Easter at Tonya's

We spent Easter with my sister Tonya, her husband & girls and my parents at Tonya's house. It was a fun day with lots of "cousin" time, an easter egg hunt and Easter dinner. Here are some pics I took throughout the day.

Egg hunting:
Micah found some eggs hidden in Papa's shoes (STINKY)
Alorah checking out her loot:
Haley showing me her collection of eggs:
Isaiah's loot:
Micah scored!
We ended up the day with sidewalk chalk. Tonya has a wall in her backyard that my kids think is the coolest cuz they can draw to their hearts content on it. Here's Micah and Lauren:
Lauren the little dolly, drawing on the wall. I love the way the light framed her face in this picture:
Alaina writing her name:
Tonya playing hopscotch with Alorah and totally biffing it into the fence. CRACKED ME UP!

I was visiting my friend Noel's blog the other day and she had a veggie tales video up which totally reminded me of a Veggie Tale song we sing almost everyday. Below is my little Micah Thomas. We typically call him Mikey or Micah T. The video below is one of my favorite Veggie Tales Silly Song and we always substitute it with MR. Micah T, you are the one for me, one for me, sent from up above you are the one I love. This is sung daily at our house :)

Playful LO for CT

Papers:
Believing You kit by Carola Mondini (digiscrapshak.com)
Canvas of Colors Paper Pack by Carola Mondini (digiscrapshak.com)

Brackets:
Bracket me Baby kit by Cznydesigns (digiscrapshak.com)

Staples:
Brazilian Winter kit by Mitia Assef (digiscrapshak.com)

Fonts:
2peas Barefoot Professor
CK Man's Print

Journaling:
You are so much fun to be around Lainie Lou. You’re always playing and being goofy. It’s just your natural self to be a total HAM ~ But only with those that know you VERY well.

I found this on my friend Kari's blog and loved it. You take this little quiz to find out which flavor of Ice Cream your personality is:

You're as impulsive and impatient as a kid who can't wait for the cookies to come out of the oven. You treat life like a nonstop slumber party, and you like to keep things simple and silly. You scream at horror movies and laugh your butt off at comedies, but you probably can't sit still for a long, boring drama. To some people, you come across as immature, but so what? Your playful personality means you'll stay forever young.

7% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

Flashlight Tag & Breakfast

We had the most fun ever last night! I'm trying to do fun activities over this Easter Break as we are not traveling to some exciting destination. Last night's fun activity was flashlight tag. We had our friends the Hislops over and while dad was doing Bible study with Mr. Kerr we ran around the backyard in the dark trying our best to hide behind, trees, slides and shrubs while the hunter with the flashlight tried to find us before we made it to base. Ev and Mr. Kerr finished up early and came out to join us. We started up around 7:45 and didn't finish playing until 9:00 pm when Micah and Zachary started to lose it a little bit. Alorah turned out to be this amazing hider and was ALWAYS the last one found, Mr. Kerr says she should be in the Special OPs. Micah turned out to be the cutest. When he was the hunter he would close his eyes on the wall and count to 10 and then count backwards. Then, he'd run around the yard flashing the light on everyone and yelling "gotcha". Alaina and Isaiah kept ratting everyone out ~ I saw Miss Mindi behind the barbeque and so on. Noah pretty much hid on base. Mr. Kerr and Ev tried to scale the fence at one point and I think Ev has an injury as a result! Overall it was just a fun evening. Considering that it was dark, I didn't get any pictures of us playing. SO, this morning we made eggs and bacon for breakfast and I took a picture of all my little helpers.

Micah's 3rd Birthday party

Micah Thomas celebrated his third birthday a few weeks back and we celebrated in grand style with a Thomas the Train birthday Party. All of his buddies showed up ~ most especially his "crew" Dylan, Sammy & Aiden. I set up "stations" throughout the house and printed up an itinerary with all the party plans and stations on it. We played balloon toss, conductor says and parcel find ~ (Percy the train crashed in the backyard and tossed all his packages all over the backyard . . . goodie bags) . It was a great time by all and I want to thank my dad for taking the pictures for me as I was busy being the hostess!

Here's a picture of the birthday boy in his conductor hat:I used painters tape and put train tracks all over the floor in the house for us to travel from "station" to "station" This was Micah's favorite party of the party. He was SOOOOO sad when we pulled it up a few days later.
Isaiah and Regan in an intense Light Saber battle!!!
Alorah telling Papa "D" all about her Pioneer Studies and the Pioneer camp she'll be attending next week.
Micah hugging his little cousin Lauren. He just adores her!!
All the kids playing "conductor says" ~ a variation of Simon says
Micah's Thomas pinata. We got the kind where you pull the strings and when you get the right string it opens the pinata and all the candy comes pouring out. We didn't want to traumatize the poor kid at three by pulling out his best friend and then beating it to death with a bat.
The cutest part of the party was when we pulled out the pull string pinata and baby Lauren went and grabbed a bat out of the toy box to hit it. She knows what's going on ~ looks like she's got a little Mexican in her after all, me and my sisters haven't diluted the gene pool too much :)
The fabulous cake that Bonnie made for Micah's birthday! I think the cake topper was his favorite gift :)
Micah blowing out the candles with Mommy. (I usually hate putting pictures of myself up, because I can't stand the weight I've gained. BUT, I'm now committed to losing it and have lost 10 lbs already!!!)

Beautiful LO

Supplies:
Template ~ template 23 by Jen Caputo (scrapbookgraphics.com)
Papers ~ Sweet Cherry Pie kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz (scrapartist.com)
Elements ~ Sweet Cherry Pie kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz (scrapartist.com)

Journaling:
My precious friend, you are one of the greatest treasures I have in this world. You are my “Jonathan” from the story of David. The kind of devoted friend that comes once in a lifetime. I love this top pictures of you because that is how I see you most often. We get together and laugh like children. You make me laugh till I cry and the world is always brighter in the time I spend with you. You hear my struggles with no judgment, only encouragement. You stood by my side in the most painful time and only offered your shoulder and an ear to listen ~ the only one that really understood what I needed. Besides my husband you are the first person I wasn't to share anything happy, sad or challenging with. Tears are pouring down my face as I write this because words can never express to you how much you mean to me and how special you truly are, You will hate the pictures I chose for this Layout because you always hate the pictures I take of you! But you are so absolutely beautiful, as a person, as a mom, and as a friend. Thank you dear friend for opening your heart and making a place in it for me.

Lauren LO for my CT

Here is a LO for my creative team (Liz Thompson)


Elements (flowers and swirl):
VIntage Flourish Elements by Liz Thompson (scrapbookgraphics.com)



Papers (striped & red)
Vintage Flourish Papers by Liz Thompson (scrapbookgraphics.com)



Alphabet:
Vintage grey alpha by Liz Thompson (scrapbookgraphics.com)



Journaling:
What a precious addition you are to our family, my precious neice. At just a few days old this was my first time meeting you. I instantly fell in love with you, you are quite adorable and you have parents and a sister who adore you. Welcome to the world little one and to a big ole carzy family that loves you
very, very much! - Love Aunt Tezzie

Who needs flowers & chocolates?

When your dear husband comes home with a HUGE hard drive? Seriously nothing says love like 500 gigs! Now I have a C:\ drive that's only 40 gigs, an external that's 160 and now another internal that's 500!!!!! I can backup ALL my pictures, digital kits for scrapping, videos and music. I won't lose anything in a crash. Do you guys have any idea how stoked I am???


Ok flowers and chocolates would be nice from time to time, but I'm not complaining anytime soon!

Beauty LO for CT

Here's a LO of Alorah for my Creative Team (April Staker's)

Papers and Elements:
Vintage Blues kit by April Staker (digiapedesigns.com)
Font:
One Fell swoop and Biblescript
Actions:
B & W Kevins secret formula by Kevin Kubota (kubotaimagetools.com)

Journaling:
At age nine you still love all things girly. At your parent-teacher conference, your 4th grade teacher even commented on what a girly girl you are. You love wearing dresses even when you’re not at school. You’ve just learned to sew at Gems and you’ve been sewing up a storm. Gram taught you to crochet while you had the chicken pox and you have such a heart for others that you crocheted a blankie for every member of our household. You are in your second year of softball and it tough, but I can see that you won’t give up even though it’s tough and you may not have as much experience as the other girls. You have so much joy and love pouring out of you that your beauty goes so much further than sking deep.

And then because I absolutely LOVE the way this picture turned out with the action on it, I'm posting it on it's own. You can see it much better when it's bigger!

I smell a rat and other general stuff

The other night I put the kids to bed and went down to the office to work on stuff for my Creative Teams. Ev was gone for the night to Bible study with a friend of ours and the house was quiet. . . but not for long. Isaiah came hopping downstairs to tell me he was thirsty and that Shadow was meowing at the front door. I told him to please get a drink and go BACK TO BED, that I would let Shadow inside in a minute. Because the child has a hard time following directions he pulled the rocking horse over to the front door to unlock the top lock and let Shadow in. Chaos quickly ensued. Isaiah came rushing downstairs to tell me Shadow had a rat in his mouth. I start screaming is he in the house???? After getting the answer that indeed Shadow and the rat were in the house I jumped on my chair, still screaming for Isaiah to get Shadow OUT! Shadow did not listen to Isaiah's pleas to leave the house and I had to face my greatest fear (Rats, mice and Bats if you haven't noticed) and chase Shadow, with the rat still wriggling in his mouth, out of the house with a broom! THANK GOD, that he never dropped that rat because I would have left my children unattended and run out of the house until Ev get home. See the Lord only gives you what you can handle and I was proud of myself for handling that one!

On another note the Pox has left our house. It's been two weeks and the incubation period is 10-14 days so I think I can safely assume the no one else will be getting it. Unfortunately both Lainie and Alorah have the stomach flu today. Man can we ever get through more than one week with health???? Guess not this year :(

We had Micah's third birthday party on Sunday (Way late I know) and I'll be posting pictures soon. It was a fun Thomas the Tank Engine party and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves ~ most importantly the birthday boy.

We've also officially started the Softball/T-ball schedule which means practice 4 days a week and games soon for 4 days a week. Lainie and Isaiah are on the same T-ball team and they are precious to watch. Alorah is now in the mini-minors which is NO JOKE. They are hard core serious this year. They'll be learning signals on how to bat and they're learning to lead off, steal bases and slide. It seems like it's no longer just about the fun of it, but more the competition. She's growing up!

That's all for now, more to come in the next few days. Because I unfortunately didn't pause to take pictures of the rat or T-ball/Softball yet I have no pictures to post, so a new header will have to do and the LO below.

Three LO

Here's a LO I did for Micah's third birthday.

Brushes -
touchup paint by Katie Pertiet (designerdigitals.com)

frame -
Frameworks worn - Leora Sanford (LittleDreamerDesigns.com)

Alpha-
Acrylic Alphabet - Michelle Coleman (LittleDreamerDesigns.com)

Love ~ LO for CT

Here is a LayOut I did for my digiscrapshak CT. A picture from WAAAAAYYYYYYY back when Micah was a baby ~ almost 3 years to date from the time the picture was taken to the time it was scrapped. Insert sniffles here.

Products used:
PSCS2
Amore paper pack ~ Designs by Vickie (digiscrapshak.com)
Amore Elements pack ~ Designs by Vickie (digiscrapshak.com)
All torn up kit ~ Designs by Vickie (digiscrapshak.com)

Journaling:
How much joy can one teeny person bring to so many people? It can’t be measured. You fit so seemlessly into our family that none of us can remember what life was like without you in it