Can Winter please be over already????

Yesterday was great and today looks beautiful too.  I am loving the Spring weather and hope it stays warm so Sean's work will pick up.  I have absolutely no loans in process right now so we need more work so we can get our payments made.  It has been a rough couple years and this Winter has been brutal for us financially.  We keep plugging along though and things seem to be working out although we aren't getting ahead at all.  Both of our businesses keep growing (pest control and scrapbooking) which is good, but it is hard to be patient while they are building.  I guess this is Heavenly Father's way of making us humble.  It's working.  But we have been healthy and have food and a roof over our head and so many other blessings to be thankful for.

I taught a digital class in Draper on Saturday.  It was a small class, but because it was small, we were able to cover a lot of stuff.  It was a fun time.  Heidi is teaching a class in Cedar City this weekend and then we are doing a craft boutique next weekend.  We are still scheduling classes and home parties, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I can get you the details.  It is a great way to earn some fun prizes if you are a hostess. 

The kids are out of school for Spring Break this week.  Travis and Tyrel have some aerating jobs lined up.  If anyone else is looking to have their lawn aerated and/or power raked, let us know ASAP.  Their time slots are filling up, but if they get enough interest, they can rent it another day.  Travis is babysitting for the neighbor all day today and is glad to have some work to earn some gas money for the remainder of the school year.

Conference Weekend - Scrapping and more

I got my pictures scrapped from Conference weekend.  It was fun.  We had the biggest scrapping group ever I think.  We must not have been noisy enough though, because Grandma and Krue managed to take a nap.

Travis was so cute playing Legos with the little boys

Todd forgot to bring up his Sunday clothes for the Priesthood session, so he stayed home with the women and children.  But he could stand it no longer and decided he wanted to make a page.  So, we helped him along and then when the men got back, Troy was mad that we were doing a speed scrap without him, so he sat down to scrap too.  Scrappers included me, Heidi, Kaitlin, Melisa, Haylee, Lisa, Sharlynn, Traci, Todd and Troy.

Scrapping for Conference

It was so much fun to have a huge group of scrappers this time for Conference weekend.  It has been waning over the past few years, but this year there were 8 of us, plus I think Jen and Kristi were scrapping with us in spirit from their own houses. Oh, actually, Todd and Troy also joined in on the fun for a little while so that makes two more!  We got a lot done, listened to some great talks, ate some yummy food, had a few laughs, and made a lot of memories!  Oh, and we all did a speed scrap on Saturday Night, good times!  Thanks everyone for chipping in on the food and making it a great weekend.  I didn't have any current pictures to scrap, so I ended up going back to Travis' books from 2001 - 2005 and pulling all the photos I had developed but never scrapped, scanning them in and finishing those 4 years of his life!  It was a great accomplishment for me.  They are 8 1/2 x 11 instead of 12 x 12 because I switched over in 2006 to the other size.  Here is a look at what I completed.

 

Generations

I did a speed scrap tonight while all my boys were gone to Young Men's activities.  I love the layout I ended up with.

In this picture are my dad and his brother Ron being held by my great grandparents Gustav and Annkea Bebensee.  Also pictured are my great great grandparents Rolf Habben and Louisa Schnoor Habben.  Louisa was his 2nd wife.  His first wife (Annkea's mother) passed away when my great grandmother was just a very young girl.  Aunt Terri, correct me if I have any names wrong.  I believe this picture was taken sometime in 1946 or 1947.  I'm not sure of the location but my best guess would be Nebraska.

They're Home

Travis and Trevin made it back home today.  It was so nice that Travis was able to drive them down to Nephi and leave the car there when they left a few days ago.  That meant we didn't have to run down to Nephi to pick them up today.  They had fun bonding with their grandparents and each other.  Trevin had a cough the whole time and the cigarette smoke in the casino's didn't help him, but other than that they had fun. 

They had "the best Pizza ever" the first night.  They were able to do some baptisms at the temple.  They went to the Adventure Dome and to the "O" Show.

I spent the day scrapping some more old photos.  Here is what I have for your viewing pleasure today.

Richardson Family reunion at Windy Bills in 1995

Heidi and I riding with Uncle Craig to see the Elk at the top of the mountain.  A once in a lifetime experience that I actually got to do twice.  Once with Heidi and a few years later with Sean right before we got married.  Heidi got to ride Grandpa Richardson's horse Skeeter.

Travis and Tyrel riding ponies at Thanksgiving Point, I think it was when Trevin was a baby, so 1999ish

Date Night with Tyrel

Tyrel and I had a date tonight. We went and got Code Red fountain drinks and Flaming Hot Cheetos (for Tyrel, I think they are yucky) and then came home and watched Mission Impossible 2. Thanks for the fun date Tyrel, and thanks for driving!

Sharlynn came over this afternoon and we scrapbooked for a little while.  We did two speed scraps and I also got some more old pictures scrapped. 

These are from Tyrel and Trevin's Birthday party in 2003.  It was right after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake, so we had a hockey party.  We got inflatable hockey sticks and they played hockey with a balloon in our basement.  They had a blast and all earned gold medals.  We made an Olympic Ring cake for their birthday cake. 

This picture was from around the same time period.  Travis came up the stairs with this "hockey goalie mask" he had made from paper.  It was ripped, and cut and stapled together.  I was glad he had a hockey stick in his hand or I probably wouldn't have been able to tell what it was.

Travis and Trevin should be home tomorrow.  I've missed them.

Scrapping some old stuff

So I've always said (maybe even bragged) that I was caught up on my scrapbooking.  That was true, to a point.  I've pretty much always stayed caught up on my boys books, which originally was all I ever thought about doing.  Then, about 5 years ago, Sean said to me one night, "What are you going to do when they grow up and leave and take their books with them?  You don't have a book for yourself."  So, I started then and have been working to stay caught up on current stuff for all of us and then when I have spare time, have been going back and scrapping those old pictures for myself.  This is a lot of work, but also, means I get really good books, because I am such a better scrapper now than I was.

My original intent was to scrap all of those pictures the old fashioned way since the pictures were already printed out and I have tons of paper scrapping supplies still left.  I did lots of them that way, but the last few weeks, I have been scanning in pictures here and there and doing them digitally because it is so much cleaner, simpler, and much better looking. 

Travis and Trevin have been gone all weekend.  Tyrel had his buddies over last night, so I got some scrapping done and thought I'd share a bit of what I've been doing over the past few weeks.

Here are a couple from Christmas, 2003 - aren't they such cuties?

Here are a few old Cub Scout photos I scrapbooked

These are from Sean's mission (all those photos are going to be a major project)