Where did August go??

I can hardly believe that this month has flown by so quickly! Riley starts kindergarten in 2 weeks less a day! Wow! He's so excited, and I must admit, I think it will be good for us all to get back into a set routine. I think we're all getting on one another's nerves, lol!

Last week the kids and I went to Cape Breton to visit family. We were there for 4 nights. It was so hot and the kids were a bit bored, but in the end, it was a nice little visit. I mean, I'm not hopping into my car to do it again (at least before next summer :)). But it was nice for a few days. I think it would have been a lot easier if Kevin had been able to come with us, but he had to work.

One funny story before I post some pics (and this is a Kieran story...imagine :)). We were talking about going to visit Nana while we were there (meaning my Nana, not Kieran's Nana (Kevin's mom)). My Dad said, "You can call her Nana, or NanaNana, or call her late for supper." We didn't think Kieran was really paying attention until later when I said something about going to visit Nana and he said, "I will call her 'late for supper Nana'." Haha! So funny!

We took several shots, and there is no good one of the boys, lol!

Bridget playing with Nana.

Again, hard to get a decent pic of all 3 of them!

B loves the waves!! No fear at all! They were crashing practically up to her neck and she loved it!

Riley loved the waves too!

Kieran decided to stay back from the waves! He loves water, but isn't a big fan of tides. The idea that the water comes in and goes out really freaks him out, lol! He's afraid it's going to come in and cover him up. He doesn't like Riley to go out in it either really. We've tried to explain that it all happens very slowly and you can see the water coming in and there's lots of time to back up, but he doesn't really get it. Guess it's the pool for him :)

Pretty girl :)

Riley Bruce, Uncle Ross, Grampie (Bruce) and Kieran Ross :)

Kieran decided he would rather sleep on the floor between the bed and the couch rather than being shoved out of the bed and have the blankets taken away by Riley. He didn't fall (which is what I thought when I found him), he decided to get down there.

Bridget AFTER I had already bathed her and gotten her dressed. This is where she put herself while I was dealing with Kieran.

Picking blackberries with Aunt Irma :)

We also took the boys to the exhibition and they loved it! Had fun looking at the animals and going on the rides. I took them on a couple...the tilt-a-whirl and the scrambler and I honestly thought I was going to be sick. Those rides never used to phase me. Guess I'm old. The kids absolutely loved it though. There was also a big obstacle course, fun house thing that they went through twice. We weren't sure how Kieran would handle it, but he climbed through it, no problem! It was pretty high at the highest point, but he ran across the bridge and down a big slide. He's a monkey...born to climb!

Bridget is getting so big! Kevin swears she grew while we were gone :) Her hair is getting longer and thicker (I know, it's still not a whole lot, but it's a lot to me :)). Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She'll say pretty much any word that you ask her to. She's a little hugger...must give me 1000 hugs a day...the wrap her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and hang on kind of monkey hugs :) She loves playing with her brothers and thinks she's at least 3! She's so much fun!

The boys are great! They try my patience daily, but they are sweet and funny. We were in the grocery store the other night and passing the balloons. I told Riley, "Don't even THINK about it." He says, "Oh, I was thinking about it." Kevin and I both laughed and he says, "I knew I could still make you laugh." Too funny! Oh, they have their moments :) Kieran is just as excited for preschool to start as Riley is for kindergarten. I think he's excited that he finally gets to stay after 2 years of dropping Riley off!

Ok, on to some scrappy business. It's been awhile since I posted some stuff. Here are my mid-August reveals for Treasured Scrapbooking.

I should also mention that Treasured Scrapbooking is having a HUGE sale this week! Hurry, run and check it out here...first come, first serve ;)

Here is the last layout that I did for LCOM based on Becky's lovely sketch :)

Play along with the LCOM sketch team for a chance to win a HUGE Pink Paislee prize package!! Complete any or all of August's sketches and link on the sketch blog here for a chance to win!!

Finally, some Scrap That! DT work! I have had so much fun with the Basic Grey goodies they sent me for this month. At first, when I saw it online, I didn't think I would like the June Bug line at all. Well, I stand corrected...it is lovely in real life. And the woolie stickers are just gorgeous!

This is based on a sketch by the fantastically talented LG Belarmino. This is one of my fave pics of me and Kieran :)

My little monkey boy :) This was done using a pagemaps sketch. It was actually for a contest, but I finished this way past the deadline, heehee!

Phew, I guess I've been busy since my last post! I also received my Fall issue of Canadian Scrapbooker in the mail with my first ever published layout! I was pretty excited!! They even put in a little blurb about Scrap That! since that layout was done for a DT challenge that I had issued :)

Ok, this post has taken me forever! If you are still with me, thank you!! I hope to update more regularly...maybe once we get in to a fall routine. I'm off to do some cleaning and pass the time until I go out tonight!! I'm going to see The Time Traveler's Wife with a friend and I'm excited! I just finished the book on Sunday and it was amazing! I realize the movie probably won't be as good, but hey, at least I'm getting out of the house :) Have a great (early) weekend everyone!!

Aaarrghh!!!

There be an X marks the crop cyber crop happenin' over at Treasured Scrapbooking!! Check out all the fun challenges and games all me matey's have to offer :) And there be lots o' loot to be had so sail on over before I make ye walk th' plank!!

(Ok, I'm done with the pirate talk, lol!) Here's my fun new avatar that Cristal was so kind to do for me. She's done quite a few of them for the girls over at TS. Thanks, Cristal! You rock!

Here's the "In my Treasure Box" challenge that I issued:

Aaarrgghhh, ye has found me treasure box!! Open it if ye dare, but remember ye must use all the items found in the box for yer layout!

Here are the items:

A scroll which is marked with this quote: There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island. - Use this as your title/subtitle or in your journaling.
Gold coins - use something gold on your layout
Lace
Buttons - at least 3
A threaded needle - stitch on your layout (hand or machine)
Jewels - show me some bling!
Rubons
A journaling pen - use it!! This layout must have some journaling!

And here's my sample:

I know you all need a fix of cute pics of my kids, heehee. Here are some pictures of our trip to the Hopewell Rocks:

Riley making a pirate face :)

It was a fun day and perfect weather. I thought it would be cold by the ocean but it was beautiful!

Ok, some fun Riley-isms:

Today Riley said, "Mommy, what's that kind of mayonnaise that isn't mayonnaise?"

Me: "You mean, when we call it mayo?"

Riley: "No, not the mayonnaise that we eat, the mayonnaise that you don't eat."

Me: "Riley, you can eat all types of mayonnaise."

Riley: "But, on Arthur today, they were in a helicopter and they were saying, 'mayonnaise, mayonnaise!"

Me: "You mean...mayday?"

Riley: "YES!"

Heehee! I then explained what it meant and he still later was saying "maydaise"!

He was also calling his pretend torch, a tortoise, lol.

And, oddly enough, a fun Kieran-ism. When we were at Hopewell Rocks the other day I ended up carrying Kieran a lot. He hadn't had much of a nap and it's a lot of walking. As I was carrying him, he sneezed on me. I said, "bless you." He starts wiping at my shoulder and says, "I bless you'd on you." Heehee!! He's a cutie!

Bridget has been showing some of her red-headed nature lately. I think she thinks it's funny to go to a time-out like the boys (heaven knows she's seen enough of them). She was hitting and throwing things today and walked around most of the day with a scowl on her face. Then she would go sit in her time out (several of these were self inflicted) and say, "now, now?" because the boys are always saying, "can I get up now?" Well, she's even cute in a scowly time out. It's all I can do to not laugh right at her :)

Ok, it must be almost bedtime. Oh, quickly (as I remember what I have to do before I go to bed) I had a layout requested for the Winter issue of Canadian Scrapbooker! Yay! I have to get it all ready to be mailed before I turn in :) Have a great night all!!

Circle of Friends and LCOM's Friday Sketch

I've had a few beautiful ladies leave this blog award for me this past week. It just thrills me that they thought of me :) Funny how you can feel such a connection with people you hardly know in real life. I am thankful everyday for my online scrappy girlfriends!

Thanks so much to Sharon, Mel and Jenn, who have all thought of me this week! You are all such talented gals and I'm honoured to call you all friends!

So, here are the rules:

Nominate 5 other bloggers you feel have become part of your circle of friends. Link to your nominees within your blog post. Include these instructions on how to pick up the award in your blog post. Link back to the person who gave you the award in your blog post, to show your appreciation. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

Here are my nominations (I listed 15 because I got 3 awards and really, I have a hard time choosing, lol! I could have rattled off a lot more too!):

Sarah

Emily

Eva

Julie

Jodi

Natalie

Amanda M

Cindy

Cristal

Aymee

Tracey

Laura

Erin

Amanda N.

Darlene

Ok, there were so many more I could name...that was tough! You girls all give me such great inspiration everyday! Thanks!

Here is my reveal for today's LCOM sketch. My friend Cindy was the guest designer this week and she gave us an amazing sketch to work with. You can see it along with the rest of the team layouts here. Here is the layout I did (less the journaling...I need to look up so pregnancy stats for that :)).

Hope you all have a great weekend. I hear the sun is supposed to be out tomorrow. Maybe a trip to the beach is in order :) I get to crop with some super fun LCOM girls tonight...can't wait!

More reveals

August 1st we did our reveals at Treasured Scrapbooking. I am totally loving the kit I got this month! All the girls have done some amazing work, as always. Please check out the gallery here. Here is my first layout and the sketch to go with it:

My August challenge over at TS was to scrap a layout/card/altered item involving feet (did you know August is foot health month? Heehee). It can have pictures of feet, shoes, footprints, etc. I just love taking pics of my kids feet, they are just too cute. The twist is that the layout has to have some kind of distressing (not sure about you, but my feet are sure distressed at the end of the day). So, here's my layout:

So, you may be thinking...wow, that 30 really pops out at you. Weeeelll...I made a tiny boo boo. I had a number 15 there at first. I don't know why...I guess I though my children were all one-legged or something, lol! I even showed the layout to Kevin and he told me it was nice. Only after I started outlining the title in marker did he say, "You know, there's 30 toes in that picture..." Thanks...why on Earth didn't you tell me that earlier? Now I know how little he's paying attention when I show him something. I know, I know, it's my fault, but I blame him a little for being and engineer and not noticing the numbers thing sooner, haha! Oh well, makes for a funny story.

I also have a few July reveals for Scrap That! I think the postman took a vacation while delivering my kit. I only got it last week. Luckily, it also had August's kit in it so I can get cracking on that. But here are somet things I did with the July kit. These BG Porcelain papers are just so pretty!

That's it for now, but I have more coming very soon. I might be able to squeeze in a few more minutes here and there since Kevin is on vacation this week :) We'll also be doing some fun things with the kids...Hopewell Rocks, maybe Magic Mountain and a little school shopping for Riley (wow, that is really going to take some getting used to).

My blog is going to be getting a facelift in the very near future. Natalie was giving away a RAK on her blog to give someone a blog makeover and I won! I'm super excited...she does some amazing stuff, so stay tuned for that :)

Oh, and for any of you local girls, LCOM is having a no frills crop this Friday night, August 7th. You can register here. Check out the forum for more details! It should be a fun night of chatting and cropping...I can't wait!