Merry Christmas!

Hope your holidays are blessed and happy.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Hugs,
Lisa

Christmas hats and bows

Hey everyone! 

Sorry I have been MIA, Christmas gets a bit crazy busy around here.  I am happy to say that I we are done Christmas shopping, have a the house decorated, school play, piano recital and choir concert under our belt. I like the feeling of being able to relax until Christmas.  

Have done a few layouts of my sweet L lately.  Will definitely have to do a few catch up layouts for K to make it even. :)

This first layout was inspired by these adorable tags by Elle's Studio.

I created this second layout for Emma's Paperie.  You can find all the supplies on the Emma's blog.

Hope you have a fabulous, relaxing week.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Happy December everyone!

Christmas is approaching fast isn't it?  I have started Christmas shopping but have oh so much more to do! Hoping to get our Christmas tree and decorations up today.

I have been pulling out old Christmas photos and scrapping them.  It has been so much fun and has really got me in the mood for the holidays.  Found this one last night and started a new Christmas layout. This pic just make me smile. :)

Speaking of L, I created a different layout about her sense of humor earlier this week for the Challenge Me Happy Blog.  Annelie gave us a wonderful layout she created as our inspiration for this challenge. 

Make sure to stop by the CMH blog to see her inspiration photo and check out the details for the new challenge. The winner will get to be our next Guest Designer.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Reunion

Happy Friday everyone!

It is has been such a busy week,.  My sweet girls have decided that they wanted to raise money for Compassion.  After we discussed their options they decided they wanted to make and sell fleece blankets and donate the profits.  I am very proud of them but it has created more work for me than I had expected.  Each blanket needs to be cut before they can start tying them.

L had another gymnastics meet this last weekend. I really enjoy watching these meets but this one was even more fun than usual.  While talking to a friend in Bloomington we found out that L was going to be competing against her old gym. :)  Two of her closest friends and their families were there. :)  Then as we are chatting before the meet I hear a loud exclamation and look up to see DH talking to a sweet friend of ours from Carmel.  We used to usher with her and her husband her daughter went to L's gym before we moved to Bloomington. It was so much fun to spend time with all of these dear sweet friends of ours.

A few weeks ago I posted some pictures from our fall photo shoot.  While I was taking pictures I got some great ones of my DH with the girls.  They were acting all goofy as I snapped pictures.  Once I started looking at them closer I realized how much he looked like he was imitating Superman.  From there the layout just took a life of it's own.  :) It was the perfect title, he really is such an amazing husband and dad. :)

You can find the photo that inspired the layout along with the supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog.

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by my blog today.

For My Sister

I come from a family of five. I am the oldest and I have one sister and one brother.  

Personally I like this picture better. Haha

My brother is in the army just ending being stationed all the way in Hawaii.  He will officially be back in the states this month.  My sister lives in our hometown in Wisconsin. She has always been the the relational one.  She is still very close to two of her friends from elementary school, not to mention keeping in touch with numerous others.  She is the one that calls and texts often, makes sure everyone remembers birthdays and anniversaries.  She is also the one that is constantly admiring my work and asking me to make cards and gift boxes for her friends.  And that makes me feel good about my work.  I am lucky to have her. :)

Recently a friend of hers had surgery and a group of her friends decided to put together a gift basket.  After receiving a gift box from me for her birthday, my sister asked me if I could make one for her to give to her friend.  I created two gift bags, one for her and one for a friend of mine for her birthday.  

You can find the supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog right here.

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!!! 

We are the Champions!

What a long, cold, exhausting, FUN weekend!  K had her soccer tournament this weekend and after 4 VERY close games, they came out the champions for the U14 girls.  Last night was probably the worst weather with 45 degree temperatures and wind gusts of 20mph.  Those poor girls were wind burned and frozen by the end of the game.  We rolled back into town at 9:45, tired but happy.

After a bit of a rough start trying to find the right team for her in town, she has landed in a good place. These girls are sweet, supportive, fun and committed. Looking forward to the winter season.

My sweet in-laws came this weekend to take L to her gymnastics meet so that we could go to the tournament, then they drove all the way to Michigan because L wanted to support her sister and at least see some of her games. I think grandma and grandpa were happy to be there too. :)  L did well at her meet, getting 5th all around for her level and mastered the fly away on the bars.  I am so proud of her! She has been struggling with this skill and she did it at the meet!

Wanted to share a layout I did for Emma's Paperie last week.  I didn't realize my banners were a bit crooked until I posted this, sorry. Hmmm... Anyway our assignment was to use banners and the banners on this layout are straight now :)

Sending out prayers to all may friends on the east coast.  Thinking about you in the next few days! Hugs.

Fall is here

Oh the weather has been glorious the last few days.  We had some rain and nasty wind this weekend but once that blew over it has been absolutely perfect.  I just love this time of year.

The rain held off for K's game this weekend and I must say it was worth sitting in the cold to watch them.  They did not win but put up a REALLY good fight.  The team they played were ranked 3 divisions higher than her team and only won by 2 points, one of them which was a penalty shot.  Her coach has set up another scrimmage against them this weekend trying to get the girls ready for a tournament at the end of the month.  It should be good.

L's meet was a good show for their first meet of the season.  Although not perfect, I can definitely see a HUGE improvement from last year.  She is just so much more polished.  I am looking forward to seeing her compete more this winter.

In between rain drops we were able to get some fall pictures taken this weekend.  We literally had to dart to the car as the rain started coming down.  They always say that overcast days are good for photos and the proof was this weekend.  I was happy with so many of the photos.  These were taken on a hill near L's old school, not too far from here.

Found this great frame at Hobby Lobby and thought I would give it a try.

So now for a quick layout before I go and snuggle with my sick L.

Have a wonderful rest of your week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Family time

I spend a fair amount of time posting about my sweet girls.  It is so easy to get tied up in everything that they are busy doing that marriage can get put on the back burner.  I know I am not the only one in this position. :) DH and I have starting using their activities to our advantage for the last couple of weeks.  On Wednesday nights both girls go to youth group for an hour and a half.  DH and I have started going together to drop them off and then heading out somewhere for dinner.  Now, it may not be the best for our waistline, eating out every Wednesday but in this case I think it is worth it.  The girls can get pizza at church to it works out beautifully and I am loving this time for us to catch up and spend some 1 on 1 time.  I love the message it is sending to our girls too. The message that our marriage is important to us and that we want to spend time together.

Looking ahead to a very busy and hopefully healthy weekend.  L has her first gymnastics meet of the season. I am excited to see her perform her floor routine.  It is going to be cute.  She chose to do the routine to Walking on Sunshine (such a perfect song for her bubbly personality) and has been working so hard on it.  Her tumbling capabilities just blow me away. On top of a gymnastics meet, we have a soccer game this weekend for K.  This is going to be a tough one.  K and her team are probably in the wrong league.  They have been smoking every team they play.  The last game their coach told them they could only shoot and pass with their left foot for the whole first half to try and challenge them a bit.  So he has set up two scrimmages for this weekend and next against a local team that is really good.  I don't want to see them lose of course, but I think the challenge is going to be good for them.  Please say a little prayer for both my girls though.  They both need to be 100% on top of their game this weekend but they both are coming down with something.  K had a sore throat all day yesterday. This morning L, DH and I have one as well.  :(

Have you signed up for the Crafts N' Things newsletters?  You can get great holiday ideas sent to your inbox every day and then once a week there is a weekly newsletter that comes straight to your email.  These Halloween jars I created are part of the newsletter this week.  They were super easy  and quick to make.  It took no time to create a bunch to give to a few neighbors. Check it out here alone with lots of other great Halloween ideas.

So I have layout to share with you today.  This last week we focused on Carte Bella paper products over at Emma's Paperie.  Here is the layout I created using Beautiful Moments Line.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Happy Fall Y'All

I just adore fall. It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I love the cool crisp temperatures and the gorgeous colors.  I am actually more one top of my decorating this year and had all my fall decorations up by the beginning of October.  They just make me feel so happy.

I had to laugh at the saying that I used for my post today.  We have starting hosting a small group for our church at our house on Sunday nights.  The study is call "Not a Fan". We did not know any of the couples before we started meeting, but we all get along so well that after we finish up at 9, many of the couples stick around to talk. This Sunday we started talking about teaching, as it turns out several of us either teach or used to teach.  The conversation turned to schools in the south (I used to teach in TX). One of the women was talking about how she knew she was in the south when her daughter came home with a scarecrow that said "Happy Fall Y'All".  :)  It made me smile at the memories that this simple statement brought back.

There is another new challenge up at Challenge Me Happy.  This is an easy one to participate in, Anything Goes.  For this challenge I decided to focus on my sweet youngest DD.  Middle School has not been easy for her.  I decided that this was something that I really needed to document.  The hardest part was finding a photo to use.  She is such a goofy, happy kid that anytime I pull out the camera, she is in full goofball mode.  I actually snapped this photo on Mother's Day while she was sitting by a pond at a gorgeous park near here. I caught her off guard and got a great picture.

We would love to have you join us for this challenge.  You can use any theme and any embellishments for your layout, as long as it is created exclusively for Challenge Me Happy.  Upload it to the site using the inlinkz link provided by October 14th.  Good Luck!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Refocus

I don't know about you, but there are times that I find that I really need to refocus.  And so, I need to apologize to any of you who check my blog from time to time looking for a blog update.  My focus has been elsewhere lately.  

We have started a new sermon series at church, called Not a Fan. It has really got me thinking about what I am making the priorities in my life. Our pastor is fabulous and I recommend you give it a listen. Anyway, it was perfect timing considering that my sister decided to come for a visit. She spent last week with us and it was a great time for the two of us to spend some time together.  She is 5 years younger than me (which makes her 24-hahahaha). There was enough of an age difference that growing up we weren't super close. Don't get me wrong, we always got along fine but we didn't have a ton in common.  As I get older, those years do not make as much of a difference.  It was a very good visit. 

We took her to a big local festival here in town and she got to see K play soccer and L practice gymnastics. Before she left on Thursday she even went with me on my route to deliver groceries to my seniors for the SeniorPak program. I am so glad she was able to find some time to come visit. 

Even though I have refocused my priorities, scrapbooking is still a big part of who I am and what I love to do.  This last week Challenge Me Happy posted a new challenge.  The challenge is to create a layout using an embellishment or embellishment that you created. The perfect challenge for me because I love embellishments! :)  So after deciding to use the goofy pictures of my girls for the layout I decided to create arrows and a mustache as some of the embellishments for my layout.  Arrows are a great create-your-own embellishment.  If you are not comfortable creating your own, simply open a word document and create some arrows there.  Print them onto your paper and cut them out. It is that easy.  Here is my layout. 

Interested in giving it a shot?  You could win a spot as Guest DT for the next challenge.  Check it out here! Look forward to seeing your creations!

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for stopping by!

We will remember

It is hard to believe that it has been 11 years since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. I will always remember the people who lost their lives that day.  I am so thankful for all the emergency personnel who risked their lives that day and those who continue to risk their lives every day to keep our country safe. Thank you!

I am a happy mama.  We spent the weekend getting to watch K play soccer.  She had a game on Saturday and then another one on Sunday. I am so impressed with the new the club she is playing with.  She has improved so much over the last several months and is really becoming a great soccer player.  There are so many sweet girls on her team and we love the philosophy of the organization and great coaches. That said, I DO NOT have any photos of her yet.  I decided I would wait a bit before becoming that crazy mom with the camera. Hahaha :) On the gymnastics front, L is getting ready for her first meet in October.  She is now at a level where she can pick her own music for her floor routine.  I am thankful that we no longer have to listen to the same music 125 times in a row at every meet! :)  I the routine she and her coach created.  It is so perfect for L.  She chose the song Walking on Sunshine and they have added lots of tumbling (definitely her strength) and lots of cute dance moves.  It is a lot of fun to watch.

I have a layout to share this morning and then I am off to clean up the house for my sister's visit on Thursday. :)  I created this layout for Emma's Paperie this last week.  Our manufacture this last month was Crate Paper.   If you follow my blog you probably recognize these photos.  I have wanted to scrap these fun photos from L's birthday since her party. The birthday tags from Crate were the perfect inspiration!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a fabulous day!!!

The Choice by Robert Whitlow

The Choice is about a popular cheerleader by the name of Sandy Lincoln.  Sandy appears to have everything, but then she ends up getting pregnant and everything changes.  Everyone has a different opinion about how she should handle her situation.  Sandy chooses to keep the baby and move to Atlanta where she can stay with her aunt and attend an alternative school. This book is written in two parts, the first part telling Sandy's story as she deals with an unwanted teen pregnancy, adapting to life in Atlanta and the second part picks up after Sandy and her children are grown.

This is the first time I had read a book by Robert Whitlow, I have since read two more of his books.    He is a  master at character development.  He is able to bring the characters in his books alive and The Choice is no different.  His portrayal of Sandy is perfect. As a reader, you get to witness Sandy grow and mature as she deals with a serious issue that faces too many teenagers in our society. The second part of the book is equally well written.  He weaves the characters lives together in such a creative way. I was pulled into the story of Sandy's children and her life as an adult. Robert Whitlow was able to not only tell the story of a young mother and the choices she chooses to make, but he effectively incorporated mystery and suspense into the book that made the book impossible to put down.  I would highly recommend this book.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Whitlow's work and hope to find even more of his work to read.

I was given a free copy of this book compliments of the BookSneeze program from Thomas Nelson publishing.  I was not required to give a positive review of this book.

Together

Happy Tuesday everyone!  We started our week back after a holiday with a 2 hour delay.  Gotta love that transition. :)  I have to admit, fog days are something a bit strange to me.  I do know that when we can't see the homes across the pond, the fog is a problem.  

I just love the pictures we got when we were visiting my parents.  I put a few of them together for this layout I completed for Challenge Me Happy this last week. Challenge #29 is a stitching challenge.  We would love to have you join us.  

I am so glad we had this time at home with my family.  This is one of my new favorite layouts. I love that we got so many good photos of our family. The layout is pretty simple because I wanted to include several photos and a fair amount of journaling.

Unique stitching adds interest without taking up too much space and gives me a place to add pearls (still one of my favorite embellishments).

Thanks for dropping by today.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

It's Why I Do What I Do

K had a friend sleep over this weekend.  Morning comes early when you need to get up for church and you stay up talking until 2 in the morning. Needless to say, my sweet 13 year old was a bit tired come Sunday night. When she gets tired, she gets weepy.  She still misses Bloomington and our backyard there (she hates the pond because her soccer ball rolls into the water :) ) and especially our neighborhood friends. I can't say I blame her.  I miss them too...terribly. But there are so many good things here.  And so we started a gratitude list while we laid in her bed talking.

What was on her list you may ask?  Many of the items didn't surprise me: a roof over our heads, food to eat, good friends, a soccer team that she loves. And then she adds..."your scrapbooking".  Really?  Why are you so thankful for my scrapbooking I asked.  Her answer, "I get really cool cards and gifts and you make pages about our memories."  Ah, makes my heart happy.  I will admit there have been times when scrapbooking and crafting have felt forced, assignments that I HAVE to get done.  I am truthfully back to enjoying this wonderful hobby again.  This is really why I started scrapbooking and I am thankful for the support of my sweet family.

So, I am sure one of the reasons this came up is because I altered an Altoids Tin for each of the girls and DH. I hid the tins in their bags. K's was in one of her soccer shoes and L's was in her brace she wears to gymnastics.  Will sneak DH's into his car when he gets back to town. The tins were inspired by this pin on pinterest.  FYI I took out the Altoids in K and L's tins and put in Ice Breakers. :) 

This is K's tin. 

 And this is L's tin. 

And of course, here is DH's tin. 

You can find the supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope your week is wonderful!

We need each other

As the girls grow up I keep preparing myself for the day that they no longer consider each other to be one of their closest friends.  So far, we have been blessed that it hasn't happened.  DH and I started when they were very young trying to instill in them how important their sister is to them.  Even before L was born K started calling her "my baby".  I remember having to leave the two of them for a second when L was about 4 months and so K was almost 2 1/2.  I came back in to find L still in her bouncy seat but K had lined up Little People along the belt. She was sharing with her little sister.  :)  I love the relationship they have.

They are very different in many ways.  K is the diplomat while L is a bit more dramatic.  K is definitely more left brained while L is more right brained.  L has been talking since she was teeny tiny and the language abilities didn't stop there.  She reads constantly and is still very verbal.  K on the other hand does very well in math.  Take yesterday for instance, K needed to come up with definitions for words she already knew but was having troubles putting them down in words. L just whipped out definitions for her while trying to get her math done.  Although L has never enjoyed math like her sister she is a good math student and was placed in the advanced math class this year.  That may take some getting used to.  :)  She was getting frustrated with her math homework yesterday and before I could go over to help K was at her side and had L giggling about something silly.  I just HAD to snap a picture right? :)

Earlier this summer some of our sweet friends from Bloomington sent me a bunch of photos that they had on their camera.  L and L have pretty much been best friends since the day they started 3rd grade.  They had been placed at the same table and hit it off right away. So much so that when the teacher said they were short a few lockers and asked if anyone was willing to share, they volunteered.  The rest is history.  :)  As I was digging through some of these photos I came across some cute ones from a time they had a sleepover. I used the photos to create a layout for Emma's Paperie.

Our assignment was to focus on misting.  I had some old 7 Gypsies tags that have been sitting around for way too long so I decided to use my least favorite to create the tag that is tucked under the right hand side.  I used VersaMark to stamp the polka dots onto the back of the tag and then added clear embossing powder. After heating and letting it cool, I sprayed the entire tag with orange mist.  I also added the orange mist to Thickers, let it sit for a bit and then wiped the excess off to give them the soft orange color.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you so much for stopping by!

Through Rushing Waters by Catherine Richmond

Through Rushing Waters by Catherine Richmond is the story of a woman who thinks she has her whole life planned out.  At the start of the story, Sophia is sure that she is going marry and become the wife of a powerful Congressman.  But God has a different plan for her and she finds herself teaching Ponca Indian children in a poor village in the Dakota Territory.  It is there, that Sophia's whole outlook on life changes through her interaction with the Ponca people and Willoughby Dunn.

I will admit that I had a hard time connecting to the main character at the beginning of the story.  She is quite shallow and self-centered.  I am so glad that I stuck with it though. The author did a wonderful job of transforming Sophia.  Catherine Richmond also did a wonderful job portraying the other characters in the story.  I instantly fell in love with Will's strong character and dedication to the people of the Ponca tribe.  My heart went out to each of her sweet students and their struggling families.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the historical aspect to the sweet love story and highly recommend it.

NOTE: I received this book free from the publisher through the Booksneeze program.  I was not required to write a positive review.

Quiet

Wow what a wonderful couple of weeks. Sorry I have been such a bad blogger the last couple of weeks.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with my girls.  

The house is quiet this morning though.  I can't believe I am now the mother of two middle schoolers.  

In between running around yesterday we took some time to paint their nails.  L decided she wanted to have watermelons painted on her toes and K wanted me to put soccer balls on hers. :)

A few close ups.  Notice the braces on my oldest?  She got those the week before last.

 Our new middle school student. :)

I tried a new recipe last week and everyone loved it, so much so that the girls asked me to make it for them for lunch on their first day. It is really easy but takes a while to simmer. You can find the recipe here.

Before I go I thought I would share a card I made for Emma's Paperie. You can find the supplies here.

Have a great week and thank you so much for stopping by!

Family Time

Hi everyone,

We are back home. Thanks everyone for all of your well wishes and prayers for my day.  His surgery went really well and he is back home recovering and doing well.  He was even joking with us after he woke up from surgery. :)

While we were home we took an hour to get some photos of our family.  It has been a long time since we were all home since my brother has been stationed in Hawaii.

This is one of my favorite photos. My brother loves to bug the girls. :)  As you can see they don't mind it too much.  He even spent some time with them on Monday afternoon taking them to the movies and shopping. Such a brave man. LOL 

There is a special post up at Challenge Me Happy this week.  We, not only have a new challenge up, but we are looking for some new designers.  I really recommend trying out for this team!  Annelie gives us such great challenges. This week's challenge is a recipe challenge.  These are definitely some of my favorite challenges.  This week we were asked to use the following:

• one or more stamps

• two photos

• ribbon or twine or both

• two or more paper clips

• no cardstock

• three patterened papers or more

Here is my layout for the challenge.  We would love to see what you create using this recipe.  You can find all the details for the design team call and challenge on the Challenge Me Happy Blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Have a great week!

Flyin' HIgh

What a wonderful day yesterday was! L's party at the trampoline place was fantastic. It was definitely a cool place. The kids could jump til their heats' desire, play dodgeball (K's favorite) or even dunk basketballs. L's favorite part was jumping off the walls. Why am I not surprised. LOL.

I loved being able to spend the two hours they jumped catching up with my dear friends. I thank God for the amazing friends he has sent our way and that we have been able to stay in touch with so many of them. Afterward we went to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and the girls had a great time while L opened her presents.  One of them gave her a scarf, another gave her these cute glasses and it just took off from there!

The movie star and her posse! LOL

This little sweetheart was on L's gymnastics team with her before we moved. They miss each other terribly and I am so glad we were able to work out this sleepover. Their giggles last night made it all worth it. 

 L has a sleepover on Friday night with her local friends, one of them being her best friend and two girls from gymnastics. I am looking forward to getting to know them better. 


 I want to take a minute to congratulate my winners for the Challenge Me Happy hoopla birthday party. The winner of my challenge is...MARHAMAH!  She wins a kit from My Little Shoebox! The winner of my RAK is Felicity Ives!  I will get your RAK out to you soon Felicity!


I am happy to say that I am going to be staying on another term with CMH. It has been so much fun and that creative push I needed when I went through a very mojoless time. :) If you have thought about wanting to be a part of a challenge blog keep your eyes on the Challenge Me Happy blog for details. :) 


Thought I would share a layout with you that 8 made for the most recent challenge. It was a word challenge this time around. We were asked to use the word TODAY. I love this picture of me with the girls. I can't thank my sweet husband enough for finding this gorgeous park and encouraging the girls to make the photo shoot part of my mother's day gift. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I am so thankful for all of you. Hugs!

Rolling Along

Ahhhh, so glad to have a few days with nothing to do.  :)  Don't get me wrong, I just LOVE that my girls are so involved. Wish I would have had all those options when I was a kid.

Yesterday, DH and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  I really do have the best husband anywhere!  He is kind, encouraging and oh so patient with me.  :)

Now that K's birthday is over we are gearing up for L's birthday.  We are actually going to have two parties for her although only one is going to be in town.  She had several friends from Bloomington that she wanted to have at her party and the dates just weren't working out.  We decided to have a party with her B-town friends at a trampoline place in Indy. It will be perfect.  All of them are either gymnasts or used to be gymnasts.  So the kids can jump and the parents can catch up. So excited to see all of these dear friends again.  The following weekend we will have a few of L's closest friends from here in town over for a sleepover.  Nothing too elaborate, lots of junk food, a few games (she loved the ones K did at her party so that will be easy) and maybe a movie.

Speaking of friends,  seriously looking forward to seeing friends from Bloomington on Thursday.  One K's good friends from Bloomington has family who live here and they are coming into town for a visit.  We get to go to lunch with them and then we will head over to the pool so the kids can swim.  This sweet girl's mom and I did a book club together and got to be good friends as well.  I am sure we are going to have a wonderful time!

Have two projects for Emma's to share with you today.  The first was a card based on this amazing photo that Anabelle picked out for us.

And here is my card.

 The second project I have to share with you is a layout I did based on a sketch by Jill.  Oh how I miss these guys.  Jim and Jean were our closest friends in college.  Thankfully we have been able to keep in touch over the years, although we don't see them nearly as much as we should.  Their boys are just as wonderful as they are and we all had such a great time.  We met them for dinner this winter when we were visiting my parents.  Before we knew it dinner was over and we needed more time to catch up so we ended up taking the kids bowling.  What a blast!  I went for a retro feel with this layout.  Just love all the Nostalgia stuff by My Mind's Eye.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you have a wonderful day!

I'm Still Here

Hi everyone!

Yes, we are still alive and kicking.  First I want to tell all me sweet friends who have checked up on me that I adore you.  Thank you for making me feel loved! :)

Let's see what have we been up to?

The girls and I were VBS (Vacation Bible School) leaders for a week at the end of June. What an absolutely rewarding experience.  I think I learn as much as the kids every year.

Then we had family in town for K's birthday. Happy birthday sweet girl!

My parents and sister came the Friday that VBS ended and stayed until the 5th of July. It was a great time to catch up and spend some quality time with them. Please keep my dad in your prayers as he will be going in at the end of this month for surgery to remove cancer from his prostate.

My family left and the next day DH's mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and their two little ones came to visit. We had so much fun chasing those little ones around and celebrating K's birthday.

Monday we took some of K's friends tubing for her birthday and then they came over here for a sleepover.  It was a long day but she definitely had a blast. I have to say, I really like her friends. They are all such sweet girls.

Now we are in L mode.  Her birthday is in one week and I need to get all the details worked out for her party.  whew. :)

I have a card to share with you today.  One of our challenges over at Emma's Paperie this month was to use a book as an inspiration for a project.  Since my girls read a fair amount (especially L) I get e-mails about Middle School books.  It was in one of those e-mails that I saw this book.

Not sure if I want my girls to read it LOL but I did love the cover.  So this is the book I used as inspiration for my card. And this is my card.

You can find my supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Have a great week!!