I've got a wireless connection!

quick post tonight (posting from blogger and at my inlaws with VERY limited internet connection). We left my parents this afternoon and arrived at my inlaws this evening. It's been a quiet night, the girls playing fairly peacefully in the playroom and spending some individual time with grandma and grandpa - Alyssa just cherishes this alone time with them. :) On the way up here her front tooth FINALLY came out - she was super super excited and had to call my mom right away to tell her, and of course grandma and grandpa as soon as she came in the door. This evening after the girls went to bed I ventured to see if someone around us might have a wireless connection and sure enough I found a realllly slow one, but I found one, so I can sort of hit the net here for a few. Tomorrow we are planning to take the kids to Six flags if the weather permits and I hope to get some scrapping in this week. Better run for now so I can get some sleep for the big Six Flags day tomorrow (and the Aggie game tomorrow night! hehe)

Merry Christmas

Wow...can't believe 9 days have passed since my last post. After we all finally got over the stomach flu, I had less than a week to get things finished and packed before we had to leave. I didn't get much sleep the last two nights, but we did finish most everything we needed to. I ran out of ink the night before we left while I was printing gifts for family, so we had to bring the printer with us and pick up extra ink...all finally printed, bound and wrapped though, so we finished it in time. We drove 16 hours on Friday to my inlaws and then another 5 Saturday to get to my parents. Yesterday we drove another hour out to see my grandparents for the day and then got back in time last night to eat some dinner and get Ky in bed, and then while she stayed home with my parents, Eric and I took Alyssa to her first Midnight Mass. I think she enjoyed getting to stay up late and going to Church with just Eric and I. When we got home we checked with NORAD to see where Santa was. Since he was in Colorado and headed south, Alyssa ran to change into jammies and brush her teeth and was in bed and asleep finally about 1:30 AM! LOL The girls slept in till about 9:30 this morn, so we all got a bit of rest finally.

We had Christmas at our house last Sunday morning, and Santa had stopped by early so the kids could have a few days to play with their gifts before we left for TX, and they brought many of the new movies and xbox games in the car with them and some other toys (doodle pads, magna doodles, etc...). Santa did save a few things though to bring the girls here. He brought Alyssa a MP3 player, and a Cliford movie for Ky and then a gift certificate to Build a Bear for each girl. So with these gifts and a good handful of gifts from my parents, the girls are very excited and having a wonderful time this morning.

I got my new lens and flash when we stopped at my inlaws Friday night and so have been playing with those today. My parents got me a new camera bag to hold all my lenses and flash - and there is still some room for another lens or two! hehe I also got a negative scanner (so I can start scanning all those old negatives to back up and use digitally), and another season of Xfiles. :) I'm just peachy! lol

Eric has gotten some great new gifts as well. We bought him a ton of tools and goodies that he opened at home, and my parents have a few fun things for him here, and my dad said he'd take out tool shopping tomorrow too. :) He still needs a new truck too, so we may even look here in TX and if he finds what he wants and gets a good deal, we may buy it and just pull it behind the van home! haha That would be a great gift for him! He's had the same truck since 1998 when we bought it - I've had 3 new cars now since we got married. This truck is the only car he ever got that was HIS - not passed down. It's a very bottom of the line V6 Dodge Ram, and it's served him well all these years, but it's coming to a point where it's just wearing out and he really needs something better. He really deserves something nice, so I hope we can get him what he really likes this time.

So this afternoon my SIL is coming over to eat Christmas dinner with us, and we have a few gifts for her, plus my mom has some for her that my brother had mailed here. We'll probably just relax and enjoy the time with family (and not driving! lol) today. Tonight or maybe tomorrow I think I'm going to try to take Alyssa to see Santa Clause 3 - just me and her (my mom might come too) while Eric keeps Kyleigh. We haven't had much time to do any me and Alyssa things since we moved to IL, so I need to make up some time with her while we have an opportunity.

Tomorrow we'll meet up with an old friend of mine and her boys. We'll be doing a book exchange with the boys and prolly let the kids play for a little bit. Then on Wed, we'll head back up to my inlaws for Christmas up there for a few days. All of Eric's siblings will be there by then and all our nieces. We're looking forward to watching all the girls play, especially to see how Ky enjoys playing with the other little girls her age.

Well, I suppose I should stop rambling and go help mom get ready for this afternoon.
I hope everyone else is having as wonderful a Christmas as we are.

stilllll sick

I'm up just for a few minutes to eat some jello - my stomach is making so much noise I thought maybe if I ate a little something it would feel better. I have still been sick all day - not throwing up, but still got butt issues (lol). Eric was feeling much better when he came to bed, but I have a fever again. :( I fell asleep just a bit after 10 and then woke up when he came in at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep...I just felt uncomfortable, so finally got up to eat some jello and check email for a few minutes.

We called all our "guests" tonight to cancel our Christmas party for tomorrow as we were still feeling blah this evening, and Ky threw up again after dinner and then started in with butt issues herself tonight. ugh...will this end? I've had enough of it already. Please pray that Alyssa doesn't get this too and that we all get better soon.

sickies here

Kyleigh came down with the stomach flu Tuesday night while we were out Christmas Caroling with the Girl Scouts. This morning I woke up throwing up and this evening after Eric came home with the girls from Alyssa's school Christmas program he started throwing up. Ky was pretty much back to normal today and Alyssa hasn't seemed to be affected yet. I've been in bed all day, and am hoping tomorrow morning I'll feel better to take over care for the kids again since Eric will probably be in bed all day. Thankfully he had taken today off, so he took care of the kids today. Sigh.... I had something planned for the blog this week, but things have just not worked out. I'll have to make up to everyone in Jan.

I think I'm going to get a little jello and then go back to bed.

Been doin' some scrappin'

Well the last few days I was trying to make up on some scrapbooking and other stuff I need to finish before we leave for Christmas. Almost have my Christmas card ready, but then today I had a new thought for it, so gotta take some more pictures tomorrow morning before I can finish it.

My latest scraps:
both of these 2 pg spreads were made using the new Layout Blueprints sketch book by Amy Elkins. What a great book! It has 55 2 page sketches, and then a few samples by scrappers of each for great inspiration. Even though all these sketches are 2 pagers, you could easily make many of them into single pages also. Check it out if you like sketches.

Snow Play

Credits: sketch desgin from Layout Blueprints on page 23, by Amy Elkins; papers, alpha, and elements from Winter Dreams: Calm by Me and Amy Cheeseman available at Digiscrapshak; date stamp by Sherri Tierney available at digiscrapshak
font: century gothic

Halloween

Credits: sketch from Layout Blueprints by Amy Elkins; Gina Cabrera "Digitally Sparked vol 2 Spooky" (alpha, ricrac); Meredith Fenwick "Everyday Inspiration Perfect Time of Day (gold paper); "Everyday Inspiration Cowboy Baby" (black paper); "Everyday Inspiration Elements" (brads); fonts: CheltPress Trial, CK Flourish


Peek a boo... little Miss Kyleigh was so funny today. She was playing in the blinds in the kitchen, playing peek a boo, as if I couldn't actually see her behind ONE blind. haha She was just so cute I had to grab the camera and snap a few shots.




Christmas Decorations
In reading Sondie's blog today, I was inspired to take a few photos of our Christmas decorations. We set up the tree and decorated back during Thanksgiving weekend, but I hadn't yet taken any pictures. I liked Sondie's idea of capturing some shots of some of our favorite ornaments, so grabbed my camera again and captured a few here:

Here's our tree (these are all straight out of the camera..haven't edited...so a bit dark on some of these).


I love glass ornaments and have collected a few here and there over the years.





Alyssa's first Christmas ornament from Hallmark


Kyleigh's first Christmas ornament - this one is an Aggie one :)



A number of years ago we went up to my aunts' beach house for Thanksgiving. While there we got a few really cute beach/shell ornaments. I've always enjoyed these as a reminder of that trip, but they have even more special meaning now that we've moved away from the beach ourselves..they're a nice reminder of warmer weather when it's freezing outside. hehe





This is Alyssa's favorite ornament. She got this when we went to NYC a couple summers ago. She absolutely loved NYC and the Statue of Liberty, so this reminds her of all our adventures there.




And finally, I can't remember where we got this one, but I just think it's a really pretty cross ornament that we put up every year.




Oh, and we got some PINK Poinsetta's this year. Aren't they pretty?


Shopping
Yesterday I took the girls shopping for Christmas presents for Eric and we were gone ALL day. One of the things we picked up while we were out were santa hats for all of us. I know we have one somewhere around here, but I don't know where it is and I wanted to get 4 so we could all wear one for a pic sometime. Today though I tried to get a few of each of the girls' with their hats on. Ky was so not in the mood for my plan though and kept taking the hat off and throwing it and running off - no sitting by the tree for mommy this evening. I finally just gave her the hat to see if I could get her to put it on and I just held down the button on the camera to take picture after picture hoping at least a few would come out. I actually ended up with a few pretty cute ones. I can't wait to scrap these now :)









Well I'm not feeling so great today, so I think I may head up to bed early tonight. I went to bed late last night and got up early today, so I need to make up for that and with not feeling well, I need some extra rest. Eric has been working on my new computer and it should be ready for him to set it up tomorrow! yay!!!! I can't wait. :)

50% off TONIGHT!

Ok today is just a huge nightmare, and I don't even have time to explain right now. I wanted to put up a quick announcement about a few store things for now - other update to come later :)




OK first, Tonight everything in my store is 50% off from 7 - 11 PM (eastern time).

There is a new Snappy Scraps template set- collection 9 in the store, and it too is included in the 50 off. I really want to get some extras in there before the sale tonight, but with all that has been going on the last two-three days, I just think I'm not going to make it, but if I don't...I will do something special to make up for it.



The new Snappy Scraps Collection 9 now also comes with individual PNG files for each layer in the template. This means, if you work in a program that can't open the PSD files in layers, you can now use the PNG files, layering each file in your program to create the template in your program's native file. If you're not quite sure what I mean, click on my template instuctions link over in my right sidebar. They've been updated to include directions for using the PNG file. Yes, this means those using DIP CAN use these templates now. Only collection 9 currently includes the PNG files, but all future sets will include them and I will be going back to add them for my older sets as well.

Next...The Winter Dreams Collection which includes all four kits, the mini album and the bonus element pack, all worth $25 plus bonus, has been 40% off through yesterday, and will remain at $18, but for ONE DAY (today) it will be 50% off! That means you can pick up the ENTIRE collection (4 kits, mini album and bonus elements) all for ONLY $12.50 TODAY! Don't miss this absolutely awesome bargain price! Also each kit and the mini album will be 25% off today only too! (if you check the dss store and the sale price isn't listed, please check back later..I think there's been a delay in getting the sale price entered for today on this..maybe some confusion as to when it starts).

And finally, the Winter Dreams Collection contest, where you can win yourself a $25 shopping spree to my or Amy C's store is being extended through the end of this month! Don't miss a great chance to win another $25 in FREE stuff! Details here.

Did all hell break lose yesterday?

Is there a full moon right now? What is it that is causing my kids to all of a sudden be completely bouncing of the walls? Alyssa has come home both days this week now with notes of getting into trouble, after we've had like 6 good weeks! And OMG Kyleigh is completely going mad! She threw the biggggggest tantrums yesterday from the time she got up from nap till she went to bed about EVERYTHING. One tantrum was because she wanted me to sit on the potty and I didn't! I had no idea that would cause such an emotional breakdown! I had to go sit on the potty to make the kid happy again! What the heck? LOL Then, while Alyssa and I were making dinner and unloading the dishwasher, she was just getting into every thing possible, and at one point as I put something in the cabinet, I heard a loud crash behind me on the floor. I turned around to find my LAPTOP! Ky had actually carried (I can't believe she's even strong enough) my laptop from the living room into the kitchen and threw it on the tile floor! ugggh Thank goodness it still works since it's my ONLY consistently working computer right now.

Speaking of computers..my desktop is going bonkers too again. It's been fine for a couple of weeks now and then all of a sudden the last several days it started freezing up on me again. I had to restart it 5 x on Monday, and yesterday I just didn't bother even turning it on till about 1 AM when I worked on it for like 1 1/2 hrs and then just went to bed. Eric has been looking for a new motherboard for it, and hopefully will put the order in any time now! He has to order one for his computer too, because he'll get up and then come back to it, and as soon as he pulls out his keyboard the computer SHUTS OFF! LOL What is the deal? Are our computers just on strike up here? Maybe they don't like the cold basement! LOL

Well..let's try to focus on today's activities and to-do list, and hope that things are more calm today (though it isn't even noon yet and Ky is already bouncing off the walls- man I can't wait for nap time LOL).

So tonight Alyssa's Girl Scout troop is going to pottery place to paint ornaments. The troop did so well with their Fall product sales, we are rewarding them and taking them to the pottery place, all fees paid from the troop funds. Alyssa is really excited - it should be fun. Ky will be staying home with the babysitter of course - I'm not EVEN trying to control that little busybod in a pottery store tonight! LOL

I need to make a couple calls today and finish a kit for the February SBB Ezine. It was due yesterday, but with my computer issues the last couple of days I haven't been able to work on it to finish it up. I also need to make my freebie for my chat this week and if time permits for the next several chats. Once I leave to go home for Christmas I won't have any way to make anything. I have got to get our Christmas cards made so I can order those. I also need to get a few new things done for my DSS store. I have a 50% off sale this Saturday from 7-11 PM (eastern time), but that does NOT include Winter Dreams Collection or kits, so be sure if you're planning to get that to pick it up by Friday - the whole collection is only $15 through Friday, after that it goes up to $18. AND if you pick up the collection or a kit this week, create a layout and post it in the Winter Dreams gallery at DSS for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate good in my or Amy's store! Details down below in the previous post.

(OMG, Ky is having a fit right now because she is trying to get IN a Magazine holder and OF COURSE it's too small! It's only 2 inches wide! Come on)

OK..back to the to-do list (actually I'd say it's this week's list, as I won't be able to do all this today, LOL). It's laundry time again too - though does that ever end? It sure doesn't seem to. I need to somehow run to the grocery store today to..hmm Gotta figure out when we can do that. Oh and I need to finish up a little something I've got planned for my blog readers starting next week :)

OH before I go, I have to rant about AT&T! If you happen to need to set up new phone service, DO NOT GET AT&T, or if you've got no other choice, beware when you set it up, esp if it's a new house. We've had the absolutely worst time getting our phone set up and then now getting charges and billing correct. I won't carry on about all the set up problems, but I will warn you about their lovely little $90 fee and the difficulty in disputing charges with them. We signed up online so we could get the free installation, after much trouble and several calls and a couple weeks, they finally came to hook up our phone. Because it was a new house, they connected the phone cable to our box while setting up. They never told us there was an extra charge for something like this (and they did know full well it was a new house). When we got our first bill it had a $90 installation fee! We called to dispute this as we had "free installation." The girl informed us we did get free installation (normally $40) but the $90 was for hooking the cable to our box! Eric was PISSED and argued with them forever, and finally told them, he was paying all of the bill excep tthe $90. The girl said "no problem, I'll mark it as in dispute and someone will get back to you within the next 2 days." We never heard another thing for about a week until we got a call telling us our bill was past due by $90. Eric explained the situation again, and of course there was no record of our previous call and complaint, but they said they'd mark it down this time. Later that afternoon, ANOTHER call about our bill being late, same thing..no mention in the record. Eric talked to at least 5 people over several days all assuring him they marked it as in dispute and the next never seeing anything. Then we got a call telling us if we didn't pay our remaining past due amount they were cutting off all the extra plan services (call waiting, caller ID, etc..) Eric again explained the situation. Last night I noticed the caller ID had been shut off and I got the new bill in the mail yesterday. The new bill had $90 past due added to it plus a late fee now, and our regular plan was now 2x the amount of what we signed up for! Good grief! There is no way to dispute charges with this company as they all just keep not recording it, and instead just keep haselling us. UGH... Well, this morning I told Eric to call them and tell them if they didn't let us speak with someone that could fix this problem, we'd call better business bureau and possibly the news channel too to warn others of this $90 fee. They finally let him speak with a manager today and credited our account for the charge, and our caller ID is back. Now we have to figure out why our billing is 2x what it should be. So, my recommendation...if you don't have to use AT&T DON'T! The company is a crook and a major pain in the butt to dispute when they mischarge you. If you do have to use AT&T, and you set up new service, BEWARE of the $90 fee! Go connect the damn cable to your own box! LOL If you do have an unfair charge on your account, don't give up! Keep on them and make a complaint with BBB if need be. Don't let this company push you around!

Man..can you tell I'm all hormonal lately? LOL Maybe whatever is affecting my kids is affecting me too! LOL No it's not that time of the month..remember I don't have those any more since Sept...my hormones are just going bonkers! LOL Yes, I know Lisa..I need to go to the doctor. I just need time! sighhh.

Well with that..I'm going to eat lunch and put Ky down for nap soon (whoohooo). Better get some hugs and kisses and make that baby giggle too before hand so I can remind myself what a sweetie she really is and how much I like her. hehe

Happy Hump day everyone.

Relaxation after a bad day

Sitting here this evening with a big cup of hot chocolate, a piece of cheesecake, and an episode of Xfiles. All very needed to relax, "chill out" and wind down after a frustrating day. So what was so frustrating you ask?...
1. My computer, yes again! My desktop again started freezing up a few times a day a couple days ago. It has been doing so much better with me shutting it down every night, so I figured it was just overheating and getting over worked. Then now it's started it again, and even today it never even let me use it! I started it up and then went to do a couple things. When I went to sit down at the computer it was already frozen, so I restarted it and went to do something else again. Again when I returned it was already frozen again. After the 3rd time this happened today, I just turned the darn thing off and gave up on it.

2. Amazon! UGH..well, this part isn't all bad, hehe... I finally saved up enough to buy my flash for my camera so I set out today to order it. There was a rebate on it and if I signed up for the amazon credit card there was a $30 cash back. How could I resist saving $45 on the flash? So I went through the motions and signed up and was approved. Then I ordered my new flash and got my email receipt. As I looked over the receipt, I realized the shipping address was my TX address! ugh!! I had to cancel the order so I could redo it and have it shipped here. Seems simple enough huh. WELL...this turned into a freaking 2 hour ordeal. The delivery time for the free shipping was estimated to arrive after we would be leaving to go home for the holiday, so I figured ok I'll just have it shipped to my parents or just pay for the shipping for it to get here sooner. Well, to get the $30 credit from the credit card, I had to use that to purchase, but to be able to use it, I had to have it shipped to an address already in my amazon account when I signed up for the card or I'd have to wait for the physical card to come to have the number to enter for use. Well, I had hit edit on my current address to correct the phone number so it voided that for a shipping address, and my parents address wasn't listed. LOVELY. I did finally figure all this out and found my inlaws address in my account, so I had it finally sent to their address and if it's not there when we get there, Eric said we can always stay an extra few hours for to arrive or I can just get it I guess when we go back after visiting my parents. So..though this turned into a long ordeal...i did finally get my flash ordered. OH and..a new lens I wanted, also had a nice rebate on it, so I told dh it might be good to order it now. He said OK go ahead, he was planning to order it for me for Christmas anyway! yay!! So for christmas I get a flash and a new lens. :) I'm so excited!

3. OMG..Ky is sooo busy and into EVERYTHING. If she gets into one more drawer, moves the kitchen chairs to reach one more piece of candy or marker, draws on one more wall or piece of furniture..uuuuugggghhh. but then she knows just when to give a big hug, a kiss and a giggle to make my day! Darn cutie. :)

4. Alyssa :( My good girl is having some real trouble at school. Academically she's doing fantastically, but behavior wise..things aren't going oh so well. :( Her teacher called us to discuss some of her concerns with Alyssa's attention. She suggested we might consider a medical check for ADD. ADD? Alyssa? This seems completely insane to me! If I have a child with ADD, it is KY! lol Alyssa has the most amazing attention span of any child I've ever known, and she's been that way since she was Ky's age. The teacher said she's not doing a good job focussing in class though, not doing well at staying on task, and is very unorganized. I know she acts a little scatter brained often, and can be very forgetful. I agree she's not very organized, but she is only 6 1/2! I'm just shocked. I have never ever thought of Alyssa with ADD. I honestly wonder if it's lack of interest, lack of challenge, maturity, or just tiredness. I know ADD is real, but I honestly believe teachers and parents jump to this and medication way too often these days because they just don't know what to do with these kids. I know it's hard, I was a school teacher, but I honestly think it's way over diagnosed these days. If my kid is academically not suffering any, she's not doing anything "naughty" or to be spiteful, she absolutely loves school and is extremely sociable, and aces everything with such little effort...could she just not be interested or challenged when you see her not on task? This would be my first guess, not ADD. I had a student with ADD when I was student teaching and he could not concentrate on anythng when his medication wore off..I have NEVER seen Alyssa have trouble concentrating when she's interested in something, and I've never really seen her behave like that little boy did. My mom did tell me I shouldn't rule it out so easily though without considering it. As she put it, I'd feel terrible if she did need help and I didn't seek it for her. I guess Eric and I will have to discuss this more. :( My poor Alyssa. She's the sweetest kid, has the biggest heart and is such a smartie..I hope I can help her pinpoint what's causing the behavior trouble, cuz she really is a good kid.

sooo...all of this today...it's just been a lot..I needed some "down" time to wind down before I could really try to work on the next things I need to do.

Oh and on top of the frustration, my hormones are sooo out of whack. I have been drawn to tears at least 3 times today! ugh. A couple years ago I was going through fertility treatment in an attempt to get prego (for Ky). During the treatment, they woudl do a folic study/ultrasound each month. They found cyst on my left ovary that they watched for a few months and then finally determined it warranted additional testing. They ran an ovarian cancer marker which came back high and referred me off to a GYN Oncologist immediately. I dropped out of school that semester and underwent surgery to have the cyst removed and tested. I had to have an actual incession, not just laproscopic surgery and they determined I had pretty bad endometriosis. The cyst was about the size of a softball and could not be separated from my ovary, so they had to take it out. After several more months, I finally got prego with Kyleigh and all went smoothly. After she was born the doctor gave me a progesterone pill to help slow the regrowth of the endometriosis and hopefully help balance my hormones (they diagnosed me with POS and a hormone imbalance when I was trying to get prego with Alyssa). So, all has been fairly ok until a few months ago. My last NORMAL cycle was the beginning of Sept. Since then I've had a TON of light spotting bleeding, but never a full period, and it goes on and on keeps coming back after only a week or two of stopping. At first I thought I might be prego and took like 3 tests in the period of about 2 weeks. All came back negative. I'm now beginning to think the endometriosis may be back. I know I really need to go to the doctor, but 1) it is an $80 copay on our insurance, 2) I don't know if I should just go to an OB/GYN, a fertility specialist or my primary doctor first, but I don't want to pay $80 just get a referrel to someone else, and really...I think I'm scared to find out it may be back. What if it's already so bad and I lose my other ovary or my uterus or something that will make it impossible for me to have any more children? I'm not ready to hear that, as Eric and I actually hoped to start trying for a 3rd kid sometime next year. :( I really need to find out what to do and do it..it's not getting better and it's just upsetting me more each day. sighhh

well..I think I need to log out and finish my show. have a good night everyone!

Tonight's the big night!

Chat tonight, and here's a previw of the awesome freebie we'll be giving away to everyone that attends. Don't miss out. You will not be able to get this freebie anywhere else.

Also, with the launch of this collection, we're having a fun contest. Be sure your pages are loaded to the Winter Dreams Gallery by Saturday night (Dec 9) and my and Amy's ct will help us select the winners to announce on the 11th. :) Good luck!

My CT has been doing such a fantastic job with these kits - I just love all the pages they've come up with. I'd like to share a few of their pages here, but before I do, I also have a few new ladies I've added to my team in the last couple of weeks and just havne't had a chance to make a public welcome for them..so without further delay, I welcome 3 new ladies to my creative team: Amanda, Angel, and Katy. If you click each of their names, it will take you to their gallery at DSS. They also have more complete galleries at other sites, such as SBB, DST, etc...

And now, on with the show of their beautiful layouts:

Lisa W

"Calm" kit, full credits

Angel

"Calm" kit, full credits

Geri

"Cozy" kit, full credits

Lisa B

"Calm" kit, full credits

Amanda

"Cozy" kit, credits here

Katy

"Celebration" kit, full credits

Sondie

"Calm" kit, full credits

You can see many many more pages created with these kits in the Winter Dreams gallery at DSS.

OK, and with that...I hope to see you at the chat tonight!

Snow Much Fun

{Snow Much Fun}

Well we got our snow finally! We've had a forcast 2 other times before now, but this time it really came! About 12 inches of it! lol We were probably the only ones in the neighborhood (besides the kids) that were truly excited about it. We haven't gone through this year after year to be tired of it yet. hehe Alyssa just could NOT wait to get out there this morning, but it was still falling very heavily with pretty high winds so we waited until it let up a little and then finally bundled everyone up to go out.

Kyleigh was not too thrilled about it at first, as the snow in the drive way came up to her croch and she couldn't move! Alyssa's gloves didn't hold up long (especially since she could only find one of them and was in too much of a hurry to look for the other one) so maybe 5-10 minutes into being outside she threw a huge drama mama fit and ran inside. Finally after about 15 minutes she came back out to join us and Eric gave her a pair of his gloves to wear.

Eric shoveled off a little runner area on the driveway for the girls to use his old childhood sled. The girls both loved this, even though it went pretty slow. The snow was just so soft, dry and deep! Eventually though they noticed the other kids across the street on some of the plastic slides on a big hill and we headed over there for a few minutes. Ky and Alyssa both went down on one of the other kids sled and boy did they fly compared to our drive way. The first couple runs were slower, but as the kids went again and again and packed it down it got better. I can't wait till it's packed down still a little more and I think I'm going to have to try! hehe It's been many a many a years since I went sledding (We lived in Alaska when I was in 2-4th grades).

So...here's a few of the snapshots from today of the girls playing outside.

Alyssa standing at the bottom of the neighbors hill were they were all sledding.


the girls going down the big hill. hehe



Ky's first moments and experience in snow! haha Poor baby.


ahh now we've got some smiles coming.


slowly sliding down the drive way on Daddy's sled.


Looking up for mommy to take a pic. :)

{Winter Dreams}

Only a couple more days till Amy and my "Winter Dreams" Collection is released. These winter kits are coming out just in time for my new winter pictures! I can't wait to have a few minutes to start scrapping again and use these kits. We'll be having our launch chat on Sunday night, 10 PM Eastern time at Digiscrapshak.com. We hope you'll come an join us. We'll have an exclusive ad-on freebie for all in attendance, at least one free collection to give away, and a contest to announce for a chance to win more products.



The whole collection will be only $15 through 12/8, after that it will only be $18. This is a $25 value if each of the parts were purchased individually, but it also includes a bonus element pack that will NOT be sold individually! Scroll down to my preview postings and you can see all the individual previews.

{Holiday Tag}

And now.... a tag from my friend and CT member of mine, Amanda (thanks Amanda, sorry it took me so long to respond to it lol)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Sometimes he wraps the smaller things.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but i was thinking about it when we were putting up our decorations this year. I thought back to a year when my little brother and I went around the neighborhood selling bunches of it to make some extra $. LOL

5. When do you put your decorations up? We put them up Thanksgiving weekend...especially good this year since it's way too cold, and the snow and ice now would have made it a little tough.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? I think I'd have to say Green Bean Casserole..I never make it any other time. yes, I know I have werid favorites. lol

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: hmmm I don't really know... nothing is coming to mind for this right now, but maybe I'm just too tired...

8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? You know, I really don't know. Must not have been all that traumatic for me. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably when we lived in Alaska sometime between 2nd and 4th grade. Wow..will Alyssa really know the truth that soon? I hope not.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes my parents let us open one growing up, but my husbands family always did Christmas on Christmas Eve after returning from midnight mass. We've sort of followed his tradtion some years, but it really just depends on when we're leaving to go home. We often have Christmas several days early before we leave to go home and see our families.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? How? Well, put the lights on, put the garland on, add all the ornaments that will fit, and then put that topper on. :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Still LOVE it. Give me a few months and a few more huge snow falls and my love may fade lol

12. Can you ice skate? It's been many years now, but I used to ice skate everyday at lunch time when we lived in Alaska.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Well, I think I might have to say my iceskates were one of my faves, maybe the Barbie Dream house too. Can't think of any more recent gifts that might top the list right now.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pecan Pie and Fudge

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Probably the tree trimming and decorating the house.

17. What tops your tree? an Angel

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I don't know that I really have one.

hmmm, who do I pass this tag onto now? I think....Amy C, Lisa W, Sondie, and Raechel! hehe Anyone else interested, go ahead and do it too and link me up here so I can visit your blog to read. :)

{Glitter Flakes}

OK..so now..did you make it through this entire novel of a posting? hehe if you did, I have a gift for you! I was inspired by my recent snowy weather and made some glass glitter snow flakes, AND I made them so they can coordinate with the Calm Kit in the Winter Dreams Collection. :)




upclose details:


download here, and please let me know which kit in the collection is your favorite! I can't decide between cozy and calm for mine, but I know I'll be using calm very soon to scrap my snow pictures! :)

Hope to see you Sunday in the DSS chat room, and by the way..I think you may want to stop by Amy's blog also if you haven't done so yet. She has this AWESOME Grinchy freebie for you. :)

The snow is heeeeere!

Wow what a difference a month can make! This gorgeous tree is our neighbor's across the street. We awoke early this morning to several inches of snow and it's still coming down heavily for several more hours. Stay tuned for more snow pics today