Twilight

As you all know by now, I'm a huge Twilight Fan. I am excited because I just finished Stephanie Meyer's newest addition to the Twilight Saga books, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. It was such a good book and it gave us an insight into the Newborn vampires in Eclipse. I highly recommend reading it to any and all Twilight fans!!

I am also excited because Eclipse will be opening in theaters a week from tomorrow and I have tickets to the 11:59 show a week from today!!! I can't wait!!

Scrapbook Layouts we did last Saturday.

These are the pages my Mom, Sister and I did this past Saturday for my cousin's Album for his 16th Birthday. Thanks for Looking!!!

This is a layout I did of his Mom pregnant with him and his ultrasound pictures.

This is a layout my Mom made using pictures of Tyler at the hospital when he was born.

This is another layout my Mom made of pictures of Tyler sleeping.

This is a layout I made of Tyler when he was little.

This is a layout my sister made using some pictures of Tyler when he was little.

This is another layout that my sister made.

A layout my Mom made of Tyler playing when he was little.

This is a layout I made of just some pictures of Tyler when he was little.

This is a layout that I made. I used Paper Doll Dress Up to make the little boy that looks like the middle picture on this layout. I thought it was sooo cute!!

This is a double layout my sister made using Easter pictures from when he was a baby til now.

Fathers Day weekend

I had a great weekend!! Saturday I scrapbooked all day with my Mom, Sister and a friend. I've been kinda out of the "scrapbooking mood" lately, but we had to start working on a 16th birthday album for my cousin who turns 16 next month. So I had to force myself to get back into it, which wasn't all that hard. ;-)  My aunt had us make her older son, Travis, an album for his 16th birthday 2 years ago and so now we're making one for Tyler. Between my Mom, sister and I we got 11 pages done, which is pretty good for us. ;-) We still have a lot left to do before next month so we'll probably be working on it every weekend until the party. I haven't taken pictures of what we got done on Saturday, but when I do, I'll post them for you all to see. Then yesterday was Fathers Day. We went to church and then had my family over to our house for lunch. It was a great day. Here are just a few pictures to share with you. Thanks for looking and I hope you all had a great weekend!!

My papa opening his Father's Day gifts.

Some of the family watching as Papa opens his Father's Day gifts.

Family relaxing in our living room watching Avatar.

My cousins, Danielle and Megan watching Papa open his Father's Day gifts.

My nephew Landon sleeping next to his Papa (My dad), while my Dad watched golf.

My Dad, my BIL Jason and my husband watching golf. Their favorite thing to do other than playing golf. :-)

Our Trip to Mansfield, MO for my MIL's birthday.

I'm posting this a little late, but last Saturday, June 12th, was my Mother in Law's birthday and she wanted to take a little weekend trip to Mansfield, MO to visit the Laura Ingalls-Wilder home and museum there. While I was never a fan of Little House on the Prairie, I do remember my Mom watching it as a little girl. I think I was just a little too young to really get into it when it was on television. But since my MIL wanted to go, we decided to go along for the ride. I wasn't expecting to have nearly as good of a time as I did. 11 of us went, Jake and I, My MIL and a family friend and then one of Jake's brothers and his family. We made the 3 hour drive on a Saturday morning and spent the day visiting the museum and the farm home Laura and Almanzo Wilder built for themselves. We then went to eat and then visited their gravesites. After that we went back to the hotel to let the kids swim and we all sat out by the pool and visited. The next day we went to this Pioneer Village in Mansfield that was very cool and then we went back to the Wilder's property to tour their "Rock House" that their daughter Rose had built for them. After that we had lunch and then made the drive back home to St. Louis, MO. Below are a few pictures from our trip. It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad we went. 

Jake and I along with his oldest brother and his family and my MIL in front of the entrance sign.

The Laura Ingalls-Wilder Museum.

The Farm house that Almanzo and Laura built on Rocky Ridge Farm.

My MIL along with 3 of her grand-daughters, (the two older ones are reading all the Little House books now and really enjoyed the trip) sitting on the front steps of the Farm House.

The gravestones of Laura and Almanzo Wilder and their daughter, Rose.

The kids swimming in the Hotel pool.

The adults sitting by the pool. From left to right its my SIL Amie, my MIL Diane, Jim (a friend of the family), my husband Jake, my BIL Larry and my nephew Brandon.

The cute little Pioneer Village we visited in Mansfield. This was such a fun little place to visit.

A "Crooked House" at the pioneer village.

The seed store at the Pioneer Village. The inside was literally lined wall to wall with seed packets from all over the world.

Jake and I in one of the little shops at the Pioneer Village.

The "Rock House" that Rose Wilder had built for her parents. It was such a cool house.

All 11 of us standing in front of the Rock House.

On our way home we saw a sign for the World's largest Rocking Chair. So we stopped off to check it out. Very cool!!

A very pretty rainbow we saw on the way home.

What I did on my Vacation...

I decided to take the week of Memorial Day off and get some stuff done around my house. We had finished up the patio but still needed to put sod down around it to really finish it. I also wanted to do some cleaning and organizing and then have a yard sale that Saturday. I am happy to say I was able to get it all finished, thanks to the help of my parents. The week went like this... Monday was the holiday and also my Uncle's birthday. So Jake and I ,along with my parents and grandparents, went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a BBQ. Then Tuesday, my parents came over and helped me go pick up the sod from the sod farm (my dad has a pick-up truck) and then they helped me lay the sod. I also wanted to add a light outside that would shine on our updated playground. So my dad helped me do that as well. He's very handy and can pretty much do anything when it comes to home remodeling. Here are a few pictures...

The sod all layed around the patio.

The sod all layed around the patio!

I also layed some bricks to make a separate little patio for our trash-cans. I still need to get a couple more pieces of sod to add to this project.

This is the light my dad added to the outside of the garage so that the playground will have some light.

Then on Wed. I thought it would be nice to go do something fun and take a break from working at home. So my Mom, Sister and I took my nephew to see the Dinoquest Exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was so much fun!! I hadn't been to the garden in several years. My nephew is really into dinosaurs right now, so we thought he would really like the exhibit. Here are a few pictures. I took a ton, but these are just some of my favorites.

My nephew Landon, looking up at the T-Rex in the Dinoquest Exhibit.

Landon, posing for a picture for us.

Some of the dinosaurs in the exhibit.

Landon looking down at an aquarium, from a bridge made from bamboo.

Gardenia... it smelled sooo good!!

Landon in the children's garden.

Landon in the children's Garden.

Landon playing in one of the many water fountains at the MO Botanical Garden.

Landon smelling the Hydrangeas.

A mama duck and her babies in a pond in the Japanese Garden.

A bridge in the Japanese Garden where you can feed Ducks and huge Koi Fish.

A zig-zag bridge in the Japanese Garden surrounded by Iris flowers.

A close-up of one of the Iris flowers. So beautiful.

Landon holding his hand under a fountain in the Japanese Garden.

This is probably my favorite part of the Botanical Garden. Its a drum bridge in the Japanese Garden!

Water lillies in the Japanese Garden.

A black petunia. I had never seen one of these before... very cool.

Lillies. One of my favorite flowers.

An Orchid. Orchids are my favorite flower!!

Beautiful pink roses in the rose garden.

Thursday, I cleaned and organized the storage side of our basement. I'm so glad to have that finished. Then Friday we got ready for our yard sale and Saturday we had the sale. My mom, sister and I all had stuff to sell. It turned out great and I made about $70. Then Sunday we went to the zoo, but I forgot to put my battery back in my camera, so I didn't get any pictures. :-(

So all in all, I had a GREAT week off and got a lot of stuff done, so I just thought I'd share! :-)