11.30.2013

thankful five today:

for an excited 11 year old to greet me at the front door tonight.

for an excited 11 year old to tell me all the details of this finish before i even got my jacket off.

for an excited 11 year to explain how this can happen.

for an excited 15 year old to find this on you tube for me.

for a new haircut 16 year old to make sure i was informed of this event.

good stuff!

11.29.2013

                              

thankful five today:

morning online shopping from bed.

cover two cheeseburger lunches as we continue to search 

for the best burger in central texas.

a day off for all five.

leftover turkey & apple pie for dinner.

'against the tide' documentary on showtime to finish our day.

11.28.2013

                                  

thankful for face timing!

its the next best thing to being there !

sorry we couldn't help with the dishes !

11.28.2013

thanksgiving blessings today:

morning paper in bed, complete with all the black friday ads.

monkey bread overnight on the counter leads to amazing smells in the house.

fresh squeezed orange juice for mimosas today.

the macys parade on tv.

three football games to fill our day.

fires roaring in the fireplace.

turkey sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread.

lots of thanksgiving day calls to family & friends.

we are so blessed.

we are so thankful!

11.27.2013

thankful five today:

i have a small problem - well actually a growing obsession is more accurate.

i love books.

i love collecting books.

i love purchasing them for only $1.00 at the library.

i love it when the boys grab a book from here to read.

i have my next project awaiting me - bookcases to house these great stories!

11.26.2013

thankful five today:

i am thankful for three boys who each have their own desk to call their own.

i am thankful for three boys who do their homework without nagging.

i am thankful for three boys who actually get up in the morning without alot of encouragement.

i am thankful for great report cards that have lead to unlimited video time.

i am thankful for their never ending questions that lead to family conversations.

i am a smarter mom because of you three!

11.25.2013

 thankful project continues:

i think that what motivated me the most to start this project was this quote

from beckys online class last week:

"the generation known for taking the most pictures is going to be

the generation with the least amount of photograhs"

- author unknown

i love to take pictures.

i take pictures with my camera.

i take pictures with my iphone.

i have photos on the blog.

i have photos in my computer.

i have photos on flash drives.

i have photos everywhere but scrapbooking forces

me to print the photos for all to enjoy!

so here are the photos from 2006.

printed. sorted. organized.

and in an album to enjoy!

off to use the rubber date stamp, a pen and

some project life journaling cards!

11.25.2013

thankful project continues:

next i took notes from the calendar and matched up dates with pictures.

i had actually completed 3 page layouts in 2006 and i had to place them in the correct month pile.

again, not sure why i did three layouts only -

 but they are done and i wanted to incorporate them into the book.

 i love the style each page reflected.

i love that they were done in real time.

i love the journaling on each of them.

now came the fun part.

just using project life page protectors and a binder, 

i plowed through the piles.

i left spaces to put in title cards & filler cards & journaling cards.

goal was to just get the photos into the binder this cold sunday afternoon.

i had lots of onlookers.

i had lots of helpers looking at each photo.

i had lots of comments.

"mom, i don't remember this christmas play at nursery school, 

but i remember winning the game of musical chairs!"

(i remembered both events - just not the year it happened until i brought the photos out!)

-

done!

46 page protectors filled - front & back.

in chronological order.

some photos are sideways - thats ok.

some photos didn't make the cut - thats ok.

some photos got chopped down - thats ok.

some photos are awaiting a 12x12 layout to offset the 3 i had already completed - thats ok.

some photos need the story told - thats ok.

the photos are in a home.

the photos from 2006 are out of the shoebox.

the memories are in order.

the stories are to come.

i could actually just leave this project "as is" and i would still be happy.

but since i've come this far......

stay tuned.

i have a motivated feeling that i might want to finish this!

11.25.2013

thankful project continues:

friday: dug out stuff & gathered.

saturday morning: organized calendars to one.

saturday afternoon: put photos in chronological order.

this took a little bit of time but thankfully i had dated most of the 

old fashioned film order envelopes and on some i even included the events!

and even the holiday cards were separated into a ziplock bag to make it easier.

basically twelve piles filled the kitchen island & i was already feeling this

overwhelming project in some control!

some months had only a couple photos.

other months had stacks.

but at least i had photos to work with!

11.25.2013

thankful project steps today:

review notes from becky higgins online class last week.

batch process.

step one: breathe and keep it simple

step two: gather memories (easier said than done!)

step three: organize memories into piles

had to stop here for a minute, 

why did i use three different calendars in 2006?

i started with a daily, went to a 2 page monthly and 

finished with a one month wall calendar.

will never know the answer to that one -

so i decided to combine all three calenders onto the month at a view

calendar to make this project easier.

20 minutes lost but to have it all in one spot - priceless!

ok - i'm still on a roll!

11.25.2013

thankful five today:

motivated to scrapbook 2006.

digging out the 2006 photos.

finding the 2006 calendar.

finding more than one 2006 calendar.

organizing 2006 memories.

-

i'm on a mission to get 2006 - the lost & forgotten year - into an album with dates and stories to document our first year in texas.

stay tuned!

everyone had fun watching this project evolve this past weekend.

it was the perfect weekend to start because we had no football, no school commitments, no sunny beautiful days to enjoy outside.

11.24.2013

thankful five today:

creative lego building on this cold sunday day.

christmas boxes pulled out of hiding.

wrapping early holiday gifts.

papa murphy sunday night pizza tradition lives on.

overtime football games that bring us all to the tv screen together.

11.23.2013

thankful five today:

friday night sleepovers with jackson & sid.

early morning donuts & football in the street.

college football & evening fires in the fireplace.

leftover rudys for dinner.

cold rainy days - high 40 today - makes for lots of family time!

11.22.2013

thankful five today:

colins smile.

colin loves to get up early - he often will say at bedtime

"hey mom, can you wake me up at 630am tomorrow."

colins love for memory keeping - he knows how much i treasure these little award certificates.

colins love for the camera - he isn't shy like his older brothers.

colin participating in UIL club this fall !

good stuff.

11.21.2013

thankful five today:

finding this in our garage last night.

finding this when steve was home.

steve with golf club, me with camera & justin googling ways to get it out of the garage.

contemplating a 'gloria with shovel' modern family episode ending.

family time in a whole new light!