I'm the special guest blogger over at the CK blog today! Check it out, okay? I even have step by step instructions over there. And, if, like me, you can't see the entire layout, I'm adding it here and hope that's okay. :)

Really had fun with this one...using lots of my favorite things right now...Silhouette, crimper, Fiskars punch and Glimmer Mist. Oh, and speaking of Glimmer Mist...

Glimmer Mist is the same great product with a Fabulous NEW Look! Check it out:

Btw, I think it's rockin' cool that Tattered Angels is located within minutes of me and seriously wish them all the best! Love their new look and now kinda want to go to their warehouse and see everything. :)

Okey-dokey. Well, have a fabulous and incident-free Fourth everybody!!

...but I found myself making this layout earlier this week. Seriously don't know why. It wasn't on my list or anything. ;) In any case, thought I'd share it:

Cardstock, including my fav Mirri paper, is all by Prism Papers. Colored in the fonts with Copic markers (very cool, btw...I'm still learning and was pretty pleased with my shading efforts on "Colorado"). More tomorrow...

It sounds incredibly cliche but I'll say it anyhow...how the heck did it get to be July already? And. More importantly, how did my beautiful baby get to be SEVEN years old? Sigh. :) Yup, today is my sweet Asher's birthday. He is such a blessing...adding more to our family than we ever imagined. Here's a quick picture I snapped this morning:

No huge plans for today. He has a friend coming over and later we'll do cake and presents and all that good stuff. This year, though, we're taking a slightly different route from the big parties. Each boy was offered a choice...a big party with friends but no gifts from us or a "big" gift from us and a special outing. Asher and Micah both chose the latter. Which works out nicely since they're both July birthdays. We're combining their special outings into an all day trip sometime later this month to Santa's Workshop in Colorado Springs (their favorite stop from our week there last summer). Should be fun!

In other news, my little Micah (who insists he's not little) had his first ever swim lesson yesterday. The older two had a session of lessons already this summer, but Micah wasn't willing at that point. After watching for a few weeks, though, he decided he'd rather take lessons also than just watch. :) (Which was, of course, my dastardly plan, LOL!) So, they all started a new session yesterday. Micah was hesitant at points but did awesome! (Not that there's anything wrong with it, but the other two took much longer to warm up to the idea of swimming...a couple summers of lessons before they'd even put their faces fully in the water. Micah's went in yesterday. First lesson. Course, he's also had three years of watching his brothers do it, lol!)

(It's harder to get good shots of Micah's lessons since his level uses the indoor pool. Plus, I was using my little point and shoot. I'll take my "real" camera to lessons later and get good shots of them all.)

Well, that's it for now. Been scrapping but can't share quite yet...stay tuned!

Just a quick Friday morning post full of randomness. :)

First. Jump on over to the Prism blog today to see one of my favorite layouts of late! Here are a couple quick sneak peeks:

Second. Does anyone know why we say "potty" training? Seriously. That's just weird if you stop and think about it. Where'd it come from? I actually end up most often saying, "Do you need to empty your bladder?" instead of "Do you need to go potty?"...partly because I think "potty" is weird...partly because I have very literal boys. ;)

Third. If I were to have a garage sale in mid-July, do you think too many folks would avoid it because of heat or vacation? Would it be worth doing then? I haven't had my own garage sale in like forever but am finally considering it. Tips from the pros would be highly welcome!

Fourth. Any fun weekend plans? Nathan's been sick here, so let me live vicariously through you. :)

Despite the crazy weird weather we've been having here in Colorado, we managed to have an awesome water fight between the thunderclouds earlier today...just some good clean fun with my boys:

(Note to self: change into a swimsuit and pull your hair back before engaging in another water fight with these yahoos! My jean shorts were really weighing me down and my hair blinded me more than once, LOL!) Don't you just love those squirty things, btw? They're so much easier than refilling water guns over and over! We just pull out this little wading pool (that we actually have never used as such) along with a big bucket and fill both up in different parts of the yard as "loading stations."

Of course, it also helps to be bigger than the boys and still able to lift them up and drop them in the freezing cold water of that wading pool. Hee hee.

But, all in all, I got pretty darn soaked. :) Oh, and in case you were wondering, Nathan took these pictures (having volunteered to stay dry, lol) but later changed his mind and got in on the action. I was too wet to take pictures at that point. By the end, we were dumping the bucket on people and using the hose as well. Fun times. :)

How's your summer shaping up?