Merry Christmas~

Wishing each of my faithful and dear blog followers a very 

Merry Christmas! 

Have a safe, warm and blessed Christmas of 2013!

State Fair Fireworks

We had alot of fun going to the state fair fireworks show a few nights ago! 

I also had fun trying to capture some of the fireworks with my phone. I watched most of the show through my opening and closing camera lences and still only came out with a few "good" ones. I deleted at least 70 photos from my camera roll...needless to say, capturing fireworks really isn't that easy! Oh well...I have until December to read up on how to better myself at this!

Here are a few of the best out of my "good ones" ;)

We didn't actually go to the fair to watch them (we didn't even hit much fair traffic!), but our location is a secret as we don't want this parking lot to fill up each year...it's our tradition! Although, we are nice enough to share the space with a few people as you can see!

It made me look forward to seeing the Christmas fireworks come Decemeber!

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day America! 

Hope everyone has a safe and sound, happy and festive, proud and GREAT 4th of July weekend!

Birthday Blessings!

I had a wonderful Birthday Saturday! Mom and I went shopping all day and out to lunch at Olive Garden. I hadn't been there before but completely enjoyed it ;) I found several nice treasures from shopping at all the cute little stores that we went to!

We came home to several people at our house for a little dinner party Hope put together for me! It was a lot of fun, I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

So to all who made my birthday very special...THANK YOU!! I had an amazing day :)

Oh, and as a side note...I have a few more teacups to pose as TFTT pictures in the future! So excited my teacup collection is growing!

Happy Mother's Day

To my wonderful, beautiful and inspiring Mother...thank you for all the sacrifices you make, the pain you endure, the love you pour out, the strength you offer, the joy you give, and the example of Christ you show...Happy Mothers Day!

And to all women who have been blessed to have a child, happy Mother's Day. May your day of celebrating be special and unique with your families!

God bless!

One week...

I only have one week until Im 18!! Im not usually so excited about my birthdays but Im really looking forward to this year's :-)
Counting down the days for some reason seems immature...is it? ;)

Happy Weekend!

I'm off to a have a hopefully lovely day at a Spring Tea with my Mom, two sisters, and friends! My sister, Hope and I are hosting a table at the tea so I will have lots of pictures of our dishes, menu and decor choices on Wednesday :) Come back to see!

And tomorrow will be a wonderful Sunday starting with Morning Church service and then lunch at our house with a family from Church!

What are your plans for the weekend? Whatever they are, I hope you have a wonderful and safe time :)

Happy Weekend friends!

A surprise birthday Party!

My Mom had been mentioning how she wanted a birthday party this year, so we decided to throw a surprise one for her! And we did it!! If you know my Mother you understand my enthusiasm! My Mom is one of those people that is very hard to keep a secret from...she always finds something out :) But not this time, we had nearly a house full of people hidden when she and Dad walked in from their day in Anchorage, she was greeted with a loud "Happy Birthday" which was replied to with a scream of delight!!
It was a lot of fun to put this together for her, and I thought I'd share some of the pictures with you all...

{Setting up...the dinning room table was such a mess there for a while!}

{These silly balloon bouquets that caused some laughter and lots of fingers ;)}

{Still setting up and preparing the food, but this is the only real good picture of those scalloped streamer!}

{Happy birthday!}

{The drink table!}

{The dessert counter...favors, ice cream, cake, punch and mints!! And for this counter I cut several 6x6 in. pieces of paper and used as a runner, and Hopey came behind me and sprinkled the whole thing with green sugar sprinkle which made it all look so festive!}

{A bowl of small thank you favor pouches! I made these and filled them with a few chocolate covered pretzels each! I don't have a tutorial, but may be making another on for that purpose!}

{A delicious cake made by my sister Heather (thanks Heather!) and the punch bowl/glasses and mints!}

{I wrapped re-fried bean cans with wrapping paper and a strip of paper and stuck a pretty sticker on the front...these we used for our silverware! Note: I did tape all the way around the top ledge to avoid anyone getting cut, just a suggestion!}

Dad and I sneaked off to town a few times the last few weeks while Mom was at the shop, and bought supplies, groceries ect. Hosanna and I had fun shopping for the groceries!! We served a taco bar with cornbread muffins, chips and cheese dip, fruit, and of course our delicious dessert counter! I didn't get a picture of the table all set up unfortunately but it all went together wonderfully and sure was good!!

We had a wonderful night visiting and playing apples to apples...we never did finish before everyone had to leave, it lasts a while with that big of a group playing! We had so much fun and had people at our home till 12:30 that night!
Happy Birthday Mom :)

Next time I'll share with you what I made Mom for her present!