I is for Ice-Cream

Getting back to my ABC's of Blogging. . . just having too much fun! So, for fun, I'm going to offer some Blog ICE-CREAM! Notice it's missing in my cone above!

Ice-cream is one of my 2 favorite foods! I love Vanilla, closely followed by Strawberry Cheesecake, Something with Carmel in it, sometimes with chocolate. . .oh, I give up! I can't pick possibly pick one flavor as my favorite!

So, post your favorite ice-cream flavor and you could end up with some ice-cream of your own! I've got almost 1000 hits so I'll pick from those who posted (randomly of course) when my hits reach 1100 I'll send 1 lucky poster their own blog ice-cream!

Wish We All Could Be California Kids!

Just back from our Laguna Beach Vacation! What a trip! We had such a good time exploring the tide pools, played with crabs, found all sorts of interesting wild-life there! I've got many incredible pictures. Missed a great picture while Mikensee was riding the waves. Dolphins were swimming and jumping maybe 20 feet from her. She missed the entire thing due to the waves in her view! I couldn't get my camera out fast enough! I did get some photos of the dolphins, but not clear enough other than to identify that they are dolphins. We enjoyed hanging at the beach, digging in the sand, exploring, eating (of course!) and just having a really good time. . . I do wish we could be California kids! (only on vacation of course!)

It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I want to!

Okay, so I really didn't cry, but it makes a good headline doesn't it? My 37Th year marked with a trip to Grease and the Broadway Palms Dinner Theater (photo with DD), a nice lunch with my friend Kim at PF Chang's (our annual birthday tradition), My FAVE Red VELVET Cake homemade for me by my main mom Teresa and a new digital friend (also from my too sweet, over the top Mother Teresa!) I got the new 10.1 Mega pixel Casio EXILIM Z1050 (LOL!) Like I know what that means! HA!!! Anyway here's to MOI' on my special day!

Benjamin's Baby Book

My dear friend Atalie had her 11 lb, 11 oz, 22.5 inch long baby boy Benjamin Friday the 13th. . .

I made her this altered board book baby album tonight and just can't wait to give it to her! I think it turned out so cute! The book is aproximately 6" X 7.5" tall. I used Basic Grey Oh Baby! Boy! and lots of miscellaneous stamp sets, embelishments etc. Used a board book from the $1 Store!

Rockin' Blogger Girl

Looky what I got! A Rockin' Girl Blogger badge! Not that I'm deserving, but my friend Lois at Gingerbreadaholic nominated me! I'm supposed to nominate 5 more Rockin' Girl Bloggers so I've got some research to do! I have some fave's, but most are already nominated AND I don't know that many bloggers! I'll update on my 5 picks soon! Thanks Lois!

Color

Jessica is my very colorful 5 (almost 6) year old. I was telling her this morning that I think she should be a color. She just brightens every room and is as stubborn and hard headed as they come. She definitely adds color to every minute of my life and our family. Well, I just love the Color And Quote section over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I love color and the use of it in everything from ads to decorating. . . I especially love looking everywhere for color combos I can try. Obviously some people are just really good at playing with color. I'm probably not an expert, but like my "happy" card below I find color inspiration in some unusual places. . . Today I found these pictures and decided I had to try posting some color combination inspiration of my own.

Sometimes the Absurd Just Jumps of the Page

So, I love cookies. . . It's no big surprise that this cookie buffet caught my attention. . . but it was the fine print that I couldn't quit chuckling over. . . Good ole Martha Stewart and her new "all American" reformed self!

"Watch the kid in guests appear as they reach for treats from a cookie buffet. Ask your caterer to make a selection of cookies from the recipes below, or use your own family favorites. Be sure to include a card or label with the cookie names. You can also set out glassine-lined bags and seals for packaging cookies to go."

So anybody else have a caterer that I can "borrow" so I can have my very own cookie buffet???

Wow! Never Thought I would finish this one!

Sometimes I tackle mini albums thinking that it will save me time. . . This was definitely a mistake of judgement on this one! I really enjoyed making this little gem and I loved reliving the memories of the vacation too! As this album is 31 pages I have linked a video of the complete album at the bottom of my blog. . . Hope you enjoy it!

Got the 7 Gypsies from my friend Jen over at J4Fun. They are hard to find and hard for her to keep in stock! I definitely would have made my insert pages (I removed the set that came with and made my own), and scrapped them BEFORE assembling the album. . . I had no idea when I sewed all those little pages in there how long they would take to complete! Jen, Lois and I all started these one afternoon. . . are yours done yet??? HMMMM????

Monday Challenge

I saw this posted over at Random Thoughts and thought I'd forward the challenge. . . So post yours here or put on your own blog if you are ready to take the challenge!

1. I WANT to be so good at something it gives people goose-bumps.

2. I HAVE everything I NEED!

3. I WISH I could do all that I visualize I can do.

4. I HATE that there is never enough time to do all I want to do.

5. I MISS the changes of the season (but not the long cold winter!)

6. I HEAR my inner self trying to talk me into be better than I am.

7. I WONDER if I will ever feel totally comfortable in my own skin.

8. I REGRET letting myself down.

9. I AM NOT sure what I want to be when I grow up!

10. I DANCE with my kids at the end of their movies with good songs!

11. I SING the songs that speak to me!

12. I CRY easily and it used to bother me, but not anymore!

13. I AM NOT ALWAYS happy with who I am.

14. I MAKE WITH MY HANDS gifts for those who mean the most to me.

15. I WRITE to leave memories in my children.

16. I CONFUSE my identical twin boys sometimes!

17. I NEED good friends, close family and my faith.

18. I SHOULD spend more time doing and less time thinking about it!

19. I START too many things at a time.

20. I FINISH cleaning before I allow myself to play.

H is for Happy

and although I am, I'm in a bit of a funk today. . .pun intended. . . Don't know if it's the heat, the kids, summer, no vacation or what, but I know my kids would like it to go away!

Here's a card I made because I saw these colors on a Happy blouse!

Gifties and Goodies for the Letter G

These little gifty, goodies are baby shower game prizes! The bottles each say YEAH, BABY, LANDON. . .All together of course they say Yeah, Baby Landon!
These are empty Fuze bottles altered with CTMH Building Blocks paper and stickease. Easy, but fun and cute for a little boy baby shower! I also made some much smaller ones as party favors using empty tiny restaurant ketchup, mayo and jelly bottles! My kids ask me before they throw every bit of packaging away. . . I am notorious for buying something just so I can alter the package later!

So, I was thinking . . .

That I am the luckiest mom in the entire world. I know as women, we all love our kids. We all think our kids are the best and I guess that's exactly right. . . My kids are the best kids for me and I am the luckiest mom in the whole world to be blessed to have the kids that are perfect for me! I know that we are supposed to teach our kids and the responsibility is a sometimes overwhelming task. . . BUT. . . I know that my kids teach me more than I will ever hope to teach them. I guess that it has always been this way, but now that mine are "mostly" able to brush their own teeth, potty on their own, and wash their own hands and faces, I'm really enjoying being the Mom a whole lot more than I have for several years now! Not that I'm complaining, but it really is fun to play with my kids now and I really just like hanging out with them! My little Walker man wakes up every day to proclaim that he loves me. . . He usually follows it with something else he loves. Today he proclaimed that he loves my house. . . I reminded him that it is our home and that I love it too. And today I really love being the Mom.

F is for Fish, Fun, Almost 4!

These little swedish fishies are some of my favorite candies. . . Thank you's for my twin "swimming fish," birthday party!

So, F is obviously for "Fish"

Fun, because I had fun making these and

Four, because my babies are ALMOST 4!

There have been times I wondered if I would make it! The fun, the trouble, the chaos these little men can cause, but it has all been worth it and it has been, well, FUN!

This project uses Funky Fish (A1005), Bubbles from The Simple Things (D1002) and Than you from (Best Friends (D1055)! Colors are Holiday Red, Spring Iris and Heavenly Blue!

But it's a Dry Heat

Mikensee takes Wyatt, Walker and (Jessica) off the diving board and down the slide, once each, monkey style!

A dry heat, a dry heat . . . or at least that's what they always say! So how do we keep cool in the dry heat of 116' in Arizona? We swim! Me and the kids LOVE to spend hours in the backyard pool. My 3 year old twins shock and amaze everyone with the swimming abilities and swim freely under water and have NO FEAR! We went to a public pool and they weren't tall enough to go down the water-slide. . . so where did my boys go? They headed right to the diving board in the 12' end! The faces of the life guards were priceless! I will admit that even though they wanted to, I said no to the high dive! Here are some of the pictures from our Saturday 116' swim session! Now, out to the pool with all of us! Oh, and why? you ask, do my twin BOYS have on girl bathing suits? Well, that is because my 5 year old daughter has a very sick sense of humor! (And because they have 2 older sisters!)

E is for Excited!

Extra Excited that I have had almost 20 people sign up for my blog! There are some I don't know and that is even more exciting to me! E is also for {Enjoyed} making this fun little gift!

So this is a just a bunch of goodies wrapped and packaged so the recipient is hopefully glad to receive it! I covered a chocolate bar, made a notepad into a mini purse, covered a small bottle of hand lotion and a pack of gum! The CS is Cherub Pink, Baby Pink and Bamboo all from CTMH, the ribbon is SU, the buttons are unknown. I used a fun paper pack (now retired) called Between Friends. Stamp sets are Beary Much (CTMH C1034), The Best Way (C1037) and a couple of miscellaneous flowers!

More on D for Dear Daughter!

Mikensee also made me these little cuties!
This MM band-aid tin was also stuffed with
Twix and now houses my 2"Cuttlebug dies!
The little mini candy bar purse is too cute to let go!
The little purse is made by cutting a 1.25" x 4.5" CS,
Scoring at 1.25, 2.25, 3.5 and 3.75"
Stamp, fold and glue a Hershey nugget inside!
A brad and small flower keeps the flap closed and a
ribbon slid through and tied creates the handle. She
learned these by helping me make bunch of them for
a valentine workshop. She pays attention well! (or she sneaked this one and kept if for a special occasion.)
I'd bet on the later, but hey, I'm the lucky special occasion!

D is for Dear Daughter

Mikensee who is 10 made me the cutest gift last night! I am such a lucky mom! She went bowling with her friend Rylie and they made a stop at the dollar store for her favorite purchase . . . CANDY! She used an empty thin mint box to alter and stuff with other goodies! Twix, my favorite, and some other delicious treats! She doesn't understand why I haven't already gobbled them up, but when you receive a gift like this from someone you love so much it's hard not to hold onto it! Mom and ocks is written in market on leather tags and the R is a die-cut she inherited from some hand me downs from our friend Jenn!

C is also for Card Tin

I made 6 of these for thank you gifts. . . They each hold 5 mini thank you cards! The Tins are a steal at just4fun. Jen's supply of projects in the raw rock!

C is for Cookies! Homemade Oreos that is!

Yum, Yum. . . HOMEMADE OREOS!

This is a family favorite! If the frosting is green, I added mint. . .White, vanilla, Pink, Strawberry!

RECIPE

Cookie
1 DRY Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 C Shortening or Butter
2 Eggs

Icing
4 oz Cream Cheese
2 C Powdered Sugar
1/8 C Butter
Optional: Vanilla, Peppermint or other flavoring
Food coloring if desired.

~~~~***~~~~
Mix cake mix, eggs and butter. Dough will be stiff. Spoon in small even amounts on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350’ for about 10 minutes. Tap pan upon removal to flatten cookies. Cool and frost. Put halves together to make sandwiches

a, B, c, d . . . B is for Baby Card!

Tiny Feet is one of the few baby stamp sets I own! I actually sold it and re-bought it because I missed it. . . this card was fast and easy, but I like the end result.

I've Been Tagged!

Lois at Gingerbreadaholic tagged me and here are the seven things about me! I don't know enough bloggers yet to tag seven more, but I'll still play along!

1. I have 4 children - ages 10 DD, 6 DD, Twin 4 YODS (identical)

2. I am a Close To My Heart Consultant and love teaching and creating new things.

3. My favorite holiday is Christmas, but I love the SUMMER!!!

4. I spent the 4th of July with the Governor of our State (not that I'm a fan, but hey, it's still neat to be in the circle of ITS)!

5. I love ice-cream and french fry's. . . especially together!

6. I teach water aerobics for fun!

7. I am related to the Osmond's - they are my 2nd Cousins!