I'm "So Big"!

I've had a super busy week here, but wanted to share one of my favorite photos that I took of Kale. My sister-in-law taught him to do this "trick". Here is Kale doing his new trick! He won't do it everytime you ask, but it is sooo cute when he does.

We also have a new little addition to our family! My brother and his wife had a new little guy, Dax Thomas! He was born on Valentine's Day and is just adorable with tons and tons of blond hair. Here's a picture of Ava and I holding Dax. Kale calls him "Night Night" because he is always sleeping. He also pats on my belly and says "Night Night"!

This will be another busy week. I'm going to work a little extra just because I have some projects that need to get finished up. I just finished up today 38 wedding shower invites, next up is 75 baby announcements, and then Ava's birthday invitations. She is getting to have a swimming party with her friends at a hotel and is super excited! Her card is going to be an owl theme! Hopefully I'll get a chance to share some of my creations with you! Hope everyone has a great week!

Random Activities for February!

Here are some randome pictures from things we have been doing throughout February!Ava had cheer camp this past week! she seemed to have a lot of fun! She is the 3rd one from the right!

Here's Kale....asleep in his crib with his phone in hand! Doesn't he look comfy!My sweet Ava Girl in my favorite outfit! She was all ready to leave for school and waiting on the bus!

Ava wanted a picture with Kale before she left too! Can you tell he was just thrilled!

Here is Ava with her friend from school. They were making valentine flowers!

February has been flying by so far. Kale is already 15 months old and Ava will turn 5 in less than 2 months and she is more than excited! We're busy getting ready for a baby shower too for my sister-in-law. She is supposed to have her baby any day and we don't know what it is so we are anxiously awaiting to hear! We are very glad to report that our 20 inches of snow is finally melting! We are ready for spring to get here!

Where Did January Go?

I can't believe it is February already! I haven't really felt good from before Christmas so I haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished around here lately and just yesterday I realized that I hadn't taken a single picture of either of the kids since Christmas! That is unheard of for me, so I whipped out the camera yesterday and caught some cute pictures running around the house playing.

Ava and Kale were so funny yesterday taking turns putting on Ava's glasses. Kale found the stick horse so he was running around with it having so much fun! We haven't left the house in 2 days and looks like we will be in for a while longer. They are calling for 12-24 inches of snow with blizzard like conditions. We are so ready for spring! Usually around here we get a few inches at a time, but I can't ever recall in my lifetime where we have had this much snow. Businesses and medical facilities have been closing down all over the area.

Hopefully I will get back into my stamp room. I did get all of my pictures uploaded and am caught up through 2010. Now that I'm finally feeling a bit better I might get back into my scrapbooking....I just need my energy to come back now! August can't get here soon enough!

Hope everyone out there is enjoying all of this snow!

Love My New Cupcake!

I just got my Stampin' Up! order in just in time for my stamp club on Wednesday. I didn't know if I would get it in time, so had settled on using my Loads of Love stamp set, but it arrived this morning! The new cupcake punch makes this card really easy and fun to do. I got it finished while Kale was napping and now all I have to do is get everything cut for Stamp Club. Everyone is anxious to meet because it has been since November that we have gotten together. Now I'm starting to feel crummy again! I can't wait to get over this hurdle!

It's supposed to snow here tonight. Ava is super excited! We poured concrete for our first floor walls on Thursday, so Dave is taking off a few days before he takes down the supports. So we took a short trip to Columbia, MO on Saturday and did a "little" shopping and ate at one of our favorite pizza places, Shakespeare's Pizza. Then we were home in time to go out to eat with some friends. Sunday was church, lunch, and then naps for Kale and me! The weekend is about to come to an end for us as I head back to work tomorrow! Hope all of you have a good week!

JUGS #66 - My Final Challenge!

So this is my final JUGS challenge as I'm saying good-bye to some special ladies on the JUGS team. I've been creating with them for over a year now! I've had to make a tough decision to step down and focus on things that I have going on in my life. As most of you that read my blog know, we lost our 4 1/2 year old son in June of 2009 to cancer. Since then I have went back to work part-time, had another baby, in the process of building a house (my husband is!), another baby on the way, and planning a rodeo in memory of our son, Ethan, to raise money for neuroblastoma research. I have a ton on my plate and I needed to lighten my load a little! I also have a "huge" goal of getting caught up on my scrapbooking before the new baby gets here in August so I definitely won't be bored (just in case you were worried!).

Pam hosted the challenge this week and GINA K was more than generous to sponsor us this week. I used one of Theresa Momber's sets called Farm Life. I love her designs and this one is no exception. Anymore I try to not make a card to just be making a card, so this one is for a friend of ours that just passed his professional engineering license. I took this myself and know how hard and how much time goes into studying for this. This set works great for masculine cards and I always struggle with making them. All you have to do is make a card, but you need to make a lined envelope to go with it. I usually don't do this, but it is really easy and makes the envelope look so much more "professional".

Hope all of you will still keep in touch via my blog. I'm definitely not stepping away from stamping.....hopefully I'm going to be doing more scrapbooking and stamping. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

JUGS #65 Sketch Challenge

This week Kathryn has a simple little sketch to kick off the new year! It really is simple so if you have some time this weekend try it out. I whipped this up, literally, Friday morning for my Grandma. It is her 83rd birthday! She has always teased that she was born the day before she got married. Her anniversary was January 1st.

We are going out to eat for her birthday with the family. Then we are supposed to head out for a New Years Eve party at a friend's house. Hope all of you have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Holiday Decorating and JUGS 64 Color Challenge

Andrea has a great color challenge for us over at JUGS. Be sure to stop by to see all the gals creations. I have a couple homemade gifts to create yet this year and I had made these calendars thanks to Paper Smiles Blog When you go her link you can print off the calendar. There are all the directions on her blog. Here is my creation using the colors for today. I thought they went perfectly for my winter page! I just noticed my "I" is hanging on, so I fixed it, but didn't get a picture!Here is the Spring side! Summer and Fall are in the works. This was all I could manage with both kids this morning!The kiddos and I, very early in the morning, before I left to go shopping in St. Louis a couple weeks ago! Ava and Kale sporting their Christmas jammies! Kale even has Ethan's old reindeer slippers to match!

Daddy and the kiddos before we set up the Christmas tree! Here's Ava putting on the tree topper!
Mission accomplished!

Here is our tree all decorated! It's all just pretty decorations. We haven't put up personalized ornaments since Ethan died, maybe one of these years, but for now this is what we do! Kale so far as been pretty good at not taking down the tree!

Here is me and my girl! Ava is such a sweetheart. She loves to be by my side doing whatever it is I am doing and she LOVES to do all sorts of crafts, wonder where she gets that from?!?

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We have the 1st of 3 Christmas's on Sunday.