Goodbye Noel.

Been a while, yet again. Lots going on. Lots to catch up on.

NOEL

Last week my brother made the decision to put Noel to sleep. We found out on Wednesday that she was really sick. It was really all of the sudden. As far as I know, on Tuesday she was fine, and then Wed. she wouldn't get up and walk or eat or anything. Mom took her to the vet on Wednesday, they did exploratory surgery and found out she had tumors all over her liver, and something had burst inside of her, I believe. They didn't know if she would even make it through the night. So Nate decided to take her home. We all went over to Nate's and just kinda hung out, took some last pictures of her, and with her, and sat with her, and said our goodbye's really. Nate decided that even if she did make it through the night, he would put her to sleep in the morning. She wasn't eating, wasn't moving really, when she drank water, she was throwing back up, and her incision was bleeding.

Nate had a really hard time with it. One of the few times I have seen him cry, actually. I think since she moved in with him, he's gotten alot more attached to her.
I didn't realize it was going to be as hard as it was for me either. I didn't see her much anymore. And when I did, I didn't give her a whole lot of attention. Ever since Malichi was born pretty much, because Noel always got nippy around kids. So anytime we were going to be around with the kids, mom would bring her to Nate's house. I feel bad I didn't give her more attention these past few years.

Here she is last wednesday night when she was actually trying to sit up.


And here's Noella Bella getting a bath when she was a baby. She was so little :)


And here I am holding her the Christmas we got her (back in 95'). I begged and begged and begged my parent's to get a puppy! And I finally got my way! :)


Wasn't she sooo cute!? She was a such a good dog too. I will miss her.

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Let's see...what else?

TODAY

Well I went to the dentist today. I never used to have a problem going to the dentist. Never bothered me or anything. And then in the past 2 years, I've started to get really bad anxiety when I go to the dentist. I had an exam 6 months ago, and had some cavities to get filled. So today was the day. I had a 2 hour appt. set up. The first half was the fillings, and the 2nd was the cleaning.
I surprised myself at how bad my anxiety was! I actually had tears running down my face while they were working on me!!! I fricken CRIED at the dentist! :( They actually even kept the Nitrious on me for the cleaning cause it was so bad. Nothing hurt or anything, and I wasn't worried about anything hurting either, so I don't know where the anxiety came from, but it sure was there! A couple time the hygenist was even like are you SURE you're okay? Your digging your nails into your skin on your hands really hard! "yeah...I'll be fine"...Hopefully! And obviously I am fine now, but man that was a long 2 hours! And boy was I embarrassed afterwards! I am just glad it's over!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It's my Dad's birthday today...Happy Birthday Dad.

SOCCER

Malichi started soccer on Tuesday. It was really cold, and raining and snowing, but they still played. I was kinda hoping it would have been cancelled! But Malichi had a ton of fun, even though he was soaked and cold.
Here he is with his friend Parker:


And Kinzie and Papa trying to stay warm!


EASTER

Did you all have a nice Easter? We did! We went to my Grandma's last Thursday to spend a few days with her and get away for a few days. I really need a little break from things. I've had lots of stress with being so busy, and having so many things on my plate right now, and then Noel dying, and then I had some family issues going on, and I just felt so overwhelmed. So it was really nice to spend some time with my Grandma. Although we were busy the whole time there too. We always say, ok this time we are going to just relax, and hang out, and not be too busy, we I go stay there, but we always are, and the time always goes by too fast! We stayed until Sunday night, and spent Easter with Grandma, and Mom and Randy, the girls and their significant others :) and Nate and Joan. We just had a nice relaxing day together.
Oh yeah.. AND on thursday night Grandma and I stayed up scrapbooking till 1 am! I am soooo excited that she is getting into scrapbooking! We had so much fun! I only made one page, and then we made Easter cards for everyone. Now if I could just teach her how to use a computer so she could go digi! :) It was kinda fun to break out the ole' paper supplies though! I haven't paper scrapped in quite a while!

WEDDING
Nate and Joan are getting married NEXT WEEKEND!!!! It has come up so fast!!! My little man is the ring bearer. He's going to be so stinkin cute! And Aaron is a groomsmen. And I am the "unofficial" photographer. They are having a photographer there doing all the normal wedding shots, and then I am going to be taking some fun ones while everyone is getting ready and stuff! Hopefully I can get some creative shots!

GRAB BAG!!!

And last but not least...It's Grab Bag weekend at MDM!
Check it out here!

been a while...again...

So I haven't blogged in forever! Thought maybe I should! This one might be a long one. Lots to catch up on!!! Although I am not sure anyone really reads my blog anyway! Although Mom says Randy does..so Randy, if you read my blog..leave me some comments sometimes! :)

FUNNY STORY...kinda....

A little tip from me: If you are going to have someone check your house for Carbon Monoxide, be prepared for it to be a HUGE deal!

On to the story... It's a long one. Sorry! So last weekend I was not feeling well. All day thursday and friday I had a really bad headache, and I was sick to my stomach, and I was dizzy. Then on friday night, I went out with my sister Rachel and I was gone from probably 4 to 10 pm. All during that time I felt so much better. Then we came back home, and Rachel spent the night. The next morning, my headache was so bad again, and the room was just spinning. I was so dizzy. I called my mom and asked her what she thought. She suggested I see if I can get someone to check the CO levels in our house. Thanks mom... Just kidding. I was wondering the same thing though. SO... I decided to call the police department in Carver county and see about getting a Fireman to come out. I told the lady on the phone that I am the only one feeling the symptoms, and that we DO have 3 Carbon Monixide detectors in the home. But I just said, do you think we should have it checked? And she said yes, that is a very ligitimate reason to have someone come and make sure everything was ok. Plus..with me feeling FINE when I was out of the house..that worried me! SOOOO, she tells me to have everyone wait outside, and someone should be there in about 5 minutes. I go get the kids their coats on, wake up Rach, and tell Aaron whats going on. By the way, this is 8:00 in the morning on Saturday. So we are all sitting in the porch waiting, and less than 5 minutes after I called, we hear sirens. I am like "no, they are not using sirens for this, are they!?" Sure enough, up come THREE FIRETRUCKS, 1 cop car, and an ambulance and park in front of the house!!!! The firemen come up the sidewalk all geared up with their helmets on and everything, asking who is the one that is feeling sick. They put ALL of us in the ambulance, and they gave me oxygen and checked my blood pressure. A few minutes later the firemen come out and tell us that everything is ok and we can go back in the house. I felt like such a DORK! Plus the paremedic was like, the detectors you have will do a good job and they will tell you if you have ANY levels of CO in the house. DUR! But hey...I told them that I had them, and they still wanted to check out the house. Better to be safe than sorry...right?

At least the kids had fun. They got to see inside the ambulance and got to see all the equipment. And even "try" some of it out! :)

So..of course I wasn't feeling better still. So I went to the doctor. Inner Ear Infection. That's all. Although the doctor did tell me to come back in a week if the symptoms persist, and they may have to do a brain scan. Nice. Freak me right out why don't you!

EXCITING NEWS:

Rachel broke up with Josh! Yay! FOR GOOD this time! I really believe her too this time. I think she really wants to be done with him. I think she really wants better for herself. I hope she realizes she deserves better!
I had a dream the other night that she got back together with him, and I woke up feeling so sad.
I am so proud of her for doing this!

Easter Pictures:

So last week I tried to do the kids' pictures for Easter, and I also did Parker and Kennedies'. Theirs turned out so good cause they actually SIT and LISTEN when they are getting their pictures taken! :) I am so jealous!
Actually Malichi does really good. But Kinzie... well let me just show you how much fun she was to try to take pictures of.....



She so knew what she was doing too. She thought it was so hilarious trying to get me worked up over her not cooperating. All I wanted were a FEW good pics to give out for Easter! Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is!!!

No, just kidding, I did get some cute ones of both Kinzie and Malichi:







Well I think that's a long enough blog post for today! Off to bed! Goodnight!

Snow day!

We got lots of snow this weekend, and we took the kiddos out to play today! Malichi loved it, as usual. I think he could stay out all day, and he wouldn't care if he got frost bite! Kinzie, usually doesn't last so long, but today I think we were out for about an hour and a half! The kids had so much fun. There is a huge pile of snow in the yard from the plow that they went sledding down. Here are some of the cute shots I got!





I am sooo proud of my girlie! She's potty training and she is doing wonderful! She has been wearing panties since last saturday. No more diapers! Yay!!!!!!! It feels so good to have NONE in diapers. Kinzie is loving getting new big girl panties! We still do pullups at nap and bedtime, But other than that it's all about the panties! We even had 2 days last week where we were gone ALL day, and she made it through both days with no accidents! :) So proud of her!

Last week I went to Kindergarten registration for Malichi. I can't believe my baby is going off to Kindergarten in the fall! I can't believe that we considered possibly sending him this past year either! I am so glad we had this extra year together! And with the way his first year of preschool went, with all the changes, and going through FIVE different teachers, he just needed one more year of preschool. He is excited to go to Kindergarten though! And the best part is that Waconia is open enrollment for next year! Apparently they haven't had open enrollment in a long time. So, I was so happy to hear that. All his friends from preschool and mom's club are there, and he'll have so many more opportunities there than in Norwood.

And on a not so happy note... I had a bra fitting..... and guess what.. I am a TRIPLE D! No flippin' way. I am soooo not excited about that. NO WONDER I have such a hard time finding bras that fit me! My goodness.... we need to save up for that reduction. For real!

Oh yeah.. I forgot to post last weeks little impromtu valentine shoot we did:
Malichi was so not cooperative! I think he's quite sick of being mommy's little model! But I did get some cute "sick of taking pictures" pictures.




And Kinzie...always happy to pose and show off a little attitude! Especially when mommy bribes with suckers or bubblegum!

Got me some Lisa Loeb!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so...anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE me some Lisa Loeb!!! She is amazing! I love her! She gets my foot tapping, and my creative juices flowing when I listen to her! I even had her sign my pink purse when I went to her concert!
So I treated myself to a few Lisa things today:



And I even got my babes some Lisa:


I can't flippin' wait for this stuff to come. I love getting packages and this one will be especially exciting for me!!!!!!! :)

I have been trying to find this shirt from Delias. It says "I love boys with glasses" with a big heart on it. I want it. I have to have it! I saw someone with it on at the German restaurant that we went to for Nate's birthday. I asked where she got it, and she told me Delia's but they no longer carry it! :( I found it on ebay and bid on it, but I wasn't the winning bidder. So if you find it anywhere...TELL ME!!!!!!! :)

If you haven't heard about the big grab bag event at MDM yet, you better get over there and check it out! For only $2.00 you can pick up Grab Bags from me, Holly, Toni, Nancy, and Kimberly! They are packed with lots of goodies that are worth WAY more than 2 bucks! But they are only available until Saturday night, and after that the items inside will go up in the store for regular price.


Get them Here!

And last but not least, the ASPCA charity kit is up! This is from Holly's site about the kit "The digital scrapbooking industry has always been a generous one. We give to many charities and have compassion for so much. It's time we expressed our compassion and act as a voice for those that cannot speak for themselves, animals. The ASPCA is an organization based in the United States. ASPCA stands for The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. All proceeds from this collaborative charity kit will go directly to this organization." Click HERE if you'd like to donate or purchase the kit!!!

Off to get my babes to bed. Later...

sick of being sick!

We've ALL been sick at our house. It's been a looooong week. Kinzie started it last week with her 102.5 fever, and she is just now finally getting better. Then I started getting sick Monday night. I haven't much done all week because of it. We had to miss out on playgroup, school, ECFE, and our Sprouts class this week!!! I am going stir crazy! I am so glad we are all starting to feel better! Our plan for tomorrow is to go for lunch at Noodles and Compay with Kim, a good friend of mine, and then go play at Edinborough park. It will be so good for the kids to get out of the house! And well, I get to eat at Noodles! So I am all for it! Let's hope we still feel good in the morning!

I am trying to catch up on some stuff tonight, so guess I can't say I haven't gotten ANYTHING done..

Check out my little stud muffin! Isn't he just handsome!!!!





And my little spunky one:





and her cheesy fake grin:

I did manage to get this new product out in the stores this week! I have had this in the works for a LOOOONNNG time! So glad I've finally got my mojo back, and can crank out some new designs!!!!!

You can get it here or here

And finally...I got a page done!!! :) This one was for a weekend challenge over at My Digital Muse to take a self portrait and scrap it. Here was my take on the challenge.


well, enough blogging for tonight. It's time to fold laundry while I catch up on some Dr. Phil and Oprah! :)

I am in love....

...with my kids' new rooms! I have spend much of the week repainting/redecorating their rooms, and I LOVE THEM! My friend Kristie helped me with all the painting! Thanks Kristie!~ :)

Malichi's room:





Malichi's room was like a greenish gray before, and it was just so dark and boring. I love it now! So cheery! :) I still have to get stuff for his walls to put up. It's a little bare right now. I am thinking a trip to Ikea will be in order! :)

Kinzie's room:






I repainted a bunch of Kinzie's stuff to match the new colors in her room, and they turned out so cute! :) I got some white letters spelling her name to put above her bed too. I am going to alter them, and make em all cutesy first though!

I am so glad their rooms are DONE! :) 24 starts tonight, and I am so looking forward to relaxing and watching the 2 hour premier! I definitly need some down time!

Christmas Layouts

Look at me being all on top of things!!! I've actually gotten Christmas photos scrapped only a couple of weeks after Christmas! Yay me! Now just to get back to those Halloween layouts! :)
Here is what I've been busy with:

Our Tree:

(credits:
Background paper: IOD figgy pudding kit from DST
other papers: Holly McCaig's Fall Velvet also from DST
stitching: Holly McCaig
Vintage Labels: Holly McCaig @ MDM
Corduroy Alpha (recolored): Me (Shannon Lee Designs)
Frames: Nancy Comelab @ MDM)

Home for the Holidays:

Credits:
papers: Meredith Fenwick
Stitching: Katie Pertiet
Shadow frames: Nancy Comelab @ MDM
flowers: Shannon Carlson and Holly McCaig
Journaling paper: Catrine
Pinned Ribbon: Natalie Braxton

Christmas Eve:

Credits:
Tree, stickpin, snowflake brads, striped paper: Blissful Holday by Shannon Carlson (Shannon Lee Designs or MDM)
alpha: MissTiina Designs
flourish: 2peas
background paper: Meredith Fenwick (recolored)
Ribbon bow and scallops: Gina Miller

Share the Spirit:

Credits:
Nancy Comelab photo frames @ MDM
Corina Neilson and Kimberly Gurrusso Little Man Holiday
postage stamps and brush from Victorian Christmas kit- Shannon Lee Designs and MDM

Notice a pattern? I used Nancy Comelabs new shadow frames ALOT! I love them! They make a multi-photo layout so easy! If you haven't seen em, you can check them out here!

So tonight at the dinner table Malichi says to me "mom, let's pray". So I say, "okay, you say the prayer". He folds his hands and proceeds to pray, "Dear God, please bring us lots and lots of presents, so we might like them. Bless you. Amen"
Do you think he might have gotten too much of SANTA this year! :) It was too cute!

I so am glad Christmas is over...although I am keeping my tree and decorations up so I can still enjoy them for a little while longer!
We had a wonderful (but long) Christmas! The kids were so spoiled with new toys!

Besides being busy with Christmas, I was getting ready for the big opening atMy Digital Muse! Yay! I just love it there! I love the other girls that are a part of the team! I am learning so much about photography, which is great, because that is what I want to really get focused on and really learn my camera. I haven't been able to participate as much as I would like to, but hopefully now that the holidays are over, I can jump in!

And my little Kinzie.... she apparently does not like her bed. We find her sleeping in random places, the floor, toyboxes, on top of her toys... (note the last post where she was sleeping in her toybox). Well this is how I found her today! :)

Oh well.. at least she's still napping!