rogue gypsies

rogue gypsies

i like a good laugh as well as the next person, maybe even better than the next person. needless to say, i loved the provo craft promo videos for their new tool, the gypsy. beyond the wildly funny videos, i knew very little about the new product. i knew it was hand held, stored tons of info from cricut cartridges and had some design capabilities. after meeting with several execs from provo craft yesterday afternoon, i am thrilled see this baby come out. like all good things, one must wait a bit to get your hands on one (november). but until then, i wrote up all of the info they passed on to me in my scrap review interview with them yesterday. check it out here.

Letterpress LOVE

Letterpress Love

my cha pick of the day!!!






check out more info on my quick initial report over at the scrap review.

i'm away at CHA

while i'm away checking out all of the new fabulously amazing new products at CHA (Craft & Hobby Asso. Trade Show), check out the scrap review for reports along the way!

lining up ducks

lining up ducks

i'm heading out tomorrow morning at 3:30am for CHA. today i've been {sort of} frantically trying to get everything done that needed to be done before i left finished. i think i'm nearly there... or at least all that will be done before i leave anyway.

anyway, emma helped me put together this little notepad for scribbling reports about all of the fabulous goodness on the CHA floor. check for tons of reports flowing in on the scrap review as soon as the show opens!

smells like tween spirit

smells like tween spirit

oi! how is it that no matter how much you savor the moment, it still seems to fly by? another mom moment today... i was walking through target with the girls and one of their friends. there was a lot of girlie giggling about some little boy who kept making faces at them. so i'm picking up a little bottle of travel shampoo and torrey mentioned that she thought she needed some deodorant. i assured her she didn't... but she offered for me to do a smell test. UM, YAH... she needed deodorant! how weird is it that a flood of feelings came over me, thinking how much changed in just the blink of an eye. it seems like it's just the gateway into a whole new part of her little life. but being there in with three giggling girls did help me keep myself pulled together enough to help her pick out some asian pear scented secret deodorant.

when we got home the two of us walked the yard and talked about growing up stuff. crazy how-am-i-already-at-this-point stuff and cute little things too. she said, "i'm going to have to start thinking about different kinds of christmas presents now. do you think a purse is a sensible gift for a girl my age?" that's my girl. :)

she seems to be taking it all in stride. today, at least!

i saved the news for her to tell stan when he got home from work. i seriously think he choked up when he heard the news. why is it that there just seems to be this intrinsic understanding that this is the beginning of many changes to come? such a silly thing. deodorant. who knew? stan just sat and hugged her for several minutes. it's kinda choking me up typing this. just a sweet moment to watch & ponder.

yes, i did get a picture of her with her little bottle of deodorant... but promised her i wouldn't post it online. :)

seize the day! life flies by faster than we expect it.

my buddy & me

my buddy & me

so i've got that "my buddy" commercial running through my mind right now. if you were a product of the 80's you're pretty likely to know the one i'm talking about. not that it has much to do with anything, i just wanted to pass on one of those songs that can get stuck in your head all day. (you're welcome!) lol.

anyway, yesterday we had a bunch of kiddos over for some more slip & sliding fun. (my sis & her kids and our fabulous friends, the fuentes family). anyway, my nephew aaron is autistic. so he needs a lot of extra tlc. he doesn't talk much (and then usually only when prompted). and that white thing on his ankle is a tracking bracelet for search & rescue to find him if he escapes. aaron is one of those super sweet kids who just cracks you up without saying a word. emma decided she was going to help keep aaron in sight & show him how to use the slip & slide. they were buddied up the entire time the kids were outside. it was so sweet to watch. i wish i'd caught the moment just a second or two before this picture. they were both just standing there with their arms around each other. so so sweet. :)

this afternoon we tried out a new hairdo on emma just for kicks. a few months ago we watched a youtube video on the bumpit. being the handy girls we are, we did a little research on how to do it ourselves. which pretty much just involved a lot of teasing. well, we figured we'd give a little bump a try today just for kicks. and darn if it didn't make her look way too grown up! i, in turn, got my hair done by emma. too bad i didn't get a picture of it... she said, "oooo! it looks like fireworks on your head!" i'll leave it to the imagination! lol.

falling in love all over again

falling in love all over again

so i was browsing the blog of the amazingly talented moon ko the other day. while falling in love all over again with her beautifully simple graphic style i ran across a line of digital stuff that i love. i've looked through their stuff before, but in my sort of vast collection of favorites, paislee press had been placed somewhere on the back burner. all that to say, it was a day full of falling in love all over again. and the happy as a lark kit, seemed to fit perfectly with a painting emma did with stan's mom while we were on vacation (and some of the papers from the oh happy day mini kit). just love rediscovering inspiration!

wandering around & home again

wandering around & home again

ahhhh! back home again. after a fabulous two week vacation, we're home again and getting back into the swing of things. we rolled in to some fabulous weather, and have been enjoying eating outside. today we ran around doing all of those post vacation errands that come up. you know, little things like having food in the house and stuff like that. :)

also a quick trip to gymboree to redeem my gymbucks. i heart 50% off cute stuff, like this super cute coat. i'm hoping the size 12 will clearance out & i can pick one up for myself. it's a sickness, i know! lol. they were nice enough to hold some stuff for me while i was heading back from vacation. {have i mentioned how much i love the staff in that store?!}

and yesterday was all about catching up on household things. i'd like to say i am now caught up on all of my laundry, but sadly, i haven't even started it! yah, i'm still THAT girl. did get a scrapping assignment done, though. but stan got the yard looking amazing. he's pretty darn fantastic that way (and every other way)! so after a long hard day of catching up, a soak in the hot tub was in order.

i'll work backwards through the last week of vacation to try and catch up. we drove through the night on the way home, picking up a fair amount of the insect population from wyoming, montana, idaho and washington along the way. we used to make this 18 hour drive driving through the night every year... but i think we're getting a little too old for that, because poor stan is still trying to recover from it!

along the way home we drive back through grand teton national park & yellowstone. we stopped at brooks lake near towgotee pass to check out the view there too. not too shabby to have to drive through such amazing country to get home. :) the rest of day 11 pictures are here.

on our last full day at the ranch we went on a hike up to split rock & and an old abandoned logging cabin. the girls had never been up there, so it was a lot fun showing them the places stan used to hike as a kid. {the ranch has been in stan's family for 5 generations now. it's awesome to have a place where the whole family can get together from all over the country.} the rest of the album from this day is here: day 10 album.

day 9 of vacation was spent tooling around the lake and taking the girls horseback riding. emma rode rusty, who is now 38, and was the same horse stan learned to ride on as a little kid. how cool is that?! the rest of the day 9 pics are here.

grandpa gene (stan's dad) is such a good grandpa... or grandpappy, as we like to call him. the girls "did his hair" for him several times on the trip. the giggling could be heard from all around. :) we spent the day fishing, playing horse shoes & shooting. (a man's dream day!) the rest of the day 8 pictures are here.

ahhh! the first full day at the ranch! lots of r&r was in order. kicking back, doing some fishing, visiting with the family. all around peaceful day (and only a few pictures to show for it.)

torrey in front of the torrey lake ranch sign. can you guess where we got her name? we headed out from yellowstone on day 6 and drove down, through teton national park, to the ranch. man, those tetons just come out of nowhere at you. simply amazing to marvel at God's creation! the rest of the pictures of day 6 are here.

so that's it! two weeks of fabulous summer vacationing. we couldn't have asked for a better trip. i'm looking forward to a nice week at home in the sun before heading out on saturday to c.h.a. happy monday (the last few minutes of it, anyway!)

**please forgive the overuse of the words ahhh & fabulous. :)**

america's first national park

yellowstone
america's first national park

ok, dumb title, i know! but i'm typing this as i race against the clock for our check out time here at the yellowstone koa. we're heading down to see stan's family for a week of unplugged time at their ranch in wyoming. i had a bunch of pictures i wanted to post, but dang that time running out! so instead, i am gonna post my pics of the day, and link to albums with the pictures on them. day 1: we stopped at the lewis & clark caverns in montana a couple of hours north of yellowstone. we've driven by them tons of times, but have never stopped. they were so dang cool! click here for day one album.

day 2: we hiked the geyser basin and caught this very cool site of old faithful lit by the sun with the storm clouds in the distance. amazing. click here for day two album.

day 3: we hiked the grand canyon of yellowstone. we started at the north rim and hiked all the way to artists point on the south rim. spectacular! really makes you feel just how small you are in the grand scheme of things. click here to see day three album.

day 4: we took a bike ride & hike to fairy falls. all i can say is WOW! we were blessed by a secluded little place where we could picnic and play in the cold water. click here for day four album.

day 5: we hit west thumb geyser basin, fishing bridge & rented a boat on yellowstone lake - all things we'd never done in the park before. click here to see day five album.

i better get off the computer before we get charged for an extra day here! lol. we're now heading down to dubois, wyoming for a week with stan's family. i'm sure i'll have a zillion pictures to post as soon as i'm back to an internet connection. have a fabulous week!

one crazy awesome week

one crazy awesome week

birthdays, parties, holidays, celebrations, visitors, fun & vacation

holy moly! it's been one crazy week of fun and business. so i'm going to do a little backwards recap of the week as i type this from a hotel in montana on our way to yellowstone. stan got a new truck last week to replace our minivan. he's feeling very manly now. lol. so we got our annual pre-trip picture with the car all packed and ready to go. i will say, i am liking how little it makes the girls look. :)

we had some old friends visit for the weekend from out of state & brought their four sweet little darlings with them. this was our first time meeting their youngest two. tons of fun, lots of laughs & bbq'ing. the kids all bunked out in torrey's room (except baby maximus). i'm pretty sure they didn't get to sleep before 11:30pm any of the nights. too much giggling going on.

i got some runky red streaks put in last week too. just to change things up a bit for fun. we spent the 4th of july at a big bbq at the fuentes family's house. i think it's our first year we haven't camped there too. (just too much stuff to try to squeeze that in too). next year! they, of course, know how to throw a fabulous party. tons of families, fireworks and celebration of our great country.



on friday, after the jewetts rolled into town, we all turned around and went right to a wbc staff reunion bbq. the kids put away some hot dogs and hamburgers while the grown ups visited. it's always fun to see lots of families and kids you don't get to see very often all playing together. emmy, the jewett's youngest girl, was so dang cute sporting her little jane fonda 'do...

i loved that we had all of the party bag making supplies on hand at home! hurray for scrapbook supplies & lunch bags!

on thursday, we had back to back parties. from 12-3pm we had a bunch of fabulous 4th graders over for torrey's 9th birthday. i'm not really sure how she's 9 years old now, but she assures me she is! lol. we made a homemade 50' slip & slide out of clear vinyl, and a soaker hose, and had it going down one of the hills in our backyard. we even grabbed a couple of bottles of baby oil to really make sure they'd fly down the slip & slide. the girls had a blast, and went home with oily, grassy bodies... hopefully with not too many bruises to remember the day. :)

then after a quick clean up we had a 60th anniversary party for my grandma & grandpa. how cool is that? 60 years! the whole family was there. they brought their high school year books (yes, they started "going together" in high school) and their albums of pictures. we all took turns looking through the pictures while they told us stories about them. what an amazing legacy... plus they're just so darn cute. darn that none of the pictures turned out well. when we get back from vacation, i'd really like to do some portrait shots of the two of them. just a reminder of the blessing they are.

ooo! stan also took down a beehive that morning, i've got a couple of pictures of that, but i'll have to post them later. i'm trying to be speedy so we can get back on the road, and i may get in trouble if i take too much longer. lol.

wednesday, we spent the entire day running around trying to get all of the last minute things done before the parties & company came in... then we bought the truck. i'd left my camera at home, and it was the first day i nearly missed getting a shot for project 365. but as we tucked the girlies into bed, i snapped one of torrey's last day of being 8. loving her big eyes & silly look.

on tuesday the fuentes family came over for some relaxing fun in the sun. the kids played in the hose while jennifer and i visited. man, time gets so busy sometimes. when the kids were littler we would get together 3-4 days a week in the summer... now we're lucky if we get a couple of times a month in. thank goodness for good friendships that can handle the ups and downs and time constraints of real life.


there it was... a quick (or maybe not so quick) recap of our crazy week of fun. i better get this posted so we can get back on the road for our crazy week of vacation madness. hope you are having a fabulous summer! {{hugs}}

he loves me...

he loves me...

oi! i'm a little behind on getting my pictures up and going. we've had a crazy busy week, with a few more packed days ahead... then VACATION! woohoo! anyway, to catch up on the past few days. (i still am uploading today's pictures.) yesterday torrey walked the yard with me in the evening after a full day of work, dropping off scrappy projects & a little party at torrey's friend's house. we just chit chatted and took a couple of pictures by these pretty pink flowers in our yard. they look so bright next to the pale sage leaves and stems. anyway, she started picking daisies and doing the he loves me... he loves me not. and man, that was just too darn cute to pass up. :)

she stopped to smell the flowers

then cracked up laughing because it suctioned to her nose. :)

and speaking of "he loves me" who wouldn't be thrilled to be loved by a handsome guy like this? at least he loves his veggies! hee hee

over the weekend we camped with a family we know from the girls' school. we had a blast, of course. torrey did some fishing with stan. it was kind of windy, so mostly they caught rocks and seaweed.
emma and i went for a little hike together saturday afternoon and found this very cool shaped tree that she climbed. later that night she climbed another tree that she slid down and ended up with a fat lip. poor little girlie.




hope you're having a fabulous week. we're getting ready to celebrate torrey's birthday & my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary this week. we're also having some friends stay with us from out of state before we leave. so we've got a super fun busy week ahead.