BRRRRRRR!

Ok, winter has finally arrived and it is cold.  So, we decided to go sledding!  I know, but my neighbor called to see if Hope wanted to go, so we drove down to the neighborhood sledding hill.  There was just enough snow to make it slick going to down the hill and fairly easy to get back up.

Here is some of the gang...

Here is Hope making her way up the hill...

As we arrived at the hill, one of the neighbor kids (Bruce-he is the one in the black/yellow hat below) sat down on a sled and I asked him if he was ready to go down, then I game him a small push and down he went.  When he got to the bottom he was crying because he was scared.  Oh man, I felt really bad. 

Then somehow Hope convinced him to get on the sled with her and off they went.  This time he LOVED it.  Way to go Hope! 

And here is Anna and Hope on one of the last runs!

Of course, the VERY last run I put the camera away and jumped on the sled with Hope.  We flew down the hill.  Boy, it was quite the workout getting back up the hill.

There is more snow in the forecast tonight, so maybe we will go back to the sledding hill this weekend.  Maybe it will be warmer.  

So here are two more cards I made recently...

I had a mixture of rub ons to use for these cards, so my idea with this one is when one of your friends needs a lift, bring her ice cream!  :)

...so the inside says "always share their ice cream!!!"

This is a simple card that used the pattern paper as the card design with simple additions to finish it off.

Well, that is it for tonight!  Hopefully Hope comes home soon from the neighbors.  She ended up having supper with them after they had hot cocoa.

Good night!

Darla

Adoption-isms

Last night, Hope and I were on our way to dance class and she told me I was a lucky mom.  I told her thanks and agreed that I was a lucky mom, since I was her mom.  Then she starts mumbling about other things and says, but you aren't my birth mom.  Anyway, she kept mumbling and thinking out loud and finally asked, "Mom, which side of the family is Jessica (Hope's birth mom) from, your side or dad's?" I kind of chuckled and explained that she was kind of a third side of the family.  Then Hope decided that she was from her own side of the family.  I love how she thinks these things out loud with me.  I know she is understanding more about what it means to be adopted and I love that none of it has to be a mystery to her.

Well, the weather here has been cold and snowy today.  It is supposed to warm up again tomorrow and then snowy and cold again.  YUCK!  So to warm things up I made some cards from a summer paper line I have had in my scrap stash for quite some time (a couple of years).  :)

I have had this transparent title for a few years and finally decided this was the perfect card to use it on.

This is actually a birthday card (below)...the inside reads "we all scream HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Well, I am going to relax in my warm cozy bed and read a book.  I am just not in the mood to scrapbook tonight!  Bummer!

Goodnight!  Tomorrow will be a better day!

Darla

Life is Good Today...

We had a pretty good weekend around here.  I got to do some scrapbooking, I finished the book I was reading, went shopping and got to sleep in.  It doesn't get much better than that!  I really needed a weekend like that.  Thanks Hope and Joe for helping it happen!

I haven't taken pictures of all the cards I made this weekend, but will share them soon.

Here is the last layout that will be included in a kit available at The Scrappy Gourmet (soon)!

Most of the product on this layout is from  Pink Paislee.  The chipboard letters were left as is (they are from the Mistables line) and I wanted them to just pop off the page.

I ended up using a letter "P" for the "d" in today, but if you purchase the kit you will have enough upper case "D"'s to use it if you want.  I had a different title planned for one of the other pages and had inked the letters, but just couldn't make it work like I wanted to (so I changed it).  Now I have inked letters that might work on a different page some day.  :)

My title came from the Zac Brown Band song by the same name.  The pictures pretty much depicted the chorus of the song (with my own G rated version).  :)

That was such an awesome day and I know with true winter weather expected in my neck of the woods I am going to be wishing I was there this week! 

Well, not much else, so will catch you later this week!

Darla

Hey, it's THAT guy!

If you don't live around my neck of the woods, this will mean very little to you...

We went out to eat last night to celebrate Annie and Ally's birthday last night.  They wanted to go to O'hana's Steak House.  The commercials on tv show the owner doing his cooking "moves" at the hibachi grill and everyone and then he is shown all around town with everyone saying, hey it's THAT guy!

Well, we actually had Cy (you know THAT guy) for our chef last night.  He was awesome and the food was even better!  YUM!  And the leftovers tonight were even better.

The girls ordered Smurf drinks.  Hope really enjoyed her drink and ended up with Annie's too!  Good grief, that is a LOT of sugar to deal with.  :)

A good time was had by all!

Now that we have finished up with the birthday parties for a while (well we still are trying to get together for all the Winter birthday's), now I can finally get back to scrapbooking.  That is exactly what I did tonight and it felt great!  I pulled out an old bag of scraps and just started making cards.  The ideas just started flowing and then it is time to go to bed.  So I thought I would jump on the old blog quick before I hit the sack.   Anyway, I ended up making five cards and have a lot more coordinating scraps from this batch to use up.  Hopefully I will get back to them this weekend!  Keep your fingers crossed.

Here is another layout coming soon to The Scrappy Gourmet.

Oh I so wish I was at that beach RIGHT NOW!  It was a near perfect day.  I have always wanted to just go to the beach, get a chair and just lay there and read, relax, eat and drink.  And that is exactly what I got to do that day.  PERFECT!  Well, until it started raining.  Even after it started raining, I met a group of people having out under the tent and we had a few more drinks.  Fun times!

Well, I better head up to bed.  One more sleep til the weekend!  

Goodnight!

Darla

 

Golden Birthday!

Hope had a great golden birthday this weekend!  Joe went to wake her up on Saturday morning and she was sound asleep.  He whispered in her ear Happy Birthday and she jumped up immediately and screamed "It's my golden birthday".  It was pretty funny.

For those of you that don't know what a golden birthday is, it is when you turn the same age as the date of your birthday.  So Hope turned 7 on the 7th.

She had a pretty good day.  We started the day by opening her presents from Grandma Karen.  We were chatting with her on FaceTime at the same time so she could watch her.  Technology is AWESOME!

Joe made us pancakes and then we let hope unwrap her gifts.  She got a chalkboard for her American Girl doll, school toys.

Here is the birthday girl with her balloons.  She could hardly wait for her guests to arrive.

Here she is blowing out her candles on her birthday brownie.  That is what she wanted!  :)

Then we went out to eat at Red Lobster where she dined on macaroni and cheese, biscuits and mashed potatoes.  The rest of us had something more fitting from Red Lobster.  :)  It was good.

Today's funny came tonight when we were entering church.  Joe and I were signed up for the new membership class to join the church.  Hope was to go to the daycare area.  The last time she went there was when I went to an adoption group meeting.  She asked why she we hadn't gotten her baby sister yet?  Huh?  I laughed and had no idea what to tell her.  I hope she doesn't get her hopes up too much.  I guess we will just see what God has in store for us in that area of our lives.

Did you see the new Scrappy Gourmet blog?  Check it out.  

I also have a new kit available there for all your great Disney Memories.  You can buy it here.  Here is what it looks like.  You can see detailed shots in my Gallery at The Scrappy Gourmet.

That is it for tonight!

Darla

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are on the last day of the year.  I can't complain too much about 2011.  The only thing I hope for in 2012 is to figure out how to get rid of my hives.  Yes, I have still been getting them once in a while.  It is quite the mystery as one day I have a lot of them and the next day I may only have one or two.  So wish me luck later in January to get it all figured out.  Otherwise, it was a pretty good year.  I am SO thankful for all the wonderful blessings in my life.

Now onto Hope's funny of the day...

On the way home from Cedar Falls, we were trying to figure out what we were going to have for your stay at home dinner tonight.  Joe asked Hope what she wanted for supper and she exclaimed "but I haven't even had breakfast yet"!  Of course, Joe and I cracked up!

It was a pretty quiet day.  Joe did a little work, Hope and I did some crafting/scrapbooking and then cleaned up.  We played the board game Life---I WON!---It pays to go to college!  Hehehehe!

Speaking of scrapbooking, here is one of the layouts I finished up today.  These were some of the pictures from Cancun this fall.

Below is a close up shot of the lizards we would see just hanging out on the sidewalks.  

Here is the title.  All of the products were from Pink Paislee.

I had a few pesos I brought home, so I used them on my page.

I distressed all of the edges of the pages (except the background paper).

Everyone be safe and I hope to see you visiting again in 2012!

Darla

Christmas fun...

We had a great Christmas at our house and also with my family.  We will be spending some time with Joe's family this coming weekend too.  Hope had fun with all of her gifts and has played/worn/watched everything she got.  Between Joe and one of us has been off each day this week so she didn't have to go to the school program.  It has been nice to just stay home and relax.

This is a nutcracker (actually the rat king) we gave to Hope.  Joe found it and we put her Nutcracker picture in a frame and I hot glued it to the sword.  She loved it and carried it around like a doll for several days.

This was her Christmas morning when she first walked in and saw the presents from Santa.

I look really scary here, but Santa brought me the Harry Potter lego castle.

Here is Hope with her nutcracker.

We got Joe a spatula with a hawk eye on it.

Hope and I had a lot of fun putting the Harry Potter lego castle together.  Maybe I will get her into Harry Potter yet.  She laughs when I tell her about all the characters and that she is a Muggle.  :)

I am so thankful my entire family was able to get together this year.

Grandma Deloris made a wedding dress for Hope's American Girl Doll.  Her dolls have worn it several times the past few days.

We got Kenton a Cyclone football jersey.  It was only appropriate that Kirk was holding him when that gift was opened, since he is from Missouri.  :)

This little cutie is Kendal and she loved her pillow pet from Dawn.

Annie and Ally peeking over the top of their large gift (it was a basketball hoop).

This is one of the more organized looks into our living room and all the Christmas fun!

Hope and I are off tomorrow, so I am hoping tomorrow I get to do some scrapbooking.  I think I might have some mojo coming my way!

Well, that pretty much wraps things up for this year.

Here is a sneak peek of a project coming to The Scrappy Gourmet soon.

This is a FUN project full of magical memories.  

Have a good night!

Darla

Christmas Eve...

Wow!  Can you believe it is Christmas Eve?  This year has just flown by.

Here is where Elfie has been hiding since I last posted...inside the curio cabinet...

...up in the fan...

...on the fireplace mantel...

...and his final spot was in the nativity scene watching over baby Jesus.

This one took her a while to find this morning, but she finally spotted him.  Tonight Elfie will fly away with Santa and return to the North Pole until next year.  We will miss you Elfie.  Thanks for all the fun!

Today we are going to make cookies for Santa, go to the afternoon church service and then wrap some presents.  Nothing like waiting to the last minute to wrap some presents.  :)

Here are the last three Christmas cards I made this past season.  

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 I will be back in a few days to share our Christmas morning memories.

Darla

Elfie continued...

Elfie has really come up with some good hiding places this year.  Here are a few more locations...

This is where we found him this morning.

This is one I missed in my last post because I had to take the picture on my phone instead of my regular.  He actually snuck into Hope's room that night when he came back.  Most of the time he stays on the main level of the house.  He must have needed to keep a close eye on her that night for some reason.

Keeping it short tonight because it is bed time (for Hope and myself).  

Here is a Christmas card for your scrappy inspiration.

Later!

Darla