A Special Family Portrait

This past Sunday was what would have been my Parents 35th Wedding Anniversary, So at the last minute I had an idea to do a special photo for my Mom. Wednesday last week I arranged with all my Brothers and their families and with our Favorite Photographer Justin, to have this picture done. We originally were going to do it at a local park that has an amazing funky looking tree that everyone could kind of sit it, However it SNOWED! so at the very last minute (like an hour before the photos) I called my mom and told her I was coming for a visit and that way I could get into her locked condo building. Then I had everyone meet there at the arranged time. Whoever got there first was to phone me so I could pretend Curtis got called to work and had to go but really just went down to the lobby to let everyone in the building. So we did the pictures in the lobby of her building. Anyway here is our favorite shot and My mom LOVED IT!! Thanks Justin!

Back Row from left to right: My oldest Brother Cory, His wife Rhonda, My husband Curtis, Diana who is married to my 3rd bother Pj next to her, Then my 2nd Brother Chris and his wife Drewin holding their 2 year old Jayda.

next row: Darin (in the Green) and Zander next to him belong to Cory & Rhonda, Then Myself, holding my 2 year Old McKenzie, Then Cale who is PJ & Dianas little guy.

Front: Chris and Drewin's Daughter Keirah and My Oldest (4) McKayla.

Together we make a fine looking Bunch of 15!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MCKENZIE

My little baby is 2!! Wow how the time flies, I still remember the 3 days of contractions like it was yesterday....hahaha!

Here is a picture of my sweet baby girl McKenzie!

and here is a picture of her not being so sweet. Look at that Glare!!! She must get it from Daddy *wink wink*

Pictures are compliments of my Good friend Justin! Thanks
Scroll down to my previuos post for something more creatively paper stimulating!

From Our Anniversary!!

I wanted to thank those that wished us a happy anniversary. It was indeed a good one. My sister in law came over and baby sat so We could go for dinner. We went to moxie's which is my fav and also the place we had our first official date 12 years ago (I previously thought it was 13 but I guess it just seems like forever...LOL) Also My dear and wonderful friends surprised us with some fantastic gifts. They really are the Bestest friends ever!!

Sarah & Justin Picked up these exceptional flowers. I love the variety of colors and they are so BRIGHT. They are still blossoming beautifully on my table. Speaking of my table, They also got us some new cloth place mats and a matching apron and oven mitts. Thanks so much Sarah & Justin!!!! I love them.


Tanis & Mark got us these awesome coffee mugs that have a little stir spoon that fits right into the handle (perfect for my Tim Horton's French Vanilla Capp!!!!) Also an elegant wine decanter, I Love it and cant wait to use it. Thanks You two!!!

This last one s a beautiful Bronze Statue from my Mom. It is called Giraffe Family and suits us and our house perfectly. Our house has all brown & Beige walls and the statue fits in perfectly with all our photos, paintings and pencil drawings of various other animals...tigers, panthers and wolves. Thanks Mom!!

Anywho I have to run and finish packing. I am going to hang out with Charlene just up the highway for teh weekend. Cant wait but have not even begun to pack...Yikes!

Have a great weekend all!

It's all about the cake!

Well! This weekend Past I was a part of my Lifelong friends wedding. We have been friends since we were 3 years old. Nearly 26 years later we are still buddies and have shared some incredible moments including the birth of her son (which I was coaching her through) and now her wedding!! While helping her plan the wedding, My best friend Sarah offered to do her wedding cake. Yes the same Sarah that has been responsible for all the wonderful baked masterpieces on my blog. Well I have to say folks she has truly out done herself this time.

First we planned a bride & groom pool party with all the bridal party as well. In the spirit of the pool party we went with a tropical feel. Sarah decided to test the waters of the fondant making world and make a themed cake to bring to the party. Here it is.

Is that not the most FABULOUS, SUPER, AMAZING cake you have ever seen? I love it and the fondant tasted SO good, and was definitely worth the work it took to make it. Right Sarah? :)

Now with out further ado, I give you the Wedding Showstopper!!!!

We did have a few issues with the roses as they were so pretty, but incredibly heavy so we had to make a few reinforcements for them and saved the day. Sarah (I know you are reading this even though you never leave me comments....LOL) You did a super fantastic job on this cake and you will forever be my own personal cake lady! Not only are each every one of your baked pieces of art delicious, but made with lots of TLC. Thanks for adding such a special touch to Melissa's Day!!!

Stay tuned, I will be posting more wedding stuff in the next few days as well as some more family pics. You know a few things to keep you occupied while I get my mojo back in line and make some cards. I am so much in with drawl and I have been DIEING to use some of my new Cuttlebug folders. I even got my grubby little hands and some of the new seasonal release folders!!! Love the spiderwebs! See you soon!

7 Years Ago...

I got married to my High School Sweet heart! I know how sweet and sappy! But today (which is nearly 13 years of us being togeter) we have been married for 7 Years and I can honestly say that I would not trade him for anything. He is my biggest supporter, comfort and truly is a great foundation for our family! We met through a friend of mine, Sarah, she was in some of his classes and kinda liked him..LOL I finally seen him one day when she pointedhim out and made a comment about his behind and I said yeah whatever your crazy and now here we are. We dated, we moved in together, got married, moved from Canada to New Mexico USA, had our first Daughter and then moved back home, had another daughter and here we are today!

It seems to be such a short time in comparison to someof the mariages in our families. My parents would have celebrated 35 years this year if Dad had not passed. Curtis' parents just celebrated 37 years, My Dad's parents celebrated their 63rd in July (I know..HOLY CRAP!!!) my moms parents and signifigant step parentsa have both celebrated 39 years and te list continues to grow. My 3 brothers are all married, no divorces. SO with all that positive Marital energy in our families I am thankful for the love that Curtis and I share.

Here is a few photos from our big day, but I tell you if I could have a do-over with Curtis I would change so many things about our wedding. Regardless He is the BEST and I love him 100%. Love you babe!!

My Mommy Made my dress from scratch!!

Here is me and my 3 Brothers. From left to right: Cory (oldest), Pj (Patrick Junior, third) Myself (I am the youngest) and Chris (second oldest) and the four of us are still extremely close!!

A Card, Some Kids and a Bug!

I have a good friend of mine that is kind of starting over in life and making his way down a new path, so I decided to make this card for him! I show three stages on this card, Hatching, starting in a new direction and "New Beginnings" all from the Papertrey Ink stamp set Birds of a Feather. The upper right hand corner is a caption of what the inside looks like.


Awwwwwwww!! My Darling husband took this picture a few days ago and I only just found it on the camera when I was taking card pictures of the memory stick. Although he cut off parts of their heads, what an ADORABLE picture. The older one is McKayla, who is 4 years old and starting kindergarten in September. The younger one is McKenzie and she is turning 2 at the end of August!


And this, this my friends is the giant size dragonfly McKayla spotted on the outside of our house the other day. Isn't it pretty? It was about 4 inches long and made of a Chocolate brown and sort of Aqua Mist color.......Anyone see where I am going with this one? Yeah stay tuned possibly, for a dragonfly inspired card!!

Just Venting...& Spiders Yuck!

This is just a venting session that you may even find slightly humorous! The title will turn out to be a completely intentional pun. Right now it is not so funny to me but I am sure a will laugh later. (For those not interested I do have a nice card posted this morning below this post)

A few days ago I noticed that my dryer was not properly drying our clothes, actually not at all! SO I asked my DH to check it out when he got home from North Dakota. Our laundry room is not finished so I find it creepy and it usually has creepy crawlies of the 8 legged variety! I am completely FEARFUL of those icky things! I freeze up entirely and my gosh if I get one on me, really makes for some entertainment for those near me. I usually scream and cry and jump about like a hot Mexican jumping bean.

Anyway, he came home the other day and STILL had to looked at it so this morning I asked him to do it, pull it out from the wall check the lint trap, the hose and the exhaust vent outside. He took apart the lint trap thingy and said it was all clear and checked everything else and said it was all fine. SO I called a repair guy who said it would cost $54 for the first 10 minutes and $1 for every minute after that. OK HOLY!!! but what do you do right? so I scheduled for them to come right away.

Since I have an embarrassing amount of laundry and the wet clothes in the dryer I ask the DH to take the clothes in the dryer and put them in garbage bag and hide away all the clothes laying around. He says he did it and goes back to work. Ok bye bye! Then I went downstairs to make sure all was tidy looking and BEHOLD he had not hidden the laundry away. So I start scooping the clothes off the floor and "tuck" them away (which really means I launched them onto my DD's bed so I could close the door) after the second scoop of clothes I go back for a third and WHAM! BIG HONKIN' HAIRY WOLF SPIDER!! For my Canadian readers the leg span around was larger then a twoonie, so what about and inch and half? YUCK!!!

After spending a minute or so frozen as the big thingy practically stares me in the eye, I grabbed one of Curtis' hardcover books from the shelf behind me and carefully hold it above the spider (like in the air about 3 feet) and then I drop it....and MISSED, damn! it kinds scurried a few inches away and then stopped again. I guess it was not done with its eyeball showdown with me. I decided I would quickly race up the stairs and grab my Spider Raid (which I always keep easily available on the shelf above my kitchen counter) and race back down the stairs. Thankfully the creepy critter had not gone away because then I would not know where it is and that would be worse. I am trying to get up the nerve to spray it cuz I know as soon as I do it is going to start running like hell, which it did but I followed it and kept spraying until the thing finally gave in and shriveled up. SO THERE you yucky spider!

Now the repair guys are here and the basement smells of Raid (love that raid) and they go immediately to the exhaust vent outside. YUP! there is the chunks of lint bulging from the vent shutters! WOW, now I'm embarrassed. All they did was plucked the lint from the vent and empty the water that had built up in the hose coming from the dryer and done. Works like new, NO KIDDING!

So Ladies the moral of the story: if this ever happens to you, please avoid paying $56.70 for a lit plucker and just check the damn thing yourself! Then you can spend the $56 on PTI stamps!!!

Canada Day BBQ Pictures

Well we had a GREAT day and jam packed with loads of fun. I am so tired and just need to hill out for a bit, watch the end of Hell's Kitchen and then off to bed. So here are some of the shots from my camera. am hoping to have more from Justin's Camera. (I KNOW he got some great ones but my laptop wouldn't read the card until I rebooted it and they had to get running so we did not miss the fireworks) So enjoy an see you all again soon.

The picture on the left is my wonderful Husband Curtis who needs more of a tan...lol ad then on the right is my oldest daughter McKayla taking a picture of e taking a picture of her...it's family tradition to do it!

This is a picture of one of my Bestest friends ever, Sarah. The picture is a little sideways and so is she and I wouldn't change her for the world. She ROCKS!!!

This is Sarah's DH, Justin just playing some Ball with my youngest, McKenzie!

On the left is Sarah & Justin's Son Evyn. H is the cutest little boy I have ever laid eyes on. Speaking of eyes, his are killer, Back off ladies we have pre arranged the marriage between Evyn and McKenzie! LOL The second picture is Evyn and another of my Best friends, Diana, Who also happens to be my sister in Law!

My Brother PJ checking out Maren's Flowers (yeah they are actually weeds pulled from beside my hose...LOL) Maren is another one of my friend's Daughter...so cute!

This is Tiff and her Daughter Jade, who is just completely played out. Tiff and I were pregnant at the same time, kinda. Our daughters are about 4 months apart.

The Boys just hanging out. Nice face there Kev!

And this is what McKayla looked like after the fireworks...Yup, She's Done!

This picture is from after all has calmed down. Everyone is on bed, the place is all leaned up and as I sat down to start writing this post our Oscarfish decided to eat another one of his tank mates. Funny thing is when we added the two gouramis (sp) two weeks ago we jokingly named them "lucky" ad " Not Lunch" Turns out we were wrong because this one is the one we named Not Lunch...tee hee. Wait til my DH sees this picture! Moral of the story...There is ALWAYS a bigger fish....HAHAHAHA

Well goodnight all and I will be back soon with a more crafty kind of post. I hope all my fellow Maple Leafers had just as Fabulous a Canada Day as I did.

Gone But Not Forgotten

A year ago today, I lost my Dad, My children's Grandfather and My Best Friend. Today I sit and reflect just how much I miss him, yet find myself putting my selfish thoughts of wanting him here with us forever aside and being thankful for what we did have with him.

My Oldest daughter does have fantastic memories of him that she can share with her sister. I have wonderful memories of him, learned many things from him and we all had all his love. We were (and will continue to be) the closest and most loving family I have ever known. I am thankful for the 27 years I got to know him and moreover the last 6.5 years since his first heart attack that we got to have "extra" thanks to modern medicine. My heart aches for my mother who is lost with out her soul mate and I pray I don't know that feeling for a very very long time.

Remember, my friends, hugs those close to you and be sure to tell them just how much you love them as you have no idea when it will be the last time you do!

Jewels

This was what we wrote in the news paper (just sharing for a few friends that had not seen it last year)

Patrick "Pat" McKay passed away on Wednesday, June 20, 2007, at the age of 56 years, beloved husband of Karen McKay of Medicine Hat. He also leaves to cherish his memory his parents, William "Bill" and Lucy McKay; his children, Cory (Rhonda) McKay and their children Darin and Zander; Chris (Drewin) and their children Keirah and Jayda; Patrick Jr. (Diana) McKay and their son Cale; and Julie-Ann (Curtis) Wells and their children McKayla and McKenzie; two brothers, Mike (Jacquie) McKay and Sandy McKay; his sister-in-law Nancy McKay; Karens parents, Julia (Daniel) Badgley and Wilfred Gibson as well as numerous brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his granddaughter Elizabeth and Karen’s stepmother Alice Gibson. Pat was born June 19, 1951, and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He joined the army at the young age of 17. His first posting was in Petawawa, Ontario, where he met his wife-to-be, Karen Gibson. They married when Pat was 22 years old and Karen was 17. They were also posted in Dundurn Saskatchewan where their first son was born. They then returned to Petawawa where, as Pat would say, "The winters were cold and they had three more". In 1988 they were posted in Suffield, Alberta "Somewhere near a place called Medicine Hat". Pat then retired from the army in 1989 and the family moved from Ralston to Medicine Hat, where he drove for Care Cabs for 8 years. He worked as a commissioner in Suffield for a few years and then returned to driving with Care Cabs. He became internationally known as "The Gangsta" Cab driver because of his favorite fedora hat. He then became lovingly known as "Pat in da hat". He was told by his customers that people were talking about him in Germany. He was THE gentleman taxi driver, providing roses to the ladies on special occasions, playing relaxing jazz music and going out of his way to please his customers. Pat’s first love was his childhood sweetheart Karen, whom he met when she was 15. They enjoyed over 33 years of marriage, and became the perfect role model for their children and grandchildren. He was always so proud of Karen and he was always bragging about her newest accomplishment, especially her singing. Pat was a true family man. Always telling anyone who would listen about the latest happenings with his kids or grandchildren. Pat had many hobbies to fill his spare moments. He enjoyed playing on his computer, wood-working and yard work. His latest endeavor was building a pond from scratch for him and Karen and the rest of the family to enjoy. Over the last couple of years he discovered his love of cooking and sharing his secret BBQ sauce with family. Together Pat and Karen enjoyed the theatre. While Karen was on stage singing and dancing, Pat was behind the scenes lending a helping hand and often comic relief. Final staging for Pat McKay arranged by Derek Martin, lovingly known as the "Nazi stage manager" and Pat would of liked that! The memorial service will be held in PATTISON CHAPEL on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. with long time friend Mr. Doug Blackstock presiding. A private family interment will follow in the Hillside Cemetery.

Checking in

Hey everyone!!

I am SO sorry I have not posted in a while. I will again soon I promise. I picked up a contract for a Website shopping cart installation at the last minute. That on top of a multi-family yard sale on the week-end of Fathers Day, The first of which with out my Dad. This time last year we were sitting around my house eating such yummy food, all the while looking at my Dad thinking how uncomfortable and not well he looked. I was right about that.

Anyway, without rambling on it has been an long weekend, I am tired, I have not stamped since Tuesday of last week, and the next week will be tough and long as well. My Dad's Birthday and First Year Anniversary of passing are on Thursday and Friday! I do hope to have something posted before that, but after for sure! Take care of yourselves and Hug your loved ones!

Jewels

Off Topic

Welcome to Echo Dale Farm! It is a place about 20 minutes outside the city I live in and there is swimming, beach, fishing, walking trails and a farm. On the farm there is a house that is around 100 years old and is one of the first houses in the area to have a second floor.It has been set up and decorated to reflect the way they lived back then. It is really fascinating.

Anyway they also have a bunch of different animale roamin around and the local schools and such take kids ther on feild trips. McKayla (my oldest Daughter) got to go with her Dacare group. The Daycare had a bake sale to help raise money to fund the trip (which my awesome friend volunteered to make 6 plates of fancy decorated animal shaped cookies and were the first to sell) I also came to help out and got to take abunch of pictures and I just thought I would share some with you!










These are pictures from on top of the hill. The view is incredible and the Farm scene picture is just amazing. I love the great look of the original buildings all well maintained to reflect the actual times.










The first picture here the EDF worker is holding out a brand new bunny for all the kids to pet. How cute and only 2 weeks old. The second picture the kids were all giggling at the crazy chickens runny around like they had all just been fed some redbull. I have never seen such hyper active chickens! Oh and a little side note, my kid is the one with all the hair!










Picture #1 - McKayla barely able to peek out from under her hat, too funny it was huge! The kids all enjoyed checking out the lambs under the wagons. Picture #2 - Petting donkeys was a blast for the kids. They actually thought they were petting the donkey from Shrek because the teascher ha told them that they remindered her of the movie. When we got up there the one donkey was eating a piece of newspaper that had blown into the fence. That page last all the way from February 2006.












Picture #1 - the cutest little lamb ever and the black sheep of the family as well. Picture #2 - McKayla trying to see me from under her huge hat again. She kept saying "Mom, Mom, I cant see you!!"

So after all that I suppose I should still show you something "Paper Crafty" SO here you go and enjoy! Hopefully I will be back really soon. Can you believe I have not been in my Design Studio for 3 days?? Thursday was busy, Friday was the farm day and a night out with friends, Saturday was a great Family BBQ and Coffee with friends and today I plan to work in the yard. All in all a pretty good and productive Long weekend!! Hope your is great as well.

Card Supplies:
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink & Color Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
White c/s: Stamper's Select from Papertrey Ink
Ribbon: Stampin' Up!