it's hard to say goodbye....

Ava Linton, one of Emma's best friends is moving this week. It's going to be so sad to see them leave. Emma, Ava, and Brooke are like the three musketeers and are inseparable. I wanted to make them each a shadowbox of the memories :)

Look at these best friends...

13 months?!!!

Our Emma girl turned 13 months yesterday. We just love her so much. She is at SUCH a fun stage right now. I just love watching her and seeing her personality shine through and she seriously makes us laugh so hard. Last night she started to say "eyes" over and over again while trying to poke my eyes and pull my eye lashes. Then tonight, at Grandma Olsen's house she saw their kitty and flat out said with excitement, "Kitty!" What?! She's never said that before...it was so sweet. Then she said it again. So that's two words in two days.
Words that Emma has learned to say recently are..
"da...y"= daddy and mommy(been saying that for a couple months, mostly calls for Daddy:)
"dnt"=drink
"teas"= treats and cheese
"das"= dance
"tsus"= Jesus (LOVES pointing to the picture of Jesus and saying "tsus")
eyes
kitty

That's all I can think of right now. She has been learning to walk with her toy walker this past weekend. She is so stinking cute. She'll be walking before we know it. Here's a video of us egging her on. I hate the sound of my voice on this, I was just way excited. So please excuse it. :)

We went to Derek's Grandma Olsen's 80th birthday party tonight. It was so much fun being with all the extended family. Derek, my mother in law, and I have been looking through old photos to put in a mini album for her 80th b-day. I was able to put together the album titled "thank you Grandma" The pages were of special moments in Derek's family with their Grandma. She's such a wonderful women and has been such a great example to everyone. It was lots of fun putting it together. All of Derek's family were able to write a letter or note to her for her birthday and it went into an envelope inside the book. I just put up a few pics of some of the pages. Lots of fun! Happy Birthday Grandma Olsen!

Emma's Birthday part II

What a fun birthday little Emma had. We had a little party for her with immediate family and Emma's neighborhood friends just at our condo in the front courtyard area. I think it was a pretty good success!! I will explain little highlights throughout the party in the pictures below.

In the morning of her birthday I took pictures of her in her cute little birthday out fit and tutu. I made her a party hat and she REFUSED to wear the thing, ripped it right off her head. Little stinker. But she was so darling.

We had a little practice run of a cupcake after lunch. It took her a while to warm up to it, but ended up enjoying every bite. She was in heaven. We thought, "man, she's going to LOVE her real birthday cupcake tonight that is three times the size the normal one."

Here are the table displays

I made a 'first year' book of Emma and had people sign the back of her book. It turned out pretty good I think. I made little birthday hats for her little neighbor friends and her little baby cousin Lucy.Here are Ben and Ava. Ben didn't really care to wear his hat, Ava didn't seem to mind. Aren't these munchkins so cute?lots and lots of cupcakes for everyoneHere's the stupendous cake that Derek worked long and hard on with the help of his mom who frosted it....didn't it turn out SO great? Way to go babe.family and friendsToo cute. Here's Emma and her cute friends Brooke, Ava, and Ben. Here's Emma's little cousin Lucy. Emma loves her cousin so much. So much that she's ready to rip that hat right off her head... she succeeded.We couldn't get the candle to stay lit, but she looks pretty interested right?Yeah, not so much. She didn't want anything to do with that big cupcake. We were so bummed, because judging the way she was eating her small cupcake earlier that day, we thought she would be in hog heaven. Before giving up, we ended up giving her one of the small cupcakes then she was VERY happy again. I think she was just intimidated by the size of the sweet goodness....funny little munchkin.mmm....Brooke loves her cupcakeYES!!! Emma handled wearing her party hat for about 20 minutes while opening presents.Uncle Dennen wearing her tutu on his head and playing with her. What a great Uncle.Here's Brooke pushing Emma in her toy that Oma, Opa, Aunt Britta, and Uncle Dylan gave her. She LOVES it!! Thanks guys.Here are some pics of Emma's mini album I made for her.

What a FUN day we had to celebrate your 1st BIRTHDAY Emma. We ALL love you so much!!

Projects

Here are some of the latest projects I have completed. I've done a few more shadow boxes recently as well as a book that I made for Derek for his birthday. I wasn't able to get it done BY his actual birthday but I gave it to him at a family bday party since family and friends of his were able to contribute to the book. I had them write a thought and or memory of Derek and send it to me and I went ahead and added some embellishments with the letters on each of the pages of his book. Even though the book took me months to put together, I enjoyed doing it so much. Derek really loved reading through it. He's simply the greatest.
So here are some pics!

More Emma Jane frames....

Well, here are some more of the name shadow box frames I've been able to make for some orders I've had in the last two weeks. It's been fun making them and I'm learning more and more. I was a little nervous making boy frames but they actually turned out pretty good. The one on the top is actually a framed piece of a quilt that my great Grandma Vance had made and all the kids in our family got a square out of her quilt. It's very sentimental to me.