card sets

this time of year is when i start thinking of gifts for brandon's teachers and school staff. i always resort to something hand made. card sets are always useful, right?
i like how these holiday card set came out that i might just keep these for myself!

i love how this set below came out and the color combo. i have so many other combos in my head that i want to make....now if i can only find the time.

been dealing with the sickies in our house, holiday decorating and gift buying. eddie put up lights this weekend and we also bought our christmas tree. the lights are on the tree and now, i have the fun task of decorating with the boys.

2nd grade homework takes up a lot of time too! 3 digit math (the subtraction is killing me! i really don't remember as a 7 year old doing the kind of math brandon is doing!). the spelling words are tough too! 20 words a week they have to learn in 4 days!

bryan has been keeping my patience at bay too! he has become a very stubborn 4 year old (wasn't the terrible 3's supposed to gone by now?). i cannot wait til bryan turns 5!! on my days off while brandon is in school, we "play" school at home. we have a schedule---we come home after walking big bro to school, we have breakfast and then we do our writing ABC's and 123's. we've recently started doing our own spelling tests too with basic everyday words. he has a book log that he writes in his own notebook of the books he reads daily. he'll have his quiet playtime (building legos, action figures). and then i'll let him watch 30 minutes of tv. he's a pretty good boy for the most part but there are those days..................

ok, onto the cards. :)

thanks for looking!

non-traditional colors

hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! i enjoyed the week off and had some time to play with paper in between entertaining the boys.
i love to make holiday cards with non-traditional colors. glitter has been fun too BUT, very messy!!

starting to make teacher gifts and will show those later in the month. i also have a few other projects i'm trying to finish. i've been collecting vintage glass bulb ornaments and making a wreath out of them. anybody else working on fun stuff? i'd love to see!

Happy Thanksgiving!

i went to a pie-making party tuesday night. it was 6 moms getting together and making pies to bring to thanksgiving day dinner. if anyone know me....KNOWS me....i don't like to cook. baking so-so but i've never made real pie so this was fun! LOL

let's eat!! turned out great!! my sis would be proud of me!! [hi sis!]

and an early thanksgiving wish to you all! thought i'd be early for once rather than later...this is a treat bag i made by randomly stamping a brown paper bag. inside is a box of chocolates from See's for brandon's teacher for thanksgiving. teachers give us so much of their time and has so much patience....they deserve a treat now & then.

been a little MIA, have 2 boys that are sick. effects from their flu shots. i am starting to feel run down. we are going to the yo gabba gabba concert on friday and we have a wedding to go to saturday. soccer is over for the boys...kind of sad. they had a lot of fun and it was a wonderful experience!

happy thanksgiving to you and your family! thanks for stopping by!

celebrations

we've been doing a lot of celebrating these past 2 months! we celebrated my niece's 1st birthday, had a halloween party in school, been to a boot camp birthday party, and had bryan's end of the season soccer party. tomorrow, we will be going to brandon's end of the season soccer celebration.

here is brandon walking in his ash costume in the school parade.

one of his 2nd grade teachers....yes, i did say 1 of his teachers. he has 2 teachers this year! they split their days (M&T, the other teacher takes TH&F alternating wednesdays). i think it's great! the teachers are more refreshed and energetic!

here is jadeyn. she's sooooo cute! really makes me want to have another! she looks innocent enough but don't let those big eyes fool you!

here she is climbing up on a step stool. she is quite daring and has no fear.

enjoying her birthday cupcake! she's a quick learner!! and did i mention she started walking at 10 months old!! trouble at an early age!!

it was soooo very hard to get a picture of these 3! i love how brandon trapped jadeyn by locking her in with his legs!in their halloween costumes.

in her other costume.

my parents with the grandkids

dontcha wanna just pinch those chubby cheeks??

some birthday cards

the inside

TFL! TGIF! have a great weekend!

halloween pics and holiday tags

ok, look at this little cutie! this is my niece, jadeyn. we went home to SF to go help celebrate her 1st birthday. she's adorable! more on her party at a later post.we drove home on halloween to get back in time to go trick-or-treating with our friends. brandon is ash from kemon and bryan is pikachu. i made brandon's costume this year ('patting' myself on the back).

we had thor, a witch and sully (from monsters) to treat with.

pikachu hanging with the joker. bryan talked his ear off...

the kids got to pick 10 pieces of candy to keep. the rest were donated back to our school who collected to send to our troops.

side note....bryan one morning wanted to ride in the stroller which has been put away for over a year. he whined and pleaded so i said, "sure, you can ride in the strolled BUT it's going to cost you 10 pieces of candy". he thought about it and came back to me and stated counting out 10 pieces of candy. i was surprised!! (i told him it's a 1 trip deal)
i love fall when i can pull out all my favorite owl decorations.

candle holder that will never see candles.

love this one!

a luminarysome holiday tagsused some scraps to make a quick card.

thanks for stopping by!!

a banner flashback

my friend amy has a challenge here. this is my 1st banner ( a monster banner) that i ever made back in May 2010. this was bryan's 3rd birthday. can't believe he'll turn 5 in 2 months!