Mommy's Days Out!

Well I know everyone knows that I love my job and think it's the best set up in the world, but now you can actually see what I do! For those who don't know, I work for a scrapbook company from home about 20 hours a week. I make page samples for catalogs, advertisments, TV segments, basically anything they need me to make with their product. And the best part is that I get to travel about 6 times a year with them. I just got back from a trade show where we debut our new products, basically set up a little "store", and store owners come and place orders for the next 6 months. Big chains like Joanns, Micheals, Hobby Lobby, and other big box retailers place orders along with small independant scrapbook stores. It is so fun to travel with friends/co-workers and to just get a little break from day to day mommy world. I just love staying in the best hotels, eating at the best restaurants, and being around scrapbooking all day! Now that's the life!

Founder of the company, Nancy. I met Nancy 6 years ago and she gave me a job 5 years ago. She is the best, like family to me, Kev & the boys :)

The girls....in our cute aprons. We had different ones for every day. They all matched our scrapbook paper.




What I get to do all day...Everyday of the show, I do a different project for store owners to do that features our new product. In the months before the show, I do all of the page layouts for the catalog & booth, and plan the hand on projects and get everything ready for it. It really is a lot of work!



What the booth looks like, this is probably 1/5th of the whole booth. It's huge! I go early and set up and stay late and take down. We make it fun though :)

My girl, Michelle. The two of us are trouble, big time! Her husband is in US Sales and we drive him crazy when we are together :) But he is too nice to ever admit it!

It was a long 6 days of a lot of work but sooo much fun. And I can't wait for the next one in Orlando in July!

Super Monkey's California Adventure

Before I left for my trip to Anaheim for work, Troy asked me to take his Super Monkey and take pictures of him wherever he was. (He got the idea from a TV commercial I think...) So Super Monkey headed in my bag and off he went! It was a lot of fun to have a little reminder of Troy with me all of the time. I hope you can see the pictures alright...he had some pretty crazy adventures with Aubrey and my co-workers. My favorite is of him with the churro man at Disneyland :)

New Camera!

I finally got a chance to play around with my new camera today. It was so nice outside that I let the boys play while I sat on my lawn chair with my Diet Coke and relaxed....and took about 150 pictures! These are the best ones...

And this is a shout out to my brother to thank him for our late Christmas gift. Hot sauce and pralines delivered from my favorite Mexican spot in Dallas! I keep a stash of this hot sauce in my food storage for any kind of emergency! It is the best!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas at home with my parents & my sister and her family. It was a LOT of work, but was well worth it. Here are the highlights:

Papa snapping an awesome family picture on our front porch...something that is hard to do usually!
Bronco lovin his Christmas gifts, a Santa chew toy and a stocking full of his favorite bones.

Christmas Jammies from Mommy

Bath time Christmas Eve with Christmas Towels from my Nana

Kristin, Sabrina & Darren at dinner

Troy, Me & Cookie (my mom)

Darren, Troy & Me

Cookie, Kev, Colt & Kristin

Me & Cookie at lunch on Christmas Eve

Papa, Colt & Troy

Favorite gifts:

Kev-His 4 Wii games

Erin- camera & temple picture

Troy- "all of them" (all of his cars & tracks)

Colt-Thomas the Train toothbrush that plays music in his stocking

The best gift of all was my parents making an offer on a house in Cottonwood Heights! We are soo excited for them to move to Utah in February and we will find out today if they accepted the offer. Oh, and the best part is the house has an amazing view and a POOL!!! Bring on the summer tan, baby! I hope you all have had an amazing Christmas! Here's to the New Year of 2009!

What Every Man Wants For Christmas...

My friend, Colette, emailed this to me and I thought it was hilarious. I forwarded it to Kev with a note saying, "Sorry, honey. I tried to get this at Walmart for you but it was all sold out. Better luck next year :)"

What Every Man Wants For Christmas

The truth in this "joke" is just too much! Men are their own breed! But I do have to say, I would love a remote to inflate and deflate my boobs depending on what I am wearing or what kind of mood I am in! Hummmm, maybe this is how I can make my millions!

A Busy Saturday!

Well first off, I have to totally brag on my amazingly, talented husband! I went to the home show this week and got an idea of something to do in our kitchen. I asked him if we could do it on Wednesday, and voila, it's done on Saturday! We had leftover bead board from doing Colt's room so we decided to do a back splash in our kitchen. Here is how it turned out. I love how it matches the backing on the bar!

BEFORE

AFTER

Then I cleaned house and wanted to take some pictures of my holiday decorations. The main reason I did this was so I can print them off and put them in my decoration tubs so I remember where everything goes!

Kevin's grandma hand made the crystal tree with gold safety pins and beads. All of the grand kids have one and it is very special to me!

My new fake tree that I think looks very real!

My mom made these stockings for us. Mine is the one I have had my whole life...I love how it doesn't look any older than the other three. They are probably my favorite decoration, along with grandma's safety pin tree :)

Looking out the window at the snow we got! I love snow storms that come on the weekend when I can just stay inside all day in my warm house!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Only 11 more days!

THIS is the way to watch a football game in Utah in December :)

We were completely spoiled and were able to watch the Snow College National Championship football game on Saturday in Far West Bank's suite. Kev was a little stressed out having the VP of the bank (and his boss) there with us having to listen to our whiny kids. But I sure didn't mind snacking, reading my book on the leather couch in the warm suite. Ahhh, hopefully that won't be the last time. :)

Our visit from Angela & the twins!

We had a great day last week when one of my oldest friends from Dallas came to visit for the day! Angela and I are a month apart, grew up on the same street & her dad was my bishop. I have tons and tons of memories growing up with her and her awesome family. Sadly, Angela lost her husband suddenly when she was 7 months pregnant with the twins from a complication during a routine surgery. She is an amazing person and is such a great example to me. It was so fun meeting the twins, Jesse & Jocelyn, and seeing her as a mommy. Let me say, those little ones are soooo lucky to have her as a mommy. I can't wait to watch the babies grow up! We love you guys!

Santa

The boys loved going to the local candy shop to see Santa this year! Troy told him that he wanted a remote control car that drives on the wall and ceiling (don't you just love commercials this time of year...) and Colt just stared at him and wanted the candy. What's new. I think it's so funny that Colt always has to have his hoodie on if Troy has it on. And we all know that Troy has a thing about ALWAYS having to wear a hoodie!

Christmas Tag

Thought this was fun....thanks, Amy!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper...for everything! I did it all yesterday :)

2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake and a good pine candle burning

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the day after Thanksgiving but this year, I put it up the 1st week of November and loved having it up longer so that will be my new tradition.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day

5. Do you like eggnog? Sometimes

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My American Girl Doll, Kirsten

7. Hardest person to buy for? My sister & bro in law but even they are pretty easy :)

8. Easiest person to buy for? My dad, anything with the boys picture on it :)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, Jim Shore. Thanks for my last two pieces, Mommy!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail but my list has cut back a little this year due to blogging and postage going up!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Luggage from my parents when I was a teenager, we thought that was so boring!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? This is hard...Either Elf or Its a Wonderful Life

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? September...I am always done by Black Friday.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably...shhh don't tell!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mom's Cherry Berries on a Cloud dessert

16. Lights on the tree? Always white

17. Favorite Christmas song? Any version of "O Holy Night"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home!!! Traveled with kids too many times and I am done!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all. Rudolph

20. Angel on the tree-top or a star? Neither, a gingerbread man

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas eve we open PJ's andand then Christmas Morning, we open presents. Growing up, we opened all of our presents on Christmas Eve and Santa came in the morning. But we follow Kevin's tradition now.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Dealing with a budget...someday hopefully my Christmas budget will be a lot bigger.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My Gingerbread ornaments with red and silver balls

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Prime Rib and all of my mama's fixin's

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Kitchen Digital Hand Mixer (for the last 4 years, Kev has always gotten me something for my Kitchen Aid collection and I love it!)

26. Who is tagged?: Erin J, Amberly R, Collete C, & Angela S

Thank you, Kathi!

Just wanted to thank my sweet friend Kathi for making me my blog header! Didn't it turn out so cute! I love it! She is my talented digi-scrapper friend...her scrapbooks are soooo amazing, and they probably cost a TON less than mine :) Thanks again, girl!

Gotta love a sale!

Just had to share Stampin' Up's big sale that starts tomorrow!

CLICK HERE to see a list of the sale bundles!

20-50% bundles of product that they put together, it's like Christmas to me! So if you need supplies for Christmas gifts, neighbor gifts, cards or tags, just pop on over to my website tomorrow and you can shop straight from there. Everything can be shipped right to you if you order through my website. Find the perfect present for all the stampers and
paper crafters in your life-or just stock up for yourself!!!

Supplies are limited- so if there is something you would like to purchase, go to my website and click "shop now" at the top right hand side of that website or email me and I can place it for you.

This is a pretty amazing sale!

Have fun looking and Happy Thanksgiving!

Click below to shop!

erinmadsen.stampinup.net

6 Movie Tickets: $36

6 Diet Cokes, Popcorns & assorted chocolate in the theatre: $30

Assorted snacks, books, magazines, Diet Cokes, hot chocolates and hand warmers for the long wait: $20

Waiting in line for 9 1/2 hours to have the best seats in the theatre and being among the first girls in town to see "Twilight" at Midnight on 11/21: PRICELESS

Thanks for a memorable day, girls! Some moments are not appropriate to post on my blog but I will treasure them forever!!! Oh and I have to say we look way cuter than the girl sitting in front of us. Looks like she needs a nap to me!

What I am lovin' :)

Not much going on in the Madsen household so I just wanted to share a few of my favorite things that I got to experience this week! Thank you everyone for helping me celebrate my birthday also. I have so many friends and family that I love so much and I felt very loved in return on my special day. I was definitely spoiled!

I got the chance to eat in Provo this week (what a treat!) and I picked Mimi's Cafe. An all-time favorite. I have lots of good memories of meals that I have had there in addition to the best food ever. I had the best meal of French Onion Soup, Buttermilk Spice Muffin & Balsamic Chicken & Pistachio Salad. Yum, yum, yum. Oh and a Diet Coke of course. I even came home and found the recipe online for the muffins that taste the exact same!
My friend Amberly had an Scentsy party this week and I popped in to get some holiday scents. I am in love with their "Scent of the Month" Cinnamon Cider. It is a must for the holidays, along with Spiced Orange Harvest. I will never burn a candle as long as I live! Oh and I won the raffle which was even better!

I finished up my Christmas shopping this week and got to go to Build A Bear to make a dog for Colt. I also got him a cute blue umbrella stroller to push around. Blue strollers are hard to come by so I had to jump on that one. I have built 6 bears in my lifetime and I love it every time I go in there. I am such a sucker for that place. I told a friend that I don't need to have a girl, I will just go to build a bear and dress up a bear all girly. I don't know if she agreed with me. (wink, wink)



K, anyone who watches this show knows what I am so happy about. Denny!!! I am still a little lost about what is happening with Izzy right now but I love to see those two together. They never got to have a real romance so I happy to see it, even if she is losing her mind!

I have rediscovered Kiddie Kones this week. For $1.75, I can get an XL Diet Coke with extra ice, and 3 kiddie kones. Who could pass up that every afternoon at about 3pm? Not me and my boys!

I hope each of you had a good week! Now tell me what you are lovin' right now!

The Best Weekend Ever!

It was our 6 year wedding anniversary yesterday and Kev surprised us and took us for a weekend in Park City! We stayed in the most amazing condo at Deer Valley which during the on-season, is rented out for $1000 a night. It was that amazing! (He got it from one of his customers and we only had to pay the $60 cleaning fee!) It was 2 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms, 3 indoor Jacuzzi tubs, a huge hot tub on our balcony, plasma TVs everywhere and a gorgeous kitchen. I loved everything about it! Kev dropped me off at the spa for 2 hours where I was treated to a mani & pedi, the best of my life actually. And other than that and hitting the outlets, we had a wonderful weekend of relaxing and enjoying our little family. Who knew you could have such a fun anniversary get-a-way with your kids :) They were angels, something that hardly ever happens! Thank you for everything, Kevy, it really was a weekend to remember!