My Top 10 Pages

Nick and Kara are so adorable together. She is her daddy's baby. They light up when they see each other!
I love this page for the wording alone, it's so true.....

Some of our family beach pics from November. I love these pics!

These pics were taken in December on my step dad's birthday. You can't tell Kara is adored by them at all can you? Understatement of the year!

When we went to Florida in December my BFF, her mom, and daughter joined my mom, Kara and me for a day of shopping. We had so much fun. I had to title this "Generations" because there was three for each of us. Click to enlarge and read the quote, too perfect!

Maddy is always putting together crazy outfits. Most of the time I would make her change clothes before leaving the house. This particular day I just thought she looked hilarious and she wasn't shy when I grabbed the camera to get some shots of her.

Maddy with her little sister and cousins. The title is supposed to be Super stars, but I didn't see the point in adding the word star with the background paper. This is the simplest page I think I've ever done.

I just love the title, "Fresh from God". Kara had just gotten out of the bath when I took these pics. She is truly a gift from God.

This is from this past Easter. Kara and Maddy had an egg hunt in my in-laws front yard. They had so much fun!

This is actually a two page layout, which I NEVER do, but I just had to do this one. It is one of my favorite ones, I am actually not done with it yet. I still want to add a few embellishments. I am still trying to decide which ones to use, but I had to add it to my post, cause it's just too sweet!

My new year resolution was to do a scrapbook page for everyday of this year. So far I am doing pretty good. For January and April I am short 12 pages total, otherwise I am all caught up on February, March, and May!!! I don't scrapbook everyday (although I want to, life gets in the way a times), but I try to catch myself up when I do sit down to do it. It's my most favorite hobby in the world and my biggest stress reliever. It just calms me like nothing else. I wanted to share some of my recent pages, my ten favorite ones I have done lately. I am open to critics. Hope you enjoy!!!!

Some new scraps:click to enlarge!

My mom wanted to see some of the pages I have been working on and this is the easiest way to share them. I have been sticking to my one page a day rule pretty well. I am happy to say I have done 48 pages since I got home from the states. Pretty impressive huh? I am going to apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I took them in a hurry and didn't take time to edit them, but you get the gist of it. Enjoy!

I apologize that this one isn't turned the right way. I am too tired to change it.

Kara.....the barbie doll

As I said in the post below, I got the name Kara from my favorite barbie doll growing up. She was actually a punk rocker barbie (hence the bangs I had to hide in her ponytail), but I changed her into a charming stay at home mom. LOL I was fascinated with this doll because she wasn't your typical barbie with blond hair and blue eyes. She did have blond hair, but with brown highlights and brown eyes. I thought she was the most BEAUTIFUL barbie I had ever seen and named her Kara. I circulated all my other barbies around her. They were either her sister or cousin or friend. She was married to my BFF's brown hair blue-eyed Ken doll (named Cody). They had several little children to include one named: Blakely (which is Maddy's other little sister's name). Weird I know. As I said before, I was very into my dolls. It was almost ridiculous. When I would go spend the weekend with April, I had one bag for clothes and one for my barbies. We played with them for hours and hours. I still have a box of them at my mom's. Therefore when I was at home visiting, I couldn't leave without fishing out that one special barbie: KARA! I know it may seem silly to people, but it just seems weird to me that when I was around 10 I got this barbie that I thought was beautiful and gave her the name of my future daughter. I guess it makes since that I would give Kara her name. Being her mother I happen to think she's the most beautiful little girl. Just wanted to share a this story and a pic of the doll. Introducing Kara (the barbie):

Our Vacation

She loves sparkles!
Kara and her Aunt Desiree


Kaleb doing his Zoolander face! LOL

Daddy's baby girl, always!

4 generations, their expressions are so funny!

My adopted family: April, Caitlyn, Gloria, and Nanny! Notice Kara is holding on to my hair, she always does that to me for some reason, a security I assume.

Me, April, Caitlyn, and Gloria before a day of shopping!

Caitlyn and Kara in the bath together, aren't they so cute?

Me and the girls at Build a bear. They had a blast. Making their "pup-pups".

Us and our girls. Aren't their matching dresses so cute?

We had such a wonderful vacation to the states (Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma). I realized just how much I miss living there and all of the people. We did so many fun things and shopped so much that we had to ship 8 boxes home (well some of that was Christmas presents!) It was truly the best time I have had in a long time. We went to Chucky Cheese, Build a Bear Workshop, Toby Keith's Restaurant, to see Santa twice, the movies to watch Four Christmases, the graveyard to see Conner, Scrapbook stores, the Outlet Mall, the Thomas Kinkade Gallery, plus several restaurants and places to shop. It was GLORIOUS!! I am so thankful for my family and friends. They really made us feel welcome and showed us a wonderful time. If only every vacation could be that great. Right? I was so sad to be leaving to come back here. At first I felt my depression kicking in, but then I decided to enjoy being back here. We only have a little over a year left here and I still have things I want to do here. So I am embracing this time. Enjoying Kara being a baby. She is growing up so fast. Too fast if you ask me. I can't wish away the next year because I am homesick. I have to enjoy this time with her. Her birthday is coming up and I am so excited to celebrate that time. There was a time where I didn't think I would ever get to enjoy having a child to raise of my own. I had almost given up on the idea that I could have a healthy child. God gave me the greatest gift when I got Kara. I felt blessed to have Conner, but my heart ached to have a child that I could hold in my arms. I now try to enjoy these moments and cherish them as much as I can. Family and friends are precious. Let's never forget their importance in our lives. Be THANKFUL!! I know I sure am. :)

PS More pics coming soon. I have ones from my mom's house that are coming in the mail so I will scan them in soon. Plus tons of others!

Friends and being a step-mother

As always I am a day behind on my thankful post!! Oh well. So anyway. For yesterday I will say I am thankful for friends. Real, true friends. Ones that are there for you no matter what. I only have a handful of these type of friends, but they are the BEST!! They are so great! My trip home is going to be awesome. I am staying the first week with my BESTEST friend in the whole world, April. She has been so sweet in trying to make us feel at home when we arrive. She has offered to stock up on baby food for Kara and anything else I ask for. Last year she had all my favorite foods (including a welcome home cake) waiting on me. What a comfort to have a friend that in tune with me. My other group of friends are arranging a baby shower for one of them while I am there so I will be able to attend and see everyone in one place. How cool? I am so excited. I can't wait to see everyone and to show off my baby girl!!!

Today in the states is Maddy's birthday. She turned 9!! Wow. She was only 2 when Nick and I started dating. Crazy how quickly time goes by. I am thankful that she and I have a good relationship. You know several step-parents have trouble with their step-children. I have been fortunate in that Maddy and I haven't had any problems out of the ordinary. Sure there have been times I have frustrated her or vice versa, but overall we get along great. Therefore I am thankful for my relationship with Maddy, my step-daughter. Happy Birthday silly girl!

Pretty Little Pixie

Being that Halloween is almost here, I decided to do a test run with (one of) Kara's costume. I think she's the cutest little Tinkerbell. I got our dog Tinkerbell a costume to match but it hasn't come in the mail yet. I wanted to get Anakin the Peter Pan costume but it didn't come in extra small so I am still on the hunt for something cute for him to be. I can't wait to take their picture together, assuming that Tinkerbell with calm down long enough for me to do so. I tried playing a little with my photo shop yesterday but being that I am a rookie at it, I was only able to do a few things. I guess I need to invest in a book to help me. I also got a few of her in her monkey costume:

After about 2 minutes in it she was screaming her head off. It is a pretty hot suit so lets just hope it's cold Halloween night. If not I have reserves with the Tinkerbell costume and the Snow White Costume that my BFF is sending her in the mail. I know, I know why all the costumes? Well, I really like dressing her up and wanted her to have different outfits for the Halloween party and Halloween night. She must be in style at all times. Ha Tell me what you think of her pics.

Some new pages to share

It's been a while since I shared some scrapbook pages so I decided to add some today. I have been trying to get at least one page done each day, which unfortunately doesn't always happen. Some of these I have done recently, some a few months ago. Tell me what you think of them. I am really trying to use more than one pattern sheet on each page. It has been a real struggle for me but I am getting better at it. Scrapbooking is my FAVORITE thing to do, besides playing with my sweet baby girl. I will try to post some new pics of her soon. Have a good weekend!!