Proud Mama Moment!

It feels good to be back on my poor neglected blog!  I took a month off to celebrate and plan my son's graduation on June 5th.  It was a month full of awards ceremonies, galas, end of year concerts, banquets, friends' graduation parties and family celebrations that all culminated with THE big event- graduating from high school!  Here are some pictures of the event itself:

 

Here is the cake I had custom made for his graduation party:

 

I can't believe my baby is getting ready to fly the coop!  He will be off to college this fall to study engineering.  Seems like just yesterday I was wiping away a few tears as I left him at kindergarten!  Boy did this day feel like a million years away at that time!  Best wishes and good luck with your future endeavors to all of those from the Class of 2016!!!  I will leave you with the quote that was on my son's graduation party invitations:

Have faith in every step you take

Nobody else's footsteps lead exactly where you are going

Just keep marching on.



Summer Vacation

We had an awesome time on our summer vacation this year!  We started out by flying to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, where we enjoyed some great cheesesteaks, got drenched on our nighttime Ghost Tour (I think the rain scared away the ghosts), walked a lot, rocked out at the Hard Rock Cafe, walked alot, took in some history, signed a copy of the Constitution, walked some more, and visited some awesome museums.  Then it was off to Gettysburg for some more history lessons.  We took a Battlefield tour, did another ghost tour (a dry one this time) , visited a haunted house, visited Eisenhower's home (we didn't even know he lived in Gettysburg!  The bottom pic is in Dwight's backyard), and saw a lot of monuments!  Then we left for Valley Forge where we saw some more beautiful scenery, met up with a pretty little doe who let us take her picture, visited Washington's headquarters, the Washington Memorial Chapel and then enjoyed one last Cheesesteak before hopping our flight home!  All in all we are exhausted and  glad to be home after having  a wonderful time!  Now the fun of scrapping my memories begins!  YEAH!  Hope you get some scrappy time this week!

Happy Birthday to my baby!

Seems like just yesterday I was singing Christmas carols to him in my hospital room on Christmas Eve! Today my baby turned 14! He is the best Christmas gift I have ever received! Happy birthday son! I am so proud of the wonderful young man he has become. He is thoughtful, caring, kind and considerate of others. He is a talented clarinet player, lover of games and puzzles, tall enough to get things down from high places for his mother so she doesn't have to climb up on a ladder or step stool(which is a big irrational fear of mine) and most all he laughs at my jokes (well most of the time anyway!) It won't be long before he is driving, or so he tells me. He has lofty goals for his life and I am going to be right there beside him helping, watching and guiding him to those goals. And while I am not ready for him to grow up just yet, I am also excited for him and all that the future holds. Can't wait to see where his journey will take him in the next 14 years!

Fall family fun!

We had a great extended weekend this last weekend visiting my brother and his family in Nebraska! We had perfect weather, good fun, good laughs and most of all good company! Just an all around great time! We had a a lot of fun visiting Vala's Pumpkin patch for the 7th straight year in a row! Fun to see it through the eyes of my little nephew, he had a blast, especially on the tractor! We carved pumpkins and I tried my hand at Keno (which is apparently legal here) and sadly I lost all the money I bet :o( We also had a marathon 2 hour gaming session at the Amazing Pizza Machine! We won over 6,000 tickets this year in just 2 hours between the three of us! In years past we have won about that many tickets in 4 years! HA! We should have bought a lottery ticket, we were scoring big wins, just not for real money! Since we are not going to be together for Christmas this year, we decided to go ahead and celebrate while we were together, to enjoy seeing each other open our gifts. Everyone loved their gifts and we enjoyed a delicious corn fed Nebraska ribeye for dinner! YUM! Can't wait to scrap all my pictures, here are just a few of the 270 I took! Guess I better start scrappin' tonight!

My new obsession!

I don't know who first mentioned this new obsession of mine, but if I could remember I would most definitely have to thank them (or is it curse them?!!!) I have joined all the pinheads over at Pinterest and I must say it is SUPER fun, inspirational, and can become addicting quickly! If you don't know what I am referring to you can visit my boards HERE but BEWARE you won't be able to stop pinning....I have got so many GREAT ideas from my friends pins (thanks Addie for the scrapping organzination tips) that I am spending this weekend sprucing up and reorganizing my scrap space (and maybe squeezing in a bit of cropping to)! I have also already got so many ideas for Christmas gifts that I might actually be able to finish up my Christmas shopping before Dec 24th this year! Well, gotta go, I'm off to pin a bit more before supper, hope to see you following me at Pinterest soon!

Water Park Fun!

One thing we can say about this June, it's been HOT here in Texas, so we spent today cooling our heels at the water park nearby NRH2O...we had a great time, enjoyed the water slides, wave pool, my fav the lazy river and had fun taking underwater pics with my sister's underwater Kodak PlaySport Camera, it was a lot of fun! Great day with great friends beating the heat! I can't believe we are now half way through summer vacation- my how time flies when you are having fun! And to make my day even more perfect I'm scrapping tonight, so check back tomorrow to see some scrappy goodness!

Happy Memorial Day!

Here marks the price of freedom.... Arlington National Cemetery, what a beautiful final resting place for our heroes. This view as we walked down the hill back to the metro after our visit last summer, was one I didn't want to forget, so I took this picture. I wanted to remember this sight, this reminder that freedom isn't free, and that I will always be so thankful to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and to those who serve today and served in years past to allow me and these 3 sweeties to live in freedom enjoying our holiday at the waterpark today, soaking up the sun, splashing and laughing and realizing the true beauty that comes with freedom. So thank you to our brave men and women, thank you for all you have done and continue to do!

Happy Memorial Day and God Bless the U.S.A.!!

Happy Easter!

"Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; he arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!" ~ Robert Lowery (Up from the Grave he Arose)
Wishing Easter blessing to all you my friends! May His life teach you love and may His death teach you salvation and grace!

Happy Halloween!

Hope ya'll had a Happy and safe Halloween! As you can see we had a crazy bunch for Halloween this year. Jakob was a nerd...Katie the Kat and Ryan went as the Swamp Monster. What a crazy crew and weird mix huh? Miss Katie the Kat couldn't stop admiring herself and thoroughly enjoyed all the candy she got. Ryan had fun trying to see how many houses he could get to in one hour and Jakob actually enjoyed being nerdy...his best saying this year was when Ryan asked him if he was going to go ahead and eat the Nerds they had just received at one house and Jakob replied, "I would but I can't eat my own kind"!!! How funny is that, Ryan and I thought that was SOOOO funny! LOL! So another Halloween has passed and the kids are all in bed, hopefully they won't wake up with a stomach ache with as much candy as they ate :o) I'm off to watch the Rangers game and maybe get a bit of scrappin' in, I have one layout almost done! Got Sketch 106 starts tomorrow, so gotta rest up, gotta make sure I don't fall asleep in class tomorrow. LOL!

Family Fun

We're back from a fun time in Nebraska. The weather was down right hot this year, kinda funny, cuz last year we had snow! LOL! The time we went in 2007 was hotter, but this year ranked right up there, we wore shorts to the pumpkin patch! These are some of the highlight pictures of our trip. We actually carved the pumpkin like professionals this year. It was a cooperative effort between me, Jake and Mari, and it looks pretty nice I think! My little nephew is super cute don't you think, look at those teeth!!! He is growing up so fast. We had a great time at Vala's Pumpkin patch again this year, that place rocks! Loved roasting marshmallows, even if it was hot...and just enjoyed hanging with my brother, sis in law and nephew. Very relaxing and enjoyable time. Can't wait to go back again next year! Hoping to create a few pages this weekend, but gotta get those pesky household chores done first! And of course, a bunch of football to watch this weekend, GO BIG RED! Catch ya back here again real soon! Thanks for stopping by.

We're Back!

We're back from our week long trek to Washington D.C. We had a great time seeing all the wonderful sites, taking in all the history and enjoying all that this wonderful city had to offer. It was my second visit and my son's first. We saw so much but yet there were some things we didn't get to see. We really enjoyed the Air and Space Museum as well as the American History Museum. I LOVE Mount Vernon and we were able to go there by a lovely river cruise up the Potomac, it was a lot of fun...and on the way back Jakob was able to be my guide on the metro! We met some lovely people from all over the world while touring the various sites, everyone was so friendly, it was really fun visiting with friends from Australia, England, France as well as Indiana right here in the good ole' USA! We walked our legs off too...espeically at Arlington National Cemetery, which is beautiful but has a lot of hills...next time we will take a tour bus :o) Our hotel was right down from the Capital so we had some lovely night views and the weather was just perfect...mid 80's each day...a cool wave from the 100 degree temps here in Texas! LOL! School starts tomorrow and we are all set...ready to start back to a routine, this summer sure flew by. I hope to visit with you all again this weekend and share some more scrappy stuff!