Weekend Update

Mr. & Mrs. Claus

Could they be any cuter? Seriously?

Since we aren't having a Christmas tree this year, we went downstairs to visit the Stauffer's tree.

It evolved into dressing up like Santa. I can't wait to scrap this.

I'm going to miss these fun, silly moments with these two. 

Totally off topic, but...

I'm gearing up for my "I'm-moving-away-and-my-new-apartment-is-going-to-be-smaller-and-I-can't-take-all-my-scrapbooking-stuff" SALE.

I started pricing and organizing tonight. I'm planning on having the sale at my house, Dec. 4th. 

If you or anyone you know would be interested, have them send me an e-mail for details.

 I'm pricing everything to sell.

 I really cannot take most of the stuff I have. 

Punches, paper, ribbon, chipboard, etc etc etc.

I'm only keeping what I can't live without.

I started wrapping Christmas presents tonight and it made me really want some hot chocolate

 and to play the Carpenter's Christmas Album.

I'm having a hard time getting into the season, because we don't have any decorations up. 

It almost feels like Christmas isn't coming this year. 

Although I know that's silly. 

Thank goodness my parents will have a Christmas tree.

I wanted to share this layout I made a few days ago.

I just wanted to document this special time in our lives, as we're getting ready to start this new adventure, just the three of us.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Thanksgiving 2010 {Part 2}

After some afternoon naps, we headed over to the Humbert house to get all the excitement started.

The cousins always have such a great time playing together.

Lots of shrieks of excitement, a little bit of crying and a lot of running from room to room.

Ryan got to carve the turkey. He did such a great job.

We had the most delicious dinner. Turkey, gravy, 3 kinds of potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, 2 kinds of stuffing, 2 kinds of salad, homemade cranberry sauce and rolls.Yeah...I think that was all.

And we had 3 kinds of pie. 

We are stuffed!

Before we left, I had Zoe pose for some pictures. I've been slacking the past couple weeks.  

Zoe and Daddy.

We had such a wonderful time today and we are so grateful to have family all around 

and the technology to talk to the ones that aren't around.

I hope you all have had a great Thanksgiving.

Anyone going to brave Black Friday tomorrow?

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Thanksgiving 2010 {Part 1}

Our Thanksgiving has been most wonderful so far.

We got to sleep in, just a little bit.

We spent the morning lounging around together, laughing and giggling.



I'm now in the throws of making dessert for the Humbert Family Thanksgiving Feast this afternoon.

I'm making pumpkin and pumpkin apple pies.

Zoe likes to help me cook, but I was nervous for her help withe pies. They are more delicate than cookies or pancakes. So Ryan whisked Zoe off and returned when I had finished mixing the pies, with a Diet Coke even...he gets an extra Gold star for that one!



Zoe made this little turkey at daycare this week and we all adore it. She likes to carry it around like a baby.

I've named him Lurkey Turkey.

If we were having Thanksgiving dinner at our house, he would be the centerpiece on our non-existent table. :)

{+Gary and Eliza}

And while we're on the theme of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to say how grateful I am for our families.

We're so lucky to be part of such large loving families. 

No matter where we go for the holidays, there's always love, laughing and lots of good food.

I love that we'll always be surrounding with lots of people that love us.

I'll be back later with Part 2. I hope you are enjoying your holiday as much as I am mine!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

'Tis the Season

Let the cookie making begin!

I should've blogged this last night, but I went to bed at 7:30... yeah...7:30.

Sunday night we headed down to the Stauffer's for an impromtu dinner and cookie making.

We attempted to make turkeys.

Gobble, Gobble

They tasted better than they looked.

Yesterday, I took Zoe with me to the mall to pick up some Christmas gifts and we happened to enter the part of the mall, right where Santa Claus was sitting.

This was last year's visit with Santa at the Church Christmas Party.

This year, everytime I've asked Zoe if she's excited to see Santa, or have Santa come to our house, the reponse is a quick, "NO!"

So, I proceeded with caution. We looked at the huge tree and then she spotted him. He started to wave and she waved back, with big eyes and a mouth wide open in awe.

She didn't want to go sit on his lap, or even talk to him, but at least there was no screaming.

Maybe we can get a decent picture this year....probably not though.

It's been cold and rainy the past few days, which I love. It's quickly made me realize we definitely need to invest in some warmer clothes for the whole family, since this is just a fraction of the cold that we'll be experiencing soon.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Thanksgiving week and staying dry and warm.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

PS. If you're the praying kind, could you add my Mom and Sister to your prayers? They are attempting to make their way from Montana to Utah in the next couple days in the middle of a blizzard warning. Extra prayers can't hurt.

Weekend Randoms

 We've been enjoying the sunsets as of late. They've been so bright and colorful.

Doesn't Zoe look adorable in my glasses? She loves wearing them.

My sister Jenni had her baby yesterday. She's beautiful and has LOTS of hair.  I can't wait to meet her. 

It's so surreal that Thanksgiving is this week! I'm excited to get together with our Humbert side. Lots of yummy food to come!

I did some scrapping last night, but it was raining all day so I couldn't get a decent picture.

They are more of the simple side, and I love them.

My husband has this cool iPhone app where it reads stories to you. We "read" Cat in the Hat tonight. 

Zoe is obsessed with birthdays. She pretends it's her birthday all the time and wraps her toys up in blankets and gives them back to herself. She also sings, "Happy Birthday," to herself.

We had a pretty low key day today. Jammies until 1pm. yeah...that kind of day.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Girl's night

Pardon the blurry picture, this is the best the waiter got. 

Last night, we went out for a wonderful girl's evening.

We had a yummy dinner at the Elephant Bar, followed by a walk around the mall 

and a big finale finish with ice cream and people watching outside 7Eleven.

Yeah....we party hard.

{But seriously, if you like to people watch, 7Eleven makes for some interesting people watching. I would almost go as far saying it's better than the airport.}

Amanda is due with a baby boy in just a few days and this was 

one of the few times we had left to hang out together before we leave.

We've had so much fun having our little families get to know each other.

I'm going to miss these girls SO much. 

It makes me teary just thinking about it.

But, we'll be back to visit and I have no doubt this will not be the last girl's night.

(next time we'll get a better picture.)

It's Friday! Yeah! I'm hoping to get some extra sleep this weekend, as well as doing some Christmas shopping and packing and maybe some scrapboking.

I'm just not ready to pack my scrapping stuff up yet.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

XOXO,

Holly & CO.

An attitude of gratitude

My heart is so full today!



Thank you all so much for the congratulations, this has been something I've been working toward for a long time. Initially, this year, I had made it a goal to be published in a magazine, and when that happened, I told Ryan, "I guess it's time for a new goal." My next goal was then to make a design team. It looks like I need a new scrappy goal now.



I'm so thankful for the family and friends that are such a great support to us. With this pending move, I know I've spent a lot of hours worrying and whining to family, friends and anyone who will listen. But, I am assured this is the right move for us. Things just keep falling into place and all percieved obstacles are moved out of our way so easily.



When we first found out we were moving to Idaho, I was worried about moving into a place, sight unseen. I did some searching online, showed Ryan my favorites, called a few places. Boom! 2 days later we have an apartment. Then I was worried about a preschool/daycare for Zoe. Same as above, a little searching, a few calls, Boom! Done. So many other things have followed that same pattern, it's such a blessing.



Just last night we found out Ryan was awarded a partial tuition scholarship for Winter semester. We were totally taken by surprise.



We're getting anxious to go and sad to leave. But, happy we know we're going where we need to.



On a totally unrelated note....



Here's a page I finished last night.

I love the pictures the Meghan took of Zoe. Lots of cute facial expressions.

I'm in love with that embossed cardstock, I'd love to order a ream of it. Such a simple detail that adds so much!

Happy Wednesday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Exciting News!

You can see the full announcement here.

I'm so excited to finally announce that I'm part of the new Polka Dot Whimsy Design Team! I applied on a whim after drooling over the kits, and lo and behold, a dream came true!



It's weird seeing Idaho next to my name. Just a few more weeks and that will be home. Zoe is really excited about Idaho, at least she talks like she is. She loves telling people," I'm moving to Idaho, they have snowmen." I keep mentioning snow to her, as a reminder to myself that I need to get her some warmer clothes, the warmest thing she has right now is a cardigan. I'm excited to hopefully have snow this Christmas. I really miss that fluffy white stuff. (Although, my opinion might change considering we're moving in the middle of December.)



Funny Zoe story to share: Several weeks back, the kids were playing at daycare and the teacher's daughter got stung by a bee. Zoe cannot get rid of this vision of being stung by a bee. When we put her to sleep, and she wants to get up, she screams and cries, " The bee is getting me!", among other things. I have to reassure her, there is no bee in her room and turn on all the lights to show her before she'll go back to bed.



Well on Saturday we went to Target just Zoe and me. We were nearing the end of our shopping trip and out of no where, Zoe screams bloody murder. She's screaming and crying and flailing around. I have no idea what's wrong, I check the seat belt to see if it pinched her, I make sure there's no blood anywhere, etc etc. Finally, after the whole store is alerted by the shrieks, I get her to calm down and sure enough, "The bee got me." Yep, that imaginary bee must be stalking her. ( I think this one is going in the scrapbook, although it will have to be a pictureless page...hmmm...I think I'm up for the challenge.)

{Mom's Sugar Cookies}

Hoping to do some baking tonight for FHE. I've been craving sugar cutout cookies that my mom makes. I really just like the dough, but the cookies are good too. Although I think my cookie cutters may be packed up and sitting in my parents garage :( Maybe I can convince Ryan he wants to make the dough this afternoon, so it's all ready when we get home.



Hope you're have a good Monday.

 I'll be sharing some cards this week and hopefully pictures of a new niece.



XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Where did Saturday go?

It started with me sleeping in until 10am. YIKES!

Followed by errands and a late lunch.

Zoe took a short nap.

We're having the missionaries over for dinner, so cooking starting at 4:30.

It's now 5:45 and pitch black out. It feels like 8pm.



I feel like the day wasn't even here, like it was a half day. I probably shouldn't have slept in that long.



Oh well.



Just a quick share today, I haven't taken pictures of Zoe in like a week and we haven't really done anything noteworthy, so layouts are all I have.

Have a great weekend.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Scrappy Happy :)

My first Studio Calico kit arrived yesterday and what a beauty.

I had a bunch of errands to run last night and I brought Zoe along with me, so I didn't even get to dig into it until 9:00pm, but as soon as I did, the inspiration just flooded me! You're going to see lots of black and white of Zoe in the next coming pages, I've been saving them all for this kit.

For this first layout, I stamped the entire background with the grid stamp from the  Santa Cruz add-on. It's not even and I knew it wouldn't be, but I love it anyway. I know it's really simple, but I like it that way. I haven't done any journaling and if I do, it will probably be on the back.

I used some product packaging (for the SC weekly challenge) to back the letters to make them standout against the yellow-polka dot paper.

Next up, I've had this layout in my head for awhile and used the weekly SC sketch to pull it all together.

I am in love with that orange/red patterned paper, it's quintessential fall, I think.

I'm really loving my Ranger Adirondak Stone ink pad. It's the perfect neutral for stamping, not too green, not too grey, not too brown.

I think we're finally coming around the corner with the illness in the Humbert house, let's just hope it skips Ryan and this lingering cough goes away quickly.

Also, since it's finally cold here, I'm in need of good fall recipes. I found one for baked southwest eggrolls, which I think I'm gonna make for dinner tonight. I didn't realize how many of our dinners had tomatoes involved until Zoe started having a bad reaction to them and I'm having to come up with more involved things to make for dinner.

Last but certainly not least, Happy Veteran's Day. I'm so grateful for the brave men and women who've fought for our freedoms. Both my grandfathers were in the Army during WWII and went overseas. I'm grateful for their sacrifice and their safety which allowed for mine and my parents lives.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

A Fall-ish Day

Finally, it's cold!

We had rain this weekend, and fog this morning.

And when I went to the post office around noon, it was cold outside!

Image Credit

I made chili and cornbread for dinner. I would have made some pumpkin dessert, except I was way too full.

Anybody have a recipe for some kind of pumpkin bar? A cross between pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread? (Is that asking too much?)

We've been doing a lot of coloring around here. Ponies, Mickey, and Dora, all in equal rotation. Zoe likes to color on the same page as me, which can make coloring kinda frustrating. But, it's a nice way to relax in the evening just us :)

Anxiously awaiting some scrapping stuff,so I can scrapbook all my fun fall pictures!

Totally excited for this orange-red paper. Doesn't it just scream fall?

Happy Fall-ish Monday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

A Rough Week

This week hasn't been my favorite.

I've been sick, on top of a few other things. It feels like it's just been one thing after another...cranky kidlet, traffic ticket, my car got broken into, resulting in the loss of my favorite winter purse and tennis shoes, broke one of my favorite scrapping punches...the list could go on and on.

However, in light of the season, I'm going to list the good things that happened to me this week.

Zoe read a story to me while I was sick.

I had another request for a scrapbook page to be published (featuring our BFF, Ethan)

I have a good reason to buy new shoes (*see above)

My husband has cooked 2 out of 3 of our last meals.

It's raining today...my favorite weather.



And this week...

I have a large box of scrapping stuff coming to my house so I can scrap all our family pictures, so there is always a silver lining.



And totally random...look what I found while cleaning out some cupboards. I thought I'd lost this and was so sad. But I'm so happy I found it! It's going straight into the scrapbook!

Before I go, just a quick layout share. I love these pictures of Luke and Zoe.

Hoping this week is better than last.



XOXO,

Holly & Co.

*Almost* Wordless Wednesday

I'm not feeling so hot, so I'm just gonna share some recent layouts.

I love doodling on my photos with my white signo pen!

Hope you're feeling better than I am.

Happy Wednesday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

The Only Good Thing

The only good thing about packing is discovering hidden gems lost among junk. We found a picture from when Ryan and I were first dating, we look like babies. I found a song my sister wrote for me. (for the Morgan family members: it was the slash slash baby song!)

Ryan and I spent last night sorting through nine 20 gallon tupperware tubs in our living room. the goal was to whiddle down to what we can't live without, and well....live without the rest.

I happy to say we got rid of quite a bit. Although we found more to fill up those nine tubs. The task right now seems never ending, especially since we're doing a 2 step move. I guess whatever doesn't make it, we really don't need.



We had a whirlwind weekend, with lots of family. It was great to be all together.

Ryan's brother, Brok, is leaving this week on his mission to Mexico. It was our last weekend as a whole family for the next 2 years. We're so excited and proud of Brok, He'll be a great missionary.



Since it's our last weekend together, we got some family pictures taken, and they turned out great.

Zoe had a wonderful time with all her cousins this weekend.

Saturday, before we headed down to the bay area for pictures, we tried to put her down for a nap, and instead of sleeping she just cried in her bed, 'I want to go to Lukey's house!" For 45 minutes. So we got her up and just drove down early.

( She did sleep in the car, thankfully)

Because of all the cautious surrounding this weekend, Halloween kinda took a back burner. Zoe did wear her costume Saturday night to dinner. She was a pink skeleton. I didn't get a picture of her in full costume, I'm hoping to catch one this week, before we loose all the light in the evenings.



Hope you had a great halloween,



XOXO,

Holly & Co.