Happy Mother's Day!!!

I wish all the Mother's out there a Happy Mother's Day. My family is making me feel very special and blessed this morning.

Look what Cheryl made for me... I just LOVE it!! She is the SWEETEST and talented too, hehehe... I'm going to frame this one for my scrap room!

Chris made me a new blog header.. with this message:

Happy Mother's Day Mom <33333

I made you this blog header. I didn't think that port-o-potties matched people places and things that you love very well, so I made you one with people, places, and things that you love <3

I love you <3

That is a lot of pictures! He did a great job picking out things that I LOVE! What a special gift from my SPECIAL guy!

I got these beautiful flowers from Jim. I don't know what I would do without him. He is the BEST!

He also got up early this morning made breakfast, washed my car... AND made heart shaped cookies. The kids appreciated that one too :oD

Did anyone tell you that they love you today? Hi, Jena, love you bunches!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL!!!! Have a WONDERFUL day!

OC Half-Marathon

Today was our 5th race in our 12 races in 2012, AND it was Cheryl's very first half-marathon. We got up at 4:30am to get to the race for a 6:15am start. This is a point to point race... starting from Fashion Island and ending at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

We met up with my friend, Paloma, from work, which was a miracle considering there were 10,000 people running in this race. Look at that sea of people... and that sea of people need a whole fleet of port-o-potties, hahaha! Have you ever seen so many port-o-potties? (blog header)

Well, somthing went wrong with the web site... my stats and Cheryl's stats are missing. We ran together and finished in 2hrs 9 minutes. That's faster than my first half marathon! She ran the whole thing without stopping.

Here's Chris's stats:
Overall: 1353 out of 8708
Men: 930 out of 3472
M 16-19: 15 out of 42
Age/Grade: 53.01%
Place: 2528
Finish: 1:54:20
Pace: 8:44

I told Cheryl that her first half-marathon would be her hardest. She said that she hopes so, because that was really HARD!

Next race: Rock n' Roll San Diego Half-marathon!

National Scrapbook Day

Yesterday was NSD, and today I finished a challenge layout!!!

This layout is for the Unity Sketch Challenge, and the May Challenge at Scrappin' Mojo. The Unity stamps used in this layout are:

Dream Big
11/09 KOM
Time of your Life
...and my favorite stamp set: All About Today

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy National Scrapbook Day!

CR84FN Color Challenge

This is my first time participating in the CR84FN color challenge. The colors this week are pink, aqua, and neutral. The colors are more girlie than I usually use, but I think it came out nice and, uh, girlie. I did add green leaves. After all, leaves must be green ;oD
See more GREAT creations at : CR84FN blog

Friday Friends with Flair

Here is my card for Unity's Friday Friends with Flair. I used the super cute Itty Bitty called Fly Free with Me along with a great sentiment also from Unity (I don't know what set it is from).

See the rest of the wonderful creations starting on the Unity Blog!

Color Run

We thought we were going to have another 90F day, but it stayed cool and overcast... perfect for running!!! The Color Run is our 4th race in our 12 races in 2012 series. Here we are before the race, in the mandatory white T-shirt before the race starts:

There were over 12,000 people running this race! It was HUGE! We started in the 4th wave...

Here we GO! We quickly moved out front of the runners in our wave...

There were 4 color stations... yellow, green, blue, pink. Here's a view of the yellow station from afar:

Here is the pink station close up! LOL!

No, we weren't in that picture. Jim had a hard time picking us out of the 12,000 other people wearing white t-shirts, black shorts, sunglasses, and splattered with paint, lol! Oh wait! Here we are coming into the the finish line!

And here is us after the rainbow of finish line festivities.

Here are a couple of close ups of the new colorful US! Here's Chris. Doesn't he look like he had a GREAT time?

And here's Cheryl. She was so excited about this race that she had trouble sleeping last night! In this picture she thinks that she looks like the Luigi character from Nintendo...

And here we have Jim! He was careful NOT to wear a white shirt. He was so sweet to come out into the madness and take pictures. And for his trouble he now has pink boots.

Color was unavoidable! It was everywhere! From the tops of our heads...

All the way down to our toes...

And everywhere in between, and I mean EVERYWHERE! No place was safe from color!

You are probably wondering about clean-up. It wasn't bad at all... the green was the hardest color to get off. Cheryl had a little panic trying to remove her green mustache. BUT, not worry... Cheryl is now mustache free. This was such a FUN run. Lots of families were running/walking together. I'd recommend this race for a wild time. Here is the website so you can find a Color Run in your area: http://thecolorrun.com

Let me leave you with a 4 second video of the finish line... Yes, we are in there somewhere!

Card Kit Club - April edition

It's the most wonderful time of the month! It's card kit time! This month it was Mary's turn to put together the kit. Look at all this goodness... hand crochet flowers, lace, twine, tulle, fun stamps, and lots of gorgeous PP!

Here is my first card. I just couldn't resist all the pretty paper, so I used it all! Mary sent us some Unity Stamp images. I just LOVE that bicycle.

And look at those flowers! I made a matching envelope for the card before realizing that the card will never fit in there, lol!

Here is my second card... Again I used multiple sheets of the PP, and another Unity stamp. I just love how the colors all go together!

My last project, believe it or not, is a Christmas tag. I'm making one Christmas tag a month to make sure that I have enough to go around when Christmas gets here. Mary sent us a large tag die-cut and a little glassine envelope which were PERFECT. I put them together with some of the cute trims from the kit.

I added a mat board ornament to the pocket made with one of my favorite Christmas stamps by Paula Best.

Thanks for stopping by, now go checkout the inspiration and creative genius of the other ladies in the group!

Beth
Mara
Mary

Sunny Sunday!

The morning started with a 17 mile run. You heard that right! Cheryl and I ran 17 miles this morning! She's following a half-marathon training plan and that is the last long run before the OC Half Marathon. She's ready, and she's going to do GREAT.

Jim got new tires for my bike and is taking it out for a test spin. He's trying to teach Jena to heel to the bike, and only being marginally successful.

YAHOO! New tires! I may take this to work a couple days a week during the summer.

This was supposed to be a picture of Jena, but the camera decided to focus on my roses. Well, I'm going to take a hint from the camera and enjoy our Spring day while the sunshine lasts!

I hope that everyone had a GREAT weekend!

Rainy Day...

On Monday, I was wearing a tank top... by Wednesday, I was wearing long sleeve sweater... by Friday, we were water logged! It's RAINING! And with similarity to gloomy skies, I've change the blog look temprarily.

Jena, didn't you hear?!! It's raining!

Looks like the gutters need cleaning out. Look at the water pour off the roof!

It's so funny to see Jena discover new things... like our new water feature. Think Jim would make this mini-waterfall permanent? It makes our front yard look very tropical, lol!

Once Jena figures out the water won't hurt her, she goes on the attack. Get that water, Jena!

Oh, Jena! What a mess!

I'm wishing everyone clean puppy days, and the return of sunny skies!

Easter Day

I know that I already posted an Easter post; but since I've been lax at the blogging the last couple of weeks, I decided to post another... with more pictures :oD

Here is the Egg Hunting crew! But where are my kids, you ask?

Well, both of my kids have graduated from egg hunters to egg hiders. Here's Chris with an empty basket... what a good egg hider he is!

And here's my pretty girl!

Wait a minute! What is Chris doing with all that candy? Chris, you were supposed to hide those candy bars! lol!

We had a GREAT Easter visiting with family. I hope you all had a GREAT Easter too!

Happy Easter

I saw this gift jar made up last year and tucked it away in my memory to make up for this year. Of course as I've gotten older, things that I have tucked away have a way of getting lost. So thanks to my friend Beth, I've been reminded of this fun jar and made it up this year for my niece to make for her family.

I lifted these directions from my friend, Mara, who also got carried away in the Peep jar madness, lol!

I started with a wide mouth quart sized mason jar. And then added the ingredients in layers:

Bottom: 1 sleeve of crushed graham crackers
Middle: 8 peep bunnies around the jar in a ring. Add 1/3 - 1/2 cup brown sugar to fill the hole in between the peeps. Pack down tight!
Top with: 1 1/4 cups Easter M&M's. Pack down.

That's it! So easy and so FUN! I added a tag with the baking directions:

1. Dump contents of jar into a bowl.
2. Snip peeps into small pieces
3. Melt 1/2 cup butter. Add butter + 1 tsp vanilla to bowl. Mix all ingredients well.
4. Press ingredients into an 8 inch square pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
6. Cut into squares and eat!

There you have it...Peeps In A Jar! I'm going to ask my niece take a picture when she bakes these. Even though I've found lots of recipes for this jar, I didn't find a single picture of what they look like baked.

Happy Easter! I hope you all enjoy family and friends as you celebrate the miracle of the day!