Don't worry Barrack - it's not just you

So one of the headlines on MSN this morning was "Obama's hair turning gray by the day". When I clicked on the article it said, "As economic crisis builds, young president's hair becomes just a dash saltier.

I had to laugh at that because this week I've been lamenting over a few new gray hairs that I've found. I found my first gray hair in the spring of 2003 - so I was 24. It was an isolated incedent (but I remember it well - it was at Jessica Kopp's house in Springville after we'd been working on some new scrapbook product ideas).

Anyway, there have been a few here and there - but nothing too alarming. I haven't pulled them - because my mom always told me that if you pull one 2 grow back in it's place. I'm sure that's not true - but it was enough of a warning to keep me from plucking. It seems like I'd find one and the next day forget where it was - so I would stop worrying about it until a few months later when I'd find another one (or maybe it was the original one - no way of knowing).

But last week I had the sides of my hair pulled back away from my face when I saw the one that freaked me out. This one was short, and it was SO noticable. It was on my right temple and it seems like every time I'd glance in the mirror a spotlight would appear to highlight my new silver beauty. I haven't pulled it, but I've thought about getting out a sharpie to color it in :)

In a few months I hit the big 30 and it scares me a bit. Seeing this new addition has just verified what I have been feeling - I'm getting old. But I guess I'm not alone - Obama and I actually seem to have something in common. I guess we could just change that headline to say, "As economic crisis builds, young mother's hair becomes just a dash saltier".

Layout for the week

I shouldn't be scrapping tonight. I have about a million and 1/2 things to get done by tomorrow night - but I also needed a little break. A few nights ago Cory and I heard a quote that said,

"Stress is the fertilizer of creativity."

So true! So instead of working on my "to-do list" tonight I snuggle up on the couch with Cory and finished this layout. Much funner!
Here is my layout for last week. I have really been enjoying this project of taking a picture every day. My pictures aren't creative - but it has been making me think about what makes up the pieces of our lives.

I have also been having fun making some of my own templates. This layout is actually using the same template that I used for last week's layout - but I just turned it 90 degrees. Afterall - there are only so many ways to fit 7+ pictures on a layout :)

Kit - FREEBIE from Shabby Princess (SO CUTE!) - Happy Go Lucky.

(And after finishing the layout I realized that there aren't any pictures of Hunter. Sorry buddy - I'll put a few extra of you on next week's layout)

GRRRRR - our version of spring

Every year around this time I start getting ready to pack our bags and move somewhere - ANYWHERE without wind. I am not a fan of wind and every year it seems that it gets worse. I get SO uptight and frustrated with the wind because that the kids can't go out and play, my hair is constantly a mess, there is garbage blowing everywhere - and my new "favorite" - the yard 'decor' that accumulates in our yard.

Get a load of the tumbleweeds that have attacked our yard. There are some pictures through the day, and all over our yard. You can see that there aren't any places that are safe. But along our back fence is the worst...Not quite sure how we're going to get rid of it all!

Digi stuff

Some digi scrapping stuff for this week:

Mandy who is the designer behind Mandy Mystiques has added a new store this week at http://www.enchantedstudioscraps.com/. Check it out - lots of fun stuff!

A couple of cute digi scrapbook designers:

• http://amandaheimanndesigns.com/blog/
• http://littlebitscrappy.blogspot.com/

Also - I had a friend point this website out on their blog (THANKS MaryRuth!) and you should totally check out this font website - Fonts for Peas. There are great handwriting looking fonts - and some super cute doodles! There is another one by the same person with lots of other fonts too - check that one out HERE.

I'm a bit late in posting these layouts this week (They were for releases on Monday) - but better late than never right? Here ya go:

Spring:

• FREEBIE Template for this week's template challenge at Elemental Scraps.
• Kit by BellaGypsy @ Elemental Scraps called Home Grown

My Guys:

• Template: Lots to Say 2 - by ChrissyW
• Kit by Juno @ Elemental Scraps called Dude

Diet Dr Pepper layout

• Template: Lots to Say 2 - by ChrissyW
• Kit - NEW kit called http://www.enchantedstudioscraps.com/xcart/product.php?productid=570

Dare Devil layout

• I used several Color Play items from ChrissyW. Several designers all design with the same color palette and then you can basically put together your own kit with the coordinating items. I used the following:
• Alphabet
• Sorta Solids
• Elements

Layouts

Nice Weather

This week we've had some pretty nice weather. It hasn't been San Diego weather - but it has been nicer, a bit warmer. On Tuesday Gabe was enjoying the warm weather and came out of his room in his snazzy Lightening McQueen swimming suit - insisting on going back outside to run through the sprinklers (it was 53 degrees). I had to stop him from doing it, but my little guy isn't deterred easily. He set up his own "swimming pool" in the basement with blankets, our big love sac and a bunch of pillows. Silly kid.

Today however, the weather was nice enough for us to play outside for a while - it was nice. A little breezy still (it's Enoch - right?) - but still nice to get some fresh air. It really made me anxious for the real springtime. Hunter loved climbing up the wood steps up to the slide and was quite daring on the swing set. He's a little dare-devil - it scares me for the future!

Layouts

The layouts "My Boys, My Joys" and "Saturday Ranger Ride" are both using a new kit from Mandy Mystiques - Feeling Froggy. Fun little boy kit - check it out .

My Boy's layout - Template from ChrissyW's kit "Just the 2 of us"

4th of July layout - Americana kit from Sweet Shoppe Design (Dani Mogstad)

Gabe's Bed Buddies - Kit from Sweet Shoppe Design's Quarterly Assortment - Kicky Rainboots by Julie Billingsley

Tag - 6 things

I was tagged by Chrissy, so here it goes: Post 6 interesting things about you.

1. I have a lot of hair - thick hair, and it drives me NUTS! My face is hyper-sensitive to the feeling of things on it and if I have hair on my face it makes me crazy. Static-y hair makes me extra nuts. If my hair is long enough - it's generally in a pony tail, and if it's short I can be found at home with those elastic/fabric headbands on to keep it off of my face. I'm kind of fanatical about it.
2. I don't like to try something new unless I think I can master it. This fear keeps me from trying a lot of things I'd probably enjoy.
3. Right now my backyard (and front yard) is full of tumble-weeds. I'm not sure where they came from - but I need to take care of them. Apparently waiting for the next wind to come and whisk them away isn't working for me...
4. I went through a phase where I didn't make my bed. I think it was a rebellion - just to prove that I was an adult and could leave my bed unmade if I wanted to because I was in charge. Then one day a friend of mine (Tammy Jensen) made the comment that "If I make my bed I feel like at least I got one thing done - at least my bed is clean and neat - even if the rest of my life/house isn't." After that everytime I'd look at my bed unmade I'd think, "I can't even get my darn bed made - I'm a mess!" I'm pretty sure that ever since that comment my bed gets made almost first thing every morning. I kind of laugh about it actually. Thanks Tammy!
5. I would love to be a professional photographer, a labor and delivery nurse, a graphic designer, or an "idea person". I am really good at looking at *other people's* businesses and thinking of awesome marketing ideas for them - however, if I try to work on our own business there is a major block and I can't figure things out. However - if you want to ask me how the local pizza place could increase sales I have an earfull for ya. Also - I don't want to have to implement the ideas - I just want to be paid for my brilliant IDEAS.
6. People *think* I am organized - it's all a facade. Underneath it all I'm a bit crazy and a total mess. You would know this if you looked at the piles on my desk and kitchen counter right now. I do dream of being organized though - labels on everything, millions of rubbermaid containers for everthing to be seperated into....ah....Oh - and I am slightly OCD about piles even - if they are stacked neatly I can handle it - but if things aren't lined up and straight - it makes me nuts.

Layouts

Rumble:

• Kit - freebie from Scrap Matters February Newsletter by GG Designs
• Template - altered version of one of ChrissyW's templates from Sample Pack #1 @ Elemental Scraps.

Silly Kiddo:

• Kit - from Amanda Heimann (normally from http://www.scraporchard.com/) in this months digi files from http://www.thedailydigi.com/
• Template - old one from Janet Phillips (who sadly doesn't have a shop anymore....)

Happy Birthday Paul!

Paul, we hope you have a great birthday! We sure love you!!!

Valentine Recap

Oh my goodness - I am about to cry. I just spent forever writing up a HUGE post. As I went to add the photos to my post I thought "I should save this post before I add pictures - just in case". Did I save it? Nope. Are you reading it? Nope. Did it somehow get deleted? Yup. Almost in tears....

Ok - what I said was that we had a fun Valentine season this year. Lot of fun little touches - having kids has made holidays so much funner. Gabe gets into it, loves traditions we've had and I love it! So I wanted to keep you filled into what we did the last couple of weeks.

• My mother-in-law made the boy's Valentine fun last all month long. She sent us home with a big box a few weeks ago when we were visiting that was full of little wrapped gifts for the boys for every single day of the month leading up to Valentine's Day. If it was the 4th of the month they got to unwrap a package that had 4 gifts in it. There were cute little ducks that flipped, Cars puzzles, candy treats, cards, cookies, cars - fun cute things every day. Gabe would get so excited every morning for their presents and he'd wait until Hunter woke up and then insist that I put the present behind my back and surprise them. It was so fun to have it last for 2 weeks. Thanks Grandma for all of the thought and effort that went into this sweet surprise for the boys.
• 
• One of the things we did this month was to have as many heart shaped treats as possible. We started with heart shaped grilled cheese - but those were a disaster....But we had heart peanut butter sandwiches, heart pizza, heart sugar cookies and yummy hug cookies. My favorite was that our local pizza place - a DELICOUS pizza place was willing to make us a heart pizza, even though they weren't making them. I had to tell them that my 3 year old wanted a heart shaped pizza, and that one of their competitors was making heart pizzas, but that I didn't want their pizza - we wanted Pioneer Pizza. Anyway, they obliged and I thought it was one of the cutest pizzas! (And yummy!)
• Gabe had his first preschool Valentine's Party. We had fun putting together his treats and valentine's for his classmates and he loved the party they had. Yummy treats, games and fun.
• 
• One of the fun things we did this year was since we went up north and saw grandparents at the end of January we took them fun Valentine's that we made. I cut out a bunch of different hearts on my Cricut machine. Then we added stickers, foam shapes, pictures, glitter, etc to the hearts. I hot glued skewers to the hearts (one heart on each side so the glue didn't show) and added them to cute Valentine cups which I filled with floral foam and cute paper filler. It was a very inexpensive craft, but Gabe had fun helping and I thought they turned out cute. It was fun to give them to our grandparents that we visited.
• The boys had fun opening their Valentine from Cory and I - just some little books and treats. It's fun to see them get excited about small and simple things.
• Cory got me a sweet Valentine present - some yummy bath products from The Body Shop. Thanks sweetie it's yummy!
• Cory took me out Saturday night. I was amazed that we got one of our favorite babysitters at the last minute! We went to dinner at Applebees (not my favorite, but we had some friends there in line already, so it saved us waiting forever somewhere else). Then we went to a movie (where we sat on the FRONT row - not fun) and ended the evening with YUMMY ice cream from our new favorite ice cream place - Maggie Moos. It's been a hectic time for us so it was great to reconnect with each other for a few hours. Love you sweetheart.
• One of my favorite parts of Valentine's was that we took the boys sledding. It had nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but it was the PERFECT way to spend a day that focuses on love. Gabe was much more daring than normal and had a great time zooming down the hill. He'd even trek back up by himself too (now we just need to teach him how to pull Hunter back up in the sled!) We laughed, did snow angels, had a snowball fight, and had a great time! There was a moment when all 3 boys were climbing back up the hill and I was watching them from down below. There was an instant when I was filled with a HUGE amount of joy and love. The sun was shining, the air was clear, I heard laughter of my family, and I felt just FULL of love. I wanted to take that feeling and box it up so I could open it and feel a glimpse of it every day (especially days that are rough). It was just one of those fulfilling moments - I felt blessed to feel that way and will look back on that moment as what this Valentine's Day was all about.