good call, mandy!

i do like the flower in color. i really need to get more pictures in this field and try to do one with all the flowers in color. they had some amazing flowers at this park.

do i like this better?

or the one in color? i think i like the sepia. what do you think?
i cannot wait to go back to the cabin and take some pictures of the kids.

some pictures

of course, hannah wanted to climb on the rocks at the park. the only problem is that they were actually in someone's backyard, not at the park. i took a couple of pictures then made her climb down. she loved it, though!

there were tons of really pretty wildflowers up on the hillside at the park today. i was going to have hannah sit and hold ainsley in the middle of these flowers, but there were tons of bees, so i just snapped this one of hannah smelling the flowers. i would love to go back at sunset and get some pictures of the girls there. the light in utah is amazing for pictures!

hannah & ainsley this morning in their coordinating outfits. so cute! thanks grandma ruthie!

my little ainsley! she is getting so big. i need to correct this photo a bit in photoshop.

hannah & kayla. both looking a bit rough! :) they had been playing outside for about 5 hours at this point. they have so much fun together! well, when hannah isn't cranky at least.

hannah blowing big "kimmie" bubbles. kim gave hannah these bubbles when ainsley was born. she loves them and i can't find bubble solution refills anywhere right now. gonna have to use dish soap and food coloring! :)

update for the day

Today has been a pretty good day so far. The girls actually slept until a decent time this morning, which is good, since I was up half the night. Ainsley has been really fussy and her reflux is really bad right now. That usually means we are in the middle of a big growth spurt. Hannah didn't want to sleep in her room last night either. So, all four of us attempted to sleep in our bed again last night. I had Hannah's feet in my back and Ainsley trying to eat all night long... not good for resting. At about 1:30 this morning, I got sick of it! I carried a sleeping Hannah to her room and was finally able to sleep. Then I got up this morning at about 5:30 with Thomas to iron his shirt and then back to sleep for me! I actually couldn't fall asleep for a couple of hours, but it was nice to try! :) Then, we got up and went to playgroup with some of the moms & kids from church. They were so sweet. I really enjoyed it. I liked all of the moms, but there are a few that I think I could really like. One of the moms reminds me so much of my friend, Kimmie, from Florida, that it made me kinda sad. I miss Kimmie! Anyway... after the kids played for a while, I took the girls to Target to get a few groceries for dinner. That is the bad thing about moving, you don't have all the basics... like sour cream. So, we are constantly finding ourselves running to the store to get one or two little things that we always used to have in the house. Last weekend it was garlic. I ALWAYS have fresh garlic in the house. And now I do here! So.... we ran to Target and I only had to threaten Hannah once! :) I even got the ingredients to make Thomas' favorite dinner. Well, most of them. I forgot one of the main parts, but I can always run out tomorrow and get that. It will give us a reason to leave the house. So, I didn't get much done around the house today, but it was nice to spend the day out. I want to take Hannah to the library tomorrow. Maybe we'll wait until Thursday, it is supposed to be almost 90 degrees so it will be too hot to go outside to play. I took cute pictures today of the girls. I''ll try to upload some later.

today...

How do my kids know when I am totally exhausted? I swear they can sense it. And they always wake up at the crack of dawn on those days. The girls were both awake at 5:30 this morning. So, at least they got to see Daddy. Then, Ainsley fell asleep at about 7am and Hannah fell asleep about 7:30. I decided to try to sleep at that point and couldn't fall asleep for a long time, of course. Too much stuff running through my mind. I fell asleep just before both girls woke up. Of course. And I swear that Hannah follows me around making messes as soon as I clean something. I made my bed this morning and Hannah pulled the blankets down again and jumped on it. She is NOT allowed to jump on beds. Then I cleaned up all the toys in the family room. It looks like a tornado hit in here. I don't even want to check Hannah's room. It was clean this morning, too.

So... the weekend... Thomas and I ended up not having our dinner date on Friday. We had both kids with us and they were cranky. So, we decided to just drive through somewhere and eat at home. The kids both fell asleep in the car so at least we had a few minutes to ourselves. Then Saturday we watched football all day. I love football season. We went out Saturday evening with just Ainsley and ran some errands. It seems like that is the only time we have together alone. But at least we are getting something productive done and not spending money that we don't need to spend. We did go for a walk last night with the girls. It was nice to just be outside in the cool air with them. So, now it is Monday afternoon and the week starts over again. My plans are to clean, organize some stuff and get some scrapbooking done. I am soooo far behind that it really isn't even remotely amusing. I have been such a terrible CT member lately. But I did get two really cute layouts done for the RAKScraps newsletter. I can't wait to post them, but you'll have to wait a couple of days. I know, I know, the suspense is killing you!

BIG plans this weekend!

Okay, so not really. But I got your attention, didn't I?! :) We are actually going to go open a checking account tonight when Thomas gets home and then we are going to go out to dinner. My aunt got us a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants when Ainsley was born and we are just now getting to use it. :) Soooooo..... hopefully the kids will cooperate and behave and we can have an enjoyable meal! Hannah may rebel, though. She hasn't been able to play with Kayla all week and has been talking ALL DAY about how much fun she is going to have with Kayla tonight. But since we are leaving here pretty early, we shouldn't be out too late. My anti-social, anti-crowds husband wants to be home early. Maybe we'll watch a movie tonight or something. We'll see...

layout

this picture is from when we went to the zoo in chicago
credits:
Jessica David's Explorer Paper Pack at oaks
red ribbon: Ann-Marie's Wrapped Up at oaks, saturation & hue altered
white frames: Dawn Wilson's 4x6 White Frames at oaks
Dawn Wilson's splat-a-tat at oaks
jewel: DC Designs' Spring sorbet elements at oaks
alpha from oaks' chocolate covered cherries collab kit from august 2007
paintbrush by christine smith
pscs2
fonts: turtle club

layout

credits:
a 2pager...
Dawn Wilson's Scrap Packs Vol IV at OAKS, altered to fit a 17x11 layout
blue paper from Doreen Stoltz's Versatility kit at OAKS
Dawn Wilson's Hearts & Buttons at OAKS
Dawn Wilson's Splat-a-Tat at OAKS
Dawn Wilson's White 4x6 Photo Frames at OAKS
pink ribbon: Ann-Marie's Folded Ginghams at OAKS
alpha from Ann-Marie's Sea Dreams element pack at OAKS, recolored
brown ribbon from Ann-Marie's Wrapped Up at OAKS, recolored
stitching from Kim Christensen's Stitch Tied at ScrapArtist
laura burger's boxtop borders at eclectic digital designs
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fonts: turtle club

added new music...

I added some new tunes to my blog... enjoy! :)

drama queen layout

credits:
amy bleser's grammie's apron at scrapbook-bytes
silver crown from maria lafrance's a&e kit at digital freebies
pscs2
fonts: turtle club

new layout

credits:
SaraAmarie's Desirable Disasters: Breakroom Kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
SaraAmarie's More Candy Wrappers kit at SweetShoppeDesigns
SaraAmarie's Candy Wrappers kit from the SweetShoppe Quarterly vol 3 at SweetShoppeDesigns
SaraAmarie's Squished Doh at SweetShoppeDesigns
pscs2
fonts: Times New Roman, Larger Mime

smith-morehouse canyon layout

Jenna Nelson's Shutterbug kit paper pack & element pack at DragonFlaire & ScrapDish
glitter from Jenna Nelson's Pixie Dust Overlays at DragonFlaire & ScrapDish
pscs2
fonts: thinking of you

good morning

not much to update, but just thought I would post and say good morning! we went to our new church ward yesterday. the people seem really nice. everyone introduced themselves and they even invited me to playgroup and scrapbooking. it was nice to talk to someone other than my kids! hannah LOVES her new nursery teachers. hannah was so excited to ride on the toy horses they have and she even ate CHEESE for snack! that is a huge milestone for her. she has been lactose intolerant for a long time and is finally able to tolerate it.

both kids fell asleep early last night and of course, thomas and i stayed up late watching a stupid movie about a boat that sinks... kind of fuzzy, i was trying not to pay attention because it was so dumb. ainsley fell asleep in her swing and terrible mother that i am, i left her in it so that she would stay asleep! she slept until 4am! yahoo! anyway... i have to go get ready. we are going to go run some errands and get some things from storage and put some other things in storage. the fun never ends!

the past few days...

Sorry that I haven't updated much lately! Things have been crazy around here as usual. It really shouldn't surprise me. Ainsley isn't sleeping much at night unless she is sleeping right there in bed with us. I can't figure out why. I don't know if she is just cold or what, but she never had a problem when we were in Chicago. And Hannah isn't sleeping at night either. She wakes up crying at least once a night. I don't know what the issue is there either. Last night, I was so exhausted from being up all night every night with Ainsley, so Thomas got up with her and got her calmed down and brought her into our room. So, we had all four of us in our bed again for about half the night. I finally got some scrapbooking done yesterday, just a couple of layouts and got a couple of older layouts posted. My memory is totally gone. I had some of these done when we were in Chicago but forgot to post them!

I love my husband! By the time he got home from work yesterday, I was ready to go crazy! I hadn't left the house all day and the kids were CRANKY! So, we left Hannah with G&L and went to dinner. I have been craving Mexican food so we drove up to the next little town and went to Bajio Grille. I've never been there before and Thomas doesn't like that kind of food, but he went anyway and we just sat there and talked for an hour while I ate my burrito (no rice, no cheese!) and we shared a Coke. Our first date in a very long time and I loved it! We're going to have to make that a habit. :) Thomas had to run an errand this morning and I am getting ready to go make him his favorite breakfast so that it will be ready when he gets home and then we are going to watch college football all day! I love fall! We have our niece part of the weekend so Hannah should have someone to play with and we can hopefully have some peace and quiet! :)

That's about all... I'm hoping to get some scrapbooking done today, too. Maybe I'll sneak some in during one of the games, or maybe I'll work on knitting some more of Angie's baby blanket. Yeah... She's almost three weeks old and her blanket is about 1/4 of the way done. Liv's isn't much more done! :) Better get to work.

moody layout

credits:
Laura Burger's Boone Hall kit at Eclectic Digital Designs
Laura Burger's Boxtop Borders at Eclectic Digital Designs
Laura Burger's Eclectic Accents: Shabby Ties at Eclectic Digital Designs
Laura Burger's Glitz It Up at Eclectic Digital Designs
Laura Burger's My Watercolor Doodles at Eclectic Digital Designs
Laura Burger's Attach a Photo at Eclectic Digital Designs
PSCS2
fonts: thinking of you

ainsley's toes layout

credits:
Amy Bleser's Bohemian Blossoms Kit at SBB
Amy Bleser's Chicken Scratch Alpha at SBB
PSCS2
fonts: pea cammi

cabin horses layout

credits:
Jenna Nelson's Sasparilla Kit elements & paperpack at DragonFlaireStudios and ScrapDish
PSCS2
fonts: Thinking of You

new layout

credits:
Doreen Stoltz's Versatility Kit at OAKS
jewel clip: Jessica Gorny's Jeweled Element Pack at OAKS
photo actions by Holly McCaig, altered
pscs2
fonts: thinking of you

new layout

credits:
karen lewis' heaven sent kit at oaks
stitched photo corner, torn notebook paper from ann-marie's sea dreams kit at oaks
U from Michelle Coleman's Hand Stamped Alpha
"me" from Laura Burger's Grungy Stamped Alpha at Eclectic Digital Designs
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fonts: thinking of you, pupcat

CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!

I added music to my blog. TURN OFF YOUR SPEAKERS IF YOU ARE AT WORK! :) Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it gets too annoying, let me know and I'll take it down!