Halloween is almost upon us....

One of my favorite holidays is almost upon us. I love decorating for Halloween and seeing the kids (my own included) all dressed up in their Halloween costumes trick-or-treating is a blast. I also love to make Halloween crafts, I guess it is partly because I have a little more time to make Halloween decorations, more than Christmas decorations once the Christmas season is upon us.

This week's challenge at ScrapTiffany was Halloween.  A little while ago Jenni Bowlin offered a Limited Edition Vintage Halloween kit, that I snapped up the morning it went on sale (it sold out within a couple of hours). It paired perfectly with a 7 Gypsies Receipt Tray that I bought at Studio Calico, a bit of last years Color Me Daisy Halloween kit (vintage postcard and Pink Paislee papers) and some mini letters by My Little Shoebox. With that mix of products, I created this to hang in our house for the Halloween season.

Check out the other fun things the ladies made at ScrapTiffany today and visit again on Friday for even more Halloween inspiration.

Vacation Finale - San Diego Zoo, Old Town and Heading Home

Day 7, Friday, October 15^th, 2010

Last night I sent a text my friend Stella to get some breakfast recommendations. We didn’t have plans for Friday so we decided to go out to breakfast.  She sent me a few suggestions, and we picked the Broken Yolk in Pacific Beach.  We got there about 9:00 am and it was busy. We had a really good breakfast. We both had omelets with home fries.  Nicholas and Jackson ate the muffin that came with my breakfast with pancakes and bacon.

It had been sprinkling since we woke up and we weren’t sure what we were going to do. Mike thought we should go to the zoo to keep the kids entertained. Kids were free for the month of October so we headed over.

We got to the zoo and even though it isn’t really that far from the water, there was no sprinkling. It was cool but not wet.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day. I had some animals that really liked to pose for the camera...

I think this sleeping Koala Bear is so sweet...

Look at the bears eyes...

The leopard was named Princess or something like that, she loved to pose.

The giraffe's were cool. Some of my best poses were in to the sky, and were too washed out, but I like this one. At the Phoenix Zoo all the food spots are up above so they don't have to bend down like this.

Love this kangaraoo

Kissing camels (they really were, the one in the back though had some gross stuff coming out of his mouth that turns some of the better shots of the front two into something less than pleasant)\

Llamas?

Nicholas walked a lot of the zoo on foot....

Frogs/toads near the elephant exhibits

This elephant was dancing, with her trunk bouncing back and forth....

Yes this is the kid that will not wear shoes and socks. He is just like his mama, hates shoes. I know there were people looking at us like we were crazy.

Spacing on what animal this is, but many of them were happy to pose for us.

This is probably one of my favorite shots from the day. Right after this, the lion got up on a rock and strated making all kinds of howling and roaring noises, I would have photographed it but his butt was to us, so nothing great to look at, but cool to listen to.

Nicholas was interested in the tar pits.

Another model, I mean cooperative animal.

Hills do not slow my boys down.  Jackson is peeking back at Nicholas and me, happy he isn't walking.

The gorillas came right up to the glass viewing area.

These minature alligators didn't move, they were like statues.

It looked like they were posing for us.

Nicholas checking out what is going on...

This monkey was talking to another one right below him...

Tourists.

This was really cool but everyone was trying to get the picture of this hippo with its eyes and ears above water and it's huge body below the surface. This was the best I could get without people in it.

There is something just weird about how these turtles look swimming.

This lizard is looking right at me.

Looks like the tortoise is as well.

We stayed until the zoo closed and then decided to go straight to dinner at Old Town. Old Town Mexican Café had been recommended by both my friend Stella and Scott and Lori. So even though it looked packed we decided to try it. It turned out there was only a 10 minute wait that ended up being less than 5 minutes. We had guacamole and chips with margaritas.  For dinner the boys had tacos and quesadilla and Mike and I both had combos with Mexican beers.

Towards the end of our dinner the Mariachis came in to the area to play and Jackson loved it.  He was whipping his head around to watch them and giving them big cheesy grins.

To burn off dinner we walked around Old Town before heading back to the hotel.

We got back early enough to let the kids just chill out watching Disney shows while I started packing us up.  We got the kids in bed around 9:00 and Mike and I talked about next year’s vacation. We decided after this trip that the boys are ready and more importantly we are ready to take them to Walt Disney World next year. So I checked out pricing so we can start saving.

Day 8, Saturday, October 16^th, 2010

We got up around 7:00 and got ready and finished packing. We were going to grab Einstein’s for breakfast but there was a huge line and it was a bit cold to sit outside. So we headed over to the Red Marlin for breakfast. We had the buffet breakfast and were in and out of there pretty quickly. We loaded up the car to get on the road and were on our way around 10:30. We stopped quickly once and made it home around 4:00.

It turned out to be easier than the boys than we expected. Taking kids is definitely a different vacation than the old days of late nights, fancy restaurants and going as fast or slow as we feel like. Everything is at their pace, but they were very flexible and good little travelers. So I look forward to many more vacations with my little family.

Now that we are home, Nicholas asks us at least once a day if we had fun in California or Disneyland. He is still talking about the trip a lot a week later.

Vacation Pt. 3 - San Diego Trains, Gaslamp & Sea World

Day 5, Wednesday

After racing around each day to get to a theme park we needed a break from that. We slept in and took more time to get moving. We decided to eat breakfast at the Red Marlin, the hotel restaurant. We missed the fact that they had a buffet and ordered off the menu. We all liked our breakfast, even though it was pretty expensive for omelets and pancakes.We were low on a few things so we headed over to Target after breakfast. We weren’t able to do laundry at the Embassy Suites so we were going to run out of socks for the boys and Mike didn’t bring many long sleeve shirts for the cooler weather.

After our shopping side trip, we headed over to Balboa Park and spent a few hours at the train museum. Nicholas really enjoyed all the miniature trains and Mike really enjoyed taking him there.

When Nicholas sees a railroad crossing sign (he calls them traffic lights) he gets really excited, so he was super happy to get to see one up close.

Jackson and Nicholas played with the kids trains for a while too.

Mike showed Nicholas the Tehachapi area, (Nicholas even know what that is from watching videos of trains going through there). Someday we will take him there.

In the picture it really does almost look like being there.

We spent a lot of time in the room with all the little town replicas. I loved to see all the details, like the cars driving through the McDonald's drive through (they really moved).

And how they had incorporate Halloween throughout the display.  They even had a candy train that had cars carrying candy.

It was getting late and we hadn’t had lunch so we headed over to the Gaslamp Quarter.

We ate lunch at Tin Fish a restaurant we stumbled upon right on the train line next to Petco Park.  Nicholas and Mike could watch the trains while we ate. The food was good.  I had fish and chips which were really good, the boys had a quesadilla and Mike had fish tacos. The Landshark beer was perfect to wash it down.

We had a few birds eat with us. They could not be shooed away.

After lunch we walked around the Gaslamp Quarter. 

And watched a few more trains

We headed back to the hotel around 5:00.  This was the view from our hotel room. We were right on the marina. We only had a bit of sun on Wednesday. The rest of our time in San Diego was overcast.

We headed to dinner at Café Japengo in La Jolla for sushi.  I hadn’t been there since I used to travel to San Diego for work a few years ago. There was a bit of a wait, but the boys were pretty patient. Fortunately, they did have a kids menu, so the kids had their usual chicken fingers and fries. Mike and I started with Duck Potstickers and then shared a few sushi rolls (Fifty-fifty roll, Hawaiin Special, Spicy Tuna and Philadelphia Roll) which were all yummy.

And here is my favorite face again...

The boys fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and went down to bed easily.  Mike and I didn’t stay up much later either.

Day 5, Sea World

A really nice thing about the San Diego portion of our trip was that we didn’t feel like we had to rush out of the room in the morning. We slept in a bit and got ready.  We went to Einstein’s for bagel sandwiches and coffee for us and muffins and milk for the boys.

We were on our way to Sea World by 9:30. Our hotel was pretty much right across from Sea World and we easily made it by the 10:00 am opening even after getting turned around finding the entrance.

Mike and I hadn’t been to Sea World in about 20 years so it was like being somewhere for the first time. We saw the wild artic exhibit with the polar bears and walrus's  

This bird was riding around on the walrus's backs.

I love this kid....

The penguins were awesome to watch..

In the shark encounter Nicholas kept shoving me to keep moving when I was taking pictures. Without a flash and low light most of the pictures didn't come out great, but I did get a couple.

In the next aquarium exhibit, these frogs were cool, but the glass was so fogged up it was hard to get a great picture of them. They looked like they were wearing some cool wet suits.

We headed to our first show, with the Sea Lions

We weren’t sure how Jackson would do at the shows since sitting still is not something he is interested in.  But it wasn’t crowded so we waited until it was almost show time and got a seat. Once the show started he was fine. The show was cute, with just a lot of little skits.

We took a popcorn and pretzel break after the show and then it was time for Shamu. This show was a bit more crowded. The boys did fine; Nicholas needed to sit on my lap to see. He seemed to enjoy the show. We all really enjoyed the Shamu show. It is just incredible what these whales are trained to do. And I was so happy I had bought my zoom lens before this trip, or I would never have gotten shots like this from as far away as we were.

After Shamu we wanted lunch but so did everyone else, so we went to the star fish area and then through a couple of the aquarium exhibits hoping the lines would go down. Nicholas would touch the water but not the star fish. He is hit or miss on this, sometimes he will at the aquarium we go to by home, but not today.

I had a fascination with the turtles on this trip. They were amazing to watch swim.

Of course what would a fish tank be without Nemo? Nicholas loved this.

I just loved the colors of some of the tanks. I was playing a lot with the camera settings to try to get them right for these conditions. Some turned out much better than others.

The lunch lines didn't diminish so we finally braved the lunch line.  Mike took the kids to a table while I waited in a really, really long line. Right when I was at the front waiting to get the last of our entrees, Mike came to find me and told me we had to leave. Nicholas had dumped lemonade on himself and was having a complete meltdown. He was crying and saying he was sorry, and wanted to be changed. We haven’t had to change the kids while we were out in ages, so we had no spare clothes. So I abandoned lunch at the front of the line and we went back to the hotel.

We were going to try the Corvette Diner for lunch, but then decided to just go to the hotel restaurant, the Red Marlin. It was almost 3:00 by this time.  We were able to sit out on the patio, and since it was so late Mike and I just shared some steamed clams and a cheese platter appetizer and had a glass of wine for me and beer for him. The boys nibbled on their kids meals.  It was actually a nice break from the park and much better food than we were going to have at Sea World.

We headed back over to Sea World about 4:30. The park was only open until 6:00 and it was emptying out. We missed all the rest of the shows, but we managed to get through all the other exhibits.  We spent some time at the dolphins, and I even got to pet one.  

We visited the batrays/stingrays and Morrey Eels. Mike pet a batray. Nicholas remembered getting splashed by one at the Phoenix Zoo and wanted nothing to do with them. There was a cave to walk through with the eels and they were quite strange looking. Fascinating and creepy at the same time.

We watched the sea lions get fed and bumped into Jackson’s speech therapist, Jill and her family.  The sea lions were super loud and entertaining.

We finished up by walking through another aquarium then headed out. Boys were done. And yes, it was cool and Jackson refused to wear shoes and socks. After putting them back on about a dozen times all week, we had given up. If he was in the stroller the shoes and socks were off. If he didn't fuss we figured he wasn't cold.

We thought we would try Phil’s BBQ tonight, but again the wait line was huge.  So we decided to head over to La Jolla and have fondue at another place I had been to a few years ago, Forever Fondue.  This one was a bit tough on the kids. They both had fell asleep in the car and were a bit sleepy when we first got there.  There was no kids menu for our picky eaters. So we had to make due for them with the snacks we had in our bag and a basket of tortilla chips the restaurant provided.   

My favorite part of eating out for fondue is the appetizer and dessert.  Mike likes the main course because of all the sauces.  We started with salads and then shared Cheddar and Smoked Gouda Cheese Fondue.  Our main meals were a mixture of seafood, chicken and steak and vegetables.  For dessert we had Milk Chocolate Fondue, Nicholas did like the pound cake that came with it, but not in the chocolate (he doesn’t know what he is missing).

The kids fell asleep on the way home and were again easy to get to bed.

Next up the San Diego Zoo and coming home....

Vacation Part Deux

We did make it back to the hotel safely, exhausted with aching tired feet, but safe.  The boys went down easy and Mike got us a drink from the bar, which neither one of us finished before falling asleep ourselves. Anyway, on to Day 3...

We had 7:40 am reservations for the Surf's Up Character Breakfast at Paradise Pier Hotel.  That was early after our long day. But we made it just in time, thanks of course to valet parking (which is free by the way if you are going to the character breakfast).

Nicholas loved the characters and it wasn't that busy that morning, so he got lot's of attention from the characters.

Here he is smooching with Minnie Mouse

Even though he didn't know who Stitch was, they sure spent a lot of time hanging out. I think Stitch was at our table for at least 5 minutes on 2 different occasions.

Then he needed to discuss the comfort of Daisy's shoes and hair bow.

Jackson on the other hand was not really sure if he was liking all this talk with big furry things...

We ditched the walking from the hotel thing and parked at Disneyland this day and made it to the once again busy park about 9:30.

We headed to Buzz Lightyear first and Nicholas had fun shooting and Jackson tried to chew on the gun.  We headed over to the Tiki Birds next. Jackson wasn’t to crazy about it so Mike took him outside and I watched with Nicholas. He seemed to enjoy it. Next we took a Jungle Cruise. Nicholas liked picking out the animals and Jackson was smiling the whole time.

We rode Pirates next. We weren't sure if that was going to be good or bad, but they were fine.

I am sure they needed naps....

We decided to get out of the park for lunch so we headed over to Downtown Disney and ate lunch at ESPN Zone. Mike and I could enjoy a beer with our lunch and Nicholas loved all the TV’s and numbers on the scoreboards so he was entertained. Mike had Sliders for lunch and I had a club sandwich.  I thought we would be going back to the hotel for an afternoon rest, but everyone seemed rejuvenated after the break so we headed back to the park. We rode the train around the park which we thought Nicholas would like, but after a couple of stops he was over it.  Jackson did fall asleep so I took Nicholas on Winnie the Pooh. We rode the cars again, which he loved “driving”.  We took the Monorail around its loop once and Nicholas loved that.  Then we rode the submarines.  Mike and I hadn’t been on that since it was re-opened as Nemo. It was cute for the kids. It was much longer than I remembered.

When we got off the submarines, we had to race back to the front to avoid the parade and get out to Downtown Disney for our dinner reservations at Rainforest Café. It was another nice break from the park. And even though it was crowded because we had reservations we were seated right away.  The kids liked their hot dogs. It was probably the most Nicholas had eaten since we had been at Disneyland. 

This is the face I get from Jackson when he sees the camera.  One of his few words is "cheese".

After dinner we headed over to California Adventure and rode the Monster’s ride again right before it closed then walked over to Bug’s Land and rode the little train. By the time we were finished it was almost time for fireworks so we walked back to Disneyland to watch them from Main Street. 

We got a good spot and tried to keep the boys awake to watch.  Jackson dozed on my shoulder, but Nicholas woke up when they started. 

We liked the new show.  After it was over we headed to the tram and back to the hotel. It was much better than the long walk we had last night.

We got the boys down to sleep and then we flipped around the channels ending up watching Showbiz tonight. Mike pays no attention to celeberty “news” and gossip. So I ended up having to give him a running commentary on who some of these people were and why anyone would care about whatever they were talking about. Since I don’t pay a lot of attention to that either it was pretty funny. I do somehow seem to know who most of these people are and why they are famous.  

Day 4

We had to pack up this morning to check out of the hotel. We were spending the first half of the day at Disney and then heading down to San Diego for the rest of our vacation. Before checking out we headed down to the very crowded buffet and had breakfast. We got our bags from the room and left them at the bell desk and drove over to Disney.

It turned out that the $15 a day to park was worth it. It was so hot during our days there that I wouldn’t have wanted to walk down Harbor Boulevard after spending hours at Disney.

Our timing was great just as we were walking down Main Street there was Mickey and Friends coming down Main Street in a mini parade.

I loved all the Fall decorations in the park, even if my kiddos wouldn't let me stop and get many pictures of them. But I did manage a few.

We headed to Fantasyland and rode Dumbo and the Carousel and then Casey Jr.’s Train.

Gotta love this kid.

We stopped for a popcorn snack. Jackson loves popcorn like his mommy and as long as we kept the box in front of him he was happy. Nicholas decided he wanted to try soda and liked it. Hopefully he will forget about it at home, because he won’t be getting it again anytime soon.

We went on It’s a Small World one more time. Nicholas was singing the song and waving at the people in the boats. A little boy about 10 stuck his tongue out at him. Not nice but Nicholas didn’t even care.  The next boat came with nice people waving back and telling him to have fun on his ride.  The boys were wide eyed through the ride and Nicholas was signing along.  

We decided it was probably a good time to start heading out. We stopped by the candy store and got some treats and then headed to Downtown Disney for a quick lunch at the Jazz Kitchen take out location. Mike had Gumbo Ya Ya and I had a cheeseburger, both were pretty good and it was actually cheaper than eating average park food.

Then it was back to the tram and to the hotel to get our bags.

Goodbye Disneyland....

It was time to head to San Diego for the second half of the vacation. It was a little cooler at Disneyland that day, but it cooled off quite a bit as we headed down the coast. It was a nice drive and only took about 1 ½ hours.

We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay. We paid with both hotel stays with points, so we splurged on suites. We were so glad we did. It let us stay up after the boys and we had lots of room to spread out

We got checked in pretty quickly and the bell hop took us to the room with our huge pile of stuff. I had read a lot of mixed review on this hotel but we had very few complaints. Our room was nice, a little dated for a “ recently renovated” hotel. But it was still nice enough.

My biggest complaint was no TV channels for the kids to watch. To get TV for the kids you had to do pay per view. They had a Disney Channel or PBS kids option for $10 a day. Add that to the $10/day for wi-fi and the $20/day for self parking and I can see why people feel they are nickled and dimed at the hotel.

There was an Einstiens and a full service restaurant as well as a bar in the pool area. They were all pricey, but I expect that at any hotel.

Our room was on the first floor overlooking the marina. We could hear the sea lions barking from our room. Too bad it was overcast the whole time we were there, but it was still quite nice.

After getting unpacked and changed for dinner we headed out. We were going to try Phil’s BBQ, as it had been recommended by a friend but it was packed. It was late so we decided to head out somewhere else.  We drove north to La Jolla and ate at Karl Strauss Brewery. The kids liked their pizza, I had BBQ ribs and Mike had pork chops. We tried their Oktoberfest beer which was very good (and I don’t usually like Oktoberfest beers).

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. To get the boys to fall asleep Nicholas wants me to lay down with him, he is usually out in a couple of minutes. I watched some TV and had a glass of wine while Mike got Jackson to sleep. Mike ended up falling asleep on the couch watching TV after I went to bed.

Last 3 days coming soon....

Happy Birthday Mom and Back from Vacation and Catching Up

I haven't made it here in a while.  We were on vacation last week at Disneyland and in San Diego, and the week before I got busy wrapping up at work and getting ready to go out of town.  So lots to share today! First my Mom's birthday was on Saturday. Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

In honor of my Mom, who has been battling cancer since 1998, I signed up for the Arizona 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk that will be held in November 2011.  More on that in a future post. But I am excited to do this!

I did my ScrapTiffany assignments early since I was going to be gone. But never got my posts scheduled while I was away. So I am sharing my projects from the past 2 weeks.

Last week the challenge was to Scenery Photos.  I choose one of my favorite photos taken when we camped at Pismo Beach a few years ago.  I had this one blown up and framed in our hallway. But I realized I had never scrapbooked it.

This week at ScrapTiffany is all about Banners and Pennants.  I made this to decorate for Fall. The pumpkins and frames were  sprayed with Maya Mist. I have it hanging on my patio door but it is on glass and doesn't photograph very well, so finding a way to photograph the whole thing was a bit of a challenge in itself.

Now onto our vacation...

Last Friday night we were deep in packing mode to leave early Saturday morning. The boys stuff was piled on the dining room table by Mike for inspection by me before it was packed up. I look forward to the day that we don't have to pack diapers. I packed each day's outfits and each nights PJ's in zip-lock bags which made it quick for getting dressed each day. I brought them all home and left them in our suitcases for the next trip.

This is Nicholas "helping" me pack Mike and my clothes.

After only 4 hours of sleep, we were up at 4:00 a.m. to get on the road by 6:00, which turned into 7:00 by the time the car was loaded. The kids were buckled in their seats and I was getting ready to pull the car out of the garage so Mike could put his car back in....I turn the key....and "click, click, click".  Yep, the car wouldn't start. So we called AAA and hoped and prayed that it was not the alternator.

I had to get the boys out of the car and spent about 20 minutes with Nicholas having a melt down because he thought we weren't taking him to Disneyland. I finally got the boys settled down watching TV while we waited.

It turned out that it was just the battery and once we had a new one we were on the road. The boys are good travelers and we made it to California in pretty good time.  We checked in to the Embassy Suites by Disneyland and headed to Zubie's in Huntington Beach for my Dad's 65th birthday party.

Sunday morning we were up early and had the brilliant idea to walk the 1.5 miles to Disney from our hotel. The walk in the morning wasn't too bad, and we were soon on our way into the park.  The first thing we saw after entering the gates was a train pulling in to the station, making Nicholas one happy little boy.

We were quickly down Main Street, since Nicholas was directing traffic "This Way Daddy! This Way!" with pointing to emphasize. Stopping was not an option nor was getting any pictures.

First ride was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Nicholas let us know he did not like waiting in lines. As crowded as it was during our trip, he was going to have to get used to that real quickly.

The merry-go-round was on Nicholas's request list, so we obliged. We also flew with Peter Pan and rode with Pinocchio.

After a popcorn break we headed to It's A Small World. Both boys loved it.

Nicholas thought he would make a call to Mickey Mouse with his new phone (the one we bought him so he would be entertained in line). Isn't that like talking on the phone in the movie theater? Good thing no one could hear him, since we were in the front of the boat and it is pretty loud in there.

Mike's brother's, Scott and Jon, live in Southern California and have annual passes to Disneyland so they came down to the park with their families. The boys loved hanging out with their cousins at Disneyland. This was very nice when we were almost at the front of the Winnie the Pooh line and it broke down. The little ones entertained each other the whole time and didn't seem to notice how much longer the wait was.

There were all kinds of Fall touches throughout the park. It looked like a pumpkin patch or something was in the Big Thunder BBQ area, but we never did make it in there to find out.

All the little one's fell asleep about the same time. I went on Pirates of the Caribbean with Scott, Lorie, Kaitlyn and Kylie, while Mike and Jon stayed with the kiddos. After the ride they needed to call it a day, since they had work and school the next day. But I did get a nice picture of Scott, Lorie and the girls before they left.

Right after they left, the boys woke up. Mike and I decided to head to California Adventure to grab a glass of wine at the winery. We were also just in time for the parade, which you can catch a pretty good view of from the elevated level of the winery.

The parade featuring many of the Pixar movie characters made one little boy very happy. Nicholas knew most of the characters, since they are the stars of the movies he loves.

Jackson enjoyed the show too...

Every time Nicholas sees this picture now that we are home he tells me it's Jessie and Woody from Toy Story.  :)

Wow was Nicholas excited when he saw his hero Lightening McQueen and his best friend Mater.

After the parade we headed to Taste Pilot's Grill for dinner, but not before stopping at the train for a photo-op. This is one of the few pictures where everyone in the picture is looking at the camera and one of them isn't making a really weird face at me for taking the picture. I love my boys....

After dinner we went back to Disneyland and took the train to Fantasyland to ride It's A Small World again, then we drove the cars at Autopia.  We finished our ride just before the fireworks show. We found a spot near the Matterhorn and watched from there. It was a great show, but you couldn't hear the soundtrack with it. But we all enjoyed it anyway.

It was about 9:00 when the show ended, well past the boys normal bed time. So we headed back to the hotel. Remember I said we walked?  Well now we had to walk back, so that great idea wasn't so great at this point. Especially since we were slightly past the walking range most people would do. So once we passed a certain point, there weren't many people out and it was less than ideal.

To be continued.....

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!

21 Years Ago Today....

We went on our first date...

So today is our "unofficial" anniversary. I couldn't have it any better.

Ask and you shall receive....I guess

I know I have been complaining A LOT about the heat this year in lovely Arizona, aka 'the oven". We have been hoping for fall, but really?

"Fall"-ing trees????  They said we had winds up to 70 mph in some parts of Chandler. Must have been in our front yard. This is the 4th or 5th tree  we have lost in our front yard in this spot. The first 2 died and the last ones were knocked over in storms. We have lived in our house 5 years, and between a severe frost in 2007 that killed a few other trees and the winds, our tree landscaping looks like we have lived here 5 minutes. I want my trees to grow up.

I went on a walk this morning and the only other trees that were lost were in the common areas, no other homes that I saw. Just loving that we get to pay someone to remove the tree and plant another one.

On the upside we may finally be heading towards fall. It should be in the 80's to low 90's for the rest of the week. Hasta la vista 100 degree temps!

Mike took the boys to Snip It's for hair cuts yesterday. They both look like little marines with their short do's.

Here's a card I made for my friend that is coming back to work today after a very long and bad illness. It's a scary thing to think you are going about your normal life your still relatively young, overall healthy and then wham, life stops you in your tracks. I am praying she is back feeling like her normal self soon.

I made this with the new Pink Paislee/House of Three Parisian Anthology paper and trim. I picked up the trims at my LSS last week. I was paying for my other purchases and looked over and saw them peeking out of a box of new stuff that hadn't been put out yet. I asked if I could buy them even though they weren't up for sale. I misted the paper with Tattered Angels. It didn't show up in the picture too well, but it the glossy part of the paper is still creamy off white.

The stamp was found in the dollar bin at Michael's a month or so ago. They had a few "vintage-y" style stamps (birdcage, old fashioned key and old typewriter) that I got as well.  Oh and the trim....swoon.

Have a great Wednesday!

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin

A few weeks ago I was already craving some pumpkin recipes. And apparently the stores had not realized this. We could not get canned pumpkin at any of our grocery stores. Apparently there had been large crops of pumpkins lost in a freeze and there was a shortage last year. I must have bought all I needed last year before this became an issue. The crops were okay this year, but the pumpkin hadn't started hitting the store shelves. If you love making pumpkin infused foods and you are desperate for some glimpse of fall when you live in the desert, you must take matters into your own hands.

I think you can buy anything at Amazon.com.  A few weeks ago I ordered a case of this....

Of course it was back-ordered a couple of weeks, but I wasn't taking any chances. On my doorstep last week arrived one heavy case of pumpkin. With free shipping it was just over $2 a can. But after reading about people selling it on E-Bay for $10-$15+ a can, I didn't worry about it. And it was the organic brand which is a bit more anyway. And if this shortage didn't get resolved soon, I was still having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.

Of course, you can now get pumpkin at the grocery store.  But, I wasn't taking any chances with my fall time favorite.

So to celebrate the arrival of pumpkin in our house we made pasta with pumpkin sauce with chicken apple sausage. Although this time we didn't make the sauce. World Market has a pre-made pumpkin sauce that I have to admit was about as good as the one we make from scratch.

On Sunday I made  Pumpkin Swirl Brownies, found on MarthaStewart.com. I increased the size of the batch so I could take some into work. I think the organic pumpkin is a bit more watery so my brownies came out a bit cakey. They are still yummy, just not fudge-y like a brownie.

We had a nice rainstorm yesterday that cooled us off in the evening. Let's see if it lasts. The weather says high 80's with some more rain for the next few days. I would like it a bit cooler, but after 100+ degree days all September, I guess we will take what we can get.

Happy Tuesday!

Picture Fall & ScrapTiffany Monday

Where did this past week go? I never did fit in blogging towards the end of the week. I got involved in creating my first photo book and finished that up Friday night. I am not really a digital scrapper, but I didn't like the templates on the photo book site, so I visited Designer Digitals and picked out a kit, frame, and some digital stamps and made my own. I am pretty happy with how it looks on the screen.  I can't wait to see the final project. I can't wait to see how it comes out. I think I am going to do another photo book for my current photo project.  I signed up for Picture Fall over at Big Picture Classes. It is a nice complement to the photography class I am taking with Maggie Holmes. The chance is giving more ideas to play with the camera, without always having to chase around one of the kiddos. The class started October 1st, but registration is open until October 6th if you want to join me. The daily photo prompt, great gallery and message board are great inspiration. Here are my first 4 days. I am keeping a journal off my thoughts on each day's picture. Then I will be ready to put it and the photo together for my photo book.

October 1^st, 2010

 Fall. Not really in Arizona. It is still well over 100 degrees and fall foliage is not anywhere near us yet. But inside our home you can find fall all around us.

October 2^nd, 2010

 A peaceful spot to relax, read and chat with Mike when the house is quiet and all little boys are asleep.

October 3^rd, 2010

 No real fall leaves in Arizona, maybe in December or January it will look like Fall? Our only brown leaves are from leftover tree clippings caught in a vibrant hibiscus.

October 4^th, 2010

Ready to Brew…these three words make me happy.

Mark your calendars. We are having a blog hop over at ScrapTiffany November 8th & 9th. Lots of holiday inspiration and giveaways are planned.

This weeks assignment was to use this sketch by one of ScrapTiffany's own designers, Keely

Here was my take on it...

Head on over to ScrapTiffany and check out the other ladies work and give the sketch a try this week.

Happy Monday!

Bazzill Warehouse Sale Goodies & ScrapTiffany Monday

This week's ScrapTiffany challenge was to use your scraps. This was a perfect way to clear some stuff off my desk. I keep a little bucket of bits of leftovers on my desk, so I dug through there to see what might work with this leftover double sided paper that was sitting on my desk:

And by adding a little more this and that, I came up with this birthday card, which is now on it's way to my brother. (Happy Birthday Michael!)

Head on over to ScrapTiffany and see what the other girls did with there scraps!

Saturday morning you could have found me here...

at the Bazzill Warehouse sale. I hadn't gone in since at least 2007. When we were running our kit club Color Me Daisy, the last thing I needed was more scrapbooking supplies. I had plenty. Even after closing it down and selling off all of our inventory there was one very important thing I held back.  Every sheet of Bazzill Kraft cardstock I had. As well as a couple other basic colors. Everything else was sold...gone.

Now I am back in the consumer shopping mode when it comes to scrapbook supplies, and of course like most people I can't resist the opportunity for a deal. So there I was at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday morning, getting my Starbucks nonfat, no whip pumpkin spice latte and heading over to the Bazzill to wait in line with the other eager beavers.

It wasn't as crowded as the last time I went. So it was pretty relaxing to shop. I met 2 online friends in person at the sale, which was fun to finally get to do.

My goal was to get out of there for under a $100. How do you think I did?  You'll see at the end of my post, as well as get an idea of how much I saved...

First here is a peak of my very full bag. They had bags from Creative Escape for $2.00. Easier to carry then a box, so I picked one up and started filling.

First I filled a pizza box with cardstock for $20. I didn't count the actual number of sheets but I think in years past it averaged about 110 sheets fit in a box.

The mistake I have always made in the past is buying colors I don't use, like pinks and purples. So this time I stuck with my most used colors that they had available (no Kraft, but I don't really need it I still have about 150 sheets).

I picked up a few of the embossed, edged, and blinged cardstock papers they have some colors and styles available to put in the pizza box so I thought I would try it out. The white embossed paper doesn't show up in the picture, but I want to see if you can resist it with ink or mist.

The also had a 12 paper pack of edged paper for $3.00. They could be put to use to mist some background designs.

These cardstock with an edge mini packs were $1.50 each. It looks like there are 25 in a pack. Another item that could be good for misting on backgrounds.

Just the edges $1.00 each.

Ribbon and tulle were plentiful. And I know I don't need any, but whatever. I was sensible and picked very usable and versatile colors. Tulle $1.50/spool for 25 yards; Ric Rac, Gingham and Sheer ribbon $1.50/spool for 15 yards/

1 - In Stitch'z template $2.00 , 3- 100 yard spools, $1.50 and 2 - In Stitche'z floss kits $2.00

My Creative Escape shopping bag was $2, the Creative Escape book was $2 ($15 at Scrapbook.com right now) and one of the Maggie Holmes class kits for $3.00. They had 2 other class kits for $5 each that I wish I would have picked. up. I found out they were selling the leftover kits at Scrapbooks Etc for $30+. Holy smokes!

I told myself I didn't need any brads, and I didn't buy and little ones. However I did find these in my bag when I got home, wonder how that happened, ;).  All brads were $1/pack.

Accordion keepers, sized 6x4, $.25/each. I may not have picked these up, but my friend got some on Friday to use as a way to give a card set as a gift. Love it, and there is an accordion fold book inside.

2 chipboard 6x6 mini books, $2/each; 8 - 6x6 sheets of heavy plain chipboard, $0.10/each; and some chipboard tags $1/pack which could be good for misting masks or gift tags.

Some miscellaneous supplies: paint dauber, $0.50; Tombow Metal Glue, $0.75; and Paint Pen, $1.

And a couple of freebies thrown in the bag at check out, Quilting Arts magazine and 50 free prints at Snapfish.

So what did I learn?

• I definitely can't resist a bargain.
• Getting up early on a Saturday morning for scrappy shopping is much easier than getting up early to exercise or go to work.
• Getting up early goes much easier with a pumpkin latte from Starbucks
• I don't miss spending time on the weekends photographing kits (from my Color Me Daisy days)
• and...

...I actually can stay within budget when it comes to scrappy spending.

Before tax I spent $85.30. I had a Bazzill wholesale order form with the regular prices for almost everything and I Google'd the other items. I saved 75%  or $250 at the sale.  And the freebies take that savings to $260.

Not bad for getting up early on a Saturday. I think I will be headed back next year.