What it is like to have boys...

A friend of mine Tomi, sent me some pictures and this list in an e-mail and I couldn't help but pass it on...

And you also find out interesting things when you have sons, like
1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies. 10.) Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.12.) Super glue is forever.13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.15.) VCR's do not eject "PB & J" sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Creating a Banner for your blog

I am so happy right now! I just created the banner for my blog sight (all by myself!!!). I was cropping Friday night at K2 and I asked our digital guru Megan how to create a banner (because she designed her own, K2's and other typepad users). Creating a banner in blogger is very different, so she went on 2P's and asked for help, and help we got! Someone referred us to Lindsay Teague's blog www.lindsayteague.blogspot.com click on her side bar "need to know" and choose "create a banner" (for those of us who have NO idea how to do it, she walks you step by step). After you created your banner, go back to the sidebar and choose "put a banner on your blog" (she walks you step by step through that process too). Her information is written in a very helpful manner, and I would recommend anyone who has a "blogspot" blog to use her tutorial.

It's a Boy!!!!

It became official at 8:45 this morning. Riley is going to have a little brother. We are very excited!!! Woohoo

Fun Finds in Wisconsin...

On trips I always like to look for something to add to one of my many collections (as I would like to call them, junk as my husband would call it). This trip, I was looking for unique letter "N" s. Well, that is how it started, then I kept seeing these really neat old blocks and old type from printing presses. I started rearranging letters until I had enough for "dream, design, create" and for all the cool "x's and o's". I did find a some "N"s and few left over letters to spell "luv u". It was a fun search that led me to many antique stores from Milwaukee to Door County, to Waussau... Plus they were easy to pack (which is a whole other story).

Tractor...

Is this a cool picture or what.
This tractor sits in my Aunt
Darlene and Uncle Eddie's
big garage. They live near
Green Bay with my cousin
Kim, her husband Cory and
their girls Kayla and Kristen.
(Grandma Gladys lives with
them too.)

4 of my fav's...

I could have added about 20 more "favorites" but... you know how that is being his mom and everything so I am a little partial to pictures of Riley. These 4 were great because they showed Riley's favorite things to do... ride tractors and trains, play on playgrounds, and throw balls. He had so much fun!

Grandparents/Great Grandparents

Nikki
Grandma Gladys
(my mom's mom)
Dianne
Riley











Grandpa Reno
(my dad's dad)
Riley
Ken








I wanted to add some pictures of my Grandparents and Riley's only Great Grandparents. This was the first time they had the chance to meet him and it was very special.

Frailing Family

The Frailing Family Celebrated the 4th (3rd) of July together
at Jackie and Kyle's house. We had so much fun. Kyle, Sean and Rick took the kids for rides on the 4 wheelers, and went swimming in the pool. Grandpa Reno, Dad, Ron, Sharon and Bruce sat outside on the porch talking and enjoying the afternoon. Jackie, Mom, Joanne and I sat inside talking and set out all the food, while Melissa took care of 3 week old Will.
The day was filled with FUN, FAMILY and lots of FOOD!!! (Jackie the beer brats were the best!)

Wisconsin here we come

I am so excited about going on vacation to Wisconsin. Riley is just going to love seeing all the farms and farm animals, not to mention the cheese (he LOVES cheese). I have not been up there for a couple of years now, and Sean will be going for the first time. We are going to me moving around a lot while we are up there so we can see as much as possible. My parents are going too, so that will be a lot of fun. They will be our tour guides...
I will update as soon as we get back.

Movement

Wow, I can really feel this baby more now. Mostly at night when I am sitting at my computer or laying down. I am 17 1/2 weeks along. It is so truly amazing. I am getting really excited to find out what this baby is, only 2 more weeks till my ultrasound... I want to start decorating the baby's room.

Junkitz, Junkitz and more Junkitz

I have been wanting to do a LO of my brothers wedding for a while now. I found this Junkitz paper and it matched the color of our bridesmaids dresses. So I cut the dress and sewed it onto a piece of black cardstock making it into a pocket. I sewed the photo to the papers then pinned the 2 pieces of paper to the fabric/cardstock. I stamped a foam heart 3 times using a watermark pad. I punched holes around the design and hand stitched around the 3 hearts. I wrote on the page using a white pen (you can get them at K2). I had some other photos that Lori had given to me, in a black folder which I added some patterned paper and ribbon to and used that to hold my extra photos and a place to journal. The binder clip on the page says "look what I did" so my journaling in response was:
Yeah, look what you did. You married my brother. (wow my little brother is married) Actually I couldn't be happier for the two of you. I am so excited to finally have a sister (especially one that shares the same love for scrapbooking ad photography that I do). You both compliment each others personality so well, you are a perfect match. I love you both very much
-open folder to view more photos of Ryan and Lori's perfect day
love, Nikki


Our Destination: the Florida Keys
This LO was so much fun to do. I had been wanting to scrapbook this trip, but all the picts and stuff were sitting in a bag for the last year... I didn't know what to do with it all. I saw this wavy Junkitz paper and the LO was born. I had fun finding ephemera to use as my letter "O"'s in both the words "our" and "Florida". I was so happy to find the keys in my supplies to use as a substitute for the word "Keys", it just made the page.



I had a lot of fun making this LO too. I cut 12 3x3 inch squares and adhered them down to a piece of cardstock. I then sewed up the 3 vertical lines using a "whip"? stitch (sorry I do not know the names of my stitches too well), then I cross stitched the horizontal lines. I cut the end of the tag with a pinking shears as well as the ribbon. I inked the edges of the tag using purple and red ink. I cut out a paisley from Janna's paper adhered it to the tag, stitched 3 cross stitches on it and wrote my journaling. (the page would be quick and easy if you didn't sew, but I have to say the sewing gives it a really "finished" look)

Cute Huh?

I found these unfinished wood animals at Michael's and thought that they would be a cute addition to my design room. I painted them last night, and they turned out so cute I wanted to share. My son Riley loves animals so much that I am thinking of getting some more to paint and hang in his room too. They have about 30 different designs... The bees I made for my friend Julie who just had a little baby girl Olivia. She decorated Olivia's room in a bee decor.

Inspiration: Becky Higgins Sketch

I completed a 2 page LO today using a Becky Higgins sketch as inspiration.
It was a little harder than I thought it would be, mainly because I used 16 photos on it.
I really do like how it turned out though. Thanks for looking!

Run Run Run...

Here are 2 pages I just added to my "me" album.

I was never a runner before I started working out with Tomi. She and I met when we were pregnant (we delivered 3 weeks apart). We started walking when the boys were 2 weeks old, then after a couple of months she wanted to start running. I told her I would try it, mainly because I did not want to lose my workout partner! Well, needless to say I love it.
We ran Gasparilla in Feb of 05, we did some adventure runs last summer in Tampa, we ran a Thanksgiving turkey run, Bill's Beer run, the Ringling Bridge Run, and Gasparilla 1/2 marathon this past Feb. As you know I am pregnant and on a short hiatus from running, but very excited to get back to it and my running partner!!!

(thanks Tomi for being such a great friend and workout partner- love you)

Blogcrastinating

Well I have to say that I have been procrastinating in updating my blog.
My computer was down for 3 weeks, I left to go on vacation, bla bla bla...
I finally sat down today and started blogging.
I cheated and back dated my entries, but I am really glad I did it.
Instead of feeling dread of all that I had to post I actually had alot of fun updating.
Jeanine (one of the awesome girls at K2) had a lot to do with me updating. I was in the store cropping yesterday when she showed me her blog. All I can say is this, WOW! She has tons of posts and doesn't even have internet at home. She goes to the library!!! So I thought NO more excuses. Check out her blog it's www.jeaninepierce.typepad.com

I am really sorry to whoever took the time to check out my blog in the last month and saw no updates. I will be better!

Heidi Grace Paper Layouts

Have you checked out the new Heidi Grace (HG) paper?? It's flocked and really beautiful. When you go to K2 the next time don't just look at it, feel how great the paper is. I made these 2 great layouts from the 4 papers they have at K2. I normally use cardstock as my background, but with these 2 LO's I used a combination of the HG papers. I had a lot of fun with these two. Both of these LO's are at the studio, so check them out next time you are in.

Pinwheel Window Displays

Karen asked me to add to the window displays at the studio. We wanted to do something fun, and because of the season, patriotic. We decided on pinwheels. I found these great tins at Wal-mart and filled them with play box sand. I decorated the tins with mini flags, metallic red, white and blue sprays that looks like fireworks and pinwheels made with the 4th of July paper you will find at K2. I made one tin for each of the front windows and one for the desk. You need to check them out. I made a few extra pinwheels that they are keeping at the register, and who ever is working will be glad to show you how they are made.
You need to make some for the 4th, they are too fun!!!

Energy and Painting

I thought being pregnant while working (outside the house) full time was hard, but that is nothing compared to being pregnant and chasing around an almost 2 year old! The last 6 weeks I felt like I got run over by a truck by about 11 each morning, and that I was going to just die if I couldn't close my eyes for a minute. But, you can't do that!!! I have felt like doing NOTHING but sleep! I took naps when Riley did, and went to bed early (between 8 and 9) every night... All you ladies with multiple kids out there know what I am talking about.

I see a light at the end of the tunnel (at least till the last few weeks of my pregnancy when you are tired again) Finally I am not feeling so tired. I have some energy- Halleluia!!!!

I painted Riley's new room yesterday. It looks really great. The color is wash basin blue-perfect for a little boys room. We are moving Riley to a new room, so we can put the baby in the room across the hall from us. The transition to a new room, bed and area of the house went smooth and without complaints, thank God!

Lindsey's Album Complete!!!

I finished Lindsey's album today. Here are some of the pages I added to her album. Thanks so much for looking. (2 of her pages I copied the ideas from the pages I made for the studio with the MAMBI papers)

Me and My Big Ideas Paper

Here are my first layouts for K2 design team using 4 MAMBI papers.

Amy gave me a transparency (having to do with pregnancy) that she won at the Elsie Flannigan class, which served as inspiration for both of these layouts.

P.S. I LOVE the white pen(s) I got at K2!!!!!!!!! I used it to journal and doodle on both layouts.

Star Light Star Bright

This layout is really meaningful to me. I made this layout the day Sean and I tried for baby number two. The journaling reads:

Star Light
Star Bright
First star I see tonight
I wish...
I hope...
I pray...


...I'm pregnant

(Check back in two weeks to see results of pregnancy test)

On March 26th I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. We are so excited. The baby is due the beginning of December. I waited to share this info till I was a little further along since we had a miscarriage a couple months before. This will go in my "Me" album.

K2's Birthday Present and Crop

Last night at K2 was so much fun.
I wanted to give the girls at K2 a special birthday gift. I made them two boards to hang on the back wall to display new and cool layouts done by the design team, employees and other talented scrappers. They turned out so cool. They are 10 feet long, painted black, and hung with some cool leopard fabric. I hammered a nail at both ends and one in the middle of each board and pulled wire tight from one end to the other. I dyed clothspins in different colors to hang the layouts from.
I got the chance to meet Janna Wilson, a designer for Junkitz who was there to celebrate with us. She taught a great class during the crop. It was an accordian mantel album that I made Sean for Father's Day. It really turned out beautiful, and the class was great!