Winter Fun!

Thought I would share one of my favorite scrapbook pages! This is one I made earlier this year with some pictures from last winter. We got such wonderful news about our son towards the end of December last year and it made playing in the snow just that much more fun.

I made my own printed paper with a snowflake stamped randomly with Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Almost Amethyst. The snowflakes were cut out from my Pazzles Inspiration and I added some Bling with dazzling diamonds along the edges. The Snowflake is supposed to say "Snow Much Fun!", but I think I forgot to right it in after I got my Certainly Celery pen. I have some new Snow pictures from a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to scrapbook them too!

Here's a closeup of one of the snowflakes. See the glitter....it adds a ton to the page!

We had so much fun that day building a snowman. We tried to make one this year, but the snow wouldn't pack, so we went sled riding instead. That was so much fun, I even got to join in. Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. We have a busy day of getting our house back in order from the holidays. I have laundry to do that probably will only take an hour or so, but it is just the part in getting in gear and getting it done. Then we probably should attempt to take down the tree. I thought we were heading to Philadelphia this week so I had decided to leave it up, but since we're not, I think I'll try getting at least the big tree down today. Well, Ava is here crying.....who knows why, so I better run! Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapbook Time and Picture Organization!

I did it!!! I scrapbooked my first page in 2009.....and boy does it feel good. I know that sounds so funny to some of you, but I've been longing to get in gear and get my scrapbooking finished and I've got a good start. I did a 12x12 2 page layout today and have started on another. I have my pictures all organized and am getting ready to print out the remaining pictures from 2008. I am such a planner and organizer that it's really hard for me to focus on scrapbooking right now with everything we have going on with our son, but I've realized that life will probably never be the calm that I want so I'm taking 2009 with a different stride and trying to just go with the flow and maybe do a few things out of the norm. Here's my page for today. I like to scrapbook in order, but sometimes I do break my rules and just "have" to do a page that I like, but today I kept things in order and started with the next page in Ava's scrapbook. In case you are interested in how I organize my stuff.....here it goes, if you aren't interested, you might want to just skip down to the pictures!

I take a "lot" of pictures, I mean I have well over 100 G of pictures on my harddrive. It's okay because it is my computer (well I guess I share it with my husband and kids too), but noone tells me I can't take that many pictures, so I do! I organize my photos in a folder I create on my harddrive called PICTURES. Then I have folders for the years, 2008, 2009, etc. I then subcategorize these by 1_January_2009. Under each month's folder I have the pictures in a folder by date, for example: 1-3-2009_EthanBarn. This way I can find a picture I am looking for with the heading and the date. Then once I have the pictures in their respective folders, I open them in Microsoft Picture Manager and crop, color balance, red eye, whatever they need and then I save them under a different name. This way when I go to print my pictures, I only print the ones I have named. This is my little system and it may seem a little anal, but that is the engineering side of me! That's pretty much it on my computer system. I use Wal-Mart online to order my prints and once I get them home, I put little sticky tabs on them with the date and then I place them in my 12x12 scarpbooks on the pages that I want to scrapbook them on. I'm so behind with that part.....once Ethan got sick, this went to the back burner.

Why am I telling all of you this....I don't know, just thought some of you out there like to hear of other people's picture filing systems. I always like to hear other people's ideas. The other reason is that this year I am determined to get caught up with my scrapbooks. I "LOVE" to scrapbook and I started doing this back in 1999 while I was on a coop in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I started out with a co-worker and I was instantly hooked. I didn't add stamping into my work until I began with Stampin' Up! in 2002. That's the history behind it all. More info than you probably cared to know, but there you have it. So in 2009, you'll be seeing a lot more scrapbooking pages on my blog, but

On to my pages: I got this sketch from my new magazine "Scrapbooks Etc. Page Planner 2009" This magazine is $12.95, but in my opinion it is worth every penny. I have gotten so many ideas from it. I just picked mine up at Wal-Mart, but I've seen this at my local grocery store too. I love the magazine Creating Keepsakes too. I have a subscription to that one. Scrapbooks Etc. has a regular magazine as well. Those two are probably my favorites. I think I'm turning into my Mom buying all these magazines.

If you made it this far in my post....you are definitely a true "fan" of my blog. I'll be back tomorrow with another scrapbook page and a new card from my new favorite stamp set "Heart Prints" from PTI. I Love this set and can't wait to use it more! Until tomorrow! Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year and a Sketch to start the Year!

Happy New Year! It's already January 3rd and our year has been full to the brim. We had to go to St. Louis yesterday for platelets for our son, so that was a full day in itself, but my Mom came through with a card for the sketch today. I thought I would make one when I got home last night, but I ended up with an upset stomach......it's always something. The kids are doing good though and we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Our trip to Philadelphia got canceled, so we are home for a while longer before we make that trip.....long story that I'll write about sometime. Anyway.....here's a look at Lauren's sketch for the week and my Mom's card. My goal is to make a scrapbook page with the same card layout, so maybe, just maybe I'll get to play today and I'll have a 2nd post, so check back to see later on today!

Be sure to check the other

gal's blogs to see their creations too!

LaurenMeader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper MacKenzieBruckler
Kendra Wisenbaker

Love You Forever

It's Saturday and time for Lauren's Sketch. I honestly forgot it was Saturday....this week has just been crazy, both good and bad. It started off horribly with Sonador's passing, then we had to explain things to Ethan. Tuesday was better and the anticipation for Christmas was wonderful and exciting. The kids were so thrilled that Santa was coming, they could hardly wait. Christmas was busy and then it was back to work yesterday. Ethan had labs and wouldn't you know it, Ethan's platelets were low and he needed a transfusion, only problem was that St. Louis's clinic was closed and the only option there was to wait until 5:00 last night when their CARES unit opened. So we opted to go to our local hospital, but the platelets wouldn't be here from the blood bank until around 4:00....so we decided to stay here since St. Louis is about 3 hours away! Ethan had a reaction to the Benadryl and screamed for a half hour straight. He gets this as a pre-med for his platelets. So we finally left there to head to my sister-in-law's birthday party and they had been there since 5:00 and we got there at 7:00 and they were still waiting on their food! To top the night off, we went back to their house for cake and pie and everything was going fine until we were getting ready to leave. Ava was sitting on the floor in the hall and was talking to another friend and she leaned back and hit the door to the basement and it wasn't latched and she fell backwards all the way down the wooden steps to the concrete floor. Luckily she just got a couple scrapes and a lot of tears. This was terrifying for me. I think my heart stopped. I tried catching her, but felt helpless as she fell down every step. That ended our night, but the kids were still determined to go camping when we got home. Ethan put his tent up and said it smelled, so he and Daddy slept in the bed, but Mommy and Ava got to camp. Hope all of you have a good weekend. We're hoping ours gets off to a better start than how our week ended.

Don't forget to check out everyone's cards:
LaurenMeader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper
MacKenzieBruckler

Tribute to Our SONADOR

Yesterday was a very sad day at our house. We lost our horse Sonador. This was Ethan's horse for his Make-A-Wish and he was more than just a horse, he brought so much joy to our lives at a time when we needed it most. We couldn't have asked for a better horse. He was so kind, gentle, loving, and truly Ethan's best buddy. Oh how he is missed. We don't know what happened, but just found him yesterday morning lying out in the pasture.

We had to break the news to Ethan last night and that was so hard. We had to explain death and all the "why" questions. He took it better than my husband and I. We are taking this really hard as we treated Sonador as part of our family. We never knew we would have a horse and actually doubted getting one, but from the day we got him, we loved him with all our hearts.

Here's to you Sonador. We will miss you forever. As per Ethan's request. GOD please don't let the old people up in heavan touch Sonador. (That brought a little laughter to last night). Ethan is just the best boy ever and he had the best horse. Sonador is now at peace in our back yard behind the kids playground. They understand he is up in heaven now eating all the hay, horse treats, and carrots that he wants. LOVE YOU SONADOR!

Santa Visit and Saturday Sketch!

It's Saturday and time for Lauren Meader's Sketch. This is what I came up with after I flipped the sketch. I just got this set from SU and I love it! I've wanted it for a long time and am so glad I got it. Won't it be cute for a scrapbook page title! I found this patterned paper in my stash. The colors I used were pure poppy from PTI and bashful blue from SU. I cut the snowflakes out with my Pazzles. I didn't know how it would cut with them being so small, but it worked perfectly. I added some bling to the whole thing with my 2 way glue pen and my favorite, dazzling diamonds.. It's such a cheery card and we definitely have snow, lots of ice too!

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Last night my husband and I took the kids to see Santa (for the second time because Ethan forgot to ask him for something!). They just love seeing him and aren't afraid at all. Of course I had my sanitizer in hand....there are lots of germy kids! Ava wasn't even afraid. They asked him for lots of things and even waved good-bye. For $2 you could take your own pictures too. I just love this picture! Too bad Santa couldn't show up for all the pictures I want to take of my kids!!!

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Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We did end up traveling yesterday, but then had to turn around and go to our local hospital in the hopes of getting platelets here. It didn't work out as planned though and we are heading back in this morning to get platelets for Ethan. I'm just praying that we don't end up in the hospital with any type of infection for Christmas. What a bummer that would be. We are enjoying the Christmas festivities. Our first Christmas is this Sunday and then we have a couple more spread out throughout the week.

Thanks for checking in. Be sure to stop by to see all the other gals cards too.

LaurenMeader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper

MacKenzieBruckler

A stamping award and early morning ramblings!

This award requires me to list five things I'm addicted to. Addictions?

A friend of mine that I've met through the "Blogging" world nominated me for this and I usually don't play along with any type of forwards or things like this, but it's 5:00 am, I'm up and thought, why not!

Go check out "Mindless Creativity" with Kristen to see her wonderful work.

1. stamping - definitely my #1 stress reliever!

2. sweets - any kind, but chocolate is probably my favorite

3. shopping - it's therapeutic

4. Diet Dr. Pepper - I don't do coffee!

5. stamping blogs - I love to surf for new ideas!

Thanks Kristen.....it was fun playing along.

I awoke this morning to a tree limb that sounds like it is going to fall on our house. We had a "HUGE" ice storm here through the night. The fun part is that I have to head to get Ethan his labs at 7:00 in the morning in case we need to head to the hospital for platelets which is 3 hours away on a good weather day! Oh fun fun!!!

I've been working feverously on my Christmas cards and should get them finished today....depending on if I have to travel or not. I also made a Christmas present for my sister-in-law. Over the summer my kiddos seemed to have lost her coasters while playing with them at their wedding present opening. So I made her some new ones out of tiles from Lowe's. If I'm home today ( "if" ) then I'll snap a picture so you can see. These were super easy and I think they look really cool.

Off for a few more zzzzzz's.....at least until 6:00! Have a great Friday! Only 6 days until Christmas! Oh the kids are so excited.....in fact, I took them to see Santa yesterday and here is their picture. I read online that you could not bring your own camera.....only to find out that if I had brought mine I could have paid $2 and used my camera! I have a really nice Olympus E330 DSLR.....oh well. The kids probably wouldn't have behaved so well if I had brought mine. Guess I'll share this picture later today too......blogger doesn't seem to want me to add any more pictures!