Happy Monday-after-Thanksgiving

Hope everyone is back in the swing of things after a weekend of fun and food. We spent the weekend in South Dakota. We stayed with Mark, June, & Turner this time - it was a lot of fun! The kids (big and small - ha!) had a great time playing Mark's new Wii. In fact, Noah had so much fun that he asked Santa for a Wii, and Santa said, "Yes." Hello, Santa. Hope that toy shop is busy churning out the impossible-to-find Wii's for all the good little boys.

Noah and Quinn had a little birthday party on Saturday night. Great Grandma Shirley made Quinners a little doll cake. It was adorable!



Noah had a Star Wars cupcake cake. The black frosting was interesting. Especially when we let the little guys go to town with it. :-)



We also took all the kids to see Santa. Noah, as I mentioned above, was more than willing to talk to the guy in red. Quinn sat on his lap but wasn't too sure about things. Turner, Jackson, and Griffin wanted NOTHING to do with that guy. In fact, Bob was taking photos and couldn't even get Griffin (with me holding onto him and acting as his human shield from Santa) in the picture! June bought a new camera, the new and improved version of mine, so hopefully she has a few shots where you can see me and G off to the side. And I have to say, it was a lot of fun to go camera shopping with June. I have some serious camera envy going on!!



I also bought a new knitting book to make Quinners a hat, and I knitted up a storm on the drive to SoDak. I need a better picture to show off the hat, but you can sort of see it here.



Then I decided Turner needed a hat. I didn't get it finished there, but the drive home was enough time to put on the finishing touches. G is my reluctant model - I bribed him with a promise of McD's chicken nuggets for lunch later.



I am also going to make Jackson a hat but don't have the yarn yet. Stay tuned for more pictures (of course).

If your kid is a cousin to my kids ...

he is now *famous* ... or at least has appeared in one national magazine. :-) Check out the latest Scrapbooks Etc. to see this layout in print!


I was assigned the layout on the right as inspiration, and the layout on the left is my interpretation.



Note: I have this photo in a frame in my living room. It cracks me up!

For the 3 people who read this blog that are not related to me by blood or marriage ...

or for any of you that might scrapbook ... even if you are related to me ... I have some free passes to Scrapafaire to give away so you can check it out. I'll give them to the first 25 people who leave me a comment. I've always wanted comments on my blog. Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to myself! :-)

ETA: If you want a free pass, leave your email or email me directly so I can send it. Only 4 days left (I think). Thanks for the posts. Totally made me smile!

A quick trip to the Cities ...

Grandpa and Grandma came to the Cities last weekend with Tracy. We were able to run down for a quick visit.

Grandpa was quite in love with Miss Quinn. He said, "She speaks with her eyes." I love that. I think I see a scrapbook page in the near future.

Here are a couple of pictures. Stupid hotel room lighting ... but the one where he is kissing her makes me melt.



In other news, life is getting back to normal here. Last week was crazy busy. Between my class, Bob's class, Halloween, Halloween parties, going to the Cities, and Bob and Noah going to a hockey game, we barely had a chance to breathe. This week is looking much more laid back.

I checked out of reality for a few days to finally read the last Harry Potter. Man. I'm so sad those books are finished. I really enjoyed reading them.

And in case anyone forgot - happy birthday, Mom! Here's a page I did about you that was in the DW 2007 Calendar. :-)