12 on 12 February

Still working on my 12 on 12 pictures from last night....which means I haven't even printed them yet. ;)

Here are my 12 pictures from yesterday. It was Joe's birthday, so I thought I'd have plenty of pictures to take but I seem to struggle with 12 pictures each time. Hmmmm.....

The girls respected the fact that it was Joe's birthday so they waited for me to get up to make pancakes. They're lucky I love them. ;)

Gianna loves her pancakes & makes it worthwhile when I see her eat AND ask for more.

Birthday boy spent the morning playing with some of his new toys. He's happy.

Gianna started working on getting her Valentine's ready for school. Love that she thinks ahead without much help from me.

Joe really scored for his birthday. He's a movie lover & has TONS of DVDs.

Got my haircut on Friday & I'm still happy with it.

My little helper, emptying the dishwasher.

Marissa needed a little more prodding to work on her Valentine's.

She wasn't feeling good so she wasn't happy with me taking pictures of her. HA!

The Birthday Boy & me. Love him!

After a nice dinner out (yep didn't take any pictures-I'm a SLACKER!), I got into some comfy clothes & took out my old Mickey slippers to warm up in. (It was a COLD night out!)

Watched the Grammy's eagerly waiting to see Adele perform. She was AMAZING!!! So happy she won!

And there are my 12 on 12 for February! I hope to scrap these before I fall too far behind. Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday to My Man!

Today is Joe's Birthday (in case the title didn't give it away). ;)

Can I express how much I love this guy? I don't think I could explain all the reasons, if I tried this might be the longest post in history. :)

So I'll just share a few reasons...

The sparkle in his eyes.
His ready smile.
His ability to make everything better once he walks through the door at the end of the day.
How he makes me laugh daily.
His tender side.
How romantic he his.
His tough side.
How much he adores our daughters.
His protectiveness of us.
When he lets the 5 yr old in him come out.
He's encouraging.
His honesty.
His intelligence.
His easygoingness.
His tolerance.
His ability to do 5th grade math, when it makes my head spin. ;)
His quiet strength.
He knows when I need my space.
He knows when I need comforting.
How he seems to read my mind.
His generosity.
His warmth.
How he'll warm up my side of the bed without asking.
His willingness to stop on his way home for things I forget to do. ;)
How much he loves me.

This LO is a favorite of mine. It shows him at his most relaxed. He's surrounded by his 3 girls & he's having fun .

Happy Birthday Joe!
You are the love of my life!!

February Randomness

Time to play a little catch up.
February seems to be moving along whether I like it or not.

A friend of mine turned me on to working out with the Wii Just Dance 3 . It keeps track of your workouts & really makes you sweat! I like that I can mix it up with the treadmill so it's not a boring routine.


I've been doing a lot more decluttering. I try to take a few bags of "shtuff" to Goodwill each week. I like to think I can hear the house sighing in relief each time I make a trip. ;)

The mileage on my car seemed evil but I believe the dust is the truly evil one.

Got bored with the case for my phone & got something pretty from Old Navy for $10. Very random there.

Joe & I managed to go out for dinner alone. We would've liked to catch a movie too but Joe was beat & a nice dinner without the girls arguing was enough & much needed. Not the greatest pic but I'll take what I can get. ;)

We took the girls to see Big Miracle. I didn't realize I'd need tissues! Yes I'm a sucker...

I'm not much into sports, but if I had to choose I'd pick football. Every year I'll watch the Superbowl (mostly for the commercials) but this year I actually watched the game-due to the Giants playing. I'm not someone who jumps on the bandwagon either, I've always liked them--they're OUR HOME TEAM! And those last two minutes of the game were nerve racking!

I've also managed to squeeze in some scrappy time but I need to take pictures & never seem to remember until nighttime. :/ scrapper fail. Yes I realize I should do this now, but I'm blogging from my phone while stuck at work (Joe took my car to get new brakes--waiting for it to be done).

At Marissa's last dentist appt., the dentist noticed her bottom canine tooth wasn't growing in straight, but HORIZONTAL in her lower jaw. (see the tooth?).

He told us to take her to an orthodontist who confirmed that she will be needing oral surgery. Marissa is not a happy camper at all & I must admit to be freaked out by it all. I just try to hide it in front of her. ;(

We're not sure when she's having the surgery as we need to meet with the ortho some more, but apparently it's pretty common though most cases are in the upper jaw. The orthodontist did give her a fancy goodie bag that made her happy though. Can you say $CHA-CHING$$$$???

Oh and I finally got around to labeling the girls' baby photo albums I worked on back in August/September. Yes I am nothing but a procrastinator.

So that's been my month more or less. Joe's birthday is Sunday so I'm getting the house ready for family coming over to celebrate. Who wants cake??

January 365

Thanks to my phone I've been doing my own daily pics.

I'm hoping to turn these into a mini-album or LO at the end of the year.
I'll play it by ear. ;)

It's a Wrap!

Yeah so that's a corny post title but I can't be entertaining all the time. ;)

Back on our last trip to Disney I found this bracelet. I thought it was pretty & would add a nice pop of color to a basic outfit. Nearby I found one that was all white & picked that up too (you can see a peek of it in the corner there). What I loved about it was that you wrap the strands of beads around your wrist. It was just plain fun. (yes I realize how boring my life must sound like)

I loved the bracelets & wore them every chance I got (not like I really go anywhere, mind you). While showing them to my sister, Chet, one night, she was bouncing it like a slinky & the multi-colored one broke. Younger sisters never outgrow breaking your things. ;) I figured I could find something at Michael's to fix it & gathered up all the pieces.

At some point I found another, similar bracelet at Pier One. I wasn't sure about getting it since I had one in white, but I talked myself into it since it was pearls mixed with black. See how pretty?

Later on, I obviously fixed the multi-colored one, but then I started seeing the possibilities of what I could make too. Apparently, once you make one, you feel like you should make them in every color. The reason there are just four? Michael's selection of beads is just ok. ;)

Seriously, they are such a quick thing to make, that I made them during homework time. The girls & I sit at the kitchen table, they do homework, I make pretty things. It's a complete win-win situation.

For Christmas I made four of these black ones. Three as gifts & one for me. ;) I figured black goes with just about anything.

This week, the girls had a half day at school & asked to go to the mall. While going through Claire's, the girls were giggling over everything when I spotted this little jewelry organizer. When I picked it up I was debating using it for my bracelets or my growing collection of washi tapes. Once I got home the winner was easy & I like how pretty it looks.

It may not be scrappy, but it's been fun. A much needed creative release.

Thanks to Pinterest

Since joining Pinterest, I have been addicted. As much as it is a time waster, there are some great ideas there too.

These are some of the things I've done.... (pics are not mine)....

When I came across this pin I didn't get it until I read the caption. It's a simple, yet brilliant idea. In January, you turn all your hangers backwards. Then in June if it hasn't been turned back it means you haven't worn it in 6 months & you donate it. To read the original idea go HERE, she explains it way better than I do.
Another quick & simple idea was THIS. My batteries are kept in the hallway closet upstairs with a few in our junk drawer. They get lose & jumbled, & I don't like it. When I saw this I recognized the container & knew I had one in the basement. It had some craft supplies in it that the girls don't play with. Those went in a bag & my batteries were stored neatly.

I have to be honest that not all ideas work. I saw THIS, & thought it was a great idea. However, I had wider magazine holders in my basement & they took extra room that were wider than the cans, so they didn't work. I wanted to love this but for me it just wasn't happening.

I have to admit to just having finished packing all our Christmas decorations officially as of yesterday, but during it I managed to do this (website HERE) with some of our ornaments..I usually get the 18 pack of eggs but for awhile I bought them by the dozen & washed the cartons before using them. There might be a few more things I've done thanks to Pinterest but that's all I can remember off the top of my head. ;) I have lots of other ideas that I want to try but haven't gotten around to them yet...probably because I'm busy stalking Pinterest!

12 on 12

This year I have decided to do 12 on 12. It's my take on THIS class. I will take 12 pics on the twelfth of every month & scrap them. More than likely the LO's will have the same design but I'm ok with that since they will not be the same.

I will most likely take the pics with my iPhone but I'm not sticking to any rules. It's just about having fun.

These are my pics for January. I'll scrap them soon, and in case you're wondering, yes I'm still working on packing up the Christmas decorations. It's a LONG process & life gets in the way of it too. Oh well.

Annual January De-Cluttering & Other Ramblings

Today is the first Friday of the new year. In honor of my tradition in our house, I've been de-cluttering. Also known as "Organizing".

My main objective is to tackle the chaos that is our guest room. It's the room we toss stuff in when we don't have another place for it. It also holds the clean laundry that needs to be put away. Please tell me everyone has a room like this!

Unfortunately, this room is starting to look like a room you'd see on "Hoarders". Don't ask me when our show will be aired because I don't know when exactly Hell is due to freeze over.

Obviously, we don't have a lot of house guests since the room has been allowed to go to crap. Mostly my younger sister Chet uses it when she's babysitting & we get home too late for her to drive home. Obviously, she hasn't babysat in a long time either. Still love her. Though I wouldn't say no to a night out. HINT HINT HINT!!! Oh, & in case you're wondering, I still haven't seen Breaking Dawn. Yes I know how much I love the Twilight books & would really, really like to see the movie BUT that would require a sitter.......

So back to the room...

When I go through the girls' closets to determine what they've outgrown, I deposit the clothes into the guest room until I can pack what I want to save since I'm a sentimental sucker, pass it on to a friend, or donate to goodwill.

This is an awfully slow process for me since I procrastinate. However a few weeks ago I packed up what I'd like to keep, leaving the other 2 piles for another day. That day came today.

I made a pile of clothes to pass onto my friend's little girl & the other stuff is set to go to Goodwill.

It feels good to see the furniture again.

Joe has also been talking about getting rid of the furniture & turning it into my scraproom. Does this sound familiar? That's because I've mentioned it before in THIS POST. Once again I have outgrown my scrap area in our Den. Would I like being upstairs? Yes & no. But I would like to be able to leave projects out when we have people over without having to clean it up since my scrap area is sorta open to people walking through the room. I think overall it would be a win-win situation.

So that's been my main objective today. Tomorrow my girlfriend (whom I haven't seen in awhile) & her kids are coming over. It'll be good to catch-up as the kids play.

Sunday will hopefully bring the official start of "De-Christmas-izing the house. Yes, I do have all my decorations still up. It's the same every year. I don't take any of it down until after New Year's. When I was a kid we didn't pack it up until after my older sister Marie's birthday on the 12th. While I don't wait till the twelfth to take it down it just seems like there's other projects that need more priority.

Another thing I've added to my plate is I started walking on the treadmill again. Yes I started last January & did good until about June. Life was just too busy & when I finally re-surfaced I didn't have the "oomph" anymore. This time I hope to be more motivated. Just last night we booked a trip to Disney (again) for Easter/Spring Break in April. At the end of April, Gianna will receive her First Holy Communion (OMG! I can't believe it! It's seems like Marissa just received hers.). So there is plenty of motivation for me to lose some weight. I'm setting my goal small so it's more obtainable, to lose 10lbs by April. More would be great but I don't want to give up hope.

So if you're wondering where I am for a few days, you might not have read this entire post & I probably don't blame you since I tend to ramble on, but next time I'll make the post "pretty" with something to look at. ;)

School Kits 1st Grade Miss G

I've been playing "catch-up" a lot everywhere in my life lately. Whether it be emails, mail, laundry, cleaning, organizing, blogging, laundry, reading, scrapping, exercise, laundry....wait did I say laundry already? Just checking to see if you were paying attention. ;) Anyway you get the idea.

I'm behind in stuff.

However, these school LO's are **almost** done.
Yes, I said done.

Yes, I know soon I will have this years school pics to deal with.
Let me live in the glory of now. 'Kay??

As for Miss G, I am officially done with her school LO's. Say it with me....
WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!

Marissa's will be done soon. I already have 1 LO done but I've been procrastinating about the second one. My mojo has just about dried up with these school LO's, but I'm getting there.

These LO's have been done & just sitting on my desk since sometime in October I believe. Why did it take that long to blog them? I was waiting to finish Marissa's LO's so I could take pics of them all at once. Yeah it sounds lame even when I write it.....

These are Gianna's 1st grade year.....the 1st LO.....


I really am coming up short on ideas without making these all look alike. I'm getting bored. But I'm hoping I can remedy that problem with THIS downloaded from Kerri Bradford's site for the Silhouette.


Since there's so much to journal, I just hand write it. Nothing fancy....


Kept them very similar since there were so many pics. I tucked a few extras in with the journaling pocket.
Hope to get my to do list down to a more manageable list, so that I can get my mojo going again & get these school kits done. Wish me luck!

One Little Word

I've never participated in "One Little Word". Never had the word that felt right. Last night before heading to bed it came to me.

ACCEPTANCE.