Happy Day for Ava!

Yesterday Ava, my mom and I went to town to pick out some paint and fabric so I could repaint a wall in my living room. It wasn't planned, but I thought.....why not, it will give the room a change and I love to redecorate. We didn't get home until mid afternoon and I checked my phone messages before getting Ava girl down for her nap. I didn't expect to hear the message that my neighbor had to say. It was about Ava's LillyRose. She had been lost since Thursday and guess what....she came walking up to the neighbors house shortly after midnight last night covered in burrs and ticks. We live about 3/4 of a mile from their house, but I'm sure she took the short cut across the field, but still it is a long way. After Ava's nap we went over to their house to get her surprise. We now have one very happy little girl! Isn't that a great story. I'm really not a patient person, so I had basically written off the kitten to either a raccoon or a coyote, but guess I was wrong! Oh Happy Day for Ava and her Lilly Rose!

So.....yesterday I was determined to get a card/template completed for the PTI guest stamper contest, but this was way more important than any contest. My little girl is very happy...and I can always enter next month!

Just for You Ava!

As those of you that read my blog know that my Ava Girl loves kitties. I found this Sizzlits die from Archivers on my shopping trip and thought I would give it a whirl on my cuttlebug. It works like a charm. I'm so excited because I know that SU has several dies for the Big Shot that I would love to have, but I didn't want another die cut machine. I'm thrilled that these work on my cuttlebug.

I made this card for Ava "just because". You know how I posted pictures of Ava with her new little kitty Lilly Rose, well, we can't find her. We let the kitty sleep out in the barn on the 4th night after we got her and we think that some wild animal must have gotten her in the middle of the night. Ava was very upset, but now she just wants another kitty.

I love how the card turned out. I cut the kitty out twice, once out of white and then again out of PTI's Berry Sorbet. I used some Lemon Tart polka dot paper from PTI to accent my card. The button and ribbons are from PTI as well. I love this company and all of their products and designs. I'm hoping that I can work something up for the Guest Designer contest yet this month....that is on my "to do" list for tomorrow. I haven't submitted anything for that in a very long time and I used to strive to get something submitted every month.

I gave Ava her card and I asked if I could take a picture of it and she instantly said, okay....I'll hold it for you on the stairs!

It's been a month now since our Ethan went to heaven. We've definitely had our ups and downs. I say that we try to get back to normal, but I'm slowly learning that life has drastically changed and there will always be a large void without our son. I'm very lucky though that we have a ton of memories, pictures, and videos to remember him by. One thing that I'm so glad that I did is to have a word document to write down all of the things that my kids do throughout the years. I started this when Ethan was a baby and now I have it for the last 4 1/2 years. I will treasure this forever and I have hopes to compile all of this with my pictures in a picture book. I do scrapbook a ton and have several books of my kids, but I want to make a book at Wal-Mart that I can print more than one copy of that will share pictures and stories of my son's life. It's going to take a while to complete, but I think I'm ready to start.

Hope all of you have a great start to your week.

Lauren's Color Challenge

Finally.....after a call to our DSL provider, I have my picture to share!

Here’s my first creation in 6 weeks…..for Lauren’s Color Challenge! I love this new set from PTI called Vintage Picnic. The baskets are so cute and the set can be used for so many holidays. This color combo was one that I had never used before, but it is always good to “step outside of your norm”…..seems like I’ve done that a lot lately with just life in general.

I colored the flowers with my copic and I colored the leaves with my watercolor crayons. The basket was paper pieced with PTI polka-dot patterned paper. My Mom made the flower embellishment. I added a button to make it pop. I even got out my cuttlebug for this to create the swiss dots in the background. Overall I really like how my card turned out!
Be sure to check out all the other creations from the team!

Dana G
Dawn Easton
Jennifer
Kendra
Kristen
Lisa
MacKenzie
Maria
Odette
Pam
Tamara Harder
Tracey Cuccia


We had a good time shopping yesterday. I got a new body pillow and it made sleeping last night so much more comfortable. I know I’m only half way along, but with number 3 I am big and already having trouble sleeping. Should be fun over the next several months! We found a few new outfits for the new baby yesterday. It’s still hard to look at boy clothes as I’m always thinking about Ethan. I did find these cute little blue jeans with little roll up cuffs that matched the pattern on the button up shirt. It’s too cute and is something that I know Ethan would have picked out for the new baby. I love to buy clothes and dress my kiddos up, it’s just something I enjoy.

Ava did good yesterday as she is used to getting a 2 hour nap and didn’t fall asleep until we were on the way home around 8:30. We met up with a college friend of mine and her daughter for supper so Ava perked up and had a good time playing with her. Overall it was a good day to get away and just do whatever. My biggest purchase yesterday was a purse. I’ve needed one for a long time, but I have one from AMM that hold pictures of my kiddos and I was really looking for something similar. Well, I decided on this other purse and I purchased these clear picture frames that were key chains and I’m going to hang 3 of them from the handle so I can still show off my kids on my purse. I’m going to hang them at different lengths so you can see them….I’ll have to share a picture later once I get it all put together.

Hope all of you have a great weekend. I still need to finish up my stamp area, but I think today we are going to go hang out with some friends tonight. I’ll hopefully be back soon with some more “creations”! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm BACK!

Here's a little peek for you of all the gals that are participating in tomorrow's color challenge for Lauren. I know I said....I have to get my stamp area cleaned up so I can play, but I just said "GOOD ENOUGH"! The table still has stuff on it, but I cleared a space and made a card.....it has been probably 6 weeks since I've made a card. It was quite an accomplishment yesterday. Here's a peek at what everyone has to share. I'll be back tomorrow with the "big picture". I'm off today to do a little shopping. I'm looking forward to it! Hope all of you have a good Friday!

Ava and Ranger (her little ....)

Ava and Ethan both love their animals, but especially our little burro, Ranger (or more frequently called, the little "ass"). As I've said before, everything reminds me of my boy and this was no exception. Ava wanted to go for a ride on Ranger so my husband got him saddled up and ready to go for a walk to the winery. This has to be the cutest most loveable animal that GOD ever created! It isn't any taller than Ava and is just like a little puppy dog. It always wants treats when you go out to the barn and Ava feeds him his fair share plus! He gives her kisses and loves to snuggle. Ethan especially loved to ride on the cart that we had for our burro. It was definitely one of the best additions we have made for our family and it wouldn't be here if it wouldn't have been for our Ethan. He got this burro as a gift from my uncle when Ethan's make-a-wish horse was delivered from Colorado last September. I wanted to share some pictures of our ride the other day. It used to be a fight as to who would ride in front...everytime Ethan and Ava would fight over this. Both kids wore their cowboy/girl hats so sitting right behind each other was interesting......but so cute.

Over on Lauren's Blog she has a perfect little package ready to go for my little girl. It's a little pony from Build-a-Bear and it is adorable. She is going to love it so be sure to check it out. My house is clean except for my stamping table area so that is my goal today. The hope is to have it complete so I can start creating in time for Lauren's Sat challenge. Hope to be back soon with some "crafty" things to share!

Lilly Rose

Ava girl is on cloud nine with her new baby kitty "Lilly Rose". Our friends have a lot of baby kitties and I promised Ava that she could get one when the kitties were ready to leave their Mamas. Yesterday we went and picked up Lilly Rose. She loves her new baby and has been toting her around all day long. I have a few pictures to share of Ava and our new addition to our "small farm".

Lilly was actually the name that we were going to use if we were having a baby girl, but we found out on Thursday that we are going to have a little baby boy. We are very excited and can't wait for him to get here. November seems like so far away.

On the home front my husband and I actually accomplished something that has been sitting for over 4 weeks now. We haven't folded laundry in yes, 4 weeks. It's just hard knowing that this would be the last time to put away Ethan's jammies or hang up his button up shirts. It was hard on me, but we did it and his room is all straightened up and looks so nice. It will take a lot of time to go through everything and get things put away....one thing at a time.

I'm gradually getting my stamp area back together and hopefully will have it completed by tomorrow and can start sharing some creative projects. I'm hoping to actually take part in Lauren's Saturday challenge. We'll see how the week goes before I commit, but that is my plan. Until then....Happy Stampin!

My GIRL!

Yesterday I got Ava all dressed up....well, I do this everyday, but I was thinking that I could take her picture yesterday for her 3 year pics. Luckily she was in a very cooperative mood and did almost everything I asked within a 2 minute time frame. Here are a couple shots that I got of her.

Pictures are another thing that are so easy for me to take, yet so hard to take too right now. I miss capturing my little boy. Everything and I mean everything reminds me of him. We were at the grocery store yesterday and I can remember all of the people saying "What a cute cowboy" and he would get mad or he would goof off and dance in the isles. I'm sure it will get easier with time and the more I go to places, but I find it weird that it is the little things that really bother me. I'm definitely a shopper and always have been, but I can't hardly walk by the boys clothes racks because it reminds me of shopping for him. Ethan loved his clothes and I was always looking for button up shirts that he would like.

I'm finally getting back into my organizing mode and I've started in our office/stamping area. I made some progress yesterday and I'm planning on working a bit on that today before Ava girl wakes up. Some things I have had for years and I think it is now time to part with them! We'll see how ambitious I actually get today. I did make a tribute wall for my Ethan and it looks wonderful. I probably won't share a picture, but it reminds me of all the things he was so crazy for.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm so amazed that the Weiman Wranglers digi stamp has raised almost $2000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. That is absolutely wonderful. We are still enjoying Ethan's Make-A-Wish gift and I'll post some pictures of Ava riding our little burro (ass) to the winery last night. She has so much fun on him. Have a great 4th.....maybe I'll get my stamp area back in order and make some new creations next week!

Slowly getting back to "NORMAL"

What is normal anyway? Can you actually have a normal life after you lose your child? I really don't think this can actually happen, you can only adjust and go on with life the best way you know how. I haven't stamped or done anything crafty in several weeks now. When Lauren Meader called and talked to me and I found out about this digi stamp, The Weiman Wranglers, for my little cowboy and cowgirl, Ethan & Ava, I was beyond excited and my wheels actually started turning again! Melissa with Pink Cat Studio generously and quickly designed these perfect little images to represent my little boy and girl. Thank you so much Melissa & Lauren...they are just awesome. These images are raising money to go towards the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. This is the reason we have 2 horses and a minature burrow that my kids like to call a "little ass" thanks to their Daddy! It's a great organization that provides kids with wonderful things. Lauren's little girl Alexa received a wish too as well as so many others. I encourage you to hop over to Pink Cat Studio and purchase these cute little images and support a great organization.

I just downloaded my pictures from my camera of this little memory book that I made for myself to share quotes and little things from my Ethan that I never want to forget. I'm not quite back into my creative mode yet, but someday I will be. This image captures Ethan perfectly though, he always wore his black cowboy hat, a button up shirt, his "seat" belt, blue jeans, and of course his cowboy boots with his socks pulled up. Ethan loved balloons too and the red bandana is something that he wore so much this past winter to keep his mouth warm. I'm a little prejudice, but I had the most "handsome" little boy ever! He hated to be called "cute" so I had to watch myself!

Here is one of my favorite picture of Ethan and me...his proud Mommy! Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks again so much for all the prayers and support!

Back to say THANK YOU!

Well, it's been just a week since we lost our little boy Ethan, but it seems like an eternity since I've held him in my arms and kissed his sweet little face. It's been an emotional week of ups and downs, but all in all I think we are all doing very well. We got to see so many people at Ethan's visitation and the place was just filled with balloons. There were over 80 bunches of balloons and we let most of them go afterwards so Ava was able to take part and say a special message to her Ethan. She misses him so very much. Tuesday was Ethan's service and it was just perfect. The sermon was so personable and it just made us reflect on how special our little boy was and still is to us. we let balloons go at the cemetary too. Ava has been such a trooper through all of this and talks about Ethan everyday. Here are some wonderful things that Ava thinks of when she talks about Ethan.



"Mommy, does Ethan have a pool up in heaven?"
"Mommy, is GOD holding Ethan?"
"Ethan just jumped into his pool in the clouds....Mommy, is it raining?"
"Mommy, does GOD have a car, what color is it?"
"Mommy, what color house does GOD have?"
"Mommy, I miss my Ethan"
"Is Ethan going to be here for his birthday?"



She misses him so, but we have tried to explain how he is up in heaven now with GOD and is all better. We have a ton of home videos and so many pictures to keep the memories of him alive forever.



Here is the picture that we chose to put in the paper and also on his card at the funeral home. It showed Ethan with his perfect smile riding his horse, an activity that he loved so well. We chose the Cowboy Rodeo Prayer as we thought this was very fitting for our Ethan. He loved to go to the rodeo and we took a family vacation to Texas at the end of February and it was all about our cowboy. Ethan loved going to rodeos so this seemed so fitting.

In Loving Memory of Our Cowboy Ethan

From the Cowboy's Rodeo Prayer:

Our gracious and heavenly Father.....

When we take the last ride,

That we know is inevitable,

To the country up there-

Where the grass is green and lush

and stirrup high,

And the water runs clean and clear;

We pray that you will tell us,

as our last judge,

That our entry fees are paid.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Thank you so much to all the wonderful bloggers that have left such kind messages to our family. We appreciate all of the prayers coming our way. A big thank you to Lauren's DT team that has started a fund for Ethan's memorial and sent balloons for Ethan too. Lauren has another surprise too that she'll reveal in a few short days just made my day. These girls are the best. Here's a link to all of their blogs:

Lauren

Dana

Dawn

Jennifer

Kendra

Lisa

MacKenzie

Maria

Odette

Pam

Tamara

Tracey

Hopefully I will get back to my stamping soon. Until then......Happy Stampin! Alicia

To Everything there is a season

We are trying to adjust to the news that we heard this past week. Our son Ethan has been battling neuroblastoma cancer for almost 2 years now. We found out that we have no other options to help him with his disease and we are coming home today to keep our boy comfortable at home. It's amazing as I'm sitting right next to him as I type this and he is painting some wooden cars with blue and red paint. We've moved on from painting cars now to painting the hospital table.....I'm sure we've paid for it! He still makes us laugh!

Don't worry, someday I'll be back to this stamping world....that is what got me through all of this in the first place. I wouldn't be on here now except Ethan was needing a little time to himself because he was mad that we had to give him some oral medicine! Thanks so much to all of you that I have never met that have prayed for my son and our family. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Ethan.

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the sun.

A time to be born and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal

...a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance

...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to lose and a time to seek;

a time to rend and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Lauren's Technique Challenge.....Embossing Vellum

Here's my little sneak peak!

This seemed to be a tough challenge for just about everyone as there were a lot of questions e-mailed about on this challenge. I will say that I've never done this technique before, but I do like the possibilities that you can do with this. I wanted to use my new set from PTI, Star Prints. I went with a patriotic theme, but am going to use this card for one of the graduation parties that we are invited to. The colors I used are SU's Night of Navy, Real Red, and PTI's white and vellum cardstock. The first thing I did was cut out a piece of vellum card stock and I stamped the stars with versamark. I then added dazzling diamonds before it dried to add a little bling. Next I flipped the paper over and traed the outlines of the stars with my stylus to give it an embossed outline. I finished my paper by added some red and blue tiny stars. The frame for the vellum was a rectangle cut 1/4" larger on each side and then I start with a square punch and cut the remainder out with my paper cutter to create a handmade frame. I punched out little stars and added to the centers of my glittered stars with some stamping dimensionals.

On the home front, I'm typing this on Tuesday morning as things seem to be getting complicated around here. Yesterday was good in the morning, but the afternoon and evening weren't so great. We're still working on getting pain medication at a level that will control my son's pain and something to relieve his stomach ache. It's probably going to be a long week so I thought I would get this ready to go. Hope you enjoy my creations and be sure to check out what everyone else has this week to:

Lauren

Dana G

Kristin

Pam

Tamara Harder

Tracey Cuccia

Maria

Mackenzie

Best Day (in a long time!)

My son is feeling so much better today! This is the best day we have had with him in a very long time. Ava, Ethan, and I are playing legos....I had to take a quick break! He is smiling and just acting like his old self. He's been 3 days now off of the medicine that makes him feel so yucky....I imagine we'll start back up on it today, but we'll just take things one day at a time. Here's a picture of me and the kiddos last night. I had to talk Ethan into smiling for this pic, but not today. He's eating too! Miracles really do happen!

Splash of Color Challenge

It's time for Lauren's Color Challenge! Above is a sneak peak of everyone's projects for this week. This was a fun set of colors to combine. The colors I chose were all from PTI, Rasberry Fizz, Summer Sunshine, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, and Spring Moss. The first thing I wanted to use was a strawberry from one of my favorite PTI sets: Green Thumb. This is one of the most versatile sets. Below is our list of colors to incorporate in our card for this week.

Here is what I came up with. This card looks so summery to me. I even got out my needle and thread and sewed a little button on it.

On the home front.....life has been so stressful. Ethan still doesn't feel good and today marks 4 weeks of this. It's more than frustrating to him and to us. The doctor wants us to try cutting back on his meds and see if that helps a bit....I sure hope it does because we miss seeing our bubbly Ethan. We did take him to the new movie Night at the Museum 2 this afternoon and he seemed to like it, but after it was over he really felt bad. We just keep plugging along.....one day at a time. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend here at home. We do have to make a trip to the hospital tomorrow for Ethan to get some platelets, but hopefully that will be all of the hospital fun for one weekend. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop by and see the other gals creations!

Dana G
Dawn Easton
Jennifer
Kendra
Kristen
Lisa
MacKenzie
Odette
Pam
Tamara Harder
Tracey Cuccia

Pink Butterflies with Bling!

I cased my original card so I could make it work for stamp club tonight. This butterfly is from the Great Friend set from SU's mini catalog. The colors are Pink Pirouette, Kraft, and white. I used Pink Pirouette desinger series paper for the background and I got out my cuttlebug to cut out the background pieces and then I embossed them as well. Three Little Words is a text set from SU that is very cute.

I'm always posting as I try to get my kids down for a nap. Hopefully they will get some rest today. Ethan has had a rough day of not feeling well. This medicine is just for the birds. I wish we didn't have to give it to him, but it seems to be helping out his cancer. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are coming shortly to watch my kiddos for a bit while I got and get a very needed hair cut. I'm getting it chopped! It has gotten pretty long and all I seem to do is put it in a pony tail. Hopefully this will give me a little pick me up!

The rest of the week is pretty busy so I don't know if you'll see me back here until Sat morning with Lauren's challenge.....until then, Happy Stampin!

Butterflies with Bling!

I just got through making this card with my new butterfly nestabilities....I love them. I made this for our pstor and his wife for their 25th anniversary. I really love this color combination. I needed a little stamping to get me back on track...it's been a long weekend here at our house with our son. He hasn't felt good now in over 3 weeks and it is wearing on all of us. I feel really bad for him because I'm sure he wants nothing more than to feel like his old self too.

Back to my card.....I used a couple of my new PTI sets, Life and Damask Designs. I also used my other new nestability for the background...I can't remember the name and I'm trying to get the kiddos down for a nap. The background paper is from PTI too. Hope you enjoy. I'll be back this week with more as time allows. We've been heading to the hospital every 3rd day to get platelets for our son, so we haven't had a lot of down time lately. I need to take a calgon bath....think it would help?

Lauren's Saturday Template Challenge

Here's a little sneak peek at what the team has in store for this week!

It's time again for Lauren's challenge of the week. This week the challenge was to use one of her templates that are for sale at PTI and create something with the color purple or use butterflies. At first I thought we were supposed to do both, but I got that figured out and I went with the color purple. It's been an interesting week so trying to get this accomplished was a bit of a task, but I did it! Here is what I came up with. I added a couple decks of cards and a notepad to keep score. I had intentions of putting some card game instructions, but that part just didn't happen. I took apart the card box and used that to cut a template to stamp. I really like how this part turned out! Hope you enjoy my creation. Be sure to stop by the gals on the team and see what they came up with.

A look inside my template:

Decorated notebook and deck of playing cards:

Details:

Stamps: Remember (PTI)

Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, White (SU)

Ribbon: Plum Pudding Satin (PTI)

Template: All Wrapped Up (PTI)

THE TEAM:

·Lauren Meader

Dawn Easton

MacKenzie Bruckler

Maria Levine

Tamara Harder

Kendra

Alicia

Dana

Lisa

Odette

Jennifer

Tracey

Kristin

Pam

Good News for a Change!

We finally got some good news.....it's been months since we left the oncologists with good news. Ethan's cancer has not spread and looks less intense on his latest scans yesterday. We'll be continuing on the drug he is currently taking. This was a very pleasant surprise to us as we had prepped ourselves for the worst. He doesn't feel well and now we know it is the drug that is making him feel crummy, but we are going to work on balancing out the side effects and making him feel good again. Makes for a great start to the weekend, despite the fact that is hasn't stopped raining since early morning!

Stop back by tomorrow morning for my template for Lauren's challenge!

Baby Gift

Here is the inspiration piece to my baby gift! Isn't this pattern adorable! I entered this for PTI's Guest Star Stamper this month.

My post is going to be short and sweet as we ended up in the hospital unexpectedly tonight so my son could get platelets. He wants the computer so he can play his Thomas game, so I'm getting kicked off. A real quick funny story about this gift is that there is only one bop (pacifier). The package had two in it, but my daughter thougth that we should keep one so we could have it for our new baby! So that is what happened! I'll probably be away for a few days since we'll be in the hospital for appointments, but I'll hopefully be back on Sat with another template to share with you.

New Little Baby!

A friend our mine had a baby shower on Sat and is having a little boy in June. Her story is very special as she fought and won her battle against childhood leukemia when she was just a teenager. She is now 30 and doing great. This is the card that I made to go with her baby gift.....I'll show that later this week. I used one of Lauren's templates to make her something for the baby's room. I really like how it turned out. The card and present match the baby's bedding. I've got to run today, so I'll be back tomorrow to show you the gift I made to go with this.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's about 8:00 on Mother's Day, but that still leaves a few hours in the day! I wanted to share my card that I made for my Mom and Grandma. I noticed one of the squares are crooked, but I'm sure they didn't look that closely. We had a really nice day. We went to church in the morning and got home to make a late lunch for my family. It was really fun and the kids had a really good time. Ethan had a really good day .... yesterday was a completely different story, but I think we might be getting closer to having his steroids at the right dose, so that is good. This afternoon/early evening has been bit of struggle, but definitely better than yesterday.

My card uses a new set for me, Remember from PTI. I have wanted this set for a long time so I just ordered it a couple weeks ago. The flowers in this are so pretty! The colors I used are Hibiscus Burst and Rasberry Fizz from PTI. I really like this color combo. I have a couple other cards ready to share with you for this week. I'm very glad I'm getting back into stamping more.....it is definitely a way to get away from the "real world" and I really enjoy it! Thanks for all of you that stop by and especially thanks for leaving a note, I read and appreciate each and everyone of them!