A heart warming day

The kitten you see held oh-so proudly in my sisters arms is her new baby kitten....Benjamin. Heidi and her husband Aaron called this morning to invite Steve and I out to lunch. My sister has been traveling quite a bit for her job....so it was nice to catch up! During our meal, Heidi and Aaron mentioned they wanted to adopt a second cat to keep their other cat, "Ollie" company while they were away working.
Next thing I know, following our lunch, we were headed out to our local Humane Society to look at kittens. I have to admit, I have never been to a Humane Society before------only, because of my fear of feeling heartbroken for all of the stray animals needing homes. Because of my love of animals, I was certain it would be difficult not to bring at least 10 animals home today.
Well, to my surprise I was incredibly impressed by the facility where these sweet animals waited for their homes. It was *almost* like stepping into a luxurious hotel lobby for animals. It was truly nothing like I had imagined. The cats were in beautiful, lush rooms filled with fun play toys and towers. Some were sleeping peacefully on fluffy wool beds. There were so many people there looking at these beautiful healthy cats. It was cute how the cats seemed to sort-of "work it" when you approached them.I even noticed a young girl around 9 or 10 who's mother was just quietly reading as her daughter took each cat out of their cage and took them into a playroom to play with them. Apparently she did this on a weekly bases.
It was just very sweet to know that these animals were being loved and cared for. I guess it just sort-of warmed my heart.
So.............Today my sister, Heidi and brother-in-law Aaron fell in love with the kitten pictured above.......... and in a matter of minutes this little guy was there's, to love for a lifetime. I captured the picture of Heidi with her sweet kitty cuddling together following the adoption. It was just too cute! I think Heidi was glowing! I am excited to watch this little cutie grow up into a beautiful cat :-)
Here are a couple of my most recent layouts. The first layout was inspired by the cute papers I found at my local scrap shop, "Scrapbooking Outside Of The Box". I just adored the little cups of cocoa. I just knew these papers and embellishments were a perfect fit for these fun pics of our family tradition of snowmobiling on Christmas day!
This layout is of my sister, Heidi being her usual silly self. It couldn't anymore true with this title.....she is defintely MY keeper of secrets. I used the new Piggy Tales "Goldielocks and the 3 bears" line of paper, tags and chipboard alphas for this quick and fun layout :-)

Have a wonderful rest-of-the weekend!!!
XXOO------Tessa

Okay, bad pics...BUT Winter is FINALLY here!!! YAY!

Steve and I have been so disappointed over the last couple of weeks. We have been acting like kids wishing for the snow to come. But, over the last couple of weeks, we have been under a grey cloud of gloom, a light rain at times, but mostly just a grey sky..... which is so unusual for our beautiful town. So, as you can see, I was ready to have the sparkling snow come and brighten our little town!

We were suprised this afternoon to see the smallest flakes of white snow falling from the sky. In just a matter of minutes those small flakes turned into large puffy white flakes that quickly covered our yards and streets. Steve and I quickly grabbed our snow jackets and camera and headed out to the yard for a few photos! Admititly, they didn't turn out the best.....
but, you get the point! :-)

We decided to head downtown for dinner and we were seated right next to the window where we had the perfect view of the snow falling. When we arrived home we were too excited to go indoors, so we decided to take a brisk walk around our neighborhood to view the winter wonderland at hand.

As I type, the snow continues to fall and cover our streets and homes. I can hear the snow hit my window from the strong winter storm a-brew.

I couldn't be any more excited for a season of fun that is fastly approaching us!

Enjoy your week!
XXOO---Tess