here’s a few little photos -

I should probably explain why I’m standing on a chair, or the flower rings… but it’s sort of a long story LOL – just imagine a bunch of overworked tired moms finally getting a chance to let our hair down and getting a little silly…

The place we stay is right on the beach, so we actually could sit back and see the beautiful ocean while sitting on the cozy couch and drinking a glass of wine!

This trip has become an annual tradition for a bunch of us that met in MOMS Club way back when our kids were still little (or should I say way back the older boys were little). Most of us have moved on from moms club and are busy with all sorts of mommy stuff so we rarely see eachother anymore.  It is great to have something once a year to get us all back together and I’m hopeful that we’ll still be doing this when we are all old ladies with big extravagant hats and giant bead necklaces (this is  what I plan to do when I get old anyway)!

Moving on… I wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful comments on my new prodcuts, it’s music to a designers ears to hear that people like their work. As promised, Random.org picked a winner of my new kit now that I’m back home:

Congrats Pricilla!!  I’ll be emailing you! Since I’m pretty sure Pricilla has bought the kit, start thinking about what other kit you wanna pick up from my store at SSD!

I also drew Jenn L (comment 23) as the winner of the quick pages, and Lizzie257 (comment 32) as the winner of the adorable tin album that Jaclyn made!  Both of you can watch for an email from me today.

Ok well, its Monday morning and time to kick off a new week here at home!  Have a nice day everyone!

So, I’m just going to get right to it!

This week I have a new kit, and let me tell you, its a pretty one!  I don’t often do all sweet and soft and flowy, so I’m really thrilled with how this one turned out!

hee! I’m so happy with it!

I also have a quick and easy set of pages made by my awesome CT member Jaclyn Bernardo:

and I’m sure that everyone is just going to go ga-ga over the adorable album she put together:

So!  there you have it for this week, please comment away if you would like a chance to win one of these products – as always just leave a comment and I’ll randomly pick one winner for each new release.  Also, if you want an extra chance just tweet this post, or post a link of facebook or your blog if you’d like – just please post an additional comment for each link you post so I can have an extra chance to win (if your comment with a link doesn’t show up, don’t worry, I always moderate and approve the ones that don’t get through before I pick a winner!

Ok, I have packing to do, and you all have commenting to do! Happy Friday everyone!

The way you can play is just simply pick up our newest “Shauren” creation That Electric Rat , and create any layout you’d like using mostly the kit.  Then post a link to your layout either here on my blog, or on Lauren’s blog by March 9th, 2010 and you will be entered to win a $5 gift card to both mine and Lauren’s stores!

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy!  Looking forward to seeing everyone’s creations!

ps. lucky you! you can still get That Electric Rat at scrapfastic designs for 20% off if you hurry and get it today or tomorrow!!

Yay! It’s about time!  Every time I scrap I remember how much I miss scrapping pictures and memories of sweet little men.  Plus, this is the whole reason I got in to scrapbooking in the first place!  I’m going to have to make the effort to make a few more pages here and there so I have some more keepsakes from this time in my kiddos’ lives.

Happy Monday everyone – Monday is fast becoming my favorite day of the week, with the older kids all at school, and getting the day to my self and my designing – and my TENNYSON! Hope today is a great start to all of your weeks too!

La and I had a lot of fun making That Electric Rat (hahaha, get it??) and I’m in love with lauren’s little “kawaii” creatures.  I know I have a zillion photos to scrap with this one, so I hope you all do too!

I, of course, picked a winner – and this time random.org went ahead and picked comment number 40:  Laura!  (Laura commented, then she posted on facebook, AND tweeted!  So she worked for her prize I say!).  Congrats!! I’ll be emailing you shortly!

Ok!  Thats all I’ve got for now – I’m hoping to SCRAP today, so I should be back with lots of pages to share!!  Happy Saturday everyone – Don’t forget to go check out That Electric Rat in the store.  Remember too that today only new releases are 20% off so if you like it, today you can pick it up for only about $6!

The boys are really excited about this one, and I have more than a few pics to scrap about this crazy obsession!  If that’s not enough maybe my question of the day will serve as a further hit: Tell me about something your kids (or some little person somewhere) are totally obsessed with that you just don’t get…  Seriously sometimes I think my boys are speaking an entirely different language when they start naming characters, and the zillions of ridiculous facts they’ve memorized about them!! LOL!

As always, comments close when the store goes live, and one lucky comment will win a free copy of this week’s kit!  If you want more than 1 chance to win, just tweet, or blog, or share this post on facebook and come back here to leave a separate comment for each link

Good luck!

Fun aren’t they??

Ok gotta run but I’ll be back a bit later with this week’s Friday Fix!

The thing is, I have totally mixed feelings, on one hand I’m READY to move forward on to the next stage of raising our family, but on the other hand I am going to have no babies…  I LOVE babies, like a lot, and also, it just sort of feels a little like part of my identity has to shift.  I’ve been “doing the baby thing” for so long now that that has been something that defined me for a decade… With 4 kids in 10 years, I’ve almost always been pregnant by the time my youngest was turning two (aside from when Reece turned two, but we were already talking about our fourth by then…).  So now that I’m not trying/or nursing/or holding a tiny tiny little guy, I’m going to have to alter that sense of identity… or maybe, you know, just sort evolve into the next stage of mommy-hood, because goodness knows I’m not done yet!  LOL, it’s a very good thing two year olds aren’t considered adults, I can only imagine what would happen to the universe if we had a bunch of wild two year olds running rampant!

So, yeah, no real point to the previous paragraph, just musing a bit.  I am sure that we are done growing our family (SURE with a capital V), and my sweet little tennyson is growing closer and closer to the person that he is going to be… its so amazing, and exciting to get watch it all, to be part of it all.  One of my favorite things about being a mom is just watching them change, start to finish, you get to be a part of it all.

Moving on now… For Tennyson’s birthday day, reecey and I decided to take him to the mall, Reece was sure he’d love it there, and I decided we would get him a new pair of shoes, because this little guy has a bit of a shoe thing going on… he is always obsessing over other people’s shoes, trying them on, and clomping around in shoes 4 times too big.  For some reason though, the kid will NOT keep his OWN shoes on when we go places… So my genius plan was to have HIM pick out some perfect shoes and then hopefully he would actually WANT to keep them on his feet…. we’ve only had one trial run, and luckly he actually did.

After shoe shopping and play-structure playing, Reece and I decided t wanted to build a bear.  So we took t in there, and tried to get him all excited about it… the truth is he was more confused than anything… but when we finished the bear he said “babies!” and gave it a snuggle.  I think his favorite part though was the great little cardboard box/house thing the put it in.  Tennyson seriously dragged that thing around the mall the rest of the time there (even up a huge set of stairs, no joke!).

Here are some (awful) cell phone pictures of him and his bear box:

Tennyson has been carrying his “babies” around the house and he makes me cover him up at bed time, its too cute!

That night daddy also brought home some cupcakes and a Mylar balloon, which I’m pretty sure was Tennyson’s highlight of the day, he loves balloons more than anything else!  We still have a party coming up this weekend with family, but I’ve always loved the actual birthdays of the boys, its fun to have an excuse to give them the royal treatment and  let them know just how special they are to me!

I just can’t even believe it! 

More to come later…

This past week our 9 year old goldfish finally went to that big ocean in the sky. We actually got this fish when gareth was just a baby and although I’m pretty sure he was intended as food.. we bought him for all of 19 cents, brought him home and gave him a home. He was a good fish, and apparently quite hearty!! We were all pretty attached after all this time, and it was a really sad day when we woke up and saw him lying on the bottom of his tank. Gareth kept saying he was sure Bob was only sleeping. Things just aren’t the same on top of the microwave without bob swimming around in the bowl we didn’t clean near enough (although I really do believe part of the secret to his long life is that we mostly left him alone!). He lived a good super dooper long life, and he’ll always have a special spot in our hearts.