Kept Me Busy

A few years ago, my daughter received a wonderful christmas present from her aunt. It has been one of the best present we could have gotten to help my girls learn the names of their family members and it is just so much fun to look at too. It was her very own personal ABC book. The book had pictures of her family members and herself for each letter of the alphabet. She still loves to look at this book.

So, this year I decided to give my nieces and nephews the same book. We all live in different states and only see each other about twice a year (if we are lucky), so this book is perfect for them as they are learning/remembering the names of the aunts, uncles and cousins.

But what a task. To make five individual books for each kids, lets just say it was time consuming, but fun and not too hard. The hardest part was finding the pictures for each book. 250 photos total. I was glad when i was done and didn't miss a person or letter. Here are some ABC examples:

G - Granpda - a picture of the child with grandpa
X- Xtra Sweet - a picture of the child eating cake
I - Ice Cream - a picture of the child eating ice cream
Q - Quiet - a picture of the child sleeping
C - a picture of all the cousins together
K - a picture of the child being kissed by his/her mom or dad

you get the picture (no pun intended).

2009 Logo Wrap Up

I finished several logo projects at the end of the year. I wanted to share some of my work with you. They were all such great clients and as always i had a blast working with them and creating their brand. And it looks like 2010 is going to be just as great. The start of a new year has brought many new clients already. I love it. This year is starting to look great when it comes to logos!




This client decided on three logos to brand her products individually. We went with the dress for her children line, the purse for her adult/mom line and the flower as a "catch all" logo for everything else, but yet it still ties everything together. I love the use of her logos and the whole comprehensive look!

Christmas Projects

I thought I would quickly share some of the projects I was up to this holiday season.

here are the treats I made for our friends. they were so easy to make and the girls loved to help. And who doesn't love pretzels, chocolate and nuts.


My sister-in-law taught me how to make this adorable sock monkey. I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to replicate it again, but it is so cute and luckily she made one for Hannah, so we have our very own (since I gave the one I made away for Christmas).


I made this Christmas Countdown Blocks at a Super Saturday activity. I thought they were fun and festive and who can't use more Christmas decorations around the house.


Here is our Christmas card display. So simple (ribbon and tacks and a door). I loved how it looked especially as the ribbon got longer and longer as more and more cards arrived.

I have one more project to share. This is the project that kept me the most busy this holiday season. Coming soon.

Activity Day - Goal Setting & Journal Writing

To start out the year on the right foot, this week for Activity days, I decided to help the girls come up with some New Years goals. I decided to break it down into 5 categories.... physical, social, spiritual, mental and intellectual. I created this worksheet so we could write down a new year's goal in each category.

I love the quote I read from Pres. Harold B. Lee.... "a goal not written, is only a wish" Love that!

Another goal for the year is to help the girls write in a journal once a week. In their binders, they have a journal section and I printed out about 50 questions to but in a cute jar (I got at the Dollar Store). This will be their journal jar and each week they can pull out a question and write about the answer and any other interesting things that happened that week.

And I included a quote about journal writing for the girls to put in their binder.

What a way to start the year.... new goals and a fun activity!

Super Girl

Super Girl has visited our house several days in the past few weeks. Hannah dresses up in everything she can find and says "I'm super girl". My sister made her an apron and she uses that as a cape. I wish I had made Hannah a cape for Christmas had I known her alter ego would become SUPER GIRL!

He came!

I am trying to catch up on life, so the next several post will be of Christmas past. Christmas morning was wonderful. Hannah was so happy to see that Santa brought her an easel. Ella loved her Fairytopia Wings and Jake just loved being a part of it all. But Santa did bring him a stuffed moose.

The night before Hannah made sure that we left the reindeer food out on the lawn so that Santa's reindeer could find us. Also, it was just as important to have cookies and milk left for Santa, which we know he appreciated.

On Christmas morning, Ella opened about half of her presents and that was it, she wasn't opening anymore. We kept asking her if she wanted to open a present and she would have nothing to do with them. So, the next day we asked and we got one more present opened and that was it. About the third day after Christmas, we got her to open her remaining gifts. I am pretty sure things will be different next year.

Ella also has this horrible habit of twisting her hair. She twists it and twists it until it is in a huge knot. She has done thing since she was one years old. Well, Christmas morning she had a doozy of a knot in her hair. It took days to get it out (thanks to Nana's persistence and a fork). In the picture of Ella on Chris' back you can see the knot).

I love canvas!

About 6 month ago, I won a blog contest. I won a huge (254X36) canvas from Canvas on Demand. I have been waiting to redeem my prize so that I could use it for a picture of all three kids. But as time passes and Jake still was too small to be in a picture (without his sisters smoothering him or dropping him) I decided to use this picture and finally redeem my prize. It came the other day and I put it up in my den/playroom. I love it! It is so big, so cute and so much fun. I love canvas pictures! And the best part is they look better when they aren't framed. I can tell these will eventually fill my house!

PS - don't mind the mess on the table... kids live here!

Santa's Everywhere

This year Ella had her picture taken with every Santa she met. She loved sitting on santa's lap, but for some reason Hannah wouldn't have much to do with Santa. I got her to "stand" near him once and that was it. Not sure why. So, this year was the year of Santa for Ella. Here is the proof.

Our Festive Kids

This picture I included because it shows Ella all decked out and in her happy place. Holding her duckie and my iphone. The only thing missing is her "pauper" or pacifier. But we are trying to break her of that one.




I love picking out Christmas outfits each year. It is fun to dress the kids up all festive and cute. The sad part is they only wear the outfits about twice a year. But it is worth it. Here are this years outfits and our cute festive kids.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas day and may it be filled with joy, peace and happiness. And may we all remember why we celebrate this season. I am grateful for the baby that was born this day and for the Man that sacrificed His life for all of us!

Painting by Morgan Weistling

Christmas Season Re-cap

We have had a lot of fun things going on these last few weeks, so here is a small recap of just some of them (the ones I remembered to bring my camera to).

I just love this picture of Jakey in his cute hat and chubby cheeks. Our version of "it's cold outside" On another side note: he is so funny these days. He loves to blow hard between his two pierced lips. it is like he has found his voice and it is in the form of RASPBERRIES. He does it constantly and when he does it you can see him take a deep breath, hold his body tight (clasped hands and all) and blow as hard as he can, over and over again. It makes me laugh so hard. Especially when he does it during church.


Hannah had her school Christmas Program. She had been singing the songs for weeks, so it was fun for her to finally be able to sing them for us all dressed up with her classmates. They sang "Dreidel Dreidel", "O Christmas Tree", "Feliz Navidad" and "UP on the HouseTops".


We went to Disneyland one last time before our annual passes expired. We met up with Uncle MIke and Brian and Aunt Wendy. It was so much fun to be with them at the Merriest Place on Earth. It made up for it being the "wettest Place on earth" It rained hard most the time we were there. We were soaked and cold, but still somehow had a ton of fun! Ella would only stand out in the rain and she was soaking wet and her lips were purple, but she wanted to be in the rain and it didn't seem to phase her at all. The good thing about the rain was that the lines were small, so we took advantage of it and stayed up each night until the park closed. It rained so much this was the only picture I got of that trip.

Bake your Behind off!

I have been baking for the last 4 days. It started with those pretzel treats I highlighted a few days ago. Then a double batch of of sugar cookies (which we decorated today) then my first attempt at English Toffee (which was a success) and finally rice krispies for our car trip to Utah. I think I am done baking and definitely sugared out!

Just so you know... this isn't a picture of all my baking... it is from Disneyland's Santa House. It looked so nice, I had to take a picture.

A few notes I have learned:

the pretzel treats: I used hugs and mint truffles and dark chocolate kisses baked at 200 degrees for 7-8 mins. The rolos and pecans were baked at 300 degrees for 8-9 mins. The regular kisses didn't melt very well, so I probably wouldn't use them again.

Sugar cookies: I used a recipe from a blog I trusted, but realized that cookie recipes are so subjective you just have to try and try different recipes until you find that one that works for you. I have yet to find the ultimate sugar cookie recipe that I love.

English Toffee: Most english toffee recipes are the same, but this recipe is slightly different and definitely a keeper.

Christmas Card 2009

I have to say it was tough getting the photos for this card. My dad took our family photos and after 2 different photo shoots and 200 pictures later, I still didn't have a decent family photo. If it wasn't one kid looking funny it was another kid looking away or eyes shut or crying etc. So, that is where my photoshop'ing skills came into play. There you have it... our 2009 christmas card!

Teacher's Gifts

I decided to make cookie mixes again for Hannah's teachers this year. I figure who doesn't love cookies and especially when they come in this adorable red square glass container. The gift is cute, easy and inexpensive and really was the cutest gift I could think of, so here is what i did.

the glass container I got at Target for $5. I love this container... I should have bought a few for myself.
The cookie recipe came from Bakerella, so you know it has to be good.
I attached a holiday spatula and holiday cookie cutters (just because).

and there you go! I hope they like it!

Born to Eat

On Tuesday, Jake had his first solid food and it was like he had been doing it for years. He lunged for the spoon and in went the food and it stayed. He loved it and on day two he ate a whole bowl. The doctor said 3 TBS would be enough, but not little jake he could have eaten a whole cup. It shouldn't be any surprise, since he has been by far my best eater gaining weight and "loving mom" (if you know what I mean :-) Here's to the next stage of our little guys life... solids!

Easy Holiday gifts

Let the gift giving begin. I am always looking for easy, but yummy and cute gifts to give to friends and neighbors. Here are a few I have seen over the last few years that I love and are super duper easy.

1) just package up hot chocolate mix, candy canes, chocolate dipped marshmallows and waa-laa.
2) these are marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed candy canes. So, pretty and festive.
3) pretzels with kisses on top, melted and then a m&m to top it off.
4) more pretzels with rolos melted and a pecan to top it off.

HINT: My friends and neighbors might be seeing some of these this holiday season.

Family Fun

While we were all together with family over thanksgiving, I took some pictures of my sister and her cute little family. I just wanted to share mostly because I love pictures of happy, cute families and thought you would too!