New-s

 So we welcomed Alexander Maverick into our family on March 12, 2012.  The girls absolutely adore him and I have to say he is a very good baby.  Emily has kind of regressed to playing baby with the girls and ga ga and gooing and having to have her sucky any time Alex has his..which is often.  He's a sucker :)

I have also finally gotten back on track with some homeschooling.  At least math and spelling every day.  Harley and Chloe are thriving on the routine also.  It's a blessing because I was so scared of the fighting and arguing I used to put up with and I was not looking forward to it again but it was all in my head.  They got right back into schooling and I don't want to say it's been easy, but it has and I am doing and not just trying to do.

The girls also auditioned for a play through our homeschool group and got a part.  They are excited about it.  It's for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  We need to watch the movie or read the book so we can get a better gist of what it's about exactly.

Alex will be 7 weeks old on Monday.  He smiles at us all if we give him enough attention.  Which is not hard.  Everyone is always in his face. :)

LOL!

So I guess my new blogging technique didn't work to well. Story of my life.

I've been keeping busy with my friend Lisa working on de-cluttering this house we call a home to make room for the newest addition. A Boy... What am I going to do with a little boy? We still haven't found a name for him and he will be here in approximately 6 weeks. 6 weeks!! I am panic nesting. My dryer broke down and I want (need) to start washing tiny itty-bitty baby boy clothes. I don't want to hang them on the line outside because my nesting mode says: 1. they will get dirty out there, and 2. they won't be soft and cuddly, they will be hard and crusty. And I just don't want to wash them at the laundromat because who knows whats in those washer and dryers. I do realize how dumb this sounds but my protective mommy mode won't let me get past it.

Emily is growing huge and speaks so well that I'm afraid she is going to start correcting my horribly bad english. We borrow the series "My baby can Read" from the library and she is learning millions of words. Well, maybe not millions, but lots and lots. And of course, some I can't understand which frustrates us both.

Harley and Chloe got a modeling contract. We haven't signed it yet. We are still praying about it considering I am about to have another baby and most auditions are in L.A. We have to buy a reliable car that can fit us all. They are very excited. Besides that, they are in a drama class that will be putting on a play on the Thursday before Easter. They are excited about it and so are we. We are falling behind in our schoolwork, mostly because I just don't have the energy to argue the why's everyday. And Emily is a handful who wants constant attention. I've been trying to play with her so the girls have quiet time but then they sit and argue with each other over stuff that makes no sense to me. Must be their age.

Shawn is so excited for another baby. He's plum crazy. He just took the big girls on a field trip to Rueben H. Fleet Science Center and had so much fun that he is really looking forward to his "vacation" time when the baby comes. He wants to take them on more field trips and some fishing trips. Sounds good to me :) I told him not to forget Emily :)

So that's everything up to now. Thanks for listening!

New blogging technique

I found this site and I am so excited about it. It will totally help me stay on topic for my blog. We will see how long it will last...

In my life this week…hubby was really sick and stayed home one day from work. He never misses work. He made homemade chicken soup and we ate leftovers for 2 days. It was so delicious and no one else has gotten sick. We always call it Daddy's miracle soup. The girls and I also went to the Zoo before Nightime Zoo was over. We met Lisa and Kate there and had so much fun!

In our homeschool this week…We just started Monday and we got a lot done. The kids were motivated by the schedule I set for them to do themselves but fizzled out by Wed. We did a lot of reading together for History but they were bored. On the plus side they had so much fun learning about their brains! Who knew?

My favorite thing this week was…the excitement the girls had for anatomy. They weren't into it at first but we started by tracing their bodies on a big sheet of paper and cutting out our brains :)

Things I’m working on…a schedule. We really need something that works around the baby but still involves her.

I’m reading…a series by G.A. McKevett. i can't stop!

I’m cooking…potato salad tomorrow. i am totally craving it!

I’m grateful for…my friend Kay who told me today that even though I don't think I have it altogether, I pretty much do and have some faith in God and myself.

I’m praying for…a friend's friend named Aubree. She has cancer and isn't doing well. I am also praying for my brother and his girlfriend.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Girl Scout Cookies and Emily's 1st Birthday

Girl Scout Cookies out the wazoo! I am so done with selling girl scout cookies and I guess the final day is March 9th! Thank goodness! I'm not even sure how many cookies we've sold but hopefully Harley and Chloe get a big prize.

We've been spending a lot of time at the new library. It's beautiful but busy all the time! I've paid more fines since they've opened the new library than in my entire life. I guess someone has to pay for all the new solar panels...

Emily's first birthday is coming up on March 31st. We are going to have a bday party on April 3rd and I can't decide how much money I want to spend. Do I want to go all out for a party she won't even remember with cute 1st birthday decorations or do I just want to cut out some big ones on my cricut and paste them to the wall??? Decisions, decisions. Probably the latter, but we've already invited tons of family so we will probably be spending all the money on food anyway.

Until next time I blah all over the computer...

Wow! It's been a year!

I know I've said this before but I am back! LOL. I had a baby. Her name is Emily. She is uber-adorable and now I am ready to start scrapping again. I think.

We had a good and bad year. I had a baby. My best friend died. That's the year in a nutshell.

So onto the scrapbooking. I finished Emily's album. It is so gorgeous and I am so proud. Lately I've been working on baby albums for Sandy's sons. Two of them are pregnant. Well, their girlfriends are at least. One with a boy and one with a girl. I gave the boy album away last Sunday at the baby shower. I didn't take any pics, bummer. BJ totally helped me get it finished in 2 days. Thanks so much! But I still have to finish the girl one and I will post pics of it. In the meantime, here's a pic of my beautiful girls. I'll be back soon.....

New pages

I joined a 14 days of Valentine sketches challenge where you do one sketch a day. It started yesterday and goes through Feb. 14th. I decided to use the sketches to get started on the new baby's album. I am absolutely loving the new Topstitch collection from Close to my Heart. I am going to try to do all 14 pages out of that paper. So here are my first two:

Here's another page I did with that same paper. I got this sketch from Little shop of Sketches.
Tonight I was going to join a women's group at a local church that are reading through the bible and scrapping about the verses. I thought that was such a great idea! Plus the support of the women is such a help to hold me accountable! LOL. Anyway, hubby still isn't home from work, so I couldn't go...I called and he is on his way. I was worried!

Harley's catching a cold and we are selling girl scout cookies. I started work again today until the end of this month...busy busy busy. I couldn't be happier :) Happy February!

Baby Busy-ness

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's. I've been slowly but steadily cleaning my house and preparing it for the baby's arrival. I am getting so darned excited! I seriously did not think I wanted another baby, but we made the decision to have one and now I couldn't be happier. I think most of the problem was that my first "baby" was twins and it was hard! The girls came and then my stepson came to live with us 6 months later and he was disabled and that was hard! I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that one little baby might be fun and happy and a joy. The girls are so excited and so is Shawn. So here we are, happy and blessed and barely getting any scrapping done..lol! I did a page yesterday with this beautiful new paper I bought from Close to my Heart. It was for a scraplift the person before you type challenge. So here is the page I scraplifted, it's from MelissaW:
http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/101158/view/2552645/-1.html
and here is my take:
This new paper from Close to my Heart is called Topstitch. They have a coordinating stamp set that I just might have to purchase!

My friend Holly and I also made the invitations to my baby shower which is coming up on Feb. 20th. I am excited for that too. Hopefully lots of my friends that I haven't seen for a long time will come. We live "up the hill" and have no car right now so it seems we don't see anyone anymore.
Here are some layouts I did for my sister in law of her baby girl and baby boy. They aren't exactly babies anymore but I gave these to her for Christmas. This was using the new Close to my Heart Felicity Collection. It came with the paper and stamp set. It is only available until Jan. 31st!

The girls had a birthday and they turned 9 years old! I feel like they are growing up so fast! I keep finding myself scrapping pictures of them when they were young. I loved how cute and innocent they were. They are starting to get too pre-teenish for me. Hubby has to step in a lot and take over the arguments. I feel they argue a lot with me instead of obeying. I'm not looking forward to the time when they don't like me at all. How do I keep that from happening? How do I keep being their best friend and mom at the same time? Leave some advice...I need help!

Almost Christmas!

I have been trying to get some Christmas cards done and sent out but things are moving slowly around here. Hubby had his bday, so here's a page I did about him. Wasn't he so cute? He's still cute :) Here's a Christmas page I did that I'll add just because it's Christmas. It's our first Christmas as a family (with kids!) The girls are excited about Christmas. They still believe in Santa and I think that's awesome. I need to buy some wrapping paper and start wrapping presents. There aren't that many, but I gotta get it done before they start snooping around in my closet.

Were you a closet snooper? A looker of under beds trying to find what your parents got you for Christmas? I was! I even unwrapped presents that were already under the tree and then re-wrapped them. And to tell you the truth...I still hunt for my gifts. The year before last my hubby hid my gift in the shed out back. I never found it...he's getting too smart for me.

Anyway, I am trying to keep the true spirit of Christmas which is of course, Jesus. He is the reason for the season. Here's a verse for some perspective:
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Where I've been!

So...i haven't been here, but I have been around. I am 5 months pregnant so lots of stuff got put on hold. But I got some mojo back and here is 2 pages I've done that took the past two weeks! TFL!

stolen from Jaime

ABC's of me
A - Age: 32
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: dishes
D - Dog's name: Princess
E - Essential start your day item: coffee pot
F - Favorite color: greens
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'6"
I - Instruments you play(ed): i play A song on the piano and A song on the guitar :)
J - Job title: um...phone caller and home school teacher and mom
K - Kid(s): Harley and Chloe and Cody
M - Mom's name: Lori
N - Nicknames: J, Jenn, Jenny
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None
P - Pet Peeve: Kids sitting on the laps of parents in cars! Are those parents stupid!!!???
Q - Quote from a movie: No one saw!!! Outrageous Fortune
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: a brother and two sisters.
T - Time you wake up: depends on the day
U- Underwear: hole-y :)
V - Vegetable you dislike: I have to agree with beets.
W - Ways you drink your coffee: with sugar free sugar and milk usually...but you can entice me with flavored creamer.
X-rays you've had: teeth
Y - Yummy food you make: my kids like potato bake
Z - Zoo favorite : monkeys...they are so funny to watch!

Card Swaps & Promotions

I am becoming addicted to card swaps. It started with the stamp camp. I had to make 10...fine. 10 is a nice rounded number. This week I made 20 cards for a card swap at Pink Pineapple. 20 is wayyyy too many. But I'd do it again..lol. I am going to participate in the 1st card swap at the lss here in town too. We only have to have 5 cards. I am trying to get my kids to participate but we'll see. I don't think they can make 5 of the same card yet. Anyway, here's a pic of the 20 I made.
Pretty simple, right?

The girls had a promotion ceremony at school! They got promoted to 3rd grade! I am so proud!
This is their teacher at school. There was absolutely no way I could have homeschooled these two this year without her help. She was sent from heaven! Thank you Mrs. Millen!

Charles Card Challenge #2

It had only been two days and they wanted another card challenge. Fine with me! I love cards. On Wednesdays we go to a free make n take at the lss. They usually make cards. So we decided to use whatever card we make there as our base and then add the rest of the challenge which was:
1. Use Brads
2. Use pop-ups
3. Use Bling
4. HAVE FUN!

Here is Harley's take:
Here is Chloe's take:Here is my take (I couldn't find my card from the store :( :
TfL!

Charles Card Challenge #1

So the girls and I started doing some card challenges at home with each other. No one wins or loses, just for fun. So our first challenge was:
1. Use blue pattern paper
2. Use ribbon
3. Use bling
4. Have FUN!

Here is Harley's take:
Here is Chloe's take:
Here is my take:

TFL!

USE it Challenge!

USE IT Challenge #12

Here is Patti's challenge:
1) Use some old chipboard
2) Use buttons- one of my very favorite embellishments
3) Tear some paper.
4) Optional: Stitch.

And here's my take:

Use IT Challenge #11

Here is Ingrid's challenge:

1. Size: square card base

.....
2. Theme: Summer

.....
3. Embellishments:

use a flower(s), ribbon, pin(s) and twine
.....
4. Tools: Punches

Here's my take! Hope it's still in on time!!

A coupla pages!

I need to do my use it challenge card...i think it's due today! But I wanted to post these pages I did.

I love these papers! I got them from Holly. I think they are a new stampin' up set!

This lo is for the Hearts and Crafts Design Team. We had to do something for Father's Day with all this stuff. We also got some other stuff. *Edit...since I took this pic...my hubby wanted something on this page...so I let him, he messed up and didn't like it. So now the yellow strip is a black strip with a quote...A Bird in a cage...is worth two in a bush.

This was for a BOM challenge. It was really hard. The blue rectangle with the arrows is an accordian style hidden journal. It's kinda personal. I hid it...
And, I finally scrapped the puppy pics of Princess! She is huge now...but got this page done...
TFL! Off to make the card!

Weekend

What a busy weekend. It wasn't really...it just went so fast it feels like it. The girls went camping at Fiesta Island with the girl scouts. I can't wait to get their cameras developed. I always send them with disposables. They said they didn't take very many pics. I think Chloe will use the rest of her film taking pics of the cats. I find so many on my digital camera! For example:


But anyway! I wanted to post some lo's I did at the lss night crop on Friday. Since I had no children, I stayed reeeaallyy late and I was exhausted on Sat. morn at 8 a.m. when I got up. ...For no reason cuz the kids were still gone. So Sat. morn I watched the finale for Ugly Betty. And guess what? I missed the end cuz I recorded it and it went past the cut off time for the recorder. So if anyone knows, can you tell me if Daniel's wife died or not??? Thanks.
So here's a lo that I did last week for the Scraptathlon chall. I love the distressed look of this. I also like the topic and inspiration. I got some points from votes. I have to load it anonymously.

SO Sat. around 12:30 or so, Holly picked me up because she had a bbq at her house at 2 p.m. and I had no car. Then I hung out until 10:30 p.m. and went home. Shawn came for a little while. It was nice. I held a baby that is 4 weeks old and I want one. sshhh..don't tell. I will change my mind soon.

Another lo. This one is for a Scrap the Beach chall. (75% blue and brown) and for the Mother's day chall.

Today the girls came home at about 11a.m. I missed them soooooo much! I held them like babies ;) Then I scrapped and they watched t.v. because, you know, they had to camp with no t.v. God forbid! ANYWAY, I have dispersed the lo's throughout the whole post so you wouldn't get bored! This was long..sorry.

A lo for the Scrap the Beach chall. journaling.

A lo I did of my friend's sons. For the Scrap the Beach Chall. stamping.
Just a random lo. I wanted to do a page before I forgot about soccer.

Scrapbook Challenges DT Blog Hop!

I was checking out a blog hop and it is so much fun! It started at Pamela's blog and then hopped to 9 others. Here's my take on the sketch they had to win a RAK.
The sketch:
And my take:
TfL!

Use IT Challenge #10

Here are the rules of the challenge:
1. monochromatic scraps- All of it is scraps but all the green is monochromatic scraps.

2. rub-ons or clear stickers- the part that says is You & Me are rub-ons

3. chipboard- Both stars are chipboard covered in paper. The LOVE is chipboard also.

4. (optional) non-traditional ribbon- I don't know if my rope ribbon counts as non-traditional. But it isn't traditional to me!

And here's my take on it!

I got this sketch from the CTMH catalog. Thanks for looking.

Church in Jamul

I had my final conference with the teacher today and she is so great! I love how re-assuring she is. She said the girls are doing wonderful. We have enough work turned in, but finish up the reading in the books we have and maybe do a couple hands on activities out of the book because we have to turn them in and then this summer work on multiplication up to 5's and work on the computer on compass learning. She said take the summer off! No work...lol. The compass learning is cool because it is games that introduce them to things they will learn next year. I am so darned happy!

I still haven't done my 10 cards for Stamp Camp tonight! I gotta do those right after this post :)

So today the girls were talking about how a kid in their class has an uncle who is a pastor. I said, we have a cousin who is a pastor. They were shocked! So I looked his church up on the www and found him. He's a youth pastor though. No biggie...but then I clicked on his blog and he talked about how he speaks in the main services about once a year and this weekend is the weekend he is doing them! Talk about a God thing! I haven't been in church in a few weeks months and now we are going to watch my cousin speak. I called my aunt and she said she goes to the 9:30 service. Looks like we will be up and gone really early Sunday. Their church is in Jamul.

Just wanted to share cuz I thought it was great. By the way, that pie was nasty! LOL...but the girls liked it!