12*31*10

This is another layout I did using a sketch from the January issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. We had our family pictures taken in November so that I could include a photo with our Christmas cards. Cheapshots took the photos, and I couldn't be happier with the results. The photographer's name was Megan, and she did a really great job. We got over 300 frames (although only about 35 or so really turned out because someone was looking away or whatever) in a half hour, and it was only $65. They give you the copyrights and a CD with ALL of the pictures taken, so you can print them anywhere you want to. I used their printing service anyway becuase the prices really weren't that bad.

It's been about 4 years since we had family pictures taken, so I'm hoping I can talk Shane into making this an annual thing. He really hates getting his pictures taken, but I asked for my birthday. So, I'll just keep that up :)

12*30*10

This is a page I just finished tonight about our fun family trip to Soldier Hollow on Christmas Eve that I wrote about in the post below last week. We really did have some serious fun and I hope we can do it again sometime. Although, it is pretty expensive ($20 per person).

I used a sketch from the January issue of Creating Keepsakes for this.

12*25*10

We've had an amazing time with my family over the last couple of days. We went to Lacy's house on the 23rd for our family Christmas party. She made dinner for everyone and we did the gift exchange. Most of us stayed the night and partied it up.

Me and Lacy

Brooke, Jordyn, and Bailey playing dressup

Ryan and G chillin out waitin for presents

Dad and Kim with the redneck wreath Kim made him. It was way cool. Shotgun shell lights, camo ribbon, a Nascar ornament in the middle, and finished off with a camo duct tape bow. Awesome! He loved it.

Shane woke up at 5:30 in the morning and couldn't sleep. There's a funny story there, but I'll have to tell it later. It'll make this post even longer than it already is lol.

He didn't want to wake anyone, but he didn't want to sit around by himself either, so he went home. We had all made plans to go snow tubing later, and he really didn't want to be out in the cold snow, so he just left. He has a bad back anyway, so I'm not sure it would have been a really good idea for him to do that with us.

When the rest of us got up, we helped clean up a little bit while Lacy made Pumpkin pancakes (which were SO GOOD). Then we killed some time playing Phase 10. Now, if any of you know me, I just really don't like playing games. I just think that most of the time they take too long and I just want it to be over. But, this one was pretty fun. It was probably the fact that I was playing with fun people, but I actually might buy that one.

Phase 10 fun

That afternoon Kim took us all up and paid for us to go tubing at Soldier Hollow. If you've never done that, you should. It was a ton of fun. We all had a blast. They have a lift that they hook your tube to and just drag you to the top of the hill. So, they take the sucky part of tubing right out lol. I was still a little sore this morning. Mostly just my arms from pushing myself up and off the tube. Totally worth it though.

Kim and her awesome hat

Ryan

Lacy and Dusty

Lacy and Jordy

Clint, Bailey, Brooke, Natalie, Jason, Andy, and Dad

Andy and Dad

Me and G

When Garrett and I got home with Shane, we all decided to have a sleep out in the living room. We blew up the air mattress for me and Shane and Garrett slept on the couch. We got some fast food and popped in Miracle on 34th Street (Kim's Christmas gift to everyone this year).

Us in our ho ho PJs

Well, midnight came around, and Garrett said that we should just do presents now. He was half joking, but we thought it was a pretty fun idea. So we did.

G and his biggest (and probably fave) present

We ended up staying up really late because Shane had to get Garrett all set up with his new tv.

We were pretty lazy this morning. We laid around til about 9:00. Then we went to breakfast at IHOP, came home and laid around some more lol. Shane's dad came over around noon sometime. Other than that, we've just been enjoying some little family time today. I've had a great Christmas and I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful family.

Love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

P.S. Thanks to Kim for any pictures posted here. I didn't take any :( She's always been our photographer hee hee. I should be though, because I need the pics to scrapbook.

12*22*10

Just dropping by to say that I did get a call back from the lady about the job interview that I missed yesterday due to road conditions. She said they are rescheduling interviews for next week and wanted me to come in on Tuesday if possible.

I was afraid they would think I wasn't interested and not call me back. But, it sounded like a few people didn't make it in for work or interviews yesterday. So, I'm still in the running. Yay!!

12*21*10

Wow! Woke up this morning to more than a foot of snowfall just from overnight! Crazy. We already had about 6 inches, so now we're sitting in 18 inches of snow. Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning.

We had to shovel Shane's half of the driveway so he could go to work this morning, and it took about 40 minutes just to make a path for his car. I tried to finish the other side, but my hands have blisters and it hurts too bad. I was wearing gloves, but they feel like razor blades on my skin now. I had a job interview scheduled for today, but I think I'll have to try try and reschedule for Thursday or Friday if possible. The roads are heinous. The snow is supposed to keep going through tomorrow. It hasn't quit for about 48 hours so far.

On another note, we went to Salt Lake on Saturday to walk around Temple Square and look at the lights. We rode Traxx for the first time, and that was pretty fun. I thought the lights at the temple were gorgeous, and I'm glad we went. But, next time I'll leave Shane home. He was a bah humbug the whole time. He hates Salt Lake, and he hates going to look at Christmas lights. I thought if I could just get him up there, he would enjoy himself. Not the case. But, oh well. It was worth a shot. And I'm glad we went anyway.

I don't know why blogger is underlining my text, but I don't know how to fix it. So, oh well.

12*15*10 (again)

Just finished another layout. I was in a scrappy mood today!

This one is based on sketch #160 at Scrapbook Challenges.

I can't seem to take a picture of a layout without making it look crooked, and I took this photo inside that house at night. So the colors are a little different in real life. But, you get the idea.

Journaling Reads:

We had our family pictures taken in November down at Salem Pond this year so that we could send them out in some of our Christmas cards. The photographer took some of you and Angel alone as well. I didn't realize that we hadn't ordered any of your school pictures because we were on vacation when they took them. Now I'm kind of glad. I love the real smile and natural poses this photographer was able to capture. I'm thinking I'd like to make this an annual tradition. We'll see if I can get dad to agree to that. Pictures Taken Nov 27, 2010

12*15*10

This is a layout I did using sketch #231 over at Scrapbook Challenges. The pic is of my niece and my nephew posing with their first ever snowman earlier this month.

I'm so glad that sketches exist. I feel like I can't scrap without them. The last three layouts I've done for the Next Top Scrapper competition were without sketches because sketches were not allowed, and it was really hard for me. I love sketches. They jump start my creativity. I just plug the pieces in and maybe tweak a thing or two, and voila, a fun page that didn't take me days to do lol.

I'm anxiously awaiting the results of this week's elimination round. It is supposed to be posted today, but it hasn't been yet. I don't think I'll make it into the next round. There were so many really talented entries this week that I just don't see it happening. But, I was featured in the Gallery Gems this week, so there is still hope. Cross your fingers for me.

*Edit* Just realized that this picture was taken in November. So, I will have to change that. I'm thinking my old school Dymo labeler will be a cute cover. No mistakes in scrapping people.

Sketch #231

12*11*10 (again)

We went to a funeral today for a really good friend of Shane's. He was a truck driver for the sister company to Utah Pacific Bridge & Steel, where Shane works. He was also the father of one of Shane's closest friends.

I only met him a couple of times, but Bill seemed like a pretty cool guy. He used to live just one block away from us, and Shane would go up to his house quite often just to shoot the bull and visit a minute. He reminded me of my own dad in many ways. He was one of those guys who would give you crap just because you were there, but he would also give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.

From what we understand, he had been suffering from lung cancer for a while. He found out a couple of months ago, but he didn't even tell his family. See, Shane's friend and Bill's son, Mark, had been going through a lot recently. Mark's son had been diagnosed with a pretty rare case of leukemia, and their family had just gone through many rounds of chemo and radiation with him. Bill didn't want to add to the stress for their family. So, he didn't tell anyone lest it get back to Mark. That's the kind of guy he was. He didn't want anyone worrying about him.

Well, he got pretty sick with pneumonia, and was forced to go to the ER. That's when the rest of the family found out about how very sick he really was. They only got to spend about a week and a half more with him before he passed away. He was on life support and they ended up having to "pull the plug".

Our hearts and prayers go out to Bill's wonderful family. It was painfully obvious at the funeral today how much he was loved and will be missed.

As I said before, I didn't know him well, but it brought into sharp focus how quickly your loved ones can be taken from you. I've been thinking a lot about mine and Shane's families both today, and I just hope that they all know how much we love them.

I know that Shane has some family that are fighting and not so very close right now, and some that he has never been close with. I hope and pray that these things will pass and they can be a closer family again. He is having a really hard time accepting Bill's death and has been really emotional today. It seemed very sudden to him, and everyone else I'm sure. It hit him hard because he wasn't prepared to be mourning someone that he thought was in good health. I think that may have a lot to do with his feelings about his family. Life is short, and can be made shorter than we really think it will be.

I am grateful for my family and that no matter what anyone says or does, we can all get past things and love each other. I guess I never knew how lucky I really was.

Thanks to Bill for being such a great friend to my husband and a lot of other people as well as a wonderful father, son, uncle, grandpa, and brother to his family. He's influenced a lot of lives and created a great legacy for many years to come. You'll be missed Bill.

12*11*10

This is my submission for the next round of elimination on Scrapbook Challenges for the Next Top Scrapper competition. The requirements were to use a neutral background cardstock (mine is kraft color), at least three pictures (I have 8), and you had to use paint or ink (I used both. I brushed red paint around the cardstock behind my phots and I used black ink and one of Garrett's old toy trucks for the tire tracks. I also used some black ink to distress the edges of my photos and the cardstock).

I'm not really sure if I like this layout or not. I like the colors, and the distressed feel, but I wish I had more room for my journaling. I probably should have picked a journaling card without numbers so I could write as much as I wanted lol.

Well, wish me luck. There is some stiff competiton.

12*9*10

Today is my birthday. I am 35 years old. My sister tried to tell me that I am now closer to 40 than 30. But, I don't hardly think so. I'm right smack dab in the middle--so there!

I had a really great day today. After I took G to school, I took a little nap lol. I try not to do that very often because eventually I will find a job and I don't want to be used to napping. But today I did because it was my birthday and I wanted to.

Then one of my fabulous friends took me out to lunch and we exchanged Christmas gifts. We didn't know if we'd see each other between now and then, and her gift was a holiday decoration. So, she wanted me to have it before Christmas.

Shane took me out to see a movie and to dinner at Outback Steakhouse (yum!). I chose to see a movie at the dollar theater because I didn't really want to see the ones at the regular theater. We saw Easy A. I thought it was a pretty cute movie, and funny too, if a little on the teenager side. Not recommended for children though.

Then, when we got home from our date, my dad had stopped by and left me a gift. I was surprised to find a really beautiful necklace inside. Now I know that took some heavy thought on my dad's part. Kim said he really wanted to get me a "real" present lol. I love my dad. He is the best dad anyone could ever ask for.

And, to top everything off, Kim bought me all of the Twilight movies on DVD, and Lacy got me Vampires Suck. Woo hoo! I think that one looks funny. I have to wait for Kim's because she is out of town, but that just means my birthday is extended, right?

So, that's it in a nutshell. It was a great day!

12*8*10

Just a quick drop-by to say WOO HOO! I made the final 10 competing for a spot on the DT for Scrapbook Challenges website. There are some seriously talented women on there. You should go check it out. I'm so excited. I've never even tried to get a layout published or to get on a design team at all, so this is really fun for me. Especially making it this far.

12*5*10

Well, I got on here to post a new layout that I did, but I just found out that my little brother passed his GED. So, I have to say something for him first.

I'm so proud of you Andy!! Way to go little bro!! I love you.

Ok, so now on to my original purpose of this post.

I'm currently competing for a spot on the design team for Scrapbook Challenges, and they are doing weekly challenges and elimination rounds. I made it through round one into the top 20. So, now I'm trying for the top 10.

The challenge this week was to find a layout from your earlier scrapbooking days that you just weren't happy with and give it a makeover. I'm not usually one for going back and redoing any of my pages because it's kind of fun to see how your style evolves over the years. But there are some pages that I just hated even when they were brand new.

I knew immediately which one I wanted to do because this page has bothered me ever since I did it. I hate the paper, and that mint green makes my brain hurt lol.

I think this is much more representative of my current style, and I don't think I'll ever want to make it over again. Even if my style changes, I was happy with it when I did it. So it will stay.

12*4*10

Last week I took Garrett and his best friend, Dustin, out to Shane's jobsite to watch what he does. Shane had to go in at 11:30 at night to load some of the bridges that they are installing overnight on I-15. It was a pretty interesting trip, especially for the boys. I already knew what to expect, but I don't think they really understood what Shane had described to them.

They have two cranes hooked up to one really long girder. They have to pick the girder up with the cranes and "walk" it over to the semi hauler in perfect sync so that the girder doesn't start swinging and cause an accident.

Then they have to lift in sync and set it down on the trailers.

The girders are way long, so they have to have a little mini truck called a steer dolly that rides at the end of the girder behind the diesel to help support it and guide the turns.

This is just a picture when we first got there of Shane with his loader. He spends a lot of time in this too, but it doesn't really have a lot to do with loading the trucks. I just wanted a picture.

This is Shane's crane all hooked up and waiting for the next truck to be loaded.

Setting the girder on the truck and steer dolly. Look how long that thing is! You can see the other operator's crane boom on the left too. They are both hooked on and moving in sync.

This is Shane in his crane.

This is the steer dolly. The cab is only a little bit higher than the tires are. It looks pretty funny to see a guy climbing out of there.

12*1*10

So, I thought I had already done a Thanksgiving post, but I guess I'm slacking. Here are some pictures of our family turkey day. I didn't get any of Dad, Diane, Kaitlyn, Leena, Dace, or Terry. They all came later on for pie. I was too busy trying to make sure things were getting done right. And, I forgot and left the yams in the oven for like an hour! Good thing they didn't burn.

I remember last year I cooked the turkey upside down lol. But, that actually turned out really well. The breast was really juicy. Might have to make that a tradition.

Anyway, without further ado....these pictures are slightly out of order, but I'm not doing it again.

Head Chef

G fixin' to get stuffed

Andy getting his food

Andy and Shane waiting for the food to be done

Shane, Garrett, Andy, Kim and I went to visit Grandpa Mills after dinner. I can't believe he is 83 years old and still looks that good. Not sure why we didn't get a pic of Andy with the old man.