Christmas in July '09

Finally, Christmas in July. It was a great success and I am very thankful for the attendance and patience of our friends. We had nine in attendance and then JoAnn and I and our girls. For our first go around...it was perfect. Lots and lots of incredible food to eat. Vickie made some homemade salsa that was a frequent stop for me.

Only a few things that we will change next year.

These are our family and friends that attended.

Here are a few of the projects that we made. My camera ran out of juice so I will have to share more photos of the projects at a later date.

This is a gift bag with four gift tags that can be used for Christmas presents...everyone needs these. I will show another picture later of all the tags...sorry. To and From is on the back of tags. We used that Big Shot Top Notes die to make the topper and Christmas Punch, a hostess level 2 stamps set for the tags.

This card featured vellum. It was fun and easy. I wish I had the original card that JoAnn made because it looks a lot better than this one.

These cards feature "Doodle This" a retired stamp set embossed in Gold. I showed two pictures to show how we fanned the flower to look like a poinsettia.

This card features the "Christmas Swirl" stamp set. We also made a 12 x 12 scrapbook page featuring the same idea as the card that I will have to show at a later date.

A country Christmas card made with the 1 1/4 circle punch and small tag punch.

Super easy card.

3D card using the Crabby Claws stamp set. This card was a lot of fun and a fan favorite.

This card featured the Circle Scissor Plus cutter and the technique "masking". It was fun to make as well.

These tile coaster were easy and a great Christmas gift. We used the

Holy Triptych stamp set.

If you have any questions or would like to make any of these gift items or cards, let me know and I would love to assist you.

Thank you so much ladies for attending and for making this a great experience for JoAnn and I. We are very thankful and grateful to have you as our friends and customers.

Baseball, baseball, and volleyball

Kids, kids, kids...yep, that's what dominates my camera time now. I had an individual tell me, "take lots of pictures of those kids because someday they may be taken away from you and that's all you have of them." She has lost two kids to two different accidents; the only two kids she had. Not that that situation will ever happen to me but you never know.

So, yes, lots of pictures.

Micah's junior volleyball session has started and I am loving it. Many camps throughout the summer and I get to attend some. Micah jumps to deflect the ball in this picture...not that you couldn't already tell that.
Micah is pictured with Mackenzie here...one of the two of her setters.

Wham!!! back atcha here. She loves to block hits.

This picture is of Micah's two coaches from two different teams she plays on. The one in the blue is her high school coach and the one in the pink is her JO coach. We played against her JO coaches high school team and beat them, but not by much.

Micah is warming up in this picture with Krissy.

This year already promises to be a great year. Looking forward to it.

These are pictures of a previous tournament Fred played in at Truman.

He had an awesome batting average after this tournament.

Waiting on the ball...

hitting the ball...

making it to second base on that hit. You would have to see how fast Andrew runs to understand why this picture was taken. He is a slow runner...gets that from his mom... so the fact that he made it to second should tell you have far and hard he hit it...

dad turning around to me and asking, "did you see that?!". Yes he has hit home runs before but this ball was a very hard hit grounder. Stunned the players. It was awesome and the talk of the day. So I had to blog it.

When he is not playing first, shortstop, third, pitching or catcher, he plays left field. Man of many positions. Isn't that called a utility player?

Now, on to Joshua playing against West Memphis.

In this photo, Joshua has just came off the mound. While pitching he was stung on the rear end by a wasp. He was moved to left field right after that. Sad thing is, he was doing great on the mound but became very distracted after being stung.

He had a great day at bat going 4 for 8 in two games.

Kyle, my other kid, Joshua's best friend, batting.

Kyle with the Legion coach, Coach Smith, and Chris Miller.

Down time while the other team switches pitchers...Joshua with coach Sneed.

The season is almost to an end. It will be missed.

Me,Andrew, and dad time

About two weeks ago Andrew asked if we could go to Reynolds Park and hang out. It was just him and his dad and I at the time, the other two kids were out of town. Andrew loves to draw, a hobby that he does very well, and that is also something that I used to spend a lot of time doing in my earlier years when I had nothing better to do. So at his request, he and I drew the lake scape.

This was our inspiration.

Michael doesn't draw, so he walked around taking picturesof nature with his new phone. Takes very clear pictures, huh?

The neat part about sharing this time with Andrew was us going back and forth asking, "how did you draw this?" or " is this too much shading?". Neither of us dominating, but learning from each other. We loved it and vowed to do it again soon.

Michael is very fond of nature pictures; this was his favorite that he took that day. Fred and I will also try to draw this, maybe I will blog those pictures later.

It was nice just setting back and relaxing, something I don't take time to do, and enjoy the beautiful creation that

has been placed before me to enjoy.

Thank you Father for this gift.

swimming, baseball, and award winning car

Lots of random pictures today...haven't had time to work on scrapbook pages or cards due to the Christmas in July workshop coming up. I've made several projects, just none that I can share until the event, so I guess you will just have to settle for pictures of my kids.

We all know how creative Andrew is...well check out what he did with his ice cream cone...made a face...who can do that? It showed more detail in person, picture doesn't do justice.
My cousin Chelsea entered her Mustang GT into a car show this week and won Best of Show and Best Paint...it is iridescent in front...changes to many colors...real cool. If it ever comes up missing she might need to check my garage...Mike wants it BAD!!!!

Now a few more pictures from the tournament last week.

Everyone was scrambling around trying to keep Andrew cool...heat index was 102. They were putting rags on his neck, making him drink lots of water. He made it just fine and I appreciated all the dads did to keep him cool and hydrated.

and the results...first place.

Proud daddy with his son who played one heck of a ball game...batted over .700 in that tournament...GO FRED!!

We're number one!!!!!! In this tournament anyway.

We love spending time at our aunt's pool... Andrew enjoys the slide... Micah, the diving board...look she walks on water. Isn't the water crystal clear? Always at Aunt Pats.

Graduation gift, Ballgames, cookout, fun...

I wanted to share this graduation gift with you that my brother Bryan and Christine got for Joshua...how perfect is this. Unfortunately we have changed girlfriends so there is some editing to be done. Nevertheless, I love the gift.

Andrew played in a tournament this past weekend in Truman, here in this picture he is playing left field...one of many positions he would play that weekend.

He smashed this ball to the fence...

and to second base he went.

That weekend we also enjoyed a relaxing get together with Joshua's 7UP baseball team.

Michael and Joshua on the phone...

Here is Paul...he's our cook.

The boys enjoying their meal and watched the ballgame that was played before us.

Joshua chased down a home run ball.

The parents enjoying their meal.

Ms. Leah, Big E's momma...great friend and fellow baseball mom.

I should have some more great pictures for you tomorrow. Have a blessed day.