Hit the ground running! (part 1)

Wow...

Where has time gone and where have I been?? Once summer ends ( which is the the last time I posted) I jump right into work and hit the ground running.. I have been super duper busy and have had this blog post on my to do list for like 3 weeks... Oh well... life happens right??

This post will be a long one, all about what's been happening since I was last here. I think i will break it into a few parts.

I now have a first grader!!! This is the first day of school. She absolutely LOVES it and adores her teacher too. ( So do I!) She adjusted beautifully and is happy to go to school every day. I love that!! Here is a snap of the two of us on the first day. I'm so glad Daddy thought to take that picture because I didn't. (I do give him a list of all the photos to take since I can't walk her in on the first day because it is my first day with my class too.) He did a good job getting all the pics that a silly scrapbook mom requests!!!

We have been busy with soccer. This year, her team is called the Firecrackers. She has her nickname on her jersey. Which leads me to my next thought... Horses!!!

Yes, she is still riding and LOVING it. We started lessons on another horse as well and his name is Pokey. She still rides Joey and his "sister" Flicka too. Pokey lives a little far away but we drive out to have lessons on him. He is a great "autopia" horse. Sammie does all the work with only a little help from me. She gets him out of the stall, puts his rope on, ( i help put on his halter) and she leads him up the hill and ties him up. She carries the saddle and bridle and does all the grooming. I help her by holding his feet so she can clean his hooves and put on the saddle and bridle because she can't reach!! She is so determined and Pokey is so amazing, he lowers his head for her. Anyway... she has an enormous grin on her face the entire time she rides and she can trot and turn by herself!!!

Well, I have more to share but it is getting late and I am ready for bed.. I will be back soon with part 2. :)

Happy Trails!

It's fun to be a tourist!

We got to stay here for a few days while hubby had a conference. It was so much fun to wake up and go to the parks, pool, etc and to stay out late at night and then go to the hotel instead of driving home. Such a nice luxury that we never get to do, normally. In fact, it was funny because Sammie wanted to spend time at the pool, rather than go to the parks since she does that more often.

So, we were tourists and went to the pool, walked around Downtown Disney, went to "build a PONY", ( also known as build a bear) and ate at Goofy's kitchen. That was a lot of fun and the characters came and spent some time with us.

Here is some of the food, it was all good but some things didn't sound too good.... like this one..

Eeeewwwwww!!!!

They also had peanut butter and jelly pizza! G-R-O-S-S!!!

The Mickey Mouse waffle was good.

The pool was gorgeous!! It was called the Never Land Pool and was Peter Pan themed. It is hard to tell in the pics but there is a pirate ship, skull rock and a cool water slide under the bridge. There was even a little cave-like structure with Ariel, the little mermaid.

I only got these two pics because SOMEONE was trying to "help" me get my camera and took it in the pool, to give to me and held it high above her head, but she is 43" inches tall and the water level was 48" so it only got a LITTLE bit wet... ummmm yah, I have it wrapped up with some moisture absorbing silica gel and am afraid to turn it on.... it wasn't looking so good the day it happened, but maybe, just maybe it will work?? I love my camera.. boo hooo.

We saw the new show, World of Color ( awesome) and the Aladdin show at California Adventure. That was incredible!! Hilariously funny too!

Anyway... it was an awesome "staycation" and we would love to do it again.

I don't like August 1st!

Welcome to my new blog!! (my other cute blog template disappeared and so I had to choose a new one) I made a custom header while I was at it. I like seeing this happy girl's face. :)

Anyway... I have been MIA all this time and now it is AUGUST!!! Teachers don't like August because it means that summer is winding down. Christine and I have officially declared August 1st as "National Teacher Day of Mourning!" Just not ready to go back yet.. I know i still have time but it sure goes fast once August hits. ( sidenote... I don't turn my calendar page to August either... I wait several weeks for it to sink in.)

I have been a busy girl this summer anyway.. I have been ORGANIZING my scrappy stuff and it has taken this long. I have torn my house apart grouping and regrouping my supplies to make it neat and organized. This is a picture of my living room with stuff everywhere!! EEEKK (

I have to say, my stuff is now organized and i can FIND everything in my scrapbook world. It is amazing and exciting and was worth the countless HOURS spent doing it. The scrappy cabinet in the garage, the closet, my armoire. (nope, still not done, but my scrappy-land is functional and AWESOME! It makes me so happy to have a peaceful place.) ( oh wait, I still have the rest of the house to do but it's a start!!) Here's the closet in progress..

Summer is flying by which I know I mentioned but there are so many things we have been doing. My parents were here a few times visiting. Sammie went to horse camp two sessions. We took a trip to Legoland, went to the beach and waterpark. We celebrated our 15 year anniversary, went on a balloon ride, went to Farrell's, Cheesecake Factory, and celebrated a few birthdays. We saw a few movies and we may even take a trip to Walt's place in Florida before the summer ends, we'll see... details are in the works.

Well, that's all for now.

Here is a video of Sammie riding Pokey.

Happy 4th of July!

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share our newest challenge at Scrap it Forward!! It is an easy one and you can do something nice too! :) Please click on the link below to see the challenge and help tell our soldiers how much we appreciate our freedom!!

http://scrapitforward.blogspot.com/2010/07/happy-4th-of-july.html

Enjoy your weekend and celebrate America!!!

And the Winners Are...

Well, first I'd like to say thank you to the Scrap It Forward Design Team for some awesome inspiration and being a great bunch of gals to work with. I'd also like to thank all of you who stopped by to say hello, who made such nice comments on my blog and for signing up as a follower. I appreciate it and will be by to visit your blogs as well, to see what you are up to! :)

I put everyone's name on a piece of paper who left a comment and chose one at random to win the canvas and one to win the RAK and here are the two winners....

The winner of my "fun in the sun" canvas is.... "jennybean"...

The winner of the prize RAK of goodies is "Teresa Jaye"..

Congratulations ladies and thanks so much for participating in our blog hop!! Please send me your email addy's so I can contact you to mail out your prizes!! YEA!!!

Illyse

Blog Hop Fun!!

Hello there! Welcome to Illyse's blog and thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy my blog. I am a scrappy mom who loves taking pics of my daughter and writing about our family life day to day. You probably came here from Scrap It Forward but if not, then hop along from here and have some fun! We are saying goodbye to our guest design team and celebrating their "awesome-ness" with a blog hop!

Here's what you do:

1. Leave a comment on my blog that you were here, hang out a bit, and you can even sign up to be one of my followers. ( I will be having a little prize RAK to be chosen for one of my new followers)

2. Go to Julie's blog next

3. Visit everyone else's blog on our team and then go back to Scrap it forward and leave a comment to say you went to all the blogs. One lucky winner will be chosen to win a prize....

But wait, there's more!!!

Each of us made a cool canvas art to be given away on July 1st to one special blog visitor. How fun is that?? All you have to do is visit each blog and leave a comment, that's it. ( and remember to go to scrap it forward too) It starts today and you have 1 week. June 30th is the last day and the winners will be announced on July 1st.

Here are all the places you need to go:

Scrap It Forward

Illyse's blog ( right here!)

Julie's blog

Vicki's blog

Cher's blog

Christine's blog

Scrap it forward to tell us you completed your scrappy mission!

Here is my canvas that you could win. ( and I will have a scrappy prize RAK for one of my newly added blog followers which will also be chosen and announced July 1st)

Thanks for playing along and remember to Scrap It Forward!

A conversation with Sammie

So... tonight while Sammie was getting ready for bed she said to me, "Mom, wouldn't it be great if horses grew on trees, or we could plant horse seeds and grow horses, and hay, and stables, and barns.. ? Or maybe we can just ask the God guy. He could do it."

LOL!!!

I will be back tomorrow with a recap of what 's been going on lately but i wanted to share that little Sammie-ism before i forget it!!