Baby, it's COLD outside!

Merry Christmas!!

Zoe (Ali's Dog) under our Christmas tree!!

Maggie & Luke by the tree.

Our bible study group singing songs to their parents.

Candy cane Christmas cookies!

Lovely

Working on the 'family calendar' and this is the February bday page....

Supplies by Greener Grass Designs, Love Hearts.

One More Layout...

Guess I'm on a roll today! HA! Products by Greener Grass Designs!!

Love Hearts, Snowscape-Snowflakes.

Some images from our "Harvest Party." Maggie, Hannah & Mia always have a great time having their photos taken. The kids all had a lot of fun! I didn't get many photos of all the other kids--there were 13 of them partying in all!!

Luke with Noah & Elijah, all dressed up for fun!!

Supplies for this project included Subtle Memories & Beach Bliss from Greener Grass Designs along with J. Sprague 5 x 7 frame & K. Pertiet Happy Words.

Late

The kids really enjoyed the leaves this year and the colors were breathtaking!

Supplies used from "Happy Fall" by Greener Grass Designs. Want to explore Christina's great designs? Click on the "Greener Grass Designs" box!

Harvest Party!

We had a little UN-Halloween or "Harvest" party on Sunday. Maggie dressed as a dog.

Luke was a LEGO guy!

Our Vacation

So, this is how we all felt before we left...crazed & busy! We rented a cabin (same one as last year) for 3 days on Lake Michigan.

Maggie posing for a photo op at the beach. It was cold, as you can probably see from her sweatshirt, but we still had a great time in the sand!

Maggie building a sand something or another...she and Luke played forever and built a whole city.

My handsome Luke!

We are funny people!

This picture makes me laugh--we took a whole series of 'jumping' shots and this was probably the best. The rest were funny b/c one of them would be jumping and the other not.

We drove to Ludington one day to visit the sand dunes and picked up some ice cream cones on the way back 'home.'

Luke saying goodbye to the beach. This was the day the temps reached 80 and we could have swam, but we had to be checked out early. Bummer!

What a beautiful day and a fun vacation!

One More Layout...

Ali had me take some extra senior photos for her when she was here. Maggie was along with us and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to take some pics together! They were having a good ol' time making faces.

Greener Grass Designs

Here I am (finally) with another layout for Christina's creative team (Greener Grass Designs). I'm thankful for her creativity and designs, it helps spark my brain and get it into creating mode.

The kids enjoyed helping Dad build a tree fort in the side area of our property! They love that fort and spend so much time out there. Okay, till next time....

New Car

By request, here is a pic of my new car!

Monarch

Here is a page I created for our fun Monarch Release!

Subtle Memories

A layout I created this evening with the beautiful Subtle Memories kit from Greener Grass Designs.

Monarch Release

Our friend, Tracie and her girls have been watching the life cycle of monarchs up close. They provided us with 3 caterpillars and we were able to watch the metamorphosis in action! Today, 2 of them hatched and we released them. What an experience. Thanks, Tracie!

God's creation is sooo ultra amazing. I couldn't believe how quickly they came out of their chrysalis this morning. Their wings were all rumpled and small looking but within a few minutes, they were all pumped up with fluid. If you have never witnessed this amazing transformation, I would recommend doing so!

County Fair

We made the deadline this year and entered some projects in the Fair. Here is Maggie with her drawing of Koko, above her head. She participated thru Cloverbuds, where they receive participation ribbons, no judging.

Here she is with her photo of Koko that she titled, "Shame Dog in Sunlight

."

Luke entered pencil drawing (behind him on the table) and rec'd a white ribbon for his entry.

His Lego Spaceship received a blue ribbon! He was really excited about that!! It's the long ship in the background.

And, his photograph of Koko also earned him a blue! We are very proud of both of them!!

Lift

Jesse had to rent a lift for some painting he was working on. These are pics with Jesse and his brother, Alex painting waaaaaay up there.

Cool guys! Our friend, Russ went up in the lift with Jesse the day before. And, Jesse's Dad was working off ladders on a different section. We were thankful for the help on such a big job!

Soccer Camp

Soccer Camp was fun for the kids. It was 2.5 hours/day for 5 days. They were exhausted by the last b/c of the heat! Luke having a blast!!

Maggie had to have some shorts from Justice that were 'sporty' as she called it!

Layout #2 for Greener Grass Designs. This one took me a while to pull together for some reason. I love all the bright colors, tho! I can't wait to get to the beach this Summer!

Greener Grass Designs

My friend, Christina, has her own digital scrapbooking product line! She sells thru Little Dreamer Designs (www.littledreamerdesigns.com). I have recently joined her Creative Team, so you will be seeing some of my digital scrapbooking with her digi goodness! And, I have to tell you--she was published in the July/August issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine--not just one layout, but two!! Congrats, Christina and keep up the great work!

after

This is the finished product (which I LOVE!). It was mainly the work of my Mom & Jesse (I just managed to shoot glue on the ceiling, hee hee) and I am impressed by their skills!!!

before

I purchased this chair from a dear friend with plans to reupholster it. Maggie wanted to be the 'chair model.'

It's Been Awhile

Maggie!

Maggie with Dad on Father's Day

Luke with Dad on Father's Day

Putt Putt was the order of the day on Sunday, gorilla and all!! I think Luke is stealing the poor gorilla's banana.