Almost 2009

Can you believe that 2008 is coming to an end? What a crazy year. Here's hoping that 2009 brings everyone lots of blessings. Since my kiddos have been up past midnight every night this week, I'm guessing that they'll have no problem staying awake to ring in the new year :)

I actually had a chance to make a couple things yesterday. Here's a layout that I created for Halloween. I used SEI's Eerie Alley paper pack and embellishments. I love that the colors matched Brendan's costume and the spiders matched Austin's. The spider ribbon was a fun added bonus.

I need to get busy and make lots of cards. I need to do Christmas thank yous and get together a stash of birthday cards to have on hand. I was playing with my Doodlecharms Cricut cartridge last night and made these cards. The papers are SEI's Dill Blossom collection. The sentiment is CTMH. I'm anxiously awaiting my Close To My Heart order (AKA my Christmas present to me) with all the fun new products, including the new cupcake stamp that I am so excited about. In the meantime, these will have to do.

We had a great time in Seattle. The weather was kind of crazy. Friday night and Saturday were nice. Sunday it poured rain on us while we were out and about. Monday it was so windy and cold that we ended up going to the airport a couple hours early because we didn't want to be out and about anymore. We stayed downtown, so we walked everywhere. This trip should definitely help with any holiday weight--LOL! Sadly, I didn't take very many pictures. I don't know why. We definitely want to take the boys back this summer. Everywhere we went, we kept saying, "The boys would love this!"

It was so nice to have a vacation where nothing was planned. We got up when we wanted, wandered around until we found something fun to do, ate tons, drank lots of Starbucks and Seattle's Best, and enjoyed our no kids time. Saturday we saw "Seven Pounds", which sadly, I did not like. Wish we would have seen "Benjamin Button" instead.

Sunday we rode the monorail down to Seattle Center and walked around. It started raining, so we went to the Sci-Fi Museum and Experience Music Project. We enjoyed it. Here's a little view of how drastically the weather changed. Here's the Space Needle when we got there.

Here it is 20 minutes later.

Monday, we packed up and went out into the wind. I'm not even sure you could describe it as wind. It was hard to even stay upright. While we were waiting for the light, one of the windows in the building across the street actually blew out, sending a shower of glass everywhere. We ate and then went to Seattle's Best to enjoy a drink and get out of the wind for awhile. After that, we decided to go back to the hotel and head to the airport rather than walk around more.

This was our favorite eating spot. Mike had found it when he was in Seattle for training a while back. Yummy!! They even have a website http://www.piroshkybakery.com so you can drool over all their goodies.

First Starbucks

All in all it was a great trip. On a side note, I have to say that I am extremely grateful for the kindness of strangers and the goodness of people. We had to brain dead moments that could have ruined our trip if not for honest people. Saturday, Mike left his bank card in the ATM. Some wonderful person turned it in. Monday, I left my purse in the coffee shop and didn't realize it for a half hour. When we went back, someone had turned it in, with my wallet, camera, phone and IPod still there. I hope those random acts of kindness and honesty are returned to those two people tenfold.

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a beautiful holiday! We had a lot of fun, laughs, and family time. Santa was very good to the boys and they were happy with their gifts. I was very spoiled this year. In addition to the replacement point and shoot camera I was expecting, Mike bought me lighting to set up my own mini-studio and the Purple Cow cutter I'd been admiring for a while (gotta love a hubby who pays attention when I talk scrap!). Then he really surprised me with an IPod Nano for our anniversary. I told him no jewelry because I didn't want him spending to much, but he found a way around it :)

I can't believe it's been 10 years today since we got married. Where in the world does the time go? It seems like yesterday, but at the same time, so much has happened. It's nice to look back at these last ten years and see just how blessed we are. Now we're off to Seattle for four days with no kiddos. I am so looking forward to it!

Then

Now

Christmas Highlights:

All Brendan wanted was Wii Music

A very excited Austin

Christmas jammies

I'm actually in a picture--wow!

I need to lighten this one a little, but here's the boys looking at all their gifts.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We just keep getting more here! It's so beautiful! I can say that because I don't HAVE to drive in it :) Here's some pics from a couple days ago. We got a couple more inches last night.

Our house

Mike shoveling out for the umpteenth time

Brendan enjoying the snow now that he has warm boots

Austin, who LOVES the snow!

Just thought this way a cool pic. The lights got completely buried in the snow.

I'm really worried about our trip to Seattle. Mike and I are supposed to leave for Seattle on Friday, but with this crazy snowy weather, the airports are having a lot of trouble. We're panicked that our flight will get cancelled. I told Mike that if they do cancel it, we should see if they'll fly us south instead--LOL! We've been looking forward to this trip for a long time. It's the first no kids trip we've taken since having children. We wanted to do something since it's our 10 year anniversary on the 26th. Yes, that's right, our anniversary is the day after Christmas. We must be crazy, but we do always get to have the day off together :)

Busy here trying to get ready for Christmas. I think everything is wrapped and under the tree, except my mom's present. It's the only one I'm attempting to make this year. Kind of weird since for the last few years I've made ALL the gifts. But nice not to have the mad dash to try and finish a bunch of gifts.

I am hoping to make a couple of little things for prizes for the annual Christmas Bingo at my mom's. It's a game my mom and dad handmade when they were in high school or just after. It's handwritten and hand-drawn, spelling mistakes and all. It always brings a lot of laughs and is a great tradition. I'm so excited that the boys are old enough to play this year :)

I hope everyone is taking time to relax and enjoy the moment. I know that's always my biggest problem. I get so caught up in "getting everything done" that I forget to enjoy the days leading up to Christmas. Luckily, my house is already clean and I can have fun today. My grandpa arrived on Saturday, my brother got here yesterday and my sister arrives today. Should be a big family Christmas. The only one missing is my sister that was here for Thanksgiving. But at least we got to see her and her family then.

Have a great one :)

A few more Christmas cards..

I gave up on trying to send handmade cards this year. I just don't have it in me, so photo ones will have to do. Here's a few I made a week ago. They come from Close To My Heart's "Card Crazy" Art and Soul episode. These short episodes are great. They feature fun projects and techniques. Best of all, you can order the supplies to make the project at a discount! You can find them on my website, http://www.moments2treasure.myctmh.com/ under "Art and Soul".

School's out!!!!

I am so ready for this break! I'm very excited to have all four of us out until after New Year's :) These last few weeks have been crazy trying to finish up at school, buy gifts, and do everything with snow and ice everywhere. Last weekend we got snow and it's been so cold that it has stuck around. We are supposed to get snow every day this week, so it looks like it will be a white Christmas for us this year--woo hoo!

I love the snow, but hate driving in it, so when it comes during breaks, I'm a happy person! As I told my co-workers last week, my time spent driving in it alternates between crying and praying. The other 7th grade teacher told me it works better if you do my praying than crying--LOL! Here's a few pics of the kids in the snow. I didn't take very many because it was too darn cold. Poor Brendan felt the same way--twice he went out to play, and twice he came in crying. Lucky for them, Grandma bought them ski jackets and bibs for Christmas!

Getting a Christmas photo for our cards this year was a joy. Neither child would change so that their clothes matched, but I could live with that. Then I had one child who was totally cooperative and even sat for a bunch more pictures. So cute.

The other just wanted goofy pictures and refused to smile or cooperate with poses.

Finally, I got a couple of cute ones and called it good.

All was in vain since I STILL haven't sent them out. I didn't proofread the cards, and when I got them back they said, "Merry Christmas from our hourse to yours." Just great coming from an English teacher. Ugh! So now I'm making little labels to go over that part. Guess I'd better bring them in to show my students the importance of proofreading--LOL!

Our gingerbread house was a FUN activity (said with a sarcastic voice). Brilliant idea, but Ace of Cakes I am not. This is my favorite show on TV, after Gray's and Heroes. Every time I watch it, I tell my hubby that I want to take cake decorating classes because that looks like so much fun. After this gingerbread house, I think I've changed my mind. My hands hurt, I was covered in frosting, and it was frustrating beyond belief. However, the final result is great, so I guess it was worth it. Plus the kids had a great time decorating it. They wanted me to go buy another one. Maybe next year...

Well I have to run and get everything ready to go to the post office for this, the very last day that you can mail packages and have them get there by Christmas.

Tis the Season

for "elfing" around. I was playing around and my boys loved this. They wanted me to post it where they could watch it, so here goes. I hope you all are having a happy holiday season.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

PS--I have more holiday cards and photos to share, but they aren't uploaded yet. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

My boys are famous...

Go to Close to My Heart's website www.closetomyheart.com
That's my boys on the front page. The page isn't mine, but how exciting is that?!?! Woohoo--made my whole day :)