slacker blogger

Yes, that's me...a slacker blogger.

There just isn't enough time in the day, you know?

And, I haven't had as much time to scrap lately so I don't have much to show you here.

We went to a service at a local cemetery yesterday in honor of Memorial Day and guess what?

As I was getting the stroller out of the back of the van my camera (with my 50mm lens) and my 18-55 lens fell onto the ground. I was scared that my camera was broken. We were late so I just picked everything up and put it in my bag and put it in the car, fearing the worst. The 50mm lens was completely broken but the camera and the 18-55 ended up being okay. Thank goodness. of course nothing is cheap to replace but the 50mm 1.8 is relatively inexpensive. The camera, however, is not.

So, I don't have any pictures from yesterday that I can share with you, either.

Maybe this week I will get my act together!

I hope you have a great day.

OH!! We are trying to sort out toys and clothes from our kids and I was wondering how you keep the clutter/amount of stuff down. Do you sort every so often? Do you give lots of things away? How often do you do this? How do you keep things organized?

I would love some tips, and perhaps later this week I'll post about that giveaway I was talking about.

Thanks!

happy one month to Lily and some sneak peeks

It's hard to believe that a month has gone by already since our sweet Lily was born! Funny thing is, I had to correct myself as I first wrote "happy one month to Aimee" in the title of this post and had to go back and fix it. We were so used to Aimee being the baby for so long and then our little surprise came along when we least expected it. We thought we wouldn't be able to have any more kids and just when we thought we were done I was at the dr. because I was sick with a sinus infection or something and the doctor ran some extra labs...as I was leaving the building the doctor caught me and told me that I was pregnant as well.

THAT news threw our world for a loop for sure but we are so grateful for the sweet joy little Lily brings to our family. Now if only we could get her to sleep with all of the crazy noise her older sisters make!

Today is also the last day of school for Hailey and we'll have a whole summer to figure out what to do with. We have a list of things we'd like to do, places we'd like to go and you can bet that I have a list of "honey-do's" as well. I'd love to give the house a thorough cleaning and go through and de-junk and GIVE AWAY a lot of stuff that is cluttering our home and our lives. No, we're not ready to go on "Hoarders" but we DO  have too much stuff and I'd love to simplify a bit. I am done with having piles of things here and there. I am more of an "everything has a place and everything in its place" kind of person.

I have been doing some scrapping lately but since it's been for assignments I haven't been able to share- but I will soon. Here are some sneaks of what I've been up to:

Yes, that's the new Watermelon Gazpacho from Jillibean Soup- SO CUTE!!

and some more Watermelon Gazpacho- have I mentioned how much I love this line? 

Margarita collection from American Crafts

and a couple of pages from My Little Shoebox:

I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I think we should do a giveaway- what do you think? 

Say hi and tell me about something you are planning to do this summer. ☺

happy anniversary to me

Ten years ago today I got married and we are still going strong.

We're going to go out to lunch and I got the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers just a little while ago. Roses and daisies- my favorites.

I hope you have a great day.

I will try and get some scrappy things done that I can share with you. I've been scrapping but it's all been for assignments so far so you'll have to wait a little bit.

quick American Crafts post today

It's a crazy Monday morning here, the last week of school and we woke up late...7:30, and my first grader had to be at school at 8. I have a meeting at 9 and I am running so behind.

So, it's a quick post day...

Here's a page that  I made for American Crafts using the new Margarita line. It's a themey, beachy line but a lot of the products, as you can see, are versatile and fun and great for other projects.

And, yes, this is the picture I took of the girls after I made the headbands for the American Crafts blog a little while back. I figured the picture was too good to keep it hiding in a folder on the computer. 

Have a great day!

Welcome to the MLS Blog Hop!

Good morning and welcome to the My Little Shoebox blog hop!

It's so great to have you!

You should have started at the MLS blog here: http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/

Simply follow the links and enjoy all of the beautiful inspiration using Melinda's cute sketch and the new Heartfelt collection. Here is the sketch we got to use; I flipped it clockwise 90 degrees to go with the photos I decided to use. That's one of the fun things about sketches; you can use them exactly as-is or adapt it to meet your needs and scrappy style. Isn't it a great sketch?

and here is my page using the new Heartfelt line:

One of my favorite things about the MLS collections are the cute die-cut shapes and borders. The tiny alphas in all colors of the rainbow are pretty fun, too. 

You know I just HAD to use pictures of our new baby Lily. I promise to try and give my other cute girls equal face time in my scrappy projects but Lily's cuteness will be hard to resist ☺

From here you will visit the blog of the fabulous Erin Yamabe http://erinyamabe.com/

Have a wonderful day and happy hopping!

Once you're done please return to the MLS blog (link above) and leave a comment for your chance to win the beautiful new Heartfelt collection shown above.

sharing more Basic Grey Hello Luscious

The May kit from My Scrapbook Nook features the new collection, Hello Luscious.

I wasn't planning to scrap this picture with the kit but it's one I've had waiting around since last year and thought it would work perfectly- it's hard to believe that this picture is a year old already, one from LAST Easter. So much has happened since then. I missed Easter this year because I was in the hospital and don't have any pictures of the girls all dressed up in their new Easter clothes so this one will do for now.

I love these pink glitter alphas from American Crafts, even used some of the bits on the butterfly, flowers and on the picture of the girls. The black stickers are from October Afternoon. 

Flower, large scallop border and butterfly punches from EK Success, small scallop border punches from Fiskars.

Have a great day!

My Little Shoebox blog hop this Friday!

Just wanted to give you a head's up!

Design team member, Melinda Spinks, created this sketch for us to play with and we'll be showing off the new Heartfelt collection.

And this is the Heartfelt collection: 

Come join us on Friday starting at the MLS blog!

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/

quick post today and a Nook layout

Do any of you get migraines?

I do..and I've had one going on two days now. I really need to sleep it off today.

We are doing fine, Miss Lily is as cute as ever and the other girls are keeping me quite busy.

I did get a chance to do some scrapping this weekend with the beautiful May kit from My Scrapbook Nook. Here is a layout I made using some pictures of Sarah- I found her this pretty dress at Target and knew she would love it. It was her Easter dress, and since I missed Easter being stuck in a hospital bed, it was fun to see her twirl around my hospital room with her wearing this pink dress.

I added the pearls (Prima) and black alphas (October Afternoon) but the rest is from the kit.

I used a few Pioneer Woman and other PSE actions on the pics and think they turned out pretty cute. 

Even more so in real life ☺ Have a nice day!

baby Lily is 2 weeks old and she's home

Yes, we brought our sweet Lily home today.

I'm afraid she's not going to get all of the sleep that she's used to during the day.

Her big sisters just want to love her all of the time ♥

It is so nice to have her at home with us.

Isn't she so sweet? 

baby Lily is coming home tomorrow

She's doing great!

She weighs 6 pounds 2.9 ounces, there's no more jaundice, she's doing well enough that the doctor is going to let us bring her home tomorrow.

Today is going to be a busy day ☺

little Lily and the May Nook kit

Lily has had a good couple of days!

After all of the spitting up and then the diarrhea she lost some weight (I know that it's normal for babies to lose a bit after they're born) but now that she's keeping things down she's at 6 pounds! We weighed her tonight before her bath. Her cord finally fell off and I was able to give Lily her first tub bath and she did really well. She's going to love the water like my other girls.

Other good news- she's been taking her bottle feedings well and tonight the doctor said she can eat by mouth (instead of her NG tube) for any feedings where she's awake enough- she did two in a row tonight which is great and they've increased the amount they give her for bottle feedings.

The other girls spent the night and their Grandma and Grandpa's house (thanks, Matt) so I was able to go to the hospital tonight. They were so excited to get to stay, to have root beer floats and watch a movie and then have pancakes for breakfast in the morning. And, I was thrilled to get to go to the hospital after not being able to go this morning, and I was able to stay as long as I wanted (well, until I got too tired, anyway) since I didn't have to be back to pick up anyone at a certain time. The house sure is quiet, though, with everyone gone.

I don't know if you've seen this yet- the May kit from My Scrapbook Nook. It features the new Hello Luscious line from Basic Grey, pretty flowers from Webster's Pages, pink glitter alphas from American Crafts, trims from May Arts, etc.

You can order yours here:

http://myscrapbooknook.org/kit-club/

and some American Crafts cards

First- good news! Lily was able to take a bottle feeding. Right now she's taking her feedings by tube mostly so this is great progress. The sweet thing just gets so tired...

Here is a set of little birthday cards I made using the Confetti collection from American Crafts:

Have a nice weekend!

another Jillibean share

Last month, before I had to be admitted to the hospital on bedrest for preeclampsia, I thought I'd try to get a head start on scrapping assignments for April. Little did I know that I would quickly run out of time and not be able to do any scrapbooking at all for a while. I didn't get everything done. Thank goodness everyone was flexible and willing to work with me.

I was able to get this one Jillibean  project done that was posted on the blog yesterday. Memorial Day is coming up but I think it's important to be patriotic even when it's not a national holiday. These pictures are from a 9/11 flag display at a local park last fall.

My favorite picture is this one of Aimee hugging the flag pole.

LOVE the corrugated shapes- so fun to dress up with paint, ink, etc. 

I do apologize for the horrid pictures. 

We are trying to get back to "normal" here- Matt has to go back to work and so I will need to get back into a regular routine of chores and everything else. Things will be tricky but somehow we'll figure out how to get things done and still visit Lily. 

"I miss Lily. I miss her really badly," says my 3 year old. She hasn't even been able to see her baby sister yet because she is too young to be in the NICU. I miss her really badly, too. 

waiting patiently on Lily and a Jillibean layout

I have been anxious to bring this little girl home, we all have.

I learned yesterday why she isn't ready to go home.

She's still so tired and tiny...only 35 weeks gestational age (1 week old now) and she still has so much growing to do.

That's why preemies sleep so much. They have to conserve their energy so that they can grow.

Yesterday we got to give her a bath while we were there and I got to nurse her and she did great. The best she'd done so far. She latched on so easily and ate really well.

Later in the day I went back at feeding time again and learned she was so sleepy at her 3 o'clock feeding that they had to tube feed her- she wouldn't stay awake enough to drink from a bottle.

I tried nursing her and she did okay and then tried to do her bottle feeding and she was so sleepy that she only got about half and they had to do the rest through her tube.

THAT is why she can't come home yet...and I understand now that even though we want her here NOW she just isn't ready. She has to build up her stamina for the seemingly simple job of eating. She just gets so tired.

In order for Miss Lily to come home she has to receive all of her feedings in 24 hours either by bottle or nursing and so far she's not even close to being ready for that. It will take some time for her to build up endurance.

So...for now...we just wait.

And, here's a page I did for Jillibean Soup for April:

Here are our kids and Marc and Ginger's kids on one of our trips to the stockyards in Fort Worth. 

In other news, we got Sarah all registered for kindergarten yesterday- she still seems so small to me...I think she's a little nervous about the whole thing but she is way more than ready. She'll do great!

Hailey is reading like crazy...such a smart girl. She grew up a little while I was at the hospital, helping out her Daddy and being the peacemaker for Sarah and Aimee. 

Aimee is now looking SO big to me. It's funny that Aimee right now is older than Hailey was when Aimee was born. It's so hard to believe that so much time has passed. 

There just is not enough time in the day. And, it's been that way since I got home. Running to and from the hospital, dealing with car repairs and then having to take the car back because they didn't finish the job the first time, back to the hospital, then to pick up kids from wherever they were, whether it be school or someone's house, to the school for kindergarten registration, home to pump and grab a quick snack and then to wherever we are supposed to go next. I am supposed to be sleeping...but that's a joke. It's so hard to rest at home when there is so much going on. I crash at night...so fast. I laid down on the floor by Aimee last night (she's been sleeping on a mattress in our room) and I don't remember getting into bed but that's where I was when I woke up to pump at 2am. Seriously...life is good but I am tired. I haven't even talked to my sister on the phone this week- and we always talk. That's how I know it's been crazy. Maybe today.

happy one week to Lily

It's hard to believe- it seems like so long ago that I went to see my doctor because of my swelling feet and hands and legs and face. That was April 13.

Today Lily is a week old and I am so very anxious to see if they have any idea when she'll get to go home. She's off the IV now, off of the warmer and yesterday I was able to nurse her the two times I was there for feeding times. I am encouraged by the fact that while she wasn't interested in bottle feeding the other night she is latching on and able to nurse and is actually getting something out. That is so encouraging to me.

We're going up to the hospital in a few minutes and I can't wait to see her  ♥

just updating on Lily

I called the NICU last night to check on Lily and found out that they were going to start trying to bottle-feed once per 12-hour shift in preparation for getting her off of the tube- turns out she wasn't really interested I found out later...could make things difficult since she needs to be eating (not tube-feeding) in order to come home.

Good news, though, she's done really well with the tube feedings, no diarrhea or spitting up and they've been able to decrease the IV fluids.

Today they're going to try to get Lily out from under the warmer and see if she can maintain her own body temperature- at least that will be a step in the right direction.

This morning Aimee, my 3 year old, keeps saying, "I want Lily."

Well, I want Lily, too, and while before they'd told us she could probably come home today or tomorrow that won't be the case since she's not nursing or bottle-feeding yet. I'm having a bit of a hard morning today. Hormones sure don't help, either. And I am tired. And the kids are not listening to me today. And Hailey cut her hair. And Aimee wants me to do everything for her. I think everyone is having a bit of a rough day around here trying to adjust to things. Perhaps they got too used to not having me around.

There sure are a lot of ups and downs- I am grateful for the ups and know the downs will get better soon.

just wanted to let you know...

There's a crop coming soon at My Scrapbook Nook!

Stay tuned for more info!

The Nook design team is working hard to get everything ready for you- should be quite the fun time, as always at the Nook crops! ♥

and some more MLS stuff

I have been a little missing-in-action in the scrappy world lately due to my time in the hospital and now running back and forth to/from the hospital and taking care of other things and I have missed out on some things that I should have posted here.

How about my other design team call entries and info about a current challenge at My Little Shoebox?

This is a mini that I put together using a wooden album and a mix of MLS cute stuff. 

And, below, a layout with my Sarah girl. 

I love that MLS products are so fun and cheery!

And now for a MLS challenge that you can read about here: 

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2011/04/new-challenge.html

All you have to do is create a card, layout or stamping project using the adorable Farmer's Market collection and you could win some My Little Shoebox products. 

NEW from Jillibean Soup

Just up on the blog today, here are two NEW stamp sets to go with the cute new Watermelon Gazpacho collection coming to you soon.

Super cute, huh? I can't wait to get this collection :D

Confetti from American Crafts

I've had the chance to play with the new American Crafts collections from this last CHA release- well, I'd used a couple of them and still had Confetti and the Campy one still to use so for last month I decided to use something different. I made some birthday cards because, well, this is a birthday line but the papers are versatile enough (as are a lot of the embellishments) to use for everyday projects like this Aimee page.

Now for some Lily news...Matt dropped me off at the hospital before he and the other girls went to church so I was able to spend a lot of uninterrupted time with Lily. The bili light is doing wonders- the nurse was hopeful that she wouldn't need to spend any more time under it after yesterday, lab results today will decide if that was enough. They are also going to try to take her out from under the warmer today and see if she can maintain her own body temperature. We will gather up some of our way-too-big onesies (we weren't prepared for a preemie and haven't been to the store) to take for her today. Soon, hopefully, they'll be able to start her on tube feedings again so that we can progress to trying nursing. So far her suck-swallow-breathe isn't as coordinated as it needs to be and she just isn't showing much interest in her pacifier (the pacifier is a GOOD thing for a preemie to teach them the suck-swallow-breathe routine) but that will come with time and then we can try nursing. All will come in time. 

We are just grateful that Lily is doing as well as she is. I know that there are many babies who aren't doing as well, so we have been extremely fortunate. Heavenly Father is truly watching over her and while there are some obstacles to face they aren't impossible. 

news about Lily

I thought that some of you might be curious about how Lily is doing and so that I don't forget the little details about what has been going on I will try and keep an update here. For those who read my blog for the scrappy things, I will try and mix in some of that here and there as well. I have some more My Little Shoebox projects, a Jillibean page and some new American Crafts projects to share with you and hopefully soon I'll get into my scrap room and do some baby Lily projects.

We went to visit yesterday afternoon and I got to hold her while she had her feeding.

She's had horrible diarrhea leading to a sore bottom- something they are trying to remedy with Nystatin and SUPER Butt Paste. Yep, if you thought Butt Paste was good stuff, this is supposed to be even better.

I am so grateful for those times that I get to see her and hold her because they are so very rare. It's hard to be so far away...it was nice to be there at the hospital because of the ease of walking down to the NICU when I wanted to. Now I have to get back to real life, other kids and responsibilities and lots of sleeping lately. I am so tired and so sore yet...but I know you don't want to hear about me and really I am handling things. My body temp is all messed up- last night I was just shaking because I was so cold and then later I'd break out in a sweat. Not so fun. But, I am okay. I think it's all hormone-related as my body tries to regulate itself back to it's "normal" self.

Lily has jaundice as well...they figured she'd eventually have to go under the bili lights simply because she has been SO red. She had her little sunglasses on yesterday when I got there and I could already see where the light was making a difference.

Last night the doctor decided to suspend her tube feedings and they reinserted a new IV for glucose water which Lily handled like a champ. The nurse said she didn't even cry. Her vitals continue to be stable and hopefully this rash will clear up soon. Having her on the IV has helped to decrease the diarrhea so they are going to run some labs and then increase the feedings as tolerated and see how things go.

I am grateful for nurses who are taking good care of Lily...everyone has been wonderful.

We so appreciate all of the prayers in our behalf.