OH. MY. GOSH.

I am SOOOO excited to share with you that I made it in to the FINAL THREE in the Scrapping with the Stars contest at Coordinates Collections. I am truly so thrilled, honored and proud of myself for making it this far! The other participants in this contest have been SO amazing, I really feel so blessed to be among them. Considering that up until just a few months ago I was afraid to even enter a contest, to be competing and making it this far has been such an awesome experience. I have really been challenged to try new things, and have grown so much as a result. And I LOVE the work that I can now call mine that has come out of this!

Here are the layouts that I completed in the last round. The first is in the style of Jenn Dubbs - Design Team member at Coordinates Collections.

I used My Mind's Eye and My Little Shoebox patterned papers, Lisa Bearnson chipboard, My Mind's Eye journaling card and transparancy, Stampin' Up! Ink, and a lot of exacto work!

The next is a layout in the style of Tim Holtz. This one was really challenging for me. I adore Tim Holtz, and think he is a genius, but his style is very different from my own. That said, I am really happy with how this turned out, as hard as it was.

I used PP by K & Co, Bazzill CS, Grungeboard and cutout alpha letters byTim Holtz, letter brads are Rusty Pickle, small round letters are K & Co, Leather frame is Making Memories, Tags are Avery, Stamps are Stampin' Up!, inks are Ranger and Stampin' Up!. The keyhole and photo corner embellishments were from a bulk bin, so source is unknown.
The journaling along the edge reads: Fishing, Hiking, Climbing, finding rocks and pinecones...my boys LOVE to explore.

I can't believe I did it...and now I have to do ONE MORE round - voting for the next round will be from March 13 - 17, so be sure to check it out during that time, and wish me luck!!

In other news...
Today was Ethan's 9th birthday. I can't believe he is possibly that old... what does that say? I know, I am REALLY getting up there lol. We were invited to dinner with my LOVELY friend Charissa, who had coupons for some ROCKIN' burgers at Chili's. I ate so much I am going to explode. And since tomorrow is the birthday party, tomorrow is a wash for the diet as well! Ethan loved getting to go out, and getting some POKEMON cards, since that is the current obsession! I am so glad he had a nice evening, I sure do adore that sweet little boy!

Lauren and I spent most of the day at the dentist - we went twice because they had not reserved enough time to do the work they decided to do to fix her front teeth. Sadly the tooth next to the one that broke had started to turn dark. Since she is probably 2 years from losing the teeth naturally, I really wanted to try to improve them cosmetically. They did some bonding work on both teeth, and although they are "better" they are still not "good". But unfortunately each time we go it seems to get more challenging, so I think I just need to live with it. No one but me even really notices (and I can always photoshop the smile in her pictures for the next 2 years - so it will be like it never really happened lol). I wish I new a great cosmetic dentist who would work on kids! But her smile is still gorgeous, just not the SAME gorgeous it used to be.

Christian is still fighting with being sick - we thought he was better, but he had a little rebound last week, and had to miss more school. It is KILLING us, since he really is not getting time to recover fully with all of the extra school work to make up he is up so late every night, dragging, and I am not sure he will EVER get on top of it! It is so frustrating to watch, as I know he is really trying but just can't catch a break! I can't wait for spring break so he can hopefully just rest and really get well!

I better be done for tonight - I need to wrap things up and watch American Idol before bed. Hope your night is fabulous!