Family photo at Wheeler Farm

We just spent a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in SLC with my mom, my brother and his dear wife and little Sawyer and Ryans nanna. We had such an enjoyable time together. It could have only have been better if my sister and her family could have joined us and of course if 'dad' could of been there (in person). Since my family was all together (which seems kinda rare these days) I wanted to take a family picture. Ryan did a great job of taking pictures of us. We spent quite a while over at Wheeler Farm the morning of Thanksgiving while the turkey was in the oven. Here are a couple of family shots that were taken.

More Art Work

Here are a few more pieces of work I did for the Making Memories Idol contest. I have to apologize for the quality of photos. The pictures seem a bit blurry....can I blame that on the camera and computer?? :) Hope you can see them good enough. The first three pictures are of a cookie sheet magnetic calendar (idea was found in a Somerset Studio publication). The last three pictures were I believe for a "card making party". Calendar details

more details

**I know, I know....I spelled 'your' wrong and put
in an apostrophe. Just ignore that OK. :)

Artwork and SU Convention

I just came home from 4 wonderful fun filled days of Stampin Up's annual convention. I have been with SU for about 16 years now and I believe this was my 14th convention. This is one of those events I absolutely hate to miss and look forward to every year! It is so fun to get together with ole' friends from all over and to meet new ones. I honestly hate to leave when it is time to go, I just wish the fun could last at least a week. I really wish we could get together a few times a year and just chat, share ideas and of course STAMP!!! So, hopefully, LORI, will be able to get a yahoo group set up soon (hint- hint ;) ) But of course, no pressure Lori! :) we love ya! Anyways, after chatting with these wonderful and amazing ladies, I promised to share some of my art work. This particular piece is something I entered in the Making Memories Idol contest a while back.

Just in case your wondering.....the quote says, "Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." Let me know what you think? And thanks for looking. I will try and post some things in the next few days. :)

Later...

Memorial Weekend

We spent Memorial weekend back home in the basin. We don't get out there much anymore so I guess it's good we have to go to decorate and visit graves! For quite a few years now we have been wanting to go camping up Whiterocks canyon and finally were able to do it and now I think we have just started a new tradition! I already can't wait for next year. Everyone wasn't able to go camping but maybe next time they will. It was just our family minus Landyn (who I guess thinks he's getting too old to go camping with the family) and Kenny, Ryan and lil' Sawyer. Uncle Nels and Mom came up one night for dinner around the campfire. Nels told some mighty scary "Whiterocks canyon" alien stories that night that I think had us all scared to death to go out in the middle of the night to go potty!! He warned us that we wouldn't want to hear them, but Kenny and I persisted that he tell us. I mean, whats a campfire without scary stories??? :)During the night I remember that I had to go real bad and didn't dare get up. I was so grateful when Craig had to go cause I immediately got up and went out with him and so did Hayden!! LOL! Hayden later heard the funniest noises outside and didn't dare wake anyone up to tell them. The next morning we found out the strange noise was just a grouse attracting females!!! :) We had a lot of fun and it was so good to see everyone. Dad would sure be pleased to see the great turn out that we had, that we always have (of course he did, I know he was there in spirit). His grave looks so pretty. They finally have some other plots where dad is burried so next year maybe we won't have to weed eat and completely clean up the area so much. Although, it will be kinda sad, it's become a ritual, LOL!

Landyn's Sr. pics

Just thought I would share some of Landyn's Sr. pictures with you. These photos were taken by Steve Mackley who owns a local gallery here in Logan. Here is his link just in case you wanted to check out his awesome work!! He is AMAZING! http://www.mackleyphoto.com/ and of course these pictures are all copyrighted by him and his studio. Anyways, we really enjoyed Landyn's photo shoot. We went up Logan canyon just this last fall to take his pictures. I wanted the pictures to reflect Landyn in his element and being in a atmosphere where he is most comfortable (up in the mountains). Steve really captured some great poses of Landyn. I will have to post more pictures of the photo shoot at another time.

On another note, pertaining to Landyn's Sr. pics., he is getting ready to graduate here in less than 2 weeks! I tell ya, this has totally been a hard experience for me with him moving out and being on his own. I can't quite describe it--I'll start crying again if I go into much detail!! It's nothing compared to when they go to kindergarten and get on the school bus for the first time. I truely thought that was a tough moment! Maybe it has to do with him being my first and just being hard to let go and all. I am so very proud of him and love him very much. He is a good kid!................

And as I was going back thru ALL of my many entries thus far, I noticed there were NO pictures of my other two wonderful children. So here is an older picture of the 3 of them together. It's kind of a rough and tough lookin picture. I call them my "Hooligans". I will have to look in my file of pictures and see what more 'up to date' pictures I can drag out and post. Until next time.....Bye. :)

Rene's Cookies

This is a recipe I received from my good friend Rene. So that is what I guess I am going to call them! :) I made them the other day and they turned out scrumptious! Her recipe calls for Weaties cereal and I didn't have any so I substituted it for Honey Bunches of Oats and it turned out great, I loved the little bit of crunch that the cereal added. I guess you could probably experiment and add any kind of cereal that you might have on hand. How about rice crispies? Sounds good to me! Anyway, I also didn't add the coconut just because I didn't have any on hand. I think this would just make them a little more chewy and moist.

Rene's Cookies

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla flavoring

2 cups flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 t. soda (dissolved in 1 T. water)

2 cups oatmeal

2 cups Weaties cereal (or other cereal on hand)

1 cup coconut

choc. chips

Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla together. Add the other dry ingredients and drop by spoonfuls unto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 8-10 min. or until golden brown. Cool on a bakers rack and ENJOY with a nice glass of cold milk!

My Eagle Scout

We are so proud of our Eagle Scout!! Landyn received his Eagle Award just last week. Everything turned out perfect! It was quite an honor to have our son pin our awards on us. And I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to pin his award on him! Landyn has always loved scouting and being able to participate in all the activities and camp-outs over the years. He truely is in his 'element' when he is outdoors. I hope he always remembers this experience and never regrets it and helps to set an example to all other scouters.

It was especially nice to be able to have all my family that was able to come be there. Kenny (my lil' brother) was also able to participate in the Eagles nest (which I know brought fond memories back to mom as she was able to see this). I know both Papa's would be so proud of their grandson for this accomplishment. I know they were both there, I could feel their spirit with us. What a great night. Even the Rock Man was there (a good friend of Craig and the boys), he made a beautiful arrow of remembrance for Landyn. Something I'm sure he treasure always!! Anyways....Scouting is a great program! I know I have learned so much from it, just by being his mom.

More Altered Art

Just thought I would post a few samples of some altered art work I did a while back for Stampin Up! I basically just wanted to see if I could get them to load here. It's been a while (OK, a long while) since I have posted and I kinda forgot how to do it. So, I'm testing myself! :) And just in case your wondering....all images and supplies are from Stampin Up! The middle card is not really 'altered', somehow that is just how it ended up being posted. I'm still learning and I don't know how to fix it w/o starting over. And I'm not doing that!! :)

Altered Art

I did this framed piece of Altered Art for the "Inque Boutique" web site a while ago (like way before Christmas sometime). You can find the instuctions and supply list there. The picture is of me when I was about 4 years old.