THE STORY...

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year! I just found a few minutes to sit down and think about all that has happened in the last few days. We have been so blessed and are so thankful for all of our friends and family. We have had a great Holiday and are looking forward to the many events that are coming in the next few weeks.
Enough of that!!

So, I know you are dying to know the story so here it goes...

I am going to try to account for all of the flurry of activities that have happened in the last few days. Last weekend we went to Mississippi for a early Christmas celebration at Aunt Mandy's. We had a wonderful time, Aunt Mandy knows how to throw a party.. we had great food and tons of fun. David and Lauren love to play with their cousin "Baby" Griffin. The are like 3 little balls of fire running thru the house and chasing after each other. Griffin LOVES Lauren and follows her around like a puppy dog, it's quite adorable...

Which leads me to the story you have all be waiting for, (drum roll please) while we were in Mississippi the twins talked their way into staying at Mammaw and Pappaw's for a few days... So, the house was free for a few days to let Sugar Cookie adjust to her new home. I picked her up on Tuesday morning and brought her to the house. She was so calm and so sweet. She sniffed around and went straight to Lauren's room. When Benjamin came home he said, WOW she is really cute!! I have to say, she might be the cutest puppy on the planet. HEE HEE

So Wednesday Benjamin went to Grenada, Ms to pick up the kids and I hid all doggy related material in the back of my car.(Yes, even Sugar Cookie) When the kids came home Benjamin left with Sugar Cookie and stashed her at our friends Jessica's house for the rest of the day and night. Jessica took her to her family's Christmas Party were she was a big hit with everyone. They all said, she is the calmest dog ever!!! I KNOW!!

So after the kids went to bed Benjamin went and got Sugar Cookie and we kept her in our bed until morning, we tried to sleep but I was so scared the kids would wake up before Santa made his arrival that I don't think I slept all night.(Oh, and by the way Sugar Cookie did not make a peep all night!) I woke Benjamin up at 6 and said lets get this party started.. we set up the camera, the web cam (so my parents could see the activity of the morning) and put Sugar Cookie in her crate. I was hoping the whining would wake everyone up, but... she didn't whine...she just sat there! Again, the calmest dog ever!!!! So, we woke the kids up and David ran straight to the fireplace and said.... A DS!!! (DID NOT EVEN SEE THE DOG)... we let him enjoy his moment and then he turned around and said.... "SANTA, LAUUUUUURRRREEEEEEEEENNN... She came running out of her room and went straight for the crate and said "AWWWW Sugar Cookie" and sat next to the crate and kept saying look it's Sugar Cookie over and over! It had to be the best moment ever, they were both so happy. As my Mom said "That's going to be hard to top." So here are some pictures to go along with the story...






















Let's just say their has been a PERMANENT SMILE on both David and Lauren's faces all day and night. What a wonderful Christmas. I hope you and your family had the same. Blessings to all!
-Stephanie

2 Kids, 2 nights, 2 Christmas Programs !!

We have been so busy these past few weeks. This year we had 2 Christmas Programs on 2 different nights.

I love this picture!! This preschool kids sang a song called The 12 days of preschool and David had the part of the 6 pairs of scissors. Benjamin captured him just as he is, our silly boy!


Here is Lauren playing Jingle Bells with her class on Hand bells. She also sang a solo , Happy Birthday Jesus by, The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. You can listen to it by clicking the link. (I am working on getting the actual program on youtube). It is a beautiful song my mother in law told me about a few years ago. Lauren has a beautiful voice. We are so proud of her. She is one brave girl.


Our Church has a Christmas program every year and the kids sing the sweetest songs. This is the 3rd year David and Lauren have been in this program and it is aways a blessing to see them sing.


Here are David and Lauren by our tree!


I hope everyone has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Blessings to you and your families!
-Stephanie

Christmas Projects

It's been a while since I have posted some of my projects. So, I thought I would post a few pics of some things I have been working on for Christmas. I made these two cards for David and Lauren's teachers. I LOVE the paper! The colors are awesome and I am just a little obsessed with the snowmen. I also made them Christmas picture frames to match. I have had these frames for a year or so and when I saw this paper I knew just what I wanted to do. They will make a great addition to their Christmas decor.


When I got this new stamp set from the Angel Company my intention was to make our Christmas Cards this year as I have done in the past. Well, time has gotten away from me and so I decided to use them as tags for Christmas presents. I think they came out very cute.

I am very fond of snowmen and when I was making Christmas tags I thought of my new snowflake stamp and my new staze on white ink pad. So I put together this card for a Friend who loves the color BLUE at Christmas, I hope she likes it!

I wish I had more time to spend in my craft/scrapbook room. Hopefully during the break I can catch up on some things I have been wanting to do. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think...

Stay tuned for scenes from our Christmas Program.
Have a blessed day!

Thanksgiving in Kansas

What a wonderful Thanksgiving, we are so blessed to have a wonderful family!! We have so much to be thankful for.

We had a great time visiting with my brother Rod and his family. Here are David and Lauren with their cousins. Clayton, Gauge and Lacie


While we were there we went to Oxford Kansas for their Annual Country Christmas. It was a lot of fun, we went on a horse surrey ride, craft shopping and went to an Old Mill.



This is David and Lauren along the nature path. All of the kids loved running thru the leaves and playing on the path!
This a great picture Benjamin took of me and David.



We always have a great time in Kansas, My Mom and Dad are great hosts and wonderful Grandparents. We miss them! We can't wait to get back and see them again.

The Big Bad Wolf

A few weeks ago Lauren was in a play at school. She played the Big Bad Wolf in the story the Three Little Pigs. It was so cute and so well done. It was short and sweet. Just perfect for their ages! Lauren really got into the role! She Huffed and Puffed and Blew those houses down!! David will be in a play soon, so stay tuned!

David...

There are times when something just makes you smile so big your head hurts... this little guy can make me smile like no other.... I love him. He is such a sweet boy and gets so excited over the smallest things... He just came in and said... "MOMMY MOMMY, they said my name!!!" then he did one of those arm pumps and said YES!!!! Then ran out like there was a fire in his pants! I have no idea what he is talking about and I don't care!!!!! <3 <3 <3 My heart is full today!

Christmas Suprise

A few months ago Lauren and I were talking about Christmas. I asked her if she knew what she was going to ask Santa for this year and she said "I already know what Santa is bringing me..." Oh you do, I said. Then with out a doubt she said " He is bringing me a REAL puppy". I asked her to tell me more about this real puppy, she told me it was little, white and her name was Sugar Cookie. I said "really". If you know Lauren she is quite the story teller. She has a look about her when she tells these stories that will make you BELIEVE she BELIEVES!!! Well she does, and we have talked many times since then and she is ADAMANT that this is what SANTA is bringing her. She said that Santa won't be bringing her anything else because that is ALL she wants. Well needless to say... Benjamin and I were not sure what to do with this information. Some of you know that Poco, our Yorkie, died a few years ago and we had said we were not getting a dog for a long time. So, we thought we might talk her out of the idea of a puppy. Well, there is NO talking her out of it.

So ladies and Germs....... here is our Sugar Cookie, she is 6 weeks old and will be with her mommy until she is 12 weeks and then we will have to hide her from Lauren until Christmas! These plans are very sketchy. We are still not sure what we are going to do!!
This will be the HARDEST secert I have EVER kept. I want so bad to go and get this puppy and give it to her NOW!!! But, my little girl wants Santa to bring the puppy, and that is what we will do.

Halloween 2008

This is the beginning of the holiday season, Halloween 2008. This year David was a Skeleton and Lauren was a Witch! We had a great time, our neighboorhood is so much fun on Halloween night. Everyone sits out in thier driveways with a fire pit and lots of food and passes out candy. Here are some pictures of our evening!


David loved his costume!

Lauren insisted she was the "Good Witch!" HEE HEE

Silly Silly Silly!



This is a picture of their class at school, they had a great party!!

Scrapbook Retreat

I attended my first scrapbook retreat this weekend. I went to Fernciff, a little campground near in Little Rock Arkansas. I had a wonderful time and got a lot of things done. My friends Julie and Stephanie have been going to this retreat for years and asked me come along this year. Here are a few things I did while I was there.

This is an egg box for my friend Jessica. She is having a baby girl in a few months and this will be one of the many things I will be giving her for a baby gift. My plan is to fill it with rattles and passies. She loves pink so I know she will love it. You can order egg boxes from this website
There are so many things you can do with them. I just love them for everything.


I also worked on teacher gifts. These are large post it note pads covered in paper. I love this idea. All teachers love note pads. I know I do! They were alot of fun to work on. I love the bling baper and the little embellishments. The Halloween on I will be keeping for myself. I had an orange post it note pad and lots of time so I made it for me. Something I need to do more of! So So Stinking Cute!

I worked on a ton of cards. Birthday cards I never have enough of. So, I stocked up and made about 15. These two are my favorite. They are simple and the color combo is just super amazing. Something about blue and green make me smile.


That is all for now, I will post more later. Have a good week and please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
S

Trip to The Smokies

We have been super busy these past few weeks. I can't tell you how exhausted we all are! So I apologize for the lack of post.
My mom came for a 9 day visit. We really had a great time. I made sure that our days were filled with many activities and that she could experience life as we do every week. When my mom arrived at the airport. Lauren and I were there to greet her. We left that afternoon for Gatlinburg. Mom had never been and I wanted to show her the beautiful fall colors. It was a girls trip. Just me, mom and Lauren. We had the best time. We shopped until we could not walk. Ate like we had never seen food. And had the most wonderful time just being with each other. I miss my family a lot. The time I do get to spend with them I want to be meaningful not only for me but for David and Lauren.
Here are some pictures from our trip.

Halloween Treat for D and L's class!

I am going to make this cute cute cute candy holder for David and Lauren's class mates. I know they will love it! I love looking at blogs for inspiration. My friend Michelle has a new blog and she is my #1 for fun ideas. She is so talented and creative. I know she is going to be super impressed! I will be attaching a small bag of M&M's to the inside of this candy holder, you know all kids love M&M's. Yes, Michelle I am sending you one too! ;-)

I can't wait for Halloween!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Hoooo Hummm Day!

I went to bed last night not feeling well. So when I woke up this morning I knew it was going to be a HOOOO HUMMMM Day! I have been doing laundry all morning and I have to say... I HATE DOING LAUNDRY. There are too many steps.


1. Collect all of the Laundry
2. Sort all of the Laundry
3. Wash all of the piles of Laundry
4. Dry all of the piles of Laundry
5. Fold all of the piles of Laundry
6. Put away all of the piles of Laundry
7. Find the missing socks that run away from the piles of Laundry.
8. Iron the clothes that need to be hung up
9. Hang up all of the ironed clothes.
10. Find more clothes that need to be washed after the laundry is "done"

I really have to force myself to do laundry. My mother tells me to "do some everyday". Why in the world would I want to do something I hate everyday? Now that D and L are getting older they do some what help me with a few of the steps. L loves to fold towels and D loves to collect the laundry. We are working on them putting away their own laundry. You should see their drawers. HEE HEE

Anyway in between steps I went up to my scrap closet and created a few birthday cards for up coming birthdays. The paper and stamps are from the Angel Company and the ribbon, brads and flowers are from my personal stock.

It's back to the piles and piles of towels for me and L to fold. Better go..

Enjoy,
S

I'm in a spooky mood!

Here is a card I made today. I love love love Halloween! I think it is becoming my most favorite holiday! The stamp set is from from The Angel Company. I have more cards to show tomorrow. For some reason my camera is not taking good indoor shots today. I think someone got their sticky hands on my camera and messed with some buttons. *DAVID


Boo

Team Baby Blue

Soccer season has begun! This year we have the same team, David, Lauren, Hannah, Charlie, Nicholas and Lauren W. It is very entertaining watching 6 five year old boys and girls running after the ball. Some days I laugh so hard my side hurts! I look forward to Monday nights and Saturday mornings. My brother was the soccer star in my family. I remember growing up and driving hundreds of miles to attend soccer tournaments. They were so much fun! I encourage you to attend a soccer game if for nothing else it will make you smile!

First Day of PreK

Today was David and Lauren first day of PreK. It was a great day. We have been up at the school all last week getting my music room ready and helping the other teachers with odds and ends! They have been looking forward to this day for a long time. They are now the BIG KIDS in the school.

Sunflowers and Rain...

We went to the sunflower patch to take some pictures, we have been trying to do this for 4 years and for some reason we have been about a week to late every year. So we made it this year. Lauren was amazed that some of the flowers were as big as her head! David was more interested in all of the bee's that were flying around. I am reminded everyday how different they are... they keep amazing me each day!

When we got home today it was raining and the street was flooded. We played in the rain for about 45 minutes. There is something about playing in the rain that just makes you smile. We had a great time jumping in the puddles and feeling the water run in between our toes! I love the rain!

Twins.... love them!

I made this card for a dear friend that just had twin boys. I just love twins! Boys, Girls, Boy/Girl does not matter the combo they are just so special! When my friend had her boys I thought of my new stamp set I had just recieved in the mail from Michelle and had to make her a card. So, this card is for Cowboy Alex and Cowboy Zach. "Settle down now boys, your mamma needs some sleep"--- in my best John Wayne voice.. with some great Cowboy music playing in the background!

5 years old!

I love them, so so so much!