Thursday, May 16, 2013

I'm Back. . .

Well we are back home now - Just wanted to share a couple of pictures from our PhotoPass
 
 This is all of us, minus Darwin who was in the hotel room napping.
I never did get a picture of ALL of us!
This is Lizzy & Me - my big ASU graduate with her "fear the fork" tee on. She got a lot of strange looks in this shirt - some men asked her if she was on a competitive eating team! Silly men!!!

I will be back with more pictures and stories later.
Till we meet again. . .

Thursday, May 9, 2013

It's Official. . .

My Baby Girl is an ASU Graduate!
It's late and we just got home but I wanted to post a few pictures
I am chronically late for everything (except my classes) but I was not going to be late to Lizzy's graduation! So I made sure everyone in my house was in the car by 4pm to drive the 50 miles in rush hour traffic to the other side of town. We made it in great time - early not late.
The doors open at 6:30 and graduation starts at 7:30. At 6pm we hear from Liz that she is still 30 miles away (did I mention it is rush hour)!!!! I had visions of all of us sitting through my daughter's graduation with out her being there!
Everyone was starting to stress so I removed myself and said a little prayer and God is good - she got there, safe and on time!
 
 So this is our group waiting and hoping we would see Liz walk across the stage
 

You can't see her, but in the last row of those white chairs sits my daughter. At this moment everyone was able to really relax and enjoy the night.
She even had time to run up to our seats and give us her sunglasses to hold for her. I was so thrilled I jumped over everyone and ran to her for a pre-graduation hug and kiss. I tried to take a picture and my camera froze and she is telling me she needs to hurry back to her seat. Just as luck would have it she scratches the side of her nose right as my camera decides to shoot! No time for another shot - but I didn't care, I got to hug my baby!
Once things got started it was too dark to get a picture of her receiving her diploma on stage, so I just sat back and soaked it all in.
 
This is the whole group outside after the ceremony - God bless the kindness of strangers so that we could get this picture of all of us!
 
Of course this is Lizzy with her proud parents!
 
 Ya gotta love sisters!!!!
This pose of Lizzys is making fun of how I was standing in the photo above.
 
 Add in the Brother-in-law and the picture gets a little more dignified

 And a sweet picture with Lizzy and her Grandmas
 
 Last but definitely not least - Lizzy and her Man Richard
 
 And one last picture without the gown so we can see her new dress.
 
This last one I stole off of Lizzy's FB wall. Lizzy is in the center
 
 Thanks for sharing my joy with me
till we meet again. . .

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I am Overflowing Today!

That's right - Overflowing!
I am overflowing with. . .
Pride
Joy
Love
Happiness
Thankfulness
Emotion
and even Tears
Today is the day my Baby graduates from University.
Today is the day she has worked so hard for.
Today is the day she has dreamed of since she was a little girl.
Today is the day she starts a new chapter in her life.
Today is the day I get to celebrate all of this with her.
Today is the day I get to be that sappy, embarrassing Mom.
Today is the day that I will spend in pure joy and gratitude for all of the amazing things that God has given me and my family.
Today is the day that I hope and pray that all of YOU, my blog friends will be blessed as much as I have been!
Till we meet again. . .

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Creativity is Running Rampid in my Family!

I just thought I'd pop in today and share with you all of the FUN projects that have been going on in my house this past week or so. It seems that I am not the only one feeling creative these days.
  
This is my Lizzy working on wedding shower invites for a girlfriend. Lizzy is in the wedding and had to volunteer to help out with putting the shower together. She chose to do the invites (because she knew her Mom was a paper hoarder). She had to make 30 invites that day. Her time is limited so I got everything all cut and ready for her and she and one of the other bridesmaids sat at my kitchen counter or about 4 hours putting them all together.
I really think they turned out nice and the girls really seemed to have fun while they worked on them.
 
 Then the other day Liz called to see if I would help her decorate her cap for graduation. So the two of us ran out to Joann's and bought ALL the black & red rhinestones they had and then came back and got working.
 I used the cricut to cut out the mickey head and the apple and she traced them on the cap and then one by one glued each of those rhinestones on! It took a couple of hours but she did a great job!
 Look at how stinkin' cute it turned out!
 Friday Bryanna and the Girls went with me to Joann's so I could get supplies for my travel book I wanted to make. While we were there we got these Disney shirts that you color in yourself. This weekend the girls both colored their shirts. Monkey did her's all by herself! She is getting so good at staying in the lines and picking colors!
 Bug did a lot her's too but her Mommy had to help her out a little. They are gonna look so cute in their night shirts while we are on vacation!
 While the Girls were busy coloring their shirts and I was busy with my travel journal, Gary was working in the garage on another cornhole game he sold. He custom makes these games for people and hand paints the logos and everything! This one is for a Bike Club (this is the first non-sports one he has made). He makes 2 boards for each game - usually they are 2 different teams but this time they were exactly the same.
 It took him 2 full days to get them done but they turned out fantastic! He was not super excited about me taking his picture as he worked!
 As many of you know Lizzy is graduating tomorrow from ASU and we are having a grad party for her on Friday (the night before we leave on our trip) One of my jobs was to make signs for the food table. We are having a hot dog bar, a popcorn bar and a root beer float station. The party theme is of course Disney, with ASU colors.
 So ya gotta love the dollar bin at Target or little white buckets, the cricut machine for mickey heads and left over Disney stickers. I even had the right colors of curling ribbon in my stash!
 This is the Travel journal for our Disney trip this coming week. Ya know I HAVE to have a travel journal! This is a line of Disney paper I had not seen before it is very cute. It's a little bit retro and has some glitter on it (I am not a glitter fan but Lizzy LOVES glitter!). I hand made the book and added a 3 ring binder mechanism (that I yanked out of an old binder).
  Each day has a black chipboard divider page with an index tab on the edge
 The front has a vellum pocket (thanks Cherry for the pockets!) that I embellished and has a pull out journal card for me to write on each night.
The back side of the dividers are just embellished and ready for some memorabilia that we will collect along the way. On the backs of the dividers for the days we will actually be at Disney there is a bigger embellished pocket to keep maps etc in.   
After each divider are a couple of pages (I did not photograph all of them) to put more of our treasures on. It is the same layout throughout the book so I am just adding small pictures of all of the pages here for you to see.
I must say that I think I really like the traditional black/red/yellow Disney color scheme better, but this turned out kinda cute and it is different than all of the other Disney travel books I have in my collection!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing all of the creativity that is happening around here. I probably wont be adding much else on the blog until after we get back home. I hope you all have a Fantastic 2 weeks!
till we meet again. . .

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Woo Hoo!

So I have finally put the Little Golden Book class to rest. I taught it yesterday and today. A great group of gals in both classes - some new faces too! Good to meet you new gals and always a pleasure to see my old friends!
Tomorrow is church and then my MIL's birthday party - busy weekend!
As some of you know I have been have computer problems but I think I finally have it all under control now. I was on the phone with Richard from EZ-AZTechz from midnight till 2am! But he is my hero and got it all fixed up. It is amazing how much we depend on these  silly machines!
Anyhoo - I just wanted to pop in and say hi and wish everyone a GREAT weekend!!!
Till we meet again. . .

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Little Golden Book UPDATE

Hey Guys - I just wanted to let you all know that I have a couple of openings in this weekend's Little Golden Book Journal class.
This class filled up the 1st week I posted it so we added another class the Friday before. Now it appears that someone had to drop out of the Saturday class and the Friday class still has a spot or two available. If you want to get those spots please call the store (623-847-2215) by Thursday to reserve your place in this FUN class!
 
So these are the class days and times for you
Friday April 26th at 5:30pm
Saturday April 27th at 2:00pm
Class Fee - $50



Please Bring The Following:
Xyron or tape runners, Forever Tape, Ultimate Glue, Distress Pads, StazOn Black Pad, Crop-a-dile, Personal Trimmer, Scissors.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Family Photo Day

Last week we had our FIRST family portraits taken since Bug was born! I just got them today and cannot wait to get them framed and on the walls! I figured I would show off my beautiful family tonight. Enjoy. . .

 Here's my whole gang
 My older daughter Bryanna and her family
 My baby girl and her man, Richard
 My Mom and my Grandbabies - isn't this a sweet picture
 My goofy girls
 Auntie Yo with the girls - Lizzy always says "yo" when she starts talking to you and so when Monkey was a baby she started calling her that. So Liz has never been Aunt Lizzy - always Yo
 My Monkey
 and my Bug (playing puppy dog)
 Here's me and my Man, Gary
Gary and I with our 4 girls - this started out to be a picture of just Gary, our 2 girls and I but the grandbabies just had to be in it.
 
So this is my beautiful family
No I suppose I should finish packing kits for this weekend.
Have a great day
Till we meet again. . . .