Down on the farm....

these two little guys, or girls, or one of each, ha!  were born -

And Momma Cocoa seems to be doing her job -  

But I'm thinkin' they look a lot like Pappa goat, right?!

Now hopefully Reba will have a baby or two soon.  Just never know about her =)  She's not lookin' too 'plump' right now so I guess we'll have to see....

7 Weeks....

It's hard to believe that little miss Brooklyn Makenna is  7 weeks old already.  But...great news....

That's right, she came home on Monday.  We were just a little bit excited, ha!

but I'm not thinking she's quite as excited, she kinda slept through it all, lol.  Oh well, she'll soon get used to all the attention.

It's so nice to have her home with Mommy and Daddy - in her own crib, with her own stuff, enjoying all things "Brooklyn".

We are very blessed to have perfect, healthy, beautiful Brooklyn in our lives.  xoxo

270 - that magic number?

During my last trip to Minneapolis my friend Julie and I hit Ikea. I LOVE Ikea but there isn't one close to us (about 1 1/2 hours away). This one happens to be by the Mall of America -

Once inside....up the escalator we go...

At a first glance, I was overwhelmed.  But....if you follow the arrows, you can make it all the way around and see EVERYTHING.

I love the 'rail' system..

I'm thinkin' Cierra would love these lights in her room -

But what really caught my eye was this -

Seriously?  Someone can live in 270 sq. ft.?!

Yep,  - here's the living room and bedroom, combined

The view from the 'door' -

The kitchen.  The chairs hang on the wall above the 'folded' kitchen table, ha!

Bathroom -

closet -

and right by the door a coat rack and a spot for everything (shoes, purse, gloves, hat).  Pretty cool, huh?!

Lately I have talked about living in a smaller house with a white picket fence....that would work but not so sure I could live in 270 sq. ft. but they definitely make the most of every square inch!

Congratulations Lexi!

Here she is....Miss Shenandoah's Outstanding Teen 2013 =)

Chase and the whole gang that supported her Saturday night are VERY happy!

Good use of time...

I spent quite a few hours in airports this week but was able to wrap up some pages of old photos.  Obviously I used MyMemories digital kits but another advantage to using their software is that you have access all the time.  The software is loaded on your laptop and all the kits you purchase are at your fingertips.  Perfect =)

I gotta keep chuggin' to get years of photos all 'scrapped' for the family.  One page at a time =)  Anyone know who this 'kid' is?!  lol

Countin' Calories....

For months now I have been saying I want to lose a few pounds.  Tone up.  Get back in shape.  I have done nothing.  On top of that, whenever I travel I eat bad.  Period.

I NEVER eat McDonalds but yesterday I was in a hurry in the airport in between flights so grabbed fries and a snack wrap.  While waiting for take off, I noticed this.....

so I dug out my phone, secretly turned it back on and found my 'scan' app.  The menu flashed up and I scrolled to a small fry -

Seriously?  230 calories?  I can eat a whole Lean Cuisine lunch for about that.....

I was almost scared to scroll to my snack wrap -

OUCH!  Geez.  That's a total of 580 calories!  Guess I'll be making better choices next time.  =(

And the rest of my trip hasn't been much better  - here's my lunch....

it's a good thing Ronnie has finally gotten me to each chili or I would have been hungry today, lol!

And dinner....ugh - still too many calories -

I'm not thinking tomorrow is going to be any better given it's another travel day BUT...when I get home I really need to commit to doing better.  Seriously.

Oh but here's a funny.....notice anything about our food from today?!

Notice the expiration date?  Oh my.....we did chuckle....

Happy Hump Day!

It's COLD!

Here...

and there...

Wow.  Not sure who thought it would be a great idea to #1, catch a flight out of Washington-Dulles the day after Inauguration or #2 have a meeting in Minneapolis the coldest week they have had yet this year?!  Ugh!

The plane was packed with lots of Obama fans.  Obnoxious.  Rude. Inconsiderate.  I'll leave it at that.

I didn't have a direct flight so flew into Detroit.  It was quite a different view than I typically see...

And once here?!  Geez Louise.  It's cold and I would much rather be home, enjoying this =)

But for now, I'll just bundle up, go to work and pray the weather holds off so I can get home at the end of the week.

Happy Birthday Kayden!

Wow!  You're FOUR years old today!  I know you will have a wonderful, fun, perfect day!  

xoxo - Gigi

My Memories giveaway....

Don't forget....click HERE to leave a comment for the My Memories giveaway!

A little bit different....

Our typical Sunday is pretty quiet.  The weekend comes to a close with dinner, some tv, earlier to bed given we return to school and work.  But last night.....well it was a little bit different.

On Friday we learned of this 'gig' called The Nine.  We love music and once this was described to us, we really wanted to check it out.  This particular event was held at Quattro Goomba winery -

Here's how it works.  It is basically nine singer/songwriters.   Who it is varies by the place, availability, etc.  But, they each sing two songs for the first set.  They can ask any of the others to join in.  In some cases they just meet the night of the gig.  It was SO cool!

Here's Nathaniel - holding up the list...

We have followed Ken Wenzel for over a year now but did NOT know that he played the saxophone.  He actually has a degree in saxophone.  Hmmm.

The evening was filled with wonderful music and talented musicians.  It was awesome!

There were three girls that participated.  All were very talented....this young lady gave up her engineering career to go after her music dream -

She's from India so of course I was very interested to chat with her =)

And Matt Boyer definitely has a new fan, ha!

If you're into music, check their  FACEBOOK page out.  I know we will definitely attend another one of their events.

Happy Monday!

My Memories GIVE AWAY!

For years I bought tons of papers, tons of embellishments and many, many tools to scrapbook our family memories.  To this day, I do still have a room filled with completed books, partial books and TONS and TONS of supplies with dust building.  

Four years ago when I decided to begin blogging, I quickly made 'blog' friends.  These are people that I will probably never meet face to face yet I feel like I have known some of them for years.    The digital world of scrapbooking was also exposed to me.  Wow.  I tried Photoshop Elements and even purchased the full Photoshop CS4 package.  I watched tutorials, read articles and for the most part, learned enough to get by.  I learned to create my own blog header and created some scrapbook pages. 

Then one day MyMemories was on my screen.  I read, scrolled and thought for $40 you can't go wrong.  (especially given PSE and PS are both much, much more=)  I downloaded the software and began trying to figure it out.  Within hours I had created a page.  

Now, nearly four years later, I have learned so much.  I have created lots of books and pages.  Don't be mislead though, I still have many many years to catch up on.  But it's cheap!  The papers and elements can be used over and over.  The average kit is about $4 which is honestly what one pack of stickers used to cost me.  LOVE, LOVE it!  And the best part is you don't have to print the pages/books.  You can keep them digitally until you chose to do something different.  It's such a great idea and I save all of mine to an external hard drive as well as Back Blaze (which is an on-line back-up) so heaven forbid something happen, I still have all those memories, ha!  Plus you can print duplicates if you have more than one child yet a lot of the same memories/photos.  The possibilities ARE endless!

The latest thing I have learned is how easy it is to create my blog header, photo frames for the side and even signature boxes.  

So my friends....here's an offer.  I just recently became a part of their "Share the Memories" program and am able to give away My Memories Digital Software.  Here's all you have to do:

Leave me a comment about what your first project would be if you are the winner.  The drawing will be Friday, January 25th so don't wait!

You can go HERE to learn more.  And, if you have any questions or would like to know more, please feel free to contact me as well.  

GOOD LUCK!  

xoxo

Rest in Peace....

This week we sadly said good-bye to one of our 'animal' family members.  Puff has been with us over two years.  She joined our family as a companion for Cocoa but ultimately ended up being Ronnie's goat.  She was super sweet and wouldn't leave him alone whenever he worked in the corral.  Unfortunately she became sick and just couldn't recover.

She will certainly be missed but will definitely never be forgotten......

Wishing I was there...

One of my all time favorite places to visit is Ocean City, Maryland.  My first vacation there was before I was even one and honestly, I don't think I have missed a year since then.  Whew...that's a LOT of visits =)

Our latest tradition has been to spend the very last day of the year there and wake up listening to the ocean on January 1st.  When we were there New Year's Eve, there wasn't any snow so when I realized there was actually a dusting today, I really wished I was there - BEAUTIFUL!

Maybe one day but for now I'll have to be satisfied loving the sand burning my feet in the hot, summer months and that's OK.

Happy Friday!

This post is pretty much for all of my digital scrapbooking friends out there.  I don't typically 'advertise' on my blog but this is something you might be interested in.  This is a HUGE kit and comes with a 'cause'.  Click HERE to find out more....here's what's included:

MEGA collab, featuring over 100 designers. Almost 1.5 GB of products: Proceeds to benefit Mye De Leon, and help her newborn son with a life-saving surgery. Contains 216 papers, 508 elements, 11 alphas, 16 12x12 templates, and a 20-pg mini book template set. Only a small portion of products shown in main preview.

All for just $20.  

I hope you all have a great weekend....happy scrapping =)

Remember when?!

Not sure how many of you LOVED, LOVED these booths but I know as a kid I would beg my parents for money.  Climb in.  Make funny faces (mostly with a sunburnt nose).  And then wait for the pics to drop so I could see =)

Welp, New Year's Eve weekend I was able to re-live those fun times!  Yep!  I drug Ronnie into the booth (whew is it small in there, haha) and before we knew it, the flash was firing.  

Then I stood outside waiting for the photos to drop.  

We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And yes, Ronnie was getting frustrated.  So, I finally went to the counter and complained.  After my wait, a guy finally went to the booth that had been guarded by Cierra and Courtney and poof!  our photos dropped.  Ok, so there are some marks on the BUT.....you have to admit they aren't too shabby, lol!

Sometimes it's the smallest things =)

oh...yes, I do owe you a replay of our New Year's Eve extravaganza.  Sorry....it will be forth coming.  Promise.