Dear Sam,

I was trying to find a way with words to tell you how important you are to me,  but I'm terd.  Plus I think I may have told you how I felt when you corrupted me at Milestones last week.

Love ya sista sledge!

Before four

B and I have never really been a couple who travels or dines out often.

Our idea pre kids of eating out, was take-out.

We stayed in our PJ's on Sundays and watched NASCAR.

I had regular haircuts, wore make-up and read often.

B played video games and golfed.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss those days.

Before four we were good.

Now we are great.

I wouldn't change our chaotic life for anything.

(Click to enlarge)

Another layout for Tina, using some more cupcake love.

To say I love this paper would be an understatement.

I love hearts...love them.

I try to incorporate them into most of my layouts.

And an excuse to use pink always makes me happy.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

December Project 12

I did it!

I completed every single one of the sketches from the SACT Project 12 challenge.

Yay me!

So December...oh how I love December.

I dubbed it stress free month and working in the industry that I work in it takes great strength to live by that mantra for the entire month.

It wasn't perfect by any means but it was perfect for me.

I didn't let  finding fabulous for less get under my skin, 

I let the kids tear apart gently look at all the ornaments on the Christmas Tree.

B and I bonded.

Grammy came for a visit.

I watched the excitement and anticipation of the big day through the eyes of my children and really tried to teach them the real meaning of Christmas.

They are still too young but I still felt good about it.

I hope your holidays were as magical as you wanted them to be.

Sooo now the sketch:

And my take on it:

(Click to enlarge)

Happy it is done.

Happy to have a ton of pictures with B in them this month.  And by a ton I mean I had more than a dozen to choose from .

Happy to have a nice pic of my two Moms.

Happy enough with this project that I am going to do it all over again!

As always thanks for stopping by.

Nighty Night.

August Project 12, the layout that took forever to complete

I saw this recently while reading Jennifer Johner's Blog and knew that it would be cool to incorporate onto a page.

Incidentally the sketch for August Project 12 had a tree in it:

It took way longer to complete that I had thought it would.

WAAAAAAYYYY longer.

The tree is more of a focus than anything, so in the end I didn't add all the little stitching details and scallops that are usually part of the sketches.

And I didn't add as many pictures.

And I used flowery paper which I barely ever use.

I'm calling it good enough!!

Enjoy your day.

Mine is going to be spent buying a new car.

Valley View Farm

Last year my Sister  introduced me to the wonder that be Valley View Farm.

As  I (then just 4 weeks pregnant) walked through with M, then 16 months old, I was in awe.

I grew up in a very small town on Vancouver Island, where we lived on a farm.

I remember going to grocery stores for non perishables, toothpaste, T.P., shampoo. Not allot more than that.

We had cows, pigs, chickens and a huge vegetable garden and lots of berry bushes.

I would be hard pressed to think of anyone that I know that grew up in this setting but I have to say it was wonderful.

As I walked through Valley View Farm, all my childhood memories came flooding back just from the smell.

Yep, nothing likes the smell of cow terd to conjure up those good ole memories.

I love that smell, weird I know, but I do.

When my MIL was in town for M's birthday I thought it was the perfect opportunity to visit Valley View again.

I knew M would love it, since he seems to have a serious love on for Charlotte's Web.

I was right, he did love it.

But I was wrong in what he loved about it. He wanted to play at the park and play on all the old machinery, tractors and trains.

He wanted nothing to do with the animals, which was a little disappointing because one of the best times to go there is in the spring when there is new life everywhere.

I got over it because seeing him run from tractor to tractor made my heart warm and fuzzy.

J was content to stroll about with Grammy.

Near the end of our visit we took the little tractor trailer train around the future corn and wheat fields.

The conductor, in all of his 16 year old glory gave us the grand tour.

My favorite line was "If you look to your right you will see the old church across the street."

NO. WAY.

It really was a wonderful morning though, truly.

The next morning M woke and the first words out of his mouth were "Okay, let’s go see the animals."

I was happy that our little field trip had made an impression on him.

I plan to make another trip back in the fall, when J can walk around and enjoy it more.

Until then I preserved our little outing in the form of a scrapbook layout.

NO. WAY.

I bet you knew that was coming right?

And for good measure I'll show you two other layouts I did from our first visit. FYI the first is a scraplift but for the life of me I don't know who inspired me. I was pregnant with J at the time and my creativity was set at zero.   The second was a gift to my Sister as a momento of our outing.

As always thanks for stopping by.