Stamp/Craft Room

I feel very blessed to have this space to let my creativity flow. This room has evolved over a period of time. Mike has brought and bought different pieces home over the last 2-3 yrs. The cabinet was his grandmothers. The buffet was a church camp reject. He bought the table and chairs at an auction. We painted this spring and I just bought some of the decorations at an awesome yard sale this summer. The stuff was SO cheap! The saltbox house picture was around 3.00 dollars. The lamp was like 5.00 and it has a metal lampshade with piercing designs on it. The border was 3.00 a roll at Lowes. I love clearance!!! I've been wanting to take pictures of this room for awhile now. Today just happened to be the day I followed through! :) One of the best things about this room is it's a balcony (loft) type space. I can still hear almost everything going on around the house! The kids have to go through it to get to their bedrooms and I can see the front door and living room from where I'm sitting!

My 31st Birthday

Please forgive the horrible pictures of me! I was very blessed (not really) to have had the stomach bug that week. All that aside, my birthday (Nov 1st) was fabulous! Cherish made me a cake and Mike took me shopping at the Oulet Mall!! I received several nice gifts!! Mike bought me COACH handbag and wristlet and also gave me a 100.00 dollars to spend. My MIL gave me a Tupperware sprinkle/spice set with turntable. My mom bought me Pampered Chef scoops. Maybe I'll get photos of the gifts posted at some point?! :D To all who contributed to my Birthday joy. THANKS SO MUCH!

Granny and Clan

We had a fun Trick-or-Treat this year. The kids had fun dressing up and walking around our neighborhood. The older people enjoyed handing out candy and seeing the kids dressed up! As you can see Cherish is dressed up as a Granny. This is such a fun and easy costume. We have an older lady next door and she loaned us her cane, purse and shaw. I powdered her hair and the rest of the stuff we had around here. Cherish loves this costume! She looks and acts hilarious! We crack up at her!

This is off the subject but I want to add that Cherish (5th grade) made A HONOR ROLL and ALL her other subjects were S+ this quarter!!! Not only was she excited. We were too! Way to go Girl!!! Melody (2nd grade) had one B (that was around 2 points from being an A) and the rest of the subjects were A's. She is doing so well in school too! Melody's math grade was 97. To me, that's pretty good!! So far, Weston is the top boy in his class. It has suprised me how well he does! I was concerned at first because I know for the most part boys are behind girls when they start school. Thankfully, I worried needlessly. Weston was born blessed with a quick learning ability. He started school knowing a few basic skills and now he can write to 100, count to 100, he recognizes all the upper and lower letters, knows all the letter sounds and recognizes and recites 31 site words. They have only been in school a little over two months. So, he has made leaps and bounds!! God is so good! I am very thankful for the children he has blessed us with! My greatest desire is that they grow up with a desire to serve God!

Treat Bags

The kids are supposed to take a bag of candy to school for a party on Friday. So, instead of sending in a bag of candy. I thought it would be cuter to make treat bags. Today my Mom and I sat down and completed 40 or more of them. The tops are inexpensive plain Joanne Fabric paper. I stamped the tops and then ran them through the Cuttle Bug ( a dry embossing machine) . I made the scallops and circle with a couple Stampin' Up punches. There is very little skill required to complete these. Just a lot of patience! Lots of cutting required! My girls enjoyed helping some too! Now, I only have 20 some more to go! They are going to be made out of paper sacks. It will be interesting to see how they turn out! :D

Here's a few cards I've made recently......I go through spurts where I make them quite often. Then I'll slack off and not make one for weeks. I truly enjoy making them. It is fun and rewarding!

Home for the FALLIDAYS

We've been having such beautiful fall weather I couldn't resist taking a few fall photos.....
I know they're not the best photos but the weather was just too nice to pass up the opportunity.
The wind was gusty at times while I was taking the photos. So you'll probably notice things blowing around.

I found these photos of our family room the other day. My far away friends were interested in seeing them. This room used to be an unattached garage. DH rebuilt and remodeled it. DH also built the staircase from scratch. I had the privilege of painting, furnishing and decorating it. These photos are from a couple Christmas ago. I have rearranged some of the furniture since then. Basically, for the most part it still looks the same.

Coat FUR Grace

While shopping a week or so ago. I came across this "fur" coat for Grace. The best part is that it only cost $5.00. I of course, couldn't resist. Not only was it a great buy. She looked ADORABLE in it! Grace cooperated even though it was around 80 degrees outside. I only took around a dozen shots. It was just too warm to make her suffer for very long.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I would feel extremely selfish if I kept these adorable pumpkin cupcakes to myself and didn't share them with you. I bought a cupcake book and it had these cuties in them. I knew immediately I had to make'm. I didn't have that book a day or two and they were made. My MIL wanted me to make a cake for my SIL birthday but I asked her if I could make these instead. Of course, she said that was fine and my SIL loved them so much she wanted to make them for her sons kindergarten class. That's why I had to pass along the idea to you.
The cupcakes are very easy to create. You prepare them like regular cupcakes , then color canned vanilla frosting orange, cover the frosted cupcakes in orange sugar sprinkles, put a medium sized amount of frosting in a zip lock bag and cut a small 1/8 in. size hole in one corner to create the ridges. Lastly, cut the green twizzlers into 3/4 in. pieces and stick them in the top of the cupcakes (angle some of them slightly).

Shopping list:(you may already have most of these supplies at home)
1 cake mix
1 can vanilla frosting
pack of assorted twizzlers
orange food coloring
orange sugar crystals
ziplock bags
cupcake baking cups

Grace's First Camp Out

Our family went on our first camp out this past summer. This photo of Grace (3) was taken during our camp out. She was the last person to wake up that particular morning so I had an opportunity I couldn't resist. To me, a sleeping child is a perfect example of peacefulness. You can find a link to this photo contest HERE http://www.5minutesformom.com/4380/win-a-new-bedroom-set/

Happy 14th Anniversary to US.....

Blessed be the Lord God Almighty we just celebrated 14 years of marriage. The Lord has brought us so far from where started. We are blessed above and beyond God's promises. I pray that we as a couple continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My honey brought me 14 roses on our happy day.

Lord willing we'll be celebrating our ann. in Baltimore for a few days this week.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Moms face is a glowing her heart is exploding with gladness and cheer because this is the beginning of a new school year. The children are waiting their hearts anticipitaping as the school bus draws near. Oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Yes, this is song I was singing the first day of school. Yea, I know, I used to pride myself in the fact that I was not one of THOSE moms that enjoyed seeing their kids off to school. Well, somewhere along the line that changed. I've never been this ready for a school year to begin. It helps that for the most part the kids were excited too. We've had a VERY busy summer and due to that I was ready for life to kind of get back into a routine.

Weston started Kindegarten this year. So far, he is LOVING school. He's doing a great job getting up and at'em in the mornings. It's amazing how much he's changed and matured just this summer. I hope this good trend continues!

Photo Contest at 5 Minutes for mom

Our daughter (see photo below) was inspired one day this summer to construct a tire swing. Her daddy (my husband) noticed her carrying a smaller tire with a short string attached to it. He asked her what she was going to do with the tire and string. She informed him that she was going to hang the tire from a pole. In her mind it was a great plan. To make a long story short, her daddy went and brought out a bigger tire with a long rope and hung it HIGH in the branches of an old massive tree in their play yard. That is an impressive and impossible feat in the eyes of little ones. This of course, thrilled her heart and embedded memories in her being that she will not soon forget about her daddy. Our daughter enjoying the tire swing after a BIG push from daddy.

You can join the contest too. Click on this link for more info http://www.5minutesformom.com/

The winner will receive $500.00. That would add even more fun to school shopping. We could even buy the personalized backpacks from L.L. Bean the girls wanted. They would love that!