Randomness

Just some Ransom fun pictures from Cheyenne's Birthday. Not really birthday related though.

It's all about Cheyenne

My sweet niece Cheyenne turned 14 on the 10th of February. She invited us all over to her house to celebrate with cake and ice cream. Of course we brought her presents. I can hardy believe 14 years have passed since she came into this world and made it a better place.
Here is her present from Jared and I. She likes monkeys so I always try to make her a monkey card. Since she has turned into a teenager she has her cell phone on her all the time texting her friends so I added the cell phone to the monkey's hand.

She really loved her present. We had gotten her a previous addition of this book a few Christmas' go so we figured we couldn't go wrong.

She told Grandma she wanted a puppy so she got a puppy

New bedding

Money

a watch necklace made by her dad

Make a wish

Her mom made her a really cute cell phone cake

Happy Birthday Annigator. Hope it was a great day for you. We love you and have really enjoyed watching you grow up,

~Beating the Winter blahs~

To those that really know me, it is no secret that I have always hated the month of January. It seems to be the bleakest most depressing month on the year. This year was no exception. It seemed that at least once a week someone close to me was loosing someone close to them. The there were other things going on with Jared's work and my work that added to darkness that is January. This year there was one bright spot. Last summer I joined the Cricut Circle. I am not certain if I have mentioned this in previous post (it has been on my list of catch up posts for sometime) You may wonder what the Cricut Circle is all about and I will do my best to explain. It is a large group of Cricut enthusiasts who pay an annual fee. We get an exclusive cartridges every 3 months and the opportunity to meet other enthusiasts in our area. To me that last benefit has been more valuable than gold. Especially during January. We planned a crop, and if you are not sure what that is, it where a group people get together to scrap/make cards and talk. We planned it for January specifically because we all knew how bleak the month really was. We went to a hotel in downtown Salt Lake and cropped and fun from 12 pm to 12 am. and it was a blast. We also toured a Chocolate Factory, went to eat at the Olive Garden and got lost in a parking garage. There are lots of pictures but I couldn't pick only a few to describe the day.

Tables were set up and lots of people brought their Cricuts

We had a challenge where we had to make three things with three specific items

I made three Valentines cards. The had to be for a man using pink and Tulle. It was quite a challenge but I think I got all the necessary ingredients in there. I did not win though, but it was fun.

Touring V-Chocolates

We left the hotel and all our stuff so that we could go tour the chocolate factory.

Mmmm. Chocolate

Chocolate Frogs

Chocolate covered caramels

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

Heart shaped Chocolates

Learning about how the process is done

More Chocolates. These are caramels with Sea Salt on top. So good!

Time for Dinner!

We kept the waiter pretty entertained the entire night.

Mmm... Food!

Back at the hotel, we had another Challenge. We were given plain wooden picture frames and we had a certain time to have them done. I quickly got my done then with the tour and dinner the time was extended so other were able to get some done

Mine is the bottom one with the pinwheel. The one above it with the sleeping baby is the one that won but I got a prize as well. A new Cricut Cartridge it was great.

Back to cropping, only a few hours left

Busy scrappers

Provo Craft brought door prizes

More crafting

More picture frames

Winners!

The end. It was such a fabulous night that we made plans to do it again in April. I can't wait. We are having a meet up at the Scrapbook Expo in March as well. This has been something outside of the normal for me. As I have always been a quiet stick to myself kind of person. I am loving every minute of it though with the exception of hauling my stuff around. I need to get me a good Cop in Style wheeled tote before the scrapbook show in March.

Happy Valentines Day

Have you ever wondered where Valentines came from? Well wonder no more, you could search the web but alas I have made it easy for you and you can just read all about right here. I got this information from http://www.history.com
The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.
The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman "lottery" system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.
In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap."
So however you decided to celebrate this day I hope that you enjoy it and wish each and everyone of you a Happy Valentines Day!

My love my Valentine

This post is dedicated to my Valentine of nearly 20 years. My patient, kind, amazing Husband. I love him and want him to know he means the world to me.

Happy Valentines Day Sweetheart, thanks for all you do for us and especially for me. You put up with some much and I love you with all of my heart. I can't believe that we have been together for almost 20 years, and yes I still count the time when you didn't know that you were meant to be with me :) I was smitten from that one moment behind the Spanish Fork Armory when I 1st met you and knew it was meant to be.