Happy Birthday Trysten!

I can't believe it was two years ago today that he was born!  We've gone from this...

...to this!

To read about his crazy BIRTH day, click HERE.

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We celebrated yesterday because tonight Brianna has basketball practice and Kaylee has two basketball games, so our night is going to be busy! My grandparents and mom are coming to visit today, so I'm sure we'll fit in a little extra celebrating!  He got a little bashful when everyone started singing to him...he wouldn't even blow out the candles, he just kept smiling and looking at everyone telling him what to do ;-)

He sure enjoyed his cake, though!  When we were grocery shopping last week he picked up a chocolate cake mix - but since cake mixes are SO expensive here unless you catch them on sale, I promised I'd make him a chocolate cake from scratch - I made a caramel frosting (only because I didn't have enough chocolate baking squares for chocolate frosting).  After we blew out the candles he kept putting them back in his cake and would say "Happy!" - I think he wanted us to sing to him again!

He had fun opening presents - he got a couple of new train books, some add-ons for his Diego train (can you tell he likes trains?), and a fun spout for the bathtub since he loves to play with running water.  We filled up a bucket and tried it out in the living room yesterday but that ended in a mess - he'll sure have fun with it in the bathtub!

And here are a few old favorite pics - he's grown up so much, but still such a handsome boy!

Thanks for visiting!

Flashback Friday - Go Pack Go!

Since the Packers are playing in the NFC Championship this weekend I thought it would be a fun Flashback topic!  I got to go to the 1996 NFC Championship game at Lambeau Field with my dad, brother and a family friend.  It was awesome - fun, cold, thrilling, cold...oh, did I already say that?  Well, it was cold!  What a great year to see the Packers finally make it back to the Super Bowl and win - here's hoping they can do it again this year!  Here are the pages that I scrapped of our trip...

...it's so weird to look back at how I used to scrap when I was in high school - I like to see how my style has changed.  My pictures didn't turn out very good - my roll of film (don't miss those days) got ruined somehow so most of my pictures ended up like this - but at least I have something!

At the airport after the game we saw Max McGee and Ronnie Lott and got their autographs - that's my ticket stubb from the game that they both signed - so glad I scrapped it right away and it never had a chance to get lost! 

Thanks for joining me on this week's flashback!  I hope you'll cheer on the Packers with me this weekend - Go Pack Go!

Long Lost Cards

It's been too long since I've posted a paper project, and I'm hoping to be posting more soon.  For now I've been organizing my temporary craft room and came across these cards that I completely forgot about and never posted, so here they are!  Okay, after you've picked yourself up off the floor in shock, take a look!

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This one I think I did with one of my Hostess Clubs last spring using the Topstitch Paper, a pink Just Bloom flower, and Togetherness stamp set for the stitches.

The next two are way out of season, and meant to share them months ago, but they got put away and forgotten as well.  I hosted a Crop 'Til You Drop night back in October and had some friends over to crop the night away!  I played a bit with Studio J (I'll share those layouts later) and created these two Halloween cards using the Hooligans Paper, Thriller stamp set, Glitz Gel, and a bit of Liquid Glass and my craft sewing machine.

For the main image I inked the image in Gypsy (purple) ink, then I rolled it in Black and then stamped it.  Then I stamped the image again in Gypsy, cut out the skull and used a pop dot to attach it to my card.  I then glitzed up the eyepatch with the Glitz Glitter gel.  I also used the Glitz on my 'fake' brads (aka punched out paper circles) to give them some bling and dimension.

For this card I stamped the main image once on the card and then again on the Lagoon paper and cut it out.  I added some Liquid Glass to Dracula to give him some dimension and shine.  You can't tell in the pic but I also used the Glitz Gel on the dots on the scalloped piece that I cut from the patterned paper.

Thanks for visiting!

My Joy

Having a downer of a day (week) so I decided to cheer myself up with some fun random pictures.  I love my kids and they always find a way to make me smile.

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Trysten likes to sneak into the lotion - he especially loves to rub it in his hair and that is how I have discovered that sometimes it works better than hair gel to get his hair to spike ;-)

Brianna loves to dance - anywhere and everywhere!  Here she was dancing on Kaylee's new bedroom floor as her Dad was installing it - even though she looks mad, she was just being very expressive ;-P  She doesn't like to listen to music at night like her sisters do as they are going to sleep because, quote "I keep dancing to the music in my head and can't go to sleep!"

Kaylee loves to be creative.  Right now she is enjoying playing with Studio J and has created many layouts!  She also loves to draw and color pictures and write stories.  She has also created many plans for her new room.

Roaring - like a tiger of course (that's what the hat on her head is if you can't tell)

Everytime we get out our 'big screen' to watch movies as a family, Trysten gets the popcorn maker out and insists on making popcorn - he loves to watch it pop.

I love how well my kids get along and laugh together.  They especially love to read books together.

Trysten got himself all ready for who knows what - jammies, rain boots, and a Santa hat!

Brailee got herself dressed one day and actually matched!  I loved the bright colors she picked that day and it looked so nice outside against the freshly falling snow, so we snuck out for a quick pic and to catch snowflakes on our tongues!

And here's part of the reason why it's been such a rough week - Trysten is on 2 different medicines plus a nebulizer (sp?) and just not feeling well and super grumpy.  Here's hoping he comes around - I hate it when my kids are sick!

Brailee's Birthday

Brailee is now FOUR years old, I can't believe it!  Here are some pics from her big day.

Opening presents (with a little help)

I love the look on her face as she realized what she got

And this was the highlight of her day - a microphone since she LOVES to sing and make up songs

She gets so into it - a true performer!  I was really bummed about this microphone - it stopped working after just one day and I had to send it back for a refund.  I guess I should have listened to the reviews, I was just hoping ours would work!  I've been trying to find a replacement but haven't had much luck yet - I found a really cheap one at the Family Dollar, but it was so cheaply made it didn't last either.  The first one seemed really high quality and sounded great while it worked.  After that first day the base still worked, but the microphone just quit, just like I read in a lot of the reviews. 

I was trying to figure out a fun cake to go along with her rock star party and remembered making cupcakes in ice cream cones before and thought they'd make perfect microphones!  Unfortunately we had to postpone her birthday party because of bad weather and by then David was sick, but we still made the cupcakes.

Here she is blowing out her candle - notice how she is still holding on to that microphone - she played with it ALL day, until it quit working :-(

For dinner that night we made the pizzas we were going to make with her friends.  I used some yummy homemade crusts that I had saved in the freezer (thanks Mom!) and cut some pepperoni's into star shapes.

Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

We had a fun Christmas, even though I completely wore myself out! On Saturday the 18th we hosted David's Family Christmas Party, so we had quite the houseful!  We also tried to squeeze in some family pics even though we were missing a few family members, but I think it's the most we're going to be able to get together in quite a while since the first grandchild just left on his LDS Mission earlier this month.  Then the next day it was our Ward Christmas Program at church, and I was in charge of the music - I think it turned out really nice.  Then on Monday I started getting sick.  I took it easy for a couple of days, but then Wednesday we had to go to R-ton to drop off David's work truck at the shop (just our luck it broke down on the way and he had to leave it and call a tow truck).  But we also took the opportunity to go to WalMart so I could finally get some fabric to make the kids' Christmas Jammies.  Yes, you heard me right, this was just TWO days before Christmas Eve - what was I thinking?!?  When we were looking for fabric I couldn't find any Christmas fabric that I liked so I let the kids pick out their own.  Then just before we left I finally found some cute dot fabric, so I got both since I love matching jammies on Christmas.  I sewed most of the next day and got not only the Christmas Jammies done but most of the others as well.  I finally had to call it quits on Christmas Eve because I was feeling pretty worn out and still a little sick.  We didn't wrap the jammies this year - next year I am NOT sewing the week before Christmas (or Halloween) - I've learned my lesson!  I had planned on getting my fabric when we went to Utah for Thanksgiving, but since that trip got canceled it threw off my plans and I do not have fabric store options around here!  Next year I will be more prepared.  Okay, enough jabbering, here are some pics...

...here are the kids spreading the Reindeer Dust (Brailee was too tired to join in)...

...Trysten dumped his...

...then realized he didn't have any more so he tried to pick it up ;-)

Then the kids put out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer (Brailee was asleep by now) and Kaylee had notes and pictures for Santa

I walked out of the room and when I came back I found Trysten sneaking into Santa's milk!

Busted!

Here are the kids Christmas morning...I'll post more jammie pics later

Brailee asked Santa for a Baby Belle and 'Makeup Thing'

Brianna asked for Magic Treehouse books

Kaylee just asked for a doll - she didn't get specific and was thrilled with the one she got

Trysten enjoyed the whole opening presents experience

I didn't get many more pictures that day because once we were done opening presents, I was wiped out and super sick!  I didn't move from the couch the rest of the day - it was nice to just sit back and watch the kids play.  David was great and took care of everyone but mostly we all just took it easy that day.

Thanks for visiting and letting me share - I hope you enjoyed your holiday as well!

Our Christmas Card Photos

...if we'd actually DONE a card this year ;-P  Being sick threw me off - I was going to do a digital Christmas Card, but it just didn't happen.  These are the pictures I was going to use - wish I'd taken the time to get better pics, but we did a rushed session before we headed to the library to see Santa.

We found the tripod for the camera but should have put it on the piano bench or something to put it at a better angle - oh, well, at least everyone is smiling!

And then we headed to the library and saw Santa and Mrs. Claus - I was hoping Brailee and Trysten would have warmed up to the idea this time (since this was like the 3rd time we'd seen them this year) so I could actually get them on Santa's lap, but no such luck - not even for a Beanie Baby Bribe.  Trysten did get close enough to get a candy cane and pick out a Beanie Baby but wouldn't sit on Santa's lap.  Brailee warmed up to Santa the time before and told him what she wanted and stood next to him, but this time she wouldn't even go near them, she clutched and hid behind my leg the whole time.  Kaylee and Brianna were good sports - and still believe!

Thanks for visiting and letting me share!