Count Your Blessings plaque

Happy Thursday everyone! I feel like today is going to be a good day. Why you ask?
Well because the forecast said it's going to be in the 70's here. Woohoo! Is it true? I can actually wear some "Cali" clothes today (capri jean, flip flops and short sleeve shirt). Oh how I've missed my Cali clothes. LOL

Anyways today I'm very grateful. I'm so blessed! Blessed because my family and I are healthy, I have a home that we live comfortably in, my husband has a job that sustains us, and that little by little I am getting fulfilled in the most important thing I love to do- Papercrafts!

So today to share my joy of being grateful, I decided to post a plaque I did that was recently published in this magazine....


Simply Handmade December/January 2011 issue

I recently got my comp copy and since this is one of those projects that the idea hit me, I made it, submitted it and got picked up without ever going public online first, I think it's the perfect time to post it....

Count Your Blessings Plaque

This little reminder to count our blessings is pretty easy to make. All you need is a board about 8x8 in size. I got mine at the Craft store with the holes on the top already there. I painted it white to have a nice looking background for all the colors of my numbers, added a felt frame (I think this is from Fancy Pants) and then gathered up all of my number stickers and went to town with it!


I cut out this frame from pattern paper with my Cricut and added my computer generated title. I finished it up with a button.


I love how the numbers offer so many different textures...chipboard, flat, glitter and foam. This is a great way to use up your stash!

So there you have it. Hope this inspired you to (a) Count your many blessings, name them one by one and (b) use up your stash. No more hoarding my scrappy sisters! Let's use up our stuff. So we can buy more stuff!!! *wink*

Till next time,
Grace

Family Home Evening Chart

Hello everyone.
My week is shaping up to be a fantastic one. My long list of "to-do" is quickly getting checked off and boy! does that feel excellent.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we are encouraged to take one night out of our week to spend with the family. We call it "Family Home Evening". It's usually done on a Monday night. Every family has their own way how they do FHE, for us we usually start with some songs, then prayer, then talk about what's going on with each family member that week, a lesson, game and we end it with some treats.

Since there are four members in our family, we had each member be in charge of a part of the FHE. We didn't track who has done what and I just recently realized that I've done the lesson four times in a row!

So to get this problem solved, I made this.....


this is a tray that I got at Goodwill last year. It had a Christmas theme. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it at the time of purchase but I'm so glad I bought it bec. it was the perfect foundation for this project.


The beauty of having a lot of sb stuff is that when idea hits, I don't have to go outside and purchase materials for my projects. With this one, I just went through my stash and luckily found everything I need. I used cardstock to cover the tray where the Christmas image was and then covered that with pattern paper. I also used letter sticker and chipboard.


I had to personalize my frame with our last name. :)


then added some flowers and ribbons to the top for a finished look.


Because the names had to be interchangeable, I added some itty bitty nails so I can change up the names. I also added covered the names and tasks with contact paper for durability.


a side view of my project.


and here's where it is being stored at, on top of our mantle.

I have to say, I'm not really sure why I haven't thought about this project before now. It has been extremely helpful for us and the kids feel like they have important duties to fulfill during FHE. That it's not only mom and dad doing the whole show. I love it! Marcus even gave the lesson yesterday (with a little help from me) and Mitch served the treats so I was able to do a few more rounds of WII tennis with Marcus before we ate our desserts.

So that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Spring Break- Saturday

Ok so we are down to the last day. What did we do?

Ate at Cici's Pizza for lunch and then out of the whim decided to visit Pulpit Rock Park.


Here's the family with the Pulpit rock formation in the background.


My daughter in the beginning of the hike. You'll see later that this trip didn't end much on a happy note.


This is our first time to visit this park so we didn't know what we were going to expect. Well being unprepared didn't help either. I weren't wearing my hiking boots and these steep hills with loose gravel proved to be very challenging.


and finally we got to the top. It was pretty cool up there.


If you know me, you'll know that I'm afraid of heights. Yes, there's my one big secret, out in the open! That's why when Mitch told me he'll take a photo of me, I had to make sure I couldn't see the ground below me and that I was leaning on something. It actually turned out good because you can see the tips of Pikes Peak on the background.


I didn't want to go down the way we came up. I was fearful that I'd be sliding down the whole way so Mitch (even with his better judgement) lead us to a more untamed trail. We were going down a path, he turned to me and offered help but I said I'm fine. As soon as he turned around, I made a step and down I went, sliding, hitting my leg on some broken branches and landing "ungracefully" on my butt. It was a painful fall but the first thing I checked was my camera which was wrapped around my neck. I heard it hit some rocks on my fall. Luckily it was not damaged but I was pretty shaken up. These scrapes taken soon after the fall doesn't show the big blue bruise I have now on my leg. Oooweeee!


and here's us finally finding the correct trail down the hill.


and when we thought that we were only having one injury in this trip, Maddie slips too! I told you earlier that this trip wouldn't end much on a happy note. Poor baby! Luckily there were just some scrapes and a tiny cut on her right thumb. After a bandaid she was fine.

So that's our Spring Break. Eventful, filled with captured memories, new experiences and more scrapbook worthy moments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Spring Break- Friday

Mitch had to stay the night at Kansas and today was another one that is up to me.

So what did we do?

We went to the library where we caught the last 10 minutes of a magic show. Fun stuff but the kid's were more interested in playing at the computer. Maddie watched a bit but was being super shy to try to touch the magician's real life bunny.

After the library, we went to another park nearby....Ford Frick Park (mouthful don't you think?!)


One thing I'm learning (the hardway) living in Colorado is that, the weather changes dramatically, fast! Even the meteorologist have a hard time putting together a five day forecast without changing their tunes a couple of days later.


Today was one of those sunny beautiful day....or so I thought! By the time we got the park, the wind had picked up BIG TIME.....AGAIN!!! No wonder nobody was there at the park when we got there. Locals are probably laughing at us. Oh how I miss my California parks where you can visit any day of the year.


It was so cold that there was a grandpa with three boys that ate their lunch in their car at the parking lot and had the boys play in the playground for only 15 minutes till they drove off and a family leaving the park only after 10 minutes of being there. We stuck it out for about 30 till we finally gave up and called it a day!

So that was our Friday. One more post to come!

Till next time,
Grace

Spring Break- Thursday

Mitch went to work super early today. He had to do some work in Kansas so that meant I had to find the entertain today.

And for entertainment, I decided we can run some errands! Fun stuff!

Seriously though we needed to run to Wal-mart, the bank, Costco, the party supply store and then to Maddie's dance class.

So since we didn't do anything photo worthy today, I decided to post some cards I made recently. Kind of a break from all the travel shots. :)

Welcome Home


Sweet Love


Happy Birthday


Thanks a bunch


Happy Birthday

these were all made with using up my stash in mind. Just fun ways to play with items I've been hoarding.

So that's it. Friday's up soon...

Till next time,
Grace

Spring Break- Wednesday

and then Wednesday rolled through.

For today we tried a new fast food joint close to our home...


We don't have Culver's in California so this was a new experience for us. They pride themselved with butter burgers and custards. Here was my lunch- a single beef, three cheese butterburger, fries and soda.


their kid's meal included a cup of custard and we got to taste it. It was very good! Lighter than ice cream but more flavorful than your typical soft serve. Everyday they have different flavors of the day. On our visit they had the turtle one which has pecans, caramel and some chocolate included in the custard. Yummy!

then after that we went and visited the Air Force Academy.

Our home is just 5 minutes away from the south gate of the academy. So close!


They had some war planes on display in the grounds. Can you see Mitch in this photo? I took it this way so you can have an idea of how big these planes were. Sooo cool!!!


We stopped by the visitor center, where we toured their little exhibit and watched a movie about life in the academy. Interesting stuff!


The patches were fascinating to look at.


After that we took a 1/3mile trail to their Chapel. Don't you think this is some kind of Architectural marvel?


and here's the look inside. The Chapel had two floors. The top one (shown in this photo) caters to Protestants.


The angles on the spires and walls are just so fascinating.


and here's the bottom which caters to Jewish, Catholics and Buddhists.


It's interesting bec. the glass panels behind Marcus and Mitch can't be seen outside of the building.


Then they had an area where they have scaled down replicas of war aircrafts.


We went through the grounds and ended up at the North gate where, just before the gate, they had a B-52 displayed. Here's my family doing some jumping action.


It was definitely a great experience to see some history and learn of how great an educational institution the Air Force Academy is. I wouldn't mind if Marcus can get in there. :)

Stay tune!

Till next time,
Grace

Spring Break- Tuesday

On Tuesday, Mitch was still home and the wind started picking up. He decided it was the perfect time to visit one of the nearby parks and fly some kites. So in the morning we went to Hobby Lobby, purchased some kits, made some picnic lunch and off we walked to the park....


The park is pretty close to the house but since our area is surrounded by hills, the hike was a bit challenging at times.


When we finally got to the park, it was nice. Nobody was there! We will soon find out (the hard way) why nobody was there. Here's Maddie testing out the playground.


As soon as we got to the park, the wind picked up BIG TIME! It was super cold just standing and we couldn't keep our food from flying off the picnic table. Luckily there was a baseball field with two dug outs next to the playground. We huddled in one of the dugouts and ate our lunch there. I've been making my bread for the past two months and I made my ham sandwiches (that we brought with us) with them. While eating, Mitch commented that the sandwich, specifically the bread, reminded him of the wheat bread he used to eat when he was a kid. He said that wheat bread tends to get harder in time and you have to chew a lot with it. I jokingly asked him if he was going to throw the sandwich I made up on the roof of the dugout. That's something he used to do with the wheat sandwiches his mom used to make. Yup, he was a bit naughty growing up. Hehehehe!


I still can't get over how in the pictures, the sky looks so clear and mellow but it was super windy that day!


I have to say that Mitch's plan was good in theory but we were pretty much miserable the whole time we were at the park. The pictures doesn't show it, but it was extremely cold that day!


Here's Maddie flying her kite.


As you can see, my little girl was bundled up while enjoying her kite flying experience.


And finally after an hour of miserable, cold time at the park (the kite flying was the only fun thing about this trip) we walked home.

Our warm home was so inviting by the time we got there. So that's Tuesday.

Stay tune!

Till next time,
Grace

Spring break- Monday

Ok so now that Spring Break is over, I can finally write up my long list of things to do and hopefully get them done knowing that I have one less child to worry/entertain for the day and that we are finally going back to some type of routine.

But before I go gung-ho on my "list", let me share with you the "fun" that we had this past week. I know I sound grumpy that the kids' had Spring Break but you have to understand, that's just me. I've been known to be a big whiner! In all honesty, Spring break was a blast and here's the proof.....

Warning: Because we were doing something every single day, I've decided to break it down. So there are photos and stories galore in the next 6 posts. You might want to sit back, grab a snack or two and hopefully enjoy your reading.....

Here we go...

Monday was laundry and grocery shopping day for me. Mitch was home and it was a nice day, weatherwise, so the kids played out in the front yard in the morning while Mitch tried to wash his truck.


We've been talking about how we think Marcus needs to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels and this morning, Mitch tried to teach Marcus a bit.


At first, he didn't have a helmet and I got a bit scared. Our street is on a hill and I was afraid for him while he tried to cruise down the street. Thankfully Mitch remembered where the helmets were and he quickly got one for Marcus.


While Mitch was doing some bike riding lessons with Marcus, he put Maddie to work on starting the wash on his truck. Aint' this girl a big helper?!


Here's our wonderful dad in teaching action!


I think he got too much teaching action that he was making the bike screeched because of his weight!


After a few attempts on riding the bike, Marcus decided that it's enough of that and got on the skateboard instead.


and of course Mitch couldn't let Marcus have all the fun. Here he is, trying it out for himself.

So that's the fun for Monday.

Stay tune!

Till next time,
Grace