thought these were worth sharing! may have to get the palin 2012 shirt to replace the Hillary shirt in my closet.

Wow what an exciting day for Miss Alyssa. She was promoted in ballet from red to red paisley. She has worked really hard over the past few weeks and we are so proud of her! And as you can see she is pretty proud of herself( i thought she was going to cry in the ceremony)

A fun and entertaining day at the fair. Aryns clogging troop performed at the NC State Fair Folk Festival. Her troop was the best (is the stage mom in me coming out )
Aryn also participated in an open dance .She danced infront of a large tent of people all by herself (* and she even did a number that she choreographed herself) soooooo proud of her! Not too many kids her age would get up and do something like that, much less smile about it!

Finished ! Finally! Gosh, it took forever ... not the project just me getting motivated to finish it ! My first completed penny matte! Viola!

How could you ever say no to this face..... she loves her cute little hat, i love it on her ! This layout is one i did of a sketch at the blog site triple the sketch . Kids have an early release day today, we are going to go vote. Since they have given us the chance to vote without having to wait in lines , thought i should take advantage of it!

Aryn is looking forward to performing at the fair this Sunday and next Sunday she is making her 1st communion. Such a busy little lady

Picking the perfect pumpkin

Well we didn't get to the pumpkin patch but we did make it to farmers market. There is always alot of excitement and fun in the air at the NC State farmers market in Raleigh. We bought just 1 pumpkin this year. Not the 829 pounder in the photo , the kids would have if daddy would have said yes:D

The weather has cooled off a bit. Actually had a frost last night. Not a heavy one, but still a frost none the less.

The kids decided on Halloween costumes, Alyssa is going to be a butterfly, Aryn is going to be Jasmine (Disney) which is a re purposed outfit (amen!) and Andrew is going to be Stewie Griffin. He got a mask a few years ago and i am finally letting him wear it. I am figuring this may be one of his last years that he dresses up so...just want to bite my tongue and let him wear what he wants.

This week : Monday Alyssa has a test in ballet tonight - huge french terms ( crazy!) and Aryn has a orthodontist appt. Tuesday is clogging night and hockey for Andrew. Friday night is a dance at the middle school. First one Andrew is going to , not because he wants to go into the cash machine( he won a few minutes in the machine for magazine sales ) Saturday is dress rehearsal for the folk festival at NC state fair and Sunday Aryn is dancing at the NC State fair . So as you can see , as always busy, busy, busy . Oh and we need to add in there sometime over the weekend we will have to see High School Musical 3 - which opens Friday !

if you are in the area and want to see Aryn at NC State Fair she is performing at 10 am and 2 pm in the folk festival tent behind the graham building (this Sunday)

down to the last one !

We have been working on these maps for what seems like forever! I was shocked to find an Alaska Quarter yesterday, and Andrew was thrilled. Still need 1 more Alaska for Alyssa and 2 Hawaiis' and we can call it a wrap! Yeahhhh!

new cards to share and make you smile ! I am sending some of these for the troops , cards for troops.
Aryn is going to a sleep over tonight and going to do something fun and girly w/ Miss Alyssa

Websters Pages give away

isnt this just yummy ! visit the websters pages blog for a give away . Websters pages is a local company ( in Raleigh) and many of the talented design team girls are from the area . Check them out!

Anyone need magazines. Poor Andrew has been door to door trying to sell mags for his ptso. Magazines are a hard sell . He has not had much luck , poor little guy. They have a great deal on Good Housekeeping and for all my craft friends they have Scrapbook etc ! :D

2 scrapbook pages this weekend - The "New Specs" is a sketch challenge at Scrap Attack . The "Boo crew" layout is the photo that we are using on our Halloween card . Andrew was less than coopertive for this photo , Aryn on the other hand was all about it! She is going to be an actress! Such drama, working the camera!

Lets go Canes !

Last night was the Home opener for our Carolina Hurricanes.
We had some great seats (about 4 rows behind the visitors bench! ) We had a great time cheering for our favorite NHL team and we are looking forward to a great season !

Hockey is a diffrent experience in North Carolina than other places. First of all we tail gate, usually in shorts and tank tops. Secondly , most of the people inside are still wearing shorts and tanks. Yes, Alyssa is wearing a t-shirt while sitting almost on the ice. ( i froze to death!) She is a very warm blooded person, always hot!

I was reading Elsie's blog( even though she is a scrap deserter/trader) and i found a link for these adorable scarves , they are way to expensive for my blood but thought they were way too cute to not mention. Anyway this Twinkie lady( yes, thats her name) has a blog - aptly names i eat yucky stuff... and for those of you who have a hard time getting your kids to eat perhaps we need to try these adorable meatball cupcakes . Yes, those are meatballs, almost too cute to eat!

Thats it for today, i would like to add they just said on the news that North Carolina has the highest gas prices in all 48 states! What garbage! I sure hope the governement gets it together !

this is link for twinkies store , blogger is being bad and wont let me edit my post.

Happy Tuesday ! This weekend we finally got up and got our rears into gear and went to the Flea market, but alas the flea market was closed... in prep for the NC State Fair. Darn, wouldn't you know it ! My luck. Anyway we had planned on hanging out at the flea market for a few hours(which turned out to be a 2 hour trip to Barnes and Noble) then going to the 1.50 movie theater. I have wanted to see "Swing Vote" since the end of August.( in our area it was only released at 1 theater which was 30 minutes away) Well all 5 of us went to the movies and bought a large drink and popcorn for $18.50. That's right, less than 20 bucks, wow, when was the last time i could say that. In fact when i go to the movies by myself it is usually more than that! ( my neighbor once said , while we were at the movies" The Josupaits' need to take out a small business loan just to go to the movies !" ) And i do want to add, i enjoyed the movie, was totally worth the $1.50 :D



Have made a ton of cards and scrapbook pages over the past few days ... will leave you with just a few :D

On a final note , yesterday was my Mother and Fathers in laws anniversary and today is my Brother and sister in laws wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to them all , here is looking forward to many more years of happiness!

Morgan, this is just for you. I wanted you to see what the NC State Band looks like. 300 + members, football games, .... is it calling you south yet ? Any time you want to check it out give "Auntie Monica" a call. ... did i mention it doesn't snow here ? ... Kevin and I enjoyed ourselves at the NC State vs Boston College game, even though state lost. Funny as i was snapping all the photos of the band , i realized at the end of the game that i had not taken any of the football players/game... so i snapped 2 at the end.



Happy National Card making day! yes, that really is a "holiday" ..... now where is my gift ? Haha, just joking. I did make a few cards, can't post them all as some will be sent to people who are reading this blog ... so just a few . I participated in an online crop celebrating National card making day at Scrap Attack , Scrap attack is a great online community that i have recently joined. Lots of talented ladies and friendly people as well. It has been a very inspiring and uplifting place for me!

New eye candy in the Etsy store ... lots of fancy new lampwork beads ,halloween treats and some beautiful pearls! check it out!