And Now a Word From Our Sponsors ....

I really have been doing a TERRIBLE job of blogging lately - not only for my personal stuff but my digiscrap goodness, too! I need to strike some kind of balance between the two because I really don't see myself starting another blog just for my creative work ... I can't even keep up with the one blog I have!!! I guess you will all have to learn to skip what you're not interested in ;)

First off, ScrapMatters is having a Hybrid Creative Team Call!! I have had SO MUCH fun being a part of this creative team for the past 9 months ... awesome ladies to work with, amazing designers' goodies to play with, and the fun of being part of an amazing community!! I could not have asked for a better team to call my first! Please consider applying - we'd love to add even more talent to our team :)CT Requirements:

* Each month create 3 hybrid projects OR 2 hybrid projects and 2 digital layouts
* Participate in site challenges, the team blog, the forum, and the gallery
* Post in 4 galleries (SM, DST, and 2 of your choice)
* Be a team member for 6 months

Please e-mail the following to ward [at] afconnect [dot] com:

* Link to your most active forum
* Gallery link
* A short bio
* Link to your blog (if you have one)

This call closes at 11:59 p.m. PST on Monday, June 8.

Just to get you in the hybrid spirit, I'm posting some of my projects and layouts from the past little while. All images are linked to my gallery if you want to leave me some love or view the designer credits!

Click for more detailed image

Click for more detailed images of entire album

Click for more detailed images

Click to see this matching game in action!

Click for more detailed images

Click for more detailed images and inside

Click for more detailed image

Click for more detailed images

This image not linked - had to be pulled from galleries (problem with kit)

Click image for tutorial!

Click on image to see inside

Whew ... guess it's been longer than I thought since I posted any of my work!! Sorry for the MASSIVE number of images and links. Hopefully I can stay on top of things a little more ;)

Upcoming posts - School's out for summer, My babysitting gig ends, Brinley is inducted, Ashton prepares for her big day (and gets holes in her head), Kendyl graduates ... again, and Cougar becomes a diva.

Ashton's 8 ... Time to Celebrate!!

In the spirit of her 8th birthday here are 8 things that make Ashton special:
1. She has beautiful blue eyes with gorgeous long lashes
2. She still has ringlets that form around her face
3. She is incredibly tenderhearted
4. She loves to sing and is very good at it
5. She is a good friend and well liked
6. She has a thirst for knowledge
7. She loves being a big sister to her little brother
8. She shares her birthday with her Grandpa (Steve's dad)

Well, her birthday was actually on Sunday, but with our schedule these days (last week of school and swim team every night) it's taken a few days to get around to posting. Poor Ashton - her whole life has been like that! We didn't get our first digital camera until the Christmas after she was born so when I look back and try to find photos of her first 6 months they are few and far between ... or lost. I can't even find a photo of me in the hospital with her or holding her in her blessing dress. I have blessing photos, just none with me in them - not necessarily a bad thing given the photos that I DO have of Ashton as a baby. *sigh*

Ashton was our Memphis baby. I remember her looking so much like Brinley those first few months and then she started to change ... next thing I knew she had blue eyes and curly hair!! Oh, she's always been a cutie, but it was fun to see her morphing into something that resembled her father a bit more than Brinley ever did ;) Now we call her "little Steve." I remember Steve coming home from dropping her off at preschool one day - the first time Ms. Beckie had met him. Apparently she opened the door, looked at Steve and said "Ah, NOW I see where Ashton comes from" (or something like that)!! Looking at her baby pictures now we see Cougar ... kinda fun to have 2 of each mold!It's kinda hard having a birthday on Sunday. It ends up getting mixed in with meetings, church, and an inability to REALLY go out and party. No Red Robin for us that day ... hopefully on Friday once we are in California and can leave the other kidlets with Grammy and Paca ;) We had decided the night before that presents would have to be opened after Steve got home from his 8 A.M. meeting rather than before (although all of my critters are up with the sun). I got up and made monkey bread for everyone ... always a hit! After Steve got home we got straight to the presents - she HAD been waiting for over 3 hours at this point!! She got a salon chair for her American Girl doll, Hotel for Dogs on DVD, a new Puppy in my Pocket, and a new game for her Nintendo DS. Along with that she got loads of cash from grandparents and is planning to buy a bed for her American Girl doll like the one Brinley got for her birthday!She also got her very own set of scriptures with her name on them - green, just like she wanted (because they are the color of her birthstone). Funny story ... We went to buy them and when we were putting her name on them went back and forth ... middle name or no middle name? What had we done on Brinley's? We couldn't remember! We opted to NOT include her middle name (Elizabeth) because it seemed so long. Came home and checked Brinley's - they have her middle name on them! We decided when we buy Kendyl's in a few years we'll use her middle initial ;) Of course she asked why her middle name wasn't on them, too! We told her it was too long and didn't look right ... not a total lie. Steve and I also had the debate about "timing" - should she get them for her birthday or her baptism (on June 6th)? We couldn't remember what we did for Brinley (would have been useful if I had been blogging when Brinley was baptized). We decided to give them to her on her birthday. She opened them and Brinley said "I had to wait until my baptism to get mine!" TOTAL FAILURES as parents in the "Baptism/8th birthday Traditions!!!"After a fabulous 3 hours of church - complete with NOT blowing out another tire by hitting a curb like I had done a week before on Mother's Day - we came home and watched Hotel for Dogs ... they love that movie! Really is a cute one :) Ashton had requested steak for her birthday dinner. Yes, STEAK (did I mention she turned 8?!?!)!! I started the grill and came back in the house to prepare the steaks. Thanks to my dad for teaching me the trick to the ultimate steak. Steve came down to throw them on the grill to find the flame had gone out - NO MORE PROPANE ... and it's the Sabbath! OY!! We start discussing our options. It is almost 6:00 P.M. at this point and just about anything else will take an hour since I have no other meat thawed. Steve starts talking about waffles. I'm thinking "IT'S HER BIRTHDAY!!!" I suggest that maybe we could call our dear friends the Wilsons to beg for use of their propane tank if they aren't using it themselves. A quick phone call and not only are they NOT using it, but they have an extra for their food storage! Crisis averted, we carry on with the original plan of steaks for dinner and all is right with the world ;)What kind of cake did she want this year? I was a bit worried that she might expect me to attempt something grand after the Lightning McQueen cake that I worked my magic on for Cougar, but her request was simple ... Lemon Cooler Cake from Costco. Not only did I not have to DECORATE it, I didn't even have to BAKE the darn thing!! I think it tasted even better for that very reason.She is now looking forward to having all of her grandparents in town in a few weeks for her baptism and is really hoping to get her ears pierced when we're in Califonia this weekend. We love this girl so much!!

I'd Like to Thank ...

My dear friend Shell sent me this video today and I could not believe it ... I never even knew I was nominated!!! While I'm fairly certain that my husband and children had NO SAY in whether or not this honor should be given to me I thoroughly enjoyed the comments from complete strangers as to my overwhelming capabilities as a mother - now if they could only convince my family that I could be the least bit worthy .... Totally hilarious!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO (I can't find a way to embed it here)

Happy {inter}National Scrapbooking Day!!

Well, the big weekend is finally here! There are so many sales and fun things going on in the digital community today and throughout the weekend that I could never list them all. I filled you in on a few of them in my previous post if you wanna go back and take a peek ;) Needless to say, you WON'T be disappointed if you take the time to head out digi shopping and blog hopping - discounts, freebies, and giveaways GALORE!

My blog happens to be the 25th stop on the ScrapMatters {i}NSD blog train! The designers over at SM have created the gorgeous kit "Hawaiian Happy Hour" that is yours free with a $15 purchase between May 1st and May 8th. It made me homesick for Hawaii all over again!! Now, I know you can't really be "homesick" for a place you have never lived before, but in the few times I have been there to visit I absolutely fell in love! I could sit on the beach, stare at the ocean, and listen to the waves all day long ... and get a fantastic tan while doing it! Our trip there last summer was what I think of when I think of paradise - except I didn't have my children with me. As nice as it was to have some time away to enjoy a much needed vacation, it definitely hit home that our "real" paradise is wherever our little family is. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii together someday!

This is one of my favorite photos from our trip last summer. I took it from our balcony the first night we were in Maui. We slept with our patio doors open every night and enjoyed the sounds and smells of the ocean along with the cool crosswinds. I've made it into and 8x8 Quick Page that you can download for yourself! Click on the preview image to download.Well, it's time for you to move onto the next stop ... Dawn should have another goodie for you!! If you didn't stop by Mary's blog before you stopped here make sure you head back and visit her. And, if for some reason you got lost on your way, you can always head back to the start of the train at Andrea's. There will be a total of 35 stops in all! Thank you for stopping by ... have a fabulously scrappy weekend :)