Will you send Mikayla a card??

I was 'blog-surfing' earlier this morning and visited Charmaine's blog (www.oodabugalley.blogspot.com) I just love her work---
anyways-she has posted there about a little 5 year old girl Mikayla who is going to be undergoing 70, yes seventy!!, chemo treatments for a brain tumor. You can, hopefully, read her story by clicking on this link http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mikaylafrazier (If ANYONE can teach me HOW to do the whole click 'here' instead of typing out the WHOLE link IN the post....PLEASE DO email me and share huh??) If you would like to join in and send a card, thoughts of encouragement and OF COURSE prayers, the BEST gift of all, please email me for her address--of course you don't need the address for prayers so let me encourage you to send Mikayla and her family a card.
I can't begin to imagine what this family is going through but I DO know what it feels like to get a card in the mail from someone who was 'just thinking of you' AND what it feels like to know someone is praying for me.
Thanks in advance for sharing the love..............
-S
PS: Have a HAPPY and SAFE New Years!!

MY babies

Nikki and Samuel were playing around the other night and Nikki was taking pictures.
I just LOVE it when they make 'nice' and love each other!!

Grandma and her grandbabies

As HARD as I tried I could NOT get ONE picture of both kids and GRANDMA looking and smiling!! If I got ONE kid smiling the other was either NOT smiling or LOOKING AWAY.
Finally Grandma suggested it was time for 'silly pictures'......

......we couldn't even get a 'silly picture' with EVERYONE being 'silly' or goofy at the same time!!

My Party!

I had a Graduation/Thank You Party for friends who helped us out while I was in school. I'm just SO thankful and appreciative to ALL our friends and family who supported us, helped us out with the kids and EVERYTHING else AND for ALL the prayers sent up on our behalf. We are SO blessed to have SO many wonderful friends!! A HUGE THANK YOU to each and EVERY one of you!!!

I think a good time was had by all. We had enough food to feed a small nation--we're STILL finishing leftovers!! I've been lucky enough to be able to use some for breakfast's, lunches and dinners for the past few nights. The boys are getting TOO used to veggie&cheese omletes but what better way to use up all those left over veggies and cheese!! I even made homemade mac and cheese the other night. I mixed 4 different cheeses (gouda, pepper jack, cheddar and some french cheese my mom picked up at COSTCO) and topped it with some left over ritz crackers. Hey! It's ALL gotta go!!! :) The boys (Joe, Chris, Sammo and my Dad-yesterday) have had cheese and veggie omelets for two days now and I STILL have cheese left over!!!

I still have crackers, cheese balls, spinach dip, artichoke dip, party mixes and MORE to use up. I'm HOPING Nikki has a few friends over for annual New Years Eve Party and that they help to use it up for me.

Here's a picture of me with my cake.

My friend Kim asked if she could bring the cake-of course I said YES! so she had it done with the school colors....silver and black. I think it came out beautifully!!

Thanks Kim! :)

Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures. I was too busy visiting and Mom didn't think about it until it was too late. I think Nikki took a few but she was busy hangin' out with her friends that came. I'm gonna have to get a hold of her camera and see if she got any pics for me.

It was a FUN FILLED evening that is for sure. The WORST part about parties at your own home, for me anyways, is that I NEVER feel like I had enough time to spend with all my guests!!

Purty Birdie

I noticed this little bird sitting in the Ponderosa Pine right outside the front deck and I just thought it made such a 'purty' picture! I think I'll crop it a little, get it printed, frame it and put it up somewhere in the house. Who knows what else I might end up doing with it. Joe suggested post cards of some sort.....we'll see.

More Pictures......................

I just haven't had, or MADE the time to create lately. Maybe today or tomorrow??

I HAVE been enjoying time with my family though....
My mom and dad left yesterday. It seems like as quickly as they came, they left. We were SO busy with everything that the time just FLEW right by!

SO, since I can't post any 'creations' just quite yet I figured I'd post some more family holiday pics........

This is a picture of my Dad Christmas morning. Just call him 'Santa'!! :)

On the trip over my Mom says he was asking all the little kids what they wanted for Christmas and if they'd been bad or good. Imagine! I wonder if those kids thought they REALLY saw Santa! Heeheehee!

Samuel had SUCH a good time with his Grandpa. He even woke up the night before they left crying. He told Joe he was crying because he was sad because he knew his Grandpa was leaving in the morning. :( He's always had a special connection with my dad.

Here's Joe and Sammo. They were messing around and wrestling-having FUN! It was SO much fun watching them. They're so goofy together.

Here are the boys again....preparing our Christmas turkey. They were SO funny. Look at Sammo's hands on his tummy. They were bragging about how GOOD the turkey smelled. Samuel said, "it smells like Kentuky Fried Chicken!"

It was snowing out as they were cooking so they took to playin' a little too. They just MAKE ME SMILE!

Ahhhh---the end of a LONG day and this little man is POOPED! Here he is just chillin' at the end of the sofa. It wasn't too much longer before this big guy was SOUND asleep.

JANE STOP THIS CRAZY THING!!!!!!

What a WHIRLWIND life has been lately. HOLY COW!!

School is over....

I've 'graduated'....

Working...

Mom and Dad are here visiting...

Christmas...

Party....

ALL in ONE month!!!

Do you see why I am behind in my blogging?? YIKES!

Well, let me try to catch up......

My Mom and Dad are still visiting...they are only here for a week and almost a half total anyways-and believe it or not, our time together is just about up!! They will leave here tomorrow sometime for Spokane for an early morning flight out on Saturday morning. It seems like they just got here and they're leaving already. I just wish things weren't SO busy and we could have enjoyed our time together a little more. The kids have enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa...especially Samuel. He's been going out with Grandpa on their daily rides around town--just looking.

Christmas was fun......everyone happy with their gifts.

Here's Joe sporting..... whatever THIS is!!

Samuel found it in his stocking (Thank You Grandma!!) and he and, almost, everyone else thinks it's pretty cool and have to give it a try.

Here, of course is Sammo with it on. He LOVES it. It does feel pretty....er, uh, different.

His only complaint....

It makes his head 'sweaty'.

Here's 'Nickles' with her new scarf (again, Thanks Grandma!). I found this yarn at The Craft Warehouse and asked my mom to knit a scarf for Nikki-to match a vest I got her for Christmas. She LOVES both the scarf and the vest!!

And Sammo again............. in his NERF Dart Tag garb. He got TWO NERF gun things for Christmas this year (in addition to the other FOUR NERF guns Grandma and Grandpa got him BEFORE Christmas!! He and Grandpa made bullseye's on the window part of the french doors and they've been challenging each other to see who can do best!) and he couldn't be happier!! Ya just have to be REAL careful around the house now.........you never know WHEN you might be 'hit'. :)

The other one is the NERF Longshot. I swear the thing is about as tall as he is. I don't know HOW he can even make it work but he does. He's so funny. I love listening to him.....'Say hello to my little friend.' 'Little' HA! I've gotta say, he's a pretty good shot!! -with a NERF gun anyways!!

Well, that's enough for now....

The girls are up and Joe is playing with one of Samuel's Christmas toys....a remote control helicopter....men are just BIG little boys!

And there's the door.....Sammo went shopping with GMa and GPa...looks like they're back......

I'll post again later.

Enjoy the rest of your day!!

-S

Sisters at heart

A few people have commented to me how I don't have many pictures of Nikki on my blog. She's just never around while I'm taking pictures I guess.....
However, Nikki is her OWN best subject. I got my hands on HER camera (The BEST Bday gift I think we've EVER gotten her, by the way. She uses it EVERY SINGLE day. NO KIDDING!!) and copied some of her pics to my laptop. She can take good pictures.
SO, here are a few pictures of our 'beauty' and her BEST FRIENDS.
SO many people have asked if they are sisters....not biologically.....but they ARE sisters at heart!!

REAL SNOWFLAKES!!

It was snowing out this morning when I was waiting with the kids for the bus. Nikki pointed out how the snowflakes looked like 'REAL' snowflakes. I checked them out and low and behold.....THEY DO!!

Of COURSE I had to at least TRY to take a few pictures. They're not the BEST pictures but check 'em out:

I don't remember ever seeing SO many REAL snowflakes that actually LOOK like pretty snowflakes. Catch what I'm say'in??

I'm off for the next 2 nights but I DOUBT, greatly, that I'll get a chance to 'create'. Instead I'll be trying to get ready for my mom and dad's arrival. They arrive in Spokane on 19th and will come up this way early the next morning. It's a long trip coming from the East Coast so they tend to spend the night in Spokane and just drive up the next day. Originally we'd planned on going over to meet them and spend the night with them in Spokane, do some shopping etc... but the 19th is the kids' last day of school and they have programs and what not that they REALLY didn't want to miss so chances are we're going to just stay home. I suppose it will give me a few extra hours to get those last minute things done--not to mention sleep a little since I'll be working Sun/Mon/Tues nights.

Ciao for now..........

Merry Christmas!

The kids and Joe put up and decorated the Christmas tree last Sunday after church while I ran out to pick up a few things at the store. I couldn't believe it when I got back. Joe and Samuel had actually put the tree up while Nikki and I were at church and then while I was out picking up a few things for lunch they decorated it! Chris (a friend of ours) even helped with the decorations. All that was left for me to do was clean up the mess!!

One of my FAVORITE things to do is turn down all the lights in the evening, sit on the sofa with a cup of hot cocoa and 'watch' the Christmas tree lights....some good Christmas music just makes it all the better!!

Slight change in plan.....

When I got up this morning I went right up to my 'scrap-n-crap room', as Joe so affectionately refers to it, to work on my invitations. As much as I like the first one and as easy as it is, this one is even EASIER!! I'm just whipp'in 'em out!! SO, I'm going to go with this one instead. I just NEED to get them done and in doing this version I am SURE I can finish them ALL up today and get them out in the mail tomorrow morning--before a sweet coffee date with a few friends!! :) This being out of school thing is going to be SOOOO very nice! :)

The cardstock will vary-crystal blue, blush or hollyhock and I'll use the pink ribbon until I run out and then I'll use white organdy. The invitation itself is matted on colored cardstock--will just depend on what the card color is obviously-- and then around the matting and the invite I've applied some crystal stickles...just for a little 'bling'. I think they're cute AND they're SUPER quick and easy. JUST what I need right now!!

Well, now I'm off to help with the lighting of the tree.........

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!

-S

Graduation Invite

This is the invite I made up for my 'Graduation Party'. Really, more than a 'Graduation Party' it's going to be a THANK YOU Party for all our friends and family who have supported and helped us out during the time I was in school. We are SO blessed to have SO many people who have gone out of their way to help us and I want them to know JUST HOW MUCH it has meant to us!!

I used paper from The Christmas Stack (DCWV) and CTMH cardstock (blush, hollyhock and crystal blue), The Snowflakes Spot stamp set (SU!), misc ribbon, snowflake buttons (misc also). I embossed part of the cardstock with my cuttlebug (LOVE that machine) and the snowflakes embossing folder. The font is Noodlescript.

Now to finish up the rest and get them OUT IN THE MAIL!

I've been SO busy!!

It's been FOREVER that I've had a chance to post. Bad me, bad me!!
I've been pretty busy though......working, finishing school, preceptoring etc, etc.....
Hopefully the busyness of things will slow down just a bit now........
I'm DONE with school!! I still have my RN boards to take of course, but my 2+ hour drive a couple times a week is finally OVER!! Yippee!! -There's a GOOD savings RIGHT there!

We had our class dinner last week. I had such a NICE time. Here are a few pictures from that night. Patrick and his wife are on the left. He's a good egg, that Patrick.....and a fellow ex-Yankee... :) We're both ORIGINALLY from the East Coast. He gave me the SWEETEST card. It just so touched my heart. What a good guy with a heart of pure gold!!






More classmates....Lauren-(you've left me with some pretty good memories too!! When I think 'toast' I just can't HELP but laugh out loud!!)
Kyle, Jaime and Katie.




And here are a few more classmates: Aura, Deanna and Korie- who was also my commuting buddy many 'a days!
I am SO blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of this class. What an AWESOME group of people!! As excited and happy as I am to finally be done, I'm sure going to miss seeing everyone every week in class!! Bittersweet.

Thursday night, (Dec 6th) was our pinning.

Here's Joe, Nikki and Samuel pinning me............... -a little blurry I know...but you get the 'jist' of it.
It's very surreal. As much as I KNOW it's over, it just doesn't feel 'REAL' yet.

My mom and dad are coming for Christmas and will be arriving on the 19th. Our poor house is SUCH a mess. Joe and the kids really tried I know, to keep up with things but our house really needs some TLC. So for the next few weeks that's what we'll be busy doing, purging, organizing and cleaning......in addition of course to getting out the Christmas decorations, going Christmas shopping, working etc, etc........
OK, so maybe things WON'T slow down right away!!

Today I have a 'date' with my 7 1/2 year old son so I guess if I'm going to get much done around here, I'd better get moving.
I'll be posting the invite to my 'Graduation Party' here in a bit so check back and see what 'cha think. Comments and suggestions are always welcome!!
Enjoy your Saturday and have a WONDERFUL weekend.
I KNOW I will!!! :)