Sunday, August 29, 2010

Guess Who???


I walked in the bathroom after Cassidy took her bath and this is what I found...Our Little Ducky! She was hiding under her ducky towel and I thought it was so cute so I had to take a picture. :)

Friday, August 27, 2010

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July weekend, even though Derek was on call for work. We went to the 4th of July Parade, then drove up to Thornton, CO for the annual BBQ at our friends the Smith's house. We look forward to it each year. Who can go a year without eating Courtney's yummy baked beans, and playing a game of washers. :) Plus our kids always have fun getting together: this year jumping in and out of the pool, and playing with Callie's make-up.

We drove home and watched the firework show. It was nice to have a long 4 day weekend.


I think Cassidy thinks make-up is suppose to cover her whole face...what do you think?


Friends Courtney & Tiffany
(we get a picture like this every year)


Our lovely daughters
(same line-up of who belongs to who - as our picture above)





Enjoying the 4th of July Parade

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Penny Saver

Cassidy has been saving her pennies, and finally she wanted to spend some. On what you ask? Well, our little girl LOVES to color so she goes through crayons like no other. So she bought... her very first box of crayons.

She helped me count all 27 pennies as the patient cashier waited. The cashier had a smile on her face when she handed Cassidy her one of a kind purchase and then her receipt. Cassidy was thrilled and couldn't believe she just bought crayons with her very own money and was just as excited about her own receipt. She asked me if she could keep her receipt forever!

I'm so glad I had my camera so I could catch the moment. The ladies behind us thought it was so cute and I couldn't have felt more excited for Cassidy. She really brought smiles to our faces.

Cassidy takes really good care of her crayons. She's very picky about the places she'll bring her crayons to. I love my girl and how the little things bring so much joy!




Friday, July 09, 2010

Camping at the Sand Dunes

Our friends invited us to go camping in Alamosa, Colorado at the Sand Dunes National Park. We have never been there so we were pretty excited!

It turned out to be a Mother/Daughter camp-out since Derek had to stay home and work. We were sad that Daddy wasn't going to be able to come, but also knew this would be a great opportunity for us girls to spend some quality time together in the great outdoors. And a time to be adventurous!

The Foote's definitely know how to camp so they had everything you could possibly need, even a shower. We were definitely in good hands. They found us a campsite 2 miles south from the Sand Dunes Park at a place called the "Oasis Campground." It was very nice the only thing we had to be careful of was the cactus and being in bear country. I'm always terrified of coming face to face with a bear while camping, but our friends reassured me that we were going to be OKAY, more than once. :) And we never saw a bear all weekend.

Camille can make some yummy chicken fajitas and Andrew took care of our campfires. We had Smores of course and talked around the campfire each night. The girls had a ball playing in the water and of course in the sand. It was fun to roll down the sand dunes. Andrew had the great idea to bury Camille in the sand. I of course had to help. :) I wish I had pictures.

One afternoon we took the girls to the Visitor Center and they were having Ranger Kid's Day. They had different learning centers with different activities at each center. They had the chance to make bookmarks and decorate them with stamps and Cassidy of course had to make an extra one to give to her daddy. They had the chance to use binoculars and go on a hunt to find the animal pictures that were hiding around the room, touch different animal furs and learn about the different animals, put puzzles together, etc. As they completed each activity they would get a stamp on their cards so they could earn a Ranger T-shirt after completing 6 activities. It was fun and Camille and I were excited for the girls to earn their shirts. Which they did.


Cassidy at home wearing her Ranger shirt





Back at the campsite one night they were having all you can eat ice cream. So of course we had to go! They also had a little playground and some plane tires for the kids to play on while we ate our ice cream. We had great weather and it never poured on us, but one day was extra windy! Andrew even saw one of our fellow campers tent fly in the air. Unfortunately, it was so windy we weren't able to play at the sand dunes but instead we watched movies, took a nice restful nap, and hung around the camp site and swung on the hammock.

It was nice to relax all weekend and to be out in the fresh air. Cassidy was a trooper and an awesome camper. She slept through the nights with no problem. I really enjoyed cuddling with my girl and having the time to just sit and talk together in our tent. We will have to go back for sure, and maybe Cassidy will be old enough to challenge the sand dunes and hike up to the top. Or at least take turns with some friends while we take turns watching the kiddos. One day I will climb the top. :)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of our adventurous weekend because my camera was having some major issues. But here are some pictures I got off the park's website that gives you an idea of what our fun looked like.


It was like being at a beach:


Rolling down the Sand Dunes:



Someday, hiking to the top:

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Gift Straight From Heaven

Last Sunday, Cassidy was asking for ice cubes to put in her drink. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on our ice maker after using all our ice cubes the previous day for our cooler. So we told Cassidy she would have to wait for our ice maker to make some more.

She was understanding and asked if we could play a game of Chutes and Ladders. As we were playing our game a huge rain storm rolled in and suddenly it started to hail. The hail was the size of quarters. As soon as the storm ended, we went outside and grabbed some ice cubes straight from heaven to put in Cassidy's drink.

When we told her Heavenly Father must have heard her wishes for ice cubes, and that he certainly came through for her. She beamed the rest of the night and was soooo thankful to you know who. :)





Thursday, July 01, 2010

Circus Time...

This year was my turn to come up with something to do for our 11th Anniversary...I found out the Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town...and we had to go! It has been too long and of course Cassidy would love it too. :)

It was sooo much fun! They had a pre-show before the real show started. It was fun to be on the floor watching the clowns do their tricks, and some of the acrobats they showed us was amazing.

I even had the chance to say hi to the Ring Master before the show.



Isn't this the Cutest little Clown you ever did see????




The show was AMAZING and filled with everything you could ever think of to see in a circus...at moments we cheered, other times I had to close my eyes, and of course we all had to laugh.






It was also cute to see a Border Collie walk his friend the Elephant with the leash in his mouth.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Cassidy colored a tie and drew a picture of herself and her daddy on her Father's Day card today at church. She sure Loves this man! ...And I do too!



Thursday, May 06, 2010

Family Business!

So, as some of you know, we have embarked in purchasing our very own family business. We now have a Promotional Product/Printing business. We invested in commercial equipment that is capable of screen printing on t-shirts and other items of apparel. We also have a vinyl cutter for home decor, signs, car wraps, etc. And last but not least, we have a pad printer which allows us to print on any hard or plastic surface. We can print on things like, cups, mugs, pens, golf balls, keychains, stress relievers, etc. (over 800,000 items). We set-up our shop in our basement and work from home.

Our company name is STELLAR SPECIALTY PRINTING...and we have our very own website: www.stellarco.com

Derek and I have learned so much already about this industry and continue to learn every day. We enjoy the limitless opportunities in this industry. We enjoy getting involved with our local community as well as serving other companies and organizations around the country.

So far some of the things we have done are: assisted a church group in designing embroidered caps for their fundraiser, ordered 1000 pens for the local political 9-12 (based off of Glen Beck) group, embroider polo shirts for a local cleaning company with their business logo, designed art work for an order of stadium cups for a family reunion, screen-printed shirts for an electrician here in town, screen-printed shirts for 12 yr old girls at church, sticker labels for a carpet cleaning company, plastic bags for a golf course, etc.

We have steadily been receiving business opportunities from friends and family, just by word of mouth. We look forward to marketing more and visiting more companies to offer our services to. We are excited to get into the schools to do sport and band events or fundraisers. Cassidy has already been marketing for us too. She's so excited and so cute about being a part of our business. She will help us by sharing what we do with anyone wherever we go. All I have to say is... we now own a family business...then she immediately tells them..."Stellar Specialty Printing!" Sometimes I don't even have to mention anything. One day we were at the park and I was talking to my friend about just everyday things...and I guess she was listening as I was pushing her on the swing. Out of the blue she said to my friend.."How about ordering some pens?" She was hired on the spot! :)

We look forward to the growth of our business, learning new skills, understanding the meaning of hard work, extra money to spend, working together as a family, meeting all kinds of people and their businesses, but most of all help others to promote their business and to help them succeed in whatever endeavor they are involved in.

Derek always says with this business... "Everyday is a good day!" If you think about it...it's true. Whether it's helping someone get the word out about their new business, celebrating a marriage with their personalized items to remember their day, providing apparel for a sports team that earn their way to the playoffs, a family reunion that unites people to create memories, fundraisers to help raise money for good causes, and so forth.

If you need any of our services please let us know. :)



The Stellar Team
We used t-shirt vinyl to make these shirts while we were training on our equipment.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was fun. On Saturday morning we went to the mall for an Easter egg hunt. The mall was chaotic and there were lots and lots of people. It was disappointing the way they organized the event. Most children didn't even get one egg, and some were crying. Cassidy was fortunate to be standing at the right place at the right time where one of the staff members dropped the eggs.

The best part of this event at the mall... was our daughter making the choice to share her eggs with other children that didn't get any. As well as witnessing a young teenager showing kindness and being a good Samaritan to a mother with young children that needed help, even if it meant she lost her chance to get eggs for herself. That was the highlight of this egg hunt experience.

When we got home we colored eggs and Cassidy enjoyed decorating them with stickers as you can see in the picture below. As we decorated eggs we had the chance to listen to church conference. After decorating eggs we played with Cassidy's new Easter gift her...Play-dough Ice Cream Shop. Cassidy looooves to play with play-dough. It was so fun and it almost looked so real to eat. That night when Derek went to Priesthood session of conference Cassidy and I went to "Girls Night" at the church bookstore. They have drawings for free gifts all night and special buys. Well, we actually had our number drawn and won some great books to read. Yeah!!!!

When Derek got home Cassidy and I sent him off on his very own Easter egg hunt. Us girls had so much fun sneaking around and hiding his eggs. There was even a "Golden egg" with green inside. :) It was fun watching him on the hunt. It made me smile to hear our daughter's giggles as he would get closer to finding one of her eggs. But she couldn't resist in helping her daddy find the eggs that she hid. It was so cute. At one hiding spot she hid 3 eggs at the same spot. Funny girl. Luckily, Cassidy didn't see me hide my eggs. Otherwise, it would have been a very short egg hunt.

Easter weekend was pretty special this year, because we were able to listen to our Prophet speak and other amazing church leaders all weekend in General Conference. It's a world-wide broadcast conference from the Church. They give inspirational talks to inspire us and teach us to be better.

We had the privilege to have Aunt Barb join us for some of the conference. We enjoyed her company and our conversations. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to stay for Easter dinner but we were grateful for the time we did get to spend together . For Easter dinner, we invited our good friends: Jaime and her cute kids Tyler, and Rachel (Jeff had to work).

We tried something different this year. Filling our Saturday with all the fun Easter activities and reserving Easter Sunday to celebrate the true meaning of Easter, the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.



Cassidy's decorated egg, she insisted on placing the same stickers next to each other in groups. She explained she wanted to place her stickers like Noah's ark with the grouping of animals.


Easter Egg Hunt at the mall


The Golden Egg! I thought I was pretty clever to hide it in our ceiling vent. But no fooling my clever hubby.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Inspiring Video...Stephanie Nielson

I have kept up with this beautiful woman's life story...as most people have. She has touched many hearts including my own. Enjoy!