Blog Party Time!!!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting the Ultimate Blog Party, and of course I feel the need to play along!

For those who don't know me, I'm Laurie. I'm a British-born Canuck living in southern Arizona (how's that for confusing?). I've been married to CJ for 5 craaazy years, but we've known eachother for 9 years. We have three children who we adore and who drive us crazy all at the same time: Mercy, who's 3.5 years old, Porter, who's 2 years old, and Jameson (J), who's 4 months old. M and P were both c-sections, but J was a vaginal birth, my VBA2C, and I am SO proud that I was able to accomplish that.

We are also LDS (mormon). CJ was born and raised LDS, I joined the Church when I was 13. We met at an LDS college, Southern Virginia, 1998/99. We started dating and then he went on his 2 year mission to Bilbao Spain, while I went back to Canada and then over to Scotland for a year to train with horses. He got back in 2001 and started at BYU. I came back from Scotland in 2oo2 and 5 months later we got married. :D M joined us two years and two days after that, then P came along 14.5 months later. And J was born two weeks shy of two years after that.

I love to scrapbook, both paper and digital, but lately it's been much easier to do digital, plus I can do more without shelling out a ton of money. I don't really post on any specific digiscrap sites, but my dear friend Jesse sells on Designer Digitals, so go visit her. :D I love crafty things, I just tend to never finish them. I'm slowly learning to quilt, or at least I keep telling myself that when I look at the fabric sitting in the closet.

I love taking photos too, thanks to some great friends I'm learning to take better ones. Mostly of my kids, since that *is* my constant surroundings, plus southern Arizona... well, it's not that pretty on the eyes. At least right now... we did just have some daffodils bloom though, so hope is on the horizon! I also am trying to do a 365 day challenge, I have a blog for it. Check it out and leave a comment on your favorite pic!

I am sliiiiiightly sarcastic, or as my mum says, I'm "quick witted". I love getting in a good verbal sparring match with CJ, because he can never think of retorts as fast as I can, and it just gets plain hilarious listening to us. He's the cool calm guy while I'm the on-edge, snarky girl. We're an interesting pair, but it works for us, and any of our friends will tell you that. I'm also a pessimist and a bit catastrophic, but to each his own. I'm trying to work on it...

I love the fun things you can find on the internet, and I've made some amazing friends on here that I doubt I'd have had the courage to talk to if we'd met in a store or something. Plus I've found some friends from college and the likes that I'd lost touch with, and it's so great being able to see what they're up to and see them with kids! I don't feel like it was that long ago, but time flies and all that jazz.

Ooh! I can't forget this: one of the things I do in downtime or when I need a break from the kids is I help my dear friend Karyn out and edit photos of her bows for her. Karyn owns Little Pink Ladybug and is one of the BEST bowmakers you'll find. Seriously, the bows she comes up with... insane. And she's one of the sweetest, kindest people you'll ever meet. The woman's got class AND talent! Plus she gives me bows in exchange for the tiny bit of work I do for her. I'd do a giveaway as part of the blog party, but I don't think I could part with any bows she might donate. LOL.

OOPS!! My prize list!!

A $50 gift certificate to JuJu Beane Boutique
A $50 gift certificate to Happy Panda
A shirt from Baby Candy
A 12x12 Custom Wall Canvas from JuJu Beane Boutique
A My Baby Can Talk DVD Set from My Baby Can Talk
A custom tutu from Live~Love~Dance Boutique
A $50 gift certificate to Paperlicious.com
10 T-shirts from PMKU
A $25 gift card to Target from Mommy Bytes
A pair of flaming Babylegs from Fire Mom
A $25 gift certificate to Little Piddles
A baby shirt from Uncommonly Cute
$25 from Lori
A webcam from Liz
A photo tile necklace from Elemental Memories