Did you hear the one about the duck in the toilet?

Ugh! For those that follow my adventures with my boys, we had quite a time today. We had my dad's side of the family here today for my grandpa's birthday. After dinner and before dessert, my dad comes out to tell us there's something wrong with the toilet. No biggie, our toilets clog a lot--definitely not the highest quality. Well 30 minutes later, Mike is still trying to fix it with no luck. He tells me Austin was the last one in the bathroom and he'd been in there a while.

That's when it hits me--earlier he'd been singing a song that went something like this "if you can't throw a ball away, flush it down the toilet". So we start asking him if he flushed a ball down the toilet--no. Did you flush anything--still no, but this time he has that look--moms, you know the one. FINALLY, he tells us that he flushed a bath toy--a rubber duck--down the toilet. I have no idea what possesses a 5 year old to think this is something you should do.

So now Mike is at Lowes trying to find an auger/snake thingy that will hopefully push the duck through. No one is going to be happy if we have to take the toilet off--or worse yet, call a plumber! I'll keep you posted. And yes both boys are in here with me--not taking my eyes off them right now.

Getting Close...

to finishing 2006 layouts. Of course, not much before that is scrapped and not much of '07, but I am happy to be almost finished with '06. The first layout is from my cousin, Jennifer's wedding last September. It uses SEI papers and embellishments (one of my other favorite companies besides CTMH). Gotta love the picture of my Grandma boogeying down :)

The second is from our infamous trip home from Idaho last Thanksgiving (and the reason we're staying put this year). We were trying to go from Boise to St. George, Utah to stay the night at my aunt and uncle's and see the family. We got stuck in a snowstorm and ended up in Filmore, Utah. It was Brendan's first time seeing snow. The papers are Pinecone Press and the stamps are CTMH's Snow Friends (November Stamp of the Month) and Cobblestone Alphabet.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are great to give and great to get, but the most fun for me is playing with the packaging :) This Saturday, I'm having a gift card holder workshop and these are the cards I came up with. The photos aren't the greatest because I merged them together to show open and closed. But hey, you get the idea!

I have the following ladies to thank for their great templates--Nanci Hatcher (the brown/blue one--I got a card like this in a swap I was in with her last year), Debi Davis (present), Kathi Carlson (snowman template and Holly random stamping), and Kelly Jo Ratcliff (Holly one). I don't know where I got the criss-cross one, but thank you to whoever first made it :)

Bee Wonderful...

Last night we took the boys to see Bee Movie and it was a blast. Mind you these are the same children we took to see Ratatoille in theater last year and Austin had spent the whole movie talking and kicking the chair in front of him, while Mike and I took turns walking Brendan around. My sister swore that she'd never go with us again, so I was a little worried going in. We usually stick to the drive in.

We had a rough start. Brendan, used to drive-ins, thought we needed to go outside to watch the movie and pitched a huge tantrum. Austin and I went to find seats. Mike got B calmed down and brought him in, only to have the tantrum start all over again (I just know everyone was silently cursing us). FINALLY got him calmed down and set up with popcorn and a drink and the movie started...

Not a peep out of the kids the entire movie. I'm not sure they even moved. other than Austin having to go potty halfway through. They LOVED it and so did Mike and I. We thought it was hilarious and I'm definitely going to have to see it again because I'm sure there's a lot I missed. It was funny for the adults and appropriate for the boys--a perfect combination. I highly recommend it to those of you with kids (or heck even those without).

Ornaments and Bags

One more for today...a client of mine is hosting a workshop next week and asked to do fun ornaments and gift bags. These are what I came up with.

Disney and Fireworks

A couple more layouts I finished. Actually used the Cricut for both. Love my Mickey Font Cartridge--sure makes doing pages for our Disney book fun.

Trick or Treat

Dirty face and all :) No theme this year. They were both going to be Spiderman, but Brendan fell in love with the James costume at the store.