Our weekend trip to Tombstone, AZ

Last weekend, we took a trip to Tombstone, AZ. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the shootout at the OK Corral all happened here. It was fun to just look around and take pictures. I was blown away by the craftsmanship inside some of these buildings, you just don't see that everyday.
After we left Tombstone, Aaron took B&P (I stayed behind with H) to the Kartchner Caverns that are about 30 miles away. They all said how cool it was, we'll have to go back when Heston gets bigger. It was nice to get away and just spend some time together as a family. Before we know it, our kids will be teenagers and they'll want nothing to do with us! :)

Elvis' birthday bash

My grandma and Uncle TR were in the Vernal Express a few weeks ago. The care center celebrated Elvis' birthday with dancing, music and peanut butter and banana sandwiches (I guess they were Elvis' favorite). There are 2 things Grandma lives for: dancing and music. I know she had a blast, even in her wheelchair.

She's been through so much since August. I was really worried about her being at the care center and not at her house. When I saw her over Thanksgiving, I felt so much better. The staff there are taking such good care of her. I can honestly say she has always been one of my closest friends. I spent my entire childhood following her around and watching baseball games together.

This picture was taken on my 5th birthday. It's not the best quality (it's a scanned Polaroid) but it's priceless to me. Ma, Grandma, Mom and me. Grandma has always had this killer blonde afro. Back in my dancing days when I would perform, I could always see her out in the audience :)

Monday

Wow, it has been awesome weather here the past couple of days! It got up to 80 today, it was a perfect day to spend some time at the park. The kids go back to school tomorrow and I've got to get some stuff done. We're taking a little trip this weekend down to Tombstone and Tucson. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm sorry I'm so boring today!
The kids wore me out :)

Thursday

It's been a pretty good week so far. I've been able to catch up on some much needed housework and projects. I needed to do a little touch up paint in the living room. I had to dig the paint can out of the garage (not the easiest thing) and I got out my brush and went to town. I've been putting it off for a while, it felt good to get it done. I left to run errands and when I came back, I saw that the paint does not match! I don't know if being out in the hot garage has changed the color or what but, dang! So now I've created another project for myself...yipee.

On a positive note, I found a really cool thing that's helped me get a little more organized. It's a set of household planner templates. There's 60 different lists that you can print out or customize. I didn't want to pay $10 for them but they were on sale for $4 over the holidays. I'm sure they'll go on sale again. Here's a link:
Andrea's Household Planner Templates

digital scrapbooking

You are all too good to me! :) Thank you for the compliments.
I wish there was a way I could sit down at the computer with you (like Karin did with me, thanks again! You helped me so much) and go over just a few things step by step. I’ll do my best to share some things with you to get you started and share with you what works for me. You can always call me, too. I'll talk your ear off!

There’s so much to learn with digital scrapbooking and the possibilities are endless. It's easy to become overwhelmed, just take it one step at a time. Once you get a few of the basics down, you’ll be good to go.

The program I use is Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. You can do all kinds of stuff with this program. I’m still trying to find my way around but that’s the one I use.
There are some good tutorials on digital scrapbooking out there. The ones that have helped me the most have been by Sande Krieger on 2Peas in a bucket. She starts with the basics and then teaches different techniques from there. Here’s a link to Lesson 1: Getting started

I have all of my favorite digital scrapbooking sites bookmarked to the right. Almost all of these sites have sales on certain days and quarterly sales that offer 30-40% off. The great thing about digital is once you buy something, you can use it as many times as you want. If you need to get pages done quickly, templates are awesome! This is one of the first templates that I bought. I got it on sale for around $1.50 and I’ve used it several times. I didn’t change the template at all, I just put the pictures in and called it a day. This template is by Katie P. at Designer Digitals.I hope this is somewhat helpful. I’m no expert but it’s fun to find a new way to scrapbook and to preserve memories. I love the no mess factor and also the fact that you don’t have find places to store your stuff. It’s all there on the computer and if you have a laptop, you can do it anywhere! And the glorious Undo button…it's life changing I tell ya!
Let me know how it works out!

being Present

Aaron took B&P over to our friends house last night to watch the BCS championship game. Heston didn't get a nap and I knew he wouldn't last so he and I stayed home. He went to bed early and I got to sit down and do some digital scrapbooking. These are a couple I did last night and some I've been working on for the last little while. I cannot get enough of the vintage frames. I know I use them on every every page I do but I just love them! My goal for 2009 is to learn how to take better pictures. There's so much to learn but I'm looking forward to it.

Each year I chose a word to focus on.

My word for 2009 is PRESENT.

Being present in every moment and just soaking it all in.

TGIF, have a good weekend!

our New Years trip

After Christmas, we decided to take a little trip with the kids. We headed up north and stayed in Cottonwood and rode the Verde Canyon Railroad. The weather was nice and the kids thought the train was fun.
We spent New Years in Sedona and on our way home, we stopped in a little town outside of Cottonwood called Jerome. I loved the old buildings and houses, they have so much character.
The kids went back to school today and now I’ve got to get everyone back on a schedule.