oh the weather outside is frightful...

Yes, it's been very chilly here lately!

Lows in the teens, 'highs' in the 30s. 

The frost on the tree branches never melts (most of these pics were taken in the afternoon). And they all just look so magical.

I especially love how the pine trees look.

I always get a few weird looks when someone sees me pulled off to the side of the road...taking pictures of a fence.

Or when I'm crouched down in my front yard taking pictures of Christmas bulbs...

No matter, I'm getting great shots :)

And poor Mater...so frigid on my truck these days...

I love being in a nice warm house, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate & seeing the pretty winter outside. 

Unfortunately, I don't get to enjoy that hot chocolate for too long...there's lots of cleaning that has to be done! Christmas boxes still out, the 'fancy' dishes still sitting on my counter (from Thanksgiving) that need to be put back in my china cabinet, more decorating...

But I'll put on the Christmas music. Somehow that makes cleaning a bit better, dontcha think?!!

And when this little one wakes up we'll have a little snuggle time :)

She was a little cranky last night since she had some shots yesterday :(

And after I pick the kids up I'll probably hear a lot of girly giggling in the house since my daughter is having a friend over after school. My son will probably retreat to the basement & play his video games I'm sure!

This last week has been a bit crazy...school holiday performances, orchestra recitals, Christmas shopping, etc...

Next week is the last week of school. Crazy! Thankfully I think I might almost be done with my shopping. And I just got Addie's outfit to go see Santa so we may brave the mall this weekend and go see the man in the big red coat :)

Get your smash on & some new goodies

I'm editing some Halloween pics to share with you all. Til then I have a few non-Halloween things to share :)

The November kits are on sale over at 3 Scrappy Boys. There are 3 kits to choose from:

Main Kit:

Add-On Kit:

Trio Kit:

I'm so thrilled to now be a part of their design team and I can't wait to get the trio kit along with some other goodies from the shop!! Honestly, the only reason I didn't get one of the other kits is because I just purchased some of those same papers before getting on the team. Love that Jillibean Soup paper :) Otherwise I would have ordered more!

********************

Today I have a post up at the 3SB blog about using smash books and how my kids use them as their scrapbooks. 

Head over here to check it out :) 

********************

I'm trying to get caught up on my Project Life albums. Hopefully I'll have some pics to share of those soon :) 

I just got a lovely white box of goodies containing some of Becky Higgins' new page protectors for next year's PL. I haven't ordered a kit for next year because I'm holding out for the Clementine edition :)

********************

And last but not least I'm working on items for my etsy shop including some fun pillows, December Daily and travel albums along with some other goodies. I had planned on opening in October but that didn't happen. 

I'm shooting for this weekend but I have picked up some kind of nasty cold so we'll see how much I get done this week. But I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Friday Friday

I've received so many nice comments on Addie's quilt. Thank you :) I've also been asked several times about which pattern I used so here it is: Abundantly Blessed by Cotton Way.

It's an easy pattern although there was one step that had confusing wording. I had experienced quilters with me and they didn't get that one part either. But none had done a 'non-traditional' quilt like this one. But after finishing it I think I understand what she meant so if you do this and find it confusing let me know! 

The pattern also comes with the template for the white shaped pieces that get sewn on top. After using the template a few times I just freehanded it and it worked just fine.

I think I'll probably make another one of these quilts because I just love the look of it. I may try and make one a little bit bigger, we'll see!

And btw, if you didn't know this, the designer of the Cotton Way patterns is the mom of the designer for the Ruby line that I used in my quilt. I didn't even realize it at first when I bought the 2! You can check out their blogs here.

********************

I came home yesterday morning from taking the kids to school to find this:

I was too tired the night before to clean up the pan of chicken that was on the stove. Apparently my dog took it upon herself to have a snack...and dumped my dish, and the chicken, and all the grease all over the floor. 

{sigh}

Chicken grease mixed with broken glass....nice. I was grateful to not have tile floors anymore. Otherwise I might have had a cracked floor & even more shattered glass. And our family might be minus one dog. Just sayin'...

********************

I got a new toy...

I've been wanting one of these for a looong time. And when I saw one at Costco...attached to a really good price...I snatched it up. It's a little bit of a pain because it's on the smaller side but it looks so cute in my kitchen and makes some yummy popcorn. Mmmmm....popcorn....

Now I need to move my pictures that are on the wall behind it...

********************

The kids had their Halloween parties yesterday. They really have an awesome school that knows how to celebrate that's for sure.

We had a zombie and a witch...

And, of course, they will have different costumes for Halloween. I was at the school for nearly 3 hours & totally exhausted after from running back and forth to their classrooms.

Matching spider webs :) A lot of the moms even dressed up when they came to help out at school. I am so doing that next year! Addie enjoyed watching all of the kids dance the Monster Mash...

I actually bought that onesie last year after I found out I was pregnant. I added a black ribbon ruffle to make it a little more girly. 

********************

I made 'monster mix' for the kids classes. I vary it up from year to year but here's the basics:

Chex cereal, teddy grahams, pretzels, marshmallows & candy corn. Sometimes I use caramel corn instead of the cereal. 

I usually bag it up since usually I've found that there's so many treats the kids can't possibly eat them all. This way they can take it home if they want. 

I found these easy zipper bags so I didn't have to fool with twisties...when you're making 50+ bags it makes it much easier.

********************

I realized today how much I still have to do before Halloween. Can you believe it's just two days away?!?!


I'm finishing up the kids costumes & I'm hoping we can head out to the park tomorrow & do a quick photo shoot with them all dressed up.

And it just dawned on me that we haven't carved pumpkins yet. Eeek!!!

who ya gonna call??

Did you go? Are you gonna go?? It's only this month! The re-release of Ghostbusters! I love when they play 'older' movies at the theaters.

We have one theater in town that is playing it and since it is one of my all time favorite movies I just had to go see it on the big screen!

I don't remember if I actually saw it in the theaters when it first came out but I don't think so. But it's hard to remember back that far ;)

My kids love this movie too so we were all excited. Although, I have to say, I think we've watched the 'tv' version too many times cause I forgot how many times they swore in the movie. Kinda felt like a bad mom a little bit... 

My husband...was torn between going to the movies & going to karate. Huh??? It's Ghostbusters man!!! Who did I marry?? Get your priorities in check! ha!!

I'm off to take some stuff to my booth & then maybe do some pumpkin pickin' this weekend!

close call...too close

This is what a deer did to my car last night...

...when it ran right out in front of my car, in the dark, on the way home from the grocery store. His front 'fender' hit my front fender.  All 3 kids were in the car, my oldest saw the whole thing...and immediately started bawling. Cause I smacked right into that deer. And the only reason the entire front end of my car wasn't crumpled was because I managed to swerve a bit to the left and hit on the side rather than straight on. And thankfully I was going less than 40mph.

I've gone this long without feeling what it's like to have an airbag smack me in the face. I'd like to keep it that way.

It could've been so much worse. So much worse.

The baby...didn't even wake up.

My son...didn't even realize why we were pulling over. I think maybe he thought I hit a really big bump or something.

Two people came out because they heard a 'crash'. The one guy said his dogs started going nuts. 

I keep hearing that big 'thunk' in my head & picturing that deer coming out of nowhere and just appearing right in front of my headlights.

And as I was standing outside of my van talking to those people, I saw another deer run across the road in the exact.same.spot. 

I lived out in the woods in GA for 5 yrs and managed to avoid the deer. But not here I guess!

You just never know what the day is going to bring sometimes. Life is funny that way...

And by the way, did you know that if you hit an animal it's considered 'comprehensive' and not 'collision' with regard to your insurance?? I figured anything with me actually driving was considered collision. But nope. And you know what that means...bigger deductible. Gee, thanks deer.

take steps

My friend Brittny recently did a post about Crohn's disease and a walk that she's doing to raise awareness (and money) for a cure. I'm a bit late in getting this posted (sorry Britt) but I still wanted to make sure that I made mention of it.

You can head here to read her post about her sister.

I won't bore you with a long post...she did a great job considering she doesn't even have the disease!

I was 'officially' diagnosed with Crohn's in '06 when I had extreme abdominal pain, went in for surgery because they saw 'something' on a CT scan, only to come out of surgery with a huge incision down the front of my stomach, a tube down my nose to drain my stomach, and an IV surgically implanted in my chest. I was told I had the disease, that my intestines were knotted up like a fist. I lost over a foot of my small intestine, part of my large intestine and my appendix. I was also told that I might not be able to have more children because my ovaries were covered in scar tissue...we all know how that turned out, right?!

Living with an intestinal diseases sucks. I hide most of it well. I try to ignore it to be honest. But it's hard to ignore when you try and do errands and you're looking for a restroom every 10 min. Or the first thing you look for when you go anywhere is where the nearest bathroom is. I feel ill after nearly every meal. I never know when it's going to be a good day or a bad day. It's very unpredictable. If there were some magical diet that would cure it I would do it in a heartbeat. But there's just not. No magic diet is going to keep my intestines from getting a blockage. And the thing that sucks the most is that my dr said it would probably happen again at some point in my lifetime since the first occurrence was when I was only 33 yrs old. 

It's not cancer. I'm not dying from it. Although, I do have an increased risk in getting colon cancer. Many people have worse issues than me. So I deal with it. It's all you can do. I just really, really, really hope & pray that my kids don't inherit any of my 'issues'. But if they do, they certainly have a sympathetic person in their corner! Because I've had issues my whole life...and I'm just now getting 'used' to it.

So head over to Britt's blog. And maybe make a donation if you wish. And thanks for reading :)

Updated - Britt is having a giveaway for this. You can check it out here!

39

I had a birthday last weekend. One step closer to the big 4-0. Only one more year of being in my 30s. Where has the time gone???

I don't feel 39. Not sure if I look it or not. But I definitely don't feel it. Although, in looking at this pic I realize I definitely have a few baby pounds to lose. I also realize how much my daughter looks like me. Couldn't get Addie to look up...she was too busy trying to chew on the ruffles on her dress! ha!

Had a pretty decent birthday. Got free cheesecake at Chili's :) 

But then I couldn't use one of my new presents (new mini fridge for my scrap room) because of this....

water leak in the basement. The hubster left the spigot to the hose on outside...and it leaked for 2 days...into the well of our egress window, through the window and into my scrap room. It was a sopping mess. Like, when you stepped on that rug it squished out water. Ugh...

At least he had the smarts to butter me up with cake & alcohol before telling me :)

Had to pull out part of the insulation. I think my rug has about had it. Thankfully not much of my stuff was ruined. Just sad to see all my stuff shoved to the side to try & dry out the floor & walls.

In better news... 

this little girl slept in her own bed for the first time last night. And except for about 4 or 5 times when she mildly fussed for her binks she slept the whole night. So thankful my husband found hardware for her bed...cause we lost the original hardware and the company said they probably wouldn't have replacement parts since the crib is over 9 yrs old. And I'm almost done with her room. Yey :)

The big'ns had their first day of school today & had a great day. They both have great teachers so I think this will be an awesome year. How did they get so big??? I didn't approve of that...don't know where they get the nerve growing up behind my back!

Saturday I went junkin' & as soon as  I take pics of my new goodies I will share them :)

TGIF

We're heading into the end of summer vacation. It's bittersweet for me. I always miss my kids when they're in school. I like having them around...for the most part :) We've had some...ahem...attitude issues we've been dealing with around here. Mostly with my son. He doesn't do well with major change. I know it's been hard for my kids, with moving & essentially having a total upheaval of their lives, then adding a baby to the mix. 

But the attitudes...and talking back...that doesn't fly with me. There's nothing I hate worse than to hear when we're out in public is someone's kid be really snotty to their mom or dad...and they do nothing. I don't believe in the 'it's just the hormones' philosophy. 

Oh sure, that has something to do with it. Believe me, I've had some crazy hormones the last few months. But that doesn't give me license to be a jerk to my entire family. 

So it's my job as a mom to teach them how we treat others. And I've been doing a lot of 'teaching' lately! 

********************

We've been crossing things off our summer list.

We have 46 items on the list...and we've completed about 26 of them. We'll see how many we get done in the next week and a half!

********************

We've rediscovered our love of Barbies & G.I.Joe :)

********************

This little one is getting bigger...and smiling more...and 'talking' more :) And I think her hair is turning blonde. It almost looks like she had gray hair growing in! hehe

********************

And speaking of the little one...we've been working on getting her room done. Cause she's pretty much outgrown her bassinet. 

Now if I could just get some hardware for her crib we'd be all set...cause it somehow got lost. Ooops!

********************

Tonight I'm going for a much needed crop night at the local scrapbook store.

(I'll be sharing this layout soon!)

On my to-do list - get caught up on Addie's Project Life album, finish up my road trip mini & maybe do a layout or 2. 

We'll see how far I get!