Zoo

We are on spring break this week and we have been very busy. The week has just flown by. Today we met Jacquie, Clare and Evelyn at the zoo. Everybody had so much fun. Watching the dolphins...

Evelyn is so beautiful...I could take her pictures all day long...

I love this shot....notice Ellie taking a photo over the group...how does that saying go...the apple doesn't fall...

The girls....Q was too busy to pose for pictures...I think he is in the tunnel behind them...

Syrup Production Continues

We are so excited about our maple trees. They are doing a fantastic job producing. It has been such a fun process to watch. The kids are really getting a kick out of it and we are learning a lot. We are just in charge of getting the syrup and our friend has been boiling it down. We will be enjoying the syrup real soon. Here are a few pictures of our production team.

Documenting a Decade

I have been busy trying to complete my "Documenting a Decade" album and I'm so happy to say that it is done! I'm so glad that I did this project. It was so fun to go through old photos and to see how our family changed from year to year.

The introduction reads as follows: This book encompasses a decade of growth for me and our family. In January of 2000, I was single, 28 years old and hadn't met the right person. I thought my dreams of getting married and having a family of my own were not likely. God thankfully had other plans for me.

Ten years have come and gone. The blessings in my life surround me and I couldn't be happier. I have a loving husband who I adore, three incredible children who fill my life with love and a sweet, chunky little English Bulldog.

My heart is full of gratitude. Time is such a precious gift and this book is a representation of how time has blessed us. We have certainly grown together over the last decade. We thank God for the gift of life, for the gift of time, for the gift of family, for the gift of love, and most importantly for the gift of Jesus.At the beginning of this book, it was a struggle to find pictures of just Jeff and I. By the end of the book, let me tell you there certainly wasn't a shortage of pictures of the kids. I decided to do a spread for each child for each year. This made the project alot bigger but I am happy that I did that. At the end of each year, I wrote the highlights for that particular year. I hope to continue with this project using the same format for each year. I just think that down the road, it will be so fun to look through.

Here is the link to my album, if you would like to take a peek. All products are from Designer Digitals.

For Humanity Kit

"For Humanity" is a new kit coming out this weekend at Designer Digitals. This kit is GORGEOUS and includes products from each of the amazing designers. All proceeds from this kit will go to the relief efforts in Japan through the American Red Cross. The kit is filled with beautiful goodies that you won't want to miss. Once I saw the kit, I could not wait to use it. Here are couple of pages that I created with it...

Printing

One of my favorite things about scrapbooking is when I get the prints or the album back from the printer. We all just LOVE to look and remember these special moments in our lives.

The kids look at their albums often.

When I first started scrapbooking, I was a traditional scrapbooker and have albums upon albums of traditional two page spreads. When I switched to all digital several years ago, I continued to do all two page spreads but had them printed as Shutterfly albums. The kids would each get several albums a year and then I would do one album for the family to summarize our year.

Last year I got away from that method. I discovered that I enjoyed scrapping moments more than events and enjoyed making single pages. I also would have to say that the creative aspect of scrapbooking seemed to take more importance in my life than recording the events. Anna Aspnes from Designer Digitals recommended using a D-Ring binder from We R Memory Keepers. I tried this method and I LOVE it...it works for me. I don't fret about the pages not matching and these albums can hold a ton of pages. It also allows me the freedom to scrapbook what I want and I am not tied to scrapbooking chronologically.

Anna also recommended having prints made at Persnickety Prints. I just received my second batch of prints from them and I HIGHLY recommend them. The quality is incredible!!! I can't even begin to tell you how pleased I am with the prints.

Here is a glimpse into our world when our pages arrive.

I have continued to do an album in review each year which includes a highlight of the events in our lives. Jeff's mom always asks for this for Christmas. I had a year full of single pages but still wanted the majority of them to be double page spreads so I had to do a little backtracking. There are a few single pages in there that were favorites of mine and also my mother in law. At any rate, I'm happy to have the book finally done.
If you would like to take a peek, you certainly can. All products are from Designer Digitals. A few pages will appear white because they will be seen in upcoming issues of Creating KeepsakesMy 2010 Family Album

M & M Maple Syrup Coming Soon

My favorite part about our house is that we have a woods right behind our house. We have HUGE maple and oak trees and I just love being back there. Last summer our dear friend Brian was over and eyeing our trees. He asked if it would be alright if he tapped them for syrup at the end of next winter. Brian can give a much better explanation but the best time to tap is when temperatures are still cold but warmer than freezing. On Thursday, we tapped two of our maples. Everybody is so excited about this. I guess they stay tapped for about two weeks. He called on Friday for the report and I explained that we just had melted snow in the bucket because it was clear....he starts yelling "NO, THAT IS IT".....good thing I didn't dump it out! At any rate we are excited about this new little adventure. I'm supposed to come up with the labels for the bottles....I think we might be a little too optimistic but that is alright. Here are some shots from the "tapping party".

Bowling

We had an awesome day today. Ellie was off of school so we went out to lunch and then hit the bowling alley. Let's just say that I've never had so much fun at a bowling alley and coming from a small town, I've spent a lot of time at the bowling alley. Here are some photos...

Quinn had his own unique style of bowling. He always adds life into any experience that is for sure. My camera was getting a workout today. When you are little, it is a long time from when the ball actually leaves your hands until it hits the pins. This is what bowling looks like for Q.

The release with the tongue out...

Watching...
Waiting...

Still waiting...

Getting tired of waiting for the ball to get to the pins...

You've got to be kidding me...it still isn't there...

It is getting close now...

STRIKE....OK, maybe it wasn't a strike but pins went down!

This is what the process looks like from the other angle...

We will certainly be heading back to the bowling alley soon!

Week 9 of 365

It is hard to believe that we are on the tenth week of 2011 already. I'm continuing to enjoy project 365. Using a basic template allows this page to come together so quickly. I'm keeping everything consistent so that the entire book is uniform and it also helps me stick with the project because I know the pages take very little time.



This year I am including pages for special events in our lives as well as the day to day. This template is working well for me because it is easy to use and I can include a lot of journaling to summarize each week. Here is what week 9 looked like at our house.

All products are from Designer Digitals.

Blending

I will be the first to admit that I am addicted to blending images. I like the softness of a blended image...I like the dramatic feel that it brings a page...I like that I can use more photos when I incorporate one into the background...I like that blended images allow me to learn more about photoshop through playing...and I think my most favorite aspect of blending is that it hides imperfections in the photo itself. I think these photos are a perfect example of that. I am not a photographer but I try to be. My photos have much to be desired.



Last Sunday, my daughter came down in the morning and saw what I was wearing for church...a sweater and jeans (yes, that is about as fancy as it gets for me) and ran upstairs and put on a similar sweater and jeans. She told me that she wanted to be my twin. It was so sweet. I adore this girl. I "set" the camera (obviously not very well) and handed it over to my husband. He took some shots of the two of us and despite the quality of the images, I love these photos. Here is a look at the photos themselves...


Here is the final image that I created. I had so much fun with this piece because I was blending my little heart out and loved every minute of it. I am also a huge fan of blending modes and love to try different effects on everything. I think my final image is significantly different than the original photos. Alot of people will ask me how I do different things and my best advice is just to play and have fun. Anna Aspnes at Designer Digitals offers Art Play Palette kits that are absolutely awesome....she makes it so easy for a page to come together. The image below was created with her new Art Play Palette Genuine.


All products are from Designer Digitals.

Quinn's Birthday

We have had a fun couple of days celebrating Q's birthday. Here are are some photos of the festivities.

We had his party on Saturday with our family. It is always such a treat to have everybody together.

Quinn turns 3

Three years ago today, we were blessed with our son, Quinn. He has brought so much joy and happiness to our world. His fun-loving personality just makes him a treat to be around. I simply ADORE this little guy. He has me hook-line and sinker! I always have mixed feelings at birthdays...part of me is sad that a period is coming to a close, part of me is excited about the new phase we are embarking on. I went back and looked at some of his old pictures today...while some of them tugged at my heart to see him soooo little, my heart was overflowing with happiness and gratitude. We are truly blessed to have this little guy in our lives to brighten each and every day. Here is peek into his development over the last few years.

And this is where we are today....

It has been an amazing journey. Happy Birthday my little buddy!