Jenn's Blog

Another air breathing froglet!

2009-06-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

Today officially marks the start of our second air breathing froglet! He was starting to look more and more frog like a few days ago and he dropped his front legs soon after that. This morning Alexis spotted him with his head out of the water and we knew he was air breathing. After I chased him around the fish tank to get him out of the water so I could clean the water (OMGs do those tadpoles dirty it up quick), he decided he had had enough of the water life and came up to land this afternoon. I think his tail is a bit longer than when our first froglet emerged from the water, but I have a feeling it will absorb just as fast. He will be considered a froglet until his tail completely disappears. Come to think of it, I spooked the other one out to land too while cleaning the tank. Now we just have to wait for the last frog to make some serious progress on the development part, his hind legs are still just barely poking out.

Metamorphosis- our adventure with tadpoles and frogs

2009-06-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

To begin our journey we must travel back in time, 3 months to be semi-precise. Nicole was hosting our 4-H meeting and the topic of discussion was tadpoles. She had retrieved quite a few tadpoles from her pond to share with all of the members of the group. The kids were all thrilled with the idea of raising tadpoles even if not all the moms were. Nicole was not really sure what type of frog these tadpoles would turn into, but she had narrowed it down quite a bit and thought their transformation should take about 90-100 days. The kids all loved learning about tadpoles and just watching them swim around in their container.

Brandon, Nathan, and William observing the tadpoles

We chose out five tadpoles to bring home. I figured that our chance of raising all five were very slim, so I was hoping to get at least four out of the bunch. I had never planned on having tadpoles or any aquatic animals for that matter, so we had nothing for our new friends to live in. We went out and bought a nice new 10 gallon tank for them and some fun ground cover.

Here they are in their new home.

Here is what our tadpoles looked like on March 20th.

As nature would have it over the first few weeks, two of the tadpoles died. I was surprised how well the kids took the loss of each of the tadpoles. We unceremoniously sent them out to sea via the toilet. Our tadpoles never seemed to like the lettuce that I was feeding them, so I did some research online and found they will also eat some algae tablets, so off I went to get them. So far the other three tadpoles seem to be growing fine on them.

One thing I don't think any of us were prepared from was exactly how long 90-100 days is(and that was just an educated guess). We watched our tadpoles every day and hoped for some sort of change. It took over a month before we started to see change on any of them.

On May 7th we woke up and found one of them had sprouted some hind legs.

Finally we were getting somewhere, or were we? We watched and watched and neither of the other tadpoles started sprouting legs, and our one with them was only very slowly developing those hind legs. It was another month before they really looked like legs.

Here he is on June 3rd.

Suddenly he started looking more and more like a frog, and then just four days later he had his front arms poking out.

Since then the changes have been coming on quickly for this little fellow. In less than a week he went from little front leg sprouts, to coming out of the water and breathing air.

Here are a couple of shots from June 13th. His tail had already shortened significantly.

In the last 3 days his tail has nearly disappeared altogether. In his most recent photos, taken today, he looks like a frog.

Now we have one land loving frog that we have yet to figure out what I am supposed to be feeding now, one tadpole that has pretty well developed hind legs, so I expect him to change soon, and one that has just barely sprouted his hind legs. I can only assume that the tadpoles we originally picked were not from the same group of eggs. I am however shocked at how big a difference there seems to be. I am very curious as to how he will develop once the other two are frogs. Maybe he will speed up once he is the only one looking for food. Maybe he won't dirty the water up so quickly, I can only hope. The kids still like to check on them daily, so I guess it is a good thing. Next we have to decide if we are going to keep them as frogs, or return them to the pond in which they came. Depending on how long it takes for them to start croaking, might make a difference in their fate.

I was tagged!

2008-03-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently someone wanted me to blog today...lol

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:00 am to the sounds of the trash truck entering the neighborhood and the sick feeling the the can wasn't on the curb so I scrambled to get clothes on to get it out there, to see DH had done it on his way out.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? 27 Dresses

4. What is your favorite TV show? I can't narrow it down to 1, but Survivor and Amazing Race are up there at the top

5. What do you eat for breakfast? Low carb yogurt and breakfast bar

6. What is your middle name? It starts with K and that's all you get

7. What food do you dislike? I'm not picky

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I don't get to listen to CDs anymore.

9. What kind of car do you drive? Dodge Grand Caravan Sport SE

10. Favorite sandwich? unfortunately sandwiches and low carb don't go together

11. Favorite item of clothing? jeans and t-shirts

12. Person dead or alive that you would like to have a conversation with? Oprah Winfrey

13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? right now I am going to say Ireland.

14. What color is your bathroom? Red

18. Favorite Sport to watch? football

19. Farthest place you are sending this ? space, well cyber space at least

20. Who do you expect to follow through on the tag? JennyJ

21. Person you expect to complete it first?JennyJ

22. Favorite saying? fun

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? i'm an afternoon kinda gal, not to early not to late

25. What is your shoe size? 8

26. Favorite food for Dinner? Anything i didn't cook

27. What did you want to be when you were little? A lawyer and psychologist

28. What are you doing today? having a lazy day

29. What is your favorite candy? anything CHOCOLATE and sugar free

30. What is your favorite flower? I'm a rose fan

31. What day are you looking forward to most on your calendar? gee all "my" days are gone so I guess May 13th since it is the end of the birthday rush

32. What are you listening to right now? Sagwa

33. What was the last thing you ate ? greens and chicken/spinach sausages

34. Do you wish on stars? Nope

35. Do you believe in Angels? Nope

36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? purple

37. What is your pet peeve? At the moment, parents in public places who don't pay attention to their little kids

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My DH

39. Do you like the person who tagged you? Yes (I guess I can forgive her)

4 0. Favorite soft drink? Diet Rite

41. Favorite restaurant? most Japanese Steakhouses

42. Siblings? one older brother, one younger sister

43. Favorite day of the year? Feb 4th

44. Favorite day of the Week? Saturday

45. Spring or Fall: Spring

46. Hugs or kisses? hugs

47. Chocolate or vanilla? chocolate

48. Do you want your friends to tag you back? uh no

49. What is under your bed? probably dust

50. Who is the friend you’ve had longest? Allison

51. What did you do last night? watch tv, scrap

52. Favorite smell? stinky diaper

53. What are you afraid of? heights

54. How many keys on your key ring? Which ring...lol

55. How many years at your current job? almost 8yrs, 4yrs as a full timer (SAHM)

56. Favorite city to visit? can't say i have a favorite

57. How many towns have you lived in? 7

58. Do you make friends easily? not really.

I'm tagging JennyJ, Dielle, Vicki, and Marieta

Pixie Dust

2008-02-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is already Thursday again. You would be surprised how fast a week goes by when you are having fun. I will start with some official business. Who was my Pixie Pick of the Day?...(drum roll please).... Leggs79! I have a soft spot for pages about flowers, so her page jumped out and said "pick me!" Congrats! I hope you enjoy the little gift.

Credits and Lovin'

On to other scrappin' news. Did you notice that ADSR season #3 had started? This is my first season racing. The scrapping ladies of Twinstuff have joined forces with each other to have a great racing season amongst friends. My fellow leader of the ladies and I have joined forces and are running as The Mod Squad.

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Here we are together. This was actually done for the second challenge of the season. We had to figure out how to mesh our 2 scrapping styles into one. Lisa let me take the lead on this one, and paid the price with my indecisiveness...lol. I finally got something worked out and she got the go ahead to start. I think we did very well together. If you want to watch the rest of the ladies of Twinstuff race, come visit our group blog Here

Our first challenge was to use a template, show our favorite color, and repeat a favorite element 3 times. I can't say I have a favorite color, but my daugther seems to think it is purple so I went with it. I had just found a new designer I couldn't wait to try out and this LO was the perfect oppurtunity. Jen Ulasiewicz Designs just opened it's doors, and I have already bought 3 things. That never happens. I just love how realistic her elements are. Remember at the beginning how I said I have a softness in my heart for flower pages.. here's one of mine. My entry for ADSR challenge #1

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That flower bouquet was created with the realistic elements I was talking about. Beautiful work huh? I can't wait to see what else she comes out with.

Even with all the race scrapping I have had to do this week I have managed to squeeze in another page. Monday was DSO's scrap-n-chat, so I got a cool template to play with and a bonus for using it within 24hrs. Here is my poor scrap neglected child William.

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To everyone that has downloaded my little kit since friday...Thank you! You don't know how good it makes someone feel to know the preview looked good enough to give it a try. I am new to the whole designing bit, and I am glad to know some people like what they saw. If you use it to create something, link me up, it will make me well up with pride. Until next time, happy scrappin'

Finally another freebie!

2008-02-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

One of these days, I hope these freebies come a little more regularly, but for now here is something new. This is my first attempt at something more than a mini kit, so please give me some constructive critism.

Alpha
Part1
Part2

I hope everyone has a great weekend. My next scrapping task is to update a ticker I have had for over a year . Although still very functional, I just want an update. Hopefully I will get to it today. For those that are participating in the ADSR I wish you good luck and hope to see you at the chat tonight!

Pixie Pick and a Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

As promised here I am with my Pixie Pick of the Day. My little gift for the week has a bright personality to say the least, so when I saw this page in the DSO gallery I just new she could appreciate it. The page is "Groovy Love" by kimscrapping. Make sure you stop by and leave her some love here.

So how about that Lunar Eclipse? It was totally cool here. We couldn't have had a better view. One of the benefits of not living in a city is a great sky on a clear night. DD was amazed at the moon as it changed. At least we are CST so the time wasn't to bad. She stayed up a little past her bedtime to watch it go from full moon to total eclipse. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring the camera out until it had gone to a total eclipse. Here are a few pictures I snapped of the moon last night. Some were at 24x digital zoom so they are very grainy.

Check back tomorrow for a possible freebie. I just have to figure out what to give you.

I have been a bad blogger

2008-02-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

My blog is still a baby really, and I have already started to neglect it. I really haven't had much in the way of excitement since Valentine's Day. On Sunday we had some really nasty weather come through. A tornado hit in the area. We weren't directly effected, but my SFIL sustained a lot of damage to his car. I don't know if they are going to be able to fix it or if they will scrap the car. Either way I am sure he will be selling it as soon as the get it fixed, he isn't the type to keep damaged goods. Other than that, it was a boring weekend. I would love for it to have been completely boring as 200 houses (I think that was the number)were damaged or destroyed in the tornado.

I have been in scrapping mode the last couple of days, which is good and bad. I need to be saving my creativity for the ADSR starting this weekend. I guess I can consider it warm up practice. I am going to have to keep my camera on my hip for the next few weeks to make sure I have new inspiration for all those pages. Between race pages I am still going to have to find time to do some designing. Hopefully I won't get burned out to early. Anyways here are a few of my recent pages.

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and one more

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That's it for now. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with my Pixie Pick of the Day.

What a Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T05:39:00.000-08:00

So I woke up yesterday with the plans to go out shopping with my mom in the morning, and spending the afternoon primping for going out with DH in the evening. Well DH decided it was time to go back to the eye doctor for the stitches in his eye were really starting to bother him. Since we were really hoping they would go ahead take the remaining stitches out, I had to go with him. His appointment to get them removed was this coming Monday so we were pretty optimistic. Mom ended up being the babysitter for the day. Unfortunately DH's doctor is a little more than 1.5hrs away, so we didn't get home until 3ish. Mom went on her way, and I started my primping process. About 4 my FIL showed up as babysitter #2 for the day. I'm still trying to get ready. I found my pantyhose that I haven't woran in years, my black skirt and blue shirt. The blue shirt just didn't look right with the skirt since I had lost so much weight it just hung down. I tried a red shirt but it looked to manly for the flowing skirt. I switched back to the blue shirt cause i had no other options at that point and started the shoe hunt. Let me fill you in on a little detail, I don't wear skirts so my shoes are all designed to be worn with pants, not to mention my feet really like their crocs so shoving them into enclosed shoes was not a good thing. First pair, no go, second pair, same result, 3rd and 4th shoe, don't match and no idea where the mates are, I finally found a pair of boot that my feet weren't going to be screaming at me. Unfortunately the boots didn't look right with the skirt. So now I am off on a wardrobe change. I looked at all my dresses, most I haven't worn since before the big boys were born, and decided to depress myself and try one on. IT FIT! I don't even think it looked to bad around my waist which is still my trouble area. Bad news, boots didn't work any better with this outfit. So back to the shoe digging. I finally found both shoes to a of a comfortable pair of flats and I was ready to roll. DH looks at me and said "should I dress up any more?" After all that work on my part he just had to brush his knees of a bit and go (men!). We had a pleasant dinner at Applebees without the kids and did a little shopping afterwards and headed home. I know you guys are thinking Applebees isn't the most romantic spot in the world, but hey we walked in and were seated immediately on Valentine's Day, and that was our goal. Overall even though my plans went seriously astray, I had a great day.

Did I mention before I could begin on my whirlwind of a day, I had to still do my Pixie Pick of the day for DSO? As I have mentioned before this includes rewarded the pick with a little gift from me. Well as of Thursday morning I had nothing. So before I could take off for the day I had to figure out something to create. I actually find alphas pretty easy to make, now that I have a wonderful action that cuts the sheets apart for me, so I went that way. As I was fiddling with my alpha I got ready for the day as actions ran. I finally got it just right, uploaded to 4shared, and posted to the Pixie Pick right as my DH got home and Mom showed up. I hope she enjoys it. Here is a nice couples page for a Valentine's Day Pixie Pick of the Day.

Congrats to Lei for being the Pixie Pick of the day! Leave her some love and see the credits here. Next week I will not procrastinate on creating my freebie (lol, I say this every week).

In other scrapping news, I found out who got my pictures in our secret picture swap at Twinstuff. Jackie did a perfect job with the pictures she was given. She has been doing a ton of extractions recently and these pics screamed extraction. Even still I probably wouldn't have thought to do the extractions. I gave her a couple of pictures of William who for some reason seems to be my neglected child when it comes to pages of just him (lots done with the twins together). Here is what she did with it...

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Thanks Jackie for such a great page. Now if only I could find time to finish the secret page I am working on. Hopefully I will get to it today, but since it is our day at the park, the chances are low. Until next time have a great day.

Scrap-N-Chat

2008-02-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

Last night DSO held the first of their bi-monthly Scrap-N-Chats for the month of Feb. Darlene Haughin provided us an awesome template to scrap with. I must admit I never seem to be able to scrap and chat at the same time, but I manage to get it done in the 24hr period to use it and get the posting bonus. This chat's bonus was a very cute St. Patty's Day QP. Chat wasn't as crazy as the last one, but still fun. Here is what I did with the chat template.

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Don't you love all the fun boyish colors. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find boyish kits. Dielle has gone through and revamped her "Backyard Explorer" Kit and re-released it.

It is available at both Designs In Digital and Digital Freebies. A little birdie told me that Digital Freebies automatically puts their new stuff on sale for 30% off for the first week, so hurry over there and pick it up while it is still on sale. I already have another page in my head for William using this kit. Hopefully I will get a chance to scrap it soon.

On none scrapping news, my driveway is finally FINISHED! It has been a hard few weeks without it. We still have a few more days before we can drive on it, but I know it is coming so soon. Unfortunately it is going to downpour tonight and I don't know how that is going to effect the driveway. Hopefully it won't damage it to badly. Until next time... happy scrappin'

Picture day

2008-02-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

We had a blast since the last post. On Friday we went to our Homeschool Sport and Art day. Weather was beautiful at 60 degrees and sunny. We played with balls and a big game of Duck Duck Goose. Afterwards the kids had juice and granola bars for snack. The onto the Arts part of the day. The kids made Valentines Day cards. They tried getting the kids to make pop-up cards and although I must admit I think the design was really cute, it was a little comlex for the age group that was there. We had fun glueing paper down anyways. The favorite part of the day is the playground equipment. The big boys have really started to blossom in this department. It used to be as soon as other kids got on the equipment they were back at my legs. Now they run around playing with them. They still tend to stick together, but even that is getting less and less. I am just so glad to see them growing up in that aspect. Alexis also has a blast running around playing on the equipment. Her new thing this week was learning how to hang upside down from the monkey bar like contraption. Last time I tried this with her she freaked out. Of course none of them were happy when I told them it was time to go, even though the sun was almost gone and the temps were dropping rapidly (well it sure was feeling colder). They got over their being hurt with a bribe of going out to eat. Here are a few pics of the kids enjoying SpArt day (yeah we're cheesy enough to call it that).

On Saturday our zoo had an Animal Enrichment day. Pretty much they go through and set up unique ways for the animals to get their food. Most consisted of putting it in something they would have to figure out to be rewarded their food. The idea is to keep their mind and forgaging instincts working. Unfortunately with this being the first nice weekend in weeks, everyone and their grandma showed up for this event. We only made it through watching the Spectacle Bear, Squirrel Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, and Jaguar. After that it was just to crowded to actually see the animals, so we thought we would be smart and just skip a few animals and instead go to the overlook for lunch ahead of everyone else. Yeah that didn't go so well. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. It took 10mins to order the food and over 20min to get it. That was for 2 salads, and 2 orders of chicken fingers and fries. It was horrible. At least we were able to snag a table as we first came in and Chris was the one dealing with the cranky hungry kids. After we ate, I decided my back was hurting just to much to continue on, so we headed out of the park. On the way we stopped and looked at the gold fish pond and another fish area. The little fish were hillarious. You could walk to the one side and they would all follow, then to the other side and they followed back. Think they are well trained? I found it amusing. We will have to go to the zoo again soon (we are members), and see all the animals we missed this time. Here are some zoo fun pics.

Here are 2 of the boys being Diego as they claimed.

Sunday wasn't quite the same for the kids, but I had a good day. The kids spent most of the morning outside playing and having fun. Alexis got to go spend the night with her LuLu, who took her and her friend ice skating and shopping. They love having a girls only day. I also got some girl time. My lil sis came over and we got to escape for a movie and dinner. It was very nice. We went and saw "27 Dresses," which is a complete chick flick. It was really good albeit a little predictable. Afterwards we went and had sushi. She gets vegetarian stuff, and I get carb friendly sashimi, so it all works out. I miss being able to have the ones with rice. Since I have no pics from that adventure, I will leave you with my page from this weekend. I absolutely love how it turned out.

Credits

I can't believe it is Thursday again!

2008-02-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

Thursday means it is time for my Pixie Pick of the week. I saw this beaty of a LO in the DSO gallery and the little girl's eyes captivated me.

Congrats to LoriJ for being my Pixie Pick of the day. Leave her some love and see the credits here. She got a cute little QP from me from a little kit I hope to finish and have up for grabs in the next couple of days.

On to my scrapping. I finished out the 7pages in 7 days challenge from PixelGypsyDesigns. It was a really fun challenge and I got a bunch of goodies while participating. Here are a couple of my last pages.

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This one was a fun lift. The next one was hard for me. I was supposed to be fun, funky, messy, and bright. Just about everything my normal scrapping isn't...lol.

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Now I have to switch from scrapping mode to designing mode. I had started my March contribution to the DSO mega kit before I got distracted by the scrap challenge, so I have to finish that up. I think all I have left is my quick page. I don't normally make QPs so it is a challenge for me. I try to leave them open enough that people can embellish them if they want, but the basic layout is done. I am also working on a blog freebie. I want to really work on developing a full kit, so it will probably take a while to get it done.

Yesterday I took Nathan for a speech evaluation. He is going on 4 and 90% of people have a really hard time understanding him. He performed wonderfully for the tester. I thought for sure he would clam up. His speech rated at the 3% of boys his age. That means 97% of boys would have scored higher on the test than he did. Needless to say he qualifies for state funded speech therapy. I have already started the process through the school to get his services started. I also decided to go ahead and have William tested through the school. His speech is a little better than Nathan's but not by much. Hopefully with a little speech therapy they will both be speaking clearer shortly. My break from the public school system was short lived. Now for the AWW.. picture of the day...

Aren't they they sweetest thing ever?

It's my birthday!

2008-02-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

It's offical, I am now 29 years old. I am now working on the last 364 days before I have to turn 30 (shudder in horror). I wish I could say I have some great plans for the day, but right now all I can hope to do is survive. Apparently no one told my kids they were supposed to be well behaved on mommy's birthday, and I have already fielded a few meltdowns. I have a feeling they are carry overs from yesterday's napless day and the colds they just can't seem to shake. We had a 1st birthday party for my nephew yesterday, and the kids were wired and over stimulated. Nathan doesn't take well to large crowd stimulation and the party was a big one. Usually it ends in meltdown mode. I wish I could say I enjoyed the party but I can't. To many people, and an emergency run to Walmart for clean pants for my nearing 4yo who had an accident 5 minutes after I asked if he needed to potty, to enjoy. I must admit Logan was a cutie digging into his cake.

My birthday is a cool day. Not only do I get to celebrate it, but so does my brother and my nephew (son to BIL not brother). My big brother (2yrs my senior) and I also share wedding anniversaries. They were both my doings...lol. Here I am with each the people I share this special day with.

Me and Logan

Will and I at my wedding

I am hoping the kids decide that really really long naps are needed today. I feel we both need it. I have received some nice birthday gifts from the scrapping community so I think I will repay by posting a present for you guys. It isn't much, and I am to lazy to find a preview, but it is my blue-green mini kit that failed to develop past a mini kit.
Blue-green Mini .
That's it for now. I hope to come back tomorrow with the joys of my birthday stories, and not more horror stories of it.

My 5th Anniversary

2008-02-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

As of yesterday I have been married for 5 years. In some ways it is hard to believe it has already been that long, but others it hard to believe it has only been that long. Chris stayed home from work yesterday to try and spend some quality time with me. It was a sweet gesture, even if it wasn't very successful. He played with the tinker toys with the boys, played out in the new shed for a while, and in the afternoon I took off with Alexis to Walmart for a few things we needed. With 3 kids sick still we were going through cough medicine like it is going out of style. Of course when I got there all my choices had changed and I had to search everything to decide which one to get. Then as the bad spouse I am I hadn't gotten DH anything for our anniversary (yes this is usually the guys thing but my DH is good to me), I spent another good 10 minutes trying to find the perfect card for him. Luckily DD was standing there with me because she reminded me to get a card for me nephew's birthday party tomorrow. So with cards in hand we headed back to the toys to find a present for said nephew. Crossed the store to get to them and just as we start looking the infamous "I gotta pee" comes from DD. Realize she is nearly 8 and still insists on having to pee pretty much anywhere we go, so this is an annoying request. "Can you wait a minute?" "No, I really really need to go." So back across the store we go to the potty and come back to the toy section. I finally selected a couple of toys that he probably doesn't need, but hey that's what you do for birthdays. I made it through the grocery section pretty painlessly and called DH to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Just the 9V batteries that are up by the checkout so no biggie. I headed back to the photo lab to fill my sister in with the details for the night and as I get there, dh goes "well can you pick up some collards" (that's greens like spinach for you non southerners). I was JUST at the produce section when I asked him if he needed anything else. So back we go. I finally escaped Walmart nearly 2 hrs into my "quick" run. DH got a bag of beef jerky and a card for his anniversary present. I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers, some chocolates, and a card. Here's a couple of pictures of my flowers. The pictures behind it are of the church we were married in, and one of us at the church.

See aren't they just beautiful? Yesterday DH also gave me my February gift. Now before you guys get all jealous thinking I get a gift every month, rest assured I don't. I just have my anniversary, birthday, and Valentine's day in the first half of the month, so since DH went all out with my bday gift I told him he was off the hook for the rest of the month. He got me an upgrade to PS CS3! I have already scrapped a page in it. I can't say I noticed to many differences, but I'm sure they are there. I am going to go looking for a comparison chart and see what kinds of goodies it has that I don't know about yet. Here is my page from this morning that was scrapped using it.

You can find the credits here.
I am in a 7 pages in 7 days challenge over at PixelGypsyDesigns. The page above is day 3. Here is day 2. The challenge was to use less than 7 elements not including a title font, your pictures, and 1 background paper. I think they were going for white space, and I just don't handle white space well. I think this was a good interpretation of the requirements and my style.

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Unfortunately I have fallen behind a day, so now I have to find time to scrap today to play catch up. This challenge has really helped me get out of my scrappin' funk. Maybe after this challenge is over I will have a chance to keep working on the design of this blog. I figured out how to do a personalized topper, so I figure that is a step in the right direction. Until next time.. ciao.

Pixie Dust

2008-01-31T11:33:00.000-08:00

In part of my digi scrapping life I am a Pixie over at DSO. Being a Pixie is a cross between being a site cheerleader and a site designer. Generally the Pixie's get to contribute to the site challenge kits, help run challenges, and pick out Pixie Picks once a week to share a goodie with. Well Thursdays are my day so I thought I would share the layout that got my nod week. It is called "Grandchildren" by O2BNGdHope.

Go leave see her credits and leave her some extra love here. I love giving out Pixie presents, even though I have a hard day remembering what day of the week it is.

This is going to be the first month I am hosting a challenge at DSO. I am taking over the "Scrappin' on your Desktop" Challenge. Pretty much I give you something to use on a layout for your desktop background. This was a great challenge for me to take over since I am bad about creating one and leaving it up for months at a time. Now I have a reason to change it every month. This month the piece that will be getting used looks like this...

With it being February how could I pass up a reason to use pink and hearts. February is also my anniversary so love is in the air around here. Here is what I did with the element.

Isn't it so pretty. Even better if you participate in this months challenge you get a great thank you gift created by me. Wanna see what you are playing for?

See I told you love is in the air...lol. If you complete every active challenge for the month of February you get awarded the Mega Kit. Let me tell you, it is HUGE!!! You will have to stop by the site and see the preview (might not be posted until tomorrow though). It is definitely worth the work! This mini kit should work nicely with the Mega kit.

I have sick kids right now. 3 out of 4 (all 3 boys) are just miserable to be around. They are congested and coughing. They are so cranky! I sure hope this passes quickly. Since they are so not happy campers, here is a page I did for yesterday of DD. She has managed to not get this cold, let's hope it stays that way.

Credits can be found here. I am off to fight a website that is having issues with downloading so that hopefully I can scrap with what I bought. Wish me luck!

My baby is growing up

2008-01-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

Brandon is 21 months old and he is getting so big. He has few words, but has learned how to communicate what he wants for the most part. He is learning how to use his utensils when he eats, although it is still 50/50 at this point. Yesterday we had another milestone. We made the move from crib to toddler bed. The twins skipped going into a toddler bed and went straight to twin beds. I still had the old toddler bed from when Alexis was little and felt I should use it since I made my parents store it for the last 5yrs..lol. It took a lot of scrubbing to get the bed clean and ready. Then I tackled the chore of putting it together. I layed out all the pieces and made sure everything was there.

Amazingly enough after it was all there, except the hex screwdriver needed to put it together. I could have sworn I had one in my little tool kit, but alas there wasn't one in there. So a quick call to DH and I was out to the shed. Let me tell you something about this shed, it is brand new and totally disorganized at the moment. So he sends me on a needle in a haystack search for his toolbox. Once I found it he claimed it was in either the top drawer or the bottom. Not in the bottom, and I couldn't for the life of me get the top drawer open. Never fear he has a second set that he has seen.... somewhere. Good news, his first guess is right next to his tool box, but no hex set. Second guess was a bust too. On his 3rd and final guess I hit pay dirt. Took a little digging in a box I could barely reach, but there they were a nice big set which was bound to have one that fit. It only took 3 tries to find the perfect one and on to constructing. Now as to why I just didn't wait until my DH got home to put it together, but I was feeling handy and I figured how hard could it be to screw in 14 screw with clearly marked holes. Yeah first challenge, there were 2 sizes of screws, 6 small, 8 large. Using deductive reasoning I figured there were 6 holes into the bed rails and 8 holes into the main frame that it must mean that's where they went. I was right. Of course I over tightened some of them and had to go back and loosen them up so all the holes would line up right. When all was said and done we had a frame for a toddler bed.

A quick rearranging of the room and a swap from of the mattress from the crib to the bed and we were almost ready to go. We still needed a good toddler sized pillow. Knowing we only had big fluffy pillows in reserves I went in search for a flat pillow. I had a choice between stealing William's or Nathan's pillow. Unfortunately Nathan is very particular about his bedtime routine and he would notice a thicker pillow in a heartbeat, so his was out. William's it was. He is pretty oblivious to changes like this and barely sleeps on his pillow anyways. A quick switch of pillow cases and we're good. Time for a test run.

It's a fit! He crawled right up into his new big boy bed and laid down. Of course he popped his head right up, but he was game for this new adventure. With the bed constructed before lunchtime, naptime was going to be our first test. What was I thinking, I always make the switch at bedtime. At night it is so dark in the bedroom, no one dares step out of bed. But alas we will have to tackle nap first. Luckily Brandon likes his sleep. After lunch he crawled right into the bed and we turned on his music maker and he went straight to sleep.

He took his normal length of nap and was happy as a lark when he got up.

Bedtime was a success, as was naptime today! All we can do is cross our fingers and hope it continues. I know as he gets a little older he will realize he doesn't actually have to sit in his bed until Mommy comes and gets him, but I am going to enjoy the period between now and then.

Enough about the baby, this is supposed to be a scrapping blog. Yesterday there was a Scrap-N-Chat over at DSO that I joined in with. Let me tell you those ladies a funny at a chat. We talked a little about scrapping and more about melons *wink* and weight loss. Our host generously gave away a template by Lynn (aka lpand3dogs design). The challenge was to get something created with the template within 24hrs to get a scrapping bonus. As I was in designing mode last night, I had to wait until this morning to tackle the template. Here is what I came up with...

(credits can be found here )
I wasn't willing to give up designing though and ended up creating most everything on the page using some of my CU stuff. I had fun with it. Alexis of course said "why purple? just because you like purple doesn't mean I like purple. why didn't you use pink?" She is a back seat scrapper at times...lol. I used purple cause I wanted too, so there! Tonight I have to get back to designing. I am trying to get ahead of so kits I need to create. So family events and scrapping in one day's blog, pretty good for a newbie huh?

My very first post

2008-01-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

Okay it was said I needed a blog. I don't know why, but I felt the pressure and caved. I won't promise it will be either exciting or regularly updated, but I can try. For first time readers that might not know me, I am a SAHM mom to 4 wonderful kids. DD is 7.5, twin DSs that are 3.5, and the baby of the family is a 21mo DS. My biggest hobbies are photography and digi scrapping, which conveniently go hand in hand. Some of the major projects going on around my house is a new shed being built, a new driveway being laid, and my garage being converted to a new room. I am sure all the pictures and pages will be part of this blog eventually. As a test though I am going to try adding my most recent scrapbook page as I have no clue how to do it...lol.

Credits for the page can be found at http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=252808&cat=all&ppuser=3528