NEW layouts

It's $1.00 deals at Elemental Scraps today - so head on over for some stellar deals. I LOVE getting good deals on scrapbook goodies - especially when they're from awesome designers!

Here are a couple of layouts I did this week with some new products out:

All products are Bella Gypsy products.

Templates:

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeesy

Kiddie Pool

Kits:

Let's Hear it for the Boy

Hope Floats

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Hunter-isms and an update

So I always write the funny things that Gabe says (our Gabeisms) - but I haven't done it for Hunter yet. Mostly because Hunter doesn't SAY much. But I want to work a little more on recording stuff about Hunter too. So here we go with some Hunter-isms as of right now.
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We were at Lake Powell (pictures to come soon - I promise) and I think that someone had made a mess of something on the boat. I yelled out, "Who made this mess???" I looked around and my Mom said, "I didn't do it!", Cory said - "I didn't do it!" then I looked at the boys and Hunter said clear as day, "I didn't do it!" It was hilarious to hear!
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Tonight we were getting dinner all ready but we weren't moving fast enough for little Hunter. He wanted to eat and wanted to say the prayer first. I was standing by his high chair getting something ready and he grabbed my hands, folded them together and started to pray. He was so frustrated that we weren't doing it on our own!
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Hunter has started "telling secrets" lately. He gets right up in my ear, slobbers all over in them and whispers something that resembles "woosh, smoosh, blah, blah, blah" - but also sounds a lot like he's blowing in my ear. Then he pulls my head back an looks at my face to see my reaction, throws his head back and bursts out laughing. Then he instantly grabs my face in his hands and starts slobbering/whispering in my other ear and repeats the process. He can go back and forth between that for hours - he LOVES telling 'secrets'.
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He gives VERY friendly kisses. He almost always grabs my face with both hands and just lays one on me. A lot of times it feels somewhat like being kissed by a vacuum - he is so slobbery and sucks so hard. But they're sweet kisses.

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Hunter is SOOOOO friendly. He LOVES saying "Hi" and waving to anyone new that comes around - especially to completely strangers!

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Hunter is SOOOOO opinionated. He gets upset so easly if we don't understand the exact thing he wants. For instance - if I am singing him a song, and it's not the song he wants he will yell with all of his energy, "STOP!!!!!" and start putting his hands over my mouth until I change songs. His favorite for me to sing, "I like to move it, move it".

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When Hunter is ready to go to bed or take a nap - HE IS READY. We could all be running around and having fun - but if he's really tired and ready to go to bed he will do all he can to tell us to stop what we're doing and put him down. He'll drag us in his room and make us put him down. Even when we were at Lake Powell - where he was sleeping in a hall-way he was ready to go to bed even with us all up - so he did. He can also entertain himself for a LONG time in his bed. At night we can hear him jabbering to his animals in bed for over an hour after we put him down sometimes, and he entertains himself in the morning too.

Gabeisms and an update

One of my favorites is how almost every single day Gabe asks what day it is. He doesn't want to know what day of the week - but always clarifies by asking, "Is it a FAMILY day?" He thinks of Saturday and Sunday's as "Family Days" because Dad's around and we're together as a family most of the time.
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Me: "Gabe, you're kind of stinky - I think you need to go in and try to go poo."

Gabe: "No Mom - that's just your breath."

(Gee - thanks.....)
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Me: "So sweetie, we haven't caught any fish today (we had gone fishing for the afternoon) - so what are we going to eat for dinner now since we don't have any fish?"

Gabe: "Oops - looks like it's a cereal night!"
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Gabe has gotten to be a much better writer lately. After preschool we were kind of disappointed that he hadn't worked much on his writing or drawing. But lately he has gotten so much better with writing. He really likes to look at another picture (like in a book or something) and then try to copy it. I'll need to scan some of his pictures soon to share.
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Speaking of preschool the other day Gabe said, "I didn't learn ANYTHING when I went to preschool. All I learned was how to color and do art projects - and I already knew how to do THAT!"

(sadly this is somewhat true....he didn't really gain any "academic skills" from school....)
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Randomly through the day Gabe will out of the blue just say, "Mom (or Dad), I LOVE you!" It's funny because it always sounds like he's trying to butter us up and we'll ask, "yes....?" But he doesn't want anything - he is just sweet.
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A few weeks ago we had my favorite "Hot Fudge Pudding Cake" for dessert. As we were eating it Gabe said, "Mommy - you're the best 'maker' ever!"

Me: "Thanks Gabe, that means a lot to me and makes me happy when you like the food I cook for you. I don't know if I've ever made this for you before - have I?"

Gabe: "No you haven't. But I have had it before. I ate this when I lived in heaven. This is what you eat for breakfast when you live in heaven. You eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for snacktime!"
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Two different times this week Gabe has made me VERY happy with cleaning up. One morning the boys had made a huge mess with toys. I was frustrated but hadn't said anything about cleaning up the toys or anything. Gabe said he wanted to do something (a treat, or play or something like that.) I said, "Not until you've cleaned up the toys with Hunter." He said, "But Mom - I already cleaned them all up." I didn't think it was possible but when I came out of the kitchen he had! Almost a whole toy box of toys had been cleaned up. Later in the week he cleaned up the toy room too - including lining toys up along the edges of the room like I love (my OCD kicking in). I LOVED it!
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In his prayers tonight Gabe also thanked Heavenly Father for the pioneers who came across the plains - I was sure excited that he'd listened to something I'd said about the pioneers - I thought it had all gone in one ear and out the other (as had much of what I had said this week....).

LOVE these products!

I thought I'd share one of my favorite digital scrapbooking designers tonight.

CRYSTAL WILKERSON!

She has the cutest style. I love the colors she uses, the style she has, the ways she puts patterns together - LOVE it!

You can find her kits at Jessica Sprague's website, and some of here older stuff is at Two Peas.

Here are some previews of her latest stuff as well as a few of the others I love:

"It's not that big of a deal" - or is it?

So I am faced with a situation, a lifelong situation/struggle and I would like to throw it out there to you guys in blog land for some advice. How do we decide between the little things in life? Who really gets to be the one to determine what qualifies as something that is important and who gets to decide which things are worth worrying or stressing out over? When someone says that we shouldn't worry about something because "it's not that big of a deal" - what qualifies them to decide that?

One person may think that a particular thing that stresses me out or bothers me is a "little thing" and it might not be a little thing to me. So who is right? Who gets to put labels on the important items and who gets to decide when we should just throw our hands up and say it's not important? Is there a handbook, or a judging system? Are there points values that we give to our worries to determine whether or not they are worthy of our time and energy?

Something similar is the idea of compromise. I understand the idea that life is full of compromise, give and take. I get that more and more as a parent. But there are times I feel like I am the only one giving in, and I don't feel like there is ever give on other's parts. My question is - at what point is the idea of compromise a joke? At what point is it more like letting people walk all over you or giving up?

I wish there was a magical formula or answer. And maybe there is - maybe one of you is holding out on me and has the answer - so spill the beans for me please.

Gabeism

G - "Mom - I sure like your hair better when you wear it down".

Me - "Like this sweetie?" I take my hair out of a ponytail.

G - "Yeah - like that. And I like your hair better when it's longer. You should let it grow long."

Sheez - it starts young doesn't it? Men who like long hair on women (like my hubby that always wants me to grow my hair out) apparently start that way as kids....Too bad that I like my hair either long and pulled up, or short and out of the way. Now I can't keep Gabe OR Cory happy!

SOCCER!

So here we go - we're embarking on a new adventure at the Ellis household. We have our first official SOCCER event tonight. It's just a team parent meeting, but it marks a new chapter for us I think....

Cory is the assistant coach, I am the team parent. I know this has been done before, I know there are hundreds, thousands - even MILLIONS of parents who have put their numerous children through sports. But guess what? Not in my family. We didn't really do much in the way of sports (mostly our choice as kids). Paul played a little Jr. Jazz basketball, Julia was involved in more sports than all of us - but I personally was never on a sports team. How sad is that???

So I hope that I have the patience and excitement to get us through these next couple of months. Gabe will be the smallest and youngest kid playing soccer this year. His birthday is the day before the cut off. They are supposed to be 4 by the time the first game rolls around, he will turn 4 the day before. And then they put him on the wrong team (somehow they have his birthday wrong, even though on my copy of the registration it's right) and he will be playing with kids a year (or more) older than him. I hope he doesn't feel overwhelmed by the fact a lot of the kids could be twice his size....

And actually I think our biggest obstacle is that Hunter is going to want to play. I know there will be quite a few fits/temper tantrums as he can't go running onto the field. I look forward to it though. I love the gal who will be coaching with us (she's in our ward - Patricia Belnap) and she has *little* kids too - so she'll be understanding. So wish us luck!

Here we go again...

Ok - here we go again. I'm playing catch - up on the blog with more layouts. I promise more things happen in life than just my digi scrapbooking. It's just easy for me to post these when I'm posting them to the digi-galleries that I'm supposed to. So here we go again with a quick post with some layouts.

Good Times at Grandma’s House:
Kit: Crystal Wilkerson’s July 365 kit – http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=28&Itemid=85
Template: ChrissyW’s current template challenge @ Elemental Scraps - http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22394&cat=0&page=1

Mckell’s Birthday and Gabe & Aunt Julia
Kit: Preppy Girl - http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22371&cat=0&page=1
Template: Sketchology: Just Clique It - http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22372&cat=0&page=1

Our Sweet Girls
Kit: Tuff Guy – http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22369&cat=0&page=1
Template: Sketchology: Put Em Up - http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22370&cat=0&page=1

Being your Mom
Kit: Forever Young - http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=18682
Template: Sketch Collection #21 - http://shop.scrapbookgraphics.com/product.php?productid=19380&cat=0&page=2

Happy Birthday
Kit: Forever Young - http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=18682

Paradise:
Template: by ChrissyW - http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=116
Kit: Jen and Dean - http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=18458&cat=0&page=1

Sit or Squat?

Check out this website:

www.sitorsquat.com

It's a site that can tell you where the closest CLEAN public restroom is. Isn't that a hoot? You can also access it via your cell phone, so you can find a clean place to GO when you're on the go. Made me chuckle!

NEW Creative Team

I am so excited about this. SOOOOOO EXCITED! I am now on a Creative Team for an AWESOME digital scrapbooking designer. I am thrilled to get to work with her products and hopefully represent her awesome stuff well.

Check out Libby Weifenbach's STORE at http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/. Her designs are so fun, bold, cute, and....well just PERFECT! You can also view her blog for her cute stuff.

Here are a couple of layouts I've done with her stuff, as well as some of my favorite kits of hers:

Monday's layouts

Well here we are - MONDAY. Monday's are the best when it's "Elemental Scraps Dollar Days"! some of the best digi kits out there for just $1.00 each!

Here are several layouts I've done with new stuff at Elemental Scraps:

Crabby Kid Kit: http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22344&cat=326&page=1

Smelly Ogre Kit:
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22340&cat=326&page=1

Indulgent Kit:
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22339&cat=326&page=1

Project 365 templates set #2:
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22271&cat=0&page=1

Round we go template set:
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=20917&cat=0&page=1

Okie Dokie template set:
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=22267&cat=0&page=1

Loosing my mind...

How frustrating, I just finished a layout. The whole time I was making the layout I had dejavu. This combination of photos just seemed so familiar.....But when I browsed through my completed layouts I couldn't find a week #24 layout. That is until I finished my (2nd) Week #24 layout - then I went back and looked through some other layouts and found that I actually had already made one. Sheez - I feel like I'm loosing my mind sometimes. I'll have a few more layouts up tomorrow with NEW products being released at Elemental Scraps.

So here you go. ANOTHER Week #24 layout, and one of Cory.

Week #24:
Template - ChrissyW's template challenge at Elemental Scraps.
Kit - Crystal Wilkerson's June 365

Happy Birthday Daddy-o:
Template - freebie from Libby Weifenbach's team
Kit - Porkchops and Applesauce by Libby Weifenbach

Playing catch up with some layouts

I just finished up a layout with an awesome kit and I remembered I hadn't posted these other layouts. So here are a few layouts for ya. Products used are mostly ChrissyW, BellaGypsy and the 4th of July layout is using a kit by Libby Weifenbach.

Speaking of scrapbooking....I've been feeling a bit blah about it. Not about scrapbooking, but about me and scrapbooking. Sometimes layouts fall together quite quickly and nicely, and other times it just feels like I'm forcing things...I guess after a while we all get a little stuck in a rut - right? I'm hoping I can emerge soon.

Gabeism

Yesterday Gabe came up to me, snuggled up and sniffed my shoulder.

"That's what I thought - you smell like a hotel."

(Me) "What does that mean exactly?"

"You just smell like a hotel."

He smells me again.

"Yup - exactly like the walls at the hotel."

Hmmmm.....wonder if I smell like a Motel 6, or something a bit more swanky like the Ritz Carlton.....

Ten things Thursday

I have really kind of stunk it up in the blog department lately. I have things I want to post, pictures you'd probably enjoy seeing....but I don't get it done. We can add this to the list of quite a few different things I haven't been keeping up on.....Here's some random stuff to catch up:

1. Summer is here, the boys have been loving swimming in our little pool out back. Cory and I have even gotten in with them a couple of times. Lots of splashing and giggling.
2. I'm realizing more than ever that I'm not a huge fan of the heat. I can handle it and everything, but I like 75 degrees. Can we bring that back a while longer? And if we could do away with wind completely I'd be fine with whatever temperature it was. I promise.
3. Hunter has become SO opinionated recently. WOW! The other day I was getting dressed and he was in my room. He started screeching about something and pulling at the shorts I had just put on. It took me several minutes to figure it out - but he didn't want me wearing the clothes I had picked out for myself. He ended up communicating to me eventually that he wanted the brown shorts I had hanging up in the closet. I gave in...just not one of those battles worth fighting. But he has been having such a tough time communicating with us, which has led to many melt-downs. It's hard because Gabe spoke so clearly and so well at such a young age. Hunter....not so much. I'm finding more and more that he has words for things, but so many of them sound the same or sound nothing like the word he's trying to say. When we do figure out what he's saying he is so proud of us and him and a lot of times he cheers and raises his arms up in victory. It's cute to see the sense of accomplishment on his face.
4. Speaking of Hunter and accomplishments. This little boy loves going potty! He won't even be 2 for another month but anytime I go to change his diaper he insists on going potty. I even catch him taking off his clothes and diaper to go to the bathroom. When he goes (which is just about every time he tries, several times a day) he cheers for himself and is so proud. He's not staying dry in between times, but I think he might be ready sooner than Gabe was. Way to go little buddy!
5. Gabe has been working on his writing and drawing. He has always been my vocal child, and hasn't really liked to write. He loved doing sticker pictures when he was little, and just didn't get into drawing/coloring much. But just lately he's doing better, tracing letters, drawing pictures. I LOVE the drawings he has been making. He drew a picture of him and our 2 dogs at church last week. SO cute!
6. Does anyone else ever feel like there is SO much information, so many potential projects, so many fun things we could do, or things we could make or learn? Every once in a while I just feel bombarded with ideas and a desire to learn new things. But then I get into it and I feel so overwhelmed and want do do it ALL. In this information age it's just a bit frustrating to have SOOOO much right at our fingertips. It's a blessing and a curse I guess.
7. I got to hold my friend's new baby today. I miss babies. They grow up so darn fast! I also packed up a bunch of baby stuff this week that we aren't using for now, or likely anytime soon. That made me sad. I also was amazed at how sentimentle I became over some silly clothes - remembering where the boys were when they wore certain things. A nice trip down memory lane.
8. I get to go play BUNCO tonight. YAY! It's just a once a month little group, but it's something to look forward to and I get excited. However, next month it's my turn....so I guess next month will be a little more work for me. Still fun though.
9. We went on a bike ride on Tuesday night - just me and Cory. He bought me a very nice road bike for my birthday last year and sadly I haven't riden it until this week. It has really thin tires and I worry too much that I'll crash. But we rode for almost an hour and I didn't crash. Yay me!
10. Well Gabe and his friends are on their way back over here after playing at their house for most of the day. Back in the swimming pool it looks like. I wonder how many seconds after they get here it will be before someone begs for an Otter Pop....? Anyone care for a wager?

New Releases from The Ettes & Company

There is a NEW RELEASE at http://www.ettesandcompany.com/ called "Wonderful World". Once again The Ettes have blown me away with a super versatile kit - SO cute!

Templ-ettes used: Collection 1 and Collection 2 & Template collab from ChrissyW