Happy 9th Birthday Belle!

You deserve a crown of flowers and wings to fly!  Today you start a new adventure, it’s called: Nine Years Old.

Being nine years old is lots of fun.  Nine years old means: Fourth grade, horseback riding, story writing, dog loving, picture drawing, running outside, riding bikes, playing with friends, baking cookies, reading books and so much more.

You are the sweetest, most special little girl in the world.  I absolutely love every.single.thing about you.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Mom

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Want to see more Fancy Pants?  I made THIS with the same paper last year.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Love, Christie

I’m a little behind in posting.  I have a lot to share.

First of all, over the holiday weekend we stayed at the Crabtree Family Cabin (my Mom’s side of the family) in Island Park, Idaho.  We had a blast with the Wolfe Lighting crew (work).  Dan and I enjoyed some time outdoors with Parker and Izabelle.

We had a blast hanging out, riding the four wheeler, fishing in the pond, exploring, hiking around, playing cards, golfing, and spending time with friends and family.

Did I mention that EVERYONE brought their dogs?  The final count was TEN DOGS!  Craziness! They almost outnumbered the humans.  It was amazing that they (the dogs) all got along.  No dog fights.

Alright, back to posting pretty paper projects!

On Saturday my family and I were invited to come along with some friends from work to pick Huckleberries. This is considered a great honor, especially since we’ve only lived in Idaho for a little over two weeks.  Usually it takes years before locals will show you where to find Huckleberries.

It’s a known fact ’round these parts that huckleberries are like gold.

Seriously.  They fetch a pretty penny!

Huckleberries aren’t exactly easy to find either.  We followed my friend, Robert (from work) and his wife, Katrina about 35 miles out of town…another 5 or 6 miles twisting a turning through gravel roads, then another 2 mile hike up the side of a mountain.  After that we weaved our way through bushes and picked huckleberries until our fingers turned purple.  Our fingers literally turned purple (from the huckleberry juice).

The photo above was the last photo I took before I slipped, fell and broke my fancy camera. Don’t go worrying about me…I’m fine (besides a big bruise on my knee and shin) but my camera…Oh, that sweet photo taking machine, has perished.  I almost cried. Not because the fall hurt (which it did) but because my camera bit the dust.  And I was a little embarrassed.

For now, I’m using my trusty old point and shoot (should have brought it on the hike instead…coulda, woulda, shoulda).

We did have a terrific time on our huckleberry hike!  We ended up with purple fingers and loads of huckleberries.

I washed the huckleberries, let them dry and then froze about fifteen zip lock bags full of them.

Yum!

We’ve already made huckleberry pancakes and huckleberry muffins.  I’m thinking about making some jam too.

We’ll see.  It is only Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday!

Miss Kayla is 3!

I said I’d share some photos from Kayla’s Birthday.  The problem is…I took about 250 photos!

250 photos…more than an albums worth, right?  There will be lots of layouts in Kayla’s future.

Kayla loved Lollipop, a pretty clown who knew how to do face paint and tie balloon animals!  She also loved the homemade cake that Grandma Sterling made and the homemade ice cream that Grandpa Wolfe made.  Kayla especially loved the rainbow sprinkles on top of the ice cream.

Happy Birthday sweet niece of mine!

My brother, Adam and his wife, Vanessa make the cutest little girls…

Today is the kids’ first day of school!

A new state,

a new city,

a new school,

new classrooms and teachers.

I think I’m more nervous than they are.

Every time I look at these photos I die a little.

I took these photos the day before we left California.  These two cuties are my sweet little nieces, Addie and Kayla. It’s only been a little over a week but I miss them SO much already.  I’ve watched Kayla every Wednesday since she was about 10 months old, she’ll be three years old this month.  On Wednesdays I would spoil Kayla rotten, we had so much fun!

Cute little bikini behind:

Twist the knife.

Those nieces of mine are so darn cute.

We left California at 9:45 am Sunday morning…quite a bit later than we expected.

Marley was happy to be riding in the truck with Dan and Parker.

I love that Marley looks like he’s smiling in this photo:

Izabelle started out in the Van with me.

Smoke, our cat rode with us.

The cat did amazingly well in the car (thanks for the calming spray E.M.), especially considering that a drive that normally takes 12 hours, took 18.

Yes, it was a VERY long drive.  We drove straight through to our new home.

We arrived at 4 am on Monday morning.

I had a lot of time to listen to music and plan…and day dream…and yawn…and listen to more music….and plan some more…and sing a little too.

I listened to THIS and THIS and a bunch of other music that I’ll share…eventually.

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For most of the drive, this was my view:

I did get a better view when we would pull over at Rest Stops:

He makes for a very handsome view, don’t you think?

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We’re here.  We’re safe.  We’re tired of unpacking.

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Most of all, we are grateful.

I’m gearing up to share my Graphic 45 layouts with you! Only a few more days until Summer CHA then I can share them!

We’re back from our trip to Idaho.  Now we’re packing again – this time our whole house – to move to Idaho.

August 9th is our official move date.

If you don’t see too much of me here over the next few weeks…blame it on the move!

I miss my blog and promise to get back to it soon!

Love, Christie

We spent the day with family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

There is so much natural wild life there that Izabelle fit right in with her Wolf Tail and Beaver Hat.

You would not believe the amount of people that commented on and LOVED her tail.

On a more serious note, my mother was attacked by a bear.

We caught it on camera.

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Then Parker was wondering…

Where did Grandma go?

Take a deep breath.  No humans were harmed in these photos.

We had a blast in Jackson Hole and ended up at Bar J Ranch for good ‘ol cowboy food and entertainment.  It’s a MUST-do if you’re visiting the Jackson Hole area.

There is pleanty of beauty to behold and fun times to be had.

I’ll be sharing some of our adventures along the way.