Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hi everyone! I hope those friends of mine who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful one! We had a great day here
:-) Tony and I have taken over the tradition of hosting it, and I love it - it's one of my very favorite holidays. My MIL arrived on Tuesday, so it's been nice having her here - she's always a huge help to me, too! We had 11 adults and 4 kids which is very manageable. My grandmother came down from Florida, and I am lucky enough to have local grandparents, too. Here are some highlights of our day:

Noah helping his YaYa make fruit salad:

My table all dressed up and ready to party :-)

My daughter, who was also dressed up and ready to party, lol:

The kids anxiously awaiting the arrival of their cousins:

Isn't my dad cute? (that is Tony's hat, btw, and it was very popular last night as several of us were wearing it, hehae)

A very cut-off self portrait of my mom and me:

Not a great picture, but i'll take what I can get! As always, I had my SIL take a ton, and we still couldn't get a decent one, lol. The kids are never smiling/looking at the camera at the same time!

In the midst of getting ready for Thanksgiving this week, I was able to make a new Fancy Pants page, too. LOVE this new Splendid line! I cut out that little panda from one of the Splendid papers (Valentine's cards) - isn't he cute??

Journaling says: They are literally the girls next door, and they're your best friends. Lucky boy!

By the way, please tell me i'm not the only crazy one who went out on Black Friday! Did you all get any good deals??

So much to catch up on!

Yikes, there is a lot to talk about when I don't blog in a week (bad me!). First off, I found out this morning that I am on to round 3 of the Flippin' for the Holidays contest at AMM. The next round is going to be a huge challenge for me - we have to create a 2 page layout. I haven't done a 2-pager in a loooong time, but I am always up for a challenge, so i'll have to put on my thinking cap. We also have to use the colors of red and green - it doesn't have to be a Christmas layout, but we have to use those colors. I'll let you know what I come up with!

Speaking of AMM, the owner Michelle asked me if I would guest design for her for December! I am SO excited about this! I've been a huge fan of her site since I first joined last Spring, and she creates gorgeous kits! Not to mention she is such a sweetheart, so i'm really excited and appreciative that she thought of me. Can't wait to get my kit!

Here is a new Fancy Pants layout I did using the Daily Grind line. I also did this for the DT inspiration at CMK, and i'm challenging people to use office supplies on a layout. I used the white envelops, binder clip, chipboard paper clip, mini file folder and staples.

Journaling reads: 20 months and could not be any cuter! (This photo is of Noah back in June of '06!).

I also have one more project I made for CMK's November kit. I used the chipboard trees to make a mini-album (called "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree") highlighting the traits that Tony and I have passed down to the kids. The kit came with three trees, so I traced some more onto chipboard.

Journaling: (page 1) This album is decidated to my children - the loves of my life - to celebrate the wonderful (and not so wonderful!) qualities that were passed down to them from their daddy and me! Love, mommy; (page 2) Both Noah and Chloe get their picky eating from their daddy. They get their love of sweets from me.

Journaling: (page 3) Noah got his love of Star Wars and all things superhero from Daddy. Chloe is into dolls, purses and getting into my make-up. She's a girly girl like me. (page 4) Noah has my brown eyes. Chloe got her daddy's blue eyes. They both got their massive amount of thick hair from me!

Journaling: (page 5) Daddy passed on his love of video games to Noah. Chloe is a bookworm just like I was as a child. (page 6) Chloe got her daddy's artistic talent - she loves to draw and paint! Noah is a good sleeper and requires a lot of sleep like me. Chloe needs a lot less sleep, just like her daddy!

Journaling: (page 7) Both of our kids are social butterflies... they get that from me. (page 8) Both Noah and Chloe love to be silly and have fun. They get those traits from both of us!

Journaling (page 9): They both love to sing and dance and rock out. They have two rockstar parents :-) (page 10) Both of these amazing kiddos are affectionate and sweet. They love family and are good to each other. They definitely inherited those qualities from both their daddy and me!

I sure wish I wasn't such a slow scrapper, because I would do minis all the time! I had SO much fun making this, but I scrap at a turtle's pace, so it took me forever, of course!

Finally, my sweet friends Jocely and Audrey both left me blog awards in the last week, so I promise to come back and catch up on those soon!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week! Only a few more days until Thanksgiving... I can't wait!

Good scrappy day!

Today has been a good scrappy day! I found out this morning that I made it onto the second round of a contest I entered at AMM (the winner gets a Flip camcorder, an awesome prize package, and they get to be a guest designer for AMM!). Then when I got home from work, I had an e-mail from Scrapbook Trends requesting my all-time favorite layout. I've actually never shared this one online - it was part of my MMM entry, and I just forgot to upload it after that. I hadn't gotten anything picked up by them in a few months, so that was a happy surprise :-)

This is my latest creation using the gorgeous November kit at CMK. It can be used as an ornament or a wall hanging. Everything is from the kit except for the MM mini-letters and the green felt backing my pp leaves.

Hope everyone is having a happy Monday! Would you believe they're calling for snow flurries tonight? I can't believe it's that time already, wow!

Your Bucket List

Do you have a bucket list? A list of things you want to accomplish before you die? Well, that is our first challenge to you over at the Forward Progress blog - scrap your bucket list. This is mine:

Warning - the journaling is long! I got deep on you all ;-)

I was reminded tonight how unpredictable life can be. That no matter how much we plan, we simply do not know our destiny. We do not know the course our lives will take, and we do not know how long we will be here. This reminder helped me to realize something when it comes to my bucket list – what I want to accomplish before I die. You see, there are plenty of experiences I would like to have in this lifetime…I’d like to finally go parasailing, travel through Europe, go back to Australia, go on many more cruises, own a boat and live on the water. But with the reminder that life is short and should not be taken for granted, my true desires for my bucket list have changed. Sure, I’d love to have those experiences I’ve listed above, but what is really important to me…. What is most important to me is the way in which I live the remainder of my life. Because although those big experiences are fun to strive for, they are not my every day. However, the person I am, the way I live my life… that IS my every day, and the type of person I am is what will be most important to me as I take my last breath in this world. I want to live a life of integrity. I want to have more patience. I want to be kind. I want to do more to help others, and I want to do my part to help the world. I want to continue to make genuine connections with people and surround myself with love and laughter. I want to be a good mother. I want to live a life of peace. I don’t know how much time I have left in this lifetime. I do know, however, that I want my life to have mattered.

I'm off to start our fun, busy day. Lisa next door and I are taking our kids to a music class and then we're heading to the movies to see Madagascar 2.

Oh, and for those who were wondering... So You Think You Can Dance was awesome - crappy seats and all, lol!

CMK November kit

So, this is the second month we are doing something a little different over at CMK. The design team is posting inspiration from the November kit weekly. If you haven't seen this already, you can check out our inspiration from week 1 here and from week 2 (which just started today) here. Here is my week 2 layout using the gorgeous November kit:

These pics are from my 31st birthday two years ago (hmm, can you figure out how old I am now? ;-) I can't believe how little Noah looks - he was 18 months old here! I found out I was pregnant with Chloe just a few weeks later :-)

Everything on this layout is from the November kit except for the little white photo corner. I also used embossing powder and glitter on the clouds that I got out and layered, and I used foam tape to add dimension to the clouds and the letters.

I am so excited - i'm going to see the live tour of So You Think You Can Dance in Baltimore tonight with 3 girlfriends! I went last year, too, and we had great seats on the floor just a few rows back. Our seats aren't as good this time, but i'm sure it will be great. We're going to start off with Mexican food and some margaritas... can't beat that! Happy Monday everyone!

Sneakie peekie...

So, remember that cool new prompt/challenge blog, "Forward Progress" that I told you all about? Well, the fun begins in just one week from today, whoo! Next Saturday, November 15th, we will have the reveal of our first prompt. So, I wanted to drop off a sneak peek of my layout...

I hope you all will come check us out next week!

In the meantime, i'm having fun working with all my DT goodies and will hopefully have more to share soon!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Slacker checking in....

Yikes, it's been almost a week since i've updated my blog, but in my defense, I had a very busy week ;-) Noah's school party was a lot of fun, and Halloween the next day was great, too! We ended up bringing our candy out to the middle of our cul-de-sac so all of us families could hang out and give out our candy together. It was nice, too, because me and Tony both got to take the kids trick or treating together for the first time ever since we always had someone manning the candy table. I knew Noah would enjoy trick or treating, but Chloe really enjoyed it, too! This is the first year she was old enough to really get it (at least a little bit), and by the end of the night, she was a pro at going up to people's doors.

The kids each had two costumes this year :-) My little witch on Halloween:

Buzz Lightyear before his school party:My fairy princess for our party:And our robot on Halloween:

Our Neighborhood party on Saturday night was an absolute blast!

The devil meets Frankenstein...

Being devilish...

Here I am with Snow White and a gynocologist...

And I even met Martha Stewart!

I spent the whole day leading up to the party preparing themed food, so between that and the actual partying, I was pretty exhausted yesterday. The kids seem pretty beat today, too, after such a full few days - Noah didn't take a nap today, and he fell asleep on the couch after dinner. Tony took him up to bed at 6:30, wow!

I've got a layout to post using the fabulous November kit from CMK. This kit is really gorgeous! These papers and embellies worked perfectly with the photos I took recently of Tony building the playhouse for Noah that my parents bought him.

I'm excited to watch everything unfold during election day tomorrow. I think that no matter who you are voting for, this has been such an exciting election, and I can't wait to see what happens! Happy voting, everyone!