It's the hap- hap- hapiest time of the year....

Oh, that should read the buz- buz- busiest time of the year.... Happy Holidays!!! I can "officially" say that now, right? Thanksgiving is over and CHRISTMAS is next, then a whole NEW YEAR too! WOW!

Well, things around here are MORE than crazy these days. Just tons going on, kids activities, preparing for the Holidays, and more. Today I have a 4:00pm Dr appt, Parent Teacher Conferences for the kids and a7:00pm meeting for Church. Crazies! Upcoming week will be just as crazed as we need to get out and put all the Holiday decorations, prepare for dh's surgery next week, we also have a Church family party and clean house and prep for a big family get together in 10 days and so much more. Cooking and baking, card making, shopping, gift wrapping.... Just the normal hustle and bustle of the Holidays I guess?

One thing I did want to share is our newfound love of the old cardgame UNO! A couple weeks ago the kids friends brought it over to play, our youngest ds Micheal always gets left out bc he can't play the games.......he totally picked RIGHT up on this one and it has been non stop ever since! While SIL and her family were here over Thanksgiving they bought us our own deck of the cards and now Mr Micheal thinks we ALL need to play UNO with him 24/7 !! (oh and he also calls it "dos" as in uno, dos, tres... LOL) So, I included a photo of the kids all playing UNO over the Thanksgiving Holiday too. FUN times. So glad we have family to share the holidays with and make memories with. How blessed we are.

Walkin' in a winter wonderland.....

These are pictures of our house this winter holiday season.....the BEAUTIFUL window painting was done by my SIL who came for Thanksgiving... she did an amazing job, so pretty, all free hand! She is awesome! She has been painting windows for the Holidays all over the Boise Idaho valley! I am so proud of her... The other picture is our newly put up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Our oldest ds Chris (15) put them up with his buddy last night, all 20 BOXES of them......... aren't they pretty?

Thanksgiving review...

YUMMY! This was some of our Thanksgiving dinner.... and snacks from earlier in the day. LOOK AT THAT BIRD! Isn't she purdy!?

Growing Up WAY Too Fast

Holy moly this boy brings so much happiness to our home! This is Micheal, our "baby" boy... he will be 6 yrs old the first of the year and I do not know where on earth 6 years have gone! I know that with him being the youngest, our last, we are noticing more things as he grows, we are relishing in his achievements, watching every little move.

This is him at my sister's house a few weeks ago helping his Uncle Tony cut tree branches, such a little man!! So cute! Amongst other things, Micheal is learning to read (wow it goes fast!) and is loving kindergarden. I am so thrilled to watch him learn, he is amazing and catches on to every little thing so fast. Reading and writing, letter and number recognition, all of it, he is on top of his game!
He is still 110% BOY and loves his cars, trucks, trailers, boats, planes, trains, bike, wagon and anything with wheels or that is mobile! Also being a boy's boy, he loves puppies, bugs, and creepy crawlies... mud, football and sports. Such a boy. Growing up so fast. Love him so much.
Sweet boy. My baby boy....

Well, we are winding down here...

<<<>



Now, honestly, this photo is several months old, it is my ds Micheal and our pup Libby (who is not longer with us ...) but I thought it looked like a great way to end a day with a full belly of turkey!

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving!! Had SIL and her family here from across state, she, her dh and thier 3 kids have been here since Tues evening and will head home sometime tommorrow. We have had a blast. Today, of course, was the best part, tons of food (I am talking TONS of food), family time, games, football on tv, more food, more fun, more great memories! On the menu at our home was the following:

Appetizers-
Deviled Eggs
Cheese ball with crackers
Meat and cheese with crackers
Veggie tray with ranch dip
Sausage stuffed mushrooms (YUMMY-O!)
Egg Nog
Sparkling Cider

Dinner-
Turkey
Stuffing (in and out of the bird)
Mashed potatos and gravy
Rolls with honey butter
Cranberries
Fruit salad
Olives

Dessert:
2 pumpkin pies
2 dutch apple pies
1 bannana cream pie
1 chocolate cream pie

and that is what I call a good day! YUM! Hope you all had as good as a day as we did, so blessed with family, home, food, and great memories.

Darla

In a few short hours....

Our home will be bursting at the seams with nearly double the normal 'occupancy' ... ahh yes, THE HOLIDAYS are here.

Sister in law and her family are headed our way from across state. They will be spending 2 days at a local hotel and then one night here. We will be feasting upon great mountains of turkey, stuffing and the like. WalMart certainly entertains our budget this time of year.... food for double families is not cheap! LOL

Besides the blessed food and nourishment that awaits.....we have had our track shoes on running a miracle marathon cleaning and preparing for our family to visit. Laundry piles under control (or hidden away), every last dish, fork and bowl clean and sink polished and shining... the carpets all freshly vaccumed and nar'e a farkle to be found. Beds fresh with linens, bathrooms smelling lemony fresh and floors mopped and clean. Ahhh yes, the clean, pristine home of a family of 7 - soon to become the home of 12 for a few days and alas, the maid will have left the house and chaos shall reign. There will assuredly be clothes, toys, dishes, and other misc things strung from hell to high water and yes...we will all sit back and visit and have fun. Oh and I am certain that everyone will in fact remember that at one point YES the house WAS clean. LOL

Why do we do this again?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

If you have found my mojo please call...

1-900 HELP ME!

OK now that is out of the way, seriously, hee hee, I am just drowing in lack of energy yesterday and today. MIGHT be due to the fact that I got up at 5:15 am both days (which is SO not me) and my sleep pattern is a mess? Not sure but DANG! I need a kick in the patootie!

Yest (Friday) I babysat all day, cleaned and re cleaned my kitchen like 3 times, entertained a Kirby vaccume salesman (and got my livingroom carpet cleaned for free) and basically did a whole lot of nothing. Today I played taxi, went grocery shopping, took the kids for a walk at the park and yea, that's about it. I NEED to get my butt in gear and get some serious house work done as we have family coming for Turkeyday next week and somehow I need to clean every nook and cranny before then. Where DID my mojo go? hmmmmm

(if you find it let me know please)

Have a great weekend! me

My fat butt.

OK you may or may not want to read this... but hey, I am more documenting for myself than sharing so if you want to go ahead, if not. Stop now.

Back in Aug, I went to a seminar about weight loss surgery. Not the traditional gastric, a newer fandangled thing. Suffice to say, it scared the BEGEEBERS out of me. Nope, not what I am looking for. So, starting in Aug I began a weight loss lifestyle change of my own. Small baby steps. No running out, buying shakes, Atkins diet kind of thing. I began slow, and have continued slowly, little bittty baby steps. The reason I am posting this is that I wanted to "list" all these baby steps and show myself just how HUGE they really are.

- Cut out pop (diet or reg) completely 100% no longer a soda drinker
- Started drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day (8 oz each)
- Began eating MUCH more veggies, salads, whole grains, and lower fat and calorie foods
- Started walking, excersizing and moving several times a week
- Increased my walking endurance by LEAPS and BOUNDS
- Have been able to actually JOG (for just a min or so) on the treadmill (THIS IS HUGE!)
- I have lost to date almost 20 pounds AND over 25" of FAT off my body
- I feel great! Look great! (or at least better) and I am not tired all the time!
- I have been able to get into some old clothes
- My skin on my face is clearer and my "monthy" time is not as bad

really, I could go on and on, but the bottom line for me is that I CAN do this on my own and I AM doing a great job. Yes, it is slow, I'd love to be loosing 20 # or more a month, who wouldn't? But realistically, I am doing things the way I should and I feel really really good about my choices.

HUGE THANK YOU to my family and friends and sisters who are backing me up and pushing me forward to keep on going. YOU GUYS ROCK!

The SKINNY Chicken Darla

My first "babies"

Arean't they so cute? These are my 2 neices, Megan(in the jacket) and Bea (Beatrice). I got the awesome opportunity to live with thier family when they were babes.....and thier little brother Teddy too. I got to spend Megans first month of life with her and I was there when Bea was born and stayed for 2 weeks. When baby brother Ted was born I was living with them and I got to be much more than just an Auntie to him for the first yr or two of his life. So, (aging myself here) now Megan is almost 22 yrs old and Bea just turned 19....Ted just turned 17 too. I got to go visit them in Twin Falls (and Figo the pup) a couple weekends ago, it is rare that I get to see the girls....so it was a great treat when they BOTH came to visit me while I was there! So pretty they both are. I could tell stories on these girls that would curl their hair....hee hee but I won't. However, I just had to brag that I am indeed the "Aunt Noo Noo" (aka aunt lou lou) to these 2 beautiful young ladies..... "GOODNESS GRACIOUS PEACHES CLAIR!" Love you girls.....

Wow, another week closer to the Holidays.

So, a couple of years ago my sister got this cute teeny tiny little pup of a thing (looked like a yorkie terrier) and named him FIGARO (like the music, Feeeeeegaroh! LOL) Now, here it is a couple yrs later and Figo the dog/mut is quite the king on his castle. Now, my sister and her family are dog lovers. They also have 2 HUGE German Shepherd dogs, Gonzo and Lady, and then there is lil' Figo the mut. WHO rules the roost? Who nips and nags and yappy yaps at the big dogs? WHO gets HIS food or snack or treat first? WHO gets to rid in Momma's Mercedes? And you can only imagine who eats up his kibble snacks then taunts the other dogs for theirs?? LOL Love this lil' mutley doggie.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just realized out of the clear blue skies today that Christmas is coming in like a MONTH! Granted, I still have to make it through Thanksgiving, but hey, CHRISTMAS IS COMING! I have ONE gift sort of put together, that is it. I am making lists and starting to consider who and what and where...... but honestly, I am so not ready. OH and on top of all this sudden "realization" I also almost forgot I am "hostessing" a family get together here on Dec 10 as well. OYE!

Happy Holidays Anyone?

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW.......

LET IT SNOW!

OH I could not be any happier than I am right now here at this moment! I have SO NOT been in the Holiday spirit (even though WM has been trying for 3 weeks now). I have not had a mere' thought of Christmas in my head, more of a dreadful fear of it creeping up too fast. I have been trying to put together my Thanksgiving menu and plans and just have not had my heart in it. BLACK FRIDAY sales? not even a wish or want to go..... BUT NOW LOOK AT THIS !!!!!
WE HAVE SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!!!!!!! And it looks like it is going to stay! We got a couple good inches last night, (oh yea, dh almost slid us off the road but handled it like a pro) and it stayed down in the 30's overnight so it stuck! Today we have more chances of SNOW and tommorrow chances of SNOW and RAIN (ick) But the temps are down all week to come so hopefully we'll see more white stuff! I am so rockin' over this. Ready for lists, baking goodies, making hot coacoa and more! BRING IT ON WINTER......I am ready! hee hee Darla

(top two are our backyard and a babysnowman dh built, the tree is our front yard, just taken this morning!)

OK I know, I am late....about 2 weeks late.... but I still wanted to share. :O) These are our family pumpkin's from this HALLOWEEN. The 'baby' one is Michea's (Daddy made it) the middle one is Dani's (Mom made it) and the biggest one is our oldest ds Chris pumpkin he did all himself. Tiffany painted her pumpkin at a Church activity with Daddy (not pictured) and it was cute! I thought this was one of our BEST YEARS ever for pumpkin carving.... I love Chris' pumpkin, he did a great job, he free handed it and did a really creative job!! Fun stuff.....

Super easy LO to share...

So I was doing the daily Blog Browsing yesterday and Ali Edwards http://aliedwards.typepad.com had the most amazing LO on there. Super easy, basic, simple, whatever, I loved it. So I sort of "lifted" the idea, didn't do the exact page (bc I didn't have all those COOL stamps) but I did my own version and I really like it. Got the opportunity to really journal and play.Photo of my 'baby boy' Micheal sleeping, so tender and sweet. So creative, so fun. Love it. Darla


(Click for larger image)

Friday.......longest day of the year I swear!

THAT is how I feel today .... pooey on it all! Friday can kiss my BUTT!

Scrapbook Anon Group Layout for Nov 6

Well here it is. I have slacked off on the past few sbanon challenges, just been too busy. This one was hard for me too because I did not have any 'skeleton leaves' or pressed flowers to use. ( I had skeleton leaves and gave them away! )
So, after much digging to improvise I used an old SU! set of stamps on vellum and made a folage style border for my lo. (hope that counts Gina) This is a LO of my dh (dear this time) Ed. I used Crate papers and a ton of misc other things. There is pocket journaling behind the photo and the title letters are not as "orange" in the real LO....they sure scanned wonky. Anyway, there ya go. Thanks for looking. Darla

My desk is not a mess .....

I was reading Donna Downey's blog this a.m. and she made a really profound statement that I promptly made into a sign to hang by my desk.

MY DESK IS NOT A MESS AT ALL...
IT IS IN MIDST OF
"CREATIVE CHAOS! "

Thank you Donna. As you can see from THIS photo, I am in creative chaos right now. (and dear lil' Micheal is lost in there too!) I had challenged my Monkey girls to clean up thier scrappy areas this week so that this weekend we can all focus on a clean workspace and create like the artistic wonderwomen that we all are. Point in case, my desk. I have been very busy this week with lots of projects and creating card kits and sorting through LO's to submit and 101 other things. It all sort of just piles up. Can I work in this mess? yes. Can I be my best creative self in this mess? no. It makes me feel frumpy and crowded and flustered and ultimatly I loose my creative mojo because I can't deal with it all. So.......this afternoon I am going to be doing some definate major scrappy cleaning so that I can actually WORK on some projects!!

There you have it...my mess..er' , I mean my CREATIVE CHAOS . Carry on ladies....carry on.

BUSY CRAZY TUESDAY !

Well holy moly today is going to be a crazy one... I have tons to do, I mean TONS to do. I am really behind on the house, laundry, yard, projects and stuff. Today is going to be a workin' day for me!
I had a great weekend, hung out Fri night with the family, Sat we did some yardwork and rented a couple of movies. Sun I got to go to Twin Falls to visit my sis for the day and I LOVED it. Monday I had to get my car into the shop (again) for the tranny, looks like a major repair or relpacement (thank goodness for our warranty) so I am down my van this week. :O( Luckily we have a 3rd car and dh can drive it. (I have my Dodge Caravan, he has a Ford Explorer and then he and ds have a Firebird Formula- play car) So with all the running and stuff the house has been sorely neglected, it is bad. Today will be my makeup day! :O) Hope the work goes quickly. On my agenda:

- clean house thouroughly (mop, dust, vac, all that) *HOP HOP HOP for Darla*
- work on laundry through the day
- get leaves raked up and bagged (this will be an afterschool job for me AND the kids)
- work on a couple crafty Christmas gifts
- squeeze in a workout or time on the treadmill
- finish up some card kits for a class at Church tommorrow night
- and try to figure out something for dinner tonight

yup, that is all. Let's see, I was up at 7:00am, it is now almost 8:30 am, I still have a good 6 hours till' my younger kids get out of school!!

So, the above photo is my card kits thus far for the Church thing, I am really worried they are too simple/basic but on the other hand I know most of the gals going are not "big" scrappers and they might get overwhelmed with harder projects. I am waiting some feedback from my mb buddies so hopefully that will help.

Off I go to conquer my TO DO LIST for the day! Take care and happy voting day to you!!!!!!!!

I did THIS tonight....

My BIG Friday night date.....my scrapbook desk and a few goodies! LOL
Seriously, it was nice to just sit down and play a bit, got this page done of my niece and I really like it. I realize it is a VERY busy page, sort of a collage-like look? Artsty - fartsy? Eclectic, ahhh there, that sounds better. Anyway, I like it.

I used lots of My Minds Eye (pp and tag) and Making Memories products, We R Memory Keepers and Foofala pp, some 7Gypsies rub ons, Prima flowers, and misc ribbons and lace. It was a lot of fun to put together. Loving it.......

Just wanted to share my latest lil' project! Thanks for looking!

FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY Where'd the week go?

Well, I can hardly believe it is Friday again.....man the week goes by fast sometimes. Different activities with the kids, all the awesome tv shows on this time of year, just everything going by so quickly.

This week was a wierd one too. Tiffany spent three days home sick from school, I did take her to the Dr on Tuesday and it is just an upper resp virus and a mild ear infection but man, she is coughing up a lung and it seems like she just starts to feel a bit better then bam! she is down again. I made her stay home one more day to just be sure she is getting better. Hope her makeup work at school isn't too bad. Poor kid, the one who LOVES school...

So HOLY COW I AM HOOKED ON TV this fall! There are so stinkin' many cool shows on right now! Survivor and ER are rockin' my world as is The Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser, Friday Night Lights (wayyyy awesome show!) , and Extreme Home Makeover. DH is into Lost, Jericho, Heros, CSI and some others too! Let me tell you, TV ADDICTS we are in this house!!! ack!

This weekend is sort of a DO NOTHING time around here... no big activities, just relax and hang out. I want to get the last of the yard cleaned up (hoses, leaves, ect) for winter and I'd also like to deep clean some parts of the house. We'll see what really happens though LOL! I honestly have about 10 pressing scrapbook related things to work on (isn't that nuts) so I will be spending a lot of time at my desk I think too. I need to catch up, but that is the story of my life!!

Guilty! I missed going to the Church Gym twice this week.....! HOWEVER, I did do two workouts at home so I don't feel too bad, I just had a hard time getting up and going in teh mornings and with dd Tiff home it just made it worse. Still, I should have gone. That's all.

Guess I am done rambling for now... not that I dont' have 1001 other things to be doing, just felt like journaling and catching everyone up on my crazies. LOLOL Hope you all have a great weekend and maybe I'll h ave some new fun things to show you on my next posts!

HAPPY FRIDAY! me

November leaves are falling...

Can't hardly believe it is actually NOVEMBER already! Yikes, where has this past year gone? So much crazy busy life going by with kids, family, school, dh work, and more. I cannot even fathom that the Holidays are upon us...heck, I am still recovering from the festivities in July! LOL

I do love fall though, one of my favorite times of the year. I made this cute lil' scrap page border for a contest, but it also would / could be put on a wooden base as a cute door hanger too... change up the AUTUMN to WELCOME and voila'!! I can't wait (shhhhh don't tell dh) to get the Halloween decorations down and put away and get out the fall decorations instead LOL! Shame one me, he enjoys that so much, but I am ready for some pretty fall things instead of screeching witches and stobe lights! Much more 'peaceful' to have a nice tablecloth out with a basket full of flowers and such, don't you think?

Well, all my scrappy buddies are headed up to the mountains tommorrow for a retreat. Sort of bummed I am not going, but I really cannot complain as I did take nearly a whole week this past spring to go play. Just wish I could have gone, going to be some great fun classes and tons of cropping time too. Bummer. I hope they have fun and TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES to show me (hint hint ROBIN!) .... fun stuff.

Lots to do on the scrappy circuit this weekend. Need to do some card kits for Church and also some scrap kits for prizes from a contest. Have a few challenges to work on and some circle journals that are needing to be passed on to Robin too... (oops!) I am sure I'll keep busy, always do!

Until later..... happy FALL ya' all! ( I have always LOVED that saying!! ) hee hee Darla