Cousin Slumber Party

Saturday, the 19th, Riley & Kayla came to stay the night with Josie. She was excited about her slumber party all week. Kayla has never stayed the night with us and she did a really good job. Towards bedtime she said she missed Mommy, but she never cried about it though. But she did get Josie to the point that she too was saying she missed Aunt 'Chelle. Riley would try to console her by telling her that bubby was right here and so was Aunt Shannon and she would be fine.
Josie and Kayla had every room in the house destroyed! But the funniest part was when they got out the dress up clothes and put them on and then proceeded to put their "biker boots" on with it.

Riley and Uncle Mikey played Wii while the girls took their bath. I dont' know who won on that game but before bath, I played him and I won! Course I had to pick on him about it, cause Riley isn't the best loser. Normally he pouts and quits what he is doing if he loses but stayed right along with me and insisted we keep playing.

After the girls bath, they wanted their fingernails painted. So we ended up with one foot pink, one foot orange, one hand pink and one hand blue. They were oh so pretty!
We finished out the night with milkshakes, popcorn and a movie. We had a really good time and they all were really good.

Kim Klassen Textures

I was playing around the other night while Josie was in the bath. I had just got my hair done and it was looking good! Plus Josie was in the bath laughing at me. She thought it was silly of me taking pictures of myself in the bathroom mirror.

I played around with some textures from Kim Klassen and some brushes from Jessica Sprague. The quote I got from my class over at Snapshots of a Good Life.

Love you!

I love that you:

• Humor your Mommy with the camera and allow me to practice
• Love water and bath time
• Eat popsicles in the bath
• Your eyes that I think are starting to turn Hazel like Mommy's
• your "big" hugs where you squeeze my neck until it chokes me
• that you are finally starting to rely on your Daddy more
• Love your "babies" and are such a good caring "Mommy" to them
• Love that you call Riley & Kayla- "Bubby & Sissy"
• That you are ready to go wherever you have to go that day for Mommy to be able to go to work
• Love that you Love Us with all your Heart!

I love you Josie, more than you will ever know.

Kitchen Organizing

Mike has been on a kick of organizing all my cabinets once again. It's great by after about a month of it, I'm over it. I hope we can get it done soon. I would love to have my kitchen back with some added space.
He started with the spice rack he built where I use to keep my sheet pans.

Then he moved onto other cabinets putting organizers in them and building boxes that pull out.

He really has all of my cabinets organized now.
Now he is building an island. I plan on putting a butcher block countertop on it and using this for all of my baking needs. I can't wait to be able to use it. It even has a higher side on the backside of it for barstools that we will be able to eat at it. It will also house my overflow of cookbooks and sprinkles and such.

Hopefully in the next month I will be able to show you the finished island!!!

Hello Kitty & Runaway balloons

I put Josie in her Hello Kitty clothes yesterday (17th). As Mike was getting her dressed, she informed him that she "loved Hello Kitty all my life!"
She is so hilarious at times.

She has several balloons in the house from various birthday parties. They just won't go away! But she wanted to take the balloon upstairs tonight. I kept trying to talk her out of it, telling her if it got away from her it would go to the ceiling and we can't get it down. She told me that Uncle Nathan could get it down. LOL Anyway, she had it tied on her wrist and was sitting in the floor eating a cookie, and off it went. She looks at me and says "See I told you it would go to the sky!" You terd!!!

"Blue"

Blue, is one weird kitty! For the most part you would think she is a dog. She follows us everywhere. The only bad habit she really has is that at night time she gets in our bed and curls up by my head. Which wouldn't be so bad, but she paws and nurses at my neck. Incredibly annoying when you are asleep!
She's getting really good at letting Josie pick her up now. And she loves to chase Josie around also.
I'm still having puppy fever, but for now the cat will have to do.

Pampered Chef Top Sales

Got Two emails.
The one from my upline director I was #1 in sales for January.

January Stars!!!

Sales

#1  Shannon Jones   $2343.73

#2 Lori Harris $1459.40

#3 Jessica Ikerd $1163.16

#4 Bonnie Pendley $1158.65

Those who turned in at least $150 in sales:

Michele Erler, Becky Snedegar and Rita Jackson 

Then I got an email from her director and I was #6 in sales for January from her team.

Emo & Reading

Josie loves to read now. She always has, but her actually sitting down with a book and making up the story all on her own is just too cute for words.

Goodbye for now, Harley!

Mike & I bought our first motorcycle in 2001. I had been wanting one for a really long time. Finally got him talked into it and I picked out this Fatboy.

Well last night, we sold it. I had been wanting to sell it since Josie has been born. We never ride it now. Mike got me on it about a month after Josie was born and I just wasn't into it or comfortable on it anymore. All I kept thinking of the whole time we were gone was the "what-ifs". So for now we will bid him Goodbye!!! But I have to admit, seeing that cycle go down the driveway and hearing it go down the road without us on it, was pretty depressing.

And Poor Josie, never got to ride it.

Spring~ I sure hope you are here to stay

Wednesday it was so pretty out. Michelle had the kids outside all afternoon other than naps. And when we got home, I thought "Forget the laundry!!! It can wait." So Josie & I headed outside. I had to take stuff down to the garage for Mikey so we really just played around down there and in the bottom.

I love this dog! He is the greatest. I wish Josie had gotten to know Kodi, but Levi is the next best thing. His only downfall is bringing the neighbor's trash home to our house, mostly to my flower bed.

This year, Josie is all about the water and mud puddles. She's always been enthralled with water but now she gets the fun of playing in the mud. We splashed from puddle to puddle in the driveway.

This is probably the second set of photos I have taken down in our bottoms. I don't know why, but I really like the road in the background for some reason.

And last but not least! Josie decided she wanted to go walking through the mud where the log machine had been sitting. Of course you can imagine that, it was like quicksand. What you don't see in this photo, is right after my shutter clicked, she starts yelling, Mommy I need your help. By the time I got over there she was about to have a breakdown because her boot was stuck in the mud and she was pulling it off. It was pretty strong stuff, I had to pull really hard on her loops of her boots to get her loose. She was done with it after that one!

Bloomington Airport

We went out to the Airport Sunday (13) morning to see Uncle Bobbie and for Daddy to turn his time in for plowing.
I thought it might be a great idea to take the camera and try and take some photos of Josie with some of Uncle Bobbie's airplanes. They didn't turn out quite like I hoped. It was so windy out there that it made it freezing. I didn't want photos with her coat on, and she was infatuated with the wind. So between the two it was very hard to get any good photos.

This last one kills me! With the ponytails flying up in the air!!! We'll have to try out there again when it warms up. I still can see a vision, it just didn't work this day.

Mia Couture Giveaway

Can I just say DREAM!!!! This is where I would love to see my photography go in the future. I have been stalking this blog for quite sometime and have wanted some head pieces like this for the idea I have for Josie's 3rd bday photos.
Then what do you know! They are having a give away: Go check it out!!!
http://inspiremebaby.com/2011/02/15/giveaway-50-gift-certificate-from-mia-couture-ends-220/

We LOVE Build A Bear

Mike & I took Josie out to the mall to surprise her with Pizza for lunch and then Build A Bear for her Valentine Present.

She thinks that everytime you are at the mall you should go eat at Luca. I can blame that one on Mom & Michelle cause alot of the time when Josie was little, we would end up meeting at the mall for lunch and that is what we always had. So now she thinks you eat pizza everytime you go to the mall, even if she has just ate lunch/supper. But I can't blame her it is pretty darn good.

After we finally got her finished eating her pizza and sprite, we walked down to Build A Bear of course with a pit stop to see the puppies. She didn't have any clue that was where we were going. It had been a while since we had been there, but she really likes picking out the animal and the clothing. This time though, she didn't understand that we had to wait in line to get the animal of her choosing stuffed.

Once we got her to finally accept that yes you are getting a flat one in the bin and not one that is already stuffed, she picked out a Jonas Brother Dog.

While Daddy stood in line for us, she picked out some heart panties and heart jammies and even a pink leash for her. After stuffing her we asked her what she was going to name her. And she picked Aurora. So meet Aurora Jones!!! Born on February 12, 2011.

The funniest thing was watching her carry the box and all out of the mall. She wouldn't let Daddy or I help her and the most of the time, she was just dragging the box. The people we were passing was laughing and some even stopped her to ask her what she got. Which she would reply, "Aurora"!

At it Again

Since Rick got me Photoshop CS5, I am going back through all my classes at Jessica Sprague to learn how to use the 5 version. I haven't had CS since it first came out and I very rarely played with it. I have been mostly a PSE girl.
Now the next program to learn that Rick also got me is Lightroom. I've got to go get a book on it though. I have found classes online for it, but they are pretty spendy. And since it's such a new software, I think I'll trust Scott Kelby to teach me. I might then check into his classes. I'm anxious though to learn this program because it gets such high reviews in the photography/scrapbook world.
Anyway, here is a layout I made today using CS5 and Jessica Sprague.