Scrap A Little February Challenge

Helen at Scrap A Little has her February Challenge. The February challenge is a theme challenge: Create a (new) BIRTHDAY LAYOUT with the twist to have a number in your title- or at least visible on the page.

Here is my take on the challenge:
I'd love it if you popped in and played along! Click HERE to be taken directly to the challenge blog post!

Now for a picture...

This was taken the end of December. Peyton wanted to go outside and play SO bad. I was only able to go outside long enough to make a few snow angels and throw a few snowballs before Little Miss threw a tantrum and in I went! Peyton resorted to riding his bike in the snow!

My Wild Child

I'm a HUGE fan of anything Cosmo Cricket. They recently posted a sketch challenge on their blog. Here is their sketch:

and here is my take on the layout:

I did lots of stitching. I painted some Girl Friday chipboard alphas yellow to match. In real life, they look a lot better and don't stand out quite so much! The little flower is cut from the front page to the paper pack, the one that shows you all the papers.

I apologize for the not so great photos. The full layout picture came out a little crooked. But its been a rough day and I didn't have the patience to mess with it some more.

Little Miss Madeline went in for her 1 year appointment today. Shortly after we were taken into a room, she started crying pretty much didn't stop the whole hour and twenty minutes we were there! Yep, I'm sure the other patients weren't overly happy with us! The crying didn't escalate too awfully bad til the shots. Peyton had to get a shot to, so there was quite a bit of screaming going on. Now let me tell you, EVERY eye in that lobby was on me as I packed out a 23 pound little screaming girl on one hip and a 36 pound 3 1/2 year old on my other hip. Lets not forget the diaper bag and purse! lol....I'm sure it was quite the picture. It was quite embarrassing that is for sure. haha!

Blog Post Titles

Anyone else struggle with their blog post titles? I sure have been lately.

I recently finished up a layout for a Tricia's challenge at Citrus Tree Studio. Her challenge was to create a layout with the theme of 'Love' without using red.

I used a Scalloped Circle in Java and the Small Flower #06 in Java and Mocha from Creative Cuts and More.

For the flowers, I covered them in Rangers Crackle Accent. Once it completely dried I went over it with Creamy Brown Colorbox Chalk Ink to take away the shine.

I distressed the papers and did a lot of sewing. I have been wanting to journal on a photo, and this was the perfect one to try it on.

Now for some pictures of the kiddos. Peyton is such a sweet sweet big brother. Here he is sharing his snack with his sister. He even asks if she can eat what he is having before giving to her, which I greatly appreciate.

I came across this new blog recently called The Scrap Farm. Melinda Spinks has such talent, I just love seeing her creations. I think I found her through the Imaginisce blog as she designs for them. Anywho, she is having a FABULOUS giveaway on her blog. She is sharing some of the fun the Lucy Bird line from Imaginisce! Go check it out, leave a comment. You'll definitely want to follower her blog also. Here is the link: The Scrap Farm.

Happy Birthday and Another Layout

First of all I want to wish my mom a Happy Birthday!


Here is a layout I did for a sketch challenge at Citrus Tree Studio.
This is one of my favorite photos. It was for our Christmas Cards in 2006.

I have been working on a few DT projects and you know what that means...I can't share them for a little while.

My Baby Is 1!!!

Warning, picture heavy post!

I can't believe that a year ago today I delivered Miss Madeline Marie! My baby is one year old today! As some of you know, my pregnancy wasn't the easiest. Here are some things that I remember the most:

• We were both shocked I was pregnant. It took us almost 3 years to get pregnant with Peyton and I was only off birth control for two weeks. It wasn't planned, it was definitely a surprise!
• The surgery/procedure I had in Portland cause me to be quite uncomfortable the rest of my pregnancy (unlike when I had the same surgery with Peyton).
• We bought AirLife insurance in fear of having to be air lifed to Portland during my pregnancy. It was grounded due to a storm the day we needed it.
• I'm so thankful we had time to get the steroid shot to speed the development of Maddy's lungs. I think it made a HUGE difference in our NICU stay.
• The process to undo the surgery was incredibly painful and LONG. The doctor removing the cerclage mentioned a few things that made me wonder if it was a botch job.
• I struggled with thought of missing out on 6 weeks of feeling Madeline move inside me. It was my favorite part about being pregnant.
• When it came to delivery time it was quite the party in my room. Chris and my mom were in there as well as my doctor, her nurse, then the NICU doctor and two nurses as well as a Airlife medic standing by for worst case scenario of Madeline having to be taken to a major hospital right away.
• Being pushed into the NICU room and seeing Maddy in her little crib thing with all the monitors on her just broke my heart.
• We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House, which was just a hop, skip and a jump from the hospital (walking distance). Let me tell you, this is one incredible organization and place. They made the whole process so much easier on us. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to this place and the women that run it!
  

Here are some picture of her when she was first born:

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. I went with the lady bug theme and made her invitations. Safeway made this adorable ladybug cake and we had lots of family and friends over to help us celebrate. Overall she did pretty good. She didn't dig into her cake like I had hoped she would but she responded better than Peyton did with his 1st cake. She got pretty tired in the middle of gifts and sacked out shortly after we were done. Here are some pictures of her party:

Since she didn't dig into the cake, we thought we'd try again. It cracked me up that Chris and Peyton were right there digging into her cake too!

If you made it all the way through this post, kudos to you! lol...I had a hard time choosing just a couple photos!

Peyton at 3

This is a layout I did for a Shelly's challenge at Citrus Tree Studio. It was a color challenge, blue, gold/yellow and white. She added a twist though, to use 11 of the same embellie. I had these photos for some time now and have struggled scrapping them. This was the perfect challenge to get them scrapped.

I used up some random pieces of paper I had too. I don't do that often enough and quite enjoyed it.

My dad came down to visit a while back and it just so happened that him and the kids had OSU Beavers outfits on (must have been the bowl game day). This is one of my favorite pictures at the moment.

We put in an offer on a house in the next town over (about 30 min. away). We are anxiously awaiting the appraisal that should be happening this week. Chris and I made a lot of headway on the garage. We did a lot of pushing junk from one side to the other. But it is at least somewhat better, at least I think it is! Soon I will start the packing process as I have a feeling it will take me long this time now that Little Miss is into everything!

Cosmo Cricket Layout and Cutie Patooties

I came across this fabulous blog, My Scrappy Life. Aphra is so talented and inspiring. She recently posted a sketch on her blog. I loved it and knew I wanted to use it right away. Have I mentioned lately how dependant on sketches I am these days? haha... This layout was for a Cosmo Cricket challenge at Scrapbook.com (challenge was to use CC chipboard). It was also for Patti's technique challenge at Citrus Tree Studio, inking. The patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket Early Bird and the chipboard pieces are Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday.

I inked everything, even the chipboard pieces.

Here is a picture of the kiddos with their cousin. My mom was wanting to do photo cards for Christmas, it didn't happen. So I was going to help her do New Years cards....that didn't happen either. But I did get this great photo of the three.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll stop back by soon!