Happy Birthday Geoffrey!

My baby turns 17 today! I cannot believe it!!! I will try to refrain from the usual mom speeches about how it was just yesterday that I was changing his diapers, or watching him run around the house with just a towel around his shoulders yelling "Nakie-boy to the rescue!", or the time when his collar bone got broken on Mother's Day when he was 5 after he and his oldest brother fought over a Bionicles piece.... or just how sweet he is, except to his brother Dakota... and the fact that he has an adorable girlfriend now! OK, I tried, but I am a mother! Geoffrey just makes me smile, or shake my head, sometimes both at the same time :) I love my Geoffrey.
All of my babies have been happy accidents, never good timing but a baby is a good thing! I had my first three by the time I was 20. I stayed home after having #2, and decided it was time for me to go back to school for nursing when they were 6,5, and 3½. I started classes, and 4 days in, found out I was pregnant with #4. I cried, oh, did I cry! But I did not stop school. I remember returning to classes 5 days after he was born, bringing him with me, and a week later taking finals with Geoffrey on my lap. He actually got more one-on-one time with me than any of the other kids as I got an evening shift job when I finished school and he was still only about a year old then.
OK, enough about the boy! If you made it through all of that, I applaud you! I am sure it is a bit boring to anyone but me and mine :)

 Geoffrey's girlfriend, Keely, was over last week and saw my stamping area and some of the cards that I have stashed. She then wanted to make a card for his birthday. Incidentally, her birthday is the day before Geoffrey's :) So I had her pick out a stamp set, and then she showed me a fancy fold she wanted to try. She picked out the colors, and away we went! I loved how it turned out so much, I had to make my own version of it. I was not able to get a picture of hers before she left. She already shows enormous talent :)

• Stamps: Great Sport, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Words of Courage, Grunge Rock
• Ink: Basic Gray, Illuminate
• Paper: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Real Red, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Bitty Banner framelits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Signo white gel pen, Simply Scored, 1-3/8" Circle punch, Heat Gun, Embossing Buddy, Black embossing powder

The red panel opens on a hinge to the right of the card, and inside the card there is a white panel to put your message on. I tried stamping the stars in Basic Black on the Basic Black paper, but they did not show up, so I went back with the Illuminate ink and added the stars again.

I would love to hear stories about your "babies"!