Taylor Tuesday

It was hard to pick the picture this week because I have two good ones, but Taylor smiling for the camera just makes me smile.  Nana came to visit over the weekend and got Taylor a small slide.  Since it’s SOOOO hot outside I figured Taylor’s a bit young to experience a hot slide and we’ve been playing with it indoors.  Plus this has given us a chance to practice going up the steps.  What is really funny is that once she gets situated at the top of the slide, she sits there and looks around for a few minutes before actually sliding down.  We are working on not hanging out too long so that when friends come to play that everyone can get a turn.

I think it’s so funny that she now ‘smiles’ for the camera when she wants to.  I will try to capture a video of her newly learned skill of shaking her head ‘No’ when she doesn’t want to do something. 

Cupcake Challenge #73

Wow has this been a crazy week and I really haven’t done much.  Taylor has had swim lessons and her nap schedule is all thrown off and that makes for one cranky little girl!  And when there’s cranky little girl I can’t seem to find time to stamp.  So here is my cupcake challenge from last week that I finished last Thursday night but waited until this Friday morning to photograph and waited until Sunday to finish the post.  I’ve learned that pictures at night do not turn out very well. 

 

Those of you that know me, know that I am a proud supporter of Stampin’ Up!(even a demo), but I have really fallen in love with the papers at Taylored Expressions!  I found a wonderful balance between SU and TE for this card and LOVE how it turned out.  I also pulled a little inspiration from my friend Mel and her creative ways of adding to stamps to make it festive.  I had fun adding hats to these birds to make this a birthday card.

 

Stamps: SU Cheep Talk & Party Hearty

Ink: Apricot Appeal, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, & Certainly Celery

Paper: June 20th TE Key Ingredients

Other: So Saffron ribbon from SU, dimensionals

Fancy new hat?

Chris has to be amused with some of the stories of my day with Taylor and I just knew that there wasn’t really a good way to tell this story without showing pictures.  

I already know the rule that kids will have more fun playing with the box than what’s in the box, but little did I know how much fun Taylor would have with her shoe box.  Anything left at toddler height right now is fair game and this mommy is learning that FAST!  It’s amazing how quickly they can find those items that you don’t want them to have!  Well I didn’t see any harm in playing with a shoe box(once I made sure that stupid silica packet was discard).  I also didn’t realize how funny it would be. 

 

She loved keeping that box on her head and would even bring it back to me when it fell off so that I could place it back on her head.  I know there will be a day when she hates that I have these photos, but it will also be a reminder of our fun days.  The picture on the right is when I asked her to smile for the camera.  She is getting better at smiling for mommy!

Taylor Tuesday

What’s a girl to do when Daddy puts the sprinkler out….

but run through it of course!

Scrapbook Cards

I already have a hard time setting my stamps aside to purchase a Hallmark card, but even harder time watching my paper creations go into a drawer for keeping.  For Christmas, Kellie got me a magnetic frame board that holds 12x12 scrapbook pages.  I LOVE this frame!!!

For once there’s a way to display all the work that goes into scrapbooking on the wall for a little bit before the pages go into a book.  After looking at the same page that Kellie created for the frame when she gave it to me for months I finally got my butt in gear and started creating pages for it.  Instead of giving Chris a card for our anniversary I made him this:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we have a page for our 6th anniversary and it was so nice to look at everyday for the past week.  (I have the frame hanging in our kitchen)  He loved the page so much that I carried the idea forward and instead of giving him a card for Father’s Day, I made another page.  The hardest part about today’s page was narrowing down the pictures.  I think I might go ahead and make another one so it’s a double page layout in a scrapbook. 

Please forgive my awful lighting for picture taking.  I really need to work on the best way to take pictures of my stamping or scraping creations.   My goal was to scrap one page each month so that I at least have 12 pages by the end of the year.  I have 4 so far and hope to keep up the momentum and make up for the months I missed.  I may have to create a scrap/stamping blog so that I don’t bore everyone who comes here for Taylor updates.  Just in case you needed a Taylor fix, here is our cutie today.  I tried to get a father/daughter picture but she was just too busy to sit still for a picture.  She is one busy bee of a little girl!

Mojo Monday Week 91

Now that I working really hard at keeping my desk clean I am able to sit down and stamp more often. Plus we have a ton of stuff to celebrate right now and I refuse to go to Hallmark and let all this beautiful paper, ribbon, and rubber go to waste! I love stamping but starting from a blank slate is often very hard for me and I always appreciate some kind of starting point. I found another blog where they give you a layout and you create a card based around it. One of my cousins is graduating from high school next week and I wanted to make her a card that wasn't a typical graduation card. I don't think she reads my blog so I should be safe posting it before she gets it.

Here is the layout challenge from Mojo Monday. It should it as a long card, but I had already cut the base paper and didn't want to start again.

Here is my card:

Stamps: SU Sketch an Event, Teeny Tiny Wishes, and swirl is unknown
Paper: SU Melon Mambo, Dusty Durango, Whisper White, Soft Sky, & patterned paper is from DCVW
Ink: Melon Mambo
Other: Pink Stickles, clear bling, small oval punch, large oval punch, random button and orange satin ribbon


I also had time to get an anniversary card done for our friends who are celebrating their 3rd anniversary. Seems like just yesterday we were at their wedding! I asked Chris what colors I should use and his response was red, blue, and green. Well... I used blue and green so does that count?

Stamps: SU Kind & Caring Thoughts

Paper: all from the Taylored Expressions Mother's Day Kit (it's on sale right now too!)

Ink: SU Baja Breeze

Other: ribbon from kit & pearls

Video

For some reason my video on the number 14 post isn't showing up for everyone and I can't seem to figure out how to fix that issue, so I'm just posting it again so that the grandmothers can see it. I love watching her laugh so I can't get enough of it!

Today is brought to you by the number 14

I have to admit that I miss taking Taylor’s picture each month and compare it to the previous month. I also miss looking back at all her achievements during the past month. Even though this month would be more a list of increased whinyness and mommy-clinging. You know how much I love alliteration so I would take advantage of Taylor turning 14 months on the 14th and let you see some of the 14s in our world right now.

Taylor’s 14 month old picture(she is posing for you here)

Taylor has discovered how to climb the 14 stairs in our house and is working on how to get back down

She now has 13 or 14 teeth(hard to count when she doesn’t let me look for very long)

In getting ready to swim in the lake for the first time, she spent 14 seconds in the pool with her lifejacket on before crying

After about 14 tries(to catch on video) Taylor finally shows us a new skill she has learned

and … less than 14 days until Nana comes to visit!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Six years ago today, I was sitting by the pool in Maui drinking mango-banana rushes(a wonderful frozen adult beverage) with Chris, my Mom, and his Mom. Not many brides can say that! Just a few hours after that I got out of my Mom’s rental car, was handed my bouquet, linked my arm in my Mom’s(she gave me away), and stepped onto the beach to become Mrs. Lambert. When we were planning our elopement it never occurred to us that we would be getting married on Friday the 13th, but it has turned out to be a very good day for us. I loved our wedding and how it was simple and just about Chris and I. We listened to the waves crash on the beach while promising to love one another and had a view of two other Hawaii islands(along with a guy in scuba gear). The picture you see above is a Hawaiian tradition of rubbing noses during the wedding ceremony as a way to exchange breaths.

We were actually able to pull off a pretty secret elopement and took just those in the picture above with us.

I wonder if in 30 years I will still get excited/emotional when I look back at our wedding photos. I just love them so much! Too bad little miss came along last year and spoiled my plans to go back for our 5th anniversary! j/k I can’t believe that we are already celebrating year six! It has been so awesome so far and I can’t wait to keep celebrating each year!

Happy Anniversary Chris!

Love, Wendy

Cupcake Challenge #72/Color Challenge

So I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to stamp again today and used Taylor Expression's cupcake challenge #72 for the layout and kwernerdesign.com's color inspiration #54 for the color scheme. It only took me a few minutes to get this card done once I spotted the patterned paper with all the right colors.

Here's the cupcake challenge:

Here's the color challenge:

And here's my card:

Paper: SU Green Galore, Whisper White, Only Orange, and Tempting Turquoise(I thought it was teal until I compared later), & I don't know who the patterned paper is by

Stamps: SU Wild About You

Ink: Green Galore & Tempting Turquoise Marker

Other: Sparkle Pen to outline lion, white pen, scallop edge punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch

Taylor Tuesday

Taylor is learning how to use a spoon so I thought you would be humored by a glimpse into our lessons.  I think they're going well, don't you?

Cupcake Challenge #71

There are MANY stamping blogs that I follow and ooh and ahh over, but have to say that the Taylored Expressions girls have had some of my favorite creations lately! Each Friday(sometimes Saturday if I don't get a break to check blogs) I look to see what Taylor over at Taylored Expressions has for her Friday Cupcake Challenge. Then I dream of the ability to sit down and make a card within the next few months, I mean days, so that I could participate in the challenge. I have been working on cleaning off my desk the past couple evenings and actually had time to sit down during nap time this morning and make a card!

Here is today's layout challenge:

Here is what I came up with:

Stamps: SU Birthday Wish & Party Hearty
Ink: SU Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral, Baja Breeze
Paper: SU Baja Breeze and other paper is from Taylored Expressions April Key Ingredients Kit
Accessories: Ribbon from TE kit and clear gems

You can't see the ribbon very well in this picture, but it is a pink sheer with matching swirls and is just the perfect touch of girly to this card. I love how this turned out and know just who it's going to soon! Hopefully Taylor will take long Friday morning naps and I can keep this up!

What's in your cart?

I realize that I will go all week without posts and then have time to do several in a row so excuse my lack of blogging on a regular basis. It didn't help that I was sick last week and then spent the rest of the time getting ready for Chris' big 3-0 bash at our house. See this post for pics of our fun night.

Taylor got a shopping cart for her birthday and has really loved 'shopping' around the house lately. I decided to take a peek in her cart to see what all a 1 year old needs and here is what I found:

In case can't figure out for yourself here is what all is in the cart:

Baby Emma kinda riding shotgun

plastic vegetables

sandals

tupperware

toy phone

and you can't see the lime juice bottle(from the fridge) that is on the bottom rack

What is your cart?

Big 3-0 Celebration

Last week was a bit crazy as I got sick, recovered, and then rushed like a manic to get the house ready for Chris' 30th birthday celebration at our house Friday night.  Getting a house cleaned and ready is so different once with a kid because you clean and then have to clean up again after kiddo destroys room after room.  Who knew one kid could do so much damage?  Now I know why they invented playpens!  Everything was great and I even managed to fit in making Chris a surprise birthday cake.  Keep in mind as you look through the pictures that I am very much an amateur baker/froster.  The party went great and we are so lucky to have wonderful friends and family that came over to celebrate Chris' birthday with us.

Chris' Mom makes him a chocolate chip cookie cake every year plus some of his favorite candy

The Lego cake I made for Chris

Gavin taught Taylor how to eat ice out of the ice chest

Me with the birthday boy ~~~ Brothers

Serious and funny pic of Chris, Dad, and Jefe

Chris and his Mom ~~~ Chris, Kellie, & Jefe(siblings)

Sorry for all the family photos, but we rarely stop 

and take photos that it was a great time while everyone was together.  

One last one of the Lambert family!