Friday Fun

On Friday we got together with my mom's brothers and their families and had yummy Turkey & Dumplings and Pie. I thought it was hard to get a decent pic of all three of my girls together - that's nothing! I tried to get a pic of my mom and her brothers - impossible - they're a bunch of nuts ;-)

After that we took the girls bowling - their first time ever! We don't have a bowling alley here so it's been about 10 years since I've been bowling and even longer for David. The girls had fun but by the end, Brailee was exhausted as she had missed her nap that day. I had a hard time at first and finally switched to a lighter ball - wish I had done that sooner, my belly was sure feeling it by the next day. Kaylee did great and actually beat me the first game ;-) Lucky for me, we had the bumpers up in the gutters or my score could have been a lot worse! Brianna enjoyed it too but didn't like the heavy balls, so we finally let her use the ramp. Brailee enjoyed pushing the ball down the ramp and trying on the lovely bowling shoes. When we got there we had to wait a bit for a couple of lanes to open, but we spent the time taking goofy pictures ;-) Okay, so we're all a bunch of nuts!

Oh, yeah, the Challenges!

I completely spaced these this month - I honestly didn't think anyone missed it as I haven't had anyone participate the last couple months. I used to get 10 or more entries per month but lately it's really slowed down. Anyway, I didn't even think about it until one of my DL/friends e-mailed me this morning and said, 'Hey, where are the challenges?!?' So here they are - and it's a good motivator for me, too, as I haven't been doing many pages lately, I've been having too much fun making cards and ornaments, but I really need to get back into page mode! I hope you'll play along, and be sure to post a link to your creations! At the end of the month, I will draw a winner - they will get to pick a free stamp set from my stash of extras! I will hopefully get some samples for these challenges done this month ;-)

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Cherish Challenge - Aesthetic Balance - pg. 32-33

View my Cherish Layout here

View Melissa's Cherish Layout here

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Imagine Challenge - Three-Part Harmony - pg. 44-45

View my Imagine Layout here

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Reflections Challenge - Main Frame - Quilt Blocks - pg. 62

View my Reflections Layout here

View Melissa's Reflections Layout here

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Originals Challenge - Diamond Duo - pg. 46

View my Originals Card here

Turkey Day

We had a fun day with lots of yummy food! We got to go to Lindon, Utah to spend the weekend with Gma Nae and Gpa LaRon and finally got to meet some of LaRon's family. Here are some pics from Thanksgiving Day.

A bunch of Turkeys!

Okay, so we're not just monkeys, we're a bunch of turkeys! Here are the place cards the girls and I made for our Thanksgiving Feast - they fit around a cup to hold our 5 candy corns.

I used a circle punch for the head and used my circle Coluzzle for the body and Colonial White piece, and a small heart punch for the beak, with a larger heart punch for the wings (I just cut it in half). I used Playful Petals for the Turkey feathers, using Second Generation Stamping to get the different colors.

I will be posting pics from our Thanksgiving fun over the next couple days - we had tons of fun and I took way too many pictures, as always!

Thanksgiving Cards

Here are some cards I made for Thanksgiving using just two stamp sets - Fall, and Give Thanks. I hope you all have a great Turkey Day!

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For the first four cards, I used MCC #40 . The first one shown here is the last one I did and I think it's my favorite - it's super simple but I really like how it turned out.

I added Chocolate to this one...

This was the first one I did and I usually don't do 5x7 cards so I tried reducing it to a standard sized card but didn't like it, so I ended up doing the larger size anyway. Then the rest were all 5x7 after that - I really like that size - I just don't like using a whole 12x12 piece of CS to cut just one card base.

A Bunch of Monkeys!

David likes to bring the girls something after each of his trips - he was in Houston all of last week and brought them back these monkeys - they have hardly put them down since he got back! Plus they have magnets in the hands and feet so I find them stuck in the funniest places ;-) Now we have a house full of monkeys!

Two Challenges in One!

Today after church I had a chance to play - David had some Stake meetings, Brailee was napping, and Kaylee and Brianna were playing so nicely together, so I decided to tackle some challenges. I got these fun new Felt Flurries yesterday from SU! and as soon as I saw them, I knew they would match CTMH's new Tulip color perfectly. Since Marjorie's latest Color Challenge #39 uses Tulip, I decided to give it a try - plus she is also having a Blog Candy Challenge, which is to make a winter themed card, using the sketch she provided, so this card covers both challenges!

I really struggled with this color combo at first...and then I realized that I was trying to use Breeze instead of Ocean ;-P and it just didn't go with Heavenly Blue. Once I got the correct color in there, it went together just fine! I had fun paper piecing these darling snowmen from the Frosty Friends stamp set - I just LOVE snowmen! I added a bit of crimped Topiary for the tree, and a touch of Autumn Terracotta and Sunflower marker for the carrot noses and stars. I really think this is an interesting but darling color combo and I had a lot of fun with it. I also did lots of edge distressing and added some Liquid Applique and Fun Flock on the hat and boots.

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Thanks for looking!

School Pictures

I got this year's school pictures scrapped already - here they are...sorry for the glare on the pics, I couldn't get a decent pic without the flash.

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I did this one yesterday - I used Erin's Sketch Challenge posted on her blog - as soon as I saw her sketch I knew what I was going to use it for, it just took me a few weeks to get around to it ;-) I used the Stylin' papers and Stickease (retired), and the letter K from the Black Dazzling Die-Cuts, along with the Classmates Alphabet and Sparkles.

I did this one last week - and my creativity was really lacking. Here is the first end result and I just didn't like it...

...something was missing, plus I hated my spacing on the word 'for' - I don't know what I was thinking! So I let it sit for a few days and then I found these fun sparkly flourishes at WalMart and knew they would be just perfect! It's still not one of my favorite layouts, but I'm much happier with it now. I used the B from the Crystal Blue Dazzling Die-Cuts, stamped with the Spot On Background, and the frame and hearts came from the Watermelon Dazzling Die-Cuts, also stamped with Spot On. I also used the Classmates Alphabet, Sparkles, and paper from the Notebook pack.

Thanks for looking!

Family Update

It's been a while since I've posted a decent update. Our family is doing well - I was feeling slightly burned out last week as I had just had it with the sicknesses going around the house - it all started with me three weeks ago, just had a yicky cold, then the next week, Kaylee was home from school for 3 days - she just had a high fever, headache, and she slept a lot! Then the next week, Brianna got it - same deal as Kaylee. Luckily Brailee got it just a day after Brianna, and she didn't get it nearly as bad, so at least I got two through it at once instead of spreading it out another week. Plus David has been traveling for work a lot lately, so I was dealing with most of it all on my own. Anyway, we just relaxed this weekend and everyone is finally better, so I'm feeling much better now. Here are some recent pics...
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Brailee is just too much fun - she is particularly stylish, especially when it comes to hair ;-)

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Here is the hip new way to wear headbands - once again, part of her 'I Do It' attitude

Another headband - oh, and flour on her hands, we had just made cookies

This is what she usually looks like after a nap

And here she finally let me fix it cute

We usually don't watch much sports around here - only when I realize that the Yankees or Packers are on TV, but I don't pay as much attention during the season as I used to. Anyway, about a month ago, we were just relaxing, and I found the Packer game on TV and discovered that Kaylee is my fellow sports fan - she LOVED watching the game (she also enjoyed watching the Yankees this summer). Anyway, like when we watched baseball, I had to explain the game to her and what was going on. Then she asked me, "Mom, what are the binkies for?" Once I realized that she was talking about the mouth guards the players were using, I couldn't help but laugh. Brianna on the other hand doesn't get much into watching the games - she is more like her dad, she would rather play the sport than watch it on TV ;-) So here are my Packer fans in training!

The pregnancy is still going great - I am anemic, but no surprise there as I have been with every pregnancy. I feel great and they've put me on an Iron/Vitamin supplement. I also have to make myself eat at least one banana a day and drink more milk (I'm not much of a milk drinker) to keep the charlie horses away at 3 in the morning - if I don't keep up the balance of potassium and calcium and make the mistake of stretching in the middle of the night, I sure pay for it! Here is an updated pic of my belly - I was looking at my 20 week picture recently and that was nothing - what a difference 8 weeks makes! This was taken yesterday with my friend who is just 6 weeks ahead of me - she has the cutest roundest belly ;-)

Hooray - another Runner-Up!

I just checked the Contest Winners on the CTMH website and found out that I got First Runner-Up in the Rub-Ons contest - how exciting! You can see my card here or on my original post here.

Thanks, Laurel!

I won Laurel's Blog Candy Challenge - here is the sweet blog candy I received on Monday - thanks so much, Laurel, I love it all - so many fun goodies!

And I've been really horrible about passing on blog awards lately - sorry, I really do appreciate them! Since I've lost track, here is the most recent one - also from Laurel! I will pass this on to every blog I visit - it's always just too hard to pick JUST 6!

MCC #38

I have had these pictures just sitting on my desk for the last 2 months with this dot paper from Silhouette and some Juniper and Ponderosa Pine CS (since it matches her dance costume so perfectly), but I just wasn't getting the motivation to scrap them - that is, until Marjorie's Color Challenge #38 came along! So I just added Bamboo from Marjorie's color challenge to my original idea, used Black instead of Desert Sand, got to play with my fun new Dazzling Die-Cuts for the first time and hooray, I have another page done! I stamped the Die-Cuts with one of my favorite background stamp sets, Adorable Backgrounds, using Juniper ink, and heat embossed (using Clear EP on Juniper CS) and cut out the title using Friendship Alphabet. I'm not so sure about the 'a' at the end of her name - it seems to get lost to me - what do you think? I'm wishing I had matted the letters on Black CS, but I really didn't want to cut any more ;-) Any suggestions? Also, a very subtle thing I did - I traced each Die-Cut piece using a black marker to give it a very sharp black edge - it's hard to tell in the pic, but it made them pop and I'm glad I decided to do that rather than sponge the edges in black, I really like the clean look. After all that, I ended up with a really quick layout (besides the title cutting which took about 15 minutes) that I'm really pleased with! I forgot to mention, I was inspired by a PageMaps sketch for this one - it's an April 2008 MiniMaps.

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Thanks for looking!

Squeaky Birthday Wishes

Here is the card I did for this month's Originals Challenge - I also used MCC #31 but I forgot to add the Juniper ;-P but at least I used the minimum of 3 colors - Honey, Cocoa, and Olive. I used one of the fun stamped images that Laurel sent me - what a fun little mouse - I cut waxy flax for his whiskers and added Window Charms on the stars. This card was for my nephew who had a birthday last week - I hope it's masculine enough for a 15 year old!

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Thanks for looking!

My NEW Workshop Club

I created these fun projects for my newest workshop - it's a Monthly Word Puzzle club - we start this month using the January Word Puzzle and November's Stamp of the Month, All Decked Out. Isn't that little snowman too cute - thanks to Bren Yule for the fabulous idea of using CTMH's new corduroy brads for the earmuffs - brilliant! For complete details on my workshop, just click here.

12x12 Layout option

6x6 Layout option

Card option

Happy Birthday, Kaylee!

I started this post last week, but then Kaylee was sick, then we had company, so now it's a little late, but we celebrated Kaylee's birthday on Friday - I can't believe my oldest daughter is 7!!! They grow up too fast. Here is a flash back...but minus her first two years - that was before we were digital ;-P I'll try to find something decent to scan.

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

SEVEN!!! With her new bike she got for her birthday.

Christmas * 1989

Here is the layout that I did for this month's Reflections Challenge - I can't believe that this was almost 20 years ago - wow! I found this letter from my Great Grandma and Grandpa Sager - they had it attached to the picture at the top - the letter is tucked in a file folder behind that picture - I have also listed all the names on the file folder. Then I was lucky enough to find these other pictures from that same Christmas so I was very glad to get to put them together. The picture on the bottom left is me, my brother, and two of my cousins - it's amazing to see how much the family has grown since then - of the 4 grandchildren pictured there, two of us are married, one is getting married next Spring, and the other just left on his mission this year! There are now 10 more grandchildren (if I counted right), and my children which makes 3 (almost 4) great-grandchildren!

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The letter is so simple and sweet - it reads:

Dear Jena Vee,

Christmas is a time to celebrate the circle of our family's love. The greatest gift we can give to our grandchildren and great grandchildren is this picture of our family to remind you of the small family circle that has grown larger and larger over the years to include you and to eventually include your children and many others.
This testimony of the eternal plan of being a forever family is just part of the gift of life that Jesus Christ brought to us at his birth so many hundred years ago.

"I have a family here on earth,

They are so good to me.

I want to share my life with them through all eternity.

Families can be together forever

through Heavenly Father's plan.

I always want to be with my own family,

And the Lord has shown me how I can."

-Ruth Muir Gardner

Put this Christmas message and picture in a Book of Remembrance where it will let you keep the circle of our family's love alive in your heart and mind.

Merry Christmas with Love, Grandma and Grandpa Sager

Products Used - All CTMH: Traditional Holiday paper pack (retired), Classic Caps, Boutique Numbers, Adorning Corners

I Do It!

Here is the layout that I did for this month's Imagine Challenge - there's a lot of pink here, but I really like how it turned out. I ended up rotating both layouts to fit my pics - that's what I love about doing square layouts, it's so easy to make it work! This layout talks about Brailee's strong independence right now - she wants to do everything herself and is constantly telling me "I Do It!" and she's so proud of herself when she actually does! Putting on her shoes is her favorite thing to do herself - I'm not looking forward to winter when it's too cold for these shoes and I will have to help her against her will ;-)

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Thanks for looking!

Products Used - All CTMH: Best Friends Forever paper pack (yes, again - this time I just used the pink striped paper), Autumn Garden B&T paper (for the Hollyhock dot paper and textured paper), Spot On Background stamp set on the Dimensional Elements, Sassy Strands, Flower Tags, Twill Ribbon, and Silver Photo Hangers with Hollyhock brads.

Tooth Fairy Layout

Here is the layout that I did for this month's Cherish Challenge - it was a super fast and easy layout. I was lucky, too - when Kaylee lost her tooth and asked for some paper to write her note to the Tooth Fairy, I just grabbed this scrap of paper and luckily it was 6x6 so it fit perfectly on my layout in a 6x6 page protector - it will go on top of the 12x12 page protector over the layout so you can easily access the hidden journaling.

Products Used - All CTMH: Best Friends Forever paper pack & Stickease, Silver Accessories, Liquid Glass (over the flower buckles), Dutch Blue Textured CS, and the Font CD for the title and journaling.