A Kiss on the Chic

Happy New Year! (in a few hours for us...)

I'm back from my parents house and enjoying the few more hours of 2008!  I have had an incredible year and am sooo thankful for all the Lord has blessed my with. 

I am so thankful for my life and wanted to reflect on the "blessings" from 2008 as this year closes:

~ I am thankful for my family and the health that we enjoy (minus the cold that I just  got yesterday)

~ I'm thankful for an incredible husband and awesome marriage that has spanned almost 20 YEARS!!!

~ I'm thankful for my three daughters that I have dreamed of having my whole life

~ I'm thankful for my brother and his wife who are such awesome people and I'm so lucky that I get to call them brother and sister

      

~  I'm thankful for having both sets of parents alive and such wonderful people who pray for us and help us in soooo many ways

  

~ I'm thankful for friends (too many to post pictures of) that stand by me and take me just as I am.  Who rejoice in the good things together and lift eachother up in the difficult things...

~ I'm thankful for my home and the shelter and comfort it give us.  I don't want to ever make my home too much of a "valued item" and want to always leave it in the Lord's hands where we should live.  

 

~ I'm thankful that we get to travel!  I don't know when I started to LOVE traveling but somewhere along the way, it happened...  I am so thankful that we have experienced so much of this world and can't wait to do more traveling in 2009!

 

~ I'm thankful for the world of blogging!!!  It hasn't even been a full year for me and I can't even remember NOT blogging! lol...  It has been something that has brought so much joy to my life to have a community of blogging friends all around the world!  To think that we can share this together and "meet" through my blog and that you'd even want to READ my blog and share in my life is astounding to me!!  Somedays, I look on the blog and see so many kind comments, so many "hits" on the blog it blows me away, so many "friends" I can catch-up with through this blog, it brings me to tears sometimes.  I started this "thing" I didn't even know the first thing about last January to an audience of NONE and now to feel so connected to all of you is AMAZING!

(Insert your picture here...  ;)-

~ I'm thankful for my hobby that is my passion that is now my career!  It really is sooo much fun to create lasting pieces of art that are also capturing my familes memories!  I have always enjoyed looking at art and I'm in awe of artists who paint, sculpt, compose and entertain us with their brilliance. But, I have to say that scrapbooking is also an art form and what better art form is there?  You create art out of your OWN memories!!!!  It's why this art form IS my PASSION and will always be my passion!

 

 

 

 

~ I'm soooo thankful that I have been blessed to meet all of you through my "A Kiss on the Chic" Kit Club!!! It has barely been 6 months since I started this journey and it has grown by leaps and bounds.  I enjoy bringing  kits to you each month and I enjoy seeing the creations YOU make with them and the kind words of encouragement you give me!  It makes me feel so happy to know you like my kits, that you have a hard time choosing between them and that you want to continue to support my Kit Club!  That is truely one of the BEST gifts of 2008 for me!  Thank You Ladies!!!

~ And most of all, I'm thankful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, you has given me my life, my family, my friends and my passions! 

My your lives be filled with love,  joy and peace from above in 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Love to all,

Laura

Still enjoying the Holidays...

I am off to my mom & dad's for today and tomorrow so I thought I would quickly post before I go...

Rebecca went home with them after Christmas so we're going down there to pick her up and then I'm taking the two older girls to a movie and South Coast Plaza for a little post-Christmas shopping.  Then I think we might head to the beach for a little stroll (I also need some "beach" pictures for an album for Clear Scraps ~ think NEW CHA PRODUCT!!!) and then we're going to eat my ALL-TIME FAVORITE PIZZA! ( Sorry bro, I'll think of you when I eat it ;)-

Then we plan on taking the girls up to the mountains on Friday or Saturday so we can go skiing.  I was going to leave Isabella at my moms so we could ski but I felt bad that we were going to the snow and not bringing her so she's coming too!  I told her we'd build a snowman while the girls and daddy skied!  You should have seen the look of sheer joy of her face!

I'm still in the midst of organizing our whole house but it's coming along.  We're done with Rebecca's room, Isabella's room, the bonus area, my bathroom and the food pantry downstairs.  I feel pretty good about doing all that in just a couple days!  I still have the Christmas decorations up, and they may be up in February, but I felt this urge to organize every closet, drawer and cupboard!! (No, I'm not pregnant...lol)

Well, I better shut down the computer and pack things for an overnighter to my moms.  It's only about an hour away but it makes her happy for us girls to come over for a sleep-over... (and maybe I'll slip away for a little to see my friends little baby girl)

Oh, before I forget... here are the pictures from Christmas day:

 

 

 

  

She wanted a camera soooo bad and it's a PINK one too!

  

This was an adorable purse from Auntie Dawn and Uncle Ty that looked like a skirt!

  

O.k. here's my present... Remember I said I got something I was sooo excited about?  Well, they all went in together to get it for me.  Rebecca said she was the one that actually saw it...

  

  

  

You think I'm a little excited?  *dork* But, it is a rolling computer bag in RED Pattent Leather!!!  My favorite color people!!!  And I can roll it at CHA AND carry my computer in it!!!

  

AND, it can carry all those heavy catalogs you get at these shows...

  

And, it's stylish and super cute and sooooo me!!!  It expands and you can carry it as a purse too if you wanted to...  I don't think I will because of the wheels but I LOVE IT!!!

  

Here's Daddy hooking up the video camera so we could watch the videos from our Trip around the World!  I can't believe it's been 5 Christmas' ago and this is the 1st time we are watching the videos!!  We stayed up so late watching them and we still have more to watch!  It was sooo worth it though when I hear Victoria say it was the best Christmas ever to watch those...

  

Here's the girls before Nana and Poppie left

  

And here is the annual family photo by the tree

  

And here is the annual silly family photo by the tree!  Notice how my "silly" look is always the same?  I need a new silly look!!! lol...

  

And we ended the night with our annual "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.  If you look closely, Victoria tried to write Jesus in whipping cream!  We always do the same cake each year; Peppermint Ice Cream cake with layers of the ice-cream and pound cake.  Then whip put whipping cream all around it and crushed up candy canes!  Yummy!!

Well I'm off to my moms.  I think I'm going to take the girls to go see "bedtime stories".  I heard it was good and appropriate for the younger age too.

Have a wonderful day and Happy New Year if I don't get back on here in time!

Laura     

Clean-up day...

Hi everyone!  I thought I'd blog a little before I start the momentus task of cleaning up this Christmas mess!  I'm not taking down the decorations, just cleaning up after all the presents, food and STUFF!  You should see the girls' rooms...  Mostly because Isabella has gotten into all of our new and old stuff and created a disaster zone in each room!  So, she gets to help us clean up the entire house now!

But before I go clean up with the girls, I thought I would share some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...

I think I mentioned that we went to church Christmas Eve and then came home and had dinner, (hi this is her daughter Rebecca. Have a great day everyone. I can't wait to clean because after that we might go to see a movie. We don't know what movie but it will probably be Bedtime Stories. Me and my mom had a mommy and me day yesterday. We went to the mall and my dad was there for about 1 Hour. After lunch we went shopping. We were at the mall for about 3 hours. We went to White Lime after. It was a fun day but here is my mom again...)

O.k. Rebecca got a hold of my computer while we had a little Polly Pocket emergency... Isabella broke the head off of her Sleeping Beauty polly pocket she just got and she's very sad because it is not fixable!  So I guess Rebecca decided to "blog" a little.  lol...

Anyways, Christmas Eve we packaged up about 7 boxes of cookies and drove around to our friends and delivered them!  It was really fun but we didn't get to enjoy the lights that much so we are going to do that tonight.  Hopefully not everyone is taking their lights down today!  So here's some pictures from Christmas Eve:

 

Our little toast...

 

We ate in the den around the coffee table and watched a Christmas movie

 

Then we headed out to our friends.  This is daddy's best bud and one of his three daughters is in Rebeccas class at school so she wanted to deliver cookies to her.

 

But all night Isabella wanted to be the one to "hold" the cookies!

 

Here's the girls at their friends' house.  The girls are the same ages of our girls and they are all friends...

 

So they exchanged gift and cookies!

 

Here's the navigator! (not the car... although that is one too... lol...) Daddy was a trooper going wherever we told him and using the Flip video to record some of it.

 

Here's Victoria with one of her favorite teachers.  She isn't teaching this year because they just had a baby but she loves her so much and surprised her with some cookies too!

 

And the last house... Luckily they were home!  We had 4 families home and 3 gone so Victoria figured out we had a 57% successful rate...

 

Yvette got a Blueberry Coffeecake, lucky girl huh??  I know it's her favorite so when I made one for us, I figured I had enough to make two so I made another one and delivered it to her!

 

Here's Isabella... She didn't quite make it till the end!  I tried to get her to take a nap that day so she would be able to stay awake but she isn't taking many naps anymore.  She zonked out about two houses from the end!

It was a fun night and a little hard with her in the car at the end.  Without a nap, she can get a little grouchy at the end of the day...We were going to go home and let them all open a present but Isabella fell asleep and Victoria wasn't feeling so good so they both went straight to bed when we got home.  So Rebecca ended up opening one small thing and then went to bed and then "santa" went to work!  It's a lot of work to get everything together and ready for the morning as most of you moms know... Santa doesn't do that much after all! lol...

I'll save the Christmas day pictures for another time.  I think I have picture overload... Have a great day everyone and will chat again soon!

Laura

Merry Christmas!!!

Hi everyone!  I'm sure you are all enjoying your Christmas with your families but I wanted to take a minute in between opening presents and eating to say Merry Christmas to everyone! 

We had a wonderful time last night and today the girls are having fun playing with there new toys!  I'll share some pictures later...

Have a wonderful day!

Love to all,

Laura

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Did December really fly by that fast?  Oh My Stars... I woke up this morning (well, I was woken up by Isabella way too early ) and I was so excited! We LOVE Christmas Eve... We plan to go to church, then come home for dinner and then go back out to look at the Christmas lights and  deliver Christmas cookies to some families!  

Right now the girls are just watching a movie and hanging out...

 we opened up our last box on the advent calendar:

 

and of course ate the candy and now it's complete!  It's Christmas Eve!!!

 

and I'm making my Blueberry Coffecake! (sorry Yvette...)

and Lance was eating his and said, "Why did I get such a little piece?"

 

he had ate his into a perfect itty bitty pie shape!

 

Silly daddy...

Now we're going to get some things done around the house and pack up our cookie boxes for tonight!  I've got to go to the grocery store to get Sparkling Apple Cider and Peppermint Ice Cream for our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and then we the party starts!  Isabella is sooo excited and this year we are wearing clothes when we go looking at the lights instead on Pj's so we can get out of the car! lol...

I wish EVERYONE a very blessed Merry Christmas!  Have a wonderful time with your families and enjoy the true gift of this season, Jesus Christ!  We all have this wonderful gift to SHARE with the world and it is my prayer that my family and yours will share this everyday of the year! 

Oh, I almost forgot to show you all the pictures from the Tea and the cookie day!!! There's a LOT so I'm not sure if I should put them all in this post...

Oh, why not...

Here's from the Tea last Saturday... Remember this is from my iPhone so they aren't that great:

 

 

The first picture is with my MIL and this one is with our cousin Cheryl

  

She switched hats for the tea but isn't this just adorable??

  

doesn't the food look good!  Not your typical tea finger foods but it actually was better for the girls... There kind of picky... check out the little picky one's nose in the next picture:

  

She opened her sandwiche and saw TOMATOES!!  None of us in our family like raw tomatoes so her nose turned up and she gave it to Auntie Cheryl! (we all gave our tomatoes to auntie cheryl ;)-

  

Thanks for eating our tomatoes "Auntie Cheryl" ... and for coming to the Tea Party!

  

Victoria wouldn't "do" tea so the best we could do is Iced Tea!

  

And Rebecca, my middle one... Isn't that the cutest hat?  It was actually attached with a comb?  Remember those???

  

And here's everyone at the Tea...  My MIL brought a friend who had just lost her husband a while back and was having a hard time this Christmas so we hope this cheered her up a little!  Merry Christmas Delores!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! 

Time for a winner!

O.k.  I  have lots to share with you but I've got last minute errands to run and things to do so I'm going to be fast!

The problem is, we read each one of the comments and that was our mistake!  I said Rebecca could help again and I asked her to read half of the 60 comments and I'd read the other half...  Well, we couldn't narrow it done to just 1, they were all so great!

So, she said to do a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place!  She doesn't realize the cost of shipping these out plus the actual prize...  BUT I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAYS!!!!

Here we go...

We did narrow it down to a FINAL 8 and then Rebecca put them on pieces of paper and here is the "hat" she used...

 

too funny...

AND THE FIRST PRIZE WINNER IS:

 

HELEN!!! and here is her comment:

I am THANKFUL my husband who found a new job after losing his last week.

I and THANKFUL for my three beautiful girls.

I am THANKFUL for my mom beating the statistics and living one year after being diagnosed with lung and breast cancer.

I am THANKFUL that we can still pay the bills.

I am THANKFUL for chocolate covered pretzels from the bulk section at Whole Foods. :)

Posted by: Helen | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 02:42 PM

CONGRATULATIONS HELEN!  SEND ME AN EMAIL WITH YOUR ADDRESS!

 

O.K.  now since I'm picking a 2nd and 3rd prize winner, these prizes will be not quite so "GRAND" but still really cool...

The 2ND PRIZE WINNER IS:

 

We let Isabella pick...

 

ASHLEIGH!!! 

and here is what she wrote:

Since it is Christmastime, I am thankful that Jesus Christ was sent to earth to be our Lord and Savior (but I'm not just thankful for that around Christmastime..that's an all-year-round thing!) This is my first holiday season at my new job where I work with 4-12 year olds, in a group home, who have been abused and neglected. I am SO very thankful that I'm able to be with them and that they have a safe place to be for the holidays. I know they would all rather be spending it with their parents/caregivers, but I love that our organization puts so much effort into making their Christmas/holiday season extra special.

Posted by: Ashleigh | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 12:21 PM

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEIGH!  SEND ME AN EMAIL WITH YOUR ADDRESS!

and the 3rd PLACE WINNER IS:

 

LESLIE MC....

Here is her comment:

** Finalization for my adopted nephew, Nolan (born last Christmas) and the joy he has brought to my sister, who didn't think she'd get to be a mom.

** Good health for all I love.

** Opportunity to save beautiful, priceless family memories through scrapbooking. My parents, nor either set of grandparents (or same with my DH) even kept organized photo albums.

** The opportunity to give to others through the outreach center whose board I serve on. We provided 670 families Thanksgiving dinners and next week will probably give out that many or more Christmas dinners, plus new toys to about 1500 kids (can you say Santa's workshop)?? Gratifying to help so many who are in so dire need..including some who have previously been contributors...

** That all my family was able tonce in o be together in NC at Thanksgiving...only happens once every year or two.

Thanks, Laura!

Posted by: Lesliemc | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 11:56 AM

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!!

I wish I could have given everyone a prize!  It is so great to hear all the wonderful comments about what we are all thankful for!  If I win the lotto some day then I send everyone a prize! lol...

I have lots of pictures from our cookie making day but those will have to wait until later today... I also still wanted to share some from the Tea...

Have a great day before Christmas Eve!

Laura

 

UPDATE: DON'T KNOW WHY THE FONT IS SO SMALL... I COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT... SORRY...

Our little photographer, part 2...

O.k.  I finally got around to the pictures...  We've been baking all day and we're still not done!  Although Victoria and I took a little break and watched a "chick flick" on the Hallmark Channel...  We suckers for those romantic Holiday movies!

Here are the pictures from our shopping trip through Isabella's eyes (and my iPhone...) 

 

This is what started it all... She wanted me to take a picture of her on this lounge chair in Juicy Couture...

 

and with these Juicy shoes!

 

She can always dream right???  She is sooo not getting one for Christmas!

  

Had to take this one of her too... Then she got a hold of the camera for the rest of the shopping experience.  I have WAY too many pictures to show you but this is a tid bit of HER shopping trip...

  

We told her to take a picture of some funny looking shoes and then we'd tell Rebecca that was her Christmas present from her...

  

  

I guess she liked these??  lol...

  

She told me she took a picture of HER shoes too!

  

and then I caught her on the FLOOR taking a picture of this RED carpet because red is my favorite color! How funny is that?

  

She really wanted to get these Juicy Couture candies all wrapped up at Nordstroms!  I can't even imagine how much those candies would cost! ($5 at Target? $50 here???)

  

She LOVED all the bling we were looking at in the jewelry section at Nordstroms.  She even picked out something for one of her sisters as her gift to them...

  

  

my personal favorite picture... ;)-

  

at first I didn't see her in the background... She must be taking a picture in a case that has a mirror!  LOL!!!

  

and here in front of a big mirror!

  

she must have loved this picture.... look how clear this picture is...

  

and our last stop before we switched... she took so many pictures of the Sees Candy store but here's only one more...

  

Thanks for indulging me... It was so funny and to see all the pictures she took on my camera, I just had to share some of them!

Oh and here's the note where she wrote "photographer" and "computer" on:

     

Remember... she's the photographer and I'm the computer person!

Have a great night everyone... I'll update the blog with pictures from the tea tomorrow and share some of our cooking making extravaganza!!!  hehehe

Our little photographer...

Happy Monday morning to all of you! I have to say a big

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...

to everyone who sent there love and support after my last post!  It was a very emotional day for me on Thursday night and Friday but I'm doing just fine now and I'm so thankful for all of you wonderful ladies that are always there for me and also sharing your experiences with me too!  I am humbled by all of your stories.  So many of you have had similiar situations or a lot worse.  I think it's so good to be reminded of how blessed we are and how much we are being watched over by the Lord and his angels! 

We had a busy weekend and I want to share some of it with you but I still need to get the pictures together so I'll do that later today.  You are going to die when you see the pictures Isabella took!  She went to town with my iphone camera and I HAVE to share with you her little photo shoot!  She says she wants to be a photographer when she gets big and I get to be the one who does the computer! She even wanted to know how to write the word photographer and just finished it.  I showed her the letters on this keypad on my computere while I was writing this... I'll have to take a picture of it!  Mind you, she's only 4!!!

So about the weekend, we had our annual "Christmas Tea" with my mother-in-law on Saturday.  She started this a few years ago and we try to pick a new Tea House each year.  It was fun for the girls and this year we even wore hats! 

Then yesterday, after church, we went to downtown San Diego to go shopping!  I know, that's pretty brave.  But it actually wasn't that crowded and it was a beautiful day out.  We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory (one of my favorites!) and then we split up for a couple hours and shopped!  Lance took Rebecca while I had Victoria and Isabella and we all had to buy something for each one of us.  We all had a budget of $20.00 and then we met back up and switched girls and then finished the shopping.  It was really fun and I think we might make this a new tradition.  The two oldest girls work for daddy on the weekend cleaning his office so they have there own money to buy gifts for their sisters and mom & dad so I think it's good for them to use their own money to buy presents for their family. 

So today is cookie making day.  We haven't started yet (cleaning up the house first) but we plan to have quite a marathon cookie making day.  I'm off to the store soon to get the ingredients and each girl is getting to pick which cookie recipe they want.  Victoria is busy looking on www.foodnetwork.com for her favorite and Rebecca has already picked 2 from a Sandra Lee cookbook she has.  Isabella informed me just now while I'm writing this that her choice is a butterfly cookie!  I guess I better see if they have a butterfly cookie cutter at the store?  We plan to make all these cookies and deliver them tomorrow night or Christmas Eve to our family and friends around town!  We've never done that before but I thought this would be a fun tradition to start...

We usually have Christmas Eve to ourselves.   We've always seemed to keep that as a tradition and I like it.  I want to have that special time just our little family together and then all the craziness can start the next morning.  We go to Christmas Eve service at church, have dinner at home and then let the girls open one gift (plus their annual pj's ).  Last year we all got in the car afterwards and went to look at the lights around town.  That was really fun but I think we might do that tomorrow night. Last year we were in our pj's and couldn't get out of the car!  This year we will wear real clothes because one of the places we stopped at last year was a winery that had a hay ride that looked so fun but we didn't want to do it in our pj's!

Well, have a wonderful day everyone!  I'd love to keep hearing your posts on what you are thankful for!  It is so important to remind ourselves of that and this time of year is perfect for sharing our blessings with others! 

I will announce the winner of the contest tomorrow so keep checking back...

And I'll try to post the pictures later on today from this past weekend.

until then,

Laura

LIfe is sooooo precious...

I am writing this post because I feel I need to share something that happened yesterday that was so emotional that I still can't stop crying about it.

I was picking up the girls from school yesterday and driving home.  We normally take the same way home each day and I think nothing of it.  Except yesterday that drive home almost cost us our lives.  As I was approaching a four way stop sign, the girls and I were just chatting about the normal things like their day at school.  I wasn't in a hurry and was actually going probably slower than normal...  That saved our lives.

If I would have been JUST TWO SECONDS faster, I fear Isabella and maybe all of us would not be here right now.  You see, we were stopped at the stop sign going north and I was taking my foot off the brake to go and at that same second a lady going south from my right did not see the stop sign and barrelled through it at probably around 80 miles per hour (in a 45 mind you).  She figured out that she was suppossed to stop as she was going THROUGH the stop sign and had a stupid look on her face like "my bad"...  I was able to drive my three beautiful daughters home safely but it hit me about a mile from home and I lost it...

You know how you feel some days when you just don't want to deal with the kids, or their fighting and they're bugging you... That was how the last few days for me had been.  Isabella is being particularly naughty lately, the two older ones are not getting along and then this happened.  I couldn't help think in an instant one of them or maybe more of us could have been gone.  In a matter of seconds life can be over.  That fast.

It rocked my whole being.  I haven't been this emotional EVER.  I can't stop thinking about it and thanking the LORD for his grace and protection!  Litterally two seconds made the difference.   And if it wasn't for the grace of God, we would be suffering an unbelievable loss. 

I know we all LOVE our families and would be shattered if we lost any one of them but when something like this happens, it really puts life into perspective!  This time of year we are ALL rushed to get things done, go here, go there... Let's all try to slow down, drive carefully and keep our hearts and minds on what truely matters in life! 

So go hug your kids today and tell them it's from "Auntie Laura"! ;)-

I took a picture of the street this morning where it happened:

 

I'm going to put it in my December Journal Album so that I don't forget...

Speaking of the album, I am almost caught up and wanted to share a few more pages out of it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a few "holes" in my album because I need to print out pictures still...  Remember, we're keeping this VERY SIMPLE!  I didn't want to spend a lot of time of this album.  There is sooo much going on this time of year!  But please do check out Ali Edwards album that we got the inspiration for this from.  She is doing an incredible album and you HAVE to see her blog each day!  http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/12/december-dai-15.html

On a lighter note.  I don't know if you noticed the picture of just me in the hat...

 

Not the greatest photo of me, I know... I am showing it because of my lip!  I can't remember if I mentioned my "fat lip" I got from Isabella??  She was sitting in my lap last week and decided to "head but" my face!  Her hard noggin went right into my lips!  Man, that hurt and I told her that was going to give me a fat lip!  Well, it didn't really but it did give me a "black & blue" and broke a blood vessel too... She couldn't believe it when I showed her a couple days later!

So, I'm going to go "freshen up" my make-up after this post and go do some errands before the girls get out of school at noon.  I'll leave you on a lighter note though...

If you have time, you HAVE to check out this Youtube video!  I'm NOT one to forward emails I get but I got this from two people over the last couple days and I finally checked it out.  It's sooo appropriate for what I think all of us mothers feel!  It's what I know I feel like most days...  So check it out and have a laugh... and then still go give your kids a big hug!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw

Have a GREAT day everyone! 

Love and hugs to all,

Laura

PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP POSTING FOR THE CONTEST!  I WILL REVEAL THE WINNER NEXT "LOVE, TUESDAY"!

Love, Tuesday...

Today, I LOVE that Isabella and I are home.  She's doing this:

 

 

and I'm doing this:

 

Christmas cards!  Last year I didn't send any out so the letter this year is pretty long...

As I was taking these pictures today I was playing around with the camera a little.  I sooo need to take some lessons on how to take better pictures.  But, I noticed something...  I had the big flash on the camera and the first set of pictures I took were nice but very "bright".  This is how my pictures usually turn out but I've been noticing other blogs and the their pictures.  Namely, Ali Edwards and some other people and their pictures look so much more "natural".  So, I took the flash and instead of having it at a 90 degree angle, I swiveled it up almost straight into the air and got a more natural look to the pictures!  Here are two pictures... look at the difference:

 

 

I took both of these just now.  Same "photo shoot"  but the first picture had the flash basically pointing at her, 90 degrees, and it just shows more "shine".  The second one the flash if pointing to the sky almost and it has a more natural light!  I LOVE IT!!!  The first couple pictures on this post are before I realized it and the picture of my Christmas cards are with the new revelation.  You can see a difference in those too...  It's probably something very basic to you photographers but it was enlightening to me!

Before I forget, I want to thank all the new ladies who have stopped by lately!  I have had a flood of new people and new Kit Club Members!  This is sooo exciting to me and I'm still amazed that in this economy you all still want to buy my kits!  I know times are tough and I just feel so blessed to be able to continue and bring you my passion for scrapbooking each month!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

And because I feel so blessed, I want to give away more free prizes!!

So, I'm starting another giveaway...

Post a comment on this post and tell me what you are thankful for at this time of year! 

I LOVE this time of year because we take the time to enjoy our families and friends and I'd like to hear what everyone is thankful for in their lives!

I'm giving away a GREAT BIG PRIZE PACKAGE!!   It's what I'm thankful for in the scrapbooking realm...

1. My kit club - that I can bring these kits to you each month!

2. Clear Scraps - that they still want me to design for them and that I get to teach classes at CHA for them!

3. New products - It's always fun to see what's new on the horizon!

So, I'm giving away something from each one of those 3 things I'm thankful for in the world of scrapbooking!!!

I'll announce the winner on next Love, Tuesday so you have a week to leave a comment!

Have a great day!!  Hugs, Laura

The Monday after...

I'm still recovering from the weekend!

I don't think I mentioned that I actually had 2 parties this weekend!  I of course talked a lot about my hubby's work party I was having here but my mom also had a party for the family last night.  So needless to say, I'm a little partied out...

I was going to post some pictures of our party on Saturday but I wanted to wait until I got the pictures from the photographer too.  Lance has a girl at work that offered to take the pictures and wow, is she talented!  I didn't realize she was such a photographer!  She actually does it for a living and her website is amazing.  I asked her why the heck she's working for Lance when she has such a talent! 

So anyways, Lance's work party was a great success and everyone went on and on about how wonderful the house looked and the food was great and everything you all said they would say! ;)-  Thanks to all of you who wished us well and said to take it easy this weekend too.  The girls were at my moms all weekend so Saturday we had grand plans to go out and do stuff but we just ended up cleaning up the house, taking a nap and watching a movie, ordering pizza and being lazy all day!  It was FUN!  We don't get much time like that so even though I felt like I should be doing something (mailing out kits...) it felt good to take a day off and do nothing! Well, not exactly nothing but you know what I mean....  I did write my Christmas card letter and I'm going to try and get those out today and tomorrow.  I also read a book this weekend!  I have always LOVED to read but don't have the time.  Well, last week at Target when I was shopping for Christmas gifts I thought I'd buy a Christmas book for me.  I wanted something light and fun and in the season but I ended up getting something completely different.  If you ever want to read a seriously sad, tear jerker then read this book: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  I can't tell you how much I cried and felt so much for this little girl!  It is a story based in Paris (what first caught my attention) about a true event in history, the Vel' d'Hiv internment of thousands of Jews during WWII.  I have always been interested in reading about WWII and the Civil War and this book tells a fictional story about a girl in this true event in History.  It is heartbreakingly sad but also a beautiful story of life and our human spirit to go on.  I just couldn't put it down and was up until 2am on both Friday night after the party and Saturday night reading this book!

Needless to say, I didn't get much done in the way of scrapbooking and I've fallen totally behind in my December Journal Album.  I am going to try to get caught up tomorrow but I'm still keeping track of the days and won't feel too bad if I don't finish it on time.  It's more about the memories, than having to having it all "up-to-date"...

I do want to share some pictures of the party with you though so here goes:

 

Here's the bar tender in his little area...

 

Here's some of the food on my kitchen table.  I had it all decorated so nicely and when the caterer's came, they just swiped everything off all the counters and went to town.  At first I was a little sad... I had decorated it so nicely!  But, they did a wonderful job and it looked and tasted great!

 

Here's Lance being silly and some other people getting some dinner...

 

The photographer was trying to take a group shot of all the employees but I got a few on my own.  Not from the greatest angle but we tried to cram everyone onto the stairs...

 

She also took a photo of each couple and this one she took with my camera so I could have some for my blog...

  

Here's another couple that I thought were so cute in this photo...

  

Then Lance did a gift exhange game where he bought all the presents and had the game where you could steel a gift twice...

Well, when we were in Las Vegas we were in the Juicy Couture store and I saw  a pair of earings and a wallet that I knew the girls in his office (and myself) would LOVE to get so he bought them for the gift exchange.  The only thing was, the gift exchange was only for employees...  So I told him to try and win one of the Juicy gifts for me! lol... So he stole this from a guy who got it for his date and then Lance's Uncles wife stole it from him:

  

Isn't that lovely...  stinker...  I think I might be getting some for Christmas though... My hubby felt bad that he didn't get to keep them for me.  I didn't care that much, I just thought it was nice Lance even went ahead and tried to get them for me.  He could have totally gotten something for himself!

But, it was fun for the employees to play the game and get a little something "extra" since they didn't have to go out and buy anything for the game...

 

  

  

The two Juicy gifts were definately the most traded items of the night!

It was a fun night and Lance enjoyed having everyone over.  It was a much more "homey" atmostphere to have it in our home then having it in a winery or restaurant like previous years.  It's much more personal to have the employees come to our home and enjoy the Holidays with us.  We really have a great group of people working with Lance and are so blessed to be doing well when so many companies are hurting right now.  We truely appreciate all that the Lord has blessed us with and continue to pray his company will be successful and each one of these people will have a job to come to for many years to come!  Thanks to all of you for your hard work!  

And, they really liked my Harvey Wallbanger cake!  Funny, the caterer brought a lot of little desserts and cheesecake and I think my cake was the first thing to go!  It's funny to because on my way home from taking the girls to my moms before the party, by brother called me on my cell phone to tell me he was trying to find Galliano.  He said he's finally got the recipe and he's going to make it that night.  It took me a second to figure it out and then I realized, he read my blog and remembers the cake!  He to grew up loving this cake our grandma made and said not even a month ago was thinking he needed to find the recipt to make it for Dawn.  How funny huh?  The Galliano was about $20 though so I told him just think of it as $20 worth of memories when he enjoys it with Dawn and talks about our childhood memories of it with our grandparents!  ;)-

Well, the post is taking me way to long... I need to get to work and mail out some more kits!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend too!  I don't have pictures of the party at my moms.  I forgot to take my camera so I used hers but she needed the pictures so I couldn't take the card out of the camera... 

Oh, I almost forgot... I did finally have a chance to pick a winner for the Making Memories Album and Clear Scraps ornaments...

It was Candace!!! 

 I'm not sure who you are so email me when you see this and I'll mail them out to you!  Congratulations!!

Take care everyone!

Well, this is technically still Thursday...

but you'll be seeing this post on Friday.  Sorry I couldn't get back on here until this late. I could probably be up until 2 or 3 in the morning but I've got to get some sleep before tomorrow's busy day...

I did want to show you some pictures of the wood house I decorated and I told you I'd show you the house all decorated for the party...

So here is my little Christmas House:

 

I used most of the stuff from the Merry & Bright kit and LOTS of Mica Snow!

  

I don't know how easy this is to see but I used a sheet of Clear Scraps acrylic and cut out pieces to cover all the windows, the bird house hole on the front and freehand cut the shape of smoke for the chimeny.  Then I covered the windows with Zip Dry and sprinkled on the Mica Snow to give it a frosted window look.

Here's a close-up of the front:
  

And here you can see the smoke on the chimney.  I used some of the Adirondak Paint Daubbers in Pearl to give the acrylic that look:

  

Now here are some pictures of the house.  I'll take some more after the house is set up with the rental tables and such... maybe even some of the event and show you on Saturday...

Here's the front room as you walk in the house:

  

One of the ladies in Lance's office is also a photographer so she's bringing a backdrop we're putting over by this tree and the screen and she's going to take photos of everyone at the party.

And here's the entry way and up the stairs:

 

Here's the family room:

 

and the kitchen that is connected to the family room like a big long bowling alley...

 

Well this was just the bar area of the kitchen...

Here's the little project I made today with the ornaments.  These are vintage ornaments mind you... My mom has been collecting these for me for the past 3 or 4 years and someday we are going to make a vintage ornament wreath with all of them!

 

This is kind of like the one I saw in Everday with Rachel Ray... I like how it turned out and it was easy to make.  Just so no-one moves the balls and they all fall!  I didn't want to glue them because I want to use them for the wreath later...  And these probably have the real mercury in them...

And here is the area in the kitchen that they are in:

 

Notice my old windowpane down below there...  I want to have my altered window class some day soon!  Unfortanetly, I broke the glass on one of the panes not to long ago...

Oh, I almost forgot to show you... While I was finishing the wooden house, Isabella was making this:

 

and she was SOOO excited that I was going to take a picture of it and put it on my blog!  hehehe... She LOVES to sit next to me and play with my "extras" ... Which sometimes ARENT extras and I have to stop her from cutting something I need!

O.K.... right now I sooo wish computers had "smell-a-vision" because you would just LOVE the smell of my Harvey Wallbanger cake right now!  I just took it out of the oven a few minutes ago and I'm dying to try a piece!  I was surprised to find out it was a cake quite of few of you have heard of before!  It sounds so strange to me...

So here's how to make it...

 

There really isn't much to the recipe... (I'll share the whole recipe at the end)

You mix everything together and put it in a bundt pan and in the oven it goes:

  

Keep it in there for about 45minutes and viola:

  

Make the frosting/glaze, let the cake cool (always hard for me to do...) flip it over onto a cake plate, frost it and viola again:

  

There's your Harvey Wallbanger cake!

and here's the recipe:

Harvey Wallbanger Cake:

1 package orange cake mix ( I used yellow b/c I can't ever find orange)

4 eggs

1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix

1/2 cup light vegtable oil ( i used canola oil )

4 ounces Galliano (this is the Harvey Wallbanger liquor )

1 ounce Vodka

1/2 cup orange juice

Now for the frosting or glaze, depending on how thick you want it, it's a mixture of powdered sugar, 1 ounce Galliano, 1 ounce Vodka and 1 ounce Orange Juice.

If you're making this for the kids, you might just want to have the orange juice in the frosting! ;)-

O.k.  I'm signing out for today AND Friday!  I will be back on Saturday with all the juicy details of the party!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Laura

1 more day...

Tomorrow is Lance's work party and I'm cleaning like a mad women!  I've had the carpet cleaned yesterday, the cleaning ladies over today, I just got done cleaning up the backyard and making it all nice, put up some more decorations, cleaned up my scrapbook room and tomorrow the rental people come in the morning and I have to take the girls to my moms and be back before the caterers come!

Whew... I'm tired already...  I know I make more work for myself because I wanted to decorate and make some things... but it's fun to do.  When I have time...  Which today isn't one of those days I have lots of time...  But oh, well... I wanted to make an arrangement of ornaments in a footed vase ( I saw it in the Everday with Rachel Ray magazine) and mine is totally different but I LOVE it!  I also wanted to finish up with some Christmas decorations and I made a little wooden house out of the Merry & Bright kit that I'll show you in a little...

I'll have to take some pictures when everything is done and set up for the party. It's going to look so nice, I'm excited!

I'm also going to try and make a couple desserts tonight.  Even though they are bringing some, I wanted to make my blueberry coffeecake (sorry Yvette, I'll try to save you a piece ;)- and an old recipe from my grandma, a Harvey Wallbanger Cake.  Anyone ever heard of that?  I think you have to be born in the 40's or 50's to know about that cake... It's a bundt cake that has a liquor that tastes like oranges and it's FABULOUS!  I'll share some pictures and the recipe this weekend!

I'll take some pictures later today of the house I made and some of the arrangements around the house.  I'll also announce the winner tonight for the Making Memories Album & the Clear Scraps Ornaments!  So, it's not too late to post a comment on here!  I'll put your name in the hat tonight and pick the winner!

Oh, I also haven't forgotten about the December Album and I hope you're keeping some note and taking picture too!  I'll be updating mine this weekend after the party is all done and cleaned up!

O.k.  I've got to get back to the party prep... 

Take care,

Laura

Love, Tuesday...

I LOVE that we had our "Tree Trimming" party last night and finally decorated our family Christmas tree!  Here's some photo's of the nights events...

 

Here's daddy and Isabella making sure all the lights work (they didn't for a while) and she's "fluffing" the tree...  We opted out of the real tree a few years back.  Much easier but we miss the smell of the real tree so we might get a real one next year...

 

Daddy wanted this one front and center!  First ornament on the tree too... Notice we're in a circus tent?  hmmmm.. does that mean anything??

 

Lance was playing with the lighting on the camera and we had some wierd shots... I sure wish we could take the time to figure out all the different options on this thing...

 

This one was pretty wierd and I had to show it...

 

Me in the middle of the chaos!

 

Rebecca goofing off!

 

Scarlet, not wanting to be a part of the party OR have this silly outfit on...

 

The teenager and her contribution...

 

The little tree topper! We actually didn't end up using that star because the top of the tree was too flimsy to support it.  I need to go buy something else tomorrow for the top.  Maybe an angel like the living room tree...

We had fun despite Victoria sneezing all over us and not having marshmellows for the Hot Cocoa...

Well, I've had a TON of positive feedback on the ornaments and some requests for more specifics...  So, here goes...

The Tim Holtz Alcohol ink colors I used were:

Current

Ginger

Caramel

The Clear Scraps ornaments can be purchased on-line at their website:

www.clearscraps.com  or www.scrapbook.com

Speaking of Clear Scraps, I made a layout last night with their Jumbo Pages and the Merry & Bright kit.  Want to see???

 

I used the Jumbo label shape (you can get this online at the same places I mentioned above...) and took some of that gold paint I used on the ornaments and just sponged the edges.  Then cut some of the merry & bright papers up and crumpled it up. Then, made a "present" of our family photo with some ribbon and pink Jenni Bowlin crepe paper.  Added some Hambly rub-ons, K&Co. felt accents, flowers and snowflakes!

Here you can see a close-up of the "present"

 

And lastly, this picture you can see the dimension of the layout:

 

It was fun and relatively easy!  TFL!!

Before I go clean up my house... Yesterday I finally got over to Barnes & Noble to look at the two magazines I was in...

 

And I bought them!  I didn't get any in the mail so I figured I would buy them.  come to find out from some CS friends that Scrapbook Trends does send you a copy and Sommerset does too... But I didn't want to wait...

Here's the album I did in Sommerset:

 

It's with a Clear Scraps House!  And yes, they did spell my name wrong in this and in the back of the book where they show a preview of what's to come next month.  They are putting my Miley  Cyrus album in the next issue with an 800 word article that I wrote!  Kind of exciting! 

Oh, by the way... I have some ClearScraps House albums if anyone wants one!  I even could make a kit similar to the one above OR the Basic Grey one that is in the gallery on the website. (not sure if it's on here too... )  I have about 4 or 5 that I could make up if anyone is interested...

O.K.  I have to get ready for a lady at Lances' office to come by and go over the details of the party with me in about an hour...

Take care and Love your Tuesday too!

Laura

Yeah, it's Monday...

and all my kids are at school!!!  Hopefully it will stay that way all day so I can get some errands taken care of.  I still need to shop for Christmas gifts and get some groceries...

I wanted to post first though because you know how much I love you ladies!  I hope you all read the post from last night and found out that I picked not one but TWO winners for the contest!  I was so excited to announce the winners and I've already heard from Laura who was super excited that she won!  Me too Laura!   You're family sounds like they have some great Christmas traditions and you're having a great time!

Congrats to Beth too!  I'm not sure if she's seen the post yet but when she does, she's going to be soooo excited too!

This weekend we had a LOT to get ready for around the house...  My hubby's Christmas party is going to be at our house this year!!!  Which means, lots and lots of preperation!  I said yes to the idea but forgot how much goes into planning a party like that!  Luckily one of the ladies at his office is doing most of the preperation in getting the caterers, the rental stuff, and etc... but the house needs to be all sparkly clean and you probably know I'm going to want it to look all Christmasy and bright!!!  (ya, I get that from my mom...) So, we worked all weekend just about getting things touched up and putting the lights up and I still have some things to do this week...  But, I did have some time to play a little so I'll share with you some of that...

I worked on the December Album.  Remember, I got the idea from Ali Edwards who is doing a "December Daily" album on her blog.  Make sure you check in to her blog each day and see what she had done!  It's soooo creative what she is doing!  I on the other hand, just wanted something very simple that we can all do together and not make too much fuss over...

So, I had everyone who is doing this along with me (and Ali) write down on a little journal note each day, something they wanted to remember about that day.  Also, try to take a picture from each day of something you want to record.  This is where checking out Ali's blog is key!  She has some GREAT photos of things you wouldn't think to even take photos of!

Anyways, here's what I came up with for the front cover:

 

It's very simple and I didn't want to cover up the whole album cover since I like the look of the kraft cover.  The tree is a Clear Scraps tree that I had a TON of fun playing with!  In fact, I just got out a whole bunch of Clear Scraps stuff and went to town... I'll show you that in a minute...

So, I'm up to date on this Journal of December Album and I'll show you page by page thus far:

 

 

 

 

So, I told you it's nothing fancy... Just a quick note, a photo and some paper.  I didn't get to the journal note from yesterday but I have already completed the entire book with the little paper scraps.  I just randomly placed a 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 piece of paper on each page so that I would only have to attach the journal sheet and picture each day.  Then, If I felt like it, I would add a little embellishement or flower and I was done!

Now, getting back to the Clear Scraps stuff... I took a package of their ornaments, some of their stars and the tree shape and just started playing.  I'll show you each one up close and share with you what I did.  It was SUPER EASY and I think the effect makes it look like you did something really unique...

Here is a close up of the tree on the cover:

 

Now all you need for this look is a few things:

1. Clear Scraps acrylic shape

2. Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink

3. Gold paint

4. Rub-ons

5. Stickles glitter

The process is very easy...

1. I used about three different alcohol ink colors and simply put some dots of the three inks and randomly placed them around on the back side of the shape, took a felt square (you could use a paper towel) and dabbed them together.  It dry's really fast and you can repeat the process until you get the desired affect.

2. Then I took a little gold paint and dabbed it on the edges of the front side of the tree.

3. Then I picked out the swirl rub on and rubbed in on the front side of the tree.

4. Lastly, I took the Stickles glitter in Diamond, I think, and traced the rub-on!

It's very fast and easy and makes a stunning presentation!  Try it, you'll like it! (That reminds me of the Life Cereal commercial years ago... Try it Mikey, you'll like it!!! ;)-

O.k. So here are the other ornaments and stars I did:

 

This was the same process as the tree, except I used the Stickles around the whole edge of the star instead of the paint.

 

This one I did the same of the back but instead of a rub-on, I stamped the gold paint with a snowflake stamp and put the stickles over it once it dried. I also put some random dots around the whole ornament.

 

This one was my guinee pig!  I started out trying every process on this one and thought it was going to go in the trash but it didn't turn out to shabby so I thought I would show it to you too...

Here, I did the alcohol ink on the back, Stamped the snowflake on the front, then used the dark current alcohol ink inside the snowflake stamp. After that, I put more alcohol ink on the front left side only, the put the stickles around the snowflake and did the swirl freehand over the left side.  I ended by edging the whole ornament with some gold paint. 

 

This last one I stamped with black Staz On ink the Christmas tree on the front.  Took the gold paint and dabbed that on the back side.  Then just added the Joy letter stickers and added some black stickle dots around the whole ornament.

This was a fun "play time" for me and I hope you try these simple techniques too!

And, now that you've seen my December Album, I want to give an album AND a pack of Clear Scraps ornaments away!!!

So,  just leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner in a few days!

A few more bits of news and I've got to run my errands...

First,

I am going to be restructuring the kit club!  I thought about this with my DH over the weekend and I'm trying to make this as simple as possible for everyone!  I will announce this probably after the first of the year but it will actually benefit everyone and the ideas that my wonderful hubby and I came up with will surprise you!  It's all good so no worries... I know times are tight and I want to make my Kit Club as financialy feasable for everyone as possible!  I think we've come up with a great plan that will be fun and stress-free for all of you ladies!

Secondly, I think I already mentioned this but I want to repeat it again...

I'm taking the month of January off from the Kit Club.  I need to take this time to be with the family over the Holidays and not have to think about putting another kit together.  I also need to focus on my Clear Scraps responsibility as I will be teaching two classes for them at CHA in January and I need to make lots of "top secret" things for their booth as well!  And I also know it's tough times these days financely for everyone and our hobbies are the first to go by the wayside when money it tight.  Hopefully this will give you time to recoup from the holidays, get some scrapbooking accomplished and then you'll be ready to go for February!

I just want to make sure everyone knows I'm not going anywhere.  I plan to be in this business as long as everyone will have me!  I already have some of the February kit products here and I can't wait to show you.  I LOVE this art form as you know, and some of you may even know I want to have my own line some day, so I'm in this for the long haul!   

Have a wonderful day everyone and don't forget to post a comment here to win the Making Memories Album AND the Clear Scraps Ornament pack!

Take care ladies...

Laura

And the winner is...

Better late than never!  So sorry ladies... I just lost track of time and weekends are family time for me...

I wanted to say thank you first for sharing so many wonderful traditions with me!  I really couldn't pick the winner based on the tradition alone.  I was so inspired by the traditions you have with your families that I'm planning on printing each one of your comments out and putting them in a little book to keep!  It was so beautiful to hear how all of you spend the Christmas Season with you families and what makes it special and unique to each one of you.

 So to pick the winner,  it was with a random draw from the hat...

The winner of the December "Very Vintage Christmas Kit" is...

BETH WILLIAMS!!!!

Congratulations Beth!  You are the lucky winner!!!  Now, if you've already ordered one of these kits, you may pick the other "Merry & Bright" kit if you like...

Tomorrow I will be announcing some other goodies that I'm giving away so make sure to check back...  I've also been busy around the house this weekend so I have some things to show you and the December Album is coming along nicely... I hope you are still writing down some thoughts from each day and starting to compile them in a nice album...  Check in on Ali Edwards blog for her page each day!  I couldn't even come close to the awesome album she is creating but I will share with you mine tomorrow.

Now, if you've read this far down and are dissapointed in not reading your name above as the winner of the December kit... Don't despair!

I'M GIVING TWO KITS AWAY! Yup... you heard me right!  I had soooo many comments from all of you that I decided to give one more kit away!  This one can be either the "Very Vintage Christmas" or the "Merry & Bright" kit!!!

So, the 2nd winner of the December Kit Giveaway is...

LAURA!!!

no, not me... I'm sorry I don't know your last name... You wrote about your 6 kids and the nativity that you have that your children place hay in each time they do a good deed...  You are the other lucky winner!!!  Email me so I can send you the kit of your choice!

Well, I'm up late and really wanted to get some sleep tonight!  Last night Victoria had a friend sleep over and Rebecca had a bad dream that kept her and I up for a long time until she finally came and slept in our room on the floor in her sleeping bag!

I had to take a picture in the morning...

And I also took this cool picture of the living room Christmas tree.  I tried a different mode of the camera but I think it looks pretty cool:

It's kind of blurry but I like the effect that it gave the lights at night time...

I'm off to bed now... Have a great evening!

Laura

A Disney Christmas...

Yesterday we took the girls out of school (almost unheard of) for a day at Disneyland!  We had gotten 4 day passes over the summer through Costco, which is the BEST deal in town if you want to got there, and we still had two days left on them.  So, we wanted to take them on a day that wouldn't be too crowded during the Christmastime.  My objective was also to have our Christmas pictures taken there so I hopefully had a photo for our Christmas cards...  Not sure if we accomplished that yet, but I'll share some fun photos from the day:

 

We started the day off with Goofy givng Isabella the "knuckle budd" but she wasn't catching on... lol... But, by the end of the day her and daddy were trying to get any and all characters in the parade to "knuckle budd" them!

 

I of course wanted to take every opporunity to take pictures while by daughters were anxious to go on rides!   But before they could go on rides, we had to stop at the traditonal Disney photo op at the giant Christmas tree:

 

These pictures didn't turn out to good but this was the last one of this mini photo shoot and they guy wanted us to put our hands out like we're having "so much fun"... Victoria just looks like she's way to cool to be doing this... Which is the expression on her face almost all day... teenagers... why can't they grow up faster... hehehe

 

Something got in my hair back at that tree I think???  It looks like it grew a branch... gonna need to go brush my hair...

 

Daddy and the big girls went on Space Mountain and we opted for the fun rides, like the Merry go Round and the tea-cups..

 

Don't we always pass these up as if no big deal... But I thought it was quintessential "Disney" with the excitement of a ride almost upon us... going through the "turn-style", waiting in line, the thrill of what is to come very soon...

 

Is that a classic photo or what?  I can't claim taking it though... Daddy and the girls met up with us and he was the one who took this one...

 

Rebecca and I opted for the slow moving cup (or at least I thought...)

 

Isn't she having fun?  Now look at the dork in the background...

 

This is the Mad Hatters house... Isabella LOVES Alice in Wonderland and she wouldn't give up knocking on that FAKE door... (I thought of you Debra... ;)-

 

After lunch at the Blue Bayou Restaurant, I demanded that we go take our picture with Santa before we all split up again...  They have a great new area that is behind Thunder Mountain that had Santa's Village! I've never seen it there before but it was great!  It had a house for Santa, workshops for the kids, real live reindeer, a cow, a sleigh you could take pictures one... It was fantastic! Well, Santa had to go "get some cookies" so Isabella sneaked up on his chair while he was gone!

 

We took a couple pictures with Santa and this one might be in the running for the Christmas card...

 

or there's this one if we want just the girls...

 

Or, there's this one on the sleigh...

Well, I have about 500 more pictures I could show you.... But, I need to go pick up Isabella from school...

I finally had the mail GIRL come to the house around 1:30 today.  She said she couldn't come before she was done with her route because there wouldn't have been room in her truck for all the boxes!  So, they are all sent out ladies!  Even the orders that come in this morning were sent out today!

I'm exhausted from yesterday at Disneyland and today getting all the boxes together so I think I'm going to say good night now...

I'm still doing my daily "journal entry" for the December album and I'll hopefully have more to share with you this weekend!  Keep writing down a memory from each day and also try to take a picture of something from each day that you want to record.  I think I have about 500 I can pick from for yesterday...

Oh, and the contest is going to end this weekend, so get your comment on here before tomorrow night!  I'll probably announce it Saturday night or Sunday afternoon... Not sure yet because I think we're going to "Trim the Tree" tomorrow night since we're all pretty tired tonight...

So, have a great Friday night ladies!

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures for the Disneyland Parade...

 

This is such a tradition in our family...  I don't know how many times I've seen the Disneyland Christmas Parade but I grew up going almost every year with my family and I think we've taken the girls at least 5 times.  Rebecca was asking me how I knew all the words to the songs when she heard me singing... I thought that was cute...

 

The big girls had fun playing finger puppets in the Flip Video during the parade...

 

While Isabella and Daddy were trying to get Cinderella's attention! 

and having a Hot Cocoa/bonding time...

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  Enjoy this time of year with your family!!!

Hugs,

Laura

I'm not ignoring you...

Hi ladies!  I've been crazy busy this morning getting all the boxes ready for the USPS guy... and he still hasn't shown up yet!  I just got done though so that's good, I guess...

I will get back on here in a little while and share my day at Disney with you and some other cool stuff...

ta-ta for now...

Lots to share today!

I have so much I want to share that I'm not sure I'll remember everything!  First, I just realized I have my two rings on and I HAVE to take them off... brb...

O.K.... I can't stand rings on when I'm typing...  Anyone else wierd like me??? lol...

Well, I finally have a picture of the Merry & Bright kit to show you!  It came together so nicely and I can't wait to play with it!  AND... since I didn't have this product until yesterday, those of you who are ordering this kit or did... PLEASE SEND ME PICTURES OF YOUR FINISHED LAYOUTS!  I'd LOVE to post them in my gallery if thats o.k.!  I didn't get this new Webster's Pages stuff to the DT so I'm looking for some willing participants to send me pictures and I'll give you credit on the blog and in the gallery!!!  K?

So... here's the "Merry & Bright" Kit:

 

Here's a couple close-ups...

 

 

I hope you like it!  If you get your order in by tomorrow night, it will go out with the USPS guy on Friday morning!  I will put these up on the blog and website after I'm done with this post...

Now I hope you don't mind pictures because I have a lot to show you today!  For some reason, I just got in the mood to take some random shots...

So... Last night I got my camera out and told Isabella I was taking some pictures for a December album and she wanted to be in them... (shock of all shocks... lol...)  So here she is showing you some of the Christmas decorations around the house...

 

 

 

Can you tell which one if her favorite???  hehe...  And, did you notice the sundress in December??  It's been in the 80's lately!  I think it's finally cooling down just as we take a day to go to Disneyland... Watch tomorrow it will be in the 60's! ( I know, I know, that's still great weather... yes, all you east coast & midwesterners... 60's is shorts weather for you probably!)

Here's a couple pictures of the kitchen that I think I'll include in my December album as well...

 

I have our advent calendar up, but with no candy in it, which the girls keep reminding me of! 

 

I have this whole set with the mugs, bowls and little plates!  We LOVE this set and ALWAYS use the mugs for Hot Cocoa on "Tree Trimming" night which is this weekend!!! Yeah!!!  I think my mom & dad will be here for the weekend too so the girls will love sharing this tradition with them too!  Sometimes we have family over and sometimes it's just our little family but it's fun no matter what!

So, back to the December Album...

I wrote out two journal entries on some pages and I wanted to share with you what I'm thinking... 

 

I haven't had a chance to decorate the album yet or put anything together because I was busy making YOUR kits!  But, I think I'm going to use my misc. doo-dads from this months and last months kits.  You'll see the two journal pages on top of the album and I have some more to the right that I'll use.  I'm  loving that MM album because it's tabbed and has 24 pages and a pocket in the back!  It's so perfect for this project and I can't wait to get to it!  Now don't feel like this has to be majorly cute or decorated!  This is just a simple album that we will record our days leading up to Christmas in!  You could use the plain pages in the album or cover them with paper.  I think I may do it both ways and just randomly put embellishments where I please.  It's more about the journey than the process ladies!!!

Sorry, I think this is going to be a book today instead of a post...

Oh, before I forget...  I had another contest that was suppossed to end last Tuesday or Wednesday but again, I got busy and forgot!  So... The winner of the "Tell A Friend" contest is....

JEANNE KHLOR!!!  Thanks for telling your friend Carla about my kits!  You win the little wallhanging I made for the contest!  It will go out with your kits on Friday!

Now one more thing to share and then I'm off to update the sites and finish putting all the kits together...

I think I've showed you my "office" in the past... It was basically an area off the kitchen called the "butler's pantry"...  It's where the home computer is that the girls use.  Well, about a month ago, Lance said I could use HIS office for my office since he really doesn't use it much.  When he gets home, he's tired of working and the office really goes unused or is just a big mess.  So, he cleaned it all up for me and now when I'm on the computer or on the phone or looking through catalogs and such... this is where I am:

 

Inside here...  It's a really nice office... We had the doors put on and the windows installed because the house came with just holes...(new home...upgrade not included...)  So, I love being in the office.... but.... It's very "manly"....

 

So, we're going to have to "spruce" it up a little... But I think maybe just a little at a time or he might notice... (Ya, I know you read the blog hunny...)  But it is nice to have a space that's not in the kitchen and this is right next to the guest bedroom downstairs where I put the kits together...

You'll notice I have about 30 kits on the floor right there by my chair...  This is a new process for me so I'm still figuring out how to do it...  I assembled them in the guest bedroom and then I'm thinking I'll take stacks of them in here to print out the shipping labels and then put them in the front room for the USPS guy to get them on Friday...

But here's a couple more pictures of the office.  So next time you read my blog or send me an email, you'll know where I am when I'm working...

 

Here's "my" desk...  Notice the picture of my computer?  It's of VENICE!  Love that, Lance found that picture for my computer...  And, there's the "A Kiss on the Chic" book...

I wanted to share one more thing in my office.  I got it just last week:

 

hehehe...  I got "Pick-up-Stix" for dinner last week and that was in my "fortune" cookie!  How funny... I don't know about that but I thought it was funny...

And just so you don't think I'm totally miss perfect and have everthing in my house nice and organized and looking perfect... Here's my guest bedroom/kit room/laundy folding room/trash collector room...

 

My parents might be coming over this weekend too! Yikes!  So, I have half the bed right now with clean clothes that needs to be folded... Are you listening Victoria??  And the other half with the left over kit stuff and USPS boxes...

 

And here's some more of the kit boxes that aren't in my office yet!  I still have more to do but I'm almost done.  This system seems to be working out but I'll let you know after I've figured out this months shipments...

 

And the trash on the floor...

You guys get it easy!  You get nice kits, all ready to go, no hassle... Don't ya love it???

So... the last picture is of trash.  Not so great.  But, I'm NOT superwoman like some of you think... I try to get as much done as I can but I always have something else that needs to be done... I'm just trying to leave things for another day though and not stress out.  It's important to me to do a GREAT job at the IMPORTANT stuff like being a good mom, a good wife, a good kit club owner ;)-  and the rest I'm trying not to stress about.  It will get done eventually but the time I spend with the people I care about is more valuable to me then having a "perfect" house.

Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!! 

Hugs,

Laura

P.S.  I knew there was something I'd forget...

Thank you to all of you who are posting comments for the Kit Contest on my blog!  I've gotten so many and you can keep them coming!  I will announce the winner on either Saturday night or Sunday!

I have an idea... (well I sort of borrowed it ;)-

UPDATE:  11:00pm - I didn't get a chance to start on my album tonight.  I realized that I only have today and tomorrow to get the kits together since we are taking the girls to Disneyland on Thursday and the USPS guy is going to be at my house Friday morning!  So, I've been working on the kits all day and will be again tomorrow! 

I also wanted to let you know that I did get the Websters Pages stuff tonight and have already put the kits together for the Merry & Bright and will take a picture of one of them in the morning to show everyone!  This one is very fun and embellishment HEAVY as well!  I think I went a little crazy on the Christmas kits this year...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was checking out my google reader today and came across this: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/12/december-daily.html

It's Ali Edwards and she's doing this really cool journal she's calling December Daily...

I immediately thought that we should do something like that too!~

So, I want to start this even though it's Day 2 of December... We can all fudge December 1st a little right?  I didn't take any pictures of Day 1 but I can remember what I did yesterday and I'm sure you can too!

Here's what I'm thinking...  We use the Making Memories Album to do this...

But, I only have 14 or so albums so if you want to join me on this, you have to be quick and get the album on this blog or in your LSS...

I'm going to go play around with mine and I'll show you it tomorrow or tonight if I get the chance!

But... in the meantime, document this Christmas Season on little notepads or journal cards or the Making Memories Die Cut sheets and then we can staple them or glue them in on our pages! 

This is going to be FUN!!! Are you with me???

Let's start a NEW  TRADITION LADIES!  I'm always sooo busy getting "ready" for the Holidays that I don't take the time to reflect on each day and document the little things.  This will be a great way to treasure this Christmas Season and relive it each time we open our book!

So, go have a great day and write dowm 1 thing that you did today that you want to remember about December 2nd.  And, if you can... write down something about yesterday, December 1st so we'll have it to put in the book too!  Now ladies, I don't want this to be a major project!  This is something we are NOT going to stress over or have to have perfect... The goal is to ENJOY this process and in the "process" learn to ENJOY the little things about each day in December!

Leave a comment here if you are going to "ENJOY" this with me!!!  And, what should we name it?? 

Thanks Ali for this GREAT IDEA!!!

Laura

Love, Tuesday...

Today, I LOVE...

Being home!!!  Sunday was a rough day.  It took us until almost 11:30pm to get home!  I never would have guessed it would take almost 12 hours to get home from Las Vegas when it usually takes 4 hours!  But, I'm glad to be home and I'm also thankful for a safe trip home too.  We just couldn't bring ourselves to go out of our way even a little bit to pick up Isabella, and that would have been at least another hour or two out of our way, so I went to go pick her up at Nana's yesterday.  So that's why I wasn't on here yesterday... But now the whole family, Scarlet included, is all safe and sound at home and I'm glad to say we don't have any other vacation plans for a LONG time...

I am excited that it's December now and it was soooo nice to come home to a house that was already decorated for Christmas AND clean!  Now that's cool!  We just have the two Christmas trees to decorate (you don't want to know how many trees I put up each year... I've lost count of  all the little ones, big ones and ones in between...  But the ones in the living room and family room are the ones with the ornaments so we'll have our annual "Christmas Trimming" party this weekend and that will really start off the season!

I hope all of you are getting excited about the Holidays!  I'd LOVE to hear from everyone on what is their favorite Christmas tradition that they do each year.!

SO...

I'm doing another CONTEST!

Yup... I'm giving away a "Very Vintage Christmas" Main Kit!!!

All you have to do is leave a post on here and tell me what you favorite Christmas tradition in your family is and I'll pick a winner this weekend!  You know I love contests and I love hearing from you so I want to get a LOT of comments! 

Speaking of the December Kits!  I will try to update the blog later today.  Oh!!!  I just checked Fedex and I should be getting the Websters Pages boxes today!  I thought it might come while I was gone and then when it didn't come yesterday I was getting worried.  But, I checked this morning and it's due to be delivered today!  Yeah!  So, I will update the "Merry & Bright" kit as soon as I get all the product. 

Make sure you get your order in by this Thursday though!  I'm finally having USPS come to the house for a pick-up!  I went online and scheduled a pick-up for Friday so all the orders that come through until Thursday night will go out on Friday!  I still should have most of the kits available.

I'm also going to try and update the gallery today and share with you some more GREAT projects from the Design Team!  Once I get the WP's stuff, I'll try to make up a couple examples of that as well! 

Before I go, I wanted to show you some pictures from our time in Las Vegas...

We didn't get to Vegas until about 4pm on Friday and we had reservations for dinner at Tao at 5:30pm before the 7pm show of Phantom of the Opera.  Well, we didn't have time to go to Tao for appetizers so we just quick got a bite to eat at the Johnny Rockets at the Venetian.  Here's a picture of the girls all dressed up in there fancy dresses at the diner seats:

 

The girls LOVED the Phantom and wished it was longer!  I think we'll take them to the one in LA sometime too.  The one in Vegas is about 30 minutes shortly then the original version...

 

Here's the girls after the show.  We went to Del Monico's Steak House after for my favorite dessert ever... the individual Pecan Tart!  The restaurant is right around the corner from the new Palazzo section of the Venetian so we went over there and took some pictures by the waterfall.  Everything was already decorated for Christmas and so beautiful!  We wanted to get over to the Bellagio to see their flower garden and I heard from my mom that the water fountains over there are set to Christmas music but we never made it over there.  Las Vegas Blvd. was like a huge parking lot all weekend long!  That should have given us a hint as to the traffic coming home huh?? lol...

 

Bad picutre of me but here we are in front of the huge waterfall...

 

So, the next day was the big Jonas Brothers concert and we ended up not getting tickets because these guys were majorly sold out. But... our hotel room was right above the Garden Arena I guess and the girls had fun using my camera to zoom in and see what was going on back behind the theater...  They got sooo excited when they saw the Jonas Brothers body guard, "Big Rob" they were hoping to see the brothers get out of that car but it was only there costumes I guess...  They waited and waited in front of our window looking to see any signs of the Jonas'  I even got a little excited when I THOUGHT a big tour bus was pulling in back there but to no avail....  All we saw was this guy forever waiting outside of his limo...

 

I'm sure the Jonas brothers came out probably 5 minutes after we left for lunch!

Oh well... that night we had dinner reservations at a place right across the hallway from the Arena and to get there was like going through a maze of people!  It was crazy!!! I guess the first concert was letting out and there were soooo many little girls and their parents trying to get out of the place!

We ended up going back to our room with our Starbucks and Haagen Daz :) and watching the Kit Kitridge American Girl movie on the TV while daddy went and played poker for a while.

So here's the girls getting their desserts before we headed upstairs...

 

It was a fun little get away but I still don't know if it was worth it just to see Phantom of the Opera... 

I will leave you with a few more DT layouts from the December kits...

 

Look at these GREAT stars by Norma Kennedy!  Maybe she'll show us how to make them!!!

 

And here's a layout by Norma... I'm not sure what size she does her layouts in??  Isn't this just beautiful though...  Here's a close-up of it:

 

I hope you Love your Tuesday today ladies....

Laura