The Rest of the Story...

I'm finally getting around to the rest of our Utah trip...if anyone really cares =)

Despite the accident the kids still managed to have a good time (me...i was pretty much ticked & stressed all weekend).

We were able to spend a nice day with Dougs parents and cousin Weston. Grandma was nice enough to let the kids dig in her garden for gold...ok, really they were looking for worms. But one would think it was gold for how happy it made them!

Jack and Weston enjoyed their time with Grandpa watering the garden, reading some instructions and eating poxibles!

Friday nite we enjoyed a crazy busy park and fireworks with some cousins

My cute little mom.

Saturday nite we had a bbq with some other cousins and enjoyed lots of good food and company.

The boys...doing what they do...hahahahahahaha

There you have it...the rest of our trip.

blah blah blah blah blah

on another note....I think I might live. After being SOOOOO sick for like nearly 2 weeks I'm finally starting to see the light. yay for me.

This Summer Blows!

We have gotten off to a rip roaring start over here.
Went to Utah for the 4th of July and got in a car accident.
YES
a
car
accident!
On the 4th of July weekend.
It is cursed...we should never leave town again for it.


Had to rent a car and leave ours up there. It was not driveable.
Who knows how long we will be without it.
And then, we'll have to drive back up to Utah to retrieve it. rrrgggggggggggg.



The other thing we brought home from Utah that we didn't want...
the plague!
Nathan spent nearly a week in bed, sick with croup like symptoms.
Then Samantha got it...BAD. She required a quick care trip.
I got sick about the same time she did.
Then Kristen kicked in on our heals.
Everyone is on the mend...except me.
I finally went to the dr. yesterday and I have flippin bronchitis.
I feel like garbage.

So here's to week TWO of not being able to do anything,
kids bored outta there minds! Although they are welcome to play at ANYONE elses house, so feel free to call ;)



Me spending so much time down has allowed me to edit lots of photos and be on the computer...a lot. But i'm not sure anyone else is out there these days.

Come on people...BLOG already, so I have stuff to read!



I'm sure Jack or Doug (probably Doug) will end up sick any day now....I better not plan on buying any more groceries this month...medicine and drs. have sucked our budget dry!



Why don't I leave with some more happy memories of our trip...we spent a day out at Sundance while Doug biked, the kids and I hiked around with some good friends.




here's to bed sores and nasty medicine!
Hope your summer is going much better than ours!!!!

Picture Fun

During Jessica Spragues birthday bash a few weeks ago she offered up a free photo editing class. I signed up for it and man, can i just say...."I had NO idea it would offer as much as it has". I can't believe all the techniques I'm learning and the free downloads she is supplying.

Here are a few photo's I've been playing with

These two photos have a clipping mask on them, a texture and a "thru the viewfinder" or TTV texture. I love the old, worn vintagy look of these.

This next one just has a texture layer on it.

This one of Jack has several texture layers and a clipping mask on it.

This one of Kristen is just a TTV layer. (I can't remember if I put a texture layer on it, though looking at it I don't think so).

The pictures I posted a few days ago with the girls and I in sunglasses I applied a clipping mask and a vintage, hand-tinted technique to.

We've still got a whole week left of lessons and I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us!

If you're ever looking for digital scrap booking or photo editing classes this is a great place to start! She also has lots of free techniques available too.

Oh and by the way...all these pictures (except Kristen) are from our trip to Utah last week. I'll post more on that later.

It's Over...

School that is! All the ceremonies, awards, programs, parties, projects, gifts....it's over. I always feel a little sad at the end of the year. The kids always love their teachers and their classes and they are sad to say goodbye. It's even more sad when your kindergartner misses the last 2 days of school cause she has like...croup! She's sooooooo sick, and so sad she missed the last days of school. Here are the girls with their teachers a few days before. Kristen says Mrs. McNeil is her most favorite teacher EVAH!!! I think the feeling was mutual. Samantha may not have loved school, but she loved her teacher and she has even decided that maybe she will like 1st grade. She is going to give it a chance anyway.

Now we officially welcome summer into our household (even though Nathan has been on vacation for a month now!) with half of us sick! YAY.

As for crafts....here lets celebrate Christmas in July with a little snow AND splash.

Here's Jack at swimming lessons last year...he would say to me

"Mommy, i wanna go swimming lessons real hard"

I love that he used to say real hard for really bad.

When I would ask him if he was ready to go swimming he would say

"Yup, i sure is."

Nathan sledding in Utah.

This would be that infamous trip where my "rear end" didn't fair so well.

Then of course that big ol' snow storm Vegas had last winter.

Can you see all that snow there???? No?? ....loook harder, it's there!

Apron Find...Lost Mind

Remember that apron i bragged up making a looooooong time ago????
Well, here she is.
I love it.
It's so me.
I love this lemon fabric so much i must
find something else to do with it.

Thanks to Heather for finding the pattern and having an enrichment activity to make it.
All us girls who signed on for this had such a good time!

...and I actually do wear it :)





As for the lost mind...that would be mine!
Really, i am clearly getting older and I should find some magic pill that aids in memory. Anyone know what that is...i can't remember!

After having the lens in my old sunglasses fall out at Womens Conf. and walking around for a moment or two before I realized something weren't right...(can't image the retard people thought i was when they saw me)...anyways...I bought a new pair and within a week they were lost. Had NO idea what happened to them, was so mad cause I liked em. So, I bought another pair.

As these types of situations go...y'all know what happens next.
I found lost glasses! Duh!

So now the girls are fighting over my second pair cause bug eyes are SOOOOO cool ya know!

the serious....sassy supermodel look (or at least the attempt)

too cool for school YOU!

A little birdy...or two

Here we are on day numba two...

are you impressed????

cause I know I am!



For show and tell today we have another set of owls and bird.

You know the ones, like I made for my girls room last year.

Looking at that old post reminded me I was going to make little pillows like these too....hmmmmm towtalleee forgot about that little project!


I digress...anyway, these are for my little friend Jen who actually has that owl bedding I mentioned in the referred to post. So I made her a set to match. She has spectacular chunky frames these will be going in and I must take a picture of them framed when I track that little girl down!

I decided to finish this crafty post with some cute little girls.

Best friends reunited for a little visit.

Samantha sent Abby a best friends necklace and this is the first time they have been together since. So we HAD to get a picture with the necklace put together.

Aren't they the prettiest little things...EVAH????

oh to be 6 and have the bestest friend in the whole wide world...even if they do live like 400 miles apart now ;(

Fathers Day

I guess I'll try and play a little catch up here...
it is my goal this week to post...
wait...
sit down....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...everyday.
for real.

I'm going to call it my week of crafting.
I've been so busy doing things and I thought I should finally share a few.

So, lets start with the man of the house!
I think he had a nice fathers day.
*Breakfast in bed
*church
*a nap
*one of his favorite meals for dinner
*salivating for chocolate cake that he had to wait till Monday to eat, because.....
*a trip to the ER
(at least it wasn't for himself this time...it was Nathan with an ear infection that just couldn't wait I guess)


Here he is sporting the tie Samantha made for him.
isn't he cute!



This year we gave him an ice-cream maker and this little book the kids and I made.
I'm pretty sure he loved it!

I had each of the kids write down what they loved about their dad, and then they each got a page. I got this idea and download from House of 3
if you haven't seen these guys, you should check them out. They have so many fun ideas and downloads for hybrid scrapping.

This first page has an acrylic star on it that you can't see very well, but it's what the yellow sign is attached to.

Inside the first page is a message from yours truly.



Here's Nathans page. He wrote some really nice things about his dad that we put in the envelope to keep it a little more private.

Here's his next page. Each set has the little number page in it.

Here's Jacks. For him I asked him some questions about his dad. He is funny, then I gave him a page to color a picture on. If you click on the photo you can read it.

Like his artwork????? I asked him the first time he drew jellyfish where he learned how to do that and he answered "Spongebob"! Then he threw in a hot dog down there for luck. He is just learning to draw things and his imagination is killin' me!!!! I just love it, there is nothing more precious!

This is Samantha's page. She was very helpful in making this book and was very selective in her picture choosing. (It's a lot of work going through albums and computer files to find pictures of the kids with dad!)

I love the saying on this page...it is beautiful.

And here is Kristen's page.

She wrote her thoughts in list form so I gave her a little tag to list them on for the book.

This is the back page. A recent picture of Doug with the kids.

I had so much fun making this book. I save the cardboard/chipboard that comes in packages and scrapbook supplies and cut them to size (like 7x11 i think) to use for the base of the book. Then we printed our templates out on patterned papers and glued them to the cardboard and decorated. I might just have to make another one of these from Hof3! You should try it too!