Millie...or Aunt Abbie??

Millie looks a lot like how Aunt Abbie looks when she first wakes up in the morning! (Sorry Abs!! But I have seen your hair look like that a time or two!) This is actually Tyler's wig from his Halloween costume that I just had to put on her! The poor kid is going to need counseling some day!

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I hope you all have a fun time tonight! We are having trunk or treat at church which should be a ton of fun! (I've got my camera ready to go! :) )

My little corner of the world

Here's the layout I did using those pics I posted! :) That was a fun challenge!



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My Digital Muse Challenges

I've participated in a challenge at www.mydigitalmuse.com These challenges are designed to get you to photograph outside what you would normally photograph & try to improve your skills along the way. I know I still have a LONG way to go, but this was a lot of fun! The next part of the challenge is to create a layout using some of these pictures...I hope I can create something that flows together using these pics...we'll see!

Day one--first thing you see when you get up


Day two--How do you get your news?


Day three--Your front door (I hate my front door!!)


Day four--Where do you work? (Well, I work at home...and this is one of the best parts of my day! :) )


Day five--A priceless object (These are Miles' footprints that Valerie surprised us with--Thanks Valerie!)


Day six--Nature where you live


Day seven--Where do you relax? (at my computer...scrapbooking/surfing the web!)


Day eight--What's in your fridge?


Day nine--Tools of the trade (Since I'm a digital scrapbooker, my computer is the tool of choice for me!)


Day ten--Something you did today. Mason was sick on this day, so we spent sometime watching Baby Einstein...can't you tell in those sweet eyes that he doesn't feel good?


Whew!! That was a lot of uploading pics! Thanks ladies at MDM for the fun challenge! I look forward to hanging out with you all more!

World Series Champs!!

Congrats to the St. Louis Cardinals!! I couldn't be more thrilled right now! Hard to believe they haven't won a world series since I was like 3!

I've been debating about what to be for Halloween--and I know now! I'm going as a Cardinals baseball player. We're going to a costume party tomorrow night at a die-hard Cubs fans house, so it should be pretty funny!

Go Cards!!

Woohoo!!!

Yay for me!! I've been picked as Layout of the week at www.thedigidares.blogspot.com (It's the layout of Mason snuggling with his bear) I'm so excited and honored to be chosen!! I told Tyler and he said "Are you off to blog your news?" He knows me so well!

Museings Challenge #6

I've missed a few...but hopefully I'll have time to catch up!

{MUSEing} 6

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)



I don't know if you'll be able to read the journaling (if you click on it, it gets bigger), but this is of Grandpa Malone's mother--Emily Malone. She is definitely someone I would consider "rooted & established in love."

Too cute at bedtime!

I've completed a few new layouts that I thought I'd share with you! I'd love to know what you think of them! :)



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Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Cardinals!!! Molina was totally awesome tonight & I loved how happy he was after he hit his homerun...he was cracking me up!! I must admit, I was having serious stomach flip-flops and I had quite the headache during the bottom half of the 9th and was about to kiss our win goodbye when Beltran was up to bat...but Wainwright hung in there!! I'm gonna have to make sure my cardinals shirt is washed and ready for Saturday! :)

Museings Challenge 3

{MUSEing} 3

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you," says the LORD (Jeremiah 29:11-14a).

Remember, the challenge is two-fold: 1. Muse or meditate on the Scripture. 2. Ask THE MUSE, God, to inspire you to create a piece of art that reflects your musings. You can write, cook, paint, garden, sew; you can engage in WHATEVER art form you love!

Hmmm...my mind can go a million different ways with this one, but I thought about something I wrote in the past. Click on the link below and scroll down to "My journey through infertility." I had to learn to rely on God's plans...not my own!

My journey through infertility

Jury duty...grrr!!

Most people grumble when they are summoned to jury duty...not me! I was looking forward to a week of "mommy time" and let Tyler experience what life is like for me on a daily basis. On monday, I arrived and they said all cases were resolved and we could go home. Tuesday...same thing. Wednesday...I didn't even have to go in...found out over the phone all cases were resolved. Tomorrow is my only hope for mommy time because there are no cases scheduled for Friday. It's just my luck! I love my kiddos...but I seriously needed some time that wasn't involved with the wiggles, elmo, or the wonder pets!

Museings--Day Two

{MUSEing} 2
"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book" (Psalm 56:8 NLT).

Well, Tyler wrote a story about this, so I decided to scrapbook it so that it can be shared. If you click on the pictures, it will enlarge it to allow you to read the writing better.

Museings--Day One

I am doing a challenge at www.emilypowers.typepad.com that I want to encourage you to go over and check out--and maybe participate, too! It's not too late to join us! I really admire Emily for starting this...it has been wonderful for me to jumpstart my devotional life.

Museing details--
Remember, the challenge is two-fold: 1. Muse or meditate on the Scripture. 2. Ask THE MUSE, God, to inspire you to create a piece of art that reflects your musings. You can write, cook, paint, garden, sew; you can engage in WHATEVER art form you love!

{MUSEing} 1
"If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do" (James 1:5-7 NLT).

So, when I was thinking of wisdom, I thought of Grandpa Malone. He is such a wonderful, godly man! What a legacy that man has created!

Update on Tyler

Good news! The surgeon today told Tyler just to take a baby aspirin a day. He said that it is unheard of for someone his age to have this and that he wasn't really believing the results. He said that even if the tests were indeed true, then he would just have the patient take a baby aspirin each day if they weren't showing stroke symptoms. So, since we aren't showing any signs of a stroke, we rejoice & just take a baby aspirin each day!
I did realize today that I think Tyler has ADHD. He was going nuts & making the stupidest jokes while waiting for the doctor to come in. I swear he thought he was 8 years old! LOL! I know it was all nerves, but I was thinking "Is this really the man I married?" I told him "You are acting so weird...I'm so going to blog about you tonight!"
Thank you all for your prayers...they worked! :)

Another update...kind of!

Well, we won't know anything about Tyler until next Tuesday (the 17th). He'll meet with the doctor then. Of course, I have jury duty that week, so I'm hoping I get dismissed that morning so I can go with him!

Let's see...what's all been happening in the life of the Penn's since we last "talked."

Tyler got the flu last Tuesday (can he catch a break?) but was filling a little better by Wednesday (enough to go to church) and was much better by Thursday.

I've decided to part with all of my stampin' up stuff and have a ton of auctions going on Ebay. It was hard to say goodbye to all of my stamps, but I'm too involved with digi scrappin' to do anything with all of that!

The Portells and Davidson's from the M-team spent the weekend with us and we had such a wonderful visit with them! Friday night we had a fish fry, Saturday morning we had a breakfast at church, we went to the Pumpkin Patch & then Monicals on Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night the sunday school classes met for dinner. (We did a lot of eating!!) They then led the service on Sunday. I really think our people at church enjoyed getting to know them! (They are great people to get to know!) I have pics from the pumpkin patch that I'll hopefully get scrapped soon!

Today the Penn family was all in for our annual trip to the Pumpkin patch. We had so much fun...although the weather was almost too warm! Mason's favorite part of the day was his corn dog! He and Libby had a lot of fun riding in the wagon together. Millie slept the entire time we were there (until it was time to leave and then she decided to wake up starving!)

Fun news from me...I'm going to toot my own horn here a little bit, but I've been picked by two digital scrapbooking designers to be on their creative teams. Basically, I make layouts using their stuff and then post it online in various places so people will hopefully want to buy stuff by them. I'm so thrilled and honored that they thought I was good enough to be on their teams! So, if you want to check out some cool stuff, you can go to www.thedigishoppe.com and go to Nikki Meador's store. She has such fabulous stuff and I'm so excited to be on her team! I've also been chosen to be on Jeannie Papai's team and you can find her stuff at www.digitalfreebies.com I've really enjoyed getting to make layouts using her stuff, too!

Ok...onto a couple of my new layouts (and these are actually not using stuff from the creative teams...I'll post some of those later!)


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Doesn't this bring back memories?? :) Click
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My poor neglected blog...

There are moments when life just gets in the way and the blog gets neglected! I'm going to give you the quick highlights of our last week or so & hopefully I won't get too lengthy, but first...new pics of the kiddos!


Millie happily played outside yesterday! Credits--Jeannie Papai designs & Misty Cato sketch


Some pics from Millie's baby dedication--credits--Jen Caputo sketch, Rhonna Farrer's 2 peas june kit, & Michelle Coleman's Color Happy Kit


This may be one of my new favorite layouts! I love this picture of Mason that I took yesterday. Credits--Michelle Coleman's Color me Happy Kit, Jen Caputo Sketch, Kellie Mize Alpha, & Rhonna Farrer doodle

Ok...a little bit about what's been going on.
We had Millie's baby dedication on Sept. 24th. It was so nice having some family in spending the day with us! Millie looked adorable in her long, ivory dress. On the following Monday, we headed to Nashville & stayed with Sean & Jill. Their house is beautiful & we had such a great visit with them. It was so much fun being back on campus...their front door just needs to be a revolving door--they are really connecting with the college students! We had so much fun seeing Sophia & Lola, too! Tyler was there for a conference & on Tuesday he started having these crazy headaches again. We went home early Wednesday so that he could get to the doctor.

The doctor saw Tyler on Thursday & ordered an MRI/MRA to rule out the possiblity of an anurism/tumors. Of course...I'm kind of freakin' out at the thought of that happening! They said if they saw anything they would most likely keep him at the hospital. So, on Friday we had the tests done and they sent us home & we went out to celebrate! (more updates coming here in just a bit)

We had the youth group over on Saturday night & Mason spiked a 101 fever right before they came over...it figures! We stayed home from church on Sunday & then on Monday he broke out in a crazy rash. I took him to the doctor & he said he has an infection that just has to run its course--poor little guy!

Also on Monday, we found out some more news about Tyler. They found an abnormality in the veins that carry blood to the head. He has a Carotid Stenosis Artery (plaque build up/blockages)...it's what usually happens before people start having strokes. SCARY!! We're glad it was caught before anything major happens. He's supposed to hear from the surgeon today about the severity of the blockage & course of action. Please keep him in your prayers--he's so young to have to go through this!

Well, that's the major stuff that's happened...I'll try to post later about some of the fun, cute stuff the kids are up to, but I'm going to try to leave the phone line open more for the doctor to call today (I hate dial-up!)

Love you all!
Kellie