New Release for Valarie Ostrom

Check out this new collab kit, Me, Myself & I, over at Elemental Scraps by Valarie Ostrom and Simply Scrappy. It has some really pretty colors in it. I love the turquoise and the brown together.

I thought it was perfect for the photos from the night Josie was rinsing her hair herself.

She's definately a Growing!

Monday, when she woke from her afternoon nap, she was taking her babies to the potty. She had already taken "baby boy" and was in the process of taking "fat baby". I was in the laundry room folding some clothes and she comes running in there and tells me she dropped the paci. I didn't think much about it, right now she is going through the phase that she can't do anything and Mommy has to do it all. So I went in the bathroom to see what was wrong, and she had dropped her paci in the toilet while talking to "fat baby". Gross!!! Luckily, I had just flushed it. So I dug it out and took it to the dishwasher and told her she would have to wait until after dinner, when Mommy ran the dishwasher before she had her paci back. She never mentioned it again the rest of the afternoon. So that night when it was bed time, I snuck it to Mikey just in case to see what would happen. She asked for it a few times while going to sleep with Daddy, but she fell asleep without it. So when she would ask for it, we would tell her "remember, you flushed it down the toilet". Then she was fine. So she has officially not had her paci since 3:00 on Monday. We have taken 1 nap since and slept 2 nights without it. So sometime this weekend we have to go get her a new kitty! :-)
Last night was dance class and Daddy went with us. When I got home and after Mama Mike left, I told her we needed to go change clothes for dance class. She went in her room and told me she needed a skirt like the "irls". I didn't realize that at this age, we have to be like the other "irls!" But i guesss so. Which she has been the only one not in a leotard. But quite honestly, I didnt' figure we would make it past this month with the way she has just been standing against the wall. PICKING HER NOSE!!!! But last night she actually socialized with the other girls. Even trying to pick two of them up. I don't know why she thought they needed carried. But after class, three of the mom's made comments about Josie actually participating. Her feet even moved a few times! :-) I just hope it wasn't because Daddy was there with the camera, or Daddy is going to have to continue to go.
This morning when we were leaving to go to Mama Carole's, she wanted to take one of her Bitty Babies and her backpack. So when we got in the car, I was taking the Bitty Baby out of the backpack and she started singing "Baby, break my heart!" I don't know where that song came from, but it was way too funny!

Memory Works

Just thought I would spotlight this on the blog. I've sold for this company for quite sometime and I like the idea of this.

Simple Stories featured on Ali Edwards Blog...

Enter to win entire ele.ment.ary Collection!

MemoryWorks Simple Stories has received RAVE reviews from customers, scrapbookers and industry professionals alike. We're highlighted on Ali Edwards blog , where you can enter to win the entire ele.ment.ary collection, and are the featured sponsor on her new website! Simple Stories was also highlighted on Creating Keepsakes blog as one of September 2010 CK Latest-and-Greatest products. We've also been featured on Good Things Utah, highlighting the new ele.ment.ary and Life Documented Simple Stories kits!

Hundreds of scrapbookers have embraced scrapbooking the Simple Stories way...what are you waiting for?

Contact me at sljonesdesigns@yahoo.com and I can set you up for your order.

Paci~ Maybe ~ Maybe Not

We've been trying to get rid of the pacifier for a while now. I told her that if we get rid of it we'll go get her a kitty. So tonight while she was in the shower I clipped the paci to see if that would work. Later tonight she was wanting her paci so I gave it to her. She didn't make a big deal of it. But then when we went downstairs to go to sleep, she was laying on me in the rocking chair, and she says "Mommy, my paci is broke" I said it is, she says "it got a hole in it". I said it does, how did that happen? She said "I don't know". So I told her to go throw it away. And she said "okay". I'm thinking yal right but we got up anyway and went to the trash can. She takes it out of her mouth at the trash can and is standing there holding it over the trash can, she says "I throw it away?" I told her yes and we would go get a kitty tomorrow. She says "a kitty, tomorrow, I throw it away?" I told her yes and she's still standing there with it holding it over the trash can. And she says "Mommy, I don't want to". So I told her fine go back to bed. So we go back in the bedroom and as she is going to sleep, you can hear her chewing on her paci. Don't know if this will work or not, but we'll try! If not we're just going to have to throw them away and deal with the effects of it.

New Blog Design!

Now I got it! Check out my new blog!!! I designed all of this with the help of the Blogger class from Jessica Sprague's by Crystal Wilkerson & Kristina Proffitt.
I'm still not done tweaking but so far I am loving it. Although now I've added another "to do" to my list but I like being able to do what I want with it instead of uploading it from Cutest Blog on the Block.
The papers & embellishments are from the Echo Park Apothecary & Tricks kit that you can find at Jessica Sprague.
Now off to finish up my little touches!

Fruity Kit by Valarie Ostrom

Check out this cute kit! It is full of fruits, purples, greens and yellows. It reminds me of spring! So I had to scrap a photo of the two girls on a spring day that I and Aunt Emily took them to Cascades Park to go play while Bubby was in the woods turkey hunting with Uncle Mikey.

Fruity Kit by Valarie Ostrom
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/Fruity-Papers.html
http://www.elementalscraps.com/shoppe/Fruity-Elements.html

Stitching is by Jessica Sprague that I received in one of my class downloads.

Height Predictor

I received an email today with a link to a Height Predictor on your child. All you do is put in your child's age, current heigh and weight, and then both parents height. It came up saying that Josie's prediction was 5 ft 9 in at age 18. I thought this was a fun link and thought I would share.
As far as her prediction, we'll find out in another 16 years. But Mommy can wait, I'm enjoying this age even though she is tempermental at times.
Check it out and let me know what your predictions are!

Congratulations to Me!

Yeah! I have applied for three Creative Teams for three different designers. I have heard back from two of these and am now on their teams.
One is Snips & Snails and I have not been able to post any of her layouts yet. I have four completed, and am waiting the go ahead from her. So those you will have to wait on.
Then the next day, I received a response from Valarie Ostrom at Elemental Scraps. She accepted me as part of her team as well. I finally got everything figured out there and was able to get a page done. This is it:

This layout was made using the Over the Rainbow Kit which you can find here.

I hope I do these girls proud as I really like their stuff! You can check out Valarie's shop here.
And I will get you Snips & Snails link as soon as I am given the go ahead. You'll like her stuff as well!

Thank you ladies for this opportunity!

Kites, French Lick, Cousins, Birthdays & Dance

Friday while Josie was at Michelle's they got the kites out since it was windy. This was Josie's first time of flying a kite and she thought it was hilarious. What was really funny was when she accidently let go of the string and the kite took off. Watching all three of them run after the kite was such a site to see.

This past Friday night we met Dad & Mom in French Lick for the kids to play in the pool. Rick & Michelle headed down with the kids shortly after 4:00 and Mike and I headed down after he got off work to meet them. When we got there Dad met us and I went straight to the room to change into a bathing suit not thinking a thing about it. I figured the kids were in the inside pool and all was well. Well when we got down there they weren't in the indoor pool cause it was ice and the outdoor pool was warmer. That was fine and dandy but the wind was blowing so being above water was not fun.

We got the kids talked into going to the hot tub instead. Riley & Josie went right in, however Kayla whined about it for a while until she got brave enough to get in. They had a blast in it. Josie is way too brave for her britches! She was constantly jumping off the steps and at one point, she reached up to the railing and picked her feet up and slid straight down the railing into the water. She most definately keeps Mommy on her toes.

The kids didn't want to get out of the tub but there was a KidFair outside with inflatables, face painting, balloons, and carnival games. Once Josie got  use to the inflatables she had fun. (Mommy had to go in with her the first time and then on one other ride.) Once done with those Riley & Josie got their face painted. Riley told her she wanted a pirate flag but instead got the skull & bone, Josie wanted a kitty and she got that. She was so happy! Kayla didn't want anything so she just got a sword balloon and she was content with it. All in all, I think everyone had a good time! Would really like to do it again and have some time to go on the train as well. That and I hope the next time the indoor pool is warmer!

After we were done, we left the kids in the room with the Dad's & Papa to take their baths and Mama, Michelle and I went to the casino. I lost $32 in about 15 minutes, but it was fun!

Saturday after we finally got Josie to wake up from her nap, we headed down to Cindy's. Amy was here from Virginia and they were having a cookout. We had a really good time. The kids played and watched movies. They all got a long really well.

Sunday, we were going to go to Riley's game, but once again Josie napped over because she wouldn't go to sleep. She finally feel asleep around 3:30 and I didn't want to wake her. Plus everyone was coming over anyway to celebrate Uncle Nathan's birthday. We had pizza, ice cream, cake and cookie. And once again, Josie dug in the icing. But this time, we had the cake on the counter and she went and got her stool and climbed up on it so she could reach the cake to get in the icing. Then when she was sitting on Uncle's lap to blow out the candles, she was grabbing handfuls of icing.

I think is going to be one continuous photo of her at birthdays. But Mommy likes icing too, so she gets it honest.

I love Riley's face in this one, laughing at Josie. Kayla oblivious to what is going on.

The kids had a good time, playing in the room with all of the toys in it. Kayla got into all of Josie's dress up stuff. Rick put up Josie's tent and you could sneak in the room and listen to the three in the tent calling Kayla, "Your Majesty". Aw, the days of imaginations! Why do they go away?!

Kayla even dressed up Papa Doug.

Tuesday night was Josie's first dance class for this semester. I don't know who's child that was in that classroom, but it wasn't my daughter. She would stand in the corner and just watch the girls, not participating at all. If she was her normal self, she would have been pushing the girls off the balance beam so she could have a turn and hitting them with the pom-pom's. But not last night! Even Mommy was in the room doing the dances looking like an idiot trying to get her to do it.

This morning when we left the house, she wanted to take her cell phone and her camera with her to Aunt Michelle's. On the way over there she informs me to turn the radio down, so I do, she gets on her phone and calls, Michael. Stating, "Mommy, quiet, I call Michael."

Technology, what is it doing! :-) I can blame this one on Daddy for sure, cause I'm never on my cell phone, it is always him.

Scrap Layouts

Been back on the scrapbooking trip! I've actually even made some paper layouts which I will try and get photos of this weekend. But these I have taking some more classes at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ again.

Photos: April 16, 2010

Template: Jessica Sprague

Papers: Jessica Sprague

Woodgrain Frame: Danielle Thompson

Circle Tag: Crystal Wilkerson

Large Photo Block Frame: Katie Pertiet

Title Text: Stereofidelic from dafont.com

Photos Taken: April 13, 2010

Template: Jessica Sprague

Blue Paper: Jessica Sprague

Orange large Dot paper: Crystal Wilkerson

Orange small dot paper: Jessica Sprague

White Paper: ateets whitie tighties

Picnic Header: My writing

Journal Font: Century Gothic

Photos Taken: April 4, 2010

Template: Jessica Sprague

Background Paper: JSprague WeKit Silouhette

Striped Paper: Crystal Wilkerson

Round Label: Crystal Wilkerson

Round Embellishments: Crystal Wilkerson

Font: You Are Loved from dafont.com

Photos Taken: April 27, 2010

Template: Jessica Sprague

Background Paper: Crystal Wilkerson Color Me Happy #3

Brown Paper: Jessica Sprague

Flower Stamps & Overlays: Jessica Sprague & IStock Photos

Brushes: HighColor Water Brushes from Bittbox.com

Diamond Paper: Crystal Wilkerson Color Me Happy #3

Photos Taken: April 5, 2010

Template: Shannon Jones

Diecut Paper: Jessica Sprague

Stripe Paper: Crystal Wilkerson

Photo corners: Unknown

Flowers: Farrah's Creations

Title font: Elephant

Photos Taken: July 11, 2010

Template: Jessica Sprague

Striped Paper- Colorful Patterned Paper Pack, Crystal Wilkerson

Border- Sweet Vintage Charm Elements Pack, Crystal Wilkerson

Gray stitching- You Are Awesome Mini Kit, Kari Holt

Worn Notebook Paper- The Room Collection Elements Pack, Crystal Wilkerson

Tree Bark Paper- Phoebe's Room Paper Pack, Crystal Wilkerson

Staples- The Room Collection Elements Pack, Crystal Wilkerson

Alphabet- Spooky Alphabet Stickers, Crystal Wilkerson

Tape- Aug 09 Back to School Elements, Crystal Wilkerson

Font: PeaJay from Fonts for Peas

Photos Taken: September 2, 2010

Template: Shannon Jones

Background Paper: Crystal Wilkerson Color Me Happy

Swirl Overlays: House of 3

Striped Paper: Crystal Wilkerson

Tape: Crystal Wilkerson

Brad: JadyDay Studio_A Mother's Story

Cruisin, Band-aids, Paints, Playdough, Doctor & Vacation

August 18th: Just cruising around the neighborhood! On her new Barbie trike with her Baby Doll and her new giraffe from the zoo.

Mommy got to take vacation August 23rd through August 30th. It was wonderful!!! Man, now I really wish I could hit that lottery and stay home with her. Didn't have to deal with any whining from her or me! :-) Got up when we wanted to, ate breakfast, played and watched TV, had lunch, took naps (sometimes Mommy too), get up and play some more, fix dinner and eat, then Daddy would get home and she would be all excited to see him. Which was nice and they would play some and then it was bath and bed and time to do it all over again. It was so relaxing and I was alot more relaxed than I am when I have to work.

We went to the doctor on August 23rd for her two year checkup. She weighed in at 34.8 pounds and 36 inches tall. Her development level was that of a Three Year Old. Dr. Malone said he was going to prescribe her some dumb pills to take. The only thing we had to do was a prick on the finger but the child bled like a stuck pig. The nurse had to hold her finger for a while and told me the bandaide needed to stay on a while as well. We left there and went to the bank drive-thru and then went to Kroger parking lot with the intentions of going in Hobby Lobby first. I took her bandaide off in the parking lot cause it was bothering her and it had been at least 15 minutes since she had been taped up. Well Mommy shouldn't have done that! She bled everywhere, the parking lot look like someone had been cut open. I hurried and got the bandaide put back on her and we headed inside to buy some new ones at Kroger's. She picked out SpongeBob and so starts our obsession with boo-boo's and bandaids.

We started hitting potty training hard when I was off too and she is most definately catching on. We still have the poo accidents but that's okay, those will happen. At least now we aren't coming to Mommy with poop in our hand like she did Tuesday when I took my time getting a pull up back on her. That was way gross, Josie!!!

We also tried some new activities. We got out the paints and some paper and we also started playing with playdough at home. Which so far she hasn't lost interest in yet and that will occupy her for quite sometime in order to get stuff done.

We headed back to work on Tuesday, the 31st. Josie nor I wanted to go back to work. She was whining for Mommy, didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want to change clothes. Wanted to lay on the couch with her blanket and watch Nickelodeon. After Daddy left and Mommy finished getting ready we headed downstairs to make my bed before leaving for work. I told her we were going to work after we made the bed and she informed me she didn't want to go to work. I told her that I didn't either and as serious as could be with her hand on her hip, she looks at me and says "U want to go to Church?" Oh Josie, you crack me up! I told her it wasn't "church" day. And off to work we went. She has came with me to work every morning this week except for Friday and she is doing really good with it. Course it helps that I haven't been too busy yet with customers. That will come next Tuesday after a long weekend and the first of the month, then we'll see how well she does. :-) But for this week it has helped with getting us both in the swing of things.

But by last night(Thursday) the early mornings and "her" late nights, I think are finally getting the best of her. I think she only lasted about 10 minutes into her Elmo movie after her bath, while I was getting things ready for the next day. And when I took her down to go to bed, she didn't argue with me at all.

Well I think that catches us back up again!