2011 Reflections - Project Life

(pssst.... this video was featured on Becky Higgins' Blog!! Major yay for the day!)

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My Project Life kit from 2011 is finished! Well, almost. Like, 99.9% done. If I wanted to stop now and not mess with it any more, it would be perfectly okay.

I have to say that I love, love, love how it turned out. Sometimes I would get a little bit down reading all of the amazing blog posts from Becky's blog and links where people would do amazing customizations. Stamps, stickers, extra paper, and even sewing new pocket protectors were popping up all over the place, and sometimes I felt like mine was too simple. But the more I looked at it, the more I was really happy with it. I like simple and clean. I also like easy. Sometimes the pictures are sideways or even missing, and I am 100% okay with that. This is the first year of my life where I actually felt somewhat caught up on my scrapbooking. My kids love to look through the album and have me read it to them. I am amazed every time I look at it how much my family has changed. We had 3 new babies enter our family this year, along with many more all around us. My kids learned new skills and I tried new recipes. Some things didn't change, and it was actually nice to document that as well. Most of all I feel like I grew with this project. My photography and editing got better and I became a bit more bold with the products. I let myself off the hook for not having a "picture a day" and instead focused on documenting those precious times. It might sound corny, but I really think Project Life helped me grow as a person. Thank you, Becky Higgins, for "making my dreams come true." Because of you, 2011 will be a year that myself and my children will never forget.

Welcome Baby J Party

Since Baby J is number 3 for us, I decided I didn't want to have a baby shower. I have a few reasons for this; 1) we already have tons of baby stuff, no need to add more to the mix. 2) A lot of people think it's tacky to have a shower for  a baby that's not the first, (my mom included) and I didn't want to be a subject of gossip. 3) This was a really difficult pregnancy in the emotional sense, as we were told everything from the baby having Down Syndrome or other chromosomal disorders to me having Gestational Diabetes to me eventually being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and plans for giving birth to a very small, possibly very sick baby. None of the health issues for Baby J ended up being true and my hyperthyroidism symptoms have all but disappeared, with a visit to the endocrinologist next week. We wanted to celebrate the fact that God is good and took care of us during these nine months and now Baby J is here and she's so beautiful and perfect.

Instead of a shower I decided I wanted to throw a Welcome Baby party at our home. We had a baked potato bar (I wish I had pictures; it was AWESOME!), a sweets bar, a big tent set up outside for shade and access to the park behind our house for the kiddos. I had been planning the party for awhile but I really kicked it into gear the last two weeks before it came, cleaning the house like a mad woman and making decorations and sweets. I wish I had more pictures from that day, it was lovely.

 Here's the sugar-coma-inducing table. Complete with 3 different kinds of cupcakes, sugar cookies with royal icing (my very first attempt), seven layer bars, apple bars, and danish cookies. Lemon bars came later and filled the empty space on the platter on the left. (PS - my mom and I found all of the silver she has over the years at thrift stores and pull it out for special occasions. Even if it's only plated we buy it because it is so nice to have around for occasions like this.)

You have to remember with those cookies, they were my first time making royal icing. The cupcake toppers and the bunting were made from the Whimsy paper stack at Joann's. 

 Baby J got to wear her first dress at the party, which was also Little Miss's first dress. She pretty much slept the whole entire time.

After everyone went home she woke up to party with Mommy for a few hours. Fortunately we all still got a good night sleep!

PS - this post has been linked up!

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Posted on May 12, 2011 by butterflyemily

I can hardly believe that right now my son is at his last day of school. His first year went really well, and we are looking forward to next year, even though it’s at a different school. The teacher appreciation brunch is tomorrow, so parents who were wanting to give a gift were asked to have it ready for today. I’m a total procrastinator, so of course I did it this morning. It went surprisingly fast though! I decided cards are always a good thing to have on hand, and everyone needs birthday cards! Here is a set of 9 cards I whipped up (seriously, took an hour and a half start to finish!)

All of these were made with the Die Cuts With a View Celebration paper stack and kraft cardstock, along with brown ink and ribbon from my stash. I am SO HAPPY with how these turned out and I hope Ethan’s teacher likes them too.

This project has been linked up to these parties.