Blog Candy Alert

Melissa S is having a blog candy giveaway! She turned 30 this month and is celebrating in style!

Follow the link and you’ll see what she’s giving away so far! The more people that comment, the more she adds to the pile!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!!!!! Thanks for the giveaway!

I love this!

Trenton loves the freedom of going down to the children’s story by himself {we usually sit in the balcony}.  I used to walk him down and sit in the front pew. The last month or so, I’ve let him go down by himself…{S-L-O-W-L-Y cutting the umbilical cord!} 

I sat upstairs in the balcony two weeks ago and Pastor Kramer brought out this little “village”…he encouraged the kids to come a little closer so they could see it!! Well, what does Trenton do but plant himself RIGHT in front! And the other kids followed suit!

I asked Trenton that night if he remembered what the children’s story was about!! He was actually listening because he knew most of what Pastor Kramer was talking about!!

Thank you Anja! I’m glad you had your camera in church!!! I was sitting upstairs taking mental pictures to keep in my memory forever!

Some Assembly Required!

 

I’m so excited!
My best friend Emily and I are going to IKEA on Saturday!
She needs some beds and other stuff for her house and she wanted me to come along!! She really had to twist my rubber arm to do this!!

A whole Saturday out without the kids, with my best friend, going to IKEA…what more could a girl want!!!!
I’m excited about going! It should be a fun day!! I already have my list made!

Watch out Em! You might be in for a long day!!!

{IKEA kids display pictured}

X-Weighted

I’m sure some of you watch the show, X-Weighted…I watch it pretty much every week if not more…my friend Jenn sent me the link that she and her hubby are taking on the 26 month challenge…you put in your measurements and weight and height…and they give you a goal to lose…well, I put my info in and my goal was zero pounds! Well, that’s not true!! I do need to lose and tone some so I’ve set my own goal of 15lbs in 26 weeks…that’s pretty much 1lb every two weeks…so that shouldn’t be too hard…if I can’t do that, well, shoot me now!!

Here’s my before pic: {I can’t believe I’m actually posting this}

In 26 weeks, I’ll post my after picture…hopefully there’s some changes…

Thanks Jenn for the push!! Good luck to you and Tim for doing this too!

Highlights!

Here’s a few highlights from Trenton’s “friends” party! We had 13 kids here yesterday {including my own}!  Let’s just say I’m glad I only had two kids!!! Here’s a few pics from the 2 hours of fun!!!

Before the chaos ensued!!!

You should see the place now!!! I need to get my duff off the computer and get cleaning this place up!!

Miss Jocelyn got right into the cake!! I’m surprised she didn’t have more than that on her vest though!!!

Okay, this was just TOO funny NOT to capture on camera!! Trenton’s little friend decided he wanted to be Ronald McDonald!! Ange, I hope the red didn’t stain his face!

Trenton looks a little tired!!! We had a lotta fun though! Thanks to everyone that came! I hope you all had a great time!

Thank goodness they only have birthdays once a year!!!!!!

ME = Terrible

I don’t know how you other mothers do it…I don’t know how you can balance kids, being a wife, raising and teaching your kids, keep the house tidy, managing finances, having a social life and also having a life of your own. I guess when you become all these things, you don’t have a life of your own anymore. I’m slowly realizing this as my kids get older and busier and I see how much I’m not giving them.

I am a terrible mother. My kids watch too much TV. I don’t spend enough time with them.  I was playing a game with Trenton tonight and he couldn’t remember simple things he should be remembering. This is all MY fault. It’s not his fault. He’s only 4 years old. It’s my fault. I’m the adult.  I don’t work with him like I used to…I don’t know why…I guess I just decided one day to put my kids aside to fulfill my own needs. I am a selfish person. I don’t know why Jason’s even still with me. He should have kick me out a long time ago…I never should have been able to have kids…I am not good at this…

I need to give up scrapbooking. I’ve been trying out for many design teams and haven’t been chosen for any of them…so I might as well hang up my stuff…obviously I don’t have what it takes to be good in this industry.  Plus I need to put my stuff away or sell it and take care of my family better. I don’t clean the house like I know Jason would like it to be. I don’t take the time to be with my kids. I’m a good pretender I guess.  Jason does too much. He works full-time. He takes on a lot and then he comes home and does things around the house. I should be doing this stuff. I rely on him way too much.

So I’m making some major changes. I’m turning 30 in March so I need to rethink what my life is about and where I want it to go.  I have to stop thinking like a child and start thinking like an adult. I rely on Jason way too much and I need to become independent and show my kids you need to create your own success. 

 So here’s my “goals”:
1. Get rid of my scrapbook stuff
2. Clean regularly
3. Take at least 2 hours a day to work on schoolwork with the kids
4. Go to bed early
5. Lose 15 pounds in 26 weeks {I signed up for the Xweighted Program through my friend Jenn’s site}
6. Make more money by getting a part-time job
7.  Blog regularly
8. Make these changes {except #5} before my 30th birthday in March

I write these out so I can be kept accountable. I don’t get that many people reading my blog {again just part of my unsuccess} so it’s more for me to have it in writing.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Happy Birthday Trenton

Okay, so I cannot believe that Trenton is FOUR YEARS OLD today!!
How did it go so fast? I’m SO proud of him!

This is Trenton, 24 hours old!

Trenton, today 35, 064 hours old!! {Or 4 years old}

I’m so happy to be your mommy and I look forward to all the highs and lows of watching you grow!!!!
Love you buddy!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!!!

 

Month Long Crop at My Sketch World

Come join us on the My Sketch World forum for the month long crop that the design team is hosting!!

I have two card challenges posted…the rest of the design team have posted some great challenges too! Come see what we have in store for you…there’s some sweet prizes in store for you too! Hope to see you there!!!

FREE BASIC GREY!

I know, it grabbed my attention too!!! {Anyone who knows me and my scrappy style, knows I LOVE BASIC GREY!!! Like, I should be a spokesperson for them!!

  

Anyways, Get Sketchy, a new challenge blog, has a contest posted.
They want to break 700 followers by New Years and if they get to 1,000, they’ll add the brand new BASIC GREY SUGAR RUSH to the prize too.

Here’s how you can win {but you better share with me if you do!!!}
Become a follower 

Post the FREE BASIC GREY Blinkie 

Dedicate a blog post to this contest 

Tell your friend about Get Sketchy 

Twitter about this contest

Participate in the TRASH TO TREASURE challenge

 

Here’s what you’ll win….

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Bree and Camilla! You two RAWK!!!!! Here’s hoping I score some BG!!!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas holiday…we’ve had three days of very busy schedules…off sleep times, long days, lots of gift exchanges, too much food, 1st Christmases for my nephew and cousin’s little guy, some singing and caroling, lots of laughter, lots of kisses and hugs, and even some tears.  {as I sit here and type for a matter of fact…tears of exhaustion right now though!}

It’s done for this week until the festivites happen again with the inlaws. Thankfully, they are coming down here this year. We have a few days together, opening pressies again, enjoying brunch with both sets of parents, and celebrating Trenton’s birthday on Saturday. Should be fun!

Enjoy your time together everyone! Wishing you all a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy Brand New Year!!

Ciao,
Amanda

Member Blog Hop

Good morning everyone!!!! It’s finally here!!!! Our member blog hop starts today!!! Instead of just hopping through the Design Team’s blogs, you get to meet some of our members!!! Please follow the list and comment on each blog!!! You will then be put into a random draw for a Christmas-y RAK from Scrap That!

 

Here is your list to follow:

Scrap That! Chat

Karen 

Diane

Cindy

Janis

Alecia (December Guest DT)

Amanda (Scrap That DT)

 

We will be hosting a contest starting tomorrow…Melissa, the owner of Pink Cat Studios has sponsored our contest for this month…you will receive some images from PCS…so stop by tomorrow to see the contest…

 

Don’t forget about the 12 days of Christmas….Lori will be putting certain things on sale…you won’t wanna miss it!!!!!!!! Do some Christmas shopping for yourself!! Then you get what you want!!

Blog Hop at Scrap That!…

We’re doing a blog hop this weekend at Scrap That! Come join us for some beautiful creations and lots of fun and sales and of course, prizes!!! We’ve been sponsored by Pink Cat Studios this month so Melissa has graciously offered us some cool prizes!!! Check it out on Friday!!!! www.scrapthatchat.blogspot.com

Finally got ‘em!

We finally got our family pictures back from the photographer and I LOVE them!! Mom won a photo shoot last year at the Winners Walk of Hope so we FINALLY got a weekend we were all free and we made the trip up to Barrie so the fam could get pics done!!

Here’s a few of my favs!

 

It’s Fall…

I wish the Fall was always as nice as it was on  Sunday…the kids and I spent the afternoon outside…it was so beautiful out…here’s the best pic from my little photo shoot with the kids…

I have to edit the photo and straighten it up!! But it’s my favorite right now of these guys!! They are SO not hard to photograph!! It’s just catching them is the hard part!!!! Thanks to our amazing landlords, Reg & Liz for the pumpkins and flowers!! They make the house look great!! Much appreciated!!

Happy Tuesday!

Spread the Love Blog Hop

The “Spread the Love” Blog Hop has officially started…this is a special day for Jaimie Cates…this brave young girl has survived tradegy and needs encouragement through cards and monetary help…we can all do our part to help her out…to read the full story, scroll down to last Wednesday’s post or follow this link or this one.

People all over the world are participating in this blog hop…

Start at Katharina’s blog and you can follow the link to the next person on the blog hop list.
Katharina Frei  http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/

The blog before mine: 
Lydia Fielder   www.projectreanimate.blogspot.com

Mine:
Amanda Newton   http://amandanewton.wordpress.com

Hit up Jaime’s blog next:
Jaime Schlangen    www.inkyandscrappy.blogspot.com

The main blog: {links for sending donations and cards are posted there}
Stamp Something…for Jaimie http://spreadthelove-forjaimie.blogspot.com/

Your challenge is very simple and doesn’t have to take a long time…all we ask is if you can make a card to encourage Jaimie and her family…you can send your cards to this address:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057
USA

Here is the card I made and will be sending to Jaimie.

My thoughts and prayers are being sent to the Cates family at this time of loss and sadness.
But we do need to also thank God Jaimie is on the road to recovery.  

Spread the Love Blog Hop for Jaimie – Nov 2nd

This was posted by Denise Lynn on the Mo’s Digital Pencil SNR page…it touched me and I wanted to share it with you all! I hope you can come hang out and create a card or two to brighten this young girl’s day! Thanks for reading!

********************************************************************************************************

I am inviting you to join me in a very special blog hop. I am organizing this hop with my Stamp Something co-founder, fellow New Hampshire gal and friend, Erin Bailey. We were both touched by a tragedy that recently occurred in a small neighboring NH town.

You can read the whole story here:

http://wbztv.com/local/newhampshire/mother.murdered.mont.2.1230017….

http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=%27Brave%2c+cou…

After receiving a sorrow-filled letter from her friend, Erin immediately knew she needed to do something, she just wasn’t sure what. I brought up the idea of a Spread the Love Blog Hop and here we are.

These are the details we have worked out so far…
- The date of the blog hop will be Monday, November 2 at 10 EST. (I know it’s not a lot of notice, but we want to start soon)
- The theme of the hop is “Spread the Love.” Any thing goes as far as stamps, products, designs etc. We have no rules regarding what you create for the hop.
- We are asking that you to mail your cards to Jaimie (address below). We want her to be showered with cards from around the world in an effort to restore hope to this young girl’s life. We’re also encouraging anyone who participates in the hop to mail a card to Jaimie and/or anyone they know who has been a victim of random violence.
- We want this hop to be BIG; the more cards sent to Jaimie the better!!!
- We will be doing most of the hop in conjunction with the Stamp Something Challenge site. If we are offered donated blog candy, we will probably choose a winner from one of your sites.
- Email Erin at stamping rocks@yahoo.com or Denise at deniselynnstamps@gmail.com if you are able to join us. If you are unable to join but have a friend who maybe interested, please let us know.
- Once we have heard from everyone, we will email out a link list showing the order of the blog hop.
- On November 2nd all you’ll need to do is post your card with a bit of info about the story and links to the people before and after you on the hop link list.

Here’s a bit about Jaimie from Erin’s friend….
Jaimie is not really a girlie girl, but she does like hot pink and black. She likes outdoor activities such as biking, skateboarding, razor rip stick, snowboarding, and karate. As you may have read, she is a black belt in karate.

Cards are to be mailed to:
Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057

Here is a link to our town website. Donations for the Cates family can be made online with PayPal (link provided on town website). The information for mailing donations is also on this site.

http://town.mont-vernon.nh.us/index.php3

Mo’s Digital Pencil will also be sponsoring our challenge on Stamp Something on Friday, November 6th. Hope you’ll join in and maybe even send your card to Jaimie!

Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help us in our efforts to spread the love.

Hugs,
Denise Lynn and Erin Bailey

Happy Birthday Dad! & Janice!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

Hope you had a great day Dad!
We celebrated Dad’s birthday with him last night!!

{Trenton’s helping to blow out the candles!!}

We got Dad a “Mater” truck! Trenton is on this HUGE “Cars” kick and he found out that Papere loves Mater! So, the sweet little boy he is, he gave one of his “Tow Maters” to Papere! {He later had a meltdown cuz he wanted it back…we told him he had given it to Papere….and he has two more anyways!! He calmed down after that!!!}

Wishing you a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY Papere!!! We love you!!
{I put this photo on the front of Dad’s card!!!}

And we also wish Auntie Janice “Happy Birthday”!

{Auntie Janice with Trenton two birthdays ago! October 27th, 2007}

She and Dad share today for their birthdays!!! Kinda funny, eh!
Hope Trevor and Landon are spoiling you Janice!!!!  BIG HUGS!!!!!!

I cannot believe it!

I cannot believe it’s been SO long since I blogged…this life stuff is getting in the way of my fun!!! Between moving and not having internet for three weeks, I have been a little {okay, a lot} slack on my blogging! This will be a LONG post!!!! I apologize ahead of time!!!!

A lot has happened in the last month or so…Mom and I did the Ovarian Cancer 5km Winners Walk of Hope on September 27 up in Barrie…the kids came along too! Trenton actually walked about 1/2 the trail so 2.5km! I was so proud of him! And Jocelyn was on my back the whole time so I got a good workout! [She napped pretty much the whole 5km!] We raised over $2000 between the two of us and Mom won the TOP FUNDRAISER again!! Two years in a row! We need to go back to Barrie to keep her winning streak going!!!

And we’ve moved into a big farmhouse just outside of Drayton on September 30th! We are SO happy to be out of the house in Drayton…apart from the fact that the house needs lots of work and was being sold anyways, we wanted to get out of there for personal reasons. We are SO happy we did move. Our new landlords are AMAZING! They painted the kitchen for us before we moved in…they let us paint the kids bedrooms…we’ve fixed up a few things already and plan on doing more hopefully soon…as the money flows in! It’s just nice being relaxed and not having to worry about what we’ve supposedly done wrong! And the kids have their own rooms, they have a play area/toy room; Jason has the whole basement to himself; and the best news of all: I HAVE MY OWN SCRAPBOOK ROOM!!! Yes, you read that correctly…I have my own scrapbook room with a door and everything! So I can close the door to keep Little Miss Sticky Fingers out of my stuff!!!

My design team duties have increased recently as well. I am now on the Robyn’s Fetish digital stamps design team. Here’s a few of Robyn’s designs on my cards:

 

  

 

 

Here’s a few layouts I did using Robyn Fetish digital stamps {and a few Pink Cat Studio digital stamps}

Here are some more Design Team Creations for Scrap That! for September and October…we had a TEAL kit for September for Ovarian Cancer month and a PINK kit for October for Breast Cancer month. Here’s some of my projects {some of the above cards and layouts are for my DT stuff on Scrap That! too!!}

The inside of this card says: “We’re in this together”…it’s for my mom to give to her friend Cindy who has Breast Cancer…Mom met her at the cancer clinic in London when she was getting her chemo…they became instant friends and kinda saw each other through the treatments…this was a free digital stamp from My Favorite Things stamps and I thought of this idea as soon as I saw the stamp! Mom wants some more for her cancer friends…I can customize the ribbon colour to whatever colour you’d like so if you would like to order this card, please email me  or post a comment with your email in it and I will email you about the ribbon colour you would like! Thanks!

 

 

   

The pink wedding favour is part of a basket donation that I am making to the Harvest Ribfest for the Drayton Icemen. This is the rest of the basket. I will be selling these in my store too. It can be customized to match specific wedding colours. It makes a great gift for a bride.

This will be available for auction at the Ribfest…email or post a comment if you are interested in getting tickets.

Here’s some layouts for my Scrap That! designs for September/October.

This is a layout of Mom getting her hair back…she’s pictured with Linda Farrell. Mom met Linda through a not so fun experience but it proved to be good news in the end for Linda…just after Mom get her cancer, she got a call from the doctor’s office about a woman in town who they thought had ovarian cancer too…so Mom talked to Linda on the phone and via emails but we finally met her at our crop…Linda’s a fellow scrapper as well so we got along VERY well! Linda even donated some great door prizes and a make-n-take for our crop! THANKS AGAIN LINDA!!

I have one of these for Jocelyn too but I need to get some lettering for the title…I’m thinking I might just cut it out on my Cricut!!

 Thanks for sticking with me throught this L-O-N-G update!!!

I will update with some pics of the  kids tomorrow! Despite the fact we were moving, unpacking, busy with hockey, etc. I’ve been snapping pics of the kids!

Happy Monday everyone!!!

September at My Sketch World

Here is my card for this month’s sketch at My Sketch World!

Thanks for looking!! [This can be purchased in my Etsy store along with more new cards and other supplies posted!!]

September Sneak Peek…

I cannot believe it’s almost September…I’m here to post this coming month’s sneak peek for My Sketch World…I don’t like to think that summer’s almost over…and I don’t even have kids in school yet…that will be fun!!

Anyways, enough rambling…here’s the sneak peek:

 

Thanks for looking! Check out My Sketch World to see the whole card on September 1st or around then!