On a roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a great time making this for my nephew's 4th birthday. I think some of my favorite kiddos will be getting these for Christmas. : )

Go here to make one for yourself.

From My Kitchen Window

This is what I see when I look out my kitchen window.

It's the view I take for granted because I am usually washing the dishes when I look out. Sometimes I look out and I wonder why I get to be so lucky to have all that I have.

Then I remember singing a song in church as a child, "Count Your Many Blessings See What God Has Done", and I stand there in awe of how good He has been to my family and me.

I don't just mean monetary things either. I have the most wonderful, hard-working husband in the world. My kids are healthy and happy. My parents, sister, and in-loves live just down the street. My friends are always there when I need them. I am truly in the place I used to only dream of.

I challenge you to take a look at the "little things" and realize how great they really are.

God is good.

Basset Hound Puppies

On Tuesday night around 10pm our basset hound "Flash" went into labor and had had 5 puppies when I decided to go to bed at 2 am. When we got up Wed. morning we were delighted to find that she had given birth to a total of 7 puppies. All of them were healthy and as far as I could tell we didn't even have a runt.

We were able to spend two wonderful days playing with all 7 of them and have fallen in love with each one of them.

Then unfortunately this morning when went up to the barn to check on them, two of them were gone. Vanished without a trace. We are so saddened by this but are happy that we still have 5 puppies and a healthy mom and that we were able to move them into the laundry room of our house to ensure their safety.

If anyone out there knows what kind predator I might be dealing with I'd love to hear any tips on how to eliminate it!!!!!

We have been blessed. Enjoy the pics : )

I ♥ Faces "Completely Candid" Photo Challenge

I am posting an entry for I ♥ Faces. This is a website that my BFF discovered and I thought that this picture was perfect for the "Completely Candid" contest.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my niece. I took it this summer while we were on vacation. I love to watch her eat, as food always ends up all over her!

Remember I don't in any way claim to be a photographer so I am entering this strictly as a beginner!!!! I'd love to hear you comments and constructive criticism! Wish me luck!

Super Cute Card

I made this oh so cute card for hubbies cousin who's having a baby soon. She painted her nursery lime green and trimmed it with white and black. I haven't gotten to see it but I'm sure it's just beautiful. I have to admit I though it was an odd choice of colors but after using the colors to make this card the scheme has really grown on me.

I just can't get over how great it turned out because most times when I try to make one of these something goes wrong. This is definitely going to be my go to card from now on. It looks so complicated but really isn't that difficult. Thanks to The Craftiblog for the super easy tutorial. Stop by and make your own.

I also decided to make a fancy envelope because a card this cute deserves it!

Baby Boy Scrapbook Album

Tonight my BFF and I decided to hang out and scrap at my kitchen table. After we stuffed ourselves with queso and chicken quesadillas we broke open the new Creative Memories Baby Boy PicFolio Quick Kit that she brought over. I ordered it, with mother and sister-in-love, as a gift for hubbies cousin who is about to have a baby. Because as we all know no one has time to scrap with a new baby. It is fabulous and so very simple. It only took me 30 minutes and as you can see from the pics it is super cute!! Now all she has to do is add her pictures and voila shes done!

The New Cricut Gypsy

For all you scrappers out there who love your Cricut as much as I do, you have to head on over to Cutting Above for a chance to win the new Gypsy. It goes on sale Sept. 24th on HSN!! It's like having design studio at your fingertips with no computer to carry around. You can upload all of your cartridges to it. Just think all you have to carry in your scrappin' bag is this little Gypsy no more hauling all of those cartridges. And it will plug into any Cricut!!!!

Don't forget to look around on Cutting Above . They have some wonderful tutorials to help you with all your scrappin'!

Good luck everyone!

Hello Again!

Well it was a busy summer and an even busier start to the new school year. Everything I thought I'd do didn't get done and everything I had no intention of doing did get done. Go figure! That's my life.

I started a completely different school approach this year for both of my kiddos. So, needless to say we had a rocky start! R2D2 was not a fan of all my new ideas and Pink Laptop just jumped right on the bandwagon which made R2D2 that much angrier.

As we have worked out the kinks things have gotten lots better and we have had lots of days smooth sailing! Praise God!

This is our workload for the year. Let me know what you think.

R2D2 is doing-

7th Grade Switched on Schoolhouse-Bible, Language Arts, Science, and History/Geography

Picturing America Art Study

Math-U-See Pre-Algebra

Sonlight Core 5 Eastern Hemisphere Readers, Read Alouds and History Books

The Big Book of Lively Latin (This is our most favorite thing this year!)

Pink Laptop is doing-

4th Grade Switched on Schoolhouse-Bible, Language Arts, Science, Math and History/ Geography

Picturing America Art Study

Math-U-See Delta (Yes that's two maths, she needed the review.)

Sonlight Core 5 Eastern Hemisphere Readers, Read Alouds and History Books

The Big Book of Lively Latin

Art Academy on Wednesdays (At a local church.)

So that's what our school year looks like so far. It will be interesting to look at this come April or May and see how much it has changed. : )

That's all for now. Don't forget to build on all the good that's in your life. Chances are you'll forget there ever was any bad!

Until next time....................

Weekend Camping!

We finally got to go camping this past weekend. I thought you'd all enjoy seeing how silly my family really is! Sat. morning we decided to go swimming and unfortunately, due to a tornado in May, this is what we found! Luckily there was another pool at the front of the campground.
For some reason my kids like for their dad to throw them in the air?
"Filing Triple" (Prince Charmings BFF) takes a dip and a flip.

"Pink Laptop" soars through the air!

"R2D2" slides on the water!

We got a little exercise on our bikes and found out how young at heart "Prince Charming" and "Filing Triple" are!

We even made a new friend! This box turtle was very friendly and let me get right next to him to catch a great photo.
Although R2D2 didn't catch anything big enough to keep he had a great time fishing!



Indoor baseball was a blast! I couldn't get that beanbag through the hole to save my life but it was great fun anyway! The taunting from "Filing Triple" was relentless but that's why I call him "Filing Triple" because when I met "Prince Charming" he came along with him! "Fix-all" (my dad) even got in on the fun while "I'd rather be in Paris" (my mom) watched and laughed at us all!

"Filing Triple" and his better half "Hounds Tooth".
"Filing Triple" and "Pink Laptop"

"Pink Laptop" and "Hounds Tooth"

Now you see um, now you don't

Due to her tiny petite mouth "Pink Laptop" had to have braces just before her 8th birthday, in order to make enough room for her permanent teeth to come in. She was such a trooper through the whole thing. I couldn't have been prouder of her. But I was thrilled when the day came to get them off!


As the tears filled her eyes she tried to keep herself together.




I held on tight to her had and said some prayers for her pain as well as prayers of thanks that I brought her instead of her daddy who wouldn't have been able to handle it!

I don't know that I fully prepared her for the pain of the removal. She wasn't expecting it to hurt quite so much. This is the look I got after all the brackets were taken off.



This is our kind orthodontist who nicknamed her "sweet-girl" and was so wonderful to work with.

This is the yummy past that goes into your mouth to make the mold. I remember having this done when I was a kid and thinking I was going to choke as it filled up the back of my throat.


This is what "R2D2" did in the waiting room. As you can see he makes himself at home no matter where we go!








The end result.....BEAUTIFUL!