Happy Sunday!

Awww! Church friend flashback!
This is so adorable!  This is my two girls (in the middle) with their two sister friends that used to go to our church.  They are really very missed, my daughter talks about them all the time, it's sad when friends move away.

Like my little one and her Alfalfa hair?! It's from when her brother chopped her hair off!

I am so Blessed

Wow I am amazed at how sweet you guys are, coming in and checking on me.  Thank you Crafty Mama of Four for visiting me even when my blog was not in the land of the living! :)

And you too Mary, especially for telling me you missed me!!!
This blesses me more than you know.



So, let me try to fill in the past 2 years - oye!

My Blog...
Well obviously it hasn't been very appealing to me, I have been all over Facebook, more recently on Instagram and I'm now new to Pinterest which I LOVE!  Most of that has been from my phone, which is another huge reason I don't blog... I just don't often get on my computer anymore.

As I come back I realize I like things more simplified now.  The layout of my blog before was driving me away.  I wasn't quite ready to let go of my framed pictures yet though.

Life...

As you my have noticed from the updated pics...
I am now blonde... my hubby has a beard...
my kids are HUGE...

AND... there is an extra stranger in this picture here.  That's my lil brother, he's been living with us for about 7 months now.  He was living with our oldest sister and her 5 kids, but her hubby passed away in May, so we took the responsibility of him off her hands.

We plan on moving very soon, possibly buying a house.  This is both terrifying and exciting all at once!  All 7 of us are currently in a 2 bedroom apartment!

I am no longer homeschooling my children.

I still struggle with depression, but I fight it MUCH better now.
Let's see... I really wanted to dreadlock my hair, but found I get traction alopecia from the pulling tension of even smaller braids.

Health & Fitness...

I am now around 145 lbs.  This is 10 pounds below what I told you my last goal was.  I still have maybe another 5 or 10 pounds to go... depends on muscle.

I DID finish another round of P90x and now I have moved on to TurboFire! I like this program a lot!  All the intense cardio we do does great things for my fatty tummy!  The HIIT training makes me sweat harder than P90x ever did... well other than Plyo!

I am not currently on top of my game with eating clean... I have also been sick as of late and do not find enough energy for my work out videos.

Scrapbooking...
I haven't been scrapping much at all.  I have most my stuff packed away for moving, but I do plan on picking it back up to at least finish a baby album for each of my children.  The first 3 LOVE looking at their albums, so I definitely cannot NOT make one for my littlest man!


My Walk...
Just yesterday I was reading back on a note my friend wrote for me in 2009.  She had taken notes on what I was struggling with at the time, and now 3 years later it was really nice to see how much has really changed.  God is so good in my life.  I love Him now more than I did yesterday, and I pray that is how it will ALWAYS be.


Thanks for visiting guys, I will see you again soon.

Wordless Wednesday

I feel loved

I've been tagged with two more Memes. The first one is more of a challenge from Jan at Making Scrapbooks, she told me to share a high school photo... loved hers, she is totally adorable! Here is mine...

...and here is the second Meme...
INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1. BlondeMomBlog
2. It's a Schmitty Life
3. Life is short, buy the shoes
4. Ponderosa Pinings
5. Scrapping Servant

Next select five people to tag
Answer the following questions:

• What were you doing 10 years ago? That would be June 6, 1997... humm??? I was a freshman in High School, not being serious about anything, loving dance and choir, wearing clothes that were way too small for me and not realizing how many mistakes I was setting myself up to make. Here since I am sharing High School photos, here's another from freshman year.
• notice this was the beginning of my "scrapbooking" days, I used to cut my favorite pics like so and put them collage style in the front of my binders for class.

• What were you doing 1 year ago? Well since I am so picture oriented, I will share with you that way(above)... I was busy with the annual National Scrapbook Day crop, my daughter was 18 months old and my son was 2 months old... sniffle sniffle, they grow too fast! (Pics of my son from a year ago are actually what I am currently scrapping, so you will see some soon :o)

• Five snacks you enjoy: Any kind of Fruit, or Toast!!! (You've gotta click here... totally funny!!!), Orange Hostess Cupcakes, Cereal, Smoothies.

• Five songs that you know all the lyrics to: Comatose by Skillet, Jesus Freak by DC Talk, Redeemer by Nicole C. Mullen, Thief by Third Day, Flood by Jars of Clay.

• Five things you would do if you were a millionaire: Pray to know what God wants me to do, Pay all of our bills off, Repay all the people that have loved on us through the years, Buy a car that would hold all the children I want, Move.

• Five bad habits: Not putting God first, Sleeping too much, Procrastinating, Not taking things seriously, Picking at scabs (I know gross!).

• Five things you like doing: Hanging with my hubby and kids, Scrapbooking, Camping, Biking, Learning.

• Five things you would never wear again: a bikini, teeny tiny shorts, a wedding dress (I found my one love), green or purple eyeliner (middle school... what was I thinking?), stirrup pants.

• Five favorite toys: My Daughter, My Son, My Mac Book Pro, My Cricut, Adobe Dreamweaver.

Happy Memorial Day

My family had a wonderful day! We have a new church home and that church had a Memorial Day picnic we went to! It has been exciting to be so loved and welcomed right into the family. I can't wait to see all that God has in store for us there. Here are some pictures of our day today, it was so much fun!

I tackled the Backyard!

First of all let me say I have lived here for 6 years and I have always HATED my yard as long as I have been here. It was always easy to be lazy and blame it on a lack of money to do such a big job. But now I am tired of all the complaining and I am ready to clean up so me and my kids can go outside!!!

Even if it is still never a real lawn, it will be clean dirt without WEEDS EVERYWHERE!!!

My before shot is actually the other side of the backyard that I have not finished yet, and the after photo is the side I planned on finishing today, and I really got it done!!! Thanks to a good friend of mine who came over and helped when I called her all frustrated and angry (yes still struggling, but I am figuring out what helps).

Notice how happy my daughter is in the after shot!!! It's totally all worth it for a photos like that! I also have a picture of my hubby playing with my son....

I want to say a HUGE thank you to 5 minutes 4 mom to encourage me every week to get something tackled, life has changed since tackling things with you gals... thank you for your obedience in the form of a blog :o).

We had a Party

And it's now over, but you can still look at all the fun we had!!! :o)........

#1 Our first game all the early risers shared (on their blog) the best sleepy photo they had, I had a tie between my two little ones...

• The winner of this game is Wendy for the Mini Accordion album tin by K & Company!!! Thanks for sharing Miss Wendy :o)

#2 Veteran Blogger game... bloggers left me comments or emails letting me know the date of their first blog entry, mine is HERE, the oldest "veteran" won.

• Our participating "Veteran Blogger" is Karla who has been blogging since March 15, 2006 and she wins the Beginner ScrapPack donated by Haley at Quiet Romance. Congrats Karla!!

#3 A Real Women?... this game was dedicated to Tasra with Real Women Scrap I love boasting that I am a real women quoted in my friend Tasra's book I even won a game on her blog back in November for the "precarious balancing act" in my fridge... well to prove that I can keep it real I shared my most hated yet very real photo of my front yard!!!

Then I had others share a photo of something around their house that showed me they could also keep it real.

• The FlipFlop Moma was the only one to share a "Real" photo so she is our winner of the CourtYard Memory Building PageKit by ChatterBox.

#4 Share your first layout ever... I was sharing my first layout with a friend of mine just the other day, I was telling her that I wished I had a scrapbook mentor in the beginning to tell me not to start scrapbooking with such important photos. Oye! my wedding should have been scrapped AFTER I figured out what I was doing, and after I was comfortable, after I knew what NOT to do!

But my husband (being the sweetie that he is) tells me he likes it because it shows who I was right when we were married, an 18 year old still trying to grow roots, it's nice to find the positive in the negative. And I like that my husband likes it.

I had others share their first layout, post a photo or scanned image on their blog and share why they like it. Here's mine...

We had two winners for this game because I was just happy to see them participate. It's always refreshing to look back and see how much we have grown isn't it?

• Living for God wins the Hot Fudge Scrapbooking kit donated by Tamara
• Karla wins When Couples pray by David & Jan Stoop

#5 a Scrapping Servant?... now we shared a layout that shows you serving, or a story of you serving through scrapbooking such as the time I shared of me doing a memorial album for my friend's late wife Lila. If you wanna see it is HERE.

Our participating Scrapping Servant was Terri for the beautiful story about her friend, be sure to read it! Terri is winning the 6x6 accordian album from All My Memories.

#6 Share the link love game... I had everyone Mingle :o) ...and they kept a list of who they visited in a blog post.

After hearing all of the comments for this game I was so excited that we really did seem to get to know each other, I was blessed to say there should be many winners but I had to choose Rae... she will be winning the Wedding Altered Paint Can created by yours truely.

Help your Scrapping Servant...

Send me an email telling me what your most favorite and least favorite things are about my blog, be truthful, I only hope to improve upon the craziness I have designed.

Thank you all for blessing and helping me with your compliments and suggestions.

Oh!!! I almost forgot, I would like to give Jess @ Scrapbook Ideas a prize for the generousity of her time to create the digital kit just for us!!! She will be receiving the Love Ya Bunches stamp set donated by Wendy :o)

And here's your party favor from Scrapbook Ideas...

I asked you all to get creative with it :o) Well I would like to reward Heidi for doing a beautiful job with this digital kit, by giving her the $10 gift certificate at Making Scrapbooks!! Enjoy!

2 Happy Children = 1 Happy Mommy

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you Mommy's out there.

I am running late on everything lately... I have been going through a bit of spiritual warfare with anxiety, anger and depression, it's totally not been fun. I figured the culprits are not getting out of my house enough and not enough exercise which means too much energy... so I have been riding my bike on it's trainer and I have been going for walks just to get out... I only hope I can keep up the motivation.

I Love my Kids!

Remember my Kiddie Kandids vs. Picture People post on the 17th where I showed you my son's 1 year old photos? Well here is my baby girl when she turned one back in 2005 *sniffle sniffle*

I was just telling my hubby tonight that we have such good kids, and that we are so blessed. They really are a gift from the Lord...

Psalm 127 : 3-5 "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

I've also been telling our friends that it's gonna take us five years to pay off our hospital bills from loosing our baby back in December... fun thing to owe money on huh?! Our plan was to pay this bill off till we plan more babies, well now our plan is to just continue to trust in the Lord, and if we have to be in debt for many years just to have the four children we want then so be it... God has always been so good to us, I don't know why He wouldn't be now.

Happy Valentine's Day

 I just wanted to share with you my attempt at a Valentine photo for my husband. This is the perfect glimpse at my life with a 2 year old and a 10 month old, I know many of you out there can understand.

On the other hand, there is some fun that comes with my darling daughter being two... She likes playing with her clothes (which are always easily accessible because mommy has problems either getting the laundry done all the time, or getting that age clothes swap thing done before we skip a size completely). So she has found the bag of 18 month clothes (that is supposed to be packed up and put in the garage) and has chosen some bloomers as her new favorite play hat :) She walks around the house with them all the way over her head and totally crashes into things, it's adorable!!!