Wednesday Sneak Peek and Freebie

Welcome to another Wednesday where you'll find sneak peeks, giveaways and freebies!

This week at ScrapMatters, Ramona has a lovely kit coming out...

And at Brownie Scraps she has two sets of super fun templates...

Let me tell you how you could win one of these items! 1) Leave a comment here on this blog post. 2) Let your friends on Facebook know about this post and link up your FB post in the comments here. 3) Tweet about this post and link that tweet here in the comments section. You have until Thursday evening to make your comments. Then check back on Friday to see if you've won!


And here is a little freebie I made for you using Happiness Is... the kit that was released last Friday at ScrapMatters.

You can grab it here.

And here is a layout I created using the page starter...

I started with the page stack and added Ramona's Clusters vol. 1 to place my pictures and title. Easy-peasy with templates!  If you use the page starter, we'd love to see your layout, link us up here in the comment section!

Happy Scrappin'

December 2008

I am totally falling behind!  So sorry!  I am going to post TWO freebies tonight!  This will put me back on track!!  My hubby and I took a quick trip to Vegas last night and came back today.  He had a hearing to attend, for a client, and I decided to go with him.  Needless to say, it set me back a little on the blogging!!

Christmas 2008 was our first Christmas in Utah.  We moved to Saratoga Springs in June of that year, hoping to find better services for Sam.  By that point, he had been diagnosed with Apraxia of speech and soon after we moved, we learned that his genetic tests came back with xxyy syndrome.  We were so excited to be in Utah and have loved every minute since we moved here.  It is not an exaggeration to say, that for me, this is my dream place to live!  I love everything about it and still have to pinch myself that I am still here!!!

Christmas that year was so much fun.  The kids got out of school on the same day that a big storm moved in.  It snowed and snowed and snowed!  We built a snow fort in the back yard and shoveled our long driveway multiple times.  I was so happy with all the snow!  It was a nice change from our Nevada desert Christmases.

I was also expecting our sixth child and knew that it would be our 4th boy.  I was a little overwhelmed by that pregnancy, because of everything we were going through with Sam, but it all worked out okay!

That year, Chipper got a sled, Mitchell got a Sim City game,  Abby got arts and craft supplies, Sam received a wagon, mega blocks and some geo trax pieces.  Olivia got a pink stroller and doll.  Our big family gift was a new Cannon Rebel xsi camera that I still use and love!  It was a wonderful year!

Here are your TWO freebies for today!

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Busy Friday

Today was another pretty crazy day!  I'm trying to get everything ready for the weekend.  We have a party for Mitchell tomorrow afternoon, Chipper has his dress rehearsal from 10 am to 5 pm and at 6 pm we have a ward Halloween activity.  We need to have our costumes done in time for this and I signed up to bring a beanless chili and gluten free cornbread.  Sunday, I want to take a fun treat to my nursery kids and we are having a family over for dinner.  Monday is Halloween, but I scheduled Sam for a dentist appointment that morning and I'm the room mother in charge of Abby's party that afternoon!  Needless to say, things will be crazy for the next few days, but I'm hoping to minimize the craziness by getting as much prep work done today!  I still need to finish the last touches on the costumes, but other than that, I think I have everything ready to go!  Cross your fingers for me!

I also got to meet my good friend Angie for lunch!  I just love visiting with her.  She is one of my digi friends that lives close and we've become very good friends!  I am also on her Creative Team and get to work with her designs, which are awesome!  I will be showing some of them off in the coming weeks!

For tonight's freebie, I have another paper stacker for you!

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Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Tired

I think the busy and emotional weekend, caught up to me.  On top of that, last night, Noah woke up about midnight in pain.  We couldn't figure out if it was ears or his head.  He hasn't been sick, but he did seem a little stuffy last night.  He just cried and cried.  He didn't calm down and go back to sleep until after 3 am.  That can make for a very long night and next day!  He was fine this morning when he woke up, so I don't really know what the deal was.  We used essential oils on him and they would help him for short periods of time and then we'd need to reapply.  I hope tonight is not a repeat!

Most of today was spent going through the motions of what needed to get done, but feeling more like a zombie-maybe a little too fitting for October! LOL!  I just have one more child to take and pick up from voice and then I think it will be an early night for all us!

For my freebie tonight, I have a paper stack.  I have a layout I made with it, but the kit won't be released until Friday, so I'll show it to you then!!

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Sorry for such a short entry!  I hope to be back to 100% by tomorrow!

Kindness of a stranger

Today was a pretty good day, even if it was a monday!  It started off with a trip to the dentist for Sam and Olivia. They had their check up and cleanings.  Olivia is still a member of the no-cavity club! Yay! And Sam only had two small cavities.  This is great for him!  Part of his xxyy syndrome brings a lot of dental problems, so we work really hard to keep things as minimal as possible.

After the dentist, we came back home and caught up on a few things before heading out to do some shopping before Sam's school started.  While we were at the dollar store, just before checking out, the sweetest lady came up to us. She said that her grandchildren all lived far away and she wanted to give each of my kids a dollar bill.  It was a small gesture, but one that meant so much to them! They were thrilled and loved picking something out for themselves.   I was amazed at how happy a simple $3.00 could make all of us.  I hope that it brought some joy into her life and helped her not miss her own grandkids quite as much!

I worked on finishing up one of the costumes, which is getting so close! I can't wait to post pics!  After dinner, we went to a pumpkin patch.  It is our annual tradition (okay, well this was the 2nd year) and a favorite for us!  We go with other families with special needs children which I think really adds to the whole evening.  The kids rode down the big slide, rode on the animal train and then we rode the hay wagon.  Our last activity of the evening was to get totally lost in the corn maze!  It was fun, until it felt like we were farther and farther from civilization!  But eventually we made it out and Sam and Noah thought the whole thing was amazing!

On our way home, I got a call from my little brother!  He is engaged and I couldn't be happier for him! He is the last of my siblings to get married and although I've only met his fiance once, I thought she was a sweetheart!  I think she'll be good for him!

We ended the day with ice cream-well, the rest of them had ice cream, I just had a water!  Now, I'm blogging and watching The Sing-Off!  Love this show!

I have another paper stacker for you tonight!  Enjoy!

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And here is a fun layout by Crystal! I love this wedding layout and how worn out they look, by the end of the day!!

Mondays

Today was kind of a difficult day.  It is always hard to settle back into a weekly routine after a good weekend!  On top of that, Sam has been sick the past two days and his breathing got more and more wheezy as the day went on.  And in the middle of the night, Noah threw up twice!  Needless to say, it was a night where I didn't get much sleep and still had to be up by 5:30 am to get bread made for the kids' lunches!

I did get most of what I needed to done.  I did several loads of laundry, ran to the store for more groceries and managed to even get a little crafting done-very little!  I'm working on a darling advent calendar to count down to Halloween!  I'm hoping to have a picture to show you by tomorrow-along with a link to where I found the tutorial!  It is very fun!

I also got a little scrapping done, but I can't show it off quite yet! The kit will be released later this week, and it is a great kit! I can't wait to show you.  Cheri of Dream Big Designs really outdid herself with it!

And I'm topping off the evening by watching one of my favorite shows, "The Sing Off".  So fun!  I am totally rooting for Vocal Point, but I think all the groups are amazing! If you haven't watched it yet, you should!  

I am so, so excited for tonight's freebie!  I LOVE paper stackers-both  making them and scrapping with them, and I really like how it turned out!  I hope you enjoy it too!  And if you are enjoying my new blog, please leave a little love!  It helps me know that someone is out there listening!  I don't really want to sit and chat to myself!  It only takes a sec and you will know that you are making my day!

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And here are some layouts for inspiration, using the stacker!

by Bethany

By Crystal

by Angie

By Amy

By Natalee

Aren't they all gorgeous!  These ladies are so talented and show the diversity of this paper stacker!

Be sure and check in tomorrow to see what I have in store for you!  And don't forget to sign up for the newsletter!  (Click on the link in the sidebar!)  You're going to love what I have planned!