I can't believe I am still at it!

Ok so today was better, I only had one extra little one, plus both my kids all day. Not to bad. And to make it even better the little one is still a napper so I got a 2+ hour break. I got a new Stampin Up catalog and every spare moment I can get I keep flipping through that, it always brings a smile to my face to see new stamps and toys!

I am in the middle of a mess at the moment, self created I must add. I started the day realizing that I really need to get some invites done for my kids summer picnic party we do every year to celebrate their birthdays with family. Found a cute design, thank you new SU book! And put them together today, they should go out in tomorrow's mail. Then I decided I was on a crafting high and needed to work some more on my Week in the Life album. That is where the mess started. I am re-working some pictures and taking some new ones of just stuff. And having way to much fun! My book is not going to be a week, cuz I am just to lazy (ok maybe busy) to keep track for a full seven days in a row. I decided that I would look at a month, I printed out all the pics from May and then printed all the posts from this thing for May also, good journaling starters. And now I am just trying to organize it all and find the right spots for the right elements. Shannon I think I may need more pages! It is really turning out good, I love it and it's just plain right now. Next weekend our foursome is getting together again and I should be ready to pretty it all up and start that lengthy task of journaling. (Can you tell this is not my fav thing to do???) Ok somewhere along the way I started rambling, not really sure where this post is going, oh well! Next topic...

I got fun news tonight, my SIL is getting married! Congrats go out to Jill and Enis! They have decided to get married in September and from what MIL has told me it will be the same weekend as the Mall of America ScrapFest. Ok I guess that means I don't get to go this year, people should really check the scrappin schedules before scheduling a wedding! LOL!!! It should be wonderful though and of course the picture taking should be fun at a full nine months PG! Do you think they will let me stand in the back for all the family shots??? But seriously I am so happy for them, Jill has found such a nice guy and I wish them all the love in the world.

I am exhausted!

Is the weekend every going to get here??? Three extra kids all day seems to be wearing me out way to fast. To all those other daycare providers out there, bless your hearts for dealing with so many kids and not ending up in a crazy house. How do you do it???

So does everyone have big plans for this long (hopefully most of us will get to enjoy four-day weekends), holiday weekend? We are venturing in to Rythm & Booms again this year, this is one of my favorite things. Other than that we may try and put up our tent (got it new last year about this time and it is still in the box) and let the kids sleep outside a night or two. Right now all I really want to do is purchase a really cool lawn chair like the one my SIL has and sleep outside in the shade for a couple of days, but I know that's not gonna happen. A girls gotta have dreams right?

A lot of blah, blah, blah today, but that is where the brain is, sorry.

On a good note I think we have found a very sutiable home for kittie. We convinced Nana and Papa to give her a home. The kids are way excited that they will be able to visit and watch her grow. Nana is coming Friday to pick her up, that day should be interesting, we all have gotten a little attached to her.

Look what we found under the bushes in the rain Monday afternoon. Isn't she cute!

Only one problem, I am allergic to cats. So any of my local friends out there if you have space in your home and heart I would love to pass her along to someone that we know. The kids really love her and would love to be able to keep seeing her. She is very well behaved and absolutely lovable.

Outside of taking care of kittie (with tons of hand washing in between) things have been crazy here. I have an extra little one for the week and my two afternooners have been here early all week too. Makes for a wild and crazy day with six little people running under foot. We are managing to have a good time. Today we went on an adventure to check out the different house prospect again. My dad came down to check out the heating/ac stuff, thanks dad! And we thought Jeff's dad might enjoy checking the place out too, so along he came. All in all I think I got an approval sign from both dads. Best of all I got to meet one of the neighbors, and I already know them! Gotta love that! They have a son who was in Linds' pre-school class, plus two other little ones. Built in playmates! Ok so now I am totally getting my hopes up, I want to live there! Jeff and I have tons to discuss tonight, I hope that I can post fabulous new house news soon.

Back to reality...

Christine don't know if you have anytime to check blogs, but just wanted to post that I am happy your dh got home safe and sound, loved the pictures. Enjoy every second with him!

If anyone else is interested in checking out some fabulous pictures of my weekend crop you can see them here or here. Thanks so much Katie and Julie for the pictures, they are amazing!

Alrighty I hear a little to much noise outside I had better get back to my control post. 

Getting back in the groove...

Ok so we did our small Cammando get together on Saturday. First I must say that I am bummed because half way out of town I realized that I had left my camera on my desk. I did not have time to turn around and get it. So sorry but no pictures on this blog until my buddies email me some. Other than that I had a BLAST! I feel like I didn't get much accomplished, only the first page to show and mine does not even have a picture on it. I really have to work on getting some pictures of me. How do you get over the hatred of your own picture? Let's move on... We did get a ton of prep work done and I am way excited to sort through my photos and prep a little more, we will be getting together again in only two weeks! Ok so what other exciting things happened that I should share??? We had a fabulous dinner at Fra??? ok I can say it but I can't even think how to type it. Yes Christine we took pictures of our food just for you! I hope that you have seen them on someone elses blog if they are not out there yet, Katie get on that! Then Shannon had to rejoin her family and Julie, Katie and I headed back to Julie's to continue. A huge thank you to Julie for putting us up and letting Katie and I take over your scrap space. Your family is wonderful and I really meant it when I said our daughters would be amazing friends, we must get them together. I feel like I miss you guys already thank goodness we will see each other sooner than later.

Alright next project, this was posted on Christine's blog last week and I really wanted to do it, and now I have the time. Today it's raining and well I am happy about that. The kids have to stay inside and I can sneak away and have a little more computer time, he, he! So here are my answers -

1. FIRST NAME? -Nicole
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? - Don't think so
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? - over something important, last month, but if you must know I am pregnant so tears flow often for no reason daily
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? - nope
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? - don't really have one, I do like to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches
6. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? - 2 with #3 sometime in September
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? - this is a hard one for me, I don't really understand why I have friends now, so maybe I would try to be friends with me???
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? - does this blog count?
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? - only with people that I am really close to
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? - yep
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? - I wouldn't bungee, but I have thought about sky diving
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? - nope
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? - phyisically not, emotionally I am a brick house
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? - chocolate
16. SHOE SIZE? - 8
17. RED OR PINK? - green is my fav, but if I have to pick, pink
18. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? - I think about doing things and never really do them
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? - I am part of a lucky few who have not lost anyone close to me, so I will say that I miss my best friend Judy most often, because we see each other so rarely
20. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? - October 18, Madison WI
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? - bare feet, navy capris
22. WHAT IS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? - spoonful of my dh's cap'n crunch cereal, (I am a little hungry now)
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? - four beautiful children play nicely together with out the TV on!
24 IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? - Green of course!
25. FAVORITE SMELL? - my dh's shirts at the end of the day, I know I'm a freak
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED WITH ON THE PHONE? - my mom
27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU MEET? - smile
28. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? - would the fact that I can remain calm and take care of 6 wacky kids at a time be a special talent???
29. FAVORITE DRINK? - iced tea all the way
30. FAVORITE SPORT? - I am really not into sports, but I do like to watch K and my hubby at archery
31. HAIR COLOR? - I have been told the color is dishwater blond
32. EYE COLOR? - hazel
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? -nope, glasses most of the time
34. FAVORITE FOOD? - shrimp anything
35. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? - happy endings
36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Disney's Cars
37. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? - plain old grey t-shirt
38. SUMMER OR WINTER? - summer
39. HUGS OR KISSES? - why can't I have hugs and kisses
40. FAVORITE DESSERT? - strawberry cheese cake
41. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? - Cathy Z's Clean and Simple 2, and my photoshop manual
42. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? - no mouse pad on this desk
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? - my kids laughter, followed closely by spring thunderstorms
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? - rolling stones
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME - Vegas, some day maybe I might travel out of the country
46. IF YOU COULD PICK ANY TWO PEOPLE TO HAVE DINNER WITH, WHO WOULD THEY BE? -I would want two dinners alone with my hubby, we never get alone time anymore

GOODIES!

The mail carrier brought some good stuff today!

A very special thank you goes out to Cammando Christine, I know that us WI gals really wish you could join us this weekend and well this pile of loot leads me to believe that if you could be here you would! Thanks a bunch, you are one amazing lady!

Ok so a little explanation for the rest of you, what you see in the picture is two boxes of stuff that Christine sent to me for our fabulous WI Cammando get together this coming saturday. And yes you are seeing it correctly there is the NEW Cathy Z book and the Heidi S handwriting book!!! Plus tons of embellies, two 6x6 pre-made albums (school, christmas), and too much other stuff to list! Now how ever will we split this up??? I did email Chris before I posted this and she gave me a couple good ideas, maybe on the drive up Katie and I can devise some fun games to help us get work on our albums done and to earn some of this great loot. Cuz I know that I would probably just be happy all day and night chit chat'in.

The Party was a Success!

K had four of his friends over today to celebrate his birthday and well I was a little worried last night when we had only heard from one friend, but with our one for sure and then three extras we had a wonderful time. The weather did not cooperate with us, rain, rain and rain. I decided the best thing to do with five 6-7 year old boys would be to head to McD's. With Happy Meals and the playland they were busy for an hour! Then we headed back home to open presents and have cake and ice cream. Every present was a hit with K and they had a blast opening each toy and testing it out. The last 15 min or so we did head outside (rain had stopped and it wasn't overly wet) and that kept everyone happy until mom's showed up. A Great Day!

Linds and I just got back from a "girl" party. A friend of mine had a michele baratta jewery party. Check this stuff out, very beautiful delicate stuff. With lots of charms that you can put pictures in. I got the neatest customized necklace with a pendant that has spots for three pictures. I will have to post a pic when I get it. Had a blast got to gab with some of my favorite moms and its always fun to just get out of the house. 

What a wacky day...

Ok so I really didn't get anything done today. I have been swept up in the whole Stampin Up waiting for a new catalog fuss. Plus SU is releasing a retired accessory list tomorrow and well again I think I spent my entire day watching people chat about this at SplitCoast. What a way to waste a day. Oh well...

I did get cupcakes made for K's party tomorrow. He wanted to go with a Tractor theme, so the invites had tractors on them and I made cupcakes that will be frosted with chocolate and then each one gets a mini toy tractor on top that the kids can take home with them. We are also crossing our fingers that the weather will be nice so we can do water balloons and squirt guns (got each attendee a squirter that will be theirs when the party is done). All in all I am keeping it rather simple and I hope that it will all work out.

Next bit of info, we did get a chance to check out the house I posted about. Nice. Needs some outside roof work, but all in all I think it could work. Good size rooms, three full bathrooms (one with a wirlpool tub (love that), a place for a much better crafting area, and a huge yard. Now the big question is if we are thinking of spending X amount on this house then maybe we really should check on building our own perfect house. Building is NOT what I would choose to do, but Jeff really sees this as an option so now we will look more into that. So we aren't at square one, but I don't think we have made it to square two yet either.

We made it through dance recital!

Ok so it was a long four days, but the kids were amazing! Kaleb was stuck with us on Wed and Thur, boy did he do a good job just sitting around and waiting (for what seemed like forever),

Linds was in a tap dance (yellow costume) where they danced to "You are my Sunshine", and she was a "Blue Ribbon Bunny" for ballet. I really think the bunnies were the hit of the first half. There were 12 little ones in her class and each of them did a super job, there was no crying or being afraid of going on stage, they all amazed me! The pictures are from Thursdays dress rehersal, no pictures allowed during the shows. I did order the DVD and they had a guy that takes digital photos through out the "real" shows and you sign up for which dances your child is in and then you get a whole CD full of all the pictures he took during your childs performances. I can't wait until I get that. I thought I had taken more pictures of the yellow costume, but then when I down-loaded I only had two.

Linds is still unsure if she wants to do dance next year, I really hope she does. And not just for the cute costumes, but for the little friends she will make. I just can't get over how cute they all were and how nicely they all played together while we waited for their numbers. No fighting, no crying, nothing but fun!

Now it is time to move on to my next project, which is not going to be getting ready for the upcoming scrap time with the WI cammandos this weekend. First I must get K's birthday party taken care of. We should have five extra boys on wednesday for food, fun and cake. I am hoping the weather is nice so we can play water games outside. So maybe by Thursday I can start getting my stuff in order for the first phase of "A Week In My Life" cropping on saturday. Hey Julie thanks for the invite, directions and pin! You are too sweet and I can't wait to hang out with everyone IRL! 

Just found this

Like I really have time for challenges, but I like this one. Found THIS at "the Pub" on two peas. A group of gals over there are doing LO challenges based on song lyrics. What a cool idea! I am looking forward to the first challenge and well, if I can swing it I may just try and do a page and post it here, so get on board with me and let's see what we can do with lyrics!

Quick little update...

We are now into the maddness of dance recital for Linds. Glad to hear that Julie made it through with her little one, gives me hope.

Hey Christine I love your idea of a pampering gift for Linds' b-day, I had forgot that she had been bugging me to take her in to get her toes and nails done. This will be a perfect suprise that will make her day.

So all is going well with the new toy. K was on the thing for two+ hours with grandpa sunday and then monday night he went with daddy to work on hunting land. My heart dropped a little when we saw the ambulance going north, I thought they had better not be going after a little boy squished by a four wheeler, but Jeff and K made it home safe and sound. Yesterday Jeff tells me they had to take one of the speed controls off because it was to hard for K to go up and down the hils. So what does Jeff do??? He takes the remaining speed limit thing off and tools around the small plot of open land behind our house. Really he is having as much fun with this toy as K is. Boys will be boys right???

Exciting news, I really hope that I am not getting my hopes up to high, but I think that we have a super new house prospect. So as most of you know we are growing our family and at last check we had already out-grown our home, but you make do with what you got. Well I decided to check out houses again and I think I found one! We haven't looked at the inside yet, so you never know could be horrible, but on paper it sounds perfect and even though price wise it is a littler higher than we were hoping for it's not so far out of wack that we couldn't make it work. Keep your fingers crossed for us and I will keep you updated.

Kaleb's Birthday came early this year!


Ok so Jeff and I went off in search of youth four-wheelers this morning and found one. Both of us were too excited to try and hide this present for the next week and a half and decided to just give it to K today. Boy was he happy!

To all you worry warts out there, we have definetly set the rules down hard and yes he must always wear the helmet and can only drive the thing when an adult is watching. We are lucky with K, he is not the fearless type, in fact he is quite causious. I am sure that will fade sooner or later, but we have told him if the rules get broken the four-wheeler is mommies. Yes as little as this thing is I am actually still under the weight limit to ride it (well at least for the next month or two, LOL, I won't post the frightening pics of me driving it).

Only downfall of the four-wheeler, no new camera or laptop for me. I better find another part-time job so I can start saving for all the toys I want.

So anyone got any great blow away gift suggestions for the little sis who's birthday is just over a month away??? How will we stay equal???
 

In the mood to scrap!

I am so very excited, I get to work at the LSS tomorrow! And it got me going enough so that I had to scrap some. Here is what I got accomplished. The pics are from last weekend when we took the kids fishing. Linds and I tired of fishing all to fast and decied to head for the beach. After getting our toes wet Linds really wanted to just swim. Only one problem we didn't have suits. So I figure she's not quite 5 yet so undies should be just fine. She didn't seem to mind, just had the time of her life splashing around.

Hot Fun in the Summer Time!

Well thanks to a super spectacular Mom from Linds pre-school, we ended the school year with a fantastic party yesterday!

The kids were so excited yesterday am, it was all about can we leave yet, I'm hungry, it's it time to go... Finally we got to leave for Austin's house and as soon as they saw this waterslide they forgot it was lunchtime and went wild. What a great day! Thanks so much to Mary (Austin's mom), you are a fabu party planner! Next project a special thank you note.

Today we are back to early spring like weather, even the jeans came out from hiding. Thank heavens I still have a pair that fits me! LOL!!! It was cold this morn, and it is still chilly. That's ok with me, I have more than enough inside things I should be doing. Now when should I start them???


 

We made it through the zoo!

Yesterday it was our turn at the Kindergarten field trip through the Henry Villas Zoo. Boy was I worried when I woke up to hear rain, and it just kept raining all morning while we were getting ready. But by the time we pulled into the school parking lot the rain had stopped. And even though we didn't see the sun shining all day we did not get any more rain! It really was quite pleasant, not to cold and we were not sweating to death in the sun. My backpack filled with water bottles did get heavy by the end of the day, but I just wanted to be prepared. We were prohibited from spending $$ at the zoo and I didn't want to take the chance that I would de-hydrate if the sun did shine. Silly me!

I didn't take a whole lot of photos, we were just at the zoo in April and you can only have so many pictures of the same zoo animals. I did however take a couple to document the day and this was one of my favorites. I took two like this and the second one was better, but I used the flash and we have a huge glare in one of the lenses in K's glasses. Anyone know how to photoshop out glares??? I tried and I just couldn't find anything. Granted I didn't try very hard, I will keep looking.

Kaleb's favorite thing was again the penguins, they really are interesting birds. I liked the wallabee the best. We saw him/her as we were going by and it was just hopping around like crazy. It's always fun to see animals in action and not just staring back at you.

Tomorrow is K's last day of Kindergarten and then he will officially be a first grader! YIKES! At least after school is finished we go into dance recital mode for Lindsay and that should keep my mind off Kaleb growing so fast. Oh yeah and i just remembered we need to start planning a birthday party for K too. Maybe i will work on that this weekend. I love to plan and have parties, I just always go way overboard and end up getting too stressed out. I'm thinking this year we'll just invite two or three friends and do lunch and maybe some play time at the park with cupcakes to end it all. I think I like doing parties just so I can do handmade invites. 

I actually did a LO!

Ok so it's not for me, it's for a class but I got a page done. This is for next weeks Tuesday class. We are doing Faux Metals, so the copper handle things and the buckle were made from cs and perfect pearl powders. You'll have to sign up for the class to learn more! (my promo for the day)

Other than that, life is crazy, crazy, crazy. And I really don't think that the finally approching end of the school year is going to slow things down. I saw on Shannon's blog that she spend the day at the Zoo with her Kindergartener and well that is where K and I are off to tomorrow. The weather is saying storms maybe, so we are crossing our fingers that they don't hit until we are on the bus ride home.


Yesterday we had a great adventure with daddy again. How lucky we are to get two days with Jeff, it is just so unusual. They had free day in our state parks and since one is right in our backyard (ok not really, but just a couple min away) we had to go. They also had free fishing, that is no one needed a license. So we stopped at grandpa's got some poles and bait and off we went. The boys caught three fish, a very small bluegill, good size crappie, and a small bass. Unfortunetly we did not get the bass on camera. Linds and I were getting tired of fishing and headed off to the beach with the camera. It's just natural that I carry the camera, you know how it is. The picture is of the crappie, just in case you needed to know.

Mmmm, mmmm, good!

We went to the county dairy breakfast this morining and as usual it was wonderful! This year was the third time we have gone, but it was the first time that the meal was actually on a real farm. So besides a great start to the day we also got to see the milking barn, the cow barn with lots of cows. a horse, bunnies and new kitties. Linds thinks that Nana really needs to get a kitty (we can't have one here, I'm allergic). I am so in love with the picture of Linds with the kitty, it think it must be her wisps of hair. Sometimes I think she is just too cute for her own good, but then I remember I am so biased!

I am having way to much fun taking pictures lately and I think that it's because I am finally getting the hang of Photoshop, and I am really liking it! The only downfall is that I sit down at the PC and just start playing with pictures and then realize that I have been here for 3 hrs and have gotten nothing done. It's almost as bad as the Two Peas MB, LOL!!

I had a really great day yesterday, being Friday
and all makes it even better. Linds had her last day of pre-school and well it hit me harder than I thought it would. She wanted me to look through her evaluation folder and projects and as I read what her teachers said about her oh the tears started to flow. Linds being the smart cookie she is says to me, Mommy are you crying because I did so good in school? I told her yup. But really it must be from all these extra hormones.

Then friday night I had my stampin/scrapin group, LOVE that! I worked on my swap cards for Memories, their done. Then started in on a very special project. Grandma K asked me to make a special birthday card for one of her friends. It makes me feel so good to have someone want one of my cards for such a special occasion (it is grandma's friends 80th b-day). Got a great idea going before leaving (at close to midnight) and then finished it today.

Now I am back at the PC playing around with the photos I took and really wanting to scrap them. I think I will print my favs out and maybe do some scrappin tomorrow. I spent a little too much time in the sun the last few days and well my skin is looking as pink as Linds shirt in these pictures. Wonder how I will feel tomorrow??? 

Wow June already!

Thanks for the reminder Chirstine. Whenever I think about how fast the years go by I remember what my Grandmother wrote in a Christmas card a few years back as her and my Grandfather were about to turn 80. It was something about how the years go faster because, as anyone who studies fractions in school knows, when you have only lived 8 years one year is 1/8 of your life. At 80 it's 1/80th, which is much, much smaller. Wise words that I will forever remember. Love ya Grandma B!

So today was also a day to treasure and nope I got no pictures. We have this wonderful drug store in town and they still have the old fashion soda counter. Hand dipped ice cream, old fashion shakes and malts, flavored cokes. Does it get any better? Well I have lived here for almost 15 years and have always heard about their "square" ice cream. Yes you read that right, I said square. ButI have never experienced it. Today after school K, Linds and I walked to the corner drug to pick meds up for Jeff and it was just hot enough and I had extra cash and the kids were being good. So we had square ice cream! Are you dying to know what square ice cream is yet??? Ok I'll tell ya! They have a funny contraption to scoop the ice cream into the cones and it comes out in a perfect square cube! I was amazed and the kids loved it! The next time your are in Dodgeville, after you stop at the Scrap book store, check out the "square" ice cream, you'll love it.