Two days, a comfy bed and two awesome friends...

This week has been awesome. Last weekend I cropped with the Co. crew (I already posted those layouts). Then on Tuesday, I drove to Angel's house for an overnight crop in NOLA with Angel and Cori. Angel spoiled us (or ME) with bacon, muffalettas, roast beef po-boys - all the things I NEVER eat anymore!


It doesn't matter how long we are apart, we always just pick up as if we see each other every day. I stole whatever I could from Angel's INSANE stash - each time finding the perfect item to finish the layout.


Here's what I created (I forgot how easy and fast one page layouts are!):

Hannah is our newest (and only) soccer star! How cute that she had to take a break on the field...




Maybe one of my favorite layouts ever...



Pop's birthday...




Easter "Saturday" (thanks to Teri R. I used the most awesome Tim Holtz Crackle Paint - I'm in love!)



Another Disneyworld layout - Minnie's House...


An Animal Kingdom layout - searching for characters...



Then I finished the week off by playing golf today with Shane. The weather was amazing! I'm sure a REAL golfer would have complained about the wind - but I can't blame the wind for any of my shots. After golf, we ate at The Cabin - a little cute restaurant in Gonzales, and then we took a nap before getting the girls - pure happiness! Hope you had a great week too! Be sure to laugh out loud this weekend!

All About Me Class - Quirks

This class was really hard for me. If you can read my journaling, you'll see that I asked everyone to give me a "quirk", and each time I was met with silence. As my mom put it, no one "wanted to hurt my feelings". So here it is, more journaling than pictures, but yours could be the complete opposite...

I'm watching the most precious little 4 year old

Granted, she's mine, so I'm partial... I am the BIGGEST pushover! Avery looked at me this morning with huge tears rolling down her sad face and said, "Mommy, can I stay with you today? I love you..." How could I possible resist those teary big blue eyes, especially after she had crawled up in my lap. So as I type, I am "talking" to the IRS (ie. I wait and they "look" in the system) and watching my precious Avery watch Blues Clues on my computer. Life is good...

Sangria, friends and glue....

I'm really very easy to please - just a night (or twelve hours) with a bunch of crazy women waving scissors and glue - oh, and a pitcher (or the girl's juice container) of Sangria!

I got so many pages done and you would have thought that after the Slumber Party I would have headed to bed early, but I cropped from 2pm to 2am. I can only hold the creativity in for so long - and tax season is SO VERY LONG (and over!)

I have had this paper for ages, and finally I found the perfect use! Shane, Pops, Collin and Bryan participated in the first ever New Orleans 1/2 Ironman. Shane was signed up to do the entire thing, but since I gave him about 2 hours in the last three months for training, he stuck to the biking as part of a relay team. I know he totally felt like an Ironman "poser", but I kept reminding him that he is a true Ironman - finishing the entire 140.6 miles in 14 hours (when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant). As a side note, those were some of the worst hours of my life. Envisioning myself raising two babies as a widow - but he made it of course!




All four kids were such troopers. The day of the race was HOT and LONG!!!! They are Ironmen in training - so what else did I expect???

Next up is Morgan's school fieldtrip. Of course there is a story (because it's my life, not someone normal). Morgan brought home the permission slip for the fieldtrip and a note that said a few parents would be randomly chosen as chaperones. Morgan begged me to sign up for the "lottery". Having the fieldtrip fall smack in the middle of tax season wasn't exactly the best for my schedule - but I figured I would never be "the chosen one" - so what the hell? You guessed it, I was chosen. But seriously, I would have MISERABLE had I missed it. I haven't missed a school event yet, how could I miss the first ever fieldtrip??? Every other parent was assigned another child to watch during the fieldtrip except me - Guessing the teacher doesn't exactly trust my parenting skills...





Thanks Melanie for pulling a great title out of thin air. And for all of you journal nazis, I'll get to it. There will plenty - it just didn't go with my creative MOJO last night...

I was having a blast cranking out some one page layouts. My favorite is of Shane and the girls at the Father Daughter Dance. As if Daddy doesn't treat them like royalty everyday, on dance night - they get EXTRA special treats!

I'm tackling Disney World one slow page at a time. There is no way I could sit down and work on Disney for 12 hours, so I'm taking my time, and enjoying the memories.

Hannah Banana had her 3rd birthday party at Jump and Jive. I'm not sure who had more fun - the adults or the kids. Even GiGi went down the BIG SLIDE!

We celebrated Nick's first birthday in February. To go along with the Monkey theme, Nick's mini cake was a bright yellow banana - and he loved EVERY last bite!





Notice I scrapbooked Nick's first birthday on the same night that I worked on his 6 months pictures? That's how long it takes my sisters to get me pictures of their children... pathetic!

That's it for now. I did something crazy today - but it'll have to wait for the next post :)

Never say YES due to guilt...

Every year after tax season I plan a special day for me and the girls - trying to make up for the fact that for three months I let any stranger raise my children. This year was the finally the year - MOM is NOT COOL :(

Morgan and Avery have been asking for a slumber party for two months - so I promised after tax season, they could have one. Letters went out to 6 little girls from Color Wheel. 5 crazy parents trusted me and Shane enough to give their precious daughters to us. And that's what I will focus on - how adorably precious each one is. The things that come out of their mouths (frightening at times) keeps you in stiches. We had fights over the bathroom (note we have FOUR potties!). There were fights over dresses and strollers, makeup, the computer, scissors, glue - should I go on???

The only really hard part was the hour when we were trying to get them to sleep. It took quite a few rearrangements, we had a few tears for mom - but the tearful one refused to go home, the four little ones talked and laughed and tickled and jumped around until I had to move them to my room and put them in the four corners of the room. At midnight the house was finally quiet (except for the rain storm - which I was sure was going to wake all 7 of them).

Promptly at 6:40 I heard the first demand for pancakes. The spunkiest of all 7 pointed at me and shouted, "I'm goin upstairs - get me when the pancakes are ready!". When I told her that she was being sassy and she needed to try again - she told me her mommy said she could be sassy and her daddy was going to spank my butt! How could I NOT laugh??

It was a ton of fun - but Shane and I agree, that was our first and LAST slumber party for awhile.

Tick Tock...

Just waiting for the day to be over. All of the returns are done and have been picked up, but of course, the phone is ringing off the hook with frantic people checking to make sure we filed their extensions. Just stop calling already!





This picture is proof that I'm alive, but tired (notice dark circles under eyes). I plan to sleep very late tomorrow. I can't wait to get scrapbooking - I have a few "play dates" scheduled. And Shane surprised me this morning with a "mystery" vacation. I've been instructed to be packed and ready on June 18th - why can't that be tomorrow??? Oh, because I'll be sleeping tomorrow!

Hope your taxes are filed - or at least your extension is in the mail!