A special day- a Happy Birthday and a day of giving

Hello there gang! It's hard to believe that the holiday season is almost here. One thing about the holiday season I love is how magical it is. And one thing that makes is so magical is how so many people can come together to help others. Today I was able to be apart of one of these speical moments.
This week is National Collection week for Operation Christmas Child (OCC).  For those not familiar, OCC is an organization that Samaritan's Purse runs. What they do is send shoeboxes to children all of the world who may never have have received a Christmas present before. In addition to toys, also included are hygiene products, school supplies, socks, tools, flashlights and other useful things.
My group that I'm in MOPS (Mom's of Preschoolers), fills some of these shoeboxes every year. This being my first year I was excited to participate. I enlisted family members and friends to help me collect items and had fun going to stores picking out the perfect items to include.

This was a photo today of everything everyone in group collected. It's difficult to tell but it is 6 overflowing tables of various items that people brought in. Not seen in the picture is various boxes that were full of things such as wash kits and socks.
The end result was this.

This is 114 boxes for boys and girls ranging from ages 2-14. That was every shoebox that was available to stuff. The remaining items are being sent along to be stuffed in other boxes. In addition to this people brought in enough coloring books and crayons to make 235 coloring kits to send over to Children's Hospital. It is so amazing to be part of such a generous and awesome group! 

If you ever get a chance to do this I highly recommend it! I cant wait to start collecting stuff throughout the year for next year's collection week!

That wasn't the only exciting thing to happen today. Today is Mickey Mouse's 88th birthday! Mickey of course is Sebastian favorite so he had to help celebrate. 

Yay Mickey Mouse! 

I should be able to get some scrapping done this weekend so look for an update before Thanksgiving!

Until next time!

Just a little update.

Hey everyone!

So I have been trying to get things posted on my blog but the app hasnt been working properly. If you are reading this though (and hopefully you are) that means I finally got it to work!

Little Sebastian is 8.5 months already. It is amazing how quickly the time really goes. He loves playing with the PlayStation controllers, my cell phone, paper oh and all of his toys!

He is just about sitting up on his own but can sit unassisted. And he loves to do his bear crawl. He is just a little goofball.

I'm working on some projects a have some scrapbooking in my future that will be happening. So stay tune!

Until next time!!

July Stack-A-Holic

Hey there gang! Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! It rained most of the day but we still had fun. Sebastian loved the fireworks. 

Speaking of the little guy, he had his 4 month appointment today. He had a big growing moment this past month and now weighs 13 pounds! Still on the small side but he is growing. Today was also shot day which overall he did really good. He has been sleeping most of the day but he is awake now.  

On to the layout now. Here is this month's sketch 

And here is my take on it. 

Sebastian was just 10 days old when he met the Easter Bunny and boy was the Easter Bunny excited to meet such a little baby. 

For this layout I used the DCWV Citrus Stack mainly. However, I did use a couple sheets from the DCWV Little Mister Stack and DCWV Foiled Vellum Stack. Seemed like a good combination for a nice springy layout! 

Until next time!! 

June Stack-A-Holic

Hey gang! Sorry it's been a while. I started work this month (boo work!)  so I have been trying to adapt. However I think I have managed to find some spare time to scrap. 

First an update on Sebastian. I can't believe how much he has grown! He has such a big personality for such a little guy! 

We have been loving Shark Week this week on the Discovery channel. 

Can't believe he will be 4 months old on Sunday! 

Anyways onto the challenge. Here is the sketch for this month. 

And here is my layout. 

For this layout I used to different stacks- DCWV Little Mister and DCWV Marquee. This picture is from when he was just a few weeks old and I love it because it's such a cute picture of Belle, Jasmine and Sebastian. 

Now that things are calming down a bit I plan to get some more layouts down.

 

Until next time! 

May Stack-A-Holic Challenge.

Hey gang! Sebastian and I have been busy with lots of tummy time and snuggles. I have also been getting a lot of scrapping done as well. The last two days we were enjoying Star Wars day by watching all 7 Star Wars. Overall he seemed to enjoy them. 

Sebastian got a tummy time prop up yesterday since he is still favoring his head to one side. 

We are still working on using it correctly. I will cut him some slack since he is still recovering from getting his shots yesterday. He is now 8 pounds 10 ounces and 22 inches. And we have been upgraded from weekly weight checks to monthly weight checks. Go Sebastian! 

Anywho moving on to a scrapbook layout for this month's DCWV challenge. First up is the sketch. 

And here is my layout. 

For this layout I used DCWV Baby Boy stack. The blue towel paper was perfect for this layout since it was bath time! 

Instead of flags, I used different phrases to describe this moment. This was the first time we used his flower bath and he loved it! He has always been a fan of bath time but didn't like how he didn't have any freedom in his plastic baby bath because he is too squirmy so I would hold him. In the flower he is able to move around and enjoy playing in the bath. 

I have other layouts that I will try to share when I get a chance. 

Until next time! 

April Stack-A-Holic Challenge

Hello once again everyone! Hope everyone is doing well. Today Sebastian had his 5 week appointment. Overall it went pretty well. He had to get a shot today and he wasn't a big fan of that. But he got lots of snuggles after that so I think that made up for it. He also got a nice nap in afterwards. 

Onto my layout that I did for this month's DCWV Stack-A-Holic challenge. Here is the sketch for this month. 

And here is my layout for it. 

For this layout I used DCWV Baby Boy stack. I really like this stack because I love how bright the papers are. Plus there is some really cute papers in it that I can't wait to use! I thought the colors went nicely with Sebastian's little Mickey outfit. I also was able to find some embellishments in my stash. I also used a piece of DCWV Vellum Stack to go on top of the Mickey heads that I punched out. 

It's been great getting back into Scrapbooking. I'm going to start working on my Disney scrapbook for a little bit because it would be nice to get that done before I go back to work. But don't fear I'm sure I'm going to mix in some layouts of Sebastian because, in my opinion, he is just so adorable to scrap. 

Until next time! 

Meet Sebastian!

Hey everybody! First let me start by saying hope everyone had a fantastic Easter. Here is little Sebastian celebrating Easter. 

 This time it's going to be all about Sebastian. I have done quite a few layouts of this little guy because in theory I plan to stay caught up on his scrapbook. It's such a cute though lol. 

Sebastian was born March 3rd at 37 weeks 4 days. I had to be induced due to extremely high blood pressure. He was born weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. Overall he is a great baby and doesn't fuss much at all. Even sleeps through the night already. At just 3.5 weeks old he already rolls from his tummy to his back and according to the peditrician has amazing muscle control especially for being born early. The puppies overall have accepted him and we haven't had any problems with them at all. In fact just today I caught the three of them snuggling. 

Here are a few layouts I have made for Sebastian's scrapbook. Both layouts are using Scraptastic's March Sweet Child O'Mine Kit. I was so excited when I saw that this month's kit was a baby theme. And it was even more perfect when I saw it in person. I have already ordered more of it that's how much I love it. 

This is one of my favorite photos and also one of our first photos as a family. I attempted to stamp his hands to go along with his feet but it proved impossible by myself and I didn't feel like waiting for Michael to do it. 

Here is one more layout. 

These pictures here document the first time I got to hold Sebastian. There just aren't any words to describe the pure happiness and joy of seeing and holding Sebastian for the first time. All the pain and scariness of the previous hours had just disappeared and was replaced with pure happiness the first time he was placed into my arms. 

So that's it for now. I still have other layouts but I shall save those for another day. 

Until next time! 

Surprise! A Baby and a Layout!

I'm back everyone! And this time for good. When I last left you guys I had just announced that we were expecting a little guy. And here is little Sebastian! 

As you can see his sisters Jasmine and Belle love him already. 

He was born 3 weeks early on March 3rd at 6 pounds 5 ounces. It was a thrilling tale that I shall save for another day. Since we have been home though I have managed to get some layouts done. One being for DCWV stack-a-holic challenge. Here is the sketch for this month. 

And here is my take on the sketch 

I had a difficult time with this one. Not with the sketch but with deciding what papers to use. I felt I couldn't use baby paper because a baby wasn't in the pictures and I felt it just wouldn't look right. But I needed papers that would go with the other layouts that will eventually make up and entire album for Sebastian. As soon as I saw DCWV Marquee, I knew this was what I was looking for. The colors really went well with the pictures I feel and captured the calmness of the moment. 

As I said before I have quite a few layouts done and I promise I shall be back to share then and my thrilling tale. But to tie you over, here is our first family photo. 

Until next time!