Ahhhh.....the memories.

I love my blog.
I was looking back through a few years ago.....cracks me up.
Pictures and stories I'd forgotten about.

Like Jack and his tater tots

or Jack and the flour incident

or this one of Samantha I had TOTALLY forgotten about...her goofy face is hillarious!
and that fact that though this was 3 years ago......she looks exactly the same!!!

So glad I have this thing ;)
Good times.

We are working on getting back into school mode over here....earlier bed times.
Back packs filled.
Meeting teachers...the works!
Can't believe where the summer has gone....flew by in a flash.
Some of the kids realizing how few days they have left and wondering what they've done with themselves all summer and why didn't they make more of it.  They think they should be doing something BIG the next few days.....before it all comes to a sad end.

And all I can think of is how.on.earth.am.I.going.to.get.up.that.early.every.day.again!

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On a lighter note......how about a few random layouts ;)

 just a bit of Pebbles product here.

Happy Wednesday!

She aint as Faithful as she used to be!

looky where we went!!!!!

                                                         

It was SO much funner than I thought it would be!

This old girl......we had to waaaaaiiiitttttt for.

Wasn't quite on the ball.

She must be getting a bit old!

 but it was cooooool!!!

and Kristen's favorite thing of the ENTIRE trip.

In fact, we sadly missed seeing it blow again while we sat in a cafe for lunch...forgetting to add an hour to our watches ;(  She was sorely disappointed.

Our second day we spent in Mammoth Hot Springs.

A gloomy and rainy day...but it sure added to the eeriness of it all ;)

It's also the only day we found a picnic table to eat our lunch on....which we had to hurry through because of rain.  And it was also the day we left the hotel not realizing Jack was in flip flops!

Water running down from the upper hot springs that are further down on this post.

closeup of this mountain side.

there are signs every where warning visitors to NOT touch the water.

It will remove the flesh right off of ya....it's that hot.

 Just a couple of cuties along the way ;)

 These white  caps were also Kristen's favorites.....she like to call them marshmallows.

 Some hot water trickling down....

 the flip flop boy.

 the hot springs.

 this is a closeup of what the ground looks like in this particular section of the hot springs.  It varies from place to place.

 The worlds first infinity pool ;)  How cool is this hot spring?!!!!

I have to be honest here....when the kids said they wanted to go to Yellowstone, I worried they might be bored.  But they insisted....and seriously, I think it's one of the best vacations we've ever taken.  They loved it. Every day was filled with a completely different area of the park with totally different scenery.  

We slept in everyday, didn't rush.  It was glorious.  

I totally, like for real, recommend it.

......

and I've got more where these came from.

Just you wait ;)

Balance.....I'm gonna get there!

It seems like all I've done lately is post about scrappy business.  Which is fine for those of you who are interested in scrapbooking, but for some of my peeps out there.....who don't give a rats behind about it, you're probably bored to tears!!!!  Please forgive me.....I really want to be better at having more of a balance here....

But, I do have a few items of business, that it is my duty to blog about ;)

For today........it's Get Picky.
Can I tell you how much I have LOVED designing for this sketch blog?????
It has opened up a whole new world to me.
I've strictly been a sit down and figure it out kinda scrapper, but with these challenges....being given a prompt or a sketch, I'm finding it so fun to have a jumping point.  And yet, I can still be original with it.

So, if you're interested, thought you might want to know.....Get Picky is having a design team call again!!!!!
I know!!....6 months was gone in a flash!!!!
I'm hoping to stay ;)

For all the deets  hop on over here :}

Now.....the sketch for August is up....and guess what???
It's based off my layout ;)
So clearly, I loved it!

Oh, and there might just be a prize involved!

I love these pictures of Jack.....can you see the anticipation on his face????
Waiting in line at Disneyland for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.....he'd been talking about this ride for 2 years...can't believe he remembered it so well!

Lucky

In the month of July 2 people I loved went to be with our Heavenly Father.

2 wonderful people braved valiant fights with cancer.

And I was lucky to know them.

One of them was our friend Rob Grimshaw....this is him with his adorable family.

His wife Amber was an amazing fighter too.  She fought for his life. 

She did everything she could to care for him and to find the right help for him.

In the end, Heavenly Father had other plans.

As his friends, everyone has been working hard to ease the financial burden.

We still want to ease that financial burden.

So the plans are still in place to hold a fantastic fundraiser for them.

It is going to be so fun.....and a great way for everyone to celebrate Rob's life.

Here are the details and a link to the blog with all the information.

If you are local I would love to see you there.

It will be a great way to end the summer with your family and give lots of love to another family who desperately need it.

http://www.becausewecarecountryfair.blogspot.com/ 

August Fun at The Nook ;)

 We've got some fun things happening at the Nook this month......

Next week we are having a fun virtual crop with lots of challenges...don't miss it.
Challenges start bright and early Friday morning ;)

I've posted a little class for my 2 page layout using the August kit here
Pulled a bunch of pics from Jacks 4th birthday party.
Sometimes I just want to see the whole story.....more pictures, less fluff ;)

aaaaand.......don't forget, the design team call is still going on!!!
you've got about 2 more weeks to get your applications in ;)


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Sorry if I've been a bit absent this last week or two....but I have good excuses and lots of pics to share ;)

Get Picky July Inspiration!

The latest inspiration post is up at Get Picky!

This was an easy one.....butterflies....who doesn't love butterflies???

There's a giveaway again this month too!!!!!!

This month we decided to have another fantastic prize giveaway! Everyone who participates in this challenge will go into a RANDOM draw to win a selection of gorgeous Prima goodies!

All you have to do to be in the running to win is enter our challenge - it's that simple! Everyone who enters automatically goes into the draw for the prize!

Here is a photo of exactly what you will WIN...

Included in the prize:

A selection of Sparkling Spring Collection Papers

A selection of Celebration Collection Papers

2 Packets of Prima blooms

1 Packet of Prima Butterflies

1 packet of Celebration Cardstock Stickers

To be in the running to win next month's guest spot OR our Prima prize, all you need to do is upload and link your multi-photo layouts by midnight (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on August 13th. We know that we have people from all over the world participating in our challenges, so we would like to point out for everyone to please take note of the countdown timer by the link gadget below to see how much time is left for the challenge. If there are any issues uploading to the link gadget, please just link your layouts in the comments section of this post OR email them to us at getpicky@yahoo.com before the closing date and time, and your layout will be included in the judging along with everyone else's layouts. One lucky winner will be announced on August 14th. Good luck!!