Baby Names

Any baby girl name ideas for this one?

I love Aspen.

Cody likes Riley.

Nie Nie Day

Tomorrow (Thursday) has been declared Nie Nie Day by Design Mom.

Please go here, to her site to see how you can participate.

Hundreds and hundreds of people — maybe thousands even — are preparing to

participate by bidding on auction items.

No personal posts this week because my mind has been consumed with thoughts of the

Nielson family. I anxiously check Courtney's blog (Stephanie's sister) every day to read updates. An additional benefit blog has been created by one of Stephanie's friends.

Thoughts with Stephanie, Christian and family

This Sunday I learned that my high school friend Stephanie Nielson, her husband and a flight instructor were in a private plane crash. Since the moment I heard about the accident my mind has been consumed with thoughts and prayers for Stephanie, her husband Christian and their 4 beautiful children. I have waited until this time to post about their condition based on the fact that much of the information I learned in the first days was hear say. Now that news channels have reported the story and I have learned more accurate info. through her sisters blog cjanerun, I am posting. Stephanie is an incredible mother and wife. I am frequently inspired by the postings on

her blog.

Please keep the Nielson family in your prayers.

First Day of Kindergarten

The day has finally arrived, Brinley's first day of Kindergarten. After pulling a link off of her "kindergarten chain" for the past week Brinley was up bright and early with enthusiastic anticipation for school to finally begin. This sweet little letter from Daddy greeted

Brinley at the breakfast table.

After asking "how many more minutes until school starts" about 37 times in a two hour span we were finally in the car headed to school. I did my best to keep my emotions under control as I took video and pictures while attempting to quiet Avery's vocal yearning to be released from her stroller. I have never had such a desire to be a fly on the wall as I did while waving

good-bye and walking away from my first born.

Avery and I rushed back home to host a 2-year old playgroup at our home.

After Avery's friends went home the house felt so quiet without Brinley. As Avery and I bowed our heads to say prayer before lunch the tears came and I realized just how different this year is going to be. I'm confident that Brinley is going to come home with a glowing report of her first day of school! Tonight we are going to visit Daddy at work for dinner so that she can report to him first hand her experiences of the day.

August Stamp Club

I am always so excited to share new Stampin' Up product after convention when the new

Idea Book & Catalog is released, this year was no exception!

Using our new "In Color" series club member made these darling gift bags and semi-matching cards. One of my favorite new stamp sets is called

"Inspired by Nature" which we used on the bag.

I made these simple yet elegant card sets shown below for my friends birthday.

I made these covered chocolate bars and attached a little thank you note for the young women who put together the summer camp Brinley attended last week.

Happy Summer Days

On Thursday morning the girls picked these out of our garden. Avery tends to get quite a thrill by picking as many green ones as she possible can before Mommy catches on, we left those ones out of the picture.

For lunch we made cheese & mushroom ravioli with fresh pesto (also made with ingredients from our garden) and added olives and lots of these lovely little tomatoes.

Then Brinley was off to another day of "camp" at the Gazdicks home.

Erin, a young woman from church organized a fun filled week of activities for a group of

about 12 kiddos. Each day focused on a different theme:

Cooking day, animal day, swimming day, arts & crafts day, etc...

Brinley thoroughly enjoyed those 2 hours each day last week!
She will be starting kindergarten next Tuesday!

We spent Friday evening HERE

The girls had such a fun time playing at the park, creating various craft projects and especially talking to real firemen and being able to sit in this fire truck.

I was able to meet incoming resident families which is always so fun.

The night would have been perfect...if only Daddy could have been with us.

Family Time In Utah

I could not go to Utah for convention without spending time with my dear family!

I was able to see both Cody's Utah and San Diego family.
Pictured above is my brother-in-law Tim, his wife Robyn and their daughter Maddie.

Pictured below are my sister-in-laws Kelli, Staci and Brenna.

Not pictured are my other in-laws from Sandy Utah Mark, Teresa

and their 6 kids and 2 spouses.

Grandma Ginger is recovering amazingly well! Go HERE to read more details

about her recovery and my time in Provo.

We all sure love our little Kenneth who would get along swimmingly with Avery if they

had the opportunity to be together more often.

My sister-in-law Jill is having a baby girl on September 12Th, she looks incredible and her tiny tummy is not much bigger then mine. Look at my cute nephew! Arian and Jill happened to be in Utah for Jill's sister Paula's wedding which worked out perfectly!

We were able to visit my Dad, Aunt Mel and Aunt Kathy for a night of swimming.

We celebrated Kelty & Duane's birthday with a HUGE delicious dinner and birthday cake. Grandma Ginger presented Kelty with a family air loom saddle for her b-day gift.

On Monday we went to Sundance Ski resort for lunch and a scenic lift ride.

Go HERE to see more pics. from when I was with family in Utah!

Convention 2008

What a great time we had at convention this year!

Our group theme was the "Bahama Mama's" although due to huge crowds and hot weather we only ended up modeling our lovely outfits during the first general session.

Joining over 6000 other Stampin' Up demonstrators we participated in a "general session" each day filled with stampin' demonstrations, award recognition, entertainment and motivational speeches.

Entertainment for the official awards night was a great A Capella group called Tonic Sulfa.

They were really funny and had incredible talent!

Make and takes are a highlight for us demo's who are always the ones preparing projects for our customers. During the two make and take sessions we got to make 8 different projects using product from the new 2008-2009 idea book and catalog!

Below:

Opening session show. SU presents a generous donation to the Ronald McDonald houses. A peak at the Riverton Campus (where SU head offices, demo support and shipping facilities are housed). A shot of part of the hilarious "Convention Barbie" commercial shown during a general session. And last but not least the UPS man delivered a free stamp set to every demo present!

This is how excited we get when we receive free stamps!

We loved having Cathy and Mary, our mother-daughter team, with us this year!

Go HERE to read why you should be this excited too!

After Mary & Jennifer sacrificed an entire lunch break to wait in line we were able to chat and take pictures with Shelli, the co-founder of Stampin' Up!

Who will be joining this convention group next year???

Go HERE to read about convention on Mary's blog.