She's probably going to want a snowman.

Well one morning Lil Miss asked her daddy if he could make her a heart shaped pancake. And being the sweetie that he is ... he did. It was somethin LOL

The next time he made them he got a little fancy. He used a cookie cutter and did some lovely decorative syrup work...

*And just to let you know ... that wine glass was from the night before. We don't usually start drinking with breakfast.

Well, not USUALLY.

She was very excited :)

Well as the holiday season approched, Lil Miss upped the anty.

She wanted a Christmas tree. And a Christmas tree she got. Complete with ornaments and balls hung on the tree.

She was VERY excited!

And so was Daddy! LOL

When I came home last night from having the second most productive day this month, DH said "Yeah you can leave Lil Miss here in the morning. That way she can sleep in a little ... OH, and I have to make her snowman pancakes ..."

LOL ... this is the picture I saw this morning when I got home.

Which is not complete of course without snow and sprinkles, an orange "carrot" nose ... and accessories because "HE NEEDS A SCARF DADDY! OH ... and a hat" ...

Like all snowmen of course.

She was very very excited about it :)

LOL ... VERY VERY excited!

I can only imagine what's next. A Castle? A Dolly? A Pony? Maybe she thinks Daddy is the Santa of pancakes ;-)

*I backdated this post because I just felt like it. LOL*

So today was a good day.

I got the kids ready to school and about 5 minutes before we left I thought "HEY! I should go to the DMV and FINALLY order a replacement license today!" and then there was much chaos as I:

• packed snacks
• coloring materials
• looked up directions
• plotted my course
• grabbed everything I MIGHT need to get a copy of my license
• put on something cute in case a picture would be taken
• grabbed make up to apply just in case
• snatched my ticket off the fridge to pay since it was due by the 27th and I've had like 2 months to do it
• get Lil Miss ready to go
• and FINALLY get out of the house before the girls were late for school.

So I drove the 45 minutes there and went in with very LOW expectations. And a knot in my stomach because I have an irrational fear of people in a faux authority position.

But I was pleasantly surprised! I was in and out in 30 minutes! And I found that they are normal people too, when the lady helping me asked me for my license to prove who I was before she REPLACED MY LOST LICENSE. LOL

The next part was not so good. I had to take my ticket to court and I stood in line for OVER AN HOUR. And I had Lil Miss with me. And there were no chairs. It was DRAMA. But I overcame and left that place only paying $35 which was a LOT less than the lady in front of me who paid $415 for her ticket!

So BOTH of those were DONE and that was AWESOME. Feelin good, I came home kept myself awake by chatting on the phone with my BFF and worked on a gift I needed to finish.

After picking up the girls I had a few minutes before I went shopping with my mom so I finished my gift (YAY!), cleaned up the dinning room table, threw on some clothes and ran out the door.

My mom and I finished ALL of our holiday shopping! Except for stocking stuffers, and stuff for DH, but for the most part I AM DONE! YAYAY! We did a LOT of shopping and I had a LOT left on my lists, and so did she, so I was pretty proud we actually got it all done!

Then we had a little dinner before parting ways and it reminded me of how MUCH I can really get done when I'm not towin Lil Miss along with me ;-)

SO. Now it's all about baking, wrapping, and stockings! And I couldn't be happier about it! !!

Do you think it's bad that I've played this song whenever the kids start arguing or being brats?  Which has been about fiftyhundred times today...



I wonder if they're picking up on the hint yet.

Probably not.  LOL

So here's my morning so far ... and it's not even NOON ...

• Got up at 5:30 ... AM ... and drove 45 minutes to get my kids.
• Drove in the first real rain of this season and discovered that I need new windshield wipers ... SOON
  
• Remembered to get Lil Miss and myself dressed in REAL clothes because we had to go to SuperHell (Walmart) after dropping kids off at school
• Forgot to have Lil Miss go potty before we left
• Worried for 45 minutes that she would pee all over the backseat
• Had to take her inside the Ex's house for her to potty and see pictures EVERYWHERE of his girlfriend with my daughters.  It just stings a little
• Got the kids to school and drove to SuperHell
• Lil Miss didn't stop talking once
• DH kept texting and calling and calling and texting ... about the price of a whole chicken ... yeah, it was THAT important I guess
• Hoped to have a little extra for a present or two, but had to get all manner of detergents, so that didn't happen
• Lil Miss dumped a bottle of water all over the backseat and took fifty-eleven minutes to get out of the car while I had eleventy hundred bags in my hands
• Forgot tape
• Got in the house just in time to get a call that Flower Child left her lunch in my backseat
• Unloaded groceries while listening to "MOMMY I'm HUNGRY ... I'm hungry NOW" 29,000 times
  
• Her lunch was NOT in my backseat so I had to MAKE the lunch
• Had to drag our butts out in the cold crappy weather again to take Flower Child her lunch
• Decided to try to make myself feel better with a Peppermint Mocha ... that I may or may not have planned to add Baileys to
• Left my wallet {and all monies} at home

And just as I was about to let the tears start to flow ... I heard this on the radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGM6Xtx02M4

And I LOL'd all the way home.  I'm not saying all is right with the world again, but it's a little better ;-)

Some days ... I'm TOTALLY into Christmas.

It's like OMGYAYIT'SCHRISTMAS!!!  And I make cider and hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music, wander around with sugar plums dancing through my head, mark stuff off my Christmas to-do list and it's all a winter wonderland!

And then there's the other 6 days of the week ... lol.

I really am trying though.  And those Christmasy Days feel SO GOOD that I want them all the time but it drains me.  To the point that the next day I'm a blubbering mess in the corner singing "All I Want For Chrithmath Ith My Two Front Teef".

It's a pretty picture, let me tell you.

Yesterday I made the mistake of driving 45 minutes to go to the DMV.  Is it just me, or is that where ALL homeless mentally ill people hang out?  I'm just wondering. 

I also wonder if they have a weight MINIMUM of 300lbs to work there.  If so, their job security is intact.

Just sayin.

So I walked in only to hear that their printers were down.  I guess they are unable to print numbers the old school way by hand and it was utter chaos.  They were all running around like the sky was falling and then the computers were down too.  So I got the hell outta there.

I tried to make myself feel better by picking up a few gifts since I was out anyway.  Lil Miss was with me of course and had a tear filled melt down when I told her she had to sit in the car the right way.  So we were off to a good start.  I did get gift for the hubs stocking, so that was good.

Then I went to Target and took back one gift for the Boy and got the one he "REALLY REALLY *HAAAAD* TO HAVE" lol, a movie for Lil Miss, and a few stocking stuffers in the dollar aisle.  So I did get a few things done.

Today didn't feel too holidaysy.  I went to the gym, then came home and waited to have lunch with a friend.  While I waited I knocked out a few scrappy pages for her.  Months ago, she gave me all of her scrappy stuff in exchange for me scrapping the last of her non-digital pictures.  I hadn't done much of them lately and was feeling kinda bad about it, so in 30 minutes I got TWO PAGES DONE!  That was 10 pictures!  I was pretty proud of myself for that actually : )

Then I went to her house and we ate deep fried brie.  If you've never had it, then you've never lived.

Lil Miss had a great time and was a GREAT kid.  It was weird.  It's so hit and miss with her.  Just when I think I have her figured out ... she's all GOOD n stuff.

And then it's dinner time.  And I can't seem to remember her being good today, it's all clouded with the tears she brings me to every dinner time.

Anywho.  So it started out a good day ... now, not so much.  But ask me again at 8:05 : )

Hope you all are getting WAY more holiday stuff done than me!

Things I REALLY need to get done:

• Go to the DMV and get my license because I'm HELLA lame and lost mine
• Take my ticket to the court so I can find out if I owe them anything for a fix it ticket
• Put up the garland on my stairs and over the bar
• Finish decorating this house so I can ....
• Take pictures of the lovely decor
• Finish MIL's scarf
• Make a calendar for my Ma
• Print out photos for gifts and ornaments
• Make said gifts and ornaments
• Mail out 2 gifts BEFORE Christmas
• Make Rachelle's ***STATIC*** cause it's gonna be SUPER cool
• Make Rebecca's ***STATIC*** cause it's gonna be SUPER cool
• Alter the two large paint cans so I can fill them with goodies and give them to the teachers
• Figure out what adhesive actually WORKED on those paint cans
• Make goodies to put IN the can
• Take Tween shopping at Dollar Tree for her friends gifts
  
• Go shoppin with my Ma
• Celebrate my birthday with my man
• Figure out a holiday party with my BFF and Lil Sis
• Find a time to drive out to Fairfield and see HELLA people lol
• Finish shopping for gifts and stocking stuffers
• Finalize menu for Christmas dinner
• Shop for Christmas dinner
• Take the kids to Christmas Tree Lane
• Take the kids to Santa's Village/Del Osso Farms Light Drive thing
• Take the Boy to Dollar Tree to pick out gifts for his sisters
  
• Wrap presents
• Figure out the strike out feature on this thing so I can mark stuff off my list
• Try not to over work myself

I don't know how well I'll do on that last one, but I'm gonna try! Hope you all are makin your lists and gettin more done than me, or have less to DO than me lol.

P.S. Please pray for the two little kids who got hit my a car outside my daughter's school this morning. I don't know how they're doing but it didn't look good. PLEASE pray that this will bring about some ADULT CROSSING GUARDS!!! Thank you!

Yesterday was a good day. A good PRODUCTIVE day. I love days like that.

I started off the day with the normal Monday routine of getting kids up and ready for school and gathering 5 loads of laundry. It's my Monday ritual and to be quite honest, I love it.

I love the feeling Monday evening when there are NO dirty clothes in the house. No dirty clothes in the downstairs bathroom, or the 3 kids' rooms, or the hallway, or the upstairs bathroom, or my hamper, or our 2 closet floors, or my hallway or OUR bathroom. That's a lot of places for dirty clothes to pile up so you can see why I would get excited when they are all cleared.

I think the only way to clear my floors of laundry on a NON-Monday would be to place a laundry basket NEXT to every laundry basket in the house. I mean, they would HAVE to hit one eventually ... RIGHT?!

That, or my entire floor would be covered with laundry baskets. And garbage cans.

I also loved the feeling of putting my cold cold hands into the warm warm laundry. That could be just yesterday though because it was cold enough to SNOW in the California Valley. Which has not done since I was 6.

Anyway. So after I got laundry goin, kids to school, and a house {almost} to myself I did some dishes. And since doing the dishes felt so good I started makin lists!

Yes, lists DO excite me THAT much ... asifyoudidn'talreadyknow ;-)

By the end of the day this was my To-DONE list:

• 5 loads of laundry cleaned AND put away
• 1 load of dishes done and put away
• 30 Christmas cards personally written out, addressed, and ready to mail
• Made a batch of cookies from scratch
  
• Purged my upstairs linen cabinet and heard Tween say "Can I help you purge? I love purging!" - :D
• Did a large load of handwash dishes and put all that stuff away
• Made a Christmas centerpiece for my dinning room table
• Achieved World Peace - or at least amongst my 4 children - same thing
  
• Knitted a few more inches on my MIL's scarf
• Picked up around the house 2,039 times

It was a HELL of a day! And believe me now, I am NO Martha and I'm not usually NEARLY this productive. But it was a GREAT day for it and so I thought I would celebrate it :) There were plenty of things I didn't get done but maybe they'll get done today ... and maybe not ;-)

Hope you're all enjoying a little bit of productive holidaysiness today! Hope I do too actually, I have WAY too much to do!

To change things up a little I'm doing a Christmas Meme! :D

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Um GROSS. Anything with EGG in the title should NOT be a drink. So I say, a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks :) And I have come to find, that the Coffeemate Peppermint flavored creamer comes PRETTY DARN CLOSE!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Depends on how tired Santa is LOL. Usually there's a mixture of both. And some wrapped stocking gifts too cause the kids sure do LOVE unwrapping presents!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? WHITE. I am a HUGE fan of simple elegant white lights. It just makes everything look so pretty :)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? When I remember it. I've been known to get tangled up in the tinsel with DH every once in a while. Any excuse for a little extra lip lockin is good to me!

5. When do you put your decorations up? As soon as the warden will let me LOL. Usually the day after Thanksgiving is our annual Christmasify the house day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? OOOOH PRIME RIB! We do turkey for Thanksgiving so we do Prime Rib for Christmas dinner and it is the best thing I think I eat all year lol

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? It's more of a tradition that started when I was a kid. My mom always made those Pilsbury Cinnimon Rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning and I ALWAYS looked forward to it! I carried on the tradition with my own family from the first year I moved out and have done it every year since :) My kids say it's one of their favorite traditions too!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember how old I was exactly, something like 10 or 12. I do remember being slightly devastated though, I don't really remember why LOL

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Always. Usually it's the kids' new jammies that they get every year. But now that the kids are with us on alternating Christmas's (one year here on Christmas eve, the next Christmas Day) when the kids are here on Christmas Eve we end up doing EVERYTHING that day. We open all the gifts in the morning, then the gramma's decend upon the house and we do that. Then we have our holiday feast, leave out cookies for Santa and head out to bed. It's really nice because then Christmas morning we open Santa's presents and stockings before the kids leave. Then it's just us and Lil Miss for the rest of the day and it's very relaxing :)

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Our tree is a mismatch of all the ornaments we and the kids have collected over the years. Every ornament we pull out represents something. Each year the kids pic out their own ornament and I pick one for the family, that either symbolizes something special from the year or what they were into. One of my favorite parts of the holiday is going through the box and telling the kids the stories of each ornament or now, hearing them tell it :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I'm a little nervous actually. I heard there will be snow here in town tomorrow morning ... I'm just not too sure about that!

12. Can you ice skate? I've never been but have ALWAYS wanted to! Maybe next year ;-)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Hahaha well, last year Santa gave us DVD players for the back seat and OHHHHH BABY were those the BEST GIFTS EVER!!!! I don't know how I survived road trips without them! lol

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Enjoying them with my family and friends. I love this time of year more than anything else and I'm trying even more this year to relax and just love it :)

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? My pumpkin pie :) I make a MEAN pumpkin pie.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The cinnimon rolls for breakfast :) OH and getting the ornaments out of the box and putting them on the tree, telling or hearing each story.

17. What tops your tree? A beautiful angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving! I get SO FREAKIN EXCITED about what I want to do for people each year. Usually it's something I make so I get that enjoyment out of it too. But I love thinking about each person and what they would like.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Um ... only good enough for the tree lol.

20 Favorite Christmas Show? National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. I could watch that movie over and over and over ... and often DO this time of year lol

21. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I think right now it's Baby, It's Cold Outside with Zoey DeShanell from Elf. She has got an amazing voice and I just love that song :)

Well there ya go! A lovely Christmas Meme. If you decide to play along, let me know I would love to check it out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! ONLY 18 DAYS!!!

I have a REALLY good excuse for not blogging yesterday. And it's NOT just because I was completely hungover and cursing the demon liquor for most of the day. Although, that didn't help.

Our internet was down and didn't get fixed until today SOOOO I'm totally cool still :D

Friday was my friend Charlie's annual Christmas Party. It was a LOT of fun ... like a LOT of fun. Like I stopped counting at 5 Poinsettia Martini's kinda fun.

LOL ... and contrary to the expression on his face DH was neither drunk nor irritated with me, he just looks that way ;-)

I guess I made a big enough production of taking my own picture that other people got in on the action.

LOL ... and contrary to this pictures, Charlie is neither hammered nor high on the smokey smoke, the person taking our picture was ... LOL

Now, contrary to THIS photo ... I *WAS* completely hammered LOL

I only get kinda wasted like ONCE a year so my man was cool enough to be my Designated Driver and pretty much take total care of me the next day when I was hating life. AAAAH, I knew there was a reason I married him! lol

Well once I finally drug my sad hungover behind out of bed and downstairs the day was pretty much a wash. Since I could barely walk, I wasn't going to be doing any Christmasing.

Although, I actually DID make a run to Big Lots. Only because I had a little extra money for a present or two and one was about to go off sale so I braved the cold COLD weather (35*) and got quite a few things off the list. So I suppose I did get something done.

Today we decided to put up the exterior lights. Well, HE put up the lights ... I had a glass of wine and took pictures :) We put on our Christmas music and Lil Miss and I decorated the tree DH made out of chicken wire and lighted garland. Then she and I put some more bulbs on the inside tree. I have quite a few more ideas for the inside of the house, but DH is working this week so we'll see how much gets done ;-)

So I guess we did have a pretty productive weekend after all. Hopefully this week will be the same way! What I need to do is make a list of all the things I'd like to get done so I can pick from that list each day what I'm most in the mood to do. OHHHH there are soooo many things lol.

I think that will be a post for another day and today I'll just stick to enjoying this warm house, the smell of beef stew in the crock, and maybe help DH with a few things INSIDE the house ... since it's colder than all get-out outside.

Hope you all enjoyed *your* warm houses and some fun holidaysiness this weekend!

Why are there days that seem to drag on FOREVER but you get a fair amount done and it feels GREAT! And you think "HEY! I can totally do this! I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and be just as filled with AWESOME as I was today! :D ".

And then you don't. lol. You wake up and think 'there is no WAY it's time to get up already..." and yet there sits the alarm clock, mocking you.

But still you say "OK self, we can still DO THIS. I have a LOT that I can get done today and I can totally find the energy! All I have to do is post on FaceBook that I'm full of energy and have tons of stuff I plan to get done and I'm SURE it will happen! :) "

And then it doesn't. lol. To be fair, it is only noon. But for me and my wacked out internal clock, if I don't get things done by 1 ... fair chance they won't be gettin done. I do get up at 5:30 ... so that may have something to do with it.

Or maybe I'm an 80 year old woman.

I got the kids, came home and had some *quality time* ;-) with the hubs, and then went to the life draining pit of SuperWalmart. I don't know why it felt like I spent a sweet eternity there, but it DID.

That could be because Lil Miss talked from the moment I got her out of the car to the moment I put her back IN the car and said "PLEASE, for the love of Santa and all your presents, give me a moment of quiet! Just one minute where we don't talk ... mmkay?" to which she said "But I like to talk Mommy. Yeah. I do. I wanna talk!"

And so she did. Until I threw some food at her once we got home. It was like a 2+ hour ordeal. And the talking thing isn't news, believe me. I guess I just didn't have the energy for it today.

And don't get me wrong, my heart belongs to SuperWalmart as it has SAVED me more than once these last few months. But WOW. That place just drains the life force, doesn't it?

So we came home, put away the groceries, entered a radio contest for a Christmas Wish (PRAY they grant it you guys...srsly...it would make our Christmas), ate a peanut butter sammich since I skipped breakfast, and now I sit here ... when I should be taking a shower ... but I'll probably take a nap. lol

I'm almost desperate enough to lay on the couch with Lil Miss watching those freak Fresh Beats just to get a wink or two ... almost.

I should shower though. There's a Christmas party tonight :) and I don't think I should myself over there lookin like *this* ... it's not Halloween after all. lol

Ok ... getting desperater ... the Freak Beats are starting to look a little better ... or at least hopefully they'll numb my brain into some kind of mild coma.

Here's hopin ... lol

Happy 21 Days Til Christmas Everyone! Hoping your day is more productive than mine ;-)

Well. I'm at least holding up my end of the blogging bargain. I've made it here TWO days in a row! I know you're shocked ... I am too honestly.

We had a rough day yesterday. But after a rough start this morning, things have calmed down and are looking good :) Maybe it's the fact that Lil Miss is having a good late morning that is the key lol.

We hit the gym after taking the kids to school and that ALWAYS makes ME feel better. Today the same was true for her, and that has made all the difference. When we got home and she scarfed down everything that wasn't nailed down, I decided to use my endorphine fueled energy spurt to get some holidaysy stuff done!

I find myself very distractable lately so today I decided to just pick ONE thing to work on. It didn't have to be the FIRST thing that needed to be done, just to be something I FELT like doing.

WOW. That actually WORKED!

I decided to make some tea, sit by the fire and watch some old epi's of LOST (&hearts) and work on the scarf I'm knitting for my MIL. See, that just sounded like the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

So I made Lil Miss some apple cider and turned on some Christmas music for her. And here I sit , tea in hand, fire place on, LOST loading and 2 posts {almost} done! It's been a pretty good day I think, even if my kitchen and floor are covered in crumbs LOL ... it's all about what I WANT to do today :)

Hope you all are doing your BEST to enjoy these wonderful holiDAYS!

So the Christmas season has officially begun!

Well ... to be honest ... it started around here WEEKS ago, I'm a bit of a fan.

Looking back now and knowing that I started planning out the holidays-y stuff weeks ago, you would think I would have more DONE by now. I CAN say I have made a BUNCH of lists though! And lists make everything right with the world.


My lists would mean nothing without my Holiday Planner though. I have to say, it's the best thing I've ever created. My children run a close second only because the notebook actually HELPS me hold on to my sanity, while the children are fighting to see who can drive me to the crazy house first.

I made it last year and was very excited to find that I could TOTALLY use it again THIS year! I may have SQUEEED ... but just a little.

And with all of this wonderful listiness I have going for me, I still feel a bit overwhelmed. I have most of my homemade gifts planned out and even have the materials for them but I can't seem to actually MAKE them.

I guess it's been awhile since I've done any scrappy projects so that may be part of it. Another part is just this restlessness I've been dealing with lately. I don't really know what's going on with all THAT but you would think I would put the energy to good use! If only I could harness it for good ...

I think I'm going to try and post each day this month. I say that on the SECOND of the month of course, LOL.

A December Diary of sorts. I did that in December 2007 and looking back I remember feeling much more connected to the holidays. I think I reflected more each day on what was going on, so I remember it much more vividly. It also helps when trying desperately to journal my scrappy pages YEARS down the road for the eleventy hundred holiday events we do each year.

Or maybe that's just me.

Well I think this will be all for today. If I'm going to try and post everyday I'm gonna have to conserve my A material. So I'm off to the dollar store with Flower Child to let her pick out some presents for her brother & sisters, and torment myself with the sacred smell of Bamboo Garden that mocks me as I pass it by.

Oh how I miss you, Peking Pork.

Hope you all are having an amazing holiday season already and I'll be back tomorrow! YAY HOLIDAYS!!!

So this year things are tight. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that.

At first I thought about doing the cheap and easy Christmas card thing and just getting the photo cards at Walmart or something.

In September I was already thinking about the photo, in fact. I knew things would be tight and I knew I wasn't going to drag the whole fam damily down to the photo studio this year. So while we were at the beach I told my hubs "If we can get a good picture that is CARD WORTHY ... I won't make you go to JCPenney this year."

I've never seen that man move so fast in my life LOL

So we got the perfect picture. And as I toyed with the idea of photo cards, like almost everyone else I know does, it kinda made me sad. One thing I always do, no matter what kind of card I do, is leave a personalized message. It's important to me to take the time and tell people I care about them.

So I threw the photo card idea out at my hubs because I knew it would be fairly cheap and he said "But you like writing stuff on em right? And you can't do that with those cards, right? Well ... that's just not you. I think you should do what makes YOU happy." He can be so wise sometimes :)

So I went a step further. I created all 30 of my Christmas Cards and I just LOVE them!

This is the front of most of the cards. I varied between this burgundy color and a forest green color.

The backside I put a Christmas pattern paper and layered and inked a beige piece of cardstock for the inscription area. Then I cut a small piece of the cards stock, inked it, wrote my Merry Christmas line, and added a Christmas Tree brad to finish it off :)

I have a LOT of Christmas papers ...

Like a REALLY lot ... LOL

In fact, doing 30 cards barely even made a noticeable dent ...

I made all of the cards just a little bit different, these are just a few of them ...

Some of the cards even have the pattern paper on the front

And the solid on the back. I REALLY love how all of them came out and I can't WAIT to get them in the mail. I was pleasantly suprised at how quick they were to make and how CHEAP! All I had to buy were the photos, which I would have anyway, and the beige card stock which actually came with the envelopes. SO for 30 cards I think I spent $10 total :) Pretty good ifIdosaysomyself :D

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! and for more Card crafters check out Sunday Scrappin!

It's funny how the more I seem to DO, the less I seem to blog about it.

Such is life I guess.

Well I was able to get SOME scrapping done awhile back when my friend came to visit and hadn't had a chance to share yet so here we go :)

These two pages are for my Couple's Album. They're from our trip to Napa in April. I started scrapping the pics from that trip MONTHS ago but I have AADD (ADULT ADD ;-P ) and so I am now 4 pages closer to done ...

Gosh with as many pictures as I took and scrap you would think we were gone for a WEEK! Hahaha, it was the best 36 KID-FREE HOURS EVER! lol

I did this page to correspond with a page I already scrapped ... and I JUST noticed that this was the year she turned THREE ... NOT 4 ... LOL

This is a 3 page layout I did for my oldest's birthday last year, I especially love the bottom page :)

Well, this week I hope to get more work done on the Christmas cards I'm making! They are SO cute and SO simple! I'm just waiting on stupid WinkFlash to finish printing my order so I can get this all wrapped up!

For more scrappers showin their stuff, check out Sunday Scrappin!

So I'm back dating this post lol. I'm trying to put all my pics up here with the stories so whenever I eventually get around to journalling these pictures in my scrapbook ... I'll remember everything!

In September 2009 we FINALLY had all the kids together and went to the beach! This was the first time in our 5 years together and eleventy hundred beach trips, that all 6 of us have gone together.

So we headed down Hwy 1 and foun this little beach kinda secluded off to the side...

So we hiked down to Montara Beach ... one of my FAVORITE spots ...

There's a cliff overlooking the beach and it's so beautiful looking down...

It's a bit of a trek though lol

But it's worth it :)

This was the first beach we took Madelyn to ... when she was 2 months old ;-) we start em YOUNG round here!

It was BEAUTIUFL. The surf was high and it made for some awesome scenery

That's me ;-) LOL

My little lady Tween - 12 yrs old

My boy lol - 10 yrs old
My pretty girl Flower Child - 7 yrs old

And my sweet Lil Miss - 4yrs old

LOL - she got rolled by some waves while I was taking pics ;-) Brandon was right there to scoop her up though ... but not before she was completely and utterly SOAKED lol

While at the beach brandon noticed that the kids all had the same color shirt on and realized that meant I wanted some GOOD pictures ... lol ... he knows me so well ;-)

When I told him that I wouldn't drag him to JCPenney for family pics if I got "the PERFECT SHOT" he got VERY excited LOL

We got a pretty AWESOME picture

TWO actually! until you notice that my baby is not wearing a shirt ... LOL ... of COURSE I didnt notice that until we got HOME ... but I was NOT giving up on my perfect Christmas card photo! lol So I downloaded a free trial of Paintshop Pro Photo ...

And photoshopped a shirt on my baby :D

Yes, I AM very proud of myself thankyouverymuch ;-)

Then EVERYONE had to write something - LOL

Tween actually wrote this and DH & I put our hand prints in it :)

Then we all got into a very exciting game of frisbie LOL

Madelyn REALLY wanted to play ...

it got VERY competitive! Brandon went for the dive shot ...

and ended up diving into the sand LOLOL he's such a good sport I ♥ him

FROW IT TO ME FROW IT TO ME!!!!! LOL

Then when we FROW it to her ... she just runs off with it LOL

and runs ...

and runs ...

until she was finally caught lol

Shortly after that ... there was a mishap ... daddy sorta threw the frisbie a little LOW and it sorta hit a certain baby in the head ...

AWWWWWW...

Not even the frisbie cheered her up!

So she came and sat with me and told me all about how "DADDY *HIT* me in the HEAD!" LOL ...

But soon she and daddy were back on speaking terms ...

:)

And all was right with the world again ...

I DID end up getting some cute shots of her :) ... WITH her shirt ON

And some cute shots of the kids :)

and some cute shots of us relaxing :)

and then the horseplay ensued lol

LOL

:D

playing in the waves ...

OH ... and then there was THIS guy ...

So he just walks up in his teeny tiny bikini bottom and sits all *sexy poses* on the beach

ven when the ICE COLD WATER runs up on him ...

LOL ... then he starts trying to make sweet love to the sand ... or maybe he was just doing push ups ... EITHER WAY ... You can love the beach ... just don't "LOVE" the beach mmmkay?

then he went back to *sexy poses* lol - it was a little weird amIright?!

We had the BEST DAY EVER! It was so much fun playing with the kids all day, laughing our ASSES off, NO ONE got burned and EVERYONE got along ... it was the best, it really was ...