Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day was lots of fun. We started the day by making heart shaped pancakes...yummy! The table was decorated all pretty and we broke out or wedding crystal stemwear just for fun. Then I headed off for the spa! Chris got me a facial, pedi, & mani...so fabulous! It was pretty much all I needed for a nice Valentine's Day, but that wasn't all!

So, after the spa, Chris had to coach a basketball game at church. We had lasagna for dinner with Mimi & the boys, then Mommy & Daddy went out for some fun. We got all dressed up and headed downtown to the new movie theater to watch "Taken". It was an awesom movie! It had my heart racing from the beginning...I would definately see it again.

After the movie, we had reservations at Fedora-a fondue restaurant downtown. I was super excited about this because I LOVE fondue. I don't know what else to say about the experience, except that it was completely disapointing! I'm so sad to say it, but it was just a bad experience. We got there at 8:30, ordered an appetizer of cheese fondue, a bowl of soup, and a dessert fondue. We got our soup at 9:30 and our appetizer at 9:55. We never got the dessert fondue. We were pretty disapointed, but what can you do! The waitress said they had never been so busy before, but hello...reservations! They new they were going to be busy. Oh well. We will probly just make fondue at home next time.

Even with the bad restaurant experience, we still had a great day.
Today I thought a lot about my mom...it's been 20 years since she passed away. I love her and miss her so much.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day...big or small! Happy Valentine's Day everyone...we love you!

Don't eat the yellow snow :)

Wow...it has been 3 weeks since I posted anything! Where has the time gone? We have been pretty busy around here and going through some change as well. Chris got a new job as an employee for the State of MO in the Children's Division. He had his first day on Tuesday and so far he is loving it. It's great for our family because he can come home sometimes on his lunch and he gets lots of paid vacations. I have been doing a lot of "mommy things", like scrapbooking and exercising with my new buddy Teresa. It feels good to make time just for me. I haven't taken very many pictures lately, but I forgot to post the pictures from our "snow ice cream" snack that we made during the big snow. It was fun and nastalgic, but Christopher didn't really like the taste, so I ended up giving him a scoop of vanilla...oh well.
Mimi is coming up on Saturday to watch the boys for us. Chris and I have some fun plans for Valentine's Day, so I will post picture and tell all about that in a few days. The boys go to the doctor tomorrow for their check-ups, so I will let you all know how that goes.

Scrappin' Away

Here are some pages that I have been doing recently. I don't usually use pre-made sketches on my pages, but lately I have been. I think it helps me get them done faster because I don't just sit and stare at a page for an hour and think of what I want to do. I think I am more proud of the pages that I sketch myself, but in the end they all look good. This is copied from a page that Scrapbook Generation had done as one of their montly kit pages. I just looked at theirs and tried to replicate the tree...I think it looks really neat.

I used a sketch out of a magazine for this one...but I turned it into a 2-page layout.

I actually didn't use a sketch for this one, and at first I didn't like it very much, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is also a Scrapbook Generation stetch. I still need to add a picture to it. I actually copied this one exactly, which I rarely do on sketches.

This is an older page that I did. I was just looking through an album and remembered how much I love this page!


I just finished this one. I don't really like doing 1 page layouts, but I really like this. I used a sketch out of the October issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Snow Day and Hillbilly Sledding!

We spent most of they day cooped up in the house playing with dinosaurs, reading books, and playing with pretend food. This morning when Gabriel was playing on the floor, Christopher laid down next to him and asked me to "tuck them in tight" with the blanket. I went to grab the camera and when I came back Christopher was rubbing the baby's head...so precious! For some reason blogger uploaded the photo flipped like this and I can't figure out how to fix it...oh well:)

Then when Daddy got home from work, they got all bundled up to go out and play in the snow/ice. I looked out the window to see what they were doing and I see them in the neighbor's driveway, pushing Christopher down in a laundry basket. It was about the funniest thing I've ever seen. I had to go see for myself, so I threw on my coat and grabbed the camera. Christopher was having the best time! Brian, our neighbor, would push him down and Christopher was giggling the entire way down the driveway. Then me and Kendra had to try it! It was pretty halarious, but thankfully no one took pictures of that!

Scrapbooking madness!

Ever since I spent last Saturday at Scrap-a-palooza I have been in the mood to scrap! I've gotten quite a few pages done in the past week. I usually work on them after the boys go to bed...and I have been doing about one every other day or so. It feels good to get pages done. I actually need to buy more albums because I've run out of room!
I just did this page tonight. I have been using a lot of sketches from magazines lately, but this one was just done on a whim. I arranged the pictures and it all came together. I will try to take pictures of other pages I've done this week and post them on here.

Inauguration Day

I'm not exactly one of Barack's top supporters, but I am proud to be witnessing the history that was made today. Even though the boys are too little to remember, I look forward to telling them about what took place today. I hope that my doubts are wrong, and this day is the start of a positive change for our country. After all, we are leaving these problems to our children and grandchildren...I hope we can start to fix them before we pass them on.

Time for a wedding!

Chris' sister, Nicole, got engaged on Christmas Day. Kyle is her fiance and he's a great guy! When they came up to Springfield a few weeks ago, I shot some pictures for them to use as engagement photos. I'm no professional, but I think they turned out pretty nice. These are just a few of my favorites. The wedding will probly be a couple years from now, so they can save up money. But you know me...I've already started planning it for her! I love weddings :)

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Well...Christopher is officially two years old and we rang in the big day in a big way! We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party with lots of friends and family! Everyone had a lot of fun...especially when Mickey Mouse himself arrived at the party to surprise Christopher.

Scrap-a-palooza

My wonderful husband gave me a ticket to an all day mega scrapbooking crop that took place on Saturday. I didn't get to bed until 1:00am the night before, so I wasn't in the best scrapbooking mood, but I tried my best to make some decent pages. It ended up being a really fun time and I'm pretty happy with the pages I made. You can't see much detail on the pictures, but you can get a basic idea.

Family time in 09 :)

During the first week of the new year we have enjoyed spending a lot of time together as a family since Chris has been off work. Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Gabriel loves his bunny...Thanks Aunt Jen!Having some tummy time...and giving mommy a big smile!
Christopher and Daddy have been building forts and hiding.
Chris has been trying to fix the heater the past few days and Christopher loves to use his new tools to "help" daddy! He climbed all the way up the ladder with his toy drill in one hand and a flashlight in the other. What a handy man!

Is it true...

that Christopher is already turning 2?! Yep, on January 18 as a matter of fact. I can't let my little guy turn 2 years old without having a celebration with friends and family. Here is an open invite to all of our family and friends who are able to come. We would love to have you!

We are having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party at 3:00pm on Sunday, January 18. I will be in the gym at our Church. If you want to come and need directions, give me a call at 459-2264.

Christmas Morning Pictures

I'm sitting on the couch while Chris plays a video game...and I figured this is a great time to get some more pictures on here. The boys are sleeping in their beds and I have a few minutes before I crash!

Christmas morning was so much fun this year! Christopher is still young enough to not be so excited that he wakes up at 4am Christmas morning wanting to open gifts...which I am very thankful for. We all woke up around 8:00, I got the cameras out and we walked into the living room. The tree was all lit up with gifts piled all around and the stockings were stuffed. It was so awesome to feel the magic of Christmas morning through Christopher's eyes. It is something I will definately look forward to each year. So, as you can imagine, the wrapping started flying! Christopher was fortunate this year because he got to open his AND Gabriel's gifts..since Gabriel can't really do it himself. He had a lot of fun, but after opening a few toys he decided he wanted to play with them and didn't care as much for opening any more. He got lots of toys that I am excited to play with...like a kitchen, tools, and a wagon. He also got a few books and clothes. Gabriel got lots of baby toys, a pair of shoes, and a Bumbo chair. I got a gift certificate for the scrapbook store as well as a seat at an upcoming scrapbook event...Daddy knows what I like!

After we tore open the gifts, we sat down for breakfast. I cooked an egg casserole and a french toast casserole. Then we had to finish packing the car to drive down to Mountain Home. I tried to pile all of the gifts in the wagon so they weren't spread all over, but Christopher decided he wanted to pull everything out of the wagon. I just waited until everyone was buckled up in the car and then I ran back inside and threw it all back in the wagon! You have to be tricky when you have a 2 year old!

I am so thankful that I was able to spend Christmas morning with my favorite people...my husband, kids, and my brother. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Of course, I had to video tape the morning! I can't wait to watch that tape later:)

Christopher digging through the pile, trying to decide what to do next.

This picture was taken after Christopher pulled everything out of the wagon at least 3 times!

Anti-Resolutions

I couldn't let the day go by without writing something on the blog. We have spent the first day of 2009 being as lazy as possible. It has given me lots of time to think about what a new year means to me. I don't usually do New Years Resolutions. I think they are pointless because I am always trying to improve, so I don't typically take time at the new year to think of what needs to be improved in my life. However, this past year my life got busier than it ever has. I think I need to take a step back and think about what is holding me and my family back from enjoying our lives. So, here are a few things that I will try to do this year...

*live more simply, meaning just enjoying the very simple things in life like my husband and kids. I want to stop thinking of fun things we can do and just enjoy being together.
*I want to fill myself up with good things. This include a lot of ideas, but mainly I need to take better care of myself through my God, food, hobbies, and friends. I also need to take more time to scrapbook my family pictures. If I give myself more time to scrapbook and fill myself up with good things I will be better able to care for the needs of my family.

There are lots of other things that I want to do right now, like lose the 10 pounds I gained this holiday season, watch less tv, and do some traveling with the family. I wouldn't call them resolutions, more like items on my evergrowing to-do list. Anyway, I wanted to write the important things down on here so I can remind myself of them as the time goes by.

Also, we had a wonderful Christmas and I will write about it and post pictures later on...maybe tomorrow:)

Congratulations Chris!

On Friday, December 19th, Chris graduated from Missouri State University with his Masters Degree in Counseling. I am so proud of him for all of his hard work and this great accomplishment. It was not an easy 2 1/2 years for Chris (or the rest of us!) but his hard work paid off and he graduated with a 3.8 GPA! His college journey is far from over...he is just thinking about what degree to work on next. He plans to get a Masters degree in Theology and a Doctorate in Psycology. Those plans might change though! For now he is looking for a job using his degree...he has applied for several state jobs and a few local jobs. If a good job opportunity takes us away from Springfield we will consider taking it, but we hope to stay in this area.

Chris...we are so proud of you! You are such a wonderful husband and daddy!

Gabriel's Two Month Check-Up

So, we just got back from Gabriel's two month check. First of all, I can't believe he is really two months old already. He is getting SO big! He now weighs 11lb 3oz and is 23 1/2 in long. The doctor said it looks like he will be a tall skinny boy just like his brother. But for now I'm still enjoying his leg rolls before they go away! He had to get his first set of shots today. That part was pretty bad. I'm so mad that Chris always misses these visits and I have to go alone because it's so sad! He had one oral vaccine and then three...3!...shots. He did the whole "stop breathing turn bright red scream at the top of his lungs" thing. And then when it was all over and I was holding him, he still whined for about 5 minutes...just to let me know how mad he was at me for putting him through it. Anyway, he did survive and now both boys are sleeping peacefully in their beds.

Here are some things that Gabriel has started doing lately:
* He smiles, coos, and laughs at us
* He loves his floor gym...it plays music and lights up, and he kicks his feet and talks to it!
* He loves bath time...it's his time for quiet reflection after a long day :)
* He is sleeping pretty well at night...by that I mean he wakes up to eat after about 6 hours then goes back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. I'll take it!

Well, I don't have time to put pictures up today, but I will post some more shortly. I'm taking tons of pictures, just don't ever have time to upload them:)