Missing that personal touch...

I've realized over the past several years (especially after my Grandmother's passing), that people just don't write letters or thank you's with a pen and paper anymore.  It's all done via e-mail.  And I'm just as guilty as the next guy, but it kind of lacks that personal touch.  So it has inspired me to be more concious of this and change some of my ways.

These are a couple of Thank You cards that I made that turned out pretty cute.  The "old-time" dress form is off of the new Cricut cartridge Summer in Paris.  To get this look, I cut the image and laid it on the card then I spritzed on top of it with Maya Mist then removed the cut image and it left this super cute shadow!  I don't do a lot of cards, but I think I'm going to start.  These were quick and easy and I would much rather get a cute card like this in the mail than a store bought one anyday of the week!

Absent....

I'm sorry I've been so absent when it comes to my blog, but it's not the only thing getting neglected lately...lol.  The kitchen is nearly finished.  The tile backsplash is being installed on Friday this week and then it will be done!  WOOHOO!!!  Never again will we remodel a kitchen while trying to live in the same house.  It has been extremely challenging to say the least.  I will post some pictures this weekend for everyone to see of the finished product.

We are gearing up for Summer in a big way.  Since we are not going to be able to take a family vacation this year (stupid kitchen...lol), we decided that we would explore KC.  We have at least 2-3 activities planned each week this summer to all kinds of new and exciting locations.  We will be hitting Savanahland, The Berry Patch, Powell Gardens (believe it or not I've never been here before), Lee's Summit Aquatic Park, the Downtown City Market and so much more!  It's my mission to take as many pictures as possible this summer since I haven't taken hardly any this year. 

I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to be seeing you soon!

Some new work...

It's been so long since I've been able to scrap because of everything that has been going on.  So I spent a Saturday with my Mom a couple of weeks ago and did some much needed scrapping.  I'm starting to get behind on my pictures (and I hate that feeling).  I got four whole pages done...WOOHOO!!  Take a look:

Holly couldn't wait for Summer.  She took out last year's flip-flops and they were way too small.  This just shows you how much she has grown in the last 6-7 months:

Brody loves to play baseball.  On Easter Sunday all the boys were in the backyard having a blast.  The top picture is one of my recent favorites of Brody:

This is another picture from Easter.  I thought it was a really cute pic of Brody and Holly together.  For that extra special touch, I stitched around the dragon fly that I misted in the corner:

These pictures are from Christmas day.  The kids (and when I say kids, Tony is included...lol) were loving their Guitar Hero.  They were all concentrating so hard...lol:

A nice surprise...

I found this written on the floor when we pulled the old one up.  I had completely forgotten that we did this:

So, before we put the new floor down, I wrote this:

OMG..Did she really just say that?!?

Holly constantly cracks me up with things that she is saying.  She has her own dictionary (i.e. a table = tavle, a unicorn = unihorn, etc.).  The latest entry into Holly's New World Dictionary is a classic for sure. 

This story starts with me stopping at Wal-Mart to pick up some household items and I came across the new Disney movie, The Princess and The Frog.  The kids have been wanting to see it so I picked it up.  When I got home I laid the movie on the kitchen table and started to fix dinner.  When Holly walked in the door and saw it, you would have thought that we just won the lottery...lol.  She was so excited.  She couldn't wait to watch it.  I told her to wait until after we ate dinner and then we would all sit down together and watch it before they went to bed.

All through dinner, Holly couldn't stop talking about this movie.  She kept telling us her favorite scenes from the commercials...lol.  I finally told her to stop talking and eat or we wouldn't have time to watch the movie.  She promptly shut her mouth and closed her eyes.  I asked her what she was doing and this was her response:

"I'm playing all the favorite parts in my head Mom.  Ya know, I'm using my VAGINATION!"

LMAO!!!!  I choked on my food and Tony just about spit milk out of his nose.  He turned around and looked straight at me and said "Becky, this one is all yours"...lol!!  I've never laughed so hard in my life.  I was crying.  My poor innocent child.  So, you know me, I promptly took the camera out and took some photos.  Then I went downstairs and wrote the whole thing out.  This is going to be one doosey of a scrapbook page!!

I can see the finish line...

It's finally starting to feel like a real kitchen again.  The only thing we are missing is the countertop (which is a biggie...lol), the tile for the backsplash and one cabinet above the wine rack that we had to re-order.  But everything else is complete.  Take a look at some before and afters:

Before (Tony had already started to rip out the tile on the backsplash):

This is what my living room has looked like for weeks...lol:

Are you ready for this.....here is the after...TAH DAH!!!:

I can't wait to have it all done.  We will be celebrating it very shortly  Hope to see everyone there!  :)

My Babies...

Here are a couple of pictures that I took of my kids when we went to see STOMP! at the Midland Theater downtown a few weeks ago.  I can't believe how big they look!

Quick Update...

Our lives have been consumed by this kitchen project.  I have been neglecting everything else.  I'm ready for this to be O-V-E-R!  We are on the downhill slide though.  Our beautiful new cabinets were installed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  We have also finished painting and are in the process of getting the flooring laid (which should be done this weekend).  The countertop is being ordered today and will take 2-3 weeks to manufacture.  Once that comes in, we will be able to finish everything up, tile the backsplash and be done with this project! 

Then I can sit back, relax and sip on a glass of fine wine with all my friends. OK, maybe not fine (but what's wrong with a $9.00 bottle of Reisling...lol).
 
I am going to try and post some before and during pictures this weekend for everyone to see.  I also sqeezed in some much needed scrapbooking time during a couple of late nights...lol.  So I have some fun new projects to share.  See you all soon!  :)

What a disaster!

We've officially started demolition on the kitchen.  What a frickin' mess!!  I already hate how our lives have been turned upside down and it's only been a couple of days...lol.  Our cabinets are arriving Wednesday afternoon, so I'm really hoping that they can be installed early next week.  Then we have to wait 2-3 more weeks for the countertop to be manufactured.  So we've still got a long way to go, but I'm sure it's going to be worth it!

Yesterday afternoon we got out of the house for a little while though and took the kids to see STOMP!.  Holly didn't care for it a whole lot (which totally surprised me), but Brody was on the edge of his seat the whole time...lol.  It really is a good show for the whole family.  If you ever get the chance, I would go.  This is my 3rd time and Tony's 2nd time for seeing the show and it's still as good as the first time.

Well,  that's what's been going on in the Abbate house the last few days.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend (with that gorgeous weather) and if your doorbell rings, it's probably us stopping by for a good homecooked meal...lol!  :)

Nice to Meet ya Coop!

Last Monday, 3/29, Toni had a beatiful baby boy named Cooper.  I was charged with creating a one-of-a-kind album for the little guy.  I normally struggle with little boy stuff, but for some reason this one was pretty easy.  I found this adorable "Monster" paper and I just ran with it.  I wound up doing a double-page for each month.  The bright colors and cute embellishments are so yummy I can't stand it!  I even hand stitched each month's number. Take a look:

Easter 2010

We enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous Easter yesterday.  I think that's the best weather we've ever had!  It was wonderful to be able to get outside and let the kids go wild. 

We spent the day with Nanny, Papa, Uncle Bill, Aunt Tina, Tyler and Tate eating lots of good food and playing lots of games.  We even went to the park and flew gliders.  Why can't everyday be like that...LOL!?

New Work to Share with You

I haven't posted any new layouts on here in several months, so I apologize for that.  But I have been busy working on stuff.  I made a slide show below of all my newest stuff that I've done over the past couple of months.  Take a look and enjoy!

Juste a Taste...

Well, we did it.  We bit the big one and ordered our new kitchen this week!  I don't mind telling you that they had to use the defibrillator on me at the checkout counter...lol.  Our new cabinets will be delivered around the first week in April and installation complete about 3 weeks after that.  Then it will just be up to Tony and I to lay the new floor, paint and tile the new backsplash.  I can't wait for everyone to see it.  I think it's going to be gorgeous!  Here's just a little taste for you though:

Cabinet Style (Birch wood with a Praline Pecan color stain):

Countertops (FX180, a new really durable and gorgeous formica):

I can't wait to get it all done.  Tony and I have been completely stressed out over this.  It's such a monumental and expensive project.  It was quite intimidating.  But it will be worth it when it's completely finished and we are able to have our friends over and be proud of it.  Talk to you soon!

It's been soooo long...

Wow!  I can't believe how long it's been since I've been on here.  I've completely neglected by blogging duties (and most of you have reminded me..over and over and over...lol)! 

There has been so much going on, let me try to catch you up:

We have all been sick, sick, and sick again.  It's been an awful winter for illnesses in our house.  Not to mention the fact that I'm still battling with my migraine induced vertigo, so it's been pretty bad.  I'm sooo ready for spring!!

Probably the biggest news that most of you don't know is that I quit smoking cold turkey!  I've been cigarette free since January 11, 2010.  It was really difficult at first, but after a couple of weeks, I became adjusted to my new routine.  I'm glad I did it and the kids are really happy too.

Holly is finally getting her two front teeth.  They actually popped through on X-mas morning (can anyone say "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth"?).  Although, now the 2 teeth on either side of the new ones are getting ready to fall out...lol.  I'm beginning to think she's going to be toothless for the rest of her life. We've also been working really hard on her reading and she is almost caught up with her class.  Way to go Holly!!

Brody is about the same.  We don't see a whole lot of him.  When he gets home he does his homework and then he heads straight out to play with his friends until dinner.  He's still working really hard at school and making decent grades.  The amount of detentions has dramatically decreased which is nice!

Tony and I have been busy working and with life in general.  We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on January 30 at Fogo De Chao.  What a fun restaraunt! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful and loving husband to spend my life with.  I'm not sure that it's possible but I think I actually love him more today than the day we got married. 

We've also started a new and very exciting project.  We are remodeling the kitchen!  It's already been stressful and it's only been about a week, but we hope to have it finished in the next 6-8 weeks.  We have an appointment tomorrow to order the cabinets we designed.  And we spent all last weekend purchasing the new appliances.  We are planning on doing most of the work ourselves at this point, but we'll see how that works out...lol.  I'm going to try and document this process with pictures.  It will be fun for everyone to see the before, during and after!

I'll try not to wait so long before I post again.  I hope everyone is having a great year so far.  See you all soon!!

Just Me and My Baby Girl...

Holly and I spent a girls weekend together.  Tony wound up going hunting with Andy and Brody spent the weekend with my Mom. 

Friday night, I got the kids all dressed up and we took our X-mas card pictures (hilarious by the way...lol).  Then Saturday, we dropped Brody off at Grandma & Grandpa's house at the lake and we headed to the grocery store and Archiver's to pick up supplies for our X-mas cards.  After getting all of our groceries put away, we sat down to watch the epic movie, Hannah Montana...lol.  It really was a cute movie.  I don't think I've ever seen Holly sit that still before.  She was absolutely engrossed.

We spent the rest of the evening eating, doing a little baking and making cards.  It was quite enjoyable (and quiet for a change...lol).  Then Sunday morning, we got up and made breakfast and got back into card making.  Just as we were walking out the door to go get Brody, Tony pulled in the garage.  So Holly decided she wanted to stay home with Dad.

Brody and I stopped at Joann's on the way home because I needed a little more embroidery thread for my cards.  Apparantly, Grandma taught Brody how to embroider (he made his own pillow...lol), so he wanted to try cross-stitching.  He picked out a cute pattern with 3 frogs on it and was already well on his way by the time that we got home.    We also picked up a couple of the stained glass kits for the kids.  They had a blast doing those last night.

I hope that everyone had as enjoyable a weekend as we did.  See you all soon!

Fall is here!

Sorry it's been so long, but we've been busy in the Abbate house.  Holly turned 7 on Monday!  I can't believe it that time has flown by so fast. She is no longer a baby (or so she tells me..lol).


She informed Tony that she wanted him to make and decorate her birthday cake and he happily obliged.  The difficult part was that she wanted Tinkerbell (OMG! could she have picked anything more difficult...lol).  She was also very specific in cake flavors (as with she is with just about everything.  I mean she is my daughter and she knows what she wants).  She didn't want chocolate or vanilla, nope, it had to be Strawberry and Lemon.  Tony and I kind of looked at each other and said what the heck!  It's her birthday, so that's what she'll get.  I think for our first crack at cake decorating it didn't turn out too bad.  I drew Tinkerbell on the cake and Tony colored her in.  It was a true team effort.  Here are a few pics from her special day...

Our first crack at cake decorating (don't laugh too loud please...lol):

My Mom, she cracks me up!  A true 7 year old ballerina at heart.

Wait a minute.  Is this a tutu or a giant headband?

Sunday was such a beautiful day, the kids were outside and wanted to play in the leaves.  They worked their little butts off raking and raking, but they weren't getting very far.  So Tony got out the lazy man's rake (better known as a leaf blower) and went to their rescue.  They wound up having a rather large pile of leaves to spend the afternoon in.  I'm not sure who was having more fun, the kids or Tony...lol.  They didn't come in until after dark!  Take a look:

Way to go Brody!

Today has been a busy day.  The jury duty curse caught up with me, so I spent all morning at the Cass County Justice Center in the Jury Assembly Room.  Thankfully, the case was settled so they released us.  There was one good thing about it.  It gave me a chance to sit and read for about 3 hours.  I started the new Dan Brown novel, "The Last Symbol".  So far so good...lol.

But the true main event was this afternoon.  I was sick to my stomach because I thought I was going to have to miss it because of this mornings events, but I made it.  Brody was given an award at school for making honor roll!  WOOHOO!!  He got 3-B's and 5-A's on his 1st quarter report card.  Way to go Brody!!  Tony and I are so proud of him.  He's really worked hard for those fantastic grades.  Here are a couple of pics (sorry they are so poopy, but my camera is pretty bad and I had to really zoom in):

Busy, busy, busy...

We have been so busy around here I haven't had time to do anything!  Brody and Tony have been sick for almost a week now; fever, coughing, sore throats, etc.  I didn't think we were going to be able to go trick-or-treating on Saturday night.  I tried to talk Brody into staying home with me to watch movies and drink hot apple cider, but he wasn't having it.  So I broke down and let him go (against my better judgement...lol).  And he paid the price on Sunday.  He was miserable. 

I did take some time Saturday afternoon to sit and watch a movie that I've heard people talking about for months and months, Twilight.  OMG have you seen Robert Pattinson (can you hear me growling like a little minx...lol!).  He's gorgeous.  I watched the dang movie twice.  Tony thought I was a complete nut...lol.  Now I know why all the women have been raving about this movie.  Can't wait for the new one to come out this month.  That is definitely going to be a girls movie night!

This week is going to be another busy one.  Holly turns 7!  I can't believe it.  She has accomplished another first as well.  She took a shower instead of a bath last night and informed me that she didn't want to take baths anymore.  I'm losing my grip here people...lol. 

I've been called to serve the public as well this week, Jury Duty!  AARRGGHHH!  Nothing is going my way...lol.  Keep your fingers crossed for me NOT TO GET PICKED!  I have a hard enough time staying awake at work when I'm busy, I'll never be able to handle sitting in a wooden chair for 8 hours listening to some lawyers drone on and on and on.  Juror number 4 next to me is going to have to poke me to keep my snoring to a minimum...lol.  Do you think they'll believe me if I tell them I'm a narcoleptic?!?

Well, I do have 2 bright spots during the week; Girls night on Wednesday and I'm getting my roots done on Thursday (and boy do they need it!).  I hope that everyone has a great week this week.  See you all soon!

Ghosts, Goblins & Ghouls...Oh My!

It's getting close.  Halloween is only 5 short days away (not that my kids would ever let me forget it...lol).  We went costume shopping last week and they each picked out their costumes after what seemed like hours of agonizing over what they actually wanted to be.  It was killing Tony and I...lol.  But they finally made a decision.  Brody picked "Snake Eyes" (some sort of GI Joe character) and Holly went the total girly route (anything to get to wear makeup) and picked a really cute little cheerleader costume.  It was killing them not to be able to put them on as soon as we got home.

Well, we all know how well, the "costumes in a bag" are made and I knew that if I let them play in them, they would ruin them before Halloween.  But they finally got a chance to don their new looks on Saturday night.  Some friends of ours had a costume party for their son's 5th birthday.  They were counting down the minutes on Saturday until it was time to put them on.  Finally, the big moment had arrived and you would have thought it was Christmas morning...lol. 

Here's a fun layout I did of all the kiddo's (young and old...er) in their costumes.  Some of those costumes were an absolute hoot!  These sorts of pictures really inspire me because they are always filled with tons of fun and fabulous colors.  I don't normally like to use the traditional halloween colors.  It just seems so typical.  So I used lots of blues, greens and purples in addition to the usual black and orange. 

We have a very busy week ahead of us.  It's the end of the quarter for the kids at school, so we have parent teacher conferences Wednesday and Thursday evening.  We still haven't made it to the pumpkin patch yet, so we need to accomplish that task tomorrow.  Friday evening will be spent carving our pumpkins.  Then of course Saturday is Halloween where we will get to customarily freeze our asses off chasing after the kids while toting our "little red wagon" filled with beer...lol. 

Next week is going to be a busy one too.  I was summoned to Jury Duty..YUCK!  Hopefully I can find a tactful way of getting out of it (still working on that..lol).  Then we have haircuts, girls night out (looking forward to that!) and a few other things.  So, I hope that I will get to check back in with everyone before the month of November is over...lol...but I'm no promising anything.

Ta ta for now!

P.S. Oh and just a little something to make you sick...only 58 shopping days until Christmas!