Tuesday Pictures

I wanted to do another post to share a few more photos from Tuesday. I can only fit four pictures per post. I am sure I could do more if I knew how but... I don't... so... another post it is! I will figure that out another time! :-)

On Tuesday morning, Carver and I went to my mom's work to wish her a Happy Birthday. Before we left the house, Carver wanted to pick a flower to give to Nana. Carver found one of those yellow flower/weed things in the yard. I don't know what they are called. Nana loved it and Carver was proud of himself for making Nana happy.

When we left Tuesday afternoon, to go to Granna and Poppy's, Carver wanted to take Libby a flower for her birthday. When he couldn't find a good flower/weed to pick in our yard, I told him that when we went by the church, to pick up Daddy, that we would look to see if we could find any flowers there. Carver talked all the way to church about finding a flower for Libby. Well... we found some so Carver was happy. However, we forgot to give Libby the flower. There was so much pollen on it that we left it outside at Granna and Poppy's and forgot to bring it in before everyone left to go home. I guess I will just have to send her a picture of his thoughtful gesture.

I don't know who this is... I can't see his face. Oh.. wait... i think I recognize that body! Silly boy... bags are for presents!

This is Natalee, Michael, and Libby being silly. Michael was having fun taking pictures of himself with the girls behind him making faces. He couldn't see what they were doing until after he took the picture. It takes so little to entertain him! :-) He got some really cute pictures though. This was one of my favorites!

Birthday Girls

Me and Libby

On Tuesday night, we celebrated my birthday and my niece, Libby's, birthday with the Eubanks clan. We were suppose to celebrate it this past Sunday but since Carver was sick, they rescheduled so we could be there. Carver is still not well but the decision was made for us to come on anyway.

My mom-in-law, Brenda (Granna), made our favorite foods and we each had our own cake that was decorated just for us. My cake had a birthday stamp and ribbon on top with mat stax squares lying around the bottom. Cute Cute! Granna went to a lot of trouble to go pick out crafty stuff for me to decorate my cake. I loved it! It was very special! Oh... and she had some wooden initials (my initials) that she stood up against the cake. Very creative Granna! :-)

On the way home, Michael told me that she spent a lot of time planning how to make my birthday celebration special for me. Granna must have read my Birthday Blues post and felt sorry for me! ha.. :-) Granna... thank you for going through so much trouble for me. I really did love everything that you did and it made me feel very special!

Me and Granna

Michael took some other pictures that I wanted to share. This is a picture of me and my dad-in-law, Orbie (Poppy).

This is me and my other beautiful niece, Natalee.

Kwerner Color Inspiration #50

I participated in my 3rd challenge of the week... and ever... go me!

I should have been sleeping! Carver has been sick and has been in our bed for the past 4 or 5 nights. None of us are getting much sleep. Instead of going to bed earlier, I am staying up late working on cards. My eyes are almost swollen shut. :-) That is the reason part of my stamping is a little off... I couldn't see!

Here is my card...

I liked these colors so much that I decided to use them to make my mom's birthday card!

Supply list:
Stamps - Guidelines Two (PTI), Birthday Basics (PTI)
Paper - GL Two White (PTI), Lemon Tart, Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy (all PTI), Tempting Turquoise (SU)
Ink - Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy (both PTI), Tempting Turquoise (SU)
Buttons - Dark Chocolate Vintage Buttons (PTI)

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you so much! You are a beautiful woman, inside and out, and you are a wonderful Mother! Thank you for setting such a great example of what a Christian mother should be! Thank you for loving me! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Your favorite daughter! :-)

CP Sketch #12 Challenge

I decided to participate in a sketch challenge and get a Mother's Day card completed, for my grandmother, at the same time.

Above is the sketch and here is my card...

Supply List:
Stamps - Mother (PTI), Polka Dot Basics (PTI)
Paper - Kraft, Aqua Mist (PTI)
Ink - Dark Chocolate (PTI), VersaMark
Buttons - White and Cream Vintage Buttons (PTI)
Other - SU Scallop Circle Punch, EK Success Circle Punch, Twine (Joannes)

Sweet Feet

Friday, Carver and I went outside to play while daddy was mowing. This is a picture I took of his precious feet while we were hanging out on the front porch.

Carver's feet was one of the first things I noticed about him the first time I held him. I noticed how big his little feet were... if that makes any sense! I love to rub on them and kiss on them. I hear quite often, "no mommy" when I get near his feet. I think he is tired of me bothering them all the time. :-)

But... until he gets older and they start getting stinky and sweaty like little boy feet do... he will just have to put up with it. They are just too sweet!!

My Time To Color Challenge #1

This is my first chance, since creating my blog, to participate in a color challenge.

I am very excited! Here is the card I came up with using these colors....

Supply List:
Stamps - Everyday Words by Ali Edwards (Technique Tuesday), Faux Ribbon (PTI)
Paper - Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy bitty dots, Spring Rain, Smokey Shadow (all PTI)
Ink - Smokey Shadow (PTI), Embossing Ink
Ribbon - Spring Rain (PTI)
Other - Twine (Joannes), Button (from stash), Embossing Powder, SU Scallop Border Punch

For Cathy

This is a card that I made earlier this week, using my new SU set again, for a special family friend.

Michael's assistant at work is a wonderful woman named Cathy! Cathy is a great friend to both of us. Most importantly, Cathy loves our child and he loves her! :-)

Cathy was helping Michael with youth stuff at church long before she started getting paid to do so. I cannot count the number of times Michael has told me how much he appreciates her. Cathy is probably the only other woman out there (besides maybe Michael's mom) that understands me! ha... (love you honey!!)

Cathy... if you ever read this... we all love you and appreciate you. If it weren't for your ongoing above and beyond attitude/teamwork, I know I would have significantly less time to spend with my husband.

Catch All Scrapbooks

I keep everything! Well... I keep a lot of stuff.

I had a lot of loose papers, sitting in boxes, that I didn't see myself using in a scrapbook. I had things like newspaper clippings, family members wedding invitations, drawings from nieces and nephews, etc.

I had a spiral bound scrapbook sitting around that I had purchased, probably, years ago. I decided that this scrapbook is where I would put all of those random, but special, papers. I quickly filled up one album and had to purchase another one.

I finished this project months ago, but more recently covered the plain fronts with some pretty papers and ribbon. I just adhered all of the papers in the book and wrote any description/notes I felt were necessary. I don't like having papers or pictures just thrown in a box. I was really happy to find an organized solution to my paper problem.

It isn't anything fancy but it is organized. Organization is my friend!

Thursday Night Baseball

My nephew, Alex, had a baseball game last night. Michael took this picture of Alex while he was on 2nd base. Alex looks so big! I can't believe how tall he is and how deep his voice is. It seems like everything about him has changed overnight.

Alex is such a great cousin to Carver. Even though Carver is much younger, Alex loves to play with Carver and totes him around on his hip just like the rest of us. Carver loves Alex too. Carver loves all of his cousins!

I told Carver that when he woke up from his nap, we were going to go watch Alex play ball at the ballpark. The first thing out of his mouth when he woke up and I walked into his room was, "we go see Alex play ball at the ballpark". That boy doesn't forget a thing!

This is a picture of Carver taking in all of the baseball action while quenching his thirst. I was so proud of him tonight. Carver stayed right there with us the entire time and never gave us a bit of trouble. Last year my parents could never sit down to watch a game. Carver made them walk him around the entire time. He wouldn't sit still and he would run off from where we were sitting. What a difference a year makes. I was so proud of his behavior! He is such a big boy! Now... if he would just use the big boy potty! :-)

And... this picture is the cutest of all. Here is Carver showing off his catcher pose. Alex is the team catcher and apparently Carver has been paying close attention to his cousins technique. I think he has down! I see baseball in our future.... !?!?!

December Daily Three

Here are the last of my December Daily pictures.

This is a picture of Carver waking up on Christmas morning. How precious is he? I could eat him up!!

Carver got a lot of stuff from Santa. In fact, Santa went a little overboard. Carver must have been a really good boy last year!

You can see a glimpse of a frog tent that Carver got. The frog tent was the biggest hit (with all of us) and is still a favorite. This tent sits in a corner of Carvers room. It takes up a lot of floor space so I had to get creative with rearranging his other toys. It has been well worth the effort.

Our family has started this 'thing' where we hide from whoever hasn't been home and is coming in the door. We always hide in the frog tent. Carver likes to run and turn out his light, shut his door, get in the frog tent, zip up the frog tent, and then get under his sleeping bag. Whoever is doing the searching, for the rest of the family, has to play it up and look in the closet, other rooms, etc. We have fun with it. It is something we enjoy doing every day. Carver is so funny. Most of the time he just covers his head and you can see his legs sticking out. Carver thinks that since his head is covered and he can't see you... that you can't see him. Never a dull moment!!

December Daily Take Two

I wanted to post some more pictures from my December Daily.

I am going to jump right in...

December 18th, our friends, the Vertrees, had us over for dinner. I thought these pictures of Carver and Daniel hugging were cute. They played really well together and we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner. It is so nice spending time with friends.

On December 21st, Michael baptized our nephew, Rex. This was a very special day for all of our family so I was very excited that I was able to document it in our December daily. Michael has been able to baptize all three of his sisters children. What a special memory for them to share.

On December 22nd, we took Carver to Best Buy so we could take this picture. Carver loves Best Buy! Every time we drive past, he gets so excited and says, "see the sign". Well, Carver's uncle Bill had recently had an unpleasant experience with Best Buy so we thought it would be funny to give him this picture in a frame for Christmas. We also gave him a gift card to BAM and a note from Carver telling his uncle that he loves Best Buy and he hopes someday Bill would love them again too. We thought it was cute!! :-)

On December 23rd, we celebrated Christmas with my immediate family at my parents. I chose this picture of Carver and my nephew, Dylan, opening presents to remember the occasion. Carver and Dylan love each other!

December 24th is always hectic. We run from place to place. We had some down time in the morning so I was able to get some shots of Carver playing with some of his toys he had received the night before. We went to my grandparents for dinner, to my sister-in-laws to open presents with Michael's immediate family, and then got home around midnight to get in the bed and wait for Santa.

I wanted to use so many pictures of that day, I had to use some Christmas tags in between them. I was able to write a description of each picture on the tag.

Well... that is all for this post. I am not going to share all of the pages but I do have one more post coming with the final few. :-)

December Daily

Two nights ago, I finally finished my December Daily album. Woo Hoo!! It has been staring at me for months begging to be completed.

The idea for this album came from Ali Edwards. You can check out her post here...
http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/december-daily-album-2008.html

Basically, you take pictures and put together an album to journal your families activities from December 1st through December 25th.

I wanted to share a few of the pages on my blog. I am happy with how it turned out. I am also happy to be done with it.

I feel like I just threw some of it together but I am hopeful that this years album will be better. I have one under my belt now so I have a good idea of what I am doing and how much time it takes to do it.

Some days there wasn't a whole lot going on. December 2nd was one of those days. I just took a picture of Carver laying on our bed after he got home from school. Since we have cats and that is where they tend to spend a lot of time, I won't let him get on the 'big bed' unless I have just washed the quilt. I hate this but what do you do? Kill the cats? Just don't worry about it and let him get on it anytime he wants? I don't think I can do either.

On December 3rd, Carver and I went to my parents to help them put up their Christmas tree. Carver did a really good job putting the ornaments on. Of course they were all right beside each other but that was ok!

December 7th, we went to the Christmas parade and December 8th was another not much going on day. I took a picture of Michael walking in the door from work. This is something we look forward to everyday. He is usually talking on the phone when he does come in so... this was a good picture of life in our home. :-)

December 14th was a Sunday so I took a picture of Carver playing in his Sunday School class. Of course I had to catch him when he was playing with a pink stroller. I guess that is ok. I hope Carver will give me grandchildren some day so I say... let him practice with that pink stroller all he wants.

December 15th was yet another uneventful day. I took a picture of Carver's shoes that we got in the mail that day. I love those shoes. Carver looks so cool when he wears them. :-)

Mother's Day Card

This is the first of 5 cards that I will be making for Mother's Day. This card is for Michael's grandmother. I used my new SU! stamp set, Upsy Daisy, for the main image. I hope she likes it!

Feeling Guilty

I love this boy! This picture was taken at Alex's ballgame the other night. Carver's Papa bought him a ring pop. As you can see, Carver thoroughly enjoyed it.

I haven't felt real well today. Carver went to school and I managed to do a half decent job of cleaning the house while he was gone. I haven't felt horrible... just tired and a little upset stomach. I haven't even been in one of those crabby moods but I lost my temper tonight with this sweet boy. I hate so much when I do that! I pray and pray to be a good mommy and that I won't lose my cool with him. I didn't spank him when I lost my cool, I yelled at him.

Carver likes to play with his food. Tonight, I gave him his favorite treat of applesauce at dinner. Carver ate a lot of it, but by the time I realized what he was doing, he had taken some of it and spread it all over the table. Ok... not such a big deal. What caught my attention was him dipping his spoon in his bowl and slinging it all over the kitchen floor. I immediately lost it. I deal with this every day and I have since he was old enough to feed himself. This is about the only thing that really causes me to lose it. I feel like I am constantly on my hands and knees trying to clean the floor. I can't seem to make him understand that this is not acceptable.

I cleaned the floor and then gave him a bath. By the time bath time was over, I had cooled down. I had to ask Carver to forgive me and told him that I was sorry for yelling at him. I told him that I was wrong to yell at him. Of course, he forgave me. I hate losing my cool with him. I see, almost everyday, a family who is dealing with the reality of having a really sick child or who faces the challenges of having a special needs child. I feel so silly, in times like these, for losing my cool over applesauce on the floor. I am so thankful for my son and that he is happy and healthy. One day I will wish he was here throwing food on my floor. I know he will grow up so quickly.

He is a blessing from God that I so don't deserve.

I am so thankful for my God and my son who are so willing to forgive me when I have let them down!

Craft Room Letters

These are the letters that I made for my craft room. I made them a couple of months ago. I haven't done anything crafty in a few days so I wanted to post these. I painted the letters and added some Basic Grey paper and buttons.