Thursday, February 28, 2008

places, things, and love letters...

I can't believe today is the last day of my month-long challenge over on the Making Memories Blog!
After you complete todays challenges, you'll have a complete album all about everything you love!
I actually had to turn in all of my text and images several weeks ago, and I didn't have my album complete at that time. Because of that reason, there are only a couple of images on today's post over there. I'd like to share the rest of my album that I have completed since my earlier deadline.
First of all, here's a reminder about what the "places" tab looks like.

Behind the places tab you'll find several pages about different places I love.

home (with a twist):

the temple:

my hometown (this is the only 2-page spread in the album):


the pond (my parents own the most incredible piece of property in the mountains above our homes - it's so peaceful and beautiful up there.):


The next section is for the "things" I love:


cake(more specifically chocolate cake with vanilla frosting):
Obviously I haven't baked a cake in a while...so no photo yet...maybe later today I will bake...mmmmmm....

photos:

PJ's (again, I haven't taken a photo for this one yet, but my love for my pj's is so deep, I couldn't leave them out!):

scrapbooking (of course):


And a big huge list of lots of other miscellaneous things I love (it was so fun to sit down and just start writing - at first I was worried I was writing too small and I wouldn't be able to think of enough things to fill up the page, but once I got started the ideas just kept coming and I think I could have filled up another entire page!)


And finally, the very last page, which is a pocket page:


Here's the page without the envelopes:


I wrote a "love letter" of sorts to each of my children and my husband.
I embellished the envelopes, write the notes, and tucked them inside:


Instead of giving each person their envelope and letter to keep, I am going to keep them all together in this pocket - of course they can look at their letters anytime they want to be reminded of how much they are loved - but after they're done reading, the envelope will go right back into the pocket:


I created this entire album "on assignment." But I can honestly say it is one of the best things I've ever created. Not because I think it's amazing in it's design or craftsmanship...but because it is a literal collection of all the things I love. A tangible piece of my heart - ready to share with those I love most.
If you're considering creating an album like this one, I definitely want to encourage you to do it. You'll enjoy the process almost as much as the finished product - you'll become more aware of everything that is good in your life. You can gather up all of those good things and tie them up with a bow - a bow ready to be untied and flood your heart with love over and over again!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

pneumonia times two…

So I took Zach in this morning to get his oxygen levels checked. He did okay – his levels were up a bit and he wasn’t running a fever at all. Ah, I love antibiotics and ibuprofen!!

However, the nurse heard Seth cough and asked if she could check his levels. I knew he wasn’t feeling well because he was up a lot in the night crying – I stupidly made the assumption that he had one of his headaches (another story altogether). Anyway, it turns out that Seth also has an infection in both ears, a high temp., and yes, you guessed it – pneumonia. Oh, fun times. I’m sure you can imagine how much fun I had today…

Hopefully by tomorrow morning Seth’s antibiotics will have helped as much as Zach’s did in the first 24 hours. I’m crossing my fingers….because I hate hate hate to see my kids sick AND because I simply don’t know if I can handle one more day of sickness in this house…I think two weeks of somebody being sick almost every single day is enough, don’t you?!? But mostly because of the hating to see my kids sick part… (and we don’t even allow anyone to say the word HATE in our house!!)

...and because you know how I feel about a photo-less post,
here's a little box I made for CHA using Crate products:
P.S. Thanks again, Mom, for going to Meagan's program at school today and video taping it so I could watch it. We watched it tonight - you did a great job. Thanks a bunch - love you! :o)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

trains and ear infections...

Lately, he's rediscovered his Thomas Trains. Not that they were forgotten for very long, but it's been a few weeks since he's had them all out. And technically, I guess they aren't all really his trains - most of them were Josh's trains, but Josh has kind of grown out of the Thomas phase so Seth has happily (yet unofficially) inherited them...




So, in honor of his obsession, I decided to do a little bit of train playing myself. Only mine was in the form of fabric. I bought fabric to make Seth a little quilt way back in 2005 (I only remembered because the tag was still in the bag). I was going to make it for his birthday. Then I found out that his Grandma had already made him a Thomas quilt - so I put the fabric away and pretty much forgot about it. Saturday morning, I took it out and decided to make a little valance for his bedroom. I've never made one before, so I just kind of winged it (not that it was super difficult, but I'm not much of a seamstress...).
When I told Seth to come in his room so he could see it, his eyes totally lit up and he said, "Mom, that is soooooo awesome!" So I guess I did okay.

The black piece along the bottom looks pretty strange...because the sun is shining outside today (hallelujah)...so please ignore that and imagine it as a black strip - the same color as the tabs at the top.

In other news...I took this little guy to the pediatrician today.

He has two ear infections and the dr. thought he might have pneumonia...but the breathing treatment helped clear his lungs, so it's probably not pneumonia. Either way, he is miserable, poor little guy. So it looks like we'll be best friends with antibiotics and the nebulizer for the next few days. We also get to visit the doctor first thing tomorrow morning to make sure his oxygen levels aren't any lower (they were at 88 today)...

Monday, February 25, 2008

round two begins...

After about 4 days of relatively good health, the sickies have returned to our home for round two. Zach got hit pretty hard Friday and he's still sick. Meagan got sick yesterday afternoon and she isn't feeling very hot right now either. I'm hoping these two kiddos get better soon and I'm also hoping nobody else gets seconds.


Our weekend plans fell through since we were taking care of sick kids. We were planning on attending a temple sealing for Brad's neice and her husband. I sure wish we could have been there. I'm so proud of Kristen and Niua and their five sweet little ones!


Brad's mom is still here too. Since it was storming all morning she decided to wait until tomorrow to drive back to St. George. It was nice having her here today - while I held Zachary all day, she read to Seth and played with him. She even did Josh's homework with him tonight - and that's usually a big argument, so it was awesome to have him sit down with her (without even yelling or complaining) and get it done early. Oh, and did I mention she came bearing homemade bread and jam? Too bad she's leaving tomorrow!


How about a layout?
This is a Crate Paper project from CHA.

That's all for today - hopefully tomorrow everyone will be healthy...

and I'll have something fun to share. :o)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

a paper garden...

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days creating a little paper flower garden. The flowers were for the Making Memories booth at CHA...
They took FOREVER to make, but the results were so fun!
Here are the ingredients:

And here's a close-up of the first one I made:

The paper is all from the new Noteworthy line, which is one of my all-time favorites!

Friday, February 22, 2008

meagan's font...

I thought you might like to see the note I just typed up and printed out for Meagan.

She is going to be so excited when she gets home from school! As soon as she saw my font, she couldn't wait to create her own. Allie just sent it to me and I love it! I'm excited to be able to have Meagan's 10-year-old handwriting forever, because I know it will change as she gets older.

I just realized I didn't share photos of the kids from Valentine's Day.

They aren't the best photos (especially of the two older kiddos, because it wasn't very light when I took their pictures before they left for school), but that's okay. :o)


It's snowing again...crazy crazy snow. We woke up yesterday to about four inches of fresh snow - it makes everything so beautiful outside! My mother in law is driving up from St. George today...so I hope it doesn't snow too hard at least until she arrives safely. And speaking of my MIL coming, I should go finish cleaning up the kitchen! :o)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

people i love...

If you've been following along, you already know I'm hosting a month long challenge on the Making Memories blog. We're making an album all about the things we love. This week, we're working on pages about the PEOPLE we love. I shared a couple of the pages on the MM blog, and promised to share the other pages here...so, as promised, here they are:

You've already seen this section divider:

Brad's page is on the MM blog with some extra detail photos:

Meagan's page is also on the MM blog with some extra detail photos:

Joshua's page:

Seth's page:

Zachary's page:

A page for my parents:

And one for my siblings:
My nieces and nephews:
And my mother-in-law:

I should have taken photos BEFORE I put each page in the book...the photos would look better...oh well. Please let me know if you have any questions! :o)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

sickville...

Whew, it's Tuesday...but it totally feels like a Monday. We were hoping to get out of town for the long weekend, but it turns out that it was probably a good thing our plans didn't work out. Meagan and I were both sick on Saturday, Seth woke up Sunday morning sick, Brad was sick all day yesterday, and Josh woke up in the night last night - yep, you guessed it - sick. So it turns out that the kids are getting an extra day added to their long weekend and we're all hanging out here in Sickville.

Actually everyone seems to be doing better now. Brad has classes all week in Salt Lake, so I'm hoping his bug was only the 24 hour kind. And the kids all seem to be doing alright this afternoon - I wasn't about to send them to school today though, I wanted to be sure they were pukeless for at least 24 hours before they went anywhere.

We did make a quick run to Provo last night because we needed groceries and a new DVD player since ours decided not to work...though I think it had a bit of help from a couple of little boys because after we got home last night I decided to unscrew the cover so I could take out the movie that was stuck inside and I found two Bob the Builder movies, two pennies, and a nickel. I put it back together and guess what? It works! lol Which turns out to be a good thing...since we unboxed our NEW machine and it looks like someone took a baseball bat to it. It is so strange because the box looked fine, the styrofoam around the machine was perfect, it was wrapped in plastic, which was secure...but the machine itself...not so nice. It had to have happened in the factory before it was ever packaged. Strange stuff...and of course, just our luck, lol. If the kids continue to feel well for a few hours, I may just load them up and run back to Provo to exchange it -- even though the old player started working, we can still use a new one on a different TV.

Anyway... that's what's happening here. I think everyone who said they couldn't get my font to download got it, but let me know if it still isn't working for you and I'll e-mail it to you -- and thanks, everyone for the nice comments. :) Meagan has her sheet filled out so I need to send it to Allie and get Meagan's font created!

And, just because I hate doing a post without photos or project, here's a recent American Crafts page (I love the new chipboard letters):

Have a great day! :o)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

my font...


A few days ago I was blog surfing and I happened upon this blog. I enjoyed reading some of her fun posts and then I saw that she was offering some free fonts AND an opportunity have your own font created for a small fee. Of course, I love fonts and I've always thought it would be SO fun to have my own handwriting turned into a font...so I was all over it! I filled out the form and sent my payment last night and when I woke up this morning, my font was already waiting for me!
I am going to have Brad, Meagan and Josh fill out the form too. And I'm thinking I am going to do more...would this be the coolest gift? I was thinking it would be great to have my Grandma fill out a form - I'd love to have her handwriting in a font. oooh, the possibilities!
Anyway, I'm so glad I found Allie and I'm so excited about the font service she is offering! If you want to download my font, just click on the image above. If you want to see all of the other fonts she has created, and is sharing for free, click HERE.
If you want your very own font, have her make it for you - you will be so glad you did!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

really random...

First thing's first -

Happy Valentine's Day!!


Next, I've received lots of e-mails asking exactly which album I used for my "Things I Love" challenge on the Making Memories blog for this month. I used the 9x9 Kraft album from the Boho Chic line. I love that it's easy to alter and has fun pages inside - pages with tabs and even a pocket page!

Also, I used regular adhesive to attach the paper to my cover, but you could definitely use something like Mod Podge to make the cover a bit more durable.


This week's challenge went up this morning - you can see it by clicking HERE. I created the divider pages for each section - People, Places, Things.
A few days ago, I received an order I placed at a new on-line store, Emma's Paperie. I was already excited for my little stash of goodies to arrive, but when I opened the box, I seriously felt giddy when I saw this:
Josh was in my office when I opened the box and he asked me if he could help open everything. I hesitated...I wasn't sure I even wanted to open each package because they just looked so cute. But I decided I really wanted to peek at the actual product as well, so I let him help me. As he was opening each package, he said, "Mom, this feels just like Christmas." I couldn't have said it better myself, lol. Of course, he was simply referring to the actual opening of the items, but that's okay! I know...silly...but it really made my day...and I'll be placing another order, if only to see the sweet presentation! :o)

I went to Park City on Tuesday to do a little bit of shopping...I found a few little things for Valentine's Day. I love Old Navy's t-shirts for the family...
...and it was a bonus that all of the kid's items were 40% off! I had to buy Josh a red t-shirt with a football on it - apparently, there's not a high demand for Valentine themed shirts for 8 year old boys...he'll probably like the football better than a bunch of hearts anyway. And I didn't see any Valentine shirts to fit Brad either...so he's getting the PJ pants with little devils on them, lol.

After I finished my Old Navy shopping, I ran next door to The Children's Place where I scored these:
I know, you're wondering why in the world I needed so many pairs of gloves. Well, for one thing, I have an 8 year old who leaves the house every morning with a PAIR of gloves. And when the same 8 year old returns home 7 hours later, half the time he only has ONE of the gloves. Usually he finds the lost glove the next day on the bus or at school...but not always. So I figured it would ease a bit of stress on both of us if we had a bunch of spares at home.

Oh, and the other reason is this:

You can't beat 99 cents for a pair of winter gloves!

On the way home from Park City, I snapped a few pictures as we dropped down into the Valley. I wasn't looking through the camera, just holding it up and snapping away. I like this one...



And I thought this one was kind of fun - with Timpanogos in the background.


I did some more blind shooting on the way to Meagan's piano lessons and got quite a few shots I'm excited about.

We had to stop and wait for the train...then Meagan took this photo:

Yep, we were crossing the tracks and the train was right there! Don't worry though, it was backing up...not coming toward us!

How was that for random?

And now the treadmill is calling my name...