HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MADDY!

Oh I'm so mad at myself. I had made this 'card' a week ago and was waiting for the actual day, then I blew it. I hope you had a great day and were spoiled beyond belief!! (I know you were!)

Love you lots and lots and lots. And I miss you tons. I can't pass by Pier 1 without thinking of you, warm cookies just aren't the same without you, and I miss your Christmas spirit this time of year.

Love you Maddy!!! - and yeah I'll even send a real email. So check your gmail later!

THIS LITTLE GIRL.....

ran her first official 5k race, 3.1 miles in 36 minutes.... somewhere down here, in Cincinnati along the Ohio river. In 18 degree weather. Brr.

Along with hundreds of other 10 year old girls from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.

She also got to meet 2008 gold medal olympian Mary Wineburg. Megan knew she was going to be there, and has read about her in an American Girl magazine. She was really hoping to meet her, so I was so happy that she got a chance to. We were lucky, the area where the girls from Megan's school were supposed to meet before the race was right near where Mary was.

I am so incredibly proud of this amazing little girl. She has worked so hard for what she has accomplished.

I'll add more photos later! :) But right now I'm thawing out.

I found Matthew's little hospital band our desk the other day. It made me remember how I've struggled with scrapping this event in his life. More because of the lack of photos and not knowing how I wanted to approach it. The thing I do like the best about digital scrapping is that I get to avoid the anxiety of wondering what size I should have my photos printed. Yeah, I can find a little bit of anxiety in just about everything! LOL!

But I had the story in my head, the hospital band (which will be clipped onto the digital layout when I have it printed out) and all I had to do was drag in my photos. Poof. Done.

Tomorrow is going to be a pretty big day for a little girl in our house! More on that tomorrow!

score!

Those are the big bags baby... like lawn and garden size.

Today I found out why my calling was in the bluegrass state of Kentucky..... why I am meant to be here.

The snow clouds parted...

the angels began to sing....

I have seen a glimpse of heaven.

1/2 hour away from my house is the GAP OUTLET WAREHOUSE!

Not just your typical Gap outlet like Anthem or Cabazon on your way to California.... this is the distribution center to outlet stores like that on the east side. I'm not kidding when I say the place is as big as Costco. Racks upon racks of Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic goodies. Some things you wouldn't believe. Big huge winter coats for kids $10. Jeans for mommy $10. Shirts for the kids $1 - $5 each. Underwear .25 cents.... I honestly thought I was going to hyperventilate when I went through the doors.

Purses, shoes.... belts, backpacks ($4 each!) Trevor scored with several pair of Gap jeans for $5, sweatshirts, aaaaa! Everybody in our house did pretty well today. The place is amazing.... and I have always been a Gap girl. :) I can't contain my excitement.

Now who wants to come visit me? ;)

First snow of the season!

Here are some pictures of our cool day yesterday. Honestly, photos do NOTHING for what it really looked like. This looks like there was barely anything, but it snowed for most of the day. I am in love with new snow. It was so peaceful. If you click on the pictures to make them bigger you can actually see the snow. LOL.

My back yard. With snow.

My front view. With snow.

I plan on taking photos in the same spots throughout the winter, to see how it all changed during the months. There was enough to cover the grass and the plants by the time the sun went down. I took these photos in the morning when it first started. It was cool how heavy it would get at times. I love watching it swirl and catch the wind. Mike and I had done a little Christmas shopping yesterday (we wanted to start buying presents from santa together before he left.) Between the snow and the shopping, it feels like Christmas already. I think we'll have a lot of fun this season, getting to know winter and so many new things for us.

Froggie cakes!

For the love of all things cute. We have a tradition in our house, well, for special days....

I guess it started with my mom who used to make me pancakes in the shape of a letter K. K cakes for Kerry.

It then turned into turtle shaped cakes for Trevor, who adores turtles. I made them for his birthday but every now and then he'll ask me for turtle cakes.

This morning I was getting the kids ready for school upstairs and Mike was downstairs making breakfast. I came down to a plate of froggie cakes. Are those not the cutest things ever? You simply cannot have a bad day when you start out with frog cakes.

SNOW FLURRIES!!!

I was letting the dogs out and noticed little things flying by the flood light in the back yard. It's too cold for bugs... and it wasn't sprinkles!! I LOVE how snow just kind of goes along....not straight down, kind of on it's own little path all crooked and wherever the wind goes. It's sooooooo awesome!!!

I have to be a total geek to be thinking that is the absolute coolest thing in the whole world!!!! I called Megan over to look and sure enough we were standing inside just inside the door and would squeal whenever we saw more. We are easily amused.

You know the first time I saw actual SNOW coming from the sky was the last time I was at Lisa's house in Prescott, for one of our girl crops. (Holy cow, was that LAST YEAR?) I was taking stuff out to my car and paused out on her patio and watched it falling in the dark. She lives on a hill, so you could see it falling in this little valley of houses. It was the coolest thing ever. I love how quiet it is. I'm not used to things falling from the sky and there not being any noise!!

I know I'll be hating it soon enough, and these are only little snowflakes that won't even stick, but for right now...this moment... it is magical.

Can you tell I've lived in the sun belt my entire life? I have to say this to my friends in Phoenix though.... It's YOUR turn. For all the times this past summer when I was blogging about being outside and enjoying a nice summer, you can go ahead and remind me how you are enjoying a cold front this weekend with a low of mid 60s. (Wow that sounds warm and beautiful to me right now.) I have a feeling I might have to be a snowbird in January when I'm sick of not seeing my feet, bundling up and freezing my rear end off. I'm passing the torch of weather bragging rights.

LOOK! No kraft paper!

One more for the night. I wish I could brag about my curvy line skills, but this started out as a template. I may have gone a little crazy with the brushes in the corner, but so far I kind of like it. Trust me, I held back.... I could add swirls and stuff all night long!

I need a new schtick. I can't help it, I love kraft paper...whether real or digital. I realize I use it to death.

I learned all about opacity today. So I used it a few times on this layout. Which actually probably looks somewhat familiar. I did one similar to this for Trevor last year. It's one of our favorites to look at, so I thought I'd do one for Matthew too since he just had a birthday. Megan's will be coming up soon. When I feel like I've run out of things to say, sometimes a layout showing the passage of time gets the scrapping itch out of me.

I know it's awful, but I've been far too lazy to take photos of my paper layouts I've been working on. I have to make a point to do that.

I was talking to my mom last night about my new goal in life. Now that I officially do both kinds of scrapping, the biggest thing I want to do at this point is get all of my stuff on a laptop..... go on a cruise.....sit on my balcony with a soda.... and digital scrap while listening to the waves.

I did this once before, but with paper. I made it work, but trying to keep things from blowing around was tough. I'm hardcore man. ;)

Halloween 2008

I don't know why my photos loaded backwards. Hmm.
Anyway, Halloween night is over. I admit during the day yesterday I was more of a Halloween grinch and looking forward to just getting the night over with. It doesn't help that Matthew and I had an agreement for most of the month that he wanted to be a firefighter (a costume we already had) and decided he wanted to be a ghost. Normally I wouldn't give in, but he had a rough day of me telling him no on a few other things, I figured I could pick this battle and give in.

However it meant sacrificing a perfectly good white sheet, and trying to pin it on him before he left for trick or treating. Which isn't an easy thing to do with an excited little 6 year old.


I wish I could say that the above photo was photoshopped for color and contrast, but that is honestly how beautiful fall is around here. These are all baby trees too, so when you get into the older areas where the trees are bigger, they are so incredibly gorgeous right now.

Trick or treating is different here. The hours (and sometimes the DAY which isn't always celebrated on the 31st) is in the paper. I actually learned this through 2Peas, but sure enough.... there it was on the front page of the paper -day and hours for Halloween celebrating. It was between 6 - 8 PM. So the kids got to start out while it was still light out, which seemed very strange but kind of neat too. It was neat to see the kids up and down the streets without having to worry about it being dark. I think the youngest kids probably stayed out before the sun went down, and then there was a good hour for the older kids to be out in the dark.

Then at 8:00 the trick or treating kind of stops, but EVERYBODY has firepits in their front yards. So you kind of find yourself a neighbor and sit down and talk while the kids play and eat candy.


My ghost: Matthew.
It is nearly impossible to get everybody to sit still long enough for a photo, so this is the best I could get of everybody this year. Megan was a black cat, to match her American Girl doll's costume, and Trevor was a ninja.

The best costumes I saw last night was a group of high school boys. Keep in mind, it's pretty chilly at night, right? There were 6 of them, all wearing speedos and swim caps. That's it. They were the US Swim Team. It was hysterical!! Every now and then you'd see them sprinting up or down the street to warm up. Everybody was talking about them last night. That was pretty creative, and they were having so much fun. It's good to see the older kids when they are actually having fun. That kind, I don't mind giving candy to!

I realized this morning the one thing I really don't like about Halloween. The fact that before I knew it, I was checking my emails and had already eaten breakfast at my desk without even realizing it. Four fun size Snickers wrappers. The breakfast of champions.