Family Pictures

Becky originally hoping all her children would be at the beach this summer.  But Andrew had school and Scott was over seas with the Army.  So then she was hoping at least all of her grandchildren would be there because Scott's wife was originally planning on coming for half the week with the boys.  But she ended up not coming, however we took some pictures anyway. 

The little babies were not being so cooperative so we didn't try too many at all...

Becky and Ralph with all but 2 of their grandchildren

The Staus group minus Andrew and Scott, his wife and 2 boys.

 And some of the families hung around to attempt some individual family shots... Yup by me, that's why they aren't so good...  Sorry!!!!

The McKinney's...

 One day I hope to learn to take and edit better photos!!!!  One day... until then, I just keep practicing and practicing and reading and reading...

 These 2 pictures (the ones above and below) I also put in black and white, I think I like them best that way, but I'm sorry I didn't want to be repetitive and put the same picture up twice, so I didn't post the black and white ones.

 Liz used my camera and took these pictures of my family for me.  That little Mackenzie can smile so cute, but never when I want a decent family picture to blow up and hang...

 Mackenzie was in a mood (or not feeling so well) and the only thing to keep her semi happy was to give her a sea shell to chew on.

I wonder if I have 10 inches of hair to donate yet... and still have medium length hair.

Becky and Ralph...

 Matt and his family...

 We did more pictures of them later in the week.

And Polly's family...

Don't they have cute butts?

There will be more of them later too, I didn't edit theirs yet, except the one above.

Giving Money As a Gift

My cousin graduated high school and is going into the Navy, so we just gave him money but this is how we did it...

I sort of combined 2 ideas that I found on Pinterest.  We taped $1 bills together and rolled them over a straw and put the straw in a red plastic cup (because it sort of blended in with the gumballs), put the cup inside a container of gum balls, used a lid from a big container of yogurt (and we just gave him the real lid so he could properly close the gumballs later) cut a slit in it to pull the money threw and we also put a piece of construction paper of the lid then a bow around it to also help hide the little bit of cup you could see at the top.  We wrote "don't blow it all in one place" on the top and "pull here" to the piece of construction paper that we attached to the money.

When my cousin took it out of the bag he said "oh, gumballs."  Then we told him to read it, he did and pulled it out and said "oh a dollar." Then he kept going and started to laugh.  We thought it was a cute and fun way to give money as a gift.

Mackenzie is 1!!!!!!!

My little princess is 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow!!!!!!! I can't believe it!!!!  I love this little girl so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I took pictures of her all day long just to get the perfect shot!  But the best ones were when Daddy came home and she smiled so big and cute for her daddy!!!!!  She sure loves her daddy!!!!

I think Mackenzie is so smart!  She's not walking yet and the boys were walking at 10 months, but it's okay.  She has time and she's my baby!

I remember when the boys first started standing in the crib they would scream for me to help them down, but not Mackenzie!  She knows how to fall on her bum and get down from standing.

If she stands at the end table and sees something on the other side that she wants, she gets down and crawls around to the other side to get it.

She knows that a hair brush is for combing her hair and tries to comb her hair with it.

When she sees my sandals on the floor she'll get one, bring it over and try to put it on my foot.

She can sign "more" and "please".  The other day when I asked her if she was all done eating she signed more please.  And when I give her more she smiles so big and is so proud of herself for communicating with me!  It's so cute!!!!

She loves to sit on the counter tops and loves baths!!!  All I have to do is walk in the bathroom with her and she starts laughing with delight!!!

The girl can kick!!!!  She's always had a strong kick!  When I lay her down to change her diaper she gets real mad and kicks real hard, it hurts if she gets you!  And if you pick her up and she doesn't want to be picked up she kicks really had and fast!!!

When I'm getting her dressed, if she's not mad that I'm dressing her, she'll switch hands if she's holding something so I can put her arm through the sleeve of her shirt.  I have never even told her to do it, she just does it!!

Of course there are so many more things she does that I just think are so smart and cute!!!!

She loves when we say prayers and she folds her arms and at the end when we say "amen" she throws her hands out and yells with a huge smile!!!!  I never even told her to fold her arms yet, one day she just did it!!!

She's very good at copy the things we do.  She'll give us her baby doll and we'll put it on our shoulder and pat it's back, give it back to her and then she'll put it on her shoulder and pat it's back.  Just so cute!!!
She blows kisses and waves.  If I tell her to say "good-bye" she'll blow a kiss.  She used to wave, but now she blows kisses.  And when we say "good night" and "I love you" she blows kisses!
When she's poopy and I change her diaper she waves her hand in front of her nose like saying "pee-you!" because that's what I do and now she does it.  So cute!

This girl just seems so smart to me for her age!!!  And she's so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!  I just adore and love her so much!!!!!!!!

Happy first birthday to my little princess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teacher and Bus Driver Gifts

I found this idea on Pinterest but I modified it a little bit by covering the strawberries in Chocolate!  Yum!!!

This is what Tanner gave his preschool teachers and JJ gave his Kindergarten teacher and bus driver.

Here are the templates I made if you'd like to use them.  You should be able to just right click and save them.

Gifts For Kindergarten Classmates

I felt like I slacked off a little this year and didn't do as many gifts for the kids classmates for holidays and what not.  A friend posted on facebook about making some for her kids classmates and thought I'd quickly do some for Jayden's classmates.  This is what we made...

Here are the things to print on card stock if you'd like to use mine.  I have 6 per sheet of just a single one.  Right click and save to your computer, print and tape a smarty to it.  I also had my son sign the back of them.

T-Shirt Makeover

Here is another t-shirt makeover I did.  I bought 2 t-shirts for $2.99 each, cut one in strips, I believe I did 1" wide and for the longer one I had to sew 2 together.  Ruffle them using your sewing machine, it's so easy!  Set your machine to the highest tension (mine is a 9) and the biggest stitch (mine is a 5) and run it through, do NOT back stitch.  It should just ruffle up as you go.  If not, when you're done, pull one of the threads to ruffle it by hand or to adjust the ruffles to the way you want them.  If the string you're pulling doesn't work, pull the other string.  Pin the ruffles to the shirt wherever you want them and sew them down with a medium stitch and auto tension, don't forget to change it back!  Also because you're working with knit make sure you are using a knit sewing needle (ball point) in your machine.  If your shirt doesn't stretch after sewing the ruffle on, use a bigger stitch.  I think I just used a 3 and it stretches just fine.  Next t-shirt I make over I'm going to cut my strips smaller, either 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch.  Oh and after it's sewn on I went back with a seam ripper and ripped out my ruffle stitch, it looked awful with it in.  So maybe you would want use a different color thread to ruffle it so it's easier to rip it out later, but I didn't think it was a problem for me.

I have plenty of the other shirt left over I want to make my baby girl a pair of shorts and leggins from it.