One Picture

I know you all want to see pictures of the house, but it's still such a mess, covered in boxes and stuff. I will get some taken soon hopefully! For now, here's one of M playing outside today (R was out there too, he just ran screaming "NO" when I asked if I could take a picture of them LOL). They had so much fun playing with all of their outside toys that have been packed up for 5 months (and our lovely rocks). Look what they did with them...


They also colored most of the patio with chalk (even though it was pretty wet), and pulled out pretty much every toy that Matthew put out there, but they had fun, and it gave me a chance to unpack more stuff without "help", so it was all good. :)

I started decorating the kid's rooms today, and I really wanted to put up their height charts that have been packed up for the last two year. I know I saw them in a box in Redding, but I cannot find them now. I swear I've opened every single box out there, and there's only a handful that aren't unpacked, but I can't find them anywhere, and it's driving me nuts!! I really hope we didn't loose a box, I will be sad if I can't find them.

Anyway... we got a lot unpacked today, so I feel like we're making progress on getting COMPLETELY moved it!

Christmas idea...

Just thought I'd throw this out there as I'm unpacking and realizing how much stuff we have. lol I don't mean it to sound greedy, so please don't take it that way at all! :)
We could really use some storage pieces and shelving. I know most of you probably have something in mind (or already bought) for the kids, and that's perfectly fine, just thought I'd throw it out there if anyone was stuck or wondering what we'd like.
I need something BIG to put their ever growing dress up stuff in (if anyone has any ideas on what would work, even if you don't want to get it, please let me know, I'm at a total loss on what to do with all of it). I also have an idea in my head for a desk set up in our dining room with bookshelves (for the kids and all their craft stuff), as well as just needing shelves and things like that in pretty much every room.
Anyway, if you want specifics on anything let me know, if not just ignore me. :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Here are a few of my favorites from yesterday. Hope you like them! :)

Elf Yourslef

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Scrapbook {Black} Friday

Hi everyone!
Did anyone go out and hit the stores this morning? I sure didn't! I love to shop, and I love good deals, but I'm SO not a morning person, and I hate crowds, so we stayed home.
Today is my mom's birthday and the kids and I are going to go to the beach with her in a little bit. It's sunny out today, so it should be fun!

When we got home from FIL's last night we watched Christmas Vacation (a Thanksgiving tradition), and then I decided to decorate my blog for Christmas because I can't very well decorate the house until after I get it unpacked. I did find my wreath this morning when I was out in the garage digging for craft supplies so the kids could make my mom cards, so it's beginning to look a little like Christmas around here anyway. I love this time of year!!

It's only fitting that I have two Christmas LOs to show you today.
I'll start with last weeks, Britt and Molly (DeCrow Designs) teamed up on this great Christmas colab called Very Merry. It has a ton of great stuff in it!! I was able to get a page done with it last week before all the craziness started.

And today, Britt has an AWESOME Black Friday Grab Bag out! This thing is stuffed full of goodies, it's a great deal!!
Here's what I did with it...

Hope you all are having a good Black Friday!

Back online...

Whew! What a crazy week!! I have lots to post, but I'm not going to get to it all right now. Britt put a new CHRISTMAS colab kit out last Friday that I still need to post about, I have tons of pictures from Gilroy Gardens, stories from the weekend, and I will try to get some house pictures up once it's somewhat unpacked, but for now I'm still super busy with all these darn boxes. Just wanted to pop in and let you all know we're up and running here... I'll be back soon!

Tomorrow is moving day!

After hearing different things all day Matthew called me at 3 to tell me that the phone was already switched and we will get the keys at 5:30! We'll probably take a little peek tonight (Matthew and M haven't seen the inside yet), and then move tomorrow. Should make for a crazy day, moving and trying to pack for vacation... I'll update when I get a chance! :)

I'll believe it when I'm holding the key...

I just talked to Matthew, and someone at the title company just told him that it's scheduled to close tomorrow. We'll see about that... I'm not going to plan on it, but maybe I should start packing just in case... lol

Papers are signed...

We got everything signed this morning, but they're still thinking that the earliest will be late tomorrow. We're most likely looking at Thursday at this point. And we leave Friday morning for a long weekend, back late Monday, two days before Thanksgiving... Then Matthew just told me last night that he's going over to Redding with his boss Friday-Saturday to clean out their shop there. So, umm... when are we going to unpack and get settled?!? Not to mention that I'd like to get the Christmas decorations up BEFORE Christmas. Oy...

...but not quick enough

They got the docs at around 4:30, so we're going in to sign tomorrow at 9. I'm not sure if that means they can't close Wednesday or what, we'll find out more tomorrow I guess...

The loan docs are on their way...

I just talked to Matthew, the loan docs are coming and should be here by 5 today. *If* they get here soon enough we will be able to sign today and should close Wednesday, if not we'll have to wait until tomorrow to sign, and I'm not sure if we'll be able to close Wednesday or not. It use to be that if you signed early enough in the morning they could fund and close in the same day, but I guess it's a lot slower now... not sure why.
Just a little update, it feels good to know that it should be this week anyway!

Fun Weekend

We made the most of the weekend sense we couldn't move into our new house.
Saturday I took the kids up to the collage to take their Christmas pictures. They turned out super cute (but sorry, I'm not posting any until after I send out my cards!!).
Then I went to the ladies Christmas tea at our church. It was so much fun! The tables were all decorated so festive and fun, and we got to just hang out and chat about life as well as holiday traditions. It was very nice, and I'm so glad I got to go!
After that the kids and I went over to one of the guys house's who works for Matthew. They were all over there putting in a heater, so we hung out until they finished and the kids played all afternoon with their kids.
Then we went to Applebee's for dinner sense I didn't have anything planned for the whole weekend.
Today we went to church and then did a Costco run. After lunch we went out to Trinidad Head for a walk and then went down to the beach so the kids could play for a while. Then we came home and I worked on our cards and some other photog stuff while Matthew and the kids washed the van. :)
It was sunny and nice all weekend, and we just had a nice time.
Oh, we stopped by the house today and they haven't done anything to it sense last time. (it just needs sod and some landscaping in front). I guess they like to scramble last minute to get that stuff done. We should know by noon tomorrow whether we'll be able to close Wednesday or not...

Scrapbook Friday (and other stuff...)

Today Britt has a new template pack out called Inspired by Ashley, all made from pages that Ashely (on her CT) has made. How cool is that?
Here's a page I did with one of the templates and a bunch of other Birtt stuff. I had tried to scrap these pictures I think 4 times before this and I could never come up with something I liked, so I'm glad to finally be done with them and have something I like! lol

full credits here

HOUSE NEWS: We had a message from our relater when we got home last night saying the loan docs were done and being sent here. We might be able to sign today, but most likely Monday (hopefully it won't be later than that!). That makes me feel a little better, but I don't think I'll completely believe we're getting the house until we have the keys in our hands!

And I just have to say something about Grey's last night... SERIOUSLY!?! Really?? They're going to go there with Izzy?!? I actually yelled at the TV last night when I saw that. Ugg!

Not moving this weekend

Once again, things are not going as expected with this house, and I need to vent about it.

I'm so freaking sick of this kind of stuff. This is the 5th house we've tried to buy, and only one of them actually closed on time without problems. Why on earth can't people just get things done when they're supposed to? Well... I know why, because everyone is overworked from all the layoffs now, but 6 years ago that wasn't the case. I just makes me mad. Don't give me a date, have me forward my mail, have my phone, internet, ect scheduled to be switched, and then change it on me 1 freaking day before. I know it's not our relater's fault, that's what's even harder, I never know who to blame, it's some office who knows where... I'm just so sick of all of this.

So... BEST case is that we will close next Wednesday, yeah, we're going out of town Friday morning and will be gone until Monday night, and this house we're in closes that next Wednesday. So, best case is that Matthew has to take more time off work, we pretty much throw all our stuff in the new house without the help that we would have had moving on a weekend, and then leave for 4 days, and come home to Thanksgiving with the kids out of school all week. Worst case... Well, let's just say it better close within a week of "best case" or we're going to be screwed!

I just want to scream! Why can't these things go smoothly?!?

Still no news

I haven't heard anything all day, I'm guessing that's not good. I bet the kids would notice if I added more links to their chain, hu?
I get that these things go like this a lot, but I just hate this part. I feel so bad for the kids, they've been so unsettled for years, I made that chain so they would have an idea of what was going on and be able to see how much longer there was and grasp the time a little bit. Now it just makes me sad that what they've been counting every day for two weeks might not be right. I was thinking of doing a fun countdown chain for Christmas with different activities for all of December, if I do I'm going to have to promise them that Christmas won't change dates last minute. lol
So... no update really, and in the real estate world I've learned that no news is usually not good news...

I did get a page scrapped today though. This is one of M that I don't think I've posted yet. She has really been suborn about learning to read. My mother-in-law (who's a principal at an elementary school) got her playing on starfall.com over the summer and she was really getting the hang of it quickly, but she just never wanted to work on it with me (or anyone for that matter). Of course, she's been learning in school now, so the other night she sat down with this Dr. Seuss book called I Am Not Going To Read Any Books Today, and she started reading it on her own. She couldn't read every word, but she stuck with it and sounded out a lot of the words she didn't know. I was so proud of her (and I had to laugh at the book she chose, it's totally her!). Anyway I snapped some pictures of her so I could scrap the event, and here is my page. :)

credits here

I love that picture of her. She was getting annoyed at me for taking a bunch of pictures while she was trying to read and this is was the look I got. lol

No news is not good news

I've had this feeling all along that the house closing wasn't going to be as smooth as the first time we bought through them. I kept telling myself that it was just because everything we dealt with in Redding, loosing the first house, and then there being hang ups when we sold our house there over the summer. But last Friday the relater said she wanted us to sign by Tuesday at the latest, and so today when I still hadn't heard from anyone about signing I had a bad feeling. Apparently there was a hang up with something (like always, right?), so they're not sure if we'll be able to close Friday now. We'll know more tomorrow, but as of tonight it's not looking good.
We're just crossing our fingers and praying that the loan docs are on their way right now and everything will go through on time. If not Matthew's going to have to take time off next week to move because we're going out of town that next weekend, and then it's Thanksgiving and I'm sure we need to be out of this house before then.
I'll post an update when I know more tomorrow, hopefully it will be good news!

On a side note, is anyone else watching the Biggest Looser? My goodness, I cannot believe how the blue team is acting! I was SO happy that Ami voted Brady off tonight, hopefully Vicky will be the next to go, I can't stand watching her on there!

A new cousin!

My Sister-in-law, Lyndsey, just announced last week that she's pregnant! I am so excited for them and can't wait to have a new baby around. The kids are just as excited to have a new cousin, and R is already asking when Aunt Lyndsey will have the baby (not until July)... it may be a long 9 months. lol
In the last few weeks I've heard that 4 people are pregnant now, it seems to be going around!

Whew!

Today was the fundraiser mini shoot day, only 4 people signed up, which turned out to be a good thing, because it started raining as soon as I was done with the morning group and it really didn't stop all day. I did 3 shoots this morning, and I'll have to reschedule the other one. I've already proofed all 3 shoots (they're just getting 5-10 proofs each, so not a full sessions worth), and they turned out really cute!
I also did a LO tonight, just for fun. :) I've had this color scheme in my head all day and I just had to do something with it, so there you have it.

credits here

Lots of baseball pages lately, hu? These are from last Easter. We always play a game of baseball after the egg hunt, it's so much fun!

One More Week!!

Until we close on our house!!

R and I went over there this morning with our relater to look at the inside and talk to the guy who's in charge of the landscaping. There was so much going on while we were there. There were guys in the front and back digging the ditches for sprinklers, the carpet was being put in, and it looked like they were getting ready to paint the trim on the outside. I was really excited to peak inside and see everything installed because I was a little nervous about how everything I picked would look. It looks great though, and now I'm even more excited to move in! Everything is really warm colored, and the white trim is awesome! We're going to have lots of grass with black rocks in the boarder in front (thanks to our wonderful relater who offered to upgrade those for us) and regular rocks in the boarder in back.

Anyway, there's the house update. Guess we better stat packing (again). :)

Scrapbook Friday

First up, guess what? My HSM3 LO got Layout of the Day at The Digichick! You can check it out here. Just thought that was kind of cool. :)

Next, Britt has a new kit and some other fun goodies out today. You can see all of them on her blog, but here's what I scrapped with the kit...

credits here

The kit is called Let's Kick It, and it has tons of fun stuff in it! I especially love the mud splatters, I'm sure I'll be using those a lot! Yep, I took a soccer kit and scrapped baseball pictures with it, leave it to me. lol

HSM3

I took M to see High School Musical 3 yesterday after school. I have to say, I really liked it (a lot! lol). Poor M, she was so sad after the movie because they all go off to collage and aren't all together anymore. She couldn't believe that would happen. I kept telling her that not everyone goes away after they graduate, and she still has 13 years before she needs think about it.
Anyway, I got online this morning and saw that Britt's new Everyday Magic Challenge was to scrap the last movie you saw, and although I don't usually do challenges that won't fit in my family book, I couldn't pass up the chance to scrap about HSM3 and use her colab kit with GG Digital Designs, High School Never Ends. It's an older kit, but I've haven't played with it very much, and to scrap a page where the kit was made for it is so much fun! So, here's what I came up with... I haven't decided if I will put it in our book or not, but I do really like how it turned out!

full credits

Here we go again...

Matthew brought the boxes in yesterday. We never even broke them down when we moved in here, we knew we'd need them again soon. So far we haven't packed any of them up. I'm really not sure what I can pack that I won't need before we move. Most of the bookshelf I guess, that's ALWAYS what I start with (I find it a little bit sad that I have this down to a system by now). Hopefully this will be the last move for a while! We would like to design our own house to have built someday, but I think this house will be it until then.
Anyway, here's what my dining room looks like now...


And here's the kids' count-down chain. This was taken yesterday (while Matthew was watching football LOL), there's one less on there now. R kept asking if we were moving today everyday, so we made this to help him understand. It's getting shorter!! :)

Halloween Pictures

Here are some pictures from our night. During the day R and I dropped our cakes off at a friends house and then went to M's school to help with the party and the parade. Then we all came home and tried to have rest time (ha!). We watched a movie and visited with my mom and then SIL, her mom, sister, and little nephew. Then we got ready to head out...

The yearly Halloween picture on the porch.

Walking down the sidewalk to trick-or-treat at our neighbor's house

We went to the kid's carnival that our church puts on and had dinner (hot dogs and cotton candy lol), then we played all the games in the preschool room and saw lots of friends. Here are the kids with their friend E

After we were good and tired from all the fun we headed to Matthew's boss' house so they could see the kids. We ended up hanging out there and chatting while the kids helped hand out candy. They live in the best trick-or-treating neighborhood around and there was a good steady flow of kids coming to the door. Here's one of them waiting for more people...

Then we headed to my dad's house. By this time it was 9, and both kids fell asleep on the way there...


M woke up when we got there though, which was good because my dad dressed up just for them...

We took a picture with R too, just so we could tell him he was there. lol


Can you tell M was totally done with the whole thing? lol

It was a fun night, but very late! We were all so tired when we got home!!

Scrapbook *Saturday*

A day late, but hey, that's life sometimes. :)
Britt has a great new alpha in the shop today, Razzle Dazzle! It's so much fun!
I was working on this LO for a scraplifting challenge at SM when she posted the aplha for us, and it worked so well I had to use it! These pictures are from R's first birthday, he LOVES cake and all things sweet now. :)

credits here

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! We had fun, we didn't get home until 10, and we all crashed right away! I will try to get some pictures and some more about our night on here soon! I haven't even taken my camera out of my purse yet.