Friday, December 10, 2010

card 2

Confetti Flowers Christmas Card
View the entire collection of cards.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Wonderful Shutterfly!

I cannot believe how much I love using shutterfly for various photo projects. In the past year I have gotten three photo books and I have gotten many photo card projects through them.

I have loved designing every single on of my books that I have made. The one book that sticks out the most to me, is the book that I made for our trip to Florida. I was able to use enough pictures to make it seem like you are right there. And everyone that has looked at the book loves it. I have had a lot of people ask me where I have gotten it and I have referred them to Shutterfly! I will include some of the pictures that I used in the book.

If you are interested in making an awesome photo item, please check these out:
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards (christmas photo cards)
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/birthday-invitations (birthday invitations)
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary (photo cards)

As you can see I have included a lot of photo cards, I just love them!!!! They are great quality and they last a long time.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Monster Trucks!!!

This was a great Friday night in January. I am just happy that I was able to get over the stomach flu in time to go with my boy. We were both very excited! We have been watching monster trucks on tv, and never thought that we would actually see them in person. Before the show we were able to go out and get some pit passes for the day of the show. And Donny loved it. As you can see in this picture below, we were able to be right up close to the trucks!! And they are HUGE!!!!
We were also able to get autographs from the drivers and take pictures. Donny was usure at first, but then loved it. This is the best picture I got and he always says, "Mama, that is your favorite driver..." he drove a corvette that was turned into a monster truck. SUPER COOL!!!!!

Here is just one picture of what we saw. I mean really, I took like 100. It was sooo cool. I would love to get Donny to Ford Field though...it would be really cool. But we saw this truck do a vertical wheelie. It was AWESOME!!!! And as you can tell in the next picture, Donny LOVED it as well!!!


Do you see this face???? You can't tell me that he didn't enjoy seeing those huge monster trucks!!


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

December 2009 Update

Time to start thinking about Christmas already. How is that possible? Didn't we just do this? This year was going to be fun...Donny is old enough to understand what Christmas is and old enough to really let us know what he wants in way of presents. His list included a train, cars and a Grand Trunk Railroad....that isn't too much to ask for right? My hubby hasn't been working a lot out of town, so he has been home with Donny and they have been having a blast. Playing cars and getting ready for Christmas shopping. I am still working at the daycare and loving it. Love all of the time that I get off around Christmas as well.

December also brought some fun things to us to do. One of which being Home Depot again..and we made a wagon with our group of friends from church. Donny loved the wago, he was pulling it around...even though the cord is might short. But he loves it!!! We also started going to Lowe's kids workshops. He got another apron there and they give patches that need to be sewn onto the apron and a nice certificate. He loves going to these and I believe that we will be going to them all of the time.
This month also brought out the trains at the old schoolhouse here in Vicksburg. He loved watching the train. We stopped at the school twice this month. It is very neat to see...a train set up with a town all around it. He loved it and he kept telling me he wanted one. He also wanted the street to go with it and the cars...and the buildings. I didn't think that we would be able to do all of that, but I said we'll see. =)
Can you tell that he is just as happy as can be to be watching the train? This was a Saturday that Daddy couldn't be with us, but oh man did Donny tell him all about it. It was great to see his expressions when he talked about the train. He loves them!
We were also very busy this month with church. We had the children's Christmas program and we had the Christmas cafe. Donny was in both. He did awesome and I am so happy that he is involved with the children's program at church. Now that he is old enough he is going to have a lot of fun! For the children's program, the 2's and 3's performed Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. I had to actually teach Donny this song (as he had no idea what it was) and he did awesome!!! I think that he may have been the only one to do the motions!! We were so proud of him and he loved it...he didn't want to come off of the stage that night, as he kept asking when he got to go back up. He is going to be a little performer I bet..loves all of that attention for being so dog gone cute! At the Christmas Cafe, they did a song about Baby Jesus. Donny was more interested in making noise on the stage this time but he was still cute. He didn't want to hold the baby doll, as that is a girls toy...he didn't say that out loud there, but he would have at home. HaHa...but he did manage to wave at us and just be cute. He does so well with all of the kids in his class and I am so happy for that. He loves it and he talks about his friends from church quite often.


Now it is Christmas, how is it already Christmas? We just had Christmas didn't we? Well, all of the presents are wrapped and ready for the tree...we have visited Santa, so we will see how good Donny has been this year. To us, he has been awesome...he has his times, but he is 3 years old. We love him so much! He is the best thing that has happened to me and my hubby...we are so proud of him!

On Christmas Eve, he received his normal gift...a pair of new jammies from Mommy and Daddy. He loved them...he was hugging them and telling us how soft they were. He them proceeded to want to put them on, even though we were going to Bronson Park. I said ok and you will be warm. We then went to Bronson Park and walked around. Saw the nativity and everything else that is there. Even the big candy canes! When we got home, we got ready to go to bed...I think that he finally fell asleep around 11pm...he was so excited he couldn't contain himself.
So we finally got to bed and when we woke up, he was so excited to see that Santa had come and that the living room was full of presents! He was ready to get into them...we couldn't not let him...so he started to rip them open. He got a lot of awesome toys...everything that he said he wanted that. Just to list a few things, large sidewalk chalk, a lightning mcqueen toy, movies about trains and auto b good dvd's...and the best present of all that he got was his train...Santa brought him the Pennsylavania railroad...he wanted
to open that box up right in the living room...but we couldn't let him do that. He had to learn the rules to having a train first and then he got to go downstairs to help set it up. He was so excited as you can tell in the picture of him and one of the cars from the train set. I would say that he had a great Christmas and got everything that he wanted. Now he is ready for next Christmas because he gets more presents. I said but you have a birthday coming up in May and you get presents at your birthday party...so then he was excited for his birthday too.


Another thing that was marked this December was the passing of my dad...how has it been 10 years Daddy? I cannot believe that..10 years this month that you have been gone. I miss you more every day...I love you Daddy!


Picture's by Nicole Fall 2009

A friend of mine is wanting to go into photography and I told her that I was willing to let her photograph Donny for practice sessions. Also, with these pictures she could use them in her portfolio. She had a blast doing this and so did Donny...he was awesome!! And we got some amazing pictures. This top picture is the photo that I used for our Christmas cards this year. I cannot wait to see Nicole again and have her take some more pictures!! Especially now that it is summer time!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

November 2009 Update

November 2009

Where has the year gone? WOW....This month we started going to Home Depot on Saturday mornings. Donny loved it and was very excited that he made the item himself (with Daddy's help of course!) The first time that we went he made a trivet...it is awesome and will come in handy when we have our own place someday. Along with making the project, he even got a cute little Home Depot apron to put his name and project pins on. And guess what....it is ORANGE!!!!! And yes, we let him use the hammer, but only with our help of course. I love this picture of him though...he is like I can do this, really I can.



As the days were getting shorter, the evenings were getting cooler. We did have one evening though that was fairly warm and we decided to take a little road trip down to Centerville and to see the Covered Bridge. It is such an awesome sight in the fall...so pretty. We did stop at the Covered Bridge park and let Donny run around and throw some stones into the river. We even took Jumper with us...and he wasn't sure what to do with all of the leaves. Donny loved the leaves..kicking them and throwing them into the air. It was a great evening to be out with my boys. And yes, my son is wearing a Carhart...his Daddy bought him that jacket and HE LOVED IT!!!! The sad part is it won't fit him next fall and he will need a bigger one. And yes, mommy got a pink carhart to match!!! I love it as well.

Another road trip that we took this month was to a fun store in Benton Harbor, MI. And if you know my son at all, you know that he loves trains...and the name of the store says it all "I Love Toy Trains" store. And oh my goodness was Donny happy. He didn't want to leave the store. And he wanted to bring everything home of course, but I think that he ended up with maybe a wooden Thomas train. But Daddy and I had decided that it was time to get Donny a train of his own. And we had quite the talk with Santa about maybe bringing Donny a train for Christmas. So, we of course had to go back for a second and a third trip. But that was later on, I will get to that trip later. With this trip we went over onto the beach by the lake and it was beautiful!!! For a november day, it was awesome. There were a lot of people at the beach for a November day. Donny loved swinging on the beach and running in the sand. He was soo excited to be at the beach. A little kid after my own heart. I love the beach as well!! I told him that I couldn't wait for summer!



Over Thanksgiving we went to Chicago again. This time it was great, I was going to get to go shopping on Friday. I couldn't wait! We left Thanksgiving morning and we would be coming home on Saturday afternoon. Donny had a great time and we got to go swimming. That would be the best part for him. Other than mommy forgot to pack his swimming suit, so here we are in Chicago in November, trying to find a swimming suit. Not a great combo. But i did find a pair of Starter shorts and we got some swim diapers and he was all set to go swimming! He had his boat and was ready to go. He even got his Daddy to swim with him! That is the greatest thing to see...my boys swimming and having a great time.
And yes, I went shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. I went to Old Navy and got a bunch of stuff...and I even let my boy have a couple of items when I got back to the hotel. A train shirt and a pair of pants. I think that I may have gone to Wal-Mart and I am sure I went somewhere else, but I couldn't tell ya now where. (Wow, not good trying to write things down 7 months later). We had a great time though. And guess where we stopped on the way home...two very fun places. The bass pro shop in Indiana and we went back to the I love toy train store...and yes again, he wanted everything in the store. =)

How is it almost Christmas? I don't have any idea where this year went...my little boy is 3 and a half...and knows everything about cars and trains. He knows things that I don't even know and always has me in awe. I love this little kid and I am happy to say that he is mine. I am happy that we have an awesome family...a family that loves us and will do anything for us. And I am also thankful that we have our Jumper...I don't know where he would be if we didn't have him...he is our puppy and we love him!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Oct. 2009 Updates

I am sooo behind, but I want to get these pictures and updates up...I don't not want to have this on here.

So here we are into October already. Where has the year gone? We are a very busy family, but we are having fun every minute.

This month brought Halloween and that meant that we needed to figure out what Donny was going to be. We got a catalog in the mail...and he picked the UPS man. I don't know why, but that is what he wanted. And of course only my son would say, well...I need a truck to drive too. We were going to make his wagon into a UPS truck..but that never happened...and he was ok with that.


But he was just stinkin adorable in his outfit...and everywhere that we went, he was the only UPS guy!!!! LOVED IT!




This month also brought the pumpkin patch...we just love going. The only thing is, this year we

went a little late and so the good pumpkins were very scarce. But we did manage to find a couple of good ones. And I still cannot believe how busy the pumpkin patch is every year we go. It seems like it gets busier every year...I am sure it does!

Here are my boys with the pumpkin that Donny picked out. I love this picture. My boys...I love them so much. And look at my little man, he is all grown up. Where has the time gone? Wasn't just yesterday that we brought our little baby to the pumpkin patch? Crazy how time flies when you are having fun!



This month also brought some nice weather for us. We got to play outside a lot of days before I went into work. And one day I decided to take the camera outside with us. We have a little boy on our hands that just loves to have his picture taken...and I
love that.

This picture was taken in our front yard and I then took it and made it black and white on our computer. I love that I am able to do this, as it makes pictures look AWESOME!!! I am hoping to do this again in the fall with some different colors. But that blue was great for him!

There are times that I don't get the best smile or he sticks his tongue out at me...but sometimes those are great pictures as well. That shows his personality. And he is one very silly little boy...he gets that from his Daddy. :-)

And we also had plenty of playdates with Donny's best friend Kylee....they are soooo cute together. And I love that they are best friends!!! Don't they make a cute couple??? They are growing up way too fast...I can't believe that next spring (2011) we will be registering Donny for kindergartin....that can't be possible....WOW is all that I can say to that.

October was a great month...let's hope that November is great as well...

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Youdata.com

Dear Friend,

I found something that I think you will like. The company's name is YouData (youdata.com). They are trying to convince consumers like us that we should be the ones controlling our own data and selling our own attention, not third parties like broadcasters, newspapers, and spammers. By creating a MeFile at YouData.com, I now control what ads I see and when I see them. Best part - I am selling my attention directly to interested advertisers, for real money. That's right, I get paid for giving them my attention. I can use the funds to buy music and video online, donate to charities, give to my favorite blogs and websites, or keep the change myself and do whatever I want with it.

It's real. They pay. You should check it out.

Click this link to sign up. My MeFile ID, smilin_sara, in the "Referral Code" will tell them I sent you.

http://www.youdata.com/join/smilin_sara

Take care,
Sara


Friday, January 8, 2010

A great Charity..thought I would pass it on

I just rec'd this in an email and I thought that I would pass it on to all of you... it is called Charity: clear water.

I believe that people shouldn't have to walk miles to get good drinking water and this is going to help with that situation.

So please go and check it out and make a donation if you can.

www.mycharitywater.org/shespeaksup

Thanks

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Our Update Aug.-Sept. 2009

Here we go...after this, hopefully things will go better and I remember to come on here and write.
August 2009

The garden was about done and we were getting ready to harvest some green peppers. We had a great time with the garden, but we did figure out some things that we would have to change next summer. And we are ready for that. On the second weekend of August, Little Donny came down with a very bad flu bug. He was out the entire weekend too. I have never seen my little man so sick. He just laid on the floor and watched tv and slept. We thought that he was getting better and he ate lunch on Monday (hadn't gotten sick in over 24 hours). By the time that I got home Monday night, he started acting sick again. He feel asleep and woke up a very short time later, sick. We then took him into Bronson Vicksburg and had him checked out. My little man had to have blood drawn that night as well. Not very fun for me. But everything came back just fine and he just had a virus.




We continued going to the race track on the weekends that we could. Don was doing alright. At times we just couldn't get past first round. Not sure what was going on there, but we were still up in points. So that is good. We finished out the month in at least 6th place. So we knew that we needed to stay up there to get to finals at the end of September. Donny loves going to the races. I don't think that we will be able to keep him away from the track very easily now. He has it in his blood and he is so ready to do some racing of his very own!

All in all, August was a good month. We had some rough times, but we bounced back and had some great times.


September 2009

September marked the one year anniversary of my job. I am so happy to be working at the daycare. I truly can say that I love my job.


This month marked a lot of firsts for our family.

On Labor Day weekend we went and picked up our puppy that we picked out in July. He is a little papillon. His name is Jumper. And yes, we let Donny name him. His full papered name is Jump in the air. How he got his name. We aren't sure, he didn't hardly move when we picked him out. But Donny and Jumper are the best of friends. And Jumper is just plain adorable. We can't wait to watch Jumper grow and continue to learn.

We took Donny to the apple orchard for the first time. And he loved it!!! This is the first time for me in awhile as well, and I must go back. I now remember how much I loved going and picking apples every year. Donny wasn't sure about riding the wagon to the apple trees, but on the way back it was the coolest thing ever. He loved the tractors and wanted to just keep riding them.



Our next first would be going to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. I have been there, but Donny had not. And he loved it. And the best part about this museum is that it is FREE and we all love free! Donny really loved the race track in the hands on area. Go figure my son liking a race track. Who would have known? But Daddy also liked the race track. So that was perfect for the two of them. They played on that for at least half an hour. The other exhibit that Donny liked was the shaking sand table. He liked putting his hand in it and watching the sand just go over his hand automatically. He had a blast.



Lastly, we took our first trip to Jungle Joes. And oh man...what a fun place. The nice thing about Jungle Joes is that Donny can play on all of the jumpy things. At other places he wouldn't have been able to. Donny loved it. I did play as well. And I did have to carry him up a few of the slides. But all in all, it was so worth it. To see Donny's face light up when he went down the slide..amazing! I am just happy that Don was able to go and take pictures. Otherwise, I would not have been able to see his face ( or mine for that matter). Yes, I was very sore the next day, but again it was worth it! Can you tell how much Donny enjoyed it by the picture that I have inserted? This is priceless!

I am sure that we will be visiting Jungle Joe's many more times in the future. It is a great time for the entire family!


Saturday, January 2, 2010

Wow, a new year already!

Where did the time go? I guess I really need to get on here and do some updates. I know I have been bad. Things got busy and this kinda got left behind. I will try to get things around and have a great post for you to read in the next couple of days. I will include some new pictures of Donny as well...he is getting so big!! Almost 41 inches tall...holy cow!!!

Hope everyone is well and please keep watching for my updated post!