We moved!

Well, the move is completed and we are mostly settled into the new home.  So far we still love it!  There are always quirky things about a new house that you don't really think about until you start using everything, but for the most part this is a great house.  This is our "grow OLD together" house!

So here is a recap of the past week and a half...

Hope helped me pack up some of my scrapbooking supplies.  These are some of the GREAT labels she created for my boxes.  I am glad that sometimes I am a 4 x 10 cool cool mommy.  I will have to put that into the memory bank for when she is cranky about not getting her way.  LOL!

Hope had one last play date with her friend Brianna before we started the moving process on Monday.  They decided to put color chalk all over themselves.  I guess this is her tribal dance look....when it was time to clean up I let them hose each other off.

So...bright and early Monday morning we went and got the rental truck we were going to use to move all the smaller items and boxes.  Joe had it timed out that he thought he could get a row of stacked boxes in the truck every ten minutes.  We actually made pretty good time starting out, but we ended up moving on the HOTTEST day of the week (possibly year) and we quickly ran out of zip in our step.

Luckily we were able to get all the boxes and other smaller items over to the new house (we only put them in the garage) and got the truck back before a wicked storm blew through the area.  The storm was great because with it was much cooler weather.  AHHHHH!  The rest of the week the temps were awesome!

This was also the week of our church's vacation bible school.  Hope, Annie and Ally had a blast!  They had nearly 7,000 kids over the three sessions.  CRAZY!!!!

The music is a lot of fun and they do a skit each day to give perspective on a bible story and related verse each day.

This was the kids all singing and dancing during the Saturday night church service during the Taste of Hope celebration they hold each year.

At the celebration they have face painting booths...

...mini golf...

...frisbee painting...

Carnival games...

...and LOTS of food, people and fun.  The even crazier thing...all of it is FREE!  It was a pretty awesome Jesus party.

And here are a few other odds and ends we did through the week too...

Hope watched a movie out on the deck, since we hadn't unpacked any of her toys yet.

We watched Dawn's dogs for a while, so Hope and max watched a dog movie on the ipad.  LOL!

As I unpacked my scrapbooks, Hope had fun looking through the memories.

We bought a new kitchen table and Hope helped Joe put the bench and chairs together all on her own.  He only had to tighten all the bolts when she finished.  :)

Last night we played (rainbow) Farkle.  I called it that because Hope mixed up all the colored dice so we had one of each color.

And we also made time to go school shopping too for her school supplies.  We will make another trip (maybe) for a few new outfits too.  We will see...

Wow!  We were busy.  I think Joe and I were both looking forward to getting back to work so we could rest.  LOL!

So to end things I will share a few cards for you to enjoy...

Seems like there have been several birthdays I missed along the way during all the packing and moving process.  So if I missed your birthday....here you go!  Hope you had a great one!

Darla

Anniversary...18

Well, in my last post I failed to mention that Joe and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  We didn't do much on the actual night and ended up spending it with my sister, her twins, my mom and Hope too.  LOL!

So after Hope took off for KC, we went out for a special evening.  We tried Bonefish Grill.  IT WAS FABULOUS!  We will definitely go back.

This is the card I gave to Joe...

Since we are in the process of moving...I set this up to give you some things to look at while I was not able to post.   Enjoy these "love"ly cards I created.  LOL!

That's it!  Until next time...

Darla

Where do I even begin...

I have been so busy packing up for our move, which is TOMORROW, I haven't been very good about blogging.  Lots of this and that to share.

As I mentioned, we close tomorrow on our new house.  We are so excited and I can't wait to get my new scrapbook room all set up.  On our final walk thru today I verified there is a lock on the door, so I can easily keep out anyone I don't want in there with me when I desperately need some alone time.  Now that doesn't mean she won't go outside to the window.  LOL!

While we were packing, we found a piggyback of Hope's that we had forgotten about.  We had been putting all her birthday money, etc. in it for years.  Then when she got old enough and wanted to start spending it we hid it so she wouldn't just blow every dime she got.  When I found the back high up on a shelf I didn't think it had much in it because it didn't rattle.  Well, it didn't rattle because it was mostly paper money.  She was pretty excited as we started pulling out the money.  Joe told her if she had enough we would take her to get a new bike.

Well, she had enough to get a new bike, helmet, the DBD Wreck-it Ralph and a can a Pringles and had 15 cents to spare.  LOL!

Hope has Vacation Bible School (VBS) this week.  Luckily the twins are going too, so Hope is staying all night at Dawn's tonight and Grandma D is going to take them to VBS.  When I told her about the arrangements, she said that would give Joe and I time alone (and then started making kissing sounds).  Oh my!  By the way, Dawn just sent me a text asking me if we were kissing yet.  LOL!  Too tired for kissing, and Joe is too busy estimating how long it is going to take him to move each row of boxes into the moving truck in the morning.

Last week was Hope's annual trip down to visit Aunt Dee and Uncle Kirk in KC.  Of course the twins and grandma Deloris went too.  She had a lot of fun and this year Dawn and I decided to go down a little early and go to Oceans of Fun with them.  After the girls were done protesting that we were interfering with their time with Dee, they finally allowed us to come along to the park and have fun too.

Later than night the grown ups got to go to a retirement party for my sister Dee, who technically is just retiring from one job (in MO) to work in another job (in KS).  I guess that says a lot about loving what you do.  :)

I don't have any good pictures from their week down there, but I do have a funny story.  Of course it came from Hope...

Every year they usually have several meals at home and they eat out on the deck enjoying the weather. They like to play the game telephone, where one person whispers to the next person and the phrase has usually changed a LOT by the time it gets all the way around the table.  WELL...Hope was sitting next to Kirk and he was whispering in her ear.  She told him she couldn't hear what he said because..."your breath smells so bad it melted my ear!"  LOL!  I laughed so hard I was crying.

Alright, we have a LONG day ahead of us tomorrow and the rest of the week getting everything unpacked, all the utilities, cable, internet, etc. set up, so signing off for awhile.  I will be back to start sharing lots of new creations made in my new space.

Here are a few cards to share that would be great to give to the friends that helped us finish up the last of the packing yesterday.  Kristi and Evon, you are two of the best friends anyone could EVER ask for in a lifetime!  Thanks for being great friends!

As usual, all these cards were made from paper scraps left over from various layouts I have created.  I have been expanding my stamp sentiments over the years, so they are starting to not look all the same, but I do have my favorites.  :)

Anyway, I am off to try and get a good nights rest.  See you soon!

We had a BLAST!

The weather was just perfect for a celebration yesterday of our great nation!  Happy (belated) Independence Day!

We had all kinds of fun.  We went to a parade with my sister and one of her friends.  Hope was NOT cooperative for any pictures at all.  Eventually once the parade started and the candy was flowing from the floats she improved (a little).  I have no clue what was wrong.  Oh well.

Luckily this little guy was cooperative...this is Max, my sisters dog.  Is he not the cutest EVER!

So after the parade we went back to Dawn's place so Hope could swim.  The older girls wanted to be in the playhouse, but Hope and her new friend Beckam had a great time squirting each other and Joe while he was trying to take their picture.  LOL!  There is a smile from Hope, I guess she just needed to get wet!

Then we went to my friend Evon's house for dinner and some sparklers.  Dinner was awesome, the sparklers (well, we had issues).

As you can see, we tried the suggestion from Pinterest to use a plastic cup to protect your hand from the sparks from sparklers.  It actually did work, but you have to remember to have a LOT of the stick on the outside of the cup so the cut doesn't catch on FIRE!  Yep, we had flames.  :)

Even Evon and I tried out the sparklers too!

Hope was much happier doing the REALLY long handled sparklers.  This picture makes it look like the sparkler is going crazy!

On our way home we stopped to view a local fireworks display and then we went to bed (a little too late because I was VERY sleepy all day today).

On to other news...well, Hope is guilty again of making her mark on things.  She has done this numerous times, and got in trouble each time, so you would think she would stop doing it.  

Anyway, our latest discovery was when Joe went to the basement to take pictures of the pool table.  The buyers didn't want it, so we are going to sell it.  He crawled under the table to see how it would come apart and discovered THIS...

Now the Annie caught me off guard because our neighbor's name is Anna and she does not go by Annie.  I don't recall the twin Annie ever being over here without Ally and I don't recall our neighbor Annie ever coming over and playing in the basement.  So who knows if it was all Hope or if she had one or more accomplices.  Luckily Joe was able to sand off all the markings and it is good as new!  Good Grief!!!

So I have more cards to share with you...I shared a few the last time I created using scraps from THIS kit I created for The Scrappy Gourmet.  Go get yourself one and with a few extras from your stash you can make these cards too.

So go get shopping and creating.  There is all kinds of great stuff to buy!  Enable...Enable...Enable...

Have a great night!

Darla