Look what I can do!

Lookee! Look at my new toy. I'm so excited! I saved up my "allowance" (we each have a set amount each month that we can spend on anything we want) and I saved for a couple months and sold a bunch of scrapbook stuff and bought the cricut expression! I have a bunch of plans for this little guy, but so far, I've just been cutting out goodies for the wedding :) For those of you that don't know what this contraption does, it's a diecutting machine that you can pick an image that they have preloaded onto a cartridge and make it any size up to 23.5" (including letters). It'll cut fabric, paper, vinyl, etc. I'm dying to stick a chunk of felt in there and see what happens.

LOL

I guess some ppl are using it to do quilting, which is a really awesome idea. Makes me want to do some applique quilting (seriously, like I HAVE TIME), but maybe I'll do some small projects like some pillows.











I have to add, Gene and I are just having the best time today. Well, had... he's in bed now. Got up and needed to run errands to the bank(s), walmart, post office, etc etc and just decided on a whim to go to st. joe and hit a couple places. I picked up some 1/2 off scrapbook paper at hobby lobby, and some 1/2 off flowers for wedding arrangements (I'm doing all silks and I'm VERY PROUD of how well they've turned out) I even have my bouquet done.. actually... TWO. LOL. I can't decide if I want huge and colorful or understated and elegant. I like both.




For those that don't know, my dress is "colorful" :) Anyway, I'm looking for some awesome ribbon for the bow on my bouquet. Spare NO EXPENSE. Seriously, if it's perfect and it's $75 a yard, I'll get it LOL. I mean, it's not that much. (actually $75 might push the limits a bit). I found some awesomely beautiful ribbon at hobby lobby for $7.99 a yard, but only in green and brown (both I like but not my wedding colors - which are red, white and blue :)




The hunt continues.

Last pics

Last pictures to share. Here are a couple pictures of new little Ester too.

CrAzY uncle Gene with little Miss Ester on her christening day (afterwards at lunch). She looks so much like David, whom looks like Bud. That kid can not deny who her family is! lol

Little missy in her easter dress with Grandma Carol. You can not tell from these pictures that she is a JACKRABBIT! I swear. I help pass her from Grandma to uncle Gene and I swear she just about jumped out of my hands *FOR REAL!* Little turd. I almost became the aunt that dropped her on her head!!! ACK. Her mom and dad are big giant brains, so that would have been a big loss for society if I woulda done that. LOL. Here's the kid that will cure cancer or something..... Or make really cool flavored ice cream.

Both are pretty rockin' plans.

Before and After

My Beautiful Baby Sister... Torrie Tee....

Her maternity shoot.

And after.....

Sweet little Tayan. I love her little tongue sticking out (I taught her that) ;)
With CrAzY Auntie Lana.

Tayen. I will be the crazy Aunt with too much lipstick and stories that should not be told in mixed company. You should know now, I have no off button and I will probably embarass you at least once if not 89 times by your 17th birthday. It's ok, I just do it cuz I love you :) (that and because I love to embarass you... that's it).

But first....

have to share Tanner's Easter gift first.....


An Easter Mouse(s). 2 of them.. I bought the mice, and he bought the housing. I have to admit, I said no, then he took me to petco and I caved. They really are cute, and they let you pet them and he really enjoys them. Cats don't seem to mind, I think Jingles is really confused, he's never seen a cat so small!!

The house!

As promised, some updates. I'm going to try to post some others before bedtime.

We have (had) a corner of the kitchen that was big enough for a table, but thinking about it, we have a full dining room, a bar and usually eat in the living room. So who needs 4 eating areas!? So, as I shared a while back, we bought some cabinets from Amber's remodel and this is the beginning of the corner desk we're putting in for the home office in the kitchen.

Here is the almost after! Gene found a new office chair at Menards and we picked that up, I bought a couple rugs to go under it. (they need to be altered to fit better) and best of all, we got the granite top on!! That was an experience. Kinda fun tho. Not perfect but it sure doesn't look like we did it with our feet!! We still have to finish the cabinet on the left (MOM! I hate to paint cabinets! lol) and mainly we have to get the bullnose for the desk top/counter tops. We're going to MAKE those out of granite and our nifty thrifty wet saw. We'll call that "advanced" so we might wait a bit.

We bought a new bed, a new bed frame, new sheets, new pillows, and even new decorative pillows.. NOTHING RETAIL. Love getting great deals on stuff that's so pretty. Our new color theme was inspired by this vase:
I love the natural fern leaves but not realistic and especially love the colors. I'm doing our bedroom in brown, black and white. Anyway, the bed we had was pretty good, but just a full and as much as I adore the man, sometimes you just wanna have a bit more room, so we found an AWESOME serta mattress (absolute best one they had) at Menards so we bought it. Ahhhhhh. Like sleeping in God's pocket. LOL.

Here's the new chandelier we bought for the dining room. We bought a matching one for the kitchen to go over the island we don't own yet LOL. Of course, on sale. I'm digging the 50-90% off thing. God surely has blessed us lately. Every time we need something, there it is soon, on sale.

Not exactly house related, but stuck in my house pics was this scene from the neighbor's down the road. See all those white dots? Um... each one is a goose! The geese are in full force, I swear I've never seen so many as I have this year. You should have heard them, it was more like a hum than the sound of a goose. It's cool to hear them go over at night in the dark.

Last house pic at the moment. You've seen the stove, but I couldn't stand it anymore so we bought our microwave/range hood. (Retail... CRAP! lol) It's awesome and the best microwave I've ever owned! Love it. Next is probably the fridge. I want a side by side or a freezer on the bottom - but the bottom freezer is way expensive. *whine*

LOL

More pics in a bit. Gonna post baby pictures!!

now back to our regularly sched programing

Wow... OK, so I really have not felt like posting for a while. I'm just tired of seeing that damn monkey at the top of the screen seriously.

Lets get this out of the way -
HOPPY EASTER!
We're going to Gene's parents tomorrow. We were going to go to my mom's but we went there last year and Gene's brother and sister in law are getting ready to move to PA in a couple months. We wanted to spend some time with them before they left.

Speaking of them, I took some cute baby pics a couple weeks ago at Ester's baptism. I will upload some pics in the next few days (promise). I also have maternity pics of Torrie that I need to get finished editing. I will share a couple of those with you too. It's just been so hectic lately I've not had time to do much of anything except work (i'm here today) do some laundry and sleep.

OHHHH... Torrie had her baby. Geez how could I forget that. Tayen Aliayah (I think I spelled that wrong). She's a cutie pie. I'll post a pic when I post the others later (I'm at work so I can't do that here).

Speaking of work. Considering "moving on". I like it here, I'm really good at what I do, but they moved the shop recently and it's even farther from home, and I hate this new location.

We're working on tiling the counter in the kitchen and will work on that tonight when we get home. All the tiles got cut last weekend, and we're going to glue them down today. Right now they are just lined up. I hate to move them cuz it took me forever to get them just perfect.

Tanner had yesterday off. He cleaned the house without me asking him. That in itself is pretty freaking awesome, but even moreso, he moved the bed from the living room into the spare room. I still don't know how cuz it's pretty big!!!! Gene and I spluged and bought a new bed. It's super awesome and comfy. The old bed was sitting in the living room until I could get it moved to the spare bedroom (aka -storage at the moment). So tanner got it done for me. Awesome possum.

No new scrap pages to share. I've been working on *wedding invites* :) Details to follow. If you are reading this, you probably are a relative/friend and you'll get one soon. They are rocking AWESOME! Each one will probably take a couple hours to make in total. This is NOT your average invite. If I were to go out and buy them. *pfffffgft*.... I would probably pay around $50-$60 *each*. (no lie! I think I might start making invites for ppl at those prices!). Anyway, You'll see!

That's it, no other updates I can think of at the moment. If I do, I will share with you.