A Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving

Ah! It seems I have the power to forsee the future! It wasn't a week ago that I predicted a little Pilgrim would be coming to visit my house and here he is! Pretty cute, huh? :)

As we head out of town on one of the busiest travel days of the year (insert big SIGH) here, I wanted to take a minute to wish each one of you a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to spending some extended time with the biggest blessings in my life and hope that you all get to do the same. Stay safe.

Introducing TWO SCOOPS from BasicGrey!

This line is such a versatile one - it's yummy, sherbet-inspired color palette really lends itself to all types of layouts from birthday to Valentines to Wedding or anything in between.



For me, though, it's the adorable embellishment stickers that come with the collection pack that really makes the line. For this fun layout (please click on image to see it larger) about my cousin's daughter and my son, I used one of the largest stickers in the pack - the flower to encircle my photo. I love how it added just the fun touch I was looking for.

And just you wait - it gets better....this line will also have some gorgeous stamps, a rub-on book with such super-cute phrases, amd much more! This line will be shipping soon to a store near you, so be watching. I bet you can't stop and just Two Scoops! ;)

Lunch with Friends

Today Carson and I had the pleasure of meeting my friend Shannon's new son, Eli. Eli is an adorable towhead blonde with big blue eyes and boundless energy. He was recently adopted from the Ukraine and Shan and I thought it would be fun to get the boys together and give Eli some interaction with another kiddo his age outside his typical classroom setting. (Not to mention I've been dying to meet Eli since he came home! :))

We really had a great time and considering that neither of them had naps, the boys were extremely good! We had a nice lunch where the boys got to know each other (and played a few rounds of Monkey See, Monkey Do), we headed to the Capital Building and took a little tour (mostly to use the potty!) then went outside to play and take some pictures on the gorgeous grounds like the good scrapbooking mamas we are. We did a quick runthrough of our LSS, Memories ala Mode, and their new Creative Cafe before heading back home.

It was such a fun day and I'm making Shannon commit to it not being so long before we do it again. And Shan? This last picture is for you! Love seeing you so happy :)

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

came to MY town! It's been wild around here as ABC and the EHM crew arrived just a week ago today. Everyone in the city - including me - seemed to be fascinated with the program, the construction, TY (hee!), but most especially, the family.

The beneficiary of this gorgeous $2 Million home was Patrick Hughes, a 19-year-old University of Louisville student and his family. Patrick was born without eyes and his arms and legs don't fully extend, so he gets around by wheelchair - and his home wasn't wheelchair accessible, inside or out. He's such an inspiring young man and he's got an amazing gift for music. He plays the piano beautifully and because his father wanted Patrick to live life as "normally" as possible, Patrick attends college and even marches in the band.

You might ask how he could do a thing like that - and the answer lies with Patrick's dad. Patrick's dad attends classes with him - AND when it comes time for band practice and performances, it is his dad that does the marching as he pushes Patrick's wheelchair with him. They are such a testimony to love and it just poors out of them and I think everyone in the city experienced it this week.

I wanted so badly to be a part of something so amazing. Hoyte, Carson and I headed down, rode the buses to the site and just experienced a once in a lifetime event. Due to bad weather, they postponed the reveal for a full 4 hours so we were unable to stay, but during our time there we managed to "sorta" see TY! (see pic!), saw the famous bus, the phenominal house, the mayor of the city and many enthusiastic people who were there for the same reason we were! :)
P.S. I just wanted to add that this episode will air in Febuary on ABC and apparently will be the Season FINALE! (How cool is that??!)

10 little, 9 little...

8 little Indians...
7 little,
6 little,
5 little Indians...
4 little,
3 little,
2 little Indians...

1 little Indian Boy!

Boy, how I love Kindergarten class projects! This is the sight that greeted me as Turner ran off the bus this afternoon! (I'm betting a Pilgrim will greet me next week!) ;)
P.S. His Indian name? "He who likes Dogs" How true, how true!

Fall Weekend

Besides a season-ending banquet for some rowdy football champions, it was a quiet one around here, though we did manage to get outside for a little bit. Looking at all this color, it's no wonder fall is my favorite season :)

We are the CHAMPIONS!!!

Warning: Proud Mama post coming!

It was at the high school. There were official refs. Faces were painted. There were even cheerleaders! It was the Peewee Tackle Football Championship game and we were fired up! We were to play the "Green Team", the Commonwealth Dragons, a team undefeated all season and the ONLY team we had lost to all season...twice.

In the first few minutes of the game, Ethan scored not ONE, but TWO touchdowns (I hardly have a voice today just so you know :)) making the score 12-0, but the Green team came back and answered with 2 TD's of their own. Not to mention that they got their 2-point conversions (what we do instead of extra point kicks), so the score was 12-16. Let me tell you, that Green team is GOOD! They played their hearts out but our little ol' Blue Team had the eye of the Tiger!

We blocked the Dragons on the 5-yard line with just a few minutes to go and held them there as they turned over the ball. When we got our chance, we were on 4th down and getting no where. On 4th down, the quarterback handed off the ball to Ethan and he made an amazing play (proud mama coming in here again!) to get the ball down to the 2 yard line where a teammate was able to run it in. The score was then 18-16. We managed to hold the Green team the rest of the 2 minutes of play to clinch the division title. Daddy was so proud he ran onto the field immediately to give our boy a hug. If you think the smile on E's face is huge, you should have seen Hoyte's!

I while I'm thinking of it, I just wanted to give a shout out to the boys' coaches - Jason Armstrong and Josh Collins - and our assistant coach, Taylor, for all their hard work and dedication this season. You three went above and beyond anything we could have expected and it was you that made this season what it was for all of us. Thank you so much!

Already??!

Apparenly it's already time to start the Christmas Season in our town. Today was the annual Festival of Lights and although the thought of it almost made me want to hurl, we went down to see what it was all about.

And we really had a great time. The fun thing about a small town is that you always see people you know and run into people you hadn't seen in ages. Children were dancing on the courthouse steps, carriage rides were given, High School Musical was being performed by the high school, all the businesses were holding Open Houses and there was food galore. What more could you want? But seriously. Christmas the first weekend of November?? Blech.

Later today (or tomorrow if you go ahead and "Fall Back"), we play our Division Championship on the High School football field. And believe me, that's a huge deal to a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds (and even their parents!) :) I even got window paint to dress up the car and some noise makers to be a little bit obnoxious! So proud of my little man and his team - they've worked so hard this season! GO LEGENDS! I'll update tomorrow with the results!

Thanks so much to all for the birthday wishes! It really meant alot to me and I would have posted about it a bit, but well...I'm getting old sadly and hate to face that. Plus my day took a bit of a backseat to Miss Lydian Jane this year. And I'm so ok with that. :D

And one more thing - if you have a chance, come on over to Rhubarb Roots (LOVE that name) tonight at 9:00 EST/8:00 CST. I'm doing a little chat with the ladies there and I've love to have you stop by! :)

It's TIME!!!

Oh how I've always wanted to say that myself but when you go in with three scheduled c-sections, it just doesn't have the same impact. But yay, I finally get to say it this time for my best friend!! I can't believe it but it looks like my baby niece is on her way - I got the email from Daddy Rob at 4:00 am (Good girl for waiting until Halloween was over) that they were heading to the hospital!!!! I should have known after talking to the Mommy-2-Be that it was imminent as she was just a little grumpy and out of sorts. So now I'm doing the traditional pacing of the floor waiting for more news. It's quite the cure for the Halloween hangover, I must say.

So if you wouldn't mind offering up some prayers and positive thoughts for my dearest friend and the birth of this long awaited baby girl, I'd certainly appreciate it and I know they would, too.

Now am I too selfish to wish she'd hold out until just past midnight tonight to be born on her Auntie's birthday??? ;)

(Ann Marie, I love you and am so excited and proud for you. You give that baby girl kisses from her auntie as soon as you can, ok? Oh....and I'm still holding on to Marina Renee for you! ;) XOXO, YR)

UPDATED:
At 6:30 am the word was she was at 5cm...and doing nicely.
at 11:00 am my text msg read "VERY CLOSE!"
At 1:30 pm Baby girl made her appearance!! Six pounds, 19 3/4" and perfectly healthy! (Thank you, God!) Mama and Baby are doing wonderfully (it was a natural birth) and by all accounts, she's gorgeous. Still no name, but we're working on it!
At 11:00 pm She has a name :)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sweet Lydian Jane!

It's the Great Pumpkin...

Charlie Brown!! Had to interupt regular blog posting to announce that my favorite holiday show is on tonight at 8 Eastern! Find yourself a "sincere" patch and tune in to The Peanuts Gang!

(Btw, for those wondering...WE WON!!! It wasn't pretty and it was done in overtime but it was still won! The Championship game will be played on Sunday! GO LEGENDS! :))

Meet Jack.

Ok, so I knocked off his nose as I was putting on the finishing touches, but at least the kids don't seem to mind! All in all, I think he's just scary enough!

I actually scrapped these pictures for the recent BHG call for Make it Yours pages. This one was lifted from Yvonne Wunderlich - loved her original and had such a fun time doing mine.

(And Susan...you totally have me hooked on making these cute little frames for my pics - love them! :))

This week is crazy with football playoffs tomorrow and then Halloween, but I'll update more when I can! Happy Monday!

Scrappy News :)

Just a little something I am excited to share - Creative Escape 2008

Also, if anyone is interested I'll be doing a chat tonight at Scrap Shotz at 9:00 pm Eastern in their "Online Classes and Crops" forum. I'd love it if anyone wanted to stop by and say hi!

Halloween Preview

We're getting ready for Halloween a bit early this year.

Yes, this was the scene around my house the other day. Because you know, what good is getting a rockin' cool Ninja Costume like your big brothers if you can't try it on?

Oh, and just so you know...
what makes it rockin' cool (besides those scary skulls!) are those fierce ninja swords.

Obviously. ;))

Still Trying...

(desperately) to keep up with things. It's been an incredibly busy weekend with a football game, fall festival and a pumpkin patch visit that today is my "ketchup day"...you know catch up on laundry, dishes, yardwork, paperwork, photo editing, viewing Grey's that got bumped due to our stormy weather (the important stuff). The upside is that I'll finally have a clean house and photos to share. I do try and be a silver lining kinda girl.

Anyhow, here are some pics from a recent trip to the apple orchard. It was in late September but so flaming hot, all we could do was pick our apples and go. And the boys were agreeable to it only because Daddy promised them he'd make an apple pie with their pickings. Yes, I said Daddy. I'm *so* not a baker. So several pounds of apples later and a couple gallons of water in sweat, we had completed our visit. I wish I had a picture of the pie to show you because I knew you wouldn't believe me. But it was impressive, trust me! ;)

Finally we get a cold snap this past week and it's actually starting to feel like fall which is my all-time favorite season. I love the colors, the crisp air, the activities. It's so gorgeous here that we've been spending every minute outdoors. So we met up with my parents after Ethan's football game for a little fall festival yeserday that included pony rides, firetrucks, bluegrass music and more. The boys loved riding on the firetruck - but it was only a close 2nd to the pony. :)

And lastly because my friend, Shannon, mentioned that she loved to go to the pumpkin patch in the evening when the sun was setting, I lugged all the boys there around 6:00 pm. Shannon said she loved it because there were no crowds and the lighting was spectacular. She was sooooo right. Loved these shots I managed to get of the boys - so much so I'm going to drag them back there tonight so I can try some fun techniques. Thank goodness they're willing participants when it comes to getting dirty in the patch. But please note, I did not promise them a pumpkin pie!

Happy Fall, y'all!

In an effort to be better...

Here are a few photos from the Kindergarten field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch...as promised(and only a day late!)

It was a bit questionable if this trip would even happen as we had major storms in our area that morning, but it cleared up beautifully just in time for the kiddos to load the busses and head out. It was quite chaotic with FIVE kindy classes in attendance, but tons of fun. We learned how they made apple cider (and had a taste!), picked a pumpkin (I know this photo is a bit blown, but I love it of T finding his pumpkin. Classic.), ate lunch and then played in their corn maze and play area. Let's just say T slept good last night! ;)

I love field trips!

Football Star

So I know I'm sooooo behind in updating this darn blog, but apparently while it is always on my "to do" list, it ends up being the last thing I actually DO do. sigh. Truly - I have the best of intentions.

I have tons of things to update on and share pics of - among which is our apple orchard trip, the amazing CSC4K's event and Turner's first field trip. And I will...I promise! But first things first. This mama needs to brag a bit or I think I'll explode!

I have to introduce you to my son, the football superstar. You might ask what makes him a superstar and rest assured I'm going to tell you! Ethan has been playing sports for a long time. And he's a decent athlete. He was always improving and a great support team member but never the star. That is until football. Football is Ethan's passion. He is amazing at it - but even more than that, he gives it his complete and undivided attention. Any of you moms of 7-year-olds know exactly how rare that is! Ethan lives and breathes football and when he's on that field he is so focused.

So that brings me to Tuesday night. Normally the boys play their football games on Saturday mornings, so playing under the lights at the football field Tuesday was a real treat. The kids were fired up and ready to go. As always, my son was giving his all to the game. Mostly he plays tackle, but he always wants to run the ball because he's even better at that (or so he'll tell you). Lately the coaches have been giving him a chance to run. And everytime they do, E most always has positive yardage before he gets taken down. But Tuesday? Tuesday he didn't get taken down. My little boy managed to avoid several tackles before creating a hole up the middle of the line and ran his little heart out for a 60 YARD TOUCHDOWN!!! His first ever and the only one of the game! This mama is just about to burst...but if you think *I'm* proud, you should talk to his daddy! ;)

And just because I love this photo, here's one more...

DOH!

I just had to share this photo with everyone. About a month or so ago, my parents took the boys and us to the theater (brave them!) to see Ratatouille (Which is an adorable movie, by the way - I highly recommend you rent it when it comes out on dvd). Anyhow...it was just around the time The Simpsons Movie was being released and this HUGE larger-than-life display was in the theater lobby to promote it.

As you can imagine, telling the boys to stay off the Simpson couch would have been an exercise in futility. I mean who hasn't dreamed of the million and one ways to land on their couch and how cool it would be to do so. SO - we embraced it and the photo-taking opportunity! What a riot! (and I dare you not to hum The Simpson's theme song while looking at it! Go ahead - you know you wanna ;))

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

10 Years is more than it seems

It went so fast and yet seems a lifetime that we've been together. We've been through:

4 moves.
2 states.
6 cars (ok, 5 cars and 1 van, mostly because you destroy them ;))
countless jobs.
2 apartments.
2 houses.
3 beautiful sons.
10 years.
1 decade.
Still together and still in love.


Happy Anniversary. :)

Ask the Masters II is now available!

Memory Makers new book Ask the Masters: Making the Most of your Scrapbooking Supplies (the follow up to Ask the Masters: Scrapbook Solutions) is now available for ordering at the MM website. Just click on this link: here!
It was such an honor and alot of fun to be a part of this book. I truly think this series is one of my favorites MM puts out (not that I'm biased at all! ;)) It's definately worth a look - it explores everything you might think of to make the most of your scrapbooking supplies you already have from that abundance of Cardstock to numerous punches and more.

This is one of my contributions to the book. My challenge for this one was to do a cardstock only layout. I hope you'll check the book out for yourself! I don't think you'll be disappointed :)

Last Weekend was a LONG time Coming

Years, actually.

And I couldn't be happier for a day to arrive (that is until another special day a month or so down the road. ;)) Last weekend happend to be the baby shower for my best friend, Ann Marie. After too long a wait, she is finally going to be a mommy, and did we celebrate in style.

Her Aunt Sharon and cousins Megan and Colleen hosted a beautiful shower that included a full sit-down lunch, wine, the works. The entire theme was pink (including their outfits). And the decor was absolutely gorgeous right down to inventive clothesline DRIPPING with little outfits and socks to the mandatory diaper cake. ;) You could totally tell Aunt Sharon is an elementary school teacher with her attention to detail (and seriously, what kid wouldn't have wanted to be in her third grade classroom?!)



I've never, ever, EVER seen such gifts lavished upon an unborn child - made entirely worse by this being a little girl. It's hard pressed to find a woman who can resist little girl clothes! I think Baby Girl got anything she might possibly need and a whole lot more than is imagineable!

It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad that I got to spend this time with her. It's been so hard on the two of us since she moved away and our time together doesn't come nearly enough. I miss her already and it's only been a week.

Oh, and I have to post a couple more pics - the proud grandmas with the mommy-to-be and the two of us with a our friend Maureen and Gretchen who I hadn't seen in YEARS! And please note I'm only posting this picture so that you can see the teeniest of baby bellies that "someone" was lucky enough to have! I'm just sayin'.







And just so you know...I'll of course be posting pictures when my darling niece finally makes her appearance. I'm just praying that she's not late like her mama most often is ;)
Stay tuned for THIS weekend's update as it was action packed as well :)