It's Official-I have an illness!

So, I decided on this rainy Friday night to go out to the garage and clean up my scrapbooking area. It's been piled (okay overwhelmingly overflowing) for months now and I've been working around it, until tonight. So I put some Frank Sinatra on and went to work. I was doing okay, putting away new papers, ribbons, etc and I got excited because I could actually see the work bench. Then I started opening up the bags from the Scrapbook Expo that Cath and I went to in August. Yes, that's right, I'm just getting around to putting away stuff I purchased in August. (did I mention the desk was PILED with stuff?). So I got out the stuff I purchased and put it on the table to put away. I got so shocked by myself that I decided I'd better document my illness in case one day I come out here and am never heard from or seen again. Perhaps I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Help-it's eating me alive!!!!!!!

And to think, all of this was from only a couple of hours of shopping! In my defense-most of it was from Bargain Bins and only cost at the most $1. Some of it was $1 and Buy One Get One Free-making it $.50!!!!! But, still, even I was blown away at how much I bought and how sick I really, truly, am. And yet, even amidst all this overwhelming chaos, I was able to select a few favorites that I am excited about. Here are my favorites-the shape things are actually self-adhesive felt embellishments and they are super cute! The round red things are like big emeralds cut in half and ready to put on paper. They sparkle like diamonds! Here are close-ups of my faves...
Decorated Brads from Bo-Bunny. They're actually called "Bodacious Brads" and they are to die for! These are very Christmas-y and may find their way onto my Christmas pages from this year (made from pictures stolen from Shannon, of course).
Next are Lego-shaped Brades and Giant colored-rhinestone brads. These are from Eyelet Outlet and I am super jazzed about them. The lego brads I have been searching for to use on my pages from our LegoLand trips. Aren't they cute? The rhinestone brads don't have an official use yet-but I'll find something for them!
So, here's the kicker-if you're not convinced that I am a very sick, twisted human being who apparantly chooses scrapbooking supplies over all other rationalities, I turned around after taking these photos and saw my latest purchase....

I truly did not need this giant scrapbooking set, but I fell in love with it at Costco, so I saved up my $40 and went and bought it. Don't know where I'm going to put it or what I'm going to use it for, but I had to have it. It has over 400 pieces of flowers, stickers, brads, papers, metal tags, tapes, ribbons, and more in it. Super cute colors. Even has two albums in it! Did I mention that I have more than 10 empty albums waiting to be used on my shelves? O well.

I may never even get around to using any of this, but it's all super cute, it was very inexpensive, and it made my day (for now). BTW-the next time any of you hear me say "I have to go to Michaels or Jo-Anns!"-please do us all a favor and knock me out. I don't need ANYTHING from either of those stores! :)

Here's what we've been up to...

So, here's the update on the haps in our family...I haven't blogged since October (and even then I only caught up to September, so I have a lot to write about. I'll try to keep it short and sweet...

First-here are pics from my birthday and Ben's birthday in September. I realized that I promised pics in my last blog and never posted them. So here they are...

October brought on soccer weekends, colder weather, Halloween, and fall activites at home and school. Taylor and Ben played soccer this season and both of their teams played pretty well. They both went up in divisions, so it was a bit of a challenge for both of them. Benny played in Under 12 and Taylor went up to Under 16! Taylor's team made it to the playoffs and she played her hard out. Ben's team also made it, won their first game, and then lost. It was a great season for both of them. Here are some pics from soccer...

October was also a big month in our family, because we welcomed Isaiah John Toney into the world on October 18th. He is so amazing and a total blessing from God. David and Courtney are so in love with this little one and so is everyone else! He has so much hair you can't believe it. Check out Courtney's blog for the link to their family website David created. It will blow you away! The weekend after he was born, Sean and Lindsey surprised us all and drove down here. We were double blessed that week! Here are some pics from their visit!

Halloween was fun for us-we always get dressed up and hang with Shannon and her family. After pics, the girls went out their friends, DJ went with his friends, and Shan and I trick-or-treated with Cath and her family. Perhaps the best memory of this year was everyone trying to figure out Ben's costume. Shannon actually ran a contest on her blog to see what everyone would guess. It's pretty funny, you should click over there and look it up-it's worth it for the laughs. We heard everything from licorice, blood, a heart, the devil, and even "RED" the color-in the end it was revealed that Ben was a red gummy bear. My mom (bless her heart) and I did our best to sew a bear costume out of quite possibly the worst red fabric ever created. It was pretty funny. DJ was a football player and Taylor was a muse (the girls from the Disney movie Hercules). They all looked great and we all had a great time. Here are some pics...

Early November was our all school "Western Round-Up". This is basically a big country fair fund-raiser for our school. Every class had a booth-mine was the cake-walk. The parents help decorate and we provided baked goods and prizes for everyone. I even baked some-and tried my hand a caramel apples-they turned out pretty good! It was a super-fun day and my class raised over $800 for our class funds! DJ and Ben were there and they enjoyed the inflatable joust-they played on it all day! Here are some pics from that day!

That brings us to Thanksgiving. A very busy month for me at school because of field trips and holiday parties and the loss of a week of school. We worked on being Thankful and continued to give God the praise and glory in the midst of it all. In the end, it went well and we had a great month. Here are a couple of pics from our trip to the San Juan Capistrano Mission and our Thanksgiving class party.

Also in November, Taylor, DJ, Mandy, and I were in a play together! We performed in School House Rock Live! It was a total blast. I'll post pics of that later (I have to get the good ones from Shannon).

As for Thanksgiving Day, Shannon, Courtney, Sean, their families, and my parents all went up to Shannon's cabin in Big Bear and had a blessed time together. We stayed here and had a morning of football-DJ and Taylor played in the annual Turkey Bowl at Mission Viejo High School, and then we headed up to Carson for the dinner with Donald's family. It was a nice day, very relaxing, and filled with food, fun, and family. I was a bad mommy and did not take any pictures that day! Can you believe it? I feel bad, but I just completely forgot!

Anyways, that brings us to December. Ahhh, the month of chaos, cookies, and the never-ending search for the perfect gifts and decorations. This year was no different in our house. The wekks leading up to Christmas were so busy for me, as they were for everyone else. On top the usual events and activities, I also had to prepare to move my classroom into our new beautiful building. We were not given any dates, but were told that it could be any day, any time, and we would have to be ready to go. So we started stripping the walls, packing up books, and preparing to move, on top of the parties, concerts, tests, and everything else. I did pretty good, I think. Much thanks to Cath for hanging out after school every day that last week helping to pack-she is a life-saver (Cherry flavor, of course!). Christmas Day was spent at Mom and Dad's in the morning in our PJ's, with lots of laughter and a bit of tears. Once again, no pictures. I really stink at this! I think sometimes I get caught up in the moment and forget to take some pictures. Luckily, I know Shannon always does, so I'll be stealing a few from her and posting them later. Anyways, after that we headed home to wash up and went up to Donald's parents in Carson. It was nice day, filled with love and family and rejoicing in the greatest gift of all...JESUS!

Here are a random assortment of Christmas time pics....our house (notice the $200 Lego train that Benny bought and assembled all by himself-it really works-it's awesome!), Aunt Lois' Santa Party, my class Christmas party, our trip to see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular ....and whatever else I find in my files to post for your enjoyment.

There...officially caught up, I hope. For now....look for a post on New Year's Eve-we had a rockin' good time, but I'll spare you from that right now.... Love you all!