Emma is FOUR!!!

I really cannot believe that Emma is FOUR!  I know that sounds so cliché but it’s true!  I went into her room on the eve of her fourth birthday and I hugged her and prayed for her and shed a few tears. I LOVE her birthdays…they are fun and exciting and at the same time, they are tough.  I want Emma to stay little…just a while longer!  : )

Here are a few photos from Emma’s Toy Story birthday party…  : )

The hats.  From Target…they went well with the theme…embellished with pom poms and  ric rack and ball fringe from my Grandma’s stash.  It put a smile on my face to be able to use her goodies!

The patio all decorated for the party…the balloons had not arrived yet.  It was in the 70s and sunny.

A close up of the fun “lollies” in the patio pots. They were huge and oh so fun!  I made them using Toy Story wrapping paper and stickers and wrapping paper from the dollar section at Target and a bit of tulle.  The centers of a few of the lollies were paper decorations from the summer clearance section at Target.

This photo makes me smile!  : )

The birthday girl!

My girl is SERIOUS about Buzz and Woody.  ; )

The cake.  It was kind of messy (we added waaaay too much frosting) but it was still cute and lots of fun.

I had to include this photo…  Because of Emma’s reflux and texture issues, this is the FIRST birthday party that she has ever been able to actually eat her own cake and cupcakes without incident!!  Whew!!!

The rainbow cake!

Reading two of her new books before bedtime…  “Too Many Tamales” and “Guatemala ABCs”.  AND, even after the party, she still had Woody and Jesse on her mind!!  : )

Sweet dreams, birthday girl!  Mommy loves you!!

God bless, Tera

A New Year

Yes, long time, no post!!  Goodness…sorry!  We are fine here…just keeping busy with this and that.  : ) 

This month, Jason and I celebrated 14 years of marriage.  I can’t believe that next year will mark 15 years of marriage…woah!

Look at us!  Crazy. 

This photo was taken the summer of our engagement.  It has always been a favorite.  I think that Jason’s hair was almost as long as mine.  ; P  ; )

Happy New Year (belated) to you all.

God bless, Tera

Christmas 2009

I can’t believe it’s over!  Can you?  We have been sick at our house for weeks and we are finally well…just in time for Christmas!  Unfortunately, we missed at least two Christmas parties and a wedding.  So, we tried to have the best time possible on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! 

We had a snowstorm that lasted for days!  On Christmas Eve my parents gave Emma and her cousins an early gift…bright orange sleds!  The kids had a great time sliding down the little hill in my parents’ yard that was formed by freshly plowed heavy snow.

Sled rides with Grandpa.

My niece Grace.

My niece Isabel.

(Excuse the poor photo)  Emma with one of her favorite gifts…a Barbie guitar!

Another round of fun in the snow on Christmas Day!

Because of the road conditions, we spent the night at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve and we did not return home until the evening of the 25th.  So, I was not able to put this gift together for Emma until late last night.  This morning, I was able to catch the look of surprise and delight on her face as she walked into the living room and saw her little market. (Excuse her crazy morning outfit…hee hee…she was sooooo tired, she crashed last night so she went to bed with a mismatched little “get up”)

I have had the privilege to sample several delectable ice cream treats today served a precious little girl…who is and always will be my most favorite gift of all time.  : D

I hope that you all had a meaningful Christmas!

God bless,

Tera

Christmas Cuteness

Snug as a PUG in a rug.  ; )

Sorry that  I haven’t been around very often lately!  We have had a case of the sickies over here!  I hope that you are enjoying this special season with your family and friends!   I am so excited to spend Christmas with my little girl.  : )

God bless, Tera

Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and…

GUMPUS.  ; )

God bless, Tera

Brag Book in a Mint Tin

I have a fun and inexpensive gift idea for you.  : )  How about creating a brag book that can fit inside of a mint tin? 

Let me first preface this post by saying two things…  I did not come up with this idea on my own and please excuse the poor photos of my projects…hee hee.  ; )  I have been admiring the tin albums from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs for some time and decided to try my hand at making a couple of them! 

Here are a couple photos of the first tin album that I made…

The tin is an empty Altoids tin.  : )  All of the little pages fit neatly inside of the tin.  This album set me back $4.50.  Four dollars and fifty cents!!  1.50 for the Altoids and about 3 dollars for the printing (I already had the digital graphics to make the album).  How cool is that?

How I created the album:

1.  Using the size and shape of the “pages” that are used in Shabby Miss Jenn’s tin album kits, I digitally scrapped each “page” for my tin album using Adobe Photoshop Elements and digital elements and papers from two digital scrapbooking kits that I already had on my computer (Grandma’s Scrapbooks and Birthday Sweet Treats by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs).  I saved each page as a individual .jpeg.

2.  After all of my pages for the tin album were digitally scrapped, I created a blank 12x12 inch, 300 dpi page and using Adobe, I placed all of my little individual tin album pages onto the 12x12 page and I saved that page as a .jpeg.

3.  I saved the 12x12 page that contained all of my album pages to a disc and I took the disc to Costco.  I printed out the 12x12 page for about 3 bucks.  This is what the page looked like after I printed it:

4.  I cut out each individual page from the 12x12 sheet and I hot glued the cover page to outside of the lid of the empty Altoids tin.  I hot glued a decorative page to the outside bottom of the tin and then with fine grit sand paper, I lightly distressed the edges of the lid of the tin.

Here are the individual pages…

 

Besides the pages above, I also used one of the cut out pages as a template and I made a couple of additional pages using a few of Emma’s drawings and I included them in the tin album as well.  : )

Shabby Miss Jenn has several pre scrapped tin albums available.  I scrapped each individual page for the album that you see above myself (inspired by SMJ)…however, using pre scrapped pages does save a lot of time…you just insert your photos and text using Adobe Photoshop and then you are ready to print!  If you are new to digital scrapbooking, a project using pre scrapped pages is a fun way to “get your feet wet”.  The second tin album that I made was created using Shabby Miss Jenn’s pre scrapped Love Shack Mint Tin Album. 

Here are a couple of photos of the pre scrapped album…

So much fun!  These albums will be gifts and I am also going to make one for myself!  What a cool little brag book to keep in your purse! 

Many of the photos that I used of Emma are from Erin Johnson Photography.

God bless,

Tera

Happy Harvest

Turn off my blog music in the left column before you watch the video.  : )

God bless,

Tera