Monday, September 29, 2008

My 1st "Official" CTMH Card Workshop

OK, so I did have one other card workshop back in July, but that was for the lady that won my basket of Close to My Heart stuff at Mateo's school auction last Spring. Well, yesterday was my first "official" workshop. I sent out an "official" invitation (via email) to a group of people and got some rsvp's!! Woo hoo!!

After the workshop in July, the gal that won my basket had asked if I'd consider doing these monthly, so I said "what the heck". So yesterday I had a turnout of 7 people. Everyone made 5 greeting cards each. Being the procrastinator that I am, I was up until 2am getting ready for it, so now I'm suffering the consequences. The work day seemed to come a little too early this morning!

Anyhoo, I think the cards turned out very cute and my workshop attendees agreed. Here are the 5 cards we made (inspired by some of my fellow CTMH consultants).













All of the cards were fun to make and each one had something about it that I hadn't tried before (unbeknownst to my workshop attendees). My October workshop is in two weeks, so I need to keep my creative juices flowing and come up with 5 more cards. I love Halloween, so maybe I can think of a fun "Spooky" card. Wish me luck!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

They're melting... they're melting....

Shawna & Drue were in town this weekend. Shawna was here for the Journey concert on Sunday night (I'm so jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Shawna brought Drue so Rose could take her and the boys for their annual photo. It turned out great! (I'll post that later.)

Anyway, Shawna has this "face melter" program on her iPhone, so she took some photos of the boys and then they manipulated their faces...

Here's Mateo...
























And here's Jaxon...
























How creepy is that?! Jaxon looks like an alien! I searched for that program for myself, but that particular one seems to be just for the iPhone. Guess I need an iPhone now! :o)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

It's Thursday.

Just a little note about Wednesday's post.

I had just finished yesterday's post and had the blog page up on my laptop screen yesterday morning when Jaxon came up for breakfast. He looked at the screen and I said "I put that little guy on my blog. Isn't he cute?" Then I waved at the computer screen and the little guy waved back. It was perfect timing. Jaxon waved at him and the little guy waved back, too.

Jaxon's eyes lit up and he really thought the little guy was waving at him each time. Giggling, he must have waved at the little guy about 4 or 5 more times and each wave was perfect timing. I just love that genuine, innocent belief that a little Egor on the computer could be waving back. So cute!! Got to love those kids!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Piggy

I thought I'd share the birthday card I made for Chico yesterday. I think it turned out pretty cute. I really enjoy making cards, but I make such a huge mess just to make one card. I should have taken a picture of my dining room table. It was a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, this is the card. It was a money holder because Chico's so difficult to buy for, I'd rather he just pick out what he really wants. :)





I tried some paper-piecing on this card and think it was pretty successful. I like lots of texture on cards, so I used pop dots to make the pigs heads stand out a bit and used a cute tiny little sparkle on the cupcake candle. I also scissor distressed the edges of the cardstock the pigs are on as well as the black mat to give more texture.

If you're wondering about the word Piggy at the bottom of the card. Let's just say that for about the last 15 years or so, Chico and I have both called each other "Piggy" as a pet name. I actually rarely say "Chico" out loud when talking directly to him. I always say "Piggy" and he does the same. In fact the other day he called me Kandi while trying to get my attention and it sounded really strange!

Friday, September 12, 2008

¡feliz cumpleaƱos! Chico

Happy 37th Birthday Chico!!



We hope you have a wonderful birthday day and weekend!!
We love you!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Back to School

Well the kids have been back to school for a week now and sounds like they're both loving it!! Mateo started 3rd Grade last Wednesday. He's excited to have a man for a teacher this year. He's never had a male teacher before. I get to meet Mr. Frame tonight at Curriculum Night.

Here's Mateo before going the bus stop on his first day. He looks so grown up in the indoor photo!















































Wednesday was a drop-in day for Kindergarteners, so we went to the school and dropped off all of Jaxon's supplies and met his teacher Mrs. Wolfington. She was also Mateo's Kinder teacher. She's great!!
























Thursday was Jaxon's official first day of Kindergarten, so I had to do a mini photo shoot as we waited for the bus. How cute! I can't believe it's been 3 years ago that I was taking pictures of Mateo going to Kindergarten!






































































Jaxon gets on a different bus than Mateo for Kindergarten, but they do ride the same bus home together. That's been fun seeing them get off the bus together. At their school if a Kinder has a sibling on the bus they have to sit together. I'd love to hear what they talk about on the way home. Here are a couple more photos after school on Jaxon's first day & Mateo's second.
















































OK, just as Mateo's face reads... "Enough already"!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Aloha!

On our honeymoon in Hawaii Chico and I had these little necklaces made with our Hawaiian names on them. I've always wondered if they truely said our names or maybe they said something like "dumb tourist".

Anyhoo, I found this website one day that will tell you what your Hawaiian name is. It's kind of cool. My name in Hawaiian is KANAKI (just as my necklace said).

Here are the names of the rest of my family:

KIKO = Chico (just like his necklace said, too)
MAKEO = Mateo
IAKONU = Jaxon
KINIPELA = Jennifer (our 14 year old Cocapoo)
LUKE = Lucy (our 9 year old English Setter)
and last but not least
KONI = Toni (our 3 year old Guinnea Pig)

If you want to find out what your Hawaiian name is go here.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

A day at the fair

We had a really fun day at the Oregon State Fair on Labor Day! We picked up Uncle Phillip, Granny & Uncle Lee in our "taxi" and headed down to Salem in the morning. We even had room for one more in the car, but didn't spot anybody on the way.



We always seem to park by the entrance that's near the cows, so those were the first animals we saw.



Then came the Llamas, pigs, horses and goats (my favorite!).



I think I need a goat! They just crack me up everytime I see them. They're so curious and friendly. Next we checked out the Poultry barn and saw some chickens, bunnies & guinnea pigs. Yeah, I don't know why the bunnies & guinnea pigs are in the Poultry barn?

You know the term "doin' the funky chicken"? I think this is the photo that must go along with that phrase.


This Guinnea Pig looks just like ours (Toni), but with a wig on - funny!


After looking at all the animals we were off to the food area - yay!! Isn't that what going to the fair is all about? Mateo got a Deep Fried Snickers Bar. I had never tried one, and it actually tasted pretty good. It became the community treat because I think we all took a bite. I don't think Mateo got very much of it at all. Uncle Phillip also treated us to some Elephant Ears and a Flowering Onion (all of this before we ate lunch).

We spotted an area where they were letting little kids ride sheep. It was so cute. Mateo was going to do it, but they told him he was too tall. His weight was fine, just the height. We tried to get Jaxon to do it, but bribes wouldn't even work! He told me he'll do it next year (we'll see!).

Next we spotted the Mechanical Bull and to my surprise Mateo said he would try it.



It was fun to watch him. He did great! Mateo's got great balance and he's got this little "six-pack" on him, so I think he's got a pretty strong core. Hopefully the little video I took of him with my digital camera will work on here.



After the Urban Cowboy episode we all found a table (luckily) and got some lunch. Most of us ended up having Smoked Turkey Legs and Corn on the Cob. Rose thought it was a fun opportunity to get an unflattering photo of me eating right off the leg and so we thought we'd do a before and after shot. And no, I didn't eat the entire thing by myself, although I could have. It was very tasty!!





We're all full now, so let's go ride some rides! This year I got Mateo & Jaxon to ride a couple rides they've never tried. I rode the Scrambler with them which was so fun. I haven't ridden that for years! Rose took some photos, but I don't have a copy from her yet. Then they went on the bumper cars with Chico. They'd never done that before either.





They rode a couple little kiddie roller coasters too!





The Gallegos family resting while the boys went on their second roller coaster ride.





I also talked the boys into going on the swing ride, where we're all in individual swings and you fly around pretty high in the air (actually it's in the photo above, behind the roller coaster). They were nervous at first, but ended up loving it! I just got a new photo from Rose, so I'm adding that one. I think she also has some of us as we're flying thru the air, but you get the idea.



All the ride tickets were used up, so it was time to leave the fair. We stopped in Independence on the way home for a BBQ at Hector & Michelle's house (Uncle Phillip's step-son and his wife). The food was great, just like it was on the 4th of July. We left there around 8pm and headed home to drop off our "taxi" passengers. The boys were wiped out after all the action. Can't wait for next year's fair!!

Monday, September 1, 2008

What's your speed?

I found this fun little test on another blog that I read. In high school the only "C" I ever received was in typing class. I just couldn't let go and type without looking at the keyboard. I couldn't trust that my fingers would do the right thing. Can anyone say "control freak"?

Anyway, take the test and see how you do.

57 words

Speed test