Vacation! And More Layouts!

John was on vacation last week and we so enjoyed having him around for a little while! We had Annie's birthday party last Saturday, took him to NRH2O with us on Monday, and Wednesday we left to go camping for the rest of the week. It was hot, hot, hot, but the pool was cool. The kids swam at least three times a day and played with Madeline every available moment. They had so much fun they barely fought for five days! Which was so relaxing for me, I was able to read a book and a half. Everyone in Texas should have a pool, really. It makes the hot weather almost pleasant.

I did four more challenge layouts at The Digi Shoppe. I wonder if I can get all seven thousand (no kidding) of the kids pictures scrapped just doing challenges??

I love Nitwit Collections!

Mary Fran at Nitwit Collections just makes the very best digital scrapbooking stuff. I love the real, fabric-like, homey look of her stuff. I made this with her make-a-scene kit and it will show better in print, but if you click on it you might be able to see that the pictures in the windows are actually of our house and Aubrey and Annie at Christmastime. It's so cute I can't stand it!

Newest Layout

I love these pictures of John and Annie. What a great daddy he is.

Check out my Slide Show!

Another old one...

Gosh even on my hard drive I'm disorganized in spite of trying to keep it together ;) Here is another lost layout. I think I quit on this one because I felt it needed something but didn't know what. Now I think this photo is sweet enough all by itself. Annie is so darling.

Architect

I found this file on my hard drive, I started it a year or two ago and never added the title. That sure makes for a quick easy page, and I just love it! It really captures John Aubrey's talent and spirit. This is what I want from all my scrapbook pages.

Journaling reads: He has said he wants to be a guitar player, a Wal-Mart stocker, an astronaut, a pawn broker (to give people fair deals, after learning how people get ripped off,
sweet boy wants to change the system!), and most recently, a pilot. But with his talent for math and his affinity for symmetry, I really think he should also consider something in the field of ARCHITECTURE

Another challenge, another page, this is so fun!

I give you: Wulf and Grendel

Is there anything cuter than a kitten? No, there isn't. And I found two in a trash can in a hot Wal-Mart parking lot! I brought them home and immediately started to reassure John that I would take them to the humane society, but he took one look and said, "let's keep 'em". I was shocked, but tickled. My tendency to turn our house into a zoo usually makes him groan. He's a good sport though, and these guys are awfully cute. I don't know how anyone could have left them there. We just got them to the vet on Friday. They had worms and ear mites and they were covered in fleas, but they're on the mend now. Getting litter box trained and getting used to Angel, who I think might want to eat them - or at least play with them really hard. China tries to pretend they don't exist. The kids are thrilled. For the first two days John Aubrey kept saying he couldn't believe this wasn't a dream as he was holding or playing with Wulf. They are little characters, and so loving. I feel lucky to have found them.

Digital Scrapping Challenges

I have been taking digital challenges at The Digi Shoppe Cafe. It's so much fun! It really gets me motivated to make more pages and try new things, and I get digital freebies or points that I can use in their shoppe just for doing it. Above are my layouts that the challenges have inspired me to do so far.

A Night to Myself!

The kids are gone, gone I say! To their Nonna's house. Overnight. I almost don't know what to do with myself. Whenever they go anywhere I find myself wandering around in an aimless daze for a little while, not for lack of things to do, but because of such an overwhelming abundance of them. Cross stitch? Scrapbook? Mess around on the computer? Play Oblivion? Catch up on cooking and cleaning (in peace)? Search for clues to the next season of Lost?

Tonight I settled on scrapbooking. I scrapbook digitally using Photoshop Elements and I love it so. I long for more time to scrapbook, or a notebook computer so that I can scrapbook anywhere. But enough crying, here is the page I have made so far tonight.

New to Blogger

I've been playing with templates and different blog servers trying to find one that's easy enough for me to customize. I think this one might be it! Thank you to Microferk Designs for the Mabon kit that I used to make my blog header.