New Life...

We just realized we have new baby birds in our backyard. Tyler built us a birdhouse 2 years ago at school but it's never had any guests. While we were out bar-b-qing on Monday Tyler went out to check it out. But when he opened the front of it he was dive bombed by a black-capped chickadee. Of course I had to be nosey too, so today I went out with my camera and shot a few pics. In some of them they were being quite and restful, like this...

But in others they were chirping to beat the band, like this...

They sure aren't that cute yet as they don't even have very many feathers, but we're looking forward to watching them grow and, someday soon, leave the nest. Hopefully to return next year. I've read that they are the kind of birds that like to return to the same nest every year. We'll see.

I have those photos of my new flowers to share with you. The pink hydrangea is, of course, my favorite new flower. :) But my favorite photo is the one of Sophie, my kitty, laying next to the pot with the mini rose in it. That's a special pant to me because my sister, Debbie, and I bought that a few years back to put on Dad's grave, and then brought it home to plant in the yard to honor him. He loved roses, as do I.


These are really red. I don't know what happened to this photo.




I'm off now to visit Papa. I will update you when I return. Until then... c'ya!

Sorry I've been MIA...

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. Ours was busy, busy, busy.

Saturday was mostly spent working out in our yard. We planted 3 rhodies, and a pink hydrangea out in the yard. Then we transplanted 2 miniature roses that were in the ground (and not doing so well) into 2 beautiful cedar pots we bought to put on the porch. We also planted these 2 tiny little potted plantes Zachary bought at Target for $1 each into one of the planters. They are suppose to be sunflowers, but if they really are I'll be amazed because they are just tiny little things. I don't see how they could possibly grow into big beautiful sunflowers. But they are doing really well, so we'll see. We also moved 2 lily plants we had planted in the backyard that the dogs wouldn't leave alone. They are already doing remarkable better. Yeah! Maybe we'll actually get some beautful flowers from them this year. One of them we've had for 2 years and I've only seen flowers on it once.
In the evening Mom, Debbie and her girls, and Davie all came over for a bar-b-q.

Sunday we had church service out at Hagg Lake. It was such an awesome service. They had rented this huge pavilian right on the water's edge. The weather was SO nice. The service was put together by the Men's ministries and there was a bar-b-qpotluck that followed. Four men gave their testimonies, one of them being Charles. I was SO proud of him. He was so nervous, but he did such a great job. After the service and picnic most of the families started heading home, but a few of us stayed for several hours longer. The kids all played in the water. A few of them even got to go tubin' behind Bobby's boat. Of course, Tyler had to get in on that action. Tisha did too :)

On Monday we got up at 6:30am and met the Cookman's at Hagg Lake at 8 to go hiking. They had to be done by noon so they could go to a bar-b-q at her mom and dads house. That gave us 4 hours for hiking so we figured we would hike for 2 hours then turn around where ever we were and hike back to the cars. Well... we hiked in for 2 hours, turned around and made it back to the cars in ONE hour! lol Don't know how that happened, but that's ok, because I was SO sore and tired. When we got home I came upstairs and laid on the bed and was out like a light within seconds. Here it is Wednesday and I am STILL very sore. UGH! Am I really getting that old??!!
That afternoon Mom, Debbie and her girls, came out and we all went together to take flowers out to Dads grave. Davie came out later and we had ANOTHER bar-b-q.
Just as we all thought we could wind down for the night and end the long weekend, Grandma called Debbie and said they needed to get Grandpa to the hospital. He had a fever of 102 and couldn't stand up, even with help. They tried to get him to the car, but ended up having to call 911 for an ambulance. He was admitted to the hospital and he is still there tonight. His cancer has gotten really bad again and his Doctor doesn't think he'll make it past a couple more months. Grandpa says "I'll be here at least a couple more years." <3 I love my grandpa so much! He is such a STRONG man! He just never ceases to amaze me. His oncologist said today that most people with the types of cancer Grandpas battled haven't made it nearly as long as Grandpa has. I think it's storong and unbending faith in God that continnues to pull him through. That and his love and dedication to Grandma. He truly is our hero! If you can, would you please say a prayer for my Grandpa? His name is Doug, and God know his needs. Please pray that Grandpa wins this fight. And for peace and comfort for my Grandma in this difficult time as well. Thank you so much! God bless you.
This is a LO I made for my grandpa to hang in his hospital room so he will know that he is loved VERY much and he is not alone. You've seen some of the photos in a previous post. They were taken in my backyard on Mother's Day. I'm really glad I took them now... not knowing.

 

I will keep you updated on my Grandpas health. Be safe and be healthy!
I did take some pictures of my new flowers, but I haven't uploaded them yet. As soon as I do I will post them. Until then... c'ya!

A great new kit...

Moon Scraps and Madame Wing teamed up to bring you this awesome collab. "Saturday Night Fever" is a fun, bright and colorful kit perfect to scrap parties, people dancing, singing or just having fun! Go check it out for yourselves! You can find it in the store here.

Final May LO requirements + one

Another month is coming to an end, and in my little patch of earth it's coming to a BEAUTIFUL end. Memorial Day weekend is upon us, thus the unofficial start of Summer. Which also means it's Rose Festival time again here in our part of Oregon. This weekends forcast is lookin' good! Nuttin' but sunshine, Baby! Oh Yeah! I'm excited. I'm trying to make plans for the whole family to be able to go to the beach together one day this weekend, but that's proving harder than I thought it would. But I have Hope. If not the beach, we'll all get together for a Bar-B-Q out here.

So, I've finished my required LO's for the month of May for SunshineStudioScraps.com and also completed one extra.

First, I have "Natural Beauty". Steph had her older sister take her senior pics for her and they turned out SO nice. I used one of them for this LO: Everything I used in this LO is from 'Blue And Blue' by Graziela Mendes. And the template is from the Template Thursday Challenge for May 7-13. Of course, you can find it all at SunshineStudioScraps.com.

My next LO is of our 2nd son, Christopher. Skateboarding is his life and he HATES to get his picture taken, so this one was hard to put together because of my lack of pictures of him. In fact the larger photo was taken by my niece, Tisha. She and Chris are more than cousins, they are really good friends. Here's my LO for Chris:


I used bits and pieces from several different kits, but the majority of it was done with 'September Days' by Michelle Batton, including the alpha. The template used is from Thursday Template Challenge May 14-20. The screws are from Sweet Blossoms Designs kit 'Boys Club'. The chicken wire is also from a SBD kit 'It's A Boys World'. The rubberband and Tag are from SJTowers kit 'Sk8 or Die'. And the stamped Alpha is from Kim Christiansen's kit 'Phresh'.

This last one was done for another Challenge. This months "Out of the Box" challenge at SUN was to only use 1 paper and 7 embellishments to complete a LO. I chose to do mine on my niece, Jenna. My younger sisters little girl. I took this photo when they were here for Mother's day a couple weeks ago. She's gotten so big and so cute. :) I can't believe how quickly all the kids are growing up. It's makes me sad sometimes, ya know? Oh! Anyway... here's Jenna:


I mainly used 'Almost Like Love' by Amanda Dykan. Some embellishments recolored. The alpha is from 'Color Theory in Blue' by Mish Bowley, also recolored. And the glitter frame is from 'Easter Blossom' by Mimi's DigiScraps & Polka Dot Plum, also recolored :) You can find all but 'Almost Like Love' at SUN. I don't know where Amanda Dykan sells anymore, she's no longer at SUN.

So, there's what I've been up to this month. I hope you like what you see! Enjoy your long weekend and don't forget to use your camera to capture those moments that you don't want to ever forget. Have a blast, but be safe! I want to see you back next week! Until then...c'ya!

Look at this!

Have you been to sunshinestudioscraps.com lately? Madame Wing has a new kit out in the store called "A Star Is Born". A Star is Born is a wonderful, bright and fun kit loaded with bold colors and stars. This kit is very versatile, perfect to scrap pics of your babies, kids, summer, vacations, etc. It includes: 13 Papers , 1 Alpha & lots of embellsihments. Take a look! Then click here to go to the store.

What a wonderful weekend!

It was just one great thing after another this weekend. So many blessings!

Saturday morning we went and walked "Steps For Life". The weather was perfect! The sun was out and it was warm, but never too hot. We had a few people from other churches here in Forest Grove join us this year which was awesome! Hopefully as we continue this each year, more and more people and churches will participate with us. After the walk they had brunch set up and waiting for us at the church. That was awesome, cause boy were we tired and hungry! lol

Saturday evening I went with my sister, Debbie, to a baby shower for a friend of ours from when we were kids. We grew up next door to a larger family that pretty much adopted us into their family and vice-versa. My best friend from that family was Olga. We we like sisters for a LOT of years. Well, as we grew we also grew apart. As the years have past I've tried several times to find her on the web. What I didn't realize is that her last name had changed. I went to the baby shower not knowing if she would be there or not, but hoping she would. She was there! I was so happy to finally see her again after all these years. To be honest, I told my sister before we went that I didn't want to stay long, but she ended up having to wait on me, cause I couldn't get enough time with Olga. By the time we left We had exchanged email addresses and I intend to never lose her again. We were neighbors from the time I was 4 and she was 2 until we moved when I was high school. That is my whole childhood! And she was a very large part of that. In fact, we have secrets between the two of us that nobody else knows to this day! (No, Missy, I'm not telling you!) LOL! I am so thrilled to have her back in my life again. It doesn't matter what's happened in these past years. I love her as much today as I did when we were making mud holes in the park and running my little brothers Hotwheels through them. Or making the best Barbie houses we could out of socks and washcloths! Oh, those were the days... And so blessed am I!

Today, we had my entire family over for a Mother's Day Bar-B-Q. Grandma & Papa, Aunt Judy, Mom, Debbie and her 3 girls, Missy & Jason and their 2, Davie, Charles & I and our 3 boys were all here. Add to that that Missy brought Henry, their Springer Spaniel, and Judy brought Gidget, her Chihuahua, along with our 3 and that made for an energy filled day! The Bar-b-q was DELISH! And the weather was gorgeous. We were outside in our backyard most of the day. And at the end of the day before everybody started heading out, we did family photos. They turned out SO well! It was truly a blessed day! I couldn't have expected more. Here's a couple of the pictures from today:

From 2009 5

From 2009 5

I'll be back to share more soon. Until then...c'ya!

Isn't it pretty?

Hehe! Well, I never did figure out how to do my own BG up on my blog. But why worry too much when we have the Amazingly talented Allie Brown doing the hard stuff for us? And she is so gracious to let us use them for free! You NEED to go check her out. You'll find something you love, I promise!

So, I just found a LO that I made back in April that I didnt realize I had never shared. I used a technique called 'extracting' to cut my son out of the original messy background photo and placed him into this serene LO. This is Tyler when he was really little, somewhere around 1 1/2 I'd guess. I found this poem online and knew I had to use it on a LO of Tyler. Well, any of my kids really. They all grow up SO fast! Don't they? Mkakes me wish God had a special video recorder that we Mom's could have the privelege of going back to when we need a little reminder of how precious they once were. LOL! Tyler is 17 and male! I hope you'll understand. Hahaha!Anyway, here it is: Everything I used is from 'Sapphires and Faded Jeans' by Nicole Young. I absolutely LOVE her stuff. Just awesome!

Ok, here's the first one I've finished this month at SUN. It's a photo of my Papa Doug. The journaling says: "In 2005 Papa asked us if we would like to walk with him in the CAT Walk. We had no idea what that was. Papa explained to us that it was to raise Cancer Awareness and Treatment. The walk is a 5k and all the proceeds stay here in the Hillsboro area, which is important to us because Papa recieves his treatment at Tuality Hematology & Oncology in Hillsboro.
Papa, Charles & I and all our kids, Debbie, Tisha, & Akaila all walked that first year. It has now become an annual family tradition. One that we will gladly carry on for years to come. ". This year will be our 5th year participating. Everything I used is from the kit 'Freedom Rocks' by Sherri Tierney at SUN.

Well, my computer must getting tired, too. It's really starting to drag tonight. So, I guess I'll take it as a hint and go to bed, too. I hope your enjoyed my LOs tonight! I'll be back with more soon. I just remembered I haven't updated you on my cards for the "His Holy Name Challenge" over at FaithSisters.com. I probably won't be back this weekend, since we are going to be so busy, but I'll proboably be back on Monday to update y'all! Until then... c'ya!

Moving on...

OK, well, as you can see, I haven't figured out how to upload my own background yet. :( It's really frustrating! I have a tutorial that I found quite some time back, I'm not even sure where I found it, that I'm trying to follow. I made the LO 1450 pixels by 1100 pixels in PSE. I saved it at 72ppi, then uploaded it to Photobucket. After I copy/paste the direct link into the html code and save it, my blog is still plain white Minima. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway... I promised more layouts, so here they are:
These first two are the last of Aprils CT LOs.

This one is called "Creepy Crawly". This is my adorable son playing with salamanders. Eew! Such a boy! Everything I used on this LO is from the awesome kit by Mimi's DigiScraps 'Mudpies And Dragonflies'. The template is from daisydil's Template Thursday challenge for the week of April 16-22 at SUN. I had SO much fun with this LO! I love the kit and the photo. Cody looks so proud of himself. :)

The next one is "Funny Bunny". This is my little niece, Natty. We put the ears on her while we were in the store. She's so funny! This LO is made mostly from Mimi's Digiscraps 'Easter Blossoms'. The purple paper came from the Sun Collab 'HellRaiser'. The cracked egg is from VivaArtistry's Easter Blog Train Freebie 'Pascoa'. All found at SUN.

Since I'm showing you one Easter one I'll show another one that I made as a decoration and gift for my Secret Sister at church. I really like how this one turned out. On this LO I used "Celebrate Spring" by Rene' Bross designs, over at DigitalScrapbookPlace.com. What a gorgeous kit! Go check it out.

This last one for today is called "WildFlowers". I love it! I think it is so beautiful. This one was a combined effort between myself and my daughter, Stephanie. She has lots of fields around her house and she takes some gorgeous pictures that she shares with me. :) Here it is: I used Polka Dot Plum's beautiful kit 'Lilac DayDreams Forever' to compliment the beautiful pictures. I got the butterfly from 'Que Sera Sera' recolored. And the 'Nature' WA is from SUN Collab 'Radiation', also recolored. I hope you like it as much as I do.

So, this weekend is suppose to be nice! YAY! On Saturday we are walking "Steps For Life". It raises funds and awareness for the Portland Resource Center. They provide free pre-natal care and ultrasounds to women who can't afford it or are contemplating abortion. It is an awesome thing.
Then on Sunday, we are bar-b-qing here at our house for my whole family. My Grandma & Grandpa, Mom, My sisters & their families, and my brother will all be here. It's suppose to be sunny and about 70. I hope to remember to get the camera out and get some good family photos. :) Usually I get to having too much fun and forget to get the camera out! DUH!

Anyway, I better get off for the night. But tomorrow's FRIDAY! WooHoo! Bring on the sunshine! I'll keep working on my background and either way, I'll try to be back tomorrow. Until then... c'ya!

Please be patient with me...

I am trying my hand at making my own Blog LO. I am SO close to getting it right, but when I click the direct link in Photobucket and add it to my HTML code, the picture that comes up as my background is not the same as what I have in Photobucket. Hmmm. any advice? Is Photobucket realiable? I dunno... A any rate my blog will be under a little visual construction temporarily. Thanks for any help you can give, and for understanding.

I'll post again when I get this right. lol. Until then...c'ya!

How is it May already?!

Where does time go? And why does it have to go so fast?! lol

I'm sure by now you've all heard about "Swine Flu". Well, our whole school district is shut down for 2 days. There is a case of it in one of our grade school and possibly more through out the district. We will be updated tomorrow as to whether the kids will go back on Wednesday or not. My kids are actually mad! They want to go to school! How blessed am I?

Well, if you remember back in February we were going to have a house guest come stay with us for a while. We had agreed to let my brothers fiance and her little girl stay with us for 1 month. But, when things weren't working out for them to get a place of their own, we decided to let them stay a little longer. Well, after 3 months we felt it was time to give them a gentle nudge. Unfortunately they weren't able to find a place they could afford so she ended up having to move to California with her Mom. I feel horrible because now because she's pregnant with my brothers baby and now he won't be able to go with her anymore to the Dr. appointments or the ultrasounds. On the other hand, they have both said they knew it needed to be done and they feel like God has a plan for them, so they're doing what needs to be done. I think this way it'll be easier for my brother to save up his money and get things straightened out for all of them. God willing!

Ok, so I was never able to find that LO I told you about in the previous post. So, I had to go back to SunshineStudioScraps.com (SUN) and save it back to my computer. At least I had uploaded it there so it wasn't completely lost. I can't figure it out... I always save all my LOs in 3s. One .PSD file, one 12x12 .JPG and a 2x2 .JPG (smaller for web upload). All three versions are completely gone! Vanished! POOF! Disappeared. Who knows...

Anyway, here is the LO. It's called "Beautiful". I made this to remember our Women's Retreat in 2007. We rented a gorgeous mansion right on the beach in Neskowin, Or. We were definitely pampered that weekend! Everything used for this LO is from Viva Artistry's kit "Infusion" found at SUN.

These next 2 LO's are ones that I made in April over at Sun for my CT requirements. This first one is called "Happiness". It is of my niece enjoying the sunshine on our first beautiful spring day. Everything I used is from Scrapidea-timkova's kit *Moss Path*, also found at SUN.

This last one is called "Being a Brother". These are my 2 youngest, Zach and Cody. (Yes, really! I named them WAY before the show came out on Disney lol) I was surprised by how many pictures I have of them loving on each other, as they seem to always be fighting! I found the word art at ScrappingWords.com and knew I had to use it. I used a template from Sya's Blueprints, 'Stripped Set 4' (Template 2). The kit I used is from Mish Bowley, 'Color Theory in Blue'. All found at SUN as well.

Speaking of the CT... I have become a permanent CT member! I am no longer a 'guest'! I am so thrilled! I have SO much fun creating for them (& myself in the meantime) and the ladies over there are so AWESOME! Come on over and check it out sometime!

Oh, I made a little ticker app. to keep track of how many LOs I get done in 2009. My goal is 100, but when I went thru and counted up how many I've already made this year I was quite surprised! I've already done 22 in 4 months! I did count desktop calendars also, but I didn't count cards. You can watch and keep track with me on the right hand side, towards the top. Can't miss it :)

I will be back tomorrow with the last 2 LOs I did for April. They are VERY cute, you don't wanna miss them. Until then... c'ya!