Specials and Special Times

Ummm, HELLO! Where did the time go? How did I let a whole 9 days pass since my last post? I think the answer to that is that in those 9 days, we did the following:

• Kori and Rick and their 3 kiddos came into town from Chicago to be here for Dawson's farewell
• We threw a big baby shower for our Daysha
• Dawson gave his farewell talk at church (and Daysha sang a beautiful song as well)
• We had about 200 people come over for dinner afterward
• I taught 2 scrapbooking classes
• We organized and threw a big luau fund raiser for our youth at church (thank heavens I wasn't in charge of that, just part of the planning and execution)

So, now that I've given you my list of excuses, maybe I should share something fun.  Look out, this post is pretty darn photo heavy since I'm going to share some photos from a few of the events above, as well as some photos and artwork for this month's special with Close To My Heart.

First, let me refer to the photo at the beginning of the post. I made this 6" x 6" card using the beautiful June Stamp of the Month:  A Flowering Bunch.  For every $50 you spend in June, you can one of these sets for only $5 ($17.95 value).

June Stamp of the Month:  A Flowering Bunch (actual size of carrier sheet is 6" x 6")

Detail shot of card.  I did a little paper piecing on the flower and leaves.  After coloring them in with colored pencils, I added some Stardust Glitz Glimmer Gel on top.  I'm kind of like a raccoon that way. I love anything sparkly! Ink and paper colors are Whisper, Black and White Daisy.

Don't forget that there are 3 other specials going right now as well.  You can read about them here. 2 of the 3 specials benefit very worthy causes (the Thank You stamp {only $2.95, order #M1029} gives 100% of it's profits to the Red Cross relief efforts in Oklahoma and the Patriotic sets benefit our armed forces) and all of that can count toward getting a FREE chipboard banner in the third special: Make it a Banner Day! Again, read about all of them here. You can take advantage of all of the special on my website. If you are confused about any of the specials, just click on "Promotions" while you're there for a quick recap.

Now that we've gotten all of the dealios taken care of, if you're still with me, I wanted to share some of my fun activities this week:

Baby Shower Pics. The theme was "Daysha's Little Cupcake":

We took this before the shower. This is Daysha will her family (sisters, aunt, cousin, mom, mother-in-law {that's me} and sister-in-law {Kori}). Everyone here helped with the shower although it was thrown by Kori.  What a great bunch! We TOTALLY forgot to take pics of everyone who attended. There were TONS!

Kori and Daysha. I love my girls!

Kori, Easton and Daysha (the proud parents to be!)

Kori made her very first quilt for this little cupcake. We can't wait to meet her!

The treat table

Cupcakes galore...all made by Kori!

And cakes and cake pops too!

Pictures from Dawson's Farewell Party:

We had people wall to wall, all over the yard at tables and on blankets, and some even found their own spots in the shade. Fun was had by all!

The line to the food. It went out the door and down the street. Craziness!

People having fun in line.

My mom and grandma. Aren't they beautiful.  My grandma (left) is 94 years old!

Dawson getting a hug from his Grandpa Pedersen (Dan the Man's dad)

A little shade. Yay!

Eating in the shade

Daci found her own shade...under a table!

There are SO many more pics of the party and all of the people who came out to show their love for Dawson before he leaves on the 19th for his 2 year church mission to Australia. We are so very grateful.  I thought I'd spare you ALL of the photos! :)

Family Photos:
Lastly, after everyone left, we went down to the duck ponds and took a few family pics. These are just quickies we took on our phones.  The rest we just set up our camera on a tripod with a timer. We haven't had time to edit those yet I thought I'd share a few phone ones anyway...

The Boys

Dan the Man and I

Kori, Me, Daysha

Me, trying to show everyone where to stand. I'm good at giving orders.

The whole fam

Kori and Rick

My kiddos: Tannon, Dawson, Kori and Easton

Rick, Kori, Livvi, Street and Daci