We're mobile...

It's official... Gabby is now mobile. She picked the first day of the year to crawl. She's been inching toward it for a few days, but mostly just kinda scooting along. Today, though... she crawled several feet to get to the toy she wanted. Thank goodness my house is already child-proofed twice over!

On a side note, I'm going to participate in Project 365 this year. It shouldn't be too difficult, because once my dear sweet husband leaves, I'll be taking a ton of photos to send to him every day anyway. Here's my first photo of 2008, the Gabster right after she crawled to her toy:


On a scrapbooking note, Two Little Pixels is having a sale. According to Sharon and Megan there won't be too many of them, so if you are so inclined, head on over there by January 15 to pick up some good stuff!

Ringing in the new year...

So I know I need a new blog header... I will get to it eventually.

Tonight I am pondering Ali Edwards' concept of "one little word." You can read more about it here. To be quite honest, though, I'm not really pondering... the word came to me pretty quickly.

For most people, the new year symbolizes renewal and hope... a clean slate... things along those lines. That's what a new year typically symbolizes for me. This year won't be typical for me. I already know that 2008 will be, perhaps, the most challenging year I've ever lived. My husband is deploying (AGAIN!) and will be gone for a few days short of the entire year, not to mention a few months of 2009 as well. So while I know this year will be so hard, I've also chosen a word that I think will help me get through it.

Embrace.

Here are a few of the definitions of the word on dictionary.com:

• to take or clasp in the arms; press to the bosom; hug.
• to take or receive gladly or eagerly; accept willingly: to embrace an idea.
• to avail oneself of: to embrace an opportunity.

It's going to be a tough word for me on a daily basis, but I'm realizing that I need to embrace this deployment to not only make it easier for me to deal with personally, but to make it easier for my girls to cope. And although I'm quite sure I will not be able to always receive it "gladly"... I'll receive it nonetheless, because fighting it will only make it that much harder.

So that's my word. Kinda takes the place of resolutions... I'm not really into those. I'm sure I'll be plastering it all over the walls of my house to help me remember.... LOL.

Happy New Year, everyone. May 2008 bring you all you could ever wish for...

Run! Don't walk...

Here:

Click on image to go to the store!!

Seriously... awesome stuff. You won't regret it. If you love Sharon's and/or Megan's designs, you HAVE to get their grab bags. FULL of yummy goodness! I'm still pinching myself... wondering if I'm dreaming... how awesome it is to be creating for the two of them! Check out my "pixel chick" blinkie on the side!

And here's a layout I did with some of Megan's stuff... (one of the items is in her grab bag!)

Click on the image to see credits.

OK... off to spend some time with the family... and maybe get another layout or two done. Maybe my mojo is back.

My mojo has left the building...

Scrappin' mojo, that is... I just can't seem to do a layout that I'm 100% happy with lately. I actually finished one yesterday that I'm about 95% happy with, though!

Click on the image to see credits.

You'd think after almost a month of not writing anything, I'd have something exciting to say. Fortunately, I do, but I can't give you full details... yet. But I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. It'll give me another reason to blog... LOL!

To all of you celebrating Thanksgiving today, have a wonderful and peaceful day with your loved ones. To everyone else... have a terrific day!

Mmmmm... I'm hungry!

(Click the image for credits.)

LOVE LOVE LOVE these cookies that Caleb makes with the girls. They don't last long in our cookie jar, for sure! This layout was made with Sharon's Simple Sets #24. All I had to do was drop my pictures in and type up a few words, and voila... finished!

It's after midnight, so I better get to bed. Little girls will be waking up before it even gets light outside. You'd think they'd sleep a little later when it's dark in the mornings, but no... they have the most accurate internal clocks on the planet. Lucky us!

It's finally feeling like fall...

So I'm going to blog as if I just blogged yesterday... like it hasn't been forever since my last one. Caleb's sister and her family just left yesterday after a week-long visit. It was so fun having them here. They have two little boys: Seth is just about the same age as Taylor (three weeks younger than her to be exact) and Elijah is about 6 months younger than Lexi. Fortunately all 4 kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the movie Cars, so they played together all week long with Lightning McQueen and all of his buddies. I'm kinda bummed that they had to leave, but I had plenty to do today to keep myself busy.

I swear... I HATE switching out clothes for my girls. You know... packing away all the warm-weather clothes and unpacking and hanging all the colder weather clothes in the closet and/or putting them away in the drawers. Maybe the problem is that with four girls there are just SO. MANY. CLOTHES. I spent at least an hour just switching out Lexi's clothes. She's two. I did Hannah's last week. It was much easier because she's eight and can help. So now I only have Taylor and Gabby left to do. Tomorrow. If I drag it out any longer I will absolutely lose what's left of my mind.

On a totally random note, Gabby started solids a couple of weeks ago. Caleb has been asking me everyday when he can feed her something other than rice cereal. I let him feed her green beans today. He was so excited. For some reason he loves being the one to feed our girls new things. It was so cute.

OK... going to bed now. I meant to post a layout, but I told myself I was going to bed at 10, and it's 9:59. So I'll post one tomorrow. Or in a week. Or maybe a month... LOL!

Quickie post tonight...

So I can get to bed at a decent time! Check THIS out! This layout was picked as one of the layouts of the day at Hot Digi Picks:

Click here for full credits.

I'll post some more of my recent layouts tomorrow. I'm so tired I'm about to fall asleep while I'm typing...

A new blog feature...

I've decided to start a special little column over to the right. I'm sure in no time at all it will expand to a HUGE column, but for the time being, it will be small. It's a list of things I never thought I'd have the need to say. Mostly, things I've found myself saying to my children. I've often told my sister that if she could just hear the random silly things that have to be said in this house she'd laugh out loud for sure. I realize that some of these things might not be funny to others... but they are to me. And basically that's why I'm adding it... so I can remember the things that, at the time, might not be so funny but are comical in retrospect. The first one is today's "Get that sandwich off your shoe." I'm not even going to explain it.

I'm like butter, baby...

...on a roll... woohoo! I am blogging after only 2 days. I don't really have anything important to talk about, but I did do a couple of layouts today:

Click here for credits

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Click here for credits.

I completely neglected the three loads of laundry that need to be folded. Yep, they're still sitting in various places around my house. BUT... I got two pages done. So what's more important? Honestly, right now getting pages done is more important because I need to have a year's worth of layouts uploaded to Shutterfly by September 15th. That's a little more than a week before Lexi's second birthday, and I want to have her second year layouts printed up in a book to give to her. Anyhoo... on to more exciting news... I'm on Jennifer Howland's CT now! It was kind of a fluke because I honestly wasn't looking for any more CT spots. However, I totally love her papers (she ain't called the Texture Ho for nothing!) so I made her take me on! =)

OK... so now I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed. But hey, at least I blogged a little! Nite!

So it's only been a month...

since I last updated my blog. Why do I even have this thing? LOL! I guess I keep thinking I'll get into a routine and start blogging regularly. I really want to have it going when My Babies' Daddy deploys again. It'll kind of give him a glimpse into our daily lives. At least that's what I hope. Oh, and I don't normally refer to him as that, but he does often call me his Babies' Momma, so I felt the need to reciprocate.

Maybe I don't blog very often because I feel like I need to type so much stuff. Maybe tonight I'll just keep it short and sweet. Yeah... that's what I'm gonna do! So... here's a few layouts that I've just added to my galleries. Scroll all the way down for a super cool YouTube thingy I saw on Miss Mint's blog. I LOVE it. So powerful!

This is from Kaye Winiecki's Clothesline Chic Kit at Pickleberry Pop:

Click here for full credits.

This one is from [ksharonkdesigns] at Pickleberry Pop, also. The kit is called Simple Joys:

Click here for full credits.

Another one with Clothesline Chic:

Click here for full credits.

And this is another from [ksharonkdesigns]. The kit is called Unadorned and is a freebie on Sharon's blog for about 4 more days:

Click here for full credits.


And here's the video: