I know, I know,

I've overdone it with the holiday boxes. But I had a great excuse for making them this time. Bryn's teacher loved the mummy and turkey boxes I gave her so she asked me to come into class this month and teach the kids how to make a Rudolph box. She does this whole thing with reindeers and thought it would be fun for the kids to bring these home as Christmas gifts for their parents. Of course, I said yes! Here's what I came up with.

I promise this is it.........for a while.

Stamper's Night Out 2

Time to post something new, so here's a plug for my upcoming Stamper's Night Out 2. This Friday night @6:30 in the conference room at Dave's office.

Here are the cute things we'll be making:

There's still room. Send me a message if you'd like to join us......julie@carattini.net

A dip and a kiss

Allison got married!

Yes, my niece Allison got married over fall break to Zach Zavoral. It was a wonderful wedding and reception. Here they are coming out of the Idaho Falls Temple..........

I LOVE how Zach twirled her around so everyone could see her dress. He actually dipped her and gave her a big kiss when they first came out of the temple. I have a little video clip of that....I'll try to post that later.

This is a picture of the Bride & Groom with all of her cousins. I hate that Nick has a binky in this picture, but it was either that or a screamin' fit. I'd rather have the binky!

Dave and I at the reception..........after a LONG two days of travel for Dave. He was in New Hampshire for business, then delayed in D.C. where he had to spend the night without his suitcase, then off to Denver where the plane had trouble with the landing gear and had to turn around and go back to Denver, and then FINALLY to Idaho Falls where he was very late & missed the wedding. But that's okay, because he was safe! And he did get to attend the reception.

Nick had it! He was so sleepy and we let him sleep on the floor during the reception. It was a great day!

Frank & Mummy

I've had lots going on in my life recently. I need to post pictures from my niece's wedding & pictures of my kid's costumes for Halloween. One thing that I've been having TONS of fun with are these Frank & Mummy boxes filled with treats. I made 26 of them with my sister and nieces in Utah, I had some friends & customers over last week where we made about 30 of them, made 10 on Friday night with Debra, and spent a few hours yesterday using up the last of my green and ivory cardstock to make 12 more. I love these things! I'm just sad that Halloween will be here next week and I won't need to make anymore. I guess it's time to come up with a Santa box?

What a cluts!

I was working on a card for a "Mini Catalog" swap with my fellow demonstrators, when I accidently dropped my pumpkin pie ink pad on my chest! I was a little freaked out.....not sure if the ink would come out. I IMMEDIATELY put it on the wash and it came out stain-free! Yeah! Stampin' Up ink is wonderful!!

And here's how the card turned out. I made 40 of these guys.......glad that's over with!

Ladies Night @ Cactus Chiropractic

Gather up the girls and head on out to Ladies Night!

When: Thursday, September 24th 2009 (This Thursday!!)

Where: Cactus Chiropractic Clinic Time: 5pm - 8:30pm
Place: 8426 W. Peoria Ave. Peoria, AZ 85345

The Ladies Night Vendors will include:

Creative Memories
Gold Canyon Candles
Mary Kay Cosmetics

Pampered Chef

Premier Jewelry
Stampin' Up <--That's ME!!

To Jameson With Love (Amy Dozier)

AND a licensed aesthetician doing eyebrow & lip waxing
for a SUPER AFFORDABLE price!!

So ditch the dudes! Come try it, buy it, and eat some snacks!

Ladies Night - you can't go wrong :)

I'm melting and it's not from the heat

As always, Nick and I dropped Bryn off at school today. Before she could get out of the car, Nick said, "Bye bye Binny, I yuv ooo!" It just made my heart melt! I'm so glad my kids love each other :-)

My Birthday!

September 3rd was my birthday. This year, my sisters and Dave bought me a plane ticket to Utah so I could be there for my niece's bridal shower on the 5th. (side note: Allison is getting married on Oct. 10th!) My nieces didn't know I was coming. Vicky picked me up at the airport, took me to dinner, and then dropped me off at her house. She went in through the garage and I went to the front door and rang the bell. Hayley answered the door and just looked at me a second and then yelled, "Juuuuuuuuulllllllllllllllllllllliiiieeeeeeeeeeee!" Holly came running in and gave me a big hug. We all went down stairs to find Allison and Janelle where I was met with more hugs. It was so fun! Nancy and Vicky bought me a cake from Mrs. Backer's bakery in SLC - yummy! It was definitely one of the best birthday gifts ever....3 1/2 days in Utah with my sisters & nieces and NO dirty diapers!

Top row: Janelle, Allison, Vicky, Holly. Bottom row: Hayley, Julie, Nancy. Behind the camera: Todd.

Have a seat!

We recently went into Build-a-Bear to look around. Nick walked right over to the Hello Kitty chairs (made for the stuffed animals) and plopped himself down. I thought it was funny and luckily had my camera on me.

Girls Night Out in July

Here's another flashback to when Hayley and Holly were visiting. After bowling we went to Red Robin for some yummy food and girl talk. It got a little weird, so I pulled out the camera :-)

We miss you guys!!!!!!!

Recipe Blog

I've been talking a lot with friends lately about how boring meal time has become. I've tried a few new recipes and shared a few as well...and it's help bring some excitement to my dinner table. When an old roommate asked me for a recipe on facebook I thought it would be fun to have a place where we could share all these recipes we've been talking about. So, here it is! I hope we all enjoy this and I hope I find some great recipes. If you want to add one, just email it to me at julie@carattini.net.

Don't be shy...........send those emails!

Bowling

Here's another flashback to when my nieces where visiting. We had a "Girls Night" at the bowling alley where Bryn kicked our butts! She was very good!

Bryn and Holly

Hayley

Go Brynie, GO!

HOLLYWOOD!!!

Bryn got the highest score!

Jealous?

It's hard to see, but Bryn is at the top (Brynie PPH) with a score of 123, next was Hayley (Lee Lee) with 122, third was me (Jewray) with 110, and last was Holly (Hollywood) with 80.

Hey!

Hey Vicky, Janelle, and Hayley! You guys promised you'd leave comments if I updated my blog.......I'm waiting! :-)

My trip home from Utah

So after visiting my sister in Utah and my sister in Nevada, I headed home for Arizona with two of Vicky's girls (Hayley & Holly) and Nancy's oldest son (Alex). On the way home we stopped in St. George to buy Bryn a dress at the outlet mall. Alex and Hayley found a pink tutu at Gymboree and put it on Nick. Unfortunately, he really liked it. And even though I hated the fact he liked it, it was really funny and I did take a few pictures.

That night we stopped in Vegas to spend the night. We went to M&M world and Coca Cola world like we always do. I would love to meet my sisters and their kids in Vegas sometime and spend more than one evening there. They are great kids!

Monkeys on my bed

I have a 2nd grader!

Bryn started her first day of 2nd grade on Monday. We switched schools this year and I was very nervous for her, but she did great and is really enjoying it. After I uploaded this picture, I realized that I always take her picture of the first day of school by the front door....except for last year. I really wished now that I had done it by the front door because it's so fun to see how she's changed and grown. I'll be sure to do it like that from now on.

First day of 2nd grade!

First day of 1st grade.

First day of Kindergarten.

First day of her 2nd year in pre-school.

First day of her 1st year in pre-school.

Trip to Elko

During our trip to Utah, we drove over to Elko, Nevada to visit my sister, Nancy. She and her family moved to Elko last summer and Bryn was dying to see where Andrew lives. I took Vicky, Hayley, and Holly with me and the kids. We spent two days there and Bryn LOVED it! We played games, ate some yummy Mexican food, saw "The Proposal" (which was hilarious!), went swimming in the Elko pool, and as you can see from the picture below, Bryn and Andrew played with Legos every other minute of our visit. I thought I had a few pictures of them playing with the Legos, but this was the only photo on my camera with Legos in it. They must be on Bryn's disposable camera.

The weather there was SO NICE! The night we came out of the movie it was about 70 degrees with a cool breeze. Pure heaven!

Don't you just love how she tucked in her shirt that day?!?!

They have an extra bedroom where they've put a tv and the video games. Nick loved the "love sack".

You can see a mini fridge in the background. Nancy's a cool mom!

This is a picture of Andrew that Nancy had on the wall. If you know me well, you know I love pumpkins. I almost stuck this in my suitcase, but then decided to just take a picture of it. SO CUTE!

An afternoon at Cheryl's house

While in Utah, we had the opportunity to visit with friends that live in our ward and some friends that use to live in our ward. It was lots of fun! We saw the Andersons, Gibsons, Williams, and Baggiores. Cheryl has a creek behind her house and the kids LOVED it. My niece, Hayley, and Nephew, Alex, offered to watch Nick for me if I bought them a cheesecake. Um, let me think.....Sure! I'm not stupid :-) So, it was a quiet afternoon for me and I was able to relax and chat with friends.

Mason, Nick, Tyler, Austin, Bryn, Riley, Sadie, and Braden.

Thanks for a great BBQ, Cheryl!