Baby Elle and her Sister -- before we knew she was ours

Here are some of the early pics of Baby Elle before we got her. It was a long road, and we are enjoying (almost) every minute with her. In other posts I'll put her most recent pics.
This is the sister that Jim and Mary kept.
This is Elle's mama -- Annie.
This is Elle before we knew she was ours. We had to wait for Mary to pick hers. They were referred to as "The Big Girl" and "The Little Girl" We ended up with the big girl. When We brought her home she was 8. 5 pounds!
This is a picture of the four puppies that made it!
This is Baby Elle

It's about time . . .

Bookmarks and manly cards . . .

One of these things I find incredibly easy to do . . . the other not so much.
One of these things I enjoy doing . . .the other not so much.

The last two years, I have made my students bookmarks for the major holidays (ie. the ones with parties.) I did not take a picture of the Halloween one, but I have mine somewhere and will do it soon. Like the kids last year, this group of kiddos loves to read and they use my bookmarks. Therefore it doesn't feel like a waste of time making them, but then again I make it so that they are mass produced using the xyron and the cricut! Makes life so much easier. This is the one from Christmas 2009.


I ran across the one below and thought, Oh I have to do that for Valentine's Day! So today I started . . and knowing me . . .today I will finish. This first picture is the front. I know it's pink and and the back has hearts, but the boys will understand it's for Valentine's Day. I used some digi-paper. First time ever doing that -- essentially, you download the file and print the paper like a picture. Next time I'll print it on cardstock. I'm not sure I prefer that . . . it probably costs just as much to print it as to buy it -- ink and paper and all.

So as I was saying here is the front of the V-day bookmark.


And yes, each will have the kids names . . I will make sure their names are straight . . . duh.
Here is the back. . . .

And here it is in use . . .


Isn't that sooo cool!!! It goes on the corner of the book!!!! I can't wait to start a new book to use mine. . . but I better not use it at school or it won't be a surprise and the kids are always interested in what I'm reading!

Okay . .on to the manly cards . . .

I hate making them but I think I succeeded. The one with the truck is going to my daddy -- he has a cold. The one with the man in the recliner will be for Father's day . . . and the others will be just for when I need them! I hope you like! Amy

Oh how fun!

I recently saw this post on Lauren's website about a little notepad thingy she had made . . . I bookmarked it and the first chance I needed a small gift I used the plan . . and so here are my little notepad thingies that I made for the three mom's that helped at the Fall party today . . Tina, Nicole and Debbie.

New Recipe Wrap-ups

I while ago I blogged about making a recipe wrap-up but turned it into a coupon holder for my purse. Well Dawn mentioned how bad it was looking the other day so today I made a new one . .but ended up making 3. It's funny . . now that I have some of the cool tools . .it is a lot easier to day . .scor pal, printer, xyron 9. Oh so much easier. The one with the S is for my mother in law Susan, the d is for Dawn, and the a is of course for me. The inside does not have little notebooks now.

My Stampin/Scrapbook Room

I have been a very lucky girl for a long time and have been blessed with a huge room just for me to stamp/scrapbook in the basement . . but I have never felt like I had enough shelving. Earlier this summer my friend Jenn remodeled her bedroom closet. While I helped her do that I realized...hey I can put that old closet maid stuff in the stampin room and have more shelving . . so tonight I did it. I would like to paint the room too and do have the color picked out and have 4 quarts of the paint for free. . . I'd have to kill ya if I told ya how I got it . . but you can ask me sometime if you really want to know. But we have a hole in the drywall where we had to have the foundation patched that needs to be fixed first . . all in time. hehe! Now to just work down there and not bring it all upstairs when I want to work . . yeah right! haha.

The Little Masked Bandit


The hummingbird -- not as cool!

How fun!!!

I just bought Lauren's new template, Milk Made. This is my first attempt with it . . . I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it . . So I went with a wine theme . . I could put some stoppers in it, and some wine charms. . . hmm...what else? a bottle of asprin for after said wine. :-)



See how they are two separate boxes?
These are the boxes out of the carrier...Lauren put two holders together and then made cards to put on the other side...eventually I'll get there. :-)
This is a close up of the awning over the girls.