Grace

No time but I wanted to show you this I took at one of my favorite places. She's such a little beauty!

Tagged

So Vee tagged me! I've been blogging well over a year and never been tagged, a virtual tag virgin-that's me. Apparently I have to list 7 random little know facts/habits about myself. Then tag 7 more people and list it in their comments so that they have to do the same. So here goes...


1. I wanted twins forever. When I was little I'd play "LIFE" by myself, (my family wasn't into games) and I'd go over and over the part where you get the children until I had twins, sometimes I'd have 2 car load of kids! LOL When we first announced we were pregnant, my mother in law asked if I wanted a girl or a boy and I said "I want twins"! We were truly blessed! Although, this am. when the twins decided they had to do an assignment this morning that they obviously put on the back burner to play outside yesterday, I didn't feel too blessed and neither did they. Let's just say they won't be playing with friends for about 7 more days!
2. I am not organized. No shocker there!
3. I am a boxer freak. Truly. Like will stop my car to talk to someone if they are walking a boxer. No joke.
4. I personify animals in my head all the time. My family makes fun of me incessantly for it. I can't help it!
5. This is the heaviest I've ever been in my life except pregnant or immediately post partum. It sucks.
6. I like to drink orange juice when I eat pizza. I know, it sounds yucky.
7. I love to bake and I like to feed people. My husband says I'm already like an old Polish grandmother~ "EAT, EAT!"

Let's see, I'll Tag 7 people and list them later...must go work on a project real quick AND my sister is coming for a visit TONIGHT!!!! YEAH! So you'll be seeing fresh pics of my gorgeous little neice and nephew real soon!

I took this picture of Peyton yesterday, She has such pretty skin! :D

Still SCRAP HAPPY!

Here are some more pics..

This coffee cup cracks me up, we've got yummy coffee at Srap-Masters and Kristi accidentally spilled some of her green paint on her cup, HOW APPROPOS! LOL Cathy and I are looking at KC like she's crazy in the frame pic....ummmm maybe 'cause she is! :D

And yes that is Chester slippin' Kristi the tongue. LOL

SERIOUSLY...

I don't even know where to start. Seriously. SO MUCH FUN!!! I really had the best scrappy weekend EVER! And I have to say that my man MATT totally ROCKS too! Friday on thru Sunday were just a whirlwind of FUN with Kristina. The girl rocks, HARD! Matt took excellent care of the kiddos while KC and I had a blast. If you EVER have a chance to take a http://soundsofscience.blogspot.com Kristina Contes class, drop everything and DO it! Plus I've totally gained a new friend who I'm LOVIN! :D Let's start at the beginning...

Friday, Peyton and I picked Kristina up at the airport and made a quick stop by Scrap-Masters so she could drop off her scrap-goodness. Her books are so yummy and I have to say I think that not only do her wonderful and WILD ideas come from her UBER cool creative mind, she uses rubber cement...enough said (read here: FUMES) :D Okay, on to my house for a meet and greet with my other kids, husband and zoo. Chester immediately fell in love, pictures of that will follow tomorrow and I must say the feeling is mutual although KC has a girl crush on Macy. After a jaunt to the hotel for a
quick check in we went back to the house for Peach Sangria and SMORE'S on a campfire...YUM!
Next morning, bright and early (yeah well I was a tad late but you know...) off to the store for the classes! OKAY, this was SO MUCH fun! SO much fun, yeah, I know I said that but GAWSH it was GREAT! And I met my girl VEE http://creativeblessing.blogspot.com/ who SO totally is incredibly awesome and beautiful AND she brought me a Heidi Swapp stamp I've been dying for. TOO COOL and check out her AMAZING work, she is VERY up and coming. Kristi is calm and relaxed and FUNNY while teaching and it rubs off on the students...I LOVED that. It showed everyone that scrapping should be FUN! I set next to a SUPER cool lady that I wanted to bring home and have her be my MOM! LOL (sorry Deb and Dawn, but she's GREAT)! The NEXT class was JUST as great and I really don't even know which book I like better. I'm totally in love with both and I keep looking at them over and over and over!

Last night we had a great dinner with David and Cathy at the CrackPot in Bel Air. Yummy food and I had 2 Blue Moons....again YUMMY! Sadly, this am. the girls and I drove KC back to the airport. Not only did I gain SUPERCOOL new ideas but also a new friend. Seriously.

More photos to come tomorrow, check back, K?

SPRING FLING

As I've mentioned a million other times, the LSS where I work is having it's first birthday bash this weekend AND I'm taking both Kristina Contes classes on Saturday. So needless to say, I'm looking forward to this weekend! I made (with a little bit of help from Peyton) these SUPER FUN SPRING pinwheels! I think the colors are so DELISH but that may have something to do with the pink and GREEN color scheme! (wink) I also get to meet Vee on Saturday! That's gonna be cool because I've been following her blog for so long now! COME ON SATURDAY!

Almost forgot to mention, yesterday was my 14th wedding anniversay. I forgot to say anything to Matt in the morning and he forgot as well. SO about 8:30 I called his cell (which is sort of a no no considering he's a 7th grade teacher) and when he picked up I just screamed Happy Anniversary. He didn't say anything and hung up. A second later my phone rang and I picked
it up and his entire class scream "Happy Anniversary" He's a dork! LOL

she's this and more...

Just some Callie lovin! Out of my three she's the most LEAST cooperative with photos so I'm SO happy whe let me take pictures of her a few weeks back. You are probably tired of seeing her but normally she's the least scrapped! She really is such a cool kid if I do say so myself. I am totally not kidding when I say she is an adult (a very wise adult) in an almost 11 year old body! She's always been that way!

Tweaked

This layout of Callie has been hidden in her room for a couple months. She didn't like it so she hid it from me! Sometimes the truth hurts, huh? :D Anyway I finally begged her to let me see it and I realized I didn't like a part of it either so this a.m. I tweaked it some and I like it so much better! That flower is one of the buttons from my mother in law...It's so FLIPPIN YUMMY! So 3-D!

freshhhhhh...

Okay, so I've been baking up a bunch of fresh layouts lately but haven't been posting them. I've kinda been tossing the idea of submitting around and sounds like you can't have them online much anymore. I'm tired of not posting and I don't know if I'm IN LOVE with this layout yet, I usually can't tell till the morning but here it is: sorry the colors are much different in real life but that's what happens when you photograph it at midnight on the dining room table! These paper are some of the new girl scout papers from K &Co. that SM just got in. If you read my blog at all (all 10 of you) you know that I LOVE pink and green...yummy! The pics not that grainy either in real life. Jeeezo I've picked this thing apart!

Speaking of Scrap-Masters, we got more delish stuff in and I'm dying for the AMY BUTLER scrap-pack we have...I LOVE IT! Apparently we are getting in the totes/purses too! We'll have all kinds of goodies for Saturday at the birthday bash! Fontwerks, Hambly Screen Prints, lots of K&Co. goodies, finally some scalloped Bazzill. I'm so excited about the Fontwerks and Hambly goodies...YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!

The view from my lap

This is the view from my lap everymorning...Chester squeezed in between me and the keyboard and the pub in the background!

And this....do you ever EVER feel like this? A lonely piece of cap'n crunch in a sea of CRUNCH BERRIES?

Science can be FUN!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my twins have been at an Environmental Camp all week with their class. They've never been away, so this has been an EXPERIENCE for all of us! :D Luckily it's very close and we go to this park to hike or play in the stream especially in the summer, so they are very familiar with it.

Last night was family night and the parents were invited to a campfire and the kids toured us around. They looked so tired! LOL But very happy. It was so good to see them and we are so very proud of them for staying! We were really afraid that they would be too homesick because they are NOT used to staying over anywhere but Grandmoms! Here are some cute pictures...

Snips and Snails...

I had a fun SMU (Scrap-Masters University) layout class last night and the ladies were GREAT! As always I had some strange looks from the class because I really don't measure much but...anyway! Some of the girls couldn't do their photos because the machine went down. :( So they asked me to post this layout here, the other one is already in the archives. In this layout I taught a cool photo pop technique. If you look closely, Chester is popping out of the layout! FUN!

Tonight we get to go to a CAMPFIRE and see the twins! I'm so excited! And they come home early tomorrow! YEAH. I know they've had fun but are missing home. We've had a couple phone calls from the teachers just to let us know they are homesick but we are SO proud that they've stuck it out! I'm hoping to get some fun pictures tonight!

kissy lips

Yesterday, the twins left for a 3 day "trip" with their classmates for a science immersion program. Luckily they are only about 15 minutes away but they've never been "AWAY". I knew if would be hard when they left but I can't really describe how it feels. I know this is SO awesome for them and such an incredible experience but I just worry about the little things, like is Cole going to remember chapstick (he has my dry lips) and will they wear sunscreen, etc. etc. etc. Okay, gotta stop before I get more sad.

In other news, <------I think Chester's lips are just beggin' for a big kiss here! :D

In other, other news...yesterday I was able to check out the Hambly that came in at Scrap-Masters, let me just say YUM! Awesome heavy weight papers and the transparency's are just LOVELY and the SMELL. OHHHH the smell, Vanilla! Vanilla, people it's just DELISH smelling! We are not going to have it put out until the birthday weekend, April 21, but I'm just DYING for some of this! And there are SUPER cool SILVER rubons that I'm just itching to use.

It's April!

It's spring but my goodness we had SNOW flurries on EASTER SUNDAY yesterday! The poor kids had to do their egg hunt in winter jackets and jeans! MAN, I want some warm weather! We had such a nice day, low stress and fun filled with lots of chocolate. Here's a layout I did super quick the other night. Not much to say but it sure was fun to just PLAY! I used Heidi Grace paper and cardstock stickers. I copied the little tiny bird and just made a paper piecing out of the cute papers that matched. Easy peasy and I'm lovin this bird. :D

Italian Beef and Garlic Mash

Oh shucks girls, thanks for the sweet compliments...

I got a similar recipe off of 2peas a while back and lost it then found it. Here it is with my modifications...

Here's the Italian beef

1 3.5 - 5 lb. RUMP roast
1 can of beef broth
1 can of french onion soup
2 packets of Italian dressing mix
1 16 oz. jar of pepperoncini (in vinegar) cut stems from pepperoncini and reserve liquid

Dump ALL except stems in the crock pot and cook 8- 12 hours on low. I then drain off the liquid and most of the peppers (my family can be wimpy, lol) and reserve the liquid. I then shred the meat in the crock pot and top with provolone or mozzarella and wait about 5 minutes. Serve on toasted onion rolls!

Garlic Mash potatoes
1 5lb bag of red potatoes washed and cubed but not skinned
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
milk
"Oh so GARLIC" from Lizzies Kitchen (in the spice aisle) or Garlic Garlic! from tastefully simple
salt and pepper
1 cup of real shredded Parmesan

cook potatoes till tender. While they are cooking put about 1/2 cup milk and about 1 T of the garlic stuff, the cream cheese and the butter in the mixing bowl. Add salt and pepper till taste. Drain potatoes and add to mixing bowl. Beat till mixed then add the Parmesan and beat just till blended adding more milk if needed. Enjoy!

I got the original recipe for the parmesan mashed pots from Chef Mickey's in Disney world and the garlic is just icing on the cake! I don't even normally like garlic but a little here just gives them a great kick!

An unrelated picture because you HAVE to have a picture!

My new favorite photo place!

It was such a gorgeous day here today, like 74 with a nice breeze. The kids are off with spring break, I've got spicy italian beef in the crock pot and plans for garlic mash potatoes! The kids were semi cooperative for some photos (well Callie was VERY cooperative, which is NOT the norm) so I've had a GREAT day! LOL Here are a few from today...