I have such a great boy!

Look at this kid! Not only is he ADORABLE, but he's turning into such a good baby. I can eat just about everything (still no Mexican food or heavy garlic) I want. Such a relief because it was getting difficult trying to avoid pizza and red sauce :) . The best thing: He puts himself to sleep! WOW! It started about 3 nights ago. He woke up at 11:30 pm and I had to change his diaper...he ended up awake for an hour. He got tired but cried even more when I rocked him or cuddled him. So I put him in his bed and turned on his mobile. He sucked his thumb, made really cute soothing noises, and after 15 minutes he was asleep. I thought it was luck but he did it again the next day for his naps and has been doing it ever since! So different than Hailee. Darren and I had to "train" Hailee to fall asleep in her bed alone at 8 months. I'm so excited but at the same time it's wierd. I go in and check on him every half hour because I just can't believe he's fallen asleep, lol. This means I will have so much less stress when we travel over Christmas. Flying from Tulsa to Seattle is a long day, then 2 1/2 weeks visiting family makes for a long vacation.


So that's my good news for the day. Now I'll go pick Hailee up from school and hear all about the fun she had!

SBO Contest Time!!!!

It’s HOMECOMING at Scrapbooker Online You and a layout you love are invited to the Scrapbooker Online Homecoming Celebration. This is a chance to dust off one of your favorite layouts, a layout you may have submitted to a specific call or magazine assignment and it never got its chance to shine. We are inviting you and your best work to come out and party! There will be no wall flowers in our SBO gallery. Be seen and join us in creating one of the best September galleries the web has to offer!

Contest Rules/Details: • Submit a scrapbook layout that you have submitted to a specific call or magazine assignment and has never been picked up or published.
• Only one submission per person will be accepted.
• Include journaling, if possible.
• Please forward journaling in plain text along with the photo.
NOTE: No previously published work will be accepted.
1. All images will be displayed in our monthly contest gallery.
2. Open to US and Canada residents only
3. Please include a supply list.
4. Our winner will be notified by e-mail and must respond within 2 weeks of notification.
5. Winner will be announced in our monthly newsletter and on our site.
6. Winning Layout: Our Design Team will select one winning layout. The winner of this contest will receive a $25 gift certificate to our on line store and be crowned the SBO Homecoming Queen.
7. All entries must be received by September 28th, 2006. Submissions can be made by emailing September2006Contest@scrapbookeronline.com Or by uploading it to the "September 2006 – SBO Homecoming 2006" contest gallery. User registration is required September Contest Deadline is September 28th, 2006

Hailee's 1st day of school!

she had a great day! she colored, danced, sang, read, and even had a snack! She seems to really like her teacher, Mrs. Snow. I'm glad she's having fun! Soon she'll know everyone's name and will tell me all about them!

Scrapbook Playground needs a guest designer for October!

We are looking for a guest designer to work with our design team for the month of October! To be considered, upload your 3 favorite layouts that depict your style in our gallery and link them here: http://www.scrapbookplayground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10125! The guest designer will be chosen and announced on September 15th!!!


Congrats to Jen and Rita....September's guest designers!!!!

An adorable bad habit!

He's a thumb sucker. I'm not really happy with it, because you can't take the thumb away sometime in the future....well at least he looks cute doing it! He's just starting to grab and hold things, so Darren and I are hoping to get him switched to a pacifier.

Last night was a long night, he didn't sleep well for some reason. But tonight is good so far. He fell asleep at 8:00 pm when he ate and it's now after 11 and he isn't awake yet! Pray for lots of rest for this zombie mommy!

Only 6 more days until Hailee starts preK. She is getting so excited! I really hope she enjoys school and will make lots of new friends.

awwww!

aren't they just the cutest? I love how this picture looks, even if Braden didn't smile! I guess I need to go update all of my avatars now! :)

Scrapbook Playground is looking for a guest designer!!!!!

We are looking for a guest designer to work with our design team for the month of September! To be considered, upload your 3 favorite layouts that depict your style in our gallery and link them here http://www.scrapbookplayground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9908 ! The guest designer will be chosen and announced on August 15th!

Also, please congratulate Gine! She's the newest member of our fabulous design team!!!!!

3 months already???

Wow, how time flies! Braden is 3 months old as of August 1st! And to celebrate he let out his first belly laugh! It's so cute! I finally got him to do it for his Daddy so now I'm not the only one who's heard him! And he's getting to be such a good happy baby! He falls asleep in the swing now. Which is good. He used to only fall asleep if I was holding him or if we were in the car. He's taking good naps during the day...3 of them at least 1 1/2 hours each! Much better than Hailee ever did! I'm pleased to say I can eat red sauce again! YAY! I had spaghetti and he didn't have any troubles with it. That was so exciting that I thought I'd try Mexican food for lunch...no such luck. Boy was that a long day! Poor little guy.

Hailee starts school on the 17th! I can't believe it! I remember thinking "only a few more months" and here it is only a few more days! She's so excited. I'm curious how the first day will go. She gets so shy that she cries so I'm expecting a long goodbye that day.

Contest begins TODAY!!!!...August 1st.
SBO’s Progressive August Layout Contest
www.scrapbookeronline.com
Thanks to the wonderful contributions and participation in our July contest we have decided to keep the ball rolling at SBO and offer another progressive layout contest for the month of August. But this one has a little twist involved. For anyone who attended our Cyber Crop in June and participated in my challenge you will understand the contest rules below.

The contest will run for 4 weeks. Each, MONDAY by Midnight EST, you will upload the assignment for the week. There will be a designated contest gallery for each week of the contest.

The contest judging will not occur until the end of the month but to be eligible you will need to upload your assignment each week. Due to the fact this is a progressive contest you can not miss a week because each week will build off of the past weeks work.

Each Tuesday at Noon, EST, I will post the assignment. You will have a week to complete it and upload to the gallery.

The final layouts will be judged on the following: Overall craftsmanship, creativity, and interesting use of embellishments, journaling, and how well you followed the directions. The SBO DT will be judging this contest.

This contest is going to take some thought ladies. Each week you will need to use what you have done in the past and build on it. But, you will not know what you are to do next, until the assignment is posted. You also can NOT add anything to your layout that is not in the assignments. Good luck let me know if you have any questions.

The first assignment will be posted this Tuesday, August 1st. The first deadline will be Monday, August 7th at Midnight EST.

wow, has it been a while!

I just have to share this layout. but SHHHH! it's not going to be revealed until wicked awesome Thursday at www.scrapbookeronline.com! So don't tell big sis! lol
I love this paper by 7gypsies! perfect to show off my blessings! I look at my family every day and smile at how lucky I am.

so what to say?

Been a while since I've made a post, but now I can't think of much to talk about! lol Here's a layout I did this week. It will be in the August/September issue of www.readysetcreate.com and the sponsor was Pressed Petals! I just love their stuff!!!

I was supposed to try to get Braden switched to soy formula to see if he improves as far as gassy tummy and some fussiness, but that didn't work so I just bought some more Mylicon! I'll try again later. He enjoys nursing and I do, too, so why should I give it up? I mean it is the milk God intended him to drink, right?

These super hot temps are making us all cranky. Hailee can't go out to play for more than 15 minutes at a time before she's thirsty and bright red so having her under foot all day is adding to the crankies. Darren finally noticed yesterday, and he's been sick so he's spent the last 2 days just sleeping! Glad he's at work today, but wish I could find something to keep Munch busy.

I'm still waiting for airfares to drop. My mom and sister are going to come visit in September :) and then Darren & I and the kids are going to Seattle for Christmas!!! YAY!!!! Can't wait!!!!

It's Thursday

It was a long night with Braden last night. He woke every 2 hours and then I was up with him for over an hour at 6:20...then he only slept from 7:40 til 8:00!!! But, I got him down at 9:00am and he slept another 2 hours so I was able to get this layout done!

He is now on his 3rd nap, and he's going down nicely..no fighting it and waking back up the minute he touches the mattress! So now I'll clean my desk and fold some clothes...then maybe I'll do ANOTHER layout!!!

Thank you, JulieAnn!

Well, my dear friend, JulieAnn, saved me! She has a copy of my gdt application that I sent to MF so now I can share the work I submitted!!!

So I guess you could say these are my "WINNING" pieces! The pail is a gift for my sister, and I used all Crate Paper and a Bazzill blossom. The layout is using, of course, Basic Grey!! Lollipop Shoppe!!! and some Queen & Co. flowers.

**SHOCKED**

Well I am just SHOCKED!!! I will be one of the guest designers at www.scrapbookeronline.com from July - September! I can't believe it! Yes, I did apply, but I wasn't really expecting to get it...I just felt I had to apply, being a "sista" and all! lol I'm so excited...it will be such fun working from the "other side" with the wicked awesome design team and Sue, the other guest designer! I'm a little nervous though...WAT has always been something I admired and looked up to..now I'll be a part of it! OY! Gotta get my groove on so I don't disappoint anyone!

I was going to post the layouts I submitted, what I can now call my "winning" layouts...but I forget which ones I sent to MF! lol How bad is that? I know they were from my dt work at www.scrapbookplayground.com, but I can't remember which! oops!

Happy Father's Day!!!

well here are 2 layouts with Darren and his kids! I used Crate Paper!! They are sponsoring us this month at www.scrapbookplayground.com and you can see them in the gallery June 20th!!!!

Happy Father's Day, Darren! I love you and the kids love you!!! Thank you for such a beautiful family!

**SHOWDOWN AT THE PLAYGROUND**

The Showdown at the Playground!

Scrapbook Playground is having a HUGE contest! We will be taking submissions from now until June 25th. To enter, submit your best layout. The Playground Bullies (AKA as The Design Team) will pick their favorite 25 pages, and those lucky people will enter into the 8 week contest.
We are looking pages that are strong in photography, creativity, and overall design. Originality and creativity in all areas is very important. Layout entries will be judged on all of the above.
Queen of the playground is one who displays unique and inventive layouts that are clean, inspiring and creative. Does this sound like you? Come join the Showdown at the Playground, and you can become Queen!

Official Rules:

Dates of Contest
The Contest starts NOW. You have until June 25th to submit your best layout to be considered for participation in this contest.
This contest will run with the following dates:
June 26th-June 30th , 1st elimination round 2. We will go from 25 finalists to 20.
July 2nd to June 7th. Elimination round 3. We will go from 20 finalists to 15.
June 9th to July 14th. Elimination round 4. We will go from 15 finalists to 10.
June 16th to July 21th. Elimination round 5. We will go from 10 finalists to 8.
July 23th to July 28th. Elimination round 6. We will go from 8 finalists to 5
July 30th to Aug 4th. Elimination round 7. We will go from 5 finalists to 3.
Aug 5th to August 11st. Elimination round 8. We will go from 3 finalists to 2.
August 13st to August18th We will have our Scrapbook Queen of the Playground!

www.scrapbookplayground.com

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

Well aren't they just too cute!? I think so...but yet I'm they're mom so I guess that's expected. But this is a great picture of them together! They're both happy and looking at the camera! Not bad seeing how Braden is only 5 weeks old! lol





We took Braden to the ear, nose, throat doc today. He says he's fine, nothing wrong and it's just going to have to fix itself. Laryngomalacia. Big word for something not serious! But it's a relief, I was dreading surgery of any sort.

hmm...

it's been a while since I've posted anything so I guess I'll just ramble.

Hailee is pushing every button I have. She's trying to see how far I'm willing to budge. And I'm proud to say...I'm not budging!!! She's just going to have to get used to the idea that babies take time, and she still has to have manners and mind! She's wonderful with Braden, and loves to help out with him..but everything else she will challenge me on! Darren took 2 boxes of toys to the attic yesterday because she refused to clean her room up. Any other day she cleans up after herself...I needed her to do it yesterday since we're having company today and she would NOT do it. I made her stay in time out on her bed until she cleaned. That didn't help, so Darren packed up all the stuff on the floor! She helped! Didn't even phase her...she said "I have too many toys anyway". Good grief, 4 years old are fun! lol

Braden is still having breathing trouble, but the zantac the specialist put him on has really helped in reducing his spit up! That's nice, wish I would've had someone put Hailee on that! He sleeps really good at night, most nights, not so good during the day. But I wouldn't switch that around for anything! I was up with him from 4:30 until 6 this morning because he kept waking himself up trying to catch his breath.

well that's my rambling...here's a sneak peek at my latest layout! It can viewed in the gallery at www.scrapbookplayground.com on June 5th!!!

I finally scrapped!

I did my first layout since Braden's been born! It isn't my best, but it felt great to do it! So for those of you who read my blog, you get a sneak peek!!! This is a layout for www.scrapbookplayground.com . It will be uploaded in the gallery on May 20th for our Queen & Co. sponsorship!
So, it's my first layout since having a baby, first layout of the baby, and first layout using the AWESOME Basic Grey Oh Baby Boy papers!!!! Yes, it was FUN!!!