My Word…

I had two different words on my mind when this word popped in my head:

CHOOSE “to select from a number of possibilities”

CHOOSE the Right

CHOOSE a positive attitude

CHOOSE to be productive

CHOOSE NOT to be offended

I was inspired a couple weeks ago, when we had a lesson at church during Relief Society that came from President Thomas S. Monson’s talk “The Three R’s of Choice” from the October 2010 General Conference (Priesthood Session). He talks about various aspects of choice and put them into three categories: the right of choice, the responsibility of choice, and the results of choice, hence the three R’s of choice. I really enjoyed his perspective. He ended his talk by saying “…may we be filled with gratitude for the right of choice, accept the responsibility of choice, and ever be conscious of the results of choice.”

I hope I can be more aware of the choices in front of me and do a better job this year with my attitude and being a good example to my family.

I’m also choosing to attempt Project 365 again this year {a picture each day for the year}. Hopefully I’ll get farther than I did 2 years ago. LOL! If you want to follow along, you can check out my Project365 blog HERE.

Did you choose a word to center your goals around this year?

If you want ideas for a word, go HERE.

Valentine Parties

The kids are so excited for their class parties today! Which basically means lots of candy & treats! What better way to celebrate a holiday? hahaha It’s ALL about the candy! LOL

The kids assembled their Valentine goodie bags Wednesday night. It got kind of late, so Anson had already fallen asleep and wouldn’t wake up. Oh well, he was excited to see everything all done when he woke up.

Here’s the candy that went into the bags – candy ♥s and kisses!

 

Ashley started making the bags by herself.

 

Then Nathaniel joined in.

 

Once Felicia finished her homework, she helped too.

 

YAY! All 108 bags are assembled and ready to go!

Here’s what went into each teacher bag. A goodie bag plus a 3-pack of delicious milk chocolate covered caramels plus a card!

  

They all took their Valentine goodies to school yesterday. Nathaniel and Felicia already handed theirs out. All their friends were excited to receive cute treats!

Nathaniel & Felicia’s classes are also having a gift exchange (it was supposed to be instead of cards for everyone, but we opted to do both). Everyone filled out a little questionnaire and then exchanged them. Here’s what Felicia is giving away to a girl in her class.

 

Here’s what Nathaniel is giving away to a boy in his class.

By the way, this is supposedly Nathaniel’s *girlfriend*. Aren’t they cute? They were sitting together at lunch yesterday. I also got one of those huge Hershey kisses, so Nathaniel’s giving it to her today. He’s happy he has a little gift for her! :)

Felicia has a boy who likes her and keeps giving her treats this week. She was out sick Monday & Tuesday, so when he came to our house for cub scouts Tuesday night, he gave her some Pop Rocks. (yep he’s in our ward and is one of Ben’s scouts) Then he gave her a sucker and a little toy (from Sonic) yesterday. Isn’t that sweet? You know what’s funny? Felicia had a crush on him for the longest time (like a couple years), then recently he started being mean to her at church and school. Hmmmm I told Felicia he probably thought she was cute and no longer knew how to behave *normal* around her. haha Then suddenly she’s sick and he tells a few people (well the word gets around quickly – u remember those days right?) that he wanted to give her a treat since he felt bad she was sick, and a friend told her when I was picking up the kids from school (she was in the car with me). She is no longer hating on him. Oh yes, I totally remember the grade school drama. LOL

{This was taken at Skateland last night & the boy who’s been giving Felicia treats is in this picture – far right. I was trying to get them in a pic together but not make it obvious to embarrass her too much. heee heeee}

Back in January, Ashley’s class was reading & talking about Flat Stanley. So each kid made one of their own. Here’s Ashley’s Flat Stanley. Isn’t he cute?

 

Everyone got to send Flat Stanley on an adventure to a friend/family in another state. Ashley chose to send him to my brother’s family in TN. They had so much fun with him! They took lots of pictures and sent him back to Ashley’s class, so they could find out about his adventure. Ashley was thrilled to hear all about Flat Stanley and her aunt & uncle & cousins in TN. She got to leave the letter and some pictures at school. So she brought the rest of the pics home and Flat Stanley. She liked them so much she hung them all by her bed.

Thank you Spencer, Merrianne, Libby & Jacob for taking such great care of Flat Stanely & returning him home safely!

Alrighty, I’m off to get some things done today. Have a wonderful Valentine’s weekend! ♥

Valentine Cards & a FREEBIE

I made these Valentine cards for my kids for school. I will print them and add a little bag with candy for each student and teacher. {just like we did last year} The kids are so excited!

I made these cards using my new kit Sweet Valentine 1 & 2 that is only available as a posting bonus for my DSO Challenges for the month of February.

 

I’m trying to show some L♥VE, so I am giving you BOTH of these Valentine Cards FREE, if you want to use them! Just plop a picture {or anything you want} in the empty space and you’re done!

You can GRAB these HERE!

What kind of Valentine cards do your kids use? Do they make them or use store cards? Do you add candy to them?

Sweet Valentine

Want inspiration for some sweet, lovely or romantic pages or hybrid projects?

Head on over to the DSO Challenge Blog, plus you earn freebies!

Here's what you get FREE if you play along:

{remember my posting bonuses are coordinating & extra big this month}

FONT Challenge

QUOTE Challenge

Go to the DSO Challenge BLOG for all the details! Hope you’ll join in the FUN!

I’m going to use this kit to make my kids’ valentine cards to pass out at school. I’ll be back later to show you what we created!

Forever & After

The DSO designers have collaborated this month to bring you a PICK YOUR BITS Mega!  This means you can choose which parts you want and only pay for those!! You’re not stuck with downloading huge files or parts of the kit you don’t want.

PLEASE NOTE : All of the Feb Collab, titled FOREVER & AFTER can be found in the DSO COLLAB category in the store.

Here is my portion:

Here’s a layout I made using my part {and Jazzy’s Funky Love Lines Wordart}:

This is my brother, Spencer, and his wife, Merrianne. I took this pic when they were visiting at the beginning of January (for my Mom’s funeral). I hope you two don’t mind that I used your pic for this layout.

my word for 2010

ACHIEVE: to bring to a successful end; carry through; accomplish; to get or attain by effort; gain; obtain; to bring about an intended result; accomplish some purpose or effect; to attain with effort or despite difficulty.

Notice the last definition. It means I actually have to WORK on my goals and not just sit by and wait for them to get crossed off my list without any effort.

I have so many goals for this year {especially since I failed miserably with my word from last year} that I’m hoping I can ACHIEVE something this year. I will take one goal at a time and WORK on it until I ACHIEVE it.

Have you picked a word for the year? If you need ideas, like I did, you can go HERE. {I totally got this idea from Allie Edwards} I looked thru the list of words, for inspiration, then wrote down a few that stood out to me and narrowed it down again from there. Good Luck!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! {and a Blog Hop freebie}

This has been one heck of a year for me and my family! I hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas and looking forward to what’s to come in 2010.

We had a nice Christmas {even though my Mom was in the hospital}. She came home Monday evening and passed away after only being home 5 hours. We are having services for her this Saturday, Jan 2nd at 1pm. It has been a struggle for me to say “Goodbye” to her because she was my BEST friend! But I know she’s not in any more pain and with her family that passed before her. Thank you to all my amazing family & friends that have sent loving messages to me. I am so grateful. ♥

Ok I don’t want to dwell on the sadness right now because today is the beginning of a New Year and new beginnings!

If you are still finishing scrapping your Christmas pictures, check out my Deck the Halls kit plus all the extras!

Here’s my 2-page layout

Look at these fabulous layouts from the DSO CT:

These layouts were by Kerri (kayjaydo)

 

These were by Karen (bydelstorp) also using Jazzy’s A Christmas Song wordart on the 2nd layout.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! The DSO Gals have been busy making gifties for y’all.

 

So, you probably hopped over from Shannon.

Since you’ve gotten this far, here is my special TREAT for you!

You can grab this HERE

For your next treat, go back to the DSO Blog to see what you’ve missed or hop over to Jazzy!

Since this is a Blog Hop, if you get lost along the way make sure you stop by the DSO Blog for directions! {Plus there may be a surprise for y’all there too!} Please remember that we’re all in different time zones around the world, so some may not post at the exact same time. Thanks!

**Ooooh I almost forgot, ONE LUCKY commenter will win a $25 gift certificate to DSO! Don’t forget to comment on THIS POST {and all the other blogs for more chances} to be entered to WIN!!! The WINNER will be announced Saturday, Jan 2nd on the DSO BLOG!

GOOD LUCK!!!!

A Little Scrappin

I'm such a bad blogger. Looking at the date of my last post, I guess I have turned into a once-a-month blogger maybe twice. I think of lots of things to post about, but when I get to my computer, either my mind goes blank or I just don't feel like typing it out. LOL

So, to at least post something, I will share a few layouts that I've made this week. It was fun & relaxing to just sit and create a few pages.

I think if you click on the pictures, you can see them bigger {in case you really want to read my journaling}. heee heee

These are all for the October Challenges at DSO
{If you heard DSO was going to close this month, well I have GOOD NEWS because it's going to remain OPEN! YAY}

Grandparents Lunch

Altered Photo Challenge
{Hokey Pokey kit and Templates Set 1 by ME}

Sleepover FUN

Ad Challenge

{Felicia's Flowers kit by ME}

Poor Pepper

Animal Kingdom Challenge

{Just Because kit by KimB}

Strike a Pose!

Scraplift Challenge - this layout by vana63

{Fun Borders 1 by Bunny Cates, Lark kit by ME}

October 09 Desktop

Desktop Challenge

{Desktop Template by Charlie's Digiscraps, Ginger 'N Spice kit by ME}

I also want to wish Bunny a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I'm so excited because I already have my New Moon tickets!! My sister and I are going together to the midnight showing! November 19th can't come fast enough! HAHAHA

My kids have been out of school this whole week {Fall Break}. It's been really nice having them home. Although, Anson asks me every day "What's today? Is it a school day?" When I say "No." Then he says "Awwwwww I want to go to school!" He is a silly kid!

Hope your week has been good & have a wonderful weekend!

Last Chance & REVEAL

I just finished washing ALL the dirty dishes! Apparently, NO ONE can find the dishwasher! Uh-hem, it's right NEXT to the SINK (where all the dishes have been piled high)!!! Thank goodness for the Mama Mia soundtrack! I was singin' & dancin' while washing all those yucky dishes!!! My dogs kept lookin' at me kinda funny. Oh well. It made the time go by much faster :)

This is your LAST CHANCE to grab my PU Grab Bag for ONLY $3.

I decided to REVEAL what's INSIDE....

Ginger 'N Spice kit
Ginger 'N Spice Alpha tags

My FIRST set of Templates

I made them kind of simple so you can add whatever you want.

The DSO CT have been crazy busy making WONDERFUL layouts using the stuff in all the PU Bags! Here's some layouts using some of the goodies in my bag!

KayJaydo made these 2 gorgeous layouts

Kim made these 2 fantastic layouts

(this is where she got married - lucky lady it's such a beautiful place)

Vicki did these 2 awesome layouts

Thanks gals! You ROCK!!!!

Better Hurry! The super deal of $11 worth of NEW products for ONLY $3 is almost over!

Grab them before they go up in the store individually.

I'm off to put my face on. Gotta take my Mom to an appointment & run some errands!

Have a super fantabulous day!