Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas! Kaden had a great time opening presents, but unfortunately got in the bad habit of saying "more." We're going to have to work on manners and gratitude once he can comprehend them! Here's a few pictures of the fun:

His eyes lit up when he realized the presents under the tree were for him!

Kaden posing with his gifts from Mommy & Daddy. Later we'll get a picture of him with ALL of his gifts from everybody. It will be a ridiculously large pile!

And, here is a picture from Sunday of Kaden in his Christmas suit:

Something for Moms Christmas Party

We had a really fun Christmas party for our Mom's group on Wednesday night. Lois is so good to us. She had a chocolate fountain and tons of fun presents! Wow! We stayed and chatted and laughed until 11:30. That's pretty late for us Mommies!

Here's a layout I made using pictures from Logan's camera. The kit I used is called "Visions of Sugar Plums" and is a collab kit by Danielle Corbitt's Star Studded Designs and Doodles 'N Dimples. It's available at Digital Candy.

Yesterday we went to Wichita to pick up Kaden's Certificate of Citizenship. Well, it didn't exactly go as planned. It turns out that his COC is in Kansas City. They're going to mail it to Wichita for us, but it still means we have to make another trip during the week. But, we got to have lunch with Jeanette at my favorite restaurant, Cheddars, and eat their wonderful Cookie Monster cookies, so it was worth the trip! We had a great time visiting and Kaden loves the giant aquarium in the restaurant.

Boy was it crazy in Wichita though. It was about impossible to do any shopping. So, we decided to wait and shop today in Pratt. Bad idea. A snow storm hit this morning and the wind is blowing so hard you can barely see. I'm hoping we can still make it to Pratt later this afternoon since we have no groceries and have a lot of things to make for Christmas and we're making breakfast for our Sunday School class tomorrow morning. That is, if we have Sunday School!

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. I'd better get off the computer and start cleaning the house and/or wrapping gifts. Neither one sounds fun at the moment.

Will we ever get better?

My goodness. Kaden and I have been fighting a cold since early November. Ryan is coughing a lot now too although he says he doesn't have any chest congestion. Somedays I think I will never be well again.

Can you believe Christmas is on Tuesday? I am so not ready. I still have lots of gifts to buy and wrap and/or mail. Between the ice storm and being sick, Christmas has snuck up on me this year.

Well, if I don't remember to post on that day, I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Here's a card I created for Mom. It features Kaden, of course, with his two youngest aunts, Ye-In & Tina! They are exchange students living with Mom and Dad for the year and they spoil him rotten with attention. He loves it!


Card designed by Retrodiva Designs

Also, I feel as though I am slowly starting to recruit a few of you to the dark side! No, really it's the good side. What am I talking about? Putting away the scissors and paper and taking up digital scrapbooking!!!! I would really like to hold a class sometime to teach the basics. We'll see what the new year holds in store.

In the meantime, I want to let you know that the Scrap-Shop.fr where Kalanice's Designs are sold has changed their name. They are now Digital Crea. In honor of the name change, they are giving away a FREE Mega kit called "Dreadfully Happy". So, if you are wanting to get started with digital scrapping, this is a must have. You'll have plenty to keep you busy for awhile!

Merry Christmas!!!!

What a week!

This was a crazy, crazy week. It all started Monday night when an ice storm hit us. We lost our power and didn't get it back until 70 hours later Thursday evening! Needless to say, it was quite an adventure keeping Kaden happy with no electricity. He did pretty well during the daylight hours but was not a happy camper when it was really dark. He kept pointing at the lights as if to ask, "Why don't you silly people turn the lights on?"

I got so bored without electricity. I really do rely on my computer way too much. I kept thinking of things I could do, but they all needed the computer somehow. For example, I thought I could get my Christmas cards ready to send. But, where's my address book? On the computer!

Before the power outage, I got a few scrapbook pages done. The first one is a winter kit by Danielle Corbitt called "Winter Blues" at Digital Candy. This is a picture from last year because at the time I didn't have a winter picture from this year. But now I have a lot more pictures to scrap with this kit!

Our Adoption Testimony - in PRINT!

We got a really big surprise today, actually TWO surprises! The first came in the form of a book. Back in August, Shaohannah's Hope sent out an e-mail to all the families they've given grants to over the years asking us to share our adoption testimonies and some photos with them. Each year they create a book called "Miracles: Testimonies of God's Faithfulness in Adoption". I believe they send these out to donors. Anyway, I wrote out our testimony and e-mailed it with a few pictures, but I never heard back from them.

So imagine my surprise when the book arrived today and we are one of the FEATURED families! They chose one story from each family to feature for each country. We are the Korea family! I have sent an e-mail to Shaohannah's Hope to find out how I can get more copies for family and friends. I am also hoping that they don't mind that I have scanned and posted it here on the blog below. I was just so excited to share it! To be able to READ it, go to DropShots. Click on the thumbnail on the homepage and it will be bigger, about the size of this one. But, if you then click on THAT photo, you will get the full resolution version which is easily readable.

The second big surprise was also from Shaohannah's Hope. They have a promotional DVD, again, I think it's sent to donors, that features the music video to "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman. But, this isn't the regular video you can watch on YouTube or elsewhere, it's the version he shows at his concerts. The middle section features video clips of families meeting their children for the first time. There is about a 1 minute video clip of US!!! Thank you Uncle Mark for the great footage -you're a famous videographer now - ha, ha! Again, not sure how you can get a copy of the video, but it is definitely a tear jerker. Here is the regular version (minus us) and I will post the other version if they ever put it online or I can figure out a way to.

EDIT: I found out how to get copies of the book and DVD. Here's the info I got from someone at Shaohannah's Hope:

We are so glad you enjoyed the Miracles Book. If you would like to have more, you can order additional books for $3 a piece. If you need more than 5 at one time, could you please then include 5 dollars for shipping. You can send in a check to us, and we would be happy to send that to you. Please also let us know the address where to ship to. Blessings, Chris Chesbro chris@shaohannahshope.org (615) 550-5600 ext. 108 Shaohannah's Hope Po Box 674 Franklin, TN 37065

Back from Indiana

We had a great time over Thanksgiving with Ryan's family in Indiana. Kaden enjoyed all the attention from his cousins and all-in-all I'd say he did fair adjusting to the time zone and still getting plenty of sleep. He got some great early Christmas gifts (I'll have to show you those sometime soon) and we bought ourselves an early family gift while out there.

We got a minivan! Yep, that's right. We always said we'd never own one, but now we do. It was just time for a family sized vehicle. Poor Kaden was smooshed in the back seat on our way out there and we knew we'd never make it back with all his gifts. Plus, since we hope to expand our family it the near future, it was just time.

Ryan's brother is an expert in the art of haggling, so we took him car shopping with us. He helped us secure a great deal on a 2005 Chevy Uplander. We are loving it! It even has a built-in DVD player with Bose stereo surround sound. That was a lifesaving feature for Kaden on the long, 16-hour trip home and we are hearing things on his DVDs we've never noticed before because of the amazing sound quality. I'm sure Ryan would have other features to mention, but for me, the DVD player takes the cake!

I finally got that picture of Kaden playing in the leaves put into a scrapbook page. Kalanice's Designs "Forestia" kit features beautiful fall colors. It's also perfect for kits related to camping, hunting, and other outdoor activities and has tons of great elements that I didn't have room to include in my LO. Be sure to click on the link above to check it out.

Glitter border by Danielle Corbitt.

I also had a lot of fun using Danielle's Pink Xmas kit on this LO of Kaden with Santa. It was so hot on November 17 when we saw Santa. It think it was over 80 degrees! Kaden was sweatig to death in his sweatshirt. There were kids meeting Santa in their shorts. Poor Santa had to have been dying in that suit!

You can get Pink Xmas at SOTB or Digital Candy. Be sure to check out the great additional frames while you are there!
Scraplift of 2Santas by mlewis. Font is comic sans.

Recent Scrapbook Pages

Today was a beautiful 70 degree day. I can't believe it's mid-November already. I'm sure we'll get the cold weather soon enough.

Anyway, we enjoyed the nice weather and played outside in a pile of leaves. Kaden had a great time. He loved to crunch the leaves and "swim" through the pile. Between Danielle Corbitt's "Simply Fall" kit (and checkout the brag book I made!) and the Fall kit that Kalanice's Designs is working on, I should have plenty of options to get these pictures scrapped! Here's one of my favorites:


I have done a few scrapbook pages lately and have a lot more to do in the near future. I went through my picture folders the other day and estimated that I am about 25 pages behind. Yikes! Here is my most recent page using Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess:


I also recently did a layout using Kalanice's Designs' new "Gardenia" kit. It is very feminine, but is versatile enough for a variety of subjects. As you can see, I used it to scrap pictures of a very unhappy, very tired Kaden!

If you'll recall, I told you about a challenge we were hosting at The Star Studded CT blog. For challenge #3, I created a template. I made a page using my design and Danielle Corbitt's "Mandarin Mint" kit. It turned out cute!

I think that's it!!! I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels.

New Family Photos

What a day! We had a 9:00 appointment at Portrait Innovations to have new family photos taken. I set it so early so that we would beat the crowd and Kaden wouldn't be overwhelmed by the chaos. But, it backfired on me. We needed to leave by 7:00 in order to get there on time, so I set the alarm for 6:00. But, I apparently forgot to turn it on! Ryan woke up at 6:40.

So, we frantically got everything together and rushed to Wichita. We had planned to have our pictures taken in cowboy hats. I didn't have one, so we were going to stop somewhere before our appointment and pick one up. We didn't have time. So, that was disappointing to start with. Then, we get there, and Kaden suddenly decides he is hungry and cannot sit still or smile. We ended up only getting the advertised special package and one other photo because there literally were no good ones to choose from. It was so frustrating. It wasn't the studios fault, just our bad luck.

Anyway, here's what we got. I've done some major editing to this first photo. Too bad the actual prints aren't edited. I had some major bags under my eyes and there was some weird black splotch on the background originally.

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No editing necessary here. Just pure cuteness!

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Luckily, the rest of the day was not a dud. We actually had a GREAT time the rest of the day! We met some friends at Chucky Cheese and our boys (all 4 of them...heee...heee...) had so much fun. Kaden just loves rides. He also enjoyed the arcade games. Anything with a wheel to turn, gun to shoot, water to squirt, or a hammer to pound with caught his eye! He's definitely all boy.

Here's a picture of Kaden in his Chucky Cheese bib with his good friend Noah. Aren't they the cutest?

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And here's Kaden on a ride. Ryan was just thrilled to death about this one!

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Is it really November 6 already?

I haven't even adjusted to the fact that it's November yet, and it's already the 6th! Yikes! Life has just been such a whirlwind lately. Kaden and I are both very sick and that takes all our energy away. It seems like I haven't had time to do any scrapping or blogging since I spent the weekend in bed.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. Kaden had a lot of fun. He figured Trick or Treating out right away. He watched us knock on the door, saw that someone would come with a bowl of candy, we'd ask him to pick one out and put it in his basket, then we'd say Thank You and leave. After a couple of houses, he was going up to the door, pounding on it until someone answered, getting a treat, then flashing the homeowners a smile while trying to sneak a 2nd piece! The bad thing is, he's so darn cute that they'd usually say, "Oh, he can have another piece. That's okay." Then I'd have to be the big mean Mommy and tell him, "Only one!"

Hopefully I'll get all our Halloween pictures scrapped soon. I've created two Halloween-themed quickpage albums, you'd think I'd have time to plop the pictures into some of them! The problem is that my pictures are on my laptop, and the albums are on my external hard drive which is hooked up to the desktop computer. One of these days I'll get organized now that I have my desktop computer back. It's on it's last leg, so I need to get everything important that I didn't lose when it crashed, off of it and onto the external hard drive. Then I need to wipe the slate clean on it and use it only for games and internet. That means the laptop will be my scrapping computer, so I need to get the scrapping stuff on it! So much to do, no time to do it.

We'll in the meantime, here's a cute picture of Kaden on Halloween. Stay tuned to see it scrapped!

I've got a job!

I got a job designing quickpages for Randi Oh and Danielle Corbitt. It's so much fun and a great way to make a few extra spending dollars for scrapbook supplies.

Kaden is growing and changing in so many ways these days. Today he learned how to say Ye-In. Ye-In is an exchange student from South Korea and she is living with my parents. We've had so much fun getting to know her and Tina, a girl from Germany that Mom and Dad are also hosting.

I made this page of the two of them using Randi Oh's "Chalked Flowers" available HERE.

Chalked edge overlay by Nancie Janitz.

What a great free day!

I have the most wonderful husband in the world! Today he had to drive all the way to Kearney, NE to pick up a part for work. He took Kaden with him so that I could have a day to myself. I spent the majority of it cleaning (uck!), but did manage to get two scrapbook pages done.

This one uses the kit "Connemara" by Kalanice's Designs available at Scrap-Shop.fr.
Template by Dunia.

If you'll recall, I always do a monthly review using this template by Jen Caputo. As you can see, I'm a few months behind! I created this review with "Douce Mandarine" by Kalanice's Designs also available at Scrap-Shop.fr.

What do you do when you child won't nap anymore?

Kaden has decided that he no longer needs naps. His attitude, however, begs to differ. What do you do when your kid won't sleep any during the day anymore? And, he STILL gets up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. wanting milk and won't go back to sleep until he gets it. Ugh!

Well, I finally got around to scrapping Play Day pictures. At least I'm staying fairly current even though I've got a lot to go back and do including his birthday! Yikes! Some pictures are nearly 6 months behind!

Anyway, here's my Play Day LO. I used "Sky On Earth" by Kalanice's Designs. It's available at Scrap-Shop.fr. For full credits click HERE.

Some New Scrapbook Pages

Well, despite my computer disaster, I got a chance to do some scrapping this weekend. I hooked my regular computer monitor up to the laptop and am basically just using the laptop as a keyboard. It's taking me awhile to learn to scrap with the touchpad mouse, but I'm getting there!

Here's my latest pages. This first one features a beautiful paper pack by Kalanice's Designs called "Fauves Paper Pack." You can get it HERE.


For full credits click HERE.

The second page was done for a challenge at The Meadow. Everything is by Gina Huff except the blue and tan papers which are by Heidi Williams. Both sell at Weeds & Wildflowers.

Okay, So I LIED....

In my last post I said I would not be applying for anymore CT positions. I LIED! Little did I know that one of my all-time favorite designers, Gina Huff of Weeds & Wildflowers, would have a CT call the very next day after my declaration. I just couldn't resist. I had to apply. I probably won't make it onto her team, but if I am lucky enough to get on, I will definitely be able to make time. She only requires 3 layouts a month.

I'm already working with 3 amazing designers, so I would be about the luckiest lady in the digiscrapping world if Gina accepted me too. Wish me luck!

And the magic number is....

THREE! Yep, I've been accepted onto another CT! I am happy to announce that I am now working with Kalanice Designs. I am very excited to work with her beautiful kits. As soon as I get past these computer woes, I will be busy scrapping. She's been super understanding about my hard drive problems.

I definitely will not be applying for anymore CT positions! I think that 3 is my max. Hopefully I will have some great new pages to share with you soon. And, if I get the time, I might even try my hand at designing some freebies again. We'll see!

Computer Woes

I'm in the middle of a computer crisis. Somehow, all of my documents have "disappeared". They are no where to be found. I am hoping someone better with technology than me can save the day, but am a bit skeptical at the moment. I backed the computer up in June, but I have so many scrapbook pages I've created since then and haven't printed any of them. I learned my lesson. Backup, backup, backup and print hard copies!

A great website for clothing!

Someone over at the Holt Korea web forum that I am a part of posted a website where you can get great clothing at closeout prices. Because they are closeout items, not everything is available in every size, but you can get some great deals. It's called Classic Closeouts. I spent $50 and got everything you see below plus FREE shipping! Check it out:

Another Halloween Layout!

Check out this new kit, "Trick or Treat" by Randi Oh available at Digi Scrap Boutique!

Here's a page I created with it. A little birdie told me you should keep checking my blog. This page could be YOURS for FREE in the near future!

Some More Scrapbook Pages

Are you ready for Halloween yet? Then pick up this funky, fun "Witch's Brew" kit by Danielle Corbitt at SOTB. Plus, she's got a great add-on for FREE on her Blog!


See full credits HERE.

I also had fun last night playing around with a kit by The Scrappin Hillbilly. This is a scraplift of her page. Isn't it cute?

Another Scrapbook Page To Share

I'm having a lot of fun being on Danielle's CT! Here's my first page designed for her. Aren't these bunny stickers adorable? They are available at SOTB and the kit, "Little Rascals" is available for FREE on her Blog. Doodles by Debby Bradley and font is Pea AngeDawn.

Wohoo! I'm on another CT!

In addition to creating layouts for the talented Randi Oh, I am very, very happy to announce that I am now a member of the Star Studded Creative Team for Danielle Corbitt! Danielle sells her gorgeous designs at Scrap Outside the Box and you can also check out her Blog. Soon our newly formed Star Studded Creative Team will have our own blog as well. Just click on the link from Danielle's Blog.

To tryout for her CT, we were given a beautiful kit to create a layout with. Here is the page I submitted. All credits to Danielle Corbitt!

Sick Today

I very rarely get a fever, so when I do it hits me hard and keeps me down. I woke up this morning feeling like my face was on fire. I had a temperature of 102. My eyes have been burning and watering all day. I have no idea what could have caused this. Other than being tired and feeling drained, I'm not really feeling sick.

So much for the huge To Do list I had planned for today. Not sure how the house is going to clean itself before small group tomorrow night. -Sigh-

Cutest Baby Contest

If you live in our area, be sure to stop by Alco during the month of October and vote for Kaden in the Cutest Baby Contest! Ten cents equals one vote. The baby with the most votes wins. All the proceeds go to a local charity. So, help out a good cause and vote for Kaden!

Facebook Anyone?

I've joined Facebook! If you're a member, add me as a friend. If you're not already signed up, come join the fun!

A Digi Scrapping Milestone!

I am way behind in my scrapbooking. I have had some kind of a "creative block" since about May. But, I am slowly getting over it. Last night I created what I believe to be my best layout yet. And, best of all, someone else thought it was good too! My layout was the first one listed in the Digi Shop Talk "Gallery Standout" thread. I was so excited! The recognition really made my day and helped me gain more confidence and "mojo" to keep scrapping! Here's the magical layout:


Here are two other recent creations:




Hopefully I'll keep cranking them out and have more to share soon!

Trying out for another CT

I am applying to be on a Creative Team for Kalanice's Designs. She provided everyone with a kit to create a page with using only the items in the kit. Here's my submission. Wish me luck!

SALE & Blog Party!

I know a lot of my readers are not digi scrappers, but if you've ever thought about taking up the hobby, now is the time! You can get an amazing HUGE kit for FREE from the designers at DigiScrap Boutique. They're having a blog party!


Collect pieces of the following kit at each blog:


You can start by hopping over to my friend Randi's Blog and picking up this beauty:


DigiScrap Boutique is also having a big sale. But hurry, it ends Friday!

Back From Branson!

We had a great vacation in Branson, Missouri. We met Ryan's parents there. They were such a big help with Kaden. He absolutely adores his Mam Maw and Pap Paw, especially Pap Paw. He is a Grandpa boy!

Here's a picture we had taken on Kaden's Gotcha Day Anniversary, August 31:



Kaden LOVED riding the rides at Celebration City and Silver Dollar City. I think we have a future rollar coaster finatic on our hands:




There are a lot more photos and video clips at DropShots. Send me an e-mail if you need the password.

Home 1 Year Tommorrow!

Oh my! Can you believe it? A whole year already. Where has the time gone? So many things have happened during this year, I couldn't even begin to summarize it all. Just scroll through this blog for the highlights!

Tomorrow we are going on our first family vacation to Branson, Missouri to celebrate Kaden's Gotcha Day. We are so excited! Here's a little trip down memory lane to that special day a year ago:

Pic of the Month

I can't seem to get this picture posted correctly in the sidebar (it's always "stretched"), so I'm going to post it here until I get it figured out!

Here's the September Pic of the Month:


Background paper by Jessica Gorny and Fence by HD(?).