SAUCER SCHNANIGANS

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately.  Life has been pretty busy.  I did post a 2009_December  on the Picasa site.  We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Alan lost his first tooth this afternoon!! We were doing homework at his friend, Aidan's. He complained about it so I took a look and he wouldn't let me pull it. I told him to have Missy take a look at it and he let her pull it out. He can hardly wait for the tooth fairy to come tonight!!

the-gypsyspot.blogspot.com blog is giving away a FREE gypsy!! Click here for all the details.

Stampin'Up just release the most AMAZING new computer program. It's called My Digital Studio and it is NOT just digital scrapbooking!! You can create personalized photo books in several sizes, handmade cards, and personalized calendars that can all be printed with lots of options. Then you can take these projects and make fun slide shows, interactive books, and movies as well as incorporate your home videos and personal audio recordings into the project. Here is a book I created with our Pumpkin Patch pictures then found a fun song and had the boys help me record some audio tracks.

I'm finally recovered from our big trip last weekend. Missy and I took 2 mini vans and 8 kids 300 miles north to do our fmaily pumpkin patch tradition since Daniel was gone. Since we were staying farther north than usual at Grandma Joan's (Joan is Missy's mom) we decided to try a Pumpkin Patch in Hayden, AL that was closer to her house. They had all the same great fun as our usual on a little smaller scale. We had a blast despite the damp weather. We went to Missy's Aunt Patty's house for a birthday party on Saturday night. They live in the middle of beautiful nowhere and we even got to roast hotdogs and marshmellows on a bon fire outside!!! On Sunday we headed into Birmingham to watch the Toy Story double feature in 3-D. I got the tickets for my crew then took Aidan and my boys in to the bathroom while Missy got tickets for her crew. Then we got in line for popcorn. I had explained to Alan, Eddie, and Joey we would get one big popcorn to share and if there was any ...

I posted new pictures at the end of the 2009_September folder. Click here to view. I also started the 2009_October folder with pictures of Alan earning his Bobcat badge. Click here to view those.

This year Alan is a Tiger Cub in scouts!! Yesterday we had our first big scouting event, the Raingutter Regatta. The boys sand and paint their own boats and race them down a raingutter filled with water. They blow behind their sails through a straw to make the boats go. Eddie is having a rough time feeling left out because you have to be in first grade to be a scout. We got him a kit to build the boat with Alan to be a pretend scout. Here Eddie and Alan are doing the sanding. Alan is doing more sanding here. Next comes the painting. Alan chose to use 3 colors which requires a lot of time waiting for paint to dry!! While we waited for the paint to dry Alan decorated his sail with some retired scouting stamps in Mommy's office. Here is Alan with his completed boat. He named it "The Promise" because we were learning the Cub Scout Promise on the way to the race preparing for next week's meeting. Alan and Daddy registering for the race. They let Eddie have is own pr...

Here are some video clips of Joey. The first is Joey figuring out how to use Mommy's scrapbooking tools. Joey was sooo excited about the Cookie Monster shirt Daddy got for his birthday!! Daniel barely had it opened before Joey snatched it up and had it on. He ended up sleeping in Daddy's new shirt!! Joey was sooo excited to get his big brothers' character PJs when I sorted clothes a few weeks ago. The Wiggles are a favorite :)

This weekend we took the boys to Universal Studios in Orlando. We got to the park right before it opened at 9am. We decided to start the day at the Islands of Adventure part of the park. We made a beeline for the Spiderman ride. I went with Alan and Eddie while Daniel and Joey waited in the parent swap. This is a really amazing ride. You ride in a car along the track with a 3-D movie screen in front of you. You help Spidey get the bad guys and it actually feels like you are swinging from webs and flying/falling!!! When we got off the ride Alan decided not to go a second time, but Eddie sure got excited when he just had to wait for Daddy to trade places with mommy to ride again!! The rest of the rides in the super hero section were for taller and older kids so we headed over to Seuss Landing. This turned out to be Alan's favorite. The first ride at Seuss Landing is of course The Cat in The Hat. This ride takes you through the house and shows you the chaos when the Cat arrives with T...

Just testing out the new My Digital Studio software from Stampin' Up. I'm using a friends computer so you can look forward to more projects when I get my copy of the software!! It's super easy to use. It only took about 15 min for me to figure out how to create this page, convert the file to jpeg and post it here on the blog!!

I am long over due in this post as it's been 2 weeks ago already!! We took Alan's best buddy Aidan and his family on the Sea Dragon Pirate Cruise to celebrate all our August birthdays this year. The cruise was a BLAST!! It's family oriented and jam packed with activities for the kids. They start off in the red circle on the main deck for a safety talk about running and all the normal safety stuff. Then they give them all squirt guns and anyone on the main deck is fair game for the water gun fight. Then they have the kids swab the deck with child size mops. Then they take them into the dungeon to tell them a story about a treasure buried at sea. When they come up from the dungeon we all have to look for the "X" bouy. Then one of the pirate crew gets them all lined up with a rope and they have to pull the chest up out of the water. Everyone gets some of the treasure to take home. One of the last activities was getting pirate tatoos. Here is Alan aka Captain ...

Happy Birthday Alan!! Today Alan turns 6 :)

I have another large collection of video clips on my blog folder. So here they are!! The first one is the kids feeding carrots to Grandma's horses this summer. Here the boys are checking out the baby chicks in Papa Joe's store. Joey is gving Papa Joe a makeover here. Eddie Cracking Peanuts at Texas Roadhouse with Great Great Aunt Jo A puppy Joey's size The last 2 videos are of the ice cream truck coming by while visiting family in Iowa.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!! He turns 35 today :) We love you!! Here is a picture of the card I made for him. It was inspired by this week's Color Challenge from Color Dare . The colors to be used in this challenge are More Mustard, Bashful Blue, Chocolat Chip, and Kraft. The designer series paper (DSP) is retired Stampin' Up paper from Juntos and Summer Pinic. The bear stamp is from the Stampin' Up set, "Cheers to You". I used crystal effects and white dimensional fabric paint on the beer.

Monday was the first day of school!! Yipee!! Both Alan and Eddie are going to the same school this year. Alan is in First grade already and Eddie is in the full time PreK program with Alan's PreK teaching team. It is our school year resolution to walk to school in the mornings. Here is a picture as we are arriving at the school on the first day. I was happy to have walked because the parking lot was a mess!!! Here is a picture of Eddie with Ms. Hardy (she was Ms. Young with Alan and got married in May!! Congratulations Ms. Hardy. We will try to get your name right) and Ms. Powell. Here is Alan outside his classroom. They are Templemen's Tornado's this year!! Alan with Ms. Templemen Had to include this great picture of Joey and Alan playing Wii on one of the last nights of staying up late while Daddy was TDY.

The Stampin' Up Blog Challenge for August is a SIP (Stamps, Ink, and Paper)challenge!!! This is my speciality using ONLY stamps, ink and paper. That means NO extra bling like ribbon, brads, buttons. . . . . I am really missing the Zoofari stampset that retired in June. I am really into tearing paper and had this pop in my head so I made an exception and decided to use it anyway. Most people that know me know I am obsessed with Red, Black and White and I always seem to be short on Thank You notes so here is my card. I used Basic Black, Whisper White, and Real Red.

WoW it's been even longer than I thought since I've cleaned out this folder!!! Here are a few more clips of the kids :) Beach Clips Our "Fake" Birthday with Grandma. We celebrated Alan and Joey's birthdays while grandma was visiting this summer. Alan got this awesome DJ station and it's been the favorite toy for all our visitors!!

Just cleaning up my blog topics folder and wanted to share some random video clips with you. Eddie made a bumble bee braclet in preschool and was sooo excited about it. Joey had a blast at Aidan's birthday party at Pump It Up Alan is teaching Eddie to use the computer this summer The Tucker/Saucer Road show from a fun visit with our Alabama friends the Tucker family. Eddie and Joey with a show of their own.

The soccer season has been done for awhile now. I had intended on writing this post a long time ago and apologize for not getting it posted sooner. I'm not sure where the time goes!!! Here are some pictures and video clips from Alan's first season of soccer.

I finally got the summer pictures sorted/edited and posted on the Picasa site. The new album is called 2009_Summer. Click here to see the new pictures.

Stampin’ Up! just released the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog and it’s loaded with new products that every stamper must have. As part of the summer celebration Stampin Addicts is holding a blog contest during the month of July giving away a Big Shot die pack made up of 5 new exclusive Stampin’ Up! dies. ■Stampin’ Up! Thanks (Embosslits) ■Stampin’ Up! Final Press (Embossing Folders) ■Stampin’ Up! Perfect Details (Textured Plates) ■Stampin’ Up! Two Tags (Bigz Dies) ■Stampin’ Up! Fancy Favor (Bigz XL Dies) To enter the Big Shot Die Pack contest click here “Stampin’ Up! Big Shot”

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't been blogging like I should. I have been working on a HUGE picture project. My mom gave me all the photo albums from when I was growing up and I have finally finished scanning all the pictures into jpeg files on the computer. Then I greated a picasa account to post them all for family and friends. The albums are numbered in as close to chronological order as possible. There were 2,502 pictures in all!!! Here is the link if you want to see the pictures click here

Click here to view this photo book larger

So just over a week ago I was sitting in the living room recovering from surgery and Daniel hollers from the computer asking me the local news website address. I give it to him and don't hear back from him for quite awhile. I finally get up and go check on what he is up to and he is looking at Chrylser vehicles online. I ask him what's up and he informs me that our local Chrysler dealer is one that was selected to close. We have been discussing a newer vehicle in the next 6 months or so for various reasons. We've had Daniel's Neon for 8 years and it has 107K miles on it and my Dodge Grand Caravan after only 4.5 years is already at 87K miles. We are scheduled to pay the van off in December and would like to replace the small Neon with a slightly larger vehicle to accomodate 3 carseats (Florida and several other states are trying to pass laws requiring carseats/booster seats until age 8 or 80 lbs!!) as well as with low milage. Well the next day after taking Eddie to ...

As some of you know I have been having some problems since I quit breastfeeding Joey in August 2008. This spring they started affecting my diabetes in a very negative way. I simply wasn't responding to any treatments so they decided to do a hysterectomy to solve the problem. This wouldn't normally happen for someone age 32, but we have had so many endochronologists and OB doctors tell us we need to be done having kids and it was a sure fire solution to my issues. I had the surgery on Thursday and everything went extremely well. I just can't drive for 2 weeks and no lifting for 6 weeks which will be tough. Daniel got 2 weeks off to take care of me and the boys and things are going well. Feel free to call if you want more details. I'm just not sure the whole world needs to read about things here. Some of you will be relieved to learn that unlike Daniel's apendectomy there were no pictures taken :)

I just updated pictures on Picasa with a 2009_May album. There are some older pictures in that folder that I just received from Alan's teacher in order to make the Kindergarden slideshow. I LOVE the pictures from field day!! I will try to upload the slideshow here.

For all my scrapbooking friends there is an awesome Paper Parade blog hop going on right now. Just visit http://burninrubber-anotherstampblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/parade-of-papers-stop-4-and-blog-candy.html and follow the directions for lots of chances to win great scrapbooking supplies!!!

Friday, April 4th Magic Kingdom Part 2 The boys must have had some wild dreams last night to wake like this. Grandma, Mommy, Alan and Eddie headed downstairs for breakfast around 8:30am. The boys stopped by Herbie for a little play time. While we were eating breakfast the sky opened up and it POURED!!! We took our time with breakfast thinking the rain would pass, but it just kept coming so we got ponchos in the gift shop $30 allowing Grandma to purchase a nice canvas bag for an additional $10. Then it was outside to catch the bus. We got to Magic Kingdom not long after it opened and headed straight for Tomorrow Land to ride Buzz Lightyear. We got a Fast Pass Ticket for later. The man working the Fast Pass machines was from Pella, IA. He told us the line was only 10 minutes so we also rode right away. The first time Eddie and Grandma rode together and Alan and Mommy rode together. When we got off the ride we had some time before our Fast Pass tickets would work so w...

Thursday, April 2 2009 Epcot Last night we grabbed the maps for Epcot on our way upstairs to plan the day for today. Grandma and Joey really got into the map reading. Then Grandma read bedtime stories to the boys. This morning Joey was up before us all and decided to serenade us for an hour until the alarm went off at 8am. We were dressed and headed to the bus by 9am. Daddy is fighting his sinuses and has a back ache so I was worried about how we would hold up for the 4th FULL day of Disney excitement. We found out there is a ride at Epcot that is as popular as the Toy Story ride was at Hollywood Studios and didn’t want to make the same mistake twice so Daniel took off to get Fast Pass Tickets for Soarin’ right away!! Mommy and Grandma took the boys to Innoventions to play with the toys and tools of tomorrow. Alan and Eddie went right for the Fire Safety Show with Grandma. Mommy and Joey walked around and scoped things out. We found out about the Kim Possible World Showcas...

Wednesday, April 1 2009 Disney Hollywood Studios I’m really not sure how the wake up went this morning because I wasn’t the first one up. I know Grandma and Daddy didn’t get in until way late because Grandma actually flew into Sanford Airport NOT the Orlando Airport. Daniel made the discovery before she landed and was in route the extra 40 some miles to pick her up. Life is always an adventure when you travel  The boys all slept through the rearranging and organizing and were very happy to see Grandma this morning. Daddy and Joey were going to stay in the room and join the rest of us at the park later so Daniel took our dirty clothes downstairs to the resort laundry mat to wash them. Then at 8:30 Grandma and Mommy took Alan and Eddie down to the bus and headed to Disney Hollywood Studios. We arrived to the park right before they opened. We had plenty of time to take Grandma and activate her ticket. Thank God Daniel was thinking ahead and gave me his active duty military id to ...

Tuesday, March 31 2009 Animal Kingdom We started the day with a 7am alarm and the morning started almost the same as yesterday with showers and breakfast in the room. Then we got in the Animal Kingdom shuttle bus line and our day began. We waited at the park entrance and got coffee. We were off to Africa to start our adventure. The gates opened with a short show from our Classic Characters reviewing safety, sunblock, and maps. The Tree of Life is at the center of the park. Here are some pictures as we first entered Africa. Daddy went to get Fast Pass Tickets for the Kilimanjaro Safari and we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail to see the animals while we waited to go on the Safari. We still had some time so we boarded the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. There was a great petting zoo where the kids could brush goats that would just lay there for them. Nothing like the diary goats from the good ol...

The Disney Pictures are all (333) posted in an album on Picasa. Just Click on the Saucer Family Website Link to the Left and watch for details about our other 4 days of vacation.

Well I thought I could outsmart blogger and put the pictures right in the word file then copy and paste the whole file, but blogger only lets you paste the words. I'll post this entry and then get all the pictures from the whole trip posted to picasa for you to "see" our vacation. I'll post each day separately for you to "read" about our vacation. Monday, March 30th Magic Kingdom The cell phone alarm went off at 7am (we learned the hard way not to trust hotel alarm clocks). I jumped in the shower and we got all 3 boys dressed and fed and out the door to catch the bus by 8am. The shuttle bus had us to the Magic Kingdom and through the first set of turn styles before the park opened!! Our Hotel Shuttle Bus We asked some people from Australia to take this picture of us waiting for the park to open. They do a quick welcome song and dance and the classic characters; Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto ride a train in to welcome the crowd to the most M...