A visit from the toothfairy?

Today was a VERY big day at our house!!!!!  While driving down a major road this afternoon, I hear this little squeaky voice pipe up from the back seat shouting, "MOM! MOM! MOM!!!!!!  MY TOOTH FELL OUT!!!!!!!!!!!"

Well OF COURSE I veered over three lanes, went off the road and slammed on the breaks so I could jump in the back seat and see for myself! It had, in fact fallen out! Our family's VERY FIRST MITHING TOOTH!!!! We were whooping and hollering and high fiving all around!  She even got to watch the new Rock movie "Toothfairy" before bed tonight. I'm - errr the TOOTHFAIRY is waiting for her to go to sleep so she can sneak a little cash under the pillow! SO STOKED!

Ashli told EVERYONE she saw today that she lost her very first tooth!!!   *sigh* it's the little things that just melt your heart right?  Here is a pic of her, minus one tooth. (excuse the food in her mouth - ugh).  She put her tooth into an envelope and wrote her first AND LAST name on it - so that the toothfairy would not be confused as to who's tooth it was! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

My bubba workin' hard!

UPDATE! Here is a video of Mason and his therapist Lisa reading books last month. I can't believe how far he's come in the past couple of months!!!!!

My Charlie

My new baby Charlie! He's a Chiweenieauzer and he's snuggly and TINY and he loves me A LOT!

Digital Scrapbook Kit to benefit AUTISM SPEAKS!

This awesome "Autism Awareness" kit was designed by talented digital artist, Stacey Towers. The kit, which boasts 14 papers, 27 elements, a full alphabet and word art was designed in honor of MY SON Mason who has Autism.Stacey has graciously offered to donate 100% of ALL proceeds from this kit to Autism Speaks in Mason's honor. Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cause and cure for this horrifying epidemic. Won't you please download this very versatile (and SUPER CUTE) kit today? It is being offered at a special rate of only $3.00 per kit for a very limited time!

You can find this kit at www.scrapthatidea.com

Or click here for a direct link:

http://www.scrapthatidea.com/store/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=313

AWARENESS

1 In every 150 children will be diagnosed with Autism

This number is increasing by 10-17% each year

Autism is more common than childhood cancer, Juvenile Diabetes, and pediatric AIDS... COMBINED.

The cause of Autism is unknown

THERE IS NO KNOWN CURE

For more information about Autism and how you can help - please visit www.autismspeaks.org

or you can visit Mason's donation page here.

Thank You!

The Story of the Purple Snake.

Last month I was in Orlando, FL for the CHA Show. (Craft & Hobby Association). It was my first time being away from my children for more than an hour at a time. It was heart wrenching to leave them at the airport. Apparently, I am having issues with our umbilical cords. I can't seem to sever them! My kids were ok and had a great time hanging out with dad. I, on the other hand found myself constantly checking my phone to make sure it was working. When it rang I raced to the phone to hear their voices! Ashli took this opportunity to manipulate daddy into letting her stay up all hours of the night under the pretense that she wanted to call mommy! HA! I had a terrible time getting to sleep that first night - until I found that Ashli had packed her pajammas into my suitcase. I smiled at the precious gesture and put her jams on my pillow. With her scent so close - I fell fast asleep!

On my last full day in Orlando, Ashli called me first thing in the morning so very excited and thanking me over and over! Once I was able to get her to calm down she explained that she had had a dream the night before that I brought her home a "PURPLE SNAKE" from FL. She was SO convinced that I had found this snake for her that she was thanking me already - very excitedly!!!!!

GREAT! I'm in a strange town, have NO idea where ANYTHING is, I have an incredibly tight schedule and now I have to try to find a "Purple Snake!" Thank GOODNESS I have family that lives in the Orlando area! Dad called to set up dinner plans and I told him about Ashli's dream. Dad made it his mission to find that baby girl a purple snake! They picked me up from the hotel - and off we went. I kid you not - the VERY FIRST STORE WE WENT TO we searched and searched and searched the whole store. Dad (who is apparently blind as a bat) saw this thing from a mile away and bee-lined for it! A 4' long stuffed "PURPLE RATTLESNAKE" (the last one). I cannot even believe he found that thing! We snatched it up and got out of there. I carried that snake around my neck the whole way home; explaining to countless curious strangers the story of the "PURPLE SNAKE". When my angel girl met me at the airport her eyes lit up when she saw that snake around my neck and squealed, "MOMMY!!!!! THAT'S THE EXACT SAME SNAKE THAT WAS IN MY DREAM!!!!" Way to go Grandpa! You scored!

We got Mountain Fever!

Went caming with Mom and Larry last weekend and got the bug... bad! I haven't been able to keep Gregg off of the computer as he's been searching the area for log cabins. After much searching and not finding what we really want - we decided to buy some land and build our own cabin! We spent the whole day today in the Indian Mountain area of Colorado checking out available property. This is the one we found that we just LOVED!!!! We put the offer in as soon as we saw it and hope to have an answer back by the end of the week!

I was trying to get a nice photo of the view, but this dumb dead tree was in the way. I guess Gregg was sympathetic to my plight because he walked over and PUSHED the tree over!!!!!!! Then, he went and knocked over a few MORE dead trees! My man RAWKS!

See? No more dead trees!

Ya ain't IN Kansas anymore!

Yeah welcome to SE Aurora, Colorado folks!

5 tornados touched the ground today in Colorado, this one just a mile or so up the road from us! It was a wierd day. Bugs were swarming and trying to get into the house by the millions! (I've never seen anything like it). Then sure enough, the clouds rolled in VERY quickly, the sky started to groan and THIS Popped out of the sky.

Not my photo - stole it from Stacey's blog - she stole it from the News =o)

Thankfully, this tornado which was on the ground for 30 minutes stopped just short of our house. We got away with a little bit of hail damage from GINORMOUS hail stones. They put some dents into my little baby HUMMER. Momma is NOT happy!!! Daddy - is gonna lose a spot in his garage!

This is Stacey, holding some of the hail stones that came down in her yard.

This is a very small area of damage that was in the tornado's path. This was in the mall just up the road from our house. The Pizza restaurant in here lost two of it's four walls and my poor poor JAMBA JUICE took a big hit too. I'm in mourning right now *sniffle*

The entire mall got hit pretty good. Stores had glass blown out, roofs lost A/C units, cars flipped over in the parking lots or were moved to the other side of lots. Homes had windows blown out and roofs blown off. Garages blown in and trees snapped in half. One condo I saw even had a landscape trailer dropped on the lawn - At least it was still in tact though. We saw a construction trailer that literally exploded. Lots of damage and thankfully at this time no one has reported any serious injuries.

We heard no warning sirens.

Catching Up!

Lots to post, it's been a LONG TIME!!!

We've had so much going on that I haven't had two seconds to update the blog! So heeeeeeeeeere we go!

Trike-a-Thon, 2009

For the past two years Ashli has participated in the St. Jude Trike-a-Thon at school. This year (as always) she did so amazingly well! I can't believe how big she's getting!

Even Mason had the urge to jump in and do his part to help out the kids at St. Jude!

He's a motorcyle STUD!

Getting Settled in the new Pad

If you remember the photos I posted when we moved into our home in August you'll remember that we had NO landscaping and NO fence! We put the fence up the first week we were here and we've spent the past 2 months putting in our landscaping. (these photos aren't TOTALLY current, I have to take more photos soon). Gregg is SUCH a trooper! He built the concrete edge that surrouds the grass, he brought in 27 tons of river rock BY HIMSELF one wheelbarrow at a time! We put in a few mulch beds to use as planters and even have quite a few of the plants in already. We did have the patio poured professionally and decided to go ahead and have it colored and stamped to look like slate.

I brought in the compost (most of it) one wheelbarrow at a time, and tilled it in before we layed in the grass. We've had SO much fun hitting the nurseries and picking out all of our new plants!
I even got my weeping willow! (my all-time favorite tree) followed closely by my new aquisition - A weeping pussy willow, and my gorgeous Japanese Maple!

We put in a flower garden along the length of the south side of the house (about 35 feet). Now THAT'S A FLOWER GARDEN! We are slowly but surely picking out fun, beautiful and unusual flowers to put into it! I'll have to post some more recent photos soon!

Preschool Graduation

It seems like yesterday I was posting about Ashli's first day at school! Now, a year and a half later- she's finished with preschool. She is prepared (I am not) for Kindergarten. =o(

This is Ashli and Cody at the graduation ceremony. They will dearly miss each other! But hopefully we can make a few playdates and keep these two girls together~

WALK NOW FOR AUTISM

We took to the Nike's today to show our support for our baby man! Along with THOUSANDS of our friends and supporters the Denver area raised nearly $200,000 today on a 5k walk to raise awareness for Autism! This was our first (definitely not last) walk!

Bubba was STOKED by all the bounce houses and inflatable sensory gyms for the kids! We have GOT to find a way to get one of these things into our O/T Gym!!

Team Mason hits the pavement

With thousands of our closest friends

Thank You.

We would like to sincerely thank our team members who showed up to support Mason today. Your love for Mason shines and we are PROUD to have you on our team!

Daddy, Cousin Randy, Brandi (Mason's therapist), and cousin Connie. (Mom was hiding behind the camera). And of course, the stars of our team - Mason and Ashli

We'll do it all again next year!

Sorry for the lengthy update - will try to do better =o)

Swirlydoos Sketch Challenge - Prima Prizes!

A Sketchy contest, with PRIMA deliciousness!

Swirlydoos is holding our very first OPEN SKETCH CHALLENGE! This challenge is 100% open to anyone who wants to play along! We're revving up our scrappy engines for National Scrapbook Day! To view the sketch, the rules, and most importantly the PRIZES. Contest ends on Sunday, May 3rd so HURRRRRRRRY UP!

CLICK HERE To go to our contest page!

Just for fun... kinda.

Edward looks pretty damn good on me eh? 

And FYI - I 'm all about "Team Jacob". Let Bella have him! That frees Edward up for ME! LMAO!

Just teasin... not really.

=o)

LOOK!!!! TREE-CICLES!

We managed to go all winter without being absolutely miserable with cold weather. Not much snow, not too cold.  My kinda winter right? Yeah, well as soon as I think I'm in the clear and Mother Nature can just 'BRING ON THE SPRING' of course it's gonna hit! We've had like 2' of snow in the past week with an expected foot and a half two days ago. But... lucky for us the wind was blowing at a sustained 40 mph (60 mph gusts) and that kept the snow from actually LANDING on the ground. Instead; the snow stuck to whatever it slapped up against and froze. Today, we have TREE-CICLES! I'm talking 1-2" thick ice stuck to the side or EVERYTHING! We also have bush-cicles, grass-cicles, mailbox-cicles, Hummer-cicles.. well, you get the idea. =o)    Oh, and the Hummer-cicles? No more! Took my baby to the car wash and let those boys give my baby a little pampering. =o)  Anyhoo - here are some pics of the "nature-cicles". Man, it sure was nice getting the camera out again!

Ohhhhhhhhhh ma GOSH!!!!!

Nuff' Said

Win an Acrylic Album!!!

Head on over to the SWIRLYDOOS BLOG and leave a comment to be entered to win a Mason's Puzzle Acrylic Album!!

www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com

Please help support TEAM MASON!

We are gearing up for the Denver Walk Now For Autism marathon! Our team comprised of friends, family and even a therapist or two are hitting the pavement to help support Mason, and Autism Speaks! I myself am hoping to connect and network with other families affected by autism, and also other providers and doctors to learn about new treatments that may not have hit the mainstream yet! We are very excited to take part in our first Autism Walk, and hope that you will help us to support Mason and the millions of other children living with Autism! Please visit our TEAM PAGE to join our team (if you are able to walk with us) or make a donation in Mason's Honor to help us win the war against Autism! From my family to yours, THANK-YOU for your support!

With Love,

Krissy

Scrap That Idea - DIGI SHOP!

Stacey, Vicki, Sara and Mel (awesome digital artists) have opened their own digital store and you digi girls will LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!  They have awesome specials going right now for their grand opening!

Check out Stacey's Blog for the full premiere  announcement, and head on over to www.scrapthatidea.com to check out their designs!

Swirlydoos Next Kit - Whimsy!

Here's the sneak peek of the next Swirlydoos kit, Whimsy! Whimsy will unveil officially on Feb. 28th, along with three fantastic add-on kits. Check it out in more detail at www.swirlydoos.com!

We ARE taking pre-orders for this kit from non-subscribers!

www.swirlydoos.com

Guide Me Daddy...

Guide Me Daddy

Journaling Reads:

Walk alongside me, daddy
and hold my little hand.
I have so many things to learn
that I don't yet understand.

Teach me things to keep me safe
from dangers every day.
Show me how to do my best
at home, at school, at play.

Every child needs a gentle hand
to guide them as they grow.
So walk alongside me, daddy -
We have a long way to go.

This layout was created using the Swirlydoos Premiere kit - "DECADENCE" 

Check it out at www.swirlydoos.com to get yours!

A New Venture...

I have opened a new (and hopefully AWESOME, SUCCESSFUL, POPULAR) Scrapbooking kit club! You will enjoy our thoughtfully prepared coordinating scrapbook kits. We take great care in choosing high quality, current, beautiful supplies to help you preserve your most treasured memories. Check it out at www.swirlydoos.com and TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!

Our premiere kit - **DECADENCE**

$36.00

Detailed Product List

Pattern Paper Note—All papers are double sided

Kaisercraft—Eleanor (1)

Kaisercraft—Victoria (1)

Kaisercraft—Catherine (1)

Kaisercraft—Elizabeth (1)

Making Memories—Falala music note (1)

Heidi Swapp—World Traveler (1)

Heidi Swapp—Old Coat (1)

Autumn Leaves—Bella Picola (die cut, single sided) (1)



Embellishments

Making Memories-Tiny alphas (1)

Maya Road-Chipboard bracket album (1)

Maya Road– black sequins (1 yd)

Kaiser—wood flourishes (2)

Paper frills—12” die cut borders (2 asst)

Maya Road- Chipboard Flourishes (3)

Maya Road- Chipboard Keychain (people) (1)

Kaisercraft- 12” flourish border rubz

Kaisercraft- Clear Rhinestones (1 pkg)

Kaisercraft– Pearls (1 pkg)

Daisy Bucket– Flourish corner stamps (1 pkg)

Kaisercraft– Cream flowers (5)

Basic Grey– Wassail buttons (8 asst)

Prima– Belle Fleur flowers and brads (3)

Prima– Lg maroon bloom (1)

Prima– Cream blooms (2)

Prima- Rose buds (4)

Prima– Journaling notes (2)

Stretchwrite– Cream Lace (24”)

DMD-Raffia kraft ribbon (1yd)

Misc-Pearl stick pins (2)

The Decadence Add-On Kit 

 $42.00

Pattern Paper (double sided)
Webster’s Pages—Bloomin’ Beauty (2)
Webster’s Pages—Brown Pokee Dot (2)Heidi Swapp—Old Map (2)

Album

My Acrylic Album—6” 6-page Acrylic Album w/ rings

Embellishments
Prima—NEW CHA RELEASE Say it in Crystals
Wrights—Black Floral Lace (1yd)
Clearsnap—Fluid Chalk ink pad (Chestnut Roan)
Prima—Build-a-Swirl stamp set (8.5 x 11”)

Prima—Felt Border (12”)

The Decadence Flower Add-On Kit

$10.00

A generous offering of a minimum of “90” delicious blooms carefully chosen to coordinate beautifully with the “Decadence” main kit and add-on kit.

Check out the website (still kinda in progress- the flippin computer whiz "I" am) - www.swirlydoos.com

And our blog is www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com

~We just kicked it off and will be holding contests and challenges VERY soon~

My little woodland friends..

Ironic.  This morning Ashli, Mason and I watched a movie I haven't seen in a REALLY long time.  Disney's  The Fox And The Hound. It had been YEARS since I've seen this flick!

Later today, I let the Wonder Spaz out for a potty break and he (as is usually the case) went ape-shit barking and freaking out. It's times like this when I hate having a see-through fence! Anyway, he was very adament in his bark. So much so that my other dog started barking too! I got up and went outside to shoosh Matani and see that he isn't just barking at nothing this time!  No, the deer hadn't come back. He pretty well scared the hell out of her last time she was in our yard! But this NEW little friend was NOT afraid of Matani. In fact, it almost seemed as though he was TEASING Matani through the fence as if to say, "HA! You big dummy! You can't get me!"  While this is cute, I know it's also dangerous to have a wild animal hanging around the house who is NOT afraid of the Wonder Spaz.. or me for that matter. Even so, we enjoyed his company, kept the dogs as quiet as we could and let our new friend relax for the many hours that he was here!

Then, we had a nice long talk with Ashli about staying far away from wild animals. Anyway, here are the pics I shot of my new friend Copper! Gregg says if I feed him, he'll shoot him. So, no feeding this little guy for me!

All worn out from teasing Matani.

Watching Codi go pee.

Not askeered of me at ALL!