Halloween is coming :)

This picture is on my sewing blog but wanted to add it into our family blog since Tess is in it.  I had a Halloween sewing night where the girls made a cute ghost garland for their rooms. They also made a funny, crazy, black cat bag for Halloween.

I *heart* sewing with these girls - they are seriously so cute and fun!

I may be too blessed!

Here's another great thing about this week.....

This is seriously the BEST show on TV - 

I LOVE that this show always starts a new season during my birthday week -

I'm such a lucky girl!

Join in my addiction - it's starts Sunday the 26th.

Happy Happy Birthday to me!! :)

Jose has learned over the years that I unfortunately return most of my gifts from him. I figure that I know how hard he works for his money so I want to make sure I get exactly what I would have wanted (had he known better ;)

So to avoid the return trip to the store, keeping track of the receipts, etc., he has learned that cold hard cash is always a very welcomed gift to me from him. So with birthday money this year I'm buying these two new toys - I can hardly wait. My new Bamboo tablet just arrived today - perfect timing! I can't wait to get my hands on it - it's a touch and pen tablet for my digiscrapping and other computer stuff!

Now this gift, the Silhouette cutter, has been calling my name for over a year. This is seriously the BEST cutter out there and it's finally Mac compatible starting tomorrow (and the timing is spot on!).  Unlike other cutters like Cricut, etc, you can cut any font on your computer - NO CARTRIDGES NEEDED!  There are thousands of designs you can download for only .99 cents.  It can do so much - vinyl lettering, heat transfer for clothing, rhinestone placements, etc.  And the detail it can cut is AMAZING!!

I realize that I sound like an infommercial but I've been waiting for a year and a half - finally!

This shirt shows the detail with the scrolls - WOW!

I love this forever banner cut with just a cute dingbat font I already have!

Look at these tiny berries and swirls cut into this cute bird - so delicate!

And this cute fawn and banner were cut with the Silhouette

Tess the Sewing Queen!

Tess started taking my sewing classes this summer. She has always had an interest in sewing but had to wait until she turned nine to take class. She has some natural talent :) She made this American Girl dress, doggie jacket, leash, hair bow, doggie bed and purse tonight with this cute group of girls in my class. I hope it's something she'll always want to do!

New Driver

Marisa and her new car!  She's so excited to finally be driving but we aren't so much ;)

(At least her car has navigation to help her find her way home when she's lost!)

Strawberry Pies :)

Some of our Summer fun - I'm just now getting back to scrapbooking after a very busy Spring & Summer!

Back to School 2010

Sweet 16!

Marisa turned Sweet 16!!

She had a cute party with about 25 school friends and a few from her previous hometown. 

Look at this cake her friends, Devin & Allie, (above) made her - so super cute!!

Marisa with Paige and Cayley
They've been friends since Kindergarten :)

We made an ice cream sundae toppings bar...yum!!

A couple pictures of the table up close

The outdoor tables where we had dinner - her color theme was bright pink, lime green and black (mostly damask patterns)

August 1st

Today would have been Mom's 75th birthday. We've been thinking of her all day and miss her dearly.

Summer Fun!

Yummy Light Bulbs!

I'm Personal Progress leader of the teen girls in our church. This was a cute little light bulb jar I found this summer in Utah - I knew our girls HAD to have these for a little incentive treat!

They're even cuter in a group :)

Patriotic Cake!

Is this the cutest and most clever cake you've seen?! My sister, Cathy, made this for us for 4th of July. It was so fun how every piece cut looked like a flag - LOVE it! I'm making this next year for sure - unless we're at her house - then I'll leave it to the expert ;)

Before the cutting....

Cathy slicing the cake with Tess waiting in great anticipation

(I think I hear a tummy growling!)

Ryan's start to Summer

Ryan is always busy outdoors - he learned to ride a unicycle up at his cousin's in Utah. He would just practice and practice until he could finally go down the whole street. Now he's figuring out how to buy one here!

Ryan made the baseball All-Stars for the 3rd year!

Congrats Ry - we love you!

Cake Decorating

Each summer I teach cake decorating and sewing to kids. Tess was so excited because she was finally "old enough" to participate. She made this Hello Kitty cake and loved the week since she was at a table with FIVE of her good friends!

This was my morning class (yes, I did this in the afternoon also!) - 30 fun and silly girls entertaining me all week! It gets a little hectic but it's really super fun and so cute to see them all learning.

Animals in Utah

Great things about going up to Utah for Tess are the animals! Aunt Louise's friend breeds Yorkies - so she got to play one afternoon with all the puppies - total bliss!

We always miss our two kitties at home but cousin Katie has a Ragdoll cat too!

We love KitKat - she's a cousin to our kitty, Sugar :)

Tess rescued this cute mouse in Aunt Cathy's yard. She lowered a bucket into a window well and just waited and waited for him to run in - then she pulled him up to safety and named him Mo Mo. She wanted to keep him and bring him back to Texas - I quickly vetoed that and convinced her that he needed to get back to his own family - whew...close one ;)

Sad start to Summer!

This summer one of Tess' BEST friends moved :( Tess loves Callie because she is a total animal lover and is so fun to play with - they can play for hours taking care of their animals! We got to have Callie over for a couple days and the girls went to Build-A-Bear to make matching Dogs (of course!) so they will remember each other.

We miss you Callie (and the rest of the Lelands)!!

Post Girl's Camp Post :)

Our Camp T-shirt this year... I loved the metallic ink (gray colored in the picture). It was so fun to see something I designed on 100 girls!

The Youth Leaders t-shirt that they all wore the first day to set them apart.

All the Goody bags lined up ready for delivery :) The bow color went with each age level.

The Goody Bags had the girl's lanyard with name tag and Princess charm, their Secret Sister's name in a little envelope, a headband for the age level color they were, their welcome bag of gumballs with their level name on it, a cd with Royalty themed songs, and the Theme announcement sheet (see below).

Coffee Filter flowers we made and hung on trees, railings, and all over camp!

Trash Bag Couture - the girls designed Gowns out of trash bag and other trims. Then they had a Runway show - it was so fun and they were so clever!

This was one of the crafts I had the girls make. It's a 2 week Birthday Countdown. They hang it up and flip the little numbers until they get down to their Happy Happy Day! I think they all loved it.

Girl's camp 2010

I'm Stake Camp Director at church (my 2nd year) and love getting everything ready for the girls. Here are a few of the goodies I've made for meetings - I can't show any more since it's still all kind of secretive until camp :)

These are candy bars I handed out to the leaders to introduce our theme this year~

"Heavenly Ever After"

This week we had a meeting with the youth leaders and I made these cupcakes with the theme and sub-theme~

"Seems like a Fairytale...but it's REAL!"

You can't have cupcakes without a cute themed water bottle to go with them :)

I'll post more later - can't ruin any surprises!

Easter Sunday 2010

Happy Spring Everyone - it seems like our weather has jumped to Summer already!

The kids on Easter morning after hunting down their baskets!

We had the Rossi's and Leland's over for Easter lunch.

I love using this china because it's the Wedgwood that Jose's parents got as their wedding gifts.

Adult table :)

The kid's table - close up

Seriously the cutest kids - Tess, Raegan, Sydney, Luke, Ryan, Callie & Cater

Waiting to run out for the egg hunt!!

Ryan getting his "hunt" on!!

We love these friends - Rae, Callie & Tess