steph's stuff

Happy Memorial Day

As I pack up Emily to send her on her school trip to Washington, D.C. tomorrow, it's only fitting that I remember our trip there last summer and this layout from our album.

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who have served!

 

Project Life - Week 15

I've gotten almost 4 weeks of Project Life done this week and can't wait to blog them all. The only way I've gotten them done, though, is to go super-super simple. You'll see those layouts later this week. 

For now, let's look at Week 15! This week included Easter and also the day the crazy puppy almost died again so I put those two stories on an insert and put the weekly journaling on a 4 x 6 card. I kept the journaling very basic. I also included some journaling from Emily, a funny Andrew story, a photo of Em with Sawyer, Andrew's sock from this story, Andrew and Daddy, Andrew sleeping, Emily and Andrew, and a photo of Emily in the doorway of a the house she was babysiting after I brought her some ice cream late at night. 

The first page of the insert is journaling about our Easter dinner with friends, as well as photos of the kids after an egg hunt. 

I don't have a large-format printer so I print out my 6 x 12 pages by printing the journaling on cardstock cut down to 6 x 12 (and just not worrying about the extra white space) and then printing the photos separately and adhering them to the cardstock. 

The back of the insert was the text from this blog post, along with a photo of Sawyer. Again, I printed using 6 x 12 cardstock and just don't worry about the white cardstock at the bottom. I can dress it up later if I want but I probably won't. :)

Page two includes a lot of glare. Sorry! But it also includes two photos and journaling about Tom and I taking Emily out by herself, some photos of Tom and Emily working on the yard, homework, Libby and her favorite book, another journaling card I made and, yes, yes, yes, I included my school girl crush on Darren Criss. Keeping it real, folks! Mommies have crushes, too. ;)

And here's my album after 15 weeks of layouts. Actually, this has 18 weeks in it and there's still room. I'm hoping to fit the first 26 weeks in it and then have a second album for the second half of the year. 

Hope to be back tomorrow with another week!

WEEK 15 SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

Starting over

It's 8:30 am and I am starting the day over.

This morning did not go well. There were fights with children, nervous children who have to take a big test today, forgotten lunches, and then neighbors who saved the day for all of us. Thank God - literally "Thank you, God, for giving me these neighbors" - for neighbors like this. Neighbors who calmed us all down and let us re-start the day.

I'm going to work out, take a lot of deep breaths, and then get back to finishing up the last 4 weeks of Project Life so that I can post some of them later today. :)

Overheard

Overheard at our house this weekend:

Pancakes

Background: Tom and I each have different pancake recipes and the kids call them "Mommy pancakes and Daddy pancakes.

Andrew: "What's the difference between Mommy pancakes and Daddy pancakes? Are Mommy's actually made with love and Daddy's aren't?"

Football

Tom and Andrew were watching the 2005 National Championship football game between the University of TX and USC - a game we own on DVD and a game that they have watched a thousand times before. 

And Tom is yelling at the TV, "WHAT?! No!!! You can't do that!!!"

Fangirls

Emily: "MOM!!! Tickets for a One Direction concert are on sale for July 13, 2013! Tickets are only $180 each!!!! Can we buy tickets?????"

Cue to hysterical laughing by me. 

And Libby burst into tears and cried, "But I'll never get to see them in concert now!!!"

****

Working on a couple of Project Life posts for later today and tomorrow........ :)

Here's to a happy week ahead!

 

Happy family time

My gorgeous sister-in-law and my niece and nephew are in town this weekend and I always hate to see them leave. We have had so much fun!

My crazy husband (who wears shirts like that?!?!) and his little sister. 

My sister-in-law and I rarely get time to have serious talks when we get together because my kids swarm her and play with her hair, sit on her lap, snuggle her - they just can't get enough of their auntie. And I can't get enough of my niece and nephew - Caeleb isn't so much for snuggling (what 14-year-old boy is?) but my niece, Ari, and I could sit and snuggle and talk for hours. She's going to be a senior next year, is an amazing photographer and so smart and motivated. I can't wait to see what she does with her life!

But this visit, we have had kid time and adult time - perfect combination! 

Have a great rest-of-your-weekend! We're off to the food pantry and then shopping for bathing suits because the pools are open. :)

Until the ink runs out

This is what I am doing today.

Until the ink runs out. Which.....um......doesn't look so good.

It's not "nothing"

There are some very nice people in this world and I don't think I am grateful enough for that some days. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and get frustrated. Or to focus on the negative or rude people around you. But those nice people that enter your life - man, that's the good stuff. 

At Libby's last neurologist appointment, her nurse noticed her medic-alert bracelet. It's from Lauren's Hope and we've always been a big supporter of them. However, the bracelets are pricey and so Libby has had to make do with the same one for a couple of years. It's cute but she's outgrown it for sure. 

Well, I got a call yesterday from this wonderful nurse telling me she had a present for Libby. I was astonished - we don't know her outside of the doctor's office. I stopped by and picked it up and was almost moved to tears. As it turns out, she makes jewelry as a hobby. And she made Libby 8 - eight - EIGHT!!! - new bracelets to attach to her medic-alert tag. 

This wonderful woman kept saying "Oh, it's nothing. It's just fun for me." 

But you know what? It's not "nothing." To a soon-to-be middle-school girl who has had to deal with this crappy diagnosis since she was 5, this was HUGE - she has to wear the bracelet at all times and to be able to have cooler older-kid styles and colors for middle school - this was HUGE.

So Carol - thank you. You have no idea how nice this was!!! You have made my week. :) And it was a whole lot of "something."

Alice in Wonderland

A few weeks ago, Emily starred in her school's rendition of "Alice in Wonderland Junior." I've been wanting to blog these photos forever but because I have sooooooo many blog posts in my queue, I'm going to blog just a few and put the rest on Facebook. 

We were so proud of her and so happy to see her back on stage. It was a great experience for her that also included a lot of problems and, looking back, that's okay. It taught her so much and, more than anything, made her realize that she really does want to go back to theater in high school. She's a natural on stage and I am so excited to see her get brave again. :)

Without much more to say, here are just a few of the photos I took. My favorite photo of her is the picture with the little girl. This little girl was totally enamored with her and asked to have her photo taken with Alice. :)

Yet another weekend recap, Part I

I've been away from my blog so long that I don't even know where to start. I am uncomfortably behind on Project Life and uncomfortably behind on scrapbooking in general. I've been so busy writing and doing other things (LIFE) that I am beginning to feel a bit of panic about what I need to get done. 

And the summer is upon us - we only have 3 weeks of school left. Emily will take high school phys ed all summer long - she will have to be at school from 8-12 five days/week for 8 out of the 11 weeks of summer. Which really puts a dent in traveling time. Libby and Andrew will both go to a theater camp for a week and Libby starts cello lessons while Andrew will play on a summer football league. I'm sure there's more, too - I just don't want to think about it all right now. So I need to find a serious amount of time in the next few weeks to focus on scrapping before that craziness hits us.

In the meantime, here's another crazy-busy-weekend recap, part I. I'll try to add Part II this afternoon or tomorrow morning. 

On Saturday, our entire family worked at a super-fun local event! The food pantry that we volunteer at hosted an Amazing Race event in a neighboring town and it was sooooooo much fun. The five of us were all judges, along with three other kids from one of our favorite families while their parents competed in the race. I took more photos with the big camera but here's just a smattering of photos (unedited) that I took with my cell phone. 

Emily and Tom and I wearing our judges' hats at the first pit stop.

Our friends figuring out the clue to get to the second pit stop. And, Justin, why the evil eye???

The four oldest kids.

This team came in second place - they were a really fun group of guys. If you look closely, you'll see that the front guy is in a speedo. He competed that way all day long. And apologized to our kids. LOL.

And then here's our team starting off this challenge.

And, of course, the kids had to try it out! These 6 kids are the absolute best friends and get along sooooo well together. I am so grateful for their friendships.

And then at the end of the day. There were outside and working for almost 7 hours. I was so proud of all of them. 

I have so many more photos but I'm running out of time.....it was an absolutely fabulous event and I am proud to be a part of the fabulous community that came out and raised so much money for such a good cause.

Have a great Monday!

 

He's back

The naked puppy is back!