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.

I’m teaching the following 3-in-one Graphic 45 Class this month at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique:

This Layout:

Plus this Wall Hanging and card:

Class will be held on July 22nd.

A little side note:  The baby in the layout above is me, on my first birthday.  The man next me in the photo is my daddy, he is watching very closely as I dig my little face into my birthday cake.  Not much has changed over the years…I still like to dig my face into my birthday cake (OK, not really).

A little stitching around the cupcake…

…makes for good use of Collage Press scraps.

And in other news…

We had a little impromptu get together with my kids and their cousins (for Alyssa’s Birthday).

My sweet little cousin, Alyssa, is 13 years old today.

The kids build a fort using about 25 blankets.  They plan to sleep there tonight.

This photo does not do the tent justice, it literally fills up the whole back room of my house.

They had a blast building the tent.  It’s so fun to watch kids be kids, to hear their laughter and to be surrounded by little girls.

I think Parker likes being surrounded by girls too!

I just picked up the Sweet Shoppe Collection by, Collage Press.  The Sweet Shoppe line is just perfect for Birthday Photos!

I decided to create a page using a photo I took of Izabelle on her 8th birthday:

I hand stitched the word “EIGHT” and used the die-cuts that came with the Sweet Shoppe Collection, it also came with the big circles -what a fun line!

My son, Parker has a favorite show.  It’s called,

Avatar, The Last Airbender

The main Character is a little boy named Ang.  Ang has blue arrows on this head, arms, legs & back.

Just the other day I walked into Parker’s room, this is what I found:

It’s no surprise that when I tried to use my blue pen today it was out of ink.