Happy Baby

As the third child, Aiden often doesn't get his share of attention. He is such a good baby that will sit and entertain himself for extended periods of time (which is more than I can say for his older brother and sister). I am totally guilty of not taking as many pictures of him as I did with Jack and Makele. I got to feeling bad about it the other day, so I pulled out my camera, sat him on the table and started snapping away - too bad I was too lazy to put something on him besides a plain white onesie! Oh well, we can't be too picky!



I cannot get enough of this face - I mean, seriously! Could he be any cuter?
He now has eight teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom. The eighth one just started peeking through today. They are so cute - except when he starts grinding them!
Rubber Ducky, you're the one...
As the third child, you often don't get put in a crib for a nap - you have to grab one whenever and wherever you can! ;)
See the above explanation! ;)
Aiden's expression in this picture reminds me so much of Jack - ka-ra-te chop!
Aiden's cousin, Laney (who's 5 weeks older than Aiden - not that you'd be able to tell by the way Aiden is soooooo much tinier than her), came over today to play. The minute I sat her by Aiden, she wanted to give him kisses -
"Mommy, help!"

Little Pals -
Well that's it for now - the little imp's ears must be ringing because he's downstairs screaming right now. Best be getting down there to feed him!

Raspberry Road Designs

Another sponsor for the Dec/Jan issue of Ready, Set, Create was Raspberry Road Designs. I instantly fell in love with the Hootin' Annie Kits and used them to create the following projects:

Supplies: Patterned Paper, Embellishments: Hootin’ Annie Kit, Raspberry Road Designs,

www.raspberryroaddesigns.net; Font: Segoe Script.

I created a mini-album of all of the grandkids on the Ellison side with every intention of printing it for my parents for Christmas, but it just didn't happen. I was missing a couple pictures, and by the time I got them it was too late. I'm sure I'll get around to it by the time the kids are in college. ;) You can click on it to make it bigger -

Supplies: Patterned Paper, Embellishments: Hootin’ Annie Kit, Raspberry Road Designs,

www.raspberryroaddesigns.net; Font: LL Cooper downloaded from www.dafont.com.

The company I have been designing with and teaching for (Rusty Pickle) for the last 2 1/2 years in closing. The economy has hit the scrapbooking industry hard. There have been so many stores and companies closing. They are in the process of liquidating all of their inventory. I'm sad to see them go. I have made so many great friends on the design team and have had the opportunity to travel around the country sharing my love of scrapbooking with others.

Jack's 5th Birthday - Super Mario Style

Jack turned 5 yesterday - the time has flown by so fast! We threw a birthday party for him and invited all the kids his age from the neighborhood. I made the invite in Photoshop Elements (and yes, I did remove the address and phone number for this blog post, mostly because my dad [you know, the one who is constantly hounding me for an update] reads this blog, and I don't want him to know where I live!) ;) Love ya dad!

Jack loves Super Mario, so we did a whole Mario party theme. I got most of my ideas from this blog (gotta give credit where credit is due)!

I finally got to use my pinata making skills I learned in my 7th grade spanish class -

If you can't tell (and what the heck is wrong with you if you can't?) it's a chain chomp.

I also made some coin boxes to put chocolate coins in and a couple piranha plants for decoration.

I made Jack a chocolate star cake with buttercream icing-

When the kids arrived, I had a sheet of Mario characters for them to color, cut out and glue on their goody bags. Of course Jack being the punk that he is decided he didn't need to do this, but everyone else loved it!
We then moved into the living room for the "goomba pop." I had put chocolate coins in brown balloons and blown them up. The kids took turns popping them to get the coins out and putting them in their coin boxes (or more often than not, eating them on the spot!).

Then we played "pin the mustache on Mario"

Little wide there Makele!

The next game was "Hot Bomb-omb." The kids sat in a circle and passed the "bomb-omb" (a ball) around while music played. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the bomb-omb was out. We did this until one person was left. One child tried to work the system when he wouldn't take the ball when it was passed to him. I thought he just didn't want to play. After a couple times I asked him why he wouldn't take it. He said, "because I want to win!" LOL!

The last game we played was a mushroom cake walk. I printed out mushrooms and labeled each with a number. The kids walked around the circle while music played. When the music stopped, I drew a number and whoever was standing on that number won a prize. A word to the wise - NEVER give out noisemakers as prizes to little kids - what was I thinking? ;)

Jack got lots of fun stuff from all of his friends.
He didn't want us singing "Happy Birthday" to him, but we did it anyway (after all it's not a party until someone cries)! Jack saw these tool candles at Michaels and had to have them for his cake because "Mario has tools."
Cake, ice cream & rootbeer - what more could a kid want? The little boy on the bottom left has the same affinity for the camera as Jack.
And finally, before the kids went home they all took a swing at the pinata. Since we had no where to hang it and it was too cold to go outside, Jeff made the supreme sacrifice and held it (can you see the look of fear in his eyes?).

It held up long enough for everyone to beat it at least once before it broke open all over the place-
I think it's a great look for Jeff ;) -
All the hard work putting this together was worth every bit to see the smile on Jack's face. He got so excited every time I showed him something new I had made. I think that was just as fun for him as the party!

It was such a busy day, that Jeff & I didn't even give Jack his present from us until today. I figured he had enough stuff to play with!

Christine Honsinger/Fidlette

Another one of Ready Set Create's sponsor's for the Dec/Jan issue was Christine Honsinger (aka Fidlette designs). Her designs are different than what I am used to working with digitally. She has a very unique style - lots of vintage and altered stuff that is pure eye candy! When I saw her 1 x 2 Animal Vignettes, I knew right away that I wanted to make a charm bracelet from them.

Keep in mind that I have NEVER made a piece of jewelry in my life, but we were doing a charm swap at the Rusty Pickle retreat, so I decided to give it a go. Here's a little tutorial on how to make them -

1. Enlarge the Vignettes to approximately 1.5 x 3" in a photo editing program (I used Photoshop Elements).

2. Decrease the opacity of the Vignettes to around 50% since the colors will intensify when shrunk.

3. Print them out on a sheet of "Shrinky Dinks for Ink Jet Printers" and cut them out with scissors or a paper trimmer.

4. Use a 1/8" hole punch to punch a hole in the top left hand corner of the picture.

5. If desired, use a corner rounder punch to round the corners of the charms.

6. Follow the instructions on the Shrinky Dinks package to bake the charms. Note: the edges of my charms curled under a bit when I took them out of the oven. I placed a sheet of paper over them and went over them a few times with a rolling pin while they were still hot to flatten them out. Since the charms cooled quickly, I only placed 2 charms in the oven at a time. That way I could flatten them out before they cooled.

7. Spray the charms with a sealant. I used Plaid's Clear Acrylic Sealer in Gloss to give it a bit of a sheen. If you don't want the sheen, use a matte sealer. Allow the sealer to dry completely.

8. Place a jump ring through the hole. I also attached a heart charm to the jump ring.

9. Attach a lobster claw clip to the jump ring. Note: If you don't intend on taking the charms off the bracelet, you could just attach the jump ring to the bracelet itself.

Woolah! That's it!

The finished product (pretty dang cute if I might say so myself)-

I used Christine's Get Creative with Fidlette Kit to create some art work to display in a frame.

This frame was inspired by one Lucy Edison created. She has an excellent tutorial on how to create one at amillionmemories.com. The artwork in the center says, "Art is the only way to run away without leaving home" - Twyla Tharp.

Picture Supplies: All elements from Get Creative with Fidlette Kit by Christine Honsinger, www.scrapartist.com; Frame Supplies: Frame: Michaels, Chipboard: Creative Imaginations; Flower: Prima; Leaves: Making Memories; Lace: Rusty Pickle; Paint: Delta.

Traci Reed/Sweet Shoppe Designs

I still haven't been able to get my external hard drive hooked up, but I was able to pull my digital layouts out of Ready Set Create's Dec/Jan issue. Traci Reed was one of our sponsors. I used her Bare Feet & Blue Jeans Kit for both of my layouts this issue.

I also used her "Bottom Ups: Set 1" Templates for both layouts. I love working with templates - it makes putting a digital layout together so incredibly simple and the finished layout looks great!

Silly Boy -

Supplies: Patterned Paper, Alphas, Embellishments: Bare Feet and Blue Jeans Kit by Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Template: Bottom Ups: Set 1 by Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Font: Prestige Elite Std.

For the next layout, I also used Traci Reed's "Acrylic-O-Holic" Kit along with the other kits mentioned above.

Supplies: Patterned Paper, Alphas, Embellishments: Bare Feet and Blue Jeans Kit by Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Acrylic Embellishments: Acrylic-O-Holic by Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Template: Bottom Ups: Set 1 by Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com; Font: Prestige Elite Std.

Makele's Dance Recital

I forgot that I haven't posted about Makele's dance recital. It was December 14th. Her class did a tap routine. She did so well, and we couldn't have been prouder!

Kylie & Aunt Shawna came to watch -
Grandma & Grandpa Neuberger also came (with flowers for the little dancer) -
I have been wanting to post some digital layouts I did for the latest issue of Ready, Set, Create, but they are stored on my external hard drive. It's been going through a midlife crisis lately and won't plug into my computer with the USB cord. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I have dropped it one too many times!

Christmas Recap

I know this is way overdue (and for the record, Dad, it hasn't been a month - yet!), but I got caught up reading a book Jeff got me for my birthday and haven't had time to update. I put off reading it until after Christmas for this very reason - once I start a good book, I have a hard time putting it down. I have been up the last few nights until 1:00 am reading and finally finished it last night. The book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I highly recommend it! I also have the second book in the series, but I have to wait to read it so I can get a few things done! She is also writing a third one too.

Back to Christmas. We were just partyin' all week long! The Sunday before Christmas, my sisters and I got together to dip chocolates. They turned out so yummy!

That Tuesday, we went to Jeff's parents for their Christmas party. A special visitor even showed up (I love the look on all the kids' faces) -
Word on the street is that Santa moonlights as a clown for the rest of the year, so he's really good at making balloon animals. ;)
Jack had no reservations about sitting on Santa's lap this time. He got right in line and told him exactly what he wanted - a transformer. Funny thing is that I don't think he's even seen a transformer. He wanted one because he has heard his older cousin, Tanner, talk about them. (Incidentally Santa did bring him one. When he saw it, he said, "I don't like it; I don't like his eyes!" Ha, ha!)
Aiden is almost as round as Santa -
All the grandkids (except Katie & Marc) with Grandma and Grandpa Neuberger -
LtoR on couch: Beck, Mallory, Makele, Grandma, Maggie, Grandpa, Sophie, Aiden, Mayson, Jack; LtoR in front: Ellie, Shelby & Kaden.

Late Wednesday night we arrived at my parent's house to spend Christmas with them. My brother's family was also there.

Christmas Eve the kids opened the customary pajamas and posed for a picture. Looks like they are all ready to sleep, right? ;)

Christmas morning - Jack got the best gift ever - Mario Galaxy (he has not wanted to stop playing ever since)!
He also got Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. He was pretty dang excited about this since he saw it in the store and wanted it sooooooo bad!
Grandpa even had a go -
Makele got Guess Who? She loves this game at Grandma's house - now she has her own (although I must say it is A LOT more cheaply made than Grandma's).
My brother, Landon, got a special surprise behind the tree -
Aiden slept all the way through the opening of gifts early in the morning, but he was up and ready to go after!
Makele, Aiden & Chloe -
Aiden finally getting to open a present -
Taking a nap - It's tough business opening presents!

Christmas afternoon, all of my brothers and sisters and their families were at my parent's house. Can you say C-R-A-Z-Y! Every year we do a white elephant with my siblings. It's always entertaining, and this year there was a fight to the finish with gifts being stolen left and right.

We got matching sweaters for the cousins to wear - aren't they the cutest?

LtoR: Dawson, Dustin, Laney, Kylie, Jack (I seriously took so many pictures and not even ONE had a picture of him without his tongue sticking out or him pulling a crazy face), Chloe, Brinlynn, Tanner, Aiden, Dakoda and Makele (I don't know how I missed the hair in her face).

It was a really great Christmas - I'm so glad we got to spend it with our families!