Laura Vegas

give me just two days

January 27, 2011

i know i'm slacking off the blogging this week. but it's with good reason. in the last three weeks, i have completed 29 projects. let me say that again. twenty-nine, which is just about thirty. lol! it's been crazy busy here, with projects all over the place. a lot of them are for CHA, some are for design team stuff, and some are for creating keepsakes. i'm sort of all over the place, with what i've been working on. and yet, for the first time in ages, i have been totally on top of what i have going on. even getting things finished and turned in early, which is very unusual for me.

but i'm officially done with all my assignments and projects, as of today. or yesterday, since i'm posting after midnight. lol! friday morning, i'm driving down to los angeles for the weekend, for CHA. i cannot wait! i get to hang out and catch up with old friends. meet up with new friends for the first time. there's a big group of the CK people that will be there, including 6 of the other dream team girls. we get to check out all the new products, and see all the amazing projects that we've all been working on. it's just so inspiring to be surrounded with all that this industry has to offer. i told joe that "it's like the superbowl of scrapbooking". and since his pittsburgh steelers are once again in the superbowl this year, he figured i could have my "superbowl" moment too 😉

while i havn't been able to share anything i've been working on, that will change this weekend. i have nine posts, with new layouts and projects, all typed up and ready to go. i'm spreading them out over the 4 days of the show. that means two posts a day will go up, and one day will have three posts. i'm very proud of the projects that i made for the show, and they're some of my favorites in a long time.

so check back in, starting saturday, for new layouts and projects from making memories, jillibean soup, and bella blvd. and keep your eye on all the blogs this weekend. i know that making memories always has a ton of giveaways and updates on the show. i'm going computer-less for my four day trip, so i'll have a lot of catching up to do when i get back.
my girl – a CK layout

January 25, 2011

i wanted to share a layout of mine from the february issue of creating keepsakes. this was part of the "new scrap beginnings" article, which was all about some fun ways to boost your creativity.

as seen in the February 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

these gorgeous photos were taken by the amazingly talented megan cristello, a photographer friend from florida. this is her beautiful oldest daughter, raygan. some of you might remember some other layouts i have created, using megan's photos of all four of her kids. i've done them all for fun, and then sent them to her to keep. sometimes, just having a fresh face on your scraptable, is just the creative boost you need. well, i have had layouts published with megan's three youngest kids. the two little ones have been on a few published layouts, one of which even landed on the cover of creating keepsakes once. but raygan hadn't made it yet. and being the mom of girls, i know that it's easy to be a little jealous and unsure of yourself sometimes. so when i got this assignment, i asked megan to send me some photos of raygan, so that i could give her her moment in the magazine. i still remember how excited and grateful raygan was, when i showed her a peek at my finished layout. i was secretly more nervous to get her approval, than the magazine. lol!

back to the layout. my assignment was to set a timer for 50 minutes. this is a great challenge, for those of us that spend way too much time picking out products or making decisions on our layouts. i was also asked to stop every 10 minutes, and if i was stuck on something, make a quick decision and move on. i was asked to take some photos of my process along the way. since they didn't end up getting used for the magazine, i figured i would share them here. give you a little insight into how my mind works 😉

i had so many great photos to choose from, and honestly, i wanted to use them all. i started my two page layout, with seven 4×6 photos. i laid four vertical photos going across the upper part of the pages, and then three horizontal photos going up and down the second page. i had picked out that strip of pattern paper, that had all the colors from raygan's outfit. lots of earth tones. browns, yellows, greens, oranges, and turquoise.

i was digging around for some embellishments. something to really get the layout going. i've mentioned that i always start my layouts with white cardstock (which does get changed out to colors, or covered up sometimes). then it's photos and pattern paper. but then i usually look for something cool, to really give the layout it's direction. this time, it was this chipboard filmstrip, from an older "mix it up" CK kit of the month. i love how it tied into the vintage camera that raygan had in her photos. and it ended up fitting perfectly, under three of the 4×6 photos. which is why i ended up taking one photo off the layout.

once i knew i was using the filmstrip, i moved my polka dot pattern paper strip above the vertical photos, instead of below them. i found a coordinating orange pattern paper to go below the filmstrip. a woodgrain pattern paper to go along the photos on the second page. and a fun text pattern paper to go along the side of the first page. i had picked out some puffy letter stickers for my title. i knew i wanted to find some turquoise ribbon or trim to add to my layout. oddly enough, i didn't have much ribbon in that color. and i have a LOT of ribbon.

then i remembered this bloomer trim by webster's pages. this is one of those products that i sort of consider "too special to use". which is crazy, i know. i've gotten a lot better about that nowdays, and i don't hold on to much anymore. so glad i finally pulled this out to use, because it was perfect. and it added a ton of extra weight to that side of the layout. without this bulkier trim, the page was feeling a little flat.

for the filmstrip, i was thinking i would back each rectangle with some colored cardstock. i cut a few pieces, and tried it out. but it wasn't quite working for me. and i also had no clue what else i would put in each spot.

so i took the colored cardstock out, and adhered the filmstrip directly to the white cardstock background. and then i dug through my paper flowers and found flowers in all the same colors that were in the pattern papers and photos. once i had those picked out, i found some old metal flowers and a few fun buttons. i simply glue dotted them all down. nothing complicated.

and here's the final layout. the first page.

and the second page. all in all, a very simple layout. totally do-able in 50 minutes. believe me, this really did only take me that long. except maybe the journaling. that always ends up taking me longer. lol!

i seriously love this filmstrip. and filled up with flowers and buttons, it's even more cool. it would also be cool to put photos inside. which is probably the most logical choice for it.

and the journaling, written from her mother's point of view. i received this layout back last week, and it's on it's way to megan and raygan. i hope they love it 🙂
back on the soccer field

January 22, 2011

i shouldn't say we're headed back to the soccer field. because we never really stopped going. lol! the regular season ended back in november. and then sarah went straight into all-star tryouts.

it's not actually called "all-stars". it goes by another name. but that's really what it comes down too, and makes more sense for those of you not in this area, who wouldn't know what the other name stood for. sixteen of the best players for under-12 girls were chosen to be on the team, and play against other top players in the surrounding cities. she had a great team last season, and quite a few of the girls ended up making this team too. so it's great to see them all still playing together on the field.

they've been practicing since the beginning of december. on freezing cold nights, in the fog, under the lights. and tomorrow, they have their first two games. in some warmer temps, hopefully some sunshine, and during the day. i think the parents will be more excited about that. lol! it's a short, six weeks of games. and i hope the girls just go out there and have fun, and play the best game they can.

i have to add that since they got their team hoodies, sarah has not taken her's off. it's been a few weeks now. she wears it ALL day, ALL night. i do get her to take it off for bedtime. lol! but i hear that other girls on the team are the same way. even though i get tired of seeing her in the same exact thing, every day, i do think it's kind of cute 🙂

and their coach? well, that would be joe. it wasn't necessarily his intention to coach this team. but there was a spot to fill, so he stepped up and committed his time to these girls. which i think is awesome. he's a great coach, and so good with the girls. he's got lots of fabulous parents helping out when needed, and an experienced assistant coach as well.

of course, he couldn't keep it all together and organized without his team manager. she's awesome too. oh wait. is it wrong to say that about myself? lol! i used to always be the team mom for the girls soccer teams. then i took a few years off. there's definately more to this all-star organizing stuff. which is why i appreciate the title of "team manager". or maybe that's not even what i'm called. maybe joe just told me that, so that i would do the job. lol! all i know is, it's keeping me busy. the things we do for our kids, right 😉

and i should add that alyssa was going to try out for all-stars too, and i have a feeling she would have made it. but she wanted to try out for high school soccer, and knew it would conflict. she's in the middle of their conditioning period right now, and has tryouts in a few weeks. wishing her all the luck in the world!
quick and easy two page layouts + giveaway winner

January 21, 2011

i want to thank you all for the great organizing tips for the giveaway. i loved reading through them all. i would be thinking "yep, i do it that way too", or "hmmm, hadn't thought about that". lol! so, onto the winner of the organized and insired scrapbooker idea book, from creating keepsakes. my random number generator thingie, choose #45. congratuations to misty! and it just so happens, that i agree with everything she suggested. that's exactly how i roll too.

When I finish a layout, it goes straight into the album. The album actually sits on my desk so it's easy to slip right in. I also scrap what I feel at the moment. I used to get caught up on staying chronological. This took that stress away. I also clean up after every project when it's complete. I think it gives me permission to start the next project. 🙂
Posted by: Misty Woerner | January 18, 2011 at 12:18 AM

i intended to do another organizing post this week. but i never quite got around to taking any photos of anything having to do with organization. so, that will have to wait. i decided to go with the two page theme that is going on over on the pebbles blog this week.

i just recently created quite a few new two page layouts, with MUCH older photos. the photos on these two layouts were from 2002. look how little the girls are. and the two blonde girlies were my very first daycare kiddos. our two families went camping together for a few days, and these photos were from that trip.

i had actually started some layouts with these photos, years ago. so long ago, that the layouts were in creative memories albums. which i havn't used in about 8 years, at least. i had trimmed the photos, including cropping some into ovals and circles. and they were adhered to the white pages of the album, with a few scrap pieces of pattern paper scattered about. that's all i had done. i LOVE finding layouts like those, with good photos, that remind me of great times.

this layout has all my favorite photos from the campsite. and when i do find photos like these, i love to get reprints made (so that they're a bit lighter), and start fresh with new layouts. i kept these layouts really simple. so simple, that they would take no more than 30-45 minutes to create. i started by arranging the photos, trimming little bits here and there, until they fit into a nice collage. this is sort of the same idea i used when i created my pebbles layout i shared on tuesday.

once the photos were arranged the way i wanted them, i cut strips and blocks of pattern paper to fill up the rest of the pages. i used the october afternoon campfire collection for all my papers. i added a chipboard title, and some letter stickers for the date.

the only other thing i really did on this layout, was to add these pattern paper covered chipboard circles. i used the same pattern paper for each section i was doing, and punched circles from both the paper and some extra chipboard. i adhered them together, and then inked the edges with some brown ink. just a really simple way to add a little something to your layout.

this layout is about our "beach". honestly, it wasn't really a beach. more of a spot down by the edge of the river. with a lot of dirt and mud. but to the girls, it was all the beach they needed. this layout had a lot more photos. i started with even more, but managed to dwindle them down to these twelve. a lot of these photos were taken from farther away, so i had a lot more room to crop them down.

almost all the products on this layout are from the little yellow bicycle boardwalk collection (except the title letters). which is one way to almost guarantee yourself a 30-45 minute layout. i used two sheets of pattern paper, both cut into a smaller strip and a larger strip. a canvas border, cut into 2 pieces. some 3 dimensional stickers, regular paper stickers, chipboard stickers, and some word strip stickers.

nine of my photos were cropped down to 3.5" squares. i did adhere a few of these with pop dots, just to add some interest to the pages.

i also used pop dots on the canvas border pieces. it make it really easy to tuck the stickers under the waves of the border piece.

i have learned that not every page has to take forever to plan or put together. some of my most simple layouts, end up being some of my favorites. it might be because the simple design can often let the photos and the story stand out more.

then again, i love adding all the fun extras to layouts. and taking the time to do some extra techniquey stuff. what can i say? i like to have the best of both styles of scrapbooking 🙂
what’s in my storage cubes

January 19, 2011

since it's all about organization on the creating keepsakes blog this week, i thought i would do a post or two about it as well. i wish i was prepared enough to do a huge video tour of my scraproom, or type up a huge post on every nook and cranny. the fact is, i'm not that prepared. maybe someday 😉

excuse the mess that you see above. this is a rather neat version, of what my scraproom has looked like the last few weeks. there is a TON of creativeness going on in there, with CHA stuff 🙂 anyways. a couple of months ago, i moved my desk over in my scraproom. it had been in the middle of the room, and i sat with my back to the window. it was a tight fit, moving around that desk. so i finally tried turning it to the side, so that it comes out from the window. i LOVE it.

edited to add: i've gotten a ton of emails in the last day about my desk. so i thought i would share where i got it. i ordered it online from target, and you can see the info HERE.

the bonus to moving the desk, is that it freed up a little bit of wall space. my two main walls are taken up with my ikea expedit shelves. one wall has a closet. and the other is mostly all window. so even just the tiniest amount of extra wall space was huge to me. i wanted something that wasn't too high, since the window is pretty low. these storage cubes ended up working perfectly. i picked up four of them, and spent forever putting them together. seriously. they took forever and a day to assemble.

i really don't have that many drawers in my scraproom. it's more baskets, bins, and jars. so the drawers were really appealing to me. my first thought was to make this sort of a "techniquey" area. a spot where i could keep all things technique related. all the messy stuff. i ended up working some other things in here too, since these drawers ended up holding much more than i thought they would.

i thought i would let you peek into my storage cubes, to see how i ended up organizing them. these are from left to right, from top to bottom.

what a great start. an empty drawer. lol! i still can't decide what i want to put in there. in the drawer on the right, i have blank cards and some envelopes.

on the left, i have more envelopes. and on the right, are all my finished cards. i have never had a good spot to store the cards i create, and they fit perfect in these drawers.

the drawer on the left holds all my misting sprays. i know what you're thinking. "we've never seen you mist anything". lol! i'm getting there people. trust me. in the right drawer, i have all my bottles of glitter and stickles. i have this huge adversion to glitter, and yet i own a huge amount of it. it's because it's so stinkin pretty!

the drawer on the left holds all my pop dots. i keep telling you all that i'm addicted to pop dots, and this proves it! the drawer on the right holds a portion of my adhesive. i actually have 2 large drawers in the closet that have adhesive too. you can never have enough. and yet, oddly enough, i'm always running out of glue dots. go figure.

this drawer has some roller stamps from stampin up, magnetic stamps from making memories, and some other random stamps. honestly, i can't remember the last time i have used any of these.

i ended up with three drawers on ink pads. so i'm really not sure why i stuffed so much in this drawer, when the other two aren't that full. this holds my distressing inks, acrylic blocks, super old tiny bazzill inks, and some other random ink pads.

this drawer holds my embossing powders, versamark ink, and heat tools.

another drawer of ink pads.

this drawer holds all my chalk. some of this is really old chalk, and some is newer pebbles chalk. i have the little pompom things to apply chalk, some chalking templates, and some colored pencils.

this last drawer holds all my stampin up ink pads. on the left side of this drawer, is a little clear plastic divided tray. i found these at target, and have them in a few drawers. an easy way to keep the smaller things in the drawer from getting lost.

on top of the storage cubes, i have this wicker basket. i have been tossing newer embellishments and goodies in there, that i have received, and don't want to forget about. right now, i have a lot of studio calico, jenni bowlin, pink paislee, and october afternoon in there. the nice thing, is that i HAVE been using this stuff. way more often than if i had tucked it all away on my expedit shelves.

i also have one of the making memories carousel's. the one on my desk holds all my tools and some adhesives. this one is more for random embellishments that just don't have a home yet. or havn't made it to where they belong. or things i want to use, and not forget about. just a random mix of product.

and there you have it. most of the stuff in these drawers had been in my closet. so i didn't always think to use it all. i'm really liking having things out. even though they're still tucked in drawers, they come to mind a lot more now and i love that i'm using them again.
game time – a pebbles layout

January 18, 2011

it's "make mine a double" week on the pebbles blog this week. it's all about two page layouts.

i decided to pull out a bunch of photos of alyssa and sarah, playing the Wii and their nintendo's. these are all from 2009. they were taken at all different times during the year. and at some point, i realized how many photos like this i had. i think it's fun to pull photos from different months, or even years, and tie them together onto a layout.

i started with all 4×6 photos, and just trimmed them until they fit into a fun collage. i added in some blocks of pattern paper to fill in the spaces, so that both sides of the layout were balanced. i used pattern paper from a few different pebbles collections, and also used some solid cardstock from the backsides of the pattern paper.

i have recently taken out my sewing machine, to try machine stitching on my layouts. i bought a pretty nice sewing machine, about four or five years ago. with the intention of using it on my scrapbook projects. not on actual material. lol! i used it all of two times, and then it got put away. i am loving using it on my layouts. my straight stitching leaves something to be desired. lol! but i have mastered the zigzag stitch, which is my favorite. not necessarily on this layout though. you can see where the machine skipped some stitches here. just pretend that was meant to happen 😉

then i worked on adding things to the blocks of paper. my journaling went in that bottom square of green cardstock. i dug out some american crafts chipboard frames to mix into my accent clusters. i added some paper flowers, chipboard flowers, brads, candy dots, and folded ribbon strips.

i used some letter stickers for my title, along the bottom. when i trimmed my photos, i went a little short on the second page of my spread. so i cut a thin strip of green cardstock, and used a border punch along it. just enough to fill in that small gap along the edge.

make sure and check out the pebbles blog all this week, to see what other fun two page layouts the other design team girl's have created. and just a head's up. they will be revealing the new collections on the blog, starting next monday. i got a small peek at them today, and it's some fabulous stuff!

and really quickly, i wanted to add a reminder about the giveaway on the post below. and to remind you to check out the CK editor's blog today, for day two of organization week. today is all about fun products to help you organize your scrapspace. have i mentioned that i LOVE looking at how other's organize their spaces? yes, i do believe i have mentioned that 😉
the organized & inspired scrapbooker – a CK giveaway

January 17, 2011

creating keepsakes has a new book out right now, called the organized & inspired scrapbooker. and let me tell you, it's a gorgeous book!

i'm a huge sucker for organization. and organizing scrapbooking supplies is one of my favorite things to organize. it's also a necessity. it's so easy to become overwhelmed and buried in pattern paper, stickers, and photos. and all the other goodies that we use to preserve our memories. which is why i feel it's so important to stay organized, and come up with a plan for what works for you and the scrap space that you're working with.

and this book is full of great ideas and tips. it originally came out a few years ago, and was a hardcover book. just in case a few of you think it might look a bit familiar 😉 there are 176 pages, filled with ideas. everything from finding your organizing style, organizing your supplies and tools, finding a system for your photo storage, organizing memorabilia, and so much more. and lots of photos of all different kinds of scraproom and studios.

here's a peek into a few pages from the book.

http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&documentId=110114182832-d724e445c50945bbbd331bd8e4bb27ef&docName=laois-sneak_sm&username=CKEditorial&loadingInfoText=The%20Organized%20and%20Inspired%20Scrapbooker&et=1295030327115&er=14

if you're thinking about ordering a copy of this gorgeous book, i have a coupon code to share with you. it's the same one that i mentioned last week, for the digital book. just use coupon code DS25DT, to get free shipping on orders of $25 or more (expires 2/11/11).

and creating keepsakes has provided me with a copy of the organized and inspired scrapbooker to give away to one lucky blog reader. all you need to do, is leave me a comment, telling me one simple organizing tip. i'll leave comments open until thursday night, and will announce a winner on friday morning.

and to go along with this theme, i also wanted to share that it is organization week (click to see what they have planned for the week) over on the CK editors blog, as well as the CK club site. check back in each day to see what they have going on.

today, on the CK blog, you'll find all sorts of tips and ideas for storing scrapbooking tools. i think i even spotted a few storage tips from my own scraproom 😉 i have a few storage and organization posts planned for this week too.
giveaway winner + sneak peeks

January 15, 2011

first up, i had a layout up on the pebbles blog yesterday. a pretty simple layout, with super old photos of the girls.

i used a mix of pattern papers from the new arrival boy collection, the twitterpated collection, and the treehouse collection. i layered together flower stickers, chipboard flowers, and paper flowers, and made the stem from folded ribbon. and i did some fun machine stitching. i can't stop using the sewing machine on my layouts, now that i finally learned to use it 🙂

i had fun reading all your comments on the digital scrapping. sounds like some of you are dabbling in digital, some are curious about digital, and some are loyal to their paper. lol! i used the random number generator to choose a winner. the lucky one that will receive a copy of the best of digital scrapbooking is:

Hybrid scrapper..although I am really loving the digital world these days!!
Posted by: Kelly C January 11, 2011 at 9:10am

congrats kelly! email me your mailing address, and i'll have a copy mailed out to you. and i wanted to point out a few sneak peeks at new products coming out at CHA. which is in just TWO WEEKS. and yes, i'm going. can't wait! first, i have to work my creative tush off, to get all these projects done for the booths. lol! anyways. there are peeks going up at tons of sites and blogs, and they're so fun to watch for. i wish i could link them all. but here's two manufacturers that i wanted to mention today:

there have been a few peeks on the jillibean soup blog this week. they have shared spotted owl soup, blossom soup, and dutch mustard soup (giveaway open until monday morning).

found a little peek on the bella blvd blog yesterday, sharing a fun look at the family dynamix collection (giveaway open until monday morning).
framed flower art tutorial

January 13, 2011

i created these framed flower art projects about 6 months ago for a tutorial on little light studio. it never quite made it up onto the site, before kayla aimee delivered her precious baby girl at just 26 weeks. she's been devoting her every second to helping her daughter fight for her life. it's an amazing story to follow, and things are looking so good for them right now.

i figured i would go ahead and share my little tutorial here on my blog.

i have had these framed pieces in the girls bathroom for years. eight years, to be exact. it was time for a change. they're cute. but the colors have gotten brighter and funner in their bathroom, as they have gotten older. and i wanted something to match that. the frames are good, solid, wood frames. there are four frames in the set, and they are about 11 inches x 11 inches in size.

i picked out some pattern papers that match the colors in the girls bathroom. the colors here look a little light. they're actually nice, bright shades of turquoise, orange, pink, and green. i choose pretty basic patterns, that wouldn't stand out all that much. i also dug out these older chipboard flowers from fancy pants. they're large flowers, that were a perfect fit for the inside part of each frame.

if you have a regular frame, you would simply open up the backing, and take out the matboard that comes in the frame. these were prints that i had purchased at a store years ago, so they had a paper backing on the frames. i sliced into the paper, and peeled it all off from the edges of the frame. then i got to the staples that hold the matboard in place. i did my best to lift them up carefully, so that i would be able to use them to hold my finished project in place when i was done.

i cut a piece of white cardstock, to fit the center part of my matboard. then i cut my pattern paper to fit the outside part of the matboard. to cut out the center piece of the pattern paper, i just measure how far from the edges i need to cut. so on this, my pattern paper was 10×10 inches. and i needed to go in two inches from each side. so i cut out an 8×8 piece of the pattern paper from the center. then i adhered both the pattern paper and the cardstock to the matboard. measure, trim, and glue for the other three frames 🙂

next, i picked out four different acrylic paints. one to match each of the patterned papers. i used a foam brush to paint the chipboard flowers. i didn't spend too much time on this. didn't even paint the edges of the flower petals. two coats of paint gave good coverage.

next up, i choose four colors of embroidery floss, to match the chipboard flowers. one shade lighter or darker than your paint works best.

not sure why i keep showing three of the sets. there are four total. lol!

then i simply wrapped the floss around the flower petals, over and over. no need to overthink it, or make it too perfect. just randomly wrap, back and forth, along each petal. until it looks good to your eye. then move on to the next petal. when i was finished, i just taped the end of the floss to the back of the flower. looking back at this pink flower, i should have wrapped it around that center part as well. same with the turquoise flower. oh well.

here's the orange flower.

i think the green flower was my favorite.

after i had wrapped each of the flowers with the floss, i adhered them to the coordinating matboard. i used 3-D squishy pop dots to stick them down, since they're super strong, and sort of mold over all the string to give good coverage.

then i cleaned the glass on each frame, added the matboard, and secured them with the staples in the back of the frame.

the girls bathroom is terrible for taking photos. and small. i tried, but i just couldn't get a good photo of these in the bathroom. but trust me, they're super cute in there. i hung them just like you see here. two on top, and two on the bottom. but i spaced them all about an inch apart.

this was a pretty effortless and fun project. i love when i can re-purpose things around my house, and give them new life.
vonhof christmas 2010

January 12, 2011

i figured since christmas was almost three weeks ago, i should maybe post a few photos. we celebrated with my family on christmas day, at my parent's house. and then with joe's family, the following day, at our house. these photos are all from my family's celebration.

two things that i have to mention about these photos. i know i shared a few christmas layouts, in the weeks before the holiday. and i know i mentioned a few times, about people wearing colors that don't coordinate, or aren't christmas colors. which then causes me to use black and white photos on my layouts. well, i'm not sure if some of the family happen to read my little blog. but most everyone wore christmas colors. although sarah's wearing her blue hoodie up there, she did have on the proper colors underneath. i know, that was random.

the other thing, is that my photos look a heck of a lot sharper and have a richer color on my computer. typepad is messing with them on here, and i'm too lazy to figure it out. just imagine them with a little more "pop" 🙂 onto the quick recap.

my cousin brad and his wife issa. who are parents to the adorable zachary, who we're lucky enough to have in our daycare. we all adore him.

alyssa, giving me her trademark "cheesy" smile, as we call it. anytime i turn the camera on her, this is what she does.

oh wait. i think sarah's smile is even cheesier. lol! and she always wears the santa hat, when we're passing out gifts.

my aunt sandy, who is zachary's grandma. and seriously? how cute does he look here? the way he has his hands folded together, and his feet crossed. precious.

alyssa and my mom. her grandma. although i'm sure you put that one together.

my dad. that's a total "flash" photo. sorry, dad. lol!

this little dude did so great all day. just wandered all over the place, picking up things to carry around until he found something better.

sarah and joe. i have to mention that he got this sweater on christmas morning. when he saw the green, he said "is this my new christmas sweater?". then he opened up a brown long sleeved shirt, and said "this must be my thanksgiving shirt". he says things like that, because i always pick out his shirts for holidays. lol!

my aunt vicky. she was a little miffed when she got coffee for the pick-a-gift game. but once she swiped some candy from someone else, all was good again 🙂

i'm pretty sure these slippers were one of alyssa's favorite gifts. along with the matching pajama pants. the girls both got a few sets, and wear them as soon as they get home from school.

my brother scott, and his wife kathy. kathy's mom was also with us that day, but i can't find a photo of her.

my parents got this good electric toothbrush set for the girls. the first night they used it, sarah put the toothpaste on and started it up. and the toothpaste flew right off the brush. it was pretty funny. always turn it on IN your mouth.

can't forget my parents cocker spaniel, jenny. sadly, alyssa is super allergic to dogs. so she usually has a hard time at my parents, no matter how much we love jenny.

but she tried taking some new allergy medicine, and it seemed to work pretty well. only downside, is that she was super, duper tired all day. just wasn't herself. so she spent a lot of time reading.

zachary loved the dessert.

he also loves his mommy 🙂

no idea what this was about. but it cracks me up. lol!

and our last minute attempt at a familiy photo, before we left. none of them were fully in focus. sorry sarah, but you're a little blurry here.

that's about all i have photo-wise. it was a lovely christmas. there was great food, yummy desserts, gifts galore, and good conversation. what more could we ask for.

recent posts

about