A whole Scrapbook in ONE day!

My dear friend Julie, who is a Stampin' UP! demonstrator, showed me her scrapbook that she did in ONE day!
It was absolutely the coolest scrapbook I had ever seen. So, I asked her if she could hold her class in our grade school to help all of us learn how to do a scrapbook in a day. She gladly obliged and we had a wonderful day!
We had a great number of people and I really look forward to doing more of these in the future!

The scrapbookers....

hard at work.

Aunt Cindy, Jill and Aunt Carol...

busy making pages.

Jen...


mastering the Big Shot!

Aunt Cindy, Jill and my mom...

working away!

Julie...

concentrating as she works to seal our covers!

Our albums...

as they are stood up to dry.

What a neat collection...

of many different albums.

A closer look...

of our creativity!

Some unique designs...

and how beautiful they are!

Jen...

stressing and obsessing over the perfect pages!

Joyce and Karen...

were making great progress!

Aunt Cindy...

taking pictures of Annie and Sammy!

Thank you to everyone who came and scrapbooked with us! I had a blast and I hope you did as well! I LOVE the book I created and I look forward to making many, many more!

Wagie Rides for Tuesday!

My Best Friend Jen and I had our balloon release. I did video it... however, I need to watch it and then download it to my computer before I can share it!

Anyway, I did take a few pics. They turned out beautifully!

Jen and her girls came over to our house (because I had worked and the girls had been sick). She brought balloons, and tied NUKS on and waited so patiently for me to grab a shower!
(I'm lucky she has the patience of a saint!)

As we were getting ready to leave, we see this...

Emma thought that was pretty great, having a NUK tied to the end of the balloon!

Emma...

trying to figure out how to get that balloon off the NUK!

The twins were loaded up and ready to go...

it was such beautiful weather and the twins LOVE their wagon! We decided to just walk down the gravel road by our house. We had talked about walking all the way to the bridge... however, that is quite a walk and neither me nor Jen was up for that!

Emma was excited to be in her wagon too!

We headed down the road... only to realize, we left without one pacifier and Emma didn't have her sunglasses on! Big sister to the rescue! Hannah ran back and grabbed her sunglasses for her!

We walked a ways down the road and picked a dry spot to set off the balloons...

Jen helping untangle the balloons and get the girls all set up!

Emma and Hannah...

with their balloons to send to Tuesday! Hannah picked out a really pretty butterfly balloon to send! We soon discovered that the balloons with NUKs didn't fly... so we quickly snapped them off and released the balloons!

Once we watched the balloons float off into the distance... we noticed Cadie taking off into a field!
She had to wade through a ditch full of water... twice!
So, the messy girls got put in one wagon together!

Hannah and Cadie

While the tidy girls rode together!

Emma and Courtney

We walked back to my house and as we got closer and was attempting to put the wagons up... Cadie takes off running across our yard that is so soggy from all the melted snow and not packed down yet b/c of construction last year. As I take off after her... I loose my shoes! They become stuck in the mud! I ended up running across the yard without my shoes!
To make matter worse... not only is Cadie a mess from the watery ditch, I'm a mess from running across a muddy yard without my shoes!
For those who don't know me... I hate dirt and mud and yuck!
Cadie wasn't allowed in the house until all muddy clothes were removed. As for me... well, lets just say I am thankful my neighbors weren't home!
Im also thankful that Jen's camera was safely out of reach!
Hannah... well, Hannah thought it was quite cute to sing a little limmerick for me! Won't say which one... but lets just say she saw way more than London and France!

OH! I almost forgot! Jen ordered Tuesday tiles for us and they came in the other day! These are the cutest things I have ever seen! If you haven't ordered them you have to do so by February 14th! Don't forget to mention FOR TUESDAY in the comment field!!

Makes My Monday

Cheryl at Twinfatuation hosts a "Makes My Monday" and I am jumping on board!

For this Monday, what made my day...

My best friend took me out for lunch for my birthday!
We ate and visited then took the girls to McDonalds so the girls could play and we could visit some more!

I LOVED IT!

It was a wonderful day, and it REALLY Made My Monday!

Thanks Jen and Emma!
I love you guys!

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a day filled with activities!

It started with getting the girls ready early to have them at the school to walk in the parade with their siblings.

Cadie and Courtney dressed up as little pumpkins!

We got to the school and met up with the parade. Daddy took the girls and started on the parade to the nursing home. I stayed behind to hide "ghosts" in Annie's classroom.

I caught up to the parade after they had left the nursing home and I got pictures of the kids walking back to the school...

Sammy the skeleton pirate. Someone from the nursing home gave him the skull mask... that wasn't apart of the original costume!

Next up was Anna...

...the hippie!


We also ran into a very silly little bee along the way...

... so I had stopped and visited for a few moments waiting for daddy and the girls to come back by!

However, we had a miscommunication and I returned to the classroom, while he needed help at the nursing home! Sorry, Daddy! Thank you to Jolene K. for helping with the twins (she has lots of experience as her twins are now 16)!

I had been asked by Annie's room mother to do the games for Annie's class. I was glad to have something to do and I had done lots of research on what fun Halloween games there are.

I decided on doing a trivia game and a ghost word game. We started with the ghost word game. I took tootsie pops and put tissue paper over them and decorated them with eyes and a letter on the back. The letters on the back spelled out words. I decided to hide the ghosts around the classroom. The kids divided into 2 teams and had to work together to find the ghosts and form words! They all did a great job and I had enough gifts for everyone!

Next up was the trivia. Again they were divided into 2 teams. The first team to 2000 was the winner (though, I had enough treats for everyone). I had questions marked with a point value depending on how hard the question was. I alternated between the two teams, but in hindsight, it would be better if the team who got the question right -got to keep going until they missed a question. Then the other team has the option of stealing the points if they answer correctly. The kids did very well and the team who won barely beat the other team!

I had just as much fun as they did!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to the other classrooms to see their parties! JC had taken the girls out to the playground (and Sammy's class was out there as well) and they had a blast playing with the big kids!

Cadie on the tornado slide

Courtney on the tornado slide

Before heading out, I snapped a few shots...

Sammy and his friend Aidan

I totally missed the kindergarten class...

but, this is Austin ready to go.

We headed to town as I had a few errands and I wanted to treat the kids to McDonalds.
Then once our errands were done, we came back home before heading out for the evening...

best buds

the gang getting ready to trick or treat...


The girls were very tired...

Courtney

Cadie wasn't too trilled either... sleep got to her too!

poor tired pumpkin!

After we had traveled a few streets, we met up with Jen and her girls and trick or treated my parents. Before we all headed out, I couldn't help but snap a pic of Hannah and Annie!


Once we were all done, we visited grandpa J and grandma J! We brought pizza and so we all sat down to eat after a full noc of trick or treating!
Halloween was fun... exhausting but fun!

The loss of one great man...

Ok, so I know I promised to update about Halloween and all that has been going on around here. Honestly, I have barely even seen my computer since last week sometime.

The laundry around this place is slowly trying to take over...

Not to mention I worked an extra day last week and then the day I was so extremely tired and thought I couldn't function anymore, I found out that I could. See, I got a call from my dearest friend Debbie (who happens to be married to my cousin Mark) and she wondered if I could go down and check on Mark's dad. They had found him unresponsive in his chair. Debbie had called 911 and they were on their way, but since I live 1/4 of a mile away, she wondered if I would go down and check on him until they got there. Thankfully, Grandma J and Grandpa J were already here! They were graciously watching the kids so I could get a little catnap in as I had worked and hadn't had any sleep.

I was in a panic driving down the road, I didn't know what I would find. I didn't know what to expect and though I am a nurse, what could I do in the field? At the hospital, sure I know what to do, but this was different! I decided to keep my cool and just assess the situation as I got to it. I walked in and both Chuck and Mark were standing there. Not really sure what was going on or what to do. Thankfully, Lyndell (Chuck and Mark's dad) was breathing and he had a pulse! *whew* He had a temp of 104 axillary. I asked for some cool cloths and placed them under his arms and by that point, the rescue squad was starting to show up. Darren was first there and had difficulty getting a blood pressure. Before I could even offer to take the blood pressure, the remainder of the rescue unit was there and I just stepped aside. To make a long story short, Lyndell ended up being life-flighted to Methodist Medical Center.

The next couple of days was very hard on the family as they had to make some difficult decisions. Lyndell had found out in August that he had cancer and that it had spread to the bone. He had been undergoing chemotherapy for the cancer. He apparently, had gotten a 'bug' and his body had nothing left to fight it off with. His family had to decide to ween him off the cardiac drugs that were helping to keep him going. They were told that he would never come out of the state he was in. His family was devastated. They were not prepared for this and it wasn't ever what they expected.

Lyndell died on Halloween. I felt honored that Mark and Debbie asked me to watch Austin for them the noc before Halloween and Halloween noc. I was more than happy to keep Austin for them! So, for Halloween, I had 2 pumpkins, a pirate (with a skull mask), a transformer and a hippie!

I had a blast with all of them! Austin is so well behaved and quiet (very different from my crew)! But, he played very well with Sammy and seemed to do ok. Debbie and Mark had requested that Austin not be told about his grandpa b/c they didn't want him upset for Halloween. How amazing they were to think of Austin and I made sure that NO ONE mentioned anything around him. Austin got to have a great Halloween before learning about his grandpa.

I also have to mention how terrific I think Debbie's older boys are. Her oldest son, Derrick, is a senior in high school and after his football practice, then he came and picked up Austin and took him trick or treating the noc before Halloween. Many of our local communities do stuff on both nocs. While many kids would take advantage of not having any responsibility, he ASKED if he could take Austin out.

I couldn't even begin to tell you the impact of Lyndell's death not only on his family, but our community and in the business world. Lyndell had started his own business -Corsaw Hardwood Lumber. He is well known all over the state and probably beyond for his hardwood floors. He will be greatly missed.

His visitation last noc had at least a 2 hr wait in line. It is one of the biggest visitations I have ever seen. They had a beautiful service for him today at Wiley Luthern Church. Which I got to attend b/c my best friend JEN came out and stayed with the girls (I couldn't ever thank her enough for all she does for us)! His oldest grand-daughter, Becky, got up and spoke and did a phenomninal job! A business partner also spoke and so did his nephew-in-law. They all did a wonderful job and had us laughing and crying. Mr. Howerter (my music teacher from grade school) sung a beautiful peice. After the service, everyone gathered in the basement of the church for a delicious array of food!

If you have made it this far in to this story, please go hug your parents, your children, your grandparents... anyone who means a lot to you... and tell them that you love them. You never know when that might the last time that you get to say that to them.

May God Bless you and your family.

Skyler's Birthday party

The kids and I loaded up and went to my cousin Tracey's house for her son Skyler's bday party.

It was physically and mentally exhausting! Since it was a weinee roast, it was outside with a bonfire... a table covered with food, and a very nice landcaping pond nearby. The girls were slow to warm-up but once they did... they were all over the place. I was constantly asking where one twin or the other was at! Even though there was plenty of family around, I couldn't keep track of the girls running in so many directions!

Eventually, I gave up trying to keep track of them and JM and I loaded up the girls in their wagon and went to visit my best friend Jen.

The girls always like to play with Emma ...


Cadie found Jen's hat that she use to wear in the rain...


Playing peek-a-boo with the hat...


Cadie loved dragging out all of Emma's toys...

...of course, for my girls, Emma and Hannah have all the coolest toys!

Courtney really loved Emma's bike...

Poor Emma, Cadie and Courtney always wanted what she had! The three of them together are so funny! We joke about them being like triplets!

We had a blast visiting Jen and her girls! We missed most of the weinee roast... but that was ok. It was too hard trying to keep up with the girls in the dark!

Apple Blossom Farm

On Monday, JC and I went to Apple Blossom Farm with my best friend Jen and her girls! We had such a great time and I am already looking forward to next year! Check out her recap here.

Apple Blossom is a really cool farm where you can co to pick out pumpkins, apples, gourds plus the kids get to have an enjoyable time too!


First up was the zoo characters...

Notice JC on the far left... he is always doing something silly in front of a camera! This is just a few of his antics for the day. I am happy to report that many of them were not caught on camera. Like him throwing rocks down the back of my jeans or that he invented "flying corn"... the kids LOVED it... but my words to him all day were... "you are such a dork!"

next is courtney sue climbing up to go on the slide...


Then JC and Jen took the little girls down the big slide as the older three ran off to play...


Next up was Jen and I on the slide...

we would get started down the slide and it never failed to slide into each other!

I found that I don't slide as fast as the kids do! But it was still so much fun!

Hannah and Emma coming down the slide...


Anna, my sk8r girl...


Next the kids went around playing on the various boats, planes, and trains.
Cadie was concentrating pretty hard getting to where she wanted to go...

Cadie loved the slide so much she would go down it over and over again!


JC and Sammy found their way around the corn maze. Jen and I visited the craft shop (boy, JC is sure glad I left my purse at home)! Then we met back up again and JC and the kids went on the Monster Truck while Jen and I visited with another friend we met up with there!
We all went out to supper at Steak 'n' Shake and the kids must have worked up an appetite b/c soon as the food was there... total silence! LOL
It was an awesome day and everyone had a blast! Thanks Jen, for showing us such a good time!