Spring Cleaning

We spent the day cleaning yesterday, and it was one filthy house!
Here is a picture of Thing One and Thing Two showing what they were doing while we were steam cleaning the carpets and scrubbing everything!
We can't blame them for the entire mess of course, but they are exceptional contributors to the cause!

So here is a little known fact about me, I hate cleaning. The reason is that I am a terrible perfectionist about it and it really bugs me when you spend hours cleaning and then can't tell! Well, our house does have the lived in look, and you can clean for days and it wouldn't show because our cream colored carpets are so "loved" and lived on, LOL! Anyway, it feels much better and we are glad to have it done!
It is snowing today, so I am glad that we did get it all done yesterday and not worrying about where to have the dogs while we were working! They did enjoy their time in the yard yesterday, and played very hard before they enjoyed that little nap!

This week is going to feel like forever, CK is going to be making calls for the HOF winners and I so badly want to be one of the people that they choose! I will be working on a few other things going on in my life while waiting, and have some things to work on to keep me occupied, but I am sure that each day will feel like it's own year! (I know that doesn't make any sense to anyone but it unfortunately does to me, LOL!)
Anyway, have a happy Sunday!
B-

Toddlers...

I haven't had any of these in a very long time!
But, now I have two!
"The boys" are Thing One and Thing Two! they have pulled more stuffing out of their toys than I ever thought possible. They have also discovered the joys of toilet paper! What toddler doesn't love the fun of pulling the toilet paper off of the roll and just watching it pile up? Well these cute little boys love to steal a roll and unravel it and fight for the roll and then shred it into miniscule sticky little wet pieces of paper that stick to the floor, their teeth, their fur and their beds. Cute, right?
So then there is the wrestling that they do constantly, if one didn't start it, the other will. Novak is teething (big sharp "baby teeth"!) so Nikolay has blood all over his neck and legs from them "biting" at each other! No he doesn't actually have any cuts, it is from the teeth falling out and Novak's gums bleeding while they play, so gross! They fight over all of their toys and taunt and tease each other with them, that is actually pretty cute when they start playing chase trying to get the toy of the moment away from each other. They are both very fast, so when they get to running away and using the terrain of the yard as part of the game it is even funnier! Novak gets on top of the lounge chair and uses it as a little "free zone" when he is up there, Nikolay knows that he needs a little space and will leave him alone up there until he jumps down and is ready to run again!
They love their treats, we call them cookies, and they come running if anyone asks if a baby wants a cookie!
And as for walks, Nikolay is afraid of every dog in the neighborhood, thank goodness Novak protects him! When Niko gets really anxious he will just sit down and not move for anything. Really funny until you figure out he is not going to move! You literally have to pick him up and carry him beyond whatever it is that is scaring him! He only weighs about 55 pounds right now, but how long can this last? What I am going to do when he gets to full size? LOL!
They are really adorable, and we love them so much!
But I don't recommend having two toddler dogs at once, complete chaos!
B-

New Method Playground Challenge # 15!

Paper piecing isn't just for tear bears anymore!
The latest challenge at the Method Playground is to paper piece an embellishment.
This is a great challenge, it reminded me to take a little time to make that perfect embellishment that you just can't buy at the shop! I will admit that I was frustrated for a while, It took me a few tries to get a look that I liked that didn't take a ton of time. I wanted to do something that was complimentary to the layout, but didn't take it over or look way too fussy.
Anyway, I will be doing more of this, it was really fun after I figured it out and I like the idea that I can create embellishments that match perfectly!
B-

Easter Sunday

What does your Easter Bunny look like?
This is ours! Laurel had these cute ears and we just had to put them on him! Nikolay is sometimes referred to as the bunny because of the way he holds his ears and bounces around when he is playing, he had to be the cutest bunny ever!

We did do an egg hunt today, the kids loved all the treats in the eggs, and even though they are too old, it didn't stop them from recing around and scooping up eggs by the handful!
And the boys got special Easter goodies too, new bones to chew on in the wonderful spring weather that we had today!
We had a wonderful day enjoying each others company and relaxing! A big ham, some twice baked potatoes and a lot of chocolate eggs later, a big dinner is cleaned up after and we are watching a movie together, the best way to spend the holiday!
Together!
B-

Mommy's Boy!

After a few hours at tennis, some quality with the doggy boys in the backyard enjoying the sunshine and a lovely afternoon spent hauling kids home from school...
three different release times that were all 45 minutes apart. Thus requiring three entirely seperate trips...
I was ready to sit and enjoy a little computer time, playing with a new kit that Deena Rutter did for PcLayers that released today, my brain feels so much better already!
We start our "Spring Break" today, it really stinks because the kids only have Thursday, Friday and Monday off and then the next Friday. How dumb is that? Why couldn't they have just given us a full week so we could enjoy some time together and maybe have time to actually go somewhere a little further away than St. George.
Anyhooooo...
We will start some prep for enjoying the long weekend and Easter Sunday. I think I see some gourmet cupcakes in the forecast! (My poor rearend will just have to take one for the team and hit the gym next week!) I think we need to get a ham too! The yard is just hammered from the dogs running on it while it is so wet and muddy from all the snow melt, so it is really icky in the yard, that will require some time as well, now if the sun would just cooperate and stay for longer than one day at a time!
I am curious, what do you do for this holiday? Please share, we are not into the egg hunting age as much, so need to find ideas for celebrating in a more mature fashion!
B-

Happy Saint Patrick's day!

Being a Heinz 57, I am sure that there is some kind of everything in our family heritage, so to all my Irish cousins...
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We don't celebrate for real, but the kids do wear some green to school to avoid the inevitable pinch if you don't!!!
To help celebrate, here is another layout from the April It Kit! I made this over the weekend, that kit is so amazing, I still have tons of goodies to play with and I have made five projects, LOVE that! I think that I have a thing for circles going at the moment, unusual for me, but I am going to roll with it, (yes, I do think I am hilarious), hehehehe!
Hope you had a great day, go get pinched by the ones you love!
B-

The Wonder Years

Yup, the wonder years...

Like you wonder if everyone is going to survive. Or if the chores will eventually get done without nagging about them for the ga-jillionth time (yes that really is the number of times I have personally had to nag to get the dinner dishes done).
Or we wonder if the toys could get themselves put away for once instead of the person who last played with them having to do it.
Then you begin to wonder if they will miss you when they are grown up as much as you know you will miss them.
Can you tell it has been one of those long inside days? Snowy and cold when it should be getting more like spring everyday! And YES I am begining to wonder if spring will ever happen!
Layout is of Carter with the It Kit goodies! That cardstock is so cool, you can sand it so that you can see the core, coolness!
B-

New It Kit Gallery for the April kit!

The April It Kit is FILLED with amazing, scrappy goodness! And this team is so talented, that it just makes the kit that much more fun! They are all so clever and amazing photographers as well, serious eye candy!
The kit has Pink Paislee, Prima, Daisy D's and that gorgeous new cardstock from Core-dinations, new exclusive stamps and the buttons are delish!

Aaaaannd...

can you believe that Easter is in a week? It is so early this year, and I am not even remotely ready! It would seem that Mother Nature isn't either! We have no blooms out except our little crocus, and the dogs are trampling them inadvertantly in their rambunctious play! No lilacs, tuplips or my ornamental pears for Easter pics?
UGH!
I guess the bright spot is that the eggs will be really easy to find this year!
B-

Novak's first snow day!

Cute little dogs from Texas aren't used to the snow!

And sweet "little Novak" has only been here about a week, so when we had some flurries that stuck around for a while, we had to go out and play for a long while so he could enjoy the Utah powder! A little known fact about Utah snow is that it is a great treat for kids, and Novak just had to try it for himself! He was so cute walking around and licking the planters, the ground and the chair seats on the deck! It all tasted so good, he just had to take a lick off of everything in the yard!
By the way, if you are a nerd, you will totally get this...
It is PI day!
3.141592654 (that is how many Carter can remember, Chloe can remember about twenty more of the digits, but she is not home!) Tyler is celebrating with a bunch of his super nerd friends at his super nerd school (AMES-Academy for Math, Engineering and Science) with an open mike night at school, GOOD TIMES!
We are having a quiet night at home, we have been hectic this week (I know, big surprise) so we just wanted to relax! Chloe has been busy with her play she is participating in, the performances have been all week, and we went last night and enjoyed the high quality production! We are very proud of her, she has such a high commitment level to everything she participates in and this was no exception. So tonight Laurel is going with a friend to watch and the girl cousins will be there with the grandparents to enjoy the closing night production of "Bye, Bye, Birdie"
And we will enjoy our quiet night with just one child at home! Sweet Carter is going to get an overload of parental quality time!
B-

New Method playground!

The new challenge is on, and it is a fun one!
Use beading and string it on your project! A pattern, a flourish or a journaling block, whatever works for you!
I did the beading on this while Dave and I watched tennis (big surprise right?) It was a great match, and the perfect way to feel like I was getting something done while I really wasn't, hehehehe!
B-

Lazy Sunday

A beautiful, lazy Sunday spent with the family and pups, perfect!
The weather was amazing, the perfect temperature, and sunny with high clouds over the mountain tops, gorgeous!


They were both lapdogs yesterday, and it was really fun to see them playing and getting along so well! Novak has been a little whiny, we think he had just gotten ovestimulated and that Nikolay wasn't letting him rest enough. So when he started to be more interactive and complaining less, we figured that he had decided that his new family was okay.



There is going to be a new Method Playground challenge up tomorrow, and I really am excited about how great the participation was with this last one of hand cutting, going to be tough to pick people to RAK!

The kids are busy and happy, and that makes me busy and discombobulated (not sure if that is a word or how to spell it, but it says a lot! LOL!) But when they are happy, I am happy and that is a good thing!
B-

I will stop stringing you along!

I am so sorry, I didn't know that I had made it an obnoxiously long time to leave everyone out of the loop!

MY BAD! Hopefully I will be forgiven, when I share pics!

A new family member!

Meet Novak Dogovic! (Yes another tennis player reference, if you don't know him, he is worth googling! Novak Djokovic.)

How cute is this skinny (look at that shadow, LOL!) sweet faced little man?

He is such a good boy and Nikolay LOVES him!

My other news is that I have been asked to join the "It kit Studio" design team!

This team is so talented and the kits are gorgeous, Kelly has such a great eye for putting things together, and she has such clever combinations of products! I am really excited to work with Kelly and this group of clever, creative and fun women!

Also, anyone Project Runway fans? We have been avid watchers from the very beginning and watching the evolution of the designers from each season has been amazing. At the start of the season you see the potential of each person and are glad to see some stay and some go. But this season was mind blowing! I loved every second of it, and when Christian won, I was thrilled, surprised and stunned! He is a FIERCE 21 year old phenom who I hope stays with the industry! He has such a great aesthetic, and a very unique style that will translate into all echelons of the fashion industry and into many other creative industries! Anyway, bummed it is over, but can't wait for the next season!

Thanks for putting up with me and my silliness, I am grateful to have such great friends!

So not going to actually do the tagging thing, so here are just a few random acts about me that really don't matter....

I was a cheerleader in Junior High and High School, Ashland High School, in Ashland, Oregon.

(big surprise right? LOL!)

I have a good all court tennis game, but my backhand volley scares people more than any of my other shots.

When I was a kid I didn't like my food to touch and really preferred to eat it in order, clockwise. i still prefer to have my foods not touch, but I don't have to eat in any order anymore!

And I am fiercely loyal!

Thanks Janna and Mary Kay for the tag, and sorry I am not a better sport to do more with it!

Life with new puppies is a lot of clean-up and maintenance, so I am just happy to have time to blog ;)

B-

Another Freebie!

Yes, it is true! Another freebie, this one is from PcLayers using the Rue 12 kit! It is a tage that compliments a darling layout that Lori did using the same kit!

Lori's Blog

The links to the other blogs for more tags:

Aly's Blog

Celeste's Blog

Indah's Blog

Kayla's Blog

Natalie's Blog

Rachel's Blog

The link to the PcLayers blog:

pcLayers blog!

pcLayers Blog

Tomorrow I will address the tagging that Mary Kay and Janna both gave me...

and pics of some special news!

Until then happy tagging with the freebies!

B-

A Lazar StudioWERX FREEBIE!!!!

Yuppers!

A quickpage freebie! Deb linked me from her blog, she has a gorgeous quickpage on her blog, and after you are done downloading from here, go over to Angel's blog, she has got some FAB sharing to do as well!

I was fortunate enough yesterday to go and hang out with the PcLayers girls and have a little laptop digi crop at Nat's house! It was great, I made red velvet with cream cheese icing, and ginger with mango butter cream icing cupcakes. We giggled and ate a LOT of sugar, Natalie had made a darling huge chocolate cupcake cake, and Lori brought italian soda! I woke up with a massive cupcake hangover this morning, too funny! These girls are all so talented, and they are very kind and so FUN! I am very lucky to know them!

Anyway, go do some downloading and link jumping! The freebies are so worth it!

Happy March everyone!

B-