i'm skinny again!

Woohoo! I am wearing a pair of size 4 khakis from the Gap (okay, so that's really a 6 everywhere else!) and a size small sweater! And it fits and it looks good! lol! I am so excited! In the last month the last of my baby weight has just fallen off. And now I need to start working out to get toned. But I am pretty pleased with myself for fitting into my pants. And to celebrate, I am going to go out and get a Coke! and maybe some french fries, lol!!!

Cute Name Questionnaire

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Sam Legacy

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Vanilla Snickerdoodle (rofl)

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
M Car

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Raye SouthBend

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Car Me

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Red Dr. Pepper

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Charles Proctor

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Happy Hershey

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Evelyn Douglas

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Royster Rochester

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Winter Hyacinth

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Peach Slippery

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Toast Oak

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)

The Digiscrap Rain Tour

new layout

credits:
Homespun Christmas by Maria LaFrance at DigitalFreebies, some recolored
lights from whimsical christmas by maria lafrance at digital freebies, recolored
pscs2
fonts:century gothic

2008 scrapping goals!

I know, I know, no one ever follows through on their resolutions. But I am going to do it this year! And you know how, I am going to set scrapping resolutions! Last year I set a goal to scrap 250 layouts. And I actually scrapped over 400!!! And some of those were even two-pagers! However, life has gotten a bit more complicated over the last year, and I don't think that setting a numbers goal will be feasible for me. So... instead of setting a number goal this year, I am going to set some organizational goals! And here they are...

* Stick to my scrapping plan... Scrap a 2 page layout for each event with the best photos, then print the other photos and put them in the scrapbook behind the layout. I have some photo shoots that have resulted in 10 single photo layouts! eek! Of course, there will be some variation to the plan, but I'd like to try it out for a while!

* I need to go back through my "old" pictures for the last 3 years (since Hannah was born) and figure out which ones really need to be scrapped and which ones should be printed. I should probably also do Thomas' mission scrapbook.

* Actually print some layouts. I have almost 1000 layouts (yes, you read that correctly!) saved on my hard drive waiting to be printed (yes, they are also backed up elsewhere!). I scrap 8.5x11, and I am CHEAP (read "poor" here!)! So, I may wait for a good 8x10 sale and then mount on cardstock.

* Print my kids' albums. I print (okay, I *intend* to print!) 4x6 copies of layouts for my kids. This is also a GREAT way to proof your layouts before you print full-size copies. I never see spelling mistakes on the screen. lol!

* Get/ stay caught up with my CT assignments. I have been a bad bad bad CT lately! October through December always kicks my behind! :)

new layout

this layout was done with christine smith's new kit. the pictures are from august.
credits:
christine smith's nothing girly kit at design.christinesmith
christine smith's nothing girly: free add-on kit at design.christinesmith
some drop shadows by saraamarie
alpha by fee jardine from dixie kit
pscs2
fonts: ck handprint

new layout

credits:
saraamarie's
touch of snow at sweetshoppedesigns
soft stitched alphas: earthy at sweetshoppedesigns

crumpled, creased and curled by christine smith at design.christinesmith

{the cardall cRAzY Christmas}

** warning... lots of rambling and talk about puke... consider yourself warned!

Well, we had big plans for the Christmas holidays... Saturday morning found me waking up to Hannah screaming from her bed that she needed to throw up. She was sick all day Saturday and early Sunday morning. Then she was fine. So, we went to Temple Square on Sunday night to see the lights. We figured that we better do it while we were all healthy. Monday morning I woke up sick. Oh the joy of being sick on Christmas Eve! At this point we still hadn't done our Christmas shopping! Lovely! Thanks to Grandpa Cardall & Uncle Greg, we were able to get some of our shopping done. Thomas had to run out during a pretty big snow storm to do the rest and get some Sprite and crackers. I was in bed most of the day on Monday. Almost exactly 24 hours later, I felt fine. Ainsley was sick on and off Sunday and Monday as well. We figured that we were done with all the sickness... are we ever really done??? Anyway, Christmas morning we were all feeling fine. We opened our presents and had a really good time together as a family. We went to Thomas' step-grandmother's house for our traditional Christmas get together. It was so nice to see Grandma Betty & Dick again. We only stayed a couple of hours because one of her granddaughters who is living there has a cat and my throat starting itching. So, then we went to Thomas' dad's house to hang out. We were there a couple of hours and then Hannah ran to bathroom and threw up. Lovely. We had just spent HOURS around our little twin nieces. Hannah had been down on the floor playing with them and everything. I really hope that they didn't get sick! So... we came right home. And Hannah was fine once we got home. She fell asleep and woke up happy. She went with Thomas to run some errands this morning. She asked for a piece of pizza to eat for dinner. I made her a piece without any cheese. She took one bite and was sick again. At this point, I don't know if she is sick or just isn't used to having food in her mouth. She has a really sensitive gag reflex anyway. She has been complaining about loud noises and her ears hurting. Ainsley has had an ear infection, too. I just don't know what to do. So far, Thomas has managed to avoid all the illness, probably because he has managed to avoid cleaning up the messes and diapers... Lucky boy! I am actually really grateful because he was able to take care of the kids and all the Christmas Eve preparations when I couldn't. He did change the diapers then, by the way! :) What a good man! Plus Thomas has to go back to work tomorrow. It would NOT be good for him to be sick. AND we have to empty the rest of our stuff from storage this weekend... He can't be sick... and now that I have said that, he'll be sick for sure! lol! I did manage to take some pictures this weekend. Although I didn't get nearly as many as I wanted to. I plugged in the charger to charge the camera battery on Christmas Eve. And then I plugged in the video camera in the same plug... I think it was too much for the poor plug. Neither battery charged. I had enough juice in the camera to take about 15 pictures. I plugged in the video camera and it was fine. I'll post some pictures when things get a bit more settled here. The last four weeks have just been crazy. We were supposed to go to a family reunion for all of Thomas' cousins here tonight. Of course, we didn't end up going. We didn't want to risk anymore puking at family parties this season! Good thing we didn't go. We are supposed to have anywhere from 4 to 10" of snow tonight. And more snow on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Should be a ton of fun moving stuff! I am not leaving the house for the next week. I have to undecorate my house, repack up my Christmas decorations and organize my basement so I can put all the rest of my stuff in the basement. I am going to stop rambling now... I have to go feed Ainsley again and get some laundry out of the dryer (load #6 for today!).

Official Cardall Christmas Card Post

Dear Family & Friends,

I can hardly believe that another year has come to a close and that it is already time to write another one of these letters! Due to the late date and the cost of postage, we doing e-cards this year! 2007 was a very busy and adventurous year for our family!

First, we added a new member to our family! Ainsley Joy Cardall was born on April 25^th. She is a sweet little baby and captures your heart with her bright smile! She looks a lot like my dad, so we call her Little Doug. She is a fast little thing. She already has two teeth and is crawling all over, trying to keep up with her big sister! She loves to play Peek-a-Boo and she loves to look at Hannah and Daddy. Whenever she hears either one of them talk, she stops what she is doing until she finds them! She loves anything electronic! From computers to cell phones to remote controls, nothing is safe! We are so grateful for our little Ainsley!

Hannah is now three years old! She will proudly announce that to anyone and everyone! She loves being a big sister and is usually quite sweet to her baby sister. Hannah is a fun little girl. She loves to go places and do things. She is always asking to go eat out at restaurants and go to parks. She is quite the little performer. She has an amazing memory for songs and music, and will sing and dance for anyone she meets. She is learning to write her name and wants to learn to read soon. Hannah also loves to say prayers. She insists on saying almost every single prayer every day! Sometimes she makes us laugh with the things that she prays for! But she is a really sweet little girl and she loves her family very much! She is a beautiful talented little girl! Every day is a new adventure with Hannah, an adventure that we are grateful for!

In the spring, Thomas decided that he wanted to go back to school. We quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be possible for our family if we stayed in Florida. So, we decided to pack up our family and move to Utah. After a couple of months of job searching, Thomas was able to find a really great job working as a Capacity Manager for England Logistics, a subsidiary of CR England, a major trucking company based out of Salt Lake City. Thomas loves his job and is on the fast track to another promotion very very soon! He is planning to start school next year when his tuition reimbursement benefit kicks in! Thomas’s work schedule allows him to be home relatively early in the evenings. Hannah loves having Daddy home more! Both girls are definitely Daddy’s girls, and Mommy is very grateful for that! Thomas is also enjoying having more free time! He is playing his guitar again and even manages to squeeze in a little computer game time every now and then. I am very proud of Thomas and am grateful to him for all the hard work he does to take care of our little family. He is an amazing husband and father!

And that brings us to me! I am still a full-time stay-at-home mom. I love it. It is a totally different ballgame when there are two of them, though! They outnumber me now! In between diaper changes and mealtimes, I like to blog and do my digital scrapbooking. I have had a lot of fun getting to know friends and family members better through blogging! I have even made some new friends! I am trying to get organized and do some professional scrapbooking for other people. I am hoping to get that business up and running during the first quarter of 2008. The girls and I were able to spend some time with my family over the summer. Hannah loved riding the trains into downtown Chicago and going to the Heritage Festival in Downers Grove. We were also able to attend my grandparents’ 50^th wedding anniversary celebration. It was so nice to see family members that I hadn’t seen in years, and introduce my girls to them!

We are grateful to be back in Utah, living near so many of our family members! We have been able to go up to the Cardall family cabin almost every month that we have been back. That has been such a blessing in our lives. One weekend a month, we are able to escape from the pressures of life and renew our relationships with our family. We are really blessed to be able to have a place to do that. We just moved in our new rental home a couple of weeks ago. It is an old craftsman style bungalow that was converted into a duplex years ago! It has amazing architectural features and little unique characteristics that you just don’t find in many newer homes, especially rentals. It is in the heart of Salt Lake City. And except for the crazy people you run into in the grocery store, it’s a lot of fun to live downtown! We love it here and are doing very well. Life just doesn’t get much better than this! We are so grateful for our many blessings and for the wonderful friends and family who have been such a wonderful support to us! Thank you!

At this special time of year, may we all remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that my Savior was born and lived and died for me, and for each and every one of us. So, as the Christmas shopping crowds increase and traffic gets worse, let's remember the real reason for this season. May Heavenly Father bless you all in the coming year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
With much love,
The Cardalls
Meredith, Thomas, Hannah & Ainsley

Our blog is the best way to keep in touch with us. If you want our new address, please feel free to send me an email and I will get it to you!
If you want a printed copy of our Christmas card, you can click on the card and save the file and print it. It should be a full-size 5x7 card. :)

merry christmas from our family to yours!

and in true digiscrap fashion... here are the credits:
melissa bennett's
cinnamon sticks
homespun holiday
sugar cookie
it's a wrap
christmas magic brushes 2
***************
christine smith's curls, creases and crumples at design.christinesmith
***************
pscs2
fonts: Amber by Melissa Bennett, CK cursive, segoe script

new layout

these are pictures from october. hannah had so much fun in the snow! lol!
credits:
Laura Burger's Sierras Shivers Kit at treasures to scrap
popsicle stick from Laura Burger's Wordy Sticks
snowman, brrr beads- Winter Wonderland Kit by Sarah Grimwood & Pamela Gibson at OAKS
pscs2
fonts: turtle club

another new layout

credits:
Sarah Grimwood's Ginger and Joy kit at OAKS
stitch, torn paper corner from doreen stolz's holly jolly christmas at oaks
pscs2
fonts: turtle club, times new roman

new layout

credits:
Doreen Stolz's Holly Jolly Christmas kit at OAKS
pscs2
fonts: times new roman

found a CUTE new digi designer!

Okay, so she isn't a new designer, but she is new to me and I LOVE her stuff! Have you ever seen Melissa Bennett's stuff? If not, check out her store at Scrapbook-Bytes! I LOVE LOVE LOVE her style! She is having a 50% off sale right now and it is taking every single bit of my willpower not to buy her entire store! I would if I could... but that would mean no Christmas for my kids! Would kind of defeat the purpose of having all the Christmas kits! lol! This is just ONE of the kits I love!


I'm kind of in a scrapbooking funk. Maybe it's because I haven't done any layouts for two weeks, other than the ones I have been cranking out the last two days. Have you noticed that they are all the same? Have you noticed that there is absolutely NOTHING spectacular about them at all? The kits are really cute, so that isn't the problem. Maybe it is the stacks of clutter piled around me. It's driving me nuts! The kids have been sick today so I haven't had any time to unpack. The chicken noodle soup tasted awful tonight. I don't know why. It was just so BLAND! And no matter how much seasoning I added to it, it just tasted like water with dry noodles. So, of course, Thomas didn't eat it and I ended up making him breakfast burritos! lol! Why do I bother trying to make fancy meals? He is happy with Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Roni and tacos! lol! The homemade bread was good, at least. It's a good thing I have such an easy-going husband. He is so good about all of my cooking misadventures lately! I don't know what it is. I have never had kitchen issues. But nothing is turning out right lately. Maybe it is just the adjustment to a different altitude & climate. Who knows?!

When I was making Dinner #2 tonight, Ainsley was crawling/scooting all over the kitchen floor. She crawled into Hannah's room and started playing with the toys on the floor. She got really quiet and I went to check on her to make sure she hadn't gotten ahold of a small toy and choked. I ran in there and she was asleep, face down on Hannah's bedroom floor. It was so cute! And bad scrap mommy that I am lately, I didn't even get a picture. A little bit ago, Ainsley was crawling on the family room floor and was a bit fussy. She crawled up to my feet, wrapped her arms around my legs and fell asleep! So cute! I didn't get a picture of that one, either! Bad mommy! She is full-on crying now, so I am going to go snuggle my sick baby girl!

new layout

credits:
betsy tuma's so thankful kit
pscs2
fonts: times new roman

merry christmas layout

credits:
antique christmas by scrapcloud
pscs2
fonts: times new roman

so happy together

credits:
april bern's vintage rose kit at scrapcloud
pscs2
fonts: times new roman, thinking of you

just a quick update

It's been a couple of weeks now since we moved into our new home. And we LOVE it! We are still trying to get unpacked and get rid of the clutter of moving. We have our Christmas tree up and are fully enjoying the sights and smells of the season! We have candles and tarts burning almost constantly when we are home. So, our little home is filled with the scents of cinnamon, pine and gingerbread. It just makes everything cozy and warm! I am LOVING my kitchen! It's small and doesn't have a ton of built in storage, but we have found ways to work around that. I am LOVING to be able to cook full meals and have my food storage organized and beginning to stock my deep freeze with prepared meals and desserts as I find groceries on sale this time of year. It is so much fun!!!! I have bags and bags of frozen sweet potatoes in the deep freeze and I still have a box of sweet potatoes that I need to bake and freeze. I need to figure out if you can freeze eggs and how long butter is good when frozen. Good grief! Butter is $1 a box right now for the REAL stuff! You can't beat that! Anyone know of any good resources on freezing foods?

I am starting to do some research on gardening in Utah and am planning what vegetables I want to plant this year. I am thinking about peas and green beans along with my tomatoes and peppers and onions. I may do some herbs as well. I need to talk to my uncle Chris about his salsa garden that he plants sometimes. I only have a small plot of ground, but I plan to fully utilize it! We were driving down the main street next to our house and I saw a community garden as well. I may look into that for some extra space if I need to. I LOVE living here in this house and in this area in general! It's so much fun!

Saturday, Ash & Dyl & Zoey stopped by our house to visit for a bit. Then we went out to dinner at Training Table. YUM! Although, it was super crowded and took FOREVER! It was really fun to hang out with my sister and her husband. We had fun, guys! Thanks for coming to visit us! After dinner we planned to go to Temple Square and look at the lights. But there was NO parking anywhere. We drove around for 40 minutes looking for parking. We found out that there was an event at the conference center, a jazz game and all the normal temple square christmas traffic. AND the parking garage that we usually park in is closed because the mall is basically being rebuilt. SO, we didn't end up going. We decided that we are going to look into riding Trax down there. We would have to drive to a Trax station, but it should be better than trying to find parking at Temple Square. We are about out of time, though.. Can you believe that it is Christmas next week??? I have so much to do. We haven't even started our Christmas shopping. And on that note, I am going to go try to get something done today. The kids are sick and we are all still in our pajamas and the house is a mess! Eeek! Oh well. Keeping my kiddos happy is what is most important today. And I made homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade bread for dinner, so I guess I did get SOMETHING done after all! :)

okay, one more tonight

credits:
winter wonderland kit by sarah grimwood and pamela gibson at oaks
pscs2
fonts: times new roman

another layout

credits:

Jenna Nelson's Sunrise Sunset Papers at ScrapDish and DragonFlaireStudios pscs2 fonts: unnamed melody

a layout for today

credits:
maria lafrance's whimsical christmas kit at digital freebies
pscs2
fonts: times new roman

another quick one for me...

these are the biscuits i made for breakfast this morning...
credits:
Danielle Engebretson's On Cupid Kit at OAKS
pscs2
fonts: segoe print, times new roman

i finally did a scrapbook page!

this is a 2 page layout of us putting up the christmas tree the other night. thomas lifted hannah up to put the star on the tree. she couldn't get it to stay and she fell into the tree and dropped the star, cracking one side of it. oh well! we just put that side out of sight. :) so, thomas tried to put the star on himself, but couldn't quite reach it. i ended up climbing on a stool to get the star on top of the tree. the funny thing is, our tree is only 5 and a half feet tall. but it looked so pathetic in our living room corner that we put it on top of hannah's art table. we figured that would help keep it safe from hannah and ainsley. so far, it has kept ainsley out of it, but not our little hannah! she keeps climbing on top of chairs to get to it and pull the ornaments off so that she can put them back on. little stinker!

credits:
laura burger's spiced christmas at treasures to scrap
laura burger's wordy sticks
pscs2
fonts: segoe print

{cHaOS}

I feel like my life is always up in the air. I need stability!!!!! For example, take this Christmas... first, we are all going to Chicago, then we aren't. Tickets are too expensive, we'll just go in June. And that is fine. THEN, we have a chance to get one ticket free... And the uproar reopens. First, just I am going with Ainsley for a few days. Then, Hannah is going, too. Then we're all going FOR Christmas! Then Thomas decides that he doesn't want to go. So, I call my mom and tell her to cancel the plans... Then I talk to Thomas and tell him that the trip is totally off. So, he changes his mind again and wants us ALL to go. So, now Ruthie the Great is trying to finagle our free ticket with the purchase of two others so that we can hopefully all fly out or back together. So, are we going to Chicago or staying in Salt Lake??? Who the heck knows?! In the meantime, I am going to try to organize my house and decorate for Christmas, just in case we are here! lol! Gotta love family and indecisiveness!

found a cute blog

I was blog browsing for a minute or two this afternoon and found the CUTEST blog! The blog owner is Amanda. She has tons of cute cards, crafts and recipes on her blog. Check it out! I really want to make the pine cone ornaments. So dang cute!

still alive!

My kitchen is unpacked so far and part of my family room is set up. yep, you guessed it! we set up the direct tv so that hannah can at least watch dora! and we finally got around to getting the internet set up last night. my goal today is to get the girls' room set up. wow! that is a tiny room! it is wall to wall furniture in there! and the sad thing is that it is just a twin bed, a crib and a small dresser! lol! i'll post more when i get time!

one load done

and it's smaller than I remembered... eek! But soooo cute! I can't wait to get my furniture in and my Christmas tree up! okay, time to load the car again!

today is moving day!

yea! We are moving into our new home today and we are so excited! I can start taking things over in my car in a few minutes. woohoo! I really hope that the weather cooperates this afternoon. It is really cloudy outside now. The last thing we need is for everything to get wet before we put it in our basement! So, as soon as I am done feeding Ainsley I can load up my car and start moving. Wish me luck! :)

just some pictures

I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF MY GIRLS!!! I wonder if I can add a shirt to Hannah in Photoshop and send it out with my Christmas cards... if I get around to making them! :)

This is fun, Mom!!!

Look what a big girl Ainsley is!!! She loves to stand up!

Can we go to the library, Mom? I need new books!

Daddy & his girls after work! He is so cute with his babies!

Hannah sitting back with her feet up on the coffee table with a glass of eggnog watching Beauty & the Beast!


now i'm off to pack some more boxes.... so tired of boxes...