Scrapbooking Jessie's trip

A few months ago I challenged everyone to do at least 20 scrapbook pages a month. http://cherisseasonsoftheheart.blogspot.com/2009/04/scrapbooking-albums-challange.html Last month I surpassed my goal and did 55!!!

I was very proud of myself.

As this is the last day of the month I figured it was time to post my totals for this month.

This month I was hoping to do 20 again, and then I participated in the Cyber crop, and got 50 pages done!!! Yippee! (Don't get too excited yet, I have more)

Then Jessie came to town and she loves to scrapbook too, so I scrapped with her. And I got 16 pages done with her.

For a total of 66 pages this month!

Yippee!

Here is how my Jessie's Visit page will start . . . She made a page for me to start my book and I did one for her to start her book. I don't have a picture of the page I did for her, but here is the one she gave to me. It made me cry, it was so sweet and sentimental!

So here are some of the pages-

This is Jessie at the beau jo's when we went there for lunch when we were in Idaho Springs.

Alex and his "Tea party of Beer" I thought that was so cute! That's what he called it "a Tea party of beer!"

This layout has the wonderful clear ribbons for ACBailey . . . It's a simple layout, but I thought the picture told the whole story.

If I had asked Alex to stick his head in this sign he would have told me "NO" but since Jessie did, he happily did it!

At Red Rocks . . . the kids climbed around on the rocks, even though they were not supposed to!

Jessie and Grandpa, looking so cute!

Us at the zoo! I love this page, and the little plastic "The Zoo" tag was sent to me by Kathy M for the cyber crop (She also sent me all kinds of papers and a stamp of some wonderful words that I can't remember what they are, and I am too lazy right now to get up and go see what it says, and a few cute embellishments~ Thank you Kathy M) . . . I know I won a bingo but I don't know who won the whole cyber crop, I think it was probably me . . . I did a lot!!

I love this paper especially for the layout with the Elephant! I think it turned out really cute!

I guess that's all I have to post at the moment . . . But I want to remind everyone that the first of the month is coming so please please order your scrapbook supplies from me at http://cherisseasonsoftheheart.blogspot.com/2009/04/scrapbooking-albums-challange.html

or Happy shopping!!!

Family pictures

I'm feeling kind of "Schmultzy" so I am going to post some of my favorite family pictures from Jessie's visit!

When I first got to see Jessie at the airport . . . this is the picture Tim took of us! Here is something funny to Amuse myself with ~

I think I will title this photo "Avery and Alex think having their picture taken is fun!!!" (They hate to have their picture taken!)

The whole family!!! (The next posting in my blog has a bit more description on this photo)

Me and My kids! Love them all!

I love this next picture! So cute!

We needed to take some pictures of Jessie with her grandparents and ME! (There can never been enough photos of me and Jessie! I love her! She is adorable! But, I'm gushing again, so I will try to contain myself. )

Here is a photo of Me, Jessie and Grandpa. Jessie wants to send this picture to her Bio-mon, who she hasn't talked to in over 10 years. Jessie wrote her bio-mom a letter and is going to have Grandpa send it to her. (The letter was actually nicer than I thought it was going to be.) Have I ever mentioned that My sister and I are NOTHING alike? We we aren't.

Another cute picture of me and Jessie and Grandpa

Jessie, Me and Grandma . . . I love this picture.

Aren't they cute???

For some reason I really like this next picture of Grandma and Jessie . . . I think it's the angle of the camera . . . it just captured them so well!

More cute family pictures. Jessie and the boys with the elephant! I love this picture! Aunty, Alex, Me, Avery, and Jessie at the zoo in the Tropical Discovery.

Alex, Jessie and Avery . . . I love the way the cousins were together!

Happily Tim got to be with all of us for a little bit this visit. So Monday we took Jessie to the mountains and this is one of the only family pictures that we have with Tim in it. . . . I wish he could have been with us more, but then I'm never happy with how he has to leave . . . I wish he could always be here with us! That makes me really happy when he is here.

So here we are at Echo Lake on Mount Evans.

Old fashioned pictures at Heritage Square. I think The guys really look like they belonged in that time period . . . I can see both Tim and Alex fitting in so well!

Well I have to say, My family is super cute . . . sometimes in goobery ways, and sometimes in the sweetest of ways! But they are mine and I love each and every one of them with all my heart, and I'm glad they are a part of my life.

Casa Bonita

Do you remember that song, "Comet! It makes your mouth turn green. Comet! Tastes like Gasoline. Comet! It makes you vomit! so go out and get your comet today-a- a!" Well, that's how I feel about Casa Bonita. The food is HORRIBLE!!!! And ever time some one from out of town comes to visit, we end up there, because the atmosphere is so cool! Every time we go, I hope the food is going to be better, and every time we go, I think the food is actually even worse.

But the good thing about it was that I actually got the WHOLE family together. We had been missing Tony most of the week, (More on that in a bit)

So here is a picture I TOTALLY !!! We were all sitting outside waiting for everyone to get there. We ended up with 3 different cars there.

We wanted to be sure to get several pictures with Jessie and Tony . . . since he hadn't been around all week . . . and didn't get to do any of the fun things with us.

I love silly pictures!

And now a more, "normal" picture. Although I don't think I would ever describe MY family as normal!

This next photo is kind of funny . . . because the reason why Tony hasn't been around is because Brooke wouldn't let him. As you can plainly see, Jessie is SUPER CUTE!!! and I think Brooke was SUPER JEALOUS! And so she kept Tony away all the time. It was really making me mad . So I really forced the issue with Tony, for Dinner at Casa Bonita. "You have to be there!!"

He and Brooke work together so at this point I didn't care if she was there for the dinner or not, as long as we got Tony . . . So when we all sat down to eat, Brooke ended up sitting next to Jessie. Jessie tried to have a conversation with her, and Brooke TOTALLY ignored her. Alex was sitting on the other side of Brooke, and he heard that Jessie was trying to talk with Brooke and Alex would answer Jessie . . . it was pretty wild!

This next picture is a super cute picture, other than Jessie's eyes are closed . . . but it's still cute. This is the ONLY picture of me with ALL my kids, so I have to put it out there for the universe to see.

(Alex had helped someone move that day, and what he thought would take about 3 hours ended up taking 6 and they had to go up and down from the 3rd floor of an apartment. He was super tired!!)

Cousins!!! Finally a picture with all of them!! And everyones eyes are open!!! Yippee!!!

Throughout the weekend, Jessie and I kept finding those "Make a flat penny" machines that stamp where you are on it, so at Casa Bonita we made a bunch, so I could put them in everyones scrapbooks! Here is a picture of Avery turning the crank to make the pennies.

The big thing for both Jessie and Me when we were at Casa Bonita was to get a group family picture! So from left to Right, Grandma, Tony, Jessie, Me (on the floor) Alex, Avery, Grandpa, And Aunty. (Alex is actually smiling!!!! Whooo hoo!!! He hardly ever does that!!!!



And now for the sad part of the evening. Saying good bye!

Here are Aunty and Jessie~ They are both so sweet!

A hug good bye!

Grandma and Jessie~

My mom has never been overly demonstrative, and she really has hard feelings toward my sister Cindy who is Jessie's Mom, but Jessie is so UNLIKE her mother that my mom fell in love with Jessie, and when she was hugging her my mom kept saying "I love you." to Jessie! I think both of them really enjoyed each other so much. It was wonderful! I know that Jessie needed the family contact, and I think Grandma needed to feel connected to her too . . . It really was wonderful!!!

Jessie and Grandpa- a kiss goodbye

Jessie looks so much like my sister Cindy, but she is nothing like her . . . and to see grandpa getting to have a part of Cindy that was good and sweet and pure and wonderful, I think it really did his heart good.

Jessie and The boys said good bye before she went to bed that night. They all sat in the garage together and smoked the hooka . . . And then went to bed. I think the boys really enjoyed having her around! I think they all would have loved to have a sister.

Jessie and I said good bye at the airport . . . there are no pictures of us saying goodbye, because we were both sobbing! I walked with her all the way to the part of the airport where she was going to have to go through security . . . and they wouldn't let me go with her any more. We cried and cried . . . I gave her a letter to read on the airplane . . . Here is her letter~

My Sweet Jessie~

You are leaving today, and I am so sad you are going. I really don’t want you to go . . . I have I mentioned that before . . . well maybe not in the last 5 minutes but I think I have told everyone how much I don’t want you to go.

Before you got here, I thought you and I would get along and be happy we were in each others lives, but I never knew how deep the connection I feel toward you would be. I think you are a part of me . . . The child of my heart. My Baby Girl. And I’m so happy to know you and call you mine.

My sweet girl, I hope you go back to Iowa and continue to grow and progress the way you have because you are so wonderful and everyone who comes across your path should be deeply blessed to know you and have you be in their lives. I know I am so glad you are in my life and heart.

I know that we have ran around like Crazy women this week . . . And have accomplished so much. I loved working on the scrapbooks with you. It’s been a dream come true to have a daughter to do those girlie things with. In my dreams I always dreamed of having someone, my someone, my daughter to do scrapbooking with, and go shopping for Christmas presents and do all those things that mothers and daughters do. You are what I always dreamed of. If I had known how much I would love you and connect with you I would have contacted you so much sooner, because you are a part of my life that has been missing for a very long time. Just like you needed a Mom, I needed a Daughter . . . But maybe if we had connected earlier, it wouldn’t have been like it is now . . . I think this was just OUR time. You are so important to me. And I’m Deeply honored that you want me to be in your life! I loved just hanging out and showing you parts of Colorado. I loved seeing it all through your eyes. I loved sitting and talking with you . . . I just loved everything about you being here.

So my sweet Daughter, thank you for coming out to visit. Thank you for Scrapbooking with me. Thank you for being so sweet and kind. Thank you for letting me love you and be your mom! I am blessed.

So go back to Iowa, and do what you have to do, I know we will talk and have lots more visits over time. Even though you are not here with me in Colorado, I carry you in my heart all the time, so we will never be far apart from each other ever again.

I love you always~
Your mama

She said she read it several times on the airplane and cried. . .

I am always going to remember this trip with love and fondness! Getting to know Jessie has been one of the greatest highlights of my life.

She is hoping to come back in August, and Bring Rahni Rae!!!! (my other niece, Jessie's oldest sister) Which would be like One of the happiest things I could ever have happen! I would love to have both my girls with me!!!