Happy Halloween

I hope all of you had a nice day and an evening of Halloween fun!

Things have been a bit less than fun here for the last few days - I think I mentioned in my last post that my grandfather has been fighting a battle with pneumonia and after several days in the ICU fighting for his life, he passed away yesterday at 3:30 p.m. It was a very hard day for me - saying goodbye to this man who had such a huge influence in my life while also worrying about my grandmother, his wife of 66 years, and how she's doing after losing this man she's loved so much, for so long. Last night, the entire family gathered at their home and I know that it meant the world to my grandmother to have all of us there with her during this time. She was able to spend time with her sons, 3 of her 5 grandchildren (Taylor is at VA Tech and Elizabeth is in PA with Nina), and all 3 of her great grandchildren. I can only imagine the adjustment she's dealing with and I hope we are able to give her the support she needs to get through it all. My dad will be here all week with her helping to make arrangements and ensuring that she is taken care of. The service will be on Sunday afternoon at their church. I'm trying to find a way to say goodbye to this man that I love and who was such a constant in my life for the last 30 years. He was a good man and I'm glad that I knew him.

On to other things ... we still wanted for the twins to have a Halloween this year despite all of the other things that are going on in our lives. We went over to my Mom and Dave's tonight to get them dressed up and out to trick or treat. Alex was a doggy and Meighan was a pumpkin. They were SO adorable although the pictures are not very representative of how adorable they were since they are constantly on the move and its very difficult to get them to be still for a picture! We pulled them down the street in the wagon, stopping at a few of the neighbors homes for trick or treating. Meighan and Alex totally didn't get it (not that I expected them to) but it was funny to watch them interact with people holding huge bowls full of candy. They were really good but we only went to a few homes. I think that was enough for this year. They will be able to be a bit more involved next year so we'll definately try to do more then. Here are a few of our pictures from tonight ... Enjoy!

Meighan, my little punkin'

Alex, my little puppy!

OH! I also wanted to post a new layout that I put together recently for an All About Me challenge that Rose Farver's CT was given to play with. My page is below. It's very different for me - much less simple page than I typically put together. I had a great time with this one!

Thanks for taking the time to look! I'll try to post again this week but no promises since we have a lot going on right now.

Friday Musings

I haven't had much luck with Blogger this week. I've come on 3 different times to post something and couldn't get on. So, here I am to finally post! We've had an okay week. It's been busy but productive. The twins are doing great - learning new things each day! Alex can now open a door knob after he pulls over anything and everything to help him reach it! I'll have a few pictures of that for you tomorrow. I just didn't get a chance to download the pictures tonight. Both babies are climbing on anything that they can get their hands on - they want to be big people so badly! But, the downside of that is that they often fall and bruise themselves up! Meighan had a big bruise on her cheek after a fall from a chair this week. It didn't seem to bother her but I hate seeing her precious little face with bruises! Otherwise things are okay.

I do want to mention that I am no longer a part of the Scraps 4 Shane Creative Team. It's a long story and I don't want to get into it here on my blog but there is reason to believe that Keely was not giving everyone a truthful story about her son and his battle with cancer. She isn't responding to requests for clarification about the issues that need clarification and has effectively dropped off the radar. So, needless to say, I'm very hurt and saddened by the whole mess. If you want more information about the entire mess, you can see this thread on the DST forums but I wanted to make a small comment on this so that you understand why I'm no longer creating with her designs. I'm trying to look at this in a positive way and seeing this as an opportunity to really focus on working with the other four designers that I'm fortunate enough to be working with - Jen Beschinski, Mikki Livanos, Rose Farver and Melissa Rose. I'm really excited about continuing to work with these ladies! They are all putting out some incredible things for the digital community and I'm proud to be a part of their teams!

I also wanted to mention that my grandfather is in the hospital with pneumonia and I'm hoping to get over to see him tomorrow. It's hard to maneuver that with the twins but we'll figure something out. I also want to check on my grandmother because I know that this isn't easy for her - she's so worried about him. So, we will be working on getting ourselves over to the hospital at some point tomorrow. Other than that, things are pretty quiet. I did get a layout done tonight using some of Melissa Rose's beautiful designs. I'm really happy with how it turned out. You can see it below. If you want to see the credits, just go over to my DST Gallery (the link is on the right side of the blog). More tomorrow ...

Monday Musings (Part 2)

I wanted to share a few pictures of Meighan and Alex that we took tonight! I will warn you that I didn't fix any of the red eye or the coloring so they aren't the greatest but I am too eager to share them yet too lazy to fix them. These two kids are so hilarious!

Miss Meighan enjoying her evening snack!

Alex is obsessed with our major appliances - his new favorite is the washing machine. I have to constantly check the settings to make sure he hasn't changed them to some bizarre setting!

Alex chillin' with his daddy!

I love it when she smiles! (Look at all that hair she's getting!)

Here's Meighan and her 'I didn't get my way and I'm so miserable' face! We're seeing this one more and more :)

And here's her new face that shows its self every time we tell her NO - like we did here when she stood on a chair. She is quite sassy!

Well, that's it for tonight. I hope you have a great day tomorrow!

Monday Musings

I just wanted to share another of the monthly milestone layouts that I'm doing for the twins baby books. This one, of course, is all about Meighan's third month. I used a great kit by Jen Beschinski called Simple Girl. I think it turned out pretty cute! I just can't believe how quickly they are growing up!

Saturday Musings

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's been pretty quiet here. We just hung around the house today. We had dinner at Applebee's with the twins tonight and they were great! I was so proud of them. They are better and better when out in public now. Makes it a bit less stressful for me and Paul. Tomorrow we're planning a Wal-mart trip to stock up on diapers and other necessities. Then, back home for football, football and more football!

Here's a layout that I've been wanting to do for awhile now about how my lifeline while on bedrest was having so many great friends who came to visit, keep me company and help me forget the fact that I was in the hospital indefinately. This layout is one that I did for this week's digi dare which included a friendship theme, the main photo in a circle and a friendship quote. This layout has all three! I used Michelle Pearson's actions on the various photos because they weren't great shots (they were taken in the hospital where the lighting is horrible). I think this sunkissed action really helped make them look a bit better. Anyway, thanks for looking!

Thursday Musings (Part 2)

I just wanted to do a quick post with a new layout that I put together tonight with Rose Farver's Refresh kit and Keely's Easy Scrap Template #4. I'm really happy with how it turned out! Thanks for looking!

Thursday Musings

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is well. I don't have a lot to add tonight since I haven't done much other than work and play with the babies! Paul hasn't been feeling very well - he's had a bit of a cold. Meighan and Alex are doing well. My mom brought them to visit me at work today at lunch which was a nice treat. They acted super shy as usual! So cute but I wish people got a better idea of how cool they really are when they are completely themselves! But, they are truly adorable and we're having a lot of fun with them right now. Well, I need to get going. I have a lot to do tonight and it's already almost 11 p.m. So, more tomorrow. Here's a cute picture to share to show you how far Meighan and Alex have come since they were born ...

Here they are so sweet, barely over four pounds, just a few weeks old - it's hard for me to remember those days but I love to look at these pictures and remember my tiny little baby boy and girl!

And here, they are today - full of personality and spunkiness!

I love being mommy to these two more than I could have imagined!

Tuesday Musings

I don't have a ton of stuff tonight but I'm going to just go with it! It was a rainy, dreary day today here in Richmond. But, despite the weather, I had a pretty good day. I got to have lunch with my husband which is a rare thing - and, rarely do we have a meal without 19 month olds nearby! It was nice (thanks, Paul)!

Meighan has begun to show a slight interest in the potty. She doesn't completely understand what it is but she's checking it out and wants to get up on it and see what happens! So, we're going with it but I know they are WAY too young for potty training at this point. I just think it'll be a good idea to get them familiar with it. Can't hurt, huh? Alex isn't as interested in the potty but he is interesting in going to the bathroom without a diaper - specifically trying to pee all over his bedroom floor after every bath! So hilarious. So, we just might have to introduce him to the potty as well! Better that than our carpet! I hear boys can be pretty tough to potty train so I'm gearing up!

I got a scrapbook page done last night - another one about our trip to the Chesterfield Berry Farm. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here it is ...

This week is just flying by at work. My boss is away at a conference so I'm trying to get a ton of stuff done but it just keeps piling up! I have a lot of different things up in the air right now so I'm excited to see how they will all come together.

Here are a couple of recent pictures of the twins for your viewing pleasure ...

Alex loves to hang out at the bottom of the stairs and holler up to either me or Paul (depending on who's up there). DAAAAAAAAA or MAAAAAAAAAA is what we hear echoing up the stairs.

Here is Paul and Meighan being silly together (as usual)!

Here's a picture (not a great one, mind you) of Meighan and Alex playing "Cups" together - they love to pretend to fill a cup, drink from it and feed others from the cup. Very cute to see them acutally demonstrating interactive play with each other.

Here is Alex playing with his cup and his little animals. Ignore the red eye - I'm too lazy to fix it tonight!

Well, that's it for me tonight! I'm heading to bed to curl up with a book for the five minutes I can keep my eyes open!

Sunday Musings

We've had a nice weekend so I wanted to share a few photos and a couple of layouts that I've completed. On Saturday, we all went to the Chesterfield Berry Farm to go to the pumpkin patch. My mom came with us and we had a good time. It was extremely packed with people which wasn't much fun but I'd expected as much due to how close we are to Halloween. Meighan and Alex liked visiting with the animals that they had on the farm - rabbits, chickens, horses, an ostrich, sheep, pigs and birds. Alex, in particular, had a great time watching the animals - he's our little animal lover. Meighan loved the hay area where she got to go wild in the hay, rolling around, throwing hay, being a wild child. Alex wasn't as big of a fan - he didn't seem to like getting the hay all over him. We wanted to take the hay ride to the pumpkin patch but the line was outrageous and the twins were hungry and tired. It just didn't seem like a good idea. Maybe next year. Today we stayed home and just hung out. Paul took Sami home (we miss you already, Sami!) and I hung with the kids. We had fun cuddling and playing. They are into everything these days - makes for an adventurous day!

Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch ...

In the wagon, heading to the farm.

This is Alex visiting with the ostrich - he watched and watched and watched it!

This isn't a very good picture but it does show everyone trying to get time with the horse.

Here's Meighan having a good old time rollin' in the hay and throwin' it around a bit!

And this may well be why Alex was not such a fan of the hay!!!

But, he had fun hanging with Grandma instead!

And Paul had fun getting hay all over Sami - she had lots of fun getting it out of her beautiful long hair!

And this is just one of the reasons that they love Sami so much - she just jumps right in and has a great time with them. She's such a great kid!

I did sneak in time to put together two layouts this weekend. One is with a picture from the pumpkin patch using Rose Farver's September kit and the other is a layout I did with Jen Beschinski's (3 Ring Studio) new Simple Life kit. I had a lot of fun with them both! You can see the credits for both at the DST link to the right of the blog. Here they are:

Well, that's it for me tonight. I hope you also had a great weekend. More tomorrow (I hope)!

Friday Musings

Okay - I've been a total slacker in the blog department this week. It has been a pretty quiet week and I haven't had much to share. I still don't but I will over the weekend. We're heading to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow so I'm sure that I'll have lots to share after that ... Plus, Sami is here this weekend so I'll be sure to post an update on how she's doing and show you lots of pictures. So, come back and visit soon for an update!

OH!! I do have one thing to tell you ... I've been asked to be on Rose Farver's Creative Team which is such an honor since I absolutely love her designs. Her store over at The Digi Shoppe is full of great stuff. I'm really looking forward to working with her fabulous things ... So, you'll be seeing some of my pages with her designs soon.

Monday Musings

I'm sorry I have been missing in action. I'm recuperating from a lot of stuff happening at work and a few things I've taken on in the digital world that have kept me busy. So this will probably be a long one so that I can give you an update on what we've been doing. We had a pretty quiet weekend. The weather has been rainy so we didn't get out much. We did go to Target and Ukrops on Saturday but otherwise we stayed in. We spent a lot of time playing with the kids and enjoying them. They are so cute right now. Trying to talk more and more. Copying what we say all the time. It's so cute! They are also beginning to actually play together and interact with each other during their play. They love to play the cup and spoon game which involves scooping out some drink (imaginary drink) and giving it to Mommy, Daddy and each other. Occasionally, they will try to give some to a cat if one happens to come near during the game. Meighan discovered one of Sami's old baby dolls last week and spent a lot of time caring for her baby. She tried to feed the baby (it was crackers but, hey, she was trying), change the baby's diaper and sing/rock the baby. Very cute and very maternal. When I asked her if she loved her baby like Mommy loves Meighan, she shook her head fiercely and said "YES" with a smile. Very cute. She's saying Mommy all the time now which makes me SOOOOO happy. Momma, Mommy ... it's music to my hears. I love hearing them say it!

I spent every second of free time I had over the weekend in my bed because I'm just so darn tired! So, every nap and every bedtime gave me more sleep. Paul even watched the kids a few times so taht I could sleep past their waking up from naptime. It was great (thanks, honey!).

The only other thing that I did last week and over the weekend was to help coordinate a Scraps 4 Shane Creative Team effort to support Keely who's little boy, Shane, is not doing well right now. We have organized a challenge for the digital community in hopes of bringing some more support Keely's way. You can find out more about the challenge here. The challenge involves creating layouts/cards/etc. that will be inspirational to Keely. This is mine:

I have some pictures of the twins to share as well ...

Here is Alex and Grandpa playing at the park last week.

And here they are swinging at the park!

And here's Meg with her Grandpa.

This one is funny. Apparently, there was another little girl at the park and she had a bag of chips which Meighan showed a great deal of interest when the girl put them down while she was playing. Meighan wouldn't actually touch the bag but she walked over, bent down and took a peek. Very cute!

And here they are playing ...

And here's Alex on the slide (the girl is the little girl with the chips!).

I'll have more pictures soon. I just didn't feel like uploading them from the camera tonight! Well, I'm heading off to bed. More soon.

Thursday Musings

Well, I've had a VERY long day so this won't be very long and I haven't been around to take any pictures so this won't be a very exciting post. I was up and out of the house this morning by 6:30 a.m. to go to a meeting downtown at 7 a.m. Getting up before 6 a.m. is not fun for someone who is NOT a morning person. But, I did it and got through the day even if I've been exhausted. Paul was on full daddy duty today - getting up with the twins, getting them fed, dressed and over to Christina's by himself. He did a great job (as if I had any doubt). I think the twins really enjoyed having some daddy time! Then, on my way home from work, I got detoured by a trip to my grandparents who needed some help. So, Paul ended up picking them up from the babysitters, bringing them home, feeding them, bathing them, and dressing them all by himself. He's a good daddy! Those little ones just adore him! I came in the door right as they were headed to bed so at least I was able to give kisses goodnight and tell them that I love them. I hate not being with them most of the day and night - I feel like I miss so much! But, I couldn't avoid it and I'll make up for it tomorrow and over the weekend. So, I've been home trying to get a few things done that are related to my scrapbooking ... I have one more thing to get done before I can go read a few pages of my book and get some sleep! I'll have to catch Grey's Anatomy on tivo tomorrow because I've just never made it downstairs to watch it. Which is rare since its one of the few shows that I actually watch when they come on. So, more tomorrow and I hope that I'll be a bit more rested!

Wednesday Musings

I've had such a luxurious day today! Very rare for me. I slept until 12:30 today which was amazing! It was the nicest sleep I've had in ages! Then, I piddled around and worked on a layout for the baby book (which I'll share later). Paul and I had Mexican for dinner and made a trip to Target before picking up the twins. It was so nice to hang out with him alone since we get to do it so rarely. We went to my mom's and hung out with her and the twins for awhile before heading home for baths and bedtime. It was such a great day! I really needed it. Now, I am working on the computer but planning to head down to watch LOST which I've tivo'd. I've been waiting all summer for this episode. OH! We talked to Sami tonight and she's doing great. She isn't able to come visit this weekend but she'll be here the weekend after. We can't wait to see her. We miss her so much. When she comes we're going to go to the pumpkin patch which will be LOTS of fun (and I'll get some fun fall photos to scrap with).

Here is my most recent layout ... Alex's 2nd month page for his baby book. Gosh, I can barely remember him being this small! Time sure does fly!

Tuesday Musings

Meighan and Alex are spending the night tonight with their Grandma and Grandpa so that I could go to my monthly book club dinner with the girls. I had a nice time and it was nice to be with grownups all night! My mom e-mailed me some adorable pictures from their time with them tonight and I thought I'd share them. Here they are -


Alex is such an animal lover - he loves to play with Cooper and give him kisses!

Apparently, Alex has finally figured out how to slide down his slide by himself and had a great time sliding tonight. (By the way, he's laughing in this picture, not crying).

Here's Meighan riding on her doggy toy in the play area that Mom and Dave have created for the kids!

Here's Alex hanging out with Grandpa and playing peekaboo!

I'm missing them a lot but I'm trying to enjoy a night to myself! I also was able to take the day off tomorrow (YEAH!) so, I'm going to sleep until noon which I never do anymore and spend the rest of the day doing whatever I feel like. I think Paul and I might even splurge and go get some Mexican on our way to pick up the babies! We never get to have dinner alone these days!

I also got a couple of scrapbook pages done over the last couple of days that I wanted to share. The first is a page that I did about Meighan's second month (I'm doing monthly pages of what they did, what life was like, etc for their baby books).

And here is one I did for this week's Digi Dare (the challenge was to document 'A Day in the Life' and to include a calendar/planner on the page as well as at least one picture from your day). I'm pretty happy with how this one came out! It talks about life with twins (it focuses on what our life was like when the twins were infants).

If you want to see these pages in a place where you can see the details, read the journaling, etc. you might want to visit my gallery at DST here.

I also wanted to send out a special hug to Keely Simpson and her son Shane who are facing such an awful time right now. I'm on Keely's creative team and think the world of her. She's such a wonderful mother to her little boy! He is very sick with a brain tumor and her commitment to him, his treatment and the rest of their family just amazes me. He had surgery not long ago and seemed to be doing well but things have made a turn for the worse. Shane's story and an update on his status can be found on the Scraps 4 Shane Designs blog. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts because they are all really special people who really deserve good things!

That's it for me tonight! I'm going to go put together a scrapbook page just because I can! LOL More tomorrow.

Sunday Musings

We had a nice day today. Paul had to work all morning but we were able to get over to Mimi and Papa's tonight to visit with them, Dad, Nina and Elizabeth! It was great to see them and the babies were in great moods after having a 3 hour nap! And, despite being up most of the night before coughing, I was feeling okay because I also got a 3 hour nap! No scrapbook pages done but the nap was worth the sacrifice! Here are a few pictures of our evening at Mimi and Papa's for you to see.

Alex was fascinated with Elizabeth's bird and spent much of his time watching the bird and even trying to drink the bird's water. Yeah, it was pretty gross. But, he'll live!

Here is my Mimi and my stepmom, Nina, with the twins.

Meighan wasn't quite as taken with bird as Alex but she did check him out!

And, here is my very grown up little sister, Elizabeth. I can't believe how big she is - it seems like just yesterday she was Meighan and Alex's size!

The other thing that I wanted to post is two new layouts I did with Jen Beschinski's new Candy Gram kit which you can find at Elemental Scraps. These are all photos of the twins last Halloween in their costumes. SO cute! We're trying to figure out now what'll they'll be this year. Do you have any ideas? If so, post your ideas in the comments section at the bottom of the post. I'd love to hear from you! Here they are ...

Were they not adorable??? Now, to find something equally adorable for this year. My assumption is that this will be the last year that they don't have a distinct opinion about what they will want to dress up as so I'd like to find something really great!

Well, I'm heading off to try to get another page done before heading to bed to read my book. I'm reading a really good one right now called The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. It is historical fiction, set during WWII in Russia. It's a love story and I am really enjoying it so far. You can find it at amazon if you want to read more about it. It's reminiscent of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon although the Outlander series is one of the best I've ever read so I hate to compare anything to it. But, I'm enjoying it so I thought I'd recommend it in case anyone is interested.

More tomorrow.