Our New Deck

Today was a busy day. For the last 3 weekends, Bud, Jason and my dad have been building a big deck off the back of our house. It looks awesome. While they work, Kelli and I have worn ourselves out chasing 4 boys around the house, so we decided to take them to the pool today instead. We all had a really good time, but were exhausted afterwards. When we got back, Kelli and I made a big steak dinner with peppercorn cream sauce (YUM-O) and a chocolate cake to say "Thank You" for all the help on the deck. (I guess Kelli really didn't need to help since I was the one saying "Thank You," but she did and I really appreciated it.)

Anyway, here are a few progression pictures of the deck.

Day 1


Day 2


Week 3


And here are some pictures of us at the pool.

The 3 of us - Ryan, JD and me

JD and me

Timmy - what a Pro!

Cricut Swap

I signed up for a swap on the Rockin Reality website. It's a Cricut Swap, so I had to choose a Cricut cartridge and make something using one of the die cuts from it. I chose a dragonfly and I think it really turned out cute.

The way a swap works is a certain # of people sign up for it (this one is for 10 people). Then everyone makes their item, whatever it might be -- it can be an embellishment, a journaling tag, a title, etc. Then you make 10 of them and mail them to the host. The host then sends one of each to each person. So in the end, you get 10 different items to use on your pages. It's a great way to get new things and see new ideas.

Here is mine.

The Smiles That Melt My Heart

Here's my favorite page from the retreat. It's also my very favorite picture of my boys.

Weekend Scrapbook Retreat 6/5-6/7

Ok, I'm gonna give this blogging thing a try. Maybe my goal for right now will be to update it once a week at a minimum. We'll see how it goes.

I've got some great material to start off with. Kelli and I went on a weekend scrapbook retreat in Temple, TX. It's called Rockin' Reality Scrapbooking Retreats and we had so much fun. This is my 3rd one since October. The retreats are 3 days, 2 nights and nothing but scrapbooking for like 48 hours straight. We usually end up sleeping a total of about 8 hours the entire weekend...but it's so worth it.

I made 19 pages during the weekend, which is fewer than usual for me, but I spent a little more time on them than I usually do. I've learned some new techniques too, and those took time as well. Anyway, here are a few of the pages that I did.