Another blog challenge...

This post is for a blog challenge posted on Nancy Comelab's blog. "Instead of a LO, let’s go out on a limb a bit and look through our pictures and find, you know…the ones that we just took because we wanted to try and capture on film some special little moment to remind us…and if you can, here’s the catch: Try to find one without any people in it…or at least for the subject." Considering that 99.9% of my photos are of my family, that ruled out a lot. But this photo, I think, is one of my all-time favorites. It was taken in Maui on our second-to-last day of our vacation in Hawaii. My sister, my brother and I had flown there with our respective families to do something that most people might consider not to be such a happy thing. We took our parent's ashes there. We scattered them out of a helicopter above the Waimea Canyon on the island of Kauai. That was where my parents wanted to be... together... because it was their favorite place on Earth. So anyway, I could probably post a picture of the little waterfall over which we were hovering when their ashes were scattered, but I won't. I chose this photo because this helps me remember the happiness of all the times we had for the two weeks following the day we scattered their ashes... laughing and reminiscing about growing up together and memories of our parents. Anyhoo... long story short... I love this photo and it makes me totally happy.

Frame by Nancy Comelab

And here's a layout I did with it a few weeks ago.

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That's all for now... gonna go play with my little girlies!

Sometimes life takes over...

and you just don't have the time or the energy to blog... KWIM? I can't believe it's been two months since I last blogged! Not really. I can totally believe that. Quite a bit has happened since then. I gave birth to yet another little girl, so sleep generally takes precedence over blogging. As does changing diapers and nursing the little one, and playing with and taking care of her older sisters.

I'll try to do better, though. I can't promise that I'll blog everyday, but I'll try to stay a little more current.

Anyhoo... going to bed now. I'll try to post pictures of our newest addition tomorrow!

A few layouts and some exciting news...

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Click here and here for credits and a larger view.

The top one might be my new favorite layout. It's so simple, but I keep finding myself drawn to simple... maybe I ought to try that more.

And now for the exciting news... Look over on the right hand side of this little bloggie poo! I am going to be joining 2 more CTs... DigiScrapShak (which is really cool cuz it's a store gig, and I'll get to work with lots of different designers' stuff) and Wendyzine Scraps (she's at Elemental Scraps, but I don't have a blinkie just yet.) So anyway, I'm super duper excited!

OK, going to bed now. It's the only time when my ankles aren't elephant-like. =)

Cankles and other random thoughts...

It's official... I have cankles. I've made it through three other pregnancies and never had them. Lucky #4... brings me big, fat, swollen feet and ankles. Seriously. You can barely see the bone on the outer part of my ankles. And the inner part? Not so much. Can't see that bone really at all. Oh, for those of you who don't know... cankles are basically where your calf meets your foot with no ankle definition whatsoever. I asked the good ole obstetricianologist (that's what Caleb calls him) yesterday what to do. He said to keep my feet up as much as possible. It was right then that I realized I was going to have to call Jeeves, my chauffer, and ask him to pick up my nanny and butler, as well as the maid, gardener, and chef so that I can sit around all day with my feet propped up. I'll get right on that.

On an even more special note, I think I broke my pinkie toe. For those of you who don't know, I sprained my ankle a couple of weeks ago. Now I have a toe that's fat and many different shades of purple and blue because I stubbed it on one of our kitchen chairs. That lovely bruising even extends into my foot. And for some reason, that little teeny tiny pinkie toe is like a MAGNET sending out an irreversible attraction to all three of my children to either step on it or bump it. I can't really wear closed shoes because it hurts too much, and leaving it uncovered... well, yeah... you see how that's working for me with my little girlies... Main point is... I'm a clutz. And it hurts.

There were other random things I was going to blog about, yet now I'm tired after waking up at 4 am with my 18 month old who evidently just didn't feel like sleeping, so I'm gonna take a nap. Maybe if you are lucky I'll be back to finish this blog later... =)

Feel good movie and a layout or three, defining myself and C is for cookie...

Monday's blog challenge was to blog about a feel-good movie. Because I'm so punctual, I'm blogging it on Wednesday. That's how I roll...

I really can't think of one movie in particular that I watch that one could consider a feel good movie. I really like Say Anything, and anything with John Cusack for that matter. I'm also a fan of all those Meg Ryan chick flicks. Maybe Adam Sandler movies, because they never cease to make me laugh. Except Punch Drunk Love. Didn't like that one, although I went into it expecting it to be a typical Adam Sandler movie, which it wasn't. Anyhoo... I digress...

Here's a layout I did yesterday. I cheated and used the same layout for each of my girls. That's why I love digital scrapbooking. I switched out the pics, and voila! Instant layouts for three girls! And because this is my blog and I can do what I want... I'm gonna post all three pics so you can see my three little cuties in all their glory... Here's Hannah-

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Just a little note about Taylor's... while one of my daughters has no fear, it is NOT Taylor. She's scared of lots of stuff. Including the slip 'n slide. So instead of running and sliding, she pretty much slow crawled her way down. Hence no cool splash action shots. We're working on that, though...

And Lexi's -

And last but not least... blog challenge #20... defining myself by giving you a word that starts with each letter of my first name...

Loving - very. But not to everyone. Just peeps I'm close to. The deserving ones.
Youthful - Maybe not in years, since I AM advanced maternal age... but I am in spirit!
Nutty - Yeah. Too much so.
Nifty - I'm not really sure if I'm nifty or not, but I use that adjective probably a little too much.

Not a whole lot of descriptive terms I could think of that start with Y. And although I WISH I was nimble, which I'm not now that I'm 36 weeks pregnant, I just couldn't put that in.

Oh... I have one more thing to blog about. Do you remember that song "C is for Cookie" that Cookie Monster sings on Sesame Street? If you don't, go find it here on YouTube. I want you all to share in the misery that is my life this morning. Now that my three year old knows how to press the back button on the DVD player button, we've listened to this song at LEAST 25 times. I haven't counted, but I'm quite sure we're at the very least at that number. And to make things even more fun... my 18 month old knows how to turn up the volume. So now we are listening to it at a much higher decibel level than is probably safe for little ears. And yes... I am letting the DVD babysit my kids while I blog... Bad Mommy...

Two layouts...

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Fearful Friday...

No, today isn't a fearful Friday. That's just the title of our latest blog challenge. I'm supposed to blog about a time I felt fear.

The one time that REALLY sticks out in my head is when Caleb was in Iraq for his first tour. He had been there for about 4 or 5 months, and there hadn't really been any incidents at that point, at least that I had been made aware of, of Blackhawks getting shot down. Well, one Saturday in November, it's all over the news that there was a Blackhawk from the 101st that had been shot down. And I knew Caleb had been flying that day. And I hadn't heard A SINGLE WORD from him in over 24 hours... no email, no instant messaging, no phone call... nothing. I tried really hard not to panic, but I also hadn't heard anything from the family readiness group that is supposed to notify us when things happen. I went to church the next morning, still not having heard anything. I actually had to leave church that day. I was so scared that something had happened to him. People knew our situation, and they were asking me if he was ok. I choked back tears as much as I could while telling people, "I don't know... I haven't heard from him." (Keep in mind that I'm 6 months pregnant and way too emotional already...) Finally I just started bawling and couldn't stop, so I left the one place where I actually could have probably found some peace. Although I think it was in God's plan for me to go home, though, because as soon as I got home, I got an instant message from Caleb. He was completely fine, although he knew the entire crew from the aircraft that was shot down. They were in the same battalion, just a different company. At the time I didn't know this, but they shut down all communication out of the areas where the soldiers are living. They do this so casualty information doesn't get leaked before the families are notified. Makes sense, but it doesn't help when you are one of the ones NEEDING information.

Anyway... that's my story for Fearful Friday.

More layouts...

I'm all caught up posting my layouts... Did these four today. Really it only counts as three, because when I have a layout I really like, I just put another one of my girls' pictures in, and voila... another layout for her!

I've been totally inspired by the Page A Day Challenge at ScrapGal.

Here they are...

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Same credits as the above layout.

That purple one is of Taylor. She's three now. And the pink one is Lexi, who is 18 months. I'll do one for Hannah as soon as I get one of her baby pics scanned.

Going to bed now. Niters!

Layouts...

OK, so I've done several layouts that I forgot or was too lazy to post, so here they are...

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I know... I know. My style is all over the place.

See ya tomorrow!

Three for the price of one...

I actually haven't been neglecting my blog so much... it's just that I have several things to blog about. All on different topics. So rather than typing in three brand new blogs in one day, today you'll get three for the price of one. Hence the title of this post. "How clever she is" you must be thinking. Or maybe not.

Post number one... I have big news. I am not usually a big tooter of my own horn, but I feel the urge to toot! (my horn, people... not that other kind of toot... geez) If you look over in the sidebar of this oh so lovely blog, you'll see that I am a member of TWO AWESOME DESIGNERS' creative teams. That's big news for me, because I never thought I'd even apply for one let alone be chosen. So I'm super-duper excited that I decided to think about what Shandy said to me on several occasions (Thanks, Shandy... still waiting ANXIOUSLY for your call) and I applied. There... toot over. =)

Post number two... This is gonna seem like a really weird one, but I have to blog about seeing my husband do his job. That probably seems like a really WEIRD thing to blog about. But see, we've been married for four years, and although I know what he does... I've never actually seen him in action. For those of you who don't know, he's a pilot in the army. He flies Blackhawks. And for the first time ever, our two youngest daughters and I got to see him fly. We have only been out to his airfield a couple of times, and never even gotten close to one of the helicopters, so this was a BIG deal to us. I guess if he worked at an office or a fire station or a hospital, we'd be able to see at least a little of what he does. But since he doesn't, like I said before, this was a big occasion for us. He was working with a skydive team from Ft. Campbell, so as an added bonus, the girls got to see parachuters jump out of his helicopter. Cool stuff. Here are a few pics. If you want to see more, you'll have to check back in a few days. I'll be doing a layout of the pictures I took.

And post number three... Last but not least, Shandy's blog challenge is to post a to-do list for today. Seeing as how today is just about over, I think I'll post a to-do list for tomorrow instead. Mostly cuz this is my blog and I can do whatever I want, right? K, so here's my list...

1. Clean the kitchen and mop the floor. I swear, I could create a small meal with the crumbs and such that are on my floor right now. I wouldn't, but I could if I wanted to.
   
2. Upload my most recent layouts to my super coolio blog.
3. Leave some feedback on the layouts of my peeps at ScrapGal, and for my fellow CT peeps.
   
4. Do some fun stuff with the kiddos... like PlayDoh and/or Paint.
5. Do preschool activities with Taylor.
   
6. Take the girls outside for a long time so they can run around and get super duper tired so Lexi doesn't get out of her bed 27 times like she did today. (For those of you who have read my previous blog... I didn't count this time. I just estimated)
7. Shower at some point... preferably before the girls wake up, but that doesn't always happen.
8. Make dinner. Don't remember what we're supposed to have so I'll have to figure that out first.
   

Lather, rinse, and repeat all this on Friday. I swear it's like Groundhog's Day. Although Friday, I get to go for another ultrasound, so that should throw some fun into the mix...

OK... going to bed soon. Have a good night!