Holy Toledo!!

My last post was Nov. 20!!! How embarrassing!
I'm soo sorry I have been such a horrible blogger. December has been INSANE!
I think tomorrow will be our 5th party and we still have 2 or 3 more, a wedding rehearsal and wedding, 2 baby showers and 2 birthday parties before the end of the year...and Christmas and NYE of course. Add cooking and baking for almost every event, some fundraising to help our youth for their winter disciple now trip, basketball games and practices, shopping, wrapping, etc., etc....I don't remember being this busy last year...or ever, for that matter!
So...I really have not had a lot of time to do anything "fun" as in scrapping :(! HA! Just kiddding...I've actually been having a lot of fun.
Bry just got back today after visiting his NaNa for almost 2 weeks. I missed that little booger. Bad news is...he's sick. So he has a Dr. appt in the morning to find out what's going on in his little body. Corbin is supposed to have a friend over tomorrow after school, but that is now limbo...b/c of the little dude and his sickness. I think Corbin thinks B was only put here to make his life miserable. Poor Corb. I hope his friend gets to visit tomorrow.
Sooo...I guess I will give ya something to look at and not just my random rambles!
Here is a little project I did...I took an online class here (the 12 days of Christmas) and it was really fun. I have more stuff to make, but I'm really...TOTALLY behind on my online class :(


Our house was taken over by wreaths last week for one of the church fundraisers...messy, but it smelled so yummy. Not a smell we normally get here in the Panhandle. Usually it's more of a spicy sulfury smell. Ok, so not so much spicy...just real stinky. FYI: There are like 4 chemical plants in our small town.



Here are some pics from our visit to the 4 sixes ranch/abilene...








Finally I just have to share one of my FAVORITE sites to visit...Bakerella. She makes the cutest things. One of my faves, the cake pops are SOOO awesome. She just posted her Christmas cake pops this week and I love them! I made some a few months ago and they are YUMMM-MMMY! Takes a little bit of time to do, but so worth it. I'm hoping to make some for friends for Christmas!
Ok, so that is all for now. I have a million more pics to share.
We finally put the tree up tonight, so I'll try to get some good shots tomorrow night. I found some great info here!

Em

Day 1--Part 2...Day 2--Part 2

Ok...So we get on the bus that takes us to our rental car, they drop us off...I take a quick inventory...MY CAMERA!! I left my camera!! I run back over to the bus and bang on the doors, yelling for her to please open them! ACK! She does and I get my camera. Phew! Derek would have NOT been soo happy with me...and I wouldn't have blamed him. Not one bit!
So, we go check into our room, get a little settled in and decide that the boys are going to the beach and I was going to go to a scrapbook store that I found on the internet. The plan was that I would go with them after I finished shopping (which was so fun...it was the cutest little store, EVAH!!!) I'm checkin' out and my phone rings. I'm thinking "Perfect timing!" but then "Wait, they can't be done already".
Derek: What are you doing?
Me: Checkin' out.
Derek: Bryson pooped his pants (in an extremely annoyed voice)
Me: Oh no! :(
So, I got to spend an hour drinking Peppermint tea next door, while reading the paper...and Derek had to clean some poop pants. (Sorry, Honey!!)
We went back to the hotel, ordered pizza and called it a night. Day 1 is over!!

Ok...So now back to day two...I forgot about our trip to Walgreen's before the zoo. It was so awesome...NOT!! LOL!
I asked Derek if we could go buy another memory card for my camera b/c I only had like 40 pics left on it and didn't have anything I could delete yet. He said sure! I remembered seeing a Walgreen's the day before, so we headed there. I went in with Corbin (he wanted to get a disposable camera) and quickly found what I needed. They had a 4GB card for only 29.99...pretty good deal, right? It took a while to find someone to help me, which I needed because the little boogers are like locked on to the little hanger thing. So the man goes and gets a screw driver, but he can't get the thing off. As he's trying to pry the little lock off, I notice that it says for SD?? only. So I ask him what that means and he asks me how old my camera is...I tell him a few months and then he just kinda looks at me weird. So I say ok, let me just get the regular one. It was 55.99...but I'm thinking the other one is on sale becuase its for a camera they don't make anymore or something. Well, he still can't get the little lock off, so he just rips the card off hanger. Wow...ok, thanks!
I pay, go the car and ask Derek the same thing...what is for SD?? only? He doesn't know either. But I tell they had one half the price...so being the frugal man that he is, he goes back in and gets the cheaper one. He gets back to the car and the package is that plastic stuff that you need the jaws of life to get into. After 10 minutes of wrestling with it...TA-DA...we pry it open. He opens up the cute little plastic box it comes in, I reach to grab it and it pops out. Where does it land, you might ask...down in the crevice between the seat and the middle console. As I'm wedging my hand between this uber tight space, I see that it is slipping...slipping into no man's land. It's about to fall down under the rail that the chair slides back and forth on. I yell, stretch my long fingers vigorously, and it's gone. It's gone. Derek says, "What do you mean it's gone?" I tell him again, it's like, gone! We will have to remove this seat to get it out...it's G-O-N-E!
Seriously!!
So, he calmly says to go in and just get the 2GB card and the two will equal the amount of the first I had purchased. But, I start crying instead. Lovely!
He goes in, comes back out and we leave. As we approach the light, he says...very calmly, "I just lost it in there." He gives me the story. I agreed. He lost it.
I hear Corbin in the back say, "Day 2, chapter 2..."
But now we are on our way to the zoo...so it's all good.
Sorry that story was so long...but it was just too good not to include.

Ok, now more pics of the zoo. :)

We saw some pandas...


the little baby was sleeping in the tree...so cute!!


and my favorite...the meerkats...even cuter!


Then we broke for lunch...some were feeling a little sad...


and other a little...crazy?



elephants...


giraffes...


gross camels...


and some giant koi...We have a koi pond, but ours are no where near this big! :)


I wanted to post the clouded leopard again, so you click on it and see how pretty he is.


Whew! That was a lot of work! I hope you enjoyed our day at the zoo. And I know you've probably seen these animals before, but I wanted to share anyways! :D

Yesterday Bry and I spent the day at the 6666 ranch in Guthrie, visiting friends and then to Abilene to visit more friends...so I will post some pics of that along with Day 3 of our trip at LegoLand.

Sorry this is so long! Hope you enjoyed!!
Ember

Back from our trip, Day 1--Part 1, Day 2--Part 1...

Is that confusing?! I have SOOO much to share!! We had a really great time in San Diego and I'm trying to go through all of the pics I took, so I can share some of our fun! I'm gonna do this in several parts (ummm, hence the title). There are A LOT of pics!
We left early Friday morning for our trip and aside from a few loud screeches, screams, yells, etc. on the plane (from Mr. B, of course), the trip there went smoothly. We made our way down to the baggage claim...this is where the fun begins. My curious little two year old saw a small box with a little handle on it and wanted to see what was inside. I turned just in time to his tiny,sweet, little hand flip the little knob up, Derek yells his name...sirens go off, a big red light starts flashing and the entire airport is staring! And laughing. I slowly walk away. He had opened up an AED...A.K.A, automated external defibrillator. Some annoyed looking gentleman slowly walked over, turned something, and the alram stopped. Whew! That was fun.
We then gather our bags and head to the escalator. Mr. Curious and now very independent insists that he carry his own bag up the escalator. I disagree. He yells. Derek insists it will be fine. So, against my better judgement, I say ok. He gets on, loses his balance and starts falling down the stairs, head first...face down. His little mystery machine suitcase goes tumbling down with him. Luckily, he had no visible injuries. And didn't really even cry...but it scared the crap outta me!! I told Derek I might need a drink!
So that was the first 20 minutes...it does get better ;)
I'm gonna go ahead and skip to day 2, for now. We went to the San Diego Zoo. The weather was SOO amazing! It was hot for California this time of year, but still really nice to us.
(You can click on the pics for a larger version if they are too little...*ETA* or maybe not...it doesn't seem to be working for this post, sorry!)
We started out with some misc. birds...the flamingos are the only ones I know the names of...Bryson was really fascinated and probably could have just stayed there all day and watched them...


So we move one...

We saw lots of birds (this was my favorite)

some tigers cuddling

two giant hippos...I guess also cuddling

and one fake copper one

a clouded leopard...

Ok...I'll post more animal shots on my next post, Day 2--Part 2 :D

The landscaping was sooo beautiful! That was really one of my favorite parts. I LOVE flowers, cool plants, etc...so here are some shots of some of faves...
I think the Hibiscus is one of my faves...


Don't know what this is but thought it was cool

And these were all over the place, in red also.

I have pictures of some of this same plant/flower from my trip to China last year.

Ok. Well...I also haven't posted A THING for Triple the Sketch in forever...so here are some from last month


and also a page I did of Bryson and I that I really love!!


Oh yeah, I was tagged on a friends blog...I will get that in here soon! I promise.

Hope you are all having an awesome Wednesday!
Ember

Can a girl be any safer??

With these two awesome guys by her side??

Derek is out of town, so I felt pretty safe with these two! HA!

Just a little quick post to show the boys in their Halloween costumes. We went to the Fall Festival last night, it's an annual event that our church does. We had a great time!! Well, most of the time. The little "Chinese Super Hero" kept weaving in and out of the crowd...without me! I panicked a few times...but it's actually a pretty small place so I knew he wouldn't get too far. Anywho, he is REALLY appreciating Halloween this year and just kept telling me how cool and great it was. And he wanted to wear his costume again today. He's a nut! Corbin found his friends right away, so it's a good thing I took pics of him before, because we didn't see him again until it was time to leave. So grown up and independent.

Well, I'll post more pics later!
Happy Halloween!
Ember

Seriously, how do I get so far behind...

I think it could be ADD. I took a quiz in this months Real Simple magazine...so, either I have ADD or I just can't get it together. I'm kiddin'...well, kinda...
Well, whatever, just some randomness.
I'm sitting here on the couch, listening to D snore, smelling the dog after she rolled around in poop this evening...while we are at church. Why is that neccessary? We all know who's poop is in the back yard...there is really no need to roll in it. I don't want to take fun pictures with you when you roll in POOP!! SICK!!!

I still love ya, girl!
Yeah, more ramdomness. :D
The weather has been MUCH cooler this week and I love it. I love the fall and winter. And I can't wait for snow. D hates the snow...like really despises the cold weather. I mean he lived in Florida (not sure how long), then moved to Austin in the 2nd grade...so his experience with snow/cold weather is pretty much zero.
RAAAANNNNDDDDDOOOOMMMMM!
Ok...I'll try not to be random anymore :D
We've had another busy week...chiropractor, eye dr., hair appts, Bible studies, fundraiser meeting, choir practice, vet, Derek went to New Mexico yesterday for work, tail-gate on Friday...on and on. Despite all the runnin' around, things have been really good. With everything going on in the country, world...we feel extremely blessed. At this time, there are no real struggles. I'm thankful to have a healthy family, a roof over our head, meals on the tables. Life is good. God always provides in one way or another and always blesses our home. Speaking of blessed, Derek and I are doing really well after LASIK. We both had appts today and we are both seeing 20/15. My eyes are great, no more discomfort, no dry eyes, nothing...it's awesome. Derek's having a little bit of blurriness still, but he said it is getting better everyday. I have some great pictures of him before and after his procedure...but, I think he might kick me out if I posted them. I jokingly told him I had already posted them...he was NOT a happy camper! Maybe some day.

OK, so for some scrappy stuff...
I am the GD at Scrap for a Cure this month...I had to do 4 LOs or 3 LOs and project with the October kit...so I did the latter. Here are the LOs and the project.



Pretty fun! I had fun scrapping old pics of Corbin. I can't belive he will be 10 soon. Freaks me out a little!

Well, that's all for today I guess. I should probably hit the sack!
Ember

Almost 32...

WOW! I can not believe it is October! And October is looking like another busy month...D goes in tomorrow morning to make sure he will be able to have his LASIK on Thursday...Thursday is also his birthday...his 32nd...and his license is up for renewal, too. Which is why this whole LASIK thing came up...he doesn't want to have the "with corrective lenses" on his DL anymore. Now he's worried that he won't pass his eye test on Friday, which he has to have done to get his license renewed to leave on his trip Monday. I guess it's an important trip, and not being there is not an option. He's crazy. And he makes me laugh!!

SEE??!! He's crazy...

Last night was our last night of small group. We have decided to "drop" out for now because we just have too many things going on. We never just get to chill out for a day...so now we have NOTHING on Monday nights!! YAY!! Small group was also at our house, so now I don't have to make sure my house is spotless every Monday night. HA! But seriously, we are going to miss it...but now it's going to be good for our family.

I still haven't taken pics of the cute little boots. But I will soon. I think he would have slept in them if I had let him. He's crazy, too!! I mean, the whole family is crazy...really.
Including the dog.
She has figured out a way into the neighbors yard, we can't figure out how, and just hangs out with their dogs...they have 3 dogs...just barking and running and having a good ol' time. CRAZY dog!

B not only likes to wear his boots around the house...but he also likes to wear other things around the house...a cape, hats, coats or jackets...even during the summer...He likes to zip it all the way up, and puts the hood on if there is one...like this...



or this, an example of his hat fetish...along with a rockin' choice of PJ's...(I put the tops and bottoms together and he still rummages through the drawer and picks this...eh...whatever makes him happy, I guess)...



Crazy.

Ok...so I finally got to get some scrappin' in! WOO-HOO!!

Here is one I did of crazy B the other night...I love it!! He just looks cute and sweet here.


And also my LO for Triple the Sketch this week...

The pics are these stickers I won...here.
Pretty fun!

Well...I best get to bed. I'm getting sleepy!
Em