Merry Christmas!

I know I haven't been keeping up too well with the ol' blog, but my computer DIED a couple days after Thanksgiving. So Sam has graciously been letting me hop on his computer a couple times a day.

But I wanted to post our family Christmas card and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!!!

It's that time again.......

Time to Elf Yourself!!! Yee haw!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The view from our house

This is what we woke up to this morning!

(See what you're missing Pam? Gotta love that lake effect snow!) ;o)

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

Nine years old......I can't believe it!!!!

A little reminiscing....

...from Christmas 2003

Today's creativity

Our Halloween....


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From back in January.....




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Happy Adoption Month!

In case you didn't know, November is National Adoption Awareness month. I wanted to share this great video made by some fellow adoptive moms. Adoption is such a beautiful picture of God's grace and His love for us. I admit that it takes a pretty big step of faith, but the joyful reward is so worthwhile. I shutter to think what our lives would be like if we had not chosen to adopt. We would have missed out on three such wonderful blessings and so much love. I hope you will take a couple minutes to watch the video and consider what you could do.

**Be sure to pause my blog music in the sidebar before watching the video!**




Thanks to my friend Pam for sharing the video!

2 New Lay-outs

Here's another camping LO.


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And here's one I did with some pictures of Sal's. The pictures were so cute and it was a really good excuse to get this kit I've been eying called "High School Never Ends."


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More "camping" fun

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Last weekend we had a "Family Fun Weekend" with Mike's family. We went somewhere new this time.....Camp Buckeye! We had a really fun time and the weather was gorgeous! And finally I have some new pictures to scrap! There will definitely be more to come!


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A new kit I love

I've been playing around the last two days with this new kit by Erica Zane called "Where The Heart Blooms." I think it's gorgeous and has so many things to work with. And I had to scrap a picture of the kids with Grandma. We love her so much!!


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Feeling Fall-ish

So I scrapped this picture of Sam from last year. The combination of papers is a little different....but I think it works.


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Still trying to catch up.

Here is a LO I did of Dad's birthday back in April. This is with a cute new birthday kit from Scrapmatters.


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Saturday's Akron Marathon

Well, the 2008 Akron Marathon is history. Mike finished (yeah!) with a time of about 5:50. It was a great day. Sam and I were able to go and cheer Mike on along with Mike's sister Jen and her two girls, Lydia and Abigail.

They haven't put the race photos online yet, but when they do I will post them here.
But here is the start. There were over 10,000 runners!

From today....

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What I've done this week

So about 10 days ago my 30-day trial of Photoshop ended. I was missing it terribly! Last Sunday I found a really good deal on it at Amazon and I just happened to have a couple gift certificates. It also had free shipping which was good, but that meant it came on the slow boat from China and I didn't get it until this Monday. So finally I've been able to get back to some scrapbooking! This is a page I did with Grace's Spring school picture from last year.



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I also used Photoshop to make a new header for the blog. Yeah!! I've been wanting to do that for a long time. I hope my faithful reader(s) like it! LOL!

Tomorrow is the big Akron Marathon and Mike will be running! It is always exciting.....and a little nerve-wracking too. I'm always afraid he's going to get sick or hurt. but I know the Lord will protect him. I am always so proud of Mike for taking on this challenge.

So that's what our weekend will hold. Hope yours is a good one!!!

Diggin' out the old photos.....

and found these from 2006 to scrap.



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Yesterday stuff....

Yesterday, my sister Sally and niece Shelby took Grace out for a belated birthday lunch. Grace got to pick the restaurant (Cracker Barrel) and pick out a gift too (a new Webkinz Bluejay). Sal took this photo of the girls at lunch and I think it is so cute. Shelby and Grace are in some ways very different and some ways very much alike. But they are good friends!

Our House

I did this page today for a challenge at ScrapMatters. You had to scrap something about your home. When I saw this background paper, I knew that I would use it for a photo of our house someday. I vividly remember the first time we looked at this house. It was May 2003.....on my birthday, in fact. When we got out of our car, the scent from the pine trees in the backyard was glorious! This is our "Miracle House." It took a LONG time for it to become ours. We made an offer and said, "It will be a miracle if we get this house!" The sellers laughed at that first offer. After a couple more offers and a lot of red tape, it finally became ours. We moved in October 2003.





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Okay....so I just think this is cute!

I drug these photos out from 2006.....thought this turned out cute! Don't the kids look little? Awwwww!!!!

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And here's Noah.....

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Sam, 3rd Grader

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Back to School

It's been "Back To School Week" at our house. It was VERY obvious that Mommy was more excited about this than anyone else! LOL!

Samuel moved up to a new school this year. He's been very excited all Summer. Last Thursday night we went to his open house and by the end he was totally overwhelmed. So, come Monday morning he was pretty nervous. But I just kept reminding him that he wasn't the only new 3rd grader and that everyone else would probably be feeling the same way. Of course, he wound up having a great first day and week.

Noah and Grace both had good weeks too. They seem to like their new teachers and we had no major incidents! Yeah!!!

So we're getting back into the swing of things and it's nice to be back in a routine.

I've been trying to scrap pictures from this week. The more I get into digiscrapping the more I realize how much better my layouts would look if I use PhotoShop. So I downloaded their free 30-day trial a few days ago and have been working with it and trying to learn all I can. It has a pretty high learning curve. But I think I've learned the basics and have been able to complete a few pages. It really does make a big difference in how they look. The one problem is that I don't really have enough memory on my computer so it runs really slow. It's very frustrating and I hope to get that worked out. So it's been hard to crank out the layouts like I would like too. I'll post the back to school ones as I get them done.

First up is Grace!


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For Grandma....

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A new hangout

I've found a new place to hang out (I know....just what I need! LOL!) If you're interested in in digital scrapbooking or even if you're a traditional scrapbooker, check out Scrapmatters for some great inspiration!

Life is rough when you're a kid!

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A cute LO!

I thought this turned out cute. I love this picture of Grace and her Nana (Mike's Mom) from 4th of July.



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Crankin' Em Out....

'07 Birthdays.....DONE!

I figured while I was on a roll I should get the boy's birthday pages for last year finished too!

Just A Little Behind!

[Typing that title made me think that that would be the perfect title for my memoirs should I ever choose to write them....LOL....but I digress.....]

Our little Gracie turned 8 on July 12th......and just a couple days ago I actually scrapped her birthday party pictures from LAST year. It's true....I'm just a little behind!

So here's the scrapbook page for last year's birthday....



And some pictures from THIS year.....





So I guess we need to work on some more original poses for next year! LOL!

Extreme Makover: Blog Edition

A new look for the ol' blog!! Woo hoo!!!!

More layouts....

Here are some more layouts I've done in the last couple days. I've decided to do a photobook of our trip.....probably at Shutterfly. They only offer 8x10 in a horizontal album, so I've decided to go with 12x12....which I've never done before. So some of these may look familiar because I've been reworking some of the old pages.

Ode To Toy Story

I don't want this to become a blog about how our children are destroying our home, but after I was finished being furious, this just cracked me up! Look what Noah wrote on Gracie's bedroom wall.....(Buzz Lightyear was added for affect. LOL!)



I guess we've watched Toy Story a few too many times because no one in our house is named Andy!!

Look what the kids did yesterday!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Camp Straight Street

What is Camp Straight Street?

* giant inflatables to play on * team competitions * learning Bible verses * making friends * playing video games * snacks * making crafts * morning and afternoon rally * camper of the day * board games * playing "Possum" * team of the week * swimming at the lake * singing * Looney Tunes Cartoon Lunch * fun & crazy counselors * riding scooters * water slides * Bible Time * Straight Street Idol * and much, MUCH more!!!!

Check out more about Camp!

Here are just a few pictures from our week at Camp Straight Street.....

I went along to camp as Sam's "aide". Sam was chosen as "Camper of the Day" by his team on Monday. On the last day, his team won the "Team of the Week" competition. Each member of the team was given a medal (including Mom). As happy as Sam was and as much as I cried, you would have thought it was an Olympic medal. Nobody told me I needed to bring a box of Kleenex to camp!

We had a GREAT week!!!!

Sunshine Rewards Sign-Up Bonus

Attention! Attention!

If you are any one the handful of people who read my blog on a regular basis....you know, the two or three regular readers I have (ha!)......then you know how much I love Sunshine Rewards. Well, from now until July 31st, if you sign up through this special link, not only will you receive the regular 2.00 sign-up bonus and an extra .50, but once you've earned 5.00 (and that is REALLY easy!), we will both become eligible to win our choice of a $25 Disney Gift Card, $25 MyChoice Gift Card, or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate.

Earning on Sunshine Rewards is really fun and easy.....and it adds up really fast! In the next couple weeks I will probably reach $800 earned there. And that's not counting the over $100 in prizes I've won by being involved in their forum.

So give it a try! I wouldn't steer you wrong. Sunshine Rewards is a great place to be!

A couple more layouts.....

I apologize if you're getting tired of seeing the same pictures. these just happen to be what i am working on right now. I will eventually get them all scrapped and move on to something else.....I PROMISE!!

Vote for ME!!!!

Hey! If anyone is actually reading this, will you go vote for me? I'm really enjoying the new scrapbooking software I'm using. It's called Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 4.0. I've done a video review of it for a contest on my favorite web site, Sunshine Rewards. The winner in this weeks voting poll will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card. If you go to the their video blog , you will be able to see my video and you will find the voting poll on the left hand side.

Thanks a bunch!