Just a minute of my time...

Easter 2012

What a wonderful holiday for us to have all our family together. When Chelsea can be home from school and Ben was in from Washington DC and that he was able to bring his roommate Wooseok. On their first night in we decided to color eggs, as it was a first for Wooseok, which made it even more fun!

After our Friday night adventure coloring eggs, we got together again on Saturday for dinner out and then back to the house to stuff the eggs for the egg hunt... another first for Wooseok!

Even my mother in law decided to join us as we filled eggs.

On Sunday Chelsea, Ben and Wooseok went to church with Bens family and joined us afterwards for a few hours before they had to make the trip back to Pittsburgh to catch their bus back to DC.

Once everyone arrived we enjoyed an awesome meal together and then got down to the business of the egg hunt. Chelsea wanted to give Wooseok a head start, but as things turned out, he learned very quickly to follow everyone else and grab as many eggs as you can!

Cameron made his way around the yard and collected more money than anyone else

and look who found the "GOLDEN" eggs!

Having both the grandmas is always a treat!

one of my favorite pictures of Chelsea and Ben

Zach and Sierra

My silly brother in law, Cameron and Jane

It was a great day spent with family that I am blessed to have...

 

These are a few of my favorite things!

One of my favorite gifts this year was a basket my sister did for me. Not only is it a Longaberger basket, but its filled with my favorite things!

From Archivers to Zinfendel, she covered it all!

Cookie Exchange

The annual cookie exchange is always a holiday treat I look forward to! Even baking 17 dozen cookies is enjoyable for me, its all a part of the holiday, and I'll come home with 16 dozen different cookies, and that can't be bad...

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends!

always a different plate you get to take home from the event

all sorts of yummy treats that taste good, and LOOK good too!

spending time with our cousin

contests for best container

 

I am grateful for this holiday time I get to share with family and friends

Thanksgiving

Always a lot to be thankful for...

I feel very blessed with my family, and this year I'm feeling especially blessed with my husband. A man who does so much and asks for so little! It seems, the past few years that I have been running, he has picked up the slack in other areas, including that of Thanksgiving.

When we started making plans for the turkey trot there were 8 of us, and by the time the date arrived, everyone was concerned about how much they had to do for Thanksgiving, and in the end only 3 of us ran. For me, getting the turkey in the oven wasn't a concern.  I had made my stuffing the night before, and I already knew my husband would take care of the preparing and getting the turkey in the oven so that I could go run!

and once I returned I was able to get everything else ready....

So amongst other things, this year I am thankful for my considerate husband!

Candy Canes

On Sunday I spent my entire day hauling up totes and covering every flat surface available throughout my kitchen, dining room and family room until every tote was empty. This alone is an overwhelming experience, not knowing where to start to make sense of it all... but somehow, every year, I go through the same thing, and know as I plug along, it will all come together.

As things started taking shape, I kept noticing a pile of candy canes, and knew I wanted to put together something special with them... not knowing what it was I was going for, I decided to check out Pinterest and do a search on Candy Canes...

And as I scrolled through all the candy cane images, I knew imediately when I found this picture and link to this site... I had found my idea!

and so I began gathering the supplies that I had to create my candy cane bouquet 

 

I was so excited as my creation began to take shape

 

have you started your decorating yet?

Gratitude...

I was lucky enough to do several classes while at the Bertram besides for the December daily, one of my favorites is:

The gratitude journal made with Jamie Pate...

from the moment we started, I was inspired. The package alone was gorgeous and the ideas were infinite!

All the details, the butterflies and pockets... oh yes, just perfect!

Every page has a pocket with journaling pages in between

A wonderful place to acknowledge my blessings in this season of gratefulness!

Crop weekend

Counting down to the once a year crop with Work in Progress kits and planning my projects to get the most accomplished in my time away.

In the last few weeks I have pre planned some layouts, took vacation pictures and used divided protectors to plan out which pictures are going into layouts and which pictures are added to protectors, and most recently, I decided to take my year and put it into wallet sized photos, using several pictures to document each month, and put together a year in review album...

I had totally forgotten about this picture taken in early January of a lunch date with my mom and sister at Red Robin... too bad Deb's eyes are closed!

seems like we just got together for lunch, but here I am with my highschool girlfriends in January

I don't think I'll ever forget celebrating Shawn's birthday at Cheesecake factory

and waking the next morning for our flight to Florida and finding this

Just a few of the pictures I plan to reminice about, document and enjoy during my weekend away with friends!

Running, parties and vacations seemed to dominate 2011, as well as milestones like Chelsea turning 21, my mother in law 70, Zach's braces coming off and oh yeah, running my first marathon!

pedicures in Michigan and so much to be thankful for!

Halloween treats

I've gotten better at not picking up every new treat bag for Halloween, knowing my kids have grown out of the "Halloween treats" like I used to make, but I can't help but come up with something, and the girls always seem to love them.  

So I decided to put together some candy boxes for Chelsea and her roommates, and as I had hoped... they were a hit!  Here are a couple of the designs...

Since they don't go out trick or treating anymore, this is what I get  to do for Halloween.

Enjoy it while they are still young!

Oh what fun

The other day I got the mail and left it on the passengers seat for the entire day while running my errands. When I got home and started sorting through it, I found the Christmas edition of Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc and tore through it to find my page!

They emailed me a while back, mailed me a check for $100 and here it is!  I was even more surprised of the two pages!

 

Oh what fun this has been!

Checking in...

 

my poor neglected blog. It seems life has gotten in the way of me staying updated here. I'm hoping my fall schedule gives me more time for the things I love. Reading, blogging and of course running. With training full speed for the marathon it seems to take quite a bit of my time in between everything else that needs to get done daily.

 

Then you have those days with girlfriends, a little getaway to revive you and remind you that these friends are there for you through the good and the bad...

Well, this was definitely all good! We shopped at Debbie's store, which is awesome! Lunch and relaxing over Brenda's in the evening. After dinner we did the cutest craft while enjoying great conversation, wine and lots of laughter!

Debbie and her hat

My mom

Brenda hiding behind hers

and Debbie... surrounded by hats and pumpkins!

Another great Michigan visit... and as I've learned throughout my life, you regret the things you DON'T do, not the things you do... and I certainly don't regret hanging out in Michigan for a few days!