First of all, my get together with Ginger and Ange was a blast! The kids played pretty well together and we chatted and we started on our purse albums. Man can I just say how much even more I appreciate digital scrapbooking after starting that little project! I could never go back to paper scrapbooking. If you want to see an adorable pic of two little princesses from that day go to Ginger's blog!

Yesterday I planted strawberries and peas with my friend Heather. She has a huge garden spot and we're both "dummies" when it comes to gardens, but we thought we would give it a shot. I wouldn't recommend gardening with an almost two year old though. Abby just wanted to walk on top of the rows that we were planting. Heather gave me a bunch of pretty wild purple flowers to plant so that's my job for tonight. I think that I'm going to try planting an herb garden so if anyone is a gardener PLEASE give me some tips!!!!!!!

So here's the jumping the gun part..... next week's circle journal category is going to be about deserts, but we didn't want to miss out on everybodies yummy Mexican dishes especially during the week of Cinco De Mayo. So next week is going to be a double category. Send me all of your yummy DESERTS and MEXICAN RECIPES (doesn't have to be authentic, lol, as you can see from mine). I made this little mini kit to get you in the mood!!! You definitely don't have to be in the circle journal group to snag it. It's also at Scrapartist if you'd like to get it there or if the link runs out!


Here is my recipe:

My friends Ginger and Ange are coming over today to catch up on digi gossip, lol. Every few months or so we like to get together (with our cute kids) , eat good food and chat. Today we're also going to make some cute purses that are in this months Creating Keepsakes!!!! I love hanging out with these guys and the time seems to always fly by when we're together.

This week at story time (library) Grace learned about bugs and now she's really interested in all bugs, alive and dead, lol. So we're going to make these cute (and simple) butterflies so that we can hang them in the window. She is all about crafts and painting, so I think that I need to do some more shopping here, and I was also thinking of maybe starting up a kids craft group.

That's about all that's going on in this neck of the woods. If you haven't already, you better check out this fun new Summer kit from Amy Tanabe's collection at A Cherry on Top.

I'm going to be the person for the scraplift challenge at Scrapartist (next week I think)! I started thinking about everybody looking through my gallery and thought it would be fun to go back and see the first layouts that I posted. I was just looking through and remembering with each layout what new "techniques" I had just learn and how excited I was. It wasn't even THAT long ago that I figured out what a drop shadow was, LOL! Yikes, I know! Not that I'm not excited now when I open up a blank page and get ready to create a new page, but I've been hangin out in my comfort zone for a long time. I guess that it's time that I start learning and trying new things and techniques again. Wish me luck!

I just did this layout using my great friend Ange's new Ten papers that are coming out at The Digi Chick today!!! Saying that my husband is a tease is and understatement, lol.

I can't believe that Easter's over! It's funny how much time I put into thinking about each upcoming holiday and then it's over so quickly.

Every year I say that I want to take the kids to Baby Animal Days and every year I end up not going. I was even subconciously trying to talk myself out of going the day before. Why I do that? who knows. Anyway, I thought there would be tons of people and it wouldn't end up being that fun, but I was wrong. There were tons of people, but it was also tons of fun for the kids. Grace is still trying to get me to buy her a baby chick to take care of, lol. She doesn't realize that chicks grow into chickens. Having a bunch of little suckers saved me with Abby. She just wanted to get out of the stroller, but if I let her, she would have been lost in half a second. We took a picnic lunch with us and Grace couldn't stop saying how much fun it was. Here are a few pics from the outing.

It seems like we've been making some larg purchases lately! First the eliptical machine (that really really needs to be used more), then the mini-van, and now our latest addition................
drum roll please......................................................................................................................................
A NEW KITCHEN TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We traded in our hand me down table and plastic chairs for this:

Corey works at a furniture store, so it was just a matter of time, but it's so nice to be sitting on real chairs, lol. If you're wondering, yes there are two stools on one of the sides, lol. We still need to buy some more chairs eventually.

On Friday night we had some friends over for a game night and to "break in" our new table. It was a blast. The kids had a great time playing together the the adults spent about two and a half hours laughing our heads off. Good Times.

Okay, this is getting a little long for me, but here are a few more pics from our little family egg hunt Saturday night! Please ignore the blobby pic with me in it, lol. Did I mention that my camera adds 50 pounds? Bummer I know! If you couldn't tell, Abby had a great time!


Have a great day!

Yesterday was Corey's day off and it turned out to be quite fun and relaxing! In the morning we dyed some eggs with the girls. Grace was the dyer and Abby was in charge of putting on stickers, until she started trying to crack all of th eggs, lol. Then we broke out Grace's bike and tried to get her to ride it. She is so funny about riding it. She has to go really really slow and hit the breaks every five seconds. I could tell that it was driving Corey nuts, but he was pretty patient. Abby loves Grace's bike. She always want's to ride on it. Then we broke out the side walk chalk that we just bought. Grace drew a nice scene on the top of the porch and Abby spent most of the time watching a big worm slither accross the cement. Corey was a pretty good sport about everything, so it was nice. Today I was planning on taking the kids (and some friends) on a little picnic and the park, but it's trying to look rainy out. No big surprise, lol.


Here's my most recent recipe for this week's recipe circle journal. It's a definitely favorite:

No much going on in this neck of the woods. I haven't been feeling very creative lately and it's driving me NUTS! Please send me some good creative vibes people!!

It's been so nice here lately and the kids have been loving it! When the kids can get outside and play they love it and when it's time for bed they can't keep their eyes open. It's great.

Corey and I are going to visit my parents in a few months and I'm so excited! The last road trip that we took was before we had kids! Now that we have our van he seems to be open to more things. My parents live in Spokane, WA which is about 11 hours from us and Corey has never been to their home since they've lived there (I've flown with the kids a few times). Anyway, it's a ways off, but it's a nice thought!

Okay, in other news we started our third week of our Recipe Circle Journal! This week we are sending in our favorite salad recipes. It really has been a blast and just in the first two weeks (appetizers and soups) we have over 100 recipes! Here's my first recipe for this week and it's oh-so-yummy! My friend makes it and it's great for get-togethers!

So I'm officially and MOM! This week we got our first MINIVAN! I never thought that I'd be a minivan, Mom, but then I started having kids, lol. I'm really loving it and even more than me, Grace and Abby seem a lot more happin cruising around. Abby actually threw a fit the other day because I took her out of the van, lol.

Corey and I are going to speak in church tomorrow so I've got to start preparing today! I'm a procrastinater I know. I've been thinking all week about what to say, but I need to really sit and today and get some stuff written out.

The sun FINALLY came out yesterday and so we went for a walk to the part and ended up staying there for hours, lol. I love the warm weather because then the kids can get out and then when we get home they're are so zonked. They go to bed earlier when it's warm.

Okay so I'm being pretty boring so I guess I jet, but here are a few layouts that I've done this week. Not much scrapping going on for some reason (compared to what I usually do).

PS. If you are a Recipe Cirle Journal gal, next week's topic is SALAD!! I can't wait!

So I've been thinking about how I need to update my blog, but my life has pretty uneventful lately. Then this morning the oh-so-cool Traci Murphy tagged me! Boy do I feel special, lol! This is going to be fun because it's a little different than usual. So here's what I'm supposed to do: I pick a friend and post five things about her/him, and then tag other people to do the same.

Of course I'm choosing to "spotlight" my friend Ginger Voth (Gingersnaps)! This is us at highschool graduation in 1997!

Here are five things about Ging:
1. She is one of the most creative people that I know. She has always had an eye for everything "crafty" or artistic that comes her way.
2. She's a great Mom! She does everything for her kids and there's no question that they're loved. Even in highschool she was kind of the "mom" of our group.
3. She is very giving and always thinking of others.
4. She once made-out with a guy right in front of me!!!!!!!!!!!! ROFL!!!!!!!!! Please don't kill me Ging!
5. She's a great beautician!

Love ya Ging!

So now I guess that I better do some tagging! I'm going to tag Miss Miranda, Ange Barton, and Meredith Fenwick!

ps. This morning I was taking Grace's shirt out of the dryer, which has some real pale flowers on it, and I was thinking "man I wish that I could turn up the contrast on this a little bit." LOL!