My Apology to Fall

I love summer. I love the warm weather, I love going to the lake, I love the pool & I always get depressed when it ends. I get mad that summer is ending & winter is upon us. Winter in Oklahoma isn’t fun. We hardly get any snow & we get ice storms every year. But it isn’t fall’s fault that it comes at such a bad time. Summer has ended & it seems to rain forever. My allergies seem to kick into high gear & it just isn’t any fun!
Then Brodey & I walk outside & see all of the fall wildflowers & beautiful leaves & you realize it’s just a second spring (except summer isn’t coming after that haha). So really I don’t hate fall, I just hate what comes after it! So it looks like I owe an apology to fall. I'm sorry I was angry with you. I will promise to enjoy you until the last leaf has fallen! ;)
Speaking of fall...I will be teaching two classes at Just 4 Keeps on October 24th. at 10:30 that morning I will be teaching one of my Ink Techniques Classes. It will be so much fun! I will be teaching more than 10 techniques with ink using cool new products! FUN!
And at 1 that afternoon I will also be teaching a double page layout class called F is for Fall! It will be SO MUCH FUN!!!! We will be playing with ink to make the background paper and trees! You don't have to be an expert to take either class and you don't have to have all the supplies! I will bring enough for everyone to share, but you will WANT this stuff when you are done!!
If you are free on the 24th I hope to see you there!!
I'm off to eat some lunch! It was nice to blow the dust off the 'ole blog! ;)
Have a wonderful Thursday!
LUV APRIL

I have a child in school! Oh my!

It's really weird to say that!! Brodey started school last week! It was a total surprise! One of the doctors that Eric works with told Eric that where his kid goes to school had one opening. So Eric called me last Tuesday and said CALL NOW! So I did and we started that next day!
When I got off the phone I said "well Bro you start school tomorrow!"
He said "But I don't know my ABCDEFG's!!!"
I laughed and told him not to worry! That was why you go to school!
So that night I freaked out a little bit. I'm glad I didn't have weeks or days to think about it! LOL That night I go into Bro's room and Eric has clothes all laid out for him! I was like no way! If I have to take him I get to pick out what he is wearing!
After we picked out clothes it took forever to get him to sleep. I was so worried he wouldn't get up. Brodey likes to sleep. It's really difficult to wake him up in the morning, but all I had to say to wake him was "are you ready to go to school?" He shot up out of bed at that!
He goes to a Methodist preschool in Tahlequah so it takes us about 15 minutes to get there. Once we did he put on his shy guy show. He held onto my leg and buried his face in until he saw Kale. (his daddy is the one that told us about it) He has played with Kale before so it was nice for him to know someone. Kale was actually born 6 days before Brodey! Weird!

So once he sat down at the table and found out he got to use scissors he was hooked! I snapped a quick pic before I left! He didn't even know! Yeah!!
When I came back to pick him up his teachers said he did awesome! I was worried because this was only his third time staying somewhere with people he didn't know. I was so relieved he did so well! He actually didn't want to leave! I had to convince him to get in the car!
He painted me a picture (which looks so cute framed in his room) and he made new friends! He had a blast and he talks about it all the time! It's only for 3 hours and only 2 days a week for now, but he loves it so I love it too!!
Well I'm going to go figure out whose little dogs are in my yard!
Have a good day!
LUV APRIL

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

I LOVE my Dad. Sometimes I think I am the luckiest daughter on Earth! I have the best Dad ever! I tell him that all the time, but I don't think he takes me seriously. Well Dad I am SERIOUS! You are the best Dad ever!!
I did a layout about him a couple of years ago. I love it. I think I might frame it and give it to him. If you click on it you can read the journaling. I just love all the old photos!!

My Dad was actually born on Friday the 13! LOL I think that's why that date never bothered me! ;)
I had a first today on my Dad's birthday! I just happened to go to the Creating Keepsakes website and scroll down and there is Brodey and I smiling back at me! I was like wow! That's cool! It's from my Faux Quilting Technique from the September issue. Fun!!
Okay I am wiped out. I survived an evening in Tulsa with Eric. It's so painful to shop with him. Making a decision about shoes for him is like choosing who you are going to marry. Okay so maybe he didn't have such a hard time with that decision...hehe! He did reward me with Ted's and an ice cold Modelo for my efforts. So I guess it was worth it!
I'm off to bed! Happy Birthday Dad! I LOVE ya!
Goodnight!
LUV APRIL

I have the best friends EVER!

I really do! My group of besties (as we call ourselves) have been friends for a very long time. I have known Natalie my entire life. I went to preschool with Becky and Erin. I went to 1st grade with Destiny, 4th grade with Trisha, and Kari moved to Holdenville in the 8th grade. I love my girls!
As you know we all went to Mexico last month. Last weekend they all came and stayed at my house and we floated the Illinois river. It was a blast!!!

I had never been before and we live all of 20 minutes from there! I am so ready to go back! Lots of funny memories!! (can you tell from the photos that we went a little crazy in the hat section of the gift shop? LOL)
Friday the last of our group turned 30! Me, Kari, and Natalie went to Bricktown with Trisha to celebrate! It was fun! We always have fun together! It doesn't matter where we are! We will have a good time!

It's storming like crazy here. It's times like this that I hate living on a hill.
If you noticed my layout in the Tips and Tricks column of the September Creating Keepsakes you can click HERE
and see the visual step by steps for the quilting technique! It's so much fun!
Okay I'm getting off of here! I might just park my butt in the storm shelter for a while! ;)
Goodnight!
LUV APRIL

Thank you!

A big THANK YOU goes out to everyone that bid on spots for the Just 4 Keeps SOS Sale Photo Shoot!
I can't tell you how much fun I have photographing everyone! Most of the kiddos that come I have been photographing at J4K since they were babies! It's so awesome to see them every time and I am so amazed at how much older they look each time!
These are a few of my faves. I'm mad because I took some CUTE pics of a family I have photographed twice before and it got transfered instead of copied. So I don't have those to post. :( Maybe I can just edit them again!
Jen brought up her little Girl Scout troop to take some quick pics after their trip to Sweet and Sassy. They were all dolled up and ready to cheese for the camera! SO CUTE and they all did an awesome job!
Ally here I have been photographing since she was a baby! She is so much fun and always comes dressed to impress! (Her grandma works at Baby Gap! Go figure!)


Abby and Maddy's mom, Jessica, works at Just 4 Keeps. Abby (in pink with her sisiter in white) used to say she was going to marry Brodey! Hehe! Hey he just might like older women! ;)
Okay I'll stop posting pics for now. I just love everyone I photograph and can't wait to do it again! I just wish I lived closer! ;) Maybe that will happen soon...
We are headed to the lake this weekend. Not too many weekends left of summer! Boo! I'm off to go clean house! I hate leaving with a messy house! Cleaning is no fun! I want to pout like Ally...

Hahahaha!!!!
Have an awesome weekend!!
LUV APRIL

I'm not a morning person RICO!!!!!

Thunder woke me up at 6am this morning. When that happens I always get up and look at the radar. Call me paranoid, but here in Oklahoma where there are no tornado sirens you don't fool around. Once I figured out it was just some rain I went back to bed. About 10 minutes later I hear something.
"Hey Eric do you hear that?"
He's like "Ya it sounds like....like...a lawn mower."
I laugh "Not possible. It must be a helicopter." I try to go back to sleep.
A few minutes later it gets louder. I get up out of bed and notice on the security monitor that it IS the freaking lawn mower guys. What the crap!?!?!
"Well you were right. (giggle giggle) It IS the lawn mower guys. AND it's still pouring down raing. Oh and it's still lightening too."
Eric's like "NO WAY!" He didn't think it was funny.
I wouldn't have thought it was so funny if I hadn't already been up due to the storms. They would have thought the devil appeared on my front porch in a tshirt and pink panties if they had been the ones to wake me up! I am SO not a morning person. Neither are Eric or Brodey.
If I do have to get up early I do so with a smile on my face, but I don't choose to get up if I don't have to. Brodey is the same way. Most days he gets up right after Eric leaves or between 8 to 8:30. If he went swimming the day before and didn't take a nap he might sleep until 9. So you can see that the 6am wake up call from Rico and the boys was NOT welcome.
I decided since I was up to cook some breakfast while Eric took a shower. Brodey was still asleep at this point but the noise I was making woke him up. I went in there and kissed on him and he said "Don't you want to come back to sleep!?!" I just cracked up! I love that boy!
So I still have not edited my 4th pics. We had an awesome one despite all the rain. I have to say it was pretty fun to watch the fireworks at the lake while it rained the sky lit up with lightening behind them!
Well I'm off to water the front porch plants that didn't benefit from the rain!
Have a wonderful Thursday!
LUV APRIL

Mexico!

Okay so if I had to write about everything that happened in Mexico....well it would have to be it's own website and it would have to be censored!! So I'll just summarize...
- Made it to the airport to depart with seconds to spare. The lady next to us with a different flight at the same time didn't make it.
- Frolicking on the beach
- Entertainment Staff = Bryan Tapley
- Mr White Body = Mitch
- Sport's Bar (or Sport's Bra if you have been taking advantage of the free drinks)
- Eric's $40 wreck with the taxi in the dune buggy
- Pirate Ship. Jason's Rope Swing. Natalie and Bryan's 11 second win (which is video'd by the way)
- Oklahomans EVERYWHERE (we really like Mexico)
- Late night infinity pool over the securty chain
- Disco Night
- Rasta Bar and Chi Chi beach photo
- "You are from Oklahoma? Oh you say YEE HA!"
- Plantino's
- Carlos and Charlie's....where it all began
- Where are YOUR kids??? At their grandmother's? EXACTLY!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh! Too much to remember! Feel free to add girls!
That had to be the best trip ever. We should all start deciding where to go next year!
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!
April