Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!!

Today started out so great because of my sweetheart. He sent me on a scavenger hunt (guided by the kids) and at the end I was given my wedding ring by Brodyn. (I had to have it cut off when I was pregnant with Brodyn and its been in a safe ever since). I was so surprised and very, very touched. I love you dear, Happy Anniversary!! We've been very blessed during the past 17 years!!

Moment I Cherish . . .

Things have been so crazy lately that I haven't had any time to work on any creative projects and it's really been bugging me. Last night I finally was able to spend a little time sewing and I even finished a layout! I mostly used Robyn Meiretto's new kit "Cool Kid". The journaling is something I've been thinking about a lot lately as I contemplate Brodyn starting preschool soon. They just grow up too fast!

We are finally ready for Christmas and so excited that we get to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house!! Hopefully we can get everyone healthy by then. Can't wait!!

Christmas Card 2011

Finally got a christmas card made. Nothing fancy cuz I have so many things on my list right now. Atleast I get to cross one off right?

Its cold and snowy here, but the roads aren't bad - so I'm happy. We are getting excited for Christmas around here. The tree looks a little worse for wear between Cali (our cat) and Brodyn, but it's still beautiful. Hope you are all enjoying the holidays too!!

DHD Decorator Blog Hop

Its time for my first blog hop as a Design House Decorator! We are all sharing a quick page (in both 12x12 and 8.5x11 sizes) that we've designed from the free kit. I'm so excited to be a part of such a talented and friendly group of ladies who share my love of DHD and digital scrapbooking.

Here a link that will get you to the DHD designer blog hop, if that doesn't work try this. If you haven't grabbed these kits you need to because they are yummy!!

Here is my contribution:

To get it, click here, or on the image above!

And the page I made with it:

Be sure to stop by all of the other Decorators' blogs to get their quick pages too!!

• Allison Waken
• Anna Drozd
• Aria Andrus
• Carey Bridges
• Christy Carlson
• Crystal Livesay
• Gennifer Bursett
• Jen Papadimitriou
• Jennifer Hignite
• Jen Flaherty
• Jeryn Carlisi
• Katherine Hansen
• Lori Pickens
• Mary Rogers
• Sarah Hemmert
• Shannon Dombkowski
• Tiffany Bodily

We Made It!

Volleyball is over (I made it through)! Aubrei's team ended up getting 3rd place at Districts. She hurt her thumb warming up for the last game so she wasn't able to set, but she still did a great job and I'm very proud of her. I can't believe how much she progressed this year (makes me excited for next year - am I crazy or what?). She is very much a team player and hard worker, which makes her a great setter.

A few days after vball was over Aubrei was playing football at school and her other thumb got kicked. Luckily it isn't broken, but she's had to have brace and wrap on for a couple weeks. We're lucky she's done with vball and that she doesn't need her thumb to dance. Silly girl - gotta love her!

Brodyn fell at a friend's house last week and we ended up at the Emergency Room. Thank goodness for glue - so no stitches. Its been a pain keeping his knee wrapped, but its healing well (especially for my wild and dirty 4year old).

Ainsli is doing well in dance and school and trying my patience. Proof that miracles do take work:)

We're gearing up to do fundraisers for dance team. We're hoping to make enough to cover competition fees and hopefully costumes too, we'll see!!

I even have exciting news this month! I made the decorator team at Design House Digital. I'm so excited. They are my favorite place for digital scrapbooking goodies. I love their gallery and all the fun things they do. I'm so excited to be a part of their team and share my passion for preserving memories - digital makes it so much quicker and that is a great thing in my book!

Ainsli's baptism

Ainsli's baptism weekend was so special, but I'll be honest its taken me awhile to catch back up with everything. Things are crazy busy around here with volleyball, dance and young womens. I wouldn't change a thing, but things do get a little crazy:) I'm so looking forward to conference weekend and the boost it gives me. Plus I hope to get in some scrapbook therapy time! This layout is from a template at Design House Digital - it went together so fast and that is a good thing for me right now!

Ainsli is my precious girl and I'm so thankful she was sent to our home by a loving Heavenly Father who knew what we needed most. She will always be my miracle baby. She is an amazing little girl and I am constantly impressed by her strength and desire to do what is right. It was nice to have so much support for her on her special day. She felt loved and that makes it worth every sacrifice.

Guess what's coming up?!

I can't believe my baby girl is going to be 8!!! It seemed so far away until now. She is ultra excited to get baptized and (of course) be the center of attention. We've got lots of planning still to do, but at least I can check "make invitation" off my list!

Checkin off my list!

I got so many things checked off my list today that I was able to give myself some time to finish some layouts I've been working on. A couple are for challenges and others just for fun. The pictures are recent except for the one of Ains from a couple years ago. She still makes the same look though . . .

Brei is 1/2way through her 1st week of volleyball this season. She is loving it and having fun. She's also been working on a ballet solo for competitions this year and is always prancing around :)

Ains is so excited for her upcoming baptism and is constantly thinking of more things she wants to do while everyone is here. I'm excited too - looking forward to some special photoshoots.

B is my happiness. He is so funny right now and his imagination is my best friend (it keeps him occupied). He is growing a lot lately and the poor guy has leg aches almost every night. So I've been getting even more snuggles than usual!

Ry is crazy busy, but he still makes time to do things for all of us. I'm very thankful for him - not only is he my sweetheart, but he is my hope and my safe place.

I've been very blessed and my goal is to remind myself of all the things that are truly most important - it takes away some of the sting from the stressors in my life.

Little Man . . .

Check out our "little man". I can't get over how stinkin' cute he is. I love the orange tie and he is super proud of his belt and boots that he got for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. He pointed them out to everyone willing to listen to him at church Sunday. He's been so silly lately with the things he says to us. He's growing up way too much!

my baby is 4!!!

My special little man turned 4 a couple of weeks ago and he seems to have grow 2" and turned into a little man overnight. Gone are all traces of "babyness", while he works as hard as he can to be "like the big kids". . . He had a fun birthday - he had a lot of favorites to enjoy: cupcakes, water balloons and squirt guns, new boots, presents and olives! I made him "minion" cupcakes from Despicable Me, which he loved and has asked twice since if we could make them again. Its been a quiet summer filled with watering the gardens and trying to stay cool, but we finally were able to go fishing and the kids had a blast. I'm glad they enjoy it . . . I just take the pictures and stay out of the kitchen until everything is cleaned, gone, vaporized, whatever . . . :)

My little buddy

As silly and wild as this boy can be, he also has the power to melt his mom's heart. Saturday night we were winding down and reading some books together. All of a sudden my sweet little boy started singing - usually he sings jibberish and is silly, but I soon realized he was singing "I am a Child of God" and he was doing so good! Then we sang it together and my heart was near to overflowing and of course, my eyes already were!

I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to be this precious little boy's "momma". He is amazing and his spirit touches me with its strength and also its gentleness. He is growing so fast and will celebrate his 4th birthday on Saturday! Where has the time gone?

We are having a great summer so far even though we haven't done anything special. Its just nice to spend time together. I am so blessed!

some SWEET kids . . .

Yeah! School's out! I'm loving summer already!

I thought I'd share a few recent pics of my sweet kiddos! I love the one of Aubrei - she is such a beautiful young lady and we are privileged to be her family. The orange nail polish

is so her right now - its her favorite color - happy, just like her!

Ainsli and Brodyn posed for a few pictures, but only after

I bribed them with lollipops in their favorite colors :)

We are so blessed and I don't want to miss a single moment -

the kids are growing up so fast and time seems to be zooming right along. I have to keep reminding myself not to take anything for granted and enjoy all the little

things that are so "us" right now.

Brief Moments with no RAIN!

There has been so much rain the past few weeks, but we had a few little breaks in the rain when we were able to get outside for awhile and enjoy spring time - here's what we've been doing:

Helping Daddy weed the raspberry patch . . .

Using rocks to hold down blankets so the wind doesn't blow them away . . .

Playing with purple lizards and being heartbroken when they break . . . . .

Chasing the girls off the trampoline with a lawnmower . . .

So, we've been enjoying what we can of spring - but we are so ready for SUMMER! The girls get out of school this Friday and I can't wait! Yeah Summer! The sun is out today and I hope it stays for awhile - I really hope our garden starts growing and the seeds haven't all molded into the ground with all this rain - keeping my fingers crossed!

Brrr...

I thought I would share the layout I made for a DHD challenge. Yes, I know its spring, but in Wyoming there is always snow - so why not a snowy scrapbook page?! I made a word cluster for this page and uploaded it - so if you're a digital scrapper you are welcome to download it. Here is the link . . .

http://www.4shared.com/photo/RErH2R20/coldcluster.html

my reward

Taking the time to create this layout was "my reward" for walking until I couldn't feel my legs and avoiding the german chocolate cake on my counter! Things are going good!

backup to spring break . . .

I thought I'd share a page I did of Brodyn playing at Sagebrush on the only nice day of Spring Break. Yes, it was 2 1/2 weeks ago. I'm way behind and I know it! We really enjoyed Spring Break. The girls and I did a lot of projects and Brodyn was so excited to be able to go outside and play. Unfortunately he hasn't been able to since then, either because of the weather or sickness - poor guy! At our house we are just trying to survive right now. Ryan has been sicker than I've ever seen him in 16 years. He actually went to the ER on Saturday. Unfortunately I'm now starting to get it. I honestly don't care how the house looks, we're in survival mode from here on out!

gearing up for dance competitions . . .

Here is part of our dance photo shoot. We still don't have all of our costumes and competitions are coming up fast . . . The girls are getting excited, especially Ainsli because this will be her first competition. They have both grown so much this past year, both physically and in ability. So, I hope you enjoy the pics as much as this proud mama does. :)

Recent pages and therapeutic thoughts

I've been in need of some scrapbooking therapy and its working again. These are the only two pages that had recent pictures, so I thought I'd share. I love taking photographs, but when you take the time to really study them (which I do while I'm tinkering in Photoshop) and remember the story that is there to tell - it makes it so easy to remember your blessings.

I was reminded of how truly blessed I am while working on these pages. I don't need to worry about what others think . . . My children love me, my husband adores me, and my Heavenly Father is constantly blessing me. They don't care how much I weigh, whether I cry too much, or whether my clothes are out of style. I remembered that they love me for who I am inside and I need to learn how to do that too.

Love this Boy!!!

So, its no secret that Brodyn is a man of few words. Today he said I love you Momma for the first time and my heart melted in a puddle on the floor. He and I communicate really well, and this little guy shows me he loves me all the time, but it was a special moment for me. I love being a mom. My house is a mess because I've been at Brodyn's beck and call for two days because he's been sick. I wouldn't have it any other way - these moments won't last forever so I'm going to cherish them while I can. I love my little man!

time? where did u go?

Wow! Get sick for a month and you let a few things go . . .

We worked on projects up until Christmas and after as well. I finally finished binding Ryan's quilt that I gave him for Christmas last year - bad I KNOW.

I was determined to get it done and my fingers are barely getting back into the correct shape. (I'm only kidding a little there). . .

We've been making all kinds of bows to sell to help pay for dance competitions. Its not going as well as I thought it would because my girls keep taking them out of their packaging and wearing them so I'll let them keep them . . . sneakers!

We had a nice peaceful Christmas, but now we're back in running mode - speaking of which, we need to leave for dance!