In Puyallup...

My son is currently trying to destroy my poor sister's dorm room, so I have to make it quick! We arrived in Puyallup last night, so Mark could have the week to himself for finals. Good luck, babe! I am looking forward to:

*the May JBS kit...comes out tonight! Yay!!!
*visiting with my friend, Lisa, and her adorable daughter, Kaity, tomorrow
*driving down to Oregon on Saturday to see my great-grandmother, Vivian
*going to Old Navy!

Have a great week!

Happy Friday!

I took Bethany out to dinner this evening to celebrate her 25th birthday... we had such a great time! We ate fantastic food (chicken fried steak for her, chicken pot pie for me), and topped it off with some serious scrapbooking. She completed two adorable pages about Sophia, and I prepped for a class I am teaching tomorrow, plus did this layout:


I used my January Jenni Bowlin kit to complete the layout, and I love how it turned out!

My favorite photo of Evan (taken today)...


Have a great weekend!

I have been tagged...

by Bethany! So, here are 7 random facts/habits about myself:

1. I am really particular about what clothes my son wears. Not that everything he owns has to be name brand, but I want him to match everyday, and I can't stand stains! I know, I am raising a boy, but I can't help it. If he gets too dirty, or has food all over his shirt, it goes in the wash and I change him into a new outfit. No wonder I do so much laundry!

2. Until my husband and I moved to Spokane, I had never actually lived within a city. I was always "un-incorporated." It's kind of depressing to think about, really: I was in "nowhere"!

3. My husband and I actually met when I was 13... so we have known each other for almost 10 years. It still amazes me how God brings people together. Little did we know, 10 years ago, we would be married with a baby. Such a miracle... :-)

4. I didn't start wearing glasses until I was 20... right before we found out I was pregnant with Evan.

5. My Dad called me "double E" until I was... oh... 15? My first and middle name both start with E (Erin Elizabeth).

6. I had surgery on my wrist when I was in 10th grade, because of volleyball injury. On my right wrist I have a two inch scar, with six holes where the stitches were.... the surgery also ended my volleyball career.

7. I LOVE to sleep in! I am a night owl, and there is nothing better than staying up scrapping until 2am, and sleeping in until 10. I don't get to do that very often, Evan gets up around 7:30am, but every once in a while my husband will take Evan for the morning so I can sleep. What a great guy!

So... there are my seven habits/facts. Have a fantastic weekend! Oh, and Happy Birthday Bethany!

Art Journal (week 16)

This week's challenge: Get someone else to contribute.

What a fun challenge! I decided to get both my boys involved... and use their finger prints! Now I know exactly how big Evan's finger is at twelve months of age... and I have a cool little card!



Evan was a little squirmy, so his print isn't perfect, but what do you expect from a one year old?!?! Thanks for looking!

Before...

During:


After:




Mark cut his hair! We finally decided it was time to give Evan's shag a good cut, and I think it aged him about 4 years! He did great with the trimmers, and Mark did a fantastic job making his hair even. I just can't believe how much older he looks with short hair... my little boy is growing up :-)

One year check-up...

Evan and I went to see Dr. Short today for his 12 month check-up. I cannot believe it has been over a year since I brought our little boy into the world! It is amazing to me how fast he has grown... I love all the new tricks he has learned, the new words he says, and watching his pudgy little finger point at things, but I do miss my "baby." I was looking through some of our older photos of him, and the difference is unreal! This photo was taken when Evan was eleven hours old:


...and at three weeks old:


And now he's big! Really, really big. They weighed and measured him today, and he's 25lbs. 4oz., and is 32 inches tall. I cannot believe he has grown twelve inches in a little over a year! He is now in the 75 percentile in weight and 95 percentile in height, which is the opposite from when he was born. Goodness, kids just grow up way too fast!

Today...

...we were very busy! Evan and I went to Bethany's this morning for a play date... I think Evan had a lot of fun! Sophia did a great job wearing him out by chasing him around the house, and Evan broke in his new "Cars" sneakers... they are so cute on him! Evan took a great afternoon nap, and I cleaned, and cleaned, then cleaned some more. I also switched over our car insurance to Geico, which is going to save us $100.00 per month. Yay! That in itself made my day! This evening I completed a couple of layouts, plus finished up a couple more which needed journaling, etc. Mark also hung up a "clothesline" across my studio so I can hang up my layouts as I go... thanks Kristi for the fantastic idea! I love how it looks, and instant art! I am going to take some pics of it tomorrow, and post them. For now, I leave you with my baby:



Have a great Thursday!

cute pics of Evan & projects for Paper Pals...

I don't think I have any creative juice left! Tonight was a major work night for me: I put a kit together from my class on Sunday (four layouts), two card samples, one layout sample, and one mini book sample. Not to mention the art card I did this afternoon, which I am still totally loving, by the way! And, I created everything (except the art card), in under five hours. Not bad, if I do say so myself! So, here are my creations:




I am teaching three mini workshops on May 19th, and one of the classes is two cards. The bottom card is a little difficult to read in the picture, but it says: {I Heart You}. LOVE my little pixie stamps...and the brackets by Autumn Leaves.




The next class is a one page layout, featuring new Basic Grey pp.


Finally, a 4x4 mini album, to celebrate summer! More pixie stamps, Chatterbox pp, and Autumn Leaves letter stamps. Do you sense a theme!?!?!




I love the brown shimmer ribbon by May Arts.

And finally, I leave you with some cute new pics of Evan, who is walking 90% of the time. What a ham!





Have a great Tuesday!

Art Journal (week 15)

This week's prompt: your parents



I loved this week's challenge! My parent's and I have such a great relationship, and I was very excited to put that into words. We haven't always seen eye to eye, so I really value our conversations, and time together now. This photo was taken on my wedding day, almost three years ago (hard to believe!), and our relationship has grown so much during that time. I love you Mom and Dad!

Another awesome JBS kit layout...

I definitely had a creative bug tonight... I think our gloomy weather had something to do with it. It rained ALL DAY!!! I don't remember the last time we had rain for hours and hours, without a break. Mark, Evan, and I had a pretty uneventful day... a quick trip to the storage unit (we found our umbrella stroller there...yay!), and homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. After Evan went down, Mark promptly crashed on the couch (at 8:30pm...which is really early for him), and I stayed up to scrap! Here is the resulting layout:


Everything is from my JBS kit, except for the diamond glaze and mm letter stickers.


I LOVE the little Maya Road chipboard bird from the add on kit... isn't he just so cute?!?


The paper flower and chipboard bird both had mini sequence on them, and are covered in diamond glaze.

Have a fantastic Sunday :-)
Erin.

Walks, the park, and scrapbooking!

Mark, Evan, and I have had a great couple of days! I think our beautiful weather is to blame, and I'm loving it! Last night, Evan and I went on a walk for almost an hour... he is totally loving being outside. He pointed at almost every car that drove past, and all the birds. If I didn't push him fast enough, he would rock back and forth in his stroller... :-) This morning, I met Bethany and Sophia at the park in downtown Pullman, and Evan had a blast. He is really getting to be quite the little walker, and chasing Soph was so much fun! Here are a few pics from our outings:


In the stroller...waiting for our walk...


Chasing down Miss Sophia at the park...





My girlfriend, Kristi, and her son, Ben, met us at the park before going to Pullman Grill for lunch.

This evening Kristi and I cropped for several hours while watching old CSI episodes. We received our JBS kits this week, and were very anxious to work on them! I worked on a sample for an upcoming class for most of the evening, but I was able to get one page done:


I created this entire page using only my JBS main kit and add on kit.


I LOVE the Maya Road chipboard crown in the add on kit.


Daisy D's punch-out die cuts...


Exclusive Jenni Bowlin felt buttons! I cannot wait to use the JB felt birds, too!

Have a great Saturday! :-)

Mark's new obsession...

All I know is it's pneumatic, and shoots ping pong balls. Very, very far. And it's very, very loud. Oh, and it shoots Nerf footballs. Did I mention it's really loud?!?!

Art Journal (week 14)

I have decided to start doing Emily's art journal challenge! I have been watching Bethany do it week after week, and I love what she creates, so I thought I would give it a whirl... Let me know what you think!

This week's challenge: birds!

NorthWest Trek Photos...

I FINALLY have a few minutes to dump my memory cards from our trip, and look at all the neat photos from NorthWest Trek. Here are a few of my favorites:















Happy Monday!

I'm Home!

Evan and I made the trip home today... what a long drive! Evan was so perfect for me, though. I couldn't have asked for an easier trip! He fell asleep when we reached Auburn, and didn't wake up until Othello. I am SO tired from the drive, and I caught my mother's cold, so I am going to head to bed! I am hoping to upload photos from NorthWest Trek and Easter tomorrow night... Happy Easter!

NorthWest Trek...

Hello, from a very sunny Puyallup! The weather has been so beautiful here, so we took full advantage and went to Northwest Trek this afternoon. Evan didn't really know what was going on, but he loved watching other kids run around, and I think he enjoyed the tram ride. I have been to Northwest Trek quit a few times, but I don't remember seeing so many animals while on the tram...that was really awesome. I loved the crane, and especially the bison. A couple of them were right by the side of the road, and our tram driver compared their weight to that of a Volkswagen beetle! And, they have heads weighing up to 300 pounds... can you imagine?!?!? After the tram ride, we did the walking tour, and were able to see black and grizzly bears, lynx, and wolves. It was a short outing, about 2 1/2 hours, but it was perfect for Evan. He was so tired when we got in the car! I don't have a memory card adaptor, so I am not able to upload any photos right now, but I will when I return home on Saturday. We had a great day!

Writing from the road...

Mark and I decided that it would be nice for me to visit Puyallup for the week...so here I am! He has so much he needs to work on, and this way he can study in peace! Abby road over in my car, with Evan of course, and it took about 5 1/2 hours. We did make one stop, in Ellensburg for food, but did the rest of the trip without any stops. Hopefully Mark is at home studying right now! I love you babe!

New JBS Kit!!!!!!!

I can hardly contain my excitement! The April JBS kit was just published...OH MY GOSH! I LOVE IT! I know that writing in caps means I am shouting, but I am totally cool with that. I really am that excited! Waiting for almost two weeks to receive my package is a killer! I was looking forward to 10pm all day..... how sad is that?!?!

Oh, the little things that make me just so happy.

Another "little thing" that is totally making my day: Michael's acrylic stamps. So cute! Here are some pics of my new mini stamps:











And what is the best part of these cutie little stamps? They are only $1.00!!! My friend, Cindy, told me about them, and at first I was a little hesitant. Acrylic stamps for only $1.00? That can't be right! I was so wrong! Each "set" has anywhere from 4 to 11 individual stamps, and you can even purchase mini acrylic blocks that fit the stamps!

Of course I wanted to use them right away, so I made cards last night with them:



After talking with my husband tonight, I think I am going to drive back to Puyallup with my family tomorrow. Mark has three mid-terms, and one huge lab due next week, so he could really use some peace and quiet. Evan and I can follow my parents over, and stay with them for the week while Mark studies his little butt off! Poor guy! I just worry about him forgetting to eat...he tends to do that when I am not around! Well, nothing has been decided yet, but by tomorrow I should know one way or the other.

Happy Saturday!