Lil' Dancer

This last weekend we went down to Lewiston just to see Peanut dance in the Dogwood Festival. She has been in dance for several months and this was her first performance. We weren't sure if she would freeze up or not. Around family she is the total performer and goofball but there were a lot of people there that she didn't know that would be watching her. She did so good. She was excited to get up on the stage and kept trying to go up before her turn then when her turn was over she kept wanting to go back up. She has a recital in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping I'll be able to go down to see her.

This is a video of her performance and she is the 2nd one in from the left. Everytime you see her look over her right shoulder she is looking back at her own little cheering crowd of all of us that showed up to see her dance.

8th Anniversary

I can't believe that Scott & I have been married 8 years today. Wow, how time flies. He says it feels longer but only because he feels that we fit together so good that it seems like he's always been married to me....not being on #3.

Here is to many more years to come and praying they will only get better and easier.

Yummy dinner recipe...Peachy Chicken

I tried a new recipe last night that ended up being real yummy & one to do again.
If anyone would like to give it a try, it is really easy too.

Peachy Chicken
Prep/Total Tim: 25 min.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz each) - I used 8 chicken tenderloins
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 can (15 1/4 oz) sliced peaches, undrained
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 envelope onion soup mix
hot cooked rice (optional) - this is what I used

In a large skillet over medium heat, brown chicken in oil and butter; remove and keep warm. Add peaches with juice, brown sugar, orange juice and soup mix to skillet; stir until combined. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Reduce heat; return chicken to pan. Simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Serve over rice if desired.
Yield: 4 servings

Saturday's Song - Sweetly Broken

I haven't posted a Saturday's song in a few weeks due to not being home for awhile but I really wanted to post this one on the Saturday before Easter (just got to it a little late). It seemed really appropriate.

May you take the opportunity this Easter to look to the cross and all that Christ did for us by dying on it for yours and my sins. Remember the true meaning behind this holiday.


Sweetly Broken
Jeremy Riddle From the album Sweetly Broken

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Saviour both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I'm sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You've called me out of death
You've called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the Cross I'm reconciled

Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I'm sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wonderous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

Vacation Favorites and Funnies

I wanted to do a little list of some of the things that I jotted down to remember:

I LOVED:
*the way the humidity made my hair really curly and I didn't need a curling iron all week long.

*having coffee on the lanai every morning watching the surfers and listening to the surf.

*falling asleep every night to the waves crashing on the beach.

*walking on the beach and wading in the water.

*watching the dolphins swimming in the shallow waters with everyone out there at Big Beach.

*watching Scott run down fully clothed in his jeans to the ocean when we first made it to Maui on the first night.

*seeing my dad standing in the airport awaiting our arrival with 3 lei's around his neck for us.

*the relaxing and laid back atmosphere.

*taking a shower and looking out at the ocean.

*and cherished the wonderful time I got to spend with my family on an amazing vacation.

WE LAUGHED AT:
*dad...anxious to get back to the condo to check his Facebook.

*Logan & Lilly's Photo Booth pictures on dad's Mac...our ribs and bellies hurt, we laughed so hard.

*the chef at Kobe who also picked on Scott while dining there - Scott's reply to him was...I get this treatment from them, now I'm getting it from you.

*Terry stating that she'd be the designated mule, at the 'Ulalena show.

*Dad and Terry checking out Little Beach.

*the statement of getting sand on your balls and in all other cracks and crevices on Big Beach.
(my husband was not the only one to say this either...a cute little nephew of mine said it too)

*Terry scratching her foot with her back scratcher.

*the comment I made in the book that after seeing the layout of the condo, the real narrow, spiral staircase and being on the 3rd floor that...if the condo were to catch fire...Scott & Dez would die being stuck upstairs.

*the fact that one day my sister and I had a piece of bread for lunch...really.

THE JOURNAL:
My sister, for a Christmas gift to my Dad & Terry, made up a "Hawaii" journal book that they could put out for everyone to write in their thoughts on their vacations. But maybe I should back up a little....my Dad & Terry (my stepmom) have 6 kids between them and 22 grandchildren so their Christmas gifts to us were tickets for us to fly to Maui and they were getting a place to stay for a month and each week they were over there some of the kids/grandkids went over to stay.

The 1st week was my brother, Shane & Lisa, and his family and my step-brother, Todd & Kathleen, and his family, grandson Garrett (Daren's son) and his friend (15 total with Dad & Terry). The 2nd week was my step-brother, Daren & Sherri, and his family (8 total with Dad & Terry). My sister, Amanda, Scott and I were there for their 3rd week (5 total with Dad & Terry). The 4th week my step-sister, Marcie & Brett, and her family (8 total with Dad & Terry). While we were there they did get an offer to stay an extra two weeks in the condo at no additional cost to them. We believe they will work it in to stay, why not, an offer you can't pass up.

But this journal that my sister made...every night when everyone came in they had to write something down about that day. Whether it be a word about an event to describe what they felt or experienced or what they did or what not. By the time we got there we were able to go back and read the prior 2 weeks of what everyone said. That was so neat. A great way to document everyone's memories.

Overall it was a WONDERFUL vacation. One we did not want to see end. I told Scott that I felt he would love it over there so much he would want to stay and maybe even move over there. We won't rule that out. My sister was thinking of it too. She isn't married and doesn't have any kids so she could easily take a couple years and go over and work in the service industry. If we did it it would only be for a couple of years too. You go and don't want to come back.

Day 8 & 9 of Maui trip

Day 8 - Friday - Today is the day we leave our short lived time in paradise. The day we've been dreading to come and hoped wouldn't come too quickly once we arrived. Unbeknownst to us it would be the longest day of our lives...melding this day and the next into one.

We had talked about going into the aquarium on our way to the airport but once we found out how expensive it was to quickly just go through it didn't seem a good idea. What we all really wanted to do was just relax and enjoy the beach as much as we could before we were to fly out early that evening. None of us knew when the next time we would be getting to the beach again (the Couer d' Alene lake doesn't count) so we just really wanted to take our time there. We walked along the beach and enjoyed the surfers for the last time. Later on in the early afternoon we loaded up and started for the airport but planned on doing a little shopping and looking around in the city that the airport is in. We finally made it into the scrapbook store too. They had a couple of aisles that was paper they have designed themselves along with a ton of die cuts that are specialized to Hawaii and things to do over there.

We got to the airport and wow what a WONDERFUL experience that was. We had to go through an agriculture check (for our check-in luggage - finding this out after we made it up to the ticketing counter) then regular check-in and security. Once we made it up to security we had things in our carry-ons that they wouldn't allow on...oh joy. So we had to take one of my bags and switch everything around so I could go back in and check it. My sister had in her bag some syrup and jams that she had bought (in glass jars, you carry it on generally because the way they throw your luggage around, just what you need is a bunch of broken glass in your luggage when you get home) and I had a larger bottle of really yummy lotion I had bought off Terry, since I didn't make it back to get my own bottle. The bag I had to check it in was the one we had our laptop in and we weren't going to let our laptop get checked so we had to re-arrange our carry-ons and hold up the lines. By the time I went all the way back down to ticketing and ran it through the agricultural check, then get it checked in and back through security...I had definitely got my workout in for the day. It was a good thing we were there 2 hours before our flight was to leave. We flew out and had a layover in Oahu, so we grabbed something to eat really quickly there. Our layover time got cut short because they started boarding early and thought we may be able to take off early if everyone was boarded. Since we didn't have much time we were scarfing down our food and I ended up taking my burger onto the plane and waiting until we were ready to leave before I ate it. We had the same size plane coming home as we did in going so we were all crammed in there like sardines and since we were leaving at 9:15 from Oahu and getting into Sea-Tac at 5:29 am...that was supposed to be our sleep time as well. We lost 3 hours coming home and there was so much turbulence coming back it was really hard to sleep. I think we all got a little bit though and when we got into Sea-Tac we were super tired. We picked up our bags and had to re-check into Southwest to come home but first we had to do some re-arranging again because we had to get Amanda's stuff to her and we weren't planning on checking the bag that we HAD to in Maui. Once we got checked in and got our boarding passes, Scott and I's flight was to leave at 8:55 am to come to Spokane and Amanda's flight didn't leave until 1:05 to go to Boise. Since we were there so early, Southwest has it so you can't check your luggage until a minimum of 4 hours before take-off....OH JOY! So my sister had to sit out by the ticketing counter. We hung out with her for about an hour before we had to get through security and find our gate so we could leave. What a terrible feeling to have to leave your sister sitting there by herself and knowing you are in the same airport but on two different ends of security and you can't spend that time together....who knows when the next time we'll see each other will be. We were all so exhausted too that she wasn't going to get home until after 3 pm her time. I slept the whole flight to Spokane (which is only 35 minutes). Both Scott and I were just tired all day and once we got home and un-packed it felt like it should be late afternoon but was only actually 11:30 am...thus the feeling of being the longest day of our lives.

Once we got everything put away we both just wanted a hot shower (because I was still in yesterday's makeup, etc...) but were a little bummed by the fact that the last shower we had taken the day before we had this as our view and it was no longer to be. The shower in the bathroom that Scott and I had looked right out over the ocean...how great would that be everyday.

Day 6 & 7 of Maui Trip

Day 6 - Wednesday - We had a whale-watching/snuba boat trip planned for the early afternoon it was overcast and windy all day. (This picture of my sister was taken on the boat on the way out). When we started out on the boat, it was keeping pretty close to the shore all along our excursion and about 8 - 10 miles out of the harbor it dropped anchor so everyone who wanted to could snorkel.


The snuba is a lot like scuba diving but you don't have a tank on your back. The tank is on this little floating raft and 2 people share the same tank for 20 minutes. The line to the tank will allow you to dive 20 feet down. The instructor was taking down 6 people at a time in 2 different dives (so a total of 12 people on board were snubaing...not sure if that is a word?) Scott and my stepmom, Terry, were going to snuba. My sister, Amanda, had planned to but within a day of us getting to Maui she started to get congested and was still battling that so she didn't feel like going down and come to find out they wouldn't have let her anyway.


They had BBQ'd burgers, hotdogs, and chicken up for if you wanted to have lunch you could eat that too. Since my sister & I went to see the whales and take pictures of the snuba part, we just chilled on the boat.


When it came time for Scott & Terry to do their dive, I got ready and took lots of pictures and did a little video too. Once Scott got in the water though, he couldn't get his breathing apparatus to work and found out that because of his braces, he couldn't bite down on it all the way to seal it in his mouth so he couldn't dive but he was able to do some snorkeling. We also found that it messed up his wire in his mouth and stressed about having to find an orthodonist on the island that could fix it (luckily he was able to get the wire routed back to where it was supposed to be). Terry had lots of fun though and since she is certified to scuba dive (but it had been awhile since she had done any diving) it all came back to her quickly and she enjoyed herself. (These underwater pictures were taken by the underwater photographer they had on board).


On the boat, Scott happened to meet a gal (22) from Coeur d' Alene who was there on vacation as well but she got there a day ahead of us and was leaving a day before us. After talking to her a little bit we (my sister & I) noticed....hey, she is flirting with my husband, so we figured we would keep an eye out on her on this trip. Unbeknownst to me that Scott had realized it as well but once she found out he had 4 kids and the youngest was almost 17, she didn't seem interested anymore....how about the fact that he is already married....that should have made her loose interest...some people.


After the 2nd set of divers came back on the boat it started to head into shore and we realized, hey if we REALLY wanted to see a whale, this wasn't the right boat to go on. This boat was more geared to those who were snorkeling and doing the snuba part. To see a whale you had to go further out in the ocean that closer to shore. We did see at least one whale...way off in the distance that had come up for air but that was it.


Day 7 - Thursday - This was the first rainy day we encountered on our trip and it rained ALL day long, so we opted for shopping. We walked down in Lahaina and saw the Banyan Tree that covers 2/3 of an acre. It was planted in April 1873 and started out at 8 feet but has now grown to over 60 feet with 12 major trunks. We've been told that in the early morning birds are in this tree and there are so many and they are so loud you almost need ear plugs.


We had scheduled to go to the Old Lahaina Luau that night but just a few minutes before going in they cancelled it due to the rain. Scott and I were a little bummed about it because he had never been to a Luau and I wanted to see another one. Since we were to leave the next day we made it an early night so we could get everything packed up so we didn't feel so rushed the next day.

Day 4 & 5 of Maui Trip

Day 4 - Monday - We spent most of the day relaxing around the condo and on the beach. We walked up and down the beach a little, read a little, played in the ocean, and got lots of sun since it was a BEAUTIFUL day. It was our first day that it wasn't overcast but the sun was shining brightly. Maui's weather is weird it is overcast a lot but not always rainy and it can rain in the front of one place but in the back it isn't. It is a little humid over here but not so much as you feel as if you are wet all the time. My hair has a little natural curl in it and the humidity is really making it curl and doing wonders for my skin....think I'll stay....better look for a job first though.

We went to Bubba Gump's (the picture is of my sister) for dinner and it is a little restaurant that is based around the "Forrest Gump" movie. Then that evening we went to the 'Ulalena show, wow, what a beautiful show that tells a little bit about the beginning of Maui. It has an all percussion orchestra maned by 4 people with over 70 instruments, some of them native to Hawaii. My favorite part is an acrobatic number where the acrobat is shown in a waterfall. So amazing.

Day 5 - Tuesday - We started out the day by going to Big Beach, the waves were HUGE and would crash up on the beach with a lot of sand swirling in it. There was sand everywhere. If you got into the surf at all, you ended up with it in every crevice of your body (no joke, my hubby said so). We spotted several times a bunch (7-9) dolphins swimming off shore real close to where everyone was out in the water. It was pretty cool to see them jumping and showing off and swimming with everyone. There is another beach just over a rocky little mountain called Little Beach where it is a known nude beach. I definitely wasn't going to check it out...yuck!

We did a little site seeing for the rest of the day and took a long drive up along the base of Haleakala. (Little note about this I found on a map - The Hawaiian islands are a series of volcanos rising from the ocean floor, with the island of Maui being made up of two volcanos. The larger volcano is 10, 023 foot-high Haleakala, which means house of the sun.) We also went up north around Makawao, Pe'ahi, Ha'iku & Pa'ia. Right between Ha'iku and Pa'ia there is a huge area of the ocean where all the wind surfers and kite surfers go. We got a few pictures as we were zooming through. It was cool since there were sooo many of them out there.

We ended the evening by taking my dad & stepmom to Lailani's on the Beach for dinner, so nice and elegant. So far all of the dining we have done is all open, they open up these shades and the fresh air comes right in. No windows just all open to the outside. I love it.

Day 2 & 3 of Maui Trip

Day 2 - Saturday - We were moving from Ka'anapali Shores (resort) to Puamana Park (privately owned condo in gated community) but we couldn't check into the condo until 3 pm so we had plenty of time to hang out at the resort and enjoy the beach and pool there. My dad wanted to catch the 1st game of the Final Four games and wanted to work it in that we would move at 1/2 time so he wouldn't miss the game. Ka'anapali Shores was beautiful but a little windy because it is further north. We went down to the beach for awhile and took pictures. We were all just very excited to be at the BEACH, it had been so long since any of us had been to one. We were trying to get as much enjoyment out of the resort since we didn't know what to expect once we got to the new place. The downfall to the new place is that we had very, very minimal internet connection. We were using someone elses wireless connection and it wasn't very strong so it was hit and miss.


**Our room is on the top floor of this condo and we get to fall asleep every night to the waves..oh bliss!

The 2nd picture is of our room and view.

The 3rd is of the condo - main floor.

And 4th the spiral staircase that goes up two more floors.



Day 3 - Sunday - We went to Palm Sunday service at King's Chapel (a part of King's Cathedral). The people there were very friendly and it was a real good message on faith. I thought it funny (ironic) that they announced that Joyce Meyer was to be at the King's Cathedral that night for a service and I love Joyce Meyer. I get her daily podcasts and love to listen to her messages.

We took a drive up the western coast of Maui north to Napili and Kapalua and saw several surfers. Since we weren't getting an internet connection anywhere we went to Starbucks and paid a little so we could all get online for a bit. We had an amazing dinner at Kobe (a Japanese steakhouse) and I generally don't like Japanese food but this was really good. If you have never been to a Japanese restaurant, they typically put on a show for you and cook it right at your table. It was good and our cook even did a good job of picking on Scott. (Little side note: my family loves to pick on Scott since he is generally so serious and easy to pick on, so he had a whole week to put up with being picked on.) But we thought it cute when my family wasn't the only one doing the picking. My sister started getting sick from her allergies, she is sensitive to many smells of perfumes, flowers, etc...and she had so many of them floating around she started getting sick from it all. Not a real fun time to be sick, you want to be able to enjoy your time here, but she is a tough little cookie and trooped right along.

(This was the first sunset we were able to see because it wasn't overcast)

Day 1 of Maui Trip

We started out by getting up at 3 am to get ready to head for the airport. I am familiar with 3 am but it is usually because I haven't gone to bed yet, not on the getting up side. We got to the airport and before getting on the plane, noticed that it was snowing once again outside...WOW...so glad that we won't be seeing that for a week.

We met up with my sister in Seattle and had a whole day in the airport. Our original flight we were to have a couple of hours before our next flight out to Maui, however, when my sister checked to make sure everything was okay with our flights, it had changed and we were flying out 45 minutes earlier. Since we were using two different airlines and had to go pick up our luggage and re-check it with the other airline and unsure of the Sea-Tac airport, we wanted to make sure we didn't miss that flight going to Maui so she got it switched around so we left a lot earlier and had plenty of time.

Spending a whole day in an airport kinda sucks, thankfully, I was with my husband and sissy, which made it better. I'm really glad I didn't have to deal with any little ones and trying to keep them from being BORED and trying to keep them entertained.

It was finally time to board our flight to Maui...we thought we were going to be in a really big plane but the only difference between this plane and a regular Southwest flight plane was it was longer. Not any more room in the seats or leg room. I also didn't realize that our flight was actually 6 hours long. So glad we had plenty of stuff in our carry-ons to keep us busy. I was able to snooze for about 30 minutes but REALLY...we were just TOO EXCITED. My sister and I watched "Twilight" on our first part of the trip, she had never seen but decided she would like to be able to see it again on a much larger screen than a little iPod.

We arrived in Maui, got off the plane and my dad was standing there with 3 lei's around his neck. He "lei'd" all of us. This used to be a tradition a long time ago that anyone coming to Hawaii would get a lei and when we were here when I was 17 we got one but found out that it was included with the vacation package that my dad had. Mine smelled like gardenia's but they are little flowers and have found out that they are Tuberose, right now they are in the refrigerator in a baggie so we can take them home.

(These pictures are of the first place we stayed at Ka'Anapali Shores)

We grabbed some dinner (our time 11 pm) and headed to our condo at Ka'Anapali Shores, we couldn't see a whole lot because the sun sets here at 7. We walked around the outdoor courtyard, saw the pools and Scott ran to get his feet wet in the ocean. It is soo beautiful here. We hadn't even been here for 24 hours before Scott said he was ready to move here. I told him he wouldn't want to come home and that he would LOVE it here.

A special trip for Peanut

Whenever we leave to come home from Lewiston, little Peanut, ALWAYS wants to come home with us. Likewise, whenever we talk to her on the phone she always asks to come to our house. This time, mommy and daddy finally said, "Yes". Since I'm not working right now it worked out perfectly for us to take her. She was SOOO excited. She doesn't really understand how long it takes to get to our house because she typically sleeps the whole way or at least 3/4 of the way.

When we finally pulled into our driveway, Scott backed into it and she woke up, looking at the house across the street, and said, "Meema, your house got bigger and bigger". We laughed and told her that no, our house was behind her. She promptly came in and wanted to watch cartoons. She knows that Meema & Papa don't have cable, but we have a lot of DVD's that are cartoons. Since we needed the chance to unload the car with all our gear, I got them started for her so she wouldn't be bored, while we were working.

The first night was a little hard to get her to go to sleep, 1 - because she took a 2 1/2 hour nap all the way from Lewiston and 2 - she was a little scared, not having mommy and daddy here with her. By the second night I had her figured out and put her on the floor in her sleeping bag and turned off all the lights but left the tv on so we could finish watching our programs. She went to sleep a lot faster that way.

The first day we watched "Care Bears" so much I was ready to choke them (Aydann just wants to be a Care Bear - if you've ever heard the starting up music, you'd know what I'm talking about). I told her we needed to turn the tv off to give it a rest and I pulled out a couple of games to play with her and a couple of books to read. Much quieter without that nasty tv going. We were going to meet Papa in town after work because Meema had a Cold Stone birthday ice cream coupon that expired that day to get used up...who wants to pass up free ice cream, not me. So we went to dinner and took her to Cold Stone, she just happened to be in the right place at the right time, we wouldn't normally do this with her, but she got spoiled just the same.

We made a quick trip to Walmart and by the time we got home, Papa had the tv on and she walked in and said, "Papa, the tv needs to take a rest". So cute.

She also was in the cupboard spinning around the lazy susan looking for something and she said, "I just want, I just want, this kind of sugar" and pulls out the strawberry milk. I made her let me take a picture of her with it because I thought that was so funny.

On Tuesday, Mandi, Justin and Jaxon came up to get Peanut and stay the night. Mandi had some shopping she wanted to do and Justin needed a break from the valley, since he was on vacation, what a good chance to come up. She was so excited to see mommy and daddy but she still wanted to come back to our house. Wants the best of both worlds I guess.

We got snowed on a few days this week and she was excited to see it and run through it a bit. Here it looks like she is going to throw a snowball.

She was so incredibly good for us. I never have any problems with her, she even did a little snuggling with Papa. Hopefully it won't be so long until she comes to visit again, I know it won't be long before she's asking, "Can I come to your house"?

Last weekend was a busy one

I wanted to do a post about last weekend before we go on our vacation, because I will have lots to post then.

This last weekend we went to Lewiston so Scott could help put in an egress window in Mandi & Justin's basement. There were several guys there to help because they were also starting on replacing the roof. The prior owners left it with 3 -4 layers on top...I think legally there should only be 2. They were also removing the chimney built up the side of the house because it serves no purpose and was just an eye sore. Too bad the weather couldn't cooperate with them, it rained on them the WHOLE time. It slowed down Justin and Ryan on the roof and Scott and Nate in the muddy hole dug for the egress. They were soaked by the end of the day and cold.

Here are a few pictures (you can click on any of them to make them larger) Scott breaking out the old window


Here is a picture of the chimney before they are taking it down. They were really lucky that when it came down that it didn't take any of the power lines with it, there were a lot of prayers being lifted that day. Here it is all over the yard, makes the side of the house look better though.


This is the HUGE piece that Scott managed to get out that was under the chimney but slightly attached to the existing foundation. Boy the whole house shook when he dislodged it, we were running for the door.

Here is Scott with the concrete saw and Nate's help cutting out the window. What a HUGE mess that made for the women folk to clean up on the inside. He was so upset that we didn't let him know it was wreaking havoc on the inside. He takes pride in keeping a clean construction site, but once he started what to do? We were more worried about all the kids inside and breathing in all that dust that was floating up the stairs. We know what to do now for the next one that needs to be put in to minimize cleanup.

Here is Scott wacking out the concrete...just about every guy there took a turn. It really lets a lot more light into the basement.

Since we will be in Maui when the little guy, Jaxon, turns 1 (and we were going to miss his birthday party) we took our gifts to him and I did a little smash cake for him...guess it was a trial run so he knows what to do this weekend. He didn't do too much damage to it. We got him this "CAT" dump truck. It is so cute, he can sit on it and ride around, put all kinds of stuff in the back of it. From the reports we've gotten from mama, he plays with it a lot. Good, I'm sure it will get a lot of use in years to come out in the dirt too.

My latest cards...I've been busy

I have slacked a little in getting some of the cards I've done lately posted. I've been really busy in that craft room lately and since these cards have been given to the recipients, I feel safe in posting them now. I do have a few that I will post later in a couple of weeks.


This first one is my brother's birthday card and I used the Cricut on it 100%...not used to doing that and I look at it and see it isn't really my style to do the whole card only by cutting out on the Cricut. I can do much better than this. I knew I wanted to use the BSU paper since he is a HUGE fan.



This next one I did for my best friends daughter (kind of my adopted niece) Cassie's birthday. Once again I used the Cricut to cut everything out and then used my Cuttlebug to emboss several items on this card. I did do a little stamping on this one behind the cupcake and added my own dotted/line border around the whole card.



Next is my niece, Lilly's birthday card. I wanted to do another Tinkerbell card since I heard she liked Tinkerbell as well but I wanted to do something different than Aydann's card...only fair. I used my Cricut with the Design Studio to cut out the scallop circle and light purple border and the "4". A punch to cut out the green strip and my Nestabilities to cut out the smaller scallop circle.

The last card for now is Jaxon's Birthday card...he is a big 1 year old tomorrow. I did a lot of paper layering on this one so the front is pretty heavy. I used the new Imaginisce paper-Twitterpated- and rub-ons with the woodland animals. I created my own layered flower with a couple of punches that I have and the "1" was cut out on my Cricut. When I did this card it was prior to knowing what Mandi was doing for a theme, so it is a little off (he's having a jungle party) but since we won't be able to celebrate with him this year, I guess it will all work out okay. We did our gifts/cake with him last weekend because this weekend we are leaving for Maui (trip was planned before the little guy was even born).