Saturday, July 31, 2010

Still in Lethbridge

Hey!

Still in Lethbridge at the ball tournament. Game 2 took place and it really was a heartbreaker. Jack pitched great and left the game with his team in the lead substantially and over the course of the next 3 innings they gave up a 12 run lead and lost by one run. Poor Jack was heartbroken and he is a tough guy who doesn't show emotion so his tears were genuine. Hang in there buddy! You'll get them next game!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Hello from Lethbridge

We left Calgary at 8:15 am for our trip to Jack's baseball tourney in Lethbridge. It was a hot and humid game and Jack's team did not do very well. They will have to really pick it up if they want to make it to a top 4 finish. That's what happens when you go unbeaten with little competition. The kids have good attitudes, they'll pick it up tomorrow. Here are a few shots of Jack at today's game.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Getting Ready

We are going on a short trip this weekend so there is packing to do today and I need to make a Wal-Mart run to pick up a few things. We will be packing this morning in the hopes of having everything ready by this afternoon so Ray can pack the van tonight. We need to be on the road by 8:00am tomorrow so an early bedtime will be in store for all tonight, including Ray I hope! He has been helping his brother with his move the last couple of evenings so he has not come home until after midnight. Late bedtimes for him, he needs to get more rest.

In the meantime, I have an article up on the blog at ScrapShotz, click on the sidebar to see it.

Here is a layout I did for the card to layout challenge at the above mentioned blog:

Back in a few days!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

New Layout

Here is a layout I completed for another blog challenge at Scapshotz.

The challenge was to use numbers on a layout. I had Blake journal 11 memories @ 11 Years old. I like how it turned out.
Yesterday cousin Thomas came over and the kids were my subjects for some sports photos.

Pitch


The catch

Some of the tools of the trade.

Cole giving soccer a try.

I've got a layout on my table and one to upload as well. Tomorrow my lovely cleaning lady comes over so that means we'll be out in the morning doing some shopping for our trip to Lethbridge this weekend.
So love coming home to a clean home, it's a weekly treat!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Champions!

Well Jack's team did it!! They went 9-0 and won the District 3 AAA Minors All Star Championship and a spot in the Prairie's tournament in Lethbridge beginning Friday! Way to go Jack and team! I don't remember the exact score but they won something like 21-5. This is Jack's second year in row to go to Prairies. We are going to make it a family trip and all go. Blake and Peyton are excited to go and of course Cole just goes with the flow. Here is the team with the trophy:

This is Jack's second year in a row to go to Prairies along with Soren, Jessica, Mark, Carson and Cole who was an alternate last year so he didn't go to Prairies but did play during the round robin. Looking forward to the trip no matter what the outcome is!

Today was a nice relaxing day and lovely hot weather too! Ray, Blake and Peyton went to church while Cole and I took Jack to batting practice. Ray cooked us lunch, hashbrowns and eggs, worked out Jack and Blake a wee bit and then took the boys to visit Grandma N. who is recuperating from a hip replacement. Peyton went to Hana's next door for a sleepover but reappeared at 10:30pm homesick so she is now tucked in with the boys and happy to be home.

So a week of baseball practices ahead of us and I have some business paperwork that MUST be completed before we leave for Lethbridge so it will be a busy week.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Other Day

We took Cole for a bike ride and the boy has grown as he can now touch the ground with his feet. He's not big enough peddle himself yet. He was quite pleased with his ability to drag his shoe on the ground while we were moving.

Obviously I was not too crazy about this because these shoes have not yet been outgrown! I do remember my brother wearing out a pair of runners when he was a kid because he would drag his feet to stop his bike rather than use the brakes :).

Peyton and her good friend from next door were absolutely ecstatic when they heard the ice cream truck coming on Wednesday. I gave them each two dollars to buy an ice cream (Ray told me that would not be enough money, he was right).

Making their choice.
2 ice cream sandwiches!

The weather is absolutely beautiful here today! It really feels like summer now. Jack had baseball practice this morning then we came home, had lunch and went to the park. Ray and I are working on supper right now and Ray will be taking Blake, Jack and Peyton to the Stampeders game tonight. Go Stamps Go!

Friday, July 23, 2010

One, Maybe Two More Games

Jack's baseball team closed out the round robin with another victory bringing their record to 8-0 so now they go on to the final on Sunday. If they win that game that go to Prairies, if they lose, they play again on Monday night and the team that wins that game goes to Prairies. We'll see how it goes!

Here are some photos I took the last couple of days.

Jack, washing daddy's van by hand.

Taking Cole for a "bike ride" on the path.

The creek that runs in the woods behind our home.

This little guy can now touch the ground while sitting on his bike and he loved dragging his foot along the path.


The happy cyclist.

It's been a fun last couple of days. Tomorrow is baseball practice and then a CFL game in the evening. Go Stamps Go!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

All Star Season Ended

for Blake tonight. His team lost 4-3 in a very close game to decide who would go to the final tomorrow. It was a great season for Blake. He was one of the most improved players from last year and his coaches were THRILLED with his play. It was also so cool to see Blake's confidence in himself grow and see him and us BELIEVE that he is a great ball player. Ray and I are so very, very proud of him. It was so special to see Blake get a big hug from Coach Baumgartner. I would have been really, really sad to say goodbye too but Jack will be with these coaches for another two years and it will be so cool to see what they can develop and bring out in him based on their great results with Blake.

It's two more ball games at least with Jack, one tomorrow and the final on Sunday. Tomorrow's game is the last round robin game and if Bowridge wins they will finish the round robin undefeated which means the double knock out playoff is in effect. The team Bowridge faces in the final would have to beat them twice to advance to win the district. The kids will need to be sharp and focused as they are playing a very good team tomorrow.

I'll share some photos from this week tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Another Card

Well the Summer trash your stash challenge and Tuesday/Thursday blog challenges at Scrapshotz have sure got me bustling in my scrap room. I am enjoying it so much I actually made 2 cards yesterday! Yes you read right, that's two in one day!

Click on the Scrapshotz link in the sidebar to navigate your way to the blog for these challenges. They're lots of fun!

Well we are now in the final stretch of baseball for both boys. Blake played his last league game of All-Star season last night. The team lost 10-8 and unfortunately Blake did not have his best game defensively but he hit a 2 run RBI single to bring the team to within two runs to make it close in the last inning. Now they just have to wait and see what happens in the final game to be played tonight. There is still a chance they could be bumped out of the 2 v. 3 game.

Jack's team won again last night to remain unbeaten. They have one league game left and then playoffs. We'll see how it turns out! We have a bunch of errands to do today, new passport photos, batting gloves for Blake, lunch, groceries (if Cole is still happy by then) and then a quick bite to eat before B.P. for Blake and practice for Jack.

Monday, July 19, 2010

They're On Their Way Home

Ray, Peyton and Cole are on the road and should be home in the next couple of hours. The boys and I are really missing them today so we are all happy they will be here tonight. We had a very fun day today, the boys slept in their fort last night and slept well, walking up at 9am this morning. I completed this card for a Scrapshotz blog challenge to use green:

I also used my friend Lorraine's to leave it without a sentiment for the time being, that was I can use it for anything as needed in the future.

We then met our friends for lunch at CrossIron Mills mall and spent the afternoon there. We made a couple more stops on our way home and arrived home to quickly change, grab a snack and then head out to batting practice. Just as we left the downpour started and it rained heavily all the way to the batting cage so of course practice was cancelled. The sun is shining right now though and the forecast has no rain in it for the rest of the week so that bodes well for baseball!

I'm off to work on another scrapbook layout and I'll leave with the latest layout I did for this months version of layout tag at Scrapshotz:

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Lord's Day

It was a fantastic church service at Rock Pointe Church this morning. God was definitely present and moving people's hearts. The message was based on Psalm 42 and Pastor Tim Bergmann broke it down for us. This was a great start to the day. The sun stayed out for Blake's baseball practice then we watched some of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and then headed out to Jack's ball game. His team hung on to win 11-10 to remain unbeaten. They will have to play much sharper if they want to remain unbeaten. Jack was disappointed in his play. He batted well but made some errors in the infield. He'll do better next game.

The boys have built a fort in the living room and will sleep in it tonight and speaking of sleep, that's where I am headed to right now!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

A Quiet Evening

The boys were invited to their friend's for a sleepover last night. That left me all alone for the evening and this morning. I feel so relaxed now! Just a few hours of no one but me in the house and I feel like I have been away on a vacation. You don't realize how important peace and quiet is until you actually get some!
What did I do you wonder? Not much of anything really, finished a card, surfed the net, watched a tv movie and ate a bowl of popcorn. This was after Jack's baseball team which his team won 13-1.

I'm working on lunch right now and then we'll be taking Blake to baseball practice. The weather is gorgeous right now so it will be perfect for practice. I'm planning to sit in the stands and enjoy the sunshine!

Here's the card I make last night


Enjoy the day!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

More Projects...

I am now another two projects closer to my goal of 50 completed projects for the summer. 9 down, 41 more to go! Here are my latest two, based on Scrapshotz blog challenges

This card was inspired by this layout by Virgina Wong


Stephanie Schan challenged me with this blueprint
Stephanie's layout was this


Here is my take on it


Thanks for the inspiration to scrap these photos Stephanie! This is the journaling on this layout:

"Poor Cole. He had a poor nap and was so tired at our family Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Gerry's. He ended the evening in full meltdown."

I am going to try and complete one more layout before bed tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Jack had baseball practice tonight and his coach kindly let Blake participate too so they both had a good time. By the time they showered and cleaned up there was only a bit of time left for a quick snack and 2 cartoons and then bedtime. Sleep tight my precious boys!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

One and One and Zero

One boy lost tonight, Blake 10-0, one boy won tonight, Jack 10-0, and Jack pitched a no-hitter! Way to go Jack!

It was a beautiful night at the ball diamond, I could have worn shorts but didn't so I was kind of hot! I was annoyed when I got bit by a mosquito after I had put bug spray on, grrrrr. Nice to have some nice weather back after a full day of downpours yesterday.

Today the boys and I went to see this movie


Cute movie! The boys liked it and I did too. I didn't know anything about it but I was teary eyed near the end. We recommend it, two thumbs up!


Monday, July 12, 2010

A Win!

The Bowridge Majors All-Star team won their game tonight! A crazy hit-filled, run fest scoring 16 runs to NW's 13. Way to go boys! We saw 2 home runs, one for both teams and both teams hit through their lineup in their half of the first inning. Blake had three at bats and was on base all three times, he was hit the first time, reached first on a fielding error the second time and hit a sweet single into right field the third time. He had no balls to field at second tonight, most of the hits were into the outfield.

The boys were all very excited and it was a great team effort! They really showed tons of character not getting down when they scored 4 runs in the first and then gave up 8 runs in the bottom of the inning. It was a fun game to watch but very loooong, we did not get home until 9:50pm for a game that began at 6:30pm. It's BP tomorrow and then another game against Centennial on Wednesday. Keep up the good work boys!

New Projects

I was up early today so I quickly photographed my latest layouts. They are not the best quality as I'm still trying to figure out the best settings with the light in my living room.

This first one is for the Scrapshotz Summer challenge to create a layout from a card. Here is the inspiration


I was inspired by the card on the left and created this

I love how this turned out!

Looking through my photos I decided it was time to scrapbook last Halloween (oh I don't think I've done the photos from the Halloween before this one either) and since I do not have any Halloween themed papers ( I really HATE Halloween) I was challenged to find something that works in my stash. I dug into a past Scrapshotz kit and came up with this


This last layout was for a Scrapshotz DT monthly challenge to use cardboard on your layout. I thought it was the perfect accent for these photos of Cole eating apples. These pics make me laugh because Cole was taking apples out of a box that Ray brought back from B.C. anytime he felt like it because the box sat on the floor. He would sometimes take a bite out of the apple and then put it back in the box and grab another one. Funny guy!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

8-5

That was the final score of the game for Bowridge over Foothills. Blake's team has their first win on the books. The boys played much better than yesterday, with a much better attitude. The coaches were upset with them because they did not give a good effort so they came back today and put in a good game. Blake got on base his first at bat due to an error and hit a lovely single his second at bat. It's a team sport and Erik hit 2 great triples, Maddux, Al and Noah pitched great to help the team win the game. It's the first game of the second round robin tomorrow v. NW.

Since I have been at the ball diamond so much I have not been able to photograph my scrapbook projects so I'll try again tomorrow. Here are some photos I did take on Friday, it was a hot day and we decided to hang out at home since we had the day off baseball.


and the last photo is of big brother Blake and little sister Peyton. I think I will have to set up a photo shoot in the garage some time. The light was gorgeous, just have to keep others from making shadows, Ray was trying to sweep the garage and I kept telling at him, "Get out of my light, you're blocking it!".


 Ray leaves for Shutty Bench first thing in the morning with Peyton and Cole. The boys and I will miss them very much.  Just me and the boys for this next week! I'll keep you posted on how that goes ;) !

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Well there is definitely one constant in our lives right now and that's baseball. Are you sick of me talking about it yet?

Well too bad, there are still 2 weeks to go in the All-Star season ;). Blake's team lost their game 6-4 today. He hit a beautiful double and was solid at second base where he made 4 outs while he was in the game. He plays again tomorrow so hopefully the team can put together an all around winning effort for their first game.

Jack's played as well today and the team recorded their third straight win, 13-3. Jack hit a beautiful double too, walked and struck out once. He came in the game at pitcher and shut the other team down. A solid win  for his team. They don't play again until Wednesday now. The day passes by quickly with two ball games. We all ate a snack and then the kids and I watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark" while Ray went to Costco. I really like the movie, it is very entertaining.

Tonight we are all going to bed early as we have had too many late nights lately and then it's another....that's right, you guessed it, baseball game tomorrow! It is considerable cooler today, especially right now with rain coming down. I'll have some more projects to share over the next few days when I have time to photograph them!

Have a great evening and stay dry!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Day Off

The boys have a day off baseball so our family is looking forward to a nice quiet day at home. We are going to hang out, read our library books and just take things easy. It is supposed to be a hot day as well so I am grateful for my A/C. All in all, not too exciting a day for our family, but boring is just fine for me today!

I finally have the chance to share my latest scrap-booking projects. The first is for a challenge to use a layout as inspiration for a card. Here is the layout created by Virginia Wong:

I was inspired to dig in to my stash of Basic Grey and use some flower stickers a chipboard butterfly and a round die cut for the sentiment. I came up with this:


I also accented the butterfly with Stickles.

I did this next layout for another challenge at Scrapshotz. This challenge was to use torn paper scraps on a layout. 
I used Basic Grey pp on this as well. The blue alphas are from Cosmo Cricket, I love this alphas and the black alphas are Thickers.


These last two layouts bring my total for the Summer Trash Your Stash Challenge to 5 . My goal is to complete 50 projects this summer.  Next up is a layout tag so I'll share the results when I'm done!

Stay cool!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Where Did the Day Go?

I can not believe how fast the day passed by today!! It seems like I got up this morning, checked some emails, caught up on some blogs, finished a card I started last night and then it was time to get dressed and take the kids to the library. We checked out over 20 books and then met Daddy for lunch and then went to the Sears furniture store to look for a new dining room table and beds for the boys. These are the chairs we chose but not counter height, just dining table height:

These have a leather seat so we can wipe them off. Our current chairs look awful with all the food stains so we are happy to replace them!

We bought one bed with storage drawers and a trundle bed similar to this:

The other bed is similar in styling but no drawers or trundle bed. We also bought the boys new mattresses so they are now set until they move away from home! Thank you Lord for how you've provided for us! Ray and I were remarking how we were so blessed to be able to chose what was best for our family and our family's needs not be guided by price alone! Can't wait to get our new dining room furniture! Will post pictures of it in a few weeks when it arrives!

After our crazy furniture shopping adventure, we came home and the boys got out their newly checked out library books while Cole just hung out and Peyton and myself went to Wal-Mart and picked up some much needed items. We had about 30 minutes at home before we had to get out the door for Jack's game against NWLL.  I gladly took on the job as pitch counter, since that means I have to "concentrate" and can not watch Cole and Peyton, so Ray has to watch time. No hardship on my part, ha ha! It was a close game until the bottom of the 4th inning when Bowridge blew the game wide open and ended up invoking the 10-run mercy rule winning 16-5. Jack pitched in this game, coming in the game to shut down the other team in the midst of a rally. It's an off day tomorrow for both boys, no games and no practices and back at it on Saturday morning!

See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I Took a Break

From driving the boys to baseball practice tonight. I love watching them practice too, but I am happy to be home this evening and getting Cole in to bed early! The poor guy is so tired as he has given up his naps and unfortunately, been dragged about to baseball games in the evenings, so he was in bed by 7:15pm and sleeping by 7:30pm. The boys have arrived home now and are going through the shower so I will also call it quits early this evening. Before I go I want to share some photos from today:

This photo is for a summer photography challenge at Scrapshotz. This week's challenge was to photograph a plant.

This next photo was taken by my wonderful 12 year old son:
I'm going to try to get another Scrapshotz challenge completed now. Check out the SSZ blog here for details.

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps March Release Hop & Shop!

                                                                            Woohoo!!!  Today we are celebrating all the fabulous new goodies...