A Holiday Recap

I was waiting to write this until we were all done celebrating Christmas...but I can't wait anymore.

With the rotating holiday schedule for Hunter, the days are all squeezed into one week, either before or after Christmas. This year, Hunter came on Christmas Eve night, and he is here until this Sunday. We are loving the long week with him, and he is loving the break off school.

We have been so blessed to have such wonderful time with our family. This afternoon we have more time, and our last celebration. It will be great to see our cousins from Iowa, we don't see them nearly enough since they moved.

My kids love to give gifts that make people smile, and we had a great deal of that this year. Giving Mom her first digital camera, their cousin his first set of Lego's, and listening to their young cousin scream "MICKEY" over and over again. It was wonderful.

The gifts they received were limited this year, from us at least. We decided long ago to cut down to three from us and Santa, and they each bought one for each other. It was great to see the excitement that came across their faces as they opened some thing they wanted, something they never thought they would receive.

Both kids received a Nintendo DS this year, something to keep them entertained in the car during long car rides, and something they can earn more games for. Boo and Hunter were both so excited, with thank yous flowing to us and Hubby's parents.

I think my favorite gift they received was Boo's "Build A Fort" kit. It is the coolest thing EVER. It has rope, clips and suction cups along with the canvass pieces. She uses my blankets and yarn almost every day to build forts or "Shelters" when she thinks I don't know they are the same. Half my blankets are all stretched out, not a good time. We are busting this out tomorrow, the one day we have nothing going on. I can't wait!

Hunter is in love with his i-Dog. I won this on Classy Mommy's blog. The lights and action are great, and you can make it do tricks! That is the coolest part I think. I keep hearing it bark though, so that is a bit odd at times...lol

I got my rolling scrapbook bag!!! I squealed...Hubby laughed at me. Big Sis always knows just the right thing to make my day a bit brighter, and this year was no different. When we went to our scrapbook night in November, I felt like an inadequate scrapbooker. I had my canvass bags, and that was it. Big Sis had her cool rolly bag, and so did everyone else. Now I have one too! I can't wait to load it up, and I need to do that since my craft area looks like a tornado hit it.

Below is a slide show, works so much better than uploading a bajillion pictures. Thanks to Jo-Lynne at Musing of a Housewife for turning my on to One True Media!

Today is the last holiday, but also Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!! We love you!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The list of the day

While this weekend was not the greatest, it is time to get the week going. Yesterday was a post-headache fog, not fun. I wasn't normal person at the office, and was in bed by 9:15 last night. Exhausted.

Today, is a better day. There are a ton of things that I need to take care of today, and some things that I have to let slide for the good of all.

- Have to go through Hunter's toys and pull what he never plays with. If I let him do this, he would never get rid of anything.

- Go to Archivers to price out scrap book bags. I have a gift card and a coupon!

- Figure out the final schedule for the holidays. There are so many things to do, and I am that anal. I wanted this taken care of in September.

- Have Boo put together this cool review item I got from Mom Select. She has been giddy since Friday when it came. Hunter was going to do it, but he is grounded, so not happening!

- Resist calling Hunter to find out if he turned in the missing homework, must resist!

- Worry about Boo, nothing in particular there are just some changes at school. I want to see how she adjusts to them.

- Work a full 8 hours, plus some overtime.

Do you think there is enough time in the day?

Scraping the Night Away!

Last week Big Sis and I spent a night scrap booking...and I do mean a night. The little shop that we go too has Crop Nights a couple nights a month, and they start at 5 and go until 2 am. The store is open during that time, so customers can come in if they need to. I love this shop, small enough that they know their regular customers, but big enough that they have some products even Archiver's doesn't have.

We arrived at 5:30 after grabbing a bite to eat. We checked in, got set up, and then just looked a the group of women that were there to get some things done. It amazed me. They can fit 25 at the regular tables, and have 4 "cheap seat" tables on the side. We had a larger table, and thank goodness!

Another great thing is that you can start a tab at the beginning of the night, and as you find things you need add to it. This helped when I realized I forgot my silver paper. Not good when the main wedding colors were blue and silver!

We were both working on our Las Vegas books, and we had a ton of stuff. Even though it had been over a year, we talked about it like it was yesterday. So many memories came flooding back from the wedding, the party and the Bachlorette. It was a great time.

It was a bit intimidating to get going, so many people with so much stuff. I could have walked around for hours looking at the cool tools that I would love to own someday. But we got down to it, and got started.

I have found that starting is always the hardest. Where do you begin? How do you begin? This is especially hard when it is the first page in the book. Big Sis found this out, as she worked on her first page for a long time, making sure it was perfect. And it was gorgeous! I loved it.

As I made more progress, I got into a groove. I kept plugging away, and getting more and more done. I got the extra paper and glue I needed (since I forgot mine..smart...real smart). But, there came a point where I didn't know where to go with a certain page, and that is where having my sister there helped a TON. She gave me an idea, and away it went. It turned into my favorite set of pages.

The Elvis pictures always crack me up. I loved that he was at the reception, and gave them their "Elvis Vows" in front of everyone.

Here is the beginning of the Bachlorette pages. Can't show those pictures, really just not appropriate for a family friendly blog. But it was a time to remember!

Here is another simple yet wonderful page. Big Sis and BIL had a great little guide put together for all the guests (they went to 5 different hotels dropping off goody bags). It had the wedding day schedule, where we would meet and about transportation. It also gave some great highlights of attractions that were free or inexpensive. This is the cover, and I love it!

Big Sis does have two tools that I would LOVE to have. She has a great scrap booking bag, on wheels. I am jealous. It holds (almost) all her stuff, and is so easy to transport.

But the big thing, and something that she love having is her Cricut. This thing is AMAZING!!! I used it on the Elvis page, and the Drag show page. It was so easy, and so fun to use. I didn't have to cut anything! I do have to buy her a new cut sheet, since I abused it so much. I think this will be my next saving project, since they are almost $300! But so worth it.

It was a great time. We had so much fun spending some non-kid-non-football time together. We got to talk about things besides the normal, and that is great. We don't get to do that enough. We are going to go again in a few weeks, it was a blast.