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 :)