New Layouts and a Freebie from Haynay!

Good Morning! The girls are off to school and I am sitting here with me coffee trying to become a little more human while Beka watches Mickey Mouse - seemed like a good time to post up my most recent layouts! I did these with Haynay's NEW kit releaseed today at ScrapMatters - isn't it FABULOUS?!?! And the best news is that it is 25% off this weekend along with the rest of her store!!

I couldn't help but do TWO layouts with it - here they are:

Plus if you head over to Haynay's Blog there is a great coordinating freebie and you can check out the cute BOY pages that the rest of the CT did with this amazing kit!

Well, I better get motivated and get my chores done because I am going to be at the ScrapMatters Speed Scrap at 11pm PST - come play along and get a free alpha for participating!

Still Scrappin-

The Infamous Rat Cake!

I have had a few requests for photos of Abbie’s Birthday Cake – the Infamous Rat Cake! So here it is:

It didn’t come out as creepy as I was afraid it would and Abbie was thrilled so mission accomplished! She was also overwhelmed to get Josephina (an American Girl doll) – it was a total surprise! She has wanted her for quite a while but she didn’t think she would get her until next year - she even cried. I can’t believe that she is six years old. In some ways she still feels like my little baby but at the same time she is also an incredibly self assured little lady. She is so kind and truly has a love for the Lord – we couldn’t be prouder!

OK – enough proud Mama rambling – I do have one other fun thing to share! How cute is this?

The Jiffy Pop cover was a freebie from Kari Holt during the ScrapMatters Black Friday Blog Train so all I had to do was print it out and add a little bling. Tie on a movie rental gift card and you have a Movie Night gift - so easy! These went to the caregivers of our Angel Tree kids but they would be a fun and fairly inexpensive gift for teachers or neighbors or anyone!

That is all I have for now but I will be back tomorrow to show off some layouts using an amazing new kit from Haynay.

Until then –

Advent Conspiracy Update (aka - why we aren't sending Christmas Cards this year)

I promised an update on how the Advent Conspiracy is going in our house and I have to say that I am really excited about some of the different choices we are making this Christmas season. If you need to catch up on what the Advent Conspiracy is go here (there is a GREAT video) – but it is basically a challenge to keep Christmas simple, buy less, and donate more. So that you know that we are trying to practice what we preach here are a few of the things we are doing and maybe it will give you some ideas you can incorporate in your home:

1. The past couple of years the girls have bought gifts for each other which we or course financed. I liked that they were thinking of each other and not just themselves so this year we took it a step farther. Instead of buying a gift for the other sisters each girl picked out a child from the Angel Tree Network to buy for. This has been great because we have been able to go shopping for the gifts to the Angel Tree children together, wrap them together and open up a conversation with the girls about the ways they have been blessed.

2. Drew and I are actually buying fewer gifts. Fewer gifts for the girls, fewer gifts for family and fewer gifts for friends. If you typically buy a gift for us please join us in the Conspiracy and we will gladly be your one less gift – all we ask is that you take the money you would typically spend and donate it to any cause that is close to your heart.

3. We are still giving some gifts because the point of the Conspiracy isn't to go all Scrooge and we do want to show our family (especially our grandparents) that we are thinking of them this Christmas. However, we are spending less on the gifts we buy, giving homemade gifts where we know they would be appreciated and also giving gifts with purpose such as:

- The FABULOUS Homecoming CD -with all proceeds going to AIDS relief

- Microloan Gift Cards - these Microloans help women caught in the sex industry in Thailand get out, gain education and start their own business.

If you are interested in giving these gifts as well just let me know and I can hook you up!

4. Finally, we are not sending out Christmas cards this year. I know this seems extreme but we questioned all our Christmas expenses this year and when I thought about how much money and resources it takes to send our Christmas cards – which I am terrible about getting out in a timely manner anyway – it seemed like a good choice for our family. That money instead will be donated with the rest of our Advent Conspiracy savings. So, here is our Christmas card to you (you can click on it if you want to download a full print quality version):

I never wrote a Christmas letter in the past and I figure that if I actually keep this blog updated you will be able to keep up with our adventures and misadventures throughout the year!

So there is our Advent Conspiracy update! If you would like to join us head over to this website. Need some more ideas on creative gift giving? There are tons here. You can also listen to the AMAZING messages from our church pastors on the Conspiracy here. Can I cram in the links or what??

My prayer for you is that you are having a blessed and peaceful Christmas season so far!
Still Conspiring -

A Scrapbooking Freebie from Haynay and Me!

Wow - it has been a busy week and I have lots to share but some of it will have to wait for the weekend. Abbie's birthday is today (she is 6!) and so I am making her cake this morning before heading to work. One of our birthday traditions is that I make the cake for the birthday girl and they can request whatever they want. This year Abbie wants a rat cake ... yep you read that right ... a rat cake. As in a cake that has replicas of her pet rats on top. So I am doing it but I may have to turn myself in to Cake Wrecks when I am done!

We are also busy getting ready for Christmas but in a very different way this year since we are Conspiring with our Church - I will have a big update on how that is going this weekend because I am very excited about it!

But the real reason you are here - a Digi Scrap Freebie! Haynay released a new kit today that is really cute called Little Boy Express - even with three girls I am going to get a lot of use out of this one! And if you purchase it this week you get two adorable matching Alpas for Free!

Here is a Layout I did with the new kit:

And now for the Freebie! I had so much fun playing with the Alphas that I made up a little set of Word Art to match the kit and Haynay is giving them away on her blog! Click on the preview to pop over to her blog, see some more layouts using the kit and grab your freebie! If you scrap with them I would LOVE to see it.

That's it for now but stay tuned for how we are Conspiring this Advent!

Up to my elbows in buttercream -