Hey everyone. If you are in the Utah area I wanted to let you know about a really good cause. Have you heard about the Candlelight Serenade Acoustic Festival at Thanksgiving Point?

It’s a benefit concert for Child Rescue on August 21st. They are trying  to reduce child trafficking & sexual exploitation by 90% in the US and Canada by 2020. I can’t believe some of the stuff that is going on with these kids. It makes me sick to learn about it. Just plain sick.

I have some good friends who put this concert together to help raise awareness for this child trafficking. I think it should be great and there are a ton of awesome bands playing. Be sure to check it out.

A list of some of the bands that will be playing!

CHRIS CARRABBA from DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL
THIRD EYE BLIND
RELIENT K
NEON TREES
VEDERA
ALLRED
PRISCILLA AHN
JOEL AND LUKE
ALLIE MOSS
SHERWOOD
EVERYBODY ELSE
MAKING APRIL
NIGHT NIGHT
FICTIONIST
MORE TO COME……

Hey, thanks for all the great comments on my pet survey! There were so many great comments that I was swayed in many directions. It was completely apparent that you most of  you prefer fish as pets. They are obviously the easiest to take care of, especially betas.

We actually tried fish over a year ago and it didn’t work out so well. We worked so hard to take care of the tank just like the pet store told us but the sudden death of all our fish came as a shock and still to this day is unexplained (although many fingers are pointing to the neighbor boys.) So I will say we have decided not to get more fish right now.

We have made our final decision… well, Jeremy made the decision, but I wont be revealing it until Emma’s birthday on Friday.

Changing the subject…

I have to say that I love where I live. I can escape the summer heat in a 10-15 minute drive up the canyon. The kids and I were having a somewhat down day last week and I decided to get out of the house and go for a picnic up the canyon for lunch. We found a fun little place right off the road that was perfect for exploring, throwing rocks in the river and breathing fresh air. I couldn’t help marvel how crystal clear the water looked.

I took the opportunity to snap a bunch of pictures because Emma was wearing a dress I had recently made. I was very proud of it because I made it without a pattern. With mom’s help of course, I copied a dress of Emma’s that I love. I call it a sack dress. I’m not sure what it really is though. It’s very simple.

Nice power punch, Isaac.

At the fabric store I spent an hour staring at Amy Butler and Heather Bailey Fabric, which I normally drool over, and in the end came home with some vintage-y looking fabric. I was pretty happy with my choice until my sister in law started singing the song Pioneer Children. Perhaps it does look a tad old fashioned but Emma loves it.

I’m in the midst of planning a birthday party for Emma. I made some invitations for us to run around the neighborhood. I thought I’d share them as a template for anyone who wants to make their birthday planning easier. I know I do. Planning these parties are not my favorite, especially for Emma. She’d love it if I went all out and ordered a hot balloon ride and a pink pony that gives out free cotton candy.

Sheesh.

This template is a 4×6 and would work for about anything. You could even insert a picture under the frame and make it a photo announcement. I’m printing mine at home by dragging some flattened images onto a 8.5×11 but if you went with a professional printer I recommend a matte finish so it’s more fingerprint resistant.

The download link is right here.

Here is my example. I used Dani Mogstad’s Deep Blue Sea kit. Emma helped me a bit with her input. She wanted as many creatures as possible on it.

Leave a comment if you downloaded so that I know how many of you like this sort of little template. Enjoy!

Oh, before you leave… click on my survey, will ya? Emma is dying for tiny little pet to call her own. This is her dream birthday wish list. The creatures are in order of want. Yes, she wants a snake the most. Ahhhg. I’m not sure what to do. Jeremy is tempted to go catch a garter snake and call it good but I’m wondering about something that is more holdable. Any experienced pet owners out there? Is one of these stinky choices better than another? I’m also worried about their food stinking (crickets.) Tell me what you think. Success stories? Horror stories?

Thanks so much.

Hey ya’ll, how’s it going? Me? I’m barely recovering from a super crazy week. We had a family reunion with my family that turned out to be one of those trips to add on the list of “Remember when we went on that trip” kind of trip.

At the conclusion of this week we were reminisced over every other trip that had gone awry. Something always has to happen. Some kind of drama, some kind of accident or some kind of sickness. I’m not sure there has ever been the perfect family vacation. But I guess that is how memories are made. There is plenty to laugh over as we look back over the years. Neither side of the family is immune either. Things happen whether we are with my family or Jeremy’s.

Here is short list of the most recent disastrous but memorable trips.

2007

OBX- I jump off a second story deck into a pool, badly bruising my heal for 5 weeks.

Wyoming Ranch- Isaac aspirates a peanut and gets terrible sick. We leave a day early when he makes a turn for the worse. We drive to Evenston, WY where they have no clue what is wrong with him and they send us to the children’s hospital in an ambulance.

2008

Ashton- A stomach flu goes through the whole family, a huge family fight occurs but I’ll keep the details to myself.

Island Park- My grandma stops by for a visit, passes out and scares us to death. I call 911 just as she is coming to. My sister and I, both pregnant, spend a lot of time puking. Big sister makes enough oatmeal to feed an army, we flush half of it down the toilet, while she breaks down into hysterics.

2009

Bear Lake- Emma falls on her bike sending us to the emergency room for stitches. To this day she is still concerned about her scars… and camping.

OBX- This was probably a close to perfect trip but everyone was very careful to make it such. There was still a little cold bug that was passed around. We took family photos on the beach because everyone was present. There were 13 grandkids total, I had to photoshop a brother in law out of the photo because of an uncooperative child.

2010

Island Park- This year apparently was no different. We brought a stomach bug and shared it with everyone although some still are not ruling out the idea of drinking bad water or soaking in a contaminated hot tub. We listend to dad puking all night in our jack and jill bathroom. Our trip was cut in half for Jeremy’s Grandma’s funeral. We make an 8 hour round trip to attend.

So this year, like all the others, will go down in history as a trip to remember. We still rated the trip as a B+ even though my brother in law gave it a C. We weren’t as disappointed in the lack of ATV trails and didn’t spend a whole day in bed.

Here are the positive memories of our trip…

Isaac learned to ride the motorcycles.

We went on a beautiful hike.

Explored some awesome mountains.

Drove to the top of the world for a view of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

And played in a gorgeous river.

Yes, defiantly a trip to remember.

How about you? Does your family vacations always end up full of surprises?

Oh my wordy! It has been well over a week since I last posted. It must be summer around here. Can you tell? We’ve been busy swimming and playing in the great outdoors but today it is just to hot for any of that. I need to let my sunburn heal and let my baby to get a decent nap. Woo.

Luckily, I have a template stored up and ready to share with my sweet readers. Hope you like it. It’s pretty flexible as far as photos go. It basically is a revamped version of a super old one that I never used or shared. Guess it pays to save.

Download here.

Here are my pages. Credits at flickr.

Hey everyone. Things are getting excited around here. Not only do I have a new sweet template for you, I also have finally published a page of Tips and Tutorials. I’ve been working on them FOREVER! There are basic tutorials probably geared more for newbie digi scrappers but there may be some useful information for even someone a bit seasoned. I just may help you make life easier. Go ahead and check them out.

And while you are around you might as well grab my new template. Click here.

Here are my pages. I’m really happy with them. Credits at Flickr.

Have fun scrapping and let me know if you have any questions.

I hope all of you Americans had a wonderful Independence Day! We celebrated all weekend long.

We started with a picnic up the canyon with family. Here is my cute little sister playing around with Emma and the camera. I have a whole series of pictures like this.

Had a neighborhood BBQ with lots of friends and fireworks. (I actually have no photo of that night but picture the circle full of hundreds of kids with fireworks going off everywhere. Yikes.)

Made it to the top of the world on a perfect summer day.

Then flew back down really fast.

Had a little visit in the doctors office for my sweet Leah. (Sorry the picture quality is soooo poor. She wouldn’t hold still for me.) I watched this awful rash spread by the hour and wanted answers.

Any guesses on the diagnosis? I guess that link gives it away but we had a heck of a time trying to figure it out.

And finally ended with more fireworks.

Happy Birthday USA!

I never know whether to put the photo captions before or after the photo. What do you do on your blog? How do you prefer to read it -photo or words first?

I just had a totally swell birthday. I can’t help but wish that I could have days like this more than once a year. I was complete bushed by the end of the day but it was so worth it.

The day started out my exploring some new mountain biking trails with my good friend Amy who has a birthday the day after mine.

The afternoon was spent mainly in the back yard hammock with a perfect blue sky and cool breeze and kids playing in the hose. No chores allowed on my birthday.

I planned a super evening with my sweet hubby and little sis and bro-in-law. I wanted to show them my new favorite climbing spot.

Here’s Sabra messing around on some pumpy overhangs.

The top of this climb is a major butt kick’n roof. It takes some super human power to get up and over. It was such a blast.

Here’s my bro-in-law contemplating an escape route.

Here’s me on an itty bitty finger holding climb. I kept telling Jeremy to hold off on the pictures until I pulled some awesome move. Ya, he doesn’t have that kind of patience.

We hiked out at dark and we got to see an awesome view of the city lights. There was an obliging fence that helped us capture this photo of the 4 of us.

We ended the night with cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Yum. Don’t tell any that I took a night off from my sugar detox.

I’ve been doing a sugar detox for two weeks now. I was super nervous to start it because I’ve never done anything like this before. I was afraid that I had no self control but guess what… I’m doing it. I’m so proud of myself! It’s not as hard as I thought to pass up cookies, ice cream and warm toast with honey.

I’ve always tried to eat on the healthy side of things but I’m not a super-crazy-organic-no-sugar kinda girl. I certainly enjoy a treat now and then. I’ve noticed lately that my metabolism is slowing down and the baby fat isn’t coming off as easy as it use to. I need to stop snacking on the quick sugary carb type treats.

I played with the idea of a liver detox but the one I wanted to do was around 200 dollars. So when my mom said she was going to do this sugar detox I jumped at the idea of doing it with her. We both needed the support. It makes it easier to know that I’m not the only one suffering.

I thought I’d share this diet if any of you are looking for a healthier you. I’m hoping in the long run that I will gain more self control, eat more veggies and avoid the bad foods.

This sugar detox was develop by a local doctor of mine. He’s a well known integrative doctor around these parts. I really like how he uses healthy eating and natural methods to treat people instead of jumping right into medical medicine. www.hugorodier.com

This diet burns up sugar/glycogen stored in the liver. This is critical to adjust your metabolism.  When the liver is full of sugar, it keeps your blood sugar at a level that maintains addictions and metabolic problems. You will emerge with your sugar cravings gone.

Here it is.

I think it’s been great and I have lost a couple pounds. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be. I think having support is the key. The first few days is the worst. I had this awful sugar withdrawal that made me shaky and weak but once I got past it I’ve been feeling great. I’m rarely hungry and have had plenty of energy for biking and climbing and chasing after kids. It’s important not to get caught hungry around tempting food so I even took a gigantic bowl of salad camping this last weekend.

Crazy eh?

Hi, all you template loving people, I have another one for you. Yea, happy day! I hope you like it because I spent way too much time rearranging all the little squares. I almost went bonkers, I tell you.

I only put 3 photos on a page but remember you could fill up as many squares as you needed. I also stroked my photos because, yes, even I sometimes get lazy. I think it helps them stand out. Anyhow, it’s yours for the taking. Download here and don’t forget to give me some comment love.

After I had all the bloom’n squares in place, I thought this template was pretty fun to scrap. Here are my pages. Credits at flickr. I can’t wait to see them printed out and put into my scrapbook.