My PrimaBallerina

Tonight was Aydann's first night of dance class. I couldn't wait to share these pictures. All day Aydann drove me CRAZY because she wanted to get into her dance clothes and go. She did not understand that she had to wait. Well I thought I wasn't going to get any pic's of her at class because class is closed to spectators. So I took some at home, but since it was the first day she left the door open and I was able to snap away. The kids didn't even notice to much. Aydann was devistated to leave, but the funny part of the night was when she was being measured for her costume Shawna the instructor told Aydann... "wow girl, your sure are long." and my sassy girl replied back, "ya, I'm a Long!" I couldn't help but laugh... I'm so glad we put her in dance. She loves it.

Newest Employee at CPS !!! (ya, isn't their laws about this kinda thing?)

Monday Aydann came down to the store with me for a few hours. She was not happy that I had been away from home so much in the past few days. So I got out some scrap valentines day paper and stickers and she made these cards. She loves glue sticks so it made her day. And don't you love her apron.... :)(it was from her Meema and Papa.. she loves it) So I noticed one thing about her cards that made me laugh and I shared it with Cori. :) Notice anything that any of you recognize? I'll wait and see if anyone comments and tells me what they 'see'. Of course what I see, is at a 2 year old level.. ok, I'm hinting.. Someone I know scrapbooks this way sometimes on their pages.. I love it, when she was done with her project she wanted to help mommy put away and move paper and supplies. Aydann also provided the store as the offical 'door greeter' that afternoon. She proudly said Hi to every person that walked through the door and made sure they knew she was Aydann and she loved glue. Do you know how hard it is to work when you just want to die laughing at your 2 year old. Wait can I consider her 3 yet.. she has 2 weeks left...

The Crackle Paint has ARRIVED!!!!!

TaDa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They came in yesterday, I thought it would never happen. Of course I priced them and put them out right away. Everyone is going to love this stuff... There out on the white shelf by the new Basic Grey paper.... and they probably won't be there long..........

Keep Scrolling.. this one is LONG....

Happy Birthday to my DAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and my Gpa Lloyd and my brother... whew, ya all in one day...)


I was tagged by Tami...... this new - FUN tag is called. "Photo" Tagging! The RULES are to go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures. Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture. Tag 6 other people that you know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them. So, I tag..... Dez, Alaina, Kaelene, Annie, and Randi Jo and Katie.

This picture is from a folder on my computer I keep for all the pictures from my step mom's camera... We were camping at Laird Park for Memorial Day 2007.. It was Aydann's first camping trip and the scrapbooker in me made everyone have their picture taken like 500 times.. Aydann loved every bit of that camping trip.



Aydann and I baked cookies together last week after we were all feeling better.Can you tell she loved the sprinkle part. Those cookies were seriously covered. She loved it and was more than willing to share.I think she is getting stir crazy for spring. There are only so many times you can play memory and color. She has made so many crafts I'm considering selling them on ebay. (totally joking) Tomarrow she is going to come down to the store and make a little card of something. Maybe valentines day cards for her dad and grandparents.... She's my little scrapbooker in the making.


I have been bugging my husband to put child locks on the cupboard doors in the kitchen. He did the ones under the sink for obvious saftey reasons. My son LOVES cereal. I mean he LOVES it. And he knows exactally where it is, and never hestitates to drag out the cheerio's. Well THIS encouraged my husband to intall those safety latches on Saturday while I was gone. Jaxon didn't make this wonderful mess when he dad was home with him. Of course not. This was all me. And the mom in me didn't stop to take not only pictures but a video too. :) And sweet Jax, just kept eatting his cereal.

2009 Red Lion Retreat. My husband saw this picture and laughed. He asked why we need 'all that crap' Ha, are you kidding. It's a good thing scrapbookers share, I know I forget lots of things I need. And it's not 'crap'.... :) The girls are my table this year.. Amy, Cori, Becky, Velvet, Cindy, Randi Jo, Christel, Katie, Chell and Tami.... The big hit this year.. Cori's new cricket cartridge, Graphically Speaking... I'm getting my own. Loved it.

Justin and Amanda

♥ What are your middle names?
Wayne and Nicole
♥ How long have you been together?
6years this past December, married 5 in April
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We went to high school together and Justin was friends with my boyfriend. Bad, I know. :)
♥ Who asked who out?
Justin asked me, took me out for my 21st birthday
♥ Who said I love you first?
Pretty sure it was Justin... hmmm, yup it was
♥ How old are each of you?
27
♥ Who's siblings do/did you see the most?
My sister, she lives 3 blocks away...
♥ Do you have any children together?
Yes, 2
♥ What about pets?
We did the fat cat thing, she was kinda nuts and really big. After Aydann was born we had to give her to a new home since she wouldn't stay outta Ayd's face. No pets currently
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Time for each other, we have 2 kids and our house.. and our own lives... we need a warm vaca...
♥ Did you go to the same school?
Yes, high school...
♥ Who is the smartest?
Depends on what the smarts need to be, he is usually smart in what I'm not and vica versa...
♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Definitely me
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Strike n Spare.. or El Sombrero
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
North Carolina
♥ Who has the craziest exes?
That's a close call...
♥ Who has the worst temper?
I'd say they could be pretty even, I hold mine in a bit and then rip ya a new one...
♥ Who does the cooking?
Me, we had a rule that Justin did the cooking on his 3rd day off.. since we moved it hasn't been happening.
♥ Who is the most social?
Depends on where we are... and who's around –
♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Me, I like the floors vacumed and the toys put where they belong, Justin has a disorder that is genetic. He can clean up when he wants.. not so much...
♥ Who is the most stubborn?
Both
♥ Who hogs the bed?
Usually me, and then which ever child thinks they need to cuddle in mom and dad's bed
♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Justin is a shift worker so it depends, I'm up with Jax around 7, but generally am the last to bed.
♥ Where was your first date?
Justin took me to Boomer's for my 21st bday, romantic I know...
♥ Who has the bigger family?
Him by far
♥ Do you get flowers often?
No – I’d be upset if it was all the time because they are expensive and die – but every once in awhile I do and it's nice
♥ Who do you spend the holidays with?
Always with each other – unless Justin is working, we have to plan like 4 different holiday's since we have that many parents.
♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither one of us is, Justin really tries hard with all the Asian girl comments, but he isn't breaking this skin.
♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Not long, he took me out while on leave, left 3 weeks later for Iraq, came home in July 03 asked me to marry him after a few weeks, we were married April 04...
♥ Who sings better?
Aydann :)
♥ Who does/did the laundry?
Me, I want my clothes clean not just wet...
♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Me
♥ Who drives when you are together?
Always Justin,
♥ Who picks where you go to dinner?
He usually askes me to pick. I hate that...
♥ Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
Neither, we are both stubborn.......I am getting pretty good at admitting, and I think it's pissing Justin off.
♥ Who named your pet?
Jenna- that would be Justin, her name was Jenna Jameson.. ya I know...
♥ Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Justin does but I don’t take any crap from him either
♥ Who has more tattoos?
Justin 6 - Amanda 0, I want one though.. scaredy cat...
♥ Who eats more sweets?
Me – I am a sugar addict
♥ Who cries more?
Most definitely me
♥ Are you still together?
Of course

TELL ME ABOUT YOU AND YOUR MAN!!!!

I will Survive !!!

And I did. Ugh, has anyone experience this lovely virus that is traveling the valley. Or were we are the beginngin of it? OMG !!!! That is all I have to say. Last Saturday when the hubby dearest got ill I thought, gee someone out at work was sick and didnt go home. ( I hate that, if your sick. GO HOME!!! Don't share your germs with the rest of us ) Then Jelly Bean got it, I was getting nervous.. Bam, there goes the lil man off to the pediatrican.. and the same night.. Horray.. My turn. I had a complete nervous breakdown because we were on our last night of graveyard and I knew that I couldn't be home alone to care for the kids while I was throwing up.. Forget it. My mother in law kindly came over and promised to stay and help with the baby, my dear sister took Jelly Bean home with her since she was well at this point. But about 1030ish. My MIL started being sick in the sink herself. Now what good was she going to be. I called Justin and told him to come on home otherwise the chances of someone dying were high. I couldn't gaurantee who. Thank goodness he did come home. I spent 80% of the night hugging my porceline buddy. I did get a tad bit lucky. I knew what was in store for me ahead of time so at the first signs I popped some Immodium Extra Strength and prayed very hard. Whew, it worked. It did take an entire day to regain some energy and even today 4days after I am feeling drained and dehydrated. I can tell the kids are still getting over the last hump as well, Lil Man is cranky and snuggly and Jelly Bean is very whiney and is wanting to sleep. Poor kids, I know that took ALOT out of them. It's amazing how fast this stuff travels, I can no longer count on one hand how many people have/had it in the last week. After this I was able to prove that you can use an entire can of Lysol in one afternoon. Amen to feeling better.

wanted: someone to relieve me for my nap!!! (updated)

Aydann has just experience her first bout with the flu. Man that sucked. Big time. Saturday afternoon Justin started feeling very sick on the way home from Moscow, he was so sick until Monday afternoon. Monday evening we were sitting down for dinner and Aydann had told me that she wasn't hungry. She did look a bit pasty and hadn't asked for her usual afternoon snack earlier in in the day. I was starting to get worried. My worry ended after the poor thing threw up (in her dinner mind you..) She didn't cry, but she told her dad it was 'oh, gross'. Poor thing, She finally about an hour ago agreed to eat something. Only a few bites of toast. I was beinning to worry about her since today is Wed and she hadn't ate since Mon afternoon. I didn't know what to do with her mon night. I didn't want her to be in her room in case she was sick again or worse had the problem with the other side. And I was afraid I wouldn't here her if she needed me. So I hauled her mattress into the living room and got her up set up and I just slept on the couch. What little sleep I was allowed. She was up so much that first night. It was awful.It worked out pretty good, she was able to rest and not feel seperated from her dad and I. She seems to be feeling better.Thank goodness. I hope this doesn't happen again for a very long time.

While Aydann has been feeling yucky Jaxon has been working out his tiny little legs. He has been pushing himself all over with this thing. He gets to excited and I'm scared he is really gonna eat it good on the hardwood. He still doesn't have a single tooth yet, I think that might be a good thing. He is so brave that with my luck he would fall and cut his lip. He certainly is keeping me on my toes.

(Update @3pm)
We got home from Dr. A's office Jaxon started throwing up ALOT around noon. When I talked to Debbie about Aydann she told me to be careful about Jax. Babies get dehydrated faster than a regular person. We gave him about an hour, then called the dr. Poor guy, he is in his third pair of jammies since we have been home.

Paint and Paper

My altered FAMILY wood with a little My Mind's Eye flower accent.. Matches my HOME letters. I Love it. I plan to ask my hubby to hang it on the wall tomarrow with our family pictures from last summer... I love altered wood...

Paper Paper

Thursday when I worked at the store we got this super fun paper in. It's from Scribble Scrabble. I had never heard of them or recognized their lines, but it's so versitile and fun. I am excited to use it for misc pages for both kids.. Check out their website. http://www.scribblescrabble.net/ I have a feeling this line won't hold long in the store !!!

~Crop Paper Scissors~

Today I'm working at the store. We are open from 11-7 (many of you know this) I plan on working on some sketches for my upcoming layout class at the end of January. I'm loving the new BASIC GREY line we got in and may focus on that. I also have a fun idea for a wood birthday cake so I plan to experiment with the cricket to get a fun design. Link over to Kristy's blog to see how you can score a special.... Happy Cropping !!!!

Congrat's and yada yada yada!!!

I never got to putting my "congrat's" post on here for my sister and her soon to be Nate. So here it is. New Year's Eve, well midnight actually this romantic sap got down on one knee under the fireworks and made this proposal we all knew was coming OFFICAL. I'm excited for them, of course I'm the maid of honor. They plan to get married in 2010 so I have a little bit of time to plan a rocking bridal shower and a naughty bachelorette party. :) Congrat's Wit and Nate!!!!!!!
On a whole other note, I added that ticker thing on my side bar the other day and HOLY COW you guys. Who's reading this stuff? Are we that exciting? I may tell Justin we need to bump it up a notch. Hmmm, what kinda trash can I get away with putting on here? Ok, for real now. My kids are sick, Aydann has had a lovely running nose and an even more wonderful 'night time' cough. You know the kind where you lay down and start to drown in whatever is running from your nose to your lungs and so forth. So she has been sleeping proped up in an almost sitting up postion. Jaxon is getting teeth on top of whatever crud is currently holding home here. His schedule is out of wack and he is waking at night, several times. I wish already he would either get some or stop, I mean come on already. There are only so many days that I can dope you up and use your teething as an excuse. ( Totally untrue !!!) I did catch his sister in their bedroom with a bottle of teething tablets and she was feeding them one at a time to him. Lord only knows how many he got before I caught her. He didn't seem to act to weird afterward so I think I got lucky. I dont know how she finds that stuff, I swear I put it up high. At least they are homiopatheic or whatever that means. I woke up this a.m. with a sore throat from hell but still had this sinus issue that my children have felt I needed to have. Ah, the price you pay for kissing on your babies all the time.
I have a lovely 'something special' that I made for my grandma T, but I can't put it on here for a few days till I get down to the post office to mail it off. She read's this you know and I don't want to spoil the fun. So I will post my project in a few days, along with some fun things that are going on down at the store. It's almost Valentine's 'season' so get your cards made. I'm thinking I might make my honey a book this year. Be on the look out for the store calendar linked on here. I'm gonna set it up somehow so everyone can see the classes Cori, Tami, Kristy and I have going on. FUN FUN FUN.... K, for now.. I'm outta here, I DVR'D Desperate Housewife's from Sunday and need my fill of Wisteria Lane.

Call me indecisive, but I changed my blog title AGAIN... It's my blog though, right?
FYI, I'm watching The Bachelor. For the first time from start to finish, and some of these girls are really LAME. And a few of them have really bad potty mouths. Who says and acts like this on national T.V. I think I picked my favorite, who's watching these junk too?

Baby or Monkey

Yesterday Jaxon turned 9months old. He is still skinny as ever and such a happy little boy. He has thrown me for a few loops though. My once a set schedule child is trying his hardest to push bedtime farther and farther into mommy's time. And naptime the last few days has not occured at the ususal time. Mostly because he is afraid that some new toy could show up, that his sister will grow wings and fly around the house or that heaven forbid there maybe running water somewhere for him to play in. If you want to take a shower, you better be sure that Jaxon isn't anywhere where he can crawl his little bum over to the bathroom. He can get the door open and makes it known he wants to play in the water too. Hmmm, when do I get to start showering alone again? In the last few days both Justin and I have found him crawling up onto things. His skull must me made of metal since he knocks his head around on the floor and on furniture all the time. He is moving at lightning speed on all fours. Finally he I think he has given up his army crawl. (what a bum) Still no teeth to speak of but the amount of droll that is soaking his required bib is screaming to me that soon there maybe. Watching him play with toys alone is amusing, but not as funny as watching him try to play with his sister and older cousins. He wants so bad to walk and be able to get into the same things they do. I'm afraid for him to start walking, not only for all the crashes that are sure to happen. But they I won't have a baby anymore. Can you tell how much he loves to be a big boy?
(This should be an indication on how is still so skinny weight wise, that plastic oven door for Aydann's princess kitchen is not that strong. But strong enough to hold Jax, time after time after time...

Smarty Pants or Just Smart?????

Well by the end of 2008 Aydann is able to say her ABC's and identify the letters seen, count, identify her name along with her brothers (must be from all that scrapbooking) And now she is starting the journey to writing. Ah, my soon to be blogger. Maybe we should just skip ahead to typing and spelling. She is proving to be not only a smart @** (like her daddy) but just plain ole smart. I helped guide her hand on one of those lil letter A's she so proudly has kept in her 'shopping list book' I think next trip to WalMart or such store we will pick up one of those alphabet books for kids, you know the kind with the lines that you trace to make the letter. (Chell, this would make you proud. As I type this she is standing behind me on the computer chair 'pretending' to give me a hair cut. She is pulling my hair up and out as if she was truly giving me a hair cut. I think not... She even went to lengths to pretend to put a cape on. Yes, Cuz Mommy doesn't want hair clipping on my jammies. :) )


Yesterday I noticed after Aydann's bath that her hair was getting very long. But also that she has a bit of Grammy Joanie 'fluff' going on. (sorry Joanie!) So I hauled my hiney to the phone (actually I emailed her) and made sure this was gonna be taken care of. SOON. So this afternoon Aydann marched her unwilling hiney into Chell's salon and got her fluff wacked. Ya, she cried. And kept muttering things like "I don't want my hair cut." "You cant make me." Blah, Blah... give her a little choc candy and away we go. It looks so much better though and it's still plenty long for piggy tales and such. Can't you tell how thrilled she was, to bad on the way home her attitude did a 180 and she told her dad she was 'Looking Good!'

NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Ah, my first post of 2009. Happy New Year Everyone !!!! Last night bringing in the new year wasn't as exciting as usual. For some reason thinking about 2009 kept making me think of 'changes' I know that will happen. And it left me just a tiny bit unsure. 2008 was an amazing year for Justin and I, our lil man was born, we bought our first house and our Aydann has turned the corner into being a little girl not a baby. Yesterday she showed me that she can write the letter 'A', and she can I took a picture I plan to post. (I was pretty proud) We kinda talked yesterday about all these new years resolutions we are hearing. I have made so many before and not been able to keep them for very long. But I did plan to make my 'resolution' to cut back on how much coffee I drink. I can put away an entire pot by myself. I guess I need to start drawing the line somewhere. I couldn't think of anything practical that I knew I needed to do. Except catching up on my scrapbooking, that would involve a live in nanny and maid for awhile. So not gonna happen.
Last night Justin and I went with my sister and her boyfriend Nate to a shop/bonfire party. It was ok till some young girls started throwing up and starting dumb drama. So we came home pretty early. I was kinda bummed that we did after midnight came and my sister called and said that Nate PROPOSED... :) :) She told me how he did it, it was SOOOOO sweet. (next to the river under fireworks, ahhhhh) Justin and I are excited because we really like Nate and he keeps Witney down to earth. She needs that. So 2009 has some wedding plans... :) :) Duh, I'm the maid of honor. :) :) :)
Ok, I'm off to start my new year with laundry and a shower. WOOO HOOO.