Finished Project

Oh boy it feels good to finish a project!!! Well I have FINALLY finished my little photo / scrapbooking room (yes I still believe I will scrapbook again someday!). My little area was in need of a major re-haul since it has been pretty much blank walls and zero decor since we moved into this house years ago. I have been wanting to display some of my favorite images of the kids and I even put up some of my other favorite random pictures. You might remember from the last blog post that I was inspired by the “Design A Glow” room with beautiful canvases and black damask curtains. I spent hours online looking at fabric and finally found the perfect one to make my own damask curtains. Check it out:

You’ve already seen this wall with the Gallery Wrap canvases.

In addition to the canvases I really wanted to incorporate some of the other things available to my clients so I could test them out myself. Rather than frame the image below I decided to mount it on Styrene board and place it on a photo holder - I thought it gave the picture a little more modern look which went with the room.

For the other side of the room I also chose to mount images on a lighter-weight matboard and then put a small piece of Foam Board behind them so they would stand out from the wall. I’m actually not in love with this arrangement and I am certain I will probably rearrange them a few more times. I think they need to be a little closer together and maybe not quite so symmetrical. We’ll see

Here’s a closer look at the images I narrowed down - as you can imagine I have a ton of different pictures of my kids but these are just some of my favorites.

So this is the final product - YAY - I figure since I spend hours processing pictures in this room it might as well be pretty!

Posted in Personal

Marine World Part 2

Here are more pictures from Marine World. The kids had so much fun! We hit everything in the kiddie area and both of them absolutely loved the rides. We saw Dolphins and Elephants and Giraffes. They even got to touch the elephant which they were very excited about...

Whoa Daddy

A couple weeks ago Micah took the day off and we all went to Marine World along with our playgroup. The kids had sooo much fun but our favorite part was definitely the carousel . James was very nervous about the horse when it started moving up and down and he had Micah and I almost in tears laughing so much when he randomly started saying"Whoa Daddy, whoa daddy." as the horse started moving. So we went on the carousel a few more times and he did it every single time. It was sooo cute! See the videos at the bottom...

My Surprise

The other day Haylie made this lovely surprise for me. I was in my office and she called me out to show me this beautiful present she had made for me:

I tried to move something and she was not having it. Each thing was very intentionally placed on the table, like these 3 little people inside the bracelets:


It was really amazing and I was very surprised:

Life Lessons from Veggie Tales

"I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise, with a capital “P”
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learnin’ to hear God’s voice
And I am tryin’ to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be."

This evening I was really struck by this song while putting Haylie to bed. Sometimes I get dismayed in life that I am not really fulfilling the purpose He has for me. I truly desire to seek and follow, to do His will to the fullest extent of my being, but I get SO frustrated with myself when I get caught up in the world. I hear and see myself on replay sometimes and it makes my heart ache at the things I did and said (as Jennifer Knapp says - "every morning I have a chance to rise and give my all, but every afternoon I find I have only wasted time in light of your awe").

Well, tonight in the midst of my pity party I felt the grace He offers and to be honest it brought tears to my eyes. I am a promise! I am learning to hear God's voice and I am trying to make the right choice! I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be. I was so grateful for the reminder from the Word of God: "He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it!" Phil 1:6

You can listen to the song here if you want to hear it for yourself - I really like the way Junior Asparagus sings it :)

Activity Junkie

Haylie is my little activity junkie. She constantly wants to be doing "something" - always asking me, "what are we going to do now?" More than anything she loves visiting with friends but if we can't go anywhere or have anyone come over then we have to get a little creative. Some of her favorite things include: Freeze Dance, All Horses Run, Hide and Seek, making scrapbooks, doing Bible Stories and any other kind of game or craft we can come up with. I have a couple little activity books that help me come up with ideas but here are some of our recent projects:

We made a Twister game:

Haylie had more fun running around with her paper chain than counting down:


We decided to make a counting calendar which Haylie uses all the time to count down for things she is looking forward to:
James has been joining us for our Bible stories time and really loves playing with the craft that we make:
Jonah getting swallowed by the whale:

Counting Games:

The Cabin...again

It all started with my new Canon Rebel, this photography craze that is, which has taken over my very being. I have always loved taking pictures but it was my first SLR a few years ago that really set me on the path, determined to get better at photography. I have a long way to go to meet all my goals but every day I enjoy learning new things. My kids are the reason I decided to take photography to the next level in the first place. I always felt my point and shoot and my previous photography skills couldn’t possibly capture the beauty of the moments I felt with my family. Now, I still bring along my “little cameras” sometimes and even shoot in Auto mode when I get lazy but it’s always fun to bring out the big guy to capture those great memories in full, vibrant color.

This weekend we had a much needed family getaway to “the cabin” and I had so much fun capturing our fun times (we have spent a lot of time at the cabin this year - more than normal I think but it has been fun). The pictures below are copied from my photography blog:

Haylie loves gathering pine cones for the fire:

James loves following Haylie around:

Helping Daddy make dinner:

This time at the cabin we took the boat on the lake; Micah and Raider took Haylie out for a little ride. This was her first time on a boat and although she was a little concerned at first she had a great time:

It’s so fun now that James is getting older and the kids can really enjoy playing together and wandering around in the trees and rocks:

Of course Haylie loves the cabin because she can play in the dirt!

Ready To Go

We just got back from a nice long weekend at the cabin. On Friday when I told Haylie where we were going and she was VERY excited. She asked if she could pack her own clothes, which she loves to do. About 20 min later she came downstairs and announced she was ready to go. Here she is, ready to leave for the cabin:

Click here to go to my photography blog for more pictures from the cabin.