October already!!

I can't believe it is already October!!!!! We have been through our entire Volleyball and Flag Football season since I last posted Luke's Baseball.... my how time is soaring by :P

Tomorrow we will celebrate Doreen's birthday (Drew's mother - my MIL) and on Sunday mine. Actually we are going to really celebrate on Saturday and hopefully we will be celebrating 13 birthdays at once!! Hoping the flu doesn't keep everyone else from coming! Even my BFF Apryll and her exchange student Lea from Germany should be here! Can you say.... PARTY?!

That is all I have for now......

Holiday card Stamp Camp is scheduled for 11/7 if anyone needs information.... will be a great

time!

A little fun with Nikki - I miss Nikki :(

The Reds....

I am coming to you today in Red, for the Reds! Luke played his first season of baseball and their team was not only undefeated but..... they took home the trophy!!! Whoohoo!!!
Here Luke is in left field...









He was only up to bat once during the game. They play for 1 hour (supposedly) and during that time in the rotation he only got up to bat once - their team has a lot of members and they were ALL there for this game!









Here's the swing (below)









and the ball is in the air - if you look at the 2nd row of diamonds in the chain link.. 2nd from the left you will see a dot - this is the ball in the air (notice the boys underneath watching it) (tip - if you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can actually see the ball!)









Luke on first base ....










The Championship Team!!
The Undefeated Reds!!

The 2nd week of summer break was VBS at the Nazarene church. This church does all out! I was amazed at the decor!! Unbelievable!! The best in the valley from what I have heard - I think the best I have ever seen in my whole life!! Anyway the video is the PK doing one of their songs... hope you can find Brooke. She's on the right side in a black and white top thing and pink skirt and those black boots!!

Booke loved VBS - especially walking over from Miss Rhonda's house with her friends Sydney and Annika!

Can you tell what candy Brooke chose at the candy store in Creede? We went to Creede Nikki's last day here with her mom, Kate, and her Aunt, Kristin, and Kristjan.

In this picture from left to right is Nikki, Kate, Brooke, Tanta Tin (Kristin), Luke, Brandy and Kristjan.

This is on the north end of Creede - it is sooooo pretty in that town - you are surrounded by the mountains. Just beautiful!

The flowers on the left are Nikki's / Kates and the bouquet on the right is from Kate/Nikki to me - they were so pretty!! I love flowers!!

On May 29th we went and said goodbye to Miguel. He was leaving for Denver and then on to meet his parents in NYC and then on to Spain. We will miss Miguel - the kids absolutely LOVE him! (maybe not as much as Nikki though)

I can't remember where Brandy and Luke were for the photo op. Yep, we will miss Miguel! He was with us in our home for 4 weeks and it was a fun 4 weeks!

That is all for this time! I do have some more I want to post - they are really funny! Soon.

GRADUATION!!

Well, it is with heavy heart that I post this, but, only because as of 11:30am today Nikoline Meyer Johansen (Hoffstaetter) left Monte Vista to travel to Las Vegas, Hollywood, and San Francisco and ultimately on to Oslo, Norway - home.

We are so thankful to have had her here with us for the last 10 months. She brought a lot of life to our family and home.

Graduation was at 10am on Saturday May 23, 2009. Her mother, Kate, and Aunt Kristin made it with a minute to spare before the graduates entered the gymnasium!! I was really starting to get worried but they made it! That made the graduation all the better.... Nikoline got the honor of designing the cover for the program (hand drawn) and graduated with honors.

I watched Nikki draw the treasure chest and always amazed at her talent in drawing.

After graduation.

I finally got to meet Kate - the amazing woman who raised Nikki to be the fine young woman that she is.

Brandy, Kristin (Aunt), Kate (Mother), Me and Apryll! Apryll finally made it to the valley for a visit!!

Saturday night after a BBQ/Party for Nikki she

left to go to other parties and I was showing Apryll some of the jewelry I was making and she saw something she was having a hard time finding... long story short and a phone call later Apryll, Kate, Kristin and myself were at Jeane's bead shop! One advantage to small town - you can call the shop owner and they will open up for you! She also told us that something was going on in Creede this weekend so.....

Sunday after everyone going to church service and then Apryll and Jeffery leaving to head back to Greeley we went up to Creede.

The first stop in town was the candy store! Gotta love that blue candy!! Who's tongue is bluer... Kristjian or Brooke?

Brandy thought this door actually went into a house in the rock! It looks pretty cool though :)

Eating fries at the The Little Dog House.

Like the new "BLING"? Not bad for $3!

Many, many phone calls and texts' today... saying goodbye...

Waiting for a table for 9 at Chili's in Alamosa.

Kate's birthday is the 26th so we celebrated early - the wait staff came out and sang to her! Nikki's first night with us we took her to Chili's and it had been her birthday the weekend before she got here and we had them sing to her also! It was fitting for her last night here to be the way it started! And, we got to celebrate her mother's birthday too!

This dessert is near to heaven! I WILL be going back for one of these! But, only if I don't eat anything before I go!!

The Last Supper. Well, the last supper with Nikki anway!

We said goodbye this morning - it was the longest goodbye I have ever gone through and I think the finality of her departure will only sink in more as the week goes on.... I know we haven't seen the last of Nikki or her wonderful mother and aunt, but, not knowing for sure when makes it hard!

Nikki has so many talents and such a positive attitude and spirit that I know she will do great things with her life! She is an awesome friend and a beautiful person (and a ham for the camera!). There are so many things I will miss every day. We have been so blessed by knowing her and having her join our family. The tears that flow so easily now will eventually dry up but our love for her never will.

Nikki - I know you will read this so BIG HUGS and I am sure by now I have seen several yellow cars so..... hit, hit, hit, and a yellow VW bug so, hit-hit, no hit backs!! We love you, miss you and will see you on FB, Skype and eventually in NORWAY!!! I will be counting the months/weeks/days!!

May is National Scrapbooking Month!

Stampin' Up! has 3 specials this month in honor of National Scrapbooking Day!! Click here to check them out!!

You can either order on-line through my website: http://brendastamps4U.stampinup.net
or
you can drop me an e-mail: dybhoff@yahoo.com

Great time to stock up on Designer Papers!!!

Family Fun Gaming System!!! Check it Out!!

We just got the Game Wave and the kids love it! Even Brooke who has no idea how to play.... she still has a remote and can play along with us all!! Brandy and Luke will sit and play the trivia games even though they don't know the answers... they are actually learning a lot of new facts/history/etc from playing the games!! Even my husband who doesn't play "video" games has played it with the kids! That says a lot right there!!!

You can check it out at this link and with the code get it for a discounted price: http://playgamewave.com/promo/ , code GWBZZPH208

One thing I REALLY like about it is it comes with a case for all the remotes!! I sure wish the other systems did that!!

May Stamp Club

For May's stamp club we worked with Watercolor Wonder Crayons....

The first one we did to the left is with Watercolor Paper and using just a small amount of crayon on the left side of the image we used the Aquapainters to draw the color to the right giving us the shading you see. Very easy to do with a WOW look to it!! We used the Big Shot to texture the Barely Banana CS so you have to look close from the ribbon down for the texturing....



The second card below was done by basically scribbling all over the rubber stamp, then misting it with water and then stamping on the CS. You probably can't see it very well, but, we then ran the CS through the crimper first one way then the other to give it a "seersucker" affect.

I couldn't put the "Box in a Bag" 3-D project in the scanner, I might get a picture of it to post, but, realistically I probably won't get around to it!!! Graduation is in less than 3 weeks and I am trying to declutter and have a garage sale the weekend before!! That gives me this weekend to go through EVERYTHING!! Whew, tired just thinking about it :)

Big Savings Shopping in Colorado Springs!

These are the $.99 items.
So, I went to Colorado Springs on Tuesday to pick up Alexia. A friend of mine went with me. She is the queen of coupons as far as I am concerned! We went to Target first and with coupons from Target for the market pantry fruit snacks and Mfg coupon for Johnson and Target coupons for Johnson toiletries I spent just $.99 on these 6 items. It is fun to watch the cashiers expression!!

Then we went on to Archivers - which I have never been to before - and was that a fun stop!!! I can't wait to go back!! No coupons for that store but I will for my next visit as I am signed up with them now. I have one in my e-mail for $3 off $15 purchase.

Oh yeah, there isn't tax on food in the Springs and the King Soopers (City Market) doubles coupons!! Very nice :)

We went to King Soopers where I got Quaker hot cereal for $.50/box and free Quaker Quakes snack.....

We then went to Sams club - can't use coupons there but I got a few good bargains like the big container of taco seasoning for about $4 and 2 large pkgs of yeast for about $3.50....

We then stopped at Safeway and I got the items in the next picture for $3.48. The sauve was part of the buy 10 select items and get $5 off and it was also B2G1F. Everything except the Windex was part of the 10 item promo. The Polmolive was free after using the coupon, and the
Halls I actually made money on with a coupon for a free one up to $2.29. The pasta/rice/dressing I used coupons for also.

These are the $3.48 items.
A fun day of shopping and we have Alexia home for almost 2 weeks!!

Found this picture of the building I work in - Hope's Castle. The front door is guarded by a suit of armour!

Spring Break / Texas!!

We are back from our spring break in Texas! Following are a few of the highlights!

Look closely at the skin on our hands in these 2 pictures..... this is the most forceful air dryer I have ever encountered in a ladies bathroom!!!! They really want your hands to leave dry... please leave the skin on them though!

Above is a truck stop south of Wichita Falls where we made our 4th and final stop before arriving in Arlington......

287 South to I-20 and next thing ya know we are in Arlington - whoppee!

Our first day in D/FW...... Luke and Brooke messing around on Bonnie and Larry's back patio (that Bonnie built)... I told Luke "Dude, your underwear is showing" and look what those underwear said!

Brooke and Larry having a serious talk on the swing.......

Our 2nd day we went to the F/W Museum of Science and History only to find out they were renovating... so, off to the F/W Water Gardens. 4 people died at the bottom of this water garden in 2004 and 2 in 1991. Luke was a little scared........

We each had buddies... Nikki and Brooke, Jason and Brandy (I know - they got along?), and Me and Luke....

I just love this picture!

Luke is crying here - scared :(

This is a store on the way to my old neighborhood... shocking!











Larry built a double decker treehouse and 2 swings coming off the tree for his grandkids... the kids loved it!

Day 3 we were off to the F/W zoo... talk about a zoo... I think there were at least 3 million people there and it was in the 80's that day... we only stayed for 4 hours - it was hard to get close enough to see the animals! These very thin, long necked and long thin legged creatures were in with the antelopes... no idea what they are but they were amazing to watch on those thin legs!!

So, day 4 we were in Irving and went to the Galleria and did a little ice skating and then some shopping..... it was very warm on the ice.... Brooke either fell or sat down enough times that her bottom was completely soaked!

Brooke was melting down by this point... she just wanted to eat so it was up to the 2nd level to find a very posh McDonald's! The Galleria has 3 levels and then the bottom floor where the skating rink is.

Day 5 brought us to the Dallas Aquarium. We got to feed the birds blueberries. They take them so gently!

Jason and Nikki at the Sloth Crossing... I am not insinuating that they are Sloth's.

It was fun being surrounded by sharks!

The shark to the right is what she is looking at in amazement.... he was smiling at us.... I think he was smiling about dinner....

Love the picture to the left! He is not so afraid to be surrounded by the brightest flamingos I have ever seen!












amazing what you can find lurking around the Aquarium!



I finally got to visit my first IKEA!!! Did I mention I LOVE this store! The kids had fun there too.... apparently the Smallville for kids has a 6 kid limit so I didn't get to enjoy the shopping experience minus children.... they enjoyed it too though :)

This reminds me of Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears... Too Little, Too Big, Just Right!











We passed this very large cross on Hwy 40 in the Panhandle of Texas... after I snapped the picture I realized this is where the pictures of Jesus carrying the cross in various positions had been sent from... all around the base are statues of Jesus carrying the cross.... I would like to go there some day and actually stop and see it.

Welcome home to Colorful Colorado!!!! Now just 6 more hours to Castle Rock to meet Drew and visit cousins and Grandpa!

Waiting on the park bench at the Castle Rock outlet mall to go find some new shoes and the ONLY shot I got of the girls (and Luke) performing for us that night.... they did an AWESOME job!!!

Arrived home about 12:30pm on Sunday! So glad to be home.... no traffic, no mega shopping centers..... home sweet home!