Well since you all LOVED the “movie” of Alexa and Amber I did a movie/photo clip of Alexa getting her Surprise Princess Party Dress! You all have followed Alexa’s story and agonizing journey I thought you may enjoy this.

Wait till her party! Now that will be a great video. All the details leading to this video can be read below. Not a reader-no problem-watch the video!

BTW-I hate my valley girl voice, and I am originally from Massachusetts hence the probable accent.

Here it is!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Her actual birthday is the 29th! I got ONE RSVP to her party today, and am anxiously awaiting more! Alexa is so excited for her Princess Costume Party-its insane!

I bought her a really pretty purple Princess Costume dress. In NO WAY CHINCY. You could easily wear it as clothing. She loved it,  but when she put it on said “Oh but its not a Cinderella Dress.”

I was quick to ask her if she wanted Cinderella instead of the purple and she basically spared my feelings by saying “Well this one is pretty too! Its OK Ill wear this one to my party” I thought OH GREAT! She’s secretly disappointed. Now THAT is the type of thing you NEVER forget. I can see it now-20 years from now…………………………..

” Mom, remember my cool princess party. Its was really great. I really wanted that Cinderella dress. That would have been perfect. Remember X (insert girls name) She came in the dress that I wanted. She got to be Cinderella for my party.”

Well you know I couldn’t let that happen! The girl wanted a Cinderella dress ,well then she was gonna get a Cinderella dress. You only turn 8 once ya know!

So my online hunt began! For a mere $60-$80 I could get one online! GULP! Explain that to a DAD! Guys do NOT understand nor do they care about the NEEDS of an 8 year old girl, who NEEDS a Cinderella dress! Let alone one at the cost of $80 then shipping!

My dear, sweet, very pregnant-like due literally today-PSF friend Tracey said Hey Im going to go to the Disney store and try to find a dress for you! She knew there was not one close to me, and the kids have been sick! So she and her very preggers self, along with cutie pie daughter Shannon not only went there to find the PERFECT Cinderella dress but they found the matching GLASS LIGHT UP SLIPPERS! HELLO!!!

The dress was on SALE! $25! Unless she lied to me and in that case I would NOT be happy! And its beautiful!

Thank you so much girls for helping me find the perfect dress for Alexa’s party! I wish Shannon could go!

Paulette-if you are reading this I would love for Ally to come but was unsure if it was “too young” for her. If not, let me know. She is just at that ‘age” when you arent sure what is too young for her KWIM??

So anyway-that is the whole dress story! Imagine when the girls get married! Good Grief!

I did get an amazing compliment about the invite and party festivities! Cant Wait!

Well I better TRY to go stamp something! Havent done that at all today.

Tomorrow I’ll share my Blogger’s Challenge! (Oh yeah now I really need to get inking), and a Smilebox of our Apple Picking adventure. Wait till you see Amber sing a song! OMG! WAY cute!

Well Im so happy you all like seeing my Smilebox creations! They are so fun! And they even inspire some card ideas too! Maybe even a scrapbook page-OK maybe not-I think I’ll stick with the cute, interactive, and fast version instead! LOL!

The reaction to the video of Alexa and Amber was so heartwarming! I will definitely have a video one of Alex’a birthday! I just bought her Princess dress today, after going to the dentist for my first cleaning after 10 years!

OMG! I should have done a Smilebox video for that! LOL! Too funny. I had a death grip on the chair!

For those who have NOT gone to the dentist in a while I can tell you it wasn that bad! They numbed my gums before the cleaning-that was NEW! So its wasnt totally awful! I have another step 2 cleaning in 2 weeks where they will fill one big cavity! YIKES!

They do some water thing instead of scrapping-they did scrap after alittle but it wasn that bad.

OK here is a Smilebox of Amber making cupcakes for her class! Speaking of cavities, and dentists!!!

She made these for her Pre-School class! They turned out super yummy!

She did it ALL by herself! Even the frosting! I just measured everything out-then put it on the counter.

 I admit it was hard to give up control! LOL! But she was so proud and did so good.

I chose black and white cause it matched the bkgd better! LOL! Plus my lighting was not too fabulous!

PAY NOT ATTENTION TO THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I will talk to Smilebox about having some things so showcase kids and cooking without a specific sentiment!

I really hope you try one! If you do send it to me-Id love to see it! Or if you have suggestions for some you dont see but would like to in the future!

Thats part of the fun of what I get to do! Test products, and give my input on future stuff. Its  really cool!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Alexa came home with this cute little book the colored in school. She came home and read it to me. I am so excited that her reading skills are improving in leaps and bounds! She can read most on any stag 1 reading book. She is doing well with sounding out words she doesnt know. This is a HUGE milestone for Alexa. People with Down Syndrome have a harder time learning to read, and seeing her be at just about grade level of “normal” kids after missing 1 1/2 YEARS of school is just proof that you should not limit ANY child-weather they have a “diagnoses” or not!

Personally I find if you have low expectations of ANY child they wont really strive to go past them. But if you challenge your child and make them feel anything is possible they try harder!

I am proud to say I have never limited Alexa-EVER! Nor have I let our public school system. She has amazed many people, and I am so proud of her!

There was a BIG deal about holding her back in first grade due to the No Child Left Behind policy. While it may be a good policy for some-I found that they may also be PUSHING kids who aren’t ready for the next grade through, just because. That is not necessarily a good thing IMO.

OK I feel like I could get into a whole big thing here, along with my personal expieriences and this isnt why I was posting this! LOL! I am just a proud mama-who had to share this cute little event!

So here she is reading the story to Amber

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Before you watch this you need some background info!

Jason is the coach of Noah’s team. There are 6 kids. All ages 4-5. it was a very hot day too!

This was their very first game, and it was against an older team! They only had 3 practices!

I was so proud of the team. Noah LOVES soccer, and I was so happy to see him do something he truly enjoyed. He likes to run-alot on and off the field! LOL! He did so well. He even scored 3 goals! Too bad it was in the other teams net!

He didnt even care he was jumping up and down waving his arms saying “YEAH! I SCORED! I WON! I’M AWESOME!” That was precious!

I dont care if he’s the star player-just that he work as a team and participate. Just seeing him truly enjoy himself and count day the days till the next practice is so great for me as a parent. Isnt that all we want? Just for our children to be happy. Seeing this first time playing team kick butt was great. The ending score was 6 to eight-we lost! But Noah did score 3 of their goals!~

I’m also proud of my husband for being such an involved father, and seeing his patience with the kids-that is a virtue I do NOT possess! They did pretty good following his directions and aside from going the wrong way a few times did awesome.

The first clip is a video. Its of Noah’s kickoff-watch the kids try to follow directions! HILARIOUS! The boy who is suppose to stand over the ball kicks it, and in the end tackles it! Its like he decided to play football instead! Very precious!

 Here is Noah’s first game! Sorry some of the stuff is a bit fuzzy! I was far away.

WARNING if you get motion sick-dont watch my video I took using our camera! OH BOY!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Did you know that today is grandparents day???

I sure didnt! LOL! Working with Smilebox-I just found out! They have some cute creations for just that occassion. You know I LOVE making cards-but finding out THIS morning that its grandparents day a card would be WAY late.

How do you make a grandparents day card anyway?? Stamp makers- here’s a challenge for you! I think its just another Hallmark Holiday, but I made this Smilebox creation anyway and sent it via email to all the grandparents. THERE! Now Im covered!

Seriously try one out-you’ll be so hooked. Its like super-cool interactive digi scrapping only EASY! 😀 I especially like that I dont have to re-size my photos either! A HUGE time saver for me as well.

I added a Smilebox Creations to my category list. Alot of people write that you love looking at them. This will make it easier. Now I need to add them all in there so it will be easier to view!

Here is my latest-hope you like it.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

And guess what! I think my MOJO came back! I’m hoping to post later. I woke up feeling like CRAP. I have a sore throat, stuffy nose, and up and down temp -let the fun begin.  Amber and Noah are both sick already from all the lovely new germs at school. THANK GOD Alexa is the only one who seems to NOT be sick. Lets pray it stay that way.

All the “sickness” brought my mojo back so hey I can deal! LOL!

Enjoy the day!

What’s that noise? Did you hear that?

NOPE, I don’t hear anything?

The only sound I hear is my own thoughts!

Imagine that?

My house hasn’t been this quiet since September 28, 1999. How do I know the exact date of when the last time it was that quiet?

Well my first child was born September 29, 1999! LOL!

Seriously-this is nice. I feel a tiny pange of guilt saying that, but that quickly melts away as I sip my coffee in silence. No screaming, running, yelling “SHE hit ME!” ” I’m hungy”, Wipe my butt” “Can I go do this or Can I have -INSERT RANDOM WANT OF MANY KINDS? “No I dont want to”

From 6 am to 8pm this banter is non stop. Dont believe me-call my house in between those times, and you will hear it. Somedays my voice get hoarse from all the “NO! Dont do this!” ” Hey Get in Time out!” “What did I just say?” No!No!No!.

Its really awful when you type it out, but I KNOW I’m not alone. I didnt want to be my mother but somehow it just happened. Overnight really. Once my second became a toddler-I was done for. The ONE kid I could handle NO problem. No one to share with, fight with, take from-EASY!

Dont get me wrong I LOVE my children. I would give my very own life for them, but for now I’m going to enjoy my time of just ME. MAYBE I’ll actually excercise! Maybe I’ll run errands, or clean the house. Maybe I’ll stamp and eat my twizzlers instead! LOL! Ok maybe do that AFTER I exercise.

Here is scrapbook of Noah’s First day-and all 3 kids going off to school! YAHOOOOOO!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Now here is Alexa’s! I did a few photos from the other years. Keeping in mind she missed the last 1 1/2 years due to her Chemo treatments. She was so silly her first day back I couldnt get a decent photo! Oh well! We also dont have photos from her 2005 cause Jason and I were in Hawaii and had the camera! So we have Kodak photos that we still ahvent developed! YIKES! What bad parents!

Anyway-it was heart wrenching for me to view all these photos of her.

Cancer SUCKS! Im really feelin it today. She has Chemo tomorrow. This round is rough on her cause she will ahve her Spinal Chemo, and bone marrow aspiration. Keep her in prayer PLEASE! All the germs at school! Her immune system is so fragile after these treatments. We have had some scary bumpy roads, and I really can’t handle much more of that this year!

Anyway-she is loving school, and is doing so good. God has been good to us. I meet too many parent who aren’t as fortunate as we have been. I still have my baby. Some dont win that battle. I cant even imagine, nor do I want to even fathom the thought.

OK Happy note-here it is.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Here is a clip from Amber’s first day at pre- school. She LOVES school!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Aren’t these so cute! You should try making your own. Its free-unless you upgrade or decide to send it or print it. You can even blog them-obviously! LOL! They only took a few minute each! I really love these programs cause I am SO not computer savvy, and they make it all super easy.

If you install one let me know!! I’d love to see it.

OK I promise to come back and show you some STAMPING stuff. I just wanted to share these! Now Im off to stamp land!

PEACE AND QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

You may be able to tell that I drag holidays and special occassions on as long as possible! LOL!

I think celebrating happy times is important. Our Wedding/Honeymoon was one of the happiest times of my life.

My Mom always made a big deal of Birthdays and other holidays so I think thats where it comes from. They are milestones in which we mark the changes in our life. The good and the bad.

I am extatic because I really do have an amazing husband and father for my children. We have such a great relationship. One that I would be jealous of if I weren’t in it! LOL!

I hope my children find in a partner what Jason and I have together.

Jason has really supported and respected my aspirations as a wife, mother, friend and stamper.

We have been through alot together. And I think the key is we have leaned on each other through it all.

I’m just so happy to have been able to document our special day using this Smilebox. It only took maybe 20 minutes. Picking my photos was the LONG part.

So far we both look pretty much the same. I hope to say the same in 10 more years!

HISTORY-We eloped to Hawaii to get married. We decided to spend money on ourselves as oppose to a huge Wedding that feeds 100 people for 6 hours of fun. We had a videographer-so we have  video of our ceremony (my kids love to watch it), and a photographer.

It felt like we were the only 2 people on the face of the earth.

We got married on a private beach, and after our ceremony we went to a Tradional Hawaiian Luau. At the Luau we were treated like ROYATLY! Still in our Wedding Attire. We got special seating, a first wedding dance in front of everyone, traditional Hawaiian Wedding cake-not as good as our wedding cake! LOL! We also  got a private canoe ride through the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We saw traditional Hula dancers, and flame throwers. Its was an amazing expierience-far better than a reception would have been.

We then spent 2 weeks following our ceremony traveling a crusieship and island hopping around Hawaii. Its was the most magical, and amazing time.

My favorite part of our wedding ceremony was Jason being SO STRESSED about having the rings! He kept checking and checking. He was paranoid about it.

When we arrived the Priest told us “Whatever you do, don’t drop the Wedding Rings.” “This sand is like quicksand, and if you drop it you will never find it”

We began our cereomy……………

During our vows, it came to the rings. Jason quickly realized forgot to bring them down to the archway! He left them in their box up on the beach. Once the camera cut, so he could retrieve them, he came back to restart our vows.

Vows begin again……………..

Jason got the ring from his pocket, then dropped it in the sand! It was HILARIOUS!

When we got our wedding video I thought for sure there was no way of patching it up, but the guy did, seamlessly. I almost wished he left that part in, as it was so funny. Poor Jason.

I’d love to hear a wedding story from you! It can be yours or anyone else you know. Whatever you want to share.

Thanks for watching my SmileBox creation. I hope you get to try one. Its alot of fun.

Well I guess now Im in a lovey mood! LOL! I love hearts! 😀

So decided to do a LOVE card.

This card was simple and fun.

Pomegranate was the perfect color cause its not red, and its not pink. Its like a deep LOVE shade! LOL!

The tag was punched using a Marvy Giga Tag. I stamped the hearts image from Celebrations II by Lizzie Anne. I didn’t re-ink it, I just stamped it 3x’s. I also used the alphabet set-Olivia, and Sketched Sentiments (the YOU on the tag).

I used the Cuttlebug  Embossed Hearts folder, for the heart on the left side of the tag. My color spritzer provided the slash of black, which I like for a little pop.

The heart snap is by Making Memories. Just alittle extra touch.

Dont miss the sneak peek over at Lizzie Anne!!! Keep checking back here as you will soon see some samples POP up!

And………MFT is releasing a new set the end of this month! So in 1 week you will see a little peek at that too!

Now I want to show you my Hawaii Smilebox. These are some of the photos from our Honeymoon. Keep in mind I never thought I would be posting them for the world to see LOL!

You have to watch it cause the way this “show” is presented is awesome!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

This particular style has not been released yet. I was able to test it and give my feedback!

This one was my favorite! I’m really liking the slideshow styles most.

The EXCITING news-

SmileBox has asked me to be a part of their Avaitor program! What this means is I will work with SmileBox, have input on new designs , ask what I would like to see, and I get to rate, and help with new designs before they are released to the general public!

How cool is that?

Let me know what you think 😀

This photo was taken the other day. It was late, and Noah began flexing saying he has “big guns”! A term used by my brother, who is a professional arm wrestler! He was even on ESPN2 for a arm wrestling tournament. He is a HUGE all muscle guy. When we watched his tournament  on TV he would flex and yell “Yeah these are the big guns”-Oh boy! A term Noah quickly picked up on.

Noah say’s “Someday, Im gonna be big and strong just like daddy!” So we thought it would be cute to get them together.

I know someday he will be. I think this will be a great photo for “someday” It will be here before I know it!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

He looks so much like daddy! Noah and Jason have am amazing bond and relationship. I feel so blessed that my children are able to have such a wonderful father.

We didnt have a great dad. Never around. Alcholic. Enough said.

Im happy my kids will never know that life. I think especially for boys. I look at the stuff Noah is into and wonder how I would ever raise him alone.

Jason is Noah’s hero, and mine too!

This was when Noah was 8 months old. It was at one of his modeling photo shoots. Look at that baby face!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

OK I know you are probably sick of my smilebox creations but I cant help myself! I love this super easy way of documenting memories with no time taken away from my stamping! So you dont have to read or click, but Im sharing anyway 😀

TODAY is Amber’s actual birthday! My baby is THREE! OMG! I cannot believe it!

Today we are going to visit the Pre-School she will be starting the end of the month. She is the happiest little thing to be going to school. She is excited to get her own friends, and be Big like Alexa and Noah (as she puts it)

Amber is an OLD 3. I dont know if its because she’s the third child, or if everything that has gone on with Alexa, that she is like the second Mommy in the house.

If you aks Amber how old she is she will quickly tell you 5! I keep telling her she is 3, but she doesn’t agree! Its really funny.

She is bossy, and a tattler. She will think nothing of putting one of her siblings in time out.

She grew up so fast after Alexa was diagnoised, and kows about things that most people dont even ever have to deal with in their life. She is such a sweet little girl. I am blessed.

She is also in LOVE with money! Smart girl! She got this $5 bill for her b-day. I think it was her favorite gift! She carries it in her pocketbook (yes she carries several) and even has her own make-up! YIKES!

She knew right wehn she saw it that it was $5!

The other day she went up to Jay and cocked her head to the side, and sweetly said, while holding out her hand “Daddy can I have $5 PLEEEEEEEEEEASE!” and litterally batted her eyes! And ya know what-it worked! Im going to have to start havin her ask for money I want! Or she needs to up her anty! LOL!

Time really does fly by.

Anyway another thing I thought Id share is our time blueberry picking yesterday. It was alot of fun.

Enjoy. I know people dont enjoy this as much as I do. But its fun to share. I swear it does inspire me to think about scrapping! Only I would CASE these!

Blueberry Picking

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox