4 Weeks til Christmas

This is quick card using.....once again, the Welcome Christmas stamp set. Enjoy!

Supplies

Stamps: Welcome Christmas

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Love Letter DSP

Ink: StazOn, Riding Hood Red

Accessories: Top Note Die

Football Season Ends

Football season ended last week and Bryson's middle school team came out undefeated! They lost at regionals to another undefeated team but they only lost by 1 touchdown! This was Bryson's first time playing football and he LOVED it. The last game I saw him play he made a touchdown in the 5th quarter. (The fifth quarter is an extra quarter played before the "real" game starts to allow all players a chance to play.) It was so exciting! Unfortunately I'm horrible at taking pictures of him playing because I'm yelling and jumping around too much. I thought these pictures of him were fun, you can see how happy he is!

Oct. Teacher Gifts

I'm in charge of recognizing the birthdays of all the teachers and staff at the middle school. They get a little bag of goodies and I always add something I've made that has chocolate in it. This is what they got for Oct.

Supplies

Stamps: A Word for You

Paper: Lovely Lilac, Really Rust, Black, White

Ink: VersaMark, Lovely Lilac

Accessories: Matchbox die, ribbon, Itty Bitty punch, White ep

Halloween Treat

Sure would have been nice if I had posted this a few weeks ago, but, I didn't! Oh well. LOVE the new Candy Wrapper die! I wasn't going to get it but couldn't resist when I saw all the cute projects people were making with it! Everyone at club got one in their order.

Supplies

Stamps: Sock Monkey Accessories, All Holiday

Paper: Only Orange, Black, White, Night and Day DSP (retired)

Ink: Staz-On, Orange, Choc. Chip, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Candy Wrapper Die, Square Lattice embossing folder, Word Window punch, Decorative label die, brads

Soccer Season Ends

Carston had another awesome soccer season with team Germany! Carston made many goals and during the tournament he made the only goal to keep them playing against another team. Unfortunately they lost their second game in the tournament but they all played great! We're sad that his Head Coach, Coach Stefan, is moving back to Germany. He will be missed!

6 Weeks Til Christmas!

Whoa! How'd that happen?!! I guess when you go to Switzerland, your mom is in town AND your kids are tracked out, you loose track of time. The kids go back to school on Monday and it's time to get back into a routine. This week's card is another card using the Welcome Christmas stamp set. I won't make too many of this card because it takes quite a bit of effort, but, I LOVE it! Hope you do too!

Supplies

Stamps: Welcome Christmas

Paper: Very Vanilla, Jolly Holiday DSP, Old Olive

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Scalloped punch, Movers and Shapers die w/ heart cutout, crimper, sewing machine

Oct. Club

We had such a great time at club in October! It's such a great time of year! We made one Halloween card and a Thanksgiving card.

Supplies

Stamps: Fang-tastic

Paper: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Confetti White

Ink: Staz-On, Pumpkin Pie, Purple marker

Accessories: Glitter, Pear Pizzazz ribbon, Scalloped Circle die

Supplies

Stamps: Falling Leaves

Paper: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede

Accessories: Ribbon, Scalloped oval, Word Window punch

Our extra project was to make a larger box that you can put gifts in. We chose to fill it with camping goodies to make s'mores. Yum! I found the instructions on how to make the box onAngie Kennedy Juda's blog, she's AMAZING! Check it out for a great video tutorial.

Supplies

Stamps: Under the Stars

Paper: Kiwi Kiss (retired), Crumb Cake, White

Ink: Choc. Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Going Grey

Accessories: Top Note die, Slit punch, Wire, Ribbon

Switzerland

Interlaken (can you see the vineyard on the left?)

A few weeks ago Mark needed to go to Switzerland for business and made arrangements for me to go with him. My mom came and watched the kids (and our new baby) and we spent a week in Switzerland. Although it was about 40 degrees and rainy most of the time we were there, it was beautiful. We weren't quite sure if our GPS was set to avoid all highways but it took us only on back roads. In the end we were grateful for that because we got to travel through the beautiful mountains there. We spent time in Interlaken, Lucern and Zurich. Interlaken has a beautiful green lake that is a product of a melted glacier. It is so pretty. We actually stayed outside the main city in a town called Wilderswil. Our twin bed room (cozy!) looked out onto the Jungfrau mountain which is a huge mountain behind two smaller mountains in front. Unfortunately we could only see the two smaller mountains because Jungfrau mountain was in a cloud. At one point there was a tiny break in the clouds and we could tell there was a very large mountain behind the two smaller ones.

The Hiltbrandt Home

We spent the days shopping and sight seeing. One day we went into the town of Wimmis and found the home that Mark's great, great, great grandfather built. We met the woman who lives there now, who happens to be the great granddaughter of the man who bought the home from his great, great grandfather. Isn't that GREAT! It was fun to see and feel a sense of family history.

On Sunday we went to a small branch (small congregation for the LDS church) for church. We watched a portion of General Conference (a semi-annual conference conducted by the leaders of the church). Mark watched it in German and I watched it in English. It was nice. It made me grateful for the many members of the church around me.

Bern

That day we traveled to Bern and saw some sites there. Right in the center of the city they have an area where they have live bears that were fun to watch. We walked the main street and window shopped at some neat little shops and walked through an old church.

Bern Temple

We then went to Zollikfen, just outside Bern, where there is a temple. It was beautiful. Mark's mom served a mission here so it was fun to see the area.

Near Emmentaler Cheese factory

Emmentaler Swiss Cheese

We continued on our travels and stopped in the Emmental region where they make Emmentaler Swiss cheese. We got to see the whole process then we got to taste it when we were done. It was really good.

Lucern

We arrived in Lucern that night a stayed in a very different hotel. The room we were given was painted completely black. The ceiling had a huge picture of a scene from a movie on it. (A little bit questionable for my taste.) We couldn't stand the completely black room so the next night we asked to change rooms. This room was kind-of a teal color with another movie scene on the ceiling. The amenities were nice but if we ever go back we'll pick a different hotel.

Mark work the next two days so I was on my own until he got back in the evening. I spent Monday walking around the older, cobblestone streets of Lucern shopping. I found some neat little stores and some delicious chocolatiers. Every day I bought more chocolate, planning to bring some home to North Carolina and every day we ate it all! OINK! It was sooooo good! Kurmann's was the place to go in Lucern.

Zurich

On Tuesday I took the train to Zurich and spent the day shopping there. The train was very fast and convenient. When I got off the train I needed to use the restroom and found that I needed to pay to use it. I decided to wait and found a department store that had a restroom that was free. First time I've ever seen that! Zurich had lots of neat sights and I enjoyed walking around that old city and doing a little bit of shopping. The worst part was wanting to talk to someone throughout the day and not being able to. I understand a fair amount of German but found myself asking every store clerk I needed to talk to if they spoke English. Luckily, almost everyone speaks more English than I speak German.

I could add about 100 more pictures but the things that we saw the most of were:

Cows with huge bells around their necks (some were much bigger than this one)

Home after home after home with beautiful flowers under their windows and in their gardens

Beautiful green rolling hills and white mountains

And LOTS of chocolate! These were some of our favorites!

I'm so grateful to my mother for her willingness to come and watch our children and hold down the fort while we were gone. Thanks Mom! And thanks Dad for letting her come!

Love you both!