And another week goes by.....

first up, CT plugs! Cuz that's just how I roll!

Haynay's new release today is a template pack, called 'the basics template 1'. I love templates....it helps me get stuff done SO much faster!


And what I scrapped with it....also using "Chronicling Life bundle" and "Chronicling Life Alpha"



My family is a bunch of storm junkies.....when I was a kid, my brothers and I would set up lawnchairs in the field next to our house and watch the storms roll in. Now that I think about that, sitting in metal chairs in an open field during thunderstorms was probably NOT the smartest thing to be doing, but we loved every second of it. And now that I'm a photo nut, my goal has become getting that perfect lightning shot......I've gotten a few good ones....but I'm still hoping to catch that perfect shot one of these days....

another layout from our Disney trip last year.....our favorite roller coaster, Expedition Everest!


and my only other layout to post is from Zach's preK easter party last week....


and that's all i've scrapped this week!

my parents have been here all week babysitting the kids, so i've had some help with the housework, laundry, and cooking. it's been nice! and tomorrow morning we're all leaving for Independence for World Conference. I can't wait to be at the Temple again....it feels like ages since I've been there! I'll get to see some old friends from camp....it'll be a fun weekend!

Sneaky Peeky!!!

bad, bad blogger......

well....this has been a pretty stinky week. without going into gory details, i'll just say it's been heartbreaking, disappointing, and frustrating. i've been very upset and depressed for most of the week, and it's taking a lot of (alcohol!) inward thinking to pull myself through it. *sigh*.....sometimes when your faith is tested, it's not as dramatic or cut-and-dried as it is in stories. sometimes, it's just one little thing building on another......in what seems to be an endless crapstorm raining down on you. so that you're sitting there thinking, 'okay....now what? a pox on my family? a bird crapping on my head?' it's just been a crummy week and i'm in a really bad mood because of it. 'nuff said.

so, because of all the 'schtuff' going on in reference to the above, i haven't even felt like scrapping much.....most of the stuff i have to post is from me not posting last weekend (hence the bad blogger reference). but i'll post the few pages I do have since I owe it to the designers I CT for and all.....

First up.....the kit i posted the sneak peek of (ages ago!) is Haynay's new Chronicling Life mini....for April. I also used her Primary Dot Alpha and the Chronicling Life Alpha (one of them anyways)..and Sya's new kit, '1,2,3,4, Go (2)'.....Alaina wanted these SO BAD...but she didn't get them! :P


and I don't think i ever posted this one......it's with a freebie of Haynay's called 'good times all around'....she gave out a mini kit and everybody that applied for her CT did a layout with it.....I guess she liked mine since she asked me to stay on her CT! This is of us at Disney (obviously) back in March '09 at the Toontown entrance


Haynay's kit 'playtime petshop', and Sya's '1,2,3,4..Go (2)' templates
....of Darcy's visit to Zach's PreK class...those kids LOVED having that puppy in their class!!


And I finally got around to scrapping Alaina's birthday party:



And Zach's PreK bowling trip last week:



And a couple weeks ago....my girl scout troop meeting the Mayor, where he signed a proclamation declaring that week national girl scout week. They were SO excited to meet our mayor!


another one with sya's new template pack (i think i've almost used them all already!)
of my favorite princess.....


And I did this page at a speed scrap over this past weekend.....thought it turned out pretty cute...and the pictures say it all....she was SO excited:


so that's all the pages i've got to post for now......it's going to be a busy weekend, preparing for easter with the family and such. i doubt i do much scrappin'! today, i went to Zach's preK easter party...they had an egg hunt and played on the playground (in this GORGEOUS weather we've been having all week!), and then had some yummy snacks. It was the cutest thing watching all those PreK kids trying to find their eggs.....they were supposed to only pick up the eggs that had their names on them....and given that most of them can't really read yet....it made it interesting! So I had a good afternoon with Zach! Karl and all the kids are off of school today and Monday.....so they'll be having lots of fun without me! :(

and that's it for now.....I'm taking my bad attitude and heading to bed!

Sneaky Peeky!!!

I survived! (warning: lots of pics!)

*sigh*....yes, it's been awhile since I sat down to write on the ol' blog. We've been BUSY....just not with stuff I'd consider "blogging-worthy" (if that makes any sense?)

This past Monday was Alaina's birthday! Our little girl is definitely not so little anymore! She's 9 now.....where do the years go?? Seriously!!!

So for her actual birthday, since Daddy was home all week on his spring break (lucky duck!), he took cookies and juice boxes to her class at school:

And that night, we told her we'd take her out to dinner wherever she wanted to go......and of course, OUR kid won't pick a McDonald's playland or anything like that. oh no. She picks Red Lobster! And what does she get there? Lobster! sheesh! expensive child!!!!


And while we decided to let her open her gift from us while we were there:
(I love catching that look of surprise in a picture....priceless!) We got her the new American Girl doll, Lanie......kinda close to her name.....or as close as we're ever going to find most likely!


(and FYI, that's a root beer bottle in front of the 9-year old!)

Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent shoveling dirt....oh the fun we had. not. The kids enjoyed themselves, since they got to ride in the empty tractor cart that Karl was using to haul those 3 tons of dirt to the back yard.

And the finished product.....we've never attempted a garden before, so wish us luck! Any good organic gardening tips, send them our way please!


And here's the latest with miss Darcy....she's taken to being more efficient at mealtimes:


on Thursday, Karl went to Zach's PreK class for the afternoon. Since Zach's dad was visiting, Zach got to hold the flag for the pledge.....look how excited he is!


"Now don't crowd the puppy, kids!" uhm, yeah....you can't even SEE the puppy! :P


A kiss for his best friend Darcy:


and then they passed her around the circle....thankfully, Darcy's used to being manhandled and "loved to death" at home, so this was no biggie:


So, Friday night came around, and it was time to create "the cake".....and I'll vent my frustration toward my SIL since this cake was her idea! :P Actually, it didn't turn out THAT BAD.....there was a slight problem with said "pool" LEAKING at one point, where drastic measures had to be taken (ie practically starting over at 10PM with me nearly in tears and frustrated beyond belief with the thing!)

The final product.....not the way I pictured it, but given what I went through with it, this was as good as it was gonna get!


Saturday was the big party day......Alaina wanted a pool party....so we had a luau at the pool for her party.....the kids had SO much fun!

The birthday girl in her "hula girl" glory, with some of her friends:


there's that kickin' cake again....darned thing nearly melted it was so hot in there!


Pool party time!


Zach didn't exactly wait for 'cake time'...

what a FUN BUNCH....sheesh.....look happy, Caudles!

Hula Buddha! This is "little big John"....Dean and Stacy's foster kid:






sing quick, before the cake melts! :P


Presents:
a dress for her new doll:

and a matching dress for her!

she was SOOOO excited for this...she's ALWAYS wanting to scrapbook with me!


So the swimmin' luau pool party was a ton of fun.......and no, i didn't get in the water. no thanks! And I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures or not, but Alaina's got her first black eye.....she wasn't quite fast enough with the glove at softball practice on Thursday night....she doesn't want to play catcher anymore, btw!

Then after a family cookout at the house for dinner, there was a sleepover here for some of her friends......we had 6 girls sleeping in the basement last night.....or rather....we had 6 girls NOT SLEEPING in the basement last night while mean-ol'-mom continuously shushed them.....'till about 1AM when they all finally passed out! sheesh! And then we had a little brother of one of the girls staying over too for Matthew's company.....

Needless to say, I'm tired today....didn't get a nap.....and now I'm getting ready to make some plans for the week and attempt to reclaim the house from birthday festivities!

so, scrappin......I'm so behind on my plugs....bad Diana! So....this layout uses a bunch of stuff from Haynay: Chronicling Life Alpha, Playtime Petshop, Fancy Pants, and School's out for Summer. It was that disastrous night of rollerskating. I just liked the title.....i thought that was most clever and it makes me laugh every time i see it. :D


Another plug for Haynay.....her latest kit, "Tumble Time".....easy enough to get pictures for this one!


No plugs for this one, i just don't think i ever posted it.....the playground at our church camp, Brush Creek.....when we were home visiting the parentals a couple weeks ago, we took a drive out in the country (my parents love to do that), and to give the kids some time to burn off some energy, we stopped here and let them play:


More layouts from our trip to Disney over a year ago now (*sigh*...doesn't seem that long ago!)



and I haven't gotten a layout done yet, but Sya released a new template pack this week, called "1,2,3,4...Go set 2" Hopefully this week, with no party stuff going on, i'll get more scrappin done than i did this last week:

I guess that's it for now.....take care and have a great week everybody!!!

And they called it "Puppy Love"......

And we have a new addition to our family this week.....after 5 anxious weeks of waiting....of having the kids ask me EVERY DAY if "today was the day"......we FINALLY brought home our new puppy.


I named her Darcy.....any Jane Austen fan will appreciate that, I think!

Isn't she the cutest little thing ever? and yes, the bug-eyed, lazy-eyed thing is normal for pug puppies! I've wanted a pug puppy forever, but they were always just way too expensive. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I got in touch with the cousin of a former classmate that was selling a litter really cheap! WOOHOO! So now Darcy is a part of the family.

So that's been the excitement of this week basically! Up until that point, it's just been the usual: work for us, school for the kids, blah blah blah. We took the kids to Petco Wednesday night and spent a small fortune on all kinds of puppy stuff....food, leash, collar, carrier, food dish, and lots of toys of course! The kids had a blast!

Friday we left for Fairfield for a multitude of reasons: 1. to visit my dad, who's still recovering from pneumonia (doing LOTS better though!), 2. to sell the rest of the nursery furniture that's been collecting dust in the garage, and 3. to pick up the puppy. Oh, and I also had a lunch of a sancho and a porkburger. Fairfield fine-dining fo' sho'!!!

Last night Karl and I took Alaina and Matthew rollerskating. It didn't go so well. I was laughing so hard......it's been about 10 years since I put on a pair of rollerskates myself, but i was still able to skate like i used to. I was thrilled. But this was the first time the kids had ever been on skates, and they were NOT very graceful. I kept singing, "butt on the ground, butt on the ground....you lookin' like a fool with your butt on the ground!" LOL! even karl wasn't too confident on the skates.....he never actually FELL.....but he did yell at a couple kids to "GET OUT OF MY WAY! I CAN'T STOP! I WILL CRUSH YOU!" :P LOL!!! so that adventure lasted all of about half an hour. Matthew and Alaina both gave up on skating....Karl claimed the skates hurt his feet.....so it was just me skating around my old home on the weekends (in junior high, i was on that rink every Friday/Saturday night!).....ah, memories!

And even though it's been a pretty uneventful week, for whatever reason, I haven't scrapped much. odd, huh? But I'll share the few pages I did manage to get done.

Last week's Nacho Plunge that Karl did:




and the brownie bowling outing that i missed because i was with Nacho...


and the last layout I've done for the week......of Princess Darcy herself (that's what Zach calls her)


And since I was a slacker and didn't manage a layout (if you're reading this, sorry Heather....I'll get around to it eventually!), Haynay released a new alpha to coordinate with the Jan/Feb/March mini kits....it's called "Chronicling Life First Quarter Alpha"


So I guess that's it for now......there's laundry to put away and we're in the middle of watching the new Star Trek movie for the 50th time (which I never get tired of, amazingly, and the kids love it!).....another weekend come and gone by way too fast!!