New Friends and Happy Memories

We were lucky this weekend to host 4 students from China in our home on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and the girls LOVED meeting new people. I love our girls being raised to understand that the world is much bigger than just the United States and to see that we are much more similar to people than we are different.  I sent all of our guests home with a photo box full of pictures I had taken throughout the day. I love the power of photos to make a memory last forever. And I love my Mini Printer. :)

Here is a great photo of our little family on the boat.  It was VERY windy and we forgot our ponytail holders....

And I love both of these pictures of the girls. I feel like they both look TOO OLD in these photos. Kaya has been ALL OVER the sideways hat lately and it just cracks me up. I feel like the luckiest girl on earth because I get to be their mom.

Next Saturday we are going to the airport to greet KIM - our Rotary exchange student from Germany. We hope she is able to stay with us in our home for a few months...  I know it would be amazing for all of us.

Happy 61st Birthday Mom!

Today my mom would have turned 61. We sent her balloons to heaven with Busia and the grandchildren. I was glad the children surrounded Busia today to keep her from being absorbed by her sadness.

We tie-dyed and finished up lots of other projects. We had my niece and nephew for the past 7 days. I have a whole new respect for people with four kids. Whew - I am tired.

Here are the albums we sent them home with....  over 400 pictures in just one week. Not bad.

And, I know this last image is sideways, but I am having computer issues and cannot get the program open to flip it. I just wanted you to see how I simply stuck in the photos. I had the grand idea of writing note on the side lines...  but I was lucky to get this done to this point and was still printing and sticking in all the photos from today as my sister was packing up her kids in the car. I loved sending her home with all of these memories organized and in one place for her kids to have forever.

I love Books (another two page spread)

The class asked me to talk about books...  Man, I love books. Doing this layout made me want to run to borders just to look around. Too Bad Neil is out of town. :( I think my girls will grow up loving books, too. I love that this class has helped me put all this on paper.

Make Something Monday

This is the two page spread I made today. Again, it is SIMPLE, but it is DONE and ready to go into the page protectors and that makes me happy.

If you took the time to make something (even just took 5 minutes to write notes about a family member, yourself or a memory....) you would have 250 little somethings in 5 years. That is a very big deal.

Do not clean your space (just push stuff out of the way if you have to). Do not spend any money (we know we all have enough stuff). Do not surf on line for ideas (how much time do we all waste surfing for ideas or scrapbooking supplies and then we never even use them). Just pair a photo with a memory this week.

YOU CAN DO IT! I know you can. Happy Scrapping!

Three more pages on people I LOVE!

How cool is it to make a page telling someone you love just how much you love them. Ahhhhh, it makes my heart feel happy. Do you realize the importance of that page one day?I mean, in the day to day business of life, that one page might not seem to matter.... but one day, it will become a cherished memory. I am 100% certain that you making the time to make a simple page about how much you love someone will mean the world to them either tomorrow or 10 years down the road. Here are the three I made today... one for each girl, and one for Busia. All of them super simple, all of them DONE! That is the best part. Putting them into the book and shutting it. Then, opening it back up and reading it again. And sometimes again, and again and again. :) I know they are all really simple, but that never makes them any less meaningful. Tomorrow is Make Something Monday.... can you make something meaningful for someone?

Playing in the rain...

My class assignment was to outline my parenting style...  It was interesting to think about and I loved putting my thoughts about how I parent on paper. I really really wish I could go back in time and do a book like this about my mom. It would be so neat to ask her questions and document her answers. I love how I scrap now...  it is simple and easy and I get stuff DONE. I am happy that way. I love that if anything ever happens to me, Kalli and Kaya will have my words in print to read and hug and keep forever.

Another Two Pages

I have made 13 pages in the past 18 hours. HOLY MOLY! That is the most I have made ever unless I have been at Sherrie's Cropping or she and Shannon have been here for the weekend scrapbooking. I LOVE SCRAPBOOKING.

This page is about my views on HEALTH for my This Is Me class I am blessed to have talked myself into late. :)

12 years ago today....

I was getting my hair done for my wedding to Neil. Sometimes it seems like just the other day, and other times it seems like it was some other life.

I made him this page instead of a card. I let him read it and took it RIGHT BACK to put into my This Is Me album I am working on.

I love scrapbooking!

There is something about capturing memories for our family that actually makes my heart feel happy. I love knowing that these layouts I did tonight can never be taken away. That these stories are captures and these memories secure. Ahhhh, I love that feeling.

I did the title page and all four divider pages for my This Is Me class I am taking. Now, I feel like I can make any page I am directed to make and it has a home. I am waiting for a tab punch I got at JoAnns.com for 40% off to come, and I will tab these pages. These were down and dirty and quick and easy, and that totally works for me. I am not in this to win awards, I am in this to put our stories down on paper. I love pairing photos with memories and telling stories. This is such a meaningful hobby and I am grateful I know how to do it.

My Life

My Loves

My work

My World

These came out exactly like I pictured them in my head. I love when that happens.

I am taking a class!

And I am super excited about it. I am late at registering (figures) and I hate to be late... but I will catch up eventually. I am not sure why, but I read about it, and felt like I needed to do this for my family. I have not made much time to scrap lately at all, and it makes me sad. I want my girls to know my story should anything ever happen to me, and I think this class (this is me) will be an incredible book for the girls to have one day. I cannot even imagine what I would give to have this of my Mom when she had us kids.

Before I even could enter the class... I set up by binder.... just did the little window and the spine, but it is a start, right???

Missing FRONT tooth and gymnastics....

Man, Kalli is growing up way too fast. I tell her to slow down ALL THE TIME, and she ignores me. Even my husband pushes her ahead into being a big kid. He simply cannot stop pulling out her teeth! As soon as he sees a wiggle, he starts working it with her until together they can yank it out. Ugh. I run away from them because I simply cannot stand to watch him pull at her little teeth. They got out one of the front ones this week and they loved teasing me about it. Even Kaya was teasing me that Daddy was pulling out her teeth.

I love this shot of my little PUMKIN HEAD! (with all those missing teeth she keeps saying "Hey, I look like a pumpkin!")

I let each kid pick one summer camp, and Kalli picked Gymnastics. She has loved it. She did it years ago, and is enjoying it a lot. I think she looks the part....  her long legs, lean torso, the ponytail....  she really has it going on out there. Wish there was better light to take photos (from the balcony where we sit to watch), but these are the best I could do.

Such a gymnast pose! 

Cannot complete the post without a photo of Kaya enjoying herself at her Kids Camp at the park. She loves it and the love her. I love this face.

We love sunshine!

Since our 4th of July Day plans got totally cancelled....  we went swimming and boating at Dad's condo the next day instead. It was a lot of fun. I love water. It just feels peaceful to me. Only took the little camera that day so these are the best shots I got. It was nice to just have fun and not worry about the big camera for a day! And, I still got some great shots.

You can see my Dad's condo behind the kids. This was my 365 photo for this day. Loved this shot.

Self portraits with Mommy on the moving boat!

I love how happy they all look in this photo. No clue what the wonky coloring around Neil's face is....  I get that with this little point and shoot sometimes. But, it was worth it to relax and enjoy the day more....  sometimes I get WAYYYY too focused on getting good pictures. Yeah, I could have done better, but I can totally live with these! :)

Make Something Monday

I uploaded and ordered photos....  it is all I could do today, and in my book, IT COUNTS! :)
I am reading Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom book, and she even says that labeling photos, ordering them, organizing them, etc counts as scrapbooking....  so for this Monday, this counts for me!

Here are a few of the photos I uploaded and ordered enlargements of. I feel so lucky every day to have these two little buggers call me MOM!

I even love simply watching (and taking pictures of course) of this child eating.

Here are the girls all lined up for the parade. It rained on us, but did not get rained out! (Good thing Neil kept working on those bike decorations)

Here they are in the parade...

Here is one of Kaya with Mommy and Daddy with Kalli. Right before the parade (and the rain) started. How lucky am I to have this as my super cute little family??

Every year I take a photo of Kaya from the BACK in the bike parade. I need to gather them together and create a page. She was TOTALLY last in the parade last year....  slowly pedaling away and chatting with the police man bringing up the rear. This year, she kept saying "There are people still behind me, right? I not last this year." Man, she cracks me up. And, for the record, she went FAST this year and I had to run to keep up with her. Next year I need to take my bike! :)













Busia always comes to the Parade and cheers on her girls. Man, she is amazing. In the rain at 85 years old, she never missed one thing these children do. I mean, really, how darn lucky are we to live with this bundle of love? She loves this parade and had no problems getting wet by the end. We sure to love Busia.