This week...

Spotted! My long-lost husband a.k.a. CPA. He's putting in

long hours, but he also seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

For you BSU fans...he's been converted!

Monday night, we had our first card night. Five of us designed a Valentine's Day or Love card and then made kits. We met together and got to work making one card of each design. We enjoyed the beautiful cards, wonderful company and delicious treats. I'm only posting a photo of the card I designed because I don't have permission from the others to post theirs. Believe me, they were amazing! I highly recommend this as a way to use your stamps, learn new techniques and to just have an excuse to get together!

My two silly ones...a rare moment these days...just sitting together and having fun.

Emma's drawing of her friend Ember. I love the details that are starting
to emerge from her drawings.

Emma's second favorite thing to do is collect a large pile of books, sit on the

couch and slowly go through each one.

Her favorite thing?

To collect the same large pile of books, sit in my lap, and ask me to

read them to her.

One more quiet moment. In order for Ryan to get his Nintendo DS time after school, he has to read for at least 15 minutes. He's gotten so used to reading books very quickly. Now that he's moved up to the fourth grade reading level, it's taking him a bit longer.

I love that my kids love to read.

I did a bit more hand embroidery on paper. I know there's a shortcut - pierce the paper and draw lines collecting the holes - but I love how this turns out. Much more

dimension to the page.

(Sorry about the color...this paper really is a deep red, not orange)

Some of you might recognize the project that is up above from my sneak peak a few days ago.

I'm so happy to say that the 20-page scrapbook is now complete...I hope to put it in the hands of

the beautiful girls' Momma tomorrow. It was very refreshing to work on a project

that had a definite start and finish...not like the boxes of photos I have in my closet just waiting to be put into albums. Thanks, Cassie for sharing your girls with me this week.

*****

Mom and Dad came up on Thursday. Dad played with Emma while Mom and I made a quick trip to the bookstore and then the scrapbook store. One negative side affect of us moving so close to them is that I don't take photos of them with the kids nearly as often. I resolve to change that...I love photos of our every day life and

need to remember to preserve those moments.

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Our volleyball team, The Friendly Digs, had two games this week. Between the two games, a two-hour practice last Saturday and another scheduled for tomorrow, this is giving us all a pretty good workout! What I love about our team is that, even though we haven't won in a while, we all have fun, try our best and leave the game as friends. Bob acts as our cheering squad (thanks, Bob!) and all of the kids (all ten of them) love the chance to get together and play.

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That, in one semi-long post, was our week. This weekend, I plan on slowing down a bit...spending some quality time with the kids before I start another project...and spending some quality time with my husband (that might just mean keeping the kids quiet so he can get some rest after working both days of the weekend).

*****

Happy weekend to all.

Next week brings the last week of January and

Spring one week closer!