My First Digital Scrapbook Page!

I'm thinking about starting to make a digital scrapbook. I like traditional scrapbooking but I think it is more time consuming, takes up more space and costs more money. Plus, with digital pages, you can share them and back them up. I haven't decided one way or the other yet. What are your thoughts? If you digitally scrapbook, how do you publish your pages?

John told me about a great free program called GIMP that I could use and it seems to work well! Thanks John! Thanks GIMP!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Jack's ninth birthday was on June 18th. The Saturday before his birthday, Abby spent hours making him a Happy Birthday banner. She first made one on the computer and then because John and I were "too busy" to print it she decided to use the craft area to make her creation. Then on his birthday she made him a crown that said "I Love Jack". She was being so sweet and John and I were sad that Jack was being so mean to her Saturday and here she was secretly making things for his birthday!

We have a family party on their odd birthdays so this was a family party. Jack had very specific requests for his birthday. He wanted homemade pizza for dinner, a Sam's Club cake with blue frosting and these gifts:

a box of paper clips
a box of rubber bands
clothespins
Lego Indian Jones for the DS
A compass
Legos

I have to wonder about his plans for the first three gifts. His Nana bought him the DS game and the compass and we got him the rest.

For family birthday parties, we always hide the wrapped gifts and then John writes clever clues for each one. For example: If ye be seeking pirate swag, Look ye where every man stows his bag! The kids really look forward to this part of their birthdays .

Ethan was so tired that by the end he could hardly keep his eyes open. He did perk up a little after the cake though! Speaking of cake, I told John he could take the rest to work on Friday. We would never be able to eat the whole thing! I let the children know that from now on family parties have family made cakes. : )

Ethan Wants a Sandwich

Ethan is not allowed to have peanut butter yet because of his soy/dairy baby allergy that he has grown out of-- YEAH! The rest of my children eat sandwiches for lunch almost everyday. One day Ethan was fussing and kept pointing at their sandwiches. I made him a sandwich with jelly and margarine and then realized that the jelly was contaminated with peanut butter and had to throw that sandwich away and open a new jelly and make a new sandwich. I hate to put margarine on a sandwich like this . I'm sure there are other spread choices I'm not thinking about-- could you give me ideas of sandwiches for Ethan with no nut spreads? He loves grilled cheese. Thanks for your help!

Abby's Art Gallery

A Fly-Catching Frog

My sweet Abby LOVES to draw, paint, color, craft, etc! She has started her own blog so that she can post her artwork for you all to enjoy. She even named them herself!

Check it out at http://abbysartgallery.blogspot.com/ .

The Things They Say

This is for the bloglines readers that do not get the sidebar content. (John)

I have decided to post "The Things They Say" on a separate blog so that I won't have to erase them to put up a new one.

Check it out here: http://quotablekids.blogspot.com/

Email me if you want to add one of your kid's quotes!

A to Z

A- Attached or Single: Attached
B- Best friend: John of course! I have been blessed with great friends and they are all the BEST!
C- Cake or Pie: Cake, baked goods are my weakness (along with ice cream)
D- Day of choice: Friday-- no homework, Pizza Movie Night, what's not to love
E- Essential item: Curel lotion
F- Favorite Color: Purple with blue a close second
G- Gummy bears or worms: Bears
H- Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
I- Indulgence: Girl's Night Out once a month
J- January or July: I would say July but my AC isn't so great so I'm going to have to say January K- Kids: Jack (8) Abby (6) Joshua (3) Ethan (1)
L- Life is incomplete without: Fun and laughter
M- Marriage Date: May 3, 1997
N- Number of siblings: 3
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples
P- Phobias or fears: House fire in which I am unable to get to my kids, watching someone I love suffer pain
Q- Quotes: "Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake, To guide the future as he has the past."-Katharina von Schlegel I can't get through this song without crying.
R- Reason to smile: My lovely family : )
S- Season of choice: Fall, it seems to have the nicest weather.
T- Tag 3 times: Sarah, Tori, Desiree and anyone else who wants to do it.
U- Unknown fact about me: I love to sing! My children know because they hear it all of the time. I don't like to sing in front of others because I don't think I'm any good. : )
V- Very favorite store: Amazon.com Great prices and free shipping! I love to read reviews too!
W- Worst habit: Surfing the Internet-- what a time waster!
X- X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasound
Y- Your favorite food: I have so many favorites! Mint chocolate chip ice cream on a brownie
Z- Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Ethan Loves His Mema!

Ethan still doesn't really like other people to hold him but he does let Mema hold him. Here she fed him a bottle and he took a nap in her lap. Mema is his great-grandmother, my maternal grandmother. My children are lucky to have 4 great-grandparents still alive (3 on my side).

Mema is the youngest of 16 children (no multiple births). Can you imagine being pregnant and giving birth 16 times?

Out With The Old and In With The New

I wanted to buy a new kitchen table with our stimulus check because ours was way too small (32" x 60"). I had even picked it all out, showed it to my mom and was waiting for an upcoming 1/2 price sale. Unfortunately, we had a *death* in the family and had to change our plans. Our washing machine tried so hard to survive but it seems it was just her time to go. With a smaller budget to work with, I turned to Craigslist and was able to find a great deal on this table that was owned by a single man. I am a bit worried about the seat cushions but this table matches my cabinets and was the best deal I found on Craigslist after following it for about 6 weeks. It's so nice to have a bigger table (40" x 72")! I just hope my kids don't destroy it too quickly. Any suggestions?


Out with the old...

In with the new...

Strawberry Fields Forever

Abby, Joshua and I went strawberry picking with my sister Christi. She makes delicious strawberry pies with these fresh berries!

Joshua mostly just ran around while Abby picked a few and then got bored. Abby borrowed this lovely Elvis hat from my mom. She wanted to go on the hayride pulled by horses but they were on their last run when we arrived. She was SOOOO sad that it ruined her fun!

Yeah! Strawberry fields forever!

Abby Graduates From Kindergarten

Abby has had a wonderful year in Mrs. Baggett's Kindergarten class! When recording her Kindergarten memories she wrote that the hardest thing about Kindergarten was staying home sick. She loves school and I am so happy about it! Abby was the only one in her class that was already reading at the beginning of Kindergarten and one of only a handful reading in ALL of Kindergarten. I was worried that she wouldn't get the attention she needed at her level but luckily, they pulled her into a reading group with the other 4 readers and WOW! By the end of Kindergarten they told me she is reading on Rigby Level 22 when Level 5 is considered to be on grade level at the end of the year. Way to go Abby! We love you so much!

Was I good at Abby's graduation?

No.

Bloglines

John has been using Bloglines for years to keep up with all of the blogs he likes to read. I just started using it too. If you like to keep up with more than a couple of blogs, you should check it out! I save a lot of time because bloglines shows me when there are new posts to read. It is constantly checking for new posts so I don't have to. No more checking each blog to see if there is something new! It is easy to set-up and the BEST part is that it is FREE!

Check it out at http://www.bloglines.com/ . It just may be what you need too!

Women & Money

I just finished reading this book and I am recommending it to everyone. Suze gives us steps to complete each month to get our finances in order including opening a savings account that pays more interest, getting out of debt, setting up retirement accounts, getting life insurance, setting up trusts, writing wills, etc. She writes in a way that is very easy to follow and understand. I found the whole section on retirement accounts the most useful because with all of the choices out there, it can be confusing.