Merry CHRISTmas

May this day bring you & your family health & happiness!

I’m so thankful for all my wonderful family & friends! I feel so blessed.

CLICK HERE for a beautiful e-card

{thanks Charlie for sharing this}

ONE more day…

until CHRISTMAS!!!

Are you ready?

Are you having any parties/celebrations tonight?

Every year on Christmas Eve my husband’s family comes to our house to celebrate with a big pot luck dinner, plus treats and sometimes a gift exchange.

I did some baking yesterday with the kids and brought some goodies to neighbors and my Mom in the hospital. {oh she went back into the hospital Monday morning. She already received some plasma & vitamin K to thicken her blood, then had her left lung drained of fluid this time. She may have fluid in her right lung again that they will drain today and start chemotherapy because her breast cancer has spread to her lungs & throat.} My Mom is such a trooper and is MY HERO!

I still have a little more baking to do, plus clean up & start cooking the ham, meatballs, creamy corn, wassail, make a cheese spread & slice the cheese for the crackers.

I haven’t even begun to wrap presents. I guess it’s a good thing there aren’t very many this year.

I hope you & your family has a wonderful CHRISTMAS!!!

Don’t forget that you can TRACK SANTA. We’ve done this the last 2 years and the kids love it! Go HERE and select your language, then you can see him throughout his journey! It’s really cool. We just leave that site open and the kids come back and see the updates. Sometimes they race to see who can tell me which country he’s in now and where he’s going next. hahaha

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

New goodies . . .

in the store at DSO this week! You don’t wanna miss these fabulous deals! I think they’re all on sale at the moment!

 Bunny has these these great templates!

KimB has this gorgeous new kit A Fresh Start

Jazzy has an amazing set of wordart that coordinates with Kim’s A Fresh Start

Diana has this beautiful new kit with soft colors 

Charlie has these cool Notepaper Flakes

HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!!

~ For some inspiration, check out these fine designers’ blogs (their names are linked above) or the DSO Gallery! Don’t forget about the DSO Challenge Blog, too! ~

HOORAY!!!

After 15 days, 2 surgeries, and a blood transfusion, my Mom is finally HOME from the hospital!

My Dad was able to bring her home last night around 5pm.

Thank you so much for all your prayers! They really helped her get well.

Now she can relax in her own home in her comfy chair and fuzzy blankets. My Dad has been an excellent nurse staying by her side most of the day every day she was in the hospital. But his job doesn't end there, he's got his work cut out for him making sure my Mom takes all her meds, gets to her doctor's appointments and follows all the doctor's orders. You're doing GREAT Dad, keep up the good work!!!

Here's to a speedy recovery, Mom! You are my hero and best friend!
♥ I LOVE YOU ♥

Have you heard of Fruitcake Lady?

oh. my. gosh. This lady is hilarious! Apparently this was on Jay Leno.

She reminds me of the “Shoebox” cards lady. You’ve gotta watch this (don’t forget to pause my playlist on the right first, so you can hear what she’s saying):

{warning – you may not want young ears around}

UPDATE: My Mom is doing very good! I saw her at the hospital last night for a little while. Her morphine has her making up funny stories and wanting to bust out of there & go home. LOL She was cracking us up as usual. It was good to finally see her much more awake and aware. She’s been in the hospital almost 2 weeks and majority of that time she has been in tons of pain, very uncomfortable, and unable to talk much or be herself. We can tell she’s feeling better because she’s suddenly worried about getting her Christmas shopping done and cleaning the house for the holidays. She really wants to eat – when she was able to eat, she just kept vomitting last week. They wouldn’t let her eat or drink yesterday. Hopefully today they will give her some liquids, then solids soon. She overheard some nurses talking about pizza in another room, and my Mom said if someone couldn’t get her at least some ice chips that she wanted to leap out of bed and hunt down the pizza and eat it all. hahahaa

She just had some x-rays this morning and now they’re waiting results.

Gotta go. I’m heading to my parents’ house to help get some cleaning done so my Mom can stop worrying. Plus my Brother’s coming in town tomorrow night, so we are ALL very excited to see him! Hope you have a safe flight, Spencer!!!

Come See the Light

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.

It’s been kind of hard getting in the Christmas spirit {which usually decorating the house with the family does it} because my Mom has been in the hospital for the past week and a half. Earlier in the week, Ben, the kids and I went to my parents’ house and set out their tree with lots of lights and garland, and we found some decorations to place around the house too. We wanted my Mom to feel “festive” when she comes home. I finally started getting us ready for Christmas by putting lights on the house outside and setting out a few decorations. I’m really hoping we can get our tree set up this weekend. Are you ready for Christmas?

Have you seen Mark Mabry’s photo exhibits called Reflections of Christ and/or Another Testament? They are so amazing! I have the book with all the pictures from Reflections of Christ and my parents have the CD, which they play often – it’s so beautiful and peaceful.

Well, I just received an email notice with this info:

“Dear Friends,
Great news! Deseret Book is offering a friends and family discount of 40% off the Book, DVD, and CD from Another Testament. This is for in store only so print and enjoy:
COUPON

“Also, we've made a new video combining images from both projects put to the music of Come See The Light:

“The biggest thrill of my life over the last two years, other than the birth of my son, Canon, has been the chance to speak often about the making of Reflections of Christ and Another Testament. The process of making of these two projects effected me deeply and positively. These projects deal with my personal understanding of the Savior and how His gospel works in my life.
This email reaches out to people of various faiths. Whether we're Baptist, Catholic, Mormon, Methodist, Unitarian, or anything else, the intent of this work is to let us all imagine together meeting Christ in person.

“The new video combines my two most recent projects and focuses on two different communities of people coming to the Lord. We are all familiar with the first group of people as those in the Holy Land at the time of Christ. The imagery also introduces another group living across the world on the American continent who knew about the Savior and awaited His appearance after His ascension to Heaven in the book of Acts. The stories combine the Biblical record of Christ and the record kept in the Book of Mormon.

“If nothing else, I hope these images give us pause to imagine that Jesus is among us and that we can see each other as we are... brothers and sisters.

Merry Christmas,
Mark Mabry
markmabry@mac.com “

I just watched the youtube video and it is incredible! I really hope that you’ll watch it. It’s only a few minutes and already I feel some peace in what’s been a really hard past week and a half, especially today.

My Mom is about to have surgery again tonight. Please keep her in your prayers. Her surgery last Sunday went fine until she didn’t come out of her anesthesia, the doctors gave her something to counteract it, then she stopped breathing. She had to be on a respirator for a day or two until she could breathe on her own. I’m praying that her surgery goes well tonight and she can wake up from anesthesia and get well so she can come home.

* * EDIT * * Received message from my Dad - surgery went well & my Mom is waking up! He is with her right now. THANK YOU for all your prayers! I was getting really nervous and scared most of the day since her surgery kept getting delayed. It's been a long day for everyone. Now my tears are tears of Joy! I can finally breathe easy tonight.

NEW MOON tonight!

Today is going to be BUSY but full of FUN!

I need to shower & get dressed for the day.

   

Call doctor because he forgot a stitch in my bellybutton & it hurts. {had laparoscopy & cystoscopy last Friday} Ben tried to help me get it out last night, but that didn’t go so well. :(

Go buy some groceries.

Drop off case of water bottles to school for teachers’ luncheon.

Pick up sister for cousins lunch!

Eat lunch & laugh til it hurts with awesome cousins!

Pick up kids from school.

Nag kids until homework is done & clean clothes are put away.

Make quick & easy dinner for kids.

Pick up sister and head to theater to wait in super long line for NEW MOON!!!!!! Wooohooooo!!!!!!!

{do ya like the *eye candy* I slipped in this post? heee heee}

Are you going to see New Moon? Let me know if you liked it!

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!

Wassup?

Just popping in to say HOLLA!!!
{that's "Holl-ah" not "O-lah" like in Spanish}
heeee heeee

What have I been up to?

Ummm, let me see...
took Felicia to dentist last week & today

Felicia couldn't eat for half-hour after dentist today and it had to be liquids, so we went to the store & made chocolate shakes at home for her lunch (just so I wasn't feeding her soooo bad I added a little protein powder to make it a little healthy)

went on Ward Campout over the weekend at Camp LoMia in Pine, AZ
SO FUN!!! pics coming soon

had lunch w/ my sister & the cousins last week
{I look forward to these every month}

started going back to the gym
got the OK from podiatrist to work in a little cardio slowly

grabbed price list for massages while at the gym
{a girl can dream right?}

played bunko with the girls
didn't win big prize but got cute door prize

went to the Cannery

went to Enrichment & learned all about being prepared for Emergencies with "Grab-n-Go" Binders for important documents
more info HERE

thinking about getting a haircut

finally bought the books "Vampire Diaries" (split cost w/ sis)
started watching "Vampire Diaries" on the CW w/ sis
{new weekly ritual}

enjoying new Fall tv shows, so far
{yep, I'll admit, I'm a tv junkie!}

still trying to get pool from green to blue. UGH!!

OH and the BEST day ever - BEN came home early!!!! So, he's been home for 2 weeks instead of just one week!!!! Yipeeee!!!

So tell me what exciting things you've been up to?

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!

DSO's 2nd Annual PU Grab Bag Week!

WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!

The DSO Designers have been BUSY!

Check out their PU Grab Bags too!

I'll be back to show you a few layouts as sneak peeks to what's in my bag!!!

Have a FANTABULOUS weekend!!

HAPPY Shopping & Scrapping!

Little Sneak Peek

DSO's 2nd Annual Personal Use Grab Bag Week $3 each

{More peeks tomorrow}

I'm still here...

Holy Hanna! I haven't posted on my poor little bloggy in for-evah!

Ok, this is gonna be kinda long - BUT it's our summer in a photo-nutshell.

June 2, 2009 - My oldest {Nathaniel} turned 11

June 24 - 28th we went to Ben's family reunion in Utah.

June 26, 2009 went to Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House
The temple was BEAUTIFUL!!!
June 27, 2009 HUGE Family Reunion at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo, UT
Ben's Family with all his siblings (minus 1) plus his parents & nieces/nephews

June 27, 2009 my beautiful daughter, Felicia, had her 10th birthday!
July 4, 2009 we celebrated Independence Day with a few fireworks of our own (in our backyard)!

July 23, 2009 these dorks guys left for Comic-Con in San Diego, CA

July 26, 2009 They came home.
Ben got all of us tons of FUN free swag!

Are these not the CUTEST little Batmen & Catwomen?

I told Ben he really shouldn't bother coming home unless he found some New Moon swag.

No I wasn't that mean, but he DID hook me up!

Awesome trading cards, plus see that Carlisle Ring? Everyone was waiting in line for raffles to win one of those. Someone thought his costume was COOL so he gave one to Ben! Woohooo! Way to go hubby!

He also scored these posters for me!

The big posters look just like the smaller ones, but the back looks faded & backwards almost like you're looking thru the poster! Pretty awesome!!! Thanks again babe!

Ok, so we wanted to wear the COOL masks too!

Do we look HOT or what? LOL

These two actually played together a LOT this summer!

August 5, 2009 This little guy got a haircut!

This is the BEFORE.

Are you diggin' on his sweet locks?

Well, don't get too used to them, cuz now they're gone!

There's my adorable Anson!

August 6, 2009 My munchkins got some new Webkinz

Thanks MOM for finding these amazing deals @ Costco!

August 7, 2009 I had foot surgery. OUCH!

And got to wear this cute shoe for the last 3 weeks.

Well, it's better than the one I wore 3 years ago when I had my bunionectomy.

I can finally squeeze into a sandal, so at least my shoes match now.

August 9, 2009 the Boys being silly after church

The Girls striking a pose after changing out of church dresses.

Yep, they planned on their matching outfits! heee heee

August 10, 2009 Ben left for Oregon (for work)

And my sister, Christy, had her birthday!

August 12, 2009 FIRST day of school

Nathaniel - 5th grade, Ashley - 2nd grade, Anson - Kindergarten, Felicia - 5th grade
Yep, my sweet fun baby is in all day school now! I have totally mixed emotions about that. I'm happy for him because he loves it & was so excited to start school. On the other hand, I miss my little buddy hanging out with me all day!

After 1st day of school treats!

Sonic Slushees

While Felicia was playing on the computer after school.....

I found Ashley like this...

She curled up on a jacket on the floor & passed out. LOL

I found Nathaniel sawin' some zzzzz's on the couch

Anson was watching tv, but quickly gave in to his heavy eyelids. haha

They had a wonderful 1st day of school, but apparently it totally wore them out!

August 16, 2009 10pm - Nathaniel got stung by a Bark Scorpion!

OUCH!!! Poor guy! He thought he needed to go to the ER or he would DIE! He knows those suckers are very poisonous! I talked to Ben on the phone {yep he was still out of town}, looked it up online and also called Poison Control. All I had to do was wash the area with soap & water, dry it off, apply a cool compress, and give him some Tylenol. As long as he didn't have an allergic reaction (like hives or trouble breathing), then he would be OK. Poison Control did warn me that this type of scoprion releases neurotoxins and within 6hrs he would probably have some numbness and/or tingling anywhere on his body. It could take 24hrs up to 2weeks for it to go away. He had some tingling the next day and came home from school early, but was fine later that evening. Thank goodness!!!!

That night ALL the kids slept in my bed with me.

I had our pest control company back at our house and respraying for scoprions inside & out!

August 18, 2009 Ahhh yes, that's water under our Hot Water Heater.

Well, it was 15 years old, so time for a new one!
Another thing to take care of while Ben was out of town.

Luckily, my Dad's friend came over right away to replace it!

August 22, 2009 we Celebrated Anson's 5th birthday!

{even tho his actual bday is August 23rd}

Ben came home for the weekend to celebrate Anson's bday!

But then he had to leave again early Monday morning :(

August 28-29th Nathaniel had his FIRST Boy Scout Campout! He was ecstatic! He loved that all the boys got to help plan the menu - he LOVES food! He came home covered in dirt, but had a BLAST!!!

See - my foot is healing quite nicely!

I took this pic this morning. I know my feet are covered in scars. But the newest one is on my left foot in the middle. My foot still hurts a lot periodically and I can't walk very fast.

Ok, sorry to end this LONG post with a pic of my foot (I know feet are gross) but at least my toenails look cute, right? LOL

Oh I had Parent Information Evening (PIE night) last night with Anson & Ashley's teachers. Their teachers seem nice & fun. Plus the kids love them! Looks like the year is off to a good start!

Today is picture day for the kids. We were late, but NOT because I was busy fixing their hair (I got that done on time) but Anson was stuck on the potty - crying in pain. Poor guy. He finally did his business and we were on our way! Felicia was the only one on time because I had to take her to school early for a student council meeting.

Tomorrow is PIE night for Nathaniel & Felicia's classes. I'll be busy trying to touch base with both teachers since usually Ben & I divide & conquer. But he is still out of town. In fact, he's on his way to Seattle today for PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) with his friend Trey. They will be helping EA promote the sequel to Army of Two xbox game {they will be dressed in total Army of Two gear}!

Ok, I'm out!