Summer Fun

Yes, It has been a very loooooong time since I have posted!!!

So here is a bit of our summer.....above photos.....

Lyssa is living in Harrisburg doing her nursing school....

she took us to a place called DK Dogs....the girls are

sharing a footlong with homemade bun, toppings....frenchfries,

chilli & cheese, coleslaw and banana peppers...they also had

an order of bacon cheese fries...

Sunday afternoon trip to the mountains.

I went to a scrapbook convention with two wonderful ladies....

notice Sue and her loving expression as she is looking

at me!!!

Our little Bella

We visited IKEA with my parents while

in South Carolina.....love this store

Sue & Chris.....part of our scrapbook convention

week is planning on where we will eat!!!!

My treasures!!!

And my ultimate favorite icecream.....

Coldsdtone Creamery...

Founders Favorite (Caramel, chunks of

brownie, pecans .....oh yeah)

Rhubarb Pie

Tis the WONDERFUL season to make rhubarb pie......I LOVE rhubarb pie......just took 2 rhubarb crumb pies out of the oven....UMMMM UMMMMMM.

My First "She Art" Girl

(I tried to get this to rotate but it is just being frustrating for me!)

I signed up for this marvelous class by Christy Tomlinson (You can find her here)

This class is well worth the money.....so many detailed videos and

just a wonderful class to experience.

Girl's Getaway Cruise !!!!

So 11 of us went on the cruise!!!! Loved the weather.....the ocean....

the laziness!!!! Spent several days at the beach in

Florida. Spoild by a wonderful woman named Carla. She

even had this awesom bus (below) drive us around.

Above: Vicki, Renee, Carla, Wanda, Buffy,

Amanday, Allie, Bonnie, Alyssa,

Amy, Shalene and our Driver

On the ship!!!


Chonda Pierce was so funny....Lysa TerKeurst was one of the
speakers and Jaime Jamgochian one of the singers.....


We were at Cozumel, Mexico....while there Lyssa and some of the
others went zip linning and Shalene & I took a Mexican cooking
class!!! Oh so good.

Needless to say, we were spoiled and ate and ate and ate some

more. The evening dining was fabulous. We did

have a rocky day and got a little yucky feeling and oh the

last flight home was....well lets just say it was an expensive

rollar coaster ride. UGH!!

A view from our hotel balcony.

Christmas Journal & More

So for all of you visiting from the Journal Your Christmas site here are

some of my finished pages and the front....

And for everyone else....here are some of the crafts I mentioned....

I made 6 little house ornaments....

and my snowballs that I made to go with my

lady snowman!! I have had

a blast crafting this christmas.....

!

Our December.................

December is here, and with it brings busyness along with

many wonderful family moments....if you take the time

out of your schedule to enjoy them.

We are doing an advent calendar this year that has

coupons in it.....different activities for each day.

Above is one of the activities....enjoy Red Velvet Hot

Chocolate with Cream Cheese Whipped Topping.

The elf came to our house this year. He

has been popping up in different places throughout this

month.

Above: My new decorations I made....
I've been busy making a lot of things this year...
Christmas cards, snowballs, Christmas
Journal, paper mache houses, etc.
Maybe I will get them posted sometime.....
Hummmmmm

My SIL's and I had our annual cookie bake....
we made around 267 dozen cookies -
Anyone know exactly how many cookies that is?

Alyssa was determined to get herself a real
Christmas tree for her hous....she is all bunded up in snow gear
---I think she thinks it is cold outside!


Mifflinburg Christkindle Market.....we went the first evening....
lots of FOOD!!!!!!

And then another Advent activity....they made "snowflakes"

for lunch. Just tortilla shells (the kids cut them)

we fry and load em with powdered sugar....they

love em.

I have determined this Christmas season to make sure I

take time with my family and enjoy....

it is just too easy to get stressed during the holidays.

So far.....I think I'm doing okay.

From our Home to Yours We Wish You All A

Blessed Christmas and A Christ Filled

New Year!

Gathering Supplies for my "Journal Your Christmas Album"

Well, a big part of creating is gathering and organization. I have discoverd

that old muffin tins and jello molds help me organize and

are so cute!

My bin full of products that I will be using for my JYC album

My protfolio ablum from Pink Paislee that I will be using --

now the fun begins....decorating the front!!!!

My inside pages are all different sizes, the album comes with divided pockets, 8.5 x 11 pages, 5x7 pages and pocked with folds....I also will be adding page flaps and additional pages...

probably a few paper, glassine and striped bags from here.
There are small bags to use for little things I want to save and larger sized ones

that I could actually use for a page or to hold receipts from shopping, grocery lists,

gift cards and such (since I love to keep all of that, it is so fun to look back

and see those things!)

Christmas has begun

Christmas has begun at our house.....I've started gathering items to create with....

above are the tags that I created for my Journal your Christmas album.

I enjoyed creating these and though I tried to stick with the same idea, using the same punches

and papers, each tag is a little different.

(I used the girls' paperie tinsel & twig paper, did some machine stitching...glimmer mist,

inking and a lot of odds and ends.)

I'm also collecting items for homemade ornaments. (it is tradition

around here for the kids to get a new ornament each year....but this year we

are creating them ourselves) Other things I've been busy with for Christmas....

our advent calendar....gathering supplies for more crafts, albums and we have the

neighbors handmade gifts finished just gotta get tags made up. Oh, and we can't forget homemade Christmas cards and Sunday School Christmas program.

I must say that this year we are having more of a homemade

holiday than a store bought holiday.

So looking forward to the homemade part.

Sweet 16 -- Shalene!

Shalene is turning 16 at the end of this month! WOW, its hard to

believe. She wanted to do a bonfire so, since I DO NOT enjoy

being cold we had the party at the beginning of the month.

Steve kept the fire going all evening for us...keeping the soup

and spiced cider hot for us.

We had pumpkin carving....which they all seemed to enjoy....
many different creations. Above is one that Alyssa
created.

Here we have our smore's bar....apple cider, vanilla bean, mexican hot choc., butter

pecan, raspberry, gingerbread and more flavored homemade marshmellows.

3 types of grahams and tons of different chocolate along with

toasted coconut, toasted almonds and carmel for the toppings!!!

Though it was a chilling evening, the fire and hot spiced cider kept us warm...

with lots of good fun, friends and fun.....we celebrated the birthday of a wonderful

young lady whom I'm very proud of.