Busch Gardens with the cousins

Today I took the kids to Busch Gardens and met up with my sister-in-law and 2 nieces. It was a HHHHHOOOOOOTTTTT day but it was a nice one. The kids enjoyed themeselves even though the trip got cut short because of the weather, but it was just fun being together.

I took a picture early on during the visit and it reminded me of a picture of all four girls at my inlaws. What hams they all were....THREE YEARS AGO!!! Here is a little picture I took back in '06

(Abby, Sydney, Morgan, & Emma)

And here is the one I took of them today!! BOY have they grown...into beauties!

Here are some other pictures that I took of the kids

I just love this picture of Morgan and Emma with their arms around each other

Andrea got good pictures of the kids. I think this is where she took over. {THANKS Andrea for taking the pictures...I was really glad to be relieved of that duty! And I actually got in some of the pictures too!}

Colton was very good at the park. He got to enjoy some rides and play in the water. I think that this was our highlight of the day...the water!!! Although the 2 older girls and Andrea got to ride Gwazi!!! And I don't think they'll be riding that one again! LOL

Andrea with Sydney

And that was our day!

Busy Week...last week

I haven't blogged in a week so it was about time I did now!

Last week we were busy with so many things. I took tons of pictures so here goes:

One of the days the girls decided to make a tent in their room before they went to bed. After frustration they gave in and asked me to step in. I gladly abliged and this is what they got

Our oldest turned 7 last week also. {sob} She's growing up so fast. Where did our little girl go? It's sad and happy at the same time. I'm excited for her for all the things yet to come but sad for us because our little girl is just growing. She had to get in one of her dresses her Mema and Pappap got her for her bday and pose for me. What a ham!

One of her requests for her bday was to have a brownie cake and that she wanted to decorate it. WHAT? Frosting on a brownie? That should be agains the law! Well, only if it's chocolate icing...it's okay then. BUT...

...you see she likes so many colors! hahaha Here is her finished project. She even sketched how she wanted it to look before she decorated! Wonder where she came up with that idea! LOL

Needless to say, I DID NOT have a bite of this brownie. She wanted all this to herself. I didn't let her eat it all, only a little sliver, but she did say that we could have a seperate brownie from hers.

She had waited all day long to open her presents. She woke up to flowers that Neal had gotten her and I let her open up one of her presents (from Mema and Pappap). She had gotten some other presents from her other grandparents earlier in the week, she was just waiting to blow out candles, eat and open her presents from us. OH...and her other request (because the kids don't get bday parties anymore until they are a little older) was to have Raviolli and my homemade sauce. GEE...wouldn't Olive Garden be better? ;)

And here is her loot: Little Pet Shop housing, Little Pet Shop animal, a Webkinz and off course the famous Jonas Brothers CD (I think I hear her screaming in the background!) She just LOVES Nick!

The next day I took them to a butterfly garden in town. Didn't expect it to be that awesome of a place for our little town. But first I had to get a shot of the 3 of the kids walking to the truck getting ready to go. Aren't they just too cute!

I didn't know how Colton would be at the garden because we had a short movie to watch and then a tour thru the building and then the garden (that was awesome). But he did very well...lots of drinks and snacks and he was set! Here is a shot of him getting goofy when I told him to say "CHEESE!"

During the tour the girls got to hold the leaves with the butterfly eggs, the caterpillars, chrysalis's and even a moth. Morgan wasn't afraid. Sydney on the other hand didn't want to touch anything. Such the girly-girl!

These pictures below are of the butterfly garden that we got to walk thru. Lots of plants and flowers for all types of butterflies and moths to feast on. It was almost like a page out of a Highlights magazine trying to "seek and find" the stages of the butterflies. I guess that's the reason we watched the video and had the tour. It was like a test. I think we passed because we found so many of the caterpillars, cocoons and eggs. Butterflies were flying all over the place and they weren't afraid! They loved Morgan. She could just hold her hand out and they'd land on her. Amazing!

See...the girly-girl!

On Saturday Morgan had her final swim meet. It was a very long day in the heat. I think I lost at least 5 pounds sitting in the sun! Morgan was in the pool at 8am and we left at 2pm. Thank goodness Neal was with me so he could distract the other two. I don't blame them though, I didn't want to sit there that long either.

But she did very well. We are very proud and impressed on how much she has improved in her time...especially the 25m backstroke!! She's definately a swimmer! Her first swim meet she did a 30sec 25m backstroke, her 2nd meet she improved her time to 28.something & then this final meet she improved EVEN MORE by finishing her 25m in 25.46 sec!!! She got 2nd out of 19 girls. I'm very proud! She did really well also, placing in her other events, 4x100 IM relay (backstroke leg), 25m breaststroke and 4x100 freestyle (last leg).

Here are some pictures of her start for the 25m backstroke:

And then on Sunday we took our boat out to Anclote Key. It was a nice and relaxing day just the fam. The kids had fun and so did the adults! And I actually got Neal to take a picture of me with the kids! YAY!

See, I told you it was a long week.

Blog Hop over at The Mosy

Just wanted to remind all that if you haven't already read about the

Blog Hop

then you need to go over to the TMS blog and read about it and submit!!!! All you need to do is click on the words "blog hop" above to get all the juicy details. Make sure you start there and then follow the directions carefully. You could be the winner to a prize package that is donated by a new scrap designer, Nikki Sivils!!! You will {LOVE} her stuff! Come check it out!

Contest ends July 26th ET by midnight!

Beads, beads and more beads

Lookie what I finally broke into...beads! {drool}

Back at the beginning of the year I ventured to Michael's with specific colors in mind (thanks to the help of my daughters) and purchased some beads and all the tools that go along with it. I was like a kid in a candy store.

Well, time went by and here we are about 6 months later and I finally decided to bring it out (I had a little spare time...gee, imagine that!). So I made the first set you see here when my parents were over the other day. Just a simple necklace. And then I felt a little friskie and decided to conquer earrings. Well, I CONQUERED!



I'm having so much fun that I even made Neal a necklace. I don't have a picture of it yet. That was a fun and easy one. So, I decided to make another set because I was on a roll! So, broke out more beads and this is what I got:

I like this one! It's a tad heavy, but it's okay.

I showed Neal (who had just went to bed) and he said, "nice...you gonna sell these?"

You know...I was thinking that! ;)

Swim meet and invites

I forgot to post these pictures from last weekend. Morgan had her 2nd swim meet and she did very well. She placed in all 4 events that she was in and she improved her times on all of them! Here are some photos of from that weekend and boy was it hot!

Tonite I've been working on some cards for my friend's business...PARTY PERFECTIONS. I am such a slacker and I have to have some more cards and such made to present to her by Tuesday. I guess it'll be late nites for me thru Tuesday! I work better when it's crunch time anyways.

I have lots of paper piecing, eye-balling sizes and printing up the invites and making sure they fit within the invite. I'm having fun and I'm just glad to be scrapping something! I just can't wait though till all of it is done and orders start to come in! :)

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!

CORRECTION

I just wanted to make the correction for our GDT sponsor for the month of August

IS

Serendipity Kits

and not...

Serendipity Scrapbooks.

Sorry for the confusion!!! Good luck to all that apply. We hope to get more entries in because the deadline is in a few days (August 19th!) So excited!!!

Last weekend's pictures

I forgot that I had these pictures still on my camera!

These are from last weekend. We saw fireworks downtown, our tradition since moving to Citrus County 4...no 5 years ago! MAN...time flies! We always go with my niece and her family. The girls love playing with their cousins, watching fireworks and celebrating Sydney's birthday. She's definately our little firecracker! LOL

Here she is blowing out her Dora Cupcakes that she HAD to have (yes, I made them...can't you tell...there are little paper cut-outs with Dora on them!) :)

Sydney always wants Colton to do stuff with her, but he has other plans. Here is a good shot of their oil/water relationship! hahaha


The fireworks have begun. All sitting, watching!

2 years ago, Tiffany, my other niece...she's the adult standing in this photo, started this pyramid with the kiddos. This year, the kids remembered and asked for help! It took a lot of trys and then of course my camera didn't want to cooperate. But this was actually the last time they did the pyramid and my camera got it!

In order...

Top: Mallory

Middle: Brittany (family friend), Zoe, Sydney

Bottom: Morgan, Taylor and Garette

The next day (the 4th) was Syd's ACTUAL bday and we went down to Tarpon Springs to pick up our boat and head out to 3 Rooker Island. It was our first time getting on our boat without having to tow it! It was AWESOME! Pulled in and our boat was in the water waiting for us.

We loaded up and took about a 20-25 minute boat ride to 3 Rooker. Camped too! I wish I got my regular camera out to take pix but it was left on the boat. I did take pictures with our waterproof camera we took on our cruise. So I hope I got some good pictures there. Still not enough to finish the camera so I will have to find other water opportunities to take them so I can get them developed. I guess I could just snap away so I could get the roll developed....NAH!

Here is a picture once we arrived back to the marina. I was waiting for Neal to get back after retreiving our truck. Colton was out once we hit the water to head back and our friend's dog, Buddy was just comfortable laying next to Colton. Colton was so surprised once he woke up to see a dog next to him. He just love dogs!

Isn't this sweet?

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing weekend. Can't wait to go out on the boat again!

Cuttlebug Giveaway

Check this Blog Candy out!

http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/

YUMMY! I soooo want a Cuttlebug!

Untimely

Well, today Neal left with his sister, Tami, to Illinois to take care of their brother and his remains. :( We got the word late Tuesday night around 11:45pm. My mother-in-law called to tell us the bad news. I was still up and just sat down in front of the computer when the dreadful ring came in. No call late at night is good news. Thoughts in my head appeared when the first ring came thru and then my phone registered who it was on the caller ID. SIGH...it was my mother-in-law...what now?

It was hard to hear her have to go thru this...I wasn't there when her first child passed (back in '93) and I couldn't image the pain that she was feeling. I felt so bad b/c I didn't know what to say. Because let's face it...what CAN you say? Nothing really...just lend your ear...that's really all you can do...and your shoulder if you're physically near them.

So I ran to the master bedroom to wake Neal up, who had just fallen asleep and he didn't know what to think when I handed him the other cordless. I stayed on the phone just in case I needed to intervene...didn't know how Neal would take it. He took it pretty well, as to be expected. All he could do too was listen. There was so much silence in the air. Like everything stood still.

The news was hard. How can someone do that to themselves? To their loved one's? The first emotion set in...heartache. Little did we know the other emotions would come as the news settled. Denial, anger, curious, resentment, anger again, then peace.

Neal stayed up for a while with me and we just sat in the family room, quiet...you could hear everything outside. And we live pretty much in the country. Well, in a neighborhood, but most of the neighbors are in bed at 8!

The next day we went over to my mother-in-laws to spend time with her. She was doing a little better but on the phone trying to figure out what was going on up north and what we all needed to do down here.

Neal and his sister decided to go up to Illinois together to claim Bobby and do what Bobby wished...cremation, scatter in different places and then ??? Still unknown.

No note.
No will.
No money.

He is still en route since this morning at 10:30. Last I spoke with him they were doing good with time. They plan to drive straight thru. That is going to be one long 19 hour drive. Wish I could be there with him. For them. But I am...from home. The kids too.

Monthly Contest at TMS!

Over at my scrapbook site there is a BLOG HOP going on!! Here are all the details:

Who's ready for another MONTHLY CONTEST at TMS?

Well, it's going to be a FUN one, and I do mean a FUN one!
Get your scrap desks ready and get your seatbelts on for a
BLOG HOP!!!

Here are the rules:

• Start here at the TMS Blog for the first of your assignments for this BLOG HOP.
• Be registered at TMS and have at least 10 posts before entering into the hop.
• Follow the direction carefully, you will be directed to other blogs (TMS designers) in order to finish up your creation.
• Submit your "new", never before seen creation to mosyscrapper@hotmail.com by July 26th at midnight to be considered for judging.
• Please participate on the message board so that we all can get to know our participants. PROMISE WE DON'T BITE!!
• Winner will be announced no later than July 28th.
• Sponsor for this contest:

And here is your first assignment!

• Use this sketch from Valerie Salmon for the base of your creation. You will be getting other assignments (4 more to be exact) so don't start scrapping just yet!
  

• Next you will need to go to Janet's Blog to get another assignment.
• If you find you have any questions during your trip, please don't be afraid to ask. Just direct your questions to "amooretto" on the message board by sending me a private message with "question" in the subject line.
  

GOOD LUCK!

Good evening

GREAT time seeing fireworks tonite me and the kids with my nieces and their families and some friends. Got some good pix but not enough time to post about it.

I loved watching the kids faces when they looked up at the fireworks. It went by so quick. Now we're home, got the kids all bathed and getting ready for our boating/camping trip tomorrow. Trying to figure out how we are going to fit all this stuff onto the boat! Neal should be home shortly. He went to Daytona to watch the races.

Be back Monday to post pix of this long weekend!

Blog Candy Alert!!

Okay...I have gotten word of these TWO awesome opportunities to get some blog candy.

YUM!

Can you say yum?

1. Here is the link to Posh Designs Scrapbook Store blog. I see some pretty flowers, bling and rub-ons galore! (and it's mine...LOL)http://poshscrapbookstore.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-candy-time-yummy-blog-candy.html
2. HUBBA HUBBA!!! {drool} and this goodness is from Addicted to Paper. http://momofthreeaddictedtopaper.blogspot.com/2009/07/10000-hits-blog-candy.html I'm crying b/c I'm sooooo happy!!! I want it all!!! That is a lot of yumminess...I think I'm full after looking at this! LOL

Well, spread the word and wish the best scrapper a good luck! (I'll have to have a personal talk with random.org to hook me up! heehee)

Words won't hurt me

Well, I've been going to bed late every nite since Sunday trying to play catch-up with my message board, playing a little on Facebook (it can be very addictive....I WON'T GIVE IN!!!) and working on these cards for my friend's business...PARTY PERFECTIONS.

I've actually been sketching what I need to do and gathering all my supplies. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to scrapping for others. I guess I work better that way. Gets my mojo going. So, I did some cards last night. A little discouraged b/c I was told that some looked like a kid did them, but you know...I'm not going to let that get me in the way. And if they DO look like a "kid" did them, so be it. Business will tell. HECK, my friend will tell me because she has to include them in her party packages and I represent her!

I've got TONS more to do and my list is getting longer because I keep coming up with ideas and I just jot them down. NOT ENOUGH SPACE OR TIME TO DO THEM ALL!!! Here are the one's that I did last night. They are all for either a:

• Princess Party
• Spa Party
• Fashion Show Party
  

It was fun coming up with fake names and addies and such. Had to have something in "blanks" for viewers to see. Enjoy!

This one is for a Spa Party

This is one for a Fashion Show Party

Fashion Show Party dress invite (I had fun with this one)


This one is another Fashion Show invite (I really like this one)

This is a Princess Party invite