Almost 2

I can't believe that my baby is almost two already. I'm not sure where the time has gone, but it sure went fast!

This little girl is one of the craziest kids I've ever seen! She is constantly making messes everywhere, getting into things, asking why or what to everything you say, and she loves to fist fight. Any yet, her kisses are so sweet and she is so loving.

When she wants something and you tell her no, she says with the cutest look on her face, "but, I love it." She pretty much always gets what she wants! She used to burp like no other; she would take a swallow or two and then let out three or four huge burps. Then she would bust out into laughter. She's been getting into the whole princess thing lately, so I asked her, "Do princesses burp?" She shakes her head no. I say," Do princesses fart?" She again shakes her head no. I say,"Do princesses fight?" She shakes her head no again. I say,"What do princesses do?" She says,"Huggies and Kissies." She is just the sweetest little thing...until she punches you in the face and laughs! We're going to keep working on the princess stuff!

Retreat Challenge #6

Our challenge this week was to do a page about a family tradition that is important to us. I did mine on our annual Easter Egg Hunt. The kids really look forward to this and it's one of my favorite things we do. I love planning what treats to hide in the eggs and watching the kids get so excited over finding them!

Snow much fun part 2

Mikayla and ELlie came flying down the hill and Ellie tipped to one side of the sled. Mikayla tried to stop her, but she plowed face first through some snow. I was trying to take this shot of her face as I was running to stop her! So cute!

Here are the three girls coming down the hill. There is an area that has a run (sort of primitive, though) and the girls wanted to do it so they could be on the sled longer. The only problem is that it is a much higher, steeper climb than where Gary and I were. They only did that run a time or two before they decided it wasn't worth the hike!

Treven was having a really hard time getting his snowboard to really go. It only wanted to go a few feet at a time, so Gary tried to help him get a good start. I'm afraid it didn't help much!

The best part of the day was sending Ellie down the hill by herself. It was so fun to hear her little squeals and giggles as she came down toward us. Thank heavens Gary was there to keep dragging her back up the hill!

Snow much fun part 1

We wwnt up to the snowmobile lodge at Pomerelle after Christmas. It was super cold that day, but the kids didn't care. Treven had gotten a snowboard type thing for Christmas so he wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, the straps didn't go over his snowboots so he had a hard time going too far. He laughed even through the falls!

I can't even tell you how many times Gary made the trip up the hill to send Ellie down. The kid was a maniac. We could hear her squeal the whole way down the hill. As soon as she would stop she would yell More More!

Chelsey only went down a time or two. It was too cold for her! Plus, she only brought a sweatshirt instead of a coat and she didn't have any snowboots. She mostly just watched and caught Ellie on the sled!

Treven on another try. he must have climbed that hill a hundred times or better! I'll be back tomorrow with some more pictures from that day!

Retreat Challenge #5

The challenge this week was to create a layout about a favorite childhood memory. I didn't have any pictures of the story I wanted to tell, so I just used my words and some embellishments.

12 Months of Christmas -part 2

A few years ago, Stephanie taught us how she plans for Christmas all year. She starts with envelopes with the names of everyone she needs to buy Christmas gifts for. Then she puts extra money into the envelopes on payday or whenever she has extra to put away. Once the money is in the envelope, she seals it up and puts it away until she finds the perfect gift. I loved this idea so I started doing the same thing for our family. It's so much easier to put a little away at a time rather than come up with all of it at once. It's also nice, if something is on sale or clearance, I already have the money ready to go. Sometimes, the cashiers look at me really weird when I pull out an envelope and open it, but when I explain, they all love the idea, too! Normally, I don't fancy up my envelopes, but I decided I would use up some of the extra stickers and borders I have. It will make it more fun to open the envelopes at shopping time!

12 Months of Christmas part 2

This month I did 4 of the same Christmas cards instead of 4 different ones. When I did the first one, I liked it so much I just kept going with it!

Valentine's Day Cards

These are the cards I made for Gary and the kids this year. Usually I make everyone a different card, but this year I just did two cards each in three designs. Cards are a lot of work so it's much easier to do two each time! Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day and that you get to spend it with someone special!

Retreat Challenge #4

The challenge this week was to create a layout using a monogram. I, of course, used the "J" from Jones!

I chose to do a double page spread for this challenge because I had so many great pictures and I wanted to use them all! Even making most of the pictures wallet sized, I didn't really have a lot of extra embellishment room!

Here are the two pages put together!

Retreat Challenge #3

This weeks challenge was to create a layout about a strong personal belief. I chose to do mine on my personal belief that God personally atoned for my sins.

This is just a close up picture of the photos and journaling. All of the flowers are in my yard (although they are from last year; no flowers yet this year!).

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Every few years, our family gets to plan Christmas Eve. Dave came up with the theme of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and we had so much fun! He got online and ordered this mask thing and then it Steph almost 2 hours to do his makeup! When he walked in, some of the kids cried or ran away and some of them loved him and weren't scared at all! Ellie loved him, which is weird because she won't even go near Chelsey when she puts beauty masks on!

We asked everyone to come dressed up as Who's. It was fun to see so many that actually participated! The prize has to go to the Stapelman family, though, because almost all of them, young and not so young, dressed up. They had who clothes and who hair! This is Tarra in her finest Who-duds!

To go along with the Grinch, we needed a Cindy Lou-Who...fit perfectly by Lindsay! It is kind of funny because since she was little, she has been called Lindsay Lou! She did a really good job of putting together her costume and hair!

This is Telynn and her daughter. All three of Telynn's girls and her husband even dressed up! Thanks for making it so much fun! I'll be back tomorrow with a few more pictures of Christmas Eve!

February Blog Hop

The theme this month was Be My Baby Tonight! I wanted to do a play on the baby part, but I didn't know anyone having a baby! Luckily, while at the dollar store, I ran into an old friend who was throwing a baby shower for her daughter! What luck!! I was going to cover a box that I had bought from Papertrey Ink, but the gifts that I had bought for the baby didn't fit in the box, so I covered a kraft bag instead.

The bag didn't look finished until I did a tag. All in all, I think it looked really cute even though it isn't baby-ish! At least she can reuse the bag for someone else. Be sure and check out Lois' blog and A Creative Day to see what Lois and Ashley have created...you won't be sorry! The theme for next month is "The Charmed Life" and I'm already having visions of some sort of beads and charms! I think my girls may even get in on this one!