One last time

The last ice cream run of the summer!

We all headed out for burgers and ice cream at the Half moon drive in. One last summer outing like that. Needless to say it was really nice to be all together and thourally enjoyed by all! We walked down by the water with our ice creams while the sun was going down , the girls danced and little Kaiella was shouting " Ocean, Ocean!!!!" as she pointed at the lake. LOL!

ETA: we were delighted to find this new soft serve called Dole whip it is dairy free and made with real fruit so Tiara could actually join in having a cone like the rest of us!!!

It has started cooling off fast in the evening , but still getting some pretty hot days here lucky for us! The girls are loving school and little Bella is settling in to her new mornings with just me. I too am getting used to appreciating that quieter time just the two of us.

I have been trying to get everything done that I need to, and start thinking about preparing for our trip to Vegas in October! I still can't believe we are going, and totally can't believe that it is with CK to boot! What a dream! So here is what I am thinking, since Cam and I are trying to decide what to plan for the two extra days we will be there and have no clue where to start, I am asking for your help! Any suggestions? Leave us some comments and tell us what we should see, ok! That should give us a starting place anyways. Thanks :)

happy weekend all

Cherish

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I thought I'd share my newest desktop for September. A little calendar to check on, and the words that mean a lot to me. The photo was from Kaiella's birthday, Cam and I took her out on her own with us and we had so much fun together! All of the goodies on here are from Scrap Artist and Designer Digitals.

I wish you all a great weekend. Over here I have got to try and clean up this house of ours over the next couple of days, just too many piles around. It seems to creep up every now and then when we get too busy. My tendonitis is back in my arm so I am back to working lefty and one handed for the time being. Any of you praying folks could definitely say one for me about that :)

The air was cold and crisp here today but oh so fresh and I am just loving it! I am surprised I haven't sniffed the window screen right up my nose yet!! We all went for a nice walk after French toasts and banana pineapple milkshakes for super, it was so nice to be outside with all of my lovies, and I could breathe it all in as deeply as I wanted with no danger of screens up the nose LOL! Goodnight and God Bless you all

My creative challenge

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ok here's the scoop! I had been putting up a challenge every Monday for awhile and when I hurt my arm it kindof died off. I really want to get some challenges going here again. I just feel that pushing ourselves to try things or see things in a new way is such an excellent way to grow! It is for me anyways :)

So for this week I want to challenge you guys to use your product in an unexpected way to create something new. Tons of freedom to play on this one, that's the idea...Just let go and totally play!!!! I guarantee it is a blast! So my example is this layout I did awhile ago for my little Kaiella right before she was turning two. I used the lacing for grass and the tags as leaves, the circle stamps are my petals and the photo is the flower centre. A growing flower ( like she is...My attempt at being symbolic while having a little fun. supplies are listed Here and the journaling says: my itty-bitty baby is somehow almost 2, I guess that means you are no longer new! but whether you are 2 or 22 you will always be my baby

So I say anyone who is inspired to play along and see where it takes them, post your layout in your gallery and give me the link here in the comments so we can all check it out! Let go of the rules and have fun!!!!! I can't wait to see some cool art :)

Annual backpack pics

Tia; oh so proud! are we gonna have to watch out for that look or what?! look at that face :)
and Emy in her great new sweater from Nana, ready for another year with all of her friends

Here they are all proud and ready to go! and then there is poor little Kaiella really not wanting her sisters to be left at school! she did okay for the first stop dropping off Emilea but then when we were leaving Tiara at preschool she realized that they were both gone and started crying " no leave my Ty-ia!!!" over and over. I assured her that we would get her back and once we got home for a nice muffin she was all good with that lol! it will be a different year for her but I am sure we will find some adventures of her own for her to participate in!

have a happy Thursday :)

beautiful noise

I dropped off both Emilea and Tiara this morning, my first ever morning leaving them both. Emilea; starting grade two thinks she is an old pro, but I still walk her in for the first day and see that she is unpacked and settling in ( and of course snap my quick photo) before leaving with my other little ones in tow as usual. But then, Tiara's turn came next, she was so excited and well prepared for this next step in her little life. Such growth from last year when I couldn't even leave her at Sunday school. She happily went in, hung up her jacket and put on her shoes, then off to a spot on the mats just as if she had done it so many times before. A wave goodbye and Kaiella and I were off. After a great summer of loving the time together the girls had begun to just have enough of each other this last week, just picking on each other and needing some space and more structure. So I was actually looking forward to my mornings with just Kaiella, a time to take a breath and give her some undivided attention. But as we drove home from Tia's preschool the van was unusually quiet, one little 2 year old looking out the window way back there. I got to thinking that while I welcome a few moments of quiet here and there I really do savor their noise LOL! All of those little voices so filled with wonder and new ideas, so much to tell me with such sincerity and innocent honesty. I love this world of mine mom-ing these little people, they really are my gifts! Even when things get hectic and most often somewhat loud, they are a total pleasure. I can't imagine how I will feel when the day comes to drop them all off for the whole day and go home to an empty house. Life evolves and changes and I will too, but I am happier than happy for now to be surrounded by small voices and little hands to hold. This is my paradise. Annual backpack photo to come later!

I think most kids have gone back to school now, I hope you are all settling well into your days. And for those with small ones still at home, please stop today and remember to just savor their beautiful noise it really is precious!

thankful & Happy

I am happy.

happy to be right here right now. The leaves have begun to change and the air is fresh and crisp yet still so wonderfully warm, we have the windows open and the freshness blowing in makes me stop and breathe deeply. I have gotten some cleaning and laundry done today which always feels so good. With the kids rooms tidied and re-arranged I stop to take an Extra long satisfying peek in as I walk down the hallway. And folding the fresh warm laundry makes me feel loving. The kids are so excited about school starting this week; Emilea ever-planning which skirt she should wear on which day and Tia walking around with her new backpack on feeling good about starting preschool ( this is big!) So as I go about the chores of the day and observe my family doing their thing around the house I just feel truly blessed and totally satisfied to be right here, nothing exciting or out of the ordinary has happened but I am just happy to have a special today. Tell me, what made your today special?

peek of perfection

"only a little peek of you at two years old. What I see is pure perfection in the way God made you perefctly you Love, Mama"

This was supposed to be my lift of our guest goddess over at scrap artist; steppedonaleggo, but it ended up being less of a lift and more of an 'inspired by' layout. Her wonderful inpiring layout is found here: http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/s...;ppuser=1 930 A totally talented scrapper!!! credits for my layout can be found HERE

A swingin weekend

Hello all! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. I have to say that I am Sorry for ignoring my blog in the last few weeks, I have had some adventures that I will have to come and write about. But for today I just wanted to say that I am totally glad to be spending this weekend enjoying the Blessings of friends and family, sunshine and the anticipation in the air for school beginning next week. We are not going away, just sticking close to home and getting lots done but it is wonderful just to be all together. Enjoy your time whatever the weekend may hold for you!

Just popping in to say...

Hello from me!!!

Cam turned the camera on me out in the backyard yesterday, nothing fancy just me being me in my house clothes and pigtails, but I'm glad when he does sometimes because all to often I am missing from the story, you know, I take all the pictures and then am not in them.

Was out tonight at my craft night with the Lisas. I always enjoy this crafty , munchy, creative, girl time. It is totally good. Even though I have a ton on the go I just wouldn't miss it! and I went to Dalcrafts on my way (one of our scrapbook stores here) just for a couple of things . Was the first time in a long time, do I ever just love walking around and being surrounded by all that good stuff!!! I just want to get my hands on all of it and play with everything! I almost bought Elsie's new book but I was good and resisted..it will happen...But not today :) I am so tired tonight , been having busy days with the girls, good busy though. Playing school, Emilea writing numbers and words and Tiara is learning to write her name, and trying to tech them to clean up what they pull out, so lots of stopping everything to clean up together. They really play nicely all three of them, which is pretty good considering that 7, 4, and 2 is a pretty big age range for play buddies!

Today I am thankful for answers, and helpful friends, God's love, and good family time, oh and let's not forget craft night!...I am thankful for craft night too

Outside the box with patterned paper

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ok, this week really is my Outside the box challenge over at Scrap Artist! Sorry for the false alarm last week :) I like this challenge I think it is fun, and I wish I did this more often! what it is is cutting shapes from your patterned paper and using them to embelish your layout. you can do this by selecting and removing the background so that only the shapes remain, or by removing the background from only one part by hand ( digitally) and if you're working with good ol' paper then pick up those scissors and get cutting!!! remember to come over and show us your pages in the OTB gallery, and come say Hi in the forum ok?!

I made this anniversary card and cut the flowers out from Lisa cohen's Tropical hideaway paper, all of the embelishments are from Michelle Coleman's Savoir Faire.

An example of cutting away the background and using the whole paper is down below if you scroll to my post called "Thinking Face" where I used the spots to embelish the page.

Hope you join in the fun!!! Happy Sunday

so happy to be swimming at long last!!!

a little visual aid to tell the story

Eyes of observation

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This is a super simple layout I did of Tiara ( I know, I know, gotta get some on here of the other 2!) It has hidden pull-out journaling that says: "your eyes are always watching, observing and taking in your surroundings.You watch from a distance for some time before deciding if you will join in . And sometimes you just decide to participate by observing and that is Okay. Watch as long as you need to, take it all in sweet girl."

I have learnt so much from her how to slow down and be more sensitive, she really has always needed that in her little world. But for me it has been an area of growth in our four years together to learn to stay back and watch with her, and I have taught her to just tell others " I am not ready" when she needs to. I wanted to make her a page to let her know that I love her just for who she is and that it is just fine to be an observer as much as she needs to. I had fun making the flowers and swirls and I am totally loving Katie's new floss stitches! Coming soon over at the Designer Digitals store For a full list of supplies you can check it out here.

yesterday was a dirty grumpy day! The very short version is that we have a pool, didn't ever really want a pool, but it came with this house 3 years ago and needed a new liner so it has been waiting to be fixed. It finally got re-done this year ( a whole big kaffufel that I won't go into ). So yesterday Cam was replacing a few of the lines while the concrete is all broken off still, and I guess something didn't get plugged up right so the very short version is that when he cut the old line there was a Huge amount of water rushing out like crazy! It holds 60,000 litres of water...So there is the two of us, filled with wet mud ( I mean clothes, hair, skin, COVERED!) arm deep in it all trying to stop the water, water is gushing way to fast to stop or bail, adrenaline is pumping, both shaking, praying Hard!! For sure a bonding moment in retrospect LOL. We really had to work together. It is all good now and after a few years of having a hole with a swamp in the backyard we are finally up and running! whoohoo!

with all of our work in the back these last few weeks we have totally neglected our house, today was cleaning day...wow felt great! Cam tackled the kitchen, so nice to see the counter again LOL and the kids had trashed their room, so I worked together with the 2 older girls to get everything back in it's place and it looks so nice now, they are so proud. I keep opening the door and peeking in just because it looks great! Today I am thankful for my home and the way we can work together as a family.

my 3 Blessings

How Blessed am I???

On Lac du Bonnet beach

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here is my sweet Tiara on the beach, in Lac du Bonnet this past weekend. It was so peaceful for her and she really enjoyed it! I did this layout using mostly goodies from Scrap Artist and a few others, my supply list can be found here. I love these photos of her, they make me happy :) This is the beach where I spent so much time when I was growing up. My Gramie's house was just off of the beach and I would spend a good part of my summer's there, it was so nice to take my children there and make some new memories with them.

A rainy day here today, but still lots to get done. We have been working on our backyard while Cam is on holidays lots to take care of back there, but it is really coming along. Yesterday we got landscape fabric down in the gardens and rocks in one and cedar chips in the other, looks so nice and neat! The day before Cam built a swing set for the kids and we built them a sandbox before that, just things we have been wanting to do for a long time. Lots of work but even more fun!!!

good time away

We definetly had a really nice time out at the lake, and although it was jam-packed with fun, we were able to find those peaceful moments I was craving as well. Sitting together as a family at sunset eating ice creams with the beach to ourselves , meeting up with long-lost family and cousins from other provonces, some I haven't seen in 15 years and some even longer so it was a real treat to be all together. I will have to load in my other photos and get a few up on here. But when I saw this one that I took of the sap dripping out of uncle Martin's tree I thought, yes in the peaceful moments we have eyes to see things like this. So much beauty in God's great world! When life gets busy I think all to often we rush by without really seeing the beauty around us, just too busy getting where we are going and doing what needs to be done. I even got a shot of some baby birds in their nest. Just enjoyed taking it all in and breathing the fresh country air. Stop today to take a deep breathe and tell me what you see, what is beautiful in your world?

Finding peaceful moments

ok well, I still have a bunch more photos from Chicago that I wanted to share, but I'll have to settle for just getting this one on here today because we have to get going. Just sitting down for a second.

I loved this peaceful spot. In the middle of busy downtown Chicago, a super pretty courtyard with benches and gardens and this fountain, it was the perfect spot to just breathe and for a few minutes forget all of the busyness going on so close by. As you can see on the street behind me everything was still going on but from right here it was peaceful. I love this photo to remind me of that, to remind me to find those peaceful moments amid all of the hustle and bustle we create in our life. I need that so much, I just sometimes forget to take it! Excited for this weekend to enjoy peaceful moments with my children and Cam, I'm not bringing his laptop or even my magazines, just a journal and of course my camera. aahh sounds good!

Thinking Face

This is a layout I did a little while ago with some of the fantasic product I got being Holly McCaig 's guest fairy chick for June. My Tiara is such a character, on this day she was sitting on the lawn practicing faces, and when I went to see what was happening, she makes this face and says "look mama this is my new thinking face" hahahahaha!!!! this girl just makes me laugh! Holly's product is available at Plain Digital Wrapper, lots of good good stuff there.

I am working on the out of the box challenge for Scrap Artist this week and I thought of this layout. To make the circle cut-outs I used a piece of spotted pp and selected and cut out the background leaving only the circles, totally fun and way easier then cutting many seperately. So I think my challence will be to use pp and cut it up to create some kind of fun elements on your page, stitch it down attach it with brads, tear it up, doodle on it... you name it. Get creative! Come over to the scrap artist outside the box forum after Sunday and show me what you've got! or come and leave me a link here! I love to see everyone let go and play!!!!

It's a long weekend for us here in Canada this weekend so we are just getting ready to head out to the lake at Lac du Bonnet, where I grew up spending so many of my summers, I'm so excited to take the kids and to see all of my cousins and family at the Tetrault reunion!!! whatever you are doing this weekend remember to chereish the time together it is just so precious!!!

Edited to say:

sorry, false alarm! the scrap artist schedule was bumped back by a week after the big anniversary bash, so come and check it out next week and my challenge will be posted then!

small things, great JOY

Today remember to find Joy in the little things.

Tiara is afraid of so much, she had the courage for the first time to touch a ladybug and pick it up! As it crawled on her arm she was shouting out " she likes me mama!!! she is tickling me!" I am so proud of tiara for finding the courage to try, and I am reminded to find the great Joy in the little things!

Fun facts

Over on our Creative team board this week at Designer digitals we answered a few fun questions. I know plenty of people have done this but I have not. I thought it was great to read fun facts about some of the other ladies and decided I'd copy my answers here just for kicks.

Four jobs I have had in my life: was a foster parent, ran a daycare, was a nursing assistant, taught scrapping workshops

Four movies I can watch over and over: Save the Last Dance, Mary Poppins ( my favorite!!!) Anne of Green Gables, and Annie...What can I say I am just a BiG kid!

Four places I have lived: an apartment in the city, a 5 bedroom trailer in the country, a sunny little hundred year old house with beautiful stained glass windows, and a nice sized 4 level split in a good family neighborhood...But all here in Winnipeg where we were both born and grew up! Not too exciting but we are happy

Four TV shows I love to watch: Grey's Anatomy, Alias ( so sad it is over!), CSI, Crossing Jordan

Four places I have been on vacation: Florida & Bahamas ( a Disney cruise Awesome Fun!!!), Jamaica ( our honeymoon), Mexico ( Cam's work sent us ), Chicago (CHA!)

Four of my favorite dishes: ice cream and fresh blueberries ( does this count as a dish?), Tortellini and 4 cheese sauce baked with cheese on top ( LOVE pasta and reeeally LOVE cheese!), breakfast for supper...Love it! Pancakes or homemade Belgian waffles with warm fresh made pudding on top and fresh fruit mmmmmmmm!!!! All that goodness!, and I love a BIG bowl of cereal a MUST have everyday

Four websites I visit daily: Designer digitalis, Scrap Artist, my Yahoo mail, and CK

Four places I would rather be right now: AAAhh! Well...Hawaii would be nice ( just have to get there someday!), the beach any beach, sleeping in my bed , and to be honest I am thankful and happy to be here right here right now I love my life I am truly Blessed there is nowhere else I would rather be!

and I just have to add here because I have been asked so often...

My first name: Christie-Dawn ( I have been called C.D. by everyone except my mom for ever!)

Fun!!! Thank-you all so very much for all of the wonderful thoughts and kind Congrats re: SOY!, I feel really special and totally Blessed! You all make me smile so so big