Happy Birthday Dad!

Today we celebrate my Dad on his 65th birthday! Here are just a few of my favorite photos of my Dad over the years....

1940's - A beautiful boy with his beautiful Momma. Look at those eyes.

1950's - Racing midget cars built by his Dad

1960's - First car (I think)

1970's - Christmas day with my Daddy

1988 - Graduating high school with my Dad

1996 - On my wedding day with my Dad and Evelyn

Father's Day 2006 - A proud Dad with his kids

Father's Day 2010 - A happy Dad with his family

and his Grandson's (and son)

2010 - Because of You this is Us

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

Love Long Weekends & My First ScrapTiffany Challenge

I took Friday off so we could have a nice long weekend, filled with family time and lots of cooking and grilling.  So I stayed up late Thursday night finishing up my first ScrapTiffany challenge.  This week's challenge is Self Portraits.  There are 18 ladies on the design team, so the DT reveal's are on Monday and Friday.  Mine is up today, so I can share it here.  I like to do pages like this a couple of times a year and it had been a while since my last one.

Making Me Happy Now

On Thursday this week I will be hosting Thrifty Thursday over on the ScrapTiffany blog, so make sure you check it out.

We started off Friday with a quick breakfast out at Mimi's and then headed to the new SeaLife Aquariam at Arizona Mills.  It was crowded but it didn't matter too much.  Nicholas had fun and even touched some starfish.  We got an annual pass so we could go back several times.  If you live locally, it is probably the better way to go.  It is kind of pricey to just go for the day. It only takes about an hour to walk through one time.

We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe then headed back home for the afternoon.  I finished up The Short Life of Bree Tanner, (the Twilight novella) that afternoon.  Mike's been doing all the cooking lately, so it was my turn.

I took this....

And made this....Smoked Salmon Pasta,Tomato Bread Salad and garlic cheese bread.

The salad is definitely going to be a repeat recipe.  The salmon pasta on the other hand was just okay.  Just as I was about done making dinner, we heard a horrible noise coming from one of the A/C units.  So we had to shut it down and got to sleep in a warm room (thank goodness for ceiling fans and more than one air unit, or it would have been the couch again).

On Saturday Mike made us pancakes for breakfast.  Nicholas and I went to see Toy Story 3.  He fell asleep half way through and I cried like a baby at the end.  On the way home from the movies Mike called with the news that the compressor had gone out on the A/C, at the price tag of $2K.  So we are now up to $4K in the past month in A/C repairs. If it would have all blown out at once we could have replaced the unit for $5K.  So hopefully the A/C gods will be nice to us the rest of this summer and we can budget to start replacing our units next year.  You would think you shouldn't have to replace your A/C units after only 5 years, but I have concluded that Carrier stinks (and that is the G rated version).

Mike grilled us steak, asparagus and pineapple for dinner Saturday night and I conked out early that night after starting a new book.

The 4th for us was spent at home making breakfast, swimming, making cheesecake, grilling hot dogs and potatoes and playing outside in the evening.

I also kicked off my new scrapbook organization blog - Michelle's Scrapbook Studio.  I am starting off with a tour of my room and features on how I organize my stuff.  After that I plan to feature organization tips for organizing our creative spaces.

After a quick bath for the boys, we finished up our 4th by watching the fireworks from a nearby park (Tumbleweed) out on the greenbelt across the street from our house. It was great to avoid the crowds. It was a quick walk home afterwards, which was a good thing, since Nicholas fell asleep during the fireworks and I had to carry him home to bed.  Mike and I had the chocolate chip cheesecake I made for dessert and again I crashed pretty early.

This ended up being the best fireworks shot.

Of course at the end when I was trying to get a good picture of the finale two cars parked down the street from us to watch too, and left their headlights on facing us.  Thanks neighbors! :)-

Today we slept in, me after waking up at 3:30 a.m. and not going back to sleep until well after 5:00 a.m..  We had made a breakfast casserole last night, so breakfast was easy and we spent the rest of the morning in the pool.

This afternoon I was tackling scanning of a bunch of old photo's from my mom's boxes.  It's fun to look at so many of those old pictures. I think I spent the age of 3 with my mouth open, because I found several pictures where I looked like this.

Tonght Mike grilled steak tacos topped with his yummy Pico de Gallo (which ended up way too hot for me this time) served with a tomato, corn and avocado salad.

Now that I have to go back to work tomorrow, I wish I had one more day.

Father's Day Weekend, Old Family Photos & Cards

We spent the weekend in California at my Dad and Evelyn's house for Father's Day.  It was a fun filled weekend, my brother and sister were able to be around a lot, which was great since we haven't seen them much in the past couple of years. Friday started off early so we could hit the road, but it was derailed a bit by this munchkin' who ended up in our bed at about 2 a.m. and was up for about an hour.  Nicholas never does this, so it was perfect timing since we planned to get up at 4 and be on the road by 6. :)

He does look cute in that big old bed. The drives both way were pretty uneventful. It was best when they looked like this....

Saturday we met Mike's brother Scott and his family for lunch between our nieces softball tournament games.  Then we headed back to my Dad's house for swimming and celebrating birthdays for my 2 nephews, Christian and Andrew.

Sunday Dad made brunch and we hung out all day.  We took some updated family photos...

Mike got spoiled for Father's Day....

My sister and I spent time with our Dad, looking at old family pictures and finding out who the people we didn't recognize were.

We found great ones like this favorite of both my sister and I of our grandma and dad when he was probably about 2.  She was so pretty and young and he was adorable.  We think every one of my brother's and my boy's have looked like our Dad in this picture at some point.

My Dad and his brothers...(or a picture from The Outsiders.)

Our Dad sometime in the later 60's, we think.

My sister found this great one of our Grandma, it looks like someone is not behaving and getting that look....

Dad racing his cars that our Grandpa used to build. We know there has to be more of these pictures.

Earl, a great uncle, he was lost at sea in a submarine while in the Navy.  This was one of the last pictures of him.

Our great great grandparents (I think it was on my Grandfather's side)

A slice of Americana...my Uncle Jim and Aunt Noreen.

And a little scrappy stuff...I used Girls Paperie to make Father's Day cards for the Dad's in our life.

Have a great week!

Weekend update and scrappy stuff...

How did it get to be Wednesday night already? I guess with the release of the now sold out Color Me Daisy April Spring Fever kit and putting the finishing touches on the Idea Guide for the kit together the past few nights, I've been a bit busy.  I know I haven't been sleeping much.

We had a fun and busy Easter weekend. I spent almost all day Friday scrapping, it was delicious!  Then Saturday we were preparing eggs for dyeing, deviling eggs, whipping up strawberry vinaigrette for our Easter salad, baking hash brown casserole and decorating this scrumptious cake with a raspberry filling:

I got the idea for the cake from some Easter basket cupcakes I had seen while surfing the internet a couple of weeks ago. But honestly I wasn't interested in decorating that many little cupcakes. So I made a 2 layer white cake and the most yummy raspberry filling ever. I colored the frosting and coconut green and decorated the cake top with a bunny, peeps, jelly beans and malted eggs.  But I still needed a basket. So I grabbed my favorite Martha Stewart Border Punch and the Fiskars Apron Lace Punch and whipped up this basket using the Spring Fever kit scraps. It took about 10 minutes and it was just plain fun!

Other highlights from the weekend...

Nicholas had a ball dyeing the Easter eggs. He did a great job and was only medium messy.

We left a note and some jelly beans for the Easter Bunny and he delivered well...

Nicholas really got the idea of baskets and goodies and egg hunting this year and loved his new sporty toys.

Jackson is still a bit overwhelmed by the holidays, but he did manage to eat some goldfish and M&M's from his basket before breakfast.

I have a lot of scrappy stuff to share with you, but since it is getting late I'll leave it to one for tonight.

This one has some of my favorite things from the April Color Me Daisy kit...fabric, Jillibean Soup Corrugated Alphas and Pink Paislee Artisan Frames. I misted the alphas and frame with Maya Mist and love the splattered look for my little artist.  I layered the fabric after fraying the edges over packaging from the Pink Paislee ribbon pleats in the kit. I used the Artisan tape to give an anchor to the title of my layout and I cut the Pink Paislee flip notes in half to border the tops of my photos.

I'll be back tomorrow night with some more scrappy stuff as well as some pictures from the Picture Spring class I am taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

All the eggs in one basket...

Nicholas found all but 1 egg during the egg hunt today. Jackson couldn't care less about looking for eggs. He found one and just threw it then moved on to other more important things (throwing his other toys all over the yard).

Nicholas looks pretty proud of himself in this picture. He did well with the assistance from bear (in his left hand) and Nana R and Nana C.

Happy Easter

The boys are playing with their Easter basket goodies and munching on candy and goldfish (great breakfast, huh?), while we get ready for the day's festivities.

Wishing you a Happy Easter!

Thanksgiving is over let the Christmas rush begin

My weekend was interrupted on Friday, by work. No fun, but a necessity, given that it is year end and at least some of us need to be there. But nonetheless I still enjoyed the rest of my three days off.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. We all shared the cooking duties, so it allowed some time to enjoy the company of our families. I did get out of work early on Wednesday which gave me plenty of time to make the pumpkin cheesecake, clean all the veggies and prep the turkey.

Mike's parent's brought a birthday gift for me on Thanksgiving day, which I promptly put to use. An ornament display stand that will be perfect year round for the different holidays and a Michael's gift card, which I used on Black Friday for the new Sizzix Texture Boutique.

The traditional annual picture of me and my mom.

After we had everything underway, we went out in the backyard to watch Nicholas play. He decided he liked to sit on the rocks and we even got a few poses. We did get him to sit long enough for pictures with his Nana's, he loves his Nana's.

Nicholas and his Nana (Rettberg). My mom and Dion watched Nicholas and Jackson on Saturday for us and they all had a fun night.

Nicholas and his Nana (Carr).

Nicholas also hung out with his Grandpa's. Although he has decided he likes saying Dion so Grandpa Rettberg is called by his first name.

Jackson enjoyed eating Thanksgiving dinner, pretty much cleaning his plate.

And what would Thanksgiving be without a little rough housing.

After dinner, Nicholas wanted to go out and work off the dinner he did NOT eat.

Jackson of course needed a bottle shortly after dinner to wash down all that turkey and fixings.

After everyone was thoroughly stuffed, it was time for a catnap. Nicholas crashed in my arms and then was handed off to Nana, so I could pack up leftovers.

On Friday I got up early to hit some sales at Michael's, JoAnn's and Bed Bath & Beyond before heading into work and doing a bit of online shopping at Amazon in between my "way too busy day for a Friday after a holiday". While I was out, Mike got all the outside decorations done. He did the backyard too and it looks great. It's nice we get to enjoy his efforts and not just the neighbors. When Nicholas saw it Friday night, he just stood by the window for a while and smiled.

My birthday was Saturday and Mike and I enjoyed a rare date night. We had dinner out at Brio at San Tan Village and saw this:

I definitely still like Edward better.

Saturday and Sunday we had plenty of time for our hobbies while the boys napped and played. We also got the store updated for December. So all in all a fun and productive weekend.

I finished up an advent calendar using the Color Me Daisy December Kit and lots of Thickers. I have lots of fun surprises planned for Nicholas to put in the drawers. So I can't wait for Tuesday, he has already been pointing at the calendar and counting the numbers.

Deck the Halls....

Mike spent this week getting the trees up and decorated. After getting the two trees up on Tuesday, we both had second thoughts about not doing a tree in the family room. But....I did not want to put up the big tree in that we put in the Family Room. It is a 9 footer "old school tree" that takes about 6 hours to put up. You know the kind, individual branches that have to be put in the tree and fluffed out, and no lights so you have to string them yourselves. Do you remember those?

So, there I was on Tuesday night at Target and Michael's looking for a smaller pre-lit tree so we could add one more tree to the mix. I was in meetings all week and out late for dinners with the out of town guests. Fast forward to Saturday morning, Mike has all 3 trees up and we spend today putting out the rest of the indoor decorations. This year I cut back (for us) and didn't put our all the decorations we normally do.

So as of tonight our indoor area is decorated, I am half way done with Christmas shopping and determined to make this December the most for the boys.

Here is the living room tree. It is our formal tree, lots of red, white and silver.

Here is the family room tree...lots of Disney ornaments on this one. We moved it to the corner because the family room is also the main play room and has a lot more toys now than in years past. So the corner is a better fit now.

Here is our stockings and one section of the Santa's...I collect Santa's and with little ones I have had to alter the way they are displayed. So they are in a few sections in the house now, instead of all together but I really like how it turned out.

Nicholas is enjoying the Christmas trees. Tonight, he crawled up on the couch and was looking at the living room tree. He kept telling me he was hungry, but wouldn't leave the couch to come eat his dinner that was waiting for him.

Happy Holidays!

Our Weekend & Jackson's Birthday Party

I can't believe how fast this weekend went. Saturday I took Nicholas to the zoo to the Wild Art Zoo class. We made a Kamodo Dragon Puppet, but Nicholas lost interest as soon as she wanted us to paint with shaving cream. So I made the puppet and he played. After the class we walked through the ZooBoutique, ate some popcorn and watched the giraffes for a bit. Before heading home to get ready for Jackson's birthday party.

We celebrated Jackson's birthday with Nana & Grandpa Rettberg and Nana & Grandpa Carr

Jackson wasn't really interested in opening gifts. He would rather play.

Nicholas liked Jackson's toys. Especially the Little People Airport.

Time for birthday cake. Jackson wanted to take the tablecloth off the table. but we were party poopers that way and wouldn't let him.

He enjoyed his cake ... Full now... Happy Birthday Little J. We love you!

Happy Birthday My Little Man...

A year ago today you entered our lives and we will thankfully never be the same.

You are my sweet Little J, mommy's Peanut Butter Pie, our Mr. Squishy, Nicholas's Mai Me, and our funny JJ (the second J because you are definitely a Johnson, ;0 even if it isn't your last name).

Love this new smile you started doing....

You had no hesitation digging in and enjoying your birthday cupcake...

We love you Jackson!