I {heart} this face!

I really do! This is a layout featuring my youngest when he was 3. He would make the funniest faces and keep us laughing all the time!

I had hoped this would be a class but this paper is no longer available to order. I had a lot of fun doing this layout. The swirl borders on the right side were cut out of one of the sheets of Mamarazzi paper. The rosette flower was also made from Mamarazzi paper. The heart is canvas sprayed with Denim Glimmer Mist.

Here are a few close-up shots.

Hope you do something crafty today!

The Snow Storm of 2011!

Monday, January 10th we woke up to about 4 inches of snow! Really?!?!?!

Yep! Really!

Needless to say, the boys didn't have school that day. In fact, they didn't have school for A WHOLE WEEK! That never happens around here! It snowed most of the day Monday, then turned to ice. That was what really caused all the schools to stay closed for so long. The temps stayed low and the ice didn't go away. So now they will be making up days on Saturdays. Hopefully, we are done with the crazy winter weather for awhile. Here are a few pics of our Snow Storm of 2011!

This last picture was taken a few days later. The boys enjoyed playing in the snow on Monday but it was the light, powdery stuff that isn't very good for making forts. Once the ice had formed, they enjoyed breaking it up.

What a difference...

30 minutes can make! Today Jeff and I cleaned off/out the playroom shelves.

They went from this:

to this:

And so far, the boys haven't even noticed!

Singing and Santa and snow!

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! Gabe had a 2nd Grade Christmas production at his school on the 19th. All the second graders did a wonderful job and were so cute. We saw our friends there and their daughter Madison sat with "her Drew" for a few minutes.

How cute is she!!!

The lighting is terrible in the school gym so my pictures didn't turn out too well but you can see that Gabe was happy to be there. They had worked so hard for weeks on their songs and we were so proud of them.

Another night, just as we were putting Gabe to bed the doorbell rang. Jeff opened the door and look who was standing there with candy canes for everyone!

That was such a special treat! (Don't tell Gabe but it was Wayne, our neighbor from a few doors down! He had been playing Santa at his church and thought he would surprise the boys!) He came in and handed out his candy canes and even took Gabe's letter that we hadn't mailed yet. Gabe wasn't sure what to think of it all but he was so excited.

Then the boys got out of school for Christmas break. And then Gabe got the flu. Poor guy. He has to take meds that he can't stand. Can hardly get them down. He's finally getting better but he's been so pitiful.

And then it was Christmas Eve! The boys made Christmas cookies so they could leave some for Santa. Gabe got his own bowls of icing since he was sick.

After they finished making cookies, Drew and I went to my sister's house for dinner and exchanged gifts with family. Since Jeff and Gabe couldn't go, we Skyped them and opened gifts together. It was fun. The boys got a cool "Nerf"-type shot gun that cracks open and ejects the shells just like a real shot gun. Even Jeff has had fun playing with that one! We had a wonderful dinner of ham, mashed potatoes and lima beans. And of course the traditional birthday cake for Jesus for dessert!

Then everyone finally got to bed for the night only to get up at 6:00am to see what Santa brought.

Drew got an Ipod Touch! He thought he was getting a new Ipod Nano but Santa had other plans. His best friend got one too so they can use "Facetime" and watch movies.

Gabe got lots of Iron Man stuff including both movies.

Here was the Christmas aftermath.

And we got a white Christmas! Sorta. It started snowing late Christmas Day and this is what we woke up to on Sunday.

 We measured about 4 1/2 inches on the deck. The boys didn't play in it. They had gotten money and gift cards for Christmas that were burning a hole in their pockets (this includes Jeff!). Once we knew the roads were okay, we made our way to the mall and Lowe's Home Improvement. The little boys got new Lego sets at half off. And the big boy got a new set of drills with a free battery.

Here are me and the little boys putting together lots of Star Wars Lego sets.

I hope your Christmas has been all you wanted it to be and more.

Shooting stars, fishing and floating

School starts back next week. 7 days to be exact. I could tell you the hours and minutes but that might sound like I'm counting down. Wouldn't want to give that impression! (wink wink!)

Jeff is on vacation this week so we had the opportunity to take one last mini-vacation before school starts. We spent 4 days at the New River. It was wonderful and relaxing and we didn't want to leave. The first night there was all stayed up late to watch a meteor shower. Wasn't much of a "shower". More like a drizzle. But we saw some impressive ones. And it was just fun to sit out under the stars and wonder at God's amazing handiwork. We don't do that often enough.  This pic was taken at some point over the weekend, not the night of the meteors.

The next day, some friends came up for the day. We played in the river and went fishing and had dinner. Then they had to head back home. Hopefully they will be able to come back and stay longer next time. The boys all had so much fun playing in the river.

We all went fishing the next day. No one caught anything but river weeds but we still had fun. Jeff probably spent more time fishing than anyone. He never used to be into fishing but this year he even bought us fishing licenses'. I have enjoyed it as well. It's actually very relaxing and something we can all do together. The boys like to switch between fishing and throwing rocks in the river. What is it about water and rocks that boys just can't resist? Drew and Gabe spent a long time just throwing rocks, sometimes at each other, mostly at the reeds and grass growing out of the river, sometimes at the rapids. I'm sure the splashing wasn't helping Jeff catch any fish but they were having fun so no one seemed to mind.

We also went on a quick float trip down the river. Wendy drove Drew and the floats a short distance down the road and dropped them off, then came back for me, Jeff and Gabe. It was only about a 10 minute float trip down the river back to Wendy's house but it was fun. We went over some little rapids, got stuck on some rocks and saw some wildlife. Wendy and David are going to investigate a longer trip soon so we hope to do that next time. This was more of a "trial run" for the boys. Gabe was very nervous about it at first but after about 2 minutes he was loving it.

Here is the blue heron we saw all weekend long.

Hope you have had a wonderful, fun-filled summer.

Happy 4th of July!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy 4th of July! We started with the parade. It's a tradition that we join our close friends to watch the parade every year. This year we also had our new neighbors join us for the fun. There was the color guard at the beginning -

Then the horses!

The kids get tons of candy thrown by each float. (Even Michel was collecting some candy!)

And there is always the fun of watching Michel and Jeff pick on each other!

Love spending the 4th with my friends!

Hope your holiday was just as fun!

3 Fish!!

Happy 3rd of July! Today we went to the Harrisburg 4th of July Parade. We had a wonderful time. It's always a great parade. The kids came away with lots of candy and goodies. More pics to follow.

As soon as the parade was over we hit the road and came to Wendy's house at the New River. Almost right away the boys wanted to go fishing. David took them down to the river and had to remind them how to use their rods.

Then they headed out into the river. It was a little deeper in some places so David had to carry Gabe.

But Gabe caught 3 fish! And he was the only one to catch anything. The first one got away and they released the other two. He was so excited!

Drew is getting pretty good at casting. Tomorrow, David is taking him to Pembroke where they will take a guided fishing trip on the New River. He's so excited. He should catch lots of fish then.

Welcome back!

Hi!! I'm glad you found me here! I have had 2 blogs for a while and have been thinking of consolidating them in to one brand-spankin' new one. So here it is! I named it "This Busy Girl" because, well I am one heck of a busy girl! The boys are about to get out of school and our summer is already all planned out! Yikes! And with them being home all day, every day, with me, every hour, all. summer. long. I'm going to have even LESS time to get things done!

So, here is where you can come by and see what we have been up to - both family adventures and my own personal adventures in papercrafting. And please, bear with me as this blog is an ever-changing work-in-progress.

Enjoy!