A few more layouts

Here a few more layouts that I had done for my 52 week challenge and never got posted.

The first is for week 8 and is about Shanes's poptart obsession.

The second is for week 21 and is a layout of me and Abby at Mom and Dad's anniversary party.

The third one is for week 30 and it is a layout of my sweet Shane in the pool.

And this last one is a layout of Abby and Bailey. They are too cute! It was for week 42.

Baby Collin

Isn't he the sweetest little baby you've ever seen? This is the latest addition to our family - Collin Ray Dean, my great nephew. He arrived on Wednesday, November 24, weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. and he was 19 inches long. He is just perfect in every way! This layout was made for one of the journaling classes over at Inspired to Scrap. The challenge was to journal using adjectives only. It wasn't too hard to come up with some words to describe him! I also made it for a challenge over at AWDML. This challenge was to use the same number of item types as there are letters in your last name. Since I have 6 letters in my last name I had to use 6 different items. My items were - cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, brads, staples, and chipboard. I also used a sketch from Nuts about sketches.

December sketch challenge at Inspired to Scrap

Here is the layout I made for the December sketch challenge over at Inspired to Scrap. This is a layout of Abby's 20th birthday. The journaling reads: Abby - I love that you still want to have a big party with all of the family - that you still want presents from Mom and Dad - that your cake has to have the Disney Princess' on it - Don't ever change who you are!

She is definitely something special and I can't believe that she is 20!

This is also my layout for week 36 of my 52 week challenge.

Just a quick update

Time has really gotten away from me! I just can't seem to get it together lately. I am having a really hard time getting used to Scott's new job. This never knowing when he is going to have a day off until the Thursday before the new week is hard! When you're used to a Monday through Friday work week - knowing he has every weekend off and then changing to him working every weekend and a day or two during the week...it's hard to get used to. Especially when you're a family that needs to stick to a routine! Maybe before long it will all click.

Lots has happened over the past couple of months. Baby Collin (my great nephew) arrived the day before Thanksgiving. We decided to put off our Thanksgiving dinner at Mom's until Saturday when everyone could be there. This allowed us to have Thanksgiving day with Scott's side of the family. It has been years since all the aunts and cousins came down for Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see everyone again.

Next up was Shane's Christmas concert at school. He wasn't none too happy to get there, but by the time the classes came into the gym, he had settled down. Once again he didn't sing, but he did stand quietly and even got a little excited a time or two. It is always so nice to see him taking part with his classmates.

Abby's last final was on Dec. 16. She was really glad to get this semester over with. It had been a pretty stressful semester. She was dreading seeing what her final grades were because of the way her history professor did his grading. As it turns out, when she got her final grades she once again had all A's and maintained her 4.0! She was ecstatic to say the least.

Matthew had a big science project due at the end of the semester. He partnered up with Lane for it and it was called the Rube/Goldberg project - I think. Kind of a domino effect sort of thing. They had to make sure and have at least 6 steps in it, it had to last for at least 10 seconds, and it had to be video taped. It took them 2 weekends of working on it to get it done. When the teacher seen the video he was so pleased he asked if he could keep it to show as an example to future classes! They got a perfect 100 out of 100 on this project. Way to go, boys!

Christmas eve was spent at Mom and Dad's. We had lots of good food and a really fun white elephant sort of gift exchange. I had to open 3 presents before I finally got to keep what I opened. I came home with the softest and warmest throw along with a yummy smelling candle.

Christmas morning we got up early and opened presents before going to Scott's Mom and Dad's for breakfast and another gift exchange. I came home with another throw, a popcorn popper, and a dvd of The Goonies!

On the 29th, Abby was in the living room and hollered there's a deer in our front yard! Now this is not an uncommon site, it's just we usually see them in the bottom or in the neighbors orchard. To see a deer in the front yard, so close to the house, and not just one, but 7! That's a little unusual!

I'm not too sure what our plans for New Years eve is this year. Scott has to work 12 hours on New Years eve and 12 hours New Years day. I don't know if we'll still try to go in to Aunt Kay's for a little while, or if we'll just stay home. I know Scott will have to go to bed early since he has to get up at 3 a.m., but maybe the kids and I will try to stay up. We'll have to wait and see.

Totally Tubular TV Crop

The Totally Tubular TV Crop has officially begun over at A Walk Down Memory Lane. There are lots of awesome challenges already posted with games soon to follow! Be sure to check it out here:http://www.awalkdownmemorylane.net/forums/index.php?showforum=133. There's sure to be lots of fun and inspiration!

Scrap Pink Crop at SAS

Scrap Attack Scrapbooking is going to have a Scrap Pink crop on October 16 and 17. It's going to be a weekend filled with lots of games, challenges, prizes, and a Scrap Pink raffle basket with all the proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Be sure to check it out. Here's a link for ya! http://scrapattackscrapbooking.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=153&t=17863

I'm finally back

Wow! What a time we've had! So much has gone on in the last month, that I don't know if I'm coming or going. It all started with the school nurse calling me on Aug. 30 saying Shane was running a low grade fever, walking funny, and holding his side. Since he can't tell us what and where he is hurting, and afraid that it could be his appendix, I took him to the dr. He sent us straight to the er - thinking, like us I'm sure, that it was his appendix. After x ray's, blood tests, urine tests, every kind of test you can think of, an i.v., (I have no idea how Shane dealt with all of this so well and didn't fight us at all.) and 4 plus hours in the er, we found out it was strep throat. That was the only test that came back positive. So after a shot of penicillin we were on our way. It took like 3 days for Shane to get back to walking normal and not like he was hurting every step of the way. Never in the last 20 years of raising my kids have any of them had strep throat where it caused pain like this. The dr. and others I have talked to assures me it can happen.

So we get over that and the car quit us for like the 6th time in the last 2 months - with the same thing wrong that was supposed to have gotten fixed. We still don't know what is wrong with it. When it runs it runs like a dream, but you'll just be going down the road and it will die with no warning and won't start again. After dealing with that headache since June we finally went and got a new car. I hate having another payment, but there was just no other way. On top of all this going on, Scott got a call from Kraft for a job. Yay! More money and better benefits - you can't beat that. It took over 3 weeks from the time he had the interview until they finally called and told him when to be there. We were starting to wonder what was going on. But they did call, he has been to orientation since Monday and will start the new job next Monday. All we know is that he will be working days - just not sure yet what days. He's excited about the change and so am I. I'm just hoping now that things will start to settle down!

Week 23/ 52 week challenge

Okay, so I'm really skipping around in my 52 week challenge - definitely not doing it in any order at all. I have all of my pictures set aside for each week, so I just scrap what I feel like scrappin' at the time. It's just for me so it doesn't matter if I do it in order, right??!

I did this layout for one of the color challenges over at SAS. The challenge was to use red, blue, and yellow as the main colors on a layout. I bought this patterned paper at Michaels a while back and thought they would work perfect for this challenge. I used a sketch from The Scrappiest blog (I can't remember which one right now) and just some good old cardstock. I love these pictures of the boys getting along so well together. It's not too often that I walk in to them being so nice to each other. It's no secret that Shane likes to take his frustrations out on Matthew. It feels like I am constantly telling Shane to keep his hands to himself, or telling Matthew to quit pestering Shane. But every once in a while I see them like this. These are the moments I want to remember!

Week 11 of my 52 week challenge and...

one of the layouts I made for a challenge over at SAS's birthday crop last month. The challenge was we had to pick items we would bring to the party. The items represented a scrapbook item - but you didn't know what it was until after you picked it. I chose -for the theme to be a jungle theme -party decorations -making banners - games - scavenger hunt - supplies - napkins - cake - ice cream cake and a mandatory item . For the jungle theme - I had to use green as the main color of my layout, party decorations - I had to use computer journaling, game - I had to use 2 pictures, napkins - I had to use a square on my layout, and the ice cream cake - I had to use some bling. The mandatory item meant you had to use 1 item on the layout 5 times, which was my shamrocks. Since I used the pictures I had for my week 11 challenge, I was able to do double duty with this one!

No caffeine + the mention of school = a bad day!

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that Shane is addicted to soda. If Shane had his way he would drink soda from the time he gets up of a morning until he goes to bed at night.And he wants the real stuff! No diet or caffeine free for this guy. We have tried really hard this summer to cut back on his soda intake. His dentist has told us that he has a bit of acid reflux - (Yikes!) and he got to where he was belching and sounding like he was going to throw up in the process (I'm sure thanks to the acid reflux) so our mission this summer has been to cut down to only one a day and eventually none. Abby has done really well with flat out telling him no. And he has gotten to where he will ask for milk or water (that's definitely the last resort for him!) instead of soda. Well let me tell you, we found out late Sunday morning just how cranky this guy can be when he's not had his soda and you mention - heaven forbid - the word school. I have never seen such a sight! We gave him a little bit of soda, he headed to his room and came out a completely different, happy boy. It's always an adventure with Shane!