I am completely blown away...

by all of the love I've been shown! I posted in the forums of my creative teams that we'd be gone for awhile & that we were getting ready to celebrate Miles' Heaven day. I told them about how we try to do something good for others on that day because he was so very good to us. I could never have dreamed what I would find when I got home from vacation on Sunday night.

First...I logged onto digishoptalk to check the forums and just see what was happening in digi land. I saw a thread by Shannon (the site owner) that she was thinking of me and she had a link to Jessica Bolton's thread. I clicked on the link and then I started to cry...look what I found:






I already felt so lucky to be on Jessica's creative team...and now I feel so very, very blessed to be a part of these wonderful women. Thank you all so much!! (If you want to get this kit, go to www.thescrapspace.com/jessica and download it...it's free! All you have to do is pay it forward to someone else!)

After I finished downloading it, I received messages from Rez & Cherekaye for me to check out another amazing kit. Here's what I saw on Christina Renee's blog:



Again, the tears started to flow. Thank you so much to all of my buddies on Christina's Dream Team. This truly is a very amazing dream...I love all of you so much! If you want to pick up this kit, go to www.christinareneedesigns.blogspot.com Again, it's free...you just need to pay it forward.

And...check out what else I found on Lauren Reid's blog (I swear I get to create for the coolest, most generous people!!) Thank you all so much for creating these!!



You can pick these up at www.laurenreiddesigns.com/blog

Then, on Wednesday, Christina put these up at her blog:


There's also a challenge over there for you to check out...you can win some amazing gift cards from some super sweet, talented designers!!

I can't thank everyone enough that has been involved in celebrating Miles' Heaven day. I've seen people giving each other gifts in the digi community, I've seen people mention him & do something special in his memory on their blog (thanks Janet!), and I've seen lives touched across the globe. It has truly been an amazing, amazing experience for me.

Here are some layouts I've made using the kit & a couple of these are using the quick pages.







Thanks again to all who have been involved...I love you all so very much!!!

To celebrate Miles' day, we took the kids to the zoo...they loved it! I'll try to post more about that tomorrow. We also bought some preemie clothes that we are going to send to our NICU so that they can give them to a NICU family in need.

I hope you are all having a fabulous day...now go download those amazing kits! :)

On Vacation!!

We are taking some much needed time away! It's just so nice to get out of the house every once in awhile!

We met my parents for dinner at Lamberts on Tuesday night (yummy!!!) and then headed on in to their house. Mason thinks he's at Toys R Us!! He's having a ball playing outside and getting spoiled with lots of attention. Millie sure enjoys the extra attention, too!

We are here until tomorrow morning and then we are heading up to St. Louis. I am going to hang out with Kristen tomorrow & that'll be lots of fun! Tomorrow night is Jason & Annie's rehearsal dinner & I look forward to getting to see them. Hopefully Grandma Mize will watch the kids so we can have a kid-free night! :)

Saturday is the wedding and Uncle Sean & I are doing the pics. I am crossing my fingers that I"ll be able to get a couple of good shots that day! :)

Sunday will be two years since Miles passed away. I've been trying really hard to stay upbeat...but he is constantly in my thoughts...and I've been extra teary, too. It is so hard to belive he's already been gone from us for two years. I hate it that he isn't here with us. He would have been such a good buddy for Mason & I can't help but dream about what life would have been like. There is such a void that just cannot be filled. We try to do something fun on Miles' Heaven day...I want the kids to grow up celebrating his little life & having fun memories on those days. We are taking the kids to the zoo. THere's an aquarium at the zoo...and since MIles loved his fisher price aquarium, we figured it would be a great way to remember him.

Last year we invited our friends and family to celebrate Miles' Heaven day with us. He did so much good for others and his life brought so much joy, that we would love to see that continue on. So...we would love it if you would do something good for others on Miles' Heaven day. IT's a wonderful way to honor and remember him...and it does our hearts so much good to hear of the wonderful things that happen in his memory. I would love for you to let me know how you celebrated his day so I can include it in his box of memories.

Please keep us in your prayers...it's definitely a difficult time for us.

We love you all!

Our needs...

Ah yes...the battle of the needs and wants. Just kidding! I saw this on Janet Phillips' blog and thought I'd give it a try. You need to go to google and search for {your name} and needs (for example, I googled Kellie needs) and then see what the 10 first then things are that you need!

1) Kellie needs a clue (well...isn't that lovely!!)
2) Kellie needs to bring it.
3) Kellie needs to find enough time to work on her PhD
4) Kellie needs her infusion of magnesium
5) Kellie needs our prayers (could always use those!!)
6) Kellie needs to stop reading a script
7) Kellie needs more air-time (and yes...I think a lot of these are referring to Kellie Pickler!)
8) Kellie needs to channel her inner Angelina and drop dad's last name from her's
9) Kellie needs to go
10)Kellie needs to take a few lessons from the Britney Spears experience

Well...now that you know my needs...let's see what Tyler needs!

1) Tyler needs a turbo
2) Tyler needs a friend to eat with
3) Tyler needs a life
4) Tyler needs to learn Russian
5) Tyler needs a new therapist
6) Tyler needs to accept that no one is self-sufficient all the time
7) Tyler Needs Traffic Solution (not sure what that even means!)
8) Tyler needs a band!
9) Tyler needs a caring new home (hahaha!!)
10)Tyler needs some juice

Ok...I want you go to go google and find out what your needs are! Please post them in my comments section so I can laugh with you (or at you!!)

Want to see a new layout? This layout uses a ton of Christina Renee's goodies and some of the funky playground's funk that spring collab kit. You all really should really go and stock up over at the playground (I highly recommend Christina, Lauren, & Traci!!), spend $10 and get the collab free!



Isn't she cute?

Guess what?!? I noticed Millie got her first tooth tonight! She bit down on my finger and lo and behold...there was a little tooth there! That explains why she's been so fussy here lately!!

We're excited for tomorrow...Aunt Denise and her boys are in town and we are all meeting for lunch at the Olive Garden! Yummy!! It'll be fun to see them, the grandparents, and Laura & Mary, too!!

Hope you all have a great day!!

Momma's got some crazy curls!

I don't know how many of you watch the show "Lost," but Tyler and I are addicted (thank you Jessica Hollis!) We've flown through seasons 1 & 2 on the DVD and then downloaded the episodes of season 3 we missed on Itunes. We are all caught up and loving it!

There is an actress on there (Evangeline Lilly) who has the best curls. I thought I'd give it a try. So...I was going for something like this:


But for some reason, I kept ending up like Hurley!!



So...obviously I started to give up on the idea of embracing my natural curl. I went to Kim on Thursday for a haircut and she just laughed at me and my "Lost" description of hair. She cut a lot of the weight out of my hair and added some more layers. She challenged me to put the straightener away for a week & try to get used to my curls again. I'm happy to say...I don't look like Hurley anymore. I'm still adjusting to them, but it sure makes getting ready a whole lot easier in the morning. My hair is fixed in less than 5 minutes!

Here's a pic of Millie and I at the park on Saturday wearing matching curls! (and Tyler wans to make sure that everyone knows he's the photographer behind the camera! LOL!)



So...you're all caught up on Kellie's hair drama! Don't you feel more enlightened now?

Ok...I need to tell you guys about the fun kit I used to make that layout. If you spend $10 or more at www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com this week, you'll get it for FREE! It is packed full of tons of goodies!! I had tons of fun scrapping with it!

Here's the full kit:


I've been such a bad blogger that I don't know if I ever told you guys I'm a guest on Christina Renee's dream team. My favorite scrappers are on her CT and I feel so lucky to be scrapping along side of them. Also...the amazing Traci Murphy has asked me to be a guest for her this month, too!! She also sells at www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com Seriously...somebody pinch me! I just started scrapping a year ago...and can't believe how far I've come and who I've been able to work with this year. It has been such a fun ride!!

So...go shopping & scrap! (and let me see the pages you make!)

The ABC's of Mason & Millie

I've been working my tail-end off on a book for Mason & Millie for Easter! :) I started it on March 22nd and finished it up last night (the 27th)! So...that was a lot of scrapping in a short amount of time! I sent it to the printer last night to be put in a hardcover/bound book! I used some amazing templates by Janet Phillips on these (you can pick them up at www.scrapbookgraphics.com ! Her templates rock!!)

So, without futher ado...the ABC's of Mason & Millie!





















































Credits for these pages can be found in my DST gallery!

Thanks for enduring all of these pages with me! :)

What was I thinking???

First off...I didn't realize it had been a MONTH since I last updated!! So sorry!!!!

Second...what was I thinking?!?!? Look at what I did today...

Mason Before:



Mason after I took him to get his haircut:


I miss his curls!!! I know he'll be much happier with short hair for the spring and summer...but you better believe it's going long again in the fall!! I can't decide if his haircut makes him look older or younger, but he sure looks different!

Let's see...what's been happening over the last month...(don't worry, you'll just get the highlights)

I had my first mammogram...not as terrible as I thought it was going to be. I admit I had a small panic attack on the way there...but it was not painful at all. I think a lot of my nerves were just out of fears of finding something since my mom was so young when she had breast cancer. But...everything checked out just fine! :) March 5th was 13 years since mom passed away. It is so weird to think that I've almost lived as long without her as I did with her. I sure miss her!

Millie is getting so big (seriously...24 pounds!) She is officially off of the charts for her weight and in the 50th percentile for her height. She says "da-da" and is learning to wave. She has such a deep, husky voice that just cracks me up! She is really starting to play a lot and scoots everywhere.

Mason is loving the warmer weather. He screams like crazy when he has to come inside, though! :) He loves playing with all of his outdoor toys and loves to run! He can count to thirteen & loves to entertain! He definitely makes me laugh a lot!

In digital scrapping news:
I'm a guest creative team member for Joana Carvalho (www.joanacarvalho.com) and Karah Fredricks (www.blueflombingo.com)this month! Also...I was picked to serve as a creative team member for Lauren Reid!!!! (www.oscraps.com , www.catscrap.com , www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com) I was seriously giddy & jumping up and down when I heard the news!!

And...drum roll please...I'm the featured scrapper this month over at www.digishoptalk.com ( http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=41886 ) I was so shocked and honored!! There's over 4000 members there, so I was thrilled to be chosen! I'll be featured in their newsletter next month, too!

Wanna see some new layouts of the kids? (It's the reason you keep checking the blog, even when it's been a month, right?)

Credits to all of my layouts can be seen here!

Just some ramblings from me! :)

Hello to all of my neglected blog readers!! Life has been busy around the Penn house!

Let's see...On Friday, Feb 9th we went to Libby's birthday party at Chuck E.Cheese's. Wow, crazy place to be on a Friday night! Mason loved getting to play, climb, and ride the little kiddie rides! The next day, he got to go to Bass Pro Shops with Daddy, Grandpa, Uncle Corey, and Libby...while the rest of us went shopping at The Grapevine and then back to Stephani's so I could teach her how to digitally scrapbook! Watch out world...I'm out to convert each of you over to digital scrapbooking! hahaha!

We had a Valentine's banquet at our church on that Saturday night. Liz and Joy did an amazing job of decorating it and the food was so yummy! A couple of teens from church babysat our kids, so it was nice being able to eat hot food! (usually by time I'm able to eat, my food is a bit lukewarm!)

On Tuesday, we had a BLIZZARD! Between Tuesday and Wednesday we had over a foot of snow. The area schools actually cancelled...and Decatur never cancels! We took Mason outside so Tyler could pull him around in his sled. He fell over on the first corner face first into the snow and wanted nothing more to do with the sled. It was too deep for him to walk in and he kept falling over and then he just kept crying and crying. So, our snow adventure ended quickly!

On Thursday, we loaded up the van and took Kristina and her friend to Senior Days at the Bible college. We stayed with Sean and Jill and had so much fun just relaxing and hanging out (and I got to eat my yummy Dalt's buffalo chicken sandwich!) On Friday, we met up with Melissa Lewis and Camden at Bellevue mall so the kids could play together. There were a zillion kids there, but Mason had a ball! That Camden is such a cutie...he has the world's most adorable little voice! And...it's always fun to talk to someone who is as addicted to digital scrapbooking as I am! :)

We heard that snow was heading towards Nashville early Saturday morning, and Tyler had to be back on Saturday for a funeral, so we decided to head out after the basketball game on Friday night. Not our wisest move. As soon as we crossed the Illinois state line we started hitting snow...and it just kept getting worse and worse! We rolled in our driveway at 4:30 am...safe and sound. I don't know when I've ever been so tense travelling!

Tyler's basketball team won their game Monday night. The guy still has some "mad skills!" I enjoyed sitting and talking with the other wives!

Millie is now sitting up and starting to scoot around. She's such a big girl! Yesterday, Mason counted to thirteen! Seriously...thirteen! How does he know how to do that? My baby is quickly growing up! His new thing is when you go to grab his hand or to make him do something that he doesn't want to do, he screams "ow!" Gee...thanks a lot kid. Make me look like parent of the year when we're out in public! haha! He really has been so sweet and loves to sit and read books. THe other morning he leaned over and kissed my cheek and my heart just melted! I have the world's best kids!

Want to see what I've been up to? I have more, but I don't want to overwhelm you with them! :) Click on my gallery at DST if you want to see the credits!