I really like this one!

So I a have been searching all weekend for a new blog template and I finally found one that I like. I even purchased one (1.50)and spent all weekend trying to figure out how to download it and get it on to my blog, I never claimed to be the smartest person when it comes to computers. So it is now 12:00 am and I finally found one that I really like it came from Template Mama. Maybe if you are looking for something new head over her way and check out her neat and free template. Just remember give credit where credit is due.

Free design giveaway

Here is a great blog design giveaway visit My restored life and sign up to win this design giveaway. I am hoping I will win!!!

So funny!!!

I just had to share this hilarious video going around right now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0 This has got to be the best wedding entrance of all times. My girls loved watching it and have asked to see it over and over again. I just can't imagine how funny this would be if you were sitting in the church and this music started to play....then the wedding party starts coming down the aisle dancing. Enjoy watching and don't forget to share with others.

My baby is now 11!

I can't believe my little girl is now 11. It seems just like yesterday I held her in my arms and studied her angelic face every second of the day. I remember when she was born and we were in the hospital...all my visitors would say "she will grow up before you know it, time will go by so fast". I would get so upset when people would say that to me, here I am wanting to cherish every single second with my first born baby and they are telling me time is going to fly by. Boy were they right, at the time I thought they were crazy there was no way time was going pass me by that quickly. Well 11 years later I am sitting her thinking "where did the time go"?

My Kailey is growing up to be the most beautiful young lady, I am so proud of her. She is funny, loving, religious, caring, generous, smart, athletic, friendly, kind, talkative and sensitive these are only a few things that describe her.

She only wanted money for her birthday...today I took her to Target and she spent all her money on clothes for middle school, shoes, jewelry, and knick knacks to decorate her new room with. Grandma got her a new bed spread and pillows, Kailey got the rest of her things at garage sales and Target. She spent the whole evening redecorating her room and changing it into a pre-teen room. She was so proud of herself , this is something she has been wanting to do for so long. As we were at Target I had so much fun following her around the store helping her pick out things to buy and being a mom by making her think twice about buying certain things. At the end of her shopping trip I was afraid that she would be upset from spending all her money at once.....but she surpirsed me, she was so proud of herself regreting nothing she purchased.

We returned home and cooked her favorite meal for dinner and enjoyed some Angel Food Cake. As I watched her blow out the candles I wondered what she wished for? I know what I wished for her. I thank God everyday for giving her to me. Happy Birthday baby girl, I love with my whole heart.

Materialistic things?

Today was not a good day in my book. I started out spending 40 min. on the phone with my health insurance company (UGHHHHHH)!!!!! Need I say more about that?

Then my hubs and I came to a conclusion that we needed to empty out our storage unit. If any of you have a storage unit you know they can be very costly and they hold a lot of unnecessary things. Here is my dilemma.....I feel all the many things in my storage unit are very necessary. I mainly kept holiday decor and baby items in my unit. Along with other stuff of course. And to find out we were paying for a climate controlled unit and the owner had the air conditioner turned off.....so none of our things were climate controlled, and a few of our belongings were ruined.

I have been hoping for baby #4 someday, and I know God will let me know when the time is right. Till then I have been holding on to all the numerous baby items I used when my son was a baby (a mere 2 years ago, so things are in mint condition). As all mothers know babies hardly use these things and they are very pricey. So instead of buying new things for baby #4, I thought I would hang on to what I have. Well now that our unit is empty I am forced to find a place for ALL these unnecessary materialistic items. As I was coming to the tearful (yes, tearful very emotional day) conclusion to sell all baby items, I started to wonder when did my life become so materialistic?

The memories of my life do not come from all the materialistic things I own. The memories of my life come from time spent with my family. My children are not going to remember the baby swing they had as an infant, or the bassinet they slept in the first few months of their life. That is what photographs and video are for.

During the course of our 13 year marriage we have been blessed. There was a time that we did not worry about money or budgeting. We bought brand new cars every other year almost, we lived in 2 nice houses and our 3rd house we built ourselves. We were not wealthy by no means, but we did spend a lot of money on frivolous things that we did not need. Whatever we wanted we would find a way to buy it. We enjoyed nice vacations with our kids and we treated them to things they did not need but merely wanted. So I guess I have pretty much materialistic my whole life.

Now 13 years later our lives are very different.....we only have 1 vehicle, we have to budget for everything, and we worry constantly about finances. 2 years ago my husband was a manager of a bank....he merely followed a dream of his. He built a car wash and a self storage unit in the small town we live in (1 mistake he made is going into business with a friend, the friend screwed us) the economy went bad and so did his dream. He is self employed in a business that is struggling. He has a Masters in Business and the jobs he can find he is told he is over qualified for. Now we are forced to tell our children they can't have certain things, they need to get just the bare necessities, no wants just needs.

I am not posting this as a sob story, but as an outlet for myself. A way to get things off my chest so to speak. Some days are better than others, today just ended up being worse than others. Tomorrow the sun will come up and I will start going thru my storage items I don't need (we do not have the room to keep everything). Looking back at today I feel very silly for crying over baby things I can't keep. After all they are just things. All the materialistic things in my life do not matter one bit, as long as I have my family and our health. I remind myself everyday, God has given me riches not in money but riches in a different form. The little things in life that matter most do not come from money, a store, vacations, or a car......they come from the heart, they come from family, they come from memories created together.

My 2 year old has GRADUATED!!!!

Yeah...I am soooooo excited for my 2 year old little man. He graduated today. Yes I said graduated, from speech therapy lessons that is.

Back in late winter I started taking him to Parents As Teachers, this is a program that our school district offers for kids birth to 3, teaching parents little things that will help their child grow and reach the developmental milestones. Well they did an evaluation on Sam and I had expressed concern about his speech, he was only speaking 1 word phrases sometimes 2. Most of the time he would just point in order to let me know what he wanted. Parents as Teachers put my contact with Johnson County Infant and Toddler, this is a FREE, can you believe it FREE service provided by the county. They came to my house and evaluated him, I did not even have to leave the comforts of my own home . Based on their evaluation he qualified for speech services, two weeks later Sam had the best Speech therapist come to our house and visit with him weekly.

Now I have to tell you my son is (was ) so extremely shy. When his therapist first came to visit he would not get off my lap, there was absolutely no eye contact with her, and he would not even think about playing with the toys she brought with her, let alone speak. As the weeks went by he came out of his shell and began to play with her, he even was excited for her arrival every Monday morning. Eventually Sam started to say 2 word phrases then 3 word phrases and so on. He cam out of his shell so much, no matter who came to our house Sam was no longer the shy little boy he once was.

Well today his wonderful therapist suggested that he could be dismissed from therapy and I agreed with her. Here is the funny thing about this whole situation......Sam hardly even spoke to his therapist.....maybe 10 words in the 5 months she met with him. She would play and speak with him, I would then follow her directions through out the week and report back to her all the accomplishments he was making.

So she not only helped him overcome his shyness...she helped him find his voice. For this I am eternally grateful, I know she was doing her job but she did her job so wonderfully.

Rain Rain Go Away

The funny thing about these pictures is......We drove 40 minutes to go to our boat and we stayed under the dock for 2 hours. My father in law wanted all the family to go up to our boat for his fathers day/birthday. On our way there it started to sprinkle then it turned to a down pour. Thinking it would stop we continued to drive to the lake. Once we were there with the family we realized the rain was there to stay for a few hours. We cooked out on the grill and played with the water guns off the dock and laughed a lot. The little kids were so looking forward to a boat ride, we could not disappoint them. So....we started up the engine and sat under the cover and headed out for a very quick boat ride. We got so wet from the rain blowing in under the cover of the boat we headed back for the boat dock. So the really funny thing is.....we no sooner got back to the boat dock and the sun came out with pretty blue skies and no rain. We ended up going for another boat ride and swimming in the lake....even though we spent hours on the boat under cover we had a great time that afternoon on our boat.
Rain rain go away come again another day..... Grandpas kids all want to play....rain rain go away.

Not MIA just BUSY!!

So I have not gone MIA..just very busy with kids. The one thing about summer I don't like is I never seem to get anything done. During the school year I am up early with my daycare children and my girls are off to school for the day. I have a set routine, getting lots done at naptime.

But during the summer I stay up late, sleep in late (or whenever Sam gets up). Get dressed and ready for the day when ever I find a few minutes. Sam has no daycare friends here to keep him busy, so he is constantly wanting my attention (did I say constantly?) Then we eat breakfast, sometimes go for a walk and then before I know it it's lunch time. Finally nap time arrives and I still don't get anything done, my girls are fighting or wanting things done, I am rushing them off to the pool or a friends house. 2hours goes by so quickly and little man is waking up from his nap, and now I am deciding what dinner will be and who will be here for the meal. Or we just eat some thing quickly because we have to rush off the softball or tennis practice. Then we play outside a little in the evening or go to the swimming pool. Thankfully bedtime arrives and all is quiet...but I am exhausted so I hit the pillow all to do it over again the very next day.

Wow I need a nap now just blogging about my busy life makes me tired. But instead of sleeping I am going to try and get caught up on scrapbooking. Hubby and my girls are gone... little man is going down for a nap in exactly 4 minutes. I am going to grab lunch a diet Dr. Pepper and work on pictures and memories from last summer. Yes, last summer, I have never been this far behind in my scrapbooking, NEVER. I also have to finish my photo editing class on-line I am a week behind with that. So I am going to stop blogging for now and get some things done. Later!!!
Funny story about our day at the lake to come later.....

Lesson #2

So today I am on day 2 of my FREE photo editing workshop. It is really cool I am learning so many new things. Here is what I learned from lesson #2. It was all about brushes and picking colors. I have also been working on actions that I have downloaded at The Coffee Shop. There are are some great actions that work in Photo Shop Elements. I am having such a great time learning all kinds of new things. My poor kids are probably feeling a little neglected (I hate to say that) tomorrow I will stay away from the computer a little more (maybe).

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Here is my recipe for Chicken Enchiladas, a family favorite....
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of chicken soup
1 container (8oz.) sour cream
1 cup salsa
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
10 fajita size flour tortillas, warmed
1 tomato chopped
1 green onion, sliced

Mix soup, sour cream, salsa and chili powder
Add cooked chicken to mixture and spread on a warmed tortilla
My family likes the filling inside and only cheese on the outside. But you can set aside some of the filling and spread it on top of the enchiladas . Bake at 350 degrees for 40min or until hot.
Top with lettuce green onion and tomato (we were out of the onion and tomato).

Blog Hop Party

This picture is just one of my favorites, It was taken on my daughters First Holy Communion. It was such a special day in our faith. She remembers it very well. She is holding my Grandma's rosary necklace and a new rosary she got as a gift from her Grandma.

This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. Post up one of your favorite photographs and a caption that tells the audience about it.

FREE!!!

I know I have been MIA lately. Getting ready for our Huge 4th of July party really had me busy (pics to come soon). I have signed up for this great class at
//www.jessicasprague.com today was the first day and this is what we learned. How to put a frame over a picture and add word art. I have been very excited about this class starting. Hope all my projects turn out. The best part of this class is it's FREE, absolutely FREE !!!!!