Family Haps and Other Ramblings
Today when I picked Brooke up from school she asked me why some children were a different color than their parents and then she quickly said, "O forget it." Well, this was way to good to let drop so I had to pry a little.

I said, "Honey, what do you mean?"
Brooke: "Well, why is Arthur (made up name to protect the innocent) brown and his daddy is white?"
Me: "Well what color is his mommy?"
Brooke: "I don't know, I've never seen her"

Knowing this particular little boy had very light brown skin I explained that maybe his mommy was "brown" and his daddy was white and when people of two different colors have children the children usually have the darker colored skin. Or, I said, sometimes people of one skin color adopt a child with another color skin.

So, that segued us into the adoption conversation.

Brooke: "Why do people adopt?" and before I could answer her she says, "Oh, I know, they adopt out their child because either they don't know how to take care of them, they don't have enough money or they don't like the kid! She said this last little bit very matter of factly.

Well, I certainly wasn't ready for my little girl to be so world-wise as to think that parents actually didn't like their children so I said, "Honey, most of the times that people give up their child for adoption it is because they cannot take care of them. It's not because they don't like them." She looked at me and once again my five, almost six year old said VERY matter of factly, "Mom, SOMETIMES they give them up for adoption because they don't like them, I know! I got the distinct inmpression that my sweet little girl wanted me to know that she would not be guarded from this. She knew and she wanted me to know that she knew! What am I going to do when she is thirteen???

Scrappin' News
I have been meaning to tell you about this amazing, free shareware program that is just great! It's called Noiseware. If you have pics that were shot at low resolution or for some other reason have alot of noise, this program is what you need. Here is a before and after picture. This pic was taken by my niece with her cell phone. It was such a great pic but it was way to grainy to use until I ran it through Noiseware. The one on the left is the BEFORE.














Well, Dana Frantz has a new kit out called Hippie Couture. It is so pretty, you need to go check it out!










Here are two layouts as well that I did with her new kit Daisy Lemonade which I mentioned in the last post. For the one on the right I used Chrissy Williams' template in the Mixin' It Up Again set at Digital Candy. The site is down today for upgrades, otherwise I'd link you up. Credits here.




















Kristin Cronin-Barrow also has a new kit that was released on Saturday called The Good Life.

Family Haps and Other Ramblings
I was hoping for nice sunshiny day to keep me motivated in my Spring cleaning but it is a dreary and cold so here I sit to update my blog. My blog has fallen a little behind so I am reassuring myself that this indeed needs to be done.

Since I didn't update my blog around Easter I thought I'd share a funny little Brooke story. Brooke was home from school Monday and Tuesday with a sinus infection and so Tuesday I was out running a few errands with all three kids. Connor and Brooke were bickering and they had just stepped on my last nerve. I got into the car where they both were verbally stumbling all over each other to tell me what the other had done. I said, "Waaa, waaa, waaaa, you guys sound like two babies." ( I know, a very caring mother I am) Well, Connor thought it was kind of funny but Brooke's feelings were mortally wounded. With quavering voice and tears that she was squeezing out of her eyes he said, "I feel just like Jesus did when he was on the cross and they poked the spear in his side." I, of course, was more than a little taken aback that she had compared her wounded feelings to the agony of crucifixion so I said, "Brooke, you are telling me that just because Connor hurt your feelings you feel as bad as Jesus did when he died on the cross? With a harumph Brooke retorted, "Yes I do and God is the ONLY one who understands how I feel!"

Well, I must say that I felt nudged at the moment to think before I spoke because Brooke really was taking this very seriously. So, I said to her, "You know what Brooke? There are many times that no one is going to understand how you are feeling, not even Mommy and Daddy. However, you are right, God does understand how you feel and he always will so you should always tell him how you are feeling." So, from alot of bickering and drama came a little lesson that I hope will stick with Brooke and me for a long time!

In other news...have I mentioned that I'm walking the Music City 1/2 Marathon in April? Well, I am and I am not prepared!! Lets just say that my schedule has not worked with all the long walks I'm supposed to be doing. Well, last Sunday after lunch Judy and I with a few others went on a 7 mile walk. Let's just say that by the time I got home I had to pick my butt up and carry it through the door! I limped off to bed that night and skipped my spin class the next morning. Brooke had a sinus infection so it was a good excuse. I don't think I would have gone anyway. My legs would have revolted!!! Anyway, that gave me a good dose of reality to think that my walk is only 4 weeks away! So, I'm off to my eight mile walk tomorrow!

Scrappin' News
I haven't gotten many LOs done this month. I thought that I would scrap a ton while we were in TX on spring break but it just didn't happen. I do have two to show you though. This first one is with the Flirty Girl kit by Laura Deceatis. I'm a guest on her CT this month. She is the owner of Shabby Pickle Designs and she also sells at The Sweet Shoppe. So here's my LO using Flirty Girl. Credits here.



















Kristin Cronin-Barrow brought back an old kit which she updated called O Happy Day. The colors are beautiful and the elements are fantastic so go check it out! I'm going to be doing another page with the kit because I only used a few of the elements for this very simple page so I'll let you see what else I do with it. Credits here.








Dana Frantz released a kit this week called Daisy Lemonaide. It is so pretty and I'm off to scrap with it today. Here's a preview of it. She has another gorgeous kit coming in the next day or two so make sure to check back!

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Family Haps
I cannot believe that Connor is four years old! Time has literally flown by and he is such a big boy now. He is absolutely cuter than ever!! He has come out of his little shell so much this past year. I believe it was the day that Brooke went to Kindergarten that he started talking. Well, not quite but he sure does talk a whole lot more with her out of the house. I think he could never get a word in edgewise before!

Connor is still so literal and I LOVE that about him!! He's also a little passive aggressive which is so hilarious! But, back the to literal thing. The other day in the van on the way to take Brooke to school Connor said "stupid" which is something we don't say at our house. Of course, "Miss Reporter" informed me of this infraction. So, here's the rest of the conversation...

Me: "Connor, we don't say stupid at our house"
Connor: "But we're not at our house.
Me: speechless...what could I say...he was correct!

For Connor's birthday we are taking him and a few friends to see Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. We have the original Grinch movie and the original Horton story is at the end of the video. Connor has loved this story and has watched it over and over. To get us ready for the movie tomorrow Dale helped Connor and Brooke adopt Whos on the Disney website. Brooke and Connor very kindly named their Whos after our dear friends Emma and Alan. I'm sure Emma will be excited to see that she has pink hair and a potbelly :)

So - here's a LO for his birthday! Credits here.

Scrappin' News
Well, the big news for today is that yesterday I received my March/April Digital Scrapbook Magazine which features one of my layouts! It was really exciting to see my work printed. So, I thought I'd share the page with you and we'll just leave it there for today.

Credits:
Background paper: Barb Catrone Flavorfall Papers
Ribbon: Eve Recinella's Frolicsome kit
Flower: Heather Manning's Katiana Kit
Beautiful Definition: Miss Peppermint's Dictionary Defined Girls
Brush Frame: Kim Crother's Tuscany kit
Font: Eight Fifteen

"Do 'Tormatoes' have Neighborhoods?"

Family Haps
My dear, sweet Connor asked me this today while we were on a bike ride through our neighborhood and I thought it was just so cute. By the way, he meant tornadoes. About a month ago we had some pretty bad tornadoes that swept through Middle TN and so we had to get everybody into our coat closet (which thankfully is quite large for a coat closet) under the staircase. We live quite near the warning sirens and they are so loud! This is the first time that Connor has really gotten scared by something like this. It was so pitiful...after everything had settled down we put the kids back in bed in the guest room and I was working on the computer. Brooke went back to sleep but Connor's eyes were so big and fearful. He didn't say anything but he kept looking out the window. It made me so sad for him. Apparently, he still thinks about it because today on a bright and beautiful almost spring day he was still thinking about "tormatos".

In the last post I told you I would share some pics from Destin so I thought before too much time had passed I'd better do it! My girlfriend, Emma, had a condo in Destin for a week so four of us headed down there for some "girl" time. It was so nice to get away for a few days and just relax without any responsibilites. And, we had uninterrupted scrap time!

Scrappin' News

It's been a while since I've posted any LOs so I thought I'd share a few with you. Here's one I did for The Sweet Shoppe's Recipe challenge. I used Dana Frantz's new kit, Whisper. It is so pretty!

This next LO I did was from a kit called Hello Sunshine from Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Traci Reed. It is such a perfect summer kit! I also used Chrissy W's Lotsa Photos templates (I turned a one page template into a two page template). Chrissy's templates are so wonderful - you've gotta check them out here.

Credits for LOs can be found here.

Frosty the Snowman

Wow!!! What a month February was. I think I'm just now recovering! We had three weekends away - a marriage retreat, a Sunday school retreat and a girls (long) weekend in Destin! And this weekend we had snow!

We started our weekend off right last night! We had dinner with friends at our favorite Mexican place - Panchos. Afterwards we came back and played a rousing game of Kanasta (guys against girls) and then went to bed with it snowing. We woke up with 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground so we had a fun morning with the kids building a snowman and sleighing. Here are a few pics of us out in the snow today. For the rest of the day we just lazed around (which means I scrapbooked) and pretty much took advantage of a quiet day at home.


Well, I know this post was pretty short but I needed to slowly get back into my blog - I certainly wouldn't want to overdo it after such a long absence. Seriously, since we lose an hour of sleep tonight it's already 11pm CST so I'm gonna leave you with these cute pics and come back next week and share my Destin pics and some of the LOs I've been working on!