My Christmas Post

Yeah, it's a bit late, but I figured I'd share some photos of our Christmas.

Here in this first picture you see our tree and our wonderful yule log burning.

Here are my favorite people. Look...they're smiling!

I made one of my kids take a picture of me with Jason...can't have enough of those.

I sure love that husband of mine...he gives this fat girl candy (that's love, baby). I mean, look at that spare tire! OK, I am hitting the workout DVD's hard after this jug of my favorite candy is gone. Honey, I'm sure that by our anniversary there will be less of me to love.

As you know, I'm a Nail Tech and I get great gifts from my clients. This one I just had to share...
My client (who is more like a girlfriend) Sheri Nork gave me this WAY cool bottle of vodka. She made her husband go back to the store and get me one after he brought her a bottle home. You see, I introduced her to the Twilight series and she knows how much I love Edward (but not more that you, Jason). I think it is an awesome bottle. It looks like blood inside. Thanks Sheri!

So that's all I have for tonight. Actually, it's now after midnight, so I guess I should say that's all for this morning.

Did Someone Say Party?

This past Saturday was our annual family Christmas Brunch. Much of my time leading up to it was spent on my craft projects. Here are some photos of what I was doing.


This first picture is of the scrapbook I made for my step-mom, Susan. It's a little brag book of her grand kids. It's not what I was planning, but I ended up ditching the first book because I couldn't make it come together. All the pages are done on chipboard so it's nice and sturdy. Here is a picture of what it looked like before I assembled it...

I printed the photos on my home printer. I just cut them out and glued them onto the chipboard.

Next is the little book I did for Margaret. I liked the colors in the paper because it went so well with the color in her great family photo I used on the cover. Same idea of printing out pictures and gluing them on the chipboard

This is the little black and white brag book I literally put together at the last minute. I photoshopped all the pictures to make them black and white and then I ran some fantastic wordart onto transparencies and assembled them in front of the pictures. The transparencies are separate from the photos so you can move them off the pictures.

This is the t-shirt I made up for Suzee. I absolutly love it (and made one for myself, too). I used the wordart from a freebie digital kit.

This was such a fun time for me and all these goodies made me excited for our family day.

Here are just a few of the pictures I snapped...

Alas, my time with the little statue is at an end. My addition is the big gun and holster. Now he can look tough in his thong and hat.

Hi Kaity! Say "Cheese"

Here's Suzee and Margaret sporting some awesome aprons that Suzee made.

And finally just a group shot of the people who were sitting across the room from me. Looks like Suzee and Kaity are critiquing the pictures they just took.

I think we should all get together more than just once a year. You agree?

Still Nothing

I've been very hopeful that something fun or exciting would happen in my life that I could blog about. I mean, wouldn't it be so cool if I posted about winning the lottery or being voted Prom Queen? Sadly, neither of those cool things happened to me. I've just been trying to get my scrap projects completed. I'm very close to being done with 2 of them and I need to get rolling on the 3rd one. After this Saturday, I'll post some photos of what I've been doing.

I was supposed to have driven out to B.F.E. (that's Gilbert, AZ in case you are wondering) this morning, but I'm practicing my procrastinating. I told Suzee I'd help her out since it's only a 30 mile one way trip for me but much further for her. I'll try to get it done a little later today.

So that's about it folks. I do like to share a picture or two when I blog, so without further ado....


Here is a picture of my gay cats spooning on my bed. It has nothing to do with this post. I just think they are cute.

Officially Obsessed

Yup, it's official...I've got Twilight Obsession. And to show you just how bad it is, I am sharing the layout I did. The little picture in the layout is from a photo shoot the guys did for some magazine. I think it's great because they are all wearing vampire teeth.

Okay, I know I'm strange, but ever since I came across that first Twilight scrapbook layout, I've had this obsession to do my own. "What! There are more weirdos out there?" you ask. Oh yes, and I totally love all their layouts. And because I can, I made a collage of some of them....

They are a little tough to see in this post, but if you click the picture you should be able to see them better. I had over a dozen more I could have used, but had to limit myself. LOL!

I'd love to see what Suzee, my other scrapbooking sister, can do. She's the bomb when it comes to scrapbook stuff. And Margaret, if you can find a picture from the movie and want to put me in it, I'd love that!

Que The William Tell Overture!

The time has come to begin my mad, crazy rush into the Christmas season. I haven't even begun. Well, actually, I did get our tree assembled and plugged in this past weekend. This Thursday when the girls come home we will most likely begin decorating.

I am trying VERY hard to not let my Grinchy heart keep me from enjoying the season. So this year we are focusing on the real meaning of Christmas. When our Savior is the focus, my heart will surely grow three sizes.

I plan to find stories to read to the family that will draw His spirit into our festivities. If you know any, please forward them to me. I'll be scouring the public library for children's books...even grown up children like to look at pictures when the story is being read.

I have a couple scrapbook projects in the works and hopefully they will be completed on time. I can't say too much about what I'm doing yet, but of course you know I'll post the pictures once the projects have reached their destination.

Time to turn on the Christmas music and get busy...

HI HO SILVER....AWAY!!

I've Been Tagged & Some Other Stuff

My sister Suzee TAGGED me:

*Open your pictures file on your computer

*Grab the fourth picture in the fourth file!

*Now Post it and blog what you remember about that picture.




This is my awesome hubby Jason with his favorite radio personality Colin Cowherd.
During the Super Bowl here in Arizona this year, the ESPN guys were broadcasting downtown close to Jason's work. Lucky man got to have his picture taken with my husband.

I only know 3 bloggers I could tag and Suzee is one of them, so I'd love to see what Margaret and Leigh put up on their blogs. :)

And now some other stuff:

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving already! It should be a wonderful day. We have our brood for the morning only so we are doing a Thanksgiving brunch. Once the kiddos leave for the day, Jason and I are going to laze around on the couch watching football and having a delicious pizza dinner. I am very excited! The clean up will be a dream and I will not have to complain that I over-ate.

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

Just A Little Crush?

Is it wrong to be dreamy over a fictional character? Because I've got it bad for Edward Cullen. I just saw Twilight today (with my REAL love) and the more I think about the movie, the more I believe I will go watch it again. I am re-reading the book because it's just that good.

I realize they did have to use some creative licence to put a 498 page novel into a 2 hour movie.

Let me just agree with Suzee; if you want to see a LOVE story, this is it. Just because Edward is a vampire does not make it a vampire story. So go see it so you might understand just a little about why I feel the way I do about him.

Hated It

I kept looking at the layout I did for the State Fair and I totally hated it. So I went back and used the same photos in a different layout.

Still doesn't seem complete but I like it much better. More fun?

Another Page

I was able to scrap another page. (I scrap lifted a layout that I saw at After 5 Designs but cannot figure out who did the original.)

I need to print out my layouts and just put them into a general scrapbook...no theme.

Tonight I have to drive all the way out to my ex's house and pick up the boys. It's about a 100 mile round trip. Thankfully I only have to do this once every 6 weeks.

Hope you all have had a great weekend!

Some Scrapbookin'

YES! I finally forced myself to sit down and scrap a couple layouts. The first one is my State Fair layout...

And the second one is Jacob's cast layout...

That's it for today's post. Not much else is going on right now. I'll try and make up some stuff to tell you about soon. LOL!

My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipe

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I'm not sure how it got here so fast. Our Thanksgiving is going to be a quiet one this year. Being a blended family, our children have 2 homes in which to celebrate all the holidays. Actually, my boys have never been with me on Thanksgiving since their dad and I split up. We did that because we wanted our divorce to make as small of an impact on our boys as possible and that meant that they would continue the tradition of having their Thanksgiving meal with their dad's family. In exchange, I got to have them every Christmas morning. It's worked out okay. I think that Jacob and Jared are old enough now to make some changes and so I'll need to talk to their dad about that.

Jason and I will have all the kids on Thanksgiving morning and we will do a big brunch for them. Then they will go to the other parent's and have the big meal. Jason and I don't plan on making a turkey with all the trimmings. The one dish that I MUST have is Sweet Potato Casserole. It is my absolute favorite! I make it every year and have shared our family recipe with many friends. This year I made a digital recipe card to share.

I used the freebie kit Everescents by Liz @ Sweet Digi Scraps and freebie alpah by Ziggle Designs

If you think you don't like sweet potatoes, give this recipe a try. It's almost like a dessert.

What Kind Of Blogger Are You?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

What's Been Going On?

It's been a busy week since I blogged last. I should have put some photos up last time that showed Jacob getting cast #2 put on, so I'm posting them now. BTW, this was done Wednesday before we went to the fair.


Here is the mummy wrapping that goes under the cast to make it more comfortable.

Doctor is just starting the outer wrap

He's working quickly

And here is the finished product!

This cast fits snugly and doesn't allow the movement that he had with his first cast (after all his swelling went down he had WAY too much wiggle room). He should be able to have it removed in 2 weeks if he gets enough new bone growth.

We took the whole fam-damily (plus 2 more) and went camping last weekend in Prescott. It was lots of fun and the only real hardship was freezing my butt off in the tent. Jason and I plan to look for some kind of portable heater we can use to take the chill off. He is fine in the cold, but he looks out for me :)

Lately, I've been running Jacob all over the place. After a long battle with acne resisting all the medication the doctors prescribed, he is getting ready to start Actuate. This morning I had to take him to get his blood work done. They'll have to test it every month in order to fill the next month's worth of medication. We are fortunate to have a Sonoran Lab almost in our back yard. Only this morning when we went there, they were closed due to a water main break in the parking lot and the water had been shut off to those offices. So off we went to the next closest one. Unfortunately, that location was VERY busy. We waited about an hour and then I took Jacob to get some breakfast before dropping him off at school. He will have to fast every time they do his blood draw. I'm hoping this is the answer we've been looking for. I feel so bad for him having to go through this.

On Monday while I was still at work Jason came home to find this on the living room floor...

Yup, that's a baby bunny. Our cats are at it again. There is a wash that runs right by the end of our cul-de-sac and has lots of wildlife living in it. I've seen these little guys in the neighbor's yard and always think they are so cute. Obviously the cats think they are cute, too. And fun. There was rabbit fur chunks all over the house. Jacob is truly his mother's son because he had to get a couple pictures to document the moment. Thanks Jacob...it's gruesome, but it is for posterity. It was not dead yet so Jason had to end it's suffering. He's not very happy with those animals.

So now you know the happenings. Until next time, Peace out!

Did Someone Say State Fair?

Yesterday my kids and I got to tag along for Suzee's State Fair excursion. (If you click her name you'll see her post about it.) We were very fortunate that Suzee has connections...or rather her daughter Kacie has connections. Jordan is Kacie's friend and her grandparents are carnies. They were kind enough to share their pass to enjoy the park with us. The only things I had to pay for were the parking for my car and the drinks we got.

Suzee and I let the older kids run free and we went to the kiddie portion of the fair where her little guy had a blast! After a while we had the kids come join us and I got some photos of them.

Here they are ready to ride the Dragon.

Jacob and Jared on the slide

and then on the sky ride. The big ape in the other lift seems to be totally relaxed.

Jordan and Kacie on the ferris wheel.

Me and Suzee relaxing for a bit out of the sun.

I don't think I've walked that much in a VERY long time. Today I'm feeling like an old lady. LOL!

New Scrapbook Page

I finally got around to scrapping again. I've been playing but not really creating. Here is my attempt at being creative.

I used the brush set and paper by Fei-Fei. I'm not sure where that wordart came from.

I should probably find a photo of Jared to extract and do a page for him. I'll post it once it's done, too.

Something entertaining

I had this youtube video sent to me. Maybe you'll enjoy it....

Holly's Daughter

Yes, I am Holly's daughter. If you are not one of the 4 of us, you may ask "What does that mean?" Well, it means that we were raised with VERY strict rules regarding how we were to conduct ourselves under the roof of HER house. My sisters and I learned quickly that there were things we did not do. For instance, we had hand towels and we had dish towels and we knew the difference and were NOT allowed to dry our hands on dish towels. We also knew that unless we bought it ourselves, we were to treat everything with respect. It was actually a lesson I am glad we learned.

I began drilling some of the lessons I learned into the heads of my sons when they were quite young. They have embraced the Bathroom Towel Rule that states you will use a bath towel for several days before you are allowed to put it into the hamper. I am pleased that I don't have to wash a load of their bath towels every few days. Unfortunately Jacob is slow to learn about respecting the structure of the house.

The following picture shows our downstairs bathroom door that he put his hard head into. He claims to have tripped coming down the steps....hmmm, likely story.

This next photo is the inside of his bedroom door. It used to be our downstairs closet door but Jacob punched a hole in it. That duct tape is covering the evidence.


You are aware that I am now in a "blended family" and now have members of my household that were not raised by Holly's daughter. So now I try very hard to look the other way when they forget the Bathroom Towel Rule or something I didn't think needed a rule....




Yes, it used to be a good bathroom hand towel. Sadly, someone didn't think twice before using it to clean themselves off from Halloween makeup. I just don't get it. What is wrong with soap and water? And I know that it didn't phase this child to ruin someone else's property.

I will take a few deep breaths and try and forget for a moment that I was raised by Holly....

Oh who am I kidding?

Ice Cream Personality Test

I took the Ice Cream Personality Test and here is what it says about me...

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are. You are a pretty cautious person. You look before you leap, and you don't leap often. There's a bit of a wild child within you, but it doesn't get out often. You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you're fairly conservative. You don't like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You are a serious and contemplative person. You definitely do your own thing in life.

The Ice Cream Personality Test

What does it say about you?

Baby Shower

Saturday was my niece Kaity's baby shower. It was a lot of fun spending time with all the people that showed up to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Holly. So now that the party is over, I can show you the sweet craft project that Bev made for her new grandbaby...


I think she did such a good job on the wall letters. This was her first attempt at being "crafty". Now that she knows how simple and fun making stuff can be, perhaps she'll attempt more things.
Here are a few pictures from the shower....

Kaity & her friends

Here she is behind the large pile of gifts

Standing Room Only

Opening her gifts

Bev with her kids Kaity & Stephen

So Bev, are you happy now? LOL! Next time be sure to actually USE your camera!

In the spirit of fun

So after reading Margaret's post, I thought I'd share my funny that I put together. I have to say that I think all the Lundberg girls may be a bit on the demented side. This little scrap page kept me laughing for at least 30 min while I found the best photos to put JB into. It all started as a practice at extracting a portion of a photo....