Thursday, August 28, 2008

good stuff...

I love surprises - I always have. When I was a little girl, I remember saving my allowance all summer, just waiting for the County Fair in August every year. My favorite thing to buy...a "grab bag" (or 2 or 3) from the Palace Drug on Main Street. I honestly don't remember a single item I ever got, but I do remember the anticipation of opening up the brown bag to see what treasures were awaiting me. The county fair has changed tons since those days - no sidewalk sales, no grab bags, no Palace Drug...but one thing that hasn't changed is my love of surprises! It's not very often that I get them anymore...at least not good surprises (my surprises are more like SURPRISE! You get to have another root canal! or SURPRISE! Here's another bill for you to pay! or SURPRISE! You get to scrub the toilet again! But I digress...)

I just found out about a SURPRISE that's right up my alley. O'Scrap is selling Surprise boxes full of lots of cute colorful goodness. Seriously, it's not a secret that I love, love, love CUTE stuff...and O'Scrap is the leader of CUTE.
Anyway, I thought I'd pass along the information in case any of you are in the market for a surprise and an awesome deal on some great scrapbooking product. OOooh, and see in that photo above - the cloth tote? There's something like that included in every package as well (not necessarily that exact tote...but some kind of thing along the same line. Here's the description from the O'Scrap site:

Each surprise pack offers the same great value, and
includes stickers, rubber stamps, glitters, imprintables,
die cuts, card-making
supplies, and more. (Back to School Pack shown.)

Check out the site by clicking here.

There are lots of themes available:
Back To School,
Baby Girl, Baby Boy, Family/Love, Celebration, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas

Each surprise box is $34.99. I'm not sure what the MSRP is for each box, but I'm sure it's at least double, if not more.

If you decide to purchase a kit, would you please put my name (Wendy) in the "referral code" spot at checkout? I'd really appreciate it - and then they'll know where their customers are coming from. AND, to sweeten the deal just a bit - if you buy a surprise package and list me as the referral, come back here and leave a post letting me know. For anyone who takes me up on this deal, I'll draw a winner for a fun surprise box from me...for free, lol! It'll be GOOD STUFF! (And hey, if you buy more than one surprise box, just let me know and I'll enter your name an equal amount of times in my little giveaway too!)

Okay, now go check it out! :o)

Monday, August 25, 2008

birthday party...

It's been a week since our family birthday party...but I still wanted to share some photos I took from the celebration. My birthday was last Sunday and my mom's birthday was Tuesday. We decided to celebrate our birthdays together at the pond Sunday evening.
(Ironically, when I uploaded my photos to create this collage, I realized I have NO photos of Mom or myself..and actually none of any adults...only the kids! Maybe somebody else got some more photos they'll share...)



Everyone was able to go up after church - this is the first time all year we've all gone up together. We cooked hotdogs and marshmallows over the campfire, rode on the paddle boats, fished, and the kids hit the money rock where they scored some change (thanks again, dad, for starting such a fun tradition for the kids). My siblings and parents were very generous with birthday gifts and now I'm excited to go out on a few dates with Brad and pamper myself with all of the fun gift cards I received. The best part of the day was watching all of the cousins play together - it's so fun now that they're getting bigger...and watching the older cousins play with the little cousins just melts my heart. It was a fabulous evening - the perfect way to celebrate getting older! :o)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

september creating keepsakes...

a few days ago, I got this in the mail:
so I think it's okay to share this now:
I was excited to be asked to create a layout with the cover photo again for the September issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.


Mine wasn't chosen for the cover, but that's okay - it was fun creating this alternate layout. (I think it's somewhere on the CK website...but I can't find it anywhere.)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

summer vacation is officially over...

Our day started bright and early...and I'm getting old...I know, because I'm now the mother of an official middle-schooler! okay, I've always been her mother, but the middle-schooler thing is new. Meagan woke up on her own (just like she always has) and got ready for school with lots of time to spare. She requested french toast for breakfast and pigtails for her hair. She wasn't thrilled with her camera toting mother...but I know one day she'll be glad I made her stand still for two seconds for a couple of quick pictures.


Middle school starts an hour earlier than the elementary school, so she headed out without her brother for the first time since we moved here.


The bus arrived at 7:29 am...(she looked so small compared to the Jr. High and High School kids on her bus)...


...and then she was off.

When I walked back in the front door after seeing Meagan off, Joshua was up and getting ready -- proof that he was, indeed, excited for the first day of school. He requested blueberry muffins for breakfast...and he messed up his hair (on purpose) after I combed it. After packing his lunch and taking care of a bloody nose (grrr...on his NEW shirt), and changing into a new shirt, he stood for the obligitory photos. He wasn't thrilled, but he was cooperative, so that's good.



As soon as I snapped a backpack photo, he literally ran out the front door without so much as a "goodbye." *sniffle* He probably thought he'd outrun me...but I followed him to the bus stop anyway.

He continued to ignore me (what is up with that - isn't he too young to be embarrassed by his mom?)...and I continued to take pictures.
His bus arrived at 8:36 - only 15 minutes late. Yes, it's the same bus Meagan rode an hour earlier.

And he was off - ready to conquer 3rd grade.

It's funny, they've only been gone a little while, and I am already anxious for them to come home and tell us about their day.
...and there went summer...

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom!! :)

Friday, August 15, 2008

almost full...

Last night I was outside with the kids - playing and taking pictures and enjoying one of the last summer evenings before school starts. When it started getting dark, I looked up and saw the beautiful, almost full, moon in the sky and decided to try and get a photo. This is what I ended up with:


I love that you can see some of the detail...if you click on the photo, you can see it better...are those little craters along the bottom? I hope the sky is clear tonight so I will be able to see an even fuller moon...and maybe get a better photo!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

holy cow...

I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I'd have over 1200 people wish me a happy birthday!! This must be my lucky year though, because it's happening right now. :o)

Thanks to the sweet Making Memories crew for including me in their latest newsletter - and offering a fun prize to someone in honor of my birthday! They are a great company to work with - so much amazing talent creating so many incredible products for all of us to play with!
If you haven't had a chance to enter to win, leave a comment on the MM blog on this post - I'm not sure when they are drawing a winner, but I'm sure it will be soon...so hurry! And to those of you who have already left a comment and/or sent me birthday wishes - thank you!!!
My birthday is actually Sunday, the 17th (even though the MM newsletter said it was my "birthday week," lots of people misunderstood and thought my birthday was the 12th) - I can't wait to spend a nice, quiet day with my family... it's not often Brad gets the day of work and can spend my whole birthday with me!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

halloween...

Yes, you read that right - HALLOWEEN.
Today I took Meagan to the eye dr. for her follow-up appointment, then we did a little bit of shopping. One of our errands took us to a craft store, Roberts. As soon as we walked through the doors, it hit us in the face (not literally, of course)...HALLOWEEN.
I know we're barely into August, but October was surrounding us. Autumn wreaths mingled with life-sized mummies, black cats, and pumpkins galore. And do you want to hear the funny thing? [I know you do...and even if you don't, you know I'm going to tell you...so play along with me.] It wasn't even shocking to me! Do you know why? Because I've been preparing for Halloween for several months now! No, I'm not crazy or obsessed...but I do work in the scrapbook industry...which means working about 4-6 months ahead of the calendar.

So...in honor of my October in August experience today, I thought I'd share a few of the many fun Halloween projects I have been creating this summer for Making Memories using their fabulous new Halloween Line, SPELLBOUND.


keep in mind I created these spooky projects way back in June and July...right in the heat of summer...and guess what else I was creating. Want a hint? Fa la la la la...I'll share more of that too...when Christmas is a little closer...like in September... :o)

Monday, August 11, 2008

our fun news...

well, actually it's her fun news...but we're happy for her too.


She's glasses-less...at least most of the time.
You just can't imagine a happier 11 year old than Meagan was when she got contacts last week.
happy, happy, happy!
And now it's so much easier to see her beautiful brown eyes too! :o)

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

a quickie...

...i have some fun news to share soon...but right now I need to hurry...so how about a quick layout share?


This is a layout I created at the Memory Box retreat last month. It's super simple...but I wanted to document my 15 seconds of fame (lol) -- when I was on a local tv show, Good Things Utah. :o)

Sunday, August 03, 2008

parade...

A few days ago my friend Katie asked if the kids would like to ride on the UVU float in the fair days parade. Of course, they were ecstatic when I asked them. So, last night, we donned our new UVU t-shirts and headed to the beginning of the parade route.

Meagan, Josh, and Seth rode on the float and threw candy to the crowd. Brad (with Zach) and I rode the four-wheelers behind/beside the float and handed out bottled water and candy to people along the parade route.

We all had so much fun! Thanks again, Katie, for asking us to be a part of the UVU group for the evening -- it was the best parade we've ever been to! :o)

Friday, August 01, 2008

perspective...

I go along, living my life, doing the best I can...going through the normal ups and downs of mommyhood...having good days and bad days...sometimes dwelling a little too much on the negative...and than BAM...something happens to make me open my eyes and look at the big picture...to make me realize where my priorities should be...to make me remember what a blessing it is to be a wife and a mom...and to make me realize I should never take a single day for granted.
Last Saturday evening there was a terrible accident involving the granddaughter of a couple in our ward. One minute she was fine...the next minute, she was not. She is now at Primary Children's Medical Center...and it sounds like she is fighting hard - she must have such a strong little spirit. You can read about the accident and little Kairi's progress by visiting their family blog.
Her parents are so strong - I can't believe how well they seem to be dealing with everything that was put on their plates almost a week ago. Seriously, I don't know how they are doing it. Never mind, I take that back...I do have a little bit of insight about that -- prayers, fasting, priesthood blessings...that's how they're coping. Still, they are amazing and such good examples.
Last Wednesday, for our Young Women's activity, we made get well cards to send to PCMC for Kairi. I mailed them off yesterday. About an hour later, we were in Park City and we just happened to run into Kairi's grandparents - they were buying a new nightgown and some shoes for her to wear in the hospital - and when I mentioned the fact that we had just sent off some cards, Robin smiled through her tears. She told us how much it means to all of them to know that people are thinking of them and supporting them. They are amazed by how many hits they've received on their blog and just knowing everyone is thinking of them is helping them so much.
My reasons for sharing this are 3-fold. (1) I think it's good for everyone to be reminded of how precious life is...how precious our families are...and how there is no guarantee as to how long we'll be together here on earth...I need to remember to treasure each and every day. (2) I think it would be wonderful for the Abbots to know how many people care about them and are supporting them...please visit their blog if you feel so inclined. (3) If you're a card-maker and want to brighten the hospital room of this sweet little girl, would you please consider sending her a card? The address is posted on their blog here.
Now, go hug your kids and tell them how much you love them...that's what I'm going to do.