Boys.....1,2,3,4,5 !!!

So I had a great little boy day. I actually got to see all my little boys today! It doesn't get any better does it! Jeremy called and little boy #5 had an ultrasound done today and Jeremy loaded the video so we could see it! How neat was that, my first glimpses of Baby Noah! Course he put this great music with it so then Grammy here had to cry clear thur the whole thing as I watched him! Absolutely amazing, watching his little heart beat and then seeing his arms moving around. So that was Little boy #1.

And here is Little boy #2. Bode came over this morning and spent the whole morning with me. We had such fun, we did some eating....
Some real hard playing after his nap...
Also some great time in the swing outside, he was an angel! He went home around 1:00 and at the door was.....
Little boys #3, #4, and #5 !!!!! They came for the afternoon and we had a blast! We picked lots of fruit for them to take home, then did some tree climbing....
There was a bit of bike riding...
We went to the park around the corner and did some swinging, then we decided to go down the street to feed the goats, I think Ethan (little boy #3 disguised as a super hero... that is his Uncle Jeremy's super hero cape so you know it's really Super, he lived in it too just like Ethan lives in his)yep, I think he had some of the carrot too!
What a fun day of boys it was. I'm heading to bed, I hear I have 40 students in my class tomorrow, that may make today seem like a breeze!!!

Sew and Go project

Here is our next Sew and Go project at Scrapbooks. It's on Tuesday from 11:00-3:00. This cute little heart mat will fit right onto the wire frame we've been putting things on or you can hang it, set it or make it into a pillow. Lots of fun! You'll be ready for Valentines day!

Thursday Club

I met my Thursday club friends for dinner this week at Olive Garden to celebrate Judy's birthday. She has a Christmas eve birthday so we tend to wait until after the holidays to celebrate and catch up from the last month! Sometimes it's amazing we can find an evening that works for 6 different people together! And nope we didn't meet Thursday, it was Wednesday which seems to mess all of our spouses up!(thursday club on wed.?) But when you've met these friends for years (30+) on Thursday, it just has stuck! In fact we had such a good laugh as Judy's girls all have decided they are going to start a Thursday club! We all laughed and wondered if they'd have a "can"? As young mom's we all struggled with Christmas money so we had a "can" that we all put $5 a week into as our "dues" and over the year that would help pay for Christmas. We'd get our money back at our Christmas party and have it for shopping. Sometimes people had to borrow out of the can in dire emergencies but it's fun to know we could do that. ( a bit of history, HA!) So Mindy has the next birthday (and she'll finally be as old as me) so we'll see everyone in April again and have fun catching up on our lives, or we might make up an occasion before then to meet for dinner and enjoy each other again.

Fun Evening with Amy and Family

Ken and I were invited to Taco night last night! It was so good and fun to share that with them! We got there early enough to get to spend a bit of time outside. We hadn't seen their new Christmas toys so it was fun for the boys to show us those and then we got to see Garrett get to ride his bike with no training wheels! Yea for being 4!
Aiden showed us his new scooter that makes sparks! Kind of makes your skin crawl as it scrapes but it's exciting when you are 6!
It was so fun to see Ethan's new room, it got an "extreme overhaul" this week, the paint, curtains, shelves and new flooring were wonderful, I'm so happy for you Ethan to have a wonderful room now. We had our rice krispie treats I'd brought and then by 7 Ken and I exited so they could jump in the bath tub and get on with their bedtime routine. Thanks again for the fun evening !

Thai Food

Well tonight was my first experience with Thai food and it was Great! One of the first on my" trip around the world" food extravaganza that I'd definitely go eat again. The flavors were very strong and while each dish was good a little goes along way so that small portions of the items we shared was plenty. Thai Basil was the restaurant, rather quiet in there, but it was a monday night and a big football game to compete with! I guess there is another one in Tempe.We started with this appetizer...those are fried sweet potatoes. Now how could you go wrong with that since it was Fried! the dipping sauce was great. Those are peanuts floating in there, in fact....
there were peanuts in everything. ( wonder if they grow peanuts in Thailand?) We had a soup that was good with a coconut milk broth, had chicken and mushrooms in it, also lemon grass and parsley. Then we had 2 other dishes, one was Pad Thai, it was a great noodle dish with I think red curry, then another dish I can't remember the name that we put over rice, it had carrots and potoatoes and chicken and eggs and tofu. Very interesting. So here are the 2 crazies that are taking me on this "quest"! Thanks Denise and Sarah, it was fun, I'm hearing Scandinavian is next.

Friends

I forgot to post this cute picture of friends Linda and Judy and Denise. They got to come over last week for a bit of sewing and a little holiday brunch. We had a great time and enjoyed being together. Aren't friends the best. I'm so lucky!

One more Christmas celebration

Our family always seems to win the prize for delayed Christmas celebrations. So we did it again this year. Due to illness over the holidays we cancelled our Christmas Day dinner prime rib celebration with Ken's folks and had it this weekend. It worked much better to have everyone here than cook that for the 3 people that were well enough to come! So these photo's are of Gene with Baby Bode and Chris. Delores wasn't feeling well enough to come so we missed her.
Bode got his first ride in the big boy swing on the patio. It was lovely out so we had some appetizers out there while the meat cooked on the grill. Garrett and Aiden had fun giving their cousin a ride in the swing they all loved.
then we got to skype with Jeremy and Jamie too. Their Christmas box was hanging out somewhere other than here for a month while it traveled the slow boat from Mississippi, so we had fun opening their gifts with them. Here they are talking to Bode.
They sent the boys these cute gliders so they were having a blast with them. Here is Ethan.
After dinner we had coffee with our pies that Gene brought and we had stuff to make ice cream sundaes too.
The boys had fun making their own!
It was fun to have a late celebration to enjoy each other again.

Bags for gifts

I ran on to the picture I took of this cute bag I made in December. We drew names at work for a little secret santa present and I got Julie, our great Manager! Of course, first time to do this.....and of course pressure is on since I"m totally surrounded by these wonderfully creative people that are amazing! The glitch is that we can only spend $20. I was told she loves pedicures and as a young mom deserves the hour away relaxing. So I opted for the Gift card for the pedicure. But.....then everyone told me "they cheat"! OK, so the wrapping doesn't count......so I made Julie this bag ( she had fallen in love with this bag we had taught at our sew and go but didn't get to come) so I made her a big size one for hauling around "mom things", and...I made her sweet baby girl daughter Brooklyn a mini to match. I put a book in Brooklyn's since I figured that didn't count since it wasn't for Julie! So all in all she enjoyed her gift, told me she'd gotten the pedicure and loved the relaxing hour and I"ve seen her hauling the bag so whew, made it thru my first party at SE! The party was so nice, we had wonderful home made food made by Marti the owner, they did a raffle for us, which was so fun, they handed us all a ticket....we are the ones always handing out raffle tickets in class but never to get be on the "good" end! How fun was that, I got a cricut cartridge! Then we had our secret santa gifts and all had a great time! What a great group of people to be surrounded by!

Polka dots and Pinwheels Class

I taught the Polka Dots and Pinwheels Intermediate class today at Scrapbooks Etc. We had a great time. We were in the small classroom and with just the 4 students it went great. Even the small classroom there has all the things you need with great sturdy tables, the cords hanging down where you can get right to them. Lots of people stopped in to see what we were up to.Here's Marti with her completed block.
And Jenny had hers done in a jiffy!
Yeah for Julie getting 2 blocks done.
And Yeah for you Amanda, you did it! She got hers done too. They had to learn the 2 parts to make this block and have to make 10 of them by next week. We'll move on to the alternate square which will be a breeze next week, then get it all together in the 3rd class. Great students and alot of fun today, can't wait for next Thursday!

Sew and Go with a BANG!!!!

Well our Sew and Go Class at Scrapbook Etc. started out with a huge BANG ! Can you believe it, here it's only the 4th of Jan. People are just getting into the swing of 2011 and we had 50+ show up today. I quit counting after 50, it might have been 51 or 54, WHO KNOWS! We all had a blast and I of course wish I'd have taken more photos of all the pretty bags that left the store, it was great. We spent the first hour making the cute flower with the beaded center, Cheri the designer of the bag came in and showed some more of her quilts and patterns and we got into making the bag.
Everyone was very patient and it's really a very social event with lots of chatting and visiting amongst each other, it's so fun to hear them all help each other if they get stuck. Here is a photo of Marti ( owner of Scrapbooks) and Amanda shoved in a table in the doorway up against the wall...
Then these 2 lucky gals got to sew out in the store right outside the doorway, wasn't that crazy. But we got them all in, didn't turn anyone away and there sure will be alot of cute bags walking around this town now!!!!
No one got to put their flower on yet as the glue was still drying but be watching for these cute bags now and you'll know you better come to Sew and Go and not miss out! 25 people have signed up for the next class Jan 18th, hmmmmm wonder what we'll be making, I"m sure it's darling :-).....I'll be cutting kits tomorrow at work for the next class. Sooooo, Sew and go was kicked off great, people were there before Barb and I even got there this morning, so yep all were anxious to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. I'm off to find a cool rag for my head and put my feet up!!!!! :-)

37th Anniversary Trip

Ken and I just returned home from a fun little trip celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary. We drove over to California and spent 3 days at Disneyland. Our kids gave us tickets to Disney last year for Christmas and our Anniv. and we finally were getting to use them. Everyone was so generous we hardly had to buy any food while there with all the extra gift cards and $$ we got. We drove over on thursday and of course all the cold winter storms had just arrived in Arizona the night before so we got to see what mother nature had left behind. The snow on the mountains was beautiful, I took this in the "windmill" area so alot of you will recognize where that is. It was fun to take a road trip, seems like alot of trips we've taken have been flying so it was fun to pack and take a few extras since we had the car.Here is a shot of me the first day in Disneyland. We got there by 2:00 in the afternoon so we went and stayed into the evening to enjoy the "happiest place on earth".

I took a couple shots for the kids....we went out to Tom Sawyer Island, we hadn't been out there in years, it used to be a favorite for the kids to run and play on. I used to hate it as there were so many tunnels and great places to hide that you'd loose sight of your kids. Funny how now I heard Amy say the same thing! The bridge is still there, they've added a few more hands on things to do, I think the bottom of the bridge is more stable now.

This is one of the things I hated about that island....here is a tunnel they'll remember, even Ken said boy I remember this one, it seems smaller now!!! ha! I never went into them, just always tried to figure out where they'd come out on the other side!!!
We got a traditional picture by the Mickey day #2.
The snow was so pretty, we were up in that carrousel at California Adventure ( the one that slides and rocks.... UGH) and I took this looking out over the Matterhorn to the snowy mountains.

I took this picture showing the CROWDS that were there the day of new years eve. It was just packed, we left at 10:30 as you could hardly move and we decided we'd have more fun coming back in the morning at 7:30 while everyone else was asleep.
And we were right, here is the same shot the next day, it was empty, we had a blast going on several things again and again with no lines.
And Ken promised me ice cream if I would go on the Tower of Terror, we'd been before and I knew what it did, but we did it, twice, and the ice cream was wonderful!
It was great to see the parks and our lovely hotel all decorated for the holidays. It was a fun and memorable trip to take, thanks to our kids for the tickets and all the fun encouragement to go!

First Sew and Go of 2011

Well, here it is, our first Sew and Go of 2011 is tomorrow....Tuesday 11:00-3:00 at Scrapbooks Etc. Here is our "secret" project, I guess I've leaked it out! It's a darling bag and yep that cute flower will be part of it, beads and all. We've got lots of kits cut, ready to go with lots of different fabric selections. I bet everyone will be there early to pick! $18.00 is all it costs for your kit and then of course you get Barb and ME too! And if you sign up on line now you get 10% off , which brings it down to $16.00, what a deal is that! Scrapbooks is starting this new things to get "Etc. Bucks" and you get them by taking classes and all kinds of things so boy it doesn't get any better for 4 hours of fun and look what you'll get!