JAMSquared

Category Archives: Family & Friends

A Visit from Papa and Nanny

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My parents came to town for a quick visit. My Dad dropped my Mom off Thursday afternoon while Jessica was napping. He then had a business meeting and afterward went and had dinner with Jason, Julia, and Aspen. My Mom had dinner with us.

Jessica and her Nanny

Yesterday, Jason and James took a break from work and came for lunch. Julia and Aspen came for lunch and a play date. (See Julia’s post about our last play date.) After lunch, Aspen and Jessica got to play. Aren’t Aspen’s dimples cute?

Aspen Smiling

Jessica and Aspen aren’t quite to the point where they know how to play with each other. I put them next to each other and Jessica wanted to pull on Aspen’s ears.  At her house, Aspen was rough. At our house, Jessica was rough. Oh well, it will come as they get older.

Aspen and Jessica

Papa had fun playing with his two grand-daughters.

Papa and Aspen

Papa and Jessica

Aspen and Nanny

Aspen is quite mobile. She enjoyed standing up on the Crawl-n-Cruise Jungle. Both girls enjoy the balls that are with it.

Aspen and Jessica

Julia and Aspen

After Julia and Aspen left, Papa read Jessica a story before her nap.

Papa Reading a Story to Jessica

My parents then left during her nap to head on to Houston for a wedding they’re attending. It was nice getting to visit with them.

Mother’s Day Weekend in Midland

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James took Friday off from work and we traveled to Midland to celebrate Mother’s Day with our Moms. Jessica did pretty well in the car. This is a beautiful time of year to drive to Midland. The wildflowers were gorgeous. The stretch between Llano and Brady was especially vibrant. There were red and yellow, orange and white, pink and purple wildflowers and even a few bluebonnets (usually this is too late for bluebonnets). Some fields were covered with only one type of wildflower, making one field look like it was dusted with snow there were so many white flowers. Other fields were covered with red and yellow wildflowers giving the impression they were on fire.

Friday night, James’ Mom hosted dinner at her house with my parents, James’ parents, James’ grandparents, James’ sister Tami and her boyfriend Randy and our nephew Dawson. It was a full household and I didn’t get any photos.

Jessica Saturday Morning Before Lunch

For lunch on Saturday, we headed to Tampico with James’ family. Afterward, we visited back at James’ parent’s house.

Jessica and her Great-Pawpaw

Jessica with Daddy and Aunt Tami

Someone’s getting sleepy.

Jessica and her Great-Granny

Olivia and Tami

James’ Mom had gotten out some of Dawson’s toys from when he was a baby and Jessica had a grand time playing with them. She especially enjoyed this little musical piano.

Jessica Playing

Dawson enjoyed playing with Jessica.

Dawson Playing with Jessica

We went over to my Mom’s house for dinner Saturday night and she got to feed Jessica her dinner of butternut squash. Jessica is really starting to like butternut squash, of which I’m really thankful.

Jessica Enjoying her Butternut Squash

Before we left Sunday morning, Jessica got to play some more.

Jessica Playing

Jessica and her Grandpa

Jessica and her Nana

Grandpa, Jessica and Nana

We stopped in San Angelo to visit with James’ Uncle Chuck. We took Jessica to the Sante Fe East Park, which is across the Concho River from the Visitor’s Center. The park has a toddler section. She enjoyed swinging, going down the slide with her Daddy, and riding a little pony.

"Driving" with Daddy after Arriving at Uncle Chuck's

Jessica and her Daddy

Jessica Riding a Pony

Jessica with her Great-Uncle Chuck and Daddy

Sunday night after we had gotten back and Jessica had played, eaten dinner and had a bath, we took some more photos.

Jessica and Daddy

Jessica and Mommy on Mother's Day

Overall, it was a lovely weekend.

Mother’s Day Cards for my Mothers

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As soon as I saw this darling image by Sarah Jane at Sj’s Little Musings, I knew this was the image for the mother’s day card for my Mom. Obviously, I am well past the age of actually sitting in my mommy’s lap cuddling, but hopefully this card gives her warm fuzzy feelings inside. This card and the next are both 5.5-inch square easel cards. I really like how the style of the card allows for displaying the card.

Mother's Day Card for my Mom

Stamps: Sj’s Little Musings Cuddle with Mum; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Pattern Papers Bashful Blue
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue eyelets, Certainly Celery twill ribbon; Stickles Baby Blue (ends of ribbon); dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue (to ink sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up 1 3/8″ circle punch, scallop circle punch

You might recognize this next card as I posted it not that long ago without a sentiment for part of my design team call entry. At the time, I said I didn’t know what sentiment I wanted to use, but that was a little white lie. I had this card in mind for mother-in-law for mother’s day the entire time I was making the card.

Mother's Day Card for my Mother-in-law

Stamps: Prairie Fairy DT Fairy; Stampin’ Up All-Year Cheer II (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Tea Party
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Elegant Eggplant (sentiment)
Accessories: Stickles Frosted Lace, Lavender; purple glitter brads; white sparkly ribbon; silver heart brad
Tools: colored pencils, Stampin’ Up Blush Blossom marker

Mother’s Day Cards for my Sisters

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This year I decided that in addition to my mother and mother-in-law, I would make mother’s day cards for my sister and sisters-in-law.

This first card is for my sister whose favorite color is blue. Sarah is the mother of our two sweet little nephews Cameron and Trevor, so I figured she needed a girly girl card. I used Jen del Muro’s Sketch for You to Try and a sweet flower girl digi stamp I picked up for free by being a member of Karen’s Doodles group at Paper Craft Planet.

Mother's Day Card for Sarah

Stamps: Karen’s Doodles Flower Girl
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pacific Point, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Good Morning Sunshine
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Doodlebug sparkly blue brads; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Regal Rose (handwritten sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Marvy Uchida flower punch (used twice)

The second card is for my brother’s wife whose favorite color is green. Julia will be celebrating her first mother’s day (if you don’t count last year when she was pregnant) as the mother of our sweet little niece Aspen. I will be hand-delivering this one at our playdate today. This 5.5-inch square card uses my favorite Phindy image and thus meets the Phindy’s Place Friday Challenge #3. I picked up my two Phindy digi-stamps from being a member of Phindy’s Place group on Paper Craft Planet. I used The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #54 to put it all together. I really really like how it turned out.

Mother's Day Card for Julia

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Beary Beautiful; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White; Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Prints Certainly Celery, Pink Flamingo
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Paper Studio yellow paper flowers; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch

The third card is for my husband’s sister. Tami will be celebrating with our nine-year-old nephew Dawson. I don’t know what Tami’s favorite color is so hopefully she likes the pink and brown scheme I chose for the All That Scraps Challenge #27. It also meets the requirements of this week’s Our Creative Corner challenge to make a mother’s day card with no flowers and A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #102 to use a furry friend on your card.

Mother's Day Card for Tami

Stamps: House Mouse Love Bunny; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Loves Me
Ink: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon, Pretty in Pink 3/8″ taffeta ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch

Chatty Gabby

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I’m being somewhat of a bad blogger this week. I have a lot going on, some of which you will see tomorrow.

That said, I’m taking the easy quick route and sharing a video of my chatty gabby. In person, you may not hear Jessica talking this much as she tends to quietly observe her surroundings when out in public. But at home, she chats up a storm. Sometimes it sounds like she is saying daddy, but who knows.

Video taken April 22nd after her afternoon nap.