Weekend Recap

What a weekend! So much going on, it was crazy! Friday night was our monthly crop night with the girls. This month was extra special because we were also throwing a surprise baby shower for our precious friend, Amy. I've known Amy since High School. We worked at a retail Party Supply store together. I am so happy to call her friend! She is one of the funniest people I know and is always so much fun to be around. She's having her 2nd girl, so we showered her with diapers and wipes.
I worked on a project I can't share just yet, but also completed 2 layouts. Telah had gotten a bunch of extra prints so I got some more pictures of Natalie's birth day to scrap.

We called a quits just a little earlier than normal because a group of us were getting up at the crack of dawn and going to B'ham for Scrap. Etc. big National Scrapbook Day sale. All of us spent way more than we should have, but we got some great deals and I can't wait to use some of the new stuff I bought. Once we finished there we headed over to Scrapbook Mania. They were having a great sale too, and the owner (India) was SO NICE. Cheryl is on the DT for this store and we really enjoyed our visit there. Mallory participated in the Make and Take, which she is proudly displaying in the pic below.

Once we finished up there we headed to the Galleria for lunch and to kill some time. In addition to the surprise shower we gave Amy, it was also her birthday and her hubby was throwing her a surprise party. Our mission was to make it back to Huntsville just shortly after 4pm. We had lunch and Natalie went on her first carousal ride with Mallory and Heather.
We made it back to Huntsville just in time and Amy was surprised again!

Then this afternoon, we had a baby shower for my cousin Katie. Only 5 more weeks to go and little Caleb will be here! So nice to spend some time with my family. Look at these cute pacifier candies my Aunt made!


Tomorrow Natalie is going to go spend a couple of hours with her grandmommy and John and I are going to see Spiderman 3 at the IMAX! Have a great week everyone!

In Loving Memory

Tomorrow marks the 2nd Anniversary of the passing of my dear Mother-In-Law. I have been thinking about her a lot this week. It's funny how just the date on the calendar can bring losing a loved one to the forefront of our minds. She was diagnosed with cancer in September of 2004 and struggled with it for 9 months before the disease took her from us. On this day, I want to tell you a couple of great things about her.
She could decorate like nobody's business. She just had a knack for that sort of thing. It would amaze me how a lot of times when going to their house, she would have changed the furniture around. She liked changing things up and was always painting or moving her furniture. And I mean she did this a lot. Sometimes it seemed like barely a week would have passed and she'd have that living room completely redone. She also could decorate a Christmas tree. I never knew anyone that could put so much stuff on a tree and it still look so beautiful.The other thing is that she loved her grandson with all her heart. There are just no words to express how much little Taylor meant to her. And knowing this, I also know that she loved Natalie, even though she was just a thought at that time. She looked forward to John and I having kids and she was so sure that we would bring a girl into the family. (She had 3 boys and the one grandchild was a boy.) It makes me very sad that Natalie will not ever know her Nana Wright but I can take comfort in the fact that I know she would have loved her with all of her being. We love you so much Nana, and miss you terribly.

Weekend Layouts

Worked on some pages this past weekend.. trying to stir up some brain power for a post and I just don't have it in me tonight. So, posting some layouts is quick and easy! Telah and I did a photo swap this past weekend. She sent me a couple of her pics and vice versa. Here is the page I did for her. Followed by a simple one of Natalie. I also did one for the Page Maps Anniversary challenge, but I can't post it til the contest is over.

National Scrapbook Day is just 4 days away! A group of us are going down to B'ham to celebrate at Scrap. Etc. Love this store and I'm looking forward to a great day of shopping and bringing home some great scrapbooking stash!

All Things Scrap

I have run across several good scrappin' sites lately that I thought I would share. I do a lot of blog hopping and that seems to be how I find most of these. Some time last week I found Little Book of Sketches. I have really started using sketches a lot, so every time I find some new ones, I put them to use. This layout is using sketch #72 from their site. If you visit, leave a comment that you heard about them from me, it will put us both in a drawing for prizes!
Another great blog I found is Pub Calls. I like challenges and this blog list everything out there, or at least it seems like everything. They also list Design Team calls and Publishing calls if you're interested in that. From Pub Calls I found two other cool places. Feeling Scrappy and I Love to Create. Feeling scrappy is a new site and already has a great community and gallery. I Love to Create is hosting an online weekend crop that Telah and I are going to participate in. If you'd like to join us, come on over. I'll be participating 100% tonight and then off and on Saturday.

This weekend I've got two baby showers to go to. Yesterday I altered some letters as part of my gift. I'm running a risk here that the person receiving these will see them, but they are getting them this weekend so I just decided to go ahead and post them! The I is for a baby boy. This couple has a wonderful adoption story. Little I should be joining them in just a few months! And the A is for a baby girl. (bet you couldn't tell..LOL) Have a great weekend everyone!

Family Matters - Picture Overload!

I've been trying to complete this layout for 4 days. I stamped the flowers and cut them out, and even though there aren't that many I was so ready to be finished cutting those things out! Plus the chipboard letters were bare, so I had to cover them with paper. So this probably wins the longest time spent on a layout award.

This week we've had some family in town from Florida. My granddad's first cousin was here to conduct a gospel meeting at my home congregation. We had a mini-reunion while he was here and got together with all the cousins that could attend. Now my family really keeps up with the family tree, all the first cousins at this get together were my Great-Grandfather and his siblings kids. You put a bunch a people in a room that grew up together in the 40's and 50's and you hear some interesting and funny stories. Back before TV's, Playstations, cell phones and computers, kids had to be a lot more creative on their own. The group picture is of all the first cousins and there were several that weren't there. Good times!








Here's Natalie today playing in the boppy. She is so close to sitting up on her own.

Random Tuesday

I've been tagged by Jessi to post 7 random facts about myself. I really had to give this some thought and even as I start this post I don't have seven things in mind so we'll see where this goes.

1. I love roller coasters/thrill rides. I will get on anything. And I mean anything. The faster, the higher, the better. My theme park experience is limited to Six Flags, Universal Studios and Disney World. I would love to be able to go to different parks around the U.S. and ride some faster, taller coasters.

2.I love to travel. Up until about 3 or 4 years ago I really hadn't been all that many places. But the job I took in 2003 allowed me to travel lots of places in the U.S. A few of my favorites are Washington D.C., Seattle, and Austin, Texas. One of the most beautiful was San Luis Obispo, California. This second picture was one I took while I was there. I would love to go back when John could go with me. There are so many places I'd like to go.

3. I've always lived in Alabama. As a matter of fact, my Alabama roots go back as far as my Great-Grandparents. Maybe even further than that, but I do know that at least 4 generations have lived here in North Alabama.

4. There are 8 preachers in my extended family. There may be more than that, but I can think of 8 just right off the top of my head. They are spread out across the south in TN, GA, FL, AL, and TX.

5. My favorite season is summer. I don't like cold weather at all, and I love wearing capri's and flip flops.

6. John and I dated for 3 months before he even kissed me. I was beginning to wonder if maybe we were just friends and when I asked him what we were, his response was.."homosapiens". He had no idea what I meant by that question and he WAS a Biology major. LOL

7.My favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip. Or more specifically, 31 flavors Mint Chocolate Chip. So far I haven't found any other brand that's as good as theirs.

So there you have it.. my random facts. Now I'm supposed to tag 7 people, but rather than doing that, I'll just say, if you'd like to participate, post away!

Drum Roll Please....

Here it is. The lucky bowl filled with all 23 comments. Thanks to every one who participated. It was fun seeing some new names, which led me to some new blogs. Thanks girls!

I let little bit do the honors. She reached right in and pulled just one piece of paper out like she knew exactly what she was doing.
And the proceeded to eat it...
And the winner is...

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Congrats Laura! Email me your address to johnandleah@juno.com and I'll send your goodies on their way! Thanks again everyone for playing. I'll have to do that again soon!

Some Layouts and a RAK!

Edited Sunday 4/22: I'm drawing a winner tomorrow for the RAK. If you haven't got your comment in, do it quick! :)

Got to spend some scrap time with my bestest scrap buddy today. We try to get together once or twice a month and scrap the day away. First on the agenda was completing the latest scrapjack.
The target layout is by Heidi Swapp. If you're a scrapper, chances are you know exactly who she is. For those who don't know, she is a very popular in the scrapbooking industry. She has her own line of products. I particularly love them because she is a total pink person and she has LOTS of girly stuff. So here's what I did:

The rest of these are some more Christmas layouts. I have to confess that I am so over the Christmas pictures. I'm making it a personal goal to do my Christmas layouts RIGHT after the holidays next year. It's so hard to get in a Chistmasey mood in the middle of April. The other baby in the pictures is Natalie's cousin Julia. She is about 4 months older than Natalie and such a cutie herself!



Now for the really fun stuff! I ran across an unbelievable deal on some Making Memories product. So I got enough to share. All you have to do is leave me a comment and you'll be entered in a drawing for this RAK. Come on lurkers, I'm giving away free stuff! Let me know you're out there! Here's a pic of what all you get.


My personal favorite is the pack of alpha rub-ons. Here's to happy scrappin!

Catching Up

Sometime last week sweet Cheryl nominated me on her blog for a blog award. I was then supposed to pick 5 great blogs and post about them. Thanks so much for the shout out Cheryl! So now it's my turn. First let me say that I read a LOT of blogs. I looked in my favorites to get a ballpark figure and it's over 50! I couldn't believe it was that many. So choosing 5 was not an easy task. So here goes.

1. My best friend Telah and I started blogging about the same time. She has a wonderful family with some super cute kids. I talk to her just about every day without fail, so it's not as if I don't know what's going on in her life but I just love reading her blog. She's the one that got me into scrapbooking and her pages always give me inspiration.

2. About the time we started blogging, Telah found a scrapbook room that someone had posted on their blog. She immediately shared the link and we both have been hooked to Amy M's blog ever since. This woman is the master organizer. She is so creative. She finds the coolest stuff and is nice enough to share it with her readers. If you need some organizational motivation, pay her a visit. Pay her a visit anyway because she's a great scrapper too and has so much neat stuff on her blog.

3. Joleen has an awesome scrapbook room also. She has just recently moved and it amazes me how organized and together her new house already is. She has a small store of a scrap space and it just makes me wish I was close enough to "shop" there. LOL She has 5 boys, one serving our country in Afghanistan. It has been such a joy to get to "know" her family and their crazy/busy everyday life.

4. This avenue of blogging has allowed me to connect to people all over the U.S. AND even Canada. Which brings me to Jessi. She is just a fun gal. Love her sense of humor. She too has some very cute kids and is always an inspiration because she can put together some really great layouts.

(are you sensing a pattern here? Almost all the blogs I read are scrappin gals!)

5. My 5th blogging girl is a woman that's going places. She is quickly becoming a scrapbooking celebrity. Mrs. Karla Dudley was recently featured on Scrapjacked, and her work is becoming very widely known in this arena. She is a wonderful artist. And her kids seem to always be getting into some kind of mischief, which she always seems to capture on film. Life with a little boy and twin girls has got to be crazy.

So there they are.. just 5 of the MANY blogs I read.

I'll leave you with this cute picture and a couple of layouts. On Friday we went out to eat and while John was trying to eat and hold Natalie at the same time, she decided she wanted a drink of his water. She has a pretty good grip too!


Last Friday night was our monthly scrap night with the gals. I'm currently mainly working on my Christmas pictures. I completed about 5 pages but this one was one of my faves. The pictures look so much better in person. And then the second layout is one I did tonight. I had to try out my new stamps from Michael's. I just recently discovered that they have mini packs of acrylic stamps for $1. The flower is from one of those packs.

6 Months Old

Natalie had her 6 month pictures today! We were supposed to go last week, but you know how that goes. Big huge scratch she put on her forehead the morning before our appointment. I called and rescheduled for today and wouldn't you know she scratched her nose last night! The nose scratch wasn't as obvious as the big forehead scratch so I just figured such is life and took her on anyway. I love, love, LOVE how they all turned out. She did so well and smiled so good, unlike her 3 month pics where we had the hardest time getting her to crack a smile. The girl took about 70 pictures and the great thing about Portrait Innovations is that you can get the CD with all the images as part of your package. Makes it really easy to post them and to print my own 4x6's of some of the ones we didn't order prints of. Here are just a few. And I must say again that I have the most beautiful baby in the world! :)