My first Digi Scrap Freebie

I posted my first ever scrapbook freebie on my new scrapbooking blog. It is a really cute Quick Page. Check it out here. Here is what they completed layout looks like.

New Blog

Well, I have been busy improving my skills in digital scrapbooking and finally feel confident enough to start sharing some of my designs. I will start by just featuring some of my layouts and eventually start offering quick pages and scrapbook kits. I will also share links for some great places to find scrapbook stuff on the web and hopefully eventually some tips for the trade.

I love to digi-scrap. It makes scrapbooking so fun and easy. So check out my new blog. I will try to past something at least once a week. You can find it here or by the link on my links list.

Fall has Arrived

I guess Fall has officially arrived here in Colorado. The leaves have changed and are falling to the ground. The temperatures are dropping and the kids are upset that I won't let them wear shorts anymore. I hate the colder temps but I do love the fall. This is the lovely view I have from my front porch. Isn't it beautiful?This last week we had some wind and the big pine tree in our back yard decided to shed some needles. It was a mess. The yard was covered with needles everywhere. Today, I raked them all up. Here is a picture of the pile of pine needles.

I guess you will have to look at it sideways, because no matter what I do, it keeps turning the picture when I upload it. Sorry. I can't believe how many pine needles there were. It is amazing there are still needles on the tree. Unfortunately there are plenty more where these came from, I just hope the rest decide to stick with the tree.

Kyle at the Pumpkin Patch and Wishing Fountain

On Wednesday I had the chance to go with Kyle on a field trip for preschool. We went to a little pumpkin patch. They had a maze and a couple of spooky shacks the kids could walk in. It was fun. Kyle reaction to some of the spooky stuff was so funny. He was the first person in our group to find his way through the maze including adults. Good Job Kyle!! Here are a couple of pictures. The first one is a picture of Kyle and the pumpkin he chose. There were pumpkins of all sizes, but he wanted the littlest pumpkin, "just like the book we got from the library, mom." he said On Friday, Kyle and I went out to the mall. He saw the fountain and said "a wishing fountain, can I make a wish?" So I gave him a couple of pennies, he closed his eyes and tossed in his penny. It was so cute I had to grab a picture. Afterwards, he told me that he wished he was Spiderman so he climb up the buildings. He is so cute.

Free Online Class

JessicaSprague.com is offering a free class about telling your family stories. She has some great classes on digital scrapbooking too. I am hoping to sign up for one of those classes soon too, but this one is free so I figure I should check it out. It sounds interesting so I thought I would pass on the information to all of you. You can check it out here.

Is it a fire...

So last night after going to bed very late (1 am) I was rudely awakened at 3 am to the smoke alarms going off. My heart was racing as I ran through the house to make sure everything was okay. Mike had just changed the battery in one of the alarms before we went to bed because it was beeping, so I don't know why they were going off.

Anyway the alarms went off full signal startling both Mike and I from dead sleep. Everything in the house appeared to be fine so we went back to bed. (By the way Kaylee is the only one of the kids who woke up, YIKES!!)

So I laid in bed thinking I smelled smoke and scared that maybe something was really wrong and we just missed it, then about 4:00 the alarms sounded again. Mike and I both walked through the house and still found nothing.

Fast forward another hour and yes you guessed it, alarms again. This time Ryan woke up too. His comment, "Mom the alarms are giving me a headache." My response "Yes son, I know, I have been up dealing with it since 3 am, I have a headache too. Go back to bed, everything is fine."

I don't really understand what it is that was making the alarms sound, but it was a completely ridiculous night. But wait, the night isn't over yet. Again at 6 the alarms sounded for the 4th time. Mike decided to disconnect the alarms completely so we could sleep for the last hour of the night. Then of course, I was stressed over "what if something were to really happen now and we don't have smoke detectors hooked up." Needless to say we made it through the night, but I was not happy when my alarm sounded at 7 am for me to get up and get ready for church, and neither were the kids.

So here is the question. Why does this always happen at night? I never have these issues during the daytime (unless I burn the toast or something, but at least then there is a logical reason for the alarms to go off). Can't they put a clock or meter on the detectors that can tell you the battery is going to die during the night, let's just take care of this BEFORE you go to bed. I mean seriously, this has only ever happened to us in the middle of the night. What is that all about? And if Mike just replaced the battery in one before we went to bed because it was beeping, was it dying batteries causing the alarms during the night or what else could it have been? Wouldn't the next one needing a battery just start beeping too.

On another note, we did make it to church on time (9 am) despite being really tired. Today was the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. Once a year our sacrament meeting is done by the children in our ward. The adult leaders over the primary (children ages 3-12) write a program and give each of the children a small part to say and they all sing songs to go along with the program. This year the program theme was "I am a Child of God." It was really well done and all our kids did a great job saying their parts. It was really fun to watch them sing all the songs they have been learning in primary this year. Great job guys. I was so proud of all of the kids, but especially proud of Kyle and Jacob as they stood and repeated the parts they had memorized.

After church I came home and took a much needed nap.

Kyle's New Passion

Yes, my four year old son, Kyle has developed a passion. I always said that the wooden train set we bought years ago was one of the best toys we ever purchased, but over the last couple of years, use has been tapering off to several months of no use at all. I was even considering getting rid of the train tracks and table since it takes up a bit of space in the boys' room. That is until a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly, Kyle is completely into trains. He is not happy building track on the train table either. "The table is too small, I can't build a big enough track on it." So he has taken over the bedroom, well most of it anyway. He has played with his trains every day for about 2 weeks now and is asking for more tracks for Christmas so he can make his track bigger. For the most part he has created his own railroad even taking it under the bed around the bed leg. I must admit he has been very creative about this. I helped him a bit yesterday to tie in a couple of dead ends, but he built this track system virtually by himself. Check it out in the pictures below.

At least this makes Christmas easy for him this year.

Photoshop Elements

I have Photoshop Elements which I have never used yet for digital scrapbooking. I love so many of the elements on the web for scrapbooking and really want to start using this program to make my layouts. I have a huge collection of digital scrapbook papers and elements that I really want to make the most of. Up until now I have been using the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Designer which I love and was so easy to pick up on. It just can't do everything I know elements can do. I usually pick up on these types of things pretty quickly, but I am so lost here with this software, I just want to scream. I have even tried following some online tutorials and still can't figure things out. Ugh!!! I can't imagine it is that hard to figure out, but so far it is just way over my head!! Am I just dumb or what?

My GNO Creation

Here is a picture of the platter I painted at our Girls' Night Out on the third. I think it turned out pretty good. It sure was a fun night. It was fun in a different way than our other nights thus far have been. It was fun to do something creative.

New Look for Fall

I just switched out my header and my background. Perhaps you noticed the change. I hope you enjoy it.

I am Such a Slacker!!!

I am not really a slacker, I have just neglected my blog the last couple weeks because I have been so busy with stuff for the kids' schools. So here is a quick update on what's been going on.

• Parent Helped in Kyle's preschool class on the 1st.
• October 3rd Girls' Night Out with my friends. You can read about it and see pictures here since I forgot my camera that night.
• October 4th and 5th LDS General Conference. There were some great talks and it is always wonderful to listen to our prophet. Read what our church leaders had to say here.
• Dinner with the Sims' to celebrate Eric's birthday. Good times with Pete, Mel, Kensie, Eric, and Mom and Dad Sims on the 5th.
• Shopped the grocery store sales on the 7th and 8th in preparation for our Group OAMC Cook Day. Spent $733 for 5 families 20 meals each. Hooray for the miles on my Frontier card.
• Group OAMC Cook Day on the 9th. 5 families it went great we had 100 dinners prepared by 1:00 in the afternoon.
• October 10th two of my brothers and one nephew came to visit from Vegas. We had a relaxing weekend and they have already gone home. (tear tear)

Add to that mix a day of separating and delivering t-shirts for the school t-shirt order, a PTO officer's meeting, a PTO meeting, a Young Women activity, a YW Presidency meeting, 2 YW volleyball games, a preschool board meeting, a pro photo shoot for the kids, and all the regular everyday things like driving kids to and from school and activities, cleaning house, preparing meals, etc. It has been a busy time. I am hoping things will slow down a bit for a while now. Of course, Mike is now gone today through Saturday for work, so it could be a long week.

Here is a picture of me and my brothers.

It's Here...The new Twilight Trailer!!!!

[ SEE THIS VIDEO ON TWILIGHTERSANONYMOUS.COM - FIRST SITE TO PUBLISH IT ]

Phenominal...I cannot wait to see this movie!!!!!