Yes!!

picture day

I enjoy doing favorite things scrapbook pages. I try really hard to do at least one a year for each kid...it's fun to see how much they change from year to year. Notice I said "try" :)

 Today was picture day at school. It was so fun to see the kids all dressed up and looking so cute. Since I work at the school, I got to join in on picture day as well. They took a group picture of all the teachers and staff. Heston's teacher, Mrs. M, is 6 feet tall. Her and I were the tallest of the group so of course we swapped stories about being "the tall girl".

I remember in 2nd grade, I was the tallest in my class. I got to be first in line to get my picture taken that year. Mom curled and styled my hair that morning and I was so excited to wear my favorite blue dress. When I got to school, the picture people started handing out combs to all the kids. WHAT the H were they thinking?!? Bad idea...

   It could have been worse I guess. Now that I'm looking at this picture, it almost looks like I left the black comb IN my hair...

at least I remembered my underwear that day :)

good stuff from Gandhi

When I saw this on Pinterest, I just had to print it and hang it in our house :)

Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World 

I am ready to SMASH!

Since I went digital, I've been out of the "paper game" for a while. I came across this video on Dear Lizzy's blog and I absolutely LOVE this! I bought myself a Smash book, I've got my little box of keepsakes and fun stuff and I'm ready to go!

What do you all think?!

Fall Break 2011

We have been enjoying our fall break this week. It's always nice to sleep in and just do whatever. It's finally fall here in AZ and I'm always so grateful when it finally comes. I've been able to get some things done around the house that I've putting off and spending time with the kids without having to drive all over the place. 

And it's nice that we can go to the park and not melt into a puddle. Hooray!

I'm ahead of the game this year with costumes for Halloween. Paige wants to be a black cat and Hes wants to be Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America. He even wanted his hair cut like Steve Rogers.

A while ago I asked him what the "A" stood for on CA's helmet. He said, "Aaron" :)



80's awesomeness

I was channel surfing the other day and came across one of my favorite cartoons from childhood. Jem!! I recorded it so I could show the kids. Paige watched one episode of it's pure cheesiness and now she's hooked!

  Who knew after 26 years of hanging on to this doll it would be appreciated by my daughter :)

Don't you just love fuschia zebra stripes? Long Live the 80's!!

i really needed to hear this today...

Disneyland 2011

I was just looking at some of my layouts and realized I didn't post any of my Disneyland album from this summer. I had a blast putting this together, Disneyland is just too awesome! I really like doing albums like this because there's a start and a finish. And again, the templates saved me some serious time. Mom joined us on our Disneyland trip so I made her a duplicate album (another advantage to digital, I love that!)

These are 12x12 but I just printed them as 8x8. I love the 8x8 size when I'm doing little albums like this. 

Here are some of the pages... 

Title page

  I thought it would be fun to include all the rides and shows from each day. When we got back to the hotel, I jotted the info down so I could remember :) 

Don't you just LOVE Disneyland?! So much fun!We were so happy Mom joined us this time.
And I'm glad that H stopped sticking his tongue out every time I took a picture on the first day :)



gratitude

our little chef

I've mentioned before how much Paige loves to bake and cook. The Gunderson's gave her some fun baking stuff for her birthday. She was so happy and talked about making cupcakes all the way home from Utah this summer :)



rim to rim 2011

So, it's been a week and I can finally walk. Hooray! I was sore for a couple of days however it was the blisters I got this time that have made for a tough recovery. 

All is well though.

That canyon is just spectacular. Pictures just don't do it justice...

The sunrise is my favorite part of the hike....

and the end of the hike is nice too! :)

It was like being in labor near the end :) It took us 12 hours.  



I had nightmares about these logs...everytime you turn a corner, there they are...

{I used the Away we go kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs for this page}

killing time

I deeply {heart} this place

Today, I'm going to achieve one of my lifelong goals. I'm beyond excited!

I'm hiking from the south to the north rim of the Grand Canyon today.

With the love o' my life,

 my little brother who is a good sport,

and my sis-in-law that I adore and who is the most hard core woman I've ever met. (Happy Birthday R!)

Hiking this canyon is such a unique experience. It's physically challenging and it overwhelms me spiritually.

Looking forward to sharing more with you later!

my mantra in life

Jojo Henry: The most patient cat alive

Little Jojo Henry has been with us for almost 2 years now. She has been such a great pet for our family. She lives outside but she comes in by our back door to eat. I've never seen a cat as mellow as her, all the neighborhood kids love her. If I let the kids have their way, they would put clothes on her every single day.

Here are a few of their favorite "outfits"

Here's Jojo the rock star complete with a Darth Vader cape...

Next is Jojo in her favorite Hello Kitty camo outfit...who knew Build a Bear was great clothing for cats?

 and last but not least, the kids favorite pastime...wrapping Jojo up in a blanket, putting her in a doll stroller and pushing it down the sidewalk. Jojo looks a little possessed in this picture however she actually stays in the stroller for a few minutes while they push her around.

The OCD in me made sure these items were washed after these pictures were taken.

Cat hair is no laughing matter :)



my current digi project

 I just finished updating B's school album. I had completed his elementary school pages a while ago and I just wasn't feeling them. I rarely go back and redo scrapbook pages I've already done. It's a miracle they get done in the first place :)  But, I wanted something that highlighted the pics more, that was smaller in size (8.5 x 11) and I wanted his school album to match P and H's.  

This album is a Cathy Zielske template. I love her simple, clean style. It came together pretty fast because I had all the pictures organized and knew which ones I wanted to use.

I have no idea where those 8 years went...

 

Grandparent's Day memory

Today was Grandparent's Day at school. As I was looking around and talking to the grandparents here and there, I couldn't help but think back to Grandparent's Day at Naples Elementary School. A precious little memory that was tucked back in my mind came to me today. A memory of my Grandma coming to Grandparent's Day with me when I was in 4th grade. My friends adored her (and really, how many grandma's do you know that can rock a blonde afro? :) I took her into my classroom so my teacher could meet her. I introduced her to my teacher Mrs. Ence by saying, "This is my Grandma and she spoils me!" :)

Grandma made a huge impact on my life. I'm so blessed to have spent so much time with her growing up. A grandmother's love is so unique and special...I cherish so much the lessons she taught me and the unconditional love that she gave to me.

a maid and/or nerd

3 weeks ago, I went back to work. It's just a few hours a day however it has been an adjustment. The schedule is perfect for me and I still have time to get things done at home. The kids at the school are so adorable! I've been learning lots of names, going through a lot of Band-Aids and drinking lots of water so I don't get heat exhaustion (I will be so grateful when it cools down)

I'm an aide. Sometimes they call us Maids. I guess last year a kid used to call us Nerds (a cross between nurse and aide) A few of them actually know my name. I didn't think my last name was that hard to remember but they call me every other last name that begins with H other than the right one ;)

Some other perks of the job include:
-one of the 1st graders thinking I'm 30.
-having one 1st grader show me his/her loose tooth then 30 others joining in...while they're eating lunch...mouths full of food
-getting really good at opening milk cartons
- getting lots of hugs...that's the best part of the job :)
-my little entourage that follows me around on the playground in the morning before school, it's so adorable!
- jumping rope with them. One day the kids asked me if I could jump rope. I said Yes and just started jumping. You would have thought I had magical powers or something, it was so funny! (Gotta be careful when I jump the rope...you know...those muscles that hold the pee aren't what they used to be ;)







it's been one of those weeks...


Ever have those weeks where you have so much going on that you feel like if there's one more thing that goes on your "plate" your head will explode?!
Yip...it's been one of those weeks for our family.
Life is awesome...it just got momentarily crazy.
The 3 day weekend is just what we needed, so happy for that! Time to get some work done, spend some quality time together and do a little swimming before it cools down. I've been working on school albums here and there. P&H are almost caught up and I'm still working on B's. I've got a crate full of school stuff I still need to go through.
Isn't it amazing the amount of paper kids bring home from school?! Unreal! I don't think of myself as a hoarder really (just don't look in my craft closet) but when it comes to pictures my kids draw, little notes they write and anything with a handprint on it...I get totally verklempt and I just can't part with it!! I can't just keep one, I have to have them all...
I managed to put this little scrapbook page together a little while ago. I love the pictures my sis-in-law took of our family this summer. I'm working on a project right now with them...when I get it done I'll show ya :)
Hooray for Labor Day weekend!

Be Happy

Source: etsy.com via Kris on Pinterest

How can you not look at this and be happy? Yellow is my absolute FAVE color!