Sweet Dreams!

Here is Trysten all snuggled up and sleeping the other day - babies always look so sweet when they sleep ;-)

Kids...

So I don't want to leave out Kaylee and Brianna - here are some cute things they have said that I don't want to forget!

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Kaylee - David has this tie trick that he always does for the girls on Sundays - he holds his tie, they blow on it, and it gets all wrinkled. Then they pull an imaginary string (or make up some new way) to straighten it out again, just to blow on it again ;-) Anyway, a few Sundays ago, Kaylee finally discovered how her dad does this trick (using his thumb) and she said to him, "I can't believe I thought you were magic!"

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Brianna - She has always been the one to ask the most questions - she's always curious about everything! So a couple months ago she was asking David a bunch of questions and he was answering the best he could (sometimes she asks some hard questions!). She finally said "It's a good thing grown-ups are so smart!"

She's a Big Girl now, but still too young for make-up!

So Brailee is just growing up way too fast! She is now potty trained (woohoo) and it's so nice to only have one in diapers! At nights she gets upset when I try to put a diaper on her, she says, "No! Big girl panties!" So we compromise and put the diaper on over her panties, which saves on diapers because we just use the same one every night. She has woken up dry every morning for the last 3 weeks, so it's probably not necessary to use the diaper, but I'm not willing to take the chance of that mess just yet! She is so cute when she comes to tell me when she has to go - she will either give me this sly little look and whisper it like it's a fun secret, or she'll announce it to the world ;-)

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She also has stopped sucking her thumb - which totally shocks me! Whenever she was tired or bored, in would go the thumb! David started to wean her of that a couple weeks ago, which didn't thrill me, I thought it was too much pressure on such a little girl with the potty training and a new baby at home, but she just has the best personality and knew she wanted to be a big girl, so she did it! When we first started, we would just say something to her if we caught her with her thumb in her mouth. And then for a couple of days, we asked her if she wanted a bandaid on her thumb to help her remember, and she would happily say yes. It was just such a habit before, now she doesn't even think about it anymore, not even at naptime or bedtime. I'm so proud of her and I'm glad she has the right personality to have such a great attitude about everything!

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Anyway, now onto the make-up. I was feeding Trysten the other day and usually she will sit and talk with me, but she was happily playing somewhere else. When I got done, I went to check on her and this is what I found ;-)

She had found her sister's lip gloss/make-up and gave herself a nice makeover. At least it matches her shirt ;-P

March Challenges

Once again, I'm a few days late getting these posted - February just flew by way too fast! Here are the challenges for March - scroll down for the February Challenge results. Remember, everyone who participates will be entered into a drawing for a fun pack of cards!

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Cherish Challenge - Harmony pg. 38-39

Click here to view more about my sample

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Imagine Challenge - Ensemble Piece pg. 40-41

Click here to view more of my sample layout

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Reflections Challenge - Main Frame Wrap Around pg. 65

Click here to view more of my sample layout

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Originals Challenge - Message In a Pocket pg. 28

Click here to view more about my sample

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FEBRUARY CHALLENGE UPDATE

Congrats to Shirene who was our winning participant last month - and don't worry Alanna, I haven't forgot about you - just haven't made it to the post office yet!

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Cherish Challenge - Abstract pg. 66-67

Click here to view my sample

Here is Shirene's:

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Imagine Challenge - Personalty Presence pg. 90-91
Click here to view my sample

Here is Shirene's:

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Reflections Challenge - Sidebar Photo Accent pg. 46
Click here to view my sample

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Originals Challenge - Peek-A-Boo pg. 70

Click here to view my sample

Here is Sandy's:

Another Calendar Page for Trysten

Here are the super quick pages that I did for the second month of Trysten's Baby Calendar. Click here to view the first pages. I used a Stardust Level 1 page (I hardly ever use the Level 1 pages, but I really loved this one), Stickease, and Rustic Numbers and Simple Stitches stamp set. I heat embossed the Simple Stitches with White Daisy EP, which is the only thing that took more than a couple of minutes - the rest of it went together really fast. So I'm glad to say that Trysten has two more pages - since I count the calendar side as a journaling page ;-P

{ETA: This is also my sample for this month's Reflection's Challenge - I am working on getting the challenges posted, I promise!}

It's a Boy

Here are the better pictures that I promised of my February Cherish Challenge pages - I have hidden journaling and with my photo flip "books" I added to the pages, I ended up with 10 pictures on this layout!

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I used one 6 photo storage page - I cut it in half and used one half for the folding book on the left page. The other half is the side with the holes that goes into the posts in the scrapbook. I cut one of the pockets off the top and used that for the flip book on the right page. When I put these pages in the album, I will put the photo books on the outside of the page protector - that way the interactive elements are accessible, but the pictures are still protected.

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The hidden journaling is behind the top picture on the left page - it tells Trysten's birth story.

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Products Used (all CTMH): Emporium Paper Pack & Stickease, Vineyard Berry ribbon, rub-ons, Clear Shapes, Color-Ready Alphabet stickers, dimensional element letters and flourishes, Tiny Typewriter alphabet stamps, Buttercup Bigger Brads, and to create the coordinating Vineyard Berry Bigger Brads I just heat embossed some gold brads with Vineyard Berry Embossing Powder!

One Month Old!

I can't believe over one month has passed since Trysten was born. He went in on Friday for his checkup and he is now 9 pounds, 10 ounces. He is still such a good baby and I hope it lasts - he is so patient and just an overall happy, content little one. His long skinny legs are finally starting to fill out just a little, but his arms and fingers are still so long and skinny.

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I am proud to say that I got his Birth Day pictures scrapped. These pages are using this month's Cherish Challenge layout. It's dark outside so I couldn't get a decent pic tonight, but I wanted to squeeze these in before the end of the month for the Cherish Challenge ;-P I will get better pictures of this layout tomorrow since I did a couple of fun things with extra pictures and hidden journaling.

First Signs of Spring...

It has been SO warm and nice here the last couple of days, so we've spent lots of time outside. On Wednesday there weren't any activities after school, so I loaded Brailee and T up in the wagon and put Trysten in my Moby Wrap and we walked to pick up the girls from school. When we got home, I sat down to feed Trysten and found this ladybug crawling on my foot! The girls were so excited to see their first ladybug of the year, even though Brianna is the only one who actually likes to hold them - she absolutely loves ladybugs! I guess we got the girl's nicknames mixed up, because Kaylee has always been our little ladybug ;-) This was also the first time Brailee has held a ladybug - she liked it until it started crawling up her arm, that made her a little nervous. Here is Brianna with her first buggy friend of the year...

More pictures!

Since I take a couple thousand pics a year ;-P be prepared to see a lot more here on my blog, especially with a new baby to take tons of pictures of! Here are some pictures from last week...

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First, here is a picture of Trysten getting ready for church yesterday - can you tell how I made his shirt? It's a different kind of 'altered project' - scroll down for details.

I made a bunch of these 'Tie' shirts about 5 or 6 years ago and gave some to my SIL when she had a little boy. Then when she gave me a couple tubs of boy clothes when Trysten came along, there they were again - so I couldn't wait to make more using some of the great CTMH papers.

I decided to try something different for the first one I made for Trysten and create a vest and tie look. I used some paper and Stickease buttons from the Stardust kit - unfortunately, my scanner was acting up and I could only get it to copy the image instead of scanning it, so the color and pattern is off but I still think it turned out cute and he looks handsome! I have one more plain white onesie, I will be making another one but this time I want to get a decent scan first, plus I have to decide which paper I want to use this time!

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First create the image out of paper...

Then scan/copy it onto Iron-On Transfer paper - I wasn't sure how the layers would iron on, so I decided to do it all in one piece instead of each piece seperately...

Then cut out the image and iron it onto the plain white onesie! With this picture, you can see the difference in the color from the original to the ironed on piece...

Here is Kaylee giving Trysten sweet kisses...

Check out Trysten's 'scowl' - he pulls this face quite often, ever since the day he was born. You'd never know he's such a good, happy baby by this look on his face ;-)

This is one of my current favorite pictures, even though the coloring is way off and it's out of focus, I just love the look on each of their faces!

Here is Brailee helping with Trysten's bath one morning - she sometimes ends up quite wet! She is such a big helper, she wants to help me do everything, even change the stinky diapers ;-P

Good Times

Here is a fun flap card that I created for a club gathering yesterday. I really like how it turned out, especially since I've been the worst procrastinator this month and didn't even know what I was going to do until less than 4 hours before the party ;-P Once I got Brailee down for her nap after lunch, I was able to get started. I used this month's Anniversary stamp set from CTMH, Good Times - if you buy $25 in My Acrylix stamp sets, you get this one for free! I also used paper from the Daydream paper pack, with a touch of black. For the cupcake I used Liquid Glass and Prisma Glitter.

Thanks for looking!

As requested by my mom...

...here are some recent pics of the kids. These were taken on Sunday before church - it was Trysten's first time going to church since I've stayed home with sick kids the last two weeks. I'm proud to say we even made it to church on time - it starts at 9:30 and David had a ward conference to go to, so I had to get everyone ready on my own, so I think that's pretty good, even if their hair is not perfect!

On a side note, I'm looking for coordinating Easter clothes for all of them, so if anyone finds anything cute and affordable from newborn to size 8, let me know! It was hard last year to get matching dresses for the girls (Kaylee and Brianna are wearing last year's Easter dresses), so I'm thinking it will be even harder adding a boy to the mix. I don't sew as much as I should, otherwise I'd go that route ;-P

April Word Puzzle Workshop

I know I'm a little slow this month, I really took my time with this one, but here are the creations for this month's Word Puzzle Workshop. Click here for workshop details. We are using the Unforgettable paper pack, floss, April Word Puzzle, February Stamp of the Month (Easter Eggs), and on one of the cards, we are using the February special stamp set, Good Times.

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12x12 option

(this page uses the left side of this month's Imagine Challenge)

6x6 option

card option

(the HipHip Hooray card uses this month's Originals Challenge)

A little late, but...

... I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day! Since I was such a procrastinator this year - big surprise ;-P - we didn't get these Valentine's done until the last minute, and then I forgot to take pictures of the ones the girls made for their classmates! But here are the ones I made for their teachers at school.

First Haircut!

Brailee has had her bangs cut a few times before - I always say I'm going to let them grow out, but once they start hanging in her eyes, I just can't take them anymore! But, yesterday, she actually went in for a full haircut - she got the cutest little bob, and it just totally fits her fun personality! I saved hair from Kaylee and Brianna's first haircuts, but I never took pictures - this time I did both! Here are some of the before, during, and after pics...

Doesn't she look cute!