Crafty Weekend At The Beach

The girls spent the weekend at Pacific Beach, WA! We all arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. We had a 3-bedroom house with just a short walk to the beach. We arrived on Friday, just in time for a beautiful sunset - my camera doesn't do it justice, but here it is:


We all made plans to each bring a project to share with the group. Mom brought a scrapbook kit and asked us to all bring photos with us, so that we could leave with completed projects. I can't post a photo of my scrapbook yet... it's a gift... :o) Mom also brought journals for us to alter with a Halloween theme - that I can show you!



Kim, my best friend, and Liz, my Mom's friend both brought their beads and we made bracelets and earrings:



My best friends Mom, Charlene, brought ornaments, stamps, markers and glitter for us to make for our Christmas trees! These were so fun! I made one for Emily and one for Bradley, and I even remembered to date them!!


Kim brought her friend and coworker (and former coworker of mine), Paulette, who brought kits to make these amazing Fabric Postcards! We made our own sparkly fibers and decorated them with whatever we wanted and she sewed them all together for us. I only have a photo of one that I made (I actually made 4!) because we ran out of time and Paulette was sweet enough to take them home to finish sewing them for us!



And, I took the new stamp set that Mom bought and let me borrow - the Stampendous Sushi Party, Loads of Sushi and Sushi's Favorite Words, to make a couple of gate fold cards!


We really had a wonderful time! No kids, No dogs, No husbands! Just us girls, the beautiful beach (what little we actually saw of it!!), good conversation, great food and tons of crafts! It was nice to see what other crafters do, and get to try our hands at it as well. I think I could get into that fabric postcard making thing, that was cool.. but.. do I need another hobby? I already have the sewing machine... and it would probably love some use! :o) We'll see!

I hope you enjoyed seeing what we made! Thanks as always for stopping by!

Emily Sings A Song About Her Duckie

Happy Birthday Davy!

Today is my big brother, David's Birthday! Just wanted to give a little shout out to him on his special day! Have a good one, brother!

I've been crafty!

So, I joined a swap on CM (CafeMom) where we have to make an Envelope Card with a Fall theme and stuff it full of goodies for our swap partner! So, here is my "Fall/Halloween" Envelope card! This one is going to Jenn, I hope she likes it! This card uses Stampin' Up! stamps (Spooktacular Greetings), Dollar Stamps from Michael's and an old unmounted rubber stamps that I got years ago at a convention.
















And, while I was working on that one, I decided to make my brother, Davy's birthday card as well! So, I made him an Envelope card, too! This one will get stuffed with a Starbucks card! I'm pretty sure he'll get some use out of that! I hope he likes the card, too! This card uses Stampin' Up! stamps (Espressoly For You and Espress Yourself)

Video of Bradley crawling!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share this video of Bradley crawling! He's getting around so well - and Soooo quickly! - we really have to keep an eye on him these days! So, the video pretty much says it all!

Enjoy!

Emily's latest outfit!

Not too bad yesterday... but apparently she didn't like the socks I picked out for her!

Bradley just doesn't know what all the fuss is about!!

Thanks for checking in! Have a great day!!

Emily's Outfit

So, I got an outfit for Emily to wear to school today and asked her to go get dressed.
Jeans, a pink tank top, pink socks, pink panties and tennis shoes. I went to get Bradley dressed and when I went back to check on her, she had put her socks BACK in the drawer and was putting on sandals... I told her she couldn't wear sandals to school, because the rocks in the playground would hurt her feet. When she stood up to get her socks and tennis shoes, I saw that she had put her pink tutu on over her jeans! It was just soo cute! I left it on her and sent her to school! She still had it on when I picked her up! Hey, at least she matches! Maybe she'll start a new fashion trend! Prada, watch out!

Cute Photo Of The Day!

Just wanted to share a cute photo of Bradley today! He's wearing the Hard Rock Cafe - London shirt that we bought when we went to London in 2001! Hope you like it!

Mid-September Ramblings

Hello from Kennewick! It's sunny with blue skies here today. I wish I could send some of this good weather down south! It's starting to cool down a little bit, and as much as I complained about the hot days of summer, I'm not looking forward to the icy days of winter!!

So Emily's second week of preschool was a short one! Wednesday was a teacher inservice day, so there was no school. This turned out to be a good thing, because poor Emily spiked a fever that day of 102.2! So, we stayed home and she actually took a nice long nap that afternoon! The next day her fever was down to almost normal, but it did creep up to 99.2 later in the afternoon. So, she stayed home with me again. Friday morning she had her first dentist appointment, which we ended up canceling because her fever snuck back up to 100.4! So, I called her pediatrician (again), only to find out that she was off that day! We ended up taking her to the walk-in clinic to see a Dr. I didn't want her to go the whole weekend with a jumping fever! So, the Dr. saw her and said that she just had a bug, her ears were fine, but her throat was a bit red. So he gave her an antibiotic and told us to keep giving Tylenol to keep the fever under control. After one dose of antibiotic, we could see a definate improvement! Today she is feeling much much better! Back to her old self, really!
Bradley stood up all by himself today! Well, I stood him up, but he stayed up by himself! He held on to his little table just long enough for me to snap a couple photos and then he fell down! Poor little guy! It's a long way down for him! So, after that, he was a little scared and I had to stay behind him where he could touch me when he wobbled! He's still just scooting along the floor, but today he was using his knees more, not quite crawling, but he's figuring out that if he uses his knees, he moves faster! Pretty soon, he'll be chasing Emily through the house!! Oh, I'm so not ready to chase after 2 of them!!!

I'll sign off for now! Thanks for checking in!

Have a wonderful day!

Remembering

September 11, 2001. The entire world felt the impact as the Twin Towers in New York City crumbled to the ground on that fateful morning. All around the world, people watched as planes crashed into the ground in Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. The world stood as one in front of their TVs in shock as the most massive terrorist attack in US history flashed right before their eyes.
September 11, 2008. 7 years later. The entire world remembers.

They attacked our Country. They attacked our Home. They attacked our Families. They attacked our FREEDOM. And We Will Not Forget.
Our soldiers fought hard for our Freedom. Our soldiers now fight harder to protect what they earned. Our soldiers have spent years away from their loved ones, away from the comforts of home. Our soldiers continue to need our love and support. Until our home is safe again and until every soldier is in the arms of loved ones or honorably placed to rest in US soil, we give our support.

The American flag flies today, in remembrance, in honor and in thanks to all those who have fought to protect us and keep us safe. The flag flies today to support those at home, praying for the safe return of our soldiers. The flag flies today to remind those who attacked us, that you can attack our buildings and our land, but you cannot attack our spirit.

God bless this land that I love.


















photo courtesy of David R. Harper, SR (Memorial Day 2007)

Cute picture for today!

Just a quick post because I wanted to share this cute photo! I played a little bit with my photo software, just cropped, enhanced and matte edged. I just love the smile! And I can almost picture him on a surfboard!!
Hope that everyone enjoys the long weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
Dee

34 years old...

So yesterday was my 34th birthday. I don't feel 34! But, another year wiser, right?
Well, let's find 34 things that me smile!
1. My kids
2. My husband
3. My parents
4. My friends
5. My pets
6. My country
7. Happy Mail
8. Chocolate
9. Coffee
10. Pepsi
11. Rubber stamping
12. Scrapbooking
13. New crafting tools
14. My camera
15. Phone calls from my in-laws
16. Cupcakes
17. Cafemom friends
18. Blog Surfing
19. Blogging
20. Frogs
21. Babies
22. Puppies
23. Retail therapy (aka shopping)
24. Pizza
25. The smell of fresh rain
26. New socks
27. PJ's
28. Surprises
29. Vacations
30. Shrimp
31. Martini glasses
32. A clean house (as long as I don't have to clean it!)
33. Weekends off
34. Going home

I'm sure there's more, of course! And, no - they are in no particular order! So.. that was kinda silly.. but blogging makes me smile, right? :o)

Emily Starts Preschool

So, today was Emily's big day! Her very first day at "Big Girl School"! She was so excited! Today was the day that the parents got to stay in the classroom and see how things work, and where things are and watch how the children interact with the teachers. It was pretty chaotic, and I am still a believer that anyone who can work with that many toddlers on a day to day basis and still smile throughout it all, should be nominated for sainthood! Emily did really well! She was shy when it came time to stand up in front of the class and tell her name and age, so I had to help her with that.. while she hid behind the teacher next to us! After that, it was just play time. All the kids got to basically help themselves to whatever they wanted to play (oh, sorry "work") with. This is a Montessori preschool, which means that the children select their own work for the day. It is a mixed age group of children from ages 2-5, so the older kids help the younger ones. Emily did a very impressive job with the puzzles! She blew through some pretty difficult puzzles with no problems! And she loved playing with jars and bottles and cups of popcorn kernels, beans, beads and marbles. She just poured them from one cup to another, over and over, saying she was making me milk, or juice, or soup! She seemed to really enjoy herself! After a couple of hours, Iain and I snuck away to sit outside the classroom to see how she would act when we weren't there.. we don't even think she noticed we left! She was very good and we are very proud! Also, tonight, she counted to 5! I know that's not a great leap, but she always tends to skip from 3 to 6, forgetting 4 & 5.. so for her to say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? That's big for this week!

Today was also my 34th.. er 28th.. birthday! After our morning at preschool, Iain drove us all down to Hermiston, OR just to explore. It's only about 1/2 an hour away, so it's not a bad drive at all. And it turns out that it's a pretty nice little town! I found the Daisy Bucket Design Studio! Daisy Bucket creates some of the most beautiful scrapbooking paper I have ever seen! And to see it all in one store was amazingly overwhelming! I didn't buy a single sheet of paper, because I didn't know where to start, and I knew that if I did start, I probably wouldn't stop! They also had some other scrapping products. I did get a stamp, some glitter, some rub-ons, some flowers and some hat-pins.. that's new for me.. gotta figure out how to use these absolutely adorable little hat-pins on paper! Then we found another scrapbook store (Oh boy) where I found a bunch more stuff! More paper - yes, I bought paper here, only because the Halloween stuff was just cool! and I got some paper to scrapbook Emily's first day of school! I got stickers, more stamps, and a scrapbook page layout kit to use with the photos of Emily's new swing at Grandpa David and Nana Cauleen's house. I'll post photos of those 2 scrapbook pages when I make them.. soon, I promise!

Bradley! I got a picture today of his smile that just lights up the whole room! I hope you like it as much as I do!

My first Blog Award!

Wow! Thank you Lisa! What a surprise to find a blog award waiting for me! My dear friend Lisa is a wonderfully talented rubber stamper, paper goddess, card making superstar and I am lucky to call her a friend!

So, of course, the fine print:
RULES:
I have to pick 7 of my favorite blogs and…
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

So, I will be nominating (and hopefully not duplicating too many of Lisa's nominations!)
- my Dad, of course!
- Jackie
- Ivy
- Marie
- Lizzie
- Heather
- Heather

When I make my regular "blog rounds" yours are the blogs I always check in on! You are all full of inspiration and talent!
Thanks, again Lisa!

Bradley's 6 Month Check-Up

Today was Bradley's 6 month check-up (yes, I know he'll be 7 months old on Monday! He's got a very busy Dr.!) He's a healthy, happy boy! He weighed in at an even 18 pounds! And he is 27 inches long! She said he is developing well and is right on track for his age! He wiggled, he giggled, he rolled around and he wouldn't hold still to be weighed! He passed toy from one hand to the other perfectly - that was the Dr.'s big test for the day! So, he doesn't need to be seen again until his 1 year appointment in January, but he will have to go in for a flu shot and booster in November.
We all went to the UPS store to mail a wedding present last weekend, and the very kind lady working asked Emily if she wanted to be weighed on the scale! So, we plopped Emily onto the scale and she weighs 35 pounds! We also weighed Bradley and he was 18 pounds! I told the Dr. that we weighed him at the UPS store, and she gave me a weird look! Like, "Why were you weighing your baby at the UPS store?" I just giggled! I should have told her we were sending him to Nana's for the weekend!
And Emily... dear, dear Emily...! I guess it was only a matter of time.. All little girls do it at some point. Mom says I did, too! Well, Emily cut her hair! Fortunatly, she may have a future as a hair stylist, because you can't really tell! She managed to cut off the lock of hair that I have been trying for months to grow out to be even with the rest of her hair!! So, now we are back where we started! It doesn't look bad, and we will just leave it be.. until the weekend before pre-school starts, then we'll take her in for a haircut!

I would like to just say Happy Anniversary to Iain before I close this post! It's been 7 wonderful years!

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!! I Love You!
(photo courtesy of www.housemouse.com)