Family Pictures and Eva's First Birthday Pictures

Well this post has taken me awhile- for some reason I could only upload one picture at a time---anyway, my wonderful and talented Aunt Leslie took these pictures for us at a beautiful home here in Newcastle. Sister Harts house is amazing during the summer. There are so many flowers and I knew that's where I wanted family pictures taken. I think they turned out so great. Thanks Aunt Les!

Eva's First Birthday Party

We had Eva's first birthday party on Tuesday August 4th, because of me leaving on the 5th. I know, I know. Well we had the party at my parent's house and it was lots of fun. We had barbequed hamburgers, dutch oven potatoes, pasta salad, macaroni salad, and homemade root beer. It was the perfect evening for a party outside. It was fun to be together and catch up. Eva wasn't too interested in her presents, she was busy crawling around and playing with other things. She got some very cute presents! Lots of clothes from Grama Faleen and Grampa Troy and Tara made her the cute white and red dress. She got a way cute wooden Noah's Ark from Grampa Steve and Grama Deb. She even got money to go shopping. Gotta teach her to shop huh? She got some toys from her cousins, a tea set from Great Grama Sharon, a cute hand painted plate for her room from Aunt Leslie and Uncle Todd and mom and dad gave her a cute pink horse that makes sounds and sings songs and Case gave her her first baby doll. She loved that! I can't belive that my baby girl is one already! It has flown by. We love Eva so much, she has brought quite the spunk and attitude to our house. She's such a good girl, she is very much in-tune with herself and knows exactly what she needs and when she needs it. We love you sissy!












































The dang kid pulled out her cute pony and flower before presents.



















"Oh! My very own pink horse and baby doll!"



















Cute castle cake huh? I was pretty proud of myself.











Eva totally dug in to her cake. She was not shy at all. She was going for it with both hands and I think I let her go for too long- I think she was sick!












Thanks Tess for taking such great pictures! I love this one!













"I'm loving this!"













Gotta use a fork now------





















"I am so cool- I get my very own cake to eat!

My Projects for Convention

I am so excited to attend Stampin' Up! Convention this year! I was officially a Demonstrator in March, so I get to go! Convention is an annual 'meeting' where thousands- I mean thousands- of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators come to learn new things and have lots of fun. Well, my sister in law introduced me to Stampin' Up! right after I was married and I have loved it ever since. I am an avid scrapbooker and love all that goes with it. At Convention (this wednesday through saturday, and yes- no kids!) they have what is called a swap, where you take however many card fronts you want and you get to swap with all the other demonstrators there that have brought swaps. Since this year is my first year, I wanted to come home with lots of ideas, so I have made 71 (don't know how I got the extra 1) card fronts. Wow. It has been quite a job! They are gorgeous though. And, I made 25 3-D projects to swap also. And our little group that's attending Convention together decided to do a swap between ourselves, doing a single 12x12 page, and a super 3-D item. Well, here they are!

These are my card fronts for swap- you can't use anything retired. All new products!



















Here's my 3-D swaps: Hershey Candy Bar baby!














Here's my super 3-D swaps for our group: Altoid Tins! front:














Inside:




















Pull up on the ribbon and you get 5 spots on the front for pictures,



















Take the whole thing out and you get 4 more spots on the back for pictures. I thought this would be cute to put in your purse when someone wants to see pics of your kids- or maybe a grandma's brag book!














Here's my 12x12 page swaps for our group: Put your family picture on the 5x7 spot,



















Then open the 3-D element for more places for pictures, then fold it back up!



















All of these projects are created using Stampin' Up! supplies and stamps. I love scrapbooking and paper creating, and Stampin' Up! makes it so easy. I'm so glad I have a husband that puts up with me doing what I love. You can usually find me in my scrapbook room recording all the memories that our family makes. Go to my Demonstrator Web Site and check out all that Stampin' Up! has to offer!

Our 24th Fun!

We had a great 24th of July. I started out my day by running the annual Enterprise "Pioneer Day Fun Run" 5K. It was really great. A couple friends and I started running about 2 months ago and decided to run the 5K. Yeah, so they totally smoked me, and took first and second in our age category. Hey, I finished though and not last by any means! Anyway, I was also asked to be in charge of the Relief Society Float for the Newcastle ward's parade, which I was not happy, I usually spend the day in Enterprise, I've never seen a Newcastle parade. Well, it turned out really good! Eva was tired after the parade so I went home while she took a nap and Case and Kyle went back up to the church for the program and kid activities and lunch. Then we headed to Enterprise for the annual races (which my dad announces every year.) It was really hot and Eva was not happy. Case won his 4 year old age group and then beat the winner from the girls age group. He was so fast! He won a quarter, and was pretty impressed with himself. We got an ice cream at Marvs and went home. Then we had a big family barbeque and Kyle's parents house, then Eva had a blow out, so I took Eva home while they did fireworks. Then, to top off the evening, we killed a scorpion on our back porch. Ugh! I hate bugs. Anyway, I have always loved Pioneer Day and am so thankful for all the sacrifices of my ancestors so that I can live where I do and enjoy all the things that I do.

Me, Julie Platt and Cassie Jenkins

The Newcastle runners

Cassie Jenkins, Kindy Fitzwater, JayLee Platt (yeah, she's 5 and ran the 5K) Julie Platt, Russell Platt (JayLee's dad) Me, Mike Oliver (Kyle's cousins husband)

Here's our float- the parade theme was "Count Your Blessings" so we took the hymn and used it- the RS presidency rode, along with Grandma Christensen and a few others.

Count Your Blessings 1 by 1 by 1 by 1-- get it?

Case and Ramzi Hughes on the Primary Float

Eva thinking she's pretty cool helping Dad pull the RS float

Case with his prizes for winning the races!

Here's Eva walking to the finish line with Dad's help.

~We Love Swimming!~

My family went swimming down to Veyo yesterday. We had so much dang fun. We got there around 5:00 pm and decided that was the time to go swimming. No hot sun to get sunburned and it was still way warm. Eva loved it! Quade even got in too and he loved it. Tessa brought her friend Kenni so there was a bunch of us! Altogether there was Kyle, me, Case, Eva, my mom, my dad, Taleena, Tessa, Kenni, Tara, Slade and Quade. We swam until closing time and even watched them drain the pool. About an hour before closing we decided it was time to start doing tricks (there was only one other family there- the Jones's from Beryl) and we got pretty silly. Kenni started it by showing off her awesome dives, then Tessa started, and Taleena went, then Kyle and Slade started cannon-balling and guess what? Case does the BEST cannon ball you've ever seen a 4 year old do! He absolutely loves the water. He jumps right in the 7 foot with no fear! (with floaties on!) He was loving it. My dad walked Eva all around the pool- he and my mom are trying to teach her how to walk without my permission, of course! Anyway, we had a great time together and will definitely going again!

(: Cute Kids :)

Here's some very cute pictures of 3 very cute kids! Eva and Case after church and Eva and
Quade on Sunday afternoon. I have to say it again- CUTE!!!!