Happy Anniversary Bill!

I love you at least 12 times over. I never imagined the kind of husband you would be, but you are living up to my wildest dreams. You are my biggest supporter, my best friend and thank you for allowing me to run wild after my crazy dreams. Thank you for 12 wonderful years!

Kindergartners are Brave!

We are counting down the days until school starts and mom is an "empty Nester." James' isn't so excited about kindergarten. So each day I have been making some comment about him going to kindergarten. As I was kissing him last night I said, "Love you my little kindergartner!" And he says to me, "Mom, I can't be a kindergartner. Kindergartners are brave and I'm not brave." LOL! I can't wait for the first day of school.

Jedi Training Academy 1

He was so excited to be chosen, I don't think he was actually listening to the instructer.

Jedi Training Academy

James was in Hog Heaven to have been selected and then to get to fight Darth Vader

Disneyland

Disneyland was so fun! Billie and James were finally able to ride most of the rides. They loved all the splashy, scary, jolty rides. James asked us every 20 minutes if we can go back for his birthday in the fall. Riding the carousel in Fantasy Land. I am holding onto Maddie and James. Yes my hair is pink! I love it. Felicia (my stylist) did a great job with it!
Bugs life~visiting with the ants.
Mr. Toads wild ride. It was pretty crazy. Good thing toads can't really drive.
Saying hi to Max at Goofy's Kitchen where we ate breakfast with the characters.
Waiting for the Fantasmic show. It was incredible. I would have to say this was my favorite thing. It was put on over the river's of America. They had these amazing misting fountains, which they projected images onto the water. It was really cool. Very worth the long wait to get great seats!

Family Reunion

We had a great time on our family vacation. Big Bear was such a nice change from the desert heat. The road up to Big Bear was a bit of a challenge though. 4 out of 6 in the car suffered from motion sickness.

Here we are having a "vomit stop." No one actually threw up, but most of us felt like it. Hunter didn't feel sick but "wanted to try just in case." I guess we were rubbing off.

Bill didn't have to vomit either, but he wanted to check out the view.

We went to a really neat "zoo." It was a rescue/rehabilitation zoo. Basically it was a last chance for most of these animals. We went on the feeding tour and learned some really interesting info about the animals that they keep here.

Swimming was a daily activity. The kids stood in line to get thrown by dads and grandpa.

Chestin's family doing their skit "Where's My Important Papers?" It was a totally "fun" activity. :-)

Billie's Birthday Party was a huge success. We made homemade lip gloss, door knob hangers, little heart shaped necklace charms, ate gigantic flower cupcakes and watched the sing along version of High School Musical.

The party girls with their cupcakes. It was a great night!

See you all next time!

Billie's Birthday Party

I am so excited that we get to celebrate Billie's Birthday at the family reunion. We decided that it would be fun to have a girls only slumber party on the night of her party. I thought I would whip up a cute "fast" invite instead of a store bought one. I am not sure it was faster, but it sure turned out cute. It is going to fun and we planned some fun things to do!

From Wooden Stamps to Acrylic

I LOVE my rubber stamps, but I hate how much bulk they are. I hate digging them all out when I am scrapbooking to see what I have. After doing some internet research and talking to my friend Rayanne I have figured out a system which I think will be great! I converted all my rubber stamps to an acrylic system. Below you will see how much "bulk" was in the old system and then the new system. Here is what I did.

#1. I peeled all the old labels off the wooden blocks and relayed them onto a white sheet of paper. (If you don't want to do this step, you can just stamp your image onto the white paper. Once you have the white sheet full of images, place them into glossy sheet protectors.

#2. Peel the rubber part only off of the wooden block. (This was easier on some of the stamps than others)

#3 Apply a thin layer of Aleene's Tack-It Over & Over and let it dry until it is clear. Then you have a tacky surface that will adhere to your acrylic block. You can also use a repositionable adhesive for this step.

#4. Lay the new rubber only stamp over the image on top of the sheet protectoer.

#5. Figure out how to recycle 16 pounds of wooden blocks! (that is how much weight I got rid of by converting.)

All the cases that my stamps were in.

All the same stamps put onto sheet protectoers in a couple of thin 2 ring binders.

An alphbet set that I can use! (I will be able to line up the words before I even get to stamping)

Last Summer Swim Meet

James after one of his races.

James getting ready for another race.

One hot Dad! (It was only 116 as we were leaving the meet at 6:30pm)

Grant patiently waiting for his race.

Billie getting ready to backstroke!

Grant after his last race of the season!

Last Thursday we swam in our last summer swim meet. Here are some pictures. The kids really did great this year and they enjoy their time in the pool each day. Grant really kicked into gear in the last race and ended up coming in 2nd. He was swimming against 3 of his friends, so it was a very lively race. Billie very much takes after me and each time she would come up for air she had a big cheesy grin on her face. She loved that we were standing at the end waiting and cheering for her. James invented his own type of swimming. It is called "Jamestyle." He combines all of the strokes that he learned into one. It is a 1/3 freestlye, 1/3butterfly and 1/3 breast stroke. He would have been happier with swim team if it had been swim on the bottom of the pool and race across. It was a fun swim season and we can't wait for our next season to start.

Creating Keepsakes

Well, I did it. I finished my entry for this year's Scrapbooker of the Year. I had a great time putting together layouts for this and even making a mini album. I will post some of my project when I am allowed to. (You can only have 8 published posts. The rest have to be unseen.) Now it is off to plan my portions of the Family Reunion.

Another week

Hunter was able to stay with us after his family went home. We have had a great time with him and he is a great kid. He fits well into our family dynamics so adding one more has been fun. He is even a pretty good cleaner. The kids have had a great time getting to know him and spending some time with him. That is the one stinky thing about living away from family is how much they don't know their cousins. I am glad that Lin and Jess allowed him to stay with us. So far so good. We still have 10 more days to go, but we are loving him like our own. :-) And I must say, that in the week since his mom left he has become quite the little swimmer. He is running right along side of my fish. :-)

More Company

We had a 2 day recovery period before our next guests arrived. An old friend from WY came with her kids for a couple of days to visit. We also laid low and spend time in the pool. Both Lucas and Keely loved the water. Keely is a fish just like Billie and I think we saw her more under the water than above it. We had a great time catching up with Lezlie too. It is nice to have friends that you know are your friends because they are still your friends even after you move 5 times. :-) Thanks for coming guys. It was great! You are welcome to come anytime!

Visit with our Cousins

Kiley Clinging to the wall!

Taggart "When can we go swim?"

The great Hunter. He loves the dive sticks in the shallows!

Madison first needed to try the slide this way.

Then she needed to try it this way.

We had a great time having our cousins here for a whole week. There were 3 adults matched up to 7 kids. We basically swam, watched movies and scrapbooked for the whole week. The kids did wonderful and we only had a couple small fires to put out. Kiley and Hunter came not so sure of the water and by the time the week was over, they both were doing great. Madison and Taggart are 2 of the biggest daredevils I have ever seen and it was a good thing they both had water wings on. :-) Jess and I set up a table and scrapbooked almost everyday. We swam in the evenings after the kids were in bed and even had a night out while Bill held down the kids... err I mean the fort. :-) At the end of the week we took everyone to see the Valley Youth Theater production of High School Musical. The kids really liked it and they had fun going around to all the actors and geting their autographs afterwards. Some of the kids were a little star struck I think. It was a good ending to the week. Bill said he hadn't heard me laugh that much in years. It was fun and I was so glad to have the chance to get to know Jess some more.