My Babies -- all grown up

I thought I better let you all see my kiddos, and for those who haven't seen them in a while, they are truly growing up so fast that I feel like I'm in a whirlwind sometimes! I'll go oldest to youngest (sort of). This is our oldest, Mary (on the left) with her best friend, Athena. They met in kindergarten, and here they are at Megan's graduation party, 2 years as alumni (you are old Mary!) and still friends. They have twin cell phones, so instead of talking, they were of course texting! Actually, I think they were comparing stuff on their phones -- who really knows! Mary is 19, and will be leaving teenage-hood on August 29th. Unbelievable. She is living back at home after a year and a half absence, and we could not be happier. It is SO NICE having her back -- she adds cheer, beautiful food, a little bossiness, and fun conversation! She moved at the end of April, and is planning on either going to SUU in the fall if she can swing it, or back to UNLV. Our second daughter, Megan, graduated a week and a half ago, and this is Will & I grinning at her graduation. (This is while all the grads are walking in --Megan was one of the first since she was an Honors graduate -- and this is after I had had my breakdown while listening to Pomp & Circumstance as she passed by. Once she was in her seat though, I calmed down, and have done fine since!)

An official graduate, Megan (on the far right) with her fabulous group of friends, Rebecca (valedictorian), Larissa (salutatorian and Meg's future roommate at college), Christina, Megan Rochford and Megan Riggs! Meg has been blessed with friends that uplift her and have similar goals for school and life. They are currently having as many movie nights, sleepovers, etc. as possible before they go away to school this fall.

We were so grateful to have Grandma & Grandpa Riggs come, as well as Will's sister Janice and her son, Jared. Meg and Jared were born the same year, and have been close cousins. It was a fun night, and we ended up at Macayo's for dinner afterward. June 10, 2009 (Absent-Mary, who was working; Lizzy, who was up at Girl's Camp)

This is Lizzy, age 14 7/8, at girls camp up our beautiful Mount Charleston at Camp Stimson. She received her Eagle Feather award, which is a big deal in our stake. It is awarded to 4th year girls who have certified all 4 years, and who have completed an overnight hike that you backpack into. I was fortunate to go on that hike with her since they needed chaperones, and it was a wonderful experience. Tough with a 40 lb. pack on my back, but we did it, and not only was it a beautiful hike, it was great to be with these girls and see them rough it and enjoy it! We packed in our tent, and were greatful for it since it was 38 degrees that night! It actually snowed on us the next morning as we were putting our tent away. It was a 6 mile round-trip hike, and I was slow, but steady, and made it! Lizzy did an awesome job -- she left me in the dust, but I still love her. She also had to lead a fireside that night, and planned and ate her meals that she packed in. The next day, we met many from our ward where all the girls would be camping and set up camp. The next week, Lizzy attended camp all week, and these pictures are from June 12, where she received her Eagle Feather award, and also the Bishopbric from our ward came up and cooked our ward dinner. It was a great night.

Oops, forgot to rotate this pic, and I don't know how yet once its been posted. When I learn how, I'll fix it! Below are the girls receiving their Eagle Feather award.

Below, not the picture I meant to pull from, but it works. Will, Bishop Kereczman, Scott Smith and Paul Bean are serving the girls and their leaders.

This is Will with Willie, Nikki and Cami at the Las Vegas Temple. Our ward's primary went on an outing just before Easter this year, and had a great experience. You can click on the pictures if you want to see more detail! (Like Cami's cute crunchy face when it is sunny :)

I'll post more pics of Nikki and Willie later, but Cami just had her 7th birthday, so you see, my babies are all grown up! No more little teeny tinys, but I'm enjoying every moment just the same. Cami is a joy, and we had fun with her Slip 'n Slide birthday party.

She wanted to do a pinata with her friends, and the highlight was our grandpa neighbor, Buff, coming over and hitting it with them! I'll have to throw that picture in later :) This is Cami, whacking the pinata and loving it!

Lizzy and I think Nikki decorated the cake -- isn't it cute? So this wraps up a little about our family right now. Have a great day!

Pictures of Tami's cute stuff!

These are some of Tami's cute pages and projects. I love that she actually makes the projects that we see online or at Convention! Her bags are supercute, and you can see them on her blog here.

The cards below fit into the purse above. It is so cool in person, but she said it did take some time to make! The effort is worth it, and one day this summer, I'm making one!

Aren't these flip flops the cutest ever? Way to make an inexpensive but supercute girls birthday present! Or make them just because you can -- So cute IRL.

Tami's stamp room is way cute (functional too), and here is just one part of the cuteness:

Here are more samples:

I love that Tami does progressive pages: You can make them 6X6, 8 1/2 X 11, or 12 X 12, OR if your not a scrapper, she turns the 6X6 part of the page into a 3X6 card. The card below in a spinner card, and watching the cat spin around is pure entertainment! Her progressive page example is the page under the card.

June Stamp Club

June stamp club included these gorgeous pages that I cased from here at Rochelle's site -- thanks Rochelle for making such fun pages! I tweaked the second page, and this time include pictures from our annual friends trip to my in-laws farm from 2007. The area that is tied with ribbon opens up so you can add more journaling and pictures. Some of my girls are adhering that part to the actual page protector on the outside, so that it can be opened without taking the whole page out of the protector. Others are going to xacto knife around it once it is in the page protector -- different strokes for different folks! I love scrapping together because the ideas flow!

Our stamp club is ending for the year in July (actual date: July 6th), and this will make the 3rd annual "Mystery Hostess" month!!! Club members, you will get extra chances at being drawn out as the mystery hostess if you bring your pages from the year with pictures on them! Thus the reason for the pages in the first place! .....Also, you'll get extra tickets for being on time!

If you are interested in being in one of my clubs, or starting one of your own (free stamps for you that do!), contact me! Our clubs will start again in August. FYI, for my original daytime club, November 2009 and February & March of 2010 are taken already, so make your claim quickly if you have a favorite month to be the hostess!

Well, this is the end of my first day of blogging. Soon I will get pictures of my fun kiddos posted, and let you know a little more about our family. Have a blessed night.

Downline meeting Pictures

I met with many of my downline on May 30th, and we put together and 8 1/2" X 8 1/2" SU Chipboard Album complete with 18 pages to go with! It is a summer album and is a great way to give us ideas of what to do with our families and friends to make this a summer to remember. Plus even though much of it is retiring at the end of this month, the idea will work with many of our new Jumbo Wheels in our new Idea Book & Catalog! Can't wait until July 1st to be able to order them! (By the way, the new catalog is the best I've seen in two years -- I already have 4 pages of wish list items, and that usually isn't me!)

Back to the album! It took us about 3 hours to complete, and if you are one of my downline, I have complete instructions on how to prepare 12 albums in less that 2 hours. The credit for this blueprint goes to my upline Jessica, who did a phenomenal job of making 4 kits per DSP pack. There is cardstock of course as well, but the overall cost is low, and makes making these books worth it big time! I can't wait to fill it full of pictures as summertime goes by. Personally, I'm going to take each single page and make it into a Double Page Spread so that I can get more pics in the album. You can click on each picture to make it bigger and see the details!

Ok, I should have uploaded the pictures from my computer in reverse order so that the album would be in order. Just know that it is in REVERSE order the way the pictures are on here. The cover is last and page 18 is first. I didn't edit the pictures like I should have, so you'll be seeing my walls -- oh well! This is my first day on my blog afterall, so cut me a little slack! Here is what we used to make the albums:

Stamps: Just Beachy Set & Lazy Days Jumbo Wheel (I can't believe they didn't make it in the catalog!)

Paper: Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip & Kiwi Kiss CS, Good Morning Sunshine DSP

Ink: Uninked Jumbo Roller inked with Chocolate Chip reinker, Basic Brown Classic Ink

Accessories: Circles, Ovals, 3-Heart & Arrow Punches, Big Shot, Go Go Boots, Top Note and Serif Essentials Dies, Chocolate Chip Corduroy Buttons, Choc. Chip grosgrain ribbon, Kiwi Kiss striped ribbon, Blender Pens, Chipboard Album, Stampin' Up Glue Sticks

Sorry that some of the pics are blurry. But you get the idea. We simply rolled every page, then "ringed" the words where they ended up, so none of ours were exactly the same. But it was fun and easy -- just time consuming. But the 3 hours included lunch, so it wasn't all stamping!

We also had many fun door prizes that we gave away, and when I find where those pictures are, I'll post them. Also, Tami had fabulous "stuff" that I took pics of, so it will all get here eventually. Thanks to my girls who came, and also for those who tried to make it from Utah, but had sick kiddos along the way -- we missed you, but will see you at Convention!

"Family" Urban Garden pages

This is number 3 of the Double Page Spreads I did for my scrapbook pages class. The first page is cased from this SCS layout, which my downline and friend Susan and I both had in our favorites and were planning on using for a class. Well, she got to it first, and tweaked the second page, so I just cased her case for my class! I actually went to her class and made mine -- it is a classy, beautiful layout. Thanks to stampinwithrochelle.com for this gorgeous artwork.

Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Always, Schoolbook Serif Alphabet

Paper: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Not Quite Navy, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Urban Garden DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiww, VersaMark

Accessories: White Embossing Powder; Scallop Edge Punch; Kiwi Kiss striped ribbon, Big Shot and Top Note Die; All Stampin' Up except Pearls (from Michaels)

My ladies & I had a great time making theses pages, and I'll be doing another class in August when I get back from Convention. Until then, I'll be spending most of my time in Utah working on and enjoying my in-law's farm.

OK, I think I'm getting the hang of this -- we'll see! Here is a picture of the swap that inspired the Sun Fun DPS.

Stamps: Life's A Breeze & Something Fishy Jumbo Roller

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Cameo Coral, Gable Green, Whisper White.

Ink: Same as above plus Basic Black (Markers used on Sailboat stamp)

Accessories: Crystal Brads, Fine Cosmo Glitter, liquid glue

All products Stampin' Up.

I forgot to include what I used for the Father's Day Layout, so here is what I used for that layout:

Stamps: Big Deal, All in the Family

Paper: Kraft, Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze card stocks; Manchester DSP

Ink: Artichoke craft ink, Basic Black marker to write on tabs. Accessories: Tab, 1 3/8", Scallop punches; natural twine; brads; Watercolor Pencils, Clear Embossing Powder; heat tool; Big Shot and Serif Essensial Dies. All products Stampin' Up.

Stamp Club Double Page Spreads

So I'm still learning how these pictures will come onto my blog, and where the writing will show, and the order of it all! I came up with these pages from a swap I got at SU Convention last year, and I've been waiting all year to do pages from it for my club. It is way cuter IRL (In Real Life -- for my family who has never checked out a blog before -- hee hee), and the swap came from Kristi Gardner in Texas -- thanks Kristi!

I'm posting the card, but don't know if it is above or below these words :)

These are one of the DP Spreads that we made at my Scrapbook page night. I got the idea from this post from Nicolejanette. I loved how it turned out!

Finally starting my own blog!

It's about time, I know, that I got a blog started, especially since some of my Stampin' Up downline already have theirs going, and I love them! A year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was, and now I love going onto Split Coast, finding a page or card that I love, and heading over to that person's blog -- in fact, I get a little miffed now if a cute page or card submission doesn't have one! How fast we get spoiled, huh?



A little about me: I'm a wife to the best guy in the world, a mom to 6 fabulous kids, the daughter and daughter-in-law of the best parents and in-laws a girl could have, but best of all, I'm a daughter of God, so life if good!!! I've written in a journal off and on most of my life (since age 11 or so), and was a scrapbooker before scrapbooking was a craft! As a kid, I kept every sports schedule, newspaper clipping, etc. that me or my family or school was associated with, and as a young mom, made my own journaling blocks (literally) copied over and over to put in my first baby's scrapbook. It of course was one of those NON-acid free magnetic pages books, so once I heard that my pictures were going to be ruined if I left them in this state, I got into "official" scrapbooking with my great friend Maria -- and take the plunge we did! We even dabbled in considering opening our own scrapbooking store. But with 10 kids between us, we decided we would continue to be stay-at-home moms, and support all the stores instead! A few years later, I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator, and have been one now for 6 years. I love it, and especially love Thursdays during the school year, because I have a group of friends that get together and scrap each Thursday that we can. I also teach stamping classes, and have a Stampin' Up daytime and nighttime stamp club that meets once a month. So between my hobby, my great family and friends, and church activities, my life is full. For this I am very, very grateful.



I'm going to start out by posting pictures of the 3 double-page spreads I did at my scrapbook pages class last Thursday. Thanks to my great friend (and downline!) Susan for teaching me how do this blog, and I hope my first posting turns out OK. I still don't know how to scan 12 X 12 pages, so I took pics, and hope they look good. Here goes!