fun in the sun

Took a trip to The Bay yesterday for some summer fun. The water was so cold it was hard to get in. Luckily there were slides and I finally talked Jordan into going down by herself. She went up and came back down the stairs 6 times before she decided to brave the waters. Of course she was glad she finally went down and I couldn't keep her off of it.

new smile

Jack got his braces off yesterday. Doesn't his new smile look fabulous? :) He also lost a tooth in the process. I wasn't expecting that! Poor guy had to have it plucked out because the ortho couldn't get the brace off! It was however ready to come out and since Jack is NOT a tooth wiggler it would have stayed in for ever. Totally better this way!

I was inspired by Karen Russell's homework photos so I took some myself.
We finally had a sunny day so I took advantage of it and brought the diorama
making supplies outside. Less mess for me to clean up inside! More sun today so I'm headed out to the deck to get some reading done.

some pages to share.

I went to Archiver's for a crop on Friday with some friends. We had a great time although I never get as much done as I hope! I got 3 done this time, so not too bad! :) I'm not even going to make you wait to see them all! Aren't I nice? Really I'm afraid I'll forget about them if I don't get them on here right now so here goes.



Don't you love these new American Crafts papers? Oh my goodness the sweetness pouring from AC's Dear Lizzie collection is killing me. Barb will have it in the store soon and she's got free shipping plus a fun ribbon promotion. For every $5 you spend in American Crafts products you will get a small spool of AC ribbon for free! Here is the link to all the AC stuff if you want to take a look and I will let you know the minute she gets Dear Lizzie in stock.



Basic Grey's Recess collection was perfect for these baseball pictures.



Here is some more Basic Grey for this 1st day page. I know it's a valentine
collection but I totally think it works here too!

I've got some cleaning to do and then I'm headed to the scrapbook room to get a few more pages in. It's a perfect snowy day for it too.

photos to share.

I spent some time at chess club today.

Who knew it could be so much fun?



I knew it could be serious.



It can also be emotional. (Really don't know what this one is :)...angry, sad. It's just chess!) For the record, she wasn't really upset...just messing around.



I can tell you though that I'm glad my little kiddos think chess is fun.

july's page.

Here are my July and August calendar pages.
July's page features American Crafts Letterbox collection and August features Cosmo Crickets The Boyfriend collection. Both are available at my favorite online scrapbooking shop, Embellish-Online. The current special is free shipping with a $50 order and the code to use at checkout is 4SP9HD .


And since I've been sharing photos I can't post with out one. Here is a shot from Jordan's first time on ice skates.

Jack.

I wish I would have gotten my nephew in this shot. I just love the goofy
look Jack is giving Jayden. He totally had him cracking up!

a new favorite

I might have mentioned a time or two that I'm taking an online photography class. It's been a while since I had any instruction and I just love the way Karen Russell shoots photos of her family. So I'm taking the class and already getting some good results!

This picture was an attempt at a candid shooting assignment. My dear daughter, however apparently like to pose so this is as good as it got for a candid. It is however one of my new all time favorite photos so I had to share. Which has inspired me to share more. So you'll be seeing some more of my photography on here from time to time.

1st day of school

Here's a little peak at my layout for tomorrows blog hop! I hope you'll come back and join me!


So now that the first day of school is here I can start scrapping again! Yea! Starting tomorrow with a very fun blog hop. I'm going to keep it short today cause I've already wasted 3 hours doing absolutely nothing. It's a little hard getting used to the house being soooo quiet! I'm going to put on some music and start scrapping with all the new goodies I've picked up the last few weeks. Catch ya later!!

messing around

Since I can't get motivated to do any scrapping I decided I'd take a few photos tonight. I haven't even done much of that lately! I have a new niece that I need to shoot and a wedding coming up so I thought I'd get back in the groove with some pictures on our newly completed deck. It's so nice to have a gorgeous deck to hang out on. I love reading out there in the morning. It's so nice and cool these days first thing.

I just need to start getting up a little (read a lot!) earlier since school starts this Thursday. I'm a little sad the summer break is over! I like spending time leisurely with the kiddos. School brings homework for the kids and lots of volunteering for me. We'll get back in the groove soon enough but for now I'm mourning the end!

What I'm not mourning is all the lovely, new scrapping goodies I've picked up in the last couple of weeks. I told you about the American Craft Merrymint line. The other day I picked up all the new Cosmo Cricket goodies. Gorgeous I tell ya! I really love each and everyone of these kits. I got the 6" and 12" chipboard too. It's going to be fun to work with. I started cleaning up the scrap room today and plan on spending ALL day and night scrapping on Friday. SO I will have some things to show very, very soon. Also the Embellish-Online DT is having a Farmers market blog hop this Friday! I will definitely have something to share for that.

That's it for now I'm getting kicked off the computer by my soon to be 1st grader! Gotta get those kindergarten pictures scrapped!! :)

totally toothless

Well it finally came out! It took a little longer that I thought but it's out now and she looks so cute!

I will actually have a page to share tomorrow. It's done I just didn't get a chance to photograph it so I'll do it tonight and share tomorrow. I also have a page in the work using my Early Bird papers. Love them! I hope to have that one to show by Monday.

Have a great weekend!

summer science fun

Last week we went to the museum. There was a health exhibit that had some amazing stuff! We actually stayed all day. Can't remember the last time we closed the museum down! There was an experiment center and this at this station we got to look at our cells under a microscope. Too much fun. Even more fun than that were the goggles, gloves and lab coats for everyone. It was a hoot!

Trying to have some scrappy goodness to share very soon. Still having a hard time getting in the craft room.

The other front tooth hasn't come out yet. My poor daughter looks so silly! Any suggestions on getting a pesky front too to come out? It is so ready. It's in there crooked and it's so, so loose!

is there anything cuter...

Than a cutie with a missing tooth? The tooth next door is only hanging on by a thread. I predict today she will be totally toothless!

train

We happened upon this really cool train on our walk one day in Steamboat. I got some fun photos of Jack or Jordan and cousin Addi. Here's one of Jordan. It very well may end up being her 6 year old picture cause I can't find the time to take her out and do a real shoot. Maybe next week will work out. For now this is my current fave photo of her. I was playing around with this one in Photoshop. I am really just learning how to use it so I'm not very good yet. I definitely need some more practice. I'm going scrapping tonight so I'll finally have some new layouts to show!
Have a great weekend!

first signs of summer

We got to go swimming on the first day of summer break. It has been the only suitable day for swimming so far this break. I don't mind the rainy/chilly weather, but my kids do....they want to go swimming. So for now, I'll remind them how much fun we had that one day and we'll wait for the weather to shape up!

baseball

This is one of the reasons I haven't been crafting as much. We are in full swing with baseball for Jack and soccer for Jordan. Both are sadly coming to an end! I love being out in the sun (most of the time. Soccer not so sunny!) and watching these guys get better and better at the sports they like to play. Jack struggled with his hitting at the beginning of the season. I think he lost his confidence but has quickly gained it back recently. He's asking questions and genuinely interested in becoming a better hitter. Recently he asked James why other kids who hit with his bat were hitting it farther the he was. It's interesting to see how he challenges himself to get better. I mean he's only 8 and to be able to recognize that he could do better and then ask the right questions in order to make it happen is pretty cool!

This is what I've got for today. We've got some fun things up our sleeve for the incoming Embellish-Online DT and it will be starting up soon!

spring break

This is what we are doing on our spring break! I'm so glad it finally snowed. I grew up in Colorado and I don't remember a winter with as little snow as we have gotten this year. We and by we I mean my husband :> broke out the snow blower and the kids are playing in the fluffy goodness right now. I'm going to go get the hot cocoa ready for when they decide to come in and maybe get to a little scrapping....