My Baby is ONE!

**I wrote this post over a week a ago and forgot to post it on Saturday**

Bonnie Rose Conk was born on October 25th, 2007. (to read more on that click here) She came into our lives and never leaves our thoughts. She is a joy and a blessing. We thank the Lord every day that he blessed our family with one of his most precious daughters for us to raise. Journey over the past 12 months with me and see how our Bon Bon has grown.

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

Stay tuned for her 1 year photo shoot, she seems to have been in a bad mood every time I have tried but maybe next week! It better be soon, before she grows out of her new orange clogs, yes i said clogs, and they were worth every penny!!

And The Winner Is.......

I won't draw this out for those of you on pins and needles...

I use a very sophisticated process, write names, cut paper, fold paper, place in bucket!

Here is the draw. Looking back I see I should have used a warming filter so I don't look quite so much like a cancer patient.

CONGRATULATIONS TO KRISTY!!!

Kristy is my cousin Spencer's wife. This is her comment

"It is Kristy your cousin in law! Cute idea! I love your creativity in photos and more. I really loved the candy party. I love planning parties. And I would love a cute banner like that!!"

Thanks to Kristy (and all of you for that mater) for all the love. Just what I needed! Kristy, I need you address so I can get your prize in the mail!! My e-mail is tconk40554@cox.net.

As for the tutorial on the Banners i promised, that will have to wait until next week, I kinda forgot we are headed to the sand dunes on Wednesday and I have SO much to do!!

Again thanks to all who left me lovely comments and I will definitely be have another contest as soon as time permits!

I'll be out of town for the weekend.....check back Monday to see the results of the contest!! Thanks to everybody who left me comments, to you lurkers who didn't leave me a comment, you know who you are, I will extend the contest until Sunday night so you can enter!!

On another note, the banner seems to have caused quite a stir among my faithful readers, for that, next week I will do a step by step on how I made mine, well maybe step by step instruction on the one I plan to make next week! For all of you Cricut owners out there fire up the ol' machine, for those of you who don't have one, I will work on another contest so everyone can have a chance to enjoy!!

Have a good weekend!!!

1 Year and 100 Posts!!

Let's Celebrate with a contest!!

OOOOH my first ever prize drawing. In honor of my 1 year Blogaversary and my 100th post I thought I would see if I can draw out some of you lurkers out there that read my blog but refuse to tell me who you are. Many of you know that I (and I use the term loosely) "sell" Mary Kay, so for my first ever prize drawing I am putting up the most awesome product (purely my opinion) that is produced my Mary Kay. Now for you men out there reading don't stop because I know you will want to enter too because you all have wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers and what not and those women in your lives have birthdays and other occasions that require the "giving of gifts" So with out further adieu I give you the Best product made for the skin.............

The Mary Kay Timewise Microdermabrasion 2 step Kit. This product is valued at $55.00 retail but it can be yours for the simple task of leaving me a comment telling me 1. Who you are 2. How & or If you know me 3. Where you found me and last but not least 4. What is your favorite thing you see here on my blog (cupcakes, pics of my cute kids, etc.)

This contest will be open for 5 days, because I know some of you are busy and can only check in on me once a week. So on October 23rd at 8:00 Pacific time I will close this contest and draw a name. GOOD LUCK!!

P.S. If you like contests and prize drawings & I get lots of feedback I may just have another featuring the really cute banners I am really into making right now. This one is the Halloween one that was soooo fun to make. I have a niche in the wall at the top of my stairs that it is hanging on right now, and as soon as my printer is working properly (never let an 8 year old print ANYTHING) I will have frames filled with pictures of Halloween past. At Thanksgiving the frames will be filled with pictures of that holiday with a "Give Thanks" banner I am working on right now! And will be repeated at all subsequent holidays (including Birthdays. February will be so fun with Valentines and all the birthdays! I am totally loving my banner and it was so totally worth the work!!

My Attempt

So if you read my tag a few days ago it said that one of my wishes was that I was a funner Mom. This is something that I struggle with A LOT!! Terry gets to be the fun guy because he doesn't have to say do your homework, clean your room, practice your instrument, don't put your shoes on the ceiling of my car (long story, lets hope Paulo can get shoe prints off car interior roof upholstery) But I digress, I have had a goal for a while now to do more fun things with my kids so that is the stuff they remember of when they were kids, not the "clean you room." This summer I had a great idea to make a summer fun jar so we would have fun things to do and not get to bored this summer, well needless to say between a month of packing, 4 weeks in Oregon and a month of unpacking we just didn't get to it. And it was so dang cute, we were gonna do really fun stuff like go to Mad Hatter cupcakes and have a delicious treat. We were gonna make cookies and brownies and lots of cool stuff, but it just didn't happen. I'll save it for next summer. So as I contemplated what I could do to make a fun memory for my kids, I remember I had my treat jar....which up until this point hasn't gone so well, when it was full of candy I just had to get mad and say stay out of the candy, when there was goldfish in it there was goldfish trails throughout my house. So as I got out my cute jar I thought and thought and then it hit me. You know that awesome PAR-TAY we just threw with all the candy...yeah we had a BIT (understatement) left over so I called Jamie and said hey can I have some of to 30 lbs. of left over gumballs for my treat jar...... and so voila a "treat" that you only need one of!! maybe someday my kids will be sitting around the dinner table on a Sunday as their kids run around and say, "remember the gumball jar" "Yeah that was fun" sad I know but these are the things I think about as my kids get older. I hoe my kids have lots of good memories of our house when they grow up and i pray that they forget all of the bad ones!!

Photo Tag

Katie tagged me with this fun tag. It's a photo tag... So, what you do is open your fourth folder of pictures and post the fourth photo. For me I had to open the 4th folder and then the 4th folder in that folder and then I had to use the 5th picture which was the same as the 4th picture but it wasn't blurry (it seems I need to go through my folders and do some weeding!)

This picture is from our 2005 recital for piano and violin. It was Sam's first recital for people other than just our family and the family of her teachers other student. Samantha looks so little in this picture but that is because she WAS so little, she was almost 6 and still in kindergarten. Man I miss those days. We bought this Christmas dress for this performance which matched Brett in his dashing burgundy shirt and tie. We held the recital at my mom and dad's house. It was my favorite recital to this point, probably because it was at mom & dad's and it was all decked out for Christmas. HMMM I just had an idea, I'll have to clear it with mom and dad though!

I'm tagging anyone who wants to do this really fun tag!!

There's a Monster in My House!

It's a good thing that it's a pretty cute monster or I may have had to call an exterminator!!

Tagged....

8 Things I did today...

1. Got kids off to school with out losing my temper (small victories)

2. Bought Bonnie's Halloween costume (pic to come soon)

3. Target shopped (ice cream sundae's for young men & diapers)

4. Made delicious beef stew for dinner

5. Blogged in a quiet house (love afternoon naps)

6. Picked up kids from school

7. Violin lesson with Sam

8. Dance class with Sam

8 Shows I love (in no particular order)

1. Survivor

2 Heroes

3. Criminal Minds

4. The Office (you should hear my ring tone on my cell)

5. Burn Notice (USA)

6. Psych (USA)

7. Monk (USA)

8. The Soup (E!)

8 Restaurants I love

1. Geisha Steak House

2. Cheesecake Factory

3. P.F.Changs/Pei Wei

4. Olive Garden

5. Macaroni Grill

6. Claim Jumper

7. Famous Dave's

8. Outback

If there was one restaurant I wish I could put on here it would be Country Inn but since they are no more I just have my memories..... Remember with me........mmmmm scones......mmmmmm rolls..........mmmmmmm ribs..............mmmmmm turkey vegetable soup................mmmmmmm french dip, But I digress

8 Things I am looking forward to.......

1. FIJI BABY (jan 09)

2. Tuachan (2 weeks)

3. Dumont (3 weeks)

4. The end of the economic crisis (Terry is helping me a bit)

5. Someday no longer having to change poopy diapers or wash out nasty bottles!

6. Pedicure with Michelle (tomorrow YEAH!!!!)

7. Having time to watch all of the shows on my Tivo!! (probably not until sunday WAHHH)

8. Sleep, (in about 30 min)

8 things I am wishing for.......

1. The 15 lbs. that just won't go AWAY!

2. A backyard

3. Crown molding in my room (I am tired of the purple stripe at the top of my lovely blue paint)

4. A baby grand piano for my pianist(Brett) to play church hymns on.

5. Energy

6. Some self control ( in oh so many ways)

7. A happy home with NO MORE YELLING! (*see #6)

8. To be a funner Mom. I want to laugh with my kids more. Any help??

8 People I Tag

1. Staci

2. Melanie H.

3. Heather A.

4. Angie J. (still waiting for my invite!!!)

5. Carol W. because she hasn't blogged in FOREVER!

6. Mitch because he is a blogger too!

7. Maddie Z. It's time to post little woman (and take off the makeup)

8. Shannon Z.

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday was the funeral of My dear Grandfather Herman A. Zobrist. We began the day with some words from my great uncle (grandpa's youngest brother) and a lovely family prayer by Uncle Phil. During the service we heard from Aunt Muff (my dad's twin) Aunt Anne, my Dad and Uncle Duane. We had a musical number from my cousins and the great grand children sang A Child's Prayer. It was a wonderful service. We proceeded to the cemetery where my Uncle Ken dedicated the grave, and then back to the church for a delicious lunch put on by the Relief Society. I tried to get some pictures of the flowers because I knew grandpa would appreciate that!! He like to take nature pictures!!

Grandpa was a naval soldier in WWII (on a sub, isn't that cool!)

This sweet little boy allows me to be his mother.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these lashes.

Look Mom...

GENERAL CONFERENCE

As Terry and I sat watching conference with the kids playing around us, Samantha exclaimed..."Look Mom, I made General Conference, see this is the choir and this is the audience and this is the pulpit with the prophet speaking."

My little ingenuitive daughter!!

Welcome to CANDYLAND!!

We celebrated Bonnie and Cooper's 1st birthday yesterday. (Bonnie won't actually be 1 until the 25th!) we mad a grand theme for the party and CANDYLAND was a hit. The kids had a blast. The Coons allowed us to have the party at Nanny Coons house which was just a perfect place for a party.

We enter the scene through Lolly Pop Lane...

The tables were adorned with Lolly pop flower arrangements and polka dot table cloths.

This is the candy buffet. I hope all the parents were able to contain their "sugared up" kiddos!!

The Birthday girl in her Birthday shirt!! The front said "Birthday girl"

She wouldn't stay out of the dirt!! The little stinker.

The birthday boy!! Both babies were so tired from lack of naps but they were troopers and stuck it out til cake.

Which leads us to CAKE.

1. "Happy birthday to you"

2. "OOOO Cake!"

3. "Hey Coop, Check out the pink one it's really good"

4. "Mom....Bonnie put cake on my face!"

5. "Get it off, Get it off!"

6. " What? What did I do?"

7. "MMMMM CHOCOLATE"

8. "I need some milk to wash this puppy down!!"

A wonderful time was had by all and I am really sad it is over. Most people would be relieved but I mourn after every party because I so enjoy planning and executing it!! I think of all the parties I have thrown this one has been my favorite!!

A Farewell

My Grandpa Zobrist passed away today, and since you read my blog you know I am NOT a writer. My wonderful cousin LaRae however is. She has written a lovely post on her blog that sums up Grandpa to a T!
Here is the link to read about Big "Z"
LaRae's Blog
Farewell Grandpa. You will be missed.