okay... new vacation report

okay, lest you all think that i had a miserable week... let me just say that the first few days of the trip were amazing! yes, palm desert was HOTTER than heck! BUT it was really nice to just relax and enjoy family time. The drive to the beach and while we were at the beach was great! It was a lot of fun until Thomas turned into a lobster. Then I had three small whiny children to take care of instead of two! BUT we still had a good time with our little family. It was a lot of fun to spend that much time with Thomas. We really enjoyed going to dinner with his dad & shelly & siblings. The chef at the restaurant was amazing and he walked me through the entire menu and custom created my meal for me. Two delicious filet mignon, perfectly grilled chicken breasts & broccolini, and a salad! YUM! And Thomas and I were able to walk around the resort and just hold hands and enjoy each other without kids pulling on us. We really are grateful to Jim & Shelly for the wonderful opportunity to spend time together and have an amazing meal!

When I said never ever again, I was referring to a family vacation in Palm Desert in the middle of the summer! We are already looking forward to our next little family trip. And Thomas and I enjoyed Las Vegas so much that we are hoping to maybe coax someone into watching our kids for us for a few days, so we can sneak away for our anniversary this fall.

It was REALLY nice to be near family for this trip. When we wanted to hang out with other people, all we had to do is open our bedroom door and there was a whole other family there! Hi Bailey Fam! We basically had a shared living space with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We got one bedroom and bathroom and the Baileys had the other. It was sooooo nice to be able to do laundry while we were there. I came home with a suitcase full of CLEAN laundry and a very small bag of dirty laundry! There was even a dishwasher! Woohoo! I didn't realize how much I missed having a dishwasher until we were there.

Anyway... coming home was a huge bummer! My house is a mess (the kitchen is clean now!). There is laundry everywhere (at least it's clean!). And Tommy had to go back to work (I am VERY grateful that he has a job to go back to!). BUT the good news is that it's 20 degrees cooler here and the gas is $0.50 cheaper per gallon in Utah!

Okay, I am going to go clean my bathroom now and start on the family room! :)

Back from California...

my girls playing at balboa beach... they both hated the water and loved the sand!

vacation report starts here:

never ever again. never. never ever. It was HOT in Palm Desert. And I mean HOT... we hit 118 degrees. I think it is still too soon to give a positive vacation report. It was a typical week for me (cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids & thomas), just removed from the comforts of home (read TERRIBLE bed & painfully slow internet connection). The drive down to Las Vegas was great. We stayed in a great hotel, the DoubleTree Club by the airport. AMAZINGLY comfortable beds. Wow! Loved them! We went and walked around the MGM Grand & the M&M store. Hannah loved the lion cages at the MGM Grand, but she was more fascinated by the "human beings in the cage" than the lions. What a nerd! We had a scare while we were there. Hannah escaped out of the stroller to get a closer look and we lost her for about 30 seconds. Thomas & I were terrified. She wasn't allowed out of the stroller the rest of the night unless we were holding her hand! She loved making her own mix of M&Ms. The kids got really cranky pretty early, so we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. We got up and headed to CA the next morning. What a NIGHTMARE of a drive. Traffic was bumper to bumper, stop and go, from Vegas to Barstow! Then we decided we were sick of that so we took a little side road through the mountains and around the Joshua Tree National Forest. It was sooooo pretty. And there was NO Traffic!

Monday we hung out at the pool for a while, Tuesday more pool, Wednesday morning we got up early and drove to Newport Beach, only took us two hours to get there. We actually went down to the Balboa area. It was pretty and quaint, but by the time we got there, we were only able to stay 2 hours and then we had to leave so we didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic. Well, it ended up taking us 3 1/2 hours to get home! And Thomas, my oh-so-smart husband, forgot to put sunscreen on. He was a LOBSTER for the rest of the trip and spent much of the rest of the week laying in bed with Aloe slathered across his chest and shoulders. Thursday, more pool. Friday, more pool. Then we left all the kids with babysitters and headed out for an adults only dinner. It was the first time I have left my kids with sitters. Hannah had a lot of fun, Ainsley was pretty traumatized. She would let me put her down for two days. I couldn't leave the room without her having a meltdown. I am happy to report that she is back to her normal monkey ways these days! Saturday, more pool. (When I say "pool" read "one hour of sitting by the pool, then we got too hot and had to go back to our room and sit around and re-hydrate so we could go back the next day!) Sunday, we took the TEN AND A HALF hour drive home. What a NIGHTMARE! Our kids were actually pretty good. I just got really carsick and had to take Dramamine and slept most of the time. Our car is really uncomfortable, though, and I am still having muscle spasms in my back. And I am still feeling the effects of the Dramamine. All i want to do is go back to sleep. BUT my house looks like a really messy tornado (aka AINSLEY) swept through it!

I get to watch Thomas' cousins' daughter tomorrow. She is a cutie-pie! Her parents are going to a wedding, so she is going to come play at our house. Hannah is looking forward to having a NEW cousin to play with! You seriously can't walk through my house without tripping on something, though, so I am going to go clean my house. AND we have another trip in three days. We leave Thursday to go to Chicago for a few days. I can't even go grocery shopping because we are leaving again in a couple of days. So, we have sandwiches and cereal for the next three days! Eh, they'll live!

Ainsley is a full-blown toddler now. She is fully weaned, all by herself! She can now climb out of her exersaucer. She can climb up a chair to get to my lap. She can open Ziploc bags. She can unzip zippers. She can get on the couch & bed all by herself. She is already WAY too independent. And she loves baby dolls. She and Hannah fight over the same baby dolls every day, all day. And she fake laughs. It is so funny. She now has her four top front teeth, three on the bottom and at least two molars completely in on top. The bottom two keep coming in and then the skin swells over them again. She is a complete monkey and has the funniest personality! It amazes me that both of our kids have such fun, strong personalities.

Okay, off to give those fun strong personalities a bath and get them dressed and start unpacking and cleaning my house.

a project i worked on...

I am so incredibly grateful that I was asked to help work on this project. I created a few templates and the heart add-on album. It was free with the kit purchase until yesterday, but now it can be purchased separately, I think. It is a beautiful kit! My heart goes out to Laurie and her family. I hope this helps a little...

new layout with misty cato's products

I got ONE page done this week! And the photos are from last Saturday night. :)

supply list:
For the Neapolitan Challenge at SSD
Sweet Boy by Sara(scarletsierra) - photo composition with frame not "fitting" photo
Big by Jaclyn(mrs_jb) title placement
Growing up too fast by Angel(ajf9597) frame around layout


Baby Brights by Misty Cato at SweetShoppeDesigns

What My Fridge Says about me...

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You are a very thrifty person. You don't like to waste money... or food. You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily. You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it. You are likely single - and a workaholic.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

new layout

for the neapolitan challenge at ssd
supply list:
raggedy annie kit by robin carlton, kay miller & mandabean at sweetshoppedesigns
sun, stitch from Rooty Tooty by Misty Cato & Lauren Grier at SweetShoppeDesign, recolored
love, forever from SSD's Hey Girlfriend Collab Kit

new layout

this is for the spin-a-lift challenge at sweetshoppedesigns
supply list:
Scraplift of Holly Griego's owl Love You Forever

Raggedy Annie Kit by Robin Carlton, Kay Miller & MandaBean at SweetShoppe

my dream vacation spot...

With all the vacation preparations going on at our house lately, I have been thinking about how stressful it is to go on vacations. I am watching gas prices like a hawk! I am trying to figure out how we are going to do everything we want to do in the time we have without blowing our budget. I am making lists of everything we have to take, meals we are going to have there, where we are going to buy our groceries when we get there, things to buy before we leave, things to do before we leave... print itineraries, directions, maps, reservations, etc... I have to buy a new bathing suit... blech! I tried on 10 different ones last weekend and I decided that I am NOT going to be seen in a two piece suit, so I tried on FOUR different one pieces that I have and none of them fit... so I now have to buy an ugly one piece because I was too lazy to exercise more the last few weeks. I am getting pretty frazzled over here! I started thinking about my dream vacation, because although I am looking forward to this one, this ain't my idea of a dream! The desert in the middle of summer, no thanks!

My dream vacation would be somewhere romantic and secluded where Thomas and I could just explore. Just us. No kids. No friends. No family. Just me & my sweetheart! I want to eat in little cafes and not ever worry about a clock or a schedule. No naptimes or bedtimes to worry about. It could be anywhere in the world, as long as I am with my Tommy. So, since I have already disgusted you all with my sappiness, let me take another minute to tell my sweetheart how much I love him. He's an amazing man!!! He is such a good daddy and a wonderful husband. I love you, Tommy! Thank you for all you do for us. Okay, done now! :)

new layout with Misty Cato's products

supply list:
Get a Room Girl by Misty Cato & MandaBean

this is my adorable hubby playing soccer as a middle school kid. isn't he cute??? i just adore my little guy! there is a teeny tiny pic of his buddy, shawn in the top corner.
supply list:
Scraplift of Jaclyn's Our Little Prince at SSD
Misty Cato's Rookie Kit at SweetShoppeDesigns

Still here!

Yes, I am still alive and kickin'! We have been so busy!!! I am keeping busy with my little scrapbooking business and trying to keep up with my kiddos!

We went to the cabin last weekend. We had a lot of fun. It was a ranch workday, so the men in the family were assigned to clean out the area by the spring. I thought it looked a bit overwhelming when we got there. Thomas assumed the assignment meant the tiny area actually surrounding the spring. I was right, it was the HUGE fenced-in area. The boys got a chainsaw and set to work. It looked great when they finished almost four hours later! We were warned before we went up to the cabin that ranch workday had also turned into a mini-cabin workday and that there may be a few people in and out to do some light cleaning... well, it actually turned into a pretty invasive cleaning day, so Chrissy and I ended up taking the kids out for a nature walk so they didn't get in the way or fall down the stairs. It was freezing cold and the grass and everything outside was wet, so that lasted all of an hour and a half, so we loaded the kids into the car and drove down to Oakley and spent a few minutes at the "grocery store" there. It's really a small little general store with mostly groceries. They carry Western Family brand and it's actually pretty affordable. I really like Ken's Kash! :) It's cute and the people that work there are so helpful and friendly! The way customer service should be! And the cashier told me that my kids were cute, so that always helps! We headed back up the canyon when we saw Thomas' aunt at the grocery store and she said they were done at the cabin. We had some cleaning assignments at the cabin when we got back. Uncle Tommy decided to build a big campfire and we all roasted marshmallows. Hannah loved roasting marshmallows. Crazy Aunt Meredith forgot the candy bars and the graham crackers, so I crushed up some Golden Grahams and dipped my marshmallows in them... no one else seemed to want them. The ones that stuck were really good. We got up Sunday morning and had a big breakfast. Hannah was so excited because we brought bacon up to the cabin so she ate 6 big strips of bacon all by herself AND some hashbrowns. We decided to hang out for a bit, then clean and go on a nature walk and then just leave after our walk... Well, Thomas took the girls to the other end of the cabin and I started cleaning. I planned to do a really deep cleaning in the kitchen and bathroom. I got the bathroom done in about an hour and then started on the basic cleaning that has to be done before everyone leaves... I very quickly enlisted Thomas' help! FOUR HOURS LATER we finished. We decided that we are no longer going to be the last people at the cabin. Sorry cabin buddies. No more. I can't handle it. It shouldn't take any longer than an hour or two AT THE MOST. And I didn't even get a chance to deep clean the kitchen. I just did a basic kitchen cleaning. We didn't even get to go on our nature walk. We finally left and thankfully the garbage dump was open. It usually isn't open on Sundays. So I didn't have to ride down with the garbage on my lap for long. We got home and spent the rest of the day doing laundry... not sure if it is worth all the work involved for a weekend. Good thing I have a short memory so that by the time our turn rolls around again I will have forgotten how frustrated I get up there. And it's really too bad because it is so much fun up there! Oh well, enough complaining!

So, we leave on Saturday to head down to Vegas. Thanks Ber & Jeffery for helping me find an amazing hotel deal! Then on Sunday morning we are heading down to the desert in California for a week. It will be nice to get away and just enjoy our family for a while. But we are staying some little villas so I am sure that it will end up being more of the same old junk... cooking and cleaning the entire time. And I enjoy cooking and cleaning, just not so much of it! I can clean my house in the morning and with the exception of a few toys, it stays clean. My kids don't eat outside the kitchen and they only eat when I tell them they can. They don't get lots of snacks and they have to eat them at the table. Drinks are only allowed in the kitchen. Bottles are only allowed in bed. So, I shouldn't have a ton of maintenance cleaning throughout the day. Oh well. We'll see how it goes. I am excited to go sit outside in the warm weather! It has been so freaking cold here!!! It's only 59 degrees here today! Okay, it's summer now... can we have some warm weather? I am just trying to enjoy not having to run my swamp cooler and window units! At least it will save me some $$. trying to stay positive! although i think that having to run the heat at night might cost me about the same! :)

After we get back from California, we leave the following week to go to Chicago for a few days to see my family. I am so excited! I haven't seen my dad in almost a year! I haven't seen my brother & his wife & daughter OR my sister & her husband and daughter in that long either. I really miss them! The babies won't even remember me. I haven't seen Zoey in two months. She probably won't even remember me!

And then after that, we head back up to the cabin for the 4th of July. We were going to do a big barbeque up there, but I don't think we'll be doing that. I won't have the time to do the planning and shopping and cooking for everyone. We'll probably just grill hamburgers. And we may not even go. It just depends on how the trip to CA goes and what everyone else is doing. I am just grateful to be in Utah with my whole little family together this year! Love you, babe!

So, something disturbing I heard on the news this morning. I love me some Fox News! Anyway... 1 in 5 people have medical debt. That's scary! I know we do! And it is going to take us forever to pay it off! A normal healthy delivery cost us over $13000. And I am still debating some of those bills over a year later! My insurance company that we don't even have coverage through anymore just barely agreed to pay my OB bills... she was preferred provider and they were saying that she wasn't on their provider list. What a nightmare. One of the experts this morning was saying that you don't have to sign the financial agreement papers. If you NEED medical care, the hospital can't turn you away if you don't sign the papers. Now, if you were having elective surgery or it was non-lifethreatening, they can turn you away. I just pray that we all stay healthy for the next month and a half until our new insurance kicks in! I think Ainsley may have a sinus infection and I am hesitant to take her in unless she starts running a fever. They won't give me antibiotics unless she is running a fever. I don't want to pay $165 for them to tell me that she has a cold. I really wish that one of my brothers-in-law would hurry up and finish medical school and start diagnosing my kids! Get on that, boys!

And now I have rambled enough to make up for the last two weeks of not posting much. :) Are ya sorry you asked what I've been up to?

Places I've Been

Places I've Been

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Now, I haven't actually visited a lot of these places on purpose, but these are the places I have either visited or driven through!

These are the places I have lived...

Places I've Lived!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

another new layout!

another layout just for fun! these photos are from last week, playing in the neighbor's kiddie pool. the other little girl is the kid the neighbor babysits.
supply list:
scraplift of "S is for Silly" by hamtaro807 at 2Peas

Traci Reed's Sunshine Playtime kit at SSD
Misty Cato's Acrylic Style File
stitches from flowerstand by susan bartolini & shabby miss jen

new layout to share

oh my goodness! another scrapbook page JUST FOR FUN!
The pictures are from Hannah's birthday last year!
supply list:
SplishSplash Kit by Lauren Grier & Penny Springman
squares from Imagine That by Misty Cato & Robin Carlton (alpha, used as a template)
Misty Cato's Style File

I am a high-level NERD!

new layout to share!

Oh my goodness! I did a scrapbook page JUST FOR FUN! Holy cow! It's a miracle! This picture is from earlier this week!

supply list:
Atomic Amber by Micheline Martin

New Layouts with SaraAmarie's products

This picture is from earlier this week. I did it for the Sugar Free Challenge at The Sweet Shoppe
supply list:
SaraAmarie's Lighthearted Kit at SweetShoppeDesigns

this is a cute layout with photos from last month. i love that little grin and crazy hair!
supply list:
SaraAmarie's Lighthearted Kit at SweetShoppeDesigns

new layout with Misty Cato's products

these are photos from earlier this week. ainsley LOVES her baby dolls!
supply list:
Adorable Me by Misty Cato & Betty Jo Martin at SweetShoppeDesigns

and here is another layout I of Ainsley from yesterday just for fun. Ainsley kept trying to get that Coke. Seriously. Five minutes of her trying to drink the Coke that was in the closed bottle! It was too funny! That's our girl, eh!
supply list:
Misty Cato's Zoe Kit at SweetShoppeDesigns

Some fun stuff

I LOVE Coldplay... and I LOVE this song. This is just a snippet of the song. It just makes me so happy and want to dance. The girls and I did just that this morning. We turned this song up on the stereo really loud and just danced! Ainsley thought it was hilarious and just kept laughing. Hannah had so much fun! I don't let loose and do that kind of stuff with the kids often enough! After we were too tired to dance anymore, we ran the CD to Thomas at work, then did a couple of fun errands and came home and went to the little park next door. We drew some AMAZING chalk drawings on the bricks. The kids ran and played hide & seek. Hannah is playing with her little buddy, Parker right now. Woot. Gotta love living in a duplex with awesome neighbors!

So, we are the proud owners of a Magic Jack. If you think that spending $45 a month on a phone line is a complete waste of money, check this out. Our total for the magic jack and one year of service was $53 with fast shipping! It's a little hard to hear sometimes but sooooooo much better than trying to rush people off the phone because I don't want to use too many minutes or requiring our family to call us long distance because my cell phone number is a FL number. I think my contract is up, I should probably see if I can change my number. So, thanks Greg, for pointing this out to us! Now we have a home phone AND a cell phone. A-MAZING!

Thomas' computer got a nasty virus! So, we are down to one little computer. And this poor thing is about full! I really need to get my scrapbook organizing program up and running so I can clean some of this garbage off. I really want to get an external hard drive but that's not in the 1 month plan. Too many darn vacations this month! We are heading to the cabin this weekend and then next weekend we head to Las Vegas for one night and then to the middle of the desert for the rest of the week. Four days after we get back, we leave to go to Chicago for 5 days. Then 2 days after we get back from there, we go to the cabin again. CRAZY! BUT I am really looking forward to both cabin visits. We're going to do some ranch work this time. I think I am going to take some heavy duty cleaners and scrub the bathrooms down. They really need it. It's hard when you have different people in and out every weekend. No one ever takes the time to really do deep cleanings because who wants to waste a couple of hours of their relaxation time doing that? ME!!!

Okay, well, my breadmaker just beeped, letting me know that my dough is ready to be stretched. We're having homemade pizza for dinner tonight. YUM! I may make an extra batch of dough and do some cinnamon rolls to freeze and take to the cabin with us. Alright, fun people, I'm out. Listen to some LOUD Coldplay for me! Ainsley is sleeping right now or I'd be blasting it!

new layout with LAURA BURGER'S new stuff!

these pictures are from a week or so ago. this is one reason i digiscrap now. :)
supply list:
Teen Scene ScrapKit at ACOT