Holiday Madness!

Ahh! I'm sitting outside watching the girls play in pink t-shirts, panties and high heels - they are TOO stinkin' cute! The weather is breezy and beautiful. Nice to just relax for a few minutes.... before the group arrives for the New Year's Eve cookout. What else are we supposed to do with all of these little girls? No chance of finding a babysitter, so we better just hang out for some low key celebrating.

All 3 "Christmases" were fun. The girls got EVERYTHING. A computer, Dora stuff, puzzles, coloring books, dolls - and the for the dolls: beds, playpens, clothes, diapers, bottles, strollers, bathtubs, hichairs - I could go on, but you'd get bored - and just to make it more crowded - TWO of everything. Because sharing is out of the question!

We really did have a lot of fun and tons of laughs! My favorite picture of the season is below. Just me and my girls....

Wishing you lots of laughs in the new year!

The next best thing to a tummy tuck

is scrapbooking with your friends. Sure, I was supposed to be celebrating my birthday with tight new abs, but since that was postponed, two friends took pity on me and we had a two-day scrapbooking party! Cori and Angel arrived on Monday morning at Memory Mania and we cropped until we dropped. We grabbed some dinner and headed to my house for more cropping. I crashed at 12:15, but they have more endurance than me and made it another hour. The girls thought "Mommy's slumber party" was hysterical! Then Tuesday we leisurely woke up and headed to Scrapbook and Co. for another day of cropping. I've decided this MUST be an annual event. We have to cherish the calm before the holiday storm!!! Here are all of the layouts/projects I created during the two days.


Shane is a Halloween fanatic! You can barely see the picture of our yard, but Shane built the fence and the coffin (what's a little stolen wood?). Next year, he promises the entire yard will be fenced AND we'll have a cage with a skeleton in it. I keep telling him, it's all fun and games until the girls are too scared to go outside!

The next layouts are of Thanksgiving day. Notice, Avery had a wardrobe change before we even left our house to head around the corner to GiGi's...




then, I have the layouts of "Gumbo Saturday" using the Creative Cafe felt and chipboard




Next, Avery's first two birthday parties. Did we have a school party, a family party and a friend party when we were little? I can't remember, but Avery did. And notice who had to help Avery blow out her candles at school and at home - Mommy? Not a chance!!! Daddy only!



I love this shot of Avery - it's a little blurry, but it's my favorite, and then the other layout shows the MANY personalties of Avery... Always on the move and ready to go!




Lastly, our Christmas tree. The one that I didn't want to cut down! But I take back all of the things I said, because the tree is perfect. The farm grows and prunes a tree for 7 years before it's ready for sale - that just seems incredible to me! Oh, and I got the "tree" shape idea out of Creating Keepsakes magazine - I can't claim that one as my own!



Oh, I almost forgot, I made this Christmas decoration for my foyer table. Susan from Scrapbook and Co. made one last year with the Rusty Pickle letters spelling "JOY". I bought these letters last year - it only took me 12 months to get my version done!



Thanks for checking out my newest layouts!

A pretty fantastic year!

32 was a good year! We have settled into our new home in Geismar, Louisiana. We've made friends with our neighbors (the humans and the livestock). We shop at the corner pharmacy and the independent grocery store. My house actually has custom window hangings (thanks to my godmother Val who can create ANYTHING I think up).

Bellanger and McQuiddy's revenue exceeded our expectations. More importantly, our clients like us (or they say they do!) and send us referrals regularly to prove it.

I'm beginning to figure out that balance of: mommy, wife, business owner and SELF. Sometimes I want to give Gloria Steinem and my mother's generation a swift kick in the ass for proving that Women CAN HAVE IT ALL - why didn't they get 10 hours added to each day while they were at it! But I took time for mysef and FINALLY lost the baby weight ("Baby Avery" is now THREE!). Shane and I have managed a Sunday date every week, thanks to our fabulous babysitters Anna and Lisa. We actually manage some adult conversation (although we are usually hemming and hawing over some "problem" with the girls).

I played golf for the first time. I went to Creative Escape in Arizona with Cori, Angel and Renee, and started teaching at Scrapbook and Co (in my spare time!).

I have three CPA's hired to help out with tax season - minimizing the 80 work week. And my girls regularly play with Molly and Shelby DESPITE the 45 mile commute, giving me and Jen a chance to hang out too.

And best of all, watching Morgan, Avery, Hannah and Ava grow up together is a riot! We can't wait for Jen and Dominick's little "trucker" to arrive in March and throw some testosterone in the mix of estrogen.

I needed to get all of this in writing for the days when I want to throw myself under a speeding 18 wheeler. Because believe me, I don't feel quite THIS thankful everyday!

Lucy made me laugh out loud today

Most of you know that my sister Ashley and I bought an accounting practice last December. When we bought it from GAG, Lucy came along with the deal. She quickly went from GAG's assistant (among a million other titles) to our "Work Mom". She was never shy about much. When I was on the extreme part of my diet, she would question every item I put in my mouth, she kindly tells us when the trash smells, she reminds us to send thank you notes to clients, she always points out when we don't look our best; in general, she just bosses us around. I fire her almost every week, but she never leaves! Seriously though, she can't leave. She knows every detail of every client. I even succumbed to her ridiculous numbering system in the file room! You know how big companies take out life insurance on key employees? Well, we need to find "Lucy" insurance. She found the perfect items for my birthday. Delicious smelling soaps, beautiful hand towels, a hysterical Christmas ornament of me and Ashley and jewelry cleaner (which she knew I needed, of course!) But the ABSOLUTE BEST part of my birthday present was the card!

PS - She doesn't agree with my plans to take two days off for my birthday to scrapbook...

Having these little girls together

ALWAYS makes me laugh out loud! Molly, Shelby, Morgan, Avery and Hannah went trick or treating together. The highlight of the night was when Avery "met" a puppy dressed JUST like her! I thought we would never tear her away. I can't believe Molly and Shelby let Jen put on the face makeup - my girls couldn't even grasp the concept of why they had "green" faces. I LOVE this Halloween line by Teresa Collins - the tiles are precious!

The birthday weekend...

And it wasn't mine - so I'm bitter AND tired! Avery turned three on Friday which meant a party at school, a party at the house Friday night AND the princess tea party on Saturday. I literally want to hibernate! Oh but no, we drove to Zachary, LA to cut down our own Christmas tree (Shane's insane idea, but it actually was cute). The most ridiculous part is that everyone has SHORTS on and we are cutting down our Christmas tree. The air conditioning is on at home - hard to be too MERRY!

Apparently I am the Christmas Scrooge of our house. I LOVE Christmas - but I'm more low key about the hype. An artificial tree would be fine with me, there aren't a zillion Christmas tchotchkes in my house, and I don't have a "theme" tree. I don't bake normally, so that whole Christmas cookie idea is out of the question. Well, for the final nail in my Christmas coffin - Shane makes a Gingerbread House with the girls! Sure, I made two birthday cakes this weekend, stuffed Christmas goodie bags for all of their school friends, bought and wrapped the teacher gifts - but who's the hero? Gingerbread Daddy, of course!

I convinced the girls to put on Christmas jammies so hopefully I can get some cute shots of them "decorating" the tree - I use that term loosely! There are so many layouts I want to work on, but even if I had the energy I have those two little scrapbook interruptors (is that a word?). Seriously though, I have the cutest stuff for our corn maze adventure and I have been buying up all of the Creative Cafe goodies. On a side note - my birthday is Saturday. Most people know that I was supposed to be celebrating my birthday by laying in an operating room having the pregnancy "tummy" removed. Well, it seems that I have a serious anemia problem, and I won't be going near the operating room for awhile. I was SO looking forward to catching up on my trashy books and magazines, and then when I had more mobility, I was going to scrapbook for hours at a time. Since that entire plan with SQUASHED with one blood test, I would LOVE if some of my friends would come and scrapbook with me. I'm shooting for next week, maybe a two day crop-a-thon just for ME! And yes, I did make Shane take a picture of me and my girls in front of our fresh newly cut down tree.