Visiting friends

The boys and  I had a wonderful time visiting friends in Pendleton last week. Yes I guess I am a little nuts to drive 11.5 hours in the car, in one day, with a 4 and a 2 year old, But it was well worth it to see all our friends. Who would've thought that in just the one year that we were there we would have made so many life long friends. Below are some of the highlights from the trip. 

Ryan's favorite park in Pendleton is Pioneer Park AKA (by our family) the Castle park because of the tall wooden structures that resemble a castle. Ryan enjoyed looking out the window and down on me from above. 

On one morning after it had rained we decided the kids would have fun jumping in the mud, and we were right. What's a little clean up when they get so much enjoyment from it. 

I think it goes with out saying that this picture was a must and Ryan will kill me for it when he is older. Senior yearbook here we come!

We were so thankful to be able to spend so much time with the Simpson's while we were there. Here is the rowdy bunch after being pumped full of pizza, chocolate milk, brownies and popcorn. 

Our friend Madison loves playing dress-up and when the boys saw her putting on her Tinker-bell costume they wanted to play too. A picture was a must!

Colton John Wyatt

My Nephew Colton at 3 weeks old. Check back each month to see how Colton has grown in Comparison to the Dump Truck.

Bind-it-all post it note holder

These cute post it note holders were made using my Bind-it-all. The instructions came from youtube. If you go to my site www.youtube.com/user/bekiew (look for link at the bottom of this blog) and look under favorites you can find the instructions. I decorated the covers with paper from Creative Memories Earthy power palette and attached ribbon to the binding. They were so easy and turned out so cute. 

Baby Shower Favors!

Aren't these cute??!!! Another youtube find. I love that site for finding new craft ideas. This was one posted by a member called irvinehouse. It is titled 2-4-6-8 valentine box. For some reason I am unable to copy and paste the URL. My sister is doing a Mickey Mouse theme in the baby's room so I chose to cut a baby head with Mickey ears using my Cricut. ( I love that thing!) The poem below was again something I found on youtube. Needless to say, everyone loved them and couldn't believed that I made the little bags. I filled them with Hershey Kiss Cherry Cordials. 

Cowboy hats

I was working on these hats for my sisters baby shower. I got the plans and ideas for it off a you tube video. I had plan to fill them with candy and wrap them with cellophane. And even though they came out cute, they weren't the right look I was looking for for the shower. So I chose something else that I will post in different post. Don't know what I am going to do with these... :) 

A baby gift for my Nephew

This was my first attempt at decorating wooden letters. These will be hanging in my Nephew's Room. His name is going to be Colton John Alford. The little disney characters were cut with my new Cricut machine that I got for Christmas. I painted the edges of the letters with a darker blue paint then the paper I had chose for the front of the letters. Once I attached the paper to the letters I used a emory board to distress the edges of the letters and the fronts. I used hot glue to attach the ribbon, and tied bows to be hung on the wall. I am extremely happy with the way they came out and my sister loved them too! Let me know what you think. 

Christmas Memories

We did Christmas a little different this year. We decided we didn't want to travel for Christmas Day. We invited anyone who wanted to, to come to our house. Todd's Parents and Sister came. We had a gourmet meal made by Todd, went to church followed by Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. The boys and I put out cookies and Milk for Santa and played with the train around the tree for a little while before going to bed. It was so nice to wake up to presents under our tree. The boys let us sleep in until 8:00 am. (I think that may be the last time that happens) Jaiden came into our bed at 6:30 but went back to sleep with a little bit of milk. Ryan came into our room at 8 am and Announced, "lets go see Presents!"  They were very excited about what Santa had brought them. Although Ryan said, "where is my truck?" This is what Ryan had asked Santa for and it had been wrapped. We will have to write a note to Santa for next year to leave the presents unwrapped under the tree. Jaiden got his gift from santa too, a new ball. He played catch all morning with the whole family. Christmas day we just played and ate. It was very relaxing. 

The boys looked so handsome in their Christmas outfit given to them by Great Grandma Dorothy. They didn't really want to pose for pictures. But they still look very handsome. They Absolutely love wearing their, "ties". 

Ryan was very excited to be able to hold his own candle at the Christmas eve service. The chair in front of us almost caught on fire a couple times but survived. 

Putting out carrots and cookies for Santa and the reindeer.

They had a fun time putting these out and Ryan was speechless in the morning to see everything half eaten. 

Jaiden was quite excited to see the Speed Racer cars and he wore that helmet all day, especially when he played catch with his new ball. 

"Roarrrr!" Said Jaiden's new dinosaur.