Beginning of DisneyWorld Scrapped

So ... I have so many great pictures from DisneyWorld that I'm intimidated at the idea of scrapbooking them. Normally, I scrapbook things so they are in chronilogical order in my album, but with DisneyWorld, I'm tempted to do themed pages (all princesses on one, rides on another, classic Disney characters on one, Christmas decor on one, Magic Kingdom on one , Epcot on one etc) even though that means that stuff from our last day might be on the first page of the WDW pages. But when I think about doing that, I get TOTALLY intimidated and overwhelmed. If I were doing the pages the traditional cut and paste method, I would honestly print all the pictures and spread them all over the floor in piles and layout ALL the pages at once (and I'm really thinking I could easily have 20 pages!). I seriously have probably over 1500 pictures - although some are repeats from my brother's camera or the PhotoPass camera. SIGH!!! It was such a fun trip though, I really want to get it done so my girls can see the pages.

Anyway, today, I scrapped the FIRST of my pages ... it is its own unique little thing so it worked to do it without worrying about all the other pictures. Its the Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian. It is AMAZING. The girls loved finding all the hidden Mickeys on the house and I was in awe at the THOUSANDS of pounds of ingredients and the 2 employees working the store INSIDE the gingerbread house. Enjoy my page! Credits: Fall Softly Snow kit by Scraps of Ellay

Snap, Click, Flash!!

Taylor LOVES to take pictures. After I took pictures of them after their makeovers, she wanted to take pictures. She had me pose for a couple pictures, but then I got tired and tried to rest. But she still wanted to take pictures. I love the one of my legs ... she thought since she took one of my head that she should take one of my legs.Credits: Sweet Sophisticate Kit by Digital Couture

I already posted these pictures, but I had fun making this page so I thought I'd post it.Credits: No Ordinary Girl by Scraps of Ellay

Makeover

Jessica wanted to have a friend over for makeovers. Monika came over and makeovers ensued. Taylor joined them for makeup, nails and toe-nails. They are ALL girl.

Credits: No Ordinary Girl by Scraps of Ellay

Family "Dance Dance" Night

Our girls love to dance. They have recently asked to get out the Dance Dance Revolution so last Monday, we had family dance dance night. We all took turns doing Dance Dance Revolution. It was very entertaining and lots of fun. I think the girls must all believe that if they stomp HARDER it will give them better scores, because they all stomp like crazy on the mats. Its funny. I'm not great ... Alyssa can beat me! But Steve definitely has the rhythm!

Taylor Says ...

Taylor, as you probably know, is in speech therapy and has been since she was 2. I was filled with a lot of mixed emotions yesterday when the speech therapist called and told me she thinks Taylor might be ready to STOP HAVING SPEECH! I was so proud of Taylor, but I was also so scared for her. Is she really ready? Is she really caught up? After thinking about it and talking with Steve and then the "team" regarding her individualized education plan, we have all opted to keep Taylor in speech a little longer to work on her opposites and her enunciation. The speech therapist is also going to run another test to evaluate what the enunciation problems are. The test that she had run with Taylor recently focused on a lot of other issues. Of the 7 or 8 categories, Taylor fell in the AVERAGE range on all but 2!! She was JUST barely out of the average range on those two areas (opposites and pragmatic - point of view speech). This coming from a child who was in the bottom 2-3% range on ALL speech issues when she was 4. WOW!! So proud of her.

I feel SOOOO very blessed for the awesome speech therapists she has worked with in the last 4 1/2 years! And I am so grateful for her progress. Taylor's 1st grade teacher was also in the meeting and said that she actually has to ask Taylor to be quiet sometimes. Seriously? This from the little girl you could hardly get to say her name when she was almost 4?! Miss Crowton said that today in class she randomly put kids in groups of three to work on their math. Taylor's name was drawn to work with two boys. Miss Crowton walked over to see how it was going and Taylor was teasing the two boys and had them absolutely giggling... uh oh. :) It wasn't that long ago that she would have NOT been happy to be with boys AND would have been absolutely silent in a group - even with girls. We are so proud of Taylor and her progress. Now we have to work on re-directing that energy and keeping her on-task.

One of the tests the therapist did with Taylor was to have her talk about some silly pictures she showed Taylor. Taylor said 19 sentences and only 4 contained errors ... which is AWESOME for Taylor, especially since many of the sentences were more than 5 words, something we have worked on most of the year (forming longer sentences using adjectives and phrases and/or making conjunctions). Some of the sentences she said were ...

The lady is walking backwards.
The car doesn't have any wheels.
The space is not in the sky.
The hen has a leash. (hen??? didn't even know she knew that word)
This is supposed to be right here and this is supposed to be here. (Two sentences in one with a conjunction!)
The red is supposed to be at the top and the green is 'pose to be at the bottom. (Again, TWO sentences).
She's not 'posed to wear ice skates and holding a paint bucket (ooops, wrong verb form on holding).
He doesn't have another sock on.
He doesn't have shoes on.
He's throwing his garbage on the floor.
The clock looks funny with the hands (... thinking this is missing something).
The 12 is not the top

So proud of my little girl. She has grown so much. The speech therapist loves working with her and said she is amazed at the growth in the last 3 years (Taylor worked with her during preschool, kindergarten and now 1st grade). Thank you Mrs. Taggart! We really appreciate all your work. And Taylor, I am so proud of you for TALKING and growing so much. Her growth is the result of A LOT OF hard work, A LOT OF time, and the answer to MANY prayers.

Flowers bring hope

Every year as the winter starts to come to an end, these little flowers pop up in my flower beds. And with their bright sunny yellow, white and purple blossoms, they bring hope. Hope of sunny afternoons and playing outside. Hope of bike rides and walks. Hope of hiking and camping. Hope of BBQs and picnics with family and friends. Hope of playing on the playground and geocaching. Hope of gardens and fresh vegetables (yummy tomatoes). Hope of new life and growth.
After living in Utah for awhile, I'm not too excited yet, because I do realize that we will probably have one or two more days of snow and cold (or even 2 more months) BUT there is hope that spring will come again and the grass will be green and the flowers will all bloom. The bees and birds will fly around the yard and summer will follow spring! Because of that these little snow crocuses have become one of my very favorite flowers.

And when the crocuses are gone, the daffodils and tulips won't be far behind. Yeah for color in the yard and all the great things spring and summer bring!

10 things ...

We filed our tax returns earlier this month and will get the money back this week, finally. I always love this time of year because we always get money back and do something fun. Its kind of like getting a bonus! We often do practical things like fix things, pay something off, etc, but we also usually do a little bit of splurging. I always get to think about all the fun things I'd do. This year is a bit different. Don't get me wrong, I've dreamed of all kinds of things I'd do with the money if he had his job (paying off debt being the first). But this year, tax returns are making me count my blessings!! I'm very grateful that we are getting the tax return back! It won't solve the problem for the long-term but it will help for the next several months. I'm sure grateful for the little things and the big things it means! Here's my top 10 reasons I'm grateful for a tax return!

1. It means that we won't have to miss a mortgage payment or a car payment.
2. It means that we won't have to borrow more from family.
3. It means we can pay for Alyssa's dance costumes for her competitions.
4. It means we can replace the brakes on my van finally!
5. It means I can buy the girls shoes to replace the ones they are wearing from last fall that are too small and have holes in them (especially Taylor and Jessica - GROWTH SPURT)!
6. It means I can plan to register Alyssa for swim team again (she has to help earn the money though by working for me).
7. It means good hair cuts for me and the girls. Yippee!
8. It means my new printer for my business (which will in the long run save me time and money and also allow my income to continue to increase).
9. It means I can stress a lot less and it means I can sleep a little easier!
10. And most of all, it means an extended "runway" of time for Steve to find a job that will be a good fit. He hasn't gotten calls on many jobs which makes us nervous. We really don't want him to have to take a job that he's not going to be happy doing ... he's pretty happy in most situations, ... you know Steve, he's so easy going, but we don't want him to have to take something that will overwork him constantly, stress him out or make him feel undervalued. He still has to program at nights and weekends for AudioShare so he needs to have a clear mind when he gets home.

So grateful for tax returns this year!!

Regarding the job search, Steve has not heard back from the interview last week. Not sure what that means. We figured if it went that badly, they'd let us know by now that they aren't interested ... Who knows. He is also talking to a recruiter at Microsoft. They are hiring here in Lehi so he should have a first interview with them this week or early next. We're hoping with the spring coming more companies will be opening positions ... we'll see.

I hope all of you are taking time to find reasons to be grateful. Although March may have come in like a lion (for some of us - and I'm not referring to weather), may March go out like a lamb for all of us! Peaceful and calm and leave us all feeling safe and happy!

Review of our week ...

Monday ...
Tuesday ...
Wednesday ...
Thursday ...
Friday ...
Saturday ...

At least that's the way I feel... where did it go? What exactly happened this week? Here are a few things...

We worked out 4 days again this week. I'm feeling it in my legs today (that's what I did yesterday) so I guess that's a good thing.

I got to sneak out for an evening at Enrichment Night for our Relief Society (ladies' organization at church). It was a nice break. We had a yummy dinner, a slideshow about the Haiti earthquake from a couple who went over there shortly after it happened, and the most amazing desert buffet after while people worked on some quilts to donate to our church's humanitarian efforts. It was just nice to get out and not stress about anything.

Jessica wanted to have makeovers ... so Thursday afternoon her friend from school came over and we did blush, eye shadow, lip gloss, finger nails and toe nails on Jessica, her friend and Taylor. It was fun. Pics to come! Such girly girls!! :) And then Taylor tried her hand at the camera ... with me as her focal point. I was ok with it at first, but then I was ready to rest for a bit and she kept snapping pics of me trying to sleep. Pics of that to come too.

It snowed probably about 10 inches at our house on Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. YIKES!! It had been so beautiful! Oh well, we can always use the moisture (so as long as it melts quick and we don't have to look at the dirty snow for too long, I'm ok with it). The girls got to play out in it yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa's and again today here to home. I even helped build a snowman today!! :) Pics to come!

Kids had no school on Friday so it felt like a Saturday. They had a sleepover over at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thursday night which was really nice!

Other than that, I've worked quite a bit this week. We have just started our busy time of the month so work, work, work. :) But I am so grateful for my business. We have been very blessed this past 6 months with Steve out of work. I don't know how we could have survived without the help we've had and without my business. It is such a blessing and the growth my biz saw in January and early February was especially a blessing! I really do love my business and the people I work for. Most of them are very strong, very smart, very kind, very inspiring women! I started our printing today. By the end of day Tuesday, we will have printed the address side of about 4800 postcards and stamped them all plus about 600 letters and envelopes. I'm almost half way on the postcards!! It sure does make it warm in my office with printers going for hours on end! Go printers, go!!

So, yep, that's our week. Next week, like I mentioned, is a pretty busy week for my biz so I may not get to post much or scrapbook but know we are happy, healthy and taking life a day at a time. :) I hope all of you are having a Happy March! And may the luck of the Irish be with us all!