Grean Bean Lover

Miss Emma loves her veggies! In most any form. We had stir fry for dinner last week, and I gave her one of the long beans. She was loving it! I hope her affection for veggies last as she gets older! She has yet to taste one that she didn't like.

It looks like a worm stickin' out of her mouth!!

She is also good at closing her eyes when you take her picture! Just like her Mommy! I took several more, but this one was so funny! Had to use it!

Respecting Those in Authority

Let me right up front say that I did not write this. I "bloglifted" it from my friend, Rick Sams. All credit is due him. I just found it appropriate at this time. I find that some people, Christians included, are only slandering the new President. He definitely has different ideas about the value of life, among other things, but scripture is pretty clear about our respecting him as our leader and the need to pray for him.

How do our reactions to our country's new leader line up with the following:

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. Romans 13:1-2 (NASB)

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil ... it is a minister of God to you for good.Romans 13:3-4 (NASB)

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.Romans 13:6-7 (NIV)

Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God's emissaries for keeping order. It is God's will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you're a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.1 Peter 2:13-17 (The Message)

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.1 Timothy 2:1-3 (NIV)

Not easy, all of that ... especially when you feel differently on many issues than your leader does. However, I don't see an "out" in what is required of us based on whether or not the president lines up with our belief systems. Keep in mind the quality of the leadership that the writers of the New Testament were talking about when they said the things above.

Thanks, Rick!

Brrrrr! It is Kinda Cold in South Florida!

Gettin' ready for bed. The last 2 nights have been our coldest yet. Dipping down into the low & mid 30's. Emma wore her fleecy jammies with a layer of tights & a onesie under it. Then, the fleecy sleep sack over the top. She was warm when we got her out of bed that morning. Daddy put her fleecy hat on at bedtime, but it did not stay on, of course.

Here is our front lawn covered in frost this morning about 7:30.

We pulled all of our outdoor plants, even the small potted palms from the back yard, onto the porch and covered them with the beach blanket. Hoping to keep them getting frost on them. Seems to have worked!

The temp. at 9:00 AM is still about 38. I just checked online and it is now about 44 degrees (10:30 AM). If you live in the North, you will think that those temps sound divine, but to us who are acclimated to this weather- it is COLD!! We are enjoying our winter, but it is COLD! I have found that I feel the same, and wear the same wardrobe whether I am experiencing Florida winter OR Kansas winter. One year I was wearing my winter COAT down here on the playground each day and then spent a week at Katrina's in Kansas and didn't bother to even put it on some times when I went out. The weather felt the same for whatever reason.

Baby Loves Her Bath!

Emma loves her bathtime!! Daddy is usually the bath giver and they play & splash. The facial expression cracks me up! Like I am interrupting her bath time!

She is accumulating bath tub toys ever since Christmas. Nana got her the turtle container that holds toys and hangs on the shower wall. Mommy got her a set of bath toys that squirt & float. Just this week, Daddy got her a rubber ducky.

You can see all of the water splashes in this one, as she was splatting the water repeatedly! She will play as long as you let her! And then cry because she has to get out! :) Wrinkly skin and the water has gone cool , but she wants to play!

Messy Bessy

We started using the "Sassy Teething Feeder" this past week. She liked mango in her mixed fruit, so I bought frozen mango to put in this thing. She had it everywhere! It has a mesh bag on the end, that allows you to put just about anything in it for them to taste/eat with out worrying about choking. She had mango juice all over the tray, the Bumbo seat, her hands are shiny with juice, her face and the bib was orange!!

Do you think she liked it?? The next day I tried banana, and she dropped it on the counter! Gave it to her again. On the floor this time. NOPE! She is not a fan of banana. (Unless it is mixed with other fruit, such as strawberries.)

I'm thinking that she is just about ready to move on to small bits of food that she can feed herself. She is grabbing at the spoon when fed and wants to grab at my food, if she is being held during a meal. Being a new mom, I just don't know these tidbits of info. Guess we'll have to find an answer somewhere!

Flower Girl

Dressed & ready for church. She was wearing an outfit from Stephanie. It had a floral dress with a sheer over-skirt and matching floral pants. She doesn't have them on, but she wore pink gingham shoes that tied around the ankle with ribbons. Looked so cute! She refused to keep her shoes on her feet! Kept kicking them off during church!
She loves the music and specials, but soon after the sermon started... antsy pantsy! Played with different books and toys. I even took her spoon she likes to chew on. But, the ladies behind us started smiling at her and making baby faces and she immediately wanted to "talk" back to them! But, her "talk" in more of a squeal and that does NOT work in the middle of the pastor's sermon!! I had to sit her down so she couldn't see them!!

We went out to lunch the other day and she was "talking" to the ladies at the next table! They chattered to her and she just talked and squealed right back at them! So cute!


Daddy moved her over by the window to get the natural lighting for this picture. Looks really nice! I wish the striped curtain wasn't in the picture! Look at the dark shadow over her head. That is her hair. It is finally growing. She has no bald spot now and it is all getting longer. I might have to re-do her headbands soon. Big foofy ones look cute on bald or almost bald babies, but she is not 'almost bald' anymore! Might have to size them a bit smaller now.

New Blog

I started a new blog just for my scrapbook & crafting projects, "My Scrappin' LOVE Brings Me JOY" (Martin says the title is just too corny!!). You will find it at www.scraplovejoy.blogspot.com I have set myself a goal of a page a day all year. Thus, 365 pages by years end. Hmmmm... we'll see how well I keep up. I'll post a photo of each page as it is done. Feel free to visit, leave comments, and get ideas.
Dee Dee

Polka Dot Girly-O

Another garden photo op:

We had been on a walk and she already had on the cute hat, so I took the camera outside and snapped a few photos. Well, my "few" and your version of few might be a bit different!! :) Anyway, I ended up with a few really cute ones!

She is intrigued with small things right now. (developing that pincer grasp) So the small flower-looking weeds that are slowly taking over the front and back yards are just right for her interests! Pick them. Look at them. Just don't eat them!!!

I say it often, it seems, but she is such a cutie! Gotta love her!

Little Tomboy

It looks as if we have a son now! :) We don't, it's just Emma lookin' like a tomboy! :)

It was quite cool in the house that day, and I dressed her in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Grammy & Gramps sent her the shirt for Christmas and it says "I Am the Cutest Baby in the World". It is in more boyish colors and we had no headband that matched, so you might guess that she was a cute lil' boy if you just passed by, like at the grocery store or something. :) We do want an Ethan someday...

You can see her front toofies in that big ol' grin of hers! She loves her toys! She got a new wooden duck rattle from Aunt Steph and she likes it alot!

We moved her floor gym into her bedroom for several reasons. One, it is carpeted and I don't have to worry if she topples over. Two, I can't stand clutter & crowded spaces and could only take so many baby things in the living room at any one time. Three, she needs her "alone" play time and she does like & feel comfortable to do this in her own room, at least for 5-15 mintes at a time.

Sweet Baby Girl

Just a few photos of "Sweet" Emma Rose.
She has on Halie's "Sweet" onesie and hat. So we went out in the backyard for a photo shoot! She liked pulling at the flowers/weeds! Mommy was hoping for no ant bites and for no allergic reactions!!

She is just growing more and more each day! Some days it doesn't seem like she was born that long ago, yet others it seems like a lifetime ago. She has truly changed our world. I thank our heavenly Father for her each day! What a blessing.

Dinner with Nana & Papaw

My parents came for dinner on Wed. evening. Dad has been gone for 10 days, Mom had worked the weekend and we hadn't got to see them or for them to see Emma in awhile, so dinner at our house.

Mom got Emma up from her nap and brought her out to the living room. She was a bit fussy and cried some. I waited till she mostly calmed down and then went into the living room with the camera. The big ham! She saw the flash flicker and she cheesed a big ol' grin! Tears? Me?? No way!!

This was dessert: Peanut Butter-Cream Cheese Swirled Brownies. Yummy!

Dinner was Lovejoy Eggplant Parmesan, pasta, Salad, fresh bread w/ dipping oil & herbs. We make our own sauce when we do eggplant parm now. It happened once as a forgetful type mistake. I had planned to make Eggplant Parm but forgot to buy the sauce. I had a can of tomato puree and went from there. I also had dried sun-dried tomatoes and they added so much flavor to it. A little basil, oregano, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, sugar, paprika, black pepper, garlic, onion...... and we had a winner. We've made it 3 times now and just love it! SO much flavor! We don't bread the eggplant either. Sliced thin, layered along with onion, mushrooms and then sauce and cheese. I could eat it every week!

The roses are the napkin rings I used. I made them the first year we were married. Don't use them often enough. (Bought the table cloth that 1st year also) Dinner with my parents gave me a reason to use a tablecloth, cloth napkins, and napkin rings. :)

Pretty, voluptuous roses (not skimpy cheap ones) snipped off close to the blossom, and 2 sections of leaves and then stitch it onto a thick black pony tail holder!! How easy was that??? I paid about $5 for the rose bouquet and maybe $1 for the pack of rubber bands.

Cricut 2009 Calendar

This has been my project this week: a handcrafted calendar that can be used later as scrapbook pages.

First I printed out the actual calendar pages from Printmaster, adding in my special dates and removing their month/year from the top of each page. I used my Cricut machine for the cutting(if you want to know what that is, do a Google search for Cricut), and the Cricut Design Software for the titles. On most pages I used several sheets of coordinating paper, the title and either some other Cricut cut outs or some stickers that matched.

Some of the cut outs or stickers are laying flat and others are dimensional, using the adhesive foam dots that give height. The top heart on this page is dimensional. I used a fine point scrapbook pen and outlined/doodled around the edges of all titles and cut outs to add character and a completed look to them.

Martin's birthday is in March and he told me to do something nice for his page! As a teacher, I would have normally gone for green and St. Patty's day colors or kites. But, in thinking in terms of Martin, I chose purple. Purple makes him happy, so I found a more masculine sheet of paper that had purple, as well as olive green and other colors. I happened to have felt flowers (from the dollar store) just waiting for the right project. I added a brad in the middle of them and TA! dah! Page done.

One of the things you can do with each Cricut cartridge, is choose (out of about 6 different choices) the way your letters look. For April, I chose a font that allowed you to cut them out in an oval, thus looking like Easter Eggs. I just glued a scrap of coordinating paper behind each egg to let a different color show thru the letter itself. I already had the strip of sticker grass, and tucked my "eggs" down in.

My Mom got me the "Walk In My Garden" cartridge several Christmas' ago and it was perfect for this page! It makes all kinds of flowers, leaves, grass, bugs... I made/cut out and layered the flowers, caterpillar and grass, but the butterflies were in my sticker stash.

I chose to do June as a baby theme, as this is Emma's birthday month. Mom also got me the "New Arrival" cart. (last Christmas) and it came in handy today! In looking over this page, I find it a bit plain compared to the others and will probably go back and add to it. Maybe some printed paper at the top- under the baby and the title. Not sure how I overlooked that!

Again, the cart. that I chose to do JULY with, allowed me to cut them out in rectangles with the letter inside. I added blue paper on the back allowing the letters to show thru better. Cut out a few stars and added a few July 4th stickers and it was done.

This is my birthday month, and I was pondering just what to do with the page. Ribbon makes me happy, as does the color pink. I like flowers and brads and ... So I looked at my ribbon rack and there was pink ribbon with white flowers sketched on it. PERFECT! I went from there. The ribbon gave me the color scheme, as the flowers had a green center. I found bright pink papers and a bright lime type green; cut out the flowers with that same WIMG (walk in my garden) cartridge and added ribbon, brads, etc... and I am pleased with August!

Again, as a teacher, Sept. is a Back TO School theme in one way or another, but I am not going to school, or is Emma so I had to come to another conclusion! September is not "fall" yet either in South Florida! Finally I found the pretty patterned paper that got me started. It had kind of a tan/taupe color with shades of olive green swirled in. I found a dimensional flower in the right shade of green, but did not have the right color of extra large brad for the center. SO, I glued the top of a non-matching brad and glittered it brown!! (Using ultra fine scrapbooking glitter) I also added some doodling/outlining type edgers to my letters and added glitter there also. Made for a grown-up & pretty looking page!

The best part was, I had JUST bought that glitter pack at Wal Mart on clearance, for $2!! Found it in the Martha Stewart Christmas clearance! I HAD to have it, but wasn't sure just where I would use it. It has 6 colors and it was perfect for that page, as i used the light brown and the pale green

I made this one more childish looking, as it will be Emma's first real Halloween. I had the little stickers of kids dressed up in my sticker stash and they looked cute. As for Halloween, I want Emma & Daddy to dress up as a duo of some sort! Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf or something like that.

"Printing Press" cartridge has this great font that mixes and matches different styles of letters!! Love it!!!

December has a black silhouette of Santa's sleigh and reindeer. Again the ol' Cricut cut those out! I attached the reindeer to each other and then to the sleigh with a soft gold colored floss. After I took the photo, I added a gold, delicate sticker to the bottom corner that says "Merry Christmas".

This project took me about 3 & 1/2 days. I worked on it 2 pages at a time, completing 2 the first day, 4 the next, 4 more and then the final 2 on Wed. IT got me away from the TV and back to being creative! I used only stuff that I already had. Buying nothing new. While I do have quite a bit of scrapbook supplies, it did mean that I had to do a bit of planning and searching for the right stuff, as I can be a bit of a perfectionist. (I redid the January page after the whole calendar was complete! I had used a liquid glue to attach the calendar to the matting paper and it wrinkled while drying and bugged me to death!! It was also too plain, as i did not use a patterned paper under the title on that 1st page and only had the snowman to decorate it. I later added the snowflakes.)

I hole punched each page and attached them together with 2 metal rings. I then tied about 10 or 12 bits of colorful ribbon and fibers to those rings to spruce them up. The completed calendar looks so cute! My intention at first was JUST to make a cute calendar. But as I made each page, I realized why couldn't I also use it as a scrapbook page for the 2009 book??? So, I saved my scraps of each paper, any extra cut outs that I had made, as well as any extra pcs. of the paper I had used. I used a big metal clamp/clip and attached them altogether to save, so that the page that will go right next to the calendar page can be made to coordinate. Clever thinking on my part I would say. Or at least forward thinking!

ENJOY!!

P.S. Aunt Linda, I used the reduced size photos for this blog, so I'm not sure how large they will be when you click on them! I had already reduced them in size to use on the Cricut message boards and to send to a friend and they load so much faster, that I used them here also!

Jumping For Joy

Here is a short video clip of Emma in her new Johnny Jump Up: ( Just click on the picture)

I believe this was taken the day after Christmas. Since then we have figured out that with that metal strip in the doorway, she needs her shoes on! She likes it better and lasts longer with some tennis shoes on to protect and support her little footsies!

Most of the doorways in our home do not have a frame around them. They are arched or lead off from the living room and it has a higher, vaulted ceiling so there is no frame on the other side of those doorways. The only other option is the bedroom doorways. So, while the weather is so nice, we use the French doors, as the cats are usually out on the screened porch anyway.

ENJOY!

The Mom Song

This is my future:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw

How many of you other Mom's agree?

New Year's Eve 2008

We spent Wednesday evening and all day Thursday with Robert & Stephanie. Because of Robert's work schedule, he was not able to come back to Hobe to have our usual NY Eve party. So, we went out there and we had our own party. Dad was gone, Mom had to work and Steph's family couldn't participate, so we adjusted our traditional plans a bit and made it work.

Robert bought his horse the last time we were out there, but just brought it home today. She doesn't have a name yet and they are looking for suggestions. Robert likes odd names (thus, Q-tip, one of their Jack Russels and his previous horse, Blue Duck). She was quite skinny when purchased, but she has gained some weight since then.

Emma & Halie went to bed before we started any of our festivities, so I put my hat on her for a bedtime photo.

Found this at the grocery store for $1. Makes for cute photos: Baby, Me and....

Even on the Daddy!! I stuck it on his head, just being silly and then snapped a picture. He's a good sport and didn't protest. We had a lot of fun playing games and eating yummy foods. I made 7 Layer Dip w/ tortilla chips and we took the quesadilla maker so that everyone could make their own. Steph made English Muffin pizzas, home made Mozzarella Sticks and Cookie Dough Truffles. Plus, we had the dipped pretzel logs that we had made that previous trip out there. UGH! I picked and snacked my way into unbuttoning my jeans!!! The scale will not be my friend this week!!

We played Phase 10 and In a Pickle. And during the last phases of Phases 10, midnight came. So we watched the final seconds on TV, kissed, and Robert got out one of his quieter guns and had a celebratory shot!

Martin won the game and made sure he got a photo of the score sheet, although he cut off his initial at the top of the column. I added another arrow pointing to my score in hopes that I looked like the winner. But, truthfully, I was not!

Here we are just after midnight. After the midnight smoochies. :) You can see Steph's snowman decor. in the background. She had taken down all of her Christmas stuff and replaced it with winter/snowman.

I had bought New Year's stickers for Steph and I to use on our scrapbook pages for this event and they were light blue and silver. So, I wore black,as did Emma and I asked Martin to either wear black or blue. Steph wore black and Robert wore blue, although he didn't actually know we were color coordinating ( and would have worn purple or green if he did know, just to be a stinker). We stayed up till almost 1 AM and finished our game.

The next day, Steph and I spent some time playing with my Cricut Design Software and the Cricut machine. I have had the software since August and have not taken the time to learn how to use it. We figured out the basics and cut out a few things.

We all went outside after lunch and the girls went for a ride in Halie's new wagon and Halie played in the dirt! She needs a sandbox!!

Emma enjoyed her ride in the wagon. Notice the wagon has ATW -all terrain wheels- for those country rides! :) Her other grandparents got that for her for Christmas. While the girls were riding around the yard looking at the horse, baby piglets and watching Q-Tip play with his ball, Martin and I were attempting to fly that Cow kite we had got the Cantrell's.

It was a pain to get up in the air, but once it got high enough and caught good air, it looked hysterical!! The legs flapped in the wind and made it look like it was running.

Might be a kite for the beach or for a much windier day. Definitely took 2 people to get it up and stay up. We did have an almost disaster. It had been flying WAYYYY up, with a lot of extended string and all of a sudden it came down with an almost crash. Wellllllll, it came down on the other side of the fence and landed in an unused pasture. With the kite string over the top of a huge palm tree!! Thankfully the kite itself landed on the ground and Martin was able to just disconnect the kite, we rolled up the string and then we could reconnect the kite and try again.

We stayed all day and ate dinner with them, before heading home. I had taken a frozen Tater Tot Casserole with us and Steph added corn on the cob and crescent rolls and we had a tasty meal without much work.

While, this was definitely much different than our "normal" New Year's Eve parties in the past, we had a great time! Maybe someday we'll have another one of our big ones and play Battle of the Sexes again AND the girls kick the guys rears!!! Dreaming....