Monday, December 2, 2013

Still VERY Thankful

Last Thursday here in the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving. What an amazing time. Our son Tad and his family came from Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, and stayed until Saturday. Another son, Christian and his family made the drive over from Madison on the day, and our daughter Cathy and family popped in too. At one point, we had 10 of the 19 grandchildren here in the house! Can you just imagine??!! The youngest was Avery, at 2 months, and Jessica was the eldest at 20. Those two girls share the same birthday - how cool is that??!! I'll post some photos later on in this post, but I actually do have a card I'd like to share.

Before the deadline passes, I really, really want to play over at Color Throwdown. I'm rather enamored with this palette, and knew I just had to make a card. Or, in my case, several cards before I made one that didn't end up in the recycle bin! Lol. Went all CAS on this one. But first, check out the color palette:


Totally yummy or what?! After several attempts, this is the one I liked best:  




Now, for some reason, the card didn't photograph well today; I'm blaming the overcast morning when I took this...The snowflakes are really a shiny silver, and my sister Sue punched them out for me a long time ago; I've been hoarding them... The polka dot strip is a bit of Washi tape, the greens are just scraps, and I used my NBUS SSS "Merry Christmas" die. The smaller white panel is popped up with foam tape. Now there's a new toy I'm loving! Keep reading, if you want to see some fun little kidlets...


First up is Avery. She just turned 2 months old and is as cute as can be. She loved her Uncle Tad, and of course, her grandma!


What a smile!

Next is Kaylin. She'll be two on the 11th, and what a smart little girl. Her vocabulary is extensive, and her comprehension of multiple step tasks is amazing! We had fun together.


Now there's a face!!! She looks just like her daddy, though when he was that age, his hair was strawberry blond. This photo just cracks me up!

On Friday morning, mom and dad went to do a little Christmas shopping and grandma happily volunteered to watch the little ones. We got our craft on. These three made photo frames for mom and dad and when they were done, we wrapped them so they'd remain a surprise. I let them use all the stickers and embellies they wanted to, and they decorated them the way that pleased them!


That's big brother Carter in the center, and Sammy on the left. Wait till you see the next photo of Samantha... she's quite the girl...


She and Carter have November  birthdays, so I just saved their birthday gifts till they came for Thanksgiving. This girl is in hog-heaven with her new bride dress. She calls herself a "princess bride". Mighty cute!

And last, I have a photo of five of the grandchildren sitting on my kitchen floor. They all love olives, and were funny enough to put one on their fingers so grandma could photograph them. Drew is the darling little redhead, Lily has on the amazing tights, Grant is the blond goofball, and you've already "seen" Sam and Carter. The other two little ones were napping, and the older grandkids hadn't gotten to the house yet. What a wonderful family; so much to be thankful for. I'm still smiling at all the newly made memories. And thanks everyone for wading through this batch of photos. Happy dances everyone.





18 comments:

Ardyth said...

Wow! You are abundantly blessed with adorable and wonderful grandchildren! I love hearing these stories and I know that they'll have memories of such moments (remember that time we all stuck olives on our fingers?) forever! Also love your card - was it fun using that die cut? That's the one I agreed to do 114 times. Yep. Pretty dumb, right? But I only have 22 left to do. Delivered the first 80 this morning.

Bobby said...

"Wading through" the photos was a delight. What a lovely bunch you have there. I'm curious to see what's in your recycle bin but glad to know I'm not the only one who gives up on a card. This final one turned out lovely.

cm said...

OMGorgeous, Bev! First, the noises your hear from the north west stem from me, cheering wildly that you're back!! I have so missed you, your posts and your creations! And on this cold, snowstorm day (gahhh!!), while thinking about how I so hoped to hear from you...ta dahhh!! You appeared, with a most lovely card - that Merry Christmas die cut is so pretty, as is the palette - and photos of your darling grandchildren. They are absolutely adorable! Love that you crafted with them, played with them, goofed around with them, spent time with them and above all else, made memories to treasure with them: you are Grandma to the max!! Thank you for sharing your blessings with us!! I'm happy dancing!!
c

Shannon J said...

What an absolutely sweet family you have!! So nice to be able to spend time with them and even get crafty with some of them! A very special, thankful time, for sure! Love the card...you do CAS beautifully!!!

Anonymous said...

What a glorious Thanksgiving you had, Bev ... lovely family, lots of fun, crafting galore ... and the joy of those gorgeous grandkidlets ... how blessed you all are to have each other! Your card's delightfully CAS ... yep, that colour palette is yummy and you've showcased it perfectly! Lovely to have you back, dear friend! Anita :)

Tammy Hershberger said...

Cute card... love the snowflakes! Thanks for joining us for the Color Throwdown!

Vickie Z said...

'Kay you have been having fun!! Lovely card!! WOW... that's a lot of grands... they're adorable!! AND... NBUS... that Darnell sure knows how to start a trend!! Thanks for joining us at CTD!!

Tracey McNeely said...

Sounds like a lovely Thanksgiving Bev! Beautiful grandchildren! Your card is fantastic too!

Lynn said...

Okay...I love your card, but we really need to talk about the pictures of your grandchildren. They are all so adorable and clearly are very blessed to have an amazing grandma. Such a wonderful time together! xx

Barbara said...

Great CAS card! Thanks so much for playing the Color Throwdown!

Wanda Cullen said...

Gorgeous CAS design and a great use of the throwdown colors! Your family photos are delightful and what fun memories you helped them create!

Darnell said...

I love your CASlicious NBUS-using card with the fun snowflakes, Bevie! And I adored all the photos of your beautiful grands!! You are so blessed, indeed with the entire family. My gosh, two months to twenty years, how cool! Always a baby around is my idea of paradise! I'm so delighted that so many of the family were able to get together.

My first thought when I saw the photo of the kids holding their frames is that that photo of them will end up being even more precious than the actual frames! And the olives? Our kids always put black olives on their hands during the holidays, too - on all ten fingers, LOL! And, you know, I'm not sure we got one photo of that ever. What a shame. You not only are making precious memories, you are CAPTURING those precious memories! You're the best! Hugs, Darnell

Keren Baker said...

Aww- your grandkids are seriously cute! what a joy! Your card is fab- that colour scheme is awesome- I'd love to create something with that one!x

Marybeth said...

I am trying to catch up and I did get your email. Looks like you were blessed with a houseful. All so adorable! Love the olive picture… we must all do the same thing with them. The baby is an angel!
Your CAS card is gorgeous!
Hugs

Geri said...

Beautifully clean & simple with a smashing combination of colors! I think the photo is just fine because you captured the shadow of the snowflakes (or did you stamp an offset shadow?) I love the wee pop of polka dot paper and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pictures! The wee ones are absolute little darlings!

Kim S said...

Your photos are SO sweet - 19 grandchildren??!! No grandchildren for me yet (good thing with only teenagers) but I am of an age that I could have grandchildren. I'm also from a very small family, even just a handful of extended relatives - so the idea of that many people and that much fun in one place is like a fairy tale to me. I'm sure there were some arguments and meltdowns amongst all of the children - but it looks like you had a magical holiday!

Kelly Griglione said...

Great job with that thin die, Bev! And thanks so much for sharing the adorable photos of your family. You are indeed very blessed. And I love that you let the kids use whatever supplies they wanted. That takes great patience and restraint : )

maria f. said...

Oh so happy for you with the totally loveable bunch!!!