Christmas 2010

Christmas has came and gone and here's the proof.

its christmas

December is always a busy month for us. Therefore no time for crafts. Instead I've been "learning" to operate my new camera. LOVE at first touch....for sure!!! Its not like your studio photography camera (most of those use the Canon 40D and they are set to fully auto) or the point and click so needless to say, this is taking time. I'm slowing getting there.














As promised in my last post, here is out tree this year. I found it extremely fitting with a house full of boys.






Did you visit Santa this year. Of course, we had too. Blake was excited to go, until we got there. When he seen Santa sitting in his rocker, he was shy and timid. Maybe it was because we have been telling him Santa was watching him since Halloween. ;) Here is our lovely Santa photo. Bryson was too interested in the little ladies at a near by table to even realize a little man in a big red suit was holding him. lol

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends.

My tater tot

I can't believe on Wednesday, this extremely adorable little blue eyed tater tot, will be 5 months old. He is growing so fast. This past Friday, he visited with his pediatrician for a healthy baby checkup. He is above average on all his stats. He weighs in at 16.1 pounds and is 27 1/4 inches tall. Thats 50-75% range for his weight, and above 95% for his height. Yay!

Holiday Magic

This year was good. We enjoyed ourselves. The family gathered at my SIL house. We ate, we talked, and we danced. Thats right. It was fun. I won't post the videos for the sake of my dear families dignity. (OK well I might later on, but not today... they were warned.)

Later that evening my sister and her little family came over. They live in a tiny little town and drove down to wait for the madness shopping, aka Black Friday to begin. I snapped this photo of Mr. Landon. He is growing so fast. I can't believe he is already 9 months old, crawling, standing and even walking with the guide toys.





Can you believe its time for Santa?. I can't. I mean wow, where did the year go. It almost seems like I was pregnant just yesterday and they are no way little Bry is going on 5 months old. Really!

Blake and I decided to forgo digging out all the decorations. I am so over the red and gold scheme, as we've had it for 7 years now. We off to store we go. With Blake's help, this year our tree is dressed in silver, white, silvery blue, brown with blue and white lights. Its so cute, and very suiting for a house of boys I must say. For that extra touch, I misted the branches with beautiful Santa snow. I love that stuff.

Love this new camera.!!!

Season Greetings
Cathy

Mr. Personality

Hello! Its a random one today.

My little guy is so alert and aware of whats going on. He has been since he was born. He is constantly looking around. So much so that he turns his head back and forth about every 10 seconds. He doesn't miss anything. Blake will tell you his brother is funny and happy and oh how he is right. We are extremely lucky, Bryson is happy 99.5% of the time. He only cries when he is hungry or poopie (hates this one). Bry is going to be Mr. Personality if he continues. He is only 3 months old here, but check out this little camera king.

I love having 2 funny, handsome, little boys to hug, cuddle, snuggle, kiss, and squeeze on.

My Spidey Pea

Halloween was alot of fun this year. We took Blake to the mall. He had a blast. He loved saying Trick or treat, and following the crowd around the circle. It went super fast. About an hour later, his bucket was half full. They were three more wings to go, but he had more than enough candy. (Yes I am one of those moms that doesn't allow their kiddos to pig out on candy, not even on Halloween)

Blake chose his own costume this year. I so wanted him to be one of the ninja turtles but he didn't agree. So Spiderman again, but he does make a handsome little spidey, and we already had that bucket from 08.

Bryson was a little pea in a pod this year. Which totally fits him. He is so much like Blake was at this age, its ridiculous. Looks like I got my cookie cutter kiddos like I hoped for.




















I can't wait to scrap these holiday photos. I love them both.

Take Care and Be Safe.

Super excited new owner of.....

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.......this baby. Canon 60D. Its taken me sooooo long to decide what to get. Nikon or Canon, canon or Nikon, then it was which model. The rebel or D7000. Ultimately, we bought this Canon bc of the 18 MP, wireless remote and pivotal screen. I've had a Canon Powershot A series for over 5 years. It's been dropped at least 50 times, and takes Blake's abused pretty well, plus it survived a year in the horrid sand of Iraq. I can't wait to get started. Now all I need is Canon 60D for Dummies.

Pumpkins

October was a busy month. They were a couple of things we couldn't find the time to squeeze in like the Tanya Tucker concert or the local fair. We did find time to visited the Pumpkin Farm. I love those places. I love the colors of fall. Burnt oranges, gold, plums, reds, and greens... Beautiful!

Awake, Dressed and Ready!

On the Hayride

Bryson and Landon

Blake tried to pick
so many of them up
LOL

Brandon, Landon, sis Connie

My Boys

Mr. Lando

Seeking Help

After a recent portrait session, which lasted over an hour and resulted in ok photos, I came to this conclusion. "Professional portraits" are so expensive, why spend that kind of money year after year. So I think its time I go ahead and buy a nice camera. I've thought about it for years, yet always chose to spend big money like on someone else. Now as I see Blake growing before my eyes, I'm desperate to hold on to that last bit of baby in him. Annnd of course get thousands of totally precious little toothless adorable photos of Bry. Now that leads me to problem one. I'm not sure which one is the best choice. Canon or Nikon. I've never owned a Nikon and know nothing about them. I've narrowed it down to these two. Any reviews, opinions or advice for me.

Nikon D7000

Canon Rebel T2i

break

I'm taking a break!!!

HBday Pencil Lines

Pencil Lines is celebrating their 4th year. YAY. I loooooove to look at each new sketch and everyones take on it. I thought I would play along. I choose sketch 108, which was chosen by Karola.

What a week

Its been a tough week for my extended family. My cousin Keith was in a motorcycle accident that has left him in bad shape. A truck towing a camper cross the line and side swiped him. It injured his leg badly. A piece of bone never made it to the hospital and now they are going to have to graph a piece to fill in. Well that is if the 2nd attempt to graph muscle and skin takes. The first was a no go and tomorrow morning they will know if the second attempt works. If not they will try a third time and if that does not work they will have to amputate his leg. We are hoping it doesn't come to that, but its not looking very good at the moment. This is his second motorcycle accident involving the same leg.

Tonight my SIL 10 month old baby MyKyla, stopped breathing out of nowhere. She is currently at the ER and they trying to figure it out. Seems so strange as I was holding the little ones around 3:00 today and by 7 she is not breathing. Oh my gosh! This is the very reason I am so timid around babies and will not keep anyones infant until the are at least 2 years old, nor does anyone keep mine. I am the epiphany of over protective when it comes to my boys.

Wishing everyone in blog land a very happy and safe Friday.
:)

Next Sketch

It's Friday! But no yay for me. I have to work tomorrow. I went back to work 3 days a week M-W-F but I have to work every 3rd Saturday now. After all I was the only person left that did not work Saturdays. Not sure how I manged see long.

First let me tell you what Blake said tonight.

I was sitting at the computer looking into beading. (I'm thinking about giving it at try)
Blake climbs into my lap

Blake "Mommy lets have fun"
Me "okay what do you want to do"
Blake stands up on my laps and starts dancing and laughing
Next I hear the Thomas theme song start playing

Blake "Thomas coming on Thomas coming on and jumps down"
Me "Where you going I thought we were coming to have fun"
Blake no response, just dirty look



So here is the next sketch I want to share with you. I made this for my pregnancy photo with Blake. I intended to use a full body shot in the larger spot and 2 belly only shots below. As always that never happened. Maybe I will do so now. Feel free to use it if you like, and share with me if you want too.

Happy Friday gals.
Be safe and creative!

shiny new sketches

Today, I'm posting two of those

sketches, I mention a few days ago.

I can't recall what photos
I planned to use with this one.
I never used the sketch myself,
but I still like it. I love the line of ribbons
on here and the lolly flowers.

This sketch started out as
Blakes first time in Time Out LO.
The LO slipped a little off course,
and I love them both.

Here is what I did with the sketch.
I love the pointy frame on here.
I think I need to revisit that
shaped in an upcoming LO.

Hope I was able to inspire you today.
Stay tuned later in the week for the next one.

everything old is new again

To date this is my favorite photo
of the boys. Paired with a
Jennifer Fox digital kit, and the

results a totally awesome new Desktop.Digital
designs is perfect for this. If you don't already do
this, so give it a try. You will love it.

So while blog hopping the other day, I found this really cute cute idea for all those kids tee that you just love, but they grow out of so quickly. All you crafty mommas Go here. Everyone else go too, they are tons of re-purposing idea, sewing tips, and decor.

I'm thinking about posting a few of my sketches on here next week. I like to sketch when I have the perfect photo, but the not so perfect paper to work with. I then work on a sketch and store it away in my PC's brain with a specific paper line in mind, only to never look at again.

Woodgrain is still fab

I think I have developed an obsession for Kraft paper. It's my go to starting point now. Do you use it? Do you like it? Today, I am sharing a LO that features Blake and his cousin Landon. I loved this Sass line. I used 90% of these papers. Love love love this melody paper PP especially.





This is the first photo Blake took holding baby Landon. After I snapped these two, but was calling for someone to get him because he was too heavy. LOL It's not the perfect photo, but I love it just the same.



I must share these fabulous Woodgrain buttons I found on Etsy. You get 16 for only $2.50 and they come in 3 sizes. Here

:):):):):):) from Julie

I just got back from checking the mail, and I find a happy package from Julie. She is so kind. I expected to find more bills in the mail, but instead I found this.


Thank you Julie. You made my day a little brighter. :):):):):):):) I can't wait to use those Burlap buttons, they look so fabulous.

challenge ad

Amanda, one of the newest members of the SC design team issued her first challenge during the recent blog hop. It was a baby ad challenge. I played along and guess what I won. Yay. Here is my winning page.

Bad Fridays = Happy Saturdays

How was your weekend? Myself, the babies and my mother spent Saturday shopping. I was on the hunt for a new everyday handbag bc Friday evening after I put a hole into the front bumper, of my new car, Blake spilt chocolate milk into my favorite zebra print purse. [ :( ]My shiny red car now has a child's fist size hole in the front bumper. Lets just say when you get use to driving a manual for many many years, going back to a automatic can be difficult. Short version I let the car roll into the car parked in front of me bc I forgot to put my car in park. Oppps! Actually it would have been soooooooooooo much worse, if it wasn't a truck with a trailer hitch on the back in front. Yep big tough metal trailor hitch equals hole in little plastic bumper. I'm over it, its just a car! Okay, Back to the bag, with all this, I felt the need to do a bit of retail therapy. I was on the search for this bag...... I love it. Its the Day dreamer from Juicy Couture.

But I couldn't find it anywhere. I was able to find this one

And this one too

But I could not find the beautiful Houndstooth anywhere. :(


What is a girl to do? When in doubt buy classic.
So let me introduce you to my new everyday bag.
Afterall, I figured after my friday evening and giving
Josh another child, a boy a that, I deserved to treat myself for a change.

I love this bag too. It's great. It has a classic, clean style and I love the all over print fabric. Only thing I would change, would be the handles. They would be better longer and a tiny bit thicker, but that's it. I must say I am noticing a pattern though. Blake's carseat, diaper bag and now my purse all has this brown on brown color scheme.

Scrapbook Challenges

Remember Scrapbook Challenges? The group is still around and still strong. This weekend the 5th DT blog hop is going on.If you haven't already, Go to Pamela's Blog to get started. They are tons of prizes to win along your way so you don't want to miss out. If you have already done so, then maybe you are from the Hop On board. Regular member, like me now, can participate in the blog. So come over join the group, get involved and win some yummy goodies.

Lets get to the sketch for the Blog Hop.









Here is my fabulous LO. I really love how it turned out. Love this OA paper too.

Go to the Hop On section to see who is next on the list. If your not a member already, please join us today.

Happy Scrapping!
Cathy

Chloe Elizabeth....

Her name always remind my of Emily Elizabeth from Clifford. Just thought I would throw that out there :) Who else loves Photoshop? It's probably my all time favorite program. I wanted to share a photo, I edited for one of my good friends of her daughter.