Together

I took this picture of Jack and Matt two years ago. We were at a park for a cross country meet with Caroline, and the boys were restless, so we decided to explore. There was a trail into the woods that they couldn't wait to follow, so I let them go ahead a little while I snapped away. This shot is my favorite! They were so happy, side by side as always. I love how this page turned out. I hope you'll like it too!

All four of our kids go to Catholic schools. Gil and I both attended Catholic schools, and we're blessed to be able to give our kids the same opportunity. Matthew's school has a Mass every Friday morning. It's always beautiful, always fun, and there is so much joy in the church that you can just feel it! There's something about hearing all those little voices singing to God with all their hearts that gets me. It's amazing! Anyway, yesterday Matt's class hosted the Mass, which means that the altar servers, gift bearers, readers, etc. all were chosen from his class. Matt was an altar server, and let me tell you, he took his job seriously! I got a few great pictures to share with you.

Doesn't he just look like an angel (ha!) in this one?!

Here he is on the way out of church singing "When the Saints Go Marching In." This song gets them fired up!

Matt and Fr. Gary Shexneider. This is what a great priest looks like!

Caroline has Homecoming tonight, so I'm off to assist in the preparations. Thanks for visiting! :)

Boo!

Our house has been lacking in Halloween decor this year, so I cut out some quick and easy ghosts for the mantel. Seriously, this took less than ten minutes.

Thank you, Silhouette Cameo!

Christmas, Cleo, and Pokemon!

I've been in a Christmas-y mood lately. I guess that's because it's my favorite holiday, and let's face it, it will be here in less than 3 months. I started my shopping during the week, and spent some time in the studio working on a couple of Christmas projects.

I made this ornament with a picture of Jack from our summer beach vacation. He loves to boogie board and I love this picture of him, so it was an easy choice! I cut out the scalloped circles using my Silhouette Cameo. They're big - 6 inches across. I added coordinating circles of cardstock to the front and back, added bling to each scallop, then cut my photo into a circle using a Martha Stewart circle cutter. I put pop dots between all the layers, added some number Thickers, a little bit of journaling, tied it with gold cord, and called it done. I think it's sweet!

I also put together a page using pictures from last Christmas. While I am totally loving the 8.5x11 thing, I haven't quite figured out how to successfully get more than a couple of pictures on a page. I don't hate this layout, but it's not my favorite. I'll probably do something else for the other 3 layouts that I still need to make (1 for each kiddo). Anyhoo, you be the judge!

As you can see, I've rediscovered my Stickles. I'm not sure why I don't use them more often. They're so pretty and sparkly!

I just finished a page that I made for Caroline's album. In January, she adopted a puppy from our local shelter, and she absolutely loves this dog! Even though Caroline had a special name picked out for her new furry friend, she decided it would be less confusing for the dog if she would just keep the name "Cleopatra", which is what the shelter workers named her. I am really happy with this layout! I love the fun, happy colors, the big red heart, and the oversized photo. I couldn't wait to share this one with y'all!

Totally unrelated to scrapbooking, my little boys have been talking nonstop about the new Pokemon video game that came out today. They've been counting down the months, then weeks, then days until the release. Last night, Jack couldn't sleep. This morning, he and Matt woke me up before 8:00 (the store didn't open until 10) to be sure we'd get there right when it opened. Needless to say, we made it in PLENTY of time! The boys each got a copy, and have been in Pokemon heaven ever since. I'll leave you with a shot of their smiling, happy faces.

Until next time!

Project Life Week 40

For the first time in months, the temperature outside is cool, crisp and amazing, so I chose a fall theme for Week 40 of Project Life. Check it out!

Hope you like it!

Third Time's A Charm

I love to scrapbook by season. When it's fall, I enjoy creating layouts using pictures from previous Halloweens and Thanksgivings. This week, while waiting for the first cool snap in a long time, I printed a few photos from Thanksgiving 2011. I put the page together, and I really liked it.

Then I realized that because I didn't include any journaling, there would be no record of why Jack had on a t-shirt that was way too big for him, or why Matt's shoes were on the wrong feet. So I went back to work.

Now there was plenty of journaling, and I liked it. I looked at the layout for a while, and decided that it would look amazing if I printed the journaling directly onto the vanilla cardstock instead of printing on a piece of white paper and sticking it on the page. I tried again, and when I was done, I knew that this was the one!

Isn't it so much better? So you see, I'm still learning. I'm not sure what that says about me, since I've been scrapbooking since 1999. But any time I can do something better than I did before, I'm a happy girl! Now how do I decide which layout should belong to which child? ;)

RFE 2013

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of participating in St. Edward School's Race for Education. The students are pledged money from friends and family for each lap that they walk/run around the school. It's as much a celebration as it is a fund raiser. There's music, Edward the Panda makes an appearance, some parents walk with their children, and some cheer from the sidelines. Mattie and I walked together for 11 laps, which totaled 2.5 miles. We held hands, we talked, he told jokes . . . it was a lot of fun! It's rare that he and I spend an hour just talking and having fun. Of course you know what's coming next. Here is my tribute to this year's Race for Education!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to affix these 8.5x11 layouts to 12x12 cardstock so that my albums would be consistent. Well, I've had a change of plan. I've decided to simply use 8.5x11 page protectors and put them right in with the larger layouts. There are no rules about this, so why not?!

Speaking of 8.5x11 layouts, I just counted how many pages I've completed in the last week. Are you ready for this? 7! 7 layouts done and ready to go into the kids' albums. That's more than I've made the entire year! There's something to this page size, I'm telling ya.

8.5X11 Love

This 8.5x11 thing is making me so happy! I made a Halloween page for Jack that's similar to the one I made for Anna, and I just finished this Christmas page a minute ago.

Because I've been a 12x12 girl for all these years, I plan to mount these smaller layouts on coordinating sheets of 12x12 cardstock and put them in my albums like I normally would. I'm way too far into the process to switch album sizes at this point. Luckily, I don't have to!

Thanks for visiting,I hope that you'll check in again soon!