My Life's Scraps

Craziness- Scrap stuff for sale!!!

2011-04-27T13:24:00.008-06:00

We are moving this summer... again. (tell me about it) More than likely in about a month or so. So i've begun the process of going through everything and cleaning out.

I happen to have a couple boxes of my paper I designed that I need to get rid of asap.

here are the options:

1 large pack = 10 papers of each design, total 6 (*12)designs. $12

* I have a total of 6 packs of each line available in this option*

1 small pack = 25 papers of 1 design. $6

* I have a total of 2 packs of each design available in this option*

If you don't remember the lines- there are 3 total. Beach Boy, BFF, and Winter Wonderland. Each line has 6 double-sided papers (*total of 12 designs). They are packaged up, ready to be shipped. Shipping will be a flat $10 regardless of how many you purchase. I will accept Paypal ONLY. and will only ship to US residents. (if you are in Utah county or Pocatello, I can arrange to bring them to you or meet up somewhere)

Here are the pics for the lines- email me @ amberwinward@gmail.com for your preferences. Spread the word, I need to get rid of ALL of them by the end of May.

BFF: (click to enlarge)

Beach Boy: (click to enlarge)

Winter Wonderland: (click to enlarge)

Will post updates as I get rid of them. If you want to combine shipping amongst friends- great, but be aware that shipping might be a little more based on how many boxes it takes to send :)

(dont' know what's going on with this crazy spacing crap... sorry. lol)

Time to catch up.

2011-01-25T20:30:00.005-07:00

Now that the "official" stuff is over- I'll start posting about our holidays. I kinda liked posting everyday...maybe I can keep it going? lol

So.. I"ll have to do several posts- because honestly... there was just too much awesomeness going on to do just one post. seriously- my family rocks. :)

We have SO much fun together and I just love spending time with them.

First off- Is my cooky little boy. He's the funniest little kid you will ever meet. ANd he gets a kick out of the littlest things. One example:

all the kids were making gingerbread houses and he was totally not interested. He'd rather play with his cars. So as I was taking pics, he decided to start running and hiding from me instead of playing nice and letting me get a good picture. (littel turkey)

so he takes off and after he discovered I wouldn't chase him... he comes back and starts playing "peek-a-boo".

When I turn around and snap a shot- he laughs hysterically and then takes off again.

you get the picture. it lasted like an hour....lol

anyway- a few shots- they are blurry.. but he's so dang cute- i have to show them.

isn't he a hoot? lol

And then on another note: I made my brother and sister-in-law their wedding album. (i know.. it's been almost 2 years) And I was SO STINKIN PROUD of it!! It was awesome.. even by my standards. lol

ANyway- a whole book book full of deliciosness- because seriously, their pictures were TO DIE FOR. If anyone in Utah needs a recomendation for wedding photography- I can totally hook you up.

So yah- here are a few pictures in the succession of them opening the box and seeing it. They loved it and it makes me happy that they get to enjoy it :)

So this is them taking it out of the box and discovering what it is.

Then we have the discovery of what it REALLY is. (isn't her face priceless?)

And then we have the final look...after she's looked at the whole thing. (you think she likes it?)

It was so fun. I took pics of all the pages- I just have to find the pictures now. lol Then I'll post some.

SO there ya go... the first of many posts about our vacation :)

Blog Hop day FINAL :)

2011-01-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yes... 'tis true. I know ya'll have enjoyed hearing from me each day.. esp. since I haven't talked about anything by LP- but then again.. that was the point. lol

So, today I will announce the winner of my RAK, which was the $5 gift certificate to the LP Store.

Drumroll please..............................................................................

CHRISTINE!!! You left a comment on Day 5. So email me @ amberwinward@gmail.com

and we can work out the details :)

For those who didn't come from the LP blog... stop by there to check out our grand prize and how to get in on the good stuff!

And last but not least- here is the FINAL piece to the freebie kit. If you have been with us all week- you should now have the whole kit (picture of the whole kit is on the LP blog)! Be sure to leave love where it's due. This is a texture overlay. Use it on top of your kits or pictures.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Stop by Amandas Blog one last time and check out the goodies she has in store :)

Blog Hop Day 7

2011-01-22T10:00:00.001-07:00

Sadly, Tomorrow is the last day of the blog hop :(

It's actually been fun posting every day. Maybe i should actually keep that up? lol

So, there's a GRAND PRIZE involved with this hop. I'm sure you want to see what it is- but I enjoy torture, so you won't get to actually see it until tomorrow ;)- Lets just say, it's awesome!

Lots of physical and digital product- so you don't want to miss out.

The way you can get an entry is by doing 3 things:

1) post a comment on every blog on this blog hop

2) become a fan on our FB page

3) Follow our blog.

you will get an additional entry if you make a purchase on the LP website too!

For now, I'm gonna leave you with more eye candy. Here is a card I made using the Chic and Shabby line.

Now go see what Amanda is up to today!

Blog Hop Day 6

2011-01-21T10:00:00.001-07:00

It's so sad we're nearing the end of our fun blog hop! I've actually enjoyed blogging every day- despite what you think.....because I know I've been horrid at updating.

anyway-

One thing that I've gotten to love during this endeavor is how much I DIDN'T know. I've learned so much over the past 5 months or so. One thing I discovered - is that I actually like making sketches. I've never been one to actually use them, but one day I decided to try it out and it was love at first design. lol

I've created several single and double page sketches for LP and they are all posted on the LP blog for your use if you are interested.

Heres' a couple examples of the sketches and a page I did with one:

(I used the Shaded Chic Line from LP- just changed the colors. You can purchase the kit HERE)

Now Hop on over to Amandas Blog for more inspiration!

Blog Hop Day 5

2011-01-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Be sure you keep leaving comments- every time you do, you get entered into the GRAND PRIZE drawing which will be held on Monday!!! (pic to come soon!)

I just have to brag- I have the best Design Team EVER. They are seriously a talented group of ladies who work hard to provide the greatest eye candy. I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the Chic and Shabby Line:

Erin Ostgulen- digital

Carol Monson- Hybrid

Trish Harwick- hyrbid

Now head on over to Amandas' blog and see what she has in store!

Blog Hop Day 4

2011-01-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well- today you get another freebie!! You will love this kit once you have all the pieces. And for those of you who have never ventured into the digi/hybrid world of scrapbooking- seriously... try it. don't be scared- it won't bite. Take this paper and see what you can do with it by printing it out. You'll be surprised at yourself :)

Be sure to stop by the LP website and get more cute kits too- I'd love to see what you do with them!

DOWNLOAD PAPER HERE

From here- you're gonna go hit up Amanda again... isn't she the cutest?!

Blog Hop Day 3

2011-01-18T10:00:00.001-07:00

So I"ve been doing a little house switcheroo this past week. I have a friend moving in with us and we've had to shift bedrooms. So in this process, I've been able to go through juat about every little item we own and it's made me want Spring to hit. It's usually hit spring fever right about now. I know- a little early. Can't help it though. I get the winter blues and I"m so tired of looking at the same things being the same way and need a change. Luckily- I've had the excuse to do some changes- but today, I've actually enjoyed that it's winter. lol

It's taken me a couple years to get to the point where I actually like snow again. And although I'm excited for spring to hit, one thing I enjoy more than anything in the winter, is sitting in front of my fireplace with all lights out, drinking hot cocoa, and enjoy the quiet.

Rick and I have already decided that we're going to get a nice cabin in the mountains (you know... in the future when we make our millions) to spend some time in in the winter months.
And that's where I recieved the inspiration to one of my Jan lines. It's called Woodland Winter. I absolutely LOVED designing this line. And I"m so stinkin' proud, because I DREW the little animals ALL BY MYSELF! I know.. be impressed..... lol

So here's a picture of the line:

so cute huh? It just makes me smile.

So I'm leaving you with a couple pages I created with the line. Be sure to hit the rest of the blogs for more inspiration and freebies! Next in line is Amanda!

BLog Hop Day 2!

2011-01-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our first day was amazing!!! So many wonderful comments and a lot of great eye candy!!

So I thought I'd add to the bunch :)

First though:

There is going to be a GRAND PRIZE drawing. (A picture of the prize will be posted on the LP blog sometime during the week) This prize is to die for. In order to be entered in the drawing there are a few things you have to do:

1) Comment on each blog at least once during the week

2) "Like" our facebook page

3) Follow the LP blog

You will recieve an extra entry if you go to the LP website and make a purchase!

So now that that is over- I'm gonna leave you with my first RAK of the week! Here's 3 ways you can get an entry:

1) Comment on my blog

2) Comment on the LP blog

3) Send a friend this way to participate in the blog hop too. (they need to leave a comment saying you sent them)

And then... you'll be entered to get this!

And here's my addition to the eye candy. I used the Chic and Shabby line- and this is my adorable Mia who just turned 5 last week. Cute huh?!

Toodles for the day! Now HOP on over to Amanda's blog and see what amazing things she has in store!

Doing the Blog Hop

2011-01-16T08:00:00.001-07:00

You know... the new dance craze? lol

Right. Anywho...

So you get to hear from me every day for the next week because I'm participating (ok.. I'm running the show) in my first ever Blog Hop! If you've never done one or participated in one.. it's super fun. You travel from blog to blog, seeing a TON of eye candy, leaving comments along the way, and picking up some FABULOUS RAKs!!

So.. I"m gonna leave you with the first of many freebies. Here is the link to the first piece of our FREE KIT we're giving away this week. You will travel to all the blogs this way to collect every piece of this fabulous kit.

Be sure to stop by EVERY DAY and leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for our GRAND PRIZE (given out next Monday), and some RAKs and Give aways I'll be doing :) And this isn't just digital... it's Hyrbid AND physical stuff... so be sure to keep coming back, because there is something for every scrapper!

Here's your first piece and enjoy! You'll be coming to me from the Lollipop Press Blog every day. (Head to the LP blog too.. there's a freebie on there too :) From here- head on over to Amanda's Blog. She's amazing. You'll love what she has to show you today.

Here's the first of your SWEET DIGITALS :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

I"m dreaming of a White Christmas!

2010-12-21T09:47:00.003-07:00

Ok.. so I was complaining earlier about us not having snow for christmas. I should've knocked on wood- cause seriously, we're at about 10 inches right now and it's STILL COMING.

I was planning on heading up to Idaho today with the kids for the break, but doesn't look like that's going to happen. :(

Rick and I shoveled the driveway about an hour ago, and there's already another inch covering what we just fixed. lol

So..... I'm thinking the parents should come down here because this is where the snow is- right? lol

My Friend Carol:

2010-12-16T12:11:00.004-07:00

So, there's this online forum I"ve been a part of for the past 4-5 years. It's a scrapbooking forum and whats nice is that I get to make lots of friends that way.

One of these friends is Carol. She's in Vegas and had we not been on this board, I never would have met this wonderful lady. She is seriously my sistah from anothah mothah. lol (that.. and she's like one of the BEST scrappers I know)

Come to find out- she has family that lives close (ish) to me and she comes up here to visit every so often, so last time she was up, she set time aside to come hang out with me.

The cool thing is that we've "known" each other for about 2 years and this was the first time we've actually met in person.

We had SO MUCH FUN. we stayed up late to scrapbook adn talk- and after she left, Rick said "You guys were laughing like you've known each other forever!" lol

well---- you just can't beat TRUE BFF's right? ;)-

So... here's our fun times recorded. I had to throw in our SAD attempt at self portraits. I think we probably attempted our self portrait session for a good 45 minutes because we just couldn't stop laughing.

Love you Carol!!!

Little Helper

2010-12-15T14:46:00.005-07:00

I had a "fun" thing happen a while ago, and thought I'd share.

We had a lock on our fridge because of our monster 2 yr old. Then the kids broke it. Hence... no more lock. Hence... we have a 2 yr old who thinks he's king because he can get in there whenever he wants.

So i'm working the other day and I come down the stairs and this is what I see.

I turn around and I go "JAYCE! What did you do?!"

And he gives me this look:

Then I say "Jayce... this is a no-no. We don't get drinks by ourself."

He then gives me this look:

So then I have to say "Jayce, you go sit in time-out while I clean this up"

He does as he's told... he knows he's in trouble. But in all honesty- I'm trying SO HARD not to laugh the whole time.

So I clean up and I see this on the stairs:

Obviously- he's a little peeved that I keep shoving the camera in his face at a time of obvious embarrassment.

After all was said and done, I took a pic of him sitting at the table, because guess what? Take a CLOSE look at his face- particularly his nose, mouth, and chin.

Notice it? Yup.. he was thirsty, and even though the koolaid was on the floor, it wasn't going to stop him from getting his drink.

I forgot to mention that when I walked into the kitchen first thing, I see him on his hand and knees, little butt up in the air, slurping away like there's no tomorrow.

Yup... that's my kiddo.

Interior Re-Decorating

2010-12-01T11:31:00.006-07:00

Ok.. so since moving here to Utah, I've gotten into trouble. I've discovered this thing called DECORATING YOUR HOUSE. yah.

SO what do I do? I've stalked up and I typically find a few new things a month that I just HAVE to have. ANd the result..... A HOUSE I LOVE TO BE IN!

Yes... it's true. I no longer resemble the starving students look. (not that that's bad)

ANd no... I'm not trying to keep up with the Joneses. I just happened to find something I love to do, that I didn't know was there.

So I've done some re-arranging, some re-decorating, and I've put up the Christmas decor. Here's the results:

Before Kitchen:

After Kitchen:

Don't mind the messy table. Pretend that looks all purdy-like too :)

Before Living Room:

After Living Room:

I forgot to take a before picture with this wall (DANGIT)- but it used to be about 20 different sized frames filled with random pictures spread all over the wall. Now it's just this:

ANd now.. here's all my Christmas stuff!! Pretty huh?

Yay for christmas time- LOVE this time of year!

snow snow snow snow SNOW

2010-11-23T19:19:00.002-07:00

This is one of my most favorite snow/winter pics of all time. And the reason I post:
IT'S A FRIGGIN BLIZZARD OUT MY DOOR!!!
Just thought ya'll might get a kick out of it. At least my kids will. lol

Wanna win a REDICULOUS scrappy prize?

2010-11-15T17:01:00.002-07:00

check this baby out

yup... that beauty right there- YOU CAN WIN IT! ok- so I know Angela, the owner of The Button Farm... she AMAZING. and actually.. that's a huge understatement. She comes up with some of the best ideas- she's incredibly talented and creative. If you want a chance to win this bad baby- hop on over to my contest blog and sign up- then post a scrappy project and you will be entered to win it. you can post ocne a day- so the more you post, the better your chances.
And I'll one up the chances... if you send someone over to the SPOT blog and they sign up, I'll give you an extra entry. (leave a comment here that you recommended someone)
And you KNOW i'd rather give this cute patootie thing to one of my adoring readers ;)-
So check out Angelas site and then hop on over to the SPOT blog and start participating. Contest ends Nov. 30!!

Dreamin'

2010-11-13T09:24:00.003-07:00

....of a white christmas... lol

yah- i think something snapped in me this year and I actually WANT snow. call me crazy.

but anywho-

my job has ended (and i'm totally sad) and now I have to move on to something else (which I don't want to do). anyone have something they need done? lol

I just had to post these- i've been working hard on my digi business and I'm DYING that I don't have the $ to start up a physical paper company. if I did, I'd be ALL OVER IT. but that's the goal... someday.

in the mean time- a way good friend of mine- Carol Monson- prints out my papers and uses them... she does an amazing job. I had to share her projects- for your eye candy pleasure :)

SO CUTE right? I'm so inspired- I'm gonna print them up myself and scrap today. Yes- you heard right folks... I WILL BE SCRAPPING TODAY. (you can all shut your jaw dropping mouths now) lol

I'll totally take pics of what I came up with too- cause heaven knows.. it's been how long since I plast posted a project of my own? lol

Holy Schmoly!

2010-11-02T11:00:00.002-06:00

Ok.. you might be sick of it.. and so am I.. believe me. lol

BUT- my WEBSITE IS DONE!!!!

took a lot of long hours and hard work and I absolutely LOVE it. So if you are inclined to check it out, please do.

Lollipop Press Website

In other news:
we had a pretty lame Halloween. and knowing my feelings on the holiday, i didn't really care.. but the kids did. :(
It was POURING. like... DOWNPOUR, can't go outside without getting drenched after 5 seconds.
so we couldn't trick or treat. instead... we got pizza and Krisy Kreme doughnuts and had a halloween party while watching Hocus Pocus.
then on Sunday, we did our own little trick or treating in our house. Rick and I stood behind the bedroom doors and the kids dressed up and went from door to door. they had fun. And the haven't complained about not going REAL trick or treating.. so i think we're good.

just looking forward to the holidays now! CRAZY that it's just around the corner!

Freebie Post!

2010-10-31T17:51:00.002-06:00

Over on the Lollipop Blog :) for those who are digi minded...lol

And let me say- I can't WAIT for it to be the holiday season!!! And in honor of my friend Autumn... I'm already listening to Donny Osmond :0)- lol

Toodles!

Gold Canyon Give-Away!!!

2010-10-30T12:22:00.002-06:00

So uh... head over to Leah's blog and you'll find a FANTASTIC give-away of gold canyon product. Play along... cause seriously- I'd love one of my blog peeps to win ;)-

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

How are ya?

2010-10-28T10:15:00.002-06:00

I know I've been horrible with updating the blog- so how are ya? haven't heard from my peeps in awhile. :)

Oh... to all my Savannah friends-
CKC is coming to Jacksonville next year!!! It's Sept 9-10. I'm hoping to be there- would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see you!!!
So who's coming?!

Halloween up to my EARS

2010-10-26T11:38:00.002-06:00

So I hate this holiday. Seriously.
I didn't mind it so much until 2 years ago and it's progressively getting worse.

Issues:
Trick or treaters. Do parents not teach their kids how to be respectful and have manners? Kids show up to my door, hold out their bags and Don't say a thing. Right. Like i'm gonna hand over a handful of candy without you saying anything? sheesh.
Then they get some, turn around and leave, WITHOUT SAYING THANK YOU! So I yell after them.. "YOU'RE WELCOME!"

THEN... they have guts to show up at my door AGAIN, play stupid, and expect to get more treats. um.. not gonna happen.

And then kids over the age of 12... really? You have nothing better to do with your time then go mooch off of other people and get free candy without even dressing up because its "not cool"? please. If you show up at my door not dressed up, and over the age of 12.. YOU AREN"T GETTING A DANG THING.

so... I put on a happy face, plan my son's halloween party for his school class, get my kids things to dress up in every year, take them trick or treating-teaching them manners along the way, and when they get home, they have candy they are thankful for and it's over.

Now I can get on with more pleasant things in my life...

*Off my soap box now lol*

My website is up!!

2010-10-13T20:54:00.003-06:00

Ok.. well... the first one anyway. lol

You can now officially order candles from me online and have them shipped directly to you!
If you want- check it out and place an order...they are the perfect gift!

And if you have any questions about any of the product, let me know.

You can also host a "book party" where I will send you catalogs and you get orders and when you turn them in, you will recieve the hostess rewards as if you had a physical party. If you are interested in doing this and earning FREE candles, email me.

Just go click on my candle picture in the sidebar and happy shopping!!!

WOW...

2010-10-08T11:13:00.002-06:00

So i've had a struggle the past couple weeks trying to balance my new working life. I know it's something I"m supposed to be doing (and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it btw), but it's always hard to justify spending time away from my kids.

Right now in our lives, It's about working hard and sacrificing A LOT to do what we know we're supposed to be doing- which is getting out of debt.

But today marks my first day of our store opening and I get to officially start my job in sales once again. the past 2 weeks have been hard labor getting the store ready and I'm so happy that I was part of it. I work with wonderful ladies who are friggin' hilarious and I know this is gonna be a fun ride. (just wish I was able to have it be MY store..lol)

anyway- just checkin' in to let you know all the craziness. And Lollipop Press is taking off!! The website will go live sometime in the next week and I'm so excited!! it's looking fabulous and I'm also working on the 2 new lines for November!!!

Here's a page I did with the Shaded Chic line, just because I needed a break from designing and just wanted to play :)

My Newest Endeavor!

2010-09-20T22:15:00.002-06:00

Ok.. so I mentioned I was up to something a while ago. Here it is!!! Some of you may be surprised.. others- not so much. lol
But I can't tell you how friggin excited I am about this one. It's the closest thing to a dream come true that I think I'm gonna get for a while.

So hold on to your hats (or panties or whatever you have on lol) and check out my new scrapbook company!

Lollipop Press

Tell all your friends about it and send them to the site. Thank you for all the love and support!
toodles!

I've started up again!

2010-09-15T14:57:00.002-06:00

Ok- so I sold Gold Canyon Candles when I lived in GA. LOVED IT.

Then all that moving crap happened and life got in the way and I had to stop for a few years.

but now.... I'm at it again!!! I'm so excited too! And the reason I had to kick myself into gear was because I had FINALLY run out of all my fall/christmas/winter scented candles and heaven knows it would be the biggest tragedy to not have them. lol

so here it is folks- if you want any candles/body products/home products, let me know and I can place an order for you and have it shipped the day after the order is placed!

you can check out the product HERE. but make sure you don't order from the website. find what you want, email me and I"ll place the order for you :) (btw....their home cleaning products are TO DIE FOR. seriously- you wo'nt find anything better or anything that SMELLS better!)

So excited! Placed my first order and have my first 2 parties planned! If you want to throw a party as well- let me know and I'll schedule you in!

YAY!

Update:

2010-09-10T11:09:00.005-06:00

Ok... I know I freely admit my slacker-ness everytime I blog.. because I'm obviously horrible and keeping up with it. BUT.. i'm determined to start back up again and get going. so mark my words- I'll keep posting.

just a fast catch up- both my boys had birthdays in June, had fun at each. they got lots of good things to play with outside (since we now have a yard and all). Kayleb even got a bike- ask me if he knows how to ride it yet... yah. nope. lol

so here's Kaylebs bday- turned 7.

Then Jayce turned 2 just a week and a half later (and yes... complete with cheesy grin):

and then we had a fun fourth of July- celebrated with a BBQ with friends and did some small fireworks in the driveway. and of course I had to play with the camera and get these AWESOME pics of the sparklers and fireworks.

fun right?

and then- I FINALLY got my Etsy shop up and running!! If you're my friend on FB, you've prob. seen some posts.. but if you haven't seen what my latest escapade is- check it out here.

and if THAT isn't enough, I do have my latest scheme in the works. this one makes me more excited than anything i've done so far. And I know.. ya'll are probably thinking I'm crazy for doing so much. let me explain:

see... Utah is craft central. I see, I love, I learn. Problem is... EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG DOES TOO!!! So I love my photorgaphy, everyone here does it. I love the beading, everyone here does it. I love the crocheting, everyone here does it. So what on this planet CAN I do here that I can possibly succeed in that no one else does? well... there in lies my next scheme!! :D

you'll see soon enough- hopefully within a week. And it's not totally new, but def. exciting. so stay tuned!! - and I promise.. I'll be updating a lot and such, I have too much to show and tell :)

toodles!

Hey peeps!

2010-06-16T11:25:00.002-06:00

So I just updated my photography blog... check it out :)

(click on the photography button to your left lol)

Recovered!

2010-06-03T10:50:00.002-06:00

Yes- the snow melted (that same day of course) and left a mess to clean up. But it's over and now it's FINALLY warm and sunny! Went and got a new pool for the kids yesterday and spent most of the day outside- it was amazing. :)

BUT.. my biggest thing to tell you now is I have opened an Etsy shop! And this was totally not part of my "plan"... I was making things because I liked to and wanted too... but I got so many compliments and people asking if they could buy them, i decided I should just go ahead with it.

so without further adeu.... my etsy shop! www.jolibello.etsy.com

check it out! Let me know wht you think... spread the word... I have a massive box full of goodies I need to sell and they are friggin adorable anyway ;)-

toodles!

SOOOOO Wrong!

2010-05-24T14:53:00.006-06:00

Man- I have a lot to catch ya'll up on.. but for now- you'll have to put up with the crazy adventure of today. See.... we woke up to....SNOW. yes- snow. around 8 am- we had about 2 inches and it was snowing pretty heavy. Then it kept coming. RIck had to use a broom to get the snow off the car- cause it was that really heavy, wet snow.

so it kept coming and coming- until it stopped around 11ish. by then, the damage had been done. I saw neighbors outside using whatever they could to get snow off the trees, to no avail. Even our trees were taking a good hit. I went out twice and my awesome neighbor out once- to get snow off my apple tree- so it was spared.. but my rose bush and willow tree were not.

Thought I'd show you the pics- cause seriously.... I've never seen anything like this in real life. our poor neighbor down the street had their tree land on their house, and their next door neighbor had their tree land on their car. CRAZY. Luckily- it's all melting. no snow on the roads and we're down to about 2 inches left on the grass- we ended up with about 4-5 inches easy. Like I said... SO WRONG!!! lol

I'll catch you up on things as the days go by... there's been a lot going on! toodles:)

Looking out my front window (about 8:30am):

Ny Neighbor across the street:

Neighbor just down the street:

House on the way to kids' school- it USED to be a standing tree:

House across the street from my kids' school:

My Willow tree- this branch we'll have to finish off:

The casulties of the willow tree:

More willow tree casulties- luckily this didn't hurt our next door neighbors dog who is RIGHT behind that fence:

My rose bush- usually it stands a little higher than my window:

TOO much going on

2010-04-23T15:22:00.003-06:00

typical for me though :)

Ok.. so right now, amidst my traveling and designing and family and everything else.... I'm purging.

and yes- it's my scrap goodies!!!!
So I totally missed the boat on my scrap kits in Feb. but I will be doing it again. It's going to be different this year though.

I'm organizing a huge scrap garage sale to happen sometime in June. So if you or someone you know live in the Utah county area, email me and I'll shoot you some info.

but what does this mean for those of you who've ordered from me in the past? Whatever I don't sell at this thing, will be put into kits and sold on here. It won't happen until June, but from what I have, it will take me that long just to organize it all!

So here's a little shocker:
I'm stopping with the scrapping for a while. I love it, just have no desire to do it at all. Hence the purging. I've decided just to keep a few things (neccessities), and cut back. I've turned my interests elsewhere for the time being (you'll find out soon enough) and want to focus on something else for a while.
I'll still be traveling a little and I'll still be designing scrap product, but as far as scrappy goodness- not gonna be comin' from me :(
Sad, but I need a break from it all. Don't know why, just do. SO it's all going away. not forever, just for now.

here's an idea for ya: went through my paper last night and I have about an 11 inch stack just waiting to be gone. so that's what you have to look forward to! lol

so there ya go. that's it for now...... :)
toodles!

Big Guy, Little Guy

2010-03-29T11:11:00.009-06:00

The Provo Library does these wonderful little activities. They do the annual Fairy Tea Party (I showed pics from last years) and then they do a Big Guy, Little Guy activity. THy ny las abut an hour, but they are so much fun and they get families to do things together.

The boys went over this past weekend. It was a mid-evil period party. They got to dig for gold, play basketball (didn't know that was avilable back then lol), face painting, and sword fighting.

Here are a few shots of Kayleb. Notice how he can't be normal in any of them lol. He and Rick had a great time though!

Eye Candy!

2010-03-27T08:25:00.003-06:00

In a different sort of way :)

Here's a sneaky peaky at what I've been working on for the past few weeks. (and no- it's not been weeks on this ONE project lol)

Cutie patootie right? *sigh*.... i've found my new love ;)-

OK- and I just have to add.... As I'm posting this, I overhear this convo between my 2 girls:

Hailey who is 8 and Mia who is 4.

Hailey: "Mia, do these make my butt look skinny?"

Mia: "Um... yah, I think they do"

Hailey: "I think if I wear both of them, it will work.... Yup."

Seriously?! I have NO CLUE where she gets it.... cause' it's def. NOT from me. LOL

Oh where oh where has Amber gone?

2010-03-19T13:21:00.002-06:00

OH where oh where can she be? lol

yah- story of my life to not keep up on this thing. I need to seriously just sit down and make a goal to post everyday for a certain amount of time.

a few updates and I"ll post pics later:

1)Since Hailey's Baptism, we had yet another emergency. We had some friends over and the kids were "cleaning up" and Kayleb decided that slamming the door was part of cleaning up. It just so happened that Mia's head got in the way- so I'll let you guess what happened.

Yup... stitches. 4 of them. on her forehead. *insert eyeroll here*

so over the whole emergency trips and stitches bit AND med bills rackin' up. we've gotten more stitches in the past month, then we have in our years of having kids. figure that one out! Oh well... life goes on and things happen. She's good by the way, she'll get them taken on in a few days.

2) I've had major teeth issues. I had a root canal done about 2 weeks ago and was supposed to be fitted for my temp. crown today... but some unforseen circumstances blew that out of the water and I get to live with a putty tooth for the next 2 weeks. lol oh well- at least there's no pain, otheriwse I'd have MAJOR issues.

3) I've been prepping my garden!! I've managed to get out of the house and working in the yard 2 days this week and got a bunch of stuff cleared and "hoed". lol.... got half a plot worked out, now just have to wait for the rain to stop so I can finish the rest of it. I got all my seeds yesterday- we will be growing spinach, green beans, peas, watermelon, green peppers, lettuce, and onions. Can't do corn- kinda sad about that. But we have our apple tree ready to go and our grapevine ready to go too.... so lets' just say August will be a VERY fun month!

ok- I won't bore you anymore, I'll post more later. That- and I have yet ANOTHER surprise coming up. (believe me.. it totally wasn't planned, but I'm happy none the less. and NO... not pregnant. - cause I know lot's of ya'll were thinking just that. lol)

toodles :)

Hailey Got Baptized

2010-03-07T16:17:00.005-07:00

Just yesterday.

In our religion, children are baptized at the age of accountibility (8). It signifes their ability to make choices for themselves and use the knowledge and tools they've been given to choose right from wrong.

It's a big deal. And a very happy occasion. And one I thought would take FOREVER for me to get to. lol

NOT.

So my oldest turned 8 last month and had we had the wonderful day yesterday. Family and friends showed up for support and it couldn't have gone more perfectly. She was nervous, (actually, terrified at one point. lol) happy, and excited about the whole thing. The program was nice, the baptism was wonderful, and her confirmation was perfect. Hailey has grown up so fast and she's learning and becoming a true individual.

It truly was one of the best and happiest days ever!!

So I thought I'd share some pictures. You may be able to tell that she was overly thrilled at the fact that she HAD to take pictures. lol BUt she was an angel. She looked so pretty and grown up. (insert mothers tears here lol)

I'm very proud of you baby. I don't think another little girl has ever looked so beautiful and happy. Love you!

Accidents

2010-02-16T11:18:00.003-07:00

they happen. It sucks... but they happen and you just have to do wha you can to prevent them and deal with them as they come.

Yesterday- my 20 mo. old son had an accident.

I am currently prepping bedrooms to be painted. Hence... everything must come off the walls. The boys had a big shelf in their room and I took it down and kept the metal brackets on it because we were goign to just hang it in the office. I set the shelf against the wall in the office and left the room to pick up screws and whatnot.

I then hear this blood curtling scream.

I run... and I saw Jayce sitting on the floor in the office and then I saw the blood. EVERYWHERE. I panicked. I grabbed him, saw it was his eye, and rushed to the bathroom. I grabbed as much tissue as I could to wipe away what I could to see the damage. (all the meanwhile, I'm freakin' out)... once i saw the cut, I knew he had to go to the ER. He had landed on the edge of one of the metal brackets right underneath his eye. and we're talking 1 inch long and probably half in. deep...and then there was blood on his upper lid as well. and because of the blood, that's what made me think his eye had been hurt just as badly.I yelled to my 8 yr old to bring me the phone and proceeded to call the husband to come home immediately.

Luckily, the bleeding was slowing down, so I was able to lay Jayce on the floor and have Hailey hold the tissue while I changed and grabbed things to take to the hospital. I was i nmajor mamma bear mode and couldn't really think all that much. ALl I knew was that my baby was hurt and it didn't look good. I was scared out of my mind thinking his eye was going to be permantely damaged.

As soon as husband was home, I rushed Jayce to the car and took off. This is when I lost it. It all caught up to me and I couldn't get to the hospital fast enough. See... we have a hospital like 4 blocks from my house, but of course... it's the ONE hospita in the entire county that our insurance won't accept... so I have to drive to get to one. Luckily... there is a SMALL hospital about 10 miles from my house, so I went to that one.

We showed up and Jayce had stopped bleeding, but was trying to fall asleep. They proceeded to put some local anesthetic on a cotton ball and tape it tothe wound to numb it up. we got in a room and it had to it on his face for 30 minutes before they could look at it.

we all know what "hospital time" is... so 30 minutes.. really means 2 hours. yah.

so once they finally get around to coming and seeing him, they're thinking "Oh... simple stitches, just the local anesthesia from a cotton ball will do the job". um... nope. sorry.

They take the tape off and the Dr. then says "oh! well... that's a little more complicated than I thought. I need to go make a phone call"

right....

so we wait... again.

thn he shows back up and says "Given that I didn't take a GOOD look at the cut before, I don't feel comfortable stitching his wound. Because of how deep, the angle, size, and location... I think a Plastic surgeon needs to be involved. And if we can get him here, we'll need to sedate him as well."

ok... he seriously just told me PLASITC SURGEON and SEDATION!!!!! I freaked.

He takes a few pictures and sends them off to the plastic surgeon who agreed to come and do the fix, but he couldn't be there for another hour. well... again... in hospital terms.. that means... 2 hours. lol

soooooo...2 hours later, they prep the room, sedate my son using shots in the thighs and he's out. It was a conscience sedation, so he wasawake and breathing on his own, just completely out of it. They had to have a respiratory guy in there to monitor his breathing just in case. then there were 3 nurses, 2 interns, the MD, and the plastic surgeon all hovering over my son. I was able to stay in the room, but about 10 minutes after watching him stitch my sons face, I about lost it. I hadn't eaten or anything since breakfast and it was now croaching upon 3 pm. i got really light headed and had to sit. the nurse noticed my face and I must have looked horrid, because she rushed to my side and sat me down. she then got me a drink and some cookies and I had to sit for a minute trying to regain my stomach enough to be there for my son.

quite embarrassing.. yes. but whatevs..... lol

3 shots later, he finally finished up teh stitching. he had a few in his upper eyelid and TONS under his eye. the cut was so deep that they had to stitch the inside tissue first before stitching the skin.

20 stitches later........

Jayce is fine, and we now just have to wait for him to come out of the sedation. Luckily, because the plastic surgeon did the "repair" and because of his age, we should't have to worry about scarring too much. and after test upon test, they determined that nothing had happened to his eye directly, his vision would be fine.

it took him about 1 1/2 hours to come out of sedation enough to talk a little and start reaching for things, but was still so limp. felt like I had a 22 pound newborn who couldn't contol anything. It was quite funny and he was so cute. All he could say was "all done". the staff just thought he was the cutest thing ever (which undoubtedly agree lol) and around 4:30 we were able to finally go home.

we got home and I had to rush to the store to get his antibiotics, and because of the sedation meds... he STILL wasnt able to walk by the time I got home an hour later. he took his first step without falling over around 6:30..a whole 3.5 hours later. lol

poor kid-went through a lot yesterday and we were both exhausted. He has a follow up apt. with the plastic surgeon on Monday- don't think he'll get the stitches out yet, but follow up none the less.

He just looks so sad. he feels so much better and acts like himself, but I'm being overprotective and won't let him do ANYTHING. he doesn't like it much. lol

anyway- I'm missing for a while bcause I must take care of the babe...that.. and I'm now going through my house to fix potential eye-poker-outers for future's sake. lol

Here's a picture of him today. The steri-strips on him are gross, because when he cries, here's still a little blood in his tears and I'm not allowed to even remotely get his face wet until late tonight. but you can see how sad he looks. And I'll save you the gross-ness of the "before" pics... they are truly nasty, but there is a huge difference between when he first got cut to this picture here. He's still so cute right? lol

so yes... I feel guilty... as any mother would. But I know accidents happen and how greatful I am knowing that it isn't worse than what it very easily could have been. He was truly protected yesterday.

Back from Portland!

2010-02-09T16:33:00.005-07:00

Ok ladies... I know Ive been sketchy on posting the views of the new lines... and there' totally a reason for it too. See.... I've been traveing... A LOT. lol

BUT- I just got back frm Portland and don't have another trip until March, so I think i'm good.

Anyway- here's the rest of the Winter Wonderland line. Once I've finished revealing the lines, I'll share things other than my scrappy business that's been consuming my life for a while now. :)

toodles and loves :)-

Back side of papers, die cuts, chipboard alphas, and digi scrapbook covers.

Winter Line #1

2010-02-03T10:42:00.004-07:00

Front side of 6 papers:

Beach Boy Line #2

2010-02-01T10:16:00.004-07:00

Backside of 6 papers, die cuts, chipboard alphas, and digi CD front and back covers :)

Beach Boy Line

2010-01-29T10:35:00.002-07:00

All Lines contain 6 double-sided papers, 1 chipboard alpha, 1 die cut sheet, ad 1 coordinating digi-CD. This is side 1 of all papers.

CHA

2010-01-26T13:21:00.003-07:00

Well my dears....the show was a complete success! Although we weren't able to attend the tradeshow as wholesalers, being able to wholesale what we could at the retail part was good enough.

Things have been moving along slowly but surely. The new lines have gotten great feedback and we were able to take some orders and the big news is that we are going international! A large order was placed by these wondeful ladies from Hong Kong and it will be shipped and in their hands by March!

I'll share more info. about the show later, but since I've slacked on the sneak peaks...i'm going to show you the whole thing! First, I'll post the peeks you should have seen before CHA.... this will give you a good idea of what the lines look like. And each day this week, I'll post one line in it's entirety. You've already seen the peeks for the BFF line, so I'll start with the other 3 first.

We are working on the new blog and website, we hope to have it up very soon... so stay tuned for that announcement as well.

Toodles!

Sneak Peek #1 Beach Boy Line

2010-01-19T11:34:00.001-07:00

I know,.... delish right?

BFF Line and release news...

2010-01-18T16:36:00.003-07:00

Ok... so i just got home from Costa Mesa with our first show of the year AND the debut of my papers! The feedback was fantastic! We sold quite a bit, even getting down to only a few sheets of a few! We have our big show this weekend at CHA in Anaheim CA... so if you are in the area, we are going to be there selling- so make sure you come and see me :)

Thought I'd be nice and show you the whole line this time... i still have 3 more lines to peek...so stay tuned!

SNeak Peek #4

2010-01-12T18:21:00.001-07:00

BFF Line:

Sneak Peek #3

2010-01-11T09:43:00.001-07:00

BFF Line:

Sneak Peek #2

2010-01-10T18:21:00.001-07:00

BFF Line:

Finally- The BIG Announcement!!!

2010-01-09T10:43:00.003-07:00

After MANY MANY hours of working my butt off... I finally get to show the fruits of my labor. lol

So..... withouth further Adieu...

Announcing....

A NEW SCRAPBOOK COMPANY! We will be debuting next week at the first scrapbook Convention in Costa Mesa, CA. Our official debut will be at this coming up winter CHA!! The new compny is called Scraptique Paper Designs and I have been named Creative Director/Designer.

We have 4 New lines coming out and will be featuring a new line every month of the year! Each day for the next couple weeks, I will be posting a new Sneak Peek on my blog to wet your appetite. :)-

All my lines are called the "Amber Winward Collection" so you'll always know where to get them (and who designed them lol).

SO for our first official Sneak Peek... We will start with our BFF line. This line is 6 pages, double sided, letter stickers, and chipboard sheet.

So here ya go! Spread the word to come check it out! And don't forget... I will be posting a new peek every day until CHA! And be sure to check out this other blog for even more sneak peeks!!

WOOHOO!!!!

I"m not missing, I promise!

2010-01-05T11:56:00.005-07:00

I have been SOOOOO busy- you have no idea. what with the holidays and then to top it off.... i've been working my tail off on this ne and fantastic project (announcement will come next week)- and between those 2 alone, I crashed this last weekend and didn't do a dang thing. lol

anyway- thouht I'd update with pics from the past few weeks. First off is a few pics from christmas. My wonderul hubby got me a Nikon Coolpix camera (since it's a pain in the patooty to carry around my monstr camera on my trips)... still trying to get used to it, but so far it's awesome! so most of these pics are from that.

That's my dad with his annual family puzzle we make him.

Ok- now on to what has happened more recently (aka...yesterday)

I've been working and i'm in the office. Kids are downstairs playing, laughing. Then I hear Jayce come up the stairs into the kitchen and start messing around with stuff. Knowing what he's capable of doing in a matter of seconds, I rush downstairs to find myself already late. The monkey had already made a monster mess. And here's what he did: knocked the garbage can over, took the *almost empty* bag of choclate cereal, proceeded to pour said bag of cereal all over the table, climb up on the table, spread around and kick cereal, shove cereal in mouth before getting caught. And of course...little miss had to join in the fun....lol

and I do believe the pictures prove everything to a T.

and then just for kicks... little boy is getting to be such a little kid- cracks me up. He will go and steal the kids' toys just so he can play just like them. the one thing that gets faught over in my house more than anything are these little Leapster games. They are handheld electornic game systems for toddlers/little kids. Hailey and Kayleb got them a couple years ago for christmas, and now that Mia and Jayce are in the picture, they feel they can play just as much. (Mia is getting ove for her bday, but I'm debating on getting Jayce one, just so he won't feel left out. lol)

SO here he is, just chillin' and playin'. And suprisingly...at 18 months, the kid actully knows what he's doing on the thing. I don't know whether to be surprised or disturbed. lol

THat's all for now, I'll post some work and exiting things in a few days!!!!:) Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/New Years!

Oldies but Goodies and a Newbie

2009-12-11T18:29:00.005-07:00

Nice title eh? I thought so.....lol

Anywho.... I was digging through my scrapbook gallery today and was actually surprised by how many I still lover even years later. Do you have some like that? No matter how much time goes by and how products and techniques change... I STILL love them. So thought I'd do a show and tell of those few pages that I still love to this day... and funny enough- a lot of them are from 2007. guess it was a good year for me lol ;)-

And then the last one is the most recent- did this one last week and have to say it's my new fav. I guess it's because i've used glimmer mist on the entire thing and how can you not love something sparkly and blingy? ( is that a word? it is now!)

Ok...enjoy the eye candy...I do believe I"ll be adding some new ones very soon as well:) toodles!

Life's Lessons

2009-12-01T10:05:00.003-07:00

Thanksgiving was a good one! I have to mention how much I love being back with family and that we can finally spend the holidays with them!
We had a good meal and then went to see "Blindside" and have to HIGHLY recommend it. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time- i totally plan on getting it once it's out on DVD.
Then we headed up to Idaho for the rest of the weekend and enjoyed being home wiht family and fun. The kids of course hate leaving and always want to stay, but alas....must get back to the real world eventually right?

The only NOT FUN part of the weekend was that we got tragic news of my Sister-in-laws mother. She had an accident and died. We were present when she got the call and I don't think I've ever felt for useless than I did then. I know that things will eventually be back to normal, but to watch her be in so much pain and to watch my brother be so sad because he didn't know what to do was hard to deal with. What I feel is obviously nothing compared to what her family is going through right now, but it is hard to just sit by and just watch.
I'm just greatful for my personal beliefs and my faith that I know I'll see my family even after I die and there is no greater comfort to me than that.

So my lesson and challenge for this holiday season..... spend time with those you love. Give them hugs, tell them you love them, and put the past in the past. Forgive and move on with life and be a better person because you'll never know when or if you'll ever get the chance again.
Hope your Holidays are merry and bright!

OH MY WORD!!!

2009-11-19T11:45:00.002-07:00

I was doing laundry and taking a load out of the dryer... and look what I found:

it's a horrible picture- but you get the idea.

Yah... Mia put CRAYONS in her SOCK!!

and the result: 9 shirts, 10 socks, 1 underwear, and 3 pants RUINED. I'm lucky most of it was fine. The worst part.... most of what was ruined was all NEW clothes purchased right before school. And every child suffered a loss.

GGGRRRR..... looks like kids will be losing one toy for christmas and getting clothing in it's place. :(

Therapy

2009-11-18T12:24:00.002-07:00

Last night... I needed it. Seriously.

Just one of those nights where you just wnt to lock yourself in a room and never come out.

Luckily for me- I have a few ways of to perk me up aka...my therapy.

One of those ways.. is obviously Scrapbooking. And because I haven't accomplished a whole lot of it in the past year, I thought it was time to pull it all out again.

IT WAS PERFECT.

Got my pictures ready, got all my product set out and got on my way. Kids were finally in bed, Rick was busy working in the office, and I was all by my lonesome (except for the loverly christmas music playing int he background :)- )

It took me about 3 hours to finish the ONE page... guess I've been sort of out of it.. but I love how it turned out. Seriously.. can honestly say it's the best page out of the whole year!! (which isn't hard because I've done like...a whole 3 pages in the past year lol)

So here it is. These pics were taken last month to mark the first time my kids have EVER played in leaves. They had so much fun- it was awesome watching them play.

My Boys

2009-11-16T14:44:00.004-07:00

Here's a little update on what's been going down.....

Kayleb finally got his glasses and he is so cute! We've heard the comment "He looks just like Rick now" several times. lol ANd funny story (which I've been dreading since he got them) is the fact that I was totally worried about how he'd handle glasses and if they'd break and we'd have to replace them 10 million times in the next 2 years. lol

On Saturday- Jayce somehow got a hold of his glasses and bent them. Bent them enough that- we had to take them BACK to the eye dr to see if they could fix them. Alas.... they couldn't. lol Soooooo- they ordered him completely new glasses at no expense. ( we had a 1 yr warranty on them thank heavens) He can still wear the ones he has, but the one side is lop-sided. And although he's been fairly responsible with them, what I feared, came true. Hopefully we won't make this a weekly thing. lol

Isn't he adorable?

AND THEN.... this is hilarious.

So I'm working today in the office and things are pretty quiet. And all moms know what that means right? right.

So I go looking for the kiddos and then I hear this banging. I then realized that not only was my bedroom door closed, but that my bathroom door was closed as well.

I reach for the doorknob to hear laughter coming from inside the bathroom. So I sit and wait to listen. Mia and JAyce are just laughing and laughing- I can't help but laugh at them too.. it was just so darned cute. So after a minute, I hear something that doesn't sound normal... I open the door and what do I see? Um.... MY FLOOR IS LITTERED. and littered.... with lotion, medicine bottles, hair accessories, nail polish bottles (luckily.. nothing was opened- it was just out of the cupboard)... and then I see this:

and then i see this:

yup... little munch and princess got into my tampons and opened just about every single one of them. And then mixed in my entire box of q-tips and decorated my shower with them. lol

Jayce had about 6 of them in his hands and he thought they were the greatest toys ever. lol

I burst out laughing- I thought it was seriously hilarious that they were having so much fun with it all. And what were they laughing at? Mia had figured out that if you push the bottom of the tampon... the cotton part would jump out the other end... so she was doing "party decorations" (as she put it) with Jayce. (sort of like Pop goes the Weasel... in a very disturbed but hilarious fashion)

so there ya have it. My fun for the day. At least I now have black mail for my son when he has dates come over.....heheheheheheheheh LOL

aaahhhhh fun times.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T18:43:00.004-07:00

Here are pictures from our fun filled night. The kids were so funny :)

My Tigger:

My Angel:

My Ninja (aka KarateGuy):

My Senorita:

My good-sported Fro-man:

Me and all my deliciousness:

The troops:

Fun times fun times.

Bad Mommy Moment

2009-10-29T14:58:00.003-06:00

Think I'm batting a thousand it seems over the past week- so why not add to the list? lol

Ok- so both Rick and I have glasses. Rick ahs had them since 2nd grade and I got them in 7th. So it's pretty inevitable that our children will need them sooner or later. (of course i was hoping for the later versus the sooner)

It all started last week when I got a letter in the mail from Kaylebs school saying he had failed the vision screening they give the students. This.. was no surprise to me. He's failed the test the past 3 years.

Now... why- you ask- would I wait until now to do something about it? (and here enters the bad mommy moment) In pre-school, his teacher said "don't worry about it, most kid this age fail because of lack of letter recognition."

Then in Kindergarten, his teacher said "well, some kids stil have letter recognition problems. He's a smart boy, maybe he just doesn't perform to his full capabilities under pressure"

And then this year hits.

As I'm talking to a friend about it.. a lightbulb went off. For the past 2 years... Kayleb will get up and walk directly in front of the TV to watch it. This whole time, we just thought it was something he did because he did it.. no specific reason.

For 2 years, my son has had vision issues. For 2 years, he's been seeing the world like this:

He hasn't known anything else... so why would he think something was wrong? He can tell his colors, he can tell if you are holding up 3 fingers from across the room, but it looks completely distorted and blurry.

so now I'm slapping my hand and crying silent tears. His teachers had never said anything contrary, he's never mentioned anything (why would he? He doesn't know anything else)

So I made the eye apt. and when I went to pick him up from school, I asked his teacher if she had noticed anything and for the first time, a teacher was actually paying attention. She said that she was going to call me today and fill me in on her opinion on the matter. I am so greatful for his teacher- she's seriously one of the coolest teachers ever :)

So we went on to the eye dr. and got him in. He was restless- didn't like sitting in a funny chair with all these weird lights shining in his eyes. But he did SO GOOD. after about 15 min. or so, the dr. explained that he has astigmatism in both eyes.

now watch me and my fancy knowledge on the matter....lol..... astigmatism is when your eye is shaped more like a football than a baseball. when that happens, your vision is distorted and you can't see near OR far. So he's neither near sighted or Far sighted...he's both. And the Dr. said that he typically doesn't prescribe glasses for kids..even if they are borderline. He likes to wait a while and check them out again before deciding. So the fact that he thinks Kayleb needs them.. suggests that his eyesight isn't that great. And he has to wear his glasses ALL the time.

So we treck out and I say "Kayleb.. you get glasses dude! you get to join the cool club now!"

His response " What's the cool club? What's it look like?"

I had to backtrack on that joke and explain that the "cool club" was just meaning he's gonna look cool once he has his glasses. lol

so we found some glasses- He looks adorable in them.

they won't show up for about 2 weeks... so i'll post pics once he has them.

the nice thing out of all this: Once he has his glasses, I know that his focus problems will more than likely go away. and by focus.. i don't mean eye focus. lol He struggles with focusing on tasks at hand- so i think this will help relieve that problem for the most part.

*SIGH*

bad mommy moment over. lol

St. Paul is COLD!!!

2009-10-28T21:28:00.003-06:00

So my most recent trip was to St. Paul, MN. Let me tell you... I LOVE IT THERE!!!

I used to live in Fargo, ND for a few years and even though it snows (like towering mounds of it) for about 9 months out of the year, it was one of the best places to live.

St. Paul is beautiful... i can't even begin to tell you how pretty it was.

anyway- so little did i know that it was supposedly in the forecast to snow. Whatever. I hear the weatherman say its' gonna snow all the time and it never does.

Holy wrongage......

I'm on the show floor and i see these women coming down the stairs soaked.

I grab my camera (because I heard that it was snowing), and headed up stairs. This is what I caught.

And you can't see it (because it was that heavy) but there is a beatiful bridge right in front of this view. They were seriously the biggest flakes i've ever seen. love snow storms like this. Pretty, gentle, and wet.... it doesn't stick. lol

Fun times I tell ya. excpet that is was blastin' cold.... don't even wanna go there.

BUT.. the absolute BEST part of this trip was that I got to reunite with one of my BFF's in the whole wide world. We became fast friends when I lived in ND, and although we stayed in touch for a while, we lost contact and didn't find each other until about 2 months ago on the ever wonderful world of Facebook. we' chatted and laughed at old times- but it wasn't anything compared to the time we had here.

We were only able to see each other for about a total of 4 hours.. but it was so worth it! We talked as if we'd seen each other just yesterday and reminisced about old friends and new things. Oh my word... i was so sad when we had to say good-bye.

Katie is truly one of those friends you only find once in your life and I'm so glad that I have her back in mine. Love you girl! (isn't she the cutest? she hasn't changed a bit since 9th grade...seriously. lol)

R.I.P........or not.

2009-10-26T18:29:00.005-06:00

So there I was...enjoying my trip to St. Paul, MN. Everything was going great, it started snowing.... I was with the BFF, and then it all changed.

I get a phone call from the husband.

"Hi Honey. Did E call you and tell you about Mia?"

"Um... no one called me about anything. What happened?"

"Well.... she cut her hair"

"No she didn't."

"Yes she did. It's bad"

"Ok seriously... where did she get scissors and when did this happen?"
"Kayleb's scissors, and just as I was leaving for work. She was hiding until after I left."

"No way. How bad is it? Please tell me you're kidding"

"I'm not kidding.. and from what I understand, it's bad."

"Ok... i gotta go. I'll talk to you later"

I then proceed to hang the phone up just in time before the tears start coming. There were about 10 people around me at the time and they thought somone had died by the look on my face. I excused myself to the bathroom and cried until I stopped. (I mean seriously... it was rediculous... but still)

I fixed myself up and went back onto the floor. Everyone asked what had happened and with tears welling up again, I tell them about Mia's escapade. They laughed. lol

I mean.. it was pretty funny... but let me tell you why I was so depressed.

Mia has (or had I should say) the most BEAUTIFUL, natural culry hair, down to her butt. I lived vicariously through her hair. If I had my druthers, I would have her hair. So i guess it was an emotional thing for me because it was now gone.

Mia on the other hand... kept telling E how beautiful she looked. lol

So anyway- here's the before, middle, and after pics. Be prepared to be saddened. She had a mullett- chopped off the sides so short that not even the hair dresser could fix it. She chopped it off and then told me to wait for the sides to grow out and keep trimming until it was all one length. *Sigh*

RIP beautiful hair. If it doesn't grow back the same way (or better) I'll be depressed. lol

Ready for it?

2009-10-21T13:45:00.002-06:00

Here it is!!! I've been working on a new project (aka...the last post i made) and I've finished it!!- well.. to a point I can post anyway.

I've started up a new business called Bead Beautiful. I handmake beaded jewelry such as watches, bracelets, lockets, etc. I absolutely LOVE doing this. And that's an example of one I've made just above.. it's my fav :)

you know how you do something once and you fall in love? yah... this was that. lol

So go check out the blog, let me know what you think. And if you click on my facebook badge on the right hand side (of the bead blog) you can see a contest going on that you can join!

so tell your friends- bring them by.

And just for my personal blog readers..... if you leave a comment on the watch you like most and become a follower (on the bead blog), I'll enter your name in AGAIN into the drawing that will take place on Nov. 1st.

These really are gorgeous. They are seriously perfect for gifts... esp. with christmas coming up. (hint hint) lol

Oh... and I also do home parties. So if you are interested in earning a discount and/or free stuff, email me for more information to host a party!

toodles and bits!

New Adventures

2009-10-19T17:25:00.003-06:00

Ok.... so either i'm insane- or I'm genius. I like to think i'm the last one.

why you ask?

I'm taking on yet another adventure. And by adventure... i mean... yet another thing crafty.

I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet... but it's FABULOUS. I'm so stinkin' excited and can't wait to get it started... but just thought i'd let ya'll know what i'm up to...even though I'm not technically telling you what i'm up to. lol

well.... that's it for now. can't wait to show it all off!! :)

My Cute Kiddos

2009-10-16T17:36:00.005-06:00

Went to take pics of the kids the other day- went off rather well considering I did it all by my lonesome. lol

The only bad thing was this was about the ONLY good shot I got on Jayce. we'll try again when I have Rick there to help. :) Aren't they the cutest though?

HA.LAR.I.OUS

2009-10-15T22:55:00.002-06:00

Here's the conversation that I had with my 2 middle kids today. I saw they were watching some sort of Halloween movie on Cartoon Network or something.... I didn't know what it was- so I asked.

Me: What are you guys watching?
Mia: Boobies
Me: What?!
Mia: Boobies mommy
Me: Boobies? That the heck is that? (freaking out in my mind)
Me: Kayleb.. what are you watching?
Kayleb: Bum Bums
Me: WHAT?!
Kayleb: Mom.. it's called Bum bums.
Me: seriously? what the heck is this show?

I flip on the guide to see what is' called... GOOSEBUMPS.

yup... this one goes in the books. LOL

Halloween....ish?

2009-10-14T18:50:00.002-06:00

So we're in the car yesterday and Hailey was talking about all things Halloween.
Asking questions on whether this or that were more Halloween-ish than the next and so on.

Then she bursts out "Mom...Is it more Halloweener time?"

I bust up laughing.

1) I had no clue what she was even talking about and
2) Halloweener? Where the heck did that word come from?

yah... my kids are cool like that. lol

Little Boys

2009-10-13T20:08:00.004-06:00

One of the best things to me is watching my baby get bigger and more like a little person. He tries so hard to catch up with the 3 older ones, that he really doesn't have time to be by himself all that much. (which isn't a bad thing)

But the other day, I heard him from the other room, so I had to check it out. This is what he was doing....

He had pulled out all of Kaylebs' little play figures and was making his own fighting noises. Yes... he's 1... and is already making his own noises. lol

Then he caught me taking pictures and decided it was a game...lol

He is such a little man..... I love moments like these. :)

Fun Times

2009-10-12T10:33:00.003-06:00

I went to my friends house last week and did a photoshoot of her ADORABLE baby. She is seriously one of the cutest and happiest babies ever! I loved taking pictures of her...I do believe I'll do it again shortly too....just because. lol

go check out her cuteness on my photography blog :)

Tween anxiety

2009-10-07T17:22:00.003-06:00

Yes... you heard right. My oldest is ONLY 7 (close to 8) and I'm experiencing the whole tween anxiety already.

She's a little ball of fire and attitude and I am already loathing the day she actually turns into a REAL teen.

that being said- I have proof.

Take one look at this picture.

If this look doesn't prove miss attitude saying "whatever mom.. get out of my face"... i don't know what does. lol

But then I said "snap out of it goofball... i need a good picture"

Then this is what happened....

The little booger knows how to turn it on and off like that.

And even though she is (as my mom would put it) "just like me"..... i love her dearly. She truly is too fun and growing up way too fast.

My Photography Blog

2009-10-07T09:19:00.004-06:00

Yes.. I've done it. I FINALLY have my photography blog done. The link is in the side bar... still have a few pics to upload, but it's done for the most part.

Feels good to have that out of the way- it's been on the list of things to do for like... EVER. :)

BTW....I saw this yesterday- I totally want to do my boys room just like this. how can you not be happy in a room like this? just thought I'd share. lol

Canyon Fieldtrip

2009-10-06T13:05:00.004-06:00

The older kids got to go on filed trips up the canyon with school and Mia was incredibly jealous. SHe wanted to go on a fieldtrip too, so we packed up the bags and took one ourselves.

We went up to Bridal Veil Falls and hit the trail. It was so gorgeous! I missed the fall trees last year, so I was determined to get them this year. Here is just one mountain side... so pretty right?

there's a nice river and a bridge, tons of leaves, rocks, and other outdoor schtuff. lol Jayce is scared of water... hates baths, pools... you name it. so the fact that he took interest in the river was crazy to me. he didn't get too close though... it still scared him. lol he was just so stinkin' cute... he had to walk, just like Mia.

then we made it to the waterfalls. the little pool at the bottom is like 5 inches... but it is the clearest, cleanest water you will ever see. How would you like to drink some of that? YUM! lol

Jayce started getting cranky near the end. he wanted out of the stroller... and then wanted to push it. lol...

Fun times. :)

Face Painting

2009-10-05T09:52:00.004-06:00

my friend Kayla is a prof. face painter. She's been doing it for over 10 years and is amazing!

So she came over the other day to teach me how to do it... it was TONS of fun. We obviously used the kids... who loved it too. lol

So here's what happened:

Hailey (done by Kayla)

Next came Mia: (my first attempt- and the pic is horrible.. she wouldn't hold still lol)

And then came Kayleb: (my second attempt. Don't ask... he's the one that wanted to be scary. I even scared myself doing it. lol)

And here's the whole group. Aren't they goofy?

So watch out Utah County... if you need face painters- let me know.... we'll totally come and do it for ya :)

My sister and I started up a new blog called Sisters' Chic. It's a blog about home decor and DIY decor. Be sure to check it out!

Fun Times Anyone?

2009-10-02T09:37:00.003-06:00

I'm tired of not having the scrappy friends I was so used to having down in Savannah. (I MISS YOU GUYS!!!)

Sooo... I'm taking matters into my own hands now.
I'm gonna start up a scrapbook group to meet once a month and PARTAY. lol
If you are in or around the Utah County area and are interested, please email me or leave a comment here with contact information. I'd like to ideally get it started this month- so the sooner I have a response, the better.

If you have any friends who live in the area, let them know too... cause I need (more) friends people!!!

I need creative motivation..... so sign up!!! :)
spanx :)-

Flash Mob

2009-10-01T16:25:00.002-06:00

Ever heard of one? me neither...lol

Until this past weekend up at my parents house- they showed one to me. SUpposedly Oprah ahd a surprise Flash mob on her premiere show with the Black Eyed Peas... it was AWESOME.
so....

to help a out a little, I've inlcuded the 3 best flash mob links for you to enjoy.. seriously- it's so cool... i wanna be in one!

The T-Mobile Flash Mob
Sound of Music Flash Mob
Oprah Flash Mob

aren't they sooooo cool? :)

What the???

2009-09-30T11:11:00.003-06:00

Look what I found in my yard yesterday.....

I mean... seriously? Never had them, don't want them... how to get rid of them?
Pulled them out...threw them away.... EEEEEWWWWW.

they make for some great pictures though huh? lol

Potatoe Trip!

2009-09-29T14:33:00.005-06:00

Now that we are back West, we get to participate in the annual Bradley Family Potatoe festivities. And by "festivities"... I mean, we get to sit in the back of a truck for a couple hours and bag potatoes. lol

The funniest thing about this year was that my two oldest weren't interested, so they lasted a whole 5 minutes. That, and unlike last year, Jayce was old enough to enjoy it this year.. and he totally did. (if you couldn't tell by the pics)

Just thought I'd share the fun times had by all this past weekend. Have I mentioned yet how HAPPY I am to be back in the West near family and friends? I absolutely LOVE it here!!!

Conversation

2009-09-23T13:35:00.004-06:00

Here's the conversation that took place this morning with this little munchkin:

Me: Mia, what do you want to be for halloween?

Mia: a angel because they fly

Me: they do?

Mia: yah- I like flying. I fly high in the sky with my parents

Me: Your parent fly? who are you parents?

Mia: Susie and Erella. Susie is the girl and Erella is the boy. They're my parents.

Me: Oh really? and they fly high in the sky huh?

Mia: Yup. up so high they get in the hot lava with water.

Me: oh dear.... not the hot lava.

Mia: Yah. hot lava is scary and it gives me bad dreams.

Me: well Hot lava isn't nice is it?

Mia: I had a bad dream last night about chickens.

Me: I'm sorry baby. And what was so scary about chickens?

Mia: They were nice and happy to me.

Seriously... I will never know where she gets this stuff. Apparently, if you ask my 3 year old one question, it will lead to about 30 other things and she'll end on a completely different note than what you started. lol

I love this girl!

PS...anyone know how to shrink the header border? I want it to fit around my header or be completely gone.... i'm lost on the HTML...lol

It's a Flippin' Miracle!

2009-09-22T19:44:00.004-06:00

Alas....the creative gods finally decided to show their good graces on me and (hold your breath folks)..... I SCRAPBOOKED. *SHOCK*

I know.

You can pick your jaws off the floor now. lol

So here's the result:

And another fun thing....

My little boy done grown up and lost a toof. lol- his first tooth came out just today- and here's the goofy grin to prove it.

good times......

Little Man's Baseball Bat

2009-09-19T22:05:00.004-06:00

My baby is fond of the baseball bat we have. We got it for Kayleb when he was 2...... hasn't been used much except for the occasional weapon. (not by us.... my son..lol)

So here's the story of his "friend" the other day.... it was so cute.

He dropped it in the pool on purpose- but because he HATES water... he refused to get it out. So he just walked away. lol

He's such a nut- I love the little guy. :)

New Do

2009-09-18T14:05:00.006-06:00

I was so flippin sick of my nasty hair... I snapped today. lol

i called and made an apt. to get my hair cut and 2 hours later.... this is what I came out with.

I LOVE IT.

Why oh why do I make myself go through that horrid "hate my hair" phase several times a year? at least it's over for now.

cute huh? :)

now this crazy storm blew in last night. This picture was taken just west of my house.... what it typically looks like at dusk.

then if you turned immediately to the east... this is what you saw......

it was creeping over the mountains like this giant dark monster that wanted to eat you alive. lol

seriously... one second it was all bright and sunshiny.. then the next second it was dark and creepy. The color was the creepiest part... it was a wierd shade of yellow/green. Luckily...we survived. It was just a good rain storm with wind. :)

just thought I'd share the latest..... lol

Need an Update?

2009-09-08T14:45:00.002-06:00

Maybe.....but only because i don't write on here often enough. It's def. in the goals to update more often- i promise!

So here's the lowwdown.....

I spent the last month traveling again. This time it was to Tulsa, OK, Charlotte, NC, and Somerset, NJ. Each trip was a blast of course, but it took a serious toll on my knee. after the last trip, I just about died of pain- so it was a good thing i scheduled the surgery.

I had surgery on Sept. 2. Yes... the date changed. but it was good. I wasn't nervous at all- the anesthesia knocked me out good and they loaded me up on 3 doses of morphine afterwards (I was high as a kite... I might add) . But things went well, nothing else was found and everything was repaired.
I was up and walking on my leg just 1 hour after surgery and it hasn't been too bad since either.
Post 1 week surgery: I'm moving around pretty easily. My knee feels like it's going to give out every now and again. Stairs are still hard and kneeling down is not even an option yet, but there's no pain and i doubt I'l have any scars. I had a wonderful doctor and as soon as I'm completely pain free.... i'm sure i'll love him more. lol

So things are good. :)

Kids started school- they love it thank heavens! Me too.... summer is so stressful for me, but this one again esp. since we had to move yet again. But we're all happy, healthy, and things are going very well for us now!

So.... do i have pics of the house... of course! do i have them on the computer yet? of course not! lol.... because i'm still a loser. I've taken the pics, I've got them... just not on the computer yet and I'll totally get them up by the end of the week I swear. I do still love my house and the fact that i have the best family ever and they have come down to help us a few times is just awesome.

So I'll leave you with a funny:

Mia comes up to Rick last night with a sad/guilty look on her face and says
"Daddy, I'm really sorry... but I ate your lipstick."
Rick: "You did? where is it?"
Mia: "Right here. I'm really sorry daddy."

she then pulls out his chapstick and true to her word.... looked like it had been eaten completely gone. lol
(and no... she hasn't felt sick or anything)

gotta love the kiddos!
toodles!

We're in our new house!!!

2009-08-11T22:04:00.002-06:00

We have moved and we are officially in our new house! It's totally adorable. Painted it all cute(thanks to my awesome mom and dad) and things are good! Getting settled and looking forward to school starting and whatnot. Kids start school on the 20th and then I'll focus more on decorating the house and having fun there. Plus, I have 3 more trips I'm doing this month... so if you are in the area's of North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Minnesota... totally need to hook up.

Once i get internet, I'll post pics of the place--- just letting you all know that we're in and good! :)

Result: The knee

2009-07-24T10:49:00.002-06:00

See this nice little drawing? Well.... this my friends... is what has happened to my knee. DOn't know how, don't know why.... it just did. It's a typical sports injury, but I don't play sports... so figure that one out. lol

anyway- on top of the tear of the meniscus, I have a cyst growing there as well. AND THEN... I have tight tendons on the right side of my knee that got pulled or stretched or something and the way to fix that is by a cortisone shot and physical therapy.

And he says we can wait to get it fixed, but if I don't, I run the risk of the cyst growing even more and the tear becoming worse. I have to have surgery to fix it regardless of when it happens. This my friends... it what also causes arthiritis of the knee. If left untreated, you can get the worse case of arthirtis possible. SOOOOO... you can guess how much I'd like to have that happen. lol

So the prognosis..... Surgery on Sept. 4 for the tear and the cyst... and the cortisone shot. (I've heard that they hurt like the mother... so I opted to have it done while I was under lol) Then after a few days of doing nothing, I then have to go through "extensive physical therapy working on the calf, knee, and hip".

I'm not too excited about all that, but anything is better than this pain I'mgoing through. I have good days and bad days...mostly bad days. It was so painful last night, it felt like y whole leg was going to fall off! I was lugging boxes yesterday and i guess I overdid it.

so I ask the Dr. what I should avoid.... "don't be doing heavy lifting or running/walking too much. Avoid unstable terrain."

Oh.... you mean like going camping for the weekend and then moving the next weekend?

Right....... lol

Things are GOOD!

2009-07-20T09:45:00.002-06:00

Ok... so as of last thursday, we have a HOUSE! and here's the best news... it's still in the kids' school boundaires- so no school switiching!

this was such a HUGE blessing. here's how it went down...

Hailey has this best friend who lives 3 blocks up from us. they were in the same class and were begging to play together. so in December (last year) she snuck around and finally got to a point where we (me and the other girls' parents) had no choice but to meet and let these girls play.

long story short.... they become BFFs and her mother and I become fast friends. so over the course of the last *almost* year... we've done a lot together.

now, because they live on this street, they know hat this guy is getting married and is wantingto rent out his house, but hasn't posted it anywhere. So she mentions that we are looking for a place and talks us up and whatnot. She then tells me the information, I call the guy, and within 4 days, we got it!

here's the blessing part: we needed a house big enough for our family in the same school and a nice neighborhood- no busy streets. what we got: EVERYTHING and more! we are exactly 3 houses down from said BFF and couldn' tbe happier!

so YAY! now that our looking is FINALLY over- we move in 1.5 weeks i'm getting bored. lol I've packed up everything that can be packed in my house already and i'm just sitting here waiting. since we're only going 3 blocks up, i figure i don't have to pack clothes, just take them out fo the closet and transfer them to the next, etc. and everything we don't use... it's already packed up in storage. SOOOOOO..... i'm just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.... biding my time. lol

but here's a little something I made to hang up in my dining room... it's not completely finished, and i'll def. post pics of when it is- but you'll get the general idea of what it is.

on another note...

My knee has been botherig me for about a month now. Don't know what made it hurt, but it does. I think back... when i was a junior, my dad and I got in a car accident and it screwed up my knee. ever since then, i've had occasional pain- but nothing major and nothingi can't handle. Until this past month.

i finally went to the dr. last week and based on his tests he did in the office, his assumption was that i had torn cartlidge. it's cause by blunt trauma....(but i can't think of any blunt trauma that hppened) and can only be repiared by surgery. yah... you heard. SURGERY.

It's gotten to the point where I can't kneel down, bending my knee is almost out of the question, and I wake up at night because of pain.

SO i had Xrays done last week, bones are all good, nothing broken, so now I have to get an MRI done tomorrow to see what cartlidge/muscle damage there may be. I also meet with the oprthopaedic surgeon tomorrow to discuss how to move forward.

then I went to Lagoon (a local theme park) with my hubby on saturday. Yah... i should've just shot myself in the foot because i think it just made my knee 10 times worse. *sigh*

so there's prospective excitement coming up on top of yet another move. lol I'll keep you posted on that as well.

anyway- gotta get ready for the big family reunion happening this weekend. haven't been in about 5 years... should be fun times!

toodles!

Just letting you know....

2009-07-08T09:46:00.002-06:00

still no house. I've been calling and calling and nothing. we're crossing our fingers to hear back today. In the mean time... i'm packing and cleaning and hoping that our small storage unit can be packed to the max... cause heaven knows I don't want to live amongst boxes for longer than I have to. lol
Ill keep ya'll posted on what (if anything) happens. :)

Updates: Photo Loaded

2009-06-29T08:58:00.005-06:00

Ok- so I've been busy right? lol

Thought I'd catch ya'll up on what's been going on.

It was Kayleb's birthday on the 11th- he was totally excited of course. the kid has been asking fr his birthday to come for like 6 months, so i'm glad it's gone. But here are some pics of his day.

Then we made a trip up to Montana to have a family reunion on ricks side. We haven't seen them since before we moved to GA- so it was esp. fun to see all of them. Rick made us take the "scenic route" (aka 2 hours out fo the way) to see his old town and house etc. Turned out to be one of the best ideas because the country was so beautiful! that 2 extra hours turned into 4 because we stopped for pictures so much! lol There was this old ghost town calld Granite that sits literally on top of the mountain outside this town Rick used to live in. So we made our way p the mountain and finally got there (after scaring me half to death) and got some pics of this major cool ghost town. Built in like 1830 something, it was a silver mining town- supposedly one of the largest towns in all of Montana back in the day. Totally cool though, i loved it.

Then as soon as we got home, it was Jayce's birthday. Little baby turned 1 on me andalthough it was a milestone for him, it also signified as a milestone for rick and I in being able to get through this last year and still survive! lol It was tough and Jayce wasn't the best baby to start out with, but he sure has turned into the funnest little kid ever! He is just so happy and funny, I just loe being able to play with and hold him every day. And btw- Jayce LOVES balls. he just lights up everytime he sees one....so he got 6 for his birthday. lol

Then last, my little brother has left for his mission. (In our church, the 19 year old boys sere church/service missions all over the world for 2 years) He will be training fo 3 weeks here in Provo and then he leaves for Calgary, Canada for the next 2 years. What I will miss: he has the BEST sense of humor, could always make us laugh. He was extremely talented- if he decided he wanted to do or learn something, he researched and practiced until he got it. examples: balloon animals, ping pong, piano, and most of all the ukulele. The kid taught himself to play th sucker andhe is simply amazing and was always playig it EVERYWHERE. hilarious. Oh- and at the bottom, that is Kim, Ty's girlfriend. She's practically part of the family already and they are getting married as soon as my brother steps off the plane. lol we've threatened her life so she ca't date anyone else while he's gone. (she has no interest anyway... she loves him too much. lol)

Anyway- he will be missed for these 2 years, but I am very proud of him for putting his life on hold to serve and to teach what he knows to be true. ISn't he just a cutie?

OK- that's it for now. We are STILL looking for a house. We did find one that suits our needs, and it's pretty cute - it's OLD- but we're running out of time and options at this point. So i'll keep you posted on that. toodles!

Shoot me now please....

2009-06-14T21:36:00.003-06:00

Yes... story of my life. And although I choose to be busy this month, still doesn't make it any less tiring and stressful.

And to top things off- Thursday morning (as I'm driving to the airport) I open a letter from our management place we rent from saying that we have to move out on July 31st because the owner will be moving into this condo on August 1st.

Yes- you heard right....... we HAVE to move....AGAIN.....in 6 weeks.

On one hand- i'm stressed out beyond belief and how nice of them to actually give us a descent time notice. (NOT)
on the other hand- i would like to find bigger place and possiby a house, but chance of finding that place in this amount of time is slim.

so now that our minds were made up to stay- it comes as a blow. I want my kids to stay in the same school mostly. but alas... guess we need to be kept on our toes and reminded of the awesome power of prayer and faith.

I'll keep you updated....as much as I can. lol :)

am i alive?

2009-06-08T21:20:00.003-06:00

yes i am... barely.
June is the death month for me this year... and for a few good reasons.
the last week of may- i went to Buffalo, NY for a scrap convention (work). Then i got home the Sunday, just to turn around 2 days later and headed to Arlington, TX where I just got home on Sunday. During this trip... i managed to break my middle finger- yes you hear right. It got smashed pretty good while i was tearing down the grid for the booth. aw well- things happen rght?
And now what you ask...... I'm going to Pasedena on thursday morning for yet another convention. Good thing i get to see my good friends-otherwise... wouldn't be fun at all.

Then next week- (i get home late saturday night) i drive up to Idaho early Sunday morning to spend the day with my family. My little bro. is goign to serve a church mission up in Calgary for the next 2 years and he'll be leaving in 2 weeks.
Next wednesday- we then head up to Montana for Rick's family reunion. although it will require about an 8 hour drive... it will be worth it. We haven't seen any of that side of his family since before we moved to GA... so it's been years. too long in my book.

we'll stay for a few days and come home that following sunday. I'll stick around for a few days at my family's house to spend a little more time with my brother and then head home just to turn around and make yet another trip to Chantilly, VA at the end of the month.

NOW...... i take a breath.
once i get home... i'm crashing, burning, dying, sleeping, and doing NOTHING. I'm exhausted right now- hate to think what i'll be like in 3 weeks once it's all over. Good thing I have a wonderful support system and an awesome husband to boot. :)

but yes my dears... i am alive.... barely. lol

This is my new BFF

2009-05-23T14:59:00.004-06:00

I took these this morning- Seriously... IN LOVE. There will be many a photo shoot here. *sigh*

Sprinkler Fun

2009-05-18T10:31:00.003-06:00

My poor deprived kids have never run through a sprinkler. THat's right. We've always had a nice pool and the beach, but no sprinkler. (I know.. it's a crime)

SO this past weekend my family came into town and we headed over to my grandparents place and let the kids have fun. It took them a while to catch on, but they ended up loving it.

I got this nice sequence shots going- so funny.

Then I got a few cute shots from the other kids. (my baby was obviously loving the water)

SO then we opted to just let baby have a licorice. You can tell he totally ejoyed that as well. lol

Fun times!

My son likes corndogs

2009-05-09T10:33:00.001-06:00

'nuff said. lol :)-

Lomography

2009-05-08T15:17:00.005-06:00

So there's this FANTASTIC site for all things digital photography. If you ever want to learn anything- go here.

I sat down today to try and figure out how to create a lomographic picture. I've been fascinated by the visual appeal of lomo photographs- but didn't think I could do it on my regular SLR- figured you had to have special film or a special camera. YOU DONT!!!!! (Lomo photography is pretty much the look of old-timey pics. They have darkened edges and higher contrast- they're supposed to look like pictures did back in the day when color first came out.)

so here are my trial runs- before and after. aren't they so cool? I do believe I'll be doing this to most of my pictures from now on... just because i can. lol

Calling all Picture wanters.... :)

2009-05-06T11:00:00.002-06:00

I'm building my photography portfolio and I need subjects :)
If you are in the Utah Valley area (or close by)- or up in Idaho, please let me know and we can schedule a time to get together.
I'm offering WAY CHEAP rates- just to get me going.

You'll get no prints- but you'll get a CD of your pictures and the rights to them.

If you're interested, let me know asap- I have flyers and advertising venues that need to be up and running in the next few weeks.

email me at amberwinward@gmail.com if you are interested.

First Haircut!

2009-04-23T17:28:00.001-06:00

little boy had some loooooooong hairs. Too bad there were only some round his ears and on top of his head- but still.

So here's the process and the result. He's just so friggin adorable! :)

My Baby boy: The nut

2009-04-20T10:15:00.002-06:00

SO little boy is 10 months now- i know... CRAZY.

Husband and I had a little fun last night taking pictues of him while doing all his little quirky things. He's just so much fun right now and is just a hoot to watch.

he just started doing this funny thing- he'll get up on his hands, then go up on his tip toes into a piked position. THen he'll rest his head on the floor and jst sit in that position for a minute. it's so funny.

Rick got the picture of him doing it last night, so you can see what I mean. (and I should mention as well that Rick took all of these pics. pretty good huh?!)

just thought I'd share a few cute pics of my baby from the night. Isn't he adorable? :)

Went to the park today

2009-04-18T18:10:00.003-06:00

and it lasted a whole hour. I guess that's good- considering.

but here's the thing. This parkis friggin fantastic. It's called Discovery park and it looks like a wooden castle when you first see it. It's huge, full of fun things- and it's there to entertain for HOURS.

So we've been battling the flu this week and today was literally the first day we could play and have fun. (Being that spring break is now offically over- go figure)

We get to the park- the kids play, and almost an hour goes by and then all at the same time- Hailey and Kayleb come up to me and say "I don't feel good mom"

great.

so we rush home, no one eats dinner, and now they are laying on the couch.

and what does this mean for me? i probably get to spend the next week locked inside my house AGAIN battling whatever this is.

good news: our health insurance kicked in- so if anything happens, at least we're covered. That feels good.

So thought i'd share the only happy pic from the day. Mia was the one sick this week- so of course she's the only one who wanted to stay and play today. At least someone was happy right?

I want to officially swear off snow.

2009-04-16T09:57:00.002-06:00

this is what i woke up to this morning. just 2 days ago, i was laying out on my deck catching some rays... and then this!

i'm boycotting mother nature... this is SO wrong. lol

My Daughter... The Model

2009-04-11T11:02:00.004-06:00

Seriously- I may need to explore this option for her. Think the pictures say it all. (and the best part, the only thing i did to those pics was turn them to black and white-no other adjustments)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T11:02:00.003-06:00

This time.. i have OODLES of pics!
we had an easter egg hunt this morning at our church and it was so fun. and by fun... i mean- we were in and out within 30 min. and made out with loads of candy! (totally my idea of fun)

so here are some pics from the event. The one with hailey absoultey cracks me up. How I got her in mid air is beyond me- but i think it's one of the coolest pics ever! and then the kids at the end- it was a little chilly, so they weren't to happy that I made them stand there for a final picture. lol

and then the other night rick and I were watching this documentary about these little kids being born into this one remote part of India to where they pretty much don't get a shot at anything but becoming criminals. So there's a lady that takes little 35mm cameras and film over there with her, gets abotu 10 of these kids and teaches them basic photography. And when they are printed, she brings them back to the states and sells they're pics to raise money tosend these kids to school to give them a shot at life. totally amazing.

anyway- so these kids are ages from 8-12 and the pictures they took are simply amazing. the angles, the subjects, just amazing. totally got my creative photography thing going on.

so yesterday I took my camera and challenged myself to just take pics of everyday life in odd angles and situations and see what happened. ANd I must say.... the things i got were SO FUN!

I thought i'd share some of my favorites. the best thing is that my amazing lens is so perfect, that i didn't alter or crop these pics in any way and they all turned out fabulous.

So enjoy the eye candy.... and maybe some other candy as well- Happy Easter!

Been a while?

2009-04-09T10:00:00.003-06:00

um... yah... I'd say so huh?
I've been pretty busy. My little brother just got married over the weeken and my sister got to fly in from Ohio for it. We spent the weekend having fun and shopping....and I got to take all the pics!
I'm currently editing all the pics- but once i have them finished, i'll post them for all to see. This past weekend totally confirmed that my passion in life is wedding photography- so if you're in the market... i'll give you a huge deal! ;)-

other news:
my baby started crawling (finally). and he went from crawling to pulling himself up on things in less than a week. hasn't quite figured out how to get down from some things- so he's found out that knocking his head isn't all that fun. (poor thing) it's totally fun with him though- he's all over the place.
the other kids keep plugging away at life. doing well in school and making friends all over the place- makes it nice to not have to worry about them so much.

Rick enjoys his job- he's been super busy. We're hoping for a raise and/or a promotion soon. One of the designers quit and so now there's only 2. He keeps working on his book and he'll be submitting it in the next month or so.

And I'm doing everything. photography is still top on my list. i'm scrapping here and there- but not too much. i got called to be in the primary again in my ward. (our church- and for those of you who remember, it's being incharge of the kids under 11 and i did that the 5 years i was in savannah)- so it's pretty funny. i love it though.

the only news to share is that we are thinking of buying a house! our rent is OK- but the place is SO SMALL. and to find a bigger place means a bigger rent payment. (of which we can't afford)- so there are some places around here where we could buy and save almost $400. yah. seriously. we'll get it all together and look in a month or so. if it doesn't work- it doesn't work. we'll just stay here and see what happens. Don't really want to move again- would take our total up to 4 moves in less than a year and that's seirously not my idea of fun. so i'll keep you posted.

i'll post all my pics once i get them finished- i'm totally excited for them.

hope you are all still coming around every once in a while. guess i can't expect it if i don't update huh? i'm such a loser... lol

A Fairy Tea Party

2009-03-15T16:50:00.003-06:00

The Provo library does this Fairy Tea Party once a year. My good friend Kayla was able to get me and my girls tickets this year and we were able to go on saturday. Supposedly it's a big event where people go all out for their girls. (and that was an understatement lol) (Should have seen what some mothers do- take their girls to the hair salon and get them all dolled up, then they have matching outfits with matching wings, with matching tights with matching shoes.... i was appalled at some of them- i mean, they were adorable, don't get me wrong.... but wow. )

So we got all dressed up and headed out. The girls both had on new princess dresses and they were so excited. We got there and had a good table- so it was a blast. Our friends were there with us, which made it even more fun.

they had this whole shebang set up with lights and everyone dressed up as fairies- had a program with ballerinas dancing and even a king showed up. The best part of it all was the "Fairy Promenade". all the little girls got to go up and walk the runway to show off their fairy outfits. they would walk to the front and bow, and then they'd turn around and bow to the king, then walk off the runway. it was so flippin adorable. he didn't allow ANY pictures to be taken during this thing - i should have anyway.... but i didn't.

they handed out little crowns and wands to everone and placed a lttle plate of goodies to munch on as well. it only lasted an hour- but it was a fun timne spent with my girls. We'll def. be going next year! Mia wasn't being very cooperative in the pictures, but this is some of the action from the day. they had fun and that's all that matters. :)

Portland Trip

2009-03-09T16:50:00.002-06:00

I'm back! Ok.... so it was my bday last wednesday and it was hilarious.

woke up, got the kids ready- got everyone sent off for the day- and guess what? NO ONE REMEMBERED!!!!! lol

Rick forgot- it was so funny. He emailed me an e-card about an hour later. he must have seen the date at work and it dawned on him or something. It's all good- i'll be getting a shopping trip out of it! it was good though- fun day.

WEd night i flew out to Portland and got there around 10:30. met up with Kim and Roxy and headed to the hotel. got in and pretty much crashed. Luckily we were able to sleep in a little come thursday morning and didn't get to the convention center until about 11. started setting up and holy smokes.... it happened to be the LONGEST day of my life. seriously. we had SO much product and so many new things that it took forever to figure out. Kim completely changed up how she wanted things- which was awesome. so i spent about 10 hours hanging Prima product. it was all to die for of course. :)

the center people kicked us out at 10 that night. Kim had gone back to the hotel already to fix up the classes she was teaching first thing the next morning, so that left rox and i to walk back. (wasn't far, but on empty stomachs and 11 hours on your feet, it was like death. lol) we made it about a block and found a Denny's and headed in cause we couldn't go any further. ate some not-so-yummy dinner and got back to the hotel around 11. we were so tired, but it's been about 6 months or so since i last saw Roxy and we HAD to chat. stayed up until about 2 talking.

the first day of the show was awesome. I was so overwhlemed for about the first hour or so because of how man people there were. the show opened at 9 and from 9:05, we had a constant line. was seriously at that register non-stop until about 4. then from 4-6, the only "breaks" i got were about 2 minutes in between customers- but i was rearranging product during those times.

show ended and we started re-stocking..... i couldn't believe how much we had sold. our booth was a mess, but a good mess!

went to dinner and headed back to where roxy and i again, had our nice laughs.

OH!- forgot to tell the BESTEST part of the day..... can't believe it. So , there was this national Barista competition going on in the hall next to us. didn't know what it was until i asked, it's some gourmet coffe making competition of some sorts.... must be pretty big. (who knew? lol)

anyway, so before the show started, i was walking out wiht a load of boxes and guess who I saw?

See the cutie-patootie Ryan on the left? Yah.... he was there with 3 of his buddies. I totall was like 2 ft. away from him. I did a double take as they passed and was like "wait a second". then i turned around and heard to other ladies talking about someone they just saw. SO i stopped and asked them who they were talking about and they both swore up and down that they saw him too. HILARIOUS. totally made my day. you see- ever since Hailey decided to get into this whole High school musical thing... i've totally fallen in love with these 3 boys. they are just so darned cute! so anyway... i spent the day stalking the coffe convention seeing if i could find him and get a picture, but alas... never happened.

ANyway....

saturday was much the same- excpet for one thing. WE got there early to finish re-stocking product and ran out of time before they opened the doors. Adn because the lines were constant yet again, we unpacked boxes in between customers. the booth was a disaster- and that was an understatement. lol. we finally got it all cleaned up and off the floor by about 4 that night. it wasn't as busy as it had been on friday- so it allowed us to actually have lunch.

finished the day and then started tearing it all down. what i love about tearing the booth down is that it only takes us about 2 hours to get it all done and packed. finished up and had to head straight to the airport to drop Kim off.

Little did we think that we had NO CLUE where we were or how to get back... we dropped kim off and headed in the direction we thought we were supposed to go. 15 min. later...... we're in some hick town outside of Portland wondering where we went wrong. found a hotel, got directions and figured we had gone in the opposite direction! it would have been funny, but we were tired and hungry. finally got back to the convention center and started looking for a nice resteraunt. I really wanted Applebees- but couldn't find one, so we settled on a chinese take-out place. got our food, headed out and wouldn't you know? just around the next corner was Applebees! I was so mad. Roxy got a good kick out of it, she laughed so hard she about killed us.

then we couldn't find a parking spot and ended up driving around for another 15 minutes looking for a place. finally got into our room just as our food got cold.

oh well.... Kim loaded us up with Prima product to last us for months and we had to divide it up. so that took another while, then we packed it all up. finally made it to bed around 2- but then the time change happened, so it was really 3. GREAT. we were able to sleep a whole 2.5 hours.

got to the airport around 6:30 and had some breakfast. we talked and said our goodbyes and headed home. I got in around 2 yesterday and iw as so happy to see my kids. although i enjoy the break and love the work, there's nothing better than coming home and seeing them.

yah... so all in all it was a successful show, had a total blast, and now i'm home recooping. Kids didn't have school today- so we've been hanging out.

So... there we go. there's an update for ya. I'll post some pics later- i've got to go make dinner. back to real life now. :)

MAJOR Blog neglect

2009-03-02T13:52:00.004-07:00

I know... i should be fired. Averaging about one post per month isn't really working is it?

So here's what i've been up to lately.....

*Got REALLY sick and tired of my house feeling so cramped and claustrophobic- so we got a storage unit and spent a good few days re-organizing the house with our newly found space. LOVE IT! i can breathe now! The sad part is that a large majority of what i put in storage was my scrap stuff. Yes- i said it.... Amber has packed up all her scrappy goodies. I haven't had the urge/mojo/desire to scrap in the last 8 months and really haven't done a whole lot. My contract ends here in 4 months, so what's the point in having it out right? I did keep out essentials in my XXL- in case i wanted to get on it again though.

*It's a good thing i kept out what i did of scrap stuff because i got BOMBARDED with scrap deadlines. I quit all my design teams- but then Piggy Tales contacted me and wanted me to be their guest designer for the month of April. They sent me a big package of stuff and I made TONS of projects- it was a tough job.... I'll post the pics once they give me permission to do so! That- and Kim (the lady who owns Scrapbooks N Stickers, the one I travel with) sent me a big package to make projects for the booths for CKC's for the year. There's a show coming up in Portland this week and had to get a bunch of stuff done for that.

*Been busy with photography schtuff. I was able to go take pics of my cousin and her friends for their Valentine dance- it was a total blast. And the fact that i got to use my fancy new lens made it all the better!

*Also been working out- just at home.. doin' my own thang. And the BEST thing ever is that I'm now 1 lb BELOW pre-pregnancy weight!!!! I celebrated by having a big ole' cake. lol ;)- jk

*IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON WEDNESDAY!!!! ANd i got over the whole birthdya hype A LONG time ago, but it is fun having an excuse to go shopping! RIck and I got a nice date on saturday and he was so awesome and let me load up on a few goodies. I got the CUTEST shoes in the world.. .seriously- TO DIE FOR.

*I'm headed to Portland on Wed. Night. First trip of the year, and i'm totally excited. Not only do i get a break from kids (even though i go crazzy missing them), but i get to see one of my bestest friends-ROXY!!!

*Got some new games- a card game called Bohnanza (The bean game) and Munchkin. both card games that are so much fun. if you're into that sort of thing.. .seriously get them.

*got my hair cut- twice. First time, wanted it all different and cute, got it cut-liked it.. but then 2 weeks later I go crazy cause I have no clue how to tame it. SO i go back and get it cut again into a more manageable style- she still did it a little different, really short. but i like it... suits me.

Ok- here's a few pics of some of the projects I've been working on so I can leave a little eye candy. I'll post more later- esp. some pics from Portland when i get back! toodles!

Hailey's Birthday

2009-02-11T18:13:00.005-07:00

It was Hailey's 7th birthday on saturday. We spent the day at Ikea and playing games and such- it was actually really fun.

We did the cake and ice cream at night and had great- grandma and grandpa over, so nice to finally share a birthday with family!

So here are the pics from the day... and the cake i made. took me like 6 hours! but i love it. Her cheesy grin with another tooth lost... she's just too darned cute! can't believe she's 7- that just means that she'll be 8 next year and i'm freaking out about that- cause i'm not nearly old enough to have an 8 year old!!!

She got everything High school musical of course. And let me tell you- she plays with them everyday.. so it was totally worth the money spent! It was a good day- it's to the point where birthdays are magical and so it made for a fun day!

another exciting thing is that I got myself a little gift too. ;)-

my pretty little portrait lens and a new camera bag. with all the lens' i'm getting and plan on getting, i need something to accomodate them all! and the first pics are taken with my lens- I LOVE IT!!! Isn't the depth of field awesome?!?!?

and one final thing- Hailey got a balloon for her birthday and Jayce loved it. he got so excited everytime it came around him. We gave it to him and let him at it.. it was one of the funniest things. so here are a few hammy shots of him with it. isn't he just the cutest? i love him! :)