Getting my scrapbooking groove on with Anthology products!

    

     I've returned from my first Summit, and met SO many wonderful people and heard SO many stories of LIFE-CHANGING health results.... now it's time to play with scrapbooking goodies again, as I document some of the wonderful experiences OUR family has had as a result of my Youngevity Distributorship.
     One of the first goals I had set for myself was to be able to buy a larger dirt bike, a golf cart, or similar item for Wesley, to help keep him entertained this summer.  I mentioned this to a family member during the graduation party of our niece,  & they said "We have one for sale!"
     I cannot believe that I managed to keep it a secret from Wesley.  Michael had no problem, but I was so excited that we were able to do this for him, and that MY income paid for it!

      He has enjoyed his time buzzing around the house this summer and into fall, and I can now do more 'My new ride' layouts for him!  I also have enough photos of his various 'rides' through the years that I can easily do a THEN & NOW or THROUGH THE YEARS layout or mini album.  I cannot wait to see what we can purchase for him within the next year or two!
     If YOU would like to join me in this wonderful adventure, simply go to www.scrapstreams.youngevity.com and click JOIN in the upper right corner of the page, or visit me at www.facebook.com/groups/AnthologywithDaleRoseStream, and I'd be glad to get you started.  It only takes a few minutes to get YOUR FREE company replicated & maintained site started.

TBT... some earlier kits presented by Lisa Bearnson

     This is one of my first attempts at a TBT (Throw Back Thursday) post.  And yes, I'm still learning cyber abbreviations lol.  I thought that I would share some of my previous layouts that I created utilizing kits that Lisa Bearnson presented on HSN over the past couple of years.
 
      I love how this black and white layout works so well with most of the colors in these two pages, especially Dakota's thick, beautiful black, gray and white coat, as well as some of the winter wear and sleds used during the sledding part!  On the left page and the lower right page,  I dry embossed some swirls/flourishes to help carry out the snowy weather theme.

       

       The top of these two photos is the page kit as it came.  I've been mixing and matching a lot over the past several years.  Above,  I replaced the light blue with darker blue cardstock as the base, to match some of the colors in my photos, specifically the birthday boy's winter coat... I also left out the striped borders as well. 

     This layout is somewhat a mirror/upside down reflection of the suggested layout.  The 3 photo frames are on my lower right page, theirs are on the upper left, and so on.  Again, the colors of this layout kit went well with the photos, as we had a Star Wars themed party this year!    
     The 3 layouts above documented the long and fun packed day of Wesley's sledding birthday party.  Yes, Dakota enjoyed it as well!

      When I saw the colors in this kit, along with the layout suggested, I knew it would work really well these photos!  Again, the black, gray and white draw attention to Dakota's coat, but Wesley wears a LOT of blue, which until this past year, was his favorite color.  In this case, he was wearing black, gray and red, but his mini dirt bike is blue...  I love to scrap not only by theme, but by color! 
     I love to document how Wesley & I (and yes, Dakota too) spend our summers together.  On weekends, Wesley has a lot of what I used to call "Daddy dates", and now refer to as "Guy time".  Michael works a lot of hours, especially spring through summer, including 5-6 hours on Saturdays, because it is his busy season at work.  Once he gets home on Saturday, if the weather is right, they usually take off to the State Park or other local spot for MAJOR bike rides (which I can't do lol), fly kites next to Lake Michigan, etc.  Therefore, I have several "me and my dad" and "me and my mom" mini albums.  These 12" pages will have to go into a different album.

      You will see bits and pieces of this 3 Birds "All About Fall" kit in the 2 page layout below, again mixed with another Top Pages kit!  Both kits even have chipboard.

     These are some of the pages that I completed or started during one of our local Crop For A Cure, a 12 hour crop that we have twice a year in one of our local churches.  I apologize for the glare on some of the photos above.   Hurrying to get things photographed while trying to catch up on household chores is not a good thing lol.

      This kit ended up being used on TWO different layouts already!  Immediately below you will see a two page spread that I tried to complete, covering two different days and topics, because of the colors. Ultimately, the mint green still called out to be only used on the ice cream layout because of my mint chocolate chip blizzard, and the pink/purple ended up on the separate layout about my studio pellet stove.

     

      I ended up converting my photos to b/w because of Wesley's sweater, but still wanted to use the mint embellishments.  I NEEDED (lol) to include that adorable photo of Dakota enjoying our trip to Dairy Queen, therefore it became part of a second page of that layout. 

          Wow, those covered a fair amount of time, both in the events, and the time period over which they were scrapped.  I think I may be doing this on a regular basis.  Have a wonderful TBT!

Birthday fun... VIDEO GAMES anyone?

     It's that time of year again. Our son will be 11 years old, and is definitely at that 'tween' stage of his life.  He made a major leap of his main interest a year and a half ago, going from Thomas the Train to Star Wars, is becoming more independent (he made Jiffy Pop popcorn completely on his own the other night) and is totally obsessed with electronic games.
     We invited 3 of his classroom friends (Jonny, Deakon & Carter) over for his birthday party on Saturday, one day before his birthday.  Michael suggested going to the pool for an hour or so before hand, or going sledding, but all the boys invited immediately turned down the pool activity.  At the time that we were planning his party, we didn't even have any snow, then it warmed up after we did get some.  We have snow once again, but I don't expect them to spend even a few minutes outdoors during the actual party, let alone going to the state park or the water tower hill to go sledding, as they are all big into gaming.  Perhaps in the late afternoon, or tomorrow morning, anyone who stays overnight might be more interested in going outdoors.  Carter wasn't able to stay overnight because of wrestling, but he stayed a few hours longer, only leaving when he had too lol.
     Wesley's main gift is still in transit, as I ordered it earlier this week.  I had hoped it would be delivered by tomorrow (FedEx delivers on Saturdays here, but UPS does not, unless it's a 'special delivery'), but it has only traveled from it's origin of Texas to Tennessee as of this afternoon.  Michael had told me that he didn't care if it was a couple of days late for his birthday, and not to ask if the seller was willing to change the delivery method in order for us to get it sooner.  I totally understand that outlook, as this item was a splurge, considering that I had already picked him up a few smaller and less expensive gifts.
    On a related note, as a birthday gift to myself, I ordered a canine DNA tester for Dakota this week as well.  It was listed as being on the FedEx truck for delivery today, but it turns out that they took it to the post office for delivery instead.  Oh well, another couple of days doesn't really matter, but it would have been nice to get it today as it was listed.
     UPDATES:  The party was a hit, with two of the boys asking to come back over for another sleepover this weekend, but I had told Wesley not so soon... I need a weekend off lol SO TRUE!
     Surprisingly, the boys DID go outside, wandering out while Dakota and I had gone for our walk.  As we got 2/3 of the way home, I could hear the boys yelling.  Soon I realized that it was so loud that they must have opened the slider for some fresh air....no, they were actually OUTSIDE!   Normally, when I let Dakota off her lead as we approach our property line, she merely trots ahead of me, usually getting a bite or two of some fresh, cold snow, before heading in with me for a big drink of water.  This time, she ran ahead and straight to the back yard to play with the boys,  assuming her self-assigned roll as the 'referee' which her fur coat resembles.  If people or other pets get loud, she assumes they are getting too rough and therefore steps in to break things up.

      Wesley & I bought this HDTV in the evening of Black Friday... LOVE it!  We also set up the old HD large screen that my brother Leon gave us when they moved home.

    

It just so happened that there were FOUR boys, and when Wesley ran upstairs before we sat down to have cake (cowboy brownies) and icecream, he came back with the FOUR Star Wars character masks he had collected so far.  Perfection....

   While looking for cake decorations, I saw these tiny mustaches, remembered what Roberta Davis's family (Jonny's mom) had done a previous summer, and added into account the boys' ages...hmmm!

  

 

I misspoke earlier... there were actually FIVE BOYS attending!  Michael had to show the boys his record high score!

Wesley received some great cards, cash gifts and a GameStop gift card, all of which are perfect for his current interests as well as the locally limited variety of gaming or Star Wars items.  Now he can combine his money to pick out something larger/more expensive which he has wanted for a while, or even order something online.

      The tv we replaced, Leon's pass-me-down.  I think the boys used 3 different game systems: Our Wii and PS2, plus one of the boys' game cube, seen on the floor in the above photo.

    We ordered 2 Hungry Howie's (Wesley's favorite) pizzas for lunch.  Dinner was a high-class kids' favorite: Mac and Cheese plus hot dogs.  Dad even gave Dakota a hotdog bun (some were stale).

        NOW I see why they have the wrestling game out!

     The boys were still pretty loud at midnight, but around 1 am they were talking quietly.  I laid in bed, worried that one of the boys would soon be walking into our room to tell me that they wanted to go home because they missed their family, which has happened in the past.  Nope... Michael said they were probably talking about GIRLS!