Hero

Here lately, I have been getting into music again :) This song is one that got me through a very depressed childhood! I can't begin to tell you the number of times I cried myself to sleep listening to this song. I hope you enjoy the words. For the music to accompany it, go to you tube and look for Mariah Carey Hero.



There's a hero If you look inside your heart You don't have to be afraid Of what you are There's an answer If you reach into your soul And the sorrow that you know Will melt away

And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you

It's a long road When you face the world alone No one reaches out a hand For you to hold You can find love If you search within yourself And the emptiness you felt Will disappear

And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you

Lord knows Dreams are hard to follow But don't let anyone Tear them away Hold on There will be tomorrow In time You'll find the way

And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you

Loads of love to you all!!!

a couple more favorite pics from easter...

I love that my girls are so very photogenic! And they are usually pretty good when I ask them to pose. Maddie even put up with me adjusting her!!! Here, I have adjusted the light as it wasn't the best photo, but when I adjusted the light and removed ALL saturation, it turned out pretty good.
The girls love yaya's Magnolia tree, so I took advantage of it. I didn't like it in color, but it looks really nice in black and white! I can't wait to get these printed!

And now for the regular check in. Ryan is working 12 hours today. It's nice for him to get the long hours! Maddie is not really doing anything different... Just hanging out. Skye is being very quiet today.... Kenzie wasn't having a very happy morning but I am hoping that will change by the time she gets off of the bus. And I am running around this Condo like a chicken with my head cut off! I have company coming over this weekend, so wanted to get some regular chores out of the way so we can just enjoy our time with Deb. She is bringing the girls' bikes back to us. (i don't know if i mentioned that the bike rack broke on our last camping trip so she put the bikes in her truck and took them home with her. she'll bring them tomorrow since she lives about 1hour away and comes to town about every 2 weeks)

And now time to get off this brain sucking machine LOL

Easter Pictures

Today, I received, by e mail, the easter pictures I took of the girls. Below, you will see them. I have edited them to reflect my personal taste. I am also including a small caption below each of them as is my favorite thing to do. This first photo is of my lil Madison. She had a blast finding eggs that were hidden. They found eggs in bushes, on garden hangers, in trees, under bushes, on the fence, under the hot tub steps... you name it... that's where they were hidden! The had a blast and I was able to just barely capture the moment of Madison finding her first egg. So priceless!
But, before we went out to find eggs, I had the girls pose up for some modeling. Honestly, Maddie wasn't into it, but Mackenzie was. She is such a ham! Here she is laying on the couch in the front room at my mother in law's house. I have applied some spot light to this photo and walah!
Here, I took that same picture of Kenzie and turned it black and white while adding a black vignette to it. I love the way it turned out!!!Madison thought it would be funny to run away from me, but I caught her just in time for a photo! I love it! She is such a cutie! Here I added a white vignette that I have faded around the edges to show a little foggy effect if you will...
And again, Maddie doing what she does best..... See, I have found with her it is best to capture moments while she is in motion. She loves picking flowers, so this was just perfect for a photo!
And lastly, because they recieved a beach ball sprinkler, we put their bathing suits on them and let them play in it. After they were done and wet, I was able to get a picture of them laying in the grass with their shades on! As you can see they both were getting tired of the Mamaratzi by now.

And that's all I have to share with you for now. More to come as I can, but until I get my camera it will be few and far between. I know I will have pics of Maddie's birthday party at the beach, but I don't know what else I'll be able to capture til I get that camera. I did look at 2 different cameras today. They were both digital slr's and I have to say, I love that I can manually zoom in on my target. No, I did not buy one. I am not ready to I am just looking and trying to decide which camera is best for me for now. I'll be sure to share with you all when I do buy one.

Lastly, thank you carol for letting me take the pics on your camera. Thank you Amanda for e mailing them to me. Thank you Stephanie for your input on how to do a few things with these photos.

sunflowers and tomatoes

so, one of the gifts kenzie and maddie got for easter from yaya and pappy was to get little "greenhouses" maddie got sunflowers and kenzie got tomatoes... so guess what's in our kitchen window! can't wait for them to start sprouting and then get big enough to transplant to the patio!

maddie is doing great here lately! she know's that she is about to be five and that she will be going to kindergarten this fall. she is getting really good with her colors and has even started recognizing some letters! i can't wait for her to really get it when she starts school. there has been a lot of contreversy as to why i did not put her in preschool. let me clear this up: the main reason, we didn't have enough money to pay for it. and you will argue that we could have gotten prek for free here in the state of florida. and my rebuttal is this: IF I CANNOT FIND A SCHOOL I LIKE THAN I WILL NOT BE FORCING HER TO GO TO IT. afterall prek is VOLUNTARY not mandatory! my take on the whole thing is this, there are MANY kids whose parents can't afford preschool and they do just fine! i have a friend whose son is in 3rd grade this year... he didn't go to preschool yet, he is in the top of his class even after having speech issues! so please, do me a favor and don't judge me because i didn't send her to preschool.

kenzie is struggling a little in math, but we are working on it with her. this week she has been working on counting money. she gets confused, but we are getting better with it. other than that, she is still in the self contained classroom and loving her teacher...

ryan is status quo other than he has a meeting with a prospective new job tomorrow... prayers would be great as he is wanting to get out of the place he works at now...

i am just hanging out til the day i go for my test and after that happens, i'll update you...

there will be very few pictures uploaded until i get my camera as my sony is broken.... i'll get that done as soon as i can... (i am hoping that i will be able to get it the first month that i go back to work). more updates later :)

time for a fill in... lol

after that last post, we had our spring break. we took the kids camping for the first time in a tent. they loved it! the only downfall was that my camera got knocked off of the picnic table and covered in sand... it is ruined! i called the camera shop and asked about getting it fixed... it will cost more to fix it than it would to just buy a new camera... so what is momma going to do? UPGRADE! it may take me a little extra time to get my new camera because I have decided to upgrade to a digital slr camera. some may ask why I feel this necessary... well see below:

* my other camera was good, but i want to be able to start doing the manual settings on the slr type cameras.
* i want to be able to switch the lenses out as desired. no this isn't a necessity, but i really want this!
* i have been asked by some friends over several occasions to do their childrens pictures for them. a slr will make that much more enjoyable for everyone involved. (due to the camera breaking i had to call and cancel on a friend of mine who had asked me to do her wedding pictures!).
* i have always had an interest in photography, and if i can take the classes (which i can at a local camera shop) and then make a little money on top of it, why not do it.

some may think that i am looking into photography as a way of trying to be like them. THAT IS NOT THE CASE! i could care less who thinks they are better than me so much that they think i have to be like them. i am me and if you can't accept that, please, by all means STOP READING MY BLOG!

we are spending easter sunday alone this year. we had to have easter dinner friday night because roy and carol weren't going to be here for easter. it really saddens me that my kids have to have their holidays altered, but i guess that's just the way their life will be. but i do know that for christmas, my children will be speinding it at home FROM NOW ON! in past years we have gone to other places, but my kids don't get to enjoy the fact that they get to play with everything they get because we are at someone else's house. if anyone doesn't like this TUFF STUFF! my kids are going to start being first and if you don't like or don't want us in your life, please don't hesitate to let us know!

i am over it!

Scrappin' Momma is my name... Scrappin' is my game :)

So, today I got a chance to go over to Jessica's for some scrapping. I got some more challenges out of the way!
Up first you see the 2 page layout challenge and the Dr. Suess challenge all in one :) I wanted to scrap some of Maddie's baby pictures and the quote I had chosen for the Suess challenge worked perfectly with this sketch! So I was able to use the design from the sketch to do both challenges. I loved making this layout because I so often scrap Kenzie because we have so many more pics of Kenzie for some reason... Maybe it's because Kenzie has been around for an extra 4 years... but anyway, I took the time to do a multi pic layout of Maddie instead today... Love it! The sketch had stars where the flowers are on mine, but that is the beauty of the sketch, I take a sketch and make it my own. I love using flowers, so it worked perfectly that i could just substitute them for the stars.

The quote:

"You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." Dr. Suess

I love that quote but it really made me think of Maddie! She really does steer herself in the direction that SHE chooses! LOL
And finally on to the other layout I did today. I did my week 2 sketch challenge layout for the March Monthly Sketch Challenge. I used Crate Paper Mia Collection for all of the printed papers. The cardstock in the background was something I had laying around. This challenge had a twist of using 3 coordinated pps from the same designer, since I used 4 papers from the Mia Collection, I was able to get the twist in:) The pics were of Kenzie at 3 or 4 years old. She was and still is such a hammmmmmm! I can't wait to pull out more older pics of the kids and get to scrapping them. Don't get me wrong I love scrapping the new pics as I take them but there is just something about scrapping the older pics that brings back the memories of my children at those stages and I never wanna forget one moment of their childhood! Kenzie in these pics was pretending to be Kelly Clarkson! At that age, she loved Kelly! She sang Miss Independent as often as she could find her little play microphone... And we were good Mommy and Daddy Judges... We were really into American Idol at that time in our lives... See what I mean... I also used the pics this day for our christmas cards that year! I had one of Kenzie holding Maddie and that was our card!

What fun! Now it's on to bus stop time have a great day see you when I can!

March Colour Challenge

For the month of March, I have entered into several challenges on a scrapbooking website I frequent. The challenges keep my creative juices flowing. The above picture is of the layout I did for the March Colour Challenge. We were to use Blue, Lime Green, and Orange as the dominant colours in the layouts. I used one of my favorite pics of Mackenzie for the pic on it. I took that pic a few weeks before her 8th birthday and it really pops off of this page! Love it.

As the month progresses, you will see layouts from me for the following challenges:

2 page sketch challenge
dr. suess challenge-- here we are to use a quote from dr. suess or a pic of our kids reading a dr suess book.
monthly sketch challenge- for this one i have 4 sketches for the month, then a bonus sketch each week as well.
the one pic layout challenge is to scrap a lo with only one pic on it. this shouldn't be too hard since i prefer showcasing 1 pic at a time.
scrap your favorites-- we are to take our favorites from the website and scraplift (or mimick) them.
Welcome to Wonderland-- i will post more about this later.
Darker Side-- i am to use all dark colours and then bring in some GREEN for the month of March.
and finally just the girls. i am to scrap the girls but without using much pink... we shall see how this goes..

all of the challenges make for an interesting month for me... i can't wait to get some of the new stuff put on here....

a new layout and it's among my favorites!!!

So, I have been doing some challenges here lately. This layout was inspired by a sketch challenge I joined this month. I absolutely love the way it came out. I had swapped some of my paper that i had multiples of with my friend Jessica for some of hers that she wanted to get rid of. We both came out on top and the printed paper you see in this lo is one of the papers I got from her. I love it! the butterflies were a last minute addition as jessica and i had gone to michaels, she was going to get the butterflies and then decided not to so I did. They really make the layout complete! I'll be getting a good current pic of ryan and i put on it in black and white for this one.

I'll be working on a bonus layout today for this same challenge. One of the twists for the layout above was to use bling... and you know I just HAD to add stickles! They looked amazing! Now for the bonus layout the twist is to use flowers... hmmm that might be difficult NOT! i love using flowers on my layouts and primas are my favorite!!! i just happened to find them on sale yesterday, so i know i will have some cute flowers for it :)

and as for more scrapping good news, i will be having another all day long crop at jessicas on tuesday to finish a green, blue and orange layout i started working on the other day... as well as we are both doing the same scraplift. she has the pic at her house, she is doing it for a boy album and i am doing it for the girl album so i'll take pics so you can see what the two of us come up with... it should be fun...

welp time to go to the bus stop... see ya soon :)

a fun weekend

just thought i would recap a very busy weekend for us... friday, ryan worked but when he got off of work we left for deltona. we love our trips to deltona! it's only 2.5 hours away and we have so much fun visiting mandi and albert; jessa, aj, and tali too! we got there at 130 am. went to bed around 3, then spent saturday morning lounging around and playing around in the scrap room... headed to longwood at about 4. time for the surprise party came faster than you might think, but it was fun catching up with so many people and meeting some new people as well. at about 1030 we headed back to deltona and then in the am back to longwood... played some cards with riley and shelby, headed to the outlet mall on the way home. we didn't actually get home yesterday til bed time... we were beat.... then this am, i got up and went to jessicas! i guess i hadn't had enough of being busy over the weekend... we decided to scrap a little which was very nice!!! i got a lot of work done on a layout that will be uploaded next week when i get home from finishing it at her house... i will probably do two layouts that day... she and i have one we want to do at the same time... she is doing the same one i am doing for the second layout only she is doing it for a boy and i am doing it with girl papers so we can see what each other come up with for it :)

maddie has been enjoying having time with daddy in the morning and me in the afternoon before we go to the bus to get kenzie... she is growing up so fast... just amazes me...

kenzie is loving school more and more each day... tonight she has lots of homework to correct and send back to school, so that is my next task...

making chicken noodle soup right now :) yummmmo!

and that about does it for the catch up on us... i'll have pics to put on here later.

a busy week

it's been a busy week, but that doesn't compare to the days to come... next week, i have a swap to go to so i can help my friend jessica... baby shower cake to make... camping supplies to get together... grocery shopping... running to the car lot to pick up spare keys... and the list seems to continue growing... good thing i have a car that can handle it now :)

i know that was short, but i am short on time right now.. dinner is calling my name wanting me to prepare it... so i guess i'll see ya later

Cereal Box Mini Album

Here is the album I made today. I was inspired by my friend's monthly kit challenge. I used all papers from Die Cuts With a View. They had put out a paper pad called The Christmas Combo 180 Stack. It is 3 of their stacks in a combination pad. I used many of the prints in this little book I am giving to my mom.
For the front page, I used fibers to tie it together and used a few of them for a little border along the edge of the binding. I got my inspiration from a Christmas Carol. The wording for this front page says:

Christmastime is here
Happiness and cheer
fun for all that children call
their favorite time of year

For page one, I wanted to keep it pretty simple, so I covered the back of the title page with pp and then added the next verse to the song. It says:

Snowflakes in the air
Carols everywhere
Olden times and ancient rhymes
of love and dreams to share

The next page I have in the book is where the photo's begin. The photography was taken by Angels Touch Photography in November 2010. This photo is of Maddie and Kenzie wearing their Christmas Jammies holding the scrapbook I was working on for Amanda. It was not finished here, but I wrapped it up and used it for a present in the pics.

Here is the family picture page. Love the way it turned out :)

On this page we have Kenzie who was really a hammm that night! The wording to the song continues on this page:

Sleighbells in the air
Beauty everywhere
Yuletide by the fireside
and joyful memories there

On the last set of pages, comes the pic of Maddie kissing Mommy. The wording finishes off here:

Christmas time is here
We'll be drawing near
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year

And the last page with a picture of me and Kenzie. We signed the page Merry Christmas Nana and Papa Love, Ryan, Dawn, Kenzie and Maddie

This is a shot of the back of the book just so you can see how the binding wrapped around the back of the book.

fun projects

so, as we all know, i get all into paper crafts... well, when i post my next few projects, you may want to take me to the loony bin!!! i am using oragami in one of them (this one will post much later than the first) and the other was due to a challenge blog! I am working on a christmas themed cereal box mini album!!! yep. I am using a cereal box that was about empty and turned it into a really cute mini album... i am still working on it so pics will come this evening or tomorrow after the glue has all dried... so far i have used:
1 cheerio's box
7 printed papers all from the die cuts with a view christmas pad i got on sale a few months ago... i may pull in a few more for mats and embellishments as well..

and it wouldn't be one of my mini's without fibers, so you can expect to see some pretty green (and if i can get my hands on some red ones, i'll put them on it too :))

i am feeling better, still have a cough, but all in all the cox's are all on the road to recovery and if kenzie keeps behaving she will be on the way to deltona with us this weekend.

maddie is just as sweet as can be today. she went upstairs and asked, "daddy, can mommy and me have the car today so we can take mommy and me somewheres special?" lol! how funny is that kiddo!

and that bout does it for the update... more to come :)

on the mend

so i feel much better today. still have an awful cough, but all in all i am feeling much better. so the agenda for the week goes like this:

Monday: kids to the park day. kenzie is off of school so we are goign to enjoy a picnic lunch at the playground.
Tuesday: mommy to womens at church and a scrappy few hours with jessica
Wednesday: begin the scrapbook area transformation
Thursday: church
Friday: pack and leave for Deltona (as long as we are all healthy and not grounded)

the following weekend will be fun as well. friday after kenzie gets off of the bus, i am taking the girls out to starkey park... it'll be fun and then saturday am i have planned a shopping trip for me and my friend debbie... fun times :)

a new car!

finally, we were able to find a new car. new to us. not brand new, but it doesn't matter as long as it runs like a charm right. well we did and honestly, we love it!



that is not our car. i got the image from the web. i am waiting to upload the actual pic of our car. the difference is that our car has a spoiler on the back and a sun roof also. (yes, our car is white)

the girls love this car as well. i am sure they will miss having the tv/vcr combo that the van had, but it was time for a new vehicle. we are sure to love the toy as ryan is calling it!

and what else is going on here, well not much.... scrapping a little but nothing major really..

Happy Birthday Kenzie

As you all know, Kenzie just turned 8. It's amazing to me that she is so big already. Well I decided that since I am making changes, one of them is that I am beginning to blog on a regular basis again. In order to do this, I need to be sure I share with my friends more often. I am starting with the most recent event that has happened in our family. We had Mackenzie's birthday party last weekend at Yaya and Pappy's house. As normal, I made her cake for her after she decided the theme. As you can see, she decided that Tinkerbell was what she wanted for her party, so I made her a cute little cake for the party. Complete with her friends! She loved it! I have to say I was highly satisfied with how it came out! The purple and green were perfect and then adding a frame to add some spice to it from Corel was just perfect!
First thing Saturday morning, the Tinkerbell jumper arrived and the kids were totally game for it. Kevin got to the party early and played in the jumper with Maddie, Kenzie and Shelby. They had a blast! They were even happy to give me a pic of them all!
I put a poster on the wall so if we got time and wanted to do pics with Tinkerbell, it would be an option. I did a test pic with my friend Kevin. I wasn't totally pleased with the way they came out so some of them I did edit, but this one was pretty cool.
Kenzie's friend Abby from school came to her party. I didn't like the way the pic turned out for tinkerbell, so I simply extracted her from the picture, then added a background from Wee Faerie and then her name down the side. I also added a soft focus and then blended her into the background a little for a great picture of her! Loved it!For present time, Kenzie was so excited to open her present from Deb, Kevin, and Kevin. She has slept with her Tinkerbell Snuggie every night since! She got so many fun presents and couldn't say thank you enough!As the party winded down, I took the tulle I had on the back of one of the barstools off and hung it around Pappy's neck. He is such a good sport!!!

All in all it was a great party. We had a light rain all day, but that didn't stop the kids from playing in the jumper!!! And there you have it! The birthday party in a quick summary.

~Dawn~

Getting back to the basics

So, I have decided it's time to get back to the basics. I have deleted all of my excess blogs... I had 2 that were private and one that was a public one for the business stuff that never took off. I have also decided this year is going to be a pivital part of my life. The para pro assessment is happening this summer, and then we will go from there.

Kenzie will be in 3rd grade next year it is time for me to take charge of our lives!

Maddie will be in kindergarten so she needs things taken care of prior to going into that grade.

it is just time for things around here to change... for the better..

my goals are:

get my para pro done
get a job as an instructional assistant for the school board
take human anatomy and physiology lecture and lab so i can then move on to the next set of goals

pay for and take the 15 month course to get my coding degree
then get a job working in a hospital as a coder.

can i really do all of this in the next 2 years, i am goign to be brave and say yes i can! i am my mother's child and i know i can if i set my mind to it.

i'll try and keep updated here as often as possible.

love, peace and chicken grease (yes, those were the words of my little brother)
~Dawn~

It's hard to believe... She's turning 8

Isn't she so beautiful! Yeah, I know, my head is getting bigger! My perfect angel! In 1 week from today, my lil girl turns 8! It is so hard to believe. I thought I would start this blog out with some pics of her since I haven't shared in a while. These pics are all significant to me. Like for example, this first pic you see above, she is wearing the hat that Yaya got her for christmas. To many of you this may seem regular, but to me it isn't. See, that hat was made by hand, by a very special woman and then given to my mother in law to give to her angels. I had a hard time getting Kenzie (and Maddie) to pose in their hats! See, my girls DESPISE wearing hats. Therefore I had to share this picture with you.

And in the next few pics, you will notice, we are on our back patio and Kenzie is being the cute little model we all know she is! Many of you will ask why these are so significant. Well, I decided to take it in my own hands to do the girls' yearly pics. I have never gotten Maddie into a studio and I have found that by learning the basics of digital photography, I can too take beautiful pics of my children. There is one more significant thing about these pics, the top she is modeling for me, I made. It is the top she will wear on her birthday party day. fun times are coming!

This pose just screams her personality! Love it! She is so photogenic and shows it in this picture! Such fun times we have in our little apartment. We may not have much but we have FUN and that is what life is all about! See, Kenzie shows the amount of fun she has through the camera!

In this pic, I did do quite a bit of editing to, but the pose said it all! She blew me a kiss and held it as the camera caught the pose! I was sooo happy to get this shot. Then I thought of one of my role models. Cynda is a very special woman to all of us! She is the pianist at church. Not too long ago, Kenzie went to a "concert" if you will. We had a night of music called, "This is love" they even made a cd. The lights flashing on the band gave me inspiration for this photo! As if she is blowing a kiss from on stage! I chose green and purple for the lights because I wanted to pull tinkerbell from her top.

And finally, we come to my favorite photo. This one will be made into the largest possible print I can make from it. I love how serious she looks here. And then the aging of the photo on my editing software did amazing tricks.

Now Kenzie is growing so much. She's not a baby anymore that is for sure, but she will always be MY baby. She is getting more and more independent. She's in 2nd grade now. She loves playing wii with Maddie. (More like teaching her sister how to play). She has a bird named Skye now. He used to be Riley's but Kenzie loves him like you wouldn't believe and asks me everyday, "Mom did Skye fly today?" today I was finally able to tell her "YES" I had his cage open again like every day and as I was doing other things, I felt a whoosh go by my hair. It was Skye spreading his wings. He had a grand ole time! He loves the top of our cabinets in the kitchen. And when he was done, he flew back to his cage for a few minutes, then manuvered his way back into the cage. Such a good pet!

So in about 1.5 weeks we will be having a birthday party. So next week I will be very busy with getting all of the final preparations going. We have tons to do on Friday night and Saturday morning before the Jumper arrives. I can't wait for the kids to have a blast. I will be sure to have the camera charged and upload pics as soon as they are edited from the party.

So far we have 13 kids coming. Kenzie will be excited because her best friend from kindergarten is joining us for the grand occasion. From what I hear, Zoey's grandpa is giving me and the girls a lift to Zoey's birthday party on this saturday as well. Kenzie and Zoey will be sooo excited!!! Can't wait for that one either.

And now that you are updated, time for me to go. I'll try to post more pics tomorrow as I am editing tons from this past year for the blog.

time to plan a party

while we have been away, we have been busy! we are planning kenzie's 8th birthday... how can it be? it seems as just yesterday she was born. and now we have to plan an 8th birthday party. so far the details are this:

she wants:
a tinkerbell jumper (reserved)
party at yaya and pappy's (check)
tinkerbell party supplies
tinkerbell topsy turvy cake
pinata (check)
invitations (reets has done them and they are on the way now)

i am making as many of the tinkerbell decorations as i can. so one of the tings i am doing is that i am making a banner for her party. it will probably say happy 8th birthday Kenziebell (taken from Tinkerbell)

and i am making the cake. fun times!!!!

on to other things: i have a cake this month. it's a 1st birthday topsy turvy cake. will be loads of fun. i just have to hope it comes together the way i want it to.

ryan has been working like a crazy man.... maddie is just a growing and is starting to look forward to starting school next fall. she keeps asking if it is time to go to school yet. and i have been busy trying to get things organized in my scrappy area so that i can start really taking off and selling more stuff for my business.

speaking of which, if you want to see that blog, go here. It is my business blog. I have started uploading some of the projects I have been putting together on there and will continue doing this if I can find extra time. I do have to finish a few projects and then send out. I am currently trying to get a mailing schedule down. Once this is done, i will be able to get a faster turnover rate going.

I will also be posting soon Kenzie's 8 year pics. I am taking her out for a mommy and me day closer to her birthday and we are going to enjoy some time together and I will work in a photo shoot into it. I am hoping to take her somewhere that has some really nice backgrounds. If I could sneak busch gardens for this I would! Keep your eyes peeled for this one as she doesn't know what we are doing yet.

Well that is all I have for you for now... time to run!

See ya round the mulberry bush!!!

Dawnie

what have we been up to?

Well, it's simple. Christmas. I waited til last minute to get gifts taken care of this year. That is totally out of character for me. I will say that christmas was a fun time. We went to Orlando and spent it with Derrick, Amanda, Riley, Shelby, Maggie, Sam, Dan, Carolyn, Taylor, Jesse, Mia, Bella, Maggie(yes there were two dogs named Maggie), Shirl, GiGi, Yaya, and Pappy. Such fun times. When I can get the pics from Amanda, I'll upload a few so you can see the fun times we had.

Christmas Morning, Shelby and Kenzie had me up at 447 am. Oh my gooness did I wanna Kill them!!! I was up til after 1 and up before 5! So they had to wait til 6 to wake the house. When they did, My girls got their santa sacks while Riley and Shelby got to see what they got from Santa. My girls got a variety of toys and games from him. Maddie got a Bike and Scooter from him. Riley and shelby got pogo sticks and a trampoline. So much fun!!!

Then we did stockings... status quo... lots of goodies in there!!! My favorite was the Keychain that had the pic of the kids with the grandparents! Love shrinky dinks!

For gifts, I will try to summarize our favorites:

Dawn: Jewelry Armoire and Cross necklace. Fiesa bowls. Scrappy supplies and shirts. One was pink saying Scrap Queen and the black one said, "Scrappers are acid free"!

Ryan: Mario Galaxy 2 for wii, bucs jersey, racecar game from our girls, etc.

Maddie: Game boy and games. perfection, princess hide and seek, ALPHIE

Kenzie: Metallic Rose DS (she named it Rosie) with Toy Story3 to go with it. MP3 player loaded with songs, games, dvd's, outfit from yaya, erasers (they are really coooool ones called CRAZERASERS) etc.

It was a really great christmas. I guess I have lost my train of thought. If it comes back I will edit the post. LOL

Cox Family Christmas Card 2010

This year, I decided that I didn't care for the typical photo greeting card and I wanted to be able to make my own, so I fired up my paintshop and went to work. Here's what i came up with. I love it!!!!! I even may have an order for me to design a card for a friend in Texas!!!