Almost 1/2 Way to 50...Hubby Says!

Yep, Hubby reminded me that on Thursday I will officially be 1/2 way to 50! I of course reminded him that as of right now he is TWO years older than me....for those 2 weeks at least. I also reminded him that my 24 is closer to 20, and his 26 is closer to 30!HaHa! This evening the girls and Nathan took me out for my birthday meal since the girl go to PA tomorrow. Tonight was filled with laundry and packing up the girls' suitcases for tomorrow. Not too much to report. I did finish that layout last night......

Well lots to do tomorrow to get ready for DC, so I am not sure when I'll get to post again...so the next time you hear from me, I'll probably be the big 2-5!

Happy Early Birthday to Me!!!!!

Don't you just love early birthday presents? Well hubby and the girls gave me part of mine on firday...even though my birthday is not until the 1st. Hubby surprised me with a black background for my photos!!! It is sooo awesome and it is made of a special material that actually absorbs the extra light. I love it! Of course I had to take a few...dozen pictures to test it out and it is amazing the difference. It made Emma's blue eyes just pop right out! I still need to figure out the best way to hang it...it is a roll of about 30 feet of material, but besides that it works WONDERFULLY! I have the very best hubby in the word to not only have gotten me my precious Nikon D50 for Chirstmas, but now a professional background as well! How lucky am I? What a great pre-birthday surprise! Here are a few of the pics with my new toy!

On Wednesday we are leaveing for CPAC ( conservative confrence) in Dc, so the kids will be going to PA for several days. Caroline of course will be going with us because she is still nursing. We will be there over my birthday and will be flying home on the 4th. I know it's a politial thing that we will be busy working at, but I am excited to be in DC over my birthday!

I'll leave you with a new favorite pic of mine. I took this yesterday of Caroline while she was napping in the cradle. It's for a layout that I am working on today....A day in the life of a stay at home mommy! I'll post it when I'm done of course.

Lee Alums!

Well, he made it! Not only does American Idol finalist Phil Stacey have a great voice, he also has someother great attribute.....He''s a Lee University Alum! He graduated from the music program in 2002, and now is stationed in FL witht he US NAVY. While at Lee he was in Lee Singers....one of Lee's terrific choirs. Phil's wife Kedra is also a Lee alum and sang with her hubby in Singers. Lee University's Alumni Association sent out an email asking all of us to make sure we called in our votes the other night for phil. We all did and sure enough we'll see him again next week! I called a few times but only got a busy answer. Nathan was on his way to DC for another campaign trip, so he called numerous times from the airport. He said it rang busy until after 11:30...which was 1 and a half hours after the show! So if you watch American Idol....keep your eye on this fellow Lee Alumni!

Oh Happy Day!

I can't believe it!!! I finally came out of my shell and started submitting my layouts to different places and sure enough I already got picked up but a kit club! Woo-hoo....can you tell I'm tickled pink about this one! I was honored to have been asked to be the Guest Designer for the month of April for none other than....



You can check out thier website at.... http://www.tickledpinkkits.com/ They are just getting started, but have a physical store in MI. Hmm??? Road trip??? For all my non-scrapbook-community family.... how it will work is that each month this kit club makes up a themed kit to sell. For the month of April, I will be sent one of these kits and asked to do a few layouts using that kit. Then they will post pictures of my layouts on their site as they begin to sell April's Kit. Basically it is a "look what you can do if you buy this!" My picture and bio will be posted on their site and I will be featured in their newsletter which goes out to over 1000 people! So not only do
I get my name out there but I get a fabulous kit as well! Win-win!

It is really encouraging to have been picked up so fast. I mean I like my work and my family and friends all rave on it, but when I look at other people's work that is being submitted I kinda loose heart. I just think their stuff is gorgeous and it is difficult to look at my own work in the same light as theirs. You know, your own worse critic! So, with this new kit club guest design spot, it encourages me to submit my work more often! Thank you God for the little rainbows in our days! :D

SNOWED IN!!!!!

It's late, so just a super quick post tonight......

As you can tell by the title we got snowed in! Yep, Ohio was hit by a huge blizzard last night and of course we were still at the hotel when it hit. So, we were snowed in here today and ended up having to stay another night. It literally was illegal for anyone to be out on the roads for most of the day. The snow died down but the drifting was horrible so we decided not to chance driving home in it and ended up staying here. I would have to say though that if you have to be snowed in somewhere...a waterpark/resort/hotel isn't bad! LOL!

So, not only did we have the excitement of being stranded at the hotel, we were all rushed out of our rooms this afternoon with the fire alarms screaming! We all headed down to the lobby in our coats expecting the worse but it ended up that someone pulled the alarm out the wall and they could not figure out how to get it shut off. It was kind of wierd to see fully dressed firemen with axes walking through your hotel lobby though!

The girls had a blast today playing in the arcade...well I think it might have been a bit more for daddy then the girls but anyways. Daddy hit the jackpot on one of the games so the girls loaded up with prizes form all of the tickets he had won. Here are my little Valentines with their loot!

Swimming in a Blizzard! ....

Yep that's right! We have been swimming in a blizzard all day! Nathan's 26th birthday was today and we decided to go to Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor waterpark/hotel to celebrate his birthday and Valentine's Day. Anyways while we were here, Ohio got the biggest snowstorm in a long time. It actually is a blizzard outside with strong winds and about a foot of snow in like 12 hours! Good thing we were safe and warm inside the waterpark all day!!!! The girls had such fun playing in the water. Emma however got sick last night with some sort of bug, so she was not quite her usually daring self on the waterslides and all. She did do much more that I would have thoguht a 2 year old would have! She was on slides made for adults!!! Maddelyn however took 2 days to overcome her fears of even walking past the big tower that dumps buckets of water on you periodically. Emma...she stood under the bucket waiting for it to dump on her! Maddelyn did end up going ona big slide, but only after being bribed with M&M's and her daddy going down with her. It is so funny to see the differences between our fraidy-cat and our dare-devil! Caroline got a new suit for the trip bt she just spent the time at the waterpark in either our arms or in the carseat. The water and air int he park was plenty warm but we were worried about the chemicals. So she just sported her new suit and stayed dry.

Of course I had to share a few pics. Caroline is such a doll in her new suite! It's quite big on her, but it is only size 0-6 months from Gymboree. Man I love that store!!! I have to be very careful though because it could eventually become a habit just like my scrapbooking...and of course it is just as costly if not more! :D

We are staying a second night here and spending the day in the waterpark again. Hopefully by the time we are ready to leave the roads will be clear enough to go home. We'll see.

Back to Scrapbooking....

Well, I am trying to get back in the swing of scrap'n. I did a little work while on bedrest, but mainly just finishing up goals I told myself I would have done before Caroline arrived. I now have just started trying to get some general layouts done. It is hitting me that I am developing and printing pictures about 100 times faster than I am scrapbooking them. That is a slight problem!!! Not only am I way behind in my albums, but I am starting to see this nice little pile of photo boxes stacking up in the corner of my scraproom!

Here are a few recent layouts....

Back to Cold...Cold Ohio

Well, we're home! It was so nice to visit a state that's temperature was actually ABOVE zero! It actually felt warm at DC's 25 degrees! LOL! We came home ot a raw temp of about 9 degrees and then windchills on top of that. When we left on Monday morning the temperature was -5!!!! That's before windchills! Many of Ohio's schools have been cancelled this week due to the freezing temps.

We had a nice time in DC. It was really a buisness trip for the campaign Nathan is on, but Caroline and I just rode along and chilled out in the hotel room while he was in meetings. It was nice to be away from everything for a short break. I actually got three scrapbook layouts done in the hotel room. Yes, I took my stuff. What's relaxing if you can't scrap? I will have to post some later this weekend. We were able to go to the Dubliner while we were there. That is the Irish Pub that Nathan and I always have to stop at in DC. They have the BEST reubens...well of course besides my mom's! It was nice to chill out for a while and Caroline was able to get her first taste of Daddy's favorite city at only 3 weeks.

Yes, can you believe it!!! Caroline is 3 weeks old already! WOW! It seems like forever ago that we had her, but I still can't believe she is three weeks old! She is acting much more grown up now. She does pretty well at controlling her head movements and she actually looks for your voice now. Once sh efinds you she will look at you and not past you like she used to. It is nice that she is trying to find us! Caroline is also going through a rough time at night. She has been pretty fussy lately, I think from gasiness? She is not crying out all the time, just she whines all night. Basically she will just lay there whining between feedings. So needless to say, Mommy and Daddy aren't seeing too much of Mr. Sandman these days. I guess that is all part of a new baby!

We got the birth announcemts in the mail today and they are of course GOREGOUS! I posted a pic for those of you who I did not have addresses for. The lady who did them for me is named Marie and she does all kinds of custom cards and invitations.

Here is a link to her sellers page in ebay....
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZrainforestoneQQhtZ-1

Here is a link to her about me page on ebay...

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=rainforestone

Of course I had to add a few new pictures of my girls as well as Daddy and Caroline in Dc this week. Isn't Caroline changing her looks already?

Off to DC!

Well we will be gone the next three days to Washington Dc. Nathan has to go on a buisness trip so Caroline and I are tagging along. The girls went to PA to thier grandparents, but since I am nursing...Caroline gts to see the city!!!! Yep, it will be her first time to Daddy's favorite place in the USA! So Ia m no sure how much I will be poting, but I hope to at least get Caroline's birth announcents uploaded for you all to see. I ordered them from a lady on ebay and they are wonderful!!!!

That is pretty much it from FREEZING Ohio. It is sooooo cold here that the local schools are actually closed tomorrow for windchills! The raw temp is about 0 degrees and that is BEFORE windchills! So lets just say we are bundled up here!

Birth Announcement Photos...

Well I am finally getting around to Caroline's Birth Announcements. I figured up how much I would have in making them both time and money and right now, it was not worth it. I found this lovely lady on ebay who makes digital cards with photoshop, and I having her design a card for me. The samples she has sent me so far are adorable! It was hard to chose just one! Hopefully by the next time I need a card made, I will be able to do it myself ( I asked hubby for photshop for my birthday.)

Here are the pictures I took for the invitation. I was pretty proud of them to say the least! :D Man, I love my Nikon D50!