A little something - Make n take

I love this more sophisticated look for a card. This was my first try at alcohol based inks and I do like the finished product. 

Hippo Card Make n Take

Seems like all I have time to make these days are the lunch time Make n Takes at Crop Girls. Here is the one from 2 weeks ago. We embossed this cute hippo and used tacky tape with beads on the side- pretty cute and reminded me how to use those tiny little beads. 

Mother's Day Project

I don't know about you but I just LOVE acrylic stamps... I was at Crop Girls the other day and saw this fun project made out of the acrylic block used for stamping. You paint the edges if the photo, adhere it to the back up of one of these blocks, add ribbon around the edge, embellish and walla! you have a cute little gift. We gave these to our mom's and grandmas for Mother's Day this year. 

A weekend in the pine... "needles"

Saturday morning we drove up to Sarah's (Kenny's grandma) cabin to help rake pine needles for the weekend. The entire family was up this weekend (Sarah, Barb, Nanette, Kim, Brittany, Chris , Michelle, Trevor, baby Zack and us). This first picture is my favorite one from the weekend! It's Chris "flying" in front of the cabin. He is such a smart, funny kid. We really enjoyed him this weekend. 

Next is a picture of Trevor and Kenny at the slash pit dumping one of the 4 trailers full of pile needles we all raked. 

Here is a quick picture of Barb, Kenny, Sarah, Zack and Chris chilling on the porch...

Zack was such a good baby all weekend and we all took turns playing with him... here is a picture of Nanette, Zack and Chris (above). 

Sarah spoiled us all weekend with homemade yummy food... the highlights were a Family favorite-- Chocolate gravy (see picture) for breakfast and chicken n dumplings for lunch ! 

We got rain on Saturday which was beautiful (although it made the pine needles harder to rake and heavier). It was a nice weekend, but we are thankful we are off today (Memorial Day) to rest!

Vegas Baby!!!

We had the best time in Vegas! Our original plan was to drive up on Tuesday and stay until Friday so we could meet up with Jerry, Kathy, Brett and Jerry Jr. who were coming in from Illinois. Well, plans changed and Kathy couldn't end up coming so Kenny went as planned on Tuesday since he has work appointments and then I flew up after work on Wednesday.

Jerry Jr. got us some amazing deals on dirt cheap rooms at the MGM Grand! The guys shared a suite at the end of the hall.. it was 1400 ft2!! Amazing! It had 3 great views of the strip and the city. Our room was so pretty and so comfy too! It was the bungalow suite. 

 Kenny met up with the guys Tuesday after work and had a nice evening - they played the tables and had a nice dinner. 

Wednesday night the guys picked me up and we headed out for dinner at the Planet Holleywood Buffet. After dinner we went to see Rita Rudner, a comedian at Harrah's. It was a great show and a wonderful night. 

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early and I talked Kenny into going for a swim (what a good sport). The MGM has a beautiful pool area with 3 pools and a lazy river! We didn't swim long 

because Kenny had appointments, but it was really nice. I went to breakfast with the guys. That day we did some gambling at the craps tables, did some sight seeing, had a nice dinner and went to Carrot Top. Carrot Top was a great show Kenny and I both think he is the best comedian we have ever seen. We were rolling laughing-

This was first time I stayed actually on the strip and I just loved it! I cant wait to meet the Kuhn's back up there next time.  

Bowling

Monday 5/18/09 was our last night in our bowling league. Our team ended up in 17th place (out of 22) and we won $265 (to split among the 4 of us). I ended up getting 2 patches (180 game and 75 pins over average) , a pin (400 series) and bowler of the week once. Kenny got two patches (200 game and 75 pins over average) along with bowling of the week 3 times! It was a fun season, but we are ready for a break. We might bowl next year, but we are taking the summer off : ) 

Mother's Day Celebration

We had my parents, grandparents, brother and his boys over for dinner. 

Jacob approved the doggie door and both boys had fun going in and out of it. Jake also liked Kenny's recliner and Little Brian was just a ham today taking pictures...

Mother's Day Breakfast

This morning Kenny invited his mom and Nana over for Mother's Day Breakfast and made delicious Omelets for them.  Afterwards we played "Are you Smarter than a 5th grader" the DVD game... sadly we are not, but it was pretty fun. 

Impromptu Visit

This afternoon we went to Squaw Peak to hike with my buddy Jereme (who I haven't seen in probably 9 years) ... I could only make it .8 miles up, but the guys were very understanding... probably didn't want to carry me back down the hill.  

Anyway, when we were done we decided to stop by my brother's house since we were just

 a couple miles away. We ended up going bowling and had a blast! I originally thought Jake( 2 years old) wouldn't be interested in bowling and didn't rent him shoes.... well once he saw his dad, uncle and bro doing it he promptly took his shoes off and wanted funky bowling shoes too! The boys caught on right away and did great. 

Jake had a little trouble understanding he needed to walk up to the lane to throw the ball and wanted to throw the ball from the ball return. It was pretty funny... to us. I wish I had a video camera to capture these boys tonight. 

There is something about watching kids do something for the first time. The way

 their eyes light up and they get so ecstatic about the "1" pin they knocked down. It was really refreshing. They were jumping up and down and squealing with joy, giving high fives and have a "good ol' time : ) 

I love these boys! -Jake below (dirty face and all) and Little Brian above). We played some videos games afterwards (mostly the big kids). Ha ha 

A Nice Surprise!

We were at Walmart this evening and I browsed the new releases like I always do. To my surprise I found this new book- Summer on Blossom Street the newest book by Debbie Macomber!! I LOVE the Blossom Street books. I actually met Debbie last summer when she was at a book signing in Surprise- she signed my 20 wishes book.  

I SO want to crack open the book tonight, but I am going to wait for our vacation in a couple weeks... since I have work reading to do... (CPCU) 

Make N Take

Here is some pictures of today's make n take from Crop Girls. It is a cute little CD holder! Its sparkly which I love. Check out thier blog at - http://cropgirls.blogspot.com 

Home Improvement

So Kenny and I used this Arcadia doggie door insert- which at first seem like a GREAT idea. It was cheaper than the ones you install in the house, we could take it with us if we sell this house etc. But there were many down negative aspects too... We could not properly lock the door (we used a stick) it didn't match, there was a gap that between the regular door and the insert which let valuable cool air out and it was kinda small for the girls. PLUS if we didn't get the stick just right in the door the dogs would break in and rampage the house. They would dump the trash get into the cupboards (which have child locks) etc. 

We got an estimate of $300-400 to have a contractor install a door in the wall. Kenny did some research and decided he could do it himself. 

I am so proud of him he did a beautiful job! And saved us over $200 on the installation!! We should save on electricity and food (since the pups won't be breaking and eating everything any more) Yippee!! 

Painting and Pizza

Saturday we spent the day at Barb's house with Michelle, Trevor, Baby Zack and Sarah. Barb is redecorating her spare room and bribed us with her delicious homemade pizza in exchange for painting labor. Also, Zack mowed the pasture (Kenny helped).