posted anything.
That's quite a while - even for me! So much has happened in 3 months - it really seems like it's been longer than that. So, here's a little run down of what's been going on since July.

We found out that Abby is going to have a little girl!

They have decided on the name Ada Grace and I cannot wait! I can say (with confidence) that she will be spoiled - especially since I get to babysit her once Abby goes back to work!

Abby started her first job ever in August. She graduated from MSU on May 17, had her first interview a week later and was hired as the K-4 Special Education teacher at her old elementary school.  I know that she is going to be a wonderful teacher! Here's a picture of her getting her classroom ready for the first day of school.

Matthew started his sophomore year in high school. He got his driver's permit over the summer and is slowly learning to drive. He is getting so tall and he is now taller that his Dad!  He has a great group of friends and is constantly busy with them on days off from school.

Shane started junior high.
It doesn't seem possible that my baby boy is in junior high! I have worried about this for a while - change is not easy for him, and not only was he going to a different building, but he was going to have all new teachers and a new para, and a whole new way of doing things. All of that worry was for nothing! He has adjusted to the junior high way of life quite well. His para is great with him and we have seen so many changes in him and we are just a quarter into the school year. He goes to p.e. with his classmates, and the coach has made a point of including him and letting him have his turn when they play games. He loves Wednesday since pizza is on the snack bar menu. He gets a slice and that makes him a happy boy! He still does a lot of echolalia - but his spontaneous speech is getting more and more frequent. Once again he scored advanced on his MAP - A test in communication arts!

On a very sad note - Mom passed away on September 14. It wasn't a big surprise as her health had been really bad since May, but it was, and still is, hard to let her go. I had no idea I would miss her so much, so soon. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family to help me get through this. I talk with my sisters just about every day and we all try to get together every couple of weeks for a lunch date. We all need each other a lot right now.

That is about all that's been going on in our neck of the woods. I have been scrapping quite a bit and hopefully will start back to posting when I get something done.

Celebrate America

I have another patriotic layout to share using Bella Blvd's All American collection. I have been wanting to try a sunburst layout for a while now, but just haven't sat down and figured it out. When I saw this sketch for the Plus One challenge over at Colorful Creations, I knew it was time to try a sunburst!

And here is my layout:

supplies used: patterned paper, alpha stickers, flag - Bella Blvd All American, corrugated stars, outdoor denim ink, B1416 Keyboard Uppercase Alphabet stamps - CTMH, twine - Doodlebug Designs

This picture is of Shane on the 4th of July. We had already taken several posed shots of the family and I took a couple more of him afterwards. He was just having too much fun with his little flag - making it flap and wave in the wind. He is not much of a picture taker, but I have finally figured out that if I give him a prop - like this little flag - he is more than happy to take pictures!

I am also entering this layout in the About A Boy challenge to use only red, white, and blue, and the Scrap Our Stash challenge to use red, white, and blue and at least 3 premade stars.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

All American

Once again summer is flying by. I can't believe my boys will be going back to school in just about another month. The 4th of July was just last week and I've already made a layout about it - that's fast for me! I decided to play along with the challenge over at ScrapStuffz this month. Here is their inspiration photo:

I love so many things about this photo. The 4th is one of my favorite holidays, so it was easy to be inspired by it. I loved the colors, the stars, the arrows, the starbursts....so many ways I could go with this! In the end I decided to go with the colors, the stars, and the 4th of July theme. This is what I came up with:

My kids were such good sports posing with their flags! It makes me happy that even though they are all getting older, they still humor me and my silly ideas. I used the super cute Bella Blvd All American collection, added a few sequins and a July 4th  badge that I found at that dollar store.

I have a lot of photos from the 4th (between that and our trip to the lake, I took almost 300 photos in a 2 day period), so I should have a lot of things to share!

Another Patriotic Card

When I saw the new card sketch up over at Sketch N Scrap I knew just what I wanted to do.  With the 4th of July on its way, I decided to make another patriotic card.  Here is the sketch:

 

And here is the card I made:

I fell in love with the Bella Blvd - All American collection, and couldn't wait to start using it. Another quick card that is ready to be sent to someone special!

Fourth of July Card

supplies used - patterned papers - MME - Summer Splash 6x6 paper pad, stamp - Dear Lizzy, phrase sticker - Bella Blvd

This week's Got Talent III mini challenge over at My Scraps, was to use this card sketch and you had to include a polaroid frame on your card. I've had this polaroid frame stamp for a while and have never used it, so I thought this challenge was the perfect time to get it inky! I had these papers on my desk from a layout I made last week and I needed to do a patriotic card for one of the card challenges over at S-N-C. Once I got started it came together really quickly.

I love the look of the polaroid frame stamp and I am sure it will be appearing again - on layouts and cards!

Father's Day Weekend 2012

I have another layout using my Scrap Your Stash kit that I made up at the beginning of the month. Slowly I am getting this Echo Park collection used up. I only have a few full sheets left, and the scraps are getting smaller and smaller! I love using up my stash!

Last year on the Saturday before Father's Day, the whole family got together for a picnic at Bennett Springs. We were celebrating my birthday and Father's Day at the same time. We all had such a good time, visiting and enjoying grilled hot dogs, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful evening!

I used the current sketch (#6) from The Paper Bakery. I loved it the minute I saw it and headed straight for my scrap room to get started on this layout.

 

This is a photo of me and Dad - so happy that I have it to remember this occasion!

His Favorite Place To Be

Another quick post today. I figured I'd better hurry and get caught up, because with the long awaited for (at least in our household!) release of the video game "The Last Of Us" being tomorrow, my computer time will be greatly limited! The hubby and the oldest son have been driving me crazy for the last two weeks - antsy for this game to be out! Our internet is not the best and me being on the computer while they are playing online - well, they say it slows it down too much for them to play.

Anyway...I joined in the fun over at My Scraps & More with their Got Talent III event. They will post a challenge every Friday starting on June 7th and going through August 16. Then every Tuesday, starting on June 11 and lasting through August 20, they are posting a mini challenge. For every challenge you complete, you get an entry thrown into the pot for their grand prize. Plus if you get your layout done before the weekly deadline you are entered in for their weekly prizes.

Their first challenge was to create a layout using NO patterned paper. At first I thought - this is going to be a hard one - and it did take a little thinking because I love my patterned paper, but thank goodness for washi tape - it saved the day!

I started off with a sketch from last weekend's Weekend Warrior class at Inspired to Scrap. I misted my background with blue and silver mists, I used washi tape to make my border along the edge and I also punched a circle out of washi covered cardstock. I had to go old school with my letters since I didn't have any dark blue alphabet stickers and my cricut wasn't wanting to work right. I pulled out my old letter stencils and traced and cut my own!  I can't say that this is my favorite layout, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Well Hello There

With Father's Day just a few days away, I thought I would share a layout I made about my Dad.

supplies used - Patterned paper - Fancy Pants - Down by the Shore, Studio Calico - red background, stickers - Simple Stories - I Heart Summer, Alpha stickers - Well and there - October Afternoon, Hello - Thickers, Brads - Simple Stories - I Heart Summer.

This is my all time favorite photo of my Dad. It is just so him, captured in a picture. The journaling says - "This photo says it all about my Dad. He's always got a smile and a "Hello". He's never met a stranger and he will talk your ear off if you give him half a chance! I am so happy to call him Dad!"

A New Project Life Challenge Blog

A couple of my online friends are starting a Project Life challenge blog. It's called Week-2-Week and you can find it here. They are having an awesome give away to spread the word, so go check them out! Suzanne and Sandi are so creative and their Project Life pages are absolutely stunning each week.

Another card

Paper Secret's first card sketch for the month is up and I decided to play along this time. Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

Supplies used - cardstock - whisper, colonial white - CTMH, pink - Bazzill, patterned paper - My Mind's Eye - My Girl 6x6 paper pad, brad - Studio G, border punch - EK Success.

I try to send my little niece a card once in a while because she loves to get things in the mail, and it's been a while since I sent her one. I thought I would make this card for her, wishing her a happy summer!

Beach Bum

Here is my first layout using my June SYS papers that I have picked for this month. There is a new Weekend Warriors class going on over at Inspired to Scrap this weekend and this layout is based on the first sketch. I love Stacey's sketches and I love how this layout turned out!

These are some old photos of  Matthew from one of the first times we took the kids to Pomme de Terre Lake. He had so much fun playing in the sand and water. Gotta love that little pudgy belly!

I also made a Father's Day card using this collection, based on this sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping's sketch #243.

It's still early in the month, so hopefully I'll get a few more projects done using this stash!

June's Slash Your Stash

For the June edition of Slash Your Stash over at My Scraps I have decided to use Echo Park's This and That Charming Collection. It's another one of those collections that I just had to have it all and as you can see, I still have quite a bit left. So, this month I am going to concentrate on this collection and hopefully get it used up!

Hey...

Ah - summer vacation has officially started for us, and let me tell you, I am so ready for the nice long days of summer!

Earlier this month I posted about making kits to slash my stash. Well, Lisa at My Creative Endeavors posted her sequel to her kit challenge for Sketch N Scrap's Birthday Bash. It is to use that kit to make a layout. Here is my first layout from my kit.

 

supplies used: Kraft cardstock - CTMH, patterned paper - MME Lime Twist, alphas - Amy Tangerine, arrow stamp - Stampin' Up - Show and Tell 2, wood veneer - Studio Calico, brad, MME.

I used sketch #29 from My Scrap's & More sketch blog for this layout of Matthew. The journaling says:
You never know what you're going to get when you aim the camera at Matthew! I {heart} this pose he gave me while we were walking the trails at Bennett Springs.

 And, I still have a few more layouts planned to finish up this kit!

I did it...

Another quick layout to share today. I made this layout for the About A Boy challenge blog's first challenge for May. It was to make a layout of  your boy being a typical boy. I used another old photo of Matthew and sketch #2  from Colorful Creations sketch a thon that is going on all this month. I was even able to use up some of my stash of MME Lime Twist that I am using for my slash your stash challenge over at My Scraps and More this month. It feels good to use up some older product, even if it is just one sheet of a 6x6 paper pad! I've still got lots of layouts planned for this collection - just how many will I actually get done before the end of the month...

Best Buddies

I don't know what is up with me lately, but all I seem to want to scrap is old photos of my kiddos. I think I am trying to hold on to them just a little longer because they are all grown up now. Abby will graduate from Missouri State University tomorrow night, Matthew is finishing up his freshman year of high school and preparing to get his driver's permit, and Shane will be headed to junior high in the fall. Yep, sometimes I long for those days when the most important thing to do was watch cartoons!

For this layout I used this week's sketch from Let's Get Sketchy. I really like this sketch and I am sure I will be using it again!

I also used Sketch N Scraps fourth birthday challenge. It was a tic tac toe challenge and you can read about it here. I chose to use the color yellow, two photos, and stars.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kits To Slash My Stash

Sketch N Scrap is turning one this month and they are celebrating with fun and prizes all month long. Their first challenge was to make your own scrapbook kit. I have also joined in My Scraps and More's  Slash Your Stash challenge this month and thought I might as well combine the two!

For May I have decided to use up the papers I have left from the Lime Twist collection from My Mind's Eye.

Since the "recipe" for the kit at Sketch N Scrap is to use 8 patterned papers, and I only had a few of the Lime Twist papers, I added in a few papers from some other My Mind's Eye collections. The recipe also called for  5 pieces of cardstock,  2 alphabets,  4-10 flowers - can be punched, handmade, store bought etc.,  2-3 sets of stickers (not letter),  Bling- pearls, rhinestones, stickles, glitter, sequins etc. ,  and 3 misc. embellies- i.e. doilies, journaling cards, chipboard, washi tape etc.

I also decided to make up a second kit using Echo Park's Note To Self collection. This is the collection that I had picked for April's Slash Your Stash challenge and I never got around to making anything with it. I haven't added in any flowers for this one, because I plan on making my own for this kit.

Now I have 2 scrapbook kits all made up and ready to go. I have been going through pictures and already have a few layouts in mind. It will be so great to use up some of my older product and to have a few new layouts to share!

Can I help?

 

One of my favorite communities on the net, Colorful Creations, is turning 3 this month and to celebrate they are having a sketch a thon for the entire month of May! That's right, a new sketch every single day - well except for the weekends - they are going to take those off so maybe we can catch up!

For this layout I used their first sketch and some of my favorite new papers from Simple Stories - Urban Traveler. I love that even though this is a travel themed collection I can still use it for every day layouts. I came across these photos of the boys while I was cleaning out my bedroom closet and I couldn't wait to get them scrapped! Matthew had just turned 4 and Shane had just turned 2. Matthew was putting together a Bob the Builder puzzle and Shane wanted to help so badly. He would hold on to each puzzle piece until Matthew needed it, then he would hand it over. I love that teamwork!

Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day and although I don't have any plans to do anything special, I do plan to scrap. Scott, Matthew, and (probably) Abby are all going to see Iron Man 3, so that leaves me and Shane to do as we please - which for me that means scrappin', and for Shane - he will either be watching his movies or playing his video game.

Just saying hello

This week's card challenge over at Scrappin' N Chattin' is to use at least 3 brads on your card. When I saw this sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping, I knew that it would be perfect for this challenge.

I used some papers from the My Mind's Eye - Miss Caroline Dilly Dally 6x6 paper pad, a doily from Martha Stewart, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. Another quick and easy card, and I love the way it turned out! It will be finding it's way to someone special very soon!

 

I have a couple more ideas for cards using this sketch, so you may be seeing it again soon!

Mother's Day Card

For this week's card challenge over at Scrappin' N Chattin' we were to make a Mother's Day card. I had just received a package from my good friend Rhoda that had these pretty flowers in it and I was anxious to use them on something. So, when I saw this sketch from The Sampler Kit Club , I knew exactly what I was going to do.

 

I love how it turned out and I am so happy to have a card made with time to spare!

Happy Birthday - Clean and Simple!

This week's challenge for the 52 week card challenge over at Scrappin'-N-Chattin' was embossing. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I have had this argyle embossing folder for years and this is the first time I have used it. Thanks to Rhoda's embossing challenge it finally made it out of the package. I used this week's sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping (I love their sketches!) and the card came together really quickly. I used up some papers from the My Mind's Eye - The Sweetest Thing Tangerine 6x6 pad that I have been hoarding for some time now - it's just so hard to cut into that pretty paper -and a couple of wood pieces to finish it off.
Thanks to a great challenge and a fun sketch, I now have a pretty birthday card for my sister's birthday next week!