She's Here!

From Adriel:

Allison Grace arrived on May 25th!
It was a great delivery and she is healthy and doing well.
We are all in love with her. =)

I've got more photos on my facebook wall... if you have an account, make me your friend and you can see them! =) You can visit me on facebook HERE.

Wowzer! Wednesday

Today for our Wowzer! Wednesday blog feature, we're highlighting a couple of kids that "wowed" us.

Okay, so they happen to be related to us... closely... but we're not biased at all! ;-) Yah, right!

Anyway, Kayla and Jacob both decided to play along with us in our color challenge this month. They both did a wowzer of a job and they love it when we feature them on our blog, so we obliged them. =)

Here's Kayla hard at work for the color challenge.

She made 3 cards for the color challenge! Wowzer!! =)
Jacob used what remained from the supplies Kayla brought home and seriously went to work (hey, he was using SCRAPS!!).
He made this very nice picture... very creative!
The color challenge is still open and we'd love to see what you can create with the colors we've picked out. Click HERE to get all the details!

That's all for today, folks! Join us next week for another Wowzer! Wednesday where we'll be featuring more "wow" creativity and talent!

What We've Been Up To

From Adriel:

Besides cards, that is! =) This time of the year there are just other fun things to do that grab our attention.

The kids made "faux" gingerbread houses (with graham crackers)... these were our budget gingerbread houses. Cheap graham crackers, candy from the dollar store, tube frosting (probably the most expensive element)... still just as fun! The kids were busy for quite a while decorating their houses. While they decorated, we got some baking done. =)

We visited a Christmas Trains lights display... these people are really into trains and their whole backyard was pretty much dedicated to the display. I took pictures before it got dark, but at night time it was lit up. Very cute! =)

Had to show off my Christmas rolls... I baked them ahead of time and put them in the freezer. Of course, I sampled one first... with butter on it. It was yum-yum-yummy!

We hope you're enjoying the fun things that make this time of the year special to you, even if it's just sitting on the couch! Whatever makes it special, enjoy yourself and if we don't pop in here before the 25th, have a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Apple Picking

From Adriel:

It has been AGES since I posted on our blog! I've been MIA for a couple of weeks... took a bunch of pictures today of new stuff! Will share that soon... today I wanted to share pictures with you of our apple picking last weekend. =)

We went down to Willcox to pick apples!

We picked Granny Smith apples.

Some of us sampled them while in the orchard (with permission).

Did I mention we picked apples? Yup! 100 pounds of them! =)

Afterward, some of us had homemade Pumpkin Pie ice cream.

Others in our party chose the homemade apple pie.

We also ate apple-smoked burgers under the apple trees, but I have no picture of that. ;-)

The next day we washed all of our apples and cooked a bunch to make applesauce (which went into containers and into the freezer), kept a few for caramel apples and baked apples, and the rest we used our handy dandy apple corer, peeler, slicer tool. It's an amazing invention and we wouldn't have done all that apple discecting if we didn't have one! Our sliced apples when into ziploc bags (8 apples in each) with a little bit of sugar and some absorbic acid (to prevent browning) and into the freezer. We were able to crank out 24 bags of apples... long enough to last us for awhile! Now, when we want to make an apple pie or an apple crisp (or something apple-y), we have the apples all ready to go! All sliced and peeled! =)

BTW, if you are into apples, you really should have one of these. It's a wonder! Watch it in action HERE. =D

Kayla's Turn

From Adriel:

Of course, the Kayla girl has to have a turn sharing her Build-a-Bear card! =) Again, I can't move my pics... very annoying (wonder if it will ever work normally again?). Anyway, Kayla made this card as a "window card". She said she had been dreaming about making one. (I guess she's already a card-making addict!) I had to help her with the coluzzle and cutting out the square, but she did the rest. She dimensioned the white cardstock behind the frame. She even embossed the bear! I'm not kidding you, she's really into card-making! =D

We had a nice lunch today and I have to correct myself... the place was called "The Olive Mill" not "press", like I thought. We ate lunch outside... it was a bit too warm, but they had misters and we sat fairly close to those so it was alright outside. The food was different, but it was tasty and that is fun to try something new and have it be yummy. =) Forgot the camera, so no pics! Sorry!

My mom and I are just busy working away at our little business! Yesterday I created a couple cards for a class in November... I know that seems far away, but having it done ahead of time gives you time to keep creating and is also nice for ordering. Because we order most of our supplies through Stampin' Up!, we have to have our projects planned at least a couple of weeks ahead of time to allow for delivery of our supplies. We have a white board with the upcoming classes over the next few months listed, and it really helps to plan and create. My mom is a pretty organized person and I'm blessed to be working with her, because I'm not naturally organized. I really do appreciate organization and I just need to practice it more. =)

I guess the only other thing to add to this post is that we have been included in a fun treasury on Etsy called "Funky Fresh and Fun". Be sure to check it out by clicking HERE! =)

Have a wonderful Wednesday! =)

Fun with Build-a-Bear & a Happy Birthday!!

From Adriel:

Some of you may know this, but Stampin' Up! just recently started selling a cute Build-a-Bear stamp set. They combined forces together with Build-a-Bear and created a stamp set, DS paper and some cute Sizzix dies for the Big Shot. The other day my kids played with the Build-a-Bear set and I wanted to share the two cards my son, Jacob, made... okay, only one. Blogger is still being dumb and only letting me post pics to the top of the post! Argh! I'll have to share the other photo later. =)

This new set is so cute and my kids both have something new to stamp with now that is right up their alley. And it's Build-a-Bear... how could you go wrong with that? Even the sentiment set has the Build-a-Bear type, so it matches! =)

Oh, just have to mention that it's my mom's birthday today!! Happy Birthday, Mom!! My dad made (yes, I said made) my mom a really nice birthday card. Hopefully she will post a picture of it so you all can see it. He did a great job on it and I thought it was very thoughtful of him. =)

Anyway, going to take my mom out to lunch today at some place nearby called the Olive Press... it sounds quaint. It will be fun to go somewhere new and try something different... we don't do a whole lot of that. I should bring my camera so I can share some pics...

Elegant Favor Box

From Adriel:

I usually can move my pictures around, but Blogger has been acting up on me lately, namely with pictures, and the picture is stuck at the top of this post. (I don't know why I feel the need to explain the placement of the photo, but I just do). I made this box using my Matchbox die for the Big Shot. I also used a stamp from the Matchbox Messages set. My daughter, Kayla, likes to make these little boxes. She's becoming quite the stamper and paper crafter!

Speaking of my daughter, she was fine the day after her day of being sick with the flu. We prayed for her and I really believe the Lord touched her body and helped her get well quickly. She was pretty sick on Saturday, with vomiting a few times in the early AM and not eating very much for the entire day and just sitting with the fever & chills and a stomach ache. She was not herself at all, as she is very energetic and perky and cheerful most of the time. Sunday she was hungry and was back to herself. I was surprised at such a quick recovery. I thanked the Lord with her Sunday evening. =) I know that God's answer is sometimes "no" and we don't always understand and He is still worthy of our praise and worship. But sometimes His answer is "yes" and I just wanted to give God the credit and glory He deserves. God is a good God, no matter what His answer is. =)

Not Much Going On...

From Adriel:

Well, today definitely looks different than I would've thought it would look like.

My 8-year-old daughter woke me up at 3:40am this morning letting me know she had thrown up. What a way to wake up... after asking her a few questions, I found out she had thrown up in her bed. Yuck! Okay, I needed to get up and change the bedding. Then she told me she was sorry, but she had missed the toilet. What?! I tackled the bedding first... red colored vomit is not a pretty sight, let me tell you. Threw the soiled linens in the washer and started it. Took a peek at the bathroom. OH MY GOODNESS!!! It was all over the toilet seat, and was sprayed on the shower curtain, the floor and the wall. I guess we were dealing with projectile vomit! I wanted to cry. I didn't even know where to start cleaning it up! I left the bathroom to compose myself and process the mess... I also needed to spray the carpet by Kayla's bed, because, yes, the mess was on the carpet, too. Where wasn't it? =P My husband woke up around that time and helped me out with the mess. Cleaning up vomit is not on his top favorites (is it on anyone's?), so this was very nice of him. =) Well, got the mess cleaned up, but the poor thing threw up a couple more times during the early morning and I think she must have the flu. Anyway, I know you wanted to know all of this, so that's why I'm sharing! =D

Really, this is just what's going on... for real! I'm sure you feel like eating that yummy lunch or dinner you were planning on making right after you were done on the computer. Sorry! =P

Have a nice weekend! If you go out, wash your hands! I guess there's something going around. =)

Happy Stampers!

From Adriel:

I took a few pictures Thursday afternoon of my mom (Heidi) and my daughter (Kayla) crafting. My mom was putting the finishing touches on her latest tea bag books (so cute!) and Kayla was just making a card for fun.

My mom loves to make these tea bag books! She looks like she's enjoying herself. =) BTW, I think her hand-cut apple is very well done!

Happy Stampers don't always smile when they're working...

...but they almost always smile when they're finished! =D

Kayla's finished card! She did a great job! She stamped the little border free-hand with a small stamp that didn't cover very much... I'm surprised at how even she got it! Wow! I did have to help her with her bow, but she will eventually learn how to do that herself. =)

Kayla wants to sell her cards like Mom and Grandma do. Maybe one day she will! =)

Jacob's Card

From Adriel:

My son made a card awhile ago, and he wanted his card put on the blog just like Kayla's was awhile back. Jacob really likes embossing. When he saw me do it for the first time, he wanted to emboss, too! He asks almost every time he makes a card if he can do embossing! =) On this card, he decided to use silver embossing powder. Enjoy! =)

Kayla's Cards

From Adriel:

Hey there! Well, I thought I would take a moment to brag on my daughter, Kayla. She just turned 8 and she's full of all kinds of ideas and energy! She used the two of those the other day and made these cute Valentine cards. I thought I'd share them with you! Enjoy!