Talented

OK, so if you look to the right of my blog you'll see all of my links to favorite websites/blogs. I just wanted you to notice I've added a couple new blog sites! Take a look at them! Rebekka Erickson is a super nice designer from Austraila that I took classes from back in Illinois while she was there! And Elsie Flannigan, I've never had the privilage of meeting, but I LOVE looking at her stuff! She is uber talented - I especially like the way she uses lots and lots and lots of color on her scrapbook pages! Anyway, enjoy!

The key to a beautiful, healthy smile is....

....good habits, of course! Every night, just before bed one of Kami's favorite things to do is to take a bath! Lately, as we get ready for bathtime (ususally right after dinner, because I let her get a little expiremental with her food), I'll set her down in the bathroom as I draw her tubby, this is soon followed by a shreek of excitement and pulling herself up on the tub to watch mommy fill her bath. Well, today I thought I'd test just how dedicated to her bathtime she really is. So, after dinner I sat her in the kitchen while I cleaned off the countless peas, carrots and cheeros that missed her mouth. After putting the high chair back in the dining room and without moving Kamden, who was still entertaining herself with a cup in the kitchen, I went into her bathroom, turned on the water and called "Kamden, sweetie! Bathtime! Come here, babe!" And then I waited. Then all of the sudden, who did I see round the corner from the kitchen and b-line is as fast as she could to the sound of running bathwater? Why, my little fish of a dauthter, of course! And who wouldn't come running (or speed-crawling) to bathtime in our house! It's full of excitement with all the toy-chewing, splashing and bubble-blowing (I keep her bubbles by the tub)?? But, we do take care of business here! Along with the washing, we usually do a really good cleaning job on the earings and of course, we have to take care of that toothie (and actually there's another one cutting through....yep, back to short naps and restless nights!)!!! So, I got Kamden a toddler toothbrush to "chew" on while she's in the bath, just so she gets used to that bristly thing in her mouth! Yay! What fun!

On a day like this

On a beautiful day like this, one would be crazy to pass up an afternoon at the park! There is a fantastic park here in Oklahoma City on Lake Hefner that Kami and I love to visit! Swings are one of her favorites, but today Kami found all kinds of interesting things to pick up and try to put in her mouth! Not everything is food, baby girl!

Pullin' Up!

Kamden started to try to pull herself up on things just about the time she was learning to crawl. Now she crawls fast and pulls herself up on everything! Now, how long before they start walking?? I was talking to Auntie Rachel when I took this picture.

16 Roses

After 6 1/2 years of marrage, my husband finally listened to all my hints about wanting to get flowers!!! Yay! Thanks, babe! These are BEAUTIFUL!!! Love you!

See...I DO still Scrapbook!

For those thinking that I don't scrapbook anymore, here's proof that I do still scrapbook! Every once in a while, I do get the opportunity to sit down and do what I love to do! First and foremost, I am a mother and I LOVE spending time with Kamden! I don't just want to take pictures of my daughter to scrapbook, I want to make those memories! Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed creating!

Sick to our stomach!

Oh yeah! I've gotta tell you about this! So, a couple weeks ago I was SOOO sick! 24 hour stomach flu, I thought. Yuck! Downright miserable! A week later, Drew got the same bug! I though that was weird since it was a week after I was sick! I didn't realize the Flu bug stuck around that long.

So, today I'm sure you've all heard about the recall on the Peter Pan peanut butter with the number beginning 2111. Well, this evening while I was playing with Kamden and listening to the Nightly News, they mentioned this recall again, except, not only did they say "Peter Pan" brand, but "Great Value" brand as well. That really caught my ear because I know that the last time I bought peanut butter it was from WalMart and it was their store brand. So, I jumped up, went to my pantry grabbed the peanut butter and...sure enough! Right on the top it had a number beginning 2111!!! Crazy, huh!?! No wonder why Drew and I both got sick with the same symptoms, only a week apart! Sheesh!

Pictures of Kamden

I just thought I'd share some new pictures of Kamden that I took yesterday and today! A couple things....if you look REALLY closely at some of the pictures you can see her new toothie! And while you're looking closely, you'll notice something different from any of the other pictures of her (no, not the runny nose!); she's got EARINGS! Yep! They're for real! We just went to get them done on Monday while visiting in St. Louis! I think she looks so cute! And I think her earings are actually straight (mine aren't, one hole is higher than the other - and if you knew me as a kid, you'd understand why! I could not sit still if my life depended on it!). Anyway, things are going well here! Drew's out of town this week on a business trip, so it's just the girls here! We sure miss him though! Kamden's really starting to get around these days! I'm having to watch her more and more! She's really crawling fast! And she's started pulling herself up on everything! Last night she tried to pull herself up on our entertainment center, but didn't quite make it and smacked her face against the door. When I picked her up, I saw she had a bloody nose! You can imagine my sheer panic! So, quickly calming myself down, I took Kami in the bathroom and cleaned her up and watched her for a few minutes to make sure the bleeding was stopping. It did and she seemed to be fine, but I think she was still a little shook up, so we went out to the living room and watched Sesame Street while she sat on my lap (this is how I know she must've been a little shook up, she's usually wanting down to play with her toys or squirming on my lap when I hold her lately), while I called my mom for some reasurrance! Thanks mom! So, today we're doing much better! Since getting her tooth in, she's sleeping much better and actually taking decent naps (the last two days she's gotten in a total of 3-4 hours of daytime sleep), and she's sleeping longer during the night. Overall, she just continues to be a very happy baby and we're so blessed to have her!

Excuse the "mess"....

Doing a little early "spring cleaning" on my blog sites. I've decided to merge my scrapbook blog and my personal blog here, but I wanted to keep some of my old posts, so many of them here, I'm sure most of you guys have seen, but I just wanted to save them! If you haven't seen them, enjoy! If you have, enjoy again!

{Cowgirls, Big Birds and The Little Mermaid}

{Family}

Good greif it's been a while since I last posted on this blog site! Sorry! Believe it or not I have been working on pages and projects! Here's one of the latest and one of my favorites! I thought it turned out beautifully using Basic Grey! I'm currently working on some Design Team stuff for the Scrapbook Factory and I hope to have posted shortly. So keep an eye out for Flair Design and Little Mermaid stuff!

{100% Girl}

{Little Lotte}

I am addicted to making these Lunch Pails! This one I made for my niece for her 1st birthday. I thought it would be a fun way for her to carry some of her toys in while taking a ride in the car or for those fantastic sunday toys during church! My sister broke the news to me, however that this pail took an unfortunate fall off of their car as they were going home from church and the letters on the pail were totaled. "NO PROBLEM!" I said, "I can make you another set of letters!". That is, until I went to pull the chipboard letters and I couldn't remember what letter font I used! It's a darn good thing that I take photos of all my projects! All I had to do was check out my photographs and I was in the clear! Yeah for blogs!

{This Little Light Of Mine}

Another fun and easy project! A pre-sticky night-light! And that Basic Gray paper is absolutly PERFECT! This little light has so come in handy during the night when I get up a million times during the night to check in on my daughter!

{Krazy Magnetic Board}

Oooh okay, this was so much fun to do! Not to mention super easy! My favorite part was painting the animals fun colors (note the monkey....this is what happens to a monkey when he eats too many bananas!). I thought the animals colors tied in well with the Basic Gray paper and most importantly, my daughters room! If you find these particular magnetic boards by Provo Craft, grab them while you can! For some reason the company is discontinuing them (if you know anybody that lives in Utah, have them pick up some at Robert's Crafts)!

{Yes Sir, That's My Baby!}

OK, not much explination needed on this one; other than it was a layout challange from a forum that I'm on! I actually had so much fun putting this together and it's been a picture that I've been meanin to scrapbook for a while now.

{What Time Is It?}

This is yet another project for Kami's room! I absolutly LOVE the new Daisy D's vintage kids paper! My friend Tammy Heart In Hand Scraps (look under "February 2006")used this paper on a magnetic board that turned out absolutly adorable! The clock is one of the new Making Memory "project" kits (fantastic deal, by the way!). Of course, it's still not quite done yet.....needs Kami's picture in it! (Notice the Camel on the left....Daddy brought that back from Doha, Qatar).

{Kamden}

This was one of my very first projects after I stopped working at the Scrapbook Factory a couple weeks ago. Though I miss work terriably, it was a wonderful feeling to be able to accomplish a few things I've been wanting to do for our soon-to-be new daughters nursery (one more month to go!). I am such an indescisive person, that when it came to picking out a true color theme for the nursery, I couldn't descide! So....I've kind of got a mixed color theme! I thought it'd be cool for these letters to go through my HUGE file of scraps and use those up! Also notice I've used the Heidi Swapp Ghost Letters on each of the letters! I just love those!

{True Strength Is Delicate}

This project actually began as I was pulling product for the Design Team of the Scrapbook Store that I work for. Trying to think of the perfect paper and embellishments to go with this 12 x 12" Melissa Frances Frame, I wondered over to the Basic Gray section of our store. I had purchased this paper myself as soon as it arrived in the store - I was immediatly drawn to the colors and the pattern. Very elegant, somewhat oriental. Anyway, as I began to pull this for the Design Team, I realized that I wanted to do this project. But, not only did I want to do this project I wanted to keep this project! So, I purchased the frame that evening and rushed home to complete this project! The picture was almost perfect for the project as well. The only problem being I took this self portrat on a landscape, instead of a portrat. So, after stretching the photo out a bit on my computer (I'm actually 8 months pregnant in this photo, though I look about 4 - if you can tell at all). I added the quote that I felt really represented this photograph: "True Strength is Delicate". For me, that about sums up my experience of spending 4 month of my pregnancy with the long-distance support of my husband, who is serving with the Air Force in the Middle East. It has been tough, but, I feel all the stronger for it. I hope, as I do with every deployment that my husband serves on, that I can go through it with grace and delicasy. I hope to be able to teach my children this strength as well.

{H is for Home}

This 7 Gypsies Mini Album is kind of a work in progress. I want to create it into a storybook-like album to go on our coffee table. Truly, when is our story ever over? Here, it began with two people falling in love. I want to include pages like, our traditions (eating at Sweet Tomatoes), our kitties (Callie and Durk), of course a place for our children (Kamden Renee - coming this June!), Drew's military accomplishments, the homes we've lived in. You get the idea. Things that define us as a family. And this is such a fun-shaped album to work with! Not to mention the paper and stickers from 7 Gypsies goes PERFECT with it.

{Games}

Okay, so I picked up this lunch pail about a month ago and bought it, not knowing quite what I was going to do with it. But, it was unique and I wanted it. So, it had been sitting in my craft room, until I walked into Target and noticed all the fun little games they had in the Dollar Spot. Then the light bulb went off in my head! What fun it would be to use that lunch box and a travel game carrier! So, I picked up some games, went to my LSS for the perfect *something* to decorate the box with. I saw the sticker by 'We R Memory Keepers' and thought that would be cute, but there wasn't really any paper to go with it. A couple days passed and a new order came in from 'We R Memory Keepers' that had this paper from their Urban Window collection! How perfectly it went with this sticker sheet! So, it all came together! Yay! I love it when that happens! And yes, this is another class I'm teaching (Target toys excluded). I though I'd pack my schedule with fun classes and projects these last couple months I'll be around. Having a baby and moving this summer.....I must be in denial!

{Address Box}

This was another fun "naked" project our boss gave us. She acutally gave us about 6 or 7 different items to alter, and this was one that I had completed. Again, I cannot take complete credit for this idea. I had actually been surfing on ebay one day when I saw this idea and thought it was so clever I had to make one for myself. These also make excellent gifts for those graduating seniors who are heading off to school next year! I just gave one to my niece as an early graduation gift, so that she can start getting all of her friends addresses!

{Of Good Report}

This is actually part of a 16 page mini album that I had done for my Photography Final Project at school. We had to choose between "The Seven Deadly Sins" or "The Seven Virtues" to take photos of. I obviously chose the virtues. The photos are printed and developed in black & white, and are made a sepia-like tone by using Tim Holtz Walnut Distressing ink. My Photography class was so curious and impressed that you can give your photos different tones, many of them ran out to the craft store after class and bought a bunch of Tim Holts distressing ink! Many of the pictures in this album are taken in Nauvoo, IL with the exception of these two, which are taken at Carthage Jail in Carthage, IL and, naturally, St. Louis, MO. The second scripture is one of my very favorites and has helped me through so many trials in my life!

Toothies!

Yay! Kami's getting her first tooth in! All the fussin' and sleepless nights finally have something to show for it! I really had a feeling this time that she was getting a tooth and sure enough, I see and feel a little white tooth coming in! Yay! I'm so excited for her! She's also very moble now! She's crawling faster and faster every day - especially towards those things which she's not supposed to have (ie, cat food, computer, paper...).

Drew and Kamden are taking me out for my birthday tomorrow. Can you believe it? I'm 28 years old! 28!!!! Crazy! Anyway, I'm hoping Kami behaves herself. ;^) What a party animal! And I also leave for St. Louis on Thursday! I'm pretty excited about that! It's always nice to see friends!

It was such a beautiful day today in OKC! It probably reached about 70 degrees. So Kamden and I went to the park by Lake Hefner. I figured there'd be lots of kids there and she's so into watching other kids! So, we went to the park, I ate lunch, we took a little walk on the trail then came back to the park and I noticed a dad there with his little girl and baby boy that looked about the same age as Kami, and he was swinging on the swing (one of the little kids swings that has the back and front to it), so I though, "Hey, if that baby's doing okay in the swing, Kami might, too. So, I put Kamden in the swing next to the baby boy and she absolutely LOVED it! It was so cute, she was even holding onto the swing like and old pro!! I so wish I would have brought my camera with me! She has such a cute grin on her face the entire time! (And, by the way, I was right about the baby boy's age....he's 7 months, too!) Oh well, I'll try and remember the camera next time!