a good night's sleep

Today I feel blessed. There are lots of things you expect when you have a new baby. Lots of wonderful things--cute smiles, sweet cuddlles, the joy of when they recognize you :) But of course there are always some things you know to expect that are not quite so fun--poopy diapers, extra laundry, limited shower time, lack of sleep... and they are all worth it:) I expected all of these too, but Miss Emma decided to start sleeping through the night--at not even six weeks. While I was prepared for at least a few months of no sleep, I have been able to actually sleep uninterrupted for a couple weeks now. And as any mother knows, that is a very big deal :) I had forgotten how good it feels not to be exhausted during the day! Now, I know this may not last, but I am thankful for every little blessing from above:) (and I am quite sure that the rest of my family is thankful too, since a rested mama= a happy mama.)

Yesterday was a scrappy day :) Well, sort of. My mom came over to scrapbook all day. While she got several pages done, I got half of a card done lol:) But it was still fun to be working on scrappy stuff :) I enjoy doing anything scrappy that I can. But since half a card isn't too great for sharing lol-I'll share some older stuff again.

This is layout I did a while ago of my Rhys-ter:) I loved his smile in the focal point photo :) You can't really see it in the photo, but I embossed the white strip at the bottom with the Quickutz heart 4x4 embossing folder. I just ran it through my revolution a couple of times. The hearts and alphabets are all Quickutz too. I {heart} everything Quickutz :) (if you couldn't tell already by my layouts. 99% of my layouts have Quickutz on them:))
This is another boy layout. I love how the QK Rockstar font went with these papers from Little Yellow Bicycle. They have such a fun look :) Very boyish.

I really hope to get some of my newer layouts on here soon :)

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Mojo Monday

Last week I tried a color challenge and had a lot of fun :) So this week I thought I would try some more. I had seen this really gorgeous sketch challenges here, and wanted to try them out. I wasn't sure how hard it would be, but I was so happy that it really came quite easily. The sketch made it really easy :) I don't think mine is as gorgeous as what all the talented designers over there created (their stuff is simply amazing!!), but I still am pleased with what I came up with. I will definitely keep trying these!!

I was really excited to use my first ever Verve stamps on this card. :) I love their elegant images and Christian sentiments, but had never had the chance to get any until now. I wasn't disappointed :) and can't wait to try out the rest of the ones I got.
I actually made this card

based on last week's Mojo Monday sketch, but it ended up not looking too much like the sketch. So I chickened out and didn't officially participate in the challenge. I did think it turned out pretty cute though :) The image is from Stamping Bella and the sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink.

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first outing

Miss Emma went on her first big outing since she was born. She went to church and shopping afterwards :) What more could a girl want, right? :) Now, being our fourth baby normally we wouldn't have kept her home for so long after she was born. Because even though when Leah was born we panicked at every little thing and even going out for just a brief time was an ordeal, by the time we had Levi we knew that they really don't break that easily :) and we took them all out all the time. But, since Miss Emma was SO small when she was born and the doctors made it extra clear that she couldn't handle as much, she stayed home with me for the first 6 weeks. (Which of course means I barely left the house for over a month, and that, by the way, can get to be very long!). She seemed to enjoy her outing though, and was very popular at church. Everyone oohed and aahed and said how cute she was ( naturally :)). We even took a walk to the park near our house after shopping. She didn't go on the slide YET, but all the older kids loved it. Except for the mosquitos. Levi was especially glad to hear that, yes, it was ok to get his hands dirty when playing at the park :). I don't have any park pictures on the computer yet, but since I have to post at least on picture of my cuties, here is one of Miss Emma:

I almost never have time to create stuff on the weekends. So when I do it is extra fun :) Here is a card I made. It doesn't have any stamping on it at all, which is pretty unusual for me. But I thought it turned out cute
I wanted to try some stitching and inking the edges of kraft cardstock with white--so I did both of those on this card :) I like how the white looks with the kraft, so I will definitely try it again.
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macaroni on the floor...

When I was little, I LOVED macaroni and cheese--especially the cheap kind from a box. The oranger, the better. I am happy to say that now at least I do prefer the kinds with real cheese :) But, my kids, I'm afraid, feel the same way I always did. They rejoice when we have it for lunch and refuse to let me add anything to it. Levi would happily jump up and down and say "macamonkey---yay!!" So the other day when we had the wonderful macaroni for lunch and Levi asked if he could finish the extra, I said sure. And this is what I came in the kitchen to find:

What is it that makes things taste better directly from the pan? I must say he makes that instant macaroni look pretty yummy....:)

I tried to get some scrapping or stamping done today, but Miss Emma was not very cooperative. So I will post some older layouts again.

This one is of the boys last summer. I used QuicKutz Merry & Bright for the title. I wanted to add some dimension, so I rolled each letter out about 4 times and glued them together. All the papers are Fancy Pants ( I love all of their papers!!).

This one is about some of the fun things we do when Tomio is off. I really like the Fancy Pants felt. Isn't it cute? I try not to let myself hoard it too much lol:)

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cupcakes and cards.

Well, I decided to make some cupcakes. No big surprise there :) But there is alot more involved in making cupcakes with 4 kids (including a newborn) and having limited ingredients. Determined though, to make some anyway, I looked online for the perfect recipe--one that looked delicious and I had all the stuff for. I found one (almost, I didn't have powdered sugar, but decided to make my own in the blender...) and waited until Miss Emma was sleeping. And I got started. Of course I had to allow for about double the prep time with at least 2 extra little hands helping at any given time....but, we did it :) We made some yummy orange cupcakes. And the excitement they brought to all was definitely worth it :) Miss Emma even managed to sleep till almost the end.
Don't they look yummy?

Of course they always taste better when you decorate them yourself :)

Unfortunately around this time is when Miss Emma decided she wanted to join in on the fun and any pictures I got had to be taken while holding her...

It definitely made for a fun afternoon for everyone :)

Now for some crafty fun. Here are some cards I made a while ago... For this one I stamped some plain white cardstock with this cute circle image from Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses. Then I just die cut it with Quickutz trees from the Merry & Bright set. The bigger tree holds the top flap closed.

I used PTI Butterfly Kisses for this one too. The script at the top is a stamp too. (Fancy Pants, I think) I embossed the butterflies at the bottom with clear just to make them pop a little more :)

Hope you have a great day!
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challenges.

One of the reasons I started a blog was to have a way for me to get more involved with scrapbooking and stamping challenges. I figured it would serve as good incentive to try some new things that I normally wouldn't do. So I decided to participate in Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge this week! AAhHH! It is kind of scary for me ( in a good way!) Anyway, so here it is.....my first attempt at a challenge:

The colors were bright red, bright pink, grass green, soft gray and black! It seemed a little hard to get all of them on there at first, but when I thought of using these super cute trees from Papertrey Ink's Merry and Bright set, it came together pretty quickly. I used black for the trunks instead of a brown :) I actually had a lot of fun creating this. I hope to keep participating in these each week. I always love seeing everyone's creations each week :)

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sweet smiles...

It's started. The sweet little smiles that only babies can give you. Miss Emma had given us a few smiles up until now. But they were the kind that, cute as they were, you couldn't really be sure if she was smiling at you or just had gas :) Over the last couple of days, though, she has really started smiling. It is so adorable, I keep trying to make her smile all the time. Once I was sure she was really smiling at me, I was determined to catch one on camera --which is easier in theory than in practice. Because while Emma will smile for ME, it is almost impossible to get her to smile when there is a big, black camera looking at her.... BUT, I did it! Today I actually got a picture of her smiling! I'm so proud of myself :) So here they are--the cute pictures of Miss Emma :)

You can tell she's smiling, right?! Ok, maybe it wasn't a full on big grin, but still, she was smiling :)

I thought I would share some cards I made today instead of of a layout. These are some cards I made recently with, yes, cupcakes on them :)

Just a simple card I made the other day. The cupcake image is from WhipperSnapper. Isn't it cute?
This one I made a few months ago before Miss Emma was born. I LOVE this cupcake image from Pink Cat Studios. Possibly my favorite cupcake stamp I have....possibly :) Both simple cards, but I liked how they turned out. Lately I have been liking my simpler layouts and cards better. Unfortunately, those usually end up taking longer to get to look right.... not a big deal since I like spending hours making them anyway, right? :)

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