Happy Stampin

Happy New Year!

2012-01-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

My first New Year's resolution is to not make any! I was going to try to make laundry organization become my first one, but after how our year started I think I'm going to just take things one day at a time and what gets done gets done and what's left can be accomplished the next day. We have had a lot happen since I posted last in October. I've tried posting, but blogger hasn't been the kindest and is always kicking me out! I'm going to give it a shot tonight though before I head for bed.

October was finished up with Halloween. The kids had some cute costumes. Ava was a witch, same costume that she wore when she was 3! She didn't remember wearing it though. Kale was a turtle, the same one Ethan wore when he was 1. Emelia was a little kitty cat. They were all so very cute. Ethan would have been right in there with them as he was always dressing up at home for no occasion at all!

November we got to take a family trip with my parents and my brothers and their families to Branson, MO. It was a quick trip, but fun to get everyone together. My Dad was on an off week of chemo so that worked out well. We visited Silver Dollar City and got to see all of the Christmas lights. It was so pretty. We had Thanksgiving dinners at both of our parents houses and ate way too much of course. Then the Christmas season began.

My Mom had her annual Christmas Cookie exchange. We snuck in a shopping trip to St. Louis for some Christmas presents and items for our new house. We went to a couple early Christmas parties with family and Dave's work and then Christmas week was here and things got a little crazy. My Dad went into the hospital for low blood counts and an infected boil the Wed before Christmas. He got to come home the Friday before, but our whole family came down with the stomach flu. We were better by Christamas Eve afternoon, but didn't want to risk getting my Dad sick so we postponed Christmas at their house. Then after Christmas my Dad started having shoulder and neck pains to the point that he couldn't hardly walk. So the Tuesday after New Year's Eve he ended up in the hospital again and got to come home the following Sunday. That is what I mean about life being absolutely crazy! He is home now and seems to be doing better.

Christmas was good to us despite all of that. The kids had a ball and that is really all that matters. Ava's favorite gift was a gymnastics mat. Kale got a motorized train and track that he really likes and little Emelia just smiled at everything. She got some cute new clothes! We finally had my parent's Christmas on New Year's Day and we ended up opening gifts the week after Christmas with my husband's family one evening during the week because we missed going there too!

Now we are on into the new year, back to work and getting things accomplished on our house. The drywall is all up and tomorrow we are going to add a little color to our walls. I can't wait to see it. The porch has been built and looks sooo good. It's starting to look like our home. My husband has put in countless hours to make our home and should be so proud of all of his hard work. The heat is on out there now and it is sooo cozy warm. Wish we were living in it now as the weather is taking a turn and going from a high of 50 today to a high in the 20's tomorrow. Yikes!

Little Miss Emelia just turned 5 months old and is so big. She is just a pure delight to have. Kale turned 2 in November and is onery as ever, but we wouldn't trade him for the world. He is always making us laugh. Ava is really enjoying her gymnastics and loves school. She is saving her money for an Ipod Touch. I got a new phone that has a touch screen so she likes to play games on it.

Stamping....well, that has been put on the backburner for quite some time. I do still get together once a month with my stamping ladies. I'm working on birthday invitations for my nephew who turns 1 on Valentine's Day. I still get to dabble with my toys, but until Dave is finished with the house I don't have a lot of free time for anything.

I'll be back again to update sometime again this year!

Back for a quick update!

2011-10-09T19:15:00.001-07:00

So I thought I could manage updated once a week.....guess I was wrong about that! These past couple weeks have been nuts! Last week was full of doctor visits and actually one night stay with Kale at the hospital for croup. It wasn't a fun week to say the least. We made it through though and had a pretty good weekend. We got together with some friends on Saturday at the winery that is just down the road and today I got to go on a local house tour and get some finishing ideas for our house! We are getting closer, but not nearly as quick as I would like!

Here are some random pictures from us playing at the park last Saturday and some updated pictures of our house! I need to update our house blog too and it is on my list of things to get done! I still haven't finished the baby announcements yet, but I'm determined that I will get that accomplished this week!

Happy 35th Birthday to me! My husband wasn't being very cooperative when we were trying to take pictures!

Getting a picture of all 3 kiddos is almost impossible, but it still turned out cute!

Ava girl riding her bike!

Kale with his goofy grin!

Kale giving Daddy a kiss!

Daddy "trying" to show Ava how to do the monkey bars!

Ava and her baby sister!

Ava has almost mastered the monkey bars!

Here's a picture of our houses from the road to the winery.

Another picture of our current house, the new house and our barn.

I'm still Alive......Just BUSY!!!

2011-09-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Life has been SOOO busy! We had Emelia on August 3rd, my Dad and I came home on August 5th from the hospital, August 19th and 20th was Ethan's Rodeo, and the house construction continued through all of this too! Now we are finally back to "just" house construction, Ava in kindergarten and gymnastics, and just our everyday life with a newborn and a 22 month old to chase every day!This is Emelia's Baby Announcement that are in "production" right now. Time is just hard to come by right now. I'm actually typing this with a pile of clothes that need to be folded by my side, Emelia asleep....due to wake up anytime, and the other 2 are fast asleep in their beds. I just love this picture of my little lady! I like to call her my "little chicky!" We call Ava Chicky so I thought it was only appropriate.This is the card that my Mom made for Emelia for her baptism which was today. Isn't this card sweet. Emelia was really fussy so I couldn't put her down to take a pic so I just took one on my lap....it did the trick. This is the inside of the card.

The proud parents! Emelia is wearing the same Christening gown that I wore, my brother Richard wore (my other brother was too big), Ethan, Ava, and Kale wore this too and my Godson Dax got to wear it earlier this year as well. She is wearing a locket with her initial "E" on it from my Mom. Ava has one too from her baptism.
Here are some shots from the rodeo. This is Dave's Goddaughter Caroline and Ava...aren't they just too cute!

Ava girl and her girlfriends, Sophia and Andrea at the rodeo! Ava LOVED the snowcones!

Emelia was just 2 weeks old, but she sported a Rodeo onsie and cowgirl boots!

And my SWEET yet very onery boy, Kale. He is just SOOO busy! He loves to wear his hat and boots!

I'm going to try and start something new on here, I've been bad about updating so I'm going to join my blogging friend, Sylvia, and used My Time Tuesdays to update my blog and hopefully to get a little scrapbooking/cardmaking in. I might have to switch days when I go back to work, but that is my plan. Thanks for stopping by....see you next week!

Baby Emelia is Here!

2011-08-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

Our baby girl, Emelia Rose Weiman, arrived around 5:00 on August 3rd. She is my biggest yet, 10 lb 14 oz and 21 inches long. She has a full head of black hair that I think is going to be curly like Ava's. She looks just like Ava, but with black hair. Ava is my little helper and wants to hold her all of the time. Kale does amazingly well with her, but you can't leave the room because you never know what Kale is going to try to do to her, he likes to help, but sometimes will put a burp rag on her face or toss her a bottle!

The sleepless nights have begun, but I'm honestly a lot more comfortable now than I was for the last 2 months and I wasn't getting any sleep then. She goes to bed around 10:00 or so and then has been getting up around 1 to 1:30 and then at 4:30 or 5:00. Hopefully she will follow the trend of the other 3 and sleep through the night by 6 weeks. I'm off work until the end of October so we should hopefully have some sort of a schedule by then.

Right now we are extremely busy getting ready for Ethan's Rodeo which is this coming weekend, August 19th and 20th. If you don't live near here and would like to help, you can donate a ticket through our website, http://www.ethansrodeo.com/ We are hoping for great weather this year.

Stamping and scrapbooking seem to just be things I talk about right now, but eventually I will get back into both of them. I have Emelia's announcements designed and I think I got a picture of her today that I'm going to use. One thing at a time though. Ava starts kindergarten on Wednesday so we are gearing up for that too and she is sooo excited.

The house is coming along, slowly, but surely. We have someone hired to build our garage so even though Dave hasn't had a lot time to work on the house lately we have gotten a few things finished on it. On top of everything else, my Dad had surgery to remove his kidney because he had a malignent tumor on it. We came home from the hospital on the same day! Life has to get calmer right!

Hope to be back soon with more pics and some stamping!

My Sweet Kiddos!

2011-06-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

I know, I know.....I haven't posted in over 2 months! Yikes.....where did the last 2 months go? I'm not complaining though because I am sooo ready to have this baby!! My husband's cousins took these pictures of my kiddos and I just had to share, I LOVE them! Aren't they just precious!

So what have I been doing that I haven't been blogging? I'm now 8 months pregnant and feel (and look) like I could "POP" anytime! I've been busy....don't worry! I'm still doing some stamping, but have taken a well needed break. I have my pictures almost all organized and put into the scrapbooks just ready for me to scrapbook them. I wanted to get this accomplished before Baby Emelia got here and I think I might actually get it finished, unless she decides to come early!

I have her baby announcement designed with some help from my Mom. I even got the chance to get together with a new friend to scrapbook last week and we had a lot of fun so we are getting together next week again! I've also been busy at work and have been working more than my usual 2 day work week.

The house is coming along too. The house is almost all closed in and only has the windows in the basement and our front and side door to go! The weather hasn't been very cooperative to get a ton done and we got hit Sunday night with a terrible storm. We didn't have much damage, but our friends and neighbors did so Dave has been using his toy, his JLG, to assist in the cleanup. We didn't have power from Sunday night through noon on Tuesday! That was fun!

Maybe I won't be too long between posts this time. I have stamp club next Wed so I will try to share my creation with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ava is 5!

2011-04-18T18:19:00.001-07:00

Ava turned 5 on April 7th and had a few friends to a pool party at a local hotel. It was an owl theme if you can't tell by the cake. The cake is made from rice crispy treats and then covered with frosting, oreo cookies, and mini m&m's for the eyes.Ava got a "Happy Birthday" banner too! It was hard to get a good picture with all the sunlight coming in through the window!The hotel let us have their breakfast area for the evening and it worked out perfectly for all of our family and friends.Here are my first attempt at Owl Pops! They were a lot of fun (and work) to make, but they turned out so cute and are very yummy! Here's Ava, Mommy, and Kale swimming before the party began. Kale was stuck to me and didn't let go nearly the entire time. Ava loves to swim and had a ball with all of her friends!

Here's Kale playing on the luggage cart!

Ava got so many nice gifts and has her spring and summer wardrobe taken care of!

Here's Ava and two of her friends listening as she reads her birthday card!

And....here's the whole gang! It was a great party and Ava even thanked me the next day! She did tell me on our walk Sunday that she felt older!

Ava's 5 year highlights!

Loves to write her letters and numbers

Knows her alphabet, upper and lower and can count well past 100

Loves to do math, can add in her head and likes to do addition problems

Can read simple books

Still loves to play with her dolls

Has learned how to blow bubbles with bubble gum

Can snap her fingers

Ties her shoes

Wears size 6 clothes and size 12 to 13 shoes

Good eater

Sleeps well in her bed

Likes going to pre-school 3 days a week

We still call her Chicky and Ava Girl

Her favorite color is pink

Loves flip flops, lipgloss, and doing her own hair

Has a sassy attitude, but can be sweet as can be!

Loves to make cards with Mommy

Very creative and getting into drawing

Loves playing with her brother, Kale and even fights with him

We are so glad that we got to celebrate Ava's birthday as we lost our Ethan right before he turned 5! It is such a joy to watch our kids grow up! This fall she will start kindergarten and is very excited!

March Fun!

2011-03-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Kale loves to yell for Dada and this is what he was doing over the weekend when we were playing outside! Dave yells back at him from the "new house" and Kale thinks that is sooo funny!

Ava was having fun on her skooter and decided that she should try on Daddy's boots! You just never know what outfit Ava is going to have on!

Here's my sweet Kale just smiling in his car seat!

Ava's big highlight of March is that she learned how to blow bubbles! We go through a lot of bubble gum at our house!

Here is Kale this morning before I left for work drinking his bottle and wearing his shades! The kid's Easter outfits arrived today. I LOVE them and Ava loves her new shoes. I can't believe they sat still long enough for a picture. I am now on the hunt for a dress for our new little one....that's right, we are having a little GIRL! Amelia Rose should be here to meet us around the beginning of August and we can't wait. Ava is on cloud 9 knowing that she is going to have a little sister!

Check out Ava's shoes! She wants to know if Daddy and I are going to wear orange!

My Sweet Girl posing for her Mama!

I STAMPED!!!

2011-03-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to finally share a few cards with you. This one is what we made at stamp club last night. I was inspired by Laurie Schmidlin's card here. It was a fun card to make and a little more vintage than I usually do. We used SU's music wheel too so that was fun! This is Ava's 5th Birthday invitation. I LOVE how this turned out and Ava does too. She is getting to have a swimming party with some of her little friends. I used SU's new Punch Fun stamp set with the owl punch. It's just a fun cheery card, perfect for her birthday!

We got to spend the morning with my nephew taking his 1 month pictures. It's hard to believe that he is 1 month old already! It is almost 70 here today and we are loving it. We aren't outside yet, but will be later on....hopefully if it doesn't start storming. Kale is napping and then Ava has gymnastics. The horses seem to be enjoying the nice weather too. Have a great day!

Check Out These Look Alikes!

2011-03-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

Kale is 16 months here in the same size "3T" shirt and Ethan is 20 months! Ava had just been born in April of 2007 and Kale will be 21 months when our new baby is born this August!

March is Here!

2011-03-12T11:36:00.001-08:00

Here is what our house looked like this morning from the kitchen window of our current house. You can now start to see the beginnings of our second floor! So glad that spring is almost here! Here is Kale David with his new "wee squeek shoes". They drive Dave nuts because they squeak everytime he takes a step. You can take the squeaker out, but it is much more fun this way!

This is a picture of my little nephew's "crazy" hair. He is such a doll and has hair like you wouldn't believe and it is soooo blond. I just finished up the announcements for him today! Of course I didn't get a picture, but I will share soon!

Here is my cowgirl being goofy! Kale had been running around with her hat on so she decided it was time for me to take her picture!

And here is Ava giving her brother a kiss before she hops on the bus for preschool! They can be so sweet to each other at times!

Now I'm off to work on Ava's birthday invitations while Kale is napping! I have a "TON" of laundry to fold, but it will wait.....it always does! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I'm "So Big"!

2011-03-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

I've had a super busy week here, but wanted to share one of my favorite photos that I took of Kale. My sister-in-law taught him to do this "trick". Here is Kale doing his new trick! He won't do it everytime you ask, but it is sooo cute when he does.

We also have a new little addition to our family! My brother and his wife had a new little guy, Dax Thomas! He was born on Valentine's Day and is just adorable with tons and tons of blond hair. Here's a picture of Ava and I holding Dax. Kale calls him "Night Night" because he is always sleeping. He also pats on my belly and says "Night Night"!

This will be another busy week. I'm going to work a little extra just because I have some projects that need to get finished up. I just finished up today 38 wedding shower invites, next up is 75 baby announcements, and then Ava's birthday invitations. She is getting to have a swimming party with her friends at a hotel and is super excited! Her card is going to be an owl theme! Hopefully I'll get a chance to share some of my creations with you! Hope everyone has a great week!

Random Activities for February!

2011-02-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some randome pictures from things we have been doing throughout February!Ava had cheer camp this past week! she seemed to have a lot of fun! She is the 3rd one from the right!

Here's Kale....asleep in his crib with his phone in hand! Doesn't he look comfy!My sweet Ava Girl in my favorite outfit! She was all ready to leave for school and waiting on the bus!

Ava wanted a picture with Kale before she left too! Can you tell he was just thrilled!

Here is Ava with her friend from school. They were making valentine flowers!

February has been flying by so far. Kale is already 15 months old and Ava will turn 5 in less than 2 months and she is more than excited! We're busy getting ready for a baby shower too for my sister-in-law. She is supposed to have her baby any day and we don't know what it is so we are anxiously awaiting to hear! We are very glad to report that our 20 inches of snow is finally melting! We are ready for spring to get here!

Where Did January Go?

2011-02-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is February already! I haven't really felt good from before Christmas so I haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished around here lately and just yesterday I realized that I hadn't taken a single picture of either of the kids since Christmas! That is unheard of for me, so I whipped out the camera yesterday and caught some cute pictures running around the house playing.

Ava and Kale were so funny yesterday taking turns putting on Ava's glasses. Kale found the stick horse so he was running around with it having so much fun! We haven't left the house in 2 days and looks like we will be in for a while longer. They are calling for 12-24 inches of snow with blizzard like conditions. We are so ready for spring! Usually around here we get a few inches at a time, but I can't ever recall in my lifetime where we have had this much snow. Businesses and medical facilities have been closing down all over the area.

Hopefully I will get back into my stamp room. I did get all of my pictures uploaded and am caught up through 2010. Now that I'm finally feeling a bit better I might get back into my scrapbooking....I just need my energy to come back now! August can't get here soon enough!

Hope everyone out there is enjoying all of this snow!

Love My New Cupcake!

2011-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

I just got my Stampin' Up! order in just in time for my stamp club on Wednesday. I didn't know if I would get it in time, so had settled on using my Loads of Love stamp set, but it arrived this morning! The new cupcake punch makes this card really easy and fun to do. I got it finished while Kale was napping and now all I have to do is get everything cut for Stamp Club. Everyone is anxious to meet because it has been since November that we have gotten together. Now I'm starting to feel crummy again! I can't wait to get over this hurdle!

It's supposed to snow here tonight. Ava is super excited! We poured concrete for our first floor walls on Thursday, so Dave is taking off a few days before he takes down the supports. So we took a short trip to Columbia, MO on Saturday and did a "little" shopping and ate at one of our favorite pizza places, Shakespeare's Pizza. Then we were home in time to go out to eat with some friends. Sunday was church, lunch, and then naps for Kale and me! The weekend is about to come to an end for us as I head back to work tomorrow! Hope all of you have a good week!

JUGS #66 - My Final Challenge!

2011-01-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

So this is my final JUGS challenge as I'm saying good-bye to some special ladies on the JUGS team. I've been creating with them for over a year now! I've had to make a tough decision to step down and focus on things that I have going on in my life. As most of you that read my blog know, we lost our 4 1/2 year old son in June of 2009 to cancer. Since then I have went back to work part-time, had another baby, in the process of building a house (my husband is!), another baby on the way, and planning a rodeo in memory of our son, Ethan, to raise money for neuroblastoma research. I have a ton on my plate and I needed to lighten my load a little! I also have a "huge" goal of getting caught up on my scrapbooking before the new baby gets here in August so I definitely won't be bored (just in case you were worried!).

Pam hosted the challenge this week and GINA K was more than generous to sponsor us this week. I used one of Theresa Momber's sets called Farm Life. I love her designs and this one is no exception. Anymore I try to not make a card to just be making a card, so this one is for a friend of ours that just passed his professional engineering license. I took this myself and know how hard and how much time goes into studying for this. This set works great for masculine cards and I always struggle with making them. All you have to do is make a card, but you need to make a lined envelope to go with it. I usually don't do this, but it is really easy and makes the envelope look so much more "professional".

Hope all of you will still keep in touch via my blog. I'm definitely not stepping away from stamping.....hopefully I'm going to be doing more scrapbooking and stamping. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

JUGS #65 Sketch Challenge

2010-12-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

This week Kathryn has a simple little sketch to kick off the new year! It really is simple so if you have some time this weekend try it out. I whipped this up, literally, Friday morning for my Grandma. It is her 83rd birthday! She has always teased that she was born the day before she got married. Her anniversary was January 1st.

We are going out to eat for her birthday with the family. Then we are supposed to head out for a New Years Eve party at a friend's house. Hope all of you have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Holiday Decorating and JUGS 64 Color Challenge

2010-12-17T22:50:00.000-08:00

Andrea has a great color challenge for us over at JUGS. Be sure to stop by to see all the gals creations. I have a couple homemade gifts to create yet this year and I had made these calendars thanks to Paper Smiles Blog When you go her link you can print off the calendar. There are all the directions on her blog. Here is my creation using the colors for today. I thought they went perfectly for my winter page! I just noticed my "I" is hanging on, so I fixed it, but didn't get a picture!Here is the Spring side! Summer and Fall are in the works. This was all I could manage with both kids this morning!The kiddos and I, very early in the morning, before I left to go shopping in St. Louis a couple weeks ago! Ava and Kale sporting their Christmas jammies! Kale even has Ethan's old reindeer slippers to match!

Daddy and the kiddos before we set up the Christmas tree! Here's Ava putting on the tree topper!
Mission accomplished!

Here is our tree all decorated! It's all just pretty decorations. We haven't put up personalized ornaments since Ethan died, maybe one of these years, but for now this is what we do! Kale so far as been pretty good at not taking down the tree!

Here is me and my girl! Ava is such a sweetheart. She loves to be by my side doing whatever it is I am doing and she LOVES to do all sorts of crafts, wonder where she gets that from?!?

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We have the 1st of 3 Christmas's on Sunday.

Jugs Sketch Challenge!

2010-12-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

It's time for me to share a sketch with you from JUGS!! I'm in love with pennants and I'm really enjoying using them in my scrapbooks too. I just finished this page for Kale's 1 year picture.....see I really am trying to stay on top of my scrapbooks. I started Kale's out going backwards and I'm finished from birth through 3 months and then back to October, so I don't have much left to do with his pictures, at least in comparison to Ava's and Ethan's books. my sister-in-law and I are making good progress though and I'm off the week after Christmas so I'm planning on getting a lot accomplished then!< This is the sketch that I created for you today. Hope you can play along. Be sure to see the JUGS site for all the other girls creations too. Here is Kale's One Year Old page. I did this separate from his birthday party. The other page (which isn't finished yet) will have his "BIG BRO" and "BIG SIS" on it. I really like how it turned out!

Here is a closeup of my journaling. I love my new dies from Papertrey. I haven't bought a lot of stamping stuff lately just because I've been a little busy, but I absolutely love my purchases from them last month! The pennants are a die too. TOO CUTE!

I love how the pennant of his name turned out. I printed out his name on the computer and then punched it out and dobbed around it and added it on with a dimensional. Notice the tops of the penants too. They are another die from Papertrey Ink. I purchased the patterned papger from Hobby Lobby and just layered it with some Baja Breeze paper from SU! I added a little twine bow on the ends to complete my page!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm off to shop on Saturday for Christmas in St. Louis. Hopefully I get some of my list checked off! Then Sunday I get to meet up with a college friend that I haven't seen since 2005 when I did RAGBRAI (a bicycle ride across Iowa). She just had a little girl named Marin so I can't wait to meet her!

JUGS #61 Holiday 3D Embellishment Challenge

2010-11-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

Little late, but it's still Saturday. I've had some rather BIG computer problems at my house. My main computer is infected with a virus so it is in the shop for the next 10 days or so. Ethan has a laptop so I finally got that up and all hooked up so I could do some things on the computer. I'm very limited to editing programs so I actually edited my picture in "Paint". Here is my take on Kristin's 3D Holiday Embellishment Challenge for JUGS!

I added an ornament to a card for one of Ava's teachers as their Christmas gift. One card down, one more to make!

I've updated my house website too so you can see pictures of the progress. http://www.weimanhomesweethome.blogspot.com/

Hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend!

Start Each Day With WHEE!

2010-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

I just love this stamp that my Mom got me, Start Each Day with Whee from Pure Innocence for My Favorite Things. Just makes you think of having fun as a little kid. This is a birthday card for a blogging friend of mine, Lynn. Hope she likes it!

I had another long evening last night doing some scrapbooking with my sister-in-law. I was organizing pictures and she was working on layouts for me. It's SOOO nice to have help! My goal is to do a little each day, even if it is only sorting through pictures or working on one layout.

Hope everyone has a wonderful "short" week! Happy Thanksgiving!

JUGS 60 - Color Challenge

2010-11-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

Lisa came up with these fabulous colors for this week's JUGS challenge. JUGS now has over 700 followers and as a thank you we are giving away a gift to one lucky participant. We have a JustRite stamp set and a Spellbinders Impressability to offer up. So why not play along this week! Here's "my creation" for JUGS this week!

I;ve been very busy doing something for myself this week. I'm trying to get my scrapbooks caught up. My sister-in-law has offered her help so the other night we were up until past 1:00 in the morning working on my books. I could barely pull myself out of bed at 7:00 the next morning! I got very far behind with everything like that when Ethan got sick in July of 2007. I obviously put all of that on the backburner, but now I'm ready to dive in and get everything back in order and what a task it is. I'm determined though to get it finished. Wish me luck. Be sure to stop over and see the other girls creations at JUGS!

Happy 1st Birthday Kale!

2010-11-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

Here is Kale with his "smash" cake!
This was Kale's birthday invitation. I copied off of a friend of mine....Thanks Jenny! They were so simple, yet so cute! Here's a look at the inside!

Here's the whole table, cowboy napkins too!

Instead of a big cake, my sister-in-law made her famous pettifor cakes!

< /a> Here is Kale's birthday card from Mommy and Daddy
Here is the famous banner that I made for Ethan's 4th birthday that hangs proudly in Kale's room. When Ethan saw this hanging he told our good family friend, Brick, that it said "Happy Birthday Ethan!"

The table decorated with pictures of Kale, his card, and his cakes.

Kale is showing off on his new rocking horse!

Let's just pick up the whole cake!

His new rocking horse from Mommy and Daddy.

This is the winning present! Kale loves this new ride-0n-train. It makes noise and blows balls out of the top!

Ava loves to push him around the house on his new ride-on-train!

Kale had a great birthday! He got a TON of new toys and clothes! Daddy just needs to finish up on the house so we have room for them all!

Here is Ava in her cowgirl attire!

Just Us Girls #58 - Sketch Challenge

2010-11-06T05:28:00.001-07:00

First I have to start off by sharing my kiddos from Halloween! If this doesn't make you smile then you should probably go back to bed :-) I got a costume magazine in the mail and saw this donkey costume from Shrek and just had to have it. I have titled this picture

"My Princess and Little Ass"! Ethan would have loved this costume for sure!

Now on to "business". Pam has a wonderful sketch for you today for JUGS sketch challenge. I got to play with a new toy of mine. It's a pinwheel maker. I bought it this week when I took my Grandma, Aunt, and my Mom to a quilting store in Hannibal, MO. I'm sure I could have figured out how to make them by hand, but this little plastic gadget sure was easy to use. They came in all sizes, but I got the smallest one with the intentions of using it for this card. I really like how it turned out and now I can make fabric flowers too!

This card is for my sister-in-law's birthday which is this coming Wednesday. I used some SU patterned paper that I had and the twine is from PTI. Here is my Ava girl in her new leopard print turtleneck and sweater. She loves it so she didn't mind posing for me before we headed off to Hannibal to shop. I'm "finally" back to working just 2 days so this week was so much less stressful for me and I got a lot done around the house. It is Saturday and I'm not going to spend all day doing laundry for once! I got Ava Girl's room cleaned and we organized all of her toys yesterday. She had fun helping because she found all sorts of stuff that she didn't know she had! I think she might be a tad bit like me because she has TONS of those silly bands and she keeps them in her vanity drawer in her room and every night when she takes them off she puts them back in order and knows exactly which ones she has and where they go! Here's a picture of her drawer, not sure why blogger flipped the picture, but you get the idea!I wanted to share this picture that Ava colored too. She loves to color and spends a good majority of her days coloring, but she has started something new lately. Can you see the grid of blue that is drawn all over the horse? She takes her pictures now and draws a grid and then colors the spaces a different color. I think it is kinda neat and I don't have any idea where she learned how to do this.

That's it from me on this Saturday morn! It's hopefully going to be a pretty laid back weekend. I need to get groceries from town today, but other than that there isn't too much on the agenda. Most of the day I'll be chasing Kale around as he has discovered how to walk and we are gearing up for his birthday next weekend too! Hope all of you have a great weekend!

JustRite 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop 9

2010-11-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 9th week of JustRite Stampers’ Wednesday feature, 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hops! I am so excited to be a part of this along with the JustRite and Just Us Girls Design Teams! JustRite has WONDERFUL stamps and their Christmas Collection is just fabulous!

Every Wednesday up until Thanksgiving some of your favorite designers will be joining some of the JustRite design team for a series of Christmas blog hops, showcasing JustRite’s entire Christmas Collection of stamps! Don’t forget that JustRite has some Christmas stamps in their newly released CLING line of stamp sets, too -- you can find them HERE. This week, the designers joining the JustRite design team is the Just Us Girls (JUGS) challenge blog design team!
For the month of November, JustRite will be throwing in some holiday gift ideas using your JustRite stamps, so be watching for those, too, on November’s hops!

In celebration of JustRite’s 9th and 10th weeks of Christmas Blog Hops, they have a huge surprise for you -- take 25% off All JustRite Original Christmas Stamps now through November 15th, with FREE Shipping within the US! Don't forget to tell Santa!

My project features the JustRite stamp sets, "A Merry Little Christmas Set" and "Vintage Christmas Set". I LOVE this snowman. He has such a sweet face! I added a little bling with rhinestones on his coat. I layered this card to give it a lot of dimension. All of the paper is from Stampin' Up (Baja Breeze Patterned Paper and Cardstock, Whisper White Cardstock). Hope this gets you inspired to create your Christmas cards.

Please stop by and visit these designers’ blogs to see what fabulous JustRite Christmas inspiration they have for you on the hop today!

JustRite Inspiration Blog

JustRite Design Team:

Debbie Olson

Sharon Harnist

Heidi Blankenship

Kazan Clark

Stephanie Kraft

Barb Schram

Michele Kovack

Angela Barkhouse

Kathy Jones

Just Us Girls Design Team:

Andrea Matthews

Dana Gustafson

Kristin Bueter

Maria Levine

Kathryn Berthiaume

Lisa Kind

Pam Imholz

2010-10-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's time for another JUGS challenge and I have to thank my Mom for this one. She made my flower for my card! She is really good at making both paper and fabric flowers so I left it to the expert! I really love this card for it's simplicity and also how much it pops. Not every card you make has to take a long time. Hope some of you get a chance to play along with JUGS this week!

Happy Halloween and a little of this and that!

2010-10-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

I "finally" got a package off in the mail for my friend Lauren Meader and her daughter Alexa! It's only been sitting in my stamping area for about a month now! I hope she enjoys it. I sent her this card and a bottle of wine from our neighbors, Spirit Knob Winery. Alexa got an owl....silly me didn't take a picture of it or her card!

Here is Ava being a very big girl at the dentist. We got to go on my birthday! (I didn't eat cake until after my teeth were cleaned!)
Here's Kale David walking along the hallway wall. He is so close to walking. He took his first step yesterday at my Mom's house and my Mom, Grandma, and I got to see him do it! He took one more for the babysitter today so he might be walking by his birthday on Nov 13th!

Friday I headed to St. Louis to see my college girlfriends and their kids at the zoo. It was a lot of fun and the girls really had a good time. All the little guys were in their strollers and seemed to have fun too!

Here's a picture of the two of them. Doesn't Kale look so happy to be there!

I'll hopefully get better about updating on here. I'm working hard on a plan to catch up on all of my scrapbooking. I've been asking my blogging friend Lynn Mangan a lot of questions because she seems to be quite organized about how she does hers. That is on the top of my to do list this weekend so we'll see how it all goes! If anyone has any tips I would love to hear how everyone organizes their scrapbooks.

Color Challenge

2010-10-15T23:49:00.000-07:00

It's time for another JUGS challenge. This week I am the hostess and we are having a color challenge. This picture is from the actual bedding that I picked out for our new house, then I got it all together and decided it wasn't exactly what I wanted, so I took it back. I still really like it, but I'm going to keep my eyes open for the perfect one! i love these colors, but I have my heart set on a paisley print, so if any of you have seen a paisley bedding set let me know!

This week I kept my card very simple. I used an old and retired set from SU for my main image. I just love this set. I'm "very" behind on sending this out, but it is the thought that counts right! I couldn't be more excited about my sister-in-law having a baby! She is due in Februrary and this is their first. They didn't find out what they are having so it will be a surprise! I did send the card yesterday so it is in the mail!

Yesterday I took my kiddos to St. Louis to the zoo. I met up with some college friends and we ad a great time. Then I hit the mall and a wonderful shop on the way home. I got the kids their Christmas outfits, red, brown, and cream are the colors. The outfits are adorable! It's my mission starting back in September to find the perfect outfit. Now to get the perfect picture of them! I even got Ava some new pedipeds to match....you have to check them out here! Kale got these! If any of you have little ones and you haven't discovered pedipeds, you'll have to! These shoes are wonderful! I found them or I should say my Mom discovered them in a magazine when Ava was a baby and now she is in the biggest pair that they make! Kale is just getting started though!

Today we are heading to a pumpkin patch with some friends. It should be a lot of fun. I'm leaving Dave here to pour some concrete on our new house. You can see that progress here.... http://weimanhomesweethome.blogspot.com/!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

JUGS #54 Technique Challenge

2010-10-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

JUGS has a great challenge this week.....except I didn't follow the rules! :-) Lisa chose a technique to use acetate on your card or create a clear card, so what did I do? I used velum! It's pretty close to being clear, right! Here's a closeup of my butterfly. This is one of the dies from Stampin Up! I printed out the text and then die cut it with my cuttlebug. Yes, that is Ava when she was a baby. My they grow up so quickly. She was right along side of me today while I was making this!

Here is the final page! I have to comment on her outfit because I just LOVED it. I saw it at Gymboree and "HAD" to have it. To be honest I don't know how much she actually wore it because I didn't want anything to happen to it! Go figure!

Hope everyone enjoys the wonderful fall weather this weekend. I had a wonderful evening last night stamping with my stamping ladies. I even have Kale's 1st birthday invitations almost finished, thanks to the idea from my friend Jenny. Have a great weekend!

JUGS #53 - Anniversary Sketch Challenge

2010-10-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to JUGS! Can you believe it has been 1 whole year since we started! Kristin has a wonderful sketch for everyone this week and we have some fabulous prizes as giveaways. The best part is you can enter twice! If you are playing along then you'll know what this is for......G.......there is your part to your second chance to win. Be sure to enter a card and then spell out the secret word with our blog hop by visiting everyone's blog. Be sure to follow the order on the JUGS blog to create the secret word.

I would like to welcome our guest designer for October, Selma Stevenson

Now onto my card for this week's challenge. I got to play with a new set from PTI, Peace Be Still. I used some patterned paper from MY TIME MADE EASY. I really like how it turned out and I love the color combo too.
I ebmossed the snowflakes with clear embossing powder to make them pop!

Hope you have enjoyed all of our creations today. I can't wait to see what you come up with for this week's sketch!

Here's a list of generous prizes that have been supplied by some of our favorite stamp companies! Thank you all!

• My Time Made Easy - A Secret Surprise Stamp set PLUS In Suspense Template!

• Gina K Designs - Fanciful Tags stamp set

• Joan's Garden - $25 gift certificate to spend at Joan's store!!

• Paper MakeUp Stamps - $25 gift certificate!!

• Clear and Simple Stamps - donated the following prize package:
(1) Awareness Darling stamp set
(1) Awareness button mix sampler (includes buttons from I'm a Princess Pink, You're Such a Gray-cious Host, and A Blanc Check color stories) (1) I'm a Princess Pink Ribbon sampler (1 yd) (1) Limited Edition Attitude mini stamp All products are made in the USA, ribbon is double-faced satin, and stamp sets are 100% photopolymer.

• WPlus9 - TWO stamp sets of the winner's choice!!!

• PixiePetals Etsy - $10 Gift certificate

• JustRite Stampers - From the JUGS team - we will also give away a stamp set and block. We are donating Homemade Treats and Wood Stamper 2-3/8" with Bonus 25 pt Font set

JUGS #52 Template Challenge

2010-09-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday and time for another JUGS challenge. Maria is our wonderful hostess this week and we get to share with you a template from Lauren Meader, owner of My Time Made Easy! This template is called tuckered out. It went together super easy. I actually used the pdf and cut mine out by hand. You are probably wondering why mine has a "1" on it. Stampin Up has a sample in their new mini with these little gift boxes that are numbered to count down to Christmas and that is what I'm making with this. I'll be finishing the other 24 up hopefully soon and filling them with goodies for Ava to enjoy.

Hope all of you have a great weekend! I'm typing this as we are getting ready for the homecoming parade! Ranger will be making another debut this year and Ava has 3 friends that are riding along with her!

JUGS51 - Color Challenge

2010-09-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday already and time for JUGS! I barely got my card made as I had company for most of the day yesterday helping me finish up thank yous and stamp set orders for Ethan's Rodeo. The process started around 8:30 am and ended around 10:30, but everything is complete and ready to mail......WOO HOO! That is a huge thing off my plate and I'm thrilled to say that we made about $1400 with Lauren's stamps! Isn't that awesome!

So, that left me doing my card around 11:00 last night....nothing too spectacular, but isn't the Santa image cute! It's new from SU and I love it, very vintage. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are having some great fall weather here!

PTI Stamp Sets FOR SALE - for ETHAN's RODEO

2010-09-13T04:44:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I received a phone call from my friend, Lauren Meader. This was shortly after she opened up her new business "My Time Made Easy" Previously she had been a designer with Papertrey Ink and had TONS of stamp sets from them. She ever so generously donated these to me to sell for profits for ETHAN'S RODEO! Many of you know about my 4 1/2 year old son that we lost in June of 2009 to neuroblastoma cancer. My husband and I, along with many friends and family, put on a rodeo in his memory to make money for neuroblastoma research, specifically NB Alliance.

Below is a list in alphabetical order of the stamp sets that I have. Some are in cases, some aren't. The price at which they sell for is listed next to each set. I will be selling the $24 sets for $15 and the $15 for $10. There will be a $3 shipping charge for each set as well (shipped in the USA). I have a paypal account set up for the Rodeo so that is where I will be taking money from these sets. Please e-mail me at that address too if you would like to purchase any of the sets. info@ethansrodeo.com

THANK YOU so much for supporting such a wonderful cause in memory of "THE BEST COWBOY EVER!

The List have been updated as of 8:00 on 9-14-2010! I've had a great response so far! THANK YOU!!!

THIS IS ALL THAT IS LEFT!!! ISN'T THIS AWESOME! Thanks so much to Lauren, and to all of you lovely ladies that purchased the sets!

Borders and Corners Heart $24
Let freedom ring $15
Mazel Tov $24
Mazel Tov Additions $5 Missing Festival of Lights
pond Life $24
shapes by Design $24

JUGS 50 - Technique Challenge

2010-09-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that us JUGS gals have been at this now for 50 weeks! We have another great challenge for the week, one that I have never tried before! Andrea chose this technique, Cracked Glass .....it's a really neat way to accent your projects. Click on the link for how to instructions. Be sure to stop by the JUGS site to see what everyone has in store this week! BIG THANKS to JustRite for sponsoring us this week. They are having a "HUGE" giveaway too! So be sure to stop by JUGS to play along. The wonderfully generous folks at JustRite have offered up the following prizes to one lucky, randomly selected participant this week...

•2 JustRite Christmas Collection stamp sets of choice
•2 JustRite coordinating stampers/mounts
•5 Copic Sketch markers of choice, from JustRite’s offering
•2 Memento full-sized ink pads of choice

I have used two of their new Christmas sets, "A Merry Little Christmas" and "Christmas Nested Sentiments". Love them both! I added some greenery from PTI and my paper is all from SU. I'm loving this new Cherry Cobbler color! Hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful fall weather we are having here in the midwest. Have a great weekend!

"Purrfect" Friend and my kiddos

2010-09-09T04:34:00.001-07:00

My friend had a birthday over the weekend so I made her this card using PTI's Tiny Treats Valentine! The background paper is new from SU! I got dobber happy too and distressed all of the edges! Hopefully she likes it....it should have come in the mail yesterday or today!My little Kale....he loves to play in his swing! Ava girl is my little dare devil! She started gymnastics and is really loving it!

Here are my sweet little ones posing for Mama! Ava forgot her baby doll, but she is all excited because her outfit matches her baby doll's outfit! Kale loves sitting in the grass, but I have to be quick before he starts to eat it!

They are both getting so big! Ava is already 4 1/2 and is still really into her baby dolls, but just this week she has started to play a lot with legos! She was building a house....hmm, wonder why! Kale has his two bottom teeth and is working on a couple more. He is into EVERYTHING! He climbs up steps, walks around furniture and crawls really fast! He loves to play peek-a-boo and has this wonderful little laugh! They are both such fun! Hope everyone has a great week! I'll be back Saturday for a great challenge with JUGS!

JUGS 49 - Sketch Challenge

2010-09-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

This week I am the hostess for JUGS....unfortunately my dsl wasn't working last night/this morning so I'm late posting! None the less, here is my sketch for the challenge and my card! I'm going to be short and sweet as I need to get outside to help my DSH set blocks for our new home. You can check out our progress here: Home Sweet Home

We have a new featured designer this month too. Lynn has a wonderful blog and has great creations so be sure to check her out too! I'll be back later this weekend with a lot to tell about ETHAN's RODEO! It was a huge success.

My Sweet Baby Kale!

2010-08-31T20:57:00.001-07:00

Now how cute is this? Kale is wearing an outfit that I had for Ethan when he was little. Isn't he adorable! The older he gets, the more he looks like his big brother! He did really well sitting on his bike. Kale is growing up so fast. He is 9 months old already!

JUGS - 46 WILD WILD WEST

2010-08-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Today's JUGS challenge is a technique and Pam has chosen a "Wild Wild West" theme in memory of my son, Ethan. We lost our Ethan to neuroblastoma cancer last June and today we are hosting a blood drive in his memory from 10 to 4 at the Red Cross in Quincy, IL and then next weekend, August 20th and 21st, we are hosting Ethan's Rodeo. The proceeds from the rodeo will be going to neuroblastoma research. We are very excited to do this in Ethan's memory. If you have been wondering why I've been away for so long, I've been quite busy behind the scenes gearing up for the big event. I know many of you don't live near us, but if you would like to donate to the event you can "donate a ticket" on the website.

Theresa Momber (from Gina K) is our special guest designer http://craftingtheweb.blogspot.com/ She will also be donating one of her stamp sets called "Out West" to one lucky winner. (Thanks to Theresa for her generosity.) Here's a link to the set Out West.

Here are some other links to digi stamps from Pink Cat Studio that were originally released in memory of Ethan to raise money for Make-A-Wish.

Cowboy "Ethan"
Cowgirl "Ava"
Cow Poke

I decided to use my new canvas that I purchased from Archivers last weekend and make a piece for my living room. I LOVE how it turned out. I used the Out West Set for the cowboy hat, several embellishments from Jolee's Boutique, and then I stamped the penants from Stampin' Up's set, Party This Way. The letters were just printed from my computer and punched out with a circle punch. Hope you enjoy all of the creations the JUGS team has for you. Have a great weekend! Here is Kale at 8 months (although he turned 9 months old yesterday)

Here is my Ava Girl just after her 4th Birthday!

JUGS 40 - JustRite Sketch

2010-07-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

Don't miss out on today's sketch, designed by Pam, that is being sponsored by JustRite Stampers! Check out the details on JUGS to see how you can win! They are giving away some fabulous sets. I love their stamps!

The set I used was the Beautiful Blossoms Borders and Centers. It is sooo pretty and easy to stamp and color! I'm sending this card to a very dear lady that just had us as a guest at her ranch in Missouri, Blue Springs Ranch. We had a wonderful time and it was nice getting away with my husband for a couple of days!

Here's my JUGS challenge card from last week. I never got my post up since we were away. My Mom actually made this for me because I ran out of time to make my card too. Isn't it great. It's made using an apron template. Check out JUGS for the link.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

JUGS 38 Color Challenge and my kiddos!

2010-06-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday and I'm the hostess today for JUGS! It's a color challenge and I thought it would be perfect for an ice cream card.

We had a very busy Friday, but it was very fun. I took Ava girl to the movie Toy Story 3. It was a really good movie except she fell asleep half way through! She didn't take a nap so that is what happens! I enjoyed it though and so did my nephew and Ava's friend Andrea. My friend Nicole was a trooper.....8 months pregnant and sitting through a movie! I have to tattle on her a little though because she sent me to put extra butter on her popcorn! (She'll kill me for saying that!)

Here's Ava and Kale.....he is 7 months old already!

Here's my take on this week's sketch! Don't you just love it! I can't wait to send it to my friend that watched Kale today while we went to the movies! Hope everyone has a great weekend! We have a fun one planned!

Weekly Update from the Weimans!

2010-06-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Check out the shades too!

I got home from work on Tuesday and Dave was unloading some rock in our driveway. I was feeding Kale his supper and Ava had gone upstairs for something. She came back down in a different outfit....this time she had on jeans, a pink shirt, and her sparkly belt. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was going to go help Daddy. I couldn't pass up these pictures....isn't this too cute! The flip flops just make the outfit! Later she did come in to get socks so she could put on her pink cowgirl boots because her feet were getting dirty!

I was doing some long overdue weeding and Kale was hanging out with me so I had to get a picture of Kale too. He turned 7 months old on Sunday! He's such a big boy. He is sitting up, rolling all over and really wanting to start crawling!

Ava Girl was helping me make some baby shower invitations last night! We had a lot of fun and she is quite the little crafter!

Tonight we went to Brick and Rosie's house to go swimming and the kids had a ball as usual. Kale seems to really like the water and kicks his feet the entire time. Ava loves to squirt people. Everyone got quite wet, including Grandma and Papa too!

We visited for a while after swimming and got this great picture of Rosie, Ava, and their dog Ernie. They are all sitting on their hammock having a great time!

Jugs #37 - Let's Get Digi Technique Challenge

2010-06-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

This week JUGS is being sponsored by Lauren Meader at My Time Made Easy. Pam is our hostess today and the challenge is to use a digital stamp. Lauren will be giving away a digital stamp set and some digi paper, so be sure to stop by JUGS for your chance to win!. I used the digi stamp set, Take Time for Petal Perfection. It's such a pretty set and very versatile. Here's the card I came up with. I'm planning on sending this to a friend who needs to take some time for herself to relax. Note the circle sentiment around the button!

Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. We have a 1st birthday party to go to and a 35th birthday party to go to for my brother. He's only 15 months older than me so we joke that he is 2 years older than me for a few months of the year! See you all next Saturday if not before. I need to share some 6 months pictures of Kale and Ava's 4 year old pictures sometime! Thanks for stopping by!

Jugs #36 - Sketch Challenge and a Sponsor

2010-06-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

Another busy week here! Seems to be the norm anymore. I'm just getting my card up....better late than never right! It's a very rainy dreary day here in the midwest. All of us are still in our jammies! We have a wonderful sketch from LISA and a sponsor too.....WinkWink. Be sure to check out their links. Stop over at JUGS to see all the details on the giveaway from WinkWinkInk and link up your creations for a chance to win! My post is short and sweet because there s LOTS to do today.

Have a great weekend!

Jugs #35 - Dry Embossing Challenge

2010-05-29T05:30:00.001-07:00

Time again for another JUGS challenge and I'm the hosting this week! It was a wild card so I choose dry embossing for the challenge. Little did I know how crazy busy this week would be. My Dad officially retires Monday, but that is a holiday, so yesterday was his retirement party. He has been the county engineer for over 26 years and has worked at the county highway department for over 39 years. It was a very nice celebration and he got to see so many people that came out to congratulate him.

I've been working on a scrapbook of him from his childhood through now and spent many days working on this. Well.....I thought I had this all figured out and ordered the prints from Scrapping Simply late Wed night. She guarenteed that they would be here overnight, but something went wrong and the time the post office told her they would be here was incorrect. They were to arrive Friday morning.....just in time. I even called our local post office and had them hold our mail. When I went up yesterday morning to get them they weren't there and in fact they couldn't find the package anywhere. The postmaster finally tracked the package down and it was in St. Louis. We live about 2 1/2 hours from St. Louis and it was 10:00 in the morning and I had to be at this celebration by 11:30. I couldn't drive and get the package, but we figured something out and to make this long story shorter, we finally got the package via the Bee Line Express and one very nice worker at the St. Louis Post Office around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. It turned out great and I quickly put it together so he could still have it yesterday. Needless to say it was one busy and crazy week.

I did manage to get my card finished for JUGS. My Mom made the beautiful flower that is the focal point. It is actually a pin and she is sending this as a retirement card for a dear friend that is retiring from teaching next week. She is also my God Mother too. I embossed the background with a cuttlebug embossing folder. I love the bright summery colors. So give the challenge a try. Just link your project up on the JUGS blog .

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. We don't have many big plans. We have a wedding reception to attend tonight and then I think we are sticking around close to home.....maybe some swimming at the neighbors, but other than that it will be pretty low key and that is the way we like things around here. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Jugs 34 Template Challenge

2010-05-22T05:45:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday.....what a week! It was another busy week around our house. I keep saying that they will slow down, but I'm starting to wonder. I did get a chance to make a template for this week's JUG's challenge. Dana is the host this week and Lauren with My Time Made Easy is sponsoring us! A friend of mine is expecting at the end of July and she is doing her baby room in this bedding, isn't it adorable. So I decided to make her a matching gift to give her when the baby arrives. For now I just filled it with baby items I had, but I'm hoping to make it a little more personalized when the time comes.
Isn't this bedding adorable! I can't wait to see the room when it is finished!
Here's a close up of my Trendy Toto template from My Time Made Easy.

I made a matching tag so she can use on her diaper bag too.

Hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. We have a fun one planned.

JUGS 33 - Color Challenge

2010-05-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's time for JUGS Color Challenge. Lisa is the hostess this week and the color pallette is a fun one. It is Red, White, Blue and an optional Kraft. I chose to make a boy baby card. I've been VERY short on time lately.....planning Ethan's Rodeo and getting the details worked out on our house plans, plus all the other day to day stuff that is always there. We feel like we have been running around like crazy people lately. My stamps have been very neglected, but I did take the time this morning to work on a card for a few minutes before we had to head off to Dr. appointments and a graduation. (I'm writing this late Friday!) Our weekend is pretty busy, but I'm hoping to start on a book for my Dad. He is retiring from his position as the county engineer. He has worked there for over 39 years and has been county engineer for over 26. Pretty amazing! I have 2 weeks to get that accomplished.....always something to do!

Hope you enjoy all the gals creations this week. I was absent last week.....internet issues.

Have a great weekend. I'll be back to share new pics of my kiddos soon.....I've got some good ones!

http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/

JUGS 31 Sketch Challenge

2010-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week Maria is hosting a sketch challenge. She asked if any of us wanted to do a scrapbook page because it is national scrapbooking month, so I took her up on that. I used my SU digi software to create this page of my Ava girl. This was back in 2008 and she wasn't 2 yet and she was trying on her flower girl dress. Aren't these pictures so sweet! I love how this turned out. This week I received my 12x12 prints that I ordered from Scrapping Simply......LOVE them! The quality is just awesome and I can't say enough about the customer service. I will definitely be ordering from them again.

Hop over to JUGS to see what all the gals have created!
LeAnne Pugliese is our Featured Designer

and

Teresa Kline is a special Guest Designer for the month

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Kale is 5 months old!

2010-04-21T13:59:00.001-07:00

My baby is growing soooo fast! I took some time today to grab a few shots! Isn't he just a doll! He learned how to roll over finally! He likes to grab anything and put it in his mouth, some of his favorites are his toy rings and regular old burp rags! Now I need to get Ava's 4 year pics taken!

Some Digi Scrapbooking!

2010-04-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

I got to spend a "few" minutes yesterday organizing my scrapbooking pictures. I LOVE to scrapbook, but after Ethan got sick I just didn't have the energy to do it. I have done some pages here and there, but I'm literally a few years behind now and I'm trying to rethink how I am going to "catch up". It's not something I have to do, but it is definitely something I want to do. All I have left now are memories of Ethan and I want those to live on forever, so me creating his scrapbooks is very therapeutic. I found this link via another friends website called www.widdlytinks.com I tried some of their pre-made layouts and thought....maybe I should just do some digital scrapbooking to try and catch up and if I want to actually do the page myself I can. Here is what I ended up with for Ava's 1st birthday pages. I ordered them from www.scrappingsimply.com 12x12 pages are $1.99 each. I have 2 on order so I'm going to wait and see how they turn out.

Right now I scrapbook everything for all 3 kids. I have separate books for each and I don't mean one per year, I have several per year. I'm rethinking my system and am wondering what kind of advice any of you might have to add. I'm definitely not going all digital because I love to scrapbook too much. I'm thinking that I'm going to start buying some pages for my books that I can just insert pictures in like a typical photo album, but mix the book up with both pages and pictures alone. We'll see. I need a weekend with just me and my pictures so I can get them all organized....they are organized on my computer so at least that part is done.

I'm home today....finally! I went to work and dropped the kids off at my Mom's because Ava still wasn't feeling up to par. She was fine Sat, but later on Sunday she started with diarrhea again and it didn't let up this morning, so we waited for over 2 hours in the walk in. What a long morning. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Both kiddos are down for a nap right now, but should be waking up soon. I'm sure hoping that she is on the mend! So far noone else in the family has gotten this bug.

JUGS 29 - Color Challenge!

2010-04-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

JUGS is hosting a great color challenge! Maria is the hostess this week and picked such bright springy colors for us to use. All of us gals made a birthday card for our DT memeber Lisa.....it is her birthday on Monday! Happy Birthday Lisa! Hope you have a great one!

My card had to be very quick as the last couple weeks have been crazy busy and this week was no exception. I used a new template from PTI and just love how the flowers turned out. I made this card in about 5 minutes.....really!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We had a great start to ours with our monthly dinner club at our house and then we got a call at midnight that our Ava girl threw up! Oh how fun, she did again once she got home in our bed, so I'll be doing extra laundry today! We had to cancel out on my college friends coming for a visit because we don't want anyone getting sick! She is feeling better this morning so hopefully it was just a little bug and it is over with now!

Happy 4th Birthday Ava!

2010-04-12T20:42:00.001-07:00

My sweet Ava turned 4 last week and we had a wonderful week celebrating her big day! We had her party on Saturday and the day was absolutely beautiful. The week was so crazy heading up to her party and we were all ready to unwind by Saturday night. One of her favorite gifts is her new cowgirl hat. There are some sweet pics of her and some really cute ones of Ava and Kale sporting their cowboy/girl hats.Grandma Klusmeyer helped make Ava Girl a horse cake, just like the one she made for Ethan last May. He wanted to take a horse cake to school so Ethan called Grandma on the way to the hospital to see if she could make that for him and she did. Ava's was the same except with pink...of course!Here we are showing off our hats....she has some pink bling on hers that she loves!

She got a new baby car seat carrier for her baby doll so now we travel with Kale in his seat and Ava carries her car seat with her baby too. We get a lot of laughs when we walk into stores. She is very excited to be 4. She told me that morning that she was 4 and now she could go to school today!

Here is Ava with me and her best buddy, Andrea. They are both 4 now so Ava is very excited about that!

Tonight we were out enjoying the weather and captured the kids having fun. Kale just laughs and laughs at his sister....I think he likes her a little!

Enjoy your week....I have another busy one here with my family, work, and stamping! I might be back mid-week so share some stamping goodies, otherwise I'll be back Sat morning with my JUGS color challenge!

JUGS 28 - Scrapbook Challenge

2010-04-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm the hostess over at JUGS this week and the challenge was a "wild card", so I chose a scrapbook challenge. Here is the layout I came up with. You would think that I would have made my page and then the layout, but here I was last night making my page. I do like how it turned out, but I was quite challenged with what I was going to create.

My week has been soooo busy with work, a friend visiting, my daughter's 4th birthday and more work. Needless to say, it is Friday night and I'm so ready for the weekend. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day....getting ready for Ava's party, dance pictures, meeting at church, cooking, and finally Ava's big party! She is super exicted. I realize that no matter how much I stress about getting everything ready that at the end of the day, the pictures will be taken, we'll get to the meeting and the party will happen whether I'm ready for any of it or not!

Here is my page. I love how it turned out. Notice the backdrop. This is part of the display that we have of Ethan's favorite things, hit boots, hat, harmonica, toy guy, lasso......I love having it up on my wall because it reminds me of him and the fun times he had. Please stop by yesterday's post as well. I'm so excited about the necklace that Lisa Leonard designed in memory of my son Ethan.

I used a boot to do my journaling in. I added some cowboy embellishments that I had in my stash of goodies!

Hope all of you have a great weekend. I'm sure looking forward to ours. This will be Ava's first birthday without her big brother. Hopefully Ethan will be having a piece of cake right along with us !

Shining Stars, In Honor of our Ethan

2010-04-09T04:26:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to share with you today a special necklace made in honor of our little boy, Ethan. A friend of mine from way out west in California created this special necklace. Here is a picture of me wearing mine with my Ava girl. It is just beautiful. I've worn it everyday since I received it. Go check out Lisa Leonard's site so you can see this beautiful necklace. She is so nice and generous and is going to donate 20% of the proceeds from the "shining stars necklace" to neuroblastoma research in Ethan's honor. This fundraiser is going on through April 22nd! Here is a link to the "Shining Stars necklace". You'll enjoy reading her blog too as she has the most wonderful family and captures them in the most beautiful pictures. THANK YOU LISA! Ethan would be so honored that you were doing this for him!

I am such a fan of Lisa's jewelry and I purchased my first piece while Ethan was in the hospital and it read "Believe in Miracles". I wore this everyday and finally after Ethan died I gave this away to his dear friend, Annabelle. You can read more about that here. One day she will have it and can always remember her little buddy!

JUGS Sketch Challenge #27

2010-04-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's time for our JUGS (Just Us Girls) weekly challenge. Kristin is in charge this week and has a wonderful sketch to share. This card is for my little girl, Ava, who is going to turn 4 next Wednesday. She is going to have a Cowgirl birthday party so I thought this card would be perfect. She loves to wear her pink cowgirl boots and I just happen to know that she is getting a new cowgirl hat for her birthday....the real deal this time. Ethan got a "real" cowboy hat for his 4th birthday so it seems only fitting.I made a sentiment on my computer using word. I love to use text boxes and then change the font in one. I think it just adds something to the card and personalizes it. Ava likes everything with bling so I added rhinestones to her card. She'll love it!

Be sure to stop by JUGS to see all the gals creations. Their links are on my side bar too. Be sure to share your creations too and link it up on the JUGS site. Thanks for stopping by. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Quick Post....then out the door!

2010-03-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick peak at my card for the Just Us Girls Challenge #25....I'll be back probably tomorrow with more deets....we have to be out the door in about 30 minutes and none of us are dressed and ready to go. Be sure to go to the JUGS site for all the other gals creations!

Kale is 4 months old!

2010-03-15T18:34:00.001-07:00

My little Kale turned 4 months old Saturday. He got a new little cowboy shirt and a belt to go with his belt buckle from Uncle Aaron and "Aunt Karen". Isn't he adorable! He is just changing and growing so much so quickly. He loves to chew on his burp rag or any type of small little blanket. He loves to play with toys above his head and he is trying to roll over too! Kale is just a bundle of joy for all of our family to enjoy!

Just Us Girls Challenge 24 ..... Flap Card

2010-03-12T14:26:00.001-08:00

Pam is hosting a challenge this week to create a flap card. I chose to make a notepad cover so I could have something in my purse when I want to make a list. I'm big on lists so this comes in very handy. I'm in love with these new papers that I got at our local scrapbook store. Looks like spring to me! I used my Justrite stamps to create my name and that was all the stamping that I did. I purchased my little notepads from Papertrey and I made my own cover for my notepad. I placed one of my Mom's crocheted flowers to the bottom. I just love this and can't wait to use it. A little velcro circle keeps it shut right under my name. Here's a close up of my flower....don't ask me why it is flipped....google is doing something funny to me!

Thought I would show you how I made my flap....it's pretty high tech! I took my scoretape and traced around the outer edge and cut it out! Pretty inventive huh?~!

Here's a close up of my name.....again I don't know why it is flipped!

Hope all of you have a great weekend. Be sure to stop by the JUGS site and check out all the girls creations. Stephanie is our guest designer for this month so please stop by and see what she has created for you this week too. The JUGS girl's links are on my sidebar too. Thanks for stopping by!

JUGS 23 - Sketch with a Sponsor

2010-03-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

This week Dana is the host for JUGS. She has an awesome sketch to share and a great sponsor, Dawn with W Plus 9 Design Studio. The set I chose to use today is called Funky Foliage. Be sure to stop by Dawn's blog and head to her store to see her great stamps! There is a chance to win 2 of her stamp sets for free....so hop over to JUGS to see how! You can check out all the other gals links too on my side bar and don't forget to stop and see our guest designer, Stephanie Kraft.

Today I have one of my very first scrapbook pages for Baby Kale. I'm so excited to get started on his book. I made a trip last weekend to a town about 45 minutes away from here to shop at their scrapbook store. This place is in a very, very small town that doesn't have much of anything, but they do have a great scrapbook store! I remember going there once about 5 1/2 years ago when I was pregnant with Ethan. I thought the place had closed, but it hadn't and they have such a great selection of paper. We headed that direction to see my brother-in-law and his fiance, but made plans to stop here along the way. I'm so glad that I did. This lady inspired me to get back into my scrapbooking. See I haven't done a whole lot really since Ethan got sick. I used to do a ton, but that really slowed me down, but she was talking about how theraputic scrapbooking can be and I have to agree. So.....I think I'm back, into scrapbooking that is.

Can you see the background paper that I made with the Funky Foliage oval. I love it. It went perfectly with my new paper that I got from the scrapbook store. It is a paisley and I just love any kind of paisley print. I used the dashed circles for my title letters. It just adds a little something to my page. I just love how this turned out and I think I have myself all ready to really get back into this hobby that I have loved for so long. I can look and look at my scrapbooks and never get tired of them. I have a ton finished from when Ethan was little and I'm so glad that I have them now.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm hoping to be back with more pages......I think I have enough pictures to last me a lifetime of scrapbooking!

More New PCS Digis!!!

2010-03-03T18:23:00.001-08:00

So I think my "mojo" has left temporarily. I just couldn't get my card to come to me! I'm back to work this week so my mind is going several different directions, so I'll blame it on that this week! I love Melissa's new images as always. Isn't Lily so cute dressed as a little bunny! Be sure to check out the paisley paper that Kristin designed too for My Time Made Easy! I just love it. Be sure to check out all the PCS gals on my side bar and head over to Melissa's blog too! You can get all of these new digi images here! Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back on Sat morning with our JUGS challenge!

Having Fun with my Baby!

2010-03-03T09:44:00.001-08:00

My Baby Kale is getting so big and is SOOO much FUN!! He is just one happy little guy most of the time. Last night we went out and got him a new jumparoo to play in. He seems to like it. I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of this in the months to come . And here is Kale in an outfit that my friend Maria gave him. I think this had Kale's name written all over it when she saw it in the store.....isn't it adorable! He wasn't too crazy about the hat, but darn it looked cute!

Last night Kale got to try cereal from a spoon. He'll be 4 months on the 13th so I thought I would give it a whirl. He really seemed to like it. I can't wait to see how big he is at his next doctor's appt. According to our scales he is well over 16 pounds!

Hope these pictures bring a smile to your day!

JUGS Template Challenge #22

2010-02-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is the end of February already! Where has this year gone? I was definitely busy today. I'm writing this Friday night as I have a class to teach in the morning. Everything is ready to go and I just finished up my template. We used My Time Made Easy's Under Cover Template and one of the cut files for this weeks challenge. Pam is the hostess this week and this was definitely a challenge for me. I love bunnies, but just couldn't come up with anything. Then I thought....oh wouldn't it be cute to make a wagon out of the template, so that is what I did. I used some extra bunny tails for the wheels and resized them for the middles. Then I added a little Easter grass and candy. I think it turned out pretty cute for a quick little project on a Friday night.

Be sure to stop by JUGS to see all the gals creations. I have links to everyone on my side bar too. You can get the under cover template too from My Time Made Easy. Lauren Meader is the owner and is just creative beyond words! She designs each of these templates herself and they are just amazing! Thanks for stopping by.....have a great weekend!

Kale and Ava Photo Shoot!

2010-02-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

Another one of my favorite hobbies is photography (of my kidd0s). Those of you that follow my blog know that I love to take pictures. Today we had a little photo shoot of my kiddos and I caputured a great shot of my little ones. Just thought I would share!Kale is 3 months old and is just the sweetest little thing! He just loves to smile and it is so cute when he laughs outloud!

Ava girl will be turning 4 at the beginning of April. I like to say she is 3 going on 17! She learned how to count to 30 this week and has been calling all of her aunts and uncles to tell them! She finally has thirty down, but the funny thing that she kept doing was saying "21, 22,......29, 20 ten! It was too cute!

Pink Cat Studio New Digis and Rubber Stamps!

2010-02-25T12:15:00.001-08:00

I'm here.....just a little late today. Wish I had a good excuse, but I tell my daughter that lying never gets you anywhere so to be quite honest I forgot all about posting my card today! Sorry Melissa. I had my card finished on Tuesday....at least I had that part done! Be sure to stop by Melissa's Blog today and the Digi and Rubber Stamp Store!

My first sample is using Lily Butterfly....isn't she adorable! I went with some non-traditional colors, not quite navy and real red from SU. I bought this patterned paper from a local scrapbook store and just loved it. I colored Lily with both my watercolor pencils and my copic markers. Isn't the sentiment adorable! I'm planning on sending this card to a dear friend, thought it would be perfect!

You may remember this notepad holder that I made right before Kale was born. We were doing a fundraiser for a family that lost their little boy. I made this so all of the visitors could sign when they came to the hospital, guess what? It is blank....I forgot to get it out for anyone to sign, so I guess I'll just use it to jot down some milestones for him. Love this monkey and giraffe, don't you!

Tonight Ava has dance and then I'm getting ready for another class that I'm teaching on Sat at our local community college. Then I think we have a pretty free weekend.....I hope anyway. We have been running around like crazy lately! Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to look at my side bar and check out all the other gals blogs for Pink Cat Studio!

JUGS Color Challenge #22

2010-02-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

I'm back for the JUGS challenge! This week's challenge hostess is Maria and don't forget our February guest designer Chupa. Be sure to stop by and see all the girls creations.....their links are on my side bar! I did stick with the color challenge, but I couldn't help adding a little green. This was a tough color combo for me, but it all came together. I tried to make some 3-d flowers to add to my card too. I punched out 6 circles, 2 - 1", 2 - 1 1/8", and 2- 1 1/4". Then I crumpled them up, dobbed them on the edges and put them together with a button in the middle. It's always harder to see something on the computer, but they look pretty neat in real life.

We have another busy weekend here. Last night my oldest brother's basketball team was honored. It has been 20 years since they had the best season in school history. I can remember watching it. I was in the 7th grade and it was so fun to watch. Tonight we are heading to a bull riding event with Ava girl and then tomorrow I'm helping to host a baby shower for one of my sister-in-laws at my house. Right after Ethan died I decided I needed a change to my living room, so I painted my accent wall from a rust color to a navy blue. Well, I had never changed out the curtains, so I decided yesterday that I would try to sew them and have them finished by tomorrow. I don't know why I always start these projects last minute! It will all get finished I'm sure!

Hope all of you have a great weekend! I have only 1 more week until I go back to work. It will only be part time, but it is still going to be hard to leave the kiddos again. I think Ava is ready to have some friends to play with.

Little of This and That!

2010-02-18T02:56:00.000-08:00

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks. Can you hear Kale laughing. He just cracks up when I talk to him. Just had to share!

A friend ordered some Thinking of You cards and here are a couple that I made. I love the daisy on the houndtooth background. It just makes me think of spring. The stem is from an old SU set and my mom made the flower. The butterfly card is one of my favorites. I used my paisley embossing template and added a butterfly from My Time Made Easy Cut Files. I keep a stash on my stamping table for whenever I want to use them.

I know my posts are usually short, sweet, and to the point, but time with a baby and toddler running around is difficult to find. I did want to send you to another website though to support a fellow stamper that is having some rough financial times and Katie Cotton with Paper Makeup designed a digital stamp to help support Gabby. Gabby was a guest designer on JUGS. I didn't get a card made with this image, but wanted to be sure to get the word out.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back for sure on Saturday with JUGS.

Some Pictures to Share!

2010-02-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Isn't this pretty. I took this picture of our barn yesterday afternoon. I guess all of the horses must be hanging out in the back.

Here's Ava girl right befroe she left for sled riding with her Daddy. She had so much fun and slept like a little baby last night!

Ava had to take part in posing for pictures this morning too! She is getting so big! She'll be 4 in about 2 months so she can't wait!

And here is the "Birthday Boy!" Kale is 3 months old! Isn't he just a doll!!! He smiles and laughs all of the time and the best part is that he is sleeping through the night! Yep.....he goes to bed around 9:30 and doesn't get up until around 7:00. Oh I love being able to sleep all night!!! I have lots of crafting stuff to share, but that will have to wait until later....it's another busy week here!

JUGS Challenge #20 - Technique

2010-02-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

You might notice I don't have anything to share this week, but I took a well needed break....it's been a very long week for me! The challenge is great though and I've never actually done this before so my goal is to make mine before the end of the weekend. It's called "SPLIT NEGATIVE". Be sure to stop by JUGS to check out all the girls samples. I have links to their blogs on my side bar too. Our guest designer this month is CHUPA so be sure to stop by and see her creations as well.

I will be sharing some creations later on in the weekend. I've been busy with some baby shower invites and a couple other things too. Thanks for stopping by.

More PCS Digi Images

2010-02-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Aren't these images too cute! Be sure to stop by Melissa's blog to see all the other creations. I have a link on my side bar too with all the design team members.

I LOVE St. Patrick's Day! This all started when I was in college. I went to the University of Missouri-Rolla and it is predominantly an engineering school. Each year we got off 2 days for St. Patricks Day. Basically the whole week was one big party. They painted the town streets green, there was a St. Pat's Board, campus was decorated, you drank green beer, you name it and it was green. St. Patrick was the patron saint of engineers so that is how all of this came about. That being said, I made this card for a friend of mine that I went to college with. Today is her birthday so I'm sending it to her today! (it will be late, but that's okay)!

Hope you enjoy the new digi images. It's been an extremely busy week for me and today is no exception. I head back to work in a couple weeks too....we'll get back into a routine I'm sure! Have a great day!

JUGS Sketch Challenge #19

2010-02-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a SUPER quick post. It's late and I am teaching a class in the am so I'm posting a little early! I didn't know about this sketch at first, but once I started working with it I had a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy what I came up with. Be sure to hop over to the JUGS site to see all the girls creations. Hope everyone has a good weekend.....I'm off for some zzzzzz's. I'll try to stop back by tomorrow to give more details to my card!

My Sweet Kiddos!

2010-02-05T03:58:00.001-08:00

So the other day I thought it was a "little warmer" than it actually was outside. The sun can be so deceiving when you don't see it in a long time. I went out to get the mail and thought, let's just go to town and let Ava play at the park. She thought that was a great idea. We did have fun, but it was a little chillier than I would have liked. Kale stayed all bundled up in his carseat and slept the entire time (about a half hour). Ava really didn't want to leave so I had to bribe her with icecream. Makes sense right, too cold to play outside, so why don't we go get an icecream snack! We had a fun day anyhow! Here's my Ava girl posing for Mommy.

It's so fun to watch her play on the playground. She just ran around like we had been keeping her inside for months (oh wait, we have been cooped up for months!)

Aren't these glasses awesome! We got to the van and she had these on. She loves to dress up and today was all about the glasses! She started to get a little goofy so I caught her in action!

Now on to "Mr. Serious"! I set Kale in one of our little rockers while Ava was taking a nap and got some great shots of his different faces! Here's one of Kale being quite serious. Isn't he just a doll! I swear you can't tell the difference between Kale and Ethan's pictures. They look sooo much alike. It will be fun to see how Kale's personality is. For now the only time he gets upset is when he is hungry or has a dirty diaper and occasionaly when he needs a little nap. We're still working on getting him into a schedule, but so far no luck there. We'll keep trying though. I have until March 1st before I go back to work so I still have a few more weeks.

And here is my "Funny Guy"! Kale has a smile that will just melt your heart. He loves to hear my voice and is really starting to talk back (boy they start young)! He even laughs at me now! They do grow up fast, but I love every minute of it! (Okay, I could do without my 3 year olds sassyness, but other than that I really do love it!

Here is my little funny guy "Ethan"

Here is one of my favorite baby pics of Ethan.....now can you see the resemblance!

Will be back tomorrow morning with more stamping! I'm teaching my first class at our local community college in the morning too, so wish me luck!!!

New Digis from PCS

2010-02-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

More new digis from Pink Cat Studio and boy are they cute! I got to play with the owls and frog. Ava and I both had fun coloring the images. I decided on a spring color theme for my owl card with the pink and yellow. I added a little pop with the black and white polka dots printed paper from MTME. I'm a little late on posting this morning. Yesterday I think Kale was teasing me by sleeping all night, but today he was up for a bottle at 4:00 and then up again at 8:00. So much for sleep....it's so overated!
Hope you enjoy the new digi images that Melissa with PCS designed for you today. If you haven't used digis before, they are super easy. Just insert a picture in Word and select the digi image and there you go. You can even resize the image in word if you want it bigger or smaller or add text like I did in the frogs balloons. I just inserted a text box to add the "I Love You". So if you haven't tried them before, give them a whirl and try something new. Be sure to head over to PCS too to check out all of the cute samples. Link up to the other gals on the team on my left side bar too!
Any of you out there on facebook?? If so, be sure to do a search for ETHAN's RODEO and sign up to be a fan. We are planning a fundraiser to raise money for neuroblastoma research and we would appreciate all the support for this amazing event. Be sure to sign up and we'll be sending out more details as we go along.

JUGS Banner Challenge #18

2010-01-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

Dana is hosting this week and I love what she has come up with......making a banner (as always, I did something different and didn't do a pennant banner!). I kinda cheated, not really, but I made my banner about 3 months ago right before Kale was born. I wanted something to hang up in his room at the hospital so this is what I came up with. I used my Pazzles (the cutter that I very much dislike!) and cut out the letters. The shapes I copied off of the bedding from Kale and Ethan's room and then cut everything out of felt. I used the sewing machine to stitch around the edges and then handstitched the rest. I finally (just because of this challenge) got it hung up in Kale's room. My plan is to make a personalized frame above this. I have it designed, just haven't had the time to make it yet!

Here is another banner that I made for Ethan's 4th birthday last year. I have it hanging up in Kale's room too. It used to hang above Ethan's bed and I switched things around a bit when we got ready for Kale to be born. The story behind this is SOOO cute. We had this hanging up at our friend's house where we had his party because it was hot out and they have a pool. He told our friend Brick, "Look Brick it says Happy Birthday Ethan"! Isn't that adorable. He was so serious and really thought the sign said that!

Here's Ethan sporting his new black hat! He didn't like this at first and wore his Wal-Mart $5 red hat for the longest time, then Uncle Aaron wore his and Ethan hardly took his off since that day! Isn't he just adorable!! Miss you E!

JUGS Template Challenge #17 and a My Time Made Easy Sneak Peak!

2010-01-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday already! Wow this week went by quickly. I got to do a lot of crafting so that is always fun. Lots to share today. The challenge this week for JUGS was to use a template and I used a new template, Happy Mail, coming out from Lauren Meader's new store, My Time Made Easy. This little mailbox is ADORABLE!!! I couldn't stop with just one. I made the little pink one for Ava Girl and the Cowboy Pig is for Kale. The paper is all new too from My Time Made Easy Digi paper. They have some wonderful new gingham coming out and the flower paper is just too cute! I wanted to make Ava's a little more vintage and Kale's was just supposed to be cutesy. Can you see the cute little chick? That is Ava's nickname, Chicky. She doesn't really like to be called it anymore, but it has just kind of stuck!

I added some stitching to my digi paper and a red scalloped edge to both sides of my mailbox. I LOVE this paper that Kristin has created for Lauren!!! Here's my little Cowboy Pig a little closer!

The stamp images are from a new set coming out from My Time Made Easy February Release called Critters with Heart.....this set is just TOO CUTE!!! You will have to get it to use not only for Valentines, but for all year! I HATE mice....the real ones, but you have to admit that this little guy is just way too cute! This was the first image that I played with and I just love it....look at those tiny little whiskers!

Lauren is sponsoring us this week - that means she is giving away some
BLOG CANDY (A $25 gift certificate to MTME store) to one of our
participants. Lauren has a FREE TEMPLATE that you can use to participate in the contest. Hop over to the JUGS blog for all the details!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope all of you have a great weekend!

Pink Cat Studio "ROBOT" Release!

2010-01-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

You are not going to want to miss out on these images! These are just TOO CUTE!! I chose to use the little girl robot, but I cut her hands off and added the Happy Birthday sentiment. I paperpieced her dress and made her all girly! Don't these just make you smile! I made this for my sister-in-law's 11th birthday this weekend. I should have made it purple because that is her favorite color, but pink was calling me! I've been a busy bee this week getting stuff made....and even getting it finished early. Be sure to check out my frame from my post yesterday. Tomorrow is All About Ava Thursday! I told her we could do whatever she wanted to and the first thing on her list is to make cookies. We'll see what the day brings. Hopefully Kale will cooperate so we can have a fun day! Have a good Thursday! Be sure to check out Melissa's blog and the PCS Digi Store and all the gals on the design team!

Scrapbooking Fun!

2010-01-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

FINALLY a gift completed! I've been saying I was going to make this gift for quite some time now. Our friends had their first baby in June, right after Ethan passed away and I'm just now getting to his gift. I knew what I wanted to make, but finding the time and energy since Ethan's passing and having a new baby has been slim to none. Of course I'm not and never will be over Ethan, but dealing with the loss of sleep from our new baby seems managable now. I asked my friend for some favorite photos of her little guy and I don't know if you remember the shower gift I made for them a while back, but this is what I based my design after. It matches the bedding in the room. I'm going to add both of these frames to my Etsy shop and will note that I will take orders for these particular items. This is going to be my "shop" until the website is up and running. My Etsy link is on my side bar.

Here is a picture of the bedding for Isaac's room.

The Shower Gift:

and FINALLY the Baby Gift! (These type items can be orderd as a specialty item too) I just refer to them as my Baby Frames, but I make them for all ages. I even have one up in Ava's room too.

The kiddos are down for naps and I'm trying to work on some crafty items while they are asleep. The weather is so yucky out we have been in all day. They even closed school due to the ice. I'll be back tomorrow with a little card to share with the new Pink Cat Studio Digi Images.

Baby Kale is 2 months old

2010-01-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

I had to share......isn't Kale just too cute!!!

JUGS Color Challenge #16

2010-01-15T16:14:00.001-08:00

I LOVE this color combo! Kristin knows her colors!!! I inked up my favorite new stamp set, All A Flutter from My Time Made Easy, designed by Lauren Meader! I just love it. I added some decorative edges to my paper with my new scallop edge punch from SU and then embossed my paper with my cuttlebug. The brackets are stamped with a Sale-A-Bration set from SU and punched with the matching punch. I added a little bling on the butterflies wings too.

Hope all of you that are stopping by can play along. Be sure to link up your creations to the JUGS site. All the other gals links are on my left side bar.

I'm off to bed......we have my brother-in-laws wedding in the morning so it is going to be a busy, but fun day!

New Digis from Pink Cat Studio

2010-01-14T02:27:00.000-08:00

I'll be back to add details a bit later......life got very busy getting ready for several family events so I'll beback later today......but be sure to stop by Melissa's blog.

Color Throwdown with Butterflies

2010-01-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

My friend Kristin is the newest member for the Color Throwdown Challenge Team. I decided I would play along this week and see what I could create with her color challenge. The colors are:

I wanted to ink up my new stamps from My Time Made Easy.....aren't these butterflies just wonderful! I just love how the butterflies look like they are flying right off of the card. I used some of My Time Easy's digital patterned paper too.......it's great. I didn't leave my house to get paper at the store, just clicked print and walla! I just open up the digi image with Windows Picture Viewer, a program that comes with your PC, click print, choose borderless 8 1/2 x 11 and you should have a full sheet of patterned paper.

I added a few dew drops that I thought made the card pop too. I love the definition paper.....it added just the right background for my butterflies! This card is for my Mom's birthday that is coming up on the 25th. It is also her 40th wedding anniversary as well!

Hope all of you are having a great weekend. It is still very cold here, but the word is that it might warm up today....isn't that crazy when we think warm is 25 degrees......sure beats the -8 temp when I got home last night!

Pink Cat Studio is Introducing Paper Piecing Projects....and a $50 Give Away!

2010-01-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check this GIVE AWAY out! Melissa with Pink Cat Studio is introducing something new and exciting!

Today Pink Cat Studio is expanding yet again! Last September it was Digi Stamps and today it’s Paper Piecing Projects. These fun projects are great for card making, scrapbooking and any kind of 3D crafting. The project files are formatted for those who like to cut and paper piece by hand and for those who have an electronic cutter.
Check out these fun new projects here:

http://www.pinkcatstudio.com/Digital/PaperPiecing/NewPaperPiecingProjects.htm

Melissa is also having a fun contest and the winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the PCS rubber or digi store! To enter the contest you will download a free Paper Piecing Project and then make a fun craft with it, anything you like. So not only will you get to try a Paper Piecing Project for free, you could also win some PCS goodies.
Visit the PCS blog today to find out about how to enter the contest and get your free Paper Piecing Project.

JUGS Technique Challenge #15

2010-01-08T16:49:00.001-08:00

It's already Saturday.....believe me, this week didn't go by very quickly! It has been so frigid here and then snow, so I literally didn't leave the house for days! I had cabin fever until yesterday! It's time for another challenge from JUGS! This week Mona is the hostess and the challenge is to use stitching on your project. I love to use stitching, but I admit that I'm a little lazy at times to get my sewing machine out, but while I had it out I made a couple projects with it.

Here is a card using a new set from PTI, Tiny Treats Valentine, that I got for Christmas. I LOVE getting stamping stuff at Christmas time, even more than clothes! Having new toys to play with is always fun. Don't you just love this little airplane...I do. I stitched around the edges on kraft cardstock. The patterned paper is just something I had in my stash....the back didn't even say where it was from. The ribbon and paper are all from PTI.

Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to stop by the JUGS blog and link up your creations using stitching. Look at my sidebar for all the links to the other gals sites!

A little DIGI fun!

2010-01-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with my Stampin' Up software, My Digital Studio today. I LOVE IT!!! I'm sure there are other programs out there that are similar, but this seems so easy to me and I know the colors and backgrounds and all the embellishments. It was so fun to create my new banner. I think I could really get into this digital scrapbooking! Creations For You is the title of my new card making business! I don't have my website up and running yet....but my husband keeps promising me he is going to help. It will be up and running soon! I'm going to be creating cards for any occasion that you would like and taking orders from people by them sending me their perpetual calendar and then I can make cards for them and send them monthly. I'll also have some specialty cards, invitations and such by order. We'll see how it all goes from there!

Both kiddos are down for a nap, laundry is almost finished (a little can wait for later right?), house is clean....must mean it is time to do some crafts! I got a little time away from my house today too....got a haircut and some groceries.....very exciting day! Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for coming to watch my kids, I got to leave my house. I was starting to feel like I was being held captive!

I'm off to go be creative!

Pink Cat Studio 2010 Digi and Rubber Release!

2010-01-07T02:43:00.000-08:00

Today is the day for Pink Cat Studio to release 5 new images! The three that will be in rubber & digi format are the Pixies make a cupcake, Lily Valentine Ballerina, and Lily Valentine Fairy. Lily & Billy Laying in hearts and Valentine Kitty are in digi format only. I chose to make a card with Lily and Billy laying in the hearts. It reminded me so much fo Ethan and Ava playing in the leaves during the fall. I added a little bling with some glitter on Lily's dress. This image is too cute and would be great to use on Valentine's for your kiddos at school.

We all have new things that we want to start or try in 2010, so if you haven't had a chance to try out a digi image yet, be sure to give it a whirl in 2010. They are fun to play with and the best part about them I think is that they are very easy to mass produce and you can size them any way you want. You don't need a fancy program either. I just use word and insert a picture, resize, print and I'm finished!

Be sure to link me to your samples....I'd love to see what you create!

Take a peak at Melissa's blog and look at my side bar <------ to see the links to the gals on the design team too! Don't forget about the Name the Pixies contest too! Stop back by on Sunday, Jan 10th. Melissa has some paper piecing releases that you won't want to miss!

Butterflies and Cheese! (2nd post today)

2010-01-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a gift for Lauren Meader as a Congrats on her new business, My Time Made Easy. I finally finished it this morning. We live just down the road from Spirit Knob Winery and they have wonderful wines. If you have read my blog very often we go on walks there all of the time and ride our horses there too. I decided to send a little local gift from the winery. So I'm packing up some cheese and crackers to go with a bottle of wine from our favorite winery! I used her templates In A Pinch and All A Flutter to create this little gift for her. Be sure to check out her site....that is one creative gal!

The patterned paper is from SU. I have a bunch of patterned paper so I thought I would use that since I know she loves purple. Lauren also has digital paper though to print out so be sure to check it out too. One little thing that I did to the top of the gift is add some velcro so you can keep the pretty template, but open and close it to get your gift out!

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop back in tomorrow. We have some new digis to show from Pink Cat Studio and a sample too!

2010 Pink Cat Studio Release Sneak Peak

2010-01-06T04:23:00.001-08:00

It's a new year and time for some NEW Pink Cat Studio Images. Melissa has outdone herself once again. Above is a little peak from my creation that I'll show you tomorrow. So be sure to stop back by tomorrow. Head over to Melissa's blog and follow the links to all the other design team members to see what they have to share with you as well. Melissa has a little contest for you too. Name the Pixies!

Pink Cat Studio is introducing some new Pixie characters this Thursday and we are having a contest to celebrate!
The Pixies have picked out their own pixie names and you have to guess which names they picked. Visit the Pink Cat Studio blog to read the contest details and enter the contest.

JUGS Sketch Challenge #14

2010-01-02T07:01:00.001-08:00

It's Saturday once again. Happy New Year to everyone! I'm getting used to my husband being off work and letting me sleep in. I think Monday is going to be rough :-) This week was a sketch challenge for JUGS and I finally sat down yesterday evening and got my card made. I guess I'm really into baby cards lately! (wonder why?) I have another card to share, but will wait for another day. I used this buggy from PTI's set Bitty Baby Blessings. My soon to be sister-in-law's sister is expecting so I helped her make some baby shower invites the other day. Isn't the back ground paper just wonderful. TOMORROW.....be sure to head over to MY TIME MADE EASY. My good friend LAUREN will have her GRAND OPENING! I'm so excited for her. You can purchase this paper from her. It's called That Hit the Spot. It is available now and it is digital. My good friend KRISTIN is creating all of these wonderful papers for Lauren. I'm very excited to see everything tomorrow. What's nice is if you are working on a project and you want some paper and don't want to make a trip to the store, just print out some digital paper.....so easy! The sentiment on my card is a new set from Stampin Up! They are now making rubber stamps that are clear mounted. This is the first set I purchased from them and I'm very happy with it. Can you see my pearl embellishements. It's hard to see them in the picture, but they really add to the card and I used SU's new border punch too. I love it!

I better get back to my "Mommy job". It's almost time for Baby Kale to eat! I have some great pictures to share of my husband, daughter and our burro. Dave, my husband, made a contraption for our burro so he could hook him up to a sled and pull Ava around the yard. Believe me, it was a site to see!

I'll be back soon.....I'm hoping to get a new site up soon. I said I was working on something and I am, just taking a little longer than I had hoped. I'm going to finally start making cards for other people.....invites, baby announcements, personalized frames......I can't wait to get started. So if you know anyone that wants something like this, just let me know.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Be sure to hop over to the JUGS site to see all the other creations too!
Our guest designer this month is: Gabby Be sure to stop by and check out all of her creations!

Kristin, Tracey, Lisa, Mona, Maria, Pam, Dana,

JUGS Challenge #13

2009-12-26T06:43:00.000-08:00

Well, it is the day after Christmas, and my little girl and I actually slept in! It's almost 9:00 here in West Central Illinois and we've been snoozing for almost 12 hours! I guess we needed to catch up on some sleep. We did have a nice Christmas. It was very hard, but Ava girl had a good time.
We didn't want to skip this week since a lot of people have time off and time to play along. This week Dana is hosting a template challenge sponsored by Kalleigh Ratzlaff Be sure to go to the JUGS blog to read all the details. You get a discount on an order just for playing and a chance to win! Her templates are great so besure to check them out. I chose to make something out of the candy dispeser. Isn't this cute! My little girl just loves hershey kisses so I knew who and what kind of candy I wanted to use. She barely let me take a picture of my creation, she wanted it right away. I covered it with paper from Paper Studio bought at Hobby Lobby. The stamped image is from PTI's 2009 Tag Collection and a little punched out holly from Martha Stewarts punch. Then I added a little glitter for some bling!

The box is pretty tiny so smaller candy like m&ms would probably work better, but if you knew how many hershey kisses we go through you would understand!

Here's another view of the box. It was very easy to assemble and is pretty sturdy. I printed the template first on white cardstock and then on the scrapbook paper This would make cute little teacher gifts or you could dress them up for favors at a shower or wedding!

Be sure to go check out the other gals for all their creations! I'm on a mission to figure out why my blog won't let me copy/paste, but until then, head over to JUGS and show us your creations and be entered for a chance to win.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T20:35:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to pop by and say Merry Christmas! This was our picture last year visiting Santa. Oh how I miss that little boy. The picture below is what I had for my Christmas cards this year and I worked very hard coming up with a design and I kept trying to tweek it and finally figured out what was missing. It wasn't a ribbon, button, or some bling, it was my little boy. Not many have to go through what we have in the past year and I hope and pray noone else ever does, but it hasn't been easy. Christmas just isn't the same this year. We have everything up, our tree, stockings, and I even had everything bought for my cards, but I just couldn't bring myself to get them made.

I tell you what you miss when you lose a child, it's the everyday things and the big things. I remember at Christmas the kids would come to the top of the steps and wait as I went to get my camera to take their picture as they came down to look in their stocking. I remember Ethan putting the coookies on the platter for Santa last year. I remember playing air hockey most of the morning when there were still a ton of unwrapped presents under the tree. I remember Ethan being thrilled with his new tool bench and Ava being so excited about her new vanity. We even had a puppet show with the kids and Daddy. Santa even found a donkey and a horse puppet. All of this is just a memory now and it still seems so strange and surreal that Ethan isn't here. We are very blessed and so fortunate to have our baby Kale and Ava here, but there is always going to be something missing! That something is my little boy, Ethan. Oh how he could light up a room with his big smile.

For those of you out there worried about the cooking, shopping, wrapping presents, and sending cards.....remember what the true meaning of Christmas is. We have had so much taken away this year and so much given that it is hard to balance our grief ridden hearts with the blessings that we have had too. To all of you....thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas this year!

JUGS Color Challenge #12

2009-12-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out the other JUGS creations: Kristin, Dana, Lisa, Maria, Mona, Tracey, Pam

It's time again for another JUGS Challenge. This week's challege was a little tough I thought. We used colors that I wouldn't typically put together, but I really like the color combo now that I used it. It's always good to try something new every once in a while. We had company all day yesterday and I had been so busy earlier in the week working on a Christmas present for my husband that I literally through this card together in a few minutes before we had to leave last night. I really don't enjoy making cards under pressure, but sometimes I think I work better when I have a deadline. The colors I used were all from PTI, Rasberry Fizz, Pure Poppy, Kraft, and New Leaf. Now I need to concentrate and work on my Christmas cards. My goal is to mail them Monday so we'll see if that happens! Here's a little update on the home front too. Above is Kale at 1 month. I sat him next to this moose and am hoping to continue to take his picture by this so you can see how big he is getting. I jumped on the scale the other day with him and he is almost 12 lbs....isn't that amazing! He is really a very good baby and only fusses when he has wet/dirty pants or wants to eat. He eats a LOT and lets you know is he is hungry!!!

Monday we went to the mall so we could visit with Santa. Ava girl was so cute. She wasn't scared at all. She decided about a week ago that she wanted a baby doll bed from Santa and she knows exactly what she wants. She proceeded to tell him the shape, what size, and color that she wanted her bed to be. Too bad Santa has been done with Ava for several weeks now. So I spent a good portion of this week trying to find her a bed online that would get here in time. I think I accomplished that, but I had to explain to her that Santa might not get us exactly the bed that she wanted. Here's a picture of Ava and Kale with Santa. I probably won't make it back here before Christmas so here's wishing all of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

JUGS Technique Challenge #11

2009-12-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

Kristin was the hostess this week for a very cool challenge, chalkboard technique. I have never tried this technique before and I really like it. It makes the images so soft and real looking. What you need to do is use a pigment ink and then take some dobbers or a sponge and apply chalk over your stamped image. It's very easy to do. Then you can wipe away the excess chalk with a swiffer wipe or I didn't have that so I just used a paper towel. It's pretty cool and quick and easy!

I am very far behind with my scrapbooking so I'm making an attempt to take these challenges and create scrapbook pages. I really like how these pages turned out. As anyone knows that follows my blog, I LOVE to take pictures of my kiddos. I'm so glad that I do because since we lost our son it is so nice to have our photographs to look back upon.

Here is my stamped image using SU's set, Inspired By Nature. I haven't used this set a ton, but everything I've made with it I just love. Last Christmas I made some coasters for my sister-in-law for Christmas on some tiles I bought at Lowes (that's an idea for a challenge)! I added a little bling with some glitter on the centers of my flowers. This is just a close up of the title I used for this page. I wanted this page to be very formal looking and I think I accomplished that with my paper and my choice of text. Only 2 more months before Kale is this age. Do you see the similarities of my kids??Here's page 2 and I added some journaling just by typing in word. I like to use text boxes for all of my journaling. I decided to try stamping the flowers on my text and I love how it turned out. It. I added some pieces of bracket cut paper that was embossed with my cuttlebug just to add some accents to my pages. The background paper.....well, I had it all glued down before I looked at where I got it from so your guess is as good as mine. It's been in my scrapbook now for over 3 years so I'm guessing it isn't something new!
Here's a closeup of my journaling. I may be behind on my scrapbooking, but I do journal quite often in just a word document. I have one for all 3 of my kids and I'll update it about once a month or more often when they are little like Kale. Again, I'm so glad I have this as it helps to keep my memories of Ethan.

Of course, last, but definitely not least, here are Kale and Ava. I was attempting to get some picture so Kale under the tree and Ava wanted to hold him and be in the picture too....aren't they cute. Yes, I'm biased, but that is what Moms are for!!! That's it for me today. Be sure to go to the JUGS site and check out the other girls creations and link up your own for a chance to be CHIC of the week! I really am looking at all of your creations, but not very often right now do I have 2 hands to type on the computer. I'm usually holding one of my kids so I'll get some comments out to you soon.....the little ones only stay little for a short time so I'm getting all of the cuddling time I can get!!! Have a great weekend. We have a cookie exchange to go to today and then a birthday party for my friend's little girl tonight. It should be fun!!!

"I'm BACK" for JUST US GIRLS Week 10 Sketch Challenge!

2009-12-05T04:39:00.001-08:00

So I've been MIA for a while, but had a "few" little things on my platter, and still do! I wanted to get back into the swing of things so I got the JUGS sketch sometime yesterday and literally got 10 minutes to sit down with the sketch, cut, stamp, and make my card, not bad for only 10 minutes work! See you can make a card quickly if you need to!

The sketch is drawn up in blues and that got me my color scheme. I've really been into sparkles and silver lately so you might be seeing a lot more "bling" from me! I used one of PTI's sets, Star Prings. The swirls around the edges are from an SU set called Season of Joy. I can honestly say that I have used that set over and over again. I just love the swirl in it.

I was going to add brads at the top and bottom corners and then spotted there was a tiny star in the set so I thought that would be perfect. The blue is called Enchanted Evening from PTI. I love this blue. Then I used silver paper from PTI as well. The sparkle on my star is from Martha Stewart. Last year Wal-Mart had all of their Christmas stuff at half off after the holidays so I stocked up and am so glad I did. Her glitter is top notch!

I actually got this posted pretty early this morning. Weekends are my days off as my husband gets up with our new baby to feed him. As long as I can get a day off to catch up on sleep I do pretty good. Kale sleeps pretty good and gets up every 3 hours to eat. Ava doesn't even wake up in the middle of the night when he cries....thankfully!

I have a ton of stuff that I'm trying to get finished up before Christmas. The main stuff is finished, decorations, shopping, wrapping, now I just need to wrap up some loose ends. I'll be sharing with you soon a new website that we are creating. You'll get all of the details soon.....hopefully!

Thought I would share a picture of my little guy too. Kale turned 3 weeks old yesterday and I thought I would get a cute little picture. He wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken. I took this one in Daddy's arms, but when I went to move him onto a blanket all he did was cry. He's so cute though even when he is sleeping!

Hope all of you have a great weekend. Our little guy gets baptized Sunday so we are very excited and blessed.

Be sure to stop by and see all of the girls creations:

Pam

Some new Digis (a little late!)

2009-12-04T01:27:00.001-08:00

Aren't these new digis from Pink Cat Studio adorable! I finally am back after having our little one and I'm a day late posting.....I'll get back into the swing of things soon, I hope! I remembered I forgot to do this and had to get it uploaded, even though it is only 3:30 in the morning (Kale was awake so I am too :-) Be sure to check out all of the other gals too!

Kale's Announcment

2009-12-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share Kale's baby announcement. He is truly a blessing to our family. He's a great little baby and is such a cuddler which I just love. Kale is doing great at night and is eating about every 3 hours and goes back to sleep in between....that is if I don't fall asleep with him in my arms! We are so thankful to have him.

A Sweet Card and My Kiddos!

2009-11-25T06:25:00.001-08:00

Ava Girl and I got to venture out of the house last Saturday to a craft show that we attend every year. This year the highlight was new American Girl clothes. Here is Ava showing off a new outfit on her Bitty Baby Isabelle. She loves to dress them up!

Here's Baby Kale on Sunday. Doesn't he look cute in his little cowboy shirt. I'm just nuts over cowboy stuff. I went last night to finish up my Christmas shopping and I found 4 horse outfits for my little guy. He won't have a choice about being a litle cowboy until he can dress himself!!!

Here a baby card that I made for two friends that had little girls recently. I just love how they turned out. I personalized the onsie with their names. Now I'm off to get a shower before company starts to come. I need to pick up some too! My main goal these days has been to at least take a shower each day....isn't that pathetic. This was actually the first day that I created a card. I've been working on finishing my baby announcements that I will share in a few days. I wanted to at least get them in the mail before I showed them on here. I'm tweeking my Christmas cards and we are getting together tonight to work on them and drink a little wine! My friends and I got together to work on cards last year and it was so much fun so we decided to do it again this year.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and have fun shopping for great deals on Friday!

Our Sweet Baby Kale

2009-11-14T12:38:00.001-08:00

Yesterday our sweet Baby Kale arrived and he is just adorable and perfect in every way. Here are a couple pictures of our new little bundle of joy. He weighed in at 8 lb 3 oz and was 20 1/2" long. Yes....I have him dressed up in a little cowboy outfit already!!!

Pink Cat Studio.....More Digis!

2009-11-12T01:17:00.001-08:00

Still here....no baby news yet! I have yet another "very" sparkly card to share with you today. Ava and I had fun coloring this snowman from Pink Cat Studios New Digis. I should have taken a picture of her coloring, she is getting quite good with it. Of course she had to add some sparkles to hers too!

I've been making Christmas trees just by cutting out simple triangles and using my xyron sticker machine and then adding some Martha Stewart glitter. I got a little "glitter happy" with this card. Isn't this snowman cute! These digi images not only make great cards, but I blow them up for my daughter to color too and she loves that! I'm way behind on showing some of the projects I've been working on, but being 9 months pregnant, I don't get as much done as I used too! I decided to blow up the horse from "Cowboy Ethan" and make a "softie" as Melissa calls them. It turned out so cute. Then Sat I decided to make Ava girl a stocking. I usually buy the felt kits with all of the sequins and make them, I've made Dave and Ethan both one, but I decided to make Ava girl's from scratch. It has a snowman on it with a pink tutu. She really likes how it turned out and I opted out for Kales and ordered him one from "The Company Store".

Maybe today.....if nothing happens on the baby front, I'll get some pics of my creations from this past week. I even have a small Christmas tree up in my dining room. Thanks to my Mom, it looks beautiful! I don't know if I'll get a good pic of it or not!

Have a great rest of the week! Hopefully the next time you hear from me it will be about my new little bundle of joy!

(Still having trouble with this blogger letting me copy and paste, so be sure to go to Melissa's blog to link to all the other gal's sites!)

Some Pink Cat Studio New Digis and a Special Memorial Request

2009-11-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today is the day for another release from Pink Cat Studio. I chose to do the cupcake image and had good intentions of making a scrapbook page with my little cupcake from Halloween, but time got away and I didn't get my picture printed out so I decided to just make a card instead. I love the color combo and aren't the birdies too cute! Melissa is one talented gal.

Here is a little notebook I purchase from PTI all bundled up in this cover. I used the new digi image that is helping to raise money for a very special 3 year old little boy. Read Melissa's blog for his story and what the money raised with this image is going to. Blogger isn't letting me copy and paste this morning and I need to get going. I encourage you to purchase this image as I was in a similar situation before and Melissa was so kind to help our family raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Happy Halloween from our Little Cupcake and Super E!

2009-11-04T06:34:00.001-08:00

We had a nice Halloween stretched out over several days. We modeled Ava's costume off of the one in the Pottery Barn Catalog (imagine that!) My husband helped to make most of it and he will gladly tell you that he did. Here's some pictures of our little cupcake from Halloween.

Here's a family photo....oh if you only knew how proud my husband was! I can hardly get the guy to wear dress pants to church, but he wore a suit for 2 days to poke fun at Obama.

Here's our little Ava girl again trick or treating at the winery!

Here's Super "E" and Ava girl from Halloween last year.....oh how he loved to dress up!

Sometimes Ava and I let Lilly Rose come inside to play for a while. Daddy didn't know this, but he played along on Saturday. She just loves her kitty!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

Happy Birthday Kristin!

2009-11-02T17:44:00.000-08:00

My card will be a little late getting to her, but my "blogging" friend, Kristin has a birthday today. I just made her a card and so did all of the other girls on the JUGS team. Be sure to stop by there and follow their Birthday Blog hop! Sounds like she had a great day!

I'm counting down the days before our newest addition arrives. Could I get so lucky to have this baby early?? That would be wonderful. I think everyone in our house is very anxious for baby Kale to arrive!

Here's my birthday card for Kristin....hope you enjoy!

I'll be back later in the week to share some pictures of our little cupcake on Halloween!

JUGS Challenge #5

2009-10-31T04:18:00.001-07:00

So the girls over at JUGS are having a challenge this week to make a Christmas card with a photo. Kristin gave me credit for this, but I've stepped down with my "duties" for this team due to a LOT of things going on.....being that I'm having a baby in a little over 2 weeks might have a lot to do with it!!! I read Kristin's blog this morning and thought I would pull out my Christmas card from last year. It's a little different layout than what I originally ended up with, but everyone is still sleeping here at my house so I opted to not take a new pictures. This is one of my favorite pictures of my kiddos. It's supposed to represent Joseph and Mary carrying baby JESUS on a donkey. Of course that is our little burro, Ranger, our kids pride and joy. Since we took this picture last year, the kids kept calling this particular baby "Baby Jesus". It's too cute. The baby is actually pink, so "SANTA" brought Ethan one just like it except in blue for Christmas last year.

Here's a picture from Christmas last year with both baby "Jesus" riding on their horses.

This year I just can't bring myself to make a photo Christmas card. It's just hard to do the "traditional" things so I'm opting out of this for this year. Maybe next year will be different, we'll see. At least I take pictures again, right after Ethan died I couldn't even take pictures of Ava.

Hope you all hop over to the JUGS site and join in their challenge. Kristin has some blog candy....she's giving away a digital image by just joining in the fun! Have a great Halloween weekend!

More New Digis and Lots of Glitter!

2009-10-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun new images to share this week. I got in a glitter mode and made everything sparkly! I took the little birdie holding the Star of David and used it to add the star to the top of my tree. I just got a new package of Paper Studio paper from Hobby Lobby so that is where the tree and pattterned paper came from. I added some garland, the star topper and a little bow for some bling.

Lily is so cute sitting on this lolipop. I thought she needed glitter too so she got a little bling added as well. I did everything on the computer, printed both my image and the sentiment from Word. I used the Wordart in Word to make the words looks arched. You can't go wrong with polka dot ribbon! There are dots added to her dress and more glitter to her hat.

Be sure to check out all of the other girls creations too.

Melissa - http://www.pinkcatstudio.blogspot.com/

Emily Leiphart - http://www.leiphartonart.blogspot.com/

Inge Groot - http://www.patternedpaper.typepad.com/

Kerry Donovan-Casey - http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kristen Catalano - http://www.scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/

MacKenzie Bruckler - http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Maria Bell - http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/
Suzanne J Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/

Tracey Cuccia - http://www.tmcuccia.blogspot.com/

Tori Hemmingway - http://scrappinangler.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garrett - http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

Have a good weekend and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!