Happy Birthday Jesus!

What does Christmas mean to you? Gifts, turkey, lights, Santa, or snow?? It was so fun to listen to my boys talking the other day as they discussed Christmas. Of course they were excited about presents... their wishlist had been a mile long, thanks to the Sears wishbook!! But then they switched gears and talked about what we were going to do as a family over Christmas, the main thing they kept saying was that it was a birthday party for Jesus.... that's right!

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, "God with us." (Matthew 1:23)

Merry Christmas everyone, and remember the reason we celebrate is because God gave us the best gift.... baby Jesus in the manger 2000 years ago. What a great gift.


(Christmas card from Hilda D. Thanks!!!!)

Christmas surprises...

A couple days ago, Lisa dropped in and gave me these nice surprises.... a beautiful hand crafted card:

And these awesome little treat packages. What a nice surprise! Thanks so much Lisa, we will enjoy them for sure!

Retiring Accessories

Click here to see the updated Retiring Accessories List.

Scrapbook Club pages

Here is the layout we did for December with my scrapbooking clubs... I used the song Once Upon a December as my inspiration! See if you can find some of the aspects of the song in the layout..... hint - there are no dancing bears or horses on this page, you have to think more abstract than that!!!

If you want to watch the music video by Deana Carter, Click on the song title below, and then hit "click here to watch video"

Once Upon a December

Dancing bears,
Painted wings
Things I almost remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December

Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...

Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Once upon a December

Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...

Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Things it yearns to remember...

And a song someone sings
Once upon a December

Merry Christmas card

Here's a card I got this week in the mail.. I love the snowman family Sarah W. made using 2 different sets (both of these sets are on the retiring list, so they're only available until Dec. 31).

Starting young....

Scary that E knows how to do this already!!!

Virtuoso

Fireplaces

What's better than having your fireplace on? How about 2 fireplaces!!!! We have a channel that plays hour after hour of a real wood burning fireplace... complete with the crackles and stoking of the fire. Our little gas fireplace looks kind of sad next below it... but at least the gas one gives the real heat. We just have to figure out how to get that wood burning smell... hmm... I guess I could burn some dinner!

On a funny note... we tried this downstairs in the theatre, and it was a little scary because it looked like the whole wall was on fire... we changed the channel pretty quickly!

First one.....

Here is my first Christmas card of the season. I got it on Wednesday night from Patti. What a cute little snowman... I am just not sure I agree with him that it should snow!!! Thanks Patti!

What's up???

We've had a busy couple of days around here... snow on Monday, which cancelled my book party that I was going to host, but oh well, still got to put in an order and get some freebies!!

Then Tuesday, this beautiful creation was made in our front yard, but it took all the snow in the back yard to accomplish, so that kind of tells you how much snow we got. Today just the bottom 2 sections remain... the rest of the yard is pretty much green again, although I heard they are calling for more of the white stuff soon.


On Wednesday, I somehow got this surge of energy and got busy decorating the house for Christmas... the motivation was that last night was the final night for one of my scrapbooking clubs, and we were doing a Christmas page layout... I will share that next week after my other club gets to do the page. Anyhoo... here's Scotty putting on the star (it took a bit to convince him this was a good idea!)

Ahhh, Siesta!

Check this out... napping not only feels good, it's good for you too! So, whether you choose to take a nap on the couch, or cozy right into your bed... it's a GOOD IDEA! I am all over that! My kids all generally take a nap each afternoon, and when I can sneak it in, I join them!!!!!

MSN News article

Weather traditions...

November 26, 2006 -first snowfall of 2006

November 26, 2007 - first snowfall of 2007

It only started snowing at around 6:00 this evening, just enough to cover the ground in a few centimetres. Yes, Steve is carrying a rake... he used a shovel to clear the sidewalk, but the rake is to knock the snow off the shrubs so it doesn't freeze and break branches. Just thought I would mention that so you didn't think he was still searching for leaves to rake up... Fall is gone, baby! Winter has arrived!

My first Christmas decorations - chipboard snowflakes, covered in Ballet Blue craft ink, then heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds on 2 of them, and microbeads on the other one. I like the look of the dazzling diamonds best, so I will do more like that. I have hung them on my hallway mirror.

Boatloads of Love

E and the Blue Felt Pen...

Elise had a great time this morning colouring alongside her brothers. She loves felts! Glad these are washable, otherwise we might have had to take a little Smurfette to church tomorrow!!!

Wrapping up the Holidays...

Details details details... if you have any questions about this promotion, please email me. (stampinsars@hotmail.com) It runs from November 23rd - December 15th. Click below to see the flyer.

PROMOTION DETAILS...

For all the other great promotions and specials on right now, including free shipping in November, click here!

Upcoming Classes

Just a note that I have added some new classes on the side of my blog... You can click on the class at the right which will take you to my Stampin' Up! website and more information on the class. To see the rest of my website, along with project samples in the art gallery, click here.

** I just took this pic of Elise reading a Stampin' Up! catalogue... she can't WAIT to be my stamping helper!!!

Gift From Stampin' Up!!!!!

I love surprises, and this one is no exception! Shelli Gardner sent out this stamp set, "Time Well Spent" to all of the SU! demonstrators as a thank you gift. I just mounted it, and can't wait to play with it! I will share some of my creations as soon as I get to it.


The set is also a sneak peek at the new catalogue, because this will be one of the level 3 hostess sets in the Spring/Summer Collection 2008.

New Organizers

Last night we did a Costco run, and I found these great toy organizers for the kids' rooms... Made in Canada!! (at least the plastic parts are :) Steve and the boys put them together, then the kids all filled them. I got one for the boys' room that fits perfectly between their two dressers. We had been using 2 of the drawers for toys and books, but now we need those for clothes, so the toys have to go! Elise doesn't really have too many toys in her room yet, but that's coming!! She sure liked her new toy tubs!



Yes, Jen, these are the pants from you when she was born, and yes, they are WAY too small... Steve dressed E because I was sick today, and he said he put her in capris!!! Guess it's time to go through her clothes again, too!!!

Just chillin' together!

The other day the boys were watching Treehouse when Elise came into the room and of course needed a space to sit, too. I plopped her down beside Todd, expecting there to be a war, and he totally surprised me when he said, "I want to hold Elise." Well, this might not happen everyday, so I put her in front of him, and he held her there for as long as she would let him... then she slid down off the couch and sat by Scotty. I love it when they get along!!!!!

Check this out...

Here's a look at how our little girl gets around. It is hilarious. She can even move fast while carrying a bottle or a toy. She has never ever crawled the "normal" way, and why would you when you can move like this? Have you ever TRIED to move like this? I have, and I am not as gifted as my daughter!

November Scrapbook Club pages

(completed layout below)

For this page we used a layout that fits well with up to 8 pictures. To create the background paper we used the jumbo wheel "See You Around" and white craft ink. We used the Define your Life set, so there were 26 possibilities for a title! I gave 2 colour scheme choices, and I think that the club members evenly chose the 2 different combos.

IDEAS:
Try some metal embellishments to make parts of the page "pop!" The photo corners punch is a great way to add a little detail around your page. With the film strip element of the page, (created with the spiral punch) you can insert photos that are in succession, or all on the same theme. I imagine the first steps of a baby learning to walk, or a couple walking in the distance, with each photo showing them a little bit further away.

Another product we used was the tearing strip. A metal ruler with 2 sizes of tearing patterns on them provides a way for precision tearing. I have seen this in the SU! catalogue for the last 3 1/2 years and never bought it because I felt like I could tear just fine... but it is GREAT! I love the precision you get with this ruler, yet it still is a natural tear. But you don't get wasted paper because the tear looks like it's supposed to the FIRST time you tear it!! Fun.

TAKING PHOTOS:
Try to be creative with your photos... for children, get down on their level, or take pics of them while you are lying down so you are looking up to them. For animals, try taking pictures of just the face, or the paws. Take 3-4 pictures of a similar shot, only slightly different (4 expressions on the same face, the same tree in all four seasons, from the same angle, etc). Or how about having the foreground item in focus while the background is out of focus. (check your camera for some cool features it may be able to do). Also, you can manipulate digital photos in computer programs such as Photoshop, or for a free download, try Picasa2 (my favourite!!). Above all, just have fun, and take LOTS of pictures! It was a life saver for me when we got a digital camera, because now I can take 100 pictures in one day with no guilt! But even with film camera you can do neat things with your pics, and enlarge, or crop them when they are developed to get just the right pictures for your page. For some creative photo ideas, or to have portraits taken, check out the Revival Arts Blog... I love going there for inspiration!

Christmas is in the air....

I LOVE Christmas! My favourite time of the year... we even got married 3 days before Christmas, and spent our first Christmas together on the beaches in Cuba. Ahhh, beautiful memories! That really was our first Christmas together because the year before we weren't even dating yet. When you know, you know! Why prolong it? We're not even the fastest that we know... we were dating, engaged and married all in 8 months, just found out some new friends of ours did all that in 5 months!!!

So, here's a Christmas card for you today!

I need to make some time to stamp this week... haven't had many projects to share here lately. I have my scrapbooking club on Friday, so I will have some pages to show you after that. But tonight we have our Care Group here, so I think my time today will be spent cleaning the house.... don't think I can afford to spend any time stamping today... if you saw my house right now (after unloading the truck from our trip to Victoria) you would understand that I need all the time I can get to clean this house today!!!!

Elise meets Elise

While we were in Victoria, I went out with Elise to meet my friend Elise for a super quick coffee... I don't know the last time I saw Elise, but it has seriously been YEARS!!! Way too long. We caught up over lattes at Starbucks, and the Elises finally got to meet each other. Great to see you, my friend... let's not wait so long before our next coffee date!

My Elise doesn't look very happy in this picture... she was super wet - friend Elise, being a nurse, said that she was used to pee, but my Elise still wasn't impressed when I tried to get her to go to Elise for the pic... so they just sat beside each other for the pic!!!

We did pretty well, taking this picture pf ourselves in the middle of the mall... tons of people around and nobody volunteered to take our pic, they just looked at us funny!!!

My Family.......

Yesterday, before we all went our separate ways, we got a big family picture taken. Cole is the latest addition, and he makes 14 for my side of the family.

Wedding Pics

Here are a few pics from Silja and Aaron's wedding on Saturday. Gorgeous day for a wedding! We came home yesterday on a very rocky sailing of the BC ferries... but today all sailings were cancelled (so far) due to high winds. Glad we travelled yesterday. Plus, yesterday, all sailings were Coast Savers, so we got $20-$30 off the price. Awesome!

Here's the wedding card I made:
On their way out to the fountain for pictures (at the golf course)...
Silja and her mom (my Auntie Marit)...


Throwing the bouquet...
Wedding decorations, and the traditional Norwegian wedding cake...

Morfar and Me...

Congratulations Silja and Aaron!!!!!

Today, my cousin Silja is getting married... here she is with Elise the last time they were over. I will post some wedding pics after the wedding. I am so excited!!!
I am honoured to sing at the wedding. Here's the song I'll be singing... but obviously it's not me in the video :)

Song: Lost in the Moment

Todd On a Fall Day

Todd woke up earlier than the other kids from naptime the other day. So we went outside and he played some soccer, and ran in the leaves. He could LIVE outside if we let him.